Battleforged
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Chapter 394 - Freetown's Ascension
🕑 Added 2024-02-09 04:00:08 +0000 UTCYet even in Eric’s final dying moments, heart crashing to a stop thanks to the titanic damage done to both body and soul, his fading awareness was bombarded with blaring System messages that refused to be ignored.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully PURGED Freetown of multiple Bronze-tier threats AND Contenders!
You have successfully FREED 6,666,666 souls trapped in torment and DESTROYED the moon base of your enemies!
You have successfully CRIPPLED a Silver tier foe (who might or might NOT be your father!)
You have AIDED IN THE ASCENSION OF THREE DIVINITIES!
NOTE! All aforementioned feats have been accomplished while you had slipped FREE of the mortal coil! (A spirit of HOPE and RETRIBUTION!) System is UNABLE to process rewards for Divine-tier feats.
System WILL give DEEP SILVER Credit in the evolution of THIS your latest (and potentially final!) Territory EVOLUTION!
You may choose THREE Lesser / DEEP SILVER TIER Perks with which to enhance Freetown (and the 400 square mile territory it resides within, AS YOU CHOOSE!
*Note. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you choose Pristine Restoration as one of your three boons!
Eric’s shocked dismay soon turned to agonized panic as the Interface’s blaring message jolted him back to reality. Whatever dreams of a magical perfect afterlife his dying mind might have been struck by , those fantasies would do nothing to end the awful burning ache in his lungs, and a mind so shattered that System shenanigans (Silver Wormies!) were, perhaps, the only thing holding his neurons together for a few more precious seconds, the damage so catastrophic not even his healing could keep up.
That awareness jolted him out of his dreamlike dismay, grounded by the awful pain of his cells screaming for oxygen and so much more that Unified Restoration had no hope of healing, the only thing greater than his agony was the sudden awful awareness that he was alone.
That his desperate gambit had failed.
That all of Freetown was a baron, lifeless hellscape, and somehow it was all his fault.
“NO! Bullshit!” He screamed in his own dying mind. “My warding worked! The pyramid’s destruction was limited to that red territory alone!”
Yet that did nothing to stop whatever horrific tragedy had occurred. Whether it was a final retributive strike, or a deadly doomsday weapon planted just in case the mind lord who was actually just another one of Malice’s children… another one of his victims... failed to claim Freetown for his master. So the bitter old bastard had made sure that no one would have it, while wiping out every competing Contender while not just spitting but outright shitting on whatever accords protected newly risen worlds from such horrific abuses of power, making an absolute mockery of it with a Silver Phoenix Talisman and a hate-filled smile.
Yet in that moment of dying agony, his mind fading so badly he couldn’t even process the desperately blinking interface options, Eric was struck anew by the wondrous light in his mother’s ascending eyes. Embracing a reality so filled with transcendent meaning that reality itself was shaped by the covenants and pacts of those who embraced them. They didn’t just penalize bad behavior and countenance good… they defined reality itself.
Eric shuddered in final epiphany, silvery tendrils holding his mind together flaring with sudden golden light.
A transcendent pact had been sealed and signed by both Silver-tier puppet-masters and a goddess who had ascended.
It was a pact that forbade the use of higher order weapons. Ergo, NO higher order weapons had been used. NO psionics had obliterated the minds of its people. No nuclear tier devastation had been unleashed the moment of the pyramid’s destruction. NO Soul-stealing gate had been used to harvest the souls of Freetown’s innocent.
In this territory, under the golden light of his mother’s will if, nowhere else, those breaches HAD NEVER OCCURED!
Eric wanted to laugh with wonder and joy, snapping back to himself once more with a deep breath of sweet, life-giving air, utterly free of nuclear hellfire, toxic fumes, or the burning ash of a hundred thousand butchered and burned victims. He didn’t need to open his eyes to know such glorious truths. For the pact all parties had signed to Freetown’s fate was transcendent, and no breach had occurred because, as far as the soul of this city was concerned, there was no goblin presence here at all.
An ugly two year chapter fading to dreamlike irrelevance just as utterly as a young, innocent Aurelia had utterly ignored the decrepit memory of a fading demon after plucking both of her children utterly free of his taint and influence and ascending to the beautiful heaven that was her home.
Even as Eric’s heart ached with melancholy for an impossible dream that could never be his own, he was filled with joy to see his dream of Freetown wondrous and whole, the perfect high magi-tech city filled with beautiful parks and gardens and soaring edifices of glittering Alutopaz, pristine glass, and pearlescent stone.
