I went around the city, gathering all the ghosts I could. Maybe that's why the Gods decided to look the other way and let me have my way. At the end of the day, most of these lost souls will be in their bellies. Or fueling whatever divine engine they have up there. Or down there. Or else-where. Whatever they do with the souls they don't want reincarnating in their playground.
The ghosts came after some goading. I think they like the SP infusion. And even after losing ten thousand to make Laila my goddaughter, I still had a lot. And there were nobles to murder and levels to gain.
I had the location of all the fairies in the whole city, except those that were taken into places the ghosts couldn't enter. Like the magical academy and the palace. I would hit these places myself. Some fairies were unfortunately taken out of the city. I would need to hunt them down after I finished my business here.
The rat-kin would infiltrate and secure the fairies. Their orders were to stay out of trouble and evade confrontation.
I knew the condition of the fairies from what the ghosts told me. But I had to strike first at the college. I couldn't give the mages more time to weave protections around their precious fairy dust factories.
The college was a castle in a different sector than the Imperial Palace. Scorch marks on the walls showed the reason why. Experimenting with magic can sometimes have catastrophic results.
Like when they anger an ancient and powerful being by enslaving a race.
I flew in as a bat. Flying took some time but I had my cheat perks to accelerate Skill acquisition. Echolocation worked unless I thought too much about it. I angled my wings and descended. Some of the mages used birds and even bats as familiars so there were no lightning wards like the last castle I raided. I entered the college through a window and shifted. The fairies were behind wards and I knew where the warded areas of the academy were. I just needed to check them.
The first area was the adobe of the arch-magister. I chewed through the wards, using {Magic Eater} to whittle them down. This approach had the benefit of being stealthy. Before he died, Sundamar told me that these wards rang an alarm when broken, but the alarm used the pulse caused by a ward being forcefully broken to trigger. A ward dying from lack of energy didn't send such pulse. They would need to have another enchantment monitoring the ward condition, and they didn't.
I entered the arch-magister sanctum and looked around. I used {Locate Favored Enemy} and found a human. I stalked him and once I had a visual link, I tried to put a contract on him. I couldn't. I wasn't Apricot anymore. She could arrange her feelings like legos. I had no real reason to {Assassinate} the arch-magister. And murdering was different from assassinating. So I had to search for probable cause.
I found it. The arch-magister was next to two pixies, trapped in cages and looking in terror at the human mage. As I put a paw inside his room, he turned to look at me even though I had chameleon on.
"Welcome, my little friend. I guess you are here to rescue your friends. Well, I can't let that happen. No God or Goddess has any say in this sanctum. Here, I am absolute!"
I pounced and hit an invisible wall. He laughed. I gnawed his shield. He laughed. He fired a bolt of force that pushed me away.
> You were struck by Force Bolt. You lost 450 HP. (Base 2000 x 0.75 magic resistance x 0.3 magic eater).
I hissed. That hurt a lot. And I was almost starving to get the best {Magic Eater} bonus.
The arch-magister cackled. He fired another volley of force bolts but this time I knew what to look for. I ran and started to throw sticky threads all over the place. He laughed more and more, enjoying the fight.
While his attention was on me, my invisible allies were getting in place. I finally saw what I wanted to see. His force shield was pushing the threads away from him, considering them an attack. But the threads that were already in place, were left alone. When a thread touched his body, I knew where to strike.
The vengeful ghosts of past apprentices had nothing else in their minds except hurting their former headmaster. They started to fire spells at the arch-magister and the shield moved to block them. Once they did, I jumped.
One bite, one severed leg. Remembering that he had fairies with him, I put a contract on him. I'd get a failed message but half the contract boost was still a boost.
The arch-magister fell on the ground, screaming. I threw threads inside his mouth while the ghost apprentices shoved magic on his shield. He tried to cast a spell and I shot threads at his fingers, wrapping them and making it impossible to perform the fine gestures necessary to form the spells.
Without his magic, he was just an old man. I came to bite his head off and a pulse of force erupted from his body, tearing the threads and throwing me and the ghosts away.
> You were struck by Force Pulse. You lost 262 HP (Base 1000 x 0.75 magic resistance x 0.35 magic eater).
I shook the stars away from my vision and saw him chugging a healing potion. The area around his severed leg glowed and a new leg - without his slippers - appeared. Cheater. I threw more threads, sticking the bottle to his mouth. We would see who ran out of options soon enough. The ghosts were hurt by the pulse more than me. If the force attacks did more damage to incorporeal beings, I couldn't turn boggart.
