The being that began floating through the portal looked like a combination of a professional bodybuilder and a lizard. It was covered from head to toe in patterned tattoos that seemed to glow with power. Its eyes were solid red with no pupils, and it had a white bandana tied around its forehead. Its arms and legs bulged with muscles and its hands and feet were tipped with black talons that looked wickedly sharp.
It continued to rise horizontally out of the shape on the wall with its arms crossed in a pose that said he was a badass and everyone should know it. Once he stopped rising his feet touched down on the wall. As soon as this happened...he fell straight to the floor onto his face.
"OW! What the fuck?! Who put the summoning circle on a wall? The instructions specifically say to put it on the floor for just this issue! You complete and utter morons have no idea what I'm capable of and I'm really not in the mood to deal with this shit. You absolute cunt-stained, whore-bred, pencil-dicked, asshated, sons of bitches!" The creature yelled at the three men standing in the room.
"I like him." James leaned in and said to Tom, who was leaning back from the verbal onslaught.
The being smiled at this.
"It's too bad you aren't the one who summoned me. I like your spunk kid." It said looking at James. "I am Azroc. Great being of the plains of Porthos far beyond the realms of the demi-gods. I have come to form a pact with you."
Azroc pointed directly at Tom and narrowed his red eyes slightly. His skin was a greenish color and his tattoos swirled in black ink around his scaled body. His muscles rippled as he flexed them while moving.
"Let us set the terms of the pact. You will serve in the capacity that I need in exchange for some of my power. I will tattoo you with the abilities you choose from a set to be determined based on the jobs done for me or milestones met." Azroc said.
"What exactly does that mean?" Tom asked. "What are the requirements and milestones? I'm not signing anything without clear understanding between us."
"The requirements are quests that you will complete that I give you over time. The milestones I can set as either accomplishments that you complete or souls you send to me." Azroc explained.
"Souls I send. You mean from kills or sacrifices?"
"Ew, kills of course. Only those dark freaks like sacrifices. The souls are usually too pure and don't have that much energy anyway." Azroc said, clearly disgusted at the thought. "I'm not some kind of monster. Regular old souls will do fine. The more you send the more powers I'll give you. You don't have a problem with tattoos do you?"
"No, or I wouldn't have chosen the Pact of Tattoos," Tom replied, a bit confused.
"Cool, cool. You wouldn't believe how many people don't get that part," Azroc said. "Fucking idiots. So, you get to pick one tattoo to start with. What's it gonna be?"
With that, a prompt appeared in Tom's view.
Pact of the Tattoo:
You have decided to form a Pact with Azroc. As a blessing of good faith in the pact, Azroc has offered you one tattoo to begin with. Choose one of the following:
- Tattoo of Brute Strength - This tattoo will allow you to boost your strength by 50% for 1 hour by using 20 mana. Hit harder, lift more, and deal more damage to your enemies.
- Tattoo of the Flaming Fist - This tattoo will allow you to encase your hands in fireballs for 1 hour at the cost of 20 mana. The fire can be started and stopped, but the timer of 1 hour will continue to count even if the fire is not active.
- Tattoo of Bark Skin - This tattoo will allow you to thicken your skin raising your defense by 50% for 1 hour at the cost of 20 mana.
"These are all great options. I have no idea which one to choose." Tom said, seriously considering his options. "But there are no ranged options. These are all close combat options."
"That's because at this level, you likely don't have a lot of mana, so hitting things ends up being the way of it. So I want you to be able to defend yourself. Don't worry, every Warlock gets a spell or two right at the beginning as well. But these will keep you out of tight spots." Azroc explained.
"That makes perfect sense actually. Thanks!" Tom said. "I think Tattoo of Brute Strength is the way to go for now. That will come in handy a lot of places."
Tom made his selection. Burning stinging needle-like sensations began to crawl over his shoulders. Pain like being bitten by a million mosquitos all in one spot blossomed into a firey heat of pain. Pulling up his sleeves, he saw that large swirling tribal patterns were being tattooed right on his shoulders in black ink. When the pain subsided, Tom felt a small bit of power running through the tattoos.
"Badass!" James said, moving in close to see the tattoos for himself.
"Our pact is sealed. Stand by me and I will stand by you. If you are not comfortable with a certain quest you may reject it. But be warned that you can only reject three quests in a row before you must take the fourth, or our pact will be broken. I will not ask terrible things of you. I do need certain things to continue to provide you with the strength you have though. Do me proud young Warlock." Azroc said.
With that completed, the portal in the wall opened again and Azroc moved toward the wall.
"And if you ever summon me on a wall again, I'll teach you a terrible lesson about the pain those tattoos can cause you." Azroc threatened.
He climbed up into the portal awkwardly putting one knee up and then falling to one side inside the portal onto what was likely the flat ground at a perpendicular angle to the wall, and the portal winked out.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
A new prompt was waiting for Tom in his vision when the portal closed.
Class Acquired:
Warlock
You are now a full-fledged Warlock. You have been granted the spell Eldritch Blast. You have been granted the spell Dark Ball. You have been granted the spell Dark Healing.
Tom felt power flow through him and into his mind as the spells were ingrained in his memory. It felt similar to when he read the book, but not quite as much information. Another prompt was waiting right behind this one.
Requests:
Your dark patron, Azroc, has sent his requests to you. Complete the following tasks to receive further powers and gifts.
