Chapter 212: Resistance Roulette

In that moment the Shadow in black robes appeared next to the bucket standing a little to the side. He let a silver coin fall into it, adding to her earnings for the day before he walked several steps to face her.

“Oy lads, give that one a look!” The attention of the crowd was taken immediately by the appearance of another Shadow.

“Welcome.” Ilea said and smiled. Identifying the man, she found him to be at two twenty. Very near her own level. “Please start with weak attacks and go from there. I’m not wearing my good armor.” Ilea said for the first time since coming to the arena.

“Do I know you?” The man asked, his eyes flashing fiery below his hood.

“Perhaps you do. Were you here when we retook the city?” Ilea asked. He didn’t react for a moment.

“I was. But no, I do not know you from then. The healer and the tank, it’s all you then?” He asked before he thought again for a while. “Ah, I remember. Blue eyes and an attitude I wouldn’t forget immediately.” He said as the air around both him and her grew hotter. Ilea wasn’t sure from where he knew her but decided to activate her Veil of Ash just in case she was facing someone with a grudge.

The man chuckled as the air grew cool again. “Don’t be alarmed. I merely want to see how far you’ve gotten.” He said before a flaming beam of light hit her stomach, burning through her armor in seconds before her healing kicked in, counteracting the disintegration of her flesh and bones as her skill fought against his.

The fire surrounding the beam of light grew more intense and chaotic but focused on a smaller spot as she continued to counterheal the damage dealt. Her eyes could barely focus as her retinas burnt out, forcing her to use her Sphere to see. The man didn’t move, simply keeping his spell active and intensifying the beam every minute or so while she stood there, her clothes and skin on fire as she resisted.

With time, the damage became more manageable, not only because of the notifications Ilea heard about likely Resistances rising but also because of her learning more about how she could deal with her burnt tissue and how she could recreate and treat it through her healing magic. Ten minutes passed before the beam subsided, Ilea quickly rebuilding her stomach while the man forced a large amount of mana between his hands, adding more and more to it for a solid minute.

A beam of white light surrounded by white flame burnt through her body in an instant, burning the very air on its way and burning into the stone wall behind her, further than her sphere could see. Her spine lay exposed, smoking and slightly damaged before she began healing herself. Most of the onlookers had missed the spectacle thanks to the mage’s bright magic but when they looked at Ilea now, they could see a still burning woman regrowing her missing stomach and parts of her back.

“Truly, worthy of the name Shadow.” The mage said and bowed his head before he lifted it again with a smile. “I’ve only known a handful of people that could stop what you just endured with their bodies alone. Two of them elves.”

Ilea patted out the flames clinging to her armor and hair before the mage lifted his hand, killing the fire near instantly. “Was that the strongest you had?” She asked, her belly nearly back to normal by now.

“Your recovery is impressive too. Not a surprise knowing you were a healer once.” The man said and smiled again.

“You’re making me more and more interested. Who are you?” Ilea asked.

“My name is Viper. We’ve met near the city of Riverwatch. An elven attack had occurred and the city had hired a Shadow squad to look into it and to hunt the enemy.” Viper said.

Ilea thought back and remembered the suddenly appearing squad in the forest on their way back from the Calys mine.

“Makes sense how someone as reckless as you survived until today.” Viper said.

“Why reckless? My healing is just part of it.” Ilea said.

“I’m sure. You were below level one hundred if I remember correctly. An impressive growth. One usually stopped abruptly. Yet yours didn’t and now you are even past my own power.” The man said.

“Levels are not everything to someone’s strength.” Ilea replied.

“And you’ve gained some wisdom on the way as well.” The mage said. “You said you’re here until midnight?” He asked. Ilea nodded in response.

“Good. A friend of mine might be of service to you, while you might be of service to him.” He said and vanished.

Attracted the right kind of people. She thought and smiled, looking through her gains so far. This ordeal had really proven itself to be a very good idea.

‘ding’ ‘Fear Resistance reaches lvl 3’

‘ding’ ‘Fear Resistance reaches lvl 4’

‘ding’ ‘Fear Resistance reaches lvl 5’

‘ding’ ‘Ice Resistance reaches lvl 8’

‘ding’ ‘Ice Resistance reaches lvl 9’

Gains from her training with William. While she wasn’t in a dark flooded cave, being drowned was pretty scary on its own.

‘ding’ ‘Wind Resistance reaches lvl 9’

‘ding’ ‘Blast Resistance reaches lvl 13’

‘ding’ ‘Crystal Resistance reaches lvl 7’

‘ding’ ‘Heat Resistance reaches lvl 20’

‘ding’ ‘Light Magic Resistance reaches lvl 6’

‘ding’ ‘Light Magic Resistance reaches lvl 7’

A good evening already and there were several more hours to go. She just wished the adventurers had more diverse abilities to actually give her new resistances as well. Or was she already prepared for most classes that were out there? Ilea heavily doubted that but more common elements like fire and ice were useful to her nonetheless. Still, an obscure resistance might just be the difference between living or dying against something she had never encountered before.

