Novel Lived
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
[Part three of three in the Chalgathi’s Lineage Quest now commencing.
Death stalks the living as you tread down the path of the Novice Warlock. However, Chalgathi demands sacrifice to receive his gift…and the blood of your peers is the price he demands.
Notice: You have been granted early access to the class title Novice Warlock. One hundred participants in this trial now remain. Only fifty will leave here alive. Accept the class title, pick your starter pack, pick your bonded starter minion, and select two starting ability tomes to learn from. You will have a time-condensed period of five days to learn these two abilities. You must then kill your opponent to survive. If you have not figured out how to perform your chosen spells, miracles, or martial arts within the five-day period, you will go into the fight at a disadvantage. Good luck.
Uploading commencing. ETA for initiation—two minutes.]
The air was crisp, and he filled his lungs with a deep inhaled breath only to set his vase a little way back from the edge of the floating island to dangle his legs off the side. The sight was beautiful, and honestly—after all he’d been through already—he wasn’t worried about the coming fight this notification spoke of.
If anything, he was just slightly confused. He didn’t necessarily want to kill anybody, nor did he want them to kill him—but no matter what happened, he’d not hold back. He was a survivor, and he wouldn’t balk at the idea of killing another person if it meant that he got to live for it. It had been a very, very long time since he’d felt this way…since he’d felt so alive, and he didn’t want to let go of the sensation when all the excitement of joining this new world finally pushed him over the edge into wanting to live again.
Not just to live for someone else, but to finally live for himself.
It was weird to think about, but nearly having been killed numerous times now had made him come to the realization that he didn’t want to give up. He didn’t want to just roll over and let it all end like he’d thought about when his father had first disappeared. His father wouldn’t have ever wanted that for Riven to begin with. His parents would have encouraged him, told him to try to move on and that they may see each other in the next life, if there was one, so that they might talk about the grand adventures he’d set upon.
They’d certainly have loved that.
He at the very least needed to try…and even if not for himself, then for Allie’s sake. So that he might see the wonders of whatever this new world had in store for him and his little sister when he found her again. So that he could live through more moments like this…and appreciate the beauty of his surroundings—something he’d never before taken the time to do. So that he could appreciate the relationships he’d built up, and not be so confined to the loner mentality he’d secluded himself with. The same seclusion that had only let Allie and Jose inside his close circle of confidence and had never let anyone else get close after what’d happened with his parents.
He wanted to start over, and this was his chance.
But moving back to the present, he couldn’t ignore what’d just happened. Looking over the title he’d acquired, he was excited to try out what powers the warlock-type character could give him.
[This chosen class title has been opened to you:
Novice Warlock (Class Title) (Trait): +1 Willpower, +2 Intelligence, and +2 other stat points of your choice per level. Social penalty: -5 base Charisma. Allows demonic contact; two contracts are available with this class.
Note: Choosing this class will enlist your very first demonic servant. You may only choose one demonic servant for the trial’s purposes.
Do you wish to accept or decline this class title?]
Really? A social penalty? What did that even mean? It hadn’t talked about that earlier!
But he picked yes anyway.
[Novice Warlock class received.]
[Starter packs are now available. Every starter pack comes with a crude cultist’s robe, a cloak, a basic survival kit, and a backpack. Choose from the following:
—Dual Poisoned Daggers (iron)—12 damage, 30% chance to apply poison
—Basic Casting Staff—4 damage, 12% mana regeneration, +3 magic damage
—Crude Scythe—17 damage, +5 Unholy damage, 18% chance to apply Amplified Bleeding
—Minor Amulet of Protection—rechargeable, applies a temporary shield worth double wearer’s health. One of one charges.
Starter ability tomes are now available. You may only select two, then your five-day condensed time period to learn these spells will begin. Choose from the following:
—Wretched Snare [Unholy], Tier 1—fire snares of black magic that deal damage over time
—Create Shadowling [Shadow], Tier 1—create temporary shadow beasts that attack your enemies
—Miasmic Bolt [Death], Tier 1—high-damage, high-speed, long-range attack
—Extradimensional Chains [Depraved], Tier 1—summon rooting chains from selected points in space to target your enemies
—Wall of Hellfire [Infernal], Tier 1—create a barrier of hell’s flames
—Bloody Razors [Blood], Tier 1—summon spinning discs of crimson with minor lock-on abilities to slightly adjust for enemy movements
Starter minions are now available. Upon death, minions may be resummoned up to one day later by paying the blood price. You may currently only select one:
—Succubus, Unholy, Level 1—caster demon, good crowd control and debuffs, moderate damage. [16 Willpower required]
—Shadow Fiend, Shadow, Level 1—fast and mobile, stealthy, good for assassinations [17 Willpower required]
—Imp, Infernal, Level 1—mobile, physically weak but high ranged damage and a very high intellect [13 Willpower required]
—Cinder Soul, Infernal, Level 1—ethereal demon that can fly and is unaffected by physical attacks but must attack at close range [11 Willpower required]
—Shadow Monarch, Shadow, Level 1—caster demon, very high damage output, very long range, very high cooldowns on abilities [18 Willpower required]
—Ravager, Blood, Level 1—physically strong, passive regeneration, good for tanking, slow and dumb [10 Willpower required]
—Blood Weaver, Blood, Level 1—very fast arachnid variation of demon, stealthy, good crowd control, fragile, smart [14 Willpower required]
Each of the potential minions had a Willpower cost… Interesting.
And he didn’t even know if he had enough Willpower to contract any of these creatures. Focusing on the words Status Page, he willed his own information into a hologram screen that appeared right ahead of where he stood…and he was a little surprised at how lopsided a lot of his stats were.
Go figure.
[Riven Thane’s Status Page:
• Level 1
• Pillar Orientations: Unholy Foundation
• Traits: Race: Human, Class: Novice Warlock, Breath of Malignancy (???)
• Abilities: Blessing of the Crow (Unholy)
• Stats: 8 Strength, 8 Sturdiness, 19 Intelligence, 10 Agility, 1 Luck, -4 Charisma, 3 Perception, 18 Willpower, 9 Faith
• Equipped Items: Basic Cloak (1 def)]
He finished looking his status sheet over and frowned at a very particular part of it. Breath of Malignancy was listed as one of his traits, and it was completely unfamiliar to him. What was that supposed to be? The page gave not even a hint, even going as far as to have question marks concerning what it actually did.
Well, at least he wouldn’t have any problems obtaining one of the minions. He was slightly disappointed that there weren’t any martial arts, but spells were more than okay with him. He preferred magic over physical abilities anyway.
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