Chapter Thirty-Two - Courtier of Death

Pure reflex, I put my hand up to my head, making sure it was still attached.

"Ugh, wasn't that a big change."

I injected Soul Essence into Tremble, and he lit up.

"From incorporeal killer singers to tree-sized maids and guards. Wow. Everyone raise their quillons to indicate who saw that coming?" he quipped, a bit irked. "Did you see the size of that sword? It was over twelve feet long and almost a foot wide!"

"Yeah, I got a real close look at it," I groused at him as I sat up.

"They must hit real hard. What are the numbers?" Tremble asked. He found it weird how I reduced it all to numbers, but then he saw the numbers interacting with our real life, and realized that in a weird-ass magical universe, just like himself, what those numbers represented were real and tangible things. When I was able to perfectly predict what Naming Karma and power comp enhancements could actually do, he became very curious about them.

"The broomstick is something like 4-24 +11. The saber is 4-32 +12 or 13. But I think he pulled off a One Strike with it, so more like 12-96. No, wait, they are overgeared on strength, able to wield larger or Heavy weapons. So, 6-36 and 6-48, tripled to 18-144 with a Greater One Strike."

"Ugh. The To-hit?"

"For the maid? Something like +27. The guard was probably +30 to +32. Stronger, masterwork saber, Weapon Focus…"

"Ugh." My Sword was silent for long minutes as he did the math. Two month's worth of investment had raised his Intellect significantly, and he had his own Skill Points that came with it, as an Item Familiar. He had invested a lot into Song, but a point in Math meant he was totally capable of handling basic mathematics in his head. Hilt. Whatever. Of course, now that he had his Primary powers, he was capable of using up to four Cantrips, as often as he liked. His favorite and mine was the illusion one, which displayed two-dimensional, flat-screen holos.

"So, what are we looking at?" He flicked up holos of the two giants for us to ponder over, with the two of us in scale, barely reaching their knees.

"Well, sizewise, they are equal to cloud giants, sitting at seven to eight meters tall. That's a Strength score of 33 or 35 base, they have a Resist All damage reduction that applies to all attack forms and energy types, equal to their strength bonus. So, DR 11/- to 13 or 14/-." Those Stats flicked up. "Natural Armor 12 or so, Dex bonus usually around +1, plus whatever armor… hers probably counts as +2, due to thickness of the cloth, he's wearing breastplate and greaves, so +5 there."

"So, 25 to 30." Tremble didn't have a face, or it would have been pretty long at this point. "I've got no Bane, there's no Foe Hunter, which means relying on Bardsong for the morale bonus, and none of the stuff for killing undead stacks on. The Damage Reduction is going to be significant, since your Penetration is only at 4…"

"Yeah, these are high-end giants. Sixteen hit dice, Con bonus defaults to +6 or so, so almost two hundred Health. Reach is tremendous, of course, their arms are longer than we are together. And, of course, they hit like trucks."

"They have To Hit equal to their Hit Dice?" Tremble protested. That was a huge advantage!

"Yeah, Giants are hard-wired for combat. They are natural One-Strikers, too, so the damage they do is always huge even if they do single attacks. Most have Cleave or something, so overkill spills onto a neighboring target. Their reaction time might not be as fast as mine, but you saw that they move incredibly fast once they get in motion, proportionate to a human of the same size. So, four times the potential speed of motion. I'm not sure real Jotuns move this fast, but the Curse is obviously playing games on us. I won't be able to outrun them."

"So, what's the plan of attack? You need an AC of 40 to dodge half their attacks!" Tremble could clearly see the gaping hole in our defenses viz these guys, and didn't know how to address it. Defender simply wasn't a big enough bonus.

"Titan Slaying Defensive Technique," I told him.

"Ohhhhhh," he drew it out, unable to hide his glee. "I see this is a problem encountered by others before."

Feats were gained by practice from teachers, or by Karma from the Human Akasha. The latter required you to know what you were looking for, at the very least.

