Calvin – City #143 – Habitation Unit #934
Luxuriating in the darkness, Calvin drew comfort from the warmth of Giselle’s sleeping from resting over his chiseled outstretched arm on the HU’s bed before his thoughts turned to the operation planned for the week ahead.
Since the monster Benjamin had seen fit come into his life and take from him yet again, he had allowed himself no days of respite.
If he was not hunting lesser monsters for quests, he was hunting them for experience or materials. When he was not hunting he was travelling to or from the City to resupply or look for other Party members to replace the ones that had just died. And if he wasn’t doing any of those things, he was sleeping, or on this rare but welcome instance ‘sleeping’.
Calvin once more reviewed the truly absurd Quest that he was currently on standby in the city for:
Phase Conveyance (T4) – Reward = 50,000 Manamotes + based on contribution
Level Recommendation: 95
Recommended Group: 100,000 – 300,000
Restrictions: Only one tier four quest acceptable at any one time.
Time Till Expiry: N/A
Description: Travel to Epsilon Zone #1 and dispatch the Phasic Boss, Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul. Quest is shareable.
Caution: Once the Phasic Boss is defeated this will initiate the planets shift to Phase 2, prepare accordingly!
Warning: Engaging the Phasic Zone Boss will break its containment field and cause it to traverse Zones randomly should it not be defeated!
He would not have believed such a thing possible when the madness began eight years ago.
Fleeing and afraid, he Initially had struggled to kill a lowly ant, yet now almost ten years later, he was thinking of tackling a fucking ‘Titan’?
To be fair, Councilor Harlan was one of the organizers of the operation to scout and secure cooperation of such a large number of individuals. He apparently had been in touch with the five largest known established factions on earth and gotten responses in the affirmative from three of them to date.
Which all told, got them to about 70 thousand people above level 90 and with another week of the councilors and faction leaders doing their horse sniveling trading they should be well over the 100 thousand threshold with some added extras for safety.
He could not help but grind his teeth as he remembered that that ‘freak’ also had a faction and his thoughts soured as he began to ruminate on what he could actually do if the abomination showed up while the fight was underway?
During the two years since his last encounter with the monster in human flesh, he had reached level 99 and brought his Initiate Bulwark class up to a respectable level 81. He knew this would be no match for whatever the fuck his nemesis’ classes were, but Calvin hoped that he wouldn’t actually have to fight the bastard to keep him out of the upcoming operation.
Which was another reason why he was lying next to the young French lady this night.
The last time Calvin had seen Giselle had been some three months ago, and at the time she’d said something that he couldn’t get out of his head no matter how hard he tried.
It occurred when they were having a private dinner and he had produced a wine of Kivar’s concoction, she had marveled at the quality and mentioned that her father would love such a thing. He diplomatically informed her that the vined berries to make the drink were only found in Delta Zone #3’s Roc infested, seaside climate.
This however didn’t deter her as she said that her dearest papa was an overseer for the Citadel for a strong adventurer. When he practically demanded for her to elaborate, she said the adventurer apparently paid her father to teleport him back from somewhere every couple of months or so and that Gérard was the only one whom he trusted with such an important task.
Giselle then confided to Calvin that she utterly detested the man whom her father worked for, but as a result of his employment, ‘Papa’ showered her with gifts every time they met. Naturally this led to her not wanting to shoot the proverbial golden goose and no one seemed to be getting hurt, so she just kept a safe distance should anything go awry.
She also said if he knew how good the wine was, Gérard would pay top manamote for it, being the cultured Frenchman that he was, thus Calvin ‘simply had to get him a bottle to sample!’
At the mention of the Citadel Calvin had struggled to maintain a straight face before he steadied his breathing and assured Giselle he would ask Kivar, but that she shouldn’t get her hopes up seeing how rare the ingredients were.
His second reaction was to bail on the solicitous offer of sleeping over, stating he had forgotten to tell Terrance about some repair work he needed done. But in reality he was doing everything in his power to not have a panic attack!
However, when Calvin had had time to think on what the French girl had said it just seemed too strange to be untrue.
