"Warlock?" James asked, almost sounding incredulous. "That's what you're going with? Don't they normally have like a limited number of things they can do?"
"It's a long game, James. Warlocks start out a bit weaker than the rest, but usually can summon super powerful creatures to wreak serious havoc." Tom replied. "Besides. You guys can help with the beginning and having the extra firepower seems like it would be a good deal for us."
"He has a point, James," Derek interjected. "The Warlock class only seems slightly lacking at first because the relationship has to be built up with the one they make the pact with. If he can show them his abilities, then he will gain power really quickly."
"Well, what about the whole slave master prospect? You don't want to be a fucking slave to some demonic sicko do you?" James asked, beginning to sound genuinely concerned.
"James, not all pacts are slave master related. Many are just to benefit the other being. Some need souls for power in their dimension so simply killing monsters here grants them great favor with the pact holder," Derek explained. "There are almost as many kinds of pacts as there are creatures in being to make pacts with."
"Fine, but if you end up tied up to a bed by your wrists and ankles yelling for your master with an ass-blaster belted to your waist, don't come crying to me without sending a video first," James said. "And always remember your safety word."
"Aaaaaaand he's back," Tom said, laughing at James' antics.
"Sounds like you've made up your mind," Derek said. "Why not pick your class so we can see what class-specific items look like?"
"Sure thing," Tom said, and pulled up the notification in his vision.
Class Selection:
Would you like to make your class selection now? You can wait, but items specific to your build will not become available until you do and will not have as many benefits.
Choose now?
Yes No
Selecting yes, Tom was given another prompt with the list of available classes to choose from. Selecting the option for Warlock, He was given another prompt. This one had a completely black frame with whisps of shadow billowing off of it the same way fog does out of a bowl of dry ice in water.
Path of the Warlock:
Choosing the path of the Warlock requires that you make a pact with a being of great power from another dimension. You must first choose the type of pact you wish to make before a list of entities can be chosen from.
* Slave/Master Pact
* This pact will require you to do the bidding of your master at all times. They will set your path and drive your goals. This is the most powerful type of pact but gives the least amount of freedom
* Soul Provision Contract
* This pact will require that all the creatures you kill have their soul sent to the entity that you make an agreement with. This pact offers the most freedom, but you can only gain power based on the number of souls you send
* Pact of the Tattoo
* This pact will allow you to make a contract with a being that will mark you with sigils of power. These can be activated to give more power to the user in a time of need. The pact is a middle ground in that there will be requests made of the Warlock, but they can be accepted or refused. The more requests fulfilled, the more power they will receive
* Pact of Sacrifice
* This pact will require you to make live sacrifices to their bonded being in order to gain power. The purer the sacrifice, the more power that will be bestowed
* Pact of the Assassin
* This pact requires that you complete contracted assassinations of powerful entities to gain favor and power. This is a difficult path, but also brings much power
* Pact of knowledge
* This pact will require you to provide new sources of knowledge from your world to the being of power. The more sources of knowledge you can offer up, the more power you will be given
* Pact of Religion
* This pact will require that you bring followers to worship the being of power you form a contract with. The more followers the being gains, the more power you will receive
The options seemed straightforward. Slave/Master Pact was out. As were Soul Provision, Sacrifice, and Religion. Tom was not about to do any of those things for power. He'd pick another class before being forced into those. Pact of the Tattoo was really calling out to him. That would offer him the ability to gain power more quickly but on his terms.
Making his selection a dark void opened in a perfect circle in front of him. Black and purple lights swirled in a nebulous effect in front of his face. A black leather-bound book with red inlays floated out of the portal and into his hands. There was an inscription in gold lettering on the outside of the book that read "The Path to Power, Embedded in your Flesh". Once the book was firmly in his grasp, the portal closed in on itself with a light pop as it winked out of existence.
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The three men stared in awe and wonder at the book that had quite literally appeared out of thin air.
"Well, go on...open it." James encouraged.
"I will just give me a minute. I'm soaking it all in." Tom said.
"You likely won't have a lot of time for that," Derek said pointing behind us.
Tom and James turned around and could see the window through the frame of the door into the breakroom. The building across the street was now on fire. Moving over to the window to get a better view, the trio looked down at the ground from their vantage point. There were goblins dancing around with spears held over their heads, chanting and shouting something up at the fire that it appeared they had created.
Some of them were gathered around the door of their building. Fortunately, the door was a reinforced steel door due to some security protocols for some of the data they housed inside. There were also no windows on the first floor to prevent easy access for a break-in. That did not go for the second floor though. So it was only a matter of time before they broke something and got inside.
