We set out on our maiden voyage today. Normally, I would be yelling commands at my crew members. “All hands on deck! Batten everything down! Set sails to the west to catch the winds! Once all preparations are done weigh anchor!”… Seeing as it would take too long for my crew to learn all the terminology I just decided to use easy commands.
“Alright, make sure everything is secure on the ship and all the mana cannon port hatchets are closed. Someone raise the anchor and whoever is steering the rudder, please face us towards the exit. Make sure to replace the mana canisters when the paddles use them up.”
Without sails we can travel across the ocean far faster than most ships. It is only slightly faster than a normal ship traveling in good wind conditions. Without the need for fair winds, we can fight far better other ships. Also without giant sails to aim for, our ships are also much smaller targets. The only drawback is the consumption of mana canisters. Each boat eats through two an hour. The black swords use up four an hour. Even so, this was definitely the correct decision for the ships propulsion.
The black turtles are something to watch. They haven't been in the water yet, I was hoping they wouldn't slow us down… How wrong I was. The black turtles moved faster than even the black shivs. It looked like a giant turtle swimming. I had them dive for five minutes then resurface. They continued moving forwards in that time and ended up surfacing almost out of sight of our ships. What a great success. The giant amounts of mana it consumes is a very big problem though. Limiting them to two was a smart decision.
A few days of sailing and I leave the boat through the teleporter on the ship. I waited to see if we would have any problems with sailing but everything is going smoothly. Some of my generals are leading the ships, some have stayed behind at the fortress.
Trice and Shikki (the kobold leader) are the captains of the black turtles. Epieoth and Zergnar with guidance from Gargarz are the captains of the black swords. Nargzar and Leon command the black shivs. Finally, what was supposed to be myself and Gobber leading the black daggers. Have ended with Lance and Sock leading them. I fly between the ships, giving the fleet orders. Lance leads the fleet without me around. He is the most well rounded general after Gobber.
Gobber has children now. It will be hard to separate him from them. Which is fine, if he wants he wont have to participate… He's strong but one person can't win a war by themself. I'll only call upon him for large battles. Most of Lance's group are controlling the ships but Leaf has stayed behind. Brick wanted to spend time with the new elementalists. Which was also fine. I go to talk to him first.
“Brick… Now that you have some new elementalists to talk to… Can you please teach me that secret skill for elementalists.”
“I can't Kite. It isn't my place to teach you that.”
“Why? After helping your people so much you still wont help... Is there any way for me to learn it?”
“There is a way. You must go through a series trials to gain this skill. Only the bravest, oldest and strongest of our tribe ever complete it. Each trial of each element, adding up to four. First, you must temper your body by taking contentious hits from wooden swords… This is the test of earth. Next you must run for three entire days straight. This is the test of wind. The next test you must burn the symbol our of people into your skin. This will be your test of fire. Finally you must cleanse your body and mind with water. This last test will require you to drown yourself to pass…”
“...Is that it? That doesn't sound too ba-”
“You must do these trials several hundred times to acquire each elemental strengthening… This is the true trial. The trial of resolve. The trial of time. The trial of patience most people will not succeed against.”
“...That means even if you take each trial every day it could take years to finally unlock the skill...”
“That is indeed correct. I don't believe it can be taught either. There are no shortcuts for this secret skill.”
Brick showed me a very scarred section of his shoulder from the test of fire. That also means he's drowned himself multiple times...Well… No shortcuts that Brick knows about at least. If I kill him, I might be able to acquire it… I wouldn't do that for a skill though.
I still want that skill, while I'm on break from leading the ships I'll start working towards each of them. I get him to show me the symbol of his people before I head back to the ships. I make myself a branding iron. I'll brand myself every morning I wake up.
The first time sends me rolling around on the ground. The pain is extreme, it is hard to do this myself. A notification pops up.
