Delve - 140: Exploit
Author: SenescentSoul

140: Exploit - Delve | Royal RoadProgression Tracker [0.6.0]marker_1: softbed [2nd Fallow]
marker_2: enoughslacking [20th Fallow]
span: 18.22 days
Tolerances
Focus: 146 -> 193 (+47)
Clarity: 171 -> 179 (+8)
Attribute Buff: 177 -> 180 (+3)
Synchronization
Strength: 3.8 -> 3.9 (+0.1)
Vigor: 5.7 -> 5.8 (+0.1)
Focus: 10.0 -> 10.1 (+0.1)
Perception: 8.2 -> 8.4 (+0.2)

The Ice Cavern
+40 Strength
The Bottomless Well
The Lair of Embers
+1,000 Heat Resistance
We Can’t Just Call It ‘The Lair’
+200 Force Resistance
Oh Gods! Not Another Chem Lair!
+1,000 Mana
Southshore Rat Warren
+1,000 Health
Everdeep Fortress
+10 Perception

Saturation
Durability
Triplicate Plate
Durability
Hardness [1133]
500 Heat Resistance
500 Cold Resistance
375 Chem Resistance
250 Force Resistance
Thermal Regulation
1,000 / 25,000
19,220 / 19,220
Malleable Ring
Bound, Unity
200/287 Attributes [˃]
Thermalitic Bronze Ring
20 Heat Resistance
20 Cold Resistance
Thermalitic Bronze Ring
20 Heat Resistance
20 Cold Resistance
Chemical Pewter Ring
15 Chemical Resistance
Force Iron Ring
20 Force Resistance
Force Iron Ring
20 Force Resistance
Ethereal Goldiron Amulet
40 Arcane Resistance
40 Force Resistance
Digger’s Mattock
Durability
Hardness [1449]
+50% Strike Force
100 Force on Hit
1,000 / 10,000
7,446 / 7,446
Forcewall Shield
Durability
Hardness [1449]
100 Force Resistance
Kinetic Conversion
1,000 / 10,000
0 / 11,411
21,209 / 21,209
Forceweave
Ascension Cloak

Richmond Rain Stroudwater
Attributes
Resistances

“Begin,” Tallheart rumbled.

Rain banished his menus, leaving only his HUD to obstruct his view of the company hall. Simultaneously, he raised his arms, his cloak tugging at his shield as he reached for the clasps holding his overstuffed pack to his back. Grasping firmly, he pulled, and the pack and cloak fell away, freeing him of the constricting fabric and more than twenty kilograms of weight.

Sunlight brushed across his armor, the Force Steel seeming more like polished stone than metal. The surface was a gray so pale that it was almost white. His left arm bore a rectangular tower shield made of the same metal. At his right hip hung a mattock, which he reached for the moment his pack was free.

The mattock was a tool first and a weapon second, but no less dangerous for that. It was forged of Force Steel, with a long handle and a head that combined both pick and adze. As with the rest of his equipment, this would be its first real test.

Arrows from the encircling ring of archers began striking Rain’s armor. He cursed, lifting his shield to protect his eyes as he continued struggling to draw his weapon.

Shit. I was too damn slow getting out of the cloak. If this was a real ambush, I’d be dead.

His shield arm felt heavy. The metal the shield was made from was thicker than his armor, and if it wasn’t for the lightness enchantment, he probably wouldn’t have been able to lift it at all. His effective Strength was low at the moment, even with the boost from the Malleable Ring.

“Remember, players, count your own hits!” Val shouted.

Magic had joined the onslaught, Rain’s armor now lighting up with various colors as the different elemental spells struck. Light, Heat, Cold, Arcane—even Force, care of an exploding stone from Corrin’s sling. That was the real test, here, not the arrows. Those were mostly for fun.

Rain smiled, watching his HUD from behind the safety of his shield. Despite the barrage, neither it nor his armor had lost a single point of durability so far.

Element mattered.

When it came to Heat, he was essentially untouchable, no matter what Ascension threw at him. For Cold, it got more complicated. Nobody in the company—not counting Ameliah, of course—could lob an Ice Bolt hard enough to get past his flat resistance. However, if Rain got hit by Mahria, Tarny, and Staavo all within the same second, then the damage would surpass his resistance for that system tick. The overflow would then hit his armor, at which point, 99.9% of the damage would get converted into mana, saturating the metal. The remainder would theoretically damage its durability, but for the level of magic at play here, that wasn’t a real concern. Only once the metal was fully saturated would the Cold damage be able to affect it in any lasting way.

It was a similar story with Force, and by extension, mundane physical damage. Rain’s resistance applied to both. If an attack somehow managed to make it through that first layer of defense, a spell like Rockbomb would have to deal with the mana-swallowing properties of his armor. Physical attacks, on the other hand, would need to overcome its enchantment-boosted hardness instead. Even for their two awakened archers, Hanes and Stint, it wasn’t going to happen. Drilling Arrow was meant for piercing defenses, but neither of them had ranked it high enough for it to matter.

