“Did Jake always have a party? I could have sworn that it used to say he was a lone wolf.”
“Maybe the manager found some better historical records?”
“Eh. That’s lame. I liked him better when he took on the [Demon Lord] all by himself.”
“Woah, wait! The Saint used to be a sick little girl? Since when!?”
“I always thought Garrik was lame, but… now it mentions that he fought the [Demon Lord] almost 25 times.”
“I would have given up after the first time.”
“Same. I guess he’s alright.”
“The greatest [Hero] of all time might have been only a [Janitor]? What is this outrage!? I’ll have the manager’s head on a pike!”
“Is it just me, or in the mural where he’s triumphed over the [Demon Lord]… Doesn’t Jake look kinda… Sad?”
- Excerpts of conversations in the Hall of [Heroes] and [Demon Lords]
-------
“Is there anything else I need to do in Jenkins before I head east to get some levels?” I asked myself as I walked back to my inn.
I gave it some thought, but I figured that I was pretty much done there. Though I figured it wouldn’t hurt to head up to Dave Paradise for a quick perk point spending spree, that could wait until morning.
I’m back up to 12 perk points… What can I get with that again? Something like normal health regen and that one weird one about downscaling? I shook my head. Maybe I’ll just skip that and wait to get fast health regen.
At least, that was my plan for all of 5 seconds.
“Wait,” I muttered. “If that lets me temporarily lower my level or skills, wouldn’t that be good for blending in?” I asked and then sighed. “Fine. I’ll get that stupid perk.”
The rest of the night was uneventful. Come morning, I left town, made sure no one was around, and then pulled out Singularity.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to cast this. Let’s make the trip a bit faster, shall we?” I stated to the staff. Then, I started casting my most expensive spell… Well, second-most if you don’t count [Summon Infernal Dire Snail].
I pulled the mana into place and then said, “[Tele-“
I abruptly cut off as I realized something.
Wait. I’m not Pride. I have to do the full cast… and take the full 10 minutes.
I groaned, but there wasn’t much for it. I decided to keep walking as I put the mana into place and then had to wait until the spell was actually ready to say the literal magic words.
Fortunately, nothing was stopping me from using Singularity as a walking stick in the meantime, and I mentally praised the common wizard archetype for channeling their spells through something that also had mundane utility.
After 10 minutes passed, it was time.
I pulled open my status to double-check the wording. Boy it was a doozy.
“Shimmering void of spell, guideth me twixt hither and thither as I traverse the path unseen by the ordinary,” I chanted, even as I rolled my eyes. Really wish I hadn’t learned this from the fey.
“[Teleport],” I finished.
The spell took effect, and I found myself suddenly… somewhere. Or, I guess, somewhere on a grassy plain if I wanted to be specific.
I spun around in a circle as I tried to get my bearings.
“Well, I’m off the road… did I overshoot? Or undershoot?”
And there was the problem with trying to [Teleport] to my destination. It was all fine and good when Pride was traveling from city to city, and my end point was hard to miss, or when I was [Teleporting] somewhere that was within my range, and I could go there directly.
However, when my [Teleport] destination was vague and more along the lines of “as far north as I can go,” that made things a bit difficult to find a small out-of-the-way zone I’d made.
“How does [Teleport] work anyway?” I asked my staff as if it somehow contained the answers. “Don’t most systems that have it require you to have a specific destination in mind? And how have I not ended up in the middle of a hill or something with how vague I’m being?”
As I was resolving to examine that spell a bit closer so that I could find out its secrets, I had a surprise that hadn’t happened in several years… the sound of howls.
I groaned because I didn’t really care to deal with Placeholder’s most common enemy.
Can I just ignore them? I asked myself. No… They deal 10 damage a hit… before… armor.
“Can they even damage me at all?” I asked aloud. And that question improved my mood immensely. What better way to handle a bog-standard mob encounter than to turn it into a science experiment?
“[Fire Bolt], [Ice Bolt],” I cast and picked off two of the front-runners. That meant the first wolf that reached me was alone. It jumped to bite me… and its fangs bounced off.
It was a result that should have been within my expectations, but it was still hilarious to watch the confusion on the wolf’s face.
It just got better when its buddies arrived. They circled me, waited for their moment to strike, and then bounced off me unceremoniously.
I couldn’t help it. I started busting up laughing. I practically doubled over, but it didn’t even matter that they could reach my head. Even if I didn’t have armor there, they still dealt 0 damage.
As I wiped the tears from my eyes, I stood back up. “You know, the funny thing is that I’m not even wearing the full set,” I said to the wolf directly in front of me. I pulled the helmet out of my inventory and put it into place. Immediately, my back caught on fire with black flame, and the wolves around me retreated a step or two.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Don’t blame you. It’s intimidating as heck. Especially since I didn’t even enchant it to do that. Speaking of…”
My curiosity needed to be satisfied, and I belatedly realized I had yet to take a look at my armor’s stats.
One activation of [Appraise Armor] later, and I was treated to quite a sight.
Demon Lord’s Armor
A full suit of armor forged by the Demon Lord with the help of two superlative artisans.
Materials
Black mithril, dragon scales
Tier
Masterwork
Damage Resistances
blu VI, sla VI, prc VI, air VI, earth VI
Damage Reductions
blu 15, sla 15, prc 15
Set Effect
Infernal Aura – Increased power of aura effects. On contact enemies take fire damage.
