Clean again, or at least as best as I can make myself, I walk over to Kalanthia. Although it’s getting on for evening, she’s still outside, as is her wont.
“Kalanthia, is now a good time to ask a question?” I inquire of the great cat. She half-opens one eye to regard me and then closes it again.
If you must. I hesitate, not sure whether her unenthusiastic response is true assent, or a way of asking me to go away politely. That means yes, she clarifies a moment later. Though I expect at least one Core for Lathani in exchange if the question requires too much thinking. OK then.
“Deal,” I agree. “Have you ever heard of Flesh-Shaping?” This time both eyes open to stare at me, my question clearly engaging her interest.
Flesh-shaping? Where did you hear of this? I shrug and explain. Hmm, she says thoughtfully after I finish my quick summary. I have not heard of Flesh-shaping per se. Before my heart can sink too much in disappointment, she continues. However, there are many types of shaping I have encountered, both personally and through conversation. Earth-shaping, Lightning-shaping, Water-shaping, Wood-shaping, Air-shaping, Stone-shaping…
They are all powerful abilities which allow Beasts to gain control over a certain element. For me, Earth-shaping allows me to manipulate the Energy within the earth. I can extend my senses through it, cause it to change shape, or receive messages from it. I am more stealthy when touching earth, since it actively helps me to reduce my impact as I walk or run. Some substances are harder than others to manipulate, but if they are classified as ‘earth’, they all fall within my purview.
Without knowing for sure, I would guess that Flesh-shaping is much the same.
“So anything that could be counted as ‘flesh’ would be able to be manipulated,” I muse half to myself. I open my status screen and concentrate on accessing the notification linked with my Skill evolution. Clicking over to my messages, I see only one available there. Pleased, I select it.
You have discovered a use of your Skill: Lay-on-hands which is not compatible with its originating school: the Way of the Healer. Skills from this school are explicitly focused on doing no harm. You have used your Skill: Lay-on-hands in a combat situation to kill your opponent. You therefore have a choice to either Evolve your Skill or Split it.
Evolve
If you choose to Evolve your Skill, you will gain access to a new area of magic: Flesh-Shaping. Having moved away from the original Skill you may, however, lose access to potential aspects of your original Skill. Aspects of which you have gained personal knowledge will remain intact.
Split
If you choose to Split your Skill, you will retain your original Skill: Lay-on-hands with all previous progress remaining intact. You will also gain a second Skill: Body-Invasion. This new Skill will allow you to influence an opponent’s body while fighting by invading their flesh with your own mana. Invasions with foreign mana are automatically resisted by the enemy and this resistance must be overcome in order for the Skill to be used successfully.
Until you make a choice, you will be unable to use any combat applications of flesh-magic.
Close messages? Y/N
“Have you heard of Body Invasion?” I ask Kalanthia next, my gaze not moving from the text in front of me.
Only when it comes to incorporeal or semi-corporeal beings. Spirits have a nasty habit of invading the bodies of those without sufficient Willpower to defend against them, taking control of bodies like puppeteers. Some other incorporeal beings and semi-corporeal beings do not puppet others’ bodies, but they can disrupt a body’s functioning. Usually a robust network of internal connections and the ability to flood them with mana when appropriate is enough to deal with such attacks. It can be difficult to defend against one conducted by a far more powerful being, however.
Interesting. Is that what Body Invasion is about, then? Using mana to disrupt the body? I kind of understand it in that context. I’m not sure if that’s the way I’d want to go, though. At best a Skill that disrupts a body’s ability to function; at worst a Skill which expects me to become some sort of puppet-master…
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And both of those seem to have the same limitations as Lay-on-hands: needing body contact in order to function. At least at the outset. But wouldn’t Flesh-Shaping need the same? I wonder…
“Do you have to be touching the earth to affect it?” My question seems to take her aback a little.
I...I am unsure, she admits slowly. Not possessing wings, I tend to always be touching the ground, so it is a little difficult to say whether I could or not.
“What if you were in a tree?” I suggest. Kalanthia is silent, though I sense a thoughtfulness from her. Then, with no warning, she pushes herself to her feet in one fluid motion. She’s gone before I have time to blink, bounding quickly down the slope and disappearing into the forest.
Bastet sends a questioning feel down the Bond, and I sense my other Bound staring too.
