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Your Charisma is now 21!
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Daniel took first watch this time, though with Tlara now piloting a wyvern he wasn’t sure he needed to. Someone has to make sure she doesn’t eat me, he mentally compromised. Might as well be me. The fact that the avianoid was basking in that body robbed him of any sense of justice he’d felt, though to be fair she’d just spent the past week and a half in Spinner. Not to put down the intelligent monster, but that did not look like as fun a body to possess.
Staying up also let him enchant, Restorative Craft and Craftsman’s Repose giving him meaningful boosts. His arm was well on the way to fully recovering, almost back to the wrist. This was also the perfect opportunity to test out the new formulae. There was just one problem, something that had been gnawing at him since he’d seen the blast marbles.
I suck at enchanting. It wasn’t his fault, not really, but his enchanting skills had been as spoiled as his seventh sense in terms of development. The typical Artificer should’ve had no problem making items on par with the level of the material, but he was struggling. This hadn’t been a problem before with higher level material, but his desires to both improve himself and use multiple affixes in one item were forcing the issue.
Khiat’s armor was the crux. Every time he saw the repaired gashes in the front sent a spike of guilt into him. Daniel wasn’t going to let himself use the excuse of an altered personality to avoid responsibility. Khiat needed a good set of armor, and it had to be a replica of her current set because of how her body moved. In other words, it had to be in one piece.
His ideal work would involve the use of two affixes, self repair and patchwork. The first was self-explanatory, the enchanted item would automatically repair itself from damage up to a certain threshold. Patchwork was where things got interesting, and it explained why it had been the second, rarer affix he’d received.
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Patchwork (Enchanting: Affix, Domain: Enchantment, Level: -):
This affix allows for the use of multiple Materials: Enchanting. Separate instances of the same base material can be combined into one final product so long as the material is in direct physical contact at all times during the process. An additional type of material can be used for every Level above 1 the final product is.
Special Interaction: Affix: Bonecut and Affix: Leathercut allow you to use Nonmagical materials of a type respectively appropriate for those affixes without adding the affix to the final enchantment.
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The supply of materials wasn’t an issue. Wolf fur counted as leather for the purposes of leathercut, but the problem was salvaging workable pieces of it. Without Tak, the best he could do was try and clumsily hack off what he’d used for the bags he’d already made. Even if he could skin a wolf from head to paw without losing anything, it still wouldn’t be enough to cover Khiat. Making the armor with both his desired affixes required a level 2 enchantment with level 3 material, and he couldn’t even do that.
Daniel needed to start back at the beginning, enchanting level 1 items with level 1 material. Since he didn’t have any, he was doing his best with the bone scavenged from the rust shank stompers in an attempt to make more blast marbles. If the bonus effects from the material played as he’d hoped, the explosions might damage metal more effectively.
“You surprise me,” a shrewd voice said, and a moment later Cloak appeared next to him.
“Can you hide from Tlara?” he asked, a little worried. It had taken a level 5 Fate to detect him before, but he was also sure he could do it with Keen Senses while in hybrid mode. And who knew what Tlara and Willow could do now with their bond. Would the fact that Cloak was a god make him register in the Astral? Actually wait, what was the Astral? Daniel first navigated the hyperlinks to Sense Astral and used the link there to jump to the entry, leaving the god to watch him bemusedly.
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Astral (Concept: Dimension, Domain: Universal, Multiversal):
The astral is a Dimension bridging all other dimensions. Souls and other Concepts: Spiritual are attuned to the astral. Upon the death of a sentient Creature, their soul falls under the-
-
Astral (Concept: Dimension, Domain: Universal, Multiversal):
???
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“Hey, bring that back!” Daniel shouted at the god as before his very eyes, the entry of the Astral was unidentified. His memory wasn’t affected but he hadn’t had a chance to read it fully.
“I’m sorry. There’s information there you can’t know, the kind Torch and I work very hard to keep out of mortal hands. It’s dangerous, just like those two are.” He indicated Willow and the wyvern circling above. “A Contronymous Bond.”
