I looked around Blink, who was still on the bed. Renfry looked whole again though he had some odd-looking coloration to his skin. He was a light blueish gray with black hair and all-black eyes. He was wearing a black tabard with the yellow horse head on it. Around his waist was his belt with his arming sword.

When he saw me looking at him, he offered a deep bow and said. “My lord, not only do I have a new race but it appears that when I swore to you again I was given a few options. I don’t know if I am the cause of your current condition. I beg your forgiveness as I am now sure that you didn’t know what would happen and I accept if anything that you deem necessary.”

I took a brief glance under my blankets and said. “Okay everyone out. I need to get dressed. Where did my armor go?”

Blink smiled at pointed to her left. “We stucks it on the sticks dummy so that yous could finds it.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked to my right as Renfry spoke up. “My lord I cleaned and placed your armor on your stand. It is an odd assortment of equipment that you have.”

I nodded at Renfry. “Yeah, I would agree with you on that. I am hoping to get better shortly. However, I need to get dressed so everyone, OUT!”

I smiled as Blink flipped off the bed, waved, and vanished. Renfry bowed and backed out of the room. Kasidy gave me a small smile and blushed slightly.

She took a couple of steps over to me and said, “I wasn’t sure if you were dead when everything started. Then you wouldn’t wake up. I was worried.”

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek and walked out the door like she had just won a prize. As she went through, she shut it behind with a slight wave. I threw off my covers and started to look through the drawers for something to wear.

It took me a good ten minutes to put together something that I was comfortable wearing under my armor. Then another ten to get everything on. While my armor hadn’t lost any durability, it hadn’t looked the best. Renfry had taken time to polish my armor and treat the leather. It all seemed to fit just a bit better; however, it now smelled like oil and polish.

Before I headed out, I pulled up my status screen. It had been a while since I took a look at it, and it seemed to me that whenever I got knocked out like this, something changed.

Current Experience: Held

Total Experience: Redacted

Level:0

——

Name: Arn

Race: Wild Human Shaman [5]

HP: 40

SP: 60

MP: 60

Defense: 4

Magical Defense: 2

—

Titles

Dungeoneer (Team)

+1 Vitality every Primary Class level +1 Wisdom every 5th level of Secondary Class

Dungeon Master XII

Owner access to owned dungeon. Unaging in all dungeons. Dungeon speed Passive: 50% speed increase of all movements inside all dungeons Active: Dungeon rush cost of 10 mana to rush forward the length of the hall Neutral standing in all other dungeons that are not owned. Dungeon sense Passive: feel a draw towards dungeons within 100 miles Active: See through dungeon misdirections 1 mana per hour

Landed VI

You are not a noble but you hold the land of a small Vassal -2 social interactions with those who hold no land. (if they know) -1 Social interaction with nobles of equal or less land +1 Social Interaction with all landed who aren’t nobles

Marquess of Westiral (hereditary noble 2)

You are a landed noble (Size of Landed III) of disputed territory. You rank just above a knight in nobility. Ownership of Castle Westiral (occupied) Ownership of Outpost Kings highway. You may have a retinue of up to 9 +3 intermediation to all encounters with non-nobles (if they know) -4 social interactions with those who hold no land. (if they know) +1 Social interaction with nobles of equal or less land -1 Social Interaction with all landed who aren’t nobles Lordless You are a noble without a ruler. The land that you have is beyond the rule of others. +1 Social interaction with nobles You are not required to raise a levy for anyone You are not required to keep a retinue

—-

Primary Class: Enchanter*

Secondary Class: Linguist* (Ancient Languages)

—

Strength: 17*

Dexterity: 17*

Intelligence: 8

Willpower: 20

Vigor: 20

Vitality: 20

Wild Humans have a plus 3 to strength Wild Humans have a plus 2 to dexterity Wild Humans have a plus 2 to all survivalist and warrior class skills Wild Humans have a negative 3 to all Language skills and can not start as the linguist class Wild Humans have a negative 1 to all Magic class skills due to low intelligence and cannot start as a enchanter class because of linguist issues Wild Humans are all illiterate

—

Abilities

Poison Resistance 0

Terror Resistance 2%

Compulsion 10%

Redacted ?

