Sieg, a legionnaire from a disciplined and powerful organization, is summoned into a chaotic multiverse by an elf priestess named Siv. Stripped of his armor, clothes, and some of his psychic abilities, Sieg finds himself thrust into a bizarre war between rats worshiping a god of cheese and Siv's people. Struggling to adapt to the strange system of levels and magic that governs this world, he must navigate increasingly dangerous enemies, ethical dilemmas, and Siv's manipulative tendencies.
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The Cheese Wars Chronicles
- Thread starter Ultimatedaywriter
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CH1: How To Bait A Rat Trap
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Ultimatedaywriter
Versed in the lewd.
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Someone had it out for him. He felt a breeze between his legs, indicating Sieg didn't have underwear, pants, or the body armor he remembered wearing. The loss of muscle mass and height and the glowing blue ritual circle he stood in were concerning. Sieg turned his head slowly to the elf, clawing at the ground as a ratling tried to drag her into the darkness.
Old, faded words written in an old brown script next to a skeleton translated before his eyes. "Insight is the enemy."
Someone or something had used their dying act to convey that information.
Without knowing the situation, Sieg could only make mistakes with his own hands. He willingly screwed himself over. At the time, he reacted and, in doing so, fell into the hands of a mad goddess and her madder follower.
Elf lvl50
Priestess lvl50
Ratling lvl65
Soldier lvl65
He hadn't focused on the elf because Sieg was unsure if it was the elf or rat that summoned him. By the piles of rotten books, moldy smell, and elf ears on the religious iconography in the room, he was leaning in the elf's direction.
"Cheese for the cheese god, noses for the nose throne," The rat squeaked out as the elf looked up at him with the most pitiful blue eyes he had ever seen.
As a representative of the Sect, he felt that it would be inappropriate to step into a war. Without his armor or even pants, who would believe he was a representative? That little catch-22 gave him the freedom to act.
Sieg stepped forward and was overcome with weakness he shouldn't be feeling. And a big blue distraction that took up far too much of his vision.
System Initializing…
He took this class. In Legionnaire's finishing school, someone asks what would happen if a psionic human ended up in a world with a system. A demoness joined the lesson as a guest lecturer, but the tail and horns were distracting. Fortunately, he recorded the lecture and aced the test.
Their nodes, the little supercell-sized objects in their brains, connect to the heavens and earth to gather quintessence and turn it into energy. Quintessence was basically X. They had no idea how their nodes brought in energy, so the researchers made a hypothesis, and some tests looked promising.
If there was anything to that hypothesis, then this made some sense. That interaction made it possible for their noggin to communicate with a foreign system.
Sieg heard static, and lines of code he couldn't decipher blurred his vision.
By the founder, what had he gotten himself into?
A shriek brought him back from his tangent. It wasn't precisely overpowering her for a rating of 15 levels over the elf. Weren't warrior classes supposed to be strong? Or was a soldier more about endurance?
Before he could get lost in thought, the elf lost some ground. He measured the distance between the elf and the shadows. Maybe he had more time to think things through. The elf lost her grip on the slipper floor thanks to her bloody, torn nails.
No, he had to save the elf. That's the only way he got answers or maybe a way back home. Or he could let rats eat her and research this himself as the founder intended. Perhaps this could be his vacation, no bulletproof man-eating beasts or undead polluting the countryside.
The elf screamed.
He thrust his hand out, and the wind rustled. The rat paused just as its fur bristled under candlelight. "Magi the Khan must learn of this."
For some reason, Sieg, legionnaire of the Phoenix cohort, couldn't make a wind blade to slice the rat in two. He only managed to ruffle the rat's fur and rattle the armor covering its squat body.
New Skill Aero kinesis
Aero kinesis lvl1
Description: Wind Manipulation without using mana should be impossible. Calculating… Wind elementals can manipulate the wind through thought alone. Updating status, error, error.
Perk Gained:
Sylph I: +10% Wind-Based Skill Experience.
Slay Wind Monsters 1 tier above the user or 100 wind monsters in the same tier to improve this perk.
He made a mistake and reached out with telepathy to soothe the elf, as holy doctrine from the founder demanded.
Translation: he was making her shut up so he could think.
As he tried to use psychic tools from his kit, more pop-ups appeared, and they took all of his considerable focus. He also no longer had his partitions, which was an issue.
Sieg considered the lack of partitions to be the fault of his summoning. His actions, limited to 1, limited his options. He was in a younger body, but the node in his head remained. He picked himself up by his bootstraps and prepared to rebuild himself from square one.
"Help me," The elf yelled with greater emphasis as the rat dragged the exhausted elf up the side of a pile of books. He could only see her blonde hair peaking below the screens. Sieg tried to look up, only for them to move.
Sieg tried to turn his head to the side to look through his peripherals, but the screens flashed in front of his face.
He was just glad a listening skill hadn't been forced upon him. There seemed to be a component to gaining skills. It was not important; saving the girl came first.
Would you like to turn off notifications in combat?
"Yes," Sieg yelled, and the screens vanished. The rat had climbed up on a pile of books and was about to pull the elf out of the dilapidated church he stood in. Sieg looked back to see an angel of all things glaring down, missing its nose.
A ratling ran with the nose clutched in its paws was running toward a broken window. Sieg turned his eyes away from the scene and lunged. His hand wrapped around the elf's golden hair as the rat tried to pull her out the window.
Sieg thrust his dominant hand forward and made an arc. Wind gathered, concentrated, and sharpened and took far too much focus to hold in reserve. Every moment his attack rested without being fired, his reserves ticked away. His energy generation wasn't enough to keep up with his usage. It was the system that altered how much energy he could store, dropping his capacity to a pitiful level.
The bound elf screamed as Sieg sent his wind blade forward in an arc. He liked to throw them like curve balls and had a lot of practice against skeletons. The green wind blade swooped over the elf, cutting off strings of hair before slicing off one of the rat's arms at the shoulder.
"No, her nose. I must take her. It must be sacrificed fresh." The rat squeaked.
Sieg grabbed the girl's shoulders and tugged her back inside. Beady yellow eyes flashed, matching a sea of rats below. Those, too, were fine; he wasn't in any danger. Sieg could still fly and abandon the elf if the worst happened.
He probably had the control. Sieg estimated he had about 10 minutes of flight before his reserves were utterly spent. By the sea of furry bodies and siege equipment, flying away was his last option.
"Go, my brethren, claim the sacrifice for the God of Cheese. She will be made to produce." Another wind blade cut the rat off.
"Why didn't you save me before they saw my face? Now they know what I look like."
"I can always hand you over."
She looked away. "How are we going to get out of here?"
Sieg turned his head to the side. She wasn't taking him seriously. He held up his hand, and she started choking. Telekinesis has many uses, including dealing with annoying VIPs. So long as he didn't kill them, he could scare them a little.
