Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Chapter 21

She was making him feel like when he asked Jessica for a dance at the end of primary school. Scared, excited, full of butterflies.

Oh God, what have you done to us DEUS? To me?

This nervousness was not him, but Tom was incredibly conscious about how close she was to him, but she had asked a question and others were listening.

He could…

He should…

He… swallowed. “Low light Vision.” 

“Interesting.” 

They stood there frozen for a moment.

Michael cleared his throat. 

They both hastily disengaged. Tom felt emotions that had not tied him in knots for an awful long time. It was nice and terrifying. Everlyn coloured as well, which reminded him that everyone here had been without human companionship for years. If they weren’t psychologically damaged by it, then it meant they were sociopaths before it all started.

“Just Low Light Vision.” he confessed loudly. 

There were murmurs of disappointment on his behalf. That was nowhere near as fun as some of the other options out there.

“How boring,” Harry said.

“Don’t give me that shit, Harry,” Tom shot back. “Simple skills are the best, and you’re even more practical than I am.” 

Harry laughed at the accusation but did not deny it. “My favourite tier zero skill was Balance.”

Sven mimed balancing across the beam. “What did you do to grind it? Fall a lot?” Sven tumbled off the imaginary rail.

Tom chuckled with everyone else.

“Nope, I took it to thirty-seven. I could run along tree branches.”

Sven whistled appreciatively.

“I got mine to fifty-one.”

Everlyn playful pushed in front of him and shoved him back away from the circle. “No one cares, Useless. This is Harry’s turn to shine.” An awkward silence descended. “Come on thirty-seven. Woo hoo.” More silence. “See Tom, you’ve ruined the mood. 

Sven chuckled. “Him I believe.” he pointed at Tom. “He’s a freak but I find it hilarious that Harry felt the need to buy a balance skill. I bet he purchased Fast Retreat and Climb as well.”

Harry refused to make eye contact.

Sven howled in laugher. “I knew it. You got it to run. Useless probably got it because there were carnivorous piranhas with legs in the trees tops and it was the only way to kill them.”

“Nope,” Tom interrupted. “I picked it up to help me flee into the treetops. But I pushed it to fifty-one by using it to murder stuff.”

“See,” Sven said.

Harry huffed. “Yes, I got them to run. They kept me alive to develop my magic, but none of us got here without having hand to hand skills. I raised my short blade to forty-one.”

Everlyn whistled in appreciation. 

Sven scratched his head in surprise. “That’s fricking awesome. I never picked you as the type to get up close and personal.”

Harry shrugged now embarrassed. “I was awarded a legendary dagger of sharpness about six months in. It was three times better than anything else. After that, I never tried a different type of weapon. Apart from.” He flicked the heavy staff around.

“You should pick it up again.” Tom told him. 

The other man shook his head in denial. “There’s better places to put my experience. I don’t have the physical attributes to support knives.”

“I still recommend you buy it. It’s not written anywhere, but Skills you had in the trial will improve significantly faster than new ones. If you got knives to forty-one. The first ten levels will skill up five times quicker than someone picking it up for the first time. Then it will dial down to only two times for the last level.”

Everyone was looking at each other. “Are you sure?” Michael asked, eventually.

“Yes.”

“This is your twenty questions bullshit.” The healer guessed.

“For that I think seven.” Tom grinned at them.

“How?” Sven asked, and then waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t bother, I have had enough of feeling inadequate for today.”

Everyone laughed. 

“And we can share this?” Michael gestured toward the camp that had moved to only a hundred metres away. “With them.”

“Of course.” Tom agreed instantly. “We’re all on the same team.” He checked his crystal and then his mana. “Back to the grind.” He left the group walking quickly over to his hammer and then, with a groan hoisted it onto his shoulder and walked resolutely towards another hive.

The sun went down and he enabled his low light vision and kept going. 

Doing it at night in some ways was easier, as he could start destroying the hive before he was challenged. Lots of kings and soldiers died without ever emerging to attack him. However, the extra drain on his mana was noticeable, and he had to wait slightly longer between each clear before tackling the next hive. Not that he could abandon the spell he needed the extra vision to know the best place to hit. 

Tom kept going. 

Based on his rough calculation, it was less than two hours to dawn. He approached another mound. It was exhausting, but he was making progress.

The hammer swung, and he drove it right at the base. It was the new technique he was using to trap as many of the insects within the hive. A foot wide crumbled lip was created at the bottom of the mound. He circled around, knowing that the structure was mostly hollow. A lot of its structural integrity and weight was concentrated on the outer shell.

Crunch

Crunch.

Crack.

Tom skipped back not wanting for it to roll onto him.

Crash.

The entire structure tumbled down on the top of the nest. This time it worked perfectly and fell straight downwards. As he had discovered, the internal supports were completely incapable of supporting the above ground weight when the other shell had been broken at down levels. Extra wasps swarmed around him but they were all small.