Helmet Enchant
Masterwork HP Increase (200)
Chest piece Enchant
Masterwork Air Resistance (air VI)
Greaves Enchant
Masterwork Earth Resistance (earth VI)
Boots Enchant
Masterwork Haste (effective level 6, 3 per day for 1 minute)
Gauntlets Enchant
Masterwork Strengthen (effective level 6, 3 per day for 1 minute)
Cursed - Infernal
Wearer takes constant fire damage
“It only took 3 centuries, but I finally got a real stat block for an item,” I stated to no one as a wolf behind me jumped me, lit on fire, bounced off, and then died.
“And holy cow, this armor is OP,” I stated as the wolf came back as a zombie, and a fight started around me. “Bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage all reduced by 15. And that’s not including… whatever damage resistance means.”
I frowned at that thought. I had spent almost a decade as a [Blacksmith’s] apprentice, and I still didn’t know how damage types worked out. I basically just knew “higher Roman Numeral good.”
So, I compared it to the only thing I could.
I pulled out my sword and took a look.
Insurance
A well-crafted sword enchanted with undead-bane
Materials
Steel
Tier
Major
Base Damage
16 sla III
Damage Scaling
1 per 5
Enchant
Undead-bane
Only 16 damage… and slashing III? I thought. That’s just slightly above my damage reduction, so what happens if I-
I held out my left arm and swung my sword at it. Just like the wolves, my blade bounced off.
So, at the very least, that confirms that higher tiers of damage resistance mean… something.
Then I remembered another variable.
“Oh yeah. I forgot that the System gave me [Swordsmanship] a while back,” I muttered and then opened my status. It was only at level 2, but I didn’t have to pay for it since I earned it by sheer dint of killing wolves with Insurance.
The second thing I missed was the “damage scaling” portion. 1 per 5 sounded awfully low for skill level, so I assumed it couldn’t be that, but I wasn’t entirely sure what else it could be.
My musings took long enough that I was now surrounded by only zombie wolves… who lacked the intelligence of their living counterparts. They mindlessly jumped me and then died one-by-one to my flaming armor.
They came back to life shortly after, but I just thought it was pretty funny.
I killed them all for real with my sword and then got back to locating the obelisk and zone I’d created.
The only incident on the way was that I ran into an alpha wolf, which meant it was time to test the final part of my armor.
“[Haste] activate, [Strengthen] activate,” I stated. What followed was almost as bad as when I leveled from 10 to 18 with a single dragon kill. I wobbled for a few seconds before my body remembered what it was like to be able to move that fast.
I dodged the alpha’s lunge with ease and then, just for kicks, punched it with a single [Fire Strike].
I… uhh… One shot it.
I stood there staring at my fist as the alpha toppled to the ground.
Over 100 damage for a [Fire Strike]? How much damage did [Strengthen] add?
However, I didn’t have long to worry about that. The alpha was soon reanimated as a zombie.
No longer for kicks, but rather for science, I [Fire Strike] punched it again.
It didn’t immediately go down, and I had to punch it a second time before it died.
Dang. I forgot that zombies have more health than their living counterparts. I frowned as it got back up. I guess I have one other thing to try…
I decked it with [Ice Strike] the next time. 3 hits. Then [Earth Strike]. Also 3 hits.
After that, my [Haste] ran out, and I ate dirt right in front of it. The zombie then made a good attempt at munching on my arm.
Fortunately, even with my helmet off so that I wasn’t burning the entire time, the zombie couldn’t damage me. That was even with my resistances dropped to V and damage reduction to 12.
I got back to my feet and began the second part of my science experiment. How many hits without [Strengthen]?
For [Fire Strike], the answer was 3… which didn’t tell me much, honestly. I didn’t know how much health the zombie wolf had, and I couldn’t factor in overkill in any meaningful way.
That didn’t stop me from completing the experiment, though. As soon as it got back up, I punched it to death for a final time with [Ice Strike].
5 hits.
2 becomes 3, and 3 becomes 5?... 3/2 is 1.5 AKA a 50% damage increase, and 5/3 is 1.66… about a 66% damage increase. I shook my head. I decided to mentally take the lower number for now until I had more data.
“Isn’t a 50% damage increase on demand kinda nuts?” I asked the stirring body of the alpha.
I pulled Insurance out of my inventory, drove the wolf through, and then looted it.
I hadn’t been sure about my choice to enchant my gauntlets with an offensive enchantment like [Strengthen]. Sure, [Haste] could also be seen as an offensive tool, but it was also a fantastic defensive utility. Anyway, it was increasingly looking like I’d made a good choice.
“Dead enemies deal no damage,” I summed it up. “Besides, I’ve got the main physical damage types covered and all the elementals covered. Is there anything left that can even damage me?”
I thought I would have learned my lesson about hubris from my stint as Pride.
System: Zone entered, Dave Paradise. Faction - Jenkins
“Frickin’ dang it,” I attempted to swear. Meanwhile, I’d also failed one of the critical rules of adventuring. Look up every once in a while.
A dave landed on my face, and I started taking damage. Acid damage.
System: You are grappled and cannot move
I had left my helmet off, because of course I did, and that meant I didn’t have that much HP to work with.
