The Power of Ten

Chapter 8-234: Archmage? Seriously?

I waited for the massive amount of vivus in the air to get swirled away, and noted that I’d lost my Crafting time for the day as Renewal was coming up. Still, Naming Karma was applied, Einz and Clavus weren’t going to be left behind.

Master Fred reported that the main entrance to the outside was jammed with undead, and he’d thoughtfully helped lever the main door further open so they could come inside quicker, trample over the burning remnants of the undead who came before them, and burn themselves to death inside as fast as possible against the vivic-laden wind, considerate chap that he was.

The Shroudlord had long-ago called them back to help trap me, so the undead were streaming here as fast as they could, obeying the Dead March Imperative to return to the control of their lord, and the size of the Shroud was dropping rapidly as they got some whiffs of fresh air and dropped into dust.

This Shroudlord hadn’t actually had truly huge numbers of undead, just large numbers of Congregants. As they died, its Shroud retreated with great speed, probably to the immense relief of all the Leng ghouls around... who I did not doubt were going to be racing the moonbeasts here to loot the place, getting a taste of vivus-infused air, and running away equally as swiftly.

Still, Renewal was coming...

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DING! DING! Ding! Ding! Dingle...

Why did that sound so smug? Taking all my choices again...

I fixed an eye on my Assay to see what it was so cocksure about.

Huh, Archmage/1, big surp...?

Archmage/1? The Hell, another new Advanced Class, and with such a pretentious name, no less...

My Matrix seemed to be thrumming in anticipation of something, too. I focused on it and read it.

+1 Theurgic Level to a Class using Arcane Magic. That was slapped down on Wizard, which bumped Elemental Theurgy’s bonus back to Blighter, and Arcane Archer’s bonus to Blighter was bounced over to Inquisitor/4 (8)... setting me up for full Wisdom Spell Slots next Level.

That was the dingling. Huh...

Class Ability:High Arcana:+1 Spell Power. Sacrifice one Valence V Spell Engram or Slot. Upgrades to +2 if the Slot is VII, and +3 if IX.

I blinked at that. +2 Caster Level for losing a V? And it upgraded? My Spells automatically upgraded, my V’s were basically VII’s for all purposes right now, it had improved again when my Faux Wizard hit 13 with Human/3...

Purchased Feat, Skill Focus (Spellcraft). Okay... must be required for the Class? Yeah, Assay confirmed...

I approved the sacrifice of VII from my Spell Pool, which poured into my Matrix to reinforce it yet further, adding +2 Spell Power to everything I Cast.

I hovered the Assay over the Archmage Class they’d presented me, and it unfolded before me.

Huh, different high Arcana... that mostly weren’t that impressive. Basically, they gave the abilities of Metamagic Feats for giving up Engram Slots, but with no modifiers. That would be pretty sweet, if you couldn’t just Weird the Feats down to no modifier to Valence or Casting Time anyways.

If you didn’t know how to do that, and you had Engrams to spare, I suppose it was an incredible bargain.

There was one other Arcana that caught my eye: gain Spell Potency, i.e., increase the save numbers of your Spells. It exactly matched that of the Spell Power Arcana...

But looking the rest over, the only other thing that looked even remotely enticing was swapping a V out to turn another Engram into a 2/day use Spell-like Ability, and maybe the Counterspelling Mastery turning spells back upon an opponent. As long as the Engram for the previous ability was a frequently used spell I wanted available every day, and it was higher than V, it was a good deal, essentially making a couple Valences out of nothing.

Meh. I was probably better off just using Innate Spell to burn an Engram for 3 uses/day of the spell instead. Innate Spell was a full five Tier Mastery, too, if expensive.

But I’d have to know what Engrams I’d want to swap out, and the higher they were, the better... meaning I’d want to wait as long as possible to do that, or be able to upgrade as my Valences upgraded, meaning I’d have to be able to Weird these Archmage abilities.

I found the notion pretty amusing, despite myself. From a mechanical standpoint, it was a way to turn bonus Engrams or Slots from high Stats into Meta-powers, instead of extra Engrams.

But still, it was smug because it had delivered me another helping of Spell Power. My total Caster Level modifiers were getting on the totally ridiculous side, up from the merely lethally absurd.josei

‘Archmage’, as a Thirteen? Even I knew you didn’t become an Archmage until you touched the Ninth Valence. Who the Hell thought that Class name up?

Whatever. Always stuff about magic out there we didn’t know, and the extra Spell Power and potential Counterspelling goodness could be useful.

The Ceremony and the Ritual were beating together nicely. There was some stirring in my Bloodline, but the Arcane Bloodline was already a slurried mutt, pure in its absolute mixture and acceptance of all energies to form Arcane energy. There were probably consequences for the Dark Phoenix Bloodline, if and when I woke it at Sorcerer Ten, but I'd find out then...

