Chapter 118: Bonding

Chapter 118: Bonding

Erani, Ainash, and I all sat down to look at our Statuses. Apparently Ainash Leveled up as well during the fight, so she needed to manage what she got, too.

What, exactly, her Status looked like was something we still had trouble establishing. If I zeroed in on one specific aspect of it, I could normally get a decent answer out of her, but it seemed like her Status was more a general feeling than one of words and numbers. Which made sense, considering the way she communicated with us. Still, it was strange to hear that, when I asked what her Health was, her answer was “okay.”

First, Erani and I went over the new Bond Rank she’d gotten.

“So the Rank went from 11 to 12,” she said. “Stats went from 22 to 24, and XP gain went from 11% to 12%, as we expected, and the heat resistance went from 49.4% to 52.4%.”

“Gods,” I shook my head. “24 in every Stat. Absolutely ridiculous.”

“I’m sure you’ll get there one day, if the Bond continues to Rank up like it has been. Speaking of, I think I may have a theory about how it decides to increase.”

“Yeah,” I said, “pretty sure I’m thinking the same thing. It seems like, somehow, the Bond can measure the emotional bond that Ainash has with each of us, and the strength is determined by that.”

Erani nodded. “Kind of weird to think about, but it makes sense, considering how we’ve seen it act until now. It’s a higher Rank with me because I’m closer with her, and it’s Ranked up with each of us closely following some sort of encounter or conversation we have with her.”

“Yeah.” I pursed my lips. Honestly, I’d been suspecting that was the case for a while now, and now that we’d gotten more proof, it seemed pretty certain. Though I wasn’t really happy about it, if it was true. Assigning Stats and XP to my literal relationship with someone...It just felt a bit dehumanizing. To me and Ainash. What, was I just supposed to be extra nice to her from now on to make sure I got extra Bond Ranks? Was I supposed to hold my tongue whenever I disagreed with her, only ever say yes to everything she did? That felt like the opposite way to build a bond with someone.

“You don’t seem to happy about it,” Erani noted.

“Yeah, I’m not. It feels like it’s encouraging us to build a fake relationship with her, and that’s not what she deserves.”

“I don’t think it is,” Erani said. “She can sense our emotions, remember? If we fake moments or lie to get closer to her, she’ll be able to tell.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. That was pretty true. If I treated her like some sort of vessel through which I could get stronger, I supposed she’d easily see through me. But then, that just meant I’d have to watch my own thoughts to make sure I didn’t sink into feeling like that in the future. One more thing to watch out for. “You think the Bond Ranks can go down if we upset her, or something?”

“No idea. If it’s measuring our real emotional bonds, maybe? But it could be measuring something different, just similar. Maybe it’s just time spent together, or time spent using the mental connection. I don’t think we know enough to tell for sure.”

“Yeah, seems like it. I’ll have to try to test it somehow later.”

I glanced over across the canyon. We were currently in what was effectively a wide hallway of stone, either side of the path surrounded by smooth walls of rock that were easily dozens—maybe even hundreds—of paces tall. So we just sat and rested on one side, leaning our backs against one wall.

“This pass through Kingdom’s Edge,” I said, “it was made by a single person, right?”

“That’s what they say. Don’t think anyone around has been alive long enough to remember when it was made, though.”

“Even Koinkar? He’s been alive for, like, hundreds of years, right?”

“Guess so. Someone must’ve made it a long time ago.”

I sighed and stared upward. This massive chasm, carved through one of the most dangerous places in the entire kingdom. Someone had gone through and just cut it out themselves. Who knew why? Maybe they wanted to do something for the world. Or maybe they just had a sick kid or something, needed to get them to a Cleric, and this was the fastest way through. Or maybe they just felt like it. Did it on a whim.

I shook my head. “I want to do something like this in my life.”

Erani looked over at me. “What, cut a path through a mountain range?”

“No, no,” I laughed, “like, I want to do something big. Leave my mark on the world.”

“Oh, good, because I was about to say, I’m not going to help if you want me to just start randomly blowing up rocks for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean. I don’t want to sound like one of those psychos who are totally power-hungry, but just...That level of influence over the world. The capability to do whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s intoxicating to even think about.”

“What, you want to start your own empire or something? That’s how they’ve started historically, you know. One person with a high enough Level starts telling some other people what to do, and they pretty much have to listen. Soon enough, they’ve got walls and territory and an army.”

“No, I don’t think I’d want to do that. Really, it’s kind of the opposite of what I want. I feel like, normally, life is so full of worries.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve got an army of Demons that want us dead.”

“But even ignoring that. Before you ever met me, I’m sure you had plenty of times you got stressed out, right?”The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

“Sure. I didn’t stress over money too much, but obviously I dedicated a lot of thought to my Class and trying to make the right decision with that. I guess even with little stuff, like dealing with some annoying client with adventuring. Or just politics. Taxes going up, tensions with other countries that I couldn’t do anything about, hearing about a nearby village that got attacked by monsters and hoping we wouldn’t be next, stuff like that.”

