The Pinnacle Warrior

Potential Boons to be rewarded: Boon of Ascension, Boon of Leadership, Boon of Indomitability, Boon of Perfection. 

Astrid didn’t care to look at her attributes or her Status, she knew what was going to happen there. Instead, she focused on those offered boons. She knew where to look for the boon options, and she smiled widely as she read through them. Two were familiar to her, and she pulled out her boon book from Greely to ensure she remembered what they both did. The first to look at was the Boon of Perfection, since she wanted to be sure it was the one she thought it was, and didn’t want. Muti basically jumped onto Astrid’s back to watch as Astrid flicked through the pages of the book. The Barbarian’s grumbles about the “inelegant script of you Humans” didn’t put her off as she read.

Boon of Perfection: this Boon is of greatest value to those in the Adamantium tier. Those who have received this boon will be able to select any of the Class Evolution options next available to them without having to complete the Class quest.

Yes, she’d remembered correctly. The Boon of Perfection wasn’t for her. Very quickly, she moved onto the Boon of Ascension, flicking back through the pages until she found it.

Boon of Ascension: This boon is always valuable, but is most useful to those in Mithril tier and above. Those who have received this boon can choose one of their Skills to be upgraded. This upgrade is not to the next tier, but will empower the Skill while also not increasing its cost. Any subsequent upgrades the Skill receives to a higher tier retain this qualitative upgrade, or ascension, to the Skill selected. For example, if the Skill Overhand Blow is selected, it may become the Skill Power Strike, Explosive Blow, or Meteor Strike. If a passive Skill is selected, such as Blademanship, it may become Blade Mastery or remain named Blademanship while also gaining an active aspect to the Skill, such as Piercing Blow, Blade Dance, or Blade Control. The ascension of a passive Skill such as Blademanship to Blade Mastery can also and typically does grant an additional active aspect to the Skill.

Before, Astrid couldn’t deny the temptation to use her boon selection on Boon of Ascension to upgrade Quick Recovery. What if it then had become Immortal Warrior’s Body at Bronze before she evolved? In retrospect, she wouldn’t have needed it from levels 16 to 21, but it was at the very least a very interesting thought to entertain. As it was, a part of her was interested in seeing what each of her Skills would become, if they were “ascended”.

With her familiarity renewed, Astrid turned to the other two boons, those that were new to her. The first she found in the book was the Boon of Indomitability, and she had to say, just from her first impressions of the name, she liked the sound of it. Then, after she read its description, she liked it even more.

Boon of Indomitability: This boon is of greatest value to those who desire to make themselves an overwhelming engine of battle. Those who have received this boon will be granted a 50% increase to their health and stamina recovery rates as well as gaining the ability to spend mana or stamina to remain in their stance, similar to Immovable Stance.

This boon would help her significantly, and not just with the boost to her recovery rate. Leaving that aside for now, though it was an interesting thought to entertain, Astrid wanted to be able to experiment with what it called, ”the ability to spend mana or stamina to remain in her stance”. So far as she could tell, taking this boon would replace the need for the enchantments in her greaves. She used those enchantments so frequently now that she didn’t actively think of them, but without them, she wouldn’t be able to function in battle. Swinging her hammer around, even though it was so easy for her, would send her flying all over if she was careless, and the enchantments kept her grounded so she could deliver the devastating blows she killed with. This boon would open her up to being able to get a different enchantment on her armor, which couldn’t be understated how impactful that could be.

Then, of course, there was the ever compounding effect of increasing her recovery rate. She couldn’t say if the 50% increase would be applied to using charges of Body, but she couldn’t see why it wouldn’t and if it did, that would be even more impactful than she initially thought. In effect, if it did work that way, her four charges of Body would be able to recover her health and stamina from nothing one and a half times. Then, of course, there was, however it was that the Skill would be upgraded when it became Steel. The only “downside” of this boon was that it offered nothing for her mana, which was becoming more important the more she learned about it. That said, as she started to learn more about how the different resources seemed to rely on each other, she couldn’t say that the absence of mana in the Boon of Indomitability would be as debilitating as she thought it might be.

Even so, she thought favorably of the boon as she looked at the last one offered to her.

Boon of Leadership: This boon is of greatest value to those who lead others, while those without leadership Skills or auras will struggle to find value in this boon. Those who have received this boon will find any leadership Skill they have to be strengthened, such as Inspiring Leader, Indomitable Commander, and Overwhelming Presence, by 50%. In addition, any auras that those with this boon have will also be strengthened by 50%.

With that, Astrid was left only slightly frustrated. She couldn’t say whether she knew if she would, or even should, pick Leadership or Indomitability. Or even the Boon of Ascension. She didn’t plan on taking any leadership Skills beyond maybe another aura at some point, but then again, her own core Skills were pretty developed at this point. Of course, as she went into Steel and beyond, there would be plenty more Skills to fill her slots with, but it wouldn’t be a bad option to lean even more into getting auras and making herself the key member of any party she was in.

