Chapter 7 - Big Choices
As he stepped back into hiding in the tall grass of his lane Rufian had a smile on his face. They had been playing peekaboo from the brush for the past three waves, scaring off the Silvanmen when they came close and picking up the essentia as it dropped. With her staff ready Minucia was standing around at the back of the minions. She had only had to shoot the occasional bolt from the calculii at the tip of her staff to get the Silvanmen to back off from the right side of their lane.
Their little game had paid dividends already. As he had picked up the last pile of essentia beads the growing warmth of the essentia collected in his body had bubbled over and looking down at himself he could see his avatar information floating above his body showing off his level up.
Rufian Ramuro 665/665 | Level 1
Enhancer - Fighter / Enhancer / Bruiser
There was an insistent pulsing in his hand and forearm. Hovering above his arm he could see three boxes filled with overwhelming information written with coral coloured light of his own attunement. The boxes moved as he read them, somehow staying perfectly in focus but not restricting his vision.
Fighter
Enhancer
Bruiser
Ars
Broad Strikes
Multi Strike
Heavy Strike
Attunement
nil
nil
nil
Cooldown
n/a
n/a
n/a
Compatibility
n/a
n/a
n/a
Skill Type
Enhancement
Enhancement
Enhancement
Slot
[Wrist],[Ankle]
[Wrist],[Ankle]
[Fist],[Hand]
Slot Bonus
n/a
n/a
n/a
Description
Unarmed strikes cause damage in a cone.
Each strike applies effects twice.
[-100% Combination damage]
Every second strike staggers the target.
As Rufian read through the options he did not fully understand what they meant. He liked the idea of Broad Strikes so he could do more damage. Normally he would talk a decision over with Bruchts who would have been a perfect sounding board, he didn’t want to ask Minucia something stupid and reveal that he didn’t know what he was doing.
“‘Grats on your first level!” Minucia gave a little cheer as she joined him in the tall grass, “looks like you are a natural enhancer! That’s a great path for a new rift delver because you won’t need to worry about upgrading a weapon as much as a straight fighter or bruiser.”
He must have had a stupid look on his face because she laughed at him.
“It’s a bit overwhelming, but it will all make sense... Just a moment.”
She paused what she was saying to burst out of the bushes and startle the Silvanmen who were creeping back towards them. They scuttled back well behind the minions and appeared to be talking to their team with their fingers to their ears.
Minucia came back and casually sat down in the brush.
“We know an enhancer from back home who had a similar attunement to you. Why don’t you read me the ars you were offered? You don’t have proper calculii so when you become levelled the path options will be underwhelming: the left option will be from a class based on your loadout - your weapons and armour, the middle option relates to your natural affinity and calculii, the right will be a path based on your role and mindset. The options are often a bit generic and underwhelming for newbies, at least until you start to pick up some calculii and gear, but there might be some synergy in your options so it’s worth thinking carefully.”
Rufian read out the choices.
“Well Broad Strikes is out, but either-” Minucia said.
“What? Why would I not want to smash all the minions at once?” Rufian interjected.
“Haha, think about it! That would be a great ars if you were trying to clear waves quickly like a Wave Defence or Invasion Rift. But the goal of Defence of the Nexus rift types is to control the resources and dominate...” Minucia trailed off in the middle of her explanation.
Something was going on with the Silvanmen, both of their opposition avatars were extremely agitated and looked to be yelling at each other and their team with their fingers to their ears.
One of the Silvanmen suddenly turned and rushed into the forest through the bushes on the side of the lane.
-An enemy has been slain!-
A deep unnatural voice spoke the unexpected announcement which rang through the forest, startling Rufian. As he watched the other Silvanman rush off in pursuit Minucia put her hand on his shoulder, gripping it tightly.
“We need to trust that they have this under control…” she said quietly, saying it as much to herself as to him.
Her grip on his shoulder was fierce and for a good minute she barely breathed as if she was waiting for something awful. When nothing else happened a few moments later she gave a gasped breath and laughed.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What happened down there?” Minucia asked the team.