[Hell Blaze]? I asked myself as my mind raced trying to figure out the best way to kill the stupid monster. No, it’ll come back. Use Insurance? That will take too many hits!
A stupid level 5 monster that I knew the most about of anyone, and I was panicking and paralyzed because I had too many options.
After my health dropped to half, my panic finally took over, and I punched it off me with an [Air Strike].
Or at least, that’s what I tried to do. I forgot how grapples work in Placeholder. Again.
To make matters worse, I had also forgotten about daves getting hit extra hard by knockback.
The dave and I flew together a couple dozen feet before skidding to a stop. That also dropped me into the area I’d designated as the boss room and the boss health bar for the “Blob of daves” appeared as dozens of the slimeballs surrounded me.
That at least made the course of action clear.
I leveled Singularity at my feet, “[Hell Blaze]!”
The boss health bar dropped to empty nigh-instantly, and soon my only issue was the dave on my face that came back as a zombie. I sidestepped its jump, killed it with a few hits from my sword, and finally took stock of the situation.
I can’t believe that things were that close in a fight with daves. I thought to myself. It’s been too long since I fought for real, and I need to figure out how to never freeze up like that again.
However, the obelisk was now available to claim, and I was ready to get out of there.
Without further thought, I claimed it and bought two of the three remaining perks. [Health Regen, Normal] and the awkwardly named [Skill/Level Downscaling] were mine. 8 more perk points would get me [Health Regen, Fast], and I would have nothing else to spend my perk points on.
I remember when that list seemed so daunting. I thought with a bit of melancholy. Simpler times… Kinda. I suppose my life hasn’t been simple since I got here.
I wanted to avoid overly dwelling on the past, so I switched focus to the new perk.
“Alright,” I said aloud. “How do you work?”
It was a bit confusing working through what my subconscious was trying to tell me, but I eventually opened my status like it wanted.
I was treated to a bunch of sliders by… just about everything with a number.
“Wait, I can adjust my HP, MP, or SP too?” I asked. Just for kicks, I mentally moved the slider down until I was at 10 total SP. I [Flash Stepped], which emptied my whole bar, and then snorted. “Well, not sure when I’d want to do that…”
I moved the dial up again but found a problem. My current SP stayed at 0, even as my maximum went back up.
I frowned. Glad I learned that now rather than later, I guess.
Next up, level… I moved the slider down as far as I could, and it didn’t stop at 1. It went all the way down to 0.
Huh. I guess this lets me pretend I don’t have an advanced class? I asked myself.
I tried to move around but nearly ate dirt. I moved soooo sloooooow.
It turned out that my HP, MP, and SP totals also dropped while my level was down, but there was a bit of shenanigans going on with it. My resource bars all dropped to near empty, but they didn’t show black at the top end, but grey instead.
My status was also not entirely clear.
Status
Name
Titus (Displaying Filarion Silverleaf)
Level
10 (Effective 0)
Class
Demon Lord (Displaying Wanderer)
Race
Demon Lord (Displaying Elf)
HP
91/175 (Effective 91/20)
MP
57/57 (Effective 57/5)
SP
0/225 (Effective 0/40)
Age
24
91 health out of 20, eh? I asked. I wanted to test out what that meant, but I wasn’t about to damage myself when I might only have 20 HP. Fortunately, I had my MP bar at 57/5 to work with.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“[Fire Bolt],” I cast at the ground. To my surprise, the quick cast went through. I checked my status again, and it showed I was at 32/57 with an effective of 32/5.
So, I still keep my current amounts but can’t regen back to full? Weird. I put my levels back to normal and then continued paging through my status to see what I could change.
As expected, skills were on the list.
I suppose that would be helpful if I have to like… feign incompetence at something. I thought. Otherwise, not sure why I’d do that.
However, the next thing I found made the 5 perk points worth it.
“And set to 0,” I said aloud. “I am no longer a [Barber].”
I was half expecting the System to inform me that making that pronouncement removed my [Barber] levels entirely, but no dice.
Oh well. I just won’t turn it back on.
However, it did give me time to review my sub-classes in total.
Sub-class Name
Level
General
3
Miner
5
Dungeon Master
3
Actor
5
Hunter
1
Magical Researcher
4
Priest
1
Barber
2 (effective 0)
Spell Tutor
5
Forger
2
Blacksmith
4
Armorsmith
6
Weaponsmith
3
Carver
3
Staffmaker
4
Enchanter
7
[Weaponsmith] and [Carver] were only up to 3, but that wasn’t surprising. Weapon smithing wasn’t Thorgrala’s thing, and I wasn’t exactly passionate about the “stick-carving” aspect of making staves.
[Blacksmith] and [Staffmaker] were up to 4, but neither was much to write home about. Though, it did mean that I had the ability to make a standard-tier staff all by myself.
The surprising ones were [Armorsmith] and [Enchanter]. I could craft major-tier armor by myself and enchant up to greater-tier.
That was a multiple level leap since I last looked, so I couldn’t help but stare at it in shock.
I guess I did pretty much make this armor all by myself. I thought as I examined my gauntlets.
There was one last thing I wanted to check. I temporarily set my [Priest] level to 0 and then checked my spell list. As expected, [Restore] was gone. And then it was back as soon as I set my level back to 1.
I gave a satisfied nod.
