CH.381 Church Plans

CH.381 Church Plans

The next morning was still busy on HomeBase. After all, many of the guests had stayed the night, so we had to prepare breakfast for everyone. Luckily most of them did have a change of clothes, but I did also make some basic t-shirts, cotton sweatpants and indoor slippers for anyone that wanted them, which ended up being almost everyone. I guess free stuff is free stuff even if you don’t need it. And I do have to admit that the clothing I make with HomeBase is way more comfortable than most things you can buy on the open market. Sure you can get clothes of similar or higher quality, but it will likely cost one to two gold coins, if not more, even for something simple. For me it costs about 2,000 mana and 340 miasma, depending a bit on the size. No creation energy required.

Breakfast today was another buffet. It just is the easiest to set up and after we’ve eaten, I can just take all the food into Storage so that it won’t go bad. And Storage’s Item Maintenance could ‘repair’ the food, so after I take it into Storage, it goes back to how it was when it was perfectly fresh. I don’t really know why food counts as an ‘Item’ but I won’t complain about convenience.

After breakfast began the taking the guests home operation, but I wasn’t involved in that, as I had something else to do. Before I, or someone else, takes Wendy and Sepher back to the Hero’s country, they wanted to confirm that Albus would be fine here. Sepher was also interested when he heard that I had made a makeshift church already.

“Alright. Here it is. Please tell me what it is missing.” I told them as we walked into the HomeBase church.

I had styled it after the church in Sawyer city. I didn’t want it to be too grand, but also not too small, so the Sawyer city church was a good base to work from.

I did also use HomeBase to make some decorations, mainly pictures of the Goddess. They were based on my image of her, as that is the one I can make the easiest, but I did also have a few based on the way the Hero saw her, as that is considered the ‘official’ version. But I prefer my RGB gamer Goddess, which is why I even added a screen that could show a moving version of her, just so you could get the full RGB experience.

“... A question. Who made these artworks of the Goddess? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her with hair like that. And what about that moving one?” Sepher asked.

“Do you want to guess?” I asked.

“I really couldn’t know.” Sepher said.

“Really? I wonder whose depiction of our Goddess I’d want to have in my church.” I hinted.

“... is it ... yours?” Wendy guessed.

“Correct.” I confirmed.

“W-W-W-WHAT!?” Sepher yelled with a voice that was likely heard throughout HomeBase. “Wh-When? Where? How? Why didn’t you tell me?” He rapid fired questions as he shook me back and forth.

“Because I knew you’d react like that.” I answered. “And I met her for the first time ... well, it was a while ago. I guess I’ll start from when I first met Aulis, an Angel. I met him after the behemoth incident at Alewatch. He appears to me in a dream, taking me to this ... actually I have a picture of it here somewhere.” I walked a bit forward until the picture frame that housed the picture of the parlor room where I meet with System Agents and the Goddess was placed. “The room looks like this. The first time I visited, I met with Aulis as I mentioned previously. He was the one who told me about the miasma blobs and why they appear. But eventually the Goddess cleared her schedule and I was able to have a short chat with her.”

“But why?”

“I think you know the reason for that. Other than her, I’m the only one that can deal with the miasma blobs. And it is better if someone living does that, as she cannot appear here with her true body.”

“... Could that be her true appearance?” Wendy wondered.

“Probably not.” I answered. “I do get where you are coming from, but still, I don’t think the Goddess has what could be called a ‘true form’. She as a being exceeds our understanding. That is why all of us see her differently. At least that is what I think.”

“I really wish I could see her myself.” Wendy said. “Speaking of, the ultimate skill project? Have you found anything about it?”

“Sorry, but no.” I answered. “I don’t know if you know, but I have a way of giving people skills, similar to skill orbs. I’ve had Laura test a ton of them, but no matter what, I can’t make an ultimate skill.”

“What about unique skills?”

“Yeah, I can make those. My Different Dimension Factory and Storage are both unique skills I’ve made. Well, given myself, but same difference.”

“I see. Admittedly, the same goes for us, and we can’t even do what you do.”

“Yeah, understandable. Speaking of, I could really use a skill orb ... for something. Do you think I could get one? Doesn’t matter what skill it holds.”

“I can give you one from my own collection when you bring us back home.” Wendy promised.

“That will be a big help, thanks.”

Having access to skill orbs in the HomeBase catalog might be both useless and super useful. It honestly really bothers me that HomeBase can’t make them. And with them, by installing cards into the skill orbs, I might be able to give out skills that just direct installs can’t give. And as far as I understand it, skill orbs can also increase the skill level of the skill they hold, if you already have the skill. Sure I can just use Level Up! for that, but if skill orbs can house unique skills, I might be able to cheat levels to unique skills with skill orbs.

“So Albus, what do you think? Is it missing anything?”

“Sir, I believe this is more than enough.” Albus confirmed. “How will I be preaching? What should my schedule be?”

“I don’t really care. I think you should ask the others about it. Maybe in the mornings after breakfast. And probably not everyday. We’ll work it out after a bit. And just call me Brian.”

“Good. Lua, let’s do yours first.” I said, as I got Rising Air Current out of the Collection. “Install.” With Lua’s install done, I got Gaia Power out and held it up to Alice’s chest and said. “Install.”

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“... you really never can get used to that.” Alice complained.

“Well, at least most installs are better than magic attributes.” Lua added.

“Yeah. Brian should experience how bad it feels.”

“You know I can’t. And I have experienced a unique skill while you two haven’t.” I reminded them, but then I quickly added. “Not that I know for sure which is worse.”

“What about yourself? Will you give yourself a skill?” Alice asked.

