Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 23: Gains

Deciding to take a moment and read the rest of the messages I'd had Caraid save for me, I opened up the chat interface and quickly scanned previous announcements. I ignored combat messages, quickly dismissing them, I had dealt with injuries already, so knowing where, when and how I was injured was meaningless. I could get into the mathematics of the fight and worry about min/maxing my build later.

[You have created a new spell Fire + Air: Spell Fireball - Damage contains an AOE effect, splash damage ticks for 3% damage every five seconds (effect lasts 5 * (Rank + Level) seconds.]

[Spell ignores Armor Rating.]

[Damage mitigated based on targets Magic and Fire Resistance.]

[Belenos Aura has been upgraded to allow you to negate illusion. Note: Light reveals the hidden and dispels the shadow as such, sight and sound have no sway in the light of Belenos reach.]

[Spell Fire: Absorb Shield level has increased - Level 2

[Spell Nature: Heal Other level has increased - Level 2]

[Spell Fire + Air: Fireball level has increased - Level 3]

[Spell Air: Wind Blast has increased - Level 2]

[You have been blessed by Wild Magic and the Goddess Danu - Blessing Danu's Kiss - The wee folk, sprites, and earth elementals will obey your commands.]

[You can call upon the Wild Magic to enhance any spell cast once every third day.]

[When claiming land, you have been granted the ability to open a Sithern as your place of power. The Sithern you create will conform and move to your will after creation.]

[Actions have consequences. All Seelie factions have increased by 1000]

[All Olympian and Asgardian factions decrease by 1000]

[You have been awarded the Title - Summerland's Protector]

[Summerlands Protector: 25% increase to all stats while in Summerlands]

[You have discovered and thwarted the plans of the Olympian Pantheon. You have been awarded the Title - Zeus' Bane]

[Zeus' Bane: 5% increase to spell power against Olympian enemies.]

"Status," I thought opening my stat window to see how the changes were applied.

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Name: Mac De Belenos Prince: Level 1 (Pending)

Title: Summerland's Protector Title: Zeus' Bane

Danu's Kiss: You have been blessed by Wild Magic and the Goddess Danu.

The wee folk, sprites, and earth elementals will obey your commands.

You can call upon the Wild Magic to enhance any spell cast once every third day.

Sithern's created by you will conform and move to your will after creation.

Health Pool: 2400 (2802) Magic Strength: 3600 (4002)

Strength: 14.01 (2.01) Agility: 14.01 (2.01)

Intellect: 20.01 (2.01) Will Power: 20.01 (2.01)

Affinities:

Earth Affinity: 15% Air Affinity: 32%

Water Affinity: 15% Fire Affinity: 85%

Nature Affinity: 70% Death Affinity: 15%

Mind: 55%

Skill:

One-Handed Sword: Master Rank

Dagger: Journeyman Rank Medium Shield: Master Rank

Armor: Master Rank Perception: Expert Rank

Belenos Aura:

An ability associated with those whose lineage and bloodline trace back to the God Belenos, allows the user to create a fiery aura that protects the individual, heals damage and inflicts burning effect damage to enemies. True sight is active within Aura radius, dispels all illusions.

Spells:

Nature's Blessing: Allows the individual to commune with and claim lands and bind with the land's spirit: warning the binding process works both ways. The individual is claimed by the land as much as the land is claimed by the individual.

Fire: Fire Blast (Level 1) Fire: Absorb Shield (Level 2)

Fire + Air (New): Fireball (Level 3) Nature: Heal Self (Level 1)

Nature: Heal Other (Level 2) Air: Wind Blast (Level 2)

Air: Gale Force (Level 1) Air + Fire: Light Globe (Level 1)

Portal: Summerland (Personal Lands) Portal: Talahm

Faction:

Seelie +2000 (Liked) Unseelie +2000 (Liked)

Olympian -1000 (Not Trusted) Asgardian -1000 (Not Trusted)

"Caraid?" I wondered. "Why does it say level 'Pending'?"

[Experience and advancement earned are only potential until incorporated.]

[They are the possibilities of what could be if you are able to add them to your realized status.]

