《The Edge of Endless》14. Boss Music
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“Hold up. Rewards are based on performance, right?”
Alex, Berin, and Isabelle had descended the first-floor staircase about half an hour ago according to the countdown timer fixed in Alex’s mind.
“Yep!” replied Isabelle, lazily flicking a phantom knife into a crab-monster. Apparently, they were usually called ‘scuttlers’; named for the sound they made as they moved.
“Shouldn’t I be contributing more, then?” Alex was a little worried that being carried through the floors like this would harm his chances at a good reward.
Worse, am I going to miss hidden treasures by rushing like this?
Berin seemed thoughtful. “It’s a common enough question, lad. There are those who insist on running the first couple floors solo for that very reason. But at floor five? You'll be fine.”
Alex frowned. It seemed as if his two mentors were quite happy to discount the early floors. “What about hidden treasure rooms? Loot?”
Isabelle shook her head. “We don’t have time. Not if you want to make it to the tenth floor. If you’re really that keen on them, we can go looking on the sixth floor once you have your skill. Not much point looking before then.”
“But I saw in the skill manual – skills can be rewarded in hidden challenge rooms, can’t they?” Alex was getting a bit anxious. "Can I get one early?"
I can’t just go missing out on loot.
Berin nodded and replied while Isabelle snorted. “It’s true that they can. But the odds of finding something like that on a floor this low-level are astronomically small. You could search for years without luck... many have. There are delvers who must have killed hundreds of beasts trying to upgrade their lower-floor rewards. Meanwhile, their peers are busy unlocking deeper floors and eclipsing them in power.”
“Do they find better loot? On the lower floors?”
“Eh. No-one’s quite sure. I’ve only met two of those types personally, and their skills did seem a little rarer. They were well equipped, too. But here’s the thing – they certainly weren’t unique skills or powerful items, and both were still under level ten.”
“What Mr. Heals is saying,” added Isabelle, “is that if you’re going to sink time farming for rare shit, you’re better off doing it at levels which are an actual challenge. Which is why we’re skipping the challenge room coming up on our right.”
Alex groaned. An engraved arch stood in the yellow-brick wall, and through it he could see a floor made up of bricks positioned at seemingly random heights. At the corridor’s end, only barely visible through the doorframe, was a plinth with a small wooden chest. Alex wouldn’t have even noticed it had Isabelle not pointed it out.
Wait – how many of these have we walked past already?
“C’mon.” Isabelle saw him looking. “Probably just a couple gold or a low-level mimic. I’m not spending hours disarming traps for it.”
They practically had to drag Alex away from the doorframe. It felt wrong to walk away from a chest like that.
“No, no, wait. I want to do it.” Alex stopped and turned in the hallway, then walked back towards the room with the chest.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Isabelle glanced at Berin, as if for backup.
“You really shouldn’t have told him it was there. Admit it, you were like this when you started too.” The healer seemed amused.
“Alright then.” Isabelle gestured at the doorway, then at Alex. “You choose – are we chasing pointless, low-level, treasure rooms or are we going to make it to the tenth floor where the actual loot is?”
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Alex paused. He turned his thoughts over in his mind, feeling a gut instinct he’d had building for some time now foment into a decision. “Let's go slowly,” he said, considerately. “I’d rather do this properly. I don’t need to make it to the tenth.”
Isabelle sighed. “Look, kid. Berin and I have actually done this before, you know. We trained for this. We’ve read the books. I’ve been reborn for four years. Berin has for…”
“Six. But mostly support party.”
“Six. There. See? Now, I’ll ask again: do you think that your instincts, having just arrived in this world, are more reliable than our years of experience? We’ve literally taught you everything you know about this place in the last two days.” The rogue paused, almost as if she were struggling to comprehend her newest companion’s arrogance. “I am telling you, right now, that that chest contains five to ten gold pieces. Enough to fix the hole I punched in your armour the other day. Reaching it safely with our party composition will take several hours.”
“An hour or two. Less if you use your skills,” muttered Berin.
Isabelle whirled on the healer. “Whatever, I was exaggerating. But it’s a waste of time. And resource points.”
“I wanna do it,” announced Alex.
Isabelle reached up and began massaging her temples. “Ughhhhhhh. Fuck’s sake.”