"Supposedly dwarves and gnomes excel at killing giants, they are martial races that enjoy killing things bigger then they are. They all gain a +4 Dodge bonus against giant-kind from racial martial training, which they sometimes retask against orcs, kobolds, or goblins."

"Uh… but you can't access the Akasha of another race, right?"

"Right, but it's a training technique, not much different from a Feat, and completely trainable. Only, the benefits aren't the same, since half the Feat's emphasis relies on exploiting the smaller size of the combatants."

"You're being coyly mysterious again. What's it do?"

"It increases your Dodge Feat by a multiplier of how much bigger the Giant is then you."

"Oh, oh! So, size Large would be twice as big, and Huge would be three times!" Tremble exclaimed in glee.

"And?"

"Uh, the Dodge Feat is only +1…" I made an 'and?' motion. "Except if you're a Melee, its increased by your Armor Training, to +2 right now. So… wouldn't that mean you get +6?" It was equal to the ability it was derived from, then!

"What other Feat do I have that is equal to the Dodge Feat for all purposes?"

"Uh…" Tremble hastily brought up the listing that I had made for him, in essence a Stat sheet for him to look over. After all, we didn't have access to an Assay, so this guesswork was the best we could do. "Ooooooo, Elusive Soul. And you can juice it to +3 now…tripled to +9…"

A +6 bonus to AC from one Feat was pretty substantial. Well, two Feats, and three Essence…

"There's also Favored Enemy Dodge, which adds your Slayer bonus as a Dodge bonus. Unfortunately, no FE bonus right now…"

Giants didn't care about my Vajra, unlike all the special tricks of the undead. It was straight-up damage grind, all about attacks, hitting, damage, and damage reduction.

If they'd've been hill giants, stone giants, or ogres, this totally would have been no problem. But they had to go all the way to cloud giants! Mitharinnabucket...

At least four to five hits to kill them. If they had Warrior Levels, add another hit per three Levels.

That was still within range of a good charge attack. I just had to reach them, and not get swatted down thirty feet away, or something.

So, full investments in Expert Soul and Reckless Soul. +Essence to Expertise AC bonus, and +Ess TH/Dmg when charging. The extra bonus to-hit should make up for losing Bane, and since it would be my main killing strike, totally reasonable as an investment.

My AC was +4 from Int, +5 Dex, +3 Wis, +1 for no-armor fighter, +1 for Natural Swordsman Talent, +Expertise of +3 now, +1 Nat AC, +2 Dodge, +3 Elusive Soul, for +23, or AC 33, beyond the feasible threat range of anything but the Banshees, especially with Ghost-Scarred and Defensive Fighting able to raise that to 37.

Titan Slaying DT would get me to 39. If I kept moving, Elusive Dodge would get me to 41 with its +2. Shielded Parry would give me +2 Shield AC while using a weapon two-handed. As my Sword was my Shield via Grand Mastery, Shield Focus and Greater Shield Focus would raise that to +4.

Shield Ward would apply it against touch attacks… if Ghost Strike already didn't, for the undead. Mmm. Those Banshees were so screwed...

AC 45. Defensive Fighting would mean taking a -4 to hit for +3 to AC, so AC 49.

49 would mean the warrior giant would need a 17 to hit me, and the maid would need a nat 20.

It would have to do for now. I wasn't sure I could implement it all, and it would vary wildly depending on the situation, but I could only do what I could do.

"Tremble, we're going to have to change some things on your advance schema."

"I kind of expected that with giants here," my Sword sighed knowingly. "Damn, Arsenal III is getting further and further away every day…"

"I know it." There was a hugely key +III Enhancement I wanted, Healing Edge. Hit something, do d8 positive force damage, doubled against undead, and heal a d8 in damage. It was only Health healing, not Soak, but still, it meant I could basically fight forever if I didn't take an overwhelming hit.

It had a counterpart, Invigorating, a +II that could wipe fatigue or exhaustion on killing a foe. Between the two of them, I could be an untiring, relentless killing machine, healing as I fought, slowly but surely.

