Once Atticus was back in the game he woke up in the basic inn at the training village. There were no trainers at this inn unlike most of the others. This one solely existed to help weary adventurers find rest after questing in the wilds. He made his way over to the Pain Emporium. It was empty, none of the usual servants running around on various errands, no cires of failure or success. It was strange. At the bar, Mistress Rey sat nursing a large pour of some amber liquor.
“What’s going on; where is everyone?”
“Ah. Welcome back Atticus. I’m glad to say that I am no longer stuck being a subcore trainer here in the village. I’ve passed my arts on to a student. One who actually learned their importance and stuck through the training no less. So now I have fulfilled my obligations and I’m returning to the other realms where my team has been patiently waiting.”
“But Mistress Rey, I still have so much left to learn.”
“You will have to find your own path from here. Though if you ever find me in the future I might offer to hone your techniques if you wish. And please, call me Liz. You’ve earned it. You are one of the most stubborn and pain tolerant beings I’ve ever encountered. I have no fears that you will progress far through the realms.”
“Thank you, but before you go, I do have one more thing I would ask you about.”
“And, what would that be?”
“Do you have any special techniques to identify monsters?”
“Special techniques? No, but you don’t want or need anything fancy. Go ask the guard where you can learn [Threat Assessment]. I’m surprised you didn’t have anything like this before. How did you know what to fight when you were questing?”
“I just sorta looked for the things closest to the descriptions I was given and then killing until I completed the quest and had to go turn it back in.”
“Effective, but an inefficient solution,” She said.
“I am very aware. Thank you again for your help.”
***
[Threat Assessment] was much harder to learn than any of the other class traits. Taunting call had been easy it was just yelling practice. Sure his throat hurt for a little bit when he first started. But learning this class trait was migraine inducing. Literally. He had to take a break because after an hour of trying to learn it he became dizzy and sensitive to light. It happened after he first identified his first monster, a tiny little insect that had been separated from a deadly swarm called a {Flesh Locust}. The small insect was about the size of his thumb, which he realized was larger in game than his normal body, it had a set of intense mandibles that looked like they were designed for ripping chunks of flesh out of just about anything they came across, there were smaller mandibles that reduced the large chunks into smaller ones that were more easily eaten. According to his tool tip, this type of monster could get as large as his hand, usually came in swarms numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands and laid their eggs in the ground. The eggs hatched once every two years or so while the average lifespan of it was roughly eight months.
Atticus was terrified. He had no way of defeating a swarm of these on his own. Luckily the realms had a standing order for anyone with area of effect attacks were required to help eradicate the swarms when they popped up. They weren’t his problem, but he needed to recover so he could finish unlocking the ability and hopefully it would stop giving him insane headaches and nausea.
***
Phen watched as Bella flirted non-stop with Zari. It was both entertaining and irritating because they needed to finish the quest they were on before the timer ran out. Escort quests were the worst. Eric had tracked down the missing messenger for the group and they rescued her from a pack of {Gnoll Cultists} who had captured her and were planning on sacrificing her to their god and eating her flesh to become stronger. Zari was supposed to be sneaking behind the cultists to take advantage of Bella’s distracting entrance. Except, they hadn’t closed the distance to the encampment and Phen was pretty sure that Bella was successfully seducing their teammate.
“Hate to break you two up, but we’re on a timer and you need to move your asses into position.” They flew down to the pair and said.
Both of the women glared at Phen for a moment before realizing that there was a time and place for flirting and leaving someone’s life on the line to do it wasn’t the best idea. Zari bowed her head in shame while Bella nodded at Phen.
The pair finally got into position and Phen sent the signal to start by channeling a healing spell onto Bella. Bella rushed in, past the guard who had been shot by Eric as she dashed forward. She dodged around several startled gnolls before punching the {Gnoll Cult Leader} in the face. He was speaking in the gnoll’s yipping tongue; probably something about how their god would bless them for sacrificing their prey or someshit. Bella didn’t care and was glad to interrupt his monologue. She rained a few more blows onto him before the crowd of gnolls scrambled for their weapons.
The cult leader however had his sacrificial knife ready to go and took a swipe with it at Bella. She dodged and hit the priest with a cross-counter. She followed the strike up with a snap-kick to the chest. While she forced the cult-leader back and off-balance she continued to stay close and make strikes. She activated her [Chained Strikes] for a rapid 5 hit combo dealing 115 damage. Before it had a chance to recover she followed up with a [Flurry of Blows] hitting nine more times in the space of a single attack. These combos were her main form of DPS since her regular attacks were still somewhat limited by reality. Not that it mattered because she dealt another 1,320 damage to the gnoll and it only had a sliver of health left. She wasn’t going to let it rally. Before she could follow-up with another strike to keep her [Combo Chains] and [Living Weapons] damage buffs active, her opponent stabbed itself through its own heart.
