Unchosen Champion

Coop had two new titles that came out of nowhere. He had missed one notification for the Haunted title, as he got it when he unlocked his affinity, and he had received the Ethereal title after choosing his skills. He didn’t expect titles to be given out so freely by the system. When he first saw them, he imagined them to be exclusive rewards for major achievements like claiming the settlement. He wouldn’t complain, but it made him a little worried about what other people were accumulating.

The description for the Haunted title didn’t provide much clarity for Coop. It indicated that he would be more ‘in tune’ with spectral entities and it would have some effect on his aura. Other than the aura skill that he didn’t take, he still had no clue about these auras. He suspected that they would come into play in the future, since he had now seen them mentioned more than once, but for now he would try not to worry about them.

However, the other half of the title description did worry him. It basically confirmed that ghosts were real. Had they always been real or were they another consequence of adding mana to the system? Either way, he wasn’t sure being ‘in tune’ with them was a benefit at all. He wasn’t sure he would be sleeping as comfortably inside the centuries old fort thanks to this title.

On the other hand, the Ethereal title was pure gravy. It was a reward for taking the full set of ethereal skills offered by his class. The combination of Retribution, the ethereal weapon skill, and Salvation, the ethereal armor skill, awarded it. The title indicated that it would prevent the summoned armor and weapon from being unwillingly separated. Coop would need to experiment with his new skills, but he was already having fantasies about calling summoned weapons like Thor’s hammer.

Coop nodded to himself as he returned to the mess hall. He had no complaints about his Revenant class choice. All of the skills had already delivered even more than he dared hope for. Even the skills he was the least sure about were already showing promise.

He had been selecting his class and skills all night. The dawn light was reflected in the clouds above the towering walls of the fort. He would have liked to watch the sunrise over the ocean this morning, but he’d have to skip it today. Coop consoled himself, confident that the future held plenty more to see.

Jones was in the kitchen of the mess hall, cooking breakfast. He and Coop were still settling into some semblance of a routine. Many of the regular everyday activities had been rendered optional with the introduction of mana. They could go longer periods without sleeping, and they weren’t sure if eating and drinking were necessary at all anymore, though they were still taking the time to eat a meal everyday. After going without electricity for almost a week, many of the perishable items were already spoiled or on the verge of going bad. The coolers they were keeping them in only kept the tropical heat at bay for so long.

They wouldn’t run out of food despite the lack of refrigeration. The island was always stocked with plenty of nonperishable foods and had plenty of natural resources. They were prepared for the possibility of an interruption to their deliveries in the event of a hurricane before mana had come into the picture, and now they needed to eat even less. Jones had tried to not let any of the food go to waste regardless, and he wanted to figure out how to make foods that provided tangible benefits. He hadn’t been successful so far. Coop suspected it was due to the ingredients being from before mana became a factor.

When Jones entered the mess hall from the kitchen, both he and Coop froze. Coop had a weird feeling of heaviness tickle the back of his brain that made him squint at Jones, and Jones had beads of sweat form on his forehead as he stared, wide-eyed, back at Coop. After only a brief moment, the feeling dispersed.

“Did something just happen?” Coop wondered.

“I… I don’t know. I just had an eerie feeling wash over me for a second.” Jones responded, putting the food down and wiping the sweat from his brow, still recovering.

“Me too, I think, but I wouldn’t say it was eerie. It was like you had a more solid presence than I was used to.” Coop was already ready to shrug it off. He wasn’t trying to neglect his feelings anymore, but it still seemed like he’d have to roll with the punches when it came to mana stuff.

“I see…” Jones took a seat and scrunched his face in what Coop had identified as his concentration expression. The wrinkles it made had been permanent additions to Jones’s face since before Coop met him. “I suspect what we just felt had something to do with our mana affinities, or perhaps our classes.” Jones had already formed a theory, which became the conversation topic of their meal.

