18.

Santiago V. Silva

Air Mage lvl. 45

Strength: 37 (72)

Durability: 40 (75)

Stamina: 40 (75)

Dexterity: 37 (72)

Vitality: 40 (75)

Perception: 35 (70)

Intelligence: 105 (140)

Mana: 140 (175)

Willpower: 108 (143)

Potential: 99%

Santi looked at the big block of text that composed his stats and had to fight back a smile. They were growing at a quick rate, especially his primary stats. He had only leveled twice in the last six weeks and had used the free points on boosting his physical stats. With the newest level he had put the points toward willpower, the curse was getting the best of him and he needed every spare iota of power he could to battle it.

From a pure stats point he didn’t think there was anyone who could match him. With the extra thirty-five points over the nine attributes he had three hundred and fifteen extra points. His class was strong, but close enough to average that fourteen stat points per level weren’t an outlier. From pure numbers he had an extra twenty-two levels on anyone who faced him.

Which led him to his biggest problem as he stared at the list of spells in front of him. The majority of his stats were locked into his mental and mana stats. Stats that were directly tied toward his spellcasting. His spells which weren’t currently directly lethal. He could twist them, overcharge them, or use them to help control the battlefield. His most powerful directly combat oriented spell, [Crosscurrent-Orb] wasn’t a heavy hitter though. It was good in crowds of weaker monsters, but anything durable and it was useless.

He had his future plans, tempting spell forms that he could use to create powerful spells when combined. Right now though, he was squandering a huge amount of his battle potential by waiting. The enemies coming from them were stronger and stronger, the bear they had fought and killed would have been a brutal fight by himself. He needed something that could punch and put what he punched down right then and there.

So he browsed the list of spells available to him. Even as an [Air Mage] he had access to spells outside of his affinity. The penalty for using them would be a huge mana sink in comparison to his current spell forms. [Fireball] was classic and could be combined with [Gust] to make raging conflagrations. How many [Fireballs] could he cast before he burned through even his own deep mana pools?

So he kept looking. If he focused only on basic spells he could get three. Or if he really wanted to spend he could get one common spell. Santi had needs though. His speed was good for a mage, but fighting against Duncan had been frustrating as he couldn’t reposition fast enough. If not for his boosted stats Duncan would have ran circles around him and left him a bleeding mess.

[Wind Step] cured that.

Wind Step: An explosive burst of air to propel yourself

It was a good way to counter the quicker moving scouts and assassins that would be coming. He needed firepower now and only had two slots free leaving him fairly limited of choices.

Wind Blade: A concentrated narrow band of air, it slices like steel

He’s had something similar though more powerful in the last timeline. [Razor Wind] had cut through monsters and men alike with ease. It’s weaker, younger sibling was going to be his bread and butter for now. The final spell slot he left open, he would soon have the Pillar of Civilization and with that would be the ability to upgrade spells. He would need the open space for when he boosted up one of his base spells.

Achievement: Spell Manipulator

Reward: Loot Box (Lesser)

Achievement: Peacemaker

Reward: Loot Box (Lesser)

Achievement: First to Claim

Reward: Loot Box (Common)

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Spell manipulator was for his work with [Air Current] and now [Gust]. The wooden box was quickly ripped open and the rack of mana potions set off to the side as the box disappeared. Santi kept his eyes locked on the silver box, afraid as if it would disappear. Common grade loot boxes had been good to him and he wanted to see what it was, but the anxiety of waiting as he ripped open the peacemaker box was pleasant.

Peacemaker was probably for getting the two factions in the town to stop killing each other. In addition to his own work at home, it was just like spell manipulator in that it had been a cumulative reward. The wooden coins he dumped on the ground were nice, especially with the pillar soon to be open for business, but then he was grabbing the heavy silver lid and sliding it free.

A blood red circlet sat in the silver chest. Thin with a trio of spikes rising up from it, capped in glittering obsidian. Santi reached down with trembling hands as he pulled the circlet free and ran [Identify] on it.

Circlet of Lords

(Upgradeable)

5% Increase to all stats.

Another upgradeable item. That by itself made it nearly priceless. If it’s base mode as a five percent increase to his stats then he could only imagine what would happen when he managed to upgrade it. How to upgrade it was a good question, but Santi had a suspicion that he had to acquire more Pillars of Civilization and extend his territory.

Donning it, he felt it stretch out wide as it settled on his head. For a moment there was peace as he turned his head this way and that to feel how the circlet moved. Then it burned and pain wracked through his head, he could feel blood rolling down his skull as he reached to grab and tear the circlet free. Then it was over, fast as it had begun, the thin trickles of blood leaving stains down his cheeks the only sign that violence had occurred.

