B3 CHAPTER 315: SANCTUARY, PT. 3

“If you want to prove yourself worthy of VOS…”

An enigma, another tantalising hint at the truth behind the Vesryn order. Clearly, whatever it was, it was important to the order — some sort of supreme skill, perhaps? Or could it be some sort of ceremony or ritual. Vesryn, wherever it was from, seemed like it was well founded and had a deep foundation.

Any group that could have devised such a potent art had to be, especially one where their bloody initiates had a Heroic class for the first tier.

Not for the first time, Kaius couldn’t help but wonder how high the peak really was. He’d met Ekum, but such an existence was so far his superior that it was contextless — Kaius couldn’t even fathom charting a course from his current position to that lofty height.

Yet he knew eminently that the common Vaastivarian understanding of the limits of power were wrong — or at least so incomplete that they may as well be the same thing.

By the common definition, anyone who reached the second tier was a seasoned and driven warrior of great power. Those that pushed further, reaching above three hundred to the heights of Gold — like Rieker and Ro? They were movers and shakers, people who demanded respect wherever they went. Beyond that…there were only hushed whispers of the monsters who had made it to the third tier. He’d always thought there would be a rare few who existed, but Ro had shared that they were potentially a lot more common than he believed.

As much as that had been his reality for so long, it was clear that the third tier wasn’t anywhere close to the heights of what was achievable. Even if he discounted the contentious histories that suggested the Eternal Emperor had managed to reach the fifth tier, did he really believe that the culture of complacency that pervaded Vaastivar could match up to an organisation like Vesryn?

How strong would they consider a third tier? A master of the order, an ancient worthy of fealty? Or would they be a simple sergeant?

He shook his head — it was a strange thought. Already he handedly bested creatures that would give a full team of High Silvers pause, and he had yet to even breach the second tier himself.

Yet it felt like there was a yawning chasm between where he was now, and where he might end up in the future. Again and again, he’d been shown that the ceiling of possibility was something that most people created for themselves.

Vos— something enigmatic, and quite possibly otherworldly. He could only hope that he would learn more with his final skill. Father had mentioned it was something of a capstone for a class. Not necessarily more powerful than other abilities, but almost always something that was foundational to the class's identity.

It certainly sounded like Vos would fit that description, if it was a Skill, that is.

“If you think any harder, your head might explode. What’s got you so curious?”

Kaius looked up to find Porkchop watching him, his head slightly tilted. His brother’s words drew the rest of their team out of their thoughts.

“Just an odd epigraph — I get more curious about Vesryn the more I learn.” Kaius shrugged. “At the very least, two of my skills look fantastic. One is a parry and riposte skill that will let me make use of more of my Stamina, and the other will let me channel my offensive spells through my blade.”

“No glyphs?” Ianmus sounded disappointed — with his voracious hunger for magical knowledge, the mage had grown almost as invested in his glyphs as he had.

“None, though I’m not all that disappointed — I'm sure my last skill will be an interesting one. What about the rest of you? Have you taken a look at your available skills?”

“I have.” Kenva nodded with a smile, shifting so that her shoulder leaned into the living wood wall behind her. “I’m going for an area skill — Maiming Rain. It’ll let me shatter an arrow mid-flight to summon a burst of splinters. I think it’ll be good for swarms, and also anything that is agile enough that I struggle to hit them.”

That was perfect! After so long with little area attack capabilities, he’d been growing worried that none of them would develop a skill along those lines. Though, it would have been nice if Kenva had gotten the skill a little earlier — it would have come in handy for taking out the rootborers, that was for sure.

It helped that Kenva was grinning like a fool — obviously excited with the skill. It was an infectious mood — new skills made it rather hard to feel anything other than joy. Especially when you were some of the rare few who would ever get to experience picking out two skills back to back, let alone doing so for the second time.

It didn’t take long for Kenva to share her second pick — another that would both bolster her strength and round out their capabilities as a team. Ensnaring Seedburst, a Skill that would summon a group of rapidly growing ensnaring vines wherever she shot her arrow. Battlefield control — something that they already had a little bit of, but more ability to hinder their enemies was always welcome.

Both skills had break-points, the area they affected growing larger every fifty levels. All in all, Kaius thought that the skills were a perfect fit for the ranger, and he hoped they would serve her — and the team as a whole — well.

It seemed none of them had held themselves back from checking their available skills, because no more than a few seconds after Kenva had finished explaining her own picks, Ianmus had jumped at the opportunity.

Surprisingly, his pick hadn’t been a sorcery or metamagic, but a standard Skill — albeit one that still made use of mana in a constant slow trickle while it was active. Ilthurial Mage-armour. It did exactly what it sounded like, surrounding Ianmus in an almost invisible layer of compressed armour made from solar affinity mana.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Kaius felt like a stone had been lifted from his shoulders as Ianmus explained — ever since he’d seen the inside of his friend’s stomach, there’d been a consistent feeling scratching away at the pit of his stomach. Ianmus was…vulnerable. This skill would do something to correct that.

It was unfortunate that it would be a poor defence against physical injury — creating solid barriers out of such an immaterial affinity as solar would be out of Ianmus’s reach for a while yet.

Rotten roots, it was still something

— and Ianmus had insisted it would be quite effective against attacks of a magical nature.

Much to Kaius’s surprise, Ianmus’s next selection also wasn’t directly related to magic — hells, it didn’t even use Mana! Theurgic Mentalist would cost stamina over time to speed up his cognition, and hasten his ability to channel and weave mana workings. It even came with a level of intuition towards spell stability and structure when he was casting — something that ultimately made Ianmus select it. He was hopeful that it would help him to progress further with his work on the new sigils he’d been testing for improving his free-casting.

