Chương 98: Chapter 96: War renown

Not surprisingly, the three of us are kind of famous now. Everyone cheered for us when we came back from the mountain camp with news of the negotiation working. Everyone cheered for us when they realized we were the same people who sent the orcs packing. And I got a surprising number of pats on the back for dealing the most damage to the orcish army. That was apparently a public announcement. I have a little over a thousand war renown.

Any of it that I don't spent will apparently translate into experience, but I want to see what I can get for it. I want some loot for this whole war thing. I've already gotten the armor and the boots that are better than what I had before. So I'm not exactly desperate for spoils of war, but I'd like to see if I can find anything better than what I already have. For one hundred war renown, I can purchase a potion that will give me six levels of spells or six levels of abilities to spend.

For two hundred, I can purchase a common ability or spell. For three hundred, an uncommon ability or spell. For four hundred, I can get a very rare piece of equipment. For five hundred, I can get a rare ability or spell. Six hundred will get me a legendary piece of equipment, and seven hundred will get me very rare ability or spell. I can also get skill books for a hundred renown each.

I can get a house in the lower branches of the great tree for two hundred and fifty, and an estate in the upper branches for seven hundred and fifty. There's a big list, and it's got entries for everything you could possibly want. More of a stake in Elmspire itself? No problem. A commission in the army? Doable. A squad of soldiers that will be under your personal command, and can be sent to protect your guild hall or as guards in your home? Also possible. But I don't want any of that.

I want the equipment, the abilities, the spells. I want things that make me more effective personally. I know I keep going on and on about how ridiculous my sheet looks right now, but I want to make it even more ridiculous. I want it to be more powerful. I want more powerful equipment. Because if we're going to go looking for the god slayer, I want to be closer to an even playing field. I want to be able to threaten a dragon. I want to be able to slay a god if I absolutely have to.

I don't think I'm going to get any of the potions that give me free levels of abilities and spells. Those things get better with practice, and jumping them up a few levels is just a matter of saving time. Though I have to admit, it is tempting to dump six points in to Mab's Rage and get it up to a five minute duration. At this point, that would have the spell end up doing more than forty thousand damage over the course of its duration. That's enough to even make Wrax sit up and take notice.

I have no idea how long it will take me to get Mab's Rage up to that level on my own, but I think I'd rather do it the hard way. I'm tempted to get a legendary bow, especially if it's fully upgraded. That will help me do more damage, which El and I agreed was definitely the goal. If I get a legendary bow, that would mean that all of my weapons are legendary. On the other hand, I could get another shield, or a dagger. Even if those aren't legendary, they could help me out a lot.

They could boost my defense even higher – as if 320 wasn't enough – and could help me gain levels on those skills through natural practice. That's the only problem with getting the legendary bow: it costs so much renown that I won't have much left over for other purposes. But I could get a buckler shield that was very rare and a legendary bow. That could be good. But that would mean no new abilities or spells. And I think that's where the real damage boosts will come.

A very rare ability might increase damage threefold. Or tenfold, for all I know. I need something to make my attacks do as much damage as possible. Another attack like Rapid Shot would help me do damage in the thousands rather than in the hundreds. On the other hand, I might be able to buy or find abilities and spells. I'm not sure how likely it is that I'll find the equipment that I want at the level I want it. I could also buy a potion that gives stat points.

Each potion costs two hundred renown, but each one provides ten stat points. That's like a whole level, only without raising the ceiling for the experience that I need. It's also like going through a death cycle without having to relevel, and without risking whatever it is that happens when we die. With the renown I have, I could add fifty stat points. That's like doing a whole releveling. It's hard to decide what I want so spend the points on. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to purchase an additional talent.

If there were, I would definitely have done that, even if it cost a full thousand renown points. I want a talent that gets rid of poison damage, or at least mitigates it. But right now, I'm not going to get another talent point until I reach level forty. And if I reach level forty, then I have to reach level forty five at least before I die, or the loss of stats won't be worth it when I do die. There I go, planning for my own death again. I need to watch out for that. I don't want to get addicted to dying.

Can you get addicted to dying? Focus on the renown. My abilities and spells are pretty good, but there have been times when I wished I had certain other abilities. One of those that seems to keep coming up is the idea of a dash ability. Something that lets me move forward or backward a long distance really fast. Something so that I could charge into the middle of an army and cast Mab's Rage without having to sneak my way in or fight my way out. Maybe I should invest in something like that.

Stolen story; please report. Okay, Dash is a common ability. That's two hundred renown, leaving me with 870. I can get a legendary bow for another six hundred, leaving me with 270. Do I get another spell, two skill books, or twelve levels of ability points to spent? I look through the list again. I want to see what else I can get for 270. Maybe a ring, or a bracelet, or some other piece of equipment that will boost my stats? Those are in there. I can get a rare piece of jewelry for two hundred and fifty.

I think that'll work. The question now is the details. For the bow, I want the weapon that does the most damage, not the one that provides the most stat bonuses. I don't really need stat bonuses from my weapon. I have two bows to decide between that makes me question that very decision, though. One of them provides a bonus to my agility while I wield it, but does ten damage less than the other one. Is ten points less damage worth an extra five points of defense?

