Chapter 219: Blood Shaman

The troll race is broad and ancient, and their magic spans the entire constellation of affinities with few exceptions, however, within a given tribe or kingdom, most individuals inherit only a few signature affinities, generally following their potent bloodlines. This gives rise to a strong cultural identity that fractures the race into small kingdoms or tribes all sharing the same bloodline and similar magic.

Across the entire race, there is a consistent theme that relates to the use of spirit magic, sometimes identified as ‘soul’ magic, ritual consultation, and interaction with the so-called Spirit Realm. Common class types revolve around witchdoctors, herbalism, and shamanism.

One of the most intriguing features of their race is the complete lack of any fire magic – an affinity that is remarkably common among most other races, particularly humans and dwarves. Indeed, because of its ability to negate their innate regeneration, the use of fire in their culture is taboo, typically reserved for occasional cooking and torture and little else.

- Excerpt from Cultures of the Modern-Day Kingdoms by Evanna Quillmore the Scribe.

Aliandra

You have been afflicted with Domain Withdrawal.
Separation from your domain weakens you.
-10% to maximum health.
Affliction – Duration: Indefinite. Count: 1

Ali woke early to the sound of her notification chime and the now-familiar stabbing pain of prolonged separation from her domain. Their camp was still mostly asleep, and the birds were only just beginning to chirp in the trees as the jungle started to wake in the predawn light. She got up carefully, getting used to the feel of her body weakened by withdrawal, and walked over to where Malika was keeping watch, sitting cross-legged on a fallen tree. Her friends had neglected to wake her for her shift – again.

“Good morning,” Malika said, greeting her with an offer of some fruit.

“Hi, Malika,” she said, easing her aching body onto a perch beside her on the mossy tree trunk. She took a peach gratefully, enjoying the ripe sweetness of the fruit.

“Withdrawal?” Malika asked.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. Even after all this time, and all her growth, she still struggled with the pain of it. She knew she could function, but it took a while to reacquaint herself with the weakness. “You skipped my watch.”

“You worked hard yesterday,” Malika said.

“So did you,” Ali grumbled.

“I got to rest while you unlocked the way forward,” Malika offered. “Besides, your minions keep watch even while you sleep.”

“Thanks,” Ali said, letting it go.

As she broke her fast with Malika, chatting quietly together, she realized that she had quite a lot to review. In the tumult of the events of yesterday, she hadn’t even checked her notifications, rescuing Gara and dismantling the Blind Lich’s necromantic masterpiece had taken urgent priority. Once they were done here, she most definitely needed to share her discoveries with Lyeneru and the Council of Archmages – they deserved to know what was going on, and perhaps they would be able to do a better job of discerning its precise function, and thereby intuit Nevyn Eld’s dark purpose.

“Hey, what happened to the troll corpses from the battle?” Ali asked. She had deconstructed Kir’mogan, but she had been distracted by Calen’s discovery of the barrier, and she hadn’t finished the rest of the boss’s minions. Leaving them lying about was just asking for this dungeon to raise them as undead, something she couldn’t allow.

“We saved them for you,” Malika said, quickly producing several troll corpses from her ring and laying them out on the ground.

“Thanks,” Ali said, relieved that she wouldn’t need to face these again as zombies or worse. She hopped down and deconstructed Kir’mogan’s four minions and the several zombie corpses Malika had collected.

Imprint: Undead completed.
Variant: Blood Shaman added to Imprint: Troll.

This time, her Grimoire had decided that zombies and skeletons should be combined – perhaps she had deconstructed enough of them to pass some obscure threshold? As usual, she simply dismissed the undead imprint. Every time she did, she considered Calen’s suggestion of keeping it so that she could use Slayer against the undead, but every time she came to the same conclusion; imprints were extremely valuable and altogether too scarce to waste on another monster she couldn’t use.

Perhaps later, she thought as she turned to her notifications.

