~~~Lee~~~
"Sure you wouldn't rather do this inside?" Nicholas said, pulling off his ridiculous top hat and withdrawing a golden shard that hadn't been inside the hat a moment before.
"Will you tell me what you saw here to prompt this deal?" Lee countered.
Nicholas smiled. "A... hunch."
"Haven't we established that I know when you're lying?"
"Have we?"
Lee sighed. "Let me see the skills."
"One at a time," Nicholas said, while holding the shard back from Bradley's outstretched hand. "No one else touches these."
"I can work with that," Lee said, and then used Mana Mind to pluck the core from Nicholas' fingers. The man showed not one iota of surprise...
Beastmaster Bond (Legendary)
Never again will you walk alone.
User may attempt to form a soul bond with a beast. The beast must choose whether or not to accept the bond. User's soul attribute and skill level will determine the power of beasts that may be bonded.
If accepted, user and beast will be linked at the soul, body, and mind. A binding that only true death may sunder.
While any member of the bond lives, the others will resist true death. Duration of resistance dependent on the totality of the soul, body, and mind of bonded others.
If any bonded beast reaches true death, the user will suffer penalties.
If the user reaches true death, all bonded beasts will suffer severe penalties, up to and including true death.
Class and Non-class skills of either party may be used by the other if compatibility is sufficient.
User and bonded beast may temporarily transfer up to 90% of any base attributes to the other party.(including effective attribute bonuses) Duration of transfer and the following recovery period dependent on skill level.
Skill Level Effects (Novice):
+1% All Effective Attributes for user and bonded beasts
+1% Effective Soul Attribute
Requirements:
Soul [Requirement Met]
Lee read the entire description aloud. Then let the others discuss it while he looked at the notification that popped up the moment he'd touched the core with Mana Mind.
Contract with Nicholas Alberton in progress: (1/2) Legendary skill shards in your possession. Both parties have (29:34) to complete the contract, or the reluctant party will be seen as in violation. Returning the shard in your possession to Nicholas Alberton will remove and reset the timer.
So he couldn't just hold on to the single core to avoid binding himself to the deal... it made sense. As for the skill... It looked great. He couldn't see a downside to it other than that they would need to find a willing beast, or beasts, plural.
Did giant snakes count as beasts? But then they would have to befriend it? Or tame it somehow? Or could you just cast the skill on any random beast and see if it wanted the bond?
That, of course, still left a major question of who would learn the skill. Lee already had a soul-bonded beast... the beast lord. Could he still bond more if he learned it? Would it even make sense for him to try?
The attribute sharing could be huge, but his attributes were all focused on the mind. That probably wouldn't help a beast, and going the other way might not matter either if he wasn't getting into physical fights. Which he had no intention of doing. Mana Beam alone was far more powerful of a weapon than any sword in his hand.
He could share skills... and while having a beast running around firing mana beams sounded fun, he had a feeling that few beasts used liquid mana... which meant compatibility might be a problem.
A physical fighter made more sense, ideally someone with a strong soul.
The gathered voices echoed along similar lines to his own thoughts, and Lee passed the core back to Nicholas. "Alejandro, you should bring in more people for this. Maria and Trak, at least, and anyone else you think might have insight."
"I do have other places to be," Nicholas said dryly. "But sure, take your time."
"We're going to be working together for years, right? What's a few more minutes now?"
"Years, hah!" Nicholas laughed. "Try centuries."
Lee felt the chill again at the confidence with which the man said something like that. "What... what do you know?"
Nicholas bared his teeth in a wide smile and held up another golden shard. "A lot."
Temporal Shift (Legendary)
Time is always on my side.
User may create a bubble of altered time at a chosen location. User may slow or accelerate time inside the bubble relative to real time.
The degree of alteration from real time, the size of the altered bubble, and the duration of the effect are dependent on skill level and the mana supplied.
The boundary of altered time will prevent all physical or magical effects from entering or exiting. Attempts to breach the boundary will increase the cost of sustaining the effect.
Skill Level Effects (Novice):
+4% Effective Mind Attributes
Requirements:
Mana [Requirement Met]
Another great looking skill, if a little more sparse on the description. Like the previous one, he read it aloud to the growing crowd of his friends and family.
Alejandro was actually writing the descriptions down.
Then Lee passed it back and replaced it with the final option.
Arcane Veil (Legendary)
The veil is absolute.
User gains the ability to convert their mana into arcane energy. User may store this energy within their core, replacing and reducing available mana.
User may expend this arcane energy to envelope themselves within a veil that shifts them partially outside of reality. While within the veil, they are highly resistant to all physical and magical effects. User's outgoing physical and magical effects will be likewise reduced.
