by Jez Cajiao
“Not much…” Bane said dismissively. “The next level was quiet, or at least the local area is, but there are weird tracks, so there’s definitely something alive, or undead, down there. I didn’t want to send out a full pulse, like above. I was afraid it would draw unwanted attention.”
“Well, when we’re ready to go down, do it and map as far out as you can with your Worldsense. I want to know what we’re dealing with this time. Besides,” I considered aloud, “we should probably be on the level above, so we kinda need to find the stairs, and fast, before that dickhead Joshua loots the place.”
“Oh, yeah…” Grizz said, lifting a single-edged knife that he’d taken from his boot and angling it so it glinted in the firelight. “Is now a good time to ask for personal permission to… discuss… his actions with him when we get out of here?” A rumble of similarly angry voices arose from the rest, and I smiled as well.
“Tell you what; whoever kills the most down here… from now on,” I said quickly, as Yen’s face had lit up, “gets first go at ‘discussing’ things with him. Lydia will keep score.” She blinked before peering around the group, grim-faced and nodding authoritatively. “Now, get anything you need to sort out, as we’re out of here in half an hour.” The plan in place, I set my plate to the side, pulling up my notification’s screens and grinning as I saw the first one.
Congratulations! You have raised your Ability ‘Mana-Overdrive’ to level ten. You may now choose your first evolution of this spell.
Congratulations! You have raised your Ability ‘Mana-Overdrive’ to its first evolution. You must now pick a path to follow. Will you choose Longevity, enhancing the duration of the Ability by choosing the path of EFFICENCY, or will you pick the path of the EXTREME? Choose carefully, as this choice cannot be undone.
EFFICENCY:
Your Ability may be in its infancy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to master it instinctually, eking out every last millisecond of use out of it, while reducing the cost on your body. Choosing this path will enable you to utilize the Ability for 10% longer with each additional level, running from level 11-20, and gaining a corresponding dip in 1 point lost to the debuff for each level you gain.
EXTREME:
Sure, efficiency is great, but you know what’s even better? POWER! Choosing the path of the Extreme will increase the cost of using this Ability by 50% but will also unlock the ability to infuse greater amounts of your mana into your body at a time. Beware! A physical body is not designed to accept high amounts of mana for a sustained period. Investing extreme amounts may result in… unexpected… changes. Your debuff will increase from -10 to -20 to all stats until complete healing has been carried out.
As this ability has now reached level ten, your mana channels have now fully adjusted to your new body, forming tighter bonds, and you no longer leak mana like an excited puppy!
Congratulations! Your mana regeneration has been repaired to full and now restores at a rate of 3.8ppm.
“Hell yes!” I muttered to myself, and as Oracle came to sit next to me, I had the strange feeling of ‘mirroring’ as she accessed the same data, reading it over and letting out a relieved sigh.
“At last; it’s been forever!” she said, letting out a deep breath and leaning against me.
“Believe me, I know! I keep stopping myself from using our mana in case you need it; it’ll be good to be able to use it again more often,” I agreed quietly.
“Bah, you just want me to feel guilty because we both know I’m better at spells than you are,” she snorted, and I could feel the amusement and gentle fun she poked at me. I reached up and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, drawing her in tight as I read the options over again.
“So, what do you think?” I asked her. “Efficiency or Power?”
“Hmmm…” She read through the details again, even though I knew she had them imprinted on her memory by now. “Efficiency would mean we could go for longer, and Power would mean we’d be able to do a lot more, but for a shorter time…”
“Yes, thank you for the basic description we can both see,” I said sarcastically, prodding her in the side with a finger and making her giggle.
“I mean, which do you think is more important?” she asked. “A single blast of seriously large power, then a more painful debuff, or the steady ability you’ve been using for a while now? It’s seen you through the worst fights you’ve had, so to make it cost less and have less of an adverse effect over all…”
“Yeah, it seems good, I’ll admit…” I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “I’m more concerned about the future, to be honest. The paths you choose gradually grow more and more definite, right? Like they’re refining your abilities?” I clarified, and she nodded.