Grove Warden has reached level 73 (+4).
+40 attribute points.

Four levels for him. She glanced at Malika using Identify, confirming that her friend had gained five levels – one more than her. But she had been five levels ahead of her at the start of the fight, so that made sense, and she didn’t mind that the gap had closed a little, both of them having earned substantial growth. She smiled, happy that her friend was growing so quickly, knowing that she was rapidly becoming the strong warrior she had always dreamed of being.

Ali pursed her lips for a moment and then spent twelve points each on wisdom, intelligence, and perception – the three attribute traits that influenced all her skills. Then she put two points into vitality and one each into dexterity and endurance. Immediately, her domain withdrawal eased up. And the dexterity investment would help her zip around on her barriers a little better.

Yes, that seems good.

Arcane Insight has reached level 43 (+5).
Arcane Recall has reached level 15.
Barrier has reached level 52 (+2).
Runic Script has reached level 34 (+3).
Sage of Learning has reached level 31 (+6).
Martial Insight has reached level 50 (+4).
Empowered Summoner has reached level 37 (+3).

Inspiration has reached level 15.

It had been a challenging fight, but despite knowing it, seeing the enormous skill growth across the board brought her up short. That’s… a lot. But when she examined the details, she realized how it had happened. Arcane Recall and her Grimoire of Summoning had both leveled up in a prior fight, when she had summoned her Armored Drake in the air and dropped it on the terrifying hasted, blood-enchanted trolls.

The massive growth in Sage of Learning, Runic Script, and Arcane Insight had come after the battle with Kir’mogan, studying Kir’mogan’s strange runic tattoos, and her long hours spent learning and dismantling the necromantic array. Even so, her growth for the battle had been phenomenal with all her barrier and minion enhancement skills growing substantially.

Variant: Blood-Drenched Moss added to Imprint: Moss

The new moss variant would go nicely in the cave with the Abyssal Stalker – something for Basil to play with. But the imprint change she was most interested in was the new troll variant.

Blood Shaman.

She was pretty sure their rescued troll – Gara – had the same class, and she was burning with curiosity to figure out what that powerful blood magic skill was. She pressed her lips together, still a little uncomfortable about summoning trolls, but she had a responsibility to her friends – she couldn’t afford to leave such a potentially powerful advantage unexplored. She opened her Grimoire and began to summon it.

Blood Shaman – Troll – level 71 (Blood)

Your reserved mana has increased by +501.

“You learned the shaman?” Malika asked, examining the tall, wiry troll with undisguised curiosity.

It was a redundant question, given the very real shaman standing before them, but Ali nodded anyway, studying her new minion. She looked really powerful, even just standing there in the shabby, crude leather armor her Grimoire had picked with her now-familiar intricate crimson runes contrasting starkly against her greenish skin.

“Well, that gear won’t do,” Malika said, her tone suddenly brusquely practical. “Here, use this.” She dumped out several vests from her storage – dark leather, decorated with abstract red stains.

Blood-Stained Leather Vest – level 69
Armor: 579
Evasion: 579
+44 Wisdom
+35 Dexterity
+17 Perception
2% of your Physical damage is returned as Health over 30 seconds.
Requirements: Dexterity 138, Wisdom 138
Created by Zor’kan.
Body – Leather

“Wow, those are amazing,” Ali said, examining the thick leather vest.

“Uncommon grade,” Malika said. “Too bad it’s wisdom and dexterity – not a very popular combination.”

“Would work for you.”

“If I could wear body armor,” Malika agreed. “Too much wisdom for Calen, too much dexterity for Mato, but the shamans all had one – you should learn it.”

“Ok.” It was another solid uncommon-grade addition for her Grimoire. Whoever this Zor’kan was, he was certainly prolific – so much so that the dungeon was still using originals instead of copies. While the vests looked hideously stained with what was evidently real blood, even without leatherworking expertise, Ali could see how finely wrought the enchantments were, and how integral the ‘decorative’ coloring was to the proper functioning of the piece. Truly the inspired work of a master crafter.

