Beside the road that led to nowhere, along the asphalt buried under inches of snow, under the heavy onslaught of a December blizzard, Irwin Bellios attempted to promote himself from Wiccan Apprentice into something greater.
He sat on a stump not far away from the car where Scott was still shaken up from the explosion that had taken out the entire hill Elder Hawkins was in, far away from the hubbub of civilization and technology and under the blanket of the unforgiving snow.
■■
Congratulations! You have advanced to Level 5.
---
Congratulations! You are now eligible for a Job Promotion.
---
The following skills have been upgraded:
▪︎ Human Magic (Lvl 06 -> 07)
▪︎ Arcane Resistance (Lvl 08 -> 09)
▪︎ Potioneering (Lvl 02 -> 03)
---
Please Choose A Secondary Promotion Before Choosing Skills!
---
Please Choose A Secondary Promotion Before Learning Spells!
■■
Secondary Jobs:
Wiccan Pugilist:
Although Wiccans are expert spellcasters and hexslingers, there are those who deemed their fallible bodies and weak personal strength as a sign of illness that had plagued their lines. It was then that Wiccan Pugilist was created; magik casters honed in combat and martial arts with bodies that can take a beating or a spell.
▪︎ All skills that pertain to combat are upgraded to the nearest level limit.
▪︎ All skills that pertain to physical defense are upgraded to the nearest level limit.
▪︎ Every level up, the host can alter a skill sub-effect.
▪︎The host might be given skills such as Skeletal Reinforcement, Danger Sense, and Cloven Fist.
▪︎The host might be given spells such as Shaman's Blessing, Regurgitate, Crowing Madness, and Osseous Blade.
Alchemist:
Join the likes of Paracelsus, Ostanez, and Sinta of Kemel to imagine a world operating on the esoteric rules of alchemy. From the corpse of the smallest microbe to the grace of titanic Leviathans, see the world as nothing but a garden filled with your ingredients that exist solely on your whims and fancy. Allows the creation of potions not previously accessible to normal Potioneering.
▪︎ The host might be given skills such as Flame Resistance, Heart Forge, Altered Sight, and Deft Fingers.
▪︎ The host might be given spells such as Limb Duplication, Rust Propagation, Grimoire Expansion, and Far-Seeing.
▪︎ The skill Potioneering is upgraded into Alchemical Brewing
Horizon Hunter:
A special job created for those who hunt otherworldly beings without compassion, be they from the bowels of Heaven, pits of Hell, or those in-between. Such indiscriminate violence are generally considered as ill-omen by both factions and would face unrelenting attacks until the Hunter no longer exists in any dimension. Unlike a normal monster hunter, a Horizon Hunter gains strength not from the mortal monster it had hunted, but from the Otherworldly beings it had absorbed into its very being.
▪︎ The host will gain [Otherworld Savage] as a Mark and will gain the hostility of all Otherworld beings. Those who have been in contact with the host before the placement of the Mark will not be immediately hostile, but will feel a radiating hatred everytime they look at the host.
▪︎ The host will be given a unique skill, Eldritch Absorption.The host might be given skills such as Sunken Sight, Enochian Horology, Infernal Biology, Runic Conversion, and Temporal Alteration.
▪︎ The host might be given spells such as Baneful Exorcism, Nervous Breakdown Hex, Soul Putrefaction, and Consecration Sigil
Baneblood Hexer:
A special job to those who are, near, killed, used, or have become Baneblood, a special group of people given abilities by an Otherworldly being. Hexers use the blood of the Banebloods and derive hexes from their supernatural ability, allowing a terrifying combination of Human Magik and supernatural phenomena. Much like Witches, Hexers use Hex Bags with each hex they derive and can continuously
The host will gain [Bloodless] as a Mark and will gain the ability to sense other creatures with the blood of Otherworld beings. Any banebloods under the command of the host will slowly become indebted and eventually regard the host with utmost trust.
▪︎ The host might be given skills such as Blood Control, Supernatural Splicing, Malleable Flesh, and Hex Resistance
▪︎ The host might be given spells such as Curdling Wail, Chained Poltergeist Hex, Thunder Rot, Unsustenance, and Hexecology.
■■
'Oh, my god.'
This might be the one of the greatest choices he had to make because each option was greater than the last, except for the Alchemist one.
