Read Delve Chapter 154: Archer

Chapter 154: Archer

“Hold this,” Ameliah said, shoving the bow into Rain’s hands. He stumbled slightly, having overcompensated for the weight. The weapon was heavy, but not that heavy. Adamant only had about ten times the density of iron.

Rain snorted. Only.

In design, if not material, the bow was similar to the one Shena had made for Hanes. It had a recurved shape and was about the same height as Ameliah when strung. The bow’s limbs ended in sharply pointed tips, vaguely reminiscent of spearheads, but other than that, it was unornamented. Adamant was slightly lighter in color than Dark Steel, but it had significantly less luster, even when polished. The bow didn’t exactly drink in the light or anything, but it still looked…cold. Cruel.

“You said you preferred a back quiver, so that is the one you will draw from,” Tallheart said, speaking to Ameliah as he offered her a second quiver. “This one goes on your hip. It is for storage only and should be hung to keep the arrows out of the way, not for easy access. Hmm. Transfer the ones I gave you.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Ameliah said, strapping the second quiver to her belt, then reaching over her shoulder to transfer the arrows. As she did this, Rain noted that while the arrow shafts and fins were all adamant, the arrowheads were made of different metals and came in different shapes.

After Ameliah transferred the last arrow, she didn’t stop. She simply reached over her shoulder again, her fingers grasping for the empty quiver, and an arrow popped into existence to meet them. She drew it smoothly, revealing the tip to be an adamant broadhead.

Rain nodded to himself. Ah. Endless Quiver.

He watched as Ameliah drew yet again. This time, the arrow came out with a reddish arrowhead—Heat Copper, unless Rain missed his guess.

“Hmm, good,” Tallheart said. “I am impressed.”

“Don’t be,” Ameliah said as arrows started appearing in the quiver on her back, one per second, though she wasn’t moving to draw them. “I’ve been an archer before, remember?”

Tallheart’s eyebrow rose slowly as he watched the quiver continue to fill with arrows. “Now I am very impressed. However, you should not—”

“Duplicate more than one type at once?” Ameliah interrupted. “I told you I know what I’m doing.” She jerked her head over her shoulder. “Those are all plain adamant.” She reached over her shoulder and drew one, showing him the tip before moving it to her other hand. When she drew again, the new arrow materialized half-drawn. She smiled, holding it out to show them the blueish Cold Tin head. “If I need a special one, I can just make it. If I’m going to need a bunch of a specific kind, I can just draw the ones I made earlier. Faster that way.”

Tallheart crossed his arms. “How long did you say you were an archer?”

“Just a few months,” Ameliah said, jabbing arrows into the ground one by one so they formed a line in front of her.

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled. “If I did not trust you, I would call that a lie.”

Rain laughed, clapping Ameliah on the back with a loud clang.

She smiled at him. “Bow, please.”

Rain passed the weapon to her and watched as she pulled lightly on the woven adamant cable that served as its string. The metal limbs flexed easily, belying the amount of force she had to be using. There wasn’t even so much as a creak.

“How’s the draw?” Rain asked.

Ameliah set her feet, then pulled the string back to her ear, aiming off into the distance without an arrow nocked. She let off the tension gradually, then pulled back again before glancing at Rain. “About twice as heavy as the training bows, I think. Without Strong Draw, of course.”

“That light?” Rain asked, turning to Tallheart. “Why didn’t—”

“The bow is designed for durability, not power,” Tallheart said. “The outer layer is unenchanted adamant. Nothing can be added to a deepened metal without GranTel or GranCrysts. You know this.”

“Yeah, but—” Rain began.

Tallheart held up a hand. “There is an inner layer of Force Steel outside the core. It holds the Durability and Hardness enchantments. They are as strong as I could make them with the materials that I have.”

Rain frowned. “You couldn’t put them on the core?”

“Valis is ill-suited for such runes. The core bears Lightness, Flexibility, Mana Capacitance, Arcane Regeneration, and Binding.”

“I see,” Rain said, scratching at his beard. “Binding, huh? That reminds me. Can you bind an item to more than one person? I doubt I’ll ever need to use the bow, but it would be nice to be able to see its stats.”

Tallheart shook his head. “Multiple binding is possible, but I do not have the required skill.”

Rain clicked his tongue. Damn.

Suddenly, Ameliah snorted, and her shoulders began quaking with laughter.

