Ryn
Ryn stilled the unscious boung of her leg for the umpteenth time and gnced again around the silent library. Lira was resting iree, and Ali and the others still hadn’t returned. She sighed, gng back down at the book on her p. She had been overjoyed to find this story in the Ciradyl library, but she kept getting distracted. With an act of will, she sed the page, trying to pick up the thread of the plot once more.
Where is she?
She had made it almost halfway through her book when she finally heard the eg of voices approag. She slipped her bookmark between the pages and closed the cover, carefully ying the book oable before her. I hope she uands. With a thought, Ryn pulled up the notification she had received earlier today right as she teleported bato the Grand Library with her haul of new books.
Library Telepains Bring a Friend.(You pay the mana cost again t up to 3 [1 + skill / 10] other willing people with you.)
She had been offered several other choices, but this one had stood out in her mind as by far the best – both in utility, but also in furthering her own goals. She had done enough research to know that her Library Teleport was uniquely powerful, and with this adva, she might earn a fantastic living at the Novaspark Academy of Magic as a courier, ferrying people around the ti. It would matter little to most that they would arrive in a library rather than at the more typical city locus.
But that was not what she wao do with her life.
Library Teleport – level 20Mana: Teleport to any library you have set as a destination. You have up to 6 [1 + skill / 4] library destinations.Mana: You pay the mana cost again t up to 3 [1 + skill / 10] other willing people with you.Knowinations:Grand Library Ara, Dal’mohra. Recharge: 39 minutes / 1 hour.Myrin’s Keep Library. Recharge: 1 hour.Vertias Library. Recharge: 12 minutes / 1 hour.Royal Library of Volle. Recharge: 1 hour.Ciradyl Grand Library. Recharge: 28 minutes / 1 hour.Are, Movement, Intelligence
She pressed down on her boung leg once more and gazed around the grand library and the books they had acquired so far. Her skill adva had givehe ability to teleport others whenever she traveled. It was finally time t up her biggest with Ali.
Will she…
“Hi, Ryn,” Ali called out cheerfully as she and the rest of their party flew or floated down to the library floor.
“Hey, Ali,” Ryn started. “Um, there’s something I wao talk to you about. Is there a good time?”
“Sure, how about now?” Ali asked, a flicker of curiosity passing across her face.
Although they all seemed tired, the happy banter suggested they were in a good mood. Their dungeon delve must have gone well, Ryn thought.
“I’m not quite sure how to say this,” she started. “We’re making a lot of goress with the library…” she trailed off for a moment, ly sure how to put her feelings into words.
“But?”
“It’s empty,” Ryn blurted out. She had finally realized this m what had been b her for so much time – what it was that was missing. “What good is a library if there are no people to read the books? Nobody get here through all the monsters.” She risked meeting Ali’s amber gaze.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Ali answered, smiling. “I haven’t figured out how to make a private teleportation locus yet. I don’t want just ah a teleport spell to be able to e down here, but if we offer some sort of a pass to use a teleport, I think it would work.”
“Actually, I think I might have a solution to that problem,” Ryn said. “Well, for a little bit. My teleport spell advanced, and I people with me.” Is she really ok with this? She shared her skill with Ali. With all the book gathering she had been doing, her Library Teleport was now her highest-leveled skill. “I just don’t knoe choose which people to invite.”
“Oh, that’s an incredible skill, Ryn,” Ali said. “Hey, I have an idea – why don’t you join the guild?”
“The Adventurers Guild? But I don’t have bat skills,” Ryn said, surprised at Ali’s sudden ta.
“As a non-bat member,” Ali expined. “I was thinking as a rept for your job at the bookstore, maybe you could join the guild as its librarian? I’m pretty sure I vihe Guildmaster.”
“Why would any Adventurers Guild want a librarian?”
Being reminded of being fired from the bookstore stung still, but she was sure Ali hadn’t meant it that way. She shifted unfortably from foot to foot as the athered a short way off, openly eavesdropping on the versation, and then caught sight of Malika in the background miming swatting a spider – or some monster – with a book. “Down! True knowledge is my on!”
Something of the tension within her uncurled a little.
