“Is it possible to make peace with residents of the Trials or the dungeons? No. Not ever. If you die in the dungeon or during the Trials, you stay there. You are cloned again, and again every time you die. And the only way out is to kill the person delving or going through the Trial. Every monster, every different species that pops up? They killed someone to get out. The Tower forces us into an ‘us’ or ‘them’. The only way to not go through that is to choose a non-combat Template. If you do, in fact, get a choice.”
Excerpt from a presentation to the Senate Committee on the Tower
Tower day 9 – late
Charlie felt a faint sense of unease as she stepped through the door and saw a giant open room and not the initial hallway. At the other end was another barrier-covered door and in front was a lone figure wearing armor and holding a mace. It looked similar to the green-skinned and fanged goblins but stood taller, at least her own height and held an impassive expression. She walked closer to just within her new arrow’s range and stopped.
“A mid-boss. Gotta be.” She took a deep breath and nodded. “Well, I’m a hell of a lot stronger than before. It’s just more points.” Charlie readied a maxed Dark Arrow, aimed carefully and fired it off.
The boss watched the arrow let loose and simply stepped to the side to let it pass, making Charlie turn pale.
“Weak.” It chuckled. “You will be a tasty meal.”
She turned completely white and took a step back. “ohshit.” She whispered.
The hobgoblin engaged a skill and rushed forward with blinding speed, holding its mace ready. Charlie quickly stepped to the side to dodge the Charge and punched as hard as she could with a boosted Dark Attack, a solid ‘clang’ of her plated glove on the hob’s breastplate ringing out. The mid-boss spun on his heel and made a show of rubbing on that spot.
“So very weak.” He laughed. “Did you even put any points in that skill? Or even the stats that boost it? Even with the few points that made it past my Resistance, the physical damage did nothing!” The hob stared at her and snorted. “You actually put points into your appearance. What a waste of the system.”
“Fucking system forced the template on me, asshole.” Charlie snarled. Her fear was eroding her point of Will, and her control over her trait. The red haze was creeping in, the taunt egging her on to wipe the sneer from his face. She leapt at him and kissed the ground as he simply dodged, raised his mace and bashed down, a glow of Stamina empowering his weapon.
“I’m going to enjoy starting a fiefdom on your planet.” The hob said conversationally. “That’s the reward I get for killing you. Release from this endless cycle of revival and loss. Your flesh looks nice and tender, I might not bother cooking it first. I haven’t eaten flesh in a very, very long time. And if your world is anything like you-” He punctuated his words with a kick that launched her across the room. “Even a half-thousand like me will be unstoppable.” His eyes lit up. “I will gain points again. Gain my class and evolve.”
The pain of the kick pushed the Red back enough to let Charlie focus on his words. “You’re sick. You eat people!?” She spat red and forced herself up to her feet, hands itching to smash, smash and crush, pulling his health into her to accelerate her regeneration. Her fear spiked as she saw just the two hits had taken her down over a third of her health. And he wasn’t really trying.
He gave her a puzzled look. “You aren’t ‘people’. Only Hobgoblins like myself are people. All others are just meat. Or kindling.”
Charlie shivered and stepped back again.
“Look at you.” He laughed. “I can smell the fear radiating off. And . . . oh this is rich. You’re a berserk, aren’t you. A casting berserk. What a completely -”
This time, his gloating distracted him enough to let an empowered Dark Arrow strike true, piercing his shoulder through the armor.
“Ok.” The hob snarled. “Playtime is over.” He zipped forward with another burst of Charge, kicking to the side to change the angle when Charlie tried to dodge, slamming down another enhanced strike to knock her to the floor again and to half health.
Charlie scrabbled at the stone to get away, spamming her micro heal every time it refreshed. She got to her feet and limped away, clawing at her belt for the potion vials stored there. She grabbed one, pulled it out and a meaty hand snagged her wrist and held tight.
“A health potion. Nice.” The hob smirked and dropped his mace to free up his other hand to take the potion, pop the cork and down it. Slowly, the meager injuries sustained healed themselves as his health topped off. “Now, to finish-UGH!”
The hob’s nose wrinkled as a rancid haze of sparkly motes started to leave Charlie’s body. He kicked her away and held his breath, gagging as he watched in morbid fascination as his opponent started expelling a wave of ethereal foulness from herself. “Some kind of purification skill? Who the hell takes those? There’s no numbers to them.”
On Charlie’s end, between the waves of spiritual rot, system messages chimed for attention.
