Malika It was quiet in the Grove now that all the applits had left. The crafter, mert, and artisan aspirants had been escorted back up to town by Vivian Ross to undergo their trials with their respective mentors and masters, and the bat css aspirants had been dropped off in the sewers. She wrinkled her nose. Lucky them.
All that remained was to wait for them to return. Malika found herself pag restlessly bad forth, w about the recruits she had helped train. Would they survive? Would they get hurt? She had been the oo ence many of them to undergo the trial, and now that they had to fend for themselves, she worried that she might have been too hasty. What if they don’t get good csses? She gnced over to the shrine and found Ali propped up against Mato’s trunk, reading a book. Rezan sat quietly while Basir and Ha meditated beside him, leaving Malika to her own devices.
Malika sat deliberately. Meditation was good for calming the mind, so she took her posture, emuting the Elder, and began to breathe. Presently, her mind turo sidering the problem of resistances and the challenges presented by the fire dungeon. was certain to find some useful resistance armor in Ciradyl, and she had fidehat Ryn and Ali could figure out the cloth armor with Lydia. Mato’s armor was already in produ at Thuli’s smithy, but she did not have a good pn for how she would survive the fire aura. It was true that some csses were unsuited to certain kinds of fights, but she hadn’t expected to run into something quite so fual so soon.
Slowly she opened her eyes and then got to her feet. She walked over to where Rezan sat, hoping he wouldn’t mind the intrusion – but just in case, she waited until he aowledged her before speaking.
“Elder, may I ask your advice?”
“Ask,” he said, his eyes remaining shut. Although, she was well aware his magical sight was vastly better than his eyes.
“How does a monk deal with resistance fights? We’ve entered a fire dungeon with elementals that burn stantly with an aura of fme. I ot use armor or a shield, so it seems I ot find aance equipment.”
“Aah, this is an easy question. You simply o meditate upoure of magic damage.”
Well, that’s cryptid annoying. She sidered his words and the extraordinarily trite but unhelpful message, searg for any hidden meaning.
He cracked an eye and looked at her momentarily, and then Ha and Basir ughed. “You must find your solution in your skills. Defensive skills and advances exist for improving magical resistance – you already have one. You dodge magical explosions. You seek another. I would suggest studying the Path of Earth, or as it is better described, the Path of Defense. Meditate on its teags and you will find an answer.”
She ironed any doubt out of her voice. “Thank you.” While this answer was far more practical, Malika still had a seemingly insurmountable problem. “I do not know the a nguage, and I have no access to the hs. How I study?”
“Take these to your friend. She trahem for you, or better yet, teach you the nguage. She has my permission to copy them, just please ask her to return the inal to me before we leave for Kezda.” Rezan produihick leather-bound volumes and handed her the priceless heirloom of their culture and knowledge.
Malika suddenly found herself holding the hs of Ahn Khen, with her jaw dropping in surprise. She picked it up and stared at the volumes in her hands. “I… ok,” she managed.
“As a favor, would you mind asking her if I test my students’ skills against her monster?” he indicated to the oversized Forest Guardian waiting patiently at the side of the Grove.
“Ha and Basir are going to fight that thing?” she asked, incredulously.
“I have one more student,” Rezan said, grinning wickedly. “Or did she fet already?”
***
“So, any ideas?” Basir asked, his deep resonant voice sounding quite serious as the three of them studied the giant Forest Guardian.
“The wood creatures fill the area with petals so you ’t see, and the stumpy ones grow mushrooms with spores that knock you unscious. The big one has a regeion aura and a wide area roots spell. I don’t know what else because I’ve never seen this boss fight.”
“Basir, you tank. Malika, you’re on heals. I’ll take out the little ones first,” Ha said, her tone businesslike.
It was a det pn, simple as it was, and it probably all hinged on their being able to kill the mushrooms fast enough, and then out-damage the regeion.
“We’re ready, Ali,” Malika called out. Her friend nodded from where she stood, now beside Rezan, with Mato reverted to normal so that he could watch the fight.