“So, if we choose Power, then the next evolution, at twenty will be more likely to be a choice of Power, like making the infusion go up in strength, but gradually becoming more and more unstable. On the other hand, if we go with efficiency, level it up through a few more evolutions, and put a load of points into our mana regeneration, we could probably end up being able to live in Mana-Overdrive eventually,” I pointed out.
“Yes….” she said, drawing the word out. “But… you never know what the evolution will be, and what if you really need to the Power one in the next fight?”
“What if I really need the extra time in the ‘zone’?” I countered.
“Well, that’s why I’m glad I don’t have to make these decisions.” She grinned mischievously at me and reached to kiss the end of my nose before standing up and walking away. “Good luck!” she called back over her shoulder, and I growled to myself as she went, going back to considering my options.
A few minutes later, a clatter and a massive shape knocked me out of my reverie, as Grizz hunkered down next to me and leaned in close.
“Hey, boss, are you okay?” he asked quietly, and I dismissed the screens, blinking at him. He grinned, scratching his beard, and went on in a hushed tone. “Look, I know from what you’ve said, you’ve not been dealing with things like evolutions and your stats for long, which is just weird as hell to me, but anyway, if that’s true, it means that you never learned the easy ways of dealing with some things that we do.”
“We?” I asked, and he smiled.
“Everyone else, I mean,” he clarified. “We all live with this day in and day out. If this is truly new to you, it must seem weird.”
“It is, literally, but in my… realm, we had… diversions that included this kinda thing. We can talk about that another time,” I said quickly, seeing him light up and obviously ready to go down the rabbit hole. “What did you want to tell me, then?” I pulled him back to the reason for his interruption, and he smiled, shifting his armored bulk slightly.
“Okay, boss, look, if I’m out of line here just say, but…”
“Go on…” I said, nodding.
“Some ways of dealing with things have become kinda ingrained in our society after millennia of using the stats system, like the allocation system. Some people, hell, most people, are never really able to do much of it in their lives, you know? They don’t fight monsters, so they don’t tend to get many quests in their lives, and they don’t level up much. Others, like the Legion, well, we do it a lot, and we tend to climb quickly.”
“Right,” I said, gesturing for him to go on.
“So, it’s like the armor. You remember when we all helped to armor you up for your first Arena fight, right? That’s part of our traditions, that more experienced Legionnaires help the less experienced, and when it comes to stats and bonuses, well, we do that too,” he explained, shrugging. “Each maniple of the Legion has its Primus. Like ours, in ‘Second’ is Augustus, but he doesn’t just kick our asses to train and to stand up straight and so on; he’s there for this, too. He knows us all, he watches how we fight, and how we live our lives, and he advises us on allocating our stats, if we ask.”
“Wow, I’d… well, I never thought about asking anyone…” I stammered in sur
prise. “I thought it was… well… a private thing…”
“It is, but you know, maybe a Legionnaire is a bit of a dumb fuck. He’d never know it, so the Primus takes him aside and gives some advice. Maybe that Legionnaire feels that they shouldn’t have to listen, that they know best, and does other things with their points, like boosting their Charisma, so they can get laid easier. Then as time goes on, maybe this Legionnaire keeps making the same mistakes, and maybe he listens the next time and does as the Primus suggests, and finds that, yeah, that makes his life easier.” Grizz flicked a pebble across the floor, then grinned at me. “The point is, we have people in the Legion that keep records of their Legionnaire’s builds and work out the optimum choices. Yeah, there’s no guarantee, and from the things you’ve done so far, you’re probably far from the average, so there’s no telling how useful it’d be, but…”
“But at least I’ve got someone I can trust who’d take a good look at my stats and my fighting style and be able to advise me. Thanks, man, I appreciate that.”