Her Mental Resistance or Silver Magic Resistance were examples for that. An additional problem was her rather high general resistance to damage anyway. Her Vitality, strong skin and bones were hard to damage for pretty much anybody, which in turn made it harder for her to train her resistances against mages below a certain level of strength. The stone mage was one of the first who managed to so easily pierce her skin but it didn’t look like he could use that attack often and in succession.

Ilea checked through her stats while she waited for the next group to get ready. The problem at this point wasn’t that there weren’t enough people there to train with her but that they had started focusing more on the betting amongst themselves. Which meant they would actually try to kill her but needed time to prepare first. In the end, Ilea supposed it was a good thing. The closer she got to death the better.

Name: Ilea Spears

Unspent statpoints: 0

Unspent 3rd tier skill points [Azarinth First Hunter]: 0

Unspent 3rd tier skill points [Inheritor of Eternal Ash]: 1

Class 1: Azarinth First Hunter – lvl 229

- Active: Destruction – 2nd lvl 20

- Active: Hunter Recovery – 2nd lvl 20

- Active: State of Azarinth – 3rd lvl 3

- Active: Blink – 3rd lvl 5

- Active: Azarinth Hunter Sphere – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Body of the First Hunter – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Azarinth Fighting – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Hunter’s Sight – 2nd lvl 9

- Passive: Azarinth Perception – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Azarinth Reversal – lvl 2nd lvl 18

Class 2: Inheritor of Eternal Ash – lvl 223

- Active: Veil of Ash – 3rd lvl 1

- Active: Form of Ash and Ember – 2nd lvl 20

- Active: Ash Creation – lvl 2nd lvl 20

- Active: Embered Body Heat – 2 rd lvl 1

- Active: Wave of Ember – 2nd lvl 15

- Passive: Ash and Ember Manipulation – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Ashen Wings – 2nd lvl 16

- Passive: Eyes of Ash – 2nd lvl 20

- Passive: Body of Ash – 2nd lvl 18

- Passive: Ashen Warrior – 2nd lvl 19

General Skills:

- Elos Standard language - lvl 6

- Identify - lvl 7

- Meditation – lvl 2nd 17

- Poison Resistance – lvl 20

- Heat Resistance – lvl 20

- Pain Tolerance – 2nd lvl 4

- Mental Resistance – 2nd lvl 10

- Fear Resistance – lvl 5

- Water Resistance – lvl 7

- Wind Resistance – lvl 9

- Lightning Resistance – 2nd lvl 5

- Ice Resistance – lvl 9

- Crystal Resistance – lvl 7

- Earth Magic Resistance – lvl 5

- Arcane Magic Resistance – lvl 8

- Corrosion Resistance – lvl 8

- Light Magic Resistance – lvl 7

- Mist Magic Resistance – lvl 1

- Curse Resistance – 2nd lvl 2

- Mana Drain Resistance – lvl 18

- Health Drain Resistance – lvl 17

- Blast Resistance – lvl 13

- Dark Magic Resistance – lvl 1

- Blood Magic Resistance – lvl 8

- Void Magic Resistance – lvl 7

- Silver Magic Resistance – lvl 1

- Veteran – lvl 3

- Heavy Archery – lvl 4

Status:

Vitality: 600

Endurance: 350

Strength 266

Dexterity 350

Intelligence 550

Wisdom 415

Health: 6000/6000

Stamina: 3500/3500

Mana: 3810/4150

Her resistances amassed a rather long list already but Ilea focused more on the nearly fully leveled Ashen Warrior. She assumed that as soon as five skills were maxed again, she could use her remaining third tier skill point for her ashen class.

A group had finally formed and moved to face her. Eight adventurers in total, the highest leveled one being at a little above one hundred. Most of them had faced her before so she knew the extent of their abilities. Ilea just hoped that Viper would return with the promised friend. His magic alone could push her Heat and Light resistances quicker than any of these people. They all threw a silver coin each into the bucket before they started.

Fire quickly enveloped her as spikes of stone and crystal punched into her belly. Nothing managed to pierce her skin so far, an explosion pushing her a couple steps back and heating up her face. She simply walked back under the magical assault and continued to take their abuse. Well it wasn’t much of an abuse. As Ilea continued to watch the mages, she felt that her nonchalance was more damaging to their psyche than any of their magic was to her body.

Perhaps some of them will try to improve and expose themselves to a little more danger than attacking a willing suspect like herself. Or they might just visit her again and again to improve their magic. Maybe she could hire an instructor that could give the adventurers some pointers while they paid for that service as well.

The group gave up after twenty minutes, exhausted and defeated. “You can meditate and try again you know?” Ilea said as she brushed off the dust from her burnt leather armor. It wouldn’t last much longer but she still had another one in her necklace. Plus she was sure the Hand wouldn’t mind much if she touch a couple of their armors. She had paid them handsomely after all.

Viper was already back she noticed while cleaning up. And he had brought someone else. He wore black leather armor with a hood but she could see the greasy brown hair hanging out of it. His shoulders hung low as he was pushed by Viper to go towards the bottom of the arena.

