Unbalanced: A LitRPG Adventure (Class Shift Book 2), page 28
Your primary trait of Ephemeral has been upgraded to Ephemeral II. Control may still evade you, but you are learning how to work the balance in your favor. You have learned how to evolve skills, transfer skills to others, affect change in the world around you with your trait, and how to influence your class changes with your need. This can work in unanticipated ways, but keep going. There is more to discover.
Then, after that, he had gotten the notification regarding Consumption.
You have won a contested Consumption. Your ability to Consume has increased to Crucible of Consumption III. This will increase the speed of Consumption, reduce the impact on you, and potentially increase the percentage of energy you can absorb.
Since he was checking notifications, he looked at one of his quests to see how it was going. There was no notification, and he understood why when he looked at the quest. He hadn’t asked any specific questions about it. He felt his vision had given him a great deal more information about the patrons, but he still needed to find out the specific information.
Once everyone had finished their chests, they shared with each other what they gotten, and as expected, the chests had been customized. Then they headed out. When they reached the room where the prisoners were, they could only cover their mouths. All of the remaining prisoners were dead. There were no signs of violence, but it was like they had simply lost the will to live, and their hearts stopped beating.
Alin insisted on checking each body to be sure, but then they headed out. There, again, it was disappointing. They found footprints. The prisoners had wandered off. At least they had made it to the road. The problem was that they had taken the team’s horses. Magnor ranted for half an hour, but the others just ignored it. They could all run faster than most people and were mostly limited by Magnor and Alin.
It didn’t turn out to be that bad as they made it to the village that was closest to the dungeon on their way back to the city. There, they found the escaped prisoners and their horses. Tim left it to Kayla to sort out the matter with the mayor. Once the locals found out the levels of these sojourners, no one wanted to contest anything with them. They managed to buy a wagon, rent out the local inn, and buy food for themselves and the mostly silent former prisoners. They decided it would be best to spend the night there and left it at that.
Tim didn’t end up sleeping, as he didn’t want to risk a change yet. He was pretty sure that, even more than elementalist, this new class would not end up being his cup of tea. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to see what he could learn from it. Every class had come with its own unique way of seeing the world. They each affected his emotions, and he was curious how being a spiritualist would change him.
It dawned on him that that might be one of the ways that Ephemeral helped him grow. The more perspectives he had, the broader his thinking. Already he could feel how the spiritualist was affecting what he experienced around him. He had been able to sense the relative power of most people and monsters shortly after arriving in Iocusinte. Now that sense took on a different aspect. He also found that he could sense something else. He wanted to call it alignment, but that might be too much of an over-simplification.
Tim had always been agnostic. Not because he didn’t believe in a god, but simply because it didn’t have anything to do with his life. He didn’t care about greater issues of good and evil, only about how it might affect his day-to-day life. One thing he knew for sure, though, was that everyone was always the hero of their own story. Thus, someone might be the archvillain in your story, but to their thinking, they were doing the right thing.
His night had passed quickly as he was lost in thought. Even with the threat of the myemar, the battle for control of his mind and body, and godlike beings vying for him to serve them, Tim actually spent more time thinking about what, if anything, Kayla meant to him. The longer he thought about it, the more he thought she would end up being another one of those girlfriends who was fun to be with, but who would never cross the barrier between like and love. He didn’t know if there was that one person for him, or if he simply had a history of screwing up every possible relationship. For now, he put that out of his mind and was just content to sit in a chair outside the inn and watch the sun rise.
CHAPTER 37
PRICE MULTIPLIED
Shortly after the sun was up, Kayla came out to check on Tim. “I thought you might have visited my room last night.”
Tim turned from watching a young boy filling buckets of water at a well to smile at her. “I had a lot on my mind; and besides, I thought we were waiting until we got home.”
She nodded. “It’s good that you respect me and are patient, but remember, you can be too patient.”
“I’ve been guilty as charged in the past. I expect that Mischief slept with you, though.”
Now it was Kayla’s turn to smile. “Yeah, that mouse of yours likes to cuddle.” She paused for a couple seconds before continuing. “I’ve been thinking about your offer to buy part of the inn. If you are still willing, I’ll let you buy 25% of it. I don’t want to lose control now, but I appreciate you getting workmen to repair it. I don’t really have anyone to give it to if anything happens to me.” Then her voice trailed off.
“Bah, nothing is going to happen to you,” Tim replied.
“From what you’ve told me about your world, it is far more peaceful, but you know that isn’t the way things work here. Even normal life for a sojourner can be dangerous. With the threat from the myemar, I guess… well, what I mean to say is that I don’t want to keep waiting to find happiness tomorrow.”
Tim grabbed her hand. “You’ve been one of the few bright spots since I arrived. Thank you. And thank you for coming with me. I know that the guild may have ordered you to, but you could have escaped. I appreciate having someone I trust with me.”
Then she sat down on his lap and they watched the townsfolk going about their daily life for half an hour. The pleasant time was disrupted when a column of smoke was spotted rising a few miles to the south. It was too close to be New Rome, but Tim couldn’t help but wonder if the myemar were raiding towns now.
