Beastborne

by James T Callum

  But there were times that he had no other choice than to be up close and personal with an enemy. In those moments, he would need better defenses than he had.

  And cloth, no matter how stout and thickly padded, was simply not going to cut it. At the same time, he couldn’t just armor himself in metal. It was too heavy and restrictive. Not to mention that it wasn’t even an option at the moment.

  The Settlement had a small supply of metal ore, and he had no idea when they would find more. Or even if they would. The veins - if there were any - in their Settlement might be copper or gold, or some other metal that wasn’t useful for armor.

  He had no idea how long their supply of ore would last and he had a sneaking suspicion that higher tier Building Schematics would require iron, if not more exotic metals to build.

  Hal had to make sure their supplies stretched as far as possible.

  His normal bone created with Bonecrafting wasn’t insulative enough and aside from his ruined clothes, he had no cloth. Bonecrafting - particularly Hal’s brand of it - was incredibly versatile but even it had its limits.

  He could make something approximating cloth, but it took rare and difficult-to-acquire ingredients of which he did not have sufficient amounts.

  Slowly, his thoughts slipped back to the notification of Splice II.

  What was it that it said?

  With a mental command, Hal pulled up his recently improved ability.

  You learn Splice II.

  Splice can now utilize three separate monster essences at once. Stacking multiple essences from the same family increases the effectiveness of both essences and the spells of that family.

  Looking at his essences, everything was listed as a family.

  While undead was the overarching monster family, aberration - a subcategory of undead - was also considered a monster family.

  It was worse with more essences under the same family. Arcana was the monster family above shadow, doll, and mimic families.

  Okay, that’s too confusing. There are families of spells and monster families? Can I change that?

  Thinking on it, Hal tried to impress his own will upon the description. His understanding of Beastborne essences was always somewhat scant, but he absolutely hated the way the System made everything seem so similar.

  As he closed his eyes, a flash of light crossed his vision, and his eyes shot open. He needn’t have bothered since he could see prompts and notifications without opening his eyes, but it was a reflex.

  Altered Naming Scheme

  Do you wish to finalize your naming scheme: Monster Families -> (Subcategory: Monster Types)?

  Hal immediately confirmed, and then looked at his essences. They were categorized differently. Now, the monster family meant the overarching classification. Undead was considered a monster family, but aberration was considered a type.

  Less confusing for sure, but not entirely helpful to his situation.

  At least he could reference aberration type without confusing it for the overarching family of undead.

  His mind kept going back to Splice II’s description. Splicing multiple essence types of the same family would increase the effectiveness of the essences themselves. But what did that mean?

  Spells would be easy to test... if he had any that qualified.

  He had no arcana-based spells at all, and under the monster family of undead, he only had aberration essence. In fact, every spell he did have was either from the same monster type or one belonging to an entirely different monster family.

  But the effect of splicing multiple essences of the same monster family… that he could test. While it was customary for Hal to Splice aberration for its hearty defensive buffs, and eldritch for its ridiculous offensive strength, he now was beginning to use shadow as his third. Except when he needed a terrestrial essence.

  Shadow essence had useful utility and was among one of his most potent essences. He didn’t have enough affinity with doll or mimic to grant monster attunements so he had never tried to Splice them alongside shadow.

  But what if he did? And more to the point, what if instead of layering the essences, he tried to combine them into an entirely new essence?

  121

  Channeling both doll essence and shadow essence, Hal began the first stage of Bonecrafting. Placing his hands forward, palms downturned, he deposited the dual-essence laden mana.

  Though he kept in mind the shape of a breastplate, the resulting shape that began to form was rougher than he was used to. It hardly resembled the image he had in his mind, though he noted it did have the four openings he would need in order to wear it.

  Its rough shape wasn’t so much an issue at the moment. He focused on keeping the essences mixed, curious as to the final product.

  He knew it would make more sense to make a simple, easy blank the first time. After all, he was not used to mixing essences in that manner, and further complicating the design seemed destined for trouble.

  And yet, he couldn’t help himself.

  Making the breastplate was relatively easy, considering the complexity of the mana he was creating it with. He didn’t need to make much beyond a shell. And so Hal focused on the way he let the mana flow from his fingertips.

  Much like how he created that first [Bone Falchion] that would one day serve as the basis for [Emissary], he began to toy with the various methods of creating bone.

  At its core, Bonecrafting with his mana allowed Hal to make a number of rough adjustments that would usually be impossible.

  By altering the flow and modulating his mana, he could create gaps within the internal structure of the bone. Expanding those gaps would lead to a lighter weight, and if done properly, would not reduce the durability or effectiveness of the item.

  The adjustments, however, lacked a delicate touch.

  Hal could make bone incredibly thick and dense - suitable for the edge of a blade, or a shield perhaps - but he couldn’t directly refine an edge that would be any sharper than a butter knife.

  That would fall under the purview of Bonecrafting’s second stage, refinement. While he could make sweeping changes with the first stage of creation, refinement allowed him to dial in those alterations to exacting specifications.