“Ok, releasing it.”
As soon as she said it, Basir fired a rock projectile at the elemental and it roared, charging toward them. Even though she had faced these elementals before, Malika still felt the rush of fear at the sheer mass of the thing – twice the normal size – bearing down on them in fury.
Malika sprang into a, stepping up off the air and out of reach of the grasping roots as rock spread across Basir’s body and the monster smmed into him with a great crash. She hopped right over it, stepping on its back twice, and came down with an elbow strike on one of the Spore Spreaders, knog it off its perd onto the ground among the rest of them.
A flicker in her Soul Sight got her to look up and, in the air above them, several bats suddenly materialized.
“It’s summoning bats!” she called out.
“I got it,” Ha yelled from the sidelines.
An indest fsh registered from the er of Malika’s eyes, and Ha suddenly materialized beside her in a shower sparks and little balls of lightning that cascaded out in all dires. In her hand, a javelin of pure lightning appeared, and she threw it with a powerful motion that began from the legs a, traveling up through her hips and torso and culminating in a snap from her arm. The javelin shot forward, striking the Spore Spreader i, and then it split, f to the two Floral Menaces, splitting again, and in a fra of a sed the etlefield was filled with lightning arg between every monster, even leaping into the air to proliferate among the diving bats.
Area damage? I want some of that! Malika had seen this ability in the couple of bouts she had had against Ha, but she had never imagihe ability was focused on area damage, it had always seemed so powerful, but there had only ever been one of her, and she had never imagi could fork like that.
The remaining Spreaders suddenly both phemselves and the violet mushrooms began to sprout from the ground, while at the same time, the Floral Menaces all released a giant cloud of pink and purple petals into the air, clouding her vision. She felt her first moment of panic having her eyesight taken from her, but that was merely her ck of fort fighting with her Soul Sight skill. She closed her eyes to focus her attention on her perception skill, pinpointing all the monsters and her fellow students.
Basir vanished from where he was tanking the Guardian and appeared amid the smaller minion monsters. Immediately, the groued into a maelstrom of stone and rock. Malika dodged inward, toug the rock armor on his chest and releasing a pulse of her Healing Mantra into him, topping up his health from the surprisingly small amount of damage he had sustained so far.
The whirlwind of jagged stoore through the monsters, ripping up the delicate mushrooms and shredding the petals while Malika used her Enlightened Evasion to dodge most of his magic. The etlefield fshed an intense white as Ha unleashed anhtning javelin strike and several of the lower-level monsters and bats fell to the ground.
Quickly, Malika located the remaining Spore Spreader and unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches into the rooted monster, empowered with as muagic as she could until it also died. She breathed deeply, knowing that at least the first major hurdle had been cleared. Killing the Spore Spreaders uhe influence of the regeion aura had been the shakiest part of their pn. She hopped up again into the air as the Forest Guardian charged Basir, ensuring that she would not be rooted by its annoying trol magid she left the remaining adds to the others. Their skills were way more suited to area damage than hers, and she was well aware of how hard it was going to be to kill the guardian itself.
She switched her Soul Strike to Mana Drain and began to y into the Guardian, beginning the long slog to whittle down its gigantic health pool, while she searched her Soul Sight to ensure she wouldn’t be taken by surprise and stunned by any of the summoned bats.
Sabri Their group was bedraggled and exhausted, covered in dried slime and blood as they made their way back through the forest, but they were all alive. There had been several close calls, but as soon as everyone had reached the experiehreshold, they had unanimously decided to return. She scraped a bit more of the nasty goop off her scored and battered shield. It would probably not st lohan anht.
The lurking bck shapes of the huge wolves slunk deep within the shadows, but Aliandra was true to her word, and none of them emerged to attack. Brena limped along with acid burns over much of her body, but although she grimaced and used Sabri for support, the stubbnome never onpined. Her wand had broken toward the end, but rather than sit the fights out, Brena had insisted on colleg rocks and clubbing any monster Sabri fought with them.