But I had a ton of tricks. I paused and watched him. He was clearing the threads from his mouth, pulling them. With a tensile strength two and a half times that of good modern steel, these threads were a bitch to snap or cut. But I felt the right moment. His awareness slipped for a moment, and that was all I needed.
> Mind's Blank (very rare) Skill. When fighting with an opponent, you can delay your attack to strike at a moment between his perception. If successful, you score a critical hit.
Ninja chibi-werecat struck and claimed his right arm. He screamed again and I bit his throat. While it wasn't a critical hit, I scored a {Stunning Bleed}. Then it was a matter of chewing his head off with a critical a few bites after that.
> Assassination FAILED. Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 75 Arch-Magister. You gained 236,115,000 Exp ( 56,250 Base x 41976 multipliers [expand])
He gave a 10 multiplier for his Class rank and another for his Racial rank. Being small with instant-kill abilities was good. Risky because of my ridicule HP pool, but good.
> You reached Fae Souweaver level 20.
>
> You gained 1 Fae Soulweaver perk.
>
> Class Rank Up available.
>
> You reached Brownie [Sikie] level 20.
>
> You gained 2 Brownie [Silkie] perks.
>
> Race Rank Up available.
>
> You reached Alchemist level 20.
>
> Profession Rank Up available.
>
> You reached Spirit Surgeon level 20.
>
> Profession Rank Up available.
I looked at the list and made my choice.
> Rainbow Silkie (ultra-rare) - These silkies embody all the elemental forces and are made of magic itself. They are extremely resistant to all sorts of magic.
>
> Fae Soulguide (ultra-rare) - Instead of ruling over the dead, the Fae Soulguide focus on pacifying spirits and leading them to their promised afterlife. They even have a chance to grasp the and mend thread of life linking soul and body the moment before it is fully severed.
I don't trust uniques. Not that I had any except that suicidal joke called [Null and Void]. But my ranked up Class held the promise of a last-minute chance at keeping someone from dying. I'd go for that any day of the year.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
As for the professions, I upgraded them to their High versions, which gave six plus one Skill Points per level.
> As a Rainbow Silkie, you gain:
>
> 1 Attribute Point per level.
>
> 1 Magic every level.
>
> 1 Willpower every fourth level.
>
> 1 Mind every fourth level.
>
> 1 Charisma every fourth level.
>
> 1 Luck every fourth level.
>
> 4 Skill points per level.
>
> 1 HP per level.
>
> 6 MP per level.
>
> 0 (+2) Sp per level.
>
> 1 perk every even level.
Three Attribute points per level and a crappy HP and awesome MP progression. Not bad, not bad. The perk progression remains very good.
> As a Fae Soulguide, you gain:
>
> 1 Attribute Point per level.
>
> 1 Soul every level.
>
> 1 Willpower every fourth level.
>
> 1 Charisma every fourth level.
>
> 1 Mind every fourth level.
>
> 1 Endurance every fourth level.
>
> 5 Skill Points per level
>
> 3 HP per level.
>
> 1 MP per level.
>
> 3 (+2) SP per level.
>
> 1 perk every even level.
>
> You gained the Soulguide (ultra-rare) perk. Infuse an incorporeal spirit of an undead creature with MP to purify its grudges. The spirit is incapacitated while the infusion is underway. Hostile action removes the effect of this perk. Once the spirit is purified, it will become friendly for 24 hours or until you dismiss it. Once that happens, it will move on.
After I made my rank up choices, the remainder of my Experience was applied to the new choices.
> You reached Fae Soulguide level 11.
>
> You gained 5 Fae Soulguide perk.
>
> You reached Rainbow Sikie level 10.
>
> You gained 5 Rainbow Sikie perks.
>
> You reached High Alchemist level 9.
>
> You reached High Spirit Surgeon level 9.
I dumped all my free Attribute Points in Magic. The Attributes below my curse-lowered caps were redistributed.
> Strength: 1 - Dexterity: 14 - Endurance: 4
>
> Mind: 14 - Willpower: 14 - Charisma: 14
>
> Magic: 44 / 100
>
> Ego: 80? ~ 81? / 100 - Luck: 90 / 100 - Soul: 100
>
> HP: 2649
>
> MP: 6644
>
> SP: 80577
> You gained the Pinnacle of Soul (ultra-rare) perk. You reached the mortal maximum for the Soul Attribute. You are immune to Blight. You are immune to possession. You can get as low as 100 * Endurance negative HP before you die.
Interesting. Now I regret dumping twenty-one Attribute Points on Magic. What does {Pinnacle of Luck} do?
Before I spent the perks, I quickly restrained the arch-magister's ghost before he could move on and purified him. After that, I made a contract with him to use his magic.