User may expend extreme amounts of arcane energy, temporarily shifting themselves completely outside of reality, rendering them immune to all physical or magical effects, as well as hiding them from all visual or magical detection. While doing so, the user may freely pass through all physical or magical obstructions that would otherwise impede them. Unless such obstructions are crafted with arcane energy.
Depleting arcane energy while within physical or magical obstructions may have serious consequences for the user.
Skill Level Effects (Novice):
+4% Effective Mind Attributes
Requirements:
Mana [Requirement Met]
Like the others, this one had minimal, almost non-existent requirements. There would be no adaptation required for any of the skills, so what they saw was what they would get.
Lee let the conversations pick up behind him, but he faced Nicholas after passing the shard back. There was something else he wanted to know. "Does your appraisal skill tell you if someone has an oath of fealty?"
"We have already established that information about my abilities is expensive."
"You're really into this whole mysterious vibe, aren't you?"
"Am I?"
Lee rolled his eyes. "If your skill can see that, then I can throw in more runes to have you look over my people."
Nicholas just tilted his head and said nothing.
"We can add it to the contract..."
"Why would you wish to pay for something you don't need?" Nicholas asked. "You need only make them swear to you, and the issue is solved. From that display earlier, it would appear you already hold some measure of respect here."
"I can't just force everyone to enslave themselves to me!" Lee wanted to know who was using extreme oaths that wiped people's memories, but not enough to go that far.
"But is it not a wonderful way to remove something as fickle as trust?"
"Trust is something you earn, not something you can demand..." Lee said, trailing off as he observed the surrounding people. He was very aware of Trak standing behind him. He hadn't liked the first oath Trak swore to him, an oath of eternal servitude. But it had seemed necessary. For safety. For trust...
The second oath had been even worse, the oath of life... At least now they could quit if they wanted to. Which they didn't. That was fine. They had a choice. He'd offered them freedom.
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What Lee really hated was how willing Trak was to sell out himself and his family. They didn't become that way overnight. Never mind any evolution options they hoped to receive in exchange. No one should have to grovel like that... No one should do it so... reflexively. Instinctively.
Lee knew he could order Trak to do almost anything, and the anubi would have to obey. He couldn't order him to kill his own family or anything that crazy, but he could tell them all to go clear lairs for him non-stop. Even if they quit, he'd have an hour to do with them as he pleased... a lot could happen in an hour.
They could defy his orders and had done so once before when they all bowed to him after he told them not to... It had hurt them to do that. Lee knew it would hurt more and more the longer they defied him. It would break them.
Just thinking about the subject left him far too aware of how much trust so many people had placed in him. Did they even realize it? Did Alejandro and Maria really trust him so much? Their lives were in his hands. Their children's lives were in his hands.
Though if he tried anything too awful, Maria would probably kill him. She shouldn't be able to. The oath would probably kill her before she could kill him, but if there was anyone Lee thought might pull it off anyway, it was her.
How could he force anyone to make a choice like that? Lee knew how he would feel if someone demanded that from him. If someone came into his home and demanded that his family swear themselves into slavery. He would go to war.
He couldn't do that to people. He wouldn't. He could tell them the benefits and prove that he deserved their trust with his actions. If they wanted to swear after that... "I get you might have a different perspective, Nicholas, given the need to protect yourself while doing business, but I am not you."
"You are a fool," Nicholas spat, finally losing his cool. Just a little. "Such a simple, elegant way to handle leadership. Yet you balk. You offer them your power and protection. Is a guarantee of loyalty too much to ask for in return?"
"I ask for loyalty," Lee said. "Not servitude."
Nicholas sighed, all the venom of his previous exclamation vanishing as if it had never existed. "It is a luxury of the powerful to act so. For my sake, I hope your power is enough to carry your ideals."
Lee frowned at the other man as he spoke. Not at what Nicholas had said, but the way he'd said it... Something to talk about, but later. After he had his new skills.
As for finding out who was getting people to swear oaths they couldn't talk about... did those people even have a choice? Had someone told them to swear or die? Really fucked up, if so. But was it fucked up enough for him to do the same to everyone else?
No. It wasn't.
Lee wanted... no, he would make damn sure this fort stood no matter what. He would protect the people who'd trusted him with their lives, and he would do what he could for the rest.
As the fort commander, he could go around ordering people to tell him if they had an oath... or was that too fucked up? Less than making them swear to him for sure. Maybe they could get everyone to wander past outside Three and he could listen to their souls? But what would he listen for?
All of that was an issue for later. Right now, they had another very important decision to make.
"So," Lee said, focusing back on the here and now. "What's the verdict on the skills?" Everyone had gone silent to listen to his... debate.
