Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Chapter 118

“NO! THESE ARE MY SHINY’S!” Athela screeched while in spider form, wearing a small empty treasure chest that’d been dumped out on her head, while simultaneously waist deep in the pile of gold and platinum. She angrily swatted at the coins to make her hill of wealth shake, reminding Riven of a toddler when they didn’t get their ice cream. “MY SHINY’S! MY SHINY’S! MY SHINY’S!”

Riven couldn’t say he’d ever seen a spider-like creature wearing a treasure chest swimming in a pool of golden coins before, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t hilarious. “Come on Athela, you can’t move it all and we need to go. Time’s up.”

“NO!” Athlea screamed, swatting her little legs faster and faster along the gold pile she was buried in with a full-blown nuclear temper tantrum. “MINE-MINE-MINE!”

“Azmoth get her out of there.”

Riven facepalmed, and Azmoth hunched down over the ridiculous spider to grab her with a large claw.

“Argh!”

“Athela are you biting Azmoth?”

“ARGH!”

“You do realize your mandibles aren’t penetrating his hand armor right?”

Athela released her hold on Azmoth’s claws and pointed a quivering foot Riven’s way. “SHUT IT TWIRP!”

“Well it’s good to see Athela hasn’t changed much!” Julie said with a wide, laughing smile. She walked over from where she was sitting with her brother, put down the chest of gold she’d collected, and gave Riven an unexpected but purely-friendly hug. “Thanks Riven. I appreciate what you did for us, once again.”

Riven hugged her back a bit awkwardly and gave her a polite smile. “Not a problem at all. Try not to use that last charge with Heroic Intervention any time soon, but just in case you need me I’ll be there. Oh and say hi to yall's mom since she wasn’t here this time!”

“Riven.” Tim gave him a firm nod from where he lay. He was taking the loss of a leg rather well, but then again his sister was also a healer and with magic in the picture it was highly likely he’d get that leg back one day.

Hakim came over and clasped hands with Riven, evaluating his fuzzy green slippers one more time with a chuckle and shake of the head. “It is good to see you again, my friend. Where is it that you’re staying now?”

Riven and the bigger man let go. “Brightsville, or that is what we called it originally. I believe we can use the cortex to communicate with one another should we ever visit the same spot, but even better would be if your community found an Elysium Altar. We just got one and we could set up a trading outpost in each other’s communities, system shenanigans and whatnot.”

Hakim nodded with a grunt, hoisting his bag of loot over his shoulder and sporting the new rune-laden battle axe at his hip. “I look forward to it. We don’t have access to an Elysium Altar at all unfortunately, never even seen one yet, but I have heard that one of the factions founded by the ex-vietnamese government have a few high levelers that acquired one up north from us. Do you think we’d be able to travel to your city to see it for ourselves? Your sister and the undead-greenskin thing you’ve got going on is rather interesting...”

“Probably not by foot. It’s daytime here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s nighttime where I’m from, we’re probably on the other side of the world somewhere.”

“Shit.”

“I know. Well, not much we can do about it but if the opportunity ever comes up - we’ve named ourselves ‘The Thane Necropolis.’ Look us up when we’re rich and famous.”

Hakim snorted a laugh and gave another nod, glancing over at the redheaded young man who was missing his leg. “Ugh... His mother is going to have my head.”

“Nuh uh! Not after I tell her about your heroics to save us!” Julie got up on her toes and gave Hakim a kiss on the cheek, then skipped back over to her brother.

Riven exchanged a look with an obviously embarrassed Hakim, and raised both eyebrows with a widening grin. He hiked a thumb Julie’s way. “You and her huh!?”

“... Yeah...”

“How long!? Don’t be embarrassed she’s very pretty!”

“Uhm... about a month now.” Hakim shyly smiled and scratched the back of his head while looking to the ground. “Her mom doesn’t know yet. Do you think she’ll care?”

Riven gawked. “Hakim. What’s not to like? You’re a gigachad if I’ve ever seen one and a nice guy to boot.”

Magma Strike: Activate this ability to increase the damage dealt by 40% in the form of an additional magma-based explosion. Mandatory 5 minute cooldown.]

