Chapter 14: You’re a Monster |
Hiral sheathed his upgraded RHCs – er, RRHCs? No, that was just too much to throw about in his head when he thought of the weapons – back on his thighs and looked to Seeyela and Yanily.
“How about you Seeyela? How’d you do?” he asked. “And, Yan, will you finally tell us what you got?”
“My Fangs got a new passive,” Seeyela said. “Weighted Afflictions. Apparently, every venom dose I apply with them increases the potency and efficiency of my next gravity ability – not including portals. Each stack isn’t very big, but they should add up quickly. I hope.”
“Does it have a maximum amount?”
“Yes, but it’ll take… hrm… ten hits to get there. Doable.”
“How about you, Yan?” Seena asked.
“Stuff I stab – or slash – gets a debuff called Vulnerability,” Yanily said. “Increases how much elemental damage they take. Not just my own, either. Fire and lightning included.”
“Is punching considered an element?” Right asked.
“Fraid not,” Yanily said. “But the fiery part of your fists might get the bonus? Did you notice anything during the dungeon run?”
“And ruin all the fun?”
“Pretty sure this doesn’t qualify as fun.”
“There is another, better, way to find out,” Hiral said.
“Testing,” everybody else said at once.
“And, before you ask,” Yanily said to Hiral. “Don’t worry, I’ll stab you so you can get a copy of it.”
“Thanks, Yan,” Hiral said cheerfully.
Nat and Milly exchanged a look, then both shook their heads.
Hiral just ignored his sisters, then looked again at the empty vial in his hands. “I’m kind of surprised we actually got something useful out of this dungeon run. Figured we’d get D-Rank items – at best.”
“Nothing wrong with D-Rank items,” Milly said defensively, cuddling her scepter against her chest.
She’s spending too much time with Yanily. And it’s only been one dungeon.
“You got your token last run, right Yan?” Hiral asked the spearman.
“You bet I did,” Yanily said. “Didn’t use it to return to the island with the others, though. Thunderclaws and I went for a bit of a ride instead.”
“That explains why there were only five tokens in the group chest,” Left said. In his hands, he held five palm-sized discs with a single rune carved into them. Even from a distance, Hiral knew exactly what they said – Return – but he purposely didn’t go down the rabbit hole of figuring out what the opposite would be. He was standing too close to the others to explode.
I’ll figure it out after we do achievements.
“Left, you want to hand those out?” Seena asked, and the double did just that.
“A thread of solar energy will bind the token to you,” Yanily explained. “You can’t teleport without doing that – or so the last party I came here with said. After that, though, nobody else can use the token.”
“Does that mean a party could give their tokens away if they didn’t bind them?” Hiral asked, even though he immediately connected to it with his solar energy.
Yanily shook his head. “One of the party tried that; the token vanished when he left the dungeon. So, make sure you bind it before you exit!”
“That’s handy to know,” Seeyela said.
Hiral felt everybody run solar energy into their tokens, though it took his sisters a few extra seconds to figure out how to do it.
“You got it?” he asked Nat.
“Like connecting to the Medium the first time,” she said.
“Once you learn the Cycling ability, it’ll make things like that easier.”
“We’re going to sit in on a class for it when we get back up to Fallen Reach,” Milly explained. “They’ve started offering more of them, and we’ll get bumped up the list since we’ve run a dungeon.”
“That’s good,” Hiral said. “If you’re going to keep coming down and doing dungeons, the stronger you are the better. And Cycling will help keep you topped off with energy.”
“I think that’s loot done,” Seena said, looking around at the others. When she got seven nods in return, she walked over to the dungeon interface and swiped her hand across. “You know what’s next then. “Achievement Rewards.”
As soon as she said those words, the blinking notifications in the corner of Hiral’s vision vanished – Whoops, forgot to look at that… – and a cascade of full windows appeared in front of him. Let’s see what we’ve got. Though, I see at least three here… and I thought they said there were only two?
Putting aside question for later, Hiral focused on the first notification window.
Achievement: Why Pick on Somebody My Own Size?
Reward: Class Modification: Bully
Bully: When fighting enemies of lower Rank than yourself, gain a 10% damage bonus, and suffer 10% less damage from any hits you take.
Hiral almost choked when he saw the ability name. Bully. What the hell…? A quick look at the previous achievement window showed they got it for completing a dungeon at least two ranks lower than them.
I mean… it’s a good ability, but now I almost feel guilty.
“Seriously?” he asked Seena, and she was already chuckling.
“Did you see the other one?” she asked between laughter.
He was almost afraid to, but he dismissed the first window and brought up the second. Then he groaned.
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Achievement: Adventures in…
Reward: Class Modification: Babysitter
Babysitter: When fighting to directly protect allies of lower rank than yourself, defensive abilities gain a 20% bonus in power, and cost 20% less solar energy to activate.
Another good ability – got this one for escorting people at least three ranks lower than them through a dungeon – but these ability names…
“What?” Nat asked. “What did you get?”
“Just an ability that lets us protect people lower rank than us better,” Hiral said. He didn’t need to mention what the ability was called – the last thing he needed was for his sisters to think he was implying they were babies. “Did you guys get… a third achievement?”
Seena, Seeyela, and Yanily all turned in his direction, and by the looks on their faces – No, no they did not get a third achievement.
“Again?” Yanily asked. “What is it this time?”
“I… haven’t read it yet. Here, let me share it.” Hiral closed the second notification window and shared the third as soon as it popped up.
Achievement: I Can Do This All Day
Reward: Class Modification: Selective Skill Modification
Note: Due to receiving this achievement in a lower-rank dungeon, reward options are limited.
