Chapter 038

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“ “ for speech.

* * for actions.

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After Jack reached Rotang City, he first sold whatever loot he had and restocked his supplies of potions and darts. He did meet Timon the merchant, who was very hopeful for some more of his enchanting services. However, as he knew that his enchanting was limited to the Intermediate Tier, he politely declined.

He also browsed some equipment shops. Although upgrades to his present leather armor were available, he refrained from it. There were two main reasons for this. He already had an Arachnid Jacket, which was far better than anything he could afford on the market, even if he didn’t meet the requirements to use it yet.

Also, he only had around 1 platinum and 30 pieces of gold with him. He currently gained +30 Physical Defense from armor for his torso; +10 for his hands; +20 for his legs and +15 for his feet. The Physical Defense gained from various pieces of armor didn’t add up to give a total defense score. Instead, they would reduce damage received only if physical attacks targeted the armored part.

A full set of upgrades would barely give him an additional +5 to 10 Physical defense for every part, and an additional set bonus of +10 Physical Defense for every armored part. However, on doing so he would lose the auxiliary benefits of his Bear-Skin boots (+5% ice resistance) and Survivor’s Cap (+500 HP).

Spending around 40 gold for a measly +15 to +25 Physical Defense on every armored part while sacrificing +5% ice resistance and +500 HP didn’t sit well with him. This was because, rogues and other Agility/Dexterity based characters hardly put any points into Vitality. Every point of vitality increased the natural Physical defense of a player by 1.

Therefore these speed focused classed required every small scrap of physical defense any equipment provided. Furthermore, Jack had even unlocked the Endurance special stat which also added +1 Physical Defense for every point it. The Physical Defense provided by Vitality and Endurance applied to the whole body, instead of just specific body parts like Armor!

But Armors had a hidden advantage as compared to the stat Vitality. Attacks striking armored parts had less chance of being a critical hit. And this reduction in critical hit chance was proportional to the defense provided by the Armor. Hence, even if someone had a reasonable amount of Vitality, having good armor was a must to increase survivability in melee.

But the hidden stat Endurance unlocked by Jack, functioned differently compared to Vitality. Endurance gave +1 Physical defense and +10 HP per point. Whereas, with the bonuses from his Class, Vitality provided +1 Physical Defense and +20 HP per point! How can a hidden stat have lesser gains than a Basic stat with similar function?

The Physical Defense added by Endurance functioned like the Physical defense from Armor! This meant that the hidden reduction of a received blow being a critical hit was given by the Endurance Stat as well, and that too, over the whole body! His Endurance of around 110 provided him the same chance in critical hit reduction for blows received as a nice set of steel chainmail, but over the whole body.

Jack however, was unaware of these subtleties of the game mechanics. He simply added up the defense from all his equipment to the natural defense obtained from his stats and compared the values while making a cost-benefit analysis for armor upgrades. In spite of his ignorance, he came to the valid conclusion that the upgrades to his armor weren’t worth the cost.

As for weapons, his backup sword/dagger/axe/mace was good enough for now. And he preferred playing with a mixture of unarmed attacks and spells anyways. He had very little real-life skills with bladed weapons, and felt slow and clumsy fighting with them compared to his unarmed attacks.

He decided to keep the dagger, as the Assassinate sub skill was very useful in situations which called for stealthy slaughter, and it could be only used with a dagger. As for the other weapons, he just kept his sword and sold the axe and he mace, as he could use Mana Blade only with his sword.

His companion’s equipment didn’t require much upgrades at all. The Two-handed axe, which was acquired from the Gnolls, was a far better weapon than anything they could afford. His bark armor was only inferior to a set of Steel Full Plate armor, and the prohibitive cost of almost 90 pieces of gold wasn’t worth it.

He gave his companion a few gold coins and dropped him off at an inn and made his way to the Training Hall. He was greeted by Instructor Theon. Master Janus, who was napping on the bench at the far corner woke up with a start and also greeted him.

Instructor Theon: “Greetings, Jack. It has been a while since you visited us.”

Master Janus: “Welcome back, Jack. Learn any new interesting spells?”

Jack: “Greetings, Instructor Theon and Master Janus. Yes, I recently learned a spell to boost my physical capabilities! It is called Body Augmentation, and enhances my strength, agility and dexterity.”

Jack then went to a dummy and began pummeling it. His punches and kicks were fast and precise, but nothing Theon and Janus hadn’t expected. After a couple of minutes, he then enabled Body Augmentation, and helical strands of force and soul mana rotated and vibrated around him as he addressed them.

Jack: “I have now enabled this spell and will start hitting the training dummy. Notice the difference.”

Jack then resumed abusing the innocent training dummy, and the difference was noticeable even to a complete novice. The speed of his punches and kicks increased significantly, his explosive power increase drastically and so did the fluidity of his movements.

The dummy was rebounding almost as twice as much as before. Instructor Theon and Master Janus were shocked at this difference. Jack’s unarmed damage potential had just doubled! His explosive speed and power was altogether on a different level from before. While they were still shocked and digesting the developments, Jack stopped his abuse of the training dummy.

Jack: “I also learned a healing spell from the druids. It regenerates some health over time.”

He then deactivated Body augmentation and rolled up his left sleeve. He activated mana claws and gouged his forearm with his claw like fingers. Immediately, fresh wounds appeared and he started bleeding. He then activated Regenerating Infusion, and a soft green glow covered him. His wounds started healing rapidly, and in 3-4 seconds, his left forearm was as good as new.

Instructor Theon: *amazement* “How exactly did you learn the Body Augmentation spell?”

Jack: *smug* “A traveler challenged me to a duel, and beat the shit out of me by using a similar ability and only his fists! I had memorized the mana flow around his body and just replicated it.”

