Book 2 Chapter 67_Summoning Shenanigans

I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself next to Elendria at the edge of a lake. Sitting at an ornate living desk was Shalora, and she was shuffling stacks of papers as she glared at some. Noticing we were up, she smiled and set them aside.

“Sean. Elendria. My apologies for hijacking your dream, but I have a rather large favor to ask and felt it would be best to do it in person.”

“Hello Shalora. I assume it is about the city we are camped just outside of?” I asked.

“Shalora.” Elendria greeted the goddess.

“Indeed. I know that the easiest way would be for you to simply destroy the city, and I know that you have the means to do it. I’m asking you not to.” She said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Honestly, I could drop a titanium rod from low orbit, and I guarantee that the problem would be taken care of. It would only take a few minutes.”

With a sigh, she shook her head. “I know, and that’s why I’m here. This city was the pinnacle of elven society in the past. There is so much that has been lost over the years, preserved in the city. And to top it all off, I can’t even offer you a proper reward. My powers were taxed just bringing the two of you here, and I can’t afford to spend any more that isn’t in direct conflict with Apophis.”

I leaned back in a chair that the goddess had grown for us and looked at Elendria. “This is your quest. You take the lead on it.” I said.

“Damnit.” She muttered. “Making me choose between the history of my people and the unfettered rage I feel when I think about what they did? If there were a way to get the knowledge out and then have you obliterate the city as an example I would be more than happy to have you do that. Several times.”

“As cathartic as that would be, if we were to rescue all the knowledge first we would likely have to take out the royal family and break the curse dear.” I pointed out.

“I know, I know.” She muttered. We sat in an increasingly uncomfortable silence until Elendria finally broke. “FINE! Damnit, fine. We can at least try and save the city. The notification said it would take two weeks to make the undead respawn, that gives us two weeks to try and clear at least our way to the ziggurat and break the crystal. Hell, you could probably blast it once we got inside the city walls, right?” She asked turning to me.

Before I could answer, Shalora interrupted, “Unfortunately, no. The city shield is strong, but it isn’t the only one. There is one surrounding the ziggurat, as well as a third one surrounding the upper level itself.”

“Greeeeeaaat.” I groaned. “Lemme guess, there’s guardians protecting each entrance in the shield that we will have to defeat?”

“It is cliché, but that’s probably because it works. The city gates can be breached fairly easily, but there are two undead you will have to track down and dispatch before you can enter the pyramid. The archmage of the university has one of the keystone amulets, while the other is held by the high priest. Each amulet will let you breach a shield with your party.”

“Figures. Alright, we can give it a chance. If nothing else, it’ll give us a boatload of experience. Pity those ghouls only gave me a half a percentage point towards my next level.” I said with a sigh, before looking straight at Shalora. “Now, about payment. I know you said you can’t give us material items, but there are other things. First, why has nobody heard about how the civilization fell?”

“Because.” She said, “The knowledge of karmic magic is too dangerous. We decided to seal it away with the city.”

“That’s not good enough.” I said, shaking my head. “Look, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about humans, it’s that we will go to extreme lengths to further our knowledge. It’ll happen here too. If the elves managed to discover and refine karmic magic, humans will too. So here’s one thing I want you to do. You, and by you I mean all the gods, need to inform your priests about why the city fell. Make sure that everyone in the world knows about it. You will also need to train an elite group to recognize and hunt down anyone using karmic magic, because the second thing about humans is that if you tell someone not to push the big red button, the first thing they are going to do is push the big red button.”

“But, if we do that-“ She started.

“Yes, if you do that then people will eventually stumble upon it. But this way you will have a way to nip it in the bud before it can spread. You won’t have to pool your resources as gods and curse an entire city only to have that curse warped.”

“I can’t talk for the others, but you have my word that I will pass along the knowledge. Is there anything else?”

“Yeah. What do you plan to do with the city afterwards?” Elendria asked.

“Catalogue it, see what we can learn. Why?” Shalora asked.

“Well, it seems like we are doing the majority of the work to clear it. Even if you hand us a few hand tailored rewards, they seem to pale in comparison to you gods getting the loot from the entire city.”

“I see. Well, what do you propose young elf?”

“Give the city to us.” She said with a shrug.

“All of it?” Shalora asked, shocked.