"You should take and learn the last one, my lord!" Trak exclaimed immediately.
"What's your reasoning?" Lee asked, though he already guessed what Trak would say.
"It will protect you, my lord!" Yep, that... tracked.
"I would have to agree with that choice," Alejandro joined in. "With the mana at your disposal, you might become untouchable!"
"I get the reasoning," Lee said. "I really do. But do I need to be untouchable? Will it make a difference in the next invasion? Or the one after? I'm already pretty hard to kill, and the skill will prevent me from doing anything offensive while I’m using it."
Now, if it said he would be immortal... that might make a difference for him and Stanley the next time they almost died. Again. Because they probably would...
Really, for this line of reasoning, he'd be better off with the beast master skill. That one would at least let him have higher attributes, as well as that bit about resisting death... Which could be huge with how their lives had been going.
Alejandro echoed his thoughts again. "Then the beast skill. You have a strong soul. Perhaps you could bind multiple beasts..."
"Guys," Lee interrupted. "This isn't all about me. I'm not making this deal to empower myself alone. I want this fort and all of you, my family, to have the best chance to survive. Together. Whoever can best use these abilities to improve all our chances is the one who should learn them."
"The time skill," Mar said, appearing and flinching when everyone looked at her. She soldiered on. "It uses mana... so you should be able to make it really... big or strong. You could... maybe... trap tons of monsters in a slow bubble..." She vanished, but her voice continued. "Or if you put half of the attackers... inside with us... but sped up. Then we could kill them before the rest even reached the walls..."
"Thank you, Mar!" Lee exclaimed. "That's the thinking we need. We don't actually know how big a bubble can be..." He looked at Nicholas, who only smiled and shrugged. "But it's still a great idea for how it might help us all survive. So, thoughts?"
"I agree," Maria said. "Time and beast. You learn. Shield good, but we have shields."
"What if we gave Alejandro the shield?" Lee suggested. "He could take any hit with that thing. Especially..." He glanced at Nicholas and whispered to the others, "If we get another D-grade."
"I don't know," Alejandro said. "It sounds like it would help me take a hit, but I wouldn't get the full use from it. Making myself intangible would only protect me... it definitely won't help anyone behind me." He said that last bit with a glance toward Maria.
"Better for you, Lee," Alejandro continued. "The way so many monsters want to kill you... Plus," he said, tapping his chest. "I'm already tougher."
Lee analyzed the rune covering Alejandro's skeleton for what had to be the thousandth time since he'd stuck it on the man.
After the D-grade showed up, Lee could no longer deny the man's request for improvement. It really helped that with his new rune scribing skill, there was no cutting necessary.
He'd seen no issues with the rune, and Alejandro claimed he was fine. He even gained a buff for it... instead of a trait. Meaning it wasn't permanent like Lee's own... augmentation.
Lee had begged off doing the same to Maria just yet, but if nothing bad happened to Alejandro between now and the end of the victory buff... Well, he'd stick it on her and whoever else wanted one. The only problem would be his rune cap... though if Stanley kept bumping their soul up...
This was still a gamble. Legendary skills in exchange for runes. Even his plans for the wall might have to be put on hold unless he took back some armor or weapon runes... Was this really worth it? Bradley still needed a new staff as well. Was he being greedy for wanting the skills? Or was this a viable option? Nicholas wanted more powerful runes than he could get now. That, combined with his remark about working together for centuries... He couldn't ask for many runes if he wanted to drag things out that far, could he?
Lee posed the question to his found-family. Again.
"Take the skills, my lord! Our pack does not require rune weapons!"
"You do if you're going to be throwing yourselves at the monsters!"
"But you ordered us not to fight, my lord..."
That was true—a damn good thing, too. Or, no doubt, Trak would have been trying to fight the D-grade with them. He felt dirty using orders on them, even to save their lives, but they were fanatics! "I... fair enough."
"It is your call, Lee. You don't owe runes to any of us... though I'm sure everyone appreciates them," Alejandro said, and Maria gave her own sharp nod of agreement.
"Legendary skills!" Amy hissed with a glance around the gathered people. "They all sound amazing, and runes are basically free for you, right!? How could you not take this deal?"
"Seriously!" Bradley nodded along, and Lee could see Mar echoing his movement where she lurked invisibly beside him.
"Okay, okay, just checking. I won't back out. Now, what about giving the shield to Saira?" The woman in question had finally strolled over from her garden. "She's our strongest healer. Keeping her safe might mean the difference..."
"Let me see it," she said as a vine reached through the door to pluck the paper full of skill descriptions from Alejandro's hand. Saira barely glanced at it before sending the page back inside, then she continued to stalk slowly around Nicholas, her gaze trained on him suspiciously. "Won't work."