Anything else I need from Jenkins, or should I just get going? I thought. I looked at the zone I was in and frowned. Speaking of Jenkins, one of them claimed this obelisk. That might mean that they know I’m around here.
“Better check on the [Hero],” I muttered as I pulled Singularity and a mirror out. “[Scry] Samson Stonebreaker.”
The spell cut into place, and I saw him deep underground fighting below creatures.
“Looks like he’s still back home,” I said.
While Samson hadn’t exactly given up like Garrik did, he had gone back home instead of continuing the chase after me. It turned out that without the [Son of Dave’s] ability to track me down, it was difficult for them to know where to start looking for me. Combine that with the fact that I was masquerading as an elf, and his chances of finding me were basically zero.
In other words, that made it an easy decision for him to go back and help out with the monster attacks that continued to happen deep in Pumil’s mines.
It’s only a matter of time before he heads this way, though. Whoever claimed the zone will get word to him eventually.
However, he was hundreds of miles away, and my damage experiments had piqued my curiosity.
I wonder if the Jenkins adventurer guild has some information…
------
“I’m sorry, sir,” the [Clerk] told me. “The guild library is only open to members.”
“Come on!” I complained. “I’ll even pay!”
“The rules are clear,” he stated. “And we can’t trust possibly dangerous information to just anyone.”
I scowled, even as I realized that they were technically fulfilling the original purpose of guilds better than most adventurer guilds. Control of information related to a trade.
I sighed. Plan B it is. “Can I join then?” I asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you already have an advanced class?” he asked.
Dang. How could he tell? Aloud, I just said, “Yes. Can I join anyway?”
He shook his head. “All advanced classes require an oath of some kind. There’s no possible-“
“Mine wouldn’t conflict,” I replied. “I swear.”
“That’s not the problem, and you’re holding up the other members in line, so I’m going to have to ask you to-“
I surreptitiously set a 100-gold coin on the counter.
“-ask you to come back later and-“
A 200-gold coin joined its partner.
He coughed. “May I get your name for our records?”
After that, there was a bit of paperwork and a small dose of concern on my end. After all, I had to take an oath to join, and for most people, that meant they would only have access to one subclass. I assumed it wouldn’t work that way for me, since I was positive that it wouldn’t give me the class, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about all the ways that the System had ripped me off in the past.
My worries were unfounded. I swore in as a [Warrior], because that was the closest to the Wanderer class I’d made up, and got a most welcome surprise.
System: Conditions for Warrior class met. Activating perk, Skills - All
System: Warrior skills are now available for purchase
I barely managed to keep my eyes from bugging out during those System messages, and I immediately went to the guild library and grabbed a random book.
Holy fricking sit. I thought. Does that mean I can get skills from any advanced class? I could become a [Sorcerer] and get [Quick Cast]! Or a [Wizard] and get [Overchannel]!
I absentmindedly turned a page of the book I wasn’t reading.
Or I could become a [Knight] and get… [Guard]. Hmm. I frowned as I realized that most of the classes didn’t have that much to offer me. [Warrior’s] good because of [Power Strike], which is a necessity if I want to deal damage with a sword, but [Knight] seems kinda useless. I don’t need skills to protect anyone but myself.
“What else is there?” I muttered.
The fortunate thing about my newfound power was that I had an entire party from my first life to pull information from.
[Berserker’s] even more useless than [Knight]. Last thing I need is to [Rage] until I run out of stamina or something. I’d already covered Jake’s class, Sam’s class, Tim’s class, and Garrett’s, and I have to admit it took me a few seconds to continue.
“[Rogue]… Doesn’t have anything I need,” I muttered. Or at least, that’s what I told myself, but I mostly didn’t want to dwell on Megan. [Ranger] is double useless. I’m garbage with a bow and arrow.
I frowned. Is that all I get? [Warrior], [Sorcerer], and [Wizard]? That hardly seems like it was worth 10 points.
There was one last party member I’d overlooked, though.
Andrew. What did he have again? I furrowed my brow and tried to think. He had [Heal], [Cure], and [Haste], but those were spells. What were his skills? I racked my brain, but it wasn’t coming to me. They were ones for healing… one that made it better? Right! [Overheal]! He could heal people above full.
I went to put the book back and found myself lightly pounding my head on the bookshelf.
Come on, Titus! What was the other one? It was something for sustain so that he could keep healing for longer. Reduced healing costs? Extra mana? No… It was…
“[Cast From SP],” I stated with the same gravitas as if I had just discovered a cure for cancer.
I left the guild in a hurry.
------
If anyone had been watching me up to that point, they would have seen an elf bribe his way into the guild, go to the library, talk to himself while reading a book, and then out of nowhere race out of the guild and manically ask where the nearest church was.
If the enterprising watcher had followed me after that, they would have been in for a treat as I barged into the nearest church and demanded, “Make me a [Cleric]!”
The [Priests]… uhh… tried to [Restore] me first because they assumed I was insane, which was technically correct. I did have a bit of built-up mania because I hadn’t [Restored] myself in a while, but that didn’t change the fact that I wanted to be a [Cleric] desperately. Or at least I really, really, really wanted to take the oath.
To make a long story short, they let me because the main thing they cared about was the desire to be a [Cleric], and since that class locked offensive magic, they didn’t think there was a way to abuse it.
Oh, how wrong they were.
