Mature Content Warning: none

Author's Note: Go Team Dark Lords! =^.^=

Chapter 19.1: Sins of the Father

The mighty hunter slipped through the grass, a serpent ready to strike its prey unaware. Unfortunately for the great beast, he had slain most of the creatures in the area. Save for the occasional onion or a rare rat fiend, there was nothing left to hunt at the time.

Blackthorne stopped attempting to stalk prey after a time and sat up straight. He rubbed his scaly chin then sighed. “Skill progression has already slowed down.”

Once he hit the twenty level mark for any skill it went from several skill increases per day to barely one. Even his dark magic skill had not risen past thirty. Though, he suspected that had more to do with the weakness of the spell that he used currently in order to train it.

The same thing could be said for his swordsmanship and heavy armor skill. It was possible that the monsters in the area did not challenge him enough to allow him to develop his skills quickly enough. He could raise his level, but that would defeat the purpose of training to reach normal levels of competency. He decided to check his skills and stats to see what he had accomplished overnight.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Scott Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin

Title: Gentleman of Darkness

Level: 7 [Hatchling] Skill Points: 89

Vitality: 201[201]

Weapon Attack: 103[103]

Durability: 146[146]

Speed: 61[61]

Spirit: 440[440]

>>

<<< Skills >>>

Primary

Dark Magic Level 30

Conjuration Level 8

Mahorela Abaivonin Magic Level 2

Mana Sense Level 22

Mana Manipulation Level 23

Metamorphosis Level 12

Secondary

Heavy Armor Usage Level 21

Sword Mastery Level 23

Ring Mastery Level 1

Tertiary

Synergy Level 7

Jewelry Crafting Level 5

Enchanting Level 16

Mystic Chemistry Level 1

>>

“Not bad, but given my set-up I’ll need to do something about my physical stats.” He was set up to build spirit at a rapid pace, but he had no skills that helped with speed and what skills he had for durability and weapon attack only increased it by one point per skill level.

He eyed his skill list and considered the jewelry crafting ability. Reallocation would allow him to change his skills, should he keep that? He had spent eight hours on it the other day when he had chosen to spend the entire day working on his dark magic skill. Whenever his headache had begun to form, he sat down and worked at creating jewelry using the chain mail links from the armor he had gathered from the various armor pieces he had lifted off of dead zombies. Only a few of them spawned each night, but he did not need many chainmail suits.

After eight hours of crafting chain mail bracelets he had not increased his jewelry crafting skill even once. He had made bracelets until he had run out of chain mail links, and his skill did not increase. Though, combining those bracelets until he had a few decent quality items did increase his synergy level.

Jewelry crafting had always increased slowly due to the fact that it was a tertiary skill, but after his transition into a dragon had slowed that skill’s growth to a crawl. The time necessary to increase it would be better spent on other skills. Pure crafting skills would take a long time to increase, such a long time that he would be better off just buying whatever he would need in that regard. He did not have the craftsman talent, and as such he received no bonuses for the development of such skills. On top of that they were slow growth to begin with.

Blackthorne tried to determine how much effort it would take to increase the skill in the future. He had been forced to create hundreds of items to increase his skill level last time. Given the fact that all of his pure craft skills would increase at the slowest possible speed for their skill-tier, it would be a pointless endeavor for him to work with them at the moment. At least, pointless for a skill grinding exercise. He could still make jewelry simply for the sake of making something to sell.

The more he thought about the skill, the more he realized that it would be better not to remove it. He would just ignore it for the most part and whenever it did increase in level, he would consider it a bonus. In a few years it might increase to the point where he could gain specialty skills that might make it worth using again. A slow-growth down time skill would not be a bad thing. It would keep him busy at least.

“It’s time to play toward my strengths. Magic skill level is mostly handled at the moment, but a few more combat skills would not be bad.”

Blackthorne chose to look through the available skills and sub-skills that he had available. Sub-skills did not increase stats in general. They might do so on rare occasion, but it was not consistent like the stat increases from primary skills.

A few of his skills had generated sub-skills when he had hit level twenty in the skill. It seemed to vary, however. Some skills showed no sign of sub-skill generation.