With that out of the way, I opened my selections to spend the perks.
> You gained the Speaking Animal Shapes (very rare) perk. You can speak any language you know while transformed into an animal.
>
> You gained the Tiny Animal Shapes (rare) perk. You can transform into very tiny animals as well as the other sizes you normally can.
>
> You gained the Mystic Soul (very rare) perk. Add half your Soul Attribute to Magic to determine your MP pool.
My MP pool jumped to fourteen thousand with that perk. That's all for the basic race and class. Now my ranked-up perks.
> You gained the Prismatic Skin (ultra-rare) perk. Your skin absorbs 10% of the full incoming magic damage (before other modifiers are applied) and converts that value into healing.
>
> You gained the Improved Prismatic Skin (ultra-rare) perk. Your skin absorbs 15% of the full incoming magic damage (before other modifiers are applied) and converts that value into healing.
>
> You gained the Prismatic Silk (ultra-rare) perk. You can spend extra MP and time to weave silk that's immune to a particular element's damage. The hue of the silk must match the element.
>
> You gained the Mana Shield (rare) perk. 25% of the magic damage you take (after all modifiers) is subtracted from MP.
>
> You gained the Hardened Mana Shield (very rare) perk. Your mana shield absorbs all kinds of damage.
The perks were awesome too. The visual effect, not so much. My hair and fur now had an iridescent sheen when if the light hit from a certain angle, it would split as if it had crossed a prism. But if that was the price to be healed by some kind of magic I was almost immune to, there wasn't much room to argue. The upgrade from 10% to 15% might seem small, but that's before those crazy multipliers applied. Taking into account all the values, The 2,000 damage force bolt would look like this:
> You were struck by Force Bolt. You were healed for 38 HP. You lost 96 MP. (Base 2000 (-300 Prismatic Skin) x 0.75 magic resistance x 0.3 magic eater).
In other words, stop the press. I'm immune to magic if I am starving. Boy, oh, boy. What does the Soulguide brings to the table?
> You gained the Last Chance (ultra-rare) perk. Target a recently deceased creature. Spend SP equal to twice the maximum HP of the creature. That creature stays alive for 5 minutes minus the time since it died. This does not work if the soul is unavailable or if the body is either obliterated or grievously wounded beyond any chance of recovery. A target can only be affected by this perk once every twelve years.
>
> You gained the Spiritual Healing (very rare) perk. Spend SP to heal a target creature's HP with a ratio of 5:1.
>
> You gained the Improved Spiritual Healing (very rare) perk. Spend SP to heal a target creature's HP with a ratio of 3:1.
>
> You gained the Soulspeaker (very rare) perk. You can speak with and understand spirits and the undead regardless of language.
>
> You gained the Diplomat from Beyond (very rare) perk. Add half your Soul score to Charisma when interacting peacefully with spirits or the undead.
I could even try to bring the arch-magister back to life. Not that I will. With everything out of the way - I won't bother with the Skill points now - I work to release my fairy brethren.
I was split between not removing their collars to keep the fairies from rampaging but that was too cruel. I materialized the arch-magister's ghost to pick them up and bring them to the ground. There I chewed and ate the magic in the collars until they broke, which took ten minutes for each collar.
"Hello, my fellow fairies."
The pixie touched his neck. "The collar is gone. We're FREE!"
And they started to cheer and shout. Thank goodness the arch-magister's study is sound-proof.
"Can you guys keep it quiet? Or do you want more fairies to die? We need to get you out of here. In silence. I have some friends that will take you to a safe place where you can rest and recover. Did you understand?"
"I'm hungry," The other pixie complained.
"They have food there. Will you behave? Otherwise, they won't give you sweets."
They agreed and I handed them to the were-rats that were waiting outside. With these two rescued, I turned to the arch-magister.
"Are there other fairies in the academy?"
"Yes. Three more," he said as if I should know. "Follow me, I'll take you there."
Even in death, the guy was haughty.
I followed the arch-magister but killing the other mages was a child's play. Soon I had all the fairies in the academy in the trustworthy hands of the were-rats. From the Academy I ran around the middle-class district, checking if all the targets were hit. Once I approached, there was a swarm of guards in the streets. I set the arch-magister's ghost loose on them to distract and disrupt their efforts to capture the were-rats.
I found one priest of Bundeus exorcising the ghosts. I put a contract on him and shifted into a peregrine falcon. Going high, I dove and several meters above him I shifted just the head into my hybrid form. I crashed into the priest and bit his head. I felt holy spells protecting him but that vanished once I touched him.
