Chapter 81
The Gift Bag
I awoke to pain. I felt like I had spent an all-night binger out drinking, partying and never once drinking an ounce of water. I felt parched, but that was only for a moment as my body began instantly taking in nutrients via my channeled spell Spirit Sustenance, which allows me to condense the energy within my body into a sustainable form that will keep me alive and healthy, despite a lack of resources. This is normally a boon, except for times like these where a big glass of water would be ideal, at least until what appears to be the results of dehydration leave me.
Still, I can tell from the system message that my pain was worth it, or at least will be worth it here shortly.
Spirit Tier Rating Increased: Your Tier rating in the school of Spirit Magic has risen substantially, going from Tier IX to Tier XI.
Unfortunately, the system is balanced, thus just as my personal magical threshold increased thanks to my fifty-merit point potion, or a potion worth five million experience, something most people would agree was well worth the investment, part of the pain I now felt was from my unique bloodline that had also undergone a substantial change as well.
Racial Flaw Increased: Children of a Magical Destiny: You and those of your lineage will be able to awaken, or enhance, the magical potential in those you meet (Maximum of Tier XI).
And just like that, not only did my overall magical potential increase, but I was now able to increase the overall magical potential of others to Tier XI, that was, just wow.
Mentally I try to comprehend that and realize that it will be a lot of gloves and avoiding personal contact with people from now on. I do have my Apothecary gloves and they are a great solution, but sadly I do not think I will be doing much to disabuse people of the notion that nobles are stuck up, especially as I don’t want to be forced to deal with thousands of people making unwanted contact all in an effort to get me to awaken their magical potential.
Honestly, I can’t wait to get out and leave, the idea of casting Tier XI spells is calling me. I almost tremble with excitement at exactly what is possible with Tier XI spells, as they are supposed to be the absolute zenith of power and ability. If I could do the impossible and bring someone back to life with a Tier IX spell, I can only imagine what a Tier XI spell would offer.
Also, there is still the fact that my quest to get to the hundredth floor comes with the condition of raising my mastery level in Spirit Magic, it could always do the cop-out and say, “already gained,” but this gain was not related to the actual quest line and thus should be considered a separate process, but we will see. Regardless, having Tier XI magic is already huge, as I can feel the difference in intensity.
Then remembering one of my two Master’s Theories related to magic, I pull out my notes and do a comparison. To no real shock the meridians are wider, if only by minor ways, but they are wider all over, creating a greater volume of mana overall that can be channeled at any time. There might be more to this, maybe even self-guided Healing might be able to force the meridians wider, but that will need to be processed, and measured. At this point I see it as nearly impossible for me to conduct an unknown surgery with magic on myself while channeling energy through the very meridians that I would wish to alter, so even if I do find out a solution, I postulate that unless I eventually get an apprentice, I would not be able to use this to directly increase my own personal magic rating. Not that this makes this discovery any less groundbreaking or worthwhile of study, just noting my own limitation as is, unless I can get my Simulacrum to eventually cast the spell.
Shaking my head, I got rid of that idea. While I do trust my Simulacrum, I think trying to come up with ways that my Simulacrum can perform elective magical surgery on me, particularly on my meridians is a bad idea, for now.
Still, I feel very satisfied with everything, I have six new skills to power through and grind away to increase my attributes. I have two new recipes that will forever change my growth rate, and I can now work on creating spells that are Tier X and higher, thus regaining my badge I spent earning the ten million, or in this case nine point four million experience I earned to get these amazing merits.
Tinkle.
I am about to get up, when I feel something shift next to me.
I pause, not remembering having purchased anything else, but then I pause as I realize there is still the powerful magical item that clearly seems to radiate its golden goodness to me.
Curious, I pull out the item that I know for a fact has to be the most expensive item that was available.
“Oh, you are going to open your gift bag, oh goodie. Do you mind if I watch?” The gnome shopkeeper asks, a slight gleam of excitement filling him.
I almost want to say no, for privacy, but he has been more than accommodating, letting me rest here while I consume all my items before going outside and being subject to random acts of violence by the system for having expensive items on my personage. For that, I am very thankful, also I wouldn’t mind getting the gnome’s take on this item, to see how much it might be worth.
Item Gained: Magical Vial of Royal Blood Distillation: The first step into becoming something greater than a Royal Bloodline holder. Will forcefully destroy any who do not have the Willpower needed to strive for something greater than themselves.
Warning: By consuming this potion you will put your life in danger, anyone below the rank of Royal Blood will have their blood boil and burn away. Those with Royal Blood should know there are likely easier ways to advance, though ones that are not as quick.
Cost: 100 gold.
