Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 78

With a groan, Dante sat up. He was surprised to see that he was alone. Glancing around the room and seeing a note on his nightstand, he picked it up and read it. It was an apology from Liza, she had to rush off to the shop early to help with the increased workload.

Dante fell back into the plush bed. Now that Victoria was coming back, it would likely be the last one he slept in for quite a while. He rubbed his brow, thinking over what had happened the night before. He still couldn’t understand Liza’s transformation. She had turned into an animal. He briefly wondered if Melisandre knew, but that thought was pointless, of course she did.

Still, it was amazing. Not as amazing as others made it seem, but far better than he had expected all the same.

With a sigh, Dante pressed himself off the bed. He needed to pack up his books before Victoria arrived.

After getting dressed and stepping out of the Golden Goose inn, he was surprised to see that the sun was already high in the sky. After discovering that it was already past noon, he increased his pace.

He made it to the inn in record time, scaled the stairway, and stepped onto their floor before rushing to his room. He was only inches away from opening his door when Olivia’s shot open.

“Dante!” She practically lunged at him, wrapping him up in an intimate hug. “I’m so proud of you. You did so well for your first time.”

Dante froze. “What?”

Olivia didn’t seem to care about how he might have felt. “Master and I waited until things got started before we left.”

Dante let out a sigh, but didn’t really care. He had pretty much expected it. “Why Liza?”

“Her boyfriend cheated on her recently, and she’s been looking for someone to spend a night or two with after they broke up. From what I’ve heard, he regrets it dearly.” Olivia smirked. “I’m sure you can see why. From what he said, she was excellent. Although I must say, she was a bit more enthusiastic than I anticipated.”

“You anticipated it?”

Olivia nodded. “You can’t choose how a variant Classification specializes, I have an… intuition, or perception that even master lacks.” Her smile turned mischievous. “When you interacted with that girl at the store, I knew that things would go well.”

It seemed that Olivia was the one keeping tabs on him when he was at the bookstore. Still, that skill seemed… useful. “Alright, I appreciate the help, but I need to go pack up my books before Victoria arrives.”

Olivia disentangled herself. “Do you really need to leave with her?”

Dante let out a sigh, every passing day Olivia became a bit harder to handle. Still, it hadn’t quite reached the same level as it had when they first met. “Yes. I’ll come see you before I leave.”

“Fine.” Olivia looked downcast as she walked back into her room, only turning to look back at him as she passed through the door. “By the way, Victoria is already in your room.”

That caused him to suck in a sharp breath. He had over a hundred books, and none of them were packed. He didn’t even know how he would transport them.

He opened the door, only to see Victoria sitting on the bed as she tabbed through his encyclopedia on different plants. She looked him up and down with an amused smile. “Long night?”

Letting out a sigh, Dante walked over to his stack of books – which the umbra fox was using as a bed – and tried to move the creature, only to be viciously hissed at. “You talked to Melisandre?”

Victoria nodded, then held up the encyclopedia. “Have you already read this?”

Dante nodded. “Yes, but I didn’t have the time to memorize everything. I can match names with appearances, and I know the rarity of every plant, as well as which ones are poisonous.” With the memory aid that his Intelligence gave, he could have easily memorized every aspect of the book, but there was only so much time, and other books of importance as well.

Victoria seemed pleasantly surprised. “That will save a lot of time. Good job. What about your world essence control and the spectral attunement?”

“I can easily do all of the steps that you showed me, and it takes about fifteen seconds for me to condense world essence into a single hand. It still leaks, but around half as much as it did initially.”

Again, more surprise. “How did you manage that?”

Seeing the surprise on Victoria’s face, it was hard not to be a little pleased. “After you told me to keep the world essence out of my blood flow, I began to isolate different variables within my hand. It took a bit of testing, but I found a few ways to improve condensation by following that train of thought.”

Victoria had a pleased smile on her face as she listened to what he said. “Did anything else of note happen?”

Choosing to keep to the things that Melisandre wouldn’t have gossiped about, there were only two more real changes. “Periodically, essence crystals would go up for sale. I bought them whenever I got a chance, as they were relatively cheap. I have enough world essence to specialize my Chronomancer or Revenant Classification, but waited until you returned so I could have your input when choosing my skills… and I like to read.” He finished by pointing to the collection of books that the fox was napping on.

