I keep observing the changed Anastasia. How will she behave now? To both my surprise and disappointment, she is practically behaving like she did as a human. She mostly keeps to herself, trains archery, and hunts monsters. One thing that changed is that she can now easily trade with goblins for arrows, but given that she is the best archer in the tribe, most creations seem lacking for her.
Her bow is Axi’s work. She makes arrows for herself, but those are just casual arrows for weak monsters. Her best arrows are also Axi’s creations. When going to hunt, she still keeps herself within Axi’s group. Axi seems to be her only friend in the tribe. I kind of feel pity for her, though I’m not sure it’s warranted. It’s not like I have a lot of friends, and I’m fine with that. We are both loner types.
After two weeks, Anastasia becomes an adult, and I notice she starts sneaking glances at Axi and even Asaru. Sometimes, her gaze lingers on Samantha and Nancy. I sighs. It seems my previous theory is somehow correct, and the change made her bisexual. I wonder what will come out of this. Hopefully, she will remain only friends with Axi. Axi’s harem is already too big for me and Asaru!
On that note, while I keep having sex with Asaru and she is quite enthusiastic about it, we don’t really have any kind of relationship. She practically uses me as a living dildo. At best, we are friends. On one hand, I don’t mind. I already have Axi, though I would like to become somehow more intimate with Asaru. That would make our triangle more stable. Obviously, I also want her to become more obedient to me, or at least more willing to listen to my arguments in the future.
On the matter of procreation, Greenek visits me.
“Shaman Smag.”
“What’s the matter, Greenek?” I smile amicably.
“Um. It’s about the women.”
I raise my eyebrow. “What’s about them?”
“Well, I’m the chieftain now, so I should be the one to breed them.” He quickly raises his hands defensively after. “I know you have your thing with Axi and Asaru. I meant the human women.”
Hm. I don’t mind. I don’t love Samantha and Nancy or even fancy them. They are not particularly beautiful. I don’t find anything interesting in their characters, though that could be because I barely know them. Their job is to give me more goblin soldiers. That’s it.
On the other hand, I want the position of the chieftain to be desirable. That leans into my strategy to divide and rule. People fighting for the position mean they don't fight me. If the position means just being a glorified minion of mine, ambitious goblins will concentrate on fighting me for influence rather than the current chieftain.
“I will have to talk to them first. As you may have noticed, my approach to breeding is that we keep willing women. This way, we don’t need to keep goblins on duty to feed them, and they can even contribute to the tribe. There’s no problem as long as they agree.”
“I’m the chieftain! They have to agree.”
I roll my eyes. I open my mouth to tell them to go impress girls, but I shut myself up. He can only impress them with his strength. Even if he were to choose a more reasonable way, like hunting a powerful monster and bringing its head, it’s probably not going to impress girls much. They know they are weak, and nearly everyone in the tribe is stronger than them.
“That’s not about you being a chieftain. You will have to be gentle and listen to their complaints. I know it may seem a bit humiliating to you, but it's just a matter of perspective. Breeding will not be your sole duty, but that of both you and the girl. Think about it like being on a team with another hobgoblin of similar strength. You need to cooperate to kill a powerful monster.”
“But there are no monsters in bed.”
“It’s just a comparison. Anyway, I can agree as long as you obey me in this.”
He nods resolutely. “Sure.”
I go to the girls next. While Greenek agreed, practice may be different. I will probably have to observe them for the first time and maybe even intervene a few times. I explain to the girl the new problem.
“I’m busy, so I can’t always be there to have sex with you. Chieftain is the most natural solution.”
Girls are scared and reluctant. Understandable.
“How would that work? Will it be like with the Windy?” Samantha asks.
“Pretty much. Obviously, I don’t want you to be raped.”
They ultimately agree, provided that I won’t just leave them be and make sure Greenek won’t get aggressive. That’s what I planned from the beginning. While this matter is somehow sensitive, if they were to disagree, I would probably start to search for new breeding girls. Samantha and Nancy really live way better than most commoners. They don’t need to work, besides having sex once every two weeks and then giving birth. Bearing goblins is way easier than with human babies, though. Moreover, I let them sometimes kill monsters as well. They can also try to meditate on the cores I have. I wouldn’t be surprised if their lives resemble those of minor nobility.
A month later, Gon brings back earth mana treasure to the tribe. According to him, he suddenly felt a lot of earth mana coming from a certain direction. After investigating, he found a small scale battle over the treasure, which itself looks like a red stone. I have no idea why. Fortunately, the treasure appeared deep in our territory, so kobolts didn’t notice. Somehow, Gon managed to win the battle, though most of his goblins died.