Strength of fire learned 1%
I check my stats and notice an increase in my strength stat by ten. Healing myself and casting regenerate… Doesn't heal the scarring… But I can rebrand myself. Burning myself again, I start to get used to the pain. The second time I burn myself, I also get another percent. Amazing! I can chain these together to unlock them faster… Drowning and running is still going to be difficult… I'm not sure how many sword hits I'll need to take to unlock the stamina of earth.
My men are supposed to contact me when they see a pirate ship or start to get close to Greed's island. I doubt it will be anytime soon. It might take an entire month to get to the hideout, another few weeks to get to the ninja island. Then another month on top of that to make it to the pirate base.
I'll continue to train and prepare for the fights to come. After testing, it takes somewhere around one hundred wooden sword hits for every percent. I burn myself ten times a day then get struck 1000 times with swords every single day.
I'll be max in both strength and stamina in the next ten days. This will raise both stats up 1000 each. Meaning I will no longer be weak. Aegis has said that with my new higher stats. He'll only be able to give me double my stats from boosting from now on. Even so, once this is done, being permanently stronger is better than relying on a five minute window of power.
While getting struck with swords, I need to have two healers constantly healing me as to not pass out. While my body is going to be permanently scarred from the brand, it is by far the easiest trial… I'm not looking forward to drowning myself or running continuously. I will still have to do it eventually…
After my normal trials one day, I head to my base off the shore. There are only a few kobolds and most are small children or those who can't fight. I went over the plan to revive me after I drown myself. It might show me as weak to these kobolds so I have also brought the elementalists to oversee the event. Most have had practice with reviving other elementalists who have also done these trials.
After sitting in the water for over a minute, I realized how difficult this challenge would be. Salt water poured into my lunges with stinging pain. It was all I could do to not swim to the surface to catch my breath. Panicking, I pass out.
Intelligence of water learned 10%
I'm revived by Green. My first kiss was the revival from drowning… I've seen her naked when she was a slave. I thought my first kiss would be more romantic than me coughing water into a girls mouth. Most of the elementalists are in good shape. She's the most beautiful of the elementalists, beauty rivaling Hilda's. The elementalists have sun tanned skin from their homes in the arid desert to the north. She is easily ten years older than me, so I doubt their are any feelings from her towards me.
Still ten percent, that isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only need to do this another nine times to max it. I'll have to ask Green a few questions.
“How long does this normally take to finally get?”
“Well, I've been doing the trials for years. I've drowned myself over fifty times and still haven't unlocked intelligence of water. After running for an entire year, every day, three days straight then resting. I finally unlocked dexterity of wind.”
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“I've already unlocked ten percent of intelligence of water.”
“WHAT THE SHIT! YOU CAN TELL!?”
“...Hmm, I might be able to teach you elementalists a way to increase the speed you unlock elemental strengthening from.”
I drown myself the remainder of the day. Nine more times, I've been pushed unconscious by drowning than revived. Finally unlocking the skill. Checking my intelligence, it has improved it to 1000 more than it was before the trial. Instantly unlocking that much power feels unreal. I explain to Green how I looked more towards the skill mathematically than the elementalists would. It isn't a special passage that tribes would view it as. After explaining it Green spoke up.
“You look at our rituals with such a scientific viewpoint… It makes me angry you can unlock something so spiritual with less effort that way. It goes against our teachings.”
“Do you think your dead tribesmen would look at it the same way? How many elementalists would still be alive if it was easier to unlock these skills. They aren't special, they're the means to power. Power you could have used to save more of your people… You can see it any way you want to but putting rituals above progress isn't going to do any good for you...”
She sat there, thinking for a long time… Then dove into the water. Her body shortly after resurfaced with her drowning. I pull her safety rope so she heads towards shore. I revive her. She speaks again.
“I… I already learned intelligence of water from a single time… If… If I was just stronger when they betrayed us… If only I was stronger when they forced us to fight… I feel so fucking stupid right now. I might have not been captured. We elementalists might have never been forced to go to war... DAMNIT, DAMNIT, DAMNIT!”
