The next morning came with a slow start. Not because of any lingering injuries or trouble in the night. Jadis was back to full health thanks to Eir and a restful sleep, and the doubled night watch Willa had put in place encountered no issues from demons, drakes, or mysterious assailants. No, the delay came from a higher source. With the first light of dawn came a flurry of snow that quickly turned into a heavy storm. By the time Jadis and her crew had finished breakfast, the skies had dumped several inches of snow on the ground and didn’t look like it was going to let up any time soon.
It was Captain Willa who recommended they wait before moving on. Visibility would be low so long as the snowstorm continued. Even if the bandits that had attacked them weren’t preparing another ambush further up the road, they still could have left more traps for their expedition to run into. With the heavy snow, it would be too difficult to check carefully for pitfalls or other traps. Better to wait for the weather to clear than to push forward recklessly.
According to Aila, Weigrun was known for its heavy winters, but it was still a month early for the truly intense snow conditions to occur. The early morning storm was likely to pass, so she agreed it was best to wait. Kerr and Thea, who had lived in Weigrun through the last winter, agreed with the recommendation as well, so Jadis bowed to their expertise. Privately, she wanted to push hard and catch up to the bastards that had wounded both her bodies and her pride. However, as much as that impulse burned inside her, she also knew that carelessly chasing after intelligent opponents into prepared positions had nearly been her death. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
Without much else to do thanks to their weather delay, Jadis focused on cleaning and maintaining her armor while also practicing letters with Alex. As she occupied herself, her companions did the same, finding their own chores to keep themselves busy as they waited for the snowfall to lighten. One pair locked in conversation kept Jadis’ attention in particular.
“Are you sure it didn’t hurt?” Bridget asked again, a worried look on her face as she leaned forward in her seat. “I mean, from an outsider’s perspective, that looked intense. Not just intense, super-intense. I mean, I can’t think of a bigger word for intense, but fuck, you lived it. It really didn’t hurt?”
“No, it didn’t,” Sabina reiterated for the umpteenth time. “Sex with Jadis felt amazing, actually. Really, super, incredibly, powerfully intense, but still good! I still feel like my bones are made out of pudding and I feel weirdly empty inside after all that, but nothing bad!”
“Empty?” The orc gave Sabina a disbelieving look. “What, like, emotionally…?”
“No, physically,” Sabina shook her head vigorously as she tapped away with her tools. “Like, there was so much of Jadis’ cock and cum stuffed inside my pussy that I felt stretched beyond anything I’ve ever felt before, so it was kind of uncomfortable while feeling really good at the same time. Now that she isn’t inside me anymore, I kind of miss it and want to have her inside me again.”
“Oh,” Bridget responded with a nonplused expression, clearly not expecting the direct and unvarnished candor with which the smith had replied to her question. “That’s, um, interesting.”
“You should have sex with Jadis too,” Sabina continued, blithely unaware of Bridget’s unease. “She really is incredibly skilled at providing pleasure. I hired a prostitute once because I was curious to see what it was like and she had two classes related to sex and she didn’t get me to cum as much as Jadis did last night. I mean, I’m kind of a pushover when it comes to reaching climax plus I was really pent up because I haven’t been with anyone in a couple of years, at least before last night, so maybe that was part of why I completely lost my composure with Jadis but really she has such an amazing tongue and her cock feels unbelievably good once it’s inside you.”
“Okay…” Bridget mumbled as Sabina continued to pour out reasons for why the orc should let Jadis fuck her.
With how distressed the woman was starting to look, Jadis considered stepping in to distract the well-meaning but oblivious half-elf. However, Bridget affected her own rescue before Jadis was forced to intervene.
“What is that you’re working on, anyway?” Bridget asked with forced interest. “Looks complicated!”
“Oh, this is a rune circle!” Sabina said, holding up a square cut of leather. “It’s just the base, but this should work for any future Eldritch-based enchantments I work on.”
The piece of leather was about a square foot in size and had been treated to remain soft and supple. The material was a uniform color on the one side Sabina was working on and Jadis wondered if the smith had brought it with the explicit purpose of using it as some kind of template. She probably had, Jadis realized a moment later. Sabina had known she was leveling soon and was absolutely the type to come prepared.
