Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Chapter 28

With his usual crew, they set off for the front line. It was a lot closer now and together they walked to the hive that he had left behind after the lightning resistant wasps had attacked him. He could see the abandoned weapon less than a metre from the broken hive. “Hey Michael, I’ll collect the other hammer but do you think you can organise something lighter? That thing’s unwieldy.”

“And you didn’t consider asking this earlier?”

Tom shrugged embarrassed. “Between hallucinations caused by exhaustion, murder and blasphemy I was sort of more than a little out of things.”

Michael stamped away his actions clearly exaggerated, while Tom examined his destination. 

Power flared as he engaged in his summoning as a spell.

With a crackle of energy, he punched through into the lower areas of the ice planes. His awareness shot up, searching for the imprint that he was after, the elemental he had used the previous day. A pulse went out and was answered.

Mentally, Tom recoiled. The response hadn’t come from a wisp but from a lesser elemental.

It was…

He engaged with the mind, and even though it was stronger, it felt familiar.

A precious instant was lost as his brain put two and two together. The wisp yesterday had been on the cusp of evolving, and the mana and experience he had given it had pushed it over the line. While it was now greater, it had agreed to position itself to answer his summons.  

Tom reviewed his resources and frowned. On a fair exchange, he lacked the reserves to contract with a lesser elemental.

Yet, it had freely answered him, so he might as well try.

The contract he had mentally put together, Tom hastily changed. He removed restrictions and increased rewards. The magic he used was heavily restrictive. One could not gift an elemental everything. The independent arbiter, which was ultimately the GODs forced these types of deals to be fair. There were skills to move those boundary points, but he was limited to his abilities.

Nevertheless, hoping that he would be successful in recruiting the powerful elemental he shifted as much of the benefits across to the elemental as he could.

Mentally, he felt it recoil when it saw the terms of the offering. There was a sense of confusion, disappointment, hope that he could improve things. 

He couldn’t. The only extra leverage to improve the contract was raw mana, and that would only be available after he levelled up or improved his mana crystal significantly.

For now…

There was nothing else he could do. Mentally he communicated his restrictions, along with an apology and a thankyou for the help yesterday.

Every second in this place cost mana and reduced his potential to contract a useful wisp. Via the link, he expressed the limitations and the need for speed.

Thank you, goodbye.

Regretfully, he started to break the contract. While the lesser elemental could do more, it was not like a wisp couldn’t complete what he wanted.

Yes.

The sharp, focused thought caught him by surprise.

Then the contract was completed. Everything in place, his terms, its signature and all that was required was payment. Mana exploded out of him to satisfy the contract, the burst cast skill applied to the fullest extent possible to support the process.

His resources depleted to zero, and he stumbled.

In front of his eyes, an ice elemental shifted from side to side. Physically, it looked thirty percent bigger than the wisp, but that relatively was misleading. Power wise, it was almost three times stronger than when he had previously summoned it. 

“Hell yeah,” he whispered pleased to see a plan come together. His Skill levels had made this possible.

All he had to do now was exploit it to its fullest extent.

A lesser elemental, a partnership. Long-term options whirled in his head. He still needed experience to but the supporting skills, but they were there.

He grinned.

This wisp spun happily in front of them.

Together, they would destroy the hives that had stymied him yesterday and soak in the wonderful experience.

The ice elemental danced around him asking to kill wasps and enthusiastically Tom relented, unleashing the creature even as he sat down onto the strange ground cover. Harry was already next to him, carving the ritual. When his mana finished topping up, he’d destroy the next hive. 

Before he did, Tom wanted to understand if there was a way to get more out of summoning a lesser elemental instead of a wisp.

With a thought, he entered the system room. 

The walls were unadorned. There were no longer a number highlighted to orientate you to any point. If he went to the left expecting the Shrine to be there, then that is where it would be. In just the same way, if he searched behind him he would find it there instead.

The room would shape itself to his intent, confirm to what he imagined. Once it had fascinated him. Now he didn’t care.

To stand here and see walls empty of that very significant number.

He sighed.

It was depressing.

He hated the murderer for having forced him to burn that question. It being lost hurt humanity potentially as much as Jeffrey’s death had. 

Tom shook himself. There were times and places to reflect on injustices, but they were not now. He walked forward toward the nearest wall. 

“Display skills or spells that will allow me to use a wisp or lesser elemental more efficiently.”

The metal wall flickered and then instead of feature less metal a list was displayed. Technically multiple ones, as they covered all the easily reachable spots on the screen. Visually, it was as if a high-quality enamelled poster was embedded perfectly into the wall. Then again, it was not technology it was magic and divine magic at that. There was no reason it shouldn’t be perfect. 

His eyes skimmed the list, and without him ordering it the details of the likely upgrades were displayed.