Zap.

There were sounds of further splintering internally in the hive and then another crash as the mound sunk another foot. Instead of the top being above his head it was now only eye level. Which would make it a lot more manageable.

It tilted to the side and three angry soldiers buzzed out of the gap created.

Twenty mana shot out of him to destroy them and the smaller pests.

Only one soldier and a scattering of workers fell.

What?

His mind connected to his crystal, and he borrowed fifteen mana.

Zap.

Both of the remaining soldiers died and half of the regulars, but he had already spent more mana on this hive than the two previous ones. 

Something was very wrong.  

He dropped the hammer and ran towards the others. 

“Back.” he yelled.

They retreated, and he threw himself into the mana circle as thousands of wasps, including several royal guards and soldiers attacked him. He was thankful that he had crushed the hive using the method he had. Based on previous hives that would have eliminated two-thirds of the larger threats. The insects were stinging him over and over, but they were hardly hurting him. After all, he was immune to their venom and his skin actively resisted their stings and when they were successfully passively healed him.

As personal mana became available, he used Spark. Once more, he barely put a dent in the numbers surrounding him.

Were these resistant to lightning?

They kept attacking him, and it was like being on the beach with strong winds. The tiny grains of sand would sting as they hit you. Not enough to pierce the skin, but given sufficient time that type of assault could erode solid rock.

His mana was not recovering. With an internal curse, he stopped using lightning skin and then monitored his mana consumption. Despite the frenzied attacks against him, his healing was comfortably out-pacing the attackers. 

“Tom!” Everlyn yelled. “Are you okay?”

“He is,” Michael growled. “I can see it with my diagnose skill.”

He was already face down, but wasps were crawling over his face. With a curse, he used his hands to push the annoying things away. “I’m fine.” he yelled to them. Two wasps got into his mouth and he bit down.

If Spark was not working, then it was likely the insects would be vulnerable to something else. The original wasps had not only been susceptible to lightning they had been susceptible to a couple of other elements. He needed to broaden his attacks. 

He switched to the system room. 

The status greeted him, displaying just what he was after. 

• 28 Ranking points.
• 31 Queens Killed.

“Show attributes.”

Attributes

Strength: 43 (+2 natural strength) 

Vitality: 52 (+ 1 natural vitality)

Mana: 16 (+1 natural mana)  

Mana Pool: Mana * 2 = 32

Other

Ranking Points: 305

Position on human ranking ladder: 17

Experience: 17133 (+ 6320)

More queens killed, no spell or skill improvements, lower attribute gains and experience. It was all pretty standard. There were always diminishing returns for killing the same thing over and over again. In fact, he was surprised the experience was so high he would follow up on it later.

There was unfortunately no time to delay.

“Show Elemental Summoner Expert Class”

Elemental Summoner

This class is the natural progression for magic users with a desire to specialise in elemental summons. As an expert class, significant prerequisites must be met. 

Upon acquisition, it provides thirty magic attributes points and ten class skill points.

Each level grants 2 class points.

Every 4 levels starting at level five grants an additional 24 magic attribute points. 

Prerequisites. 

1) Availability of an expert class slot

2) A Summoner spell with a tier (0) equivalent skill of forty or above. 

3) The following 4 skills or equivalent with a tier (0) equivalent skill of forty or above; Elemental Communication, Contracting Skill, High Mana Casting, Sensitivity to elemental planes.  

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Cost: 15,000 experience. 

Nothing at all surprised him in that it was exactly what he expected. Fifteen thousand was on the cheaper side for an expert class, as they could cost up to fifty. The advantage of the higher-level class was an extra attribute point per level and the class points went further. If you had a choice, between an advanced or an expert class that filled the same niche, it was always better long term to acquire the higher rarity class. Considering the cost of levels were the same between all classes and that level thirty cost twenty thousand it was a simple choice to select the superior starting class. Attribute points were valuable.

“Confirm prerequisites.”

Trait

Free Class Slot: Status–Empty–Expert class slot available

Spells

Summoner: 23 (tier 1) - Tier 0 equivalent skill 46 - Summoner Spell Requirement Met

Skills

Elemental Whisper: 35 (tier 1) - Tier 0 equivalent skill 70–Elemental Communication Requirement Met

Pact Master: 21 (tier 2) - Tier 0 equivalent skill 84–Contracting Skill Requirement Met

Burst Cast: 61 (tier 0) -Tier 0 equivalent skill 61–High Mana Casting Requirement Met

Plane Sense: 23 (tier 2) - Tier 0 equivalent skill 92–Sensitivity to Elemental Planes Requirement Met

Other

Experience: 17133–Cost Requirement Met.

