Mythshaper
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Chapter 32 - Spellforging
🕑 Added 2024-03-04 20:23:33 +0000 UTCShai collected the essence cores one after another and wiped the gore from her pristine white scales. She sighed, peering at the wreckage. It took her half a day of incessant labour to fix everything, yet it only took a little time to regress almost everything back to the old state.
Fortunately for her, there were two other pits open to be used, though she still needed to put the work into it. The creatures would ruin them no matter how much effort she put into them. It was essentially futile to keep all three intact. She would rather work harder to get the result in the shortest time.
But before that, she needed to take care of [Pain Resistance]. It reached 92% mastery after her incessant labour. Damn, all her skills rose to a great degree, especially those that were Essence based.
She decided spellforging to an effective way to raise Pain Resistance. She would kill two birds with one stone.
Firstly, the concealment formation malfunctioned. Thankfully, there was no fault in its scripts, it was left as it was, only the line of the power source was damaged—Shai could fix that exhausting her primal essence to redraw the ley lines. The concealment formation was constructed with a very delicate set of scripts, assuming it used light and shadow elements to hide stuff from others' sight. If she could...
Isn't that what I'm missing to have [Golden Eyes] at its full capacity?
Shai stopped what she was doing. Her eyes peered into the scripts carved on the wall, though she wasn't examining them. Her mind drifted off to somewhere else. Could she somehow comprehend the Concept of Light through these scripts?
Shai wondered how some complicated runes arrayed in symmetrical form could produce different results. Like those empowering scripts do the same thing as her [Empower] skill did. How could an inanimate formation of runes do the same?
Shai didn't have to think long to find an answer.
It was in the intent—the will of the maker that forced those scripts to act the way they did. Like how different techniques and abilities needed distinctive energy manipulations along with the Intent, the scripts were about the same. Along with the correct form of runes, one needed a will behind it.
Could they be related somehow? That was the biggest question because if they were, Shai would be able to learn a lot of stuff—which wasn't limited to runes—just by studying the script formation.
Grandpa, bless that kind spider, who didn't bother to obscure the scripts, Shai prayed inwardly, hoping the system really listened to her call.
Shai couldn't be considered a novice in spellforging, even with all she learned from studying the formations in the pit.
Shai made a mental note to put more thought into it after she was done with repairing the pits.
Midnight was more affable in the tactical meeting than usual. It could be because of all the uncertainty she didn't have the answers to.
Serenity didn't know what to think of that. Her sibling was certainly taking it all in stride, delighted that she was getting all the recognition she desired and deserved. Well, that was Elegy.
Previously, Midnight's decision was absolute, leaving no room for debate. Now, she seemed more open to considering their opinions. It could be attributed to their growth or the prolonged absence of their Mother, which had taken its toll on Midnight since Silence departed.
Serenity was unsure about many things, but she certainly didn't like this Midnight. It was like their pristine white elder sibling had lost her charm.
"Serenity? Serenity?" Midnight's voice rang in her mind, as she broke out of her stupor.
"Hmm, yes?"
"Do you have anything to contribute to the discussion?"
"No," transmitted Serenity with a mental pulse of dismissal.
Midnight turned her attention to Elegy. "What about you? Anything else you can think up?"
Eager to impress Midnight, Elegy stepped forward confidently. She always seized any opportunity to express her views, even if they contradicted their superior's plan. Midnight had always valued such dissenting opinions, even if she rarely expressed them.
"I believe initiating an attack would be a better approach," she suggested. "Intimidation has proven ineffective against humans, as history has shown. This is a tough time. We should strike hard first and resort to intimidation later."
Midnight considered Elegy's input, acknowledging the merits of her argument. "That's another approach," she conceded. "However, we must remember that humans do not easily forget. If we merely drive them away with force, they will return with greater numbers. Holding grudges is their thing as if it fuels their determination."
