Chapter 56: Inspiration for Rhea

  The last week for Crimson had been an exercise in madness. He wanted nothing more than to be in the dungeon day-in and day-out until he’d gotten all the [Skill Stones] he wanted, but other commitments got in the way. He was still contractually obligated to help the survey team map out the secret passages, and he had social responsibilities to his party or others.

  That meant he’d gotten only a small amount of time in the evenings to hunt Mulgis, meaning he could only perform 3 boss kills a day. Verity couldn’t always accompany him, so he’d died a couple times until he’d improved to the point of being able to fight on his own. His [Skill] progress reflected his efforts:

  —————

  -[Skill] Level Up!

  -[Advanced Sword Mastery] 9/100 —> 14/100

  -[Ul Byrn] 4/10 —> 5/10

  -[Blade Spirit] 2/10 —> 6/10

  -[Adaptive Footwork] 2/10 —> 4/10

  -[Darkvision] 1/10 —> 5/10

  -[Defense Pierce] 2/10 —> 4/10

  -[Secret Sense] 4/10 —> 5/10

  -[Ru Mikiri] 6/10 —> 9/10

  -[Weak Presence] 1/10 (new) —> 6/10

  —————

  [Ru Mikiri] in particular was interesting, as it meant that he’d be able to switch the [Skill] in his [Eyes of Will] soon, which was probably for the best. It was such a powerful [Skill], that he’d started to worry that it was leading him around by the nose.

  Crimson, in his infinite paranoia, could only think of a future where he came across a boss that could inflict the [Blind Ailment], and if he was completely reliant on a [Skill] like this, he would melt in that scenario.

  The rest of his [Skill] gains had been pretty good, though [Advanced Sword Mastery] had slowed a fair bit once he’d gotten used to Mulgis. The [Imp Overlord] was so reliant on the dark environment that his actual attack patterns were very monotonous. While Crimson might still be pushed to his limits in some ways, his swordsmanship was no longer being tested like it needed to for growth.

  It was unfortunate, but setting that aside, it was time for a party meeting. It seemed like this would be a weekly thing. Mortimer still hadn’t been given an official invitation as Rhea hadn’t vetted him yet, but Fade had given a half-approval. The reason he gave was that Mortimer didn’t measure up to the quality of the rest of the party, but that he should be given a chance to change.

  The members present were the usual suspects. Verity, with her green eyes and golden hair, long ears framing her face. Fade, with his deep purple eyes, vibrant red hair, and the rare event of wearing a short-sleeved shirt to show off his Uluu marks. Rhea, with her mottled grey hair, blue eyes, tall wolf ears, and wolf tail that was tapping the wall behind her. Crimson, who still had silver eyes with lightning bolts passing through them.

  As a side tangent, Fade had shown Crimson his Uluu marks - at Crimson’s request -, which were a tangled nest of black lines that traveled from the tips of his fingers, up his arms, and met directly on his spine. They didn’t extend much over his chest, just a few inches onto his pecs from either side. They extended further down his arm pits than they did across the front.

  The temptation to poke and prod at Fade like a test subject had been very powerful. He’d never interacted with an Uluu this close before, and his desire to investigate was high.

  Fade had answered a few of his questions and let him touch the lines. Apparently they changed as he grew up. They apparently only started as thin white bracelets around each wrist, and they’d darkened in color as they’d spread more across his body.

  The lines themselves didn’t have a physical sensation, they felt as much like regular skin as any tattoo would. Magically though, that was another story. They were streaming rivers of the [Corruption] and [Profane Affinities], closer inspection let him see the black was two slightly different shades, each representing an [Affinity]. It was similar in principle to what Crimson had done to artificially increase the amount of [Mana] in Rhea’s body, but the scale was something to behold.

  If he’d been able to study an Uluu up close like this before treating Rhea and Alois, it would have been a significantly easier task. Just seeing how elegantly the [Affinities] were woven into Fade’s body gave him inspiration for how he could improve his [Mana Puddle]. It was like comparing a cave painting to a masterfully painted canvas. He was almost ashamed to see that he had even been slightly successful in his efforts to create an artificial [Mana Pool].

