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Your Intelligence is now 18! You have gained Ability: Mark Weakness and Ability: Scatter Shot.
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???
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Mark Weakness (Ability, Intelligence, Spell, Domain: Illusion, Level: 1)
You possess the Power to briefly reveal weaknesses in enemies and enable your allies to target them. This ability requires a modest amount of Mana, scaling with the target’s Endurance and inversely scaling with your intelligence. Targeting an enemy with a higher Level than yours increases the mana cost exponentially, and vice versa. This ability reveals only physical weaknesses and does not provide any information on Vulnerability, Resistance, or Immunity to types of damage. This is a Magical Ability that does not function within an area of Magical Suppression.
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Scatter Shot (Ability, Intelligence, Spell: Ranged Weapon, Domain: Enchantment, Level: 1):
You possess the Power to infuse one piece of ammunition with a secondary area damaging effect. Use of this ability requires a moderate amount of Mana and a ranged weapon you are able to use alone. The range and damage of this ability scale with your intelligence and the primary damage of the attack. Attacks made using this spell beyond its range will nullify its effects. This is a Magical Ability that does not function within an area of Magical Suppression.
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…
“That’s when she threatened to kill me for the third time. Though it was more along the lines of ‘do that again and I’ll gut you’ than the usual ‘I intrinsically despise you’.” Daniel leaned back in the chair and sighed. “I don’t know what else I could’ve done.”
“Women, Guy, I’m telling you,” Thomas commiserated in between bites. “It’s like Evalyn’s completely shut down.” The two were eating together in one of the taverns of Roost’s Peak. There were three in the city and saw the most life of any establishment there. Some of the nearby guards were listening in as Thomas’ reputation as a gossip had spread farther than Hunter’s radar. “Still, sounds like you’re learning some enchanting. That’s great, Guy! You’re probably the first Artificer in the region. I heard of some Arcanists that could enchant but they all went up in the-”
“Upswell, yeah.” That was a trend among things that would be nice to have. Daniel pondered for a moment before he asked something that had been on his mind. “Hey, why do you call me Guy? I thought it was just you saying stuff like ‘hey guy’ at first but I’m the only one you do it to.”
“Oh, that.” Thomas looked a little sheepish for a moment, as if he’d been caught stealing a pie off a windowsill. “I can stop, it’s not really anything.”
“What is it?” Daniel pressed, not getting the sense that Thomas wanted to end the topic there.
“I knew this guy back home. Guy Eresal, as in, that’s his full name. Looks a lot like you.” Thomas gestured at his face for emphasis. “Not a perfect copy but it’s scary close. We lost contact after I left Aughal almost a decade ago. When I saw you the day after the Upswell I thought, well, it’s stupid.”
This was the closest he’d ever seen the Cleric to getting embarrassed and Daniel found it an enjoyable experience overall. “Guessing you miss him?”
“We were close growing up, but I had to leave and he stayed behind.” Thomas looked out a window for a few seconds. “It’s just a dumb thing. I could almost think I was going through this with an old friend, keeping it up. I’ll stop, Daniel.”
“I don’t mind.” Daniel finally couldn’t hide his grin anymore at Thomas’ continued sheepish look. “Really, it’s fine. I’ve kind of gotten used to it. It’s like an inside joke. You would have to stop if you ever found the real Guy though, that’d be confusing.”
“You really don’t mind?” Daniel shook his head and Thomas smiled back. “Ah, thanks Guy.”
“No problem Tom,” Daniel joked, before circling back to something Thomas had said earlier. “What did you mean about Evalyn?”
The Cleric frowned. “Oh right. We’ve been here a week and she hasn’t so much as flirted with anyone! Guy, why’d you have to go and break the Bard?”
Despite the jovial nature of the conversation, Daniel felt that was a little too far. “Your current dry spell isn’t my fault.”
“Who said anything about that?” Self-satisfaction accompanied a mischievous smile. “There’s more than one Bard in the world. Bards aside there are plenty of bored, tense people here with nowhere to go. I’m surprised you haven’t figured that out yet, Guy. If you stayed here for longer than it took you to eat and got to know people you wouldn’t have as much trouble in the love department.”
“I’m not a people person.” Daniel looked away and felt the looks of the dozens in the room centered on him. The themed restaurant suddenly transformed into a high school cafeteria. “If you couldn’t tell by how quickly I won over Tlara, talking isn’t my strong suit.”
