Rune Seeker
Chapter 7: Why is it an Equation?

As instructed by his party leader, Hiral opened his status window and shared it with the others. While some people on Fallen Reach felt it was an invasion of privacy to even be asked to share their window, he’d travelled with the party enough he didn’t have any secrets.

With one look at how quickly he shared his window, his sisters followed suit, and soon there were six glowing windows of different colors floating in front of the party members.

“Let’s start with yours, Hiral,” Seena said. “You’ve always got the most surprises…”

“Nothing that surprising,” he mumbled, but expanded his window so they could all see it, though he did hide the Racial Growth list – it’d just gotten too damn long.

Name: Hiral Dorin

Race: Builder

Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle

Rank: Low-B-Rank (Level 1)

Attributes

Strength (Str)—18 (3+22) = 48

Endurance (End)—18 (3+22) = 48

Dexterity (Dex)—20 (3+202+15) = 328

Intelligence (Int)—18 (3+22) = 48

Wisdom (Wis)—18 (3+22+20) = 72

Attunement (Atn)—20 (3+202) = 307

Solar Energy Processing

Absorption Rate: S-Rank

Capacity: S+-Rank

Output Rate: S-Rank

Abilities—Runes

Rune of Separation—Primary

Rune of Gravity—Secondary

Rune of Energy—Tertiary

Rune of Connection (Neck)

Rune of Attraction (Forearm, Left)

Rune of Rejection (Forearm, Right)

Rune of Absorption (Bicep, Left)

Rune of Impact (Bicep, Right)

Rune of Decrease (Shoulder, Left)

Rune of Increase (Shoulder, Right)

Rune of Time Contraction (Chest, Left)

Rune of Time Dilation (Chest, Right)

Rune of Compression (Abdomen, Left)

Rune of Expansion (Abdomen, Right)

Rune of Unsealing (Thigh, Left)

Rune of Sealing (Thigh, Right)

Abilities—Active

Foundational Split, Terminal, Mold Crystal, Eloquently Enraged+, Intimidate, Distracting Shot, (Lost) Chord of the Primal Echo – Third Movement, (Lost) Shared Strength, Shatter Armor, Double Trouble+, Domain of the Sun+, Power Attack

Abilities—Passive

Infernal Conjuration, Gourmand, Racial Growth*, View (Enemy Health), Good Things Come in Threes, Walk on Water, (Lost) One-Man Army+ (+35%), Internal Injuries (B-Rank), I Bow to No One (moderate), Elemental Resistances (10%), Beauty Sleep, Inspirational Growth, Party Interface (Communication, Member Status, Shared Attributes), Killing Spree+, (Lost) Life of the Party+ (20%), (Lost) Echo Aura, (Lost) Solar Drain, (Lost) Cycling+ Technique, (Lost) That All You Got?, (Lost) High-Speed Regeneration+, (Lost) Evolutionary Inspiration, In the Hands of the Duelist, Ever Changing+, Cleaving Strikes, Unseen Strikes, Vengeance+, Solar Supply, Runic Mastery (15%) Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

There were a few new things on there from the reward achievements they’d gotten from the Fall of Fallen Reach dungeon. And the fact they’d managed to surprise even the PIMP by surviving. Seena would probably ask him to…

“What the hell, Hiral?” Nat asked as she and Milly stared at his status window. Both of them were very much glaring at him.

“Nat…?” he asked carefully. What could they’ve seen that would make them…?

“What are all these numbers?” Nat asked, poking at the air where his attributes floated. “You’ve got brackets and plus signs and… why is your dexterity an equation?”

“An equation that doesn’t add up,” Milly pointed out. “Are you just dumb, or is the PIMP? Hrm, forty-eight intelligence isn’t bad, so it shouldn’t be the former. Was it because you lost your head?”

“Twice,” Right added helpfully.

“Stop that,” Hiral hissed out of the side of his mouth, keeping an eye on Seena. To his sisters, well, he grinned. “It’s not like that.”

“Explain.” Nat had that no-nonsense look on her face. The one she usually got when it came to dessert.

“Look, the first twenty is my base dexterity…”

“You have twenty base dexterity?” Milly practically shouted. “Base? Not modified by the PIM. I have twelve, and that’s considered stellar in my class! You have more base than I have total…”

“Remember how long I went without a PIM?” Hiral asked his sisters quietly, and both of their faces fell. “All that training and practicing I did, it upped my base stats. Just like I taught both of you.”

Nat nodded right along. “Yeah, you did. Helped me raise my intelligence and wisdom studying without my PIM. But, twenty? How much did you train?”

“Ten years,” Hiral reminded them. “Nonstop.”

“Yeah…” Nat said, then seemed to search Hiral’s face for any of that old pain. For any echo of the Everfail. When she didn’t find it, she gave her head a little shake and moved on. “What about the stuff inside the brackets?”

