Chapter Fifty-Eight: Combat Log

  When his strength had returned enough, Jace stepped outside, the cabin’s warmth giving way to the cool air. He started towards the campus, the path ahead both familiar and fraught with uncertainty. As he walked, he opened the notifications he had dismissed during the chaos, each one a stark reminder of the terrible horror he had just faced.

  Crude Potion of Minor Healing Consumed.

  Effects combined with Soul Bind.

  1 Willpower point permanently imbued into Soul Tether ability, granting a new Aspect: Half-Life.

  Soul Tether now allows for 70% of all healing effects and 30% of damage effects to be transferred to a bound soul.

  Soul Mend has gained a new aspect: Focused Mend.

  Maintaining Soul Mend is now easier and requires less aether.

  Aether has been depleted. Soul Mend and Soul Bind now using Stamina.

  Ability Unlocked - Persistent to a Fault

  Who needs endurance, muscles, and the ability to move when you have aether? Drain your stamina to temporarily increase your aether pool.

  Convert Stamina to aether at a 5 to 1 conversion rate. Increase Spirit Constitution to improve conversion rate.

  Warning: Continuous use of this ability WILL result in a permanent stamina decrease.

  Ability Unlocked - Blood Sacrifice

  Your aether pool is sooo important, isn’t it? You’ve gotten pretty tunnel vision here. Oh well, might as well give you an ability for it. You’re going to do it, anyway.

  Convert Health to Aether at a 5 to 1 conversion rate. Increase Spirit Constitution to improve conversion rate.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Warning: Continuous use of this ability WILL result in a permanent health decrease.

  Passive Ability - Mostly Dead - has gained a new aspect: Slightly Alive

  You are no longer just mostly dead, you are now also slightly alive. Sit at 2% health or less, gain life, lose life, gain life, lose life, without going above 2%. A dangerous game you play. You really like to live on the edge.

  Effects: Gain a 10%+ boost to aether and stamina regeneration when you are below 5% health. Will this actually help you survive? It’ll take a miracle.

  Resistance to Death has increased to Rank Three - Adept

  You are super squishy. But now slightly less so. After taking a lot of damage from an alignment evil source, you are getting better at being hit. Congratulations, you are on the path to becoming a certified punching bag. -7% damage from all shadow, necrotic, and evil-aligned sources.

  Jace smirked at the system’s comments. The resistance to death ability intrigued him. So, that hit I took from the demon was reduced by five percent? he thought, shaking his head in disbelief.

  You have defeated: Herald of the Coming Darkness — Silver One Demon.

  You should have had no way of doing this. But you nipped it before it had fully emerged, stopping the ritual halfway.

  +1 to Karmic Balance.

  Experience gained: 4150 X Rank Disparity Modifier.

  EXP Reduction:

  ? Crude Potion of Healing Consumed

  ? -25% Penalty Applied

  Warning: You have exceeded your EXP capacity. EXP gain above capacity is reduced by 90%.

  Total EXP: 3,634 of 3000

  Boon Activated: Over The Top

  Awarding additional Society Points in compensation for lost EXP.

  Total Society Points: 7500

  He winced at the hit to his EXP, but the boost in Society Points was nothing to sneer at. He couldn’t wait to start spending them—he could splurge a bit. He made a mental note to dive deep into every possible society upgrade as soon as he could, then turned his attention back to the rest of his notifications.

  Quest Update

  I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts

  Quest success.

  You have brought peace to a lost soul.

  Bonus Objective Complete: Save Damon.

  Objective reward recalculating due to rank disparity.

  Profession rank disparity factoring... You seriously should not have survived. Hades has witnessed your achievement and was impressed.

  Calculating reward…

  Plus 500 to reputation with Hades. Minus 500 reputation with Demons and Undead.

  Unique Class Specialization Unlocked: Twilight Guardian

  You have shown unique aptitude and compassion for souls while maintaining the balance of life and death. Hades has offered you a class and profession upgrade. Warning: If you ACCEPT this upgrade, Class Cleric and Profession Hades’ Little Helper will permanently be merged into a new combined Class/Profession, Twilight Guardian. This cannot be undone.

  Take up the mantle of: Twilight Guardian?

  Accept | Reject