Samantha set the training dummy she’d purchased from the rift shop down in a suitably clear area. The 50-point aid was listed as being able to withstand unaided Bronze-tier strikes. It was an ugly thing–a thick, round pole wrapped tightly with rough rope–but a few test punches and kicks proved that its description was accurate. It stood tall and didn’t budge or shift positions despite her attacking it with her full Strength, and as far as she could tell, it wasn’t damaged.
Now, let’s see what these new abilities can do.
To get a baseline feel for what her attack capabilities were with other arts, she first tested a handful of kicks with [Swift], [Flurry], and then both skills together. While [Swift] alone had the same unimpressive results as before (even after raising her Agility to its maximum approximate value of 41), [Flurry] caused the dummy to shake slightly and left small dents behind. [Flurry] and [Swift] together made the dummy wobble a bit, and left more pronounced damage on the struck surface.
She walked around the dummy to face an undamaged section and started her experiments with punches. Because the dummy was only graded for non-enhanced Bronze attacks, she didn’t want to cause too much damage too early in the process. Starting with [High Speed Strike], she performed a simple straight punch and was amazed at how quickly her arm moved forward. The way that it blurred with motion was almost unnatural, and reminded her of the effect [Flurry] had on her legs. Unlike [Flurry], when her fist impacted the dummy there was no twinge of pain from the collision. It seemed the Resilience increase was significant enough that she didn’t need to worry about accidentally injuring herself with her own speed. Raising her Agility to the maximum with [Swift] and performing a [High Speed Strike] again confirmed this.
The damage the attack left behind was overall less than what [Flurry] achieved, but it was much better than her normal punches. With the added benefit of surprise speed, she could see this being useful when she couldn’t effectively utilize kicks. The cost was a tad prohibitive at this stage, but the next rank cost less and produced more effect. Furthermore, it wasn’t limited by the type of attack she performed. She allowed herself some fun trying different techniques out with the ability, laughing to herself as she could even headbutt without hurting herself. Granted, the experience of having her head blast forward and come to a dead stop in an instant was highly jarring and disorienting, but there were no other ill-effects.
Moving on to [Piercing Strike], she went through the same series of attacks and was impressed by the results. Although the relative speed of her punches were normal, the damage inflicted was almost on par with [Flurry]. When her fist made contact with the wood, she could actually sense the qi coating around it discharging into the target to increase the effect of her attack. Combining [Piercing Strike] and [High Speed Strike] together caused her punch to sink deeper into the tough ropes and leave a fist-shaped impression behind.
She grabbed hold of the sides of the dummy to stop it from wobbling, then readied the combination she was most excited for. She spent 10.5 total qi to maximize her Agility with [Swift], activate [Flurry], coat her shin with energy from [Piercing Strike], and give her extra Resilience and attack speed with [High Speed Strike], then kick–
The dummy was tumbling over onto the ground with a loud crash before she’d even completed her thought–her intention–to kick. Her leg had moved with such speed that she hadn’t been aware of its motion. A dull, tingling pain below her knee made her fear that perhaps her leg had been blown off during the attack, but a passing glance reassured her that all of her limbs were still attached. Probing the area with a cautious touch, she was relieved to discover that despite being tender nothing was broken. This was something her Rebirth Core would fix up in less than an hour without any special attention from her.
Turning her gaze towards the fallen dummy, she could only conclude that this new combination was greater than the sum of its parts. Where each ability had individually left relatively small indentations, this latest kick had crushed the point of impact inwards to such a degree that the dummy now had a distinctive ‘bent’ look. The rope binding the pole had kept it from completely shattering, but it was easy to see multiple fragments poking through the now-loose loops.
“Wow!” Silas cheered her on from the sidelines. “Nice kick.”
She could feel his pride in her accomplishment and gave him a beaming smile, “It was, wasn’t it?”