Did you offend her somehow? River asks in surprise.
“What do you take me for?” I demand from him, playing up my indignation.
Apologies, I didn’t mean to offend-
“I’m joking again,” I tell him, the concern at the back of my mind about his recent attitude growing. I’m going to have to talk to him, aren’t I…? “I’m not entirely sure why she disappeared, but I have a feeling it’s to test a theory. I doubt she’ll be gone for long.”
She isn’t, as it turns out: only a couple of minutes. Once more there’s a blur of spots and then she’s lying back in her position like she’d never been gone. I eye her with a hint of amusement.
“Got your answer, then?”
Indeed, she answers, her tone implying satisfaction. I have a feeling I know what she found out before she even says it. It was harder to manipulate the earth from the canopy above it, but I was able to do so. I wasn’t, however, able to affect the earth while hovering above it.
“I thought you couldn’t fly?” I can’t help but ask, confused.
No. But I can jump. For some reason, the image of the massive nunda just randomly jumping again and again in the forest amuses me.
“Do you know why?”
I can guess. The tree is still connected to the earth, and by standing in it, I am connected to the tree. Air seems to have no true connection to earth, and I have no true connection to air, meaning that it becomes essentially impossible for me to forge a link. If I could spend longer in the air, I might find a way, but since I’m not likely to become a bird, I see no point in trying to do it by leaping around like a cub.
“Fair enough,” I agree before returning to my thoughts. So it looks like the secret is in sending magic down connections. If I gain Earth-shaping, that would no doubt make sending magic to my companions pretty easy; I might even be able to use Lay-on-hands that way. On the other hand, I sense that I’m not able to use the Bonds as a connection to send healing magic down by using Lay-on-hands, so perhaps the Skill really is limited to physical contact.
But there was that moment when it felt like I continued healing River even when I wasn’t touching him anymore, I think. Maybe I imagined it? Or maybe it worked like that because I’d already initiated the Skill with physical contact.
The problem is that this choice is a gamble. Body Invasion doesn’t sound hugely useful to me, but it might be a better Skill than its description and our guesses estimate it to be. The main benefit of that option is that it leaves me with my Lay-on-hands intact. The Skill has been a life-saver multiple times over and has only increased in power and scope since I got it.
Though...for something approaching the Master rank, it doesn’t feel as powerful as I might expect. Nor has its scope broadened that much. It started as a healing Skill and remains a healing Skill. The main things that have changed are how much health is healed per point of mana given to it, the fact that I can ‘dive’ into my patient’s body to seek out issues, and that it’s become easier to manipulate. Good improvements, yes, but nothing as ground-breaking as some Skills the System knowledge stone gave me information about.
Like Firebolt which a Classer evolved into Fireball at Novice, Fire Barrage at Initiate, Firestorm at Journeyman, then Inferno at Master. That particular user never got to Grandmaster, let alone Sage, killed in some battle or other. However, as an example of progression, it was a very clear one. The essence of the Skill hadn’t changed – it had always used fire and mana to do damage. However, it had transformed from a fairly weak Skill which would take several casts to do much damage, to an immensely powerful one which could change the course of a battle if well applied.
Flesh-shaping, however… If Kalanthia’s words about Earth-shaping have taught me nothing else, they’ve shown me that anything linked to shaping has an incredibly wide scope. She can affect anything that is remotely linked to ‘earth’. Soil, stone, probably metal too. She’s not limited to only being able to make pits, for example. Or spikes. She can do anything she has the imagination and mana for.
That’s what draws me to Flesh-shaping. However, it is a gamble, because there’s no guarantee I’d be able to heal with it, let alone heal as well as something which is a dedicated healing Skill.
Then again, I’ve come to understand that life is a gamble. I’ve had to make a lot of them since coming to this world and considering I’m still alive, as are most of my Bound, I’d say that they’ve paid off. If I hadn’t gone through the tunnel with the spider-monster, I wouldn’t have found salt. If I hadn’t gone into the lizard-folk camp, we may not have been able to rescue Lathani. If we hadn’t gone through the tunnel out of the vine-strangler forest, we wouldn’t have gained everything that experience gave us. Because for all the pain and damage that the Pure Energy did to me, I can’t deny that we came out of it far better than when we went in.
Having made my choice, I don’t allow myself to second-guess it, selecting the option to Evolve.