The trio stood just inside the entryway to the trapped corridor with the chest at the end. Berin pulled a large rock out of his pack and lobbed it down the hall. The minute it landed on one of the irregularly raised floor tiles, that tile jumped up like it was spring-loaded, causing the rock to go flying. It landed on another tile, and that tile similarly sprung up.
After a minute, the rock was still going, being bounced around the corridor by the shifting floor tiles. Some would retract before they sprung up, as if they were all connected to pumping pistons below the ground.
“Right. Good news is it should be a quick one. Bad news is it’s going to hurt.” Isabelle sat down by the entrance to the room. She glanced up at Alex, then gestured to the shifting floor, which was still noisily bouncing the rock around. “Off you go, then!”
She really wants to prove this point, doesn’t she?
Instead of voicing his frustration or (even worse) admitting he’d been wrong, Alex persisted. “Surely you have some rope or some way around this?” he asked back. There had to be a clever solution. He imagined Eleanor would just levitate over something like this. Edrick would just… walk through it? Smash it? Jump? Probably jump.
“Yes, but that would take hours and this trap isn’t worth the effort. Just do it properly.”
Alex glanced at the rock Berin had just thrown. It was being bounced around pretty hard. He was pretty sure that if he tripped and fell, the shifting stone blocks of the floor might do some serious damage as they pumped up and down underneath him.
“[Overheal],” muttered Berin, tapping Alex gently on the shoulder. He felt his HP rocket to 160/120. “There you go, that should help. Hurry, it drains quickly.” He gestured at the shifting floor. “Try stand on one tile at once while it goes up and down. It’ll make it easier to balance.”
He pulled a rope out of his pack. “And tie one end of this around yourself. We’ll drag you out if you fall over.” Glancing at Isabelle with some reproach, he added “we have enough time for that much precaution.”
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Alex accepted one end of the rope, which was made from a thin, but durable material. As he did, an item description flashed across his mind.
Stealth-Spider Cord
12th, common
A durable length of stealth-spider-silk cord. 20.2m.
Alex fastened the rope around himself, and then walked to the edge of the uneven floor tiles. He’d fixed his club across his back using a strap on his armour. The rock Berin had thrown had stopped bouncing eventually, flung off the tiles and onto the opposite side. It sat now on the floor next to the wooden chest. Hesitantly, Alex picked out a tile in front of him which was large enough to stand on.
“Get on with it,” remarked Isabelle. Berin remained silent.
OK. Here goes. I can always run or scramble back. The middle will be the dangerous part.
Alex took a deep breath in and then jumped a short distance such that both feet landed on the same tile at the same time. As expected, the tile shot up and out of the ground, launching him a centimetre or two above it when it reached its apex and reversed direction. He landed back on it and rode it down. Then up again. Then down.
Like a trampoline. Getting a feel for it. Next tile.
His plan was to jump with both feet each time, meaning that he was never trying to balance across two tiles at once. That way, he would only ever be riding one tile up and down. It helped that the tiles with no load on them remained stationary.
Jump.
Alex jumped as his current tile reached its apex, dropping down onto the neighbouring tile. He almost lost his balance, teetering as the new tile shot up and down.
Keep my weight low. OK. OK.
Alex repeated the process. Then again, except this time, he jumped over a tile, moving instead to the one behind it. He could probably jump over even more tiles with every step but wanted to remain cautious. If he fell across several tiles, then they would all pummel him. His bonus HP from Berin’s buff had faded to 149/120 already, and he didn’t need it dropping any faster.
Taking around fifteen minutes, Alex jumped his way successfully across the hall and over to the chest. Berin gave him a friendly grin from the other side of the trap once he’d made it. The healer was still holding the other end of the rope.
The wooden reward chest was around the size of Alex’s own, literal, chest. It appeared to be made entirely of wood – even the hinges. “Check it for traps!” Isabelle yelled from the other side of the hall, still leaning against a wall. Alex unstrapped his club and lightly bonked the chest. Someone had mentioned mimics earlier, after all.
“Good! Now take the hinge pins out!” the [Rogue] had clearly done this before and seemed eager to be done with the room.
Hey, this has taken way less time than she said it would.
Alex moved behind the plinth the chest was sitting on and poked at the hinges. The pins were fastened in somehow, and he had no idea how to open it.
Isabelle seemed to take note of his confusion. “Argh. Fuck it. Just open it normally! I’ll explain hinges later.” Then, after a second of thought - “but stand behind it when you do!”
