----------------------------------------
Sybil Jehkall
Sybil grumbled to herself as she carefully made her way down into the Old Halls. She hadn't been in the family yet when 'the incident' had occurred, but her father had been certain to warn her frequently of the dangers they posed. The Halls stood as a testament to what their family had once had, and a warning to future prodigies of the dangers that lay within the path of ritualmancy.
Personally, Sybil just thought that the family was just being cowardly, but she'd never say that to her father. Not after all he'd done for her.
There was some merit to the warnings, though. Ever since that day, her family had never been able to restore their former power. Never again had they raised a true Patriarch. While the Count was powerful in his own right, they all knew that they had lost a significant amount of power and influence, and held no apparent means of regaining it. That was, other than fighting the beast within that old cave. The Count was strong, yes, but even he feared the beasts within them. If the one guarding the old House was middling Tier 3, then how powerful were the others? Peak? Higher? She shuddered at the thought.
They'd been rather surprised at the quest coming out as Tier 2, and even more surprised when, just recently, they'd found that an objective of the quest had been fulfilled. They'd begun to arrange for a scout to be sent out, but, upon seeing that yet another objective had been cleared, they decided against waiting for the request to travel through the chain of Clerks and other classes based on making and storing records, sending her out immediately. It would seem rather inhospitable of them to not welcome and aid the powerful questers, would it not?
Sybil had been told to expect adventurers, or perhaps Holy Warriors from the Order of Purity. Honestly, that was what made the most sense. The Arcane affinity she could sense in the air supported this idea. Yet... what was the Blood affinity? The Order of Purity had placed a high bounty on any who 'tainted' their Arcane mana with Blood, and yet here was one who had done so and lived to see it through. Excitement bubbled within her, and she rushed through the entrance to the cave- er, Halls. Sybil quickly found her way to the old Jehkall House, and began to investigate. Signs of a fight? Check. Corpse of a powerful monster? Check. Tier 3 adventuring party?
...who was this weird hobo passed out on the floor?
----------------------------------------
Abel Halloran
I blinked once, then a second time. For some reason, my brain was all foggy, despite the clarity my soul space granted me. I pulled up my Status Screen to check over my new information.
Name: Abel Halloran Class: Arcanoccultist Level: 20 Class Xp: 0% Profession: Bishop of Blood Level: 20 Profession Xp: 0% Health Total: 650/650 Health Regen: 53 /minute Mana Total: 798/798 Mana Regen: 93 /minute Physical: 84 Constitution: 67 Vitality: 147 Fitness: 37 Mental: 105 Willpower: 101 Nerves: 98 Intellect: 115 Astral: 56 Balance: 58 Channeling: 101 Harmony: 10 Free Points: 32 Traits: Prodigy
Inspiration in Suffering
Wait, where did my Traits go?
Class: Arcanoccultist (Arcane Mage -> Arcane-Blood Mage -> Arcanoccultist) The Arcanoccultist gains 1 Constitution, 6 Vitality, 1 Fitness, 2 Willpower, 6 Nerves, 8 Intellect, 27 Channeling, but loses 2 Balance and 1 Harmony, per level.
Features:
Mageblood Drinker: Damaging spells using Health as a resource gain lifesteal based on the amount of Health lost. Damaging spells using Mana as a resource gain manadrain based on the amount of Mana lost. (1% of max Mana/Health = 1% Manadrain/Lifesteal)
Ritualistic Recovery: Rituals replenish doubled Health and Mana.
Occultist's Charm: Reputation gain increased with certain factions. Reputation gain decreased with certain factions.
Major Skills:
Soul Mark Lvl. 1: Cast a curse upon a creature's soul, linking them to you. Ritual, Lifesteal, and Manadrain effects created by you that target it are increased by Channeling.
Arcanoccultist's Grimoire Lvl. 1: Summon a magical grimoire, containing knowledge important to the Arcanoccultist.
Blooded Ritual Lvl. 1: Rituals which use your blood as a component are empowered based on your Vitality.
Minor Skills:
Arcanoccultist's Bolt Lvl. 10: Fire a bolt of mana at your foes, aspected equally to Arcane and Blood, and dealing a small amount of damage directly to the target's soul. Deals damage based on Vitality and Intellect. A small part of the damage dealt passes through all shielding and resistance. This effect is slightly reduced by Balance.
Malefic Bond Lvl. 1: Reduce a creature's Health and Mana, at the cost of an equal amount of resources from yourself. Requires your mana to be in contact with the target. Effects increased by Intellect and Channeling.
Combat Ritual Lvl. 1: Perform a combat ritual with significantly reduced preparations and components. Effects are improved by Intellect and Channeling.
Profession: Bishop of Blood (Autodidact -> Tormented Autodidact -> Bishop of Blood) The Bishop of Blood gains 4 Constitution, 10 Vitality, 2 Fitness, 4 Wisdom, 1 Nerves, 3 Intellect, 27 Channeling, but loses 3 Harmony, per level.
