Chapter 54: Fortify Dave!_Magical Engineering [Progression Fantasy, LitRPG]

“So how come I didn’t read any of this in the archives?” I asked. Despite the multitude of books I’d managed to read, it seemed like there were always missing portions of information.

“Because one of the ways the archives skirted around any big faction coming down hard on it was to mostly focus on theories and opinions when it came to core development. Didn’t ya ever think to wonder why there were a billion books on different recipes from Spiral worlds and only a handful on advanced core structures? It ain’t like this stuff doesn’t exist and isn’t known by people across the Spiral. It’s that those with the power like to keep the power for themselves. They don’t want a rival to have a chance at anything they can avoid sharing,” Mel said. These were things I had constantly wondered about and had mostly started to think they were primarily tied to the Arena secrets, but apparently, they were part of a cold war. Was it a cold war? I suppose I can’t say that one for sure, either.

“So then, how much did I learn that was accurate within the archives?” I asked, hoping I hadn’t filled my head with nonsense.

“Elody was a great librarian, so anything ya learned as a fact from the books was prolly a fact, but remember, this was a library available to most peoples. So there just happened to be all kinds of core advancement shit that they didn’t keep there. I’m sure many a master librarian has pushed those bounds, and Elody herself I know, was considering a massive expansion, likely a big part of why she got removed. The good news, though, is ya still got me. The bad news is I ain’t any good at the theoretical shit ya got going on, but when it comes to the reality of core advancement, as long as we stay on topics I can talk about, I’m better than that library ever was,” Mel said gruffly. It was one of the few times I had heard the man toot his own horn so blatantly that I believed it. This pushed other matters to the forefront.

I understood why the brothers were helping me, they weren’t in all that different of a situation than I was. I even understood Elody’s help. I was a stranger in a strange world but also a bit of a fellow academic and someone who had met one of her personal heroes. I may not be the best at socializing or even people reading, but if you hammer me over the head long enough, some things do eventually come through. So then, why was Mel so determined to help? He had talked about trusting him, and while he had given many reasons to do so, I still found it hard without at least some concrete answer to his future plans. That said, if he refused to give one what could I even do? Could I get home without him?

“Mel, before I do this, I need some real answers here. Why are you really helping me so much? Not the bullshit answer involving Cecile and Elicec. Why specifically me?” I asked, my tone almost demanding an answer this time.

Mel sighed loudly before he started talking. “Because yer a chance for something to change, Dave. I really can’t tell you everything, and as I said, ya gotta trust me blindly on a lot right now, but I promise I won’t screw ya over. I’m working towards what I think is the only way to keep you and yer family alive and safe, and I’m using a lifetime of built-up resources in the background to even give us this chance. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more, I really am, but there is just so much broken in the Spiral that it would take a lifetime to even get you to the level of fully understanding the universal politics that got us to where we are now. Think about what I just told you about the archives and try to put that into a big-picture context. You’ve already realized there’s no keeping Earth out of the Spiral. There’s just getting the orcs off of it and then dealing with the fallout. I’m doing everything I can to help us there, and I mean us. I’ve thrown myself in with ya for the long haul, so if that helps with the trust at all, consider it,” Mel explained. The whole time he talked I didn’t see a single glare, just a pleading look. I don’t know if he was trying to manipulate me or not, but as so many times before, as of late, I decided I was going to trust him. I knew that eventually, the blind trusting of people was going to bite me in the ass, but for now, I went with my gut. Mel was a friend and he was helping, so that meant it was time for some changes to my core.

“Alright, I believe you, I think. So what do I do next, just do the core fortification? If my levels are gone what happens to my skills and attributes? If they just reset too, won’t that hurt me a lot?” I asked, confused about the benefits of upgrading my core.

