alwaysrollsaone
patreon
A Soldier's Life - 148 - Mirrorkin
🕑 Added 2024-02-24 00:32:51 +0000 UTCChapter 148
Maveith’s question on whether I would also use the reader hung in the air. Maveith’s physical attributes were impressive for an elf, I guess. I wanted to build trust with the goliath but was worried about him seeing my high magic affinities. He may not be able to read Elvish, but he could probably figure out numbers fairly quickly, and there were just too many non-zeros in my affinity.
I decided in a distraction, “I don’t think so, at least not right now anyway. I wanted to show you this.” I placed the obsidian stone on the floor. I could still feel the heat emanating from it. “I found it my first time in the dungeon.” That was sort of true, as I hadn’t realized I had been carrying it until then.
Mavieth approached the stone, his hand just inches away. His brow furrowed, “A fire starter? This would have been useful, but perhaps we can use it to cook inside the dungeon. Brutus had most of our firewood in his pack.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. But I just thought it was thermal stone for heating a room,” I replied, feeling the heat for myself. The air in the dungeon was cool but not cold.
Maveith apparently knew a little bit about thermal stones, “There are different grades of thermal stones. It depends on how fast they can convert aether into heat. The material they are made from is mined and shaped on Stone Mountain Island, and artificers from around the world purchase it from goliath miners and crafters,” he said proudly.
He touched the stone and drew his hand back. “This is a high-quality fire starter. The more aether you channel into it, the hotter it will get. To cook, just channel the aether until it turns red.” The gray-skinned goliath considered the stone, “It should remain hot for an hour or so before cooling off slowly based on its size.”
“How long do they last? How many times can I charge it?” I asked the goliath.
Maveith shrugged, going to his pack for materials to cook. “As long as the stone is not damaged, it should last forever. My father,” he paused, “my father had one passed down from my great grandfather. We should cook something,” Maveith said excitedly.
He had a lot of weight to put back on, so I was not surprised. He went to his pack and pulled out the mostly frozen fillet. He soon hummed to himself as he charged the stone to red color and carefully balanced the pot on the stone. He meticulously watched and cooked the fish. Without oil, the skin stuck to the pan, but Maveith didn’t seem to care about the lost nutrition. He was happy about the normalcy of cooking and reminiscing about cooking with the thermal stone.
The smell of the cooking fish soon permeated the room, and as Maveith focused on that task, I figured out how to clear the tablet reader. The surface was blank, and without Maveith seeing it, I activated it, cleared it, and returned it to my dimensional space. I took a place to sit along the wall to puzzle out my reading.
I had to think way back to my last reading to calculate the changes in my head. None of my affinities for magic had changed.
Elemental Magics (Common)
Fire 0
Air 0
Water 0
Earth 6
Lightning (Energy) 8
Spirit (Healing) 23
Nature (Plant) 0
Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon)
Charm (Mind) 5
Illusion 0
Clairvoyance 0
Protection (Guardian) 30
Necromancy 0
Celestial 0
Abyssal 0
Rare Magics
Space 98
Time 90
Displacement 61
Materialism 9
Worlds 88
Void 22
Convergence 74
My physical, mental, and magical attributes had changed; some of them had even decreased.
Physical
Strength (-7/+0)45/80
Power (-2/+1)46/84
Quickness (-5/+0)30/49
Dexterity (+0/+0)39/60
Endurance (-3/+0)64/95
Constitution (-8/+1)42/69
Coordination (-4/+0)42/63
Mental
Intellect (-2/+0)29/54
Reasoning (-5/+0)44/61
Perception (-4/+1)50/61
Insight (-3/+0)32/49
Resilience (-2/+0)45/71
Empathy (+0/+1)12/22
Fortitude (-5/+0)48/89
Magical
Aether Pool (+0/+0)16/22
Channeling (+7/+2)21/57
Aether Shaping (+2/+0)8/8
Aether Tolerance (+8/+0)32/50
Aether Resistance (+1/+0)8/19
Prime Aether AffinitySpace
Minor Aether AffinityTime
The first thing I tried to puzzle out was with the essences I had consumed, my potentials seemed right in line with expectations. But if this tablet reader was made for the elven physiology, wouldn’t my potentials be different? Some type of sliding scale?
