Awakened Elemental Trifecta, a mouthful of a name, and an exceedingly strange effect. To treat the three awakened properties as a harmonious shape which may simply be rotated?
How frighteningly simple the Nexus made that sound.
Equivalence Principium made a lot more sense in comparison, a shocker given what its effect was.
The idea of a ‘source’ is nothing strange to any species with spellcasting, after all, while transforming mana into elements is possible, it’s incredibly tough to reverse the process or transmute elements into one another. Thus, some suggested that mana is not a sort of ‘universal energy’ but instead what they called a ‘blank’ element, for example.
As the Nexus confirmed the Pure Source’s existence many years ago through such evolution messages, it was crazy to assume that no one had ever successfully interacted with it in known history. Strong beings knew how to access it, but very rarely was that information disseminated downwards.
The ability to freely transform elements into one another absolutely tempted him. But the cost associated with it had to be ridiculous as well, on top of having to fear whatever the Pure Source was.
There was still so much to get through as well. And he hadn’t actually analysed them with respect to one another yet…
He grouped up the Elder guard’s first three bloodlines as all three were simply defensive evolutions which focused on a single awakened part. The Nexus’ descriptions reflected this categorization.
[True Soul Shield: A controllable shield of soul power is generated, in a passive state, this shield will automatically block soul attacks. It may be pulled from your body to protect against all manner of attacks, but is significantly weaker against non-soul attacks. In addition to previous bonuses, grants + 60% soul defence, -50% soul shield reform time, +40% non-soul elemental defence, +70% soul damage, +50% infused element damage]
[Mental Fortress: The descended Mind palace is no longer limited to a mana-borne construct. It may instead be merged with a real fortress to greatly increase its defences and overlay the arrays in such a way that neither interfere. The fortress does not have to perfectly match the Mind palace. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +80% psychic defence, +100% max MP, +50% merged fortress defence, +80% palace array damage, +70% palace suppression]
[Adamantium Body: A metallic property is now blended throughout your body. This property is enhanced like any transformative process, and the body may be refined by replacing it with stronger and stronger metals to the limit of adamantium. The body retains its original properties whilst possessing the durability and certain characteristics of the current metal. Starting metal is Cold Iron. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +100% max MP, +50% metal absorption speed, +60% physical defence, +50% metal’s elemental defences, +20% physical attack per transformation]
Okay, he admitted that Mental Fortress wasn’t that good on its own. Obviously, for the Elder guards who protected a fortress with tens or hundreds of others, it would have an incredible effect, but not for a lone dragon without even a wall around the core of his Mind palace.
As for the other two. Yeah, they were really good. True Soul Shield functioned very similarly to his Draconic Mind Palace, allowing him to mostly ignore opponents who used spells on the same level as that respective awakened part. The shield’s power was a bit harder to measure, but no worries on that part.
And Adamantium Body, a strange one given that the effect was more fitting if the bloodline were named ‘Transforming Metal Body’. But he wasn’t going to argue over a name.
Unfortunately, this was where things started to break down. The Nexus clearly had a hard time describing Equivalence Principium, although it did avoid using sophistry this time, but the final three bloodlines were about as bad as the Sky Cataclysm description from the wyvern’s assimilation. He already ditched Battle-sighted and Domain of Control, which just left one.
[Spiritually Equipped Ice-cream: Souls, both the weakest and strongest creations of the universe, capable of the greatest changes and yet breaking from even the slightest attempt. Within their hopeful veneer are layers of depth to investigate; a depth so fragile, but capable of so much. The soul seeks protection, a layer deep beneath provides it, so only one action is required. Brave the fragility and find the protection deep within one’s most insecure parts. The sword and shield must be taken in time, or it may never be found at all. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +90% soul defence, +20% soul training speed, +100% awakening success chance, +60% soul stability, +50% infused element damage]
Just what in the world was Spiritually Equipped trying to make a point of?
Were the layers of soul, it talked of, a metaphor or literal in the sense that there are deeper things to be awakened, but most are never capable of doing so? The word ‘Equipped’ in the name was also strange.
Honestly, he didn’t want to put too much thought into analysing things he couldn’t understand. At worst, he missed out on a pretty useful power… Such a massive waste with how rare his evolutions were. He stopped rolling his eyes after a few cycles.
