[Notice: Status effect increased]
[Dehydration, Tier IV (+1) -> Tier V]
[Stamina Points: 5/24 (-5) -> 0/19]
[Notice: Skill gained]
[Exhaustion, Level 0 (+1) -> Exhaustion, Level 1]
[Warning: If "Exhaustion" reaches Level 8 you will die instantly. Are you sure what you're doing is worth it?]
He wretched, trying to throw up, but nothing came out. His stomach was long since empty. Heat blared down on him with no seeming end, his skin was boiling and his limbs were aching, he was clawing his way forwards trying to get back into town. Blood was leaking from his fingers as tiny tears in his skin widened with excursion. Just a bit further-!
"Remember when both Talyndra and I said this was a bad idea?"
Now isn't the time Abel! I'm dying here!
"How is that by the way? Because I remember saying it was horrible and then you saying-"
I know what I said! Abel, please! Actually help me or shut up!
[Stamina Points: 0/19 (-1) -> -1/19]
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Exhaustion, Level 1 (+1) -> Exhaustion, Level 2]
"Actions have consequences, especially when you ignore the advice of those who have already
experienced what you're about to."
I get it! Irony is a bitch! But that doesn't mean you have to be so stuck up about it! I AM DYING!
"And I've died three- four times, I know how it feels."
I hate you!
"I have the feeling that we're going to be great friends."
[Stamina Points: -1/19 (-1) -> -2/19]
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Exhaustion, Level 2 (+1) -> Exhaustion, Level 3]
With each inch that he forced himself forwards on his hands and knees the small cuts on his fingers widened bit by bit, squeezing blood out of them slowly. Nostrils flaring, his eyes straining, blood starts to flow down out of his nose. It can't be that much farther! It has to be near! Just the next horizon!
"You sure you aren't lost? Maybe you turned back at the slightly wrong angle and now we're nowhere near the city."
Shut! Up! Abel for the love of Lumex himself-!
[Stamina Points: -2/19 (-1) -> -3/19]
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Exhaustion, Level 3 (+1) -> Exhaustion, Level 4]
I will not die whilst you endlessly talk about how I'm doomed!
"I'm excited to see how you feel immediately before the death strikes."
If you weren't a ghost I would kill you!
"It seems your well on your way to killing us."
[Stamina Points: -3/19 (-1) -> -4/19]
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Exhaustion, Level 4 (+1) -> Exhaustion, Level 5]
[Stamina Points: -4/19 (-5) -> -9/14]
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Exhaustion, Level 5 (+5) -> Exhaustion, Level 10]
[Notice: Death imminent]
... F-fuck-!
[Health Points: 21/25 (-50,000) -> -49,979/25]
He felt his heart stop, the blood in his veins immediately stop moving, the oxygen in his lungs escape. He clawed at his chest and throat but nothing changed. He couldn't breath, his heart had stopped, he-
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Death Watcher, Level 4 (+1) -> Death Watcher, Level 5]
His mind snapped into place and his eyes shot open as he gasped for breath and began to pant.
Kaelen: *pant* -Damn it!
"See? Death sucks. The recoil we experience immediately after is toned down automatically by [Death Watcher] but the actual experience in the moment doesn't change. We can't go dying over and over again until we find the exact right direction to find and save Ela. We need an actual plan."
Kaelen: Okay then smart-man, what do you suggest?
"We spends as long as we can leveling up skills at the Festival, and then surrender when we see Brother Shade. This will give us our best chance at dealing with him after surviving the sun. Since we already know what to do, with the chair and then the shadow we can also minimise health loss to the sun."
Kaelen: We can't win against him. You saw his stats.
"If we get enough Lux from the Festival games we might be able to get a new Sigil, one we can use to beat him."
Kaelen: I don't think either of us know how to make Sigils. They also definitely cost way more Lux then we could possibly get in the time we have.
"It's still better than the plan you had."
Kaelen: Our only real hope is a mission, Abel. If we get one it could provide us the stats we need to get past all of this.
"We're not accepting a mission. You know what the last one did to me."
Kaelen: It's our only way out.
"There has to be another way. We're not taking a mission. Besides, we haven't been offered one, so even if we wanted to we couldn't accept."
Kaelen: True. But I don't see another way around this, and we can't take the [Lost Stats], we'll die instantly.
"Not necessarily, did you see how [Exhaustion, Level 10] did a set amount of damage instead of setting our health to 0?"
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Kaelen: Sorry, I must have been busy dying.
"If we could survive around 50,000 points of health damage we'd be able to claim all of the lost stats and live."
Kaelen: Unless you happen to have 50,000 extra health points in your pockets that's not happening in the few hours we have to prepare.
"Most games let you respec your stats, if we did that it might be possible to generate 50,000 health points."
