The cultists charged.
I staggered backwards as the masses swarmed Yusef, emboldened by their rage just as I had been. So many years they’d followed him, worshipped him, all with the promise of a divine reward. But now they knew it had been time wasted, that there was no world to ascend to. And, as was often the case with mobs, they’d fed on each other’s anger.
I wouldn’t get my artifact charge. Not for this Player. But there were many others out there to take down—a whole Council to kill—and I’d realised my true strength. We would take the fight to them, and we would concede no quarter. We would hunt them down, and we would kill them all. Yeah, there would be plenty time for artifact charges later.
I never saw Yusef die, and I barely even heard him scream, as the crowd attacking him had grown so large. Val and I had needed to take a few steps back to make space for the rabid hundreds, each of them wanting a piece of the man who’d deceived them. I caught sight of Val eyeing me, her brow furrowed, curious that I was allowing Yusef to be defeated by others. Through all this, the only reason I knew that the Player was defeated was the notifications that began piling up.
5x Swordsman of the Desert Sons defeated!
Level 44 Veilcaster defeated!
Worldbending — +16,150xp
Worldbending increased to level 62!
Worldbending increased to level 63!
Worldbending increased to level 64!
Worldbending increased to level 65!
Base Points gained — +8 INT, +8 Free Points (INT/WIS/CHA)
Ability selection unlocked
Select an ability from the list below…
Knifework — +7,250xp
Knifework increased to level 47!
Knifework increased to level 48!
Base Points gained — +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)
Level up!
You increased to level 21
It was an almost disappointingly low amount of experience considering all we’d been through, but then again… my involvement had been far from the finishing blow, as far as the system was concerned. Maybe I was lucky even to get this much. And there was a new ability selection to pick from! Yet… still, all this felt somehow incomplete.
‘You OK?’ Val asked, and it took me a moment to realise she wasn’t talking to me.
Lore nodded, but shifted from foot to foot, looking at the crowd still charging through the portal, not yet fully aware that their vengeance was already complete. ‘Yeah, I…’
‘Alenna,’ I said.
The big man nodded, meeting my eyes.
I returned the nod in kind, and allowed my saved portal to close, stemming the flow of once-cultists from Coldharbour. ‘Be ready,’ I said, and then opened the saved portal once more, in front of him. Lore was through in a blink, rushing off to see Alenna, to make absolutely sure that Yusef’s illusion of her death had been just that—an illusion.
‘Don’t suppose you could…’ I started, pointing down to the deep wound on my side. While Val got to work Healing me, I looked over at Tokas and Arzak, the former helping the latter back to her feet.
‘How’s it feel?’ the tiefling asked. ‘Are you better? Are you going to be OK?’
Arzak looked back at Tokas, then reached a hand forward and squeezing the tiefling gently at the shoulder. ‘Thank you, Tokas,’ the orc said, and I was surprised to see that her glistening eyes seemed to display sincerity. Not that Arzak was ever much of one to disguise her true feelings. ‘You not ever going to kill me, were you? Just silly illusion. Silly illusion, is all. Sorry for doubting.’
‘Alright, enough!’ Lambkin shouted at the crowd, waving his hands to encourage the cultists back through the portal. ‘It’s done! Better get home before you all get stranded here.’ This last thought alone was enough to begin to reverse the flow back into Coldharbour. But I was more interested in what Arzak and Tokas had to say than the sea of orange heading back home. From Lambkin’s glances in the same direction, I suspected he was too—but was trying to hide it.
‘It’s OK,’ Tokas said. ‘I still… I did what I did. I have to deal with the consequences. Tim’s helped me realise that.’
Arzak and I reacted to this in the same way—with a quizzical expression. ‘Tim?’ the orc asked.
Tokas nodded towards Lambkin.
‘Hm. He should stick with Lambkin.’