Please choose two potential buffs from the Lost Chord of the Primal Echo – Second Movement to sacrifice. In return, choose one potential buff from the same list to be made into a permanently available, active ability.
Note (2): Sacrificed buffs can never be attained again as part of the Primal Chord, though user can still benefit from them through normal means.
“What does all that even mean?” Seena asked after reading the window. “And what did you get it from?”
“Let me see,” Hiral mumbled while going back to the original notification window. As soon as he found it, he shared it with the others.
Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – I Can Do This All Day.
You have cleared an entire dungeon while scoring nothing but critical hits, and landed the killing blows on the Boss and both Mid-Bosses.
Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.
“You did?” Seeyela asked. “I thought Seena killed the worm… oh, I guess you did blow it up after that…”
“Kill stealer,” Yanily said.
“And you smashed the mole,” Nat said. “Along with its entire home. Probably got its family too.”
“You make me sound like some kind of psycho,” Hiral grumbled.
“Baby moles are adorable,” Milly said. “You’re a monster!”
“Oh, come on!”
“You one-shot the Boss too,” Seena saved him from his sisters. “The entire dungeon though with only critical hits? That’s kind of crazy.”
“Kill stealing aside,” Yanily said. “What does all that text actually mean?”
“I think,” Hiral started. “Well, you know I get random, short-lived buffs and debuffs from the Lost Chord of the Primal Echo – Second Movement based on ones that’ve been cast on me before…”
“Ooooooh,” Nat interrupted. “That’s why Yanily offered to stab you? I thought you were just a masochist.”
“How little do you think of me?”
“It’s all the edgy black you wear.”
“I thought you liked it!”
“Doesn’t mean you aren’t a…”
“Back on topic,” Seena interrupted.
“Sorry,” Hiral and Nat said at the same time. Then he continued. “The way this reads, I permanently give up randomly getting two of those buffs to make another one a regular ability. In other words, something I can use any time I want to.”
“Do you have two you can give up?” Seeyela asked.
“You want to share the list?” Seena said.
Hiral laughed. “If Yan thinks this ability window is too long, he’ll get buried under the growing buff list. No, I think I can figure them out pretty quick. Let’s see… I can probably get rid of Nature’s Bulwark. The reduced damage isn’t bad, but I’d rather just not get hit at all if I have a choice. As for the second one, Target. It’s useful, but it doesn’t have any major impact when I get it through the Chord. And, if I really need it, Seena can cast it again on us the normal way.”
“Not sure I completely agree with the Bulwark part,” Seena said, “but I’ll trust your judgement. If you’re going to give them up, though, what are you going to make into a normal, active ability?”
“Hrm,” Hiral mumbled while he scrolled through the list. Hundred Handed – the buff he’d briefly gotten during the Fall of Fallen Reach from his battle in the Amphitheatre of the Sun was a standout choice. If he could summon the eight spectral hands to attack at any time, that’d be a pretty great advantage. There’d be a bit of a solar energy upkeep for it, but he should be able to… handle it with his reserves.
If he didn’t spot anything that…
His eyes stopped at one buff in the list, and suddenly he had a contender. Maybe even more than that.
It probably wouldn’t be as outright powerful as Hundred Handed, but it would shore up a weakness he’d been worried about.
“Ugh… I have to choose between two,” he said out loud. Logically, Hundred Handed was probably the better choice, but the other buff… his gut was telling him to go with it.
So… he did!
With a thought, Nature’s Bulwark and Target vanished from his list of possible buffs through the Primal Chord. And so too did Piercing Shot.
A quick look at his status window showed it under his active abilities, and he drew his RHC to give it a test. A bare thread of solar energy, and the three magic circles appeared in front of the weapon’s barrel.
“You chose Piercing Shot?” Seeyela asked.
“I did,” Hiral said, aiming off into the darkness and pulling the trigger. As soon as the searing bolt got pulled through the magic to blast out, he activated the ability again, and three more circles appeared.
Very fast to activate. Now, can I…?
His other RHC came out in his other hand, and he once again activated Piercing Shot. Now, both weapons had the magic circles in front of him, and he simultaneously pulled the triggers and activated the ability again.
More circles appeared even before he was ready to fire his next shots.
“Perfect,” he said. “Hardly costs anything, and it’s quick to activate. I can probably chain them with a little more practice.”
“And suddenly your RHCs are relevant again,” Seeyela said, her tone telling him she was impressed with his choice. Honestly, so was he.
He’d come down to this dungeon anticipating getting maybe a couple of okay’ish achievements and a useful support item. Instead, he left with the expected support item, two solid achievements, one arguably excellent achievement, and an upgrade to two of his most used weapons.
And that wasn’t even counting the rune he saw on the token. If he could figure out the other one in the pair…
“I know that look,” Seena said, and held up her own token. “Somebody is getting ready to explode.”
“Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing…?” Milly asked nervously.
“It’s a thing Hiral does,” Yanily filled in. “Possibly the thing he does. A signature move, though not as exciting as my Skyfall.”
“Exploding is your thing?” Nat asked him.
Hiral sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. It can be kind of bad for anything around me too. You should make sure you stay back until I’m finished.”
“We’ll keep them safe,” Left said as he and his twin shepherded the sisters away.
“Are you going to be okay?” Milly asked. “Does it hurt? Are you really exploding?”
“I’ll be fine,” Hiral said. “It just happens when I get new runes.”
“You’ve got just under an hour,” Seena said. “We’ll help your sisters practice a bit with their new toys while you do that.”
“Thanks,” Hiral said, then turned his attention from the others to the token in his hand.
It was time to get one more upgrade from this dungeon.