"But if these humans harbour ill intentions, mere intimidation may not deter them easily." Elegy was clearly sceptical of the effectiveness of intimidation against iron-ranked individuals, considering all of them were iron rankers themselves. "Ignoring all the advantages we had of our home ground, we might surrender one of the crucial factors in if we try to intimidate them through warning. If they break through our clever tricks, we'll lose the element of surprise."
Yes, the element of surprise was their crucial factor. The humans might have faced the highly erratic male empathic spiders, but definitely not the three of them, the best of their clan, excluding Solace.
"It might even make them more cautious, complicating our task," Serenity chimed in, further reinforcing Elegy's point.
Midnight sent a wave of agreement, acknowledging the validity of their concerns. "That's why we will combine both approaches," she declared after a brief moment of contemplation. "Elegy, you will establish telepathic contact with them while Serenity and I prepare for the attack simultaneously. However, before that, we need to ensure the safety of the young ones. Serenity, bring me the latest report of the evacuation from Solace. As for you, Elegy, come with me. We will organise the ambush in the meantime."
With their roles assigned, they embarked on the tasks they were given, aware of the challenges that awaited them. The stakes were high, and the actions they took in the coming nights would determine the fate of their home.
It'd been over a day since Shai's mental lapse, and she managed to hunt one more copper creature in the meantime, bringing her closer to the goal.
Six more to go.
Shai hadn't slept at all after the event. Her body was terribly fatigued, her mind was impaled with a stabbing headache. Setting up three pits and taking care of all the creatures that fell onto them had been more taxing than she realised at first, but her level was growing, she was improving. In the end, that was all that mattered.
The three pits had trapped over a couple of hundred corrupted creatures in the meantime, bringing Shai's path to Favoured Hatchling Lvl 19. The sheer number of kills it took her to a level was astronomical, but at this rate, she should be getting at least two levels every day.
Unfortunately, Shai wouldn't be able to keep it up any longer without a little rest. As much as Essence Weaving was pleasant, it was taxing for both her body and mind. Perhaps spirit too, but all the abstract concepts about the soul eluded her. After a certain point of work, she couldn't go on for much longer without rest.
She checked on her skills.
Moreover, her energy reserve had been depleting pretty easily in quick succession. She only managed to go so far with the help of [Essence Eater], but even the Spark of Hunger had its limit.
Skills[8/8]:
Advanced Meditation (E) - 69% | Predatory Instinct (D) - 41% | Arcane Shot (D) - 34% | Essence Weaving (E) - 45% | Pain Resistance (E) - 98% | Force Shield (E) - 23% | Empower (E) - 63% | Mental Corrosion Resistance (D) - 84%
Almost there! The last few percentages of mastery in Pain Resistance had been hard to bear.
Eventually, Shai took a break for a few hours, setting aside the bait hanging over the pits. These creatures couldn't get enough of the rancid flesh. Hopefully, they wouldn't jump into the pit like they did when there was nothing to drive their avarice.
Shai meditated for a couple of hours and recovered the depleted cosmic energy. The prickling sensation was gone by the time she was finished, leaving her almost empty-minded to try out the scripts.
Shai had a terrible urge to try that out. True, she wasn't even a copper ranker, but most of her attributes reached the copper rank standard if she counted the bonuses. Well, it certainly doesn't hurt to try, Shai thought. Who knows, I might even get something out of it.
Shai started with one of her absolute favourite scripts, even though it wasn't the simplest, but her familiarity with it led her to choose it. Empowering script.
Shai didn't even know if it was the correct name of the script. But the effect had been the same compared with the skill counterpart.
Shai learned the actual work was way harder when she got to it. Moreover, she hadn't proceeded to carve on stones, but work on the very empty air.
Her essence weaved in the air, translucent, kind of like an odd, ethereal character that was too hard to understand, but before she could even join the second rune, it dissolved into thin air.
She tried again. And again. Until her essence ran out. It was certainly harder than it looked.
However, Shai wasn't depressed, not when she heard System Grandpa's announcement.
[Congratulations! You have learned Spellforging (E).]