“Yeah, exactly. I guess my ideal life would be one without those worries. The little stuff. I don’t want some sort of overwhelming source of power to bend others to my will, or whatever some of those other Classers seem to be going for. I just want to wake up in the morning—every morning—and not have to worry about anything. No dreading going to work even though I don’t want to, no stressing about a sick loved one, no dealing with someone who can tell me what to do. I just want to live somewhere, put some time into my hobbies, and evade those petty problems.”

“Sounds like a modest life,” Erani nodded. “What does carving a path through a mountain have to do with it?”

“I told you, it’s not about a mountain,” I laughed again. “It’s about having the ability to do what you want—what you need—without worry. Whoever did this, they had some sort of reason for it. And we don’t know what it is, but they had a reason. Maybe they needed to carve a path so that their village could escape some great threat, or maybe they were just tired of walking around the mountain range. But either way, they wanted something done, so they just...did it. No issues.”

“Well, you said you wanted to leave your mark on the world, too. Wouldn’t a big project like that get in the way of relaxing?”

“It isn’t about just doing nothing all day, it’s about not doing the things others want to make you do. If I want to build the tallest pillar of stone, I’d be able to do that. Or if I wanted to plant enough trees to turn a desert into a forest, or if I wanted to drain an ocean, or whatever. I could spend my life doing that thing—whatever it is—that I want to do. Something that I think will help people, or help myself, or that just looks damn cool. Whatever. The point is that I’m not doing it because someone else told me to.”

Erani nodded. “Yeah, I get that perspective. Personally, I’m not sure that I want to spend all my time on some great, life’s-work project. But being able to relax for a bit and not have to worry about regular obligations seems nice. Like a life-long vacation.”

I nodded. “One day. But for now, let’s just manage our Statuses. You Leveled twice, right?”

“Yep. I have some Stat Points and a Spell Strengthening to assign.”

“You’re still putting those into Firebolt, huh?”

“Well, yeah—I don’t even have the option to put them into Angelic Shield until I get a Spell Crystal. After this one, it’ll be up to Rank 17. And I’m getting close to another natural Rank-up, which will push it to 18.”

“Damn. I like having my versatility, but there’s definitely something to be said about going all-in on one single strategy. That thing’s damage must be getting pretty high by now, right?”

“Yep. That’s what Sorcerer’s all about,” Erani laughed.

Spells:

Talents:

Titles:

[Spell Choice Available]

Exponential Reclamation

Devastator

Expedite 9 - XP 355/355

Regenerate

Trailblazer

Ethereal Armor 9 - XP 355/355

Recursive Growth

Gravity Well 9 - XP 355/355

Time Loop 18

+Extended Loop

Ray of Frost 9 - XP 355/355

Crippling Chill 9 - XP 355/355

Noxious Grasp 12 - XP 513/844

+Venomous Grasp

My breath caught in my throat at the sight of the Spell XP counts for all of my Spells. All at 355, just waiting to be Upgraded. This moment, more than any other, I felt a burning desire to get some of those Spell Crystals. Just a few of them—I could even reuse the ones I got with Time Loop. Hells, I still had that old Poison Spell Crystal from back when I’d Upgraded Noxious Grasp, I just didn’t have any other Poison-School Spell to use it on. I’d been keeping my eye out during my Choices, but none had come.

We were closer than ever to getting some Crystals, though. Just a bit more, and we’d be back in civilization. Protection, Spell Crystals, damn, I’d settle for just some regular food and a bed to sleep in. It felt like so long since I’d last had even that.

I’d also forgotten that I actually had 6 Stat Points this time, not 3. It felt like it’d been so long ago, I’d almost forgotten that I Leveled up once before, from 16 to 17, and hadn’t had the time to manage that one. It’d just given the 3 Stat Points to assign, though, so I didn’t need to do anything else for that Level.

But enough about that. My current Level, 18, had given me something much more important. It was time to look over my next choice of Spells.

Choose one Spell to learn:

Wild Might

School: Alteration, Nature

Type: Activated

Cost: 430 Mana

—

Causes yourself or up to one willing being you are touching to enter Wild Form. While in Wild Form, the being’s Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are set to 70, 50, and 60 respectively. Additionally, the being’s Health/Minute and Stamina/Minute are multiplied by 50 while in Wild Form.

After 15 minutes, the being exits Wild Form, and they lose Stamina equal to the combined amount of Stamina and Health regenerated while in Wild Form.

Defy Gravity

School: Arcane

Type: Toggle

Cost: 20 Mana/Second

—

Decrease the effects of gravity on yourself by 10% while active.

Sanguine Bond

School: Arcane, Curse

Type: Activated

Cost: 190 Mana

—

Choose a being you are physically touching. You begin Siphoning energy from it for the next 10 seconds. For as long as you are Siphoning energy from it, it loses 4 Health, 5 Stamina, and 6 Mana (if it has Mana) each second, and you gain 1 Health, 2 Stamina, and 3 Mana each second.

This effect automatically ends if the being is ever further than 10 paces from you.

Okay, I thought, now to actually choose what to go with.