To get both active together, I'd need to get Tremble to Neun. I was at 72 of the 162 deaths I needed to get that far, and now I was pushing those three months of dying off further. Except, of course, that Slot Neun was impossible unless I got my hands on some exotic metals to alloy him with, and forged a new home for him from scratch. I would be limited to Zeben to work with, no +Drei Enhancements on call for now…

"We need to up your Shield Enhancement."

"Really?" Tremble was shocked despite himself.

"Yes. Shielded Parry lets you give me a +2 Shield AC when you are wielded two-handed and used defensively. My Grandmastery means my Sword is my Shield. Ergo, if you take a Defensive Enhancement, it'll apply. It's wasteful, but since I don't see a Shield falling into my hands anytime soon, we need it. If needed, we can always transfer your Defensive Slots to the Shield, and you'll have a little brother."

"Okay. Just like Weapon Slots?"

"No, Defensive Slots are half as expensive."

"Half?!" Tremble protested. "How unfair!"

"Blame the gods, not me. But it does mean that you'll get to Drei in only nine days. Soulbound, Greater Soulbound, and Defiant, with Warding in one day after that, if desired."

"Ooooo… +6 to AC. That's another huge leap!" he realized.

"Yes, and exactly what we need at this point. However, it comes with a cost. We also have to make you Impervious now, and possibly Indestructible later. One chop from a Giant Sword, and you might be broken." And I didn't have the tools to put him together again.

Tremble was silent only a moment. "That sounds like a very important thing to do!" he finally spoke up.

"Yes. Another thing we have to do, and that will be first, is making you a Hilt Chamber."

"A hollow hilt? Why? What have we got to put inside it?"

"Well, in the future it becomes the basis for a Wand Chamber, and in the meantime, we can use it as a compressed space area, for storing stuff… and keeping it with us inside of you."

"Oh!" There was a pause. "Ohhhhhh…" He realized the deeper implications. "Like, ah, what?" he had to ask.

"The maid was wearing a gold ring on her finger, and a silver necklace at her throat, as well as silver earrings. The guard was also wearing a ring and necklace of gold, as well as a belt buckle."

"Goldweight!" he hissed out in understanding. The fact that the Curse didn't understand that faithfully replicating bling gave me access to goldweight I could use to upgrade stuff was something I wasn't going to tell it.

"More importantly, I need a place to store their tendons and sinews."

"What?" He would have blinked if he could. "Why?"

"I intend to make a Girdle of Giant Power."

"Oh, that sounds impressive!" he said brightly. "What's it do?"

"There's two kinds of Giant's Girdles out there. The first is Giant Strength, the other is Giant's Power," I explained. "Giant's Strength increases your Strength up to about double, directly giving the wearer a Strength bonus of +2, +4, or +6, at least at the mortal levels. At Legendary levels, the limit might be much, much higher.

"Giant Strength is useful at all levels, but moreso at higher ones, because it stacks with powerful natural strength. Strength 10? Now 16. Strength 40? Now 46."

"And the increase between 40 and 46 is huge in real world terms, if not in combat terms," Tremble acknowledged, as the effects of Strength, Might, and Power flickered up in holo. It was 'only' +3 To Hit and Damage, either way, but more then doubling the amount you could lift and carry was fairly immense at high levels. 40 was 6400 lbs, 46 was almost 15k. Big in real world terms, but the additional amount of Power… was still +3/+3.

"Right, so Giant Strength wins at the very top end. Giant Power, on the other hand, is better at the low end.

"Basically, Giant Power sets your Strength to the level of the Giant you take it from." Tremble made a strangling sound. "However, this is restricted by your Melee Attack Bonus, which represents the ability to channel and handle that amount of Strength. So, +10 MAB, your Strength would instantly be the equivalent of a Str 30 giant, if your Girdle is strong enough. If your MAB is like mine, a mere +5, you get set to 20… but it will grow as your MAB grows."

"Still, very impressive, especially if you are not particularly strong, like a Finesse fighter," he pointed out.

"Ah, that's one of the rubs. You can't fight Finesse style while using Giant Power, or you lose all benefits. Furthermore, you have to use bigger weapons, or the strength bonus doesn't apply."

