Am slepi, but tension and fear and greed and guilt form a hurricane of motivation within me. P U S H!
Elementalists are arguably this, although the way High Elementalists recklessly force concepts together would more accurately be called unnatural. They receive the screen time, here, but the way being thoroughly outranked sets the world against you makes me think that Avecarn is more of a force of nature than even the most volcanic of the high-school wizards Hunger's sparring with. World-Defeating Stance might be helpful in any case!
They convened at an Elementalist training grounds the next day, Letrizia alongside her ostensible classmates and Hunger with Gisena. The grounds themselves were no more than a rectangle of densely packed dirt, but there was an almost celebratory air to the proceedings - the high schoolers gawked at the two of them, turning to bombard Letrizia with questions, while Gisena set up a one-person cheer section.
"Holy shit, you didn't tell us that your bodyguards were so hot!" Or maybe they just recognize Hunger from the much more expansive cheer section that he's been doing his best to ignore during his "sword training".
Gisena doesn't have to set up anything, her cheer is innate to an almost obnoxious degree, and she's not selfish about it. Hopefully she's developed her cheers past the point of "Go, Hunger, feed us, yay," but she isn't a Progression Cursebearer. We should be respectful of her limitations.
Letrizia temporized, deflecting the interrogation with a mysterious flip of her hair, then began to explain the rules of engagement. There would be one warm-up and one serious match per challenger. At stake was, on part of Hunger, both a considerable sum of money and a substantial amount of time; on the part of the students, a massively smaller sum.
Letrizia practiced that hair flip for hours until it looked perfectly casual and spontaneous, no evidence will persuade me otherwise. She's having the time of her life: school shenanigans (mysterious [giant robot pilot subtype{rich version}] transfer student edition), magic, showing off, and now she gets to organize her very own tournament arc!
The time is almost certainly doing more for the Hungerring boost than the money that Hungerman sneers at. Also, time is money, and it didn't take much to earn it.
I am rooting for these kids to kick Hunger's ass so they can make him fight the rOtBEasT, but at this point that's more of a meme than a sincere desire. Besides, since we bought Edeldross Adept he's going to make a good accounting of himself here, not that his mental +'s and experience wouldn't make losing unlikely anyway (Jesus, was that a quadruple negative?)
All involved understood that the main objective was to familiarize Hunger and Letrizia with their Elements; to facilitate this, a bonus payment would be made at the end, amount depending on Hunger and Letrizia's own assessments as to how they performed. Letrizia had assured the children that Hunger would score them generously.
At this point, the bet isn't a bet, we're just trading money for XP. That's hardly a bad thing, we're setting a good non-gambling example for Letrizia. Who is also sparring, she could probably benefit just as much from simple training, but there's no way she's getting left out of her own tournament arc! It's just more fun even if she wasn't tragically anime.
I'm not sure where her certainty of Hunger's grading tendencies comes from. Is she saying "oh, he's a total softie," following up on her hotsprings musings, or is she taking the opportunity to throw shade at her new friends? If anything, I'd expect Hunger to be a fairly critical 'teacher,' with the attitude displayed in the Unacceptable blurb. Yeah, I think she's just lying, how naughty.
"Alright, guess I'm up first! Nice to meetya, mister! Heard you killed a lot of Rotspawn yesterday." The first contender was a loud-mouthed redhead by the name of Aobaru, whose Element of Vigorflame could increase the strength of an person or object up to a set point, after which it caused them to explode. He was notable for his iron control over the Element, capable of inducing explosions seemingly without the intermediate step of strengthening his foes.
Can we adopt Aobaru? I realize he isn't one of the options and would probably die, but he's incredibly charming and the contrast between his boisterousness and his control gives him depth. I hope there wasn't a tragic people-exploding accident in his past; normally I'd be certain that the Sovereignty had a better handle on things than that, but Surgecrafting is new. I wonder how he manages to just explode people, it looks like more than just speed. The word Vigor keeps coming up, but it's a good word so I probably shouldn't get paranoid about it. It's a good power, if we didn't have a better one I'd be jealous. :S
Hunger carefully set aside the Forebear's Blade and walked to the center of their makeshift arena. Aobaru offered him a fist bump which he neglected to return, but gave the boy a nod of acknowledgement.