The second part of my confusion was the decrease in my attributes. With weeks of starvation, it made sense I would lose attributes. I was probably twenty-five pounds lighter, if not more. Maybe I would recover quickly with the more food that I consumed.
I thought back to the other men in the company, and our fighting effectiveness had definitely dropped, but not as much as you would think for how little we were eating. Konstantin had mentioned that the essences fortified your attributes and made it more difficult to lose ground over time. Maybe my slow aging also played an effect in helping mediate my losses. I thought I had fared much better than a lot of the others in the company.
Maveith had finished cooking and presented me with half the large fillet. The fish was flaky and tasted buttery except for the tiny strings of cartilage, which I had just swallowed. Maveith ate contentedly as well, savoring the fish while the fire starter slowly changed from red to black in its cooling process.
“Are you healthy enough to fight?” I asked Maveith a time after the meal.
He nodded slowly, “I can swing my hammer. What are we facing?”
“Two shapeshifters that are masquerading as elven children. They tried to trick me to come into the room. The room is covered in a carpet of green moss. I am not sure if it conceals any danger.” I pointed at the wall, “Apparently, this room was an unpopular starting point as the elves did not map it.”
Maveith stood painfully, “We should also try and find the others.” He pulled his hammer from the loop on his belt and nodded to me. To Mavieth’s amazement, I stored both our packs in my dimensional space. Best not to be slowed down by them. Together, we made our way down the corridor, side by side. The width and height of the passage were around ten feet. As we approached, the two elven children were standing at the entryway, blocking our access to the room.
The boy spoke in elvish, “Look, he has returned and brought a friend.”
The girl added, “I think they have come to play. It has been so long since we played with anyone.”
Maveith’s hands flexed along the handle of his sledgehammer and questioned me, “What are they saying? Their mannerisms seem unnatural for children.”
The girl switched to Latin, “Oh, the big one speaks the new tongue. I want to play with him first!”
I couldn’t help my own curiosity and asked the pair, “Are you the dungeon talking through these creatures?”
“He calls us creatures! You are the creature! Coming in here to kill and loot over and over again,” the girl berated me in Latin. “We are not the dungeon. Just playthings of it. If you are not going to play with us, leave.”
“I have never heard of creatures in a dungeon talking before,” Maveith said worriedly. “Are you sure we should be fighting them?”
The boy teased Maveith, “Look, you have scared the big one. He is going to be too afraid to enter now.”
“Back up to the center of the room, and we will enter,” I requested of the pair. Could you even reason with these creatures? The two looked at each other creepily, then back at us. They started to take steps back, their bare feet leaving footprints in the mossy ground that quickly disappeared.
“Maveith, we can not leave the dungeon as specters swarmed the tavern, and the summoner’s wyverns may be there. We only have one path to follow in the labyrinth, and it leads us here. I will take the girl, and you can take the boy?” I said it softly, but it was clear the creatures overheard as they failed to hide a smirk and were anticipating the fight.
“They have no weapons,” Maveith said, assessing our opponents who stood twenty feet apart in the center of the chamber awaiting us.
“Shapechangers, remember. My guess is once we enter, they will change their form. Ready?” Maveith studied the two children and slowly nodded.
I rushed forward, prepared to use my ability and react to anything. The ground was spongy as I led with my round shield and black blade in the other hand. The two children just smiled, and I risked a glance at Maveith, who was two steps behind. I had let my adrenaline get the better of me.
