Chapter 154

Undaunted (II)

There was a tinge of excitement present in Senna's eyes though she did well to hide it from others. She gleefully inspected the two items she got, both of which could only be equipped by her class -- Void Weaponry and Shard of Warmaster. Neither would go on her person, per se, but would increase her overall battle prowess nearly twofold -- at least by her quick estimates.

//Void Weaponry(?)

Level: 0

Requirements: Weapon Saint, 2 Skills at S-(+) Rank

+60% to Damage of conjured weapons

+60% to Speed of conjured weapons

+10% chance for conjured weapons to pierce through armor

+10% to total Mana consumption

Passive(0) -- your 'Weapon Storage' is upgraded to 'Void Weaponry'; the number of weapons you can hold at once is increased to 60, and three new options have been added: bows, wands, and air-vessels. The potency of all weapons conjured within 'Void Weaponry' is increased, in addition to granting 60% bonus speed to Mastery.

Passive(1) -- every 30th conjured weapon becomes Catalyzed, tripling its potency and increasing the duration you can use it by 1 minute. The Catalyzed weapon ignores 100% of Physical and 60% of Magical Armor when striking, and applies ‘Bleed’ debuff, stacking up to 6 times, which deals 8% of your total damage per stack over 16 seconds. The debuff will reset if the Catalyzed weapon is replaced with a new one. Only one Catalyzed weapon can be active at a time.

Passive(2) -- weapons with defensive capabilities are restructured; ALL shields can only absorb one hit before breaking, but gain a channeling ability -- ‘Beam of Energy’ -- that deals 120% of your total damage over the course of 6 seconds. Furthermore, for each shield you have out, your defenses are increased by 6%, stacking up to 10 times.

Passive(3) -- all utility-based weaponry losses the ability to attack, but their speed is tripled.

Active(0) -- Weapon of Divine(4h Cooldown) -- immediately destroy all of your conjured weapons, within and without the ‘Void Weaponry’, drawing out their remnants and conjuring the penultimate form of a weapon of your choosing. The conjured weapon lasts 10 minutes, deals 200% of your total damage flat, ignoring ALL defenses; each strike with the weapon increases your attack speed by 10%, stacking up to 25 times. Additionally, the weapon can self-destruct, dealing 4000% of your total damage to up to 8 targets within 10 yards of the explosion.

Active(1) -- Aerial Onslaught(40s Cooldown) -- summon 20 semi-conjured weapons at random at the targeted area, dealing 160% of your damage to all enemies caught within the attack over 3 seconds and slowing them by 60%. If an enemy is hit by at least 8 unique weapons, draw out their soul, and temporarily increase your damage by 40% for 6 seconds.

Active(2) -- Vessel of Warmaker (1w Cooldown) -- unleash your absolute prowess of weaponry; temporarily increase the limit of weapons you can hold to 180, making conjuring instant, reduce Mana costs by 95%, increase damage dealt by 50%, attack speed by 80%, and make every 15th conjured weapon become Catalyzed. Remove the limit on the number of Catalyzed weapons.//

This boon alone would have made the trek all the way here more than worthwhile, but that was hardly just it; though the second item she got may, at a first glance, appear slightly worse, in her mind, it was better as she was far more fond of conjuring up an army of weapons rather than using just one. And while 'Vessel of Warmaker' allowed that, it also had a ridiculous cooldown of one whole week. Shard of Warmaster, though a bit situational, at least did not have anything like that.

//Shard of Warmaster(?)

Level: 0

Requirements: Weapons Saint, 1 Skill at S-(+) Rank, Void Weaponry

Gain access to a new type of weapon: Staves

Gain access to a new type of shield: Vanguard

Gain access to a new type of a construct: Golem

Passive(0) -- automatically summon a random weapon per every enemy you are fighting; you cannot control the weapons, but you can directly empower them with your Mana. The weapons cannot be destroyed, deal 40% of your damage with each strike, and will continue attacking their target until either you or it dies.

Passive(1) -- gain a stacking buff, ‘Warmaster’, for each consecutive kill on an enemy -- the stacks persist out of combat. At 100 stacks, unlock the active ability of the item.

Active -- Heed the Master’s Call (No cooldown; requires 100 stacks of Warmaster buff) -- summon all conjured weapons at once, and triple them for 4 minutes (during which you can gain new stacks of ‘Warmaster’). Every slain enemy extends the duration by 3 seconds and damage of each weapon by 1%, stacking infinitely. At the end, 50% of your conjured weapons will be automatically destroyed at random as a price.//

Sighing, she finally looked away from the items and joined others around a hastily-put-together campfire; though it seemed like most still wanted to relish over whatever they got, everyone set that aside for a moment, sitting in a circle around the roaring flame warming up a massive cauldron of soup, chattering.