A sword is a tool for killing, do not use it against friendly teenagers who are helping you out. He knew this before he had his Cut Through epiphany (or he wouldn't have been called a Hero, lol), but I like to think that he took two lessons from it. Cut Through, or do not cut. Especially now that we have a nonlethal option, it's beautiful.
I'm not sure what Hunger's aversion to fist bumps is. Surely Tyrant isn't so pedantic as to shun it as a social rule, right? He's not touch-averse in general, with all the headpats he gives out and cuddles he accepts. Obviously his boundaries should be respected, but I'm just curious. Touching a strange wizard can be dangerous, as a common precaution, and as a strange wizard himself he's not touching Aobaru because he could Ruin him? Nah, this is overthinking, he's probably just being standoffish. Aided by Tyrant, actually maybe, because I just realized that a fistbump from a stranger might be like .00001% uncomfortable, but social pressure would overwhelm that, but that tiny nudge might be enough for Hunger to reject it. It's so bizarre to think of that conformity instinct as
completely gone in some cases, rather than just minimized.
"Er... okay! Well, you've got a buffing-type Element like me, right? I've got some tips and tricks I could show ya."
"That's right."
"Hm... okay, so if yours is anything like mine, it helps anyone that touches it, which is the main problem. You've got enemies in melee that would love to steal your buffs and equalize."
"Exactly."
"I've got a couple ways around that... but telling you would be boring. Best if I just show ya."
Hunger smirked. "Be my guest."
Unlike him, we're never going to explode people with the element of not hurting people, seems like a design flaw to me.
I doubt people that weren't familiar with the quirks of Surgecraft buffing would be eager to grab onto an enemy's magical energy in the hopes that eating the energy field would also power them up, but as it is our buffstuff just goes everywhere so they wouldn't have to try. That gives me an idea, actually. If an enemy
did expect that, could we give ourself a Ruin aura that's visually similar to punish that? Even if it's only concentrated in our hands, it might be nice, but it's a bit of a marginal strategy at the level of SORD Hunger currently has.
Normally I don't approve of 'speaking with your fists' nonsense, but it's mechanically optimal for Hunger and exactly what he asked for so all I can do is sigh.
They retreated to opposite sides of the arena, and the first spar began. Aobaru immediately launched a pillar of Vigorflame at the ground, which bounced up and struck his body: the quantity of Element summoned was no less, but by focusing it into a vertical emission, enemies outside touch range would fail to benefit. Clever.
Hunger immediately tried the same, even as Aobaru rushed him. The boy was a surprisingly capable warrior but no match for Hunger's speed. He dodged the child's strikes, blasts, and grapple attempts easily as he tried to figure out how to make the pillar technique work. His first attempt had merely sent Edeldross into the ground, hurling himself skyward. Subsequent attempts spilled out into an explosive dome, nothing like the precisely controlled column of energy that Aobaru had manifested.
He frowned. Perhaps the warm-up spars were a mistake. The stakes were so low his Ring was unsatisfied. No power to be gained from such conflicts.
He fell to a hundredth of his normal speed and finally the boy caught up. They briefly exchanged blows and Hunger allowed the boy to prevail, hopeful it would entice more tricks out of him when they fought the second time.
"Well done. I concede."
Reading this is a bit painful compared to the srsbsns Hunger who outsmarts hours of tactics brainstorming in a second, he's just kind of exploding himself. Surgecraft buffing is weird in that the amount summoned seems to have an effect rather than the amount absorbed. We already knew this even when the Edeldross blurb was offered, the buff applying to people in the area of release, but apparently it's not just for our Element. It really is the surge that's important, huh. Why does Vigorflame bounce off the ground rather than burn it, obviously because Aobaru wants it to, but at that level of convenience, why do you need the ground? Well, answering these questions is why Hunger's here.
The warm-up spars are clearly not a waste of time, Hunger's already learned to fly! That wasn't the goal, but airtime is cool even if it comes from flailing around.
