Of course, everyone was grinning all around at their brand new Ten Cores, and the large amounts of Core energies that had been moved to the Pocket were all urgently reclaimed and refinement begun by all of them.
Even if they never got another update, they could just slowly work towards filling their Ten Core, and they’d get there eventually. The general power level of everyone in the room was near that of a Delta Brick, albeit most didn’t bother with a Nova-Corps equivalent uniform.
As for me, it was now going to be a question of just what my relationship with the Widow in the Web was going to be...
================
Dynamo of the High Guard, Warlock of the Underweb, The Sage of Focus, Courtier of Death, Ringlord (Legendary*)
Neutral Good Eternal Female Augmented Powered Human/8 (Exemplar)*, Base Spider Totem Template, Golden Child/14
Ur-Priest/1, Alchemist/3, Mystic Theurge/9 (Ur/Sorc), Hierophant/2, Warshaper/5; Wizard/1, Learned Sorceress/1, Arcane Theurge/10 (Sorc10/Wiz6), Archmage/3 (Wizard), Craft Theurge/5 (Alc/Wiz), Name Theurge/1 (Sorc/Warlock); Arcane Fist/4, Minstrel/1, Lyric Theurge/5 (Wizard/Minstrel), Theurge of the Arts (Alch/Min)/10
Strength: (14) 18->49/56 [68/73**]* Height: 6’6
Dexterity: 18->51 [50,+11**]* Weight: 410 lbs.
Constitution: (16) 18->51 [50, +11**]* Hair: Black (Auburn with White Tips)
Intelligence: 20->69 (73 Cold)*** Eyes: Green
Wisdom: (12) 18->47*** Age: 25
Charisma: (12) 18->49***
Health: 689 (14d8 (112) (Maximum/Exemplar) + 350 Con + 14 Feats + 168 Exemplar + 45 Various)
Soak: 1013 (9d8+12d6 (144 Maximum, Exemplar)+ 525 Con + 42 Feats/FC + 252 Exemplar + 50 Various)
Movement: 325 (base 65, x3 Exemplar, +x2 Lightfoot)
**Ultra Nova Core Rank/Mutant Core: 10 (10/1000) (0.1%)/ 310 PP (290+20 Mastery; fixed, integrated)
Arcane Pool/Ki: 78 (3+ ki (26) + Song (49))
Warlock Rank: 11 (13 w Chasuble) [Legendary]
Theurgic Caster Levels: Ur-Priest/10 (75); Sorceress/21 (42); Wizard/20 (41); Minstrel/16 (37) (NOG reduced Slots); Alchemist/20 (41), Warlock = Sorcerer. [+12 CL all (Human/8*), +2 Human to Alchemist Level]
Notable Talents/Traits: Naturally Focused, Dauntless; Favored by Fate, Spell Affinity, Magical Tradition, Undead Slayer, Weird Scientist, Valiant Reputation; Soul of Le Fey; Born Eldritch Blade; Slayer: Ninja, Tong, Werewolf, Skrull/Dire Wraith, Brood, Badoon, Fiends, Mutates, Deviants, Constructs (robots, cyborgs), Gene-born (acquired), Pirates, Crux, Askar; Patient, Protective; Born to Shadows, Seductive, Manhunter, Independent; Widow of the Red Room; True Believer, Faithful; Romantic, Artistic; Sealed Identity; Master of Four Dragons (Sun, Moon, Shadow, Ocean); Master of Night Rose; Scholarly, Dedicated Engineer; Ice Queen, Organized; Silver Tongue, Perfect Pitch, Musical, Gifted Vocalist; Master of Kiai-jitsu; Brewmaster; Chef Artiste; Scrupulous, Dedicated Researcher; Tempestuous, Diva; Authoritative, Ambitious; Wheelman; Inquisitive; Bold; Money is Important; Green Thumb, Verdant Soul; Lineage of Thunder, Lineage of Rain; Mutant Ultra Core Psion (Telepathy, Telekinesis)
Templated Powers: Poison Resistance and Acquired Immunity; Radiation Immunity; Perfect Balance; Enhanced Speed and Jumping; Impact Resistance; Enhanced Climbing
Warlock Powers (Spider Totem Pact, Active): Bio-Electric Generation*; Covalent Bonding/Repulsion*; Danger Sense*; Strength Increase*; Dexterity Increase*; Constitution Increase*; Speed Increase*; Reaction Speed Increase*; Damage Reduction Increase*; Increased Healing Factor*; Manifest Eldritch Mindblade*
#Mutant/Inhuman Core Power (via Ultra Core): Superspeed, Flight, Increased Reaction Time at Speed; Increased Invulnerability at Speed; Weather Goddess; Sky Goddess; Manifest Telepathy; Manifest Telekinesis; Voice of Thunder (Omega); Tremorfoot; Behold the Flaw; Animated and Enhanced Hair; Breathe Water, Aquatic Adaption; Elemental Attunement and Manipulation
Ultra Nova Core Powers: (I/X) Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Invulnerability, Enhanced Energy Absorption, Enhanced Flight, Enhanced Energy Projection, Enhanced Vitality, Enhanced Reaction Time
