Chapter 233

Playing Mythical Dress Up (Part I)

Of all the things that I thought I would ever do, I never thought that I would be able to eventually change my best friend’s magical aura. Yet, here I was, feeling like Edward Scissorhands, clipping away wild wisps of magic from Mallory’s aura, as if she was one rapidly overgrowing spiritual plant needing to be forged into an elephant, or some other equally odd animal shape.

Honestly, I don’t know if I necessarily got permission to perform this act, or if I just took it upon myself to help, but here I was actively engaged in pruning away different magical strands that would lead towards necromancy, or darker impulses.

To my defense, Mallory is a Valkyrie class and a Valhalla bloodline, which meant that her bloodline evolution from Legendary to Mythical could have a devastating impact on not just me but our entire guild.

This was why, I began working and cutting down some of the more prickly types of her auras and status effects.

Everything from cutting back on her Reflexive Battle Auras, which to me looked like prickly magical spikes that would stick out and infect someone. Now that I have the chance to see the Reflexive Battle Aura of hers first hand, I think I could make it so they were either more devastating or convert them into alternate forms.

Seeing as this was my best friend and that this was a completely defensive capability designed to protect my friend from sneak attacks, I decided to alter the formula slightly. Rather than covering as wide of an area as possible, which currently seemed to be an impressive thirty-five meters in all directions, I shrunk down the radius, while increasing the potency.

My logic for this was, should anyone truly intend to cause her pain, I would want her to be able to defend herself with impunity.

This is trickier than it might sound, as there had to be checks and limiters set in. You can’t have it so any time she inadvertently ticks off a child and they strike out at her, intending to do harm, but unable to do more than annoy her, you don’t want it so that said child gets impaled. So, I alter it, to be that once she receives a certain amount of damage, that damage is then converted seven-fold into a reflexive attack. This forced me to lower the defense radius, but made it so Mallory was able to defend herself should anyone actually manage to make it through her unnaturally high resistances.

The entire process is both challenging, but also oddly fun. I don’t know if this is exactly something I should be doing on a Tuesday afternoon, but it is what I currently find myself doing.

Then to make matters even stranger, I get a message from the system letting me know that the system is apparently okay with what I did.

That’s right, the entire process, which is borderline necromancy in a way, was approved and apparently authorized in the form of a questline.

Avenged Seven-fold Reflexive Battle Aura granted. This aura modified by Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight, allows multiplicative damage to be rendered to a target who inadvertently strikes Mallory Valhalla with lethal intent and force.

Seeing the new battle aura’s description, I let out a sigh of relief as it has everything I wanted int the aura, while also providing enough umph to make it so attacking my friend would be a bad idea.

That said, I’m not quite certain what to make of the fact that now I am getting my name added to things I have modified. As this almost feels like it’s the system’s way of saying, don’t blame me, blame your crazy friend Cass.

However, after a moment’s thought, being able to have my name added to some of the modifications to a Mythic level bloodline is pretty epic. Almost up there with having your name tagged in some of the greatest street art to be put on a national monument. Not that I encourage vandalism of national treasures, but if you are going to do so, then choose the biggest, best, and most eye-catching of structures and make them that much better by your art.

Never mind, this is probably bad life advice.

Fortunately, before I can get too lost in the idea of encouraging vandalism of souls, I am met with a brand new questline.

New Questline Opened: Bloodline Breakthrough Balancing System (Ongoing): You have begun the process of helping Mallory Valhalla make the transition from a Legendary to a Mythic level bloodline. Help make the process as seamless as possible for the newly awakened being. Current steps remaining: Fixing/Modifying/Altering Auras (1 / 1), Balancing Merits and Flaws (0 / -15), Balancing Attribute Distribution (0 / 6), Physical Alterations Required (0 / 3), New Bloodline Theme (0 / 1). Rewards: Experience, Skill(s), Title, variable.

Seeing the quest, I can feel my eyes growing wide for a moment as I take in the new capabilities and then realize that I am basically playing dress up with Mallory. Well sort of, at least that is how my mind rationalizes what is happening.

From an external perspective, it is clear that Mallory is knocked out from this process. I think this is like what happened to me, although I was fairly certain that I was conscious the entire time and just had to focus internally on the changes that were going on.

With this evolution, I can almost tell that Mallory’s mind is either unable to deal with the changes and pressures being pressed upon her psyche, or she might need help.

At least, it is the fact that she might need my help, and the fact that I see the quest before me that I think I am onto something by continuing to help her alter her bloodline evolution.

“This is just like playing dolly dress up,” I say to myself as I realize that now that I’ve made it safe for others to approach Mallory, now I still need to go onto phase two. Accessorizing.

Honestly, this entire thing is sort of crazy.

“Everything okay, Cass?” Jhonny asks, his voice calling out from the hallway. Only now do I see that Mallory apparently broke into the room, at least that is what I notice as the splinters and shards that came from her entering the locked room are only now slowly being repaired. For a moment, I love that self help feature that this new living library has to it, and yes, for the first time I can safely say that this is in fact a living library. Well a library of one true book, but that’s a start.

