Chapter 24: The Most Effective Material for Shock Absorption
The next order of business was the Awakening Stone of Cloth Chelsea gave to Nara. It would awaken light armor, which suited Nara’s fighting style...once she had a coherent fighting style. She could have used a more general Awakening Stone of Armor. She could get leather armor which would suit her equally well, but trusted that Chelsea had a reason to offer her a cloth one instead. It may be cloth armor, but it was magic armor. It’s durability would far surpass mundane cloth, especially her basic white cotton clothes that she had just fought a wolf monster in.
Amara had Nara draw up this ritual herself, as practice. They had done the previous ones for her, and she had absorbed some directly. Now that Nara had absorbed a skill book and intended to go the distance with astral magic to eventually magic herself a way back home, it was time to put in the leg work and practice whenever she had the chance.
Compared to the familiar ritual and even essence rituals, the awakening stone absorption ritual was the simplest. She still made mistakes, but got it done in far less time than the familiar ritual. She placed the stone in the circle, and activated it with a bit of mana.
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-You have used [Awakening Stone of Cloth].
-You have awakened Mystic Essence Ability, [Moonlight Raiment]. You have awakened 4 of 5 Mystic Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Moonlight Raiment]
Conjuration (armor)
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Conjured robes that contain the tranquility of night.
* Increased resistance to damage. Highly effective against cutting and piercing damage, less effective against blunt damage.
* The robes subtly redirect aura and physical perception, making the conjurer more difficult to detect. This effect can be controlled or disabled.
* Mana recovery over time effects have increased strength and duration.
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“What are you waiting for? Conjure it,” Chelsea demanded. She was the one most enthusiastic about its potential appearance. To her, it wasn’t about fighting monsters, but how good you looked doing it.
She did, her previous simple shirt pants combo covered in a fantasy martial artist’s robe with matching martial artist’s pants beneath it. It was crossed between a wuxia cultivator robe and a jedi tunic, with loose but relatively heavy cloth compared to the breathable fabrics of casual wear.
The robe was the dark blue of the night sky, decorated with silver embroidery and tassels of silver, although still relatively minimalist in design. Towards the ends, her sleeves and the hem, it transitioned to a silver white, softly glowing with the light of moonlight. The long cloth strips didn’t get in her way; they seemed semi-corporeal, although not transparent. Thankfully, she could dim the soft light at will. The robe was light in weight, and didn’t drag her down. She swung her legs and jumped a few times, her legs unimpeded by the long cloth.
She shouldn’t be surprised, it was magic armor after all, but it fit her perfectly. There was no discomfort from bunched up cloth, nor did she feel restricted when she swung her arms. As always, she thought her concerns were surprisingly mundane. If she had to wear this robe for the rest of her life, it better be damn comfortable.
“That’s nice,” Chelsea observed approvingly, “Give me a spin.”
She did, feeling a bit silly but obliging.
Chelsea nodded enthusiastically, and Amara shook her head. The two adopting the mannerisms of the other.
“I can’t understand why you concern yourself so much with appearances.”
“That’s true,” Nara said, “You’d look beautiful dressed in a brown paper bag. In fact, that might make the brown paper bag the next wave of high fashion.”
She looked at the two of them, both the envy of Aphrodite. Hera would try to murder them, but they’d probably murder Zeus first. Between Amara and Zeus, who was the real lightning god?
“That applies to Amara too, yup.”
“It’s not without reason,” Chelsea harrumphed, “If you don’t look the part, you could get hit by allies.”
“If you are getting hit by allies,” Amara said, “The armor isn’t the reason, poor positioning is.”
“In chaotic battles, you can’t possibly blame poor positioning! Everywhere is poor positioning!”
“It is up to the skill of the adventurer to create their own advantageous position!”
“Ha!” Chelsea scoffed, “You want to bring this outside? I’ll show you an advantageous position.”
“Oh? Do you still have the ability to put me in my place, Chelsea, or have you gotten rusty?”
