[Elara Twice] You can’t have more than 100% manadraw. That’s just math. Your aethercore can’t funnel more than it’s capable of… normally. Berserking abilities allow you to pull more mana and overcharge your abilities, but at great cost.
[Tokyo Twice] What happens to your abilities when your aethercore gets bigger, then? Wouldn’t you be pulling more mana naturally?
[Elara Twice] Your abilities grow, but the costs grow proportionately. Support skills can evolve with more thick or refined mana, or with different skill merges, but we don’t have a hub on Aris.
[Tokyo Twice] Can you teach me a berserking ability?
[Elara Twice] How did we even get on this topic from system priority law. Get back to work, come back to me when you 50-cap and maybe I’ll think about it.
– Conversation between Elara and Tokyo Twice
Chapter 19 – Lessons Learned
Toki sat in contemplation with the ice monkey tail in her lap. Marsha’s request for a meeting—no doubt a whirlwind of banter and sardonic advice—clashed with the summons from the Primes. The former would yield ammunition for her future; the latter for her present, hopefully providing tactical information and intelligence she needed to know now. The choice is obvious, unfortunately.
She let out a sigh, her breath a wisp in the cold subterranean tunnel, mingling with the ethereal glow of her flame ability. Toki started dismembering the monkey, careful to extract the beast core alongside the ice tail. If I disregard the primes, they might realize ‘Five’ is Tokyo Twice. Marsha will have to wait.
"Feathers."
“Toki, talk to me. What’s going on? They want you dead now?”
“There’s too much going on. I’ll have to be quick.”
“Why qui—”
“Just let me explain. I am about to go into another meld. You know how I passed out earlier. This is the same—it seems like it takes my consciousness and brings it into a meeting space. Super annoying if you ask me. My body is basically defenseless.”
“A meeting with who? Your lawyers?”
“No. They also called, but… but I have to talk to the Primes.”
“Who the hell are the primes? And shouldn’t you be talking to the lawyers? Are the Primes the ones that gave you the bounty?”
“No. That’s the dynasty. Gods damn, Edgar, focus. I’m going to be going into another meld. You’ll have to protect me once more. Fuck. I don’t want to do this, but I think we’re safe here for now, at least.”
“So… what you were saying to the spider… it’s true?”
“There’s so much we don’t know, Edgar. But yes. There are fantastical worlds out there. Worlds that I want to go to, worlds that I want to explore. But we need to live to go there.”
Edgar swallowed hard.
Toki continued, “the Primes are like a secret cult. And right now, they don’t want Tokyo Twice to live.”
“The Twice clan’s also a cult.”
“Well… yeah. Fair. I’m also a Prime. If I don’t go, they’ll suspect something. They were already suspicious last time.”
“Then why go? Can they trap you there?”
“They control this whole damned world, Edgar. The trade deal that everyone’s talking about. They run it. And from the bits and piece I gathered, they do a whole lot more than that.”
“How did this happen? You just get awarded Prime because you kill a dragon?”
“Elara was a Prime… and now I am. I’ll explain the rest later.”
"Figures. She was the puppet-master type. I have your back Toki, but you need to explain this shit to me. You can’t leave me blind like this.” He puffed up his feathers in protest.
Toki smiled at Edgar, “I’ll tell you everything.”
[5/5 Primes have agreed to council]
[You are being summoned by Prime Speaker of Aris. Prepare for meld in 5 seconds.]
Toki closed her eyes and exhaled, surrendering to the inevitable pull of the meld. She returned to the black room. As the others were already seated, she joined them and took the fifth seat.
“One, she’s an elite. What are her skills?”
How can they know my skills?
“She purchased two system skills. I will project them now from the Prime Panel.”
“Two? How the fuck did she purchase two of ‘em,” Three added.
One pulled up the two skills for the Primes to see. Toki pulled up her status screen to see if there was any difference in the readout.
Skill
Information
Lessons, Dearly Departed
Description:
An active skill:
[Lessons - If target contains life force]: Attack with a physical manifestation of the shadows to apply physical damage [scales with strength + intelligence]. Strike leaves a mark of [Request]. All [Request] marks are activated when the lifeforce debt exceeds target’s remaining life force.
[Request]: Places a small debt of lifeforce from target to the user, draining over time.
[Dearly departed – If target contains no life force] Pilfer story/memory shards from target. Greater stacks of [Request] improve yield and coherence of story/memory shards.
