Chapter 15

After the fight with Brucey was over, Riakon had looked around frantically for Errrkkkk and Roden only to find his two companions were standing off to the side watching the fight. They gave Riakon a muted golf clap in response to his victory, much to Riakon’s initial annoyance. They had insisted the one on one fight was good for the Dragonkin’s confidence, which he had to admit was true.

Roden let Errrkkkk and Riakon handle the crew while enjoyed the view. When they were finished they had apparently purchased the boat and hired the crew. The rationale they provided to Roden was something along the lines of “now we have a boat if we need one.”

Turns out the captain had been killed during the initial takeover and he didn’t have any family the crew knew about. The men negotiated with the crew and in the end it was determined the men would continue their work as seanut divers for the Sons of Era-archy.

At Riakon’s urging, the party rode the ship back to Port Sept in order to discuss the finer details and determine payments. By late morning on the following day, the ship arrived in port and the crew set to docking and preparing to unload their meager bounty.

Riakon and Errrkkkk felt good about themselves for having secured what Riakon called “passive income”. Roden just rolled his eyes at their slightly morbid opportunism. Roden had other things on his mind. When he had woken that morning he could feel his advancement had come. The familiar tingle in his fingertips and the slight glow that accompanied him when he stood still for a bit too long.

The men walked to the Outpost and gave their report. The payment was more than enough to make up for what they had paid for their ship and crew. However, that wasn’t all they received. In addition to their payment they were given another missive that directed them to meet up with the Court Mage again at their earliest convenience.

Roden found himself all the more irritated by one more thing standing between him and his advancement. There was something different about this advancement. The amount of magical energy within him was frustratingly palpable. He felt like he was coming apart at the seams.

He considered just getting it done and over with while on the ship, but Errrkkkk and Riakon had suggested they talk over their advancement options. Fortunately, when they arrived at the Vicar Vairh Vasilica the guard instructed them that the Court Mage was not available for appointments, so they left a message and returned to the Silver Wind Inn.

It wasn’t until they were all relaxing in the hot waters of the treehouse spa that they were able to discuss the topic over a pipe.

“So guys what’s so important about this advancement I had to wait all day?”

Riakon shook his head, “it’s official this guy knows nothing about advancements.”

“Yep, pretty sure we already established that. Now will someone please tell me what’s going on?! It feels like I have lightning in my veins.”

Errrkkkk nodded, “we are at the Point of Convergence, cacaw.”

Roden gestured for him to keep going.

Riakon picked up where the birdman left off, “The Point of Convergence is when the amount of magic you absorb and can store rewires your meridians. The effects are slightly different for everyone, but there are going to be quite a few changes and we figured you wouldn’t know what you were doing so we wanted to talk with you first.”

“Okay so what is going to happen to me?” A bit of concern leaked into his voice.

Errrkkkk shrugged, “not sure, cacaw.”

“Wow thanks, I feel so prepared.” Roden said dryly.

Riakon took a scholarly pose, “for example, Errrkkkk here is going to gain much greater control over his chi. Before his body was trained to do what he wanted it to do. Now that training and his physical nature will converge. You might say he is currently a person who has trained to be a monk. After his advancement, he will be a monk in all aspects.”

Roden was a little shocked at the revelation. In Adventures and Antics each level up was essentially the same. Sure they granted new abilities or features for a character, but never anything like what they described. He supposed nothing about that game was relevant anymore considering it was just a ruse by Zamira in the first place, but he couldn’t help, but notice similarities.

Roden took a deep breath and let it out, “so you’re saying my next advancement will make me a true Cleric?”

Riakon nodded, “yeah actually that's a nice way to think about it. You’ll have a much greater connection to your God, that much is for sure. Chances are you will be offered more powerful sub-domains or an evolution of your current one. There will definitely be an Augmentation available so allocate that carefully.”

Roden took it all in and nodded, “okay anything else I should know?”

His two friends looked at each other in thought before shaking their heads neither able to think of any more wisdom to share.

“Well gentlemen if it is all the same to you, I am going to do this Advancement now while I sit in this tub and smoke this pipe. You are welcome to stay, it won’t take me long.” He ended his words with a wink before striking a meditative pose and fell into himself.

Roden opened his eyes and was met by a cool ocean breeze. He was barefoot, his toes and the soles of his feet warm in the soft sand of the beach. He walked over to the center of the island under the shade of the tall palm trees. He closed his eyes and prayed to Zamira to come help him at her earliest convenience. His prayer had barely finished when he heard her familiar voice.

“Oh you boys finally reached the Point of Convergence aye?”

Roden nodded, “yep we made it alright. But I don’t know what the hell that really means for me.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, I will help you figure it out. Actually I have a recommendation if you are open to it.” She said it with more hope in her voice than she had used before.

Roden nodded, “fine by me. What’s your plan?”

