Dark Fate, Chapter 31 (Patreon)

There's some exposition and skill stuff here. Had to be done, to make things flow. Next week, however, we have zombie hunting!

Chapter 31 – Advancement

The last month had been a time of upheaval, to be certain. Monsters were still spawning in cities, since people hadn’t figured out the wards to cover an entire city, yet, but most of the spawn zones had been identified, and temporary wards were put down where they could. The wards needed to be redone every day, but they could prevent the spawning of monsters during that time.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. As mana-intensive as the wards were, and as few mages had the Warding skill or spells, it was only the more dangerous spawn sites that got warded. For the others, well, people were starting to get XP and leveling off lone goblins or slimes. There were very few people who weren’t at least to Level 2 or 3 by now.

Of course, most people didn’t have access to private dungeons that they could use to quickly level up and gain new skills. My pet dungeon had produced goblin warriors to fight, and while they weren’t any challenge to me, they did provide XP, both for me and my group. We took it easy on the young dungeon, though, only going in with groups of three to four, to keep things fair.

Thanks to that, my group had managed to get to Level 10, while the rest were at a still very respectable level 6. Most people outside my property were in the level 2-5 range. That would change, as the world adapted, but for now, that was all most people needed.

Name:

Zayn   Greene

Race:

Greater   Incubus

Class:

Blood   Warlock

Profession:

Slave   Master

Level:

10

XP:

45000/55000

HP:

14000/14000

HP   Regen:

140 per   half hour

MP:

7840/9800

MP   Regen:

98 per   min

Titles:

Executioner,   Dungeon Foe

Attributes

STR

72   (102)

INT

77 (107)

DEX

80   (110)

WIS

43 (73)

CON

110 (140)

CHA

146 (176)

Luck

29 (59)

Defense

80 (2616)

+7   CHA, +1 INT, +1 CON per level

0   Attribute points remaining

4   Attribute points per level

Skills

Racial   Skills

Seduction   – Increases your ability to seduce individuals. Passively increases your   appeal. Active use decreases target’s resistance.

Pheromones   – Reduces aggression of all females towards you. May have secondary effects.

Class   Skills

Curse   Magic – The study of curses and other afflictions that can be used to hinder   and hamper enemies. Includes both short-term afflictions, and more lasting   curses. 

Destruction   Magic – The study of turning magic into pure destructive power, for the   purposes of destroying your foes.

Summoning   – Allows the warlock to summon a demon to his side. The type of demon depends   on the Warlock’s level, skill, and any materials used. Some demons may be   hostile to summoners.

Demonology   – Gain knowledge about demons and demonic entities.

Profession   Skills

Appraise   Value – Able to see the level, race, class, and profession of potential   slaves, giving you an idea of their potential value. More information   provided at higher ranks.

Training   – Able to enhance a slave’s learning speed for skills, or teach the slave new   skills.

Taming   – Better able to calm emotional slaves, and prevent aggressive slaves from   inciting rebellion. Also known as breaking or domesticating.

General   Skills

Weapon   Mastery – Proficient with the use of all weapons (not counting   vehicle-mounted weapons or siege weapons).

Armor   Mastery – Proficient with the use of all armor types and shields.

Auto-Regeneration   – Regenerate HP at 200% normal speed.

Toughness   – Decrease nonmagical damage taken by 50%.

Magic   Resistance – Hostile spells are 50% less effective.

Carnal   Arts – Become more skilled in the arts of bringing pleasure to yourself and   others.

10   Skill points remaining

I was pleased with my progress so far. While I certainly wouldn’t be a match for the Tier 2 monsters out there, I had no doubts in my ability to stand my ground against monsters in the 25-30 range, at least for a while. That was different than being able to beat them, of course, but simply ‘not losing’ against creatures 15 to 20 levels above you was no mean feat.

The levels also brought with them more skills, and skill points to spend on them. So far, I’d gone for a fairly basic build, focusing primarily on defense and support. Yes, I had some attack magics at my disposal, but I used my blade more than my attack spells. With five levels of skill points to spend, I took a look at the skills available to me.

Available Skills:

Note: Your available skills are based   on your Race, Class, Profession, and activities.

