Chương 139: AF Chapter 138 – Holding out for the Healing

"I'm not holding out hopes for unlimited, but instead of Healing Kits, I'm thinking a Wand, Amulet, or other device that does the same thing, instead of being a Consumable," I ventured as I started to work on the shells of the device, doing with Shaping Stone alone what Kris was doing with her Tools.

"You were alluding to the fact that the Healing Kits basically allow an instant Mend Deadly Wounds Heal skill test on a person, which is limited by Ranks in the Heal skill in how effective it is, and takes only seconds," Princess Kristie said slowly.

"That ability to heal is amplified by the Skill Unlocks and certain other Healing Mastery Feats," she went on thoughtfully.

"I don't think a Null can do it without a Tool, because you can't spend a Pool with your hard souls. But there is a Tool." I pointed at the herbal slurry where the Healing Kit was all chopped up.

"Can a Tool spend it for you?"

"No. Otherwise we could tap our Forsaken Matrices with Tools and just ply Wands and Staves we fuel from within, the only exception being Item Familiars." I conceded that point after a moment.

"But Vigor uses aren't a magical Pool resource. They're more like saved-up Healing. In the case of a Rantha, that would be more like saved-up Fast Healing…" I whistled softly.

"Okay, so basically forming an accelerant of what you can already do, powered by Stamina to make it happen. You turn your Vigors from an x/day thing to a rechargeable reserve, like having an extra bank of Health to draw on?"

"Not really that much different from how Warshapers handle faster healing, right?" she asked.

"Shapechanging Healing is not that much different from Heal skill and Vitality-driven healing, in the end." I couldn't deny that. It would mean she couldn't chain-Heal to an unlimited extent… but she could blow all her Vigors, and then recharge them with Stamina-fed Fast Healing. It wasn't as purely good, coming in surges instead of just going and going, but it also gave her massive amounts of potential Burst Healing when needed in waves all day, instead of just a few times per day.

She just needed to recharge them in between. Needless to say, a Powered who had Fast Healing would be able to do the same thing, and possibly pull off this Stamina to Health trick with a Tool to get them past the conversion limits, basically using a 'healing kit' in a different format.

"You're going to make The Enduring Road something grand and monstrous, aren't you?" I suddenly realized. She glanced up, revealing a feral glee and hunger in them that my Aelryinth memories recognized very, very well. Sama Rantha, taking swordplay to the limits of what a mortal could do without drawing on magic, monstrously powerful… and now, that template of sword-obsessed power gaming optimizer Forsaken had suddenly found the prototype to all Seven Dragons buried right in plain sight.

"Fuck YES I am going to take this all the way to the heights, and drag everyone along with me as I do so! What happens when Stamina usage becomes Efficient? What happens with specialization in specific Feats with Stamina? What happens when you break the five-point cap? When you extend the effects over more than one attack or move? When you have Mastery over ten, twenty, or more different applications of Stamina?!"

All eight canines were showing on a terrifying smile, a great beast shown a feast in front of it, and all, all too willing to take a bite at it.

"Grandmaster of The Enduring Road?" I wondered aloud, and Princess Kristie Rantha, Rantha Hag, Natural Swordswoman, inherited Grandmaster of the Sword, laughed low and long, and I knew she was working on some nasty internal stuff just by the way her ki was churning. Nulls lived and died by Constitution, literally, so there was no better person alive to dive headlong into a potentially endless series of Mastery accomplishments than a Null Forsaken!

She had the ki and internal physiology mastery, she had the brains and the Skill Ranks, and she had a martial drive and zeal to it that just wasn't going to quit. She was going to make a killer of a martial art for the melee people on this world who were ready to make the commitment, and that was no lie. All the mages who gave up being melees could go cry into their beers, as far as she was concerned. Well, I was giving them the Matrix system, so they were going to end up just fine, regardless.

But the warriors here were going to be getting some massive upgrades, there was no doubt about it. Which was going to be a nightmare for those she was fighting, I had no doubt.

"Several things are going to happen here before nightfall," I instructed the Scouts after they came back for the fourth time, completely beat up and exhausted and loving it when I mended them right back up to full.

"The first thing is you're going to help us with that." I tossed my hand over the slowly rotating pot filled with cherry-red liquid, with handles and swivels turning and cycling as it bubbled slowly without heat, little sparkles dancing above it.

"That there is a Healing Cauldron rated for six people at a time. What it does is instill the energy input into it as the Healing power that empowers Potions for emergency purposes. The more powerful the energy that goes in, the more powerful the Potion that results. So, all of you here can produce at least Iron in directed Item magic, yes?" There were affirmations all around.

"Excellent." I held up the vials I'd Shaped from rote sand.

"So, every day, you will be making yourselves supplies of emergency Potions to use on yourselves and one another. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"These will save your lives, and you can make one a day. Every day. As long as the basic components are in the Cauldron, you can make one Potion a day for yourselves, and stockpile them."

"No limit on how many people?" Selena asked quickly, amazed.

"The functional limit is keeping enough ingredients active to keep the mixture going. That works out to a hundred different people a day."