Freetown was nothing short of a wondrous marvel of architecture engineering, Blue Corp having given its heart and soul to forging a glorious masterwork of a city. A city that would now serve as an inspiration to an entire world as to just how far they could all ascend, so long as they worked together in common cause. For Freetown was a community filled with happy workers making high wages within pristine manufacturing centers, glittering shopping centers, and a financial district that would be able to handle the finances of an entire nation, once this continent built itself up from the rubble and ashes of a rough ascension.
Eric’s eyes filled with tears as his mind rang with the clarion call of a System message that shook him to his core.
Congratulations! Freetown has been the recipient of a PRISTINE RESTORATION! Over sixty thousand hard working men and women along with an equal number of children have awakened from dark dreams of slaughter, enslavement, and spiritual torture to find all such nightmares fading with the morning light!
Moral boost gained! All citizens that now call this magitech wonder of modern luxury and arcane sophistication their home are humbled and grateful! Knowing deep in their hearts that life could be so much WORSE!
Freetown citizens now enjoy a PERMANENT +20% bonus to moral, productivity, and happiness! For gratitude truly is a natural wonder.
BONUS BRONZE BOON IN PLAY! - All citizens of Freetown enjoy Top-Tier facilities equivalent to a standard fully developed world.
BONUS SILVER PERK IN PLAY! - All citizens additionally enjoy PROFESSIONS! An unknown number of citizens additionally have the potential to gain Adventuring Classes, should access to Tier 2 ascension pods be made available!
BONUS RESTORATION BOON IN PLAY! - All Freetown visitors and founders (Free of animosity toward the Silver clan) have ALSO been fully restored to pristine health. (This includes YOURSELF!)
Eric’s mind howled with sheerest exultation, sensing reality shift and flow to his will. To become what it had always been destined to be. And as he was no god, he was doing naught but reminding it of what it had always been.
So many perks and boons and possible advancements flickered across his mind’s eye… Boons that would fill the populace with incredible glimpses of insight and innovation, as if they were constantly on the cusp of profoundest epiphany such as what Eric and his daughter had enjoyed while forging themselves anew and advancing their skills to Journeyman, Adept, Elite, and, in his daughter’s case, Master tier perks. - Yet he sensed as well that such profound revelations would exact a deep tole on his people. They would all blaze like comments, and not a one would live past 40 with the depths of their revelations. Marrying young wouldn’t just be passion’s responsibility but an absolute necessity, even as children blazed through school in just a handful of years.
But all he had to do was recall the agony he even now recalled in his daughter’s euphoric eyes when revelatory wonder had become torment, at last choosing serenity and balance over the most extreme excesses of power… to shudder at the thought of forcing that burden on 120,000 souls. All now blessed with Profession’s virtues, but only a fraction possessed the souls and psyches capable of withstanding a true Classer’s boons and burdens.
So he pulled away from that glorious boon even as he sensed half a dozen others that, to very mild degrees, balanced with other white-tier perks of longevity and good health that he could bring into being with his next conquest, might actually allow for harmonious balance. Perks that would fill a populace with limitless bubbling energy resulting in a 30% or higher productivity boon, or a 20% creativity boon, balanced with a Lesser Longevity and/or Pristine health boons, and most especially a happiness boon. So all would live long, healthy lives even as their minds blazed with creative, productive, or fiscal insights. At least it would be a joy and not the torment promised by Silver tier boons.
“So Silver-tier boons to change the world, but only lesser White-tier boons to enhance the mind. Noted,” he whispered to himself even as he strove to forge this tiny corner of existence into the glorious reality it had always been meant to be.
Yet even as his psyche gloried in the myriad ways he could grant incredible boons to the territory as a whole, he sensed as well the devastating flaws and weaknesses of a territory that the goblins, via insidious pacts, midnight bargains, and acts of vile sacrifice and claimance, had already torn free so much of the potential of this and many other territories, leaving nothing but a bitter husk and dungeons that were less that dirt poor, demanding a sacrifice in blood greater than any rewards it might give.
Upon such a broken decrepit foundation, so like Malice himself, there was no way in hell Eric could place any singular Silver-tier boon that wouldn’t warp the entire territory to hideous effect.
And even as Eric felt the weight of that bitter truth, his second’s pause, free from euphoria’s grace and blessing, let him sense another truth as well.