When Sabina had woken that morning, she had answered the question Aila had asked the night before. The Eldritch attribute had been Sabina’s choice for her first boost to her magic stats. Apparently, she wanted to work on plans for enchantments that might be useful for boosting Jadis’ ritual capabilities. With the boost to her Eldritch stat came a better understanding of how related enchantments worked, or so Sabina explained. Just as Aila had once taught Jadis, gaining certain skills would boost a person's instinctive understanding of the related subject. For an enchanter, growing their related attribute made it so they had a better, intrinsic understanding of the type of enchantment they were working on.
“This circle is what all my enchantments will be based on in the future,” Sabina continued her explanation. “Well, the Eldritch ones, anyway. When I switch to Arcane or Divine, I’ll have to make new circles just for them that rely on different rune formulas, but this is the one for Eldritch. Usually I’d have to work my way up to a base circle that’s this complex but since Jadis gave me a huge boost I’m starting at a higher level than most other enchanters would be able to, which means the enchantments I’ll be making are going to be extremely effective!”
Bridget nodded along as Sabina spoke, but by the way her eyes were glazing over, Jadis could tell that the subject of enchantment crafting wasn’t the most thrilling for the warrior. Even if Bridget wasn’t all that interested, Jadis was. The possibilities that enchantments held were fascinating, and the mechanics behind how they worked were just as captivating for her.
Each crafter had to design their own unique base rune circle for the purpose of making enchantments. The runic symbols that lay between the outer and inner lines of the circle served as a kind of signature that was unique to the individual enchanter. Certain similarities could be seen, largely based on which of the three types of magic the rune circle was intended to work with, but no two enchanters' circles were alike.
The rune circle would serve as the starting template for the actual enchantment that would lie within it. The rune configuration that was set within would control the effects of the enchantment while the ring itself dictated the power of the effect. As the enchanter grew in skill and level, the ring of runes would become progressively more and more complicated as it became capable of handling more powerful spells. The enchanter would have to update the rune circle as their career progressed, usually starting with something simple that left room to evolve into a more intricate design.
While Sabina was only at level one in her enchanter class, the boost to her Eldritch stat Jadis had provided her with meant the circle she was crafting would need to be able to handle a large amount of raw power. It wouldn’t have the finesse of someone with the passive skills to supplement her, but it would be of far greater capacity than anything most crafters of her level range would be able to manage.
“The accuracy with which I transpose this rune circle, once I’m done with it, will make a big difference on how efficient and effective the enchantment I make is,” Sabina prattled on as she continued to stencil the design into the leather. “If I don’t draw one of these symbols the right way, like this little squiggle here, then the enchantment will still work, it just won’t be as good as it could be, like an impurity in a steel ingot that makes it more brittle than it should be. That’s actually why a lot of enchanted items that are mass produced don’t last as long as the custom-made ones. They’re quick to churn out but the enchanters making them aren’t being super careful with the fine details since they’re trying to make as many as they can. It’s part of why the military has so many enchanters constantly crafting items for them. They just don’t hold up under duress as well as they could if they were made with more care.”
“I’m sure any enchantment you make will be made with lots of love and attention,” Syd interjected as she joined Sabina and Bridget at their table.
Sabina smiled brightly up at Syd, eager to show her half-sketched template to her. Bridget smiled for an entirely different reason, grateful for the rescue and opportunity to politely slip away without being rude to the talkative smith.
“Everything I enchant will be made with my maximum level of effort!” Sabina announced proudly. “I’m positive that you and everyone else who uses my items will find them to be just as high-quality as my armor and weapons!”
“Without doubt,” Syd said as she rested her hand onto the table. Alex slid off her arm, wriggling across the table to stare at the leather square in front of Sabina. “Speaking of, what are you planning on making for your first enchantment? You should have a lot of possibilities considering the nature of your enchantment skill.”
Sabina gave the little demonling poking its tentacles at the edge of her leather a wary glance, but mostly ignored its presence as she spoke with Syd.
“Well, I’m honestly not sure. I don’t really know any Eldritch spells other than the ones that I’ve seen you use like your rituals and Mirror Shine. I could try to make something up, but that doesn’t usually work out so well. It’d be better if I had a simple Eldritch spell I can base my enchantment off of and work from there. It might not turn out exactly the same, but it’d be a more cohesive result than if I just winged it.”
“What if I told you about some of the spells I’ve been offered and never took?” Syd asked, her head tilted to one side. “Would that help?”
“It might!” Sabina chirped. “They’d be something to work off of at least. What spells do you have in mind?”
