Congratulations! You have slain 4 Level 0 Rabid Homunculus Abominations!
Experience Reward Decreased for Fighting an Enemy Below Your Tier!
Reward: 6% Class XP
I wiped some sweat from my forehead. Not having easy access to a shower, or water at all for that matter, mixed with being in a nearly constant state of fight-or-flight, meant that I was utterly disgusting at this point. It didn't bother me too much, as long as I avoided breathing through my nose. At least the bodies didn't smell bad. I was guessing that it was because they were summons, and mainly composed of mana, or something?
My progress in deciphering the ritual had been interrupted multiple times, and the first few times I'd ended up losing my place, and having to start from the beginning. After that, though, I had learned to anticipate the flashing of runes associated, and made sure to remember my place.
Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the chalk that the rituals had been made with couldn't be smudged, at least not that I'd found. I was hesitant to use Arcane Bolt on it, as I was still using it to advance my profession. Speaking of...
Name: Abel Halloran Class: Arcane Mage Level: 3 Class Xp: 89% Profession: Autodidact Level: 5 Profession Xp: 23% Health Total: 117/120 Health Regen: 6 /minute Mana Total: 132 Mana Regen: 14 /minute Physical: 11 Constitution: 10 Vitality: 12 Fitness: 12 Mental: 14 Willpower: 12 Nerves: 14 Intellect: 16 Astral: 13 Balance: 14 Channeling: 14 Harmony: 10 Free Points: 2
I still hadn't quite figured out the calculations for mana or health, but leveling my profession had certainly proven worthwhile. I even had 2 free points to spend, though if I was being honest, I was still hesitant to place them. They'd probably end up in Intellect though, just because that was my most useful stat for combat, at least so far.
Just from the little bit I'd received, my Arcane Bolt had seen a massive spike in damage, with its explosions almost double the size they'd been when I'd initially received the Skill. I'd tested out the range as well, and found that it had gone up a bit, though without anything to measure it, I couldn't precisely confirm it.
Glancing once more at my status sheet, I decided that I'd wait to destroy the ritual until I either went up a class level, or figured out how to read it. I was hoping that I'd get some kind of bonus for doing it, but I couldn't really say for certain that I would. The system was hard to gauge, at times.
I went back to trying to comprehend the ritual circle. While my Arcaniac Skill- no, Feature, was helping with the translation, I had no knowledge to base any of it on. Sure, this rune meant Create, and this one might mean Life, but the positioning was off. It was like reading a bunch of words thrown on a page in a seemingly random fashion, except I knew it wasn't random. I just had to teach my brain the pattern.
Easy to say, but much harder to do.
I returned to my studying, knowing that there were more important things to do than monologue in my head.
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I lost track of time, the ritual quickly absorbing all my attention. All I can tell you is that by the time it happened, I was utterly exhausted.
I was lost in my study, and I could feel something itching in the back of my brain. Well, no. Itching isn't the right word. It was more like there was an empty spot in my skull, and the flesh there was growing to fill the gap. The notification that came with it was all I needed to be convinced that I didn't have a tumor.
Congratulations! You have upgraded a Class Feature into a Trait! Reward: 50% Class XP
You have taken an action in line with your Profession! Reward: 25% Profession XP
I checked my Status and Class Screens out of confusion.
Class: Arcane Mage The Arcane Mage gains 1 Constitution, 1 Vitality, 2 Willpower, 2 Nerves, 2 Intellect, 2 Balance, and 2 Channeling per level. Major Skills: Arcane Affinity Lvl. 1: Arcane spells you cast are slightly more effective, and require slightly less from you. Effect amplified by Intellect and Channeling. Minor Skills: Arcane Bolt Lvl. 2: Fire a bolt constructed of Arcana Mana. Costs Mana. Damage based on Intellect.
Name: Abel Halloran Class: Arcane Mage Level: 4 Class Xp: 57% Profession: Autodidact Level: 5 Profession Xp: 48% Health Total: 133 Health Regen: 7 /minute Mana Total: 150 Mana Regen: 16 /minute Physical: 12 Constitution: 11 Vitality: 13 Fitness: 12 Mental: 16 Willpower: 14 Nerves: 16 Intellect: 18 Astral: 14 Balance: 16 Channeling: 16 Harmony: 10 Free Points: 3 Traits: Arcaniac
So, it had moved from my Class Screen to my Status Screen. I didn't know exactly why that was different, but looking at the runes, they did seem much easier to understand. Whether that was because of the upgrade or because I'd spent so much time sitting in front of it, I didn't know. Either way, I could semi-fluently read the script now, and even now knew why it was considered broken.
That was the part that scared me.