I unlocked the skills for [Cleric] just like I did for [Warrior]. Unfortunately, I’d blundered a bit because I hadn’t changed my disguise or my name, so they now had Filarion Silverleaf on record as a [Cleric] with the church and a [Warrior] with the Jenkins branch of the adventurer’s guild.
Yes, that would come back to bite me, but [Cast From SP] was worth it… Probably.
After that, I thought things out better and hit up the Mage’s Guild under disguise. I enrolled myself as a [Wizard] and as a [Sorcerer] under two different aliases, who were never going to show up again, and got those skills available to me as well.
Then, it was finally time to go back to what I had planned in the first place, learning about the damage system.
The information on that was sparse. So much so that it was kind of depressing. There was conflicting information even on as basic of a skill as [Swordsmanship].
At the very least, I did end up having my question about what the “1 per 5” listing on Insurance meant. It meant that the damage went up by 1 for every 5 class levels I had. In other words, since I was level 10, it was dealing 18 slashing III damage before applying whatever my 2 levels in [Swordsmanship] did.
The good news was that asking about the author of the books pointed me in the direction of an inventor. He had pretty much figured out how to make those training dummies that often showed up in video games in starter areas that let you figure out your attacks. It was a heavily enchanted piece of work that he managed to convince the System was, for lack of a better term, a “unit.” In other words, it had HP, could take damage, and, hilariously, could also be [Healed].
What made it worth its weight in gold was the fact that it would display the number whenever it took damage.
I purchased it from him for just under 10,000 gold. Technically, I could have created my own after I figured out all of the enchantments, but I didn’t want to waste time with that. I decided I would rather waste my time figuring out the numbers.
… It was a long and painful process.
Set level to 0. Set [Martial Arts] to 0. Punch the dummy. Record the damage. Increment a level. Repeat.
Think that I’ve discovered the pattern, get confused as it randomly fails. Throw in [Fire Strike] and [Ice Strike] that each dealt different amounts of damage.
Throw in my 3 daily activations of [Strengthen] at “level 6” and… actually, that one was pretty straightforward. It was pretty clear that it was a case of multiplying my damage by 1.6, rounded down.
And that was the thing that finally tipped me off. Everything rounded down, and aside from the base damage, everything was a multiplier. [Ice Strike]? A 4X damage multiplier at [Elemental Strike] level 7. [Fire Strike]? A 6X multiplier.
[Swordsmanship]? Well… level 1 was 1.1X, and 2 was 1.25X, but given the apparent exponential increase, I could quickly see why Jake was one-shotting everything since he had been up to… 7? Or something around there my first life. Especially once you threw in his [Sunder] skill which was probably its own crazy multiplier.
Meanwhile, it turned out that [Martial Arts] wasn’t a multiplier, but instead was setting the base damage for… well… my fists.
Level 0 [Martial Arts] is 1 damage. Level 1: 2 damage. Level 2: 2 damage with 1 extra damage per 10 class levels. I got numbers up to [Martial Arts] level 8 where I was dealing 8 damage plus one-third of my level… kinda.
My nice, neat numbers broke down as soon as I hit the dummy with [Martial Arts] at 8 and class level at 6. Instead of the 10 damage I expected, I dealt 11.
And that’s because of the factor that left me pulling my hair out.
Damage types versus damage resistances.
I would have been stumped if I hadn’t had a genius idea. Why not equip the dummy with a chest piece and re-run my experiments? In fact, why not run experiments with multiple types of chest plates and then hit the dummy with swords that have different damage types?
The end results of my findings were that my resistances sitting at VI were even crazier than I thought. And that’s because the difference between damage types was also a multiplier… that was in favor of the defender most of the time.
Instead of trying to explain, here’s the table I came up with.
Difference
Multiplier
3 above
1.25
2 above
1.1
1 above
1
No difference
.5
1 below
.25
2 below
.125
3 below
0
That’s right. If I was fully geared and I was hit by anything that was a damage type of III or lower, I was immune.
Meanwhile, damage of type IV would only do an eighth of the normal damage, which would then get reduced even further by my damage reduction.
Perhaps the craziest piece of that graph was smack dab in the middle, where I learned that damage is halved if your armor’s resistance matches the incoming damage. That just didn’t seem fair.
I wanted to see how things went further up the graph too, but I didn’t have enough funds to go out and buy a slashing IV sword just to test out a theory.
However, I increasingly wanted one because of a fatal flaw I noticed with [Martial Arts].
My damage types were all at II. At low level [Martial Arts], I had been dealing Bludgeoning I damage, but somewhere around [Martial Arts] level 5, it jumped up to Bludgeoning II. That somehow transferred over to my [Elemental Strike] to have those become Ice II or Fire II, which was great and all, but also kind of a problem.
Given what I saw with armor, someone with a good [Enchanter] could become functionally immune to my damage by getting high levels of elemental damage resistance.
While I could have tried to counter that by increasing my [Marital Arts] skill even higher, I had no shot of that. Each level was more challenging to get than the last, I had a gut feeling that I’d reached the cap of my “talent,” and Lindsey wasn’t around to learn from anymore.
In other words, my experiments told me I needed to keep working on my [Swordsmanship] as much as possible. Getting a greater or masterwork sword was also on the list.
