Takuma couldn't help but pause as he took a moment to glance around. He didn't see any other cursed items in the display case nor anywhere else in the store. What was causing his mana to rise? Aside from the cursed ring on his finger he was sure he'd gotten rid of everything else in the shop which could emit miasma. Was his inventory perhaps leaking the toxic gas?
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 8%"
Clearly that wasn't the case.
As he struggled to understand what happened, Takuma froze in his tracks for a brief moment. Then, as if a bolt of lightning struck his brain, he turned and hopped over the counter in one fluid motion.
"Takuma?" Chloe asked after him as she watched him bolt out of the shop.
Out on the street, Takuma searched as best he could for Lilah. There were many more people out than just a few hours ago, no doubt spurred by daily needs. He continued gazing about wildly and finally caught a glimpse of her red and black cloak.
"There she is!" He whispered to himself as he began to run towards her. He noticed how much quicker he moved in comparison to yesterday; the Phantom Cloak was really handy. He darted through a group of people, some of which seemed confused by his rush. It was a fine day after all, no need for all of the commotion! Lilah was only a block or two away when Takuma spotted her but he felt as if the distance between them steadily grew. No matter how fast he ran, he simply couldn't catch up. He watched as Lilah turned a corner ahead and he followed only to find she was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell?" He whispered to himself. He dashed down the length of the alleyway but it was no use. After searching the immediate area for several minutes more Takuma was forced to return to the general shop.
"Is everything okay?" Dot asked as she worked to open the box on the countertop.
Takuma briskly walked over and eyed the box anxiously.
"+2 Mana."
"Dot! How about this? I'll pay you another 50 silvers for whatever is in this box." Takuma said as he slapped his hand down on top of the wooden box.
"Takuma..are you serious? I haven't even checked these items out. I'm not even sure what's in here."
"I know! That's what makes this so fun. It could be less than 50 silvers worth of items...or it could be more. What do you think?" He asked. He noticed Chloe staring at him, a puzzled expression on her face, but he ignored it.
"Well.. it would save me the trouble of cataloging them. And if you want to, I don't see why not.. You've already done so much for me today." Dot said with a warm smile. Takuma could feel the genuine gratitude flowing out of her. If it wasn't for the miasma flowing from the box he'd have gladly basked in the tender moment.
He pulled out fifty silvers and placed it into Dot's open hands.
"Thanks, Takuma," Dot replied gratefully.
"So… are you going to open it?" She then asked, apparently she was still curious about the contents of the box.
"N-nooo. Not right now. I'm going to save it for later of course. I like to be surprised." He added before opening his storage and shoving the box into the portal that appeared. If possible, he wanted to avoid alerting Dot or Chloe to his newfound suspicions..
"I never get tired of seeing that. Ah, I'd be able to sell SO MUCH STUFF if I could do that!" Dot practically squealed upon seeing Takuma's inventory in action once again.
He couldn't help but smile with the thought, "Well..at least she's feeling better."
It would be another fifteen minutes at the general store before Takuma decided to walk Chloe back to her office. The two discussed a possible treatment for Dot's poison symptoms, but they both agreed it would only be a temporary solution. Takuma had to develop the necessary skills to completely heal her to solve the root problem. He then thanked her with a few silvers before returning to the inn. After entering the room, he paced back and forth several times before finally plopping down on the bed.
As usua,l his thoughts were racing. He did everything in his power to avoid alerting Dot or Chloe to the fact that a package filled with cursed items was delivered to the shop right under their noses! The more he thought about it, the more it made sense, after all Dot's shop was practically filled with cursed relics. If someone had been purposely offloading those items by selling them to Dot…
He needed to speak to Lilah again. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, after all she could just be a delivery girl -- but explanations were definitely in order! According to Dot, Lilah made deliveries every three days or so, which should give Takuma enough time to reach rank 3 as a Relic Meister.
At least he hoped that would be the case. Even with the sixty-something cursed items he purchased, most of them only gave a pittance in terms of experience. On the subject of ranking up, Takuma honestly had no clue what to invest his points in this time. Instant Purification was a given, even with the 2x mana cost it would be worth it and though he would need to test out the skill, Takuma was sure it would be pivotal to curing Dot.
Of the remaining skills he could acquire and use there were:
Conjure Spirit (Class Skill) - Expend mana to conjure spirits that dwell inside certain relics. Each spirit summoned drains a fixed amount of mana over time.
And..
Manipulate Curse (Class Skill) - Pull a curse from an object and place it into another. The objects must be comparable in "integrity" and "quality" for the transfer to work. Additional upgrades allow one to seal curses as well.
