Chapter 80 (2/2)

Alana’s blush turned into mounting horror. Devan would prefer not…?!? And now The Ghosthound wanted her…?

As if he could read her mind, the Ghosthound rolled his eyes. “I have a special skill I’d like to test. But to receive it, you have to sacrifice your class. A strange stipulation, but I suppose the skill is pretty strange in itself…”

“So…” Alana said slowly. “You can give me a class? Right now?”

The Ghosthound seemed to ponder that. “I don’t know. But I do think what I’m giving you will be powerful. Do you want it?”

Alana hesitated, but only for a moment. “Yes.”

“I want it…” Alana repeated, her eyes blazing, remembering the casual carnage left in Clarissa’s wake, and the brutal efficiency of Devan and his squad. “If it’s power I can grasp with these hands…. I want it.”

Randidly put his hand on her shoulder. A notification, a red one, a strange departure of the regular blue kind, floated in front of her.

Warning, Randidly Ghosthound has initiated the skill “Blessing of the South(U)” on you. This will create a permanent bond between you two. Should Randidly Ghosthound perish, all benefits gained from this bond will be retained, but the growth of the bond will cease. Do you still wish to accept his blessing? Y/N

Alana clicked yes, although she frowned. Why did it say warning, instead of the usual congratulations…?

Warning, this bond is permanent. Are you sure you wish to proceed? Your class will be lost upon the acceptance of this Blessing. Y/N

Now this was getting annoying. This must be why it had taken so long. There were so many pointless notifications… Alana pressed yes again.

Warning, this is your final warning. A portion of this bond’s strength will be drawn from Randidly Ghosthound. Are you sure that you wish to accept this bond? Y/N

“Holy FUCK.” Alana swore, pressing yes.

This time, the familiar blue notifications appeared.

Congratulations! You have received the Blessing of the South. Calculating Blessing…

From Randidly Ghosthound, you have received the Soul Skill “Blessing of the Distant Southern Mountains”. You have gained access to the class. “Spear of the Broken Ridge”. As you do not possess a class, speak with a Town Spirit to obtain this class.

Your skill Spear Mastery has been changed to Spear of the Broken Ridge Mastery Lvl 1. All previous benefits have been retained. Spear Thrust has been changed to Sun Strike Lvl 1. All previous benefits have been retained. You have gained the skill Hot Blooded Lvl 1. You have gained the skill Child of the Sun Lvl 1

Hot Blooded Lvl 1: As your current health drops in relation to your max health, you receive a small boost in all physical stats. The boost increases as skill level rises.

Child of the Sun Lvl 1: Regeneration of Health and Stamina increased while under the Sun. At night, your body glows, slightly illuminating your surroundings. Regeneration increased by 2% per skill level. Illumination increases with skill level.

“Oh wow…” Alana whispered, looking at the notifications. She had no idea how good the class would end up being, but the changes to her skills obviously seemed to be changes for the better. She couldn’t wait to try out her new skills. And these weren’t even the skills she would get when she got the class!

She selected the option to display the notifications publically, and The Ghosthound carefully read through everyone of them.

At the end, he sighed. “So, only really useful for people without classes, huh…? Still, that leaves us some options...Anyway, don’t die before we return to Donnyton and get the class. I want to see the stat gains.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I just got it here?” Alana wondered aloud, but The Ghosthound shook his head.

“The place you get your class… some sort of weird connection is formed there. I’m not sure what it does, but we shouldn’t take it lightly. Just keep leveling up skills for now. After all, the efficiency of grinding for PP is increased now that you have a soul skill. If it works the same way mine does, you get a bonus every 5 PP spent. Devan, just don’t let her die, alright?”

Devan nodded seriously and the Ghosthound walked to the edge of the roof and jumped, disappearing into the night.

Devan walked up beside her, and looked after The Ghosthound for a long moment. Then he turned to her.

“Time to get to work. Ready to join the defenses?”

****

Tessa looked at the ground, frowning.

She didn’t know what she had expected. She had reunited with an ex-boyfriend, THE ex-boyfriend, and in spite of the crazy change that had occurred, they had gone to a concert together, and then he came over to her apartment, to talk.

Although she didn’t necessarily expect him to beg to be back together, what she really hadn’t expected was for their relationship not to come up at all; instead, Randidly had urged her to move north to a different town.

She hadn’t even realized there WAS a different town. Tessa had sorta been under the impression that Franksburg was all there was left.

While she was sitting on the couch, frowning and pondering, the apartment door opened and one of her roommates came back, practically bouncing with excitement.

“Tessa! Did you hear? People came from out of town! Like out, out of town. Like, 30 miles north, out of town. And they want people to resettle with them. How crazy is that?”

Tessa blinked. “That’s…. crazy.”

****

Sam sat in his workshop, kneeling on the floor, trembling.

The pressure had evened out somewhat recently, from Raid Bosses, and Donnyton was instituting several new policies in order to raise preparation for the possibility of that happening again. One of those policy was the official formation of 5 new Squads.

Sam had already done the work on the pendants, to give them their mark of pride, but more squads meant more and better equipment needed to be made. Armor was important, as an extra 50 or so health it provided would mean a lot. If some stats could be added, so much the better.

In addition, the high frequency of combat meant that there was equipment in need of repairs, and when it came to skill, Sam stood at the top of his crafting association.

But at the moment, he did nothing.

Instead, he frantically struggled to move, overcome by a strange bout of weakness. His hands trembled slightly, unable to even maintain a grip on the small hammer he had been using to work.

Over the past few weeks, there had been a few scattered moments of lightheadedness, where he felt strangely… empty and light, as if all his strength left him.

Initially, Sam had worried it was age, but Rickman, their official whiskey brewer, had been 79 before the system came, a doddering old man. After slowly leveling his various skills and using the points to increase his Vitality and Endurance, Rickman’s strength had returned, and now he had salt and pepper hair, looking as though he had just turned 50.

Because of this, and other, examples of the elderly recovering at least some strength, if not their youth, as their stats rose, and because no one else seemed to be suffering from these strange bouts of weakness, Sam had ignored them.

But now, as he trembled on the ground, unable to move, he was profoundly afraid. There was so much they didn’t know about the system, so many pitfalls they might blindly walk into. If he died here… Randidly… Lyra…. Even that fucker Kal, still over in Turtletown…

And Regina….

Sam breathed slowly, trying to calm himself. And strangely, he felt the bout of weakness recede.

5 minutes later, he stood, feeling just as vigorous as he ever had. But when he looked at his hands, there was a hint of fear.

….What was happening to him?