Snot poured down the nose of those rats who wanted to tear off, and she began to cry when he released her.
Sieg grabbed her chin and made sure she met his eyes. "What's going on? Why was I summoned?"
The elf girl smirked like a mad woman. "You are the hero who will save the world from animal cruelty."
Sieg stared out the window. Three floors down, behind a rock shelf, were hundreds of rats. They were dressed in pots, pans, tree bark, and old shoe leather.
"So killing rats doesn't count."
"They invaded us unprovoked. I'm just a priestess of the Mother Goddess Inanna. All I want is peace in the world and to stop the cruel exploitation and butchering of animals."
Sieg planned to get the other side of the story as soon as possible. A little choking would help keep everyone honest.
A rat man with a spear charged through the window. Its head was already rolling before Sieg could ask for the other side of the story.
It was Commander September's fault. His friend and mentor trained him too well in preparation for the war. Of course, Sergeant Williams of the Thunder Cock Sect also taught him to practice until all of his techniques were second nature. Something told him that the massive number of popups coming his way grew larger with time.
Blood shot out of the rat's neck stump like a lawn sprinkler. The elf cackled like a maniac, and Sieg wasn't sure what he got himself into. "You're even more heroic than I imagined."
Rats charged in as a black tide, and Sieg had already begun tossing wind blades before one of the better-dressed rats opened its mouth. Heads and limbs fell as curved blades of wind found targets one after the other as he separated the archers, warriors, and mages from long, close, and mid-range threats.
It was the training that kept them alive. They were trained to react first with their psychic powers. The rats had just as much of a right to live as the smoking-hot elves. Honestly, it was their poor luck that they jumped, scared him.
His eyes locked on target after target as he divided and struck, separating them into groups. He felt something increase as he worked. Energy levels should have bottomed out, but they increased steadily as he used his power. His blade of wind thinned in places and thickened in others, the blade curved around shields easier, and multiple heads flew off the bodies at once. Sieg counted a sextuple kill and barely felt winded.
"We surrender; please spare our lives, " one rat said as he unleashed another volley of slender, curved blades at preselected targets.
Sieg raised his hand before scratching the back of his head. He didn't have the skill needed to stop his attacks part-way.
The battle ended in a total victory. He couldn't call it his win; his training sent his body on autopilot, killing until the threats were handled. To Sieg, it felt no different than working on the house-building line. He was good at putting in staples and screws rapidly, so he often did the frames while another legionnaire held the wooden beams together. He was also fair at welding steel beams together.
Sieg glanced at the bodies and felt apathetic. Seeing piles of skulls in beast shit had scarred him for life, fighting walking corpses was terrifying, and seeing an undead beast for the first time nearly made him shit himself. A few rats broke, and bleeding on the ground barely affected him. The killing was also nothing new; he executed people for the crimes they committed.
A legionnaire is expected to meet justice. As an example, he killed a necromancer family for the crime of raising a graveyard, not because of the minor crime of disobeying the founder's laws about raising human remains. No, it was the major crime of ruining fields and starving people that earned an entire family the death penalty.
"You did it, my hero."
The elf tried to fall in Sieg's arms, but he stepped back. She fell on the floor and groaned.
"Don't they have stories of damsels in distress where you're from? You're supposed to catch me when I'm about to faint."
"Who are you?"
Sieg's interruption made the elf scowl like a petulant child. VIPs were the worst, from the daughters of engineers to the cousins of uncrowned kings like the founder. At least the founder never demanded they escort members of his family.
"I'm Siv. My last name isn't important; I'm a chaste Virgin of Inanna. Thank you for saving me, my hero."
A wind blade decapitated the rat that thought itself invisible but failed to cloak its thoughts with fade. Such a rookie error wouldn't go unpunished. Sieg has felt his energy levels receive another bump. It wasn't that he had more; his reserves only recovered faster.
"What level are you and your class? It has to be something powerful." Siv said.
Neither his class nor level mattered to him. "Now that I saved you, send me back. I still need to finish a few hours before my shift ends." Sieg was on guard duty.
"That's impossible. We aren't even in the same multiverse. Lady Inanna took you from your world and placed you here." Siv stuck her tongue out. "You aren't going anywhere."
Sieg raised his hand, and the elf choked. Sieg released her before she passed out, but it was a near thing. If she couldn't send him back, then what use was she? From what little he heard about the conflict, she was a liability.
Sieg shook his head, ripped a curtain down from one of the windows, and tied it around himself to hide his modesty. He spotted his arm and noticed his tattoo was gone—even the Roman numeral for seven.
"Since we can't go out through the front, we might as well go up. I chose this place because it is supposed to be haunted and might hold some secret treasure." Siv said.
He would need a lot of Loot if he was going to make up his absence to the Sect.
"Fiend, let me show you the true power of cheese." A ratling in a funny hat waved a wand, and a yellow beam lanced between them.
He ducked and rolled as the beam traveled overhead. Siv jumped behind a stack of books as Sieg conjured a wind blade. The beam came around, and he jumped over it. When he landed, the floorboard broke apart and smelled like cheese.
"I will make you into cheese. As the cheese god wills." The ratling said.
The ratling shifted his wand, only for the beam to stop. "Out of mana," The ratling said.
It reached into a black portal and pulled out a glowing green potion.
"Don't let it recover its mana," Siv said.
Sieg clenched his fist and felt his psychic hand hit a barrier. "Thorns of cheese," The ratling said.
He shifted his weight and ducked under a flying spike of hardened cheese as the ratling chugged its potion.
"We need to get away before more of the elite priests appear or, worse, one of their paladins," Siv said.
"Vile villains, you won't escape me."
He released a slight gust of spiraling wind, gathering the books from the piles around the ratling priest. Then the books smashed into the barrier until it shattered and continued pummeling the ratling.
"You might not be aware, but when you kill someone, a portion of their inventory is added to your own. The rest is returned to whatever faction they belong to. Unless you're a thief or a conquest-based class, there is no telling what you will get."
"Goudaer, these villains are not Gouda enough to beat your favored priest. Lend me your mana and heal my wounds. I will devote 10 liters of my children to your priesthood."
"Kill it before it's too late," Siv said.
Sieg rolled his eyes, ripped open the floor, and dropped the ratling. Then, he used a little biokinesis because, unlike summoned heroes in stories, the legion actually trained its personnel to use a wide variety of powers for daily tasks.
The door behind them, leading deeper into the cathedral, was covered in locks and chains. Strange scripts covered the locks themselves that Sieg couldn't begin to decipher. Again, he was tempted to simply toss the elf out the window and fly off, but he wasn't sure how much stamina he had or the ratling's anti-air capabilities.