“What?” Rain asked, looking at her.

“I just got it,” she said, waving him away. “Clever, Tallheart.”

“Mmm,” Tallheart said. “Lilly always insisted.”

“Someone want to fill me in?” Rain said, smiling uncertainly.

“The bow’s name,” Ameliah said, still chuckling. “Irony.”

Rain thought for a moment, then smiled. ‘Adamant Unbending’ was the Empire’s motto, and it was true enough. A bow of the pure metal would have been so rigid as to be completely useless. It wasn’t a matter of the draw weight being too high; it would simply break before it bent. Adamant could be alloyed and tempered, kind-of, but not enough to make it flex like spring steel. His expression became somber as he considered why, exactly, Lilly would have insisted on that name.

Irony. Fitting.

“Okay, here we go,” Ameliah said, selecting an adamant-tipped arrow from those in front of her and nocking it. She drew, pausing for only a heartbeat to aim before she loosed. There was a powerful thrum as the bowstring sliced through the air, then a heavy thunk as the arrow struck its target.

Rain looked to see it sunk almost to the fletching in one of the enormous trees at the edge of the clearing. He tilted his head. Can you call it fletching if the fins are made of metal?

“A bit high,” Ameliah said, selecting another arrow from in front of her. “I was aiming for that knot, but I compensated too much for the drop.”

Her second arrow struck just below the first, still a good meter above her target.

“Hmph,” she said, continuing. She didn’t stop until she’d used all the arrows she’d arrayed in front of her, save the two special ones. By then, she had her aim dialed in, the last few arrows striking the knot practically one atop the other.

“A few months, she says,” Tallheart said with a harrumph of disbelief.

Rain grinned.

“And now this one,” Ameliah said, laughter in her voice as she readied the arrow with the Heat Copper tip. The bowstring thrummed with her release, just as before. This time, however, the thunk of impact was drowned by the boom of an explosion.

Rain squinted, blinking away the afterimage to see that the tree remained largely undamaged. The Heat-resistant bark was barely even scorched.

He turned to Tallheart. “How much damage does the enchantment do?”

“The arrows aren’t bound,” Ameliah said, plucking the remaining arrow from the ground and handing it to Rain. “See for yourself.”

Rain blinked, taking it. He then circulated his mana, sending a stream of it across the arrow in his hand, the system spawning a window in response.

Ice Bolt Arrow

Durability: 403/403
Hardness: 1402
Materials: Adamant, Cold Tin
Impact-Triggered Ice Bolt Rune Complex
- 400 Cold damage on impact
- 10 mp/activation
Compacted Mana Reservoir Rune
- 10/10 mp

“Huh,” Rain said. I need to get my interface to show me sharpness.

He looked up at Tallheart. “Aren’t you worried about these falling into the wrong hands?”

“I am,” Tallheart said, his tone matter-of-fact.

Rain touched the arrowhead lightly with an armored finger. It’s like a loaded gun. How hard does an ‘impact’ have to be for this to trigger?

He shook his head, taking his finger away. “Did you leave them unbound so they aren’t as expensive to duplicate? No, wait. Binding doesn’t have a mana cost.” Rain frowned. “Does adding Tel increase the—”

Tallheart grunted, interrupting him and gesturing to Ameliah. “A binding rune would block activation outside the domain of her soul. It would make the arrow into a dagger. An ineffective dagger.”

Oh. Rain looked back at the arrow. “Wow, it really works like that? That sucks.”

“Now, hang on,” Ameliah said. “All the good Havenheild arrows are bound. They make you pay extra if you want them not to be, or to be rechargeable for that matter.” She spat. “Bastards.”

Rain smiled.

“Hmph,” Tallheart said. “This may surprise you, but I do not have every skill that there is.”

“Never enough skill points, right?” Rain said, smiling in commiseration.

Tallheart inclined his head. “Indeed.”

“Don’t worry,” Ameliah said, taking the arrow back from Rain. “I’m not going to just leave these lying around. Not even the copies.”

“If I thought that you would, I would not have made them,” Tallheart replied, watching as she aimed. The arrow struck the tree, detonating on impact in a flurry of snow. When it cleared, large cracks became visible in the bark, spreading from the impact site where the arrow remained lodged.