Jadis pulled up the list of skills and spells from her status sheet that she’d never chosen. Some of them were options she was still interested in potentially taking in the future, provided there weren’t stronger skills or spells for her to take. If Sabina could replicate their effects instead of Jadis having to use a skill slot on them, then that would be a major boon, even if the overall power of the spell wouldn’t be as strong as if she herself were casting it.
From her Mirror Knight class, she had Light Illusion, Minor Damage Reflection, Looking Glass, Moonlit Mirrors, Tilted Mirrorland, and Nightmare Reflection. From Perverted Ritualist of D, she had Ritual of Delayed Empowerment, Ritual Privacy Barrier, and D Enhancement Ritual. They were all good spells that had the potential to be useful in the right situations, some more than others. In particular, Jadis wished she’d had Minor Damage Reflection during her fight with Legs. She doubted the sniveling little shit would have been quite so eager to stab her if a portion of the damage he had done to her was reflected back onto him.
Syd read the list of spells out for Sabina, making sure she understood what each spell was meant to do as best as she could explain. She also read out her current spells, going into further details with them since she had intrinsic knowledge about them magically imprinted into her mind. Once Sabina had all the information Jadis could tell her, she nodded and went back to sketching out her rune circle.
“I’ll probably try something small but useful,” Sabina said as she added another symbol to her drawing. “I can’t do as much as I’d like with the limited equipment I have out here, but I might be able to make something out of the frost drake materials. Maybe an armlet or a gorget…”
Syd smiled as Sabine continued to list all the various small armor pieces she could improvise with the resources available to her. She was more talking to herself than anything else by that point, but that was fine. She was just glad to see how happy and excited the smith was to be working on her life’s dream. As much fun as Jadis had fighting and destroying things, it was nice to be around someone who was absorbed in creating things.
“Oh! Maybe I can make a saw-tooth sword from the drake teeth with an enchantment that creates nightmares in the vision of the person it hits!”
…even if the things that someone was creating were kind of deranged.
“Oh! Maybe I can make a saw-tooth sword from the drake teeth with an enchantment that creates nightmares in the vision of the person it hits!”
My gods that sound like a cursed chainsword from 40k.
I figured it fits Bloodborne quite well.
I was thinking of the chainsaw lancer from Gears of War.
I mean, Jadis' main magic stat is Eldritch. Nightmares stepping out of one's mind and into reality are pretty on brand, I'd say.
Alex the t*ntacle monster is just glad he was not named Bob and wants to make as many friends as possible.
Kerr and Thea, who had lived on Weigrun
*in Weigrun (unless I've been mistaken this whole time and Weigrun is not the name of a region, but rather a mountain?)
I haven't been with any in a couple of years
missing a plural noun (or any->anyone)
no two enchanter's circles were alike.
*enchanters' (apostrophe position)
Good catches, thank you.
situations, some more than others. In particular, Jadis wished she'd had Minor Damage Reflection during her fight with Legs. She doubted the sniveling little sh*t would have been quite so eager to stab her if a portion of the damage he had done to her was reflected back onto him.
Yes Jadis you should have taken the damage reflection skill. Hopefully this makes her more aware of her skill choices.
She got that skill offered to her at the same time as Mirrored Strikes. She also didn't have mana at the time either. Takes 30 mana and lasts 5 minutes. ~Chapter 20
But, definitely something to consider taking soon-ish, assuming level 30 Mirrored Knight doesn't offer her yet another body in which case I'd say def take that. Unless, of course, she can get the effect, good enough, with an enchantment. Remember, even if it doesn't reflect that much, she has so much more hp than normal people that others could still wind up killing themselves trying to chip away at hers.
@Maddhawk
True initially, but she has had 3 chances since then to take the skill, and never considered it.
Honestly I wouldn't take a 4th body because of diminishing returns. As we have seen with Mirror Knight Mighty might. Sure the skill is still amazing but it is less amazing than the initial form of the skill Jadis had, which boosted her strength by 50% whilst the upgraded version only has an effective boost of 33%, despite being twice as powerful as her original skill.
And that is for a passive skill that doesn't need maintenance, which a fourth body needs in the form of food and equipment, and we know that isn't cheap as Jadis needs enchanted weapons due to her size.
And then there is having to explain where the new quadruplet sister comes from that she never mentioned before, and how despite being separated for months, she has gained the exact same levels, skill and secondary class as her other sisters.