Variant: Blood-Stained Leather Vest added to Imprint: Armor.

Ali paged back through her Grimoire and created a new vest while Malika produced a shaman bone mask, a fresh set of the Swift Bone-Studded Jambeau, and a garishly painted bone buckler from storage for her to use.

“Do you have any more of these?” Ali held up the Ancestral Spirit Beads she was wearing on her wrist. Malika produced another two of them, one from her own wrist and the other from storage. Ali carefully deconstructed the one she was wearing, along with the two Malika had given her, and shortly the expected notification chime sounded.

Imprint: Bone Bracelet (Hands) updated to Imprint: Charm (Hands).
Imprint: Ancestral Spirit Beads has been added to Imprint: Charm (Hands).

She worked quickly, creating several bead bracelets, handing one to Malika before twisting hers back into place on her own wrist.

“Put these on,” Ali said, indicating the pile of gear.

“As you ask, Seeker,” the troll answered with a respectful tone and began equipping herself. She was tall – taller than both Calen and Mato and taller even than Gara – and as she donned her armor, Ali could see the runes that adorned her skin lighting up with the deep red of blood-affinity mana. It was a strange phenomenon, she could see the magic within the runes, but she could not see the mana that had produced it.

“Is this your Ancestral Spirit Runes skill?” Ali asked, touching one of the strange glowing runic tattoos on her leg.

“It is as you say, Seeker,” she answered, dipping her head.

“What is that?” Gara said, and Ali glanced up to find her awake and staring at her new Blood Shaman with a strange expression on her face, keeping a fair distance as if afraid to approach. “I smell the bloodline of Aman Rak, but she is no troll I have ever met. Why does she show deference to you? It is unseemly, you are not a Troll.”

“I learned to make her after the battle against Kir’mogan. It’s part of my class,” Ali said, worried about Gara’s reaction at seeing her troll minions.

“You are… a summoner?” she asked, turning to stare incredulously at Ali.

“Yes, that’s part of my class,” she answered, not wanting to go into too much detail with someone she had only just met. “I don’t mean to cause any offense.”

“Offense?” Gara seemed puzzled by the word.

“By summoning your race as my minions,” Ali clarified, wondering if her command of the troll language was still not quite right.

“I would summon trolls too, if I was a summoner. Trolls are the strongest,” Gara said, coming over to sit on the ground nearby, seemingly comfortable now that she understood what was going on.

Fair enough. Ali almost laughed out loud, but caught herself and bowed briefly to Gara in a gesture she had discovered was part of their language. I had forgotten how arrogant trolls are, she thought. Of course, she thinks they’re the best.

While the rest of the camp roused, Ali slipped her awareness into her troll shaman and was immediately assaulted by the powerful stench of blood. It was just like her Abyssal Stalkers’ perception, although in a much higher-level minion. She could smell the blood-affinity mana pulsing through the domain all around them, but the skill was so much more sensitive than that. She could easily distinguish Gara’s blood from Malika’s from where they sat nearby. She could smell Mato and Calen where they moved about camp, and she could even smell the stale blood from all the way over at the Temple of Bone – the aftermath of their fight. If she focused, she could even tell precisely where to hit Gara or Malika to strike the biggest arteries.

It was easily one of the most bizarre perception skills she had experienced, and she spent a little while locating each of her minions using scent just to familiarize herself with the higher-level nuances. Her imps and wargs had a sulfurous odor to their blood, presumably due to their affinity or their realm of origin. The Armored Drakes had a lot of blood, and the dragons’ blood had a rather unique scent to it. And… wait? She suddenly realized she couldn’t sense her Forest Guardian at all. The hulking elemental was clearly visible, but to her shaman’s unusual perception skill, it might as well have not existed.