“Think about it for a moment,” Ali said, sitting up straighter and leaning toward her excitedly. “The guild is growing. There are lots of adventurers just starting out with their csses with no idea what to do. The guild provides some training, but none of them afford a library membership so they have no way to research effit use of their skills, adva paths, bat teiques, or any of the amazing things a good library help with. You could give them access to this library – for free – and you could help them research the information they need. If they e to you with their problems, you add to the list of books you collect during your rounds, and our library would grow to be the resoureeded by the adventurers.”
“You would let them use the library for free?” Ryn asked, struggling to keep up with the torrent of ideas. Ali’s suggestion seemed almost too good to be true. She loved the idea of helping people get stronger by finding the right books for them – and this would give her phenomenal skill and css growth too.
“A perk of guild membership,” Ali said with a spiratorial wink. “It’s certain to vince Vivian Ross – the success of the guild is what she cares about most dearly.”
Over Ali’s shoulder – which wasn’t saying much – Mato was shadow-boxing in the air. “a! a! Watch out, will punctuate your semi!”
“Mind your cuse,” Malika snickered. “Mato’s got the verbals.”
“That grammar’s bad enough to kill monsters on its own,” pointed out, wiping tears of ughter from his eyes.
Ry herself turning pink. “I see they have the idea.”
Ali chuckled, “Well, we trust the Guild’s senior adveo set the example, right?”
The Fmecaller hunters and their demonic wolf pets were a thorny problem, and one reflected oensively as their little group exited the Emberfe Mines, making their way through the dense juoward the library. With the status sheet and the skills Ali had shared, he suddenly had a whole new uanding of at least the wargs’ abilities, and he had already started formutier strategies for dealing with them. It had only been intuition that had driven his deid-bat, but he was happy to learn that his instincts had been close to correct.
ime, we won’t have Mato face them alone from the start, he thought, finally out of those infernal fmes and able to use his notebook. He ran through several ideas, adjusting, tweaking, and enjoying the challenge of optimizing their group strategy with what he uood of all their abilities. The hunters had been particurly frustrating for him, toug on a sore point. I wish I could see their sheets, too, he thought – and not for the first time. They had shown him what he felt his own role oeam should be if he could just get a little stronger and find a way to manage his mana and abilities more effitly. Their jured multishot fme arrows had been remarkably effective at suppressing the battlefield, and even though his skill couldn’t jure five arrows at a time yet, he was certainly going to adopt some of the strategies he had observed for himself.
He had a lot to think about. Especially w was the problem of unig with Mat bat. This roblem he didn’t know how to solve, and were it not for Ali, they might have lost him without ever notig he was struggling. It was frustrating to be so close – if Ali had a wolf – or a – that didn’t breathe fire and was high enough level to survive the fmes, they would not be having this problem.
I think we should talk about that with everyone. Maybe Malika ask Weldin, or find an artifact at the Novaspark Academy… maybe an Elven specialist at Ciradyl…
He pulled up his own notifications from the battle as they stepped into dark ess and the retive safety of the Grand Library. His wings unfurled as he flew up to the first floor beside Ali and Mato on her barrier, with Malika simply running up on the air beside them with the blue-white of her magic flickerih her feet.
Archer of Light has reached level 54.+10 attribute points.
Radiant Archery has reached level 32.Arrows of Brilliance has reached level 37.Motes of Light has reached level 20 (+2).Explorer has reached level 30.Eyes of the Ar has reached level 25.Mirage Armor has reached level 12.
Cartography has reached level 12.Skinning has reached level 5 (+3).
He paused, but noticed that his panions immediately fell into their familiar routines. Mato began rattling the pots and pans, while Malika sat oone floor to meditate. Ali and Ryn cozied up on the couch for an important versation, so found a seat at the table and opened his notebook to study his skill advances and work out the optimal assig of his tributes.
Explorer hit thirty, he noted and smiled. It was his primary information tool; how he identified dungeons and threats, and a major part of his stealth and trag abilities, and teo grow fastest when he explored new pces.
Cartography had increased again as he tinued mapping out the Emberfe Mines, and he was excited to see just how much skinning one of the Hellfire Wargs had improved his skinning skill. He made a o pass the demonic hide to Malika to sell at the store after diime.
Oh, hold on, why didn’t I notice the adva before? He had nearly skipped right over it! So, what did I get…
Requirements met for skill adva.
Patroy: The Wanderer.Motes of Light has reached at least level 2urly uses Motes of Light to dispel stealth effects.Regurly uses Motes of Light to enhance perceptions of allies.Regurly fights with more than ten allies.