Kaelen: Even if that was possible- And I'm pretty sure it isn't- we wouldn't have enough. If we even include the lost health points we'd cap out at 366.
"If, in theory, we could translate every single point of every stat into health, including the ones from the [Lost Stats] what would we have?"
Kaelen: Again, not that it's possible, but that puts us at 1,606 total health points, which is still considerably under. We would be missing over 4,800 points of material which we would need to put all into health. Even if we spent the whole time Blazing and Fabricating over and over to generate points in [Adeptness] there is no way we'd reach a number that high with the time we have.
"It's still better than the plan you had."
Kaelen: Our only real hope is a mission, Abel. If we get one it could provide us the stats we need to get past all of this.
"We're not accepting a mission. You know what the last one did to me."
Kaelen: It's our only way out.
"There has to be another way. We're not taking a mission. Besides, we haven't been offered one, so even if we wanted to we couldn't accept."
Kaelen: True. But I don't see another way around this, and we can't take the [Lost Stats], we'll die instantly.
"Not necessarily, did you see how [Exhaustion, Level 10] did a set amount of damage instead of setting our health to 0?"
Kaelen: Sorry, I must have been busy dying.
"If we could survive around 50,000 points of health damage we'd be able to claim all of the lost stats and live."
Kaelen: Unless you happen to have 50,000 extra health points in your pockets that's not happening in the few hours we have to prepare.
"Most games let you respec your stats, if we did that it might be possible to generate 50,000 health points."
Kaelen: Even if that was possible- And I'm pretty sure it isn't- we wouldn't have enough. If we even include the lost health points we'd cap out at 366.
"If, in theory, we could translate every single point of every stat into health, including the ones from the [Lost Stats] what would we have?"
Kaelen: Again, not that it's possible, but that puts us at 1,606 total health points, which is still considerably under. We would be missing over 4,800 points of material which we would need to put all into health. Even if we spent the whole time Blazing and Fabricating over and over to generate points in [Adeptness] there is no way we'd reach a number that high with the time we have.
"We'll have to try and see what happens if we reclaim the [Lost Stats], perhaps it'll let us reclaim stats one by one and stop before taking on [Exhaustion]."
Kaelen: That's more stupid than my plan to go into the desert was. I'm not letting you get me killed.
"You don't have to be the one to die, give me the body and I'll test it."
Kaelen: And if it doesn't work?
"Then we'll have to figure out something else. We've not been offered a mission so we'll just have to find some kind of weakness he has or ability we can achieve in the small time we have before he comes for us or Ela."
Kaelen: Your funeral- Well, my funeral.
-Abel-
The world around him shifted, his mind splintered, before reattaching to his- Kaelen's body. He had it once again, and was about to use it to die. This was going to be an absolute waste of a Save State, but it had to be done. He navigated over to [Lost Stats].
--Lost Stats of Kaelen Calder--
[Levels: 3]
[Health Points: 181], [Mana Points: 9], [Stamina Points: 12], [Lux: 60]
[Attack: 6], [Defense: 6], [Dexterity: 6], [Speed: 6], [Intelligence: 5], [Wisdom: 5], [Adeptness: 9]
--Skills--
[Exhaustion, Level 18], [Vision, Level 2], [Sword Mastery, Level 1], [Bow Mastery, Level 1], [Stat Steal, Level 1], [Thrown Aim, Level 1], [Spirit Talker, Level 1]
--Sigils--
[N/A]
--Status Effects--
[Burning, Tier XVIII], [Thirst, Tier V], [Bleeding, Tier I]
[Reclaim {Lost Stats}?]
[Yes / No]
"You sure you want to do this Abel?"
We have to at least try it Kaelen. [Yes].
[Transferring all {Lost Stats}]
[All {Lost Stats} transferred]
[Notice: Death imminent]
Bugger.
"Told you so."
[Health Points: 206/206 (-90,000) -> -89,794/25]
He felt his heart stop, the blood in his veins immediately stop moving, the oxygen in his lungs escape. He clawed at his chest and throat but nothing changed. He couldn't breath, his heart had stopped, he-
[Notice: Skills leveled up]
[Death Watcher, Level 5 (+1) -> Death Watcher, Level 6]
His mind snapped into place and his eyes shot open as he gasped for breath and began to pant.
Abel: *pant* *sigh* -Well. We had to at least try that one at some point.
"What was I saying about irony being a bitch?"
Now what?
"I hate to say it but I think you were right. We do what we can at the Festival and then surrender and get the shadow up as fast as possible, we may as well try it and see how it goes. Who knows, we could win."
We're actually going along with my plan?
"I just want it to fail and show you that you're being stupid."
That's good enough for me. -Now then, shall we?