She didn’t think the current dummy could take any more abuse but she wanted to make sure that this hadn’t been a fluke. It was possible that her past strikes on the dummy had weakened it, and that’s why the effect had been so pronounced. Somewhat begrudgingly, she purchased a fresh dummy with another 50 points to perform the kick one more time.
Spending another 10.5 qi to fuel the combination, she grinned as once again the dummy fell over with a distinct bend in its pole. The kick was just that powerful, it seemed. She wondered about what would happen when she someday combined her abilities with [Mongrel’s Regurgitation], if using them synchronously already had this much of an impact. Her mind started to explore the various possible outcomes again with different ability additions, but she stopped herself before she got too carried away.
Her curiosity satisfied for the moment, she considered what to do with her remaining points. Not counting the 12,000 points she set aside to purchase the Intelligence scenario she still had 51,595 points to spend in the rift shop if she wanted to. She could continue buying more days inside the cultivation chamber, but she was doubtful that she’d be able to advance to High Bronze with that amount. Or, if she could, it would leave her with almost nothing to spend on other things.
Recalling some of the offerings that appealed most to her, she decided to make some short-term investments to try and improve her immediate chances of survival. The shop allowed her to add or adjust enchantments on items that she’d earned during her time in the rift–which included pretty much everything in her possession. She could also purchase things like a helmet and boots and enchant them, upgrade the materials of the items, or get their sizings corrected so they fit her better.
Practically any enchantment she could think of was offered by the shop, but she couldn’t just buy the most powerful options straightaway. There were a lot of factors to consider apart from the obvious issue of cost. Items could be thought of as having a ‘enchantment limit’ based on the materials they were crafted from and their quality. This limit could either be reached by putting on multiple weaker enchantments, or one or two extremely potent ones.
Reviewing her buckler in the enchantment screen in the shop, she could see it’s limit was high but most of it was already taken up by the pre-existing scriptings. She could upgrade the material to raise this limit, but she also needed to think about if this investment would pay off. It was expensive to change such an inherent aspect of the item, and it might not be worth it if her enemies’ strength too-quickly outpaced what her shield could defend against or she herself outgrew its use.
Her spear, on the other hand, had a moderate limit but only one pre-existing durability enchantment on the spearhead. The self-repair functionality on the wooden shaft was inherent to the material, and didn’t count against the limit. In addition, due to the fact that the spearhead and shaft were considered somewhat separate, she could choose to upgrade the spearhead and shaft independently of each other as well as overall weapon enhancements that would take up space on both limits. There was similar flexibility for many types of items. For example, her robes could be scripted as a whole or separately on the individual sleeves and body, or a pair of boots could have different enchantments on either foot.
There were a few downsides to such individualized enchantments, however. For one, these enchantments were generally weaker than overall ones. Separate durability enchantments placed on her spearhead and spear shaft, for instance, would be less effective than one that was across the entire weapon. It would also be more point-intensive to split up scripting effects. Again, a minor durability enchantment would cost the same amount of points regardless of what part of the spear it was put on. The overall enchantment would be half the cost of putting it on the spearhead and shaft independently.
Even with those considerations, there were many cases that came to mind where the more granular approach would be beneficial. Case in point, she could place a sizing enchantment on her spear shaft that would allow her to extend or shorten at will. The most affordable version of this enchantment–1000 points–could alter the spear shaft’s length by 1 foot and cost a small amount of qi each time its length was changed. If she didn’t want to expend qi each time or wanted the spear shaft to be altered by a greater length, there were more powerful versions she could choose from. She just needed the points and enchantment limit to spend on them.
She spent the next several hours purchasing items and enchantments she felt would be most helpful to her. She was tempted to buy more arts as well, but decided against it for the moment. She already had a wide variety of abilities through her bond with Silas, and there wasn’t anything within her budget that jumped out to her as a must-have. The most enticing manuals were too expensive, or required meridians that she hadn’t cleared yet.
Nevertheless, she looked at her new equipment with excitement.
