Later that day, Louie took Shadow aside to talk to her about what information she had gotten from the one-armed enforcer, Karl.
It turned out that with a little 'persuasion' he was willing to sell his soul to the devil to save himself.
The king was looking for the previous owner of the apartment block that he was staying in. He had taken the block from the owner the day after the quakes but before he could kill him he had escaped in the confusion while the gang was fighting some monsters, and while the king 'own' the building they can't claim it from the system since the owner was in the building for twenty-four hours till after the pulse happened, they would need to kill him to claim ownership.
It turned out that the woman they had killed was an old lover of the owner and they thought she might know where he was, which she didn't.
The rest of his knowledge was just about happenings inside the safe zone. Luckily they had not figured out about the slave oaths but if things go on as it does then it would not be long before somebody did.
They talked for a while and he brought up her scars and the fact that she feels she needs to wear a mask.
She told him that before the pulse she was heavy into gymnastics but she had a fascination with fire and one day she had accidentally caused an explosion when she had started a fire where she shouldn't have and she got badly burnt ending her love for gymnastics.
"I have been working with Sher and Mainey, and we have gone so far as to remove some of the scarred skin on my arms but when it grows back with
Louie could hear the pain in her voice, as she told him about her wearing a burn mask and looking like the phantom of the opera for twenty-four months, she had gotten so used to hiding away from people that when the pulse happened she had gotten the ability
Louie gave her the Cartier watch that they had found in the Dungeon, but promised to see if he couldn't make her a better mask using the Groucho glasses if they couldn't find a way to remove her scars.
Mithril Cartier Tank Louis sports watch. (Rare)(Soulbound)
Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fond
This sports watch was made by the famous Cartier company for the beautiful warrior women who like to fight for what they believe is theirs. Beware, the Debuff would draw sycophants to the wearer like bees to honey.
Mithril claws (100% climbing during battle)
Agility +100%
Constitution +100%
Perception +100%
Debuff: Permanent Carisma +20
He saw that his
He got an idea when she mentioned her wearing a burn mask, that he thought might work, if Sher and Mainey couldn't find a way to heal her scars. He would think about it a bit more before he mentions it to her.
Louie asked Shadow to use her ability and spells to sneak into the safe zone and see what more she could find out.
That night Louie and some of the new guards together with his team and BOB walked the perimeter of the new marked-out boundary of the section of town that he had claimed, it was a huge section with the boundary over 5.6km long and enclosing an area of 1.2 square kilometers, the trapper kids had told him that there were at least two nests in that walled-off area. He was hoping to get two capstones and find the location of the Dungeon since the tablets just give a rough approximation of the vendor of up to a kilometer diameter.
He had made sure that the area that indicates where the dungeon was, fell inside the area he had claimed.
He started at the top of Plein street that runs up against the hill that is the base of Paarl Rock and moved down to Main street which he planned to follow south until the road cross Berg street and then turn west back to Paarl rock and then turn north to follow the base till the wall meet up with Plein street again.
He knew his claiming of the territory would piss off those inside the safe zone because he had found out that the territory was claimed mostly by the king, but the unspoken rule that the king relies on said that if you claim it and you can keep it then it's yours, and Louie meant to keep what he claimed.
It was near pitch-black even with the moon half full, there was very little illuminating during the night. It made Louie think back to the farm and he remembered how utterly dark everything got when there were no street lights anywhere.
Unlike in the old world, there was no light pollution. Up above, the Milky Way was clearly visible and glimmered with promise, a sea of stars stretching for as far as he could see. The moon itself was half full, casting a pale white glow, but he still thought that there was something strange about the moon, as if the moon might have changed in some small ways.
Luckily he had
He started simple and sculpted a three meters high one-meter thick wall, but he used his spell to solidify the foundation of the wall up to fifteen meters deep to ensure nothing would easily burrow underneath.
It took him the whole night, but he was able to enclose the claimed area while his team supplied the backup for the new guards that fought, killed, and looted the rats, and in one instant a pack of mutated gerbils the size of big dogs.
The monsters thought that he would be a soft target since he was busy and tried to attack him while he was raising the wall.
