I focused on each of the options in front of me pulling up the extended information one at a time.
“Bardic Archer (Common): Maintain Current Skill Trees gain 20 charisma and 20 dexterities. Your current path is the one you wish to walk for a while longer. There won’t be any changes to your skill trees but you’ll notice a change in the quality of those skills.”
Charming Rake (Common): Unlocks charm skill tree. If you wish to walk this path the people around you will become your power. Unlock the Charm skill tree and build your army of thralls! +4 Charisma per level.
Bardic Tactician (Uncommon): Unlocks the Tactician skill tree. This path chooses to stand at the back of the battle but is just as important. Direct wars from a defensive position and gain power through superior tactics. Unlocks Tactician skill tree to lead your army to victory! +2 Intelligence +2 Wisdom +2 Charisma per level.
Bard of String and Bow (Rare): Unlocks multiple versions of your soul-bound weapon. The bow is your weapon, and the string is your song. Walk this path and at the end fire your bow across the universe. The connection to your soul-bound weapon deepens automatically. It will provide you with more of its power as you provide it with enemies and audiences alike. +4 Charisma +4 Dexterity +2 Wisdom +2 Intelligence per level.
Bard of War (Epic): Unlocks Armory skill tree. You stand on the path of battle and blood, but a single weapon will not take down all enemies in front of you, just as a single instrument will not draw all audiences. Unlock the armory skill tree and changes current skill trees to army and orchestra as you march through the battlefield slaying your enemies and supporting your allies. +1 to all stats per level. +20% essence gain from combat.”
My heart thudded in my chest as fast as a rabbit’s foot while I read over each of my new options. My current class had been good to me, and I knew there was more that I could pull out of it, but it didn’t offer anything that I couldn’t get with almost any of the other options. Charming Rake was out automatically. While I was sure it would be powerful it was the exact reason, I wouldn’t have accepted some of the other boons I’d been offered.
Bardic Tactician sounded interesting, I assumed that Santiago had a class similar to that and I couldn’t help but think that with my aura, and those kinds of skills I could overtake Santiago in no time. But those classes were nothing compared to the last two. Ballads Bow had been a constant companion to me since this all began, we’d gone through several battles and played a lot of songs together. Now that I knew there were more versions of it that I could unlock. Plus, the stats per level were fantastic. I would have chosen it immediately if it hadn’t been for the final choice.
Bard of War could very well make me the most powerful person in the world in a short amount of time. Not only did it appear that I could get tons of different skills, but the points per level up would help me keep all my stats climbing together. Then there was the essence gain boost. All bards had a major handicap on essence we gained from pure combat, so we got most of our essence when we were working in groups. This class would help mitigate that slightly and I couldn’t help but drool. I chose it immediately and suddenly all of my screens changed.
Instead of the standard blue screens, I was used to, mine changed into transparent red screens with a spiked black border. “What kind of edge lord decided this was good?” I questioned myself while also hoping no one would ever see my screens except me. Then I opened my stat and skill sheets to check the changes.
Nathan Schute: Bard of War
LEVEL 50
STRENGTH: 15
CONSTITUTION:12
AGILITY:25
DEXTERITY:147
INTELLIGENCE:21
WISDOM:38
CHARISMA:133
PERCEPTION:11
0 Free Stat Points
BARD OF WAR SKILL TREE
0 SKILL POINT
ORCHESTRA ARMY ARMORY
AMPLIFY STEADY SPACIAL ARMORY (SOUL)
RITARDANDO SCOPE
UP THE OCTAVE CONCUSSIVE SHOT
TONAL TORTURE HUMMING STRING
12 MAJOR SCALES
GIFT OF GAB
None of my stats had changed yet, but I hadn’t leveled up again so that made some sense. The biggest changes happened in my skill trees. No longer did I have performance, Archery, and Conversation skill trees, but each of them had been replaced with something new. All of my old skills were still there, but Gift of Gab had moved under the orchestra tree.
I wondered if that was just because the system placed it in the closest skill tree that could take it, or if I could expect more utility skills like that from now on. Then there was my new skill.