The teal sky changed to a sickly pale yellow. The gnoll somehow still had enough life left to wipe a bloody paw across the altar at the base of their god’s life-sized statue. There was a crack of thunder as a rent in reality was torn and a beam of energy struck the statue.
Phen watched reality warp and shred She watched the beam of light strike the statue. She watched as color bled into the stone and it began looking like flesh. Then she cast a [Lingering Channel] [Mana Perfectionist] boosted
The only downside was that they poured a good 400 RP into the spell for the lingering and stun chance, leaving them with only 124 RP left. Luckily they regained RP at a prodigious rate. Phen dropped a lingering healing spell on themselves increasing their RP regeneration even more. Having the Mana Reborn subcore was a caster’s wet dream it combined their health and mana into reality points. It was a single pool, but one that was much deeper than either would be separately. The only downside was that casting spells was literally burning away their life giving them a greater chance of being killed.
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Zari was crouched behind the statue waiting to strike when Bella came in swinging like a maniac. Zari didn’t even have the time to attack before the cultist sacrificed itself. Now the statue she was hiding behind was turning into a living creature. Then it started sparking. She backed away from it thinking it was about to do an AOE attack, but no attack came. She closed the distance again and struck the back of its leg just above its digitigrade ankle. Her [Backstab] ability triggered and she landed a rare critical hit dealing 900 damage to the statue turned creature. It was finally corporeal enough to scream in rage and pain, then in a sheer stroke of luck as it was reaching for the stone weapon resting at its hip the stun from Phen’s attack procced.
Bella and Eric were busy clearing the camp of the remaining gnoll cultists. Bella, surrounded by the furry monsters dodging and weaving their strikes and killing with every third or fourth hit. Eric sniped with a crossbow. His targets were all gnolls who were about to hit Bella as she attacked their packmates. He was using [Multishot] dealing 65 damage per arrow dropping each of his targets with one attack. There were so many of the monsters though he couldn’t stop all of them from hitting Bella. Her health was dipping at a steady pace. Phen dropped another lingering heal on their melee fighter. Their spellcasting generated enough aggro from the {Awakened Statue Avatar of Y’grithan}. The avatar was still stunned but they could feel its attention on them. When the stun ended the statue dispelled the remaining
Phen lost another 87 RP from the attack, with their previous healing they had 81 remaining. Bella rushed to their side and threw a punch at the statue avatar, trying her level best to draw aggro away from Phen. Phen had been knocked unconscious from hitting the tree and made an easy target for the Avatar of Y’grithan. It swung its axe toward her head, intending to strike a fatal blow, but Zari chose that moment to strike again, this time at its kidney for a second critical hit dealing another 900 damage. It was now below 75% HP and its fur started glowing red like embers. A wave of bloodlust crashed over the party members. Bella turned and looked at the unconscious arcane elf and red gleam in their eyes. Eric targeted Zari with a [Multishot] hitting her twice for 60 damage each. Before Bella could strike an oversized wolf trampled into her, knocking her off balance. The wolf attacked the avatar with a chained weapon.
Bella began to lose the rage that had overwhelmed her. It took her a few moments to connect the dots that the wolf was an Atticus. She watched as he took an attack on his muzzle from the awakened statue’s axe. He shrugged off the damage and lashed out. His kursari-gama glowed faintly with a dark iridescent red and took the enemy down to a quarter of its HP.
“Brace yourselves it is going to be doing another special attack,” Atticus said as the avatar’s axe took on the yellow of the sky.
The glow sank into the blade and it no longer glowed but the color remained, but it was oozing and dripping from the weapon. The droplets splashed on the ground and leeched the color from the where they hit. With a mad cackle the gnoll avatar swung its axe horizontally and created a wave of pus colored light that flew out along its path. Atticus prayed under his breath that whatever hit him was a debuffing attack and not some other kind of attack.
