Chapter 77: Another Bar to Surpass
Two weeks had passed since the team’s trip to Esmera-Mar for a quick break from events at large. Oswald kept his word, keeping the Sage’s freedom quiet while he worked behind the scenes to overhaul how the city had been addressing the Celestial Book Trial.
Oswald had to admit that he had taken a good thing for granted. He had been irate over the change to the trial’s status quo, yet he realized the Adventure Society’s own stance on it had been extremely hands off, relying on it yet ignoring it. As days passed, he realized the haul of information was more than worth it: information on The Advent, the inner workings of cult of the Celestial Book, and the information contained within Celestial Book library (slow going as it was to accumulate it). He wondered if the team’s insistence (more refusal than explicitly stated) for a low level priest to intentionally slow the accumulation of knowledge was in some way passive protection as well as a warning—they needed Nara alive and willing to cooperate for the years to come, or they’d lose that bounty of knowledge.
Encio, as always, knew what he was doing, even as Nara had no idea that he was doing it. It frustrated Oswald to no end (a pleasant sort, one where he felt resigned pride towards the younger generation), as well as an acknowledgement that Encio would make a rather exemplary candidate for the Continental Congress once he was gold rank, with both political backing, connections, and the know-how to throw it around, sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle.
Occasionally, Oswald requested Sage to the Adventure Society to inquire additional information from her. Meanwhile, the team completed long monster hunting contracts. The basics of teamwork had been established then roughly practiced within the Trial of the Celestial Book. Sen sought out a vegetable spread variety of one-star contracts for the team to work through, as well as completing monster contracts on the outskirts.
*****
The team practiced in pairs, a method suggested and oversaw by Sen’s sister, Maya. The team knew each other’s abilities thanks to Party Guide but didn’t know how abilities felt and functioned. Their theoretical knowledge and their practical knowledge of their teammates’ abilities differed.
Sen dashed forwards, smashing the head of his staff into a kresnolf’s head. Enhanced with Hero’s Sacrifice, his Racial Ability, Mighty Strength, and his new Weight Manipulation ability, Sen’s special attacks cratered skulls like he was single-handedly restocking the catacombs, skulls left less-than-intact.
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Ability: [Hero’s Sacrifice]
Essence: Zeal
Special Ability
Cost: Variable health
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Sacrifice your health to enhance the power of special attacks.
Racial Ability: [Physical Zeal]
[Power] and [Speed] are enhanced for moderate mana-per-second.
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Kresnolfs were sleek, canine-like monsters whose wings were unfortunately too small for true flight, but enough to perform gliding leaps and directed dives. They would be cute except six full black eyes stared back; bug-like with faceted lenses. Like many monsters, they had a chimeric quality to them, caught between several different animal kingdoms in a way that made them distinctly magical.
Sen’s new familiar, Regis, followed up breathing a blast of fire from its mouth, roasting the feathers of some kresnolfs.
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Ability: [Avatar of Wrath]
Essence: Avatar
Familiar (summoning, ritual)
Cost: Extreme mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon an [Avatar of Wrath] to serve as a familiar.
* Has high regenerative properties, physical strength, and speed.
* Can swim adeptly in water.
* When attacked, inflicts fixed retributive damage back to the attacker. The damage type is counter of the damage inflicted upon it.
* Can unleash a breath of flame. This flame can burn even in environments that would disallow it, such as water.
* When subsumed into the summoner’s throat as a tattoo, the summoner can unleash a breath of fire.
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The Avatar of Wrath bore similarities to a Chinese Nian beast, although that mythological creature in and of itself was extremely varied. The creature was a dark, seaweed green (rich in color rather than unpleasant), with bronze plate scales protecting its head, legs, spine, and flank like a self-grown suit of armor. While its body was that of a large feline with wide shoulders, like the bulldog equivalent of a lion, it’s tail was that of a whale’s, ending in a fin. Accents of dark red marked the creature by its dorsal and pectoral fin, dark red claws, as well as its ruby eyes. The familiar was a chimeric fusion between a lion, a fish, and a dragon.
The burned kresnolfs bungled their dive, crashing into the dirt with singed fur and feathers. Nara teleported into the fray, killing the incapacitated kresnolfs outright. She didn’t have the easy-instantaneous power Sen had, nor should she fight that way, usually. She needed to use her full ability set to rank them up, and that meant fighting slowly as needed. For today, however, they were working on other tactics.