Also the effectiveness of damage reflection depends on the Damage return rate because if it is less than a fifth then only mages are going to be killing themselves Killing Jadis. Because the average melee combatant has shown themselves to have about 200 health.
@SeriousBlueJewel How to explain a 4th body is the biggest drawback, right now, to taking another level of mirrored body. If her opinion on what people know about her changes, then that issue might become moot. Maintenance of a 4th body is indeed an issue too, but not as big a one as you'd think. Depending on how things go, Jadis does always have the option to play things closer to the existing powers-that-be and pick a side to support. There is no question the 2nd prince would be more than happy to subsidize the maintenance of Jadis for the sake of having the support of the Nephilim Reborn.
That said, I also doubt money will be an issue for them either, especially now that Sabina has her enchanting class. That alone will greatly reduce expenses for gear as she levels up.
It is true, multiplicative passives provide diminishing returns in and of themselves. That said, it is rarely ever a bad thing to take. Hindsight is also 20/20. There was never any way for Jadis to know such an enchantment, as that dagger has, could even exist. Thus she had no way to know, at the time she chose her skills, that minor thorns could have been a truly nice skill to take.
This leads to an important lesson in life: Never second guess the decisions someone else made in good faith, in the past.
The real life story of Captain Sully Sullenburger, and the emergency landing he performed on the Hudson River with US Airways flight 1549, is a classic example of this lesson in action. The National Transportation Board, of the United States, questioned his decision to ditch into the river instead of trying for any of the 5 major airports around New York. Initially their simulations showed he could have made several. However, what they failed to account for was the human condition. When that was accounted for, it was discovered he couldn't have made any.
All we can do is the best we can in the moment.
As to the effectiveness of thorns, technically, her foes do not need to kill themselves on it. In fact, going into battle with a strategy of letting your foes beat themselves to death by beating upon you is a foolish strategy. Such a passive skill/enchant is, at best, insurance.
We also do NOT know that the average melee combatant has an average health of 200. We actually don't know much of anything about the average melee combatant. The only stats we have seen thus far are those of select ladies who have all chosen to follow Jadis. We know nothing of the men in this world or of those ladies who chose to not follow Jadis. Even Knoll, who has been the most persistent male character thus far now, all we truly know is his CLR.
Thus, people like Bridget, who have 200 hp, could still be the exception and not the rule.
@Maddhawk I am not saying Jadis made bad choices, just annoyed about her not looking back at her skill choices and not thinking about her past skills.
For Jadis it is currently a very bad idea to reveal the nature of her class because of the obvious weakness.
Heck I internally supporting Jadis getting Moonlit Mirrors over Damage reflection just for sheer utility of night sight. Although with how Sabine's enchantments work she will likely make an enchanted item to do its job.
Also I believe she should get Minor Damage reflection to help during what are essentially (mini-)boss fights. As the ability to reflect damage back will help significantly during those fights. Although its damage is likely affected by Jadis's eldritch score and the enemies Resilience score.
Through textual context I believe the average soldier/merc is in the 40 to 59 range, as unlocking your tertiary class seems to be rather uncommon. Also I believe most melee combatants in that range aim for a health score of 200 to 300. (This comes from Thea who as a soldier had to have a balanced build and had 200 Health when her stats were revealed). So Bridget having 200 HP already might be more of an anomaly as she got in that health range early.
@SeriousBlueJewel Might be an issue of oversight on the part of the writer. That is part of the problem when writing a story with significant technical details, keeping them all straight. In this regard, litrpg fantasy stories tend to have a fair bit in common with both hard sci-fi and space opera.
I agree, revealing too much right now would be a bad idea. Just important to keep aware of all options though. Sometimes a bad option can still be the best option when all other options are even worse.
How things go from here, between skills and enchantments will ultimately depend on how Agdistis decides enchanting will work in this world. I have seen storyverses where an item can only hold a single enchantment to ones where there is, truthfully, no limit other than the magical power of the one doing the enchantment. In fact, worlds that allow items to have multiple enchantments and multiple effects per enchantment are the most common by far. So I see no reason for this one to be any different.
Perhaps one day, Agdistis might release a world compendium that answers some of these basic details that, for now, all we can do is speculate over.
Good points I am going to spend some time contemplating and checking what we know of enchantments. Since with the system some enchanters might be capable of only one enchantment per item, whilst others might be capable of doing several.