Chapter 66: Order and Chaos
Except for a few who stayed awake to guard the tower, most slept for the six to seven hours allotted for resting. No matter how much they needed to prepare for the final wave, rest was important. Conrad had nothing to say either, retiring to a large room within the tower he had claimed for himself.
The team was gathered in a room, where several others were inspecting their awakening stones and rewards, setting up an impromptu trade hall. To simplify things, you could only exchange items of equal rarity and rank, except for awakening stones, which could be negotiated any which way. Looted equipment was random—plenty of adventurers had no conjurations, so they sought to exchange what the looting powers had gifted them for something to suit them. For poor adventurers, good equipment saved a lot of resources. It usually wasn’t up to the quality and complementary effects of custom made equipment, but making it 70 to 80 percent of the way there was close enough. They’d grow out of their iron rank equipment soon enough.
John and Nara’s looting ability made them popular figures among the iron rankers, most of whom had never seen such wealth in their lives. They held onto extra essences, a bit surprised how easily they acquired what they once haggled and struggled for. They’d likely gift them to their families.
The leaders decided that setting some time aside to use awakening stones and acquire equipment was a significant enough increase in power to warrant the time expenditure. Those that did not need the time were busy eating in the temporary mess hall, or helping with defenses.
“No matter what stones we have here,” Sen said, “We should wait until the end of the trial before awakening all of our abilities.”
The team nodded.
“Since Eufemia has the least abilities awakened, we should start with her. What have you received?”
Eufemia removed a small pile of awakening stones from John’s inventory. She separated two stones off to the side, “These are the two I’ve gotten from the trial that I haven’t used yet; the others are all looted.”
Encio picked up one of the stones she gotten from the trial, holding it out for her, “Awakening Stone of the Sovereign. This will probably awaken an aura if you don’t have one already.”
It was an epic rarity awakening stone, the tier below legendary according to Nara’s Guide. It glittered with deep blue, majestic golds, and a rich red.
Nara narrowed her eyes at Encio, “Is this the stone that awakening your Time Sovereign aura?”
“Yes,” Encio said. He had a rare expression—one of slight embarrassment.
Nara felt a bit giddy as if she had just won the lottery at a surprise, spur-of-the-moment gas station ticket buy at the sight of it.
“If it’s good enough for Encio its good enough for me,” Eufemia said, who had began to use Encio as her standard of high quality.
Aliyah drew out a quick awakening stone ritual, and Eufemia used the stone.
-------
-Party member [Eufemia Teresina] has used [Awakening Stone of The Sovereign].
-[Eufemia Teresina] has awakened Mirror Essence Ability [Monarch of Reflections]. [Eufemia Teresina] has awakened 4 of 5 Mirror Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Monarch of Reflections]
Aura
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Duplicate the effects of any target aura. The strength of the aura is based on your attributes and rank of this ability, not those of the original caster. This may make your version of the aura higher or lower rank than the original, including losing or gaining additional effects from higher ranks. This does not disguise your aura.
-------
“Oh?” Aliyah said, “That is an extremely useful aura ability.”
Eufemia’s new ability, Monarch of Reflections, further leaned into her role of copying the most effective member of the team for the situation on hand to offer more of the best thing.
Sen, once again, adopted his pleased smile.
“Sen, stop sporting a metaphorical stiffy every time you see Eufemia’s abilities.”
He stared at Nara with incredulity, his smile morphing into a frown.
“I am not,” he said with great offense.
“I said metaphorically! Jokes aside, it’s good stuff.”
Eufemia rolled her eyes, “I don’t need your consolation this time. I now understand the flexibility and impact of my abilities. If I copy Aliyah, I can rapidly regain my own mana while further sapping the mana of our enemies. If I copy Nara, we can more quickly stack Integrity on the full team. If I copy Encio, we all have greater mana regeneration, while the enemy suffers the inverse. If I copy Sen, we have further increased resistance to damage and afflictions. And, if I copy John, we have further increased Power and Recovery. I could even copy an enemy, if they have an aura. There’s no downside. I have the full flexibility to choose an aura effect that either I or the team needs most in a given situation. Yada yada yada. I get it.”
“Auras are a minor effect, but many minor effects together can turn the tides of battle,” Sen said, face still glowing. He looked happier with Eufemia’s ability than she did herself, and it wasn’t even his ability.
Eufemia waved her hand as if to shoo away the praise. She had claimed that she could not get enough praise, but when it was genuine, even she began to feel her cheeks warm.