“Hmm. Time for a real test,” Ameliah said, drawing a fresh arrow with a Heat Copper tip. “A Firebolt Arrow, buffed with Fire Arrow, using both Strong Draw and Seeker Shot.”

She raised the bow, nocking the arrow in the same motion. The arrowhead burst into flame as she drew back, and when she loosed, the thrum of the bowstring was louder than before. The flaming missile flew unerringly for the tree, Seeker Shot easily compensating for any disruption caused by the mana surrounding the metal.

Rain looked away just before the detonation rocked the clearing. When he looked back, he saw that the bark near the impact had been blasted away. The wood below was splintered to a pulp, and only a few arrows remained, sticking out at odd angles, the rest having fallen free.

“Not bad,” Ameliah said.

Rain looked up at the sky, calculating. She still has Fire Affinity and Heat Mastery, so that’s 4x. Arrow Affinity makes that 8x. Fire Arrow has 146 base Heat damage, plus 400 from the arrow, assuming it’s like the other one, so 546. Times eight is…no, wait, Empowered Mainhand. He glanced at Ameliah. “Did you rank up Empowered Mainhand since this morning?”

“Still rank one,” Ameliah said. “Hopefully, these arrows will get me some decent experience. Can I say again how lucky it was that I found a substitute for the prerequisite? I was thinking I’d have to spend the next week wearing enchanted iron underwear. That would not have been fun.”

Rain snorted. “I suppose it wouldn’t be that comfortable, but…” He grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her. “I wouldn’t have minded seeing it. Hey, Tallheart, do you think you could make—”

“I can hurt you,” Ameliah interrupted.

Rain broke, laughing. “Kidding, kidding.” Mostly.

“Me too,” Ameliah said, smiling as well. She paused, tilting her head and giving Rain an appraising look. “Actually, Tallheart, maybe you could make something for him instead.” Her mouth split into a lecherous grin, and she licked her lips. “The less it covers, the better.”

“Hey now,” Rain said, smiling and raising his hands, fighting not to blush. “We’re supposed to be staying focused.” Damn it, I started it. Play it cool.

“Uh-huh,” Ameliah said, dropping her exaggerated expression. “Since when do you stay focused on anything?”

Tallheart snorted. “I have never seen him do so. Hmm. And if you wish for exciting underwear, you can ask someone else. I am no expert.”

“Oh?” Ameliah asked, turning to face him. “You never made anything like that for Lilly? How did she rank up the skill?”

“Enchanted underwear may be purchased,” Tallheart said, his face as still as a pond. “There are a surprising number of options. I meant merely that I am not specialized in its creation, not that I am unfamiliar with its, hmm, merits.”

“That reminds me, Tallheart,” Ameliah said, tapping her chin. “What do you have on under there?”

Rain breathed in sharply, mortified. Ameliah!

Ameliah laughed, pointing at Rain’s face. “Got him, look. He’s like a woolly tomato. Too easy.”

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled, clearly complicit and just as amused as she was.

Rain sighed, looking down. Damn it. So much for playing it cool.

Dozer, of course, chose that moment to chime in.

[?filth?!]

Rain didn’t bother to arrest his fall, simply letting himself smash helmet-first into the dirt. He was just too tired to care. His Force Resistance meant he didn’t need to have the slightest fear of the uncontrolled impact.

After a moment of lying there like that, he grunted in annoyance, then laboriously rolled himself over so he was staring up at the moss-covered ceiling. A few grains of dirt fell through his visor to land on his face, but a flick of Purify wiped them away.

His body was exhausted, stricken by a bone-deep weariness that made every motion a struggle. His stamina was full, but that was no help, given that the root of the issue was soulstrain.

Mentally, he was fine. That was good, as he finally had a chance to get some work done. It was still early in the afternoon, and he’d likely have the rest of the day to himself. Tallheart was busy working, while Ameliah was off in the jungle hunting monsters and would be for some time.

She is just…ridiculous. I should be out there with her, but she’s right. I’d just slow her down.

Rain sighed, summoning his notes on Ameliah’s build.

ameliah_heavy_archer_wip.ods

Color

Crash

Heavy Armor

Keeper?

blue=done

Dump Mountain Stance

Get Heavy Armor to 5

Take Thickened Plate

Take Hardened Plate

Get either Plate skill to 5

Take HRE (Sub either Plate)

Get Heavy Armor to 10

Take Deep Plate

Dump Heavy Armor

Elemental Archery

Keeper?

