When later that night he returned to his room, with the lessons of his master aching across his body, Nar found that the lights of the common room were still bright despite the late hour, and a hushed conversation reached his ears as the door to his party room sighed open.

"Hello?" he called out, as he entered.

"Nar?" Kur's low voice filtered down the short hallway.

Nar stepped into the bright circular light shining down on their circular black table, and found Kur and Gad seated around it, their screens glowing brightly before them. Kur's eyes were bloodshot under his mop of very pale, blonde hair, and Gad's spikes lay flat and worn across her scalp, hinting at a destroying day in the Tanks Hall.

"That was a long session," the tank said, eyeing his slight limp.

"Yeah… We got stuck talking for a while and the master had to make up for it," Nar said.

He eyed the screens as he approached, catching a glimpse of rows of text, diagrams, drawings and arrows. "And you guys? Planning? It's almost two in the morning…"

"Is it?" Kur asked, blinking to check his UI. "It is! Ugh…"

"It's time to call it a night," Gad told him. "We knew that we weren't going to find a solution right away."

Kur sighed. "I guess…"

"Is something wrong?" Nar asked, taking a seat to give his wobbly legs a respite.

"Not wrong per se, but not exactly right either," Kur said.

He tapped away on his screen and then slid it across the table towards Nar. At a glance, there were six windows on the screen, and the longer ones on the top row were easily recognizable as statuses.

Jul, Mul and… Viy?

"We always knew that unlocking our affinities was going to mean changes to the way we fight," Kur said. "Not just in our formation, but in how we open fights, how we handle pressure, how we counter back and even how we aim for victory…"

Nar nodded, rubbing his chin, and let his party leader continue.

"That said, I guess I underestimated just how much we would all change…" Kur said. "You branched off from our core strategy pretty much as soon as we got our Ceremony gains. In fact, I'd argue that you've been doing so for some time now… Maybe even from the very beginning, but I thought that was only because of your hybrid class. But now…"

"Affinities have made it all a bit more complicated," Gad said. "And we're still missing the affinities for half the party."

"Hmm," Nar said.

"And while we've only just begun exploring what that means for us as a party…" Kur sighed, and nodded at the screen in front of Nar. "I didn't expect these three to have such impactful changes. And I don't mean that as "Wow! That was so fast!", I mean it in just how impactful they are! And this is probably just a taste of what's to come."

"Are the changes really that crazy?" Nar asked, frowning at the screen.

"They are," Gad said. "But more than that, they are conflicting."

"Conflicting?"

"Have a look," Kur said. "The ones on the bottom."

Still frowning, Nar considered the three windows at the bottom of the screen, below the statuses.

These are… Skills?

 

To Cast Out Fear (Aura/Affinity/Buff) (Passive): You have lived in fear all your life, and you have cowered, hidden and ran, powerless in the face of those who sought naught but to hurt you and entrap you in hopelessness… But no longer. You have taken the first steps into controlling your fear, rather than let it consume you, and as the battle rages, you will drive your fear further and further from your mind, increasing your resistance to [Fear] by 2% and your resistance to other mental status effects and controls by 0.5% per instance of [Insidious Fear] active on your enemies. Similarly, you increase your overall damage dealt by 1% per instance of [Insidious Fear] active on your enemies (on a per target basis, not cumulative). At the same time, you suffer a 0.15% decrease in the effectiveness of your sense attributes, as well as a 0.1% decrease in the effectiveness of your [Reflex], [Accuracy], [Awareness] and [Perception]. - Rare

 

Nar's half formed smile shifted into a frown as he reached the last sentence of Jul's new skill.

I've always wanted her to break free of her fear, and of the things her parents had done to her, he thought, his eyes lasered upon the decreases that came with her new passive skill. But this? This feels like going too far in the opposite direction. People need fear, to be careful, and to pay attention to their surroundings… To stay alive. But this just feels reckless…

Was there something there that he needed to do? Anything he needed to say? But then again, the Master of Shadows seemed pretty much bent on doing the best she could for Jul…

He sighed.