“Thank you. Let’s go to my house. You will pick your reward.” While I would love to monopolize this, I have to reward the guy in some way. Otherwise, the next goblin is just going to imminently eat the core. There’s got to be a reward for bringing it back to me.
You can pick this treasure and eat it, but you can also pick any core we have in our possession. I show him my small collection. The fake core is buried in the center of the village, in the center of the grand formation Foary and I are building. It’s not completely functional yet.
This means Gon can pick fire, air, and chaos cores. “Alternatively, I can increase your allocation of EXP. You will become an orc much faster that way and will be able to merge with a more powerful core later on.” This is the best option for me. Increasing his EXP gain is no problem; other than that, he could grow arrogant due to his power.
“Fire! I want fire! Fire is powerful.”
I shrug. “Fine.” I’m fairly sure I will find at least two or three more treasures in the next two years. That’s the minimum. Gon succeeds in merging with the core. He lacks the mental stats to fully use it. Moreover, he already picked the warrior path as a regular goblin. He should be able to pick a mixed option as an orc, but he will never become a mage unless I reincarnate him.
On the other hand, Anastasia keeps accompanying either Axi or Asaru when hunting. It’s the same as if she were human. She is now much more lethal, though. It seems she has picked an eye trait as a free skill given by the system for being newly born. This makes sense, as most of those skills are very basic for the current group. Anyway, she can snipe enemies very far away, especially when me or Asaru are empowering her with our magic. Archery is dependent on draw strength, after all.
Three months passed from the time Anastasia became a monster. Autumn came in full swing. This year, our preparations are more than adequate. We have a lot of food stored for the winter. Foary completed the grand formation around the village with a bit of my help. The effect is not that strong, as the formation is very simple yet. Foary and I are planning to build on the basic design. Still, the already-implemented buffing formation can increase the physical stats of our warriors by 30% without any input from me. We also created a basic formation using fake mana.
I take a look at my status screen.
Name: Smag the Warlock (Common)
Age: 1
Race: Hobgoblin Grand Shaman
Level:13/20
EXP: 432050
I got a lot of EXP in the meantime. Two months ago, I figured out how to brew paralytic poison. It’s not even proper alchemy, as I just mix a few plants. It’s more of herbalism, but Hedge Alchemy cap increased by nearly ten levels, so it seems to count. The poison is not strong enough to paralyze 3rd tier monsters, but just the increase in 1st and 2nd tier monsters was enough to increase my EXP gain by 50%. I take a look at the rest of my status, especially my skills.
Strength: 18
Vitality: 38
Endurance: 12
Dexterity: 35
Intelligence: 71
Will: 71
Affinity: 47
Health:192/192
Stamina:139/157
Mana:480/480
Traits
Iron Stomach 27/29 (Uncommon) – Resistant Stomach, Efficient Stomach
Vitality Mana Affinity 18/20 (Legendary) – Poison Crusher
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Combat skills
Spear Fighting 29/30 (Common) – Strength I, Strength II
Sneaking 28/30 (Common) – Silent Walk I, Silent Walk II
Hiding 27/30 (Common) – Temperate Forest Monster Lore I, Silent Breathing
Tracking 14/14 (Uncommon) Intelligence I
Strategy 38/41 (Rare) – Will I, Lieutenants I, Command Range I
Sword Fighting 34/35 (Common) – Basic Sword Moves, Deflecting I, Grounded Style
Dodging 23/24 (Common) – Strong Legs I, Strong Legs II
Magic Skills
Mana Sense 20/52 (Uncommon) –
Mana Manipulation 20/54 (Uncommon) –
Vitality Buff 0/33 (Epic) –
Vitality Clot 0/33 (Very Rare) –
Soul Enthrallment 0/13 (Heroic)
Vitality Bank 0/29 (Very Rare) –
Soul Perception 0/32 (Very Rare) –
Rune Basics 0/54 (Uncommon) –
Transplant Soul 0/27 (Epic) –
Vitality Mana Control 0/40 (Legendary) –
Crafting Skills
Wood Working 29/30 (Common) - Mana Wood Reinforcement I, Rune Carving
Fortification Construction 15/15 (Rare) – Intelligence I
Trap Making 23/23 (Common) - Will I, Will II
Leadership 37/38 (Uncommon) – Will I, Loud and Clear, Eye for Managers
Rune Scribbling 0/48 (Uncommon) -
Bone Working 19/20 (Common) – Dexterity I
Plotting 36/38 (Uncommon) – Acting I, Relationships Analyzer I, Relationships Analyzer II
Flesh Working 25/25 (Rare) – Anatomy I, Addons
Hedge Alchemy 15/24 (Common)
Titles
Blessed of Ymthys
Since I know my caps now, I trained to increase some of them to the threshold of the new perk. Spear Fighting, Woodworking, Bone Working, Sneaking and Hiding got over the threshold. Vitality Bank’s cap is still 29. I increased its cap by 2, but still, it’s not 30. I dropped Move Soul to pick up the Soul Enthrallment skill. Move Soul has somehow poor perks, at least in my opinion. I will definitely pick back that skill sometime in the future, but for now, I want to see what perks Vitality Bank will offer at the third threshold.
