“Rob, I would appreciate it if you could enlighten me as to what happened with the Necromancer.” After we left the prison I just started walking in an attempt to recover at least a small portion of my mental faculties, but after patiently following behind me until we’d fully left the village Render’s curiosity had apparently gotten the better of them, and finally forced me to explain just what exactly I’d done to them.
“Ah, well, it’s kind of weird. I’m not completely sure that I understand it to be honest,” I had almost hoped that would be enough to stall their questions, at least for a little while, but they just motioned for me to continue. I sighed and reluctantly did so, “Basically, the Skill I used on that last attack came from a Feat called Affinity Scorcher, and it just lets me deal damage to Affinity instead of anything’s physical body. Until now I didn’t really know how they were linked, but I actually got the Feat by helping someone change their Path, although I didn’t do much so I’m not sure if I really earned it or anything.”
“You’re saying that you may have reset the Necromancer’s Path?” I thought I made that clear, or did I not? Thinking’s kinda hard right now.
“Uh, yeah, pretty much. I think Finch must have said something about how removing Affinity makes you Awaken a second time, but I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention to that at the time so I don’t know. Do you think it’ll cause any problems?”
“No, I don’t think so. No matter what Path they get, without access to a corpse and a decent Undeath Affinity they stand little chance of escaping, especially if they wish to do so without being grievously injured or killed, so it will likely not cause any problems.” Despite not being able to see their face, I got the impression just from the way they spoke that they were frowning behind that helmet.
That kinda makes sense, but what if she gets something like the Wonderful Prisoner? I don’t know what his Path actually is, but there’s no way he could just get in and out of a jail cell so easily unless there was some kind of escapee Path or something.
“I-I guess so,” Despite my reservations, I simply agreed with what Render said in the hopes that we could move onto something other than me potentially handing immense power to someone who is unlikely to do anything good with it.
“Now that we have dealt with that, perhaps it is time to move on. I would like to stay here in case the Necromancer is capable of escaping and would advise you to do the same, to stay away from the Mage Killer if nothing else.” I was already planning on staying here a while, and actually with Render’s help there’s something I might be able to finish up pretty quickly.
“I’ll be staying here for now, and since you’ll also be staying maybe you’d be able to help me out with something?”
“Of course, if I am to be your mentor then I can at least do this much. What do you require assistance with?”
“One of my General Skills, Lightning Steps, is at level 14 now and I think I might be able to get it to max today if I really try. I only just realised that I can use Charge with it, which has to make it go faster, right?”
“Ah, I see. This should be a simple matter, as I am actually quite knowledgeable in the function behind which Skills are able to grow. You may have seen that they generally require three things to be accomplished in order to Level up, correct?” I nodded my assent and Render continued, “This method is not entirely incorrect, however it is also not quite accurate. Skills and Stats both grow through a combination of desire and action. If one wishes to gain a Skill more than anything, then they would only need a small amount of competence.”
“What, so can I just ask for it to level up? That seems a little easy.” It can’t be that simple right?
“My apologies, I may not have been perfectly clear. Gaining the first level of a Skill can be done through great desire and a passing attempt, however every subsequent level has more and more stringent requirements. You need not only a desire for the Skill to grow, but you must also act upon this desire many times. Generally the first few levels of a Skill can be attained by proving a base level of competence, or by using it in several unique ways. In the case of your Lightning Steps it may be as simple as experimenting with its limits for a few hours, just so long as you wish for it to grow.”
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I see I see, so I kind of figured this out already! Who knew that doing random stuff with my Skills could actually be useful?
“Alright, I guess I’ll just see how far I can jump with it. That jump was pretty good, but that was a pretty rushed Charge for only a few seconds, I could probably concentrate on Charging it for a few minutes if the Lightning doesn’t get too bad.” As I spoke, Render became increasingly worried, until I got worried that I’d said something stupid. But that couldn’t be right, my Wisdom was getting pretty high already.
“Perhaps that is not wise, you are liable to seriously injure yourself if you attempt something so uncontrollable. As a Mage variant, you are unlikely to be capable of handling such speeds.”
