Enigmatic Crusade

Valen quickly found out that he wasn’t lucky at finding oozes. He was happening upon them because they simply preferred dark holes to grow in. He wasn’t exactly sure how they procreated, but the oozes seemed to be in almost every pit in the underground tunnels he was trapped in. Either they only grew in pits or as they grew they made the pits bigger, it didn’t matter. The oozes were all over the pitch black underground. 

 

At first he was a little annoyed. But it became great training. The oozes were able to hide fairly well. Camouflaging themselves to resemble smooth rocks of the tunnels it was at first pretty hard to discern them, even with the light of retribution.

 

As he traveled in the numerous paths and crevices he practiced the new Sense skill. Finding that the oozes all exuded a fair amount of essence he practiced using the skill at all times so they couldn’t get ahold of him and try to pull him into their bodies.   

 

The oozes in the caverns ranged in color between red, green, and luckily black. Each one also dropped a core because they channeled a type of essence. Though he hadn’t been able to sell any yet he kept every core he could find, ready to make some serious aurous when he got back to town. 

 

He also learned how best to fight the oozes. As he tuned on the Sense skill he learned to identify the general area inside of the oozes where essence was focused. Continuously attacking that area he was able to kill them without risking death nearly as much. 

 

He never made the mistake of casting Euphoria during his fights with the monsters either. The sense of calm and invincibility was too powerful, and when he did try to practice it he tended to make mistakes. Like when he found the hole in the ground where he fell through to the underwater pool. He happened to be casting Euphoria on himself when he found it and decided to jump the large hole he made on his way down. 

 

Luckily the skill ended soon after and he smartened up, deciding to climb the side walls instead. The Priest skill made him feel indestructible and was probably a huge boon to tanks fighting monsters. Able to take on hits without fearing the repercussions while you had multiple healers keeping you alive was important. But alone, Valen had to keep his mind clear at all times. So he stuck to practicing his Retribution and single Shadow skill as he made his way up through the tunnels. 

 

The first few oozes weren’t easy at all. Forced to get inside of the oozes to get close to the cluster of essence he would then attack them. But by the second day of fighting them he lucked on low level oozes that allowed him to practice focusing his retribution blasts. 

 

Eventually it got to a point where he could cast Leech Life on the oozes and finish them off with a few focused blasts of Retribution. He was also able to get a better idea of the difference between his Holy and Shadow faculties. 

 

Holy was pure power and shadow almost felt like a corrupted version of holy. Essence outside of his body emitted almost a baseless or pure feeling, but the essence he channeled into his skills were changed somehow. 

 

Valen’s study of his own body was giving him a far better understanding of skills and essence. As he identified the core in his own body and how essence actually felt and was manipulated he was able to understand the subtle differences between the two faculty types. Able to gauge how much power went into his skills he was starting to become confident with them. Instead of an alien act that took over his body to cast the skill, he could feel the essence channeling and direct the power how he wanted.  

 

Upset that he had wasted so much time during his weeks at Raging, Valen trained every moment he could. Even sitting down to eat he would try to gauge how little holy essence he could manipulate A white mote of energy slowly moving around his hand he attempted the same control Helen had shown numerous times. 

 

This led to him trying to channel Shadow. He had been able to learn the Sense skill. Which proved he could develop skills before the system granted them with level ups. So he dove into trying to make some sort of shadow skill. 

 

But by that time he found his first hint of kobolds once more. Continuously moving up through the tunnels, jumping between oozes, and a random spattering of bats and lizards he happened upon a distressed kobold. 

 

A screeching noise resounded in the deep tunnels. Dimming his Retribution Valen thought maybe it was another one of those lone bats he happened upon, but the screeching turned into a yowling. 

 

He moved forward slowly. The tunnel raising up to where he could almost crouch and walk he sped up a little as the yowling turned to a yip. The pitch black around him made the sound of the animal the only thing he could hear. When he thought he was on top of it Valen decided to leak out some holy power. 

 

A dim light illuminating in front of him, he noticed the familiar black ooze. Moving a little closer his light showed the culprit of the noise. Stuck inside of a black ooze was a short humanoid dog. It was a lone kobold. 

 

Brown fur on it’s face, it wore scraps of leather for clothes. Long fur covered fingers at the end of hands it tried to scratch at the ooze that was slowly enveloping it. The monster noticed the light in his hand. Causing  a fit of barking and scratching in his general direction, but the kobold was firmly stuck in the ooze. Valen cast Identification on both monsters. 

 

Kobold

Level 2

 

Black Ooze

Level 3

 

This was the first time Valen had seen a kobold since falling for the trap days ago. A little different than the others he had seen, it was more like a fox version. Long snout, pointed ears, reddish brown fur all over its body, the kobold continued to try to screech louder as if calling for help. 

