Reluctant Heroes Part 2 (Patreon)

"Yeah," Myst muttered as he let his eyes adjust to the torchlight. He glanced between the mostly clean walkway and the water that was dark and sort of nasty looking without being straight up sewage. He glanced at the glowing wall sconces spaced ten feet apart on the walls over the water.

Sarah glanced at the flickering sconces over the water. "Why would they put the sconces over the water?"

"It probably cuts down on people stealing them," Myst replied as he created skill orbs for his Smite and Create Skill Orb skills then pulled the skills up on his Skill Manipulation menu then swapped the [Low Level Monster] and [Personal] qualities between the two skills then hit the button, causing him to feel like he just did twenty rounds with a tilt a whirl. He staggered into the mostly clean wall and didn't move as he tried to blink the stars out of his eyes.

Smite Self

Target: [Personal]

Effect: [High Damage] is [dealt] to target.

Create Monster Skill Orb: Lv 1 [VR]

Target: [Low Level Monster] [Skill]

Effect: [Creates] [Skill Orb] of Target, [Cleans] target].

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked, not sure why he'd staggered or looked like he was going to vomit.

"Give me a second," Myst said as he waited for his vision to clear up. 'Yeah, apparently the more I break the world the more it hurts. At least that means I'm on the right track.' He used his Smite and Skill Orbs to get his old skills back.

"Should we leave?" Sarah asked warily.

"No, it's skill related," Myst replied as he stood up. "Give me a couple of seconds and I'll be fine."

"What did you do?" Sarah asked.

"I'd rather not say until we're out of the capital on the off chance they're watching us," Myst replied as he started walking deeper into the sewer.

Sarah frowned, not sure if Myst was being paranoid or not paranoid enough. "So, do we have a plan for dealing with the slimes?"

"I figure you can blast them at range and I'll stab anything that gets close," Myst replied as he drew his sword. He scowled as they turned a corner and the stench hit them.

Sarah gagged when she saw the raw sewage spilling out of a pipe in the wall and splashing into the water that was filled with beach ball sized slimes. "You'd think they'd just drop everything into a large pit with slimes."

"You'd have to brace everything and the slimes might grow too large to deal with. Get ready to run if this goes badly," Myst warned as he focused on one of the smaller slimes and used his new skill, hoping it wasn't going to 'pull' the entire lot. He smirked as when a skill orb materialized in his hand left, without causing the slimes to charge him. "Acid Resistance Lv 1."

"Did you just?" Sarah sputtered, staring at the Acid Resistance skill orb in Myst's hand.

"Look alive," Myst replied cheerfully and used his new skill orb as several basketball sized nasty looking 'green' slimes started bouncing their way.

"Firebolt," Sarah chanted and conjured a baseball sized ball of fire in her hand.

Myst grinned when Sarah's firebolt hit the slime in front and ignited it. He stepped forward and swung his sword, hacking into a slime as it bounced at him and spraying his clothes with a green liquid that started bubbling. He stepped back as the goo oozed out. He slashed the next slime, a touch concerned about his sword as it was starting to smoke from the acidic slime.

"On left, Firebolt," Sarah said, conjuring another firebolt and tossing past Myst on his left.

He slashed the last of the slimes that had charged them then took a step back as the gooey slime oozed out. "Nice shot."

"Thanks." Sarah activated her meditation skill, glowing with a blue aura as she absorbed mana from the world. "Give me a minute to recharge."

"Can you walk or do you have to stay still?" Myst asked.

"Stationary," Sarah admitted.

"How long do you need?" Myst asked as he focused on the largest slime he could see and used his Monster Orb skill, creating a Greater Damage Resistance (Blunt) orb.

"Another five seconds, I only tossed two firebolts, they're five mana apiece," she explained, keeping an eye on the slimes in case she had to drop her skill.

Myst quickly used the skill orb and looked at his new skill.

Damage Resistance (Blunt): [R]

Effect: Passive Increase[75%][Damage Reduction][Blunt]

"Huh, that's better than I was expecting. I'm going to have to kick the guard in the nuts," Myst replied as he brought up his Acid Resistance skill.

