Chương 37: Calm Before The Storm

An elevated System access was no easy thing to come by. Unless one was born with a bloodline to the Fourth Saint, everyone started with only a Tier I Access when they first received their System. This gave them the basic function to browse their Status Screen, but not the capability to read into the abilities' description. Skills, Artes, Titles, and Mysteries — all were referred to as 'abilities' within the System interface.

Most peasants would only have two categories of abilities through their entire lives: Skills and Titles. In such cases, an elevated Tier II System Access would suffice if they wished to better understand their skillset — a service that could be found in the hands of backalley augurs or untrained seers all throughout the kingdom.

Tier III access would allow one to browse into Artes and Mysteries, but such a service would require sanctioned diviners from the Royal Oracular Order, and those seers were often reserved only for nobles. It was why Alcyr had gone out of his way to request a commendation from Commander Faldren in the first place. However, he now had Tier IV access, provided by the mighty divination powers of an oracle.

He did not know what benefits Tier IV gave over Tier III, but at the very least, he should have no problem navigating his System now. The first thing he checked on was his Mystery. No matter how powerful his other skills or Artes might be, a Mystery would always be the biggest factor in a System's development. When he mentally gave the command, the System interface responded far quicker than ever before.

[Mystery: Blessed Blood of Violence] Origin: Saint (Path of Violence) Potency: Grand Current Stage: Dormant Grand potency, Alcyr thought with simmering excitement. That's far better than I thought it would be. Mysteries, even those with the same name, were not always equal. The strength of a Mystery came not only from its type but also from its potency and stage of awakening.

'Potency' dictated the maximum strength a Mystery would achieve once it was fully awakened, while 'stage' determined its current level of awakening.

'Grand' was the fourth tier of potency. To fully unlock the Mystery's power, Alcyr would need to increase its current stage from 'Dormant' all the way up to 'Grand'. As for how difficult of a task that would be, it would depend entirely on the awakening condition of the Mystery. He willed the System to further elaborate on the Mystery and received a wall of text. [Mystery: Blessed Blood of Violence] Description: A single drop of divine blood, gifted by the Slayer Saint.

The Twelfth Path is one of equal parts heroism and tragedy — for though the Slayer Saint sought to purify the world through his virtuous violence, he ultimately failed to save the Hundred Worlds from the evils that infested them. Gathering the last few remaining shards of divinity across those worlds, he raised his throne upon the Godless Heavens, becoming the latest — and perhaps the last — Saint of the current era.

Effect (Dormant): Drastically increases experience gain for skills and Artes related to the Path of Violence. Drastically increases odds of gaining skills and Artes related to the Path of Violence. Increases strength and aggression in combat, and doubles this bonus when facing Beast-type, Evil-aligned, or Blighted creatures. All effects scale with the current stage.

Effect (Awakened) — Locked Effect (Aspiring) — Locked Effect (Grand) — Locked Awakening condition: Slay Monsters (0/10) The dormant-stage effect was more-or-less what he expected.

'Blessed Blood' was one of the more common Mysteries across the Twelve Paths. The experience boost was almost always guaranteed, along with a secondary effect that was random across different Mystery holders. Having increased strength was incredibly helpful; the aggression much less so. Looking back, Alcyr realised it would explain why there had been moments he felt less in control of himself after he awoke from the duel with Warlord Bjorn.

That urge for violence whenever I passed by the drake pens, or when a Regular struck at me… So that's why I kept feeling my calm slipping. His rationality had kept him in check, but it was annoying that he would have to watch his actions more carefully from now on. And it would get worse as the Mystery awakens further too… Well, that was a problem for later. He needed to awaken the Mystery first. The awakening condition seemed easy at first glance, but not any random creature would classify as a proper 'monster'.

Killing blightwolves, for example, would not get him anywhere. Such lowly creatures were merely beasts, albeit mutated ones. There were plenty of greater horrors in the north that would certainly count, however. Rocfiends, trolls, giants, even manticores… Such evils would be in the Elite or Master tiers, at least. For a single warrior, killing ten of them without dying would be no easy feat. For Alcyr, it felt laughably simple. I can probably get the first awakening condition done before the end of the year.

