Imperious, Chapter 018 - Legacy (Patreon)

Anna came to slowly, her right eye fluttering open while her left remained shut, crusted over with dried blood. Her head felt heavy, she could barely lift it. Her vision felt off too, slightly blurred towards her peripheral vision. She tried to blink but it hurt. She coughed and looked down at her body. Her mangled leg was still attached at least and somehow it was sticking out straight in front of her even though it felt like her leg bones were made of gelatin. Her gaze shifted over to her arm and saw that it was bent at an odd angle, her mace a few feet away. She smelled burning flesh and that ozone-burned sugar odor again.

Ah, I’m not dead, she thought absently and called up her resources to double check.

Resources:
HP: 3/130 | SP: 11/75 | MT: 221/125

She coughed again, Well that’s not good, she chuckled. She was pretty sure that pushing your mana tolerance past the limit was a bad thing. She sighed and tried to shift her head enough to look up. It took some effort and felt like her spine was made out of powder, but she managed to tilt her head back and get a good look at the room. There was a streak of blood stretching from a point of impact a bit ahead of her that ended where she was sitting against a column. Some bits of rubble had fallen from where she struck it.

Beyond the blood trail she saw scattered marble bits here and there before finally laying eyes on the guardian. It lay on its side, one arm obliterated while the other twitched and spasmed. Its head was still turned to look at her, its eyes flickering with light. Every now and then the light grew bright and a small hum filled the chamber before the light died back down and the hum faded. She wondered how long it had been laying there literally trying to kill her with its gaze. She scoffed and let her head fall back down. I’m too tired for this shit. She thought.

She had to remain conscious for a little while longer, though. She needed to at least get herself into good enough condition to move. She reached into her sash and pulled out one of the last few roots she’d managed to take with her into the fight and shoved it into her mouth. It hurt to chew, but she didn’t have any better options. She chewed slowly, vision going in and out until finally she felt warmth spreading through her body and the soothing sensation drove her down into slumber once again.

She repeated the process several more times as her body slowly recovered, even then it wasn’t going to be anywhere near a proper fix. She chewed, slept, and chewed again until she ran out of roots on hand and gave up on speeding her recovery any more, dozing off one last time.

She woke again an indeterminate amount of time later, her body finally starting to feel better. She glanced at her leg and found that it was largely whole though the bones and muscles still ached. She experimentally bent the knee and to her relief feeling rushed through down to her toes and she found she could even put a little pressure on it. It still creaked when she moved it but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She groaned and slowly, very slowly, pulled herself to her feet, doing her best to steady herself against the column behind her. She pulled up her resources again.

Resources:
HP: 19/130 | SP: 24/75 | MT: 203/125

I’m starting to get the impression that any health I should have recovered went towards healing my injuries rather than restoring the actual healh pool, She thought as she lingered on the numbers. Mana is going down really slow too. I’ve definitely been out for at least a day or so.

She forced her feet to move after catching her breath, making her way over to her mace and picking it up. She pat her waist and found that her gun had gone missing at some point. She glanced around and eventually found it beneath a couple blocks of marble, smashed to pieces. She let out a weary sigh, Damn, that was my moms. She grumbled and turned accusingly towards the guardian that was still sitting there trying to blast it her with its heat-ray-eye things. She rolled her eyes at it and slowly made her way over to it, stopping next to its massive head.

“Sorry for the wait, big guy,” She grunted, her voice sounding gravelly and strained to her ears. She pat it on the side of its enormous nose before glancing at its eyes. She’d assumed they were its cores or something but they looked nothing like the carved stones she’d seen before. Instead, they looked like blue glass spheres. She tried to grab one but the dim light coming off of them just sent a shock of pain through her fingers. She scowled at it, “Ah you little shit, I won already, damn it!” She grunted, rubbing her aching hand.

She stepped a pace back and pulled up her mace, “Fine, have it your way,” She grumbled and swung, no power strike, just smashed the eye with brute force. It popped and sizzled, a bit of energy leaking out and leaving a dark hole in its place. She did the same with the other eye and finally, finally, the body of the guardian went limp, the marble shuddered and fell still.

You have slain Guardian of the Engraver’s Legacy, Level 12
Bonus Experience Gained
Additional Experience Gained for slaying a dungeon monster.
150 Iron Credits Gained

Slay 100 Creatures. (55/100)

“I didn’t even level up,” She grunted, “Money’s good though, I think?” She ignored the quest notification for a moment and put her hand on the guardian’s body. She wasn’t going to go anywhere without getting the core out of it.

Would you like to convert slain beast into loot? Yes / No

“Yeah, obviously,” Anna said.