Such concerns were his burden as a responsible member of the legion.
"So you couldn't have sprung for a squad. You had to summon me alone." Sieg said.
"I was already low on mana, and summoning you almost made me pass out. Tharion knows it was a close call." She must have read Sieg's face because she changed the subject. "We knew the rats would be mad when we freed their cows, but to declare war because we helped them was unexpected."
Sieg wasn't the sharpest legionnaire, which meant he was only as intelligent as the average genius. With all the talk of them being villains, he could have been fooled into thinking he was the bad guy.
But no one would be dumb enough to summon a legionnaire for an unworthy cause, especially after seeing him chop off heads like a mechanical scythe. What kind of delusional fool would think summoning him would be a good idea or that he would take their side after they brought war upon themselves?
Sieg stopped himself from jumping to conclusions. Haste made waste, after all, and transmuting materials and energy always involved some loss.
What would the founder do?
Take everything not nailed down and fly away.
"Who is Lady Inanna and Tharion?" Sieg asked.
"I'll tell you all about it after we figure a way through the door."
It was clear he was dealing with an incompetent and a fool. He placed his hand on a lock, scanned its mechanism with telekinesis, and mimicked a key. The lock popped open without any trouble.
He flung his wind blade and decapitated the rat, about to use poison to knock out the elf and take her.
That was when a wall of pop-ups completely took over his vision.
He held out a finger, "One moment,"
Choose a class
Class selection has been postponed due to battle.
Enemies, Slain, have altered class results.
Unique Biology has altered class results.
Unique energy has altered class results.
Unique Skills have altered class results.
Class Select
These Tier 1 Classes have been selected to match the skill set best and the continued growth of users.
Tyrannosaurus Mind Flayer hatchling: +3 to Mind Stats +10 Free Stats
Description: Behold the most powerful land and sea psionic predator. As a hatchling, your hunger for psionic energy and flesh is as endless as your desire to enslave and pillage the world. Your thoughts echo the roar of a hurricane and hit with the might of a tsunami. You are the apex predator on land or in the most bottomless swamps. Mere humanoid mind flayers with their pathetic overminds cringe when they hear the thump of your psionic presence.
Unique Skill: Roar of Devastation
That did not seem like the kind of class a human of any kind would have. It appeared to be a monster class. The only part of it he understood was hatchling. And why not give him something like a dragon class if he was already given a tyrannosaurus class? Well, it was only the first choice, and it looked like he had two others to choose from.
Hell Phoenix Hatchling: +5 to Mind Stats +8 Free Stats
Description: Its wings beat, and civilizations crumble under the tide of black storms filled with fire and ash. From the least of sparks, these creatures of myth are reborn, growing stronger with every rebirth. To grow a Hell, Phoenix must gorge itself on the souls of the most evil villains the world has ever known. Their parents often hunt down those poor unfortunates and feed them to their young piece by piece.
Unique Skill: Hellfire Rebirth
Was a human class out of the question? Sure, his cohort's mascot was a phoenix, but really, did he have to get all monster classes? Was no human class badass enough for a legionnaire?
Eldrich Blue Mage: +6 to Mind Stats +3 to Free Stats
Description: You walk through the deepest, most venomous swamps barefoot, join cults on blood moons, and read languages that make men claw their eyes out. As a Deep Blue Mage, you don't just learn the powers of monsters. You join the choir and listen to the songs of misery and woe of civilizations brought to ruin and experiments taken. Every day is a gift.
Unique Skill: Deep Blue Magic
He wanted the last one. The other classes were probably better and had more promising growth plans, but the last one sounded like a class, not like he would be transformed against his will.
He selected the Eldrich Blue Mage
Sieg
Class: Eldrich Blue Mage lvl1
Stats Distributted
Body 40
Vitality 10
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Endurance 10
Mind 50
Intelligence 20
Wisdom 20
Insight 0
Perception 10
Soul 40
Willpower 10
Presence 10
Density 10
Resistance 10
Free Points: 3
Skill List
Psionic Legionnaire lvl5
Wind Executioner lvl2
Interrogation lvl2
Deep Blue Magic lvl1
He scanned the blue screen, recording it to memory, and wished he had time to form the constructs needed to create stable partitions, eyes on the inside, as some call them. Energy was a factor limited by psionic energy, which is wholly different from mana.
Magic had more to do with the soul than the mind, but intelligence, perception, and insight most likely had something to do with learning and using spells. Sieg had points he could place in each stat, but once he selected them, that was it. His points would have been spread evenly if he had not selected them. That wasn't the optimal build, but he wasn't sure what would make his build the most optimal.
Then there was his skills. Psionic Legionnaire boiled down and filtered into a single skill. Was multiclassing a thing? He scratched his forehead and felt something like a slit between his brows. That was put back behind his stoic wall to be thought about when he wasn't in a time frame.
His time to freak out would come, and it would be glorious, but not yet. Siv stared at him like he was some monster. Sieg pulled on the chains after unlocking the last lock.
Chains of Inanna
Description: Mortal chains manifested by a god only to be unlocked by the worthy of her tremendous gifts if the worthy champion can defeat the monsters in her labyrinth. By unlocking these chains, Sieg was blessed with the ability to do as he would with the chains.
He stowed them away in his inventory, marveling at the black portal as it took in the chains and deposited them on a square next to his clothes, armor, and weapons.
"Siv, why am I naked when my gear is in my inventory."
"Sieg, there is a monster." The elf pointed at a set of vicious claws ending in needle points pushing through the gap in the double doors. He saw only weakness in the jointed hands.
Sive turned her head to the side and vomited. "Inanna save do you see it what is that?"
War Troll lvl156
"It's too strong. We have an army at our back and an impossibly strong monster in front of us." Sieg quickly found the options tab and a blue screen appeared next to the inventory screen. He could equip items from his inventory. "What are you doing? We need to find another way."
Your mind struggles to understand what its seeing
+1 Insight
Before the image of him changed, he closed his eyes and ignored the explosion of tentacles and the smell of rot. The cold touch of death danced on his skin, but he refused to look at the creature and risked furthering his insight.
By listening to sound advice in the most unlikely of circumstances, you have gained a positive experience.
+1 Wisdom
New Deep Blue Magic Spell
Eldritch Eye: The most basic skill of any eldritch-touched creature is to defend itself from beings with high insight but limited wisdom. The greater the disparity between the two in favor of insight, the more mental damage is inflicted. When inflicted it may cause enemies to gain insight until parity with the user.
He choked her until the elf passed out before releasing her with only a minimal amount of brain damage. "Are all elves so clueless?" When the spell deactivated, Sieg opened his eyes. A towering troll armored in blackened steel plate shoved its way through and raised a club with pieces of obsidian forming a sharp ax on one side.