“I’m not some second-rate. I would never get rusty.”
“Why don’t you prove it to me?
And they were gone.
Nara ascended the second floor to her room, and stepped out onto the veranda. She stared into the jungle.
Jungle trees wildly grew up far in the distance, even more massive than their original ancient heights. It was an indication of where the two were fighting. It was Chelsea’s plant growth and manipulation powers; she had turned an already massive ancient forest into the canopy of titans. Lightning crackled in arcs across the sky, scorching trees with booms of rippling thunder. The jungle roared back, and it wasn’t just a metaphor.
“Ah, love,” Nara said as splinters of wood and chunks of jungle dirt smacked the far magic shield protecting the compound, even from her distant position.
If Nara wanted to spark another fight, she could ask them who had won.
*****
Weapon? Check.
Armor? Check.
Astral being from beyond the bounds of reality shaped into an adorable perfect good boy? Check.
Nara felt more and more like a space-hopping apprentice wizard, if wizards used swords and shovels, vacationed in Spain, slayed monsters, and ate money made of magic.
Amara had given Nara two maps of the region around Sanshi.
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-You have acquired [Map of the Sanshi Region]. Record of [Map of the Sanshi Region] has been added to the Archive.
-You have acquired [Mana Map of the Sanshi region]. Record of [Mana Map of the Sanshi Region] has been added to the Archive.
-You have unlocked the [Map] function, accessible through the [Archive]. [Map] will correct discrepancies when within the map region. Basic two dimensional maps are created while within an unmapped region but will lack information compared to physical and magical maps added to the [Archive].
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The map Amara gave her was marked with the magic levels of the region in detail; where was it safe for Nara to wander. Sanshi was known for its low magic quality—ideal for iron and bronze rank essence users, but there were natural fluctuations that looked like heat gradients. She would have to run away from bronze rank monsters, but she had that capability.
She stood at the edge of Sanshi, the city giving way to spaced out compounds, farmland, plains, and forests. Carts, skimmers, and mounted riders journeyed to and from the city. Shipments of stone, marble, crystal, wood, and produce were stacked in large, organized piles outside the city, where they were transported to other regions for craftsmen or construction.
“Now, how to travel?” The journey is part of the fun, so she didn’t like to continually astral jump, even if it was the fastest method. It was a bit like fast traveling and missing all the explorable bits of the map in between. There weren’t any developer placed secrets for her to find, but she wasn’t going to just skip the landscape all the time.
Thanatos pushed her hip with his nose, then barked.
“You’ll be my transportation? Are you okay with that? You’re my familiar not my ride, not that I know what a familiar usually does.”
He barked again, in protest.
“Okay, okay, you’re versatile. You can be my familiar and my ride. How is that offensive?”
Another bark.
“Okay, I shouldn’t presume your limits, my bad.”
The wolf grew in size, his black fur void of light, except the ethereal flame that flicked off at its ends. She conjured her Cosmic Path beneath her, and lightly jumped onto his back, hands clenched in his fur.
“Charge!” she yelled, pumping her fist into the air.
Thanatos howled, then broke into a run full of puppy like energy and enthusiasm, but with the coordination and strength of an apex predator.
She hunkered down, lowering herself on his back like a motorcycle rider to avoid being thrown off. Surprisingly he was a smooth ride, his feet gliding over the ground with nary a sound nor shock. He was made of shadow...no, flame? Apparently, the incorporeal was the most effective material for shock absorption.
Thanatos ran for thirty minutes or so, stopping where a small river separated a forest from plains. He didn’t tire quickly—he benefitted from Nara’s aura too. Ordinarily, wolves couldn’t keep a high speed for long, but Nara didn’t know if that applied to a magical wolf made of shadow and flame.
“Here?” Nara looked at her map, it was a region okayed by Amara. She wasn’t far from the city yet, but Thanatos traveled with wolf-speed, much faster than she could have managed herself unless she abused node teleportation or astral jumping.
