Sam’s body moved as if he were in a trance.
Undead after undead fell before his sword, void mana dancing at the edges just as much as it was wafting off his body. Every step caused a small echo of void to appear around him, as if the very reality of the world was rejecting his existence, causing his body to go out of phase with it.
Yet, he could feel himself being in the present – every enemy clear as day, despite the darkness of the storm, with the occasional torch or oil lamp adding to the ambiance.
He simply walked forward – nay, danced as his sword spun in an intricate form, deflecting, parrying, and skewering all that came in front of him.
Sam redoubled his efforts. The spark was there, the breakthrough happened, but now he would need to solidify it. Make it his own.
He reached for the void, drawing it to the surface, letting his whole body become one with it. His body turned monochrome – black and white radiating off of it with enough intensity to actually illuminate his surroundings.
In turn, his strikes became even more lethal, reaching farther and wider than before; his movement got faster and faster as air resistance and small obstacles became nonissues.
The monsters tried to resist, tried to attack him from all angles, but his awareness, thanks to his mana sense and skills, was too hard to beat. They tried cannon barrages, but his shields were too strong. They stood up against boss monsters – however briefly – small fry, like these, were nothing.
By the time he came to a stop, breathing heavily, but grinning ear to ear, he was standing at the top of the stern, the dissolving body of the ship’s first officer under him after a battle that nobody would even call fair.
Looking up from his trance, he took in the rest of the fracture.
One part of the island made out of ships was on fire and frozen over, a giant spear of ice jutting everywhere, while strange fires blazed between them, as the scent of freshly burned undead was carried by the storm’s winds.
Another part was much less illuminated, but he could see a giant pile of undead, and on top of them a goose posing with wings spread, its white feathers pristine, yet eyes shining with bloodlust. Clarissa was standing at the foot of the pile, looking up at the spirit beast with a complicated expression.
As both of them looked at the spirit goose, a red ghost-like figure materialized behind him in the shape of a half-man, half-goose, feathers everywhere, but the figure was humanoid, wearing tattered clothing and holding two nasty-looking daggers crossed in front of his body, with his eyes closed.
For a moment, the ghost lingered, then it surged into the spirit goose’s body, causing his eyes to glow even stronger.
“HONK!”
The call from the bird echoed all around them, sending a tingle down Sam’s spine. He made eye contact with Clarissa and sent her a questioning look. She just shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes.
Sam thought about asking more questions, but his own gains were a bit more important. At least for now. He was sure to interrogate Clarissa about her familiar. That looked one part scary and another part super interesting.
‘Probably summoned some kind of murder deity or something,’ he mused, eyeing the proud goose. ‘Wouldn’t rule out anything from an animal with killer instincts like that…’
Setting aside the issue of the bloodthirsty bird, he turned his attention toward his own notifications that were flashing with high intensity.
He grinned and rubbed his hands in anticipation before opening them.
[Congratulations! You had breakthroughs with several skills!]
[Due to the way the breakthrough happened, several skills of yours have merged upon upgrading!]
[You have lost the following skills: Mana Body Infusion, Battle Meditation, Improved Discernment, Field Healer, The Way of the Forerunner, Surprise Strike, and Adaptive Coordination.]
[Thanks to your mastery of mana control and void mana, your skills have merged into the Art of Ethereal Body.]
[Art of Ethereal Body: Level 1 (0%) (Passive/Active) The art of moving your body through reality with the aid of the void. How to avoid attacks, how to walk and fight – it includes everything. It is a style created by your mastery over your unique skills, granting you unprecedented familiarity with it.
Subskills:
[Efficient Channeling: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) You channel the mana through your body efficiently. Increases the attribute bonus to 5%!]
[Internalized Meditation: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) You have internalized the practice of meditation so much that some of its effects are increased and always active. Further increased mana and stamina regeneration per skill level.]
[Clear Mind: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Your mind is exceptionally clear during meditation. Increased resistance against effects that would influence your mind.]
[Steady Mind: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Your mind is as steady as your stance. Increased resistance against attacks on your mind, and it is harder to break you out of meditation.]
[Clean Armor: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Your mana got used to a certain spell, so the waste mana radiating from you will, over time, permeate and clean your armor.]
