Beastborne

by James T Callum

  Speaking of stats, Hal took a glance at his EXP. With so many Corvids destroyed, he should be close to Leveling Beastborne.

  After pulling up his Status, he saw an entirely different story. He only had 6,100 EXP. There were at least three dozen Corvids all told, even if all of them gave a small 400 EXP per- his thoughts ground to a screeching halt as he realized what happened.

  How could he forget?

  Using Dominate took a lot of EXP. Apparently, nearly killing him when he didn’t have the EXP to pay for the Sigil wasn’t enough. He wasn’t able to look at the time but he wouldn’t be surprised if it had made his EXP negative.

  The concept of his Founder Sigils causing a debt of Experience was ridiculous and terrifying in equal measure. With a roll of his shoulders, he let it go. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now.

  It was worth it, despite the meager EXP gains.

  EXP was only part of the equation. He needed items and materials for crafting as well. Hal fully intended to have a thriving economy in his Sanctum and one that prized high-quality goods. For that, he’d need to not only learn from the craftsmen that Luda brought with her but stockpile rare ingredients and sparks - the quasi-magical currency of Aldrim - along the way.

  Hal took a look at his Inventory to see what spoils he received. Over the past week, he spent a lot of time with Ashera studying Alchemy and he was eager to see if there was anything useful.

  Unlike a lot of the other Crafts like Blacksmith, Goldsmith, or Carpenter, Alchemy often used monster parts as much as classical reagents like purified water and mercury.

  Originally, Hal just wanted to be able to understand how Crafting worked in this world. But the more he learned of Alchemy the more he was entranced with its subtleties and intricacies.

  He thought to take up Blacksmith or Armorer at first. Making his own gear would be quite useful, especially considering the exorbitant prices that they went for. Hal was quickly leaning away from that now.

  There was too much utility in Alchemy to be ignored. Especially for someone of his burgeoning magical talents.

  Poisons, potions, buffs, weapon coatings, armor infusions, the list of what Alchemy could do went on and on. It did a little of everything and with its own unique flair. In a way, it felt like the perfect companion to Beastborne. Which also did a little of everything with its own specific twist.

  Thankfully, his lack of EXP didn’t impact his ability to be flooded with loot from the Corvids. Not that he thought it would, but it was good to have confirmation.

  With well over 50 items from the aberrant birds, it was a lot to sort through. In total, there were 7 types of items, unsurprisingly all of them were categorized as monster parts. Shocker.

  [Inventory | 35/45]

  25 [Bundle of Crystalline Feathers]

  6 [Vial of Aberrant Blood]

  20 [Withered Talons]

  12 [Dessicated Eye Clusters]

  8 [Corrupted Hearts]

  2 [Crystalline Corvid Skulls]

  5 [Crystalline Corvid Eyes]

  Gross, he thought.

  Being an Aberration, most of its drops were a result of its corruption. And, more than likely, due to the location’s proximity to the crystalline landscape a day’s ride away.

  Rather than muse about the migratory patterns of mutated man-sized crows and how they managed to get from the crystalline lands to the west to this forested region, Hal inspected the [Vials of Aberrant Blood].

  [Vial of Aberrant Blood]

  Type: Alchemical Reagent

  Grade: Monster Part

  Quality: Poor

  Potency: 9

  Stability: 3

  Toxicity: 15

  [Vial of Aberrant Blood]

  Type: Alchemical Reagent

  Grade: Monster Part

  Quality: Decent

  Potency: 10

  Stability: 5

  Toxicity: 17

  [Vial of Aberrant Blood]

  Type: Alchemical Reagent

  Grade: Monster Part

  Quality: Pristine

  Potency: 12

  Stability: 8

  Toxicity: 20

  …

  With just his [Vials of Aberrant Blood], Hal had 3 different types of quality. If each quality type had its own Inventory slot, he would have been out of space after the first few kills.