Bracing himself, Alex opened the chest from behind. He was glad he did, because a small wooden spike shot out of the front, shattering into splinters against the corridor roof. From the other side of the corridor, Isabelle laughed at him. “You’re right,” the rogue remarked to Berin. “Maybe this was a worthwhile stop-off. Idiot kid might realise he needs to follow instructions.”
Berin tried to cover a smile, then paused as he saw something rising out of the chest on the other side of the corridor. Something golden. What that a skill glyph?!
Alex rounded the chest and saw the golden sigil rising out of the chest. It reminded him of the way his [Eyes of the Seeker] had appeared initially, and excitement surged in his chest.
I’ve done it! I knew exploring was worth it!
But something gave him pause. There was no power emanating from the glyph. What’s more, it seemed transparent to his enhanced sight. He reached out to poke it. His hand went right through.
He turned to face Isabelle and Berin, who were standing open-mouthed.
Seeing their expressions made Alex feel bad. He sighed with embarrassment just as the glyph behind him winked out of existence. “It’s not real.” He’d known it almost the second he’d laid his enhanced eyes on it – an illusion of some sort. As he heard the laughter in the back of his mind, he began to realise why delvers hated the gods so much.
“Fucking gods.”
Alex collected the six gold at the bottom of the chest, then spent the next twelve minutes safely navigating his way back across the shifting floor. It took another three hours and several encounters with slightly larger scuttlers to find the staircase down to the third floor. At least Berin and Isabelle let him take out his frustrations on a couple of the crabs. The rogue cheerily pointed out two more trap rooms with chests as they were on their way, asking Alex if he wanted to try his luck with them.
She’s insufferable.
He elected not to.
The architecture on the third floor was much the same as the previous two. On asking, Alex was told that the aesthetic changed roughly every ten floors and depending on the region. Linosa’s section of the depths was made primarily of these large sandstone-like bricks and had a mineral theme, consistent with its rare drops being metals.
Alex was intrigued to learn that monster types would vary by region. Apparently, the local monster population had as large an impact on the local reborns’ skill choices as their education did. The toughest monsters in this particular region were the ironclaw and steelfang hounds, appearing below floors ten and twenty, respectively. Apparently, he’d have to defeat an ironclaw if he wanted access to the floor ten treasure room.
At lower-ranked levels, there were these scuttlers and… clay-armoured goblins? They encountered their first on the third floor: a strange, small, green creature wearing primitive armour made from what looked to be fired clay. Apart from the armour, the goblin looked exactly as Alex would’ve expected. Angry? Yep. Pot-bellied? Yep. Red eyes? Tick.
It’s a generic fantasy goblin. I wonder if I’m the really the first one from Earth who’s been here. There are just too many coincidences.
“Is it sentient?” he asked Berin as the small, green humanoid sprinted down a corridor towards them.
“It’s a mana construct, you twit. Now hit it!” interrupted Isabelle. She was holding a knife ready but hadn’t thrown it yet. At Alex’s insistence, they’d been letting him fight more of the monsters with the hope that doing so would improve his skill selections on the fifth floor.
With the goblin rapidly approaching, Alex stepped forward and brought up his club, swinging it wildly as a deterrent. His strategy worked, and the clay-armoured goblin slowed just near the edge of his range.
Damn. A bit smarter than the crabs, then.
He checked his SP. 34/70. They’d been walking for a while, and the trap chamber had taken about thirty SP out of him. Even with the enhanced regen of the depths, he was running low.
Conserve energy. I wonder if it talks… this glyph language seems to work for everyone intuitively, anyway.
“Hello?” Alex asked the goblin. “Stay back, or we’ll have to bonk you!”
Isabelle audibly suppressed laughter at his phrasing. Somehow, the glyphic language of this world had managed to convey the accidental double entendre.
I wonder if it works on puns and alliteration.
The goblin didn’t ignore Alex, but instead shrieked at him. The shriek seemed to convey its own meaning. The words ‘kill’, ‘blood’, and ‘death’ featured prominently.
Well, alright then.
Alex psyched himself up, hands tightening on the club’s handle. He remembered the way that Edrick had stood over him in that office and did his best to emulate it in front of this little goblin.
That’s right, you tiny fucker. I’m three times taller than you and have a bigger stick.