The calculation of Tier (0) equivalent was simple. For tier 1, you doubled, for tier 2 you quadrupled and so on. Before he asked, he already knew that he had purchased the skills and spells needed to get this class. 

“Purchase Elemental Summoner Expert Class and show status changes.”

Experience: 2133 (- 15,000)

Magic: 46 (+30 acquisition of new class)  

Mana Pool: Mana * 2 = 92

Tom returned to the real world for a moment. He knew lights were playing over his head to signify his acquisition of a new class. Unfortunately, he could not see as wasps were crawling all over his eyes. But inside he did a little dance of joy. He had never expected to get the class this early, and it was a game changer. Just the act of increasing his magic by almost two hundred percent was material.

In the type of attrition fight that Everlyn had teased him about, his output had been as good as tripled.

If only the bloody wasps weren’t swarming him and continuing him constantly.

“Did he just buy a class?” Sven asked stupidly.

“What do you think it does?” Michael wondered out loud.

“He was talking about getting a tank class,” Harry reminded everyone.

“It will not be that,” Everlyn stated confidently. “It will be something for the current situation. Right Tom?”

His first instinct was to get annoyed couldn’t they see he was under attack but he pushed that aside. He needed their help. With two hands, he scooped the carpet of wasps from his face to fill up his mouth. “Correct. I need to know what they’re vulnerable to.” He figured he didn’t need to specify why. They were all smart and would have worked out that they had gained a resistance to lightning.

“On it.” Everlyn yelled.

He returned to the system room.

“Display class tree.”

The wall rippled and what he could spend his points on appeared. There were spells that could be learned for the various expenditures of class points and if none of those were useful, there were passives to push the points into.

First, Tom checked the active spells for his level.

• Summon Playful Wisp - Tier (0) - Cost 2 Class Points
• Summon Minor Elemental - Tier (1) - Cost 5 Class Points
• Summon Elemental - Tier (2) - Cost 9 Class Points

With a thought, he could get details of the type of elemental that each version would summon. Tom didn’t bother. This was something that he had spent so much time studying and preparing for that he knew the intricacies of what he needed.

Then he cursed himself for being arrogant. Nothing should have changed between now and the trial, but it was possible that the high level descriptions he had relied on when making this choice had been incorrect or he had made a poor assumption. Trust but verify was one of the most important sayings he had ever heard and it applied here.

“Show details of Wisp.” He said, knowing that clarification was not required.

The screen shifted immediately.

Summon Playful Wisp (tier 0)

Summon a wisp elemental of desired elemental plane. Strength and cost of summon depends on spell skill level. Elementals summoned may be upgraded tiers based on the casters familiarity with element and skill levels in elemental whisper and plane sense.

Due to Summoner proficiency will start at level 23

Base Mana cost: 100

For upgrade to occur, burst casting must be able to supply the required additional mana.

Tom tapped his fingers and reviewed the other two options. They did the same thing with a stronger elemental type and a corresponding increase in cost.

For his current stage of advancement and limited mana, the wisp spell was clearly the best outcome. Especially once you factored in the personality types of the summoned elemental. If you had excess mana, it was easy to trawl through the options till you got a useful personality and that is what you needed to do with the more advanced spells, but that, of course, would cost mana something he did not have enough of currently. But if you were summoning a lesser element you had to go through that extra step because if you contracted with an elemental with a personality of Belligerently Lazy you weren’t going to get a lot of use out of it. Luckily, wisps, unless they were on the verge of upgrading to become a lesser elemental always had a personality of Playful which while not as good as Helpful it was a personality that could be worked with.

Tom made the decision to only buy the wisp spell and turned his attention to the passives.

There were a number available. 

Boost Playful Wisp - Fire

Increase power of summoned fire elemental by ten percent per point invested. 

It was a powerful passive if you were going to focus on a particular elemental plane. It was also limited. Once his class level got high enough, he would no longer be summoning wisps at which point this passive would be pointless. 

Tom rather than looking through the options focused on the passive he was targeting.

Class spell boost

Increase the skill level of all Elemental Summoner Class spells by 1 (tier 0 equivalent ranks).

This passive was average for now, but its benefits would persist for ever even once he got access to higher tier elemental summons. 

It was not a broken skill, as it was a tier 0 equivalent boost. That summon elemental spell was tier 2. He would need four class points invested in this passive to raise that spell level by even one. But by the time he was using spells that powerful his class level would be in thirty’s and tier 2 spells would receive level 16 threshold bonuses when he first purchased them.

“Purchase Summon Playful Wisp and put the rest into class spell boost.”

Knowledge flooded through him. 

His mind wrapped around the information that was being dumped into his brain. There were three parts of the spell. The first was punching a hole into the appropriate elemental plane and then holding it open. The second was finding an elemental to summon into the world. It was at this point elemental whisper and plane sense might let you get the attention of a stronger element and potentially upgrade your summons. Then the ultimate step was contracting with the elemental and then infusing it with mana to bring it Existentia proper and depending on the contract mana regeneration could be dedicated to permanently sustaining it. 