-Purification synergy reached
-Sufficient Corruption removed
-Merging/Upgrading skill to Celestial Night Purification – Basic 0
-Race upgraded to Celestial Descendant T 5
-Bloodline upgraded to Essence of Night T 4: +.4 boost to Night element
-Trait upgraded to Battle Lust T4: 30% Boost to damage, overwhelming Joy, Euphoria in battle
After the last of the foulness left – luckily it evaporated away – Charlie got to her feet and glared at her opponent. Unlike before, the Red rage had changed to a . . . ‘pink joy’ that didn’t drive, and instead pushed her to revel in the fight. Her Will felt more effective in keeping in control, her trait feeling less like a rabid honey-badger and more like a rabid junkyard dog. She reached for another potion and just like before the hob charged and pried it out of her hand.
“Don’t think that stink will stop me.” He smirked and popped the cork, downing the potion without even looking at it. He gasped and clutched his throat as the empty vial of ‘Dark Mana Potion’ fell from his hands to smash on the stone. Black veins started spreading from his throat and across his body and the energy began coursing through him. A system message let him know he had Dark Mana Poisoning, giving him 10 Dark Damage every tick and 10% more damage from Dark sources for 25 ticks . . . his inherent Resistance stat reduced the duration by 5 ticks, but he was in serious danger unless he ended this fight now. “It’ll take more than . . .”
He looked around wildly for his dropped weapon, but his words were cut short as another fully enhanced Dark Arrow punched right through his armor to bury itself into his guts, followed by a raging Charlie wailing on him with Dark Attack enhanced punches, the swirling energy shrouding her fists up past her wrists. The sudden combo sank his health but he rallied quickly, returning punishing blows right back. The two traded punches back and forth until he managed to push the young Celestial off and spotted his mace.
“Fucking bitch.” He snarled, using the last of his Stamina to Charge back to snag his weapon and turn to face her. His health ticked down again and he shivered. Even if he wasn’t hit again, his health would bottom out before the poison ran its course. He checked the position of his opponent only to see her downing a red potion, her own wounds healing before his eye. “No!” He shouted, swinging his mace wildly as he ran at her. “Damn elf!”
“Celestial, actually.” Charlie stood her ground, pushing the last of her reserves into her Dark Attack to take him in the face, simply accepting his last blow to make her hit a good one.
The hob fell back to the floor, his hp bottomed out and the Dark Energy burned away at his flesh, his core unable to convert the energy fast enough. “Not like this . . .” He convulsed, vomiting blood as his organs failed. “I was so close to freedom . . .” One last gasp and the hob and all his equipment faded away, leaving a broken piece of stone the size of a peach pit.
“Fucker.” Charlie rubbed her side where the mace had hit her, the forming bruise already regenerating away. She snagged the drop and slumped down the to floor. “I hate this place.” She coughed and spat, one last bit of crud leaving her.
-500 point mid-boss slain
-x5 points for mid-boss status
-25 points earned
Charlie blinked at the messages. “25 points!? That’s IT!?” She screamed out. “FUCK YOU!!!” She examined the stone, scowling. “What the hell are you, then? Better be something good.”
-Advancement Stone fragment: Use at store to advance Basic – 10 skill to Standard – 0
She sighed, putting it in her pouch. “Yay. This would do me good if I actually had a basic level skill at 10.”
Once she was fully healed, Charlie got up and made her way to the reward box. This time, instead of a simple, rough wood the box was smooth, lacquered oak. Opening it, Charlie found a smooth flat stone the size of a smartphone with several runes engraved on the front.
-Skill Stone – Basic: Use at store to learn skill ‘Summon Servant – Basic’
“Heh, this’ll help.” Charlie put this reward away and exited the Trial, entering the rest area. She methodically scrubbed her gear and herself clean, ate a meal of the ever-present ration bricks and climbed into the cot. Tears started to fall and she softly sobbed herself to sleep.
~~~
Tower day 10
The next morning Charlie examined her status. “I’ve got to think about this. Really plan this out. The hob said something about stats empowering skills, but I added to stats and my skills didn’t change. So . . . maybe I need to advance them?” She walked over to the obelisk and put her hand on it. “How do I advance up from Micro skills?”
-Advance from Micro – 10 to Basic – 0 requires 1 Advancement Stone shard
“How much for those?”