Sieg fit his Centurian helmet on his head and felt the soft hum of his armor's inscriptions. The magic and formations were too much for his mind to run and fight effectively. Partitions were needed to use his armor at its utmost limit while remaining combat-effective.
The defense was unnecessary. The troll roared and gasped. It dropped its club and clutched at its throat as it lifted off the ground. It kicked, and bloody puss fell from its mouth as it struggled against an invisible force for a breath.
The troll's biggest weakness was that it wasn't level 200+. If he was right about what tiers meant, then the war troll wasn't a threat; it was only tier 2. Or maybe it was tier 1, and he was tier 0. He wasn't entirely sure about tiers yet.
Its skin turned red, and it flailed with all its might. The monster scratched its throat bloody but couldn't break the hold on it. The monster's spine snapped, but it still wasn't dead. Trolls were known for their resilience and regeneration. Sieg was about to put that to the test. He turned and thrust his hand toward the windows. The troll crashed through the stone frame of the window and fell into a sea of ratlings.
Siv probably had a hand in starting the war and was undoubtedly responsible for many war crimes. Sieg would like to think any actions he did could be blamed on her.
Level up…
Experience Cap Reached.
Feat Perk Awarded
Dark Lord Vs. Goliath I: +15% EP
Eldrich Blue Mage lvl5
Before the throw, he had roughly 95% energy, but after the throw, he had 80%. It was an embarrassment when he lifted a priceless vase off a pedestal and slammed it into a wall, sending shards everywhere.
It would take 20 minutes to regain 100% from his current rate of regen. Partitions took a percentage of energy regen; the larger the regen rate, the less the percentage. His mana remained untouched, but he wasn't yet ready to start cannibalizing it. He could feel the mana flowing from his spine, and he felt he knew what they were.
He left that alone.
Sieg needed an easy way to restore his energy. Transmuting energy from other sources was the done thing. He didn't have a forest to burn at that time. Burning the elf would cost him more energy than he would gain. Other methods would have more waste and would have been unviable without more study.
If he found time to rest, he would work on a solution. He looked at the elf and felt it was a shame he couldn't stuff her in his inventory.
Siege invested his free points, five into strength and ten into vitality. He called it an investment because he expected returns that stacked from the points he placed. Then, he shoved the 20 points he gained into wisdom, doubling his energy regeneration. In 10 minutes, he would recover 20% of his energy.
With his preparations complete, he left the summoning room and entered the double doors with the elf slung over his shoulder like a stack of firewood.
He took a look at his energy bar.
The system was such a kidder when it came to numbers.
HP: 100%
EP 150/230
MP 100%
Exhaustion 20%
These were his resources. Leveling didn't recover energy; gaining a perk didn't recover energy; when a bar was complete, it read 100% except for exhaustion. Exhaustion was always percentage-based.
Thank the founder. He managed to knock out the elf so he couldn't question her and get false information. Sieg knew for a fact that nothing she said could be taken at face value.
Claiming it was impossible to get back. He should toss her to the ratlings for that lie.
The double doors shut behind him as he implemented his selections. New energy coursed through him. He felt so much better to be away from the war drums and screaming.
Paintings on the walls showed elves sitting on balconies admiring nature. He stopped to look at one of the paintings. Only in the distance did he see something jutting over the tree line like a spike of granite.
"Veil Spire," he dropped Siv, who shrieked. Did you have to drop me? I was trying to tell you where we are. We're in the Veil Spire. This place was locked up by Inanna herself. But as her chosen champion, you unlocked it. Well, our job is done. Do you have any religious taboo against offing yourself because I don't?" Siv said.
His head turned, and he yanked the spike she was about to shove through her eye out of her hand. Sieg turned his head, and it felt like his joints had rusted over.
"Explain now!"
She smirked up at him, crumpled on the floor on her knees in a torn dress. Siv had puffy eyes from suffocation. It must have been her level that helped her recover so quickly.
"It's in the name. We're in the Veil Spire, one of the worst places to be in. Best of all, those ratlings want me very bad. They have a quarter of their army here, and you just opened the door to this place, a wound on reality left to decay and rot for centuries. Now, I need to die, and I can escape all responsibility. I'll be a martyr. So long as I die before this place gets going."
The more she spoke, the less sane he felt. If there had been a sanity check, he must have failed it when looking at the painting.
"You summoned me here to open a door and unchain some unspeakable evil," Sieg said.
He wanted to choke the life out of her, but that's what she wanted.
"It's only unspeakable because no one who worked here survived to tell the rest of the world. Inanna locked this place away; only her chosen hero could unlock it. Once someone enters and that door is opened, there is no leaving. Think about it: a quarter of the ratling army gone in an instant," Siv said.
Something rounded a corner. It had tentacles pushing out of a rotten face and yellow eyes.
Rotten Flayer lvl80
Sieg lifted his hand, and it fought against his psychic might. The legionnaire clenched his hand, crushing his foe's resistance. The creature's head popped off its body like a bottle cap and smashed like a rotten melon on the ceiling.
5% of his EP vanished from that singular action.
EP 145/230
He couldn't keep using his EP.
Fresh experience washed over him, and he gained a few more levels.
Eldritch Blue Mage lvl9
He put 30 points into Wisdom and 14 in Intelligence. While he would have liked to have more vitality and strength, he needed EP and regen more.
Wisdom Perk Gained Rolling
Your score improved based on the enemies slain and their link to your class.
Your location has effected your possible perks.
Dreamer Reaper I: 1% chance to regain half of EP after slaying a foe.
This Perk can be improved by slaying enemies two tiers above the user or 1000 enemies with Dreamer in their name or title.
With 60 Wisdom, he generated 1 EP every second, which helped. It wasn't enough for a partition, and he still felt absurdly weak, but it did help.
"How much longer can you keep that up, and what will you do when something stronger than you shows up?" She looked at a painting of a clock. "It's moving. Can't you see it soon? The clock will strike 12, and even death won't save us from this place."
Insight seemed to be a real detriment in this place.
She ripped off a piece of a painting frame and tried to stab herself with it. Sieg ripped it out of her hands.
"Stop that," Sieg said.
"You don't get it. My job is done. I had one purpose from my goddess, and it was fulfilled. The only thing left to do is to get off this runaway horse and be welcomed to paradise," Siv said.
"This place reeks of death. I can feel it on my skin and in my bones. It's like the opposite of what my people are about."
He didn't know why they started the war, why she thought dying here, of all places, was a good idea, or if there was a way out. Sieg figured if he regained some partitions, he could fly out with telekinesis, but maybe not. There was so much he didn't know.
"Do you smell that?" Sieg said.
The elf rankled her nose. "It's meat. I did hear elves used to partake in flesh millennia ago, but I hoped it was only a myth. Obscene and embarrassing, I apologize to the chosen hero on behalf of my people."