 

In the end Valen guessed it didn’t matter. He felt a little sorry for the kobold as it whimpered, but it was taking the focus of the Ooze that seemed to still not have noticed him. Valen stopped casting Retribution and focused Leech Life on the Ooze. His Essence shot into the beast and steadily it’s life energy entered Valen. Slowly making his aches disappear then filling him with the monster’s life energy. Before the Ooze could notice the pain it was in he cast a focused blast of Retribution where he felt the center of the beast was. 

 

Sense was much stronger after days of practice. Now Valen could feel right where the core of the beast was. Pouring Essence out of his hand the Retribution was focused on a point deep in the pit it filled. The beam of energy sunk through the ooze easily and struck the small area that the ooze used as a brain. Instantly the Ooze began to shrink as it died. 

Before the Kobold could do anything Valen cast another Retribution on the poor canines face and blasted it. The beast squeaked and died as the ooze’s shrinking body made it sink into the pit. Casting Retribution for some light it took about 120 seconds for the ooze to shrink down all the way. Experienced at this process by this point, Valen turned around and slowly climbed down into the pit. 

 

The black core soon in hand there were a lot more bones in this pit than ones further down. The fact that a live kobold was stuck inside told Valen that maybe he was getting close to the outside. His food stores running low, it was a good sign. 

 

Excited by the prospect of finding new monsters, Valen climbed out of the pit and continued down the trail. Forced to continue on his hands and knees the tunnel slowly began to widen until he could crouch again. An expert by that point of crouch walking he moved quickly, using his Sense skill to feel for any more focused Essence like the Oozes. 

To his surprise instead of finding something through Sense, he heard a constant clinking noise. Like metal striking stone the noise echoed from straight ahead toward him. The noise was obviously made by a humanoid because there was a timing to it. He drew closer and noticed a dim light ahead. Winking out his own holy power Valen moved forward as silently as he could. 

 

His steps matching the clink of each blow he heard some chittering as a kobold walked into view. It appeared to be just like the other one he had faced. A loin cloth for clothes, the fur was more gray than red and it held a pickaxe over it’s shoulder. 

 

The monster focused somewhere else, Valen got closer as the kobold moved away from him. At the end of the tunnel the area was lit up with a lantern that looked almost blinding to Valen. Despite just a simple candle the red glow was a sight he missed. The white light of his holy energy had grown on him, but the dim candle was what he was used to. The area it illuminated was a small alcove from the tunnel. 

 

Four kobolds worked diligently in the alcove. One was hitting a wall with a small pickaxe, another was picking up the rocks it broke off, and the other 2 were supervising. At least that was how it looked to Valen. 

Hoping they were on the scent of some ore or something, Valen watched them for a time. They were chittering and coughing at one another in some sort of language, but he couldn’t understand it. Instead he focused on the new monsters. 

 

The oozes had become almost obvious to Valen with his Sense skill. A core inside of them focused the Essence so they were easier to spot in the pitch dark. The bats he had come across were not so inclined. This was Valen’s first chance to see if higher leveled bigger monsters had cores as well. 

 

Using Identify the Kobolds ranged from level 2 to 5. The highest level being the one chipping away at the wall with the small pickaxe. Closing his eyes he activated his Sense skill. Though the kobolds were a few paces away he focused in their direction but didn’t find anything. There was Essence in the air, but none was focused on them. 

 

Peeking into the lit up cave Valen took in a slow breath. This wasn’t his first fight, and with how easy he killed the last kobold, he knew that this would be short work. 

 

Casting Leech Life on the level 5 kobold, Valen felt himself become linked to the beast by a thin tendril of shadow. Moving to stand just inside the opening Valen focused a Retribution on the closest kobold. The full blast made it yelp and crash into the kobold next to it. Moving forward he used the mace to smash the face of the one on top, but the kobold that had been striking rock with the pickaxe came at him. 

 

Using a jagged rock like a lance it ran and thrust at him. Valen stepped back using his skinning dagger to strike the rock in the kobold’s hand. Dropping the blade he hit the kobold with the mace and blasted it with a Retribution, killing it. 

The level 5 was on him in a moment. The pickaxe going for his calf Valen stepped back, and shot another Retribution at this one. Knocked back he moved forward, striking it across the snout with the mace. 

 

With that the main fight was over. The kobolds were kicking, yelping, and screeching at him, but all were damaged. One by one he smashed them with the mace until they died. When the level 5 died, Valen gained a level but swiped the information away for a moment. 

 

“I did it,” he said between heavy breaths as he stood over the kobolds. The fight was messy, but he succeeded. He had gone in and done what he set out to do. Taking on a force that had outnumbered him. Elated by the fight, Valen considered going in further, but it was getting late. 

 

Low on Essence he threw the corpses in the bag and took everything useful. No other noises around him he looked around and decided to simply make a meal there. Riding high on his victory he threw everything out of the bag and began to sort it. 

 

First were the corpses. All of them had loincloths, but one had a vest as well. They might sell for a scrap or two. After that he found plenty of candles. Able to cast his essence, he had plenty of light for the time being. But he decided to continue to practice his holy essence channeling. 

