CHAPTER 45: Brand New...
Cole slowed down in front of me as we approached a stone circle on the ground.
The large circle appeared to be some type of gray marble with small waves of white and black fluttering throughout.
Inside the circle were some sort of runes chiseled into the stone in a loop, the same runes carved over and over, each circle smaller than the last, until it reached the center. There were at least 10 rings at a glance.
In the center was a perfectly clear diamond like crystal as clear as the cleanest glass, set flat into a large triangle that was shaped perfectly to fit the stone.
“What is it?” I asked, having ideas but I’d rather ask than give him more ammunition to call me dumb.
He smiled and looked at me, “It is exactly what you’re thinking. It’s just sleeping.”
“So, how do we wake it up?” I asked.
“Still figuring it out but I believe it has to do with you.”
I walked closer, “Yeah, I guess since I claimed the cube and technically closed the dungeon, according to the system, I have to be the one to do this shit. I do feel something, almost like it’s calling me closer.”
“So? Why are you waiting? Go!” Cole said giving me a little push on the back that pushed him back rather than me forward, “Ugh, fuck your stats.”
I stepped onto the marble. As soon as my foot touched it, the dormant triangular crystal in the center started to slightly glow a beautiful green, like that of the Spriggan summoning spell that I experienced so long ago.
I walked to the center of the circle and sat in lotus position.
“What the he—”
“SHH!”
Cole began to talk but I shushed him as I triggered Manasight and saw all sorts of colors emanating from the marble. It was as if every element and some I hadn’t a clue about were radiating from the circle. The main color was this beautiful vibrant royal purple. All of the colors siphoned into the center crystal.
I placed my hands on the crystal as I meditated on what had to be done. I knew I had to get Mana into this crystal but it couldn’t be the Wind Mana that I usually force through my body. It had to be clean, free of any elemental powers that I knew. Just raw Mana, like the spire glass.
I thought back to what that rock felt like when I picked it up the first time.
It felt, like magic. Infinite possibilities, life changing power.
I knew I had it inside of me, I think my emotions trigger the change of Mana signature as it’s expelled from my core. It’s the only thing that made sense to me, that’s why the visions when I learned the skills. I could be completely wrong though.
I feel extreme anger and rage when using Berserk. Boiling revenge each time I’m hit with Retaliating Wind active. And blood rushing vengeance while releasing Retaliating Wind right in the face of my enemies.
I cleared myself of all emotion. I tried anyways but I couldn’t get the death of my Father out of my fucking head.
It played on repeat in slow motion, again and again.
“Yuh just gotta do it.” I whispered as my mind finally cleared for a single second.
I released a burst of energy from my core that saturated the world around me.
I rose to my feet and looked to Cole who was rubbing his eyes and muttering something to himself.
At my feet was a bright royal purple glow.
In my HUD, a new symbol for me to select, a circle with a small triangle inside of it.
Cole finally opened his eyes, “Why isn’t it green anymore?”
I thought for a moment before speaking as it made sense to me but didn’t make sense all at the same time, “It can be all colors, this is it’s favorite color.” Cole looked at me with a stupefied look on his face trying to understand then I began laughing, “Ha ha! I have no idea. I think it’s just like you said, it was still sleepy, I powered it up with a burst of raw Mana.”
“Dink. So you just run around doing this reckless shit all the time?” He asked.
“How else am I gonna learn?” I answered with my own question.
“I dunno, read a book!”
“You read a book.” I shot back.
“Don’t start that phase again… What do you see?” Cole asked as I watched Brenden and Mina stalk their way through the forest to our location.
“A WAYPOINT!?” Brenden shouted with excitement from afar.
I burst into laughter, “Yeah B! I’m assuming you’ll have to travel to the other place first though by foot, but I don’t know? Maybe you can go with me? I have to go through some notifications, I probably have close to 50 kill notifications from the fight before you guys showed up. Then I have to go through the loot I got from choir boy.”
“Speaking of Sir, Rrrrikard! We have some loot for you. We picked up as much as we could from the creatures you killed on your way through the houses. How did you jump through that small window?”
They started unloading tons of loot onto the ground as I laughed at Brenden’s excitement, “I jumped headfirst, Superman style. Wasn’t sure I’d make it.”
“Very impressive sir!” Brenden shouted while dropping some leather armor on the ground.
There was quite a bit of loot by the time they were done, “Still no fuckin’ shoes eh?”
Brenden wore a sly grin, “Eh! Would you look at that, I missed an item. Aw drat! Just another Mana Potion...” He said shaking his head in mock disappointment then placing the ugliest pair of boots on the ground that I have ever seen in my entire life.
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I smiled at him, “You’re a goofball dude.”
“As are you Sir, Rrrrick!”
I picked up the boots to look them over, “What the fuck?” I whispered under my breath looking them over, “Do you remember what you looted these from?
“I do. Something called a Flayed Tritone.” Hearing the name of the monster reminded me of the horror but I pushed them back as Mina continued, “I was going to keep them but Brenden mentioned you’ve had trouble with keeping shoes and I already have a legendary pair for myself so I figured you should take this set, plus, I mean look at them… They scream Rick.”
“Ha ha Shit. Well thank you both, I guess.” I started then my voice took a more serious tone, “How many did you guys kill?”
