Chapter 14: Chapter 14

As usual, the wall distorted immediately to display a massive list of options. He should have been more picky in his descriptions of what he wanted displayed, but the system room had helpfully colour coded the ones he couldn’t afford in oranges and reds, just out of his price range and completely unrealistic. The brighter and thicker the red, the pricier it was. Ninety percent of the choices listed fell within those two categories with the majority in the unrealistic one. 

On a whim, he picked the most unattainable one on the starting screen.

Tobullics Spectre of Offensive Shielding (Mythical)

This spectre creates a dome forty metres wide. Any hostile creature below rank 9 vitality that attacks the dome will be destroyed by an attack consisting of one of the following energy types: physical, spatial, fire or arcane. Energy types are chosen to target the creature’s lowest resistance. Stronger enemies will take damage and be repulsed, but may not die.

The spectre can store up to single divine tears of energy and takes fifty days to regenerate once drained.

Energy can be directed into an attacking beam at twenty percent efficiency.

Cost–75,320,000 experience (soul bound on purchase)

Tom whistled to himself at that description. It was something that he could not afford and what was easy to miss in the explanation was the spectre’s primary purpose was as a shield. That offensive capability that could kill anything below rank nine vitality was designed to be like an electric fence against the stronger things that the shield could stop. A sharp zap to defer further attacks rather than an attempt to hurt the creature. Rank 9 creatures and below were so weak that they were destroyed outright. 

“Can you provide context of what a divine tear of energy is?”

The wall text changed again.

A divine tear of energy represents the power inherent in the tears of a lowercase high god. It is not a precise metric, but the following effects have been attributed to a single tear.

Sanatiolla the Goddess of Healing–Completely cure any known mortal inflictions and/or complete resurrection unbound by rank considerations

Bellicuas the God of War–There is a single known instance of Bellicuas crying. It was when he witnessed the clash of four armies all of whom worshiped him. The battle raged for three weeks and at the end, the Long Ear Hunters were victorious and over fifteen millions soldiers all over rank fifty lay dead on the plains. A single tear representing Bellicuas joy at the war he had witnessed fell, and the energy released obliterated the surviving Long Ear Hunters and left a crater with a diameter of over two kilometres.
Tom raised both eyebrows at that description. “Note to self. Don’t make the god of war cry.” Through given the consequences, he imagined it was a lot of ranking points so it might not be that bad of an idea. His eyes skipped down to the next example.

Falitas the God of Life–A single tear will bring every plant to fruit or seed and completely any pregnancy or incubation period within twenty kilometres.

Other exampled ran down the page, but they were all equally significant. A tear would release a lot of energy. Sufficient that he wondered whether he should change his ambition to trying to make high gods cry. But then again, given the impact of a single tear of Bellicuas that was not a great idea. 

To remind himself of its awesomeness, Tom read the description one more time. He doubted he would ever own something even close to that weapon’s power. “Not for me.” Tom concluded. “If I’m getting something that powerful it won’t be some passive defensive piece of crap.” He chuckled to himself and then focused on the options which were affordable.

Mithril Razor Wire Net (Common)

A circular net with a diameter of thirty centimetres that can be swung around at speed and will dice up any insects that it runs into. 

Rated effective up to rank two insects.

Cost 5,500 (Soul bound on purchase)

Below the description, there was a table that specified the strength and agility required to be used effectively against different insects. Agility unsurprisingly was primarily a requirement to let you line up the net up to catch the insects, and the strength had about seventy percent of the agility prerequisite. Which was also obvious, strength was correlated with how fast you swing and that would directly align with damage. 

It was not for him, but if it wasn’t soul bound, he would buy it for the group protecting him. It would be an effective aid from people like Sven or Thor. If they were standing guard over him swinging these nets, not only would they get experience they would reduce the number of insects getting close enough to kill him. 

Then again, enmity was not the perfect crutch. If they got a couple of ranks, if it themselves then some insects flying past would deviate and attack them. 

It was a moot point anyway because of the soul bound option. Presumably that was to prevent experience stacking from occurring. The type of ploy, when a large group tried to empower a single individual by giving him all the powerful items to get him ahead of the curve and create a snowball effect. If humans were more virtuous, then Tom would have been the perfect person to focus that sort of effort on because he had traits that would let him rapidly improve. Jeffrey and luckily the system prevented that of else humans would be screwed because if Tom quickly gained dozens of levels he could dominate his surroundings extremely swiftly and provide safety to everyone else.

He laughed.