She’d upgraded her robe from using Bristleback Peccary materials to something called ‘Rookanjack’ leather, which was more comfortable, more durable, and had a higher enchantment limit. Then, she paid for it to be perfectly tailored and scripted with self-repair, self-cleaning, and durability functionality. For her spear, she upgraded the head from qi forged steel to qi augmented tungsten, kept its original durability enchantment, and added a minor sharpness script to its edges. On the spear shaft she added scripting that let it be lengthened or shortened by up to two feet for a small qi expense.
After purchasing some Rookanjack leather boots that stopped just shy of her knees, she had them enchanted for high durability and minor self-repair. She didn’t know if high durability was strictly necessary, but she’d blasted her shoes off or apart more than once when using [Swift] and didn’t want these to get ruined too easily. Lastly, she purchased a Rookanjack leather helmet with self-repair and temperature regulation scripts stitched into it. If it got too hot or too cold, the helmet would slightly cool or warm her head to make her more comfortable–a feature she would’ve loved to put on the rest of her gear as well were it not so expensive. She almost had forgone this creature-comfort addition entirely, but her year in the unrelentingly hot desert had taught her the reality of wearing any sort of headgear in extreme climates. It was miserable, distracting, and potentially dangerous when she got too fed-up with the constant discomfort and opted to take the helmet off. At least with this one part of her would be semi-comfortable, even if the rest of her body was suffering.
All of these upgrades cost her an eye-watering 30,000 points, but she considered them a necessary expense for her well-being and sanity. Not having to constantly worry about sourcing new clothing when her current gear was damaged in a fight would be a nice change of pace.
With 21,495 points left to freely spend as she wished, she made the choice to move on to the next scenario instead of continuing to shop. If she ever wanted to save up enough to buy the other higher-cost shop items, she’d need to get comfortable leaving a sizable amount of points in her reserve going into the next quest. It made the choice slightly easier when she considered that–provided she survived a quest failure and wasn’t ejected from the rift–she’d be able to buy another scenario to attempt.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Firming her resolve, she found the desired scenario and spent 12,000 points to activate it.
New scenario purchased! Rift qi reserve has decreased from 95% => 92%.
At once, the space to her left cracked as if a pane of glass had been fractured. Then, the air tore open, a new rift forming within its jagged edges. Gathering up all of her supplies and placing Silas across her shoulders and top of her bag, she boldly stepped up to the rift.
“Ready?” she asked her companion.
“Always! You?”
“Sure am. Let’s see what this ‘hard’ scenario will throw at us.”
She walked through without hesitation. Before she’d even finished blinking the bright light out of her eyes she received a new notification.
Rift Quest: Counterintelligence*
Identify and report threats.
*Note: Rift Qi Reserve = 92%. First time delved. The difficulty and rewards for this quest will be enhanced accordingly.
Accept? Y/N
She got a quick feel for her surroundings before addressing the prompt. She was standing in an official-looking room with austere portraits and polished medals hanging proudly on the walls. In front of her was a middle-aged woman. The woman was looking down at a map of a city on a wooden desk, pointing at some symbols that had been drawn onto the paper. It seemed as though Samantha had been inserted into this scenario mid-conversation based on what the woman was saying to her.
“...n’t been able to nail down their base of operations. Here, here, and here are confirmed sightings of activity, but they’re exceptionally skilled at evading any tails we put on them. The few we’ve managed to track down and capture don’t tell us much, unfortunately. Each is part of an isolated group that acts somewhat independently. They’re getting orders from higher up to coordinate, but every group is only privy to a fraction of the information we need. We’re unsure of the total number of members, but most are cultivators like you. So, don’t think your status will save you if you’re caught. I’m sure it doesn’t need to be said, but if it comes to that… we’ve never met or spoken. If they find out why we’re investigating their activities they may go into hiding, initiate their plan early, or make alterations which render any previously gathered information useless. You’ll be on your own in terms of a suitable backstory for your activities, and you shouldn’t expect any rescue operations either.”
