[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] (Book 6) Chapter 14

“That was fun, ma’am!” Kow cried. His bushy, fluffed up tail wagged rapidly back and forth with excitement. “I even learned a new magic spell.”

Ashera brightened at that and talked with Kow quietly.

A quick triage was set up among the Rangers, who had some small skill with minor wound dressing. People were seen based on the severity of their injuries, the worst of which were treated by Komachi’s brews first.

“Drink your [Komachi’s Rejuvenating Brew]!” Elora reminded the group. “If you run out, there’s more.”

Hal clenched his fist and relaxed it, breathing in the glorious aftermath of the battle. He was still riding the high of battle and victory when he approached the central of the three chests and knelt in front of it.

His injuries were minor. Vorax took the brunt of the attacks, and the mimic soaked up damage like rubber. Anything that did manage to hurt him couldn’t do it for long. And whatever damage Vorax sustained was easily undone by feeding on the fallen monsters.

Not only did eating the monsters help to restore his health, but it gave the creature Experience as well. Being an Omnigorger mimic, Vorax was able to gain power and health from consuming both treasures and creatures.

Vorax belched loudly, and some monster bones fell to the floor, rattling ceaselessly like a dropped pan. It was risky for monsters to directly attack Hal. They would have to do more than just get past Vorax’s high defense, but his vicious bites.

Hal patted his familiar gently and opened the lid of the central chest.

A pile of loot sprang out.

Literally.

Piles of [Sparks], gold, jewels, and various trinkets jumped out of the brown chest as if it was spring-loaded.

Hal realized that, as the party leader, he could apportion the loot as he saw fit to each of his party members. When he neared one of the other chests, they did not respond to him.

Interesting, a chest for each party.

Hal swept his gaze through the loot, but found nothing immediately useful for him. The [Sparks] were always good, but the trinkets were nothing compared to his current [Elder Glass Armor Set].

Far more useful to him were the monster parts lying around.

While he could use his own essence to create items, it was time-consuming and costly. With the Tower sitting on his doorstep, he wouldn’t have the days it would normally take to create new items or imbuements.

With monster parts, however, he could break them down into essence motes and use them immediately without having to waste a drop of his own mana.

Hal rubbed his chin in thought. His jewelry was in need of an upgrade, but nothing here was appealing enough to swap out when he could equip someone else that could make greater use of it than him.

Elora and Ashera flanked him as they stared with open-eyed hunger at the treasure before them.

“Have at it,” he told them. “I don’t need any of this. Ashera can take the [Sparks], we’ll divvy them up equally afterwards, but the loot can be divided up amongst yourselves however you see fit.”

Noth grabbed his arm. “Are you sure, Hal?”

“All I need are the monster parts, and Vorax here can help me with that. Can’t you, buddy?”

A row of teeth opened along one shoulder and Hal’s cloak unfastened from his back. It flew like a massive bat from one body to the other. When it flapped its large black wings, in search of a new creature, the previous body was gone.

Hal loved Vorax’s new form. Not only did the mimic empower him greatly whenever he used Arcana Family essence, but the mimic had infinite stores of inventory.

He could hold more than Hal could ever hope to without ever breaking a sweat. And if the mimic happened to snack on a few monster parts or treasures as he needed, that was a small price to pay for the convenience of a bottomless inventory.

With so many monster parts to break down into essence motes, Hal would be able to make so many more creations that his mind spun with the possibilities.

And this was just the first floor! There were who knows how many more to tackle, each with hopefully as many monsters to harvest.

Since everybody else seemed to be distracted with caring for their wounds, Skills, Levels, or loot, Hal sat down beside the glowing platform and folded his legs beneath himself.

He began to breathe in and out like Orrittam and Naitese had shown him, cycling his Dragonfire so it could rebuild his Spirit reserves and restore his body a little.

It wasn’t healing, really, but it did seem to speed up his natural regeneration rates. His HP visibly ticked up as he cycled, and soon he felt two more presences on either side of him. He had Leveled Up mid-combat, so much of the damage he took came after the initial prompt.

Beastborne reaches Level 35.

You have 5 attribute points awaiting distribution.

Your HP, SP, Spirit, and MP are fully restored.

You have 1 Beastborne Perk point awaiting assignment.

The presence of Orrittam and Naitese comforted him. Like coming back to a welcoming family on the winter holidays.

Not that Hal knew how that felt. His family hadn’t been the most warm or welcoming. The Williams family was not known for their openness.

Still, years watching Hallmark holiday movies alone in his studio apartment was a close approximation.

While he cycled, he assigned his attributes and, most importantly, went over his Beastborne Perks.

His skill Perks would come next if there was time. He wasn’t going to hold up the group just because he was mulling over his Perks.

There were a lot of them since he had been fighting so much lately. Most of his skills were on the cusp of getting more Perks. Only Beast Magic mattered to him at the moment, and as it was nearing 50, he was anticipating an advancement similar to his Leadership.

There was a Perk he had passed over before and was now eager to obtain: Essence Counter+ enhanced his Beastborne trait of using Predator/Prey relationships to dish out more damage.

Normally, attacking a Vermin Family monster with Lizard Family essence or spells would deal more damage, and with Essence Counter+, that damage would be increased.

At higher Levels, it would even cost less MP to use such spells, further making it a key component of his repertoire going forward.

Essence Counter+ (1/5)

Prerequisites: Fell Magic Lv.1, Essence Delve Lv.1

Increases the potency of Essence Counters, dealing increased damage when utilizing the Predator/Prey relationship appropriately.

Lv.1: +15% Damage.

Hal nodded to himself. He planned on one day maxing out Essence Counter+. It was incredibly effective at dealing with monsters. However, he needed more than just Perk points to use Essence Counter+ to its full potential.