There was no rest for them, apparently. Alin and Magnor were already up inside the inn, so it was a simple matter to reclaim their horses and then head out to find what was going on. What they experienced inside the dungeon had only increased Tim’s desire to end all myemar.
They rode in silence, other than Magnor, who was mumbling under his breath. He had made a couple of comments about how they should simply report back to the guild and not get involved in things that they weren’t ordered to do. Neither Tim nor either of the girls would listen to him, so he ended up following along.
Tim reviewed his active skills. He had rearranged them overnight. The only melee skill he kept was his dual-wielding skill. He also kept his new unique assess spell, but after that, it was all healing, debuffs, and attack magic. The spiritualist didn’t have the massive amount of mana he had as an elementalist, but his regen rate was very high, so he could afford to maintain spells such as Column of Fire. His new hat reduced the cool down on his electrical and light spells, so that would become a bigger part of his arsenal.
He just had to think about things differently. There were still his Chaos abilities that he could rely upon. He had only been able to regenerate about a third of his Chaos before he left the dungeon, but that would have to be good enough. Tim had almost kept the four-arm form outside the dungeon, but he decided it didn’t make sense if he wasn’t a melee class.
After less than half an hour on the road, they found some merchants on horses riding toward them. They were screaming about monsters chasing them. Tim immediately had a sinking feeling. There was just a whiff of Chaos on them. The myemar were bad enough, but if fiends were going to start attacking, then the civilians were going to die in droves.
It confused him, though. Each time there had been a fiend outside of a dungeon, he had sensed a great deal of Chaos. Tim didn’t know how those portals were created or what the requirements were. In fact, it made him realize he needed to speak to a summoner and see if there was something missing. But one thing they all had in common was that they all were around him. The word ‘tests’ went through his mind.
All of the attacks so far had been about testing him. They were meant to either kill him or push him to see the need for joining Quint. Bal’drock had as much as told him that the tests would continue until he gave in. The relationship between the archfiend and what he now believed was a former patron was murky. Tim didn’t understand what was going on between them, beyond two bad guys helping each other and both expecting to get the better of the other.
Then, as he watched more of the merchants fleeing, a wave of panic swept through him. If the fiend attacks were directed at him, then maybe they could be directed at people he cared about. Thankfully, that list was pretty short now, but there was a certain merchant and his daughter who were near the top of that list.
Tim moved his horse to stop one of the fleeing merchants. “Hold up.”
The man looked panicked. “Get out of my way. They’re coming.”
“I’ve heard that. We will stop whatever monsters these are, but I need to know something.”
The man seemed to suddenly realize that Tim was a sojourner. “Oh, yes. You have to kill those monsters. I can get my goods back. I won’t be ruined. Please. Please.”
Tim wished he had a spell to calm the man down. Maybe there was something like that, although mind-affecting magic seemed to be in short supply in Iocusinte. “Was there a merchant named Atticus and his daughter Cecelia in your caravan?”
Fear and confusion ran across the man’s face before he groaned. “Yes. I talked to Atticus. They were headed back to New Rome like the rest of us. The war there makes for a good market. We can sell goods at a higher price.”
Tim shook his head. The more he heard from this man, the less he was interested in helping him. “Did they escape?”
Then the man’s fear took on a different aspect. Suddenly, it was as though he was afraid of Tim. “Uhh… don’t know. I just freed my horse and rode as fast as I could.” He grabbed on to Tim’s arm. “Everyone did. I swear it. I’m sure they did too.”
Tim pushed the man away and then spurred his horse on. Kayla had been listening and fell in next to his horse. The other two were already ahead of them as they hadn’t stopped. His mind was racing now. If this attack was targeted at Atticus because Quint… No. Tim had to let that thought go. It wasn’t his fault.
Then other things started to make sense. The concerted attack on the Four Patrons Inn. That was probably meant to manipulate him into accepting the Crucible of Consumption. It was only then that he started getting these truly dark thoughts. Some of the things the attackers had been screaming made sense now.
Tim groaned and shook his head. He had been being played long before he even realized it. There were others working for Quint inside of New Rome already. That had to be how the myemar got access to the city at first. Oh, he’d been so stupid. He just didn’t know enough to make the right decisions.
It all came back to him. But why? The answer was obvious. Something about the trait that Cal-Dakota had given to him made him able to break the rules of the pact among the patrons. Semona wanted him on her side and had offered to change his trait. Quint wanted him, but needed that trait.
The vision he had experienced came back to him. As he dissected it, he drew a new conclusion. There were truly four patrons for Iocusinte and one being who had gathered them. Cal-Dakota hadn’t been one of the original patrons. Quint had; or rather, Azmarin had. The Cult of Azmarin had popped up around New Rome recently, according to what he had been told. It only made sense that there was a connection. It had been staring him in the face, but Tim had been too dense to see it before. He berated himself as they rode.
The number of merchants began to dwindle. It had likely been a large caravan with dozens of merchants. The man he had stopped had been right about one thing. The state of war that New Rome was in would be a great opportunity for merchants.
