Back in the cave. I looked over my Screens again.
There was a serious amount of edge packed away in my Class and Profession screens now. The only way to fix that was killing shit, so killing shit I would do.
I walked into the main cave. the first thing I noticed was that all the monsters were glowing. I guessed that this was due to Tormented Autodidact's Sense considering them training resources that could hurt me? That was odd, but I guessed it made sense. The deviation from the original skill just confused me. I spotted and blasted a nearby Tierless Homunculus Abomination, the Rabid kind. A wave of pain solidified within me as I casted my new Arcane Blood Bolt, but Through The Pain triggered, helping me keep my cool.
The Tierless mob blew into bloody chunks.
That damage output was shocking, but where was my notification for the kill? Wait, was I considered so much stronger than the Tierless mobs that killing them wasn't even considered an accomplishment? Damn it. At least the number of Tierless were practically extinct at this point.
Walking deeper into the cave, I decided to shoot down as many of the Rabid Homunculus Abominations as I could. The Tier 1 variants had started hunting them down, presumably for XP, but I didn't want to give them a chance.
I'd noticed that many more Mana-Infused Homunculus had started to fill up the lower parts of the chamber. I tested my new attack on one of them.
The monster turned in my direction, and I got a good look at the ugly bastard. Horse legs on a big-ass snake body. A couple more Arcane Blood Bolts took it down, though.
...Well, I guessed that these things still kinda countered me. At least I wasn't utterly hopeless against them anymore, but still, I would have to try to avoid getting into large confrontations with the Mana-Infused.
I cast another Bolt while watching my Health and Mana, and noted that my Mana dropped 7 points over 7 seconds, while my Health dropped by 9 over the same period of time. The same cast length, but a higher cost. I supposed that made sense, as if they'd remained the same now then eventually my pools wouldn't drop at all.
Maybe Wicked Balance wasn't so bad? After all, it meant that as long as I kept my range, I'd be able to keep shooting for much longer. It hurt a bit, but Through The Pain was here to help with that.
I spent the next few hours picking Tierless and Mana-Infused Homunculus Abominations out of the horde. While I was certainly stronger than all of them, I didn't want any of them to get the drop on me while I was in a risky situation. If a couple of them got to me while I was napping or studying a ritual, a couple of those Mana-Infused Strikes would take me down pretty quick.
While there were still some Mana-Infused Homunculus around, I hoped that their reduced numbers would help me. I knew that the only way for me to fully be rid of them was to destroy all the Tier 1 summoning rituals. Luckily, it seemed that my upgraded Tormented Autodidact's Sense was even more effective at finding them, likely because they could, indeed, cause extreme damage to me.
So here I was, studying a Tier 1 Ritual Form of Homunculus Summoning (Damaged). I could kinda take the Mana-Infused Homunculus now, and suspected that I'd be able to kill the ones fresh out of summoning with a single Arcane Blood Bolt. I thought they had somewhere around 50 Health, if not exactly that.
I got bored though, so I broke the Ritual.
It looked like I had to actually destroy them to get the juicy XP innards now. Fun.
I started testing my new Bolt on the various Tier 1 Homunculus Abominations, just to get a gauge of how many shots it would take to kill each level.
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Testing a bit more against the level 6 and 7 Homunculus, I found that, with only a couple exceptions, I could mostly one-shot the level 6 types. Level 7 was where it started to get iffy, though. It took just one to take the majority of them down, but one or two were able to survive a hit.
All the way up until level 9, there were at least a couple of the Tier 1's that could survive a hit, though the number was still relatively low, the mana cost to dispatch them minimal.
They still gave me shit for XP though. Which, I guessed, meant that it was time to go up a Tier. As in, with what I was killing. I hadn't yet hit Tier 3 though that would be rather quick, if I had, at least from what I knew, who knew what happened to people out of this cave. Did they even exist? Well, at least the Jehkall House did.
Well, time to get to that, I suppose. Another Bolt flew out from my hands. A few later...
...My god, even the Tier 2's were too stupid to stand a chance.
With a mighty crash, one more Tier 2, this one appearing something like a spider-tree, was brought down by my mighty Arcane Blood Bolt.
I coughed, realizing how dry my throat was. Y'know, I'd been assuming that I'd gotten that attunement towards Blood magic from bleeding myself, but maybe it was because of what I'd been drinking. Whatever. So far, drinking Homunculus blood hadn't turned out poorly for me. It just went down different, though I supposed that would be a big turn-off for normal people. Though, I'd also heard that drinking blood could give you a whole ton of diseases, but so far I hadn't been affected by that. Best guess? Homunculus were made out of mana. Diseases didn't eat mana. Maybe? Unless there was disease magic.
...There was definitely disease magic.
I yearned for someone to speak with. As in, a human. Or a dwarf, even. Maybe not an elf? Depends on how hot they were I guess, I could stomach some racial arrogance if they were strong and good-looking enough to back it up. Jerry had proven a great listener, but he wasn't that great at talking back. Oh? I didn't introduce you to Jerry? Well, you see, Jerry's my new best friend! I carry him around with me. He likes long walks on the beach, watching me kill monsters, and being a beheaded Homunculus.
Being stuck with all these random thoughts bouncing around in my skull couldn't be healthy. I felt like they were going to burst from me at any moment and echo around the cave walls like my frustrated screams when Jerry ignored me. I swear, he was so patient most of the time, but sometimes he would just give me a look.
I looked over my Screens. I'd been avoiding for the last... damn it, I couldn't remember how many kills! Anyways, I did it because sometimes the hovering lights wouldn't give me bigger numbers. I liked bigger numbers. Sadly, not even throwing Arcane Blood Bolts at the Screens would scare them into giving me them. It would bring over more monsters though.
Punches didn't work either, don't worry, I checked.
Stupid feature! Jerry was an ally, so why hadn't you integrated already? Whatever, I don't need you.
I scanned my gaze out across the... well I was going to say hordes, but now it was more of a desolate wasteland. Still though, a few Homunculus remained and... oh? What was this? Previously undiscovered Ritual Forms? Tier 1, too, at least from the feeling I was getting. I could tell based on the strength of the pull and intensity of the light. That's Lvl. 7 Tormented Autodidact's Sense for ya, though.
A huge grin spread across my face as I started summoning a level 10 Arcane Blood Bolt. A couple seconds later...
Oh... they're dead? Already? I was expecting... alright.
I walked into the ritual chamber, immediately blowing up the formation inside. I knew I'd survive. I'd tested, after all. Hitting level 20 in my Profession had been too easy, I could just stay in the room with the explosion. The pain counted towards my Profession XP... not that I needed that anymore.
Mhmm. Alright, next-
As I was saying, before the stupid system decided to get all snarky with me, next on the chopping block was that big 'ol building.
and the Tier 2. I want to get further into the story, though. With some actual fucking writing in place, I'm less likely to go absolutely off the rails while rewriting things and have the Willpower to get through it, instead of being sent to a medical center specializing in mental health indefinitely.
Okay, so there's a bunch of stuff wrong with my math, and it's starting to get to me. I want to know your opinions on whether or not I should keep the damage screens, or if I should go back and remove them all.