"Ah?" Tremble thought about that. "Well, not a huge penalty, as long as your MAB increases faster than your Dex might…"

"The other thing is the Giant Power grants you the Might of a giant, i.e. x2 or x4 to your lifting limit, or even x8 if you can get one from a Storm Giant."

"Well." Tremble thought about that. "I suppose you'll be able to shove stuff around if you want to…"

"It's more useful for wielding Heavy Weapons. Also, if you're a Caster, getting Growth while wearing the Girdle is automatically doubled in duration, and takes effect at the Level of the Girdle, which can be pretty cool.

"Lastly, some people put in special powers derived from the giants the Girdle is made from. So, frost or fire resistance, for instance. Requires more Investment, but fairly typical.

"No Giant can contribute to more then one Girdle of any type, and they don't necessarily have to die to make one. A Giant who willingly imparts their hair and blood to you can allow you to make a Girdle in their name."

"Ah." Tremble sounded wise. "So, smart people hunt them for the raw materials to make these Girdles, like you are intending to do."

"I take the hand I'm given. We'll need sinews, tendons, a strip of skin, and blood, and we won't have much time to collect them, so things are going to get messy."

"And I need to get a hole made in my hilt," Tremble said firmly. "I'm assuming you need only a day of work for the material and runework, how much Naming Karma?"

"A day, you should be able to empower it as soon as I'm done," she confirmed.

"Excellent!" He was proudly getting into the role of being more then just a Sword, and various utility uses were the best thing. "How about yourself?"

"I can tick over my Expert Level, and then I'm stuck until I get all those /3 Masteries out of the way."

"Another two months?" Tremble sighed. It wasn't going to be easy, after all.

"Basically." I wasn't worried. Every day would be a Karma harvest, which meant I would be getting stronger, and so would he. It wasn't like I didn't have work to do.

"Anything you can get out of this that could help us?" he inquired.

I flicked the Expert/5 bar, and Karma swirled over my soul.

Strong Will save, 8 Skill Points, General Feat, Bonus Forsaken General Feat, and I flicked over that Intellect Mastery/3, and my Intelligence went up by one, to 18.

"I've been thinking about going down the Dark Knowledge route instead of the Favored Enemy route, but I'm wishy-washy on it, because there's a number of Feats that act positively with FE, and Dark Knowledge basically stands alone."

"I'm not familiar with that Feat?"

"You access it as a Class ability of Inquisitorial operators. It basically works off of Knowledge skills. The better you know your opponent, the higher your bonuses against them are. Like a Bard, you could share the knowledge with your companions, although the inspiration is more literal then emotional, like a master instructor rather than a Heartsong cheerleader. Heavy dose of divine help on the side inferred."

"That would require taking Mixed Classes, right?" His hum-voice dropped low. "You can do that now?"

"Actually, the basic ones you can start taking at Four, and then every other Level. So, yeah, I can take no-magic Combo classes, if I need to."

"That won't actually slow us down, given the amount of Karma we're making, will it?"

"We are so far ahead of the Karma curve it is not funny. The Combat Rating of the stuff we were fighting started at 6 and then blew all the way to 17 or something with the banshees. 17's are stuff for groups of Tens to fight. I'm breaking all sorts of balance issues being able to kill them like I am. Heck, I shouldn't even be able to hit them, I should just keel over when one of them screams, let alone a dozen of them."

"Well, you are hugely, crazily Deep for a Five," he noted.

"Not totally by choice, but yeah. And I've got a Sword a Ten would scream for." He hummed happily at the praise. "Hmmm, Dark Knowledge." I smiled despite myself. "Why do I have the feeling that if I take it as a Feat, I can expand Profound Artisan's weaponizing of Skills to Knowledge Skills? Because that's exactly what it does?"

"That would result in a significant damage increase…" Tremble mused softly, doubtless remembering when my Vajra had condensed around him when I took the Technique initially.

"I don't need the Divine to work Dark Knowledge, I just need the Akasha." I flipped a mental switch, and there was a swirl, even as I clicked over other mental levers on eight different Knowledge Skills.