This ritual in particular was broken because the 'filter' and the type of life it produced, crabs, in this case, were placed too close together. The mana flowing through the 'filter' rune had damaged the 'crab' rune, and the 'crab' rune had tainted the 'filter' rune. I could tell you that this would normally be associated with typical wear and tear, but not how I knew that. Probably just system bullshit. The 'filter' rune would normally take mana from the environment, purify it until all that remained was a base Arcane attunement, and then it would flow through the diagram to the 'create' rune, then the 'life' rune, and then the 'crab' rune, before entering a final 'summon' rune. Normally, this would form a pentagon, which would be placed inside a circle to prevent any leakage. Again, I didn't know how I knew that, so take it with a grain of salt. The issue with that was the creator had instead made some kind of ovaloid shape, and rather than a regular pentagon, they had instead placed a shape that looked like a kid's drawing of a house, except much thinner.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
A regular pentagon shape would prevent differently aspected mana that wasn't supposed to affect other parts from doing so. This house shape did not.
In the end, the 'filter' rune had ended up filtering out mana that was crab aspected, which I still didn't fully understand but whatever. The 'crab' rune, on the other hand, had ended up under extreme stress due to the lack of crab mana, but large amount of other random types. Arcane mana was easy to transform and flowed more easily than other types, but as for other types? Not so much. In the end, the ritual would end up just tossing together something that had at least a couple crab features. I theorized that the lack of a definite form partially contributed to their insanity, but didn't know for certain. That was summoning, after all, not ritual work. But I digress.
Part of the crab mana would end up not being used by the ritual, and would leak into the environment. Some of this would be siphoned back into the ritual, but if all of it were going back in, then the creatures would look more like crabs. No, I suspected that there were other rituals laying around, broken just like this one. That would also explain the fact that the creatures that came out of the rituals were mostly bestial. There were other rituals, hidden just like this one, all feeding into one another, utterly cannibalizing each individual ritual's integrity.
You have taken an action in line with your Profession! Reward: 25% Profession XP
Oh, that was a nice way to confirm all that. Unless... No, that just meant that I'd taught myself about this ritual, didn't it? So, it didn't actually mean that I was correct.
Someone had made this place on purpose. Either they were a novice, who had done it to train their ritual making skills, or they knew exactly what they were doing. The first was rather easy to explain, someone with way too many resources had splurged and gotten their hands on the materials to craft these rituals, gone off to a cave, and hidden away their mistakes, but the carefully crafted and well-placed illusions led me to believe that the real answer was the second option. The question was, why would someone make so many of these Abominations on purpose? My lack of knowledge once more frustrated me. When I found out who had done this, I swear I'd strangle the answers out of them.
Now that I'd gotten everything I could out of this specific ritual, I tried to memorize it as best I could, my high mental stats aiding me just a bit. Once I was confident in my ability to recreate the runes, I backed way the hell up, knowing that what came next would be explosive as hell. Once I was standing just inside the small branch, I began casting an Arcane Bolt. Once it was finished casting, I stepped out, and started sprinting back down the cave. I did not want to be there when that thing went off.
From what little I knew about this ritual, which was clearly made with materials that would be extremely sensitive and absorb mana like a sponge, overloading it with mana could only go poorly. The side effects could range from flooding the room with crab Abominations, to making a single, massive eldritch horror in the room, complete with crab legs. No matter what, as the mana from the Arcane Bolt was rapidly sucked into the ritual form, the ritual would break, which would probably cause an explosion. Rituals were scary, man.
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A few minutes later, kill notifications began flooding in.
Congratulations! You have slain 1 Level 0 Rabid Homunculus Abomination!
Experience Reward Decreased for Fighting an Enemy Below Your Tier!
Reward: 1% Class XP
Congratulations! You have slain 1 Level 0 Rabid Homunculus Abomination!
Experience Reward Decreased for Fighting an Enemy Below Your Tier!
Reward: 1% Class XP
Congratulations! You have slain 1 Level 0 Rabid Homunculus Abomination!
Experience Reward Decreased for Fighting an Enemy Below Your Tier!
Reward: 1% Class XP
Aggregating Messages...
Congratulations! You have slain 37 Level 1 Rabid Homunculus Abomination!
Experience Reward Decreased for Fighting an Enemy Below Your Tier!
Reward: 37% Class XP
You have taken an action in line with your Class! Reward: 25% Class XP
Generating Quest...
Tier 2 Quest: Clear the Jehkall Ritual-Cursed Halls Long have the Ritual-Cursed Halls wrought shame to the Jehkall House, a noble house once renown for their talented illusionists and powerful summoners. You have stumbled onto the Jehkall's dark secret, and have been tasked with freeing them from this generations-old regret. Objective 1: Exterminate all Homunculus Abominations within the Ritual-Cursed Halls.
