Dante ran through the feats available to him. As his eyes skimmed over each feat a new feeling washed over him.

It quickly became a bit nauseating so he slowed down.

"There's many useful feats here but what will serve me today?" He asked aloud, giving voice to his thoughts.

No one gave suggestions, all respected his choice. He would have to make his own decisions and live with the consequences.

He had expected at least some feedback but in the end he understood why they remained silent.

'Healer could be useful but doesn't that require a kit? It might have changed...ok comes with skills, no material components looks good, no, wait, it says there is a quest involved. Hard pass on this one, at least for now. Elemental adept? I could make either my ice or fire spells ignore resistance. I don't have...Oh wait I do have Thunder Wave! But I don't have enough spells of any of the available types to justify the feat. Spell sniper? Double the range of any...any attack spell? Ignores all but total cover and I get to learn a new attack cantrip? Ok that's a strong contender.' Dante mused as he reviewed each of his top choices one by one.

In the end Dante found himself drawn to a single feat. Even before he opened the information window on it he had felt it.

Badump...

Badump...

Badump...

As he looked upon the Durable feat he heard a beating heart. Was it his, or was it another's? He didn't know. But as he read the text he knew that he had made up his mind.

Durable*

This feat scales with your rank.

Increase Constitution by 20 points, at [Rank 2]. On subsequent level ups your Constitution increased by an additional, 2. Conveys the permanent buff, Durable. Double Health regeneration modifier, does not scale with rank.

As he read the text the heart beat he heard grew louder. It was a confident thing, almost seeming to radiate strength.

An unspoken promise.

A promise of life.

He reached out and tapped to accept the feat.

He was honestly surprised it wasn't locked behind a...

Notice!...

Acceptance of this feat will lead to the automatic acceptance of the associated quest...

Said quest must be completed before you can benefit from the chosen feat...

His face fell.

'God damn it.' He cursed in his mind, having failed to notice the asterisk that seemed to denote which feat had a quest attached to it.

Calculating quest...

Checking player status...

Players possess Str, Con, and End above 100...

Recalculating...

Expanding status checker...

Stamina not surpassing 4000...

Stamina regen not exceeding 200...

Recalculating...

Checking player skills...

Players possess the skill, Iron skin...

Checking skill level...

Skill level is minimum...

Recalculating...

Then came the blue box.

Quest: Test of Endurance

The system has devised a simple task to prove you worthy of what you seek.

Run the skill, Iron skin for 1 continuous hour.

His eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't been expecting this.

It sounded rather easy in principle but in reality?

'Why a test of endurance, the feat only affected his health and its regen... Maybe because Iron skin is supposed to protect from harm...That might be it.' He thought before he inspected the actual cost of iron skin.

What he found only confirmed what he had thought he remembered. It costs 10 stamina per second.

Some quick math told him that it would take 36 thousand stamina to complete this quest. Not to mention the possibility of having to start again from scratch if he stopped for even a second.

His stamina was only a little more than a tenth of what he needed. With his current regen it would take more than 20 minutes to regenerate his stamina pool fully. Holding this skill on would almost entirely drain his stamina in only 6 minutes without his regen. With regen...

Several seconds passed by as he crunched the numbers in his head.

+1 Int...

Right now he is regenerating about 3 stamina per second. Less than a third of what he needed. Even with his current regen and stamina pool he could only keep the skill active for about 9 minutes straight before his stamina would bottom out. He didn't know how much potions would cost so he disregarded them for the moment...

"Hey let's swing by the alchemists guild while we're running around. I want to pick up some books on alchemy." he said, getting an accepting nod from his father who was talking to his mother and Califa while he was doing this.

'Maybe I could check with them on how much potions cost. It wouldn't hurt to ask,' he thought with a shrug.

It was obvious to him that he couldn't hold the skill forever...but he didn't need it forever.

Inspiration flashed across his mind in an instant.

+1 Wis...

He had his stamina pool as a buffer. He just needed to get his regen high enough to where it could keep his stamina off empty till 1 hour had passed.

'But how do I do that?' He pondered that question till he had another idea.

'I should level at least a few times from the exp this will give me. That will increase my stats and by extension my regen and my stamina pool. I don't think that will get me far enough though.' He thought of all those rp he still hadn't spent, all 58 of it.

His mind ran down a short rabbit hole till he remembered the skill he had gotten this morning. Regeneration (Minor). Could that push him over the edge? Did it level by him regenerating his resource pools? If that was the case it might give him the extra regen he needed. Then again he did have other skills that gave him stamina or its regen when they leveled.

"Maybe, but who says I have to do it now? Virgil?" He spoke to the air and felt his mana shift and flow. The shift was a smaller feeling now. Likely because he had so much more mana than he had the last time he summoned Virgil.

50 mana later and Virgil stood before them pulling up a chair to join them at their table.

"I hope you don't mind If I sit here?" Virgil asked coyly.

"Not at all Virgil. Now tell me, is there a time limit to this quest?" Dante curiously asked as he handed Virgil the blue box.

"This quest has no time limit. Only the requirement for 1 full continuous hour of using Iron skin. It can be tried repeatedly until you succeed..." Virgil paused as he continued to examine the blue box.

