PenguinKills
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Chapter 208 - Frozen Rift
🕑 Added 2024-12-30 21:01:01 +0000 UTCTo the Icy Bastion that Shields me,
Oh boy, has it been a roller coaster. I thought I would go on a cool little adventure to find out what my Profession was so pushy about yet it has turned into something more, so much more.
Honestly, I'm just glad that you ignored my advice and kept traveling North because if you listened to me, we would have been drawn into an endless fight with these infernal creatures.
Not infernal in the same sense as what you were dealing with, but infernal in the sense that they will be forever the bane to my existence! I swear, even after burning their gore off of me with both intense light and fire, in addition to a vigorous shower and scrubbing, I still find bits of their shell and goo still covering me!
What I thought would be a fun few days of insect extermination has turned into months of slogging through their numbers with my newfound friends. The City leader down here reminds me a lot of you and your father. Ever the stoic and dutiful!
Oh, if I could only show you the face he makes when I rile him up!
He seems like a good man and a good leader, which is more than some of the others I have met. I won't go into detail, but let's just say not everyone I met along my journey got pointed in your direction.
But enough about that, I have other news! Well, various bits of other news.
Mainly, we are making progress!
With my strength, I am one of the strongest here and that entails fighting at the front and I do not envy what you do. I want my hunk of ice shield back so I can use you to block everything. Fighting this way is so much harder!
But, with my help, Marcus and his army are getting better and better at fighting off the bugs and we are finally making meaningful gains in this war. We are marching toward their center as the days pass.
I've felt the power that radiates from the center of the swarm and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was the reason behind my Profession going haywire.
It feels strong. And oddly like when Abigail when she goes all out. And like Marcus, as odd as that sounds.
Other than that, with my friends in high places, I've come to know a little more about the surrounding area. There's a pylon in Des Moines which they renamed the same name -which is lame if you ask me- and another to the West called The Reservation. Attached to this letter is where the maps we have say they are located.
I still don't know what specific Tribe The Reservation originated from, or if it's a combination, but it's composed of the Native Americans who used to live there.
Other than those two, there's word of another pylon in Chicago that we passed by. People are calling it the City of Storms and there has been an influx of people coming from that direction.
They claim fighting has broken out and someone declared war in order to conquer the City but it's been mostly rumors so far.
Anywho, I could use your expertise in wholesale destruction if you're up for a fight.
Your bestest friend in the whole wide world.
~~
Chris
A chuckle rang out after reading the signature of the letter. He didn't even sign his name, the bastard.
It was rather unfortunate, but I wasn't able to go down and help him. I had too many things to do here and I still needed to focus on recovery. If I went down to help, away from the Healers, it would take that much longer for them to regrow my arm.
I was getting good with my icy one, but it was still no substitute for the real thing. I had been cleared for my normal Dungeon training but I was told to stay away from anything too intensive.
We weren't sure when the next threat would arise and I wanted to be fixed up before anything like another Demon fiasco happened.
The fact that our 'test' was due didn't help.
Plus, I couldn't leave now when my plans were just beginning to get off the ground. Not only was the coin and materials I was dragging in necessary, but my presence was needed if I wanted things to start in the right direction.
I would eventually hand it off to someone, most likely Jonathan, but he wasn't even here. Even if he was, I wanted to be the one to found it. I had grand plans on how it would turn out and for that to happen, it needed to get off on the right foot.
The coin wasn't that big of an issue for the future, but until we started getting a steady supply of Crystals from the mine, we were still rather strapped for it.
We would soon be swimming in it. Not only from the mine but also from the Dungeons. Every level down was that much more valuable and with everyone coming back a good deal stronger made the taxes we got out of them climb.
Even with the losses meaning fewer people delved, we were getting more coins every month. Some groups could even complete the entire Dungeon regularly! Unlike before when it took careful planning and preparation for select groups to defeat the eighth floor, it was now a regular occurrence.
That alone caused a huge jump in revenue.
I couldn't imagine how much more we would make when the Dungeons grew. We were told that there was a substantial change after one reached ten floors and I couldn't wait to see what it was.
While my days were usually filled, there was something different on the schedule today. I took time off specifically to do something new.
I needed to choose my next skill.
So far, Hammer of the Jotnar was turning out to be an amazing class. Its first skill gave me my beloved hammer, which I still needed to remake. The second gave me a powerful finishing move in [Shattering Hammer], and the third gave me a great all-around defensive skill [Jotun's Resistance].
It heightened my already impressive Fortitude to even new levels. Nothing in the Dungeon could even scratch me anymore when I had it running. Other than the fact it was a massive mana hog, it was a terrific skill.
It nearly made [Frost Armor] obsolete.
Not that I would stop using the skill, but it was rather pointless when nothing could get passed my skin anyway.
With half of the skills my Class would give me already possessed, I only had three more available and I needed to make them count. I wasn't sure what my next Class would entail and I needed to make sure I got everything out of my current one as I could.
So far, I had chosen one that summons a weapon, one that causes massive amounts of damage, and one that increases my defense massively. It covered all of the bases.
Well, except for the magical side but none of the skills I was offered could fix that. It wasn't the point of the Class.
That being said, it made my next choice hard and was the reason why it had taken me so long to decide.
A part of me still hadn't but I was heavily leaning towards one out of the six. Some were easy enough to eliminate from contention, as I already had skills similar in effect of there was another skill on the list that did the same thing but better.
Or, in one skill's case, an effect I believed I could learn in time without the need for a skill like it. It would take a long time and a lot of practice, but I believed I could do it and it made me cringe to think about taking it as a skill and essentially 'wasting' the skill slot.
It wouldn't really be a waste, but my mind made it feel that way.