The dozen-odd unawakened archers were barely worth mentioning.

All of this wasn’t to say Rain was invulnerable, however. Far from it. At the moment, the Light and Arcane elements were the problems. Without a high resistance to take the edge off, his equipment was forced to bear the brunt of Jamus and Val’s spells.

Rain’s HUD was quite cluttered at this point due to all of the saturation bars he’d added. Of those, the ones for his shield, armor, and weapon were showing the most action, climbing jerkily with each hit. His new rings were on his shield hand and thus out of harm’s way. The Malleable Ring, in contrast, was on his weapon hand, exposed to the storm of magic. Fortunately, it had its Unity rune to protect it. Any magic it absorbed would get dumped straight into his armor. The ring itself would only start to saturate if the armor was full. Likewise, the Unity rune allowed it to piggyback on the Triplicate Plate’s hardness and durability, making it as resistant to physical damage as the armor itself.

The Malleable Ring wasn’t a weak spot. That was the whole point of the Unity rune in the first place.

Sauron, are you taking notes?

Rain chuckled to himself, watching the bars climb. With Solar Ray, Val could dole out around two hundred damage per second to a single target. Jamus could do better, at around five hundred dps with Arcane Bolt. Neither of them could keep that up forever, but they wouldn’t have to. Compared to Dark Steel, Force Steel’s passive dissipation was terrible, clocking in at a lowly ten mana per second. The three-metal stack comprising his armor came out higher than that, but even so, the two mages would easily be able to saturate at least one piece of his equipment before they ran out of mana.

Rain grinned. I guess I’ll have to stop them from doing that then. Val is too shifty to chase first. Jamus it is.

He pinged with Detection, then clicked his tongue as the signals came back twisted and fuzzy. Undeterred, he tried again, sharpening his focus. The shield is within my domain. It will NOT disrupt my magic.

The second pulse came back clearer. It wasn’t perfect—the thicker metal of the shield was still trying to twist the magic away from him—but it was good enough to sense the correct direction. Obviously, Rain could have just lowered the shield and looked, but one of the goals of this exercise was to simulate the kind of assault he’d encounter in the depths. Lowering your shield was an excellent way to catch a spray of acid across the eyes.

Heedless of the ongoing arrow storm, Rain tightened his grip on his mattock and advanced blindly toward Jamus, shield leading the way. He focused on his footing, picking up speed gradually rather than breaking into a flat-out charge. He didn’t make it more than five steps before a diffuse wave of Arcane light brought him up short, painting the dirt purple with reflected light.

That would be Arcane Bulwark. Jamus would never use his lightning skills with this many people around, and besides, the color’s wrong.

Rain peeked out from behind his shield. Arcane Bulwark was impermeable in both directions, so there was nothing to fear, be it a theoretical acid attack or an arrow through the eye slit. Jamus waved at him from about a meter away, smiling broadly behind a translucent curtain of purple magic, surrounded by archers and with Tallheart standing placidly behind him with his arms crossed.

Of much more immediate concern was Carten. The heavy clanking of footsteps had made Rain turn his head and curse as he spotted the bearded turtle barreling toward him like the eight o’clock train.

“Archers! Hold! Friendly in range!” Hanes shouted from the far side of the encirclement.

The steady thrum of the bows slowed, then stopped. A few last projectiles clattered against Rain’s back as he pivoted, planting his shield in the ground and preparing—perhaps unwisely—to receive Carten head-on. Just before impact, Rain dropped his center of gravity and dug in his heels. Not activating Force Ward was the hardest thing he’d had to do in the fight thus far.

The impact was deafening—like someone hitting a gong with a larger gong. Fortunately, Rain had over six hundred Force resistance at the moment, mitigating the damage completely. A large part of the momentum, however, still made it through. The hit was distributed evenly across his body, and he had to drop to a knee to prevent himself from falling. That was quite a bit better than what would have happened to him had he been unawakened and unprotected. The term ‘meat paste’ came to mind.

Carten, too, stumbled back from the impact, cackling maniacally as he spread his arms for balance. Seeing an opening, Rain struggled back to his feet, but by the time he’d reset his stance, so had Carten. The opportunity to strike was gone. Apart from that, he had other problems.

A metallic clang and the barest vibration made him turn his head, glimpsing Samson out of the corner of his eye slit before the swordsman darted away.

Another impact on the back of his left knee made Rain spin the other way. Lyn was there, wielding an iron-capped staff, and Fredek was right behind her, approaching with his spiked knuckles raised.

Damn, damn.

The four melee combatants quickly formed a circle around Rain, brandishing their weapons threateningly but not attacking. Rain let them brandish away, content to wait as his armor slowly bled off saturation. He wasn’t breathing heavily yet, but the effort of moving in the unfamiliar equipment was taking a toll on his stamina. The armor’s joints were stiff, binding in places. It was far from the effortless mobility of his old set, which had become so familiar to him that he’d occasionally forgotten that he was even wearing it.