Current upkeep / cost:
20% mana upkeep / appendage
Merge / upgrade options available
Yes
Chronicle Cascade
Description:
[Active]: Use ambient story elements to force comprehension of the Dao tapestry.
[Passive]: Acquired story/memory shards apply [Cascade] buff on user. [Cascade] buff falls off when not in battle at 1 instance per minute.
[Cascade]: Each instance of cascade empowers the user with a 1% all attribute buff. (Max = 20 shards)
Current upkeep / cost:
100% for active.
Merge / upgrade options available
Yes
Toki looked from her status screen to the projection. They can see the description, but not upkeep or merge options. These skills are perfect for enchanting. But does this mean that I have to kill my targets to trigger a [Cascade]?
“She can become strong. Can we still reject the bounty? I want to bring her into the fold.” Two added.
The elf whistled, “I stand by two. A world trial would be in our best interest. Monsters and other combatants will flood this world. This is a 20% modifier at all times for extended combat.”
I agree, for large scale battles, these are strong abilities. I also have a self-heal mixed in. I’ll have to test this though.
One considered, “Hmmm, we cannot reject the bounty anymore. But we can try to convince her to cooperate.”
“These abilities are alright, but every fuckin’ elite will have something like ‘em. I’m not convinced – I’m in the depths now and we just fought off a bunch of monkeys. If she survived ‘em I’ll test her out myself… who knows, maybe you’ll all be looking at a new set of skills tomorrow. From what the crew is telling me, she doesn’t have a Dao-bound ability yet.”
Damn, there’s a crew coming our way.
“Three, that’s outrageous,” Two replied.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Ya agreed to that decision, Two. Just ‘cause we might have a champion don’t mean we have a way to survive Golgheim.”
“Like this barbarian said before, by happenstance she has two abilities. One master and one ascendant,” Four added, “she’s grasped a dao-seed. There’s no other explanation. That means she still has plenty of leftover luck for the Elite Shop.”
“Heh, no matter. She won’t be able to use it.”
“Why is that?”
“She’s only level 39… maybe a few more for killing the envoy.”
“Greedy barbarian. Even I recognize the scaling power here. We can nurture her Daos with her ascendant skill. If we wait a few years and import more exotic beasts, we can certainly power her up.”
Toki was hesitant. If she revealed her identity now, what could she gain? Could I convince Three?
"No rush, you can try to convince me."
“One, why did you call this meeting? This is a waste of my time.” Toki interrupted. No way I'm convincing him.
“You are correct Five. If it were the skills alone, it would hardly warrant an emergency meeting. We guessed as much last time.”
Toki nodded.
“The updated bounty request came with a note from the Dynasty. ‘If we can’t have her, no one can.’”
“That sounds quite ominous,” the elf quipped.
“Hardly,” One replied. “They added an engagement card. If this Tokyo Twice agrees to betroth the lich young master, they agreed to intercede on our behalf with the Falkori. Apparently they are reaching out to her legal counsel to arrange a meld for introductions.”
I guess that’s why Marsha called. “I don’t see how you could force the girl to marry.” Toki said without a change of posture.
“We cannot, but it would certainly be strong leverage for Aris in our dealings with the Dynasty. Three, I urge you to reconsider. Unless you’re willing to swing the other way, of course. We can always offer you instead.”
“Hmph. I’ll decline. Two, Four, Five. Will you support me for a world trial if I become elite?”
“Perhaps.”
“Yes.”
“No.” I’d be dead, dumbass.
“Why?”
“You sound like an ass.”
“Hahaha.”
“*Cough* haha, *cough*”
“You would be correct.”
There’s no point in revealing myself. I don’t want to fight someone to the death, but I don’t want to marry some undead lich either. If there’s no other option for this world… I’ll consider it.
“I’d perhaps have majority. So, forget it, One.”
“How does the world trial work?” Toki interrupted. Three will come after me anyways. There’s no point.
“We have to survive 24-hours after we vote, Five. The primes have tried four times that I am aware of within the last few centuries.”
What was left unsaid spoke volumes. The're all dead.
“Very well, if there is nothing else of import. I will await another Aris-wide announcement.”
Toki's consciousness recoiled, retracting from the meld. She blinked rapidly, the tunnel coming into focus, as her flames flicked forth, with Edgar's silhouette hovering over her.
"Edgar, I’m back" she whispered.
His eyes widened, "What did they tell you? Did they figure you out?" he asked, his words careful, wings folding against his back to minimize his presence—perhaps an instinctive effort to shield them both from unseen threats.
