Chapter Twenty-Four - Insubstantial Advancements

"Hahahaha! They actually killed me with damage!"

I almost jumped to my feet, my eyes shining.

They brought out spectres!

Too many of them to deal with after the wraiths and shadows, but I had still exploded through them, crowing at them as their soul-sucking fizzed hard on my Null and I shook the rest off with my burning hard soul.

Oh, did I hack on them. They moaned and cursed me in Necrus, and I was so going to learn that today so I could curse them back. Chained Whirlwinds eroding them as they crowded me, AoO's and Cleaves building upon it, die die die you effers! Vivic flames making them moan in pain and terror as I tore their energy free of the Curse and gave some of it to Tremble!

I also memorized all their faces so I could mock them when I got back to them again.

Expert/4. Intellect +1 got me to 18. This got me a new language, which I took as Necrus, that I might mock.

8 Skill points for the Level, +4 for the Int Raise. I went straight Knowledge Skills, keeping my Engineering, Math, Chemistry, Nature, Planar, Arcane, Religion, and Underworld topped off, and then filled the new stuff in with Sense Motive, Swim, Gearsmith, and Spellcraft.

Gave me absolutely nothing in the way of combat bonuses. Advanced Wisdom/1, because Alchemist and Artificer would advance Intellect regardless, while Vizard could also take Wisdom. Archer and Scout would advance Dex, Soulshaper would do Con, and Minstrel Charisma. Really, only Strength was behind the curve.

+1 Dodge AC for my no-armor Fighter AC bonus.

Hmm. Well, just have to work on it later.

It was time to mock some more incorps, and rip them a hearty new one.

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I snickered as I opened my eyes again, looking to the eager Tremble.

Sure, they had me blocked for now at the spectres. Too many touch attacks hitting too often, and I couldn't kill them fast enough to stop them all.

Today I would be working on that again.

"Soulshaper/3!"

"Bonus Soul Feat, Expert Soul!

"Bonus Forsaken Feat, Soul-Fortified Body!

"General Feat, Healing Soul!

"Forsaken General Feat, Skilled Soul!

"Advance to Con/2!"

Thrum thrum thrum as Karma turned into strength of soul, rippled through me.

"Skill points to Tat Artist, Ivory Crafter, Sculptor, Language: Celestial!"

Expert Soul was going to change things. +1 to Expertise Bonus per invested Essence. Invest 2, and now I was -2 TH/+4 AC, which was really going to annoy those spectres.

Soul-Fortified Body: +2 Health per Soul Feat. Soul and Fist, Tough Soul, Blood and Soul and these four meant +14 Health. +5 Essence meant +5 Soak.

Healing Soul gave me self-healing ability of 4 pts/Essence, Essence times/day. So 2E would be 8 pts, 2/day… except Blood and Soul added on, giving me 10 points, 4/day, a decent amount of spot healing.

Skilled Soul gave +2 Insight/Essence to one Skill per day. That was going to be Weaponsmith, without a doubt.

The combination meant I was going to last longer and be harder to hit. I wouldn't be killing them any faster, but they were going to be killing me slower, as my touch AC had just gone up nicely.

My AC was 10, +5 Dex, +4 Int, +1 Dodge, +1 Armor Training, +2 Wis(?), +1 Talent, and +1 Nat AC, for 23/24 AC. Using Expertise and concentrating on defense would get me to a combined 31, which meant a 1/10 chance for the damn spectres to hit me, at -6 to hit for me.

That was fine. +4 MAB, +5 Dex, +4 Weapon Spec, +1 Talent, +1 Attuned, +2 Foe Hunter, +2 Ghost Scarred, +1 Crazy Flame, +2 Way of Fire… I was rocking +22 to hit them right now, and their AC was in the 15 range. Auto-hits all around, and greater AC for me. They were +12 to hit, fingers like freezing brands of soul-ripping, and yeah, did they want to rip my soul. Two solid hits to the soul and I'd go down… but those were now very, very unlikely to happen, which truly pissed them off!

