The Power of Ten

Chapter 7-179: Six Begins

“So probably the ruler of this whole stinking Qi zone?” Father Bower asked for everyone.

“Yes. What’s worse is that they are generally a pretty good-natured creature, according to the records... but they are still a Cultivation creature.” And that meant it had to go.

“Sorry, my aesthetics stopped right where I was wondering how good it would taste fried up with a fine buttery dressing,” The Mick spoke up, smacking his lips.

“It’s got to be basically made of money,” Briggs mused. “Feathers, flesh, bones, organs... they are all going to be worth something. It dominated the dragon, so it’s got to be even stronger. How powerful?”

“Lots of command over fire magic. Qi-type fires come in all kinds, and its ranks near the top. It could have burned the fire dragon to death,” I informed them.

They all winced. “So fire resistance isn’t going to work?” Sama asked fatalistically.

“No... unless it comes out of a higher Valence.” They all blinked, and then laughed. That meant I most certainly could do something. “However, it’s probably casting at Twenty, and can Meta its flames. It can literally put out a lot of heat...”

“Can you Cold Nova it?” Sama asked calmly, choosing not to gamble on the 50/50 chance of her Null being able to disperse an attack.

“It’s going to vent a crapload of Fire Qi to neutralize a cold attack, and probably has at least 30 Cold Resist just based on those burning feathers. I don’t trust Weaponizing my Shards against those feathers, either, and I’m guessing they might bounce a Ray if arranged properly, judging by the metallic hue of them.” I looked after it, calculating. “I’d rather kill it out here than in its nest. It can probably pull Fire Qi in to help it heal, too...”

“Metallic, you say?” Briggs rumbled, hopping down toward the fire hounds waiting for us to carve them up. There was at least a ton of delectable meat there. We were making solid coin just transporting it out of here, and the hides were great for making fire-resistant apparel. “Conductive?”

I was also heading down to help out. “I was thinking acid, actually. Cultivation creatures use a different Elemental dominance paradigm, and water suppresses their fire Qi. Punch through that, and then let it eat some Piercing Cold.”

“Whatever works. Keep a watch for it, Master Helix. Let’s process the scene, feed the Land, and move on to the next. I’ve a feeling that thing’s going to come back and act to protect the creatures in its territory. When that happens, we kill it.”

“You mean YOU kill it, while the rest of us run around like chickens to distract it,” Briggs just grunted knowingly. “Although I really want to try one of those drumsticks!”

“You’re going to get more direct action soon enough,” I assured him, and he cocked a hairy eyebrow at my tone.

“How’s that?” he asked agreeably.

“There’s no way a luan is able to maintain a Qi-producing Formation. That means there’s going to be a presence in the volcano,” I informed him.

Everyone looked in that direction suddenly. Sama’s feral smile spoke for all of them, “Oh, we’re going to get a chance to get blooded on Cultivators, are we?”

“Baneskulls for Cultivator Soulborn all around, hopefully,” I said calmly. “Let’s keep kicking up a fuss. The Daoists probably felt the reduction in Qi from us vivisizing so much stuff on their land, and sent it out to check and see what the cause was. They won’t dare come out in case word gets out, so let’s let them sacrifice their king, and then go into the volcano and wipe them.”

Briggs calmly chopped off the head of one of the dogs to get the process started, and remarked, “You know, if we destroy that Formation, and set up a vivic burn to start reversing the transformation, that will suck the Qi back towards the center of effect, right?”

Sama was already opening up another one, and looked up sharply. “That would draw the remaining Spirit beasts back towards the center of the effect.”

“We wouldn’t have to gallivant all over the wretched, stinking moor chasing them?” The Mick promptly spoke up from where he was sticking in Exsanguinating Tubes.

“Big fight!” agreed Briggs, sliding an eye my way. “And we’ve got someone here who just so happens to be really good in Big Fights...”

------

Dusk came, fires swirling in cinders over the landscape. We were heading right for the volcano today, and if the fire luan wanted to come on down; well, the price was right, and we were going to have us some really tasty fowl, and make a lot of money off them feathers.

Night 90 since I had entered this world, the second of October, 2018.