  As thanks to Fade for helping him with that, he made an offer to make an artificial [Mana Pool] for him last night. It was a good thing he hadn’t had anything lined up that Highday, as it had taken all night to create one for Fade - battling through buffeting currents of [Corruption] and [Profane] - then improve Verity’s.

  Some of his basic ideas were still applicable, so he hadn’t needed to completely dismantle Verity’s [Artificial Mana Pool], but it was very close to that.

  As for Rhea well…

  “What is your [Affinity] for [Mana]?”

  With a big grin, Rhea said, “5.”

  Crimson couldn’t help but celebrate that news with his entire body, jumping up and down a few times before calming himself. Rhea had joined in, though not with the same level of neighbor disturbance. Verity was laughing at him, and Fade was very confused for a moment before he chuckled.

  Once he settled down, extremely red in the face, he said, “That’s awesome. We’ll need to see if an [Artificial Mana Pool] would work for you.”

  “I’d like that a lot.”

  “How about everything else? What [Rizvim] did you get?”

  Fade shot him a strange look at the question, but Crimson ignored it and kept his focus on Rhea.

  “[Ul Madit], I can’t learn or use spells.”

  He nodded, “Sure, that makes sense. It’s not ideal, but there are [Skills] that have spell-like effects without being spells. They’re less versatile, but we’re not out of options.”

  He got confused looks from the room, but now wasn’t the time to dive into a lecture on [Skill Classification], so he moved on.

  “Fade, would you tell everyone here what you told me about Mortimer?”

  “He’s pretty good, I dare say a genius…by normal standards. I worry that he might not be able to keep up with our group.”

  Crimson tilted his head, “Why’s that?”

  “He doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of dedication and motivation that we have. Even Rhea, who literally just got her [Blessing], burns with both of those emotions.”

  He considered that, then verified, “But you still give your approval for him to join?”

  “On a temporary basis. I suspect he won’t be with us for long unless he has a sharp attitude change.”

  He nodded, then said, “Okay, now, could you tell me about your progress this week? As much as you are willing to share.”

  Fade nodded, then said, “I’ve been sparring and training a lot this week. Got some additional stats, and as far as the list goes: [Improved Recovery], [Ailment Resistance], [Attract], [Roar], and [Robust] were the [Skills] you asked me to learn. I used to use [Attract] and [Roar] a lot before, so I’ve already got them back, and they’re Lv.5. They’ve stagnated, I need to use them in live combat to see more results.”

  Fade continued, “As for [Robust], that is Lv.3, and I’m getting close to learning [Improved Recovery] and [Ailment Resistance]. For [Improved Recovery], it’s a matter of time as the only requirement I haven’t met for the [Quest] is to recover 1000 HP via natural recovery. It’s slow going, but I’m about half way there. I’ve been inflicting myself with the [Bleed Ailment] after Verity used [Enhanced Recovery] to also try and pick up [Ailment Resistance]. I should probably learn them both at the same time this week, provided you’re still able to lend me Verity.”

  Fade’s training was why Crimson hadn’t been able to take her to the dungeon every day. It had been his own idea, since it would be a better environment for her to train her [Skills] and research what he’d suggested. Verity had been the one to make the final decision, and had only agreed to let him go on his own after he demonstrated that he could beat Mulgis without her help.

  Crimson responded, “Of course, that’s up to her, but,” he turned to her, “I’ll throw my request in with his as well. You’ve really been speeding things up for him.”

  Verity nodded, “That’s fine. It’s mostly just me studying in the corner while Fade cuts his legs up or spars. It’s not a big deal, I just mainly worry about you, Crimson.”

  Fade and Crimson thanked her for her help, and Fade continued his report, “As for the last [Skill] I asked about, [Strong Presence], I’m still working on it. The gods haven’t given me a [Quest] for it yet, but a few more offerings and visits to the Temple should be enough.”