The goblin was wielding a small dagger made from the same strange ceramic as its armour. Sharp, but not threatening at this range. Alex kept the length of his club between himself and the beast while Isabelle and Berin watched on silently. Then, he roared out loud with a sentiment that echoed the goblin’s own scream and stepped forward, brandishing the club threateningly.
The goblin took a step back, still holding its dagger in front of it. It looked a little uncertain, intimidated.
Yeah, that’s right – run. Run away.
Alex wasn’t being merciful; he just had no fucking clue how to use the club properly. Unfortunately for him, the goblin elected to run toward him instead of away. Alex brought the club around in a baseball-style swing at the miniature humanoid’s head, grateful for the tiny range of its short arms and small dagger.
It tried to dodge, but Alex could feel his heightened DEX at work as he adjusted his swing mid-flight, just as he’d done for the first scuttler he’d hit. He was rewarded with a satisfying feedback of force running through the club as he thonked the goblin on its unarmoured head. Unlike the crabs he’d hit so far, the goblin didn’t dissolve with one good hit.
It did, however, go flying across the floor from the force, and Alex saw a fuzz of red aura flicker as its HP pool absorbed the damage. Alex advanced toward it again as it scrambled to its feet, knife still in hand.
Alright. Scary. I’m scary.
His intimidation tactics had worked so far, so Alex puffed his chest out and began twirling the wooden club in his hands like a baton.
I have no clue what I’m doing. Don’t drop the club, don’t drop the club, don’t drop the club… Spinning a club wasn’t easy.
The goblin was backing away, now. As confidently as he could manage, Alex spoke, knowing Berin and Isabelle were listening behind him. “Do you think I should finish it off, or let it go?”
“Geez, kid,” came the response from Berin. “Where did the bravado come from? I thought you were still scared of the crabs.”
Then, from Isabelle, “finish it off, obviously.”
This little show of confidence? Easy.
For an engineer, Alex had always been pretty outgoing. He’d excelled at presentations in university and knew how to write some pretty airtight bullshit into his reports. Pretending to be stronger than a clearly stupid goblin with shitty equipment? Yeah, that was in his skillset. Actually following through and killing the goblin?
Not so easy.
Alex felt a little sick when he brought the club down on the beast as it shrieked and tried to scamper away, smashing its shoulder. It was about the size of a human child, and it felt wrong to be beating up a humanoid like this. Far worse than the crabs. It took another swing of the club right into its ribs to evaporate the cowardly goblin. It dropped almost one whole gold!
Not real creatures – just aura.
Alex had to remind himself of that continually as his party mowed through twelve more goblins before finding the staircase to the fourth floor.
Isabelle held up a hand, signalling Alex and Berin to stop behind her. She’d insisted on taking the lead this floor, apparently because she expected corridor traps to become more common. They’d passed a couple so far, most of which had been laughably easy to avoid. There had been one flame-jet trap on a seemingly random trigger which they’d decided to circumnavigate on account of Alex’s horrific LCK score.
They were also breaking more frequently now to let their resource points restore. Alex’s SP had been near zero by the time they’d found the third-floor staircase, and Isabelle had also indicated she needed time to restore MP. She was using a skill called [Detect Danger] now to spot traps, and it seemed more expensive than her knives.
“I can reclaim most of the MP from the knives,” she’d muttered to Alex when he’d asked. “This one is a thirty-metre detection pulse. I still need to practise it a bit more, to be honest. It was my fifteenth-floor skill – I’m going for one of the specialist monster hunting class evolutions.”
Seems pretty useful.
That brief conversation had been the only one they’d had this floor so far. Berin’s earlier warning about noise was becoming more pertinent now, with most of the goblins on this floor travelling in packs of three or four. The intimidation tactic Alex had favoured during encounters on the previous floor didn’t work as well on larger groups, and he was becoming increasingly grateful for Isabelle and her knives. Berin hadn’t bothered lifting his own club once.
I’ll bet he sucks in a fight.
I wonder if that diviner, Eliza, was the same. Explains a lot if she was.
They actually found a portal back to the obelisk chamber before they found the fourth-floor staircase. It looked just like the one they’d come through on the first floor, inset into the wall of a random corridor. There’d been no reason to return to the main chamber, so the party had simply noted its position and continued onward.
