"Ooh," Deacon mused as he looked at the three Fire-Affinity spells offered before him.
Cage of Fire (Uncommon) – Conjure a rectangular prison of fire that extends from your hand in response to your will, trapping a single target within a ring of blazing pillars. Anything attempting to pass through is seared by intense heat, and the cage tightens if the captive resists. The fire's durability, height, and burning strength scale with your Intelligence stat, allowing skilled pyromancers to restrain even powerful foes for a period.
"This sounds like a great one-person confinement ability," Deacon analyzed thoughtfully, eyes narrowing at the mention that it had the innate ability to tighten itself if the person captured within the cage tries to escape.
This could be both a good and a bad feature to have; however, the negatives seemed to outweigh the positives it held.
The upside was obvious: it gave him a spell that could lock someone down, an incredible tool for anyone who lacked restraints in their arsenal, especially if they lacked a restraining ability like himself.
But the downside was just as clear. If the target was as dumb as a goblinkey, a child of a goblin and donkey, of which there were surprisingly quite a many of, they might thrash themselves to death inside the cage in a panic. And if the target was intelligent, they could do the exact same thing — killing themselves on purpose to keep their secrets hidden once they realized how the spell worked.
"But it is a solid start," Deacon said as he turned his focus onto the second Fire Spell he was offered.
Volcanic Breath (Uncommon) – Exhale a dense, sulfurous cloud that spreads and obscures vision. Only you may see clearly through the choking smoke, granting a decisive tactical advantage for ambush or retreat. The cloud is flammable and may ignite violently if exposed to open flame. Its radius, thickness, and irritant potency scale with your Wisdom stat.
"Noxious + Explosive breath," Deacon surmised. This spell was both an escape ability and an attacking one. He could use a large chunk of his mana reserves when coming face to face with a powerful foe and shroud them in the sulfurous cloud to make them lose sight of him and make a getaway, like a squid expelling its ink when faced with a predator — maybe even ignite the cloud once he was far enough away and the foe was still inside it to cause even more disorientation.
Or he could use it for pure damage and flood an underground colony of giant ants with the sulfurous gas, and once the anthill was filled with it, he could ignite it and kill them all, and those that remained alive from the blast would get crushed from the weight of the earth collapsing on them.
"I could even use it for demolition as well," Deacon mused as he thought of filling a cavernous cave or a building with the gas and igniting it. "Would be useful for Guild Wars, when we inevitably get into one either due to my lip or Bonehead being Bonehead."
All in all, a pretty solid choice, one that wins over creating a cage of fire, Deacon nodded before his eyes went to his last offered Fire Spell.
Flame Lash (Uncommon) – Manifest a whip of searing fire extending from your hand, capable of striking foes at mid-range, disarming weapons, or dragging targets off balance. Each crack of the lash inflicts Blister upon impact. The lash's length, control, and destructive force scale with your Intelligence stat, allowing experienced casters to wield it with deadly precision.
"Wait, what?" Deacon muttered under his breath as he reread the spell's description before going back to the spell description of Cage of Fire. "My hand needs to be connected to the cage in order for it to form?"
"What the actual… why would anyone even take that spell, hell, why would anyone even make it?" Deacon asked himself in utter confusion. What was the point of making a caging spell that bound the captee and the jailer together? Especially so for a warrior, a front-line combatant like himself.
Shaking his head at the realization that the first spell offered to him in the Fire Spell section was useless, Deacon sighed. And Flame Lash doesn't look too promising either, given how I could just add a whip as one of the forms Echoform Reliquary could have.
Meaning that the only truly unique and useful spell of the three Fire Spells is Volcanic Breath, Deacon sighed.
I can only hope the Blood Affinity spells aren't as bad, Deacon prayed, before turning his head to the three spell pages on his right and beginning to read the first Blood-Affinity spell offered to him.
Blood Mark (Uncommon) – Imbuing a target with your own blood and casting Blood Mark grants you the ability to track the target's location and general direction. The mark's range, clarity, and longevity scales with your Willpower stat, along with the amount of blood you've imbued into your target.
"This sounds pretty solid," Deacon mused while scratching the side of his jaw.
This could be very useful not just for tracking down prey or following people back to their base after having knocked them out and interrogating them, but this spell could be very useful for keeping track of his Party, so that there wouldn't be a repeat like when he lost hold of Bonehead and almost couldn't find him in time.
Because while there is the compass tracker on the Party Tab on my Status Page, I won't be able to take it out every time, Deacon resounded to himself as he recalled what had happened after he and his Party killed the Lieutenant.
But can I try and manipulate it so that people with the mark can also sense each other and me? Deacon muttered while staring at the blood-inked spell page floating in front of him. If I could, that would be perfect, as it would give us a mental radar to keep track of where everyone is.
All in all, this is a solid pick by itself, and with experimentation, it would be an invaluable tool to have for Party cohesion. Deacon nodded to himself in agreement.
Blood Sense (Common) – Attune your senses to the pulse of life around you. Blood Sense allows you to detect nearby living beings by feeling the rhythm and flow of their blood. The perceptive radius, clarity, and detail you can discern scale with your Vitality and Perception, granting heightened awareness of movement, direction, and proximity—even through thin walls or darkness.