“Spatial Armory (Soul): Allows the storage of soul-bound weapons and instruments and armor. Unlock more Armory skills to gain more storage options.” I instinctually know how to use this skill and I stretched my left arm out and willed the armory to open. What looked like a tear in the universe opened beside me and I felt how to use it. I removed Ballad's Bow and its case from my back and placed it inside the tear then I closed it. Reopening it one more time I moved the special tear over my body and Ballad's Bow reappeared on my back.
Experimenting I attempted to place one of my push daggers inside the portal, but my hand and the weapon just phased right through it. Still, I was excited about my new class and as the portal retrieved my weapon again and then closed, I heard a high-pitched whistle.
“Daaamn man that’s impressive!” Santiago said as he walked up. I didn’t even realize that he’d exited meditation, but I smiled at him anyway. That’s when I remembered, combat was over it was time to put the mask back on. I pulled it out of the small pouch on my waist and placed it on my face. Damien looked slightly disappointed, but he did the same. “So, what’d you get?” He asked me in a hushed tone. I told him and he nodded his head. “I didn’t get that one, but it sounds badass.” He then went to go talk to Autumn.
Over the next few hours people exited meditation, some of them had made incredible advances, others not as much. Everyone had improved in some way though, and that’s not including all of the levels everyone had gained. We gathered ourselves and began the journey back to camp. The mood had calmed since the end of the battle and our losses finally hit us.
Damien's team had lost, three members which meant we had started out with 24 people and were coming back with 19 unless Donnie had died before making it back to the camp. When we walked back into camp cheers rang out from the hundreds of people that hadn’t come with us on the operation. Many of us didn’t feel up to celebrating, but Damien had warned us ahead of time not to act morose when we got back.
“We need to keep up morale. Try not to let our people dwell on the losses too much, we’ll lose more than we already have if that happens.” He’d said to us. After the warm reception was over Damien announced a celebration for tonight. He used his own personal funds to buy a feast from the system store, which made my impression of him raise slightly. The party went on through the night, the bonfires roared and Underdawn performed a concert of all of the songs we’d used throughout the last two days.
Our group stayed masked, but that didn’t stop people from coming up and soliciting us. A lot of people were especially interested in Josh who was a giant of a man. I got a kick every time someone approached him, and he stumbled over his words trying to politely turn them down. The others got their own chuckles from how I handled my own suitors, which was just to stare at them until they got the hint and left. I had no intention of spending my time with random people. “Especially doing that.”
Closer to the end of the night Santiago sat down next to me as I was plucking a tune on my guitar. I stopped playing as he handed me a drink. Placing Ballads Bow in the armory I took a big gulp of what turned out to be wine.
“So, are we good?” He asked me and I could tell that he was nervous about my answer, I didn’t know why though. We’d continued fighting together, but we hadn’t really talked since he’d yelled at me a couple of days before.
“You were the one that was mad.” I simply stated and he chuckled.
“Yeah, that’s true but are we good?” He asked again making me think that he had another meaning behind his words.
“Yeah Santi, we’re good.” It was the closest I got to saying, “I like you,” but it seemed to make him happy so that was good. He got up and sprang away. “Weirdo,” I said under my breath and went to take another sip when he called back.
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“I heard that!” I laughed and drained my cup. As far as I was concerned that was enough revelry for the night. I went to the system store while the sound of partying carried throughout the camp. If I was right about my new class, I could wind up getting skills for other types of weapons and instruments. I’d also noticed a trend with my skills having taken on aspects of my fighting style and talents. Figuring that it might work the same way with my armory skill I decided to get another type of weapon. The only question was what kind?
I scrolled through spears, axes, clubs, and all kinds of things. Eventually, though I landed on a sword called a jian, it had a green blade and a green tassel at the end of the pommel. It didn’t come with a sheath, so I had to buy that separately. The sword didn’t have any enchantments on them, but the sheath had a sharpening enchantment on it, and it cost more than the sword itself. Next, I looked for a manual to teach me how to use the sword.