Motes of Light gains Abundance of Light.(You summon up to 20 [skill] motes of light. Your motes of light have double the radius of illumination.)Motes of Light gains Bea of Radiaes of Light gains the Buff trait.(Your motes of light grant additional light magic damage on hit to all your allies in range. Reserve: 35%, Range: 30 feet.)
Motes of Light gains Glittering Mines.Motes of Light gains the Area trait.(You may detonate your Motes of Light at will. Damage is equivalent to Explosive Shot.)Choose one adva.
Motes Advanced. paused sidering the implications. After Lyeneru’s assessment of his Motes of Light skill, he had expected that he would o repce it as soon as it advanced. Now was the time to make that decision. The only skill he had acquired so far that he would sider as a rept was Heaven’s Strike, and he was not particurly excited about that prospect. Pursuing the on path for his kind of css meant fog on maximum burst damage, high-cost spells, and then sitting out of bat regeing his mana with potions after he ent. The strategy made sense, and so did her assessment of his skill as being underpowered. He k was true, and he might have been happy with the approach had he not actually seen his mentor – the Legendary Pathfinder – in a. What she had achieved blew the normal strategy away.
It was somewhat ued that his Motes of Light adva had been influenced by his patroy, The Wahe skill itself did not list any of his patron’s traits, but he assumed it was reted to improving perception or g stealth. Speaking of which, I o figure out why that doesn’t work so well on the Fmecaller Hunter illusions. The Abundance of Light adva looked like just more of the same, leaving him with a skill slot that could be much better used on another perception or attack skill. But he stopped cold when he read the Bea of Radiance adva.
That’s incredible. The cost was incredible too – an additional thirty-five pert of his mana reserved for the skill, but he could instantly see the power of the adva. If he was aiming for a o-wonder assassin or Ambush build, as Lyeneru had suggested, this skill would be o-worthless.
Hmm…
Glittering Mines was a solid , too. Motes of Light had a le, and he could move the orbs retively quickly – and more importantly, most moeo ighem. Now, if he didn’t hem, he could have extra explosive shots wherever they hovered. The strategic options were many.
But I fight with a summoner.
The biggest issue with Glittering Mines was that it wasn’t a bow skill, and hence he wouldn’t be able to use his most versatile entment skill, Arrows of Brilliance, on it. It feels more like a mage skill to me. Oher hand, despite the enormous cost, Bea of Radiance was exactly the kind of party-wide buff skill both Vivian and Lyeneru had advised him to watch for – effects that were multiplied by the number of allies he brought to the fight.
More importantly, it wouldn’t be him who was the ter of the buff aura. If he was reading this right, each mote would proje aura grantira light damage to everyohin its radius. This would allow him to move with stealth outside their range of influence. And when he found himself in rge-scale battles, he could lihe motes up along the battlements, or follow groups around on the field.
He didn’t eveo ask for further advice, he selected Bea of Radiance. I won’t take the easy path, he vowed to himself, itti again to following the path his mentor had let him glimpse.
Motes of Light – level 20Mana: You summon up to 3 [1 + skill / 10] motes that emit clear light and dispel stealth effects. You freely trol the motes of light anywhere within ye. Duration: 30 minutes, Range: 800 feet.Mana: Your motes of light grant additional light magic damage on hit to all your allies in range. Reserve: 35%, Range: 48 feet.Light, Area, Buff, Intelligence
“Everything ok?” Mato asked, pg a pte of steaming stew oable beside him.
“Um, yes…” his mind reected to his surroundings, finding everyone else sitting around enjoying Mato’s cooking. One whiff of the aromatic duck served on a bed of perfectly chargrilled root vegetables – how did Mato do it? – had him reag for a bowl. “I got a skill advahat needs some testing. Ali, I think you might be ied in this.”
Bang the bowl on his knee, he shared his adva with all of them.
“Depending on how much damage, that could be incredible in roup,” Malika echoed his thoughts.
“That works on my minions, right?” Ali asked, leaning forward iement.
“I’m game to be the pung bag,” Mato said, grinning as he clearly anticipated the step.
“Maybe with the Hobgoblin?” Ali suggested.
“Why not wait until you all finish dinner?” Lira suggested, fixing him with a pointed look, and suddenly realized that the delicious smell of the food Mato had given him was making his stomach grumble audibly.