This is why we test. Tallheart’s going to have to make some adjustments.

Rain blinked as a Firebolt suddenly splashed across his faceplate, the light temporarily blinding him before the disrupted Heat mana was lapped up by his helmet.

“Ava!” Samson shouted, looking across the ring. “Enough!”

“But I had a shot!” the little girl protested.

“Ava!” Mlem said warningly, grabbing his daughter by the hand and kneeling as he pulled her to face him at eye level. “We talked about this. You’ll hit the others if they move. You need to be careful, or I won’t let you participate in these things anymore.”

“But daaaaad…” Ava protested.

Rain shook his head, returning his attention to the fight at hand. My armor can take the abuse. So can Carten’s, though the mana conversion isn’t nearly as good. The others, though, they’d be in trouble if they took a hit. Fredek isn’t even wearing a shirt, the absolute madlad. We have healers on standby, but still.

“Hey, Rain,” Val said suddenly, making Rain jump as he appeared from nowhere. “Did anything get through at all?”

Rain relaxed slightly, then pivoted to face him. He smiled behind his visor, slowly shaking his head.

“Tch,” Val scoffed. “Full plate is bullshit. Good job, Tallheart, you made him invincible.”

“The test is not done,” Tallheart said, his words echoing strangely through the Arcane Bulwark. “Do not stop to talk. Attack.”

“Don’t mind if I do!” Carten roared. “Shield Bash!”

The impact was almost as loud as the previous one, despite the shorter run-up. Carten really wasn’t holding back. This time, Rain managed to keep himself on his feet and even to counter with the pick end of his mattock. The point struck Carten’s left-hand shield, triggering the on-hit Force damage enchantment as it did. Despite the boost, the tip found no purchase against the metal, skittering away harmlessly.

Rain frowned as new impacts began landing all across his armor. The other three fighters had taken their cue from Carten and had started exploiting his various openings viciously. A cut to the armpit, spiked knuckles to the kidney, a two-handed smash of a staff on the back of his head. None of it did damage, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise. They were earning points with each hit that got past his shield, and he wasn’t allowed to use his auras to counter.

“Come on!” Val shouted. “I have money on you, Rain!”

“Five, six, seven!” Fredek said in a single breath, landing a three-hit combo in the small of Rain’s back as he did. He did it again. “Eight, nine, ten!”

“Oi!” Carten said. “One punch ain’t one point! If’n it is, then this counts fer ten! Shield Bash!”

Rain’s feet slid through the dirt, and he stumbled. He swept his mattock around in a wide arc, deliberately keeping the head vertical instead of parallel to the ground. He wanted to fend the others off, not stake one of them through the heart. Fredek and Lyn darted back, but Samson ducked Rain’s swing with unnatural speed and stabbed him yet again in the armpit. Rain tried to counter, punching at the swordsman with his shield, but Samson was already out of range. Lyn’s staff cracked across his temple, the weapon’s metal cap clanging against his faceplate.

Reacting as fast as he could, he brought his mattock around to block Samson’s next thrust, but he misjudged the positioning. More accurately, he’d moved his arm further than he intended. Samson’s sword slipped past his guard, striking his armor yet again. It was a good hit, right at a seam where two of the plates met. Had Tallheart not been a metal wizard, Rain would probably have had an extra hole to breathe through.

“Critical strike!” Val shouted, apparently promoting himself to referee. “Five points to Samson.”

Rain clenched his teeth, struggling to bring his limbs back under control. Speed and Perception followed different rules than the other attributes. For Strength, the ‘total’ value of the stat applied to skill effects, while the ‘effective’ value applied to the body. For Speed, it was ‘total’ that applied to the body, while ‘effective’ applied to the mind, kind of. Perception also seemed to play a role there, somehow, and Vigor as well. He still hadn’t quite worked out all of the details.

In any event, with two Speed accolades equipped, Rain’s movements were twenty percent faster, but his synchronization had dropped proportionately. The resulting gap between total and effective Speed was extremely disorienting. It wasn’t even the same kind of disorientation that happened with Velocity. That was a tolerance thing. All of the practice he’d done didn’t translate. At the moment, the mechanics were academic.

In practical terms, Rain’s poor brain was having a bad time.

Samson swung again, and once more, Rain missed his block. “Damn!”

I can NOT fight with these equipped. So much for this accolade configuration. What I really need is the Precision aura. It probably works by buffing Speed sync, which would be GREAT right about now. Okay, mind on the fight, Rain. I’ll get used to them eventually. Let’s do this.

Despite his resolve, Rain’s humiliation continued for quite a while. He felt like a fool as he flailed about, hitting nothing but air. Carten forced him to remain hunkered down or else be toppled over. That allowed the others to dart in and out of range, racking up points by the dozens. Rain tried his best to keep the mattock moving as he’d been instructed, but his stamina was dropping, and his muscles were starting to burn from the exertion. Finally, he managed to disengage from Carten for a moment, and he used the opportunity to rush for Lyn, striking down at her with the adze end of his weapon.