My cap on Hedge Alchemy and Rune Basics increased a lot. Hedge Alchemy from trying to figure out our paralytic potion, and Rune Basics from reverse engineering Axi’s new skills. The Rune Basics skill is mostly about runes for ambient mana and basic elements. All of Axi’s new skills are about basic elements, and they are even epic rarities. That allowed me to learn a lot. It may not be long before I can upgrade this skill and start learning about two-merged mana runes from it. I sigh. Even if the system is evil and exploitative, I still need it.
I invest in my level first.
You have reached level 14 → 15 → 16 → 17 → 18 → 19 → 20!
EXP: 194050
That’s more than half of my current accumulation. Based on the requirements of subsequent level ups, it seems the first level required 2000 EXP, and each subsequent level required 2000 EXP more. Level 20 required 40000 EXP for example.
Still, I can check for possible evolution now. A quick check shows that all possibilities involve becoming an orc. There are only two epic evolutions. One is centered on vitality magic and flesh golems, while the other is more about plotting and leadership. It seems the system acknowledges that I’m the true leader of the tribe.
The requirements are steeper. I probably should have expected this. With my skills as they were when I became an epic rarity shaman, I could only now get rare evolution at best.
I push various skills over the threshold next.
Your skill Bone Working has reached level 20!
Your skill Wood Working has reached level 30!
Your skill Strategy has reached level 39 → 40!
Your skill Hiding has reached level 28 → 29 → 30!
Your skill Sneaking has reached level 29 → 30!
Your skill Spear Fighting has reached level 30!
Your skill Hedge Alchemy has reached level 16 → 17 → 18 → 19 → 20!
EXP: 190666
The cost of leveling common skills to level 30 is only 57 EXP. Leveling up a rare Strategy is the most costly of all those skills, costing 2850 EXP in total. That gives me seven new perks to pick up. Next I push Vitality Mana Affinity trait.
Your trait Vitality Mana Affinity has reached level 19 → 20!
EXP: 177181
That cost me 13485 EXP in total. After all, this is a legendary trait, even if at a low level.
Your skill Soul Enthrallment has reached level 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9 → 10!
EXP: 167926
That cost me 9255 EXP.
I still have quite a lot of EXP. I decide to recover some of my more useful magical skills.
Your skill Mana Sense has reached level 21 → ... → 50!
Your skill Mana Manipulation has reached level 21 → ... → 50!
Your skill Rune Basics has reached level 2 → ... → 50!
Your skill Soul Perception has reached level 2 → ... → 30!
EXP: 116548
I will definitely keep Transplant Soul. My next step in my immortality plan is to automate this skill.
Your skill Transplant Soul has reached level 2 → ... → 20!
EXP: 103125
Your skill Vitality Mana Control has reached level 2 → ... → 20!
EXP: 57899
To push Vitality Mana Control to level 21, I need 9141 EXP. While I can afford it, there’s no way I can push the skill to the next threshold. I will keep some EXP in storage for now. Time to pick up perks. I start with my old ones.
I didn’t pick any perks for a while to check how good I am without system support. After all, I may oppose the system or break away from it one day. The result is that I’m certainly weaker, but there’s no terrible difference. For example, having a cap on Mana Sense at 52 gives me similar abilities to having perks at level 30. The perks upgrade mostly my sense towards specific mana types, though, so it’s hard to say how the difference would be all along the board.
For Mana Sense, I decide to go for most generic perks this time. I want to be better at sensing many merged mana types, and this seems the best approach. I won’t be as good at sensing vitality mana, but that's not a problem for now. I still need to practice manipulating flesh golems. For now, having better sense won’t give me much.
I pick Sensitivity for Mana I, then Sensitivity for Mana II and Two-merged I. For level 40 threshold, I got the old options of Master of Own Body and Life Sense. I pick Sensitivity for Mana III from the previous threshold. Then, Three-merged I for the level 50 threshold.