I'll have to revoke my thought that Hunger would be a harsh grader, but it makes sense that this guy, at least, would be a good fighter. If I had superpowers that could buff my strength and explode stuff I'd base a whole lot of my life around that first part. He's a good sport, too, and I'm happy that he's playing nice with Letrizia's friends. At a hundredth of his speed... uh, we were at 50x after Bloodmight, I think? That was like 16+Agi ago. At this point 1% of his true power (chunni level increasing, it's the eyepatch that does it) should be fairly superhuman so Aobaru's buff isn't a joke.
The boy looked shocked for a moment before an overjoyed expression came across his features. "Holy shit, I won! I beat the Reckoner!"
"The Reckoner?"
"Yeah, the Reckoner of Rotspawn! It's what we've been calling you, Lord Hunger."
With mental reflexes capable of tracing a bullet in mid-flight, Hunger stopped himself from cringing. This... was a good thing. Notoriety could only improve his Astral Rank when he accomplished substantial feats, though he suspected his fight against the lesser Rotspawn did not qualify. "I see. An interesting name."
"Wo-hoo! Go Lord Reckoner!" Gisena called from the sidelines. From somewhere she'd produced white cloths that she and Letrizia had tied as headbands. His name was written on them in bold red ink. "Good match, have a drink?"
He rolled his eyes and took the proffered water. "It was a tough match, but I'm confident I can come back in the second round."
Aobaru was walking boastfully among his compatriots, fielding them questions with indifferent aplomb. "No big deal, I'm sure he was holding back like, massively..."
"Why'd you throw the match?" Letrizia pouted. "I had good money riding on you, Lord Reckoner!"
"Oh yeah? Is it for the warm-up or the fight itself?'
"Both!" She grumbled.
"I see. Then, if you don't want to lose the rest, I suggest you drop both parts of that title when addressing me in the future."
"H-hmph! Whatever you want. 'S not like I think it's cool or anything..."
"Good." He smiled, took another sip of water and returned to the field.
Volcanoboy is happy, throwing the fight was the right decision. I love how he's being all humble while he's peacocking, it's super cute, we need to take him with us.
Hunger's nickname is also a joke, but it's less of one that what he chose to call himself. I was going to say that it's painfully generic (impeding the rank gain boost?), but a theme of counting is appropriate for a bounty hunter, he's got a scary aura even outside of combat, +Willpower, actually this one's growing on me! Sorry, Lord Reckoner Hunger, you can bully Letrizia into not calling you by your earned title, but I'm safely on the other side of the screen. We might actually get a Feat based on that... when we kill the Rotbeast (I refuse to apologize).
Headband of Hunger gives +1 to morale and inflicts confusion on enemies who don't know his name. If I saw that in the wild, I'd definitely be asking myself if it was some kind of threat. This level of multitasking is nothing for a genius.
Hunger won't let anything delay his rescue of the ring, except being petty to his principal. Is good joke. Zee's tsun level is increasing, one day soon she will be able to challenge the master.
Before Aobaru returned, Hunger spent a long moment in contemplation. The Ring would disqualify any contest that was insufficiently challenging or lacked real stakes. In that event, he couldn't use his full power, or even one-tenth: the greater his chance of actually losing, the more quickly he would learn. One-fiftieth power ought to give him an edge while still retaining that essential element of risk. If he miscalibrated, so be it. Even this method would likely fail if he repeated it too many times against a given opponent. Luckily there was quite a variety here.
Aobaru walked back from the stands, his cocksure swagger replaced by serious determination. "Alright, let's do this. I've got a month's worth of part-time wages on the line, so don't expect me to go as easy as I did previous."
The difficulty in calibration is itself part of the challenge, I'd say. It's not exciting if you can beat an opponent by the slimmest margin at 1/55 of your power if you'd barely win every time, so the diminishing returns make a lot of sense. Maybe you could get more benefit from repeated spars against one opponent if they had wacky diceroll powers like the ones being tossed around before the update. All the variety, none of the... variety.
Poor poor people, just kill hordes of Elite Rotspawn for pocket change, it's that easy. Even if the absolute wagers are heavily tilted, he's putting a lot more time on the line, huh. Actually, I'm impressed that somebody with superpowers has a shitty part-time job rather than running around calling himself Volcanoman, but I shouldn't project my lack of sense on other people.