Maybe even before the end of the month, if I get permission to go on a hunt. He would put that as a priority, right after he retrieved his dagger. Assuming Lenore was not lying, he would get it back on the morning after they returned to the mountain fortress. Next, he checked his skills. There were a handful he needed to analyse, as their names alone were not enough to elucidate their effects. [Ability Description] Red March Swordplay: A savage Arte used by the followers of the Flayed Saint.

The ability empowers bladed weapons and slightly restores the wielder's vitality whenever they draw blood or clash against steel, at the cost of an alarming stamina drain that demands relentless aggression to sustain. Deathbound Dirge: A rare gift from the Evenhanded Saint, signifying great favour. The ability unleashes a psychic howl that assails the souls of all nearby creatures, paralysing them with visions of death, at the cost of significant backlash to the user's throat.

The Dirge carries a secondary long-range effect that does no harm but reveals the user's presence to all who hear it. Tempered Flesh: A passive skill that strengthens the body against harm, toughening flesh, skin, and muscle through repeated exposure to injury. Wildheart: A charisma-type skill focused on subjugated beasts and monsters. Allied monsters and creatures gain vastly increased strength, stamina, and resilience in the carrier's presence. Fated Hand: A skill that manipulates luck itself.

All attacks that miss or are ineffective have a miniscule chance to be converted into a critical hit. The chance of such an effect occurring, as well as its lethality, increases with each level. The information on Red March Swordplay and Deathbound Dirge was useful, especially on their secondary effects. Tempered Flesh was a little more confusing, as he had believed it came with an additional secondary effect that did not seem to be listed. Is that all Tempered Flesh does? I thought it was making me tastier.

Why did the female assassin enjoy eating me so much, then? He decided to investigate the matter later and moved on. Wildheart's effect might sound ironic — a monster-boosting skill given by a monster-slaying god — but to those that knew the Slayer Saints legend, it was not all that surprising.

'Monster-taming god' would not be an inaccurate accolade to add to your titles, Arcidas, assuming the stories my mentor told me about you were true. Alcyr smiled to himself. I wonder if your barbarian followers know of those little secrets removed from the tales of your Hundred Labours… and the variations of 'virtuous violence' you sometimes enacted on the fiends you encountered. The System's colour flicked amber for the briefest moment, so fast he would have missed it if he blinked. Alcyr huffed.

He shook his head before moving on. Seeing as he still had time, he went through the rest of his skills and Artes. Most simply confirmed what he already knew or guessed, but he felt it important to check nonetheless. Finally, with some hesitation, he moved on to his titles. He ignored the first and checked his newer ones: Sword Fanatic and Butcher of the Red Rime. [Ability Description] Sword Fanatic: A title bestowed upon those who have devoted themselves wholly to the sword.

Grants a moderate increase to Sword affinity and a minor reduction to all other weapon affinities. Increases experience gain for sword-related skills, improves the likelihood of acquiring new sword skills, and increases the chance for sword skills to undergo mutation into higher rarities. Title effects scale to the number of people who associate you with the title. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It says 'skills', not 'abilities', Alcyr noted.

So that means it doesn't affect Artes or other sword-related titles or Mysteries. A little disappointing. The reduction in weapon affinity except for swords was also annoying. The overall benefits still outweighed the losses, however. Alcyr had always intended to specialise in swords, so this suited him perfectly. Having a higher chance for skills to mutate was also amazing, as it was how one might access some of the highest-rarity skills in the 'Epic' or 'Legendary' tier. Now, onto the other mysterious moniker…

[Ability Description] Butcher of the Red Rime: A grim title earned through a fateful duel upon crimson frost. The skein of a great soul passes on to you. Grants a moderate affinity with Frost and Blood, while majorly diminishing Mundane affinity. Grants a minor universal increase to all skill experience gain when killing living creatures. Title effects scale to the number of people who associate you with the title. Alcyr was a little surprised there.