Those of the retreat were right—a single familiar was already a great strength to her, even for transportation alone. Those without a familiar were missing out on a great deal of power, but ritual knowledge was a prerequisite to awaken one. Additionally, the maximum familiars that could be awakened was four, one for each essence, but most only awakened one, sometimes two.
She hoped she was the latter—she would like to see Chrome again, but who knew if the standoffish astral being even wanted to serve as a familiar.
She patted Thanatos’s fur, “I know a guy, he’d be your senior. Mister golden-hair-fancy-pants.”
Thanatos huffed.
“Yes, he’s your senior even if he awakens second. I met him first, you know, and I owe him a lot. It doesn’t mean I appreciate you any less.”
She picked carefully through the forest, simultaneously training her aura senses. Sometimes, she kept her aura retracted, sneaking up on a monster to kill it with one lethal strike. Other times, she expanded her aura, scoping out the area. Amara would say she needed to use all of her abilities, but there was only so much she could practice simultaneously.
A stronger aura did not correlate with an easily detectable aura. Stronger auras had greater ability, like admin access on a computer—they could hide themselves from auras weaker than them.
“Chelsea would say there’s nuance. Technique goes a long way...”
The most common monster in the area was the chimeric forest monkey, which she had fought previously after her battle with the midnight wolf. She came across a pack of them now, warped, chittering monsters that ripped apart wildlife in fleshy wasteful messes. They sucked on the bones of rabbits as if they were mango cores still surrounded with sweet, tangy flesh. Normal monkeys were similarly ripped apart, limbs and tailed draped across trees as barbaric tapestry.
“Song rises from within,” She quietly chanted. The spell immediately began to generate instances of her four boons, still all flavors of recovery boons: Invigorating Energy, Invigorating Blood, Invigorating Spirit, and Integrity. Her Invigorating boons were a bit like a refund for a different resource, so she needed to use health, mana, and stamina simultaneously to make use of it. It also didn’t give her any resources just from gaining another instance, rather, it increased her refund percentage when she did use mana, stamina, and health.
The monkeys were in the trees, but she was no longer afraid of falling and breaking a bone on that sort of terrain. Even if she fell, she had teleportation and slow-fall abilities. With a shadow of starry sky at her feet and conjured robes of midnight blue, she leapt up, stabbing up with her sword and skewering an unaware monkey. She swung her sword, dumping the monkey monster onto the ground off of the blade. Thanatos waited below, snatching the monkey out of the air like she had thrown him a treat, ripping the monkey apart without a chance to resist and finishing the job.
The other ten monkeys turned to look at her, alerted by the dying screech of the other monkey, their eyes glimmering red and sickly yellow under the shade of the trees. Some had more than just two eyes.
“Gives a whole new meaning to spider monkey,” she muttered, dodging a rock that sailed past her head and landing back on the floor. Iron rank monsters were simplistic, so they followed her down to the forest ground, although they would have had the advantage if they stayed in the trees.
She led them out of the forest, back to the river and the open fields, dodging stones, sticks, and rotten fruit all the while. Compared to Amara’s missile-’rock'ets, this was...monkey’s play. She didn’t know the capabilities of Thanatos’ flame; this battle she provoked now was to test it out.
She would be a responsible essence user and avoid starting any forest fires. She didn’t want a bounty on her head after accidentally committing reverse eco-terrorism.
A few monkeys crossed the shallow river, but a few others lost their nerve, standing back to scream and chuck stones. That suited her, as she had less to simultaneously deal with.
Amara wanted her to fight with her full ability set, so she, the studious student, did as told. She teleported from monkey to monkey, settling for any shallow cut she could manage, then casting Entropy to accelerate her afflictions. She had to watch her mana—Entropy had no cooldown, but took its toll with a moderate mana cost.
It felt like a waste of time when a cut across the throat would do, but essence magic required mastery, and mastery required use. If that’s what the system required, she’d play along.