… And maybe even a piercing-type weapon as a second fallback. With a bludgeoning weapon that dealt more than 11 damage as a third.
That was hard to swallow, but the math didn’t lie.
8 damage from [Martial Arts] + 3 from my level for a total of 11 Bludgeoning II damage.
Multiply by 6 for a [Fire Strike] and convert to fire to get 66 Fire II damage.
Heck, I could even throw in a [Strengthen] to make that 105 Fire II damage which was enough to one-shot an alpha wolf.
As soon as I fought someone with a resistance of Fire V, it didn’t matter. I would deal 0 damage. Even if they only had Fire IV resistance, I would be dealing in the ballpark of 8 damage without [Strengthen].
Meanwhile, if I could get up to slashing IV or V on a weapon, I could at least be guaranteed to deal damage… unless someone managed to make armor that was better than the masterwork set I had.
Or if they were named “Samson Stonebreaker” and had an utterly busted skill they could use on top of a [Hero] skill.
… Yeah, my game plan was still to avoid him at all costs. Even though my experiments took much longer than I expected, I kept an eye on him to know when to leave.
Which is why I got blindsided by a different threat.
-----
It started with a knock at my door late one evening.
“Yes?” I said as I opened it.
Two officially dressed men greeted me. “Mr. Filarion Silverleaf?” one asked.
“That’s what they call me,” I replied.
The two exchanged nods. “May we come in?”
“Uhh, sure.” They followed me inside, but I didn’t have enough seating for all of us so we were left standing awkwardly. “May I ask what this is about?”
“We’re with the Gram department of tax and revenue, and we’ve noticed some discrepancies with your account,” the first one stated, while the second had yet to say a word. “Primarily, you’ve paid no taxes in Gram despite your income-“
“That’s easy enough. I made my earnings in Dryadal,” I lied.
The man didn’t look amused as he continued. “-nor have our counterparts in Dryadal even heard of you. As such, we’re here for a full financial audit.” As I silently cursed myself for getting caught by the fantasy-world IRS, he continued. “I’m sure that won’t be an issue, will it?”
“Of course not,” I lied.
They once again exchanged knowing glances, and I realized my blunder.
Frick. Either a truth stone or a truth-detecting skill.
“The first matter we would like to discuss is a certain purchase that you made recently… worth 1 million gold?” he continued.
I swore internally but managed to keep my face neutral. “Of course, that was a purchase to assist with the goal of the Embers organization, which is why some of the funds came from there.”
The two were taken aback, and I managed to hide my grin.
“Also, I would like to know what my rights are during this process. Am I allowed a [Lawyer], or can I see a copy of the tax code?”
The two discussed something too low for me to hear, but I had managed to regain a bit of the initiative.
You may have caught me, but Filarion Silverleaf isn’t going down without a fight.
--------
Honestly, I managed to drag out the proceedings longer than I thought I would be able to. I had to swear an oath that I wouldn’t skip town until everything was settled, but Gram’s laws were more lenient than I expected. I got a full week to prepare for the audit, and I got a copy of the tax code to leaf through and try to find edge cases I could abuse.
The first one was obvious. My purchase of Singularity was definitely done for “charitable purposes.”
I mean, that wasn’t even that much of a stretch. The Embers were always looking for more ways to store mana to heal people, so wouldn’t it make sense that I had purchased a pure mana capacity staff?
I even had a way to prove it. I just had to go around and [Restore] people in full view of the agents the auditors thought were sneaky enough to tail me without my knowledge (remembering, of course, to include Singularity in my [Disguise Self] so that it looked like its original form).
… I healed a lot of people that week. Still not enough for me to get a level in [Priest], but all that did was make me 100% sure that I was capped out on that one at level 1.
The next part of my attempt to cheese the Gram tax code was to claim a large portion of what I’d earned as “inheritance.” I did technically inherit 2 million gold from myself the last time I died if you squint at the tax code in just the right way.
Unfortunately, a couple of days skimming through the Gram tax code wasn’t enough to let me pull one over on them. It mostly just put me in a position where I had a ton of awkward questions I would have needed to answer.
For example, when they asked who I inherited it from, it made me realize how stupid I was. I couldn’t say “myself,” and the only other truthful option was “the [Demon Lord],” which would have been even more monumentally stupid. So I ended up dodging that question.
Yeah, if they hadn’t been sure I was guilty of something, putting my foot in my mouth had proved it to them.
To make matters worse, most of my money wasn’t inherited anymore, either. Since… You know… The Syndicate. That, in turn, led to even more questions I refused to answer, and the jaws of the fantasy-world IRS closed ever tighter.
There was only one saving grace. They… didn’t think I was the mastermind. They kept hinting at how they would go easier on me if someone else was to blame, and I got to play along with that bit.
At least until I finally came up with my plan B.
I liked it. I would get to use skills that I never thought would see the light of day, the situation with Filarion would be cleared up, and I could even discourage people from making high-end gear (which I had determined to be terrifying stuff).
It was also completely over-the-top, which just made me love it even more.
-------
Franklin Cole was an [Auditor] from Gram. One of the best, if he did say so himself. And that was how he had found himself assigned to the curious case of Filarion Silverleaf up in the neutral territory of Jenkins… Along with [Special Agent] Smith.
