The Power of Ten

Chapter 8-242: Elemental Theurgy Complete!

“Lady Traveler, a moment before you go.” Luminous Chalker, his face seemingly glowing even brighter, stepped up as I swung aboard Sleipner. The +4 bonus to his Wisdom from his Blessing was going to be key to working out an agreement among the various Faiths... and helping him reach Ten and beyond. He was already planning to visit Sydney, get Drained, and energetically start his re-Leveling process.

If it meant going Ironskull, that was what he would do, getting to Nine and Ten as fast as possible to start the process of stopping the massive Blight.

“Luminous?” I asked calmly. With his Blessing, there was no need to stop us now, he could talk to me on the way if needed.

“You mentioned the Cultivators of China. We have had little to do with them, and even less once word came from Heavenbound Hall of the things they have been doing.” The news of recent events had made his eyes flash even more. “But... there is supposedly a significant Cultivator presence in Darwin, although we have not been able to verify it.”

Master Fred looked back at me, and I nodded. “We were planning on stopping there anyway, Luminous, but that is good to know.”

“Aru and Sylune be with you both,” he smiled, stepping back.

I waved at everyone as they sent me off, Sleipner rapidly becoming nigh-invisible on the roads as he picked up speed.

We’d head back to the Coral Sea, and start circling the continent towards the northernmost territory of Australia, passing the Great Barrier Reef on the way.

Japan and China probably had horrible relations just after the Shroud came down, but they also shared a lot of martial traditions. They would have been relatively easy to infiltrate with ‘a better way’, as it were, and there was little doubt the Cultivators were expanding their system to the local island chains, because why would they not? Humans were just incubators for new Cultivators, and what barbarians would turn down the power of a Cultivator, if they could earn it?

I expected there were going to be more lethal fireworks in Darwin. Mercied Shards had meant I hadn’t actually killed anyone in Canberra, but that just drove the point of my power further home. It was only the truly powerful who could dare be so merciful...

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I was leaving behind hundreds of Blessed motivated to gain Levels, and now empowered to actually do so. Others were eligible for Wishes in Secondary Classes, a point here or there that would get them to where they wanted to be, three to six per day...

More to the point, it was nearly five thousand kliks around the coast of Australia to get there. I could have gone overland by various means, but it was faster on the ocean, and 99% of the people lived closer to the coast vs. inland, even with the threat from the sea, simply because it got more rain there. It would be nice to ride across the continent and get a Lived-Line close to other areas, but perhaps later.

It also meant we got to sight-see the Great Barrier Reef, and if I shot three different hunting packs of sahaug down below the surface there in passing, the sharks nearby made sure there wasn’t much left of them but the barbed spears they’d been using.

More to the point, Blighter/5 had passed, and Elemental Theurgy/5 was going to be there by the time we got there, especially with the stop to Infuse. Things still had to be made, of course.josei

Since I gained Create Ring, my Infusing time was mostly spent on basic Sustaining Rings. Those who didn’t have them would quickly realize the absolute advantage such things gave them over those who were not Sustained. If they were members of my Allegiance, they could be empowered as Oathrings, and attune immediately.

Still, I could only make one a day without the help of a full Ritual and nine other People. One a day would have to be enough. The Windgraf and Angelos had other things to Make and pay attention to, diverse objects that required high Caster Levels and spells and much time and money to make... money I was making available to them to get such things Infused. White Staves that could Raise the dead, more Death Ward Amulets, Obelisks, and similar things were rolling out day by day.

The internet relays overland were very vulnerable to disruption by the Druids, who generally were happy to bring down the towers and stop the communication and flow of information to the cities so distant from one another. The southeast of the country generally kept in contact, but Perth and Darwin could have been in different Territories, having to rely on standard Scrying Exchanges to get current information, and airplane flights for large batches of data.

As a result, they didn’t know much about me aside from the Human Tongue, and information from New Zealand certainly hadn’t reached them.

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“... and dream of the winds at dawn.”

DING! Sounded proud of itself.

Ding ding! Uh-huh...

Blighter/5 (8) last night had given me two abilities that were basically useless, except as qualifiers: A contagious touch that could spread disease, and an improvement in my ability to shapechange into an undead animal, both in size and uses/day. I literally did not care about either.

It had then gifted me some Cold Metas for the General and Purchased Feats, namely Flashfrost and Rime Spell, both +1 Metas. The latter did +2/Spell Level in damage, and coated the area around the impact point in slippery ice for a few seconds. The former actually covered the subject in stiffened ice for a number of rounds equal to the Spell Level, entangling them for a bit before it evaporated.

However, the spells actually had to do cold damage to have the extra effects. They would have been useful against the Burning Dead, but hey, let’s just foist it on you after that fight, no problem...

Fire Mastery/4, Blistering Spell, giving +2 per Spell Level in damage, and a -2 to hit from the soul-searing pain for a combat round, was the Mastery, reminding me that I was supposed to be a primary Fire Caster even while it was giving me Cold Metas. I thumbed a mental nose at them, noting that I was both, and if they didn’t like it, they could bite me.

But Elemental Theurge/5, that was a penultimate. The Theurgic Level went to Blighter/5 (9), which meant access to Valence V’s, Charisma bonus to Prepared V’s, and most importantly, full Theurgic integration of Arcane and Druidic spells.

Most importantly, the Elemental Theurge Extra Spell Known bonus to Sorcerer let me Slot Commune with Nature there as a constant Spell Known.

So, I now had to start bringing in Druidic spells, and Writing them into Einz. Getting the majority of the Druidic V’s brought over would take at least a couple weeks, as I wasn’t going to use all my V Engrams for the job, and most of them were niche spells, anyways.