She went for skilled slices, raking her sword where wings connected to backs, or cutting their throats. Monsters were resilient, and a cut throat wouldn’t instantly kill them. They needed their brains spattered onto the ground like a watermelon on pavement for a one-hit KO. Sen and Nara worked like this—Nara prioritizing disabling opponents at first to reduce Sen’s burden, then finishing off whatever monster that unluckily managed to avoid the sweet release of instantaneous death.
“How was that, sister? Was that any better than we were before?” Sen said, wiping away sweat on his brow which only managed to smear blood on his face. He grimaced, and dropped his hand from his brow, as his brow crinkled with the unpleasant sensation of drying monster blood and memories of pungent smoke.
“It’s an improvement. Your early battles were too independent, where you each targeted your own monsters and worked on them only. Now, I can see the beginnings of teamwork. Your familiar usage has improved too, well done.”
Maya was an observant young woman, a trait shared with her younger brother although in different ways. Sen had a strange, almost animalistic instinct for the thoughts and emotions of others which he wove into his own semi-logical yet somehow reliably sound decisions. Maya’s observations were grounded more in logic and experience. She was a few years older than Sen, in her early twenties, and had advanced to bronze rank. As she was raised to be a leader, she was adept at identifying weak points and giving out metered advice as well as encouragement. She knew Nara’s abilities excelled in specific situations, so she filtered her advice for the situation they were practicing.
She parsed through the contracts in a way that reminded Nara of Mona.
“For this next contract I want to see Aliyah and John together.”
John and Aliyah struggled together, at first. John was used to standing at the backline, protected by all the other members of the team. When the two backliner were grouped together, John realized Aliyah was even less suited to defending than he was. Aliyah had a common caster defensive ability, Mana Shield, but it came at a cost to her mana. With only two people to heal, it was better John use his mana for his own defensive abilities, and have Aliyah focus on offense instead.
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Ability: [Mana Shield]
Essence: Magic
Special Ability
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Create a mana shield to absorb incoming attacks. Absorbing an attack consumes mana proportional to the damage absorbed.
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John held out his Guardian’s Shield, which he could grab as needed instead of having it float. An iresythe slashed down with its scythe arms, blade hands gouging against conjured metal. John manifested his shotgun, holding it around his shield and blasting a shot one-handed against the iresythe’s exposed leg. He was supported by the increased physical strength his subsumed familiar offered, allowing him to handle both the shield and the kickback of the shotgun. Familiars were overkill against a single opponent, so the two kept them subsumed, focusing on their own skills for practice.
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The iresythe used its plated body to push past John, rushing towards Aliyah. A Rune Trap detonated beneath it like a land mine, blowing a hole in its carapace. Aliyah used Juxtapose, switch teleporting with John.
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Ability: [Juxtapose]
Essence: Magic
Special Ability
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: 1 minute
Effect (Iron): Swap the location of two allies and/or enemies. You must be able to see both subjects of the spell. If an ally resists or otherwise prevents the effect, this ability is negated but the cooldown is reduced to 30 seconds.
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She was at the Iresythe’s back, free to unload damage. The iresythe tried to wrestle its way upwards, bug appendages fighting against shredded ligaments and gravity, but threads of light appeared, fixing it in place. With no leverage to push against the threads, it futilely thrashed, strung up light a monster marionette.
“Feel the power of reality unmade.”
A prismatic beam ripped through the iresythe, shredding both its restraints and the monster itself. John deflected the beam that was unfortunately directed his way with a shield.
“Did know you felt that way Aliyah,” John said jokingly, “When did I offend you? What can I do to rectify this?”
“By the goddess of Truth, John, that was not intentional,” she swore, already weaving another spell even as she apologized.
“Don’t sweat it,” John said reassuringly, always someone finding himself the rock even as he was more out-of-his-depth than anyone else on the team. He was a middle aged man, dammit. He shouldn’t be that good at this. “When it’s intentional I think I’d know.”
Maya frowned, “It’s good that the two of you are so forgiving, but do mind your allies, Aliyah. At iron rank your spells are exceedingly dangerous. Err on the side of caution, until you can suffer the mistakes.”
“Yes. Of course.”
“It can be a tactic in the future; however I’d recommend using less-risky maneuvers,” she rubbed her chin in contemplation, then pointed at Nara, “I might use it with her, but not your healer.”
“Hey, let’s not use it with me either.”
