An Advanced Universe, minimum Step-2? Well, that was definitely something new. Did that mean only Step-2 beings could survive here? Was there something inherent in the Universe which destroyed creatures with Step-1 attributes? Adam didn’t feel any different, though all of his attributes were Legendary Step-4 and he also had the ability Adaptable so he probably wouldn’t. There was so much he still didn’t know.
Adam activated Teleport and appeared behind the creature, targeted his head, and struck as he activated No Escape. Two things happened; His fist struck true and went through the Atlantean’s head. Second, he received a message prompt.
Ability “No Escape” has failed. Target Endurance is above the current Ability Rank. To increase the Ability “No Escape” you must evolve your ability.
Adam thought about that for a moment, abilities that could evolve and go above Legendary rank. There was a way to evolve and increase abilities somehow. Well damn. He’d have to figure that out. While he was thinking about that he also thought about what his Ability “No Escape stated and remembered
“…No escape has a mana cost equal to the Endurance of the target and requires a physical touch to deliver.”
The ability didn’t come right out and say it, but he probably couldn’t spend more mana on the ability than the rank of the ability. Since the critter’s endurance had been at least Step-2 and the most mana he could spend was Legendary Step-1, the ability had failed. Thankfully, a failure at this moment wasn’t devastating. Also, learning this new bit of info was very helpful. He now realized that had he used Chaos Bolt on the creature he would have done very little to it, while his physical attack with Step-4 Strength had been devasting. Very helpful information indeed.
Adam put the thoughts out of his mind and recovered the Box the creature had been holding before he reached out and touched the creature as he activated Treasure Renderer on it. The body dissolved into the water as items were placed in his Shadow Vault
Treasure Renderer has been partially successful in looting Step-2 Atlantean. Award of 9 Step-2 Water quintessence has been converted to 18 Step-1 Quintessence. Treasurer Renderer must be at rank Low Step-2 to produce Step-2 Quintessence, Low Step-3 to produce Step-3, etc. Additionally, a large pearl and 7 smaller pearls have been added to your inventory
Adam was stunned. There were different ranks of Quintessence as well. Why hadn’t Hal informed him of this? Of course, he hadn’t asked when Hal was less helpful and hadn’t thought to ask questions about quintessence since. Adam focused on his surroundings and activated Technomancy. The box before him was technological in nature and his ability let him discover its purpose, uses, and settings. Programming was programming after all. However, the technique used in its construction was something that he’d never come across before. Somehow it was working perfectly well within a high-pressure water environment without shorting out or imploding. As he explored it with his ability he also realized that most of the device was crystalline in nature and that the pathways for the circuits seemed to have been grown. He was sure that he could recreate this exact device with Mold Chaos but using nanites to create it, doing that would be a bit iffy. If he didn’t know better, he was thinking that this device was in some way alive. Not sentient but definitely either from an organism or was itself an organism in its own right.
Adam memorized the current settings in the device, especially the coordinates in the targeting portion of the circuits then deactivated it. Without knowing how they were targeting exactly it would be better just to make sure the same settings were used. He’d end up on Mars when he went back, but that was okay.
The swirling vortex he’d traveled here through disappeared. Next, he opened his Personal Map and reviewed it. Just a bunch of blue in all directions as far as he could see, and mirrored on the Personal Map. Within his immediate area, there was nothing but water. He checked the map on both the Vertical and Horizontal axis and then looked around again. He wasn’t mistaken there was light off in one direction outside of the range of mapping ability. Adam would set that direction as north and the current 0-degree plane as the line between himself and the light. Adam went back into his Personal Map and set north and the ground level. Now he had the four cardinal directions and up and down as compared to his starting position in this weird water world. Next, he placed markers in both the horizontal and vertical so that he could get back to this exact point then started moving toward the light source after he did one more thing.
Adam used Mold Chaos to create a black wet suit and then put it in his Shadow Vault. A moment later shadows surrounded him, and he was wearing the wetsuit. There was no reason to be uncomfortable in the water after all.
Adam activated Flight, instead of trying to swim and let his ability move him through the water toward the light. Adam kept his speed at a nice pleasant 10 miles per hour. As he moved away from his origin point in this place he noticed more lights that created a grid pattern that spread out around him. As he looked at the grid he realized that the other lights were farther away and finally figured out what they were. The first light had probably been a guiding beacon. The other lights he saw seemed to form a wall or globe that surrounded the area he’d come out of. Could they be warning buoys? Adam redirected his course to one of the buoys and sure enough, there was an image of a giant fish skull on the buoy and the word “Periculum,” which was a Latin word that meant Danger.
