“What do you mean dead? Why would you be dead? You're not making a lot of sense to me right now Ulgatha.”
Her voice was resigned as she spoke. “That feat is a death sentence. It has caused the deaths of every person who has ever wielded it. And if that wasn't enough by you having that feat you have made a very powerful enemy. There is a man named Algeraz who traded many favors and sums of money that could buy planets to the Trillion Eyed Spider looking for who stole his feat. From the knowledge gained from my mother, the last report we received was that he had found the culprit on a world on the verge of being integrated into the system.”
“I don't understand what you are saying? I know the feat is dangerous. Several times now it has almost overloaded my brain with knowledge when I reach various thresholds, but I think I have started to come up with a way to fix the problem. Also what do you mean I stole this random guy's feat, and how could he have possibly found me.”
Ulugatha sighed and seemed to be resigned by the idea of her new fate, but still answered his question, “‘The Crafters Legacy’ has existed since the very dawn of the system itself. Some even argue that it has existed since before the system was created, but none alive today know for sure. Whether it existed before the system or not does not matter. The only thing that does matter is the fact that the feat is ancient and can give its wielder great power, and that it can only be possessed by a single person at a time.” Ulgatha paused, then taking a deep breath before continuing. “I don't know how he located you, but now that he knows he will do everything in his power to make sure you die.”
“Do I have to worry about some super powerful guy descending onto Earth to kill me? How strong is this guy anyways?”
“No he will not be able to personally come to kill you as he passed the tier 10 cap to enter the lower realms. Instead he has used several favors owed to him to do his dirty work for him. He has arranged for a faction called the Infernal Horde to be the invaders of your world for your world's system trial once it has finished its initiation. As for Algeraz’s personal power that is currently unknown. He and his master, the previous wielder of ‘The Crafters Legacy’ performed some kind of ritual which transfers a significant portion of his master's power into him upon his death.”
“So, some super powerful guy wants me dead so that he can claim ‘The Crafters Legacy’ for himself, but why does he want it so bad if what you said is true and the feat eventually causes the wielder's death.”
Ulgatha sighed, but still continued to answer Daniel's questions. “First let me tell you a bit more about the known lore of ‘The Crafters Legacy.’ There are still some accounts from billions of years ago that talk about how it was a great honor to possess ‘The Crafters Legacy’ feat. Great wars would be fought to kill the current wielders of the feat so that others could claim it for their factions. Crafters with the feat would become powerful beyond measure, and would have access to all of the crafting knowledge of all previous wielders of the feat. However this golden era of crafting eventually came to an end. Slowly the knowledge gained from crafters wielding ‘The Crafter Legacy’ since the dawn of the system started to become too much to handle for new wielders. The influxes of knowledge became too much the longer the feat was used. Now no one takes it any more. Only those who are foolish enough to believe that they have found a way to contain the knowledge given by the feat even dare to take it any more. Who these days would even risk the use of a greater feat to gain something that will eventually cause their death.” Ulgatha finished her speech with her head lowered looking at the ground in murrose silence.
Daniel felt indignant at the matriarch's words and replied a little petulantly, “Well, that can't be completely right. I have probably survived around five such information influxes so far and I am still alive. The last one didn't even cause me any mental pain because of the precautions I have been taking.”
Ulgatha ignored his statement and continued to answer his question from before. “There are several reasons why he wants the feat, but there is one main reason. He and his master, who as I said before was the previous wielder before you have spent the last several thousands of years devising a new method to contain the feat. By the time they had come up with this method it was only a marginal effect of the previous wielder because of how far his mind had already deteriorated by the feat, and the method only prolonged his inevitable death. However, they theorized that if used this method on a brand new wielder of the feat it could permanently halt the degradation of a wielder's mind. By becoming the next wielder of ‘The Crafter Legacy’ before Algeraz you have ruined his and his master's life work.”
“Okay, now I understand why this guy has a vendetta against me.” Daniel nodded to himself deep in his own thoughts on all of the information Ulgatha had shared with him.
