The Power of Ten

Chapter 5-119: Progress in Other Areas...

I hadn’t been idle in spending my gold, now that I couldn’t just get Naming Karma while being so busy here. But the gold was coming in, I made arrangements, and the gold was flowing out.

Naturally, all the Craft Coin makers were busy full time tripling the value of any incoming raw gold, but most of the Casters buying my spells were using Craft Coins of their own... or cut gemstones, which amounted to the same thing.

I was burning up fortunes to power up my Gear, and I really didn’t care. Millions came, millions went.

I finished up my Luck Protection on Einz, giving me +1 Luck bonus to Saves and AC. I was immune to the Luck effects of others, that didn’t mean I couldn’t warp it for my own usage... and since it didn’t stack with Insight bonuses and was easier to manage, I went with Luck instead of Insight. Sometimes Chaos is just easier than Law...

I had then promptly started on my Death Ward on my Ring. That was 28 days of Infusing, so there was now fifteen days done... but with the Artificer Levels had come the two Artisan Feats, so I was actually saving a lot of money and time over what this secondary effect of my Ring would have actually cost. I basically wasn’t paying the +50% cost of being a secondary effect because of those Artisan Feats, which was nice...

But once I had it, I didn’t need to be afraid of carrier Status effects from undead, like getting my soul sucked or vitality drained or Stat damage or paralyzed or just whatever. I just needed to be concerned about the damage from their attacks. Damage could be healed easily...

In approximately 21 days, the Angelos and Windgraf were going to be able to start making Death Ward Amulets. That was also going to be a game-changer... although the big one, Vivic, still seemed beyond them, and was going to have to wait until I reached Five.

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Clavus was working on its limit.

I was getting the foundation for Slot Vier put in, which would be Enmity to Evil. Unlike a Primos, I couldn’t use an Arsenal and swap among various useful magical options on my Stave, so I had to go with generic useful. Enmity vs Evil was +2/+2 against anything Evil intrinsically, which should provide the vast majority of my opponents... if not all of them. I was perfectly aware that plenty of Neutrals were perfectly willing to kill me for something as mundane as money or territory or whatnot.

The Jotun femur was a QL 35 Material, if not higher, but needed to be refined up. Someone very skilled had done the preliminary work to 28, but I definitely wanted it all the way up.

Marrowmeld was a Valence II spell, so I wouldn’t be able to Shape this appropriately until I got it. Greater Ki-Bound Vivic would have to do for now...

I hated being low Level, regardless of how deep I was. Patience, patience...

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I had invested a lot of skill points over these two and a half weeks.

It was a lot of Investing, and I still hadn’t even maxed out the default Lore skills, or my precious Math, Engineering, and Chemistry...

The biggest boost was the Ring Points. Non-essential knowledge I was basically storing in Einz as an Item Familiar could pull off, and for every three points, I was getting a typeless, foundation +1 Bonus to a skill of my choice... currently maxing out at +3. A Foundational bonus was just like a Feat, raising the QL at which you could make something. Unfortunately, it was running into my faux-Six limit, and could only sit at +3 impotently and wait for more points to be Invested...

Of course, had anyone really considered the sheer amount of skill points available to someone with nineteen Classes beating on her head, they would have goggled at the very idea. It still didn’t mean I was good at everything... and I had a whole lot more that I had to max out in just foundational stuff!

Just, ugh. The requirements on the intelligent never stop. At least I should be able to stop throwing points into book stuff...

Of course, given the sheer amount of writing I was doing, dropping 24 points just on stuff to write books was not too much, but it was still a huge distraction.

So, okay, I needed to be Deep, or I couldn’t have done all this side stuff, without being a whole lot smarter and higher Level than I was. Just tossing away 24 points on basically NPC-style crafting stuff was a bit crazy, like something a Forsaken would do in their down time...

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On the other hand, the look on the manuscripter’s face as she went through the A Traveler’s Guide to Basic Magical Theory was worth a whole lot of something, especially when she saw all the limning, the edge painting, the scrollwork on the cover and the binding. She kind of looked at me in utter shock and awe that someone could actually make a book at QL 30 like that.

Then she read the foreword.

This text is designed as a primer and source of basic magical theory, to be widely read and distributed. Because it has been formally Named and Empowered, books that are faithfully replicated to its name have the potential to share in some of the magic of the original book.

Any Guide replicating this one will, with the mere expenditure of a Cantrip of magical energy, animate the illustrations and paintings within just as in the original copy.

“This,” Miss McNally stared at the words, then looked up at me. “This will work, even if we use mechanical printing and typesetting?”

“By Mimir’s Second Rule of Accreditation, yes,” I confirmed. Normally, making something mechanically ruined any magical potential it had, but this was actually drawing on the Similarity Principle to the original, and the more faithful the copy, regardless of method, the stronger the link. However, it still had to have the right Essence Ink in use.

“Every library in the world will want one of these!” she exclaimed. “Not to mention private copies for every spellcaster, if it is as thorough as you claim...”

