Chapter 29: Level Up

Riley braced himself as the mace came at him, he raised his forearm to block the strike. His armor cracked and started to flake off. Riley backpedaled out of reach of Nermit’s next strike and tried to circle him as he was too close the ring of rocks marking the edge of their sparring area.

Riley focused on activating his new Rock Armor ability, mana flooding his arm and starting to repair the damaged stone there. Nermit’s next attack came and Riley stepped into the strike, taking it on the mace’s handle instead of its weighted end. The power of the attack was reduced enough that his armor could weather the blow and Riley Twirled through Nermit.

With Riley’s sudden incoporeality Nermit’s balance was briefly thrown off. This gave Riley just enough time to finish repairing his armor.

Riley called a halt to the fight. Casey’s cheers for Nermit to bash Riley’s head in turned to jeers for Riley, calling him a ‘lily-livered coward.’

Riley laughed it off, shaking Nermit’s hand and thanking him for helping him out. Riley had evolved and attuned his Rock Armor ability two days ago, but using the ability in combat was still difficult. The slightest thing could break his concentration on the channeled spell, stopping the repair. It was still a welcome and invaluable improvement to what had turned into his main ability.

With the Rock Armor being so effective at protecting him and Nermit’s inclusion in the party Riley’s Lingering Leech ability was seeing less and less use. Still it had been instrumental in saving his life when his Rock Armor had failed him so Riley wasn’t upset at the choice, he just wished he got more use out of the ability in situations where his life wasn’t on the line.

He had some ideas on how we wanted to evolve the ability to fix that, but his skill was fighting the change. Nermit had been able to upgrade his Quick Heal ability to include a purifying aspect to the heal which reduced the effectiveness of the zombie’s anti-healing poison. It also was effective against neutralizing Scott’s Spore Breath ability.

This had let Riley form a theory that he needed a higher Spirit score if he wanted to evolved his abilities more than a single time.

The group had collected quite a few items from the Treasure Trove at this point and they had been passing around the items which added to your Spirit score to assist with everyone’s ability evolutions. Since Riley had evolved his second ability and unlocked his third slot the gear was now going to Nermit and Heather who still hadn’t attuned their second abilities. He was eager to see what effect the stats would have on him with his increased Spirit and Magic scores, but he understood they needed priority.

Over the last few days Riley learned that his first attempts at commanding his mana had been wrong. He had been missing an important component to the process which was his intent. Moving and using his mana was much easier now and he could circulate the mana through the mana channels spread throughout his body at will now. This ability didn’t do much on its own but it was a great tool for understanding the mana flows his abilities imparted.

This included his Twirl ability from his Sparkling Dancing Shoes. He hadn’t been able to activate the skill internally like he had with his other two skills, likely because it was tied to an item and not an innate ability. But he could still feel how the mana flowed and could start to copy the movements.

Twirl wasn’t a great ability for a tank. Tanks generally wanted to be an unbreakable wall for their allies. Turning incorporeal worked counter to that goal. But Riley really liked the ability and he wanted to find a way to keep it in some form even when he had out leveled the shoes. He was not at all motivated by how gaudy and ugly the sparkling shoes were. Not one bit.

Riley reached the edge of the ring and grabbed his new cutlass. The sword had dropped in the last chest they received for the day. It gave a modest +3 to his body score, but more importantly gave him access to the Rally ability which increased the resilience of his allies. It was a perfect tanking ability and it was worth the change in his fighting style to include the weapon.

The pirate themed gear seemed often at odds with each other. Riley’s cutlass was designed to support his allies. Heather’s new pantaloons were the opposite.

Pantaloons of Mutiny: +5 to Magic Score, bonus increased to +8 when going against your captain’s orders.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

They were an item designed specifically to sow chaos within a group. There was an easy exploit however. The item still worked for the captain of the group. All Heather had to do was command herself to do something, and ignore it, and she got the full bonus of the item. It was a fantastic addition to her kit.

Riley stopped for a moment to appreciate Heather’s training across the oasis. She was wearing a blindfold while Scott was throwing stones at her. She managed to dodge one out of every three stones sent her way which was a huge improvement.

Heather was training her danger sense, which had warned them of the Porc attack as well as the mimic ambush. She was still mum about what exactly she had won at the Trial, but part of it at least was access to this new ability.

