by Aleron Kong
Staring at her, his own eyes now wide, he read a final prompt that appeared in his vision. All the effects on the initial prompt had been expected. They were great and they had made her a vastly more powerful creature. As he had hoped though, just as when Brain Drain had reached level seven, Psi Bond now had a powerful and completely new feature.
Know This! Advancing the Psi Bond of your soul familiar to level 7 has allowed for a connection deeper than ever before. You may now undergo the Messeji, the melding. This process allows you to absorb the entire essence of your familiar so that you may share each other’s strengths and defenses. The bonding can last for a maximum of seven minutes each day, and when completed, it will take 77 seconds for your familiar to coalesce back into her physical form. During that time, she will be a formless psychic energy immune to physical damage but able to pass through solid matter.
By undergoing the Messeji, your familiar will be safe within your body. Any debuffs, injuries, ill effects or negative status will be removed. When separated from you again, her health, mana, stamina, and all statuses will return to the exact point they were before the bonding. All abilities will be reset.
By undergoing the Messeji, all attributes, resistances and regen rates will be the highest value of either you or your familiar. Your physical attributes will temporarily change to adopt characteristics of your familiar. Whatever enhancements you have bought with Psi Points will tell in your Messeji form. More alterations may occur and be discovered over time.
Alma was still staring him deeply in the face. One last prompt awaited him.
Do you wish to undergo the Messeji with your soul familiar, Alma? Yes or No?
Looking into her bright and intelligent eyes, Richter chose “Yes.”
A beam of blue-white light the incandescent color of Thought magic shot from Alma’s eyes into his own. It flowed into his mind and his very being. More light began to shine through her scales as they lost cohesion and she became a creature of pure light. The flow increased to become nearly blinding bars of glacial energy. Her thoughts, her feelings, her very soul poured into Richter and he felt a connection to her that went beyond words, beyond comprehension. They simply were. Her body became nothing but a matrix of Thought energy as the melding continued.
Richter’s body glowed as well. Strange sensations overtook him. A feeling of fullness and solidity. He tried to blink but had no control over his body. There was no panic, however, as the Messeji felt like the most natural thing in world. Like welcoming a loved one into your home. It wasn’t an invasion, it was a completion. He was a stronger version of what he had been. He was finally what he always should have been. Richter began to feel heavier and his tongue felt strange.
Though he couldn’t move, he was still aware. Another prompt appeared in his vision accompanied by a deep thrumming sound. He absorbed the information with a thought.
THOOMMM!
Know This! The deep bond of the Messeji has advanced your Mark, Dragonkin, to Level 2. This deepens the instinctual response of some races to you, for good or ill. The full ramifications of this may never be known, but the following changes take place immediately: The +5 to Strength, Constitution, Fire Resistance and Fire Spell Strength are now increased to +10. These changes will remain in effect after the Messeji ends. While in Messeji form, you now have access to a new attack, Glass Flame. Once per bonding, you may make a powerful breath attack, bathing a cone-shaped area in clear flames of terrifying heat! Be wary, this attack kills friend and foe alike, and does 5 times as much damage in terms of Durability loss to items.
His status window popped up unbidden, showing the powerful fusion of himself and Alma. Without being told, he knew that the numbers in parentheses were where her values had supplanted his own.
Name: Richter
Age: 24
Level: 35, 33%
Race: Chaos Seed (Messeji Dragon)
Profession: Enchanter
Languages: Sapient Mortals
Reputation: Lvl 5 “You are a man worth following.”
Specialty: Essence
Alignment: Chaotic (2) Neutral
STATS
Health: 773
Mana: 770 (978)
Regen/min: 32.4 (58.59)
Stamina: 350
Regen/min: 33.6
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 38
(base: 30 + items: 8)
Agility: 32 (36)
Dexterity: 38
(base: 23 + items: 15)
Constitution: 62
(base: 61 + mark: 1%)
Endurance: 35
Intelligence: 73 (98)
(base: 66 + Quickening: 10%)
Wisdom: 45 (98)
Charisma: 36
(base: 30 + Honorable: 4 + Impassioned: 5%)
Luck: 25
SPELL POWER BONUSES
Air 50%
Light 5%
Fire 5%
Life 50%
Blood 5%
Earth 5%
RESISTANCES
Air 50%
Earth 25%
Fire 15%
Life 50%
Mental 65% (100%)
Spiritual 5%
Light 5%
Blood 5%
ABILITIES
Limitless: 100% affinity in any and every skill
Gift of Tongues: Ability to comprehend almost any sapient language
Fast Learner: +30% to speed of skill advancement
Bounty of Life: +30% growth for the physical manifestation of your Place of Power
Psi Bond, Level 7:
+60% Mental Resistance
Maximum Communication Distance 1750 yards
Eye contact offers the chance to connect with other creatures in a limited way
Psi Blast, Level 3*: Can fire a beam of concentrated psychic energy causing health damage, Stun and Disorientation. Can fire 3 beams every 5 minutes.
