Chapter 34

Not willing to wait any longer, I identified my three new toys. I wished I had stolen the other three from Colonel Scarlet. My situation would have been identical, but no, I had to be honest.

And True to myself.

A Bestowal Tome of Fire & Ice mastery. Req: Level 5, Intelligence 7, 40 Mana, Fire or Ice Mage.

Holy shit. Instant Dual Class for Nat.

A Gem of Weapon Improvement: Unlocks and Upgrades a Weapon, adding +1 to a Skill of choice attached to that weapon. Jude could use that. I was good for now and I did owe her. She would always be behind her fellow sisters, but this should help even the field a little.

I did have almost 13k silver now. Plus an opal. A couple of that asshole’s things weren’t bad either.

Let’s take a look at my Coupon. Give me something good. Please!!

A Gift of Skill Enhancement: Improve one Spell or Skill, one Tier, to Advanced rank or lower...

Holy Motherload!

I need to sleep before I used that. Just to make sure it did what I think it would do.

And I did need sleep.

Finally.

...

Jason Blakely: Blessed Knight Level 1 (3240/5000)

Title: Orc Slayer (White), Zombie Slayer (White), Earth’s First Gate Walker (Gold), Ghoul Lord Slayer (Green), Earth’s First Hero (Rainbow), Skeleton Slayer (White), Undead Scourge (Blue), Explorer (Green), Blessed Knight (Holy), Earth’s Strongest Gate Walker (Colorless), True (Holy). Unjustly persecuted. (Green Crayon)

Status: Steadfast* Hero# Knight& Blessed. Locked up (In the same green crayon.) {okay, so I was over tired and bored, the green crayon titles didn’t exist anywhere outside of my imagination.}

Honor: 800

Points: 0

Strength: 13* +1/5 Levels while mounted on aligned mount&

Force Multiplier: 2*

Agility: 10, (-1, +1/5 Levels after Level 5) while mounted on aligned mount&

Endurance: 14*

Damage Resistance: 2*, +1/5 Levels while mounted on aligned mount&

Pain resistance: 2*

Speed: 8, or as per mount while mounted&

Intelligence: 8

Will Power: 2** +1/5 Levels when mounted on aligned mount&

Health: 155/155* +% of total health of mount while mounted aligned mount&

Mana: 45

Skills:

War Axe: Level 4

Undead Scourge: +10% damage versus Undead.

Block: 1, +25% efficiency in blocking an attack.

Sharpness: 1, +10% damage per Level above 1, adding to the +25% damage when attacking unarmored opponents.

Armor Piercing: 3. The third Level gave me a boost of +10% damage per Level adding to the +25% from Level 1.

Physical Vulnerability Curse: 1, 10% chance of Cursing the target to receive increased damage from all physical damage sources.

Holy:

-25% damage received from all undead and sentient Evil-aligned and affiliated beings

+25% damage to all undead and sentient Evil-aligned and affiliated beings

+100% resistance to Mental attacks.

Final Rest: Grant final rest status to those worthy.

Mounted combat: Unlocked.

Mount: N/A

Plate Armor: Unlocked.

Shield: Unlocked.

Honor duels: Unlocked.

Weapon Class: Archaic Knight: Unlocked.

Equipment:

Krell’s Rune Axe

Chainmail Hauberk: Antique Silver, DR 4

Chainmail Coif: Metallic Black, DR 3

Earring of Poison resistance +25%

Ring of Hand protection +1DR

Unlocked Runes:

Rune of Stamina: A 10% chance to absorb 1% of target’s Stamina per attack. If multiple targets were struck on the same attack the % chance stacked on all targets affected by that one attack.

Rune of Knightly Valor: A single step forward in the midst of crisis can make all the difference. Knights will always recognize another knight.

Spells:

Refraction: 10 Mana, Recharge time 30 minutes; rebound some of the block with a Weapon against the attacker with a successful block. Duration 5 minutes.

Advanced Extended Slash: 10 Mana, Recharge time 5 minutes; Duration 2 minutes. All Melee attacks extend an additional two meters, dealing the same damage type as the weapon, in an arc projected from the tip of the blade being used. Double effect for all Runes, Skills, Spells and Abilities that would normally come in effect with the Weapon during regular use. Advanced Level Skill.

Money: 4230 silver

Inventory: 23/1000 (16 Brass, three Silver and zero Gold keys)

(*=Hardened)

(**=Advanced Attribute)

(#=Hero)

(&=Mounted)

I was tempted, but did not open Jude’s silver chest. Nor did I use the gem.

