Zenith Affinity

“Who all wants to compete? Mia, Tia, Zed…who else?” Sky asked as they were at the sign-up office in the Adventuring Association in Ostbury.

Zaria was the first to respond, “I think I will give it a shot! I’m not really a huge pvp’er, but why not?”

“That’s the spirit, Zaria!” Tia said.

“I think I will join too,” Asheera Flamesong, the quiet elven bard, said.

“Really?!” Mia asked, joy filling her voice.

“Mhm.”

“Awesome! I can’t wait to see you fight!”

“Same!” Tia said.

“Great! How about you [Pink Lotus]? Do any of you want to fight?” Sky asked.

Alisha looked over to Ashariel and Sera, and both shook their heads in the negative. Helga was a different story: “Hell yeah, I’ll fight!”

The rest of her party was surprised, but the huge nothdren only had a smile on her face.

“Fantastic, that makes seven of you. All from the…Zenith Star Guild [★]?” The receptionist who was marking down names for the tournament also drew the guild tag in for each entry, as if it was going to be a part of the name next to it.

“Yup!”

“Alright, and you are all tier 2…perfect. So the tier 2 section will begin at noon tomorrow.”

“Could you tell us a bit more about it? Like, how is it set up?” Tia asked.

“Of course! It will be a single-elimination tournament that goes to either knockout or surrender. The goal for tier 2 is to have 32 fighters, and with you all that puts too...25. Hopefully we get a few more, or there will be byes.”

“I see, and how many for tier 1?” Tia followed up.

“We hit the 64-person mark, and we have since stopped accepting fighters, as it would just take too long, and most people are there to see tier 2 and 3 anyways.”

“Thank you so much for the help. We will see you tomorrow!” Sky said, ushering the rest of the guild out of the Association. Everyone made their way back to the warehouse, where Atticus was handing out dinner for everyone, minus the four from [Nature Green] who were staying in Osten. Not only that, but the two new members were there, and Alara was gladly helping Atticus with prep as Sky started talking about skills to help with PvP.

“So, here is the thing, once we get to tier 4, our specialized builds are so specific that it makes it difficult to switch to something that is min/maxed for PvP. But for these early levels, and maybe since this is real instead of a game, the builds don’t really matter if you have a few things.”

“Most important is choosing an ability that increases your damage, a multiplier of sorts. This can be something that works with your basic attacks, like how I have [Searing Light], which changes my basic attack to a Solar-based one, allowing my attuned affinity to increase the damage drastically,” Sky said.

Zedra picked up, “You always want to be able to proc your damage-dealing stuff, as well. It’s important…Yeah, Tia?”

The ninja had her hand raised, “What is 'proc'?”

“It’s a coding thing that has been adopted by gamers, meaning Programmed Random Occurrence. It’s a triggered effect. So, for example, my [Opportunity Strike] is only usable against a being that has been CC’d. But that means any type of crowd control, including stun effects, or lesser effects like blinds. I picked up [Shadow Powder]-”

“Pocket sand,” Sky stage whispered her interruption.

“I picked up [Shadow Powder], which lets me apply a blind to 3 enemies in a cone in front of me for three seconds. This allows me to activate my [Opportunity Strike] with the level 20 upgrade [Strike From Behind], where I can teleport behind the target to hit them. I get more damage by hitting something from behind,” Zedra explained.

“Ah, so your biggest damage stuff only comes if you can CC something first, but it usually works easily as a squad cause of Atticus and Dark Hero?” Zaria asked.

“That’s right. But since we are doing a bit of PvP, I made sure to grab my own CC ability, as weak as it is, to give me a trigger for my highest damage skill.”

“To reiterate, the things that will help in PvP are a damage multiplier, a CC ability, a means of negating or dodging some type of attack, and a movement ability. That is four things, or four abilities as a baseline that can help in combat, and don’t worry if you have used all your skill points already, I have as well, and I still think that overall, aura abilities are very important,” Sky finished her explanation.

“Sky…why didn’t you say this stuff yesterday or whatever? We could have saved a few abilities…” Zaria said with a huff.

“It’s not a big deal, either way, Zaria. We only had 5 skill slots in tier 5 anyway, and if you had tried to move beyond that, then you would see your skills not being strong enough, right? They would start to fall behind.”

“Wait, we only had 5 skill slots?” Zaria asked.

“5 per tier, but it’s not important to fill those out. The more skills you acquire, the fewer points you have to empower your other ones. Though, depending on your role, you will need a few skills in general,” Sky said. “But that’s not important, we can talk about group positions and skill priorities later. We are talking PvP right now!”

“Yeah, we are! Tell us what you picked up, Sky,” Zedra smiled.

“I am not afraid of sharing my abilities,” Sky laughed. “To start, my damage multiplier was my first ability, [Searing Light], but I have upgraded it twice so I can burst the stacks it acquires and so that my basic attacks, which are now [Flare Shots], pierce through multiple enemies, applying more stacks of [Searing Light] to all of them.”

“That’s a good one,” Ar’Gen said, nodding at the AoE damage dealer for [Reality Check].

“The next one was my level 20 ability called [Sun Flash]. This is a strong ability that both breaks stuns on me and applies [Blindness] on those who are looking at me. I can upgrade it again to remove some afflictions, but that will have to be a later skill point. That, in combination with [Solar Shell], which burns away ranged attacks and spells for its three-second duration, counts as my ability or skill negation, as well as my CC ability, which blinds others. Both of those skills are honestly perfect for PvP.”

“And obviously you have your sunny steps or whatever for movement ability, right?” Zaria asked, a bit of sarcasm in her tone.

Sky gave her a flat look, “You know it’s called [Flare Step], but I spent my level 23 skill point to increase distance, speed, and cooldown for the ability. It’s a solid choice that will let me keep my distance from melee fighters, or close the distance on fellow mages.”

She let that sink in, but it was Mia, the kambien ninja from the [Flamesouls], who asked an important question.

“Hey, Sky?”

“Yes?”

“Do you whisper your skills or whatever when you cast them?”

“No?”

She frowned, her red eyes looking contemplative, “I was standing near you when you cast your star ability, the one that launches the sun, or whatever, and I swear I didn’t hear anything from you when you did.”

“Oh, well, I don’t say anything when I cast my abilities; it would be a huge tell in PvP if I did.”

That silenced all of the listeners in the room, aside from those from her party. Kesa looked confused at first as well, since it was Sky that showed them how to cast skills and abilities without saying anything, but she hadn’t tried to keep that going for all her new abilities. She turned to her husband, “Have you been…?”

They were close enough that the partial question was enough for Dark Hero to know what she was saying.

He shrugged, “I look way better when I yell out my skills.”

Kesa laughed and shook her head, leaning back into Dark’s side as they sat next to each other.

“Sorry, Sky, how is that possible? As far as I have been told, you must invoke the words of power that describe our skills to cast them, or they can fizzle or fail,” Sera, a fellow mage, said.

“Hmmm, I haven’t been thinking about it for a while now, but if I had to put it into words…” Sky stopped talking for a moment and held out her hand. A small [Sun Bringer] appeared, growing in strength until it became its near-basketball size. “When a spell activates, you can feel the draw of it, right?”

Sera nodded, “But what does that have to do with casting it?”

“Simple, acknowledge the feeling of the skill. Feel the entire thing as it builds. Feel how the mana surges at the point that you would say the words to cast it. Then replicate the feeling by controlling your mana, and it is cast.”

She took the [Sun Bringer] that was bouncing in her hand and tossed it off to the side, where it headed to the smoothly shaped rock floor. Before it hit, Sky pulled all of the mana in the spell and absorbed it, a stream of burning light draining the star and returning to her hand. “Once you have control of your mana, all of your abilities are perfectly under your control.”

Zedra watched the display and was shocked to say the least, “Sky…that shouldn’t be possible.”

“Why not? It’s my mana, it's within my aura. I own it, and can pull it back if I want to.”

Zedra shook his head, “That…is crazy.”

Sera spoke up, “So, you are saying that you do everything by feel instead of using the incantation?”

“You just saw me cast [Sun Bringer] without the incantation or whatever it’s called. Try it. Cast your spells with the words, but focus on the feel. Then replicate how your mana flows through you to create the spell.”

Sera shook her head, “I feel like I am unable to start the movement of the mana without the words, though. That is how the mana moves.”

“Here, cast something at me, it’s alright, we have clerics present,” Sky said.

Sera looked surprised but decided to trust Sky, “[Ice Lance]!”

A small ball of crystalline blue light formed in her hand. In just a split second, it became a long spear of ice, and it shot forward at Sky.

Sky didn’t seem to be worried about it as she stood still. Her [Luminous Corona] was moving around her like breathing light. As the [Ice Lance] approached, her aura expanded and became a full [Solar Shell], a shield of magnetic and fiery protection. Just as the lance impacted the shell, it almost seemed to disperse against it, the conjured ice appearing to ignite and burn away as it hit.

“Did you feel it?” Sky asked. “How your words moved the magic within you to create the lance?”

Sera frowned, but nodded.

“Do it again, but don’t say the words, recite them in your mind,” Sky said.

Sera took a while to form the spell, starting by whispering it, feeling how the internal energy moved around, how it formed, and using part of her affinity to create the magical ice. On the third cast, she was barely speaking at all, just mouthing the words.

On the fifth cast, she said nothing, and her mouth didn’t move as she launched the [Ice Lance] at Sky.

Sky yelped as her [Solar Shell] was on cooldown and had to dodge the spell, “Nice job!”

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

The final preparations were only needed by the casters and magic users of the guild, as they hadn’t yet acquired someone to level the Artificer craft. The craft of Artificing was the creation of magical tools, devices, and channeling sources. Artificing works nearly hand in hand with Enchanting, as they often need to enchant parts for a better finished product.

There is an aspect of refinement that also works with Artificers, though it is inherently part of the craft and not required by an actual Refiner. Base ingredients come through a Refiner, which Artificers then use to create things like wands, staves, scepters, and magical foci in general.

The current casters included Sky, Kesa, Sera, Atticus, Amara, and the two druids from [Nature Green]. Most clerics chose a melee weapon, but Amara Goldtree enjoyed more of a caster build, with a staff. Atticus had the [Stormhorn Scepter] from the Zaphid Caverns and wouldn’t need an upgrade until Tier 3.

[Nature Green] was still out of the city and had yet to go through their tier 2 ascension rituals, so they would have to wait until after the Tournament for new gear.

Zedra was at the trade hall of the Adventuring Association for most of the day, keeping in contact with the rest of the guild via guild and party chat. He had been keeping an eye out on the market for weapons that he could purchase, or at least a base for Sky to enchant. He was able to acquire two staves that were drops being sold by other adventurers, maybe even players. The first was for Kesa, who wasn’t participating in the PvP tournament, but still could use a weapon. The water-attuned [Staff of Surging Waters] increased all water-based healing and even had an innate spell, [Golden Nova]. It sent out a holy-attuned nova of healing water upon activation, at a target location.

The second staff Zedra found was perfect for Amara Goldtree, called [Holy Warstaff]. It was just a simple warstaff that added holy damage to physical attacks and increased her holy affinity at the same time. It was simple and perfect for tier 2.

That left Sky and Sera.

Finding solar attuned equipment is a tough endeavor. Very few places had the solar attunement, and even fewer enemies used it. That made getting drops very difficult, and the only reason Sky was able to get enough solar essence dust and shards was because they dropped when she dealt damage and killed enemies. That was a standard for all players, especially after an ascension ritual.

In the lore of Zenith Affinity, if a mage were to attack a monster, that mage’s power imbues itself into the creature. When it died, that elemental essence that remained in the monster coalesced into essence dust, shards, crystals, or gemstones, depending on the tier of power.

The Ice attunement was much easier to find, though heading north would allow for more results. Thus, Sera and Sky were just given basic unattuned staves, which they would have to enchant. Sera was learning enchanting from Sky, but she was new to the system, and her crafting level was low. At the end of the day before the tournament, Sky and Sera were in the large crafting hall within the Adventuring Association.

Sera had a question as Sky set up everything they would need for the enchantments, including the staves that Zedra bought them.

“So, your affinity-improving enchantment is the highest tier?” Sera asked.

“Ehh, that isn’t quite the correct wording. It’s more like an efficiency thing. Saying ‘highest tier’ implies that it would be a tier 4 enhancement, but it’s more like, at my crafting level of 27, the enchantment I can do is the highest level of affinity improvement we could get.”

“And where did you get that from? Even looking through the menu, I only see attribute-enhancing enchantments."

“I got it from the first flame spear we got as a drop. I gave it to Zaria back when we were level 15 or whatever it was. I let her use it until we needed to start leveling our crafting, and I disenchanted it to learn the enchantment, and it was the highest efficiency.”

“What is it called?”

“[Empowered Affinity Enchantment], and it changes based on the essence shards we use. So, let’s start with your staff. It will take 10 ice essence shards for the enchantment, a tier 2 enchantment.”

Sky opened the crafting menu, centering her attention on the staff. She pulled her enchanting tool, and an open window on her HUD appeared just above the staff. She pressed the tip of the tool onto one of the ice essence shards, where it was promptly consumed like ink to a quill. She then began to follow the runic enchantment on the menu that would increase the ice affinity. 10 runes, 10 essence shards, and the enchantment was finished with a flourish of visible ice attuned magic.

The runes flashed and sank into the staff.

“And it’s all set! This will be perfect until tier 3, or until you find something that suits you better,” Sky said, handing the staff over to Sera.

“Amazing. So, if at tier 3, I disenchant this weapon, I will have the enchantment?”

“Indeed!”

Sky finished enchanting her own staff, first purging the remaining ice magic from her enchanting wand, then going to work to make a solar attuned staff. She will be ready for the tournament tomorrow.