As always, at the end of every option, the Nexus threw out a set of temporary boosts that it only gave so long as he had this evolution as his most recent, and more notably, it rose to five effects for each of them. Although, given how that mauler bloodline only had one boost, perhaps it was a sign that the Nexus would soon start giving fewer boosts to focus on bigger figures.
It was easy to get rid of the worse choices on this deeper read through. He cut off Auric Divinus, Palace Devourer, Mental Fortress, Adamantium Body, and Awakened Elemental Trifecta. While a couple of the remaining options weren’t amazing, they clearly had the potential to grant incredible evolutions.
Even then, he somewhat preferred the idea of taking a bloodline from the Elder guard this time ‘round as the soul shield or body transformation evolutions were both excellent choices.
Still, with the quick introspective done, it was time to ask the others.
[3 minutes 4 seconds]
To avoid taking too long, he did his best to summarise each of the chosen bloodlines that he liked, but even that took close to 30 seconds of nonstop explanation.
However, just by listening, it seemed that the mostly soul-focused remainders left Mala as the only one with things to say.
Mala ended up getting a point in first, “I’d avoid anything about the Pure Source. Any mention I’ve seen of it is in literature for Blossoming wizards. It might be fine when you focus, but in battle…” Her voice trailed off, no more to be said.
Anyway, if seen at higher levels, then he expected to see it again in the future.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Following that, Darak brought up a related matter while the others thought about the situation some more. “I didn’t bring this up due to the atmosphere, but I received a short revelation from the Lord. There’s a more important part, but he also wanted to inform you to never take evolutions which make use of your divinity.”
That was an interesting thing to hear from a god. Thankfully he hadn’t found any of them worth taking yet.
Korridan also had his own thoughts on a less spell-focused bloodline, “The Adamantium one needs metals… But it’s going to be a year till we have access to anything.” Everyone nodded in agreement, but Icy wasn’t ready to dismiss the bloodline purely from that.
However, he feared that the bloodline’s effect weakened greatly due to his ice cream body, but the Nexus gave no input on that. It might respond if asked, but a lack of reaction to his thoughts already confirmed that it didn’t know.
“I think the soul shield is also a good choice. But what I’m really confused about is the equipment one you mentioned… Those are soul armaments, right?” He agreed with Mala’s assessment on the two former bloodlines, but when it came to her mention of soul armaments, he was utterly lost.
He replied, “I’ve never heard of them.” And at the same time dove into his library of memories.
Obviously, the basic books on soul awakenings only went over everything he knew, he’d already read through them all!
Almost instantly he found one that he never read called ‘Analysis of Soul Partitions And Their Functions’. Unfortunately, as a tome of over 500 pages, with a good half of them dedicated to the years of research done on souls…
He just looked back to Mala and hoped she had a quick answer. There just wasn’t enough time to do a proper bit of research.
“There’s barely any good notes on them, at low levels, that is. It’s not hard to awaken one, but once you create a Formed soul they’re locked away. And the process seems to require an emotional trigger of sufficient strength, or using the Nexus, like this should be.” He didn’t really know how to take this description, because, on one hand, it clearly seemed like a source of power that he’d be extraordinarily unlikely to ever awaken outside of this evolution.
[1 minute 35 seconds]
“Did you ever see mention of where soul armaments are formed or stored in a soul?” He never actually read out the full description for that bloodline, so Mala’s answer, very well confirmed things.
“Some say the soul was separated into layers, and the armament was formed in the third. Others said sixth or seventh. But completely different theories said the soul worked another way with armaments hidden near the centre by your ego and ‘will’.” She spoke with some confidence, but she actually had no clear answer.
Rather than well-written literature on the soul, it was far more likely that she accessed books which threw together several prominent theories and extrapolations based on the Nexus’ statements.
He couldn’t help but make an observation about his thoughts on the final decision. “It’s interesting… I’m so starved for defence almost all the time, and yet with a set of evolutions focused on defence, I’ll be taking the one which likely boosts my offensive abilities.”
“Soul armaments are very rarely weapons. Almost 80% of them are armour, about 15% are strange utility tools, and the rest are some sort of weapons fit for the being.” Mala’s interjection left him thinking even more.
