Chapter 50: Chapter 47: Motivation

Light tolerance advanced to level 2
Curse resistance advanced to level 15

New skill gained: Spatial magic tolerance
Anyone who claims that spatial magic is not a class suited to attacking lacks imagination. Teleporting individuals and goods is amazing for logistics. Teleporting those same individuals or goods over a glowing pit of lava? Not so amazing. At least for the victim. This skill will offer a small amount of aid in resisting unfriendly spatial manipulations.

Some sort of paralysis curse? It felt like the effect of being cut by my sword, but this was far stronger. It would, however, be cleared by a respawn. What were the chances of him leaving me alone for an hour?

"Now then, I believe I have an hour before you die on me again, assuming I have a good handle on your abilities. That will be plenty. I realise the chances of you cooperating are negligible, but my conscience compels me to say it anyway. If you relax and don't resist, this won't hurt you at all."

That would be a big fat zero, then. I pulled my blighted sword, which had been teleported with me, back into my item box before it fell off my torso. There was a bit of a squelch as the portion of the arm of the fox-kin that had been in range hit the floor too. It was quite a lot of arm, with some shoulder still attached, and I imagined that the rest of him wouldn't be doing too well. Good, but not exactly a great comfort given my position.

"Don't resist? You tried to turn me into a fucking vegetable!"

"That's unfair. Newborn would be a better description, since nothing would prevent you from forming new memories. With your unlimited lifespan, you would have plenty of time to redevelop," he said, before frowning as he realised the implications of my accusation. "You are versed in soul magic too? You continue to invent new ways to terrify me."

"No, it's just that when I grow resistant to things, I get told why. Unlike you, I'm not an evil soul mage."

"Ah yes, your mystery resistance ability. I would be fascinated to know how that works. That was why I was forced to use a paralysis curse this time; I wouldn't want you growing immune to my soul magic until I've erased every last memory of your quest, the holy sword, the surface and even the Goddess from your head."

I struggled to move, but despite my well functioning face and voice, my limbs were completely dead. There was no way I could let him do this... I needed to do something. If not for my toughened skin, maybe I could summon my sword point downwards.

"Why?! Is that your idea of punishment? Future-me wouldn't even know you'd done it!"

"Punishment? No, not at all. This is to save my entire race. I know."

"Know? Know what?"

"What do you think?" he snapped. "Little miss hero, favoured of the Goddess. Oh so important you are. Not like the rest of us."

Okay... This was starting to get strange. What the heck was he even on about? "I legitimately have no idea what you're babbling about... I have no intention of wiping out your race!"

"And yet we all die anyway," he said with a shrug, before peering at me intently. "You really don't know, do you? Just where do you think you are right now?"

"Umm... Trapped in the evil lair of a mad soul mage? Who has presumably just killed the warrior commander, given that you're still here and talking about soul magic?"

Despite the continued block on novice empath, I could tell that answer made him angry. "You think I would kill one of my own?" he hissed. "Every remaining life here is precious. Even for the death of Mo'teckit, I sought no restitution. The commander and I, and the others from that group, simply had a discussion. Something which you seem to have a pathological phobia of. They were... sympathetic to my actions, once I openly explained myself, as were the others here. Everything I do is for the sake of my people."

Yup, this guy is crazy. Fortunately, our little talk and the success of my item box fuelled stab attack had given me time and inspiration for a new suicide attempt. I summoned a bag of the centipede's hardening fluid upside-down over the top of my head, breathing in deeply and flooding my lungs.

The arch-mage gasped and leapt forward, but I summoned a beetle horn using my foot as the base, point aimed right at him. It wasn't a great hit, but it pierced his thigh, and it was enough of a distraction that whatever magic he was trying to use fizzled out. The horn fell to the ground before I could retrieve it, but I considered it a horn well spent.

The result was unpleasant, but without limbs my options had been limited. I treated Mru'walyn to a smile as I suffocated, my lungs and throat clogged up with the amber-like substance, his reactions not being fast enough to get it out before it hardened.

He screeched in anger, waving his hands in a complex pattern. Sense mana showed a build-up of something, and suffocating takes many minutes, but whatever he was trying to do seemed long and complex, and despite his rush, he didn't finish in time. I died once more, this time with my respawn location set upstairs.

I opened my eyes to a fox-kin. This one I vaguely recognised, but once again, I couldn't devote much of my brain power to facial recognition on account of the amount that was focused on the dagger that was already plunging towards my heart.

Wow. Deja vu. At least this time I already had my armour on, saving me a few milliseconds. Not that I could do much with them. This time, I summoned my blighted shield; if I was going to go down, hopefully I could at least take my murderers with me.

Light tolerance advanced to level 3
Curse resistance advanced to level 16
Spatial magic tolerance advanced to level 2

The paralysis was the same as last time, but there was a major difference; I had spatial magic tolerance now. It did nothing to stop the spell, but once space had finished twisting around me, I found myself not in the clutches of Mru'walyn, but on the rocky ground of their cavern, with not a single fox-kin in sight.

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From my map, I could tell I'd almost made it to my intended destination, yet the small amount it had fallen short was, for now, my salvation. Could I shake off the paralysis before anyone found me? I still had my blighted shield resting on me, and hopefully the darkness from that would cloak me from any unfriendly eyes.

Where had I seen the fox-kin before that had just daggered me? Wasn't he one of the ones from the temple, that time they'd built the barrier around the statue? I was fairly sure he was the one that threw the green vial just before I fast travelled out of there. That meant he'd seen me respawn, too. What was it they were seeing that caused such odd reactions? I much preferred Do'lelenii's peaceful smile to the ones who proceeded to try to kill me, but everyone who had seen it acted strangely afterward.

