Combat Cleared
3 Skeletons [Levels 2-4] Defeated
1 Ancient Necromancer [Level 31] Defeated
You Have Reached Level 24
As I woke up I found myself face to face with a pair of notifications from the system, which were a good sign of my victory, but also contained a couple of things that gave me pause.
The first thing I noticed was that Elara was apparently an Ancient Necromancer, though she didn’t really look particularly old to me. I kind of got the vibe that there weren’t very many Necromancers around, so maybe she just ended up learning some really old style of raising the dead to do her bidding or something.
The second thing was that the Skeletons I killed were all apparently below level 4, which I wasn’t sure really stacked up with how well they survived against my Lightning, but what did I know?
I finally realised that I’d woken up in a different place to where I ‘fell asleep’ (if you were killing to call it that), and took stock of my surroundings. Although that didn’t actually take too long, because I was actually in the small house that I’d had that nap in before the fight. Everything in the room was exactly as I remembered it, only I noticed that there was actually a latch on the door that someone had somehow locked from the outside.
Weird.
Having done my sufficiently cautious act for the day, I excitedly laid back down so that I could fully focus on my full Status Screen, which was sure to have all kinds of improvements from such a big fight.
Robert Zeneki Lightning Adept 18 Level 24 Willpower 24 Wisdom 12 Strength 5 Agility 8
Path Skills Lightning Generator 17 Lightning Bolt 20 Lightning Cloak 9 Charge 15 Chain Lightning 5 Grand Skewer 3 Scorch Affinity
General Skills MAX Lightning Steps 14 Breath Of Mana 8 Battle Meditation 2 Channel Lightning 7 Fast Thinking 4
King Slayer
Scorch Affinity
Huh, I guess I merged Sense Danger and Meditation at some point, which would explain how the fight suddenly got so much easier. At least I remember picking Fast Thinking, I don’t really regret that one. I bet it can evolve with one of my Path Skills to be something cool like Lightning Fast Thinking or something.
Looking at my full Status, I was pretty proud of my progress so far. I was fairly certain that most people wouldn’t get to such a high level even after a year, so to have gotten so far in such a short time was pretty incredible.
Admittedly, most of this success was probably because of how many powerful enemies I’d been fighting this whole time so I probably wasn’t going to end up getting any more levels for a while, but that was fine. I needed more time to focus on improving what I already have anyway, Chain Lightning and Grand Skewer were looking especially weak compared to even the next lowest levelled Path Skill.
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I heard the sound of something metallic and hollow knocking on my door and put my musings on hold to go and answer it, lifting the latch and opening the door to see Render waiting politely on the other side.
“Oh hey, Render. What’s up?”
“Good evening Rob, I’m glad to see you finally awake.” Finally? I wonder how long it’s been?
“How long was I out?” I decided to sate my curiosity, although it was also partially to ease the sudden anxiety I felt at a lot of potentially wasted time. Though strangely enough, that wasn’t usually something I tended to worry about.
“It has been around half a day, to be completely honest I’m surprised you didn’t sleep longer. Your Willpower must be astounding.”
“I guess it is pretty high,” I remarked off handedly, suddenly noticing how dry my throat was from not drinking for probably closer to 24 hours than 12 at this point, “anyway, do you know where I could get something to drink? I’m pretty thirsty right now.”
“Ah, of course. I believe I have some water somewhere,” They pulled a waterskin out from… I guess some hidden pocket or something, and handed it to me, “Here, drink this.”
I took the waterskin and immediately gulped down half its contents, finding myself pleasantly surprised at how cold and refreshing it was.
Man, usually my water’s lukewarm. How the hell did Render manage to keep it so cold?
My surprise was evidently clear on my face, because Render quickly explained what the deal was, “The leather is enchanted to insulate the water, very little heat is able to get in or out. I filled this one with cold water some time ago when I was travelling further north, near the border of Altia.”
What? Just how long has this water been in here?
“Wow, you’ve been all over the place then?”
“Yes, I am something of a travelling warrior. I tend to wander Dillak and deal with any threats that others may have difficulty handling. The Mage Killer is one such threat, one that I should have little difficulty facing if I can just find them.”