The guards were happy because Leon had supplied each of them with a basic set of leather armor with a sword and shield for their uniforms. They quickly jumped two levels and got a lot of meat from the loot.
They were cautious in fighting the monsters at first but soon realized that they had backup and a healer if they needed it, and soon they were looking forward to fighting the rats.
It turned out that most of the people in Paarl were between levels one and seven, one being the housewives that had to kill a rat or three to survive or save a child, and seven being the fighters who fought off the waves, like some of the militia.
After level seven it becomes very difficult to gain the experience needed because the requirement to level doubles with every level and can only be gained by killing massive amounts of monsters in waves or if you can find a dungeon that gives huge amounts of experience for killing golems, like the Huguenot tunnel.
Louie finished the wall just before sunrise and leaving the running of the marketplace to Leon went to look for his bed. The tent has been pitched in the open space, which they left for the use of traveling merchants, between the caravans and the tavern.
With his high stamina, he didn't need as much rest but he still decided to take a couple of hours of sleep, since he had a meeting with the faction leaders later in the day.
After two hours of sleep, Louie was up again feeling fully rested.
Louie had told Sher and Shira to remove their disguises to show that the market would be a welkom place for anybody and everybody if they come in peace.
As they walked through the market he made sure that Sher and Shira were both clearly visible as he stopped to talk to several of the stalls owners to see what they had up for barter.
One of the big surprises was a guy named Petrus that had a homemade woodturning lathe made from wood and powered with a foot paddle, he used it to turn arrow shafts and staves for spears. It turned out that he was into making all kinds of paddle-powered machinery from wood as a hobby and now it all comes in pretty handy.
The mana lathes that he got from the Dungeon workshop were fantastic, but they weren't limitless and he had only one more set of Dungeon tools available.
He didn't think that the Dungeon would allow him to take any more tools till he had made up for those he took already. That reminded him to start feeding the dungeon motor wrecks again, which shouldn't be a problem since there were lots of vehicles just rusting away all around them.
He was glad to see the ingenuity that Petrus used and asked him if he were willing to start a workshop in teaching people to make the tools that he used, after making sure that Petrus understood the monetary system he promise to pay him in coin as soon as they figured something out. He asked him to teach a class in wooden machine construction, for four hours a day for one month and then they could look into pay negotiation again.
Derek had set up the furnace and was paying the kids and a bunch of grownups for scrap metal and using the smelter to smelt it down into ingots. Two guys were helping Derek and were interested in becoming blacksmiths and another bunch of hopefuls was hanging around looking at buying or bartering for weapons.
Seeing that everything was running smoothly for the moment, Louie turned to the tree and thought about making a place where they could have the meeting between the leaders.
He decided to sculpt a large hall backing up against the tree between two of the giant roots, again he had trouble sculpting the roof spanning the large gap, but using his inventory he filled the space between the walls with sand and then sculpted the roof before solidifying it, just like building a sandcastle on the beech. He removed all the excess sand from the inside of the building and compressed the material till the walls were strong enough to carry the weight of the roof.
It ended looking like an old Greek temple with large columns running down the center of the building, as extra support for the roof
'Really gotta find some books about architecture and engineering, maybe some school handbooks.'
He also created a big round stone table with enough seating for twenty people, but taking the idea of Starter Town further he made benches and not chairs, except the chair nearest the back wall which was the tree.
He sculpted a plain high back chair, they might be all equal but since he planned to rebuild the town and then leave he wanted to make sure that they knew who was the first among equals
Louie decided to go a bit artistic and asked Diedre and Jenna, who turned out to be very talented, to draw a forest scene with spiders walking between the trees on the walls, which he then sculpted, he also inlaid a stylish Ansi into the tabletop using powdered mana crystal together with two big lifesize stone tarantulas behind the chair. Keeping with the theme he sculpted a small Seera on top of the crest rail of the thro...chair.
Louie had asked Shadow to stick an invitation to the glass door of the king's highrise, promising him and his posse safe passage for the town meeting and back.
This caused quite a panic inside the safe zone since no one had seen the person that left the invitation, Louie hoped that the king would get the message that he isn't safe even in his penthouse if they really wanted to remove him.
It was an hour after he was done when the first leaders started to show up.