Feeling incredibly lost, Samantha accepted the quest and caught herself up on the situation.
Rift Quest: Counterintelligence [IN-PROGRESS]
Premise: The local spymaster has heard whispers of some large-scale event being planned by a Divine Beast Cult hiding within the city. Apart from confirmation that most of the cult’s resources are going towards the event in question and that the event will take place in one-month’s time, the spymaster is unsure of any specifics due to the intense loyalty and insular nature of the cult. You are one of several promising agents being sent to investigate. To protect everyone in case of capture, none of you have been made aware of the number of other agents nor their identities. Though you are all on the same side, you will only receive significant recognition if you’re the one to bring back useful intel* to the spymaster.
Main Objectives: Find and report intel* on the planned event before it is carried out. Gather and report any intel* that the spymaster could leverage against the cult, such as the Divine Beast they worship, member identities, safehouses, etc.
Optional Objectives: Steal or destroy any resources** that could be used in the upcoming event. Keep your goals undiscovered by the cult.
*Any tangible intel on the cult could be considered useful. Point value for your contribution will be evaluated based on uniqueness, accuracy, and if the information is actionable.
**Resources will be clearly marked and labeled as such
The woman looked up at her expectantly, “Any questions?”
“Quite a few, actually.” Samantha admitted.
The woman sat down in the chair behind the desk and waved her on, “Go on then. Uninformed agents are ineffective ones, I always say. What do you need to know?”
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Theora couldn’t help but inwardly cheer as she watched Samantha use her projection art to begin systematically searching the areas of the city where the spymaster had indicated that there was cult activity. Karrenne was positively fuming over her shoulder as things unfolded, which improved her mood immensely. They had reduced the time dilation in their observation room so that they wouldn’t need to wait the full month for the quest to complete. This made it obvious in just a couple minutes that Samantha was doing more than just excelling in this scenario–she was completely dominating.
Whenever Samantha came across a valuable piece of intel or a resource that could be easily stolen away without much notice, she took advantage of her telekinetic abilities to spirit them out of buildings and back to her base of operations–a small room in a nondescript inn that she practically never left. She only exited the space for the regular mealtimes or to make a submission of her findings to the spymaster. Because she made a point to interact with fellow inn patrons during mealtimes and befriended the owners by occasionally kicking out a drunkard, anyone asking after her would be met with the cold shoulder. Though, there was no reason for anyone to ask after her in the first place.
Rift scenarios were crafted to mimic conditions on the floor they originated from to be fair to ascendants. Projection abilities and a means to sense them were incredibly rare on the second floor, meaning there wasn’t anyone in this scenario who could counter Samantha’s approach. There was no way for the cult members to trace any thefts or information leaks back to Samantha unless they caught her carrying something back to her room. Even then, that was all but impossible. Because most of the items she chose to take were papers or other light objects, she could move them for long periods, extremely quickly, or at high altitudes to avoid notice.
At first, the rapid deluge of information Samantha provided caused the spymaster to be suspicious of the quality of intel. However, once information started trickling in from the other agents, that changed. Almost everything other agents submitted was intel Samantha had already turned in and only corroborated her submissions. This caused the spymaster’s trust in Samantha to skyrocket near overnight. It was a perfect storm of skill compatibility and circumstance.
“This is outrageous!” Karrenne complained, “This can’t be allowed to stand.”
“I’ve already given her multiple main objectives, shortened the quest timeframe, and added in competing agents to work against her and lower her score per your… recommendations.” Theora replied, “That’s already more alterations than I made to the first scenario, which seems a bit hypocritical I might point out.”
Karrenne scowled, “Making the quest easier like you did is hardly comparable to the changes I suggested. My alterations were meant to challenge her appropriately! Speaking of which, you weren’t going to mention she had a projection art while going into this scenario? That sounds like purposefully withholding relevant information to me.”