Twenty feet from the children, their eyes blinked to a yellow. The girl’s body started rapidly stretching first, quickly tearing through the rags she wore as she gained girth and height. Her skin stretched and became gray and veiny. Her messy hair retracted into her body as her face head became bald and ridged with bones over the eyes. The creature had grown from less than four feet to over eight in the short time it took to cover the ground. Long, lanky arms sported imposing black claws. The rags gone, the creature appeared genderless. The creature took a defensive stance as I reached it.
The creature’s head suddenly disappeared. My aether bottomed out after a brief struggle with its resistance. I changed my direction, pivoting in the moss, and my black blade slid into the outline of the ribs on the boy that had also grown into the same horror.
The surprised creature backhanded me, and I easily intercepted the strike with my shield. I did not expect its immense strength as I was flung back, and my sword hilt was torn from my grasp. I had held it long enough to wrench the blade sideways through the body. I skidded on the carpet of moss, the berry bushes slowing me.
I caught Maveith swinging his hammer into the knee of the creature. It had turned to face me, giving the goliath a wide opening. A satisfying pop resounded in the room as the knee bent at the wrong angle, and the creature fell to its knees. Mavieth was already winding up for another swing at the creature’s head. As the blow was coming, the creature’s arm lashed out and grabbed the shaft, preventing the goliath from completing a swing. The creature’s arms were deceptively long even as the seven-foot-plus goliath towered over the kneeling body. The other hand punched out into Maveith’s leather armor, causing him to back peddle while releasing air in a huff.
These things were just too strong. The only good sign was my black blade embedded in the creature was dripping a stream of blue-black blood. Its flat face had no mouth, but it still managed to hiss in pain and anger, but no recognizable words came from it. Standing, I realized my shield shoulder was dislocated. Pain flared when I tried to move, and I was unable to raise my arm, so I let the shield fall to the mossy ground.
I drew the elven dagger with my good hand but kept my distance. “Maveith, how are you doing, big guy?”
Maveith coughed painfully as he supported his weight on his hammer. “Some broken ribs, but I can still fight.”
The creature was looking back and forth between us as we flanked it now. It touched my sword exploratorily, but it decided not to extract it. With the flow of blood coming off the sword, I doubted it could live much longer. Maveith had destroyed one knee, so it should remain immobile. We watched as it struggled to stand and then gave up and lay down on the mossy floor.
“Keep an eye on it,” I said, moving to the other creature’s corpse. The aether-rich dungeon was helping me recover quicker, but it was still going to take some time before I could bring out the collecter. Minutes passed slowly until I finally materialized the collector. I placed it on the corpse, and thick blue smoke was pulled the body.
“What is that? Do you have a collector?” Maveith asked from the far side of the room.
“Yes,” was my short reply as the smoke coalesced in an apex essence. A myriad of evershifting colors swam inside the sphere as I picked it up. It felt weighty in my hand, denser than previous apex essences I had held. I slipped under my armor into a pocket. I circled wide of the creature and stood next to Maveith. He was audibly wheezing. I just hoped the reward for this room contained a healing potion.
“Give me a few minutes, and I will retrieve your bow for you. You can make sure the other one is dead.
“If you have your own bow in there, perhaps it is best if you shoot it. I think it might be too painful to draw my bow,” he said with difficulty.
I laughed, “My shoulder is dislocated, but I can wait until I can heal myself. Go sit down and rest, Maveith. I will watch it.” Maveith gratefully collapsed onto his back on the mossy floor. I stood over him. “Grab my wrist and pull straight down,” I swung my arm to him, and he reached up. I figured it would save some aether if he got it back in the socket.
Maveith yanked down, and a soft pop resounded in my body. It had not been too bad. I was able to move the arm, but raising it above my head was a burning pain. Minutes later, I drew the bow and missed from ten feet. Konstantin’s voice echoed in my head, mocking me. Truthfully, I almost missed it now. My second, third, and fourth shots connected without the creature stirring.