I didn’t point out the thing was two inches thick, because that was obvious. This was a Tome, a magical book, and if it didn’t have the great transformative power on the reader that the Stat-raising Manuals of legend had, and wasn’t individual worth zillions like a really complete Wizard’s Libraim was, it could still change the world.

Make us a lot of money, too, because it was getting sold for a fifth of a goldweight!

“Has this been vetted and reviewed by any experts yet?” she had to ask.

I wanted to say that the source material had been compiled and revised by people with more than ten Ranks in the appropriate areas of interest and post-30 mental scores. The quotes in there were all from Tens of renown on Terra-Luna, who of course were not known here.

“No,” I instead stated calmly. “As far as foundational knowledge goes, however, it should be unshakeable. There are extensions and specializations in certain areas it does not cover. For instance, the Blighter, Ur-Priest, Witch, and Magus are all hybrids or cross-Class syntheses with minor niches that they fill. However, the core, essential Classes and their main abilities are delineated, as are the basic theories upon which magicks Arcane, Divine, Druidic, Crafting, Pact, and Heartsong are based, in addition to an extensive discussion on Ki theory and usage for non-Casters.”

The Power of Ten had no incidence of those Classes, so what I knew of them was basically learned from the resources here at Heavenbound Hall, and what was in the public domain... which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was actually fairly extensive, what with the internet and people’s interest in such things.

“Should we get some reviews out there before it hits the public?” she had to ask carefully. “Intellectual works like this generally get their momentum from the enthusiasm of their peers...”

“Anyone who wants to tear down what is in this book will get absolutely crushed,” I stated calmly. Hells, the number of people on the planet who had a higher Spellcraft and Arcane Lore modifier than I did right now I could probably count on two hands, and they didn’t have the source material I did. I wasn’t inventing anything new here, just copying things that had been tested and confirmed repeatedly back on Terra-Luna... and had been derived from the knowledge of The Archmage, who had been a post-Thirty Eternal powerful enough to mess with an entity that could literally eat worlds.

She looked impressed at my confidence. I hadn’t planted full Ranks into Diplomacy and Intimidation for no reason...

“Well, the boss says go ahead with it if you decided to, and... is it true that this cannot be plagiarized?” she asked hesitantly.

“That is correct. Not a word lifted from the book can be quoted anywhere else in ink without accreditation, or lifted and put online at all. Ink to ink, it can only be passed on in writing. Mimir’s First Rule of the Essence of Ink.”

Her smile blossomed. “An inbuilt copyright! We wouldn’t even need to register it if we didn’t want to...”

“Oh, no reason not to have a copy in the National Archives, too. There’s going to be more to follow...” I demurred.

She had a happy face on as she studied me, and I could see gold coins dancing behind her eyes. “I’ve heard that the Bloodbonded spells you are selling off are even more secure. Can those be done in books, too?” the professionally-attired brunette had to ask.

I nodded slowly. “But you’d have to Write each new book with a Biblioclone spell, meaning creation and dissemination would be much slower.” I frowned and looked aside. “That would be a way of compartmentalizing knowledge among a select number of individuals. There is rarely any knowledge so dangerous that the source shouldn’t be accessible to more than a couple people, and most such knowledge of that caliber is innately magical, which means a page by page use of Write, basically copying it by hand. It’s not something for mass dispersal. All the spells I sell are sold individually.”

“Ah, a pity magic and alchemy have such restrictions...” she said sadly.

“Aye, or we’d be able to lock up knowledge behind magical wards and nobody would learn anything if we didn’t want them to.”

She started to respond, then thought about what I said, and my completely flat tone. “Ah, yes.” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I had heard that you have a sunset provision on your spells...”

“Yes. And there will be one on the Books, as well. However, that is why we are making them at Masterwork level. Reading directly from the books will be a far more immersive experience than doing so off a vid screen.” I considered her for a moment. “You’re Primos, yes?”

“Yes,” she admitted reluctantly, trying to keep her chin up. “I wanted a Pact, but I kept getting passed over...”

“Open the book to page 514, and start reading the section on Ki. It is totally relevant to Primos... and it’s not all about fighting and killing things. General health and quality of life are important uses of ki, as well as contributing to your daily routine.”

She blinked at me, and then looked at the hefty book clutched in her hands. “Well, I have a lot to do...”

I held her eyes long enough for her to fidget. “Do you like books? Do you like to read?” I asked quietly.

“I... yes,” she answered carefully. “I would not have gotten into this particular job after failing to be chosen as a Warlock if I did not...”

“Take the Book, take the rest of the day off, get something to drink, curl up in a corner, and start reading. You’ll understand what I mean by the Books not needing to remain sancrosanct forever. They have worth in and of themselves.” I leaned forwards slightly. “And it will change your life for the better.

“This is Heavenbound Hall. Grab a piece of Heaven’s wisdom, why don’t you?”

She stared at me, and then jumped to her feet, clutching the hefty Guide to her chest like a new treasure as she smiled cheerfully. “That sounds like a marvelous idea! Can I walk you out, Lady Traveler?”

I smiled and rose as well.