CHAPTER 21 – AFFINITIES

April clapped her hands with excitement:

“I knew you would be up for it. Discovering one’s affinities is always fun.”

“I know mine.”

She ignored him. Suddenly, a slip of paper appeared in her hands. She studied it intently, and, for a moment, she looked stunned:

“Um… wow, that’s very interesting.” She peered at him. “There’s a lot more to you than I expected.”

Tom stared at the scrap of paper:

“What are you talking about?”

“These are the results of the ritual.” She waved the hand holding the paper, and he glimpsed its contents briefly. Six lines with his lightning affinity were listed in the middle. But that was all he had time to read.

The process she had used to create the results didn’t make sense to him. He cleared his throat:

“I’m a little confused. Don’t rituals need preparation, fancy lines in the dirt, chanting, infusion of power, that kind of stuff?”

She looked at him incredulously:

“Tom, I expected better from you. We’re in my trial. My control over this space is near-absolute. I could make kilometres of ritual infrastructure appear under your feet and then unmake them the next second. Which is what I did, and you didn’t notice.” She laughed. “Anyway, this contains your results.” She waved the paper. “Do you still want to see? Actually, you definitely want to see it, and you’ve already agreed to the price.” She handed it to him.

He read it quickly.

Tom Mark Brayshaws top five affinities:

Precognition - 95

Earth - 87

Lightning - 84

Wood Shaping - 78

Healing - 71

Tom stared blankly at the piece of paper. “This isn’t right. I don’t have precognition abilities… and”, he pointed at the relevant line. “How is it… How is it so high? I don’t understand.” There were other discrepancies as well. He had lost five points of earth, and that fact had almost halved its strength. Lightning had a slight boost, and healing a more significant jump. But it was the two new affinities that troubled him the most, especially the precognition one.

April smiled at his confusion:

“What you’re seeing is a known phenomenon.”

“Do you mean that all reincarnators get precognition?”

She looked shocked at that suggestion:

“No, absolutely not. That particular affinity is rather rare. Only one person who has come through has even had it, and they hadn’t been reincarnated. Besides, even for them it was only forty-five. I meant that reincarnators getting a new affinity was common. I’ve seen them get Wood Shaping dozens of times.”

“That one’s new for me too,” he confirmed.

“I expected as much. It’s a known quirk…” she stopped looking thoughtful. “No, that’s not the best way to describe it. It’s a known benefit that soul-bound items are lost when you’re reincarnated, but they often grant a high affinity for the type of magic they use as a compensation. Given your obsession and technical expertise with spear fighting, I would hazard a guess that in your last life you had possessed a soul-bound spear. Furthermore, given the strength of your affinity, you probably got it early and upgraded it a couple of times.”

“Something like that.” He muttered, but his focus had returned to the precognition line. His mind raced, trying to understand it. “I don’t get this.” He stabbed the paper again. “I didn’t have a precognition artefact, unless…” He looked up at her in excitement. “I have holes in my memory. Do you think that’s related?”

“No, that doesn’t make sense, but…” she licked her lips and studied him like a scientist would a bug under his microscope. “Maybe if it was a divine level item; then it would make sense.” She didn’t look at all convinced. “But ninety-five is…” she licked her lips, again. “Let me put it this way, the highest newly-obtained affinity I’ve seen is eighty-six. They had a single-purpose, soul-bound legendary artefact they got from a trial, and it only gave them eighty-six.”

Tom’s eyes went back to the piece of paper once more. The affinity level of precognition was too high.

“Are you sure my results are right?”

She inclined her head slightly:

“There’s no doubt. I’ve double-checked and then quadruple-checked the precognition one with two other testing mechanisms. Cost me more than the quoted price to do so, but I figured it was necessary.” She snorted. “One of those said the affinity was actually ninety-six, which is even more terrifying.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.” Tom stammered. “Ninety-six is approaching the levels GODs have.”

“Yep. The highest affinity I’ve measured in this human-only trial was ninety-three. You know my age, and the highest I’ve ever come in contact with was ninety-six. Mind you, its owner was two thousand years old and had invested the treasures of an entire civilisation to grow her air affinity.” She shook her head. “Your new affinity, given it is precognition, is at least ten times more valuable than any affinity I’ve seen in a human. In fact, it’s the best one I’ve ever seen, period. It’s worth way more than an air affinity of ninety-six.”

“That’s fine, but what does this mean?”

“Profit,” she said immediately. “And as for your future, maybe you should refocus and become an oracle.”

Tom’s entire psyche rebelled at that thought:

“No. Never! I’m not doing that.” He snapped.

He knew he had never wanted that type of role, but the revulsion he felt went beyond what he could consciously remember. The theory about this being related to his missed memories was making more and more sense. Nothing could make him go down the Oracle road. He had a build, and he was going to execute it.