They were each stopped at the gate of the market and directed to the front of the hall where they were notified that only two guards will be allowed into the meeting with each leader.
It didn't come as any surprise when the king didn't show up for the meeting but sent one of his lieutenants instead.
Seven leaders or their representatives showed up, the other two camps didn't even acknowledge the soldiers that the militia sent to their barricaded buildings; one even went so far as to fire arrows at the troops.
The moment the envoy from King arrived he started shit-talking and browbeating the others.
"What the fuck are you all waiting for out here, lets get the shitshow on the road and get this over with, I got more important things to do than standing out here mingling with you lot pussys."
Louie and his group had changed into ordinary clothes except for the four caravan guards who stood in front of the hall.
Leon and Sher stood in front of the crowd flanked by two giant stone spider sculptures and behind them were Kotche, Christean, Jackson, and Debbie all dressed in armor.
To one side stood Dan and Dannie who was still sitting on Jon's carapace like a queen on her throne. The humongous Goliath birdeater tarantula caused quite a stir and everybody tried to stay as far away from them as possible.
Just before Leon addressed the crowd he sent a message to Derek.
There were gasps and cries of astonishment as the one giant stone spider cracked and fell away revealing Ember in all his glory as he turned around and stalked away towards the caravans.
Suddenly everybody in the crowd looked around, seeing all the giant spiders and other monster statues that were scattered and placed in strategic spots throughout the market.
The rest of the sculptures were made from stone using the spiders and BOB, as well as some of the monsters that they had fought, as models, it was only Ember that he had covered with a thin layer of stone and used as a means to keep the leaders and would-be criminals thinking twice about making trouble.
Louie
Name: Damien Bester
Race: (Human Level 6)
Class: Enforcer
Sub-classes:
Titles: Torturer
'Fucker, pity I promised safe passage to this scum.'
One of the leaders looked like Doc Brown and he was the only one that looked with surprise and not fear at Ember before he disappeared between the caravans.
Name: Gerard van Schalkwyk
Race: (Human Level 5)
Class: Scavenger
Sub-classes: Tinker
Titles:
'Tinker? Might know how to build mana machines, he might be interested in an engraving kit with a skill cube, must talk to him later.'
Name: Mike Dekker
Race: (Human Level 5)
Class: Warrior
Sub-classes:
Titles:
'Warrior and a Ranger, nothing new there except, she is the only female leader here.'
Name: Carla Coetzee
Race: (Human Level 5)
Class: Ranger
Sub-classes:
Titles:
Name: Kirt Dempers
Race: (Human Level 4)
Class: Builder
Sub-classes:
Titles:
'Builder? Damn, maybe he can help me with my construction problems. It might be nice to have somebody that actually knows what he is doing when building something.'
Name: Jak de Beer
Race: (Human Level 4)
Class: Farmer
Sub-classes: Animal husbandry
Titles:
'Wonder if he could do something with the Husse that we got in the traps?'
The last one was a surprise since it belonged to the so-called Mayor of the shantytown.
Name: Samuel De Jager
Race: (Human Level 2)
Class:
Sub-classes:
Titles: Oppressor
'No class but he has a title.'
And then there was the militia leader.
Name: Arnold Brand
Race: (Human: Level 7)
Class: Centurion
Sub-classes: Armourer
Titles: Resolute
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Louie shared the BBs with Leon and his companions in front of the hall.
As they entered the hall, Damien headed right for the chair at the head of the table. He stopped and stared at the spider on the crestrail and then the two stone spiders behind the chair before taking a seat on the nearest bench, acting as if that was his intent after all.
Leon took the chair and everybody settled down as drinks were brought into the room, Louie made sure everybody's glasses were full before he moved to stand against the wall.
The Groucho glasses worked well to make him as inconspicuous as possible and people usually ignore the servants.
Leon started off by welkoming everybody and each introduced themself and what class he or she had. De Jager said his class was Mayor and Damien said his class was Commander,
'Wonder who they think they were kidding?'
Everybody jerked their heads back as they all received a copy of the BBs that Louie shared with them, they clearly haven't figured out that BBs could be shared.
The haughty look dropped from Damiens' face as he started looking a bit nervous, the 'Mayor' scolded and tried to deny everything before he spluttered and closed his trap.
