A spear ripped its way through Aclysia’s stomach. It was a graceful and terrible piece of gear, one piece, made from a material with a tallic shine, flattened and sharpened for the entire length of it, with leaf-shaped blades that now opened by so magical chanism, creating hooks.
John didn’t even have any idea where it had co from. Whether a trap or an enemy had thrown it. All he was clear on was that a second one ca in and nailed Aclysia through the shoulder. Ripping them out wasn’t exactly an option, at least not one they could take quickly. With the hooks on both ends, pulling or pushing was out until they had snapped the damn thing and it appeared to be quite hard.
A third spear rushed through the air; this ti John was at least able to make out the origin. So sort of four-ard creature standing on top of one of the many cliffs that surrounded them. The group was inside a granite canyon, at least that was the best way John could describe it. Three valley paths stretched out from where they were, all surrounded by dark grey rock, yellow and silver layers decorating the splintered walls.
They were inside a new Raid. John had opened it to check whether they could take advantage of a few more level-ups using the high-level creatures inside. Given that Aclysia was already through three fifths of her HP, he kind of doubted it. The na was Valley of Stone and Thunder. The sky was wonderfully clear.
The creature ducked back behind one of the many rock formations above, before John could Observe it. He had more luck with another one that appeared on the neighbouring plateau between two canyon arms. His naked eyes made out little more than the silhouette, four arms, two considerably thicker, otherwise hunched over and apelike.
‘…I’m not quite sure if Switcheroo is powerful enough to warrant a position at Perk number 9, Gaia,’ John thought. ‘Of course, it’s good but… co on, level 9 in a Class and you give a basic bitch teleport?’ The supre deity was silent, so John sighed and looked at the other two choices. Switcheroo was ignored, he could get teleports elsewhere, even if this one was imnsely potent.
Between the other two, the choice was pretty quick, since John already knew what he wanted and one of those choices fit the description and the other didn’t. Fighter Double was good. Like, extrely good. Detail Double, however, had the ability to speak and thus completed his ability to be at two places at once. Well, almost, the Mandala Sphere couldn’t enter or exit Illusion Barriers on its own yet. That aside, it was exactly what John wanted and he picked it without further questioning things.
‘Huh, well, it’s boring, but at least its predictably boring,’ John decided. Artificial Spirit choices had co down to 1% upgrades quite often, so those being rolled into one window for everything was at least straight-forward. Going by pure mathematics, it was best for him to increase Strength, so that’s what he did.
The idea that this would keep him occupied for a few years struck him as rather realistic. There were a total of 90 increases he could make there, with 2 per natural cycle of the Skill being available. A Skill that already needed months to max out and only decreased in speed. ‘Scratch years, make that decades,’ John thought and moved onto the next thing.
At least that was what he planned to do until he saw that awful thing.
“No!” he exclaid. “Why, why would you ever make it fill sideways, that’s just torture! Bottom up, make the bar fill bottom up, oh my God. This…” he noticed the girls surrounding him looking at him with amused or startled expressions, his outbreak having been rather sudden. He took a deep breath, “I am calm… I am calm…” and moved on.
‘Oh hey, that’s also new,’ John thought, then went over the choices. Sword Specialization was out, for the sa reason as always when he was presented with the ability to give Aclysia ranged slice attacks: she could already do it by virtue of her weapons Eclys and Marath. There was no urgent need to give her that ability.
While Juggernaut was powerful, as anti crowd control effects tended to be, John didn’t want to give her more spenders when she had so few builders. To that end, True Block was okay. Taking damage had never been the greatest threat to Aclysia, but if she had the ability to prevent it and get all the other advantages that ca with successfully blocking, such as keeping the advantage in the pacing of the fight, that was good. The choice was made and True Block was added to Aclysia’s repertoire.
He still wasn’t having kids anyti soon and Headmaid was attractive for her servant university project, but John wanted the Sex Servant Perk and for the love of everything that was holy, he would have it. The idea of Aclysia getting 100% more horny when the switch was flipped, to make her orgasm on command and whatever the hell an AMAZING pussy was supposed to feel like. Well, he had a rough idea, Siena and Salamander could create states with their sexes that were simply unfair. He needed to know more about this and there would be ti for experintation. For now, he just picked the choice and was done with it.
‘I like this new layout,’ John concluded that upgrade session. It was a lot easier and streamlined, less of the volatility between extrely boring and powerful choices with vastly different AP costs. ‘Onto Beatrice!’
‘Seems like the previous Nimble choices haven’t translated into this system,’ John observed, then picked the Swing increase. Since that was the only way he found to even increase that resource so far, it seed best to invest in it.
John loved Elimination. Like, seriously, that thing looked absurd. However, with her limited Reverse building options, or rather the limit she had in terms of regeneration of Swing, he didn’t see much chance of it to ever be cast at a duration that was worthwhile. Especially because the spender competition Twist Position was so much better and more versatile.
Like Aclysia, Beatrice’s weapon had a ranged option, as seldom as it was used. Given that her weaponry was subject to change, it would be quite smart to get Spear Specialization 3, boring as it was. Needle Assault also didn’t strike John as all that great. 10% of Beatrice’s Strength basically ant that most strikes would bounce off the enemy’s defences, if assuming roughly equal level. It could still be effective, but John thought the general improvent of better handling of her weapon and ranged attacks to be superior and as such picked the leftmost thing.
Those were pretty juicy. Engine of Order went out first. For a start, because John thought he was already good at calling out lies himself. Secondly, because the people they had to be wary of wouldn’t be able to be caught by a lie detector test. Thirdly, because he was afraid of what would happen to her semi-compulsive adjusting of the environnt if he boosted her pattern recognition further.
Enigma Code was the clear winner between the remaining two choices. Increased Wisdom already ant a higher Swing regeneration, but that was just the bonus to mind control immunity. That had been the whole reason he had even gone ahead and increased their ntal Stats. Not that he would take it back now that he had done it. Enigma Code was picked and that was that.
All of that decided, he checked both their character sheets one more ti to be sure he had all their Stats correctly in mind.
He did the sa for the elentals, while he was at it.
User Comments
0 comments from readers