"I’m okay for now. I’m not sure… but Golgheim… he might be the bad guy."
"Council speaker?" Edgar's feathers bristled, his tone laced with perplexity. "Why?"
"Let’s keep moving. I’ll explain while we walk. They already fought some of the monkeys. One of the primes brought a crew. To kill me."
They progressed through the underground tunnel, their path illuminated by Toki’s flame. Along the way Toki started playing with [Lessons] while she explained the details of the Primes, Dutch Eternal, and even Golgheim to Edgar.
Edgar was quiet and just listened, never interrupting. But slowly the frown grew larger and larger with each additional secret. Toki finished with the news from the Dynasty, calling for a marriage agreement, whereupon Edgar finally interrupted. “Fuck Toki, you can’t let them do that to you! This world! Gods be damned, the whole palette be damned!”
Toki nodded along, using [Lessons] to summon a fourth claw from her own shadow below. She was playing catch with them using a manafruit.
“Aggahhahh. We have to fight them?”
“Seems that way.”
“We have to kill them?”
“I don’t know.”
“And… Golgheim?”
“I really don’t know, Edgar. I’m learning this all now too. It’s a little overwhelming, but Golgheim was right about one thing. If I’m stronger, no one can push me around.”
She took a bite of the manafruit as the tunnel opened into another enormous cavernous space. Above there were blue crystals casting bioluminescent blue from above. As far as she could see were the remnants of a long-forgotten civilization clinging to the walls. Clay homes, hollowed and half-eroded, stared back at them with empty windows like the sockets of a giant's skull. Wooden doors hung askew on rusted hinges, and here and there, tools lay abandoned mid-chore, preserved in the tomb-like silence of this underground. There were no people, no skeletons, no memory of their existence.
"An entire life, reduced to dust," Edgar remarked somberly, his voice barely disturbing the hush that enveloped them. “Will this be us?”
Toki didn’t answer but her determination cast a stark contrast to the melancholy of their surroundings. Together, they went further into the depths, exploring the clay homes as they passed them and paying homage to the remnants of this forgotten civilization. Inside, they swept for any books, tomes, identifying information, or anything that could give light to what this civilization was. They found nothing. No written word or description. Not so much as a painting or cave drawing. It was eerie.
The gloom of the underground deepened as Toki and Edgar descended into the underground cityscape, their footsteps cautious on the uneven ground. The air grew denser, suffused with a briny stench that clawed at their senses as they approached what looked like a glowing body of water in the distance. Is this an underground lake… I can’t see the end of it.
"Edgar," Toki whispered, her voice a susurrus against the silence. "Do you smell that?"
"Salt… is that seafood?" he replied, the plume of his breath visible in the cool darkness. He clutched his feathered cloak closer, eyes darting nervously. "It’s like we’re at a beach."
As if summoned by his words, a skittering sound echoed ahead and a cacophony of clicks and clacks that seemed to multiply and encroach upon them from the waterfront. Toki's hand drifted to her hammer.
“Quick, to the rooftop.” Toki summoned a footfall with [Bindings of Tyndall] and both Edgar and Toki climbed up the nearest clay building. She extinguished her flame.
"Cowcrabs," Edgar whispered, squinting to see in the darkness. A multitude of glowing carapaces materialized from the dark, bearing down upon them with pincers raised in silent threat. There were four of them, as large as their namesake suggested. They danced the crab walk, going zig-zag up the street from the waterfront.
As Toki observed she tried drawing upon her new ability, [Lessons], but the shadow wasn’t able to catch hold in the heavy darkness. Hmmm, so I’ll need to use my flame to cast a stronger shadow.
Toki motioned to Edgar pointing at herself and then the two on the left. He nodded, pointed at himself and then the two on the right.
Toki nodded. She didn’t draw her weapon for this fight. Jumping back to the ground, she summoned her flame, using it to cast shadows into her surroundings. Time to test it out.
Edgar met the other two crabs with an onslaught. Edgar was nimble and swift despite his anxiety and evaded snapping claws while delivering precise strikes with his katana, exploiting the gaps in the creatures' defenses. Toki moved to flank the others and summoned [Lessons]. It had a cast time – to gather the complicated guideweave took a moment. The system is helpful in that way. I can't imagine holding all the structure coefficients for my support skills in my head, much less using them.
The crabs used the chance to close the distance to her. Gods only know how the custom skills in the shop were even made.
