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

Floop floop floop, the toadstool heads of them were hacked clean through by a Heavy Blade no normal person could swing. Their dying cries brought out the second of the bigger ones from inside, complete with Acid Bolt magic spraying before it. Kris lopped off the arms, then through the stalk of the other, its pale sappy blood leaking out as Quaver ignored any stickiness and hacked on through.

Her Null easily dealt with the magic. Twelve seconds later, the other Guard Thrungus was down and in pieces.

I set them all on vivus, having no desire to see them recycled to feed the spores growing inside, while Kris walked inside to take a look around. I heard her creaking about, politely letting me know approximately where she was, and then a curse and chokchokchok sounds rang out as she chopped into something urgently.

“Burn it all!” she called out from the inside, disgust all over in her voice.

Well, it would probably advertise our position to those interested, but why not?

Fiery Darts exploded over wood and the fungoid material used to patch them, and soon enough the building began to burn down thoroughly... and Burn as well, as the unnatural mushroom fibers went up nicely en vivus, and the snow wouldn’t stop the misty flames at all...

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We retreated to the island in the middle of the river. Actually, she balanced effortlessly on the branch of an elder oak growing tall enough to look down at the spans, and I just leaned back on a second Disk while we got our two hours of rest and Meditation in. I was Sustained by Ring, she by Vajra, it amounted to the same thing.

“Those mounds were disgusting,” she grit her teeth.

“How many remains?” I asked knowingly.

“They’d built a massive one up through the floor from the basement. I couldn’t see the bottom down there, but there were at least forty in my range. Not all human, multiple species, animal and bipedal.”

“Opportunistic little fellows, aren’t they?” I asked rhetorically, as we watched the flames pour smoke into the sky. I didn’t know if something would investigate, but it would be pretty stupid not to.

Then again, it was night-time. I wondered if another group of shades would come along to investigate, but other creatures might not want to dare the night. Both of us had excellent night-vision, so stumbling into Summons wasn’t going to happen, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t for others.

“That’s the kind of put-spirits-at-rest thing you can earn some nice Karma for,” she mused aloud.

“That hungry for it?” I had to needle her.

“The Rantha Hag Racial Class sucks up all the Karma we can throw at it,” she admitted. “All of the Stat raises over +6 are priced at Legendary levels. You know what that means?”

“Other than you get built-in magical Stat raises that exceed +6?” She just gave me a shit-eating unapologetic grin. “Gross 36k for +6 gold-equiv advances tenfold to 490k for +7 Stats, and its plus one million for breaking Ten Slots on Gear or Caster Level 20 on other items, as I recall?” I replied easily.

She sent me a funny look. “Did they learn that back on Terra-Luna?” she asked quickly.

“Yes. Aelryinth both asked the Archmage’s holo-ghosts about them, and confirmed other details with the World-Angel assigned to the planet.”

“Well, this is the Rantha Hag Racial Class.” She touched her bracelet, which popped up an easy Holo in front of us, dim and pale in the moonlight.

I had to whistle, and Mira mentally pointed and flapped her lips in disbelief. “Damn, Princess, that is a Legendary Racial Class, taking you all the way to Twenty, maybe beyond. Just look at those Stat mods!” I just shook my head in disbelief, pointing. “You have Fast Healing AND Regeneration/Holy Silver?” I asked, stunned.

She beamed. “Oh, yeah, making Six was VERY important!” she agreed. “But Six and Seven are also when a lot of the Eternal-class pricing kicks in. It takes a very long time to apply that much Karma, and there’s no progressing beyond Seven until we actually pay for all those Stats. So, I’m an Eight Melee Prime and an Eight Hag, because I’m limited to how much Karma I can pay to advance those Stats. I haven’t managed to raise a single one as yet.”

“You’re only able to assign a thousand gold-equiv a day? Like a magic item?” I asked her.

“That’s right. Which means it takes years and a LOT of conflict to power them all up.”

“I won’t disagree with the latter, but... that’s a Legendary Racial Class, Kris. That means you’re automatically eligible for Legendary Feats, just as if you had the True Exemplar Template, or something.” She glanced at me, not understanding. “You can take Legendary Feats applicable to your Racial Class. Like, oh, Legendary Crafting, which allows you to Infuse 10k a day in gold-equivs. Either that or a parallel Feat should allow you to do the same for your Stats.”

She stared at me as if I’d grown a second head. “Are you sure about that?” she asked in disbelief.

“99% sure, yeah. If this was something you were acquiring as you go, no. But you already HAVE the Racial Class, it’s a part of you. Like being born a demigod, as opposed to buying up demigod brand-new as you go. One is filling in an empty mold, the other is buying and building the mold and filling it as you go.

“Try and take it, if you have the Karma floating. You had a productive day, after all.”