—

Racial skills

Spear** 7 Locked

Survivalist** 7 Locked

Tracking** 6 Locked

Goblin Death Dance 10

Gremlin Death Dance 17

Skeleton Death Dance 20

Primitive Runes 19

Ritualistic spell casting 18

Ritualistic healing 13

Animal empathy 20

Plant empathy 20

Ritual Cleansing 6

Ritual Prayer 9

Ritual Fire 6

Ritual Remembrance 10

Primary Class

Enchanting 20

Script* 0

Ink making 19

Etching 20

Power imbuing 20

Socketing 20

Secondary Class

Ancient languages* 0

Non class skills

Hiking** 20

Climbing** 20

Primitive tool** 14

Natural Shelter** 15

Earthen Construction 17

Spear Fishing 20

Primitive cooking 17

Herbalism 19

Stone Knapping 12

Staff 20

Taekwondo 20

Running 20

Fitness Training 20

Tumbling 20

Rope making 17

Basket weaving 10

Primitive Tailoring 8

Trap 20

Conditioning 18

Escrama 15

Iaido 9

Nunchaku 5

Ki Focus 20

Swimming 18

Pole fishing 2

Net fishing 2

Mathematics 18

Throwing Knife 20

Paddling 13

Archery 20

Over Imbueing 20

Short sword 20

Combat Acrobatics 20

Redacted 75

Redacted 75

Dungeon Lore 16

Spear throwing 15

Long Spear 15

Short Spear 15

Dual Wielding Dagger 15

Dagger 18

Off-Handed short sword 5

Living Runes 8

Tree Climbing 7

Close Quarters Combat 2

Cooking 17

Horsemanship 14

Split Focus 10

*due to Wild Human starting restrictions of being illiterate this skill can not advance until Intelligence is higher then 12

** Racial Bonus for Wild Human, effect levels of all Survivalist class and warrior class skills plus 2

Racial skills of Wild Human that are not part of your racial class are now locked. Further racial class change may unlock these skills for progression in the future.

Spell/Level/Mana cost/ Cast time

Communication spells

Beseech a greater knowledge** 1/70/45 seconds

**Once per day powered by sunlight

Healing spells

Minor healing 1/8/5 seconds

Redacted

Redacted ?/?/?

Fire Spells

Fire Fist 1/2-20/.5 seconds

Dark Spells

Dark bolt 1/10/1

Terror Spells

Dark bolt 1/10/1

Chilling touch 1/20/3

Shaman magic

Stone to dirt 1/20/5

Start fire 1/20/5

Call rain* 1/20/5

Growth 1/20/5

Lay to rest 1/40/5

Fire Fist 1/2-20/5

*works only if there are clouds in the sky. The closer the clouds the stronger the rain.

Necromancy Spell

Raise Skeleton 1/5 per 100 pounds/4 seconds

Turn Zombie 1/3 per 50 pounds/7 seconds

Steal Health 1/3 per health pt/3 second

Festering Wound 1/2-10/1 second

Drain Mana 1/2/3 second

Claim Undead 1/1 per level of target/4 seconds

Soul Anchor 1/40/2 minutes

—

Faith

Order: 320

Chaos: 497

Bards and Summer Beer: 75

Treants and Dryads: 22

Redacted: Redacted

—

Familial Contracts

Lannah Dreamweaver

HP 90/90

MP 392/420

Familial Contract: (Lannah Dreamweaver) (North by Northeast of current location)

Lannah Darkweaver offers access to her full mana pool and all duties of a Familial Contract per custom for the following:

Your Family name once found or earned to be hers and those of her children

Protection granted as able from all who wish her harm per custom

1 blank core from The Necklace of Cores per month of contract

4% of all earned experience until you reach level 10

.5% of all experience earned after you reach level 10

—

Retinue 1/9

Renfry (Revenant, Lancer (22), Oathbound)- Champion of house Redacted of Westiral

I shook my head and looked through my status a second time. Things had changed. I had almost missed that my HP, Sp, and MP all increased. I checked my stats and noticed that my intelligence hadn’t moved at all, so that meant something else was changing my mana pool.

I smiled; I could cast Beseech a greater knowledge now without passing out because of the mana drain. I didn’t understand what was happening but was happy to see that my personal pool was growing somehow. I also was happy to see that Willpower, Vigor, and Vitality all went up.

I slowed down and thought through what had happened. When Renfry grabbed my hand, I had felt cold on my hand, and then it moved into my body. So the question, of course, was, what happened to me that caused me to pass out and raise some of my stats? Also, was it repeatable? If I could repeat the process over and over again, I would; three days for a stat raise seemed like a good trade to me right now. If I could do it in a dungeon, then even better.

My titles had changed, but I expected parts of the change. I wasn’t sure I understood how I was both Landed and Noble at the same time. Perhaps it was where they were, or I might could figure out a way to raise my level of nobility by combining it with my Landed title. I also needed to know if there was anything I could do to back off those social interaction negatives for being Landed and a Noble. If they stacked, then I was looking at a negative 6 with people once they knew I owned land. Though I still didn’t know how the social interaction system worked.