No blood, she realized. Her Forest Guardians were plant elementals and therefore had a completely different biology. Some kind of sap. I’d bet none of their blood magic works on it either, she thought, considering the implications further. Probably wouldn’t work on Lira, either. Everything she had learned about the limitations of her Abyssal Stalkers probably applied to the Blood Shaman also.

“Summon your totems so I can see them,” Ali asked, to which the troll simply nodded and summoned three small wooden totems, that seemed to have been permanently stained with blood. Gara looked on with interest as she explored her shaman’s abilities.

Armor – Totem – level 42
Resistance of Blood – Totem – level 42
Blood Restoration – Totem – level 42

“Those are very nice,” Malika said. “I just got 294 more armor and 352 more magical resistance.”

Before taking a look at the shaman’s status, Ali quickly verified that she was getting the same bonus to armor and resistance.

Race: Troll
Active Buffs: Ancestral Spirit Runes, Armor, Resistance of Blood

Class: Blood Shaman – level 71
- Lacerate – level 41
- Blood Shield – level 32
- Blood Siphon – level 44
- Blood Manipulation – level 33
- Summon Totem – level 42
- Ancestral Spirit Runes – level 37
- Blood Walker – level 29
- Vampiric Hex – level 41
- Scent of Blood – level 28
- Bloodlust – level 22

General Skills
- Identify – level 23
- Cooking – level 18

Aptitudes
- Language: Troll
- Mana (Affinity): Blood
- Troll Wisdom (Racial): +15 to Wisdom
- Bloodline (Aman Rak): +30% to range and power of Bloodline skills
- Regeneration (Racial): +600% health regeneration. Can regenerate mortal injuries. Fire damage cannot be regenerated
- Blood Magic (Class): You can use health to pay for any mana costs. You have no mana. Instead, you gain 10 health per point of Wisdom

Attributes
- Vitality: 365 (+232)
- Strength: 76
- Endurance: 146 (+32)
- Dexterity: 652 (+500)
- Perception: 93 (+17)
- Intelligence: 57
- Wisdom: 710 (+523)

Equipment
- Weapon: Bone Axe – level 70
- Off Hand: Painted Bone Shield – level 70
- Head: Ancestral Bone Mask – level 65
- Hands: Ancestral Spirit Beads – level 64
- Body: Blood-Stained Leather Vest – level 69
- Feet: Swift Bone-Studded Jambeau – level 60

Armor: 294
Physical Damage Reduction: 12.88%
Evasion: 1030
Dodge: 34.12%
Resistance: 1176
Magical Damage Reduction: 37.16%
+57% to mana regeneration.
+4% of your damage is returned as Health over 30 seconds.
+15% to Movement speed.

Health: 8600/10750 (2150 Reserved)
Stamina: 1460/1460

Ali shared the Blood Shaman's status with her friends. Seeing the strangely forlorn expression on Gara’s face, she decided to share the information with her too. Having just lost her home and her entire people after being betrayed and tortured, Ali couldn’t bear to leave her out any more than necessary. She must already feel isolated because she didn’t speak common. She was happy to see Gara’s interest perk up when she shared the status.

“Well, that’s a ridiculous amount of health,” Malika exclaimed. “That’s more than Mato, by a lot.”

“More than double,” Mato said, walking over to join them.

“But that’s her mana pool too,” Ali said, pointing out the fact that the Blood Magic aptitude forced the shaman to use her own health to power her spells. She knew only too well how often she blew most of her mana during a fight, and she wondered how free she would be with it if it was also her health. The shaman could probably quite literally kill herself by casting too many spells.

“Well, that explains why I couldn’t drain their mana,” Malika said. “They don’t have any.”

“On the other hand, regeneration is a percentage of maximum health,” Calen said. “That’s still quite incredible with the troll regeneration.”

