The next stop in his agenda was at the page that kept records of his kills and bonuses.
{Foes slain}
{Level 1 Blight touched rat}*14. You have gathered 210 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Elven outlander}*2. You have gathered 1000 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Orcish outlander}*2. You have gathered 100 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 3 fallen commoner}*4. You have gathered 180 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 3 undead wolf}*2. You have gathered 120 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 3 fallen archer}*4. You have gathered 240 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 3 fallen infantryman}*55. You have gathered 3300 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 4 fallen swordsman}*56. You have gathered 6720 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 4 fallen axeman}*6. You have gathered 720 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen berserker}*2. You have gathered 480 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen spearman}*4. You have gathered 1200 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen mace wielder}*1. You have gathered 240 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen earth mage}*1. You have gathered 240 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen squire}*3. You have gathered 720 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 5 fallen shield bearer}*6. You have gathered 1440 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 6 fallen ghoul}*4. You have gathered 1920 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 6 fallen crossbowman}*1. You have gathered 480 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 7 fallen bladedancer}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 7 fallen priest of malice}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 7 fallen geomancer}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 7 fallen aeromancer}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Level 8 fallen knight}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy as a reward for assisting in slaying it.
{Level 10 fallen entitled knight}*1. You have gathered 7980 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.
{Shards and other bonuses}
{Arcana shard}*2 Your maximum arcana was increased by 2 through absorbing arcana shards.
{Fortitude shard}*15 Your maximum stamina was increased by 15 through absorbing fortitude shards.
{Vigour shard}*16 Your maximum health was increased by 16 through absorbing vigour shards.
{Spell mastery}*34 Your maximum arcana was increased by 30 as a result of gaining greater mastery in your spells.
{Meditation}*14. Your maximum arcana was increased by 13 due to prolonged meditation sessions.
‘That’s a lot of kills.’ Regis thought to himself as he looked at the changes in the ledger. He earned almost sixty-five hundred Amaranth by killing forty enemies since he last had time to check his soul-tome. The single arcana shard he earned might not have increased his reserves by much, but the added four points from his different spell masteries and the five points from his extended meditation sessions helped max out his arcana pool.
The seven fortitude shards and nine vigour shards were also very much needed. With his short catchup on his personal stat numbers, the dark elf found it better to do what he came here for. He quickly walked over to the bookshelf and rummaged through the pile of scrolls. After he found the one that contained the ‘Loremaster’ constellation, he walked over to the edge of the solid ground of his soul-space where the neophyte pathway led into the vast darkness.
Regis stepped on the floating stone slabs, heading out with his eyes on the prize. When he reached the part where he last had to stop, the glassy and clear crystal in front of him took on a deep blue hue before lowering itself down to become the next stepping stone on the path. It was followed by several others before he reached the end of the road, a nearly human-sized piece of crystal blocking his way.
The young spell weaver looked at the scroll in his hands with a gleam in his eyes as he began to channel his hard earned Amaranth into it. ‘There goes thirty-five hundred.’ He sighed in his mind, not stopping the Amaranth transfer until every node turned into a golden colour and new words formed beneath the drawing.
{Loremaster Constellation}
{Rank: Gold}
{Nodes: 20/20}
* Mind: 2
* Spirit: 2
* Willpower: 2
Neophyte constellation pathway is now extended.
Regis had to do his utmost to hold his balance as his soul-space began to shake like never before while the golden stars of the loremaster constellation appeared on the night sky above him. The golden dots above began to flake small glowing motes that fell and floated towards the large crystal. It began to crack and crumble around the edges as it slowly turned dark blue.
Whatever crumbled from the crystal soon flowed towards its edges that became flatter and rounder by the second as it lowered itself on to ground level. A few breaths later a circular crystal platform of near two metre radius formed in front of the excited dark elf’s eyes. On the surface of the blue circle, the golden carving of the loremaster constellation glowed with a heart beat like rhythm.
As Regis stepped on the new platform, three colourless crystals appeared in front of him, pointing into slightly different directions from each other. When he reached out for the crystal in the middle, golden words appeared above it.
