Chapter 158 – Formorians IX

I gently lowered Priest Demos’s body to the ground, stepping back. Bulwark moved in, and I tugged on Arthur’s arm, to better give him some privacy.

It was weird. I’d never gotten the hang of sea legs, but my earthquake legs seemed to be fine.

Arthur was also deep in thought, and I wasn’t going to disturb him. The Formorians had stopped attacking for now, but I suspected it wouldn’t be too long before they were back at it.

I shut up, and said nothing, letting the two of them have their moment of peace. Heck, I had some thinking to do myself.

Demos letting me hold his hand did just as much as he’d guessed it would. I wasn’t struggling or self-doubting my actions or choices, which immediately gave me a measure of peace.

However, there was now the certain knowledge that there was no fighting White Dove. If she wanted someone, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it, at least as my skills were now. It was likely my skills would never be good enough.

At the same time, as the stories went, White Dove only took those who were willing, and Priest Demos had gotten more than a little bit of divine attention just now. I had brushed up against the gods once again, and the sheer scale, the sheer difference in power, made me want to run screaming the other way.

I was so glad I had never taken one of Papilion’s classes.

A loud noise came from where Bulwark was, and Arthur and I turned and looked. A large stone statue of Priest Demos emerged from the ground, larger than life, standing protectively over a tomb made of stone. We let Bulwark take his time, carefully having the stone imprinted with fancy patterns, putting up a plaque describing Demos and his life’s work. Putting down basic defenses and complex inscriptions, so the Formorians wouldn’t bother the tomb.

As impatient as I was, as much as I wanted to get moving, I left Bulwark alone. Instead, I idly punched Arthur’s leg. Left. Right. Left. Right. Dude was unfairly tall. He just glanced down and basically shrugged.

Thinking about it, he probably had more stats at this point than anyone else on the old team. His massive evolution at 256, combined with all the levels here? Yikes. Heck, he might be rivaling some of the other Sentinels in stats, given that he seemed to see a nice big level spike as well.

I was getting kinda excited to class up myself, and I was going to do so the moment I could. I’d been checking on my stats and level ups now and then as we fought, but now I took a high level summary look at everything I’d gotten up until now.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger-Mage] has leveled up to level 215->256! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic power, +20 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* [Warmth of the Sun] leveled up! 215 -> 217]

Oh wow. If [Warmth of the Sun] was leveling up, I was in for it. In a good way.

[*Ding!* [Medicine] leveled up! 240 -> 251]

[*Ding!* [Veil of the Aurora] leveled up! 245 -> 256]

All my Ranger-Mage skills, except for [Shine], maxed out as well.

[*Ding!* [Shine] leveled up! 104 -> 111]

I mentally cursed. I should’ve kept [Shine] going semi-permanently at night. I probably would’ve maxed it as well.

At the same time – I was spending most nights recharging my [Nova] gems. I didn’t exactly have mana to luxuriously waste.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the Class skill [Sun Spike]! Would you like to replace a skill with [Sun Spike]? Y/N]

Sun Spike: You are the inviolate sun, high above all other beings. With this skill, you strike down all small things that dare approach you. Increased number of projectiles that can be shot down, increased power of attacks, increased range per level.

I thought about the skill. Basically, it seemed to be a point-defense system. A reward for diving through the Shooter’s spikes from high up, a skill that would let me do it again.

At the same time, it seemed like a skill that just mimicked stuff I could already do with a combination of other skills. Plus, and this was super petty, I didn’t like the phrasing of the skill.

I denied the skill.

[*Ding!* [Bullet Time] leveled up! 230 -> 256]

[*Ding!* [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] leveled up! 235 -> 252]

[*Ding!* [Sentinel’s Superiority] leveled up! 240 -> 256]

[*Ding!* [Persistent Casting] leveled up! 111 -> 182]

[Sun-Kissed] maxing out was sweet though! I’d been struggling to raise that skill’s level for some time now, and getting it capped here and now was great!

I glanced at my stats. On one hand, I didn’t want to punt and screw up my stat allocation. On the other, this was it. My last evolution for my Celestial class that I’d ever get. I’d hate myself if I missed a good evolution because I was short a few stat points. At the same time, we were still in the middle of a war zone, and I didn’t exactly have time to chat with Night, Julius, Artemis, and the rest of the Sentinels to optimize my build.

Then again, I kinda knew the score at this point. I knew what to expect, I knew my build.

Stats

[Free Stats: 451]

[Strength: 312]

[Dexterity: 194]

[Vitality: 975]

[Speed: 975]

[Mana: 6704]

[Mana Regeneration: 6903 (+4417.92)]

[Magic Power: 5839 (+68608.25)]

[Magic Control: 5839 (+68608.25)]