Chapter 89. What was missing
After getting a reality check with the help of a Dungeon and a somewhat benevolent Wanderer party, Michael's mood plummeted, and he decided to return to Kyovashad temporarily.
There was no need to rush anymore, as his level was still at 22, and his experience didn't increase much after the raid. Looking at it now, it was at 2565/4290, signifying that he barely passed the halfway mark.
Using the Waypoint, he found himself in the familiar plaza. Looking at the Sleepy Peaks Inn, he shook his head and headed toward Helen's home. At this moment, her input was mandatory.
Plus... he was worried about her.
'I wonder if she returned already. Gonk's mission to recover the Stronghold went decently okay, even if they suffered losses. With Helen's high level, she should be fine.'
Walking to the gates of the Pink Palace, the servants let him in after telling him that neither of the young ladies returned just yet.
As he didn't want to get too comfortable and invade the women's privacy without their permission or presence, he asked for some ale and took a seat in the pavilion outside.
'The different seasons inside the yard never cease to amaze me. Spring is still a month or so away, but here, flowers are blooming, and even the temperature is higher. I need to remember when I see Aylin next time to ask about the array she used to keep the temperature up.'
After he was brought two large cups and a mini barrel of ale, Michael thanked the lady servants, and he proceeded with the initial plan: figuring out his Skill build.
With a command, he opened up his Skill Tree and explored it quietly for over a couple of hours without making a decision.
'Something feels like it's missing. Or rather, is out of place. But I can't put my finger on it...'
Just as he was getting lost in his theories about skills and their synergy, the servants started making a fuss. Raising his head from the table and looking toward the gate, Michael was so frightened that his soul almost left his body.
Without hesitation, he sprinted toward the gate and supported a bloody Helen.
"You... what the hell happened!? Are you seriously wounded? Should we go to the Cathedral?"
[*Sigh* I'm fine. Most of the blood isn't even mine. As for my wounds, most of them are healed, and only some bruising remains. Help me to the pavilion.](Helen)
Saying nothing else, Michael embraced her waist and supported her to a seat next to where he was sitting before.
In the next ten minutes, he helped her unequip the armor on her, noticing various degrees of damage on it.
The helmet and her cuirass were almost split in two, transforming the Necromancer's expression into a gloomy one.
[Relax. The wounds I got were truly only some bruising and some internal organ displacement due to the force of the hits I took.](Helen)
"Woman... the bloody breastplate is split in goddamn two parts! There's no need to comfort me with a lie."
[Ugh... that will cost an arm and a leg to get Zivek to repair. But I'm not lying to you. My items are of Ancestral rarity. You need to be in Tier IV World Difficulty for them to drop. As long as all your items are Ancestral, regardless of their rarity, the enemy needs to destroy or bypass your entire Armor amount before being able to deal direct damage to you.](Helen)
"???"
Seeing Michael's confused expression, Helen further explained it as a barrier of sorts that forms around the body of the Wanderer.
In a fight against enemies, they either need armor-piercing methods, poison, powerful blunt damage, or damage high enough to go through your total Armor count. Even magic damage had to go through it and your specific Resistance before damaging you directly.
[In exchange, the damage gets split between all your equipped Ancestral items, decreasing their durability. So... every time I go out and fight at my level, I must visit Zivek upon my return and pay ungodly amounts of gold coins to fix my equipment before the next fight.](Helen)
Michael rolled his eyes at her complaints, muttering about how good of a lifesaving option that is. Furthermore, if Wanderers' lives could be secured through gold coins, there was no better deal to be had.
That was until Helen mentioned that it would probably cost her around 450.000 gold coins to fix her cuirass only, possibly more since her helmet and the pants also took some damage.
The young Wanderer decided to keep his mouth shut, not daring to think about a sum of gold coins that was ten times more than what he had saved up right now.
Helping his girlfriend with Cleaning Marbles for each piece of armor, including her swords, Michael inspected her body and found no cuts or stab wounds, making him breathe in relief.