Victoria gave a short, amused laugh. “Honestly, I was worried that you would have wasted this month, but it seems the opposite was true. Truly, good job. You made better use of your time than I thought possible. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to take many books with you, but go ahead and specialize, let’s see what choices you have.”

Hearing that he wouldn’t be able to take all the books he had tirelessly collected with Melisandre’s money, he was devastated. “Okay, but which Classification?”

Victoria shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. You’ll have enough world essence to specialize the other within the week.”

It sounded like he was going to be busy in the coming future. A bit hesitant, Dante opened up his status to the Classifications tab. Victoria’s eyes narrowed slightly when she saw the dark blue color, but otherwise, she didn’t do anything. He had been keeping it a secret, but it wasn’t something he could keep hidden from her, so he didn’t see a point in hiding it when she could help him choose the skill for his specialization.

World Essence waiting to be assigned: 11,437

Chronomancer lvl 10/10 (0/10,000 world essence)

Blademancer lvl 11/10 (0/11,000 world essence)

Blade Dancer lvl 11/20 (0/11,000 world essence)

Revenant lvl 10/10 (0/10,000 world essence)

Victoria said his choice didn’t matter, so he chose to specialize his preferred Classification, the Chronomancer Classification. Seeing the choices for skills, he froze.

Choose Specialization Skill or Upgrade for Chronomancer:

Upgrade Blink to Directional Blink:

Directional Blink: Manipulate the power of space to teleport yourself or an object a short distance away, can now change the direction of the teleportation’s momentum.

Cost: 30 mana

Range: 15 feet

Choose Directional Blink?

Yes/No

Minor Time Shift: Shift time relative to an object or person to age them. Time can only be shifted forward.

Time shifted: 1 year

Cost: 100 mana

Choose Minor Time Shift?

Yes/No

Spatial Storage: Store items of a certain size within a spatial rift.

Cost when used: up to 20 mana

Capacity: unlimited

Choose Spatial Storage?

Yes/No

Time Barrier: Create a barrier that slows down time to half speed for everything inside.

Cost: 30 mana

Duration: 5 minutes

Range: 20 foot radius

Choose Time Barrier?

Yes/No

Without a doubt, Chronomancer gave the best skill selection of all his Classifications. Every skill or upgrade was exceedingly useful in some way. One skill in particular drew his eye though; spatial storage. He shifted gaze between it and the books that the fox was sleeping on, the books that Victoria said he couldn’t bring with him.

Dante cleared his throat, and turned his Status away from Victoria. “I think there was a problem, it only gave me one skill to choose from.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed, clearly not convinced. “Oh? Do tell what it is.”

Seeing the accusation in her gaze, he averted his eyes. “Spatial Storage.”

That caused Victoria’s eyebrows to shoot up. “Really? Does it say what the capacity is?”

“Unlimited.”

Victoria opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She collected herself. “Unlimited?”

It was the first time he had seen Victoria shocked, and it made him quite pleased that his new skill was what caused it. Clearly, it was better than he had thought. “Yes, but it says that there is a 20 mana limit for the cost.”

Victoria rubbed her eyes and muttered to herself before clearing her throat. “I can see why you might want to choose that skill. You should still tell me the others though. Skills are random, you never know what might appear once, and never again.”

He listed his skills to her, and she seemed most interested in Time Barrier. He couldn’t see why, Time Barrier just wasn’t of the same caliber as the others. It was useful, but he would also be slowed inside the barrier, making the benefits negligible.

After telling her the other skills, Victoria went silent for several minutes in thought. “It’s not an easy choice. All of them are actually amazing, and even though it wouldn’t be that good in the immediate future, Time Barrier’s potential is ridiculous.”

“What do you mean, out of all of them, it seems to be the worst one.” If he hadn’t set his eyes on Spatial Storage, he would have picked Minor Time Shift. Its use in combat would be negligible, but outside of it, there were thousands of uses. Directional Blink was also a cut above the rest. Changing the direction of the momentum, whether he blinked a weapon or himself, would add a new layer to his fighting capabilities.