Then again, with these insects, that might end up being exactly what happened to this group. Because he was the only one destroying the hives, his experience was going to increase dramatically while everyone else’s plateaued. He could certainly see a time in the not so distant future where he would protect others even once they were past the wasps. Jeffrey’s opinion be damned.

Tom left the system room for a lightning visit back to reality whose only purpose was to fill up his mana crystal before returning to continue browsing his options.

Tom looked around the sterile metal room once more. “Close.” He yawned.

The screen and the list of objects vanished. None of purchases had made any sense. While he needed something to help with now, he also wanted to ensure that anything he bought would pay dividends in the future, though he made a mental note to tell the others what he had discovered. The ring that used sunlight or the mithril netting were definitely opportunities that they should consider. If he was killing bugs, he would rely on Spark for now.

“Display skills that can help kill the wasps.”

Various options appeared on the screen in front of him. With his limited experience, Tom expected to only be able to afford tier 1 skills, and he was not surprised to find out he was right. The price was not set by tier as there was a significant overlap, but he would be amazed if there were any tier 2 Skills which was under nine thousand.

He reviewed the options that had been returned. 

Skill: Quick hands: (Tier 1)

Allows your fingers and hands to move faster for a few moments.

Cost: 6,000

The skill was deemed useful by the system because it would let him pluck wasps out of the air. However, as always, the devil was in the detail. While insects, in flight could be snatched from the air while applying the skill that was all it offered. Unfortunately, once that was done he would hold them in his fingers. He would still need to kill and it was not like he could crush a rank one wasp between his fingers. If his strength was far higher than the Skill would have been useful in this situation, even if there was a small cool down between each use of the lightning-fast hands.

“How is this skill usually used?”

The screen was blank for a moment before responding, which meant the information he was receiving was common knowledge and therefore something that could be shared with him. The problem with that designation is that it resulted in the accuracy of the displayed data being unguaranteed.

Quick Hands is primarily used as a harvesting skill to allow a target to be snatched before the plant’s, ecosystem or animal defenders can respond.

“Fair enough,” he muttered to himself. Tom could just imagine someone harvesting something from the inside of a bigger and considerably more deadly venus fly trap. The sort of plant that could snap shut like a bear-trap. If that was the case, he could see where Quick Hands could be amazing.

Now that he knew the displayed Skills might only be tangentially useful he skipped the others.

Air Clap (Tier 1)

Clap your hands and create a sonic wave that can do damage to larger targets and stun smaller ones.

Cost - 8000

Air Clap was what it sounded like.

Smack your hands and direct the resulting air turbulence that could stun insects flying by. It would work against the wasps. And it had combat potential. For one, it was more powerful than the description described once you looked at threshold levels that were enabled when you upgraded your skill mastery to the required level.

Air Clap (Tier 1)

Clap your hands and create a sonic wave that can do damage to larger targets and stun smaller ones.

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Skill Level Benefit 8: Amount of air displaced is doubled.

Skill Level Benefit 16: Can turn the attack into cutting energy.

Cost - 8000

The level sixteen benefit was powerful and turned the previous lack lustre offensive skill into one that could do significant damage. If you combined it with a variety of supportive air traits, skills and spells it could grow to be an important part of a spell casters attacking rotation. Tom imagined with the right build this clap skill could get to where it could literally cut people in half. Even without the cutting additions converting physical movement into air attacks would elevate the skill to throw enemies around the battlefield.

Unfortunately, Tom knew he would never pick up any of the supporting abilities. Plus, he preferred using a spear up and close and personal to staying back and throwing spells.

Skill: Dexterous Weapon (Tier 2)

Improve the control over the tip of your weapon. Perfect for attacking small enemies.

Cost 9,000

Tom thought about that for a little longer. That sort of control was always useful especially since he planned on using a spear as his primary non-magic weapon. He made a note to come back to it. While it wasn’t a skill, he had in the tutorial, it was one that he would get long-term benefit from.

Then there was a large array of defensive skills that mainly focused on strengthening either venom resistance or his skin. Tom marked the better options to be returned to later. 

“Display recommended spells for my current situation.”

A new list appeared and before exploring it he recharged his crystal once more and then continued his research, hoping that he would find something. Tom quickly skimmed through what was on offer.

Spell: Low Light Vision (Tier 1)

Increases vision in low light conditions by two hundred percent. As the skill ranks improvement, percentage improves along with the ease of transition between different light conditions.

Mana Cost 3 per minute.