Something she’d been told was that, at some point before she finished Steel, she needed to look into preparing for and qualifying to get at least one aura. At that point, every member of the party would have seven Skill slots, so it was better for them to have an aura than to continue to strengthen themselves, just in terms of a reducing return on the Skill investments. For people like Benedict, those whose Classes were based around auras and group Skills, this would be an absolute, no questions asked, boon to take.

For Astrid, she already had two auras, and couldn’t say if she was going to get any more in the near future. From the experiments that they’d already done, Astrid could make some pretty good guesses as to what would happen with this further increase in the aura potency this boon would provide. Immortal Warrior’s Aura would become even simpler to use, and much less dangerous as the damage that she herself took would be reduced significantly from those she was taking the wounds from. But, then again, with the Boon of Indomitability, she would recover even quicker while already having a pretty comparable boost from the Boon of the Hero.

“You’re doing a whole lot of thinking, and not a whole lot of talking,” Skandr said. “Ultimately, this is up to you to make the decision, but I’d like to think that five heads are better than one, even if one of them is Benedict’s.” 

“I’ll have you know, I’m not planning on being helpful at all,” Benedict replied with a grin. “Though, I suppose I should ask, are we planning on having this conversation here in the middle of the floor or should we go to one of the passageways to at least be in a defensible position?”

“You’re being helpful again,” Astrid jabbed back at him with a nod of her head.

“Patently untrue,” he protested. “I’m as airheaded as ever, and this was merely so that I can go get some beauty rest while you four intellectuals continue your conversation about boons and whatnot.”

“When one is focused on the hunt, one is not thinking about how they may wage war the next week,” Muti said. “Despite his foolishness, Benedict has spoken in wisdom.“

After taking long enough to understand that she was saying that being distracted kept from planning well, the party all agreed with his idea and made their way towards the passage between the fourth floor, where they currently were, and the third. There, they didn’t set up camp, but did get into comfortable positions sitting on the stairs before Muti demanded, “I wish to know for sure which of the boons were offered to you. I attempted to follow your eyes, but I may have been mistaken in which were possibilities.”

Astrid chuckled and nodded before she went ahead and read out the descriptions to the rest of the party. When she finished, Skandr pursed his lips and said, “Obviously, all of these options are good ones. I don’t think you could go wrong with any of them, except for Perfection. That said, from what little I know about Saul, I can see why that boon would appeal to somebody about to hit level 200.”

“Oh, yeah,” Astrid said. “I’d forgotten that he was the only one of the Golden Fist that hadn’t completed their quest to evolve to Arcanite. Do you know what his quest was?”

“No, but I don’t think he anticipates being able to complete at any time soon,” Skandr replied. “He refused to say anything about the quest itself, but he did warn me about stretching too far at higher tiers, that too many people find themselves trapped at the peak of a tier and simply incapable of completing their evolutionary quests.”

“My mother said something similar when we were having a break,” Astrid added. “Said that her first evolution was easy as could be, but the second took her nearly a month to complete. Since it was a rare evolution, I’d imagine that anything that comes our way will be similarly difficult to complete.”

“Chances are,” Benedict agreed, continuing to refuse to adhere to his own insistence of his own uselessness, “we are going to get evolutionary options that are at least rare, and we should anticipate them being as difficult as your mother said.“

“There is no need to remain on this topic,“ Felix cut off any further discussion. “There are only three options truly to consider, and the reason for choosing one over the other should be discussed instead of joking.”

“Look at you, big man,“ Benedict teased, “taking charge and telling people what to do. Proud of you.”

Nobody paid attention to the Bard who seemed to realize he’d been helpful and wanted to be a hindrance, and Skandr started speaking before Benedict could finish. “So, of the three, which one do you want?”

“I thought you said you were going to give advice,” Astrid grunted. 

“That’s the plan, eventually,“ Skandr replied flatly. “But I don’t think that any of them is a bad option. More so, it’s just a question on what it is that you want to do. The way I see it, two of the options are more focused on you and the third focuses in on the party. You could argue that Ascension and Indomitability would both be used for the party as a whole, but the reality is, that two boons are for you personally while the third is to push you into a more formal position as a leader  and guide people from that position. So which one do you want?”

Astrid blew out of breath, her lips flapping as she hesitated to give a real answer. “Sometimes, I kind of wish I didn’t have any options. You know, then I could never take any accountability for if I make the wrong choice.”

“Oh, woe is you, the Great One has granted you an option to change your destiny to be and go whatever and wherever you wish. Boo hoo,” Benedict scoffed. “You’re in a unique position, don’t be an idiot about it, make a choice that’ll make you happy. Just like you did with choosing Gravity Surge instead of Immovable Stance, you can make a choice that makes you happy. You’re not gonna make it very far if it’s nearly impossible to get yourself back in the Dungeon, so you might as well choose something that makes you happy.”

“You’re coming awfully close to being helpful again,” Felix nudged his friend. “But I don’t think he’s wrong. If you can see one of the three as superior to the other simply because you want it, then that might be the best way to make the choice.”