“We get along well enough.” Thomas poked him with a spoon mostly clean of soup. “Why don’t you hang with me tonight and we’ll see if we can break your dry spell.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Thomas’ mischievous smile only grew and Daniel had a terrible thought. “Do you have a lie detector power?” Does he know what happened with Evalyn?
“Yes, I can read your mind,” Thomas said smugly.
Daniel narrowed his eyes. “That’s not what I was thinking.”
“Damn, that usually gets people. It’s just a power that tells me if you’re lying.” Thomas said, a little disappointed. “It doesn’t work on anyone whose charisma is higher than my wisdom. You’re an open book though.”
“And how many times have you used it on me?”
“Oh,” Thomas mimed Lograve’s finger counting and then waggled his fingers. “It’s always on. You and Khare are the only people I can hit in the team and using it on the plant goes exactly as well as you’d imagine.”
“I don’t know how to feel about this blatant invasion of my privacy.” Daniel made to stand in half-mock offense, conflicted between how troubling that power was for him and how close of a friend he’d become with Thomas. While he did enjoy his gossip, the Cleric hadn’t given Daniel the impression of someone who made it their business to zealously dig out someone’s secrets.
“Come on, Guy, it’s not like I wanted to find out,” Thomas replied with a bit of worry. “I didn’t exactly ask the Hand for this power anyways, and I can’t help what I see.”
“Well, you saw something kinda of personal,” Daniel said under his breath. He sighed, though, and sat back down. If Thomas was telling the truth, it was a feature responsible for his indiscretion. Daniel himself couldn’t turn off Regeneration, and as far as he knew the Cleric hadn’t told anyone else what he’d discovered. If anything, he’d been feeding the false assumptions.
Thomas interrupted his thoughts with a half-joking question. “Will you forgive me if I get you laid?”
That threw Daniel down a completely different line of thought. He wasn’t completely over what had happened with Evalyn, but she’d made it clear in both word and action that there was no chance, at least for now. He wasn't about to wait around for the apocalypse to stop apocalypsing before he looked for something special. An Arcanist at the bar glanced at him while he considered and took a few seconds too long to look away when he noticed. Had she been doing that before or was it just a coincidence?
Thomas followed his gaze. “See, Guy? That’s what I was talking about.”
What the hell, Daniel thought. Hunter’s busy murdering the local wildlife so I might as well try to have fun too. But this time, I’m going to do it right. “As long as it’s not a personal offer? What’s the worst that could happen?”
…
Tlara was so close to level three. She’d been near death and nearly killed when that idiot ‘saved’ her, but it was worth the advancement. If that fight had proven anything, it was that she needed the ability to field more than one of her beasts at the same time. It would happen next level. She just needed one more advancement potential and she could heighten her Stasis Pouch feature.
She’d spent her time following the return to Roost’s Peak well. The first day was spent entirely in seclusion as she worked on her wisdom. Care had to be taken to avoid crossing into development of one of her other attributes. Accidentally committing advancement potential this way was a risk posed by poor technique, though even the experienced would occasionally slip when they tried for two advancements in one day.
The isolation was good for Tlara. It was hard enough on her nerves to work directly with the titan Kob, but being forced to shepherd a Spiritualist frayed them near to splitting apart. That’s why. That’s why I almost died, she thought. That fucking Spiritualist is throwing me off my game. It’s like I’m back home. And Kob, backing him! Isn’t that familiar? I’m worth five of him and his broken tool and they side with him!?
She just didn’t have anyone to rely on. Lograve knew she’d tried to run back at the pass and she guessed Kob had been informed as well. That hardly changed her plan but made trust hard to foster, to say nothing of the Spiritualist making it impossible through undermining her. How had he done it? How had he gotten everyone important on the training team to support him? Tlara wasn’t naïve enough to pass it off as some esoteric Spiritualist trick but was suspicious enough to question Daniel’s origins. He was an idiot when it came to hunting but there had to be something about him that had gotten him on the team in the first place. If being an Artificer was all it was they'd have stuffed him into a room and turned him into a magic item factory. If he was some kind of exiled young noble from Aughal that would basically confirm the world had it out for her.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Then, there was the broken tool. The man seemed convinced it wasn’t tamed, and it certainly wasn’t dominated. Only a Beastmaster, or another class that had reached the regional tier above level three, had abilities that could completely rob monsters of their will and bend them to their master’s. Yet as much as she knew it had to be one or the other, Daniel’s ringcat acted with intelligence that belied direct control instead of the softer touches of a taming.
