Daniel looked over the two options he had for his new specialization. They both had the same stat gain per level which was nice, and after looking carefully over the options the choice seemed clear to him. Primordial Mind had many aspects in the description that were red flags to Daniel. Messing with his own mind or others minds just wasn't something he was comfortable with. That left Psionic Custodian as the only other option, but he also didn't know if he wanted to be the manager of other people's minds. Without much more thought on the topic of what being a manager of minds would entail, Daniel made his choice.
Congratulations! You have chosen your tier 5 specialization. All withheld leveling rewards will now be distributed.
Your gain +20 Willpower and +10 Skill Points.
In that moment Daniel felt an influx of stats greater than he had ever felt before. Unlike other times when he had gained a lot of strength at a single time this was different. It affected his mind, but he wasn't somehow magically smarter. It was as if his mind through his will could now affect the physical world. He didn't know if this was a side effect of his recent psionic awakening that he was able to more directly feel because of his sudden boost in willpower. Either way Daniel’s mind was now forever changed.
With the sudden increase in his willpower also came a new influx in skill points. Daniel now had more than enough skill points that he could gain the capstone skill in his reinforcement skill tree. For the moment though Daniel wanted to hold off. First he wanted to use some of the skill points to explore his new Psionic Custodian skill tree. So, Daniel accessed his menus and opened up his brand new skill tree.
Tier 5 Skill Tree: Psionic Custodian
(T5) Psionic Custodian ( 0/5 ): You are a custodian and protector of mind. To you the greatest sin that can be committed against an individual is for their minds to be violated and tampered with. You are not alone in this way of thinking, some may help you on your quest and others will wish to kill you to access the minds of those you protect. Cost to increase 1 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Gain a Tier 5 psionic matriarch. This creature is a sentient elemental that lives in the dreams and minds of other creatures that feed off of the excess mental energy that their host produces. You as a Psionic Custodian will form a symbiotic relationship with the psionic matriarch. They will help you in your goal of protecting and managing your and other people's minds. Talk to your psionic matriarch to learn more about the benefits she can provide. When a Psionic Matriarch or any of her children enter a new mind if not already unlocked they will give their host access to their mindscape. Your willpower is 10% more potent when dealing with anything related to your psionic powers.
Level 1 (Active): Psionic matriarchs are very unique in the world of elementals. When a matriarch has gained enough mental energy she can make a lesser clone of herself that is still psionically connected to her. With this bond she and the copy can send and receive any information though it. You as the wielder are able to give these copies out to other individuals. If they accept, they will become a part of your psionic web, and will be able to send and receive information to the psionic web. Also should their mind ever come under attack you will be able to send aid through their psionic link to you to help defend their mind. Talk to the Psionic matriarch to learn about what other benefits an individual could expect when they allow you to become their custodian.
Daniel was definitely intrigued by the skill. Daniel was certain that this skill would be the foundation that this entire skill tree was built on. With no reason to help back Daniel spent the one skill point required to gain the skill. Nothing happened for a few minutes after he gained the skill. Then without warning Daniel felt a new presence enter his mind. There was a small popping sensation as the creature entered his mind through the outer membrane that signified the edge of his mindscape. Daniel knew at that moment when they had come in contact with that membrane that Daniel could have hardened it with his will to try and prevent the creature from gaining entrance into his mindscape. Seeing no reason to do that as Daniel suspected that this was the psionic matriarch that his new skill had given him.
Daniel once again entered a state of meditation and entered his mindscape just like he had before when he had used his ‘Mental Workshop’ skill. Daniels' mental projection took shape in his mindscape next to the workshop he had made. Daniel then began to approach where he felt the new presence in his mind, but something was wrong. Before Daniel’s mindscape had been small. It had just been a grassy hill a few hundred feet across with a wall of fog that surrounded the hill, but that was no longer the case. As far as Daniel could see loose pages of paper covered the ground. In the distance Daniel could even make out trees whose trunks were made of bound leather books and leafs made of paper. Daniel had no idea what to make of this new sight, and not knowing what else to do continued walking towards the presence in his mind.
As Daniel walked he continued to take in the new sights. Eventually Daniel came upon a cloud of floating purple mist. Daniel could sense that this was the matriarch, and seeing no reason not to be polite to the creature that would now be living in his mind introduced himself. “Greetings, psionic matriarch. I am Daniel Martin. I am looking forward to working with you.” Daniel then waved lamely to the floating cloud. Then stood there awkwardly as the cloud said nothing and just continued to silently float in front of Daniel.
As minutes continued to pass and there was no response from the cloud of mist Daniel grew restless. In all honesty Daniel had expected the psionic elemental to take a humanoid form like the earth elementals he had fought. Daniel didn't know how he would even go about talking to the elemental if this was its normal form. The skill description had said that it was sentient, but Daniel also didn't even know if they could even speak the same language. Daniel hoped his feat would help with communication, but maybe their languages were too dissimilar for the feat to function. Daniel was just considering if he could possibly communicate telepathically with the elemental when a voice began to originate from the mist.
