Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Sucking my Thumb and Humming

Chapter 9: Sucking my Thumb and Humming

 

“Well, it shouldn’t matter what awakening stone you use, since your weapon can invoke the effects of a conjured weapon. Very convenient.” Amara nodded in approval.

“That’s what you first notice? Really?” Chelsea groaned at Amara’s selective attention. “Not the ‘transfigured by the Reaper’ part?”

“He’s just some Great Astral Being in charge of all the dead across the cosmos?” Nara responded nonchalantly.

“How would you know that?”

“My imaginary friend told me. Back in the astral.”

“How can your imaginary friend tell you something you don’t know yourself!”

“I don’t know, my [Guide] tells me stuff like that all the time. It’s magic.”

“Okay.” Chelsea said, taking a deep, slow, breath. “Magic may be new to you, but it does have rules.”

“Sometimes, it has rules.” Amara said. “I have broken a few.”

“Not helping.”

“You have an imaginary friend?” asked Redell lightly to mask his concern.

“Ah. I haven’t seen him since I came here. And by ‘here’ I mean physical reality. He may not be imaginary.”

“May not?”

“It’s fifty-fifty. Still not sure that I’m not just dreaming, or curled up in an insane asylum, sucking on my thumb and humming “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.”

Redell’s grey eyes locked onto Nara’s, and she looked away, aware that she was being evasive despite claiming to want therapy.

“Nara.”

“Yes.”

“We will talk about this later.”

She nodded weakly.

 

 

Amara placed an assortment of awakening stones on the table in the sitting area beside the ritual area. As usual, Nara inspected all of them and their information was added to her archives.

Amara brought a few forward to emphasize them. “To start, awakening stone of the sword, awakening stone of the eye, and the awakening stone of reach. If everything goes well, an awakening stone of the magus, an awakening stone of song, and an awakening stone of the moment.”

Nara nodded, pretending as if she understood what was expected.

Chelsea rolled her eyes and explained to Nara, noticing her blank expression. “Amara expects the sword to give you a conjuration ability, self-explanatory. The eye commonly awakens perception abilities. For the reach, we can expect a ranged spell or special ability, or perhaps a movement ability. For the magus, a spell is all but guaranteed. The awakening stone of the song commonly awakens buffing abilities or boons. The awakening stone of the moment could almost be any sort of ability related to timing or time.”

“That will be ten abilities in total, including your original four.” Added Redell. “After some more assessment, we can move on from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Amara had stood up and quickly drew out an awakening stone ritual. In contrast to the essence ritual, it was far simpler. “Stones can only be absorbed one at a time,” she said, “so we will have to do this quite a few times.”

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You have awakened Dimension Essence Ability, [Dimension Sword]. You have awakened 2 of 5 Dimension Essence Abilities.

You have awakened Mystic Essence Ability, [Gaze of the Boundary]. You have awakened 2 of 5 Mystic Essence Abilities.

You have awakened Dimension Essence Ability, [Dimension Node]. You have awakened 3 of 5 Dimension Essence Abilities.

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Without any prompting, Nara displayed the three abilities to the group.

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Dimension Sword

Conjuration (dimension)

Cost: Moderate mana

Cooldown: None

Effect (iron): Conjures [Horizon’s Edge, the [Boundary Blade]]. Normal and special attacks made with Horizon’s Edge deal dimension damage and will inflict an instance of [Dimensional Instability] and [Dimensional Rupture]. Horizon’s Edge can be made incorporeal at will.

• [Dimensional Instability] (affliction, dimension, stacking): All dimension damage taken is increased. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
• [Dimensional Rupture] (dimension): Deals additional damage proportional to current instances of [Dimensional Instability].

 

Gaze of the Boundary

Special Ability (Perception)

Cost: None

Cooldown: None

Effect (iron): Perceive dimensional boundaries and dimension effects.

 

Dimension Node

Conjuration (dimension, teleport)

Cost: Low mana

Cooldown: None

Effect (iron): Conjure a [Dimension Node], a locus for dimension effects, costing low mana. [Dimension Nodes] are incorporeal. A maximum of 6 [Dimension Nodes] can exist simultaneously. If another [Dimension Node] is conjured while the maximum number of [Dimension Nodes] already exist, the oldest [Dimension Node] will be replaced, unless another is selected. You can change the location of a conjured [Dimension Node] for a low mana cost. You can teleport to any [Dimension Node] and within a short range of the node for a low stamina and mana cost. Abilities and attacks can be cast or teleported through [Dimension Nodes].

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“I do have an idea of where this seems to be going.” Chelsea said after her initial observation. “It appears so far you are an evasive escalating damage attacker.”

“Considering your soul-bound weapon,” said Amara, “you’ll likely awaken some more buffing abilities as we anticipated.”

Nara wasn’t listening well to their explanations. After her perception ability awakened, her senses once again increased in strength. She could also see and feel dimensions more clearly than ever, not just with her eyes, but with all of her senses. She used her [Astral Domain] ability and slipped her hand through the dimensional membrane into the astral. It felt tangible. She could tug on it and apply pressure, yet it felt simultaneously mutable and permeable, like water.  Sharpening her senses on the membrane, she could sense the flow of magic from the astral to the physical. The very flow of magic that saturated the world, and materialized in the form of monsters, essences, quintessence, and awakening stones.

“Please.” Chelsea said in a strained voice, “could you avoid playing with the dimensional membrane of our world right in front of me?”

“’Kay,” Nara said absentmindedly, “I’ll do it out of your sight next time.”

“No.”

“You can do it with me later!” Amara added gleefully.

 Redell patted Chelsea’s back. “At least she will have supervision.”

