HC:Pacifist | Ch. 86 - Inner Light (Patreon)

Roth inspected the [Athos] item he received. It looked similar to a skill card.

Athos (Elite Card)

?????

?????

He couldn't get anything out of it. He tried using his cybernetic scanner to inspect it.

Athos (Elite Card)

Card Description: A trading card for the Terramon CCG game. ??????????????????????

Card stats: ??????????

Roth regarded the notification curiously. He was hearing more and more about this game. He added it to the pile of things to do research on. He then tried looking again for a reputation store icon on his menu. There was nothing.

"Hey, Athos?"

"Yes, beloved friend?" It seemed that the change in status with the ratans was coming through in how Athos addressed him.

"Do you happen to know anything about the reputation store?"

"There are several all over the place." Of course! It wasn't an icon in a menu. It was a building! Roth hurriedly opened the forums and tried searching for a reputation store. There was no mention of where it was. He tried asking Athos again.

"Where's the nearest one?"

"It's my first time in the city; I wouldn't know." Roth's shoulders slumped. He wanted to pull off his hair in frustration. What was the point in getting awesome quest rewards if he couldn't use them?

"Thank you anyway. You've helped me a lot."

Roth took a deep breath and tried to focus his attention on something else.

"Athos, what's next for you?"

"I'll return to my king at once."

"Do you need me to take you?"

"No, not at all." Athos was about to leave when Roth remembered all the different black eggs he had in his inventory.

"Wait, Athos! Hold up." Roth took out all the little spheres he'd collected from the chamber he had accidentally blown up. "I found all of these and need your help destroying them." He held a handful of the little ones in one hand and the bigger sphere in the other.

When Roth pulled the little orbs from his inventory, machine guns came down from the ceiling, and red beams of light focused on him. Mario was with all the lights in his arm and eye glowing red, and Athos already had his sword drawn. What a strong reaction to these little things.

"Can you help me destroy them?" Athos couldn't take his eyes off the bigger sphere in Roth's hand.

"Put the big one away! Quick!" Roth hurriedly obeyed.

"What's wrong?"

"There's pure evil inside that thing. I'm not strong enough to destroy it. I need the help of the other mouseketeers. Only the king can destroy it alone."

"How do you know?"

"Instinct." Animals could instinctively feel danger, and it seems that this characteristic had been programmed into the animal NPCs. What about Mario? Wasn't he a cyborg?

"What about you, Mario? How did you know this was dangerous?"

"Instinct." What was up with these one-word responses? Although Mario was half-machine, he was first and foremost an animal too. It made sense that he also had instincts.

"Can you at least help me get rid of the little ones, Athos?"

"Give them to me." Roth grabbed the 123 little spheres he'd collected and put them on a table close to Athos. Roth blinked, and suddenly, they weren't there anymore. He saw Athos collapse to his knees and support himself on his sword.

"Athos?"

"These require a lot of energy to destroy. They have such strong vitality. They keep regenerating if you don't cut them down to their atoms. This many were quite a challenge, but I managed to shred them. I'm OK, dear friend."

As you fight off the darkness, the light within you grows brighter.

+123 light affinity.

+123 righteousness.

Congratulations! You've unlocked the light affinity!

You've unlocked a new affinity bonus: Inner Light

Inner Light (Stat Bonus)

Bonus description: Your heart is like a torch that burns bright. Insightful individuals can feel the strength coming from you.

Bonus effects:

+10 to all stats;

All light skills are empowered.

Righteous NPCs respect you more.

[Healing Ray] has been upgraded to [Brilliant Healing Ray]

The number of notifications Roth received left him astounded for a few moments. The part that made him the most dazed was that he'd been awarded ten of each stat. That was incredible. Did everyone who unlocked affinities receive this much of a boon? If so, why weren't there more people talking about this?

If the prospect of getting +10 strength from eating a [Power Truffle] was already so coveted that guilds were willing to fork out 17k gold for it, how would they feel if they could get their hands on this stat bonus? Were all stat bonuses gained from affinities this powerful?

Roth was sweating, and his hands trembled. He hadn't expected affinities to be such a big deal! He opened his character's page.

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Pax

Race: Zoomorph

Profession(s): Broker, Lvl. 10

Level: 21

Affinity: Light (134/300)

Alignment: Good (254/300)

Positive relationships:

Badgers (1245/3000); Boars (1313/3000); Cyborg Union (1100/3000);  Dogs (102/300); Dwarf Exiles (105/300); Foxes (1310/3000); Golden Mountain Inc. (564/1000); Greenleaf Inc. (332/1000); Corvids (1311/1000); Ratans (3251/10,000); Snakes (1013/3000) Treeants (400/1000)

Negative relationships:

Gazpachos (-100/300)

Titles: [Adored]; [Alpinist]; [Art Enthusiast]; [Darksbane]; [Discoverer of Species]; [Explorer]; [First of the Kind]; [Jumper]; [Martyr]; [Marathonist]; [Micromanagement]; [Novice]; [Overachiever]; [Pioneer]; [Polyglot]; [Richling]; [Triathlete].

