The door to the suite opened with a quiet rattle. Two muffled voices approached through the hallway to the main room where Seth was waiting.
“What are you doing?” Licht’s voice echoed from the entrance.
Seth was currently sitting criss-cross applesauce in front of a shadowy clone of himself. “It’s a game from my home world. It’s called Patty-Cake.”
Drake and Licht looked at each other with bewilderment before turning back to Seth.
“Do recovery potions heal brain damage?”
“I thought so.”
Seth rolled his eyes before dismissing the clone. “So what happened? Blair said you went to talk to Regurd.” The two made themselves at home while Blair walked in from the other room. Seth grabbed a biscuit from his floating wisp and nestled in as well.
“Well obviously we lost. I checked with Regurd and it turns out that the winner is given the total amount of points the other team held at the time. Lucky for us, the point value is just a copy of our own, so we don’t lose ours. It seems that their team rocketed up to the top ten while we gained nothing. I can’t say that I am unhappy with the result though, as we were able to survive a fight against a team of tier three shapers. Who gets that kind of experience and lives to tell the tale, right?”
Drake’s enthusiasm caused Seth to smirk and lessened the weight of the loss. He didn’t have any delusions that they could have won against such a power gap, but losing still wasn’t fun. The four of them continued the discussion for a while, talking about the fight. They went over the good and the bad of the fight, as well as what they could have done better. The recording was watched over and over, no detail left undiscussed. This of course resulted in the four of them watching Seth’s solo fight with the assassin. The other three could barely believe what happened.
“It looks like I was wrong to put you on the back line!” Drake exclaimed.
“Next time you’re going up front with me!” He finished with a grin.
Seth gave him his best version of a sheepish smile. “Do you mind showing me that weapon of yours?” Licht asked. “I’ve seen you using it in our matches, but I never got a good look at it. Does it have an aspect that allows it to overcome tier disparity?”
Seth nodded before calling Anar from his hand. The black skin roiled for a moment, giving way to a long shaft made of black tar. The grinning face first emerged, then it continued all the way down the slightly pulsing black veins that spanned the length of the shaft. Finally, the blade emerged, and Seth used his free hand to haul the weapon the rest of the way out. He offered it to Licht, only to find him hesitating with his hands out. His fingers seemed to flinch back as his skin neared the onyx surface. Instead of grabbing it, he pulled out a series of tools from thin air and began inspecting the glaive.
“Wow! It really does have a tier jumping aspect! That’s actually quite rare for a weapon to have. It is much more common for armor to have such an aspect, but even then, those are incredibly expensive.” He turned over to Drake with a smile.
“Forget putting him on the front line, you should just pick him up and swing him around. The faster we get him to break into tier three the better. If he gets the power to cut through tier four armor, then there really shouldn’t be any reason he couldn’t beat anyone here. Well, outside of skill, blessings, and the chance that someone also has a tier jumping aspect on their defense.”
Licht continued on, not even noticing the flat look Seth was giving him. He wasn’t wrong with his deduction, but it stung nonetheless. He couldn’t argue about the gap in skill, but the blessing thing wasn’t something he could help. Grayson had explained Umbral Blessings briefly, enough to tell that Seth didn’t have one. According to him, it was something all shapers were given by their Umbras. It fell along the lines of a free racial ability as Seth understood it. It was the reason Ty’s progress bothered him so much, as he believed Gaia had given him a cheat blessing.
“You know man, where I’m from it’s pretty rude to point out someone’s faults right in front of their face.”
Drake flicked Licht on the ear with a grin. “I’m pretty sure that’s true everywhere. He’s not wrong though Seth, I think you should focus on tiering up. We are only one or two attribute classes away from the next tier, but what about you?” Seth absently opened his menu to check his stats.
Level: Tier Two (Progress: Peak)
Intellect: Class A
Constitution: Class B
Might: Class A
Intuition: Class A
Resolve: Class A
“Looks like I’m in the same boat, only one attribute away.” Seth dismissed his menu and scratched the side of his head. “It’s kind of crazy that we were beaten so soundly by those tier threes when we are all at the peak of the second tier.”
Licht shrugged in response. “That’s just how it is, the higher you go, the bigger the gap in power between tiers. I vote we get back into matches as soon as we can and cross that threshold before we get caught in another forced duel.”
The other two nodded their heads in agreement, but Seth held up a hand to stop them. “Actually, I need to hit the shop before we start back up again. That match just further proved that I seriously need some type of ranged attack.” He swiftly got up swapped his casual clothes out for his armor using his cache.
