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BII: Chapter Thirty-one
🕑 Added 2023-04-16 22:56:15 +0000 UTCSpiced garlic butter dripped off Eli’s fingers as he tore into his third slice of pizza. Melted cheese pulled, nearly upending his toppings all over his plate. Crust cracked with a crunch under his teeth as he finished.
“Have another.” Maeve pushed one of five boxes closer to him. At her touch, steam wafted from the remaining slices.
“I’m too full. That was great though, thank you.” Eli grinned sheepishly while he teleported all traces of pizza and its residue off his skin and mouth. He did the same to his plate so that it was practically sparkling clean. Hints of awkwardness threatened to settle over him.
Rick and Adelaide shared a look before Rick pushed his own plate forward while he washed his hands in a thrashing cloud. Adelaide left the table, then vanished after stepping through the kitchen doorway.
“How would you boys like to go flying later? Show you more of the land and where some of the main dungeons are.” Rick asked with a glance at both of them.
“Sure. I’m fine with that.” Eli smiled while he split his streams of consciousness with Vigilant Revelation. He needed to improve Astral Starspace so he could do more than see and hear his home dimension. Maybe it was time to craft what he could from his perks and see if he could push one of them to boost any other power he used. Would Celestial Embodiment and Stellar Body help him push Astral Starspace far enough?
“Yeah, I like the sound of that.” Roman nodded.
“Great! Before we do that, Adelaide wanted to use her Kaleidoscopic Vogue first to make you both some real clothes. It’ll be pretty quick and then we can head out.”
They chatted a bit about all their lives. Eli and Roman shared their experiences growing up in a world without powers.
Rick told them about how he had lived in Rockford nearly his entire life while Adelaide had grown up in a town called Victory. They had met in college and had a near instant connection. He had almost always known he wanted to be a Meteromancer, which he enjoyed, but he also spent a lot of the rest of his time acting as one of Rockford’s primary Dungeon Masters.
Adelaide worked on the side with the DRC and the United States government to revitalize the dangerous, spawn-ridden uncivilized Zones to make them more hospitable for humanity. She worked primarily as an organizational psychologist on a study about how powers had changed the workplace and its employees.
A lot of countries had little to no labor laws when it came to people who didn’t have a streamlined or specialized build. Having a college degree went from ‘highly encouraged’ to ‘absolute necessity’ since a lot of jobs would provide the necessary powers to work as much and as often as needed.
Skilled labor and powers were the only leverage people had if they didn’t want to be ground down.
“It’s not all that bad.” Maeve rolled her eyes at Rick’s melodramatics. “Most people focus on the basics only and leave it at that. Why work any harder than you have to when powers can cover a lot of people’s immediate needs?”
“I guess. How is it where you come from?” Rick asked them while space fluctuated behind them as the first sitting room suddenly became full of a horde of various bolts of fabric.
“Everybody works more or less.” Eli shrugged. “College is important there, but a lot of people go into the military or wait a few years or never go to do whatever work they can get.”
“I planned to go to New Faram University to become a mechanical engineer,” Roman said.
“Not somewhere else?” Eli asked in surprise. Roman had always been adamant about pursuing his best opportunities ever since he had randomly thrown himself into the world of engineering and robotics. He knew him and Scott liked to mess around with that stuff when he wasn’t around.
“I had gotten accepted into MIT, but Cyrus begged me to go NFU so I’d be closer to Farbrook.” Melancholy rimmed Roman’s eyes at the mention of his brother.
“I’m sorry, Rome.” Eli patted Roman’s shoulder with a wince. He noted with mild interest that Maeve had a microscopic cringe of her own at that. Did they talk or something? Or did she just empathize because Herbert was missing in another dimension?
“What about you, Eli?” Rick asked while Adelaide burst back into the kitchen with a pile of enchanted clothes sewn in loose patterns.
“I never really figured out what I wanted to do.” Eli grinned sheepishly. “My plan was to go to NFU too, but I hoped that a new course would be created about the System and powers. Maybe become a power trader, but I’m not sure if that’s right for me, I have a really hard time letting go of any powers I create.”