Lyn had boosted physical stats and was wearing a helmet and a gambeson, but that wasn’t enough for Rain to strike at her with full force. He went for a slow, controlled swing, putting little strength behind the blow and not triggering the mattock’s on-hit enchantment. Fortunately for him, Lyn chose to block instead of dodge. She caught the mattock over her head with her staff in a two-handed grip.

Rain smiled, then ripped his weapon back as hard as he could, triggering the enchantment for good measure. The adze end of the mattock hooked on her staff and tore it out of her hands with the sound of splintering wood. Taking advantage of her surprise, Rain set his feet, then checked her with his shield. She stumbled back, managing to keep her feet under herself. After a moment, she raised a single hand over her head.

“Lyn was hit and surrenders,” Val called out. “Rain earns fifty points.”

“Nice hook,” Lyn said, nodding to Rain as she rubbed at her shoulder. “I should have been expecting that.”

Rain smiled, then was unceremoniously flattened by Carten.

“Shield Bash!”

Damn it! You don’t need to keep yelling it! Rain thought as he lost his balance, tumbling to the ground. He turned his fall into a roll, dust pouring in through his eye slit as he scrambled to escape the guillotine-like edge of Carten’s shields coming down on him.

“Woo!” Carten yelled, pumping a shield in the air, unbothered by Rain’s escape. “Grounded ‘em! Ten points!”

“Fredek! Watch out!” Samson shouted.

The warning came too late. From his position on the ground, Rain whipped his mattock into Fredek’s ankle and hauled the Passivist’s foot out from under him. Fredek went down hard, his head rebounding off the packed earth with a dull thunk.

“Fredek, hit!” Val cried.

Shit! No helmet! Rain struggled against the shield strapped to his arm as he tried to right himself, intent on rushing to Fredek’s aid. By the time he managed to get on his hands and knees, Fredek had sat up, raising a hand above his head.

“Fredek out!” Val said, without missing a beat. “Another fifty points to Rain!”

“Ouch,” Fredek said, letting his hand fall. “I’ll feel that tomorrow.”

Rain breathed a sigh of relief, then almost bit his tongue as Carten walloped him hard enough to topple him onto his back. He clenched his teeth, returning his attention to his own predicament. A healer would already be on the way. Fredek would be fine. For him, though, getting grounded was the number one thing Ameliah had said not to do. If he got pinned by a monster in the depths, things would probably be over for him.

Rain flipped himself over, still fighting the damn shield as he got to his hands and knees. His subsequent attempt to rise was foiled almost immediately as Carten crashed down on his back like a barrel full of bricks. The turtle’s weight flattened him, collapsing his arms and slamming his helmet hard into the dirt. He lost his grip on his weapon, linksight informing him of the moment it left his grip.

“Pinned!” Carten shouted happily. “Thirty points!”

“Twenty,” Val corrected him sternly. “No cheating, Carten.”

Rain struggled, refusing to yield, but it was no good. He was too weak.

Concentrating, he focused on his two equipped Strength accolades, attempting to push them out of their slots. It was far from the effortless action it should have been, more like trying to retrieve something heavy from a high shelf. The damage to his soul had thwarted his dreams of adding accolade management to his combat macros. After five seconds, he felt something give, and overhealth washed over him, calming the burning of his muscles. That wasn’t all. With the accolades gone, Rain’s effective Strength jumped back up into the double digits. Power filled his arms, and he bucked, surprising Carten and sending him flying.

“Pin broken,” Val said, amusement clear in his voice. “Carten loses twenty points.”

Rain pushed himself to a knee, then back to standing, his movements feeling suddenly effortless.

“Wha!?” Carten yelled, sitting up to stare at Val. “That weren’t in the rules!”

“I have seen what I needed to see,” Tallheart said, making Rain look away from his opponent. The cervidian’s voice was undistorted, the Arcane Bulwark having fallen at some point in the chaos. The smith uncrossed his arms. “We are done.”

Rain frowned, breathing heavily. He raised up a hand, still marveling at how light his arm felt. “Hang on, Tallheart. I haven’t tested the shield’s Kinetic Conversion ability yet.”

“There is no need,” Tallheart said. “It will work as I said.”

“Yeah, but I want to know how it feels with a real hit,” Rain replied.

“Fine,” Tallheart said, crossing his arms again. He shook his head slowly. “Do not take too long. Do your test. If you want to play, you can do so later.”

Rain smiled, then grimaced as he was forced to suppress an acidic burp. Damn heartburn. Too much rolling around on the ground.

He closed his eyes, then took a moment to push the Strength accolades back into their slots. He had to resist the urge to call up his status as his muscles began trembling, their strength draining away. He could check the results of his own experiment once the fight was over. “Okay, Carten, I want you to charge me just like you did before.”

“Right, lemme get a run-up,” Carten said, turning and walking away. Samson slipped his sword into its scabbard, nodding to Rain before moving to join the watching crowd.