Although he had yet to brew a potion and only have a recipe for a scrying potion, it was still in his plans to maximize his abilities by upgrading his Potioneering skill to its maximum limit. However, Potioneering would never be his main venue of combat and would merely be a secondary lifeline, if it ever came down to it.
Still, seeing the spells and skills he could have acquired made Irwin's heart ache, especially the Deft Fingers and Flame Resistance skill. He had a feeling that Deft Fingers would combine well with his Unarmed Combat while Flame Resistance could very well be a perfect skill whenever he had to go to Hell.
'On to the other choices, then.'
He regarded Wiccan Pugilist in a special light, one that would fit well with his current loadout. A melee-range Flaming Whip and, if he ever had the resource for it, an Angel Blade melted into brass knuckles would be his go-to if he chose this over the others.
Actually, any type of Angelic weapon was good enough for him for his skills in various combat techniques would essentially be upgraded to the next level, both literally and metaphorically. From his understanding the level limit was every five or even ten levels as it was the only ones that gave out sub-effects; thus, it was then that he imagined his Unarmed Combat and Swordsmanship being level 10 and achieving greater combat heights than ever before.
"By then, maybe I won't have to run away from Wendigos, even if I'm injured."
His defensive skills–Pain Tolerance, Alcohol Tolerance, Natural Resistances, and Arcane Resistance–would also be upgraded, which would essentially save Irwin almost a year's worth of time, effort, and money.
While the hubbub with the skills was certainly tempting, it had nothing to do with the ability to alter his sub-effects. Although the specifics weren't expounded, even the thought of altering Brimstone Blow to become more streamlined and pack more punch elated Irwin.
"Blood Scry's sub-effect with a wider range or, hell, Command with phrases instead of words. A free Geas spell. It's tailor-made for me." He remarked once more.
Still, he resisted the allure of physical prowess and delved into the other options.
He knew Horizon Hunter was given to him due to his monstrous display of destruction during the raid of Dagon's Island, as well as essentially stripping a hundred angels of their vessel and leaving them stranded in Heaven for days. Although the skills and spells were sorely tempting, gaining [Otherworld Savage] as a Mark would undoubtedly make his life miserable in the coming war.
His tenuous, at best, relationship with Zachariah would further devolve into hostility if he ever acquired it and, frankly, he still didn't trust Balthazar to move within his plans. Even still, Eldritch Absorption sounded terrifyingly powerful and could allow him to go toe-to-toe with beings like angels and Leviathans without resorting to damaging his body for short-term power.
Coupled with the ability to mess with time and further knowledge about the ins and outs of every demon and angel in existence, Horizon Hunter may very well be the only job capable of keeping him alive if he ever went to war with both factions. If, being the operative word seeing as Heaven was not outright hostile to him and Hell would be busy in the coming months.
"HH is out, then." He mentally crossed the name before turning his attention towards Baneblood Hexer.
Like Horizon Hunter, Irwin was sure that Baneblood Hexer was given to him because of his race and the fact that he had deliberately sought out the Special Children. Surprisingly, the Special Children were considered Banebloods by the system. People with supernatural abilities given by Otherworld beings such as God himself, angels or, in their case, demons.
"Well, that's one mystery down."
Unlike Horizon Hunter's [Otherworldly Savage], [Bloodless] was a tracking Mark and a permanent compulsion ability all rolled up in one. With the Mark, Ansem and Scott would not need any contract for them to do their work; although he wasn't sure if their personality would be overridden, unlike what the contract had done to Scott's personality.
He had seen it during the trek towards Elder Hawkin's hill. The man was slowly, but surely, regaining a semblance of… familiarity towards him. He had regarded Irwin with amusement and frustration whenever the latter whined about his injuries, but all of those emotions didn't have any hostility in it.
Irwin gazed at Scott from a few hundred feet away as the Special Child was eating Ella's premade dinner inside the comfort of a car.
'His lightning powers inside of a fucking hex bag. Maybe my target will get struck by lightning or get into an electrical accident. Damn, if I get that chick with Rogue's powers, then I have death in a fucking bottle.'
The ability to pick and choose hex abilities was extremely tempting, even more so when he already knew where to get four of them in one place together. He briefly thought if Azazel would make a deal with him in exchange for his Special Children. After all, if the representative of Heaven made one, then their evil counterpart would certainly do so.
"Fuck. Why do I have to pick only one? I'm sorry Lightning in a bottle, but I gotta go with punching ghosts with my magic fists!"