Chapter 111: Shapechanger
Two selection boxes appeared under the Lord of Light.
[Red Priest: Gain the ability to command flames and see prophecies within them. At master level, you can sacrifice offerings of sufficient value (by fire) in exchange for a desired outcome.]
[Shadowbinder: Gain the ability of 'Shadow Magic'. Requires proficiency as a Red Priest, or entry into the city of Asshai with a Mental Strength of 20 or more. Currently unavailable.]
*Just as I suspected, no 'resurrection' technique,* Ian noted with a purse of his lips, consistent with his initial theory at character creation.
The thought of resurrection brought the Braavosi proverb back to his mind—*death is the only miracle, the rest are magic.*
So what of the Lord of Light's resurrections? This was the reversal of death itself. Could 'magic' truly undo a 'miracle'? Did that mean the Lord of Light was the one true God after all? No… that couldn't be right.
His eyes fell upon the description for [Shadowbinder] again: *…or entry into the city of Asshai with a Mental Strength of 20 or more.*
The entry into Asshai was a condition tied to the magic of that shadow-haunted city. It was a completely unreasonable requirement to find within the Red God's system. And it was deeply telling that a person could learn [Shadow Magic] by merely entering Asshai, bypassing the [Red Priest] prerequisite entirely.
R'hllor's full title was the 'Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Shadow and Flame.' Melisandre herself had declared that 'shadow is the servant of light, born of fire.'
Shadow was supposedly the child of flame. What did it mean, then, that shadow magic could be learned completely independently of the Red God's system?
It meant R'hllor, the 'God of Shadow and Flame,' did not have full mastery over shadow magic.
Ian found it impossible to believe that a being who couldn't even fully command the powers tied to his own name could be a true god. As for the resurrections… who could say? Without more information, he could make no further judgment. He put the thoughts aside and moved on.
The water magic of the Rhoynar, limited by bloodline, was also unavailable. Ian felt a pang of regret; it was a powerful supplement to one's combat abilities in the later stages of the game. During their war with the Valyrian Freehold, the Rhoynar had used their water magic to slay dragons, an act that so enraged the dragonlords that they unleashed all three hundred of their beasts to annihilate the Rhoynish kingdom.
Even in their final defeat, their leader, Prince Garin, had used a forbidden water spell to awaken Mother Rhoyne herself, summoning a colossal flood that drowned the Valyrian invasion force at Chroyane and brought down countless dragonlords. The site had ever since been shrouded in a gray fog, a cursed place known now as the Sorrows, where the stone men gathered to die.
The next option was the [Many-Faced God System].
This, without a doubt, was the magic of the Faceless Men, the art of changing one's appearance. When a practitioner became someone else, their height, body shape, and voice would all transform to match.
An insidious idea sparked in Ian's mind. If a player mastered this skill, could he not simply murder an already powerful player and take his place, instantly gaining his power and status?
For a moment, Ian was tempted. He even considered traveling to Braavos to join the House of Black and White. But he quickly abandoned the notion. Joining the Faceless Men meant forfeiting the chance to earn points and rewards through quests and achievements. Without the boosts from his attribute panel, trying to become a powerful Faceless Man through training alone was a fool's dream.
Even a prodigy like Arya, hand-picked by Jaqen H'ghar, was barely above the level of a novice after more than a year in the House of Black and White.
A player would have to first earn enough attributes and skill points out in the world, *then* join. Only then could the system's foundation accelerate their training to the highest echelons of the Faceless Men. By that point, however, it might not even be the best choice. The greatest strength of a Faceless Man was camouflage. Against a player with fully developed Greensight or the prophetic flames of a Red Priest, a disguise might prove utterly useless.
The final two items on the list were unclickable.
Ian could only guess at the Valyrian witchcraft system. The dragonlords of old had preferred a simpler and more effective method for dealing with their enemies—dragonflame—and so very few records of their sorcery remained.
As for the black arts of Asshai, Ian suspected that category contained every other occult system in the world. Wizards and alchemists, moonsingers and warlocks, necromancers and aeromancers, bloodmages and torturers, poisoners and priestesses of the horned men, night-walkers and shadowbinders, and even the esoteric schools of the Black Goat, the Pale Child, and the Lion of Night.
Returning to the top of the menu, Ian decided to stick with his original plan—Shapechanger.
At first glance, the Red Priest's abilities were no worse than a shapechanger's, but the requirements for 'mastery' were worlds apart. Any wildling beyond the Wall with the gift could learn to be a shapechanger. But a Red Priest?
He thought of Melisandre, one of the Lord of Light's most powerful servants. The prophecies she saw in the flames were consistently misinterpreted. And if *she* couldn't read the visions correctly, what chance did he have? It had taken her over ten seconds to cast a simple fire enchantment on the Dothraki arakhs in one famous battle. Ian found it hard to believe he could ever use fire magic effectively to kill an enemy. Besides, fire magic had possessed almost no power at all before the dragons returned to the world.
With his decision made, Ian selected the skinchanger skill.
[Player Obtained Skill: Shapeshifter (Basic)]
His data card updated.
[Ian: Strength 32, Agility 27, Mental Strength 7]
[Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Common Tongue (Reading and Writing), Advanced Swordsmanship, Advanced Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance, Basic Shapeshifter]
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Skill Points: 6]
[Points: 31]
[Items: Scroll of Basic Skills (1)]
Ian immediately attempted to use his skill points to raise Shapeshifter to the advanced level. But after he pressed the upgrade button, a new prompt appeared.
[Upgrade failed. The level of a magic skill cannot exceed one-fifth of your Mental Strength (Level 1 requires 5 Mental Strength, Level 2 requires 10, etc.).]
"So, to learn magic, I first have to grind for free attribute points?" An expression of pure agony crossed Ian's face, like a tragedian's mask.
Though he had gained a number of random attributes by killing other players since the game began, free attribute points—the kind he could assign himself—were incredibly rare. So far, he had only obtained them from the first main quest, the first bounty, and the optional mission [Death of the Black Falcon]. The second main quest and the second bounty had yielded none. The only path he could see to gaining more was through optional tasks.
But the optional tasks the system provided were far too unreliable. If a client lied, all his efforts could be for nothing.
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