She sat there for another few minutes. Crying, how many lives could she have saved if she was just stronger when it happened? Would the elementalists have been forced to go to war if they could have fought back? I still don't know everything about it, the skirmishes between them and the demon tribes.
I spend the rest of the week maxing out the other two trials I've been working on. Maxing out three of my elemental stat boosts. I only need to work on running for three days straight now. Some of the other elementalists have taken after Green and have been doing the trials.
Their mindsets were limiting the speed they were acquiring the skills at. Without the restrictions in their minds and looking at it as just getting stronger. They have all been advancing as fast as me. Some have even taken to using the same methods as me to learn the skills more quickly. Getting beaten with swords while healers where casting on them. Having regenerate cast on them so they can brand themselves multiple times per day… I'll have to have some of my other generals with elementalist learn through these methods as well.
I start running. I'll only do this once, then I have to go back to the boats. They should be getting close to the island now, at least within a week or two of traveling. We might start seeing pirates soon. Spending three days running in a row… Is just as difficult as it sounds. Having a few gnolls check on me every few hours as I run circles around Shienta like the old days. Eating and drinking are very difficult and I normally end up covered in food or whatever I'm drinking. Even with my insanely high fatigue points, I still struggle to stay awake the three days.
Dexterity of wind learned 10%
The year Green spent mastering dexterity of wind, I could learn in almost a month if that was the only thing I did. Still more time consuming than the other trials but also easier than it should be for the stat boost it gives.
During my training over the passed few months. Also since I've been doing the trials, my new classes have reached level ten.
Aqua mage gave me buoyancy, which because of elementalist changed into water walking. It does exactly what it sounds like. I can walk along water for five minutes when I cast it.
Witch doctor reaching ten unlocked raise zombie, which turned into summon greater undead. Using the skill made a skeletal fighter appear. Depending on which class I was thinking, he would transform into it. I could form several different types of skeletal mobs at once as well. My limit was three instead of one now. Increasing the total number of creatures I could summon again. I haven't used summon plant very often. I don't really summon that often anymore. Summons don't level so them getting a killing blow would only subtract from the total experience I could get.
Finally, the dragon bloodline. When it reached ten, I unlocked the elemental alignment skill. Another passive that set my alignment to a certain element. Thus strengthening it. I was aligned with water when I unlocked it. Then once I mastered each element I also unlocked that alignment. I'm aligned with fire, water and earth at the moment. Once I unlock wind, I'll be able to strengthen every type of element. Each element is strengthen once it is unlocked. Increasing the damage, range and effectiveness of the element selected.
(Kite stats before elemental strengthening) (strength- 340) (dexterity- 410) (intelligence- 360) (stamina- 460) (total = 1570)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost) (strength- 1700) (dexterity- 2050) (intelligence- 1800) (stamina- 2300) (total = 7850)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 1340) (dexterity- 510) (intelligence- 1360) (stamina- 1460) (total = 4670)
(Aegis new double stat boost) (strength- 2680) (dexterity- 1020) (intelligence- 2720) (stamina- 2920) (total- 9340)
Until I strengthen my dexterity, it will be my lowest stat. Aegis can't give me the huge stat boosts anymore. Only doubling my stats. I can hold it for five minutes still, the biggest difference is instead of only being able to use it once a day. I can now use it four to five times a day without risking my health. Finally, after all the practice with elementalist. It has reached level forty, it is my highest class besides the ones boosted by Greed.
Scout will reach level forty soon, it will unlock another skill. Scout is a special class that gains a new skill every single ten levels. Scout hitting level thirty unlocked the skill escape. Which allows me to jump backwards further than normal. Add in dragoons leap passive and dragon form and I have the perfect retreat moves.
I head back to my ship that day. Just in time because that night we find our first pirate ship.