854 854. Ray's Decision
"Yeah, and Ray just blew him apart on his second shot! He was incredible!" Shay bragged about his friend.
After the final boss was defeated and Seth's party used the transport formation to leave the dungeon, they reunited with the rest of their expedition outside. Of course, there was a big commotion about Ray's changes, but as they shared their experiences and puzzled together what had inside, they all had a great laugh together. Taking an evening they stayed in the abyss to rest and celebrate Ray becoming chosen as a saint by a god, even when the god seemed rather shady.
"So if Seth had no kept the boss at bay-"
"Yeah, I bet Eschok would have kept healing his minions like Lemar did. It was really annoying!" Monique complained to Lydia and Mike.
Looking at the mood around the campfire, Seth understood why Mina and Fin insisted on staying, insisting it was an adventurer tradition to do after a big dungeon raid. They could have just returned to Minas Mar, but then they would have just split up to their own rooms and groups. Having a little get-together like this right after felt quite cozy.
On the side, Seth checked his level. While Monique's party was barely stuck on lv.98, he and the others had managed to just climb over the hurdle to reach lv.99. Now he had 33 AP and 7 SP he could distribute.
For a moment he was tempted to raise his strength to 400. With the constant improvement from the assimilation to the path, his strength had reached a whopping 379, only 21 points away from the next big round number.
On that note, his Dexterity stopped at 358 after the level-ups, while his willpower was now 331. However, seeing the 3 at the start of his AP, he finally jumped over his shadow and used 23 points to raise his agility to 300, before he became too buff for his own taste
<Ding! Title: "Sandal Warrior" gained. "Your agility has reached 300 points." You gained the skill <Counter Charge>!>
<Ding! Title: "Balanced Physique" gained. "All your basic attributes have reached 300 points." All basic modifiers +3 per point.!>
Dazed he looked at the two titles he had just received. The first one was expected, like the previous times, he had gotten a weird title with a skill upon reaching 300 points in an attribute.
<Active Skill: Counter Charge Cooldown: 20 seconds Cost: 30 mana
Can be activated whenever you dodge an attack. Upon activation, your movement speed is increased by 20%>
The skill description was short and easy to understand. <Counter Charge> actually seemed quite useful, once Seth got a habit to dodge attacks instead of tanking them. However, the bigger surprise was Balanced Physique which actually raised his basic modifier, like his Titan Cuirass soul armament.
A simple example of this change was his mana. Spirit Blacksmith gave him a multiplier of 10 points of mana per one point of intelligence. With his secondary class, this increased to 30 points of mana, and with Titan Physique and Balanced Physique, it was now 40 points of mana per one point in INT.
With 304 points in intelligence, he now has a base mana of over 12000. This multiplier was easily comparable to an epic mage class. In basic multipliers he could now rival even an epic mage class, but only in basic multipliers.
Because of other skills, an epic mage would easily have double or triple the amount of mana, because of class-specific mana skills. In the end, all classes had their pros and cons. Seth may not have their skills, but they usually didn't have an arsenal of legendary items, so everything was fair. At least it wasn't unfair to him.
For his last 10 points, the blacksmith invested in willpower, bringing it to a base value of 341. he had deliberated for a moment, but decided it was the stat he would need to most in the future. Not only would it ease the burden of channeling demons for enchantments, but forging legendary materials with <Energy manipulation> and his hammer's special function was far from easy on his mental power.
"Seth, can I talk with you for a moment? In private." a dark figure approached him as he was checking his status window. Curious, the bard nodded and followed Ray a little further away from the shine of the fire.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"It's like this..," the warlock started off, fidgeting with his fingers, " I can't return with everyone, yet. There is something I have to do..."
"It's related to your new class, isn't it? Some kind of quest? Maybe a journey to gain power or deal with complications? It's okay if you can't say it. Just make sure to keep your communication crystal close and come back when we need you."
Ray started at him perplexed. Seth spoke with absolute trust. He didn't need to know what Ray was up to. No matter what, he was suddenly going to blame him or a similar stupid cliché. And if he was really, really honest, he was able to act like that, because he didn't really care.
