The flight back to Thanesh was uneventful, other than humorously watching the SIC members learn how to fly the stone platform transports, but fortunately it only took them about a half-hour for all but a few of the most hopeless of the impromptu pilots. Larek had them all set down a bit of a distance away from the city, where there weren’t any fields being actively harvested – but avoiding the fields full of food wasn’t the only reason. Despite an agreement with the General, the Fusionist wasn’t going to trust them completely, as it wasn’t that long ago that he and his friends were being targeted by the SIC. Regardless of the risks of betrayal, he didn’t think it was likely to happen; if it did, then whoever betrayed the trust he was putting in them wouldn’t live long enough to regret it.
Larek didn’t park with the other stone transports, as he touched down in the normal staging areas for the wooden transports used by the rest of the Volunteers. He needed to be able to communicate with multiple people in the organization, and this was the best way to go about it, rather than risking the Volunteers inadvertently attacking or for there to be any misunderstandings. Fortunately, by the time he officially landed and exited the damaged Hopper, those he needed to see were already running toward the vessel from the city, both Verne and Kimble using their Martial stats to the utmost to arrive quickly.
“You were successful, I assume?” Kimble asked as soon as he was close enough.
“Somewhat,” Larek answered, before launching into a quick explanation of the events in Kilvering, the ambush by Assassins, the Calamity and the Treehemoth, and the deal that they reached with the SIC. He was aided in the latter with a better description of just what that deal entailed by additional details coming from both Nedira and Bartholomew.
“And you brought them all here?” the former Faction leader and current “head” of the Volunteers asked incredulously.
“They need to recover from their ordeal, and they also need to be outfitted for what’s to come,” the Fusionist explained.
Kimble shook his head. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to let them in the city—”
“I only trust them about as far as I can throw them – which is actually a far distance, come to think of it,” Larek said, “but I do trust them to have the Kingdom’s best interests at heart. After seeing what we can provide them, they can carry out their duties much faster and with greater success, and we need them to help turn the opinions of the Factions regarding the Volunteers before anything drastic happens. It’s a win-win for both of us – as long as no one reneges on our agreement.
“If that does happen… I’ll take care of it with ruthless finality. You have my word on it.”
Kimble looked at him in the eyes for a moment before he nodded. Seconds later, he was issuing orders to the Volunteers already gathering nearby, where they would help to organize the incoming SIC members. They already had a plan in place for if—when—Larek managed to convince the Corps to join them, and they were initiating that plan already. No one had thought it would be this quick, of course, as winning over the SIC was supposed to take a little while, once the leadership was eliminated, but it was probably better this way.
“Verne! Just the person I wanted to talk to.” Larek noticed his roommate as Kimble dispersed with a huge crowd of Volunteers, followed by Bartholomew, Penelope, and Vivienne. “You would not believe what we had to fight in the northeastern Calamity…”
The young Dyran accompanied Larek, Nedira, and Norde as they made their way into the city, as they caught Verne up regarding all that had happened while he’d stayed behind in Thanesh. Once they arrived at Larek and Nedira’s warehouse-like home, Verne left to help organize some more help for the incoming SIC members. Larek, for one, was exhausted from everything they’d accomplished and wanted to get some much-needed sleep – and to finish recovering from all of the stress on his Pattern. It was already doing quite well, thanks to his Pattern Restoration Skill, but he thought that it wouldn’t be fully recovered for another few hours.
While things hadn’t worked out exactly as he expected, the outcome of their expedition up north had been fruitful – both in terms of the SIC and the Calamity, as the third of five Calamities in the Kingdom were now closed. There was a lot of follow-up work that needed to be done to ensure that it didn’t happen again, but with the Corps and hopefully the Factions on their side soon, the influence of the Volunteers and the Fusions that Larek could provide to everyone would be more than enough to maintain the status quo.
As Larek sat down heavily on his bed, he laid down and finally decided to look at all of the notifications he had been ignoring up until that point.
Pattern Restoration has reached Level 76!
…..
Pattern Restoration has reached Level 88!
You have reached Level 63 and have 39 available AP to distribute!
Pattern Recognition has reached Level 100!
…..
Pattern Recognition has reached Level 102!
Magical Detection has reached Level 107!
…..
Magical Detection has reached Level 118!
