Mage Tank

Chapter 239: Godslayer

I’d begun to brush up against the Revelation of the Eye’s Embrace during my wrangling of the Hysteria fragment. Xim had told me years ago that Embrace would allow me to pull people into a world of my own creation, but my recent insights led me to believe that was a flawed interpretation. Pulling people into a personal world was more or less what Xim’s dreamscape did. Embrace seemed more about exerting authority over another person’s soul, but that idea felt too hostile.

My manifestation of the Eye’s abilities were mainly helpful, not harmful, although they could be deployed offensively with some creative thinking. See gave me information, while Reveal shared that information. What I’d done to the fragment had been a direct display of dominance, and I was left wondering how something like that could be used to the benefit of its target.

The obvious conclusions felt paternalistic, like ‘protecting’ someone from themself. The truth probably lay in something more collaborative, like pulling someone into a mental sandbox for training. That still didn’t quite fit, and I started exploring the idea that it had to do with manipulating information somehow. It was something I mulled over during our time in the Third Layer.

I’d also made other advancements while we worked on solving the Hysteria problem. When I wasn’t diving into people’s souls or helping an ally develop their own part of the solution, I’d worked on Wandmaking. I couldn’t commit full-time hours to the skill but with my racial bonus doubling my leveling speed for crafting, I managed to snag the Level 10 evolution.

Only one option really stood out to me.

Mana Capacitors

The mana capacity of wands you create is increased by an amount equal to your Wandmaking skill level, and the mana capacity of staves you create is increased by twice that amount.

This took the mana capacity of my wands from fifteen to twenty-five. Not a massive amount on its own, but that number would swiftly rise and there was no rule saying I couldn’t carry around a dozen wands.

The second option allowed me to make wands into weapons like fancy shivs or daggers, with a boost to durability since they were still made of some kind of wood. That was cool, but not what we needed. I preferred to have dedicated items that were each optimized for their use case, rather than a single item that was just okay at multiple tasks. I thought the idea of shooting a surprise fireball out of a pocket knife was pretty neat, but equally impractical.

I had enough downtime to crank out ten wands with the augmented capacity from my new evo, four of which stored a single cast of Explosion!

Nuralie got a couple of Elemental Barrier wands, mainly for the pushback effect if she got swarmed. I also made her a wand for her Target Analysis skill. Her mana pool was pretty limited, so this would help her get more use out of the ability.

Etja got an upgraded Shortcut wand that could store up to five uses. I’d been a little worried about whether Etja could use such a wand since she didn’t have the Sacrament of the Dread Star and thus didn’t meet the spell’s requirements. Fortunately, when imbuing the skill into a wand, it dropped both the Deific effect and the Sacrament requirement. Xim then helped me create wands of Heal and Cleanse for the mage, granting her a healthy expansion to her repertoire and something to do with all of her hands.

Varrin didn’t get a wand.

Not because I was feeling mean. The big guy’s chain of Physical Magic evolutions gave him bonuses for not using mana, and casting with a wand would still count as using mana. Also, his casting stats were kind of shit for our Level so there weren't many spells he could have used anyway.

By the end of all that, my Wandmaking was up to Level 11.

The major drawback of wands was that the spells they stored were basic. They couldn’t be mana-shaped, the limited mana pool made channeling difficult, and they weren’t considered a spell cast for combo abilities like the ones Etja’s build relied on, among other limitations.

They also needed to be properly gripped in one hand to work and still took the same length of time to activate as the imbued spell. While I could normally cast most of my spells while holding my hammer and shield, a wand would require me to store one or the other temporarily while I used it. Of course, I intended to use my tentacles from Therianthropy for any aggressive wand-ing, so I had a good way around that downside. Etja’s extra limbs would also come in handy for that purpose.

Some of these restrictions could be lessened by evolutions as my Wandmaking improved. For now, the wands were good utility and backup. I was interested in seeing how they could be built around.