Looking at the perks for Mana Manipulation, I hesitate. I only need the skill to manipulate ambient mana, and I only use ambient mana to create Mana Shields, disrupt enemy shields, and create runes. The only other use is in compound and combination magic, but I only have one mana type, so I’m largely tied to using runes.
I start with Mana Weave.
Mana Weave
Become significantly better at precise control, at the cost of volume control.
This will make my shields weaker, but I can compensate for it with enchanted armor. Something like that is absolutely within Axi’s skills. I check the next perks. There’s nothing new, so I pick Mana Lock I, making me better at creating constructs. Then, I pick Rune Casting. I have to stop at level 40 threshold.
Mana Insulation
Learn to use isolating mana to prevent interference between different affinity mana types.
Mana Connection
Learn to connect two mana types by ambient mana into a semi-stable structure.
Rune Efficiency
Make manipulating ambient mana into runes less tiring.
Should I pick Rune Efficiency and concentrate on runes? The two first perks are definitely for compound and combination casting. I shrug and pick Rune Efficiency. For the last perk, I have to decide between Mana Domain and Enhanced Shield, as there's no option directly boosting runes. The second option could partially compensate me for picking Mana Weave. I pick Enhanced Shield in the end. At the end of the day, both options are about my Mana Shield. One gives it outright, while the other boosts one element of it.
I then check the perks for Rune Basics. I have reset the skill multiple times in the past, so there’s nothing new until the new level 50 perks. I pick random options for the first four perks. I could pick stat giving perks, but it's only +3, and I know that picking certain perks seems to influence the next threshold perks. I hope to luck out and unlock another perk. Nothing like that happens, though. I check the new threshold options.
Basic Compound Runes
Learn basic runes for compound magic.
Basic Combination Runes
Learn basic runes for combination magic.
Elemental Runes
Learn more advanced runes for all basic elements.
Damn. Those are interesting options. I have already learned a bunch of runes for basic elements from reverse-engineering Axi’s new spells, so Elemental Runes seems lackluster. The decision is between compound and combination magic. If I were to pick combination magic, I could help Anastasia better combine her fire magic with chaos magic. Who am I deluding? I pick Basic Compound Runes. Compound magic is too mysterious.
Oh. So that’s how it is. Compound magic is practically casting spells on mana. Delahar give me knowledge for my new skill – Soul Enthrallment. It involves compound magic. I need to give ambient mana some properties of earth magic to make it tangible. The new runes explain the process a bit. Technically speaking, my soul shell is not ambient mana anymore, but a construct made of ambient mana and earth mana with the addition of a few more mana types.
The effect of compound magic using basic mana types is very weak. My shell is not durable. The only thing that makes it last is that the shell is connected to my soul. A direct attempt to disassemble it will force a clash of souls. It’s also hard to target ambient mana using elements. Even elemental mana won’t destroy it easily, since ambient mana has connectivity properties and won’t fight with elemental mana.
I think about the possible usage of my new runes. Can I use them to modify my vitality mana? For example, I could give the vitality mana property of burning, using fire. I think that would work. The property of burning can be explained as burning something else to create more fire. Moreover, flames naturally burn a variety of materials. Can vitality do the same?
Maybe. Making vitality mana burn wood is unlikely to happen. Maybe with advanced runes. Still, I probably won't be able to produce vitality mana this way. Even if the efficiency of this spell is 100%, vitality and vitality mana easily disperse unless they are inside a living person. The best way would probably be to make vitality mana burn vitality. That could make a powerful berserking spell.
Can I use other basic mana types? The order will probably work. I may be able to create a healing spell that works better than just pure vitality.
How about using compound magic on basic elemental mana? Giving fire properties to earth mana would probably give it the ability of erosion, aka destroying stone to create more soil. The property of water should be adaptability. I’m not sure how to use it. The compound magic depends largely on will. I need to have an outcome in mind. Even the runic version is like that and can’t be activated without someone’s will.
I think about other basic mana types, but I can only think of uses for chaos and order mana. Adding more order or chaos are obvious solutions, though I can already do that with simple magic. I’m not sure about the difference between giving fire the properties of order and throwing order at fire.
That makes me think about the last option. Can I give something the properties of vitality? I theoretically don’t need runes for that. How would that work? I can only think about animating something. Essentially, I could try to create a living organism based on another mana type. For example, I can make a stone golem and then try to animate the stone mana inside to make it vital mana for the golem. I’m not sure if this will produce a soul. Should I try this? I shake my head. I already have too much on my plate for now. Moreover, I won’t have any fail-safes for such a creation. I don’t want to create a monster that will turn against me.
It's time to finish picking the perks.