He didn’t actually know Mr. Smith’s first name. Based on their interactions, he mostly assumed it was “Agent.” He also suspected that Smith wasn’t his last name, but that wasn’t something he would likely find out from the taciturn man.
That didn’t stop him from trying to make small talk anyway.
“Think today will be the day when he finally gives up the mastermind?” Franklin asked.
Agent Smith shook his head. “Doubtful,” was all he said.
“Well, I, for one, have a good feeling about today. I think Filarion’s just a young man who is in over his head, and once he realizes that we can help him, he’ll come clean.” The two came up to the inn where the elf was staying. “We just have to push a bit more and-”
They were interrupted by the shattering of glass as Filarion was thrown through his second-story window and out onto the street.
At the same time, the words of System appeared, proclaiming the appearance of the Demon Lord of Pride.
“Now, now, young elf,” came a haughty voice from the second story. “If you would just hand over the staff, I’d be more than willing to let you go.”
Franklin could only watch in terror as the [Demon Lord] of Pride, the very same one who was on display in the Hall of [Heroes] and [Demon Lords], hopped down from the remains of the window and onto the street.
Meanwhile, Filarion had struggled back to his feet and pulled out his 1 million gold “charity purchase.”
“This staff’s not meant for you! It’s meant to help people!” he shouted at the [Demon Lord].
The [Demon Lord] laughed. “A staff like that in your hands? Please. What can you even cast with that?” His gaze turned dark. “No, seriously. Take your best shot.”
“Air, blast my foes! [Air Bolt]!” Filarion called out.
The [Demon Lord] yawned as the bolt of air hit him harmlessly. “Now, let me show you a real spell. [Hell Blaze]!”
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before Filarion began his counter. “Ice, freeze my foes! [Ice Bolt]!”
His words were rushed, but his aim was true. The two spells collided in the middle of the young elf and the [Demon Lord], and the black flames exploded… hitting no one.
“Better than I thought, boy, but can you keep it up?”
Franklin could only watch in stunned amazement as the [Demon Lord] cast spell after spell, and the young Filarion barely managed to keep up with bolt spells of his own.
“Something’s wrong,” Agent Smith finally said. “Wait here.”
He pulled out a knife, crouched down, and crept up behind the [Demon Lord].
He thrust the knife forward… and was mercilessly tossed a dozen paces by the [Demon Lord’s] backhand.
“Stand aside, second-string,” he taunted. “Can’t you see this would be [Hero] and I are busy?”
Franklin realized that the agent was thoroughly outclassed… but he had at least been moving. And slowly, two puzzle pieces started to click into place.
Why am I not running? Or going to get help? He glanced around him at the other onlookers, who also seemed spellbound. What’s going on?
Unfortunately, he must have caught the [Demon Lord’s] attention.
“I must admit your spellcasting is impressive,” the [Demon Lord] said to Filarion. “But can you protect everyone?” He pointed in Franklin’s direction. “[Hell Blaze]!”
“Ice, freeze my foes! [Ice Bolt]!” Filarion cast. And then immediately after, he screamed. “No!”
His aim was off. The bolt of ice crashed against the ground instead of hitting the black ball of flame that was headed in Franklin’s direction.
He cowered and closed his eyes as he waited for the end… that never came.
He was instead jolted back to watching the scene by the screams of a young elf.
Filarion had somehow intercepted the projectile with his own body. He had saved Franklin’s life and the lives of every onlooker around him.
However, it had come at a great cost.
The [Demon Lord] appeared in front of Filarion, sucker-punched him with a flaming fist, and then bashed the young elf downward into the ground.
The staff rolled away on the ground, and the [Demon Lord] scooped it up.
“The world’s first masterwork staff. Finally, a weapon worthy of me,” he stated. Then he frowned. “White and blue, though. Not my color. Not at all.”
He tapped it twice on the ground, and Franklin watched in horror as the staff turned to a sinister-looking black and red.
“Now, what should I do with you all?” the [Demon Lord] asked. “You don’t happen to know of any other masterwork items that have been made? Anything else that is worthy of being owned by me?”
No one in the crowd replied.
“Pity. [Hell-“
On the ground, Filarion coughed and reached out a hand. He barely managed to grab onto the [Demon Lord’s] ankle.
“Let them go,” he said through coughing fits. “You got what you came for.”
The [Demon Lord] thought it over.
“Very well,” he replied. “In honor of my new staff, I’ll humor the last wish of the would-be [Hero].” He cleared his throat and then addressed everyone gathered. “I shall magnanimously give you until the count of 10 to get out of my sight. 1, 2-”
The crowd froze in dread.
A ball of black flame appeared in the [Demon Lord’s] hand. “-10.”
Franklin turned and ran in a blind panic. The [Demon Lord’s] maniacal laughter echoed in his head long after he had gotten out of range.
-------
Meanwhile, I was trying terribly hard not to burst out into actual laughter. Which was a terrible, horrible reaction to the pandemonium I had just caused, but that didn’t change what I’d seen during it.
Which was nothing.
The entire “play” had been an illusion.
I had puppeted a fake version of Filarion, and the illusion granted to me when I’d forced myself into my Demon Lord form. So, from my point of view, an entire crowd of people had run screaming from nothing at the very end.
Eventually, I settled down.