The process was not all new to him as he had a similar class in DEUSs trial but enough was different that the dump was interesting. This class was significantly more free form in its application than his previous one and that spell and skills he had leveled up were going to be vital for the class’s performance. 

Tom opened his eyes.

Despite the buzzing, he could see his friends calling out to each other while attempting to catch a wasp to identify it without risking themselves. With nothing else to do, he watched his mana tick up. The extra mana he had got from his class had dramatically improved his mana regeneration. For him, it would always take a little under six minutes to fill his pool up again. Given he had almost tripled he felt like he was swimming in regeneration.

Once more, he cleared flies away from his mouth. “How fast is everyone’s regeneration?” He wanted something to take his mind off the wasps withering on top of him. They were making him itchy and everyone was different.
Above him, Everlyn paused. “That’s very personal.”

“You at least have to go first Useless.” Sven proclaimed. “Unless it’s like three minutes. Then lie.”

Tom laughed before he could help himself and three wasps got sucked in. He choked. They stung, he bit, spluttered and spat them out and Sven howled in laughter.

Everlyn was crouched next to him and used the sleeve of her top to wipe the wasps away.

Tom covered his mouth carefully. “Six minutes.”

“Wow!” Sven pretended shocked surprise. “Good, but not great. I’m shocked.”

“I’m about that,” Everlyn admitted. “Are you above or below?”

“Above. Six minutes and three seconds.”

“Yay.” Above him, Everlyn did a dance.

“I gather you’ve got him beaten.” Sven asked.

“Eleven whole seconds.”

“I’m eight minutes.” Sven said. “Given the average was supposed to be twelve minutes I was happy with that.” He finished pretending to be sad that two people in his group had him beaten.

“I think it’s worse than you think.” Michael said finally. “It’s probable that everyone here has you beaten.”

“What no way.” Sven sounded offended.

“I’m guessing the order is Harry, Everlyn, Tom… then… I’m just under seven.” Michael muttered.

“Tom, Clare then Michael” Clare said amused.

“Then…” There was a pause where Tom imagined that the older man was seeking clarity between the last two spots. “Thor then Sven.”

“Bad luck Sven.” Everlyn said.

“You’re a bunch of useless over achievers.”

“Here that Sven thinks we’re like Tom.” Michael proclaimed loudly.

“Not what I said. I seriously can’t believe you guys are that impressive. From what I’ve overhead back in the shelter, I reckon the average is a little over eight, which by itself was extraordinary… but you guys.”

Everlyn squealed in excitement. “Got one, finally. Also, what do you mean extraordinary? I would have thought everyone who made the competition would have a bias to a high mana regeneration.”

“Why?” Sven asked defensively. “Mana regeneration is not that critical.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re crap at it.”
There was a solid thump. “Shut up Thor. Eight minutes is good.”

“Population wise but not here.” Everlyn reminded him.

“Shut up.”

Everyone was laughing. 

The annoying wasps were in his pants and under his leather tunic. It was irritating, but he resisted the termination to use lightning.

Everlyn was next to him again. Tapping him on the shoulder. “Tom, can you hear?”

He pushed his arm out and made a thumbs up.

“They are vulnerable to cold.”

Tom checked his mana. He had sixty in the crystal, and his personal mana was up to fifty. Given the spell had a one hundred base mana cost there was no point trying to upgrade the elemental received as playful wisps were all the same and he wouldn’t need the elemental for long and they were in his pants approaching parts wasps shouldn’t be allowed to get near! He refused to delay any longer!

The process to summon the wisp triggered. Burst Casting’s level enabled him to channel all the available mana into the swell within a second. Then the energy let him punch through into the ice elemental plane. As per the nature of the spell, the spot that he opened up was solidly in the lower energy levels where wisps existed. For this fight, he did not bother attempting to push towards higher energy spots as he needed a stronger elemental and nor did he have the power to contract with one even if he found it. Within the wisp plane, he assessed the surrounding wisps and leant on his elemental whisperer and plane sense Skills to find what he was looking for. He was targeting a playful wisp that was on the verge of upgrading to be a minor elemental. If they were close enough to that threshold, they gained individual personalities.

Only ten seconds, he reminded himself as his mind jumped between high powered wisps. Anymore and the power would run out. He only assessed the stronger versions that his mind touched; Playful/Angry, Playful/Defensive, Playful, Playful Lazy, Playful / Helpful but Erratic.

Tom grabbed it. Pact master kicked in and the payment to the wisp dropped from the normal thirty mana overhead to only eight and then he pumped all of his remaining mana into it plus half of his normal regain.

It cracked into existence above him. 

Kill, he ordered projected the image of the hateful wasps.

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