The matriarch paused and looked back up at him as if coming to a realization. “What did you say before? You have survived at least five information transfers already? How could someone in a not even integrated world possibly survive so long.”
“Well, my other feat helped a lot, but I have also been leveling some skills that have also helped me out a lot. I also now have enough skill points to unlock a capstone skill that is going to help me out even more.
Ulgatha stood stock still for a long minute, her eyes flicking back and forth as if reading something that Daniel could not see. Eventually she responded in a truly awed voice. “You must be the luckiest man in the entire universe.”
“What do you mean? I wouldn't call my situation that lucky. I'm still worried that even with all of the precautions I have taken that it won't be enough.”
“I looked through your memories of your class, skills and feats, and I have to tell you that you have gotten extremely lucky. Being chosen as hero and gaining access to two feats is a huge advantage. The only reason you survived those early days was because of your ‘Troll Regeneration’ feat. Oh, then there's your class. The Juggernaut. One of the rarest and hardest to obtain classes that exist and it's just given to you by the system.” The enthusiasm was back in Ulgatha’s voice. “You may actually be able to survive the effects of ‘The Crafters Legacy’ after all, but we will need to work together and get even further ahead of these negative effects before they start causing your mind any permanent damage.”
“What does my class have to do with anything?”
Ulgatha tipped her head back and let out an almost hysterical laugh. “Of course you wouldn't know.” she said while chuckling. “So, when a planet is newly integrated all of the heroes get access to a random tier five combat or support class. Some also get given some higher tier profession along with their classes. The only exception to this rule is the one class that is given to every newly integrated planet. They are called the Hero. They are to be the heroes of newly integrated planets in not only name, but class as well. This is slightly off topic though. Your class out of all of the classes in the universe you could have received, you got the Juggernaut class. A powerful class with strong defensive skills and powerful attacking and sieging breaking attacks. Juggernaut is a well known class in the universe and all of the holders of the class are all almost universally feared.”
“So, I’m lucky because I got a powerful class?”
“No, you not only got a powerful class with great potential, but a class with access to one of the most powerful body reinforcement skill trees you can get before tier 6 or higher. With that skill tree and your ‘Troll Regeneration’ it's no wonder why you have survived up to this point. Especially since Troll Regeneration's healing factor is increased while out of combat.”
“Okay, don't blame me if I’m not as excited about this as you are, but you said that we need to start getting on top of the side effects of ‘The Crafter Legacy’ before it starts causing me permanent damage. How do we start and how do we solve the problem?”
“If it was that easy to luck your way into a solution for ‘The Crafters Legacy’ problems then someone would have found a similar solution over the billions of years that the feat has been around.”
Daniel was a little taken aback by her words, “You're right of course, but you did make it sound like you had a plan.”
“I do, but to start I would recommend starting with your plan and spending your twenty two remaining skill points.”
Daniel agreed with her logic. Daniel started by putting fifteen of his skill points into his capstone skill in his reinforcement skill tree.
(T3) Bloody Marrow ( 1/1 ): Blood is the very foundation of your life. Without it your body would shrivel up and become nothing, but dust on the wind. Cost to increase N/A.
Level 1 (Passive): Your bone marrow is greatly enhanced and the blood it creates has been fundamentally altered. Your blood will now give you a passive health and stamina regen. This effect scales with your constitution and endurance stats. The effectiveness of your white blood cells have been greatly increased. You become immune to all non magical diseases and poisons. Gain a large resistance to magical diseases and poisons. Your natural regeneration is now also able to heal any crippling injury that does not outright kill you including the loss of limbs.
Level 1 (Active): Once per day you may instantly recover 90% of your total health, stamina, mana and all other resource pools.
Capstone Bonus: increase the overall effectiveness of skills in this skill tree by 45% excluding the capstone skill.
As soon as Daniel chose the skill he instantly felt his entire body slightly change. He had to assume it had to do with the bonus of the capstone skill increasing the effectiveness of his other reinforcement skills by 45%. The most significant change Daniel felt was his mind. His thoughts became sharper and more clear. Daniel took a minute to just take in the new sensations of power that his body was exuding. It was thrilling in a way Daniel had not felt before.