  “I’ve got a couple of [Wind Stones] from Mulgis, take those with you next time. They should speed things up.”

  By burning a prayer with [Ritual Materials], you could make a direct request to the gods for a specific [Skill]. The amount and quality of [Ritual Materials] was completely unknown, but it was cumulative, so eventually they would offer the relevant [Quest].

  The idea of offering [Ritual Materials] with the burnt prayers was something Crimson knew from his talk with Raften, but most people would just burn prayers on their own, without the added step. It sometimes worked, but it wasn’t a consistent method. The issue was that it was considered a “rich man’s” method. Crimson wasn’t the only one who knew about it, but most people wouldn’t think to offer expensive dungeon drops with a prayer.

  Oh, it had been tested, but the general belief was that it had to be a single massive offering, restricting it only to the rich. Enough people had tried and failed with smaller offerings that it seemed like a pointless effort.

  It was an unfortunate history, but Crimson hadn’t exactly been secretive about what he and his party had been doing, so it seemed that the method was starting to spread. However, it was mimicry without understanding. It seemed there were some people who thought it was random chance, like a gacha game. In a way, this was true, as not knowing the thresholds made it feel random, but it wasn’t.

  Fade nodded, then said, “When was the goal you set? You mentioned having one, then didn’t say when it was.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Crimson blinked twice, then said, “My bad, I got side-tracked. The answer is typically about a month. It’ll vary a bit based on the individual, but I managed to max out [Sword Mastery] in a month. I feel like most things are doable in that time.”

  After his words, Fade and Rhea both stared at him in shock, while Verity just seemed proud. For some reason, he’d thought that Rhea knew about it, but apparently not.

  Fade took a moment to collect himself, then said, “That’s everything for me.”

  Crimson nodded, and turned to Verity, and she said, “I found it.”

  He grinned, then said, “You’ve been holding out on me.”

  “Better to explain it with everyone here.” She responded smugly.

  “Explain what?” Groused Rhea.

  “Well, an issue we were running into in the dungeon was the fact that I don’t have any ranged healing spells. The obvious solution is to just learn one, but Crimson had a suggestion.”

  Crimson chimed in with what he’d asked before, “Why don’t we see if there’s a [Skill] that lets you use your current [Skill] at range?”

  Verity nodded, “Yes, I learned a while ago from Rei that ranged healing spells gain that advantage by sacrificing ability. All the ranged healing [Skills] or spells I could learn with my stats would all be significantly worse than my current [Healing]. Even at max, they would be worth less than my Lv.6 [Healing].”

  Rhea muttered to herself, “Oh, so that’s what that was…”

  Verity continued, ignoring her comment, “So when Crimson made his suggestion, I realized what he was getting at immediately. I did some digging, and I came across a few options. The most obvious was just to find a [Skill] that increases the range of magic, but I wasn’t impressed with what I saw there, so I did some more digging and came across another couple of possibilities.”

  “The first is to get a [Skill] that lets me delay spell effects, cast [Healing] on you all, then allow it to take effect when needed. I didn’t like this method. Seems really tricky to do in a fight. That then led me to the next method: touching people from a distance.”

  Crimson said, “She’s phrasing it poorly, but that’s the basic idea. I’ve seen concepts where you ‘mark’ a target, and so long as they’re marked you can have an effect on them. The most common one I saw was dealing increased damage against enemies, but I figured that it could also be used on allies.”

  Verity pointed at him, “So I started using his idea to dig. While I couldn’t find any historical precedent, the [Wind Stones] you gave me, and a couple [Holy Shards], allowed me to get the [Quest] for the [Skill].”

  Crimson was a bit surprised to hear that. She must’ve really wanted to surprise him. Considering how excited she was acting, that meant that she either already had the [Skill], or was very close. Rhea was acting like she knew something.

  “[Healer’s Mark] is the name of the [Skill]. I got it just last night. Rhea helped me test it. I have to make contact with one of you to place the mark, but once it’s placed, I can still heal you even if I can’t see you.”