But as they approached the Grove, the thunderous sounds of battle became clearer and clearer. The ground shook from the heavy impacts, and the air was filled with the pu reek of ozone.
“Careful,” Brena said, keeping her voice low. “Stay hidden.”
They crept up behind a massive tree to peer out into the space beyond. A huge crash resounded, followed by the crack of lightning that lit the entire cavern for a fra of a sed, followed by a roar and a ground-shaking thump.
Sabri gasped, staring at the forms of Malika, Basir, and Ha locked in bat with the giant elemental of wood and bark. “They’re fighting…” Basir looked tiny in front of the beast, but he took the monster’s hits without budging. Ha flung lightning, flitting from pce to pce to create the optimal angle, and Malika stood astride the monster’s back, hands fshing with blue light as her high-speed flurries of punches smmed into the bark-armored monster.
“It’s safe to e out,” Aliandra said, calling them over. “If you’re injured, e stao Mato and he’ll heal you.”
Cautiously Sabri emerged from behind the tree, with her little group and they all walked over to the shriaring at the violent dispy of power and strength, magid force.
“Why are they fighting?” she asked.
“Rezan thought it would be good training,” Aliandra said, her eyes locked oion.
“They’ve been going at it for more than forty minutes,” the Beastkin – Mato – said.
“Malika almost has it ched, in a few mihe regeion aura will drop because of her mana drain, and then they will win,” Aliandra answered.
“Why did it take so long?” Sabri asked. Forty minutes for a fight was unreal – she would be exhausted after ten minutes of drills.
“Ali was crazy and made a boss with thirty-three thousah and seven hundred pert health regeion. They don’t have enough damage to kill it while the regeion aura is running. Basir is tanking, and Ha takes care of the bats while Malika drains its mana and keeps everyone alive. It’s a solid strategy, but it’s just slow,” Mato expined, while she felt some sort of magic – presumably his – trig through her body and slowly repairing the burns on her hands.
Sabri studied the fight, matg Mato’s expnation to what she was seeing. She had never witnessed Ha’s Lightning Javelin teique used in this fashion before. Every strike lit up the sky and took out several bats at a time. And Malika was dang on the air. In a loose half circle, all the rest of the applits sat watg, some of them cheering them on, and some of them even experimenting with skills that they had obviously just unlocked. Every single one of them identified as having a css.
We were the st.
“There it goes,” Aliandra said.
“Yup. It should be over quickly. That Ha dish out an enormous amount of damage,” Mato said. “Do you think she would want to spar after this?”
“Ha likes matches,” Sabri murmured, but her attention was locked on the fight. Immediately, she noticed two ges. Firstly, Malika’s punches were now much more white than blue, and Ha had unleashed a veritable lightning storm on the giant moself, a barrage of magic that seared purple afterimages into Sabri’s retinas with its iy. An iy that tinued unabated fes, letting up only when the behemoth crashed to the ground. Sabri staggered at the quake from its falling. The clusion of the battle spawned aion of cheers and Sabri found herself g iement.
“You o learn to hit harder,” was all that Rezan said, elig groans from the exhausted fighters. “Not bad.”
“e o’s get you guys your csses,” Aliandra said, gesturing toward the shrine. “You’ve ear.”
The battered group gathered around the huge shrine of stone, listening to Aliandra expin the process.
“I’ll unlock the remainiures. I suggest using the shrio enhance or potentially unloy tent magical affinities you may have before you use the css adva. It is not a guarantee, but some of you might unlo affinity and possibly stronger css choices if you use that. You’re wele to share what you get but don’t feel obliged if you’d rather not. Who wants to go first?”
“I’m ready,” Brena said, but without any trace of the arrogance she had dispyed earlier in the day.