“Yeah, totally.” I say, then looking around the room, I see the random lines of destruction that were coursing through the classroom. That was what originally prompted me to act and help out here was the fact that Mallory’s Reflexive Battle Aura apparently felt triggered by just being within my room and was subsequently striking out wildly.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Gashes.

Now that I have a moment, I see that I have strands of drying glitter on my body, likely from where the whiplike tendrils of Mallory’s Reflexive Battle Aura activated.

“Is the Commander okay?” Jhonny asked, a note of concern in his voice.

At this, I look at the patient, then pausing for a moment, I open up my third eye and truly take in her form.

“Yeah, she is just undergoing the transition from Legendary to Mythical bloodline. So, she might need a minute.” I state.

“Is she passed out?” Jhonny asked.

For a moment I thought about trying to sugarcoat this whole scenario, but then ultimately decided to answer with the truth.

“Yeah.”

“Is she done?”

“Oh heck no, we just got to the point where she is no longer going to destroy the world around her while she makes the transition.” I state.

With that Jhonny clearly pops his head into the room and then uses his eyes to scan about and take in the carnage of what her weaker version of her Reflexive Battle Aura was doing.

“Okay,” Johnny replied clearly seeming to be flustered now. This only seems to heighten after he truly takes in my current image, “you okay?”

With that, I pause and realize he likely means all of the cuts and abrasions that are on my body. Cuts and abrasions that are even now being reflexively healed thanks to my Regeneration, and also my heightened qi and mana coursing through my body.

To my horror and shock, I realize that little Aura Guidance, my first skill book is hungrily staring up at me with its pages open trying to catch tiny blood droplets that fall from my body.

“Get out of here,” I shout at the skill book that is acting like a wanna-be vampire book.

Dejected cry.

With that the skill book sadly and noisily slinks off to its bookshelf, but not going up to its actual shelf. I guess that is good enough for now.

Though there are other problems as apparently droplets of my blood have made contact with this room as there are now brightly glowing patches on the ground right under where I was hovering and working. If I wanted to use a different faculty room, I think it is now officially too late to transfer. As I can see that my Mythical blood is having an empowering effect on the room that I have brought to life thanks to my Arcane Geomancy.

I turn my head to the book, and watch it slink away like a bad animal that you know will try to do something naughty again, once you take your eyes away from it.

Then after seeing that the skill book will be good and no longer try to creepily slurp up my falling blood droplets, I realize that Jhonny is still there. For a moment I wonder what he is scared at this time, but then realize he likely didn’t see me bringing the skill book to life.

Then realizing it was my bringing together the magical pamphlet that started this whole exchange, I realize it might be good to send Jhonny away.

“You might want to get out of her for this next part.” I state.

“What exactly are you going to be doing?” Jhonny asks.

“Good question,” I say and mean it. “I would like to think of this as Bloodline Dress up, where I go through help Mallory make her transitions and then become the true Valhalla, Valhallan?” I pause wondering if you can conjugate Valhalla, but then quickly move past that and continue with my original thought. “That she always wanted to be, but gave up on years ago.”

I pause, waiting for Jhonny to do or say anything else. Fortunately, this is one of those times when I can pause, but I know that once I start again, I will likely have to continue with Mallory’s theme as the quest seemed to indicate.

“Right,” Jhonny states, clearly understanding that I know what I am doing, but indicating that he has no clue about knowing about what I am doing. “I need to know, just how dangerous do you think this next part will be?”

“Dangerous? Why I think the majority of the danger is done here.” I state, looking at the still unconscious Mallory who is slightly trembling at the massive waves of energy that are violently expanding in her body.

I pause, watching her, and seeing if she is going to guide the energy within her body in any meaningful way, but then realize she is just letting it sit there.

“Okay, well I’m going to tell everyone to evacuate the building and possibly a few hundred yards in each direction.” Jhonny states, as he speaks, I realize that there is a tether of energy that is connecting him to a person outside. Apparently using a form of magical communication device.

Seeing the string of energy, I wonder if I can get into the connection and am oddly surprised that by simply reaching out my own tendril of energy to the line, I can see and interact with the line and add my own thoughts to the two-way communication.

“Hello, can you hear me?” I ask, putting my own thoughts on the line.

“Hello?” Jhonny and the voice of one of Mallory’s bodyguards calls out.

“Oh hey, is that you Vickard?” I ask.

“No, it’s…” not Vickard begins, but then I hear him get cut off as a voice I couldn’t help but recognize everywhere cuts into the open communications crystal.

“What is it now?” Gwen, my daughter asks.

A quick mental search and yes, I see her in all her pregnant beauty glowing as if having an aura for two.

“Hey Gwenny!” I exclaim excitedly.