[Resistant Armor: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Thanks to your practice, you can fully utilize everything that your armor provides, granting you increased resistance against the environment. Grants 2% increased environmental resistance per skill level. Environmental resistance protects against environmental effects only.]
[Durable Armor: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) You learned how to roll with the punches. This includes knowing when your armor can take a hit and when it can’t. Increased durability for any armor you wear from incoming damage from non-environmental sources.]
[Focused Flow: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) When focusing on any enemy beyond what is normal, your ability to read their flow becomes clearer and more precise.]
[Controlled Flow: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Your read of the flow is more controlled, allowing you to see the flow much better. Increases the flow visibility by 20% for every skill level.]
[Immersed Flow: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) When you start reading the flow, a counter starts. After every ten seconds, the effect of the Flow skill increases by 1% for each skill level. Maximum 600 seconds.]
[Underhanded Strike: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) When your strike comes from nowhere, unnoticed by your enemy, the first strike is guaranteed a 25% increased critical chance!]
[Death Clarity: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) When close to death’s door, your mind is sharpened, and everything around you slows down. This effect lasts for a minute or until you die.]
[Endurance: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) When a battle lasts long, you do not get exhausted. The more a battle lasts, the higher your Stamina Regeneration becomes. Gains +1 Stamina Regeneration per minute of uninterrupted battle. The maximum is the level of the main skill.]
[Combinatorics: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Combining skills is not an exact science, but you somehow managed to figure out a system that works for you. Increased effectiveness when combining skills and less chance of failing.]
[Lightbulb Moment: Level 5/5 (MAX%) (Passive) Creating new combinations is child’s play to you. When you create a new combination, the first time you are successful, the mana cost is decreased by 8,4% per skill level.]
[Oversight: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) The penalty for casting spells or using skills against or on a large number of targets is decreased by 0,1% for each level in the main skill.]
Passive:
Increases physical resistance by 1% for each skill level. Furthermore, your body has become one with mana, thus the physical attributes are each permanently enhanced by 0,1% for each skill level.
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Thanks to your Perfect Mana Core, your loss when using this skill is negligible, and there is a 100% chance you gain 35% of the mana you used to enhance your body back. Additionally, there is a 35% chance to gain 65% of the mana back and a 7% chance that you gain 100% of the mana back.
Your state of being is always resonating with the world, granting you increased awareness, mana, and stamina regeneration, while also reducing stamina consumption. While low on stamina, your mana regeneration increases in turn.
Your eyes are experienced enough that you can gauge the strength of those who stand against you. You gain insight into their mana, affinities, and are able pinpoint weak points.
Thanks to the knowledge you have of your own body, your health regeneration is increased. Grants you 0,25 health point regeneration per skill level.
Allows you to wear any armor, as long as you make sure to understand how it works and what it does. Decreases Stamina consumption when wearing any type of armor.
You breathe, and the world breathes with you. Now that rhythm will be to your own heartbeat. However, anybody trying to get a read on your breathing or disrupt it will face great opposition. Raises stamina regeneration by 5% for each level of this skill.
Your heart moves you and moves with you in an efficient and harmonious dance. You resist mind-altering effects, and a portion of those effects is reflected to the source. The portion is 7% per skill level.
You also radiate an aura of tranquility that confers the resistance portion of the skill to your allies near you. This aura also confers 50% of your void resistance to your allies.
You read the flow of mana as easily as a book. And now you can write your own book. Increases your stability and the bonuses any movement or martial art skill provides by 5% per level in the skill when using more than one skill at a time.
Blocking has become even easier for you. As long as you are not disrupted, you are in the flow and only wielding one weapon in one hand, the defensive weapon movements’ stamina consumption is decreased. It allows you to parry incoming attacks more efficiently and accurately. Decreases the damage of the blocked attack by 3% for each skill level at the moment of blocking.
Active:
You are able to unleash devastating surprise attacks, supported by void mana. When not used as an opening move, the effectiveness of the ability is decreased by 75%. The strike made with this skill has a 5% increased critical chance and a 10% increased damage per skill level.
You are able to infuse your body with void mana, enhancing physical attributes by 7% for each skill level (STR, AGI, DEX, END). It also enhances the ability to dodge and parry, while granting 1% total chance to fully dodge any physical effect.