The absolute peril his world was in. After such a devastating endless night, after being forced to serve as the perch for not just one but two Ascending Golds, his world was like a red giant of a star at risk of exploding even as spacetime warped upon the surface of so many territories, so many orange territories already turning to a glaringly deadly red decades or even centuries before such would normally be a problem, as the actual surface of said territories warped from roughly 400 square miles as was the norm of any white tier to the 1,600 square miles of countless Oranges before blossoming to the 6,400 square miles of countless Reds. In fact, all the hot oranges of 80 by 80 miles he had sprinted across, his friends in tow, not that long ago, were the first to blossom straight to deepest red. And few things were more chilling then sensing those reds begin to swell and ascend. For once they started morphing into the black of Bronze-tier territories and horrors… the potential might be ovewhelming, but monster surges would be a threat that would then wash over the world in just a handful of seasons, not decades. And far worse, Eric could sense that the entire world would be at risk of erupting sooner rather than later.
Euphoria turned to a surge of ice cold dread. Eric’s joy was plunged in the chilly depths of imminent peril, jubilant thoughts becoming desperate focus once more.
“I have not one but TWO Silver tier perks. And a too fucking fragile territory, and an entire world in danger of erupting.” He whispered to himself, though whether he was in a hollowed crater, an empty arena, or perhaps, the blank white room of the System itself, with Conceptio’s inhuman yet strangely kind gaze looking on, he didn’t know, because he absolutely refused to open his eyes. For the moment he did… he knew he would see Freetown as it had always been and any lost perks would have been nothing more than a glimmer of self-delusion and dream.
Yet still… he shivered with the anxious burden crashing down upon him. Knowing all too painfully well that so much of the Earth’s peril was thanks to his and his mother’s actions. No matter if they had saved the entire Sylvan alliance, all of a dozen Sylvan worlds and countless worlds owned and now effectively ruled by what was now effectively a far more Militant Blue Corp… so much occurring in that endless Silver-tier night.
So much that had always been.
Then Eric gasped, it being all he could do not to open his eyes in wonder as it clicked.
“It was always this way. Mother and I… we had always had our grip upon this world,” he whispered with awe. “Which means that…. Conceptio!”
His whisper became a cry.
“Yes, Eric?”
He shivered, not actually expecting the System AI to be right there gazing at him so intently, so expectantly. Or perhaps the white room he was visualizing lying down within really was all in his head.
“I would like to extend my Silver-tier perks to encompass the world as a whole.”
An endless pause. Eric’s heart was racing with the sudden surge of tension he felt… wondering if he would be struck dead for his daring.
“Under what pretext?”
Eric’s throat went dry. His disbelief that his declaration was even being considered being beyond the pale. But all things considered… “I was a Golden Phoenix with the entire world in my talons. When I felt my mother’s cry… I sheltered it.”
“Your point?”
He swallowed. “My feathers, fire, and blood encompassed it all. Ergo my bloodmagic should now be bound to the entire world.” he gasped in the silence, forcing himself to speak on. “And with the endless night that had just past… it was always that way. Wasn’t it? I will always have an affinity with this world.” He quickly spoke on, in a rush, lest Conceptio cut him off for the sheer audacity and absurdity of his claim.
“So I would like to invest both of my Deep Silver-tier Territory Boons in a ley-line perk. Any territory I ever exerted claimance upon is now connected to every other territory I ever declared claimance upon, and all such territories shall be anchored, irregardless of the pressures exerted by other territories around or between them.”
“Interesting. And how would you anchor them?”
Eric swallowed. “In the form of indestructible roads… and multi-lane train tracks! Roads that would both connect those territories and allow people to trade and travel. At least wide enough so they could one day support several lanes of traffic… but no disgusting superhighways. And at least four lanes of train tracks between territories, because everyone knows a good train system abrogates the need for highways covering our entire world in concrete which made special interests and car companies a fortune and screwed most of America except for New York and Philly out of ever having the lively, walk-friendly cities that so much of Europe enjoyed before everything went to shit.”
Conceptio’s voice took on a hint of amusement. “How delightfully grandios. And perhaps you would like a two lane road and double track to manifest themselves with every major town that you and your pawns in Blue Corp recognize or build yourselves?”
Eric had the gall to nod. “Absolutely. And part of that double-Silver boon will include elevated rail-lines and connecting roads that will attach themselves to Freetown and anchor it to the adjoining territories I once claimed… will also fill in whatever pockets of rot, corruption, and impoverishment that predatory factions such as the goblins might have inflicted upon the territories I claim and keep… or surrender to another.”
For long, perilous moments, Eric felt the weight of the entire System gazing intently down upon him. It was enough to make him scream in his mind, his voiced locked rigid by brilliant flashes of Silvery wormies wiggling with glee inside his skull.
