Obviously, figuring out how my new Repository worked was at the top of my list. It was my brain, after all, and would also dictate how I’d control my body. Well, bodies.

I returned my mind to its natural resting place and felt a shift in my gem. I let the change take place, then looked out into my influence, finding that my body hadn't disintegrated like it usually did. It was instead bound to me by a small thread of Mentum, reinforced by Forbodum.

When I concentrated on the body, the stream became more active, and I was suddenly piloting it again. It was an instant transition, and I knew that my consciousness hadn’t moved at all. Exiting the body was similarly immediate.

I also practiced this with the bodies that I’d layered on top of each other previously, and found that it worked just as well there. With that said, something about the bodies felt lacking. I had access to a higher tier of energy now, and these forms were just less than I was capable of.

To rectify this, I started to form a new body for myself right away. The Forbodum flowed in to fund my experiment, and it rapidly took shape in front of me. I’d gone for another basic skeleton form, but even so, the body felt like it was somehow… more. This was the power of advanced energies. They were categorically stronger, with each individual concept that they contained enhancing the others rather than working against them.

Soon, my new body had taken form, and I felt that it responded nigh-instantaneously to my commands. Like in my example before, Death piloted the corpse, Space enhanced its physical movements, and Arcane allowed energy to travel through it rapidly. Of course, I wasn’t talking about the energies themselves, since I didn’t actually have those affinities. I meant that this one energy, Forbodum, was applying different aspects of itself to accomplish this goal.

I used Infomorph on the body, locking onto it and gaining control over it. It was actually a much smoother and cleaner process than simply possessing things had been, likely because the energy that both made and connected me to the puppet was so good at transferring knowledge and information. It wasn’t just that, though. The body was much stronger than it had been before–exponentially so.

Combination energies were wild.

I got the buzzing sensation that told me I’d obtained a Skill level, and realized that I could now pull up my status without needing to look at my Repository. Instead, the information would transfer directly to me, taking whatever form I was comfortable with. In this case, a visual effect. With that said, I ignored it for now. It would be best to get at least somewhat of a grip on my capabilities before upgrading anything.

Forbodum Manipulation was the next on my list, and I turned on the new sense it had provided for me. Esoteric Sight showed that there was a distinct lack of Forbodum in my surroundings, though there was quite a bit of it in and around my Repository, and there was also a bit in the Conflict Tungsten I’d found a while back. That made sense, considering that Forbodum was an energy centered on dark magic and knowledge, and so Conflict Tungsten–a tough metal that was infused with quite a bit of Death energy and was probably an unknown to the majority of the world–would give off at least a little bit of it. My Repository also gave off energy, though it wasn’t drawn from my Mentum. Rather, I believe it’s because it was absolutely a dark art that the common man would never have an opportunity to learn about.

As for actually Manipulating the stuff, it turned out to be much harder than I’d expected. Forbodum was a strictly conceptual energy, and that meant that understanding the things that brought the energy into the world was needed to control it.

I understood the Conflict Tungsten pretty well–it was a metal that had become infused with a massive quantity of Death energy, the result of a series of wars that had been waged here, in the Dead Belt. The intent of those who had fallen to produce that Death energy had seeped into the metal, causing it to be even more violent than normal Necrosis. It would destroy any other energies that came close. Well, clearly that wasn’t the case with Forbodum, but in all other cases that I’d observed, it held true.

To move and control that idea, I needed to keep it within my mind. If the intent that held it together and in that state faltered, then the Death energy would return to being simple Necrosis, and the Forbodum would be destroyed.

I also realized during this time that my recreated Conflict Tungsten was far less powerful than the natural one. I’d only managed to copy a small amount of its intent, meaning that this stuff was far less anti-magical than it should have been.

As for controlling the Forbodum that my Repository spat out, that wasn’t nearly as hard once I thought of what it did and what it was, locking that into my mind. I probably had a naturally greater understanding of it, since it was basically what made up my soul’s house.