Maybe the portal had been a natural connection after all. Adam looked around and saw another guide buoy, which he could now tell was brighter and a slightly different color from the warning buoys. The guide buoy was bright white, while the warning buoys held a hint of yellow in their color. Adam found the 2nd guide buoy and started moving toward it. After he reached the 2nd buoy he decided to increase his speed because it seemed that the buoys were about 5 miles apart.
This water was crystal clear and seemed a lot deeper than 100 or 200 meters, yet the light was normal. As he approached the 3rd buoy he started to notice schools of fish and other sea creatures. None of the fish seemed too aggressive and the few schools of jellyfish-type creatures that were floating around didn’t seem to notice or care about the wake that pushed them around as he passed them at about 30 miles per hour.
Five hours later he found himself coming up to a guide buoy that had turned red. Adam could see the bright white of a guide buoy 5 miles further along but there seemed to be a haze in the water in front of him. Adam entered the haze and realized that some form of gas was aspirating the water there. Also, it seemed to flow in a conduit of sorts. The immediate effect was that his buoyancy changed. Any swimming creature entering the area would have fallen deeper. Also, if they breathed through the water they probably find it very hard to breathe there, if the gas wasn’t oxygen, which Adam didn’t think it was, it reminded him of methane or natural gas.
Adam ignored the current and continued following the guide buoys. Two more hours found him traveling toward what could only be described as a bubble. He could see the top and bottom of the bubble at first but as he drew closer he lost sight of them. It had to be at least 10 miles in diameter. Through the membrane in front of him, he could see that the bubble contained a land mass in the middle that was floating in water that surrounded it, inside a bubble. The guide buoys had brought him to the midpoint where air met water. Adam pushed his hand through the blurry barrier and felt his hand move into the open air. Bringing his hand down he felt it enter the water on the other side of the membrane. Suddenly Adam noticed something very large rushing toward him from the underwater side of the bubble.
Adam withdrew his and floated back. Obscure was still active so he wasn’t too concerned but he wanted to see what this creature could do. A shark-looking thing larger than a blue whale with razor-sharp teeth shot through the membrane and immediately veered toward Adam. Adam remembered reading that sharks could smell blood miles away from their target, or maybe it could see through Obscure, now that thought was truly worrying. The creature was fast and it looked like it activated an ability that caused it to shoot forward at a ferocious pace with its jaws wide open. Although he could have probably dodged the fish, Adam did the exact opposite. He moved into the open jaw and then used Flight to hold him steady as he punched through the roof of its mouth into the cavity between its two eyes.
Adam’s attack didn’t go exactly how he would have liked. He was able to get a handhold but couldn’t create the leverage to punch through completely and kill it outright. Instead, it began to thrash and try to pulverize him by chewing him to death. That wasn’t working out well for the fish. Adam didn’t have the leverage and the monster didn’t have the biting power to turn him into a paste. Adam was sure if a tooth were able to come down on him it would break. Instead, he was getting gummed like a baby trying to chew a piece of beef jerky without any teeth.
The creature had finally had enough and utilized an ability as it tried to force Adam out of its mouth. Adam was hit with a Sonic attack that didn’t even affect him. His Health regeneration replaced the very minute amount of health he was losing. Changing tactics, Adam used his right hand, which was holding on to the broken cartilage he’d created to hold on while he started punching with his left hand. Once he had a good handhold for his left hand, he expanded the hole for the right hand. Now that both handholds were solid, he pulled himself up and through the roof of the mouth. That’s not exactly what happened, instead, the bone and cartilage gave way making a hole big enough for him to move through. As the monster screamed and started to thrash more violently. Adam set his Flight ability to hold position and let the Animals frenzy turn its insides into jelly and ooze as Adam’s Step-4 attributed body did not budge as various organs splattered against him. It was only a matter of moments before the monster’s frenzy helped Adam destroy its brain. Now he knew what a .22 caliber bullet felt like once it entered someone’s skull and bounced around for a bit.
Adam felt the creature die and go still. He made his way back to the hole in the roof of the mouth and exited. He came to a stop outside the creature and touched it as he activated Treasure Renderer
Treasure Renderer has been partially successful in looting Step 2 Giant Whale Shark. The award of 75 Step-2 Water quintessence has been converted to 150 Step-1 Quintessence. Treasurer Renderer must be at rank Low Step-2 to produce Step-2 Quintessence, Low Step-3 to produce Step-3, etc. Additionally, you have found 45 Large Pearls and 165 small pearls.
