The Butcher of Gadobhra

Chapter 101: Accounting

      Your Raid Group has slain the Ubermaus!

And you have stopped Mad-Klaw's army, and avoided growing tails. I'm sure you are disappointed by the last part.

As a Tier 2 creature, you receive 18 CSP and 1000 EP that may be applied to any skills. An equal amount of EP applied to the stats governed by those skills.

You will receive a share of loot from the Tier 4 treasure chest that will spawn at dawn on the day following your victory.

        Spoils of War

As a Resident of Sedgewick who fought against the evil invaders receive the following:

-The hearty thanks of Fearless Leader. This always looks good on any resume.

-The Title: Veteran of the Resistance. This title confers +1 to a stat or skill conferred by your Heritage.

(Current Heritage: CON, STR, Active fire resistance.

(As with all Heritage rewards, actions have consequences. Choose your Heritage wisely.)

-A magical item selected for you by Fearless Leader from his personal collection. Fearless Leader thinks you will like a new ring. It's shiny, like your bald head. Enjoy.

-2500 EP That may be applied to any skills. An equal amount of EP applied to the stats governed by those skills.

After working non-stop for most of the day, Ozzy was having trouble walking a straight line. His health and stamina were still low. He had burned nearly all of his stamina to fuel his fire resistance, and of course nearly died. One of the paladins had used his healing on him until he ran out of mana. The older man had barely brought him to half health before he used up all his power for the day, and walked away mumbling and shaking his head.

There was work to be done everywhere. He burned stamina as fast as he got it back all day, shifting stones and trying to clear out the entrance to the barracks. Realizing he was done for the day, he got some food and sat down in a clear spot to watch the sunset.

The Legion and the Order of Paladins had done what they could. Healing and food had gone a long way to restoring people’s spirits. The workers and townsfolk would have to sleep where they could tonight, most in the basement of the barracks. They'd start sorting out the town tomorrow and begin the rebuilding process.

That night, there was a lively discussion of how to spend their EP and CSP. For all of them, this was a huge advancement. Suzette was cautioning all of them to spend it wisely, and helping them with choices and ways get the most out of this windfall.

All of the workers were gaining EP of one sort or another on a constant basis, but mostly in their professions. The people who had jobs gathering raw materials like the farmers, lumberjacks, and stone cutters were occasionally fighting an elemental. The little named bosses gave a core skill point and decent EP.

Crafters managed to create something exceptional now and then, gaining a few CSP. Betty had produced a batch of cookies one time that were amazing. Each cookie not only tasted fabulous, but restored 100 health, stamina, and mana. She was trying every day to duplicate the feat, and had earned 3 CSP the first time she made them.

Everyone tried to go fight low level monsters like the fat rabbits. Easy for some, hard for others. Most of the workers just didn't have an attack that wasn't at the default level of 1% to hit and 10 damage. Because of that, Suzette was highly recommending the Prodigy core skill and using it to pick up adze as a tertiary skill. The ancient agricultural tool seemed to be something that all of them could use once they had the skill. It was fairly weak as weapons go, but it was a start. The bunny meadows were going to be popular on their days off.

Ozzy examined the ring he'd found as soon as he got the announcement. It was silver and quite reflective. Shrugging, he put it on. He got a message about attuning to the ring and trusting in Fearless Leader just hit 'yes'.

              Ring of Mental Reflection

This shiny ring is made out of Ethereal Silver from the Astral Plane. It creates a subtle disruption in magical spells or skills used to read your mind. A probe to find your deepest desire will instead find your liking for pork chops. A powerful being can pierce the disruption, but why should they when a cursory scan of your mind only shows your surface thoughts about cats, your girlfriend, and an odd shaped cloud you saw yesterday? Increases your chances at winning at poker and telling a lie with a straight face.

Ozzy smiled. He'd much rather have a useful item like this than a fancy flaming sword. He'd have to thank Fearless Leader. Now what to do about these EP and CSP?

He had 3500 EP to spend. Considering how much he was getting burnt up, it made sense to put some of it into his fire resistance skill. Raising that to level 5 took 650 EP and he raised Poison Resistance at the same time for another 650.

Far easier to raise it this way than to eat raw sedge beast every night. Resistances seemed to be skills you didn't think about until you needed them. Ozzy was pretty sure he was going to need them again. That left him with 2200 EP.