“Not to mention, this tier one armor isn’t gonna cut it anymore. I’ve been purposely hoarding all the points from my matches in order to get some decent new equipment, as this crap I’m wearing now wasn’t even enough to stop the sand kicked up from the shockwaves of Blair’s spells.”
He made his way for the exit but caught a voice before the door closed. “It’s about time, I thought he was dressing as a hobo for fun or something.”
--------
Seth strolled through the halls on his way to the shopping district of the pocket dimension. He passed multiple participants who didn’t even spare him a second glance as he finally arrived in the huge facility that held all the shop items that were displayed in the catalog Seth received a few days back. He was happy to discover that all the items were laid out by category in an organized manner. They were also sitting freely, which meant Seth could use identify to see their class and effects that were previously unavailable to him through the token.
Despite all of the interesting stuff sitting out, Seth went directly to the armor section first. His research through the store inventory had allowed him to ping a few sets that seemed better suited for his fighting style, as well as his personal tastes. The only thing he needed to check before picking was what type of inherit aspects or abilities each set had. Finally, he found all three sets he was looking for and plucked them off the display to compare.
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Grygh Hide Armor Set (Tier Three):
-Grants advanced protection against all physical attacks, high protection against electrical currents, moderate self-repair function, slow self-cleaning function. (Upgradeable)
Set Bonus:
-Grants Shock Negate, Auto Fit
Shock Negate:
-Passively absorbs 10% of blunt physical attack damage.
Auto Fit:
-Equipment conforms to the user.
Slick Runner Armor Set (Tier Three):
-Grants moderate protection against elemental and physical attacks, slow self-repair function, slow self-cleaning function. (Not Upgradeable)
Set Bonus:
-Grants Ricochet, Marathoner, Tough Customer, Auto Fit
Ricochet:
-Passively causes projectiles to glance off non-lethal areas of the user’s body.
Marathoner:
-Upon activation, the user’s stamina constantly regenerates at a rapid pace for ten minutes. (12 hour cooldown).
Tough Customer:
-Upon enemy contact, the armor’s surface excretes a frictionless lubricant.
Mercenary Slacks Armor Set (Tier Three):
-Grants advanced protection against earth and physical attacks, slow self-repair function, slow self-cleaning function. (Upgradeable)
Set Bonus:
-Grants Tireless, Quick Access, Density Shift, Auto Fit
Tireless:
-Slightly improves user’s stamina recovery speed.
Quick Access:
-Armor contains a small cache that can be accessed through pockets.
Density Shift:
-Armor has High Mode that exchanges mobility for protection, and Low Mode that exchanges protection for mobility.
Seth was pleasantly surprised when looking at each equipment’s details. He had originally picked each one mostly for looks and name, as that was the only information that was available through the token catalog. The Grygh set was reminiscent of a Viking or barbarian type of armor. It was created from a thick set of dark brown hide along with a collection of white and grey furs that gave it a comfy feel. He had chosen it due to the high amount of protection it seemed to give, due to the strategically placed plates that didn’t seem to interfere with the wearer’s joints at all. The set actually seemed to have more protection than he originally thought, as the damage absorption aspect seemed incredibly useful.
The second set was definitely more modern in looks. It actually looked very similar to Untold’s bodysuit, although this one was a dark grey with violet highlights. Anyone from his old world would have most likely guessed it to be a scuba suit of sorts. This set seemed to provide the most utility, as it actually had an active ability aspect that none of the other armor sets granted. It also would give him the advantage in grappling situations, as it would be hard for monsters to hold him down because of the Tough Customer aspect. Even better was the Ricochet aspect that made the less protection the armor gave basically negligible.
The last set was surprisingly familiar to Seth. It looked like a cross between a military combat uniform and a Halloween costume. The magazine carrier was covered in a series of sleek pockets rather than holsters, but the rest of the set was a normal pair of modern-day fatigues. Slightly baggy but comfortable and flexible. The color was also different, as the normal camouflage was replaced with dark grey and black secondary coloring. This one wasn’t as highly protective at the Grygh armor, or as specialized as the Slick Runner set, but it had a balanced set of each. Also, its tactical benefits and rather plain style were better in his eyes than the others. The whole medieval idea of the Grygh set was not really his taste, and neither was the Tron style scuba suit of the Slick Runner set.
Looks like we got a winner.