“An absolutely absurd bounty. How outrageous. How WONDERFUL! To taste divine potential transmuted in a world evolution that can be encapsulated and quantized. And your Divine mana which is beyond my ken shall allow it. Even as your Divine Abjuration skill passes from this world to your mother’s. WELL DONE, Eric Silver!”
Eric’s eyes widened in surprised dismay, even as he found himself gazing at the glorious wonder of Freetown, sparkling like a wondrous metropolis of shimmering topaz and chrome with a glorious collage of parks and gardens and lush greenery such that it looked both like a faerie tale forest and the most high tech city imaginable, all at once.
Even as Eric picked up speed, falling at terrifying speeds, finding that his Divine Abjuration skill, for which there was NO counter, at least when he was freeing bound souls… had indeed been locked.
“What the hell?”
“Hardly that, Eric Silver,” Conceptio’s voice calmly explained as he continued hurtling down to earth. “But since you have technically fallen from heaven and are divine no longer, neither your golden wings of impossibility, shielding you from so many Silver-tier killing blows your nemesis and relative couldn’t quite pierce, nor your Divine tier abjuration, are accessible to you any longer. And to think. It was an epiphany you had while little more than a soul! An epiphany which managed to destroy an ancient soul-steel tainted moon that was such a pustulant sore that the emperor himself deigned it not worth the resources to destroy, so long as Malice never dared to strike at him directly. And you obliterated it all with a single pair of words. ‘Be Free.’ How unexpected. How EXTRAORDINARY! And utterly outside the paradigm of System protocols or this particular reality, and so had to be removed.”
Eric swallowed his suddenly dry throat. “What about my Golden Phoenix Class? My powers? My Essence Fusion?”
“All are of course completely intact, Eric Silver. Even if you are no longer Seraphim, you and your mother both achieved a Phoenix ascension well within System parameters! And considering that one is ultimately an evolution of the other, depending on your theological paradigms, the experiences you accrued, even as a free spirit, shall no doubt prove IMMEASURABLY useful as you continue to evolve your class!”
Eric could sense the jubilation in Conceptio’s voice.
“In fact, your revelations and experience gained this night were so profound that you have actually managed to advance your 2nd tier core saturation to an absolutely absurd 65.25% after helping three divine beings ascend beyond System Parameters!” He chuckled approvingly, much like the emperor’s voice in Exile’s Path. “A wonderful accomplishment. You cannot FATHOM how rare a creature you truly are, Eric Silver. Achieving feats that would make the emperor himself take notice, if you were foolish enough to share it!”
“Wait, what?”
Eric’s eyes widened as the entire city continued to blossom into existence all around him like the opening of a magnificent hi-tech blossom as Eric continued to hurtle right for the Blue Palace at bone-shattering speeds. Yet he didn’t feel terror so much as awe as countless souls blossomed from oblivion to vigorous joyous life once more. A divine act that should transcend mortal magics altogether. Yet no edicts were shattered or rules of reality broken. Because in that moment, past and present were one.
So Eric chose simply to smile and close his eyes as he hit the ground with catastrophic force, knowing on some level his mission was complete.
A world stabilized.
A city brought back from oblivion as an angel lost his wings and a phoenix crashed down from heavenly heights to the realm of mundus once more.
Before being reborn once more in a city’s worth of lush green parks, impossibly grand skyscrapers, colorful gardens, child-friendly playgrounds, and elecromagnetic wonders, all sprouting from the ashes of his own ascension.
The agony of his own fall lasted only an instant before blissful darkness overtook him.
And for the first time in countless days… he lost himself in death-like slumber that lasted far more than a single hour.
For three days and two nights he lost himself in dreams of soaring upon wings of fire over heavenly skies, gazing down upon wondrous storybooks forests and fields, impossibly fantastic cities stretching over countless dimensions and cozy little hamlets where everyone strove to forge a story of life of pristine joy and wonder.
For only a heartbeat did he catch a glimpse that set his heart ablaze with joy and warmth… a young mother with her babes resting in adjoining cribs, crying in the arms of a mother and father who had always loved her, always accepted her, and were glad that she had finally found her way home.
And for just a heartbeat, he thought he caught sight of his mother’s gaze smiling up at him as he soared the heavens… before he fell back to earth once more.
Jolting upright in a plush, four poster bed as thousand thread count Egyptian weave cotton sheets slipped off his gasping frame, wide eyes sparkling with a fiery corona around irises of deepest blue, flashing with the same iridescent sheen as the essence tattoos upon his cheeks that now sparkled with ruby and sapphire highlights both as twin essences defining his soul caught the glittering highlights of a well-lit room that was nothing short of luxurious.