“I could, but I’m not really sure what I want. Mana Flight would be nice, but I’ll learn it soon anyway. I also thought about Lightning Magic, as it is something I could actually get. There is also the Lifesteal skill, but I’m more of a commander type than a frontline fighter.”

“... I could have used that but ...” Alice said.

“Yeah. I do wonder why you no longer count as a human. Something about the fusion, I’d guess.”

“Or maybe you are the one that isn’t human.” Lua pointed out.

“Could be. But yeah. The install I’m actually taking is Shadow Spell for the skill Dark Chain. It allows me to make and manipulate these dark chains, so I can bind targets.”

Spoiler

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“... that does sound useful.” Alice said.

“Couldn’t you just use Swords of Revealing Light instead?” Lua asked.

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“The swords skill is more difficult to use, so I prefer the Dark Chain skill. Though I do plan on taking the Swords later. The two skills do work decently well together.”

“What does it do?”

“The skill is called Restraining Sword Barrage. It would allow me to produce a large quantity of swords of light that I can then launch at my enemies. If the swords hit, they impede the target's movements, but they do no HP damage.”

“So one is single target while the other is better at dealing with large mobs?” Alice asked.

“Pretty much, yeah.” I confirmed. “But when Dark Chain levels up, it gets better additional features like me being able to drain mana from things that the chain is wrapped around, while all the swords gain is the ability to do damage and the stun will last longer.”

“Both sound pretty powerful.”

“Which is why I’ll eventually have both.”

After my own install, my status now looked like this.

SpoilerName: Brian WoodRace: One without a Race - User of Rare Skills (Advanced Human) ✯Level: 158

HP: 6630 [+40] (+25,000)Mana: 8570 [+40] (+22,800)Strength: 2605 [+20]Defense: 3445Magic: 3220 [+20] Skills: One of Every Race LV.2 (unique-racial) - Draconic Body LV.1 (racial) - Draconic Magic LV.1 (racial) - Advanced Summoning Magic LV.2 (racial) - Spirit Magic LV.2 (racial) Pack Opener LV.8 (unique)Different Dimension Factory LV.7 (unique)Storage LV.10 (unique) Limit Break LV.1 (extra)Space Magic LV.4 (extra)Time Magic LV.2 (extra)

Telekinesis LV.8 (extra)Dark Chain LV.1 (extra) [new]

Summoner’s Unity LV.10 (extra)Dungeon Founder (extra)Summon Water Spirit (extra)Summon Nature Spirit (extra)

Health Conscious (extra) Sword Technique LV.5 Shield Technique LV.4

Mana Control LV.14 Taming LV.2Defense Boost LV.10 Dragon Life Dedication (Greater True Fire Dragon)Water Spirits Blessing (Greater)Nature Spirits Blessing (Greater)

Honorary Baron of Ruiso KingdomLanguage Comprehension (humanoid) (draconic)Slave MasterSlaves: Rhianna[collapse]

But that really isn’t that different from what it was yesterday, so let’s move onto something more interesting. Or maybe someone more interesting. Specifically Ria, and her new skill given to her by the install of Energy Drain called Status Drain.

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With it, whenever Ria makes contact with an opponent, be it receiving or delivering a punch or anything like that, she can drain a bit of their Strength, Defense or Magic and add that to her own status temporarily. The weakness being that she has to be basically in direct contact with the target, so something like a sword strike wouldn’t do. Thankfully even with her gauntlets, Ria’s punches count, so it isn’t a problem.

SpoilerName: RhiannaRace: Dhampir BrawlerLevel: 99HP: 3800 [+200]Mana: 3080 [+150]Strength: 2440 [+95]Defense: 1844 [+70]Magic: 1540 [+140] Skills:True Blood Magic LV.6 (Racial) [+1]Vampiric Body Modification LV.7 (Racial) [+1]Brawling LV.5 (Racial) Status Drain LV.1 (extra) [new]Card Summoner LV.2 (extra) Fire Magic LV.7 [+1]Mana Control LV.8Fast Mana Recovery LV.6Internal Magic Technique LV.7Unarmed Combat Technique LV.7Counter Strike LV.5 [+1]Flickering Step LV.5Power Boost LV.5Defense Boost LV.5 Blood Sucker (Racial)Slave. Master: Brian Wood[collapse]

After Ria came my two assassin cats. Wait, they don’t actually have any assassination techniques.

But anyway, Einar and Eline were getting their Dark Lightning skill.

SpoilerName: EinarRace: Night Cat-folkLevel: 48 [+2]HP: 1364 [+44]Mana: 1140 [+70]Strength: 859 [+34]Defense: 480 [+30]Magic: 604 [+64] Skills:Night Stalking LV.4 (racial)Expanding Night LV.1 (racial)

Dark Lightning LV.1 (racial) [new]

Taming LV.5 Sword Technique LV.2

Knife Technique LV.3Mana Control LV.4

Flickering Step LV.2Service LV.2 [+1][collapse]SpoilerName: ElineRace: Night Cat-folkLevel: 47 [+2]HP: 1042 [+44]Mana: 1350 [+70]Strength: 587 [+34]Defense: 420 [+30]Magic: 937 [+64] Skills:Night Stalking LV.4 (racial)Expanding Night LV.1 (racial)

Dark Lightning LV.1 (racial) [new]

Staff Technique LV.3Wind Magic LV.2Summoning Magic LV.5Mana Control LV.6Fast Mana Recovery LV.1Service LV.2 [+1]

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Oh, the levels for Service came before the reveal party. Obviously I wanted those two to be better at Service for that.