“Yep. And hear me out. We will pay you to go through and catalogue the city. Let’s say you get all the rare and lower magical items. We split the superb, and anything higher tier Sean and I look at before we make a decision. By the time everything is catalogued, we should have this battle with your enemy finished and we can go forward from there.”

“Give us all the superb and lower magical items.” Shalora countered.

“If you pay us the full value for half of the superb items then. A city will need cash, right?” Elendria said, looking at me.

“I’m fine with that.” I said. “But we can work out the finer details later. Now, we will need some information about the city. What enemies can we expect, where those two major enemies can be found, and most importantly if holy spells will work at all within the city.”

“Would you like a golden arrow to point you to the target as well?” Shalora snarked. “Our sight has been blocked within the city, so I can’t answer any of that. I can tell you that holy spells will be worthless, as they will simply be warped by the curse. I would also advise against using that scale in your inventory, as anyone sensitive to it that is nearby will instantly know. And I guarantee you that the original owner of said scale knows you have used it.”

“Sean?” Elendria asked.

“Damnit, I was afraid of that. It’s from the enemy the gods are fighting.” I explained, getting a nod of understanding from Elendria.

“Was there anything else? I fear our time here is growing short rapidly.” Shalora asked.

“I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.” I said, shaking my head no.

“I have a request.” Elendria said. “After we cleanse the city, use your powers to search through it for the best gear for us. If there is no good equipment, then see if there are any books on advanced magic that will help Sean find his way home.”

“I can agree to that. Farewell you two, and best of luck.” She said as the dream faded.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“I don’t know how they manage to keep us up most of the night in their realm and let our bodies get enough sleep, but I’m rather happy that they can.” I mentioned as I got up and stretched the next morning.

“Eh. It’s a god thing.” Elendria said with a shrug. “It was never something I would have questioned before, especially since we mortals usually have little to no direct contact with the gods unless we choose the path of a priest. Seems being a summoned hero affects the lives of all those around you.” She winked at me. “But truthfully, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” I said, pulling her into a hug. “I just wish we could have my whole family here instead of just us.”

“I know dear, I know. We’ll join them soon, so you don’t have to worry too much. If my people once managed to learn karmic magic, I’m sure they have a way to trace back to your family.”

“Thanks.” I said, giving her one last squeeze. “Now. Let’s plan our assault. We only have two weeks, so slowly chipping away at the number of creatures isn’t going to work.”

“Yeah. Even if we had an entire month, I doubt we could take them all down that way.” Elendria said. “Stealth is out too. There is no way that an undead isn’t going to notice two living beings unaffected by the same curse affecting them.”

“True.” I nodded, pausing for a second. “Unless. Do you think you could alter the look of our souls with your skills? Make us seem like undead?” I asked, getting more excited with every word.

“I don’t think you understand Sean. There are no illusions involving the soul. It can’t lie.”

“Awww, damnit.” I grumbled. “Ok, so the sneak in route is gone. Before we go in, I have 80 attribute points sitting around. Are there any resistances that would be helpful?”

“That, is difficult. Paralysis would be a good one, but unless we know how the ghoul’s paralysis works it would be guesswork.”

“There are different paralysis resistances?” I asked, confused.

“Oh yes. Physical and magical paralysis.” She nodded. “Hmm, I don’t know about any undead being able to do it, but one of the rarest resistances is that against mind magic.”

“Mind magic?” I asked, then immediately started nodding. “Yeah, if it is just two of us, a specialist in mind magic might be able to control both of us. That could definitely be bad.” I said, looking over my sheet. “Let’s see, I am seven constitution away from a major adaptation. Let me see what I can do with the next one.” I dumped in the points, and mentally asked the system to only show resistances that would affect mind magic.

Resistance upgrades (mind or partial mind only)

Name

Description

Minor mind magic resistance (Level 1 of 6)

Resist all forms of mind magic +15%

Resist all magic (Level 1 of 20)

Resist all forms of magic +5%, additional boost applied based on difference between recipient’s WIS and caster’s INT

Minor resist control (level 1 of 6)

Resist all forms of magical submission +15%

Stalwart Soul I

Use the strength of your soul to reinforce your resistance to mental control. Defense increased by (Stalwart Soul X) x Spirit + Wis and compared against caster’s INT

“Oh wow. Four options. I can also dump almost all the rest of my attribute points to get another four levels of each option. I think resist all magic needs to be out, I could only get it to level 5 of 20, which would only be a 25% resistance.” I said, looking things over. “Minor mind magic and minor resist control seem similar, though resist control would likely be a little more useful. Do you know what the resistance levels are for six levels resistances?”

