I don’t quite know how I was able to do this the last time, but it definitely had something to do with focusing on my knowledge, so I did just that. With my senses effectively completely removed I had no way of knowing how much time had passed, so it didn’t feel like it took more than a few minutes to finally start seeing fragments of thoughts and memories.
Within either seconds or minutes, the fragments had come together to form cohesive memories, but I ignored them as I brushed by to reach the Skills right at the edges of my awareness.
They were much the same as last time, although there were more of them, and it felt like I could see them in just a little more detail. One of the lines, that I hesitantly labelled Breath Of Mana mentally, appeared to be woven out of two other lines, making it appear thicker and more rope-like. Although the actual difference was very minute, and even figuring out this much took probable minutes of observation.
But that wasn’t what I was here for, instead I looked to the only new line, which was easy to find because it was noticeably weaker than the rest of them, just like Chain Lightning was and- embarrassingly- still is. Though it had noticeably more memories to go through, so that’s a win.
I reached out towards it and grabbed the line as gently as I could with both hands, feeling the sensations threaten to overwhelm my mind. Fortunately, my mind had improved since the last time I attempted this, so I was able to hold on just a little bit longer.
Grand Skewer
Single Opponent
Persistent Effect
Always Active
There may have been more things that I could have learned, but I didn’t need anything more than that for now so I let go of the line and purposefully woke myself up.
The change to wakefulness was much less jarring than last time, since I wasn’t desperately trying to stay there, so I hardly even needed to gather my bearings before I could stand up and take stock of my surroundings.
I was still in the exact same place as when I sat down to meditate, only this time the sun was much further along in the sky. It wasn’t too late just yet, but I must have been at it for a few hours at least. As I was looking around, Render and Kaelan seemed to notice that I was back up and came up to greet me.
“Hey Rob, you’re finally back with us, eh? Did it take this long last time you tried this?”
“Actually I think it took much longer, I was barely able to get any Crab hunting done because it was so late.” Kaelan scratched his head in thought before he decided to just change the topic.
“So what did you manage to find out anyway?”
“I got four phrases, but one of them was just the name of the skill. The other ones were something like ‘Single Opponent’, ‘Persistent Effect’, and ‘Always Active’. I think that means that it’s supposed to work automatically, and if it’s at all similar to my other skills that probably means it buffs my Lightning.”
“Then perhaps it would be best to simply use a spell, no? Come, let us go to the practice dummies, although you may test it on me if you wish. I am curious to test myself against a user of Lightning.” Test it on him? But my Lightning’s pretty strong at this point, I’m not sure that’s a great idea…
Kaelan just laughed it off and said, “Yeah it’s probably best that we practise on the dummies for now. Rob’s Lightning is no joke, you know?”
“Very well.”
Whilst we walked over, I decided that I might as well Charge my Lightning at least a little, since the effect might be more noticeable on a stronger Bolt. Render noticed and looked at the orb in my hand curiously but simply looked towards the dummy as I stood a few metres in front of it.
For this first shot I decided not to use my Breath, just because that would probably end up complicating it a lot and I’d rather see the effect purely on its own. I held my hand forwards and, after a moment more charging, let the Bolt loose.
It was actually much more straight than usual, with the end actually sharpening into a spearlike point, but didn’t seem to be any faster or even slightly different otherwise. The Bolt struck the dummy and rocked it back, and I stood waiting to see what would look different when it rocked forward again.
Only it didn’t.
The Bolt was stuck in the dummy, constantly pushing it backwards towards the ground but slowly fizzling out in the process. Since they were firmly attached to the ground, it was still able to stay mostly upright, but the sharp sound of cracking wood put that into question.
After a few more seconds of struggle, the wood finally broke and the torso fell onto the dirt at around the same time the Lightning wore off.
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I wonder how that works with Chain Lightning, would it just stick people together or something? Or maybe only one activates at a time or something. Hmm.
I heard someone begin to speak, but my testing was obviously not done just yet and I charged yet another Bolt. This time, after around the same amount of time as I charged the previous one, I took a Breath and exhaled as I launched the Bolt.
It was much more jagged this time, although that didn’t make it any less sharp looking. As expected, it stuck into the dummy and began to push it back, but with much less force than before. Instead, all that energy was used to constantly send wave upon wave of Lightning over the wooden dummy. By the time the spell petered out it was completely charred and seemed moments away from falling over, judging by the barely intact pole sticking into the ground.
“Impressive,” Render said simply, “Are you still opposed to testing on me? I believe I can handle such an attack with little issue.” I’m not sure I believe you.
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I spoke with Kaelan and Render for a little bit longer, but it was getting late and I was still quite tired from the journey here, so I said my goodbyes and headed back to the inn.
For some reason, as I left the training grounds, someone carrying two wooden dummies in the direction of Kaelan and Render gave me a dirty look, but I ignored it and just left the Training Fields.
They must be having a bad day or something.
When I finally arrived back at the Inn I greeted Finch, telling him that the Job went well but I forgot to collect my payment, and headed back to my room to see that it was completely unchanged from when I was last here.
Finally, I can sleep in my own bed!
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I was woken up by someone politely knocking on my door and quickly scrambled out of bed. A quick look through the window revealed that I’d actually ended up sleeping until noon somehow, so I thought that it must have been Finch waking me up for a late breakfast or something.
Spoiler alert, it was not.