The first seemed like a summoner's ability. Furthermore, there didn't seem to be a limitation on the number of spirits that could be conjured. He could see this being very useful in the future against groups of foes. 'Manipulate Curse' was much more attractive to him, though, particularly the bit about "sealing" curses. Did that mean he could block a curse's effects and then use Partial Purification in order to avoid the "backlash"? If so that would solve the biggest problem straight away.
At this poin,t it was a matter of priority and Manipulate Curse seemed the more useful of the two remaining skills. There was also another option -- increasing his Relic Hunter ability. If Takuma had to venture a guess, some of his abilities were tied into the Curse System. By improving his Relic Appraisal Ability, he'd gained the benefit of inspecting normal items and even people. He had no doubt improving Relic Hunter would do the same, and the more he thought over the prospect the more it made sense.
He would need to find relics quickly in the future, and it was a certainty that this skill would help in some way. Ultimatel,y Takuma decided on the following:
Manipulate Curse [1] , Relic Hunter [2] and Instant Purification [1].
Still there was something that bugged Takuma. In "game-like worlds" where amassing stats were less important, a player's skill had to suffice. Currently, Takuma had no offensive abilities, barely any defensive capability and he also couldn't equip weapons or armor unless they were relics (cursed or blessed). There were far too many restrictions to his current self and he couldn't leave future encounters to chance. Though he desperately needed a way to defend himself, he decided that the best solution would simply be to improve his resistance as much as possible for now.
With that in mind, he sat up, cracked both his hands and his neck and rolled his shoulders to finish his warm-up ritual. He then opened his inventory and began pulling out the most potent relics in his inventory. In all there were twenty rank 3 cursed items, ten rank 2 items and the rest were rank 1. He ignored the box for now, he'd check it out later, instead he placed all of the rank 3 items.
He spread them out on the floor in a circular pattern and sat in the middle, awaiting some kind of reaction..
"+3 Mana."
"Lesser Miasma Resistance : 18%"
"This is going to be super boring," Takuma said to himself as he opened his Lore Menu. If he was going to passive train he might as well work on improving his stat modifiers as well. It had been a while since Takuma checked out his status menu, things looked like this:
"
Vitality - 85 [93] (20%)
Mana- 2,832 (30%)
Stamina- 70[95] (2%)
Force- 4 [5] (2%)
Accel- 3 [5] (5%)
Knowledge- 4 (75%)
Food Bonus: {Roasted Ram Stew : +25 Stamina, +1 Force. Duration : 2 : 43: 15.}
*Additional Effects*
Phantom Cloak : +50% movement speed.
"
Takuma chuckled at the fact that his Knowledge modifier was much higher than the rest, evidence that he thought entirely too much. Based on his past experience with maxing modifiers, this wouldn't take very long. He decided to activate his Partial Purification spell to see if he could get away with spam training -- and it worked. What's more, because he wasn't actually using it on a cursed item mana consumption was nil.
"Perfect!"
If there was anything Takuma had learned from several reincarnations, it was that passive training was the most boring thing on the face of the planet. Training in general tended to be a time-consuming practice and he quickly learned that in order to gain any real benefit, one had to train multiple aspects of their being at any given time. The more, the better! Thus Takuma grew proficient at multitasking training methods, so much so that at one point in his past life (aka the dark, cultivation days) he was known as the "Training Beast Of The South".
Raising his mana modifier by using his mana, boosting his resistance to miasma, improving his knowledge and eventually physical conditioning -- he accomplished all of these simultaneously and efficiently. Within an hour the miasma resistance maxed out.
"Lesser Miasma Resistance : 99% [MAX]"
"So it will only go as high as 99% hmm? Well, that's still not bad." Takuma thought to himself. He stopped his physical training only to bring out the remaining cursed relics. Soon the entire floor of his room (and parts of his bed) were filled with cursed items.
"+7 Mana."
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 12%"
"-3 Vitality [Miasma Poisoning]"
"Oh? You're approaching me?" Takuma said with a chuckle as he took note of the poison alert. In response he took off his cloak, shirt, and boots and began to do push-ups. Though he realized the risk posed by the poison, he would need to carefully watch the rate of damage as compared to the resistance build -- but this didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. With each alert Takuma gained 1-2% resistance and he could already tell that his vitality wouldn't hold up long enough to max his resistance in one sitting. One might think this would annoy Takuma but he welcomed the increase in "difficulty".
Soon the sensation of poison spread all throughout his body and a new alert appeared.
[Sluggish : -1 Force, -1 Accel]
Apparently some status ailments carried the ability to debuff as well.