[Think of the experience as a form of battery. Storing the energy, you need to break through and advance. But this potential energy is inert, it needs you to incorporate it, to somehow transform it from potential to actual.]

"How did you actualize your experience then?" I asked.

[I didn't.]

[I hadn't Ascended yet. Before Ascension, skills may be added and leveled up, but Rank is fixed.]

[But I know how it is done. Meditation, cultivation, or channeling.]

[You cycle the potential energy as you meditate, cultivate or channel, selecting a technique that you are most comfortable with, and enhancing those stats you wish to advance.]

"So, no level-ups during fights that restore me to perfect health and refresh stamina and health?" I guessed.

[No. Your 'build' will reflect the decisions you make, but only after you have reflected and have the time to make those choices.]

"How about attributes? I don't gain strength as I level up?"

[You do. But it is linear.]

[You can choose to add points you gained as you level to Strength to increase it that way. But if all stats increase by .1 per level. So even if ignored by the time you reach level 10, that stat point will have increased by 1.]

[A Prince level 2 with a strength of 12.1 is a tenth as strong as a Prince level 1 with a strength of 12. By the time you reach Prince Level 10, although your attribute points and distribution may appear to have only increased by 1, the real value is ten times more than the beginning strength. You will have an effective strength of 13.]

[The system makes a distinction based on levels. Your attributes allow you to compare numbers with another individual of equal rank.]

[You have to remember a ranked Prince with a strength of 12 is exponentially stronger than a ranked Commoner with a strength of 12.]

"I get it. The numbers are really only there to allow me to understand how I compare with someone of the same rank. So, there's no way for me to min/max my abilities?" I asked.

[There are three ways to increase attributes, so it's possible to 'min/max' as you suggest. One is hard work. Weight train. Study. Build up your strength and intellect through hard work.]

[The second, you receive 4 stat points to distribute each time you level up. You can use those points to create a 'build' you are most suited for.]

[And finally, the other is to wear gems, armor, weapons, and jewelry that have an effect that adds to attributes. That is the most common method. Sidhe, especially Royal Sidhe, tend to rely on artifacts to inflate their abilities.]

Watching as Ril piled the loot he'd accumulated from looting in front of me, I decided it was time to focus on more immediate issues. "Would the two of you like to explain your actions?

"Why and how you disappeared?

"And why did you wait to enter the fight until you did?" I demanded.

Exchanging a glance, Ril seemed to give permission for Gil to speak for them. "Our affinities are mostly light-based. We can bend and refract all spectrums of light making it appear as if we have disappeared.

"We haven't of course, we just bend and refract the light so those items around us, seamlessly obfuscate our position. It's as if we weren't there. It allows us to camouflage our location.

"Our light abilities are how we killed the last three Artemis' daughters. Concentrated light rays are hard to defend against," Gil explained.

They'd developed freaking laser beams!

"We've been trained in this method of fighting. Hidden from sight gives as a true advantage" he continued. "At the first sign of trouble, we fade from sight. Assess the situation, and only reveal ourselves when it is strategically possible to make the greatest impact, or if our ward is in imminent threat of death."

"You hid, I get that. But why didn't you help when we were surrounded and attacked?" I asked.

"You are a ranked Prince. Even with what appeared to be overwhelming odds, we reasoned you would be able to defend yourself. And it made no sense for the enemy not to have hidden forces in case the ambush failed.

"Until we could identify those forces, or your we determined your life may be in real danger, it made more sense to remain hidden."

It made sense. Intellectually, I even agreed with the tactics employed. If I knew about them in advance. If I had been a Ranked Prince for more than a few hours. I had no training, no time to practice and get used to my skills.

Emotionally? Emotionally it felt like they had left Cedric and me as front-line fodder to withstand the initial attacks. And if there had been no hidden forces, they would have never engaged.

It seemed as if they had abandoned us. And although I knew Cedric wasn't a child. He had reached ascension and was ranked a Squire, higher than the Commoner rank of Gil and Ril. I still considered him inexperienced.

Even if he was twice my age, the Squire label was messing with my perceptions of who and what he was capable of. Pages and Squires in my world were children being trained in the way of battle. And children had no business having arrows shot into their chests.