“Reinforce Conduit Channels. Huh, is that what they are called? Not mana veins? I like mana veins better even if I fill them with more than mana now.” Dren eyed the new skill option. It was the only skill choice he had, but he did still have the option of taking new runes. This new skill worked like item refinement. It was something he could do to an item before enchanting it. Doing as it said and reinforcing the Con… no the Mana Veins of an item. It was obvious what that would be good for after his recent experiments. It sounded good, really good as he considered the benefits. Five extra points stuffed into a dagger wasn’t a small change. Testing it out it was closer to a twenty percent increase in power based on the radius of the explosion.
But it would also be more time spent on a single item. For the consumable throwing knives would it be worth it? He never refined them before enchanting them either. Refining an item was simply too resource and time consuming for the benefit. In the time it would take him to refine a single of the throwing knives he could enchant ten of them. If this took a similar amount of time it wasn’t likely to be worth it. Not when he could just multiply a single dagger for some mana cost. But what about armor and his permanent items?
Dren rubbed his face vigorously to help ward off the returning fatigue. Eating the odd cookie had helped wash it away, but it was starting to creep back in on him. Nothing like the fugue state he had been in before. But still exhausted, a nice nap would be in order soon. There was still the option for Flesh Enchanting, the odd skill that allowed him to apply runes directly to a living creature. Almost like a magical tattoo.
Ignoring the skills he checked his new rune options. The first thing he noticed was that all his options were indeed Profane Runes. Not a single normal rune in sight. But as he scanned the short list he noticed that he didn’t have any options for any he already possessed as basic runes. It looked like no Profane Bleed this time.
“Corrosion, Agony, Repulsion, and Speed.” Dren muttered out the four profane rune options.
Corrosion was simple, it would allow him to add corrosion or basically acid damage when applied offensively while protecting from it when used for defensive enchants. Agony would induce pain when used offensively, not actually causing any physical damage apparently. While used defensively it would reduce pain and protect from similar attack methods. Repulsion seemed to be the exact opposite of Binding. If used on one of his throwing knives instead of chains pulling enemies in. They could be knocked back. Same with used defensively. He wondered if it could blow away projectiles or even counter a blow. Finally, Speed could accelerate a projectile, and enhance the… well speed of an attack. Or be used to give a boost to the wearer of armor.
“Ohh that is some juicy fucking options.” Dren almost drooled over the choices. Corrosion could not only work as another damage source, replacing his now weakened to the point of not being work it bleed rune. But he got the feeling it could even eat away at the armor of a target, making it doubly useful for hard to crack nuts he couldn’t just burst down with his high damage.
Agony while sounding sinister as a weapon could be greatly useful for the pain reduction. First and foremost, Dren didn’t like pain. But things like the bat’s sonic attack almost crippled him with pain even if the actual damage wasn’t very high. Becoming an unfeeling fighter, never flinching or backing down might potentially have some drawbacks. But hey, less pain!
Repulsion gave him several ideas. Defensively he wondered if it could be used to counter attacks. While offensively it had some intriguing ideas. What happened if he enchanted a throwing knife with binding and repulsion? The idea of chains dragging someone towards them while an equal force pushed them away made him wonder. What would happen in that situation? Would they cancel each other out? Or maybe pull someone apart? It sounded gruesome but it wasn’t like he shied away from gruesome, after all he was trying to kill whatever he attacked.
Then there was speed. Attacking faster was great, really great. But moving faster might be even better. His teleporting boots already gave him great mobility but one could never have enough. Mostly right now he was thinking of those Gardner monsters with their crazy fast attack speeds. He could dodge them, but not easily.
“Ugh. I want them all. I want the skills too. Give me EVERYTHING!” He shouted the last bit to push away the further encroaching exhaustion. Ren paused weaving a silk cloth to look at him like he was crazy. “Don’t you judge me! I’m tired, and this is a hard choice.” He paused. “Can I have another cookie?”
Ren almost seemed to hesitate before producing a cookie from her pouch for him. If Dren noticed he didn’t show it and took the cookie with a chortle of gratitude. Only problem was when he chomped on the cookie. Nothing happened. Well, it tasted great still. But that soothing sensation didn’t come. “Ahhh is there a cooldown or something on these?” Ren just gave an apologetic tight lipped smile before returning to her work. Flopping back on the pile of hides he used as a sitting mat/work area/bed he ate the rest of the cookie while staring at his options.
Moving from the runes back to the skills he eyed the Reinforcing skill. It would mean more work but if he wanted he could produce better items. It would probably be worth it for things he planned to use long term. While the overcharged throwing knives weren’t unstable and he was sure… well mostly sure they wouldn’t just go boom any time. It was clear their durability had been reduced by the microfractures in the item's structure. Fine for a disposable thing like a projectile explosive, but not so much for armor or a weapon he wanted to rely on.
But new runes! They opened so many options. Each and every one of them. They were more complex than the basic ones he had been getting and that wasn’t even mentioning that each potentially had bonus perks thanks to his passive from being a Profane Acolyte. As he flopped back and forth his sight landed on the Flesh Enchanting. It had been there for a while now and he mostly discounted it. How would that even work? Could he refine a person before using it? What about the new reinforcing skill could he do that? It was hard to tell just how much use he could get out of it. But as he thought about it, what would happen if he enchanted his own body with the speed rune? Would it just improve his speed overall? Could he stack it with the benefits of using it on his armor? Layering bonuses to an extreme amount? What was his body's capacity for enchanting?
