At a distance I thought our current target was a manor but the truth was that it was a fortress.
We watched the routine of the human fortress for a few hours. It was easy to fly stealthly over it as a harpy bird with Nenandil, Talysius, and Marlowe in their doll-sized forms on my back. True to their vocation as the last fortress of humanity toward the East Pekothian Plains, they watched the vast emptiness for hordes of savages. The courtyards were peppered with barrels of arrows and archery ranges. I doubted any soldier in that fortress had an Archery proficinency lower than one hundred-fifty. Vats of oil and other siege implements completed their defensive preparations.
They also watched the back and the human villages tasked with supplying the fortress.
Yes, team. While Marlowe was still obcessed with the {Pinnacle of Magic}, he was sure I was the key for that and wouldn't leave. Talysius was ecstatic to work with the Unicork King's [Heritor] and Nenandil was Nenandil. There was also Pandora but the [Wisp of Creation] was like an extension of myself.
What's better, they will be with me forever. Or until they grow bored and ask to be let go. Their peculiar condition as dead souls inhabiting cloth golems mean their post-employment choices are passing on at the whim of the Gods or starting over from level 1 again.
The weakest among us would be Nenandil at level forty-eight but the fairy had a trump in her sleeve. Ever since last life, she carried over the proficiencies and Attributes, but not the Perks.
Levels meant little. What mattered for a person's build were four factors, all of these accrued with levels. Skills or Proficiencies now, Perks, Attributes, and Resources like HP, MP, and SP. Since I carried all the former three over to the next life, I was much stronger than my level would suggest. My only problem was the low HP and Energy values but because of the great many traits I had for these two, they were awfully inflated.
the [Archmage] answered.
I landed next to the fortress. There was one thing I needed to do before attacking.
> You devoured a level 118 magic core.
>
> Source: Anglerfish [psionic].
>
> You gained 265,426,250 Exp (139,240 base x 1,906 modifiers).
>
> Half the Attribute bonus were given to your familiar.
>
> You gained 8 Dexterity, 5 Endurance, 10 Mind, 10 Willpower, 8 Charisma 8 Magic, 8 Soul
>
> You reached Petitioner Centaur Heritor level 13.
>
> You reached Centaur Marauder level 13.
Thirteen million HP before rank 2. I didn't pick my proficiency abilities or Perks at this time. I had a fortress to raid. I took flight again, carrying my two passengers. Nenandil had her own mission.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I climbed and prepared to descend in the middle of the fortress,
I could see his spell circles in the Ethereal world. He was quite skilled, and not because he put points in the trait and let the System do the job. No. He was actually doing the heavy lifting, leaving the System to just assist him.
His spell circles had weird glyph sequences. It felt like... functional programming? Recursion was probably a better explanation. As if the extra glyphs would trigger the whole diagram again, over and over, until the circle ran out of MP. That could also be some Perk he had to do that.
Once we were less than thirty meters from the ground, he triggered the circles. The spell formations moved away from him and became stationary. Then they started to pelt the arrow barrels with small tongues of fire. They didn't seem to spread or flicker too much.
We touched down and Talysius returned to his normal size. I tried to make his silk body as lifelike as possible. His lower body, mane and hair had fur made of dyed silk thread. He drew a greatsword from his storage ring and prepared to charge into the barracks where the reserve troops were resting.
I shapeshifted back to my normal form too. Marlowe cast his arrow deflection spell on Talysius but stayed on my back. I could easily keep him from falling using my {Absolute Clinging} Perk.
Drawing the Unicorn King's spear, I charged into another set of barracks. These were Pekothian soldiers and we would show them no mercy. I'd draw the line with noncombatants, elderly people, and children. But soldiers, Adventurers, mages, nobles and others would die in our wake. I went from cot to cot, stabbing heads and hearts with the spear. Most of my kills were silent. I was an expert in the trade, after all.
They were waking up as those in active duty started to shout and try to stop the fire from spreading. But the arrows were already ruined. Even if the wooden shaft didn't burn, the fletching was ruined and the wood slightly warped. Marlowe had the magical prowess of a fourth-rank spellcaster, after all. Even his basic spells like the one he used packed quite the punch.
The altercation ended. Forty people dead. I rushed out through the door and pinged my Detection. The soldiers at the walls didn't notice we were inside. They thought the fire magic was remotely activated by someone on the outside and were preparing for a siege. Some barrels of arrows did survive relatively unscathed. I pinned it to their good luck.
As I prepared to climb the stairs and go for the soldiers on the wall, Detection showed me a group of people forming a square in a room inside the inner keep. As if they were holding a meeting. I sent Marlowe to the item box and activated {Boggart Transformation} and {Fairy Invisibility}. Going through the walls, I looked at the meeting room. The high ranking officers and the Marquis were all here. I closed my eyes and hummed a {Spell-Song} in the ultrasonic region. Once my {Grand Fermata} ate two million Exp, I released the spell, dropping another five hundred thousand in {Overcharge Magic}.
The same one Rosewise used at the mouth of the Perenneth Dungeon during the first outbreak. Force walls laden with spikes sprouted on all the walls while the air became superheated and started to circulate around the room. The occupants were tossed around and dragged along the energy spikes while they cooked. I put the most resilient ones out of their misery with {Force Javelins}.
I jumped out of the room, dismissing the spell. Talysius was on the wall, bashing the soldiers down on the ground. Or better, their halves. The centaur chieftain had an effective Strength score of one hundred and sixty.
Putting Marlowe back on my back, I resumed my normal form and used {Flash Blink Step} to put myself behind a group of archers shooting at my centaur ally. I backstabbed one and kicked another two with my front hooves into the ground ten meters below. The [Wizard] riding on my back cast a [Chain Lightning] spell, finishing them.
I activated a {Spirit Pact} with him. I still had around half a million Energy in the tank out of four million, but that was ten times more than what the enchantment of his cloth body held. I ran over the battlement as if I was running away from Talysius, stabbing the soldiers as I went.
Half an hour later, the deed was done. One hundred and twenty-seven enemy combatants dead. I gathered their souls and interrogated them. None had the required Ego score to resist me. The fog of war started to withdraw, revealing the political map of Pekothas to me. The Marquis was especially useful. Instead of comitting everything to memory or writing it down, I put him in a palm-sized cloth doll. The others I offered up to Galbarar.
The Human God caused this conundrum, the humans would pay with their lives to fix it.
----------------------------------------
> Level 66
>
> Strength: 7+54 (61) / 43 - Dexterity: 12+17 (29) / 43 - Endurance: 13+40 (53) / 43
>
> Mind: 13+29 (42) / 43 - Willpower: 15+33 (48) / 43 - Charisma: 43+12 (55)
>
> Magic: 12+27 (39) / 43
>
> Ego: 13+32 (45) / 43 - Luck: 6+22 (28) / 43 - Soul: 12+22 (34) / 43
>
> HP 13.324.754 (27.124 HP/s)
>
> Energy 4.973.405 (4.703 E/min)