-Advancement Stone shard cost: 2 points
Charlie froze in disbelief, then started pacing around the room, swearing up a storm. After she calmed down, she sat down in the cot, and pulled out the skill stone. “Okay, now there’s this thing. Summoning does sound good, it would help to have someone else to talk to. I feel like I’m going crazy by myself.” She laughed nervously. “Anyway . . . it just says ‘summon servant’ but nothing about darkness or night, so it wouldn’t get my best bonuses. So . . .” She walked back to the obelisk. “How do I get ‘dark’ attached to this?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
-Attach ‘Dark’ modification to Basic Skill Stone: 10 points
“Fine, do it.” She ordered. One ‘Blink’ later and the stones’ runes changed slightly.
-Skill Stone – Basic: Use at store to learn ‘Summon Dark Servant – Basic’
“Learn skill.” She ordered next, and the stone crumbled to dust in her hand and Charlie shivered as the knowledge of how to activate the summon skill appeared in her memory.
-Summon Dark Servant, Basic 0: Summon target entity. Basic level summons have a point value of 94, to a max of 500 point value. 30 energy initial cost/3 mana per 4 ticks [1.5 Dark Mana/tick]
“Hmm.” Charlie stared at the skill description for a moment. “Wonder how it gets the extra ticks?” She blinked as the skill expanded and showed some calculations.
-Summon Dark Servant, Basic 0: Summon target entity. Basic level summons have a point value of 94 [189/2], to a max of 500 point value. 30 energy initial cost/3 mana per [1+.1(.5pwr+.1end+.4cha+.1beu+.2int+.3will)] ticks [1.5 Dark Mana/tick]
Charlie blinked and quickly checked her skills that were still ‘micro’ level and groaned. “None of the stats help under micro . . . and it would only have been 2 points each to move them up.” She shook her head. “Well, at least I made it this far. I don’t have potions left, so one point to Dark Heal at least, that’ll get me to 16 hp per cast healing, just in case. Fourteen points left now. I should get some defense so I don’t get knocked out like before, um . . . buy Dark Defense micro and level at least. Twelve left.” She let go and walked around, thinking. “What should I upgrade . . . or . . . my summon cost just under my mana regen. Even if I walk around, my mana just trickle up. Let’s do this . . .”
She walked back over to the obelisk. “What’s it cost to level a basic skill?”
-1 point per basic level, max 10
She sighed and shook her head. “This might be a mistake . . . level to 10, then advance the skill to Standard.”
-Summon Dark Servant, Basic 10: Summon target entity. Basic level summons have a point value of 137, to a max of 500 point value. 60 energy initial cost/6 mana per 4 ticks [1.5 Dark Mana/tick]
-Advancing Summon Dark Servant, Basic 10 to Standard 0
-Summon Dark Servant, Standard 0: Summon target entity. Standard level summons have a point value of 137, to a max of 5000 point value. 60 energy initial cost/6 mana per 4 ticks [1.5 Dark Mana/tick]
“Dammit! Shouldn’t have upgraded it . . . and two points left. Upgrade skill or . . .” She thought hard. “Need more regen, but even upgrading won’t bump it I’m sure. I’ll go mana storage. Changing that to basic . . . probably some benefit with stats, but if it’s like the summon, it won’t be that much of an improvement from stats yet.” She sighed. “Tier up mana storage once. I’ll see what I can get next trial to advance skills.”
Charlie:
Charles Fitzgerald
Point Value: 274
Core Concept: Lesser Dark – Unlocks Dark and associated element skills
Energy Type: Mana – Prime stat Power
Template: Gloria Crimson Bloodwine Angelique (modified)
Race: Celestial Descendant – T 5, 3 more skill slots, Boost to Divinity
Bloodline: Essence of Night – T 4, +.4 to Night element skill multi, countered by Day and associated concepts
Trait: Battle Joy – T 4, 30% increased damage, Euphoria in battle
Equipment: Basic Leather Armor [+10 def, +10 hp], Basic Amulet of Intelligence [+1 Int], Basic Earrings of Will [Will +1], Basic Empowered Pugilist Gloves [+10 Fist Dmg, +1 Pwr]
Mid-boss:
Hobgoblin
Point Value: 500
Core Concept: Speed – Unlocks Speed and associated skills
Energy Type: Stamina – Prime Stat Vitality
Template: Crusher
Race: Hobgoblin – T 3, +.3 boost to movement skills
Bloodline: None – T 0
Trait: Glutton – T 2, 20% more max Energy when full, 20% less when hungry
30 points: Mace, Breastplate, Leather Pants
