Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

Fabien recoiled with both a slight disgust and annoyance.

“That’s hardly a fair exchange.”

“You got an entire minor spirit attribute orb from just that corpse alone. And besides; we haven’t completely searched the guy yet.”

“I swear,” Regis shook his head. “It’s like watching a pair of vultures bickering over a piece of meat.”

“Oh shush,” the infernal woman waved him into silence. “As if you didn’t want to pocket these for yourself.”

“I was interested in them,” the dark half admitted. “But I could already craft one of them if I had the time, and I’m pretty sure that the necessary runes for the other one are on the 3rd floor of the guild’s library.”

“Hold on!” Fabien stopped the conversation as everyone turned towards the dark elf. “Since when could you create enchanted jewellery?”

“The better question is,” Osmond cleared his throat. “Why haven’t you made any if you’re actually able to?”

“Because I lack some materials,” Regis answered curtly. “I need a piece of arcanite for the spell focus enchantments or the arcana regeneration ones and it takes some serious effort to create that. Once we are safe and no one is watching us, I could spend some time tinkering away at it.”

“You better be,” Amanda looked him in the eye. “I’m not going to listen to them bickering over some stupid ring for the rest of the week.”

“Okay,” Khan raised his voice. “Can we get back to looting the corpses and getting the hell out of here? I’m starting to get hungry and we’re burning daylight already as it is.”

“Khan’s right,” Quentin nodded. “Pack up whatever you can and let’s get moving. We promised elder Derris that we’ll get some food for him as well.”

“And we could also use the spell casters’ guild as a loot stash while we’re away.” Osmond added.

“Look at everyone smartening up all of a sudden,” Cruz chuckled. “I could have sworn that this group was filled with idiots that rushed head first into battle without any actual proper plan.”

“You included,” Valerie rolled her eyes before picking up the pace, looting whatever of value she could find on the fallen mage and the other soldiers. “What can you tell me about the necklace? Is it useful?”

The dark elf looked at the seemingly simple jewellery that was a coin shaped silver pendant with a leather string attached to it. There were no visible runes on it, only the engraving of a flower. He cast charlatan’s wisdom on it, shaking his head as he looked at the description.

{Silver memento}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Durability: 91/100}

{A rose engraved pendant worn as a reminder of the good old days. Its carvings are still well discernable.}

“It’s just a simple pendant,” Regis said. “It even has a small note about it being a memento of the better days.”

“Damn,” she sighed as she lowered her head. “Now I feel awkward for looting the poor guy’s corpse.”

“Now?” Cruz almost choked. “You’ve been pocketing any coin or bauble you could get your hands on ever since the first day I fought alongside you and now you start feeling bad about it?”

“I scavenge in order to survive,” Valerie harrumphed. “It doesn’t mean I can’t feel bad about it.” “Alright,” Fabien tried to calm the two. “Let’s just focus on gathering what we need and getting out of here.”

Both women nodded while still giving the stink-eye to each other, returning to the ‘important’ matter of scavenging. Sometime during the corpse looting, Amanda disappeared from their ranks, only to return, pulling a large cart.

“Where did you find that?” Quentin looked at the woman with a new found appreciation.

“I remembered seeing it a few houses back and figured it could come in handy with all this stuff lying around.”

“Good thinking.” The infernal siblings praised her as one before they began to pile up the different arms and armour.

Soon, everything of value was on the cart with the outlanders either pulling it from the front or pushing it from the sides and back. The cart began to move with a creaking sound, only to stop from time to time when they reached another corpse of their making.

“Regis,” Osmond stepped beside the spell weaver while they were walking. “Could you check this one out for me? I haven’t mastered my charlatan’s wisdom spell to a high enough level to be able to identify it properly.”

“Let me take a look,” the dark elf nodded as he grabbed the vambrace the pale youth held out. “Isn’t this the bracer that necromancer had?”

“Yes. That’s why I want to find out how good it actually is.”

“Sure, just give me a minute.” He said before he cast charlatan’s wisdom on the armour piece.

{Shielding Vambrace (Scratched)}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Armour type: medium}

{Shield value: 28}

{Armour Value: 14/16}

{Durability: 81/100}

“I guess you already know its name,” he said, earning a nod. “Its rarity is uncommon and the quality is ordinary. It’s a medium armour and has a max armour value of sixteen with the shield having a strength of twenty-eight.”