Zamira clapped her hands together, “really? That’s great! Okay so now that you’ve reached the Point of Convergence as a Cleric we have a much greater connection. Your spark is now tuned to the frequency of my divine magic. I can now give you so much more in the way of specific abilities. Given our close relation I can be a bit more selective in what I grant you.”

“Okay if I’m following you right, a lot of what I already can do is common among your Clerics?”

Zamira gave a gesture of uncertainty before shrugging, “sort of, your storm domain is consistent with some Clerics I have had in the past. One way to think of Clerical magic is each god has domains, and each domain has a collection of abilities the god can grant. Through their actions, Clerics demonstrate an affinity to some of those abilities and thus the god grants them the ability they have the greatest affinity with.”

Roden was surprised how much sense it all made when she put it that way.

“Okay so what about now with this whole Point of Convergence thing?”

A wide grin spread on Zamira’s face, “well one way to think about it is Clerics who reach that level become the test subjects for new abilities of their gods. I should probably point out reaching the Point of Convergence is pretty rare. There are perhaps only a handful of Clerics who have advanced that far on the entirety of Mir.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Holy shit.”

“Yes yes holy shit indeed. But let's get cooking! I am dying to see what we can come up with for my Champion.”

Roden couldn’t help, but smile at her enthusiasm, “by your own words I have an affinity with certain abilities you already can bestow.”

“Yeah yeah, but forget those. I am trying to make something new here. You are my first Champion in over a hundred years. I need to set a precedent here.”

Roden pulled back in mock surrender, “okay okay, what are you thinking?”

“One of the things Clerics can do during this advancement is they can supplant one of their domains with a subdomain of their current one and you my wonderful son have given me the perfect opportunity and affinity to unveil a subdomain of Adventure.”

“Well don’t hold me in suspense.”

“So my thought is to create a Hero subdomain for my Adventure domain!” Her words came out with so much enthusiasm it was infectious.

“Hero huh? Isn’t that a little dramatic?”

The energy that crackled off Zamira had Roden backpedaling instantly,

“Kidding. I was just kidding. I love the idea actually.” He said sheepishly trying to placate the short fused Goddess.

Zamira narrowed his eyes at him, but smiled nonetheless. “Good, so what should we do?”

Roden raised an eyebrow, “you’re asking me?” he said with incredulity.

“Of course I’m asking you. I can’t just whip up everything on my own, you know.”

“You can’t?”

“Well yes I could, but where is the fun in that when we have the ability to do it together?”

“Fair point.” Roden thought for a moment that dragged into a much longer moment.

Zamira stood in front of him expectantly, “well?”

Roden shrugged, “I don’t know. I can’t think of anything I’d want.”

Zamira stared at him blankly, “you mean to tell me you have a goddess of an alien world standing in front of you offering untold magical power and you can’t come up with anything?!”

Roden nodded, “yeah that isn’t exactly something that happens every day.”

Zamira harrumphed, “true enough, I suppose. Is there any magic you wish you had?”

“I mean having fireball was cool, but that doesn’t seem terribly hero themed to me.”

“No, no it doesn’t. Speaking of old abilities, what if you got your sword back?”

“My sword? From Hero’s Armament?”

“Yeah that one. What if I made it into an ability instead of a spell?”

“Are you just trying to one up my Sylvan Weaponry?”

Zamira looked aghast, “of course not! I just know how much you like that spell.”

“I did like that spell.” He said a bit more sullen than he intended.

“Then let’s do that!”

Roden held up a hand, “hang on a minute, I spent a bunch of time relearning how to fight without it. I’m not trying to go backwards.”

“Booooo.”

“Did you really just boo me?”

“Yes, yes I did.” She said, turning her nose up at him. “C’mon Roden I need my Champion to strike a glorious pose here and a sword is the quintessential hero’s weapon.”

“I already have a sword.”

Zamira rolled her eyes, “can you even call that dainty thing a sword?”

“What else can we do?”

“Fine, let’s see. You can fly, you have excellent ranged abilities, you have an awesome shield that would go great with a cool sword…” She trailed off, ending her snarky tirade, her intent gaze fixed on Roden.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“It has come to my attention you are incredibly weak for a hero.”

“Woah! What are you talking about? You just listed all the ways I am awesome.”

“I mean physically weak. As in I am surprised you can carry an Adventurer’s pack without help.”

Roden’s face scrunched up in displeasure at her very true words. He had rolled a seven way back when…

“Hey wait a minute, when I made Roden back at the Outpost did anything I did there actually matter?”

Zamira snorted, “nope.”

“What?!”

“It was all just a clever ruse to trick you a bit into feeling like you had some control. The illusion of choice if you will. All of the results were predetermined, it just looked like it was random.”

“So the stats I rolled didn’t matter?”

Zamira shook her head, “nope, I made the dice show what I wanted. I knew you would put things in the right places given your connection to Roden…” She trailed off.

“There is that connection you keep mentioning.”