Acid Resistance: Lv 1

Effect: Passive Increase[[10%+[Skill]LvX10%][Acid][Resistance].

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"The slimes have damage reduction, they basically ignore 75% of blunt damage, you'd almost certainly die if you used a stick against the slimes."

"I'm going to assume it was just a figure of speech, if only so we don't get in trouble," Sarah said, reminding him that they were far from home and that the guard worked for the king.

"Good point," Myst admitted. "How much do you think the acid resistance would go for?"

"The shopkeeper was selling Acid Resistance orbs for twenty five gold. Depending on the markup, anywhere from five to ten gold would probably be reasonable, are you planning on selling it?" Sarah asked, turning her meditation ability off now that her mana pool was filled.

"If I can get a halfway decent price for it, we could use the money. The only question is, should they drop from the beachball slimes or is there something more impressive down here that drops them?" Myst mused.

"Like a slime king?" she asked, thinking about some of the video games she'd played over the years.

"Or a giant room sized slime. On the off chance they get past me, here." Myst used his Create Skill Orb skill and created an Acid Resistance orb and tossed it to Sarah then created an orb for Damage Resistance. "That should help until we can get something better."

Sarah used the two skill orbs and looked at the details. "Something better?"

Myst grinned at Sarah. "Just imagine what we can 'find' from more dangerous monsters."

"I'm starting to see why they wanted us to join up," Sarah mused, fairly sure Myst had gotten a better special skill than she had even if hers was pretty cool.

"Do you want to press on or head back and pick up a shield and some more skills?" Myst asked.

"If I gave you my meditation skill, could you teach me?" she asked.

"Yep," Myst replied with a grin.

"Let's do that." Sarah pulled up her skill orb ability and turned her meditation skill into a skill orb and handed the resulting orb to Myst. "Here."

Myst used the skill orb then brought up his Legendary Teaching skill, selected Sarah and the meditation skill and hit the button.

Sarah grinned as she read the popup box.

Meditation:

Target: [Self]

Requires: [Being Stationary]

Effect: Activates [1][Mana Regeneration]

Learn (Y/N)?

"Yes," she said cheerfully as she tapped the Y with her finger. She smiled as the popup changed and she saw a progress bar that quickly counted down to zero. She glanced at her skill page, making sure that everything was back where it was supposed to be. "Looks good. Is there a limit on the number of times you can use your teaching skill?"

Myst shrugged. "Not that I know of but it only has a 40% chance of working right now."

"As long as you can keep trying, we should be good." Sarah turned her Firebolt skill into a skill orb and handed it to him. "Same thing."

"Sure." Myst used the orb and looked over his new spell as he set everything up to teach her.

Firebolt:

Mana Cost: [5]-[SkillLv/5]

Effect: Conjure ball of [Fire] that can be thrown for [Low Damage]

"Could be worse," he said as he pushed the button.

Sarah frowned when she didn't get the skill. "Try again."

Myst set everything back up and pushed the button, growing slightly worried when it took him three tries to get it to work. "Please tell me it worked that time."

Sarah nodded after checking her skill list. "I lost the little bit of experience I had towards leveling but that's a small price to pay for double the fun. Let's back up to the corner then firebolt a large one. We should be able to hit it twice each before we have to run."

"Worst case, we flee back to the entrance and let the guard deal with it," Myst said as he walked back to the corner so they'd have a straight shot if they had to run.

"Sounds good," Sarah agreed as she followed him. "Ready?"

"As I'm going to be." Myst focused on his new skill and conjured a firebolt then quickly tossed it when she did, hitting the same large slime, if a bit off center compared to her perfect shot. He quickly tossed another ball of fire when the large slime quickly oozed up onto the walkway and bounced towards them, going a hell of a lot faster than he'd been expecting. He swung his blade, scoring a glancing blow before getting knocked prone as the slime slammed into him.