Take Shock Arrow

Restore Fire Arrow

Restore Ice Arrow

Take other Arrows

Restore Arrow Affinity

Dump Arrows (keep Fire + 4 more)

Rank Arrows to 50 total

Take Arrow Synergy

Get Arrow Synergy to 10

Take Prismatic Arrow

Dump Arrow Synergy

Dump Arrows except Fire

Equipment Mastery

Keeper?

Take Deep Durability

Take Deep Hardness

Restore Tough Fabric (Light Armor)

Take Mainhand (Sub Tough)

Take Offhand (Sub Heavy)

Take Amulet (Sub Heavy)

Take Armor (Sub Tough / Heavy)

Dump Tough Fabric

Get Mainhand, Offhand, Amulet to 5

Take Rings

Get Amulet to 10

Take Smell Bound Item (Sub Amulet)

lol, no

Get Smell to 5

Take Repair Bound Item

Take Recharge Bound Item

Dump Smell (Ha ha, I’m a child)

Get Repair, Recharge to 10

Take Equipment Mastery

Dump Repair

Dump Recharge

Sharpshooting

Keeper?

Restore Drilling Shot

Restore Seeker Shot

Restore Hardened Arrowheads

Restore Sharpened Arrowheads

Dump Hardened Arrowheads

Restore Strong Draw

Restore Piercing Shot

Restore Endless Quiver

Take Sniper Shot

Take Bleeder Shot

Take Multishot

Rank Shots to 60 total

Take Stacked Shot

Total

Additional

Keeper?

Keep Healing Word

Keep Airwalk

Keep Fire Affinity

Keep Heat Mastery

Keep Chanting

Take Spring

Take Channel Mastery

Take Energy Well

Dump Spring

Dump Other Stuff

Purify?

Total Skill Count

Current Skill Count

Skill

Rank

Thickened Plate

Hardened Plate

Heavy Resistance Enhancement

Deep Plate

Skill

Rank

Shock Arrow

Fire Arrow

Ice Arrow

Stygian Arrow

Stone Arrow

Arrow Affinity

Skill

Rank

Deep Durability

Deep Hardness

Empowered Mainhand

Empowered Offhand

Empowered Amulet

Empowered Armor

Skill

Rank

100

Drilling Shot

101

Seeker Shot

102

Sharpened Arrowheads

103

Strong Draw

104

Piercing Shot

105

Endless Quiver

106

Skill

Rank

107

Healing Word

108

Airwalk

109

Fire Affinity

110

Heat Mastery

111

Chanting

112

Channel Mastery

113

Energy Well

114

Mana Manipulation

115

Message

116

Purify

117

118

Current Arrow Ranks

119

Current Shot Ranks

With a herculean effort, Rain raised his hands and summoned a keyboard. His tired arms screamed in protest at the motion, but his spreadsheet program tended to crash any time he tried to edit anything directly. Working shakily with trembling fingers, he began updating the listed skill ranks.

Ameliah’s Shock Arrow was now at ten, and her other Arrow skills were on the way. Those were the present bottleneck, and thus the primary focus of her training. Rain was done with Arcane Ward, but Ameliah wouldn’t be able to get rid of Shock Arrow until she unlocked Arrow Synergy. She’d said she would be there by this time tomorrow.

Rain smiled, letting his hands fall as he reviewed the updated numbers. Ameliah seemed to be experiencing less soulstrain with each passing day, corresponding to her improving synchronization. She’d started way ahead of him on the physical side of things, only her recent abuse of stat accolades seeming to put a limit on how much stamina she was able to spend. That effect was already subsiding, or at least, she was better at hiding her fatigue. She was eating more, too, which made Rain feel a little better about his own condition.

He wanted to improve his synchronization across the board, and he had the accolades to do it, but he couldn’t use them without risking more side effects. Without them, the only reason he’d been able to keep up with Ameliah at all physically was by being more willing to work himself to uselessness.

Ameliah was holding herself back out of necessity. Her strength, as well as Tallheart’s, was required to keep them safe. Rain, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, was still just along for the ride. What did it matter if he couldn’t move his arms? It wouldn’t make a difference against any genuine threat. Not that there’d been any of those in the past few days.