“I want to keep most of those points for reallocation, but it shouldn’t hurt to use a few of them.” He would gain a skill point for every skill that reached twenty five and reallocation would at minimum be two weeks away. He did not know the actual date, but it was reasonable to assume such was the case. The wording of the last message he had received had made it seem like it would take longer than one week, otherwise why would that mention that bonus rewards would be suspended until that time? If it was only one week then that would be pointless as a statement.

It had only been a little over two days on Earth since that message had been shared. If two weeks was the time period then he still had seven weeks of dream time to work with before it happened. Of course, it could just as easily be several years before it happened. He had no way to know. Either way, he would probably spare enough points to specialize in his current skills and to generate at least two new ones.

“Twenty-nine points, I’ll use that many at most.” he promised himself.

Blackthorne looked at his list then immediately chose from what was available. He started with sub-skills and chose three skills in the swordsmanship category. He now had access to further specialization in one-handed sword, two-handed sword, and dual-wielded sword skills. By themselves, those skills would only increase his ability to work with such weapons to a small degree. However, once they and his sword mastery skill reached a certain point he would be able to further specialize in a specific type of weapon. That would eventually lead to development of special moves.

“I have one greatsword, and several other garbage swords. It will be easy to train each of those sub-skills, even if they take longer to develop than a primary skill.” he said.

He looked at the heavy armor skill then chose to acquire the two sub-skills that it currently provided, damage deflection, and combat maneuvering. They were skills directly related to movement or damage mitigation while wearing heavy armor. Damage deflection was a sub-skill that would help him to redirect damage he would potentially receive during an attack. Combat maneuvering related to moving around in armor, and would help to slowly reduce movement penalties due to the weight and restrictive nature of his armor. His heightened strength mitigated some of the weight issues for now, but if he continued the heavy armor route, he would start to have problems since the weight of his armor would increase.

“I don’t have any access to it at the moment, but perhaps light armor would be a good skill to learn, even if it is just for the stat benefits.” he said after looking through his skill options lists.

He needed skill points for his spells, but he also needed to develop his speed, durability, and weapon attack. He did not think it would be a good idea to rely heavily on his racial bonuses instead of skill bonuses.

“I’ll take shield mastery for now.” said Blackthorne. It would pair well with heavy armor, and he could use it to increase both vitality and durability.

He had spent twenty skill points to generate sub-skills, and to make shield mastery a secondary skill. That left nine points to work with. Mana Manipulation did not have any sub-skills to choose at this point, but he would be able to choose sub-skills for dark magic and mana sense, but before he chose either he realized something strange. The words Mahorela Abaivonin Magic on his list had suddenly started to shimmer. Blackthorne clicked the listing and an information screen popped up.

<<< Message >>>

You have met the following requirements.

* You have expended twenty-five skill points on combat or magic related skill development.

* You have increased your basic intimacy level with your Shadow Wisp.

* You have reached skill-level two in Mahorela Abaivonin Magic

* You have reached racial level five.

* You have exceeded four hundred points in the spirit stat.

* You have exceeded two hundred points in the vitality stat.

* You have exceeded one hundred points in the weapon attack stat.

* You have exceeded one hundred points in the durability stat.

* You have exceeded skill-level twenty-five in at least one magical skill and skill-level twenty in one at least one physical combat skill.

--

Due to your diligence you have grown much stronger. New spells and skills are available to you, young dragon.

- Shadow Flare: Conjure a flame of dark fire to burn the souls of the wicked. [5 Skill Points]

- Aura of Fear: Use your spiritual force as a weapon of intimidation and unleash a crippling psychological effect against your opponents within a one hundred yard radius. [5 Skill Points]

- Soul Devour: Absorb the souls of the wicked to bolster your power. [20 Skill Points][Dark Lords Only][Magical Skill]

-Eyes of Judgment: Know the true heart of the one whom you gaze upon, and discern truth from lie.[10 Skill Points][passive ability]

>>

“Oh hell, yes!” crowed Blackthorne. He had not intended to spend so many of his skill points, but there was absolutely no way he would pass up new spells and abilities related to his race.

