NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Level 29
Even running through the forest with Sekhmet at his side meant that he joined the group of elves and Pride members within half an hour. They had chosen an area to the east of the forest – assuming that the sun still rose in the east and set in the west, that was. Even if not, as the sole ruler of this territory, he now declared it as east. The spot was fairly flat, but there was a slight hill to its northern side.
Outside the main part of the forest, it was dotted with saplings instead of being covered in full-size trees. But it was still within the boundaries of the Place of Power - Dominic could now sense where the boundary lay, and while close, they had yet to reach it. Depending on how many trees the elves were able to bring with their ritual and how they were arranged, at least some were likely to be outside the Place of Power's influence at its current size. Hopefully that wouldn't end up being a problem later.
Already, the elves had cleared out some of the saplings and set up what looked like a ritual site on a flat area a good distance away from the edge of the forest proper. Near them was the group Dominic had sent with Sekhmet – the three lionesses and the ameshek. Dominic ran towards them with Sekhmet.
I need to check out what's going on with Procyon and Sirius, he told himself as the presence of the ameshek reminded him of who was missing. Maybe on our way back. Two albuhas from Howler's original pack had joined the surveyors' escort as well, but they were currently up in the air, watching for potential threats.
He rubbed heads and greeted those he could, sending a verbal greeting to the albuhas up in the air. Then, realising that he'd only given the most brief of greetings to Sekhmet herself, and then they'd started running through the forest. Not wanting to get on her bad side, he decided to express his appreciation more fully.
'Thanks for taking on this task,' he told her gratefully while again rubbing heads with her – from her words earlier, it hadn't exactly been the most pleasant of missions.
'It was fine. The elves need to be more decisive, though,' she dismissed even as she continued to happily rub heads with him 'They took far too long to decide on a good den area.'
'Well, they seem to have finally decided, at least,' Dominic replied to Sekhmet. 'There are no threats in sight?' He could have asked Glider and Coyote directly, but since Sekhmet was in charge of the group, he thought it was best to check with her. Based on her body language, she appreciated the respect.
'No. It has been quiet since we started looking for a spot. I think all the beasts around here have either gone to ground or moved away entirely as a result of the recent fighting.'
She was probably right, Dominic acknowledged. At least that worked in their favour for now.
'Alright, great. Please have them keep watch until the elves are ready to start the ritual,' he asked her, receiving an almost offended acknowledgement – as if she hadn't even considered anything else. He offered another head rub to mollify her and then stepped forwards to speak to the elves themselves.
Although they had all been new to him at the start of the journey, they'd been travelling together for long enough that Dominic at least knew their names and that they were a mixture of different types of mage.
'Are the preparations going well?' he asked Isalia, the one who seemed to be the leader and who was currently directing the others.
'We are almost ready to begin the ritual, Lord,' the elf answered him respectfully, touching her right hand to her left shoulder.
'OK, good,' Dominic replied, not sure whether to be happy or not about the ritual being almost ready. On the one hand, it was good he didn't have to wait around for a long time. On the other, if he'd had to wait around, he might have been able to level up. Then again, maybe it was best he didn't have the temptation: for all he knew, it could mess up the ritual. His understanding of magic was still incredibly basic, but if they'd had to take into account the fact that he was a lion, the whole thing might be put in jeopardy if he found himself back in his human body and unable to become a lion again.
He was seriously hoping that that wouldn't be the case since it would cause even more problems than just potentially mess up the ritual – the least of which would be Leo's outrage about all his 'females' mating with the other male. Still, this probably wasn't the best time to do it, as much as he was dying to see what would happen when he got to level 30. And if it ended up as just another level, he'd be incredibly disappointed. But no point in worrying about that right now.
Perhaps there was something else he could do instead?
I could level up once, I suppose, Dominic mused to himself. He didn't want to do the full level up to 30 until he was somewhere safe – and when the ritual was done. But he had at least two level ups waiting for him. And levelling up to 29 would at least allow him to absorb the new Abilities he'd earned from all the Beast Cores.
Looking back at his status and narrowing down the list to only the Abilities which had reached 100%, he realised just how many there were waiting. Eleven of them.
'How many of these do you think will try to combine with our existing Abilities?' he wondered at Leo idly.
'Several of them, I suspect,' Leo posited. 'More usefully, what are we upgrading this time? Our Mana Heart and Soul again?'
'Yes,' Dominic confirmed. Until those were fully fixed, that would always be his primary choice on level ups while he was within his Place of Power's influence.
'Then we do not have anything to discuss.'
Dominic felt like teasing his companion – Leo didn't have any complaints or arguments? That was unusual. But as it was, they didn't know how long they had until the ritual would be ready, so it was best they get going quickly.
He activated the level up and chose his Mana Heart and Soul as the two Aspects he'd like to upgrade. That done, he moved onto the Abilities.
[You have 11 new Abilities available to be acquired. First new Ability: Rending Bite (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Second new Ability: Extended Jump (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
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[You have chosen to acquire Extended Jump. You have an Ability in the course of being acquired which has adequate synergy with Extended Jump: Extended Hop. Would you like to combine these Abilities? Note: features of these Abilities may be changed or maintained. Note: the final product may be better, worse, or equivalent to the Abilities singularly.]
It didn't take Dominic too long to decide; Leo seemed to agree. Anything to keep their Ability list from practically doubling in size.
'Yes.'
[Third new Ability: Soaring Glide (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Fourth new Ability: Charge (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[You have chosen to acquire Charge. You have an Ability which has adequate synergy with Charge: Momentous Charge. Would you like to combine these Abilities? Note: features of these Abilities may be changed or maintained. Note: the final product may be better, worse, or equivalent to the Abilities singularly.]