The one I was leaning towards was called [Frozen Rift].
Frozen Rift(Legendary) – Using a compatible weapon, channel rift in space connected to the lands of Eternal Winter. Effects that are caused depend on the power expended to create the rift and the intention behind it. To connect deeper to the lands of Eternal Winter, further your Path in its direction.
First of all, it sounded powerful. Second, its name was cool. And Third, it sounded fucking awesome. Pardon my language.
I had a sneaking suspicion that using the skill would cause another string of Runes to light up on my hammer similar to [Shattering Hammer]. From what I could tell, six distinct strings ran along the shaft of my weapon and I guessed they corresponded to six different skills.
I wasn't sure how I would be able to get them all, as I only had three possible skill choices left for my Class, but I felt the urge to get them all eventually.
While that was the offensive choice I was leaning toward, there was another defensive one that felt decent.
Jotun Armor(Legendary) – Clad your body in the most formidable of Icy armor. Created from Ice directly tied to the lands of Niflheim, it holds trace amounts of its magic. Able to hold up to even the most powerful of blows and can consume mana that comes into contact with it that isn't Cold aligned.
It was a complete upgrade to [Frost Armor] and sounded perfect, but I wasn't sure if going two defensive skills back to back was a good idea. Sure, I took a hit and the skill would've been useful, but I was worried I was overreacting.
My near-death scared me, but changing who I was to favor defense didn't seem like the answer. Not to say I would never take the skill, I could still choose it with the remaining two slots, but I didn't want my conscious, or subconscious, to influence me into changing.
Leaving Jonathan to the purely defensive path was enough. I still wanted to smash things.
Other than those two, there were more general skills that weren't firmly an attack or defense. One was called [Frozen Leach], which sapped energy and mana from the person I was fighting.
It was a great addition to my sustainability fighting style. If I could fight for long periods of time against one opponent, not only would I get stronger during the fight, but they would get weaker.
The last I was considering was a bit of an odd skill. It didn't sound overtly powerful but its description made me curious as to what effects it would have.
[Icy Connection] worked to forge a connection between me and my ice that would improve my ability to manipulate and feel what I was doing with it. Not only would it make [Sweeping Snow] and [Desolate Blizzard] more powerful and easier to use, but it was its use combined with [Frost Armor] that made me think about choosing it.
It wasn't a powerful skill like [Frozen Rift] or helped with defense like [Jotun Armor], but it would elevate every skill I currently had in addition to every skill I would likely get.
Unless something unforeseen happened in the future, the Path of Ice was in my future.
The fact it wasn't immediately powerful made me not want to pick it but neither did I outright dismiss it because of that. I knew firsthand the power that came from increased connection to my ice because of my Law and I wasn't going to dismiss the skill because it didn't sound powerful.
Ultimately, it was in the same boat as [Jotun Armor]. I had two more to choose and it wasn't like I needed it now. The fact I could always take it later if my next class wasn't as good also helped.
[Frozen Rift] was where I was leaning and over weeks of thought, I didn't come up with a reason not to take the skill. There was something in its description that made me pick it above the others.
'connected to the lands of Eternal Winter'
What kind of connection? What kind of Laws would a land like that have? How much would bleed through the connection?
It made me wonder if there was a way to use it to advance my Law in addition to fighting with it and that thought sealed the deal.
With my skill chosen, there was only one thing to do before trying out my new toy.
It wouldn't work without a compatible weapon and I was long overdue to recreate my beloved hammer. I was healed, hale, and healthy, ready to pour everything I had into the weapon.
All of my stat points from the influx of levels had been distributed as well.
I had originally thrown half into Vitality right away to help with recovery, but I went back and added a few more bringing it to an even 500. It took a majority of my points, 93 out of 145, but I felt it was worth it.
Other than increasing my Vitality, I split the remaining 52 points between Endurance and Acumen. To increase my sustainability of both Stamina and Mana. I wanted to keep throwing points into Wisdom for a bigger mana pool but without the Acumen to back it up, it would take forever to refill.
I needed the regeneration now that I had fancy skills that drained my mana at ludicrous rates. Plus, with Winter coming soon, I had another way to increase my mana that I couldn't wait to break into.
My stats ended up looking quite well in my opinion.
Strength - 1217
Agility - 535
Perception - 315
Fortitude - 979
Endurance - 629
Vitality - 500
Intelligence - 215
Wisdom - 417
Acumen - 256
Free Points: 0
Comments
musashi
s/passed my skin/past my skin/
Penguin Glutton
Tftc!
Somerito
No, there's 2 passive stat adding skills. One adds half of endurance to strength the other adds half of strength to fortitude. You're thinking of the other one.
Merlin's Fan
Adds when applied to fortitude no?
Somerito
Penguin, strength should be 1230. If you add 26 points to endurance Chris's passive adds half of that(13 points) to strength, so 1217+13=1230.
sn0_0ker
I see, thank you! I have helped another author setup a server in the past by setting up the basics of it and then giving them the server. If you're interested I could do the same for you.
PenguinKills
I've been asked this before and have nothing against the idea, it's just that I don't know how. I'm not much of a discord guy so I don't know how to start something like that.
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter 😊 Can't wait to see him walking through the eternal ice realm... But if I remember correctly the system should prevent contact to other realms because of the "newly integrated" status of humanity on earth... And hopefully nothing big and bad walks through the rift into his town
sn0_0ker
Hello author, I was wondering, do you plan at some point to make a discord server for the story?
Alexander C Hyde
Not that I would stop using the skill, but it was rather pointless when nothing could get (past)passed my skin anyway.
Alexander C Hyde
It feels strong. And oddly like when Abigail when she goes all out. Is the first when necessary?