After screwing around with that for a little bit, I tested out my Occult Sovereignty. Encompassing Knowledge was the Spread Undeath equivalent for this Skill, except it also had some information gathering capabilities, like a built-in Omniscience. Anything that this influence passed over would instantly be easier for me to understand. Of course, I wouldn’t know everything about it instantly, but I’d learn much faster than I would without the Boon.

I began the arduous process of converting my old influence into this new one, but eventually got bored and made a Wisp to do it for me. Doing so brought my attention to the annoying fact that Create Undead, like all the rest of my old Boons, was harder for me to use. Still, when the Wisp eventually popped out, it was just… better. Its comprehension, speed, and energy retention capabilities were all much higher than any of the ones I’d made in the past. It started rapidly doing my job for me, and I turned my attention to the next thing I could do.

Library Pass, huh? I’m going to wait a minute on that one. I get the feeling that traveling to another dimension might not be the best idea right now.

Dark Whispers… yeah, that was definitely a passive effect. I suppose that it must have been installed into my brain when I got access to Forbodum. In fact, the Forbodum energy itself was probably the source of them, and this Skill was just a representation of that. It also would give me some ability to control its progression and hopefully keep myself from going insane.

Seif Ambrose

Ancient Seeker 5

Repository 1

* Infomorph 1

* Available Boon (Mental Plurality, Loci Server)

Forbodum Manipulation 1

* Esoteric Sight 1

* Available Boon (Dark Psionics, Conceptual Control)

Occult Sovereignty 1

* Encompassing Knowledge 1

* Available Boon (Abstractive Influence, Corrupt Mind)

Kelemnion’s Gate 0

* Library Pass 0

Dark Whispers 0

* Ancient Mutterings 0

Enhancements: Willpower x5

Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma’Uban

Oooh, exciting. It hadn’t been all that long since I’d last gotten Boon options, but it felt like it’d been an eternity. My previous Skills had capped out some time ago, and so it was nice to finally see some real progression again.

The Boons on offer were just… amazing. It really showed the difference between normal elements and these higher affinities. Mental Plurality would literally allow me to think of two things at a time, whereas Loci Server would back up my mind and allow me to seek refuge in my Repository, gaining effective immunity to all mental effects and making my memory perfect. It was like one of those mind palace things from the movies, almost a physical space for me to escape into and control. Anything inside was completely under my control.

Dark Psionics was a Boon that would let me use Forbodum to affect basically anything, even things that I normally wouldn't be able to control or manipulate without dedicated Skills. Conceptual Control, though, focused on what I was unsuccessfully trying to do before with the Conflict Tungsten, allowing me to move specific magical intents from one place to another, though it would be different when stored in Forebodum.

Abstractive Influence was also based on concepts, except this one expelled them into my influence, having minor effects on everything in the target areas. Corrupt Mind was somewhat similar, but it would just drive people in my influence insane, which didn't appeal as much.

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I saw something of a build forming, and decided to go with my instincts, taking Loci Server, Conceptual Control, and Abstractive Influence.

The latter two just felt like they'd work well together, whereas the former would likely help me hold off the madness that was bound to encroach on my own mind. Furthermore, I didn't really need to think about multiple things at a time. It was strong, sure, but I wasn't planning on being much of a fighter, so I didn't need quick reactions, and it wasn't like it would increase my Mentum capacity or anything. I'd be limited to the same amount of energy while having multiple brains drawing from it. I could also foresee myself having issues with… myself.

Plus, I'd had a little idea while looking at this combination of Boons.

First, I used Abstractive Influence. This slowly, slowly gathered and altered intent, applying it to an area. This could have a few effects, but that's not exactly what I was thinking of while picking up this combo. The way it worked was actually pretty easy: it took whatever intent I pushed into it and applied it to the magic in the area.