Hunger nodded, taking a low stance. As Letrizia's arm fell to indicate the match's beginning, Hunger immediately sprang forwards, catching his foe in a grapple before he could fire anything. He then emitted a thunderous blast of edeldross, saturating them both; with his speed and strength much the superior of his enemy's, the absolute difference in parameters merely grew. If Aobaru attempted to summon any of his own Element, Hunger could defeat him with a submission lock fairly trivially. His Ring flared slightly, a steady trickle of power which he fed into his mantle, willing it to increase his proficiency with Edeldross.
Before Aobaru could tap out, Hunger released him and withdrew to the edge of the arena. That had worked well, but it was a tactic to be kept in pocket against a physically inferior opponent. For general use he needed to master the pillar technique.
"That... was fast..." Aobaru said shakily. "Hm, guess you could beat me at any time, so my only chance is to get a great bonus. Alright, well, I think I see the problem in your technique."
Hunger no! Now he won't be able to strut anymore. Also, indiscriminately buffing to widen your stat advantage seems to be completely missing the point of the exercise. Yes, Hunger, the pillar technique is what you need. You already knew this, so you could have... practiced it? And given that you're limiting yourself, I don't even think plan bulli makes sense, though to be fair I am sleepy.
More importantly, it doesn't actually matter if he misses the point or not, with the power of Hunger he just has to win and everything is gravy. You know, I think I recall reading that one of the downsides of the ring is that it reduced the flexibility of our advancements, and while that's definitely true in the sense that studying magic a crapshoot, we could just have easily shunted the Edeldross practice boost to Echoes. I really appreciate that wackiness.
I misread that last line as "I think the problem is in your technique," which, no shit, Sherlock. Luckily I looked again.
"Oh?" Hunger waited patiently.
"Yeah. Looks like you have a force-based Element. Usually those can be solidified into a semi-inert state. While inert, they'll lose most of their unique properties and act as a generic solid. What you really want to do is form a lip of solidified Element at the bottom and sides of your blast. That way it'll bounce off the earth and hit you instead of seeping in or spreading everywhere. Why don't you give it a shot?"
"This isn't fair, you're getting all the instruction bonuses yourself!" Another boy heckled from the sidelines.
Aobaru made what appeared to be a rude gesture in response.
"I learn best under pressure. Take me out while I'm attempting it."
"Are you sure? I mean, that's-"
"Yes, and don't hold back. Otherwise it won't work as well."
Despite being unique to each wielders, Aobaru's proving that Surgecrafting really is a magic system and not just a collection of superpowers. The most forbidden of abilities, civilization.
Let's all agree to ignore my shit-talking of the bouncing technique, it turns out that was backed up by primo magibabble. Babble that lots of people could've shared, so heckler A has a point, but if he wanted to take advantage of our primacy bias he should have been spunkier!
Hunger be like "hit me, do it coward." His srsface is almost on, now.
Aobaru leapt forward, streams of fire launching him at radically higher speed. Hunger barely ducked out of the way, forming a frantic shield of edeldross that deflected the boy. Ah. The solidified edeldross that he used to make shields. That was what the kid was talking about. If he produced a thin amount to contain the pure Edeldross, the "pillar" technique was much simpler.
He fired downwards again and was gratified to feel a nearly-vertical column of his Element surrounding him.
The difference between this Hunger and the warm-up version is almost painful. Insights that eluded him for a minute come in a second. That eluded me for days, too; I had wondered what "impure" Edeldross was, but if it's a liminal, half-real thing, existence itself could contaminate it. Or destroy it, it will break if it doesn't bend. If impure Edeldross is still less real than reality, can we make multiple layers of increasing purity, could we- well, I don't know what that would help us do, more finely shape the pure stuff? Might be helpful for Gracecrafting.
Hunger just vrrooooms as soon as danger happens, as all protagonists do. But he turns it up to 11, it's cool when it happens and annoying otherwise.
"You've got it. Sheesh, that was fast," Aobaru panted, 'spent' after going all-out. Hunger raised an eyebrow. The kid was a good actor, but had a whiles to go before he could fool Hunger. "Alright, the next level is density control. The pillar technique's good if you want to fire off a blast to buff one of your companions, but for solo buffing you really need to master density. Almost all buffing Elements have greater effects at higher density, so if you can compress an orb of it and hold it in your chest, you should see some noticeably improved effects. The boost will be strongest wherever you hold the orb, but should radiate out to the rest of your body."