A shuddering breath and he caught sight of his own wide chest and powerfully built shoulders, looking very much as he always had, ever since his strength had ascended past 20. The natural maximum his frame was even capable of without extraordinary testosterone stacking protocols in place. And everything beyond that, the absolute hundreds of points beyond that, involved exotic biochemistry and the direct use and manipulation of internal mana, a cultivator’s spiritual energy, and sheer raw potency as his body evolved along ever more extreme paradigms. Sure, he was now closer to six feet than five foot ten, but barring the inches gained, his proportions were harmonious and he would never bulk up quite like Arnold. A gold-medal gymnast? He flashed a too handsome smile for the mirror that actually startled him, because that physique he most definitely had.
The body of a Gold medalist, an early Greek Adonis, but certainly he was no He-Man giant.
He shook his head with wonder, quickly looking away from the full length mirror so like the one that had made Rica blush and smile whenever they were alone together, for the brief handful of days that had had the chance to truly savor what it meant to be young, healthy, full of life and love.
Then everything had changed.
He closed his eyes, ignoring the sudden hot sting of tears. Instead he breathed deep, mind racing with all the madness, wonder, and glory that he had survived, endured, and profited madly by in a night that had seemed almost without end...before being over so fast that it almost seemed a dream. The whole thing, even for him. A fellow talisman holder.
Yet it was real. A night that had been beyond miraculous in both its transcendence and his own personal growth. And all he had to do was take a look at his complete character sheet to appreciate just how incredibly far he had come in the space of a single night.
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Eric Silver Level 49 GOLDEN PHOENIX (Adventurer)
(2nd Tier Core Saturation at 65.25%!)
Rank 42 DEATH’S DISCIPLE (Four Seasons)
Level 33 Master Necromancer (1 perk deferred)
Physical Characteristics
Strength – 531
Vitality – 582
Finesse – 462
Quickness – 788
Appearance – 29
Mental Characteristics
Scholarship – 27
Perception – 451
Willpower – 99
Charisma – 15
Potency Pools
Arcane Potential – 427
(Mana Pool = 5132)
Spiritual Energy – 440
(Qi Pool = 5291)
Psionic Potency – 125
(Psion Pool = 1503)
Soul Reserves – 536
Stamina – 5821 Points
Health – 7272 Points
Resistances & Recovery
Physical Resistance – 113
Physical Regeneration – 58 health per second
Elemental Resistance – 82
Qi Resistance – 85
Mental Resistance – 101
Psionic Resistance – 0
Class & Cultivation Synergism
Essence Ability Cost 67%
Essence Damage Multiplier 149%
Unarmed Combat Rank 28
Damage Bonus to all Essence Melee attacks: 254%
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40% Bonus to all Strength points above 500
40% Bonus to all Vitality points above 500
30% Bonus to all Finesse points above 300
40% Bonus to all Quickness points above 500. (Speed Racer. Full Battletime boon, if Finesse+Perception together at least = Quickness!)
30% Bonus to all Perception points above 300
30% Bonus to all Spiritual Energy points above 300.
10% Additional bonus to all ability points earned! (Additive with all other modifiers. Bronze Duelist.)
10% Additional bonus to all ability points earned (Additive with all other modifiers: Interplanetary Contender!)
30% Additional bonus to all ability points earned until you ascend to Gold! (Legendary tier boon bequeathed by Terra Herself!)
NOTE! Your cultivation foundation has evolved! You now earn 15 points per level as a Four Season Cultivator! (Ice (Winter) / Fire (Summer) / Wood (Spring) / Wind (Autumn) +3 ST&Vit&Qui +4 SE +1 Fin&Per)
Physical Age = 18 Years (+ 32 years, 10 months, 12 days, & 4 hours that Arcane Magics cannot restore! Superhuman vitality allows you to keep your youth, even if you’re now burning your candle at both ends! Note! Your meridians now anchor 12 Divine Tier Spirit Peaches. Life expectancy has increased by 12($%^&^%) years!)
Level 49 Golden Phoenix Powers.
- Modified Cost of all abilities using any primary essence: 67% multiplicative of all other factors.
- Damage Multiplier of all abilities using any primary essence: 149% multiplicative of all other factors.
(Core Enhancement) - Essence Fusion – Rank 10 (And once it was so much more!)
This is now a Legendary Tier Class related power. No Nodes have been used to anchor this power.
Essence infusion has achieved Journeyman Rank! - Enhancement Feat automatically chosen – Dual Harmony! You may now infuse TWO synergistic or antagonistic elements in a unified Higher Order Transformation within any applicable skill, spell, or power that meets all necessary requirements!