Once I opened the door, I was greeted by an imposing man in full plate iron armour with a fancy red cape hanging from their shoulders. After a moment of thought I recalled the man’s name.
“Captain Ironheart? That Lobster wasn’t a real God was it? I didn’t get a Feat for it so it couldn’t have been.” He just looked at me, bemused, for a few seconds before he spoke.
“Thankfully that is not the case. You are to be commended for your deed of saving the village Saltrock, and stopping a mad Cultist from spreading further damage throughout the country. Usually you would be escorted by a contingent of Guards, but the Lord has asked that I personally bring you to him so this could be considered a special case,” He allowed a genuine smile onto his face, “I knew it was a good idea to release you. Thank you for proving my judgement correct.”
I wasn’t exactly expecting something like this to happen, so I was slightly confused to say the least. And I was uncertain about the prospect of meeting the Lord again, the last time wasn’t exactly all that great.
We stared at each other for a few seconds before I realised that I was probably supposed to say something and rushed out a quick, “Oh uh, no problem,” before continuing with a more polite, “I guess we should get going then?”
“Yes, we shall. Follow behind me.” Ironheart led me out of the inn, Finch giving me a questioning look to which I replied with a shrug, before walking past the Centre down a street that I’d never been to before. At the end of it, after a few minutes of speed walking, we came upon what must have been the tallest structure I’d ever seen.
It was a tower that towered over the rest of the city, at least twice the height of any other building, and no building seemed to come closer than 10 metres away from its walls. The tower itself was made up of a dozen thin spires that surrounded what must have been the main structure, connecting to it with bridges at various heights. The top of it was hard to get a good look at from this angle, but it seemed to fan out into some kind of larger open area.
Whilst I was observing the architecture, Ironheart hadn’t even slowed down, forcing me to speed up my pace in order to catch up to him. Surprisingly this wasn’t actually difficult, although I guess it shouldn’t be, what with my Walking evolution and all that.
We entered the tower and began to climb a spiral staircase in the centre, walking past dozens of walled off rooms and allowing me to get a glimpse of the area behind the tower that seemed to be the main area that people did whatever it was that people do in castles. There was a verdant courtyard surrounded by multiple stories of rooms and walls, and I could see people bustling back and forth the few times I saw it.
And then we arrived at the top. What I thought was just an open area from below was actually a massive throne room, spreading out to be around 15 metres in diameter. We came out in the centre, which seemed like an odd design choice but I wasn’t an architect so I wouldn’t know anything about that.
At the very least, it seemed like anyone entering an already populated throne room should be entering in the centre, since that’s the most visible location.
I had the urge to look around the room some more, but had to put that on hold for now when Ironheart began to speak.
“Lord Ironhold, Robert Zeneki has arrived,” He bowed towards the throne and I did the same, but not without first glancing at it to get a good look at its occupant.
The throne itself was made of stone, with what looked like iron being used in certain places for support and probably also aesthetics, but it was covered in enough padding that I was sure that the Lord was raised at least half a metre by that alone.
Speaking of which, the Lord himself lounged atop the throne, wearing similar purple finery to when I saw him last, although this particular outfit looked uncomfortable and came with a gaudy cape that fell down his shoulders. He was resting his chin on his fist and stared me down like a Wolf would eye a rabbit.
I quickly swung my head down, breaking eye contact as soon as I looked at his eyes. It was hard to tell, but it almost felt like something was lurking deep within them. In the split second our eyes met something seemed to writhe before I looked away, and the feeling of unease from Sense Danger spiked before settling down to its usual level.
Is this what it’s like to meet someone who’s so much higher level than you? I don’t know what he’s actually at, but he’s nobility so he must be at least Level 50, maybe higher.
The feeling of being scrutinised appeared for a moment, but it vanished just as quickly, so I just tried to ignore it. Ironheart turned back up to look at the Lord directly so I did the same, only hesitating for a moment before I looked back into his eyes. Whatever I saw before, it wasn’t there now.
Maybe I imagined it.
“So you’re the one who handled that little cult problem for me. You’ve grown a lot since last we met, tell me, to what heights have you reached? What has your level climbed to?” He spoke far more than I felt was necessary, almost like a character from a novel or a play, but I knew that commenting on it would only end badly so I chose to just answer his question truthfully.
“Level 20- uhm- sir” His eyes widened briefly and he grinned.
“Impressive, to have grown so much in such a short time. You must be quite talented.”
“I think it might be related to my Lightning Affinity. Apparently it’s a little higher than average.”
“That is quite the understatement, is it not? Hmph, no matter,” He clicked his fingers and a servant emerged from behind his throne carrying an ornate wooden box, “Come and take your reward and then be off. I’m a busy man, you know?”
The servant rushed over to me and stopped just a metre away, holding the box steadily in front of them. I reached out and took it, quickly looking inside to see the contents.
It was certainly quite impressive, resting upon a silk cushion were two objects, one that I could only assume was a solid gold medal, and the other an expensive looking embroidered satchel. It most likely contained something, I didn’t think that a noble would simply hand out a bag as a prize, but before I could open it to check I heard someone chuckling from in front of me.
“Well, we’re a hasty one, aren’t we? It’s usually good manners to keep the box closed until you return to your chambers, but I’ll let you off just this once. Now begone, I have much to do, and so does Captain Ironheart.”