Sophia struck the magic-draining auras off the list first. If it was that important, she had other tools to deal with enemy spells. On top of that, her new Magic Attuned Aura Ability could probably do the same thing, even if it required more work. It likely wouldn’t be as powerful, but she had to make a choice.
Harmonious Aura took longer to dismiss. She was far more likely to have allies in her aura than enemies, after all, and Dav did have spells. It wasn’t his primary thing, though, and once again she could get some of the same benefit from her Magic Attuned Aura. It simply wasn’t worth the slot.
Death’s Embrace was the next one she decided against. It hadn’t been important yet and she did have a spell. Like the aura abilities, it probably wasn’t as good as the ability she was ignoring, but it wasn’t worth it.
Magical Translucence and Scaley were defensive Abilities, while Warped Breath was offensive and Manifest Wings was situational. She still had no idea how to categorize Prismatic Magic. Nothing in the Registry’s records hinted at an Ability like that.
She didn’t need another attack, not really. Warped Breath was probably similar to Force Bolt; it could wait.
Her only real defensive Ability was Aura Armor, and-
Sophia froze and stared at her Status in shock. She could trade the Ability out. Why hadn’t she thought of that earlier? Yes, it helped her avoid getting hit, but only a little. If she had scales, she wouldn’t be hurt badly even if something did manage to hit her; that should be more valuable. She couldn’t be sure how much of an improvement the second level in Aura Armor was, but she was sure actual dragon scales were better. She could just barely afford to drop it and pick up Scaley as well as three of the other Species Abilities.
So. She could afford three Abilities and she’d narrowed her list down to Magical Translucence, Manifest Wings, and Prismatic Magic. She was done.
She felt pretty good about it, too; the only minor hiccup other than how long picking everything was that she had to improve the slot level of her first Martial Ability in order to set Summon Echo into the slot. She had enough spare Wisps to cover that, though it was a lot closer than she really wanted to admit.
One quick look through her various Status screens later, Sophia buried her head in her hands. How could she have forgotten that she had not one but two bonus abilities on offer? She’d only picked one!
At least she could hold it over her friends’ heads. She bet they’d forgotten about it, too.
Well, technically, she could choose increased amounts of Wisps until she reached the first upgrade, but her recent experience choosing Abilities made it obvious why Amy valued bonus Abilities so much. The free slot alone was huge, because it didn’t increase the cost of additional slots and that added up quickly; her Spellblade Spells and Martial Abilities were dirt cheap because she didn’t have to pay for the Abilities and there weren’t many slots, while her Species Spells and Abilities were getting very pricey.
Since the Grand Feat didn’t mention the Ability’s category, Sophia’s best guess was that it was going to be Unaffiliated.
She went ahead and picked the Ability rather than additional Wisps, then checked her Wisp Dedication screen. It wasn’t under Unaffiliated; instead, it seemed to be its own category. Sophia tried not to get her hopes up, and her caution seemed justified when she found out that it was separate because she could choose an Ability of “any unlocked type that is related to the Nexus Defense, Corpsevines, Sapient Investigation, Plants, Flame, or Natural Magic categories.”
This was going to take some time and research.
By the time the door opened again and Amy stuck her head in, Sophia had managed to dismiss Spellblade Spells, Spellblade Martial Abilities, Species Spells, and Species Abilities from her options. Cliff didn’t have anything new for her and while there were definitely some interesting things, like a Fire Blast spell, Sophia didn’t see anything that she really wanted.
“I thought you said you were almost done?” Amy scooted the rest of the way inside and let the door close behind her. “I’ve been waiting at the practice range.”
Sophia blinked, then flushed. She shook her head; this time, it wasn’t her fault. Not entirely, at least. “I could use some help. What category did you pick for your other bonus Ability? Any suggestions for mine?”
Amy frowned. “I took a Team ability, I know I told you that.”
Sophia shook her head and felt herself grin. “Not that one. The other bonus ability. The one that had a bunch of corpsevine and Nexus Defense options.”
Amy blinked, then visibly paled. “By the Broken Lord’s Broken Sword,” she muttered. “I forgot about that. Uh…”
Sophia suppressed her snicker. That was exactly how she felt about it. It was funny to see the normally self-assured Amy off balance, but she really did need some advice and it wasn’t worth more than a momentary joke anyway. “I originally thought Natural Magic might work for me, but it’s not what I thought it was at all. I thought it would be working with the raw, unattuned or muddily attuned mana that collects naturally and near spells, but that’s not what it is at all. Natural Magic is plants and animals, and it specifically excludes anything that will work on people with Spheres. I guess it might work on Taika?”
Taika was a monster, but so was the corpsevine, so Sophia expected it would work. She wasn’t sure why all of the Abilities that actually looked useful specifically prohibited people with Spheres, but they did. She wasn’t convinced it was useful.
Amy grimaced. “Natural magic is mostly for people who use their environment to their advantage. It can be really good, but it requires a matching Sphere. I might be able to find something, since I can take on the shapes of animals, but it would be really specific. I’m … uh… huh, I wonder if that’s there… oh, good it is.”