The bonus to Frost and Blood affinity wasn't really that exciting. But a universal boost to all skill experience gained? That was an incredibly rare effect, especially for a title. He would expect to see an effect like that on a Mystery instead. The only condition it required was to kill living creatures, and that applied to… basically everything except undead. The downsides were a little hard to swallow — a major reduction to Mundane skills.

It meant his Cooking, Riding, and other more domestic skills were basically never going to level much, if he ever managed to gain them at all. That would explain why Wildheart was levelling faster than Riding last night… It would not affect his combat abilities significantly, but there were many domestic skills that were incredibly useful even for a warrior. He had even planned to pick a few of them up eventually when he left the military and began a solitary life once more. It's fine, he reassured himself.

A major demerit doesn't make it impossible to learn the skills. He supposed he should be thankful it wasn't an 'extreme' or 'terminal' demerit. Those two higher tiers would basically kill any chance of him levelling his Mundane skills. He also briefly checked on the Tier Title's description, but there wasn't anything too surprising there. [Ability Description] High Elite: The Tier Title changes depending on the user's current highest skill level.

Each tier advanced grants a small increase to the chance to gain Common, Uncommon, or Rare skills or Artes. It was nothing new — the Tier Title description was common enough knowledge that most people already knew of this effect. Alcyr would have a small bonus to gain rarer skills as he advanced the tiers, so he would be seeing more Uncommon or Rare-rarity skills than he had before.

'Epic' and 'Legendary' would remain firmly out of reach, however. Even if Alcyr were a Grandmaster, the System still would not give 'Epic' or 'Legendary' skills the same way it did for the lower-rarity ones. If he wanted those elusive powers, then he would have to rely on more esoteric means of progression, like skill mutations or new Mysteries. Now, for the last title… With some trepidation, Alcyr mentally requested the System to analyse the 'Godless' title.

Rather than the smooth transition of screens as he had expected, there was a stutter. After an uncharacteristic few seconds of delay, the screen popped up. [Ability Description] Godless: ERROR Clearance insufficient Minimum System Access Level required: V Alcyr blinked. Insufficient clearance? That should not be possible. A Path Title should be one of the most basic abilities in a System. It definitely shouldn't require Tier V clearance to access.

The oracle already gave him Tier IV clearance, which was already much better than the usual Tier III provided by sanctioned diviners. If even she couldn't get him his title description, then the only option left were the prophets of the Royal Oracular Order, and those legendary seers were far beyond his reach. For a moment, he pondered whether it was worth consulting the oracle before him on the nature of this problem. He ultimately decided against it. Too risky.

I can imagine that someone asking for Tier V access would draw their order's attention, and if they find out that I need that level of access to read into the 'Godless' title… Well, it would not end well for him. His one-hour duration drew to a close. Alcyr released the oracle's dainty fingers and stood, feeling neither stiffness nor fatigue despite having knelt for so long.

"The service is complete," the slender guard said.

"As there are no other matters, we will now take our leave." The oracle wordlessly stood from her seat. The trio began moving towards the door. Alcyr watched them leave. Lenore rose from her seat and stretched.

"Was it productive?" she asked.

"It was. Thank you for arranging this. I don't think I could have done it on my own."

"Let it be a reminder that there are benefits to being associated with the Regulars," she said.

"Come. Let's return to the tavern. I yearn for sleep."

Lenore returned to her rest once they returned. The storm in the north was still too strong for them to travel, so they agreed to remain in Lafmere until the later afternoon. That gave Alcyr a few hours to do whatever he liked. With the physician sleeping off her fatigue, he was free to move around town unsupervised. With little else to do, he sought out the shock trooper, Ural, for a fight.

His new abilities required testing — of which he had not the opportunity due to his time in solitary — and when Ural suggested using the town's indoor training grounds, it seemed as good a place as any. He would soon learn those 'training grounds' were actually the town's unsanctioned fighting pits, where brawlers usually pummelled each other for coin at night. Ural had somehow already anticipated their fight in advance and managed to arrange a large crowd ahead of the duel.