STATS (75 Free Stat Points)

Hp:237

Energy:156

Damage Reduction: 46.7%

Status Resistance: 3,4%

Cooldown Reduction: 10%

Running Speed: 146%

Weight: [Light] - (21.4/90Kg)

Strength: 61

Dexterity: 46

Intelligence: 45 (+1%)

Wisdom: 43

Endurance: 238

Charisma: 69 (+5%)

Resilience: 18

EQUIPMENT

Right Hand: [Plumber's Torch] | +5 intelligence

Left Hand:[Empty]

Shoes: [Plumber Boots] | +20% speed

Bottom: [Woodland Trousers] | 3% damage red.; +5 dexterity; +10ep

Top: [Woodland Jacket] | +5% damage red.; +3 strength; + 3 dexterity

Gloves: [Plumbing Gloves] | +5% damage red.

Head: [Woodland Hood] | +10hp; +5strength

Cape: [Errand Cloak] | +10% speed

ACESSORIES

[Crow Feather Earring] | +1 intelligence; +1 e.regen.

[Cybernetic Scanner]

[Crow Feather Necklace] | +1 wisdom; +2 intelligence; +5ep

[Utility Belt] | +10kg

[Tin Ring] | +1 intelligence

SKILLS:

Stat Bonuses: [Healthy Bones]; [Horse’s Gallop]; [Inner Light]; [Kind-hearted]; [Stone Skin]; [Well-Spoken]

Profession Related: [Discount]; [Exasperate]; [Novice Hiring]; [Porter]; [Supplier's Fortune];

Passive: [Woodland Set I]; [Plumber Set I]

Active: [Brilliant Healing Ray]; [Grapple]; [Search]; [Shepherd’s Shout]; [Taunting Shout]

Unexpectedly, unlocking his affinity was the greatest reward for finishing this quest. The +10 to all stats bonus was broken.

His character had come a long way. He couldn't believe he had gotten to level 21 already. With the five free stats per level gained, he also had 75 free stats to distribute.

Now that the initial shock of getting so many stat gains passed, Roth read more carefully the other effects of the [Inner Light] stat bonus. Righteous NPCs respect you more. He could always use more enablers to help him gain reputation with NPCs. If he already got such strong reactions from walking around in his [Fox Form], what would happen now that he also had [Inner Light] and his new [Darksbane] title?

All light skills are empowered. He checked the effect [Inner Light] had on the only light skill he knew.

Healing Ray (Common)

Skill description: You feel others’ pain and thanks to the power of your mutation, you can slightly alleviate it.

Skill effects:

Active skill. Heal your target;

Healing slightly scales with intelligence and wisdom.

No restrictions.

Brilliant Healing Ray (Uncommon)

Skill description: You feel others' pain, and thanks to the power of your mutation and harnessing the power of light around you, you can alleviate it.

Skill effects: Active skill. Heal your target.

Healing scales with intelligence, wisdom, and affinity.

Restrictions: [Inner Light].

This was, perhaps, the most basic light skill that could be learned. He went mentally through the list of skills that trainers taught in villages and couldn't remember seeing anything else that would be related to light. Even so, for it to receive such an upgrade was remarkable. The skill grade had also increased from (Common) to (Uncommon).

If this was so, there was a whole layer of how affinities boosted skills that very few people knew about. If all skills had an element associated with it, one could gain a free skill upgrade by unlocking the relevant affinity... this changed things.

From now on, whenever Roth went shopping, he would have to keep looking for skills that might be of the light element.

Now that he'd completed both quests, only one was left to wrap up. It was time to put a stop to the Gazpachos racketeering scheme!

*

Gary, Wilson, and Xana were sitting in the chamber in the sewers where a fierce battle had occurred. They weren't alone—multiple guild players paced back and forth to determine what happened here.

Gary tried to look strong, but the foul smell around them made it difficult not to look disgusted. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't help but have raised eyebrows, squinting eyes, and a twisted nose.

Wilson, the best poker player among them, managed to hold it together.  Xana was having it the worst. She made no effort to hide her disgust for the grime covering the walls and the stench pervading the air.

Gary got a notification for a call. He didn't want to answer it but didn't dare refuse.

"Hello, Xerxes."

"What did you find?"

"There are several other guilds down here that came to investigate."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing. There has been a big explosion here, something only a high-level fire esper or warrior with fire skills could pull off. There are no corpses, though, and no loot. There are just a few shards of black glass in one corner, but that's it."

Gary knew that the report had very little information in it, but there was nothing else to say. There was no telling what happened here. To get here, players had to go all the way into the slums and then travel here. Even with their high levels, traveling took a long time. To his surprise, however, Xerxes seemed more pleased than anything.

