And I would have never even believed that a secret organization on Earth had secretly been monitoring me my entire life, because of some draconic curse and a potential connection to Avalon. That last one sounded like the script in a bad conspiracy movie or something.
So my training on Avalon had ended with some rather serious surprises. The best comparison I could think of was to imagine spending my entire summer preparing to take some kind of comprehensive entrance test for college, start heading toward the testing site, and then on my way there, Bigfoot would come charging at me from a magic portal, wearing medieval plate armor, wielding a double-edged lightsaber, and riding on the back of a zombie dinosaur.
That comparison wasn’t entirely fair, because the skills Stell had taught me were still relevant, but the fact remained that no one had any reason to expect most of the threats we had been facing recently, not going by only a vague sense of unease and a few half-forgotten legends or memories.
That was why my real-life experience had been just as useful as my gaming experience. When a person didn’t know what they’d be facing tomorrow, it helped to have a wide range of skills, and to try to use said skills to complement each other whenever possible.
That was what I had done, and, thanks to some extremely fortunate discoveries—like more magic, and powerful bloodlines whose existence I also had no reason to expect—that had proven to work far better than I had ever dared to hope.
I chose to push myself in every direction, and it had saved thousands upon thousands of lives.
Because both my challenges and my potential were far greater than anyone had led me to believe.
Now that I was hitting some theoretical limits, I had the ability to help others reach further and unlock potential of their own, so that I wouldn’t have to try and be the best of everything. And, truth be told, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be the best at everything. I loved learning the Saga magics, but Eadric, Weylin, and Karim already had a massive head start on me, and they probably weren’t constrained by their Rises the same way I was. And now that multiple worlds were under my protection, it was more important to have a lot of diverse, powerful experts on my side than it was for me to attempt to master everything myself—and for all I knew, maybe that very fact had led to the downfall of the last High King of Avalon, as there was no one strong enough to help him battle the Flood.
It was better to be the second-best swordsman and have the best swordsman as my devoted friend, than to be the best swordsman and stand alone.
That didn’t mean I planned on slowing my own growth—far from it. My friends and subjects all needed me as much as I needed them. But I needed to recognize that my comrades-at-arms were extensions of my own power, and that I was an extension of theirs, after a fashion. Not taking the opportunity to massively increase their growth would be depriving me of resources.
It would also be a real dick move to do to people that were risking their lives with me.
So I examined my skills more closely, to see if there was any glaring weakness I had forgotten. Even without the new bonuses, most of my magics and about four of my martial skills had leveled up on their own, thanks to my bloodlines, Paths, and Ideal comprehension. All of my important weapons, such as spears, axes, maces, and swords, had managed to keep up pretty well with my Risen level, and I had been able to use the rest of my free skill points to keep my Saga magics on par with my Ideal magics. The only skills that had really lagged behind were archery, thrown weapons, and unarmed fighting arts. I had dedicated some points to all three, but the truth was that I hadn’t viewed them as important as the others. I had so much magic at my disposal that if I needed to actually fire a ranged weapon instead of a bolt of energy, things were already very bad. Furthermore, if something still wanted to close in on me, despite my ability to grow claws and fangs—and toss a car-sized boulder at them, if I understood my new Strength score correctly—then I was probably screwed. Which, again, highlighted the importance of having friends strong enough to help me.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t shore up my weaknesses, in case of a scenario that required me to be the third or fourth-best archer, for whatever reason.
And with the spare points I had received from this trial and from Rising naturally, I could do that pretty easily. It wouldn’t bring both skills completely up to par with the rest, but that was probably a good thing, as giving too many points at once to my retinue might trigger some other stupid problem an idiot might have put in their brains, after running out of ways to screw over the ancient Earthborn.
Come to think of it, Val was technically Earthborn, too. Breena had been checking her for problems and hadn’t found any yet, and she supposedly didn’t have the same device installed in her head that I did, but that didn’t change the fact that we needed to keep an eye on her, in case something went wrong later.
Also, she was my little sister, and any person, monster, or ancient civilization that messed with her would pay dearly, even if they were just ghosts by now. I had already given one guy a fear-induced heart attack and had fed one guy to the gibberkin on her behalf, and I still felt zero regret over either action.
I shook such thoughts away, because if I kept processing all the wrongs that my loved ones and I had suffered, I’d miss the entire day. So I spent my free skill points on raising my unarmed fighting and my archery, as high as I reasonably could, while sparing a single point to max out one of my Saga magics (shaping, for no real reason). Then I selected Archery, Unarmed Fighting, Thrown Weapons, and Swimming (just for the heck of it) as my physical skills. For my magical skills, I selected Shaping Magic, Script Magic, Song Magic, and the new magical crafting skill I had discovered when I made Breena’s wand—or her ‘boom stick,’ as she called it.
Then I let the remaining offered power wash out from me and flow to others. As it did, my body grew warm, and faint, misty wisps streamed out of me toward the other rooms of the palace. The bathing pool steamed a bit, making things pleasantly warm. After a moment, the power finished flowing out of me. I pulled open my status screen to get a final look over all my new parameters.
Wes Malcolm
Origin: Earthborn (Dusk Era, progressing), Avalonian (Challenger), Woadfolk (Elder), Atlantean (True). Other bloodlines unknown
Rise Level: 30th Rise (Torch)
0 spare skill points
0 spare Rise points
Saga: Unconquered Hero
Act 3: Renewed Mind. +5 Int, Wis, and Wits. Personal presence helps others resist mental attacks.
Strength: 439
Dexterity: 418
Constitution: 441
Intelligence: 454
Wisdom: 434
Charisma: 432
Speed: 461
Deftness: 457
Wits: 468
Will: 584
Paths: War, Kings, Archmage
Skills (averaged): Weapons (35), Ideal Magic (35), Saga Magic (35) Misc Skills (25)
Profession: Leader (Rank: Promotion Incoming)
Art: War (Newly Gained)
Science: Forming
Craft: Forming