“No I’ll be fine, I can just use Lightning Cloak and I won’t get a scratch. In fact, if it was more dangerous I bet it’d level up faster. Just watch, you’ll see.” Without waiting to hear Render’s response, I took a look around the area we’d walked to so that I could find a good spot for a nice long jump.
In the short time I’d been lost in thought, I had taken us all the way out of the village and into a plain just barely hidden from view by a particularly large hill. The forest was just a few metres to our right, but in front of me I couldn’t actually see anything that might get in the way of my jump.
I crouched down, just as I did in the fight earlier, and slowly began to Charge Lightning Steps. Lightning began to burst into existence across my body, appearing roughly every second, until around 40 bursts later the majority of my legs were covered. Since I was using less Mana than I recovered naturally my Pool was still completely full. I’d probably be using all of it for my Cloak.
The whole time this had been happening Render reluctantly stood by the side, lost in thought. At the time I thought nothing of it, but in hindsight it kind of seems like he was debating the pros and cons of simply grabbing me so that I could no longer endanger myself like this.
Naturally, and completely oblivious to Render’s musings, I completely ignored any safety concerns- even my own- and continued to Charge. After another 30 Charges, I felt a small feeling creeping up and by the time 4 Charges had passed I was able to place it as the feeling of danger from Sense Danger’s evolution. It was much more clear now, seeming to be less of an implacable feeling of unease, and more of a general feeling that my next movement isn’t going to end well.
Probably as good a sign as any that I should stop.
Or maybe it’s a better one, actually.
I cancelled Charge and simply held the Skill in place, taking a few moments to compose myself before I launched. My plan, that I only bothered to come up whilst the Skill was already Charging, was pretty simple. Just use Lightning Cloak with Breath Of Mana with as much Mana as possible at the last second. Should work just fine.
Taking in a deep Breath, excess Lightning fell from my form as I flew forward like- you could say- a Bolt of Lightning. Immediately a flaw in my plan revealed itself, and I was forced to close my eyes from the constant wind in my face. For a moment I was terrified about the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to see the ground coming, that I was genuinely going to die not from a powerful Necromancer, but from my own stupidity.
But then Battle Meditation kicked in, and I felt a growing sense of something about to go wrong. I almost sighed in relief, but that would ruin the Breath that I now realised was irreplaceable until I slowed down, and waited for the right moment. Eventually, after what felt like half a minute in my head but was surely much shorter, the feeling from Battle Meditation grew to the point that I felt it could grow no more and I instinctively flared my Cloak.
As soon as I did so, I felt myself begin to slow down as the arcing Lightning dug into the ground and pulled me backwards. Then I fell towards the ground and the Lightning continued trying to push outwards from me, acting almost like a soft cushion against the unforgiving dirt.
And then I was stationary, and absolutely questioning the efficacy of my Wisdom stat. I laid in the kicked up dirt from my landing, and glanced at my Stats just to double check that I hadn’t just imagined my Wisdom going up from 3. Slowly, almost like it was waiting until that moment to spit in my face, the number next to my Wisdom ticked upwards and I was left dumbfounded at what these stats were even supposed to do.
But that line of questioning was put on hold as the last dregs of my Cloak faded around me, and the system took that as its cue to finally give me the quite frankly earned final level of Lightning Steps.
Proficiency Gained You Have Reached Max Level In The Skill [Lightning Steps]
Choose A Skill Level To Sacrifice For Evolution Lightning Generator Lightning Bolt Lightning Cloak Charge Grand Skewer
“Oh thank the Gods.” I muttered under my breath, not expecting anyone to hear me.
“So you succeeded? I must admit, I’m impressed at your defences, to have emerged from such a stupidly reckless attack unscathed. I supposed in this case your Will had triumphed over Wisdom.” I startled and spun to face Render, or at least did the closest thing I could whilst lying down so it was really more of an awkward and sudden jerk.
“Yeah, it actually did. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again any time soon, I really thought that my Wisdom would be high enough that I could think things through beforehand, but I guess I’m still pretty impulsive.”
Render shook their head and said, “That is not quite how Wisdom works, but that is a lesson for another time. For now, let us discuss your new Evolution. What are your Choices?”
Now for the fun part.