Chương 20: BECMI Chapter 19 – What Lies Over There

I had a Fly spell up, which I could also share with Duum. It gave him unprecedented speed and agility in the air, because he no longer had to worry about lift or gravity. His wings were about pure maneuverability while it was active, and he could flit around like a moth or hummingbird, hover, spin upside down and sideways, and pull off maneuvers no natural creature possibly could, ignoring my own weight since I shared in the spell.

It made him a real terror against other flyers, especially when I Cast it directly on him so he could operate alone. I was looking back as the air seemed to thicken and blur, the view in the distance beginning to fade, like smog or something was gathering in the air. I eyed our surroundings in consideration, and dropped the Sound Bubble. The thunderous droning of uncounted millions of insects too large to be in a Swarm, but in one nonetheless, swamped the air around us.

Duum's ears flattened to save his hearing as he picked up speed. -Number Two, open the Mirror Portal at position Bug Beta Four, and close it as soon as we come through. Hot exit, - I Messaged my Sim on standby. I felt the acknowledgment from the far end, while Duum flashed through the air, borrowing my Longstrider to help his air speed, too, while the droning in the air was even causing tiny bugs to fall from the ceiling…

no, they were leaping, trying to fill the air and locate us, find us with the impact of their bodies and swarm awareness, even if that awareness would fade inside my Aura.

I swirled up a Gust of Wind around us, tying it to the deflective power of my Aura to blow everything out of our path and avoid any contact, hiding us within a swirl of updraft and errant gusts that blew through this place from the multiple gaping holes to higher depths in the underdark on erratic basis, all part of living in an area with lava rivers and massive pressure differentials from heat exchanges. The Portal was in the shadow of a jutting stone.

I directed the Gust ahead and around it, scattering numberless spiders falling from threads and bugs in the air out of the way, and held tight to Duum as he tucked in his wings and dove into it perfectly. His wings snapped out to catch our momentum and stop us instantly inside the buried hall I used for a base, while behind us the view and sound of the Bug Caverns was cut off instantly by the image in the Mirror there reverting to the default Thisbean Inn on the surface in the Bleaklands.

The Gust I'd Summoned would keep on blowing for several minutes at the least, continuing on into the distance and giving the Swarm that had swallowed everything something to chase.

"That sounded quite ominous," Number Two commented. My Sims didn't have to look like the real me. Actually, they could look like anything, including full-grown adults. However, they did have to look like SOMETHING, they just couldn't be custom jobs, hence Simulacra, cheap imitations. If they wanted to share in my skillset and abilities, however, they had to look like me, and getting the blood of someone or something you wanted to make a double of was pretty damn hard to do.

So, they were doubles of me as an adult, which was totally permissible, and Alter Self spells both changed their appearances to default white-haired and blue or violet-eyed shadenelves, shifting their features enough so that they didn't look like me. I could totally use them to act as either mothers or older sisters if I needed to, however.

Number Two currently looked like a priestess of Gaebrel, complete with soul crystal, the appropriate robes for a Life Priestess, and a unique purple pattern on her eyes and face. Given I was actually borrowing Gaebrel's magic with my Ur-Priest abilities, she could totally pull off the impression of a wandering priestess from a distant settlement's temple, such as Ilgael.

She and I could NOT pull off all the knowledge of temple customs and doctrine a true powerful priestess of Gaebrel would know backwards and forwards, so she only ever pretended to be such a thing out in the wilds. Her main job was to hold down the Hall here and be available with extra Healing magic if called upon, using the Mirror to get somewhere the magic was needed on demand.

Given we had access to more powerful Healing magic than Gaebrel alone could grant, courtesy of Matrix-level mastery of Faith Magic and Theurgic boosts, her appearance had easily been the difference between life and death for a bunch of shadenelven getting into fights with beasts and things they were not prepared for that I had stumbled across on my explorations, and she was actually prepared to deal with condition removals, Revivals, and other things that I was not because of it.

"Finally saw the core of the cavern there. There's a magical Pyramid there with something very powerful inside," I informed Two as I slid off Duum. A quick Cleansing Cantrip washed over my Familiar, removing and crushing any bugs that somehow had gotten onto him, spattering them on the floor, where vivus wooshed up and rapidly reduced them to points of whiteness.

"It brought up a simply massive Swarm, covering scores of acres, and agitated all the minor bugs in the cavern to try and find us.

"It was also whispering to us in Aklo, which isn't a good sign." Two's eyes widened marginally.

"That could be a sign of Aberrants or a random creature of Entropy."

"Correct. We don't know. Get this: shadenelven white driders!" She arched an eyebrow at me at that claim, shaking my head when she saw I wasn't joking.

"Lack of originality or simply a very good form to use?" she had to ask.

"Which Immortal is behind it all is more the question…" I had to grouse.

"I am getting more and more disgusted with them the more I find out about them. All callous bastards…" If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Indeed," she agreed, having access to the same information I did.

"What do you intend to do?"

"I intend to start my Miracles Mile, is what I intend to do."

"Oh!" She smiled, as that upgrade would help all of the Sims, too! I had Cast only one Miracle/Wish so far from a Clerical Slot. It required a Caster level of 36 to actually use… which I could totally Buff to. It had given me an extra Hit Die for my Halvyr Class, granting me 10d6+2 Health as my final total, sans Constitution and other bonuses. Like normal, I'd spent a lot of Karma maximizing those Hit Dice, magic reinforcing my body and making me a whole lot tougher than I had a right to be.