I hadn't activated trigger respawn this time. With my respawn points guarded, there seemed to be no point, even if a respawn would have immediately cleared the paralysis. I was better off here. Frozen, hoping that no-one would find me. Mru'walyn would have timed the hour. What would he do when it expired and I didn't turn up? Assume that I'd respawned somewhere he didn't know about? Go to check on his underlings personally?

After half an hour of waiting, I still saw or sensed no-one, and the paralysis began to deteriorate. The moment I had enough movement back to crawl, I made my way slowly towards the previous location of the temple, to take the stairs down.

Another ten minutes of crawling, and I'd recovered enough to stand and walk. I soon made it back to the ruins of the town, if there was enough of it left to be called ruins, still without meeting a single fox-kin. Alas, my luck couldn't last forever.

The staircase down was very obvious, on account of the small fortification that had been built around it. It wasn't exactly heavily manned, but sense presence picked up two signatures from it. Fortunately, everyone was looking inwards, not outwards. Maybe I could perform a sneak attack? I continued to creep forward, storing my blighted shield because from this close up, the unnatural darkness would be more noticeable than I was.

New side quest: Make an offering to the destroyed shrine
You have entered a sacred place, but the shrine that should be present here has been utterly annihilated by those who would contend the will of the Goddess. Make an offering to recreate the shrine and restore her blessing to this land.
Clear conditions: Sacrifice mana crystals worth a minimum of 200 mana to the destroyed shrine.
Reward: Gain one class level

That caught me by surprise. Despite the temple being gone, I still picked up a side quest to repair the shrine. Well, I had a box of mana crystals. Let's hope they add up to enough.

Summoning the box, I took them out and offered them one by one. Where did these even come from? Presumably the smaller ones weren't as precious as the big ones, but there were a lot of them in here, and the way they were carefully arranged suggested that they hadn't just been tossed in there for storage. It was a rather nice box, too.

Oh... Were these crystals from Ja'yakril's pets? All the ones that had died, either to me or in the fighting that followed? Was I robbing his memorial here? That... made me feel kinda bad, actually. But I kept offering them up, anyway. I'd got through more than two-thirds of the box before the quest finally pinged.

Side quest complete: Make an offering to the destroyed shrine

A beam of light pierced through the floor, fairly close to the defensive installation, then widened until it encompassed a circle tens of metres across. The scorched, black rock peeled away, leaving clean, grey stone beneath. The fortification disintegrated, the walls turning to dust from the top down and blowing away outside of the glowing circle, a fact which greatly surprised the fox-kin that had been standing on top of them.

A cloud of dust gathered in the centre, rotating and shrinking, collapsing into the shape of the Goddess' statue.

The group of fox-kin turned and stared at me, and sense mana picked up one building up some sort of spell. This time, I didn't hesitate. I knew what I wanted to do with my quest reward.

Skill enhanced: Resistance focus
Gain resistance skills much more easily, and level them significantly faster. Counts as an achievement for the purpose of evolving all resistance skills. Removes racial restrictions on resistance skills.

Pain immunity advanced to level 31
Pain immunity advanced to level 32

Evolution conditions met: Poison nullification ranks up to poison immunity
Poison is everywhere. It may be in the darts of an assassin looking to score a silent kill. In the traps of a hunter. In the fangs or claws of a predator. Even in the flesh of would-be prey. Any adventurer needs to be prepared for it if they wish to survive. After consuming powerful drugs, bathing in pools of poison, and surviving the kisses of death, paralysis and pain from an aranea regina, its ubiquitousness is something of which you are well aware, allowing this upgrade from nullification to immunity. This skill provides outright immunity to almost all toxins, with only the most potent of magical poisons able to penetrate your defences. You also know when your body takes in poison, along with details of the strength and intended effects.

Poison immunity advanced to level 31
Poison immunity advanced to level 32
Corrosion nullification advanced to level 26
Corrosion nullification advanced to level 27
Corrosion nullification advanced to level 28
Corrosion nullification advanced to level 29
Disease nullification advanced to level 30

Evolution conditions met: Mind magic resistance ranks up to mind magic nullification
There are few classes of magic more insidious than mind magic, and it is feared for good reason. How do you deal with someone who can make you see allies as enemies or a cliff edge as a paved road? Someone who can rip secrets straight from your head or even completely overwrite your personality? You have successfully endured the mental attack of a chilopoda sagacitas and fought off the influence of a vulpes sagax pet collar, earning the right to upgrade your resistance to nullification. This skill will strongly aid in efforts to shield your mind, and will alert you when your mental defences are under attack.

Mind magic nullification advanced to level 21
Mind magic nullification advanced to level 22
Heat tolerance advanced to level 5
Light tolerance advanced to level 4
Curse resistance advanced to level 17
Curse resistance advanced to level 18
Curse resistance advanced to level 19
Soul magic resistance advanced to level 12
Soul magic resistance advanced to level 13

Argg, wall of text. All I'd really wanted was the boost to my soul magic and curse resistances in the hopes of protecting myself from whatever Mru'walyn was trying to do, but it had also triggered skill evolutions. Also removed racial restrictions, whatever that meant. It didn't seem to have immediately given me anything new, but maybe it meant there were new skills I could get now that I couldn't before?

From the levels, it seemed that my levelling bonus had jumped from fifty to a hundred percent. It was also enough to clue me in to how achievements worked; I needed one to get from rank one to two, then three, then six. Or now zero, two and five, thanks to the skill upgrade.

Despite the quest description saying that I'd gain one level, it had actually given me one for each class, but my second class could wait until I'd dealt with the attacking fox-kin. The spell-casting one had finished producing a fireball.

Not that he had a chance to use it, thanks to a second fox-kin slicing his arm off.

"Unlike these cowardly mages, I'm not afraid to do my duty," he shouted at me. "Go!"

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