Lone kept Sophie close to him, his arms still wrapped around her slender waist as he regarded Princessling Yulia. His girlfriend's firm but loving hug gave him the warmth he currently needed. Basic Regeneration could heal a lot, both physically and mentally, but almost dying in such a guaranteed manner was a new experience he was most certainly not a fan of.
'If an X-ranker trying to kill me and only relying on a clone of himself to stop, well, himself, is what's needed to learn how to apply Agility, what will I need for the other stats? Maybe hoarding Luck for a long time to almost guarantee three new applicable stats from Tail Spear isn't a bad idea after all,' He thought before he said, "I don't think I'll be in the mood today to workshop on your magical ideas. I have some chores to run and some feelings to process. If you want to tag along, I won't say no, but don't expect any enlightening discussions."
Yulia smiled wryly. "That's... unfortunate but understandable. I'd like to stay, please. I've never fought an X-ranker before. Not that I haven't had the chance, plenty of my siblings wish to test my magic on themselves, but this fight was incredibly one-sided and dangerous from what I saw. I even gained a level for one of my skills just from avoiding the shockwaves of Lord Brux's shouts. How was it for you?"
'She's trying to be nice but I don't really want to talk about this right now. I just want to enjoy Sophie's perfect hug,' Lone complained internally. "It was terrifying."
"I-I see," Yulia replied and then decided to copy Breena in being entirely silent.
Sophie squeezed Lone a bit tighter then let go of him. She got on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss before saying, "Let us leave, shall we? We have much to do today, and while we can add dreading the guildmaster to that list, we shall not allow it to become the entire list."
"Right, of course," Lone replied awkwardly. "I'll just check my notification log while we return to the lobby and pick out a quest for Breena then?"
Sophie nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."
"A quest for the child?" Yulia asked, her curiosity likely faked out of politeness.
"She's at the level cap for F-rankers so we want to find a quest that will allow her to step into E-rank," Lone explained plainly as he collected himself a bit and made to leave the room. "I'll be focusing on my notifications now, so I might not respond quickly, but I'm happy if you want to try bouncing a magical idea or two off of me."
Without waiting for a reply from the grand magus, Lone did just that and began going over his gains from the near-death experience he had just survived. He didn't bother mentally grouping them, instead choosing to read them in the order he had received them.
Lone almost forgot to keep walking after having left the training room with his companions in tow. 'Two levels at master rank from having half of my head completely destroyed? Why? Is it because it was a new type of injury that needed healing? The severity and closeness to death, maybe? Must be since Bone Armour didn't level from this injury... Can I survive without my head? Will having it half destroyed repeatedly make it so I can if I currently can't? Will the skill evolve the next time it levels like all of my crude magics did?'
Lone felt his anxiety and fears stemming from Guildmaster Brux lessening significantly. This was partially due to Basic Regeneration itself working on his mind and also thanks to the excitement of gaining two master levels from one injury.
'So I could use a paper shield to Forced Parry a meteor, and all that would happen is the paper shield breaking? What a subtle but monumentally powerful change. Master rank is always fun. I wonder if I can reduce that cooldown even further by trying to forcefully activate the talent when it's on cooldown? Doubt that would be pretty or painless, but I can deal with that if it'll work... Hmm... Worth experimenting with at some point, for sure,' Lone concluded as he kept reading.
'Oh, nice. Didn't expect Blood Clone. Guess the first attack plus my arm exploding was enough for the two of these to level. I didn't have a clone inside of me for that second attack, but they were working hard as Fortress Shields, so likely a coincidence. Still, very nice,' Lone thought. 'Next was my inspired moment with Pierce alongside Tail Spear and Gramps' swordspear, right? Fingers crossed I gained something from that feeling. Also, fingers crossed I got that Diamond Defence skill.'
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'No Diamond Defence, and no Polearm Mastery levels, but seeing Sword Mastery levels is very nice. Makes sense since I have the parent skill now, after all. Shame I didn't attack him more physically if I got all of this from one strike. Also a shame I didn't get some sort of new effect on Pierce. Will need to test later if one use of that talent can apply to multiple objects. Shouldn't be too hard to find out,' Lone pondered as he kept walking.
Their group was now in the lobby of the guild with quite a few eyes curiously watching them, but Lone ignored that. "Go pick out a quest for yourself with Sophie, Breena. I'm still busy."
"With Soph," Sophie corrected. "We are no longer needed." And with that, the hardness in her eyes melted away to reveal a much more tender gaze.
"You're still looking at your notifications?" Yulia asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Got a lot of levels," Lone replied absently.
"Ah. I suppose that makes sense. It was a fight with Lord Brux and considering your discussion with father the last time you were in the city... Well, I shall wait here with you then," the princessling said as she walked upstairs and carefully sat herself down at a table before cloaked herself in distortion magic to avoid unwanted attempts at conversation.
Lone placed himself across from her and ordered a few drinks for himself and then dived right back into his notification log.
'Oh, that's fuckin' awesome. From casting it fast and so repeatedly while fighting a much stronger foe, I guess? It's cheaper too. When double-casting, the second Fireball is half price. Definitely need to earn that with all of my offensive magic spells. If it works for Fireball, it'll work for the rest, I'm sure,' Lone thought.
'Oh, a second skill that ranked up. Didn't expect that. Primal skills are such a bitch to level. That new effect is sweet and the reduced cost is always appreciated,' Lone appraised.
'It comes with a stat boost? Guess the system or Altros or whatever wants people to apply stats then. I do wonder what my max speed now is with Survivor's Speed or Tower Shield Mastery's Full Charge talent... Need to get fully used to my applied state. Even if I can apply Agility whenever I want, that doesn't mean it's as natural to me as my tails first were,' Lone concluded.
As for the SP cost, he'd been aware of that, of course, from his discussions about the matter with Grimsley and Gilbert back in the Farwinds. The cost varied from person to person when unlocking the stat.
Grimsley said his initial cost for applying his Strength was only 4%, but Gilbert had laughed at that saying some people had an initial cost of less than a percent, so Lone was actually rather untalented in this regard.
That didn't bother him though because the cost could be reduced with training and mastery of the applied state. Besides, he had his Fortress Shield Mastery to keep his SP supply matched with the demand.
The waitress arrived with his drinks to which he gave her a friendly smile and a silver coin, telling her to keep the change. She blushed and nodded her head softly. Almost instantly, Lone felt a glare coming from the first floor.
'I was being friendly, not flirty. I swear on my tails,' he pleaded his case.
'Hmmmm... Can't leave you for more than a moment before you're charming some cute barmaid, huh? Sophie's right. I need to get a leash for you,' Soph replied a bit too seriously for Lone's liking. 'A nametag too. 'Lone: exclusive property of Sofia'.'
'When did that little brat tell her to leash me? She's influencing herself, and not in a good way,' he chuckled mentally. 'The nametag's a cute idea though...'
'Can we get matching nametags? Yours will say 'Soph: beloved of Lone'. And if you flip it, the other side will say 'Sophie: return to Lone if found',' he suggested jokingly.
'We are not some do- Hey! No commandeering the body without permission!' Lone laughed out loud upon hearing the two sides of his lover quibbling telepathically.
He happily downed his first drink and began nursing the second, feeling much better than he did about ten minutes ago. "So, wanna chat about magic? Maybe help me get some of yours? I know it ain't direct, but I can learn from observing."
Princessling Yulia was barely visible to his eyes but he could kind of see through the distortions when she stuffed a book into her ring which was obviously a storage device before she nodded at him sharply. "I would love to!"
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