Chương 414: BECMI Chapter 413 – Hags have Plans

I sniffed and resumed my pace, letting the concealing Glamour slip stealthily back into place and make me seem only near the top of mortal beauty. Sif breathed a sigh of relief as she started after me, sucking at her lip.

"Not a topic of conversation you like to broach, I get it, Aunt Edge," she muttered.

"That difficult to find a life partner, I'm guessing?"

"Elves rarely find such things in our lives, Sif," I told her easily.

"Our nature isn't human, we don't have the same deep attachments to one another that humans develop, possibly because of the magic in our blood making us less reliant on and more independent of one another. Our desires can be very intense when triggered, and casual sexual encounters are considered quite natural among us, but the idea of being married to the same being for a hundred years is actually quite daunting to consider, and rather unnatural to most elves.

We don't look down on those who can do it, but it is rather strange in our eyes.

"I… am simply spoiled and have a higher starting point, plus my dhampir blood makes it hard to form emotional attachments with my inferiors. I don't mind the sensual side of a relationship, but the cerebral side is most important to me for the long-term… and there are precious few on the cerebral side anywhere who can attract me."

"Ah, so you have to play at being stupid to get some entertainment," Sif nodded wisely.

"While looking like some other elven sprite with a light heart and thinking nothing of tomorrow?" she conjectured. Slightly amused, I shifted between brown-haired, blonde, raven, silver, green, and blue-haired variants of appearance, my attire shifting to appropriate clan markings, colors, and styles as I did, the faces changing from pixie cuteness to sultry Colorajo seductiveness and more.

"Casual sexual encounters are quite natural for elves," I repeated for emphasis.

"Scratching the itch is not difficult." She was only delighted at the display.

"Something I could indulge in?" Her own appearance shifted and altered as she called on the power of her Mark to change her features, body shape, and the colors of her hair, skin, and eyes. She even did a fair rendition of my own appearance, with the right milk-white skin and black hair, although she was missing the red tips and the unnatural grace with which I moved and drew the eye. We both had black nails, so that was in common now.

She also had to use magic to get a viable bosom, so her imitation of them was, eh, a little forced and not in practice. It wasn't like she'd been running around seducing the local boys or anything.

"Think that Storm Hag had anything good at her lair?" Sif spoke up suddenly, her thoughts returning to the more important matters at last.

"She does. I will fetch them and dump them on you once we clear the forest."

"Ohhhh, a LONG walk, then. Going to inform me of all the world and sundry that you've been skimping on for the last twelve years?" she sniffed in exaggeration.

"Among other things. You've a great deal of work and a lot of leveling to do, but you know that. Much of what you need to do you can't do until you reach the Mortal Apex, and the amount of Karma you're going to need for that is going to take decades at the very least. This isn't a plug-and-play video game where you can just go to the Fields of the Fallen day after day and grind undead from Levels 1 to 36, pay off all those damn Racial Levels of yours, and regain all the Feats and Masteries you need to re-buy."

She winced theatrically.

"I only reached Four after twelve years, mainly because I had to buy all that stuff, and turning to a Hag only got me to Seven in Melee and Four in Racial. I don't… do you know some place I could just grind loads of Karma?" she had to ask.

"You do know how utterly unnatural it is to just go somewhere, heap up the dead, leave when you want, come back when you want, and the things to kill never run out, right?" I inquired of her… because that's what Castle Doomrose's Dungeon could do. She clenched her teeth in exaggeration.

"Twelve years. Still a FOUR!" she repeated angrily.

"You know you have Eternal Pricing on some of those Stat gains of yours, too, right?" She actually physically shoulder-slumped.

"You're shitting me!" she protested.

"My racial bonus of +16 to Strength and +20 to Constitution and Dexterity over time should be cheap and free!" I mock-whined in a very high-pitched, nasally voice.

"Definitely less than a human who would have to jump through so many hoops to even have the potential for such a thing, instead of having it all laid out for the taking!" I bemoaned on her behalf. She just put her nose in the air.

"Did you ever think you would be envious of a Hag?" she immediately rebutted proudly, adding a saunter and hipswing to her lightfoot.

"It's only an advantage if you've got a hose of solid Karma stuck down your throat pumping you full of juice. If you couldn't fight above your Level, your grind would take even longer.

"If you run the numbers, a basic human under the prevailing advance System here could hit the Apex at Thirty-Six while you're still trying to break into your Ten Racial." That managed to draw a wince from her.

"The local system is so stripped down it's ridiculous!" she muttered under her breath.

"And the fastest gains in that system involve accrual of goldweight and spending it to develop yourself, as opposed to actually going out and doing things. You can walk into a gladiatorial arena and train yourself to Thirty-Six on your winnings, converting gold to Karma. Someone who can work the crowd and earn lots of money advances faster and farther than a genius student of the arts." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Oh, oh! Speaking of which, Weapon Mastery around here!" She leaned down closer to me, grinning shamelessly.

"I've been getting my Specializations in Sword, Unarmed, and Crossbow for my build, but I haven't run into anyone with the local Weapon Mastery to study and analyze. Tell me more about it!" she demanded urgently. The Sword is a Shitty Weapon, her Grandmastery, required her to be exceedingly competent in every melee weapon under the sun. There was no way she was not going to reclaim both her Sagedom of Swords and the Grandmastery of her Curseline.