Cost 3,000

Tom laughed to himself. The question he had asked had been poorly worded, so this had come up although it was useless in killing wasps. It was however useful for his current situation. He couldn’t even argue with that. Sometimes he would be outside at night and being able to see better would be a useful aid. He had failed to specify a materiality consideration.

Low Light Vision was the same spell he had kept active in the trial, so Tom was intimately familiar with it. It was far more powerful than the tier and description suggested, though that was the same for all skills and spells Tom guessed. Look at Touch Heal. At a higher skill level, Low Light Vision allowed for almost perfect sight, providing there was a small amount of natural light. Even deep caves often had sufficient luminous moss or insects to satisfy the spells requirements and if there was a moon up it was guaranteed in the outside world. 

He understood exactly why it had been recommended. Two concerns stopped him from grabbing it. The first was why it was not useless. It wouldn’t come into its own for years, even with his learning bonus. In the DEUSs trial, it had been three years before it reached barely acceptable levels of functionality. Then again, Tom had not been grinding it effectively. The other reason was more practical. Three mana per minute was over half of his current mana regeneration, and he could not afford that sort of passive loss yet.

His eyes skipped down. Mentally marking several spells for later consideration before moving on.

Spell: Lightning Skin (tier 2)

Can imbue your skin actively or via passive draw with mana that will cause enemies touching you t to receive an electric shock. Will kill small animals and has the potential to paralyse the responsible limb of larger enemies. Provides a small physical protection bonus.

Due to spark proficiency, this spell will start at level 16

Cost 9,000

The fit of the skill was very similar to the jewellery. It was there, but not at the cost. If he had mana to spare, it would become a passive skill that even a rank fifty Tom would get use out of. Unfortunately, he did not have mana to spare and for now, from an efficiency perspective he was better off using Spark, even if it meant he needed to focus on what he was doing.

Spell: Localised Attraction. (Tier 2)

Creates an area of increased gravity capable of drawing in objects that weight up to two grams

Cost 11,000

Once more, this was situationally strong and if he was positioning more as a spell spear with a broad trick base, then it would have continual use. For now, it was toss one of these in each of Harry’s energy sapping arrays and insects would go in and be trapped long enough for the arrays to knock them out. Tom dismissed it out of hand for the same reasons as the clap spell and then went back to the defensive skills that he had earmarked for review.

He worked through the six options, trying to work out, which was the best for the cost. 

Skill: Elastic Regenerating Skin (Tier 1)

This skill enhances your skin to be more resistant to all damage types and will passively mitigated damage that occurs. Skin damage will also passively heal faster and damage over time inflictions, such as blood and acid damage will be reduced.  

Due to touch heal proficiency skill will start at level 24 

Cost 6,500

For what the skill cost, it was useful. The type of addition that Tom loved to add to his kit because it was passive and actually served a purpose to make him tougher. The synergy with Touch Healing was also a massive bonus. If that didn’t exist, Tom knew he wouldn’t be able to justify the cost. 

The summary of this skill was small damage effects would not hurt him at all, but larger ones such a dagger in his side would be barely impeded.

“Show threshold bonus.”

Skill Level Benefit 16: Passive healing will also apply to bruising. 

Skill Level Benefit 32: Enhanced resistance to piercing damage. The force required to cut the skin is tripled. 

Internally he pouted when he saw he only a single threshold benefit available. With a starting level of twenty-four, he would get the first benefit, but the enhanced resistance to piercing damage would kick in once he gained another eight skill levels. Considering what he was about to put his skin through, hopefully that would not be too far away. 

The skill was definitely tempting.

The first class he wanted to buy needed eight thousand experience and skills were better gained via your class than purchased via experience. The problem is that none of the classes he was planning on taking had these sorts of defensive skills in them and from the DEUS trial Tom knew even if he took a ‘mage build’ he would put himself in the coalface of combat. Long term, this was one skill that would be worth paying for because he doubted he could find someone to train the Skill directly, which was the other way to learn it. For example, he had sufficient mastery in Spark to teach anyone who wanted it the spell.

Its impact also improved dramatically with skill level. At around a skill level of forty, rank 1 creatures, like the wasps could not sting him at all because his skin would be too tough for him. Once the piercing threshold bonus kicked in thrown daggers from anyone less than four ranks above him would bounce off if they weren’t enhanced by a Skill. There was a host of other benefits including minor one’s like less likely to burn himself while cooking or take environmental damage from something like an acid cloud. 

He was decided.

It was too good to pass up.

“Purchase skill: Elastic Regenerating Skin.”

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