Again, there was no discussion needed – it made sense for him to combine the two charging Abilities, though he was curious as to how it would affect the illusion-based Ability he currently had.
'Yes.'
[Fifth new Ability: Burrow (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Sixth new Ability: Ambush (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Seventh new Ability: Quick Snap (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[You have chosen to acquire Quick Snap. You have an Ability which has adequate synergy with Quick Snap: Quick Strike. Would you like to combine these Abilities? Note: features of these Abilities may be changed or maintained. Note: the final product may be better, worse, or equivalent to the Abilities singularly.]
Dominic hesitated for a moment. Quick Strike was such a staple in his repertoire, he didn't want to risk messing it up. Then again, maybe it would just enhance the biting aspect of Quick Strike? Alternatively, it might restrict the attacks to only biting ones.
'Leo, do you think it's worth the risk?' The lion took a moment to reply.
'We might as well do it. We can always use Pride's Tribute to take it again from one of our Pride if we must.'
That was a good point, though Dominic would prefer to say 'borrow' since even if his Pride member hadn't got Quick Strike up to level 5 and lost it in the course of him acquiring it, he would return it to the Pride member as soon as possible through Pride enhancement.
'Yes,' he told the System.
[Eighth new Ability: Famine (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Ninth new Ability: Enhanced Regeneration (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes.'
[Tenth new Ability: Sharp Mind (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
'Yes. Definitely'
With his acceptance of the final Ability, Dominic braced for the pain of a level up with so many upgrades. To his surprise, there wasn't as much of it as he had been expecting. His wings ached for a bit, as did his teeth, and there was a brief feeling of electricity that ran through his body and he developed a slight headache. But in comparison to past level ups involving body-changing Abilities, it was very mild, really, and the pleasure of the level up itself far outweighed the pain of his new Abilities.
'Well, that wasn't too bad,' he thought at Leo happily. 'All the Abilities must have been suited to our body.'
'That seems likely,' Leo agreed 'Come now, the elves are clearly not yet ready. Let us see the changes.'
Since Dominic was as eager as Leo was – perhaps more so – he didn't waste any more time on talking about it and pulled up his status. First he looked at the changes to his magic-related Aspects.
- Mana Heart level 3 (26 -> 47 MP) - 67% -> 57% penalty
- Soul level 3 (Resilience to mental attacks standard measurement 7) +6% -> +12% mana regeneration (-70% -> -60% reduction to mana regeneration)
'We're getting there,' Dominic sighed, both pleased at the improvements and depressed at how far they still had to go. This time around, his Mana Heart had improved by 10% – maybe next time it would be by 12% or even more. But that still probably left about four or so level ups before it would be repaired.
He reminded himself not to be greedy – it was greed which had led to him losing the capacity in the first place. Besides, if he calculated his true mana total without the penalty, he would have access to 110 MP as opposed to 80 MP last time or the 60 MP that he'd started out with. Which meant that the increase in his mana pool wasn't linear. When it was fully repaired, he should be sitting pretty. Especially with it being a few levels higher by then.
His mana regeneration had doubled, with the normal increase to it from the level up in addition to the reduction of the penalty. Since it had already been good enough for him to notice the trickle, now it should be enough for him to put some proper practice into his mana-using Abilities. At that thought, he suddenly realised that he'd missed the opportunity to do exactly that – he could have easily used his MP-consuming Skills before the level up, taking advantage of the restoration of his mana points that came with it. He'd have to remember that for next time.
Next, he looked at the two existing Abilities which had been combined with the new additions. He started with Quick Strike, more than a little anxious about what the addition of Quick Snap had done.
Quick Strike (T0 -> T1) level 6 –> 6 (17% –> 20% to level 7) – 3 SP for +45% speed and, when using teeth, +25% damage; 8 SP for +85% speed and, when using teeth, +45% damage.
'Well, that's a relief,' he sighed after reading through it. 'The basic Ability is unaffected – it just got added damage when biting.'
'It's increased by a Tier too,' Leo pointed out. Dominic mentally shrugged in response.
'Because it's now adding damage as well as speed when we spend the Stamina Points?'
'Most likely. We will have to test it,' Leo decided. Dominic agreed – hopefully the dungeon beasts would offer plenty of opportunities to test lots of new attacks.
They looked next at Momentous Charge.
Momentous Charge (T2) level 2 (48% to level 3) – When running in a straight line at full speed towards an opponent, appear to gain additional size and weight and its commensurate momentum. Note: this Ability is primarily classed as [Illusion] with some physical aspects. Those who can see through the illusion will not be affected by most of the additional momentum, but will still suffer additional blunt damage equivalent to your level in this Ability * your Evolution level. At level 2, gain 2% of size (stacked) with each footfall.
Dominic was intrigued by the changes.
'So now, even though it's still primarily classed as Illusion, the Ability isn't only an illusion,' he mused. 'Even if my target realises it's an illusion, they'll probably still suffer more blunt damage than they would have just from me running into them.' Thinking about it, he realised how powerful that was. A damage rating based on his level in Momentous Charge multiplied by his overall level? Right now, that would already be 58 units of blunt damage. Once he got to level 3 in Momentous Charge, that would increase it to 87 units – or, rather, 90 units, since he should be level 30 by then. That was starting to rival some of his other attacks. And that was only if the main part of the Ability didn't work.
Dominic suddenly had a thought and reread the description. After a moment, he sighed. It didn't say whether, if the illusion worked, his target would still suffer the additional physical damage, or whether that was only if the illusion didn't work. More testing would be required – again.
Then he looked at his other new Abilities. There were plenty of them!