A Simple Transaction I

Hunger can still use the other Domains, he just isn't able to train them!

Rihaku said:

It would stirke not through mere traversal, but because it was destined to so land.

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*strike

Aabcehmu said:

You are correct that Sacred Earth eliminates the limits for Body Sculpt, which are there to represent the physical limitations of ordinary biology. I'd caution you against being too careless with your life, though. The sacred garden of the Life-Giver is not easy to destroy, but if anything could do it, it would be ancestral beasts.

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Noted! I'm hopeful that it could be possible to achieve a feedback effect of sorts via Questing to at least partially obviate that - meaning, undertaking a Quest to strengthen the Sacred Garden itself, to seed instances of it elsewhere, that kind of thing. Having +++++Progression should be handy for that, also.

Rihaku said:

Plus, Body Sacrifice means the character may not achieve immortality before being given Questing Magic or dying in a random accident!

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Hmm, interesting point! @Aabcehmu would you be willing to clarify how Body Sacrifice interacts with power gains? Specifically, will Znel let you structure the order you gain powers in to avoid issues like gaining a power that attracts danger before gaining the power to cope with that danger?

Aabcehmu said:

Because I'm a dirty cheater, I've applied an errata, specifically to buff Questing Magic, since after discussing it in the discord, I realized that the Questing early-game is a bit rough considering the price Znel asks you for it. Instead of +++Willpower/Luck/Protection, it's now +++++Willpower/Luck/Protection.

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Fuckin' SEXY. That puts my build up to 7 Willpower, 6 Luck, and 5 Protection. Also, FYI I updated my build with different Omens and some discussion of them. Consider this my bid for your vote.

[X] Refinement of Battle: The Best Defense
[X] The Tree of Liberty

Speaking of, I'm casting my own votes here. The Best Defense works well with Hunger's overall "cut through" ethos, while Always Forward is only situationally useful (though, to be fair in those situations it would be VERY useful) and Iron Fist cripples our ability to use every other Praxis technique we have or can unlock while also fucking with our personality in a way that further worsens our greatest social handicap. Nah, fam. Pass on that one. While Tree of Liberty is up against some much stiffer competition, but ultimately still wins the day for me. It greatly improves Hunger's own durability to offset the negative to defense from The Best Defense (while unlocking access to Dien's versatile panoply of bullshit), while also SUBSTANTIALLY strengthening the Human Sphere to resist damage by empowering the population and the Armaments that defend it. The humanitarian benefits should also not be underestimated - this would go a very long way to proving we DESERVE to be king (notably, this is also useful for heading off any potential future Aobaru-related hurdles given the premise of the detente we reached this update). Heck, to be calculating about it, restoring the population of the Human Sphere means there's more we could "afford" to lose before triggering an auto-loss via Indenture, though obviously we'd still want to avoid any mass casualty events if at all possible.

Rihaku said:

Hunger can still use the other Domains, he just isn't able to train them!

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Does it matter though when we're facing an Apoc proc? I doubt the Domains we don't choose will be able to offer us much help fighting whatever entity has show up outside of some niche scenarios. Whatever domains we choose here will play a major part in the upcoming conflict.

[X] Refinement of Battle: The Best Defense
[X] The Unending Hunger

Unending Hunger should hopefully make this proc a bit weaker than it otherwise would be and with Novagorge, our Compression and our massively boosted power of ruin, we should have the strength to take this proc out. Considering it's in a Foremost Realm, the space involved should hopefully be sufficient to shelter to broader Human Sphere from the collateral damage of the battle.

What are the Epistolary and Industrial realms? Has this been explained before, or is it new context?

Designed around the theme of exploring progressively deeper tunnels beneath Oroggodh, I have constructed a Quest boye:

Questing Magic: +++++Luck/Protection/Willpower, ++Progression, and a call to adventure

Ring and Rod Magic: ++Agility, +Composure/Endurance/Willpower/Wisdom

August Ring: +++All, and the ability to physically shift in/out of the Ancestral Plane. This can be used to hide from detection, phase through a locked door, or even manage linear flight. Finesse scales with Agility, Wits, Manipulation, and Luck.

Command Rod: Any power words you know can be spoken, and thereby expressed, through this delphium rod.

Living Steel Automaton: A land-bound war machine in the form of an agile, eight-limbed monstrosity which incorporates specialized Rods for attack, defense, and maneuverability.