He wasn't that close with Ray anyways, so if the warlock decided to run, because he suddenly felt empowered, or because he was afraid to face the Scene once they returned. Since he had no stake in the outcome of this conversation, he could simply decide to trust the man.
"How did you know?" Ray coughed genuinely surprised and relieved.
Of course, at no point had he ever suspected that Ray would leave Minas Mar for whatever reason. It was pure trust and not apathy.
"It's the only thing that changed, what else could it be if not an attempt to become stronger or not wanting to cause a problem for us, right?" Seth had read enough novels to remember some of the bullshit reasons characters came across to suddenly split from their friends, instead of talking about it with their party.
On this point, Ray was a lot better since he at least tried to talk about it with Seth, even if he kept stuttering and beating around the bush.
"I'm glad you understand it," Ray said visibly relieved.
"Sure, I will cover for you, don't worry. Just be ready to return when I call you. If you don't come then, there is no excuse I can make up for you."
Afterward, they acted as if they had not spoken about anything and returned to the little celebration. It was not just to celebrate the successful dungeon raid, but it was also to prepare themselves for what they would need to face once they returned to Minas Mar. It was very possible that this was the last really carefree moment they had before the business with Y-City was finished.
"Are you guys ready to return now?" Seth asked when the commotion was slowly dying down.
"Yeah, let's go home~" Mina purred, hugging his arm.
"I'm just in the right mood~" Fin clung to his other arm. It didn't seem like he was getting to rest once they returned.
"Alright, then let's go home."
At his signal, everyone used home call. Everyone but Ray who stayed back, alone in the abyss.
"Are you sure I can become stronger here, on my own?"
~Of course, of course!~
"Even stronger than receiving another legendary item or armor from Seth?"
~....~
"Are you still there?"
~L-Listen, if you become stronger, I become stronger and then I can give you special material you can bring back to your Blacksmith Boss to make an item for you, deal?~
"I'm sure Seth will like that. Alright, let's go."
…
It was the middle of the night when the party appeared in the entrance hall of Minas Mar.
"Huh? Where is Ray?" Shay immediately noticed the absence of his friend.
"Calm down, Ray got a special mission from God. He spoke about it with me and I excused him for it. He will return once he finished his divine task as a saint," the bard came up with something.
"But..why didn't he just tell us? We could have-"
"Helped him? He knew you especially would say that, but he didn't want that. This is why he stayed back without telling you." Seth saw his chance and immediately shot his question down with a standard lie.
"We can talk about it tomorrow, I will try to answer your question then as best as I can."
Seth finished the conversation quickly, seeing the gaze of the two women in his arms.
"But-"
"Pst, you know, I would also like to have a little after-party in our room," Ellen distracted the water mage.
~Good going, Ellen~ Seth silently gave her a thumbs up, as he left with Fin and Mina.
------Status-----
Name: Seth Smith
Mark of Ivicer
Pledge of Solace
Olympian Myths (Hades: Strong, Hephaestus: Moderate, Apollo: Weak, Eos: Weak)
Kin of Fire
Blood of the Inventor
Call of the Maestro
Blessing: Hades, Hephaisos, Seth, Apollo, Eos
Title: "Faster than the Thought"
Level: 99
Exp: 0,00112%
Race: Ori Huma
Sex: Male
Age: 25
Class: Spirit Blacksmith (Unique)/ Infernal Scald (Unique)
Affiliation: System Church, Minas Mar
Health: 1000/1000
Mana: 235+6300(Intx40)
Strength:379(+75)
Dexterity:358(+75)
Agility: 300 (+75)
Intelligence:304(+75)
Willpower:341(+75) +615 Items
Endurance:318(+75)
Personality: 157(58+30(+50))
Luck:143 (50+15+2) -
Free AP (Attribute points): 0
Universal AP:8
Free SP (Skill points): 7
Defense:
Physical: 2316 (1897+50+325+44) (ENDx 7)
Magical: 1117(924+25+150+18) (WILx 4)
Fire Immunity
Earth Resistance(65%)
Light Resistance(35%)
Wind Resistance (15%)
Water Resistance (13%)
Poison Resistance(25%)
Frost Resistance(10%)
Resistance to Mental attacks (10%)
25 % Resistance to Diseases
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