She summoned a single large claw allocating all her manadraw using [Advanced Mana Control]. From the shadows emerged a single claw, colossal and spectral, wrought from the night itself. It was as if she had drawn forth the hand of some eldritch deity from the ground, eager to exact retribution upon those who dared disturb its slumber. The claw hovered above the battlefield, anchored to the shadow on the ground, a silent promise of devastation. It was as big as the crabs themselves and pulsed darkness. Toki used it and slashed at the closest crab, knocking it into the building wall. Splattering it against the building wall. Too strong for mortal crabs. Imagine if I had more intelligence.
[[Dearly Departed] has pilfered Carapace Art (1/100)]
The other crab tried skittering away, but Toki dropped the first shadow and summoned another to strike the second crab. It’s faster to just move the shadow. Maybe I can create two and cycle manadraw from one to another instead.
[[Dearly Departed] has pilfered Carapace Art (2/100)]
Toki felt a small surge of lifeforce and strength with every creature the shadow dispatched. It wasn’t significant, but it was enough to notice. The [Cascade] buffs would add up quickly. Each crab had also added to this mysterious Carapace Art. If each enemy only dropped one, completing the story would take a while.
“I think we should use them to gain some experience. They’re free beasts after all. Back up there we had to import direhogs."
“Hmmm, that makes sense. By the way, the shadow claw makes you look like a badass villain.” Edgar had finished before her and was waiting, watching her test the monstrous shadow claw.
“Mwu-ha-ha-ha.”
“Nope. Ruined it.”
Another line of crustaceans appeared, zig-zagging, looking for the scouting party. This time Toki summoned five claws, each with 20% manadraw each.
“Let me tag them. I get a buff each time.” She drew her hammer, unsure if the shadow claw without [Advanced Mana Control] would be enough to kill the crabs.
Toki felt a surge of adrenaline as she wove her way through the throng of crustaceans. The new line did not have an end. More and more started to gather from their surroundings. Their claws snapped in rhythm and as the onslaught of crabs surged forth, Toki realized that these creatures were merely the vanguard. Like the scouts, they were mortal skirmishers.
“Edgar, if we run into a stage-one or stage-two, we might have to retreat.”
They swarmed en masse, a scuttling horde intent on overwhelming the intruders in their ancient, subterranean realm. Edgar responded with a grunt, his taloned feet digging into the clay-ridden ground, wings slightly unfurled for balance. "So many..."
Toki agreed, her eyes narrowing as she took in the relentless wave of assailants. Her heart thundered, not with fear but with excitement; this was a weapons test, a trial by combat.
Toki jumped into the throng and wove through snapping claws delivering hammer strikes and [Lessons] in equal measure. She used the shadow claw mostly to defend and parry the strikes that were unavoidable and soon the [Cascade] stacks were starting to build up.
"Behind you!" Edgar's warning cut through the air, and Toki pivoted just in time for the shadowy appendage to block out a snap from a hidden stage-one cowcrab. Toki funneled manadraw from the four other claws into the single one and defended against the hit. The impact was cataclysmic, sending nearby crabs flying, their exoskeletons fracturing under the immense force. It was an impressive blow, but also an impressive block.
"Merciful skies..." Edgar murmured, awe tingeing his usual timbre.
"Keep moving!" Toki's command brooked no argument, as she guided the shadowy claw through complex arcs and vicious swipes, each movement resonating with an otherworldly power. She played with the distribution of manadraw and settled on a 5% for the parry claws and 80% for a single offensive and blocking claw.
Keeping track of all the different appendages was new, but Toki relished the battle. The claws were an extension of her being, tangible manifestations of her will, and with them, she carved a path through their adversaries. She danced between the strikes, fluid and lethal, dispatching any crab that eluded the claw's wrath with a heavy blow from her adamant hammer. As more and more cowcrabs fell, Toki felt that there was an inkling of enlightenment hidden in her battle. She was on the cusp of understanding something, but she could not yet grasp it.
Together, Edgar and Toki pressed forward. Toki orchestrated a gathering of shadows, Edgar followed her lead with his two additional projections, his own attacks precise and deadly. The sheer number of crabs dwindled under their combined assault, revealing the true potential of Toki's burgeoning abilities.
“MOOOOOO.”
The patriarch cowcrab had arrived. Not quite a stage-two, but late stage-one. Toki glanced at her status and smiled.
[Level up: Level 44]
[[Dearly Departed] has pilfered Carapace Art (43/100)]
[[Cascade] x20]
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