Immediately all of the scattered marble in the room turned to powder before, to her surprise, it began to gather and condense a little bit to her right. The head beneath her hands dissolved and from the innermost part of the head a large sphere about the size of a softball dropped to the ground with a thud, leaving a crack in the stone tile below. She snatched it up as the stream of marble continued gathering.

Inert Guardian Golem Core (Rare-Grade)
The core of a high quality guardian golem, this core has been rendered inert after being damaged in battle. It is unusable in its current state. An engraver may be able to restore its functionality.

“Still no idea what an engraver is, but I’m guessing I’ll figure out shortly,” She said with a breath and turned her attention towards where the marble had finished gathering. Her lips formed a thin line when she took in what looked like a gigantic block of marble about ten feet long and three feet high. She squinted at it, “What the fuck?”

She walked over and inspected it.

Block of Eternal Marble (Rare-Grade)
This large block of eternal marble was condensed after the destruction of the Guardian of the Engraver’s Legacy. A golem made of this material is able to regenerate without needing nearby suitable material, requiring only mana to reform lost matter. This marble is pure and has not been inset or improved in any way and is highly desirable by both engravers and alchemists.

She tilted her head and stepped away from it, lots of thoughts popped into her head. The first of which was, “That thing could regenerate?” She shouted, “What? Since when? It didn’t do anything like that!” She pointed out, utterly baffled. The second question was a bit more petulant, “How the hell am I supposed to get this thing out of here?” She demanded, “It probably weighs a literal ton!”

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, forcing herself to relax and move her attention elsewhere for now. Time for notifications.

Quest Complete!

Truth of the Lumbering Mines, Part 4

Claim Victory (1/1)

Rewards: Profession Choice, Hidden Additional Reward, Access to the Dungeon’s Vault

Immediately she heard a noisy grinding sound coming from somewhere near the center of the room. She guessed that was the vault opening. She waited for the notifications about the hidden reward and the profession choice but nothing happened so she assumed it was probably something inside the vault too. Grumbling to herself about having to walk around feeling like she did, she made her way over to the entrance of the chamber first and snatched up her bag while pulling up the next notification waiting for her. This one had come up during the fight and-

“Oh.”

New Skill Acquired!

Imperious Wrath (Unique-Low)
You may expend additional mana to imbue your attacks and offensive spells with pure intent and domineering will. Damage done will be increased based on your Presence. Targets affected by your wrath will be suppressed, inhibiting regeneration and increasing the cost of spells and mana-based skills. This skill cannot be used while suppressing your presence.

This answered pretty much all the other questions on her mind. How she had completely blasted through her mana tolerance and how she’d managed to keep the guardian from regenerating now that she knew about the material it had been made of. It also explained how she’d done so much damage in the first place given the things level. She wasn’t just using her strength from her blows back then, but her presence had been added to it. It was great, honestly, but the price was pretty high.

I’ll have to be careful how I use this, she thought as she set her bag on her shoulder. She was relieved it had survived the fight with all the cores inside of it. She shoved the Guardian core in as well and hobbled over towards the center of the room, casting a glower over at the block of marble before coming to a stop in front of what appeared to be a circular staircase leading down. Just ahead of the staircase was a podium and on it was a book. She reached out and touched it without hesitating.

You have been offered a Profession:

Engraver

A fundamental profession. Engravers focus on utilizing various materials and techniques to instill enchantments on items and armor, some talented engravers can even modify enchantments, providing additional effects.

Attributes Per Level: +1 Ins, +1 Int, +1 Pre, +2 Free Points

Starting Skills: Engrave (Common-Base), Dismantle Enchanted Item (Common-Base), Analyze Engraving (Common-Base).

Would you like to accept this Profession as your secondary class? Yes / No

“Well there’s that,” She said with a chuckle, So an engraver is an enchanter, basically. Okay, that makes sense I guess. She thought and glanced down at her bag and raised her eyebrows. Didn’t the cores say that an engraver could possibly make the cores functional again? Could I… could I get the golems working but for me? A greedy smile spread across her face. Enchanting my own equipment, modifying enchantments, and making golems? Oh this is not even a question.

She selected yes.

Immediately she felt a similar sensation to when her stats increased, yet it was accompanied with a flood of information that felt disjointed and incomplete, almost like when she’d acquired her armor proficiency. A bunch of motions and concepts that barely made any sense without actual book knowledge just crammed themselves into her head without rhyme or reason. She winced, clutching the side of her head. “Fuckin’ ow!” She groaned, blinking a few times before calling up her status screen.