Thanatos was a menace, in contrast to his normally goofy and assuming self, although Nara’s eyes were already wearing rose-tinted glasses to look at her cuddly familiar. Only she thought that he looked goofy; all the normal people she passed thought he looked like a flaming tear in reality, a monstrous wolf with eyes mirroring Erras’ two moons.
He could launch lances of black and silver-blue flame that set the monkeys alight. It set off a chorus of screaming that caused Nara to wonder if she was committing animal torture. Thanatos ripped through the cautious monkeys that didn’t cross the river, wolf claws tearing into flesh.
“My god, Thanatos, I may have named you after the god of death but please leave some for me to practice on.”
Frankly, she was weaker than her familiar. Thanatos benefitted from his animalistic hunting skills, the inherent qualities of a wolf, and the intelligence of an astral being that he was summoned with.
“What does this say about me when my familiar is more competent that me. I hope this won’t be a pattern...” she muttered. She used her staff to throw down a monkey that leapt at her, utilizing both Dream’s Wake then Astral Return to enhance her next attack. Nirvana transformed back into a sword into a quick, lethal stab through the torso.
She felt that her fighting style was starting to make sense. Nirvana suited her—just like The Way of the Dancer in her skill book, she could seamlessly transform the weapon to match her needs. The staff was ideal for redirection, blocking, and hard impacts, and the sword was better for quick lethality and closer quarters.
More often than not, she teleported back to a safe node for a breather, resting atop a branch as the monkeys furiously searched for her, the perception redirection of her robe allowing her to take a break in the middle of the battle, as long as she was hidden. Her sword swings were still simplistic, her battle sense still nascent. She could manage a monkey, maybe two, at a time, but when her battle became too chaotic, she retreated.
Thankfully, time was her champion. Integrity and her Invigorating trio boon kept her stamina and resources up, while Entropy slowly but surely increased the damage the monkeys would suffer. If she waited long enough, even a scratch would trigger a massive burst of damage from Dimensional Rupture that could one-shot the monkeys, especially at iron rank when everything was weak. She wasn’t going to wait that long...she may be patient, but she had things to do. She had to use all of her abilities, up to a limit. Waiting around wasn’t helping anybody except prolonging the suffering and slowing her progress.
So, she teleported back down, repeating the process of killing monkeys one-by-one until all eleven were dead.
Sword in hand, she looked at the mess she had created around her. Charred corpses still fueling a silent black flame, ravaged by amateur sword strikes, and crushed skulls and abdomens. Extra body parts danged from strips of flesh and fur. She wasn’t untouched herself, nowhere near it. She had done a good job dodging rocks, which was turning into her specialty, but she couldn’t dodge everything. She had gouges and scratches all over her body, especially on her legs, where she had to change her posture to attack them since they were shorter than she was.
“I feel like a savage,” she said, leaning over Nirvana that she transformed into a cane. She examined herself, blood dropping off her combat robes onto the ground. It had held up far better than when she fought with just normal clothes. It was still all together, although punctured in places where some teeth or claws managed to break through. It wasn’t impervious to damage, but significantly more resistant to it than ordinary clothes had been, and she could conjure another fresh set when her first was too compromised.
She didn’t want to suffer the putrid rainbow smoke the monsters would transform into once she looted them. All monsters eventually dispersed into rainbow smoke after death, but the looting ability instantly triggered the process, converting a portion of their crude magic into rewards.
Thanatos happily trotted back to her, his tail a wagging black blur, and tossed a few bodies at her feet like a dog playing fetch.
“Good boy, Thanatos. I see you enjoy the thrill of battle. It’s not really my thing, but that’s why we’re a team. You have what I lack.”
He barked in affirmation.
She sighed when she looked out at the hills and forest of green marked by bare spires of stone.
“Time to jog, dammit. My legs are going to hurt. Why is my ability like this.”
All that was left was a trail of her own blood that dripped onto grass that dissolved into rainbow smoke as the sun spilled it’s golden rays that washed away the remnant red.