“Only twenty-eight?” Osmond asked back with his eyebrows raised. “But the runes are green. Shouldn’t it be stronger?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Regis sighed. “I do recognise most of the runes, but I have never made anything like this, so I have no idea what it should be like. Maybe I’ll take another look at it when things settle down a bit. Did you find anything else on the necromancer?”

“You mean beside a shattered sceptre and a bunch of ordinary junk? Not really. It had an empty potion satchel that seemed useful enough and a few parchment I haven’t really checked out, but nothing else.”

“Nothing? Not a single ring or…”

“Nothing,” the pale youth shook his head. It’s weird. I mean they were supposed to be a tier three group, yet so far only the fire mage had any noteworthy enchanted stuff beside this shielding vambrace. I thought that tier three people were supposed to be rich and powerful, yet these guys were poor as heck.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call them poor,” Regis argued. “That armour the knight had is ought to be worth a small fortune and everyone had proper iron equipment. I think it’s more about enchantments being hard to come by, and pricey.”

“If you two are done muttering among yourselves,” Cruz broke their conversation. “We have more corpses to take care of and you two are slacking off.”

“Sorry about that,” Osmond smiled at the wood elf. “It was just a friendly academic debate between two spell casters.”

“Nerds.” Cruz rolled her eyes as she turned towards the next couple of dead soldiers that needed to be looted and sacrificed.

It took them more than an hour to reach the Scholar’s Square due to them often stopping to either strip and sacrifice fallen soldiers or to search the nearby buildings for any food that wasn’t already rotten. The dark elf in particular managed to earn a lesser orb of might along with two fortitude and two vigour shards. By the time they reached the spellcasters’ guild, large beads of sweat were rolling down on everyone’s forehead.

“You know,” Sophie panted. “Having a lot of stuff is tiresome.”

“True,” her half giant friend nodded. “But think of all the things we could make with these once they get scrapped by Regis.”

“Hey,” the dark elf grumbled. “I’m right here you know.”

“We know, so stop slacking and start pushing!”

Everyone let out a strained and tired sigh, pushing toward the remaining distance with a renewed resolve. As soon as the cart stopped, Regis walked over to the door to check the barrier that seemed to be untouched since they left. He deactivated it the same way as he did before, allowing his companions to haul their spoils inside.

“It seems,” an aged yet happy voice greeted them from the stairs. “That you had an eventful day so far.”

“That we did,” Osmond agreed with the old man. “We managed to close the gates and we also got our hands on some surplus equipment while doing so.”

“We also brought back food as well!” Sophie chirped with a smile as she held a small crate of vegetables.

“Most of the houses were either empty,” Amanda said as she walked in with a good dozen sausages hanging from her arms. “Or some people barricaded themselves inside, or the undead. Either way, we managed to bring back enough food to last for a month, even with all of us here.”

“That is indeed good news,” the old scholar nodded in appreciation as he watched the warband pile up all sorts of damaged arms and armour in the lobby of the guild. “Will you stay for the rest of the day or...”

“We have to return today to the inner town to bring news about closing the gates,” Quentin answered with a serious expression. “We also have one of our companions staying there right now. We’ll bring her over for the night.”

“I see.” Derris nodded as he listened to Quentin. “Could you bring the supplies into the pantry before you leave, I doubt that my back could handle carrying these.”

“Sure thing,” Khan agreed swiftly as he grabbed some of the hams and cheeses. “We’ll have a feast tonight, if you don’t mind. You know, to celebrate our success and all that.”

“I don’t mind,” the elderly man shook his head. “It’s been a long time since some life and noise filled these halls. Oh listen to me, rambling like an old man.”

“Well, you sure ain’t a spring chicken.” Cruz stated in a flat tone as he looked the scholar’s near white hair and beard.

“Sorry about that,” Osmond tried to cover the tomboy’s mouth. “She was never really good at being tactful.”

The sudden awkward silence was soon broken by the aged yet hearty laughter of the old scholar, his somewhat pale cheeks flushing red.

“I can tell,” he said after huffing a bit. “She reminds me a lot about little Nara. She too always spoke faster than she was thinking.”

“Hey.” Cruz grumbled.

“Oh, how many times she appeared out of nowhere, running, asking me to hide her from that bastard Qadir when she did something foolish. Poor child; I wonder if she is still alive.”