“Ok, let’s see how her skills work,” Ali said, opening the detailed descriptions and sharing with her friends, as Mato began stoking the cookfire and pulling out pots for making breakfast. To her surprise, Gara got up to watch curiously as Mato began to cook, and in true Mato-fashion he kept up a relaxed monologue, quietly explaining what he was doing to her, not caring in the slightest that she didn’t understand a word. He even handed her a knife, a cutting board, and a bunch of carrots, which she accepted without complaint.

Lacerate – level 41
Requires: Blood Manipulation
You are proficient with simple slashing weapons (dagger, sword, axe)
Stamina: Execute a slashing attack that does weapon damage +650% [skill + dexterity].
Stamina: Your next Lacerate has +106.2 [skill + dexterity/10] % increased critical strike chance. Recharge: 30 seconds.
Health: Infuse your weapon with blood to do additional blood magic damage on hit. Your weapon will soak up the blood of your enemies, further enhancing the enchantment. Channeled.
Blood, Physical, Melee, Channeled, Dexterity 

Blood Shield – level 32
Requires: Blood Manipulation
You are proficient with a shield.
Stamina: Block. Blocked attacks cannot cause critical damage.
Health: Enchant your shield with blood magic, improving the robustness of your shield and the amount blocked. Channeled.
Blood, Melee, Defense, Dexterity, Wisdom

“Can you show me your Blood Shield skill?” Ali asked the shaman.

The shaman immediately sliced a gash across the back of her forearm with her axe, and thin ribbons of blood floated from the wound, seeking the shield. In seconds, the shield was drenched with blood and dripping, and Ali could see that the shaman’s magic was maintaining the blood flowing to power the magic. Ali’s stomach lurched a little at the gruesome display, but her mind found the display of the unusual magic to be quite complex and fascinating.

“The attack and block skills both have a continuous self-bleed?” Malika asked.

Ali nodded, “Looks like it.” Both skills required Blood Manipulation, presumably to keep the bleeds running and have the control to place the blood where it was needed for the magic to function. Ali could see her health ticking down slowly, countered somewhat by her powerful troll regeneration.

The blood dripping from the bottom of the shield pooled into a thin streamer that flew over to Gara and circled above her hand.

“I have these skills too,” Gara said and then released the swirling blood to splash on the ground. “But they took my sword and shield. How will I reclaim the sacred land of my ancestors?”

Ali’s heart ached for her, knowing the pain that must be lodged there. Instead of pointing out the absurdity of a person with a level twelve class defeating a dungeon with bosses over level eighty, she simply opened her Grimoire and summoned her a level-appropriate Eimuuran steel axe, and a bone shield. And then, realizing that Gara was effectively standing beside Mato in her underwear, she summoned a nice piece of leather armor for her to wear, and the same wooden bracelet of mana regeneration she had worn for so long.

“It’s not much, but I hope it helps,” Ali said.

“This is a good axe,” Gara said, inclining her head in a gesture far more profound for having come from a Troll.

Ali moved on to the next skill – one she was extremely curious to learn about.

Blood Siphon – level 44
Requires: Blood Manipulation
Health: Your target is drained of health. Blood Siphon will chain through 3 [1 + skill / 20] targets. If your target is an ally, Blood Siphon heals instead. Range: 23.2 meters. Recharge: 10 seconds.
Blood, Ranged, Healing, Wisdom

“This seems very versatile,” Ali said, sharing it with her friends. A direct damage drain attack that chained to two additional targets, which could also double as a chained heal for allies. Its only limitation was a rather short range. Oh, and perhaps the blood thing, she thought.

“I need to test something,” she said, bringing her Forest Guardians over. “Use your Blood Siphon on that,” she told the shaman pointing at the enormous creature of wood and bark.

“I cannot, Seeker,” she said. The troll looked quite devastated that she was unable to comply with Ali’s request.

“Why not?”

“It has no blood,” Gara answered for her troll. “I cannot smell it.”

Well, that answers the question, Ali thought. Clearly blood magic was powerful, but it had some rather severe limits.