My damage was impressive. 2-16, +1 Strength, +2+d6 Sword, +1 Cunning with +3d6 SA possible, +4 Spec, +2 Foe Hunter, +4 Necropotence, +2 Ghost Scarred, +2 Fist and Soul, for +18 base, and +4d6 worth of kickers, + Big Game Hunter, maybe Wardancing. I could also Precise Attack for -2/+4 if I chose, which brought me into two-hit range, so why not?

{SA = Sneak Attack damage, Wis = Wisdom (Intuition/Experience) Nat AC is Natural Armor, like skin, hide, scales Ess=Soul Essence, how much power your soul has.}

Yeah, the spectres were not going to be enjoying themselves shortly...

Health should be 44 now, Soak at 120, with 14 Essence and 10 ki… almost to Vajra/2.

Tremble, I picked Firephasing instead of Flaming. The difference is that Flaming added +d6 of burn damage on top of normal damage, while Firephasing actually turned the blade to flame, and converted all damage to fire.

This was only important if fighting creatures vulnerable to fire… like undead taking vivic damage, for instance, or cold creatures. But the important thing was that it was fire, energy, not solid steel, even though it mimicked the metal… and that almost meant it was basically in a high-energy shape, and basically much easier to work on.

Yes, Firephasing meant that I now had something I could work on in downtime… use my Vajra to refine Tremble to ever-higher QL Levels!

When the Rune lit up around Arsenal, and swapped out for Vivic, I was delighted. It looked similar to a lightsaber, but the crimson flame was obviously a flame, just bound into the shape of a sword, and the soulfire of our Soulbinding was a hard edge around it. The fire rustled like a flame, crackling and rushing as it was swung. It sounded nothing like a lightsaber, but looked much more awesome.

No heat radiated from it, there was only fire damage if you touched it… and that could be a lot of fire pouring into you, so ouchie, not a good idea. But that also meant it could dump a lot of heat into something if pressed onto it, which could be very useful if I needed to reshape it.

You know, like a forge fire. Alternative sources of power were a big thing in a magical world.

On the interactive side of things, +6500 gp value was into it. Normally, that would have been enough to allow Tremble to speak, but there was a definite progress to this kind of thing. Every degree of intelligence had to be accompanied by similar increases in powers wielded by the Sword, starting with the Detect Powers that were the lowest order of intelligent Weapon powers.

Since I was going to be putting a lot of power into things, I felt no reason to skimp on this stuff, and a list of the possibilities hove up in my mind.

Nominally the best ones were Detect Precious Metals and Minerals, and Detect Evil/Good/Law/Chaos, as desired. Detect Creature-type was also a thing, but that was only useful on a weapon devoted to fighting them.

But when you have time, and the Curse of the Hag is feeding you unending virtual power comps, you can do a LOT of stuff.

I wanted them all, so I was paying for them all. I was really not concerned that they were not useful now. When I finally got out into the real world, they'd all be banked, and start infusing into a Weapon even if I didn't have the QL to support it yet. So, I paid for the first Detects, which was going to take a bunch of deaths. As for Detect Creature-type… I was going to wait until Bane and Slaughter were online, and then simply do Detect Bane, so it would alternate based on what was Bane at the time; far, far more useful.

Active powers would be nice, but I wasn't sure how powerful they could be, drawing off the energy of the Curse and all. I could certainly make their foundation, but wasn't sure they could actually exist.

In any event, it was going to be a while before Tremble could chat with me. Still, I could feel his eagerness to be about doing what he was meant to do, to fight back against the Curse that defined and bound him as much as it bound me.

