From Ankhset, I learned a little more about the nature of magic. Certain people, and in some rare cases creatures, would have an affinity for certain elements. Unlike people, creatures with the gift of magic never suffered from the Call, the suicidal impulse that grew stronger as a magic user grew in power. Among the wise, it was said that this was because animals and monsters were closer to the elements, closer to their natural state. As a Water Mage, her element was a constant source of danger, as she struggled to control the insidious Call of her magic.

Over a cup of tea, while Larynda was busy juggling floating balls of water, the old woman explained to me that the mages of this world would often use magic staves or wands. These were either crafted by the mages themselves, or could be bought from purveyors of magical goods. As I understood, from her somewhat scattered explanation, the opening segment of a mage's spell repertoire would be inscribed onto these implements, thus serving as shortcuts for a magic user's incantations. From her description, the whole process seemed similar to what Larynda did with her Seals.

My fellow guards were respectful of me, and the bonds and camaraderie of shared battle and the campfire were not so easily changed by my new status as a sort of holy man. It is hard to view the man who has played a few hands of cards with you as an embodiment of divine will. Timur, who I had fought alongside, was very much in my camp, and would often be shouting my praises in a drunken voice.

They all still tried to get me to drink their poisonous brew, the fiery drink Arag, but as always, I refused. Elwin, on the other hand, was more than willing to drown out his sorrows, imbibing copious amounts of the acrid swill and singing at the top of his voice before passing out, unconscious. I suspected that this must have been how he dealt with his problems. Although he never talked about his time in the hands of his captors, in his unguarded moments, his eyes were a map of suffering.

Luckily, the guards still invited me to their games of cards, dice, and chance, for which I was grateful. My focus lay not in winning, but in honing my Luck attribute. This meant that I usually lost more money than I won, much to the delight of my fellows, as I sought to win against increasingly long odds. At least at dice. With cards, thanks to my Identify spell, I was able to recoup some of my losses. One evening, after a successful Hail Mary throw of the dice, I was able to gain a point in Luck, as well as break even.

This, it turned out, was also enough to finally get me over the threshold to level twelve. With so much time to think things over, I already had a general plan in mind on where I would put the bonus points. With the counter ticking down, I placed two attribute points in Dexterity to help offset the penalty of wearing plate gauntlets, and a single point in Constitution to make it a nice, rounded forty points. For my bonus point, it was a toss-up between Mana Regeneration and the Drain spell. I went with Drain, eager to see how the spell would evolve, which pleased the voices within.

My recent level-up gave me the courage to see if I could edit my user interface again. This time, instead of hiding a skill, I tried to fiddle with my experience display to get it to show only the experience required for the next level, and not my total experience.

Just before I willed the changes to come about, I drank a few gulps of Arag to help combat the pain I knew was coming, much to the cheers of my fellow gamblers. Luckily, they thought that my screams were ones of celebration, rather than of agonizing pain. I must say that I truly deserved a Charisma point for my quick thinking and splendid performance. The universe, however, was not so kind.

[STATUS] Calling: Gilgamesh lvl.12 Paladin/Reaver

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 24

Constitution: 40

Intelligence: 21

Wisdom: 22

Charisma: 13

Luck: 19

SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES

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Pain Nullification (lvl.3)

Power Strike (lvl.3) 10

Endure (lvl.3)

Stealth (lvl.1)

Rest (lvl.3)

Backstab (lvl.2)

Dodge (lvl.3)

Polearms (lvl.3)

Dual Wield (lvl.2)

Critical Hit Mastery (lvl.2)

Improved Unarmed Combat (lvl.1)

Hammers (lvl.2)

Flails (lvl.3)

Maces (lvl.3)

Shields (lvl.3)

Medium Armor (lvl.3)

Heavy Armor (lvl.4)

Axes (lvl.2)

Daggers (lvl.4)

Throwing Weapons (lvl.2)

Double Throw (lvl.1) 5

Shield Bash (lvl.1)

Riding (lvl.2)

Dash (lvl.1)

Swords (lvl.1)

SPELLS & MAGIC

Heal (lvl.5) 5

Rust (lvl.3) 2

Identify (lvl.3) 1

Silent Casting (lvl.2)

Mana Regeneration (lvl.2)

Purify (lvl.2) 3

Greater Heal (lvl.2) 10

Holy Aura (lvl.2) 2

Decay (lvl.1) 1

Drain (lvl.5) 2

Entropic Aura (lvl.2) 2

GIFTS

Curse of Entropy -20% to all starting attributes.

Mark of the Paladin 10% resistance to Dark/Holy magic. 5% resistance to Physical.

Touch of the Void 10% reduced resistance to Holy/Fire magic, 20% resistance to Mental Effects, 15% immunity to Mental Effects.

Experience to next level 7/891

Health: 316/321

Stamina: 47/65

Mana: 16/16

Confirming the changes, I found myself happy with the significant increase to my Health and Stamina pool. My Health had truly grown to be monstrous. Just a few more levels, and I would grow to be as tough as even the large Ruars that pulled the wagons. Generally pleased with my overall growth, I joined my fellows for a few more rounds at rolling the bones.