They hadn’t seen a single Hababa since the injured one, and nothing nasty had come up from below, either. Rain had sensed a few unidentified monsters on the one occasion when they’d ventured back into the cave to check, but they hadn’t gone down to learn more. As much as they needed Arcane Crysts, they weren’t ready. Fortunately, it looked like it wasn’t going to take as long for them to prepare as Rain had anticipated, and Ameliah’s rapid progress was why.

She’s been using Energy Well all morning, and she’s charged Dozer knows how many arrows with mana, yet she claims she doesn’t even have a headache. Liar. He chuckled. Damn, what a pair of Vals we make.

His smile faded as he considered the underlying reasons for her recent behavior, then sighed. She has to stop beating herself up over losing to the Crimson Swords. It’s great that she’s been so driven lately, but it’s not healthy. It wasn’t a fair fight. She had no way to know about their accolades, hell, or their equipment… Shit, their equipment.

Rain sighed again. Worry, worry, worry, that’s all I do.Vanna knows not to let anyone touch that stuff until we’re back. Even if it’s come unbound already, nobody should know that but her. She has it under control.

It will be fine.

…

“Damn it,” Rain muttered, dismissing his interface and rolling himself over. Dragging himself into range of his pack, he rooted around until he found a small cloth bundle tucked safely into an inner pouch. He undid the clasp holding the fabric closed, then let it roll out along the ground, revealing five accolades sewn into pockets. The text describing their properties was visible, meaning that they were bound. The binding wasn’t to him, however. Three of them were linked instead to Vanna, and then one apiece to Jamus and Samson, all unbeknownst to the others. This was Rain’s emergency messaging system. At present, it appeared that there was no emergency.

Rain sighed, rolling the bundle back up and tucking it away. Vanna, Jamus, and Samson each had a bundle like it, though theirs only held a single accolade each. The messaging was rudimentary by necessity. Rain’s idea of painting text on the back of an accolade hadn’t worked, and thus, there was only a single bit of information you could send per plate. Summoning it was a one, and unbinding it was a zero. Each of the five accolades in Rain’s keeping had an agreed-upon meaning for each action, as did those he’d left on the surface. In Rain’s case, if he were to summon one of the plates bound to him, its keeper would know that he was coming back. If he were to unbind it, they’d know that he wasn’t.

Rain shook his head slowly, then pinged with Detection. The scan came back clean. Tallheart was still hammering away at his anvil. Ameliah was out of range.

He sighed, forcing himself to relax. Worry, worry, worry.

His concern for her wasn’t based on anything rational. Her resistances were a bit low without any skills boosting them, true, but Rain had forced her to take all the resistance accolades that were worth a damn, plus those related to stamina and mana. He’d have given her the health-boosting plates as well, but she’d put her foot down.

She had the iron armor to protect her, she said, and she wasn’t exactly wrong. Crappy as it was, it was still stupidly thick. Her still-growing mastery of Airwalk also meant she wouldn’t be getting hit in the first place. The only real threat would be something on the level of the Hababa Shaman King, but such a thing wasn’t likely to be out there. Even if it was, she could simply run or send them a Message to alert them to the danger.

Rain snorted.

Danger. No, she’s not in danger. She IS the danger. She IS the one who knocks.

He let himself fall back to the ground with a sigh, his smile fading. I miss TV. Closing his eyes, he turned his focus inward. It was time to reap the results of his own training.

Setting his training dialog to trigger in fifteen minutes, he calmed his thoughts. This would be his last chance to see the level-up process for a while, as he was currently level 23 going on level 24. His attempts to slow down his progress had been laughably ineffective. He was well aware that he had a mana abuse problem.

However, he had at least managed to gather a little data along the way. He’d seen the leveling process from within his soul five times now, one of those times even being in response to a monster kill. That experiment had taken a bit of doing, but unfortunately, the result hadn’t been very enlightening. This time would be the sixth, and his hopes weren’t high that he’d learn anything new. Due diligence demanded that he try, however.

Within three minutes, Rain was inside his soul, the process almost automatic at this point. As usual, he found himself in his core, then switched quickly to Snek, finding the serpentine avatar adrift in a sea of rage.

Damn. Dozer spat him out. [Hey, Dozer, didn’t I tell you to keep Snek with you?]

[Rain-King!] Dozer replied, happy surprise filling the link, along with a hefty dose of fatigue.

[Yes, hello,] Rain sent, along with the feeling of a smile. [Come on back to the Bastion, Dozer. It’s time for you to rest.]

