perizou
patreon
Chapter 566 - Choosing a new skill
🕑 Added 2022-12-03 13:00:04 +0000 UTCHera's Status
Just as Hera was about to open the watermelon, Mylo and Adriel came from behind the greenhouse. Now that most of the party was here, the Empress decided to grab some more food and go back to the cabin. That way, everyone could voice their opinions. Another reason to go back was so that Alex and Bonnie wouldn't be left out. The two of them always helped her when she was trying to understand her legacy better. It wouldn't be fair to leave them out of a conversation like that. Mylo and Adriel also had some news, and they said that it was better to talk about it with everyone.
When they arrived back in the cabin, Shane turned to the two men of the party, "Do you guys want to talk about what you found out first? Or can it wait?"
"It's better if we say what we saw. This could change things," Adriel turned to Mylo, who nodded his head.
"We found bones. A lot of them."
"Bones?" Helena asked.
"Yeah. They were a mess. Not full skeletons, but like piles of bones. I guess the people who lived here died, and after a storm or heavy wind, the raft rocked enough to bring all of them to the same corner of the cabins," Adriel explained.
"We found an entire neighborhood where most of the houses had bones. And a weird temple," Mylo pulled out his tablet and showed the pictures they had taken. It showed a large cabin with several piles of bones spread around. In the center of it, there was a glass casket with more bones inside atop a small platform.
"A temple?" Hera asked.
"Yeah. In one of the houses, there was a glass casket with a skeleton inside. Maybe they were in the middle of a funeral before dying, or it was a person of importance. It's hard to tell since there were a lot of bones in that temple, outside the casket, I mean," Adriel continued.
"Are you saying that there are skeletons inside the temple? Like… they died there? In the temple?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes, that's what we are saying. Why?" Mylo frowned.
"Because if that is really the case, and the temple wasn't something like a graveyard or a place to keep their dead, this means that something happened that wiped them out quickly. Maybe a pandemic or some poison in the air," Bonnie explained.
Adriel nodded, "It could be that, but it's not like we can find out the reason. The bones are completely clean and sort of degraded. It looks like they've been here for a while."
"Maybe there is a dungeon or something that could tell us that story," Hera chimed in. Everyone turned to her, Adriel, Shane, and Mylo, with confused expressions, "What? That's how some dungeons work. They are created because of the events that happened in the room. I mean, Blue and I created a dungeon."
"Really?" Adriel asked.
"Yeah. We killed a giant monster in its nest, and it…." Blue paused to let a bubble burst by her face, "... it turned into a dungeon after some time."
"That is very cool. I wonder if I could go there someday," Adriel smiled.
"Sure. It's back in Boothudurn. We talked about that during class, and there was even a weekend we took people there. It surprises me you don't know about it," Hera tilted her head.
"Oh… I think that was the day we had our date," Alex chimed in, "Remember when we asked for a weekend off so we could have some time to ourselves?"
"Oh, right. Yeah. That makes sense. But we still talked about the dungeon a lot in class."
"Honestly, I wasn't paying that much attention most of the time. Don't get me wrong, the classes were great, but it was just stuff I already knew," Adriel scratched the back of his head.
"IT'S OVER!" Blue yelled and walked inside the cabin. She stayed outside while the bubbles were still going off. However, it seemed like that debuff was finally over.
"That's great," Hera smiled and turned to Mylo, "Do you guys found anything else? If not, I wanted to talk about my legacy skills with everyone."
Mylo shook his head, "We didn't find anything else, but there are a lot of cabins in the center of the raft. We couldn't check them all out."
"So is it ok if we change the subject? Honestly, I'm kind of excited," Hera asked and received a confirmation from everyone. She told Nimbus and Daskka to be on one side of the room, together with her court, while the rest of the party stayed closer to Bonnie. The herald would speak out loud to Hera and Nimbus, and the Sentinel would be like a microphone for the snake to communicate with everyone. Doing things like this meant that the entire party would be aware of Hera's options while avoiding any delays. After all, even if Daskka was speaking out loud, she would communicate with the Empress differently, using their connection to share information more quickly. Words were simply a way to clarify some details.
"Ok then. Let's start Daskka's Legacy Skill Showcase!" Daskka said with a large smile and used her mist together with some illusion to make something very similar to the system window. Even if the frame around it wasn't quite right and the letters were in a different font.
"Since when can you use illusions? Have you been holding out on me?" Hera chuckled.
"I started trying things out during the challenges," Daskka replied, but through the connection, she added, 'And asked a few of the guides for help. Jackie and Laika helped a lot.'
Hera tried her best not to make any expressions, "You are going to tell me more about that later. I appreciate you wanting to surprise me, but I think we could work together to learn new things. Now I'm jealous because I can't use illusion spells that well," and using their connection the same way Daskka did, Hera added, 'I want to know what they said about spells! None of them talked to me about that.'
Daskka smirked but continued with her show, "So, mum," she stopped and turned to Nimbus, "No, you have to say things like I am saying. So when I say mum, you say mum."
"Daskka… that is not necessary," Nimbus sighed.
"It is! I only say Empress when it's about the legacy, so you saying Empress might get people confused," Daskka explained with an annoyed expression.