Meanwhile Fay had been given a set of fur-lined, rather feminine, brown-scale boots with a dozen orange-red feathers coming out each of the lateral ankle areas. The boots came up to her knees, and they’d fit perfectly. She’d blushed furiously when being handed the gift, and had awkwardly accepted them before running off to put them on. Ever since, she’d been looking down at her feet with a rather broad grin. These boots had an enchantment that could be used by anyone, which was called a ‘Generic’ enchantment according to Athela - even though it was technically a ‘Storm’ Subpillar enchantment due to using air magic for the effect. This was unlike the other two items he’d given his demons, but they still did her a serious solid for her flying abilities.

[Boots of Feather Step (Light Armor)(Enchanted Boots): 36 average defense. Increases any kind of flight speed by 23%. While flying, gain an additional +50 Agility and + 81 Sturdiness.]

“If I get loot like this every time I go dungeon diving, I’ll be fucking rich.” Riven added with a nod at Fay who smiled shyly and walked off towards Mara and Athela on the sidelines.

Allie furrowed her brows and folded her arms. “I haven’t known Fay very long but isn’t she acting a bit odd?”

“Her last summoner was a real jackass apparently, this is the first time she was ever given any kind of gift. That’s what she told me anyways.”

“Oh? What a lady killer.”

“Let’s not go down that road again.” Riven ruffled Allie’s hair knowing she’d hate it and he got a quick jab to the ribs again when she loudly huffed. “Anyways, let me apply my points real quick. Hold that thought, and we’ll discuss the altar’s trading posts.”

[Riven Thane’s Status Page:

Level 44Pillar Orientations:] Unholy Foundation, Blood Specialty, Infernal, ShadowCore of Original Sin - Gluttony:] (Under Construction)(???)Traits:] Race: Pureblooded Vampire (Extreme Darkness Regeneration)(Sunlight Decay)(Extreme Weakness to Silver weapons, Sun pillar, and Light pillar attacks), Class: Warlock Adept, Adrenaline Junky (Blood)(+15% to Agility)Abilities:] Blessing of the Crow (Unholy), Wretched Snare (Unholy), Silvertongue (Unholy), Bloody Razors (Blood), Crimson Ice (Blood), Blood Lance (Blood)(Tier 2), Blood Nova (Blood)(Tier 3), Hell’s Armor (Infernal), Riftwalk (Shadow)Stats:] 74 Strength, 159 Sturdiness, 404 Intelligence, 194 Agility, 10 Luck, -380 Charisma, 188 Vampiric Perception, 124 Willpower, 9 FaithFree Stat Points: 24Minions:] Athela, Level 34 Arshakai [36 Willpower Requirement]. Azmoth, Level 38 Hellscape Brutalisk [44 Willpower Requirement]. Fay, Level 27 Succubus [29 Willpower Required]Equipped Items:] Crude Cultist’s Robes (1 def), Vampire’s Escort (104 dmg, 102% mana regen, shadow and blood dmg +22%, Black Lightning, Scorpion’s Sting), Chalgathi Cultist Amulet (???), Leather Boots (1 def), Backpack of Supplies (Guild Hall: Stone Manor), Witch’s Ring of Grand Casting (+26 Intelligence), Breath of Valgeshia (48 def, +13 dmg & +9% mana output dmg for blood dmg, 6% mana regen)2 PENDING NOTIFICATIONS]

Riven tapped his foot thoughtfully on where he wanted to apply his 24 free stat points. He’d been applying some to Sturdiness or Willpower on occasion, most of them into Intelligence, and little else. Strength was nice to have but he didn’t like to engage in close combat if he could help it, his Faith stat was utterly useless to him because he never intended to go the miracle route and therefore wouldn’t ever convert his pure soul energy into ‘divinity’ (nor did he even know how miracles worked), and his Luck stat? He didn’t know how Luck worked either, but he’d heard from both Athela and Fay that having a high Luck stat was generally correlated with many people who survived into the highest levels across the cosmos.

So figuring it couldn’t hurt to have a statistical advantage, he slammed all 24 points into Luck.

Or at least he tried to.

[You have maxed out your Luck stat at 10 with your current qualifications. In order to increase your Luck stat beyond 10, you must meet further unspecified requirements.]

“Well FUCK YOU TOO!” Riven raised both hands and flipped off the sky in a gesture towards Elysium, then slumped his shoulders when his sister saw the notification.

“Tough luck.” Allie mused. “What’s that ‘2 pending notifications’ topic? Have you checked?”