"I eat meat," Sieg said.
Her expression went from apologetic to horrified in a flash. Then, her face turned red. "Monster, degenerate, you're no better than the ratlings and their foul cheese gods. You have no empathy and deserve none from me. I won't help you any longer."
"You were helping," Sieg said.
She had kidnapped him and tricking him into opening the door to ruin and telling him to off himself was her way of helping him. If Siv was the norm, then why were the elves still around?
Old, faded words written in an old brown script next to a skeleton translated before his eyes. "Insight is the enemy."
Someone or something had used their dying act to convey that information.
Without knowing the situation, Sieg could only make mistakes with his own hands. He willingly screwed himself over. At the time, he reacted and, in doing so, fell into the hands of a mad goddess and her madder follower.
Elf lvl50
Priestess lvl50
Ratling lvl65
Soldier lvl65
He hadn't focused on the elf because Sieg was unsure if it was the elf or rat that summoned him. By the piles of rotten books, moldy smell, and elf ears on the religious iconography in the room, he was leaning in the elf's direction.
"Cheese for the cheese god, noses for the nose throne," The rat squeaked out as the elf looked up at him with the most pitiful blue eyes he had ever seen.
As a representative of the Sect, he felt that it would be inappropriate to step into a war. Without his armor or even pants, who would believe he was a representative? That little catch-22 gave him the freedom to act.
Sieg stepped forward and was overcome with weakness he shouldn't be feeling. And a big blue distraction that took up far too much of his vision.
System Initializing…
He took this class. In Legionnaire's finishing school, someone asks what would happen if a psionic human ended up in a world with a system. A demoness joined the lesson as a guest lecturer, but the tail and horns were distracting. Fortunately, he recorded the lecture and aced the test.
Their nodes, the little supercell-sized objects in their brains, connect to the heavens and earth to gather quintessence and turn it into energy. Quintessence was basically X. They had no idea how their nodes brought in energy, so the researchers made a hypothesis, and some tests looked promising.
If there was anything to that hypothesis, then this made some sense. That interaction made it possible for their noggin to communicate with a foreign system.
Sieg heard static, and lines of code he couldn't decipher blurred his vision.
By the founder, what had he gotten himself into?
A shriek brought him back from his tangent. It wasn't precisely overpowering her for a rating of 15 levels over the elf. Weren't warrior classes supposed to be strong? Or was a soldier more about endurance?
Before he could get lost in thought, the elf lost some ground. He measured the distance between the elf and the shadows. Maybe he had more time to think things through. The elf lost her grip on the slipper floor thanks to her bloody, torn nails.
No, he had to save the elf. That's the only way he got answers or maybe a way back home. Or he could let rats eat her and research this himself as the founder intended. Perhaps this could be his vacation, no bulletproof man-eating beasts or undead polluting the countryside.
The elf screamed.
He thrust his hand out, and the wind rustled. The rat paused just as its fur bristled under candlelight. "Magi the Khan must learn of this."
For some reason, Sieg, legionnaire of the Phoenix cohort, couldn't make a wind blade to slice the rat in two. He only managed to ruffle the rat's fur and rattle the armor covering its squat body.
New Skill Aero kinesis
Aero kinesis lvl1
Description: Wind Manipulation without using mana should be impossible. Calculating… Wind elementals can manipulate the wind through thought alone. Updating status, error, error.
Perk Gained:
Sylph I: +10% Wind-Based Skill Experience.
Slay Wind Monsters 1 tier above the user or 100 wind monsters in the same tier to improve this perk.
He made a mistake and reached out with telepathy to soothe the elf, as holy doctrine from the founder demanded.
Translation: he was making her shut up so he could think.
As he tried to use psychic tools from his kit, more pop-ups appeared, and they took all of his considerable focus. He also no longer had his partitions, which was an issue.
Sieg considered the lack of partitions to be the fault of his summoning. His actions, limited to 1, limited his options. He was in a younger body, but the node in his head remained. He picked himself up by his bootstraps and prepared to rebuild himself from square one.
"Help me," The elf yelled with greater emphasis as the rat dragged the exhausted elf up the side of a pile of books. He could only see her blonde hair peaking below the screens. Sieg tried to look up, only for them to move.
Sieg tried to turn his head to the side to look through his peripherals, but the screens flashed in front of his face.
He was just glad a listening skill hadn't been forced upon him. There seemed to be a component to gaining skills. It was not important; saving the girl came first.
Would you like to turn off notifications in combat?
"Yes," Sieg yelled, and the screens vanished. The rat had climbed up on a pile of books and was about to pull the elf out of the dilapidated church he stood in. Sieg looked back to see an angel of all things glaring down, missing its nose.
A ratling ran with the nose clutched in its paws was running toward a broken window. Sieg turned his eyes away from the scene and lunged. His hand wrapped around the elf's golden hair as the rat tried to pull her out the window.
Sieg thrust his dominant hand forward and made an arc. Wind gathered, concentrated, and sharpened and took far too much focus to hold in reserve. Every moment his attack rested without being fired, his reserves ticked away. His energy generation wasn't enough to keep up with his usage. It was the system that altered how much energy he could store, dropping his capacity to a pitiful level.
The bound elf screamed as Sieg sent his wind blade forward in an arc. He liked to throw them like curve balls and had a lot of practice against skeletons. The green wind blade swooped over the elf, cutting off strings of hair before slicing off one of the rat's arms at the shoulder.
"No, her nose. I must take her. It must be sacrificed fresh." The rat squeaked.
Sieg grabbed the girl's shoulders and tugged her back inside. Beady yellow eyes flashed, matching a sea of rats below. Those, too, were fine; he wasn't in any danger. Sieg could still fly and abandon the elf if the worst happened.
He probably had the control. Sieg estimated he had about 10 minutes of flight before his reserves were utterly spent. By the sea of furry bodies and siege equipment, flying away was his last option.
"Go, my brethren, claim the sacrifice for the God of Cheese. She will be made to produce." Another wind blade cut the rat off.
"Why didn't you save me before they saw my face? Now they know what I look like."
"I can always hand you over."
She looked away. "How are we going to get out of here?"
Sieg turned his head to the side. She wasn't taking him seriously. He held up his hand, and she started choking. Telekinesis has many uses, including dealing with annoying VIPs. So long as he didn't kill them, he could scare them a little.
Snot poured down the nose of those rats who wanted to tear off, and she began to cry when he released her.
Sieg grabbed her chin and made sure she met his eyes. "What's going on? Why was I summoned?"
The elf girl smirked like a mad woman. "You are the hero who will save the world from animal cruelty."
Sieg stared out the window. Three floors down, behind a rock shelf, were hundreds of rats. They were dressed in pots, pans, tree bark, and old shoe leather.