I start out with peak-human stats and an enforcer who is able to combat more serious threats. The setting of Oroggodh lets me leverage my 'small fortune in bullion' and my rudimentary knowledge of Power Words to safely explore the upper tunnels. As I build a reputation, I can delve deeper and accumulate loot. Every time I encounter a common tool, I get another ability that can be channeled through the Command Rod. Every time I build or find a Rod, my war-machine becomes more lethal.


Stats:

In order for Questing to justify its higher cost relative to the Seed of the World Tree, the Quester must make sure to take advantage of the seven year cultivation time where the Tree is just a liability. I start off with the Command Rod, August Ring, and an Automaton that will be able to use every single item that I craft. These ought to be enough power to overcome the initial challenges of looting exploring the foundations of civilization in Oroggodh.

For stats, my baseline luck and protection is about 45x better than a baseline Human's. I've got willpower to match, which means that my phasing ability will be enough to put me in the right place at the right time without getting scared away or hurt. The results of questing into long forgotten tunnels should be an auspicious start to the long upward spiral promised by Primordial Quest Magic.

I'm intrigued by the Omen about the earliest part of the World's history. However, that's an overarching goal. My initial quest shall be "to learn the name of the City's first conqueror." It is rare for a conquest to go wholly forgotten; the stones remember even after the bones have been cracked and ground to dust. I will find a monument to the one who first set the city alight.

This isn't as long as Fayhem's post but it is a compelling plot hook, I think.

In the main timeline, Xylzrilyn pulled a pouch of coins out of Chihiro's heart, 16 Mundane Bronze, 8 Refined Silver, and 2 Exalted Gold. Similarly, in the main timeline, upon rolling the Wheel of Fortune, Chihiro got a 98, which was then rerolled into Coin Forgery. The former roll gave her access to the Furthermost Reaches' distributor of powers and Curses, the Curse Broker, who had offers for the 3 types of currency collected from a strange dimensional rift by her grandmother the Raven's Arcana had no use for. Chihiro made her choices in both, and was on her way to Fairfax on Melicau. This timeline is similar in broad strokes, but there are a few major differences...

Xylzrilyn began counting out the coins in the pouch she'd removed from...Chihiro, and paused in some surprise. "32 Mundane Bronze? Strange... your life experience is just over the average denizen of Melicau, despite your age. Especially on a low-magic world, that is odd." her surprise deepened when the silver pennies were counted out. "16 Refined Silver? That's quadruple the net worth of any normal Melicau denizen..." she turned a questioning gaze at Chihiro when 4 golden tokens were laid out as the pouch emptied entirely. "I've never heard of someone having 4 Exalted Gold, and never with so much of the rest... either there's a great deal more to this 'mystical orphan' business than I'd given you credit for, or something strange is going on." the cashier muttered.

Shaking herself slightly, the shopkeep turned her attention fully to Chihiro, and began her pitch. Once she was finished, Chihiro, always one for gacha games, and reasonably confident in her ability to still buy what she wanted with only 12 Bronze if she got garbage rolls, set aside 20 of her 32 Bronze, and began to make her purchases. From here, she should probably figure out what Exalted Gold purchases she wanted, and work from there. She had 4, with a maximum of one more, and they were the strongest abilities, so it only made sense.

Aura Greatness synergized really well with Dragon's Mien, and The Archmage's Power likely boosting the Dragon's Mien shapeshifting and giving the Aura Adept a versatility boost was really good, not to mention the potential if she got him to bookmark the parts of his book that were interesting. Socket Magic would take a really long time to bear fruit with the Perfect Diamonds, but she was absolutely certain the increased intellect and competence would be really good. Imperial Obeisance was... impressive, but it felt morally grey under the best circumstances, and she wasn't interested in the Rufescent because she suspected it might give her a vulnerability to this Discipline, given it was explicitly stated that transferring Crimson blood to another person would make them vulnerable and Rufescent was their school of magic, so it seemed fairly 'all-or-nothing' to her. It was something of a shame, since if she had both the 'strongly maintaining the shape of one's soul' regeneration from her True Name and conventional regeneration via the combination of Imperial Blood's 500% healing rate and the 525% boost from Battle Aura's Fast Healing would give her a great deal of redundancy, since both conventional means of preventing healing and spirit diminishment would be necessary to prevent her recovery. Similarly, the Blasting Rod seemed like it would require a ton of build up to become all that impressive. People who knew she was an Archmage would give it a boost, sure, but not being able to modulate the power would be an issue in terms of not obliterating everything behind whatever she was firing at by the second or third shot of any offensive spells, and if a defensive spell failed, how likely was it that she'd be in a position to cast it again? Still, that left her with a choice regarding Exalted Gold.