Riven glared, but then split the 24 points down the middle into Sturdiness and Intelligence with a frustrated wave of his hand. “What bullshit. And no, I haven’t checked yet, but I’m willing to bet one of them is the ‘trait’ I’m getting for defeating that dungeon boss. Let’s go ahead and see.”

Clicking on the line of text, two different screens appeared. One was relating to Azmoth, one was relating to a new trait, and both had two different options to choose from. “Oh. Oh boy. Hey, Azmoth! Get over here, we need to chat!”

[Your minion Azmoth has been judged by the system to have met requirements for 2 different classes, based on actions and fighting style. Please select from the following starter class titles if you wish to do so:

Legion Berserker Initiate (Class Title) - A physically demanding class that supplies this class-holder with a new resource pool: Rage. This class rewards the participant with an influx of HP (Health Points), SP (Stamina Points), and RP (Rage Points) every time he or she makes a kill. The higher the Rage Points get, the more damage output the participant has, and the more the participant loses his or her ability to think properly. Gives bonuses to two-handed weapons and heavy armor. +2 Strength, +1 Sturdiness, +1 Free Stat Point per level. (Comes with the knowledge of the Unholy Martial Art: Wretched Cleaving)(Increases Willpower Requirement by 6)Infernal Crusader Initiate (Class Title) - A fire-attuned physical class path that focuses on tanking through martial arts. This class increases defensive capabilities with inherent bonuses, the amount of Sturdiness gained per level, and abilities granted by the system at regular intervals. +1 Strength, +4 Sturdiness, +1 Free Stat Point per level. Gives bonuses to heavy armor and fire-attuned abilities. (Comes with the knowledge of the Infernal Martial Art: Dome of Flames)(Increases Willpower Requirement by 5)]

[You have been granted the option between two new ‘Accomplishment Titles’. You may only have 1 “Accomplishment Title’ active at any time, and changing titles is permanent. Accomplishment Titles are granted based upon actions that are out of the ordinary and deemed worthy of note by the system. Please choose between the following:

Dragon’s Bane 1: Any draconic enemies you fight now receive a generalized debuff to all stats at a flat baseline of -60. (Received for solo killing a greater drake of higher level in less than 30 minutes)Bloodthirsty 1: Corpses around you supply you with 5% increased blood mana, and blood magic does an additional 1% damage to enemies. (Received for utilizing environmental blood resources on a grand scale numerous times against overwhelming odds)]

The option for his Accomplishment Title was an obvious one, and he didn’t even have to think about it when he selected ‘Bloodthirsty 1’. Though he did note that the Dragon’s Bane title talked about how he ‘solo killed’ that dungeon boss, and his thoughts went back to the time Athela told him the system considered all summons as part of him. How true that was, because he certainly hadn’t killed the drake without the help of his minions - yet the title accused him of such.

Not that it mattered too much because he wasn’t selecting it anyways.

Looking up from his screens and closing one of them, Azmoth came bounding over while holding his enormous maul in one hand. Though the demon couldn’t maneuver the weapon without two as effectively in battle, carrying it with only one was still possible given the massive amount of Strength Azmoth had.

“You called, Riven?” Azmoth asked, taking a knee and bowing in an unusual display of allegiance.

Riven pooched his lips but didn’t comment on it, and he gestured to the weapon. “Having fun with the new toy?”

Azmoth grinned and avidly nodded. “Yes, I love new toy!”

“Great to hear man. Question for you though, did you know you had a class choice up for grabs?”

Azmoth tilted his head, then nodded. “Yes, yes. I not know which pick. Was going to ask, but you busy. What you think?”

Riven exchanged a glance with Allie. “Uhm... Honestly I don’t know. I’m kind of torn. One one hand the berserker class would make you an absolute menace offensively and killing things would regenerate you even more than that Hell’s Amor you have going on, while on the other hand you get 2 more stat points per level and a focus on defensive abilities while taking the crusader class. I’m sure you’re already aware of this, and I know I’m stating the obvious, but I just wanted to make sure you knew. I think it’s best if you follow your heart and choose for yourself though, because to me - there isn’t an obvious winner here. Either one would be great.”

Azmoth grunted his acknowledgement, then stood up. “I think on this. I let know.”

Riven smirked in turn. “Alright buddy, just tell me when you decide. It’s exciting either way, so congratulations on the achievement!”