It was funny, he really didn't have much in the way of skills to raise. It felt like Ben and Suzette had a dozen more than him with her magic and alchemy and brewing. Ben was involved with a ton of crafting for his "inventing". Maybe he should look into the prodigy core skill to pick up something else?

For now he put another 750 into Billhook and 950 into Fire Eating. The latter mostly to get more EP in CON. Getting better with the ungainly pole weapon was important. There was a downside to hitting everything with his fists. If nothing else, the Glue Daemon had shown him that. With 600 EP left to spend he put another 500 into Billhook and the last 100 into Boar Hunting.

You have raised the Primary STR skill: Billhook to Level 6!

Please choose an attack form from the following:

- Long Thrust: Using your weapon as a spear you throw a low thrust, taking a step and extending one arm, to catch your foe by surprise. This attack will do +50% damage, and increase your range by 6'. Cost: 50 stamina

-Sweeping Slash: A strong attack whirling your blade in an arc before you, hitting up to 4 foes at once. This attack does normal damage and uses 100 stamina.

-Great Blow: A strong, but slow, attack that raises the weapon above your head before bringing it crashing down upon a foe. This attack does +150% of normal damage and has a cost of 200 stamina. Warning: This blow leaves you momentarily vulnerable.

Well this was interesting! Possibly a perk for getting a weapon to Rank 6? He'd have to talk to Themis about it. If anyone knew, she would. He chose Sweeping Slash. They all had their uses, but he liked the idea of being able to keep a horde at bay. The rat-kin had taught him that much.

Finished assigning that massive chunk of EP? Welcome to Level 7.

You have gained +200 Health, +200 Mana, and +600 Stamina

(Is that right? Holy shit, how did...oh, another Contract Worker. I'd make a comment about you being 'broken', but one look at that pitiful skill list made me remember how nerfed you are. Anyway. Congratulations. You are the 2nd Contract Worker to make it to Level 7. )

Ozzy really wondered sometimes who generated those messages. It was nice to gain another level, but if he had to go through a war and dungeon break for the next one, he'd pass, thank you.

Now where to put that heritage point? CON was probably the best since he had so many STR skills.

Next up was core skill points. There were two options given to him back when he fought Root! and killed the mutant veggie. One was the skill Resist Torture. Why not? It was only 1 point. The real gem was Acid resistance for 5 points. He hadn't bought it, and sure enough ended up needing it. Lesson learned.

You have learned the skill: Resist Torture. This will apply in any situation that causes immense stress, damage, and pain. While the damage done will still appear as it should, you will actually take less damage, heal quicker, and actually feel less pain. This is a Primary WIS skill.

You have learned the skill: Acid Resistance, passive. You will mitigate 5 points of damage plus 5 points of damage per rank. This is a tertiary CON skill.

Joe had mentioned something about a visit to someone called Old Smoke. With that in mind, he bought Endless Breath 3 and 4. He wasn't sure, and Joe was cagey about it, but it wasn't hard to imagine that where ever Old Smoke was, it wasn't going to be a healthy place. Two points got reserved for Prodigy. Another two went into buying some extra health. That was a line of skills he should keep working on. It started slow, but just kept getting bigger and bigger. Suzette was getting a lot of extra mana that way.

The last two points went into a skill that he knew would be useful in the next few weeks. A lot of the blocks of stone used to build the village were massive. A few of the workers could lift them working together. Ozzy wanted to be able to do it by himself and free up more people for other things. If you were going to multiply the hauling ability of someone, it might as well be the strongest guy. He bought the tier 2 levels for haul, gaining a x6 multiplier. With his STR up to 16, there really wasn't anything in the village he couldn't lift and put in place.

Suzette came over and sat down next to him. Putting his arm around her felt nice. If there was one good thing that had come out of the last couple of weeks it was their relationship solidifying a bit. "So, done with your book keeping, slowpoke? I could feel the wheels grinding in your head across the courtyard."

"Yep, and I seem to have come in second. I wonder who was so quick to spend her points?"

She laughed at him. "Some of us don't strategize and agonize over how best to beat a system like others. Plus, the bonus for coming in first was so nice."

"Wait? You got a bonus. What was it? More points?"

She took out a small cloth sack. "Better, a big bag of chocolate covered pretzels. You're lucky I don't mind sharing."

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