Forced Awakening offered a ton of benefits, but it also had a component of luck, and it would definitely mess with her head. Not a huge dealbreaker, since she might want her True Name anyway if she knew what it was, and the store could keep her from getting driven too crazy, but there was the issue that she'd either need to swap out one of the other abilities for it, or take on the Faustian Curse, since neither of the other Curses were remotely palatable. Surely, Faust wasn't that bad? Either way, it was Friday, so she'd have a couple days of safety. She decided to go for it before she could talk herself out of it.

"I'll take the Forced Awakening, Dragon's Mien, The Archmage's Power, Aura Greatness, and the Perfect Diamond for my Exalted Gold, in return for the Faustian Curse." she decided.

The shopkeep stared at her for a solid minute. "...Are you sure?"

"Yes." Chihiro stated with more confidence than she felt. "Though I'll still be buying Silver and Bronze stuff first. This is just to set up the core of my abilities. I mean, I can't even make Perfect Diamonds without Socket Magic, for instance, so obviously I need to buy that. Why? Is he going to show up the moment I finish buying?" she asked, genuinely curious.

The silence was deafening.

"Okay waiting a couple minutes on that is fine." Chihiro nodded, beginning to have second thoughts. Was he really that bad? All the Exalted Gold options she wanted were so good though...

Anyway, Bronze and Silver purchases. Might as well start by filling out Battle Aura and Socket Magic, since none of the other Transformations were available once she got Dragon's Mien, none of the other Wizard's Panoply items were worth anything when she had the strongest one, and she'd already resolved against the Rufescent Disciplines. Anything left would go to the Trinkets.

With the mastery provided to any techniques she already knew, and the trio of extra techniques she'd receive for each technique already known, Aura Greatness made Aura Packets 1 and 2 very worthwhile, even if she only had 8 Bronze left, accounting for the chunk meant for the Wheel, since her Refined Silver was still practically untouched at 15. 36 more techniques would offer all sorts of interesting tactics, though it was difficult to plan around them until she actually made her purchases, for obvious reasons. Starting as a Battle Adept would purchase a lot of initial safety too. Enough that she doubted she could be trivially dispatched even if her True Name, draconic benefits, and other magic systems were neutralized somehow.

Then there was Socket Magic. That would be 3 Silver by itself, then the Stone and Socket Pushes for another Silver and 3 Bronze. The Void Amber because she was certain there would be people who'd want a respec(she knew she'd wanted respecs in some of her games) and it would narrow the 4 types of Stones she could get from Stone Push somewhat, which was a decent deal for one Bronze.

That left the Trinkets. Of course, she only had...4 Bronze left. Mage's Cosmic Robe, when combined with The Archmage's Power, would effectively give her 'papers' but Archmage already gave her a diploma. Then again, the intimidation factor, bonus to resisting hostile magics, and not needing to spend money on clothes because it was comfortable and self-repaired was appealing. Meanwhile, Pouch of Holding was very likely be something an Archmage could make on their own, but having that as a baseline might let her expand it to something truly cavernous, improving it's utility beyond the basic Pouch. The Raven's Whistle wasn't much use when she'd be visiting this place on the regular... except, based on the stocker's reaction, she sort of doubted Faust would let her stick around long after their anime-watching and card games were over. She might actually need this if she wanted to buy any more. If, for example, she was wrong about gaining a vulnerability to Obeisance from the Disciplines, or if she already had one and getting Imperial Obeisance would let her ignore it with backup from Forced Awakening and Dragon's Mien, and of course spinning the Wheel of Fortune wasn't inexpensive, but she was sure it was worth it. Then there was the Arcanecrylhik. Potentially very valuable with the five minutes of questions she'd get from the author before he dragged her off for Yugioh. Her lifespan was effectively unlimited between her Awakening and Mien, so having little recourse but spending time on it wasn't much of a problem, and worst-case, she could use it as a bribe for some other old wizard with too much time on his hands, but it cost a full 4 Bronze, so she wouldn't be able to afford any other Bronze stuff if she took it. Much like the Exalted Gold, there wasn't anything left in the Trinkets she didn't want.