“Either way, keep in mind the direction of your abilities and positioning. You had enough time to use the other version of your Wrath of the Magister ability, which would have avoided the situation with John. Alternatively, you could angle up your spell, even if it did less damage overall.”
“The simplest solution would have been if I stepped to the side to change my angle.”
“It’s a start. That’s a good observation.”
Maya worked them through, helping them discover the intricacies of how their abilities worked with one other. The survival battle had simplified matters since their backs were defended by allies, but they needed to pay attention in groups of monsters here that could get around behind them.
John wasn’t supposed to defend, but he could do so in a pinch. As an adventurer, it was important to develop skills for desperate situations.
“It’s not what you’re good at that will kill you. It’s what you’re bad at that will end your life. Be diligent and practice both what you excel at and what you lack.”
Maya assigned some overall objectives for the team to work on, both individually and together as a group. John would learn to fight with a shield and look for strength increasing artifacts so he didn’t have to rely on his familiar for his unconventional tactics. It was a good idea for his next tattoo, but he’d need to remove his current one, which he passed on. He didn’t know Wisteria long, but already did not want to incite her wrath from removing a tattoo she had just completed for him. His current one granted a mild healing-over-time effect on shield abilities, which helped with overall sustain, especially since his shields were the abilities he used most often.
Eufemia had a lot to work on, but she needed to curb her own growing reliance on John’s Solar Judgement. It was a powerful weapon, but limited after it expended its own ammo, reduced to something less effective than a normal shotgun. It was also a weapon most of her other abilities didn’t work with nicely, unless she wanted to batter a monster over the head with a shotgun and a special attack. Other than that, judgement and timing on when to use her impactful spells and abilities was important. Mirage chamber duo or trio combat was suggested for Eufemia.
Like Eufemia, Aliyah needed to work on her close-combat ability. Even in another world, targeting the squishy backliners was a brain-dead, obvious, baseline tactic (which meant in reality, it was usually hard to pull off since any half-trained adventurer team had contingencies against somebody targeting their spellcasters and healers). If Aliyah couldn’t hold her own long enough for her teammates to help, she would die. Targeting healers was also common, but they had higher ability to hold out, since they could heal and shield themselves.
Monsters weren’t so intelligent at iron rank, but a human opponent would not miss her weakness. She was working on her staff fighting on-and-off, but Maya let her know (a little more than gently) that she needed to dedicate time every day. As the resident staff expert (and halberd, spear, and sword, even though he didn’t use it. Knowing how a weapon worked was the best way to counter it, which make Sen infuriatingly difficult to fight), Sen would keep her to it. She was bitter that she had less time for research, but this wasn’t an obligation she could escape from Sen’s persistence and concern for her safety.
Nara needed to work on her own defensive capabilities. With the nullification of Dream’s Wake, she was more than capable of blocking attacks for her allies, which she occasionally had done. It was, however, a nascent skill that needed additional work. The team was light on frontline combatants, and she needed to fill in more often. Her own hyper-mobile style stunted her ability to fight one versus one—while she teleported into surprising positions, being in the air didn’t let her leverage strength to block or swing. She had been overcomplicating her own mobility. She wasn’t as used to a continually aggressive fighting style, since she usually leveraged her teleportation to blink around a battlefield. However, her fight with her mimic seeded the beginnings of her budding dueling capabilities. Teleportation had been rather pointless in that fight as well. Blinking around each other like mating fireflies was a cinematic spectacle, but nothing actually happened. Nara needed to grit her teeth and stand her ground.
When it was Encio’s turn, Maya was a loss for words. Encio’s smug grin towards Nara was returned with an eyeroll.
“I’ve rarely seen such impeccable swordsmanship, and I’ve met a lot of people. Your ability to determine priority targets is superb, and you are quick to take up advantageous positions with no danger of harming your teammates. Even with your high-cost abilities, you know how to conserve mana as needed and switch to a different style yet maintain aggression. I have no advice for you. You should be bronze already, what are you doing?”
Perhaps she had one thing to critique—his procrastination.
Encio shrugged. “Looking for the right team. You brother helms one at an acceptable standard.”
“Complimenting my little brother? I’ll let you slide then.”
That wasn’t the true answer, but Maya wouldn’t pry unless it was necessary.
“And you, little brother, I would love to say you are perfect but--” she gestured with her thumb towards Encio, “--I’ve just seen perfection.”