Unlike last time this time, the body of the monster didn’t disappear. Instead, all of the flesh disappeared and a skeletal structure that looked like it had been armored was left and started to sink. Adam reached out and touched it, putting the whole thing in his Shadow Vault. His 640 square feet were able to hold it easily though he noted that it took up 15% of the available space all by itself. He wasn’t sure why he’d put the skeleton in his vault, but the bones of the Step-2 attributed creature must be worth something. If he could get the tools he could craft the bone into shields that should be able to withstand a lot of punishment from anything considered Step-1. Could there be Step-2 or Step-3 metal out there? Now that would be something. What was Adamantium considered in this world?
Adam considered the message for the treasure he’d received. This was the second time he’d had his Quintessence reduced from Step-2 to Step-1. He now knew that he could increase his abilities above Legendary rank, but he didn’t know how much it would cost. Though now that he had 168 additional Step-1 Quintessence he might be able to find out.
Adam looked around to make sure he hadn’t drawn attention to himself and noticed that he had. Some smaller creatures were heading in his general direction They were still pretty far away, but they looked humanoid in form. The Whale Shark had been huge, and they’d probably seen it disappear. Adam wanted to verify some things before he tackled anything else.
He followed the membrane of the bubble up until he was about a mile above the water that was inside the bubble then passed through the membrane of the bubble like it wasn’t even there. Also, the membrane kept the water out removing it from his clothes and skin. Adam flew about 500 feet into the bubble and could easily see the membrane from the inside, There was no artificial sky there. The creatures in this bubble knew they were near an island floating in an ocean with water all around that ocean. In such conditions, it would be very hard to make a lot of the technological discoveries that came from being able to see the motions of the planets and stars. Adam was betting that if a society was on the island, it probably developed along magical lines. All they’d have to do to check was swim to the bubble wall and pass through. That meant the gravity he felt was either technologically or magically generated.
The air inside the bubble seemed normal and gravity felt right. He could see plants and bird off in the distance flying above the canopy of the trees. Adam set himself to hover. Where he was would make it hard for anything on the ground to get to him. Also, he was far enough out from the island that unless they could see through his Obscure ability they’d have an even harder time finding him. Of course, the Giant Whale Shark had been able to detect him so he’d need to be vigilant.
Satisfied that he was effectively safe for a few moments he activated Stutter Step and dropped his focus into himself. That should give him a little extra time to react. Adam had a few ideas on how he could increase his abilities and all those ideas involved his Soul Core.
Adam moved his focus to his Soul Core and found the 20 Chaos Motes floating there. Instead of focusing on the Motes he focused on the Soul Core and tried to see within it. Within moments he noticed nodes of power that seemed to act like electrons orbiting a nucleus at the center. There was a shell around his Soul Core unless he focused on it, of course. Since he’d never focused his attention on it so he’d never seen inside it until now. Adam refocused and looked at the inside of Soul Core.
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There were orbital rings and a center that contained its own structure as well. Adam could see 8 nodes in the nucleus of his Soul Core which exactly matched the number of abilities he still had, though one was greyed out. As he focused on the greyed-out node he knew that it was his “Interface” ability
Adam pulled his focus back and looked at the 15 nodes that seemed to be randomly orbiting the nucleus. He focused on each one until he found the Node for Treasurer Renderer and focused on it.
To Evolve the node Treasure Renderer from Step-1 Legendary Rank to Step-2 Low Rank will require 3 Step-2 Looting Specific Motes, or 6 Step-1 Looting Specific Motes. Would you like to evolve your Looting Specific Node for the ability Treasure Renderer to Step-2 Low Rank, Yes or No?
NOTE: Chaos motes may be utilized in place of Looting Specific Motes.
Adam chose “Yes.”
Congratulations! The Ability Treasurer Renderer has increased in rank from Step-1 Legendary Rank to Step-2 Low Rank.
Adam closed the prompt and thought for a moment. It wouldn’t be that hard for him to improve his abilities, just expensive. If he could find Step-2 Motes it looked like Low Rank cost 3 Step-2 Quintessence. He needed to get a handle on this new way to increase his power and rank-up abilities.
Adam Focused on the same node again.
To Evolve the node Treasure Renderer from Step-2 Low Rank to Step-2 Medium Rank will require 6 Step-2 Looting Specific Motes, or 12 Step-1 Looting Specific Motes. Would you like to evolve your Looting Specific Node for the ability Treasure Renderer to Step-2 Medium Rank, Yes or No?