There'd been no overt reaction from Gaebrel or His priests, meaning He hadn't even noticed the Faith going out… or more likely the Faith just never got to Him before I pulled it away for the spell. Wish/Miracle here had far more usefulness if you weren't trying to abuse it, and no material costs. The main impediment to it was the IX or VII Casting Slot, and the extremely high Caster Level needed to Cast it. What I was going to do was plenty predictable. I was going to chain-Cast them and raise my base Stats!

Mortal limits on Stats were 18 here, 20 with a racial bonus. Nominally, you simply weren't allowed to have a Stat above that level, it was the province of Immortals and magical beings, not mere mortals like moi. That was very different from the Wishes that I was aware of via genies and stuff, and which could be replicated by powerful Casters on other worlds… at the cost of fifty goldweight a spell! But they granted Inherent bonuses, they did not change your base Stats! And…

I had arrived here with an Intellect of 23, already well past the limits on what they could restrict, so that limit had been broken on my arrival!

Mortals weren't supposed to be as smart as I was. Granted, monster mental Stats weren't as nice here as they were in the Power of Ten, as the only Class I got any Valence bonuses for was Ur-Priest, which was not a standard Class here, specifically made so that Valence bonuses for high Stats applied. The mechanic for raising Stats was one Wish per the NEXT Stat point. So, going from a 13 to a 14 would require 14 Wishes. These Wishes all had to be Cast within a period of a week, or they were wasted.

I brought up an Assay, and went over it calmly.

=========== Edgin a Bludevich-Jubvanyl, The Lady Edge NG Halvyri/10 (Dhampir/Shadow Elven) (2 years old) Attack Rank C -Sorcerer/4, Arcane Theurge/6 (Arcane Sage Sorcery +Void Phoenix Bloodline) --(Secondary) Ur-Priest/3, Mystic Theurge/8 (Virtua 11) ---(Racial) Virtua Elven Wizard/16 Str: 4 (8) Con: 13 Dex: 17* Int: 39 Wis: 16 Cha: 17 Co: 20 Height: 2'2 Weight: 21 lbs Hair: Black, tipped with scarlet Eyes: Black sclera, luminous ruby pupils ---Usually under Alter Self to different Eyes/Hair, Height 4'+, Wt 60+ Health: 160 Soak: 67, + 56 Temp Hp from False Life Movement: 55 (Base 30, +10 Fast Move, +5 Dash, +10 Longstrider) Armor Class: 23//32 (+6 Force Armor, +3 Dex, +4 Deflection, /+6 Shield, +3 Staff) Attack Bonus: +7 Ki: 2 (Extra Ki/1) Heartsong: 7 uses (3+Extra Heartsong/1) Base Saves Poison/Body/Death: 2 Magic Items: 4 Spell Like Abilities: 4 Breath Weapons: 3 Spells: 3 ---+4 vs Will, +3 vs Undead, +4 vs Non-Good Base Spells Known (Base CL 12): (7)//5/5/4/3/2 Spell Slots: -/7/6/6/6/4 Wizard Spells (Base 18 CL): 8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 Ur-Priest Spells (Base CL 26): (6)//8/8/7/7/7/7/6/5/3 (Includes Int Bonus).

Spell Power: +2 (Included) Bloodline Abilities Arcane Sage: use Intelligence for Casting Basis; -1 Saves any Meta'd Spell Void Phoenix: Use Cold or Fire as Healing power at half damage Weapon Mastery Spear (Master) – d8+5 dmg, +6 TH Staff (Master) – d8+5 dmg, +6 TH, Deflect/3, +3 AC Open Hand (Master) (Superior Unarmed Strike at 2-12); Off-Hand (+1 Attack), +6 TH Shards (Specialization, +1 TH, +2 dmg if ranged attacking) Talent Naturally Focused (Concentration Skill Checks +4) Racial Characteristics Tomb-Tainted and Tome-Tainted, also immune to Ghoul Paralysis Light Sensitivity Child of Ice and Fire Superior Darkvision (90') Dual-Minded/Resist Enchantments (+4 on Will-type saves) Extended Lifespan (1000+ years) Call to Blood and Death (Natural aptitude with Blood Magic and Necromancy) Improved Elfsight (+4 Perception, Check for Secret Doors) Naturalized Halvyri (Does not count as Elf or Human unless wishes to) Traits --Soul of Experience --Breaker of Doom --Favored By Faith --Undead Killer --Magical Lineage --Warcaster Tradition Passive Feats - Dauntless - Beyond Law and Chaos -Tome-Tainted -Disciplined Intellect -Enterprising -Polyglot Witchbonded Ring: Funf Item Familiar: Dread, Staff Theurgic Companion: Duum, Giant Bat ======= I definitely had enough Ur Valences to do the job.

The Divine Magic here only going to VII meant I had 6/5/3 Valences to use at VII, VIII, and IX. I nodded to myself, preparing to use my higher Valences today. Being an Ur-priest, I could take the Power of Faith and essentially call upon the world or Heaven itself to grant my desires, I didn't actually need a deity or Immortal to turn their ear to me and grant permission. I just had to make sure I wasn't greedy.

"By the Grace of Heaven, I desire to know whenever I have reached the maximum number of Wishes or Miracles that can be used to any specific purposes requiring multiple spells, such as the empowerment of personal abilities." Magic swirled around me and coalesced. I felt… something, which wasn't hostile, like an awareness of possibilities that hadn't been stirred to life yet. Good. I wouldn't be able to get them all in one day, but working on Wisdom made the most sense.