Certainly she was always sporting high quality gear for an Apprentice Cleric, who mostly hung around the City. He also knew that just offering healing to residence did not pay well at all, owing largely to the fact everyone now had the ability to improve their Vitality, leading to minor healing spells being almost redundant now.
So unless you were out there fighting monsters day in and day out with a Party, there was no way to cover your constant gear degradation costs and the frankly exorbitant prices some of the merchants now set for crafted wares.
Initially he had sworn to steer clear of the vivacious French woman at all costs lest her father convinced the freak hunt him down and turn Kivar into his crafting slave, before blasting his new home into the ground, just like his last.
Yet after Calvin had thoroughly ridiculed himself for such childish notions, he had reassured himself with the simple fact that in the month since Giselle had known about the wine, the City still stood and Kivar remained uncaptured. Then after thinking on it some more as the weeks wore on an ingenious plan had begun to take shape.
Thus after more deliberation and careful consultation of a select few, he had come to see the beautiful Apprentice Cleric again to institute said plan.
Calvin was not proud that he had thought this up, however he reminded himself that if it all went as intended, no one was actually going to get hurt from it. The worst case scenario would be him losing his newfound company and a bit of face, or so he tried for the umpteenth time to convince himself.
Of course he wasn’t completely out on a limb in this, having eventually briefed the council on his hair brained scheme. Much to his surprise however, they had not sought to talk him out of it. And although Councilor Harlan was still worried about the potential fall out, Councilor Gloria even went so far as to help secure a discrete location for the next several weeks.
Chuckling at the HU’s darkened ceiling, Giselle stirred and murmured something in her sleep, while he bushed her chestnut hair draped across her innocent sleeping visage.
Sighing in slight regret for what was in store for the girl, Calvin mentally summoned his ‘status’ as he steeled himself for the day to come:
STATUS
Name: Calvin
Age: 31
Titles: Survivor
Class 1: Initiate Templar Level: 99 + 1 Strength Per Level
Class 2: Initiate Bulwark Level: 81 + 1 Vitality Per Level
Profession: N/A
HP: 1445/1445(833+612=1445) MP: 236/236(135+101=236)
Status Effects: N/A
Vitality: 243 + 61 x 1.1 (334)
Strength: 239 + 91 (330) Dexterity: 150 + 11 (161)
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Intelligence: 60 Wisdom: 30
Charisma: 7 Luck: 4
Undistributed Attribute points: 0
Passives –
Human: + 5 attribute points per level
Lingua System: Able to communicate verbally with any system integrated entity and be understood
Uncommon Fortitude: + 5% vitality
Survivor: + 5% to Vitality
One With The Crowd: + 10% to damage dealt and -15% damage taken when fighting alongside others, -10% damage dealt and + 10% damage taken when fighting alone
Instant Renewal (Vit250): Regenerate 25% of maximum life when below 5% of life once a day
Active Non-Class Skills –
Metabolic Overdrive – Double all physical damage and physical size for 1 minute after which elevant will suffer a 25% strength penalty for 5 minutes, useable once a day
Skills – Initiate Templar
1) Shield Slam (LvL 10): Slam your shield against a single target or multiple targets, stunning the targets for 1 seconds and dealing 150% damage based of the equipped shields Block value (Damage, cooldown and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 5 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 10 seconds
2) Lesser Taunt (LvL 10): Yell in a threatening manner at your foes to gain their undivided attention. Level of threat generated inverse to targets combined Intelligence and Wisdom. (Cooldown and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 5 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 seconds
3) Rallying Cry (LvL 10): Issue an inspiring rallying cry to all allies within 50 meters of your location, increasing yours and their attack damage and defense by 10% (Radius, duration and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 25 Mana, Cast time: 2 second, Duration: 5 minutes, Cooldown: 1 minute
4) Concussive Strike (LvL 10): Strike a jarring blow against your target with your weapon dealing 130% damage of weapons attack value and stunning the target for 5 seconds (Damage, stun duration, cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 5 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 seconds
5) Lesser Parry (LvL 10): Interrupt a targeted opponent’s strike mid swing based off your combined dexterity and strength scores compared to your attackers, and deflect the blow and all associated damage. (Cooldown and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 1 Mana, Cast time: Instant, Cooldown: 10 seconds