"Well that's good to know..." he stopped as the notice continued.

"However, a note Dante. All exp from the skills usage will be withheld until you pass this quest. Quest failure will require you to start again. All exp spent on the prior attempt will be lost to you as a penalty for the failure...Skill leveling will remain unaffected though." Virgil spoke that last bit with mild surprise.

"It's definitely not something I can do now... but it would be well worth doing later." Dante said as he reached for the decline option.

"Hold Dante..."Virgil spoke hastily as he grasped his shoulder. This caused him to paused as he turned to regard Virgil.

"If you decline this quest now you will lose out on this amazing opportunity. If you paid attention to the notices that preceded the quest you will see the system was checking your status. Through that this quest was generated...''Virgil spoke that last part slowly rolling his wrist, motioning for Dante to complete the thought.

"If I decline this quest and try to pick this feat again later, it will generate a totally new quest." Dante spoke in a slightly worried tone.

Virgil snapped his fingers a few times before pointing towards him.

"Ding, ding, ding that's the right answer. So I would suggest you take it now to lock it on this. It is extremely difficult most of the time to find things that multiply your resources or regens. So it is best to scoop them up when they are found." Virgil spoke in a serious tone, his previous playfulness gone.

Nodding, Dante simply hit the accept button and the Test of Endurance began.

==========

"Hey guys?" Dante asked.

"What do you need, son?" asked Frank.

"Can we wait an hour before we head out? I have this spell I've been wanting to cast since yesterday. It takes an hour to cast." he replied.

"What does it do? I assume its not something dumb you want to cast." Frank said whilst raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"It summons a permanent familiar in a form I choose. I could summon it in the form of an owl and have a great scout who can keep watch from above."

"You're going to have an owl flying around and hanging around on you? Or am I missing something?" His father asked in mild confusion.

"It's not a real owl. It's a contracted spirit in the form of an owl. Besides, I can simply snap my fingers..." He paused before snapping his fingers for emphasis, then resumed.

"...to make it appear and disappear. I can also run the ritual again and change their form. One hour they are an owl, the next they can be a ferret, or an octopus!"

"Hold on, back it up! Appear and disappear? You mean it can go invisible? Please explain." asked Frank.

Dante paused for a long moment as he rubbed his face with both hands. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened. But at least he could do this now.

"...I'll just show you." Dante said as he produced the blue box for Find Familiar, handing a copy to the others around the table save for Virgil.

Virgil on the other hand was greatly enjoying a plate of pancakes. He didn't have to eat. Which apparently didn't mean he couldn't.

Find Familiar, 1st level

You conduct an hour long ritual to gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose. Said spirit becomes bound to you at the completion of the spell. The chosen creature's size can be no greater than small. If you choose a creature with supernatural abilities, an example being truesight, your familiar assumes the form but does not gain said abilities. The familiar appears in an unoccupied space within range.

The familiar's statistics are of the chosen form, though it is a Celestial, Fey, Undead, Warforged, Ooze, or Fiend (your choice) instead of its normal type. However the familiar's stats will be modified by the caster's own stats. It gains the ability to understand one language of your choice that you speak.

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. The familiar can attack only in ways its form allows. The familiars Hp is equal to your maximum mana capacity. When the familiar drops to 0 Hit Points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. While technically dead, the familiar inhabits their master's soul space. Slain familiars can be resummoned by recasting this spell, in which case it will only take 10 minutes to cast. Dismissed familiars can be brought back for free at will.

While your familiar is within (INT) meters of you, you can communicate with it telepathically as if you had telepathy. If you possess telepathy this range becomes, (Variable).

Additionally, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears, gaining the benefits of any Special Senses that the familiar has, such as an owl's hearing or a cat's night vision. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own Senses.

You can temporarily dismiss your familiar if you so choose to. It disappears into your soul space where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever ending the pact. While it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any sufficiently sized space within 30 feet of you.

You can have more than one familiar at a time, But only 1 per 100 points of Spirit. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead can cause it to adopt a new form. Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within, (INT/4), meters of you, and it must focus its attention to deliver the spell when you cast it.

Initial cast time: 1 hour. Material Components: 10 Small gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier for the initial casting. Mana cost: 1000 mana initial casting. To reform a familiar's corporeal form the material components remain the same with two exceptions. The mana cost is reduced to 250 and it then takes 10 minutes to cast. 100 mana to change familiar's form and 1 minute to cast.

All castings require an appropriate amount of the proper materials burnt in a bronze brazier to cast.

After several minutes of reading by his parents, all the while Califa bugging him to teach her the spell it was decided it would be best to cast this spell outside.

After a 20 minute walk and asking a couple guards for directions and permission they found their way to a park.

Dante quickly pulled the brazier and materials from his inventory and motioned for the rest of the group to sit in the grass.

"It is an hour to cast remember? I certain you guys don't want to be standing that long." he said with a small smile as he began to cast.

Using Prestidigitation he light the materials in the brazier and began to cast.

As he spoke the spell, and went through the motions he couldn't help but notice the small crowd beginning to form not to far away.

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