“A what?”
“It’s a type of advanced bond, like yours. A bond made of opposites who yet still have bridging similarities. The kind that should have remained suppressed. He’s throwing this whole world into chaos.”
“And you can’t tell me who this is?” Daniel asked acerbically. One thing that was consistent between hybrid Daniel and him was that they had waning patience for this god, and he glared as Cloak just held up his hands helplessly. “Ok, then tell me this. You were the one there when Khiat lost her class, right? You and this Proxy?”
“Yes, in a sense.”
“So why aren’t you that powerful now?”
Cloak considered for a moment before appearing to relent. “Callister was given an artifact that contained a bound soul. A willingly bound soul,” he added quickly to Daniel’s look of immense skepticism. “We have tools the likes these border regions will never see. Regardless, as a Proxy Callister could allow that soul to subvert his body, though he can’t do that now that I require it.”
“Do you still have it with you?” Cloak shifted but didn’t reveal anything.
“I know what you’re capable of, and what kinds of information I’d give you access to if you had it in your hands. No wonder-“
[???]
“Right, right, sorry,” Cloak said as a piercing headache hit Daniel. The piece of bone he’d been working on had partially disintegrated as the attempted enchantment failed. “I am letting you see more than you normally would be allowed, but the Astral is off limits.”
“Fine,” Daniel seethed. “What about Hunter? Willow saw his soul. So long as that’s still around, all I need is to find his body and someone else with Ressurection, right?”
“Yes,” Cloak said, though Daniel sensed there were qualifications on that word he wasn’t mentioning. “All I’ll say is to continue on this path. Incidentally, I’d hold off on delving too deeply into enchantment until you’ve recovered more of your memories. You might accidentally uncover a trigger too early.”
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Makes sense, I did somehow make the blast marbles, he thought. At least on his suppressed memories he trusted Cloak, as otherwise the god wouldn’t have a reason to use unidentification on him sparingly. “I still haven’t found anything to latch onto after Hammer grabbed me.”
“You need to. The more time that passes, the less likely it is you will recover those memories.”
“You know everything that happened,” Daniel returned, still with some bitterness. “Can’t you give me any hints?”
Cloak didn’t immediately answer, pondering that. At that time Daniel started another enchantment, hoping the god wouldn’t drop any more restricted knowledge. As he was enchanting on his level the size of material required was equivalent to the final product. Losing a marble-sized piece of the arm blade wasn’t too bad, but he was trying to grind them out in hopes of improving his skill.
Eventually, the god pulled something out of the air and handed it to Daniel. It was an ornate hand mirror, although everything but the reflected surface was pure black. “What? How?” He could touch it so it wasn’t an illusion, unless Cloak had created something that was passively fooling all of his senses.
“What are you doing?” The god asked as Daniel dropped the mirror. The Artificer frowned as he saw the sand react realistically.
“Sand physics,” Daniel muttered. “How did you make this?”
“Find more of your memories and I’ll be able to tell you,” the god answered unhelpfully. “Just do whatever comes naturally. Telling you more might close off another opportunity.”
“Fine.” Daniel put the mirror in his bag of holding without thinking and paused afterward as his mind caught up. No deja vu hit him. The enchantment failed as he did so, but this time it wasn’t Cloak’s fault. Enchanting on his level currently required a good deal of concentration, though not enough that he couldn’t talk. The best he could describe it was like trying to fly a plane through a narrow valley in that one mission every flight simulator had in its campaign. Back with the heliorite it had been as wide as an ocean, but now there were crags and unexpected turns to manage. The one time he’d tried to enchant an item above the level of the material, it’d been like flying through a pass as wide as the plane.
Daniel put down the arm blade and decided to pause enchanting while he talked to the god. Going for too long without it would spoil Craftsman’s Repose, but there was something important he had to ask about that he’d alluded to. Actually there were a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but after being assured about Hunter there was one he had to know about. “Khiat. What exactly happened to her when she lost her class?”