“Undead don’t have blood either,” Calen observed, once Ali translated. He already had his notebook out and seemed quite absorbed in writing his notes. “Can you ask her about them?”

“Yes, I cannot use blood magic on the zombies and skeletons. It is why the undead ambush was so devastating for us,” Gara confirmed. “Half of the defenders of Aman Rak have blood magic. Had…”

“I’m sorry,” Ali said.

“I do not need pity,” Gara declared, but she turned a little too quickly to her vegetable chopping.

Ali let her be for now, turning to the next skill.

Blood Manipulation – level 33
You can manipulate nearby blood.
You gain +33% [skill] to critical damage. Critical damage is applied as a bleed. Your bleeds last 30% longer.
Blood, Bloodline, Mastery, Wisdom

“It seems the shaman is heavily invested in bleeds,” Malika said. “It makes sense, every critical hit applies a bleed, and it can use the blood with its manipulation skill. It seems consistent with what I experienced. Can you show the totem skills? One of the totems kept absorbing blood.”

Summon Totem – level 42
Health: Create up to 3 [1 + skill / 20] magical totems from your known totems. If two totems apply the same kind of bonus, only the highest effect applies. Range: 10 meters. Duration: 5 minutes.
Known Totems:
Free Action: Once a second pulse granting a chance to dispel movement impairing effects.
Armor: +294 [skill x 7] Armor.
Evasion: +294 [skill x 7] Evasion.
Resistance of Blood: A blood-enhanced resistance totem. +352 [skill x 7 x 1.2] Resistance.
Blood Restoration: Once a second pulse healing allies in range. Requires a source of blood and Blood Manipulation.
Blood, Totem, Area, Wisdom

“That’s the one,” Malika said. “Blood Restoration, it has to be.”

“It is sucking up all the blood in the area,” Ali said, pointing to the thicker totem jutting out of the ground nearby. Sure enough, as the shaman’s shield dripped, the totem drew the blood toward itself. It was even drawing tiny trickles of blood from a patch of blood moss at the base of one of the trees. Every few moments Ali felt the pulse of the totem trying to heal her, but subtly different than Malika or her Acolyte’s magic. This felt more like a rush in her blood, like a brief surge of adrenaline.

“This shaman is going to change our strategy a lot,” Calen said. “It looks like that totem can do area healing like your Forest Guardians, although I’d wager it’s better because they’re a lot higher level.”

“You’re probably right,” Ali admitted. The Forest Guardians had been disappointing in the last few battles. Not exactly that surprising, given the relative power of the monsters they were facing. A level eighty-one boss wasn’t going to be much bothered by a level forty-five or fifty elemental. If this totem is effective, I may want to replace them, she thought. The totem skill seemed particularly versatile because she could use any three of them at the same time, but on the other hand, she was admittedly partial to her Forest Guardians. Such a shame she could not level up her minions!

“Do you have this totem too?” Ali asked, speaking in troll for Gara. She had more or less confirmed that Gara had the identical class, only at a much lower level.

“No,” Gara said. “Most shamans get that one at level sixty. And I can only summon one totem, not three like her.”

Ali nodded and opened the next skill.

Vampiric Hex – level 41
Health: Whenever you successfully attack or block with a blood-enchanted weapon or shield, you can curse your target. Duration: 30 seconds. Recharge: 30 seconds.
Blood, Melee, Curse, Intelligence

“Interesting, they can only curse with a melee attack or block, and only if the weapon is enchanted with blood,” Ali said.

“The curse is strong, though,” Malika said. “It increases vulnerability to bleeds, heals anyone that attacks the cursed target, and the shaman can refresh it by hitting it with any blood magic. That siphon skill worked.”

“If you put that curse on a boss, it could heal the entire group,” Calen said. “We definitely have to try it out. Especially with all of Ali’s minions.”