Something had caused the Upswell. As much as it seemed impossible, could it have been him? The glazed, idiotic expression currently on Daniel’s face told her otherwise. Sometimes her keen insight returned information she could do without. Ugh, first the Bard, and now another one? She glanced around the courtyard. Both training teams were present in full and none seemed to be the object of whatever the Spiritualist was reminiscing about. Small mercy.
Lograve was in the middle of the formal debriefing, asking for insight into how the teams had fought and going over who had advanced. If anyone had awakened a power from advancement they were encouraged to share, but he stressed this wasn’t mandatory.
Tlara herself wasn’t sure, but powers granted from the mental abilities were trickier to realize. She’d been able to advance her wisdom twice through the potential from the last hunt, so it was likely she’d gotten a power. At this stage powers came on average of every other advancement, and with her wisdom now at 29, it would be the last level two power she’d ever awaken.
“I went with intelligence,” Daniel was talking. She tried to ignore him and focus on the plan for level three. A frost strangler would be a perfect addition if she could find another one and weaken it without almost dying herself. “I’m still not sure why, but advancing that also increases my strength, so both are 18 now.”
Arrogant bastard. She couldn’t screen him out entirely and clenched her beak. Who does he think he’s fucking fooling? Back to the plan. Frost strangler, and upgrading some of her current creatures to an alpha or higher variant since the titles didn’t always mean the same level between species. The spark rhino was an obvious choice to keep. Finding a level three would mean doubling her carrying capacity. She’d also need a scouting creature capable of outstripping Daniel’s too. Taking away the novelty of that absurd power would help re-establish her prominence amongst the training group. A ringcat was theoretically the best option, but there had to be something else that wouldn’t make it look like she was copying him. And she wouldn’t even be doing that, she’d dominated one first!
That was all dependent on the team giving her the chance. Kob was a Crest for monsters and she respected them for it, but that made Tlara’s domination powers far harder to use. She needed injured targets, not flattened ones. Daniel would be the hardest to convince given his inclinations and she was counting on that order to not be countermanded.
Lograve’s voice brought her fully back into the conversation. “Everyone has made good progress. For Kob’s team, your fight should be a lesson to always be on guard against sneaky bastards. You adapted well by all accounts and certain members didn’t kill each other, so your hunt went as well as it could.” Tlara couldn’t bring herself to despise the Arcanist's joviality. How he’d escaped the dragon was a complete mystery to her, but his actions had brought time for her to run. As for the other three she'd left behind, they must have been ambushed by something like the frost strangler on the way back, because she sure as Crest hadn’t seen anything dangerous when her spark beetle had rushed her back. Though, if there had been something that dangerous, why hadn’t it gotten Lograve?
“What now?” Gadriel asked. He was the one Tlara was conflicted towards. There was no possible way Daniel had worked any form of power on him. The Hero had no weaknesses other than in comparison to opponents of higher level, and honestly not to as much of a degree as most. If he ever got angry at her, she was running like another dragon was chasing her. And yet the Spiritualist had turned that enemy into a friend. How, and why?
Lograve looked to Kob, who was now fully encased in their stone armor again. The gestalt simply nodded. “We’re keeping the teams as is for the moment and planning a longer camping trip. 7 days, three hunts with a day of scouting and rest between them. Now, the guard has asked us to check the mine while they temporarily suspend operations there. For our resident tower’s sake, my team will delve there while the others continue scouring the pass.” Thomas and Evalyn looked worried and Tlara saw a look of immense relief on Daniel’s face. Curious.
“Discord,” Kob rumbled.
“Yes, I was getting there. Tlara, Daniel informed me of what happened during the fight.”
That little shit, she thought. Always running to cover behind someone bigger and telling them whatever they needed to hear to get his way. “And?” she asked testily.
“It sounds like he came to your aid and may have saved your life. Given the circumstances, it seems only fair the probationary arrangement is annulled.” Lograve braced for what might turn into a repeat of the ‘incident’.
“What?” Tlara held her tone in check but couldn’t stop her damned feathers from giving away her emotions. “I was clear on the conditions I would fucking work with him.” She couldn’t stop herself from adding venom there. “And I shouldn’t have to argue my side in public after he approached you in private.”
That did resonate with Lograve but Tlara could see it didn’t change his mind. “I apologize. I’d hoped tempers may have cooled. Regardless, I was also informed of certain irregularities just before your hunt that add weight to the decision.”
“How do you know he’s not fucking lying?” She knew she was being too belligerent but she couldn’t help but be worked up.
“Well, I don’t, but Thomas here can verify the truth and Kob seconded him. I hope this won’t be a problem?”
