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Cataclysm War | Chapter 14: Essence of Freedom (First Draft)
🕑 Added 2025-12-30 02:20:49 +0000 UTCWednesday, July 20, 4 S.E.
AETHERIUM STORE
Welcome to the [Aetherium Store], Leonidas!
An ideal selection of items has been curated for your perusal by the [Guild Administrator]!
All selections are subject to [Purchase Priority]!
Cloudstep Boots
[Quality]: Rare
[Price]: 65 Aetherium
[Requirement]: 30 Intelligence
[Effects]: Walk on Air, 30 Mana per Step
Crown of Displacement
[Quality]: Epic
[Price]: 120 Aetherium
[Requirement]: 25 Intelligence
[Effects]: Teleport 30 Feet for 50 Mana
Acceleration Cloak
[Quality]: Epic
[Price]: 115 Aetherium
[Requirement]: 25 Endurance
[Effects]: Triple Body Speed for 35 Stamina per Second
Sky Leap Sabatons
[Quality]: Rare
[Price]: 85 Aetherium
[Requirement]: 30 Strength
[Effects]: Leap 25 feet for 50 Stamina
Manastorm Pinions
[Quality]: Epic
[Price]: 120 Aetherium
[Requirement]: 40 Willpower
[Effects]: Take flight upon the tides of Mana for 10 Mana per Second
Leonidas stared at the presented options with a low whistle of satisfaction, glancing up at Sinalthria, who smirked knowingly at him. His eyes moved across the items one at a time, reading the truncated descriptions, before he looked back up to the Guild Mistress again.
“I have two questions,” he said in English, while Synthra struggled not to look frustrated—failing miserably, in fact—and Bardulf glanced between Leonidas and Sinalthria with quiet amusement.
“Ask them,” the elder dragonblood replied affably in English.
“The options here, I’m guessing they’ll bind to me somehow, right? [Cloudstep Boots], [Sky Leap Sabatons], [Crown of Displacement], [Acceleration Cloak], and [Manastorm Pinions]. The only option in that list that isn’t a piece of clothing or armor is the wings.”
Sinalthria smiled at his deductions while Synthra’s jaw fell open at the announced list of options, and she cast a withering look at her mother. Bardulf, in comparison, just smirked and shook his head in a ‘such is life’ manner, while shrugging at the Sorceress.
“You are right, Achilles. You will need to bind each of those items, even the pinions, if you are to proceed with the purchase.” Sinalthria said while ostensibly ignoring her daughter, who was starting to chew on her nail angrily—almost sulkily.
She almost looks cute.
“That’s why each of them has a slot marker, sure, but what about the Pinions?” he asked instead of commenting, and put Synthra’s strange accidental charm out of his mind. His thoughts about the redhead had been jumbled since that moment of presumed connection. “They say ‘Spine’, not ‘Back’ or ‘Cloak’ like the—”
“MOTHER!” Synthra burst out finally. “You gave him a graft? Those are the rarest treasures! Even if he is a Strategic Keystone, you can’t just—”
“Can’t?” Sinalthria cut in, voice dangerously calm. “Are you instructing me what I can and cannot do, my beloved daughter, after you took it upon yourself to speak for the guild using my name as a means of validity?”
Synthra froze at her mother’s words, and Bardulf flashed Leonidas a double-raised eyebrow look that was the universal sign for ‘Yikes’, looking away toward the office decor far less subtly than he likely intended.
Leonidas did not look away, however, and instead glanced between the women as Synthra matched her mother's cool stare with an impassioned glare.
“You cannot wield that against me every time you want to win an argument, mother!”
“I agree,” Sinalthria said with a colder smile, “but in this case, I can and will. You engineered this situation, Synthra, regardless of Ceruviel’s input—you made the choice. Ultimately, we must all be responsible for the choices we make, no matter how simple or complex the circumstances surrounding them are. You chose, my darling ember. You chose, and you must bear the consequences of that—such as Achilles having access to things you are not deemed worthy of.”
Synthra recoiled as if struck, and did not reply, her gaze drifting away as she turned her face and squared her shoulders to stare out at the window again.
“Now,” Sinalthria said, looking back to Leonidas as if nothing had happened. “As stated, the [Manastorm Pinions] are a graft. This means that you will need to fuse them with your nervous system to use them at all.”
“How does that work with my armor?” Leonidas asked immediately.
“Notice that the wings are energy-based? They will appear outside of your warplate, ah… what is the word…”
“Synergistically,” Synthra said quietly, sounding as if she were chewing something. Probably her nail again, if her elevated right hand was any indication.