NOTE: Chaos motes may be utilized in place of Looting Specific Motes.
Adam chose “No”, closed the interface, and withdrew to look around himself and make sure he was still alone while he puzzled this out. He was still floating in the air with the Island about a mile off in the distance and the barrier back into the endless water 500 feet behind him. Safe enough for now them.
Adam knew that the maximum number of attacks increased by 3 per Cultivator Rank and Step. At Legendary Rank, Step-1 Legendary Rank, he could make a maximum of 21 attacks. At Step-2 Low he could make 24. In fact, at his current attribute level of Legendary Step-4, his maximum number of attacks was 84, though he’d never attacked that many times at once. As he thought back over the combats he’d been in he thought that perhaps he was using more than one ability per second as well. Next time he went into combat, he might try Chaos Bolt just to see how many he could use in a single combat round.
Adam returned his thoughts to evolving abilities. Ability leveling looked like it was following the same pattern. Increasing the cost by 3. Except that the cost was the equivalent Step Rank of Quintessence. To evolve an ability from Legendary Rank Step 1 to Low-Rank Step-2 Low was 3 Step-2 Quintessence. If he wanted to substitute Step-1 Quintessence he could, but the cost doubled. He’d just seen that. Step-2 Low cost 6 Step-1 Quintessence and Step-2 Medium cost 12 Step-1 Quintessence which meant that Step-2 high should cost 18 Step-1 Quintessence. For his ability Treasurer Renderer to be able to produce Step-3 Quintessence, he’d need to increase the ability to Step-3 Low Rank which meant he’d have to spend 162 (12+18+24+30+36+42) Quintessence plus however many Step-1 Quintessence it would take to go from Step-2 Legendary to Step-3 Low. If the cost doubled again that would be 12 more Step-1 Quintessence for 172 in total.
He only had 14 motes of Chaos orbiting his Soul Core and another 177 Quintessence in his Shadow Vault. Treasurer Renderer was nice the ability wasn’t a priority ability. Also, he could use the Quintessence he had to unlock up to 12 more abilities. He wasn’t going to just spend them to increase his ability to produce higher Rank Quintessence from his looting ability. What would make more sense would be for him to look at Increasing his Shadow Vault or Mold Chaos abilities. In fact, just to see what kind of increases he was looking at he dropped his focus to his Soul Core and found the nodes for Shadow Vault and Mold Chaos and spent the 12 Step-1 motes of Chaos to increase each ability to Step-2 Low Rank then checked his notifications.
Congratulations you have evolved your ability “Shadow Vault” from Step-1 Legendary to Step-2 Low Rank This ability creates a vault accessible by you in the Dimension of Shadow. Items can be placed into the vault and withdrawn from any shadow. This ability is synergistic with Treasure Renderer. Items created may be automatically placed within the vault. Note: a new tab has appeared in your Personal Information labeled Shadow vault which will list everything within the vault. Living creatures may not enter or exit the vault. The number of items this ability can hold increases with each rank. Step-2 Low Rank can hold 1,280 cubic feet.
Not too shabby an increase in storage space. Nothing like his Place of Power or his Soul Space inside System Matrix 001 but definitely enough space to hold some items. Adam checked his next prompt.
Congratulations you have evolved your ability “Mold Chaos” from Step-1 Legendary Rank to Step-2 Low Rank. This ability allows you to create items. You can either create copies of something in your possession with little or no effort. You may also create items if you have the skill and knowledge to do so. You may only spend mana equal to, or less than the rank of the ability. At low rank you may create objects up to 10 pounds in weight, Medium – 50 pounds, High - 100 pounds, Elite – 200 pounds, Epic – 400 pounds, Mythic- 800 pounds, Legendary – 1 ton, Step-2 Low – 2 tons. The item can be created in your hand or within line-of-sight within a 1000-foot radius.
The weight of what he could create had doubled and the distance he could create it up to had also doubled. That was a significant increase. If it doubled again with the next increase the ability would allow him to make most cars from thin air. Double again after that…damn. If that ability kept doubling with each rank, leveling it up quickly could be a game-changer. The Pelza Empire’s ship “Ghost” which was holding position over Hawaii had to weigh around 100,000 short tons. He was basing that on the estimate of the estimated weight of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise which was supposed to weigh around 210,000 short tons and the “Ghost” was less than half that size. Yeah, Mold Chaos was going to be one of the first abilities he increased.