“...and dream of the wind at dawn...”

Ding! Ding!

I eyed my Assay with my standard resigned soured expression.

Sorcerer/6, and Stormcaster had been chosen for me. I flicked over Spellwarp/3, just aiming to complete the Mastery at this point. Spellwarping Valence III’s, and came with Improved Precise Shot, so I ignored all but total cover or total concealment with my attacks... no misses from blurring or displacement or mist or whatever from me!

I eyed the clouds overhead, swirling with trapped volcanic heat, and continuous, distant rolls of heat lightning. Stormcaster gave me +1 to Caster Level when in a Storm - firestorms and hellstorms included - which also meant every true Shroudzone.

The last ten days had seen a lot of things come to completion. The Classes I had to take as a Five were now done, and Six, which was a Very Important Level for all the reasons, was now starting.

I had all four of the Druidic, well, Blighter Domains now, adding more +1 Caster Level by Element or damage type affiliated with them. I had my last two Arcane Domains of War and Travel, and I’d finished the Elemental Mastery through /5, Thunder.

My Sublime Chord was at /3, the Song of Life, building on /2, the Chorus of Unmaking. My Argent Savancy had filled out to /5, adding Girding +4 to my Force spells, Extending all of those with a duration, given me a Forceward of -Caster Level in damage from Force spells that stacked with my Shardcaster defense, and Unravel Force, allowing me to Dispel any standing Force effect and Flare it for a d6/Spell level damage to anything close by... like, oh, the Caster, if they had something like Force Armor and a Shield up... or a normally non-dispellable Wall of Force...

The Shroud had forced four Companion/Summoning Feats on me for Name Theurgy. Theurgic Companion stacked Levels of Binder and Druid for determining the power of an Animal Companion... you know, the one I couldn’t have. The Name of Nature allowed me to use Summon Nature’s Ally instead of Monster Summoning with Binder abilities, and my Eidolon could be a Druidic creature, instead of Otherplanar.

Except Blighter basically obligated me to have the creature be skeletal or incorporeal undead. Under the Haze, if I Summoned something, it might not go away, either! So, why blow the Feats and the extra Evolution Mastery points for me?...

My Fives had ended with me qualifying for my Force Reserves with five hundred Castings of Shards, and I’d gained Force Dart and Force Strike. The former was a d4/highest Valence Force Spell in memory ranged attack... basically useless to me, so I wasn’t even interested in scaling it up. All I really wanted was the +1 bonus to Caster Level with Force Spells that came with it.

Force Strike was an improved version of Arcane Strike, giving a damage bonus equal to your highest Valence Force Spell in memory to your weapon attacks... unfortunately it did not benefit spells, but it could make your actual physical attacks nicely stronger, and the Force effect meant it was any kind of damage, including typeless, and it could hit incorps. It was actually useful... but since I was going to be casting tons of Shards, it would scale up even if I didn’t focus on it.

It also gave me another +1 Caster Level bonus with Force Spells. They all went on the stack...

The last addition yesterday had been finishing out the Toughness Mastery with Die Hard and Die Harder, basically nothing but tricks to make it harder to kill me, and give me time to heal. Yes, -64 Health as my death limit meant I could be almost chopped to bloody bits and I’d still be alive and able to Cast... but I might need more Rep Counts to do so.

There were three critical Metas I wanted made Practical: No Gestures, No Words, and Sanctified. All were +1’s, so I could apply them to my Shards for free... but I wanted to apply them to ALL my spells. I got No Materials for free as a Sorcerer, so with those active on all my Spells, I’d basically be able to Cast with a thought.

All my spells would be Good, and if eligible, get +3d6 bonus damage, before anything else, and also get the +7 Caster Level bonus from Aligned Theurgy and my various stacking Good booster effects...

Today was also the day I maxed out my Mark’s Sacred bonus to Intellect. A +5 total Sacred bonus to Intellect was no small thing, and the first of a march of advancement that was moving forwards.

Clavus had finished both Sun Discipline Weapon and Impervious, and was now working on Blessed, an extra +1d6 Holy damage kicker, for its next Slot, Zieben. 72k to 98k meant 26 more days of fighting and Naming Karma for it to kick in, but that was what you did for high Slot magic Weapons. It would finish this next advance on day 108...