April across from him raised her hands to calm him:

“No one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to, and definitely not me. However, an affinity that high is an opportunity, no matter how you look at it. Top line dodge skills and vital abilities like danger sense will be obtainable. Even for a spear warrior, this is a good outcome. Out of interest, did you have any of those Skills in you last life?”

“I had a dodge skill,” he told her quietly, remembering his fate based black dodge ability.

“Have you lost it?”

“You know I have. It would have been obvious if it was still active.”

“That might have partially contributed to the new affinity. It’s theorised that lost skills, traits and titles can also take part in forming an affinity.”

“The dodge ability explicitly had no precognition. It was its flaw. This affinity did not come from it.”

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“Curious.”

“I did have a precognition trait that I got from the contribution store. It was called DEUS’s Chosen.”

“The one you still have?”

“It used to be at a higher level.”

That got her attention. She tilted her head to the side:

“How many questions were you getting per day?”

“It was eight.” She perked up. “Days between each question.” He finished.

Her excitement vanished, and she shook her head:

“That’s not enough… not even close. My guess remains that you somehow soul-bonded with a mythical or divine-level artifact.”

“But why would memories of something like that be blocked?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged helplessly. “Maybe it was cursed. However, the past doesn’t matter, and it’s a moot point in any case, as I lack the tools to extract lost memories. We need to focus on what this affinity can do here and now. Short-term, it means profit, and long-term… well, it’ll make obtaining precognition abilities naturally a lot easier, and, believe me, that’s usually nearly impossible. Unfortunately, I won’t share any of the methods that can be utilised. But you’re clever. I’m sure you can work it out.”

“Blanket all senses and then try to dodge,” Tom guessed.

“Something like that,” she agreed. “Techniques that give a normal person a one percent chance of gaining a precognition skill will be a near certainty for you. Hail Mary attempts for higher tiered abilities usually fail, but in your case, I guess, you’ll have good odds to get it. I can’t stress how amazing this opportunity is, and you should beg, steal or pay for any available historical records from established native tribes to make the most of it.”

Tom froze as the reality of what she was telling him finally sunk in. He kind of knew all this, but when he had come into Existentia, he hadn’t possessed an affinity in the low nineties. Leaning on his affinities for skill acquisition hadn’t been an option, so it was not something he had researched.

Unable to help itself, his mind raced. He leapt from idea to idea as he considered all the different abilities that he would want to attempt gaining. Three, maybe four-period danger sensing that would let him know about threats to his life - seconds, minutes, hours, days, possibly weeks in advance. Hell, with that level of affinity, maybe, instead of a being a feeling, his danger sense would allow him to have glimpses of the future. What else could he do?

“You need to research methods to gain precognition skills,” April stressed. “Your own ideas are good, but getting proven methods is better. Invest time in this. It’s the most important thing you can do. You’ll want Danger Sense, Future Glimpse, Precognition Enhanced Dodge, Advanced Identification, Party Threat Predictions and Treasure Sense as a minimum. I’d also consider some specific oracle-aligned skills like Encounter Prediction, Innate Preparedness and Omen Path Guidance.” She finished breathlessly.

He shifted on the cushioned bench and thought about this. Most of those skills wouldn’t change his core build, and he understood their value. Even buying these skills in the experience shop was worthwhile. The affinity, while boosting his chances of acquiring them in the first place, would also increase their effectiveness. Most people got a scattering of these abilities, despite lacking a measurable affinity. Tom didn’t know the exact mathematics, but he imagined that, for most people, Danger Sense granted half a second warning of a mortal threat. That was enough time to trigger a lifesaving movement, ability, or defensive treasure.

In his hands, the same ability would be completely different. What was in scope for him would change. He was sure he’d get a prod about minor things, like if he was about to stub his toe. Then, if there was a real threat that might kill him, instead of half a second he’d get a handful. Theoretically, that extra time would let him escape without burning skills with long cool-downs.

“I’ll do that,” he agreed quietly. He had no desire to be an Oracle, but being a better spear-warrior, assassin mage, or treasure hunter were advantages he was happy to sign up for.

“As you get older,” she frowned. “The orphanage should be able to provide opportunities that could help you acquire the dodge and danger sense skills. At least, they did so in the past. I can’t comment on its current operations, but I don’t see why that should have changed.”

“I’ll look into it.” He promised.

“Now,” she snapped her fingers. “Let’s talk skill acquisition.”

“I’m very interested in that topic,” Tom assured her. “Possibly more so now than a few minutes ago. Can you help with the precognition ones?”

She smiled:

“No, I can’t help you with getting a precognition skill using the guidance method. That’s something you’re going to have to address yourself. The GODs shop only has tier zero and one items. All the precognition skills are tier two or above.”

“And what if I source a skill stone?”

“You can’t afford that.”

Tom suspected she was right, but it was worth asking. If any of his past companions were alive, he was sure they would be happy to source high-tier skills for him.

“And if I can?”