Unfortunately, there were thousands of different styles just for this type of sword. I didn’t want to get something super cheap because that meant it most likely wasn’t valued super highly in the multiverse. At the same time though I didn’t want to get something super expensive because then I wouldn’t have money for new stuff if my theory about skills was proven right. In the end, I settled on a sword style called the “Howling Wind Slicer” style.
It was described as a mid-tier jian sword style, and it had 12 forms overall. I went back out into the forest to study the new techniques. The moves themselves weren’t hard to learn at all with my dexterity as high as it was now it only took about an hour to learn all 12 forms. The problem was that I had no idea how to use it in a fight. The sword fighters we had in camp mostly swung their weapons around hoping that they hit something, or they relied on skills.
There were some sword fighters in the elites that came with us, but they didn’t have any insight on how to actually sword fight either. The katana user had the best skill with his sword, but when I asked him about it, he let me know that it was because of Tara. Before the system came, she’d been a fencer and martial artist. Knowing that she could have taught me more about my new weapon doubled down on the negative feelings I experienced about not being able to save her.
So, without any other options, I decided that trial and error would be my best bet. I asked Autumn and Susan to join me while I trained, that way I’d have a healer for when I got hurt, and a strong fighter to save me when I got in over my head. The next day the three of us made an excursion into the city so that I could get beaten up by monsters.
Just because we’d defeated the dungeons didn’t mean that there still weren’t monsters in the city. Wild monsters moved into the city to take the place of the dungeon monsters, but without the dungeons constantly pumping out more the number was much more manageable. Even so, shooting monsters from farther away and playing songs did not translate well to fighting with a sword.
The new monsters in the city were more advanced than the giant animals we’d been fighting. Instead, there were fishmen wielding crude metal weapons, cyclops with clubs, and plant monsters that used strangling vines to trap their prey. None of them seemed intelligent, but they were definitely a challenge for a novice swordsman like me. It didn’t take long for me to run into my first opponent.
“Level 30 Cyclopean Berserker.” I’d have been able to take it down easily if I’d been using my bow, but with a sword, I had no skills either system-based or just regular talent. The Cyclops club swung at my head again and I dodged again and ran the other way.
“Come on Nate! You’ll never learn how to use the sword if you don’t USE THE DANG SWORD!” Susan yelled at me from the top of a nearby building.
“You do it then,” I grumbled while continuing to run away. Dodging the attacks and keeping out the club’s range was easy, but counter-attacking was not. I couldn’t even block properly; I’d attempted it once earlier in the fight, and I’d even managed to raise the sword and catch the blow on it. Unfortunately, the Cyclops' strength must have been higher than mine because that attack threw me into a wall knocking the breath out of me.
Autumn healed me quickly and I got back into running from the fight. The battle went on for an hour before I finally started fighting back. I’d gotten used to the patterns of the cyclops and also began to go through my forms finding which movement might fit best for the way it moved. Instead of standing my ground to block the blows, I would use the sword to either redirect the attack or my own body.
Another swing moved toward me, and I raised the sword, allowing the club to hit the sword. I moved it over my head and directed the swing off my back. Closing in on the still-moving monster I leaped up spinning my body and with a loud battle cry I felt the blade chopped through the Cyclops' neck. It wasn’t pretty and I had a long way to go, but I enjoyed the feeling of improving. My two friends cheered me on from their perches up top. Most of their excitement came from the fight finally being over, but some of it was pride for me. At least I hoped it was.
More fights like that followed day after day. I was beaten, strangled, sliced, stabbed, and eviscerated over the following month of training. I didn’t spend all day every day on the sword though. From dawn to around noon I practiced the sword, then from noon to sunset I practiced my bardic and archer skills. After that from sunset to late in the night, I cultivated and practiced aura with Autumn and Susan.
Every now and then we would run into people who were coming out of hiding since the hoards of monsters had disappeared. We even found Santiago’s brother, which led to a very emotional reunion. Autumn would escort the people back to camp where she would also get a report of any news, but not much came out of that except loss reports. Every day the leaderboards lost more and more people. From the math we did humanity had lost another 5% of the population. It was a hard blow, but I did everything I could to distract myself with training so that I wouldn’t fall into despair.
