Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 250
-
Locked.
Spear Cannon 1.
When HP is at or below 10%, shoot a beam of light from your spear to damage enemy attackers, with a Strength multiplier of 3.0.
[22 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 8, Hardiness 8] [125 XP to unlock].
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Improve to Spear Cannon 2 to increase Strength multiplier to 3.4. [24 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 10, Hardiness 10] [250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: 0 –> 1
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 125
TOTAL POLEARM SKILL XP COST: 375
Skills for Special Class: Skillmeister
-
Precision Training 2.
Reduce the XP cost of skills and attributes by 1%.
[Passive] [Requires: Focus 6, Resolve 7].
-
Improve to Precision Training 3 for XP cost reduction of 3%. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 7, Resolve 9] [1125 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 0
TOTAL SKILLMEISTER SKILL XP COST: 0
Summary
-
Available XP: 1002
Cost of Intended Changes: 975
Precision Training Discount (2%): 20
Total Adjusted Cost: 955
Total Projected Remaining: 52
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
Alright Duul, I thought, you evil bastard. I’m either ready or I’m not.
+23
That night, we had our feast as promised. Twenty-five new settlers sat on both sides of a long wooden table that one of our new carpenters fixed for the occasion, along with wooden chairs. Mamba, Cindra, Vix, and I sat at the end of the table, closest to Nola, with Ambry and Lily.
“We have a working gold mine now,” Cindra said, “and a way to extract raw energems. You should see the mine, those rocks glitter like stars in the dark rocky tunnels.”
Mamba set her wine on the table. “Everyone wants my snakies to help them work faster. They love all the attention.”
I took a long sip of my own wine. It was valeberry wine, a sweet, earthy drink from fruits that grew around Valleyvale. It was one more reason to hope Valleyvale didn’t fall to Duul’s forces. Where would we get wine from if the whole city was cursed?
Our new culinarian brought another platter to our end of the table.
“I can’t eat all of this,” Vix said, “it’ll go to my hips.”
“Not me,” Cindra said, “it goes right to my boobs.”
“By all means,” I said, “indulge. It’s not every night we have a spread like this. In fact, have seconds!”
It was a wonderful meal, interrupted only by the festive tunes from our new bard who plucked on a stringed instrument in the corner. He had a cup of wine to himself, and seemed lost in his own music.
Mamba stood and took my hand.
“No,” I said, “I’m tired, and I’m a bad dancer, and I’m still eating—”
“I’m a good teacher,” she said. “Music fills the soul when body hungers for body.”
I wanted to argue, but I was at a total loss for how. Mamba dragged me toward the music and began to gyrate her hips against mine.
I let my own hips move with hers. She quickly fell into some kind of trance, rippling her abdominal muscles and bending in wild ways. Her muscle control was enviable. My hands slipped further down her body to support her weight as she arced further and further. Finally, her hands brushed against the floor while her pelvis ground against mine.
She was the most flexible woman the gods had ever created.
Or so I imagined. I had never seen anyone bend in so many ways. Something soft brushed against my ear.
Vix whispered, “I built you a private room. From the tunnel behind the altar, you can’t miss it.” Then she continued her walk toward the bard, where she began to dance on her own. Soon Cindra joined her.
I knew what Vix was insinuating, and I was thankful for the info.
“Why don’t we dance in private?” I asked.
“Okay,” Mamba said, “but you lead.”
“That I can do,” I promised. Here was a woman who had been cast aside by the elves for being a gypsy, and by the gypsies for being an elf. In a way, she was emblematic of the home we were creating here. We were all runaways or castaways of one form or another, bound together in pursuit of safety and community.
I admired Mamba for being such a free spirit despite the way people had treated her. I pushed open the door behind the altar and found another door, newly constructed, where there hadn’t been one before. In my old life, this was the vestry where Cahn kept the silk gowns he bought with the temple’s money.
In my new life, this was my own private getaway. A room where I could let my guard down, stop being Head Priest Arden, founder of a new city, and just be myself. A man who accepted a role in this world beyond bat extermination.
The stone door muffled the sound of eating and drinking, dancing and singing from the temple’s front chamber. It also muffled the sound of Mamba panting and screaming as we explored each other’s private pleasures. She was a loud one indeed.
+24
“Arden,” a woman said. She stood before two city gates made of white metal. They gleamed with a power all their own. I was dreaming, of a place and a person I had never met.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I am the Great Mother,” she said. “I was speaking with Nola a moment ago, but Duul interrupted. He is powerful, Arden. Perhaps too powerful.”
“Are we doomed?” I asked. “Is there any point to all this?”
“I cannot see the future,” she said, “but I know a bright one will depend on you. The goddess you serve is in a unique position in the pantheon. Her family ties put her in position to inherit powers from every branch of the family of the gods. I was in a similar position once, during the first God War. My heart goes out to her.”
“What do you mean inherit?” I asked.
“When a god dies, any power they accumulated does not die with them. They pass each power to the next of kin. Not the god’s next of kin per se, but the power’s next of kin. Often these powers travel from parent to child, but not always. Nola is directly related to many gods with powers she may inherit, and she is the appropriate receptacle for many more. She cannot know that yet though. The burden would be too great for a young goddess to bear.”
“So the gods that have died already?” I asked.
“Minor deities for the most part, with powers that are inconsequential,” she said. “Tonight, however, things changed. Sajia was taken from us. Her power will devolve to Nola.”
“That’s Nola’s mother,” I said.
“And my niece,” the Great Mother said. “Nola was a rebellious young goddess, seeking a temple in the farthest parts of the human lands. It is that distance that may yet save her. Duul’s forces have spread far and wide, but he is strongest here, near the Imperial City. Use this time to gather your army, Arden Hochbright. Make your parents proud.”
“Did you know my parents?” I asked. “Who were they?”
The Great Mother shimmered from new, as did the pearlescent gates of what I now knew belonged to the Imperial City. The human lands’ central stronghold and home to the Great Mother’s temple.
In its place emerged the view of a rocky mountain slope with thousands of shining faces, each as black as pitch with sharp menacing mouths and no eyes. Each grouping of cretin soldiers had a general with them, and dozens of war dogs on tight leashes.