Lone: The Wanderer

Book 3: Chapter 33: New Skills and Eltoro's Grave

The host has developed the active fire magic skill [Inferno Armaments].

Active Fire Magic Skill: Inferno Armaments

An expert application of the fire magic school where the caster creates an armament of amplified freeform fire magic, whether generic or a true magic copy of an existing armament.

The created armament will be twice as strong as the real armament it is mimicking. Warning! If the host chooses to mimic a particularly powerful armament, they may suffer irreparable harm to their mana organs due to the increased MP cost.

Cost:5,000 MP. A variable additional MP cost if the host chooses to mimic an existing armament. Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'Interesting. So it makes a physical weapon that is twice as strong as normal. Her sword was no normal sword, so she had copied some amazing weapon of some sort that was at least twice as strong - likely more due to a higher-ranked skill - as the original. No wonder she almost cut my head off and managed to get past a Bone Armour fortress shield,' Lone thought.

He had to be careful with this skill but not as careful as he was with Creation Magic. That skill sealed his organs, this one just ruined them. 'Irreparable harm' wasn't quite so irreparable when you were the current owner of Basic Regeneration.

The host has developed the active fire magic skill [Weakened Stream of Ezekial].

Active Fire Magic Skill: Weakened Stream of Ezekial

An originally demonic application of the fire magic school that has been modified to accommodate those who cannot tolerate infernal flames where the caster creates a stream of all-consuming fire magic.

Targets hit by the skill will burn with the weakened flames of Ezekial for 20 minutes.

Cost:40,000 MP. 40,000 MP to forcefully undo the skill. Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'That's not very descriptive but its source is demonic? Could I wield the original skill since I can undo soul damage somehow? If I master Infernal Flame Resistance... A thought for another day since I couldn't work on that even if I wanted to right now,' Lone concluded.

The next skill was one he had been trying to obtain for almost half a year now. It should have been an easy grab like most skills but his unkillable nature made it oddly difficult to earn.

The host has developed the passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance].

Passive Skill: Killing Intent Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of killing intent.

Killing intent used on the host will be weakened by 5%.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

And it levelled and levelled and levelled until, finally, it peaked.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 8.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 9.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 10.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Killing Intent Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 1.

Passive Skill: Killing Intent Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of killing intent.

Killing intent used on the host will be weakened by 60% [+30%].

Cost:N/A Mastery:Expert Level 1

Killing Intent Resistance needed someone to be truly capable of killing you to be earned, and they had to be using killing intent too, which wasn't something easily controlled. Lone knew there were skills to do that but he certainly hadn't earned any yet.

Self-teaching himself Fortress Shield Mastery had been a huge mistake when it came to learning this resistance. He had come close to earning it when Hamish tried to kill him that one time. Applied stats were scary. However, neither the eldritch horror nor Prince Keining wanted to kill him so they had no such intent. The monstrosity was simply existing while the fight with the prince was a spar. Everything in between had been nowhere close to being able to threaten Lone's life enough to earn the skill.

Thankfully, he now finally had it so he could stop worrying about it and start training it to earn its very powerful additional effects he'd learned about from the credit slate.

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Lone waited for a few seconds but no additional new skills popped up. He tilted his head, resulting in his cheek resting atop Soph's head.

"Hmm?" she looked up into his eyes. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, I'm just a teeny tiny bit disappointed. I only got three new skills, one of which was Killing Intent Resistance. I guess it makes sense. Her illusion magic was cast on her and all of her other spells and skills musta been personal buffs. The only attacks were from her magic swords and the flames that got into my shields. Still, was hoping for a treasure trove," Lone explained.

Soph smiled comfortingly. "At least you got a lot of resistances and useful level-ups, right? Especially that annoying killing intent one. You'll finally stop asking me if the people the intent is coming from can kill you. Did you get any rank ups or two?"

Lone smiled back, leaned down, kissed her, and replied, "I'll find a new way to annoy you. Look forward to it. And yup. Sure did. I'm now that much harder to kill. Only gotta check Fire Magic Resistance then we can train another, harder, skill."

Soph blushed and pressed her back into him. "Hurry up then..."

Doing as told, he pulled up the last section of his awaiting notifications.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 7.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 8.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 1.

Passive Skill: Fire Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Fire Magic.

Fire Magic used on the host will be weakened by 30% [+15%].

Cost:N/A Mastery:Advanced Level 1

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 2.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 3.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 4.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 5.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 6.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7.

Lone licked his lips as he felt a familiar hunger swell up inside of him. "So many levels just for sitting around, focusing on flames..."

He glanced down at Soph, and a new desire swept that one away. It was time to train another skill.

"So this is the local guild, huh?" Lone wondered aloud the next morning as he, Sophie, and Breena, entered the establishment.