“Yes.” Elendria nodded. “Minor, lesser, middling, greater, superior and perfect. They give 15%, 30, 50, 65, 80 and 100% resistance. So you could theoretically boost up to 80% mind magic resistance. What is your final option?”

“That’s what I’m torn on. It says Stalwart Soul, and for every level I can multiply my spirit by stalwart soul and add it to my wisdom. So long as that is higher than the caster’s intelligence, then I will win.”

“I see. And what is your spirit at?”

“Right now? It’s at 220, and I’ll gain 20 every level. Couple that with 49 wisdom, I think there are very few things that could overtake me at Stalwart Soul level 1, and if we went to level 2 we should be about perfect. Right now my mana regen is at almost 600 per minute, and will grow by 40 per minute every time I level as well.” I said.

“Really?” Elendria asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Each point in spirit is 2 mana regen per minute. I still have 94 levels to gain, which is just under 4,000 mana per minute.”

“Ok, let’s do this then. Take Stalwart Soul up to level 2, then we can boost your wisdom up to 75. That is already incredibly high, and adding in the spirit will take it over 500. I have never heard of anything with over 500 intelligence. Hell, I’ve never heard of anything over 300 intelligence, but it is better to be slightly over for now.”

“Alright, I can do that.” I nodded. “That still leaves us with some things to play with. Should I split the rest between agility and dexterity?”

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“Yeah. You are flying now, and both of those will help.” She nodded, so I went ahead and followed the plan.

Stalwart Soul II!

Congratulations! You have upgraded the interface between your body and soul! Those trying to interfere with your mind will now find it that much harder to succeed.

Current resistance:

2 x 220 + 75 = 515

So long as the caster’s INT and bonuses are below 515, the spell will fail. If the combination is less than 258 the spell will backfire.

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 33

Titles:

Chosen of Ariana

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Grandmaster Sage

Divine mage

Heretic

Shalora’s Gratitude

Calamity Bane

Attributes:

STR – 17

AGI – 32

DEX – 35

INT – 48

WIS – 75

CON – 60

END – 35

Health: 350/350

Mana: 13290/13290

Health regen: 0.17/min

Mana regen: 585.47/min

Spirit: 220/220

Spirit regen: 1.8/hour

Level: 6/100

Exp to next level: 49%

Free attribute points: 0

Alright, contingencies taken care of, let’s get back to our attack. We can’t take our time, so we need to find a way to take out large swaths of them without destroying the city. Thoughts?”

“Yes. I’ll round up the patrols, letting them chase me. When we get them all into one area, you blast them with lightning.” She said.

“No. Find a different way, one that doesn’t require using you as bait.” I immediately replied.

“Ridiculous.” She countered. “I can fly. I’ll just keep ahead of them, letting them chase me.”

“And if a group of them starts throwing rocks at you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “They were accurate enough to hit what’s his name on your icy rampart. All it takes is one to get lucky and hit your wing, and bite you when you are down.”

“Fine, I’ll fly high enough that I am out of their range. They still won’t be able to resist, and if they start to lose interest I can cut myself. A few drops of fresh blood will rile them up.” She said, daring me to object.

I stared her down for a second, thinking through her plan. “One condition.”

“What?” She asked, exasperated.

“Stay away from the city walls. They have to have some sort of ranged defense, and we can take care of that after we deal with the roving bands of ghouls.”

“Fine.” She sighed after a few seconds. “That actually does make a bit of sense.”

“Thanks. Now, let’s get going.” I said, opening a hole up through the ceiling and launching myself out, followed quickly by Elendria. We didn’t stop until we were well clear of the trees, and headed toward the desolation that was the undead city. We crossed the border, and I had a thought, dropping down to check on something. With a crunch I landed on the black sand.

“Sean?” Elendria asked, having circled around.