Louie could clearly see the wheels spinning in Damien's head as he wondered if there was some skill active or if it was the System and if it was the system then why?
Leon started explaining about what they have done in Starter Town and their plans for the future of Paarl but laid down some rules that will apply inside STC settlements when things started to come to a boil.
"There will be no discrimination or racial slurs inside any compound or settlement of STC, I hear that some people discriminate against those that were changed by the system, that shit will stop." Leon gave Damien a pointed look.
"Really? And you will tell us what to do and what not to do?"
Louie saw the two guards that came in with Damien fidgeting nervously and stared at him as if they were waiting for him to start something.
"Yes, while inside one of our settlements, and we mean Paarl to be one of our settlements run by a council of the leaders." He looked around at those around the table and saw them nodding except for Damien and De Jager.
"A council? Let me guess, with you in charge?"
"Yes, we will be watching to see that nobody tries to enforce their own kind of moronic laws, and unlike our previous government WE will enforce the laws that we set."
"Moronic law? They are vermin that steal and try to pollute our race."
"You hung people for stealing?"
"They broke the laws!"
"Laws, what laws? The laws that your king made? What kingdom does he reside over that gives him the power to make laws? The kingdom of one city apartment that doesn't even belong to him, or the kingdom of the ivory throne?"
"You dare? They were vermin, you exterminate vermin."
"They were human, changed by the system."
"They were common trash and my King is noble."
"Noble?" 'Huh, where did this come from?'
Leon shook his head. “No. There are no commoners or nobles, only humans. The laws are the same for everybody. So what laws did they break that got them hung?"
Damien sneered or tried to while sweat ran down his face in rivers. "They stole food that belonged to people."
Louie saw Damien's hand twitch under the table, as a crossbow appeared in it.
It is for this reason that he had created the chandelier with the lightstones hanging from the roof in the middle of the table, to cast light on the table and a shadow behind each seater.
He used
Louie leaned over and whispered in his ear, a whisper that carried through the suddenly quiet hall.
"If you had tried to use that crossbow you were hiding under the table on somebody here, I would have ripped your arm off and fed it to my pet."
He started to shake as Louie concentrated on casting
Paranoia
A mental spell that causes an effect characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission.
It is a baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others, or is it?
If you fear that they are out to kill you, you might not be wrong.
Cost: 10MP per second for a 5% increase, effect doubles every 5 seconds.
Cooldown: N/A
Range: cast
Everybody followed his eyes to where BOB pushed through the Guards, standing in the doorway, and sauntered into the room, growing larger with every step as he slowly walked along the wall, keeping his eyes squarely fixed on Damien.
Louie kept his spell going for twenty-second and removed his hand as the sharp ammonia smell of urine suddenly became evident around the table.
Darkness filled Louie's eyes and start seeping like smoke from the corners. Everybody tried to lean as far away from him as possible as the temperature slowly dropped in the room.
"You killed people because they took food?"
"V . . Vermin, not people." He stuttered.
"Vermin? They were human, changed by the system, but I see that you have a title, mr Torturer." Damien's eyes got big.
"Well so do I, mine are 'Exterminator' and I see a nest of 'Vermin' in need of extermination, so go back to your nest and tell your king that I am coming for him, I promised you bunch safe passage here for today, so get going before I change my mind."
Damien stood from his seat on shaky legs as Louie stood back from the table and rained in his anger.
"F...ine. He knew this was going to be a waste of his time. That's why he sent me and he only did that out of courtesy. I’ll be reporting this to my King."
"Courtesy?" Louie scoffed. "You were sent here to see if you could browbeat or intimidate these other leaders into following your leader's rule. Your leader who didn't even dare to attend a meeting of his peers and sullied his title as a leader by sending one of his lap dogs."
"Lapdog." His face was turning red as his anger overcame his lessening fear.
"Yes, lapdog, something that laps up the vomit that your so-called king spews."
Damien sputtered as he turned around and stomped across the room to the door.
The effect that he tried to create was somewhat lessened by the growing wet patch that was darkening his pants.
"You fuckers will regret this." He turned around and stormed through the door with his guards and Louie following him.