“Here,” not Vickard says, and then with my Angel’s Sight, I see the guard hand over the communication’s crystal to Gwen.

“Hello?” Gwen asks, a bit confused as she takes over the process of communicating with Jhonny.

“Hey, pumpkin.” I shout back.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” Gwen asks.

“Well, there was a minor thing, and now I am about to operate on Mallory.” I state, trying to downplay this whole scenario, as I do not want a pregnant lady to get flustered, especially not this close to her due date.

“What do you mean by a minor thing?” Gwen asked.

I paused, trying to find the way to say this easily, when Jhonny just answers immediately.

“Apparently Mallory’s aura went wild, presumably after she passed out. Fortunately, Dr. Spiritlight was able to stop the aura from going wild. Patient is still in an unconscious state.” Jhonny stated, trying to be as calm and methodical as possible in his response. Yet, after hearing him, I could only grimace as he said the word that would send any woman into a rage.

“Unconscious?” Gwen all but cried out.

“Yes, she finally awakened her Mythical bloodline. As is to be expected, there is a lot of magical energy and I am in the process now of helping her make this transition as quickly and smoothly as possible.” I state.

“What? What did you do?” Gwen asked.

“Hey, why is it automatically my fault?” I ask feeling a bit attacked by that statement.

“Well fine, what happened then?” Gwen pressed.

“I warned her that I was going to use my new power. She said, she was fine. Then I used it to create a new book and next thing we know, we are here.” I state, trying to leave out the fact that I created her spy catching magical pamphlet that she asked.

“A book? All this for the creation of a book?” Gwen asks.

“I mean it is a skill book that can teach you the skill Aura Guidance all the way to level 175.” I state, more than a little proud of that fact.

“A skill book?” Gwen asked to clarify.

“The book seems to be sentient, able to move about, and also drinks blood.” Jhonny added, again not being helpful at all here.

“Blood?” Gwen asked.

“Just mine,” I immediately cut in, then make sure to qualify that statement, “so far.”

“Mom, what are you doing in there?” Gwen asked, her voice incredulous.

“Wait, this is the faculty building for the Magical College, right? Shouldn’t this be where we prove new magical theories.” I state, again suddenly feeling very attacked in this conversation.

“All right, all right. Fine,” Gwen begins, but then after pausing for a second she seems to calm herself down before speaking again. “Just tell me that she will be okay?”

“What? Mallory, of course she will be okay. In fact, after this I will help her make the final changes needed to ultimately have her Mythic bloodline fully awakened.”

“How long will that take?” Gwen asks, a note of sadness in her voice.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe an hour or two? I mean, we have to balance her Merits and Flaws, which she apparently has a free fifteen points worth, waiting for her. Then we need to balance her Attributes, then create three physical alterations, which could affect the merits and flaws.” I state, leaving out the Bloodline theme, as I’m pretty sure that is the whole fighting and helping lost souls find their way home thing.

“Wait, physical alterations?” Gwen asked.

“Oh yeah, that’s a good point. Do you have anything in particular about her that you would like to have altered, while I’m at it?” I ask, somewhat teasingly. I’m pretty sure most of these alterations can be done via the internal organs.

“WHAT!?” Gwen all but shouts into the communications crystal.

“You know, longer legs, wings, just name it and I will see what I can do.”

“Wings?” Gwen asks.

“Oh, you like the wing look too?”

“Wait, no, she is perfect just the way she is.” Gwen states a bit too emphatically.

“No, no, I got it, no wings.” I say, in a way that she knows that I know wings would likely be a big hit.

“No, she is fine.”

“Got it, no soft and fluffy wings that would embrace you and cocoon you like an extra cloud blanket. Not going to happen.”

“Wait, like a cloud blanket?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I say, a bit of a smile on my face as I know for a fact that Mallory likes wings, which is why she made me engrave the pattern onto her mana core. With this, we will free up space on her core for other features, and possibly more ways to save her life in the future.

“No wait, mom…” Gwen begins.

“Crackle,” I say on the line, “oh look at that you are breaking up, also I need to get back to my operation here. Love you, and see you on the other side.”

With that, I break my connection with Jhonny and Gwen.

“No, she is fine and just broke her connection to this communication stream.” Jhonny answered.

I almost wanted to say that they should encrypt the communications if they didn’t want me to join in their little calls, but then realized that would likely make things tougher on me in the future and thus I stop myself and just listen in, while I begin to start phase two of Mallory’s bloodline awakening process.

“No, she is pretending like she can’t hear me and is looking like she is finally going to help the Commander finish her awakening.”

Hearing the biting sarcasm coming from Jhonny, I can only shake my head as I grab Mallory and begin helping her once more.

“Yes, I’ll keep the line open and let you know when it is complete.” Jhonny states.

That is the last thing I hear, before I begin trying to alter my friend to be the best form of herself she can be. Also, a small part of me can’t help but wonder what I can get away with, while altering someone else.