Adam had been following Tash’Valyar for almost 5 hours now. After their formal greeting on the beach, she’d asked for him to come with her to her people because it wasn’t safe in this Island bubble. When Adam had asked why it wasn’t safe she’d lead him to the other side of the island. They’d swam out to the edge of the bubble and entered the ocean outside it.
After they’d passed through the membrane of the bubble she’d had him wait while she swam almost 2,000 feet away from him until she disappeared through something Adam couldn’t see. As he started to move forward to see what had happened, she reappeared and pointed to the bubble he’d just left. Adam followed as they swam back into the Island bubble and then through at roughly 100 miles per hour. She was obviously using an ability to propel herself because she was only using her hands and legs to adjust her course instead of actually swimming. Adam was using his Flight ability and easily kept pace with her.
Once they’d exited the opposite side of the island bubble they moved out into an abundance of sea life and slowed down to match the pace of the schools of fish they were moving among. While her path seemed to follow no direct course, Adam checked his Personal Map every once in a while and saw that they were making progress in an easterly direction. After they’d been doing this for about an hour she touched her temple then his. Adam had nodded and she spoke to him with Telepathy.
“It is better to communicate like this while we are trying to lose pursuit,” Tash’Valyar said.
“What pursuit?” he asked.
“The abominations or the Atlanteans as they call themselves, have put a cloaking screen around their home. The bubble containing the Lost Empire ruins is the closest watermark to their location. Their area is at least 10 times bigger than the bubble of the Lost Empire we met in, probably more,” she said.
Watermark? She must be using that word to represent “landmarks” which made sense, there was very little land here, “Why couldn’t I see it and why could they all see me, I have a cloaking ability that is nigh impossible to see through to everyone where I’m from?” he asked.
“Do you truly not know?” she asked.
“I am new to this ocean, especially the magic of the world around me,” he said.
“Well, it is a long swim, and you did end my unintentional stay on the island so I will share what I know but we must continue moving with the schools of fish. They are probably still looking for us,” she said.
“Any knowledge would be much appreciated,” Adam said.
“As I look at you I see that you are more powerful than this realm you find yourself in, yet you sound as if you come from a realm that is less powerful than this place, is this correct?” she asked.
“Yes, I come from Earth, it is full of humans that are much less powerful than any creatures I’ve encountered here thus far,” he said.
“Earth, truly? We have not seen any travelers from there in at least 10,000 cycles, what Earthlings call years. Some of the humans with us still measure the seasons by that archaic method, though the cycles of Earth mean nothing here. We do not have a Sun or moons in the sky. If you are from Earth, the Elders will want to speak with you,” she said.
“I look forward to it,” Adam said.
She paused for a moment, then swam toward another grouping of fish falling in line with it before she began speaking to him again, “To answer your first question I must ask, do you understand the nature of Realms?”
“I had thought so, but the ideas I knew were completely artificial. I am trying to learn though,” Adam said.
“Very well. I will try to explain the differences briefly. The Realms are categorized by their magical saturation. Think of a circle with smaller circles within it until you have just a dot in the middle. Each realm resides within a circle, or on the boundary of two circles. Remember this is a visualization and the borders of the circles are not exactly circular. it’s just easier to explain this concept this way. Also, the power could be less dense toward the center and get stronger as you move away from the center, or it could be less dense on the outside and get stronger as you move toward the center. For now, I’m going use the less dense the magical saturation the further away from the center for my discussion with you,” she said.
“I understand,” Adam said.
“In the outer circle, the realms are like Earth, newly formed with very little magic infused into everything. This new interface ability calls them Step-1 Realms but we call those places Common Realms. Every ring further inward contains a higher saturation of magic which is intrinsic to the creatures there. The farther toward the center you go, the stronger the saturation of magic is. This realm we are in now is considered an Advanced Realm, or Step-2 by the interface. All creatures here start with a physical structure that is compatible with the rank of this realm. When you asked why the creatures of this realm could see through your cloaking ability. May I ask, what rank that ability is?”
“It’s at Step-1 Leg…” he started to say as she cut him off.
“But you must be at least master rank,” she started to say interrupting him, then shook her head and said, “I am still adjusting to this interface ability that appeared the other day and how it labels such things. If I understand the information from the Interface ability correctly, Step-1, or common, ranked abilities would be those considered to be from realms like your Earth. They will have a much lesser effect on anything in this realm. All creatures, even the fish around us, have the minimum attribute for the ‘Step’ of the realm they are in. Here they are a minimum of Step 2.” She said.
“In your example, are you saying that if I go into the next circle inward all creatures would be a minimum of Step-3?” Adam asked.