As they left the hall there were sudden screams of surprise and terror from several places around the market. Louie ran towards the nearest disturbance, where he found a woman, wearing something that reminded him of a burka, clutching a young girl, dressed the same, to her chest being calmed by a guard.
"What happened?" The guard had a shocked expression on his face as he turned towards Louie.
"Sir, the person was having an argument with the stall owner when he suddenly tried to attack her child."
Louie saw that the girl was okay before he looked around.
"Where is the fucker?" He followed the guards' eyes as he looked up, from the branches of the tree hung a thrashing cocoon.
Looking around he saw at least seven cocoons hanging from the branches. He saw Sher, Leon, and the other leaders coming towards him as the twitching cocoon was slowly lowered from above by Ansi.
There were a couple of gasps and everybody backed up as Ansi dropped to the ground, released the cocoon, and started unwinding the one end.
More guards came running and reported on the other attacks in the market, it turned out that all the attacks were against stall owners wearing the burka-like coverings.
Louie turned back to the bound struggling man, "Why were you attacking my people?"
He started spitting and screaming about vermin and Louie smashed him in the face breaking his jaw, knocking him out. He rubbed his fist as he turned back to the woman.
"Sorry about that, do you know why he attacked you and your daughter?"
She looked around uncertainly before her eyes settled on Sher and Shira, she sighed and removed her covering, which turned out to be some kind of dark bedsheet that was worn like a parka.
She looked haggard and old but it looked like it was more from worry than anything else.
"We all wear this, to stop the discrimination from those assholes like him. Somehow he must have figured out which one of us was changed."
Louie wanted to ask more but held his tongue as the woman took the covering from the girl.
She was crying and looked to be in her early teens but the most striking features were the short grey hair that covers her exposed skin, the blue eyes, button nose, and sharply pointed dog ears.
Louie squatted till he was face to face with the crying scared dog girl.
"Wow, you are beautiful." 'A malamute kin, or is she a Dogkin? Have to ask some of the gamers, or later ask her mother.'
The girl's sobs slowly died down as she looked at her mother.
Louie stood up and looked at the mother and then around, he saw a couple more of the covered people.
"You will not have to hide yourself, your daughters or sons, those who were changed by the system, not in my marketplace or place of residence, I will not tolerate this kind of shit in my town."
He had analyzed all seven of the bound attackers and they all shows as enforcers, thugs, or thieves, and the fact that they all attacked the people at the same time showed that this was meant as a statement from King, but they hadn't expected Anssi and the rest of the spiders to be on watch and to drop on them before they could carry out their attacks.
"Where is Damien?"
Leon took a step forward. "He and his guards ran for the gates as the attacks happened."
Louie looked at Sher and Leon before shaking his head slightly.
"Bring them."
He turned around and grabbed the unconscious thug and threw him across his shoulder, walking towards the wall closest to the safezone.
On the wall he lined them up all facing the safezone where there were alot of guards on their wall and on top of the apartment watching them, Louie saw Damien on top of the bus that they used for a gate.
He also saw Damien swear when they lined the captured up.
Arnold stepped up to Louie as he drew his bowie, "Sir, you can't do this. It's murder."
"Centurion, You might be right in the pre-pulse South Africa but there are no more police, no judges, no jails, what are you going to do, build a jail and then watch over them for life? Feed them every day while your people go hungry, watch and protect them from harm while monsters kill your people while they sit cozy in their jail cell. What would you have done to this man if he had attacked your family?"
Louie could imagine what Arnold would and had done to receive the title he had.
"Centurion, I will do everything in my power to keep those that I care for from harm."
He saw his caravan guards and those that traveled with him spread out and chose one of the attackers each. He turned back to watch the guards on the wall of the safezone and channeled mana into his voice to make sure it carried to them.
"For attacking and trying to kill people in my establishment, these would-be killers have forfeited their lives."
He drove the bowie into the side of the thug's head, looted and stored the body as he heard the guards scream and shout threats at them. He watched Damien as he hurriedly made his way into their building.
They left the wall and returned to the hall where Sher pulled him to one side.
