Chapter 357

Raiding the Star of Hegon (I)

More and more have slowly begun returning to the Tower’s second floor, some inspired, and some downtrodden. There were varying levels of luck in their findings, though it seemed to ere on the side of relatively unlucky. The luckiest, luckily ironically, was Yuki, who managed to finish a quest he accidentally stumbled upon and got rewarded with an SS+ item that seemed hand-crafted for the healers. The young man had spent the entire day showing it off to everyone, especially Cain.

[Ring of Deliverance - SS+]

[Level: 72]

[Requirements: ‘Deliverer of H’yun’, Level 60, 400 Intelligence]

[Additional Requirement Fulfilled: 740 Intelligence]

+400% Mana Regeneration

+800% Mana Regeneration in combat if current Mana is below 50%

+4000 Mana

+13% Mana

+95 Intelligence

+4% Intelligence

+180 Wisdom

+8% Wisdom

+66% Healing Output

-2% Mana Consumption every second in combat, stacking up to 10 times

Special Effect[0] -- Salvation -- at the start of the combat, mark a friendly target. A blow that would kill them will instead be relegated toward you at 8% of the original effectiveness. If you survive, heal the friendly target for all the damage done to you. ‘Salvation’ is then canceled and cannot be used for the remainder of the fight.

Special Effect[1] -- Prism of Unity -- at the start of the combat, mark a secondary friendly target. Every time you heal the target, a shower of rain will burst from them in the frontal cone, healing everyone within it for the 66% of the original healing. Every 6th heal will instead heal for 150% of the original healing.

Special Effect[2] -- Deliver Unto Me -- at the start of the combat, mark a tertiary friendly target. Every time the target takes direct damage, reflect 20% of it toward you at 90% effectiveness. Your direct heals toward other friendly targets also heal the marked target, at 66% original effectiveness.

Special Effect[3] -- Celestial -- as long as all 3 marks are active and alive, you gain ‘Celestial’ aura, decreasing the damage taken of everyone in your raid by 8% and increasing everyone’s ‘Healing Received’ by 80%. Additionally, you can temporarily supercharge the aura every 30 second, doubling its effects and granting everyone in the party 20% bonus damage.

...

Special Conditions met.

Special Effect[4] -- Godly Vow -- at any point during the battle, you may manually disable a mark. Doing so allows you to special-mark another target (stacking), increasing ALL their stats by 10% (per stack) in addition to the mark’s original effects. If all 3 marks are placed on the same target, you form a Vow -- if either of you dies, so does the other. Every 15000 Mana spent, you may empower the Vow, granting the friendly target a temporary ‘Godly’ attribute. All damage they take will be reduced by 99% for 4 seconds. All their resources will have 6000% bonus to regeneration. All their damage will ignore Resistances for 6 seconds. They will become immune to all crowd control for 10 seconds. Additionally, after swearing the Vow with one person, you may never swear it with another.

Note: if all 3 marks are on the same target, ‘Celestial’ aura will be disabled.

Even Cain couldn’t help but sigh at the sight--the item was truly top-tier. The reason, however, he was entirely enthralled was that the ring was purely too specialized. It was as clear as night that unlocking the ‘Godly Vow’ completely undid the actual purpose of the ring, which was a raid-wide defensive cooldown. Because of how absurdly overpowered it is to have all the effects on one target as well as the active portion of it, only an idiot would salivate after the ‘Celestial’ aura.

However, because ‘Godly Vow’ was restricted to one person, the ring’s value dropped considerably. The reason was simple--it would go to him. There likely was nobody present here that even for a moment entertained the idea of them being Avowed with Yuki. While it would make him absolutely overpowered, it was... virtually pointless. Cain was already beyond overpowered. He could easily solo U’nul without breaking a sweat. And the truth was that the item as overpowered as this had that hidden attribute of ‘diminishing levels’, meaning that past a certain level, it would simply stop functioning.

The hint for those items was usually within the numbers--and the number that gave it away was ‘15000’ Mana spent for empowering the Vow. While it isn’t a nightmare for Yuki at the moment, it will still take considerable time. After then 2nd Awakening, however, spending 15000 Mana could equate to as few as 2-3 spells used, which would be a joke as the Vow could be maintained permanently. And that’s just not happening.

“Cain--”

“No,” Cain quickly interjected. “Give the vow to Senna or Jamal.”

“Eh? What? No way,” Senna said.

“You outta your wits?” Jamal quipped. “Shut up and make a vow already. As long as Emma isn’t jealous...”

“A fantasy of mine, really,” Emma grinned.

“Right, that’s that,” Senna nodded.

“Ah, I’ve been away for far too long,” Cain sighed. “My words seem to mean shit these days. Alright, let me simplify it for you: there’s a great chance of the sun above internally imploding right now than me making that Vow.”

“B-but... why?” even Emma was confused by this point.

“’cause,” Cain shrugged.

