章 12: Stupidity of Stone
The lore detailed the Crystalians as creatures with prodigious intellects, manufacturing agreements with the Carains, and even imparting knowledge.
Thus, despite their hostile welcome, Godrick attempted negotiation, curious about their fabled intelligence and a tad bit intimidated by their Mind and Intelligence stats, but it all went to shit.
The Crystalian with the Ringblade lunged first, releasing a smaller circular disk that flew toward him with incredible speed. He instinctively stepped aside, raising his hands in a block; the projectile should've missed, but it curved, managing to slice through a piece of his flesh like butter before burying itself in the wall.
'Dangerous,' he frowned as he shot forward, the flesh on his arm already knitting itself back together owing to his talisman. A large spear that shined a bright blue pierced toward him as he moved forward, its unassuming tip intensely ringing his alarm bells.
With a graceful twist and parry, he took control of the weapon, spinning the Crystalian and throwing it into its friend. They both crashed into the cave walls in a tangle of stony limbs, disgruntled but without a scratch. If he hadn't increased his Dexterity, he would've been pierced through the kidney, but thankfully, the Crystallian had stiff, mechanical movements that he could see coming from a mile away.
Taking advantage of the breather, Godrick attempted to use his Great Rune, now glowing brightly in his soul, to cast an Incantation, and to his happiness, not only did it work, but it took a lot less FP to do so.
"By the Gilded Erdtree's light, my oath doth bind!"
(FP-15)
[Golden Vow]
A second skin of gold covered his body as he dashed forward, letting loose a punch that rammed into the Ringblade's Crystallian's torso, sending a small shockwave in the cave; the golden skin lit up, increasing his damage by a flat 15%.
BANG!
A thin crack formed on the glintstone torso, stubbornly refusing to yield, but he did not care. He was finally having fun. Fighting lifted him from the dull monotony of his existence and made his blood boil. Perhaps he was indeed more like Hoarah Loux.
His fists rained down upon the Crystalians as he tried his best to dodge their unnaturally deadly weapons. They occasionally cut deep into his flesh, completely ignoring Golden Vow's protection and drawing blood, but all that did was make Godrick more excited.
BOOM!
With a duck under the spear, his fist slammed into the blue crystal body, cracking and shattering the outer shell.
"Thy wisdom hath fallen into dotage, it seems," he smirked as he grabbed the broken Crystalian's face and crushed it with a palm.
[Crystillian Adept Killed. +500 EXP]
The Ringblade Crystalian, its visage marred by countless cracks, hesitated upon witnessing the demise of its partner, only to have its vision swiftly obscured by a large, imposing palm.
[Crystillian Adept Killed. +500 EXP]
(EXP 1100/800 (+))
Barely winded but covered in blood, Godrick took a moment to survey the aftermath. The once formidable Crystalians were now nothing more than glittering shards scattered across the cave floor. Their Vigor was laughable, but their near-impenetrable bodies and unusually deadly weapons made them a pain in the ass to beat.
He bent down, picking up the large eight-foot crystal spear that fit comfortably in his hands, prying it from the shattered crystal corpse. The moment he did so, the glow within it dulled considerably, greatly reducing its sharpness and durability.
[Observe]
[Spear fashioned from pure crystal; a deed impossible for a human. Enwreathed with powerful magic, its power scales with Intelligence. The inscrutable Crystalians have but one clear purpose; to safeguard their crystals unto the end. One theory posits that they yearn for the return of their creator who will carve for them new brethren.]
'Well, that explains a lot,' he frowned.
([Order Meditation (Active) Level 2->4: Use a visualization of the Elden Ring to greatly increase your FP regeneration (+1.5->2.5 FP/s). Later levels can turn this skill passive. Every level increases Mind and Intelligence by 0.5. Mind +0.5. Intelligence +0.5.]
Mind: 12.2->14.2
Intelligence: 12.2->14.2)
Indeed, the moment he felt his mind expand, so did the glow of the spear. It was still a far cry from the power that it possessed when the Crystalian used it, but it would do for now. He lay the spear across his wide shoulders as he looked around the lair. In the game, killing these two Crystalians would've given him a Somberstone bell bearing, but all he got were a few hundred runes which took refuge in his soul.