“The three is from this ring,” Hiral held up his hand. “Gives plus three to all stats. I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up with something like this as soon as you complete a D-Rank dungeon. You can’t get stat-boosting gear until D-, by the way. After that, the two-hundred-two is a combination of my stats from leveling up, a pair of achievements, and my advanced class. Finally…”

“Waaaaaait.” Milly held up a hand for him to stop. “How many points are you getting from achievements?”

“Uh… fifteen. Five from one we got a while back – just to dexterity and attunement – and then ten to all stats from saving Fallen Reach,” Hiral explained. “That was the Still Standing achievement we got for beating Vorinal and completing the dungeon.”

“Ten points… to all stats?” Nat boggled. “From completing one little dungeon?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Not so little,” Yanily said. “It was kind of a big deal.”

“So, if you got fifteen from achievements,” Nat said, eyes looking up like she was calculating. “That means you got one-eighty-seven from your class?”

Hiral stopped to think about it him, then snapped his fingers. “Sorry, I forgot twelve points to all stats we got from a couple rounds of Evolutionary Inspiration.”

“You know what, I don’t think I even want to know,” Milly said. “And that last fifteen?”

“A Party Interface modification,” Seeyela helped explain. “We get a bonus stat based on each other’s highest stat. Hiral gets fifteen to his dexterity – from Yanily – while the rest of us get forty-five. Ten percent.”

“You guys get thirty dexterity just from being in his party?” Nat asked. “Why aren’t we getting it? Oh, right, the Party Interface skill. We need that first.”

“Exactly,” Hiral said.

“Okay, that explains the formula – still silly,” Milly said. “But, why don’t the numbers add up?”

“Hidden multipliers,” Hiral said, then held up a hand before Milly could jump all over that. “Because I have a base dexterity at or above twenty, I get a twenty-percent modifier to all my dexterity boosts, except from gear. Added on to that, we get another twenty percent from my upgraded (Lost) Life of the Party+. It used to be fifteen percent, but it got upgraded from the We’re Busting Outta Here achievement we got for freeing the prisoners up on Fallen Reach.”

“Not that you were even there for that one,” Seena said.

“Yeah, we did all the work,” Seeyela agreed.

“Says the ladies who got pretty significant boosts from my fight in the Amphitheatre,” Hiral countered.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep bragging,” Yanily said. Since he’d technically been dead during those encounters, he hadn’t gotten several of the dungeon’s achievements.

“Sorry, Yan,” Hiral said, then turned his attention back to his sisters. “That explain it all?”

“That’s… that’s…” Nat started.

“OP,” Yanily said. “Short for overpowered. Yeah, you get used to it with him.”

“You really are strong now, aren’t you?” Milly said, clearly holding back her emotions. Her happy emotions. After everything he’d gone through – everything she’d seen him go through almost her entire life – he was good now.

“One of the strongest people on Fallen Reach, probably,” Seena said. “If not the strongest. You’ve got an impressive big brother.”

“Shhh,” Nat said. “He’ll hear you, then we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Brat,” Hiral said, mussing his sister’s hair. Then he looked at Milly. “Also means you won’t get quite as much of a laugh if you challenge a Shaper to fight in the Amphitheatre on my behalf.”

“Can think of a few I’d pay to see you trounce after the way they treated you,” Milly said seriously.

“You might still get that chance,” Left spoke up. “There are plenty on Fallen Reach who don’t believe the Everfail could be involved with saving the island. Now that Hiral is out of his self-imposed isolation…”

“Where I was further saving the island,” Hiral grumbled.

“… there will be plenty of Shapers lining up to take a shot at him,” Left finished after nodding his agreement with Hiral.

“Let them try and get through me first,” Right said, smacking one fist into the palm of his other hand. “If they can handle that, then they get a shot at the big show.”

“That’s quite enough of the bloodthirst from everybody,” Seena said, though she leaned closer to Left. “Make sure you get me tickets when it starts.”

The double nodded and gave her a wink.

“Now that we’ve overly discussed your stats, Hiral, let’s move on to those new abilities I see in there,” Seena continued. “Can you share what those do?”

“Sure.” Hiral started with his newest active ability, and shared the floating window of yellow text with the group.

Class Ability (Active): Domain of the Sun+

Domain of the Sun+: Set the stage to claim the advantage.

Grants the following bonuses to user and members of user’s party while within the bounds of the domain:

Cooldowns and damage taken reduced by 12%

Attributes, movement speed, energy efficiency, and damage increased by 12%

Critical hit chance increased by 6%

Critical hit damage increased by 18%

Note: Diameter of domain is 150 feet from central point at time of creation.

Note (2): Domain does not move once created.

Note (3): Domain restricts entry and exit of anybody other than the creator and their party, though sufficient strength can bypass this.

Note (4): Domain can take on aspects of other lasting area-of-effect abilities with a fixed range and duration.

Note (5): Duration—1 minute per Rank

Note (6): Cooldown—30 minutes

Note (7): Bonuses for user are doubled when dueling an opponent one on one.