Eventually Daniel forced himself to focus back onto the topic at hand. With his capstone skill learned he opened up his brand new psionic custodian skill tree, and looked at the new skill he had gained access to.
(T5) Psionic Legion ( 0/5 ): your legions march. Not only to defend your own mind, but those psionically linked to you and are under your protection. Cost to increase 1 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Active): Expend psionic energy to create a basic psionic worker construct. Can only be created in a mindscape. Once created the construct sustains itself and will exist until it is either destroyed or dismissed by you. These constructs have very limited intelligence and will only work when directed to do so. All psionic constructs gain 10% durability. No Cooldown. Psionic energy cost to create basic psionic worker: minor.
The new skill he gained access to sounded cool in theory, but at level one he would only be able to create a worker construct which wasn't very interesting at all. Before Daniel made any hasty decisions Daniel put a single skill point into the skill to see what level 2 of the skill did which left him with only 6 skill points remaining.
Level 2 (Active): Expend psionic energy to create a basic legionnaire soldier construct. Can only be created in a mindscape. Legionnaires can be formed into squads of eight men called Contubernium. Once created the construct sustains itself and will exist until it is destroyed or dismissed by you. These constructs have minor intelligence and will perform without direct commands. Basic worker constructs can also be assigned to a legionnaire who will instruct them to perform basic tasks that you assigned to them. All psionic constructs gain an additional 20% durability. No Cooldown Psionic energy cost to create psionic legionnaire: Moderate. (Current bonus 10%)
This upgrade was much more interesting for Daniel. In the description of the skill it sounded like the legionnaires would not only be guards that would protect his mind, but he could also direct them to take command over his more basic and less intelligent constructs. Daniel also wondered if Ulgatha would also be able to command these constructs, so he decided to ask. “Ulgatha would you be able to command these psionic constructs that this skill allows me to make?”
“Yes, I would be able to command them, Daniel. The worker constructs you are now able to make will become very helpful to me in developing your mindscape.”
That was an answer that Daniel had not expected, so Daniel asked a follow up question. “What do you mean by developing my mindscape?”
“Well, you are now a true psionic. Because of this your mind has been connected to the great psionic web. This means that other beings or creatures like myself who live or interact with the web could find your mind and enter it. We need to start building defenses in preparation for this. Even if the being enters your mind with no hostile intentions if they see that your mind has zero protections they could become threats. To some of these creatures information is literally power for them, and currently your mind is a treasure trove with minimal defenses.”
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“So, then what's the plan? How do we develop my mindscape?”
“First I would like you to upgrade your ‘Psionic Legion’ skill to the next level to get access to the psionic legionnaire constructs. Then your job will be to make a legionnaire and ten workers assigned to it. With these squads of workers we will start to do several things. Some squads will be in charge of cleaning up your mindscape.” Ulgatha gestured to their surroundings of scattered pages of information. “When your feat gives you new knowledge just haphazardly shoves it into your mind without care. All of these pages are representations of knowledge that you don't have conscious access to. So, there will be one group in charge of cleaning up this mess. The second group will be in charge of building up your mental fortifications, but constructing moats and walls. The third group will be in charge building important structures you will need in your mindscape that your fortifications will be protecting like a library where all of the information the first group collects will be housed. The last group which I will be personally taking charge of will sort and organize all of the information the first group gathers.
Daniel nodded along with Ulgatha’s plan as she spoke. “Besides making the psionic constructs, what else do you need me to do? I know you mentioned something about having some skills you could teach me.”
“Yes, there are several general skills that I want you to learn, but this is the one I want you to start with.” A book made of the purple energy that Daniel was quickly associating with psionic energy appeared in Ulgatha’s hand which she held out for Daniel to take.
Daniel reached out, and took it from her and read the printed title out loud in a questioning tone. “‘Stronghold of the Mental Archive?’”