“Yeah, forget about that. Let’s get back to how weak you are.”

“Fine I guess… I suppose it’s fair to say I am quite physically weak. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well given the way you have been fighting in this world I am starting to feel that you have enough of an affinity to strength to make something work.”

“Hmmmmm keep talking.”

“Well any ability I give you here for the subdomain is going to replace either your Pilgrim’s Rebuke or your Adventurer’s Aegis.”

“Boooo.”

Zamira shrugged, “them's the breaks kid. The abilities are that strong though. What if the ability gave you strength equal to a fighter of the same level?”

“You should know that I have no idea what that means in this world.”

“Right, well in your world you’d call it super strength.”

“Ding ding ding we have a winner! Dose me up!” he said, spreading his arms out wide.

“Now who's being dramatic?”

He glared at her, “what's the hold up?”

“These subdomain abilities are really powerful. Super strength is just one part of it. I need more to fill out the available space.”

Roden was confused, “available space?”

“I just mean that the ability you can have now has access to a much larger reserve of magic than before. By extension it should use up all of the available magic otherwise it is a waste. At least in my godly opinion.” She said the last part with an amount of smugness only available to a god speaking to their worshipper.

“Okay so super strength and what else?”

“Well what else should a hero be able to do? C’mon mister literature, dig deep.”

“Well damn, I don’t know. I already move fast. I have armor, a sword, and a shield.” His eyebrows shot up, an idea blossoming in his mind.

“I don’t suppose you could have it teach me how to fight?”

Zamira thought for a moment, “probably not. Or at least not enough to give you the Neo moment you are looking for.”

“I wasn’t–”

“Do not lie to a Goddess in front of your mother.”

Roden raised a finger to protest, but she had caught him.

“As much as I want to explore that statement, I’m going to let it pass for now. So you can’t make me better at fighting at all?”

“Well I could make you better at what you already know, but I couldn’t give you anything new.”

“Would that mean dusting off all of those martial arts classes from my childhood?”

“Essentially.”

“So I’d have the skills of a purple belt?”

Zamira laughed a bit too hard for Roden’s liking, “yes and no, your skills would be brought to their best, but I would also be giving you the potential to be Adventurer level. So yes you would start as a purple belt, but you could dramatically improve with training.”

“Well hot damn!” Roden’s excitement was at an all time high, when a realization hit him like a bus.

“All of that is going to be temporary huh?”

Zamira gave him a weak smile, “yes, you would only be able to use the strength and skills for a period of time. From what I’m thinking with what we are looking at right now you could maintain the ability for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you push yourself.”

“Damn that is plenty of time! I’m in.”

Zamira nodded happily, “I like it too. Which ability should we replace? Personally, I’m thinking Pilgrim’s Rebuke. You’ve outgrown that one a bit.”

Roden nodded, “yeah me too. It was a great ability when I was starting out, but now I’m rarely sitting in one place waiting to be attacked.”

Zamira rubbed her hands together, “perfect! Now onto our next item of business. What are you doing for your Augmentation?”

“That! Is a great question. I think I was originally planning on increasing my Wisdom stat.” Roden paused uncertainly. “Is that even the right way to say that?”

“Sort of, the people of Mir who care about such things would say you were Advancing your Intuition. Intuition, belief, and faith are highly connected for the people of Mir. Clerics use magic through their intuition and as such have preternatural intuition.”

“Right on, well what do you think?”

“I had hoped you would do either that or advance your dexterity.”

Roden got a puzzled look on his face, “why dexterity?”

“Because you are going to fight dragons and dragon breath is notoriously painful if you don’t get the hell out of the way fast enough.”

“Dexterity it is!”

“Hang on, you actually have two options here. First you could focus it on your overall agility. It would make you better at all around dexterous things. The other option is to narrow your focus and improve your reflexes and reaction times.”

“Why do I get the feeling you want me to do the second thing?”

“Probably because I want you to do the second thing.”

“Fine by me, better reflexes and reaction times can’t be bad. How do I do that?”

“Oh right, I forgot you haven’t had to do that yet…”

Zamira shook her head back and forth before waving a hand over him causing both her hand and him to glow. Roden could feel the energy within him move around as if he was a pot and she was stirring the stew inside him. When the glow subsided, he felt a renewed sense of energy.

“Woah!”

Zamira sighed, “you are really going to have to do that for yourself one of these days.”

“I totally would, but having you do it is incredibly convenient.”

“You have no idea.”

“I’ll just say thank you then.”

Zamira smiled, “you are welcome. Okay so last, but not least you get another spell.”

“Sweet, any thoughts on what I should take.”

Zamira shook her head, “no you misunderstand this is a subdomain spell. It’s unique to your subdomain and by extension you for the time being.”

“Bet, what is it?”

Zamira got a look in her eyes that said in no uncertain terms she had already decided what he was getting and there was nothing he could do about it.