Well, that takes a load off my shoulders, Deacon mused as he ducked out of the tent and let the flap fall closed behind him. The sudden brightness of daylight forced him to squint and throw a hand up to shield his eyes. For a moment, his vision blurred white, then slowly, the world sharpened back into focus.
When they finally adjusted, he took in the view stretching across the valley below camp—the blackened skeleton of Dawn's Breath, still coughing up smoke into the sky.
What greeted him was not the grandeur of Dawn's Breath holding back the massive force of the undead army, but the broken shell of it.
Smoke still curled from collapsed towers in the distance, rising in thin gray ribbons that smeared the sky. Through the massive gap in the Outer Wall, he saw rows of houses and buildings reduced to rubble — everything within five hundred meters of the North Gate flattened beyond recognition.
Nothing had been left untouched.
Even the brilliant mosaics that decorated the sides of some buildings near the Inner Wall were now nothing more than charred rubble half-buried under siege debris.
Deacon took a slow breath through his nose, exhaled, and rolled his shoulders as he began walking away from the undead camp and away from the sight of the crumbling kingdom. His boots crunched over brittle grass and ash as he moved away from camp — past the smithing stations, past the tall pikes hammered into the earth, past the quiet patrols that gave him tired nods when they recognized him as one of their own by the bandana on his forehead.
Eventually, he crossed the last line of wagons and supply crates and continued on until the land sloped down toward a thin stretch of forest at the edge of the valley.
Smelling the wondrous scent of pines, wet grass, and wood, Deacon immediately felt at ease as it washed out the scent of ash, burning flesh, blood, and bile.
After a short jog and a quick scan of the area with a sweep of his eyes, he spotted a decent clearing and veered toward the base of a broad sycamore. Once he was satisfied that he was alone, he finally let himself drop. He slid down with his back against the tree and sat heavily in the grass, stretching out his legs in front of him with a small grunt.
"Alright," he muttered, rubbing a hand down his face. "Let's see what we pulled from all that bullshit."
He lifted a palm and cast Gouge Ground lazily beside him, carving a shallow fire pit into the dirt. He stuffed it with kindling from his Spatial Sling Bag, then snapped his fingers. Ignis flickered to life, and the kindling immediately caught flame.
Once it was burning steadily, he pulled out a stack of mana-infused parchment and tossed the first one into the fire and catching it as it shot back out of the flame with blackened edges.
Spell Upgrade: [Cleanse (Initiate → Common)]
Spell Upgrade: [Flame Mine (Common → Rare)]
Skill Upgrade: [One-Handed Weapon Mastery (Uncommon → Uncommon+)]
Skill Upgrade: [Shield Mastery (Common → Uncommon)]
Spell Learned: [Flame Art: Flame Steps (Uncommon)]
Spell Upgrade: [Gouge Ground (Initiate → Common)]
Achievement Gained: [Saga Walker I]
"Well… damn," Deacon muttered with a faint grin. "That's a good sight to see."
He opened his full Status next, letting his eyes run down the page:
Deacon Surtr Hayes
Race: Jötunn Lv 16
Class: Warrior Lv 16
Health: 1220/1220
Mana: 400/400
Stamina: 1089/1089
Stats:
Vitality: 118 +4 (Lesser Heart-Fire Ritual)
Strength: 127 (133)
Endurance: 99 (103) +5 (Lesser Heart-Fire Ritual)
Agility: 72
Intelligence: 37
Wisdom: 40
Willpower: 60
Perception: 33 (34)
Free Points: 6
General Skills: Identify (Initiate), Meditation (Initiate)
Class Skills: One-Handed Weapon Mastery (Uncommon+), Shield Mastery (Uncommon), Academy of Beginnings Sword Style (Rare), Blistering Flames (Rare)
Spells: Fire [Spark (Initiate), Ignis (Uncommon), Flame Armament (Uncommon), Flame Mine (Rare), Flame Art: Flame Steps (Uncommon)], Water [Water Ball (Initiate), Cleanse (Common)], Earth [Gouge Ground (Common)], BloodFlame: [Ignis Sanguinis: BloodFlame Armament (Epic)]
Affinities: Fire (High) – Innate skill: Undying Flame, Blood (High) – Innate skill: Locked
Achievements: Finder of the Hidden II[+10 All Stats], Saga Walker I [+10 All Stats & 5% to Perception]
For a moment, he only stared, letting it sink in, and then a slow grin spread across his face.
He'd grown – he'd pushed his mastery of his weapons and tools in his arsenal to the absolute limit and managed to raise his combat skills by leaps and bounds.
Both of his combat masteries had climbed: One-Handed Weapon Mastery was now at Uncommon+, while Shield Mastery had pushed into Uncommon. And while it might not sound like much, Skills and Spells weren't like ones that you read in comics or like the ones in shows that, with the power of friendship, they grew stronger.
They were measured, graded, and constantly being compared to others by the System with everyone with the same Skill and or Spell. Adding onto what he recently pieced together, he wasn't just being compared with every cadet in existence when they were in their Tier 1, but also those beyond the Tower – those residing in the Multiverse.
And he was already beginning to outpace them just a few months after gaining his Class.
His grin faded into something quieter, more thoughtful. Dawn's Breath, the Pontiff, the siege, the treasure hunt – those had been brutal, but they were still only Tower problems.
What Moira wrote… what he saw with his father… that was different. The Multiverse, the place beyond the Tower's fifty floors, held beings just as strong as his father, a man who had cleared the Tower… and beings like Moira, who were supposedly on the level of gods. He was just a frog in a well, and everything beyond that well was a world of countless dangers that could crush him without effort.