After a few weeks in the Third Layer, we were working on convincing ourselves that it was time to head back and regroup. We’d burned more than three months of our six-month runway for hitting Level 16. To finish getting ready to explore Dungeons with the Littans, we’d need to clear three Delves in three months to make our goal. We still needed to visit our potential allies up north as well, and I was dead set on winning our bet. Silly hats would be worn to all important future occasions.

However, before we built up enough steam to settle on a firm return date, we got a surprise notification. After reading through it, we decided it was time to go. I called an emergency meeting via Grotto, and within a few hours everyone was back inside the Closet.

Your party has contributed to slaying the avatar Hysteria!

Your party receives the following rewards.

1) 5 Sapphire Chips

2) 5 Pinnacle Soul Essences

3) 1 Super Evolution to FOR, WIS, or LCK, up to a maximum Level of 70. This Super Evolution can be applied immediately or held in reserve for a future evolution.

The situation room buzzed with energy as we worked through the ramifications of the System’s message.

“We can assume that Avarice killed them,” said Varrin. “The System considers our obliteration of the fragment to be a contribution to their execution.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“The evidence is circumstantial but it’s a reasonable assumption,” I said. “The question I have is whether what we did was significant, or if the System tossed us a bone for tagging the avatar with one damage or something.”

[The System’s rewards are intended to be proportional to your contributions.]

“It’s a big reward,” said Xim. “Five sapphire chips is equivalent to fifty diamond chips. I have no idea what we can do with a Pinnacle Soul Essence, but it’s got to be powerful. The super evolution might be the best part, though, especially since it works up to the Level 70 breakpoint.”

“The only super we’ve gotten was from The Cage,” said Varrin. “That affected a Level 10 evolution.”

“Mine was an upgrade to one of my passive skills,” said Etja. “I don’t have any supers at all.”

“You do now,” I said.

“The sapphire chips cannot be weighed against diamond,” said Nuralie. “They are technically a ten-to-one conversion for mana capacity, but sapphire is much rarer than that ratio would suggest.”

“The demand is also much lower,” said Varrin. “There are hardly any crafters that can use them.”

“They are invaluable,” said Nuralie. “Supply and demand is an awkward valuation model for these kinds of items.”

“Either way, we’re not selling them,” I said. “Right? We’ve got some crafting skills. We should save them until we need them.”

“It’s not like we need the money,” said Xim. “How many rubies did we get from Throne’s Delve?”

“Collectively? Eight thousand or so,” I said. “I burned through about a hundred making wands.”

[Working with rarer materials will result in more efficient Levels if you are concerned about the expenditure.]

“Regardless of the size of our reward,” said Varrin, “we cannot know how significant our actions were without knowing the value of the entire reward.”

“When do sapphire chips start dropping?” I asked.

“Platinum Delves above Level 26,” Varrin answered.

“Then our contribution was worth at least one Level 27 Platinum Delve’s worth.”

“That is an unwieldy metric,” said Nuralie.

I shrugged. “It’s all we’ve got.”

“The chips, essences, and evolution are incredibly valuable,” said Varrin. “But I believe the most important reward is knowing that avatars can be killed.” A bit of heat crept into his tone. “We can hurt them now, however difficult it is.”

“True, but let’s not make any plans to go avatar hunting just yet,” I said. “This was an exceptional situation. It took a lot out of all of us, and could have just as easily gone the other way.”

“Regardless, we are on the correct path,” he said. “We should seek out Avarice to ask her how she ended Hysteria.”

“She’ll come to us eventually,” said Xim. “She wants those Dread Star questions. Speaking of, are you ready to use the one you have banked?”

I blew out a breath. “Nope. I’ve been waiting for the soul shit to get fully resolved before giving it serious thought. I can start making a list of potential questions to run by you guys.”

The group seemed amicable to that idea.

“Does Hysteria being dead change anything for us?” asked Etja.

“Eh, I don’t think so,” I replied. “It’s important, we should keep it in mind when Avarice comes to visit, and we should consider what skills and abilities helped with the fragment as we continue moving forward with our builds.”