Einz had completed its full boost to Caster Level 15 for the personal Control Temperature effect, and could lower the air temperature 150 degrees for me. I had begun work on the Ki Mastery effect, as I’d told Sama. Happily, the end cost of the effect was 70% of normal, because it required the creator to be able to use ki, while the base cost was inflated 50% for being a Secondary Effect, basically putting me at ten days to make it. It would be done in four more days.

The red accenting of my skin was noticed by everyone, and they all knew why, so they knew I wasn’t getting burned or scorched or anything. The swirling power of the Ritual of the Burning Heart was powering up, but I still needed exposure to multiple separate Fire Nodes to get the full effect... so I’d definitely be taking a tour of the entire Firezone.

I’d gotten in anywhere from ten to thirty rep counts on my Shards every day out here, and added in other spells just to work on rep counts. Meditation was actually required to get Valences back now, not just a casual use of resting time. Two hours was a base 96 Valences, or my full ki and arcana Pool if I focused on it, but I could certainly spend far more than all that if I had the opportunity.

But I had the feeling that was going to change shortly.

Double Favored Class got me an extra Spell Known in Valence II, and another point of Soak. Two skill points, +11 for my Intellect bonus, let me get my Stealth, Perception, Spellcraft, and Arcane Lore where I wanted them to be, sitting nice on 10 Ranks.

By the time I got done with my Sixes and Fours, I was going to be back into that kind of territory Aelryinth was in Stat-wise, just a bit lower because of my Levels.

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The Traveler, Halvyr/2 (Elf/2, Human/2)

Favored Classes: SageSorcerer/6 (Primary), Wizard/3 (10)

Secondary Classes: NPC: Expert/3, Vizard/3, Noble/3

Non-Caster: Melee/3, Scout/3, Archer/3, Monk/3

Caster Classes: Magus/3, Witch/3, Inquisitor/3 (6), Binder/3 (5), Artificer/3 (5), Alchemist/3, Minstrel/3 (6), Bard/3, Blighter/3 (5), Ur-Priest/3 (5)

Advanced Classes: Arcane Theurge/3, Mystic Theurge/3, Elemental Theurge/3, Lore Theurge/3, Creation Theurge/3, Name Theurge/3, Battlemad/3, Arcane Archer/3, Archsorcerer/3, Archwizard/5josei

Stats:

Strength: 13 +1

Dexterity: 25 +7 (+5 Inherent)

Constitution: 25 +7 (+5 Inherent)

Intellect: 33 +11 (+5 Inherent)

Wisdom: 23 +6 (+5 Inherent)

Charisma: 23 +6 (+5 Inherent)

Health: 49 (2d8 Halvyr/2 (16), + +14 Con, + Arcane Toughness/1 (+15), +Toughness (+4))

Soak: 106 (d6+Int (17), +2d6 (12) +8 FC, +22 Melee, +28 Con, +24 Arc Tough/2, +19 Tough/2)

Ki: 25 (9 Invested/Class)

Talent: Naturally Centered

Racial Benefits: As Halvyr/Elf/Human 2: +2 Dexterity

Traits:Experienced Warrior, Mark of Doom, Favored by Faith, Magical Lineage, Undead Killer, Warcaster Tradition

Karma: Current Nine (65%)

Base Abilities...

Feats/Class Abilities...

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I hadn’t even used up a Ten’s worth of Karma on my Classes yet. Ye gods. A small chunk of that was because I hadn’t taken all my Masteries, which made me cringe to think about. I just had huge chunks of Karma floating around, and the Ritual investing must not have counted against it, as it could totally take anything I wanted to send at it, meaning it was claiming all my Firezone Karma that wasn’t going into my Gear.

Getting through my Six was definitely going to consume a lot of my original Karma. One way or another, just like Sama, I had to stumble into a massive amount of Karma to feed all these Classes being forced on me.

But, you know, that was okay. By the time I got done working through all the Fours coming at me, my Stats were going to take a huge jump, from Nogging and from Class Bonuses at Four. I was looking forward to it...