Amy refocused on Sophia. “I’m going to take Shared Tag. It was my second choice as a Team ability, but it looks like it’s considered a Sapient Investigation ability as well. It should let me set a tag on someone or something and track them using the tag instead of physical traces; you and Dav and maybe Taika will be able to see it as well. It’s a bit of a specialty Ability, but it can be carried by touch or any Ability, even an arrow, so it should help in a number of different circumstances. My father swears by it.”
Sophia tilted her head to the side. “Was getting to level three more important?”
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Amy nodded firmly. “I’m going to jump to level four as soon as I can. There are a couple of level three Abilities I need to reach Night Owl, but the good stuff isn’t until after I specialize.” She stepped forward and looked at the notes Sophia had scattered across the table. “What have you looked at so far?”
“I think I’ve looked through everything twice; the list really isn’t that long,” Sophia admitted with a sigh. “Nothing really looks good, but I wouldn’t have thought much of Shared Tag either. I think the best thing I’ve found is a Nexus Defense Spellblade Ability; it wasn’t on my other list, so I marked it down.”
Sophia hunted for the sheet of paper she’d used for the short list of Abilities that might be possible. She’d tried to pick the best one from each category and they were generally pretty lackluster. Fire Bolt was on the list, as was an Ability that made corpsevines ignore her and “reduced the presence” of people she was with. She tapped the Nexus Defense ability, which was the only one she’d picked that looked like it was probably a Spellblade ability.
Nexus Knowledge
Share the knowledge you have collected with the Nexus about monsters that are currently attacking the Nexus, giving all defenders a reduced version of the benefits you receive from Collected Knowledge and all related Abilities.
Amy’s face scrunched in what seemed to be disbelief. “Why haven’t you already taken that? What does Collected Knowledge do?”
Sophia shrugged slightly. “It makes it easier to remember what I know or maybe what I should know about a monster I’ve fought before. I’m pretty sure it fed me some things about corpsevines, since we fought so many of them. It seems like a pretty minor benefit. I only have one related Ability; it’s a shieldbreaking ability with spells. It seems like it could be useful, if it ever came up, but are we ever going to be in that situation? With Abilities as limited as they are, I want to make the best choices I can.”
“I hope we never have to defend a nexus,” Amy agreed, “But we almost had to, here, and I’ve been in cities that were under attack.” She grinned as if living in a world where attacks were normal wasn’t a big deal. “It’s pretty limited, definitely, but if we need it I think it’ll be more useful than you think.”
Sophia gestured at the list. “You look. Those are the best ones I could find.” Amy definitely had a point; there was no reason not to fill the slot with a rarely used Ability if she wouldn’t use any of the other options either.
The second-best ability on the list was definitely the Sapient Investigation Ability, but it was just as specialized as Nexus Knowledge, even though it could have been useful if the Registry Master hadn’t known who the bird pin belonged to. Guilty Glow would make an item that belonged to someone glow to Sophia’s vision when she looked at both it and the person who owned it. She couldn’t use it to track someone down easily, just to confirm ownership. It seemed quite a bit less useful than Amy’s Shared Tag.
It didn’t take Amy long to read the list. When she finished, she set it down and nodded decisively. “Definitely Nexus Knowledge. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Well, there was a reason Sophia pointed it out to Amy. She’d thought it was her best choice. She went ahead and selected it and saw the Ability appear in her Spellblade Abilities as she’d expected. She was pretty sure she was over the recommended number of Abilities in several categories, but she was happy with where she stood.
Technically, she didn’t have to take anything more before she pushed up to level four, but she was confident she’d check the different options at level three. She didn’t think she’d take any abilities before then, unless Cliff Collected something especially good.
Sophia Status [https://i.imgur.com/KH6H56V.png]
Sophia
Spells:
Unaffiliated Abilities:
Warped Human
(Eldritch Empowerment, 2, 2)
(Innate Communication, Bonus, Free)
(Feather Image)
(Root Grab, 2, 2)
(Spell Hardening, 3, 3)
Body: 7
(Offensive Illusion Field, 2, 2)
(Visual Targeting, 3, 3)
Core: 9
(Eldritch Overcharge, 2, 2)
(Disruptive Magic, 2, 2)
(Keep Warm, 2, 2)
Shield: 30
Martial Abilities:
(Summon Echo, 2, 2)
Species Abilities:
Wisps: 7
(Shaped Growth, 2, 2)
(Scaley, 2, 2)
(Spell Reservoir, 3, 3)
Spheres
Species Spells:
(Aural Magic Sense, 2, 2)
Spellblade (Hallow)
(Force Bolt, 3, 3)
(Magic Attuned Aura, Bonus, Free)
Level: 2
(Force Blast, 3, 3)
(Magical Translucence, 2, 2)
(Corruption Bolt, 2, 2)
(Manifest Wings, 2, 2)
Collector (Linked)
(True Death Bolt, 2, 2)
(Prismatic Magic, 2, 2)
Level: 2
(Attractive Affix, 2, 2)
Unavailable:
(Parrying Presence, 2, 2)
Aura Armor, 2
(Embody Element, 2, 2)
MageSight, 2
(Feather Image)
Attunements:
Spellblade Abilities:
Contraceptive Amulet, 3
(Imbue Blade, 3, 3)
(Animate Blade, 3, 3)
(Animate Spell Blade, 3, 3)
(Collected Knowledge, 3, 3)
(Antithetical Shattering Spell, 2, 2)
(Nexus Knowledge, Bonus, Free)