Jen whipped around her eyes narrow slits and her hand going to the dagger at her hip. The man that had just walked past her flinched and turned an angry glare back at her. His hand going to the dagger at his own hip.
Human
Class: Assassin (8)
Profession: Belly Dancer (9)
“What is your problem woman!” The man spoke with a British accent. Well, Jen thought it was British.
“Sorry about her. You remember that problem I informed you about with an um criminal we had some issues with not long ago.” Richard who was guiding the man moved to placate the situation.
“Oh ya. That assassin bloke that murdered a group.” The man seemed to relax some, apparently understanding the situation a little better. “No worries girl. I’m not some loony out to murder anyone.”
Jen relaxed. This man was older and didn’t look anything like Jeremy. It wasn’t like that monster could change his face. Her eyes went wide and her hand slipped to her dagger again. Or could he?
Richard seemed to see this and moved over to place a hand on her shoulder. “Easy now girl. I know what you went thru was bad. I certainly can’t imagine what you went thru.” He chuckled awkwardly. “I don’t even leave the town. Still, level one and all.” He smiled some. “But that… that man is most likely dead. It has been days now and no sign of him at all.”
Jen focused on Richard. “He isn’t dead.” She gripped the hilt of the dagger at her side so hard her knuckles popped before letting it go and straightening up. “Sorry about the hostility.” she said to the assassin with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I have to go join my next party.” She gave them both a nod and turned to leave. Though she kept all her senses focused on the assassin until they were well away.
Richard watched her with a sigh and activated identity on her retreating back.
Human
Class: Healer (13)
Guide: (8)
“She used to be our best guide. But now, now all she does is fight constantly.” Richard muttered.
“What's that?” The assassin he had been guiding asked.
“Nothing. Nothing important. Let us continue.” Richard turned on his smile as he returned his attention to the man.
As Jen headed to her next party she checked her quest.
Home World Defender.
You have miraculously survived death by an invader.
Slay your murderer and defend your world.
Note: You will fail this quest if another slays your target.
Status: 0/1
Reward: Unique Skill
Again she wrapped her hands around the dagger at her side and gripped it until her knuckles turned white. “I’m going to kill you with your own weapon. Invader.”
*****
Sitting up, Dren stretched and yawned after his dreamless sleep. It felt like he had slept far longer than before. But it was hard to tell since he had no way to tell time. All his resource pools were full. The only thing he could measure time with was when he grew hungry. Which he was again so he felt like it was actually the fourth day in the dungeon now. Sucking on the hard biscuit while dreading when it turned to that horrible slimy consistency. He debated what to do. Dren got the feeling he was almost at the end of the dungeon. That last fight with the mix of all three previously fought monsters. Was similar to the last fight before the boss in the forest dungeon. Doubling his level since entering was great. But he would soon have to leave the dungeon if he wanted to progress further.
There was still the chance the natives were waiting for him outside. So he wanted to be as strong as possible before leaving. With that thought he shifted and pulled one of the hides out from under him. Something interesting he had noticed with them when viewing them before with his enchanter menu. Was that they showed up just like an equipment item but didn’t have a mana capacity or mana veins like processed items. He was curious about what that meant. So after activating his enchanting menu on the hide in his hand, he decided it was time to experiment.
Grabbing the profane rune of durability he placed it in the center of the hide. It seemed to snap to it just as a rune did for an item. Nodding in excitement he started filling the rune and his eyes widened. When he filled a normal rune with just mana it was a slight tickling sensation in his mind. But as he filled this one his entire body tingled and while it wasn’t painful. It was uncomfortable as points were drained from all three of his resource pools at the same time. Yet, it worked. The rune also looked different as it filled. All three colors seemed to fill in the background at once. Swirling around to turn a murky dark brown color. This was different from normal runes that simply drew a glowing circle of pale blue-white light. The lines forming the rune were “written” inside it.
Instead, that circle was filled with the brown murky swirling energy before finally, lines started being drawn within. They alternated between red, blue, and yellow. Flowing from one to another in seemingly random ways before the complex geometric symbol was finally complete. Three hundred health, mana, and stamina later the rune was complete. Letting out a sigh he glanced from the menu to his backpack. “Test one was a success. Now for test two.” He paused for a moment at talking to his luggage again before shaking his head. “Whatever.”
Returning his attention to the menu he started pouring more of his resources into the rune. Slowly that dark murky color spread out from the rune as more and more of his resources were drained. Grinning Dren continued to pour them in. He was only halfway done “filling” the hide when the headache hit him. Checking his resources. He saw he had drained his entire mana pool as well as greatly depleted his health and stamina. Only then did he realize he was panting heavily while covered in sweat.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Ugh. No way this is worth it. That is just too much.” He closed his enchanter menu. Deciding to just be happy it seemed his theory was possible. Maybe it would be worth it to try with one of the other runes as draining all his resources was a bit much for no real gains. Or so he thought at first. Upon closing his menu he was greeted with a surprise.
Profession: Enchanter has reached level eight.
