It has been said that the system gives us prophecy. And the system wants certain events to happen. Sentient beings are given free will to mess it up, but the system will correct the path if we deviate too much from the plan. Often an Earthquake, a Volcano, a landslide, or something much worse.
#Levyna’s Perspective
“Fine, we’ll do it your way.” The Elementalist was not happy. Her bracers were glowing with fire now. Her daggers were out, the fire spreading over their blades and consuming the oxygen in the air to grow ever brighter.
“
She looked around, “Why am I even here?” Her fight took her closer to the city the demons were invading. The walls looked tall from a distance, and up-close they looked enormous. Those pieces that remained would have held off an army, or should have held off an army.
The noiselessness around her was disturbed by the cries of panic and pain, and the shouts of war. “When in Rome I guess.” ‘Do as the Romans.’
“Why hello Carthage.
She flew over the rubble of the walls and followed the cries she was hearing in the distance. A squad of the smaller demons was harassing a bunch of elves. Unarmed elves at that. There were five of them. Four of them were finely dressed and hiding behind the fifth. She was interesting, head and shoulders taller than the rest and muscled. This was evident from the lack of proper clothing. The collar around her neck showing her place.
Levyna could not help but to stop and gaze. Only the slave was standing up to the demons and the others were hiding. She was outnumbered and yelling at the Demons.
“I may be a slave. But I won’t let you have the bastards for your cook pots!”
She was badly outnumbered as the action was joined. Makeshift club against spear and shield. Despite the disparity, she held them off, but it was obvious that they were just playing with their prey.
This pissed off Levyna even more. With her flight skill still empowering her, she dashed towards the group.
“
A whip-like trail of lightning came from her dagger as she slashed through the squad of demons that were there. The lightning wrapped around arm, torso, and neck as she sped along between the demons, dragging two in the back towards their compatriots lined up before the elves.
“I don’t think this is a fair fight. And there’s one thing my people root for is the underdog.”
“Human! You don’t belong here, like those demons!”
“Hey, buddy.” She said to the cowering elf, “Don’t look down on your rescuer.”
“Bah! You will fall just like these elves. Weak human.”
“Think up a better come back demon.” With a quick wave of her hand she spoke her next skill, “
“Hi, I’m Levyna, do you mind if I cut in?”
“Mariya, go right ahead.”
Introductions done, Levyna turned back to the demons as they were getting up again.
“There’s no way a level twelve human can do that!” The leader of the squad swore.
“There’s more to me than you know. Fires of Justice!
“Impossible. A human can’t burn hot enough to hurt us!” Four of the demons were already down, leaving only a few remaining. The leader of the demon started to twirl his staff before him, and the ends erupted into flame. A tornado shot towards Levyna.
“Waters of Salvation.
As the steam cleared the battle lines were drawn again, one human standing before three demons. Time seemed to pass as neither side was willing to commit. Levyna was watching her stamina and mana increase. ‘Well, let's see…’ She quickly picked the Elemental Performance perk and hoped it was not a mistake.
“Druum Dala Druum Druum.” She started to hum a fast-paced song to herself. With her foot tapping to get the rhythm right, her head started to bob.
“Fires of Destruction come and be with me!” She sang, her voice increasing as she went, her body following the rhythm. “
She turned towards the other demons and gave a mock bow to complete the performance, “Still want to fight?”
#Warnik’s Perspective
The conversation was lost on him, he did his best to pick up some words here and there, but they were a complete mystery to him. He got the gist of parts of the conversation, but not the meaning. He’d have to talk to the new Dimitri when they were alone.
Leaving the conversation for the moment he turned to look around the tavern. Whenever his eyes met another patron they immediately turned away from him and looked back to his food. It was slowly starting to piss him off. He could feel the familiar emotion of rage well up inside of him, but he suppressed it. He was not used to how fast it seemed to rise in this large body that was now his.
The heat in the room was not helping his emotional state, but the rest of the occupants didn’t seem to mind the heat. He sat near the door, hoping that any cool breeze would help. Despite the impracticality of his outfit, he was glad about how sparse it was at the moment. He’d still prefer to get some proper armor, for now, he’d just make do.
The meal was plain but still helped to fill the hollow spot. It was light on meat or other protein. It was still a stew of mainly root vegetables. They did notice some farms in the area with the fields growing to get ready for harvest. These must have been preserved from the previous harvest, or imported from somewhere.
