Redemption Arc

The War of Fourassigned each of its characters elemental affinities. They were pretty important things in determining the usability of a build. Certain spells or skills couldn’t be used without sufficient elemental affinity. It also helped determine the resistance to any particular attack. Each affinity had a particular opposite, with some exceptions. Fire’s opposite was water; air’s opposite was earth—standard stuff.

Lord Lucian Villamar had quite middling affinities all down the board. Unlike his stats, they weren’t irredeemably awful. That didn’t mean they were anything to write home about. There was one affinity in particular that he had which was particularly robust.

Lucian had incredibly high dark affinity—the second highest in the game. Only the First Emperor had more, and he was the final boss. Lucian had 98% dark affinity. The First Emperor had 100%—he was the only character in the game to have a perfect affinity naturally.

For people that didn’t understand War of Four, that sounded pretty nice. In actuality, dark affinity was the worst in the game for playable characters. The reason why was because of the fact that the most prevalent enemies in the game—demons and monsters—often had resistance, even immunity, to dark attacks. On top of that, they used many attacks beside dark-elemental ones, making the resistance to its damage pretty useless.

The skills and spells that dark affinity granted access to were also not the best. They tended to be powerful, but had substantial drawbacks and awful accuracy. Lucian didn’t know whether or not that information would be useful in this new reality, but considering that blessing was precisely where he’d expected it to be, at least some of his knowledge had to be useful.

Lucian could feel the power of the blessing within his body rather acutely. Drawing upon it to harness the second effect didn’t prove to be much challenge. Once he did, it felt as though he was adrift within his own body. It was as though he was looking at his fundamental essence.

Lucian could see sparks of fire, firm pillars of earth… but towering above them all was a gargantuan fountain of pure darkness. It was so absolute that it seemed to suck away the color from everything that came near it. He had no doubt that this would be embodiment of Lucian’s dark affinity.

Tentatively, step after step, Lucian advanced toward this geyser of oil in this mindscape. He called upon the blessing in his body, and that same pearly white energy that he’d seen back in the water in the form of the blessing flowed toward the pillar of darkness and encircled it.

In his mind’s eye, he saw the power of the blessing wrap around his dark affinity and strangle it until it ceased to throb. Then, it constricted and twisted violently. In mere moments he was forced to cover his eyes as the most blinding light replaced the darkness.

Lucian emerged from that dreamlike state with a deep inhale of breath. He grabbed at his chest. The blessing was gone. The power that it had granted him wasn’t. The +5 MAG was nice—it made his lackluster magic jump up. But infinitely more important…

I’ve just gone from having the worst elemental affinity in the game to having the best, Lucian reflected with a smile.

Holy magic was absolutely fantastic. It had average power, but excellent accuracy—and most importantly, its spells had low stat requirements. On top of that, almost every attack skill healed the user partially. As mentioned, demons and monsters were the most common enemy. Demons were incredibly weak to holy damage. Against people, holy magic would be lackluster. Demons, though… it became supercharged. It was like a thousand-degree knife slicing through butter.

That wasn’t even mentioning the tremendous amount of support skills that holy affinity unlocked. He could use support spells and skills to compensate for his terrible stats—and healing magic might keep him alive.

And not only do I have holy affinity, it might be the highest in the game now, Lucian thought triumphantly.

It was possible to change elemental affinities in War of Four, but past a certain threshold, became inordinately difficult. Lucian had managed to raise the main character’s fire affinity to 97%, once, but this was at the very end of the game. From thereon, it took tremendous investment to raise it further. Now, before the game had even started, Lucian had 98% holy affinity. All of his holy attacks would do a ton of damage, and his support spells would last a long while.

It doesn’t change the fundamental problem, Lucian reflected. I’m still as weak as wet paper, comparatively, and that gap is only going to grow. But I have an edge against demons, and the best toolkit a guy could ask for.

Just as importantly, Lucian had proved that the knowledge that he had did apply to this world. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but he had a GPS to find his way. Lucian went over to his Evercodex and flipped open the endless book.

I have to write down every detail I can remember. Everything has to be planned out, documented. I have to treat this like a challenge run, in every fashion. If I do that…

Maybe there was a future for him yet.

***

“Lord Lucian…” Walter said, eyeing him with concern. “May I ask why you’re gathering all of the jewelry in the house?”

Lucian, who’d been picking up rings and necklaces from a large jewelry casket to place into a bag, glanced over at Walter. He wondered if he should be honest.

There weren’t any other blessings in the immediate vicinity that he could claim. Some of them appeared only at certain dates, or under certain conditions. He’d written down the next ones that he could get, and they all appeared after the first story mission. With nothing else to do, he’d spent the past two days reflecting on and refining his plan for the future as written in his Evercodex. Amidst that, Walter had been ever-accommodating. His only breach had been inviting Metterand over. Lucian couldn’t trust him, but he could expect good work from him.

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Metterand will find out anyway, Lucian reflected.

“I’m going to sell this stuff,” he said, then resumed putting the jewelry into his bag.

Walter sputtered in disbelief. “Whatever do you mean?!”

“I’ve got no money. Don’t need bling when I can’t pay for a thing,” he rhymed.

“Bling, sir?” Walter repeated.

“Ring, I meant,” Lucian diverted. “Don’t need a ring.”