“Right, him.” My face darkened as I remembered the whole reason I’d left Ironhold in the first place, and Render quickly moved to change the subject.
“Oh, my apologies. We have been waiting for guards to arrive and take in the Necromancer, and there is something about them that I was hoping you would be able to explain for me,” Oh? What could I know that Render doesn’t? “Once you subdued them their magic completely failed, and they appear to have lost all connection with their Skeletons. Not only that, but they have not even attempted to use their magic to escape, despite being almost completely uninjured. For my own curiosity, would you be able to explain why that is?”
Why do I feel like Sense Danger, or I guess Battle Meditation now, is warning me of something?
“Well, recently I helped a friend reset their Path, and it gave me a Feat called Affinity Scorcher, and that gave me a Skill that lets me damage something’s affinity instead of their actual body.” Immediately the pressure I hadn’t even noticed appear faded, and Render suddenly looked a lot less threatening.
“Ah, I see. I was worried that you had somehow gained a skill that affects the mind, I am glad to hear that it is nothing so sinister.”
“What would be so bad about affecting someone’s mind?”
“Hm, I suppose it’s not even illegal in Dillak so many may not know much about the topic. To put it simply, in order to manipulate a person’s mind to the degree that I suspected the Necromer’s had been, you would need to first alter a person’s Soul. Soul’s are seen as almost sacred to my,” They coughed, “family, so forcefully altering them or causing significant damage past the Outer Soul is seen as worse than murder. I’m sure you can understand why that may be.”
“Right, that makes sense. I don’t know what a soul actually is, but it’s probably pretty important, right? Especially to the Gods.” For some reason, Render seemed to come to a realisation whilst I was speaking, before pausing to think for a few minutes.
I awkwardly stood and waited while they did so, but it was a little unnerving for someone to just suddenly go silent in the middle of a conversation like this. Just as I was considering asking if they were ok, Render finally arrived at some kind of decision, and put that plan on hold.
“Rob, I apologise if this may bring up some negative memories, but I understand that Kaelan was something of a mentor to you. There are likely many things that he unfortunately did not have the time to teach you, so if you would like I could fulfil that role for you.” I felt a small amount of guilt at doing what really felt like replacing Kaelan, despite him only teaching me for a few months, my face lit up at the opportunity to get some answers about my Skills.
“Actually, there’s a couple things that I’ve been really wondering about for a few days now. You see, I got Lightning Steps to level 10, but instead of changing to say MAX it just kinda kept going. Oh, and Channel Mana evolved into Channel Lightning, but the words are weirdly tilted for some reason, do you know why that is?” I didn’t mean to talk so much so quickly, but those two questions in particular just kept burning in my skull, and I was completely unable to figure out what the deal was on my own.
“Ah, those questions are easy to answer. When a Skill is evolved or merged, its max level is increased by 5. This is both a good and a bad thing, as it means the Skill will take much longer to evolve, but it will also be able to become much more powerful. As for your second question, I believe this is a common occurrence for fundamental Skills like the Mana Manipulation variants. It generally occurs when there are many Skills that would result in a near identical evolution, and indicates that there is an aspect of it that is unique based on how it was evolved. There should be no pressing issues with it, but it will likely result in a more unique second evolution.”
Huh, I guess I should’ve been able to guess that, huh? Oh well, I'm not exactly super focused on Wisdom so that’s not really that surprising is it?
“Right, that makes sense. So I guess most of my General Skills will have a max of 15?” Render simply nodded, though they were probably just being polite since they wouldn’t be able to know how many of my Skills were evolved.
From there, we lapsed into silence, and I realised that I didn’t actually have a clue what I was supposed to be doing now that I’d woken up.
Maybe I’ll just go see what the deal with that Necromancer was, they must have followed me to Woodhaven for a reason.
“Hey Render, do you know where the Necromancer is?”
“Yes, however I believe it would be best to go see the Village Chief before trying to talk with them. Apparently their identity has caused something of a stir among the villagers that have seen them, so I am unsure of what exactly would be the most polite course of action.”
Alright that’s weird, but I guess I have all day. Well not all day, but I can at least waste some of it.