"Why are we cleaning your equipment with marbles?"
[Zivek is very particular about blood on equipment that needs maintenance. It has to do with his past. It's not my story to tell, though. Long story short, he won't accept the equipment if it's not clean of blood and other body bits. Also, stop glancing at me like that! I told you I'm fine...](Helen)
"Okay, okay."
Rubbing his forehead in frustration, Michael asked what went wrong in their raid for her to get so roughed up.
Her answer was surprising, to say the least.
[Huh!? What are you talking about? The raid was incredibly successful. Furthermore, thanks to me, we didn't incur any casualties. My position is a tank, after all.](Helen)
"What!? I thought you were the damage dealer!"
[Well... it's a combination of both, I guess. My build is based around high Armor, high Resistance, and a huge amount of Thorns. Also, this time around, after killing a Boss, I even gained a Unique item! Not to mention that it greatly complements the build I was going for, the armor it grants, and the Thorns are incredibly high as well.](Helen)
Seeing her excitement, Michael couldn't help but shake his head in dismay.
However, when she shared the screen and allowed the newbie to widen his horizons, he felt his knowledge of this world collapse.
[ Razorplate
Ancestral Unique Chest Armor
898 Item Power
-----------------
1,461 Armor
* Gain 14,402 Thorns
Item description: Crafted by the cannibal Amoda, each piece of this interlocking armor has been sharpened into a knife's edge. Even a century after her death, the plate remained on her corpse, unable to be removed safely.
*Empty Socket
*Empty Socket ]
Putting everything else aside, just the armor, this one single piece of armor provided was more than what Michael currently had!
[After I have Zivek improve it five times, I should be able to increase its total Armor to around 1,600 and the Thorns to around 16,000. As for the two empty sockets, I'll probably use Saphires to increase my total Life Points to an extra 8%, like on my current chest piece.](Helen)
Feeling slightly numb and vastly inferior, Michael kept quiet and allowed Helen to bask in happiness as she recounted how the raid on the Stronghold went.
Put in simple terms, she led the charge, jumped in the middle of enemies, and used taunts on them as her allies buffed and healed her. The enemies died one by one, smashing their heads onto her armor.
As for why they died, it is because of the damage return given by her ridiculously high Thorn build.
Remembering the scene with the Ghoul Boss when his Skeletons attacked her only to die from the reflected damage, Michael felt like facepalming.
'No wonder she is bruised all over, and her organs have been displaced. Her build made her into a human punching bag! One with Thorns! Are her preferences skewed that way? How come I didn't notice it in bed just yet?'
Just as he was contemplating something great, a fist greeted the top of his head as a displeased Helen glared at him.
[You were thinking something disrespectful, weren't you!?](Helen)
"What? Me!? No way, no way! *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* Anyway, are you tired? Do you want to rest first?"
Seeing the brewing lust in Michael's eyes, Helen turned shy as she looked away. She felt he was up to something bad, and it was better to temporarily keep her distance from him.
[Not for now... I already told the servants to prepare some food, and you are already drinking here in the middle of the day for some reason. Care to explain? Did you finally fail in a Dungeon?](Helen)
Michael rolled his eyes and explained how he already cleared the Lost Archives and met Felix's party.
[Felix? She's a good woman and a great Wanderer. Her party's potential is also high. As for buying information... that was an oversight on my part. I didn't realize your common sense was so severely lacking.](Helen)
"..."
Michael kept quiet and ate the insult, as she wasn't wrong. Helen decided to have a talk when the rest of the girls returned and go through the basics with him.
That way, he won't encounter problems due to some basic information oversight.
[So... you mean to tell me that even after you cleared the Dungeon solo, you still feel your build lacks something? Especially when it comes to damage?](Helen)
"Mhm."
[And you've been sitting here for over an hour with no conclusion reached?](Helen)
"Correct."
[Need my help?](Helen)
"Yes, please."
The couple laughed at each other, and without any further comments, Michael 'shared the screen' with his girlfriend, hoping she might have better insight.
