Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“Please do. More tests are what we need to understand this place. The primary creatures I ran across in this area are drudges, who are big-eyed, oval-headed humanoids of several subspecies, who meep most annoyingly; shreth, spiked four-hooved predators like leather-hided ape-things; reedsharks, three-legged predators with frilled crests; some really nasty versions of giant rats; and phyntos wasps, which are the size of eagles.” It was my turn to quirk an amused smile at her. “Also, they increase the Isparian Karma meter.”

The Princess Rantha blinked at me. “Are you serious?” she asked in astonishment.

“Dead. Now... picture those Summons spread anywhere from fifty to a hundred yards apart, all across the landscape.”

She looked at me, lifted her eyes to the forest nearby, turned around to look at everything.

“There’s a relatively clear zone around this settlement, and they don’t seem to pop near the houses I investigated. However, natural animals aren’t so restricted.”

“That is an unbelievable amount of magical power,” she muttered aloud.

“Think of it like the power grid of the city, and I’m just standing on one of the electrical outlets, and the Summons are like street lamps.”

Her cheek twitched. “Gods in Heaven. How much magical power would that take?”

“A lot. Of time, power, investment, everything. The sheer scale... and we don’t know how big it is.”

“Or why they did it.”

“Technically? But we can probably assume from the fact they were kidnapping unaffiliated sapients from another plane to come here, and said sapients were allowed to build homes and cities, and have children, engage in trade, and so forth.”

She frowned, thinking about that and the alternatives. “Not slaves, then. A fighting force.” She looked over sharply. “With convenient enemies to practice on, who give out Karma!” she hissed.

“If you consider some of the standing Summons around the city to attack anything that gets close to them, that includes pests and predators. So, guards more than threats, because they don’t move much from where they are Summoned, except to charge to attack.”

She nodded sharply again. “What about gladiatorial purposes? Entertainment?”

“It amounts to the same thing,” I shrugged. “You can see the ruined main buildings over there, and there’s more up top the hill there, and down the hill further. They are Aluvian in design and style. You bring people in for a work force or a fighting force. Whether you take that fighting force and bring it elsewhere to fight, or you watch them fight for entertainment, it’s still bringing people here to fight.”

“And everyone got used enough to the presence of these Summons to just roll with the system,” she nodded shortly. “Those who wanted to get better at fighting could go fight as many as they wished every day... but that would get boring and lose its challenge quickly.” She looked thoughtfully away.

“I didn’t get far enough from the city to see if the Summons stepped up a tier in danger and difficulty, but I would not be surprised if they did,” I agreed with her. “I was actually planning on staying here a while, watching over the dungeon there and using this place to get in rep counts. I expect olthoi scouts – those are the walking bugs – to come by at some point. The thrungus, the mushroom things, shouldn’t come back after vivus washed the place of them, their fertilizer, and their spores.”

“But the shades should come investigate what happened to this team,” she said slowly. “Meaning danger is coming here.”

“And you’ve shut off the Portals bringing unprepared Isparians here to be slaughtered and turned into mushroom fodder. So, there’s not much reason to stay, save for an incredibly convenient mana source I absolutely want to exploit to the fullest.”

“Tyranny of Rep Counts,” she nodded once. “I understand the idea. How good is it?”

“I get a free rep basically every twelve seconds with Silver Mana Renewal going. That’s three hundred reps an hour.”

“Whoa. That is insanely good...” she murmured, impressed, and looking at the ground thoughtfully. “That is better than the Transfer spells, unless you’re Casting Gold!”

“Ah.” The way I said it made her look at me sharply. “The Transfer spells don’t work here. At all.”

“Oh? Ohhhhhh...” The Transfer spells were everything. Stamina came back far faster than mana did, just requiring you lay down, sit, or stand around. “Wow, that makes managing mana very important. I thought you just liked not having to lay down...”

“If I had the Transfer spells, I’d not care about this place at all,” I affirmed. “Without them, this is godly.”

“How long do you need?” she asked reasonably.

“I have twelve Metas, two of which are +II and I can’t make Practical as yet. I’m done with Sacred Spell, so nine more. Fifteen hours of Casting.”

“Ugh. Have fun, I guess?” She stood up, looking into the forest, back at the town, weighing which way to go.

“If you go down the hill, careful of the pedestal. If there’s a drudge statue on it, that’s a Construct that I think is meant to defend the town, and is going off on anything it sees. Use Acidphasing if you have it.”

“Or an adamantine Weapon?” she asked lightly.

“I have no opinion. The stuff here has insane Health totals. That Shard array I hit the big Shade with? That was a good four hundred points of damage, Highness.”