  Luckily, that wasn’t the case. But that just meant he needed to carefully examine them when using the vials in the future. Altogether he had 2 pristine, 1 poor, and 3 decent quality [Vials of Aberrant Blood].

  As alchemical reagents, they each had a set of stats alongside them. Ashera hadn’t gotten to the in-depth explanations on Alchemy yet. While he could guess what grade, type, and quality were easily enough, he didn’t have a clue what potency, stability, or toxicity represented.

  Hal made a mental note to ask Ashera about it once they were done here.

  10

  Hal looked toward Angram and Ashera off to the side having a private conversation. Each of them cast wary looks at the island in turn as they spoke. He could guess easily enough about what they were talking about.

  Hal wasn’t worried about Elora. This was her Quest after all, and the Ranger was still leagues ahead of him in terms of skill if not entirely in strength.

  He had recently made some serious gains in closing that gap but despite that, Hal was still the weakest of the group. At least, when his Founder Sigils and Beast Magic were discounted.

  That wasn’t an entirely fair comparison in Hal’s eyes. That was like saying a Wizard was weak if you didn’t count his spells. Of course they’d be weak. That was the entire point of their Class.

  Shutting his eyes again, Hal pushed out the errant thoughts and focused on his Monster Attunements. So far, shadow and treant have been the best pairing for him. In part because he was grossed out by aberration.

  The amount of aberration essence he received seemed less than normal too. Something he chalked up to his higher attunement. If it was like EXP, it would be harder to get the higher his attunement with a given essence was.

  Then again, he could be entirely wrong.

  He had no idea what governed essences and without another Chimera Knight, let alone another Beastborne to talk to, he doubted he ever would without intensive experimentation.

  Hal turned his attention to the list of Monster Attunements. With two points to spend, aberration might just be worth picking up again.

  Despite his misgivings.

  Monster Attunements Available

  Aberration: 2

  [Aberration Attunement: Sturdy Hide 1/1]

  Unnatural life has given Aberrations the ability to take a hit and keep moving. Adapting their unique Essence to your own will increase your HP by 15%.

  [Aberration Attunement: Monstrous Resistance 0/1]

  Aberrations are remarkably adept at resisting magic, being creatures of undead corruption they possess the ability to shrug off some of the worst magic has to offer. While using Monstrous Resistance you have 15% Resistance to every element and its associated status effects.

  [Aberration Attunement: Amorphous Skin 0/1]

  Adapt the naturally amorphous nature of Aberration to suit your own needs. While using Amorphous Skin you have 25% resistance against blunt, force, and slashing damage.

  [Aberration Attunement: Amphibious 0/1]

  The most iconic facet of an Aberration is their ability to adapt to any situation. While you utilize this Attunement you are able to breathe water as easily as air.

  [Aberration Attunement: Blades of Bone 0/1]

  Requirement: Sturdy Hide

  Aberrations are known for their frightening visage, and part of that terror-inducing façade is their ability to make weapons out of organic matter. With Blades of Bone, you too can create weapons made of bone sharpened to a razor's edge. Serrated blades, brutal axes, and spears of bone are yours to command at will.

  MP cost is dependent on the complexity and strength of the weapon. Strength,
durability, and overall capacity to create an osseous weapon are dependent upon INT, CHR, aberration attunement, and the Skill Level of the type of weapon you wish to create.

  At any time while wielding an ossified weapon you may sacrifice MP or HP to restore its durability.

  [Aberration Attunement: Bone Armor 0/1]

  Requirement: Sturdy Hide

  An Aberration is a walking armory, capable of supplying itself with both shield and sword at a moment's notice. With Bone Armor, you can adapt the defensive prowess of an Aberration to your own ends. You can choose to sacrifice HP, MP, or SP to create bones that erupt from your body and provide additional protection.