“Could always work for the DRC as a delver. Or as a power trainer,” Maeve suggested, then backpedaled at the sharp glance her parents shot her. “Although, if you ever figure out dimensional travel well enough to go wherever you want, I bet you could find or create a lot of exotic powers that would sell for a lot.”
“A power trader like that Zach guy?” Rick asked with bitter disdain. “He’s practically a snake-oil merchant.”
“Rick…” Adelaide raised her eyebrow at him while he huffed. Eli had to suppress a chuckle at the scene. His parents would probably react the same way if Dad didn’t like someone Lana or Lyra hung around with or dated. “Anyway, let’s make some clothes!”
She gestured for Roman and Eli to get up and move into the living room while she pushed two sets of the weird shapeless clothes she carried into their arms.
“What do you want us to do?” Eli asked while he pinched his fingers around the light, airy material. It felt like oil on water or grains of fine sand.
“Just think about putting it on.” Adelaide waved her hand.
Eli imagined putting the tablecloth sized shirt over his head and stepping into the jeans with their legs pooling on the floor. Seams opened as the clothes glided over and around his skin as it snared around him. Fabric coated him from head to toe for a second before it shifted. Tailored itself to him flawlessly.
He glanced down at the colorless shirt that draped along his skin like a cool breeze. Plush denim wrapped snug around his legs. It was more comfortable than anything he had ever worn or even touched in his life.
Monarchs and countries would have warred for the delight of wearing one of these and it was beyond plain.
“Excellent. Hold your arms out for me.” Adelaide commanded while she stalked around the pair of them. She poked and prodded Eli on his shoulders and back, adjusting the fabric.
“How is it?” Eli asked while he glanced at the mischievous glint of pure joy in Rick and Maeve’s eyes while they watched with amusement.
“Perfect. Now, this outfit is made out of a specially crafted and enchanted fabric called Ethereal Weave. As long as you wear it, you’re basically wearing about two to three different outfits that you can tweak endlessly. Want to change the color or pattern? Ask it and it’ll comply. At most you’ll need to provide the fabric, but it’ll change itself to match. It’s also self-cleaning and will repair itself within reason.” Adelaide lectured while near endless bolts of fabric rippled as they split in half. Each section swarmed around Eli and Roman respectively where they sank into the Ethereal Weave outfit.
“I use mine for casual wear, pajamas, and formal wear.” Maeve commented while her clothes flickered and changed. “Otherwise, I use Storm Regalia if I need something else.”
“I do the same, but instead of pajamas, I have some cloth armor prepared,” Rick said.
“You can set it up to do whatever you want, but as it is now, you’ll have a mostly adaptable wardrobe that’ll be perfectly fitted to you as long as you have it on you!” Adelaide beamed before she tilted her head at Rick. “But I’m pretty sure Rick wanted to take you both for a flight around the property and town?”
“Yeah, we should probably get going since it’s almost four.” Rick stretched with a sigh. “Can’t believe how fast time went by.”
Eli opened his mouth to ask how to change the outfit when he noticed it had already customized itself to match his usual preference. A dark blue undershirt worn beneath a perfected version of his lumencloud hoodie.
“Let’s go, boys!” Rick called as he led the way out of the house.
“Thank you!” Eli and Roman said to Adelaide while they followed him out into the perfectly balmy weather outside the house.
“Alright!” Rick clapped his hands together. “I assume you can both already fly or you would’ve hopefully said something, but I’m adamant that any good control power should allow you to fly with some work. So! What are you two working with?”
Roman gestured for Eli to go first.
“I have a light cloud power that I can use to fly or my teleportation.” He shrugged. “I bet I could fly too using my Body stat.”
“Great! I know a thing or two about clouds, so we’ll talk more about that light cloud power of yours later.” Rick nodded with a smirk, then turned to Roman.