I decided to wait the thirteen days to see what happened.

...

Ten days later. No visitors, nor would the guards speak to me. At least I was getting three meals a day. Exercising twelve hours a day made me hungry.

...

“You might not want to go out tonight.” I suggested to the guards when they brought me my dinner of a day-old hamburger, ‘formerly frozen’ corn and smashed potatoes.

One of the pair hesitated before locking my cell door.

“It is the first, isn’t it?” they acted as if not hearing anything. It had been the first time I spoke to anyone since the second day. They were ordered to never speak to me.

My irregular action sparked a reaction.

Albeit late.

Six hours later, roughly, I received a visitor. An unexpected one.

“You knew this was going to happen.” Colonel Palm screamed at me with barely controlled rage.

I opened my eyes and looked at the impeccably dressed Marine. Someone who was over promoted and was probably shunted to a department where they thought he could do little damage. They were wrong.

“I have been in this cell for two weeks. How would I know what is going on outside of my cell? No windows, no TV, no paper, no books. Just me and my pillow.”

“Bullshit. If you didn’t know an outbreak was going to happen, then why did you say what you said to the guard?”

“One-year anniversary of the Weapons. Did you forget? Did something happen?”

“You sit there while innocents die.”

“You put me here. I had little choice, didn’t I?”

“Still with the attitude.”

“I was cooperative. You wanted more. I had nothing else to give. Are you going to release me and let me do my Hero stuff, or are you going to keep me buried?”

“You can rot in there for all I care. You ruined a good man.”

He blathered more than left.

I did not exercise the next day. I relaxed and waited.

They had one more day.

A three-star general, followed by eight men in full gear, marched down the hall to my cell. I had long since determined that I was the only resident on this corridor.

He looked familiar. He was possibly one of my interrogators. I admitted to myself that I hadn’t been paying the best attention to my surroundings after twenty plus hours without sleep, following a very long day.

“Jason Blakely?”

“Yes?” I sat on the floor, the bed had long since broken and no one had replaced it. Just left me with a personal sized three-inch thick mattress, two blankets and a pillow.

My visitor was a late sixties, early seventies black man, bald and growing a beer gut, which probably had nothing to do with beer.

A three-star Army general meant he was not dumb and much better in politics than I ever would or wanted to be.

“What can you tell me about those damn Portals?”

“They are testing and proving grounds.”

“I know that. What else?”

“Your guess is probably better than mine, you get all the intel.”

He questioned. I gave vague answers. Neither of us liked the other.

“You already made up your mind before coming down to see me. Are you going to keep, kill, or free me?”

“Bring him.”

Four men, each with a hundred pounds of manacles moved to enter my cell. The other four guards had large bore shotguns at the ready

Kate wasn’t the only one in the family with authority issues.

I hated my parents with every fiber of my being, for stealing any semblance of childhood from me.

I hated people who acted unilaterally to my disadvantage.

I hated not having a choice.

They had their chance.

I reached out and Entered the Gate I memorized the location of. No one would ever enter it. A Violet Gate perched on the roof of an out of business gas station in the heart of Lincoln park wasn’t worth the extra effort when there were so many others to choose from.

I was granted the ‘Ability to enter in any Gate without a time or place restriction’.

Without time or place restriction; any Gate that I knew the exact whereabouts of, I could enter.

An ability that I never shared with my friends. Not with Ed. Not with Heather, not with anyone.

Thirty-five minutes later, I exited a Violet Gate, on the roof of the out of business In and Out. No money or phone and no ID. I had prepared for that.

My prison oranges became a pair of butt ugly shorts. My chainmail shirt and helmet disguised me quite well. Laceless loafers in hand, I ran in the overcast and ever windy, early September, Chicago morning. UE was only a fifteen-minute sprint for me. I wasn’t sure if I had that much time, but I would try.

Not even trying to hide my presence, since that was not my forte, I entered through the propped-open side door. (UE’s gym retained the odors without a good cross breeze.)

A half dozen people were sparring. I didn’t recognize any of the kids. I frowned at their ages. Every one of them was under eighteen. In fact, all of them looked younger than the girls, fifteen or sixteen, if I had to guess.

One of the Mercs who was instructing the six kids noticed me after I knocked on the door.

“Front door is over there.” He pointed to the front of the building.

“I’m here to see Jude or Natalie.”

“Who are you?”

“Tell them, doesn’t matter which, I owe them a silver box.”

“Jessica, go get Jude.”

A petite Spanish descent girl went off in the direction of the medic area. I had a bad feeling suddenly.