Chapter 51

How had she done it? Adrian regarded Joanne and his identification got to work. He wanted the description of the ability she had used. They were friends, and he had used identification on her regularly, so it was relatively quick to find out what had changed.

Resurrection.

 Can resurrect a human with an undamaged interface that supports the resurrection protocol.

 Must be cast within two hundred and two minutes of death.

 Target body must be ninety-five percent intact.

 Between caster and environment, sufficient ambient energy must be available to support resurrection.

 Can only be cast once every thirty days.

 Target loses at least seventy percent of accrued experience.

 Caster can not use magic for one to four days.

The conditions of the spell were significant, but the resurrection was real. He had no insight into that resurrection protocol, but if it existed, then Praveen’s brain would have been preserved as the system rarely did half measure.

His identification filled in critical pieces of information. While ninety-five percent of interfaces could support the protocol, in practice for a variety of reasons only eight percent did so. Then there were the energy requirements. This close to the Alpha event and the recent mana storm there was sufficient ambient energy to support the spell but in ten years’ time Joanne would need to supply most of the energy by herself and the energy required for a single resurrection would take a year to gather.

It was an incredible ability but not broken like a lot of the other loopholes he had discovered were.

“My god we don’t have to worry about dying,” Galan said in excitement. “This changes everything.”

“It changes nothing,” Adrian told him. “Joanne can’t cast another spell for three days and cannot resurrect anyone for at least a month. And have you used identification on him?”

Around him, everyone’s eyes went momentarily unfocused.

“He lost levels.”

“…and power.”

“At least seventy percent of experience, gone,” Adrian told them. “The spell has massive downsides.”

“Worth it,” Joanne gasped having awoken while they were talking. “He’s alive.”

“Yep, that’s the important thing.” Adrian agreed. “Galan, Felicity, let’s set up a perimeter while these guys recover.”

The two rangers startled and then nodded. The other two split up and went up opposite banks to find a good lookout point.

Step, step.

He was at the top of the bank. He looked around and identified the tallest tree.

Wind gust and then the spear took over. He landed just under its crown and had barely used his magic. His spear had clearly upgraded qualitatively, if not quantitatively.

He would check later.

Established, he observed the surrounding land. Particularly the mess on the far horizon that they had fled from. They could no longer see where those multiple mana funnels had set down, but his primary focus was to ensure nothing was tracking them.

Carefully, his eyes traced back the route they had taken. He chewed on his lips, worried that he would discover some bad news.

It was clean.

Adrian’s eyes swept the area and seeing nothing problematic he checked his attribute gains.

Inherent Healing --- N.A. Replaced by troll regeneration --- Population - 1.14 (+.02)

Vitality --- now 4.7 --- Plus 0.8 from mana storm --- Population - 1.32 (+.02)

Physical Resistance --- now 0.83 --- Plus 0.3 from mana storm --- Population - 0.54

Magical Resistance --- now 0.43 --- Plus 0.25 from mana storm --- Population - 0.06

Strength --- now 3.59 --- Plus 0.74 from mana storm --- Population - 1.18 (+.03)

Agility --- now 3.88 --- Plus 0.64 from mana storm --- Population 1.31 (+.04)

Perception --- now 3.8 --- Plus 0.8 from mana storm --- Population - 1.13 (+.01)

Intelligence --- now 4.03 --- Plus 0.89 from mana storm --- Population 1.16 (+.02)

Mana Control --- now 7.58 --- Plus 0.52 from mana storm --- Population - 1.23 (+.02)

Mana Pool --- now 6.8 (Personal core - 1.58 air, 0.4 fire, 0.4 ice) --- Plus 0.88 from mana storm to general. Plus 0.4 from mana storm in personal core for each of air, ice and fire --- Population - 1.22 (+.04)

Mind --- now 2.7 --- Plus 0.3 from mana storm --- Population - 0.207

The numbers blew him away. That first mana storm that brought through the class one sapient plan might have been stronger, but they had been at the edge of it. This time they had been at the centre and the gains reflected that.

Attributes of more than sixty levels of progress granted in ten terrifying minutes. He looked at his core. Just like the mana pool had suggested, it had expanded. The work Jaracol had put in to allow him to cultivate fire and ice had paid off, and the mana was there for him to use.

Adrian looked at his gains holistically. The improvement in mana control was less than he’d hoped, which was probably a warning that he was getting to the limit that his body size could support.

Finally, Adrian checked his spear.

Level 5 Sapient Spear

This spear is bonded to Adrian Fitzgerald.

Level 1 - Substantial i ncrease in potency of wind-based spell forms - 40 % (plus 10%) improvement in efficiency. Increased potency of fire-based spells - 30 % (plus 5%) improvement in efficiency.

Level 2 - Significantly improves dodge, evasion, shadow and self-wind buffs.

Level 3 - Friendly wind - Creates wind gusts and air blades to aid wielder and allies in fights. Takes the higher of its own air affinity or its wielder’s. (Passive skills)

Level 4 - Advanced s pear projection ( 15 (plus 5) charges. 40 (minus 10) second recharge time per charge)

Level 4 - Master Magic - Can independently use any ability of wielder and make it 30 % (plus 5%) more powerful and control increased by 100%. Has a secondary mana pool of 100 mana to draw upon.

Level 5 - Active Barrier Piercing - Master level applicable to both physical and magical defences ( 6 (plus 2 charges) charges. 5-hour recharge)

Level 5 - Passive Barrier Piercing - Master level applicable to both physical and magical defences

This spear was constructed in the hope that it will help shield humanity against the ravages of the Alpha event.

Most of the percentage or number of charges had increased, but it was the qualitative words that represented the largest upgrade. The word advanced that had been added to the level 4 skill almost doubled the size of the projection and the level 5 passive barrier skill was now applied to the projections.

The level two addition of the word significantly meant that his Shadow Evasion could move his body fifty percent further than it used to. Passive barrier piercing had upgraded from expert to master.

The spear was at least twice as strong as it previously had been. Then there was the fact it had its own mana pool. That alone was worth ten attribute points.

Adrian pushed down his excitement. They had survived, and if everyone else had got this level of gains, the last leg of his journey just became easier. He looked back along their trail, then at his spear and mana control. He was itching to find out how much of a difference it all made.

Visually, they were safe, but there were a lot of things that could camouflage or make themselves invisible. But those monsters would leave tracks.

He needed to check it.

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