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The dome of stone I’d made receded back into the floor, revealing its one-legged, rather perturbed bony inhabitant, with its misshapen skull and little hot-purple points of light in the empty sockets there, staring at me in the charred wreck of its ceremonial robes and stuff.

It couldn’t even spend the Valences to fix its attire if it had wanted to.

It stared at me there, tossing an Orb up and down in my hand, which looked like a little ball of the Void filled with stars, seething with a lot of power.

It slowly looked up and around at the ceiling and walls, all still painted white, scars and gouges here and there... and that blazing Wall of Fire cast at Fifty sitting over there and generating a flaming spiral of vivus up into the hyperdraft coming down from above. The torus formed by the two flows was quite spectacular.

Naturally it could tell that there weren’t any undead around anymore.

It took half a step, reaching a skeletal finger outside the Greysphere. The tip of the digit promptly ignited with vivus, falling off and crumbling away back to the limits of the Greysphere.

Little thick out here, it was.

“<Life...>” it rasped, dryly, unwillingly, turning those eye sockets on me. A normal person would be terrified into immobility meeting those things, but I just ignored them, seeing the vagaries of fear and inevitable doom building up behind them.

“<You’ll be happy to know undead can make excellent fertilizer!>” I informed it cheerfully. “<It’ll be interesting to see what grows here, at the heart of an Ice Node!>”

Undead were famously pragmatic and callous. I was sure it could appreciate the sentiment.

It glared at me, but it had no words. I had proven to be far stronger than it was; how could it possibly look down on me, despite how young I appeared? Sure, sure, it was thousands of years old, blah blah... but it was a dead thing, and all its life, and history, and that of its people, was being swept under by the passage of time.

I wouldn’t say I wasn’t curious about it, but that knowledge was literally not worth my caring about. No fear of what I might be missing out on, as it were.

“<Is it possible to bargain for my life?>” it asked in a reasonable voice.

“<Since you are already dead, that is rather funny. If you instead are asking if it is possible to argue for your unlife, no. I’m going to wipe you away and Feed you to the Land. This is your Last Day, and it doesn’t matter where you’ve hidden your phylactery.>”

Dusk Renewal had passed. All the undead that had fallen should have returned.

None of them had, and it was alone. There were no undead left. It was no longer the Shroudlord...

“” it began.

I cut it off. “<Then I hope that you have written them down, so that they may pass to those who might inherit your legacy. That is what sages and teachers do, after all, turning secrets into common knowledge that all can be helped by.>”

I could feel its sneer, which fell short as it stared at me. I didn’t get where I was because people hoarded secrets for their own personal power. It was that sharing that drove the Power of Ten, and made it possible for broad, low power, as well as narrow, elite heights.

This lich was the product of an inferior system, and now it had been taken down by a superior one.

I wondered if it would die of exasperation if it knew I was still a Base Seven, faking Thirteen...

It stared at me for a long moment, and a clacking that might have been a sigh if it had working lungs escaped it. It regarded me, that burning torus of annihilation rising behind me in the great Well that had been their greatest source of power, and it leaned on its Staff of bone as it stepped out of the Greysphere.

Vivus wooshed into existence all over it, the sparkling atmosphere finding some acceptable fuel cheerfully. The lich didn’t have a chance to Cast anything before it was a burning, immolating pile of old bones, necroic energies burning away and converting to life.

I gave it the time and honor of watching it crumble away, standing there as negatively-charged bones that had once decided the course of a culture, nation, and its people, as well as uncounted undead slaves, were burned away to etherdust and vivic mist, seeping back into the Land.

It was time to collect the last of my spoils off the remnants in its robes, and get out of here. I wondered what the Staff it was holding might be, and knew I’d be burning it away regardless...

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The main entry hall was now bathed in shining white from uncounted hordes of undead, and littered with the remnants of clothing, weapons, and armor, as well as grave goods. I idly gathered anything valuable as I passed, heaping it all up on my Disk, and soon joined Master Fred outside the doors.

“Any activity?” I asked, stepping out of the gusts of wind, now well above freezing, which were coming out of the great portals I had thoughtfully wedged open for anyone living who might dare to come here.

He turned his head to look up the peak behind us. -There is another cold Old God up the slopes there. It was active for a short time, but seems to be hiding right now.-

I followed the gaze of his eyes, and the many tunnels and caves bored through the stone of this mountain, now jetting out air much, much warmer than they had in the past. -Ughril, the Mother of Ice. Probably finding a new cave without the warm wind... and just maybe sensing all the death and not wanting to get involved with something that could stomp its rival.-

-That explosion when you killed the bug was pretty impressive,- he /admitted. -Cleared out lots of the stuff swarming into the place straight off, drew the Shroud back to under five miles. Took out basically all the large numbers; all that was left before Renewal were basically stragglers.-

-Convenient!- I /agreed. -Now, question... do we return via Teleport back in the direction we came, or do we do some more mapping?- I pointed in the opposite direction from which we’d come.