“... alright,” Emma nodded, realizing it likely had something to do with the ‘unspeakable’ things that he couldn’t share with the rest of the party. “Vow with Jamal, Yuki. Unlike Senna, he’s on the frontlines, and he has higher peak damage.”

“Much higher,” Senna grumbled, feeling somewhat envious. Though she usually dealt a good deal more damage than him over the course of a battle, there was nobody in the party that could match Jamal’s and Daniel’s short-window burst. Not even remotely close.

“Right,” Emma nodded. “Besides, we’ll hang back with the Aura for the first portions of the battle since it will give us at least a bit of the room to breathe. We’ll treat the Vow as the potential giga-cooldown for when we absolutely need to burn through the boss’ health at all cost. Also, didn’t you say you recruited a new Healer? Where is he?” she asked as everyone’s attention turned to Cain, recalling.

“Resting,” Cain shrugged. “I’ve been working him for a while now.”

“Yikes. Poor guy,” Jamal sighed.

“Is there anything more sufferable than Cain’s mentorship?” Daniel spoke.

“Sufferable isn’t a word,” Cain chimed in.

“You’re being sufferable,” Daniel said.

“... it’s insufferable,” Cain grunted. “Insufferable. Jesus, did any one of you even graduate?”

“I did!” Lana cheered excitedly.

“Uncle Rick just gave you a paper,” he glanced at her askew. “He’s spoiled you rotten. Wait till your daddy gives you a math test like we used to get back in the day. Remember, Em’? When we used to cry the tears of joy upon seeing a single number in an equation?”

“Ah, yeah, those were the days,” Emma and a few other ‘senior’ members of the party sighed nostalgically. “Remember when Mr. Gibson gave us six tests for six weeks straight? God, I’m so glad that prick got fired. He was insuff--I mean, sorry, he was sufferable.”

“Pfft, ha ha ha,” while the group laughed, Daniel seemed to ignore them, posturing with his classic attitude of indifference. However, in that gaze, there was some hurt.

“Alright, alright,” Emma calmed everyone down. “While we’re waiting for Kramer, Delilah, Ethan, and Elypso to come back, we’ll raid Rick’s treasury--both of items and people--and see if we can discover something more. We’ll fill the raid group hopefully, but we can’t just toss in anyone we want. C’, you alright inspecting them?”

“Torturing arrogant kids into realizing they amount to nothing?” Cain grinned. “Ah, my perfect life is all-a-coming...”

“... right, so, you ain’t ever staying with another kid unsupervised ever again,” she said. “Senna, stay with dad. Knee him if he misbehaves. Rest of us, let’s go!”

“Aye, aye...”

As everyone began departing, the pool area returned to being Cain’s mini sanctuary. While Te’gha and Domin slept to the side in the shade, Senna sat down on one of the many chairs and poured herself a drink.

“Sera and I broke up,” she said suddenly, surprising Cain.

“Oh? Why? What happened?” he asked.

“Not much,” she replied with a shrug. “We just... drifted apart, I suppose. She wanted me to stay in the Tower, and I want to go out and roam.”

“... I’m sorry to hear that,” Cain said. “There’ll be someone else, though.”

“You and mom really lucked out with one another, didn’t you?” she glanced at him, smiling weakly, her eyes bleeding with somber pain.

“... nah, I lucked out,” he said. “She could have had whoever the fuck she wanted.”

“True,” Senna nodded, not denying it.

“As can you, kiddo,” Cain added.

“... she was the first girl I ever liked,” Senna said after a momentary silence. “And... some parts of me always hoped it would be like you and mom. One and done. Turns out, there’s shit-all chance of that happening on a regular.”

“You met when you were young,” Cain said. “Most young couples end in breakups because the people... change.”

“I haven’t changed,” Senna said.

“Then maybe that’s the reason,” Cain said. “Not everyone’s enamored with Conquering this place, firefly.”

“You’re at fault for that, y’know?” she scoffed, swallowing a mouthful.

“Yeah, sorry,” Cain played along with a smile.

“Beating up the Tower’s monsters... is so much easier than people,” she continued, sighing. “I don’t have to think or be considerate or wonder. I just... do.”

“Aah, to think my own kid’s an unsociable introvert,” Cain sighed as well. “Em’ and I failed. Failed so hard. Well, I guess there’s no other way. We’ll arrange someone for you.”

“... you’ll what?”

“We’ll find you someone nice and mental. With a good family, of course, ‘cause we’ll be needing that neat dowry. And a nice connection. So, maybe some Kingdom’s Princess?”

“... even though I know you’re just fucking around,” Senna growled. “I really, really, really want to cut your tongue out.”

“Keep that fire in your belly, then,” he chuckled. “You die when you run out of it, after all. There’ll be many loves, firefly. And just as many heartbreaks. But... when it all works out,” he added, glancing at her. “To enjoy it, even the eternity will feel short.”