“Exactly! Here, your ability to hide needs to be at least Step-2. If I am understanding the interface correctly, it also quantifies each Step by 7 class ranks within that Step. So even if you have a Step-2 Class 1 ability. Someone with an ability that counters it at Step-2 Class 2 or higher is going to probably see through it because their ability is more powerful than yours. As you continue further and further toward the center of the circle, each of those Classes within a Step represents a larger range of power that is significantly stronger than the class before it. However, if they are not using an ability to see through your ability they may not. Think of it this way, abilities will function as designed in an equivalent magical environment or less. The stronger the magical environment, the stronger the ability needs to be to work correctly there,” she said.
After that, they’d remained quiet as they swam. He digested everything she just said to him as they kept swimming. When they were in a very large school of fish near a piece of coral that was just floating along, he willed the 264 Step-2 Water Quintessence in his Shadow Vault out and absorbed them all. He motioned for Tash’Valyar to hold for a second while he converted all 264 Quintessence to Chaos quintessence. This only took a few moments. Very quickly, he tried to increase his Adaptable ability only to receive,
You may NOT increase Racial abilities individually with quintessence. Racial Abilities are improved as Cultivator Rank is improved. Racial abilities are considered the maximum Rank for each Step a character currently holds.
Really? Racial abilities level with the Cultivator rank. Yeah, that did make a kind of sense. Racial abilities should be able to support me if I had the cultivator rank to dive into the big boy realms, universes, whatever. So, Adam spent 84 Step-2 Motes of Chaos to increase Obscure to Step-2 Legendary Rank. He spent another 168 Step-2 Motes of Chaos to increase his True Sight and Aura Sight to Step-2 Legendary Rank. That left him with only 4 Step-1 motes and 16 Step-2 motes orbiting his Soul Core. He was still holding onto the 11 Step-3 Water Quintessence in his Shadow Vault.
“I’m done, we can move on,” Adam sent with his mind.
She must have heard him because she turned, and he followed. Adam activated True Sight again and realized the initial startup cost was a bit more. Originally it cost Low mana to start and maintain. Now it cost Step-2 Low mana to start and maintain. Still negligible to him. He checked the chart he’d been putting together to represent this abstract system. If his mana was only Step-2 Legendary he could maintain 18 abilities at Step-2 Low. With his mana at Step-2 Legendary, he estimated that he could maintain a Step-2 Low ability indefinitely because his mana would regenerate much fast than it would get used.
Adam turned on Aura Sight and was pleasantly surprised by the colors that came to light around him. Even the fish that Adam would have thought had little or no souls to speak of shone with color. When he glanced at Tash’Valyar, she was another thing altogether. His Aura Sight pierced something that had been masking her. Her Aura was brilliant with whites, golds, and blues.
The other thing Adam noticed was that his True Sight seemed to work much better now. Both True Sight and Aura Sight could see out to 1,400 feet and he was now able to detect some fish he hadn’t seen before. They had a camouflage ability that hid them. Adam wondered how many camouflaged fish he passed by without seeing them.
With his ability to hide now attuned to this ‘Realm’ and his ability to see and identify threats before they came up Adam once again felt confident. Sure, he could have used blunt force, but physical combat was problematic because of the water. Inside bubbles, with air, he’d be all right. Of course, he’d only seen one such bubble so far.
After 4 more hours of travel, they stopped at an expanse of empty water with no visible fish in front of them. Adam checked his Personal Map and zoomed out until he could see where he started in this water world. Currently, they were about 500 miles east and about a mile below his starting point.
Tash’Valyar touched her temple and then said into Adam’s mind, “This next part is my favorite. About a mile in front of us, a Vital Flumen runs through this area. The water is moving at a tremendous pace and anyone that goes in will be dragged along. We need to enter it and ride it for a while to get to our destination.”
“Lead the way,” Adam said.
“I will go first, swim through quickly and try to keep me in sight,” she said.
“I’m right behind you,” Adam said then asked, “Is there anything else I should know?”
“The Vital Flumen allows creatures to travel very quickly across a large area. Creatures can enter them anywhere but exiting can be tricky. There are normal exits anywhere the current makes a hard turn though. Try to stay behind me unless you can see the edges. If you can see the edges, try to stay near the center of the tube, you’ll understand if you can see it. Exits where the water stalls happen all along its structure and are constantly changing except at the major turns. There is always an exit at that point, though be warned, exiting or being flung from the Vital Flumen can be dangerous where floating islands come near,” she said.
“Does it ever go to the surface?” Adam asked.