  While Hal was adjusting the mana that flowed from his palms, he continued to channel shadow and doll essence. As he worked to deposit mana in an expanded form, more akin to the natural structure of bone than the denser variety he had used for [Emissary], he stumbled upon a new way to create bone.

  The process of using his mana to deposit essence-laden bone was not mentally taxing, though it did require constant attention. In one instance, as he was letting his mind wander, he failed to maintain the equilibrium between doll and shadow essence.

  Shadow dominated almost entirely, and it took Hal several seconds to correct the supposed error. He couldn’t stop the process or else the bone would completely solidify, and then he would have to start all over. So, instead, he examined the breastplate to see just how bad his error was.

  So intrinsically tied to it through his own mana, Hal could feel the change he had inadvertently caused.

  While the mixture of shadow and doll was yet to be proven as viable - he still had about 300 MP more to go until he was finished - the alteration he made was intriguing.

  Typically, bone possesses a great deal of empty space between its ossified matter.

  What Hal accidentally did, however, was lean the alignment of the bone’s internal structure heavily - almost entirely, actually - into shadow. The result was a light, spongy inner layer of bone.

  One that he could tell without testing, would bend and absorb the blows aimed at the armor. He couldn’t exactly layer the armor with the alternating doll and shadow bone, but he could shift the essence alignment to create a similar effect.

  And if he could do that with the inner layer between the bone, he could do it elsewhere.

  Inspired by the new shift in creation, Hal worked to continually alter the ratio of
doll and shadow essence as he deposited the mana onto the bone blank before him.

  Besal watched wordlessly, Hal only looked up once or twice to find the man watching with a look of sincere interest.

  Hal didn’t let his thoughts linger long on that, however, and he continued with the creation of the breastplate blank. When he finally finished, he was tapped out. His MP was thoroughly drained.

  With the bonuses from the campfire, it would take him a couple of hours to fully regenerate. However, tapping Assimilation, Hal could-

  “Allow me,” Besal said, startling Hal out of his attempt to use Assimilation to recover some of his MP.

  He didn’t need much for the second stage of Bonecrafting, a few hundred MP would be enough. That would allow him to manipulate the bone and apply the many minor alterations he knew it would need.

  Besal shut his eyes, and Hal felt a wellspring of mana open up to him. Hal reached toward it with his mind and felt his reserves of mana slowly fill up.

  His MP bar began to fill with increasing rapidity until it was nearly full.

  “How?” Hal asked.

  Hal’s counterpart took a moment to gather himself. It had clearly drained him considerably to offer up so much mana, but not nearly as much as it would have drained himself, Hal noticed. That suggested Besal had greater reserves of MP than even he did.

  Flashing bright white teeth with prominent canines, Besal said, “What, did you think that because we lacked Sympathy you could not call upon my power? What greater bond is there than the one we share? My strength is yours should you need to call upon it.

  “Ever has it been so, and ever have you spurned it.” Besal raised a hand to cut off Hal’s coming retort. “With good reason. But this comes with no strings attached. Your health is my health. I would no sooner wish you come to harm than myself.”

  “Thank you,” Hal said, unsure of how to react to any of that.

  “All you need to do is ask,” Besal said.

  MP nearly full, Hal nodded to Besal and bent back to the task at hand. But he couldn’t stop his mind from reeling at the potential possibilities of what Besal just admitted.

  Unlike a blade, the breastplate only needed to be refined enough to the point that it was the correct dimensions and shape he wanted. He could no longer turn it into anything other than a breastplate, but he could create ridges and curves that would aid in the defense or shore up weaknesses in the material.

  Much of it was done by instinct. Hal knew enough that a curve could be used to reinforce a thinner, weaker area of armor, but he didn’t know the how or why of it.

  He just knew that it would work. And where he could reinforce the armor, he did. Going by feel as much as look, Hal let his mana flow in a steady trickle into the breastplate to change its shape.

  What was once a shell of dark material became ridged with graceful curving arcs and embellishments that were pleasant to look at but practical in nature. Everything served to keep the breastplate as mobile as possible without hindering its defense.

  The creation process was far from exact or perfect. And at his current skill, he doubted it would be any different for a long time. There were many places he needed to adjust, sections of the armor that were too thin or too thick.

  Rather than spending days at a time sanding, smoothing, filing, or deburring the material, Hal could do that work in a few hours. It took mana to do so, but he had a steady supply of it.

  Your Bonecrafting has risen to Level 20.

  +1.1% Crafting speed (+22%).

  +1.2% MP efficiency (+24%).

  +10% CP generation (+40%).

  You have 1 Bonecrafting Perk point awaiting assignment.

  And so Hal worked, putting off the perk assignment until he was able to divert his attention. It was oddly peaceful, almost zen-like as he refined the armor’s design and shape. Despite the danger he knew to lurk all around him, he felt safe with Besal and his yet-to-be-named Rhino Beetle companion.