“Yes, it appears weak at first glance, but think of how it could upgrade. If you had immunity within the barrier, you would be untouchable, and that’s only one possibility. It might even stop other spells from being activated within it, or even world essence control within, it’s impossible to predict the effectiveness of an upgraded barrier skill. No matter the Classification, barrier skills are almost always regarded as supreme in potential, and to the best of my knowledge, yours is unique.”

Dante looked back at his books, eyes filled with sorrow. He wished that Victoria had never told him that.

“Of course, that rings true with all of your more… interesting skills. There is no way to predict how they will change as you continue to specialize. Even if you chose the barrier skill, it’s more likely than not that the upgrade would be mediocre.”

That rekindled the excitement in his eyes. Relying on an upgrade would be a bad idea with his shit luck.

Dante cleared his throat. “I have two questions.” Seeing Victoria waiting, he continued. “First, what is the highest level of specialization within the Outer regions?”

He asked the same thing at the academy, but never got a straight answer. From what he could piece together, three times should have been the limit, but what she had told him about Jace seemed to implicate otherwise.

“For those who have never touched the inner regions, four specializations is basically the absolute limit. In the noble territory, only five people have reached such a level. Two in House Ailloss, one in House Ramotar, and two in House Calman. In the wastelands… there might be around a dozen, but all of them are either in the guild, or close to death. Any warlord who abuses that many resources is asking for a short life.”

The assassin’s guild was far stronger than he thought, and so was House Calman. “I’m assuming that you didn’t count yourself in that total?”

Victoria had an amused smile on her face. “Was that your second question?”

“No, my second question whether or not skills will upgrade the same way every time I specialize. Like, if I don’t choose Directional Blink, will Blink’s upgrade the next time I specialize still be Directional Blink?”

Victoria shrugged. “Almost always, but there are rare cases. No one knows how it really works, or at least out of the people I’ve talked to.”

Dante looked the list of skills over again. “So, should I choose Spatial Storage or not?”

Victoria shrugged again. “That’s your choice, I can only offer insight. Spatial Storage, according to my knowledge, is extremely experimental unless it’s an ancient relic. Even the best Artificers can only create relatively small storage devices, and they are unstable, so there is always a chance that they will break and lose whatever is inside after a period of time. Your skill would definitely be desired by all, and not only would it work well in conjunction with your Blademancer skills, but there is no telling how it might upgrade in the future.”

It seemed like every time she spoke, the choice became more difficult. His gut feeling was the Spatial Storage, but thinking about how the barrier or time shift skills could be upgraded left him reeling.

Finalizing his decision, he chose Spatial Storage.

Are you sure you want to choose Spatial Storage?

Yes/No

*Warning: any skills chosen are final*

He chose yes.

Attribute change for Chronomancer Classification, new attribute gain per level:

+1 Intelligence

+2 Wisdom

Seeing that he would get two Wisdom per level, he sighed in relief. So far, the attribute change after specializing had seemed almost random, even though he was told it was tied to the skill chosen.

Closing his Status, Dante walked over to the stack of books with glee in his eyes. Choosing the book directly under the fox, he activated the skill. The book disappeared, causing the fox to fall down about an inch. It jerked awake as though it had been attacked, growling viciously at him, only to be stopped by Victoria. “How did you do that?”

Victoria shrugged. “I just used my will to subdue it.”

Hearing her words, he froze, he had never tested his Oppressive Will skill. The last time he even gave it thought was when he asked Victoria about it, but she wasn’t able to give much insight, so he disregarded it in favor of his other skills.

Smiling sinisterly at the deranged fox that only seemed to want to attack him, Dante fed mana into the crystal on the underside of his wrist, completely unprepared with the results.

Muffled screams came from what seemed to be everywhere. The fox was no exception, it screeched as it tried to escape from him. Stumbling over itself as it fell off the books to the floor in a very ungraceful manner before jumping on his bed and hiding behind Victoria, who had her eyes narrowed at him. “Stop it.” She spoke the words through gritted teeth, and he immediately cut off his connection to the crystal.

As soon as he stopped, Victoria let out a sigh. “What in the hell was that?”

She looked very agitated, and Dante looked at her apologetically. “The passive skill I got from the predatory dungeon, Oppressive Will. I hadn’t tried it yet, and when you mentioned the fox was subdued by your will…”

He had only stopped speaking for a brief moment when the door crashed open, it was Melisandre, with a very scared and shaking Olivia holding on to her from behind.

