Chapter 186: New Toys

Sabina’s nineteenth level had resulted in yet another passive for her collection of smithing-oriented skills.

Jadis found it odd that the skill specified items that Sabina had crafted rather than just anything she was capable of fixing overall, but according to the smith most repair skills for most classes were specific to the items that person had themselves made. Skills that gave general boosts to repairs done to any item at all were usually only found in classes that specialized in repairs themselves rather than crafting new items. Not an unpopular class, as it turned out, since repairs were always needed, but also a niche class since the skills gained from it wouldn’t help with anything but repairs.

Crafting skills interested Jadis. Not that she was in any way unsatisfied with the combat and ritual skills that she had, but the idea of skills that would somehow supernaturally make a person better at tasks like smithing or tailoring or cooking were amazing in a lot of ways. Jadis could well see why so many people didn’t go straight for warrior or mage classes and instead took more mundane sounding ones. Other than the fact that a painter was less likely to get killed by a pack of demons while on the job, it had to be extremely satisfying for such crafters to see the results of their work become better by leaps and bounds as they leveled. Not just from practical experience, but also from the more surreal, class-based experience.

She also understood that most people who crafted for a living didn’t generally reach very high levels, even during times of demonic invasion. Since they weren’t getting any bonus experience from fighting demons, they could only level the hard way, by performing tasks related to their class job description. Most of them never reached CLR sixty to unlock their tertiary class, or if they did, they were already of advanced age, at least for humans. Longer-lived races like elves had the advantage there since they had a couple of centuries more to grow compared to many of the other races on Oros.

Thinking about it, the fact that Eir was only CLR twenty-six now really showed that she was a young elf. Jadis had never asked her how old she was, since it didn’t really seem like it mattered, but with her being so low leveled, relatively speaking, Jadis suspected that Eir was actually not much older than her or any of the others. Considering that meant the elf was likely to outlive her by a few centuries, Jadis felt somewhat conflicted. It was, on the one hand, a good thought to know that someone she deeply cared for would have a long and fruitful life, but on the other hand it made her somewhat sad to know she would only be around to share a small fraction of it with her.

Or would she? Jadis had halfway forgotten about it, but she wasn’t actually human anymore. Did Nephilim have human lifespans? Did they live long lives like elves, or were they even shorter lived? That was certainly a possibility, one she hoped wasn’t the case. Definitely something she needed to look into.

Thoughts on mortality aside, Jadis was glad that Eir was at least catching up on her levels. Especially since it seemed her Lustful Oracle of D class was going to be giving her some major benefits. When she’d hit level five in the class during their several weeks of training and prep work, she’d gained a passive skill that was a variation of one she’d gained from her cleric class, but better.

Eir had gotten a skill early on in her Beloved Cleric of Lyssandria class that had almost the same name, Cleric’s Grace, which had given her five-point boosts to the same attributes. A five-point boost to two different stats from one skill was seen as a rare and highly sought-after skill, at least at low levels. Aila had gotten something similar for her Cart Driver class and had been thrilled to get it. The fact that Eir was getting a ten-point boost to two attributes at level five meant her oracle class was going to be a powerhouse.

For her sixth level, Eir had of course just received a single attribute point, the same as any low-level class, which she had put into her Endurance stat on Jadis’ strong recommendation. Focusing her stats to become extremely good in one area was all fine and good, but Jadis didn’t want Eir to neglect her physical stats completely. The priestess was never supposed to be in any kind of direct combat since she was a healer support, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get caught up in emergency situations. Jadis wanted her to have all her physical stats at tens at a minimum, just in case. Eir had agreed that it made sense to have some preparation for such eventualities, especially since she was already getting a massive boost in her divine stat from the lewd ritual with Jadis. She could afford to spread her natural stats out a little without sacrificing her niche effectiveness.

When asked how she was looking after her most recent level, Eir had told Jadis her status sheet which was looking exceptionally impressive.

Eir was thirteen levels lower than Aila and she already had more points in her Divine attribute than the arcanist had in her Arcane attribute. The difference between having two classes dedicated to being a mage versus only one was really starting to show.

All such considerations went to the back burner in Jadis’ mind once they were out in the field. Sabina may have finally reached level nineteen, but that didn’t mean they were going to cancel the planned hunting trip. They might not be finding any demons in significant numbers around town anymore, but as long as there were demons to be found that meant there was experience to be gained and bounties to be earned. As such, Fortune’s Favored set out to track down their demonic prey. They didn’t go alone, though.

“Keep your elbow in!” Noll barked at Dys. “If you throw it out wide again, I’ll break it for you and give this elf something to do!”

Jadis cursed, not at Noll or his possibly serious threat, but at the fact that she’d messed up her form again. The weeks of training Noll had been giving to her had made a big difference in Jadis’ combat ability. Novice that she was, she could tell that her attacks and movements were improved significantly by the elder mercenary’s instruction. Unfortunately, it also meant she was now educated enough to know just how ignorant she still was.