Skill - Elemental Boost (Tier 3)

Increases the duration and power of any elementals summoned by two percent for each skill level. 

Because of Elemental Whisper (partially related) starting level is 4

Cost 32,000

It was a superb skill. 

The type of quality that you would expect from a class skill. When he eventually gained it, his summons would last eight percent longer and do eight percent more damage. When the difference in strength of one percent could be all that separated death from glory, a boost of eight percent or sixteen, depending on how you accounted for the time, the extension was massive. 

Unfortunately, it was Tier 3 with a corresponding cost. Yet long term, this was a skill that he would have to acquire. Once you had saved up sufficiently to purchase it, then the ability was a cost free power boost.

This type of skill was why species competing in the competition were so dangerous to all the others. It was why, despite then not being native that they would end up feared. Tom could stack Skills to supplement his abilities, providing he had enemies to kill in order to generate experience. Non-competition races could only spend experience on classes and the limited class skills which were made available at each level and then even then only if they had access to a trainer. Which was another reason other native races saw the competition races as a resource, if you controlled someone who could purchase knowledge with experience and could force them to do what you want. Then you could feed that individual experience to buy new Skills, Spells and Crafts and then force them to teach your species.

You could create the perfect trainer.

Slavery was a genuine threat.

Yet that same negative was the greatest strength. This Skill was an example of the true benefit of the competition races. The natives could only get this skill directly from system rewards, while Tom could purchase it outright. When his class level was fifty, then purchasing this Skill would cost less than a new level but be significantly more powerful than the marginal advantage of an additional class level. Once you were above a hundred, the difference became more stark.

Tom wanted everything but that, of course, was not feasible, but this was on the short list of future purchases because the sooner he got it the quicker he could raise its level and maximise its benefit.

Tom stopped thinking about that. While it was tantalising to imagine getting this Skill to level eight and sixteen respectively in order to reap the threshold benefits in addition to the base contributions, it was not a consideration for now. Future power-ups would not help him defeat him the wasps.

Tom knew he shouldn’t delve deeper that he should only focus on immediate gains. There was no point planning five years in advance if it meant you would die in the next week. Nor could he ignore it… The future was also important. “Show Threshold Bonuses.”

The description immediately changed at his request. 

Skill - Elemental Boost (Tier 3)

Increases the duration and power of any elementals summoned by two percent for each skill level. 

Because of Elemental Whisper (partially related) starting level is 4

You are reading story Fate Points at novel35.com

Threshold bonus 8 - Summoned elements can go into a stasis state, reducing upkeep by eighty percent

Threshold bonus 16 - Summoned elements can increase their power by thirty-two percent for a brief period.

Cost 32,000

At a Skill level of sixteen, not only did summons last almost a third longer they could also briefly boost their strength by almost seventy-five percent.  

Unfortunately, it was tier three and beyond his current purchasing capacity particularly as it was a long term benefit rather than being overpowered immediately. 

His eyes flicked down to the next option.

Skill - Elemental Feeding (Tier 3)

Allows elementals to absorb some of the latent energies in anything you or it kills to prolong its existence and slowly increase its power while it remains summoned. 

No synergies and will begin at level 1

Threshold bonus 8–Feeding efficiency boosted by twenty percent.

Threshold bonus 16–Can directly contribute personal experience to sustain elemental.

Cost 19,000

This one was not as good as the first and almost as cheap as a tier three could get. That almost meant its upside was far less than the previous skill, but it was also stronger immediately. At a base skill level of one, if he was killing lots of wasps it would extend his summoned duration by fifty percent, but do nothing to its power. Each subsequent level only increased strength and duration by one percent. Basically, it did not scale anywhere near as incredibly as the Elemental Boost Skill.

Still, for getting out of this hellhole created by the wasps it was probably his best option. After all, there were lots of weak enemies to kill, which would let him use the Skill to its maximum benefit. Every elemental would be able to stay for fifty percent longer because of it. That extra duration, in particular, would also help with transitioning between vulnerability zones. For example, when the wasps stopped being vulnerable to ice but had a weakness to earth he could exploit that gap by having two elementals active.

His eyes kept scanning his options.

Spell - Elemental Bonding (Tier 2).

Artificially increases affinity to a particular elemental plane, improving effectiveness of summons at the cost of a debuff preventing access to other planes.

Due to Plane Sense proficiency will start at level 11

Prerequisites Met by Plane Sense.

Spell at skill eleven will cost fifty mana and boost the chosen elemental type by forty-four percent for four hours. Summoner will be incapable of summoning a different element for twelve hours.  

Threshold bonus 16–Reduces cool down before summoning a different element to six hours.

Cost - 15,000

That was a straight no.