- Kill 100 monsters and send their souls to Azroc.
- Kill 1 boss monster and send its soul to Azroc.
Quest:
You have been offered a quest. Complete dungeon. Complete a dungeon in the name of Azroc and place his symbol at the end to show your patron that you do these deeds in his name.
Accept?
Yes No
This first quest seemed like something he was perfectly happy to do. No bathing in the blood of enemies. No evil deeds declaring his love for his patron. Tom accepted the quest. The requests were quite reasonable as well. This was looking to be a great relationship for his class. Tom pulled up his character sheet and realized he had forty points to distribute still. Thinking about where things needed to go, he thought about everything he learned from the book he had absorbed.
"What's on your mind?" Derek asked.
"I have forty points to spend and I'm considering where to put them," Tom said.
"Well, Charisma used to be a big part of Warlock builds. Is that still the case here?" Derek asked.
"Not as much. It does play a role in how I'm perceived by those who might be aligned with the light. Like if someone who is light aligned were to see me with a Charisma of ten they would likely try to attack me because I'm considered dark aligned. But I can hide it with my Charisma which will make people react more favorably toward me. I'm just not sure how often that will happen." Tom explained, thinking through his new knowledge base.
"That does make sense. It seems like maybe throwing a few points in there every so often would definitely help out." Derek replied.
"What if you just became so attractive that no one ever harmed you?" James interjected.
"I don't think that's how it works," Tom said.
"I don't know, think about it. How many men used to fall all over themselves at bars for that one woman who was so beautiful? She would literally take advantage of the free drinks, tell them she hated them, treated them like dirt, but they still wanted a shot at her." James said. "People do stupid things for pretty people."
James actually had a bit of a point. Charisma really did make people do strange things. Hell, there was a list as long as his arm of world leaders who had been able to do terrible things because of their Charisma.
"Alright. So Charisma might actually be somewhat useful. But in the beginning stages, I also need to be able to defend myself." Tom stated.
"That is a wise plan in the beginning. Plus as a Warlock, you should have gotten some spells so some Intelligence and Wisdom would be helpful." Derek added.
Tom thought about it for a moment and decided that he would split his points evenly for now. He placed five points into each stat including Luck to give everything a boost. Looking at his stat sheet he smiled at the progress so far.
Name: Tom Harris
Race: Human
Class: Warlock
Level: 5
HP: 150/150
MP: 150/150
SP: 150/150
Total XP: 10,500 XP to Next Level: 4500
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 15
Constitution: 15
Dexterity: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 15
Luck: 15
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect
Vehicular Homicide
Staring at the screen for a moment, Tom was shocked to see a combat skill he didn't remember having. Focusing on the skill he was given more information about it.
Skill - Vehicular Homicide:
You have killed multiple creatures with your vehicle. You have become more proficient at running things over and causing their demise. Continue to plow through your enemies to receive greater bonuses to damage.
Current skill level: 2
Bonus to damage dealt with a vehicle: 5%
"Seriously?! I got a fucking skill for killing things with my car?" Tom said, slightly mortified that he had apparently done enough murder with his car that the Grand System recognized it as a skill he had.
"Dude! Right on! Now we can run more things over to level it up!" James added.
"Only you would take joy in this," Tom said, looking over at James.
"And why not? Any fight we come out on top of in this new world seems like a win we should celebrate." James replied. "I mean seriously, the alternative is getting our asses handed to us by those monsters out there."
"Speaking of which, why don't we look at the options in the machine now? Those goblins won't stay outside forever, and I'd rather be ready for them." Derek offered.
"You're right. Let's take a look" Tom said.
Walking over to the vending machine, Tom places his hand on the digital screen again and the insides of the machine began to change. Rows were drawn back inside the machine as new items were drawn to the front. When it finished, the cans inside showed similar weapons, but different armor options. Looking over what was available, Tom didn't feel like his options had been narrowed down much.
"Well, that wasn't as helpful as I was hoping for," Tom said aloud.
"You were expecting a bunch of staves and robes to choose from?" Derek asked.
"Yeah. Maybe a sword or two. But not almost every type of weapon." Tom replied.
"I told you that Warlocks were more versatile than people thought. Why not choose something that will compliment your tattoo?" Derek offered.
Tom looked at the weapons and noticed a greatsword that caught his eye. It looked like a sword that would have been at home in most anime shows and it only cost five common cores. He pulled out the five cores, placed them into the machine, and selected B-6 for the greatsword. The can fell from its slot down into the bottom of the machine and Tom reached into the retrieval slot and pulled it out.
Pulling the tab on the can, the satisfying sound of air being released sounded and then a poof of smoke filled the area as the greatsword fell into Tom's hands. It was heavy, but not too heavy. It likely weighed about fifteen pounds which is heavy for a sword, but with his new increased Strength, it was not unwieldy.
The sword was an almost black color along the middle of the blade with the edges sharpened and shining silver. The crossguard was the head of a dragon with the blade coming out of its mouth, its jaws forming quillions. There was a red jewel set in the eyes of the dragon head on either side of the blade, and the handle was wrapped in a beautiful soft leather. The pommel was a metal ball with ornately carved metal filagree decorating it.
"Yes. This will do. This will do nicely." Tom said as he held the sword up in front of him. "I'll call you, Dark-Blade."