"Shit!" Sarah cursed as she continued tossing fireballs as the slime tried to engulf Myst so it could digest him.

Myst screamed as he managed to slash the slime open and the acidic goo washed over him, burning his legs and chest.

Sarah grabbed his hands and hauled him out from under the dying slime and into the other room then tossed him into the water, figuring it was better than the acid as it was mostly just soap and grunge rather than shit like the other room. "Sorry!"

Myst was really glad that the channel wasn't deep enough to hit past his waist or fast enough to sweep him off his feet as the water was nasty. Thankfully it stopped the acid from doing more damage. "I'm coming back later and killing all of them," he complained as he pulled himself up on the ledge and flopped onto the walkway, feeling like shit and fairly sure he'd need magical healing and a cure disease spell before he came down with something truly nasty. He quickly created a skill orb for his Create Monster Skill Orb and Destructive Cleaning skills then opened his Skill Manipulation menu and brought up the two skills.

Create Monster Skill Orb: Lv 1 [VR]

Target: [Low Level Monster] [Skill]

Effect: [Creates] [Skill Orb] of target, [Cleans] target.

Destructive Cleaning: Lv 1 [R]

Target: [Room]

Use Time: [10 seconds]

Requires: Cleaning Tool

Effect: [Erases] target.

He swapped the [Cleans] and [Erases] qualities then hit the button, feeling everything twist and reality cry as his skill seemed to twist something that wasn't supposed to be twisted.

Monster Skill Theft: Lv 1 [VR]

Target: [Low Level Monster] [Skill]

Effect: [Creates] [Skill Orb] of target, [Erases] target.

Cleaning: Lv 1

Target: [Room]

Use Time: [10 seconds]

Requires: Cleaning Tool

Effect: [Cleans] target.

Myst pulled his mask half off and vomited over the edge into the water then used his two skill orbs to get the other skills back. "I hate slimes!" he complained as he copied the cleaning skill orb, setting it on the ground next to him as he tried to sit up.

"Are you going to be okay?" Sarah asked in concern.

"Hopefully," Myst replied as he selected Cleaning and Smite Self. 'This shouldn't be as bad, hopefully.' He swapped [Room] with [Personal] from Smite Self and hit the button, rather happy that the world didn't twist or warp as his power created two new skills.

Cleanse Self

Target: [Personal]

Use Time: [10 seconds]

Requires: Cleaning Tool

Effect: [Cleans] target.

Smite Room: Lv 1 [R]

Target: [Room]

Effect: [High Damage] is [dealt] to target.

"Good enough," Myst muttered as he pulled a soaked handkerchief out of his pocket and used his new cleaning skill.

Sarah stared as the water and filth vanished from Myst over the next ten seconds, leaving him perfectly dry and clean. "Which skill is that?"

"Cleanse Self," Myst replied as he got to his feet with a wince, feeling like he'd been burned over a decent amount of his legs. "As much as I'd love to finish killing every last slime in this damned place, I need a healer or at least a healing spell and probably a new weapon."

"Let me check if it dropped anything," Sarah said as she peeked around the corner to look, not terribly surprised that it hadn't dropped anything. "Nothing and your sword must have fallen in the water."

"Yeah, I'm not going swimming in shit for a mundane sword, maybe Excalibur," Myst mused as he reached down and picked up the Cleaning Skill orb, wincing when his thankfully clean pants rubbed against his burns. "I'm suddenly reminded why adventuring parties generally have healers," he grumbled and used the skill orb.

"All of the successful ones at least," Sarah agreed as they headed for the exit.

"On the upside, at least we're not dead," Myst offered, feeling strangely okay with how their monster hunting had turned out despite getting burned, mostly because he'd managed to acquire two new skills that should help them avoid getting killed once he tweaked everything a bit.

"Problems?" the guard asked smugly.

Sarah adjusted her posture just a touch to bring attention to her breasts and hopefully get the guard more inclined to help. "Just a bit, his acid resistance trinket failed, where's the best place to get healed?"