“Almost dying aside, that was pretty fun.”

“Yeah! When that girl yelled at Ryu and he got all flustered, oh my God, ha ha ha, that was hilarious!”

“Ha ha ha!”

“S-she’s scary guys!! Real scary!”

“She’s sixteen, dude.”

“And--and you’re not scared of her?”

“Oh, no, I’m bone-deep terrified -- just stating how pathetic we are.”

“... did... did I do good?” Diya asked Emma lowly, sitting down next to the latter who was silently drinking a can of beer.

"Hm?" jolted out of her thoughts, she glanced to the side and saw the slightly flushed cheeks of a girl who'd already gone through three cans.

“Did... I do good? Fighting, I mean.”

“Ah, yes,” Emma smiled. “You did great. And I’ll make sure to say that exact thing to Cain when we meet up with him.”

“That’s not--I--”

"Ha ha, it's fine," Emma laughed for a moment, caressing Diya's hair. "It's strange. He's like a combo of a dad, and the guy girls with daddy issues always go for. This one time, when he and I went to a parent-teacher conference for Lana, while the rest of us parents were talking with the teacher, he had managed to solve almost every fight in that class in like an hour. It's not just kids," she added. "Even at his worst... people still looked up to him. Besides, he and I already have a sixteen-year-old daughter; what's the harm in getting another one that's barely 6 years older, eh?"

“... he he. You must really love him.” Diya chuckled, leaning against Emma’s disarmed shoulder.

“What makes you say that?” Emma asked with a faint smile.

“I.. I think... you would give up all items you got today,” Diya replied. “To instead be with him right now. That’s what they sing about in the songs, right?”

“You’ve been in love with before -- you know.”

“No... not like that,” Diya shook her head.

“Well,” Emma took a deep breath. “You will be, one day. And when that day comes, both Cain and I will have a firm talk with the lad to make sure he doesn’t hurt you.”

“Whatcha’ two of you talking about?” Senna asked, joining them.

“Romance.” Emma replied.

“Ugh... can we talk, like, about anything else instead?”

“No, actually,” Emma said. “Now that you’re with us, how about you share. Any head-full-of-pretty-hair caught your attention lately?”

“I’m sixteen,” Senna replied with a scoff.

“Ah, yes, I remember being sixteen,” Emma nodded. “Cain and I skipped class to have sex in the school’s gym so often they called our parents.”

“--!!!” both Diya and Senna spat out a mouthful, shocked, as did Kramer who just sat down next to the bunch.

"We, ha ha, when they asked us what we were doing, ha ha," Emma continued. "Cain, he, ha ha, he said -- 'We both wanna be docs, so we were examining our knowledge on each other', ha ha ha. My God... we got suspended for two weeks, my dad nearly beat him into the ground, and we had to sneak out for like next six months. Aah, good times."

“Khm,” Kramer coughed awkwardly, as to announce he was there, but it looked as though Emma hardly cared at all.

“Honestly, it’s a miracle I didn’t get pregnant much earlier.”

“Were you... were you ready for a kid?” Kramer asked.

"Ready? God no," Emma shuddered. "When I took that pregnancy test and saw it was positive... the whole world spun. I started crying so loudly Cain heard me from the outside and thought someone stabbed me or something. Why? You had pregnancy scares before?"

“A few,” Kramer chuckled awkwardly. “But it’s not that. My, uh, girlfriend, let’s say, thought she was pregnant just before the Towers fell. For like 16 hours of not knowing for certain, I swear I had more anxiety attacks than humanly possible. Sometimes, sometimes, I’d have two -- at once. I... just wanted to know, I guess, whether it was just me being a douche or if it’s a universal thing.”

“Cain told me that there are three things that can make a grown man sweat like a sea urchin -- knowledge that he will participate in a fight he will lose, walking up to a girl, and a girl saying ‘I’m late’. Of course, he also sweated like hell when we told my parents we’re getting married, whenever he met my friends from work, whenever we went to park--point is, you’re good.”

“Well,” Kramer said, chuckling. “Here’s to the scares and excitement, may they come in droves.”

“Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

The group remained around the campfire for nearly a whole day straight, mostly recovering mentally and inspecting their items further -- some even practicing with them -- before gathering up and deciding to take the first step deeper into the castle, toward its rightmost wing, Wing of Eternity, and its guardian -- Lek the Usher of the Dead.