6) Lesser Burden of the Righteous (LvL 10): Cast the skill on a friendly target within 2 meters of your location to transfer 50% of the damage they receive to yourself (Damage transferred, mana cost and duration scale with skill level). Cost: 15 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Duration: 4 minutes, Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Skills – Initiate Bulwark
1) Threatening Glare (LvL 10): Cast a threatening glare to all within your field of vision for 20 meters, causing them to are the greatest threat present(Range, cooldown and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 15 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 45 seconds
2) Lesser Chains of Restraint (LvL 10): Cast lesser chains of restraint on up to 10 foes within a radius of 5 meters around your position (Number of foes restrained, radius and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 15 Mana, Cast time: 5 seconds, Cooldown: 1 minute
3) Defensive Stance (LvL 10): Enter a defensive stance where all damage taken is reduced by 25% but all movement and movement related skills are slowed by 35% (Damage taken, movement penalty and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 0.25 Mana per second, Cast time 1 second, Cooldown: N/A
4) Lesser Block (LvL 10): Intercept an incoming attack with lesser block causing damage bellow your strength and 150% of shields block value combined value to be completely absorbed. Any damage above the combined value will be mitigated with 50% efficiency (Shields increased block value, mitigation and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 2 Mana, Cast time: 0.5 seconds, Cooldown: 5 Seconds
5) Disruptive Stomp (LvL 10): Enact a disruptive stomp that has a chance to disrupt all skills in the process of being cast or channeled based off of your combined Strength and Intelligence attributes against the affected targets combined Wisdom and Intelligence attributes, in a radius of 10 meters around you (Radius, mana cost and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 15 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 seconds
6) Lesser Leash of Binding (LvL 10): Cast a lesser leash of binding on a single target within 5 meters of you, causing it to be unable to move away from you while the leash is active. Effect can be broken when the targets Strength attribute is higher than your own Strength attribute (Range, duration and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 15 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Duration:10 seconds, Cooldown:45 seconds
Flexing his free arm experimentally, he certainly did feel the strength present that his attributes denoted. However being told he was 33 times stronger than the strongest human pre Elevation, while doing wonders for his self-esteem, still did not feel real.
He supposed this was due to the fact that he never really got to compare it to that of his fellow man these days. He only truly quantified his strength against the monsters he fought week in and week out, and in that he still felt more than lacking.
Calvin supposed if he wanted an ego boost he could just wait outside of the city and pick a fight with a level 80 or something, but really what was the point in that?
Especially when there was a monster out there like Benjamin who could be behind you in the blink of a superhuman eye and punch you through trees as nonchalantly as he breathed, and that wasn’t taking into account the weird shit he could cast or even summon.
‘What a fucking freak.’ He thought as he scowled and didn’t notice that he had stirred Giselle by tensing up in anger until she murmured sleepily in his ear.
“What iz et baby?”
Breaking him from the sense of anger and helplessness Calvin’s ruminations had brought upon him he replied apologetically.
“Shit sorry…didn’t mean to wake you…just thinking about the op coming up…”
Tracing her finger along his bicep to his deltoid in a sultry yet playful manner she whispered breathlessly in an ear tickling fashion.
“I can think of a few wayz to relieve some strezz…ow about a rematch…”
Before she playfully bit his earlobe, causing an involuntary shiver to run through him as he groaned back in mock indignation.
“Dammit woman…you know that using my weakspot is against the hab unit treaty of the broken bed!”
Giggling impishly she removed the sheet to expose him, and thus, they passed the time in a sweaty and conspiratorial manner until the light intensity in the HU told them there were more appropriate things to be about, this time of day.
When they had shared their breakfast and begrudgingly exited the shower, they made their way in the morning sun to Kivar’s shop, in an effort to procure some of his sought after [Kivar’s Hemilen Berry Wine] for Gérard.