"I'd check the Temple," the guard pointed at the stone temple they could see in the distance. "It shouldn't be more than a gold piece to fix your injuries, they look rather minor."

"Thank you," Sarah replied as she started walking.

'Asshole,' Myst thought at the guard as he turned and followed Sarah towards the temple, wishing the guard had mentioned the acid when they went in. "We should probably check the skill shop first to see if they have any healing spells and figure out how much we can get for the Acid Resistance," he whispered once they were a couple dozen feet from the guard.

"Hopefully a decent amount," Sarah replied.

0o0o0

Myst wasn't particularly impressed by the shopkeeper's offer of five gold for the Acid Resistance Orb but he figured a fifth of the price wasn't the worst deal he could have offered them. "How much for a healing skill?"

The shopkeeper shrugged. "More than you've got unless you're talking about sealed skills."

"Sealed skills?" Myst asked.

"When someone is tossed out of the church, the church seals their holy skills, mostly so they won't have competition. I've been known to buy the occasional sealed skill for a couple of silver."

"Let me guess, you're looking for a way to break the seal?" Sarah asked.

"Of course not," the shopkeeper lied. "I'd rather not provoke any of the churches to that extent, I mostly sell the skill orbs back to them."

"Which means they probably have a way to unseal them," Myst mused.

"Most likely," the shopkeeper said as he reached under the counter and pulled a skill orb out of a box.

"Healing Touch Lv 5 (Sealed)," Myst read the words on the Orb. "Does sealing it completely block the skill or just make it hard to use?"

"It basically turns it into a paperweight," the shopkeeper admitted.

"How much does the church give you?" Myst asked.

"Thirty silver, it's not a great return but skill orbs don't take up a lot of room," the shopkeeper explained.

Myst counted thirty silver onto the counter. "Deal?"

"You realize it's useless, right?" he asked, glancing between the coins and Myst's face, wondering what the man knew.

"Maybe," Myst admitted. "Or maybe we can talk the church into unsealing it for my friend."

"I doubt it." The shopkeeper set the skill orb on the table and took the coins. "But I always have the feeling the church is cheating me so best of luck."

"Thanks," Myst replied as he used the skill orb then looked at the description.

Healing Touch (Sealed): Lv 5

Target: [Living Creature]

Range: [Touch]

Cost: [100]/[Holy Power]

Restrictions: [Sealed]

Effect: [Heal][[[SkillLv]X5] target

Sealed skills can't be used unless the seal is removed.

'Yeah, I'm going to have to mod the hell out of that.' Myst smiled at the shopkeeper. "Do you have any crafting skills?"

"Of course, a decent number of apprentices end up selling their crafting skills when they realize just how much time and resources it takes to get to a level where they can make a living." The shopkeeper gestured towards one of the cases. "Most of the common skills are around a gold each, at least for level one orbs."

"Good to know," Myst replied as he walked over to the shelf to look at the crafting skills, reading the cards. 'Alchemy: Brew your own health and mana potions, Cooking: Create tasty meals or at least make sure you don't kill yourself, Tailoring: create or repair cloth items, Smithing: Create or repair metal tools and weapons.'

"Glassblowing: Create works of art and glass with the right ingredients," Sarah mused as she read the description in a whisper.

"Might be interesting but I doubt we have the equipment," Myst said, quickly glancing over the rest of the skill orbs. 'Leatherworking: Create leather gear as well as bags of holding if you get skilled enough, Skinning: Skin animals, Mining: Useful for blacksmiths and for building walls, Herbalism: Skill for picking and identifying plants.'

"Which ones are you going to get?" Sarah asked.

"One of us should probably get Cooking," Myst mused as he considered the question. "Smithing looks like it's basically metal crafting which would be useful if we combined it with mining. I just don't have enough for all of them."

"I can buy one of them other than Alchemy, why is Alchemy more?" Sarah asked.

"Most apprentices don't bother selling it, even a couple of levels means you can make several useful items yourself," the shopkeeper explained.