"So killing rats doesn't count."
"They invaded us unprovoked. I'm just a priestess of the Mother Goddess Inanna. All I want is peace in the world and to stop the cruel exploitation and butchering of animals."
Sieg planned to get the other side of the story as soon as possible. A little choking would help keep everyone honest.
A rat man with a spear charged through the window. Its head was already rolling before Sieg could ask for the other side of the story.
It was Commander September's fault. His friend and mentor trained him too well in preparation for the war. Of course, Sergeant Williams of the Thunder Cock Sect also taught him to practice until all of his techniques were second nature. Something told him that the massive number of popups coming his way grew larger with time.
Blood shot out of the rat's neck stump like a lawn sprinkler. The elf cackled like a maniac, and Sieg wasn't sure what he got himself into. "You're even more heroic than I imagined."
Rats charged in as a black tide, and Sieg had already begun tossing wind blades before one of the better-dressed rats opened its mouth. Heads and limbs fell as curved blades of wind found targets one after the other as he separated the archers, warriors, and mages from long, close, and mid-range threats.
It was the training that kept them alive. They were trained to react first with their psychic powers. The rats had just as much of a right to live as the smoking-hot elves. Honestly, it was their poor luck that they jumped, scared him.
His eyes locked on target after target as he divided and struck, separating them into groups. He felt something increase as he worked. Energy levels should have bottomed out, but they increased steadily as he used his power. His blade of wind thinned in places and thickened in others, the blade curved around shields easier, and multiple heads flew off the bodies at once. Sieg counted a sextuple kill and barely felt winded.
"We surrender; please spare our lives, " one rat said as he unleashed another volley of slender, curved blades at preselected targets.
Sieg raised his hand before scratching the back of his head. He didn't have the skill needed to stop his attacks part-way.
The battle ended in a total victory. He couldn't call it his win; his training sent his body on autopilot, killing until the threats were handled. To Sieg, it felt no different than working on the house-building line. He was good at putting in staples and screws rapidly, so he often did the frames while another legionnaire held the wooden beams together. He was also fair at welding steel beams together.
Sieg glanced at the bodies and felt apathetic. Seeing piles of skulls in beast shit had scarred him for life, fighting walking corpses was terrifying, and seeing an undead beast for the first time nearly made him shit himself. A few rats broke, and bleeding on the ground barely affected him. The killing was also nothing new; he executed people for the crimes they committed.
A legionnaire is expected to meet justice. As an example, he killed a necromancer family for the crime of raising a graveyard, not because of the minor crime of disobeying the founder's laws about raising human remains. No, it was the major crime of ruining fields and starving people that earned an entire family the death penalty.
"You did it, my hero."
The elf tried to fall in Sieg's arms, but he stepped back. She fell on the floor and groaned.
"Don't they have stories of damsels in distress where you're from? You're supposed to catch me when I'm about to faint."
"Who are you?"
Sieg's interruption made the elf scowl like a petulant child. VIPs were the worst, from the daughters of engineers to the cousins of uncrowned kings like the founder. At least the founder never demanded they escort members of his family.
"I'm Siv. My last name isn't important; I'm a chaste Virgin of Inanna. Thank you for saving me, my hero."
A wind blade decapitated the rat that thought itself invisible but failed to cloak its thoughts with fade. Such a rookie error wouldn't go unpunished. Sieg has felt his energy levels receive another bump. It wasn't that he had more; his reserves only recovered faster.
"What level are you and your class? It has to be something powerful." Siv said.
Neither his class nor level mattered to him. "Now that I saved you, send me back. I still need to finish a few hours before my shift ends." Sieg was on guard duty.
"That's impossible. We aren't even in the same multiverse. Lady Inanna took you from your world and placed you here." Siv stuck her tongue out. "You aren't going anywhere."
Sieg raised his hand, and the elf choked. Sieg released her before she passed out, but it was a near thing. If she couldn't send him back, then what use was she? From what little he heard about the conflict, she was a liability.
Sieg shook his head, ripped a curtain down from one of the windows, and tied it around himself to hide his modesty. He spotted his arm and noticed his tattoo was gone—even the Roman numeral for seven.
"Since we can't go out through the front, we might as well go up. I chose this place because it is supposed to be haunted and might hold some secret treasure." Siv said.
He would need a lot of Loot if he was going to make up his absence to the Sect.
"Fiend, let me show you the true power of cheese." A ratling in a funny hat waved a wand, and a yellow beam lanced between them.
He ducked and rolled as the beam traveled overhead. Siv jumped behind a stack of books as Sieg conjured a wind blade. The beam came around, and he jumped over it. When he landed, the floorboard broke apart and smelled like cheese.
"I will make you into cheese. As the cheese god wills." The ratling said.
The ratling shifted his wand, only for the beam to stop. "Out of mana," The ratling said.
It reached into a black portal and pulled out a glowing green potion.
"Don't let it recover its mana," Siv said.
Sieg clenched his fist and felt his psychic hand hit a barrier. "Thorns of cheese," The ratling said.
He shifted his weight and ducked under a flying spike of hardened cheese as the ratling chugged its potion.
"We need to get away before more of the elite priests appear or, worse, one of their paladins," Siv said.
"Vile villains, you won't escape me."
He released a slight gust of spiraling wind, gathering the books from the piles around the ratling priest. Then the books smashed into the barrier until it shattered and continued pummeling the ratling.
"You might not be aware, but when you kill someone, a portion of their inventory is added to your own. The rest is returned to whatever faction they belong to. Unless you're a thief or a conquest-based class, there is no telling what you will get."
"Goudaer, these villains are not Gouda enough to beat your favored priest. Lend me your mana and heal my wounds. I will devote 10 liters of my children to your priesthood."
"Kill it before it's too late," Siv said.
Sieg rolled his eyes, ripped open the floor, and dropped the ratling. Then, he used a little biokinesis because, unlike summoned heroes in stories, the legion actually trained its personnel to use a wide variety of powers for daily tasks.
The door behind them, leading deeper into the cathedral, was covered in locks and chains. Strange scripts covered the locks themselves that Sieg couldn't begin to decipher. Again, he was tempted to simply toss the elf out the window and fly off, but he wasn't sure how much stamina he had or the ratling's anti-air capabilities.
Such concerns were his burden as a responsible member of the legion.
"So you couldn't have sprung for a squad. You had to summon me alone." Sieg said.
"I was already low on mana, and summoning you almost made me pass out. Tharion knows it was a close call." She must have read Sieg's face because she changed the subject. "We knew the rats would be mad when we freed their cows, but to declare war because we helped them was unexpected."
Sieg wasn't the sharpest legionnaire, which meant he was only as intelligent as the average genius. With all the talk of them being villains, he could have been fooled into thinking he was the bad guy.