  Verity turned to him, expectant grin on her face, and he was more than happy to oblige, giving her a big high-five with a grin exceeding hers.

  She was satisfied, and finished by saying, “Aside from that, I’ve gotten some [Skill Levels] in pretty much all of my [Skills]. The most important one to report is that I’ve gotten my [Magical Study Skill] up to max. Your turn, Crimson.”

  He nodded, then glanced at Rhea to see if she had anything, but at a gesture from her to continue, he said, “This week, I’ve been caught up in the secret passages under Falst, and I didn’t get anywhere near as much time as I’d like in the dungeon or for training. Like Verity, I’ve gotten [Skill Levels] in most of my important [Skills]. One of my [Skills] - [Ru Mikiri] - is very close to max. My [Advanced Sword Mastery] is Lv.14, and my goal is to have it at max before my [Class] is Lv.25. It should probably take a little more than a year at this rate, but I should be able to speed it up with some dedicated training.”

  “This week, I’ve managed to kill [Mulgis, Imp Overlord] 25 times. Every five times is about 1000 Royals, which is nice, but I’m only a little above breaking even as I go through a sword for every five attempts. Profit is between 600 and 800 Royals depending on the sword and how long it lasts. Money is going to be a serious problem moving forward.”

  Fade grinned at him while resting his head in his palm, “You’re such a monster. I love it.”

  “You don’t seem that surprised by his pace.” Verity said.

  Fade pointed to a blanket that Crimson had draped to very carefully cover up his shame, but he didn’t do anything to stop Verity as she pulled the blanket aside to see a stack of 6 swords of various types. They were all on their last legs, each having less than 10% of their durability left.

  Verity let out a low whistle, then said, “You could go through less by buying a better sword you know.”

  “Ahh…well…I don’t need a better sword yet. I do want one, but I don’t want to drop tens of thousands of Royals on a sword I’m only going to use for a couple of months. Besides, I have a [Skill] that lets me make even the weakest swords stronger.”

  Fade asked first, but everyone seemed to want to, “What [Skill] is that?”

  “It’s called [Blade Spirit]. Its classified as an [Artifact-type Skill], but it should be more accurately referred to as a [Familiar-type Skill]. It gives a boost to the attack and durability of swords I’m holding.”

  All three of them stared at Crimson. Rhea seemed the most surprised, Verity seemed the most exasperated, and Fade was somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

  Fade turned to the other two and asked, “Could you two help me brainstorm a better word for him than ‘monster’? I don’t think its going to be good enough anymore.”

  “I’ll help,” Verity said helpfully, while Rhea said, “Monster is still fine.”

  “Leave it,” Crimson said, wanting to move on. He said, “Anyway, that means that its more important that we get you all kitted out. Fade, you know what you’re looking for in a good axe?”

  He nodded, “Sure, I’ve bought a few, and I think I have a good eye.”

  “Tomorrow, let’s hit up the shops and find out what kind of budget we need for some decent gear. Everyone should be targeting Lv.5 weapons. Rhea, I’ll go with you. I know what quality weapons look like, even if I know nothing about claws.”

  Rhea seemed a bit reluctant, but agreed.

  “Great! That’s the plans for tomorrow settled. Now, Rhea, what are you thinking for your [Class]?”

  “I still have no clue.”

  He sighed.

  Fade cut in before he could say anything else, “Hold on, this entire time you’ve been talking about Mulgis, what about the other boss of [Goblin Manor]? Hoarhokim or something like that.”

  Crimson noted that Rhea and Fade shared a glance as he started to respond.

  “Horrakin? I’m still trying to figure out my strategy to deal with him. It feels like I’m just a little short of where I need to be. Maybe a few extra [Skill Levels] or stats would close the gap I’m feeling. It could also be that I need to learn a new spell to break his magic.”

  Rhea asked, “He uses magic?”