His attention was drawn back to the conversation as it got heated. “What is going on Dimitri?”
“This guy says that we should separate, you stand out too much.”
“Really?” His eyes turned towards the cat-kin, and the smaller man visibly shrank back.
“[Hey don’t get him mad at me! I’m just saying what is going on. Everyone fears the coming Rage!]”
“What do you mean? The coming Rage?”
“[Every three hundred years or so the Mountain Men form a horde and come down from the mountains and lay waste to everything before they can be stopped.]”
“Why would they do that?”
“[Who knows with those savages. They never explain, and they can’t write so no-one ever finds anything with a reason for it.]”
“Careful my man. Warnik doesn’t speak your language, but he can still tell the tone of your voice.”
The cat-kin looked over at Warnik and visibly calmed himself down.
“[I mean no disrespect of course. Traveling with him will be dangerous, but if you insist…]” The cat-kin sighed. “[Maybe you can get by, and claim one of the World Stones.]” There was a definite pause as the kin’s eyes became unfocused and darted from side to side, “[Yes, the World Stones. There’s a cave high in the mountain, where it’s said the cultists perform their rituals. There’s a dungeon there…. Yes… That’s it. Go to the dungeon and get the World Stone. That will make your passage easier.]”
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The cat-kin made a motion almost like a puppet getting its strings cut. “[Good, that’s done! Finally. I’m out of here!]” He quickly got up and bolted out the door before the two could do anything.
“What was that about Dimitri?”
“I’m not sure, my man. I think he had a quest from this system that he had to do a good deed or something like that to fix his karma. And when he tried to do so and help us … something…. I’m not sure.”
“Think he was being controlled by this system, or whatever it is?”
“Could be, but at least we have an idea of what we can do now.”
#Demitri’s Perspective
The conversation was enlightening, at least to him. Some general skills would help, like the Identify skill that helped him figure out what people were. He was not very adept at it. For instance, the cat-kin that just left was labeled as [Male Cat-kin]. Nothing about titles or levels, he would have to get better at it.
He stared at Warnik for a while, and got nothing from the skill, while the other patrons of the bar gave some information, just the gender, and species for now.
“We should get going, I don’t think we’ll be able to stay here. They’re all afraid of you. Because of the Rage.”
“You mentioned that before. But I didn’t get that part of the conversation.”
Dimitri explained as best he could as the two finished the meal, and exited the Tavern. The conversation turned to other things, mostly about the world they came from. The conversation was not meaningful but it did pass the time.
“Where are we going by the way?”
“Back to the cave, my man. There’s a dungeon up there, with something called a World Stone. It might help people overlook you being a Mountain Man, and me being a half-demon.”
It was getting towards the end of the day, “We should see if we can buy any basic supplies, like food. Or bedrolls or anything like that.”
“You’re probably right, my man.”
“Why do you keep saying, ‘my man?’”
“It’s my thing. Everyone needs a thing.”
The town was large enough that it did have a general store where they could pick up supplies. With the mountains relatively close by, they did have adventurers who came through occasionally. Purchasing basic supplies and enough food for a few days took up most of their looted lucre. They were outfitted to survive with the necessities, but not with luxuries. The only things they picked up that were not part of the basic supplies was a simple wooden shield and a crude short sword.
“I’ll have to remember my days as a scout, see if I can remember what to use as a toothbrush, and TP.” Warnik commented as they exited the town, “I know in Rome they had a sponge on a stick. I don’t know if these people will have the same. Maybe a book with soft pages?”
The sun was falling behind the mountains as they reached the trail back up to the cave, “I can see fairly well in the dark. Maybe go up a ways and then camp out till night?”
“That’s a good idea.”
The trip was uneventful and Dimitri decided to take the first watch. There were a few things he wanted to check out with the system.