After about ten minutes of silently perusing, Helen was the first one to speak.
[You keep talking about the synergy between skills, so I first noticed that yours are split into four categories: Blood, Bone, Curses, and somewhat Physical.](Helen)
"You're talking about the Tier 1 skills?"
Shaking her head, Helen pointed out at the other Tiers and continued.
[If we ignore the passive Skills, all your active ones fall into one of those four categories.](Helen)
Feeling that it made sense, Michael carefully inspected his Skill Tree.
At Tier 1, he chose Bone Splinters and their improvements, Hemorage, Decompose, and Reap.
At Tier 2, he had Bone Spear, Blood Lance, Blood Surge, Blight, Sever, and the passive Skills Imperfectly Balanced and Hewed Flesh.
At Tier 3, he had Blood Mist, Corpse Explosion, Bone Prison, three passives, Grim Harvest, Fueled by Death, and Skeletal Warrior Mastery.
At Tier 4 (which he mostly ignored), he had two Curse skills called Iron Maiden and Decrepify and four passive skills called Skeletal Mage Mastery, Death's Reach, Death's Embrace, and Amplify Damage.
At Tier 5, he only had two active Skills as well, one being the very useful Corpse Tendrils, while the second was Bone Spirit.
For passive Skills, there was only one focusing on his summoned minions called Fortified Carapace.
At the same time, the rest were five passive skills that could further enhance his Blood skills, another four that could enhance his Bone skills, and four that were focused on Darkness.
[At Tier 6, you will have your Ultimates and usually some passives that are very strong and would highly increase the power of a certain build. At Tier 7, there are usually only four major passive skills to choose between, but that single skill usually amplifies your damage by at least twofold.](Helen)
"Mhm. Anything else you've noticed?"
[Well... You know it's not polite to point out flaws in someone else's Skill build, right?](Helen)
"It's fine. I'm the one asking for help, after all. Don't hold back."
[Okay... First of all, your efficiency in picking your skills is lacking. It might sound bad, but you've focused on attacking from afar while having your minions tank in the frontlines; therefore, you wasted lots of skill points on many skills, most of which aren't necessary.](Helen)
"...for example?"
[Bone Splinters and Blight. Yes, I agree that each has its purpose, but you could've picked a different route. Your main method of dealing damage is through Corpse Explosion, correct?](Helen)
"Yes."
[Then, wouldn't it have made more sense to pick Reap as your first with both its enhancements?](Helen)
"You're talking about the Acolyte's Reap?"
[ Acolyte's Reap
-----------------
Reap forms a Corpse under the first enemy hit.
It can only occur every 4 seconds. ]
[Correct. Then, for the next tier, you max out Heweed Flesh and directly skip picking something more useful. That way, you open up Tier 3 with only six skill points used.](Helen)
"Interesting. Then, I'm guessing you would suggest Blood Mist and its two enhancements as well, correct?"
[ Enhanced Blood Mist
-----------------
Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds. ]
[ Ghastly Blood Mist
-----------------
Blood Mist leaves a Corpse behind every 1 second. ]
[Yes. This invulnerability skill of yours is ridiculously good. You could become invincible on a battlefield if you can further decrease its cooldown. Furthermore, the extra three Corpses for each skill activation are imperative for further increasing your damage.](Helen)
"I agree. I only noticed with the Boss in Lost Archives due to how hard it was to kill it, but my Darkness damage from Corpse Explosion stacks."
[Oh!? How much?](Helen)
"I'm not sure because it was moving a lot and always got out of the area affected, but I think that 110% damage stacks with each Corpse that was used. So, in theory, if I blow up ten Corpses and the Boss is dumb enough to stay in place, the damage would ramp up to 1100%."
[But, isn't it damage over time?](Helen)
"Yes. So, each tick of damage for those 6 seconds increases accordingly. I didn't get the chance to experiment enough, but I shouldn't be wrong about this."
And then, Michael realized what was wrong and what was missing.