“Anytime, boss,” Grizz said smiling. “Also… when you decide, it does you no good to second-guess it, as you can’t change it. While it’s worth considering the future, if a decision for now is the wrong one, with regard to playing ‘the long game,’ as you called it the other day? Well, that only does you good if you live to see the other end. If you pick something that hammers you now for a possible bonus in the future, you might not live long enough to make use of it, so consider that, too.” With that, Grizz got up, patted me on the shoulder, and walked away.
I sat for long minutes thinking, aware that this ability was in flux right now and I had to decide, before nodding to myself. Grizz’s advice was good, I reflected, as planning for the future was necessary, but if I didn’t live long enough to get there, it was all for nothing.
I pulled the screen back up and selected ‘Efficiency.’ I definitely wanted the Power option, but if that last fight had taught me anything, it was that getting mobbed down here was a real possibility, and the thought that everyone might die because I saved my power to land a couple of big hits, instead of a hundred smaller, but still devastatingly powerful, ones? Hell, no.
You have chosen Efficiency for your first evolution of this Ability: Your Ability may be in its infancy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to master it instinctually, eking out every last millisecond of use out of it while reducing the cost on your body. Choosing this path has enabled you to utilize the Ability for 10% longer with each additional level, running from 11-20, and gaining a corresponding dip in 1 point lost to the debuff for each level you gain. Continue to use this Ability and build upon your understanding of the underpinning physiological and magical details to unlock further evolutions.
I nodded to myself, feeling a shiver start in my chest, then pouring along my mana-channels like icy water flowing through my veins. It took less than a minute, but it left me gasping when it was done, and I felt… different. An almost indefinable ‘hummm’ seemed to flow though my body, even as I sat at rest. I felt that I had changed profoundly, yet I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
“Congratulations on your Evolution, Champion.” a voice echoed into the cavern, and I saw everyone jump, hunting around. I smiled and looked upwards, then turned to face the fire and spoke as though to it.
“Thank you, Jenae,” I said simply.
“It was a difficult decision, I know, but I wanted to allow you to make it alone, as it will define you in the millennia to come.”
“Thanks… I think?” I said, and I felt her amusement as the fire flared higher.
“I waited until you’d made this decision to speak, as it needed to be your own choice, but now, is there anything you would ask of me? I have a request to make, and it seems only fair, after all,” she offered.
“Tommy,” I said straight away. “Where…”
“That is something I cannot answer, Jax…” Jenae said quickly. “I attempted to find him before coming to you, believing that would be your choice, and being willing to gift you the information regardless, for all you have done for me, especially with the new worshippers, but alas. Nimon has stretched his hand out to encompass Thomas, and while I know he lives, he is blocked from me.”
“Nimon?” I asked, surprised. “Why would… he’s not dead, right? Tell me he’s okay?”
“He is fine, as near as I can tell; he is in fact healthier than ever, and whatever injuries he had before have been healed, but they were healed by an Agent of Nimon, and thus he now bears the Dark Mark. I cannot communicate or reach out to him again without risking drawing Nimon’s attention…”
“Why the hell would…?” I muttered, then shook myself. “That’s fine. He’s alive, and he’s well. That’s a great start, Jenae, thank you. I can find him on my own, if that’s what it takes.”
“So, another request then?” Jenae asked, and I paused, thinking. I cast about for inspiration, before grinning to myself and looking back to the fire.
“There is one thing…” I admitted slowly.
“Go on…” she said, amusement filling her voice as I tried to keep the hunger from my tone.
“Well, as we’re basically the last, best hope for the Gods to return, and our best chance of living long enough to accomplish that is if we have protection… and you did promise me blueprints in exchange for worship…”
“I offered access to the Starscape, Jax, not direct support, but go on…” she corrected me, and I grinned at the flames.
“A magma forge,” I said quickly. “Apparently, we need one for the kind of armor my Legion armorers want to make, and…” I was cut off by the sound of Jenae’s laughter floating around the room.