I opened my mouth to agree, but was distracted by Val patting my wound. ‘All done.’ She cast a glance over to Raelas, who was on the ground, struggling back to her feet, clearly sporting a broken leg. ‘I suppose I better…’ Val shook her head in exasperation, then hurried over to the tiefling’s side.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
As I turned back towards Arzak and Tokas, not at all trying to hide that I was watching them, the orc looked over at me. Arzak shot me a quick, almost apologetic glance, then turned back to Tokas and let out a deep, long breath. ‘You should join us. Come back to team. Not all forgiven, but…’
Yet already Tokas was shaking her head; if she’d wanted that once, then no longer. ‘I’m… I’m grateful. But I think that’s behind me now. I have children to raise. And I don’t think… I don’t think I’m cut out for this life anymore. Tim and I, we’ll stamp out the last of the malae trade, then we’ll go home.’
The man in question—Tim—appeared at my side, him too looking over at the tiefling and the orc. Well, the tiefling, really; his eyes were fixed on her.
‘You’re going with her?’ I asked him.
Lambkin nodded. ‘Yeah, I…’ He allowed himself a laugh, and I couldn’t blame him; the battle was won, and we deserved a little joy. ‘I guess maybe Sae wasn’t my soulmate after all. We find love in the strangest of places, don’t we?’
‘Yeah, you can say that again.’ Almost against my better judgement, my eyes slid over to Val. The witch stood over Raelas, working her Healing magicks on the tiefling, and from the looks of it, actually treating the woman with kindness. I felt a smile cross my face, and then Val—perhaps sensing my eyes upon her—looked back at me. She returned the smile in kind.
‘You think you two will work it out?’ Lambkin asked.
‘Yeah,’ I replied. ‘Yeah, I think I do.’
Lambkin stuck out a hand and clasped me around the shoulder—an act of friendship. How far we’d come since our first encounter, with him trying his best to kill me. As Lambkin moved away once more to encourage the cultists back through the portal, I drew in a deep breath.
The battle was done. We’d survived it. That was another Player death under my belt, and a cause for celebration—even if there were so many other members of the Council still to contend with. For all we knew, their scheme could still go ahead even without Yusef. In fact, it almost certainly would still go ahead; this didn’t seem the type of plan that they would just give up on. And while our world was still threatened, we had work to do.
Still, we could take this moment for ourselves, just this once.
While Val finished up with Raelas, I took a look through the ability selection I’d just unlocked. There were just two choices on this particular level.
Ability selection unlocked
Select an ability from the list below:
Option 1: Enhanced Portals II (Worldbending) — Upgrade to Enhanced Portals. Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to three pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.
Three pairs of portals sounded handy in principle, but the limitation then was on my ability to coordinate six portals at once, rather than any ability limitations. I struggled enough with two pairs of portals, so I was hardly jumping at the bit to accept this ability choice.
And that was before I even saw the other option.
Conflict encountered. System adaptation complete. Unique ability choice unlocked. Unique ability choice strongly recommended.
Option 2: Titan Husk (Worldbending) — Replaces Ash Husk. Warp your flesh to totally withstand all physical damage effects, including fire, frost, lightning, poison, and corruption.
So my encounter with the malae had done some good. The artifact, in resolving my conflict with the so-called “reality fabrics” had triggered something spoken about as though it were only a myth—a unique ability choice. These unique abilities were created through unique circumstances—circumstances that the Architects of the system had never truly accounted for. And in this case, my encounter with the malae had forced the system to provide me an ability that withstood corruption.
Even without the corruption resistance, this would have been a fantastic ability. We might well be done dealing with Yusef’s malae, but even without this corruption resistance coming in handy, this was still an ability worth having.
I was just about to lock in my choice when something magical happened, something so perfect for the situation that it seemed created by divine intervention.
Corminar found a bottle of wine.
"Styk"
Level 20 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 52
Intelligence — 243
Dexterity — 143
Strength — 88
Wisdom — 76
Charisma — 50
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 65
Knifework — Level 48
Stealth — Level 26
Identification — Level 18
Needlework — Level 18
Abilities:
Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.
Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.
Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].
Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.
Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.
Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.
Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.
Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.
Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.
Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.
Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.
Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].
Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.
Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].
Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +1,400%