At least it doesn't affect her [Instinct*], Nar thought, with some degree of relief, and glancing up, at her status window, he noticed that her already significant [Instinct*] had been bumped up by another three points, now standing at 49.

That will definitely help, uh? I guess I'll just keep an eye on her for now, and make sure her path doesn't take her somewhere bad.

That decided, he considered the next screen, and the skill displayed wherein.

 

Affinity to the Raging Flames (Aura/Affinity/Buff) (Passive): Your rage burns, and your aura reflects your affinity to rage, manifesting through the all-consuming flames of your anger. Your aura and skills are attuned to fire, and in combat you gain instances of [The Roaring Fire Within] every time you gain instances of [Burning Anger]. And when you consume instances of [Burning Anger], you consume the same amount of instances of [The Roaring Fire Within]. - Common

- The Roaring Fire Within (Aura/Affinity/Buff): Flaming aura spreads from your core and throughout your body, and your attacks and skills deal extra aura fire damage by a 0.15% increase per instance of active [Burning Anger]. Your fire aura, coursing through your body, punishes any would-be attacker as well, and they suffer 2 HP points of damage whenever they come into contact with you, and have a chance of triggering the [Burning] status effect, which deals 5 HP damage per second for 10 seconds (effect can be refreshed). Your raging aura also leaks from you, and any skills, aura or aether based, within a 6-foot radius of you, will have their effectiveness and control decreased by 0.25% based on your active [Burning Anger] instances. Warning: Consuming instances of [Burning Anger] will now also cost an additional 2 HP points (on top of the current HP cost). - Common

 

"Well, damn…" Nar whispered, his eyebrows rising to almost touch his hairline.

"Mul's new skill?" Kur asked, looking up from whatever he had been looking at together with Gad on her screen.

"Yeah…" Nar said. "Pile…"

"Yeah," Kur said, with a weary nod. "It's something, isn't it?"

"It is! But it also costs him even more HP than before! Is his path going to end up like Rel's?"

Kur grimaced. "Similar maybe, though I don't think his path comes with all the pain that her's does…"

"Oh…" Nar said, pressing his lips tight. "And we can't stand near him either. 6-feet is not a lot, but it means he can't stay inside the formation anymore… And that radius is bound to grow when that skill upgrades. And so will that HP cost. Crystal, it's a good thing he's been stacking up on [Constitution] and [Toughness] since the Ceremony, but without a healer… And not just him, but Rel as well."

"We'll deal with both of their paths when the time comes," Gad said. "For now, all we can do is start planning."

"And I'm sure we'll get a healer at some point," Kur said. "Probably after the dungeon… It's impossible for us to keep going like this. Or for anyone else, really. A healer's a must for any party!"

"Right," Nar said, his eyes shifting to the last window, trepidation pushing his heartbeat as he considered Viy's new skill.

An active skill this time, he noticed.

 

The Weight of Guilt (Affinity/Debuff): Never forget what you did… Invoke the memories of the past, and project your guilt in an area-of-effect (AOE) debuff that extends to a 10-feet radius around you. Those within will have their [Speed], [Agility], [Dexterity] and [Reflex] reduced by a flat 10%, and they may be forced to relieve their own guilty memories as hallucinations, affecting their senses and minds (effect based on how guilty the target feels about whatever memory/memories are triggered). Effect cannot be resisted unless the affected entity is at least 35 levels above the skill's user. Costs 8 aura and 2 stamina per second to maintain, and you must relive and hold onto your guilt to keep it active. - Uncommon

 

Crystal… What in the fucking Pile is this?

Having been knocked out pretty early in the den, and having not been able to recover from the psaelis' initial mental assault, Viy had gained no new skills or upgrades at all from their first assessment. Unlike Jul and Mul, her affinity path correction had not been triggered at all, which had been a great cause for sadness and disappointment for Viy.

However, considering the skill now before Nar… Its power and capability was undeniable, but to be powered by guilt like that? He had severely underestimated what it meant to have an affinity. Like Jul's fear, Mul's fiery anger, Viy's guilt was more than just a simple flavor of one's path… It was something intrinsic to one's true self, and something that affected them on more than just combat! It reached to their personal lives and changed them. Jul seemed set to develop a bit of a reckless streak to her, while Mul had his anger leashed behind that suppressor, and now Viy…

What is this going to do to her? Nar wondered, dread bubbling within him. And does this mean that she also won't be healing from whatever happened to her?