The attack caused him to double over in pain as it drained the majority of his remaining health and ignored his pain absorption. His paws curled into the loam as he struggled to rise and attack his enemy. The others all fell to the ground writhing in pain drained of almost all of their HP. Atticus readied his weapon again for another [Punishing Strike]. The attack struck taking the enemy to 12% of its total HP. It took a swipe at Atticus with its axe, though it no longer looked empowered. Atticus braced himself, he wasn’t fast enough to dodge. Eric, from his position on the ground launched his most powerful attack [Ammo Storm]. The air between Atticus and the boss monster was suddenly filled with a hail of crossbow bolts. The bolts pierced the avatar interrupting its attack momentarily. The pause was long enough though. Phen had regained consciousness before the boss lashed out with its debilitating attack and she was able to drop a lingering healing spell on herself. After the wave they needed a moment to continue their recovery, but Atticus needed their help or he was dead. When Eric unleashed his ability it bought enough time for Phen to recover back up enough to help Atticus. Then they remembered their [Multi-Casting] trait that let them, for no apparent extra RP cost add more targets to their single target spells. Phen cast lingering heal again on all of the party members using the trait, and it didn’t drain their mana any more than it would have if the spell only targeted one person.
A refreshing feeling flowed through Atticus. He braced himself, he didn’t have a lot of offensive power until he was attacked again, but he did lash out with the weighted end of his weapon in an attempt to wrap it around his opponent’s leg. He managed to hit one of its toes.
Congratulations
You have learned the special attack Stub Toe. Stub Toe deals reduced damage (10% of weapon attack) but generates 10000% aggro and causes the enemy to enter a blind rage for 10 seconds where they abandon all weapons and strategy to attack the person who used Stub Toe.
The avatar dropped its axe and rushed forward through the last bits of the crossbow bolts raining down between it and Atticus. It clawed at its new most hated foe. Atticus let the attacks hit him, letting the enemy build up damage for his next [Punishing Strike]. Phen’s healing kept him from losing too much HP.
When the anger faded from the avatar’s eyes Atticus struck out with his attack. With all the damage from his [Pain Absorption] added to it; he finished off the creature and it crumbled to dust. It was only a statue after all.
The others rose to their feet and looked around them. “Thanks for the assist,” Bella said, “I thought we were gonna wipe.”
“Yeah, thanks for coming. But why are you here. I thought we were going our separate ways,” Eric asked.
“I didn’t know you guys were here until I got here. I got an alert from my title that said a rare boss was spawning and so I rushed over as fast as I could. I didn’t kill anything so I didn’t have a good [Bloodstained Blade] procced which is why it took me so long to kill,” Atticus responded.
“Did you get credit for the kill then,” Zari asked with an expression of impending doom on her face.
“Yes and no. I got credit for landing the final blow, but since the creature was your enemy first you all got the XP and loot rewards. I got what I needed for my title, but I can’t stay and chat, I’ve got to look for the rest before I run out of time and have to start over again. Great to see you all,” he said and waved rushing back towards town.
“He’s different now, right,” Phen asked.
“Still a mangy werewolf,” Zari muttered under her breath.
“I wouldn’t know, I’m still new to everyone. But we do have a quest to finish,” Eric said.
They nodded and rescued the messenger. Zari cut the ropes binding the woman and offered her hand, “Here, let me help you. Do you have any injuries?”
“I am suffering from a poison of weakened body and my ankles were damaged,” the woman responded.
“Phen, get over here and heal the messenger so we can get this show on the road,” Zari yelled.
Phen flew over and cast
Once she was able to stand again the messenger said, “We must hurry and warn the village council. I’ve already lost too much time. We might be doomed.”
“Slow down, what’s going on? What is so important that the village council needs to know,” Zari asked and then gestured at Phen, “Phen here can fly really fast so if you tell us your message we can pass it on to the council saving time and if you don’t trust us to deliver it you can still go after you’re done telling us.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to get the message out. The world raid boss is stirring. It hasn’t woken since the end of the last apocalypse. Other places can call in higher leveled adventurers to deal with their raid boss, but here the only high level members are the trainers and the council so they must be warned.”
“I’ll track down Atticus,” Eric said and sprinted off in the direction their friend ran.
“I’ll fly to the village and alert the council, Zari can your steed carry passengers,” Phen asked.
“It can only hold one rider at a time, but if you want the messenger to get to safety then I’ll send her to the city on it. There isn’t a whole lot between here and there that would threaten a dread steed. She’ll be safe.”
“Please see to it. You and Bella make your way back to the city on foot please. I’m flying ahead. Hopefully Eric can catch up with Atticus and let him know what’s going on.”
“Who is Atticus?”
“He’s our tank friend, and with enough preparation, and just a little luck, he might be able to one-shot the boss,” Bella answered.
“One-shot?”
“Kill with one hit. He’s got a pretty overpowered set of abilities that if he leverages them properly he has no real damage cap. It’s quite useful for situations like this.”
“He’s just a mutt. Stupid wolfman,” Zari muttered.
“No need to be annoyed my dear,” Bella whispered into Zari’s ear.