Name: Anastasia Flitt
Race: Human - Terran
Class: Caster - 7
Profession: Engraver - 1
Tier: Mortal
Heritage: Imperious Monarch

Resources:
HP: 32/130 | SP: 38/75 | MT: 201/125

Attributes: Available Free Points: 2
Strength: 21 | Agility: 10 | Intellect: 22
Vitality: 26 | Endurance: 15 | Willpower: 28
Awareness: 15 | Insight: 17 | Presence: 55

Titles:
Youth of the Integration (Common), Precursor of Earth (Common), Pre-System Warrior (Epic)

Skills:
Maces (Common-Base), Power Strike (Common-Mid), Identify (Common-Base), Heavy Armor (Common-Low), Personal Firearms (Common-Base), Engrave (Common-Base), Dismantle Enchanted Item (Common-Base), Analyze Engraving (Common-Base), The Human Spirit (Uncommon-Base), Adaptable (Uncommon-Base), Resounding Blows (Rare-Base), Imperious Wrath (Unique-Low)

Spells
Mana Barrier (Common-Mid)

Currency:
Iron: 210

First thing she noticed was that the level line had disappeared, instead, her class and profession both had the numbers right next to them. It had adjusted now that she had two classes to keep track of basically. She also had two free points which she held onto for the moment, she’d wait until she had a better idea of how to spend them. Next was her skills, Power Strike and Mana Barrier had reached Mid at some point, which meant she’d see improvements. That was a validating sight. Finally she saw the three new skills which she got details on in the subsequent notifications.

New Skill Acquired!

Engrave (Common-Base)
Use your will alone to engrave, carve, and alter the surface of an object with a small amount of mana. Utilizing knowledge from a magical proficiency can allow one to turn engravings into enchantments. Presence increases the efficiency of this skill.

New Skill Acquired!

Dismantle Enchanted Item (Common-Base)
You may break down an enchanted item, reducing it to raw essence which can be stored in a vessel. The enchantments engraved on an enchanted item have a chance to be absorbed and comprehended, allowing you to more easily replicate them. Insight increases the chances of comprehension.

New Skill Acquired!

Analyze Engraving (Common-Base)
Using a small amount of mana you may analyze an enchanted item to learn its properties if they are obscured, even if the item is owned by another person. The higher your Insight, the more information gained.

Anna let out a whistle and pulled out one of the inert cores from her bag, looking it over. So that’s what these carvings are? She glanced down at her gauntlets and boots but couldn’t see any engravings on them. Are they hidden somewhere? She thought. It was pretty cool to get a skill that was basically enchanting and was glad she didn’t have to use a chisel or anything, that would be tedious. The dismantle enchanted item skill gave her some more insight into how engraving worked, it needed more than just mana, it needed something called essence which she wasn’t yet familiar with.

Finally there was Analyze Engraving which was a huge find if she did say so herself. She was pretty sure it implied that she could identify magic items that weren’t yet identifiable with the skill alone. Could be a pretty good way to make money in the future if Engravers were uncommon. Very satisfied she put the core back in her bag and began her descent into the vault. A descent that stopped as soon as she reached the open space beneath her.

It wasn’t just a vault. It was a goddamn workshop.

The entire space was about a hundred feet square with stone doors on each side, the entire area made of the same off-gray stone as before. Three of the doors were smaller while the fourth was huge, she guessed that was where the vault was. The workshop itself was set up with several stations that reminded her of the kind of lab table you would dissect something on. There were lights hanging over each of them and indentations in the shape of humanoid forms. Fortunately there was no lingering smell of blood so she forced herself to imagine that whomever was working here had used the stations to design golems and not cut people open.

There was another workstation that had a rather odd tripod looking thing set in the center of it with several lenses on arms set up around it. Then there were several sets of bookshelves crammed full of books of all shapes and sizes. The sprawling place made her think of a research laboratory in a sci-fi movie. The last thing she spotted was another podium like the one before, but instead of a book there was a large indentation that looked just big enough to fit the guardian golem’s core.

She finished her descent and pulled the core out, checking it once before setting it in the indentation.

Hidden Quest Alert!

Truth of the Lumbering Mines, Part 5

You have discovered the hidden legacy of the Engraver of the Lumbering Mines and have claimed the Guardian’s core. You have one final choice. You may choose to enter the vault now, claim your treasure, and leave. Or, you may use what is present in the Engraver’s lab and restore the Guardian Core to functionality on your own. Doing so will improve the rewards in the vault and allow you to claim the Engraver’s true legacy.

Retrieve your Rewards (0/1)
Or
Restore the Guardian Core (0/1)

Rewards: Final Rewards Distributed, Experience / Profession Upgrade, Improved Final Rewards, Experience

Anna read the notification and shrugged, “Might as well go all the way,” She said and set her bag down. “Time to learn how to make golems.”