“Oh, Jax… yes, I bet they did ask for one!” Jenae chuckled. “Did they ask for anything else? A solid Arcanium hammer and anvil set, perhaps? A pet Greater Dragon?”
“Ah…” I said slowly. “I take it that’s kinda a big ask…”
“Jax, a basic magma forge could be doable, at a serious investment of effort, mind you, but it’s the kind of thing the Tower might have boasted only at the height of its power. Hmmmm… actually, now that I’m looking, the Dravith Tower did have one… I wonder…” Her voice faded away as she thought.
“While a full magma forge is, yes, a hell of a reach, we could possibly work towards it. It’ll take longer to build than a regular forge, if we do it this way, but you do have a few blueprints coming… ‘average’ quality only, though... maybe we start with a few of the basics, but make sure they’re upgradable. Perhaps we’d design the entire facility to be upgradable… hmmm, that would be a challenge, even with your Tower’s facilities…”
“Okay, what about the blueprints, and the Starscape? I should have a load of mana saved up to draw against, and Marks of Favor, right?”
“You do, with forty-one Marks of my Favor, and you were earning around thirteen hundred mana towards unlocking the Constellation of Secrets. It’s been eleven days, or nearly, since you brought the Tower and its citizens to my worship. Some have donated more than the minimum; some, in fact, have donated far, far more, and your total stands at eighteen thousand, four hundred and eleven points now, which is almost enough to unlock two of the stars. Have you considered which you wish to work on?”
“Okay, the six areas, as I remember them, were ‘Enhanced Construction, Magical Research, Crafting, Governance, Personal Enhancement, and Exploration’, right?” I asked, and she made a noise of agreement. “Considering that almost all of this, the raid on the city, the attacks on the Stockpile, was all to get people and stores to repair the Tower… yes, I wanted to find Tommy, but he’s… well, knowing him, he’s probably partying somewhere right now with a girl on each knee, so I’ll come back to him. Besides, with all the announcements that keep going out, he’s probably looking for me already. I wouldn’t be surprised to find the bugger back at the Tower when we get there, at this rate,” I grunted consideringly. “So, all of this was for the Tower, which means that
my best choice is probably to double down on that.” I pulled the Constellation of Secrets up and stared at it again, the black twinkling void hanging before me, with the grey and dead stars that led off from the single red star in the center all gently pulsing, flowing from grey and dead to gently glimmering, then sinking back into quiescence. I took a deep breath, and feeling Jenae’s attention on me, I mentally reached out and selected ‘Enhanced Construction’.
There was a pause when nothing seemed to happen, but then the star began to slowly glow, as the others dimmed again. A tiny fireball from the red star reached out and sparked toward the flare of fire that rose from the dead star. The two traveled the distance between them as if flying hundreds of thousands of miles, and then they hit, each slamming into the other and creating a great bloom of fire.
As it died away, both ends, the slowly brightening star, and the dull red star at the center, began to grow in brightness. The red star slowly developed flickers and pulses of yellow that danced across it, while the other grew brighter, until it was glimmering a steady blue-white in radiance.
Once the connection was fully established, I got a new notification, and I felt the changes growing.
Congratulations! You have unlocked ‘Enhanced Construction’ from the Constellation of Secrets. All facilities in which you have an involvement in creating, repairing, or upgrading will now be completed 5% faster and gain 5% capacity.
You have gained access to the following specializations, which will unlock further options: Magical Construction, Mundane Construction, or Warfare, and you have received a bonus Rare blueprint:
Greater Glasshouse:
The Greater Glasshouse is a structure that can be expanded upon, adding more and more wings as the need increases. This building permits the growth of seasonal foodstuffs, despite the outside conditions.
Construction materials required (per wing):
100 steel ingots
350 Copper ingots
250 Glass panels
15 Orichalcum ingots