“So it’s kinda weird the way it works. Not exactly intuitive. Everything you’ve unlocked in a mana orb stays unlocked, even things you wouldn’t meet the requirements for anymore, but the ranks all drop back to the initial one. What’s important is that means they stay usable. The same applies to any other skill or attribute. Now, with attributes, it gets even weirder. Despite the drop, yer body won’t initially regress; your core will keep pushing enough energy to hold you ya where yer at as long as you keep training. If ya go long enough without getting those attribute caps back to where they were, though, you’ll start to experience some weird mana channel issues. I have no idea if your backlash resistance will apply to them or not, but at the very least, don’t risk keeping that one under its cap for long. Ya can test the rest all ya want, but be prepared for some debilitating pain across the parts of your body tied to the attribute. As for why to do this? Well, a stronger core and to push you further, with higher levels, higher attributes and skill caps, more energy to your mana orbs to increase them faster, and most important of all, fighting higher graded cores. Ya aren’t going to be able to stick with only fighting monsters and dungeon cores forever. Sooner or later, yer gonna have to fight another person on the System’s path, and when that happens, core ranks can strongly come into play. Once we get you a real class, things are gonna get even more confusing, but if you really want me to, I’ll try to explain here, but I promise it will be easier understood once ya got the class locked in,” Mel said, dumping a ton of information on me. Most of which, to my surprise, I understood. I guess I was finally learning how the Spiral functioned somewhat.

“Okay, well, you kind of had me at higher limits. So that’s how I really start to use up all these points,” I said, finally really understanding how I wouldn’t always have the same excessive extra amounts I do now.

“Good, now I just gave you the basics, and what I mean by that is those are the only hard rules. Yer core can do some weird shit when it fortifies itself. So go ahead and start it and tell me any other changes that it alerts you to,” Mel said. What possibilities were there for core changes? Was it possible for my affinity to be altered? If there weren’t any real rules, the only way to find out was to press forward. It was too bad at the danger level knowledge worlds presented. I’d have loved to put Earth on that path if I had any say once it was safe. Then, the people coming into this after me could actually learn how things worked instead of stumbling around in the dark so much.

“Alright, time to get it over with, I suppose,” I said before pulling the menu back up and selecting the new fortify option. Instantly, everything around me seemed to vanish into a void, and I could sense nothing beyond the System menu in front of me. It was similar to a simulation but totally empty. It was not a pleasant experience.

“Would you like to fortify your core? Note that once the process has begun, it cannot be stopped, and any attempt to do so may result in irreparable harm towards your brain,” the Ssytem’s voice said. Apparently, I didn’t get to do this part in silence.

“Yes, I understand the risks and won’t be turning back,” I said, not sure I actually did understand them, but what could I do?

“Core fortification process underway. Would you like to evolve your affinity?” the System asked. I had no idea if I did or not. Mel hadn’t mentioned this possibility, and I didn’t know if this was because of how different changes could be or if he didn’t know about it. So far my affinity hadn’t done anything I was aware of, so I figured I may as well.

“What does that mean?” I asked before just accepting.

“Your affinity will unlock its first ability,” it answered.

“And what is an affinity ability?” I asked, pushing for more information.

“A refinement of your affinity; any specifics are unknown until it has happened,” the System answered, giving me no new real information. I really hated that, but it did sound potentially useful.

“Alright might as well,” I said.

“Affinity evolution underway. All attributes and skills ranks have been been ingested by your core. Your new core grade is now E. Your core affinity has gained the ability Mana Tinkering.” Mel was right I could feel a better flow of energy in my core. This had almost certainly been the right move. A message box had also popped into my view as the System spoke.

Affinity

Engineering

Rank

Ability

Mana Tinkering

Through the use of your engineering skills, your core has managed to evolve in a way that allows you to more easily alter mana channels and flows. Further ranks allows for a greater control and understanding of how mana flows work.

Ability Rank

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Predicting an affinity evolution is more or less impossible. All current studies into it have failed to produce reliable results. The ideas that your mana skills, regular skills, or attributes guide what the evolution is or even if it happens have had no conclusive proof. Even the affinity itself isn’t guaranteed to explain what the evolution is. Sometimes, people gain abilities; sometimes, their affinity morphs into something totally new. The only sure thing I’ve found is that affinity evolutions are upgrades. I have yet to see one that became worse.

