Chapter Sixty-Nine: Uplift

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Uplift

Of course you had to go and uplift a skill! Tom Fucking Cutter, who has epiphanies in his sleep!

He had been lying awake at the time, revelling in the small joys he had found lately, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. Rosa was like a fire: if you added any fuel to her, she would keep burning. If you tried to blow her out, she could flare in unpredictable directions. Better to wait. He found her tirades strangely warming, in any case.

Well?! Are you going to tell me what options you have, or are you just going to stand there like a big, lucky goon?!

Toms grin grew even wider. It was far too much fun to wind her up. He did want to go over his choices though.

Uplift threshold reached.

Skill Two (Consummate): Sweet Suffering (Passive).

Complete:Debuffs and poisons are negated, and instead give an equal and opposite buff. Buffs last for as long as any debuffs would have. Immune to disease and damage-over-time effects.

Uplift Option One:Debuffs and poisons are negated, and instead give an equal and opposite buff. Buffs last for as long as any debuffs would have. Immune to disease and damage-over-time effects.

Effect (Active).

Mana Cost: None.

Cooldown: High.

Caster can purge any debuff or poison effects from themselves and apply them to an enemy via physical contact. Damage dealt is proportionate to the debuffs or poisons purged.

Uplift Option Two:

Debuffs, poisons, diseases and damage over time effects are negated, and instead give an equal and opposite buff or heal over time. Buffs and heals over time last for as long as any debuffs, poisons, diseases, or damage over time effects would have.

Uplift Option Three:

Debuffs and poisons are negated, and instead give an equal and opposite buff. Buffs last for half again as long as any debuffs would have. Immune to disease and damage-over-time effects.

Tom relayed the options to Rosa. His options followed the general pattern for uplifts: two different direct upgrades to its strength, and one option that added a new effect. The most surprising thing about the uplift was that it was for one of his passive skills. He had gotten plenty of use out of Sweet Suffering, but he would have assumed Agony, or even Wings of Grief, would uplift first.

This was the nature of epiphanies for Idealists. They provided incredibly useful shortcuts to uplifting your skills. If you could increase your understanding of an Ideal through a sudden flash of insight, you would sometimes be rewarded.

In this case, it seemed that his ruminations on the nature of suffering had led to the uplift. For so long he had been labouring under the impression that he deserved his lot, that suffering was simply his due.

He had thought about the strange turns his life had taken. He had an encouraging mentor, who was also a great role model, and who he greatly respected. He had found a new passion in life, learned skills that he was genuinely good at, that brought him fulfilment. His mother had managed to escape the same abuse he had suffered, and had found a new purpose. He had a new, blossoming love, and perfect teammate, someone who made him genuinely happy.

Tom snickered. He was not a particularly sexual person himself, but he wouldve thought someone with as coarse language as Rosa would be able to handle some randy banter a bit better.

What direction are you going to take your skills with your uplifts, do you think? he asked, giving her an out. She took it gratefully.

They talked for a while longer, hashing out the directions they hoped to take their skillsets in future, then moved to discussing team tactics. The two of them would make a highly effective pair once they learned to fight with each other.

Their skillsets were each awkwardly weighted, but complementary. They covered each others most glaring weaknesses, and also amplified each others strengths. Tom would allow Rosa to deal damage unhindered by presenting a tough to remove, difficult to ignore threat. Rosa would be able to quickly take care of any enemies that Tom would struggle with, or thin out any crowds that threatened to overwhelm him.

They both had utility skills, and both had useful abilities for crowd control. They just had to learn to fight in concert with one another, learn each others skills and idiosyncrasies in battle until they were seamless.

Rosas preferred weapons were bows. She had fought with an enchanted recurve bow that her family had commissioned for her upon graduating the Academy, and being accepted into the Guards, seemingly their only concession to using their prodigious wealth to help her. She had unfortunately lost it during the orc raid.

Honeyfield had only a few bows in his ring, both extremely simple, and non-enchanted. Rosa said she could make do with them until she found something better. She selected a pair of enchanted duelling daggers from his stash too, which were her usual backup weapons for melee. They were obviously meant to be wielded in a pair, one being slightly longer than the other.

She buckled them about her waist in their sheaths. Tom made a mental note to have Scriber review the enchantments on them. Anything that Honeyfield used might have enchantments that were dangerous to their user. Taking wounds seemed to strengthen the man, after all.

After Rosa had chosen weapons, they redistributed their belongings between their storage skill and storage ring. The space in Rosas ring was much bigger, but also didnt guarantee freshness for foodstuffs. They swapped things about accordingly, making sure they each had enough to survive in an emergency.

They were eating lunch when the two hunters returned from the other bases. Hunters in the southeastern portion of the Deep made their bases in small, close together groups. The region tended to have more rock, stone and earth golems, and both tougher predators and prey. They often grouped up when they found a threat too resilient to face alone. It was apparently after one such hunt that these three had been captured.

It was unnerving to Tom, thinking about how far the orcs had been ranging. He and Val had spent so much time in the Deep in the last year. At any time, they could have run afoul of the orcs, just as so many other Hunters had. What if a party with an Idealist had come across them after his drake hunt? Or when he had been stalked by the canny panther with shadow abilities? He shivered.

Soon after the two hunters returned, people from the other camps began filtering in in groups. This would be the first of their weekly meetings, where they would discuss strategy, gather any intelligence discovered, and recuperate.

Tom greeted his mother warmly when she arrived, and she congratulated him on his uplift. She professed to not knowing much about diseases when he asked her though, the area not being her speciality. She was acquainted with several Healers who could help though, if they ever got the chance to return to the city. She promised to make introductions.

Val and Scriber were not long behind, and Cub too. Tom and Rosa got a chance for a decent talk with them while they waited for everyone to arrive.

Rosa asked Scriber about the enchantments on the duelling daggers she had, and he immediately told her what they did. He had enchanted them himself. They had the usual, strength, sharpening, durability, and self-repair runes, and aside from that, runes that lowered any wounded enemys resistances to being debuffed, and stymied any cleansing.

Tom breathed a mental sigh of relief. They would not wound Rosa when used. In fact, the enchantments on them were relatively well suited for her. They would help with her applying burn effects, and make them more difficult to remove.

Tom also noticed Scriber eyeing her plain bow where it was propped behind her. The enchanter offhandedly mentioned something about archery to Val, which drew Rosa into a discussion about bows. Tom noticed him paying quite a bit of attention to her as she waxed lyrical about her preferences with the weapon. He chuckled to himself. He would bet she would have a new one to replace the enchanted one her family gave her sooner rather than later.

For that matter, he also noticed a few mice investigating the plain bow. Tom was hit with a wave of nostalgia. It seemed like years ago that he had first met Scriber under Vals oak, when he had had a very similar conversation with him. It seemed obvious what Scriber was up to now, but then, you didnt expect someone to simply enchant your gear for free.

Tom looked around, taking in the industrious people setting themselves up all around the cave. Enchantments, Idealist-made equipment, Healing.

The orcs thought theyd had success with their raiding. Tom was eager to see how they dealt with the better part of one hundred, fully-equipped Idealists in their backline.