"I guess that makes sense. Let's start with Tailoring," Myst said as he held out a gold coin towards the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper walked around the back of the display case and opened the case with a set of keys he pulled out of his pockets. "Anything else?" he asked as he took the coin and handed Myst a level one Tailoring orb.

"Probably." Myst used the orb and looked at his new skill.

Tailoring: Lv 1

Effect: Allows use of [Tailoring] Menu. Decrease[Crafting Time][Tailoring][[SkillLv]X2%]

'That's certainly abusable if I swap the 2% for something more impressive,' Myst mused.

"I'll grab the Cooking skill, it's only 25 silver," Sarah said as she started counting out coins.

"Which leaves Glassblowing, Smithing, Mining, Leatherworking, Skinning and Herbalism for me," Myst said as he counted out six gold coins.

"Pleasure doing business with you," the shopkeeper said as he handed over the skill orbs. "If you find any more interesting skills, don't hesitate to come back."

"Of course," Myst replied as he used the orbs and looked over his new skills.

Glassblowing: Lv 1

Effect: Allows use of [Glassblowing] Menu. Decrease[Crafting Time][Glassblowing][[SkillLv]X2%]

Smithing: Lv 1

Effect: Allows use of [Smithing] Menu. Decrease[Crafting Time][Smithing][[SkillLv]X2%]

Leatherworking: Lv 1

Effect: Allows use of [Leatherworking] Menu. Decrease[Crafting Time][Leatherworking][[SkillLv]X2%]

Mining: Lv 1

Target: [Stone]

Use Time: [Hour]

Requires: [Mining Pick]

Effect: [Extracts][Material] from target. [[SkillLv]X.01%] chance of receiving rare quality [Material]

Herbalism: Lv 1

Target: [Plant]

Use Time: 10[minute]s-[SkillLv]X30[Second]s

Requires: [Cutting Tool]

Effect: Allows Identification, [Extracts][Material] from target. [[SkillLv]X.01%] chance of receiving rare quality [Material]

Skinning: Lv 1

Target: [Dead Creature]

Use Time: [10 minutes]

Requires: [Knife]

Effect: [Extracts][Material] from target. [[SkillLv]X.01%] chance of receiving rare quality [Material]

"Thanks, this should help," Myst said, doing his best not to start laughing maniacally as he turned around and headed out of the shop.

Sarah shrugged and followed Myst out of the shop with the Cooking orb. She waited until they were out of sight before she handed Myst the orb. "Here."

"Thanks," Myst replied as he used the orb.

Cooking: Lv 1

Effect: Allows use of [Cooking] Menu. Decrease[Crafting Time][Cooking][[SkillLv]X2%]

"Temple?" Sarah asked.

Myst glanced at the tempe he could see in the distance then shook his head. "It's probably worth a try."

"How much pain are you in?" Sarah asked as she noticed how much he was wincing when he moved.

"I've had worse but it's not particularly pleasant," Myst admitted as he brought up his Cooking menu. "Neat, I already have recipes for the stuff I can make."

"Good, I'm not the best cook," Sarah admitted, thinking about her mother's various sporadic and failed attempts to teach her more than the basics.

"You can't be good at everything," Myst replied as they walked up to a priest in expensive robes with his nose up in the air and a look of disgust on his face as he finished healing a man with fox or wolf ears that was dressed in cheap looking breeches and a work shirt. 'Great, snooty religious people with magic.'

The priest 'ignored' the fox man he'd just healed dropping coins into the donation box while keeping an eye on him in the same way a merchant kept an eye on a scruffy kid in his shop. He looked at Myst's strange acid-eaten clothes once the foxkin had walked off. "What happened?"

"I ran into a giant slime, it exploded when I killed it," Myst explained, not seeing a point in admitting that they're gone down into the sewers looking for trouble without being prepared.

"Ah, let me take care of your wounds, defending people is worthy of the goddess," the priest said, giving the beastkin a dirty look. "Heal."

Myst shivered as a gentle breeze washed over him and the pain vanished as if it had never been. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," the priest replied as he gestured towards the donation box, trying and failing to be at least a little subtle.