“One moment.” I said, concentrating. I hadn’t used a lot of magnetic magic, but remembering the magnetic field for a simple bar magnet was child’s play. “HA! OH, WHAT A LOVELY DAY!” I shouted.

“What are you going on about?”

“Magnetic sand!” I said, looking up and smiling. “The black sand has a ton of iron in it, enough that it can be affected by a magnetic field!”

“So?” She asked with a shrug.

“So, I have a fun idea! Let’s go. I have a plan that will let us attract all the enemies we want, without putting you at risk. First, we need to grab some sand. And by some, I mean a lot!” I said, getting excited. We took to the skies, only this time below us I kept an incredibly powerful magnet afloat with a bit of antigravity magic. It was tricky balancing all three, but we slowed our pace so that I could gather the sand I needed. While I worked, Elendria kept us on course and away from any patrols. We meandered across the empty area, eventually coming to a stop about a half mile from the front gates of the city.

“Sean, are you sure you want to stop here?” She asked nervously.

“Absolutely!” I said, dropping my boulder of sand. It was nearly 20 feet in diameter at this point, though I still wasn’t sure it would be enough. Hopefully I could grab more if I needed to. “Ok, can you make the highest icy rampart you are able to? It’ll have to withstand a bit of a siege, because I am sure the bastards that are spying on us from the walls aren’t going to let us have all this fun alone.”

“Fine. How big of an area do you need?”

“Umm, I dunno.” I said with a wince. “Can you give me a quarter mile square?”

“I think so.” She said. “You might have to help though.”

“Here, let’s do this. I’ll start channeling mana to you, and you can use it to cast your spell. I’ll stop when I’ve used half my mana.”

“Deal.” She said. “Icy rampart!” With a wave of her hand, my mana started flowing at a constant rate as the icy wall took shape. She was taking me seriously, concentrating as the ice wall was nearly five feet thick. By the time it was nearing ten feet tall, I could see the gates to the city opening. I could see at least six packs of ghouls leading the charge, and towering behind them had to be three ghoul lords.

“Damn. Looks like they aren’t too keen on letting us finish our preparations.” I said, pointing out our approaching friends to Elendria.

“That’s fine. We can simply stay on top of the wall and slowly add to it.” Elendria said, redoubling her speed. Soon enough the front wall was complete, standing at an impressive thirty feet high. While she worked, I went ahead and conjured a constellation of the Demon Hand Nebula above us to increase her mana regeneration, cursing the fact that it didn’t work on myself. Elendria turned the corner and started working, while the ghouls surrounded the wall. One tried to climb up the growing wall, but Elendria shoved it off with new growth. There was a distinct difference from the battle yesterday, as the ghouls immediately backed off and stopped trying to climb that way.

“The warmth of life has come to the Desolation once again. Tell us, mortals, why you have come. Fame? Fortune? Knowledge?” One of the lords asked in a rhaspy voice. After a second, it added, “Power?”

“Close.” I called down in a chipper voice. “Could we get those in addition to our normal quest?”

“But of course!” He said. “Simply come down from your wall and cease your, whatever it is you are doing.”

“This? Oh, we are just building some siege equipment.”

“Siege equipment?” It asked, confused.

“Yep! Can’t have a proper siege without siege equipment. It’s in the rules.” I said, getting a chuckle from Elendria as she nodded.

“You are an odd human. You turn down our offer of power, and claim you are going to lay siege to a city of the undead. Do you perhaps think to starve us out?” It started cackling, and in an eerie echo, the ghouls under its command chuffed along with it. “Besides, there are but two of you. You would need an army for a siege.”

“Oh, don’t count Elendria out.” I said, shaking my head. “She has more than enough spunk for an army. Besides, if she had my knowledge and power yesterday, your city would be a smoking crater. You can thank Shalora for asking for-“ I never got to finish.

“NEVER SAY THAT BITCHES NAME IN OUR PRESENCE!” Thundered all three ghoul lords in the same voice, as the ghouls all froze and glared at me with eyes overflowing with hatred.

“Yeesh, talk about a sore spot.” I said to Elendria as the ghouls started slamming into the walls.

“You will come down from your wall and join us in undeath. Eventually you will learn why we hate the gods so.” The voice, now much calmer, said.