Features:
Pantheon of Blood: Increases all favor gained with gods of the Blood domain significantly. Effects reduced by Harmony.
Soul Leak: Your mere presence radiates a near-physical pressure. Effects improve with Channeling, but are reduced by Harmony.
Fasting: Food, water, and sleep requirements are decreased by Channeling.
Major Skills:
Polytheist Lvl. 1: Why worship one god when you can earn the favor of many? Innate knowledge of the various gods of the universe, as well as their rituals and magics. Slightly increased favor gain with all gods. Effects reduced by Harmony, but increased by Intellect and Channeling.
Bloodmarked Sacrifice Lvl. 1: Infect a creature's soul with your own tainted blood. Improves favor gain and blessings from the sacrifice of said creature based on Vitality and Channeling.
Sacrifice Expertise Lvl. 1: Increased skill at creating and performing rituals of sacrifice. Favor, boons, and blessings gained from sacrifices improved. Effects improved by Intellect and Channeling.
Minor Skills:
Ritual of Blood Lvl. 1: Learn and gain mastery over rituals related to blood.
Sadistic Sacrifice Lvl. 1: Rather than dedicating a creature's entire life at once, you may instead sacrifice small portions at a time. As you deal damage to a creature, siphon off bits of its soul, sacrificing them for greatly reduced gain. Effects increased by Channeling.
Dedicate Soul Lvl. 1: You have learned to more effectively perform the final portion of any sacrifice: the Dedication. Critical blows dealt to restrained, unconscious, or otherwise motionless targets that lay upon a sacrificial altar and have no more than 3% of their Health remaining produce instant death.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
That was confusing, and rather concerning. I couldn't remember picking my skills. Also...
"Where the hell am I?" I wondered aloud. My eyes darted around, before landing on a raven-headed woman in the room with me, slouched into a chair while I lay in a bed.
The lady's head moved upwards, revealing... red eyes? Wait... "Ah... you. I was hoping you could answer some questions for me. In case it matters to you, I am a representative of House Jehkall, the previous owners of this... glorified cave system."
Sybil Jehkall, High Tier 2 Vampire
...ah shit, I was about to get sucked, wasn't I? "Could you please not eat me?"
The girl just stared at me for a moment, before sighing. "It would be rather unprofessional of me to just take a bite out of you. Also, that's kind of racist. I'm just here to talk to the group that was clearing our Quest."
That was good to know. I could probably take her, with her only being Tier 2, but I didn't want to take my chances. Vampires were always super fast and strong in the movies, yeah? Well, maybe not always, but there were certainly quite a few scary vampires.
"So, you're from that family, yeah? Or House, I guess. Here, let me..."
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: 50% 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 (Meet with House Jehkall to recieve reward!)
Wait, I still had one last objective to complete! And it looks like the reward went down, presumably because I wasn't Tier 2 anymore. Oh well.
"Hey, actually, do you think you could wait for me to do one last lap, so I can try to get this last objective done?" Hopefully she'd be alright with it. I had no idea what I'd do if she just ran off.
"You... really? You know what, yeah, go ahead. Just try to make it quick." She waved her hand dismissively at me.
Well, that was all I needed. All the monsters should be at least a Tier below me now, so it wouldn't be hard to just blast them all to death with my shiny new Arcanoccultist's Bolt. Wait, speaking of my new stuff...
"Hey, Sybil right?" Getting a nod in response, I continued, "I can't really remember picking out my new Skills from when I Tiered up, and I lost a bunch of my Traits, too. Do you know how that happened?"
She looked surprised, and a bit confused at the same time. "Well, I'm not exactly sure why you don't know this, but Traits are only lost on Racial Evolutions or when they're upgraded into new Skills or Features. As for why you don't remember picking out your new Skills... well, I can't tell you that I know for certain, but my best guess would be that you were under some form of spiritual pressure. When you're 'inside' your soul space, your mind intersects with your soul much more than it normally would, and while an attack against your soul would normally just result in you taking damage, I've heard that traveling through Khaos using methods, such as enveloping your mind and body in your soul, can be very distracting and painful, and result in damage or memory loss. I would imagine something similar would apply if your mind were contained in your soul."
"Ah. Okay. I think I got... part of that." I grinned at her, before moving towards the door.
"Try not to die. The Count would be quite upset with me if I let you go get yourself killed after doing such a service for our House. You have no idea how much your actions mean to my family." She seemed dead serious, at least, more dead serious than usual.
Heh. Get it? Dead serious? She's a vampire? Why aren't you laughing? C'mon man, that was gold.
Anyways, I found a small cluster of low-Tier 2's and shot them. Were you expecting a detailed explanation of how I slew the dangerous monsters that would have threatened my life ten levels ago? Well, sorry, but for real, these things were weak as dirt. So, I shot them, and they died.
