Chapter 52: The Second Fragment II
The notifications disappeared from his vision, and Leo breathed a sigh of relief. He might come to regret that choice later, but for now he was pretty happy with it.
“Done?”
Leo turned to face Spade. The [Executioner] looked vaguely amused. He frowned.
“What, did I take a long time or something?” He hadn’t thought it was that bad.
“Not too long,” Allan assured. “You were just really focused. You looked like—”
“Okay, never mind.” Leo sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Give me a break, it was a tough choice okay,” he said with no real heat. Instead, he turned on [Judgement].
The first fragment had boosted his personal skill’s abilities, and it was entirely possible that this one would as well. So far, though, he didn’t notice a difference. Maybe the personal skill boost was a one time thing, or maybe the boost would only be noticeable later?
He shook his head and turned off the skill. “It also gave me 300 bonus points,” he explained. His brows furrowed. “I, uh, I got bonus experience too. After the fight with Sonia.”
Allan’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s amazing! Was it because of the level gap?”
Leo shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not really sure how it works, to be honest.” Hazel eyes shifted over to Spade. He knew Allan hadn’t gotten bonus experience before—he would’ve told him if he had—so he asked the [Executioner] if she’d ever received any.
“Once,” she replied. “I don’t know any more than you how the System decides to give it out.”
That came as a genuine surprise, mostly because of how rare bonus experience and points were. Leo couldn’t help but ask, “Did you also fight someone with a level gap?”
Spade chuckled at that. “Not this time. He was the same level, actually.”
“Oh.” Leo couldn’t help but deflate a little. There went the easy explanation.
“What happened to him?” Allan’s dark eyes were fixed on the [Executioner] as he spoke, his expression blank. Spade met his gaze, silent for just a moment before she responded in an even tone.
“I sliced his arm off,” she said simply. Leo stared at her. Her voice remained casual, displaying no more attachment than someone would use to describe the weather, and her grey eyes were as unreadable as ever. She must have seen his face, because she raised an eyebrow.
“Is that surprising?”
“Not really,” Allan said flatly. Sindrey had often employed public demonstrations to discourage lawbreaking. The executions themselves were always displayed, of course, but in the slums public floggings were even more common. Not to mention everyone knew the [Executioner]’s job scope also included torture.
Leo’s brows furrowed. While rarer, he had heard of dismemberments being used as sentences, though supposedly they were less common across Avel now. He guessed the Council realized it was a bit hypocritical of them to denounce the Empire’s cruelties while employing some of the same methods.
Still, even if not completely unexpected, it would always be a little unsettling to hear someone talk so casually about cutting off someone’s arm.
“Was it some kind of sentence?” Leo asked.
“Not in this case, no. It happened a long time ago.”
For a second Leo could’ve sworn the [Executioner]’s eyes hardened, something sharp and burning entering their usual flat grey, but it was gone in an instant. He blinked, half wondering if he’d imagined it.
Spade turned to Leo with a nod.
“Congratulations on your bonus experience, though I’m not sure why you’re telling us about it,” she said lightly.
It was an obvious change of subjects, but as curious as Leo was about the whole story, he didn’t want to press. The woman didn’t seem particularly keen on revealing more, and he knew what it was like to keep secrets.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, about that. Looks like I can choose how to distribute the exp and points. That’s what the notification said, at least.”
Spade raised a scarred eyebrow. He guessed the [Executioner] hadn’t been part of a party when she’d gotten her bonus experience, so she wouldn’t have known about the option.
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“You should keep it,” Allan said. “You’re the one who earned it.”
“Maybe. The thing is, I’m already getting the fragments. I know you both said you don’t want them, but, well…” his voice trailed.
“You still feel like you’re indebted to us,” Spade guessed. The [Fragmentholder] nodded, glad someone else had voiced the feeling. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t gladly use them for himself, but he owed Allan plenty from the last five years and Spade had saved them back on the boats.
Allan looked like he wanted to argue, but Spade spoke before he did. She cocked her head.
“How about this. If any of us earn bonus points, we keep it for ourselves. If we earn bonus experience, we distribute it among the party.”
That sounded like a logical solution to Leo. After all, because of the way experience was spread through parties, higher level members levelled more slowly. One person keeping all the bonus experience would give them a temporary boost, but it would slow down their levelling until the rest of the party caught up.
It was for this same reason that he and Allan would eventually catch up to Spade’s level and why parties with significant level differences were rare. The ones that existed were usually either temporary, used for military squadrons, or were “assisted levelling parties,” which involved someone being paid to join a party and gain experience, thereby boosting the paying member. The latter was often employed by wealthy families looking to give their children a leg up while doing none of the real work.
“Yeah, that works,” Leo said. He closed his eyes and mentally selected the options.
[Bonus experience distributed among party]
[Progress to next level: 42%]
As for his bonus points, Leo raised his mana by 2 and his magic by 1. Now that he had more spells, he needed to keep his mana high to make sure he had enough for both magic and skills. Magic was another obvious stat given it was likely he would continue to gain more spells.
By then, night had fully settled. The world was cloaked in a dark shadow cut through only by the moonlight and the wall of light’s glow. So far there was no sign of the Silence, but they’d still need to set up watch shifts. Tomorrow they would continue making their way south towards Alnwick.
“I can take first watch,” Allan offered. “I’m not as injured as you two.”
“Gee, thanks,” Leo said with a snort, but he didn’t argue with the [Healer]. His entire body still felt sluggish from the events of the day. Spade took the second watch, which left Leo with the last one.
As he moved to settle down for the night, he paused and glanced back.
“Hey, Spade?”
The [Executioner] inclined her head towards him but otherwise didn’t move from her position seated against a tree trunk. Leo was aware of Allan listening in on their conversation while he sorted through his bag.
