Deacon reviewed the notifications. With the bonus to his strength score that puts him over fifty-point mark. He could almost feel his muscles swelling like the first time he ever allocated points. Deacon quickly pulled up his stats before trying to move.

Attribute

Score

Intelligence

27

Strength

55

Speed

47

Agility

22

Wisdom

35

Luck

300

Upon review, he began to worry that his agility being thirty-three points lower than his strength would make him even more clumsy. With his luck stat, good or bad, over three hundred he may end up stumbling from town to town. Deacon turned to Typhus who was intently reading his slate notifications.

“Typhus, my strength is over fifty now. Is this going to be an issue?” Deacon stammered out.

“Shhh.” Said Typhus waiving Deacon’s concerns away.

“We all just got ten levels worth of attribute points directly into strength, Deacon. We will all have some imbalance in our builds. Tantus might be useful in a fight after he runs out of mana now.” Ralph said swinging his sword one handed and getting used to his new strength. The sword just seemed lighter now.

“A gods blessing! This is marvelous. Oh and don’t think I missed that jab, Ralph. Let’s see who I use my healing spell on first in the next fight. Did everyone else get the additional fifty percent health?” Tantus asked looking more solidly built than before. He certainly filled out his mages robe around the shoulders and biceps more now.

“Good thing too. When I get hurt it’s usually in big chunks. So back to my question about my strength, I feel kind of top heavy.” Deacon said.

“You are going to need more points in agility to balance your stats. Currently you look like an extremely fit boulder. Is no one else concerned that we can just steal other people’s quest completions now? I mean it was the third in a chain. Nobody, fine.” Amanda said joining the group. She, much like Ralph, showed relatively little change.

“I have a new title. Twice Blessed. It says two of the gods have taken an interest in me and I’ll have a greater chance of success when dealing with the current pantheon’s worshipers. That’s almost everyone alive.” Typhus said still marveling at it.

“What do you mean twice?” Tantus asked.

“He means we are also blessed by Bael God of Change and Death.” Deacon said carefully stepping toward the door.

“What?!” Tantus shrieked.

“It was a couple months back before we raised New Mulvaria. Relax, it just helps me detect undead.” Deacon said off handedly.

“And brings you back from the dead. I was there. I saw it happen to Armand.” Ralph chimed in. This time Tantus just stared at Deacon. His jaw moved like he was trying to say something, but nothing came out.

“Relax, just think of all the things that happened to you since meeting him. Hell within in the first ten minutes of meeting him he changed your life forever. That was just a handshake. Imagine how powerful you’ll be by the time we get to the Shattered Sky.” Amanda teased.

“Someone is in a good mood.” Deacon said to Amanda.

“We’ve got a lead on the bitch, this blessing will increase my weapon penetration to help me inflict poisons, and I have more health to create them with. It’s been a good day.” Amanda replied.

“Did you all get the squad ability as well?” Deacon asked.

“Yes, yes but I doubt I’ll ever control a group. Besides it’s a passive that only helps me.” Tantus said.

“I got that and more. Mantarok gave me a class quest.” Ralph said smirking.

“Care to share?” Tantus asked.

“No, it’s a surprise. He doesn’t want me to spoil it.” Ralph said grinning ear to ear. Tantus pouted a little before a crate hidden in the rafters fell directly on Deacons head after he stepped on a particularly loose board in the floor that wobbled all the way to a supporting post that ran from floor to ceiling. The crate contained numerous sets of scrolls and two spell books. In a daze Deacon placed his hand on one of the books attempting to get back to his feet getting a prompt.

New Spell Discovered: Dancing Blade- This spell conjures mystical blades of light that dance around the user defending it from enemy weapons strikes…Trailblazer has activated. Trailblazer has converted this spell to Ghastly Defender.

New Class Ability Discovered: Ghastly Defender- For a sustained cost of twenty percent of your soul energy, a malicious yet unseen ghost will defend you from any and all melee attackers. If your attackers can’t overcome their fear, they will be forced to attack someone or something else. Beyond level five, this ability will be imbued with whatever source of arcanum you are tapped into. Would you like to learn Ghastly Defender Yes/No?

Of course Deacon chose yes. That seemed like a really great crowd control ability. Light from the book poured into his eyes as the tome disintegrated into dust. Tantus was looking through the various scroll work and frowning as he read.

“This one is for a shield technique. It’s called Shield Bash. I don’t use a shield, but we could probably sell it?” Ralph said gesturing with the book. Tantus just waved him away as he started to lay out the pages in a particular pattern only, he could see.

“We should probably get back before Lord Dumbass comes looking for us.” Deacon said.

“No, no. Just wait, I’m on to something here.” Tantus said now furiously looking through the pages to complete the diagram he was arranging on the floor. Curious, Deacon walked over to see what he was doing. There were stacked piles of loose pages to either side of Tantus and he kept going from one stack to the other. Deacon became impatient and lifted all the pages into the air with Polterheist making them hover before Tantus in an arch. Tantus looked up at Deacon and stood up. He began pointing at pages and Deacon moved them around until it was in the order Tantus wanted.

“It’s a creepy ability but affective.” Amanda said.

“What have you discovered, boy?” Asked Typhus.

“It looks like the Cult of Ruby has a mage that has reached the Planner level of Arcanum. That’s Dimensional magic. It’s how bags of holding are made, travel between the Mortal Plane and Earth-bound planes, and Portal gates. That’s what I’m seeing here in this research. Not only are the instructions for duplicating your troops here, six for the cost of one if I’m reading this correctly, it requires a blood sacrifice to an old god. Hipag, I presume.” Tantus said before the building started to shake and rumble after saying that name.

“Apologies. But it looks like there is a series of portals they are using to traverse the continent. The closest one is the middle of Mobius Lake.” Tantus finished. Typhus told them to gather everything up and put it back in the chest. They headed back to the fort meeting a contingent of Knights who were sent to check up on them.

Returning to the fort they noticed that the population had calmed down. People returned to their homes and were trying to adapt to the rubbery nature of all their buildings now. Deacon, being familiar with bouncy castle physics, bounded up the stairs toward the room they were all given. Once inside he set up Alfred in an attempt to stabilize the floor beneath him. To his great delight it worked. The floor inside Alfred was steady as a rock. The outer dimension had no impact in here. The others all retired to their rooms for what they hoped to be a few hours of peace.

Elsewhere within the forts new fanciful walls, an irritated Lord Pentecost bounced off of his bed for the third time that night cursing the day he met Deacon. Wotan appeared in his room to help him up, again.

“Why, Wotan? Why do I have to endure this nonsense? Next time I wish the King to send his throngs of lesser nobles to play fetch.” Wined Lord Pentecost.

“My lord, be reasonable. His majesty could not have anticipated this outcome. A god’s blessed impenetrable fort? All because the champion just happened to be here. The stability of this substance aside. If we could harness this power the empire to the west wouldn’t stand a chance.” Wotan explained while lifting the Minister to his bed.

“That is a gift I’ll be bringing to the King. Unfortunately, it’s in this backwater part of the kingdom. If only we could move it. Make a note to speak to the King’s Magus about moving this fort. We may yet turn tragedy into triumph. Any word from the vineyard? I do hope the five-year vintage is almost ready.” Groaned the exhausted Minister of the Interior.