Well, I guess it was cool to see how my new Bolt had an odd piercing ability. The Bolt now had a white prism-like core, engulfed in an energy that slowly bled from blue to magenta. When I fired the thing off, which cost me a few dozen mana, it zoomed forward at an incredible pace, and the energy surrounding the Bolt's core would impact the target and set off an explosion of flaming... soul energy? Well, not soul energy, but something in between Arcane, Blood, and... whatever Ritual was. It was odd to me that Ritual was considered a distinct affinity, but so far I'd only seen Arcane mana used in rituals, and my Arcaniac Trait had told me previously that such was standard, as Arcane was the purest of the mana types.
In any case, once the explosion went off, the prism core of the Bolt just... kept going? I guessed that was the penetration part of the ability, but... it actually seemed rather overpowered. That penetrating damage would just keep tearing through the monster, then go on to deal damage to whatever was behind it. It finally stopped dealing damage when it hit the cave wall, but I got the feeling that that wasn't due the the Bolt no longer being active, it just couldn't damage the wall for whatever reason.
Anyways, a few minutes later, I had all the leftover monsters dealt with, and was about... 69% of the way to my next level. Nice. Also, quest complete!
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.
Quest Complete! Meet with House Jehkall to receive remaining rewards!
Sweet! Time to meet back up with Sybil.
----------------------------------------
"Alright, before I bring you back to meet the Count, you're gonna need to wash up. You smell like shit." Sybil's expression was hard.
"But, what would I wear? And aren't you a vampire? Shouldn't all this blood smell, I don't know, tasty?" I winced. Was that racist? I felt racist.
"Normally, high concentrations of Blood attunement smell fantastic. High concentrations of dirt, grime, and summoned monster bits? Not so much. The only blood on you that smells better than shit is your own, and while there is certainly still quite a lot of that, there's still a lot of the other crap." Well that was harsh. She continued, "As for what you'll wear, we're in a noble house that was abandoned with hardly any notice. I'm sure there will still be some intact clothing."
"Well... to make it clear, I wouldn't be against a shower right now, but... how?" I didn't know if they had plumbing here, or if there was magic or something, but I would need a bit of help to work it the first time.
Sybil just rolled her eyes and dragged me over to a tiled room with a shower. She pointed out the activation rune, which basically worked as a toggle for a rather simple ritual that would link up to some form of battery for water mana and produce heated water. It was pretty much just a magic shower, which was about what I had expected.
I enjoyed a nice long shower, before noticing that quite a lot of the blood wasn't coming out. After that realization, I turned to another runed object that Sybil had explained to me. This one was basically just a magic bar of soap, but not quite. I thought it was quite intriguing how their society had turned to doing pretty much everything with magic. This weird stick would magically dislodge nonliving material from living material. It wasn't that powerful, though, and the most it would do is create a slight repulsion between them, and cause the dirt and such to vibrate just a little. It wasn't all that effective at cleaning things on its own, but with a bit of water involved, it could do well. Still, while there was rather limited combat potential in it, I thought it was cool.
I entered the connected bedroom to find multiple outfits laid out for me, presumably by Sybil. They were... weird. Old fashioned fancy clothes, suits and the like. I'd never really worn fancy clothing much, outside of funerals and the occasional wedding, especially since I'd always managed to squeeze my way out of going to prom and other school dances, and I hadn't done band or choir either. Still, though, I'd worn them once or twice. I picked out the simplest outfit, pretty much just a button-up with some slacks, and what I thought were loafers that somehow managed to be my size. When I exited the room, though...
"Where's your tie?" Sybil's stared at me. Did this lady blink? Ever? It wouldn't surprise me if she somehow just didn't.
"I don't know how to, well..." It was embarrassing, which was odd. It had never bothered me before that I didn't know how to tie one. Then again, I'd always had my mother around to help me with that, and well, I was in another world now. I hadn't had the best relationship with my family, as I mostly just sat in my room all day and played video games, but still. I missed them. Had it been weeks? Months? I had no way of knowing, especially with that bought of madness I'd had. Would I never see them again? That seemed likely.
I was brought out of my thoughts to find Sybil's hands around my neck. Some guys probably have dreams about having a goth girl's hands around their necks, but as for me, who had just been stuck in a cave for a long-ass time, I started casting an Arcanoccultist's Bolt. Then I noticed that she wasn't trying to strangle me, and was just tying a tie around my neck.
Sybil mostly pretended not to notice the fact that I'd almost blasted her, but the quick glare she sent at me before I dispersed it let me know that she'd seen my Bolt.
"There you go. Hopefully my dad won't kill you now." Sybil smiled.
"Um..." I didn't have time to ask if that was a joke, as she was already speeding down the stairs of the old Jehkall House. Soon, we exited the old cave, and I finally got a glimpse of my surroundings.
The only thing I could think was:
"Wow. It's beautiful."