She explored out with her newly awakened aura sense. It was a bit jarring, like John’s experience, so sense so many auras in the same place. Eufemia was more sensitive than most due to the effects of her perception and her familiar, the Echo Spirit Runa, which let her manipulate and project false traits in her aura. She couldn’t effectively use that part of Runa until now.
She had heard that Nara’s aura was strange, but she didn’t understand until now. It was misty and incorporeal, even for an aura. She felt as if she was peering though foggy glass, unable to see the scenery on the other side, but Eufemia caught glimpses though the fog. The echo of divinity when the gods had imprinted her aura. God’s gift, Eufemia realized. It was an odd and terrifying feeling, divinity—it inspired an instinctual reverence. Nara wasn’t divine, but the gods had colored her aura with it. Still curiosity pushed her beyond that instinctual fear, and she realized Nara was letting her search when she made a displeased face in her direction.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
She sensed something else—a connection to the far beyond. That must have been Nara’s connection to the astral, her Astral Domain. And the echo of something else Eufemia understood even less than divinity, but she dreaded even more. There was one other thing she had been told of Nara—a being had tortured her soul. If the gods could impart the echo of divinity, then that being had imparted the echo of itself.
Eufemia, who shaped herself into others, understood on a deeper level how others were involuntarily shaped by those around them.
Nara’s disapproving expression told Eufemia that she had had enough. Her senses were blocked off, and Nara’s aura returned to the same inscrutable mist.
“The last stone from the trial is another Awakening Stone of The Adept. I used an echo stone earlier, for Mirror Magic. In total I have 7 abilities unawakened.”
“I think you should use the adept stone,” Encio said, “It may be a common stone, but it suits your flexible ability set so far.”
“I agree,” Sen said, “and there’s nothing wrong with common stones.”
“The trial also bestows suitable stones,” Aliyah said, “I also concur. It’s up to you then, Eufemia.”
“You could’ve said less, in fact, I’d prefer it. A ritual, if you would.”
-------
-Party member [Eufemia Teresina] has used [Awakening Stone of The Adept].
-[Eufemia Teresina] has awakened Refracting Essence Ability [Convenient Copy]. [Eufemia Teresina] has awakened 3 of 5 Refracting Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Convenient Copy]
Special Ability
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Duplicate one of your own abilities. This will not stack non-active effects. This ability has the same cost and cooldown of the duplicated ability.
-------
Nara glanced at Sen, who seemed to be keeping his expression unnaturally stiff. She chuckled at his efforts to contain himself.
“How would that work?” Aliyah asked curiously, “If you copy Martial Gift, do you get the copied ability, or the original ability to copy a special attack?”
“I’ll test it,” Eufemia said.
She swung a sword briefly, then again, activating two different special attacks.
“Second option. I have two Martial Gifts to use.”
“Remarkable,” Aliyah said. She glanced at Sen, who looked away nonchalantly. He didn’t want to be accused of getting exited again.
Eufemia had felt that only one special attack was restrictive. She couldn’t much help it, celestines often did not have many special attacks at all, due to their Special Ability affinity. However, her abilities had gotten around this issue by copying other’s abilities. Now, she could copy two different special attacks. She could keep one of Encio’s incredibly powerful special attacks, while also copying something more practical to use on the side.
Or, if she needed more movement abilities, that was an option as well. With Dexterous Talent, she often used it to copy a teleportation or movement ability. She could also copy John’s shields, but depending on the role she adopted, movement was more important and cheaper than shield protections.
“It’s perfectly named. Convenient Copy… who names this?” Eufemia asked.
“Nara’s Guide matches the Magic Society’s record for any recorded abilities. I’ve spent a bit of time checking her ability and the Magic Society records to confirm it. It actually contains some specific details that the Magic Society has difficulty determining, like ability type,” Aliyah said, “Any undiscovered abilities are named by her Racial Ability. Convenient Copy is a recorded ability, so it would be the first recorder of the ability that named it.”
“She has an undiscovered ability?”
“Umbral Wolf, surprisingly,” said Encio, “And it’s from a common stone.”
“It’s further proof of the extensive pool of abilities,” Aliyah said, “Common stones have a massive selection of possible abilities. They can easily awaken rare abilities. For example Encio’s Immortality is known to awaken with a legendary stone, Rebirth—”
-------
Ability: [Immortality]
Essence: Swift
Special Ability (healing, recovery)
Cost: None
Cooldown: 24 hours
Effect (Iron): Instantly restore a large portion of health, mana and stamina. Amount restored is based on how depleted health, mana and stamina are when the ability is used.