Racial   Skills:

Intimidation   – Increases your ability to frighten or cow individuals. Effects fade when   out of your presence.

Diplomacy   – Increases your ability to sway others and persuade them. May make friends   and influence people.

Desire   Reflection – Allows you to project a glamour that makes you look like a   viewer’s most desirable romantic partner.

Progenitor   – Able to overwhelm barriers to pregnancy.

Kiss   of Corruption – Can reduce a person’s resistance to your seduction (and other   social skills) with a kiss.

Hellfire   Magic – Able to cast spells with Hellfire.

Aerial   Defender – Gain 10% to Defense while in flight.

Contract   Magic – Able to create magically binding contracts.

Bestow   Glamour – Enhance a willing individual’s looks, adding to their CHA, for a   price.

Touch   of Depravity – Increase an individual’s libido, reduce their WIS temporarily.

Fool’s   Wisdom – Increase a willing individual’s WIS, for a price.

Class   Skills:

Soulbinding   – Knowledge of the art of creating binding magics and contracts.

Mental   Resilience – Your ability to resist hostile enchantments, illusions, and   other mind-affecting abilities is increased.

Fell   Magic – Critical damage from Warlock spells (including Blood Bolt and Blood   Magic spells) increased from x2 to x3 (x4 if the target is of ‘good’   alignment).

Mettle   – Increase your resistance to hostile damaging spells.

Sanguine   Spells – May deal HP damage to self in order to enhance the power of spells   or substitute for needed components.

Planar   Knowledge – Knowledge of creatures and magics pertaining to other planes of   existence.

Blood   Rage – Gain the ability to enter a blood rage, dealing enhanced melee damage,   but becoming unable to cast spells for the duration.

Sacrificial   Rites – Bestows the knowledge of ritual magic involving sacrifices, allowing   the creation of rituals.

Profession   Skills:

Bargaining   – Useful for arranging the best deal when buying or selling slaves. Also   useful for all types of pacts or negotiations.

Body   Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase physical   attributes over time.

Mind   Shaping – Able to create training regimens that will increase mental   attributes over time.

Tracking   – Able to sense the general direction to all slaves bearing your brand.

Commanding   Aura – Branded slaves gain 10% to all actions while under direct supervision   of the Master.

Master’s   Will – Branded slaves suffer -10% to all rebellious actions.

Expanded   Appraisal I – [Appraise Value] now includes titles the target has, as well as   their largest attribute.

Dominance   – Increased resistance to mental or soul influence.

Brand   Capacity I – Increase the number of brands you can maintain to 1 per every 4   points of CHA.

General   Skills:

Inspiration   – The ability to make inspiring speeches to get others to follow you.

Anatomy   (Humanoid) – Provides enhanced knowledge of humanoid anatomy, the better to   heal, or harm, with.

Sense   Motive – The ability to sense when people are lying to you, and to discern   ulterior motives.

I had a wide array of skills available, some of which overlapped. Of course, overlap wasn’t always bad. Sure, Contract Magic and Soulbinding basically did the same thing, so that I really only needed one or the other. However, Mental Resilience and Dominance would stack, providing far more protection. Likewise, Demonology and Planar Knowledge had some overlap, but the second one was more expansive.

Racial Skills:

Hellfire   Magic – Able to cast spells with Hellfire.

Bestow   Glamour – Enhance a willing individual’s looks, adding to their CHA, for a   price.

Touch   of Depravity – Increase an individual’s libido, reduce their WIS temporarily.

Hellfire Magic was simple enough. It opened up Hellfire as an element for my spells, like Ice or Fire. This was nice not only because Hellfire had powerful secondary effects, but also because Fire and Hellfire were different resistances, and really only Demons or demon-type classes had Hellfire resistance.

Bestow Glamour, however, was another kettle of fish entirely. The description really didn’t do it justice. With a touch, I could essentially make someone more beautiful, and more confident, like the before and after in romantic comedies when the nerdy girl gets a makeover for the prom, but backed with real magic. The ‘price’, such as it was, was just the fact that they lost 10% of their mana regeneration, and I gained that number to my mana regeneration. Oh, and they were far more susceptible to my enchantments and other mind-affecting abilities.