One corridor was strung almost entirely with tripwires and took a hair-raising twenty minutes to traverse. Alex was amazed to find that for once, he wasn’t the one slowing the party down. Instead, Berin required a considerable amount of coaching from Isabelle as he stepped, ducked, and weaved his way through the web of wires with a considerable lack of grace.
I guess higher level doesn’t automatically mean higher stats. He probably has shitty DEX.
Again, Alex found himself reflecting on Eliza. No wonder the guilders had believed him capable of killing her.
I don’t think I want a support class. I’m too selfish a person, anyway.
Two traps, seventeen clay-armoured goblins, and countless scuttlers later, the trio found themselves a staircase down to the fifth floor.
We’ve been in here for almost twelve hours, Alex realised. He was beginning to feel tired as they crawled through the fifth floor, and he thought his SP might be draining quicker as a result.
“Hey… Berin,” he whispered as they crept along. He could swear that the yellow stone tiles were slightly larger on this floor, and Isabelle’s skill had been the only reason they’d spotted the most recent trap. “Where do we sleep?”
The healer glanced at him before whispering back. “Oh. There’ll be a cistern or fountain in the room after the boss. It’ll restore your resource points and any fatigue or hunger. It’s why we don’t usually bother bringing food and water.”
Nice. Probably the same liquid as the pool on the zeroth floor.
Apart from an increased frequency of beast encounters and slightly better-hidden traps, the fifth floor contained more of the same. The party continued to ignore side rooms; turned left at every intersection; and rested in empty corridors or rooms when low on resource points. Berin had to heal Alex once after a particularly nasty goblin fight, where five goblins had jumped their group as they’d turned a corner.
Isabelle had activated her third skill, [True Strike], and two knives had landed with perfect aim in the eye sockets of two of the goblins. Berin had applied [Overheal] to himself before laying into a third with his club, and Alex had screamed death at the other two while fending them off long enough for Isabelle’s knives to find their marks.
They’d had to rest a while after that one. [True Strike] wasn’t cheap, apparently.
It was another few hours before they finally found the archway they’d been looking for. It stood alone in an otherwise empty room, filled with the same blackness as the nexus portals in the obelisk chamber. A glyph over the portal communicated one concept clearly.
Treasure.
Tired but excited, the party rushed into the room. A set of glyphs ringed the walls, and Alex got the sense that the portal would transport anyone who stood within their range when activated.
“Alright. Time for the boss fight – get your weapons ready and get over here,” Berin muttered in hushed tones as he inspected the portal. Alex and Isabelle obliged, taking a few minutes to adjust their armour and weapons.
“[Overheal]. [Overheal]. Isabelle, don’t give the boss time to react. Alex, you try to land the final blow. Now let’s go. Remember it’s only the fifth floor, so this should be fine. Portal should teleport all of us at once. Ready?”
Slowly, Alex nodded. He hadn’t been told much about boss fights, but he knew enough. It would be a combat challenge against a difficult monster, probably a goblin on this floor. With his party’s assent, the healer tapped the portal with his finger and the entire room vanished in a flash.
Boss Battle: Goblin Shaman
Alex couldn’t believe his ears. There was actual, literal, boss music in this room.
What the fuck?
He leapt out of the way of what he could only assume was a magic missile. The blue-white flare of energy smashed into the ground next to him with a disturbing amount of momentum, throwing stone chips toward his face. One fleck hit him in the eye, and his HP dropped to 142/120.
Are you fucking kidding me? Ow!
A robed goblin shaman stood on a dais in the centre of the room, disembodied orchestral music echoing around the space as the red-eyed boss laughed and fired a barrage of magic missiles at the party from a raised wooden staff.
“[True Strike]. [Phantom Knives].” Three daggers shot in rapid succession towards the shaman’s eyes and throat.
Almost instantly, the shaman opened its mouth and screamed through needle-like teeth. “[Lesser Barrier].” Like the previous goblins’ speech, the incoherent scream somehow carried a glyphic power, and Alex understood its meaning. A blue-white barrier flared into existence around the shaman, and two of Isabelle’s knives vanished on contact. The barrier flickered after the second, and the third knife punched through and into the shaman’s eye.
Isabelle was already on the move, throwing a fourth knife. But the shaman leapt down off its dais, dodging the spectral weapon. It retaliated with yet another barrage of missiles from its staff, and Isabelle was blown back across the room by the impacts. Then, its aura flickering, the shaman reached up and wrenched the remaining knife out of its eye.