It was a shame that my reactive healing was so sparse, everything I had was better off used when resting. But I didn't get much rest, so it was kind of a moot point. There were on-the-go methods of healing, but those were months away…

But I'd get out of this room sooner or later. Just had to make it to morning…

Weaponsmithing 4 Ranks, +3 Class skill, +4 Int, +1 Cunning, +2 Mastery; +2 Artificer; +4 for working on a Sword, my Specialized Weapon; +4 Insight from Skilled Soul. +24 would eventually get me to 34, at the rate of 91 gold a day right now. QL 26 to 27 was 700 gold worth of work… but a +24 modifier was something nobody on old Earth probably ever had. My crafting speed would only be increasing in the future, even if it never got the truly ridiculous levels possible if I had Crafting Artifice made up.

I could only improve Tremble by one level, but it was enough. In Fireshaping form, I held him and slowly began to work on him with my Vajra. Getting him from 26 to 27 was one more Arsenal, and a step closer to Slot Vier in the future.

In the meantime, I was going to start on Slot Drei, ten days of Naming Karma, and my first Bane, then Slaughter.

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They had a Glutton Spectre leading them, made it to him today, much to his total annoyance. I wasn't nice enough to just roll over and die, and my life energy could fill his bulbous ectoform, which annoyed him all the more.

Suddenly him and all the surviving spectres were exuding chilling auras that precipitated the air in the air right to ice, and soulchill became dreadchill that hit the body as much as the soul.

Heh heh, fuckwads, freezing me to death. I might have made it past him if not for that.

"Monk/3!"

+1 ki to pay for lightfoot. Ki Strike/Magic. Ki hit 11, Vajra reached 27.

"Vajra/2!" I had my Visual File.

My brain began to swirl, and reorganize, forming a solid backbrain to help manage my knowledge and memories, basically an interactive eidetic memory. I basically had a holoform internal computer made up of optimized neurons, ki, and Essence.

"Feats, Extra Ki, Way of the Moon Mastery!" Netting me another +3 Ki and access to the Lesser Dragon, Twin Moon… and to its Moon Chaser Swordplay, which netted +1 TH, +1 to AC, when taken over six Levels.

"Ranks to Perform Weapon Kata, Diplomacy, Calligraphy, and Demonic Language."

Resistance to cold might take another couple of days… but that was fine.

Raise Lowest Stat.

I was a kid, even mentally. Sama had been a game persona, never truly 'alive', and now that I was her, I was effectively born anew.

If I wanted to optimize Stats, I had to do it at low level, before the accumulation of Karma and Levels locked me in. Level Four was that level, I couldn't get any higher.

Stats could be raised only at low levels, and only your lowest Stats could be raised. It was effectively like paying for point buy. Stats had to be purchased from lowest to highest, and the amount of Karma required to improve them was multiples at the higher Stats.

I was fighting shit way, way behind my Level. My Karma harvest was impressive, to say the least. It was the thing I had the least amount of concern in spending.

For a near-perfect foundation, I'd happily die a few additional weeks.

The point I spent probably went to Charisma, because my base in that was a true 10, and it was effectively a dump Stat, since it affected nothing useful for me in combat. I wasn't a sorcerer or Paladin, so Charisma was effectively an out-of-combat Stat for me.

The cost was expensive, starting out the same as a Level. Getting it to base 18 would cost a LOT of Karma… but Karma seemed to be something I didn't have a shortage of at this time.

I was getting tougher and tougher and harder to kill, but that didn't mean stuff with some major hitting power couldn't take me down. Fido was actually pretty impressive in combat, just hampered by only having his jaws able to take me down now, and there being only one of him.

They'd have to bring out some real muscle if they wanted to use a bruiser on me now… but the fact was I'd be pretty wiped after taking out so many incorps that I probably could not take on another tough opponent easily. Only being able to rely on Stats instead of gear was a thing. But monstrous amounts of Karma, cross-Class Levels, and being Forsaken was filling the void.

When I actually had gear, someday, I was going to be so damn tough.

In the meantime, Tremble and I were going to soldier on and keep earning that Karma. My Sword hummed happily, spoiling for revenge, and off I went.