“If you provide a stone. I can transform it into guidance, but you have to understand that my methods aren’t perfect. You might never get the skill if you go through me. But if you use the stone directly, acquisition is guaranteed.”

Tom shrugged:

“But with an affinity of ninety-five, how likely would failing to get it be? Should I give it to you?”

He watched her. This was not a question about precognition abilities; it was a roundabout way of finding out about titles.

She bit her lip:

“Yes; provided we have at least a year of time remaining, pushing that through me might be for the best.”

Tom did not smile. That was a confirmation that gaining abilities, particularly high levelled ones, was linked to valuable titles:

“How about helping me gain these skills via simulated combat?”

She frowned thoughtfully:

“Anything I can create will be deadly. You will die in them, and for benefits, at best it’ll be equivalent to your standing blindfolded and having three kids throwing pebbles at you. I don’t recommend doing it here. Now, stop distracting me. Let’s talk about how you’ll earn the credits to repay me for the ritual.”

She snapped her fingers, and the table was filled with various knickknacks. “You’re going to be crafting one of these, and probably repeating it hundreds of times, too.”

Tom scanned them, looking first at a series of small crystals.

Precognition-Attuned Crystal – Tier 1.

Contains a small amount of precognition-attuned energy. Useful in crafting.

There were crystals there for all four of his higher affinities. Healing must have been deemed to be too low for him to add sufficient value. These were clearly the simplest of items, so he focused on the jewellery, bracelets, rings, and amulets.

Bug Zapper – Tier 1

Defensive artefact rated to fry twenty tier-three insects.

And then there was the example with precognition built in.

Intelligent Bug Zapper – Tier 1

Defensive artefact rated to destroy twenty tier-three insects. Will ignore any insects that are not going to do material damage to you. i.e. nonvenomous ones. Venomous bugs that you already have immunity to are also excluded from the active effects. This feature greatly increases lifespan and makes this defence superior to most when in an area where only a small proportion of the insect population carries debilitating or lethal venoms or infectious vectors.

Tom remembered his first day in Existentia, when they had besieged by thousands of wasps. These wouldn’t have helped then, but if you were exploring and the bugs were a secondary threat, they would be a pleasant quality of life bonus.

Across from him, April clicked her fingers.

“Don’t get lost in the details until I’ve explained how this process works. You are capable of getting over the fifty percent value added hump for all these items. There are two types of effort. The first is the refining of base materials. Basically, shaping rock or wood into more useful forms and potentially increasing its quality as you do so.”

“Is that like Earth Manipulation?” Tom interrupted.

“Yes, but it’s a skill, so doesn’t require mana. The skill can also improve quality. You’d need a separate spell for that, one which is too mana-intensive for you to consider.”

Tom whistled:

“That sounds valuable.”

She waved that reaction aside:

“It’s weak. Too weak for combat. You’d have to advance it all the way to tier five before it could even compete with the tier zero spell version. Of course, if you manage to progress it that far, it’ll effectively become a pseudo-domain, because everything is free. Anyway, stop distracting me. Your ability to concentrate puts me on a timer.”

“My what now?”

She laughed:

“You’ll become bored soon and want to go and hit something and I need to finish this before then.” She stuck out her tongue. “As I was saying, you can shape base material into more useful versions, and the second method is to infuse specific energy into an object via a skill.”

“Not a spell?”

“Doing it via mana would get results faster, but mastering the skills will be a lot more valuable long term. Specifically, I recommend you make this.” She held up an elaborately shaped bracelet.

Artefact: Trapped Danger Sense – Tier One.

This bracelet has a single charge of the tier 2 ability Danger Sense. It provides a single warning to help you avoid an otherwise mortal or crippling blow.

Bracelet will break after use.

“This, according to my calculation, has the highest-expected value add per hour of your time, but there’s a downside to going down this path.”

“And what’s that?”

“Cost. I charge five thousand credits for each base skill that I give you, and to make this you would need wood shaping, ritual crafting, and precognition infusion.”

He whistled at that price. “That’s fifteen thousand. How long will that take to pay back?”

“My estimate is six hundred hours of work. If you split your time in here between this and spear mastery, then in a year you’ll be positioned to start doing new things.”

“I presume I could do a stone version. Why would I do wood? My earth affinity is higher.”

“Because wood holds the charge better, so there are greater profits. More importantly, I think wood shaping will be superior long term. You’re going to be able to create and enhance your spears. I know you can make them out of stone, but for most things wood is going to be best, especially given your ability to infuse elemental damage into them.”

“You mean my newly-acquired ability.” She didn’t respond. But she also didn’t need to. It was an obvious conclusion to draw: if he had ten years of experience making bracelets, infusing his magic into future weapons would be easy. “Still, it’s fifteen thousand.”

“Tom,” she interrupted him. “I strongly recommend you do this.”

He sighed. “Well, let’s get started.”