Sen took it in stride, but Nara could see the licks of a competitive flame in his eyes. “What should I work on?”
“For your role Sen, you are too passive. You wait far too much for enemies to come to you. I understand you need to protect your teammates, but dead enemies cannot harm those you protect. Balance your movement abilities, and strike as needed. Consider too, your own high damage capabilities. Leave Nara to protect others while you take on enemies.”
“Yes, sister.”
Nara wasn’t emotionally prepared for a dedicated defender fighting style. When she failed an attack there were no consequences. The monster survives another breath. If she failed to block an attack…Were Nara’s abilities directed towards offense because of the weight of defensive and healing roles? It was an odd thought, that her soul may know her better than she knew herself, in a situation she had never put herself in until her fateful dream escapade.
If she wanted to master her abilities, she would need to surpass this too.
*****
From Soul to Silk was the name of Pietro’s atelier. It had the same classy yet comfortable aesthetic that Nara remembered just two weeks ago. Dragging Sezan out to teleport Encio just to have him come with her was overboard, so she made the final trip herself to pick up her clothes. She pushed open the door and ventured inside.
“My friend, starlight,” he drawled, ever the showman, “It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
“How’s life, Pietro?”
“Oh it has been fantastic! I get to see one of my beloved customers again, and present my specially curated clothing set. It is the favorite part of my process.”
“I won’t deny you the pleasure then.”
Pietro disappeared into the back of his shop, rolling out racks of clothing. She stared blankly at them, the odd realization that she had her own collection of clothing dawning on her. Like the immortal crest, it was a mundane realization that she made choices (purchases) that she would have never entertained on Earth.
“We have the classic combination of black with gold embroidery—timeless and always in style. We have a few pieces with this, suitable for any occasion. I’ve taken inspiration from your crest—embroidery designs are often of flowers or stars. You can see these motifs here on the wrist and the collars.”
“Understated and exquisite,” she said, offering a few words of sparse appreciation. She didn’t quite know how to put what she was feeling into words.
Although insufficient praise, really, Pietro took it in stride. With his widening, enthusiastic grin, she belatedly realized her lack of words itself was compliment enough for him. Stunned into silence—it didn’t get much more impressive than that.
“Precisely! Now, I know you said you weren’t terribly fond of the color pink, but it’s a shame when its on your crest. I’ve set out to change your awfully wrong opinion.”
“Alright, fair enough,” she conceded, already a helpless leaf in Pietro’s flowing energy.
“Of course, it’s just a few pieces, and only a touch here and there. This piece here is a white to pink gradient, to start off a bit light on the color. You’ve said you’ve preferred shirt and pants combinations, so I’ve started off with those as bases. Many shirts are nice blouses with sleek or flowing cuts—not mutually exclusive. With some interesting cut outs for a bit of flair, mostly on the wrists, or the neck, small ones.”
“You’re working up to that back cut out, aren’t you,” she accused half-joking, half-knowing.
“With a soul crest like that it’s a shame not to show it off. One day, one day I’ll have you wearing what I want. But I understand,” he huffed with dramatic reluctance, “I have to build you up first. Now, you can’t be entirely without skirts, so I have made you some. Longer ones, as you’ve said you’d prefer. I’ve taken a bit of inspiration from your Sanshi origins to the embroidery and the cut, but altered it for a genuine Saggia style—they may show some leg. I’ve used Shian loops for closures. Now I know you have robes, but I’ve included a few dresses as well.”
“I like it. I’ve never had my own collection before,” Nara said, finally voicing the itch in her mind. “It’s something I’ll have to get used to.”
He paused to stare at her with an assessing smile. He let that moment hang; eyes locked—no doubt for drama again—before gently changing the topic.
“Well, tell some of your other adventurer friends to stop by. It’s appalling how many adventurers wear drab trash bags on their bodies. Suuuch a shame. I’d say they go to Domeni, but his clothes are at least passable. I cannot deny he’s got a trick or two—don’t tell him I said that. I’ll deny it. Their brilliance is absolutely wasted, so make sure to visit me again when you rank up. I can remake your favorite pieces and give you an entirely new set. While I usually advocate switching all the pieces out…we all get attached. Those favorite styles you can carry through your entire life.”
“Thank you, Pietro, I’ll see you again.”
With that, she cast a final look at his boutique, new clothing already stored away in her pocket-soul-dimension, with the renewed sensation that she had really remade herself in more ways than one.
It was a good feeling.