It started out hesitant and choppy, not sounding like words at all. Then they started to become more recognizable, but were still illegible. As it struggled to speak, the words became more and more clear and were clearly recognizable as English. However, there was a new problem. There was no structure to the words it spoke. The words it spoke were completely random with no order to them.
Then all at once it stopped talking, and this time a completely understandable sentence emerged from the cloud. “Thank you, Daniel Martin, for personally coming to greet me. I am the Psionic Matriarch that has been given to you by the system. My name is Ulgatha. As per my agreement with the system I am here to assist you with your new path as a Psionic Custodian.”
Daniel somehow got a sense that the mist was bowing to him which was weird, but he decided he would roll with whatever was currently happening. “I look forward to working with you Ulgatha, but I do have to ask. What was happening with your speech earlier?”
“I was skimming your memories so I could piece together an understanding of your language so that we could communicate properly.”
“Wait, you were digging through my memories. I thought some of my skills protected me against that kind of thing?” Daniel felt a jolt of panic and began to slightly regret his choice of specialization.
The mist seemed to pick up on his agitation and tried to assuage his concerns. “That would normally be true yes, however we are now bonded by the system, so I have direct access to your mind. When you chose the skill that gave me to you we entered a mutually beneficial contract. I am unable to take any action that would negatively affect you and the same if true for you.”
Daniel found that his immediate fears were dealt with, but he still found the thought of some creature just being able to look through his memories even more discomforting. Deciding not to interrogate the elemental any further on the subject Daniel continued the conversation. “If you looked through my memories could you take a form I could more easily talk to that's not a floating cloud?”
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Of course.” Ulgatha easily replied.
a second later the cloud of mist began to condense into the shape of a humanoid. When it was finished a purple skinned woman stood in front of Daniel. Her hair was a slightly darker purple than her skin and she had blue freckles across her cheeks under her golden eyes. Her lips were a slightly darker shade than her skin, and she also had slightly pointed ears. She wore a white formal button up with a color that was tucked into a black pencil skirt. Then to top it all off she was wearing three inch high heels. All told it seemed ulgatha had been going for a sexy receptionist look and it was throwing Daniel off. He regretted asking her to take a human form as he had to admit if she had looked through his memories which he was positive of at this point she had chosen a flawlessly beautiful form based purely on human beauty standards.
“Is this better?” Ulgatha asked in an almost coy tone as she smiled at Daniel revealing her longer than average canines.
As she looked at Daniel she seemed to know exactly what she had done and Daniel didn't know how to answer. “Yes?” Daniel said with an upward inflection to his voice as if asking his own question in return. Daniel coughed into his hand and cleared his throat. He quickly decided to change the subject and ask some of the important questions. “Well, Ulgatha, what can you tell me about yourself and this bond that we now share? The skill description didn’t give too many specifics and said that I would need to talk to you for more information.”
“What would you like to learn more about first? Me or our bond?”
“I guess I would like to learn more about the person that is going to be living in my mind for the foreseeable future first.”
“That's an understandable desire.” Ulgatha tapped her lips with one slightly too long pointed nail before she seemed to come to a decision, “I guess I should start by telling you more about my specific race of elementals. As the skill description would have not gone into much detail on the subject. I am a Psionic Matriarch as you are aware. My race is a bit unique in many aspects compared to other elementals. Most other elementals are spawned from build ups of ambient mana. This also means that some mages with enough mana reserves can also summon elementals that can be used in combat or for any number of other tasks.”
“Psionic elementals are not the same. There are only two ways for more of my kind to come into being. The first like normal elementals there has to be enough psionic energy condensed in a single place for one of us to be born from it. The second way is for a psionic matriarch to create one. This is the most common way a psionic elemental is made. Without a bonded companion however this is a very slow process. This is why psionic matriarchs create symbiotic relationships with other powerful minds. We can draw on the unused and excess psionic energy of a person to create more of our kind. However while all offspring of a psionic matriarch are considered female they aren't psionic matriarchs and are unable to make more copies of themselves.”
“I like my sisters was made by a psionic matriarch. Extremely rarely when a matriarch makes a new psionic elemental there is a chance that a new matriarch will be born. Newly created Matriarchs are unique in that they gain a portion of their mothers memories upon being created. This allows us to start out much smarter than our lesser sisters, but this same boon of knowledge also has a downside. A Psionic Matriarch is unable to connect with their Matriarch’s psionic web. We are not born with the same innate connection to our creator like other psionic elementals. This is because it is our job as a matriarch to go out and create my own web. To accomplish this goal I decided to make a contract with the system to be sent to a suitable candidate when one was available. I suspected that I would be a companion given by the system as a reward for completing a quest or possibly even as a reward for clearing a dungeon. Your case is more unique. I was not expecting to be rewarded as a part of a skill tree specifically designed around the use of a Psionic Matriarch like myself.”