Hm. Her problem boiled down to a lack of Bronze. Now, she could go against her earlier decision to roll the gacha in favor of buying up the Trinkets she wanted, but that would leave her with an abundance of Bronze, though she could spend that on Aura Advancement and Blatant Cheating for a major improvement, but she'd be an Adept with a ridiculous baseline already with her Mien and Socket boons(Awakening specifically noted it was an abundance of spirit, so it probably wasn't relevant to the baseline, but it might be a multiplier to the end result), so that seemed like a bit of waste, even if it was more coherent a build. Between the spirit-overriding-the-body effect of her Forced Awakening and the improvements to her physique from Dragon's Mien, the Black Debilitation wasn't that much a Drawback, since she doubted it would bother her much between those two soft mitigation methods.

The left her with enough to grab the four Trinkets that cost Bronze, and three to spare. After some consideration, a small boost to Battle Aura, since it took so long to advance, seemed like a good choice. With Blatant Cheating, she moved from 350% Battle Aura advancement speed to 395%, which knocked the time from 200 years to achieve Battle Master, to 50.63, and then the sixth of the stage reduced that 42.19 years. With Dragon's Mien, she seriously doubted time would be an issue beyond remaining occupied. Huh. Was that why dragons were memetic sleepers? Nothing to do they didn't consider beneath them? Dragon's Mien wouldn't inflict that on her, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

As for the Refined Silver, with how many different magics she had, even a slight boost to all of them was valuable, and the Amulet of Arcane Greatness was only the one Refined Silver, leaving her with just enough to grab El Unicornio because of it's probable synergy with Aura Dash and for a non-magical means of defense beyond her bare fists, the Kaiser Fists in case her Forced Awakening wasn't enough to allow her to fight spirits head-on and as a second-line of defense if she couldn't use Unicornio for some reason(Being able to equip gauntlets and use a sword simultaneously sure was convenient!), and the Cloak of the Balanced King. She doubted Faust would be amused if the tried to get more than the allotted 5 minutes from The Archmage's Power, and honestly, the baseline buffs of Socket Magic not having a hard limit seemed immensely useful. She considered a boost to her Mien or Awakening, but this seemed more useful in the medium-term and about the same long-term.

With all her boosts and lateral defenses, she sort of doubted a phylactery would be a net benefit. Meanwhile, there was nothing she was willing to trade among the Gold purchases for the Blasting Rod, especially with the likelihood of collateral damage. Which left her with one last thing to do.

She told the stocker "I'll burn 20 Bronze on the Wheel. You mentioned I get three extra rolls anyway right?"

Nodding in assent, the cahsier rolled the Wheel of Fortune. The 98 she rolled rewarded her with time freezing as what she was certain was The Devil despite his mundane appearance was suddenly in existence behind her. It would not be accurate to say he 'appeared' more like he was always there and had deigned to allow her to perceive him. His eyes flicked down to the bag Chihiro held in one hand, not reacting in the slightest when she instinctively pulled it away from him. "Hm, 2 obols of Priceless Jade? A rare find. Rarer still that it happen beyond the Furthermost Reaches. Regardless, those coins are of interest to me, and in return for the inheritance formed of the self-granting wishes your grandmother collected from a dimensional tear, formed from over 2000 of my clients' thoughts and intentions, I can also grant you access to magics, and much like my business acquaintance's shop, maladies in return for yet more power should you desire it. I will even transport you to the Furthermost Reaches rather than Melicau should you desire that. Though it is plagued by monsters, it is, ultimately a world destined to regain it's former glory one way or another. Perhaps the dying embers will regain their vigor, or perhaps that plane will be brought to new heights by a follower of my patron's patron. Regardless, merely surviving for long enough might be enough to buy you a good life, as many such followers will grant you those whether you like it or not. Meanwhile, this world has fewer imminently lethal threats, but it's masters are cruel and malicious to a degree that is honestly baffling to any normal degree, desiring only a single iteration of the world, which they will slowly degrade into nothingness regardless of your actions. Still, if you should wish to make a difference to the wider universe you visit, though your odds are very, very, very, low, similar to the odds of spontaneous failure of the electromagnetic repulsion that prevents your atoms from sliding through others, going to Melicau would likely be your better bet." he then explained his wares and the Furthermost Reaches in some detail, though the latter was more vague than what she'd been told of Fairfax.