And unlike Mul, she wasn't suppressed, and her skill's AOE had a even bigger range than Mul's. Which meant, already on their next fight, the spearwoman would have to be pushed outside of the formation, and left to fend for herself…

Or we'll be slammed by that attribute's debuff and those hallucinations as well… Crystal, how is this thing just an Uncommon skill? Just how many people are walking around with a guilt affinity? He wondered as he looked up from the screen. Noticing him, the other two also looked up expectantly from their respective introspections.

"So?" Kur asked. "What do you think?"

"I think I see why you're so worried," Nar said. "We need to make changes. We can't go on as we have so far…"

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Go on," Gad urged him.

"Well, Viy is pretty obvious," Nar said, scratching the back of his neck. "We either don't use her new skill, or we need to keep her away from the rest of us, as I doubt any of us are immune to guilt."

"I doubt that too, so she'll need to move well away from the party," Kur said, groaning. "10-feet is a lot in battle, and we'll need to constantly be careful not to walk into her AOE. Or Mul's, when he's cleared to use his affinity skills."

Nar nodded.

"We wanted Viy to be the new center of the party, like we tried in the den," Gad explained. "And using her reach and new spear training to help me, Mul and Jul on the front, as well as to keep Cen and Kur covered from any threats popping up from the sides and the back if need be, worked incredibly well. But now, that's gone."

Nar nodded. "And… I'm guessing we're not going to stop her from using her new skill? I mean, to have guilt has a cost to power a skill is a bit…"

"That's the way affinities go," Kur said, groaning as he rubbed at his bloodshot eyes. "It's a lot more than just a damned flavor to our souls or paths, isn't it?"

Nar could only nod, wincing. "These paths based on the "bad" emotions are… They're rough."

"Jul's isn't quite like that, but yes, they are not the easiest ones, are they? Even if they are revealing themselves to be quite powerful," Gad said, raking a black, shiny claw against the dark scales of her chin. "At the very least, I don't think we will have trouble with lackluster DPS."

"Oh, yeah! Not worried about that at all!" Kur said. "And despite its hefty mental cost, the stamina and aura costs aren't bad… This [The Weight of Guilt] is going to be devastating to anything that approaches Viy. Devastating!"

"But she'll need to be pushed outside of the party," Nar said. "Which means that she'll also need to be able to defend herself as well. Though maybe the ranged can still cover her?"

"Well, her [Agility] has upgraded to [Agility*], and with her spear's area-of-denial, we can expect her to have some survivability, but she's not a tank, and she's not a brawler either," Kur said. "And while Rel and Tuk can cover her to some degree, once the enemy is too close, it becomes a tossup between hoping Viy can handle it or risking hitting her."

"Hmm, I mean, she's always had that sort of… Unpredictable streak to her, right?" Nar asked. "Even when she… Ran into the cannibals, she kept herself pretty safe. If she hadn't run out of stamina, and if the mental stuff wasn't going on, she would've just as easily made it back to the line on her own. She wouldn't have needed my help."

"And that is the only reason why we're even considering pushing her out of the formation," Gad rumbled. "Great skill or not, we won't put her life at risk."

"Makes sense," Nar said. "But, actually, how did Mul learn this new skill? I thought the suppressor would prevent that until he was in control?"

Kur sighed, his shoulder hunching. "And he wasn't supposed to make any more skill gains. The plan was to halt his affinity path correction until he had gained a good level of control over his rage, but not even the suppressor can stand against "you are what you do". He used his aura and anger too much in the confluence, even without enraging. And now, it's proving even harder for him to learn to tame it."

Nar's stomach dropped. "But, he will, right? Learn to control it?"

"Oh yes, of course!" Kur said. "That's not in doubt. He's stubborn enough to beat it under control, but it will be a much harder and longer process now. At best, its been delayed to after this dungeon delve."

"So, what do we do? Does he stay where he is?" Nar asked.