“Is there any reason at all I should pick the soul shield or pure source over this one?” No one could really muster a point for them. With this new information, Icy now had to eat his words from just a couple minutes ago regarding this evolution. “Nexus, if it’s so clearly hinting to soul armaments, why not just state that?”
[Because that term is wrong. What you refer to as ‘soul armaments’ is just one of the things hidden within souls. At length, it is wrong to bundle all those items into one category]
What did that even mean? What were all the other things hidden?
He asked one final question to make sure his thoughts were right. “So what layer or object will be unlocked by this evolution?”
[Unknown. Simulations returned no convergence on the awakened layer, personal action played too big of a role]
Immediately after reading that prompt, he said in Draconic, “I select Spiritually Equipped Ice-cream.”
The evolution began immediately, his body wrapping into a ball and producing the consistent egg of wafer scales he always resided within. And then the nausea came, the compression on all sides of his mind, and that horrid breathlessness even though his physical form was a literal pile of mush. This evolution took no longer than any other, and within ten minutes, it was all over.
One more evolution completed.
He broke through the shell with ease and inspected his body for changes, finding nothing changed internally through mana sight and then confirming identical colour with the eyes of everyone else.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long for those soul layers to awaken, whatever that meant. He still didn’t know if the Nexus was being purely metaphorical about these layers, or if a soul was literally built like a planet, with his very existence at its centre. He immediately noticed the reduction in soul manipulation as well, but it was hardly a major loss. Firstly he would focus on completing his heart’s transformation and awaken as many soul layers as possible.
“How long does it normally take to trigger this awakening?”
[A short period of time. We highly recommend you perform some research for the best results]
Ohhh, advice from the Nexus. It was always nice to get that. While he grabbed that book on soul analysis he found, the others began asking questions almost immediately, most notably Mala. None were surprised that he picked the one which granted soul armaments, or whatever the Nexus knew they were truly called.
Magicus soul interested Mala, and her eyes went wide for a moment when she heard that he’d already turned down several evolutions revolving around great languages at this point. But given how often he obtained them, it only made sense that he’d get more when they could actually be used.
Better ones at that.
“Also, Darak, you mentioned that Manus had something else to mention?” A random thought came back to him about the conversation they’d had during his evolution choice.
Darak nodded before replying, “Yes, his lordship has asked the neutral or friendly gods in the top three heavens, however, only one has heard the term Exeter before. And they were unwilling to give more information on the terminology, either it’s a secret or some sort of taboo outside of the eight worlds.”
“And who was that one god?”
“The Ancient God of Space.” The response didn’t please him in the slightest, as it could mean any manner of things.
Either Exeter was an extremely old bloodline, and mentioning it could bring untold danger to Raccelline, or the God of Space heard it from extremely far away in the universe. No one knew how far that god had travelled, and he was one of the few who ever claimed to have met civilisations beyond the eight worlds.
To put that into perspective,
The only beings amongst the eight worlds for hundreds of thousands of years to ever meet with outside existences were a few gods who governed domains allowing for extreme long-distance movement.
There were other things it suggested. Perhaps they found a record of the bloodline floating through the universe; somehow received enough favour from the Nexus to ask about it; or even found someone else with an Exeter bloodline too…
“I think it’s best that we never mention the term out loud again.” Korridan didn’t hesitate to give a stern suggestion to them all.
No one argued against it.
“It’s time we started training then. Hopefully, it doesn't take too long to get those armaments,” Icy broke the tension with a couple statements, reminding everyone of the immediate desire to get out of the calm belt.
They all agreed with the sentiment, hating this place more and more as so little to do existed. While Mala told them of some islands about 20 kilometres to the south, no one felt any desire to go there. One was an active volcano and possessed little to no wildlife, though supposedly its mineral density was good. Someone might’ve put a mine there if not for the geysers and pools of water having masses of toxic minerals dissolved into them.
As for the other, its description matched their current island anyway. And so, after building a beachside wood hut to live in, the group really had no other choice but to stay there for a year. Thankfully, having a dragon and wizard meant that entertaining a child and teaching her almost endless amounts of information wasn’t too hard.
The first real event to happen during their year-long training occurred three months in.