 

“Let’s get back on track.” Said Amara. “The awakening stone of the reach did not awaken quite what we expected, but it suits your weapon and current abilities well.”

Nara nodded at her amendment.

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“Dimension Node…For one, it’s a teleportation ability with no cooldown. You’ll need to test out its range, but it will allow you to set up an easy path of retreat as well as a way to quickly assault opponents. You can also shift your weapon to bow form, and use it to get some quick, ranged attacks from unexpected directions to build up your afflictions and increase your damage.” Chelsea provided her analysis as well.

Amara built off of Chelsea’s analysis, “It has great applications for range extension. However, outside of your bow, you have no inherently ranged abilities. Your perception ability is… very interesting. Can you see your nodes?”

Abilities were instinctual, and I placed a node at the far end of the room, away from the ritual circle. “Yeah, I can sense and see them clearly. How about you guys?”

“We can all sense them, but we have high rank senses.” Said Chelsea. “For someone of your rank or just one above, they will have trouble sensing them since they aren’t inherently dangerous. You are what make them dangerous.”

“In the chaos of a group battle, they may have to use an area disruptive force attack to destroy them, if you keep changing their positions. Which may cost them more mana than it takes for you to conjure them. Either they will give up on destroying your nodes, or dedicate a portion of their spells and mana to do so.”

“You have a weakness.” Said Laius. “Teleportation-restriction.”

“Ah.”

“Ah, what?” Said Chelsea.

“I never showed it to you guys.”

Nara displayed the details of [Free Spirit] to the group.

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[Free Spirit]

• Language adaptation.
• Essence, awakening, and skill book absorption.
• Immunity to identification, tracking, and teleportation-restriction effects.

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“By the gods.” Said Redell.

“Well.” Nodded Amara, “That clears some questions up. No wonder your abilities lean heavily into evasiveness. Your abilities are synergizing with yourself. It’s also why we can’t track you on the compound.”

“Huh.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes. “Standard array magic for compounds. Amara just combined it with a communication array. Also, if you tried to leave and got yourself killed, we could prevent it. But you never tried to leave to somewhere unsafe, and we couldn’t track you anyway.”

Chelsea had interpreted Nara’s short response as discomfort, but she was long used to having her privacy violated by companies and the government. For the crafting group to track her on their own property while she was a guest, it was a non-issue.

“We could still track you with our perception and auras. All high rankers can do that with a lower ranker.” Amara added, and Chelsea glanced at her, since she just tried to ease Nara. “You did not try to absorb an essence directly?”

“Yup.”

“Shame. It would’ve been academically interesting.” Said Amara.

“Please don’t tell our guest that it was a shame you didn’t see in her in pain for academic interest.”

“Yeah, not a fan of pain, although…” Although I may be used to it now. Nara’s sentence trailed off. Her mind briefly swam to the pain she felt from her soul torture, and she went silent.

 

Finally, she spoke again. “Can I have a hug? I like hugs.”

Redell stood up, and gave Nara a great bear hug. He felt her shudder in his arms.

 

The group took a break, and they chatted softly while enjoying a light meal outside. Amara pulled Nara aside to apologize for her insensitivity, but Nara had not taken her statement personally. She understood that her statement was not malicious, and just meant as a jive. Nara was regretful that she had ruined the easy-going mood herself.

 

They reconvened within the ritual room, and Amara once again set up rituals in rapid succession. The first three stones went roughly as expected and they proceeded with Amara’s selection.

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You have awakened Harmonic Essence Ability, [Entropy]. You have awakened 2 of 5 Harmonic Essence Abilities.

Entropy

Spell (curse, magic)

Incantation: “From order to disorder”

Cost: Moderate mana

Cooldown: None

Effect (iron): Periodically applies an additional instance of each stacking holy, unholy, dimension, or magic affliction the target is suffering from. This is a curse effect. This effect cannot be cleansed while any other curse, holy, unholy, dimension, or magic affliction is in effect.

You have awakened Harmonic Essence Ability, [Crescendo]. You have awakened 3 of 5 Harmonic Essence Abilities.

Crescendo

Spell (boon, magic)

Incantation: “This time, with expression”

Spell (Magic, Boon)

Cost: Moderate mana

Cooldown: 1 minute

Effect (iron): Applies [Crescendo] to self.

• [Crescendo] (boon, magic): Periodically applies an additional instance of each boon on self. This effect cannot be dispelled while any other instance of a boon is in effect.

You have awakened Harmonic Essence Ability, [Hand of Time]. You have awakened 4 of 5 Harmonic Essence Abilities.

Hand of Time

Familiar (Ritual)

Cost: Extreme Mana

Cooldown: None

Effect (iron): Summon a [Hand of Time] to serve as a familiar.

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“My initial assessment appears to be correct.” Said Chelsea. “We thought you would receive a damage spell from the magus, but it appears you will have to deal most of your damage directly for the time being.”

“Escalating damage curses will be useful at higher ranks,” said Redell. “It will make cleansing your afflictions difficult. High rank monsters are also extremely tough. Dealing more damage will be beneficial when all fights become long fights.”

“You also have a familiar. Did you learn ritual magic?” asked Amara. “Its common knowledge for essence users in this world that you can only awaken a familiar if you have prior knowledge of ritual magic.”

“A bit, from my imaginary friend.”

“Nara, your friend in the astral cannot be imaginary if they taught you ritual magic.” Chelsea pressed a hand to her forehead.

“I’m inclined to believe that as well.” Said Redell.

“So, we don’t need to talk about it anymore?” Nara said sheepishly.

“The issue is that you had believed your friend was imaginary. That speaks of a different problem.”

“Yeah. That bothered him as well.”

 

 

 

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