Princess Kristie and I shared a look. “So, they could change their slave soldier force to optimize in any particular fight?” I theorized, as the Mick watched the two of us. “This foe you can only face with magic, turn your elites into spec Casters? This foe, you have to come to arms with, back to primary Weapon-wielders?”
“That sounds about right for such things,” Kris nodded slowly. “The only other reason I could think of doing it would be for novelty reasons. Spells allowing retraining do exist, right?”
“They’re supposedly of the Sixth Valence, and the stronger ones range up to Nine. You’re basically respinning reality around yourself, moving an alternate past into the present.”
“An incredibly powerful set of tools,” Kris judged, shaking her head. “All you need is slaves with the raw potential and Levels, and you could convert those Levels to anything you needed, within time and reason.”
“What kind of limitations?” I asked the Mick directly, who was clearly considering everything we were saying in an uncomfortable light.
“Well, one shift a week up an’ down, of each Stats and skills, later on. Ye could so move ‘ten points’ of Stats from one Stat t’ another, limited by what humans were capable of,” he explained for us. “Skills had the level o’ specialized, trained, or not trained, an’ ye could shift those all one category, move all the practice you had in it t’ some other skill, new or not, or simply wipe one away an’ open up a new one. Doing a full shift from warrior to mage could take a good half-year, if ye were of a mind to do it, because of the Stats, but you could shift the core skills within a month or two, and still be at least moderately useful while you continued the shifting over time.”
“And there was a primary shift among the people to Casting?” Kris asked calmly.
“Aye. The higher-end foes be harder an’ harder to bring down with weapons, even the best o’ them. Thicker armor, faster, more resistant t’ energy an’ damage, an’ this were especially true if ye had no Life Mage along to reduce as many o’ those as possible.
“War Magic, ye just grabbed a Render Wand, Orb, or Staff o’ the best Element, an’ pounded them down through their magic resistance. As long as ye could survive combat, an’ ye had Healing magic on tap all the time, ‘cause ye weren’t a fool, ye could pound away in combat, snipe from a distance, heal, Buff up with the most powerful of spells, an’ so forth and so on.” He glanced back and forth between us cautiously.
“Princess Kristie is a Null, who have no ‘magic’, as we know such things,” I informed him. “However, her defenses against magic are a tier above what we define as magical resistance, even maxed-out magical resistance, as I’m sure you possess.”
He nodded slowly. “Not having access t’ the Temples is... harsh on the younger generation. With the Temples, everyone was a genius if they needed t’ be, or a paragon of athleticism, not limited by how they were born and built.”
“Catering to massive specialization and power builds, with the ability to undo them and go into a different direction if desired,” I noted to Kris, who nodded slowly. “If you’re raising a fighting population, that is unbelievably powerful!”
“I imagine the general population of residents here could have absolutely trounced any similar force from back home, just based on optimizing Stats,” Kris agreed with a frown.
“I’ll have to agree with ye there. There were a certain sameness to it, all knowing we were as fast an’ strong as one another... but also knowing we were as fast or strong as anything human could be, an’ weren’t nobody better just because they were bigger or born gifted. If me Clan had this kind of power, we’d’ve ruled Aluvia, an’ that be no lie,” the Mick agreed wistfully. “It were kind of... equalizing? The only difference atween us were the Levels, an’ ye had to earn those. Somewhat,” he coughed belatedly.
I couldn’t disagree with him. “All of it contingent on feeding them Levels and having the Stats and skills to reallocate,” I reminded him, “and this place was designed to do just that. Just what kind of magical empire had the power to pull off making a place like this? It’s just unreal...” I did lift an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t have to earn Levels?”
The Mick coughed. “Clever kids, working the Allegiance Oath benefits. Swear a fighter t’ a crafter or tinkerer, an’ use the pass-up Karma from Loyalty an’ Leadership t’ Level the latter, who keeps the fighters supplied with potions an’ kits, stores their goodies, modifies their equipment, an’ the like. Makes life easier on both of ‘em. Really annoyed the old-timers who picked up a trade skill t’ do things in the downtime.” He kind of shrugged somewhat.
“Making combat and non-combat paths further divide into optimized roles. It could even be a ‘retirement’ for a warrior, using these Temples to convert all that combat experience into crafting experience, then.” Kris just shook her head as I whistled softly. “Truly working the system. Augments, and Luminance?”
“Augments. They were a magic discovered by the Bellenesse, mayhaps something passed down from the progenitor o’ their bloodline. Once knowledge it existed spread, it were eventually duplicated,” the Mick related calmly.
“It were a method of converting Karma into, eh, other forms o’ tangible benefits directly. Instead of applying the Karma t’ Stats or Skills, as be the norm, with Augmentation Gems ye could sacrifice a heap of Karma to gain a permanent additional ability, of which there were many. Additional permanent raises to Stats, past the normal cap-“
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Kris held up a finger, sufficient to cut him off instantly. “You had a cap? Note that.”
He nodded slowly. “Aye. We could learn t’ carry massive amounts of weight, expand the dimensional space o’ our packs, drop none o’ our gear on dying, finetune our magical an’ combat ability, earn Karma faster, and so forth and’ so on. There were a bunch of them. I can list them out, given a bit o’ time.”
“Please do,” Kris nodded, a polite command.
