Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

lashed his bushy tail, and then regarded Jacob. “That was an unexpected twist. I’ll give you that. The answer is both yes, and no. She sees me, but not the me you see.”

Turning his attention back to the Fire Oppa, Jacob thought about what he meant. Camilla said she needed a Cairn, not a Pyre.

Considering the similarity of their uses – both to inter or honor the dead in some way – the two were likely the same in function if not form.

Which meant there was probably a… a what, a Burial Oppa? “So she sees a version of you?” Jacob asked, and the Fire Oppa nodded. “You can use Souls to strengthen her as well then?” The Fire Oppa gave him a flat look. “Okay, okay, that was probably pretty obvious.”

“She’s a bit faster than you,” the Fire Oppa said with a snort of flame. “Already reinforcing her parameters as we speak while you’re asking silly questions.”

Grumbling to himself, Jacob pulled up his parameters.

[Status]

 Jacob Windsor

Covenant: None

Race: Kemora - Fae-touched (Human/Fairy)

Level: 13

Health: 124

Stamina: 86

Anima: 0

Souls: 15,731

Required Souls: 1,238

Parameters

VIT: 3

AGI: 6

END: 3

TMP: 9

STR: 10

DEX: 10

INT: 8

FTH: 3

Curse: Fractured Sight

Curse Level: 2

 

Spell Gem: No Spell Inscribed

Jacob double-checked his armor as he took out the [Repair Kit]. He placed each piece of equipment into the bottomless box, repairing everything he had at once. It cost him just shy of 300 Souls, a small sum compared to what a merchant would charge.

If he could even find one.

He had nothing short of an astounding amount of Souls but he had to remind himself that he needed to upgrade his armor. And yet, something stopped him from doing that immediately.

With 3 [Bright Sparks] and 6 [Dull Sparks], he could easily reinforce two pieces to +3 or one to +8 if with one piece left at +1. But what if there was a better piece of equipment out there?

The knight armor was simple, its metal was thin but worked with ridges that helped to turn attacks aside, yet it was far from the best armor he’d ever seen. It was, however, very good early on.

Spending all of his upgrade materials, not to mention the Souls, would be a waste. The problem was holding enough Souls that Jacob could purchase or upgrade any improvements he came across.

Loot in Pyresouls was rare. Merchants sold low-quality equipment most of the time unless you got lucky like he did with Brother Aker or you knew how to gain their favor.

For the most part, bosses, treasure chests, and the wisps of the dead were the only ways to get decent equipment. And that meant knowing where they were. Alice and Alec looked into the archives to provide him with some good options, but they also were trying to make sure he stayed on mission.

He could range all over Lormar for the most epic weapon and armor but he would fail in his mission to defeat the Burgon Beast before Alec reached it.

This was more of a speed run than anything. He had to have just enough strength to get through it to the end, but not so much that he wasted time growing stronger.

The clock was ticking. He was still several days out from Hollow Dreams, and already there were barely 13 days left before the Collapse. Even if he didn’t reinforce his parameters here, by the time he pressed on it would likely be the next day.

Regardless, he should be following Camilla’s lead and reinforcing his parameters. After a good rest, he would feel right as rain. Rain, now that was something he dearly missed from Earth before the Collapse stole such simple pleasures.

Frustrated, Jacob turned back to his parameters. He could probably reinforce roughly 8 parameters by his guess.

If he wanted to get rid of his Stamina and Movement penalty from his current Guilt tier, he would have to reinforce Temper up to about 16. Spending most of his Souls in the process.

He wasn’t keen on doing that, not when his Health and Stamina were so low. On the other hand, he could raise his AGI to counteract the Movement penalty. It would technically be a waste of a point or two but those points should bring him back to rough parity to his old speed.

If Alec was right and anything in the catacombs would one-shot him, then he’d need to have just enough Health to survive a single hit.

That way he would have the time to use a [Cinder Ampoule] and carry on. Which meant he needed to know exactly how much damage the creatures below did.

Having over 15,000 Souls really felt like a lot until he started to plan out how he was going to spend them. He was keenly reminded that his Souls wouldn’t last very long and that each time he reinforced a single parameter those remaining Souls would stretch less and less.

Stamina was a must-have. As soon as he placed a point into END and confirmed it, he groaned. His Stamina went up by 2 points, the green bar in the top-left quadrant of his vision stretched ever-so-slightly. And now the next parameter reinforcement would cost 1,445 Souls.

Maybe he was overly optimistic about getting 8 parameter reinforcements. Jacob raised his END a total of 4 points, bringing it up to 7 END and his Stamina up to 94. Just 2 points shy of where his Stamina was back on Earth.

It was easy to forget just how slow stat growth was in Pyresouls. Rather than feeling bloaty like a lot of games, every point of Stamina felt like the precious resource it was.

Eventually, he wanted it at 100. There was a Sword Form that he hoped to unlock – one that he never could since the highest his Stamina ever reached was 96 – that cost 100 Stamina to execute. In exchange for depleting so much Stamina, it dealt a decisive blow.

As tempted as he was to go all-in at the moment, he still needed to see to his Health. Unfortunately, it would waste a day