Entering the one story white cube sporting the wooden sign ‘Kivar’s Good Goods’, the white walls released two C toned beeps to announce their entrance. Calvin inattentively inspected the goods on the two deep rows of waist high cube segmented, rectangular stands, vaguely reminiscent of miniature greengrocers produce displays as he waited for the Swede to appear from the back room.
Kivar had made a bit of a habit of testing out newly found ingredients, many of which Calvin and his Party had been responsible for procuring. This in turn led to some truly interesting one off gourmet creations.
Giselle being an inquisitive person at heart had been drawn to one such creation, almost immediately upon entering. What she now held in her hand was a cheese wheel that had green and red stripes on its rind while emitting a peppermint and strawberry aroma. Sidling up to her Calvin put his arm around her mail clad hip and whispered half in jest.
“I would put that down if I were you…Not only is he protective of his wares but that will probably cost more than me and your dad combined, could afford!”
Pouting the Initiate Cleric replied conspiratorially.
“But it smellz sooooo gooood!...do you sink he would mind if we ad a little bit…juzt to tezt?”
Before he could reply the maker of the dairy product cut in, in an admonishing tone.
“Yes he would mind quite a lot young lady... oh it’s you Cal! It has been much too long!”
Smiling at the Initiate Cook, he responded.
“What are you talking about? It only been a couple of weeks!”
Shaking his head and letting out an exasperated sigh, he replied.
“Exactly! Too long…Especially when there are so few of us left…”
He trailed off as his expression soured and Calvin not wanting to dwell on the sore topic prompted.
“But we are still here right!......Soooo its not that I didn’t come to see you or anything but I admit, I did come with an ulterior motive!”
Smiling in what he hopped was a disarming way, he motioned to his French companion and continued.
“My friend Giselle here would like to know if you have a few bottles of that Hemilen Berry Wine laying about?”
Chucking good naturedly the Swede responded.
“At least you are an host one! And I think I have three or four bottles left, but they will be pricey as the process to fast track the aging and retain the Hemilen Berries flavor was not easy to crack or pull off for that matter….”
Smiling to the Initiate Cook, Giselle spoke up enthusiastically.
“Ze tazte iz truly one of a kind! Et iz like a warm summerz day on your tongue and juzt when you sink ze flavor haz left your mouth, you get zat little burzt of an almost sour cherry bite in the back of your throat! Et truly iz Magnifique!”
Smiling as he laughed self-consciously at the praise from the beautiful brunette, Kivar countered.
“Well it’s nice to know my work has found such a refined palate, but I still can’t part with them for less than 1500 Manamotes a bottle…”
Waving the figure off dismissively, she countered.
“Oh but of courze, I could tazte ze passion zat went into making it and my father would mozt certainly pay zis for such a superior product…so much better than zat vinegar zey sell in ze tavern’z…”
As Kivar laughed at her candid enthusiasm Calvin offered.
“I was thinking of running them over to him today if Giselle can get in contact with him, so I’ll buy whatever you have in stock on the spot!”
Wrapping awkwardly around his plate mailed shoulders in a one armed hug Giselle added affectionately.
“Izn’t he juzt ze bezt!”
Rolling his eyes at the pair Kivar grumbled something unheard by the two as he went into the backroom to retrieve the bottles:
Kivar’s Hemilen Berry Wine
Level Requirement: 25
Effect: Causes moderate intoxication, + 5 Vitality for 12 hours after consumption
Restrictions: Only effective on those with Vitality bellow 150
Description: An alcoholic concoction fermented from hemilen berries and preserved in a stoppered glass bottle. A rare and uniquely flavored beverage fermented and bottled by the Cook Kivar that would earn the respect of even a Cadrian Sal’Eir.
Having promised to visit again after Giselle had stored the 4 bottles in her [Moderate Bag of Holding] and Calvin had paid the eye watering 6000 Manamotes whilst trying to hide the pain it caused to his ethereal wallet. The three exchanged goodbyes and parted ways with the couple heading off to the Hub in the center of the trade district to message the French woman’s father.