Brain Drain, Level 7*: Can absorb the mental energy of a creature, draining them of health, mana and stamina. Can Stun creatures up to level 31. At death will absorb 7% of the creature’s total experience. Chance to absorb a poignant memory from the creature upon death.
Glass Flame*: Can breathe colorless fire over anything within twenty yards. 50-100 Damage over 7 seconds.
x5 Damage to durability of items.
Feel of Chaos: Detect sources of Chaos within 200 yards
* while in Messeji form...
The largest differences were the bumps to his Intelligence and Wisdom. Both his spell power, resistance, mana pool and mana regen were increased massively. Even his Agility got a small increase. His Mental resistance had also maxed out at 100%. Even more significant, he had gained Alma’s abilities, with the exception of Psi Channeling, which would, of course, require her to be separate from him.
The internal changes were powerful, but the external changes were more dramatic. His face had elongated, giving him a short snout. He could feel sharp teeth with his prehensile, forked tongue. His skin had been replaced by scales, the same dusky color and diamond shape as Alma’s own. The fingers of his hands had elongated and were now tipped with thick, sharp talons. He absently realized that there might be a problem if he ever wore heavier gauntlets. The sprite gauntlets left his fingers free, providing less protection but allowing them to fire their bows unencumbered. He also felt a faint itching across his shoulder blades but it subsided in a moment.
More prompts appeared listing the changes to his physical body, reflecting Alma’s enhancements from the psi crystals.
Know This! The following physical changes have taken place due to the Messeji
1) Your Natural Armor increased from 0 to +5
2) Your bites and scratches now exude Psi Poison
3) Your skin color can shift by up to 5% to match your surroundings
4) You may manifest Darkvision up to 100 yards
There was one more notification that appeared after he had absorbed everything else.
Hail, the Dragon! May they fear
your power. Be warned though, mighty creature. Death of one is death of all.
The last prompt was strange. It wasn’t in a self-contained box like every other prompt he’d ever had. It was just writing that was emblazoned across his vision. It even looked hand-scrawled rather than the uniform block lettering common to almost every prompt he’d ever received. The message felt… personal. It faded away in a moment on its own, not even needing to be dismissed. Richter wondered at it for a brief moment, but he was too taken with the wonder of what had happened to give it any more time than that.
He and Alma had melded. Richter could feel her inside of him. She was aware of what was occurring, but they didn’t vie for control. Their desires were his desires… or hers were his… theirs? The chaos seed couldn’t quite understand it, but he learned a valuable truth in that moment. Sometimes, questions did not matter. All that mattered was the truth. The truth of that moment was that he and Alma were one.
The entire process had seemed to take several seconds, but to everyone else it had happened instantaneously. His men only saw a flash of light, and then their war leader had become a human-dragon hybrid.
“Banished gods!” Caulder almost shouted before catching himself. It came out as a constipated whisper instead. Everyone else’s reactions were the same. Barring the summoned creatures, they all pulled away from the being that had appeared in front of them.
“Lord Richter?” Caulder asked. “Is that you?”
“You know anyone else this sexy?” came the sibilant reply. Then Richter focused on casting, his hands weaving quickly through the motions of summoning spells. After increasing their Psi Bond to level seven, the faint resistance he had felt from controlling the Death creatures had faded to almost nothing. After melding with her, it had vanished completely. Her mental control was astonishing.
He decided to maximize their chances. After downing three mana potions at once, he summoned and evolved creatures in quick succession. The saproling became a hardwood saproling. His spider evolved into a cinderspore arachnid, capable of a fire attack. The Life wisp became a “harsh light.” It lost all healing abilities but could phase through the bodies of enemies, causing Life damage. The fox evolved into a shining fox again, with its minor health regen boost. Richter even summoned the bile rats, which evolved into steel-toothed rodents that possessed a powerful bite and were increased in size by 50%.
Between his amped mana regen and the potions, he was restoring almost twenty MP per second, at least for the minute that the potions lasted. The blue bar on his interface was almost full again by the time he finished casting. The hallway in front of the stone door had become crowded, but seeing the dragon creature using their lord’s spells had set the men’s minds at relative ease. It also sunk in that he was wearing the same armor. As a final preparation, Richter drank one of his three remaining Potions of Selak’s Luck, increasing the stat by thirty-four points.
“Let’s go,” Richter finally commanded with a faint hiss, pushing the huge stone door open as easily as if it were made of mere wood.
CHAPTER 68 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
As the stone slab slowly swung open, a large chamber was revealed. A green orb of light hung suspended from the ceiling. The stones that comprised the walls, floor and ceiling were much better tooled than the rough-fitting blocks of the rest of the dungeon. The reason was made clear when Richter saw the dais at the end of the immense area. They were in a throne room.