He liked his flexibility.

A different summoner, especially someone with a set of classes and traits which was dedicated to a specific element would jump at this sort of spell. For example, a hypothetical fire mage dabbling in summoning would consider this Skill to be perfect. That type of magic user through their base class would already have amped up their passives to the point it would make no sense to summon something that was not fire based.

Tom knew all this.

He had even considered the same strategy, but…

Fate had been too alluring, Fate’s agility too tempting for him to ignore. And because of his errors in the trial… By the time he had thought about stacking complimentary classes, it would have cost too much grinding effort to switch paths and probably the most important aspect was his fighting preferences.

As much as he liked to pretend that everything was about results Tom was not that self-delusional. He loved magic and the thrill of hand to hand fighting. There was something about that terror of engaging with a monster, ‘tooth to improvised claw blade’ that filled him with a joy. In combat arts, he was a born generalist. He didn’t want to stack magic classes and bomb creatures from a distance and nor did he want to only close in and then butcher them… That feeling of being close enough to smell the beasts musks. Being forced by proximity to strain his muscles to their limits, swaying under tail swipes and then counter striking. His weapon tearing a hole in its side that sent blood spraying that sparkled in the sunlight. The shift of scents that would occur. Offensive odours replaced by a coppery tang. That primal contest between him and it… where everyone of his mistakes was pain, but for his enemy it was another step closer to its death.

He loved that struggle and magic… well what could he say… he could click his finger and create lightning.

Tom smiled. There was a deep peace in losing oneself in a desperate battle that he would not lose. He would not specialise when, with the bonus of fate’s agility his diverse classes were almost as powerful as stacked synergised ones. 

“Tag that one for later.” Tom muttered to himself. When he had an overflow of experience, it could very well be a useful spell to add to his repertoire because if he was doing a fire dungeon then he would only summon ice elementals so in that situation there would be no downside in using the spell.

Occasionally, even he would benefit from specialising.

His eyes kept searching.

“Useless delete.”

“Elemental Skin, nope already got something like that.”

“Nice, Infuse weapon.” He checked that one in more detail, but the lack of synergy was brutal. It would start at level one and it didn’t become powerful till the threshold bonuses kicked in. In thirty years, it would be terrifying.

His subconscious was screaming at him. That he had missed something.

“What?”

No one, of course, answered, and Tom deliberately turned away from the wall of text to examine his feelings.

What had triggered him?

The last five skills he had checked had all been crafter orientated. What then?

“Summarise all the recent skills.”

A list of the options he had examined and rejected scrolled.

“That one.” Tom said abruptly and pointed.

The screen hitched, and the Skill displayed like he wanted.                          

 Skill - Elemental Skin (Tier 3)

Allows the caster to imbue an element into their skin.

• Power is boosted by 50% plus a further 10% percent for each skill level.
• Duration of summons improved by 5% per skill level. 
• Elemental will be trapped in the skin till it returns to its home plane.

Due to Lightning Skin and Elastic Skin, proficiency starting skill level will be 5

Prerequisites Met by Elemental Whisper, Lightning Skin, Elastic Regenerating Skin. 

Threshold bonus 4–Range of elemental reach is doubled.

Threshold bonus 8–Can imbue two different elemental types.

Threshold bonus 16–Can imbue two different elemental types. Range of elemental damage is doubled again.

Cost 32,000

Briefly, he focused on the mathematics behind that range of action of the elemental. For a wisp, even with the level four threshold the range was only two centimetres. The range then doubled for each increase in an elemental’s strength. That was the downside of using this Skill the summons would be restricted to acting near him. Not a problem with an insect enemy subjected to enmity, but it was the only reason that this Skill was not completely overpowered. It almost immediately doubled the elemental’s power and increased it’s summoned time by a fifty percent. That was massive, so the off setting downside was expected.

Still…

It was intriguing.

Out of all the offered skills, this was by far the most useful and he couldn’t believe he had almost skipped it over because of his current skin ability.

It being tier three meant it would be painful to acquire, but it was the only thing he had looked at that would immediately outperform straight out class levelling. That multiple elementals would be gold in the future and he could use this on enemies other than wasps. Infuse an ice elemental and anything that got close to him would be hit by ice and slowed. Providing he was exposed to melee combat… Tom internally laughed at that point.

There was one thing that worried him.

The Skill had one significant downside. Armour would stop the elemental he had infused from doing damage and, while he suspected or at least hoped Everlyn might appreciate the view he did not want to have to continue going into battles almost naked. 

“Show spells or skills that will allow skin or touch based skills to apply through armour?”

You can find story with these keywords: Fate Points, Read Fate Points, Fate Points novel, Fate Points book, Fate Points story, Fate Points full, Fate Points Latest Chapter