“What worked on Hysteria will not necessarily work for other avatars,” said Nuralie.

I tilted my head from side to side, trying to decide if we’d learned any general principles from our time with the fragment. It was hard to know if anything useful could be extrapolated without going after another avatar.

“They all seem to have souls,” said Xim. “Killing a fragment of spiritual essence also affected Orexis.”

“We do not know if it did,” said Nuralie. “The fragment itself was susceptible to spiritual attacks, but slaying the specter of Orexis may not have impacted the whole.”

We sat in silence for a time, each of us privately considering how we could continue on the path of avatar slaying. Eventually, Xim sat forward to break the trance.

“Is anyone using their super evolution immediately?” she asked.

“I’m not,” said Etja. “I’ll wait until I get Wisdom to 70.”

“It would seem a waste to spend it on anything less,” said Varrin.

“Agreed,” I added. “Let’s keep thinking over how we can use this information. In the meantime, we should get ready to head back into the Wastes and meet Avarice’s potential allies.” I rapped my knuckles against the table in a brief rhythm. “I want to check in with Joma before we head back out, though. Now that I know how to dive into someone’s soul and look for long-term manipulation, I want to see if Hysteria was forcing her to act when her party attacked us.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Etja. “We shouldn’t keep people prisoner if they were mind controlled into doing something bad.”

[Throne, Vaulty, and I also have some insights to share concerning the Zng armory you looted. The materials will be quite useful to us.]

“Nuralie, want to go check that out while I speak to Joma?” The loson nodded and I turned to Etja. “Want to come along while I talk to our resident Yeti?”

“Sure!” she said. “I can be a friendly face since she’s scared of you.”

“You think so?”

“You terrify her,” said Nuralie.

“Huh,” I grunted. “Well, I’m not going to lose any sleep over that, but I’ll try not to do anything intimidating. Especially if it turns out she was under the influence.”

“I will review the armory with Nuralie,” said Varrin.

“Yeah, me too,” said Xim. “I’m always up for looking over our horde.”

*****

Etja and I teleported into the Pocket Delve to find ourselves with front-row seats to a thunderous fight.

We were in the large cave that served as the battleground for Nottagator to challenge any Delvers who’d survived the rest of the Delve’s various hazards. A horde of freshly raised Abyssal Gekkogs crawled along the ceiling, looking down at the action playing out across the small lake and field of deadly spikes.

Joma was a silver blur, dancing from spike to spike and avoiding the swiping claws of Nottagator’s forward appendages. The Atrocidile barked, releasing a shockwave of sonic energy, but Joma leaped a hundred feet into the air, nearly kissing the stalactites above. She rotated and rushed forward fast enough for the air to crackle at her passing, but too slow to catch Nottagator by surprise.

The giant abomination swung its tail, aiming to slug Joma like a bullet-speed baseball, but the three-foot-tall Yeti brought her palms forward and slapped the tail, flipping over it without harm. She did a rapid series of front flips, landing in a split with each foot along the side of a different menacing floor spike.

Her thighs flexed as she rooted herself in place, then swung a fist at Nottagator’s hind quarter. A burst of force slung across the short distance between the pugilist and her target, slamming into the thick, scaly muscle at the top of Nottagator’s rearmost leg. A vaporwave pulsed out into the air from the impact, and the indent of a tiny fist could be seen in the Atrocidile’s thick hide.

Nottagator let out another bark, louder and less focused, creating a sonic boom that propagated in all directions. I raised my shield and stepped in front of Etja, batting that attack away and cutting through the shockwave. The force wrenched Joma from between the spikes, forcing the Yeti to take a moment to catch her balance.

“Should we… do something?” asked Etja.

I took a close look at the duo, evaluating the fight as Nottagator took advantage of Joma’s stagger. Its tail swept back around, crashing through the spikes and sending Joma, along with a spray of rocky shrapnel, launching through the cavern and into the far wall. Satisfied with what I saw, I shook my head.

“No, I think we can let ‘em tussle for a bit longer.”