Rain nodded to Samson in thanks, then returned his attention to Carten. His armor was Force Steel, just like Rain’s, though it lacked the flawless stone-like finish. The color was the same, more or less, though it was presently covered in quite a bit of dust. Rain had to fight off a sudden impulse to Purify both Carten and himself of the evidence of their battle. He’d indulge the clean-need once the fight was over.

Once Carten was about ten meters away, the big man turned and set his stance, looking at Rain quizzically.

“Whenever you’re ready, Carten,” Rain said, planting his shield in the ground and using Mana Manipulation to activate its Kinetic Conversion enchantment, which had been toggled off up until this point.

Carten grinned his trademark bearded grin, then clanged his shields together and charged.

Rain braced himself as before, keeping his eyes on his HUD. This time when their shields met, there was a flash of white light, and his shield’s saturation bar shot upward. Simultaneously, the bar showing the charge in its capacitance rune dropped. As for Rain, he moved not at all. He didn’t even feel the slightest impact. Carten, on the other hand, bounced away like a rubber ball, grunting in surprise. From his perspective, it must have felt like striking an immovable wall.

Rain smiled as Carten crashed to the ground with a metallic clatter. Nice.

Force resistance was fine for blocking damage of non-magical impacts, but it wasn’t great at stopping momentum, as this fight had proven many times over. That was where the Kinetic Conversion enchantment came in. In exchange for some of the shield’s charge, it converted non-magical force into the magical variety, which could be blocked completely. The tradeoff was that hardness didn’t apply to magical damage, while metal’s mana-absorbing properties did.

At the end of the day, as long as the shield had enough charge, Kinetic Conversion would allow Rain to tank hits that would otherwise have sent him flying. The rate was pretty cheap, too, the charge cost only being one percent of the damage converted. Granted, the shield had an abysmal charging efficiency, but if there was one thing Rain had plenty of, it was mana. Running out of charge mid-fight wasn’t really a concern. The metal would saturate long before it got to that point.

“Well, that certainly worked!” Carten said, climbing back to his feet. He laughed, rolling his shoulder. “Hey, whaddaya think would happen if I used Unyielding Defense at the same time?”

“That...is a good question,” Rain said, grinning. The Shieldwielding skill did basically the same thing as Kinetic Conversion, after all. “Let’s try—”

“Did I not say to play later?” Tallheart said sternly.

Rain sighed with a smile, rising out of his ready stance. “Fine, fine.”

“Fun’s over, I guess,” Carten said. “Time fer a beer or six. Find me later fer round two!” He nodded to Rain, then turned away. “Oi! Evonna! Evonna! There ya are. C’mon! Let’s hit the tavern!”

Rain smiled, shaking his head.

“Hmm,” Tallheart said, approaching. “The armor appeared to be binding. Was that so?”

“Yeah,” Rain said, raising his visor. “Particularly the left leg.”

“Yes,” Tallheart said, nodding. “I could tell. I will make some more adjustments.”

Rain gave him a thumbs-up, then activated Purify before Carten got out of range. He looked around at the spectators and former combatants, who were crowding in on him now that the combat drill was over. He smiled, seeing Val among them. “So, who won?”

Val snorted. “Not you, that’s for sure. I owe Ameliah ten Tel, now, so thanks for that.”

Rain blinked. “Wait, she bet against me?”

“I did,” Ameliah said, making Rain jump as she appeared from behind him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Easiest ten Tel I’ve ever made.”

“Ouch,” Rain said, turning his head to look at her. “I am betrayed.”

Ameliah snorted, then pulled him down into a kiss. As startled as Rain was by that, he was even more startled by the stamina that rushed into him through her lips, refilling what he’d spent during the fight. It took a moment, and Rain’s cheeks were burning by the time she pulled away.

Ameliah smiled at him playfully, though she was blushing as well. The crowd had reacted with predictable amusement. Rain slid his visor down to hide, but it didn’t really help, only triggering more laughter.

Tallheart snorted, clearly amused as well. “Come, Rain,” he said, turning. “I will need my tools. The layering makes alterations complicated.” He began walking in the direction of the workshop without waiting to see if Rain was following.

Rain glanced at Ameliah, then shrugged and went to retrieve his mattock. Ameliah grabbed his pack and cloak from where he’d dropped them, then joined him to have a brief discussion with Samson about everything Rain had done wrong during the fight. By the time they were finished with that, the crowd had mostly broken up, other than those busy collecting arrows. Rain had to resist the urge to join them.

He and Ameliah instead followed Tallheart’s path toward the workshop. Rain’s pack clinked as they descended the stairs, Ameliah having slung it effortlessly over a shoulder, despite the weight.

“So, did your test work?” she asked.

“I haven’t checked yet, hang on,” Rain said. He focused, creating a checkpoint, then summoned his progression tracker. He didn’t bother using his keyboard to type in the commands, simply executing them mentally, though it took more concentration to do so. As much as he liked feeling like a hacker, trying to type while climbing down stairs was a bad idea, especially with the Speed accolades still affecting him.

Progression Tracker [0.6.0]marker_1: enoughslacking [20th Fallow]
marker_2: afterfight [20th Fallow]
span: 2.1 hours
Synchronization
Strength: 3.9 -> 4.4 (+0.5)

“Yes!” Rain said, grinning and almost missing a step in his excitement. “I am going to abuse the shit out of this!”

Ameliah smiled. “You’re in a good mood today.”

Rain smiled back. “I suppose I am.”

The armor was amazing. The accolades were amazing. Ameliah was amazing. This test result was just the icing on the cake. The only significant damper on his mood was his continued failure to restore Dozer, but after two weeks of trying, he’d reached something like acceptance. Recovering the slime wasn’t going to be a quick process. The odds were good that if Dozer hadn’t degraded by now, he wasn’t going to.

I can probably start unlocking skill trees again. It should be safe enough…

“I still don’t understand this test you were running,” Ameliah said, interrupting his thoughts. She pushed open the door to the workshop, revealing it to be deserted except for Tallheart, who was busy at a workbench. He looked up as they entered, then gestured to a mannequin that they’d been using as an armor rack.

“Remove your armor. I will see to it in a moment.”

Rain nodded. “Sorry I took so long. I needed to talk to Samson.”

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled, returning to whatever it was that he was working on. “It is fine. I have become distracted as well. Excuse me while I finish this.”

Rain smiled, looking at Ameliah as he headed toward the mannequin. “Right, how can I explain this? So last night, when I was binding all those accolades, remember how I was losing my mind trying to figure out why my stats were dropping so much?”

Ameliah snorted. “I do remember that. I was trying to sleep.” She unslung his pack from her shoulder, lowering it to the ground. “Something about synchronization. Here, let me help you with your armor.”

“Thanks,” Rain said, depositing his weapon and shield on the workbench next to the mannequin. “Anyway, I managed to figure out the formula, and then I ran some tests with Focus. You can’t go over one hundred percent, but you can get back to it. At least, I think you can. Today’s experiment was to see if it works the same way with Strength and to figure out how much of a training benefit you can get from—”

“Slow down,” Ameliah said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Start at the beginning. Assume I wasn’t listening to you yesterday. Like, at all.”

Rain chuckled, placing his helmet on the workbench. “I suppose I deserve that. I wasn’t being very coherent, was I?”

“Not even a little bit,” Ameliah said, smiling at him.

Rain snorted. “The beginning. Okay. Hmm.” He scratched at his beard, then gestured. “So when you add points to Strength, it takes a while for them to kick in physically, right? ‘Growing into your stats,’ as the expression goes.”

“Stop waving your arms around,” Ameliah said. “You’re making this difficult.”

“Sorry,” Rain said, holding out his hands.

Ameliah grabbed both of his gauntlets, then twisted until they uncoupled from his armor. She gently pulled them free, taking all of his rings with them.

Rain gasped. The blast of overvitals was quite the rush, but it was the loss of Strength that hit him the hardest. He fought not to stumble, his muscles suddenly trembling.

“You okay?” Ameliah asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m fine,” Rain said, steadying himself against the workbench. The trembling stopped. He shook his head, then continued his explanation. “So, that adaptation period got me thinking. Up until last night, I’d been treating synchronization as a percentage. That’s not wrong, as far as the effect goes, but it’s a flat number under the lake’s surface, just like tolerance. That’s the key.”

“I still have no idea what you’re trying to say,” Ameliah said, giving him a look.

“Sorry,” Rain said, struggling with a pauldron. “Let me try an example. Let’s say Bob is newly awakened, meaning he’s got ten of each stat and ten free points. He wants more health, so he adds all ten to Strength. What happens? His max health goes up, yes, but he doesn’t feel any stronger. Then, over the next few weeks, that changes as he grows into it. Sound about right?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works. Bob, huh? Funny name.”

Rain smiled. “For the sake of argument, assume Bob had fifty percent sync to start. That would give him an effective Strength of five. When he adds ten points, his total Strength doubles, but he doesn’t feel stronger. That means his effective Strength doesn’t change, right?”

Ameliah shrugged. “Sure.”

Rain nodded. “The only way for that to happen is if his sync dropped to twenty-five percent. Over time, his sync rises, yeah? Just from, like, walking around and stuff. Because it’s so low, you see? That’s what ‘growing into it’ means. It’s your sync rising.”

“That makes sense,” Ameliah said. “Ready for the chest piece?”

Rain nodded, raising his arms. He sighed in relief as she pulled the piece of armor up over his head, the weight of its resistance enchantments fading to the background.

“Better?” Ameliah asked, smiling at him.

“You have no idea,” Rain said, sucking in a deep breath and stretching. “I really hope I can get used to that. I still don’t understand what the hell is up with soulstrain when it comes to resistances. Also, my tolerance for Focus is past what I thought was the limit. Still waiting for an explanation on that one.”

“One thing at a time, you,” Ameliah said, poking him in his newly unprotected ribs.

Rain laughed, rubbing at the spot where her finger had landed. “Yeah, yeah. Make fun of the Dynamo. Anyway, so Bob. My point is that if you think about sync the same way you think about tolerance, the math becomes easier. Bob starts with ten points of Strength, five of which are synchronized. Then, when he adds the ten points he got from his awakening, it becomes five synchronized over twenty total. Five over twenty reduces to one over four, or twenty-five percent. You see?”

Ameliah nodded. “And you’re saying it works the same way for accolades? That’s hardly a revelation. You need to get used to them. I could have told you that. I have told you that.”

Rain sighed as he shimmied out of the last few pieces of his armor. “Yes, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make.” He stood, feeling a bit exposed, standing there in just his forceweave. It was just Tallheart and Ameliah, but still.

He shook his head. “I’m trying to explain why it works the way it does. My progression tracker was going crazy when I had it showing my sync as a percentage. I’d slot an accolade, and it would tell me it had gone down, which was technically correct but confusing as hell. Now, I’ve got it showing me the flat number. It doesn’t change when I slot or unslot things. It all makes sense again.”

“To you, perhaps,” Tallheart said from across the room, still hunched over his workbench.

Ameliah laughed as Rain waved a hand at Tallheart dismissively. “Anyway,” he said. ”Going into that fight, I had 3.9 points of synchronized Strength. Now, I’ve got 4.4.”

“Congratulations?” Ameliah said. “Wait, you’re weaker than Bob?” She smiled teasingly.

Rain stifled a sigh, fighting to hide his frustration. Some of it was from Ameliah and Tallheart not taking this seriously, but the rest was directed at himself. I am so bad at explaining things…

He shook his head. “Look, I’ve been training like a madman for months, excluding the past few weeks, and my progress has been getting slower and slower. Compared to how much I’ve been getting, half a point of Strength sync in a couple hours is ridiculous.” He gestured enormously. Looking around, he walked over to Romer’s workbench and stole a piece of paper and a nub of charcoal. “Here, let me give you the formula.”

“Oh, fine,” Ameliah said, following him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, nestling her chin against his neck as she watched over his shoulder. This, of course, was incredibly distracting, but Rain pushed through, pointing at the paper when he was finished.

“Here, look.”

E = Effective stat points
S = Synchronized stat points
B = Base stat points
A = Stat points from accolades
M = Stat points from items/magic
T = Tolerance min = minimum function. Ex: min(1,2)=1
E = min(1, S/(B+A))*(B+A+min(M, T))

“That’s complicated,” Ameliah said flatly.

“It isn’t as bad as you think,” Rain replied. “Just try to work out what it means? Please?”

Ameliah snorted, hugging him tighter. “You’re sure there isn’t something other than math you’d rather be doing right now?”

Rain felt his cheeks heating, acutely aware of the way her body was pressed against his. “Come on, Ameliah, this is important.” Later, though…

Ameliah laughed, releasing him. “Fine. I’m just teasing you. I can tell this is important to you, so I’ll try.” She stepped beside him at the workbench, pulling the piece of paper in front of herself. “Okay, let me think. Don’t help me.”

Rain found himself simply watching her. He got lost studying her features as she stared at the equation with a look of immense concentration on her face. Soon enough, though, she blinked, looking up at him. “Huh. So that’s why you got weaker when you slotted the Strength accolades.”

Rain beamed, feeling unreasonably proud all of a sudden, both of Ameliah and of himself as a math tutor. Ameliah was as smart as anything. Her lack of mathematical skill merely came from not having suffered through umpteen years of primary education like he had.

“What?” Amelia asked, a note of laughter in her voice.

Rain cleared his throat and looked away, then tapped his finger on the paper as he tried to rein in his expression. “The formula says they decrease the effect I’m getting from the ring. It all makes sense—mathematically, anyway. As for why the system works like that, your guess is as good as mine. It seems like it was designed to be as confusing as possible.”

“You don’t say,” Ameliah said, rubbing at her chin. “You know… I think you’re right about this. You know about overleveling, right?”

Rain nodded. “Staavo mentioned that a while ago when I told him about how I leveled three times in one day. It didn’t make sense to me, though, as I never had the issues he was describing. Warriors feeling weaker, mages getting more headaches for a little while... That kind of thing?”

“Right, exactly,” Ameliah said. She pointed at the paper. “This could be why it happens. If a person has a Strength boost on their equipment, they might feel weaker after they level. Or they might not notice. It would depend on the numbers.”

Rain blinked, then tilted his head, thinking it through. After an embarrassingly long moment, it clicked. “Of course! Ameliah, you’re brilliant! The weakening effect from leveling isn’t bad if you’ve got a normal stat distribution! Accolades are rare! Items, too—good ones, anyway. The formula does describe overleveling! People do know about this; they just don’t know why it happens!” He grinned. “Or how to exploit it.”

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled in Rain’s ear.

“GAH!” Rain jumped, leaving the floor completely as his heart tried to claw its way out of his chest.