Silence stretched for half a minute before Tlara finally decided. Losing face here would close many doors in the future, but arguing with Lograve could close all of them. She seethed at Daniel for trapping her between two very unpleasant options but couldn’t change the fact that she needed to choose one. “Fine,” she shot the word like an arrow.
…
Daniel left Roost’s Peak and walked like he was feeling the sun for the first time. Everything was just the way it was meant to be. For one, his old team was doing something spelunking videos on the internet had made Daniel firmly swear off. Tlara’s presence on his new team would have soured the mood if he hadn’t freshly slipped from her yoke and escaped a terrifying assignment.
Her continued abhorrence of all things Daniel should be a sign his troubles weren’t over but he didn’t care. He was close to leveling up, he had at least two new powers, and he was dating someone.
Thomas’ suggestion had actually panned out, netting him a night with a level one Arcanist. Claire, like a few others, had grown curious about the identification feature keeping the skyshock wyverns at bay. A few nudges by the Cleric had the two making bets on what he could and couldn't track. Were he on Earth, or if Thomas hadn’t been there, Daniel would have never found himself on the roof of one of the vacant buildings in town with an attractive woman only a couple years his senior.
For the admittedly rigged game, she’d used a quick fox. Claire had a familiar feature, in the summoning sense. Her monsters were created instead of tamed and were completely obedient like Tlara’s, just without the moral quandary. Most of what she could summon weren’t monsters but level 0 animals that weren’t passively hostile towards mortals. The tradeoff with familiars, as he learned, was that Claire could only use things below her level and had to expend a lot mana whenever she wanted something.
Identify Creature had unerringly tracked the fox as it dipped in and out of roofs until the Arcanist wised up and kept it out of sight entirely. Thomas had suggested he only vaguely describe his powers at first and Daniel was surprised how well letting Claire figure it out for herself worked. Of course, the Cleric hadn’t been there to personally supervise, but he had given enough advice at the beginning to carry Daniel through. The game continued until midnight as both took turns demonstrating what they could and giving the other gradual hints, his supposed Totem Warrior powers throwing enough in the mix to keep things interesting. It hadn't gone further than that, to the rumor-hungry Cleric's disappointment.
It was the best date he’d ever had, though to be fair none of the others had involved magic. Daniel wasn’t expecting to have made plans with Claire for the next day, but it had happened. The few relationships he’d tried to start back on Earth had either ended quickly or hadn’t started at all, the mild depression he’d been under after his father’s disappearance and his social awkwardness poisoning his chances. With a fresh start and resolve to improve himself, Daniel had given it actual effort and was surprised to find that paid off.
The second date started with darts. The game was the same as it was on Earth but played with throwing knives instead. Snap Shot made it easy, so Claire created moving targets with an illusion power. Then it was dinner, drinks, a night’s walk among the mostly empty streets, ending with the two of them alone on the roof from the night before. Nothing that crossed into what would be indecent to openly discuss had happened that night either, and he felt better for taking it slow based on how it had turned out with Evalyn.
All in all, Tlara could keep her bitterness.
Thinking about her? Hunter asked. With the tyranny of Tlara over, the ringcat was free to walk within communication distance as they left the city. By now they’d figured out that was a mere ten meters contrasted with the theoretically limitless one of the shared by Identify Creature. They had yet to find a distance that the tags would fall off at, even when they went beyond Hunter’s sensory range. Daniel could even keep track of the other team as they went into the mines, although when both he and Hunter went to sleep to recharge mana everything was cleared.
Is it weird that you’re asking? I think it’s weird. Daniel wasn’t going to even broach the reproductive gulf between them and how that would inform the ringcat’s opinions. Hunter’s nightly forays had saved Daniel from awkwardness so far and he wanted to keep it that way if things got serious. The stolid presence of his friend was slightly sobering and made it hard to distract himself from the lingering fears of another catastrophic failure happening. At the same time he was a new person, a better person, and if he could risk his life fighting monsters he could risk trying for a relationship.
You don’t want to talk about it?
Not exactly. He looked beside him at the two fangs as long as his forearm and patted the murder cat on his head. Like the time stop ability, it was something Hunter didn’t like but had grown to tolerate. Both of them had changed since they’d first met. Hunter was twice as big, and Daniel was twice as much a Casanova. He hadn’t been much of one to begin with, but progress was progress. You’re not jealous, are you?