He quickly acquired each of the new skills and abilities then looked at the mana sense and dark magic skills. He had already spent a lot of his points, so chose to go ahead and acquire the sub-skills from those two skill sets. At the very least he could justify it by claiming that he would gain a skill point whenever he gained twenty-five skill levels in either of those abilities.

The sub-skills that he acquired were Essence of Darkness and Refined Mana Sense. Essence of Darkness allowed him to cast dark magic spells with slightly less mental strain dependent upon his skill-level. Refined mana sense would allow him to know how much mana was actually available in the area, but with varying levels of accuracy according to the area and his skill.

“Twenty-three skill points left. Yeah, I’m done for now.” he said. He had a lot more skills to train now, so that would be an interesting experience. However, he was quite curious to see what his new spells and abilities had to offer.

Blackthorne checked the Soul Devour ability information first. It had cost nearly one-fourth of his skill points. He hoped that it was worth it!

<<< Soul Devour >>>

Absorb the souls of your fallen foes in order to increase your power. This power can be used to empower effects of various skills and abilities, or to increase your statistics.

* Devour 10% of the level of your opponent as Soul Power.

* Devour 40% of the level of your opponent as Soul Power if they are deemed wicked.

New Feature: You can now check your skills, abilities, and stats to see how much soul power will be required to effect a change. (Go Team, Dark Lords!)

>>

Blackthorne’s eyes widened almost comically then he checked his stats. He wanted to see what it would say, if anything, now that the new feature was added.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Scott Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin

Title: Gentleman of Darkness

Level: 7 [Hatchling] Skill Points: 23

Vitality: 202[202]

Weapon Attack: 103[103]

Durability: 147[147]

Speed: 61[61]

Spirit: 440[440]

>>

He frowned after he performed a cursory glance at his stats. Other than the one point boost to vitality and durability from acquiring the shield mastery skill, he saw no real difference. It was not until he actually checked the basic information for an individual stat that he saw the truth of his new passive ability. He had largely ignored those information windows because they said only the most generic thing imaginable. Weapon Attack, for instance, normally only cited that the stat related to how much damage he could do. Blackthorne tapped vitality and a small window opened.

<<< Vitality >>>

Your life force. This stat relates to health and well-being.

Current: 202

Soul Power Needed: 202

>>

“Neat, I can raise my stats directly.” said Blackthorne.

Of course, the sheer number of opponents he would need to defeat was staggering. At ten percent per level, a level ten monster only generated one soul power. Even a zombie might only produce four points. That would mean that he would have to slay fifty plus zombies or over two hundred non-wicked monsters in order to raise his stat. He did not know it for certain, but he could almost guarantee that it would only increase it by a single point.

He proceeded to check a few other things. He could generate skill points at a steady five thousand Soul Power per point. He could use Soul Power to increase the potency of his spells, though the cost was less than the increase to a stat, it was still high and would no doubt increase with each upgrade.

It would add additional effects to enchantments if used, and the same might happen with synergy. It did not seem to do anything for jewelry crafting or mystic chemistry, but that might be due to his low skill-level in those skills, as ring mastery also seemed to have no effect. After he checked his combat skills and saw the same lack of enhancement he dug a little deeper into the information windows and discovered that all skills could have an individual experience modification bonus applied.

“One thousand soul power to increase a skill’s learning speed by one percent? That’s not too bad...” he said. There was probably a limit to how high that could go, but it was nice to see that the possibility existed.

It might seem like a horribly expensive ability on the surface, but it was probably fairly unique. At the moment, the levels of the monsters that he fought were poor and it would take hundreds or perhaps thousands of them to increase even one stat point or upgrade his abilities. However, if he focused on fighting wicked monsters he could cut that requirement down by a great margin. He would fight a lot of opponents anyway. That ability could be seen as a useful bonus effect. It was not a broken ability due to the high costs, but it would allow for further customization.

“I only have a few hours left before I need to wake up. I should go test these new spells.” said Blackthorne.

The little dragon waddled off toward the scent of a monster. He had many tests to perform before he awoke.