"How do I compress it in the first place?" He frowned.
"Well, the best way is to just summon it compressed. Takes a few tries but that's the safest to avoid enemy-buffing. You have to summon lots of Element at one time, right?" He called forth a torrent of flame. "But there's nothing saying you can't summon a lot of Element in one space, as long as your fundamental control's good enough."
Aobaru gestured with his open palm, summoned an orb of searing brilliance. "Like this!"
Greenhorn, you are much too young to trick Age and Treachery himself, but that you try only makes me want to adopt you more!
I wonder if the buff-level being highest where an orb is located in the body applies to Edeldross. Does it still boost all attributes equally if we hold it in our brain? Probably. The explanation for
how to reach the appropriate level of density isn't that helpful, "just do it lol," but the line about how power depends on density, and density depends on control, is interesting in light of the choice between Magnitude and Control we were offered for this training session. Both are important, but it feels like we're getting two for one, since self-buffing was what I was most interested in anyway. Well, that's what we paid Arete for!
He swiftly launched the orb at Hunger, following up with a spirited charge. Hunger ducked the orb but felt a line of boils form along the exposed side, the flesh bubbling up as if on the verge of eruption. Terrifying.
He attempted to do as his opponent had done, summoning an orb of concentrated edeldross. Though his sphere was much larger than his enemy's palm-sized orb, still it ended up considerably smaller than the tank-sized blasts he normally produced. Tucking it into his body, it melted seamlessly into his chest; a steady, glowing warmth that vivified and exalted every fiber of his being.
Firing wide columns of Edeldross to deflect his opponent's attacks, Hunger charged in again, only to be forced back as Aobaru finally stopped holding back. The boy produced a broad, deep wall of livid fire, crackling golden tongues stretching full to sky. Aobaru emerged from the wall similarly coated in flame, a set of densely focused orbs whirling about his head. One by one they flew at Hunger, who was forced to endure two blows to the leg and one to the torso, flesh rupturing raggedly as it exploded.
Shocked at the gruesome display, Aobaru faltered a moment, and Hunger sent him to earth with a quick chop to the back of the neck. He placed his palm gently but menacingly upon the boy's head. "Do you yield?"
"Uh, yeah, I yield. Holy crap that was hardcore. Do you just like, not feel pain?"
Damn, no wonder Hunger's getting XP for this fight. The Flame is much more powerful than the Vigor, apparently, we've got Con out the wazoo and we're still cooked. I'm reminded of Sun King Seram, with the cloaked in fireballs aesthetic going on here.
It looks like Edeldross does still boost everything despite being stuck in Hunger's chest, nice to know.
If this was Hunger from thirty updates ago, it would be a great opportunity for Tyrant PTSD. What with the "hesitating at the last second because his own attack's cruelty shocked him." But he didn't even feel that pain!
With the spar over, his other magics were unsealed. Hunger quickly repaired his wounds. "I do, but you learn to ignore that in combat. Perhaps my sense of pain has dulled over time."
"Jeez. As expected of the Reckoner, I guess. You're pretty cool for an old guy!"
"..."
Aobaru got up. "Anyway, there's one stage of enhancement beyond even density, but I haven't mastered it yet. We call it suffusion. You create a highly-dense construct of your Element in the exact shape of your body, and move it exactly as your body moves. That gives the heaviest augmentation of all, even better than just saturating yourself with a pillar of highly-dense Element, but it's really hard and requires continuous maintenance. The orb method is a lot stabler."
Interesting. He wondered why that was. Intuitively, a 'highly-dense pillar' ought to offer the greatest exposure possible to one's Element. Perhaps it was psychokinetic in nature, some aspect of the concentration itself focusing the Element's effect? "Good to know. Thanks."
Hunger, when I was needling you about the 1% of your power thing, it wasn't an invitation to embrace the chunni. "Sealed" my ass, it's technically the truth but I don't like the way you say it. You should seal away your wrinkles, then maybe people won't mistake your 30-year-old self for 60. And don't say things like "over time," it's not helping your youthful image.