After that, the rest of Underdawn joined me in my training. After learning what our band name was before the apocalypse, they started calling our team that. Even Autumn and Santiago were considered to be in “Underdawn,” which tickled them pink.
Although it didn’t help any of them with their classes, my friends decided to learn the sword with me, they just needed a challenge to keep them busy. Each of them bought their own Jian except Josh. The large man could use one of our swords as a toothpick so instead he bought a claymore and used that as a single-handed weapon. Autumn still joined us for aura training in the evening but after a while, she stopped.
It was a shock the first day she didn’t come to practice with us, but we figured that she must just be busy. None of us leveled up yet Susan was still the highest level of us all at level 55. When she had reached level 50, she’d chosen the class Bloodforged Monk her soul-bound weapons changed into scaled gauntlets with claws as well as a matching set of sollerets that covered up to her upper thigh. Most of the time she just stood by as we fought, because when she did step in, she’d rip the enemies in half with no effort.
The others were still working on getting to level 50, but since we avoided fighting area bosses without a full party there weren’t a lot of chances for them to level. Even so, we stayed out there training and after a while, each member of the team successfully formed their aura. Each time one of them broke through they’d excitedly run up to me and tell me all about it.
Susan had already been working on her aura of change and it was interesting to watch as her second layer changed colors between red, and blue. When her aura was red her movement speed even matched mine, and when it was blue whatever enemy was within her aura would have their movement speed halved. I thought I knew how it worked based on the temperature I could feel depending on the color, but I couldn’t be sure.
Tony had unlocked his elemental and secondary auras as well. His first one was interesting in that he didn’t have to breathe. That’s all it did from what I could tell, and I had no idea how that one worked. He’d explained that his secondary concept was erosion. When I sparred with him it was more difficult than I would have expected. I consistently still won our matches because of my aura’s power, size, and control, but every time his aura touched mine, I could feel it eating away at my power slowly. It was honestly terrifying to think about what it would look like when he’d gained more power.
Tina and Josh had only unlocked their base auras, but they both had good abilities. When Tina activated her metal aura it was like she was wearing a full set of heavy armor. It acted like that as well because it was bigger than any of the rest of our elemental auras coming a full foot off her body. We had some fun one day just swinging our swords at her and watching them bounce off. What the others didn’t notice was the sound I could hear in my auric perception; every time we struck the aura an almost imperceptible clang rang out.
Josh had the biggest transformation though. His wood aura made him able to adjust his size up to a certain point. He was able to maintain a smaller form back to his original size or grow himself to a 20-foot monster. Either way, he became extremely hungry after using that ability. He was also the only one of them to figure out another insight unlocking a second ability to his aura. It was a passive ability he called terraforming. He called it that because if he stood in one place for too long with his aura activated flowers would begin to grow out from his feet.
We spent a month in the city training with our new abilities, and weapon skills. We hadn’t heard a peep out of the camp the entire time until the very end of the month. We were finishing up our class training for the day when a man came running up. I was surprised that I knew the man; it was Donnie the man who’d told us about the snake that had trapped my friends and their squad in a building a month prior.
“Hey, you guys need to come back to camp there’s something big going on and Damien wants to tell everyone about it at the same time.” At first, I thought that I might have missed a system notification about a quest, or something new about the system, but when I checked I didn’t find anything. None of the others could either so it wasn’t that. We decided that we’d head back to see if it was really as important as Donnie had told us.
We walked back into camp just an hour later. I knew something weird was happening when I noticed that there weren’t any people walking around the camp. No one was working on anything, or training, I couldn’t even hear any talking. Closer to the center of camp though I saw the large crowd, completely silent and still as if they were trying to keep a t-rex from seeing them. Everyone gathered around the large tent that held the system store and the three leaders stood in front of it. Once my entire team arrived at the back of the crowd Damien began to speak.
“You all know that we’ve had a visitor recently, a great man who has a plan to save humanity and gather it under one flag!” His words seemed flat, and void of emotion, but I could feel a tug in my mind, nonetheless. A call rang out from the crowd, and everyone joined in a chorus.