-------
“—into the Might, Swift, Life, Renewal, Immortal, and other essences. But you can also awaken the ability from a common Might stone, or an uncommon Life stone. Other stones are possible, too, but this is just a simplified example.”
“Then why care about legendary stones at all?” Eufemia said, “What’s all this for?”
“Legendary stones have a narrower ability pool,” Aliyah explained, “The abilities show up less often due to the rarity of their stones. So, often you awaken abilities that are hard to others to know or counter, or are useful in difficult situations.”
“The rarity of the abilities they awaken is their value,” Encio said, “The abilities aren’t inherently more powerful, but they are lesser known—"
“Except for Immortality,” Nara cut in.
“—The element of surprise enhances their value.”
“I do understand the value of the element of surprise,” Eufemia said.
“Ah,” said Nara, “So rarer stones have a smaller gacha pool, got it.”
“Gacha?”
“Gambling pool, John. We’re gambling for permanent magical abilities; with cubes and spherical rocks we use to determine the prize pool.”
“Why is this so random?” Eufemia said with a sigh.
“Magic is inherently chaotic,” Aliyah said, “Essence and ability stones are a reflection of the nature of magic. The rituals we create is a way to control a small part of the chaos into something predictable. It’s part of why the development of new magic is so slow and inconsistent. Some fields make incredible progress, like mirage chambers, and other fields stagnate.”
That’s interesting.
Magic was chaos, and physical reality was order. Science progressed at a rapid rate because physics was mostly predictable. Even concepts with inherent randomness had models for their unpredictability, like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
“So, who’s next?” Eufemia asked.
“John has already used a few,” Nara said, “So have I. I only have three slots left, so I’m waiting until the end.”
“Is that a pun?” John said.
“Of course it is. Where’s your dad humor, John? Or is that just an American dad thing?”
John grinned, “I’ve been falling behind if you think I can’t spin a pun here and there.”
“Oh shut up,” Eufemia groaned.
The two grinned wide, stupid smiles.
“I can awaken a few then,” Aliyah offered, cutting into their dumbass chuckles.
The team opened their eyes wide when they saw Aliyah’s haul.
“Awakening Stone of The Dragon?” Eufemia said with a soft hiss.
“Now that’s premium,” Encio said, “On par with Time, Dimension, and Rebirth stones.”
The Awakening Stone of the Dragon was epic rarity, the tier below legendary, but still one of the most coveted awakening stones. Dragon bond abilities were extremely valuable as any dragon companion was a huge win. Dragon familiars were similarly valuable, as were dragon transformations.
“I was thinking of selling it, actually,” Aliyah said.
They all stared at her.
“As your student, Aliyah, you must use it,” Sen said with rare intensity, “As my mentor, I have no doubt you understand the value of this awakening stone.”
“It’s a joke, Sen. I’m joking. I going to use the dragon stone.”
“Really?” he said, not believing her.
“Yes, I’m using it. Of course I am.”
“Really?” he repeated.
“Look, I’m drawing the ritual now, alright? I’m using it.”
-------
-Party member [Aliyah Sahar] has used [Awakening Stone of The Dragon].
-[Aliyah Sahar] has awakened Master Essence Ability [Arcane Dragon]. [Aliyah Sahar] has awakened 4 of 5 Master Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Arcane Dragon]
Familiar (summoning, ritual)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon an [Arcane Dragon] to serve as a familiar.
--------
“As expected, a familiar. Unfortunately, even I don’t have the materials on hand to summon it immediately. Familiar rituals are far too specific.” Aliyah said.
“It does little for your combat power now, but it’s your first familiar, Aliyah,” Sen said, “I was worried you would not get one.”
“You were worried, when I was not? There’s no need to worry Sen. Whether or not I awaken a familiar is of no consequence.”
“Even a single familiar is a great advantage in battle,” Sen pressed.
“And yet, there are many famous essence users without them. I believe Encio’s grandfather here does not have one.”
“That’s true. Not a single familiar or summon. But he has no skills beyond his rank. He couldn’t possibly awaken an ability for a skill he didn’t have.”
“What is with you,” Eufemia muttered, “Always with your grandfather…”
“What can I say,” Encio said with a shrug, “He is the world’s most famous talentless diamond.”