The outlanders watched as the wrinkles on the old scholar’s brows creased together, his gaze turning distant.

“Let’s hope that the saints watched over her,” Quentin broke the renewed awkwardness in the lobby. “If you don’t mind, we really should get going. The sooner we get done with this gate business, the sooner we can return.”

“And the sooner Fabien could began cooking.” Khan added as he cast minor healing on his steadily growing lost hand.

“Aren’t you all forgetting something?” Cruz asked as everyone turned towards her. “We are about to go back into the lion’s den where those asshole mercenaries will be waiting for us. Shouldn’t you tier up first?”

“Damn,” Fabien reacted first. “I totally forgot about that. Just give me a minute or two.”

After saying that the infernal youth sat down cross-legged on the floor and begin to meditate.

“We might as well boost our strength before facing those bastards. They might decide to resort to more direct means this time.” Quentin agreed as he too sat down.

Regis followed their example without a single word, entering into a meditative state with the singular focus of reaching his soul-space. The sensation of falling only lasted for a moment and when he next opened his eyes, he was in the familiar place with the altar and statue looking back at him. He walked over to his soul-tome and opened it to take a look at the changes of his character sheet.

{Name: Regis ???}

{Title: Novice staff wielder}

{Race: Dark elf/Sun elf/ Human}

{Age: 19}

{Amaranth: 7410}

{Caste: commoner}

{Path}

Neophyte spell weaver

Trainee fighter

{Craft}

Novice enchanter

Novice alchemist

{Attributes}

•Allure: 15

•Deftness: 20

•Erudition: 21

•Faith: 8

•Luck: 12

•Might: 19

•Mind: 24

•Physique: 20

•Spirit: 25

•Willpower: 25

Health/Arcana/Stamina

{54/54}{100/100}{54/54}

{Status effects}

None

‘I guess it’s pretty much as I expected it to be.’ He admitted to himself as he looked at the changes. The dark elf was still squishy with his fifty-four points of health, but his long meditation sessions and most likely a few levels in his many spells managed to max out his current arcana pool. After letting out a content sigh, he turned the pages to his spells. Although he didn’t have any spells that reached complete mastery, many of them gained a level or two. There were also several new ones to take note off.

{Greater runic ray of light}

{Rank: novice}

{Spell class: elemental}

{Spell type: runic}

{Weave your arcana into the required runic sequence and form a ray of ‘empowered’ condensed light in 5 seconds for 45 points of arcana and fire it towards your enemies in the form of a meter wide ray. This greater runic ray of light blinds most enemies and deals 60 points of light elemental damage against demonic, shadow or undead creatures. The spell partially ignores armour. Each level of mastery increases your base spell damage against the affected enemy types by 2,5. The spell fades away after fifteen meters.}

{Arcana cost: 45}

{Spell damage: 30}

{Cast time: 5 seconds}

{Range: 15 meters}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 4/10}

{Minor healing}

{Rank: novice}

{Spell class: arcane/elemental}

{Spell type: verbal}

{Spend 25 points of arcana to cure diseases and mend wounds worth 10 points of health in five seconds by guiding light element infused energy into them. Every level of mastery increases the amount of health restored by 2.5 points. Having innate light affinity will decrease spell cost by 1 point of arcana. Use minor healing repeatedly on mutilated body parts and missing organs to regrow them. Permanent health loss due to said injuries must be healed in a 100:1 ratio for small limbs and organs or 200:1 ratio for large limbs and organs. Minor heal only works on living creatures.}

{Arcana cost: 24}

{Cast time: 5 seconds}

{Range: touch}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 19/50}

{Phantom light wisp}

{Spend 15 points of arcana to create a wisp of light elemental energy in five seconds that will float around you for 10 minutes or until you willingly dismiss it. The phantom wisp will take on the shape you mentally decide on.}

{Arcana cost: 14}

{Cast time: 5 seconds}

{Range: 2 meters}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 2/50}

‘I guess I’ll have to start grinding mastery levels once again.’ He nodded after reading through the new entries as he turned the pages to where his skills were, a set of faintly glowing golden words catching his attention.

{Heavy strike}{Specialization pending}

{Strike your foes with all your might for 5 points of stamina. Heavy strike deals weapon base damage + 2 per level.}

{Damage bonus: 12}

{Skill mastery: 5/5}

{Mastery progression: 50/50}

As he stared at the glowing skill description, the ink shifted to reveal three different options for him.