  Bone Armor's cost is dependent upon the complexity and time taken to create the armor. Its defensive parameters are based on your INT, CHR, and aberration attunement. Only one piece of equipment can be made at once. Temporary Bone Armor can be conjured at a steeper cost with less complexity.

  At any time while wearing an ossified piece of armor you may sacrifice MP or HP to restore its durability.

  He tried not to be impressed. But he was.

  While aberration was a powerful essence on its own, the two new monster attunements, Blades of Bone and Bone Armor were even better than he could have hoped for.

  Hal thoroughly appreciated his shadow essence but he also recognized that it wasn’t likely he’d find more shadow property monsters roaming about in the open.

  He thought he’d find more plantoid types, being that they were outside in the wilds. If he hadn’t been attacked by towering brutish treants and other plant-based creatures - under Murkmire’s mountain, in a private nature reserve of all places - he wouldn’t have known they even existed.

  The goal was to increase his treant attunement, boosting Barkskin’s temporary HP effect to its max. While technically aberration’s Sturdy Hide gave him similar survivability in the form of a 15% increase to his Max HP.

  With Barkskin’s current 5% tHP boost, it was dwarfed by aberration’s Sturdy Hide. But unlike Barkskin, which could be enhanced 5 full Levels, Sturdy Hide was not upgradeable.

  It also lacked the regenerative properties of Barkskin, which was what Hal most prized. Having higher HP just meant he would need to use Assimilation more now that Ashera could no longer heal.

  Nothing seemed to be working out quite as well as he assumed, however, because despite fighting dozens of creatures in the weeks since leaving Murkmire, none of them were Treants.

  But aberration types? They seemed disturbingly more common than they had any right to be. And with his superior aberration attunement now sitting at 425%, he was already part of the way to yet another attunement point.

  Unlike the other types, aberration seemed to favor powerful single-level alterations. Perhaps that was just the theme of aberration. After all, each attunement altered his body in some way.

  In a way, Hal was just glad he didn’t feel compelled to take Amorphous Skin. The imagery alone made his skin crawl. He imagined a constant gelatinous skin that oozed and sloughed off.

  He didn’t want to imagine what his face would look like.

  Would he look like Clayface from the Batman comics of his youth? A shiver coursed down his spine at the thought.

  Maybe it wouldn’t alter his physical appearance, but since he had yet to find a way to toggle monster attunements, he wasn’t about to risk it. That would make it all but impossible to go into any town. Or ever get laid.

  Every time he used Splice to tap his aberration essence he would have to use Shifting Mask to change his appearance to something less grotesque. Maybe one day, he thought to himself.

  An effective 25% reduction in physical damage was hard to pass up. Perhaps that was why the imagery was so disgusting, to serve as a means of balance to such a powerful ability.

  Whether it was true or not, Hal wasn’t about to pick it. Not with Bone Armor and Blades of Bone sitting there, begging to be used.

  He had seen firsthand how devastatingly effective using aberration essence to create ridged bone weapons was. If he could replicate and refine that process, he was not about to pass that up.

  Without further debate, Hal selected both Bone Armor and Blades of Bone.

  Like the times before when he gained a new skill, spell, or ability, there was a rush of knowledge that filled him with a euphoric high.

  I’m so glad I don’t get withdrawals from that.

  Once the feeling faded to a distant memory, Hal could feel the knowledge sitting there in his mind as if it had always been there. That was the strangest thing about these systems. They altered memories and your own awareness.

  While he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t always know how to grow osseous plates or fashion bone into a falchion with a razor’s edge, he couldn’t precisely remember at what point he gained that knowledge.

  It felt as if he always knew how to do it.

  Hal was about to test out his newfound ability, eager to see how it worked, when he noticed something else. Something he should have noticed a while ago but was too busy sorting through his Inventory and later, through his monster attunements.

  Possessing a high aberration attunement did more than grant him powerful traits and skills related to that monster type. It also vastly increased his chances to learn Beast Magic from creatures that were defeated.