“[Captive Audience] worked as advertised,” I said. “They all just… stood there. I wasn’t sure if that would count as a performance, but it looks like it did.” I was quickly growing into the opinion that it was rather strong for a level 5 basic class skill, but I also had deception aura going alongside it. I would have to test it without the aura sometime to see how much of their stupefaction was from the skill alone.
I snorted as I played back the performance in my head. “I even got some usage out of [Improvise Line]. Though, I have to wonder if they even have the phrase second-string here.” I shrugged. I figured I’d have to keep that in mind as I was going forward in case I was impersonating someone. Wouldn’t want an Earth phrase to accidentally leak out.
With that taken care of, it was officially time to skip town. The [Hero] would be on his way, my oath had been cleared because Filarion was “dead,” and it was high time I stopped putting off leveling back up to 20.
It’s just so far away! I complained. Can’t I go somewhere else to level? Or just have one of my underlings do it for me?
I paused. “Wait…Underlings.”
There was no chance that anyone in either organization could take on an infernal dire snail, but that wasn’t what captured my attention. No, my thoughts went in reverse for once.
Looks like a quick trip through Gram is in order… I grinned. It’s time to level my speakers to the max.
---------
Operation “get all of my [Speakers of Flame] into my party, leave them in Gram, and then go kill giant snails” was a lot more boring than anticipated.
Though, I did make it a point to meet up with them under heavy illusory disguise just to see how they responded to being “found out.”
3 of them tried to murder me so that I wouldn’t leak that information, 2 of them tried to commit suicide so that they couldn’t leak any more information, and the remaining 4 all knew I was coming and just greeted me by name when I pulled the same stunt.
Yeah, they were in communication more than I expected.
They also continued practically tripping over themselves to sing my praises. Which was par for the course, but continued to sour me on the whole cult idea. Don’t get me wrong. The absolute devotion to the cause was fantastic and useful. It was just also annoying because my ego wasn’t the size of the sun.
Anyway, 3 out of 5 stars. Wouldn’t cult again.
Where was I? Right. Killing snails.
Unfortunately for me, in my impatience to kill the first snail, I forgot to use Insurance to land the last blow. It came back as a zombie infernal dire snail… which is a mouthful if I ever heard one.
Unfortunately for the snail, that somehow didn’t stop it from exploding into a ball of fire on death just like it was supposed to.
Victory?
Anyway, that jumped me up to level 15 just like it did last time, and it instantly jumped all my party members up to level 10.
Why only level 10? Because unlike me, everyone else had to tier up their class to continue earning levels, and they would receive any pending levels after they did so. I managed to stop everyone in the party from excitedly rushing to the nearest obelisk, and that paved the way for one of the biggest cheeses that I had ever discovered in Placeholder.
Easy max leveling.
Since level gain is primarily determined by the difference in level between an adventurer and the monster they’re facing, they got a ton of pending experience since they were level 10’s “killing” level 25s.
They all hit their tier 3 class (still [Speaker of Flame], oddly), and I was sure that if there was a way to increase the cap, I could have pushed them even further.
Instead, I had to make do with only being level 20 while all my most powerful underlings were maxed out at 25.
Oh, the tragedy.
Fortunately, I had 14 skill points to console myself with.
I had a lot of choices thanks to [Skills – All].
[Power Strike] and [Stance Change] from [Warrior]. [Quick Cast] and [Dual Cast] from [Sorcerer]. [Overchannel] and [Spell Scholar] from [Wizard]… I had never even heard of the latter since Tim didn’t pick it up while I was alive. And finally, [Overheal] and [Cast From SP].
My goal was [Cast From SP], so I had to take it for the 5 skill points it cost… even though [Spell Scholar] sounded very interesting but was then unavailable because it cost 10.
As for [Cast From SP], I’d forgotten how intense the markup was. Any spell I cast was 3 times the cost when I decided to use my SP instead… but that was at level 1. I was excited to see how that would progress as I practiced.
That left me with 9 skill points, and I decided to fork over 5 of them to get [Electricus]. My reasoning was that electric magic would make for a fantastic trump card since no one had even heard of it, much less built armor that resisted it.
It did have the minor drawback that I hadn’t figured out how to stop it from also hurting me, but I figured I could work that out eventually.
And then there were 4. My choices were narrowed to [Overchannel] and [Quick Cast] since they were only 3 points each.
I decided to go with [Overchannel], just because I could already kinda [Quick Cast] even if it was way more expensive.
And with that, my upgrades were complete. I had armor. I had skills. I had powerful underlings.
All that was left was to evade the [Hero], continue growing my organizations, and make preparations to go into the time wastes once the timer was finally up and my respawns were back on.
I did that for several years. I also practiced magic whenever I could, making use of Singularity and [Cast From SP] to spam [Foresight].
Things were going smoothly… And that’s why I wasn’t overly shocked by the System message that threw a monkey wrench into my plans.
System: The Hero has died of old age! As the Hero has named no successor, a new Hero will be chosen
It pretty much had to be age. I doubted there was anything else that could kill that short block of adamantium. However, the follow-up message was what had me concerned.
System: No suitable Hero has been found. No Hero has been chosen
Exactly the same message that had come across years before old man Jenkins killed me… But the worse news was that it wasn’t years before it came up with the replacement. The next message came across in just a few days.
System: A new Hero has been summoned
To sum it up, I think I have to simply use the one-word reply I gave when I received that message.
“Frick.”