The Feat was also Shaping Mastery/4, Selective Spell, a +1 Meta that allowed me to exclude my Intellect bonus in targets from the AoE of a spell. I could already do something similar with a Concentration check, but the Meta made it potentially free if I Weirded it down, so that was fine.

Heck, the greatest power of Druids was Summoning Natural Allies, and I couldn’t even do that.

Well, maybe I could, if they were skeletal, but guess what? I wasn’t going to be Summoning undead creatures and throwing them around. It was better to just kill them directly. I hated Slavemaging...

The accompanying Mastery was Raise Spell/3, Earth Spell. If I was standing on/linked to the ground, I got +1 Potency to all of my spells, yay. If I Raised a Spell, I also improved the Caster Level by every Valence I Raised it. It was just a shame it didn’t stack with my auto-Raise from Burning my Rings...

I Slotted a few of the spells in the Charisma Bonus Slots, the V Druid Domain Slot was filled with Fire Serpent, and I then proceeded to Cast Commune with Nature while we were five kliks out in the bay leading to Darwin’s harbor.

A sixty-klik radius blossomed to slow, lazy life around me, extending far out to sea, and a great distance inland.

The tepid, hazy awareness of the Land permeated through the spell. The Land and the Sea were not conscious by any estimation, sleeping and suppressed by the Shroud, but their awareness was still there, and could be prodded and tapped without any resistance.

I was aware that in a normal situation Casting such a spell would also instantly draw the attention of the relevant spirit, in the same way that someone suddenly wanting to look out your eyeballs telepathically would. It could sense, but it was not Aware, and could not process what the data meant. Me introducing my extremely quick, short-lived thoughts to it just generated an automatic response, with nothing attached.

I was aware of other, minor Spirits in the area quickly, mostly hills, rivers, and some ponds and lakes in my range, some of the forests, as well as the brooding, alien presence of the city and neighboring towns.

The sunken fleet that had brought the Japanese here stood out; it was long scuttled out in the ocean nearby, building up and covered by coral into an artificial reef, slowly being sublimated back into the land as its artificial nature was covered up.

The Land’s awareness of what happened inside a city was very limited, but since its Awareness extended to all the Elements, including Air, it could not be kept out completely.

The key thing I was looking for was, of course, the disturbing and alien presence of Qi.

I sighed as I stared at the mental display, and shared it with Master Fred and Sleipner.

Six different locations, one Major, four minor, and one small but intense. One of the minor ones had a different flavor, too.

I wasn’t going looking for ore veins, but just thinking about the mineral spreads returned me knowledge of how the earth was laid out here, and the touch and feel of the various substances and strata, even their ages and how long they’d been here, how they might have been formed. Fading impressions of inland seas, sediment deposited over ages, rising and falling waters...

It was Big and Old, and we were mites. That’s basically all there was to it.

Six different Qi locations.

It was night-time. It was a time of death.

I took a long, low, ruthless breath. I pried open the memories of the Chinese Rebellion, and what the Cultivators had done, and how many had died, and I looked at them again. I considered the merciless craving for power those artificial souls that devoured others to gain strength had, and how it would not be satisfied until existence itself was as fake and broken as they were.

I Slotted several specific Engrams I had retrieved via Exemplar Surge as soon as I knew there were Cultivators here, and I could Cast them.

“Let’s go. We’ll spare who we can, but if they fight, show no hesitation. Anyone a Four or higher is already dead. Threes might be impossible to save. Only the Ones and Twos can we spare, and only if they aren’t gifted.”

His nonesuch eyes flickered with cold, hard light, seeing somewhere else where Hellbound sacrificed innocents for power.

Sleipner only whuffled once, but it was all he needed to. Although dead and now a creature bound to technology, he’d once been a king of the wilds, and he could feel the unnatural flavor of the Qi even more easily than we could. Sapient magical beasts had no problem slaughtering intruders, and Qi was about as intrusive as it got.

Riding two little stretches of Wards over the waves, we headed for the city. Magic rippled over and cloaked us in Invisibility; there were always night watches up in the harbor, looking for signs of intruders from the sea, but no aquatic intelligences were within five miles of here, the Commune was quite clear on that, so there would be no surprises from that quarter.

Tonight was going to be blood and fire, and there was going to be no stopping it. It had to be done, and I wasn’t going to risk some of them escaping by announcing my intentions first. They were sliding in along a tide of lies and corruption, they were going to be burned out by fire and sword and gun.

We were coming for them. They had to die. It wasn’t Good, it certainly wasn’t Bad; it just had to be done, like killing the rabid dog trying to bite everyone it could.

And I was elected this exterminator. Well enough, I could do it...

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Author’s Note: If you are REAAALLY detail-oriented, you might have noticed the Elemental Theurge Extra Spell Known stood out. To wit, when you take a Theurgic Class, a spell from a Prepared Class involved can be given to a Spontaneous Class as an Extra Spell Known.

I was doing this with Arcane, Mystic, Heartsong, and Pact Theurges properly, by giving them to Sorcerer, Inquisitor, Minstrel, and Binder, which are all spontaneous Casters. Since there was no Druidic Spontaneous Caster, I was ignoring it... until I realized that the other Spontaneous Class was naturally Sorcerer, and face-palmed during this Chapter.

Now, this has absolutely no effect on the story, but this is the kind of stuff on the hellaciously detailed Spreadsheet I keep of Traveler that is so annoying to miss. Literally, the story updates faster than I can do the spreadsheet! Heh!

So consider this a shadow ret-con, and I added Elemental Theurge Extra Spell Known I-IV during all the previous chapters, and um, just didn’t tell you. Her spell list is big enough as it is.

Blossoming Footsteps, Gust of Wind, Call Lightning, and Curse Natural Ability.