He quickly adjusted his training plans as he continued one set of push-ups and moved onto sit ups. The poison inflicted damage every thirty seconds or so, thus Takuma decided to leave the room once he'd reached 20 vitality. This would also allow him to test the invisible substance known as "miasma" and its area of effect. He planned to wait in the hallway or use another room on the floor to rest if need be. Judging from his earlier experience, direct contact with curses yielded the highest concentration of miasma so conversely, creating distance should stop it's effects. Even with the cursed ring equipped, his regenerative abilities would be enough to recover his health in just short of three hours. Now that his vitality pool had nearly doubled, relying on meager regeneration gains would not be enough.
After approximately six minutes, Takuma was forced to leave the room and walk to the end of the hallway before the alerts stopped. Just six minutes of severe miasma poisoning was enough to bring him to near-critical status.
"Dot's been dealing with something like this...for years." He thought to himself as he slammed his fist against the nearby wall.
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 40%"
The more intense the miasma in the atmosphere, the more quickly it seemed to attack the body. The gains were good in terms of raising his percentage but at this rate it would take him nearly a day and a half to max out this particular resistance. Takuma didn't have that sort of time so he dashed down the stairs of the inn and out into the street.
Minutes later, he burst into Chloe's shop, 'Pots and Oints', and shouted, " I need Vitality Potions!"
Chloe's glasses tilted on her face as she took note of Takuma's state. Barefooted, shirtless, his body glistening in sweat -- it was enough to send her into a tizzy. Takuma was fully aware of the blush growing on her cheeks, however ,he ignored it and walked boldly up to the counter.
"If you please." He added.
"S-sure," Chloe said, obviously flustered.
He purchased five potions at two silvers each then quickly dashed back to his room at the inn. He even ignored the surprised face of the innkeeper as he cleared the steps several at a time.
"I probably should have asked Chloe how to use these…" Takuma noticed they were different from the small vials Chloe usually crushed in her hand. Still, he squeezed the bottle until the glass cracked, cutting himself in the process. The pink liquid oozed out onto the ground and disappeared after a few seconds, leaving Takuma with a gash on his hand which caused him to wince in pain.
"Okay.. obviously not how they are supposed to be used..."
Takuma next decided to drink one of the potions. This had the intended effect as he felt the wound on his palm heal and a cooling sensation radiating through his body. Unfortunatel,y the potion wasn't the instant type, it merely regenerated vitality by the second. Takuma could use this to his advantage, however, since the potion's effect and duration played to his advantage. He rushed back to his room, shutting the door behind as he then hopped over the plethora of items on the floor. He wanted to capitalize on the potion's lasting effects. +10 vitality per second for thirty seconds-- a total of 300 vitality.
Takuma wasted no time putting the other potions away and continuing his exercises. He alternated between sit-ups and push-ups and each time his vitality would reach twenty points, he'd use a potion.
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 54%"
By the time his resistance reached 54% the amount of vitality damage dropped to 2 points per affliction. The rate at which the damage occurred also decreased to forty-five seconds instead of thirty.
This simple adjustment was enough to extend Takuma's training time by almost thirty minutes before he needed to use another potion. By the end of an hour, he'd managed to completely max out his resistance to severe miasma as well.
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 99%[MAX]"
Though he succeeded in completing another training goal, the success was bittersweet. He could still be afflicted with poison, but now he would only take 1 point of Vitality damage every two minutes or so. This was a vast improvement compared to earlier and the 'Sluggish' ailment no longer hindered him either. All in all, not too shabby.
"Let's see how the rest is going." He said as he finished off a potion.
"
Vitality - 85 [93] (75%)
Mana- 4,332 (200% MAX)
Stamina- 70 [95] (65%)
Force- 4 [5] (165%)
Accel- 3 [5] (12%)
Knowledge- 4 (125%)
Food Bonus: {Roasted Ram Stew : +25 Stamina, +1 Force. Duration : 0 : 22: 03.}
*Additional Effects*
Phantom Cloak : +50% movement speed.
"
"Wow. That mana gain is nuts. I may have to avoid purifying all of these relics. I'm pretty sure I can even sleep with relics under my bed at this point." Takuma mused as he checked out his stats.
"+14 Mana."
"Wait--what?" He whispered. He'd been so preoccupied with spam casting Partial Purification and exercising that he just noticed the amount of his mana alerts.
"So what changed? I didn't add any other relics to the mix.." Takuma began to theorize.
"It must be this modifier. But..that can't be right, could it?" As he considered the implications a grin spread across his face.
"But how can I test it? Hmm…" He thought to himself. If his hunch was correct, modifier stats also added another benefit to all of his stats aside from determining growth rates. Perhaps the simplest one to test would be his Accel. The amount was pretty low, and he still needed to do some running, fortunately, he had the perfect stretch of forest in mind.