“The surface? Adam, there is no surface to this world. Our explorers have traveled for years only to return and report that there is no surface. No one knows if there is an outside to the water here. There are bubbles of all sizes scattered throughout and there are whole land-born and water-born empires within. There are even hints of larger empires far away, but a surface, none that I have ever met have found one. Have you not wondered why the pressure doesn’t change no matter which direction you swim in? Even in a bubble like that of the lost empire, the pressure only increases until it equalizes with what is outside the bubble.” She said.
Adam hadn’t been paying attention but now that he thought about it their hours of swimming had been in all directions and not once had he felt like the pressure had changed. Adam adjusted his path and set to follow her.
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Tash’Valyar increased her speed to almost 150 miles per hour, a pace Adam easily matched with his Flight ability. They traveled the mile in just over 7 seconds. As they drew closer Adam’s True Sight picked up a Wall with his vision, though he couldn’t see any difference in front of him when he alternated back to his normal vision. He was only about 40 feet behind her when he saw her cross through the wall that had appeared in his vision indicating where Vital Flumen began.
Adam was reminded of two lessons he’d not thought about in a long time and learned one more lesson the moment he was attacked.
First, He was reminded that Teleport, even his very low-level teleport had a range that exceeded 1,400 feet which made his detection abilities useless against someone teleporting in for a surprise attack, though later he would find out that it wouldn’t have mattered because their camouflage skill was at Step-3 so his abilities wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Second, he was also reminded that surprise attacks sucked.
Third, he learned that attacks made at his maximum strength drained his stamina very quickly.
Adam felt two blades enter his back side by side removing 60% of his health. Adam, spun around quickly to find a surprised Atlantean with dark black skin, his hands now empty. because the daggers were still in his back, and a surprise on his face looking at Adam. Adam hadn’t been hurt this badly and had not died in a long time. He was surprised to find that even as he wondered why he wasn’t dead his regeneration was pushing the blades out of his back. He reached up with both hands to touch the blades which caused the look of surprise on the Atlantean to turn to a chuckle, “They’re not coming out, you’ll be dead soon,” the Dark Atlantean said in Greek in the warped voice of someone speaking through the water.
“One of us will be,” Adam acknowledged in Greek as he touched each dagger and sent them into his Shadow Vault once they were free of his back. Then he reached out and grabbed the Dark Atlantean with his left hand which was immediately followed up with a full-strength punch from his right hand.
The Dark Atlantean had tried to teleport away, But Adam’s grasp on him had somehow prevented the escape. A Step-4 Legendary Ranked pull and punch put Adam’s fist through Dark Atlantean’s head. Activating his Shadow Vault hadn’t cost much mana, but the move to grasp and the punch had consumed two-thirds of his stamina pool. He considered what that meant as he activated Treasurer Renderer.
Treasure Renderer has been partially successful in looting Step-3 Elite Atlantean Shadow Assassin. Award of 12 Step-3 Shadow Quintessence and 6 Step 3 Water Quintessence has been converted to 24 Step-2 Shadow Quintessence and 12 Step-2 Water Quintessence. Treasurer Renderer must be at Step-3 Low Rank to produce Step-3 Quintessence, Additionally, you have found a Magical Ring and a Magical Earing, Properties unknown.
The body disappeared and Adam moved through the wall of the Vital Flumen. With his True Sight, he could see that he was in a tube as he was whisked away by the current. He’d only been, at most, 2 seconds behind the Tash’Valyar but he’d already lost sight of her. The walls of the tube were blocking his visual range, but he could easily make out where the center of the tube was and used Flight to maintain his position in the middle of the tube. Adam trained his senses and waited, When he caught sight of her again he could simply teleport to her side to catch up to her
Adam realized he hadn’t asked how long they were supposed to stay in this tube but if they were taking it to get somewhere else it probably meant that it was going to be much longer than it took them to get the access point. Adam maintained his vigilance and pulled up his combat log.
WARNING You have been struck by a Step-3 Elite Ability Backstab x2. You take Step-4 Elite damage x2 from a Surprise Attack. Hit Points have been reduced by 60%.
Adam continued down the combat log past his devastating attack to the beginning of the next combat turn.
Ability Regenerate increases Hit Points by Step 5 Legendary Rank, Hit Points return to 100% Two daggers have been ejected from your back.
The rest of the information was pretty straightforward, Adam just wanted to see how a Step-3 creature had hit him for more than 50% of his Hit Points. It seemed that there were abilities that could increase an attack by a full step. He’d have to watch that going forward. If he ran into someone of his Rank and they pulled something like that off, there’s no doubt he would have been headed for reincarnation somewhere.