“Thank you, dear,” Sinalthria said calmly as Bardulf suppressed a smile and shrugged at Leonidas as if to say ‘business as usual’ for the mother-daughter pairing. “If you select the pinions and bind them, they will sprout from your back with synergistic—” she paused, waited for Leonidas to nod in confirmation, and then continued “—manifestation past your armor, without breaking it. They will use the armor itself and its bond with you as the anchor for their summoning.”
“Right,” Leonidas said thoughtfully, and looked back at the crimson System window. “The reason I asked is that I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that these slot parameters are very intentional,” he said consideringly. “Ceruviel and I never talked about it much, but I’m guessing you cannot have two items bound to the same slot of armour, just like you can’t wear two gauntlets at the same time with conventional plate.”
“Correct,” Sinalthria said with a twinkle of amusement in her slitted eyes. “If you replace a piece of equipment without paying the cost to extract the existing bonded piece, you will destroy the piece you are replacing.”
Leonidas smiled to himself at the knowledge and shook his head.
That narrowed down his options significantly. He had thought about the [Crown of Displacement] seriously; it seemed almost perfect—but losing his [Psionic Amplifier] was a net loss no matter how he looked at it. The teleportation convenience was not worth sacrificing his overall combat potency for situational mobility increase. Teleportation was fun, but it was not as powerful as a 25% flat boost to his psionic abilities.
The next most intriguing option was the [Acceleration Cloak], but despite its incredible use in both combat and repositioning, the stamina cost was too egregious. If he were a more Endurance-focused class, he’d probably have been able to justify it in a heartbeat—but with his current attributes, it’d be several levels and potentially even several tiers before he could make use of the speed boost in a way that made it superior to his Coup de Force abilities or [Chivalric Charge].
“You look to be deep in thought, Achilles!” Bardulf called cheerfully. “Would you like counsel?”
“Huh? Oh! Sure,” Leonidas said, blinking up at Bardulf from where he’d gotten lost in his thoughts. Items, he’d found, were one of the few things that truly spoke to the MMORPG gamer in him and sucked him into thought. When combined with the fact that they had reality-affecting impacts on his ability to survive, he tended to hyperfixate.
At Leonidas’ acceptance of Bardulf’s offer, Synthra also wandered over after a moment, muttering something inaudible and folding her arms under her bust once more. “Okay, what are you thinking, Achilles?” she asked without preamble, looking at him with a mix of annoyance, anger, and genuine interest.
I will never understand this girl.
“I’ve ruled out the [Cloak of Acceleration], [Sky Leap Sabatons], and [Crown of Displacement],” he said to them simply. “The cost-benefit ratio of those three is too low for me to really consider them, and I just don’t have the Attributes to properly use the Cloak, despite it probably objectively being the best fit for me after the Crown,” he explained with an idle gesture of his hand.
“That leaves the [Cloudstep Boots] and [Manastorm Pinions],” Synthra said thoughtfully, and for the first time, entirely without ire. “They both have drawbacks, however: they cost a lot of mana. I remember looking at them myself, a few days ago.”
“She is right,” Bardulf said simply. “Without a high mana reserve, the utility of these things will be greatly hindered, Achilles. Do you have a deep mana reserve?”
“I have 274 Mana total when factoring in all my bonuses. I plan to increase my Intelligence at each level as we travel to the Delve and inside of it as well, alongside raw study, so hopefully that will rise too.”
“...what sort of bonuses do you have?” Synthra asked with the most earnest interest Leonidas had ever heard from her, and no hint of hostility.
May as well extend the olive branch, I suppose. We’ll be teammates.
“My base mana is increased by a combined 125%,” he said to her with a wry smile. “I got lucky with some Achievements and—”
“Oh. I thought it would be more,” Synthra said in a completely unexpected turn of events. “I suppose it’s reasonable for a Knight Archetype, even an Archon, but Mana isn’t really your main resource anyway—it’s just a fuel-source for your Psi, at higher tiers. It makes sense you have such a low reserve.”
“Low?” Leonidas echoed in genuine surprise and looked at Bardulf for clarity.
“It is a little low, Achilles,” Bardulf said with a bracing smile. “It is far higher than mine, but I do not use mana outside of one or two key Shadowblade abilities. My primary resource is my stamina. Compared to a Sorceress like Synthra, however, or even a regular mana-centric class, your pool is relatively shallow. Deep for a Knight! But shallow compared to them.”