“Yeah, gonna have to turn you down there friend. But don’t worry, we’ll be making our way into the city soon enough!” I said in a chipper mood. “After all, we were tasked with freeing you from this curse. Unfortunately for you though, this siege equipment is classified. That means I’m going to have to ask you to leave now. Death’s Embrace.” With but a thought, the constellation appeared above our heads. Six stars to form a coffin with another five forming the wheel of rebirth in the center of it.

“AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!” The ghoul lords screeched as one, as the results were far more powerful than I expected. All the undead immediately stopped attacking and fled in whatever direction they were facing, not stopping for nearly a half mile.

“Well, that was nice.” Elendria chuckled, getting back to work. The wall was expanding much faster now that she didn’t have to worry about ghouls climbing it to get us. Three quarters of my mana and a full hour later, and she was finally done.

“Whew, well that was fun.” Elendria said, dropping down and leaning backward. “Now do I get to rest and watch you work?”

“Of course.” I said, sitting next to her. “I just have to recover my mana real quick, then I’ll get to it.” I said. Fifteen minutes later, I was standing up and preparing my portion. “Damn, but I love having mana regen that fast. At this point, I get more mana regen from spirit than I will from wisdom. Pity I never learned any constellations about builders.” I muttered the last bit, before taking a large swath of the iron sand and heating it until it was almost molten. I smashed it together with a massive internal gravitational force, then turned it into a giant metal pole. This was going to be the central pillar for my construction. Nearly a foot in diameter, I had enough metal to make it nearly 90 feet tall, with another 30 feet going below the ground. “Damnit, that’s all the sand I managed to acquire?” I muttered, staring at the giant pole.

“Well, I for one am still impressed with your pole.” Elendria chuckled, getting a glare from me. “What else are you planning on doing?”

“Well, first I’m going to go out and grab some more sand.” I said, taking flight. Having practiced it for a bit, it was a little easier to grab sand this time around. Elendria stayed behind to defend the fort, though the city didn’t try and attack us while I was away.

“Alright, time for Stairway to Heaven, phase 2!” I cried gleefully, melding iron and creating a gigantic spiraling staircase around the central tower. The steps were ten feet wide, and anchored with a large diameter wire that I welded to each step. Further reinforcing the staircase were stone protrusions grown from the ground, helping to support the platform I put at every 1/3 of a turn. Each one ended up being ten feet high, with the ninth platform not getting any support from down below. Instead, it was centered on the pole itself, and the last bit of leftover iron I used to make another twelve-foot spike shooting up out of the middle of the platform.

“Stairway to heaven, huh? Must be a pretty low heaven.” Elendria joked.

“Har dee har har.” I grumbled. “Why don’t you head out and start gathering the horde you promised?”

“Sure. Kiss for luck.” She said, sneaking in and dropping one on my forehead before taking off. I watched her from my vantage point, making sure she stayed well out of range of the city. I waited for my mana to recharge once again, then turned the entirety of the walled in courtyard into a sea of vicious spikes, with one path leading to the stairs of course. After that was done, I initially started channeling mana above me, before getting a better idea.

“Hmm, let’s stir up the hornet’s nest a bit, shall we?” I chuckled, before launching myself into a low flight. I circled the city for just a bit before I came to the first spoke. I turned toward the tower, and sped up, grinning the entire time. This was gonna be fun! As soon as the first spells and arrows started falling my way, I activated the skill set of my armor.

“Ride the lightning!” The effect was amazing. The world elongated, almost as if I was staring through a weird fisheye lens. Half a second later, and I was near the base of the tower and turning my flight into a vertical climb with the help of a bit of gravity magic. This was where it was going to get tricky. I stopped my ascent nearly a quarter of the way up the tower if you were to measure it from the siege platform behind it. Near the top of the tower, but opposite myself, I created an incredibly strong gravitational field and connected it to the top of the tower.

“Timber.” I said, using several void slashes, I cut through the tower at a downward angle, making sure that I overlapped the slashes by a bit. As soon as the last one cut through, the gravity took over and the tower started tipping toward the undead on the other side. I cut the gravity field and took off, as the farther the tower fell the more exposed I left myself.