Chihiro considered. Red and Ten Thousand were basically locks given the potential they represented. Her purchases from the Raven's Arcana's stock meant Elysian wasn't especially of interest to her, but that left two Verses with Jade as a cost or potential cost. Second Fiddle wouldn't bother her much, but risking someone else left a bad taste in her mouth, and Perfect Storm offered versatility... but was it worth the price, even with the benefits to her Verse research? Hm, maybe she should come back to this after she'd filled out the rest of her build. She was reasonably confident Hunted wouldn't affect her on Melicau, and even if it did, Red would make it a net benefit as long as she kept scaling to match it, so she had 8 Silver to work with, and... hm should she go for the 8 Copper and the Ticket? That would only leave 4 Copper though... unless she had Hunted give her 4 Copper as well. Let's see, if she abandoned any Transmogrifications or Trinkets besides the Ticket as options...

She'd be grabbing the first four Verses for sure, which accounted for 6 of her 'remaining' 8 Copper and 2 of her 6 Platinum. Between a safety net like the Curse Broker, a means of attack that would constantly scale with her in Bolt From the Blue, including the massive strength of a dragon and Battle Aura's multiplier on it, Step Up's constant intellect bonus and space manipulation abilities, Stitch in Time's time manipulation, she'd have the majority of an adventurer party. 'Phoenix Down', offense, and two methods of battlefield control. Then Seven, for more means of offense, since she could use it to hit someone from angles Bolt wouldn't allow, and potentially with elemental weaknesses. Also, it gave Ten Thousand more to do.

Similarly, Gold gave her minds more to do, leaned into the luck she'd been relying on from the Wheel of Fortune and was about to use on the Ticket, and could help with Verses by letting her experiment in the outside world more easily, as well as giving a tangible benefit to the hoarding of items all RPG players engaged in. The last two Copper went to the Manacles, which were likely to be useful to The Resistance and potentially for Hero work, and the last two Platinum were divided between the Sigil, whose Progression was applied to Step Up to make her space manipulation and intellect boost come through faster since Red and Ten Thousand would be boosting her progress in general, but the former was already much, much faster than Sigil's boost and Ten Thousand already had a dearth of opportunities to use minds on much besides research, so she was pretty sure a mental improvement would be better than a few extra minds, and the Gonne. Between Forced Awakening's existential boost, Red's existential boost, and Dragon's Mien's magic resistance, she was confident in being able to resist the Color Magics and Gonne's influences enough to lean pretty hard on them. That meant it's benefits to fighting, and to any and all remotely relevant skills, were going to be immense, provided she didn't get too cocky and use it exclusively or something crazy like that, which would also improve her value to The Resistance. Red would take priority for a while anyway since it could boost anything and everything, at least until she didn't have anything she could easily drain.

Alright, now, the moment of truth. Ticket popped into existence with... 16. Which meant... Amplitude? She glanced at the Curse Broker.

"Amplitude is effectively control over the energy content of a physical interaction. Between your various direct mental upgrades and Ten Thousand, you possess the mega-structure level processing power necessary for a somewhat unconstrained version of the ability, but most of my patrons do not, as such, though you will be able to rapidly advance it between your improved intellect and Red, you start with the heavily constrained version of the ability intended to prevent a vacuum collapse event after what happened the last time someone grew desperate enough to attempt use of the fully unconstrained version." he explained.

Chihiro nodded with touch of panic. She knew just enough to know how bad that would be. She couldn't really hold that against him.

"I appreciate your understanding. To continue, interactions which fall inside of Amplitude's domain can be amplified or diminished one hundredfold. A bullet from a high-caliber gun could be reduced to speeds an Olympic athlete could outrun, effectively neutering it. Or, you could do the reverse, and cause a single bullet from a pistol to threaten an elephant. To facilitate this, the ability comes with a sense for any solid object with mass equal or greater than a pebble moving more than 20 miles per hour, or about 32 kilometers per hour which enter your proximity, which can trivially piggyback off of other sensory magics such as Red.