“Is there more?” he asked hopefully, digging in with a groan of appreciation.
After dihey begaesting in ear. Mato stood waiting in his Bear Form while he summoned his Motes of Light – three now that the skill had reached twenty. He trated on the new adva, and it activated, reserving more mana than he wao think about. All three motes fred brighter as the skill took effed began to pulse softly.
“Ok, ready.”
Ali said something in the harsh guttural nguage of the Goblins and the female Hobgobli loose with her pair of matg axes, hitting Mato with a rapid flurry of strikes. After that, he disabled the bea effect, and they hit Mato some more. Then, ierest of study, they tested spells, rogues, urikes, and several other variations, each time having Mato revert to his Beastkin form to tell them exactly how much health he had lost, so could down in his book.
“It’s a ft damage increase,” he said, examining the table of data he had piled. No matter what they hit Mato with, every si was enhanced by the same amount of additional light-magic damage. It didn’t matter the size of the strike, speed, or whether it was magical or physical. The be fh-speed attackers like Ali’s rogues and the dual-wielding Hobgoblin henomenal.
“I love this,” Malika said.
“Of course the speed freak likes it,” muttered. She attacked faster than anyone in their group and therefore stood to gain substantially from his new adva. To be fair, he was a bit of a speed freak himself, so it was great for his arrows too.
“How are you going to mahat mana reservation, though?” Ali asked, putting her finger right ohorny drum.
“It’s already a challeo keep up with mana,” said. “Enabling this will probably e a lot of my own personal power. But it looks like most of the time the tradeoff will be worth it, given the number of minions you bring to a fight.”
With the twenty pert reservation for Blessing of the Dawn and the hirty-five pert for his beas, he would be reserving more than half of his most scarce resource. That meant his personal damage tribution would be substantially reduced, but rationally, this was the most optimal choice. Ali was often bringing up to ten minions and had several swarm options, and with Mato and Malika, that meant his Motes of Light would likely be the single rgest tribution to the team’s damage output.
“, are you really happy just taking a hit for the team?” Mato asked, surprising him. Mato could be bull-headed, but occasionally he was quite perceptive.
“It’s the smart choice,” said. “But I ’t say I’ll enjoy the increased dependenana potions.”
“I think we should be buying your potions from the group fund then,” Malika said, her voice firm, allowing nument. “If you have to bankrupt yourself to make the team strohat’s not fair.”
“I agree.”
“Same,” Ali said. “Perhaps I should reserve the free chapter in my Grimoire for potions?”
“You learn potions?” excimed.
“I don’t know,” Ali said. “I’ve never had enough space to try.”
He had known his friends were generous, but it was surprising just how little hesitation they all had. Mana potions were expensive, and he knew he ed a lot of them. “Speaking of money,” he said, recalling his skinning practice earlier. He hauled out the demonic warg hide and ha to Malika. “ you see if Weldin wants to buy this?”
“Oh, yes! Thanks, . And before I fet, I picked up these from those hunters.” Malika tossed him two bows. “You should definitely upgrade.” There was a soft chime in his mind as Malika shared the item’s appraisal with him.
Fmecaller Bow – level 51Bow is wreathed in fme when used.Damage: Ranged, Physical, FireAttacks gain +10% additional damage as Fire.+12% to Attack speed.Requirements: Strength 84, Dexterity 142Quality: MagicalValue: 15 gold, 63 silverTwo Handed – Bow – Drake Bone
The sed bow was almost identical, having +11% added fire damage and +11% attack speed as the only minor differehey were the powerful recurve bows that had been used so effectively against them by the hunters. Obviously, the added fire damage wouldn’t be useful against the many fire-immune creatures in their current dungeon, and he would o be careful if they ran into elementals that healed from fire, but the increased attack speed henomenal.
There was only one problem…
“I ’t use it,” said, frowning. “I don’t have enough strength.” Lyeneru had warned him about this – she had literally told him he would enter good bows with a strength requirement to draw. He hadn’t ignored her advice, bringing up his strength little by little, but he hadn’t anticipated needing quite so much. Even with all his gear and iments, he was only at sixty-four strength – if he ied all his free points, he would still be short by ten.
