The skull charm on his chest dissipated into motes of light that floated into his body and he felt a sensation he had never felt before. Energy rushed into him and filled a reserve in a part of him he had never had awareness of until now. Something clicked into place and he was suddenly repulsed by the foul energies of the catacombs and felt a strong compulsion to cleanse it. He pushed down the urge to leap up and rush to confront Ander Phyris but the sense of rejection and distaste remained. He felt the motes of light move to his new reserve and reform into the skull charm and something akin to a new muscle he had never flexed before became available to him. He had been in pieces his whole life and now he was whole.
Notifications demanded his attention in the corner of his vision and he obliged them, eager to further understand these new changes.
[You have accepted the [Path of the Spirits] and have taken the first step upon it.]
[For being the first person on [Earth] to walk the [Path of the Spirits] you have earned the Title: Spirit Progenitor]
[You have bound a [Spirit of Death] and have obtained it's Power.]
[For your first bound Spirit being a [Spirit] instead of a [Lesser Spirit] you have earned the Title: Natural Shaman]
Earning titles came as a welcome surprise, especially since it gave him clues as to how to earn more. He tried [Analysing] them like he had done with the [Path of the Spirits] and was pleased when it worked.
[Spirit Progenitor
Planetary Unique Title
+25% Leveling speed of Spirit Powers
+1 to the Effective Tier of Spirit Lore]
[Natural Shaman
Uncommon Title
+5 Maximum Lifeforce]
He had no context for how good these particular Titles were, but he was happy to find out that they gave rewards and was extremely happy to receive a boost to one of his Lore skills. The prompts that they gave him had been both interesting and useful so far and he looked forwards to seeing what a Tier 2 one could tell him. He opened the new notification that popped up before checking over his Status.
[Analyse I has improved and become Analyse II]
[
Name: Liam Karr
Race: Human (Earth)
Path: Path of the Spirits
Class: None
Titles: Spirit Progenitor, Natural Shaman
Level: 4
HP: 28/150
Stamina: 75/130
Lifeforce: 9/9
Strength: 24
Dexterity: 14
Vitality: 15
Endurance: 13
Intelligence: 15
Willpower: 17
Free Attributes: 0
Traits:
None
Skills:
Analyse II
Spirit Lore I (II)
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Undead Lore I
Hafted I
Powers:
Spirit of Death I, Level 1/10
]
It was looking a lot better now that most of the sections that had listed None now had entries, though a couple still remained. To complete the assessment of his own abilities though, he brought up the descriptions of his upgraded skills and first Power.
[Analyse II
General Skill
Grants basic information on a target by focusing on them. Grows through use.
Tier I: Uses Lore Skills to provide additional information
Tier II: Reveals the target's [Path] and their highest rarity Title]
[Spirit Lore II
Lore Skill
Grants knowledge of Spirits, Spiritual Magic and Spirit Binding. Grows through defeating, binding and collecting information on Spirits.
Tier I: Provides information on most types of Lesser Spirits and Tier 1 Spiritual Magic, allows the issuing and accepting of Spirit Binding Challenges
Tier II: Provides information on most types of Spirits and Tier 2 Spiritual Magic]
[Spirit of Death I
Path Power
Level 1/10
Active: Imbue your bound [Spirit of Death] into your weapons to deal 10% additional damage for a minute.
Cost: 2 Lifeforce per minute
Tier I: Converts all Physical Damage into Magic Damage for the duration]
The upgrades to [Analyse] and [Spirit Lore] both looked amazing, but the true winner was his Power. On first read it seemed amazingly powerful but upon looking at it again he realised that he would only be able to use it for at most 4 minutes per day. Still, even with that limitation, dealing an extra 10% damage for four minutes could very well save his life and with the conversion to Magic Damage he hoped that he would be able to combat Spectres and Spirits without relying on the paltry amounts of Fire Damage that his axe now dealt.
It felt like he had an all round upgrade to his prowess but he couldn't let it go to his head. Sure he was more than the match of weak zombies and skeletons, but they were both only Weak Threats to him. The one Moderate Threat that he fought had almost bested him and that was due to its previous injuries and it having to pay a HP cost to issue a Challenge to him. Ander Phyris likely broke the scale entirely compared to the current him so he had a lot of catching up to do.
He picked himself up and got ready to leave. He only had just over 46 hours to find and defeat the lich and whilst he had made great strides he was sure that it wasn't yet enough. He needed to capitalise on his momentum, even if he was injured, and make use of everything moment he could to be moving forwards if he wanted to stand a chance of surviving this.
Before he left he absorbed the two halves of the red skeleton's bone sword, and the rest of it's remains, into his axe by touching it to them and willing it. A quick [Analyse] told him that consuming them had raised the axe's Fire Damage to 5-6, which was a bit over a 50% improvement in that regard. Overall, he was extremely happy with his gains from the two battles and had to restrain himself from humming a tune as he made his way down the passageway. He was even beginning to feel at peace with this new reality where power could be earned and not just inherited.
That's when he heard the voice from ahead. A low chant in an infernal language he did not know. The tones were sharp and harsh, and it was said with an amount of venom that would put [Lesser Ghouls] to shame. Liam crept to the bend and peered around it, and there stood Ander Phyris in his full undead majesty.
The lich stood at an imposing 7 foot tall, his skeletal fingers moving with unnatural precision weaving complex sigils in the air. Dark energy crackled around him, materialising and being pulled down into a glowing, obsidian circle on the ground. With each word of his incantation, the ground trembled, and the three corpses he had within the circle began to twitch. More words were uttered and Liam watched in both horror and fascination as each corpse stood and bowed towards Ander. The lich's purple eyes gleamed with malevolent triumph as he witnessed the rebirth of his new minions. He spoke the last words of his ritual and the leftover necromantic energies fused with and empowered the servile undead.
With the light show over, Liam realised that he should've focused on observing the other undead as it was now to dark to see them, still he could [Analyse] them all and so he did.
[Ander Phyris, Lich, Level ??
Path of Magic
Self Raised Lich]
[???/???]
[Richard Montague, Unknown Ghoul, Level 12
Path of the Spirits (Corrupted)
Natural Shaman]
[320/320]
[Emily Rezeal, Unknown Skeleton, Level 11
Path of the Body
Giant Slayer]
[240/240]
[David Bright, Unknown Shade, Level 14
Path of Light (Corrupted)
Lightbearer]
[160/160]
Liam was concerned when he saw that they were all named, and that their Levels were so much higher than his. That and the fact they all had a Path showing up in their [Analysis] which pointed to them having at least one Power each. Then there were the 3 Titles he hadn't seen before which he focused on in turn.
[Self Raised Lich
Epic Title
-25% time to resurrect from Phylactery]
[Giant Slayer
Common Title
+1 damage on all attacks]
[Lightbearer
Named Title
Once per year you may make one created light construct permanent]
The first two were weaker than his own highest rarity Title but he had no frame of reference for the third. Still, [Analyse II] was paying dividends in the information department and he was very happy with it's upgrade. He didn't get any chance to think further on what he'd seen, however, as Ander addressed the newly risen undead in his raspy voice.
"Go and find whatever has been killing my minions."
The lich spoke in it's raspy voice. The creatures nodded and started down the passageway as Ander turned and walked away, presumably back to the ritual. By the time they reached where Liam had been observing from, he was long gone.