“What the fuck?” Santi muttered as he ran his hand over the cool metal that was now welded into his head. He tugged at it and felt skin starting to pull and decided to leave the circlet where it was for now. The silver loot box had disappeared while he had been occupied and now he was standing by himself, and the pile of wooden coins and mana potions, waiting for Chloe to come back.

Santi grabbed a single mana potion and pulled the stopper out of it. That empty feeling inside of him had slackened somewhat, but he wasn’t there yet. He drank the potion in two quick chugs and started to shiver as the icy potion ran down his throat. The taste of mint exploded on his tongue and he felt the sudden surge of mana racing through his body. He still wasn’t fully recovered, but he was closer to full than he was half full.

He’d leave the rest of the potions up here for now. He cursed not having a better way of moving the fragile bottles around. Once the pillar was up and he could buy directly from the marketplace, but the cost of the potions had been high in his last life. He didn’t want to be wasting money on having broken bottles in his pockets as he ran around fighting.

“Hey, you ready?” Chloe shouted up at him, not bothering to scale the side of the building. Santi left the pile of money and potions and hopped over the side to land next to her lightly. He kept his newfound spells to himself, he trusted her, but he didn’t know who was around. Duncan had managed to sneak up on him and he didn’t want the sneaky bastard to know he had chosen more spells. The element of surprise was what was going to allow him to kill the Apostate.

After they dealt with Mercy.

“Didn’t know you were into headwear. Not exactly your color though.” Chloe was looking at the circlet, her eyes a mix of curious and greedy.

“You take what you can get. Plus side to taking over the pillar, gives me a nice boost. Need the help with this damn curse, it’s more insidious than I had thought.”

“You underestimated something? No, that can’t be right,” Chloe said sarcastically.

“What? I appropriately guess how dangerous things are.”

“No you don’t.”

“Am I alive?”

“Somehow,” Chloe said, her smile was still there as they walked away from Frank, Maya, and Zeke. Santi hoped they wouldn’t revert back to their natural state of murderous rage with each other. He had just earned a nice achievement for keeping them from killing each other.

“See, if I’m alive and almost everything else is dead, then I’m a good guestimater in danger levels.”

“That’s not a real word.”

“Don’t flee to technicalities because I’ve disproved your point.”

“You like this, don’t you? The verbal sparring?”

“Normally it’s fun. With this curse, it’s pushing me to all sorts of confrontations. It’s good practice for me to keep it nice and playful with you.”

“So, I’m just practice?”

“I think this is where I wave the white flag.” Santi shot her a quick grin as she led them further away from the ravaged downtown and toward the housing areas that Santi had gone through to find Zeke.

“Where are we going anyway?” Santi asked.

“Frank said there’s only one park worth noting that has any type of trees. The rest are all small and are full of kid toys, not a lot of vegetation. This park was apparently built around a tree. An old, big ass tree.”

“If there’s satyrs still alive and running around, I can bet they’re going there then.”

“They wouldn’t attack us straight up? Or go in with the dryads?”

“If we killed the strongest of them in that first skirmish, no. They’ll try to even the playing field. They’re smarter than the monsters we fought back at home. Likely has to do with them being higher level.”

“Are we going to have to worry about that more often you think? Smarter monsters? Have them planning ambushes and making alliances like the goblins and hags?”

“Yeah. Which is why we’re making alliances and training and planning. At the end of the day we are, or will be, stronger than them. As long as we can keep from fighting with each other, then we have a chance of reclaiming our world for ourselves.”

“I can’t imagine our world anymore. It’s a dream and every day I wake up in this nightmare. But…I like parts of it. I’m strong now, stronger than anything I could have dreamed of before. When we’re all together, I like that. The feeling of togetherness, we’ve all been through it and we can just understand each other. Before this, I don’t know, I just felt like I couldn’t connect easily. Now all of us have something in common at least.” Chloe fell silent afterward, a tinge of red on her cheeks.

“Brotherhood. Siblinghood. It’s what you read about from soldiers. The camaraderie. We’re going through the absolute worst thing ever, but we’re all standing together. I would never wish for this to happen again, but we’re all together now and I wouldn’t want that to go away.”

“Shit, we’re right next to the park. We can pick this up when we’re on our date.”

“Little heavy for a first date. Figured I’d ask what your favorite color was or movie.”

“You don’t know my favorite color?”

“Oh hey, look, it’s a giant tree monster.”