With its focus on Isabelle’s prone form as it lifted its staff, it almost missed Berin’s charge. The healer barrelled at it; club raised. The shaman gave a weird, chittering laugh as it turned its staff to blast at the healer instead.
Shit. I need to be doing something. I’ve frozen.
Alex blinked his eyes clear as Berin muttered a skill to himself before straight up tanking three magic missiles to the face. The orchestral music continued to echo around the chamber as the healer landed a solid hit with his club and jumped the monster, tearing the staff out of its hand. The shaman’s weapon went flying and clattered against the floor a couple of metres away.
Yes! Mine!
Alex sprinted towards the staff, noticing Isabelle stirring on the ground across the room. Berin, meanwhile, was pushed back as the shaman resummoned its [Lesser Barrier]. The shaman, lacking its offensive weapon, lunged towards the staff, but was too late. Alex was already on top of it.
Wrapping his hand around the length of wood, Alex yanked it out of the goblin’s reach. He could feel a power in it, just waiting to be used. Grinning now, he pointed it straight at the shaman.
“[Magic Missile]. [Magic Missile]. [Magic Missile]. [Magic Missile]. Magic Missile.” He wasn't sure if he needed the words to channel the item's power, but he said them anyway.
A crack rang out from the staff after Alex’s fourth attempt as it snapped in his hand and evaporated into mist; completely drained of charge. The first two missiles shattered violently against the shaman’s barrier in flashes of white light and blue sparks. The third made it through, detonating against the shaman’s chest and making his aura fuzz. The fourth? When the fourth one hit, the music began to fade, and the shaman exploded in a shower of coins.
Alex looked around incredulously. It felt like boss fight was over as quickly as it’d begun – it had been less than thirty seconds in total.
“Nice work, kid!” Isabelle had picked herself up from the corner of the room. “Fuck, that was close. Wasn’t expecting it to have a second skill.”
Berin watched as Alex greedily started looting gold off the floor. “It was that staff. The goblin was level five, but it had a magic item.” He gave the rogue a level look. “You know as well as anyone that the boss difficulty goes up the more people you bring. We should have been more careful.”
Isabelle sighed and nodded, a little rattled. “I really need a stealth skill.” Then she turned to Alex. “Good job with the staff. You froze up at the start, but on the whole, I think you’ll make a good reborn. The guildmistress will be pleased.” She actually seemed serious, for once.
“Thanks,” replied Alex. There was a brief pause as he worked out the best way to phrase his next question. “Now… uhhh... when do I get my skill?”
The rogue chuckled, then pointed behind them at the entrance.
Alex turned, finally noticing that the portal frame had reignited with a golden glow.
“We’ll be taken straight to the fountain room. See you on the other side, kid. Choose wisely!”
Berin nodded his assent, and together the two of them walked up to the golden portal, where they vanished upon touching it.
Alright. It’s skill time.
Alex spared the empty boss chamber one last look, then walked up and pressed his hand onto the gleaming golden gateway.
Fifth Floor Complete. Choose a reward.
Finally. Three fragments of information appeared in Alex’s mind, and he settled down in the void-space of the portal to consider his choices.
Skill: [Magic Missile]
Skill: [Lesser Illusionism]
Skill: [Lesser Blunt Mastery]
Shape MP into a bolt of pure force on cast.
Power, range, and flight path can all be controlled.
MP cost variable.
Manipulate your aura to fake objects, scents, and sounds at will.
Provides a lesser level of control, efficiency, and range manipulating illusions.
MP cost variable.
Improves your skill with blunt weapons.
Provides a lesser level of SP efficiency, damage, and combat instincts when using blunt weapons.
No MP cost.
Class Evolution: [Mage]
Class Evolution: [Charlatan]
Class Evolution: [Warrior]
STR
-10%
STR
0%
STR
+10%
CON
0%
CON
-10%
CON
+10%
DEX
0%
DEX
+10%
DEX
0%
END
0%
END
0%
END
+10%
INT
+20%
INT
0%
INT
-10%
WIS
+10%
WIS
+20%
WIS
0%
LCK
0%
LCK
0%
LCK
0%
Well, at least Alex knew which skill he wouldn’t be picking.
