I slowly came to in a small white room, laying on a comfortable bed., my head pounding and my body acing all over from where I had been cocooned tightly. I opened my eyes and groaned, before noticing that Seraphina, the one that had completely and utterly beat me in a duel, was standing over me. She smiled down at me before speaking.
“As you may have guessed by now, our duel wasn’t exactly fair.” She waved a hand and text appeared showing that she was a level 150. I blinked in shock at the new information, instantly confused. “The only reason I didn’t completely beat the pulp out of you was that I’m not allowed to use abilities against newbies. The purpose of that duel was to see how you reacted when you knew that there was no point fighting. To see whether you would just lay down and wait for it to be over or not. You didn’t give up once, even when I had you completely encased. I could feel you struggling.”
She smiled once again before continuing, “I would be delighted to offer you a place here at the Trichokenisis Society and offer you guidance on your levelling.” I considered it for a moment, wondering if I should join or not. Ultimately though, it would be more helpful to me if I joined.
“Yes. I’ll join your guild.” I said to her, my resolve firm. “Alright!” She responded her eyes flashing with… something. “Lets get right to business, then. How much experience do you have?”
I blinked in surprise at her bluntness and answered by showing her my full sheets. She may as well see them. I had gained a small amount of experience from my duel against Lilah, having linked to the Arenas system and gaining a percentage of the bets placed on the fight. It was a very small percentage as otherwise I would have been able to level to an insane degree. They liked to keep things fair.
She inspected my sheets and turned to me once she was done. “You have some impressive abilities, Charlotte. You should be proud of the choices you have made so far with your abilities.” Hold on, choices? I didn’t remember getting any of those except my initial choosing of my Class and Ascent. Hmmm. “What choices? I didn’t get any of those. The only thing I got to pick was my Class and abilities.”
She looked puzzled before coming to a conclusion. “Its rare, but some people’s choices don’t unlock properly until they reach their first Class or Ascent evolution. It’s something to do with the rarity of the classes and being unable to properly unlock their full abilities until later. It’s to stop someone with an epic class that is level 20 being able to curb stomp someone a full Evolution higher that had a common class. The higher the rarity the stronger the Focus.”
I nodded, understanding. From the sounds of it, I hadn’t even unlocked the full abilities of my Focuses. I wondered what would happen when I reached my first evolution. “So, from what I’m hearing my Class and Ascent is too high a rarity for my level and as such, it is giving me abilities, instead of letting me pick.”
She nodded. Now that my levelling ban was lifted as it was more than 24 hours later, I could now level up. I had 10000 experience from both the dungeon run and my duel with Lilah. I could now level to level 40, just ten levels off my first class evolution. I levelled to 40, feeling the extra stats flow through my limbs and checked the notifications to see what I had unlocked.
New perk unlocked! – Enticing Hair
While this perk is active, your hair becomes Enticing. Victims trapped in your hair feel an urge to give in to the feel of your hair around their bodies. Strength of effect depends on the difference between their Wisdom stat and yours.
New ability upgrade! Strength Sapping Hair – Stat Sapping Hair
Activating this ability will sap the strength from anyone your hair is touching and add it to yours. (Up to 80%) The effectiveness of this ability depends on the amount of hair touching them, the difference in power between you and your foe and the length of time this ability has been active. Once cancelled or broken the effects of this perk will fade slowly at a rate of 5% of the maximum strength able to be stolen per minute. For example, if someone had 15% strength stolen it would take 3 minutes for it to be returned. If however, someone had been having their strength stolen is over the cap of 80% the length of time taken for the strength to return is doubled, with it taking 32 minutes for their full strength to be returned.
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Becomes:
Activating this ability will sap the Total Stats from anyone your hair is touching and add it to yours. (Up to 85%) The effectiveness of this ability depends on the amount of hair touching them, the difference in power between you and your foe and the length of time this ability has been active. Once cancelled or broken the effects of this perk will fade slowly at a rate of (4%) of the maximum Stats able to be stolen per minute. For example, if someone had 12% of their total stats stolen it would take 3 minutes for it to be returned. If, however, someone had been having their Stats stolen is at the cap of (85%) the length of time taken for the Stats to return is doubled, with it taking 41.5 minutes for their full Stats to be returned. If they are dead, this is doubled again.
I blinked. Wow! That seemed a lot stronger than it was before. It was one of my strongest abilities and it had just gotten a pretty major upgrade. Being able to sap all of their stats would be incredibly powerful. Now instead of just getting physically weaker, they would be easier to damage, regenerate slower and even their Qi techniques would be weaker. The cap on stolen stats was higher and people who I stole from would have their Stats stolen for longer. It had already been a powerful ability and now, with this upgrade it was formidably strong.
I showed the woman, who nodded slightly in acknowledgement. “As I had expected, as you get closer to your first class evolution, the nerfed abilities are being given back their full potential. That is a terrifyingly strong ability for one so young. I can’t wait to see what you can do in time. With the resources at our guilds command, you will be able to achieve amazing things. But first, we must get you settled in to our guild. You need to meet the other members, choose a mentor and most importantly, decide what route you want to take with your hair. Do you want to go the offense or control route? I’m more thinking about control for you, but at the end of day it is your decision. Do you want to use your hair to rip through enemies? Or do you want to restrain thousands of enemies at once, allowing you to become nearly untouchable. You could be a fighter, or with your Stat Sapping Hair ability, you could be a god. Now, I am of course, biased. I went the control route and love it, although its not for everyone. Think about it.” Standing up straight, she left the room, her long dark hair brushing across my leg as she did so. I watched her leave, seeing her midnight hair dance behind her as she walked.
I lay back on the bed for a moment, resting my bruised ribs before getting up to explore the guild. There was a couple of training rooms, along with some personal Aura draw in rooms, something that would be unlocked at higher tiers of Ascents. I knew I didn’t have the strength to even enter some of the rooms and without knowing what was safe, I didn’t bother. I had no use for them yet anyway.
I entered the lobby again, having explored for a while and headed straight for the woman who manned the lobby. “You knew?” I said, getting right to the point “You knew I was about to get my ass handed to me on a silver platter, and you didn’t say anything? I mean, like fair enough, it was a test, but you could have hinted to the true purpose or something.” The woman looked up at me and chuckled softly, the gentle sound, sending a tingle down my spine. “Of course, sweetie. Every young, powerful, overconfident and cocky young woman gets sent to Seraphina for testing. Everyone needs to get “their ass handed to them on a silver platter” as you said, sometimes. Some people even like it… But that’s not a topic for strangers to discuss, is it?” She said one brow raising at the end of her spiel. She shook her head before sticking her hand out, in a gesture of goodwill.
“The names Silvie.” I smiled and took her hand in one of mine. “That’s a pretty name, Silvie.” Her hand was warm, her grip firm and proper. I let go after lingering just a moment longer than usual. Silvie replied, “Not nearly as pretty as yours, Charlotte.” I stepped back, looking at Silvie fully for the first time. Her long, waist length hair was a gorgeous golden-brown colour, that was, at that moment, catching the sunlight, making parts of it show up lighter. Her eyes were a gorgeous dark brown colour, and she seemed fairly young, about my age, maybe a little older, but I knew that appearances could be deceiving. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around then, Charlotte. You have a meeting with all the mentors tomorrow at 10 o’clock. Don’t be late!” She turned her eyes back to her computer screen, dismissing me.
I turned around and left the guild, heading home.