[No,] Dozer sent, his tone almost petulant.

[Dozer, you come back here this instant, or I’m never letting you out there again.]

[…]

Did… Did he just send me an ellipsis? How in the…? Incredulous, Rain flicked out his tongue, but retracted it immediately upon tasting the battery-acid burn of the chaos.

Feeling the need to rub at his eyes, he switched away from Snek and into his latest avatar, which he’d dubbed Stumps.

A human was much more complicated to sculpt than a snake, surprising no one. Stumps had a face and the correct number of limbs, but that was about where the resemblance ended. Fingers had proven a challenge. The trouble was the bones. Stumps didn’t have any of those as of yet. What he did have was a round head like a cueball, complete with a pair of magnificent cookie-monster eyes and a slash for a mouth. Rain was no Michelangelo; he just wanted to have a shape close enough to human so he could emote properly. Needless to say, it was a work in progress.

Rain blinked his googly eyes, then stretched, reveling in the motion. It felt, well, not right, but at least free from soulstrain. Swinging his arms to reacclimate himself, Rain sighed. So much for Snek, I guess. I’m surprised he hasn’t dissolved out there. Getting him back is going to suck. It will have to wait until—

[Okay. Coming. Dozer good!]

Rain smiled, then poured approval through the link [Good boy, Dozer! I’ll see you in a few minutes.]

He let the link subside as Dozer rejoiced at being praised, knowing better than to ask the slime to pick up Snek on the way. Dozer had listened, and that was enough of a victory for the moment.

Rain planted his hands on his hips and looked around, finding himself with a few minutes to kill. The Bastion was still split by a green plane, looking like an island in the chaos with the glass and adamant dome above. Littered about were various bits of sculpted essence. Some were failed experiments, others merely incomplete ones, as was the case with Stumps. Most notably, there was the skeleton of the airship, not even close to finished.

Rain’s core was there, too, protected by a second geodesic sphere, forming what he’d dubbed his core room. It was a Bastion in miniature, presently fogged by mist and glowing diffusely with the blue light of his core. The structure was embedded in the ground at the exact center of the Bastion, locked in place by the wireframe trunk of a gargantuan tree. The tree’s adamant branches spread as it rose to meet the dome, bracing it from below. With the ground providing stability in the other direction, Rain had been able to remove much of the former scaffolding, freeing up the space and making things look a bit more organic.

He was much less concerned about the fragility of the structure now, so leaving the essence as glass didn’t bother him. As the amount of essence under his control had grown, so too had his confidence in its strength. He’d also found that if he left it clear, it was transparent to both his physical senses, as well as his immaterial ones. That was important, as it let him keep the fog contained without cutting off his view of the Bastion’s interior.

Below the ground, the setup was much the same. With a bit of effort, Rain had convinced gravity to pull in the opposite direction down there. Dozer’s room was directly beneath his feet, upside down from Rain’s current perspective. There was no passage through the two hemispheres, but Rain could see into both from his core room, even through the fog.

Rain ran a stump over his bald head, fighting back a sigh. By his latest reckoning, the Bastion now contained around 120,000 essence in total, with Dozer pulling in about 30,000 more each day. While that sounded great compared to the 10,000 essence Rain had started with, it really was just a drop in the bucket.

As far as he knew, the ratio of essence to experience was at least 1,000:1, though that number was incredibly suspect. It had come from a single observation about Dozer’s size, and it assumed that essence and experience were related in the first place. The problem was that Rain had yet to find anything that contradicted it.

The Bastion’s size, for example, was nothing compared to the overall size of his soul. He’d yet to encounter his paling, hence the airship. Once it was done, he planned to set sail to see just how much chaos was out there.

Anyway, taking the 1000:1 ratio at face value, Rain projected that his soul would have a total mass measurable in units of ‘mega-essence’, or ‘MESS’ for short.

Rain snorted. Oh, Dozer. He shook his head, lamenting the futility of explaining the joke in a way that the slime would understand. The number realistically wasn’t even in MESS anyway, but GESS. Giga-essence.

That was a long road.

If Rain tallied his class experience, it came out to just under 350 MESS. That wasn’t what his status window displayed, however. By default, the system included the experience he’d spent unlocking skill trees, making the number a staggering 1.9 GESS. Even that wasn’t the end, however. If he included his skill experience in the sum, the number shot up to 2.5 GESS. If left to his own devices, Dozer would finish purifying all of that in about 83,333 days, or about 236 years according to the local calendar.