Adam was brought to his senses as he felt something moving him through the air. He looked around with “True Sight” and couldn’t see anything. He tried to fly away and found that his flight ability could not break him free from whatever was dragging him toward the water. As he drew closer he saw more Atlanteans, just under the surface of the water pointing sticks and spears at him.
Adam analyzed the situation and realized that the attack had to be wind-based. If it was a creature it was probably an Air Elemental or Djinn. Now that he was thinking about elemental-type creatures he noticed ripples in the water that were not normal waves.
In the Air, The Air Elemental would be king, in the water it would be visible. If they had water elementals too though, damn. He needed to be able to see such creatures so he could target them. As for why he couldn’t pull away. Adam was betting that his Step-1 Flight ability was being overpowered by a Step-2 Air Elemental
That was fine, Flight wasn’t his only movement power and Adam used Teleport to teleport onto the beach at the edge of the forest. Next, he activated Stutter Step because it was obvious they could see through his Obscure ability, he needed a couple of extra seconds to prepare. The Air Elemental was probably already moving toward him.
Adam activate Shadow Vault and tried to command all quintessence into his Shadow Vault to be absorbed. The command didn’t work exactly as he thought it should. Instead, he felt the quintessence all appear in his hand as they were absorbed. The process was instantaneous though.
Next, he moved his focus to his Soul Core and converted all motes orbiting his Soul Core into Chaos Motes then he chose to focus on creating an ability that would allow him to see and target any entities be they, physical, mental, or spiritual.
You have chosen to integrate a mote of Chaos. Ability. The ability “Variable Quintessence” has been activated. New Ability sought: Category: Sensory All, Type: Chaos. Range: Self. Goal: See and Target any kind of creature. Is this information correct? Yes or no?
Adam chose “Yes.”
Congratulations you have integrated the Soul Quintessence ability “Aura Sight.” This ability has a Low mana cost regardless of ability rank. Damage: None. Energy Type: Soul. Special: This ability allows you to see all manner of creatures both corporeal and non-corporeal. The range is 100 feet per Ability Rank. Abilities that conceal or hide another of lesser rank are automatically detected.
Adam was more than satisfied with the result as he spent the 6 chaos motes to increase the ability to Legendary Rank and then focused on the nodes of his soul Core and brought Chaos Bolt up to Step-2 Low Rank which left him with 166 motes.
Adam had taken four actions as he brought his focus back into the real world and looked in the direction he’d teleported from as he activated Aura Sight and saw the Air Elemental screaming toward him. It appeared as an angry red blob of color with crimson reds, yellows, and oranges. Now that he could target it though he could hit it with his Chaos Bolt. He had two more combat rounds left in Stutter Step as he cast Chaos Bolt as fast as he could at Step-2 Low Rank.
While he knew he could make 84 physical attacks, Adam had thought he could only make one ability attack per combat round. It seemed that he was mistaken, and the Tyranny of Rank was in play again. He was able to use his ability 4 times per combat round. In the two Combat rounds before the Air Elemental reached him, Adam used Chaos Bolt 8 times. After the sixth time, the Air Elementals’ blob of redness popped like a bubble and was carried away in the wind. Adam saw 11 decent-sized sapphires drop to the beach in front of him. He walked over and picked up all of the sapphires and put them in his Shadow Vault as he examined one.
You have found a Step-3 Air Quintessence created from the destruction of a Step-2 Legendary Ranked Air Elemental.
He checked the other 10 sapphires and found that they were the same.
Adam looked out to the water and saw waves moving quickly toward the beach. Not as fast as the Air Elemental but quick enough that they’d be there within a minute or so. He focused on his Soul Core and spent 162 Chaos motes to evolve Chaos Bolt from Step-2 Low Rank to Step-2 Legendary Rank. When he was done his Chaos Bolts now had a range of 1,400 feet.
***
Ozrak’Ka loved being propelled by the water elemental, almost as much as he loved killing humans. This one thought to hide with some ability that almost worked but his people had learned long ago the tricks of the humans. They’d try to hide, if they couldn’t do that, they’d try to take the high ground and if they could they’d fly. In this place they were limited and if they left the bubble they’d drown.
His hunting party had been out in the coral reef looking for food for the city when they’d noticed the Great One move toward something which it suddenly rushed to attack. They’d seen it turn to bones and then disappear. They’d each summoned their water elemental familiars, an Atlantean without a familiar, well they were the scientist and the big brain types but who didn’t want to feel free in the water? The familiars were no good in combat but they could assist with movement and fetch items as needed.
