Homestead Survival

<10 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]

They ate quickly, the eyes of the Corrupted Goblin Chief never leaving Theo. After they ate, Theo stood up and looked around. "So if there is a horde of monsters coming, I wonder if we can prepare."

"What are you thinking?" Julia said, somewhat sadly.

Theo smiled at her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "We will do hugelkultur, I promise. But as far as my idea, I think we should do a test."

Theo grabbed a brick and held it forward. "Can you please place a Ward rune on this?"

"Sure," she said and did as he asked.

"Okay." Theo sat down, pulled out his Master Tool, and, using a strange clawed chisel, carved the rune into the stone.

"Oh," Julia said as she felt that Ward rune lock into place and instinctively knew that she could only do that ninety-nine more times. "that worked. It's permanent now."

"Okay," Theo said, then, placing the brick down, he shifted the Master Tool into a sledgehammer and smashed the brick apart.

"Ope, it's gone," Julia said.

"Okay, good!" Theo said excitedly.

"So what exactly did we learn?" Julia asked.

"That if we engrave one hundred bricks and place them around the cabin, we can still do your Ward rune inscription idea for the Thronehold." They said excitedly.

"Oh, that is good," Julia said, getting up to follow Theo out to the pile of bricks.

"So, Mark a brick and then hand it to me. I will carve it in, and we will rinse and repeat for a hundred of them." Theo said, taking a seat on the ground.

This took them through lunch. Only a quarter of their available daylight was left, so Theo took the Master Tool in hand. "Okay, so the thought here is that about eight or ten feet from the edge of the Cabin, we are going to dig a trench and lay these bricks into it."

"Okay, you dig, and I will lay the bricks in, then we can work together to tamp them in and make sure they hold. Deal?" Julia asked.

Theo shifted the Master Tool into a trenching shovel, "Deal."

They set to work, and by the time the sun had set, they had completed the Ward rune circle. As they set the last brick into place, a thrum of power ran through the bricks, and Julia received a notice.

"Oh, I just got two skill increases for that!" Julia exclaimed.

"That's the first usage-based increase we have seen, right?" Theo asked.

"I mean, other than when you got your Penitent Strike, yes." Julia said, "I got an increase to Ward and to Runecarver's Touch."

"Good work," Theo said, smiling at Julia, who stepped forward and hugged Theo.

Julia blushed and stepped back. "Sorry, I..."

Theo leaned down and kissed her gently, then pulled back. "It's all good."

"Alright," Julia said, her face glowing red, "bedtime."

"Bedtime!" Theo concurred.

The two of them retreated into their Cabin, now safely contained behind their first-ever Runic Array.

<11 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]

The next morning, they were awoken just before dawn by a rhythmic pounding. Theo and Julia sat up groggily and walked out of the Cabin. What greeted them instantly flooded them with adrenaline and caused Theo to summon forth his Master Tool and form it into a hammer.

In a line roughly fifty feet from the front of the Cabin stood eight Creatures. They had four arms and looked as if they were built for speed, and all eight of them were stomping in unison. Behind them was a palanquin draped in shimmering cloth of a sickly green color. Theo started to bring the hammer up and prepare for battle, but a system notice and thrum of power seemingly from everywhere at once forced him to stop.

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> Local Area Message:
> ADVISORY: Skill 'Pacifism' in effect. Weapons may not be used by anyone in the active area of this skill.

No matter how Theo tried to raise his hammer, it would not come up. It felt as if the hammerhead weighed more than a car. Theo shrugged and dismissed the hammer shape, taking a moment to put the Master Tool back into his pouch. A cackling laugh issued forth from the palanquin.

"Struggling against the will of the Unwanted God is futile, I am glad that you accept this." The rhythmic stomping stopped on one final beat and the line of eight creatures divided so that four stood to each side. The being that got out of the palanquin looked as if an elf had begun to rot away, and someone had poured latex over it, attempting to rebuild it into a bad facsimile of what it used to be.

"I don't really accept anything. You just happen to have a skill that messes with weapons and their usage. But if you want to claim that for your god," Theo shrugged, "Sure, bud. Go off."

The being snarled. "Foolish human. You should grovel to speak to one so mighty as me."

Julia chuckled at that, and the being snapped its head to her. "And what is so amusing to you?"

"We have met a couple of people the last few days, and they have been people that were far politer and had far more... Gravitas than you," Julia said.

"You seem quite punchable," Theo said, a feeling of utter dislike having risen up in his gut for whatever this thing was.