And then there was Touch of Depravity. Hoo, boy. This baby basically let me touch the most frigid nun, and in an instant their libido would shoot into overdrive, all the while their Wisdom dropped by 50%, dramatically impairing their ability to make rational decisions. It was, in essence, magical roofies on steroids.

Class Skills:

Soulbinding   – Knowledge of the art of creating binding magics and contracts.

Mental   Resilience – Your ability to resist hostile enchantments, illusions, and   other mind-affecting abilities is increased.

Mettle   – Increase your resistance to hostile damaging spells.

Sacrificial   Rites – Bestows the knowledge of ritual magic involving sacrifices, allowing   the creation of rituals.

Soulbinding allowed me to make magical contracts, as it said on the tin, but that was only part of it. The other part, binding magics, was essentially the art of binding demons. But, at higher levels, you could bind mortal souls. If you combined it with item crafting, however, you could bind souls to items, which could be VERY useful, indeed.

Mental Resilience, as one would expect, increased your resistance to all those nasty mind-effecting spells and effects. Basically, it added a flat 15% chance for you to resist those effects, and your attempts to shake them off were 15% more likely to succeed. This was pretty damn huge, as some of the nastiest enemies were the ones that attacked your mind, rather than your body.

Mettle was basically the same as Mental Resilience, but for damaging spells. So, things like a fireball or a hellfire blast. It was different, however, because instead of doing a flat chance to ignore the spell, it instead reduced the damage I took from those spells by 10%. That didn’t sound like much, but it could be the difference between living and dying, especially on larger, more powerful spells.

Sacrificial Rites, on the other hand, was another support-type skill. Well, it supported my other skills, at least. Ritual magic was powerful, since it allowed people to do things that were normally impossible for any single caster, and share the costs to those conducting the ritual. Naturally, it was dangerous as hell if you rushed it, or screwed it up, but it was damn powerful, and this skill also gave me the option to replace a measure of the required power with sacrificial offerings. Didn’t have to be humans, either, though the more intelligent and ‘pure’ the sacrifice was, the more power it provided, which meant you needed fewer bodies to get the desired effect.

Profession Skills:

Expanded   Appraisal I – [Appraise Value] now includes titles the target has, as well as   their largest attribute.

Dominance   – Increased resistance to mental or soul influence.

Brand   Capacity I – Increase the number of brands you can maintain to 1 per every 4   points of CHA.

Expanded Appraisal I was very useful. Oh, sure, just adding titles and someone’s highest stat to the information [Appraise Value] gave me wasn’t terribly useful, on the face of things. After all, a warrior type class was almost certainly going to have STR or CON as their main stat. Though, I guess if I saw DEX, INT, or CHA on that warrior’s value, then that would be useful information. Still, the real value was in the titles, which could give me much bigger clues about what they could do. Information was power, after all. Even better, the ‘I’ at the end meant that this was a chain, where unlocking later versions of the skill would give more and more information!

Dominance was, in everything but name, the exact same thing as Mental Resilience. Basically, Slave Masters needed to be able to resist slaves (or potential slaves) trying to be sneaky. Like I said, though, the big deal was that it stacked with Mental Resilience, giving me a combined 30% chance to just ignore mental effects, and a 30% increased ability to fight them off. There was no way I could pass that up.

Brand Capacity I, like Expanded Appraisal I, was a chain skill. I wasn’t quite sure how far the skill would go. But even this first ‘link’ in the chain increased my total number of [Slave Brand] slots from 30 (1 base plus 146/5, since the temporary bonus from items didn’t count) to 37. That might seem small, but if there was, say, a Brand Capacity II that reduced it to a 1/3 ratio, then that number would increase to 49. Combined with my getting 7 CHA every level-up, and that was going to be VERY useful, in the long run.

“Master, its time.”

Talia’s voice shook me from my reflections on my skills. Looking over to the Battledancer, I grinned. “All right, pet. I guess we should go enjoy a dive in a dungeon that isn’t our own. I hope everyone is ready to go zombie-slaying.”