“That is foolishness,” Muti disagreed. “Each of the options is suitably powerful, but instead of choosing one that simply appeals to you, you must choose the one that lays out the path that you wish to tread. The path that has taken you here has done so because you have taken choices that guided your every step. You are not an Immortal Captain, you are an Immortal Warrior, as that is where your steps have taken you. If you wish to become an Immortal Captain, then choose the Boon of Leadership. If you wish to become a more truly Immortal Warrior, then the Boon of Indomitability may come in service to that. If you wish to be a Gravity Warrior, then perhaps you should choose the Boon of Ascension. If you wish to become a heavily armored champion, perhaps you choose the Boon of Ascension to apply to your equipment Skill.”

“Wouldn’t choosing the Boon of Ascension and using it on Immortal Warrior’s Body,” Astrid countered, “be another avenue for me to become more ‘immortal’? My equipment Skill and Gravity Surge aren’t the only options I have.”

“The Skill can be strengthened,” Muti shook her head, “but there may be reason to expect the Skill to be further strengthened by whatever evolution comes to you and the boon would then become wasteful. Despite every other competency and strength you retain, the Skill that distinguishes you from every other Warrior is your early acquisition of the Quick Recovery Skill, as well as your reliance on it to get to where you are. I do not believe that you will not be granted a higher tier of the Skill upon evolution to Steel.”

“That’s a whole lot of supposition,” Benedict snapped back. “There’s no way to know that that’s what’s going to happen.”

Muti bared her teeth, the action only superficially a smile, “Perhaps I am incorrect. However, I am giving true advice, not merely, ’do as you desire’.”

Astrid waved a hand between them, cutting off any further disagreement as Skandr spoke. “I think that the compounding of these two latest boons of yours, that is to say, Boon of the Hero, and then taking Boon of Leadership, can’t be easily cast aside. We’ve seen that the Boon of the Hero is doing a lot for you with regards to using Immortal Warrior’s Aura, and if you’re wanting to take more of a role as the one who makes the rest of the party immortal, then this might be the best way for you to do that.”

“But that same goal has near perfect overlap with Indomitability,” Felix disagreed. “There’s no reason to say that there’s only one way to get to the same destination.”

“We’re not talking about some journey through the mountains,” Benedict snapped back at the Guardian.

“But he’s right,” Skandr pushed back. “And Muti’s question at the beginning of all this was probably the best one to ask and we can work backwards from there: Astrid, where do you want to go? Where do you want to be a dozen levels from now, or in Mithril or Adamantine tier?”

She pursed her lips and took a moment to imagine herself after taking each of the boons. The first issue when thinking of Ascension was what Skill she would use it on, but while she was imagining it, she figured she would think about Gravity Surge first. While this Skill gave her a taste of being a Spellblade, she also knew that there was going to be very little chance of her ever taking another like it. So what if she leaned into it?

The upgraded Gravity Surge would certainly be more potent, but what else would she be able to do with it? Instead of having a small radius of effect, maybe it would be an entire wall that spread in front of her? Or maybe she would be able to designate a direction that wasn’t a single space or down, instead being forward or backward or up. All of that with an increased potency was certainly something that appealed to her, but not enough to even consider taking the boon this way. She didn’t want to become more and more magically dependent, but instead use it as an auxiliary support to the strength of her body.

Using it on Body would certainly make her even harder to kill, and if she got additional charges or just stronger healing, the bonus damage that the Skill would do to monsters she fought would become even more impressive. Instead of using it on Immortal Warrior’s Aura, though, it would be better if she took Leadership.

If she did take Leadership, Astrid could see where she would eventually be, and how that fit into her dream of what she wanted to be. She made it no secret that she wanted to be a hero, someone who could go somewhere and save lives. With the Boon of Leadership, she could protect more people, and would shape her own role to be more focused around auras. After all, if she had two boons that strengthened auras, it would be foolish for her to focus on her own body’s strength when instead, she could just stack up on auras and become someone who could strengthen everyone around her while also taking some of their wounds into herself.

But was that what she wanted? To be the sponge for everyone else’s attacks as she pushed herself further and further into a supporting role? It certainly would be heroic, and she could see herself being very successful that way, but would that be something that she wanted to be?

More in line with her longtime thoughts of what she wanted to be was the Boon of Indomitability. It was simple, making her recover faster and be able to hold her ground, but the heroic Astrid of her dreams was a woman who could stand before charging swarms of monsters, her hair flying in the wind as she stood against thousands and slew them all. It was childish, yes, but she had dreams of an impossible last stand, where she threw herself in front of ravening hordes of dragons and giants, and, instead of losing her life in a futile extension of time, she managed to turn the tides and remain standing among the many corpses she had felt.

That was a hero that was indomitable.

“That face looks like it’s made a decision,” Skandr said. “Indomitability?”

“What makes you say that?” Astrid replied with a question, refusing to give an answer.

“I just know things,” he answered. “Comes with having such high mental attributes.” 

When Astrid shook her head in disagreement, he laughed to himself and said, “You mouthed ‘indomitable’ while smiling to yourself. Seemed like a pretty good guess to make.”

“Well, if you’re so clever, you’ll have to help me with my experiments on exactly how much this impacts Body.”

Then, without any additional words, Astrid mentally selected Boon of Indomitability.