“So how long did you wait before I gained you as a part of my skill?”
“Oh, it's only been about an hour since I was created by my mother. In a place as large as the universe people gain such rewards every second.”
Daniel struggled to wrap his mind around the scale of the system that Ulgatha was talking about. “How are you to speak and such if you were only born an hour ago.”
“Like I said, I inherited the memories I gained from my mother. It gives us a foundation and the knowledge needed to begin our own psionic web. I was actually very lucky my mother has lived and grown her psionic web for tens of thousands of years. She is bound to an ancient spider known as The Trillion Eyed Spider. Together they have made the largest information network in existence. It spans most of the civilized universe. Because of the nature of the link that binds a matriarch to her children they are able to transfer information to anywhere in the universe assuming that one of her children is there.”
“When I was born I gained a massive amount of knowledge from my mother, but with that knowledge I also learned many of my mothers and the Trillion Eyed Spiders secrets. Before I was allowed to leave I was forced by them to make an oath on my very existence to never reveal any of their most sensitive secrets if I wanted to continue my existence. To break this oath would instantly cause me to die. There are many people in the universe that would love an opportunity to kill The Trillion Eyed Spider, so making such an oath was not only for my own safety, but theirs as well.”
The scale in which Ulgatha continued to talk about still boggled Daniel's mind, and it took Daniel a minute to process all of the information that Ulgatha had shared with him. “Okay, if that's all you have to say about your race, what benefits does your bond provide me?”
“Oh, that's the easy part. I can provide you with information on a wide variety of subjects, and as my psionic web begins to grow as I gain access to new minds that information will only continue to grow. In the following days I will begin to organize your mind which will also make it more efficient over time allowing almost instant recall of information.” When Ulgatha said that Daniel saw her eyes flick to the thousands of loosely scattered papers around them before she continued speaking. “I also know of a number of useful skills that will help with this that I will need you to learn to make my life and yours significantly easier going forward.
“I can also tell that you have undergone a true psionic awakening. To undergo more psionic awakenings you normally need to do these very dangerous and expensive rituals, but with me and eventually my children here that won't be necessary. Just by living in your mind I can use some of the psionic energy that I absorb from you back into your mind to continue your psionic awakening. This will of course take a long time, but it's definitely better in the long run. My children can also speed up this process, so the more of my children that live in your mind the faster this process will be. I can also add my own willpower behind any spells you cast or if the spell requires active concentration to maintain I can maintain that burden for you allowing you to focus on casting additional spells. And when casting psionic spells I can be used as a spell focus to enhance their power. This only works for psionic spells though.
As Ulgatha spoke of all of the ways she would be useful Daniel was reminded of someone that was trying to convince a potential employer that they should be hired. “That's all very useful Ulgatha though I currently don't have any spells, and I only recently unlocked my mana. Also how do you make your children?”
“If you remember from what I told you before I feed off of any excess mental energy that you generate. When I save up enough of that energy I can make one of my children. As your mental abilities grow and you generate more psionic energy the rate at which I can make my children will also increase.”
“So, how often can you make a copy?”
“Well, that's determined by how much mental energy you generate. This is determined by Willpower, but there are also other ways to generate it as well. One of which is how much knowledge your mind possesses.“
“Can you tell me how much mental energy I currently generate?”
“At just a surface level examination you seem to generate an abnormally large amount of psionic energy and I am not yet sure why that is. Until I do a more thorough examination of your skills and abilities through your memories I can't give you any exact measurements of your current psionic capabilities.”
“Oh, if psionic energy is also generated through knowledge you possess I probably know why I am generating an abnormally large amount.”
“Oh, is it a skill you possess?”
“I do have a skill which enhances my mind which probably causes some of that increase, but I bet the real reason is because of one of my Feats.
“What’s the name of the Feat?”
“I have this feat called ‘The Crafters Legacy.’ It has kind of been a pain in my ass. It likes to dump a whole bunch of information into my brain and try to kill me, but I currently have it under control.”
Ulgatha got very quiet after his statement before she asked her own question of Daniel. “Do You mean ‘The Crafters legacy?’”
For some reason Daniel did not know she emphasized the word The when she spoke of the feat. “Yeah, ‘The Crafters Legacy’ when I gained the feat it did say that only one person could wield it at a time. If you need to, you can just look through my memories for the feat.”
Ulgatha stood frozen for several long minutes then in a whisper she spoke. “I’m dead, and I had such high hopes for the future. To be given such a death sentence before my life has even truly begun. The universe must be looking down and laughing at me.” Ulgatha muttered to herself with her hands pressed to her face.
Daniel for his part was close enough to her that he was able to hear her muffled words, and he had to say he was truly baffled by what she had said. What did she mean that she was dead? Daniel was truly confused by the sudden downward turn their conversation had taken.