I didn't use any specific one here, though, and instead just pushed blank intent into the area. It sounds pretty contradictory to call any amount of intent "blank," but that's just what it was. It was like throwing Mentum at something. The blank intent was absorbed by the magic in the area I was concentrating on.

Once a small amount of concept had gathered–it was Death intent, but that should be obvious when you consider where this was taking place–I used my Conceptual Control to strip it from the magic which held it. Now that I had the Boon, it was much simpler to maintain a hold over the ethereal power. When I used regular magic, I was able to simply direct energies, but that wasn’t working so I'd switched over to using a vice grip. That had forced me to focus far more than I wanted.

Instead, the correct way to control this concept stuff was to let it be mostly free and only occasionally push it back together. Then I could just form mental boundaries to prevent it from spreading in the wrong direction. With this method, the concept/intent energy–I still wasn't sure which was which–would gradually pool out and then recondense closer to your goal post.

I took a moment to check out my new Loci Server and chuckled gleefully when I found that it would work how I wanted. Slowly, the Death concept stuff–"Conceptium."–was shoved towards the center of the room.

Wait, what? Conceptium? Where had that come from?

A buzz came a second later and I got my answer. I didn't stop working on what I was currently doing after that brief interruption, but silently cursed my new Skill. It was certainly useful, but entirely unpredictable. I'd lost a bit of Death Conceptium from the distraction, but there was still plenty so long as I kept ahold of the rest.

Soon, the mysterious power touched my Repository and vanished. I followed it into the space, and looked around at the small space in my soul. Currently, it was blank and empty, save for myself and a ball of smoke that was sitting there, stationary except for the black tendrils that came off of it. That was obviously the Conceptium I'd gathered.

The room, though, gave me an uncomfortable feeling. It wasn't because of any size constraints–in fact, there didn't seem to be any–and it didn't have anything in particular that was causing the feeling, it was just that… Well, there was nothing. At all.

The Boon had let me know that I would be able to control this space with even greater ease than I had when controlling my domain. In that case…

A cube the size of a warehouse rapidly formed around me.. As soon as it was done, I chuckled to myself and covered the walls with rubber panels. I laughed harder when I realized that I could shape the Death concept, and transformed it into a rat.

If I was going to be going crazy, then for goodness’ sake, it would be in a rubber room with rats.

After taking another few moments to explore and admire this new mental space, I stepped out of it and got back to tinkering with my other Skills.

Seif Ambrose

Ancient Seeker 5

Repository 1

* Infomorph 1

* Loci Server 1

Forbodum Manipulation 1

* Esoteric Sight 2

* Conceptual Control 1

Occult Sovereignty 1

* Encompassing Knowledge 1

* Abstractive Influence 1

Kelemnion’s Gate 0

* Library Pass 0

Dark Whispers 1

* Ancient Mutterings 1

* Available Boon (Obsession, Inspiration)

Enhancements: Willpower x5

Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon, Drachma’Uban

Schnitzel. Both of these sucked.

Obsession would assign the memories of a few creatures to each task. For example, if I were experimenting with making new undead, I would always get whatever advice I received from the same spirit, making it more predictable and contiguous. However, it would also make me hear the voices much more often, which wasn’t something I really wanted.

Inspiration was… good and bad. Instead of voices, I’d also see images, visions of the finished product of the advice I was receiving. While it might lead to some horrific images popping into my head now and then, I still felt it was better than Obsession. Hearing different voices would provide me with a more diverse portfolio of knowledge, and this way, I’d get more out of fewer interactions with these spirits. I felt that was for the best.

Inspiration soon joined the other entries on my list, and I returned my gaze to the final, unexplored Skill. With a sigh, I reached out for the knowledge it sought to provide me with, and started using the ability.

A pool of black ink spread across the floor. After a few moments, it stabilized, and I stepped onto it. My body slowly started sinking into the gate, and after a moment of pure darkness and a lack of all sensation, my senses returned to me all at once.

