Alistair spotted his sister and mother waiting on the docks and hurried over to embrace them. Viv wasted no time joining in, purring as she affectionately rubbed against their legs until his mother scooped her up, showering her with well-deserved attention.
"Hey, Mom, Sis, how’ve you both been?" Alistair asked with a grin.
His mother and sister smiled warmly. "We’ve been great! The people here are really friendly, and there’s always something happening, especially since the Platinum Lily got connected to the city," his mother replied.
Alistair raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I haven’t heard much about the dungeon since I left with the Kaiakos. Is it drawing a lot of attention?"
As Riseth arrived and greeted his mother with a warm hug, Alistair turned his attention to Melissa, who scoffed.
"Attention? It’s practically the city’s new obsession. Even the kids are spending their free time exploring it. Thankfully, we’ve managed to keep the gambling events restricted to the adults."
"It's quite the energetic and excitable dungeon," his mother added.
Alistair chuckled and wrapped his arm around Riseth as they made their way to their quarters, choosing a more scenic route through Rathos. The city buzzed with life, even more so now with the influx of people from various species. Nessyra’s initial meeting with the AC revealed a few planets that wouldn’t be hostile to their recruitment efforts and would fit their other recruitment requirements, and Rathos became a melting pot as a result.
Alistair noticed that elves had become more common, and it seemed that sheep and ramkin had overtaken the minotaurs and crabkin as the most numerous beastkin in the city. What caught his attention was how humanoid these newcomers appeared, a likely indication that they had participated in the trial. Interestingly, there were also quadrupedal sheepkin, leading Alistair to wonder if they used polymorph to better fit in or if both forms had been represented on their planet.
A quick search revealed that these newcomers called themselves the Shophan and Ixpir. Both races shared a world and a distant ancestry but had evolved quite differently, with one taking on a more humanoid form and the other maintaining a centaur-like appearance. They didn’t interbreed, having been biologically incompatible before the trial, though there were instances of childless marriages between the two races. Such unions, however, were frowned upon.
They shared a few similarities, such as their universally white or light golden hair and fur, as well as similarly shaped ears and horn variants. However, that’s where the resemblances ended. The Ixpir had more sheeplike or ibex-like heads with darker furred skin, while the more humanoid Shophan closely resembled humans in their skin tones and features, though they shared some horn shapes with the demons from Neshan.
Their clothing styles also differed significantly. The Ixpir favored loose, colorful robes with rich, intricate patterns, while the Shophan preferred thicker, more practical attire that resembled a mix of winter clothing and gambesons. Their garments were typically in muted colors like white and brown, reflecting the materials used. Unlike their quadrupedal neighbors, the Shophan’s clothing had many pockets and bags, with minimal decoration.
As they moved through Rathos, Alistair took in the city’s rapid growth. The diverse crowd, bustling shops, and flying carpets all blended with the magic woven into daily life—it was staggering to realize this vibrant square was just a small part of an ever-expanding city. Rathos was steadily becoming large and populous enough to be considered a true capital—a capital that he was, technically, in charge of, with the duty to protect and guide it.
The weight of that responsibility hit him in a way it hadn’t in a while. He didn’t want to imagine what might happen if he and Riseth failed to advance and were discovered by the Syndicates or other powerful individuals with ill intent. In this new reality, a single person could bring doom and misery to an entire civilization. He had surrounded himself with family, friends, and capable allies, and they had prepared thoroughly for the challenges ahead. Still, none of that guaranteed true safety—if such a thing even existed anymore.
When they reached Alistair and Riseth’s quarters, they headed straight for their massive training chamber with its arena array, eager to uncover King and Fluffy’s core concepts.
As they stepped into the chamber, anticipation hung thick in the air. The array activated, transforming the space into a large, circular, stone-tiled arena reminiscent of the one where Alistair had first met King. He summoned King, while Riseth called forth Fluffy beside the towering wyvern.
King immediately locked eyes on his sister, who, to his surprise, didn’t even flinch under his draconic gaze. "Finally," King rumbled.
Melissa smirked. "I suppose you want to go first, unless you’d prefer to save the best for last?"
The wyvern paused, glancing at the small serpent beside him. Fluffy wriggled with excitement, looking up at him with big, round, pleading eyes.
King let out a huff. "Fine," he grumbled. "Let her go first. As you said, let’s keep the best for last."
Alistair raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised. He knew King had a soft spot for Fluffy, but he hadn’t expected him to actually step aside for the eager Quetzalcoatl. Melissa patted the wyvern’s head before approaching Fluffy, who eagerly propped herself up to touch Melissa’s outstretched hand with her snout. Melissa closed her eyes, her expression tightening with concentration. A moment later, her eyes snapped open, narrowing as she seemed to mentally grasp something.
"It’s the concept of Metal," she said slowly, retracting her hand and studying the serpent intently.
"Huh," Alistair and Riseth said in unison, both surprised. They had expected Fluffy’s core concept to align more closely with her strong wind and lightning affinities and had expected one of them to be her concept or at least a linked one. Maybe those affinities are a racial benefit of the Quetzalcoatl species, Alistair mused.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Metal is great; with her high affinity for electricity and magnetism being a linked concept to metal, she got some incredibly potent options there," Riseth mused aloud as Fluffy slithered onto her shoulder, intently looking at King and Melissa, who placed her hands on King's head her expression tight with focus.
"You should talk to my brother," Alistair suggested. "He’s got the highest metal affinity I know of and the most experience when it comes to working with it and using the Plane of Metal. He could teach her a lot."
Riseth nodded thoughtfully, "That's a good idea. I'll do that. Let's hope he can make some time."
"I am sure he will make some time," Alistair reassured her, though he knew his brother was one of the busiest people around. He had technically overtaken both of them in terms of levels, constantly spearheading crafting endeavors. His personal power armor was something to behold—continuously upgraded and enhanced. Last time Alistair checked, it was already at Mark 24, and his brother was already working on the next major upgrade.
He noted the frown on his sister's face as she continued to inspect the wyvern, taking much longer than she had with Fluffy. King marinated his stoic presence, but Alistair could tell he was growing somewhat uneasy and impatient.
Please don't let him have a weird esoteric concept, Alistair prayed internally.
Melissa looked up at King, her hands letting go of the wyvern, a slightly troubled expression on her face.
"What is it?" King grumbled in his deep, imperious voice.
Melissa shot Alistair a quick, hesitant glance before meeting the wyvern's gaze. "You have the Curse concept," she stated.
There was a silence in the room that seemed to stretch out as her words sunk in. Alistair considered the information. The concept of curses wasn't ideal, but it was a powerful concept linked to several powerful concepts, though most had negative connotations. The more Alistair thought about it, the more he liked the idea, as curses didn't have to be strictly negative or inflict harm; becoming immortal could be viewed as a curse. He suspected there was some flexibility to the concept that, if used right, could allow King to empower himself and weaken his opponents.
A quick search confirmed that the concept of energy was connected, as well as the concept of Sin. This opened up the possibility for King to harness Sinenergy or even cursed energy, perhaps both. Ideas began racing through Alistair’s mind, but he had to rein them in as he noticed the more complicated expressions on the faces of those around him.
"I suppose that makes you the King of Curses," Alistair quipped to break the tension.
King rumbled in approval. "I like that name."
"I figured you would," Alistair replied with a smirk.
Melissa still seemed unconvinced, but after searching his eyes, she relented with a sigh. “Fine. Just don’t overdo it.”
Alistair, who had been about to crack a 'let it go' joke, thought better of it and nodded appreciatively. “I won’t. I promise.”
As Riseth joined Melissa to seek out James—or at least some of their engineers—to help elevate Fluffy’s core concept, Alistair turned to his wyvern, who was watching him expectantly. “Let’s get you strong enough to kill a dragon,” he said, a wide grin spreading across his face.
King tried to mimic the smile, but the result was more terrifying than anything else.
Over the next month, they quickly discovered that to keep King’s curse concept from slipping into the realm of blessings, any empowerment had to be tied to a condition or come at a cost. While King could enhance himself by cursing others, this approach wasn’t foolproof—especially if the target resisted or there was no one to curse. King confided in Alistair that he had saved most of his skill points and had invested a significant portion of his trial reward into boons that increased his skill points gains. With his heightened intellect, he realized that his current abilities, like his beam and feather attack, wouldn’t be sufficient in the long run.
This strategic saving left them with enough skill points to work with; even if many of his available skills weren't immediately useful, they managed to upgrade them by applying a variety of curses to them. Some unselected basic skills could be shaped into something more versatile, while others would require refinement—similar to Alistair's work with Death from Above, which had recently evolved into Telekinetic Death from Above. Once the skill had taken on its new telekinetic nature, further upgrades became much easier. Although upgrading it further at his current grade would be challenging, this allowed him to shift focus to other skills. He suspected that his recent bombing of the hive had helped loosen the resistance around the skill. While training the new skill, he managed to elevate his Telekinesis skill to the legendary tier as well.
----------------------------------------
SKILLS:
Tier: [Legendary]
Name: Telekinetic Death From Above
Description: This skill drastically increases [Power] when attacking an opponent from above. The focus required when using telekinetics to move the user is drastically reduced, and [Control] is increased by a large degree. The user's ability to resist interference, disruption, manipulation, etc., when using any Telekinesis is greatly increased. Due to the incredibly high affinity in kinetics and telekinesis, any energy siphoned from momentum, movements, or impacts through telekinesis is increased to a large degree. Any kinetic energy generated from landing on an opponent is increased by a large degree.
----------------------------------------
Alistair was pleased with both his and King’s progress, and Riseth reported similar success with Fluffy, who had received custom-made gear and armor for her enlarged form. King, however, was currently held back by the need to wait for his next skill selection before he could use his new abilities more efficiently. Despite this, he had taken to curses far more quickly than Alistair had anticipated. To Alistair’s surprise, King finally revealed his humanoid form, something he had kept secret, but Alistair had suspected the wyvern had been capable of doing for a while now.
Alistair stared at King’s new shape: reddish skin, sharp features, and black and red hair slicked back, giving him a stern, imposing appearance. He stood as tall as Alistair, and Alistair suspected that King had modeled his height after him out of respect. His eyes retained their piercing draconic quality, and his face seemed to carry a perpetual frown, exuding an air of boredom and condescension.
Alistair couldn’t help but ask, "What’s with the frown?"
"I dislike taking this form," King rumbled in his deep voice, "but it helps me with my core concept." He let out a long sigh.
Alistair was taken aback. "How does taking on your humanoid form help with curses?"
"Empowering myself while being trapped in this form, unable to use many of my other techniques, is a significant price," King explained. "It allows me to wield a different set of curses that require greater sacrifice on my part."
Alistair let out an appreciative whistle. " Now that's smart."
A Creepy smile crept on the wyvern's face, hearing the praise.
Right, we need to work on that smile, Alistair thought, giving King an awkward smile in return.