Rewards: 100% Class XP
Objective 2: Destroy all 'Ritual Form of Homunculus Summoning (Damaged)' within the Ritual-Cursed Halls.
Rewards: 50% Profession XP
Optional Objective 1 (Tier 3): Slay the beast guarding the entry to the old Jehkall House within the Ritual-Cursed Halls.
Rewards: Any 3 Items from the Jehkall Treasury
Accept Quest?
Oh? A quest? Those existed? I glanced over it momentarily.
After reading for a moment, I accepted the quest. Extra rewards for something I was probably going to do anyways? Hell yeah. I didn't know about the optional objective, but I'd make a decision about that when I got there.
Referring to this cave as "Halls" was weird, but hopefully these Jehkall people were alright.
Knowing that this stupid cave actually belonged to someone was both somewhat worrying, and relieving. When I got out, there would be people out there, who might help me. At the same time, what would they think about me? Would they think I had trespassed? And now I knew their secret...
Looking over the quest again, I realized that it didn't actually say how many rituals there were, which sucked. Hopefully, I'd get a notification when I completed the objective.
For now, I think I'd take a nap. After that, I'd try to hunt down more rituals to break.
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I was creeping along the cave wall again. I'd found a few ritual forms already, but I had just marked them down with a few stones. I planned to use them in the same way that I had used the first, if for a shorter period of time. Worryingly, all the rituals seemed to have the same mistake as the first. That meant that I knew what was wrong, but it also meant that the summoner had been making them this way on purpose. Whether that meant that there was malicious intent behind it, or they'd just been misled, I didn't know.
I wondered if anyone else had gotten stuck down here. If this place had killed anyone. My resolve firmed in that moment. I would find all these rituals, kill all the monsters that roamed, and make sure that they never tasted blood again.
I approached another ritual, passing through the illusory stone. I was getting good at this, at least, I thought I was. The system seemed to agree.
Congratulations! Your Autodidact's Sense has increased to Level 3!
Reward: 10% Profession XP
You have taken an action in line with your Profession!
Reward: 25% Profession XP
Thank goodness these rituals were so lucrative, else I would've probably had to spend more time killing things. While I wasn't against killing the Homunculus Abominations, and would eventually do it anyways, I would prefer to be stronger before I did so. If I could kill the Tier 1's without much problem, my job would be soooo much easier. If my math was correct on the Arcane Bolts, then I'd be dealing 26 or 27 damage with a normal shot.
I stepped further into the... room? The place where the ritual was stored. I had to be quiet, as I was starting to get far enough in the cave where the Tier 1 Homunculus Abominations were being replaced with creatures I couldn't identify. The result I got from these ones was all the same, so I assumed that they were all Tier 2.
Level XX Homunculus ?
A relatively simple form of summon, a Homunculus is a doll-like caricature of another creature. While relatively weak, these summons are quite varied, and come in many shapes and sizes. As such, they have become a common staple for summoners everywhere.
This one has evolved beyond you. Increase your Tier to Inspect this creature.
Be wary. While these summons are rather weak for their Tier, their potential is endless.
It was the same as the Tier 1's had appeared when I was Tierless, except with another X that probably just represented Tier.
I decided that I'd start with this ritual, and move my way back down along the cave's side when I finished with it. It was doubtful that reading and memorizing it would take all that long, considering I knew the translations on this one.
Except... as I stared at this rune, it was made differently, in a diamond pattern, with one end wider than the other. After a moment of staring, my Arcaniac Trait translating the odd new rune for me, an expression of horror crossed my face.
Then, the ritual lit up, and three Tier 1 Homunculus were summoned into the room with me.
I threw out an Arcane Bolt at the Abomination closest to me, taking advantage of their brief confusion. The Bolt... just plinked off?
The monstrosity's insectoid head snapped to face me, and long feelers reached out for me.
I cast another Arcane Bolt, backing up, trying to get further away from the ritual and its monsters.
The claw of a mantis snapped towards me.
Current Health: 99/152
Two more of those strikes would kill me. It honestly shocked me how powerful this thing was. I didn't know if the 'Mana-Infused' tag was what made it so strong, or if it was that attack skill, but its damage had been higher than the Level 6 Hungering Homunculus Abomination's.
I was backed into a corner, and in a fight I knew I couldn't win.
Just as mana began to coat the arm of the creature once more, and it brought it back into the praying position that it would be named for, had it not had the legs of a tiger, I decided to take a risk.
I might not be able to kill these things, but I sure as hell knew what could. I just had to hope that I'd survive it.
I threw an Arcane Bolt at the ritual form.