“I don’t...” She actually flinched so hard she jumped a foot off the tree branch, a side-effect of a marvelous strength-to-weight ratio. “HOLY SHIT!” she gasped in shock.

“Pat the little magos on the head for all her inherited knowledge base,” I said drolly, and she precisely reached out and did just that to me, beaming eight-canines widely.

“You’ve GOT to tell my folks about this!” she told me urgently.

“I will do so, when I reach Nine and can Send something out,” I agreed generously. “There’s already a dimensional connection, so there should be no issues, especially with your familiarity with them.”

“How are you going to work that in with a Null?” she wondered.

“Share Marks and a Markspace? I’m actually surprised your Markspace isn’t working here, or you wouldn’t have said that.”

She blinked again, and then swore under her breath. “You even know about the Marks? Now I feel like an idiot waiting to offer one to you...” She tugged up her shirt, and around her sinuously muscled perfect waist was the Tatted belt of softly glowing emblems, dark and rather savage-looking, but filled with moderate colorless light.

“I hadn’t moved it into my nasal cavity yet.” I lifted up the back of my hair and turned my neck to her. She peered at it with great interest.

“That’s a Greater Intellect Mark, and you’re filling it with-?” she tilted her head in surprise, slapping her palm to the matching Mark on her waist, where it transferred to her hand.

“Sacred Energy, as opposed to typeless, like you have.”

“Ohhh, wouldn’t that be nice to do.” She promptly placed her hand gently on my neck, and the two Marks synched up with an actual jolt and spark of similar origins and styles, a minor conflict of energies.

The Markdoor popped up in my mind. I pushed it open, and stepped over into her mindspace.

It was... distressingly empty. I could see dozens of Markdoors sitting cool and empty there, once probably lively and filled with constant discourse, now utterly silent and absent. The sense of loneliness that pervaded her mind was impossible to miss, and her absolute delight as her mental attention fixed on me was unfeigned.

-Oh! Oh, this is wonderful!- she /chirped happily, dashing right on up and taking my mental hands. -You’re Gold already!- She was a bit amazed, as my hue was a bit harder than even her own. For all that she had some merciless hard edges to her, she wasn’t as close to Good as a Powered could be, and I’d been shaved off a Fifteen with Levels in Cleric, as well as being a Heavenbound and Favored of Mithar. I was simply far, far more attuned to what Good actually meant than she was.

She was much brighter than I was, being a Melee and Racial Eight, just a lot more depth to her than I had currently. But the haze of Karma attached to me was impossible to miss, it simply couldn’t be applied all at once.

She did stare at me a moment, fully aware that she was stronger and Deeper than I was right now, but if I could apply all that Karma, I’d likely be well past her. It was a bunch of Karma to put in!

-And you have a second thoughtstream already?- she /protested enviously. Getting one as a Three was quite an accomplishment, although I could see she had one as well, benefit of Marks and more Class Levels.

-Don’t even get me started. I saw those Racial Levels!- I /groused right back at her, and she grinned. -I’m assuming those are your folks.- I pointed at two ornate mental doors, replete with the familiarity and energy of much frequent use, surrounded by a half-dozen other Markdoors of similar use, if not power. -I can just Send along those connections, without any problem, when it’s time.-

Her grateful smile was unfeigned, and then turned mischievous. -You know, if this takes a while, I might even catch up to and pass their Racial Class!- she /remarked cunningly.

-It’s like having a magos around is useful or something. Speaking of which, did you take your Forsaken Matrix Classes?- I /inquired of her.

-I... no, I have not. It was low on priority, as we couldn’t share Matrix energy, and Nogging was secondary to paying our Rantha Class bonuses. We can’t Nog ourselves up until those bonuses are paid, for some reason, and it wasn’t that important, anyways. Cheaper and easier to use the Marks...-

-I won’t contest your right to spend Matrix Slots for Nog purposes, but I am right here and able to draw on your Matrix if we bond,- I /pointed out calmly.

Her mental eyes /twinkled. -You’re moving fast for a prissy conservative Gharu’n wonderfrau!- she /laughed.

-Aelryinth was Bondmage to his bodyguard Eddie, so I’m not unfamiliar with the status.- And, startling her a little bit, I leaned into her mental image, tunking mental heads. -And admit it, you want a relationship with a friendly mage who is an equal and doesn’t look down on Forsaken.-

Her mental eyes /sparkled. -You know we’re Hags, not virgins, right?- she /teased me back.

-The Sama back home is loved, feared, and reviled by the Amazons, because she has absolute dominance over their beloved Commander Briggs, and because if they whine too much, she proves to them why,- I /sniffed right back.

Her expression warped a bit at that news, and then she burst out into the familiar Hag cackle that showed just how funny she thought that was. -I am so going to enjoy working with you, Magos Ryin!- she /declared firmly.

-Friends are always good things to have, Princess!- I /winked at her, and she just cackled at me softly in real life this time.