Seeing the vial within my hands, I realize the system has set me up for failure. This item alone is enough to put me over my limit, all but forcing me to begin the process of increasing my Bloodline ranking. Of course, this time I will not have to worry about the curses from an evil god, though given the way my merits and flaws both increased drastically I can’t help but wonder if something terrible would happen by drinking this.
“Oh, I am so sorry.” The Gnome says, his voice actually sounding like he is saddened by the item I got.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“What?” I ask.
“That is likely the cheapest item we have for a giveaway.”
“You have more of these?” I asks, wondering if I somehow missed it in the shop. I did look for something that might help advance my bloodline, but that was mainly at a cursory glance. Most of those items were in the hundreds of merit points and I pretended like they didn’t even exist, no point of even fantasizing about getting such items.
“What? Oh my no.” The gnome salesperson says, a refined tone filling his voice. “No, that item is quite rare, and very useful, just the odds of it being useful for the person that draws it, well that is something that can only lead to heartache. The potion itself offers the lure of power and prestige, while only truly being able to offer such a boon to a select few. Most of which would likely never find their way to my little shop.”
Hearing all that, my ears perked up as I couldn’t help but feel I was lucky with this, or maybe the system was trying to kill me.
“Do you know what would happen to someone with a Royal Bloodline awoken who took this?” I ask.
“Why I assume it would do much of what the bottle describes, but even then, it could still kill you. No, I would recommend throwing this item away, as it could even lead to the death of a noble member who thought such rules and restrictions didn’t apply to them. That they were somehow better than what the warning label would offer. So, what happens, you take the item that you cannot use and offer it to royalty on the pretense that providing it will help them in their path, and ultimately help you curry favor with them. Yet rather than helping them on, it kills them, then you have an angry royal family after you, and your only hope for escape is to open up your own traveling shop of curiosities that travels anywhere in the world, even to a tower that exists solely in the spirit realm.”
At that, I can’t help but feel that there is a sort of personal tale of pain and woe to his sad story.
Hearing the words, I nod to myself having felt I understood the warning. Don’t expect to take this out of here and offer it to the first noble you see, as they might not have their bloodline activated up to the Royal Bloodline rating, meaning it would likely kill the recipient. Furthermore, even if they had their Royal Bloodline fully activated the potion could still kill someone.
“If you want, I can dispose of the item for you.” The gnome says, a slightly saddened look taking over his features.
Hearing that I balk at the idea and move the bottle away.
Seeing my reaction, the gnome continues, “don’t worry, if you give it back, I will actually destroy it and not repackage it as another gift that someone else will be forced to also discard.
Seeing the item, in my hand I make sure to ask. “I assume I cannot sell this back to the shop?”
“No, gift bags are well and truly not for resell. In fact, I cannot buy anything currently anyways. If you wanted to sell something, you would have to work with the entity that gave you the merit points to begin with.” The gnome states, in a calming tone.
Hearing that I just have one last question for the gnome. “I take it if I asked you to hang onto this potion you wouldn’t do so and let me use it as a means to come back to this great store later on?”
“Sadly no. Once you leave here any items left behind will be under my control and left up to my discretion on what to do with them.”
“So, you wouldn’t store it away for later?”
“What? No, not at all. That thing is like a giant lure, that will draw anyone with a modicum of a bloodline to it, but the price is too steep. Even if I said I was holding it for you, a noble seeing it would all but demand it on their behalf, and then I would be up for a liability claim of killing a noble with at least a partially awakened bloodline. Again, that is as close to a cursed item I am allowed here, without having a cursed item.” The gnome said, while gently holding out his hand to take the potion from me.
Seeing his hand, I nodded to myself. Hearing his description explains why the potion is so bright and all but called to me over the other items available. I did see three other glowing items that glowed brightly, but not as brightly as this one. Though now I can fully understand the low-price tag on this item, despite its apparent rarity. For 100 gold I offered nobles both the chance of a lifetime, and something that would more than likely lead to their deaths.
Realizing this is it, I quickly uncork the bottle, and down it in one go.
Glug.
The gnome looks on with a sense of shocked horror, his hand still out, but his fingers wide as disbelief takes hold of him. Seeing his hand, I put the empty vial in his outstretched hand, then sit back down in what I am quickly considering to be my comfy chair.
Then just as I began, I focused on trying to push my mind and body through this newest transformation. Fortunately, my mind was so resilient, thanks to the increased nodes I had set up during my last evolution that I am mentally able to weather these changes as well.
In fact, with my unique Angel’s Sight, I can see the way torrents of energy are surging through my body at increasing speeds and intervals. Now that my meridians are slightly wider, I can feel how my meridians are being used as a sort of secondary access road for the energy that is surging through my blood.
