Mountain of the Immortals

The route toward the center of the corruption quickly became evident. The lush greenery was gradually replaced by rotting trees with worm-infested trunks, while the sides of the path were littered with grayish mushrooms and the occasional rotting corpse of a small animal, maggots making a disgusting squelching sound as they made short work of it.

“This looks worse than I thought,” I said, then remembered that the corrupted bear’s HP was much higher than its maximum value. “Wait, this doesn’t make sense.”

“He’s right,” Aphrodite agreed. “Why would the corrupted creatures be brimming with life when the place around the epicenter of whatever it is looks like this?”

“I cannot say for sure, but here’s my theory,” Artemis said. “The corruption is invasive, expanding, and parasitic. Which means that it continues to grow but in order to push life energy into the creatures it affects, it has to pull it from the surrounding area.”

“You mean it sucks the life energy from the plant life to force it down the native beasts’ throats?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

“Let’s hope that we won’t hear of it anymore after today,” she said. “Get ready. The entrance is just down there and it’s usually guarded.”

She pointed at a gentle downward slope ahead of us that looked like a tunnel leading directly into the mountain.

“I’m going to keep my self-buffs for now but let’s make a party and see the full range of Aphrodite’s abilities,” I said, grinning at her.

“You’re a buffer?” Artemis asked, smiling from ear to ear.

* * *

Aphrodite has invited you to a party.

Party Members: 2/9

Party Leader: Aphrodite

Do you accept the invitation?

Yes No

* * *

“I am,” she said, as I accepted the invitation, “and I think you’re going to like this.”

She started by casting a spell on herself and I glanced at the buff icon that appeared next to her name.

* * *

Name: Fluid Casting

Type: Buff

Level: 3

Effect: Boosts Casting Speed by 30% for 20 minutes.

Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds

Description: The recipient’s vocal cords are hastened in such a way that they can fulfill the incantation requirements of spells faster.

* * *

Just as I had thought last time, she always started the series of buffs with Fluid Casting on herself. That way, the whole buffing session would take less time, which also meant that that we would waste fewer seconds waiting for her to be finished.

She carried on by casting a long series of buffs on me. I had already seen the two buffs that increased my Maximum HP and MP by twenty percent for twenty minutes, as well as the one that raised my Attack Speed by thirty-three percent. But this time, I also finally got to see the rest of her impressive repertoire of spells.

* * *

Name: Mana Barrier

Type: Buff

Level: 2

Effect: Boosts Magic Defense by 30% for 20 minutes

Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds

Description: A thin layer of mana-absorbing particles coats the recipient’s body. These particles break down all magic attacks into their basic elements, acting as a protection against them.

* * *

A thirty percent increase in Magic Defense was an absolute monster of a buff. Considering that most spellcasting classes that dealt damage were glass ballistas, in the sense that they could dish out a lot of pain but couldn’t handle too much of it themselves, this buff would come in very useful.

I had trained and fought against spellcasters extensively, of course, and knew the best ways to approach battle with them, moving fast and alternating hiding positions so they wouldn’t be able to target me effectively. But knowing that their attacks would be a third less damaging against me was a great relief nonetheless.

I swiped the buff window away and looked at Aphrodite again, waving her hands in the air and swinging her hips as she performed the necessary body movements to cast the spells. I watched her full lips as she chanted the incantations. Her every movement was so graceful and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Only another buff appearing on the periphery of my view dragged my attention away.

* * *

Name: Guide the Blade

Type: Buff

Level: 3

Effect: Boosts Critical Rate by 30%

Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds

Description: The senses of the recipient are heightened in a way that means their strikes find targets in vital areas more easily.

* * *

I couldn’t believe how much stronger I was becoming because of her. Critical hits were very important to my style of fighting, since one swing of my spear was able to damage multiple enemies. During my years of training and fighting, I had noticed that the chances of a critical hit weren’t bound to each strike of the weapon I was wielding, but rather each instance of damage-dealing contact with each enemy.

That meant that, in my case, each time I struck an enemy and caused damage to them, the chance would be there, even if one swing of my spear dealt damage to twenty enemies at once. A thirty percent higher chance of striking a critical hit might make a big difference, especially in situations where we were under attack by multiple less powerful enemies.

But the situation where I was always happiest to land a critical hit was when I was using my Divine Smite ability. A critical hit there would mean that the lightning would chain and strike an additional target. And since I mostly used the skill on more powerful enemies, this could very well take out two big baddies at once. If only I could somehow increase the damage multiplier of my critical hits, I would be an absolute damage-dealing machine.

The answer to my wish came in the form of the next buff Aphrodite cast on me.

* * *

Name: Twist the Blade

Type: Buff

Level: 2

Effect: Boosts Critical Damage by 30%

Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds

Description: The senses of the recipient are heightened in a way that means their strikes deal more damage in vital areas.

* * *

What an absolute delight it was, asking for something and getting it immediately. Going on raids and battles with my previous clan had rarely involved buffs to this extent. The most we got were the most basic boosts to our attack and defense stats, mainly from the damage-dealing spellcasters of our clan.

Cronus would never let any of us get too strong, for fear we might stage a coup. As if we wouldn’t be able to pay for an external buffer if we were going to do attempt such a thing. It was difficult to find any logic in the confused and paranoid mind of the king of titans.

Forcing myself to stop thinking of my father and subsequently the fact that he had devoured my siblings whole, I turned my attention to the new buffs that had now appeared in my view. I quickly scanned through them and even though they were not as special as the ones before, every little bit would help.

The buffs increased my resistance to bleeding attacks, and spells and abilities that might put me to sleep or otherwise restrict my movement. My ability to resist mental attacks was increased too, and while this was something that rarely came in handy, I knew I wouldn’t want to be in the situation where such an attack would turn me against my own guild mates. It was the “better safe than sorry” type of buff.

Aphrodite started casting the same set of buffs on Artemis and I watched as the huntress’s body shined and flashed with each additional layer of power. What was more interesting to watch, however, were the changes in her face as she presumably ran her attention over the buffs she had received, absorbing the information.