“Argh,” he groaned, running his hand through his hair. “If only –”
“Does this help?” Malika asked, tossing something else his way. snatched it out of the air and exami. The dark leather bracer seemed to have been cured by some chemical process, and had cross-stitched leather ces along the side to allow it to fit different-sized forearms. “Here’s the other,” Malika said, tossing him the matg bracer to plete the pair. The Fmecaller hunters had worn these on their scaled arms, but he hadn’t ected them with the bow. He studied it without uanding, but Malika was quick to share the description with him.
Fmecaller Bracers – level 44+12 Strength+34 DexterityRequirements: Dexterity 154Quality: MagicalValue: 12 gold, 30 silverHands – Demonic Hide
“Wow,” he said. And Malika was holding another set just like it!
“Good, isn’t it?”
“I make this work,” answered excitedly. “Thanks!”
He quickly stripped off his level ten Bracers of Accurad ced the new Fmecaller Bracers to his forearms, feeling the way the power of the item’s entments strengthened his limbs and made every movement even quicker. He the all his free attribute points on strength and picked up the Fmecaller Bow. Instantly, the entire length of the bow burst into fme, but curiously enough, the fmes failed to burn him. Without asking, Ali summoned a barrier on the far side of the room, in the shape of a target.
Sighting on it, paused to call over his shoulder, “Did you all get an adva in mind reading, or what?” Turning back, he winced privately. Well, after what Mieriel did… maybe not the best joke.
He eled his mana into Radiant Archery, summoning four arrows of light, and fired them all at the target simultaneously. Each of the arrows fred with fmes as they left the bow, crashing into the target. A sharp crack souhrough the room, and he could see that the barrier Ali had summoned had sustained some visible damage.
“That was a lot of damage,” Ali said, looking at him in surprise. “I got a ton of mana back from that hit.”
Suddenly, it clicked. H above Ali’s head, his Mote of Light was still pulsing with the energy of his mana reservation, fotten after their tests. It was adding light magic damage to his hits. And if he wasn’t much mistaken, because it said ‘on hit’ it was adding the same ft damage to each arrow, instead of dividing the damage. Which meant he had fou another way to multiply damage across his multishot adva without penalty. Once again, Lyeneru’s insight roving invaluable to guide how he should think about… well, everything!
He stashed his old bow in his ste ring – he would still o s to that every time they fought a Shard of Fme or Living Fme – and he would o test it against all the other monsters in the mines, but against anything that didn’t heal from fire, this bow was an incredible upgrade. Carefully, he studied his sheet, shocked to see how much his dexterity had grown, simply by the bination of his new pair of bracers and his Blessing of the Dawn.
Name: AveryRace: Half-ElfActive Buffs: Blessing of the Dawn, Mirage Armor, Motes of Light
Css: Archer of Light – level 54- Radiant Archery – level 32- Arrows of Brilliance – level 37- Motes of Light – level 20- Explorer – level 30- Blessing of the Dawn – level 24- Eclipse – level 24- Eyes of the Ar – level 25- Righteous Fury – level 20- Azrael's Wings – level 17- Mirage Armor – level 12
General Skills- Bowcraft – level 7- Cartography – level 13- Skinning – level 5- Basic Daggers – level 2
Aptitudes- Languages: on, Elvish- Mana (Affinity): Light- Perceptive (Racial): +11 to Perception- Quick (Racial): +5 to Dexterity- Timing (Css): You have an innate sense of timingPatrons & Tithes- Deity: The Wanderer- Mentor: Lyeneru Silverleaf
Attributes- Vitality: 106 (+54)- Strength: 86 (+60)- Endurance: 36- Dexterity: 423 (+249)- Perception: 249 (+109)- Intelligence: 304 (+163)- Wisdom: 57
Equipment- on: Fmecaller Bow – level 51- Body: Studded Jacket – level 40- Hands: Fmecaller Bracers – level 44- Feet: Pathfinder Initiate Boots – level 4: Silver Guild Ring – level 3: Pathfinder Initiate Guild Ring – level 40
Evasion: 1147Dodge: 43.13%Resistance: 336Magical Damage Redu: 18.18%+12% to Attack speed.Attacks gain +10% additional damage as Fire.+10% to Movement speed.
Health: 1060/1060Stamina: 360/360Mana: 199/570 (371 Reserved)
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https:///series/1135403/dungeon-of-knowledge
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