Aliandra simply nodded and indicated for her to use the shrine. For a moment, nothing happened, and then suddenly a powerful light illumihe entire Grove, sileng all the versations as lightning arced from her body, hands, and head – striking the ground and the obelisk nearby in a dispy remi of Ha’s potent attacks a few minutes ago. A few moments ter, the powerful dispy dissipated, and the Gnomish girl stepped back with a happy grin on her fad sparks dang across her fiips.
She must have unlocked her Lightning Mage css, Sabri thought as she watched the rest of her group gh the process.
Finally, it was her turn. She didn’t think her exhausted body could be nervous, but she was. She pced her hand on the cool stone of the shrine and found the option Aliandra had mentioned. Carefully, she let some of her mana flow into it.
[Shrine of the A Grove] Exposi magical affinities may permaly alter your current and future css choices. Proceed?
She accepted the vaguely ominous-sounding warning.
A surge of power tore through her tired body and mind as a loud rushing hreateo deafen her. Her body rose from the ground as she began to glow with a powerful bluish light that seemed to burst forth from deep within her core. Sabri screamed, but the sound that came out shook the very air around her with a rush of power and shimmering light.
Suddenly, the power rush cut off and she dropped, hitting the ground at the same time as her chime sounded.
[Shrine of the A Grove] Reserved mana reduced by 50,000You have gained an affinity for Soul Magic. Your Aptitudes have been updated.New css options are avaible.
I just spent fifty thousand mana? She shook her head trying to clear her mind as she sat up. Finally, after a few moments, she pced her hand on the shrine and activated the css adva.
[Shrine of the A Grove] Reserved mana reduced by 35,0006 Alternate csses found.
Natural css:- Laborer
Avaible alternate non-bat css options:- Farmer
Avaible alternate bat css options:- Warrior- Monk- Sword Master
Avaible alternate magibat css options:- Soul Mage- Soul Defender
Sabri stared at the options in dismay.
How do I choose? What do they even mean?
Carefully she read through each of them, envying Brena who had known before she even started. But the pressure and significe of the decision she faced crashed in on her, stallihinking and making her balk. She looked up as someo beside her on the moss of the Grove.
“Did you get a good css?” Malika asked.
“I… don’t know. I don’t know how to decide – I haven’t decided yet,” Sabri mumbled. To e so far and then to be stymied by her own exhaustion and indecision was almost enough to make her cry. Malika’s a monk. And she’s so, s. She wished she was as fident as her. But Monk was an unon css, and she knew she should be sidering the rarer magical options.
“This might sound a little y,” Malika said. “But when they were alive, my parents always told me to check each option carefully, and o has a little time to settle, go with the ohat most resonates with who I am.”
Who I am? Who am I? She wao be strong and powerful like Malika, but was that really who she was? She remembered the first slimes and how terrified she had been. All her martial arts training had evaporated from her mind in the face of a battle, and she had simply stood trembling in fear.
Am I that useless?
She shared each css option with Malika, and they read them ether. “If I take a bat css, will I be able told to help my mom?” she asked, tg on to the one idea she could definitely grasp.
“Definitely,” Malika answered. “And if you take the guild membership, they have quests even for the early levels.”
Sabri felt a little better, she had eliminated Laborer and Farmer. “You’re a monk? Do you think I be like you one day?”
“I chose a css called Soul Monk, not the mundane Monk css.”
Sabri frowned looking at her options, again. Her only two magic options were Soul Mage and Soul Defender, her of them matched Malika’s choice.
“Should I pick the Soul Defender because it’s the magic css, then?” She felt like she o pie of the two magic options, and Soul Mage wouldn’t allow her to grow her martial arts skills in any meaningful way.
Why is this so hard? If it had just given me Soul Monk, it would have been so easy.
“Do you like Monk because you see yourself as a Monk? Or are you just trying to walk my path? The Soul Defender looks like a strong css, but you have to see yourself in that role, otherwise you won’t flourish.”
In the midst of her struggle over her css choices, a small figure walked over. Brena looked much better now that the slime and terror had been washed off her face, and the burns had been healed.
“Thank you again for saving me, Sabri. If you choose the Guildmaster’s internship program, I was hoping we could team up together?”