He hadn’t been expecting a level-up so soon. It hadn’t been that long since he leveled up before. Was it the act of enchanting the leather itself? Or the amount of resources it took? Or was the profane rune itself just worth more experience? Maybe a combination of all of them. But regardless it seemed worth doing.
Sitting back to let his resources restore he activated his Calm Respite. It would mean his health would refill faster than the others. But he did kinda hope it would potentially level up the skill eventually.
As if hearing his wishes there came a system chime. Opening it up he didn’t find the expected skill level up notice. Instead, he got something even better.
Skill Acquired: Mediation
“Wait. Isn’t that a mage skill? Or had I been wrong about that before? Maybe that mana-hungry mage had just unlocked it already?” After a moment of internal debate, he finally shrugged. It didn’t matter, he was just glad to have gotten another skill.
Calm Respite felt like a soothing warmth that flowed thru his veins. Mediation was a soothing coolness that seemed to swirl through his mind like a gentle breeze. Both were nice and together they were quite enjoyable. As he rested and watched his three resource pools filling he wondered aloud. “Is there something like this for stamina?”
*****
Dren ignored his throbbing headache. His mana pool was still smaller than his other two. But he had been a bit impatient wanting to see what the leather would become when fully enchanted. Even going so far as resisting the urge to identify the partially completed product. So every time his mana would fill up a few hundred points. Back to enchanting, he would go. It did mean that his stamina pool eventually became the limiter as it just filled slower. But other than a general sense of just not feeling well. It wasn’t as bad as the mana headache. It mostly just reminded him of how his old body had always felt, and he was used to that. But now it was finally done. It had taken a staggering twelve hundred mana, health, and stamina to fully enchant the leather. Not counting the three hundred of each to place the rune. Fifteen hundred of each resource all to enchant one piece of leather.
Sucking in a deep breath as his headache lessened with each tick of meditation he finally did it. He activated Identity on the leather.
Immutable Profane Leather.
Raw leather that has been fully enchanted with the profane rune of durability. This leather while seeming unchanged in its raw form will imbue any items crafted with it with extreme durability and innate magical resistance. Items crafted will also have a higher mana capacity for enchanting and unique synergy with profane enchantments.
“Oh yeah. That is the good stuff. Even if I hadn’t gotten a second level off enchanting just this one piece. It would be worth it.” Yes, Dumping more than his entire health, stamina, or mana pools into a single piece of leather had netted him not one. But two levels. Leaving him just one away from level ten and whatever new thing he was likely to get. Even another lesser rune would be nice.
Even better he checked his system messages and found he had gained a new skill.
Enchanting Skill: Material Imbuement
He didn’t need to read the description to know what it did.
This also made Dren want the other four profane runes hidden somewhere around this dungeon. But for now, he sat back and let his resource pools fill. He had more leather to enchant.
Once his resources were full, or well full enough. He did test out another theory. After placing the profane rune on the leather he tried to add the lesser empower rune. But it wouldn’t stick. It seemed when dealing with raw materials like the leather. One rune was the limit. Still, he didn’t complain. It took hours of letting his resources restore passively. Which in itself was nice as it leveled up his newly acquired mediation skill. Calm Respite hadn’t leveled up again and he still didn’t have a similar skill for stamina but he would take it. Speaking of leveling up. He had only gotten one level for fully enchanting the second leather. Which was still great as far as he was concerned.
Level ten gave him the chance to select any of the previously available runes or he could select the Basic version of any of the lesser runes he knew. This meant he could either focus on a few runes and progress them. Or get a wider option to use. Also, the Basic version costs one hundred and fifty mana to place.
After a long debate while his resources were refilled he decided to get the basic bleed rune. While the others had been nice and drain was very tempting after dealing with the stamina crash in his last fight. Bleed seemed to have been one of the more effective tools against the troll. While not that great against the Muskin. None of the others seemed to do much either. Besides, he had to remind himself his real targets were ones that bled.
With that selected, it brought a new question. Could he upgrade older enchanted items with his newer runes? Drawing his dagger he found that he could in fact replace the old lesser bleed rune with the new one. It seemed it would cost the full one hundred and fifty mana instead of just the difference. But that wasn’t a big deal. It would also eat up fifty more of the weapons capacity. Still, that would leave him with room for one more lesser rune. After he upgraded the bleed rune and a little debate he added the drain rune as well. Identifying the completed dagger.
Empowered Draining Life Bane Dagger of Bloodletting.
“Okay. That name is getting silly long. But it does kinda sound awesome at the same time. Even if it really is a bit too wordy.” Still, Dren was happy with it and returned it to its sheath. His plan was to enchant all the leathers or at least until he got to fifteen in enchanting. Well, he hoped he had enough to get that far. With each level up his pool of resources grew and even better his greater spirit made refilling them faster.
*****
Character Sheet
Name: Dren
Race: Human (I)
Class: Assassin (12)
Profession: Enchanter (10)
Health: 1450/1450
Stamina: 1450/1450
Mana: 1150/1150
Agility 44
Dexterity 44
Endurance 54
Intelligence 42
Spirit 42
Strength 54
Toughness 54
Vitality 54