Cloak seemed to run this by the knowledge that was restricted to Daniel and came up with a clear check. He still didn’t seem enthusiastic about answering. “I don’t know if I should tell you. In any case, you’d tell the girl and you wouldn’t be able to explain how you- oh.”
The primarily blue Focus was being presented to the god, who had taken the point. “I already know the Octyrrum is some kind of magic system you gods run. I’m guessing she’s somehow gotten outside of that. My world doesn’t have magic at all, so is she playing by other rules?”
“There’s a part of this I can’t tell you, though in this case I can tell you what is important.” The god looked towards where Khiat was resting before she’d take the second watch, and Daniel found the pity that crossed Cloak’s face comforting. Another sign of humanity lurking behind the ancient knowledge and restrained omnipotence. “You know about archetypes. Those are important to classes as the powers people awaken from the Octyrrum are tied to them, for the most part. In the most current version we introduced randomness as the deviation towards the mean still promoted a stable system, and in fact improved the rate of empowered individuals surviving their first level. That and the concept of archetypes is problematic. Mass discovery leads to some unfortunate consequences. The Illustrious are a perfect example of this.”
“Uh, what?” Daniel blankly stared at the god who’d suddenly started talking like he was dictating a game update.
“We manage the Octyrrum, and that includes how it interfaces with mortals. Not every individual decision, not even Hourglass has the time for that, but the underlying rules and variables.” A light smile crossed the god’s face as he turned introspective. “You know, this is the exact opposite of my role in the Octyrrum. I have to say I find this conversation a bit refreshing.”
“If that’s the case, why was Torch unidentifying everything I learned?”
“She wasn’t. Again, what she did wasn’t from my domain, the Octyrrum just considers it unidentification because the result is the same. The reason she was responsible for that instead of me is the offending power is sourced from her domain. She was the only one who could sense when you were gaining information you weren’t supposed to know and act in the moment.”
That made sense, and also explained why Cloak hadn’t been as quick on the draw with the Astral entry. He decided to drop that and get back to the matter at hand. “So what’s happening with Khiat now? She doesn’t even have a level.”
“Levels and classes are both constructs of the Octyrrum,” Cloak explained before qualifying, “And again, tell anyone about that and I will have to unidentify that knowledge, as well as from you if you keep it up.”
Great, more secrets. Cloak’s continued threatening of mind wipes was starting to piss him off, but any pushback would just get him ghosted. Better to find out more now and find a way to work around the god later. “I get it, I’ll just tell Khiat what she needs to know. Can you get to the point?”
“I’m not sure which of your personas I prefer. The other one is aggressive but he doesn’t press me this hard,” Cloak scoffed. “That dusker’s power is in a less quantifiable state than most. You’ve already figured out she can use items of a higher level, which normal level 1 individuals couldn’t do. We put in that restriction as another way to help increase system stability, by the way. Too many people were getting their hands on high grade items and wreaking havoc.”
“Didn’t help Aughal,” Daniel pointed out.
“Well, yes. Mortals without a class are less restricted by the Octyrrum. I think your group showed that even a normal mortal with a set of very powerful items can be defeated by a group of Blessed, so there was no need to take drastic measures for stability’s sake. Back to the main point, your friend solely gets her powers from her archetypes and develops them outside the boundaries of the approved power list. If she does something unique enough she might make a new one rather than pull from our system. There’s more to it than that but nothing she’ll encounter in years or decades, assuming she lives that long. All she needs to know is that her powers are focused on her archetypes, which I believe she already knows. As she continues to defeat enemies, her general power will grow.”
“What about the other ways to advance?”
“Another product of the Octyrrum that she is beyond.” The god seemed to hesitate, but added one last nugget of information. “It’s not important, but you should know that non-humans normally have their race as an artificial archetype. It’s how we managed the introduction of race-specific powers, but the consequence of this is that it is impossible for them to do what your friend did. You can’t escape a system if one of your archetypes is solely found within it.”