“Upgrade to your Domain ability?” Seeyela asked. “Holy… that seventh note. You get double the bonuses if you’re by yourself? That plus One Man Army is crazy.”

“Left and Right don’t count against that, either,” Hiral said, smiling. It was a powerful ability when combined with his current – What did Milly call it? – build. “Few other small buffs in there as well. It’s good, though the cooldown is still a bit long.”

“Does it get its own cooldown reduced by twelve percent if you stay in there?” Yanily asked.

“Hrm. Good question, I’ll need to test that,” Hiral said, already pondering how to best do that. Maybe if I can get a few more abilities that reduce cooldowns…

“Stop thinking about testing,” Seena interrupted. “Which achievement was that from?”

“Are You Not Entertained?, the one I got from the Amphitheatre,” Hiral explained.

“Makes sense.” Seena nodded. “What’s next? You’ve got more abilities to show us.”

“Sorry,” Hiral said, bobbing his head in apology. “Next up, we’ve got…”

Class Ability (Active): Power Attack

Power Attack: Increase damage of an attack by 10% for every second the attack is held before striking.

Note: Damage caps at 30% (3 seconds of held time).

“How’s that work?” Yanily asked.

“Right, you want to show them?” Hiral said.

“Sure,” the double said, dropping down into a fighting stance and cocking back his left – non-tattooed – arm. “Using this hand so the glow doesn’t get in the way. Notice how my hand looks normal? When I focus on the fact I am going to punch, the ability begins to activate. Watch closely.”

After a second of, well, nothing happening, a slight blue glow began to surround Right’s fist. Another second had wisps of energy leaking off his fist, and halfway up his forearm. After the third second, the extra energy had condensed to a visible aura that warped the air slightly.

“Looks impressive,” Yanily said. “What’s it…?”

WHOMP, the air rippled outward from Right’s jab, causing those standing nearby to take a half-step back. Poor Milly and Nat would’ve completely toppled over if Left hadn’t slipped in and braced them from behind.

“Creates a shockwave of extra damage based on how much damage the original strike does,” Hiral explained. “We think. Planning to do some better measurements with Gauto later.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Yanily said, holding up his hands. “Since when do Left and Right get your abilities?”

“B-Rank,” Hiral said with a wink. “Just some of the active abilities. Honestly no rhyme or reason to which ones, either.”

“None of the really good ones,” Right complained.

“There, there,” Yanily said, patting the double’s shoulder.

“Three seconds is a long time,” Seena mused, back on the original topic. “Which achievement?”

“By the Power of…!,” Hiral said. “And, yeah. We’re still working out how we can fit it into combat. I’m sure the Chord will help with that.”

“Speaking of,” Seeyela said. “Looks like you got your third movement?”

“I did! From the I Wasn’t Worried for a Second achievement,” Hiral said. “You guys all at least got your second movements?” The others nodded before he continued. “The third movement is… nice.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Yanily grumbled, though he smiled the whole time. “Just tell us what it does so we can be jealous.”

“No,” Hiral said with a wink.

“Hiral,” Seena said simply.

“Look, look, look,” he said quickly, holding up his hands to ward off the glare from his party leader. “It does two things, but, really, seeing the second thing will be much better than me explaining it.”

“What’s the first thing, then?” Seena asked.

“Same as before. Buffs and debuffs from crits, but, they can also now apply to party members. The buffs I mean… not the debuffs. Short duration, only half as long as they stick on me.”

“Still, you have some strong buffs,” Seena said. “You sure you don’t want to tell us about the second effect?”

“Really, it’ll be more fun to see,” Right said on Hiral’s behalf.

“Somehow, you saying that makes me more nervous,” Seena said, once again rubbing the bridge of her nose. “But, fine, keep your secret! One more ability on there. What’s Runic Mastery do?”

“Reduces the solar energy cost of all my runes by fifteen percent,” Hiral said. “Simple but amazing.”

“From When Words Don’t Work…?” Seena asked, already nodding. “I got something similar, fifteen percent reduction to any fire-based spells.”

“That’s the one,” Hiral said.

“Okay, that’s all your new abilities. You got a new weapon from the dungeon too, didn’t you?”

“Two, actually,” Hiral said, though the thought didn’t make him smile like his new abilities did. Threading solar energy into the Ring of Amin Thett at his back, the runes lit up, and a single sword floated out of the seemingly empty space within.

Thin and razor-sharp on both edges, the blade itself wasn’t perfectly straight. Instead, it was wrought like a gentle wave – or a moving snake. Cursive runes etched the gleaming blade all the way to the hilt, but that wasn’t what drew anybody’s attention. No, the crosspiece of the weapon was what really stood out. Tentacles forged of some unknown metal created a basket guard around the hilt, and though they weren’t living, Hiral always got the impression they moved when he wasn’t looking.

“Fitch’s sword,” Seeyela said.

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