He needed to acquire many more monster essence families to be able to wield a wide variety of opposing essences. The world was a big place, and he meant to see it through its many monsters.

Your Evasion Skill has risen to Level 44.

+1% Evasion speed.

-1% Stamina cost.

+2% Time decay.

You have 1 Evasion Skill Perk point awaiting assignment.

Hitting 40 Evasion Skill granted him a new Perk point. Opening up the prompt, he was able to find a Perk he was dying to get.

Glancing Blow 1/1

Turn aside at the last moment, lowering a direct hit to a Glancing Blow. Glancing Blows deal <25% of their total damage, but cannot occur while the Cooldown of Glancing Blow is active. Each time you outrightly dodge an attack, the Cooldown of Glancing Blow is lowered.

No Levels attached, Hal noted. Like a lot of his more advanced Perks, there weren’t a host of Levels to go through. He could either choose to get the skill or not.

It seemed to Hal that the more powerful a Perk was, the less specific instruction it gave. How long was the cooldown? How much did each dodge lower it?

He didn’t know, and he felt like that was on purpose.

Just like the party communication no longer being applicable, it was as if the Shard was taking the training wheels off, forcing him to become more independent.

Hal was fine with that. He finally felt ready to take on the burden of the Shard’s gifts without having to have his hand held every step of the way.

Your Parry Skill has risen to Level 23.

+1% Parry success

-1% Stamina cost

You have 1 Parry Skill Perk point awaiting assignment.

Like with Evasion, there was a single new Perk that Hal was eager to try out.

Punish 1/1

Once you’ve successfully parried an attack, your next Riposte deals increased damage and afflicts your target with [Punishment]. Punishment applies a defense and magic defense reduction to the target.

Yes, please! Hal grinned to himself. Anything that he could do that would reduce an opponent’s magic defense was absolute gold in his book.

As most of his attacks were magical in nature, between his essence imbuement, and his spells, he needed all the help he could get to shred the defenses of his enemies.

Besides, getting up close and personal just got a lot more interesting with both of those Perks combined.

Your Sword Skill has risen to Level 47.

+1% Sword damage.

-0.25% Sword durability loss.

Too bad he didn’t get a Perk from hitting Level 45, but at least he was only 3 Levels away from 50, which would mean an advancement and finally an end to his Cruel Blade Perk tree, which would be a massive damage boost.

It seemed needlessly cruel that Perks slowed down once a skill hit Level 20. Prior to that, every 5 glorious Levels they received a Perk to spend–most of them, anyway. After 20, it was every 10 Levels. Beastborne appeared to be an exception.

Coupled with the Levels being harder to attain, it drastically slowed down power growth. Almost as if the Shard knew that the beginning Levels were the most fraught with danger and did its best to lift people out of them with as many tools at their disposal as possible.

Once people were higher Leveled, then the Shard likely thought they could hold their own. It made a sort of sense to Hal, especially considering that the first 10 Class Levels anybody had were in Novice, before they were able to acquire one of 3 Classes for themselves.

At least that’s over, Hal thought with satisfaction. He had all of his 3 Class slots filled now. Beastborne, Oathforger, and Osseochemist. They were quite well-balanced, in his opinion. The first was a battle Class, the second a political or social Class, and the third was a crafting Class.

He could have gone for Warrior or any number of other Classes to round out his third slot, but he was more than happy with Osseochemist. Not only because it was his sole Legendary Class, but because its power seemed without equal, even if it wasn’t a battle Class.

Hal was drawn out of his thoughts when Ashera pulled out an item from the loot pile that Kow made exuberant ferret-like noises over. While she was showing it to Noth, Elora and Mira, he couldn’t help but take a peek.

He didn’t notice it earlier, and immediately regretted his earlier decision.

Ember Electrum Ring

[Ring] (Heroic)

Item Level: 60

DEF: 50

MDEF: 45

+10 Fire Resistance

+7 STR

Insulation: 10

DUR: 500/500

Slots: 1

Sockets: 1

Lv. 35 All Classes

“Son of a bench, this ring gives stats!” Mira whispered. “I wish I was in your party.”

“Dang, that’s pretty good,” Komachi said.

Hal’s mouth went dry.

His rings weren’t nearly that good. While they did give HP and MP, the +75 HP and MP were vastly outmatched by his present maximums.

That [Ember Electrum Ring] had slots and sockets too, for cards and gems respectively. Elemental resistances were incredibly hard to come by as well, even on equipment he could craft with Osseochemy.

“Who could make the most use of it?” Ashera said, looking between Mira and Noth.

“You know, it’s not the only ring in there,” Noth said, holding out another one.

Despite knowing that taking a look at that ring was just going to cause more internal anguish, Hal did it anyway.

He couldn’t help himself.

Breeze Electrum Ring

[Ring] (Heroic)

Item Level: 60

DEF: 45

MDEF: 50

+10 Wind Resistance

+7 DEX

Insulation: 5

DUR: 600/600

Slots: 1

Sockets: 1

Lv. 35 All Classes

“Oh wow,” Ashera said. “This one gives wind resistance and Dexterity. Maybe this would be a good fit for Elora?”

Hal silently wept to himself.

“Are you just saying that because you want to get some?” Mira demanded, leaning in with her hands on her hips imperiously.

Ashera went beet-red, mortified, nearly at the same time that Elora did.

“You know she right, Mira!” Komachi butted in. “Though Elora is a ‘Wildsmaster’, she uses that greatbow. Good aim means less arrow-to-the-knee, yis?”

Mira squinted sharply at the pobul. The two had a squinting stare off.