While souls, or what local metaphysics define as souls, will remain difficult for you to interact with, heat, light, gravity, and metaphysical domains available as you remove restrictions, though you can instead focus on improving the degree of amplification or reduction, which is easier in the latter case, finesses and precision, or targeting, including general sensory data from Amplitude. Unlocking domains which are currently locked can cause sensory disorientation, much like suddenly being able to see in ultraviolet or infrared might. Do note that the base ability applies universally, and these distinctions are based upon the human mind's distinctions. For example, heat energy is technically nothing more than kinetic energy on the micro-scale, but it is generally treated as a completely different phenomena by most humans. It should also be known that only distinct magical effects based on energy can be amplified or diminished. Bolt From the Blue could be, but Emperor Red is based on Essence, or 'existence', and would ignore Amplitude. Indirect energy effects can still be affected however, such as the use of Essence to bolster physical Attributes and in turn improve upon physical strikes. Overall, this is a defensive ability. It can be used offensively, but it excels on the defense. In part because it has a short range."

Finalizing her purchases, Chihiro decided to stay with Fairfax. She sort of doubted she could do anything about the Dark Ones the Curse Broker had made note of when comparing the Reaches to Melicau, but he'd implied a lot more outsiders were going to help the Reaches than Melicau. If she wanted to be a hero, wouldn't it make more sense to go for the place with fewer people already headed there?

As time resumed, and the Wheel continued it's spin, landing on 87, leading Chihiro to shrug and take on Coin Forgery since the shopkeep clearly was a fan, which made a coin shoot out of the wheel and smack into her face, digging into it without hurting in some bizarre reversal of the coin pouch getting removed. Xylzrilyn scowled at her, eyeing the Gonne with deep suspicion. "Did you just buy from a competitor?" Clearly Wretched proccing.

"I just spent the last of the money your store is interested in, and it was the Wheel's idea in the first place, so I figured-"

"I don't care, take your purchases and leave." Chihiro almost lost her balance as a wave of chromatic scales briefly rose across her skin and then receded, her height increased as she abruptly aged 3 years, and there was a deep abiding shift in her being as her True Name awakened, the Cosmic Robe she was abruptly wearing gaining a supernova, even as Chihiro immediately understood what her True Name was. It was a bit like Amplitude in function, or Red's existential diminishment, and would make getting the Manacles on someone incredibly easy.

Helpless allowed her to weaken anyone or anything to a tenth of their normal capabilities in her presence. An Archmage would be reduced to merely an adept, their mind gummed up like rusted clockwork. A titan would find themselves ponderously slow, with mountain-cleaving blows reduced to the scale of hills. Alternatively, she could recall the Helplessness of someone, doubling their power. She was certain she could develop more such abilities, though she also felt like she needed to make people feel their own powerlessness, like she'd felt it every day for years as her grandmother degraded and society rubbed her lack of powers in her face. She'd have to be careful not to become a tyrant of some stripe, given the sort of person who dragged people down like her True Name was pushing for.

"Go. Now." the shopkeeper did not quite growl.

"Just a moment." Chihiro wasn't as startled as she might have been to find a man in a plague doctor's mask and outfit as a whole barring the path to the door. "I have a weekend of Yugioh to watch with her. Also the five minutes of consultation, but that will have to wait until afterward. After all, it's not like she's leaving the store for the next two days." he said with cheer, though his grip on her should was like iron. Even as a Battle Adept with Dragon's Mien and her fully awakened True Name, she didn't think she could break his hold. How strong was he?

"Sir, she just bought products from-" Faust waved her off.

"Don't care, that guy's been poaching my business for centuries, and he'll be poaching my business when you're dust if he has his way. Seeing if I can keep him out of my shop is practically a game at this point." he turned to Chihiro. "Speaking of games, I've assembled your deck by rooting around in your personal memories for it. Let's have a Duel while I set up the first 125 episodes of the show. A new level of high definition just came out, so I have to download everything again anyway."

Not seeing much choice, she nodded in acquiescence. This was going to be a long weekend.

AN: As I also promised, Chihiro's illegal build! Normal Demon of Dreams build shouldn't be too long.

I just went for a strict doubling of the 'base' with Creator's Blessing included, so 32 Bronze, 16 Silver, and 4 Exalted Gold before any Curses are taken on. Similarly, since I'm already shamelessly breaking the rules, the rolls from Chihiro's original build are also kept, meaning she gets the Furthermost Reaches build(also with doubled money, because why not at this point?) and Coin Forgery from the gacha, though I still have to have her spend on it. Similarly, the 16 rolled back on 2261 is also gone for, giving her Amplitude.