“I can transform into any technology I’ve created. Right now I have a suit of armor with flight capabilities.” Roman explained while his legs and hands turned into almost polished chrome. It looked a lot better than it had yesterday at Delver’s Dive. Eli wondered if Roman had spent time repairing it or if it fixed itself naturally.
“Transform?” Rick asked for clarification while he bent closer to study Roman’s metal hands where the nozzles of propulsive jets waited to be activated.
“Yeah. I learned this morning that I can use some features of my suit without transforming, though.”
“Great! Transform back then.” Rick nodded as he floated up perfectly. “You should be able to fly without it, and if you just learned how to do that, continuing the trend will push your power more.”
They blinked up at the sight of Rick rising without any perceptible shift of momentum or anything. No breeze or air stirred his hair or fluttered his clothes. It was as if he stood on an invisible elevator.
“Come on!”
Eli planned to experiment with Celestial Embodiment and his Stellar Body later to fly, but for now, he rose on a gout of lumencloud. He wobbled beside Rick where they watched Roman struggle to lift more than a couple of inches.
Splotches of red pulsed across Roman’s face as layers of metal appeared, then vanished across his skin. Tendrils of force sputtered from the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands. He spun as he fought to stabilize the output and to prevent himself from transforming.
“I promise you, you’re thinking way too hard, Roman. Your powers are a part of you. If your power lets you transform into something, then you’re already it. You can fly and do anything your technology would allow you to do.” Rick lectured as he drifted closer to Roman. “It’s a part of you. You don’t need to beg or force it. It should be as natural as breathing.”
Visible distortions in the air dispersed as the localized effect spread across Roman’s body. Eli watched Roman float beside them with a smile.
“I’ll keep the wind down so we can hear each other while we fly,” Rick said while he launched himself in a pop of air pressure. He flew in a blur that Eli could barely keep track of as he pushed Lumencloud Transfiguration to keep up.
It wasn’t enough.
“He’s fast!” Roman gasped as something in his body rattled while he struggled to keep up with Eli and, in extension, Rick.
Density diminished throughout Eli’s body as he tweaked his Stellar Body. Starlight strobed across his skin as he infused Celestial Embodiment straight into Lumencloud Transfiguration. Sparks of natural starlightning ignited in his synapses as he rocketed upward.
Roman trailed behind him then vanished as he ascended.
Inspiration struck him through Vigilant Revelation.
Torsions of gravity spiraled around him as he fell through the canopy of clouds where Rick stood. A cascade of stars flickered around him as he created them with Astral Starspace and consumed them with Celestial Embodiment.
Air splintered around from the sheer friction and heat. Electricity sparkled around him in a corona of his power.
Eli stopped himself with a lurch of expanded starspace while he devoured all the excess heat and momentum. Starlight gleamed from his eyes and skin before he settled next to Rick.
“A+ for that entrance. I bet with some practice you could keep up,” Rick said dryly. “Don’t fly this high or that fast in the city, though without a permit in flight lanes. We wouldn’t want the authorities getting mad at you again.”
“Haha, yeah.” Eli grimaced at the reminder of the Anchora police attacking him on top of the situation with Delver’s Dive. At least Maeve said it would probably go okay.
“You should be fine out here around Rockford. There aren’t restrictions, though, in dungeons or the uncivilized zones. We’ve already vouched for you and Roman to go out there and to delve any dungeons you want to, by the way.”
“Great, thank you.” Eli shifted awkwardly on his platform of compressed space, gravity, and lumencloud.
“Looks like we might have a minute or two before he catches up.” Rick reclined in the air as if it were a couch. “Would you mind telling me more about this light cloud power of yours?”
“Sure.” Eli tried to relax like Rick, but his lumencloud wasn’t stable enough. Starlight rippled across his skin where it held him up. It wasn’t nearly as smooth, but it worked. “It’s called Lumencloud Transfiguration, and it absorbs and converts light, air, and water into lumencloud, empowers and heals my body when I’m in contact with it, and lets me transform and control lumencloud.”