Cautiously, I moved in with the collector and used it to the same effect as the first time. Another swirling prismatic orb. From my experience, it was definitely a magic essence. I had Castile’s library in the dreamscape, so I should be able to find it. Now, if I was a reward chest, where would I be hiding?
Comments
Erick Thiemke
thanks. i corrected it but just noting Patreon doesnt support tables so I have to take a few minutes and edit it to show it as somewhat readable. but frustrating
Joseph Snyder
Empathy (+0/+1)12/22Fortitude (-5/+0)48/89 Should have an enter between them
Lite Fractal
Didn't Eryk harvest the summoner's wyvern? I don't remember him consuming that essence. I thought he was waiting to consume it in private. But why didn't he consume it once he was alone with Maveith in the dungeon. Also, doesn't he have other essences? What is he waiting for?
Karnnie
We are in book three and while he has grown a lot, I would really like to see him speed up his progress even if just a little. In the case of the dungeon, it does respawn but not nearly fast enough to farm them. Maybe if he was the only one and he could enter and exit as he wanted it would respawn faster but with so many still inside, I do not think it will respawn quickly
Otto Kovar
having access to these rooms that are producing fairly unique creatures, farming those rooms Eryk can really bolster his stats and even get high affinities in them, if i am correct the mirrorkin produced illusion, and him having a lesser illusion Spellform could be really handy, on the other hand i feel conflicted on him having unrestricted access to these essences, it could cheapen his struggle to become a strong character, like before where he could not just whip the collector out and hord the essences for himself, there needs to be something restricting him from getting to strong to fast and still id like him to use this chance to get stronger in n efficient matter... my desires are in turmoil
Roberto Dias
Ok. Not essence... but.. but... He can do something useful with the head/brain/hearth/offal he "boxed in". The bear head made a fish "feeding frenzy" so can be used to help fishing. What else? Distraction.. Food... Ingredient... Weapon... Bowling... ... the dimensional space can be really OP
Silver Beard
debate on discord
Erick Thiemke
resistance would be protection affinity but each aspect is its own spell form
Silver Beard
Charm, illusion, etc.. I don't expect him to get enough affinity to actually do something, but if he can learn to passively resist those effects.. likely way to beat the truth-tellers... a passive resist to their magic that not taught.
Silver Beard
Occurs to me the one spell form I haven't seen yet which should be basic for every one is 'resistance'. Is there a reason that's not an option in any basic teaching form mod? Perhaps the Empire is making sure nobody gets the notion they can 'resist' their influence perhaps?!
Silver Beard
Even starving he's been using his brain quite a bit learning the elfin tongue. Loss of intelligence/insight is a bit weird.
Blorcyn
Ah of course, that makes sense. Thank for spelling it out though. I should've been able to figure out the + potential = essences, but appreciate it!
Erick Thiemke
Strength (-3/+1) 45/80 .....using this one as an example - his potential went up form 79 to 80. +1. His strength went down 3 from the last reading but closer to -6 since it has been a while since he had a reading
Erick Thiemke
his potentials didn't change - so you can see what essences for took if the second number is a + anything. Konstantin told him his attributes would be fortified in the related stat, and it would be more difficult to reduce the stat in that case. however starvation is starvation. it may be a magical world but you need nutrients. good news is he will regain them quicker once he starts eating. others in the company fared far worse than he did.
Blorcyn
I may just be misunderstanding and it was clear in the chapter — is this chapter saying that the essences where Eryk decreased are those he hasn’t bolstered with a consumed essence at some point?
Silver Beard
It's been a day since he ate the bear's essence. He should at least eat a quickness mote if he considers saving the Illusion for a future trade, etc.
Silver Beard
I asked the same thing when the Wyvern was killed. The response at the time was essence was kept in the Diatain... one spot.