Theora got defensive at the possibility of a black mark in the Observant record when she’d been playing along with Karrenne’s absurd requests so far, “How are her abilities relevant? These scenarios should be pretty much the same for any ascendant regardless of their specialty. If she has a skill that gives her an advantage with a certain type of task, she should be rewarded for taking advantage of it! If we continuously thwart their attempts to leverage their strongest skills, we’ll end up making everyone generalists to compensate for the handicaps we impose on them. Also, I don’t see you complaining about how the combat-focused scenarios are too easy for fighters and suggest that they do more administrative work.”
“You’re honestly telling me that everyone would just be leaving their secrets out in the open with no warding? Though primitive, even the second floor uses wards for the most important buildings.” Karrenne retorted, “There’s precedent for it, and you’re doing a disservice to her by not giving her any reasonable resistance to overcome. If it were me, I’d also add in someone else who could use projection arts–maybe the cult leader?”
Theora was about to protest, but Karrenne cut her off, “I will acknowledge that making changes mid-scenario is unusual even at the request of an Observant. The warding is a less egregious addition than an adversary with a projection art, so I’d recommend adding that in for now. If you do, I’ll count that as you being compliant with my investigation. If another scenario comes up where she can so easily abuse this tactic, then you can add in an appropriate enemy.”
Theora sighed. As much as she hated it, Karrenne did have a point. Having every important building completely unwarded was a little lax. “Fine. Where do you want me to put wards?”
The entire time they spoke, Samantha continued to earn points by gathering intel, edging out any and all competition.
“Every important cultist building at least! Some for government or government official buildings as well.”
Focusing on the scenario, Theora wove an art to interact with the system and alter its parameters. As requested, she placed wards to keep out projections over the important buildings to the quest and to the city.
“There. It’s done.” Theora said begrudgingly.
“Good! Now let’s– wait, what is she doing?”
Theora watched as Samantha curiously inspected a freshly-warded warehouse. An invisible barrier had unexpectedly stopped Samantha in her tracks, which Theora knew from personal experience could be shocking. Though it didn’t hurt, per se, there was something about flying face first into a wall that was challenging to get used to. When Samantha returned to her room to mark the warehouse down on a map of the city, then started projecting again–this time with much less care and much greater speed–the corner of her mouth turned upwards. When Samantha flew into another freshly warded building and marked it down on her map again, Theora smiled.
What followed was Samantha rapidly discovering every warded building in the entire city and marking them down. Bringing this map to the spymaster and discussing her findings, they were able to differentiate the buildings that were understandably protected from ones that shouldn’t be. There were more locations than could reasonably be investigated by any one person in the short time frame, so the spymaster did something that even Theora did not expect. She gave Samantha authority over three agents, some talismans for communication between them, and a promise that she’d receive full recognition for any activities completed by the agents under Samantha’s command. By the spymaster’s reasoning, the progress performed by the agents could be reasonably attributed to Samantha as well because it wouldn’t have happened without her–at least, not nearly as quickly.
Using her projection to scout out which locations were most likely to have cultist activity, Samantha effectively guided the agents to multiple big finds. She was even able to raid some of the most valuable warehouses and discreetly ruin or steal resources.
As the time limit rapidly approached and Samantha’s point count climbed even more rapidly than before, Karrenne watched on in silence. Though her visage was calm, Theora could feel irritation and rage roiling in the woman’s dantian. Every corrupt politician that was a part of the cult or looked the other way when bribed by them, every mole that had been feeding the cult information about the spymaster’s activities, the identity of the cult leaders who were the driving force behind coordination of the disparate groups… Samantha smoked them all out of hiding.
Her main, secondary, and optional objectives were completed in record time. The cult didn’t know what hit them, even as they were systematically captured and their organization was dismantled. All because every important cult building was warded. Ironically, Karrenne’s insistence that the wards were placed narrowed down Samantha’s search from several thousand buildings to less than 100. Without that, Samantha wouldn’t have had half as much success as she currently did.
Theora was proud.