“Ah, okay. Interesting.” Rick nodded while he furrowed his brow for a moment. “I’ve never heard of ‘lumencloud’, but power specific materials aren’t that uncommon. I assume it’s an even hybrid between light, air, and water, then?”
“From what I’ve noticed. I can freely change it to fit each aspect more or less as I want.”
“I see.” Rick drifted as he turned to study Eli for a second. “May said you had a teleportation power, and a light-based Body stat?”
“Yeah. I evolved my Body stat though so it’s more star based.” Eli nudged his will into his lumencloud while he noticed fragments of improper light. Each scrap of it was a light that he had absorbed from sources other than sunlight, starlight, or moonlight.
“Do you plan to change your Lumencloud power so it fits with the rest of your powers, or do you like the nod to what your build had been before?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve known several people who like to stagger their build as they and their powers change. Lumencloud, as it is, should still work with your new Body stat, but depending on the elements of space you want it to have, you could also make it more seamless. Or you could dive deeper into your understanding of it. As far as I know, lumencloud is something only you have. So what would you want it to be?”
Eli nodded to show he was listening while he lifted his hand and let wisps of lumencloud waft from his fingertips. He was far more than a single cloud of light. His light was that of the purest star, and space was his domain.
So what would that be if he applied those understandings to his lumencloud?
He ejected all the traces of insignificant light polluting his lumencloud in a flash.
Astral Starspace twisted space around and inside of him as he turned the air and water vapor around him into a field of azure stars. Purified starmetal coated in a crackling shroud of starlightning connected each starry point in the constellation he crafted.
Celestial Embodiment stretched as he absorbed his creations into his Stellar Body. Lumencloud Transfiguration shifted and changed as his body underwent a feedback loop of refinement and growth.
Gravity pulsed around him while sparks danced up and down his skin. Magnetic fields looped back and forth while he threaded his new understanding into each of his powers. He pushed every part of them as hard as he could while he reforged them and himself.
Time almost seemed to slow while starspace locked down not only around him, but inside of his changed lumencloud. Inside of it, time seemed to stop entirely.
Eli blinked his eyes open with a shudder. Notifications covered his view while he watched the frozen image of Rick standing next to him. Beneath them, Roman crept closer inch by inch while he ascended.
He already knew that his powers had changed.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 3 -> Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 7>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Vigilant Revelation Ev. 1/Lv. 2 -> Vigilant Revelation Ev. 1/Lv. 4>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Lumencloud Transfiguration Ev. 1/Lv. 5 -> Lumencloud Transfiguration Ev. 1/Lv. 10>
<WARNING: You are irrevocably corrupting Lumencloud Transfiguration. If you continue it will change to reflect its new nature.>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have maxed out the following power:
Lumencloud Transfiguration
You may now select from one of the following options:
Evolve Power
Slot Power into Stat
N/A
N/A>
<Due to corruption Lumencloud Transfiguration is now Aurora Transfiguration.>
Eli groped at the nexus where he felt his powers converge. Time seemed to slow even more as he throttled it where his powers crossed in spacetime. He knew that he didn’t have any real control over time, but rather where it interacted in the starspace around him.
Each of his powers synergized and nestled into the next as they flowed together. He was tempted to wait for Vigilant Revelation to max out so he could merge it with Aurora Transfiguration, but he felt that they fit together less than ever.
It was time to either slot Aurora Transfiguration into his Mind or evolve it.
Eli took an endless second to think about it while he threw Vigilant Revelation into overdrive. If he slotted it, he’d have a tremendous increase to his mental and likely even his physical faculties.
A lot of the framework for lumencloud remained in Aurora Transfiguration. It still passively augmented his physiology, let him heal, and control the fields of aurora lights he could create. The biggest change was that it dove deeper into space and let him influence magnetic fields. It cut out the inefficiencies of transforming elements into a unique material while letting him create auroras as it was.
As it was, it’d be an immediate boon.