Defeated, Nimbus sighed and corrected himself without looking Hera in the eye.
"Ok, moving on. You can get a few skills now, but I set a few options for you. First, the one I talked about before. It's called Bestow Gift. That one lets you give some permanent gifts to any of your blades. Those will be related to what they did for you. I told you that the legacy was supposed to be something about constructs, right? This is one of the ideas that come from that. The idea of specializing someone even more as time goes by," Daskka continued and placed the name of the skill on the window she made with a few pros and cons under it.
"So it can give various effects you can't explain, and each effect is tailor-made for the weapons themselves. But it wouldn't be something that benefits Hera right away?" Shane read the screen.
"Correct. And the more 'points' a blade gets, the better the effect will be. There is a limit, of course. It's not like one of the court members can rack up an infinite amount of points, but it can get kind of high," Daskka explained.
"And you really can't tell what kind of benefits that would bring?" Bonnie asked.
"I can't. The legacy doesn't tell me. Even after mum gets the skill I won't know exactly what the gift will be. I can only say the tier of the reward. Like the rarity of an item. If it's common all the way to legendary. My best guess is that it will be a new skill or something like that, or maybe an increase in the attributes. I don't know what else it could be," Daskka lowered her head.
"That's ok. And I really like that skill. But what would be the next skill?" Hera asked.
"So this one might help Nimbus to see how high up he can fly. It's called Royal Quest. You can give your mana to one of your named blades. They gather it in a mana core, and when you do that, they spend that mana to move beyond their normal range. The cost will increase the further away they are; if they use any skills, it takes mana from the core before taking them from their own mana. And there's something you have to keep in mind. Using that will make you unable to recover the mana you gave. Like, if you have 100 maximum mana, and you give 50 to Nimbus, then your maximum mana temporarily becomes 50. You can spend and recover that mana, but it won't go past 50," Daskka put the skill on the board, adding a 'Lets named blades scout very far,' on the pro list. The con list had more than just a single line, but it was also very biased. 'Only works on Named blades,' and 'Can't expect much from a bird brain.'
"Can she give some mana to him and keep Nimbus close?" Helena asked.
Daskka stopped to think for a moment, "I don't see why not."
"So I could use that to give my own mana so he could use more of his skills?" Hera asked and got a nod as an answer.
"Oh, and before I forget. You could get both of those skills now. Those are on the cheap side because they are so conditional," Daskka smiled before the next name appeared on the illusory board 'Court Graveyard.'
Before she could even say anything, Hera asked, "Is that what I think it is? A skill to replicate what I saw in the test?"
"Sort of. The look is very similar. It's a place where all of the blades you let go of will appear, and for some time, they will be able to help you. During that time, everything will work the same way it works now. It will be like your court expanded temporarily. You can even talk to them, and they will remember everything that happened. But… only the things that happened when they were still with you. If you tell them something new when they are in the graveyard, they won't remember that the next time they show up."
"What are the limitations?" Shane asked.
"Well, the skill can only be activated once every so often. And if one of the blades that show up because of the skill is destroyed, they might not be ready to show up the next time you use the skill," Daskka explained as the pros and cons showed up in the window. The pros were 'Can meet old blades,' and 'Become the army,' while the con was simply, 'It hurts when they don't remember everything.'
"Honestly, I want that in the future. Even if it's just to say hi to the blades I had to let go of," after hearing Hera, no one could argue. They understood that changing her court was hard for her, and being able to see friends who were no longer around was a skill that everyone wanted.
Trying to keep the mood light, Daskka continued, "The last one I have to suggest is called Royal Capital. It lets you set up an area where you are stronger. You get a buff while inside that place, and so do all your court. You can also make them appear anywhere inside that area for a few moments before being brought back to you. Another thing is that you can sort of give each of your blades control of an area of this capital. Doing so will allow them to know everything that goes on inside their territory. But this doesn't mean that you know everything. Like if there is a hidden cave, a house, or something that you don't know exists, then it won't be a part of the skill. The buff will still apply if you go there, but you can't use the skill to explore an area."
"How long is the cooldown on that one? From what I know, territory-based skills take a lot of effort to be used," Adriel asked.
"The cooldown is long. I don't know for sure, but it won't be something you want to use in a dungeon. It would be the biggest cooldown of any of your skills, and you have to physically move around the perimeter of your territory before activating this skill. Well… You or your named blades. But the cool part is that you can include things like towers, walls, and things as part of your capital so you can affect them with your skills or spells. Those structures can be considered part of the court for skill purposes."
With that last skill idea being shown, everyone stopped to think for a moment. Blue asked if those were all the skills that Hera could get, and Daskka said no. She mentioned a few other options, but they were either too combat-focused or just plain odd. There was a fighting style made for the Empress and her court, a way to boost the spells used by her blades, and a skill that let Hera dance with her court and give them all a buff. But as the herald said, those were not exactly helpful in the current situation.
Turning back to the group, Hera asked, "Ok, I think I know what I'm leaning toward, but do you guys have thoughts?"
Comments
Gail Burke
Craziness. I see so many options! Looking forward to the next chapter to find out what she picks.