You are able to infuse your weapon with void mana, granting it extra properties. These properties could be: increased reach, increased area effect, increased penetration, increased impact, and increased durability.]
A monster of a skill. But it was also a complete skill, adding another one to his tally. Sam was pretty happy with it.
Was it the best skill?
No.
Was it his own skill he had created through sweat and effort?
Yes.
Would it be enough to fight the Blood Army?
Hopefully.
Picking up the meager loot that dropped, he swept the items into his inventory and looked around to orient himself. Spotting the lead ship and his friends as they headed toward it, he shook himself a little before launching himself forward, using his new enhancing skill to increase his speed.
Sam landed in front of the door leading to the inside of the last ship. It was the biggest, most decorated one. Though the decoration was a bit questionable, with all the skeletons and skulls everywhere.
Clarissa landed with her goose, Melody at her heel – looking incredibly smug while the healer looked to be done with everything. Isabella and Katie were glowing as they adoringly stared at each other, and Dan was scribbling in a notebook feverishly while muttering to himself.
Sam gave them a minute to gather themselves, then, when nobody was willing to speak up, he cleared his throat.
“Ahem! Are we ready to head in?” he asked exasperatedly.
Instantly, everyone was looking at him.
“Sure! Ready to rumble!” Katie declared proudly. “The new skill is awesome!” Isabella just blushed next to her at the bold declaration, but still nodded while stepping closer to her paramour.
Dan looked up from his notebook. “What?” He looked a bit dazed before shaking himself and refocusing. “Oh, yeah. We can do it. I was just writing down my observations about the thermoelectric effect.” He looked proud. “I read a paper about it a few days ago. And now I could finally observe it in action.”
Sam nodded while pretending to know what the man was talking about. Based on the looks from the others, they were feeling the same.
He cleared his throat again and gave a highly dramatic speech.
“Alright, team! It is time for the final battle! I know it was a hard-fought war, but we’re at the end! One. Last. Push!” One leg was on the rail, and his fist was up in the air. “Are you ready?”
“Yes!” came from his team, though mostly from Katie and Isabella.
“Then charge!”
And charge in they did.
Sam started by kicking down the door, splintering wood flying everywhere as they entered the interior of the ship.
It started with a narrow corridor with several rooms opening from it. The moment the door exploded, the doors slammed open, and undead began to stream out of them. Some were basic undead sailors, but several of them had officer insignias. The weapons were varied from daggers and sharpened wooden implements to sabers decorated with jewels, with a few flintlocks and small cannons on their shoulders.
It was a brutal melee as the two groups clashed with each other.
Instead of fighting in the narrow space, Sam just raised a hand, and with a pulse of void mana, he destroyed a lot of visible walls, granting them enough space to spread out a little.
The air inside instantly went hot as Dan began to cast, sweat glistening on everyone’s brows, undead turning to ash after every cast. Dust, ash, wood shavings, and splinters filled the air.
They couldn’t hear each other over the chaos, explosions, and yelling.
But they were having fun.
Sam stood back-to-back with Katie as the two transformed into a four-armed whirling dervish, greatsword crackling with black and yellow light and a sword fused with black and white light, creating a unique visual spectacle.
Isabella was playing defense in front of Dan and Clarissa as they rained hell on the flooding undead. Surprisingly, there were many more of them than one would expect based on the size of the ship. But he could chalk that up to it being a game…
Still, the tide of undead seafarers and their nefarious weapons couldn’t stop them. They walked forward, heading toward their goal. That is, the captain’s cabin.
On their way, Sam methodically destroyed every wall, only leaving a load-bearing column to keep the already creaking ceiling over them as they killed enough monsters to get maybe one more level up from the fracture.
Around an hour later, they stood before an ornate double door – decorated by countless jewels in shapes evoking monsters from the deep. Giant squids made out of rubies, sharks made out of azure and sapphire, and sea snakes made out of emeralds. Between them, there were filigrees made with gold and silver – or platinum – shaped like skulls and bones.
Stereotypical of a pirate.
The team was in top condition, so Sam allowed a minute of breather as they waited for a few cooldowns, reapplied buffs, drank a few potions, and agreed on a preliminary plan for the boss monster.