"I am sorry, *sigh* you know that I think of you as a brother, and as a brother, I just want to think of you as a good person. . . and I still believe that, but it isn’t right to think of you as just that. You can't be just the good brother, you come as a package, good and bad. If I want you as my brother then I must accept you as you are, good and bad. You care deeply for those that you love, and that's good, but you are also willing to burn down the world to keep those you love from harm, and that's bad, but if I want you as a brother then I must take the good with the bad, and I didn't. I just wanted to have a good brother. I am sorry that I ask you to be more tolerant and look for a peaceful resolution. I will still try to change you but I will take you as you are, my brother."
"Thank you, Sher, I wish it was not so, but here and now there is no place for soft politics, people like them only understand one thing, and that's the rule of power. They are only in charge because they are willing to kill and terrorize those they think are beneath them, it's better to curbstomp evil before it spreads."
*
Paarl Leaders
* Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow)
* Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker
* Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior
* Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger
* Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder
* Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry
* Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor)
* Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer
* King ????????
* ??????
* ??????
Status
Name:
Lewis (Louie) Poren
Race:
Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 451,150/819,200" = Lvl 13
Class:
Seeker (5) (25%).
Sub-classes:
(exterminator) (3%)
Titles:
* Jack Black Brodifacoum,
* Trailblazer,
* Liberator.
* OFS (One Finger Salute)
* Dungeon pioneer
* David
* Selfish
* ?????
Affinity:
Darkness 0.001%
Affiliation:
N/A
Statistics
Health points (HP):
540
strength + constitution times level
Mana Points (MP):
516
Intelligence + willpower times level
Stamina (SP):
660
agility + constitution + willpower times level
Critical Hit Chance:
4%
Attributes
Strength:
23
Agility:
18
Constitution:
22
Perception:
21
Intelligence:
28
Willpower:
15
Charisma:
7
Luck:
5
Free attribute points:
0
Skills
Skill
Level
Progression
Wu shu:
Passive
5
95/100
Improvised weaponry:
Passive
T1: 2
05/100
Glacial Rage:
P/A
6
50/100
Meditation:
Active
6
75/100
Regeneration:
Passive
T1: 0
25/100
Mana Manipulation:
Active
9
95/100
Survival:
Passive
9
85/100
Cooking:
Passive
0
25/100
Restoration:
Passive
T1: 1
95/100
Social Sharing
Passive
1
55/100
Harvesting:
Passive
9
75/100
Herb Lore:
Passive
2
55/100
Whittling:
Passive
0
00/100
Pain resistance:
Passive
T1: 0
00/100
Poison resistance:
Passive
3
42/100
Cat`s eye:
Active
9
95/100
Senses:
Passive
6
35/100
Armourer:
Passive
5
95/100
System Minimap:
Active
5
90/100
Cartography:
Active
3
95/100
Public speaking:
Active
6
15/100
Spell Transformation: *
Active
3
10/100
Backstab:
Active
0
00/100
Skewer:
Active
0
00/100
Scholer:
Passive
0
00/100
Learning:
Passive
#
#
Quick study:
Passive
#
#
Know-how:
Passive
#
#
This star * indicates a hidden skill
Class Skill Proficiencies
Skill
Level
Progression
Investigation:
Active
6
65/100
Tracking:
Active
4
65/100
Intuition:
Passive
T1: 2
95/100
Analyse:
Active
T1: 8
95/100
Lore:
Passive
2
10/100
Monster Expert:
Passive
4
25/100
?????
0
00/100
Spells
Spell
Level
Progression
Activation
Improvise:
T1: 1
35/100
Touch
Mana Construction:
T3: 6
90/100
Cast
Structural Modification
0
00/100
Touch
Liquefaction:
T1: 7
30/100
Cast
Earth Sense:
T1: 8
55/100
Touch
Weapon Schematics:
T1: 2
80/100
Touch
Vampiric:
0
00/100
Cast
Darkorb
0
10/100
Cast
Transfusion:
0
00/100
Touch
Electrocute:
0
30/100
Cast
Suffocate:
0
15/100
Cast
Waterboard:
1
85/100
Cast
Cauterise:
4
70/100
Touch
Shadow Step:
0
20/100
Cast
Fear:
0
30/100
Cast
Paranoia
0
00/00
Touch
Concussion Blast:
0
00/100
Cast
????
0
00/100