I was, after all, the Sage of Swords. Skills applying benefits to my sword work was a given.

Those skills seemed to both expand and narrow, as the knowledge on creatures and peoples expanded into a martial arena, like Martial Lore flowing through all the different creatures and peoples, analyzing them for the pure purpose of physical combat, how they moved, struck, defended, mindsets. It was deadly and grim, and I could see why it was called Dark Knowledge, because now, everything I looked at would be done so from the point of threat assessment, how it could hurt me, and how I could kill it in return.

It interacted with Necropotent, Ghost-Scarred, and even Foe Hunter to an extent. Triggering conditions, Feat trees. The Vendetta Achievement Feat for being slaughtered by a foe even kicked in.

I ticked over Favored Enemy Dodge for my Bonus Feat, and didn't even bother to pick one. It got stuck into the churning of Feats going on as the Akasha balanced all this stuff going on, and began to synthesize something worthy of maxing out all those Knowledge Skills and having five or six Feats as a pre-Req.

I reflected that I'd never tried to do this in the game, I'd just dwelled on the three FE Masteries and picked them up one by one, depending on how much I needed them at the moment. Of course, the big thing was that FE bonuses maxed out at +5, and were Morale bonuses. If things went well here, these would only max out at Synergy, which would be +3 at Ten Ranks.

These insights all springing out of slaughter and revenge hummed through me. Dark Knowledge, mmm. It seemed to be expanding my Martial Lore beyond the limits of just opposing weapon wielders and styles.

Of course, with all those pre-reqs, it would have to be something good.

Courtier of Death.

I blinked as something went wide in my mind, a broad road opening up where every warrior, hunter, killer, assassin, duelist, gladiator, champion, soldier, and guardian who had ever lived had walked. Their trails were only small parts of the road, of this Court and School where the arts and science of inflicting death big and small lived.

Insight bonus to hit, AC, and saves against any creature that had bested me (death, gone below 0, knocked unconscious) or that I had killed more than fifty of, equal to the Synergy bonus of the relevant Knowledge Skill, if I passed the skill check. Damage bonus equal to twice that number.

So, +2 to hit, AC, Saves, and +4 damage against anything that had beat the crap out of me, or that I had slaughtered enough to know intimately. Bonus halved against things that were similar, but that I hadn't actually beaten, until I beat a major figure of that race. So, like a hill giant boss, or something, extending the bonus from these Human Giants to Hill Giants.

Insight bonus. Not typeless. But… not a Morale bonus. Meaning it would stack with Bardsong, unlike an FE bonus, which meant it also stacked with Wardance.

When I added Stalker and Hunter, I had the feeling the relevant Skill bonuses would also kick in.

Everything I had fought so far had killed me, except the witchfires, and I'd slaughtered enough of them for the bonus to apply… if Necropotent, Ghost-Scarred, and Foe Hunter hadn't already.

I could feel that those Feats were effectively gone and subsumed into what I had to assume was a brand-new Title for me.

The Sage of Swords, a Courtier of Death. Mmm, seemed appropriate...

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Less refining today, as I began the process of boring a hole into Tremble's hilt… with my fingernail, as he entered Firephasing.

Like yesterday, some things were going to be different today, as I knew what to do.

The Knowledge check was generally equal to the Hit Dice of the opponent+10, by race, modified by commonality. So, less broad then FE by a good margin.

Take 10, 5 Ranks, +3 Class Skill, +5 for 21 Int, +2 for Educated, +2 Cunning, +2 Nerd, +2 Expertise, +1 Bardlore. +22 for a 32 Check, no problem.

It meant taking basically all of my Expert Levels and getting just Knowledge Skills with them now. That… actually wasn't much of a problem. Centering my Int-based Skills on Expert fit very well thematically.

Weaponizing them fit even more.

Massive investment, but a major benefit. One Level of Ranger would finish it off with the automatic FE advance to Hunter, Stalker, and Slayer.

Yes, Sama the Giant Slayer was going to feel good…