“Samael! Samael! Samael!” Again, there was the tug, it didn’t come from Damien this time but from the crowd around me, and it was stronger this time. The shadow mage leader raised his hands as if to tell the crowd to be silent.
“I would like to formally withdraw any authority over this camp! And in my place, I would like to welcome his divine eminence Samael!” The tent flaps opened, and a man walked out. He also had white hair and darker shimmering skin. Marks that I was beginning to associate with water cultivation. The crowd went wild as he walked out, and I knew something was wrong. An enormous mental pull came over me and my instincts kicked in. I activated my essence sight and my aura at the same time.
In my vision, I saw streams of blue essence with specks of shining white flowing out of the man and every other person in the crowd. I fought off the essence with my aura trying not to bring too much attention to myself, but I saw the essence flowing around my friends’ heads. Except for Tony.
“Tony your aura now!” I warned my friend, and he did as I said turning on his own aura. It was too late though I watched as Tony was quickly suppressed by the odd aura. I attempted to fight it off them using my aura, but it was like every person in the area had the same aura and it surged at me only allowing me to draw my aura in to defend myself.
“Calm my friends! Be calm!” The crowd silenced as the man who I knew now as Samael spoke. He walked into the crowd, and people shifted to allow him to pass through, occasionally he would stop grabbing a random person’s head and placing his forehead on theirs. I could see a small amount of aura move from him to the person within that small contact.
Wanting to run away, but not wanting to leave my friends, I stayed where I was fighting off the surges of aura coming from the crowd. The man made his way all the way through the rows of people and stopped right in front of me.
“You must be Nathan, Santi told me about you.” With every word he spoke, I felt the same pull of charisma that I’d grown used to. “A bard then.” The man had said “Nathan.” None of my friends called me Nathan. Nate, Natey, hey you asshole sure, but never Nathan, and Santi knew that. My eyes flicked over to him and took in the blank look on his face as the blue-white essence flowed around his head.
“I’m guessing you’re Samael,” I spoke through gritted teeth. He chuckled and beamed at me.
“You’re a strong one huh? Aren’t you tired? Wouldn’t you just like to relax for a while? I can help you with that you know.” He said the last part as if telling me a secret. I felt an extremely hard pull in my mind, and I knew he was right. I was tired and wanted to relax. My mind repeated his words, and I almost dropped my aura, but another feeling stopped me.
It was a feeling that I’d been struggling with recently, one that had gotten me in trouble, but also given me drive. That feeling was rage. It bubbled up inside me and before I knew it, I’d drawn one of my push daggers and stabbed myself in the leg. The pain made me cry out but also helped me focus. I redoubled my efforts in fighting off the aura.
“Oh wow!” The Man called Samael smiled like the Cheshire cat and clapped his hands seeming to be entertained. “Even the casters with incredibly high wisdom haven’t been able to fight me off for this long! You’re going to be so much fun.” He said then looked back towards the camp leaders. “Your other friends have already shown me such… nice hospitality.”
The look on his face as he’d spoken those words tripled my fury and I went to strike at him, but before I could Josh and Susan stepped in my way. Shocked, I stopped and stepped back. Once I was far enough away my friends allowed Samael to move toward me again. “He’s dangerous.” I thought as I continued to back up. Looking at my friends, all of which stared back at me with the same blank look on everyone else’s faces.
“You know I’m really enjoying all the essence I’m getting from these people. I’ll be at the top of the leaderboard before you know it. Getting a boon from a sponsor sure is great, isn’t it?” His eyes looked crazed. “You though, you’re going to be the feather in my cap, and once you’re under my control…” His eyes traveled down my body, making my skin crawl. “Grab him.” Susan moved, and I ran with all my might and didn’t stop until I was far into the forest again.
When I stopped, I was breathing hard, and my mind raced. “What am I going to do? He has all of them! He’s going to hurt them!” I wanted to go back right then, but I stopped myself. If I went back, I’d just be captured. I decided I’d go back once the sun was down. I’d sneak into camp and find that man. “Then I’ll flay the skin from his body a piece at a time.”