{Deep reserves 2}
{No spell caster can fare well on their journey with limited resources. The second rank of the deep reserves feat increases the ‘Spirit’ attribute multiplier of the highest possible arcana reserve to six instead of four.}
{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}
{Do you wish to gain this feat?}
‘Yes!’ He immediately thought as he read the glowing description with an undeniable excitement. His inner answer was followed by the crystal turning blue as it lowered itself to become the first stepping stone of the middle path. Any magic user would pick this feat without a second thought, since arcana was their lifeblood and he himself also desperately needed to increase his reserves as well. Once touched, the floating crystal on his left side revealed another glowing description.
{Scribe}
{The art of written words is as vast as one allows it to be. This feat grants you the ability to hone your penmanship to its fullest, opening up the sub-path of the scribe. The path of the scribe grants access to alchemical ink recipes and unique scribe feats.}
{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}
{Do you wish to gain this feat?}
‘This should be the feat and path that would net me a chance at the law scribe and the scroll scribe feats. Those will definitely will be necessary in the future.’ Regis thought to himself as he turned towards the crystal on the right side of the already claimed middle path. The description of this crystal was one that he never heard or read about before.
{Tome keeper}
{A loremaster is a living library, carrying the knowledge of the past and the discoveries of the present with himself at all times for the sake of the future generations. This feat grants you the ability and knowledge to craft an ‘endless’ tome. The endless tome is linked directly to your soul and your Shardwaker’s mark, carrying the memory of every book, note and scribble you ever made or read. The endless tome is a lifelong companion that is both enchantable and capable of developing its own unique abilities depending on its bounded keeper’s capabilities.}
{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}
{Do you wish to gain this feat?}
‘What in the history of fuck is this?’ Regis couldn’t stop himself from cursing after double reading the description. If he was to believe the description of the tome keeper feat, then he was standing next to the chance of getting something that shouldn’t exist. This ‘endless’ tome sounded too good to be true with its promise of being able to house all the knowledge he’d gain on his journey, being a virtual library of a sort.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The part of it being directly linked to his soul and his Shardwaker’s mark also intrigued him, not to mention that the tome was enchantable. That would open up so many new possibilities. Regis felt like a kid that opened the most awesome Christmas present, but he soon fell back down from his high spirits. Both the scribe and the tome keeper feats cost two grands and he didn’t have that much.
If his inner math was on point, he had around nineteen hundred Amaranth on him at the moment. ‘Shit. Way to get hyped and bitch slapped in quick succession.’ He sighed as he had to give up on his possible new toys. After snapping out of it, he returned to the central area of his soul-space, taking a quick look at his character sheet in his soul-tome.
{Name: Regis ???}
{Title: Novice loremaster}
{Race: Dark elf/Sun elf/ Human}
{Age: 19}
{Amaranth: 1910}
{Caste: commoner}
{Path}
* Novice Loremaster
* Trainee fighter
{Craft}
* Novice enchanter
* Novice alchemist
{Attributes}
•Allure: 15
•Deftness: 20
•Erudition: 21
•Faith: 8
•Luck: 12
•Might: 19
•Mind: 26
•Physique: 20
•Spirit: 27
•Willpower: 27
Health/Arcana/Stamina
{54/54}{104/104}{54/54}
{Status effects}
* None
‘Yep. Four point increase in my arcana reserves and my spellcaster path changed into novice loremaster. Pretty much what I expected.’ The young spell weaver admitted to himself as he returned the loremaster constellation’s scroll to the bookshelf before sitting down to meditate. When he next opened his eyes, he found himself back in the lobby of the spell weaver’s guild.
“Took you long enough,” he heard a feminine voice from his left, Amanda reaching down to pull him onto his feet. “Did you succeed?”
“Yes,” he answered curtly. “I’m officially a novice loremaster now.”
“So you really decided to go with that one,” Valerie sighed from beside her brother. “I really hope you won’t regret it later.”