Rain would have rubbed at the bridge of his nose if Stumps had had one. I need to find some way to automate the process.

The Bastion shuddered suddenly as Dozer collided with the airlock, jarring Rain from his contemplation. Switching to his core, he looked up, then flickered pink with amusement as he saw the problem. [Dozer, you have to spit that out. Otherwise, you’ll never fit through the door.]

[?]

[Dozer, drop it. Drop the essence.]

It took a little back and forth, but Rain managed to get the slime inside the Bastion without giving himself too much of a headache—just in time, too. Seconds after sealing the airlock, he felt the pressure of the level-up set in. He sent Dozer a hasty warning, then muted the link, not wanting any distractions.

Here we go.

As it had every time before, essence swept in from the sea of chaos, passing straight through the outer wall of the Bastion and then through the walls of his core room. The fog thickened around Rain’s core, condensing to liquid and blocking his view as the pressure built. Rain felt himself being squeezed, the essence flowing into him.

And then it was over.

Damn.

Rain flicked back into Stumps, who had been smushed against the core room’s wall by the pressure, then sighed painfully. Nothing new. It was the same as last time.

He got up, starting to repair himself as he reopened the link to Dozer. It appeared the warning had done a world of good, as the slime hadn’t panicked quite so badly this time. Indeed, by the time Rain finished repairing Stumps, Dozer had found his bed and fallen asleep.

Oh, to be a slime.

Rain sighed, looking around at the tumbled wreckage of his experiments. The half-constructed airship, at least, hadn’t broken free from its mooring. I’ll clean up in a minute.

Willing himself back into his real body, Rain groaned as feebleness washed over him. Without moving, he summoned his interface, then scrolled through the skill catalog until he found Suppression, now available for purchase. He bought the skill immediately, then invested his stat points into Clarity.

That’s that, I suppose. I’ll test it once Ameliah’s back.

Setting a marker, he summoned his progress report.

Progression Tracker [0.6.3]

marker_1: dawn_19 [24th Fallow]

marker_2: dusk_24 [27th Fallow]

Span: 3.3 days

Character

Level: 19 -> 24 (+5)

General Experience Earned

Health Use: 202

Stamina Use: 2,069

Mana Use: 149,152

Combat: 45,697

Skills

Arcane Ward: 0 -> 10 (+10)

Radiance: 0 -> 6 (+6)

Shroud: 0 -> 4 (+4)

Chemical Ward: 0 -> 1 (+1)

Mental Ward: 0 -> 1 (+1)

Suppression: 0 -> 1 (+1)

Tolerance

Strength: 48 -> 50 (+2)

Recovery: 35 -> 38 (+3)

Endurance: 23 -> 30 (+7)

Vigor: 47 -> 56 (+9)

Attribute Buff: 182 -> 188 (+6)

Speed: 1 -> 2 (+1)

Synchronization

Recovery: 4.9 -> 5.0 (+0.1)

Endurance: 4.0 -> 4.4 (+0.4)

Vigor: 6.2 -> 6.8 (+0.6)

Focus: 18.6 -> 23.1 (+4.5)

Clarity: 203.0 -> 250.0 (+47)

Perception: 8.5 -> 8.6 (+0.1)

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

CLASS

LVL

CAP

Dynamo

EXP

NEXT

TOTAL

33,428

55,250

1,940,171

Vitals

CUR

MAX

RGN

Health

5,109

5,200

680/d

Stamina

879

880

1060/d

Mana

8,850

4.3/s

Attributes

208/188

EFF

TOTAL

BASE

ACCLD

MISC

SYN

STR

50/50

100.0%

RCV

58/38

50.0%

END

24/30

44.0%

VGR

44.9

76/56

68.0%

FCS

23.1

0/193

46.2%

CLR

250

260

0/181

96.2%

PER

8.6

0/0

43.0%

SPD

9.4

0/2

94.0%

Resistances

1940/?