“Yes, it is a powerful tier 5 General Skill designed for the protection and powerful recall of information from your mind. It is a much sought after skill, and the method of learning it is carefully guarded by many powerful factions.”
“If it's so rare and sought after how do you know the method for learning the skill?”
Ulgatha smiled once again revealing her slightly too pointy teeth. “I did tell you that my mother ran an information network that spanned most of civilized space right? Even only gaining a small portion of her memories as my own, I have gained knowledge of many secrets that will help us in the near future.”
Daniel nodded and smiled at Ulgatha. She would be a great source of information for him and Steve. “I will get started on learning this skill right away, but how many of the psionic constructs do you think I can make?”
Ulgtha hummed to herself for a moment. “You currently have a large buildup of unused psionic energy. I would say you should be able to easily make eighty of the worker constructs and eight legionnaires for a total of eight squads. For now don’t worry about organizing them. Just focus on making them and I will organize them into their squads. Do start with making the legionnaires first though it will make organizing the workers into their squads much simpler.”
Daniel nodded in agreement then put two more points into his ‘Psionic Legion’ skill bringing it to level 2 and leaving him with only 4 more skill points to spend. Daniel also read over the description of what the skill would do at level 3, and was not disappointed.
Level 3 (Active): Expend psionic energy to create a Centurion (Officer) construct. Can only be created in a mindscape. Once you have created ten squads of Contubernium (one squad of eight men) you may form these squads Centuria (ten squads of eight men) led by a Centurion. Once created the construct sustains itself and will exist until it is destroyed or dismissed by you. These constructs have moderate intelligence and are able to carry out complex tasks without supervision and can direct other constructs to carry out tasks. All psionic constructs gain an additional 30% durability. No Cooldown Psionic energy cost to create psionic legionnaire: Major. (Current bonus 30%)
The roman legion vibe to the skill was definitely interesting to Daniel. If the theme of the skill continued to develop in this way Daniel would eventually be commanding legions that contained tens of thousands of these psionic constructs. Leveling up this skill also allowed Daniel to view the third skill in his Psionic Custodian skill tree.
~~~~~
(T5) Psionic Creation & Destruction ( 0/5 ): You Are someone with multiple sides. You are not only a builder, but a destroyer as well. People are awed by the creations that you make, but creation and destruction walk hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. Cost to increase 1 Skill Points(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Decrease the strain of creating complex items out of psionic energy. Decrease the mental strain of creating objects out of psionic energy by 10%. Increase your efficiency and decrease the cost when making items out of psionic energy by 10%.
Level 1 (Active): You not only create, but destroy as well. You are able to channel your psionic energy in a stream breaking the bonds of things made up of psionic energy. Increase rate of destruction by 10%. Increase the amount of psionic energy recovered from things you destroy by 10%. Channel No-cooldown. Psionic Energy Cost: Variable.
The skill seemed good for what it did. It would make everything he made using psionic energy easier to make and cost less. Then anything he destroyed would refund a portion of the energy. The active skill seemed good; he just didn't know how soon he would actually use it. Seeing as Daniel would be making a lot of psionic constructs very soon Daniel decided to just put a single point in the skill leaving him with only three class skill points remaining. Daniel also relayed what the skill did to Ulgatha, and her response surprised him.
“That is a truly amazing skill Daniel. Everything you make out of psionic energy will be easier and cheaper. Not to mention with the destruction portion of the skill it will make construction much easier if any excavation is required. This won't just be for your mindscape either. Eventually when you begin to develop spells that use psionic energy that affect the physical world and not just your mental world this skill will become an even greater boon. Also if you ever encounter any psionic being in the physical world that will be a very useful skill to have. To be honest I am honestly afraid of what kind of effect that skill would have if you used it on me.” Ulgtha gave a slight involuntary shiver at the thought.