No. It was hard to tell when Hunter was lying. Thomas could if he knew the ringcat talked, but Daniel had to guess off of what he knew of Earth cats and the faint emotions that crossed over their bond. Hunter wasn’t avoiding his gaze, so Daniel took that as the truth.
Oh good. I don’t not want to discuss it, it’s just awkward to talk about dating with a sentient panther-lion. He sensed mischievousness from Hunter and added, You know what I mean. I don’t know what’s stranger, that we’re talking like this or that I’m in a relationship. A very tenuous, ‘no one has made any commitments and we could all die tomorrow’ kind of relationship, but still.
Your kind has strange habits. Hunter huffed, drawing a glance from Tlara. The avianoid was keeping as far away from Daniel as she could, which meant riding her sparkrhino at the front of the group. Both Hunter and Daniel glanced back before returning to their internal conversation. And some that are unforgivable.
Yeah, she’s not the best. Daniel agreed, letting the use of a five syllable word go in favor of something else. But if we could get started on practicing mounted archery it’ll get us prepared for when we need to use it. I’m not saying we buy a saddle or anything, considering I don’t have any money, but- Hunter growled and Daniel laughed. Ah, we’ll get there someday buddy.
Even the relative quiet of the party’s camp had become relaxing instead of imposing. They’d moved faster through the countryside since the area closest to the city had been scouted and returned to the forest where their last battle had been. The theory was it would be a while before something else spawned or staked a claim to that territory, but Daniel had also noticed the training teams preferred to camp near trees. Free firewood was always a bonus.
Sigron planted his flaming sword into the woodpile to light it. A Cleric in the city had seen to his wounds and his armor had been similarly repaired. His demeanor still held the signs of near death, the Knight jumping at the slightest sounds and adjusting the straps of his armor religiously. It might have been something to talk to him about if Daniel could. Since Tlara’s hold on him was done, something continually rejoiced, the hardest part of being in the team was having no one other than Hunter to talk to. Khare must have thought otherwise and vine-massed their way to him while keeping clear of the fire. “Level?”
“Oh, hi.” Daniel tried to decipher the gestalt’s meaning. One of the many things he didn’t get about this world was why these elemental humanoids couldn’t just speak clearly, and it hadn’t come up in a conversation yet. “Uh, my level or yours?”
“Close?” A vine gestured towards him. Discerning the equivalent of hand signs in a swirling mass of them was difficult, but now that Khare was in a human form they had fingers to point.
“Yeah, actually! If I wanted to I could probably get to level two during this trip. How about you?” Khare had said a few words during the debrief in the city but like most things gestalt said, Daniel only had a hazy idea of the meaning.
“Dexterity.” A few knives twirled on the fingers made from compressed vines and Daniel wondered just how many weapons were hidden inside. There were at least more than the volume of the shape would suggest.
“That’s great! I should probably make mine a little higher if I want to keep using this crossbow.” As more knives twirled, they prompted another question. “I haven’t leveled up before and you seem like you’d know. Are there better weapons we should get or does everyone use the same basic stuff?”
Khare tilted their head in what was probably confusion. It was an odd motion relying on shifting vines instead of muscles that looked for more rippling than it should have. “Enchantment.” A pause. “Artificer?”
“Huh. Thomas had mentioned something about that and I do have a feature that lets me make magic items. I just don’t know any recipes, or ‘formulae’, that I haven’t made myself. Without any money shopping’s out of the question.”
A dagger came out of the gestalt slowly, hilt first. “Trade.”
“Oh?” Daniel touched the knife and recoiled before fully gripping it. There was the sense of a very low current running through it, so slight that it faded once he held it for a few seconds. He tried identifying it out of curiosity, but all that did was remind him his power didn’t work on items. Still, it had to be magical.
Daniel unsheathed one of his daggers and carefully rotated to hold it by the tip. Khare shook their head when it was offered. “Improve.”
“You’re saying, uh, wait.” He thought for a second. “You want me to enchant a better one for you?” That got a nod. “I can’t do that right now, sorry. Maybe once I’m level two I might get some formulae for free? I doubt it though.”
Khare patiently waited for Daniel to stop talking and simply said, “Investment.”
“Oh. Oh! I think I get it now. Well, thanks!” He put the enchanted dagger in the sheath and looked at the normal one in his hand. “I don’t have something to put this in. Could you hold onto it for me?”
He could swear the gestalt was bemused when a vine wrapped around the hilt and took the dagger back in turn. “Tab,” Khare said, and then left.
Hunter, did you notice that?
Notice what?
I think Khare just made a joke. Gestalt can joke?