  Besal paced about the clearing, at times slipping away into the forest, but he never ventured far. Always, Hal could feel where he was.

  They would never be able to hide from each other.

  With that thought playing through his head, Hal finished his work on the breastplate. His eyes lingered on the ruined [Shaper’s Coat] nearby. During the second stage of Bonecrafting he could add items to alter the strength or composition of the created piece.

  The breastplate he was making was reasonably pretty, but there was little comfort in it. That, and his arms would be bare. Without the ability to create leather or cloth, there wasn’t much he could do about that. And coating himself in plates of bone would require something to connect them, and he wasn’t quite able to make something so sophisticated yet.

  Like layering two different types of essence bones, he would need to bind the material together somehow with another essence.

  If he chose to assemble the pieces by hand, not only would they be significantly weaker, but he doubted he could do it. He had no skill in making armor, only in creating bone.

  And there was a clear line between the two. If he couldn’t create the item whole, then it fell out of his range of capability.

  On a whim, mostly since he knew he could reverse it, Hal grabbed the tattered remnants of his [Shaper’s Coat] and placed it atop the breastplate.

  In the blink of an eye, the item changed.

  122

  The dark breastplate remained, though it was greatly altered. The addition of the [Shaper’s Coat] had turned the breastplate into something more, a full-length cloak complete with hood.

  Hal’s [Shaper’s Coat] had kept only part of its coloration; instead of purple, the cloth was a dusty, almost faded blue with curling traceries of a lighter blue.

  And the cloth was something between leather and silk. It was smooth and fine to the touch but surprisingly tough with a faint stretching give to it.

  His breastplate was still there, but it was altered from a stiff and solid piece to somehow being just one facet of the overall design.

  The layered cloth fell in sweeping cuts down to what would be his knees when it was worn. The patterned dusty-blue cloth would cover his arms as well. He wasn’t sure how useful the hood would be, considering it would limit his periphery, but it was a nice touch.

  Normally, this was the point that Hal would press on into the third stage of imbuement. But since his MP was back to full - largely thanks to Besal - he turned his attention to the creation of another piece of armor.

  After seeing the transformation of his breastplate by adding his [Shaper’s Coat] to it, he was far more hopeful about the prospect of making pants.

  Typical bone pants wouldn’t be practical. At least not for his purposes. But after his experience altering the balance of doll and shadow essence, Hal had more confidence that he could make a pliable pair of trousers.

  Not perfect, but he remained optimistic that the addition of his destroyed [Tough Lineste Leather Breeches] would make up for any deficiencies he introduced into the design.

  It began to dawn on Hal as he got to work on the pants - relatively simple compared to the breastplate - that he could do great and wondrous things with Bonecrafting.

  Like the various essence bones, he was just beginning to scratch the surface of what was possible. Being able to add in other elements, materials he couldn’t hope to replicate with bone, he could fundamentally change any item he created.

  Adding [Empyreal Shardite] to [Emissary] had dramatically altered its blade and, subsequently, its strength. Could he infuse a bit of [Empyreal Shardite] into his clothing as well to make something more resistant to magical attacks?

  The possibilities seemed endless. And while Bonecrafting alone couldn’t do everything, he could buy, trade, or commission what he couldn’t make and add it to his designs.

  If only he had the time.

  Shaking his thoughts away, Hal focused on the here and now. He needed armor to survive the trials that were coming. Not only those
in the next days but the assault on the Settlement and the next crisis after that.

  He wasn’t convinced that this would be a one-off event. The Shiverglades were inhospitable to the extreme. If it wasn’t a Guild Mission, it would be a horde of angry barbarians, if not them, then eventually Rinbast would come calling.

  There was always going to be something.

  It was Hal’s place to make sure his people and his home survived. And to that end, he needed to not only be stronger but well-armed.

  He should have attempted to upgrade his gear weeks ago. There had been time then. But, like everybody else, he thought that once they arrived and claimed their little Settlement, there would be time.

  They could focus, for once, on themselves and making something of a life.

  The Shiverglades had shown him the error of that line of thinking, and now he knew better. There would never be an era of lasting peace and calm.

  But he would be ready for the trials and tribulations, with allies both monstrous and humanoid, he would meet whatever threatened his family or his home.

  Over the next few hours, Hal remade the other pieces of his armor. By alternating between the mana-intensive creation stage, and the lesser drain of the refinement stage, Hal was able to continually work on his armor.

  As he did, his understanding of essences grew. By altering the balance, he could affect the properties that the different essences provided.

  The more he leaned toward shadow in his creation of the shadow and doll essence items, the more flexible it became. But that flexibility came at a cost, its insulative properties were dramatically hindered.

  On the other hand, if he aspected the mana too greatly toward doll instead of shadow, the armor would have incredible insulation, but its brittleness would render it ineffective.

  There was a fine line between the two, about 10% to 15% in either direction, that gave Hal the ability to sufficiently alter the pieces without rendering them functionally useless.