Widow Training: Enhanced Healing, Enhanced Memory, Combat Instincts, Fast Learner, Steady Mindset, Increased Longevity
Golden Child/Asgardian/Celestial Eternal Racial Powers: Regenerative Adaptive Cocoon; Rapid Learning; Divine Inspiration (magic); Enhanced Cosmic/Divine Energy Attunement; Cosmic/Divine Strength; Cosmic Flight; Cosmic/Divine Invulnerability; Enhanced Cosmic/Divine Energy Manipulation; Enhanced Cosmic Matter Manipulation; Enhanced Cosmic/Divine Vitality; Cosmic/Divine State of Mind; Teleportation; Form Uni-Merge; Allspeech; Cosmic Telepathy
True Exemplar Template (Human/8*) Powers: Exemplar Foundation Stats (+12); Exemplar Vitality (Health and Soak Max, Longevity); Blessed by Fate (Insight Bonuses); Blessed by Chance (Luck Bonuses); Exemplar Talent (Competence bonuses to Skills); Exemplar Resistances (Energy); Exemplar Defenses (Physical); Exemplar Speed (triple all modes)
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Acquired Powers: Immune to Fire and Cold extremes, affinity for Fire and Cold Magic; Spellcaster (Weaver Magic); Pheromonal Control; Sunstone Attunement (Crystal Bones); Rune-Carved Bones (+5 to Physical Stats**, Unbreakable); Godstone Attunement; Ultra Universal Nova Core; Beaubier Core (integrated)#, Inspired Intellect+2 (Grand Discovery), Second Sorcerer Bloodline (Void Phoenix, Fire/Cold), Prepared Archmage (Wizard Spells); Fey Caster; Asgardian Sorcery; Cosmic and Divine Awareness, Heavy Gravity Training/5
Road of the Eternal: Exceed Mortality; Exceed Mortal Limits; Legendary Sorcerer*, Legendary Warlock*, Legendary Ringlord; (Road Undefined)
Spells per day: ...
================
“DAMMIT!” twenty voices swore in unison. I lifted my eyebrows as I looked around.
I alone had the Exemplar/Golden Child boosts, which didn’t surprise any of us. All the Dupes glanced at me, and then they all flicked their Assays at me. Each of the relevant thoughtstreams caught them and looked at them.
“Huh.”
Duplicate was obviously not a Legendary-level effect, even if I was Eternal. Not only was it not duplicating my Golden Child and Exemplar benefits, none of the Dupes were getting the Celestial Eternal benefits from Sersi, or any of the Asgardian benefits, unless they had a Sealed Asgardian themselves. Nor did they get the Inhuman benefits from my Godmerge with Composite, or the Mutant benefits from Storm or Kwannon, or even the Beaubiers.
And they didn’t get my Level in Legendary, nor the Eternal benefits.
Dealer did get the Legendary Levels, as did her Clone Anning when they hooked up.
It was weird, because Earth Spell’s auto-Raise made Duplicate a X spell as long as I was standing on earth or stone, and I definitely was, even if the asteroid was only a couple miles long.
I brought out a double-size bar of Life Gold, vivaurum, and Cast Clone out of my new X Valence, all of them filled up by spare Slots energy from the consolidation.
The bar of shimmery gold went bye-bye as a virtua XI spell went off, fueled by the power of the Underweb, and the newest Clone of me swirled up into existence.
She blinked once, then looked up at me as I arched an eyebrow. I could sense the Karmic Bond was constant, and we wouldn’t need to touch to transfer Karma and memories back and forth, it would happen with telepathic contact. It had turned out that Celestial Eternals were also telepaths powered by cosmic energy instead of psi, which had keyed up Kwannon’s abilities and adapted them. Suddenly I was a non-psion telepath of considerable skill, working off my admittedly shallow Ultra Core at the moment.
“Twenty-One!” she told everyone else, and all the Dupes groaned, having a bad feeling about this.
But I had 21 Ranks now, which meant both I and Dealer could have another Dupe. I Raised the Spell and Cast it, also at XI, and another double of me swirled into being... except she also didn’t look like my golden-skinned magi-goddess self, she looked like the new Clone.
“Twenty-One!” she confirmed, frowning but looking composed. “But I believe this is as high as I can go...”