Kur nodded. "For now. With the suppressor blocking him, he can stay where he is, to Gad's right side. But that's just temporary. We'll still need to figure out what to do about his path and position in the formation… He's begun learning self-defense techniques with his path, and he's been making significant gains in [Constitution] and [Toughness], but, right now, I just don't know what will happen to him. Or what to do for him."

Gad patted the party leader's shoulder.

"We'll figure it out when the time comes, we always do," Gad said. "We can think about it now, but no use losing sleep over something that is yet to come."

"Ugh… I guess," Kur said, though he didn't sound convinced in the slightest. "And then there's Jul…"

"She'll need protection," Nar said immediately. "Cover".

"Yes," Gad agreed. "She will stay at my left side, where Viy started out. Her combat capabilities grow by the day, and Jull will become a deadly fighter in time, but her [To Cast Out Fear] is a double edged blade, and it will require attention from us, to make sure she doesn't lose herself into falling in the complete opposite direction. And I'll keep my eyes on her, and my [Awareness] during combat, to keep her safe and on the right path… Well, as much as I can during combat, at least. Without my affinity, my own path has stalled."

It was Kur's time to reach over and pat her back. "Soon. Maybe in this dungeon, hmm?"

"Maybe…" she conceded.

"So, the real problem now is Viy," Nar said.

"And the loss of what was supposed to become our secondary pillar of defense and support in our new formation," Kur added. "Right now, we're thinking of having you stay to the right side of Mul, but at about 10 feet from him, while Viy does the same on the left side of Jul. She'll be at a safe distance to use her skill, and she'll be able to cover for Jul as well if need be. At the same time, the ranged will just have to do whatever it takes to help her not be overwhelmed."

"That will cover our flanks then," Nar said. "And Gad and the others will keep the front secure and the DPS flowing."

"And you can move to the back if needed too," Gad said. "Mul can hold himself for a while if he has to, and I can move a little with him."

"So, I'm staying to the right side now, and covering the flank and back," Nar said. "With Tuk, I assume?"

"Yeah," Kur nodded, a grimace taking his tired stare. "I'm sorry, but we'll need to put a hold on your independent role for now. Things are just too messy at the moment, and I need you to keep the formation from falling apart…"

"Of course! Don't even worry about it!" Nar said. "So, is that the new formation, then?"

"Maybe. I don't know," Kur said, his shoulders sagging. "We have a few more options… Well, two other options, but this one's the best we've come up with so far. And I guess with our lives on the line, I can't spend too much time or consideration for whatever future gains we might or might not get… I need to focus on getting us through this dungeon first."

He glanced down at Gad's screen, dazed and lost in thought for a moment.

"How about you?" Nar asked him.

"What about me?"

"Didn't you get a new skill too?" Nar said. "Earlier, you said it was troublesome too."

Kur's face dropped. "Oh, that…"

"Come on! It's not that bad," Gad said, elbowing him.

"Easy for you to say…" Kur said, sullenly. He reached over and pulled back his screen, then he tapped across it with a series of irritated taps and flicks, and then pushed the screen back to Nar, who saw that a new window now stood above the other six.

 

Reputation Amongst the People (Affinity/Buff) (Passive): In order to influence, one must be influential. Your skills are further boosted by your reputation, the number of those who know you, as well as those that consider your voice an influential one. (Buff is non-quantifiable). - Uncommon

 

"Eh?" Nar said, staring back at Kur. "What's this even supposed to mean?"

Gad chuckled. "It means that Kur needs to make friends… And impress them, and the more the better."

"Really?" Nar asked, shocked. "Is that what this means?"

"Pretty much," Kur said, with a miserable downcast stare

"But… This isn't bad!" Nar said, confused. "No? You just need to talk to people, and you love talking to people!"

"I love talking to people that I know!" Kur corrected. "And I don't need to just talk to people, I need to impress them, Nar!"

"So? You're pretty impressive!"

"I… What?"

Gad erupted in laughter as Kur's mouth worked wordlessly, all his momentum and moaning lost in the face of Nar's honest rebuke.

"See? I told you," Gad said. "It'll be fine."