  Hal’s high aberration attunement, coupled with the sheer volume of Corvids that were killed made it incredibly likely he would gain new spells.

  A fact he entirely forgot about if not for the way he had set up his prompts to alert him to important and valuable information. It just so happened that learning new spells put it in the same priority right behind gaining new monster attunements.

  It wasn’t until he finished selecting his new attunements that he saw the notification.

  You learn Divebomb.

  Summon a phantom of a diving bird of prey to fall upon your enemies and gore them with a devastating attack.

  School: Beast Magic

  Type: Physical (Piercing).

  Family: Aberration (Undead/Bird).

  MP: 75

  BP: 3

  Strain: 5

  Damage: 18

  Attributes: Physical (Piercing).

  You learn Feather Barrier.

  Grant yourself a portion of the wind that lifts a bird into the sky and away from the dangers around them. When using Feather Barrier, any uses of Divebomb will be empowered. Increases Evasion.

  School: Beast Magic

  Type: Magical (Wind).

  Family: Aberration (Undead/Bird).

  MP: 65

  BP: 2

  Strain: 3

  Duration: 10 minutes

  Synergy: Divebomb: -33% MP | +2 Damage.

  You have discovered your first Synergy.

  Synergies

  When using certain Beast Magic spells together, an effect known as Synergy can sometimes occur. Each effect is unique to its specific grouping. Synergies increase the efficacy of their specific spells beyond their normal parameters. Synergies are typical among spells originating from the same monster families.

  While some Synergies only require the given spells to be currently set, others require one or more spells to be active to receive the bonus. In the case of your first Synergy, the buff Feather Barrier must be active in order to strengthen Divebomb.

  Unfortunately, with the spells he already set for the day, he couldn’t test Feather Barrier or Divebomb until tomorrow. He pulled up his current spells to see what he could replace.

  [Spells]

  Blinding Spit

  Eject a gob of chemically unstable ooze that explodes into a blinding flash upon impact.

  Additional Effects: Blind, Enmity Up

  School: Beast Magic

  Type: Magical (Dark)

  Family: Aberration (Undead)

  MP: 50

  BP: 2

  Strain: 2

  Damage: 8

  Bomb Toss II

  Throw a goblin-bomb at the
enemy dealing Area of Effect (AOE) fire damage.

  School: Beast Magic.

  Type: Magical (Fire)

  Family: Goblin (Beastmen)

  MP: 40

  BP: 2

  Strain: 1

  Damage: 16 (AOE)

  Drill Branch

  Summon spiraling branches to pierce through the toughest hide and gore your opponents. By continuing to channel mana into the spell, you can continue the spell indefinitely. Partially ignores DEF.

  School: Beast Magic

  Type: Physical (Piercing)

  Family: Treant (Plantoid)

  MP: 35

  BP: 3

  Strain: 2

  Damage: 10

  Goblin Rush II

  Lunge forward, launching a frantic series of critical attacks.

  School: Beast Magic

  Type: Physical (Slashing)

  Family: Goblin (Beastmen)

  MP: 35

  BP: 3

  Strain: 2

  Damage: 30

  Soul Drain

  By touching an opponent, you are capable of draining their resources and stats. The more types you drain the less potent the spell becomes and there is a higher chance for resists. Drained stats and resources are removed from the afflicted and temporarily added to you.

  School: Beast Magic.

  Type: Magical (Dark)

  Family: Eldritch (Soul of Shae’kathoth)

  MP: 120

  BP: 5

  Strain: 7

  Duration: 1 hour.

  With what he currently had set he was at 15 out of 15 BP. If he took out Blinding Spit that would drop him down to 12 BP. He needed 5 BP free to set both Divebomb and Feather Barrier. Considering their synergy, he definitely wanted to do that.

  Which meant he needed 2 more BP freed up. He still needed to test out Soul Drain and his two goblin spells - while fairly niche - were still useful.