Leo hesitated, but kept going. “…You’re good with knives, right? Could you teach me?”
That got Spade’s attention. She raised a scarred eyebrow.
“I remember you saying you knew how to use a dagger.”
Allan made a noise that sounded like a snort, and Leo shot him a scowl before turning back to the [Executioner].
“I can get by,” he muttered, “but if we’re gonna keep getting in fights, that’s not gonna be good enough.” In the brief moments he’d seen the woman fight, it was clear from her sharp movements, her lack of hesitation, and her general precision that she was far more experienced in combat than him or Allan.
Hell, Leo had already been imitating some of her movements when they’d fought the Hounds. He needed that sort of skill if they were going to keep running into people like Sonia.
Spade shrugged. “Sure.”
The [Fragmentholder] blinked. He hadn’t expected it to be so easy to convince her.
“I should warn you, it won’t be very formal if that’s what you’re expecting. I’m self taught.”
Leo mentally filed that information away. A lack of formal combat training removed one of the theories he’d had of Spade being some sort of Empire military deserter, but that had been shaky from the start. The Empire’s use of the party system made desertion near impossible anyway.
“That’s fine.” He nodded gratefully. “Thank you.”
Spade just waved, the conversation apparently settled. She closed her eyes, though given her seated position, it was difficult to tell how asleep she actually was.
Leo settled back down across the cool grassy earth, shifting onto one side so that his wrapped shoulder would remain on top. He assumed this was fine since he wasn’t putting pressure on the area. If it wasn’t, Allan would definitely have something to say about it, he thought amusedly.
He must’ve been more tired than he’d thought. Within minutes of closing his eyes, Leo was fast asleep.
—
Name: Leo
Age: 24
Level: 22
Class: [Fragmentholder, Tier 1]
Personal Skill: [Judgement Lvl 3]
Strength: 15
Magic: 14
Constitution: 14
Agility: 23
Defense: 11
Resistance: 14
Mana: 21
Equipped Passive Skills (3/3): [Stealth Lvl 2], [Acrobatics Lvl 2], [Dagger Proficiency Lvl 1]
Active Skills (4/8): [Mana Recovery Lvl 2], [Fade into Background Lvl 2], [Renewal Lvl 2], [Sprint Lvl 2]
Spells (2/13): [Visual Illusion Lvl 2], [Teleport Object Lvl 1]
—
Name: Allan
Age: 24
Level: 22
Class: [Healer, Tier 1]
Personal Skill: [Wrath Lvl 1]
Strength: 19
Magic: 17
Constitution: 17
Agility: 17
Defense: 16
Resistance: 10
Mana: 17
Equipped Passive Skills (3/3): [Athletics Lvl 2], [Intimidation Lvl 3], [Grappling Proficiency Lvl 2]
Active Skills: (4/8): [Celerity Lvl 2], [Renewal Lvl 2], [Even Path Lvl 2], [Cleave Lvl 2]
Spells (1/10): [Mend Lvl 3]
—
Name: Spade
Age: 31
Level: 23
Class: [Executioner, Tier 1]
Personal Skill: [Empathy Lvl 3]
Strength: 22
Magic: 6
Constitution: 22
Agility: 19
Defense: 20
Resistance: 11
Mana: 14
Equipped Passive Skills (3/3): [Anatomical Knowledge Lvl 2], [Athletics Lvl 3], [Blade Proficiency Lvl 2]
Active Skills (5/8): [Reckless Wager Lvl 2], [Precision Lvl 2], [Renewal Lvl 1], [Duelist’s Challenge Lvl 2], [Cleave Lvl 2]
With that, Arc 2 of The God Shards is officially over! After this there’s a quick 4 chapter mini arc that, while short, is probably one of my favorites.
Since this is the end of the arc, I thought I’d include a retrospective on the story so far. I’ll put it below the spoilers in case anyone’s interested in hearing me ramble haha.
The end of the arc also means it’s time for a new favorite character poll! I’m very curious to see how much results differ from the first one.
Arcs 1-2 Retrospective:
Writing The God Shards has definitely been an interesting experience. Compared to my past works, I wanted to focus more on plot and pacing this time, and it’s also the most complicated litrpg system I’ve written (I know the system here is very basic. It just goes to show how inexperienced I am with writing litrpg haha).
Overall, I think I’m pretty happy with these first two arcs. I do think the pacing, while not perfect, is better than my past stories, and I’ve gotten better at writing fight scenes.
My biggest regret is probably the first chapter. It has an abysmal user retention rate, and all of the 0.5s - 2.5 star ratings this story has received have been concentrated on that first chapter. Even now, I feel like it continues to discourage new readers who might stumble into this story, and it’s permanently affected this story’s overall rating to the point that it will likely never recover.
I always knew Leo would probably be a bit of a controversial MC. I think I just didn’t realize how bad the reception would be, and I can’t help but wonder where this story would be if chapter 1 had been different or if I’d just started at a different point in the story.
Adding to that, me getting covid and the hiatus this story took because of it also killed a lot of its momentum, I feel. The pacing in the middle of Arc 2 is a bit off, partially because I was struggling to get back into the rhythm of writing at the time.
The loss of my backlog also ended up continuing to affect future chapter releases, and the longer gaps between chapters added to the sense of the story losing pace. It’s probably not as bad for a binge reader, but for anyone following along with each release, I sincerely apologize.
In the end, I’ve got mixed feelings on how these first two arcs turned out haha, but I usually do for everything I write. This retrospective has gotten very long very fast; shoutout to anyone who read the whole thing!
Thank you so much to everyone who’s commented, reviewed, or read along silently through this story’s ups and downs! It really does mean the world. I’ll do my best to ensure future arcs only get better and better.
Thank you again!
Who's your favorite character so far?