Daniel considered Ulgatha’s words. Spells hadn't been something Daniel had considered at all. Because of his new imbuer profession Daniel had unlocked his mana, but he had yet to even start on trying to figure out how to use his mana for the profession or for any other purposes. Daniel had also just unlocked his psionic potential which he could also use to cast spells if what Ulgatha had told him was true, and he had no reasons to doubt her. Maybe learning how to cast spells using his mana and psionic energy could be the solution to his lack of active skills. He would need to talk to Steve about how to cast spells. For now however Daniel turned his mind to how to make his new psionic constructs.
As Daniel thought about using the skill the knowledge of what to do filled his mind. It was a simple enough process, so Daniel got to work. Like Ulgatha had requested, Daniel started with the psionic legionnaires. He could feel the new skill anchor in his chest and with the knowledge given by the system he knew how to use it. When Daniel focused on activating the skill he felt not just one skill anchor but two. A slightly larger and smaller one that floated right next to each other. Daniel knew that the larger binding would allow him to summon the legionnaires and the smaller one would summon the worker constructs. Daniel immediately got to work summoning eight legionnaires. Each of them only took about a minute to create. The skill anchor provided the very convenient mold, and all Daniel had to do was push his new psionic energy into the mold to make a legionnaire. The process was slow at first as Daniel struggled to move his psionic energy to do what he wanted, but with a bit of practice the process gradually sped up. Each construct he made appeared humanoid and wore roman style armor and weapons. When formed, Daniel directed them to Ulgatha to receive instructions.
Each legionnaire that Daniel created he could feel just a little bit of energy drain out of him. It was a feeling Daniel had never experienced before, but after summoning all of the legionnaire constructs he didn't seem to be suffering any negative effects from expending his psionic energy. Daniel continued onto making the worker constructs. These took even less energy to make and were faster to make. When the worker constructs were formed they were also humanoid, but only in shape. They were seven feet tall and had no face. Unlike the legionnaires who had weapons and armor when formed they had nothing, but Daniel innately knew from his skill that they could change their limbs into any tool they might need.
It took Daniel about ten minutes to make all 80 of the worker constructs. When he was finally done he turned to Ulgatha, but she just waved him off. “Go learn that skill from the book I gave you. It's going to take me a while to get all of these constructs organized. I need to do a good job now, so that as you make more constructs over time I already have a robust system in place. We will talk some more once you have learned that skill.”
“Okay.” Daniel nodded to Ulgatha before he began to walk away. He walked slowly through his vastly expanded mindscape. He took in the new sights. It was almost surreal to Daniel to see everything made and covered in paper and books. The only place that wasn't covered in pages was the hill covered in green grass where his ‘Mental Workshop’ was. Daniel walked to the top of the hill then sat cross legged on the thick green grass. It was quite comfortable, and Daniel took a moment to settle his mind. “Dad would have loved this view.” Daniel said before he took a deep breath and opened the book that Ulgtha had given him. “Here goes nothing.”
The first thing Daniel did was skim through the entire book to get a general idea of its contents. It was only around fifty pages in length and several of the pages were filled with various diagrams and illustrations, so it didn't take long. Then he read through the entire book a second time. On this read though he took his time and slowly read though the entire book. The book sometimes used older language that was a bit hard to understand, so in those sections Daniel read through them several times to make sure he understood each page's contents. This second read through took Daniel two hours, but Daniel thought the process was worth it as it would make the next step easier.
Once all of that was finally done, and Daniel had committed as much of the book to memory as he could he moved on to the next and last step. Daniel set the book down in front of him, and stood. The first step to gaining the skill was to visualize a large room. Once done you would then begin filling out the image by making shelves. From there you would begin filling the shelves with books that continued the person's memories with as much detail and clarity as possible. Daniel didn't see why Daniel needed to do the first step. With his mindscape he was able to make real physical objects, so instead of visualizing the mental construct Daniel would make it instead.