He also checked to see if there were any experience notifications but no, there hadn’t been in a really long time. Adam believed that had to do something with how Cultivator ranks worked but it could also be because of his special nature. He saw skill upgrades every once in a while but they didn’t seem like they did much for him, so he didn’t track them anymore. His Perfect Memory ability was allowing him to bypass some of the limitations of having low skills. He could still make complex attacks, though he didn’t get any special bonuses for doing so. But some skills were all about positioning anyway so that was fine.
The other thing that Adam had come to understand was that the Quintessence must be ranked for a reason. If each realm could be a different rank, as Tash’Valyar had described then he must need to find a place that was Step-4 and acquire Step-4 Quintessence there. How many Quintessence would he need to increase his Cultivator rank and reach Step-5? Adam had a feeling it had something to do with integrating the Quintessence and then applying them to his Soul Core as a whole. He didn’t know if that was the right answer, but if doing that worked for abilities there must be a way to do so for his Soul Core Nucleus. What had given him the hint was the idea that all of his Racial Abilities leveled automatically with his Cultivator Rank.
His hypothesis made sense, at least he thought so. Cultivator rank would increase automatically as abilities were integrated and activated but there would come a point when that no longer worked. Achieving Class X Cultivator was probably the very limit of what one could achieve easily because finding Quintessence for your nucleus to absorb must have something to do with the type of abilities the Cultivator had unlocked. Not everyone was going to have the benefit he did. He wouldn’t have to find a specific type of Quintessence, he could just convert it into a type that could be used with all other Quintessence, except for Order, but then again, maybe Order could be increased with Chaos Quintessence as well.
It was a lot to unpack. Also, he wouldn’t be able to explore these ideas until he was able to create Step-4 Quintessence with Treasure Renderer. Right now, he wanted to go speak with Tash’Valyar’s elders. Adam felt himself move with the current while he only used flight to make slight adjustments to stay in the center of the tube.
Finally, the path straightened out and he could see Tash’Valyar at the edge of his visual range with True Sight. He also noticed a large object approaching rapidly. It was colossal and if not the size of the moon, pretty close. With something to see outside the tube of fast-moving water, Adam easily discerned the edge of the tube as the images were slightly warped. He could see thousands of creatures rushing around the surface of the Coral Reef as he began rushing toward it. He felt like he was rushing to the surface of Earth from Orbit without the friction and heat that usually resulted when he flew into the atmosphere too fast.
Adam looked forward and noted that Tash’Valyar didn’t seem too concerned so he just stayed behind her and rode the current down toward the surface. As it came closer Adam noted a darkened circular hole in the surface that Tash’Valyar rode into a moment later. Soon after he was also beneath the surface, still rushing forward.
Adam looked around the tube and noted that the rock and coral outside the tube seemed to be smooth and even. There also seemed to be no branches as the tunnel wormed this way and that through the planetoid. After the second turn, the tunnel darkened considerably, though glowing lichen and rocks littered the walls of the stone tunnel that surrounded the tube of water allowing for limited vision. Even so, there was still a gaping darkness in front of and behind him. The tunnel had straightened out and disappeared beyond the range of his True Sight When the tube straightened out again and he could see Tash’Valyar, he activated Teleport and appeared beside her.
Tash’Valyar turned to see him within five feet and smiled as she said into this mind, “You made it! What kept you from coming in right behind me?
“I was attacked by a dark-skinned Atlantean Assassin,” he said.
“You were attacked by a what? We will have to detour and get out of this line much sooner than I’d wanted…”
Adam cut her off, “Be at ease, The assassin is dead, he will not be following us anywhere. Also, a quick question in case we get separated again, How long should this take?”
Tash’Valyar looked thoughtful for a moment then said, “this portion of the journey will take another 19 hours or so. After we are done traveling through this Coral Reef we will exit into the deep again and the Vital Flumen because wider and faster. It’s another Day, maybe two before we’ll get to the area we’ll need to depart the Vital Flumen
Three days? Adam had not expected to be gone for that long. Run over here, kick some ass, and then head back. Instead, he was going to be here for the better part of a week, “What do we do for this part of the journey?” Adam asked.
“We rest, of course. This section has very few changes to the course. Many that travel through here use the lowered light conditions from being inside the planetoid to get some rest,” she said.
“That sounds lovely. I‘ll meditate then, I have a lot to go over in my mind and can keep watch while you rest,” Adam said.
“That is acceptable. This is a pretty straight shot. If I start to drift to the side, just nudge me back toward the center, and I’ll do the same for you,” she said.
Adam held out his hand and used Mold Chaos to create a 10-foot waterproof rope with belts attached to both ends. He took one end of the makeshift safety line and attached it to himself as he held out the other end to Tash’Valyar.