He put the other two sets away before bringing the Mercenary Slacks armor up to the register console to purchase it. Rather than carrying it around, he wanted to put it away in his cache while he checked out the catalyst items available. Luckily, he had compiled a good amount of points so far, and tier three armor was already on the cheap because everyone else was moving toward tier four and above. This left him with a comfortable amount of points to get a relatively high quality catalyst item for one of his aligned abilities. Unfortunately it was random as to which it manifested under, but the idea was to get as specialized of an item as possible to lower the chance of getting an unwanted ability type. The rarity of the item also didn’t dictate how powerful the ability would be, but that didn’t bother Seth. He was a big believer in the idea of all abilities being useful in their own way.
Excitement bubbled up through Seth’s stomach as he made his way toward the correct section. Despite being in the world of Foundations and shaping for over half a year, Seth still drooled at the idea of getting another supernatural power.
Don’t get too excited. You can’t even figure out how to use the ones you got.
His mood dropped a little at the sobering thought.
“How did I manage to release those stored animas in the first place?” He wondered aloud.
The black torrent that came out of his hand in the Xtrey Wolf’s cave seemed incredibly powerful, but incredibly unwieldy. He had tried multiple times to let them loose again, but so far, he had no luck.
“Maybe it only works on spiritual things like animas? Or perhaps I just need to be in a life-or-death type of situation again? I don’t think that’s how this stuff works though; real life isn’t like manga.”
Seth continued to mutter under his breath up until he arrived at the first row of catalyst items. His thoughts were wiped away as he began browsing through the random series of items. It seemed that they were all sorted first by aligned ability catalysts, then branch abilities. Seth made his way past the aligned items and started identifying the branch items. They seemed to be sorted first by type, then by price. This made it very easy for him to narrow down all those that would mesh well with his ability type. Most of the sections didn’t seem very suitable for Seth. Water, fire, mechanical, weapon types, armor types; they all didn’t seem right.
Had Seth been given the choice, he would have preferred to be given some cool lighting or dark abilities like he always chose in RPGs. Unfortunately for him, his Umbra had decided to give him some sort of hodgepodge of abilities. The one similarity he could identify between them was the color black. His hair, blood, left eye, right hand, and weapon were all either turning or already black.
Maybe I should start throwing in some Chunnibiyou catchphrases to complete the look.
Finally finding the spot he was looking for, Seth started looking through the section labeled: Legacy. He had asked Drake about it during their first day meeting, to which he explained that each item was basically a physical manifestation of an ability created by some long dead shaper. His eye was one of them, so he knew they didn’t differ heavily from other abilities. Browsing through the items took much longer than the armor sets, as he didn’t have the chance to look through their details in the catalog beforehand. Eventually, he found something that seemed promising.
Purified Stone of Conformity (Class B):
-This artifact was extracted from the corpse of an isolated young girl. It is said to grant an ability determined solely by the user’s personality.
It was a simple looking white pebble, barely even fitting in the palm of his hand. Once he picked it up, the color began to change like a mood ring. It varied between red, purple, and black before settling on a rather uninteresting gray. It was pretty expensive and would cost most of his point stockpile, but it didn’t bother him. There was still plenty of time to earn more points. Besides, an ability purely derived from his personality was very interesting. On the downside, it didn’t guarantee a ranged ability like he was looking for.
“Perhaps if I wish really hard when I use it, it might give me one.” Seth muttered to himself.
He thought about for a few more minutes before deciding to buy the stone. Moments later he was walking back toward the main hall where he assumed the team was waiting. On his way, a thought struck him and he plucked the stone he had just bought from his cache. Might as well use it now, I guess. He wasn’t aware of any backlash that could come from using a catalyst item, as this was the first time he was using one to get a branch ability. Although, the last couple times he had received aligned abilities, the experience had been less than ideal.
Seth silently crossed his fingers before extracting a thread of energy to inject into the stone. To his disappointment, the stone just crumbled in his hand lamely. He stopped in the hall and clapped the dust off his hands with a confused expression.
“Is this the funny way of telling me I don’t have a personality?”
His question was answered shortly after when a pain similar to a recovery crystal began to fester underneath his ribs. He hunched over with a grunt as the veins in his head threatened to burst through his skin. A few participants gave him odd looks as they passed, but no one stopped to see if he was alright. After a little while, the pain went away, and Seth stood upright. He continued on his way, embarrassed at the attention he had attracted. As he neared the hall, he pulled up his ability screen and briefly glanced at the new entry before closing it.
“That’s just unfair.”