Zarian signaled for one of his spectral spiders to appear on Naomi’s shoulder. The spider admitted a pale blue and white glow, like an actual ghost. Even while visible, they were still see-through.
The spider gave Naomi a friendly wave with its foreleg.
She gave it a wave with her finger before the spider crawled into her mouth, wriggling past her full lips and disappearing inside. Naomi shivered and twitched.
Then her eyes rolled up, showing white, before rolling back to normal. She blinked rapidly as a phantom thread linked her mind to the network.
For the next half minute, Zarian looked through Naomi’s eyes. He heard what she heard. Felt what she felt. He looked across the kitchen at his actual body, like seeing a mirror, but the mirror wasn’t doing what he – Naomi – was doing.
Then he pulled back and invited Naomi to see through his eyes and feel and sense what he felt and sensed. He could feel her presence looking through him until she resorted back to relying on her own senses.
Before Naomi could say anything, Zarian directed the spider in her brain to link with another spider in the network.
Naomi was taken aback but quickly adapted as she looked through the eyes of a spectral spider. Zarian waited to see if she would ‘flip channels’ and the moment it happened, he allowed it.
It wasn’t an automatic sequence. She needed his approval to see through a unique set of eyes on the Spectral Spider Network +1. The only thing she could do on her own was return to her own body and senses.
“May I?” Hannah asked.
Zarian fed her a spectral spider and linked Hannah into the network. She adapted quickly, pinging him with requests to switch from one viewpoint to another viewpoint rapidly.
Then, at some point, Naomi pinged a request for access to Hannah. Zarian accepted and joined in.
Hannah perked up. “Oh, okay, I can feel you both looking through me. Hm. Interesting. I can even tell who’s who slightly. One of you, Naomi, is quite aggressive and sparky. The other, Zarian, is large and dark.”
“Okay, now here’s when things get really interesting.” Zarian manipulated his aura and pushed it down two threads of the network.
One extra aura strand went to Naomi. The other extra aura strand went to Hannah.
He waited with bated breath to see if they went in correctly.
“Oh, that’s nice. More aura,” Hannah admitted.
“Yup, I feel it.”
“Now we’re in business. Through the network, I can feed you guys more aura directly.” This would make it easier for him to deal with Bianca’s aura, which liked to chomp on and purify Zarian’s aura. “Of course, we won’t always need that. And I can turn the spectral spiders passive in your heads. See, look.”
Once the mind-riding spectral spiders went passive, the link between them faded but didn’t go away outright. Zarian could turn it on at any time.
Besides, the link had to persist for the spectral spider to persist. Without him, the spiders would truly die after enough time completely disconnected from him.
“Okay! I’m ready. I’ll do it.” Bianca put on a determined face.
Zarian fed her a spectral spider. She gagged a little until it crawled up into her mind. It took a few minutes for her to get orientated and to test the aura delivery through the network.
Just like he’d hoped, he could bypass her good alignment defenses.
“Do I have to eat it?” Gilbert asked.
“No. I just figured it’ll be less creepy.”
“What’s the other option?”
“What Hannah said earlier.”
Zarian showed everyone by having a spectral spider drop on Gilbert’s head. The little creature shook about before phasing straight through the top of Gilbert’s skull.
There was no damage, but the way Gilbert shook and cussed suggested that having a spectral spider burrow directly into the skull was an uncomfortable feeling.
Oh well, he didn’t want to take it in the mouth like the ladies. So Zarian put one through his head directly.
Once Gilbert was orientated to the network and proved as another positive case study of receiving direct aura from Zarian, his and Bianca’s spectral spiders went into passive mode.
“One last thing. Give me your consent, everyone,” Zarian requested.
They gave him their consent.
Zarian resummoned his wizard hat. Then one by one, without having to touch them, he copied the skill into their profiles using pure aura manipulation.
The best part was seeing how everyone’s wizard hats diverged.
Gilbert’s wizard hat was gray and looked more stylized for a cowboy.
Naomi’s wizard hat was smaller and tilted with a sharp black point, almost like a witch.
Bianca’s wizard hat was radiant gold and white with feathers.
Hannah’s wizard hat was harder, with a dome on the top that reminded Zarian of a construction hat.
“Welcome to the dark moolah wizard gang.” Zarian chuckled.
“Is that a meme? I don’t get it. I was never good at memes.” Bianca grabbed a silver platter and brightened the room to look at her reflection. “Does it look pretty on me? I think it looks pretty. Does this make me a princess wizard?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What are we supposed to do with these?” Gilbert asked, flicking a finger at the brim of his cowboy wizard hat. “I mean, mine looks better than the rest of y’alls, but it’s still Level 0, and I don’t cast spells.”
“Aura,” Hannah said, sounding amazed. “We can move and manipulate and work with our auras better with these hats. That’s why you copied them into all of us. Zarian, that’s … brilliant.”
“Yup. I’ll need something from you as a trade off. Can I have your Rune Alteration skill?” Zarian asked.
“Yes, of course, it’s yours.”
Zarian barely had to try because of Lore Eater and his wizard hat. He was truly the most bullshit wizard in all the lands, if not the entire world.
I told the System to screw off instead of letting it destroy Reiki.
Maybe he was the most bullshit wizard in all of Infinita. At least at his level.
“Perfect,” Zarian purred. “Yeah, this is good. Really good.”
“Can you copy your skills into the skeletons?” Hannah asked.
“No, I can’t. It’s because they’re technically a part of me. The System blocks the attempt.”
Hannah nodded before giving Zarian a curious look over her beer mug. She asked, “What do you plan to do with Rune Alteration?”
Zarian waggled his eyebrows. “I’m a wizard. What do you think I’ll do?”
“Fair enough. Have fun. And thank you, Zarian, for everything,” Hannah added.
A round of thanks flowed in his direction. Gilbert raised his mug in another toast. Bianca burst into tears and hugged him. Naomi punched him softly on the shoulder.
Zarian felt all warm and happy.
Eventually, all the excitement of their changes, stories of epic confrontations, and tales of ridiculously irresponsible genocides were past them. Zarian, Bianca, and Hannah were on the other side of the first class achievement. Noami and Gilbert were up next.
The night was late.
Gilbert went to bed drunk. Bianca and Hannah left the kitchen together. Naomi stayed behind for a little while.
“I’ve been messing around with Aura Ignition,” Naomi admitted. “Trying to make it implode and what not. It’s hard. I can’t feel my aura like you. But I get this sense that if I keep pulling in, crushing myself, squeezing down more and more like I’m just going to suck it all in, I can feel the pressure squeezing in tight. And it kind of hurts. Then when I let go, I expand and I feel like my whole aura stuff wants to rip away.”
“Yeah, that sounds like you’re on the road to Aura Ignition.” Zarian stroked his chin. “I don’t advise doing it on your own. We’ll need to talk to an expert. I should go find Arnold wherever he’s hiding himself.”
“He’s hiding?” Naomi raised an eyebrow.
“My spectral spiders haven’t found him. He’s probably roomed up in the Bramblevale Keep.”
“Well, I’ll do some light practice. Nothing crazy. I think I’m on the right path. But I won’t push too hard just in case, okay? Now that I have my own wizard hat, I guess it should be easier.” Naomi chuckled as she flicked at her witch-like hat.
Zarian reached up to grab the front of his hat and tip it down toward Naomi. She patted Zarian on the shoulder, patted Para’s material, then she patted Reiki’s dungeon core.
Naomi went off to bed, leaving Zarian alone.
He stayed in the kitchen for a while, nursing his last beer. Then he put it aside and moved with a swagger through the quiet and dark hallways of the mansion.
He didn’t feel like sleeping just yet despite staying up for over three days. There was one last thing he hadn’t told the party. Something so significant and scary, Zarian wasn’t sure how to approach it.
“I’m going to need something to restrain myself somehow,” he mumbled. “Straight Darkness +2 is too OP.”
Zarian shook his head at the +2 advancement. It didn’t matter that his Straight Darkness was in the beta section. It was too strong.
He’d found it difficult to hold it back during the later parts of the dungeon crawl. By sheer effort, he’d ensured that Hannah did most of the work instead of him.
“Oh, the cost of being overpowered. What do I do with it when everything around me is a sandcastle?” Zarian shook his head. “Would I even face decent challenges anymore?”
The hype over his growth was fun. Seeing everyone’s reactions was fun. Maybe he should enjoy having the biggest gun and let it be.
He could always learn to use his spells more along with Para. The nuke option should work as a nuke, right?
While Straight Darkness was Zarian’s favorite personal skill, if the skill was troublesome because it was too powerful for the setting, then he should learn to use other parts of his profile. He had a lot to take advantage of, after all.
“You know … Para … you’re a living weapon.”
“Yes,” Para growled.
She was still holding onto the core. But that wasn’t much of a handicap for her.
With a jerk, she formed a rip in the parasitic material of her tattered body. She twisted, reshaped, and enlarged a portion of herself and formed a large bone sword similar to a claymore.
The handle fell into Zarian’s hand with a thin thread connected to Para’s being. The thread wrapped smoothly around his arm as Zarian swung the bone claymore around.
“Yeah, this will do,” Zarian said. “But we can get more creative than this, can’t we?”
“Yes.”
For a couple of hours, Zarian and Para tried out different ideas. The cloak was malleable. Para’s threads could stretch, reshape, and become anything fleshy or hard.
The wizard hat helped tremendously, which shifted and changed based on Para’s new shape. The hat would become bone-like and armored when Para armored up Zarian. Or the hat would become fiendish and leathery when Para assumed a medium armored form.
Zarian summoned his Grimoire of the Mad Voidling Prince from his soul. The book appeared from a portal in his chest and came to a hovering stop.
The cover was a black metal that emitted vibrating waves that shook the surrounding air. When the pages flipped open, each one was metallic.
The creator of the grimoire had engraved the runes, symbols, and non-euclidean geometries with force and dried blood. It was very much a book that no sane person should read without having their sanity torn to shreds.
Zarian was the Madness Wizard, and the Grimoire of the Mad Voidling Prince suited him well.
He should get some sleep. He needed it. He’d been up for days. But he had to clean up the leftovers of Bianca, Naomi, and Gilbert’s mess.
“It was one thing to knock off the Bramblevale Bandits and some overeager evil gangs,” Zarian said. “It’s another thing to take them all out. I don’t think they realized that’s making an enemy with the evil gods.”
For the sake of his party, he would convince the evil gods to leave things alone. Hopefully, Shadowfell was still on his side.
Zarian took a quick glance at his entire profile. He was satisfied by what he saw. Then he cast the Void Step spell.
The air wobbled weirdly around him. He felt the urge to stride forward a few paces. He followed the instinct and entered the void.
It was time for a quick solo adventure into Central Bramblevale’s underworld.
***
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Origins: Zarian Darkrun, 21 yr-old Human, Honored Outsider.
Level: 45
Class: Madness Wizard (Legendary)
Alignment: Evil +2
Traits: Dark Affinity (Rare), Overpower (Epic), Identify (Rare), Aura Channeler (Rare), Fractured Mind (Uncommon), Basic Aura Manipulation (Rare), Frenzy Zone (Uncommon), Uncanny Valley Effect (Rare), Void Mysticism (Rare), Lore Eater (Epic)
Alpha Skills (5/5): Parasite Cloak +1 (Level 18), Spectral Spider Network +1 (Level 15), Grimoire of Black Magic 102 (Level 17), Grimoire of the Dread Mire Gator (Level 9), Grimoire of the Mad Void Prince (Level 1)
Beta Skills (8/15): Straight Darkness +2 (Level 25), Summon Wizard Hat (Level 5), Tranquil Mind (Level 0), Adrenaline Jolt (Level 0), Willful Might (Level 0), Wondrous Speed (Level 0), Mystic Toughness (Level 0), Rune Alteration (Level 0)
Willpower: 142 (178)
Strength: 36 (45)
Agility: 40 (50)
Wonder: 127 (159)
Mysticism: 291 (364)
Free: 0
Achievements: Honored Outsider (Divine), SSS Dance with White Silk Reiki (Epic), Heroes of the Eternal Garden Kingdom (Legendary), Divine Knock Knock (Divine), Junior Manslaughterer (Uncommon), initial Pacifist Gauntlet (Rare), First Human Gnoll Elder of Corma (Epic), SSS Genius Beyond the Lore Eater (Epic)
Spells: Bloody Lifesteal (Uncommon), Raise Advancing Skeletons (Rare), Black Fire (Rare), Quagmire Pit (Uncommon), Dread Mire Bite (Rare), Dread Mire Bellow (Epic), Void Step (Epic)
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