Ozrak’Ka drew his trident as they neared shore and the water elementals lifted them out of the water to make them appear as if they were surfing across the top of the water as they sped toward the beach at over 30 miles an hour. He was slightly confused when the human dropped his cloaking ability and just stood there. The air around him shimmered and white darts started flying from him toward Ozark-Ka’s party. There were 32 hunters with him. One of them would…
Ozrak’Ka’s thoughts were shattered as he was knocked out of the Elementals grip and fell back into the water. Whatever had hit him had knocked the wind out of him and done a significant amount of damage. He felt like he’d been hit by a sledgehammer. As he lay there in the water recovering, he watched as a stream of the bolts the human was firing reached out and unerringly hit every single member of his party. His entire party had been knocked into the water and the white bolts were still coming. If he was hit again he knew that would be the end.
Ozrak’Ka dived below the surface slowly and then had his elemental help propel him toward the beach and off to the human’s side, out of his sight hopefully. When he broke the surface the human had stopped shooting bolts and seemed to be looking out into the water.
In one fluid motion, Ozrak’Ka rose to his feet and threw his trident with all his might. He even used his ability True Flight which increased the range of his throw so he would hit from this distance. He was so focused on the perfect throw that he didn’t see the human move out over the water under the trident that was still traveling toward where he’d just been standing. He also didn’t see the human’s hand reach down and grab him by the back of the neck. Before he could react he was lifted into the air over the beach floating near the top of the bubble.
Ozrak’Ka was held by the back of the neck facing the ground as he heard the human behind him speak in Latin, “We need to talk, if you can understand me, raise your right hand. If you feign ignorance it is a long way down.”
“What do you want Human?” Ozrak’Ka asked.
“What is this place?” the human asked.
“If you mean the place outside the bubble, it is the Great Ocean. If you mean this bubble, it is a fragment of a world long since lost.”
“Are there humans on the Island?” the human asked.
Ozrak’Ka would give nothing to this human he would never bow down to their kind. He had killed many and the great Air Elemental that watched over the people would save him if he should fall. If he could get this human to drop him he would go get the war party and return. They would search this outcropping until they found and killed this human. The War Party had many elders that were much more powerful than him. It was time to get this human to drop him. In his loudest voice, he made his declaration, “My brother and sisters will avenge me, I am but one of…”
***
Adam knew as soon as the Atlantean started making declarative statements there was no point talking to him. He crushed his throat and held him until he died. He did not like these creatures and his Aura Sight showed a sickly green color over every one of their Auras. Adam had a feeling that indicated an inherent level of evilness. Of course, he had all the materials that had ever been written on the subject in his mind but he was unsure about how accurate the details were. He’d have to practice with the ability to make sure he understood what it was showing him.
As the creature was dying he flew back toward the beach and the other Atlanteans he’d killed. Once the creature in his hands was dead he used Treasure Renderer on it then he quickly flew over and used Treasure Renderer on the other 32 Atlanteans which netted him 99 small pearls, 2 large pearls, and 264 Step-2 Quintessence.
Adam was also pleasantly satisfied with the way Stutter Step had worked. 33 of the warriors had been coming toward him across the water. When they were still well out of range he’d started shooting Chaos Bolts at them. He’d seen the little water elementals propelling them along and realized immediately that they weren’t a threat. Their auras looked weaker than the Atlanteans. He figured they were either summoned or familiars of some kind. They’d fled for deeper water as soon as the Atlantean they were helping was dead so he hadn’t targeted them at all.
Adam was also liking the way Treasure Renderer wasn’t leaving evidence of those he killed. Maybe because they had more inherent magic in the cell structure? He returned to the beach and moved toward the wooded area when a melodic voice reached out from everywhere within the forest. With Aura Sight, he detected the individual that had just started speaking, which made him all the wiser for having acquired this ability because his Perception have failed to notice her. In Elvish, the melodic voice said, “Greetings, you have killed our enemy, We would know if are you friend or foe to the Forest and the Coral Reefs?”
Adam assumed the high elf formal greeting stance as he spoke in elvish directly to the aura he could see near a tree thirty feet away, “I am Adam, a friend of the forest and not an enemy of the Coral Reefs. If I might ask, why have you greeted me in the formal tradition with the addition?”
A blue-tinted Elvish woman at least six feet tall stepped out from behind the tree Adam was looking at as she too assumed the formal greeting posture of the elves and said, “Because, for the Maredryadalis, the Coral Reefs are our Forests.”