“Oh, that pissed them right off!” I chuckled as several powerful spells hit the shield I was holding behind me, I turned and gained some height to see my handiwork. The tower lay in shattered pieces, and basically everything behind it had been smashed. There were a few lucky survivors making their way out of the rubble, but that was fine. I was more concerned with taking out the weaponry. And the fact that whatever I managed to destroy and kill took me from 49% to 85% experience. Rather than taking on another tower, I slowly headed toward my own tower, staying just out of range of the city defenders. That didn’t stop them from launching a few spells at me, though I refrained from retaliating. Mostly. A few fireballs here and there never hurt, did they?

By the time I returned and let my mana recover, I could see two beautiful sights. Elendria was on the horizon, with a large cloud of dust following her. And within the city, I could see preparations being made for an excursion. Seems my trap from earlier was working, and they feared what sort of a siege weapon I could create if I was capable of taking one of their towers down by myself. While all that was going on, I matched my mana regeneration to the mana I was sending skyward, preparing for Stairway to Heaven Phase three.

“Sean, why is my hair standing on end?” Elendria scowled nearly forty minutes later as she landed gently next to me.

“Why, that’s a surprise my dear. Though would you be kind enough to dismiss the icy rampart? We’re about to have some more friends from the city.” I said, nodding my head. She dropped the ice, but gasped as she finally registered what was heading our way.

In the lead was a veritable army of ghouls. I couldn’t even count the number, and didn’t even try. There were several ghoul lords in the mix, and it finally clicked. Their bone armor made them look similar to one of the bad guys from a kids’ television show, where five teenagers piloted a giant mech made from fused dinosaurs. Take that guy, then pump him full of steroids.

Flanking this army were two groups of skeleton riders on skeletal lizard cavalry. Bringing up the rear were four heavily armored behemoths. Twenty feet of muscle, they looked like giant elephants with the tails of an ankylosaur. They were decked out in plate mail and chain where they needed to move, and each tusk had a spiked steel mace head on them.

“So what’s the plan Sean?” Elendria asked, concerned.

“As soon as the ghouls start climbing, we take to the skies and back off just a bit. I’ll leave a pool of blood here as bait, I’ve actually been painting the main spike with my own blood for a while. I’ll hide us behind an illusion barrier, and we can start the show as soon as those behemoths get within range.”

It didn’t take but a few minutes for the ghouls to start climbing, and I dropped the orb of blood I had been gathering before hiding Elendria and myself behind a barrier of mana I had changed to resemble the sky behind us. We stopped nearly a half mile away, when she whispered, “Why are we so far away?”

“One moment.” I said, sweat dripping down into my eyes as I held my surprise back. Just as the first of the ghoul lords managed to reach the top platform and began to search around desperately for me, the last of the behemoths got into range. The first one was just close enough to tear into the lower platforms, and I knew it was time.

“Death’s Embrace.” I said, creating the feared constellation as I let the spell above everything go. Several things happened at once, and I couldn’t help but cackle maniacally at the pandemonium. The appearance of the constellation caused several of the undead to leap to their doom from the platforms, but those were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones were obliterated in an actinic flash, as what was quite possibly the largest bolt of lightning in the history of Vitae came crashing down, channeled through the massive iron lightning rod. Forty minutes of channeling at nearly 600 mana per minute, the lightning bolt was effectively cast with nearly 24,000 mana. Almost double my full capacity. Had I not sealed our barrier from sound, we would have certainly been deafened by the thunder.

When my eyes could work again, and not show everything as a massive blue spot, I heard Elendria swear, “Lokir’s balls Sean!”

“Hahahahaha!” I cackled, looking at the wreckage. The platform was nothing but slag, as was the armor on the behemoths. The skeleton cavalry, having only surrounded the area, was nothing but shattered bones from the concussive pulse. I dropped the barrier, surveying the area. As far away as we were, it still took nearly 8,000 mana to protect us from harm.

“That was no stairway to heaven. More like a descent to hell.” Elendria said, hovering next to me. We checked to make sure that nothing survived, but it was useless. That was an insane amount of damage, and these weren’t the kind of beings built for surviving attacks like that.

“So what’s next?” Elendria asked.

“Let’s retreat for now. It hurts to think of another spell, and we have some attribute points to spend, don’t we?” I said, looking at my notification.

“Oh? Oh my! I gained five levels!” She said, eyes wide with delight.

“Nice! I gained three, and almost enough for a fourth.” I chuckled.