It was a huge benefit to their runs as they no longer needed to Casey to flush out the ambushes from the electric skeletons. Heather was able to give the group plenty of warning when they were near. She still couldn’t actually locate where the threat was, but knowing they were around was enough for their group.

Despite the improvement in her Danger Sense Riley could tell that Heather was feeling very frustrated with her progress overall. Her Obliterate ability, while powerful and a life-saving trump card, was resisting being evolved.

This frustration was compounded further by her seeing Dr. Funk gain a level while napping on a sunny rock. Apparently they could gain levels just by being a cat.

Riley suspected the only reason Nermit hadn’t evolved their own ability was so Heather wouldn’t be the one holding the group back. He had the highest spirit score out of the group, so it was strange that it was taking him so long. The man did seem like a bit of a perfectionist so that might be problem.

It was a few hours later, when the group was resting from their training, that Riley got to glance at his new full status

Status

Riley Pocket

Basic Mask: Level 30

Body: 58 (+15)

Magic: 15

Spirit: 20 (+3)

Abilities:

Lingering Leech (A) - Upgraded here

Flowing Rock Armor (A)

Unlocked

Locked

Locked

Item Abilities:

Twirl

Light

Rally

It had hurt to put so many of his points into Magic and Spirit scores, but Riley’s new gear had still pumped his Body stat high enough that he could justify it. He was hoping to find a guide somewhere about optimal stat distribution, but the Shop didn’t have anything available.

Riley closed the status screen as he saw Scott and Nermit making their way over to him. The girls had just left for the mines to continue scouting out the Porc encampment. It had been something they had been keeping an eye on the last few days just in case. It also afforded the boys the opportunity to meet in secret.

Scott was wearing his eye patch. It looked like a standard eye patch when his mask was unsummoned. When he summoned the mask it transformed, seamlessly merging with the mask to cover one of his eyes and transforming the rest of the mask to look like the skull on a jolly roger. It was awesome, and Scott kept on the eye patch at every opportunity.

None of the other magical gear they had acquired transformed the masks, but Riley was looking forward to getting his own item that did.

“Did you bring the stuff?” Riley asked, still keeping his voice low.

Scott rechecked their surroundings before nodding. He opened his pack to show that it was filled with small red berries. They looked remarkably similar to cranberries. They grew in the canyons around their oasis and Scott, Nermit, and Riley had all been sneaking out of the oasis to collect the berries.

They finally had enough to enact the second part of their plan. Nermit pulled out a glass jug partially filled with water.

“Do you think it will work?” Scott asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never done this before,” Riley admitted.

“It’ll work,” Nermit assured them. This idea had been his brainchild and Riley and Scott were working on his orders.

“It better, my sister will kill me if she finds out I’ve been risking my life for this and it doesn’t even work.”

“Just blame Nermy,” Riley said, a smile growing wide on his face. “She probably won’t mind so much if she knows it was his idea.”

Nermit blushed as he worked to assemble their salvation.

“Ew dude, thats my sister you’re talking about,” Scott said. “But just between us guys,” he paused, confirming they were still alone in the oasis. “Heather’s looking really hot in her new corset. Too bad she gives off mom energy or I’d go for her.”

“Firstly, never let them hear you say that…” Riley warned. “But just between us guys?” He checked his surroundings, they were still alone. “Whew.”

Nermit nodded his head in agreement as he grabbed handfuls of the berries and added them to the jug of water.

“Her personality’s not so bad either,” Riley added.

“Ooooo, Rileyyyy,” Scott, elbowing him in the ribs.

“Oh, so we can grill me, but not Nermy?” Riley asked.

“You’re not pursuing my sister.”

“I don’t know if I’m pursuing anyone. Doesn’t really seem like the time for it.”

“It’s the apocalypse. There’s never a right time for it,” Scott said.

“Preach” Nermit added.

“Maybe after the tutorial is over,” Riley said. His words were met with twin boo’s from the guys.

“Shot bet that Riley will chicken out?” Scott asked.

“Hey,” Riley said, “I’m right here.”

“Bet.” Nermit said, a teasing smile on his face.

“You jerks!” Riley cried.

Nermit and Scott both laughed at him.