As Coop helped himself to Jones’s experimental meal, the two island caretakers were joined by Jett who was ready to retire to bed after her nightly patrol. When Coop noticed her, he felt another slight twinge in the back of his mind, but it left him quickly and he was left with the simple impression of ‘cat’. The food was good despite being cooked on a flame, but they still didn’t get any buffs for eating it. Coop asked Jones about his class choices while they ate.

Jones’s affinity was Stone Affinity. Coop thought he could’ve guessed given that Jones was an archaeologist that had been living in a stone fort on an island called Rock Key for so many years. It even matched his earlier impression of Jones. Three of his class options had been the type of melee fighters he didn’t want to be. One was a Strength based pugilist that conjured stone fists and the other two were Body focused tanks that either summoned stone shields or physically hardened. He was also offered a summoner class called Clayshaper that created stone golems.

In the end he chose a class called Bronarch Mountain Adept. Apparently, Bronarch Mountain was the largest mountain in the known universe and Jones’s class was an earth mage that gathered the mountain’s strength in its spells. It sounded pretty good to Coop, but Jones wasn’t overly enthusiastic about combat. He really just wanted to focus on his profession but recognized that he would need some class power to survive the coming years.

When they finished eating, Coop invited Jones to see his weapon and armor summons. They moved to the courtyard, where they had yet to encounter any enemies. They both wanted to wait for their crippled limb debuffs to expire before they fought again, and it would take the rest of the day for them to heal up.

Coop started with Salvation, to summon his ethereal armor. Activating the skill was as intuitive as Identify had been. He merely concentrated on the skill and mentally confirmed that he wanted it to trigger and it immediately followed his direction. The skill cost a steep 300 mana, Coop would finally see how quickly mana regenerated.

As the armor began to take shape, it looked like wisps of mist were spontaneously appearing inches from Coop’s body before coalescing on his skin in the shape of armor. The mist solidified into a helmet, body armor that covered his front and back, greaves, and other bits like strappy sandals for some reason.

He knocked on the chest piece and found it as solid as steel despite the armor being completely weightless. He guessed its solidity would be based on his Mind stat.

The result was pretty damn cool, but there were some parts he wasn’t entirely sure about. The breastplate matched the shape of his abs and pecs for some reason and he was wearing some kind of pleated skirt. Combined with their weightlessness he actually felt kind of naked. Also, the helmet had a mohawk made of mist that he figured would make him a target, and he didn’t think wearing sandals to battle was a good idea unless he didn’t value his toes. The solidified armor had an almost celestial glow, and the constantly escaping mist revealed a minty aqua effect as it dissipated, leaving more of a ghostly impression. It would be impossible to go unnoticed with it glowing and swirling the way it was.

“What made you choose ancient Greek armor?” Jones queried. “I was expecting you to pick something more futuristic, or at least scifi. That’s clearly a Corinthian type helmet and you even made pteruges.”

“Ah, I didn’t actually choose, it just came out this way.” Coop explained, looking down at his skirt, realizing it was like gladiator armor.

“Fascinating… I wonder what determined its appearance… we’re in the wrong part of the world for ancient greek..” Jones opened up his notebook and began taking notes.

Coop was surprised the armor was even based on Earth considering it was an alien mana power. Regardless, he was ready to move on to the Retribution skill and summon an ethereal weapon.

He followed the same process as he had with the armor, concentrating on the skill and confirming he wanted it to trigger, but nothing happened this time. Why didn’t it work? He was perplexed. When he summoned the armor it appeared right away. It didn’t just pop into existence, but the instant he triggered the skill, mana was consumed and mist started to appear. The whole process completed quickly once it began, taking mere seconds to finish.

He tried to summon an ethereal weapon again, this time imagining the machete in an effort to direct the skill more than the armor had required. This time 50 mana was consumed and a non-machete sword appeared through the same solidifying mist process as the armor. Not exactly instant, but still completing promptly.

“And that would be a xiphos to nearly complete the look,” Jones pointed out. When Coop looked at the sword with a confused stare he continued, “It’s an ancient Greek short sword, you’re just missing a proper shield.” Jones explained, a little disappointed in Coop’s lack of knowledge in this subject.