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These questions rattled in his fogged brain making him groan. “I’m actually glad my class just gives me skills. Picking and choosing is hard!” Rolling over and curling up he finally made his decision. He would take a long nap. There didn’t seem to be any rush to make a selection. No timer and he could just access the menu at any time. Nor did this pause his leveling as he had shot right past level five. “Later then.” He muttered and finally passed out.
*****
Silent as a shadow the blade sailed through the air, then one became three right before they impaled the hulking Gardner. Dren let out a grunt of surprise at the amount of mana drained from him for just making two extra copies. He knew enchanted items cost more to duplicate, luckily not enough to fully enchant the items themselves. But this was a bigger spike than he expected. In front of him, he watched as chains erupted from all three daggers to not only wrap around the huge brute but lashed out to bind up the two gremlins and the two bats with it.
Dren had used the binding enchant on a number of daggers and it normally reeled in smaller targets decently. Not particularly fast though. Against bigger enemies, it at most pulled them a little or slowed them down. Even against the natives it had mostly just restrained their movement unless they were off balance already. But his new overcharged enchant was leagues better. It reeled in the four smaller monsters with a vengeance to the point they made a soft thud sound as they slammed into the Gardner.
Then the explosion happened. Unable to fit the fire rune on it for a triple enchant it was a blast of dense kinetic force. All three detonated at once and a bloody mist erupted, all that was left of the bats. As the chains shattered the broken and twisted bodies of the ultra durable Gremlins was sent flying to bounce off earthen walls. While the force actually lifted up and pushed the Gardner back. Translucent goo gushed out of its mouth as it flailed around but still alive. Twitching showed the Gremlins while broken weren’t yet dead either. But those annoying and squishy bats, yeah they were definitely taken care of.
Insects swarmed out of the hunchbacks of the two gremlins to rush towards them, somehow unharmed despite everything. Sucking in a deep breath he breathed out a gout of fire that engulfed the swarm heading towards him. Then turned to help Ren only to find the situation well under control. Silk threads swirled around where Ren stood, so dense it looked like she was making a cocoon for herself. All the insects that attempted to swarm her were cut to ribbons. A pile of tiny corpses built up around her. “What the hell?” When had Ren learned to do that? He started to open the status menu to see what was going on but another swarm was already closing in.
“Kill first. Then find out what is going on.” Lunging towards his enemies even as he breathed out a gout of flames Dren drew his daggers. It was time to get to work.
*****
It had been a surprisingly easy fight. With the annoying bats dead and the gremlins crippled the Gardnier should have been the primary threat. Turned out, the blast seemed to have liquified its strange flesh leaving it more like a giant water balloon than a dense mass of destruction. One that Dren popped rather easily with just a few thrusts. That translucent goo rushed out of it as it deflated. In the end, the Gremlins with their swarm of biting and stinging insects were probably the greater threat. But not by much. Between his flame breath ability and Ren’s new ability, Shredding Cocoon, the swarm wasn’t an issue.
Yes, Ren, thanks to her heavy grinding had cheated by getting experience for leveling up skills and had managed to push all the way to level twenty. Dren was completely happy for her and not jealous or envious at all. Nope, definitely not. That would be petty and small of him, after all he had leveled up his enchanting quite a bit. Even gained a skill option he still hadn’t picked. Why should he be envious? ‘Give me more levels damn it!’
Interestingly enough the skill wasn’t actually a defensive one, though she had used it as such this time. It was supposed to be used on a target. Wrapping them in countless swirling sharp threads that would shred them while trapping them. It sounded downright terrifying and he couldn’t wait to see it in action properly.
From there Dren tested a number of his new weapons as they worked through the tunnels clearing out the mixed packs. Binding and Fire caused burning chains to wrap around the target, slowly cooking them while restraining them. The chains were strong enough to completely restrain the weaker bats and gremlins. But the Gardners could tear free, eventually. Decay worked similarly though a bit more grotesquely as the targets started rotting from the touch of the chains.
Darkness did what darkness did, the chains seemed to slowly infuse the targets over time with it. While the explosions of it gave them a high single dose. Oddly enough or perhaps predictably the bats were least impacted by this. Thus each pack of monsters became a new testing source to see not only how much stronger his enchanted throwing weapons were. But exactly what each combination did. All the time he considered each of the potential new runes he could claim and how to combine them. Some were terrifying to consider such as Decay and Corrosion, what kind of nightmare fuel would that produce? While others raised questions, could he accelerate the effects of other runes with speed? Making something rot faster or enhancing the speed debuffs stacked? Could speed and empower be combined with another rune to make it faster and stronger? There were so many options, thus Dren still hadn’t made his choice when they finally got to the boss room.
*****
Character Status
Name: Dren Race: Human (I) Class: Profane Blade (10) Profession: Profane Acolyte: (6) Health: 4950/4950 Stamina: 4950/4950 Mana: 4350/4350 Credits: 6,970 Agility 140 Dexterity 140 Endurance 198 Intelligence 174 Spirit 164 Strength 150 Toughness 150 Vitality 198 Dungeon Competency 60% Solo Dungeon Competency 50%