Except he wasn’t on a strict time limit anymore. Slotting this wouldn’t help him and Roman get home any faster. It wouldn’t help him complete any of his other goals, either.
<Would you like to evolve Aurora Transfiguration into Aurora Stardust (Legendary)? Y/N?>
Eli evolved it.
He took a moment to review the rest of his status for a second before he relaxed his vise grip on spacetime around him. Sound returned to him as his eardrums crackled with the noise of the wind. Nausea twisted in his gut for a second as Roman glided up next to them.
[Stats:
Body: Stellar (Celestial Embodiment) (Legendary)
Progress to Evolve: N/A
Mind: None
Will: None
]
[Equipped Power List:
Slot One -- Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 7 (Legendary)
Progress to level: 57%
Slot Two -- Aurora Stardust Ev. 2/Lv. 0 (Legendary)
Progress to level: 0%
Slot Three -- Vigilant Revelation Ev. 1/Lv. 4 (Epic)
Progress to level: 0%
]
“What happened?” Roman asked with a raised eyebrow, as Eli felt like the world nearly slipped on its axis. Motes of shifting bands of stardust churned beneath Eli.
“It looks like Eli figured out how to elevate his powers to the next stage.” Rick laughed while he patted Eli’s back. “I was going to suggest pushing for the atmosphere or sky like what I have with my Atmospheric Dominance, but I like this! What did you get?”
“Lumencloud Transfiguration maxed out and corrupted into Aurora Transfiguration.” Eli answered while he clenched his fists. More strength and power than he ever felt thrummed in the tension of his fingers pressed against his palms. He tried to lock spacetime down again and winced at how Astral Starspace grated against his Aurora Stardust.
Rick said something in a high pitched garble that Eli couldn’t even begin to parse to understand. He cleared his throat before he spoke again, “You evolved it then?”
“How’d you know?”
“You didn’t understand my sped up question. A good Mind stat would’ve let you.” Rick shrugged. “Anyways, congratulations on your accomplishment! Let’s show you both around a bit more and then we can maybe take a look at some of the dungeons around here.”
Rick flew at an easy pace while he led them back down through the clouds a bit.
“Nice one man, glad you made progress on one of your powers.” Roman held his fist out for Eli to bump.
“Thanks! It’s pretty cool that you figured out how to fly too.” Eli nodded and smiled at Roman while they followed Rick’s dip.
“Think you’re any closer to figuring out dimensional travel?”
“Maybe.”
Eli reached out with Astral Starspace.
Space seemed to unfurl all around them as he pushed up against the boundaries of natural space. Whispers of planar space shadowed the gaps where dimensional space lurked. Eli tugged on the faulty anchors back home.
Tenuous strands of space shifted between him and there as a corridor between the two was slowly fabricated. Agony threatened to bloom as the starspace squeezed against him.
He winced as the connection between dimensions snapped. Spacetime skipped around him as he lagged, then zipped forward behind Rick and Roman.
Eli couldn’t do it yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He narrowed his eyes at the sprawling network of highways stitching farmland and other rich estates together around the town of Rockford.
A few more tests and he bet he would have Astral Starspace up to snuff.
Gravity shifted as he used Astral Starspace to fly without the assistance of his Stellar Body or Aurora Stardust. It twisted around him like an extension of himself like it had been when he had Telekinesis. Except it was a fully realized primal version.
Eli smiled as he caught up to them and flew with growing ease.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 7 -> Astral Starspace Ev. 1/Lv. 8>
Comments
Corbin
That's how it works! Class Powers combine the three stats together. Definitely excited for this to progress.
Beeees!
Astral starspace evolved and slotted into will, aurora stardust into mind and stellar body. I simply can't wait to see what kind of class that makes, assuming that's how classes work
weas97
impressive evolution and I can't wait to also see what [astral starspace] transforms into and how he uses all his enhanced powers together although I'm going to miss the water aspect of his powers a bit since Eli said he liked it a lot and felt so laid back in the sea but hey this is still great TFTC.