“You are correct, Rain,” Tallheart said, ignoring Ameliah’s sudden uncontrollable laughter. “My armor boosts my Endurance significantly. I have never been able to use Endurance accolades without pain. This formula….hmm. Now I understand why.”

“Depths, Tallheart, don’t DO that!” Rain said, pressing his hand to his chest. He doesn’t have Soften Steps any more, so how didn’t I hear him?

“Never lose focus on your surroundings,” Tallheart said as Ameliah managed to get herself back under control. Clearly, she’d heard Tallheart coming and had elected not to say anything.

No, wait. Rain paused, then muttered a curse. Tallheart would have needed time to look at the equation, too. Just how long was he standing there?!

He sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “What were you working on, anyway? Before you decided to scare my soul out of my body.”

“Aluminum,” Tallheart said. “The latest sample was pure enough. I was able to determine its intrinsic rune.”

“What!?” Rain gasped, his irritation immediately forgotten. “Tallheart, that’s great! What does it do? Magically, I mean. Would it be worth adding to my armor?”

Tallheart held up a hand, shaking his head. “There would be no benefit. The rune seems well aligned with the Mental element and poorly aligned with all others. I will need to run some tests to determine the degree.”

“What about its dissipation rate?” Rain asked. “Is it like, super anti-magic, or something?”

“No,” Tallheart said. “The metal is unexceptional, other than how difficult it was to extract. It is weak when pure. My skills are guiding me toward some alloys that would improve it. Hmm. Perhaps a small addition of manganese. It would retain its lightness but have the strength you described.”

Rain blinked. It had taken him a moment to translate ‘manganese’ from common, as Tallheart had only mentioned the name once in passing. Rain had gone through the periodic table with him a while ago, and the smith actually knew quite a few metals thanks to his skills. He said most of them were useless on their own when it came to enchanting, manganese being one such example.

“Can you do anything useful with it at all?” Ameliah asked.

“Hmm,” Tallheart rumbled. “Now that I know the rune, I can feel a good amount of the metal within the smelter, bound to contaminants as it is. It is abundant in the stones here, I think. I will make a filter for it tonight. If nothing else, Ellis will be able to practice making spoons while we are gone.”

“Damn,” Rain said, deflating. “I was hoping it would be amazing for enchanting or something.”

“It may be,” Tallheart said. “Mental alignment is rare for metals. Tin is the best that I know, and it is not exceptional. Aluminum may be better. I can not say until I test it with a Cryst.”

“Right,” Rain said, smiling again. Tinfoil hat: good. Aluminum foil hat: better, question mark?

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled. “Your discovery is the more important one of the day,” he said, gesturing to the scrap of paper. “You should not use Strength accolades and Strength equipment at the same time if physical might is your only concern. In your case, you should use the accolades to train and then remove them for combat.”

Rain nodded. “Exactly.”

“To be clear, Rain,” Ameliah said. “You’re saying that if you train with the accolades on, you can improve your sync faster?”

Rain nodded. “Yes. That’s exactly right. My test today proved it. Even if you don’t plan to keep an accolade long-term, as a training tool, they’re invaluable.”

Ameliah ran a hand through her hair, sitting against the workbench. “Depths, how didn’t I know about this?”

“Here,” Rain said, concentrating. After a moment, accolades began clattering to the tabletop. “Take all the Speed boosting ones and the Perception one as well. You can train with those while I work on Strength. We can swap at some point. Tallheart, do you want in on this? I’ll give you all the Endurance ones. A plus three shouldn’t be too bad for you, right?”

Tallheart rumbled noncommittally, but Rain was barely paying attention. He grinned at them both. “This is so cheese.”

Ameliah blinked, mouthing the word with a puzzled expression. After a moment, she shook her head, apparently having decided better than to ask. “We can’t spend the next month just training, Rain. We’ve waited too long already.”

Rain nodded, a more serious expression returning to his face. “I agree. I don’t need Strength sync, not really. I just need enough to carry my pack and move in the armor, and I’ve already got that. I just meant we could use this trick as we go, you know? At least until we get too deep. We need to be back before spring; otherwise, we might not be able to convince the townsfolk to leave Vestvall. They’ll want to plant their crops and...yeah, it would be a whole thing.” He frowned. It’s going to be a whole thing no matter what we do.

“Right,” Ameliah said, touching one of the accolades. It vanished, and she moved her finger to the next. “When are we leaving, anyway?”

Rain paused, considering, then looked at Tallheart.

“Hmm,” Tallheart said. “I will adjust Rain’s armor and make the aluminum filter. I have already made everything else that I will need. I could be ready by...hmm. Tomorrow.”

“That soon?” Rain asked, realization crashing over him. I could say I need a day or two to charge the armor and do some more training, but… He shook his head. No. “How about you, Ameliah? Do you need a day or two?”

“I was ready a week ago,” Ameliah said. “The camp is as safe as I can make it, and so is the city. I’m not even a Geomancer anymore.”

Rain nodded, clenching his fists. “Tomorrow, then. It’s settled.”