Name:
OniKaiser241 Dimitri
Class:
Warlock
Level:
Warlock (10)
Foreign Class:
Dungeon Overlord (Mage)
Attributes:
(10 available)
Strength
8 (+55 From DO)
Carry Limit:
315
Agility
11 (+65 From DO)
Grace Level:
2 (+1.5 Stanima/s)
Endurance
10 (+120 From DO)
Stamina Points:
225 /260 (+5.8/s)
Durability
10 (+80 From DO)
Hit Points:
180/180
Intelligence
15 (+280 From DO)
Max Spell Level:
3 (special) (+3.2 Mana/s)
Wisdom
15 (+280 From DO)
Mana Points:
690/690 (+3.2/s)
Charisma
8 (+30 From DO)
Persuasion
+3
Appearance
8 (+20 From ER)
+2 situation bonus to persuasion
Class Skill
Level:
Class Skill:
Level
Concentration
10 / First Tier
Use Magic Device
10 / First Tier
Class Perks:
General Skill
Level:
General Skill
Level:
Linguist
5 / Second (Final) Tier
Persuasion
1 / First Tier (base)
4 / First Tier (Charisma)
6 / First Tier (Situational)
Identify
2 / First Tier
Pocket Space
7 / First Tier
Titles: Undocumented Import, Freedom Fighter
Spells:
Base: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Magic Hand, Message
Level 1: Shield, Magic Armor, Grease, Sleep, Burning Touch, Missile, Shocking Touch, Chill Touch, Slow Person, Jump
Level 2: Resistance, Acid Ball, Flame Ball, Ice Ball, Flaming Sphere, Enhance Attribute (Lesser), Knock
Level 3: Protection (Lesser), Stinking Cloud, Sight, Hold Person, Rage, Enhanced Light, Explosion (Fire, Acid), Line (Lightning, Cold), Wind Wall, Displacement
Special Equipment: Staff of Magnus (Uncommon Class), Robes of the Overlord (Apprentice Class), Boots of Domination (Apprentice Class)
It took Dimitri a while to scroll through everything that was on his status.
“Oh yeah, I have to select my attributes to level up.” He scanned through his stats to see what he had to figure out what was needed, “I already have a pretty high intelligence and wisdom. I’d have to see what my spells cost.”
Light: Create a sphere of dim light around you. Spell cost: 5 feet of light 1 m/s. Cost increases based on volume. Concentration based; post concentration duration is 1 s per level of concentration
“Wow, the cost of that increases fast. With my mana, I could probably make a fifteen-foot sphere for around 25 seconds. Or a simple five-foot sphere indefinitely since my recovery is more than that.”
Shield: Create a shield in front of you. Cost is determined by area and durability. A three-foot diameter circle costs 5 m/s for a 50 hp shield. Concentration based; post concentration duration is 0.5 s per level of concentration.
“That one looks more expensive, especially for a more durable shield. But how costly are the damaging spells?”
Burning Touch: Your hands become warm, and inflict light damage to the foes you touch, up to 10 hp per second. Cost is 5 m/s.
Missile: You shoot a missile at your target for up to 10 hp of damage. The cost is 5 m.
With some rough calculations, “I could take myself out with about a third of my mana.” He sighs a bit, “But I also have a lot of stats from that class import, so maybe I’m good on that for now. But charisma and appearance are low. I’ll just put five points into each.”
He then had a look at what class skills he could add since the status said it was selectable.
Selectable Class Perks: School Specialization, Somatic Armor Training (lesser), Counterspell, Familiar (least), Magical Aptitude
It took him a while to figure out how to look at the skills, but as he did so he got the notification:
Identify has leveled up to rank 3
So he could level up his identify skill just by looking at all of the items.
School Specialization: Pick a primary school, and your mana cost is 10% less, and your effectiveness is 10% greater. You must also pick two other schools that receive a 15% increase to mana cost and a decrease in the effectiveness of 15%.
Somatic Armor Training (lesser): The sloppiness of your somatic components caused by armor will not affect your spells as much as before.
Counterspell: If you recognize the spell being cast and you have a spell of the same school and the same or higher level you can use that spell to negate the spell being cast. Mana cost of the counter is the same cost as the spell being negated.
Familiar (least): You may make a tiny creature you find into your familiar with a successful persuasion check.
Magical Aptitude: You get a flat bonus to spellcraft and use magical device checks.
“I don’t have spellcraft. That must be a skill I can unlock later. None of those perks look useful right now, except for perhaps Familiar. I think I’ll just leave those for now.”
He sat there for a while, trying to count the time, but he did not have a good idea for how long he sat out there. The moon was halfway above the horizon before he though that he sat there for long enough and woke up Warnik for his watch.