Myst dug five silver coins out of his belt pouch and dropped them in the box. "Thank you again," he said as he walked off ignoring the slightly annoyed look on the priest's face that his donation wasn't larger. 'Yeah, I'm going to have to work on fixing my healing spell,' he mused, fairly sure he didn't want to rely on priests for his healing.

Sarah snickered as she followed Myst. "You realize he was looking for a larger donation, right?"

"I've got sixty four silver and he was wearing silk robes, I'm not particularly inclined to beggar myself just to tip him what he thinks he's worth," Myst replied.

"Would you have tipped him more if you had more?" Sarah asked.

"Probably not considering his general demeanor and attitude," Myst admitted.

Sarah sighed. "You realize he's going to be less inclined to heal you next time, right?"

"That assumes I'll need healing from him again," Myst pointed out.

"Fair point," Sarah admitted.

Myst twitched as he heard a recognizable boom in the distance. "Someone pissed off someone."

"Yep," Sarah said as another shot was fired.

"Are we heading towards the gunfire or away?" Myst asked, not sure which direction they should be heading or if he even wanted to get involved.

"Considering they might need help and they're probably from Earth considering how rapidly they're firing, let's take a look," Sarah argued as they picked up the pace.

Myst frowned as they came around a corner and spotted two dead people in worn clothes and a third with a knife facing a girl in her late teens holding a pistol. "Free Darwin awards, no waiting."

"You're going to regret this girl, my associates will-" the back of the thug's head exploded with a crack of thunder and a blast of lightning as the girl put a bullet between his eyes.

"You're not a Disney villain, you shouldn't monologue," the girl said as she walked over and started looting the thugs.

"Let me guess, they tried to rob you?" Sarah asked, looking at the girl wearing jeans and a leather biker jacket.

The girl with the gun turned to look at Myst and Sarah. "I don't think they were going to stop at robbery but that's what started it."

"How many bullets do you have left?" Sarah asked, hoping she wasn't wasting them.

"Enough," the girl replied firmly.

"Good," Myst said as he glanced around the deserted street.

"So, are you interested in killing monsters?" Sarah asked hopefully.

The girl raised an eyebrow as she glanced between Myst and the cheerleader. "With you?"

"That's the idea," Sarah replied with a grin.

"No offense but I don't generally consider cheerleaders to have useful survival skills," the girl pointed out.

Sarah sighed. "Blame my mother, she figured it would look good on a college application. I can toss firebolts and I'm working on getting better skills."

The girl with a gun looked at Myst. "What about you?"

"Skill trainer and I've got a couple of nice skills I can share," Myst explained softly, not wanting to get into modifying skills before they left the capital but not wanting her to blow them off either.

"Fine, it beats sticking around waiting to be arrested, I'm Alice and no this isn't Wonderland, if it was it would be less of a pain in the ass," Alice grumbled.

"I wasn't going there," Myst promised, fairly sure Wonderland would have been worse in some ways, mostly the lack of skills.

"Right," Alice muttered as she finished looting the thugs, sticking a couple of knives in her bag as well as their coin purses. "So, where are we hunting monsters and can I get some names."

"Myst and Sarah," Myst offered. "I wouldn't mind hitting the sewers again after I grab something to eat."

Alice glanced at his clothes. "Is that why your clothes look like they were sprayed with acid?"

"Pretty much, no one bothered to mention they were basically filled with acidic goo," Myst complained.

Alice sighed. "You're not filling me with confidence about your general competence level."

"We're not going to make the same mistake and we have distance spells so we should be fine this time around," Myst argued, knowing they could use her help.

"Fine, what type of skills can you teach me?" Alice asked as she started walking towards the inn where she'd left the rest of the people that had come with her to see the town.

"Are you interested in crafting skills or Acid Resistance?" Myst asked as he followed her.

Alice grinned as she put her gun back in the holster in her jacket. "I guess we can keep you around."

"Excellent," Sarah cheerfully as they followed Alice into the inn.