“So why didn’t she get that archetype?” Daniel asked, already knowing the answer. Cloak simply pointed at him, not elaborating as that would probably force him to zone out and miss the answer. Partially satisfied with what he’d learned and wanting to get back to enchanting, Daniel asked one last question. “What are the archetypes that I have while in Beast Mode?”
“Friendship, Cunning, Hunt, Bravery, Beast, and Astral,” Cloak replied, seeing no reason to hide that knowledge. “The first Astral archetype to awaken in thousands of years.”
“Why?”
Sadness unexpectedly crossed Cloak’s face. “Another time.” He stood, clearly ready to end the conversation. “Remember, the mirror. Do whatever comes naturally. The others won’t be able to see it, by the way.”
“Then why-“ Daniel started to ask, but the god vanished. “Fine. Might as well get back to enchanting.” He started piloting his way through making another blast marble. That too was a failure, but half an hour later, he finally succeeded. More than that, Ammunition Surplus triggered and another blast marble appeared from nothing. The bone spheres retained the reddish tint and he carefully wrapped them in scrap fur before storing them. There was no telling if the presumed anti-metal nature would react while they were like that.
I need to ask Cloak about Khare next, Daniel thought, and absentmindedly tried to scratch his face with his missing hand. Damn it. I really need to grow this arm back too.
…
“How far are we from Threst, do you think?” Daniel asked Thomas later, who just shrugged in response.
“Dunno. Could be a week. Think we’ll run into any more monsters, Guy?”
“If we do, I think we can handle most level 2s,” he replied, looking uncertainly up at the Tlara-wyvern. From what he’d heard, the main limit on Beastmasters was the imprecise if total control they had on monsters, as well as a lack of personal power. Tlara had somehow solved both of those problems, if at great personal cost. Willow couldn’t talk to her so there was no telling where her head was at, but she wasn’t rampaging. Hopefully, the thought of being revived in Threst was keeping her head straight.
She wasn’t the only one who would be getting on the wild side as they traveled either. “Thomas, I’m going to stay in Beast Mode while we move. The scouting potential’s just too much to ignore and I think I can finish growing back my arm tonight. You’re good with that, right?”
“Yeah,” Thomas sighed, giving about 80% approval to the idea.
“Hey, we’re still friends when I’m like that. I just, everything feels different.” Daniel didn’t elaborate as he’d run out of ways to explain it. “I’m glad you know everything about me too. I should have told you sooner.”
“It’s fine, Guy. We were both keeping secrets.” Thomas then waved as he left to check on Silora, who was trying to argue for another hour or so of rest before they got going. Daniel sat in the sand and was about to initiate the change when he had a thought.
“Hey, Khare! Take these.” He passed off the scrap fur containing all the blast marbles he’d made the past night, taking them out of the bag of holding as Khare couldn’t put one in their Mobile Armory. “Keep them away from anything lightning you got in there. I figure you can make better use of them than I can in cat mode. Got it?”
“Acquisition,” Khare confirmed with a slight smile, and Daniel suspected they’d made their response a little less clear than they’d needed to. The gestalt had a personality, just no good way to share it.
Cloak has to have a way they can help them get a real voice. He went to close the bag the marbles had come from and saw the mirror. Oh, what the hell, might as well see how this looks. Daniel inconspicuously propped the mirror on the ground so that he could watch his transformation. “I’m doing it. Sorry in advance if I’m a jerk.”
Activating the power, he watched as his face began to contort, teeth lengthening and fur shooting up from the skin. As Cloak had intimated would happen, he felt a sudden deja vu from the experience. No, wait, two moments. The general transformation felt familiar, though watching his teeth change brought on a more specific sense of strange familiarity. Despite this, it was the broader feeling that felt the closest temporarily, and Daniel clung to that as he called out to the others.
“Thomas! Tell Silora she’ll get her break after all. I don’t know how long this will take, but it’s important. I might be getting some of my memories back.” Daniel didn’t wait for the response but closed his eyes, chasing the first feeling like it was prey. He didn’t let it slip away like the other times and as he closed his eyes, he began to remember.