> Assassination Successful. Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 38 Priest. You gained 11,450,920 Exp ( 14,440 Base x 793 multipliers [expand])
The Exp penalties from contracting ghosts are increasing.
I bound his ghost and sent him to heal the were-rats. Shifting the rest of my body to were-jaguar form, I went wild among the guards. Once they saw they couldn't fight the ghosts without the priest's support, they scattered.
Two hours later, I got the butcher's bill for the middle-class district. We lost five were-rats and two fairies.
I had no time to grieve. The strike on the noble's houses was about to begin, and I had to lead that one. Too dangerous for the were-kin and ghosts alone. I took the spellcasters with me, the two apprentices, the arch-magister, and the priest along with a hundred other ghosts and went to the noble district, killing any armed men attempting to fight on the streets.
If they are too dumb to disrespect my curfew, they are too dumb to live. And each one that dies is another ghost to my army.
I shifted into a bee hummingbird, a Cuban bird that weighs only two grams and is less than six centimeters from beak to tail. I fly past the walls enclosing the noble district and find several Imperial knights marching down from the palace.
I check my SP reserves. Fifty thousand in the bank and growing. I send a mental command to the apprentices and the arch-magister to ready a siege spell. They start to chant and combine their magic, floating high up in the air.
They go with a localized pitfall spell. A crater a hundred meters wide and as deep opens below the knights and they plummet down into oblivion. Four mansions dangle at the edge but those don't have fairies in them.
I dive in the pit and summon the ghosts. A full battalion of spectral knights.
The estates all had dozens of guards, some of them hired mercenaries or adventurers. The houses with the largest guard contingent were exactly the ones with fairies.
I promised Nenandil that I wouldn't kill without due cause.
"Arch-magister, do you have a voice amplifying spell?"
"Please," he rolls his spectral eyes. "That's not a spell, that's barely a cantrip. One of the apprentices can do it."
The apprentice uses wind magic on me. I shout.
"Nobody else needs to die tonight. Release the enslaved fairies. This is your last warning. We are starting the sweep now. If one of Yznera's vengeful spirits is harmed, everyone in the estate dies and joins us. Except those that put down your weapons and refrain from violence."
My ultimatum was met with the human stupidity that I expected. Their bravado only increased. I picked the closest estate and sent a commoner's ghost. He was peppered by arrows and spells, dissipating right after.
I spent thirty thousand SP. The battalion of knights appeared out of thin air in the estate. The guards, mercenaries, and adventurers didn't see what hit them. I flew into the estate to where the fairy was.
And I found Neep being held at knifepoint by a frightened Baron. I shifted and landed a few meters from him in an armchair.
"Release the fairy," I told him. "Baron Kurchakov, there's no need for future bloodshed. Release the fairy, and I won't kill you. Draw a single drop of blood, and your whole family dies."
"Get away from me!" He screamed. "Or I'll kill this fairy!"
I triggered {Divine Negotiator}. "Here's my offer. Release the fairy slowly. You and your family live. Decide quickly, because the ghosts are hunting your family and servants now."
"Bundeus will punish you, necromancer."
I fought to not roll my eyes. If Bundeus breaks our covenant, I am the one kicking his Divine butt back to whatever heaven he lives in.
"The gods have forsaken you, slaver. There was but a single priest that disobeyed their mandate. Here," I said as I called the ghost of the priest.
"The Lord of Light, Bundeus, demands," the priest's ghost said, "Release the fairy unharmed."
The knife clattered on the ground. I looked at the priest and he had a golden halo. Then I saw one of the apprentices wink at me.
"Take this cursed fairy away from me!" The Baron pushed Neep away from him, basically dropping the not-really-Scottish brownie on the ground. I jumped and saved him.
"Hey, Neep. Fancy seeing ye 'ere," I mock his accent. "I can't take your collar off right now. I need to make the most out of the ghosts I materialized.
Neep nodded. A single tear escaped his eye. I hugged him and waved for a were-rat to take him away.
With the ghosts of the adventurers, guards, and mercenaries added to my spectral army, we swept the other noble estates. As the places that resisted screamed and died to the marching battalion of ghostly Imperial Knights, the others quickly capitulated.
Dawn broke. I was exhausted and had over fifty fairies to remove collars from. I looked over my shoulder. Behind me, more than two thousand ghosts of combatants. My SP pool, even though it was eighty thousand points, was depleted.
The palace didn't send any more knights out after that battalion died to the siege spell. No. They have magicians on the walls and siege engines. I went around and saw not a single priest.
I need to make my next move in what's left of the twenty-four-hour window I'll have the arch-magister with me.
It is time for the last leg of my mission here. Enter the palace and rescue Nenandil from the Empress.