Mana Control has reached Level 114!
…..
Mana Control has reached Level 116!
Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 117!
…..
Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 122!
Dodge has reached Level 70!
…..
Dodge has reached Level 78!
You have reached Level 64 and have 78 available AP to distribute!
Body Regeneration has reached Level 74!
…..
Body Regeneration has reached Level 78!
Bladed Weapon Expertise has reached Level 76!
…..
Bladed Weapon Expertise has reached Level 81!Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Stama Subjugation has reached Level 97!
Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 100!
Speaking has reached Level 26!
…..
Speaking has reached Level 30!
Leadership has reached Level 37!
…..
Leadership has reached Level 42!
Beast Control has reached Level 66!
…..
Beast Control has reached Level 70!
Energetic Transmission has reached Level 10!
…..
Energetic Transmission has reached Level 12!
Aetheric Authority has reached Level 12!
…..
Aetheric Authority has reached Level 15!
New Spell learned!
Stone Extraction
Magnitude: Up to 200 feet in distance and 12 cubic feet in volume
Duration: Instant
Base Effect (Movement): Locates, extracts, and gathers natural stone from the ground, bringing it to the surface
Base Mana Cost: 300
Base Pattern Cohesion: 12
New Spell learned!
Form Barrier
Magnitude: Up to 100 feet in width and height; dependent on source material
Duration: Instant
Base Effect (Construct): Manipulates material to form a strong defensive barrier of caster’s chosen shape
Base Mana Cost: 350
Base Pattern Cohesion: 10
The influx of notifications was mostly normal and wasn’t too overwhelming, and he was pleased with the progress he’d made lately. He couldn’t help but notice that his Martial Skills had fallen even further behind his Mage Skills, but that was only to be expected given his penchant for Fusions. However, despite utilizing them in battle, he still managed to gain quite a few Levels in Dodge and Bladed Weapon Mastery, thanks to avoiding and slashing at roots both outside and inside the Treehemoth. His Guardian Skills had also been bumped up a bit because of his manipulation of Aetheric Force during his confrontation with the monster guarding the central Aperture.
I really got lucky with that Treehemoth and the closing of that Aperture. He had thought about it on his way back to the city, and while he had been asked multiple times how he managed to shut down the Calamity so quickly, the only explanation he could come up with was worrying. Essentially, if what he observed with his Magical Detection Skill was accurate, then the massive monster had somehow found a way to incorporate itself directly into the central Aperture, almost like a parasite with a host, which was what allowed it to grow so large and powerful. If it wasn’t for the glowing roots down below and being able to essentially poison the enormous entity, weakening it to the point where he could actually cause damage, he wasn’t sure if even a group of Gergasi could’ve destroyed it.
At least, not easily – and not quickly.
What worried him about that was whether the same thing could occur in either of the two remaining Calamities; what was the likelihood that some evolved monster would have a similar root system into which he could inject Pure Aetheric Force? Not likely, he thought. But if they were as strong as the Treehemoth had been and didn’t have such a clear weakness that he could exploit, he wasn’t sure whether he could defeat a monster like that and close the Calamities.
Then again, this was likely a one-off occurrence, and the other central Apertures in the Calamities weren’t integrated into their most powerful evolved monsters. It was the simple nature of the enormous tree that likely led to its integration into its Aperture, which then led to what happened, so he couldn’t expect them all to be as well-protected.
But that was all something he would have to worry about in the future; at the moment, he looked back at his notifications and found that he’d managed to personally Level-up – not just once, but twice. Now at Level 64, he had 78 additional AP to distribute to his stats – and he knew exactly where he was going to put them. Another 16 points in both Strength and Agility brought them up to 340, consuming 32 of his available AP; 15 points in Body, Intellect, and Acuity brought those three stats to an even 400, using 45 more of his AP.
Which left him with a single AP to stick somewhere, so he ended up adding it to Body; having a slightly stronger physical body was always nice, but it also contributed to a higher Pattern Cohesion in the end, which was always useful – especially for Fusions and manipulating his pattern with Pattern Manipulation.
As he pulled up his Status, he was shocked at what he saw. It wasn’t the increases in stats and his Level, nor even the jump in his Skills – because those he already knew about. Instead, it was his total available Aetheric Force.