"Whatever…" Kur said, looking away. "Doesn't really matter anyways…"

"Yeah, it does!" Nar said. "It's going to boost your skills, so it's going to boost all of us! Go and impress people, damn it!"

"Bah!"

Gad grinned at Nar. "Don't worry. I'll make him do it."

"I'll leave it to you then," he said, offering her a thumbs up.

"It's too late for this kind of non-sense," Kur protested, rubbing his eyes. "Going back to the actual important stuff…"

"This is important!" Nar said.

"Our skills and paths are pushing us apart, and forcing the formation wide open," Kur continued, undeterred. "And there's a growing focus on the mental and debuffing side of things, even DOTs as well, with your new [Aura Infused Strikes] and my [Sneer of Contempt] having them, as well as Mul being able to proc [Burning] in the future… But my buffs and debuffs, Rel's penance curses and mind affecting poisons, Jul's fear debuffs, and Viy's guilt and weight based AOE debuff as well, and it all adds up into a pretty clear picture. And although both Jul's and Viy's debuffs have physical effects, as does Rel's, the scale is starting to tip heavily towards mental and psychic based paths."

"Mul's fire is physical," Nar said. "So is my path for the most part…"

"Yes, but we don't have access to his fire yet, and your path, while powerful in its promise, is taking some time to materialize… Which, before you start worrying and apologising, it's more than fine and worth it!"

"Yes, you are laying much larger and wider foundations than any of us, but it will be worth it," Gad added.

"Hmm," Nar grunted, with a stiff nod.

"And so, at least for now, you are more geared for multi-target clean up and positional support to the party, especially if we do end up going with this new formation I mentioned. And Tuk overlaps with you in that sense, leaving out Cen, who is both good in single and multi-target, but which tends to be used more for long range multi-target damage, since we can't have her aura blowing up on our faces."

"So, we're lacking a strong single target path in there somewhere," Nar said.

"Yes. I'm hoping you will fill that role in the future as well, once your path develops further, and maybe even once you unlock your affinity," Kur said. "And Mul I think will most likely fill that role as well, with some AOE splash damage thrown into the mix. But that still leaves us heavily skewed towards debuffs and mental attacks."

Nar crossed his arms, pondering Kur's words. "But… Isn't that a good thing? I mean, that could be our focus, no? And parties can have any focus, as long as it works."

"It could," Gad offered. "Except we're missing a crucial component to make a debuff heavy combat strategy work."

Nar frowned at her. "We are?"

"We are," Gad said, nodding. "Debuffs, and even damage-over-time skills like Kur has, require time. Time to set up. Time to stack, and time to eat away at the enemy's HP. This sort of strategy requires time to tip the scales over in our favor, and more combat time means that there's a higher chance of us going down instead…"

The tank half-sighed. "We're severely lacking in the tanking and defensive side of things, even with you, and right now, we can't support a debuff and DOTs focused strategy."

"What?" Nar asked, leaning over the table. "What in the Pile are you talking about? You're our tank! We're not lacking anything!"

"Nar…" Kur said.

"You tell her!" Nar said.

Gad smiled at him, and raised her clawed hands to calm him.

"I am our tank, yes, and I am doing my best," she said. "But you're not in the Tanks Hall. The difference between those who have unlocked their affinities and those like me, who haven't yet, is like night and day."

Nar deflated. "I mean… It's the same for us DPS."

"True, but as the tank, I'm the core of the party. Everything hangs on and depends on me, and if I can't hold on as long as it's needed for the debuffs and DOTs to bring down the enemy, then we can't adopt that strategy," Gad said. "Not to mention, both DOTs and debuffs cause massive aggro spikes, and I'm already struggling to keep up with the normal DPS' aggro… My [Shield Call] taunt cooldowns are still too high, and even my [Threatening Hits] isn't generating enough passive threat anymore to hold on properly to the enemy. I'm simply too slow to be able to spread my attacks around me as you do, in order to keep aggro from my [Threatening Hits] higher than the guy's damage. And even my [Shield Barricade] bonus to [Constitution] and [Toughness] isn't doing much for me anymore, and that skill has a whole 30-minute cooldown."