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============="I am rated a Weapon Supremacist of the Staff, and a Full Specialist in the Spear and Open Hand. In the local system of Weapon Mastery, I'm rated a Grandmaster in Staff, Spear, and Open Hand, and a Master in the longsword, dagger, and bow… mostly so I can teach other elves the traditional elven weapons, and not be seen as strange for not knowing them, given my other accomplishments." Sif elevated a dark crimson eyebrow.

"In addition to your Casting ability? I must say that I am impressed, Aunt Edge!" she needled me. I just waved it away.

"The elves of this world all have both martial and magical talent. I am simply taking advantage of my natural gifts, and I've had nearly two centuries of time to do so. Most elves don't have the focus to pursue Weapon Mastery to the level I have, preferring far more idyllic pursuits and hobbies. They go with the traditional weapons of our kind, instead of something as mundane as the staff and hand."

"Describe the mechanical benefits?" she pressed with interest.

"They vary by weapon type, but there are two universal constants. One, the damage of the weapon increases by dice and/or bonus damage. Two, the bonus to hit an opponent increases.

"There is a clear difference in effect of different weapons on humanoid opponents in armor and bearing other weapons, versus monstrous creatures relying on natural attacks and armor. Most blades are more effective against humanoid opponents, axes and archery against monstrous foes, and the spear is effective against all opponents." She nodded slowly, considering the point.

"Interesting. None of which is ki-based?" she immediately pressed.

"No. Mystic damage bonuses actually accrue on top of Weapon Mastery bonuses. Those who can stack them are incredibly dangerous. The bonus to hit, however, does not stack.

"The ranks are Basic proficiency, Skilled, Expert, Master, and Grand Master. The bonus to-hit increases from none at Basic, +2 at each stage, ending with +8 at Grand Mastery." Which was higher than Specialization usually granted, tied to Weapon Training as it was.

"Not stacking with Specialization and Weapon Training?" Sif repeated for emphasis.

"No. They are different methods of going after the same bonuses. Meaning qualifying for a Weapon Mastery Tier constitutes a Specialization advance, according to your Curse-sister Sama on the Far Shore. Given they are innate and not Class-Dependent, they are powerful and suitable for Classes that have no intrinsic Weapon Training.

"However, there are also no Feats or skills related to cross-training within Weapon Groups using that system. A Master of the longsword has no exceptional ability with the bastard sword or scimitar, Axe Mastery does not help you with a hammer or pick or mace, and so forth and so on."

"If you don't train weapon groups, that's not an imposition, it's quick and simple, like the rest of their advancement paradigm," Sif nodded slowly.

"It still means a lot of cross-Masteries and abusing Feats to get my own Grandmastery back. Other benefits?" she continued asking.

"Most such styles teach advanced parrying, both partial deflection of more attacks and complete negation. For instance, the functional Staff Grandmastery teaches deflection of up to 4 attacks for an additional +4 to defense against them, and straight-out parry attempts against up to four more. Open Hand allows an off-hand attack without penalty or a reduction in Mastery Tier. Archery allows you to impede movement by sticking arrows in important parts of your targets.

Some weapons critical with powerful hits, axes can stun their opponents, and so forth and so on.

"Your Grandmastery is hellaciously powerful once you get it rolling, borrowing effectiveness against all foes and combining the benefits of all those attack styles and defenses. Sama is widely considered the best swordswoman in the world over there, and hasn't been defeated in living memory… and there are a lot of swordsmen who still come to challenge her or train under her because of it."

"Well, yeah!" Sif agreed without batting an eye.

"We're freaking Deep and Wide, how are these mono-specialists going to have a chance against us, once we get rolling!?" she declared, without any ego. They paid and worked for the benefits, they got them!

"What about this Smash option I've heard about from the senior fighters? It kind of looks just like a Power Attack variant that is easy to predict and see."

"I believe the mechanics of it are something along the lines of -5 to hit, lose the initiative in a fight, but you add your entire Strength score to your damage?" I recalled Sama remarking on the widely-spread combat skill among the native warriors. Sif frowned as she started calculating results from math and applying them to reality.

"The loss of initiative is dangerous against a powerful foe, but that's not bad for clearing chaff or striking from ambush. What did Sama have to say about it?"

"Inferior to Power Attack, especially the superior Ocean variants, but it stacked if needed. As you say, it was basically useful for stacking on an ambush strike, a charge attack, or for clearing tough but vulnerable chaff. It was really powerful with One Strikes and Furious Focus to help mitigate effects, but she almost never used it in an actual tough fight without an offset, like someone flanking so she could really deliver the hurt."

"Noted." There wasn't a huge amount of magical Armor around to really protect combatants, at least compared to the Power of Ten. Low-level production of such things simply wasn't in place anywhere at this time… although Darkmoor had been producing such stuff with its Artificers, another reason why its legend persisted. It could actually produce enough magic Arms and Armor to sell them to outsiders! What better indication of wealth could there be?