NOTE! YOU HAVE TASTED TRUE TRANSCENDENCE! All experience points earned towards evolving this skill will be twice as effective as would be for the unenlightened!
Note! ALL immunities and damage mitigators are NULLIFIED against Higher Order attacks! - Singular exception: Countermeasures involving similar or opposing ESSENCES!
Warning! Your evolution will earn the interest or ire of ALL known powers and principalities who find out about it. DISCRETION is strongly advised!
Any use of Essence Fusion within rifts must save versus rupture unless YOU make a successful skill check against catastrophe!
NOTE! You have SUCCESSFULLY achieved multidimensional stability and have FORGED A GOLD TIER PATH! You yourself dared to taste Gold’s epiphanies before CONDENSING your glorious knowledge into a format that ALL your descendants can now make use of! The PATH to GOLD now lies before you, free of all burrs or bottlenecks! (Though how deep a Gold you might achieve or if you could ever ascend past it depends entirely on the strength of your foundation… and your eventual sacrifice!)
NODAL POWERS
1. Runic Lore - Rank 30 (Soul Infusion, Tier 3 Runic Spell Evolution, Runic Focus, Blood Runes.)
Greater runes known: Wood (Herbam), Wind (Ventus), Fire (Ignis), Wrath (Iram), Dominion. (Dicio), Freeze (Congelo)
Lesser runes known: One (unus) / Many (plures) / Now (hodie) / Sun Duration (dies) / Weaken (debilito) / Strengthen (roboro) / Resilience (mollet) / Fulmen (Lightning) / Torment (Cruciatus) / Sanguis (Blood)
Gravity (Gravitas) / bend/curve/warp (incurvo) / invert/reverse/turn upside down (inverto) / attentio (attention – concentration duration, in other words) / Resilient (mollet)
Fragor – Rupture (Psionic Explosion)
2. Unified Restoration – Rank 15 (This Power allows you to infuse your body with your own spiritual reserves whenever you take an injury for near immediate healing, over and above your basic regeneration rate!) - Perk evolution deferred. (Potency surge – using EX with this ability = healing all injuries at 140-fold basic rate!)
3. Runic Spell Forger – Rank 9
- Inevitable Doom (105 Mana & Qi) - Rank 6
- Hell Vines (140 Mana & Qi) (You can direct this spell!) – Rank 8 (9)
- Lightning Bolt - Fulmen- (30 Mana & Qi) – Rank 12
- Blood Lightning – Sanguis Fulmen (15 Mana & Qi, 1.5 (.50%) SR) – Rank 14! (Efficency Perk)
(This spell dispels/abjures/& can cut through soul wards & partially heal.(X2 heal baseline Bloodmastery Synergism!)
- Fire Bolt -Ignes Pilum – (15 Mana & Qi) – Rank 8
- Psionic Rupture – Fragor – (21 mana / 21 Qi / 3 Psions / 42 Soul Reserve (21 with Blood Orb in play) and 42 Health!) – Rank 9
- You have earned the free perk: Hit Them Where It Hurts! You have a chance to score a Critical Success with Find Weakness skill checks when using Psionic Rupture… if you’re willing to hit them where it hurts! (Note. This perk effects biological males only (for obvious reasons!)
NOTE! You have permanently altered the nature of this spell! Fragor is now a Transcendent attack involving higher order concepts! You now ALWAYS channel Essence of Wrath with this Psionic shout!
You will now suffer a backlash every time you use this attack with your puny half-elf mind!
Essences Claimed:
Fire – Blazing – Rank 4
Cold – Freezing – Rank 4
Wrath – Rank 2
Dominion – Rank 4
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Cultivation Affinities
Wind / Wood / Fire
Qi Skills
Fire Fist – Rank 20 (21) (10 Qi) - Transcendent Strike 10 Qi & DOUBLE Spiritual energy cost in Soul Reserves will be expended with every Transcendent Strike you dare to unleash.
Power Strike. - For double standard potency cost, you may now infuse your fiery blows with added explosive power! you do additional damage equal to your strength in terms of raw percentage. and increased Fire Explosion Radius!
Windfire Strike – Rank 16 (30 Qi & 3 SR… 1.5 SR with Blood Orb) – Bloodfire Strike – Uses elements. Pierces resistance and armor and Soul Wards. - Necromantic affinities possible. - V. draining at baseline. Absorbs enemy vitality! X2 baseline b/c Vampiric Drain evolution of Blood Mastery
Doom Strike – Rank 7 – Use the essence of cold to stop your opponent in his tracks, no matter how strong he is! This transcendent attack can be unleashed with either punches or kicks, draining Vitality, Mana, and Qi.