"I am the Herald. I bring tidings and an offering of surrender to you, and you would threaten me?!" The creature spat out.

"Herald of the Unwanted God. So I take it that you are with that dumb Goblin chief that is running around here somewhere?" Theo asked.

"Yes, the Harbinger. He did his work well; our Lord will reward him when you die or when you accept his terms." The Herald said.

"Okay, so you come onto our land and decide that you can just dictate terms," Julia said. "So what are these terms that you seem to think you have any right to offer?"

The Herald composed itself. "My master has granted me permission to remove the Mark from you in exchange for your surrender of your land. And a binding System contract that you will never pursue the formation of a family."

Theo and Julia laughed out loud. Theo looked at the Herald. "You do understand that literally everyone we have encountered, at least everyone with some real power, has encouraged us to form a family."

"Yes, I do know that." The Herald said, "And I see that you completed the Runic Array around your quaint little Cabin. These things will not save you from the might of the horde."

Theo smiled. "That's fine. I need some more combat experience anyway."

Julia stepped up next to him, taking his hand. "A few more levels would be appreciated, wouldn't they?"

The Herald snarled. Stepping up towards Julia. Theo let go of Julia's hand and stepped between the Herald and Julia. The Herald was nose to nose with Theo. "Step out from behind that wall of Ward runes and see how you fare."

>Local Message: Combat System Engaged.
>Local Message: Due to Skill 'Pacifism' unarmed combat is all that is available

Theo looked at the text that appeared over the head of the creatures and the Herald.

{[Marked] Theodore Oskar Sorrenson, Level 05, B}
{Julia Brahmin, Level 05, B}
{[Corrupted] Herald of the Unwanted God, Level 09, A-}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}
{[Corrupted] Lightning Berserker, Level 05, B+}

Theo looked at the text that appeared and then looked at Julia. Julia shrugged and then nodded. Theo turned back to the Herald and stepped across the Ward runes, slamming his fist into the face of the Herald while using Penitent Strike without its channeled effect. The blow knocked the Herald back a few steps. When it composed itself and looked at Theo, enraged, Theo just smiled.

Theo spoke then, with confidence, which made the Herald question if the information he had been given was right. "Your move."

The Herald let out a screech that sent the Lightning Berserkers rushing at Theo. As the first one stepped in range and extended one of its four arms to strike, Theo brought his arms up by his face and began channeling Penitent Strike.

The flurry of blows that rained down on Theo was unlike anything he had felt before. Each individual hit was something that packed little power. But each Berserker was hitting him three or four times a second, and they were nimble enough that they worked around each other, so all eight of them were hitting Theo at once.

Theo stood there for the ten seconds that he was able to channel the skill, focusing on keeping his arms up and distracting himself with thoughts of how his damage reduction was stacking up.

"Well, I'm defending Julia, so Defender gives me a flat twenty percent reduction. I own the land, so Blooded Soil is reducing that damage by another fifteen percent." Theo noticed that Blooded Claim was stacking the Combat Zone and the Blooded Claim bonuses. "Well damn, so I am actually getting twenty percent damage reduction from Blooded soil. And to top it all off, my Shroud of the Soil is giving me an additional ten percent reduction."

All of this rushed through Theo's mind as he bore the hits. When it was all said and done, he knew that he had been hit more than two hundred and eighty times in ten seconds. He could feel the power of the accumulated Retaliates building up, and he launched a punch at one of the Berserkers, who had another Berserker behind it.

The first Berserker crossed its four arms over its chest, but they shattered, and its chest caved in. It was launched back into the Berserker behind it with enough force to kill both of them when they impacted a tree some sixty feet back. After a moment of shock, the Berserkers redoubled their efforts, raining blows down on him. So Theo channeled Penitent Strike once again.

"So if I take one hundred damage," Theo said, continuing his mental distraction, "Does it all just stack to a total of fifty percent, making it fifty damage? Or do they stack one at a time, so the initial one hundred takes a twenty percent reduction to eighty damage, then that eighty gets reduced by fifteen percent to sixty-eight, and so on and so forth until it comes out to a reduction to fifty-eight-ish damage? That would be a total reduction of forty-two percent, roughly. Ope, it's time."

Theo slammed his foot down, and the accumulative power of just over two hundred strikes washed out from him. The six Berserkers that still lived were flung back with incredible force. Theo looked up at the eyes of the Herald. "So, how am I doing so far?"