He was screwed.

“You!” Her terrifying side was back. “You dare?”

Victoria, still relaxing on the bed, came to his rescue. “Calm down, it was an accident.”

“An accident?” She took a few deep breaths, which seemed to calm her, if only slightly. “Explain.”

One look at Olivia, and he could see why Melisandre was so upset, she looked petrified. He had set Melisandre off, and was feeling fortunate that he was still alive. As quickly as possible, he explained that he was testing a dungeon skill on a whim. After his explanation, Victoria told Melisandre that it was ‘just and Oppressive Will skill’, and that somehow seemed to mollify the situation.

Olivia gave him a half serious, half joking glare. “Next time you test a skill, try not to induce mass panic.”

Dante looked at Victoria in askance. “What happened?” He did feel bad about accidentally affecting everyone, but that feeling was nothing in comparison to the joy of discovery that the skill from his monster crystal may be useful.

Melisandre answered, looking meaningfully at Victoria before doing so. “You filled everyone with an overwhelming sense of dread. It couldn’t be blocked.”

Hearing that it couldn’t be blocked made him smile, which in turn awarded him with a glare from Melisandre and Olivia. Melisandre spun on her heels. “Come find me when the two of you are done packing, I’ll see you off.”

Now that Melisandre and Olivia were gone, the pleased smile was back. Dante turned to Victoria. “I didn’t know that the Oppressive Will skill was that strong.”

Victoria gave him a peculiar, yet slightly amused look. “It’s not. The only real effect it has is subtle coercion, or it gives a subtle air of superiority to those in the vicinity. Some leaders find the effects useful.”

“Then how did that happen?”

Victoria maintained the peculiar look. “The power of will comes from your subconscious. Your subconscious is very… dark and overbearing.”

Great, he was more of a freak than he thought. Still, at least there was some usefulness that came out of it.

Victoria didn’t seem too perturbed. She pulled out the book on hybrid creatures and laid back on the bed as she began reading it. He was actually happy to see that Melisandre had, in fact, brought it back like she said she would. “It’s still not an amazingly useful skill, but you might be able to make others hesitate in a fight. Since it can’t be blocked, my reaction is pretty much what you can expect when you take someone by surprise. Get everything your bringing stored away. I’d rather leave without dealing with the guards.”

That was something that he could agree with. He walked back to his books, storing them away one by one. As he did so, he began to take note of his skill. It felt like the storage was actually a part of his mind. Everything he put away could clearly be seen if he concentrated on it, ready to be recalled a moment’s notice.

Almost every book he stored cost 1 mana, and after recalling a few from his storage, he was able to determine that it was the same cost either storing or retrieving. Occasionally, a book would cost two, but they were always the largest ones, and by that, he could see the limitations of the skill. Storing anything above a cost of 20 mana would be impossible. He was also able to determine that contact was required, whether storing or retrieving the item, it had to be touching him. It seemed that anything he brushed past could easily be taken by him on a whim.

Looking at Victoria relaxing on the bed, he had a sudden thought that filled him with greed. As nonchalantly as possible, he walked over to the bed and tapped the frame lightly with his finger. The bedframe instantly disappeared, taking 16 mana along with it, and Victoria fell to the floor with the mattress.

Before he even realized what had happened, Victoria’s body flickered mid-fall, flashing behind him and shoving him into the mattress. He hit it hard, and below the mattress he could hear the wooden floor crack.

Dante turned around, and saw a very pleased Victoria smirking at him. “I was just messing around, you didn’t need to be so rough. You might have hurt the mattress.” He definitely deserved the treatment, but possibly damaging the mattress like that was uncalled for.

The smirk remained. “I was also just ‘playing around’. Now that you’re done, let's go.” Victoria tossed the book to him before turning and leaving, and he stored it as it hit his body. After sitting up, he stored the mattress and bedding. Then, he walked to his closet and stored all the clothing he had bought and everything else he had collected in Desas, along with any coins he had leftover. Then, he left a single gold coin in the room, more than enough to pay for the bed. After that, he followed Victoria out.

His new skill was amazing before he realized that he could carry a bed with him wherever he went. That made it infinitely better.