Which means I need to push myself to be stronger and not be complacent, Deacon muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing at the flickering flames before him.
Stronger than Skalvorn, the one who'd tried to kill him and attacked his father.
Stronger than Moira claimed to be.
Strong enough to reach the level of a god—no… to surpass it.
His fists clenched once around his knees before he willed the tension out of his body and exhaled slowly. Ambition without discipline was suicide, and he had no intention of dying here as a Tier 1 footnote.
Reigning back in his thoughts, he tapped his newly earned achievement next, opening its description.
Achievement Unlocked: Saga Walker I
Saga Walker I:
You have completed your first Linked Quest. Gain: +10 All Stats & 5% to Perception.
"Simple enough," he murmured, though his thoughts were already drifting forward. If this were only the first tier of the title, like Finder of the Hidden I and II, what would the next reward be once he reached the next Linked Quest Floor?
Satisfied with his Status Page gains, Deacon folded it up and tucked it away into his Spatial Sling Bag, where he took out two of his rewards that he gained from the Linked Quest Floors: the Sanctified Sunstone that he got as a reward from delivering the final blow and killing the Pontiff, and Veladoros, the holy blade that was embedded in his neck – of which to this point, he had no idea how he survived.
Item Name: Sanctified Sunstone
Type: Material – Infusion Catalyst
Rarity: Rare
Description: A polished golden-hued crystal that holds a trace of consecrated sunlight. It is used in holy forging rites to bless equipment, granting it radiant alignment and Holy-based effects once merged.
Effect: When provided to a skilled Blacksmith, the Sunstone can be merged into a weapon, armor, or accessory to grant a Holy Blessing. The rarity and potency of the Holy Blessing are entirely determined by the blacksmith's intent and skill. Items infused with the stone may gain various Holy effects, such as increased damage to corrupted beings, purification properties, or radiant defensive blessings.
Duration: Permanent upon successful infusion.
Item Name: Veladoros
Type: Weapon – Holy Longsword
Rarity: Epic
Description:
A revered holy blade once wielded by a human paladin who rose to the rank of Pontiff in service to Azul after having united the human kingdoms of his continent together under the banner of the Sun God and reigning as their Pontiff-King. After ascending to the rank of Pontiff-King for decades, he channeled his unwavering faith and devotion into Veladoros, saturating the weapon with his pure reverence towards Azul's radiance.
Effect: Deals radiant damage and increases effectiveness against unholy, undead, and corrupted entities. Its power scales with the wielder's Willpower.
Requirement: Lv 20+, Humanoid, Connection with a Sun God.
"Wait," Deacon muttered to himself as he read the requirement in order to wield Veladoros. "Connection with a Sun God?"
… Wasn't Huitzilopochtli a Sun God? He asked himself as he quickly took out the grimoire and skimmed through its last couple of pages, and read the massive seventeen-page chapter explaining the history of Huitzilopochtli.
He was, Deacon confirmed as his finger traced the words Sun God as one of the titles Huitzilopochtli had. And since I formed a connection with that hummingbird fuckhead, that means that once I reach level 20, I can use this longsword.
… Nice, Deacon shrugged before putting both the Sanctified Sunstone and Veladoros back into his Spatial Sling Bag and took out the final item that he received from the Link Quests: The Affinity Attuned Spell Book.
Taking out the rather hefty spellbook, Deacon looked over its scaled crimson cover that was split in half with some material that looked like moving magma and closed by a leather clasp.
Item Name: Fire-Attuned and Blood-Attuned Spellbook
Type: Tool – Spellbook
Rarity: Unique
Description:
A dual-attuned spellbook created by the Tower as a reward for Deacon Surtr Hayes upon his participation in Generation 327's Floor Seven Linked Quest. Its pages contain three Fire-Affinity spells and three Blood-Affinity spells. However, only one spell can be learned from the spellbook and bound to your soul.
Effect: Contains 3 Fire Spells and 3 Blood Spells of random rarity. The user may learn only one spell from the spellbook. Upon successfully learning a spell, all remaining spells within the book crumble to ash and are lost.
Requirement: Deacon Surtr Hayes.
So, I've lost three Fire-Affinity spells in order to fit my new Blood Affinity, Deacon mused with a slight grimace, as normally, when given a spellbook, a total of six spells would be offered in relation to an Affinity. Due to him having dual Affinities, he would receive three spells for his Fire Affinity and three spells for his Blood Affinity, and while this might sound good, it made it much harder to choose which spell he wanted.
A Single Affinited Spellbook would have been much easier to deal with, Deacon mused to himself while letting out a sigh and a prayer in hopes that the spells offered would be good, Deacon unbuckled the clasp of the Spellbook and was greeted with the spellbook snapping open and fluttering pages to rush around him.
"Ooh, this should be good," Deacon muttered while looking around with a bit of childish wonder as he waited for the fluttering of pages to end and six pages to hover in front of his face, showing off the spells he was offered.
Without even reading them, he already knew which of the spell pages were of which Affinity, on the observation of two things:
The first difference was obvious: the purity of the Fire and Blood mana oozing from each spell page was as distinct as the taste of a strawberry versus raspberry ice jam — one tasted like delicious goodness while the other tasted like the spawn of a goblin and a bog spider.
The second difference was in the text's font and coloring. Three of the pages looked as though they were written in living fire, their fonts swaying like a campfire's flames, while the other three looked as though they were inked in a deep, churning blood – thankfully, the spell pages they were atop of didn't look like it was written on dried flesh.
Looking to the three spell pages on his left, Deacon saw the Fire-Affinity spells being offered to him and quirked up a brow.