The second man didn’t have any weapons but Ilea quickly noticed the bracelets. As soon as they were standing before her, she identified the man.

[Hunter – lvl 214]

A hunter. Ilea thought back but couldn’t remember anybody that had that description when she identified them.

“Welcome back Viper and friend.” Ilea said. “I’m glad you returned. My Heat Resistance is at a breaking point and you might just make the difference.”

The mage smiled under his hood. “It’s good to let loose against someone again. Been a while.” He gently touched his friend’s shoulder and motioned to Ilea.

“She wants to train with us. Gain resistances against different sorts of magic. I immediately thought of you. What do you think?” Viper asked. The second man looked up to the mage and then towards Ilea. He had green eyes and looked to be in his late twenties. It seemed like he looked right through her.

“This is Philipp, my teammate.” Viper said and smiled as he pulled back his own hood.

“Nice to meet you Philipp.” Ilea said and smiled. “You may start whenever.” She added. The man nodded as his expression turned serious.

“Now I’ll show you what she can do.” He said before a beam of burning light formed in an instant, Ilea immediately healing herself, flesh stripped off and reforming again and again. A process that would be excruciatingly painful were it not for her second stage in that particular resistance. Then again it was a bit of a detriment as well, were it not for her healing skill, she would have no idea how damaged exactly she was. Of course everybody could see how much Health they had left but the numbers didn’t exactly convey two missing legs and several liters of one’s own blood pouring on the ground very accurately. Her Hunter Recovery on the other hand did just that.

As quickly as it had formed, the beam subsided. It hadn’t reached the same intensity as it had previously but this time it wasn’t about testing her defenses. Philipp looked at her as the flesh on her stomach reformed, quickly coming back to the natural skin color it had previously. He then looked at her face, his eyes focused compared to before. Ilea looked at him and then at Viper, the mage having a slight grin on his face, his hand still resting on his friend’s shoulder.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to hurt her.” Viper said in a whisper. “I couldn’t with the white flame, not really.” He added. Philipp looked up to him at that, the man quite a bit smaller than the mage next to him. Smaller even than Ilea. His body language didn’t help either.

“I’m not sure Viper…,” Philipp said.

“It will be good to hold your bow again.” Viper replied and patted his back. “Nobody’s getting hurt either.”

Not permanently at least. Ilea thought. Something had happened to Philipp, that was clear. She wasn’t about to squander a chance of perhaps regularly training with Shadows and simply waited.

“My attacks have curses, acid and bleeding enhancing properties.” The hunter said, unsure how to proceed.

“And I have resistances against all that.” Ilea lied. She didn’t have anything against bleeding but would be happy to gain that one too. The man smiled a little at that and looked at Viper again, the latter stepping back and motioning for Philipp to take the stage.

Still a little unsure, the man extended his hand and a bow appeared. A wooden bow with metal lines intertwined, runes decorating its whole surface and a string that looked to be absorbing the light around it. In his right hand the man summoned an arrow, the metal head just as intricately decorated as the bow.

“Give me your best shot.” Ilea said and smiled. The corners of his mouth twitched a little but he didn’t smile, the arrow placed on his bow before he pulled back with a practiced motion. Ilea could tell that magic was pushed into the weapon and the arrow itself before it was loosed.

It flew straight and true, cutting into her stomach and stopped by her spine after it pierced through several of her organs. She left it in for a moment and felt the curse creep through her. With her resistance in the second stage, the duration would be halved and the effects in general would be greatly diminished by all the levels already. She saw through her healing magic that her insides were being corroded, eaten alive by a substance expelled by the arrow itself or an enchantment placed on it.

There was another effect she noticed, her blood became thinner. Something that wouldn’t be an issue until she would rip out the nasty forked arrow. Her healing was a little influenced as well, the curse doing its work on her even with all the resistance she had against it. Seemed like she wasn’t done training that one either. Still, her magic wasn’t disturbed enough to greatly diminish its effects as she reformed the corroded parts of her interior and mended the damaged organs she would rip apart again as soon as she got the arrow out.

“Is it not working?” Philipp asked with a mixture of emotions showing on his face.

“It’s eroding my body and the curse is disturbing my healing a little. It’s gonna be a fountain of blood as soon as I rip it out.” Ilea said and smiled.

“You are crazy.” Philipp said and laughed, Viper looking at him immediately when he heard the noise. “Then leave it in for another ten seconds. Let’s see if that is still nothing to you.” He said and grinned.

“It’s gonna explode isn’t it?” Ilea asked and three seconds later her prediction proved to be accurate, an explosion ripping through her body as splinters of metal pierced through her heart. The ones going as far as her head were stopped by her skull, her bones too much for the shrapnel to pierce or damage but her stomach was a complete mess, guts spilling out onto the ground and her blood running out as if it had the consistency of water.

That’s a lot of blood. She thought and sank to one knee, holding the guts back in as her healing took over completely, flesh and blood being restored as her mind became a little cloudy. Meditation kicked in as well and she refocused. Her body was a mess. The combination of corrosion, curses and her blood running out in a mere moment was a combination as nasty as any she had ever seen. A smile came to her face.