"Gross, Evie," Vess made a face. "No he interrupted our training when he learned about Zara's Chanter training later today. Now he's off meeting with her and Cal."
"Talk about gross. Sounds like a room full of opinions I'd rather not hear." Evie conjured a dagger from somewhere and began digging at the beam. The divot she'd already created was quite deep. "What's your plan, Vess?"
"My plan?"
"Yeah, after all this. The Domain, Guild destroyed, city demolished, monsters run amok," Evie stabbed at the beam with each event listed. "Now we gotta, what, survive among the chaos?"
Vess watched her friend clench her jaw and take a deep, steadying breath. She wanted to answer, but the heiress had a feeling Evie wasn't exactly done.
"And what about my friends? You and Felix and Cal. What if the Revenants overrun us? I've heard the reports, ya know? There's thousands out there. No one knows why or how, 'cept us, kinda. And Atar and Alister are still hurt over in Portia's area!" Evie stabbed down hard into the wooden beam. The dagger sunk more than halfway. "I just feel...I dunno. Helpless, maybe."
"I understand. I do," Vess sighed. "I look at the people out there and wonder what more could we do? We are just two, and an entire city is falling. Had I my father's forces we could make short work of it and turn things to right again...but I do not have soldiers and healers. We have us, you and I, Felix and Cal, Harn and all the rest. Even Atar."
Evie snorted. Vess put a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"We are strong, but we can be stronger. Perhaps we can't save the whole city, but we've got plenty of people here, right now, that need our help. Why don't we get to it, then?"
Evie put her own hand over Vess' and gave a firm, single nod.
"I can do that."
Then she jumped off the beam.
Lumber came swinging at Felix, a polished red wood studded with low metal spikes. Much of the Gauntlet seemed designed to swing at a person, which Felix found pushed his Physical Stats to the limit.
A quick perusal of the sigils had granted him a fast and dirty understanding of its arrays. The surface level, at least. Despite Tempering his Theurgist of the Rise, Felix realized he had far from a complete picture. He could tell there was far more going on under layers of scripted workings that he simply couldn't comprehend. The level of detail was astounding, easily surpassing the workings of the Envoy in complexity if not power. The gist of it was that somehow the magical training course adapted to his movements and speed, piling on more and more pressure.
Which meant he had to move faster than it adapted.
Reign of Vellus!
Tempered, it was no longer a messy wave of power that he had to brute force into shape. It became almost surgical. Potent and intense in a way that was hard to describe, but each time it released Felix felt a hard echo in his gut. Electricity was still a component, but it was less erratic, more purposeful.
A concentrated bolt of blue lightning roared silently from his outstretched hand, sending reverberations through his own core at the shock of it. The power hit the descending lumber and shattered it, sending the bottom half ricocheting out of the Gauntlet and into the metallic wall of the warehouse. It was glorious.
Except the top half was still coming.
*SLAM!*
"UFFHHK!" Felix managed and found himself careening out the opposite side of the Gauntlet. He hit the dirt hard, but managed to turn his rapid descent into a series of energy softening rolls. Dizzy and injured, he fetched back onto all fours nearly sixty feet away.
"Shit, ulp--" He clenched his guts, preventing a rush of bile from leaping from his throat. He was partially successful. "That didn't go as planned."
He laid down for a second, letting his muscles relax for just a little bit. The stone flooring wasn't exactly comfortable, but everything hurt on him, so it didn't really make a difference.
The Song of Absolution is level 56!
That made sense.
New Quest!
That, however, was a surprise.
He sat up. It had been quite a while since he'd seen a new quest pop up, at least ones that weren't of the hidden variety.
ERROR...
Lost Race Detected...
Adjusting Quest...
Felix rolled his eyes and waited for the gut punch.
The Proving!
You have been tested in the fires of battle, Apprentice! Slowly you are being forged into a pupil worthy of the Titles you bear. Can you prove you deserve it? Raise five spells, Rare or better, to Adept Tier. Show us what you got.
Rewards: Title, Variable
Felix blinked at the wording. His System messages had varied between staid and amusing throughout his time on the Continent, and he'd never really figured out why. In the beginning he'd entertained the thought that someone was sending him these messages, some person controlling the System itself. But that seemed, if not impossible, extremely far fetched.
Probably some Grand Harmony nonsense, he mused before abandoning that line of thinking. It was pointless. Instead he focused upon the quest itself.
Adept Tier, huh? That's not too bad. His last spell quest had been to get five spells to Apprentice Tier, netting him a Rare Title and unlocking two of his Harmonic Stats. Adept Tier was far away, but it was something to work toward.
Speaking of working toward, Felix still had a few open quests. He hadn't given either of them any thought in recent weeks. He pulled them up.
Active Quests
Home Sweet Home!
3 of 5 Threats Eliminated
Shrines of the Broken!
1 of 7 Shrines Found
The Proving!
0 of 5 Spells to Adept Tier
He hadn't gone over these with the others. Mostly because he wasn't sure how pertinent it was...and also because something told him to keep the Nym Temple a secret. Nothing more than a gut feeling, really.
He wanted to be honest and open with his friends. These past two months had proven that honesty was his best step forward...yet he hesitated. The Shrine Quest he'd likely share with Zara; she likely knew more about the locations of such places. Though ironically, he was least interested in following that particular thread. With Vellus stepping into his dreams now to deliver cryptic and frankly terrifying warnings about the gods, Felix's theological interest had plummeted even farther than before. Still, the Broken Path was a promising avenue toward strength, seeing as it contained the First Threshold.
Home Sweet Home, however, promised no such power. He planned to keep that in his back pocket, for now.
Home Sweet Home!