  Crimson nodded, “Yeah, the boss has a bunch of subordinates at Lv.9, and rather than fight himself, he uses buff spells to increase their attack and defense. I go from being able to kill them in a few seconds to barely damaging them at all. I also died extremely quickly from their hits. Stuff that should have dealt only 5% of my health was dealing 15%. I got cornered and absolutely destroyed without being able to do anything.”

  Suddenly, a hand clamped down on his arm, and he turned to Rhea who was staring at him with fierce eyes.

  She growled, “That. I want to do that.”

  “Be surrounded and die helplessly?”

  “No! I want to be able to strengthen my allies! I want to use those ‘buffs’ as you called them!”

  Crimson froze for a long moment, then whooped in excitement, “That’s perfect! Brilliant! Genius! Yes, that’s exactly what we need!”

  Rhea didn’t hold back this time when she celebrated with him. They did a little jig around the floor while Verity and Fade stared at them like they were crazy.

  Part of Crimson’s excitement came from how stuck Rhea had been. While he couldn’t understand what it was like to have that much motivation and not be able to do anything with it, he could empathize with how stuck she was feeling.

  Their excitement took a few minutes to calm down, and Verity had ended up shrugging half-way through and joined in, still seeming bemused. Fade only seemed to think they were even more crazy, but he had started grinning, seeming to enjoy the raw unabated joy he was witnessing.

  Once they settled down once more, Crimson said, still grinning, “Get a better idea of exactly how you want to do this. What kind of buffs you want to focus on and the like, as well as whatever else you can do during or after the fight. If you can tell me, I’ll get you a list, and maybe there’ll be a [Class] already out there that we can use for reference. If not, we’ll have to make it up and hope the gods play along.”

  “Got it.” She said.

  Crimson looked around for a moment. He had a lot more he could say, but they’d been meeting long enough. He could bring up [Sub-Classes] later.

  “Great. If anyone doesn’t have anything else to say, then I think we’re all good to go to bed.”

  They all indicated they were done, and their second weekly meeting had ended.

  —————

  Rhea got up groggily in the morning, hating the late night she’d had. She and Verity had pretended to go to bed, but had instead snuck out to a bar. She’d never drunk proper strong drink before, and Verity had offered to coach her on her first time. It had ended poorly, as she’d drunk well over her limits and made a fool of herself.

  She had vague memories of demanding that Verity pet her tail, and complaining about every little thing and every person in her life. She’d even complained about Verity to her face about her bad sleeping habits. Verity had been drunk enough to just agree, not seeming to connect the ‘Verity’ of Rhea’s complaints with herself.

  She glanced at Verity, in the cot on the other side of the room. She was awake, and she looked at Rhea with the same groggy expression and said, “The last step to enjoying alcohol is not caring about what you did while drunk.”

  Wise words, but Rhea was done with strong drink. That was too much to let go.

  Rhea hauled herself out of the room after a few mumbled words at Verity, and discovered that describing the time she’d woken up at as ‘morning’ was generous. It was nearly afternoon.

  She grimaced once more, then looked up at the sky she could see between the castle arches. It was cloudy and grey. It looked and smelled like there would be rain.

  She didn’t have to wait long until Crimson showed up hauling a massive bag full of his retired swords to grab her and go shopping. He was till working on the request to map out the secret passages, but they didn’t spend all day down there. The most critical paths were known and mapped - as he’d told her - so the kingdom was diverting more resources away from the project, but keeping enough in place to see it through to the end.

  She honestly couldn’t care, but was grateful that it gave her the chance to recover from her hangover before Crimson caught her.

  Crimson took her from shop to shop, investigating the claws they could find. It wasn’t exactly a common weapon type, so they failed at more than one shop to even catch sight of one. After the 6th shop, Crimson started wondering aloud about a custom request, which made her cringe.

  Rhea understood that he was going to buy her the weapon, and she already felt incredibly bad about that, but she could accept paying him back over time. It was a different story if the price was more than ten times what she’d originally expected, and she felt horribly guilty about asking that much of him. It didn’t matter if he’d get it back, she already knew how much he hated spending money.