“They’re probably in the clear,” she said to Rufian letting go of his shoulder with a slap. “Well, pick whatever you like, but I’m happy to help with your choices. Anyway, you’ll get some different options each level to pick another ars or upgrade until you fill your available slots out, the big thing to look out for is some ars require the same slot, so you won’t be able to pick an ars that only fits in specific slots if the slot is occupied.”
She hit him on the shoulder again. “It won’t really matter, cause you’ll lose the generic ars when you leave and have to start again. So let's see if we can get you a real calculii today.”
----------------------------------------
“What happened down there?” Minucia’s question was left unanswered as the three Eruleans in the other lane gathered themselves under their tower.
The mortally injured Bruchts was patting Palinus on the back to console the teenager.
“You did well, you are ok,” Bruchts whispered.
“He broke the shepherd's code and was going to kill your friend.” Marcus said, “You did the right thing putting him down. Besides, we don’t necessarily know their nexus didn’t revive him, so chin up boy.”
“One of the Silvanmen dove to make a kill. Palinus got him and we are all good.” Marcus responded to Minucia.
“Good job Palinus, and you two as well! A round on me if you're ever up in Tremona! Our Silvanmen went into the forest so keep on your toes.” Minucia teamcast.
“Drown yourself in wine when you get out.” Marcus’s voice was soft and he gave palinus and Bruchts pat on the shoulders. “Right, good stuff surviving, but this rift is not over yet.”
As they had recovered the Erulean minions had been advancing and were currently finishing off the last of the Silvanian wave, nearly under the enemy tower.
“Hmm,” Marcus grunted as he watched. “It’d be a risk to dive the tower, we could run in and get some nice essentia. The tower has buckets of it. But with missing Silvanmen, that’s probably not wise right now.”
“So we just wait around?” Bruchts asked the man.
“Well, you wait. Then you take a few waves of essentia to get a few levels and if it looks like the Silvanmen have cleared out for good you can sit down here and stack up essentia till it coalesces into something nice. They might come back, so you both need to be ready and keep the wave close to the tower like good shepherds.” Marcus answered. “You should be good from here. Just watch out for overextending, you’ve seen what those Silvanmen can do. Sing out when something drops!”
With that advice he ran off again into the forest behind them. He had only healed half his health, but Palinus could see why he was feeling confident of his escapes after seeing the man’s ars in action.
“Hmm, I think he forgot some steps again…” Bruchts sighed as he scratched his chin.
Palinus nodded his head in agreement as he considered what they needed to do now.
“I guess we just wait?”
The boys watched as the Erulean minions mindlessly attacked the Silvanian tower. There was a rhythmic thump and sizzle as the green crystal on top of the gnarled wood of the Silvanian tower shot out huge bolts of energy at the ugly Erulean minions. They were being dismembered rapidly and Palinus shivered at the thought of being struck by one of those fierce bolts.
In a minute or so Erulean wave had been destroyed completely and the next two opposing waves of minions marched to battle it out in the middle of the lane as if nothing had happened. The blood spilled in the lane had disappeared and Bruchts was already looking much better.
“It’s like nothing happened.” Palinus said.
There was a sympathetic look in his eye but Bruchts chose to ignore the emotional subtext of the comment.
“There’s a limit though and it will get harder to reset the waves, then eventually the tower will be destroyed. Looks like there are more minions now, probably more later too.” Bruchts added.
The big teenager was right. Palinus hadn’t noticed but it looked like there was an extra minion in the waves. There was now a sixth melee minion in the wave in front of them.
They had to approach this strategically. He couldn’t just blast away at the Silvanian minions again as that would mean the minions would be fighting more towards the enemy side.
Looking to experiment, Palinus lifted his wand and fired off a shot at the cluster of Erulean ranged minions. The bolt did around half the damage he expected and as the damage registered he felt some of the essentia he had collected being taken back out of him, rather than the warm feeling of collecting the essentia it was a cold and uncomfortable tugging. It felt bad and it made the essentia feel sluggish within him.