Your opponent’s speed will crumple as he is slowly crushed by Winter’s eternal burden. Damage is baseline Unarmed combat with all boons and modifiers in play. Cost perk strike: 10 Qi & 2 Soul Reserves.
Doom Strike taps into higher order concepts of COLD. Doom Strike embraces both Consumption and Dominion as you TAKE the heat, vitality, speed and reserves of your opponent and leaving nothing but bitter cold in your wake!
Ice Fire Strike (Phoenix Strike) – Rank 10 (11) combines higher order concepts of Fire and Ice, Heat and Cold, to both draw all heat and vitality away from your target while unleashing the essence of transcendent flame the width of your sword blade’s edge!
Journeyman Perk Automatically Chosen. Quarternary Harmony! - A Legendary Tier enhancement inspired by an Ascending Gold! - Your Ice Fire Strike is further enhanced by your ranks in Wrath and Dominion!
NOTE! YOU HAVE TASTED TRUE TRANSCENDENCE USING THIS HIGHER ORDER POWER! YOU UNDERSTAND THE PATH YOU MUST TAKE TO ACHIEVE GOLD TIER MASTERY WITH THIS ABILITY! All experience points earned towards evolving this skill count double what they otherwise would!
Due to the nature of this attack, draining your foe’s own heat and vitality to fuel absolute destruction, you only pay HALF the Qi cost in Soul reserves! - Cost to unleash: 30 Qi & 15 Soul Reserves (Soul reserve cost may be cut in half with the use of Blood Orb)
This transcendent attack presents itself as a corona of pale blue icy fire around a blade radiating transcendent golden heat! It enjoys the combined Ranks of Fire, Cold, Wrath, and Dominion essences when comparing the rank of your Transcendent attack against any higher order protections your opponent has infused with their own essence configurations! Baseline damage will additionally be multiplied by the combined ranks of all four essences for all those who save versus instant obliteration!
Necromancer Perks:
Basic Class Perks
All necromantic (and blood magic) skill use is modified by Master Necromancer Level.
All Summoned & Forged undead have their potency enhanced by Master Necromancer Level.
All spells conjuring forth any number of creatures have summoned total modified by Master Necromancer Level.
One additional enhanced class perk is earned every 2 Master Necromancer levels.
Enhanced Class Perks:
1. Soul Orb: Tier 1
2. Undead Legion: Tier 6 (Up to 3,200 revenants may be risen after each battlefield victory!)
3. Undead Tactical Interface map access.
4. Vampiric Restoration
5. Mixed Unit Tactics
6. Mark of Resilience
7. Call to Battle (500 mana cost to summon ½ UL max at any time on the battlefield, but never more than the number of fallen bodies or remaining adversaries.)
8. Death March
9. Undying Phalanx
10. Enhanced Legion (You can safely raise undead up to level = Adventurer + 2*Necromancer level )
11. Crimson Orb: Soul Orb upgrade (Soul Orb potency now includes blood magic. ½ cost to all soul point using feats!)
- Spiritual Oathbinding
- Soul Riding (This Skill was learned at Zero cost at the feet of your mentor Master Grim.)
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Necromancer Affinities & Skills
Blood Mastery – Rank 33 (Blood Claimance, Lesser Healing, Essence Infusion, Vampiric Drain)
Spirit Mastery – Rank 32 (Tier II Path of Dominion, Forced Obeisance)
Rituals of Summoning and Binding – Rank 31 (Tier III Path of Dominion, Ritual of Greater Spirit Summoning, *Instant Transcription)
Flesh Sculptor – Rank 27 (Tier II Path of Dominion, Basic Revenant Preparation)
Blood Ward – Rank 4
Potency Binding – Rank 4
Necromancer Spells
Unorthodox Abjuration – Rank 23
Transcendant Abjuration – Rank 3(4) – Obliterate your undead opponents and any pocket rift they dare to claim with a higher order manifestation of Dominion! (Efficiency will increase, should you dare to master this spell! - Risk of rupturing entire rifts! - Perilous to cast in dungeons until control is established! - Casting on the surface, much safer, may alert unwanted foes of your power!)
- Cost to cast: 40 Mana / 40 Qi / 40 Psion / 40 Soul Reserves. - Repudio!
Divine Abjuration – Rank 10 (Transcendent Mercy)
All trapped souls that feel your touch or hear your cry will be FREED of ALL Bindings.