Master Janus: *chuckling* “I just asked casually. I didn’t expect you to learn two such powerful spells.”

Instructor Theon: “And about our task. What had happened to the Druids?”

Jack: “A seed of blight was found by the coven. They had invested all their manpower to suppress and dispel it. That is why they couldn’t contact this you this year.”

Instructor Theon: *grumbles* “Seed of the Blight. Damn. Well, I am grateful for the news, but I don’t suppose you could aid them. I will make arrangements to send them some help…”

Jack: “Umm, I did help in destroying the Seed of the Blight.”

Instructor Theon & Master Janus: *simultaneously shout* “What?!”

Jack: “Yeah. I was transported to some pocket plane and I dealt with the seed, destroying it and saved months of time and probably half a dozen lives. But the druids didn’t give me any rewards and instead got all huffy and drove me away just because my body was corrupted slightly by its taint. I mean, sure my body is defiled now. But the infectious taint of the blight isn’t spreading, it is just dormant and reinforcing me.”

Instructor Theon and Master Janus exchanged a glance, fully flabbergasted. They didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This Bhikku initiate had helped to destroy a seed of the blight, which took a lot of sacrifices, and spoke about it in a casual offhanded tone.

Not only that, he had somehow integrated the taint of the blight in his body, strengthening and tempering it. However the taint of the Blight was contained, otherwise the druids wouldn’t have left him unmolested and just drove him away. Master Janus recovered first from these shocking revelations and inquired his disciple.

Master Janus: “You said that the Druids drove you away without any rewards, then how did you learn that healing spell?”

Jack: “Well I got the key to the second prison for aiding them destroy the seed of the Blight. The Eldest of the coven also gave me a quest to free the prisoner from that Prison. I did free a petrified Druid from that prison, and as a reward got the healing spell.”

Instructor Theon: “How exactly did you manage to not only destroy the seed of the blight, but free the Druid from a Divine Grand Curse? It was a goddamned curse which had chained the prisoner for over a thousand years and multiple attempts had failed to do so.”

Jack: *sigh* “I guess I can’t keep it from both of you any longer. In the first prison I went, before I got my class, I devoured the spirit of the prisoner there granting him Eternal Rest. That act made me a Spirit Eater.”

Master Janus: “The birth of a Spirit Eater. That creates more headaches than it solves. We need to figure out how to limit the abomination from going on a rampage, every time you attempt to use its power. I guess, I will get in touch with the Order. Till then, do not attempt to use it indiscriminately, even if you were successful in dealing with the Seed of the Blight and freeing the Prisoner.”

Jack: *sheepish grin* “Master, that is unnecessary. My spirit contract with Irfit put many stringent restrictions on my Spirit Eating Abilities and has shackled it from rampaging.”

Instructor Theon: *laughs* “You keep on surprising me, Jack. Now tell us all the details.”

Jack then narrated the details of his spirit pact and experiences with the seed of the blight. He managed to surprise them once again with the awakening of an Afflicted Warrior, who in turn chose to become his follower. He then narrated on his experiences with the goblin/hobgoblin infested cave and his interactions with the prisoner.

Jack: “And while I did awaken two new abilities of my Shackled Spirit Eater abilities, I lost a lot of levels to heal the petrified druid.”

Instructor Theon: “Well you got a powerful reward for it, which in my opinion more than makes up for it.”

Master Janus: “And now for your rewards you have a choice. I can give you the Gravity affinity and a spell for it. Or Theon can give you the Darkness Affinity and a spell for it. Since you cannot use ruinic magic due to your spirit contract, you will find these personally shaped spells very valuable. The choice is yours.”

Jack: “What kind of spell can I expect with the darkness and gravity affinity?”

Instructor Theon: “For the darkness affinity, I will impart you with a spell which will be very useful for stealth operations.”

Master Janus: “As for my gravity spell, it is very useful in restraining and damaging a single strong foe.”

Jack: ‘So I either get a spell for something akin to invisibility, or get a boss-restraining spell. Hmm… that is a difficult choice.’

Jack: “Can’t I get both?”

Master Janus: “No. Mastering a single new affinity and shaping your own spells will take a lot of time and effort.”

Instructor Theon noticed Jack’s crestfallen mood and snorted at Master Janus’s statement.

Instructor Theon: “Don’t be sad. You have gathered sufficient merit to advance further in our Order. However to get your class upgrade, you must be at least lv100. You can get the second affinity and spell at that time, if you wish.”

Jack: ‘Oh, a Class Advancement? Pity I need to be lv100 for it. I have two free affinities now. I can fill up one of them now. If I don’t find any interesting affinity when I level-up, I might as well take the other while I accept the class upgrade.’

Jack: ‘While the stealthy dark spell sounds cool, I severely lack nuke spells to use against a single powerful foe. But a stealthy approach can come in handy too. Meh, I might as well flip a coin and be done with it. No point in agonizing over the choice, as either one is great.’

He then withdrew a single copper coin from the inventory and observed the designs, fixing the heads side and tails side in his mind. He assigned heads for Gravity and tails for Darkness and flipped the coin…

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A/N: Thanks to sabric, for reading all the chapters in a couple of days, according to the timestamp of his thanks comments. its really motivating to know that someone enjoyed my fanfic enough to binge read it till the latest chapter in a couple of days. Taking a few seconds to say Thanks to the author goes a long way to motivate him/her!

This was one of my shorter chapters of ~2.2k words. I was a bit evil and ended the chapter on a cliffhanger. Hehe…

I had also missed including ‘Soulfire Shift’ in the skill/spell list in chapter 36. That’s fixed now, btw if anyone had noticed it earlier.

Also 1k+ followers! Wohoo. At least a thousand people give a shit to follow this fic :D

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