“I understand that your father cut off your allowance, but you might need to consider the prestige of the house. If the heir to the duchy is wandering around this city selling off his jewelry, rumors might spread,” Walter said urgently.

Lucian shook his head. “They can’t be any worse than the rumors I’ve already heard about me.”

Walter made a noise that indicated he still wasn’t fully comfortable with the situation, but he didn’t protest any more. Lucian didn’t want to spend his money this quickly, either. He didn’t see that there was any choice. This was a one-time thing to solve an immediate problem.

“I just think it’s a shame that you won’t be wearing anything nice on Renewal Day to the Collegium,” Walter said sadly.

It’s precisely because it’s Renewal Day that I’m selling this stuff. That’s when the demons first attack, Lucian thought. I need to buy some stuff to prepare.

Lucian could stay out of the danger in the attack itself easily enough. He knew where he could go to find some safety. But if he didn’t fight against the monsters, he wouldn’t be able to gain any stats. Aside from blessings, that was the only method he had to keep pace with the freaks that were part of the Student Ambassador program. He was resolved to take part in the fight that day.

On top of that… I’ll get to meet the protagonist, Lucian reflected. He stopped picking up rings from his jewelry casket as he lost himself in thought. Wonder what that’s going to be like.

Lucian stowed away the last of the rings, then tied the bag closed.

***

Lucian didn’t feel entirely out of sorts walking through the Veenish Canton. The square, practical buildings arranged in neat, tight rows were described by many of the NPCs in the game as claustrophobic. Lucian had lived in a big city before he became like this—comparatively, this place was homey.

The Veenish people were culturally different from Riverrans. Linguistically and ethnically, the four great powers descended from the Empire of Riverra, but culturally they’d diverged a great deal after independence. The Empire of Riverra and the Kingdom of Vantz had strict aristocratic hierarchies. The Republic of New Riverra was culturally closest to those two, though its aristocracy had been erased. The Confederation of the Veen didn’t fit with any of the three. Their society was very fractious, straining at the seams constantly.

Despite the outward appearance of austerity, the Veenish Canton was undoubtedly the wealthiest of all Verne. They were the merchant class gluing all of the disparate people of their confederation together. In the War of Four, this place always had the best merchants. Not the best prices, maybe, but they generally always had the good stuff. Right now, Lucian needed the good stuff.

Lucian found the store that he was looking for and held his hand out to push aside the door. Once within, the scene was exactly as he remembered it. Orderly rows of shelves and display cases, sets of armor in the back, swords and spears mounted on the walls, potions behind locked cabinets, and presiding over it all was a tan Veenish man that made Lucian look like a pygmy. He had a bald head, and a body as broad as a fridge. A rather well-sculpted fridge.

“You break something, you’re paying for it,” the man called out, his voice deep and impressive. “We only serve select clientele here.”

Lucian walked in. In the War of Four, would have to wait until a certain point in the game until this shop would be unlocked. But now…

“Do you think the heir to Duke Cyril Villamar is select enough?” he asked, producing his family’s crest with a beautiful purple butterfly on it.

The shopkeeper looked at the crest for a few moments, and then focused back on Lucian. “Welcome to the House of Commerce. Now that I know who you are…”

Lucian got ready for the VIP treatment, touching his outfit’s lapel.

“…I’ll repeat what I said earlier. You break something, you’re paying for it.” He leaned on the table, taking the wind out of Lucian immediately. “A lot easier to sue select clientele here in Verne. Robust legal tradition.” He tapped a big finger to his chest. “I’m Darius. Ask me for any help.”

He was surprised to hear a name come from this shopkeeper. Previously, it had just said ‘shopkeeper’ in War of Four. He supposed it was foolish to think he didn’t have a name.

Lucian sighed, then raised up his bag of rings. “I’m selling these.”

Darius opened the bag and took a look. He pulled a ring out. “You won’t mind if I run these by the authorities, will you?”

Lucian tapped his chest. “They’re mine. Took them from my jewelry casket, this morning.”

“Well, I know where you live.” He dropped the ring back into the bag. “Big castle called Villamar. If these goods are stolen, and our reputation—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lucian interrupted. “I also need to buy this stuff,” he said, producing a paper and sliding it over.

Darius scanned it briefly. “Trying to rob the bank?”

“Please. I couldn’t do it with that much,” Lucian said off-handedly. “…not that I’d ever thought about it.”

“Mmhmm.” Darius picked up the list. “Come back in an hour. I’ll have this all ready, plus your change.”

Lucian nodded and made his way out. The relationship with this shop would be very important. From what he knew, the House of Commerce was the most trustworthy store in the city. On top of that, the more the player spent at a single shop in War of Four, the better prices would get. He didn’t know if that would stay true, but either way the House of Commerce generally had the best supply.

***

A day had come and gone, and Lucian stood on a gondola as it returned to the Fourth Canton. He wore the black uniform of a student of the Collegium of Verne. It fit immaculately.

Lucian tipped the gondolier before stepping onto the docks at the Collegium. The place had been redecorated since the last time he’d been here, prepared as if for a festival. He wondered how the hell they decorated so fast—it seemed like all this had just appeared overnight.

Lucian looked around at the myriad people, adjusting the elaborate purple satchel he’d brought with him containing what he’d bought from the House of Commerce. It was time for Renewal Day… and Lucian’s first battle.