“Ready?” Sam asked, both hands on the door, ready to push.
After receiving affirmative nods as hands tightened around their weapons, he gave a great heave, slammed the doors open, and entered the captain’s quarters.
Truthfully, the size once again contradicted what could have been expected from the exterior dimensions, as it was the size of a small hall – the ceiling was almost fifteen feet high.
Well, it looked nice for a battle, so Sam suspected it achieved its goal.
There was an ornate desk at the back, right in front of the beautiful stained-glass windows, depicting several scenes. One showed a small armada of ships sailing over water. Another showcased a ferocious battle against sea beasts – with tentacles everywhere. Another one showed a man, surrounded by black fire, standing on the shore and looking into the sunset.
Other parts of the cabin were occupied by wardrobes, cupboards, chests piled high, with a few empty stands for armor and weapons. It probably meant that if they tried to sneak in, there was a chance to surprise the boss while he wasn’t wearing his equipment.
Pity Sam’s team wasn’t really about sneaking around. Or being subtle.
The captain stood in the middle of the room, holding a deceptively simple-looking sabre in one hand and an elegant flintlock pistol in the other – both of them singing with mana to Sam’s senses. He was wearing a double-breasted captain’s coat and a rather spiffy tricorn, adorned with a golden skull-and-bones symbol.
He raised the hand holding the pistol and cocked the hammer, ready to shoot.
“Ah, adventurers! Welcome to my humble abode,” he spoke, his voice hoarse and deep. “I hope you enjoyed your life outside because as of this moment, you are part of the crew.” He chuckled. “Well, you’re going to be part of the crew after I kill you!”
Sam, standing next to Katie, just reached up with his free hand and patted her on the shoulder.
“Go.”
The captain, meanwhile, continued his monologue. “My name is Captain Stanislaw ‘Crocked’ Omen, and you are–“ but he was interrupted by Katie launching herself at him. “What the hell, woman?”
“Mwahaha! Die, you scummy pirate!” the young woman yelled as her greatsword crashed down, splintering the floor as the captain dodged with a thunderous look on his face.
“NOBODY DISRESPECTS CAPTAIN OMEN!” he yelled while raising his pistol at the same second and unleashing a barrage at Katie – despite the pistol being a flintlock. Sam thought that even Gatling guns would hide in shame at that rate of fire.
PLINK PLINK PLINK
Most of the bullets were deflected by Katie’s armor, while the rest were consumed by an unknowable darkness that whispered sweet nothings into anyone’s ears if they looked too long at it.
Bizarre, but effective.
The captain didn’t have much time to try other things, as that was the moment the others sprang into action.
Clarissa began to blast him with debuffs, Dan simply set the entire area on fire, Isabella went to support Katie, and Sam – using his shiny new skills – went to cross swords with the boss monster.
The entire cabin was charred, a sad memory of the splendor that it held before the fight, as the ‘good’ Captain Omen’s body fell on the floor, dead. Most of the floor was broken – mostly thanks to Katie – while the rest of the furniture was turned into kindling. Strangely enough, none of the stained-glass windows had been broken.
Sam watched as the rest of them looted the corpse, retrieving nautical blueprints, water-attributed crafting materials, a small chest of gold coins, and a few necromancy spell books, and casually walked around the remains of the cabin, inspecting all the windows.
He had to walk around until he found a small one, only holding the image of a disgusting-looking, rotting, but realistic heart – veins and all – surrounded by golden flames.
Whistling slightly, he turned around, raised an elbow, and, looking away, he smashed the glass. The shards went everywhere, inside the cabin and into the water below them.
At the sound, the rest of the team looked up, first ready for action, then with tired acceptance.
Sam held up both of his hands and grinned. “What? My hand slipped!”
Nobody said anything; they just packed up their things and left the room in single file line, as if protesting his cheekiness.
He glanced back, making sure all the stained-glass containing the heart was destroyed, then ran after his friends.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
Also did an oopsie! A new story:
Author Note #2: Started posting edited chapters.
Owed bonus chapters: ---
Character Sheet
Status page:
Titles:
Magical Items:
Skills:
Mana Skills:
Neutral Mage skills:
General skills:
Resistance skills:
Familiar:
Quests:
