Sophia frowned at the one oddity on her Status. Rush “could not be improved.” In a way, she was surprised that even the slot improved; she’d only used it once in the entire Leveled Challenge. She just didn’t need to spend her mana on quick movement very often when she could send her Animated Spell Blade ahead instead. At the same time, nothing else had gone up unevenly. Was that because Rush came out of Cliff’s Collection? Did they have a Level cap?

She looked through her options and found that there was a screen she hadn’t seen before for upgrading Abilities and Ability Slots. There were no Abilities she could upgrade; Rush showed up, but it was noted as “No Upgrade Available.” She could upgrade the Slot for Stunning Roar, but she was certain it wouldn’t upgrade either, so she didn’t bother. In fact, the only thing that made sense to do was to unslot Rush and slot in Hydrokinesis, if she could.

Wait, did Cliff have new options for her?

The monster, apparently, was a Juvenile Corpsevine Crown. Sophia definitely didn’t want to face an adult if that thing was only a juvenile, but it sort of made sense; this was a watered-down version of the real thing. That probably explained why it didn’t really have any way to deal with her other than the illusion once they killed the cuttings and the summons. She was still a little surprised that the Crown didn’t display any of the abilities of the summoner, but maybe one of the Abilities Cliff Collected would explain that oddity.

When Cliff showed Sophia the list, she got a surprise: the list was separated by Level now. The first thing she checked was Hydrokinesis, only to be disappointed. It wasn’t listed as level 2; instead, it was listed as “other” with no explanation. She suspected it was being counted as a higher level than she could use, probably because she’d cast it as part of a ritual spell. It did move a lot of water.

Spells

Level 1:

Rush

Flaming Spark

Spit Fire

Buffet

Slice

Level 2:

Eldritch Overcharge

Root Grab

Eldritch Empowerment

Offensive Illusion Field

Other:

Hydrokinesis (higher level than 2 - actual level requirement unknown)

Martial Techniques

Level 1:

Stunning Roar

Consuming Rage

Level 2:

Siphon Sap

Summon Echo

Poison Pollen Fog

Shaped Growth

Crown’s Cutting Consumption

Once she actually looked at the rest of the spells, she was happy. Root Grab had to be the spell the summoner used to hold Dav in place and try to hold Sophia in place. She was pretty sure she’d want that one. Offensive Illusion Field was another winner: it had to be the spell the “Crown” used to distract Amy and Dav. It also went on the list that she planned to pick up once she checked the description.

The list of spells answered a question she hadn’t realized she had when she saw that Dav’s Eldritch Overcharge and Eldritch Empowerment appeared there, but his Summons weren’t there. Those must not be either spells or Martial Techniques, since he’d used them a lot in front of her but Cliff had either never Collected them or never shown them to her. It also meant that Amy’s shapeshifting must not be a spell or Martial Technique, since it wasn’t there.

Sophia was hopeful when she saw the Martial Techniques. There were finally enough there that she might be able to find something more useful than Stunning Roar, which she hadn’t used in far too long. Consuming Rage and Siphon Sap were still not options, and she had no idea what Shaped Growth was, but Summon Echo looked promising.

Eldritch Overcharge

Channel extra mana into Summons for additional power or duration.

That seemed a little odd when she realized it was a spell; did she have to cast it before or after the summon spell? It might make more sense for Dav, whose summons didn’t seem to be spells, but it would probably still work for her. As it was, it would only be useful if she had the ability to summon something.

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The fact that there was a Summon ability in Martial Techniques meant she should keep the spell in mind. It might work exactly the same way as it did for Dav.

Root Grab

Empower existing roots to grow and attempt to grab your enemies, preventing movement. May target up to Level number of creatures.

That was a better description of the spell than she’d seen on most of the Guide’s spells. The limitations were fairly clear, primarily the fact that there had to be roots to use and that it wasn’t designed to stop spells, only movement. It definitely explained why only Sophia and Dav were targeted, as well. It was definitely staying on the list of spells she wanted.

Eldritch Empowerment

Gain or grant a minor eldritch boon.

Sophia definitely needed to ask Dav what he’d figured out about that one. It was very unclear; was there any reason at all for her to pick it up when Dav already had it? He was specialized for the Affinity, so his version would likely be stronger than hers.

Offensive Illusion Field

Cover an area in an illusion of monsters created from the surroundings. The illusion includes visual, tactile, and olfactory senses and responds to actions taken by targets based on their expectations. Duration is based on the mana supplied, area covered, and number of targets included.

That was another decent description, and another one that Sophia was definitely putting on her short list, probably above Root Grab. She suspected that that last line was the reason the Juvenile Corpsevine Crown couldn’t really deal with her once Cliff broke her out of the illusion: it didn’t have any mana left. It must have counted on recovering enough to do something useful before anyone broke free, but she killed it first.

That made her “without assistance” victory seem a little hollow; not only did Cliff have to break her free, but the fact that Amy, Dav, and Taika were there was why the monster spent all its mana on stopping them. Sure, they didn’t directly help, but she wouldn’t have had such an easy time without them. On top of that, if they hadn’t killed the huge guard first, there was no way Sophia could have dealt with it. She could only be glad that the illusion didn’t start until after that monster was dead.

Wait, was that because Dav pulled the monster out of the big room and into the hallway? That seemed all too possible. If they’d been caught in the illusion while the big monster was still there, Sophia didn’t think it would have gone nearly as well, and that was as much luck as anything.

Okay, it was a good decision purely for fighting the monster, so that wasn’t just luck, but it certainly wasn’t because they were knowledgeable about the illusion.

Summon Echo

Summon an echo of your power to fight for you. The echo is tied to and controlled by the summoner. Other Martial Techniques may be used through the echo if the form is appropriate, but the echo cannot cast spells.

The idea of a summon that wasn’t created with mana was odd enough that Sophia didn’t believe it. Of course, many of the other Martial Techniques were similar; they almost had to use mana. They simply used it in a way that was more physical and less like spellcasting. A summon was still odd, but it made a little more sense to think that it was based on the caster and that she had to do its fighting for it. This one was definitely going on Sophia’s list; she’d happily replace Stunning Roar with it. Either of the two spell options would remove any remaining need for that Martial Technique anyway.

Poison Pollen Fog

Send out your pollen in a dense fog that poisons all who enter.

That was a shorter description, but Sophia didn’t need a longer one. She wasn’t certain the ability would even work for her; she didn’t have pollen. She wasn’t going to take it anyway, since it was very bad for Amy and she couldn’t guarantee how well it could be controlled. It was definitely interesting that the ability didn’t really mention how blinding it was, beyond saying it was a “dense fog.”

Shaped Growth

Encourage the growth of nearby complex lifeforms into a desired form. May return growth capabilities to the natural maximum if the lifeform is supplied with sufficient support. May be used to combine different lifeforms.

That was clearly how the giant monster was made; it explained why it seemed to be made of a bunch of different plants that had to all be cut up separately. It was probably also how corpsevine cuttings were made and might well explain the monsters that seemed to be plant-like imitations of the base creature. It didn’t explain how the Corpsevine Crown controlled them, but perhaps it was able to grow some sort of instinct into them.

Of course, she didn’t even know if this was necessary to create cuttings. Maybe it was only used on them to modify them and the cutting-creation process was something else. That seemed to make a lot of sense.

It also didn’t seem to apply only to plants. That was both somewhat nausea-inducing and interesting to Sophia. She could easily see the spell as holding the potential to do amazing things like regrow a lost limb. She knew that was difficult to do normally; Healers who had that capacity could do it because they had special spells for it. It would be much slower than most, since it was limited to the “natural maximum,” but that was better than nothing.

At the same time, it could easily be used for much more offensive things. Sophia knew she wouldn’t have the patience for that.

It went on the list of Martial Techniques she’d keep in mind, but she probably wasn’t going to take it any time soon. No one had lost a limb, after all, so there was no reason to spend a slot on it. She could always take it later if it was important.

Crown’s Cutting Consumption

Devour a cutting to gain its form and abilities temporarily. Abilities that do not belong to the cutting cannot be used while in its form. Duration of the form depends on the relative power of the Crown and the cutting. The Crown may dismiss the form at any time to return to the Crown’s native form and regain use of its abilities. This does not have to be in the same location as the consumption. The cutting cannot be recovered.

Sophia had expected Crown’s Cutting Consumption to be what she saw when the summoner vanished, but the description of the Martial Technique said that she was only technically correct; what she saw then was actually the end of the Technique. It explained why the monster didn’t summon something else; that wasn’t its own ability. It also explained how the corpsevine itself could move around: it used its cuttings.

It didn’t explain why they found it in the large glassed-in room, but that could be as simple as it being where the monster usually was and the fact that the summoner-cutting ran away from them. Those were good excuses, but Sophia suspected that the real reason was that this was a Leveled Challenge, and the Guide wanted it to be where it was, at the end of the Challenge.

Overall, Sophia was thrilled with the new options. The reason they were here was to protect the city, but if that wasn’t a problem, the Leveled Challenge would have been worth it for this, even without the Ability Levels and Wisps she’d surely gained as well.

Sophia glanced over at her Available Wisps and her face fell. She’d only gained about a hundred or so; that wasn’t even enough for the telepathy ability she wanted. She could probably afford some of the new Techniques or a spell or two, but she’d promised herself that she’d pick up the telepathy before she forgot again. She had to wait.