Chương 39: AF Chapter 38 – The Clearing of Drudgetown

"Do you get the full Sagedom?" I asked.

"That was a huge damage bonus for Sama back on Terra-Luna."

"No, it was capped at +1 per Skill, ten skills, on Ispar, for every five Ranks. So, Mom had it up to ten Ranks in ten Skills and was doing +20." I nodded.

"Lots of skill points to invest," I noted.

"It is. And with limited Karma, it's a lot harder to go broad once you hit Four. If there's truly a Karmic Buffet here, I'm going to be going a lot wider..." Kris' face lit up in expectation.

"I would say figure on that. Now, let's find some shelter against the wind, and get to our Infusing and Investing. It waits for nobody!"

There were plenty of ruined farmhouses and buildings in the area that could provide some wind protection. Neither of us were bothered by the cold at all, so the annoyance of the wind was the only thing to be discomforted by. The Salute to Aru came, and I bit the bullet for Soul Warrior/1. Primary Benefit: 1+ Con Soul Essence points, and one bonus Soul Essence Feat.

I had two Soul right now, both invested in my Mask of Clarity basically full time, and I needed to power up Crown, whose Naming Karma had ticked over and was now Einz-Slotted with Soulbound. One of the interesting complications with all the Summons points being around is that it discouraged traveling overland, because you wanted to avoid the Summons, which would always attack, so you'd go between them...

which all the non-Summons would be doing in an unpredictable manner, so you'd end up face-to-face with living stuff. If you traveled the roads, you'd get no Summons... but the living creatures had found that out, too, and so the roads tended to be camped and watched, and got a lot more wildlife traffic then they would in normal circumstances because of the damn Summons! Add in our lack of tracks and the cold weather, and we weren't too afraid of search parties finding us.

Even the Summons we did kill, as long as we didn't vivify them, would pop back up and conceal our backtrail. I weighed all my options on my choices for Paid Feat and Mastery. There were so many things I wanted and needed, especially if I could make them Practical, for free damage boosts, but many of them now required being a Five. I Recast my Dawnstopped Shield and my Extended Force Armor and Disk, debating internally. Mira shuffled through and hit all the progress bars. Invest in Zeks. Invest in Crown.

Invest in Mark. Perhaps surprising myself, I picked Polyglot for my Feat. There were too many intelligent species around, speaking too many languages. I didn't have Comprehend Languages up all the time, and it wasn't even in my spellbook yet, another thing I had yet to add. I had knowledge of so many classic Elemental and Soulborn languages, and none of them seemed to apply here.

Permanency was a ways away, as was Tongues, and really, Aelryinth had taken great pride and satisfaction in learning as many languages as he could, including all the many derivations of human languages he could find. Otherworldly species having languages just perked up my interest even more, as he'd taken pains to learn Goblin, Orc, Gnoll, and other invading species' languages, among other things. Meeping in their language back at them would probably sound hilarious, but I wanted to know what they were saying.

Polyglot would kick in after an hour of listening to them, as I automatically scanned the edges of their akasha. For Masteries, I debated for a moment on which ones, but settled for immediate damage with Fire Metas/1, Burning Spell: When using Acid or Fire spells, the spell does 2xValence damage the next round if it inflicts damage. +1 Meta Cost. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

That didn't sound like much, until you realized Kickers and Implement damage stacked on top of that. For Cantrips, it was only +1 damage... but that would set off 5d6+2 in Kicker damage, basically almost doubling the power of my Darts. My repeatable spells weren't going to be instant kills, but things were still going to die, and Sacred Spell's half-Divine damage meant that fire resistance or immunity wasn't going to stop it from going off.

Just had to make it cost +0 and it would be free on them, but that was fine. I had the free Slots to spare, for now. For Soul Warrior's bonus Feat, I chose Tough Soul, +1 Soak per Essence point, +1 Essence. The Class ability gave me Soul Essence equal to my Con bonus of +2, +1 per Level, and a Soul Feat every Level, along with automatic graduated Soul Chakra openings.

My prior 2 Essence joined my new +4 for 6 total, leaving two Essence uninvested as I quietly poured two points into Crown, two stayed in my Mask, and my Staff glittered with a hard Golden edge for a moment. Only two Skill points, and I was restricted on what I could take. I finished out the Calligraphy Ranks, raising them to 3, and added a Rank in Dance. This was not standard for a Soul Warrior, but I typically used Dance Ranks with Minstrelry to sub for Athletics and Fly, so the connection was there.

It was basically Athletics with rhythm, for all intents and purposes. The magical conditioning made me grit my teeth, as suddenly thousands of hours of practice and conditioning rippled through my entire body, remembered practice on the part of Aelryinth replicating itself and altering itself to fit me. Owowowowowowowowow... and it lasted longer than expected because I wasn't in great shape to begin with, even with the magical boosts of the last few days.

A really quiet hiss extended over from Kris, and I opened my eyes in time to see a blue-black Soul Tat start growing around an electrum point of Light that looked like it had speared right through her palms. It stole quickly over her fingers, palm, and wrist, taking on a hard metallic sheen, like her skin had just been transmuted into metal." Mauler s Gauntlets," I identified them softly. They were the standard Melee boost of Soul Tats.

+1 to-hit while wearing them, and a bonus +1 to damage per invested Essence while wearing them. A solid, foundational boost to offensive prowess.

"Yeah. Now I've just got to take the Chakra Mastery for my hands up."

"I'm eight in arrears on Masteries. No preaching allowed, Princess!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. One Mastery a day is just annoying. I should have my Cloudstepping Sandals tomorrow."

"Not going to double up with Marksmans?" I asked archly.

"It won't stack with Maulers for Sharding, and I've no other missile weapons," she pointed out, and I inclined my head at her point.

"I've got to take Soul Warrior up until I get my Arms Chakra open for Philosopher's Might, too."

"Ohhh, you did get to take a Level!" I was impressed.

"I think it was cutting into the senior Drudges on the second half of the sweep that did it," she admitted.

"I have a huge Karma hole, of course, but if I don't apply it ALL... I'm reasonably certain that I'm doing okay." I thought about that.

"Why do I have that feeling that blocking the Summons points is worth a lot more than just killing the things?" She blinked at that.

"Makes sense. Logically, we're cutting of a Karma flow for a higher cause. It should be worth a lot more, even if it's not that much effort, because it IS a choice."

"On the flip side, those are some nasty drudges closer to that fort, and if you're allowed to confront and kill them multiple times, that is some major Karma just on the face of it," I pointed out thoughtfully.

"No. I would love to, but if we go after them, we're stopping each point in its tracks and isolating the bastard inside." She paused a moment.

"Those balloons up above are Summons too, right?"

"Yes," I confirmed.

"They are hovering in place, they are not showing signs of wear and tear, and they aren't bobbing around or juking in the wind or with the temperatures. They are basically flying platforms for the drudges inside them."

"And they are invisible from over a couple miles away. Very strange." She just shook her head at the same fact that I'd noticed.

"I'd like you to shoot them down. They are a point of pride for him." I considered that, and just nodded after a moment.

"It is certainly something we can dispose of. I imagine they are an ersatz alarm with a wider proc zone, and start shooting at anything close to the walls. I don't know about immediately... I think we should focus on our wiping of the Killer's living supporters before we worry about Summon points which will be around until we get to them." She agreed after a moment.

"Okay, then, let's finish up our Infusing, and then you can do spell practice while I circle the area looking for interesting things."

"Sounds like a plan."