War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

because she was his tutor. Maybe he was being a silly schoolboy, but he still liked to dwell on her. The more he focused on her, the more at peace he became. Yet throughout it, he kept his mind open to the Earth Essence in the walls around him.

Drawing it into himself seemed to be much easier now. So, he pushed and drained until it seemed like there was nothing more around him. He hit a wall, as though he couldn’t fill up the spoke of his wheel any further.

He looked inside himself and his core was pulsing. The portion of it that held the Earth Essence looked full, but the number still only read as 10/25. He should have been able to absorb more, but it was like it was like the space was too small to hold more.

Apparently, Hilde was either able to read that thought or knew enough to react to it. “You will have to learn how to condense the essence before you can move past the first tier. Besides, the stone walls around you are depleted. You may need to call upon them in the future if you can’t learn to convert raw essence to Earth Essence. The good news is that you have over seven thousand raw essence available now.”

“So, can I ask you something?”

“Of course. Where you come from, promises may be given flippantly, but in Verden, words have meaning and oaths even more so. My being is pledged to you,” Hilde replied.

“Not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I can’t afford to turn away your help, or any help that I can get. Maybe someday, I will be back on top of the world and able to write my own ticket. But not now. Still, I don’t want you to start being just some kinda yes man, er… yes woman, or yes celestial. You know what I mean,” Kyle replied.

“Strangely enough, I do. My oath doesn’t prohibit me from calling you out for stupidity. Krig didn’t like to be questioned. At least not publicly. But my oath demands that I make my mind and superior knowledge available to you, even if that means letting you know when you screw up,” Hilde said.

“Good, I could use a true friend. Someone who will speak frankly with me. But for now, let me ask this. I’ve got this essence, but so what? I barely know how to do anything with it,” Kyle said.

“So, I think there was a question in there. Well, first off, I don’t know entirely. I wasn’t expecting you to be able to absorb Earth Essence. So, for most of the time you use your War Essence as an instinctive reaction. It enhances your speed, lets you bring down the wall of a quarry, or allows you to stop the momentum of your hammer to swing with full power but still not crush everything you hit.”

“It isn’t that all those things aren’t cool. ‘Cause they sure as shit are. But I can’t control any of that.” Kyle’s hands rose up in a gesture of frustration as he spoke.

“Believe me, if there was an easy fix to this, I would tell you. I want it more than ever before now that I have gotten to know you just a little bit. I think spending time with you might be… um… mutually rewarding. But I’m afraid to tinker with what you are doing too much.

“Remember, you are unique in all the history of Verden. There has never been a reincarnation of a god—” Hilde said.

Kyle began to interrupt her, “I’m still my—”

But Hilde was able to speak faster than him and counter-interrupted him, “Even if you don’t like the idea. I think the best course for now is to just go with it. As far as I can tell, you haven’t drawn the attention of any of your siblings, or even the demis.”

“Okay, so what about my Divine Abilities? I was able to use Rage Burst in the quarry. That sure seemed useful. I’ve been a bit afraid to try to do it again in close quarters, but it would be nice to have as an option in the arena,” Kyle said.

“That might be dangerous to use in the arena. I expect that Kierra and certainly Skrug would survive it. Maybe even Gilthan, but normal humans will either be killed or gravely injured by it, especially at close quarters.”

“Okay, I can see that, but I don’t even know what the designations on it mean,” Kyle said as he pulled up that limited portion of his character sheet.

Rage Burst, 1 - 4 War

“That, at least, I can help you with,” Hilde said. “First, it shows the name of the ability, which usually gives some idea about how it functions. The fact that it is a Divine Ability rather than a normal Skill means that only tier five can use the ability. Well, that and likely tier four and maybe even tier three with divine slivers.

“The one means that the ability is at the initial level. From what I learned with Krig, there are up to five levels to these types of abilities, the same as there are with skills. Each tier of the ability is probably dramatically more powerful than the one before it.

“As for the second number, that is an approximation of how much essence is, along with the type, required to activate the skill. And before you ask, it is only an approximation. I have already told you that character sheets are only a guide meant to simplify things, but not capable of explaining all the minutia.”

Kyle sighed. “I can accept that. Thanks for the explanation. So that means that I could currently use the skill three times in a row before I had to wait to recharge.”

“Only if you used them in very rapid succession. Remember with your ridiculously fast conversion rate, you can turn raw essence into War Essence at a rate of one per second.”

“Is