“Luminance, now. That were a power come from, eh, Beyond. Something or somethings venerated by the Empyreans an’ other ancient races, things that stood against the forces that empowered the Shadows an’ spread word of the method o’ becoming one of the undead, or that empowered Grael an’ his mukkir servants.” The Mick made a face. “Karma, ye know how ye can gain it fighting most anything, but doing grand quests or great victories, ye get the awesome Glory Award?” We both nodded, aware of the mechanic. Reality acknowledging a powerful achievement, worthy or otherwise. “Well, once ye were keyed an’ attuned to the Luminance by one o’ the mystics, ye earned more of its favor by fighting creatures it were opposed to, or completing missions the mystics or other worthies sent ye on.
“It were slower than earning Karma, but the benefits were powerful. Increased damage in combat, bonuses to all skills, resistance to damage... not so varied as the Augments, but much more directly applicable t’ combat. Fighting the foes they sent ye against was also a worthy thing, although more often than not, they’d just return again... bound to the System, as ye said.”
“A good way to experience combat in specific scenarios against powerful enemies,” Kris said narrowly. “The Light is as often or moreso a euphemism used by Law than it is by Good, an’ so naturally their enemies are ‘the Dark side’, which connotates bad in and of itself to most cultures. Not that much I’ve seen of such entities here shows them to be called much else,” she admitted.
The Mick shifted uneasily. “Some o’ the things the Luminance wanted were definitely hardcore an’ red-handed, aye, but they also had an air of, aye, peace an’ wisdom on a few of the mystics. Lady Adja was a gentle soul, an’ I’ll stand by that to me grave.”
“Was?” I prodded calmly.
“She returned as a spirit at the Cathedral of Ithaenc, where she raised her Order in the ancient days before us. When the Fall came, she were... sent away. The living mystics of the ancients, well,” he coughed and looked away, “they died with the other Ancients who were not undead. The undead sometimes crow about it, but they are dead things, can have no children, an’ are just walking around waiting until they be tired of walking. Their people are dead an’ gone now, at least from this island, an’ there’ll be no more of them, nor will they raise anything up to remember an’ glorify what came afore them.” He spit emphatically off to the side. “If the white fire ye brought can kill them forever, Highness, than I’ll be sending off a right lot of them off to it, I promise ye.”
“Stat Caps,” Kris prodded him.
“Oh, aye. We hit the limits of what Isparians can achieve through the magic we know.” Kris inclined her head, prompting him to continue. “Through the basic system, Stats can be raised 190 points over their foundation. Skills can be raised 208 points, and if ye specialize in something, 226 points instead. The effective highest Level we could gain were 275.” He proudly recited it all from memory.
“Two hundred and seventy-five,” Kris repeated, her violet eyes narrowed. “And tell me... this Asheron, or the powerful Ancients. Were they restricted to 275?”
The Mick’s mouth opened, then closed as he considered his reply carefully. “Asheron were over 700. We often spoke about how we might gain such a Level...”
Kris looked at me, and I looked back at her. “They were using a different System,” I said softly, and she nodded agreement. “One perhaps reserved for nobles, or royals, or possessors of some rare or special magic or bloodline... or Pacts with greater powers.”
“Some of the nobler undead, and the virindi, easily exceed what we could attain,” the Mick went on slowly. “Also, the common Empyreans used the same system o’ magic that we did, precious little difference between it, an’ didn’t show any of the special magic that the great Ancients displayed...”
“To command powerful magical armies, you need to be a powerful magical being yourself, or your soldiers become your masters,” Kris explained for him. “Also, if you’re going to create and devise a system of magic like this, you naturally would have to have access to a system of magic already its equal, or better. I’m guessing better, with a much, much higher ‘cap’. It’s why these Augments allow you to exceed the System’s limits: there is no limit, there’s only what the System you access can teach you up to.”
“The Eternal limit,” I breathed out, getting the attention of both of them. “The default System isn’t strong enough to breach the Eternal Limit. You still aged under the System, but slower, and I presume that salt in your beard came afterwards?”
He flushed a bit in embarrassment as I pointed it out. “Aye, I be nearing sixty years of age, but the years didn’t start piling up until after the Fall. I’m still far sprier than I remember me Pa, but aye, I can feel the difference.”
“So, the powerful have knowledge of the same System or a better one, only they are able to break the Eternal Limit with it, and the sky is the limit?” Kris asked me.
“I believe your Curseline Progenitor confirmed the Eternal Ceiling is there, that it can be broken, and that gods all exist, all at the same time, right?”
Kris nodded, the Mick’s eyes a little wide as he heard all that. “Aye, the Eternal Ceiling is not a joke... but once you’re in there, the only cap is breaking the bounds of finity and mortality entirely. You can just keep on going if you want to.”
“That... doesn’t sound all too much different from what the Ancients managed to do,” the Mick agreed when we both looked at him. “The Eternal Ceiling. That’s a fine turn o’ a phrase. How did ye learn of such a thing?”
“We have knowledge of a third System, as it were.” He blinked in shock at Kris’ words. “The Isparian System, as you know it, was likely introduced to our peoples in the very distant past, given that we know the ancient Empyrean empires visited Ispar in the old days, and we’ve used it ever since. Our problem has always been the accumulation of Levels, as we aren’t a world with endless, ceaseless conflict and the slaughter of mighty and terrible beings, which drive those kind of Levels the best.
“If you think about it, the great heroes of legends and tales always had two things in common: they worked miracles in magic, or they worked miracles in war, and they did it more than once.”