She whistled shortly. “And I still had to One Strike him, and AoO him three times, with full Sneak Attack damage! I couldn’t even feel any Damage Reduction at work, and I cut right through his Force Armor. Damn, that is really, really tough...”

“And how many times did you hit the female?” I went on. “I don’t know your math, but you smacked her at least eight times?”

She nodded absently. “As you said, dangerous,” she agreed. “Also, you can call me Kris, I’m not going to play the princess card on you. How do I call you, since you aren’t the missing apprentice?”

“Ryin is fine.”

“Ryin it is.” I straightened up from my stance to take her extended hand. “Partners in exploring this new world, and tracking down the corrupt daughter of a corrupt mother?”

“I would be pleased to do so!” I agreed cheerfully. “It’ll be nice having the best of meat shields in the way!” I admitted happily.

She just grinned, the vivid scarring on the side of her face giving it a newly savage air. “I’m going to go looking for some of these Summons points to test them, but not too far off. I’ll be back shortly, and wait around until daylight while you practice.”

“Good! Let me get to it!” I ordered my Slots and No Materials, and began Casting promptly, burning a II Valence with every spell, but requiring no material components.

The Meta did not actually demand a +I Valence cost, but I was pretending it did for another reason.

I wanted it to apply to my Isparian spells!

No Materials meant I could ignore cheap component costs on the Casting of all my spells. It was a staple of having Sorcerer Levels.

I wanted it to apply to all the fancy components of my Isparian Magic, which meant I had to treat it like a full Meta! I probably wouldn’t be able to give up using the scarabs, but the rest of the stuff?

I could definitely do away with it all! And if I was right, and the Crystal scarabs were some sort of universal component, well, I had hundreds of them, versus less than a hundred combined of ALL the other scarabs. I’d need to learn the base spells and components to know what to do, but once I had the proper formulas, tapers or whatnot, I should basically be able to dispense with most of them.

That would be hugely liberating, and remove a real worry.

Moreover, it should provide a clear pathway for working on my Metas with Isparian Magic, which should mean I could immediately start working on higher Valences. I would have to pay higher costs for doing so, but that was fine with me, Rep Counts waited for nobody!

Humming happily as I began the process of reducing the costs of my Metas to nothing or +I, and the stacking possibilities that would result therefrom, my first Force Disk manifested. I began to cycle through my spells for variety, and began to sub in Iron spells directly, working out how they applied and how to use them on Isparian magic, too.

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I took a two-hour break near midnight, then stayed at it as time went on and the sky lightened in the east.

No Material for free on my I’s. No Words for free. No Hands for free. Delimit Spell for free. Sanctified Spell for free...

Kris came back and dozed on the other side of the Henge while I practiced, only stirring when Natural Renewal came across the land.

Mira went on her flurry of Karmic Investitures. I popped Karma into my Ring and my Mark, and I picked my next Level.

Arcane Theurge/1, tying Sorcery and Wizardry together into a greater whole. Very pointedly, it should allow me to recharge Spell Engrams, just like I could Spell Slots, basically turning all my Wizard Spells into faux Spells Known! I could also Burn a Spell Engram for the juice to Cast a Sorcery Spell, or Cast a Wizard Spell with a Sorcerer Slot.

It also made my Wizard Caster Level 4, for now.

Only I’s for now, however.

It also permanently made one of my Wizard Spells that I knew a Spell Known, and I had to pick which one. Phantom Servant made the cut, meaning I didn’t need to puzzle it out anymore.

I could use more spell diversity, but everything in time.

For a Feat, I picked Vivic Spell. At +I, I could train it down to +0, and thus have a vivus Kicker on ALL my attack spells, instead of just a Dart.

More importantly, the +1d6 of vivic damage, while it wouldn’t work against a lot of stuff, it did clean up the dead and alien energies, AND, importantly, it gave the spell the Healing descriptor.

That meant Augment Healing triggered on it, and specifically should work off the Isparian spells I connected to them. It might not be much, but another +2 to +8 damage to everything hit by a Shard would be nice.

Everything going up slowly, but it was going up.

I still had Banespell, Vivic Spell, Reach Spell, Extend Spell, and Toppling Spell to work on, which was almost nine hours more of work. I’d not be done until the afternoon.

It was fine. Once I was done, all those Metas would be free... which meant I could attach a +II Meta for nothing, and a second +II Meta for a Valence boost, or Penetrating Spell for the same.

Split Ray and Energized Spell combined would give my Shards firepower one HELL of a damage kick...