Brenden stepped forward, “Just the one sir!”
“Okay, then we need to find the other 2 and kill them. Was is a man or woman?”
Mina answered, “Woman.”
“Okay, I need to go back, that’s where they’ll be.”
“Why?” Cole asked.
“There were 3 of them. They were just normal people before they were transformed in front of us. The woman, that was Jon’s wife... It was, abhorrent. They deserve to be put out of their misery. Plus, they were ordered by Voldrix to collect more people from town to be flayed, who’s to say they aren’t holding people up at the monument now for that dead prick.”
Brenden turned serious, “I will go back. If anyone wishes to accompany me they may.”
Cole spoke up, surprising me, “I’ll go with you, I need to level up a bit. Plus, you’re growing on me…. Slowly.”
Brandi walked up out of nowhere surprising me as I completely forgot about the sneaky girl, “Can I go with you? I would like to level up as well.”
Brenden choked on his words for a moment, then with big eyes said, “Why of course, it would be our pleasure!”
I wanted to go but I had so much to go through and still had to talk with Mina who decided to stay, and now with Waypoints being a thing I wanted to pop in to make sure everything was okay in Conviction.
“Okay, I’ll see you when you get back. See if Arthur wants to go with you. Try not to go on any awesome adventures without me.”
Arthur opted in surprisingly enough which made me feel better. He would keep them safe if anything went awry. I told Mina to give me 30 minutes and I went to this safe zones barn where Mom and Ava already set up chairs from camp and took a seat. The barn was almost exactly like the one from Conviction, with a complete forge and wood workers bench.
I opened my notifications and started scrolling.
I focused and with a mental cue all of the kill notifications disappeared. I reached Level 29 while killing my way up the hill. After Voldrix I gained 2 more levels and was currently sitting at 31. I read over a notification telling me my Mana was suppressed and another saying it was no longer suppressed.
I also had some new titles, 3 to be exact.
The first was a good boon but a definite reminder of a shitty time.
[Chop Suey—Holy Shit! That was gruesome! You were chopped and screwed, but you still managed to survive! +10 Endurance +10 Vitality—Why have you forsaken me?]
The second was a bitch of a title that had no real upside and it was the worst kind of reminder.
[REVENGE!—You killed a Greater Demon that absolutely SLAUGHTERED your Father in front of you!—200% Damage Increase for 30 minutes upon witnessing Lethal Damage on a Party Member]
The last had the possibility to be better than my True Slayer title and I really hoped everyone who was in on the fight was rewarded with the same.
[Demon Slayer (Growth Title)—+1 Stat Point per Level Up. (Grow this title by killing more Greater Demons and/or Hells Chosen for the Lord’s Revelation)]
If I figure out a way to find greater demons we will be rolling in the stat points.
I started going through my loot next, starting with the ugly fucking boots. I got side tracked earlier by the mention of the Flayed dinkbags so I never got the chance to check them out.
They looked like the ugliest pair of cowboy greaves in the world.
The front of the boots were a type of metal alloy that had an orange tint to them traveling up to cover the front of the boot. While the rest of the boot was Leather, also dyed bright Halloween orange. There was a bright green strap riveted into the side that went along the back end with a small green and orange feather hanging from it…
I wish the other boots repaired in my inventory but I wasn’t so lucky. It even states they’re non repairable even if I found a cobbler or whoever works on old timey war shoes.
It’s like the system created these just to make an uglier version of the Timberlands I wore up North.
“Ugh these are an affront to mankind. Let’s see if they’re even worth wearing. I’d rather go barefoot honestly.”
Shameless Striders
Legendary
69 Armor
+11% Movement Speed
+7 To All Stats
+23% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items
Grants Skill—South Beach Shove (Physical)—Common—Level 1—Mana Cost: 10—Dash up to 20 feet to shove an enemy with overwhelming confidence—50% Weapon Damage, 100% Chance to Knockback, Enemies suffer the Daze Effect if they collide with an obstacle.
“No fucking… What?.. Why?” What did I just read… I laughed but I was also utterly wordless.
The only thing I knew was that I had to wear them now, very very, unfortunately.
I quickly moved on after setting them into my armor preset. The next item looked like a basic silver ring, nothing outrageously ugly or stupid about it.
Silver Band of the Brute
Magic
+10 Physical Damage Added to Attack
+5 Strength
+5 Endurance
I slipped the ring onto my index finger, I didn’t have much else going on for rings so far so it would do. I was curious if I could only wear 2 like the old video game set up or if I could wear one per finger? I guess I need to find more rings to figure it out.
I had quite a few new crafting items to work through.
As I shuffled through rearranging my inventory there were two more items that caught my eye mixed in with the crafting items.
Etching Stylus
Epic
Crafting Tool
Prep items for enchantments by carving clean rune channels into any solid material.
Straight-Edge Square
Epic
Crafting Tool
Place along any surface or straight edge to repair any bend, warp, or misalignment. Mana Cost: Varies Depending On Damage
These paired great with my Resonance Tuning Fork.
Now I just need something that can repair blades.
Pretty sure I need a Smith for my blade though, “Hopefully the Waypoint works so I can pop up and see some well trained smiths.”