The room rose in a series of tiers. On the ground floor along with the war party were ten bodaks. They all wore well-cared-for gear, and by using Analyze Richter was able to confirm his suspicion that each was a Professional Warrior. Three had bows and the rest a mix of melee weapons and shields. A small wooden cage off to the left contained the cowering forms of two kindir. Their clothes were bloody and torn. Both were curled into balls, making themselves as small as possible in the vain hope that the undead might forget they were there.
On the first tier there were five rime bodaks all wearing the robes of magi. On the third and final tier there were three figures. To the left and right there were frost bodaks holding greatswords and clad in high steel armor. In the middle, a truly horrid creature of rotting flesh and weeping sores sat atop a throne.
The throne was made of slightly reflective black stone. The bodies of three kindir lay broken and bloody at the foot of the dais. All the undead were motionless. The one exception was the figure sitting on the throne. It held the severed head of one of the slain kindir in its lap. The undead’s long fingers were, almost lovingly, running through the murdered kindir’s long red hair.
Richter and the boss locked eyes, and the chaos seed used Analyze.
Name: Nien the Reaver
Profession: Warrior
Disposition: Hatred
Level: 48
Specialty: Death Knight
Race: Ghast
Focus: Soul Eater
STATS
Health: 592
Mana: 283
Stamina: 290
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 92
Agility: 22
Dexterity: 93
Constitution: 46
Endurance: 29
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 4
Luck: 11
SKILLS
Swordsmanship: 62
Shields: 54
Death Magic: 17
Maces: 52
Heavy Armor: 68
Dark Magic: 12
Torture: 37
Instill Fear: 29
Death Aura: 35
Unarmed Combat: 28
War Leader: 38
Death Strike: 51
DESCRIPTION
Ghasts are born from the union of demons and undead. When newly spawned these creatures are little more than animals but, unlike their ghoul cousins, upon reaching higher levels their intellect can match any sapient creature’s. They are blood drinkers, though they can exist on fetid flesh long gone rotten. Their paralyzing touch allows them to eat their prey while it still lives. Ghasts are said to get an almost sexual pleasure from the pain of their victims. Immune to poisons and most spells of the enchantment class, they are dangerous foes. They will fight if only one point of health remains, deadly to the very end. Once sapience is achieved, ghasts receive one point to distribute per level, and each level gives +2 to Strength and +2 to Dexterity.
The information washed over Richter in a split second. At a subconscious level he felt an instinctual fear, like a fox facing a wolf. Both he and the ghast were predators, but the Death Knight was older and, based on the listed skills, far stronger. Richter wasn’t intimidated though. The fear only made him more dangerous. Unbeknownst to himself, Richter’s lips pulled back in a snarl, showing his now-sharp teeth. Something deep inside the chaos seed was proclaiming that even if the creature was stronger, the ghast would sure as shit regret testing him.
The more analytical part of Richter’s mind considered what the monster’s status page meant for the battle to come. The ghast was an initiate in both Death and Dark magic, but that was not the true danger. The creature was a melee fighter, no matter what magical skills he possessed. The knight’s Strength was almost a hundred, as was his Dexterity. That meant not only would the knight’s attacks inflict devastating damage, but he would also have an insanely high attack speed.
To make things worse, Richter’s Identify Enchantment Talent was also triggered. The ghast was decked out in powerfully enchanted gear, adding health, mana and stamina. His equipment also increased his damage and defenses. The Death Knight would not go down easily, but then, that would be boring anyway.
“Target the archers and casters,” Richter commanded with a slight hiss. He was raising his weapons when the most unlikely thing occurred. The ghast laughed.
The sound was horrible. A moment later the monster spoke in Common, and though his speech was elegant, it sounded as if the words were being filtered through a bu
bbling sludge. The disgusting consonants sent an involuntary shiver through everyone in the warband, “Welcome. Welcome! Did you have fun with my creatures?”
The entire warband just looked at the ghast as he casually stood. His fingers were still entwined in the slain woman’s long red hair, and the head slowly swung back and forth. Richter couldn’t help but look at that slack face. Her mouth was open in an eternally silent scream, with one eye rolled partially back into her head. The archers looked askance at Richter. The chaos seed had no idea what was going on, but figured it was worth one minute to find out. The forces arrayed against them were massive. In a straight battle, it was highly likely he would take heavy losses even without the boss fighting. Of course, it wouldn’t go down like that. The ghast would start dealing death as soon as the battle began. Richter’s whole warband might be wiped out. If there was another way out of this, it might be worth a shot.
Richter spoke under his breath to Caulder, “If they rush us, retreat out of the dungeon. I will hold them off to cover you. That’s an order!” He put heat into his last sentence to head off any argument. The sergeant nodded, his face grim.
The chaos seed turned a cold stare on the ghast. Alma spoke inside of his mind, wanting to split the undead open from balls to bowtie. Nien just looked back with a malicious smile on his face. It was obvious that the undead had seen Richter’s quiet discussion with Caulder, and still wasn’t worried. Seeing the forces at the ghast’s command, Richter could understand why.