But no one would be dumb enough to summon a legionnaire for an unworthy cause, especially after seeing him chop off heads like a mechanical scythe. What kind of delusional fool would think summoning him would be a good idea or that he would take their side after they brought war upon themselves?
Sieg stopped himself from jumping to conclusions. Haste made waste, after all, and transmuting materials and energy always involved some loss.
What would the founder do?
Take everything not nailed down and fly away.
"Who is Lady Inanna and Tharion?" Sieg asked.
"I'll tell you all about it after we figure a way through the door."
It was clear he was dealing with an incompetent and a fool. He placed his hand on a lock, scanned its mechanism with telekinesis, and mimicked a key. The lock popped open without any trouble.
He flung his wind blade and decapitated the rat, about to use poison to knock out the elf and take her.
That was when a wall of pop-ups completely took over his vision.
He held out a finger, "One moment,"
Choose a class
Class selection has been postponed due to battle.
Enemies, Slain, have altered class results.
Unique Biology has altered class results.
Unique energy has altered class results.
Unique Skills have altered class results.
Class Select
These Tier 1 Classes have been selected to match the skill set best and the continued growth of users.
Tyrannosaurus Mind Flayer hatchling: +3 to Mind Stats +10 Free Stats
Description: Behold the most powerful land and sea psionic predator. As a hatchling, your hunger for psionic energy and flesh is as endless as your desire to enslave and pillage the world. Your thoughts echo the roar of a hurricane and hit with the might of a tsunami. You are the apex predator on land or in the most bottomless swamps. Mere humanoid mind flayers with their pathetic overminds cringe when they hear the thump of your psionic presence.
Unique Skill: Roar of Devastation
That did not seem like the kind of class a human of any kind would have. It appeared to be a monster class. The only part of it he understood was hatchling. And why not give him something like a dragon class if he was already given a tyrannosaurus class? Well, it was only the first choice, and it looked like he had two others to choose from.
Hell Phoenix Hatchling: +5 to Mind Stats +8 Free Stats
Description: Its wings beat, and civilizations crumble under the tide of black storms filled with fire and ash. From the least of sparks, these creatures of myth are reborn, growing stronger with every rebirth. To grow a Hell, Phoenix must gorge itself on the souls of the most evil villains the world has ever known. Their parents often hunt down those poor unfortunates and feed them to their young piece by piece.
Unique Skill: Hellfire Rebirth
Was a human class out of the question? Sure, his cohort's mascot was a phoenix, but really, did he have to get all monster classes? Was no human class badass enough for a legionnaire?
Eldrich Blue Mage: +6 to Mind Stats +3 to Free Stats
Description: You walk through the deepest, most venomous swamps barefoot, join cults on blood moons, and read languages that make men claw their eyes out. As a Deep Blue Mage, you don't just learn the powers of monsters. You join the choir and listen to the songs of misery and woe of civilizations brought to ruin and experiments taken. Every day is a gift.
Unique Skill: Deep Blue Magic
He wanted the last one. The other classes were probably better and had more promising growth plans, but the last one sounded like a class, not like he would be transformed against his will.
He selected the Eldrich Blue Mage
Sieg
Class: Eldrich Blue Mage lvl1
Stats Distributted
Body 40
Vitality 10
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Endurance 10
Mind 50
Intelligence 20
Wisdom 20
Insight 0
Perception 10
Soul 40
Willpower 10
Presence 10
Density 10
Resistance 10
Free Points: 3
Skill List
Psionic Legionnaire lvl5
Wind Executioner lvl2
Interrogation lvl2
Deep Blue Magic lvl1
He scanned the blue screen, recording it to memory, and wished he had time to form the constructs needed to create stable partitions, eyes on the inside, as some call them. Energy was a factor limited by psionic energy, which is wholly different from mana.
Magic had more to do with the soul than the mind, but intelligence, perception, and insight most likely had something to do with learning and using spells. Sieg had points he could place in each stat, but once he selected them, that was it. His points would have been spread evenly if he had not selected them. That wasn't the optimal build, but he wasn't sure what would make his build the most optimal.
Then there was his skills. Psionic Legionnaire boiled down and filtered into a single skill. Was multiclassing a thing? He scratched his forehead and felt something like a slit between his brows. That was put back behind his stoic wall to be thought about when he wasn't in a time frame.
His time to freak out would come, and it would be glorious, but not yet. Siv stared at him like he was some monster. Sieg pulled on the chains after unlocking the last lock.
Chains of Inanna
Description: Mortal chains manifested by a god only to be unlocked by the worthy of her tremendous gifts if the worthy champion can defeat the monsters in her labyrinth. By unlocking these chains, Sieg was blessed with the ability to do as he would with the chains.
He stowed them away in his inventory, marveling at the black portal as it took in the chains and deposited them on a square next to his clothes, armor, and weapons.
"Siv, why am I naked when my gear is in my inventory."
"Sieg, there is a monster." The elf pointed at a set of vicious claws ending in needle points pushing through the gap in the double doors. He saw only weakness in the jointed hands.
Sive turned her head to the side and vomited. "Inanna save do you see it what is that?"
War Troll lvl156
"It's too strong. We have an army at our back and an impossibly strong monster in front of us." Sieg quickly found the options tab and a blue screen appeared next to the inventory screen. He could equip items from his inventory. "What are you doing? We need to find another way."
Your mind struggles to understand what its seeing
+1 Insight
Before the image of him changed, he closed his eyes and ignored the explosion of tentacles and the smell of rot. The cold touch of death danced on his skin, but he refused to look at the creature and risked furthering his insight.
By listening to sound advice in the most unlikely of circumstances, you have gained a positive experience.
+1 Wisdom
New Deep Blue Magic Spell
Eldritch Eye: The most basic skill of any eldritch-touched creature is to defend itself from beings with high insight but limited wisdom. The greater the disparity between the two in favor of insight, the more mental damage is inflicted. When inflicted it may cause enemies to gain insight until parity with the user.
He choked her until the elf passed out before releasing her with only a minimal amount of brain damage. "Are all elves so clueless?" When the spell deactivated, Sieg opened his eyes. A towering troll armored in blackened steel plate shoved its way through and raised a club with pieces of obsidian forming a sharp ax on one side.
Sieg fit his Centurian helmet on his head and felt the soft hum of his armor's inscriptions. The magic and formations were too much for his mind to run and fight effectively. Partitions were needed to use his armor at its utmost limit while remaining combat-effective.
The defense was unnecessary. The troll roared and gasped. It dropped its club and clutched at its throat as it lifted off the ground. It kicked, and bloody puss fell from its mouth as it struggled against an invisible force for a breath.