"A hundred Potions a day!" the Mick blurted out.

"That's better than any Potion house in the whole Kingdom!"

"The Potions they can likely make are probably going to be more potent than the ones you are. However, a Potion in hand is worth infinitely more than a powerful one sitting on a shelf somewhere when you need it. How powerful it is depends on you. Six volunteers, you, you, you, you, you, and you." I waved them over the cauldron. Eager to see it at work, they trooped by me to the thing, grabbing the vials I held out as they did.

"Grab a handle. Uncap the vial and insert it under the tap in front of your handle in the slot there." After only a little bit of bumbling around, they all did so as everyone sat there and watched them.

"Alright, Hunding. Pretend you're Casting an Iron spell, and pour mana down your hand into the handle." The tall and slender Gharu'n focused, and blue-white light glimmered around his hand as he concentrated. The handle in his grip lit up, and so did a section of the device in front of him, glowing with gentle green Runes flowing up the side of the Cauldron. The tap on his side opened up, and a stream of rich scarlet liquid flowed out of it, glimmering with internal lights swirling within it.

A few seconds later, it shut off, leaving the mostly-full Vial behind, and as it did, the green light of the runic display in front of him did the same.

"Pull your vial out carefully. Cap it. Milee, take his place. Mizaya, pump some mana." The cycle continued, each of them pumping the proto-Healing Potion mix full of the energy that actually allowed it to actualize as a Healing Potion, taking their spoils, and backing away as the next person started up, their place taken by an eager Scout waiting there. It didn't take more than ten minutes, and all of them were holding eagerly on to Potions they'd made with their own hands.

"This was made from one of your Healing Kits, and will supply about fifty Potions," Kris said calmly, capping the remnants of the mix after pouring enough sparkling waters into it to fill it to the brim.

"We will do this in the morning until there is a generous supply among you.

"The next thing we're going to do is your Marks." The Mick straightened up alertly, while the Scouts merely looked interested.

"Due to the lack of strength among you, we're going to start with that. You will be filling it each and every day with the same Karma of victory as you are your Named Weapons." Kris already had the Disk ready, and her set of Tatting supplies and inks, thoughtfully made over the days of our trek, was ready, while golden blades on the ends of her hands were all the tools she needed.

"They are going to be necessary because the next part of the process is going to involve some immense amounts of telepathic education, likely more intense learning than you've ever experienced in your lives.

"You're also going to be introduced to telepathic communication.

"Once we do that, you're going to be taking Levels, and you're going to start making stuff for yourselves as Artificers with, well, breathtaking speed, but still only one day at a time.

"Rogar, you're the King Roach. You get to whine and scream and show everybody how damn much getting your Chakras opened and soul poked is going to hurt. Lord Mick has already been through it and had tears coming down his cheeks like a six-year-old tenderfoot, so you'll be in fine company." They all looked at the Mick in disbelief.

"Er, let's just say the pain was like nothing I've ever felt before, an' I'll be ready next time!" he said defensively… but he didn't deny it.

"The hands and feet are the easy chakras," Kris murmured to nobody in particular. The Mick looked suitably chagrined as the uneasy Rogar was sat down on a floating Disk. He did manage to hold out while she poked his skin and put in the Inks, black Mark with empty insides, but he couldn't hold back the squealing shout as she punched the Mark down into his soul, and it lit up with hot white light on the delicate Runes on his tricep there.

He actually stumbled a moment as Kris hit the Mark on the back of her hand against his arm, and he linked up with the Markdoor to her. He blinked in shock at the arrival of the mental construct, and looked suspiciously at the two of us.

"Open it up," Kris smiled at him. It could have been seductive and encouraging, except her canines seemed to gleam a little bit too much. He pushed open the Markdoor and mentally stepped into the Markspace. Lord Mick, Princess Kristie, and I were all sitting there waiting for him, mentally towering over him in all aspects. His mental gawking was clearly reflected on his face as he looked at all of us in both reality and the mindspace.

-Her Highness is doing the Tats, I'm punching the chakras, - I /told him cheerfully, patting the Disk beside me. -Sit. - As everyone watched, he got up hesitantly off the chair, swayed a little bit, then walked over and sat down next to me. -Yelp, it's absolutely fine. - A spiritual edge gathered around my fingertip into a single point as everyone watched, and I grasped his right hand, turning it over, and with only a moment to center the point, jammed my finger down. Yep, he squealed pretty damn loud.

=========== Note: Vigor uses are self-healing powers of the Melee Class. They are Extraordinary and non-magical, more akin to ki use than anything. A number of times a day that increases with Level and Feats and Masteries, a Melee can call on their Vigor to turn Health and Soak damage into temporary damage, which is naturally healed at the rate of Class Level/hour, or which is Healed 1: 1 in addition to normal damage if subject to Healing magic.

The healing rate/hour of temporary damage also increases with Melee Level, representing their ability to walk off injuries ever more quickly. It's not all that different from Healing Surges, although the intermediate step of turning to Temporary Damage first means it is not an instant curing effect like Healing Surges are.