"Why not?" Lee asked. It seemed like a great backup card for her... or was it the vines? Did she need them to always stay connected? Even now, he could see them running through the ground beneath her feet, repeatedly connecting and retreating from the vines inside her with each step. An even larger buildup of vines was also gathering beneath Nicholas...
"Take the beast and time skills, Lee," Saira said, without taking her eyes from Nicholas. "Learn both yourself. I do not truly know how you survived in Mexico or what happened before when your brother's injuries threatened your life, but having powerful beasts to help you cling to life for even moments longer sounds like a very good thing in my mind."
Lee could feel the serious focus of her soul—deadly serious. He wasn't sure if she was planning on attacking Nicholas...
Before that could happen, Lee spoke. "I'll take those two."
Nicholas produced two cores with a flourish, and Lee quickly clarified when he realized he had no way of knowing which core was which at a glance, "Beast master and temporal shift."
He took the proffered cores when Nicholas only held them higher. They were indeed the correct skills.
As soon as he recognized that fact...
Contract Accepted.
I'm in it now, Lee thought, and looked at his status for what he suspected would be there.
Status
Name: Lee Cascade
Race: [Mana Soulforge](E-grade Human)
Titles: [F-grade Source] [First Time?] [Swarm Chaser] [Minor Lord](321)
Contracts: [Nicholas Alberton]
Traits: [Adaptable](55%) [Source Nexus] [Soulforged Mana] [Ley Line Attuned] [Runic Resonance] [Rune Harmonics] [Source Burned] [Ruthless Soul]
Class: Runic (Legendary) - Level 68 (Advanced)
Class Skills: Artistic Rune Creation (Epic) - Level 65 (Advanced) | Rune Soul Storage (Epic) - Level 45 (Intermediate) | Soul Infusion (Epic) - Level 24 (Basic) | Language of the Rune (Unique) - Level [N/A]
Attributes:
Strength: 103(+292%)306
Vitality: 104(+292%)302
Dexterity: 105(+292%)298
Wisdom: 206(+1577%)3454
Intelligence: 205(+1577%)3438
Willpower: 202(+1577%)3387
Twin-Soul: 96(+380%)460
Non-Class Skills(3/6):
Liquid Mana Beam (Rare) - Level 11 (Novice) | Liquid Mana Inferno (Rare) - Level 1 (Novice) | Mana Mind (Epic) - Level 65 (Intermediate) | Create Plate (Rare) - Level 24 (Basic) | Soul Awareness (Epic) - Level 40 (Basic)
Buffs: [Three] [Soul Link]
Debuffs: [Deadly Soul Wound(Rune Seal)]
Focusing on the single item on his new contracts line, it showed him the same contract he'd made with Nicholas. So at least that all seemed straight up.
As he looked back at the smiling Nicholas, it felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop... Had he forgotten or missed something? Was he screwed? Nicholas sure seemed pleased with himself...
"What are you?" Saira demanded, finally stopping her circling to stare down at the seated merchant.
"Why, whatever do you mean?" Nicholas asked, all wide-eyed and radiating false innocence.
"Pretty sure he's not human," Lee said. "Other than that, I'm not sure..."
Everyone reacted rather explosively to Lee's statement, with Maria and Amy dragging him away from the door while Alejandro and Trak joined Bradley in the doorway.
"Now you're just picking on me," Nicholas said while fake pouting. "What did I ever do to give you the impression I'm not human?"
"Relax, guys," Lee said as he shrugged out of their grip. "He won't kill me after going to all the trouble of making his contract. I doubt we can kill him either..." Lee hadn't missed the fact that there was nothing in the contract to prevent him from killing Nicholas to end the deal now that he had the skills. Which was why he suspected the guy wasn't the least bit worried about that eventuality.
Nicholas stood from his chair while everyone watched him warily. He straightened his already immaculate suit, bowed slightly toward the doorway, and then toward Saira. "Gentlemen, gentlewomen, it has been a pleasure. Lee Cascade, I'll be seeing you."
He tipped his hat and vanished. His chair, his car—it all went with him. As if he'd never been there...
"Well..." Lee wasn't sure what to say as he looked at the two glowing cores in his hands. There was nothing to do about it now, so...
New Non-class Skill Gained: Temporal Shift (Legendary)
New Non-class Skill Gained: Beastmaster... Error!
Soul-Bonded Beast (Caff Caffeine) has rejected the Non-class Skill: Beastmaster Bond (Legendary)
"Shit." Lee stared down at the remaining skill shard. He couldn't say he hadn’t seen this coming, but he’d hoped he was wrong.
Perhaps he could have tested it before agreeing? Regardless, it was too late now. The only remaining question was what to do with the skill?