'Better than nothing,' he shrugged before turning back, absentmindedly scratching off dried blood on his skin. It was time to get to the rendezvous.
He made his way back, collecting two memory stones and a Glintstone staff from the corpses.
[Observe]
[A black, lightly beguiling stone. Prized by the sorcerers who produce them. Can store calculations required to manipulate life energy within Glintstone allowing instantaneous casts. Said to be a fragment of the black moon that once hung above the Eternal City.]
[Observe]
[Staff with a glintstone embedded at the tip. A catalyst for casting sorceries.]
He sent a stream of FP within a memory stone, only to be met with a swirl of numbers, diagrams, and calculations that he could not make any sense of. Even if he had double the Intelligence it would be useless to him. It was completely dissimilar to Incantations and was evident that he needed a teacher if he wished to learn sorceries.
Walking back, he dumped the loot on Earnan who followed him up the lift and out of the mine. As he emerged into the light, the forest around him seemed less foreboding. He felt a sense of peace that only strength could bring him.
No longer was he a frail aristocrat, but getting a big head would get him killed just as easily. Despite being a Demigod, he did not have the strength of one given how long he took to put down two Crystalians. Yet, time would tell whether he would disappear in history as one of the many dead Demigods.
***
"It's been five days," Madhadh said as he traced the mangy scar on his throat. "I'm getting worried."
"Commander is with him," Forthus bit into a thick piece of jerky as he lay back down next to the cart. They all had reached the Forest-spanning Greatbridge a couple of days back, a piece of architecture so wide that they could easily fit a small army on it, yet it now lay in ruin.
"If he can't handle anything down there, then we can't either, not to mention the Lord. The Lord'll figure something out, he always does."
"That's right!" Pavel, another soldier, furiously nodded. "Who knew we would be blessed to be under someone such as him? Did you see how fast he learned Meditation? I doubt even the Dragon Knights can compare to his speed!"
"Don't underestimate the Knights, Pavel," Madhadh said seriously. "They are formidable."
"What do you know, Dog-Bitten!"
"I know that I have another title, Pavel."
"What's that," Pavel snorted. "Bitch-Bitten?"
"Nah, bitch-fucker, since your mother's one."
"You-!!"
"Shut up! Both of you!" Forthus interrupted them both, shooting to his feet and looking at the cliffside before them. "Something's coming up!"
The entire group of soldiers scrambled to their feet, grabbing their weapons. The forest was rumored to be cursed, and they wanted no part of that. They pointed their weapons at the cliffside, from which sounds of something climbing were heard.
"What are you buffoons doing?!" a deep voice barked as a familiar man with dark skin and a white scar climbed up, a sword strapped to his hip and a long staff topped with Glintstone on his back.
"Commander!" Forthus' eyes lit up, and they all lowered their weapons, heaving a sigh of relief. They had expected some eldritch monstrosity to come up and swallow their souls, preventing their return to the Erdtree. "Wait, where's the Lord and...why do you have a sorcerer's staff?"
Earnan merely smiled at them as they examined his new golden tattoo on his palm along with his bright gold eyes.
"Did something happen to the Lor....ah," Forthus' voice trailed off as a man that he could only describe as Divine scaled the cliff and stood before them.
He towered over them, with looks that would make even Godwyn jealous, a large, exquisitely crafted crystal spear laid across his sculpted shoulders. His soft, golden eyes looked at them with the countenance of a God, making even the dried blood on his skin and the tent-cum-clothing look regal.
"I have achieved what I came here for," he spoke, and they fell to their knees. Before them stood a Demigod. In the flesh. "We must move onward with haste."
Perhaps their lord's speech was not all talk after all.
***
Damn, you guys demolished the 800 stone goal. Fine, you get that extra chapter bringing it to two more this week. My next powerstone goal is gonna be double this, but I have a feeling that it'll be destroyed too.
P.S : I made a few changes to how the character sheet looks like, with the block letters, let me know if thats fine. The entire Character sheet is in the auxilary chapter and will be constantly updated.
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