I picked up one of the game pieces as I looked down through the rest of my stats changes. I picked up some abilities that I once again didn’t know the math behind, and even one that didn’t tell me what it was. When I got into the spells, I paused when I saw new spells.

Besides the redacted spell, which would bug me to no end. I gained two Terror Spells. Dark Bolt and Chilling Touch. I didn’t have a clue what terror spells were, which meant I was going to have to pull them up and find out. I also picked up another spell that I knew what was… Soul Anchor.

I placed the piece back on the board and took a deep breath. I somehow gained another Necromancy spell. Which likely means that I did something to Renfry to anchor him here. Enough of something that I gained the spell to make a Soul Anchor. Not that he seemed to be in torment like I thought he would be. So there was something else that helped with that.

The last change that I saw was that I now had a section for a Retinue. I didn’t get as much information as I did for Lannah. However, I did get Renfry’s name, race, and class. It also looked like he was in the role of my champion.

I smiled a bit. “That must have been what he was nervous about. I bet I somehow offered him the spot as I was passing out… Time to look at those spells.”

Dark Spell

Level

Mana usage

Cast time

Dark Bolt

1

10

1 second

This is a Dark spell.

This spell resides in both the Terror school and the Dark school. This attack is the central attack spell of the Dark School and tends to be taught early on.

Shoot a bolt of bellowing darkness at your target doing 5 points of damage on contact. This spell clings to a target, causing darkness to grow on the edge of vision.

Darkness growth is 1% per point of damage caused. Once the light reduction passes 10% the target must pass a will check to not flee.

Terror Spell

Level

Mana usage

Cast time

Dark Bolt

1

10

1 second

This is a Terror spell.

The first of the Terror school of magic. This spell resides in both the Terror school and the Dark school.

Shoot a bolt of bellowing darkness at your target doing 5 points of damage on contact. This spell clings to a target, causing a reduction of ambient light starting at the edges of vision.

The ambient light reduction is 1% per point of damage caused. Once the light reduction passes 10%, the target must pass a will check not to flee.

Terror Spell

Level

Mana usage

Cast time

Chilling Touch

1

5 per second

3 seconds

This is a Terror spell.

Chilling touch is a touch-only spell that requires the channeling of mana.

Slows target by 5% per second channeled. Lasts twice as long as channeled up to 50% speed reduction.

Weakens target by 5% per second channeled. Lasts twice as long as channeled up to 50% Defense rating reduction.

Reduces recovery rates for HP, MP, and SP of target by 2% per second channeled. Lasts twice as long as channeled up to 50% Defense rating reduction.

Causes a will check every second. 1% decrease in Willpower each check up to 75% reduction. If target flees, all effects remain active until target stops fleeing and passes a willpower check.

Necromancy Spell

Level

Mana usage

Cast time

Soul Anchor

1

40

2 minutes

This is a Necromancy spell.

This spell is placed on an item to create a soul anchor. The soul anchor will keep the spirit of a recently dead anchored to the mortal world without their body.

I sighed as I checked out the spells. There was a little bit of a change between the description of the two Dark Bolts, but I figured it wasn’t enough that they should show up in two places. It was the clinical way that Soul Anchor was described that made me sigh. From what the soul anchors I had seen, I knew there was a bit more to things. Like the soul would be in torment and had to do what they were told.

It had taken me a good thirty minutes to go through my status. There had been enough changes that I needed to figure out how things happened. I didn’t understand how my mana pool went up, as that should have been intelligence times 5. I should only have 40 until I level. Then it should go up fast as I drop more and more into intelligence. That assumes that I can even pick how my stats get raised.

I pulled up the description of Intelligence again.

Intelligence:

This attribute governs the things of the mind. Intelligence impacts how much mana you have and how quickly you can learn Intelligence based skills such as Spells, Alchemy, Mathematics, Engineering. Intelligence also impacts the speed in which you can use intelligence based skills.

MP= Intelligence + Magical Defense x5

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out and then started to think through what I was seeing. I knew that in the past, I didn’t have magical defense. That meant that whatever happened with Renfry somehow got me a new stat that factored into my mana pool. Which I knew was good. What it didn’t do for me was it didn’t tell me how to raise that figure.

I tried to think of ways to pull up my magical defense to get more information on it. However, just like nine months before, when I was just trying to stumble through everything, nothing happened. I might could ask Renfry, but I wasn’t sure how tightly being part of Retinue tied him to me. Add to that; I was sure that he was somewhat emotionally damaged from his time as a Haunting.

I stood up and headed to the door. I guess it was time to find out what Renfry was and if I was keeping him around. I wasn’t sure he was stable, but then again, I hadn’t talked to him since he stopped being a Haunting.

* * *