  As they were walking down a side road, she spotted a familiar face and called out to him, “Hey Talis, how are you doing?”

  The short boy looked up from the roadside stand he was working. It was a thing of very simple construction, but looked sturdy enough to support the curios placed on top of it. The sign hung on the front advertised repair jobs in addition to appraisal services.

  Crimson let her take the lead, watching curiously.

  “I’ve been well, how are you, Rhea?” He asked, his fake friendliness in full force.

  “I’m cured now. I don’t have to worry about dying before I’m 20 anymore.”

  “Congratulations!” He said lightly, his fake friendliness turning to fake joy.

  “Thank you. So, why are you here?”

  “I do this in every town we visit. While my father is off selling his wares, I get a bit of practice in by running my own little shop. It’s humble, but that’s also because my only investor is my father, who wants to challenge me.”

  “How’s business?”

  “Very good! I’m the only one charging prices as low as this for a Lv.5 [Repair], so I’m quite popular.”

  “You’ve got [Repair] at Lv.5?” Crimson asked, cutting in to the conversation.

  “That I do! 35 Royals per item.”

  “I can see why you’re popular,” he said, “I’d expect that kind of price for a Lv.2 repair.”

  Talis grinned and nodded a few times, his merchant face had come out in full force, and with how childlike he looked, many people wouldn’t be able to recognize it for what it was.

  Rhea watched as Crimson set his massive bag on a section of the stand that wasn’t covered in wares, then slid the top off so Talis could see the contents. He said, “I’ve got 6 swords here, I’m willing to pay full price, but if you’d give me a bulk discount I’d appreciate it.”

  Talis carefully pulled one from the pile - it was a rapier - and inspected it. After a moment, he said, “These all look to have about 10% of their durability left. With a Lv.5 [Repair Skill], but you’ll lose 36% of the max durability, which is 40% of how much durability is missing.”

  “Well, I either have to retire them now, or have you repair them here and get them to limp along a little longer.”

  Talis nodded, then said, “I’m fine with giving you a bulk discount. How about 30 Royals per sword?”

  Crimson nodded, then paid the 180 Royals.

  “I do repairs in the evening. Come back tomorrow to pick it up.” Talis said.

  “Will do, I’ll be back in the afternoon.”

  “That works for me, see you then.”

  Talis seemed very happy about the transaction, but Crimson paused before they left and asked, “Hey, would you be willing to sell dungeon drops for me in exchange for a cut of the profit?”

  The short boy tilted his head, intrigued, and asked, “What kind of drops? The guild will give you a better price for common drops.”

  Crimson pulled a [Fling Skill Stone] out of his [Inventory] and passed it to Talis. Rhea was surprised to see how quickly he was willing to show off he had a [Skill Stone] on a public street. They’d certainly caught a few people’s attention.

  Talis took the stone and inspected it as well, then said, “I could probably get…maybe 100 Royals for it? It’s a very low price for a [Skill Stone], but the [Skill] also isn’t very good.”

  Rhea watched as Crimson eyed Talis. It was her first time seeing him scratch his palms in thought, but after a moment, he said, “The guild offered to buy them off me for 63 Royals. If your cut keeps me above that, then I’d like to sell them through you.”

  Talis looked at the stone for a moment once more, then said, “Tell you what, I’ll take 20%. You’ll get 80 Royals, and I’ll get a tidy little profit.”

  Both Crimson and Rhea were surprised, and he asked “So low?”

  Talis chuckled, “Actually, the price is very high. I’m buying your good will.”

  Crimson seemed to consider that, but said, “Well…if you need a bigger cut, let me know. I’d rather honestly give you a bigger cut than have you cheat me behind my back. Not that I think you will, but…”

  “It’s always a good thing to bear in mind with merchants.” Talis said with the most genuine smile Rhea had seen that day. It was still fake, but better than the others.

  Crimson nodded and they walked off. Rhea glanced back and managed to get a glimpse of the cold, piercing expression on Talis’ face as he looked at Crimson’s back.