Free Web NovelChapter 40: Elemental Shield skill
"The Cockatrice did attack me, but I wasn’t the one that killed it. Virena did." He answered, "Don’t get me wrong, I tried to kill it, but I missed. If I were given the chance today, I’d kill it myself."
"You’d kill it?" White Blade repeated, "You do remember that we lost a fellow crow because of that eagle attack, right?"
"I do," He said, "But you weren’t even there when the eagle attacked. If you were, you’d know that Virena was the one who killed the eagle. Even if there was anyone to blame for all of this, Virena redeemed herself already."
White Blade did not react right away. He stood quiet for a moment, shifting his gaze from Jimmy to Virena. His train of thought was derailed, but unlike other crows, he didn’t lose his composure because of it.
His tone lowered, as he said, "I suppose our fellow crows haven’t told me everything."
"No, they didn’t." His face curled into a faint frown, "Damn it, I should go and have a talk with those ladies who snitched on me. I fed them, Virena saved their lives from a human, but they’re still looking for ways to drive a knife in my back? That’s just cruel."
"Save them from who?" White Blade asked frantically, and for once, he couldn’t contain himself. "They never mentioned that they had been attacked."
"Of course," He sighed, "Virena saved us from a human. I think it was the owner of the Cockatrice, because he threw a stick at us when he saw us eating its pet."
"I see... so our scouts were on to something after all." White Blade’s face turned sour, "Listen, Jimmy, even if we cannot blame anyone over your encounter, we began a war with the humans nonetheless. If a lot of humans are adopting and training predators, then this is a battle we cannot win. Not normally, at least, but if we conduct a precise attack, we’ll drop the humans to their knees early on."
"What are you getting at?" He asked.
"Our scouts saw plenty of humans take their pets to the Fire Mage. My best guess is that the mage is training all of those birds, which would mean that other humans aren’t as good as him at training them." White Blade explained, "I need you to go and kill the Fire Mage, as soon as possible, so we can win, and in fact, destroy this war with the humans before it can fully unfold. I know this looks like a suicide mission, but there is no better crow for the job. Even I pale in comparison to your talents in evolution."
"Is that so?" He smirked, "It’s alright, I knew this was coming. I’ll kill the big bad mage that’s obviously twisting your stomach."
...
The crows may have advanced in the war. Their backs had been against the wall, and so they fought back.
Twenty crows fell throughout the battle with the ravens. One was slaughtered by an eagle.
One hundred crows remain alive in the city. It wasn’t a lot. Their lineage was threatened.
The crows may have advanced in the war, but regardless of that fact, their backs were against the wall once more.
Humans were preparing to hunt them, for one thing, and the war with the ravens was not over either. The crows hadn’t reclaimed the meadows yet.
With the tensions accelerating, the crows could either take the battle to the meadows, and finish one of their wars, or they could choose to flee from the city entirely, and look for another settlement to call their home.
Either one of those options came with great risks, but the fact was that they couldn’t stay in the city for long. They weren’t safe here.
To dissolve one of the major threats, if not loosen the tensions, Jimmy scouted the city, and looked for the Fire Mage.
"If I kill the mage, the humans will be just as useless as they were before." He said to himself, "I don’t know why in the fuck a Fire Mage would bother to train birds to begin with, but that’s where we fucking are now I guess?"
Jimmy ran into a few crows, and they introduced themselves as scouts. They immediately told him where the Fire Mage was located, according to the commands they had gotten from White Blade.
Just like that, his mission got a little bit easier, but he refused to approach the mage right away. He landed five buildings away, and got a glimpse of the mage.
The target wore a shiny trinket, a sub-par, homemade crown. It made Jimmy question whether or not elves roamed this odd planet. It was hard to make out why the mage wore the odd, golden crown, but he didn’t care.
The crown made the mage distinctive amongst the crowd, as it reflected the sunlight. Jimmy knew where the mage was, even from five buildings away.
"I doubt I can sneak up on him," He said, "Other crows have probably tried that before."
Jimmy didn’t want to die in the melee. He wanted to do a strategic approach, which was why he landed far away from the mage to begin with.
To prepare himself, he opened the Evolution Tree, explored the second branch, which was the Assassin’s Branch, and wound up on the fourth sub-branch, revolving Defense Mastery.
Defense Mastery was perhaps the most confusing sub-branch within the Evolution Tree. It was easy to mistake it with durability, but it could not be any more different!
There were so many options for him to protect himself against the dangers of the world. The sub-branch offered hyper specific purchases to any and all dangers.
Down at the collar of the sub-branch, three paths stretched upwards.
Jimmy ignored two of the paths, and focused on the third one. It was called the Elemental Shield skill. Its description was short, and clear.
[With this skill, you can gain a 15% resistance to all elemental magic attacks. It can be upgraded up to level three.]
Jimmy bought it right away. The skill was implemented in his arsenal before the system could even reflect the appropriate notifications.
[Confirmed]
[Initiating...]
[-450 system points]
[Finished]
[Elemental Shield skill implemented.]
"Fifteen percent isn’t enough," He said, "What good would it do me if 85% of a damned fireball burns me down to the bone? Max it out, system, upgrade it two more times."
[Confirmed]
[Initiating...]
[-1,500 system points]
[Remaining points: 63]
[Complete]
[Elemental Shield skill: Level 1 >>> Level 2 >>> Level 3]
[Elemental magic resistance: 55%]
"That’s better, I suppose?" He sighed, "I’ll pop out my spiky armor for an extra layer of protection."