I only get the defense bonus when I'm using the bow, though. So it only really helps if I'm in a battle where people are shooting back at me. That doesn't seem to be the way things go. So I opt for the bow that does more damage. Bow of Dawn and Dusk. Legendary bow. 40/40. Base damage: 275-285. +10% shooting speed. Then there's the question of what I want my new bracelet to do. I can have it boost a skill or a stat. I definitely think the stat is better, even if the bonus is a little bit lower.

I'm still not entirely sure what the different levels of skill actually do. I know they mean that I hit more often or that it's harder to resist my spells or whatever. But those are just a few of the skills. I don't know what most of the other ones do, other than make it easier to do the thing that the skill is for. My attributes, I'm pretty sure I know what they do. Is it a stupid idea to put the bonus in agility? I mean, I've been stacking that deck for a long time.

My agility is currently 270 without any kind of boost. That's ninety points higher than my next highest stat. Do I put more of a bonus there, is that like putting a hat on a hat? Maybe I should do something to balance myself out a bit better. But honestly, I'm pretty well balanced. While there is the ninety point gap between agility and vigor, and a nearly eighty point gap between vigor and manipulation, none of my stats are exactly bad. Manipulation is at 103, and that's the lowest attribute I have.

I remember like it was just a few months ago when none of my stats were higher than twenty. When most of them were barely higher than ten. Back when I was like a normal human. Focus. What helps focus? Maybe willpower? That would give me even more stamina. I'm not opposed to that. Although, would it? I have a bonus to my awareness that doesn't extend to magic resistance, even though magic resistance is based off awareness. So if I boost my willpower, it might not effect my stamina at all.

But I won't know that until I've put it on. It will at least make Mab's Rage more powerful. But I don't want to be a one trick pony with that spell, either. I want to be well rounded, a major threat no matter what direction I come at you from. So I want something that will affect more than just one spell. If I knew that it would change my stamina, I would totally do that. Five points of willpower is worth 215 points of stamina.

That's an extra twenty or so seconds that I can stay in a fight, even a grossly protracted one. Maybe I should put it into charisma. It's already pretty high, at 115, but it wouldn't hurt to be even more convincing. And I don't think charisma has any derived attributes, so it would just be a bonus to everything I did that involves negotiating, haggling, and intimidating. It might also make me more attractive. That isn't a huge consideration. I've never really cared about my appearance.

And while El assures me that I am very attractive and incredibly sexy, I don't put much stock into the value of that. It's nice to be attractive, but I haven't really had much experience with pretty privilege in this world. On the other hand, being able to negotiate prices for things will be helpful. I've never been good with money, and saving a few gold here and there will really add up and make sure I get what I want when I do go shopping. I think I'm going to do that. Bracelet of charm. Rare. +5 Charisma.

All that's left now is Dash. Dash. Uncommon ability 1/5. Stamina cost: 50. Casting time: instant. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Instantly move 50% of your strength in feet in the direction of your choosing, provided there is no obstacle in your path. Movement will halt if there is an obstacle. That last line bothers me a bit. It means I won't be teleporting, but actually moving in that direction. It means that I can't use it to bypass an army. It also means I can't use it to go down. But I think that I can use it to go up.

I can use Dash as a free jump. Though that won't help me with the force of gravity on the way down, but it's nice to think that I can jump almost a hundred feet straight up. It'll make climbing up the cliff to Wrax's cave a lot easier. I just have to catch the wall when I get up there, climb about ten or so feet, and I'll be there. The remaining twenty war renown I can either trade for experience or for gold. Twenty will only get me two thousand experience, which I don't think is really worth it.

Hell, trading a thousand renown for a hundred thousand experience points wouldn't have been worth it, even if that would get me to another level. So I trade the last renown for twenty gold, and I call it a day. The other renown I have to think about is the warlord renown. Because of the quests that I did during the war, I got the same 570 renown in the guild that I did for the war quests. That already puts me up to a silver level within the guild. And gives me yet more renown that I can spend.

The guild isn't as well stocked as the war renown. Which makes sense; the guild can only give what it has in stock. The war renown was coming from the whole city of Elmspire. But I still want to spend all the renown I can, because I don't intend to stay in the guild. I'm going to leave the guild just as we planned, and that means losing all the renown that I've built up. Which means I need to spend it all first. I immediately look at what I can get for a full five hundred renown.

I ignore all the benefits within the guild. I don't care if they give me a place to sleep, I don't need to be trained by their experts, and I don't want special privileges. I want equipment. Warlord's buckler of haste. Rare shield 14/20. +14 armor, +10% attack speed. That puts my defense rating up to 334. I like that. The other 70 points are enough to get my boots improved to level 12/20, which also boosts my defense by two more points. I'm left with fifteen renown after that. I don't mind losing that fifteen.

I can't translate it into experience or money, so it'll end up just disappearing into the ether. I'm fine with that. Now I want to get together with my friends and figure out what we want to do next.