Favored Enemy I (Open)
250
When fighting a favored enemy:
+10% Melee and Ranged Attack and Defense
+6% Magical Strength (all Basic Elements)
+4% Magical Defense (all Basic Elements)
*Must specify enemy upon badge acquisition. May only choose enemies which have been fought while leading a War Party. Only one favored enemy per War Party formation.
Trainer I (Closed)
250
+5% experience earned for War Party members
Power Level III (Closed)
500
30% of the experience earned by the entire war party can be channeled to a specific member. The third rank of this badge allows the recipient to be three times beyond the Sphere of Influence and still receive the experience.
*Experience recipient must be within Sphere of Influence
Sphere of Influence II (Personal)
500
Increase range of Sphere of Influence by 200%
He had three hundred and one points left. The question was, what to do with them. He agreed with Yoshi that keeping his people alive needed to be his top priority. He could increase their defense. From what he had seen, goblins were mainly melee fighters. If he put all of his eggs in one basket, he should be able to purchase five ranks in melee defense. It would cost almost all of his War points, but the armor his people wore would be 25% stronger. It could definitely mean the difference between life and death.
The main downside that he could see was that increasing Melee Defense was a closed badge. It would only affect the people he put directly into his war party. At his initiate rank in the skill, that was only ten people. He had hundreds to help. Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, and Ranged Defense all had the same problem.
What he needed was a way to help everyone in the band. Richter’s eyes fell on a badge he had never used before, Favored Enemy. It added a generous 10% to attack and defense across the board. It also increased magical attack power by 6% for all spells as well. Finally, it provided 4% spell defense. At least for the eight spell schools that comprised the Basic Elements: Life, Death, Light, Dark, Water, Fire, Air and Earth. Most importantly, it was an open badge, so it would affect everyone in his SoI. He had never really considered it, though, because of the large variability of monsters he faced on a daily basis. Those bonuses would only work against one type of enemy. The two hundred and fifty point cost was also nothing to sneeze at. For the upcoming battle, however, it might be just the thing.
Richter was not one to waste time second guessing. He spent the War points. Before he could secure the badge, though, a list of enemies appeared before him. He would have to choose his favored enemy at the time of purchase. Animals, Reptile Beasts, Amphibian Beasts, Mammalian Beasts, Hybrids, Living Dead… The list kept going and was amazingly specific. He thought all the animals would be grouped together, but apparently, the magical ones were called ‘Beasts.’ Apparently, to get so many bonuses at once, he would have to be quite specific. He kept going through the list, marveling at the number of monsters he had encountered. The words were in plain, common script. Near the bottom of the list were the names of sentient races he had fought. Richter scanned through it until he found Goblin, and selected it.
Congratulations! You have purchased Favored Enemy I and have chosen Goblin.
Total War Points Remaining: 51.
A new line appeared on his badge table, Favored Enemy II (Goblin). The second rank cost five hundred points. The original badge was still there as well in case he wanted to choose another favored enemy. It would be expensive though, and he could only have one per war party formation. Richter bought Magical Strength II (Life) as well, hoping that the boost in spell power might help his biomancers heal injured troops.
Total War Points Remaining: 1.
He walked over to Yoshi. The sword adept’s eyes glowed white again before he nodded and said, “Good. We leave in half an hour.”
Richter rolled his eyes. Thanks, coach. He looked around at his forces and the other villagers that had gathered to wish them well. He wanted the noncombatants to be safe up in the meadow by the time they left, but Randolphus had told him it would be a horrible idea to try and force the point. Husbands and wives were saying goodbye for perhaps the last time. Children played, wept, or stood by stoically depending on their age and their understanding of what was happening.
A cloud of multicolored pixies hovered in the air as well. There had been a loud, and mostly cute, outcry from the pixie children when they heard that they could not join the battle. More than ninety tiny voices had tried to explain to “Unca Wichter” that it really wasn’t his choice. They simply had to go with their meitu’meidons. The chaos seed had taken it in good stride at first, but as they continued to buzz around him complaining and persuading, he had to speak firmly to them. Ultimately, he had to make it an order. Now they flew above, sticking their tongues out at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.
He put the children out of his mind. It became easier when he saw a familiar face walk up. Beyan made a beeline towards him with a creature trailing behind him. Richter easily recognized it, seeing as how he had killed it before. It was the decaemur knight, Jurgen.
Richter had seen it following the arcane gnome around several times over the past few weeks. Initially, it had made him tense every time he had seen it, but two things brought him ease. One, to Beyan’s dismay, the bonding of the knight’s body and the weak Death spirit he had placed inside of it had caused some unintended effects. The knight had lost levels.
When Richter had initially fought the undead, it had been a level thirty-seven monster. The knight had been able to summon undead minions or fight hand to hand with deadly effect. When Beyan had summoned a level three Death creature to animate the body, he had indeed been successful at tying the Death spirit to the body. As a result of the level differential, however, the knight’s level had dropped to twenty-seven. Even though it had upset Beyan to no end, Richter had felt a bit calmer knowing the undead killing machine was a bit less of a threat if things went tits up.