Silver Beard
Right now he's an elite solider; with a fixed term of service. Seems mages get a shot-gun wedding [to the Empire], minders, and their blood is harvested more than one to make tracking them down easier. Besides- what's 5 years of service vs the 5 millennium he's supposed to live with his slow aging spell?
Silver Beard
I was hoping for Charm when they appeared as kids; but I suppose they would have acted more innocently. Ending up with a bunch of affinities under 10 is going to be much of a power up; not soon anyway.
Erick Thiemke
aether capacity are probably the most desirable for actual mages...cant imagine the First Ctiizens anyone have them
Erick Thiemke
yeah I just wanted to up the danger the level of the room so having creatures that remember them seemed kind of OP. it also explains their ability to speak
BubblyGhost
Using your will to bend the laws of the universe is where true power lay broski. But yeah, really anything he does while in the legion has some pretty significant risks
BubblyGhost
Has to find mages to eat. . .I imagine its hard finding something that would pop out aether shaping or quantity
BubblyGhost
Oho, thats neato. Dungeon contract sounds mighty intersante
Erick Thiemke
no - it was discussed before in a comment
Roberto Dias
Can Erik harvest a SECOND essence from the mirrorkin Head? He got a apex essence from the body, but stil have the removed head. Cant he squeeze something else from the stored head? Great dungeon chapters. Thanks
Erick Thiemke
Yes but Maveith is not familiar with them and not sure if they will eat the meat yet
Erick Thiemke
It is unlikely he would ever have enough aether to do more than one monster a fight. The cost is so great to overcome resistance and he fails, it is just when he fails the space closes automatically and he takes the body part anyway
Roberto Dias
Any harvestable parts in the mirrorkins?
Roberto Dias
Thanks for the chapter.
Erick Thiemke
Illusion essence, they were dopplegangers that entered the dungeon in an elven party and killed the elves and then contracted to the dungeon, revived when they are killed. So they can learn from past deaths
BubblyGhost
Spoilers is a concept invented by the weak willed. Their taboos are like their bones, meant to be brokeennnn
Silver Beard
I think shooting for Mage is crazy stupid while in the Legion or Emperial lands. More Aether though would be a game changer. More healing when he needs it, more shields, potentially better spell form options for his other affinities.
Erick Thiemke
Castile explained aether shaping as being able to write out the spell forms. With his small shaping ability it is like using a broom when he needs a pencil
Alex Galaitsis
So he’d have to primarily increase his aether pool and aether shaping to be a decent mage? Even if he only increased the pool, he could still cast more of the spells inscribed on his core, store away multiple monster heads in one fight, etc?
Erick Thiemke
Channeling
Daniel kanevsky
Thanks!
Erick Thiemke
Being able to shape aether into a spell form, so aether shaping and manual dexterity are the biggest attributes. He also has very low aether so wouldn’t be able to cast many spells
Daniel kanevsky
Also didn't he eat an apex magic core earlier? What attribute did that increase?
Daniel kanevsky
Quick question, so what is the minimum qualifications for a mage? I know he has a few low attributes like aether resistance and shaping, but at this rate he'll soon be as powerful as some weak mages
1536539
Thank you for the chapter
Eriach
Nice
Erick Thiemke
Spoilers….?
BubblyGhost
What I really wanna know is if they were sapient and if so how. Also int went down? Also also apex essence of what? Also also also, hi :)
Erick Thiemke
and mirrorkin is a greater doppleganger in case you wanted to know
Erick Thiemke
next chapter will be Monday I think to complete the four for the week
Erick Thiemke
note on the elven tablet reader - i spent two hours trying to develop a sliding scale conversion between the races....way too much work and too confusing. instead the lore will be that the First Legion developed the tablet readers 2000 years ago so all the early ones are keyed to human physiology....this one even though it is in elven script is as well as the elves copied the runes to make it
Erick Thiemke
so no tables so the word doc is attached.
Faa Diallo
I appreciate the dedication man. Thanks for the chapter.