Daniel was excited to try psionic destruction. Daniel walked to the base of the grassy hill. He then pointed his hand at the ground. Then he channeled a little of his psionic energy into the skill anchor on his chest. A moment later a stream of purplish black energy began to rush out of his hand that was pointed down. The energy began to quickly eat away at the ground. He could already feel a small trickle of energy from the ground siphon back into him which was then once again used as he continued to channel the skill. After a minute of channeling the skill Daniel had hardly even felt his Psionic energy reserves drop even after he had made all of those psionic constructs for Ulgatha. He could definitely tell that he was steadily losing energy, but the loss was manageable. Daniel smiled, this next step was going to be fun.
~~~~~~
Hours later Daniel was finally done with the demolition. The start had ended up being slower than he would have preferred, but he was able to eventually hit his stride. He had made a rough ramp down about fifty feet underground. Unexpectedly however he had needed to reinforce his tunnel using psionic creation to keep it from collapsing. He had also discovered about halfway through making his tunnel that he was able to increase the amount of psionic energy the skill could use. This increased the width of the channeled beam which allowed him to increase the speed at which he was making his tunnel, but it also was less energy efficient than the narrower beam. Daniel was able to find a nice sweet spot of how large the beam was, how fast it burned through his psionic energy reserve, and how much energy he recovered from the skill.
Eventually Daniel decided that he had dug deep enough and began to excavate the underground room where the actual library the skill called for would be. The book cautioned against making the initial mental image of the library too large as it could destabilize the mental image they were trying to form. So, Daniel also refrained from making the image too large. The room he excavated was about fifty feet by fifty feet with twenty foot high ceilings. As Daniel had dug he had made sure to periodically stop to use psionic creation to make reinforcing pillars. He really didn't want the ceiling to cave in on him.
Once the room was fully excavated Daniel then used psionic creation to fill the room with bookcases. This process turned out to be a lot harder than Daniel expected it to be. Bookcases had never really been something that Daniel had considered to be that complex, but as pictured the image of a bookcase in his mind then used psionic creation to make the structure he felt a mental strain that he had never experienced before. As he continued to pour psionic energy into making the image the strain increased and his image of the bookcase began to slightly blur. Daniel pushed through the strain with a force of willpower, but when the fully formed bookcase stood before him Daniel was shocked.
What stood before Daniel was not a bookcase, but more of something resembling what a child would draw. All of the shelves were crooked and slanting towards the floor. Any book placed on the shelfs would slide off and fall to the floor. Daniel didn't know what had gone wrong. Everything else he had made with psionic creation had felt effortless what had been different this time. To start with Daniel decided to break down what a bookcase was in his mind. It was two vertical planks with more planks horizontally spanning between them and connecting to both sides. With this new image in his mind Daniel attempted to make this new bookshelf. To his surprise it worked. It seemed that on his first attempt Daniel had tried to make his image too complex for his current skill level. With this new information Daniel got back to work on making his library.
~~~~~~
Another hour later Daniel was finally done with filling the new room with shelves. During this time of construction Daniel had experimented and fine tuned his image of the book shelves, and had found out just how complex he could make his mental image. This discovery greatly sped up his construction process, and after only an hour he was finally able to move onto the final step of gaining the new skill.
This final step required Daniel to recall a memory with as much detail and clarity as possible. Daniel thought for a long moment combing through his memories about what a good option would be. A moment later a memory unbidden bubbled up to the surface of Daniel's thoughts. It was a memory Daniel had tried his best to repress as even this brief touch caused Daniel great pain. He had talked to a therapist before and she had told Daniel that suppressing it would only cause him more harm in the long run, but Daniel was unwilling to let it out of the cage he had made. Daniels' thoughts briefly turned to the memory recalling that day. The day that his father had died. The wash of emotions that came along with the memory tried to take Daniel away back to that day. To force him to relive his grief, but he pushed them back down into its cage unwilling to relive one of the most painful days of his life. That was not the memory Daniel wanted to use to form his skill.
Daniels mind turned to some happier memories of him and his father. He looked through his memories looking for the perfect choice. When one specific memory came to mind. His father had surprised him when getting home from school with a camping trip. It had been an amazing weekend with his dad that he never wanted to forget. With a smile Daniel began to relive the events of that weekend with his father as he still remembered them.