“We can damage our minions a bit, but I think it affects us negatively and drains some of the essentia you have collected.” Palinus told Bruchts.
“Right, that makes sense.” Bruchts was deep in thought for a moment, then appeared to come to a decision. As another wave of minions approached from behind them he swung his fire poker three times at the leading melee minion. “Yeah, that doesn’t feel good. The third swing hurt more than the dagger in my back.”
Palinus appreciated Bruchts’ attempt to lighten the mood but couldn't bring himself to laugh.
Their little bit of damage appeared to have been enough. The Silvanian wave was beating the Erulean wave as their minions slowly pushed towards them. As the essentia collected Bruchts offered Palinus to go first at collecting it. They hadn’t seen any sign of the Silvanian avatars since they slunk off after the death of their team mate, but Palinus was careful as he moved towards the beads of essentia on the ground.
As he got close he noticed that the red beads of essentia were drawn towards him like a moth to a torch stone from two or three metres away but the blue and green beads moved sluggishly and only if he was practically standing on them. As the beads of red essentia shot towards him they jumped towards his chest and were sucked into his body wherever they hit him. Each bead felt like warm lips pressed against his skin as they were absorbed and joined the essentia he had collected already, building on the warmth in his stomach. The blue and green beads were slow to absorb and Palinus felt that they only added a fraction of the effect.
After he had collected half the red essence on the ground and some of blue and green beads that were close by the warmth in his stomach reached a peak as it spread through his body with a crash that flooded around him in a wave of warmth before settling in a lump that he felt pulsing across his shoulders and down his right arm.
He looked at his hand and could see that the essentia he had collected on top of the essentia from earlier had allowed him to level up.
Palinus 615/615 | Level 1
Red Mage - Wandslinger / Red Mage / Mage
If he looked at the back of his hand he could see several options jump out in boxes for him to choose from written in a dark red font.
Wandslinger
Red Mage
Mage
Ars
Multi-Strike
Fireball
Magic Missiles
Attunement
nil
nil
nil
Cooldown
n/a
60 seconds
30 seconds
Compatibility
n/a
n/a
n/a
Skill Type
Enhancement
Projectile, Area
Projectile
Slot
[Wrist], [Arm]
[Fist, hand, wrist]
[Fist, hand, wrist]
Slot Bonus
n/a
n/a
n/a
Description
Each strike applies effects twice.
Shoot an explosive fireball damaging everything [200] within 2 metres and applying [Burn].
Shoot three bolts of energy doing [50] damage each to up to three targets.
After only a moment of thought he selected [Fireball], the ars was too exciting to skip. As soon as he reached out to touch the font describing [Fireball] the other options faded and the pulsing warmth of the collected essentia moved and sat beneath the palm on his right hand clustering into a lump of hard flesh. It felt odd physically, like something had been inserted into his hand. But within his essentia pathways it felt right, eager to be used with a persistent tugging of his essentia that he would just have to let happen to use the ars.
“I got a level!” He turned excitedly to tell Bruchts who had been keeping an eye on the surrounding bushes.
“Congratulations, oh great and powerful red mage.” Bruchts joked lamely, “I thought I smelt something burning…”
“Ha. ha.” Palinus said. “I don’t get much out of the blue and green essentia. Why don’t you go and collect those?”
With a nod of acknowledgement Bruchts stalked through the minions and collected the remaining essentia. As he walked the blue and green essentia beads responded vigorously and jumped eagerly into him, the blue beads slightly more than the green, while the remaining red essentia responded barely at all.
“Ah, that is what Marcus meant by attunement balance. That makes sense now!” Palinus said.
“Yeah, it seems like he knows his business.” Bruchts agreed. “If only he would take the time to share it with us…”
There was insufficient essentia available for Bruchts to level which just meant they had to wait for the next wave. As he collected more of the essentia his body flashed with light. Rather than responding with excitement to the development he turned and sighed.
“Well… this ars would have been useful a few minutes ago.”