"Still… You keep us alive, and you're holding the line just as before…"

"Yes, but not for long," Gad said. "I don't even have any aura skills, Nar, and my [Aura] has stayed the same since we've crossed those Pressure columns."

"Really?" Nar asked, shock writ all over his face. "I mean! No, I…"

"It's fine, Nar. It's the truth," Gad told him. "I need to unlock my affinity, and get some aura skills, otherwise, the formations and strategies available to us are going to remain limited. And very limited at that."

"It will come," Kur said. "You know that."

"I do," she relented. "But I'm not worried about the if. I'm worried about the when, and what that means for us now."

Nar sighed into his closed fist. It was impossible to argue against the logic and facts being arrayed before him, and sure, while he hadn't seen Gad failing the party in any way whatsoever, but it was also true that he wasn't in her boots. If she herself said she was struggling, he could only accept it, as hard as it was for him to see her performance as nothing short of exemplary, just as it had always been.

"Don't tell the others, though," Gad asked of him. "I don't want anyone worrying about me or the aggro. I don't want you guys to lose your trust in me."

"We wouldn't!" Nar shouted. "Ugh… Do you have any idea about what your affinity might be?"

Gad shook her head. "None. I just hope it's something useful, like metal, or stone, or something like that. Something that is strong and can hold the line for as long as needed, and against whatever comes our way."

"Hey. Don't go trying to skew your affinity! It will only delay its unlocking," Kur chided her. "Whatever it is, we'll make it work. There are no bad affinities, and there are many ways of using debuffs, DOTS and status effects!"

"Yeah!" Nar said, even if he didn't know any such ways that Kur was hinting at.

"There are no bad affinities, but there is compatibility between affinities. And affinities influence paths and skills, and thus combat capabilities," Gad said. "And that, you can't deny."

Kur shook his head. "Whatever comes, we'll make it work. I don't care, and neither does anyone else in this party."

Nar nodded effusively at his party leader's words. "And maybe you'll unlock your affinity in this dungeon!"

"Maybe…" Gad said. "I doubt it, though."

"Rather, you hope not," Kur said with a sigh.

"Why?" Nar asked, frowning at the tank.

"It's a very water and mud attuned place," Kur explained.

"And neither of which sounds good for a tank," Gad added.

"You don't know that!" Kur said, and from his tone, Nar knew it wasn't the first time he had said it. "Ugh! Anyways, it's late. Let's go to sleep! We can continue this tomorrow."

Water and mud, Nar thought, a few minutes later as he brushed his teeth. Don't think I like the sound of that either. At least from what I know of it.

But yes, Kur was right… In theory, at least. In theory, an affinity was just that, a flavor, a characteristic of one's soul that reflected onto their path and their lives. It was not an indication of whether someone was, or would become, stronger or weaker in comparison to other delvers or other affinities.

Sure, one could unlock a normal affinity, or, like in Jul's rare case, a true affinity, and that was supposed to bring with it several boons he still wasn't sure he fully understood yet. But in regards to what affinity one had, they should all be of equal potential. It was on the auramancer to bring out the true might of his affinity and path, or not. And there were still levels, attribute density and "you are what you do" to take into consideration as well. That being said… It was hard not to have preferences, from the limited knowledge that he had.

He had seen plenty of cool skills and affinities since joining the Scimitar, and his initial preferences for wind or lightning were not as strong as they had initially been. Unfortunately, he himself was still no closer to finding out what his affinity was.

He had noticed that his aura seemed to burn through things, more often than not, but that was far from a unique effect. It was similar for Tuk's rings as well, though not as pronounced, and Cen's [Aura Projectiles] also seemed to explode into raging, if brief, flames. Un-affiliated aura just seemed to inherently be related to heat and explosions by its very nature as an energy source… But that was about it. In the end, all he could do was wait.

Maybe it would be his turn to unlock his affinity in the following dungeon, and while water or mud didn't sound very exciting, nor did he feel any particular resonance to either, in the end, as long as it brought him strength, he would take anything.

He wasn't really that concerned about what he unlocked, only that he did it, and soon.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.