Using this time, not only do I drop into a deep meditative state, but I also begin using mana and mana strings to go out from my meridians and feed back into my body. From there, it is just a matter of finding the frequency of the greater surges of energy and gently shaking them apart until the waves are still just as powerful but moving at a standard rate of speed. After the initial success of the main surge area, I begin targeting and breaking up more and more giant waves of energy. Each wave of energy has its own unique frequency. I can almost feel a pattern to the resonances, as if there is something completely obvious to their movements, but I can’t focus on them for too long. Instead, I just focus on making it so the energy within my body finds a homeostasis balance, and then watch as the energy slowly gets absorbed by my body overall.
I do manage to steer more than a minimum amount of energy towards my three primary spots, my core, my mind, and my kidneys and my pancreas, oh wait, that is four things.
This might just be my superstitious belief in magic, but I think the more we can link our body to sympathetic bonds of magic, the more powerful we as mages will become. This is a theory that seemed to be true with the advent of my first bloodline evolution.
While I know this potion alone won’t be enough for me to evolve my bloodline again, I do realize that it is just a gateway quest item. An item designed to open possible new questlines that would otherwise be denied.
Of course, I must survive the initial surge, but that seems to be nothing major for the moment. In fact, I am almost worried that this might be too easy, especially given how dangerous the quest seemed to be. As there was allegedly a chance of death, even with a Royal Bloodline activated. Which is why I can’t help but find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, even now. This was dangerous, don’t get me wrong. If I didn’t know my own body as well as I do, or if I just let the currents of energy force their way through my body, I know this would have been a lot worse. But as it is now, I can’t help but feel that I might have messed this up somehow, or maybe this potion wasn’t nearly as powerful as I had thought. I know it was the most powerful item in the chest, but that didn’t necessarily mean much as there was nothing to compare what the other 50 merit-point items were.
Whoom.
There is a slight drop in pressure, as I feel the last vestiges of power slowly get absorbed into my body, into my very bones.
I wait for a second, then another, and finally a text prompt comes to life letting me know that I have succeeded in my original plan.
Hidden Quest Completed: Beyond Royal: You have begun the process of further awakening your bloodline to go the next step beyond your current rating of Royal. Continuing down this path will make it so the world and the gods of this world cannot help but look at you and attempt to carry favor with you. Rewards: Experience, +5 Endurance, +10 Perception, +10 Intelligence, +20 Attractiveness, +20 Willpower, Quest Line Opened.
Experience Gained: 1,000 / 1,000
Hidden Quest Line Opened: Legendary Bloodline: You have begun the process of treading down roads most could only dream to travel. You have begun taking the steps of consolidating the strengths of your will, and your Royal Bloodline and condensing them into a more solid foundation that will set you and your family apart from most in the world. By continuing down this path, you will become a prize coveted by many. To get to that point, you will need to take risks, and more importantly, you will need to walk your own path of greatness. Rewards: Experience, Bloodline Increased, Racial Change, other.
While I didn’t think I necessarily needed more Willpower, as that was by far and away my most advanced Attribute, I couldn’t really deny its importance as magic was coming more and more easily to me the higher my Willpower got. Given this rate, creating Tier X and Tier XI spells should be rather simple to perform, at least I think they will be simple, but never having even attempted to cast such a spell, I am hoping this to be the case than anything else.
Also, the plus twenty to Attractiveness, that was not frowned upon, I could also see the game playing into the romances that all state that those born or destined to be royalty are just naturally more beautiful than others. I am just about to delve into that thought, when I hear the shop keeper give a frightened, “WHOA.”
Hearing him, I too feel shocked.
“You, you survived?” He said.
“That I did.”
“Wait, how did you? Does that mean that you…” He began but stopped himself.
I don’t nod, but neither do I deny. Instead, I get up from the overly comfy chair and make my way. “I wish to say, thank you again for your hospitality, your shop is truly amazing, and I cannot wait for another chance to frequent such an amazing establishment.”
“Uh, yeah.” The gnome says, still flabbergasted from everything, but then quickly his mind realizes his mistake. “Oh, where are my manners, your majesty.” With that he gave a grand sweeping bow, if I didn’t know where he was, or if I required on regular lines of sight to see, he likely would have appeared to be laying flat on the ground he was that low.
“None of that now. I am not royalty, at least not yet. Nor do I intend to be.” I say, then give a slight curtsey, before leaving the car. In all, only about an hour of real time had passed, though mentally I begin chastising myself for having taken so long. I am going to look like I had the worst case of dysentery back at the fort.