Porkchop’s choices were no less fitting for his own build. His brother had sat up, restless with excitement as he had told them about Breaker of Men. It was a charge skill, a far more powerful version of the amulet he had used so long ago. Not only would it allow Porkchop to smash into their enemies at great speed, it would also summon a wave of jagged crystal that propagated outwards. A great asset for fouling their opponents footing and laying on further injuries, in Kaius’s opinion.

Kaius’s excitement for his brother’s choices only grew. His second pick seemed perfect for a bastion. The Stone that Weathered Time. It was a stance skill, one where Porkchop could spend a frankly ridiculous fifteen hundred mana to have his resilience boosted to a point of nigh invulnerability for a few seconds. It could still be overcome, of course, and it came with an additional hefty downside in that he would be practically immobile while under its effects.

Still — nigh invulnerable! What more could a bastion want? There would be so much room for it to grow and change as it rose through the tiers and evolved with their classes. Who knew what it could become in the future, or what its limitations would be?

“What’s next?” Ianmus asked as the sharing of their new skill choices came to a natural close.

Kaius shrugged. “Rest up for a day or two while we let the kolnir’s settle down. It’ll be a good chance to get used to our new abilities and sudden jump in stats. I also want to take the opportunity to do a little bit more research on my glyphs, and i’d be happy to help you out with your sigils — if you’re up for it.”

“As for the delve, I’m thinking we’ll be in a good position to pick up our pace a bit. Even with the increasing experience requirements, we should be able to hunt enough that our final skill will come quickly. As long as we’re careful to avoid drawing in large groups of depthsborn, we’ll do just fine. Once we’ve capped our classes, we can evaluate our readiness for taking on Champions, or even facing a Guardian and descending further.”

“That’s all well and good, but what are we going to do after we leave? I know we still have some loose threads to tidy up, but our plan was never to stay in Deadacre forever. Once we’re Silver, we won’t really need to hide our capabilities in the same way we did before — frankly, I’m not ever sure if we could hide them. Every second-tier person we’ve met has quite literally felt strong.” Porkchop replied.

Kaius paused. It was something he hadn’t spent all that much time thinking about. For a long time, the safety that reaching Silver would provide had seemed far off. With it, they would be too strong to deal with quietly, and the public backing of the Guild would shield them publicly.

Now that they were right on the precipice, he’d been far too busy with planning their escape and focusing on their survival during the delve to have given it much attention.

Porkchop was right — their life didn’t stop at Deadacre, and he knew Ianmus and Kenva would have their own goals. Still, they would have more than a few things to deal with before they went galavanting off into the sunset.

He also couldn’t blame Porkchop for wanting to be a little bit more open about who they were. Pretending to be an unthinking beast exhausted him. Hells, if Kaius had to spend all day acting like an idiot, he’d be eager to shake things up too.

“Obviously, dealing with Old Yon comes first — I'm especially interested in seeing if we can glean anything usable about the men who had attacked me and Father. If they’re both part of the Onyx, I don’t see how Old Yon would not know the movements of someone inside of his territory. We’ll also finally be strong enough to go fully public — with Rieker’s backing — about our capabilities, and the program to get the guild helping people with their Aspects and teaching people about honours.”

Kaius drummed his fingers on his knee, thinking.

“After that…I would still like to visit the Dukedoms. It's a proper nation, with far more resources, strength, and influence. I know Rieker has contacts there, and it’ll be a great place to support our continued growth. Besides, if we end up going a little more public with our capabilities then developing our relationship with the Guild further will be important. Beyond that…the name of Unterstern being a complete unknown is growing more and more suspect, but I know the Dukedoms are supposed to have some kind of grand library. I might be able to learn something there.”

Ianmus nodded emphatically. “The Grand Library of Anthrast in Baanswell. I’m happy with that plan — it was my original destination before we met. I have a scholarly connection with an archivist-magister there. He will definitely be able to help you search their stores of knowledge, and the political connections the library has with the guild will give us a great deal of access at Silver, let alone when we make it to Gold. Even if it’s not enough, I'm sure I can get Kanmost to bend the rules a little — he is something of a mentor.”

“If I’m lucky, he’ll also be able to help me work on these sigils — he’s a brilliant researcher. “

Kaius smiled, pleased it had worked out so neatly — though he couldn’t stop himself from drifting over to Kenva. She’d sat silently, listening intently to their planning but not joining in herself.

Rather than sit and wait on it, he decided to simply ask.

“What of you Kenva? I know we haven’t talked about longer term cooperation, but…” he trailed off.

The ranger rolled her eyes. “Oh, please — you think I'm going to find a team like this anywhere else? I just want to explore, and crossing the central plains to visit a new culture fits that just fine. Long term, I want to visit some of the more remote and wild places of the world — like the jungles past the Drozag ranges to the south. We’re not anywhere near strong enough to do that though, so Greenseed will do for now.”

Knowing that they were all in agreement warmed his heart — made the safe room just that little bit more comfortable. He leaned back, stretching his legs out.

“Well then, why don’t we lock in our skills and enjoy a little bit of well-earned rest?”

Even mentioning the upcoming infusion of knowledge and power filled him with a light giddiness. It was only buoyed further at his team's wide and excited smiles.

“Let's,” Kenva replied.

Kaius turned his attention to his skills, making his choices.

**Ding! Mercurial Reversal Class Skill Available, would you like to proceed? This choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**

…

**Ding! Runeblade Hymnfocus Class Skill Available, would you like to proceed? This choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**