B3 Chapter 399: Hunt, Finale

Kaius smiled in satisfaction at the Honours he had gained. They’d done well.

Most were advancements on ones they already knew of — like Deadeye II for long distance kills that Ianmus and Kenva had earned. He’d given that one his best crack, of course, with a VOS-enhanced Nail, but it was too inaccurate over vast distances, even leveraging his control. He just didn’t have the same accuracy-enhancing general Skills that the two of them had.

They’d found new ones as well. When Kenva had discovered an Honour for channeling seven and a half thousand stamina in under five minutes, they’d branched out. Ianmus and Porkchop had managed to find similar Honours for mana and health respectively. The latter had been particularly brutal — Porkchop had gotten it for surviving a singular attack that took that amount of health to heal.

Kaius shuddered, remembering that crunching squelch.

His own had been less torturous — he’d just had to cast fifty spells in five seconds. Very difficult, but not exactly painful.

They were good Honours — plus fifteen and plus eight-percent to the stats of their relevant Resource. Intelligence and Willpower in the case of him and Ianmus.

Unfortunately, their discovery had been paired with the fact that every single one of those honours was the second in a chain. Requiring them being in the first tier, it seemed likely they’d missed out on their below-one-hundred equivalents — though, it could have been for unclassed. Still, he and Porkchop had gotten bonuses for theirs. His practically required glyphbinding, and he didn’t think anyone was dumb enough to do what Porkchop had done to get his.

He and Porkchop had even earned the multi-kill Honour. His had been straight forward — a VOS empowered Stormlash used against a swarm of metal-attuned spirits that had looked like small clouds of iron filings. Porkchop’s had been…questionable. And the same way he had gotten Undying II.

He’d tried to stop him jumping off that cliff!

Kaius clenched his teeth as he forced away the memory of broken bones and smushed spiders.

Ianmus had discovered a new one too — Ghostwind II, for slaying a higher leveled creature without getting touched after fighting for more than two hours, with a bonus for doing it alone.

Kenva, of course, had immediately managed to do the same, but no matter how much he and Porkchop tried, they weren’t able to manage it. As far as he could tell, you couldn’t simply run down the clock and then overwhelm the Champion with a singular onslaught at the end, like he had tried with his spells — you had to actively be fighting it the whole time. Which, in his case, meant spells bled dry, and he was forced to rely on melee combat, making the ordeal almost impossible. That went doubly for Porkchop, whose abilities were entirely built around surviving hits, rather than avoiding them.

They truly had secured the best possible start for the second tier.

Blinking away his status, Kaius tuned back into the conversation around him.

“If we really do give up on our pretences of secrecy when we return, I wonder how Hensch will react to know that you can talk — or the Guild as a whole, for that matter,” Ianmus said, grinning at Porkchop — who promptly puffed out his chest.

“I imagine I’ll be quite the talk of the town. As I should be.”

Kaius laughed. “Well, if you do grow bigger like you said, it’ll be pretty hard for you not to be. If you end up bigger than a dire bear… Good thing you’ll be able to shift it a little, otherwise I doubt you’d fit through any doors.”

“It is a handy natural magic. Though, from what I’ve heard, it takes a while to get comfortable with keeping it up indefinitely. At the very least, I’ll be able to stay roughly this size. Maybe a little bigger.”

A handy thing indeed.

While he doubted they would settle down somewhere metropolitan anytime soon — if ever — it would have put a dent in Porkchop’s plans to see the varied cities of the world. Hard to go sightseeing if you found it difficult to get through the bloody front gate.

Wolfing down his last few bites of food, Kaius set his plate to the side. “On that note, it’s about time we properly talk through class selection. I know that we’re all largely comfortable with the roles we play, but that could change. At the very least, if we know what everyone intends, we’ll be able to make more informed decisions.”

Kenva sighed, nodding. “I suppose it is about that time that we stop putting it off.”

“Bah, can you blame any of us?” Porkchop said. “We’re right on the bloody cusp and it still doesn’t quite feel real.”

His comment got a round of silent nods. For a moment, it hung there, as if none of them could quite decide, none of them quite wanted to go first. Kaius decided to just jump on it — he’d be a poor excuse for a party leader if he didn’t.

“Well,” Kaius started, stretching out on the blanket that separated him from the damp ground beneath them, “Ultimately… I am happy with the path that I am on now. Fighting as a skirmisher suits me well, and I enjoy having a broad selection of abilities to choose from. But there are a few areas where I’d like to push my growth, and a few things I will be keeping an eye out for.”

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“Vos, I imagine?” Porkchop questioned.

“Vos,” Kaius agreed. “Or conceptual magic in general, I should say. I am not quite sure if I would be ready to upend my entire foundation to focus on it fully, but a god themselves said it was a prime opportunity. I am loath to pick a class that doesn’t at least encourage a small part of its development. Other than that, my current class is introductory and generalist. Some of my general skills are quite broad in their focus — Explorer’s Toolkit, in particular. Now that we have a scout—”

He nodded to Kenva, who smiled.

“—it feels stretched thin, torn between stealth, scouting, survivalism, combat, threat analysis, and exploitation. I think a spellblade class that focuses on my fighting style, but also on explosive magical strength backed by martial staying power might push it in a more focused direction.”

“So in short, something that focuses on your strengths?” Ianmus snorted.

Kaius grinned.

“Yes. Hopefully, if it’s available, I can find a suitable class that is tied to the Vesryn Order — I want to further my growing understanding of their runic script. It will be far easier with second tier examples.”

“That makes sense,” Porkchop said. “My wishes are simple. As long as I am strong and tough, I will be happy. Though, if anything is of interest, I would like a little more development in my Strength and Dexterity, and I will have an eye out for anything more directly related to me fighting armoured. Even if it comes with an affinity change — though I think perhaps it is more likely that I will simply move on to something more suitable than Sacred Jade.”

“What do you mean?” Ianmus asked.