FLAT

PERCENT

HEAT

593.4

COLD

553.4

LIGHT

3.4

DARK

3.4

FORCE

433.4

ARCANE

43.4

CHEMICAL

393.4

MENTAL

3.4

Slots

Accolade

Bonus

12 [2x6]

The Icy Cellar

+3,000 Health

4 [1x4]

The Halls of Corruption

+40 Focus

2 [1x2]

Badlands Heat Lair

3059 3 8

+30 Heat Resistance

Hoarfrost Labyrinth

+20 Heat Resistance

Southshore Rat Warren

+1,000 Health

Frost Hollow

+10 Cold Resistance

Everdeep Fortress

+10 Perception

Total Known Skill Trees

Tier 0: 144

Tier 1: 144

Tier 2: 144

Tier 3: 143

Tier 4: 0

Skills

Aura Metamagic

Tier 0

Amplify Aura (10/10)

Multiply aura intensity by 200%

Multiply aura mana cost by 300%

Extend Aura (10/10)

Extend aura range by 10 meters

Multiply aura mana cost by 300%

Tier 1

Aura Focus (10/10)

Focus on an aura to boost its output

Multiply aura intensity by 300%

Multiply aura range by 300%

Multiply aura mana cost by 300%

User loses all external senses while focusing

Aura Synergy (10/10)

Increase all aura output by 1.0% for each rank in any aura

Effective boost: 103.0%

Tier 2

Aura IFF (10/10)

User may exempt entities from direct aura effects at will

Selected entities receive 0.0% aura output

Tier 3

Aura Compression (10/10)

Compress aura output, reducing range to boost intensity

Increase intensity by 2.0% per meter of compression

Defensive Auras

Tier 1

Arcane Ward (10/10)

Increase arcane resistance by 60.9% for all entities

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Chemical Ward (1/10) Exp: 0/200

Increase chemical resistance by 6.09% for all entities

Range: 2.03 meters

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Mental Ward (1/10) Exp: 0/200

Increase mental resistance by 6.09% for all entities

Range: 2.03 meters

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Tier 2

Force Ward (10/10)

Increase physical resistance by 60.9% for all entities

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Tier 3

Suppression (1/10) Exp: 0/800

Increase mana costs for all entities by 25.375 mp (fcs)

Range: 2.03 meters

Cost: 1 mp/s

Magical Utility

Tier 0

Intrinsic Clarity (10/10)

Multiply base mana regeneration by 300%

Intrinsic Focus (10/10)

Multiply base mana by 300%

Tier 1

Channel Mastery (10/10)

Allows intuitive control of channeled skill intensity

Minimum skill intensity: 0%

Maximum skill intensity: 200%

Skill mana cost modified by intensity adjustment

Mana Manipulation (10/10)

Allows internal control of mana

Allows expulsion of mana to environment

Allows transfer of mana to and from capacitive items with direct contact

Maximum transfer rate 2000.0 mp/s (fcs)

Tier 2

Magical Synergy (10/10)

Enables limited synergistic cross-coupling of magical attributes

25.0% of Focus contributes to mana regen

25.0% of Clarity contributes to mana

Offensive Auras

Tier 0

Immolate (10/10)

177.63-203.00 heat (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes ignition

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 50 mp/s

Refrigerate (10/10)

177.63-203.00 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 50 mp/s

Tier 1

Radiance (6/10) Exp: 1519/3200

106.58-121.80 light (fcs) damage per second to entities

Brightens environment (fcs)

Range: 12.2 meters

Cost: 30 mp/s

Shroud (4/10) Exp: 229/1400

71.05-81.20 dark (fcs) damage per second to entities

Darkens environment (fcs)

Range: 8.12 meters

Cost: 20 mp/s

Utility Auras

Tier 0

Purify (10/10)

Purify poison, corruption, and contamination

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 100 mp/min

Winter (10/10)

Boost M.Regen by 203% for all entities

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 10 mp/hr

Tier 1

Detection (10/10)

Sense selected items of interest

Not occluded by mundane materials

Resolution: 1.66 mm

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 10 mp/s

Essence Well (10/10)

Transfer mana to all entities within range, including user

Transfer Rate: 20.3 mp/s

Efficiency: 20%

Range: 20.3 meters

Velocity (10/10)

203.00% boost to speed for all entities

Range: 20.3 meters

Cost: 10 mp/s

Free Skill Points: 0

Rain’s interface vanished as he heaved a deep sigh. Damn cap. I’m so close.

He gave himself a few seconds to wallow, then roughly shoved the useless thought aside before closing his eyes and turning his attention inward once more.

None of that. There’s still work to be done.

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