“To each their own,” Fabien patted her on the shoulder as he looked at the dark elf. “While you were taking your sweet time, the rest of us also tiered up.”
“I guess that congratulations are in order then.” Regis smiled as he thought to have seen his companions stand straighter and taller than before.
“Well,” Cruz cleared her throat as she tried to stack the pile of armour that was looted from the battle-cleric properly. “We have five second tier combatants in our group now, so our chances should be quite decent.”
“Five?” The spell weaver looked at her confused.
“Yes,” Sophie smiled. “I managed to get a new class as well.”
“For real?” the dark elf looked at the giddy sun elf woman in a new light. “What class did you pick?”
“It’s um… I received the ‘Sparrowhawk Ranger’ constellation path.”
“As in…”
“Yeah,” Osmond nodded as he noticed the spark of recognition in the spell weaver’s eyes. “Sophie became a sprite archer.”
“A spirit archer,” Khan looked at the two with his eyebrows raised. “So what; she can shoot ghosts now?”
A slight slapping sound could be heard as both Fabien and Valerie facepalmed themselves.
“What?” The bladedancer turned toward them.
“Have you ever heard about arcane tricksters or arcane archers?” Fabien tried his best to find the right way to explain the situation.
“Yes, I did meet with those in tabletop games before.”
“A sparrowhawk ranger is similar to those. They’re the type of archer that has magic based crowd control, attack and support skills in their arsenal. It should be an uncommon class that’s based on deftness and physique with some requirement in spirit as well.”
“Sparrowhawks are also capable of using a blink like ability to move short ranges near instantaneously if needed,” Osmond added. “They are recorded to be adept at sneaking and creating arcane traps to mess with their opponents.”
“I don’t have anything like that.” Sophie lowered her head a bit flustered by the sudden attention she had to deal with.
“Not yet, you mean.” Valerie patted her on the back with a reassuring smile.
“Okay, so we have a ranger and I guess that Quentin went with his bestowed paladin class. What about you Fabien?”
“Storm knight.” The infernal youth answered as the sword in his hand began to crackle with energy.
“What about the rest of you? How far are you from the threshold?”
“I need to do more minor spirit orbs.” Osmond admitted.
“I need one more might and physique orb to tier up.” Cruz joined in to the conversation.
“One more physique orb for me.” Amanda cleared her throat after Sophie slightly elbowed her in the side.
“What about you Valerie?” Regis asked as everyone turned toward the infernal woman.
“I only need one more spirit attribute orb as well and I would have already had it, if a certain someone didn’t kill that fire mage before me.”
“Are you still on about that,” her brother sighed indignantly. “You got to keep those enchanted rings. I think those are fine enough for compensation.”
“If the two of you are done bickering,” Regis raised voice slightly. “Then we should head back to the inner town. We have a mission to turn in after all.”
“I bet that Hyord guy didn’t expect us to actually go through with it.” Khan sighed.
“And so soon.” Sophie added as she fiddled with her quiver.
“It doesn’t matter what he believed,” Valerie pointed out. “What matters is is that the mission is done. We’ll tell him the good news and then we bring Letty back here.”
“I’m glad we managed the crack this place open,” Amanda hefted her hammer onto her shoulder. “It will be nice to sleep in an actual bed for a change.”
“Don’t forget about having a proper dinner either.” Valerie chuckled as the group turned toward the door.
“Sir Derris,” Quentin called out to the elderly scholar. “Do you wish for us to bring back anything for you from the inner town while we’re there?”
“It’s kind of you to ask,” Derris shook his head. “But I can’t think of anything they would have that is of interest to me. The one thing I’d like to ask if you is to tell Jonah that I’m still alive and well.”
“We’ll do that.” The paladin noted as they left the building, Regis sealing the entrance with the barrier once again.
“Alright,” Khan hummed while weighing the pair of iron swords he was now carrying in place of his old bronze ones. “It’s time to back into the lion’s den.”
They walked through the now empty streets, stopping at certain parts to check on the equipment they left behind on their way towards the inner town gates.