Kelemnion was, simply put, an infinite library. Well, okay, infinite was a bit of a stretch, but as I looked out into the hall of bookshelves I’d been dropped in, I found it hard to believe that it wasn’t. The shelves stretched so far into the distance that it looked downright non-Euclidian.

I looked over the thousands of books, and quickly realized that I had no idea what sort of system they used here. Perhaps I could find a librarian?

Sadly, no such caretaker showed up, and eventually I just opened up a random book. I read the first few lines, then slowly closed it. Sure, a bestiary of Abyssal creatures would be quite an interesting read, but it wasn’t currently applicable to my situation.

In lieu of a better solution, I turned on my Esoteric Sight. Instantly, the books started glowing with Forbodum, some more than others, but each with a different, unique flavor. It took me a moment to grasp what it all meant, but soon I was navigating my way through the library. Currently, I was in a section dedicated to listing and describing different monsters, nightmares, and abominations.

My senses told me that what I was looking for was elsewhere, and I started following them. Rapidly, the books around me started to shift, and soon I was in a completely different section of the library. When I looked back, I found completely unfamiliar titles.

Had I been teleported here, or had the distance just shrunk? Or, maybe, did the books themselves move? I hadn’t been paying enough attention, so I had no clue. Another thing to experiment with later.

I reached out to one of the books, and found that it was a simple guide. How to Get Started, to be specific. There was no author listed.

The book was about starting off on your journey with Forbodum, though that was obvious considering what plane this was and the title of the book. The manual didn’t take that long to skim through, and it helped reinforce some of my fears towards this energy, but also reinforced how powerful it could be in the right hands.

Forbodum could do a lot of things, but that had its ups and downs. Here in Kelemnion, I had a sort of authority, hence why space had naturally bent to accommodate my desires. I had the Forbodum Manipulation Skill, and there was so much that even subconscious desires could be quickly fulfilled by it without the user even knowing what they wanted, themselves.

For wielders of other elements, the same would hold true in their own realms. There might be some more powerful beings, but they would be acknowledged and respected by the creatures and energies there, for the most part. One of Forbodum’s main features, outside of its ability to manipulate concepts and things that would normally be outside of its own purview, was the fact that it could open gates to other realms.

One of the most repeated statements in this guide was some or another variation on “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” Examples were given of powerful warlocks–a title given to skilled users of Forbodum–who met their ends trying to extract deals or favors from creatures that belonged to other dimensions. If you can’t kill it, don’t contact it. Don’t directly enter other planes. The lists went on, words of warning spilling from the pages.

There were also some brief suggestions. First off, it quickly clarified something that I’d been rather confused about. I’d been led to believe that Forbodum was some kind of ritual magic, and it turned out that was a somewhat debatable topic. Its ability to manipulate Conceptium allowed it to act something like alchemy, using each different concept to produce a reaction, then moving on to the next bit. It could also create magic items, which I was very interested in.

Imbuing items with concepts was supposed to be a difficult and time-consuming task, but the book said that many chose to go down this path. I spent a little while focusing on the vibe from the parts of the book that were talking about rituals and item crafting, then looked around for that same frequency of Forbodum.

I took a couple steps forward and this time I managed to catch my surroundings shifting. Still, the books in front of me perfectly matched what I wanted, and I pulled the nearest few out of their places on the shelves. As I was looking over the first of them–a thicker book entitled Inscriptions For Dummies–I felt a shiver run down my spine, and slowly turned.

My eyes landed on a specific book on the shelves that radiated such a massive quantity of energy that it called to me. I felt something familiar shift in my brain, and knew that the voices had just made an appearance. However, no instructions were given, and no temptations were whispered. Instead, a feeling of limitless power echoed through my mind, and an image seared itself into my brain. Then, a single word. Ordinance.

The pain was so great that everything momentarily went dark. Then, I was in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats.