Westibule mountain chain [western part of the Torrent mountain range], local time [1793.11.19]
Zeph was grimacing while unloading a crate from the cart. A splitting headache accompanied each movement, the result of his hubris.
An hour earlier, Aisha, noticing that his ego started overgrowing a little in the light of new changes in his body, decided to trim it slightly. A weak but heavy bonk to his head sent a wave of something through his body and Soul. Willforce Morphon or not, the hit worked with the same efficiency as ever, leaving him sprawled on the floor. He was fighting dizziness for the next few minutes, but that wasn’t the end of it.
She grabbed his sorry ass and manhandled him away from the cart for a quick sparring match. She allowed him to use his Spells and make preparations, waiting with crossed arms. She was silent, not even responding to his questions, so he obliged in the end.
It was a mistake.
Or, maybe not.
He tried to be angry at how she handled it, but he couldn’t argue with the results. He had thrown everything he could at her, yet it wasn’t even a fight. Not when she utilized some of her Skills. The pain from the heavy hits still lingered all around his body.
He understood now, down to his bones, that the boons Willforce Morphon have given him were just that – boons. People can achieve the same with training, specializations, and levels.
He might be growing faster than normal people, but his overall position on the power ladder didn’t change just yet. He had better survivability, especially against Netherers, but lacked training, knowledge, and experience.
As he pouted silently while working on his tent, Aisha walked up to him.
“Feeling better?” she asked nonchalantly.
He glared at her, hating the fact he had to look upwards, as she smiled sadly in response. “Yes, apologies but I’m not sorry. It’s my personal mission to make sure you don’t grow conceited. And I also have gone through a full-body Modification, I know exactly how it can provoke mistakes in combat.”
He kept the glare for a few seconds longer before sighing in resignation. Well, power trips are dangerous, I can give her that, he thought and looked back at her. But you will not escape that easily!
“You are cooking for the next two weeks,” he declared seriously.
She sulked a little but nodded without comment after a moment.
“Good.” More time for enchanting training. “By the way, how much Regeneration would I normally need to regrow my organs or limbs?” he asked, curious how much of a boon that effect gave him.
“Hmmm, around 400 for limbs, I think? Maybe less,” she said, scratching her cheek. “I would say 500 is the threshold for full restoration of organs. The EE granted at that point is responsible for strengthening a restoration of microstructures in a body. For example, it allows for automatic memory restoration after brain damage. Also, rumors say that 1000 is enough to prolong your life indefinitely, but it’s hard to confirm such statements…”
And now I am curious how much this granny has…
“I won’t tell you my measurements,” she joked with a crooked smile, reading his intentions. “Grow up to my standards first. I will consider some sharing then,” she said, placing a hand on her hip.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, grandmother.”
That comment was a direct cause for a sudden spike of pain in his headache.
“Don’t get cocky, kid,” she said with a straight face, planting the tip of her weapon’s shaft back in the ground.
“Grrraaarara!” laughed Gru, ridiculing his life choices. The bastard was safe inside his body and very much enjoyed the spectacle.
He massaged his head, making a sour face. “Eh, sorry not sorry. Anyway, do you have any advice for my points? I will hit 50 Regeneration soon, so I was thinking about Willpower and Memory. My Mana generation is falling behind…”
“Invest in your Flexibility,” she interjected. “Memory isn’t even responsible for Mana generation. Only Intuition and Willpower have effects on it.”
“Huh, it isn’t?” he paused, surprised. “Why? And, why would I even need Flexibility? My internal Mana manipulation right now is trash, it would be a waste of points,” he complained.
Aisha slouched, looking far more tired all of a sudden. “I guess, you never had time to properly sit down and meditate on your Interface… I expected Makani to cover such basics… Haaah… First thing in a city, I will show you to the library. It’s faster than reading, and you need to catch up…” she decided, scratching her head in irritation. Then, she leaned on her weapon and started explaining.
“Memory is slightly different from other Passive Enhancements. Unlike Intuition and Willpower, it is influencing your physical body. Brain, to be precise. To do that, it uses Mana generated by the part of a Soul it occupies, similar to how ‘physical’ Passive Enhancements do. But it doesn’t influence physicality the same way they do – Memory doesn’t change how matter ‘filled’ with the Soul behaves. As a result, it supports neither Mana generation nor Mana capacity. Its true functionality lies somewhere else – in accessing memories of your past lives. Well, besides actually sharpening your memory, quite appreciated during melee training.”
Ah, right. I wanted to ask about past-life memories at some point, too, he realized, nodding in understanding. “Got it. Can you tell me more about the past-life memory reading?”
“Like what? You gain knowledge, experience, and all that from your past life – isn’t that simple enough?” she answered lazily, but paused right after. She seemed to recall something. “Oh right. It probably isn’t important for you, but if one manages to recreate technology from their memories, the corresponding upgrades will be unlocked in the Exchange.”
“No, but…” he shook his head. “How does it work? Is it possible I wasn’t a human in my past life? What then? Will I go feral after remembering it? Will I be even to remember feelings, or is it like dry information? And how—”
“Details!” she interrupted him, exclaiming into the sky. “All you need to know is that it’s safe and useful. If you are curious, find yourself a book in the library. Or ask P’pfel, his personality disorder is a direct result of imbalanced Memory, so he should be the best person to ask about it. Anyway, where was I…?” she paused, scratching her head. Zeph was a little disheartened she wasn’t in the mood for explanations, he had too many questions.
“Ah, yes. Flexibility. Don’t look down on its effects. Internal Mana manipulation aside, it increases the elasticity and resilience of your body. How, do you think, I can run like that with additional weight? Besides, it prevents strains, so if you think of ever using heavy weaponry, you will need it,” she paused, thinking for a moment. “Well, less pronounced effects exist too. Like sharpening your senses, decreasing the time of your body reacting to mental commands, speeding up certain mental tasks, helping with reaction time, and so on. But those changes don’t follow the standard amplification scaling and differ from person to person…”
“That’s a lot of news…” he said, blinking slowly in surprise.
Hmmm, looks like the brain has a quite convoluted relationship with all of the physically interactive PE… I wonder at which point physical memory becomes redundant… And how Willpower and Intuition are connected to a brain if they aren’t directly interacting with it? They do send information…
She shrugged, breaking him from his internal debate. “It’s the second most important Enhancement for PE melee specialization for a reason.”
“I know you said you don’t know how exactly the Passive Enchantments work… But that is some unhealthy combination of different properties, isn’t it? This doesn’t sound like just one stat at all…” Zeph mumbled, again deep in thought.
“I’m not sure what you mean by that…” she started, crouching near one of the crates and rummaging inside. “Well, scholars insist each PE uses one universal law, or method, to change the physical world or interact with it, if that’s what you are”—she stood up, balancing a set of cooking utensils in her arms while still holding her weapon—“worrying about,” she finished, looking in his direction. “You would have to ask them about it. I’m more interested in practical applications. Anyway, I’m going back to cook something,” she declared, walking away.
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“And what is the milestone reward for Flexibility?” Zeph asked his last question before she could flee.
“Nothing good for you, I’m afraid,” she answered over her shoulder. “An EE supporting Mana shaping.”
He groaned, it was neither useful nor impactful. He could only hope the effect was something he could imitate.
That reminded him – he should start working on mimicking the effects of Power EE for better telekinesis and the instant Spell construction method from his cantrips’ EE.
So much to do… But I want to finish my enchantment training first…
“Graa!” it happily vibrated, giving him an imaginary slap to the back.
Zeph smiled. “You are not wrong. It’s better to have too much to do than nothing at all,” he agreed, laughing silently.
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Three days of travel have passed. The mismatched group was getting close to a small town, the last stop in the main body of the mountain chain. Soon, they would have the pleasure of driving on a highway instead of dirt roads. The mountainous terrain would continue for quite some time yet, but properly built roads that bypassed the lonely peaks would make the journey much more pleasant.
At least that was the hope.
For the first two days, Zeph was learning from P’pfel and experimenting with his own project – a combination of his Primitive Enchanting, Mana-L enchanting, and the proper Material Enchanting P’pfel was trying to teach him. He wanted to finish a working prototype before allowing his Spell to diverge in hopes of also tiering it up. He has confirmed that the Primitive prefix didn’t only mean it was a subpar Skill - it also meant there should be a higher version of it.
Yes, Skill. Because all Spells were just Skills requiring external Mana manipulation, evidently. That didn’t mean the opposite was also true, though. Those semantics were just giving him a headache, but the professor was strict with his vocabulary.
It was a shame that Zeph lacked appropriate General Skills to help with his ideas. He had a hunch that his Shaman Profession would help him gain one after the prototype was done, though. After all, he started using biological ingredients, like bones, in his experiments.
Very Shaman-ish practice, indeed.
Anyway, the third day of travel was quite different. The reagents necessary for Material Enchanting ran out, so instead of practical exercises, theory lessons began.
Well, at least until Gru decided to join in.
“It’s impossible. It has to have Will, how do expect a slab of metal to have Will?!” P’pfel the professor shouted, pointing with his hand at his metal beads.
“Grrraaaauumm!” it retorted, vibrating deeply in irritation.
“Like I said, you just need enough… Soul ‘density’?…” Zeph robotically said, his unfocused eyes staring into infinity. In the corner of his eye, he could see the professor squirming in impatience as he slowly translated for him. At least the little guy learned to wait. “And enough of compatible Mana in an item for a Soul fragment to form a link… Will is not necessary to start the process… if at all,” Zeph finished translating in a monotonous voice.
The hours-long discussion between Gru and the professor turned sour in the last few minutes.
Honestly, Zeph had enough of listening to this empty exchange of opinions. If the topic wasn’t somehow connected to enchanting, he would have shut them both up long ago. It wouldn’t even be that difficult, he just needed to stop translating.
They were discussing the so-called ‘Soul Enchanting’ right now. A topic Zeph was eager to learn more about, as such items could be Soul-bonded. Not only that, he wanted to know more about Soul-linked items as well.
But a major disagreement between the two crippled the whole affair.
“Bah! What a gibberish! We would be drowning in undead and elementals if that was even close to the truth! But what can a barely sentient, not even one-year-old kid, know?” the professor jumped to his feet and started walking in his direction, wobbling slightly as the cart swayed. He seemed ready to give the young Gru a lesson, a physical one.
“GrrraaGGGRRRUU!” it aggressively vibrated.
“The System is decreasing Soul density, you… senile old man,” Zeph redacted the last part. Translating an impression of digesting biomatter residing in the place of a brain wasn’t something he was ready to do. Literarily, not literally. “And put that knife away,” he added in a bored tone, keeping the Gremling at the arm’s length by grabbing his head.
The knife was impotently scrapping against his arm’s armor as the midget tried to free himself and hit his chest.
“Let go!” the Gremling screeched.
Even though you are trying to gut me, senile old man? Zeph thought lazily, glancing at the shrieking madman, ignoring the ferocious barks coming from his chest.
“Who do you call senile, you faszparaszt! Snoronga like you should be disciplined in—”
A sound of metal scraping against wood could be heard. It was by no means loud enough to cut through the turmoil, yet every living being in the vicinity suddenly froze, and the forest became absolutely silent.
Their horse stumbled and lowered its head. Cold sweat covered the foreheads of the two men. Their Intuition was working in overdrive as a horrific danger was perceived nearby, a dread overwhelming their internal senses.
Fearfully and mechanically, their heads turned in the direction of the front of the cart.
A grotesque, way too wide smile greeted them. Hot air was streaming away from the silhouette with such ferocity that above the head a flaming inferno of red hair was flailing wildly. The air currents were warping the face into a waving, demonic visage as the right hand, white from the force of grip, was unhurriedly raising up a heavy weapon in an ominous manner.
“My patience,” slowly whispered the fire demon, “is running very, veeery~ thin.” For a second, her almost closed eyes and a deep frown were warped by a small burst of hot air into a grotesque, furious grimace. They shivered, all three of them.
“We are close to the town,” she delicately whispered through the tight smile, barely moving her lips. “Be… civil. Meditate? Prepare?”
They both nodded furiously. Gru kept quiet for the fear of provoking the demon.
She started to turn away, ever so slowly lowering the weapon down. Zeph could hear imaginary cracking sounds as her head was re-aligning with her torso, turning to the front.
A few seconds passed that way, which felt more like a minute, until a dull thud reverberated through the forest.
The weapon was placed down.
It was a signal. Critters all around scrammed away as one. Zeph and P’pfel disengaged and started to stiffly correct their gear and clothes. All in absolute silence.
They synchronized perfectly as they repacked their equipment. Eye contact was unnecessary, the recent ‘near-death’ experience working wonders on their cooperation.
Then, they sat down, nodded to each other, and started observing the passing trees.
It was a little too warm for it, but Zeph put on his leathers to hide his armor. The lower they have gone in altitude, the higher the temperature became. It wasn’t that surprising as the north wind was blocked by the mountains and the south one took its place. He wondered if they had a normal winter here, but he wasn’t even sure at what longitude they were right now, not to mention the axial tilt of the planet.
It would be funny if the tilt was 90 degrees… Wait, would that be the situation that people describe as “the east is in the north”? Although, that wouldn’t be true for the whole year, and I am sure such planet wouldn’t be hospitable temperature-wise… Maybe they meant that the magnetic north wasn’t aligning correctly with the east? Hmmm… he thought idly, observing the passing trees. He never was overly interested in Astronomy, but the strange moon and his enhanced memory sometimes made him think about this planet.
As there wasn’t anything to do because of the self-imposed curfew, he allowed his thoughts to drift a little. Aisha was still fuming, he could tell, it was better to stay silent.
Speaking of Memory… This whole past-life reading is strange, he thought, remembering what P’pfel shared with him. If I cannot remember feelings, just pure information, how does it influence my personality? The stat is making changes in the brain physically, true, but it isn’t just restructuring neurons either, like Regeneration can… At least from what I could understand… It smells like Will shenanigans…
In such a manner, hours passed on idle considerations. He was even able to plan a few scientifically proper experiments. If he was to stay in a city for some time to learn, he could as well check some of his theories. He wouldn’t start before checking the library and speaking with a scholar, though. People here weren’t stupid, repeating their experiments would be a waste of time.
He would have to make sure his income was stable, too. That was another problem. According to Aisha, he could easily do that by hunting for animal parts, but he felt that his Class wasn’t ready for the first sub-specialization at level 33. He wasn’t overly worried though, their journey would last for at least a month still – he had a lot of time to plan things out.
Their cart jerked wildly, shaking him out of his daydreaming. A loud, rhythmic clacking of horse’s hooves resounded in the vicinity as the cart turned to the left. He looked around.
They were on a road. A true road. Their horse sped up and started trotting.
Is that… granite? he thought looking down.
His guess was as good as any. The pavement fit so smoothly that he couldn’t hear or feel any bumps. And the road was wide, even ignoring the deforested buffer around it. He looked in both directions, seeing some carts in the distance.
Two-lane road? But there is so much space… he thought, estimating that four carts could easily pass each other. Maybe it’s for some race of giants or something?
He started to open his mouth to ask Aisha, but closed them almost immediately. Right, not now…
In the distance, city walls were visible. As well as a small queue of vehicles. He was, once more, disappointed to see only horses as other carts passed them.
Where are the fantasy elements? he thought gloomily. I hope the town has some other races than humans, at least…
It was quite late, so the queue was cleared before they even get close to the walls. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a 3 meters high construct made from the same material as the road. Simple, boring, and probably nonfunctional if his new jumping height was any indicator. The only interesting detail was that the gate didn’t have an arch, just a pair of heavily reinforced sliding doors, covering the walls to both sides of it. He guessed the second pair was on the inside of the walls, but it was hard to see in the waning daylight.
The guards at the gate looked tired – their group probably arrived just at the watch change. They were wearing the same slick full-plate armor as the knights did, just without face-covering helmets.
One of them started walking in their direction as their cart slowly rolled close, but one glare and a growl from Aisha made him recoil instantly. He started to make placating gestures while probably receiving her effigy. At least his lack of hesitation suggested that.
“Warrior Priestess passing,” he informed the rest of the gatekeepers, gesticulating wildly with his hand.
The terror is real, I see… Zeph thought amused, observing as the guards immediately moved away. Well, that was definitely the easiest isekai town entry I have heard of, he smirked.
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Interface: no changes.