Level 64
Advancement Points (AP): 19/40
Available AP to Distribute: 0
Available Aetheric Force (AF): 3,112,447
Stama: 8,500/8500
Mana: 10,000/10000
Strength: 340 [850] (+)
Body: 401 [1,002] (+)
Agility: 340 [850] (+)
Intellect: 400 [1,000] (+)
Acuity: 40 [1,000] (+)
Pneuma: 9,018 [22,545]
Pattern Cohesion: 225,450/225,450
<u>Mage Skills:</u>
Pattern Restoration Level 88
Spellcasting Focus Level 90[100]
Pattern Recognition Level 102[112]
Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 110
Focused Division Level 110
Fusion Level 115[125]
Pattern Formation Level 115[125]
Mana Control Level 116[126]
Magical Detection Level 118[128]
Pattern Manipulation Level 122
<u>Martial Skills:</u>
Ranged Weapon Expertise Level 10
Unarmed Fighting Level 13[23]
Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 15
Throwing Level 29[39]
Dodge Level 78[88]
Pain Immunity Level 20
Body Regeneration Level 78[88]
Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 81[91]
Stama Subjugation Level 97
<u>General Skills:</u>
Cooking Level 8
Writing Level 11
Bargaining Level 13
Saw Handling Level 15
Reading Level 17
Long-Distance Running Level 20
Speaking Level 30
Leadership Level 42
Listening Level 45
Beast Control Level 70
Axe Handling Level 94
<u>Guardian Skills:</u>
Energetic Transmission Level 12
Aetheric Authority Level 15
Primal Essence Mastery Level 5
I have over 3 million AF? How? He wasn’t precisely sure how much Pure AF he had pumped into the Treehemoth by the end, but he estimated that it was at least a quarter-million; if anything he should have just over a million in reserve – and definitely not three times that amount.
Larek could only assume that it came from killing so many monsters inside the Treehemoth, as well as the Treehemoth itself, but did he really receive that much? He couldn’t even remember when he might have absorbed the AF, after it was all said and done; then again, it had been extremely chaotic at the time, and he had more on his mind than absorbing Corrupted AF that his body would then purify for his own use. The fact that he didn’t feel like he was filling up his capacity, which wasn’t a definite number but which he’d slightly felt before, he could only guess was a result of his Aetheric Authority Skill rising so high. Regardless of the reason, he now had more Aetheric Force than ever before, and now that he didn’t have to spend any on increasing his maximum Skill Levels, they could be used for making animated constructs – or even as part of future Fusions. In other words, he didn’t have to fear running out anytime soon.
Shaking his head at the incredible increase in his AF reserve, the last things he looked at were the two new spells he’d learned, which had been a result of watching the SIC Geomancers create so many of the stone transports platforms. Stone Extraction was fairly straightforward, as it seemed to be able to extract quantities of stone from underground and to compile it all together as it was raised above the surface. He could see how it might be useful in a variety of Fusions, especially when combined with some other Effects.
Form Barrier was interesting, however, as there was something about it that caught his attention in the description.
“Manipulates material to form a strong defensive barrier of caster’s chosen shape”
The spell didn’t define the material as having to be stone, which meant that it could be used on just about everything. As he investigated its spell pattern, he deduced that differences in material strengths and durability could affect the cost of casting the spell, so manipulating something like iron or steel would cost more than stone or wood – but not that much more. It made him wonder for a moment why town and city walls were created from stone, if this kind of spell could be used to form a wall of metal – but then he realized that sourcing that much material would be extremely difficult, especially when stone was much more plentiful.
But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be utilized on a much smaller scale, especially as an Effect in a Fusion. The Form Barrier spell pattern didn’t allow a lot of creativity when it came to details, so a Mage would have a difficult time precisely measuring curved plates for armor, for example, as it was meant to be used as a way to form a quick barrier of plentiful available material. Or in the case of the stone circles that had been created for transports, a simple disc was easy enough to form – though Larek had noticed that none of the platforms had been exactly the same size, as they simply used whatever was extracted from the ground.
The more he thought about using the concepts behind Form Barrier, however, the more he became confident that he could use them more precisely than what a Mage could produce with the spell alone.
As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts were full of how he could utilize these new Effects to make some fun new Fusions.