Ali skipped over Scent of Blood, checking only to verify that it was identical to the skill her Abyssal Stalkers had, and instead shared Bloodlust.

Bloodlust – level 22

Health: Your blood, and that of your allies, calls for battle. +28.6 [skill * 1.3 (bloodline)] % strength and melee haste for yourself, and all chosen allies. Due to the extreme strain on the target’s life and mana, Bloodlust and similar magic cannot be used on the same target more than once every fifteen minutes. Duration: 35.5 [wisdom / 20] seconds. Recharge: 15 minutes, Range: 33.2 meters.

Blood, Bloodline, Buff, Area, Wisdom

“No wonder we struggled with this,” Malika said.

Even though the shaman’s most dangerous skill was also its lowest-leveled one, it was still a monstrously powerful bloodline skill. Nearly thirty percent more strength and melee haste for an entire group was ridiculous. After having looked through all the skills and finally understanding what they had been seeing when they faced the shamans, Ali was excited to try her out in battle.

“This is the pride of our shamans, the pride of our bloodline,” Gara said. “I can’t wait to reach level forty.” And she truly seemed to light up at the thought.

“I’m sure you’ll get there soon,” Ali said, trying to be encouraging, but not knowing exactly how to help the lonely, grieving Troll.

“I guess the blood magic restriction also explains why the Bloodlust never worked on any of the zombies or skeletons,” Calen said, returning the conversation to the skills of the Blood Shaman.

Ali swallowed uncomfortably. It hadn’t even occurred to her to think what the Kir’mogan fight might have been like with hasted and empowered zombies, instead of just the live trolls.

Dexterity or wisdom? Ali wondered. The troll had exceptionally high values for both attributes and if it turned out wisdom had the higher base value, she would finally be able to improve her own attributes using Empowered Summoner.

“Can you disable Ancient Spirit Runes for a moment?” she asked, not wanting to do the trivial arithmetic, but also curious to see if she might learn something about the elusive runic spell by watching it activate and deactivate.

To her surprise, the troll reacted with shock, and even Gara let out a horrified strangled gasp.

“Please, Seeker, not that,” she said. It was the first time any of her minions had not instantly carried out her requests.

“What happened?” she turned to Gara, not understanding anything other than she had just tripped over something important.

“Every troll has that skill. It is our personal connection to the ancestral spirits. There is no troll alive who would willingly abandon that connection,” Gara explained. “Even if she is just a summoned troll, please don’t make her do this.”

“Very well,” Ali turned to the conflicted shaman who still wore a tortured expression on her face. “I won’t ask you to turn it off again.” The shaman’s expression instantly changed to one of gratitude and relief. She puzzled over it in her mind for a moment, but the only thing she could think of was that the connection to the skill must be a racial thing, a part of their bloodline and probably built into each troll from birth.

Ali glanced over the values on the shaman’s status sheet and did the calculations in her head. By her reckoning, the shaman had 187 base wisdom and only 152 base dexterity.

Gear and skills really improved her attributes a lot, she realized. And her wisdom is higher, so…

Suddenly excited, Ali swapped her Empowered Summoner target from her Acolyte to her new Blood Shaman. Her mind broadened, once a pool, now suddenly a deep and expansive lake. Her wisdom leapt by one hundred and two points, and her mana pool grew over three thousand in the space of a heartbeat. She sucked in her breath, gasping as the sensation took her.

“What’s wrong?” Malika asked.

“Wisdom creature,” she answered. “It’s a lot.”

Initially, she had been uncomfortable about learning the troll imprint, but as she became more familiar with her new minions, and after talking with Gara, she had begun to appreciate them more. Certainly, the Blood Shaman seemed versatile and powerful, and Ali was eager to try her out in combat, but the wisdom boost from just having her troll nearby made her excited just thinking about it.

“That means you can summon more bosses?” Calen asked, getting it immediately.

“Yes!” Ali said, grinning from ear to ear.

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