The troll's biggest weakness was that it wasn't level 200+. If he was right about what tiers meant, then the war troll wasn't a threat; it was only tier 2. Or maybe it was tier 1, and he was tier 0. He wasn't entirely sure about tiers yet.
Its skin turned red, and it flailed with all its might. The monster scratched its throat bloody but couldn't break the hold on it. The monster's spine snapped, but it still wasn't dead. Trolls were known for their resilience and regeneration. Sieg was about to put that to the test. He turned and thrust his hand toward the windows. The troll crashed through the stone frame of the window and fell into a sea of ratlings.
Siv probably had a hand in starting the war and was undoubtedly responsible for many war crimes. Sieg would like to think any actions he did could be blamed on her.
Level up…
Experience Cap Reached.
Feat Perk Awarded
Dark Lord Vs. Goliath I: +15% EP
Eldrich Blue Mage lvl5
Before the throw, he had roughly 95% energy, but after the throw, he had 80%. It was an embarrassment when he lifted a priceless vase off a pedestal and slammed it into a wall, sending shards everywhere.
It would take 20 minutes to regain 100% from his current rate of regen. Partitions took a percentage of energy regen; the larger the regen rate, the less the percentage. His mana remained untouched, but he wasn't yet ready to start cannibalizing it. He could feel the mana flowing from his spine, and he felt he knew what they were.
He left that alone.
Sieg needed an easy way to restore his energy. Transmuting energy from other sources was the done thing. He didn't have a forest to burn at that time. Burning the elf would cost him more energy than he would gain. Other methods would have more waste and would have been unviable without more study.
If he found time to rest, he would work on a solution. He looked at the elf and felt it was a shame he couldn't stuff her in his inventory.
Siege invested his free points, five into strength and ten into vitality. He called it an investment because he expected returns that stacked from the points he placed. Then, he shoved the 20 points he gained into wisdom, doubling his energy regeneration. In 10 minutes, he would recover 20% of his energy.
With his preparations complete, he left the summoning room and entered the double doors with the elf slung over his shoulder like a stack of firewood.
He took a look at his energy bar.
The system was such a kidder when it came to numbers.
HP: 100%
EP 150/230
MP 100%
Exhaustion 20%
These were his resources. Leveling didn't recover energy; gaining a perk didn't recover energy; when a bar was complete, it read 100% except for exhaustion. Exhaustion was always percentage-based.
Thank the founder. He managed to knock out the elf so he couldn't question her and get false information. Sieg knew for a fact that nothing she said could be taken at face value.
Claiming it was impossible to get back. He should toss her to the ratlings for that lie.
The double doors shut behind him as he implemented his selections. New energy coursed through him. He felt so much better to be away from the war drums and screaming.
Paintings on the walls showed elves sitting on balconies admiring nature. He stopped to look at one of the paintings. Only in the distance did he see something jutting over the tree line like a spike of granite.
"Veil Spire," he dropped Siv, who shrieked. Did you have to drop me? I was trying to tell you where we are. We're in the Veil Spire. This place was locked up by Inanna herself. But as her chosen champion, you unlocked it. Well, our job is done. Do you have any religious taboo against offing yourself because I don't?" Siv said.
His head turned, and he yanked the spike she was about to shove through her eye out of her hand. Sieg turned his head, and it felt like his joints had rusted over.
"Explain now!"
She smirked up at him, crumpled on the floor on her knees in a torn dress. Siv had puffy eyes from suffocation. It must have been her level that helped her recover so quickly.
"It's in the name. We're in the Veil Spire, one of the worst places to be in. Best of all, those ratlings want me very bad. They have a quarter of their army here, and you just opened the door to this place, a wound on reality left to decay and rot for centuries. Now, I need to die, and I can escape all responsibility. I'll be a martyr. So long as I die before this place gets going."
The more she spoke, the less sane he felt. If there had been a sanity check, he must have failed it when looking at the painting.
"You summoned me here to open a door and unchain some unspeakable evil," Sieg said.
He wanted to choke the life out of her, but that's what she wanted.
"It's only unspeakable because no one who worked here survived to tell the rest of the world. Inanna locked this place away; only her chosen hero could unlock it. Once someone enters and that door is opened, there is no leaving. Think about it: a quarter of the ratling army gone in an instant," Siv said.
Something rounded a corner. It had tentacles pushing out of a rotten face and yellow eyes.
Rotten Flayer lvl80
Sieg lifted his hand, and it fought against his psychic might. The legionnaire clenched his hand, crushing his foe's resistance. The creature's head popped off its body like a bottle cap and smashed like a rotten melon on the ceiling.
5% of his EP vanished from that singular action.
EP 145/230
He couldn't keep using his EP.
Fresh experience washed over him, and he gained a few more levels.
Eldritch Blue Mage lvl9
He put 30 points into Wisdom and 14 in Intelligence. While he would have liked to have more vitality and strength, he needed EP and regen more.
Wisdom Perk Gained Rolling
Your score improved based on the enemies slain and their link to your class.
Your location has effected your possible perks.
Dreamer Reaper I: 1% chance to regain half of EP after slaying a foe.
This Perk can be improved by slaying enemies two tiers above the user or 1000 enemies with Dreamer in their name or title.
With 60 Wisdom, he generated 1 EP every second, which helped. It wasn't enough for a partition, and he still felt absurdly weak, but it did help.
"How much longer can you keep that up, and what will you do when something stronger than you shows up?" She looked at a painting of a clock. "It's moving. Can't you see it soon? The clock will strike 12, and even death won't save us from this place."
Insight seemed to be a real detriment in this place.
She ripped off a piece of a painting frame and tried to stab herself with it. Sieg ripped it out of her hands.
"Stop that," Sieg said.
"You don't get it. My job is done. I had one purpose from my goddess, and it was fulfilled. The only thing left to do is to get off this runaway horse and be welcomed to paradise," Siv said.
"This place reeks of death. I can feel it on my skin and in my bones. It's like the opposite of what my people are about."
He didn't know why they started the war, why she thought dying here, of all places, was a good idea, or if there was a way out. Sieg figured if he regained some partitions, he could fly out with telekinesis, but maybe not. There was so much he didn't know.
"Do you smell that?" Sieg said.
The elf rankled her nose. "It's meat. I did hear elves used to partake in flesh millennia ago, but I hoped it was only a myth. Obscene and embarrassing, I apologize to the chosen hero on behalf of my people."
"I eat meat," Sieg said.
Her expression went from apologetic to horrified in a flash. Then, her face turned red. "Monster, degenerate, you're no better than the ratlings and their foul cheese gods. You have no empathy and deserve none from me. I won't help you any longer."
"You were helping," Sieg said.
She had kidnapped him and tricking him into opening the door to ruin and telling him to off himself was her way of helping him. If Siv was the norm, then why were the elves still around?