"Fuck, this is also good," Deacon grumbled as he finished reading the Blood Sense's spell description. This spell would be an overall massive boon to him as it would allow him to resolve a large issue he currently faced – his Perception.
While the spell wasn't a cure-all to his Perception issue, as Blood Sense wouldn't help him notice traps, illusions, or the undead that stalked without a heartbeat, it would let him track and anticipate the movements of the majority of living threats he was likely to encounter, which would be absolutely invaluable when in combat with anything warm-blooded.
Deacon exhaled through his nose. "It's limited… but it solves a lot of problems."
And more importantly, Blood Sense didn't have to stay limited. A thought tugged at the corner of his mind as he imagined combining both his passive ability of sensing mana with the ability to sense blood.
If I can merge the two… could effectively double– no, pentuple the number of creatures I can see, because practically everything has mana in it.
"Fuck me, this is tough," Deacon grumbled aloud as his gaze flickered from Blood Sense and Blood Mark – entirely putting Volcanic Breath out of his mind. Especially since he was going off of his own assumptions on his ability to evolve and manipulate blood spells, as the only other blood spell he had was one that was intrinsically connected with flame.
"Fuck it," he huffed before turning to face the last spell page offered to him. If the next spell wasn't any good, he would just toss a credit in the air, and if it landed on heads, then he would select Blood Sense, and if it landed on tails, he would select Blood Mark.
Vital Sacrifice (Uncommon) – By sacrificing a portion of your life force, you may restore either Stamina or Mana in moments of need. You may sacrifice up to 5% of your maximum Health each use. Once Vital Sacrifice is invoked, it cannot be used again until a recovery period has passed—this cooldown scales proportionally with the amount of Health sacrificed and your Vitality, Endurance, and Wisdom stats.
Deacon stared at the last Blood spell option offered to him with a blank face before he slowly got up from the grass and made his way deeper into the forest, still holding the Spellbook that dragged the six spell pages behind him. However, as he passed a red cedar tree, Deacon's right fist blurred forward and smashed into its bark, filling the silent forest with the sound of groaning wood before the tree finally toppled over.
All the while as he walked, he grumbled to himself about how unfair it was for him to have suddenly been given a new Affinity, and how it was causing him far more trouble than what he believed it to be worth.
Coming to a stop before a large pond, Deacon reached into his Spatial Sling Bag and pulled out his manaphone.
Holding the credit in between his teeth, Deacon quickly opened up the Notes app on his manaphone and quickly typed away each and every spell's description for future experimentation – something that would be quite useful considering the Floor Requirements to clear Floor 15; The Wizard's Tower.
This is bullshit, Deacon grumbled as he closed his Notes app and opened the only thing that helped him with every issue he had with indecision; a highly customizable spin the wheel app.
***
"In here?" Bonehead asked, tilting his skull as he watched a nearby zombie guard gesture down the corridor. The guard's index finger, with rotten flesh barely hanging onto it, trembled as it pointed toward the third pathway at the end of the hall.
"Okay, thanks," Bonehead said, giving the guard a friendly pat on the arm before shuffling off in the indicated direction. His footsteps echoed dully against the stone floors as he followed the hallway to its end, counting doorways and cracked sconces until he finally spotted the chamber Deacon had described.
A thick plume of pale, swirling smoke blocked the entrance, spilling lazily across the threshold. Bonehead stared at it for a long second, eye sockets narrowing.
"Huh. Deacon wasn't kidding," he muttered. "It really does look like the fumes from when he tried making those Health Potions in my lab." The smoke curled and rolled like boiling mist—light, hazy, and oddly familiar, lacking the oppressive, instinct-screaming danger Deacon had warned him about.
Bonehead leaned in closer, curiosity immediately outweighing caution.
I wonder if I can bottle some of this, he mused. Maybe I could finally get those Insta-Smoke Potions to work…
The idea occupied him for a moment, though another thought crept in—one that made him pause.
If anything… "Hell, it feels nostalgic?" he said aloud, confusion dripping into his tone. His hand passed through the haze and met no resistance. Just cool, drifting smoke.
With a shrug, Bonehead stepped through.
The world shifted in an instant. Gone were the dark stone halls and drifting haze. Instead, he found himself staring at the massive plated back of a towering vampire knight. The chamber around them was shockingly pristine, with bright marble floors, polished walls, and long, unbroken rows of undead stretching forward in an orderly line. At the front of that line rested a large, dark, oval basin brimming with smoke shaped like the flames of a campfire.
Bonehead leaned to the side and peeked around the vampire's waist.
One undead after another approached the basin, dunked their heads into the flame-shaped smoke… and were immediately blasted backward and launched clean out of an open window. The delayed splash of bodies meeting water echoed back into the chamber.
Bonehead stared, blinked, and very slowly nodded.
"… Nope."
Just as he began to take a careful step back, a soft shove pressed into his spine. A cold arm slid around him, guiding him forward in line. Bonehead turned—and found himself face-to-face with a female zombie whose armor plates did little to hide a very generous figure.
"Oh! Why hello, Maggie," he said, instantly brightening as he stepped back into place, all thoughts of danger evaporating from his mind. He gave her a playful wiggle of his brows. "Didn't expect to see you here?"
Maggie responded with a gurgling moan.
Bonehead cheerfully nodded, completely forgetting he had nearly panicked ten seconds earlier.