Sabri o the Gnome. “Ok. I think I would like that.”
As Brena moved away, Sabri caught the curious look from Malika, and slowly, haltingly at first, she expined what had happened. She was as ho as she could be about her fear aation – her mother had always taught her to be truthful. Sharing the story with Malika felt like baring her soul with all its fws.
When she finished, Malika sat in ption for a moment, before speaking. “I think you know who you are.”
“Someone who’s weak and scared?” She shrank into herself at the admission of what she ko be true. She had overreached herself by dreaming of being strong like Malika. Maybe she had been offered Laborer because that was all she deserved.
“Someone who will overe their darkest and most paralyzing fears to protect their friends and allies.”
Sabri struggled to hear the words. Did she not hear how scared I was? “I couldn’t even hold the sword straight. Malika, I –”
“Everyos scared,” Malika interrupted gently. “But you overcame it, and Brena is walking around with a fancy Lightning Mage css because of you. Your as. Did someone else’s hands pull her out?”
Sabri stared. What Malika said was true. However, she had simply not thought of it that way – she had never been strong enough to save people.
“Hey, Mato, e tell Sabri what you do in roup,” Malika called out, and the rge Beastkin boy walked over with an easy smile on his face.
“Want another?” he asked, sitting down, and her another shiny red apple. She took it this time and listened in awe while he told her about a crazy battle against a Skeletal Wyvern that seemed even more epic than the fight she had just watched, and how terrified he had been falling down a hole into a Kobold with Aliandra. The stories didn’t matter so much to her, but how he felt about himself, his role as a tank, and his dedication to proteg his friends – somehow, that all resonated powerfully with her. She gnced over at Brena, seeialking with the Guildmaster. Then she found Elder Rezan sitting with Ha and Basir, watg her versation with Mato and Malika. She sidered her mother, and how much she wao be able to help and protect her.
By the time Mato finished up his stories, she knew what she wao be.
“I want to protect people.”
“I think that’s a great fit for you,” Malika smiled at her.
Happy, she finally made her choid let a sigh hiss betweeeeth as lines of glowi carved themselves into the granite cliff face that warded her heart.
Your css has ged to Soul Defender.Soul Defender has reached level 1.+10 attribute points.
You have lost the general skill: Basic Martial Arts.
You have gaihe Tenacious Aptitude.Tenacious (Css): When you are below 50% health all healing magic targeting you is 20% more effective.You have gaihe css skill DefesDefes – level 1You are profit in the use of basie-hand ons (sword, dagger, mace, axe) and a shield. You may use either for blog or attag.Stamina: Strike at your enemy with your on or shield.Stamina: Blo ining melee attack with your on or shield.Physical, Melee, StrengthYou have gaihe css skill Soul PowerSoul Power – level 1Mana: Imbue a Melee attack or block with the power of your Soul Magic. Your attack gains +32% [20 + skill + wisdom] additional Soul damage, or your block absorbs that much more damage.Soul, Melee, WisdomYou have gaihe css skill Unyielding BodyUnyielding Body – level 1Mana: Your Vitality, Strength, and Endurance are increased by +42% [40 + skill + base endurance / 10]. Reserve: 20%Soul, Buff, EnduranceYou have gaihe css skill Shield MasteryShield Mastery – level 1Requirements: Shield.The defeributes of your shield [Armor, Resistance, Evasion, Blobsp;are increased by 21% [20 + skill]Physical, Mastery, EnduranceYou have gaihe css skill Pte MasteryPte Mastery – level 1Requirements: Pte or heavy body armor.The defeributes of your body armor [Armor, Resistance, Evasion] are increased by 21% [20 + skill]Physical, Mastery, EnduranceYou have gaihe css skill Soul ShoutSoul Shout – level 1Mana: Taunt and damage all the enemies around you with a shout imbued with the power of your Soul Magic. Range: 10.3 feet. Recharge: 30 seds.Soul, Area, Taunt, Wisdom
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