"Well, no use standing here with our thumbs up our ass just because we enjoy it...Open that motherfucker!" James exclaimed, never taking his eyes off the goblins out the window. They had the bodies of several corpses that they were proceeding to cut the intestines out of and wrap around their necks like a macabre scarf.
One of the little anklebiters had a man's head that he had rammed onto the end of his spear and he was waving it around and chasing other goblins with it, laughing at the game he was playing. One of the other goblins grabbed the head off the spear and threw it at the face of the one with the spear. He screamed something at him and then stomped off.
"You think I could kill one of those bastards from here?" James asked, stroking the pistol in his hand.
"Sure, but then they'd know we were here, and the glass would be broken," Derek said. "Best NOT to give away our position until we are fully equipped and have a plan of where to go next."
"Good point. We can shoot their dicks off when we exit the building." James replied.
"Might want to aim for their other heads, so they don't get back up." Tom offered.
"You guys are no fun," James said, pretending to mope slightly. "Fine, We'll go with your plan. But I want it on the record that I am only complying under duress. You forced me to do this. You're a monster."
"Says the guy wanting to shoot dicks off," Derek added.
"Touché," James replied.
Tom walked away from the window and back into the breakroom. James and Derek remained at the window, still talking. He held the book up with the spine down in his palm and turned it to open the first page. As he looked at the first page, the words began to glow a bright pinkish-purple color and the text started to jump off of the page. The letters, words, and images flowed into his eyes as he stood there, unable to move. A wind seemed to blow from nowhere and caused his hair and clothes to flutter out behind him as the knowledge of the book began to form in his mind.
The pages turned faster and faster as the text leaped off the page and continued to flood Tom's mind. His head began to get a feeling of pressure pushing out from his mind, as though there was too much knowledge for his brain to contain. The book reached the last page, slammed shut, and began to crumble to ash in Tom's hand. He dropped the book and put his hands to his head as his mind worked to wort out all the knowledge he had just gained.
After a moment or two of kneeling on the ground cradling his head, the pressure began to subside and his thoughts began to organize themselves. James and Derek had run over to see if he was OK and were kneeling beside him as well.
"You good? You look like you just took a shot of Jäger and forgot the chaser." James said.
"Yeah. Just took in a lot of info all at once." James replied. "That book was no joke. But I got a lot of understanding for my class all at once. And I need to perform a ritual. to finish up and make the pact."
"That's pretty standard. Do you need some kind of chicken to sacrifice or special ingredients?" Derek asked.
"Dude....that's dark," James said. "I like it."
"Nah, just need to draw a symbol on the floor and imbue it with some of my mana," Tom said.
"Well, that is anticlimactic. Next time choose something that wants more death and destruction." James said.
"You've never killed anyone. You don't know what you're talking about." Derek said.
"True, but I've always been good with blood. I bet I'll be great at it. Just like most other things I put my mind to." James added.
Tom and Derek just rolled their eyes. Derek moved to a drawer and opened it to pull out a marker for Tom to draw the sigil with. He took the marker and began to look for a place on the floor to draw the circle.
"All the tables are bolted down. Can you just do it on the wall?" Derek asked.
"No clue. It just said to do it on the floor. I don't see why it would matter." Tom said and moved over to a large white wall and began drawing a circle.
After about ten minutes of drawing there were several concentric circles drawn with runes and patterns inside of them and a star in the very middle. Words were written in a language that none of them understood in the outermost circle, wrapping the entire length. Tom finished with what looked like some kind of fire symbols at the four points that would represent north, south, east, and west on a compass of the same size.
Stepping back from the drawing, Tom held his hand up and concentrated. Closing his eyes he focused on the mana that was in his body and found where it was flowing through channels in his body. He forced the flow to manifest some of the energy outside his body in his palm and then pushed it into the circle. The outlines began to glow with a soft blue light from the mana that infused it. Before long the entire symbol was glowing with light power.
Tom lowered his arm and uttered some words in a language none of them had heard before.
"Admoneo te, magne spiritus, ad nutum meum accede et da mihi potestatem quam cupio. Habeo crustulum." Tom said, a guttural sound echoing behind his voice as he spoke the words making him sound slightly possessed.
The light brightened suddenly and Derek and James took reflexive steps back. The room began to darken and smoke flowed out of the circle and across the wall. A portal began to open in the middle of the drawing on the wall and a being began to float out of the portal coming straight out of the wall.