Gastronil’s answer to the question “What is an affinity evolution?” on his application to work with Karlinovo.

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Dave’s stats before fortification.

Core Attribute

Attribute Name

Starting Rank

Bonus Rank

Ranks Spent

Current Rank

Senses

Generalized Auditory

Senses

Generalized Gustatory

Senses

Generalized Nociception

Senses

Generalized Olfactory

Senses

Generalized Proprioception

Senses

Generalized Mechanosensory

Senses

Generalized Vestibular

Senses

Generalized Visual

Senses

Night Vision

499

500

Actions

Generalized Mental Use

Actions

Generalized Physical Use

Actions

Arm Speed

499

500

Actions

Arm Strength

499

500

Actions

Arm Accuracy

201

202

Actions

Leg Speed

499

500

Actions

Leg Strength

499

500

Actions

Leg Accuracy

Reactions

Generalized Body Toughness

Reactions

Bite Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Energy Projectile Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Electricity Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Impact Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Heat Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Slashing Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Piercing Resistance

499

500

Reactions

Generalized Disease Resistance

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Reactions

Withering Poison Resistance

150

151

Reactions

Wicked Wasp Venom

499

500

Reactions

Treerot Resistance

Reactions

Generalized Mental Resistance

Interactions

Generalized Beauty

Interactions

Generalized Presence

Soul

Soul Energy Detection

Soul

Soul Energy Projection

Soul

Soul Energy Regeneration

Soul

Soul Energy Strength

Core

Core Energy Detection

Core

Core Energy Projection

Core

Core Energy Regeneration

Core

Core Energy Strength

Luck

Mana Backlash Resistance

100

Luck

Cheat Death

100

Skill

Skill Tier

Starting Rank

Bonus Ranks

Ranks Spent

Current Ranks

Batrachology

Body Temperature Regulation

Brains & Brawn (Body-Enhancing Orb)

Brains Over Brawn (Brains Body-Enhancing Orb)

Brawn Over Brains (Brawn Body-Enhancing Orb)

Carcinology

Cartography

Cast (Life Orb)

Chelae Combat

Claw Dart

Climb

Close Combat

Components Aether (Elemental Orb)

Components Fire (Elemental Orb)

Core Projection (Imbuing Orb)

Crystallography

Dendrology

Dungeon Simulation

Elemental Affinity (Imbuing Orb)

Elemental Focus Aether (Elemental Orb)

Elemental Focus Fire (Elemental Orb)

Environmental Shield (Shield Orb)

Fundamental Forces (Elemental Orb)

Heat Shield (Shield Orb)

Inner Vitality (Life Orb)

Lesser Mutation (Body-Enhancing Orb)

Lesser Regeneration (Life Orb)

Magical Durability (Imbuing Orb)

Magical Shield (Shield Orb)

Malacology

Malleting

Medical Telemetry (Life Orb)

Mental Training (Brains Body-Enhancing Orb)

Mental Training (Brawn Body-Enhancing Orb)

Pain Management (Life Orb)

Physical Shield (Shield Orb)

Pugilism

Ranged Combat

Reader (Speed)

Recall Aether (Elemental Orb)

Recall Fire (Elemental Orb)

Regeneration (Life Orb)

Regeneration Efficacy (Life Orb)

Regeneration Efficiency (Life Orb)

Sitch Other (Life Orb)

Sling (Life Orb)

Sling Other (Life Orb)

Soul-Core Bonding (Brains Body-Enhancing Orb)

Soul-Core Bonding (Brawn Body-Enhancing Orb)

Sprint

Stitch (Life Orb)

Stomp

Strength Training (Brains Body-Enhancing Orb)

Strength Training (Brawn Body-Enhancing Orb)

Treasure Sense

Vespology

Unspent Attribute Points: 11275

Unspent Skill Points: 1805

Chapter 54: Fortify Dave!

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