“The magic of the spell is tied to the Spellcraft Ranks,” I muttered for everyone, all of us coming to the same conclusion.
All the Duplicates groaned.
“Total shame.”
“Yes, we are so screwed.”
“20/20/20, never to get higher, woe is us.”
“How will we ever live this down?”
“Gambling contest to see which of us gets tied to a higher Rank!”
I whistled to interrupt the not-quite-a-pity party. Triple Twenties weren’t exactly weak, after all. “Renewal in one minute. If everyone could get into formation so you can get your Valences back...”
Everyone flitted into positions. They started Singing immediately as they dropped into Meditative states and began to spin the flow of magic through the Formation, building it up and up as they did so. I injected my Warlock Blast into myself as a cumulative Ritual result of 100 or so poured the mana into everyone with great speed.
The three noobs, including Dealer’s, had to get to their IX’s to do a Psychic Reformation, so there was a lot of juice to take in, and a lot of Valences to fill...
---
There wasn’t enough Karma for another Level, which surprised me not at all, but I still had two Mastery Advances for it I could take.
There were some required Feats I had to take, but for now, it was time to totally overcharge my Warlock Blast.
I ticked over Legendary Warlock Blast Shaping Mastery/1, Enhanced Warlock Blast.
It didn’t matter how you looked at it, 11d6 base for a Legendary character was a pathetic amount of damage, even if you could use it to not hurt anyone at that level all day long. Enhanced Warlock Blast promptly set the Blast to d6/base Warlock Caster Level, which meant it jumped to 21 base, add two for my Chasuble.
23d6 was easily equal to a big natural thunderbolt, or enough raw energy to run a whole town, churned out every six seconds. Adding in my Reserves, Shocking Gauntlets, and other things, a nice 42d6 jolt of electrical energy for fun, every six seconds.
All mine, now, too. The Widow in the Web had no say in the power. The Dupes building Lightning Cores were all plenty happy I could do that, too.
My own Core was now being filled with the M’Kraan energy, gushing out with the fury of a galaxy of neutron stars worth of power into me. The Cosmic edge to that power was being used to fuel up the Celestial Eternal stuff Sersi had given me, having been left empty when she was Duped out.
The M’Kraan stuff was enough by itself to get me back to a full Nine Core in strength, but then I’d either have to go down there and plug in for the rest, or start using my Sunbathing for myself.
Well, whatever.
I also had two dozen Rings or more all eager to become Legendary-grade stuff, each of which would take seventy-five days to properly Infuse... which was a big improvement from seven hundred and fifty days. I wasn’t worried about taking other Legendary Artifice advancements, because I had years of work ahead just on the Rings for my Dupes...
------
The Psychic Reformations were done, and everyone who had a current life headed back to get back to them. Elapsed time, one hour.
Anning, Dealer’s Clone, was the only one who didn’t head off. She had updated to Twenty-One with Dealer, but she had gone for Creation Theurge/11, taking Wizard and Alchemist to 21, and her Feat had been Legendary Alchemy. Her primary endeavor was educating alchemists and doing Isotopic research, so that was right in line with the things she wanted to accomplish.
Terra’s Isotopic knowledge was going to take a massive leap forward!
Dealer had gone for the X Valence as well with her Feat, but she had picked Legendary Wondermaker, i.e., Miscellaneous magical items, for the Legendary Item Creation Mastery. This would allow her to get started on some powerful random items of various kinds, the ability to make magical devices gods wouldn’t feel slighted to be carrying around.
Oh, and some colossally dangerous Decks of Cards, too...
Duplicates Zwolf and Beta-Elb had picked their names: Nimue and Circe, respectively, as they had the Wizard and Witch mindsets. My new Clone went with Morgan. All three went with the Full Caster mindset, picking Mystic Theurge/10 for their Class Advance, Ur-Priest/Sorceress increases, but instead of Open Valence X, they went with Multispell.
That Legendary Feat allowed the Caster to shoot off a second Fastcast spell in a combat cycle, but the cost of the spell was raised by four Valences. You could actually take multiples of the Feat, and each time, it would raise the Valence cost by another four Valences, while the Spellcraft requirement of 21 Ranks rose by another four as well.
It effectively meant that only low-Valence spells could be Multispelled out, with a starting +8 modifier (+6 after Rep Counts), which was totally cool, as it meant more Shards could come into play if they so desired, or they could get off some optional individual Buffs, or toss out some support spells if needed.
It meant they’d be paying for more spells out of Valence and burning through Slots fast, but that was the whole point, right?
It was something I was going to do in the future, but I wanted access to X’s Right Now.
Nimue took Craft Legendary Arms and Armor, so she could start working on our Implements. Circe backed up Dealer with Wondermaking, and Morgan backed me up with Ringmaking.