Tash’Valyar accepted the belt and wrapped it around her waist, “A conjured rope with belts, interesting. How long will it last?”
“Until it’s physically destroyed,” Adam answered.
“It has no duration, what ability is that? Is there a specific Quintessence for it?” She asked.
“It’s specific to me. The ability synergizes with one of my Racial abilities and allows me to create permanent items,” he said.
“The mana cost must be enormous,” she said thoughtfully.
“It’s based on weight, this didn’t require much mana at all,” Adam said.
“Interesting. I’m going to rest now. If anything changes, just let me know,” she said.
“Will do.”
Adam kept his eyes open and dropped his focus into his Mindspace. Once there, he opened three screens and set them to what his eyes were seeing. Then he adjusted the screens so that one was for his Aura Sight, the second for his True Sight, and the third for his Normal sight. His Aura Sight only showed the glow of Tash’Valyar off to his right. His normal sight showed darkness. True Sight showed the tube that was roughly 1,000 feet in diameter.
Adam adjusted his internal clock so time inside his Mindspace was moving 10 times as fast as outside his Mindspace. That should give him enough time to react to anything that might occur.
He turned to Hal, who was sitting there doing nothing, “Hal, I have a few questions for you?” he said.
“Yes Adam”, it said.
“I just learned that I could increase my ability ranks with quintessence. What bonus would I gain from spending Quintessence to increase the ability that created you?”
“As a Step-1 Construct, I only have access to information in Step-1 Realms and Locations. Also, my senses are limited by my ability rank. As an example, you were recently hit by a Step-3 Backstab ability. I am familiar with the bonuses that ability gives now because you were struck by it. Had you asked me about it beforehand I could not have answered. I could have given you information on the Step-1 version but not the Step-2 or Step-3. Since you were hit by it I can tell you that his ability allowed him to Teleport and Backstab as part of the same action at Step-2. At Rank Step-3 it added a conditional “Always Hit” on unaware targets. The information I have access to is limited by my rank and what has affected you,” Hal said.
“That is interesting. I’m guessing you still can’t tell me where this information comes from?”
“Your ability created me and gave me access to a network of sorts. I do not get to speak with anyone in that network. If you ask me for something and the Network knows, the information is shared. I believe my access to the network is rank-based and information from higher ranks is not made available to those from lower ranks,” Hal said.
“I would really like to know where this network gets its knowledge but I’m getting off-topic, What I really wanted to ask you about is this place. Am I in a Universe or an Elemental Dimension of some kind?” Adam asked.
“Either answer would be correct Adam, the words Dimension and Universe are interchangeable within the multiverse, using one of the terms you are used to,” Hal said.
“Okay, here’s an easier question, how fast can I move through this realm?”
“There are a lot of factors that determine that. I would suggest not going much faster than you already are. The current you are currently in is traveling at around 500 miles per hour.”
“Last question for now, Do I increase my Cultivator Rank by having my Soul Core absorb Quintessence?”
“Adam, I do not know the answer to that specific question. I can answer something else I have noticed in our time together. You should not be able to reach Step-1 Legendary Rank in abilities you unlock for 6 Quintessence. Everyone can increase their abilities either through earning experience or investing quintessence. As you have determined the increment for investment for Quintessence for absorption is 3 +3 for each additional rank. So Low Rank would be 3, Medium would be 6 and Legendary would be 21. Normal people also invest a lot of experience and quintessence into advancing their magical abilities. If they are using just quintessence it would cost 84 Step-1 Quintessence of the appropriate type. As you have no doubt realized Quintessence doesn’t just appear in places like Earth. I am sure they can appear but normally only those with looting powers or rituals have access to them. Until my ability is increased I won’t know the answer to your question for sure.”
“So, what do you think allows me to purchase Legendary abilities for 7 quintessence?” Adam asked.
“Like you no undoubtedly believe, your racial abilities are giving you a tremendous advantage,” Hal said.
That is exactly what Adam had been thinking, “Thank you for the info Hal, I think I’m going to get cozy and start reviewing a few things. I shouldn’t need you for a bit. If you can rest, please feel free to do so.”
“Very well,” he said, as his geometrically morphing shape shrunk to the size of a dot and disappeared.
That was a pretty neat trick. Adam concentrated for a moment then turned his Mindspace into a three-screen personal theater while he sat down in a comfortable chair. His mind seemed to be at the same level as it had been. While he had nothing better to do he would test himself to see if he truly was as powerful as he had been. He would begin by fragmenting his mind so that he could perform multiple tasks at the same time. He was going to need that advantage going forward, he just knew it.