"Are there any suspects? Who caused such a ruckus?"

"We don't know, sir. By the time we got to the sewers, there were so many guilds down here that it's impossible to know if any of them was involved. We found something interesting, though. A place not very far from here shows signs of a battle. There are gashes and scorch marks that could only be caused by very high-level skills."

"Interesting." Gary was ready for Xerxes to start screaming at him and calling out his incompetence, but what he said next caught him by surprise. "Good work, Gary."

"Thank you, sir."

"Just in case, list any guilds you recognize down there, and send them over. You can go back to your quests." And, just like that, the call was disconnected.

"What did he say?"

"He was strangely pleased with the report. He told us to list the guilds we can spot."

"Let's hurry and get out of here," begged Xana.

The thought of the Slayer entering the auction house or the garrison while they were down here was plaguing Gary's thoughts. He didn't want to come but how could he say no to Xerxes?

"Sure. Let's hurry so that we can go back to searching for the Slayer."

*

"Hey, Drake. Where are you?"

"Running errands for that cursed alligator. What's going on? Why do you look so upset, Roth?"

"So, I've finished the pending quests in the sewers."

"It's sooner than you were expecting. That's good news!"

"Yes, and no. Turns out that I might have drawn some unnecessary attention. Guilds are lurking down here to determine the source of a big explosion."

"Explosion? Did you explode something?"

"Yes, I kind of blew up a grenade by accident into the lair of an evil boss." As Roth said it, the scene of fire, smoke, and corpses he had left behind gave him a sharp pang of pain in his heart. He still couldn't believe he had killed all those creatures.

"You what?"

"Didn't you hear me, Drake? I killed them! I killed those rats, and those snakes. I killed them all!" Roth broke down crying. Drake waited for Roth to calm down.

"It's OK, Roth. It's OK."

"No, it isn't Drake! I'm not sure how I should feel about this. I blew them all up. I feel terrible. I'm a terrible person."

"OK. Calm down. Get yourself together. Didn't you tell me it was an accident?"

"Well, yeah."

"You didn't do it out of spite or rage, trying to hurt others, did you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then, let it go, man. It's what it is. If this were reality, I would tell you to turn yourself in to the police and pray that you wouldn't have to serve much time in jail. But this is a game! Were this reality, you wouldn't even have dared to throw that grenade anyway, would you?" Roth paused. He wouldn't. But chances were that he wouldn't be hunting monsters in the sewers at night, either.

"Besides, weren't these the monsters that were attacking everything in the sewers and hurting your friends?" asked Drake.

Roth didn't know how to feel about this. Realistically, it was impossible to please everyone. At the same time, he'd managed to come this far without hurting others. Or had he?

Hadn't he hurt others when he interrupted their hunts? What about the quests he was doing? Hadn't he brought Athos here to kill the monsters? Wasn't that the same as him killing the monsters himself? The implications were too much for Roth to process.

"Listen, Roth. It's great that you're listening to your conscience and doing your best to live up to your principles. But be reasonable, and don't be too hard on yourself." Drake lifted his robotic arm and waved a mechanical hand meaningfully at him. "Remember what you told me a few days ago?"

"OK."

"Forget about the grenade. It was an accident. Alright?"

"I'll try, Drake."

"Good. If this stuff keeps bothering you, talk to someone from the 14th. They've seen much worse and still get out of bed every day." Roth nodded. "So, what's next for you, lil' Roth?"

Roth tried to accept Drake's help to think about something else. "I'm going to go out now and try to finish the Gazpachos quest."

"No, you won't!" Roth froze for a moment. He was caught off guard by Drake's answer. The man said it with such authority that Roth didn't feel he had a choice but obey him unconditionally. At the same time, Roth was an adult man, and it didn't feel good to be ordered around by anyone.

"But, Drake, this is my most important quest! Without it, I won't be able to hide my identity..."

Drake interrupted Roth mid-sentence, "Roth, didn't you just say that the sewers are filled with guild players?"

"Well, yeah, but…."

"Let's lay low for a while. Do you even have that weird skill that allows you to spy on them off cold down?"

"It's 'cooldown,' Drake," corrected Roth absent-mindedly.

Roth spared a look at the [Miniaturize] skill. It still had several hours to go before he could use it again. He had used it earlier to leave all the merchandise with Soros. He caught Drake smiling. Had he said the 'cooldown' word wrong to help Roth get his mind off his troubles? "Well, I guess you're right."

"Let's do the following. Stay down there. Let's get everyone together in the lab and do a briefing. I want us to talk more about the plan."

"Fine."

"And, son, don't worry about what happened. It was an accident. Let it go. OK?"

"I'll try, Drake."

Roth hung up. It was good to have someone looking out for him. He'd play it cool for now and check the forums while he waited for Drake and the rest of the 14th. He was curious to see what Drake's plan was.

Ch. 85 - Tremors

INDEX

Ch. 87 - The First Briefing