It was not every day one got to see two High Elites fight. The number of people who came — as well as the sum of bets placed — was staggering. For Alcyr, the spectators were annoying — as was the realisation that he was once again tricked by Ural into another scheme to bolster their nascent fame — but for the moment, he was just happy he had a chance to club the giant soldier in the face. The shock trooper roared as he swung with a practice axe.

Alcyr countered with his training sword, the blunted metal weapons shrieking as they threatened to break under the force of their clashes. The two fought furiously, though never committing themselves fully, either with their strikes or when using their Artes. Minutes later, their weapons broke, and they both tossed them aside to an ever-increasing pile, to the cheers of the onlookers.

"A good thing the pits do not charge us for these toys," Ural laughed.

"Though, even if it did, perhaps it won't matter. Rumours are that you have friends in high places."

"Calling them 'friends' is a bit much."

"Ah. Would this be between you and the captain, or you and the oracle?" Troublesome pest.

"How in the world did you find out about that?"

"I have my ways," Ural shrugged. The two of them clashed again. As they did, Ural spoke through gritted teeth, his smile wide.

"People naturally get jealous of their betters! I would know." Ural's brag came off so naturally that Alcyr was inclined to believe him.

"Though whether they are jealous of your martial prowess or your relationship with the lovely ladies in your life is up to anyone's guess!"

"The latter would not have been a problem if you'd just kept your mouth shut."

"Not an option. I fancy myself an amateur bard!" The giant parried Alcyr's strike, using his superior height and arm reach to his advantage.

"Having juicy gossip like that and not spreading it is torture." An amateur bard?

"What a distasteful joke," Alcyr murmured under his breath. Two's a coincidence. Three's a pattern. He glared at Ural. The giant simply smiled back, though there was a knowing look in his eyes. Alcyr chose not to comment on that. He simply picked up another training sword, switching to a dual-wielding stance.

"Let's go again." He would deal with the problem in time, if he had to. But for the moment, combat practice with the powerful Regular gave him much-needed levelling for some of his newer skills. [Improvised Weapon has improved to 8] [Fated Hand has improved to 3] [Grappling has improved to 7] [Power Strike has improved to 2] [Dodge Counter has improved to 4] Night soon came. The maelstrom to the north appeared to have died somewhat.

Vormas returned in the evening, passing to Lenore various documents with a satisfied smile.

"It all went well, thankfully. A Master's presence in town does wonders to make the merchant guild more agreeable." Lenore nodded.

"Good work. These rates are acceptable. The drakes have rested enough as well. Let us depart."

"Another night here would be safer," Ural suggested.

"The storm is still weaker, true, but it is still dangerous to travel into them. We could leave in the morning instead." Vormas snorted.

"You just want to waste more time in town. I heard you earned quite a few coins from your wild tales and the betting rings." Ural smiled guiltily, saying nothing.

"Another night's wait would be safer," Lenore admitted, to their surprise.

"But I do not wish to leave the fortress without a Master-tier combatant for any longer than necessary. The barbarians are unlikely to be bold enough to attack it, but tempting them with a vulnerable target is unwise." Alcyr agreed. Soon, the rest of them mounted up, and after a brief farewell to the guards at the gates, they were off. The journey was relatively smooth. The air was freezing as always, but the winds were manageable.

Alcyr did not even need to call upon his Wildheart skill, and as the drakes' mighty winds carried them smoothly across the night skies, his Riding skill levelled up once more. [Riding has improved to 3] The demerit to his Mundane affinity from the title 'Butcher of the Red Rime' could be most acutely felt here. Even though Alcyr was riding a powerful flying beast, the measly Common-tier skill was unable to level up as rapidly as it should. Unfortunate, but not unworkable.

At least I know what the problem is and how to potentially fix it. They rested at intervals before making one final push for the fortress. Snow began to fall, and the air grew colder as they reached the edge of the weakening storm. However, none of that alarmed them as much as when they saw a glow in the distance. Alcyr was instantly alert.

"Is that fire?" Lenore urged the drake to fly faster. As they approached the mountain fortress, their greatest fears were confirmed. Howls. Roars. And the clashing of steel amidst a blazing inferno. The 4th Regulars' base was under attack.