“Ceruviel told me I had an outstanding mana pool…” he said in disbelief.
“You do,” Synthra said with an echo of satisfaction at seemingly having found something she was not second in. “For a Knight-based Archetype, your pool is monstrous. However, compared to a mana-centric class, as Bardulf said, it is relatively shallow.”
“How much mana do you have?” Leonidas asked her directly, with a mix of disbelief and genuine curiosity.
Synthra smiled at him and lifted her chin haughtily.
“Over three times yours, and that is all I will say.”
Leonidas stared at her for a moment and then looked back at his [Aetherium Store] screen. “So you have over 800 Mana at maximum?”
“I do,” Synthra confirmed smugly.
“So, does that mean you’d like one of these items?”
The Sorceress froze at his words and then stared at him in suspicion.
“Are you taunting me, Achilles? I swear, if you are taunting me—”
“I’m not,” he said calmly and looked at Bardulf as well. “I actually have a pretty substantial Aetherium reserve thanks to my achievements and Ceruviel, and if we’re going to be a team…”
“What about Aylar?” Synthra asked cautiously. “Are you going to gift her an item, too?”
Leonidas blinked at her question, pondered it for a moment, and then shook his head after a second of consideration. “No. She has access to the Royal Reserves. I doubt she’s lacking for Store-bought equipment, especially given the nature of the Delve we’re undertaking.”
Synthra hesitated at that and then nodded with a spark of strange satisfaction in her eyes. “Then I will accept your offer, Achilles. The [Crown of Displacement] would be ideal for my combat method.”
Is she happy and embarrassed at the same time? He wondered silently, noticing Synthra’s faint blush, before Bardulf cut through his thoughts.
“I will also accept,” Bardulf said with a laugh, “if you are truly foolish enough to do so, I shall be selfish enough to reap the rewards of your generosity! After all, the only item in that list worth my interest is the [Cloak of Acceleration]. It is perfect for a Shadowblade!”
“Aren’t you worried about your brain and body desyncing due to the speed?” Leonidas asked more out of interest than genuine concern.
“I am Lycanus, Achilles. My people naturally operate at a higher level of physical awareness and cognition. Speed is what we are. We do not struggle with it until we reach a five-time increase at the minimum.”
Leonidas blinked at that and nodded in consideration before looking back at the list. “I suppose the last thing left is my own choice. The boots are thirty per step, and while I can think of ways to game that a little, it’s still a huge chunk of my reserves—and the Pinions are ten per second, but I worry that some quirks of my Core may make using them… well, unpredictable.”
“Take the [Manastorm Pinions],” Synthra said after a moment, her eyes focused on him in thought. “Those wings are formed when a particularly powerful, particularly chaotic manabeast is killed—a Storm Phoenix.”
Synthra looked at her mother, who Leonidas noticed simply smiled at her, and then the Sorceress turned back to him while Bardulf was already nodding at his side.
“The Storm Phoenix is known for its brutal and savage nature. I am quite familiar with your Core energy, Achilles, after everything, and I believe these Pinions will suit you far better than any of these other options. You will have an adjustment period, and until you reach Adept, these will probably drain twice as much mana to override the Storm Phoenix’s elemental nature—but after second tier, these will be invaluable to you. They will give you the essence of freedom when you master them. I—trust me, okay?”
Leonidas looked at Synthra for a long moment, and the Sorceress gave him a slight nod, complete with a confident little smile.
Leonidas made his choice.
I’ll trust her, he decided simply. Why not? Maybe this is a good way to move forward.
“Alright, Guild Mistress,” he said while turning back to Sinalthria, whose tail he noticed was swishing with excitement. “I suppose I have some Aetherium to burn.”
Sinalthria’s grin spread vast and predatory when he finished.
“Then the Guild would be happy to help you do so, dear Achilles.”
Synthra’s mother, he reflected with a flicker of wariness, had never looked more like a gold-loving Dragon than in that moment.
Comments
Dominick Ruiz
Tftc
dragon
Look at that, already giving her expensive gifts. Truly, he knows how to court a lady!
Bryn
Thanks for the chapter!
Kaywye
Ok, shopping episode isnt really my thing, but I get it. Glad to have it out of the way, and on to more politics and action!
Not happy JAN
Thabks for the chapter!!
Hannibal Forge
You are most welcome!
Hannibal Forge
And that about concludes the Guild sub-arc. Onto the Rite of Ascension arc transition next chapter!
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