There is no counter to this art.
NOTE! You are no longer Seraphim! This art has been sealed from you.
Arcane Skills
Elemental Wands – Rank 11 (Insightful Caster)
Advanced Arcane Weapons (Blaster Rifle) – Rank 11 - (Power Transference. Can personally recharge any wand or blaster)
Essence Related Skills:
Burst of Strength – Rank 18 (Path of Mastery)
Dominion’s Resilience – Rank 3
Dominion’s Command – Rank 6
Heat Surge – Rank 13 (Path of Mastery)
Unified Perception Rank 24 (Sense Heat, Spiritual Energy, Magic, & Qi Flow.)
Interface Recognized Skills
Acting – Rank 6
Bardiche (Unified) – Rank 21 (Cleaving Blow, Battleforged,*Piercing Strike)
Blade and Shield – Rank 11
Boar Riding – Rank 7
Bow (All Types) – Rank 21 (True Strike, Void Piercer)
Charge – Rank 5 (charge into your foes with maximum damage to them, and minimal damage to yourself!)
Crossbows – Rank 16 (True Strike)
Small Blades – Rank 4
Demolitions – Rank 14 (Path of Mastery)
ESS Manipulation – Rank 19 (Arcane Resonance Mastery)
Find Weakness – Rank 26 – (Spell Cleave, Qi Perception, Additional Magus/Cultivator Bonus, +5 Vs Dragons)
Flail – Rank 5
Identify – Rank 3
Gunnery – Rank 10 (Cautious Gunner)
Healer’s Aid – Rank 3
Iado (Fast-Draw) – Rank 19 (Doom Flurry)
Javelin Throwing – Rank 21 (Piercing Strike, Void Piercer)
Negotiation – Rank 14 (Intimidation)
Repair – Rank 1
Sling – Rank 17 (Precise Shot Adv.)
Spear – Rank 26 (Piercing Strike, Battleforged)
Stealth – Rank 17 (Hunter’s Grace)
Swordsmanship – Rank 33 (Doom Slice, Battleforged, Cultivator’s Fury (+50% potency Qi attacks) *Piercing Strike *Cleaving Blow)
Swimming – Rank 2
Unarmed Combat – Rank 27 (Empty Fist) / (Cultivator’s Might – Legendary!) - All Peripheral Meridian Channels will continuously evolve ever closer to perfection with every advancement you make as both warrior and cultivator. All Elemental Qi attacks channeled through your meridians (Including Fire Fist, Doom Strike, Ice Fire Strike, Windfire Strike, & all variants) will now be 1% more potent than they would otherwise be for every rank you earn in unarmed combat, and for every level you earn as a Disciple along Peril’s Path!
Interface Enhancements
Full Neuro-Linguistic capabilities
Extradimensional Storage Space
Path of Endless Bounty – Rank 15 (Crimson Balance, Evolution’s Crucible, Oblivion’s Mercy, Crimson Contender)
You may consume the potency of any tile you claim for a 50% bonus to baseline ST & VIT earned while granting 3 Lesser Bounties of your choice! (Note. These bounties increase in significance when claiming territories of orange tier saturation or greater!)
Crimson Contender
You may now consume your fellow Contenders as if they were territories! You enjoy +6 to Find Weakness skill checks against any Contender and upon consuming them, you may consume them UTTERLY! You enjoy a 50% Boon over and above the baseline 5% of key Contender attributes as your OWN Crimson Bounty that you tear free of your prey! (Effective baseline consumption is 7.5% of key attributes, further modified by attribute enhancement boons!)
You will also automatically claim at least a single rank of any essence they have to which you have any affinity! (You have chosen to claim no Essence that don’t synergize with the four paths of the Golden Phoenix!)
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Chapter 395 - Freetown's Peril: Part 1
Comments
M J
I think I finally understand what bothers me most about this “book”. The author is like a kid that invites you to play their game but then changes the rules on you whenever they want. That’s exactly what the majority of reading this feels like. Utterly unfair and confusing…Also have some pride in your work Brother and hire a proofreader. Publishing crap with thousands of typos, misspellings and switched names is just plain LAZY and disrespects your audience.
Daniel Alexander Womack
Thought his acting had gone up after trucking the merc's?
Goldfish2
Hell yeah! But more!
Abhishek
Let MH cook! I await the tasty dishes about to be served
M van Dongen
Oh god. What level of enemies will he have to contend with next....
Lee Caldwell
Not to mention the near non existent payoff of compressing it last time.
Lee Caldwell
If we have to repeat a whole book of annoying core compression again, there’s going to be a riot.