It was rather small compared to the dwarven guilds and absolutely paltry when stacked up against the one they had visited in Golden Pass City. That made sense to Lone. The guild was welcomed in the clans but it wasn't a big part of the local culture.

It was a beautiful oriental building not too dissimilar in design from the pagoda they and the merchant caravan were staying in. It was made entirely from painted timber and the feng shui was palpable. Lone liked it. As little as he knew about architecture, he still tried to take some mental notes.

Despite the guild's relatively lacking presence, there were still a couple dozen people here picking out, turning in, and discussing quests. Most of those people stopped what they were doing to cast their eyes upon Lone's group.

The reactions were as expected. For Lone, there were exclamations of shock at him being a Golden Foxkin, having nine racial traits, and having awakened so many times although no one seemed to know that the black in his features represented Void.

For Sophie, there was a lot of scepticism, anger, and fear. However, there was also a fair amount of attitudes that amounted to 'let's wait and see if she's like most other humans'.

In Breena's case, try as she might to go unseen, many eyes lingered on her, mostly curious ones as people pondered aloud why she was wearing a mask that covered almost her entire face. They also looked upset to see her having four tails and an awakening at such a young age.

'No one's whispering about my fight with War Leader Clari,' Lone noted as he approached a quest board and began browsing with Sophie and Breena. 'Plenty of people crowded around so the fact I was attacked must have been supressed. I wasn't told to keep my trap shut. I wonder why? Because I was the victim and they don't want to antagonise me further? Because it won't sound credible coming from my mouth giving my rank? Hmm...'

He considered the matter as he gently stretched the muscles in his body. The soul pain has lessened considerable since yesterday. A full night's sleep had levelled Soul Pain Resistance twice and his energy channels were clearly healing since two levels to a resistance without a rank up in between wouldn't have given as much noticeable pain relief as he was currently experiencing.

'Do either of you know why my soul is fixing itself? It shouldn't be doing that, right? First the consequences of going against scripture magic clauses, then the forbidden eldritch knowledge, and now self-inflicted shattering of my energy channels,' Lone thought, directly addressing his soul's vocal guests.

'I have a few ideas but you know me, I hate to speak as if speculation is fact. I will reiterate though that your soul is absurdly powerful. Do try to recall that you have no less than four godly beings housed within it, Loney-boy,' Darkness replied.

'I...' Death hesitated. 'I think it is Void's doing. I am incredibly sensitive to the workings of a soul. Those that come to my domain are souls, after all. Your soul is incredible, yes, but it is not your body. It cannot heal itself. I potentially could do it but you know it is not me already since this has happened before. Death and Sky are incapable. Void... I know not of its full capabilities. It is more capable than all eight of us true Primals so it is not outside of the realms of possibility for it to possess the ability to restore your soul. I doubt it is Void's doing. What reason would it have? But the possibility is there.'

Darkness sighed powerfully. 'I concur but I really would have rather you kept that from him. It's a possibility, not a certainty, and the last thing we want is our precious host coming here and diving down that abyss to look for answers. He may never return.'

'I don't want to die,' Lone mentally scoffed. 'And before you say something like 'your actions, both recent and otherwise, suggest that might not be perfectly honest...' I know the fuckin' difference between a near-undying body and a powerful but standard soul.'

'Please don't take my fun from me, Loney-boy. It's unbecoming of you to demean the hobbies of your friends,'Darkness scolded.

Lone laughed derisively. "Friend. As if..."

"Is something wrong, Lone?" Sophie questioned.

Lone shook his head. "Nah. Just shootin' shop with my passengers."

"Ah. Well, at least you are not entirely talking to yourself. We shall take this quest," she said, pulling off a sheet of paper and showing it to Lone.

'Quest details: The C-rank renewable dungeon Eltoro's Grave requires clearing to avoid an overspill of monsters.

Quest issuer: Clan Assistant Treasurer Jirol Redtail.

Requirements: No plate requirement. Prior dungeon experience. B-rank strength or proof of usefulness while clearing the dungeon.

Reward: 40% of the rewards granted by the dungeon. 10 silver coins per person.'

Lone raised an eyebrow. "Sounds interesting. We did clear two dungeons in the Farwinds and there was the goblin temple on Goblin Island. Never heard of a renewable dungeon before. Sounds very interesting. Will Breena be fine though?"

Sophie raised her chin as if to laugh though her expression remained expressionless. "She will officially be assigned to carrying the loot. You are fine with this, yes, Leech?"

Breena didn't seem phased at all by the casual insult as if she felt it was deserved and she simply nodded.

"Well, guess it's decided then." Lone hated how Sophie treated Breena but it was the best he was going to get out of her. She was worse than him when it came to not caring about those who mattered to him, and for her, no one mattered besides her other self and him. Not even slightly.