 

A few scraps of dried food on the monsters, it wasn’t overly tasty, but was better than dried meat he had been living on.. An actual bread and dried fish in a pack he ate them hungrily as he studied his notifications. 

 

Congratulations!

Your Class is now level 8

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +3

New Skill: Empower

1+ Faculty Point

Congratulations!

Your Body is now level 8

Rewards:

Free Stat Points +2

 

He had fought a few dozen oozes in the last couple days. Only 1 away from getting his last shadow monster kill for his class quest he was pissed he wouldn’t get the option for shadow skills yet. Instead he did receive the new Empower. Curious, he used Identify on the skill. 

 

Empower

Lend your essence to an ally

strengthening the power of

their skills.

 

“Well that’s useless, “ he mumbled. At least for now. He didn’t have anyone he needed to strengthen, and he doubted that it would be too useful yet. Since he had learned to gauge the strength of the skills he was curious if his own training had granted him the skill. Unsure what to think he manipulated his stats and studied his screen. 

 

Name	Valen	Class	Priest
Level	8	Level	8
Race	Human (Low Tier)	Faculties	Holy, Shadow
Law:	Solitude I
Blessing:	Death
Stats:		Stats:
Strength	11	Vitality	15
Endurance	10	Defense	12
Agility	8	Charisma	6
Dexterity	8	Comprehension	10
Intelligence	11	Empathy	10
Wisdom	13	Psyche	10
Fate	6	Anima	16
Free Points	0	Free Points	0
Skill	Identify	Skill	Heal
	Sense		Retribution
			Leech Life
Aurous	19 chips 1 scrap		Euphoria
			Empower

 

One of many things he always heard was a balanced fighter always had their Body and Class level close to one another. He must have been doing something right to have both level from the same fight. 

Along with his stats steadily growing, his aurous was as well. Though the oozes didn’t drop much, they did provide quite a bit of aurous. Already over half way to earning his own Plate, he was excited to get back to town. With some luck the items he had been collecting would be quest tasks so he could earn even more money. After looking over his skills he decided it was time to put some points into his faculty. 

 

Faculty Screen - Shadow		Available Pts: 2
Leech Life (5/5)	Shade (0/5)	Night Vision (0/3)
Transfer a good amount of life force from your foe to yourself during battle.	Increase damage of spells while attacking from darkness.	Take less damage from shadow based techniques.
			Dark Link (0/5)	Dark Eyes (0/5)	Essence Gathering (0/3)
Increase all damage to foes afflicted with Leech Life.	Take less damage from shadow based attacks.	Increase the amount of essence gathered while shrouded in darkness.

 

He had been tempted to put his points into Essence gathering since it was so dark, but he didn’t want to become nocturnal. Fighting at night only when he left the caves. Shadow also felt tempting, but Leech Life had become a staple of his fighting style. Though he had forgotten it after focusing on his holy skills for so long, it was an easy cast on his targets. He really wanted to put his points in Dark Link and see what the next tier of his faculty screen allowed. 

 

About to click it, Valen stopped as he heard the clink of a buckle. Perking up he stood to stare at the entrance to the alcove he was in. Using his Sense skill he didn’t feel any focus of essence but slowly ventured the few feet back into the main hall. As he stepped out of the alcove the snarling of dogs made him fall back.

 

Three kobolds latched onto him with their massive jaws. One on each leg and another on his wrist with the mace he didn’t have any time to fight them off as they scratched him with their claws and continued to bite and shake where they held him. 

 

“Fucking fu-” He yelled as a fourth kobold went for his free hand. Valen flashed a Retribution in it’s face, blinding it then pushing it back as the blast hit it in the snout. Cursing again he attached Leech Life to another. Valen then punched the one on his wrist with his free hand.

The beast only latched on harder. Valen, growing furious, held a Retribution blast in his palm and shoved it into the face of the monster. This time it let him go and he hit it again. The kobold died, it’s face a charred mess and the last two on his legs loosened a little. With a little reprieve from the surprise attack he felt his wounds already healing from the Leech Life he had on a kobold.

That kobold finally started to feel it was losing life. Letting go it made a run for the hall but he blasted it with a Retribution, killing it instantly. The last one began to bite harder into him, but Valen grabbed it’s neck. Pulling it off of him he cast a Leech Life on it, using up the last of his essence. 

With a sigh he held the kobold down on the ground, counting in his head. As the lifeforce left the kobold and entered him he healed second by second. When the shadow link stopped between them, Valen cast it again. He was fully healed by then, but he had to test how long it would take to kill the monster fully.

It was only level 3, but it took 3 full Leech Life’s to drain it all the way down. Trying to practice the skill to learn to gauge it and increase the power as he had done with Retribution, Valen let out a sigh. He had been caught off guard. That wouldn’t happen again. 

Turning to walk down into the main tunnel to get out of there he stopped as he puked blood. A thick glob of dark red liquid leaving his mouth splashed on the ground at his feet with a plop. 

“That’s not…good,” he said slowly as his body began to shiver.