{Empowered strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to empower your attacks, further increasing the damage you deal. Empowered strike deals weapon base damage + 4 per level.}

{Infused strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to infuse your arcana into your attacks, imbuing them with an elemental force of your choice. Infused strike deals weapon base damage +2 +2 elemental damage per level.}

{Reaper’s strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to infuse your will and survival instinct into your attacks, imbuing them with the ability to steal a small part of your opponent’s very essence for yourself. Reaper’s strike deals weapon base damage + 3+ 1 arcana and life-steal per level.}

Each of the three possible skill evolutions were tempting. The empowered strike was a clear cut damage boost while the infused strike would allow him to add elemental damage to his attacks in exchange for some arcana. Reaper’s strike however felt completely out of place. Regis knew about enchantments that could steal the opponent’s arcana and life-force away, but he never heard of a combat skill that would be able to do the same. It was said that no two people would have the exact same set of choices but this was still a bit overkill

‘I’m not going to turn down a chance like this.’ He thought to himself as he picked ‘Reaper’s strike’ without a shadow of doubt. The ink of the page shifted, revealing the changes immediately.

{Reaper’ strike}

{Strike your foes with all your might for 10 points of stamina. Reaper’s strike deals weapon base damage + 3 +1 arcana and life-steal per level.}

{Damage bonus: 14}

{Arcana and life-steal: 1}

{Skill mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 0/60}

‘This skill will definitely help me stay in the fight longer, but the others might get nervous if I start attacking anything that moves.’ Regis mused as he looked at the rest of his skills, noticing a second glowing skill description on the page.

{Piercing strike}{Specialization pending}

{Stab towards your foes with all your might for 5 points of stamina. This skill allows your attack to deal increased piercing damage to your opponent, ignoring half of its armour. Piercing strike deals weapon base damage + 2 piercing damage per level.}

{Piercing damage bonus: 12}

{Skill mastery: 5/5}

{Mastery progression: 50/50}

It was his second most used melee weapon skill that seemed to have finally reached full mastery after the many battles it had been used in. He felt it was high time that he was given a chance to further evolve it. As he focused on the skill, the ink on the page began to shift, revealing three choices.

{Empowered piercing strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to empower your piercing attacks, further increasing the damage you deal. Empowered piercing strike deals weapon base damage + 4 per level.}

{Infused piercing strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to infuse your arcana into your piercing attacks, imbuing them with an elemental force of your choice. Infused piercing strike deals weapon base damage +2 piercing and 2 elemental damage per level.}

{Phasing strike}

{Through practice and experience, you learned to infuse your arcana, fighting spirit and nimbleness into your piercing attacks, imbuing them with the ability to harm not only the physical, but the spiritual body as well. Phasing strike deals weapon base damage +2 piercing and 2 spirit damage per level. The attacks deal spirit damage even if the physical damage is completely blocked.}

‘This is broken. Just… broken.’ Regis stared at the description of the evolution paths of his piercing strike skill. The first two options spoke for themselves. Both the empowered and the infused piercing strikes were, in a way, re-skins of his heavy strike evolution options. One would add increased damage while the other would let him deal additional elemental damage.

They were simply written and easy to understand options. Phasing strike however was simply bonkers. Regis only ever heard once about attacks that could damage the spiritual body, and those skills belonged to the shamanic classes. To be able to attack the spirit directly meant that he could not only fight spirits and other astral creatures, but he could damage someone’s soul even if they blocked his attacks.

Damaging one’s soul was just as serious as hurting them physically, if not worse. He couldn’t find a single reason not to pick phasing strike, the ink shifting once again as his skill evolved. When the glowing ink blobs settled down, he looked at the new description with a shit eating grin.

{Phasing strike}

{Stab towards your foes with all your might for 5 points of arcana and 10 stamina. This skill allows your attack to deal increased piercing damage to your opponent’s physical and spiritual body, ignoring half of their armour. Phasing strike deals weapon base damage + 2 piercing damage and 2 spirit damage per level.}

{Piercing damage bonus: 14}

{Spirit damage bonus: 2}

{Skill mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 0/60}

After getting done with the upgrade, none of his other skills reached the point where they would require his attention.