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Having subdued its surrounding enemies, the former Sulic Empire is faced with unrest brewing from within. Society is torn in two. The reigning mentalists constantly persecute the subjugated elementals under the pretence of curbing the explosive potential of their destructive powers. Meanwhile, schemes and political interests clash as different groups within the Governance military elite vie for control. And in the shadows, Sulic’s old enemies have been lying in wait a long time, looking for the first sign of weakness to make their move. Against this backdrop, two ordinary individuals fight to maintain stability from opposing sides: a low ranking telepathic recruit with nothing to his name but good intentions, and an unregistered elemental contractor with a murky past. Can they reconcile their differences and help steer Sulic away from tearing itself apart? Windwalker explores themes of societal struggle and self-discovery. Book One: Rising Wind Kal has trained to be a soldier his entire life. His days are simple, and his duties clear: enforce the rules, upkeep the peace, and most important — police the elementals. If they step out of line, the Governance system corrects it. But when Kal encounters a young boy whom he suspects might be an illegal earthborn, he can’t bring himself to report him. Despite his training and the advice of friends, he decides to help him onto what he believes is the right path. This choice lands him in more trouble than he bargained for, and he soon discovers that the veneer the Governance is built upon an ugly and crumbling foundation.
8 140[PORTUGUESE] Saint Seiya: Kagutsuchi, o cavaleiro de Fornalha.
No mundo moderno, um ferreiro de 25 anos, trabalhava em sua fornalha forjando objetos que poderiam ser vendidos, apesar da escassa oferta, para os ferreiros antigos nos tempos atuais, com a tecnologia siderúrgica automática. Enquanto terminava o pedido raro de um cliente para a forja de uma espada Kataná japonesa, algo deu errado na fornalha e ela explodiu o matando. No ciclo de renascimento, o súdito do shinigami cometeu um erro, e em vez do céu, lançou a alma do ferreiro em outro mundo para renascer. Como algo imprevisto, a alma foi lançada no mundo e guiada por instintos, procurou um corpo adequado para renascer, e achou um corpo morto no fundo do penhasco, e entrou no corpo do anterior cavaleiro do fogo, treinado por Gigars. Como será a vida do novo cavaleiro do fogo, que finalmente se tornará um cavaleiro verdadeiro com uma armadura de bronze ordenada pela própria atena?
8 135The 13th Loop [A Progression, GameLit, Sci-Fi Adventure]
Kyle Goldman is having a bad century, multiple of them. Kyle is immortal, destined to live the same mediocre life over and over again. Worse, he remembers each time through life. Every betrayal, every life lesson, every combat spell, he is destined to learn them all again and again. Every life he re-awakens during the Awakening Trials. Trials designed to pull out the full magical and spiritual potential of a Space Force Candidate. Depending on how well he does in these trials can change his entire career. Since this is his thirteenth time through the trials he is well aware of their importance. Even better, he knows how to cheat. Having prior knowledge of the trials and their ever increasing difficulties is the ultimate form of cheating. Especially when the rewards for completing each stage of the trial is an increased Attribute point. He's lived each life to its fullest, some dying as a famous ace pilot. Others dying as an expeditionary Marine on long range space recon. Each life ultimately leads to the same inevitable end, he makes friends, tastes happiness for a brief moment, and then is betrayed. The betrayal always changes, but always hurts the same. From there a deep spiral occurs, leading to his inevitable, but often glorious demise. This time he vows to take things differently. He still plans to ace the exams, but then he will do the unthinkable, he will resign his commission as an officer. To live as an overqualified regular citizen of the free worlds. With the knowledge of spell craft deeply ingrained in his mind from his previous lives, he is set to make try number thirteen his lucky number after all. There is only one problem. The Government saw his test scores and now they won't stop to have him in their ranks. It looks like the betrayal will come earlier than expected in this, his thirteenth try at living the same stale existence. Themes Include: GameLit Elements, Progression Fantasy, with Space Tech and interstellar battles. Schedule: Monday through Friday Cover Art: Thanks to Asviloka
8 218Will Of The Soldier
A soldier of the modern war finds himself in the blast radius of artillery, and he comes to realise the cruelty and the facade of his "country", unfortunately it is too late for him to regret his decisions, and the lives he has taken. He accepts his fate. However he does not wake up where he expects too, nor as he expects to. Join Adam in his adventures across a new world with an entwined, powerful history. Will he ever be able to see the faces of those he loved again?
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