She didn’t have muscle memory yet, that was the biggest issue. Not for the techniques that went beyond the most basic of basics. Compared to Kerr or Thea who had been practicing their respective martial arts for literally years, Jadis just didn’t have that ingrained training. She could use some of the forms that Noll had taught her, but when caught in the heat of the moment, she tended to fall back on instinctive reactions. Some of those reactions were fine, especially against demons that were no better trained than her, but as Noll was determined to make clear, those reactions wouldn’t fare as well against someone with anything close to standard training.

“The haft is a weapon too! Use it!”

Dys lurched forward in reaction to Noll’s shout. Holding her axe across her chest, she shoved it into the ox-like twisted wretch, shoving the beast down onto the ground to give herself enough room to swing her axe fully down on the body of the corrupted beast.

“The pommel,” Noll growled loudly. “Use it!”

Dys paused mid-swing, then pulled back. The demonic ox monster was already getting to its feet but Dys followed her teacher’s directions. With a sharp, decisive jab, she brought the pommel base of the axe handle down onto the wretch’s head as it halfway rose up. The force of the attack was enough to crack the skull of the twisted abomination, spilling out brains and blood as the demon floundered back onto the ground.

“Don’t forget you can use any part of the weapon as a weapon!” Noll barked again, reminding Jadis of another lesson he was constantly reinforcing.

With a quick follow up chop, Dys finished off the wretch before it could try to rise up again. Pulling the axe head free, she gave it a shake and a flick to remove the worst of the foul gore from its shining steel. Looking around, Jadis could see that the fight was all but over, the remaining few demons well in hand by either her other bodies or other members of the team. With a surreptitious glance to make sure Noll wasn’t still focused on her, Dys pulled a cloth from her belt pouch and wiped the remaining blood from the axe. She really could not stop smiling at its shining finish.

Thea hadn’t been the only one to get new equipment made by Sabina. The two new weapons that Jadis had asked the smith to make had been finished before their expedition as well. And even though she’d only had them for a few days, Jadis was loving the new armaments.

Dys’ new axe was a thing of beauty. The axe head was a large, squarish blade on one side with a long, thick spike on the reverse. The blade was bearded, giving it extra length, and had a wicked sharpness to it. The middle expanse of the axe head held a series of blank circles inlaid within each other, with only one filled with archaic runes. The single enchantment that had been built into the weapon was for durability, something that was very much needed for the massive implement of war. Tall enough that the top of the axe head was about even with her collar bone, the axe was bigger and heavier than anything a human-sized person would use, at least from an Earth perspective. It was a magnificent piece of craftsmanship, no matter how Sabina tried to brush off the praise. Jadis loved the new weapon and couldn’t help but feel giddy every time she hefted it in her hands. She’d come a long, long way from her days of using a stone club.

But not that far, Jadis mused as her Jay self smashed the final demon to pulp with her new war hammer.

The massive blunt instrument Jay was wielding had two enchantments built into it, one for durability like her new axe, and the other specifically to keep the weight of the huge head from bending or outright breaking the metal shaft of the hammer. The steel head was cylindrical, with plain flat ends. Nothing extravagant, except for the fact that the ends each measured eighteen inches in diameter. With that much steel, the head weighed more than Jadis did.

Was it necessary to make the colossal war hammer’s head that big? No, certainly not. Even something half the size and weight would have been overkill. But Jadis had specifically asked Sabina to make the hammer head that big for one major reason.

“Here, let me recast,” Aila said as she walked up next to Jay. With a simple wave of her hand, two more glowing instances of her spike trap spell were imprinted on either end of her hammer’s head.

“Thanks, Blue,” Jay said, blowing her mage girlfriend a kiss.

The fact that she was in full plate armor and hadn’t lifted her visor to do so made the motion particularly silly, which Jadis was banking on. Her nefarious plan worked, too, as Aila’s face wrinkled up in suppressed laughter.

Jadis’ old wooden mallet had been big enough to hold Aila’s traps on the ends, so the new war hammer could have been the same. But if Jadis was going to have a big hammer to accommodate the foot wide diameter spell circles, she was going to have a giant fuck-off hammer that could crush boulders with a single swing.

“We didn’t do that bad, did we?” Syd asked as she leaned on her lance.

She was the only one of Jadis’ selves that hadn’t gotten a new weapon made since what Syd had was perfectly functional. And she was running low on money.

“Could be worse,” Noll grunted as he closed the distance between them. “But all three of you need to watch your elbows.”

“Can do,” Syd agreed. After a moment of silence, she continued. “Kind of wish you were coming with us. Sort of. For the training, if not the company.”

“Hmph,” Noll folded his arms as he stood next to Syd, watching as some of the others extracted the demon eye cores from the wretches they’d slain. “I don’t go on expeditions like that for free. And you can’t afford me.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get lonely while we’re gone.”

Noll snorted, his lips pulled back in an amused grin.

“Trust me, I won’t be.” After another short silence, he added a few more words of advice. “Don’t forget to practice the forms I taught you every morning. Make it a part of your routine, even on the road. And make sure to bring warm clothes. You don’t have fur, so bring something for that.”

“Yes, grandpa,” Syd answered with saccharine sweetness.

“Fucking whelp,” Noll grumbled under his breath as he wandered away from Syd. “That’s going in my report, you know.”

“Add this, too!” Syd laughed as she made rude gesture to the old therion, who shot it right back at her without malice.

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