Creating an Element overlay, huh. I suspect that true mastery of suffusion leaves behind the manual control of the Element and the body and the soul move to the same thought. Or maybe that's just my wishful thinking, because that sounds exhausting. Hunger needs Wits for this one. If Edeldross is a holistic enhancement, a holistic covering should give more benefits, the logic checks out. I wonder if Hunger's accumulated injuries will hinder him in this endeavor.
"Hey, don't thank me. Just pay me well! I gotta make up for this lost lunch money." Aobaru grinned cheekily and handed over a pitiful sum.
"YEAH!!" Letrizia cheered wildly. She fired off a column of Pressure into the air. "I'm the best! I love gambling!!"
Your month's wages are a pitiful sum, Hunger is showing is trashy noble credentials. Letrizia is even worse, taking advantage of her employee's labor to call herself the best when clearly it was Hunger who is best boy. Well, I thought that, but he's doing a terrible job raising his daughteru, she's yelling about how cool gambling is and shooting cannons in the air, totally out of control. <3
I love her.
After that came a succession of considerably less impressive 'High' Elementalists, though Hunger's self-imposed restrictions nearly caught him out from time to from. Nonetheless by the end of the day he had gained an impressive competence in Edeldross manipulation without having lost a single (real) bout. Happily he paid out the students' bonuses, and was just about to leave when one final student arrived at the grounds.
She was a girl of about Letrizia's age, pretty and slender but not as tall as the Armament pilot, with eyes of dark violet in a similarly dark outfit. In her left hand she carried a slightly curved sword in a scabbard of polished wood. Her dark hair was drawn up in a ponytail spill of ink, stark contrast to her unhealthily pale skin. Her stance was light, alert; a fighter of professional skill, despite her nervous demeanor.
Volcanoboy was the best of the lot, which is a bit disappointing, but then again his showing was so impressive that there's just not enough wordcount for anyone to follow him up. Am I dreaming or does "time to from" not words in my brain.
He better have given everyone at least as much money as they lost, bullying kids out of their lunch money is too much even for a tyrant. There is a new arrival, she has many adjectives but can be summed up the word "ninja." As expected of Letriziasuka's new friend. It probably doesn't have to be specified that the high school student is about the age of a high school student, but she wasted her allotted adjectives on having speshul eyes so that's what she had left.
"Hope... I am not... too late," the girl said shakily, as Letrizia came over to greet the newcomer.
"Aeira!" Letrizia said happily. "I didn't think you'd be able to make it. Did your parents give you permission?"
"Ah, yes." Aeira replied. "It took much of the night, and today as well, but they have finally agreed to allow me to become a mercenary!"
She bowed deeply to Hunger, and then to Gisena. "Lord Hunger and Lady Allria, please permit me to travel alongside you! Letrizia has informed me of your mission and I would bring much in the way of novel capabilities. My Element, Shadowcord, dims light and deflects attention, allowing me to cloak you from detection even against automated systems. I am also a capable fighter with the sword, and can defeat most Sovereignty Armors in direct combat."
"Fascinating," Gisena remarked. "The information-theoretic implications of that attention-deflecting ability..."
"Aeira's really strong!" Letrizia gushed. "Maybe not as powerful as you, Hunger, but we could really use her stealth capabilities, and we've got plenty of money left over to pay her! Her family could really use it, and she can definitely take care of herself!"
Ironically, after one of the impetuses (that doesn't look like a word) for my vote for Aeira was how guilt-free a ready made mercenary would be, it looks like The Rotspawn Reckoner might have inspired a career path in her, so it's still our fault! And the parental permission is lookingmore grudging than I'd like. : o Not that I can fault her taste in role models, we're fantastic.
Part of being a mercenary is making a good first impression, which showing up late doesn't do, but even badass mercenaries have parents and getting a recommendation from a Duchess more than makes up for it, so you're off to a great start! Her pitch is good is a bit desperate... how the heck can she beat up an Armor with a sword? That's amazing, she's less squishy than I feared, Letrizia is right to say she's good, and now I feel bad about rejecting her for Arete. Gisena would know more about information theory than me, but is this really the first such ability she's come across? It feels like they're all over the place, but I guess automated recording systems were less common in Joania, so I'm glad she has a new toy.
Way to pull the guilt trip about her family needing the money, Letrizia. You're using your powers for evil and I approve.
Fanwork#2737 Words, I sleep.