Then Mischief sent him a sensory input. The mouse could smell a familiar scent. Tim wouldn’t have been able to pick it out, from the smoke and other scents, but Mischief was able to recognize Cecelia’s perfume. Thank goodness for Mischief.
“Mischief can smell her perfume,” Tim said as he pushed his horse harder.
Kayla didn’t ask who he meant and simply rode faster alongside him.
Within another minute, they came up to a group of wagons that were circled. There were men and women with crossbows atop the wagons, but others were wounded and lying in the wagons. A trio of fiends were circling around the wagons.
As near as Tim could tell, the creatures were playing with the merchants. The crossbows shouldn’t have been enough to drive off the fiends. He could feel the fiends’ power level put them around level 10. Nothing for him to worry about, but far more than the merchants could handle.
Tim also saw both Atticus and Cecelia brandishing weapons. Trust Atticus to try to flee with wagons full of the wounded. He wouldn’t have been the type to simply grab a horse and flee with his head. No, the man was too good for his own good. He would have sacrificed his life to save others that he barely knew.
At least that wouldn’t happen today. Tim fired off an Electric Arc as soon as he was close enough, but kept riding past the injured fiend. That one would be for Magnor to deal with. Then he cast Chains of Celestial Light and caught one of the fiends as it was about to leap up onto one of the wagons. The chains weakened it and bound it. Kayla leapt off her horse, so Tim knew she would finish it. That was her specialty.
Then Tim slid off the side of his horse. He allowed himself to fall into its shadow and carried that momentum into a Shadow Step that launched him out of a shadow on the far side of the wagon ring. It effectively turned his fall into a foot-first leap at the third fiend. He immediately cast Grand Touch of Weakness on it and then was on it with one sword and his other hand free for casting.
The eleven levels he had on it made it so almost every hit was a devastating critical. It screeched at him, “Hungry. Manling has Chaos.”
Tim didn’t even bother with a response. This fiend was attacking people he cared about. Now it was just his foe, but it was also his food. One doesn’t talk to their food unless they have very poor manners, and Tim simply wanted the XP he could gain from this death.
A part of him realized there were competing influences in him. He fought, blocking every claw blow until his cool down on his chain spell ran out, and then he cast it again. Doubly debuffed, the fiend was easy prey. Tim could have taken its head but instead cut off one clawed hand and then the other. It was weakened, and as he drove his sword into its chest, he began to pull at its life essence.
The power of life and Chaos swarmed into him. It was so much more powerful when taken from a living being rather than the blood of the dead. He felt the rush surge through him and chose to turn it into XP without a moment of hesitation. He gained 1,684 XP as the creature struggled and then broke down in front of him, dissipating into motes of light as the last of its energy was ripped from it. The XP wasn’t enough to push him to level 22, but it was another step forward.
Tim turned and saw that the other two fiends had already been killed. He frowned as he thought about the wasted energy, but he forced down the frustration and wiped the hungry look off his face. This wasn’t something he could share with them, not even with Kayla.
CHAPTER 38
MOUSE CUDDLES
Tim softened as he reunited with his friends. Kayla was already hugging Cecelia, and he was pretty sure that Mischief was between the two of them, offering mouse cuddles and living his best life. Tim chose instead to speak to Atticus, who attempted to profusely thank him.
“You don’t need to thank me. You could have escaped, but you had to try to save these others. Don’t even bother denying it. I know that is just the kind of man you are, and I’ve already benefited from it. I imagine how badly my entry into Iocusinte could have gone had I been greeted by someone else.”
Atticus smiled back at him and gripped Tim’s arm, as was their custom. “Looks like stopping that day was one of the best things I could have done. I’m prepared to die if I have to. Being a traveling merchant may not be as risky as dungeon diving, but it is a hard life. I just want better for Cecelia.”
“Have you tried to get her to stay behind?”
Atticus laughed. “She’s a force of nature. She doesn’t take commands very well, even from me, and when she gets it in her head to do something, good luck trying to stop her.”
Tim saw the two women walking over to them. Cecelia couldn’t have been more than an inch or two over 5’0” and had a slender build. She was as beautiful as Tim remembered and perhaps seemed to have lost some of her youthful appearance. There was a hardness around her eyes, which was likely a victim of recent hardships.
When she saw him, she ran and jumped on him. Tim didn’t have any choice but to catch her in his arms. He didn’t miss Kayla’s pursed lips. Still, it was hard to stop the girl’s exuberance. She kissed his cheek, but at least it had only been his cheek. Something about her made him feel more light-hearted, despite all the turmoil raging within him.
He set her down, and she exclaimed, “I knew you’d find us. I’m sorry for acting like a child before. I already apologized to Kayla. I know you’re with her, and I won’t get in the way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Right?”
The words tumbled out of her so quickly that Tim barely had time to process them. When he did, he said, “Of course we are friends. Now I should probably help Alin with healing the wounded.”
With that, he disengaged and moved away, but he heard Mischief in his head. “I like her. You need to smile more. Life isn’t all about frowning.”