Coop tried summoning a spear as well. His xiphos dissipated into the breeze and a spear successfully formed, consuming another 50 mana.

“That’s a javelin, yet another from the ancient greek lineup. Here… try summoning this instead.” Jones explained while writing in his notebook.

Coop was given a drawing that described another sword. He tried summoning it, despite not really understanding the difference between it and the first sword. The shape was a little different and the measurements Jones had added helped. It appeared and was indeed different.

“A Roman gladius. You don’t seem to be limited to ancient Greece. Can you summon a shield as well?” Jones asked.

Coop tried to summon a shield using Salvation, but nothing happened. Was a shield not armor? He tried with Retribution and his last bit of mana was consumed as a small round shield appeared on his still weakened left forearm.

“I was thinking something like this.” Jones started drawing in his notebook. “A hoplon, to match the rest of your ancient Greek set.”

They waited for Coop’s mana before he tried the larger round shield. He was able to summon it as well. While waiting for more mana Jones gave Coop the diagram of a much larger tower shield. They found there was apparently a limit on size. Jones continued to draw other weapons from various ages and civilizations, guiding Coop on a history lesson of the various ancient weapons.

Coop tried to summon a rifle, but nothing happened. He tried a lightsaber which also fizzled. He tried other examples of modern and fantasy weapons, but it seemed like he would be limited to more historical armaments.

He tried to summon some classic medieval knight armor when he regenerated enough mana, but found that his armor wouldn’t budge from the hoplite armor. He was able to customize it in some small ways, though. He got rid of the mohawk and was able to tone down the mist’s glow, thankfully. He ended up with what he thought was a more discreet and realistic palette of grays and browns. He retained the ghostly wisps, however, no matter the color scheme. He guessed that’s what made it ethereal. He rather liked it too, since he felt it reflected the aquamarine ocean just as much as it represented his spectral affinity.

In the end, Coop summoned dozens of swords, spears, axes, hammers, and maces. He knew history had been full of war, but he was still shocked at the variety each category held. Jones had led Coop through over 20 different spear variations alone. Luckily, mana regenerated in minutes compared to the hours it took for health, so they were able to go through many weapons and find the limits of the skill.

There may have been more nuance, but it seemed like size was the primary limitation. He couldn’t summon an ethereal greatsword or warhammer. He could summon a bow, even a longbow, and he could draw it and everything, but he couldn’t summon arrows. Of course he could make them separately, and thought it might be a worthwhile investment to at least practice with the bow in the future. He could swap weapons in seconds, but each weapon change required a skill activation with the associated mana cost.

Thankfully, they also found that when Jones put details into his diagrams, Coop could include them into the summoned weapons. This allowed him to give some heft to the weapons, which was way more comfortable than leaving them weightless. Jones predicted that it would be necessary for the weapons to have some mass in order to do proper damage. They were undeniably sharp, but the weightlessness made them seem too much like toys when Coop experimentally swung them around.

Coop had tried throwing a few of the spear variants and found them extremely disappointing before applying a proper distribution of weight into them. He also tested his set bonus and found it quite convenient. He could have his weapon returned directly to his hand, without the resummoning cost. The weapon itself seemed to dissipate into mist and travel to him as nearly invisible vapors. The further away the longer it took to arrive, but even the longest distances they tested were still covered in a fraction of a second. The first time he tried to retrieve a thrown spear it nearly poked him in the eye as he stared at the mist in his hand.

By the time they were done, their debuffs had expired and Coop was itching to try his skills out on some Ancient Defenders. He was struck with his typical indecisiveness when he considered which weapon to start with.

In the end he had worked his way through his mana pool about 10 times. His next goal would be to learn how to properly handle some of the weapons. He assumed it would take a lifetime to master even a single one, but he was determined to start with a baseline of competence in at least a few of his ethereal armaments. He wanted to properly take advantage of having so many options at his beck and call. He couldn’t deny that the Revenant class was delivering on the promise of flexibility in the skills.