Now, there's a few major differences between the main and Richer builds. Between the purchases of Forced Awakening and Dragon's Mien, none of the Curse Broker Transmogrifications are worth their asking prices, which frees a little Copper up immediately since Chihiro just sort of ignores Resilient. Doubled up on money lets her buy enough powers to be much greedier and go for both gachas, since a lot of these have immediate power-ups in tandem with their long-term potential, or that synergize with each other. Dragon's Mien and Battle Aura, or Forced Awakening and the Verses, for example. Red, Ten Thousand, and Step Up boosting her magic studies is just icing on the cake. Then, there's the issue that Aura Greatness gives her immediate Adept-level power and mastery of all Aura Packet techniques, and an additional 36 of them, allowing her to have a combat technique for most situations even without accounting for The Archmage's Power, Verses, or Seven.

With doubled currency, the UU build is much, much busier. As Richer!Chihiro is, well, rich enough to go for a build that isn't strictly optimized. She usually ties it to something she's got, but for all that she's a more 'focused on the meta' than a lot of people would be, given her social isolation, she's also a kid given the opportunity to grab magic. So, even with Red and/or Dragon's Mien, she won't be doing the boring practical thing of optomizing herself for a jaunt to some isolated mountain to spend a millennia training. For such an optimized build, something like Dragon's Mien, Aura Greatness, Imperial Obeisance for Rufescent's martial training buff and because it seems like a very dragon-y power, Cloak of the Balanced King applied to Battle Aura, splurge the rest on Aura Advancement*16 and Blatant Cheating*16 for ridiculous Aura training gains(1570% better than baseline with Aura Greatness and immediately moving 4 stages), screw off to some mountain and meditate in a cave for a millennium, with Color Green also benefitting from meditation, Color Red growing over time either way, Ten Thousand negating mental fatigue and making Red, Green, Battle Aura, and the Verses simultaneously trainable, Step Up's intellect boost and the Last Laugh, Stich in Time, and Perfect Storm Verses for better Verse research so that happens faster, and Sigil on Battle Aura if she went for the gacha, with Amplitude via Ticket providing a massive buff to physical combat, and come back to civilization a Battle Ultra God(Battle God-> Battle Super God->Battle Ultra God). Of course, pretty much all the characters would be dead or have accomplished their goals by then, so this wouldn't be very interesting, and Chihiro's not the sort of person to do that. Probably still get ganked by Turenval anyway, since he's likely not seen a lot of ridiculous Battle Aura prodigies like this with Dragon's Mien, and definitely hasn't seen Color Green, the Verses, or Amplitude, so he'd get curious, and with Chihiro flying around drawing attention, he could probably find her without any real trouble. I don't think this is a 'Dark Ones decide you're having too much fun and kill you and your entire universe for good measure' level of power, given the lack of esoteric abilities a thousand-year-old dragon who focused on mastery of Battle Aura and the constant wisdom and intellect buffs independent of Dragon's Mien over any conceptual hax. Though perhaps the raw potential from that sort of intellect might set off alarm bells, especially when she starts actually doing things, and Step Up would grant significant space-warping capabilities by then, especially since the vast majority of the Ten Thousand minds will have nothing better to do but Verse research.

FR- Richer build:
Color Gold [1 Platinum]
Color Red [1 Jade]
Numeracy Seven [1 Platinum]
Numeracy Ten Thousand [1 Jade]
Last Laugh [2 Copper]
Bolt From the Blue [4 Copper]
Step Up [1 Platinum]
Stitch in Time [1 Platinum]
Manacles [2 Copper]
Sigil [1 Platinum] Applied to Step Up.
Gonne [1 Platinum]
Ticket [20 Copper] Rolled 16 for Amplitude.
Hunted [+4 Copper]
The Wretch [+8 Copper]

UU- Richer build.

Forced Awakening [1 Exalted Gold]
Dragon's Mien [1 Exalted Gold]
The Archmage's Power [1 Exalted Gold]
Blatant Cheating [3 Mundane Bronze]
Aura Greatness [1 Exalted Gold]
Aura Packet #1 [4 Mundane Bronze]
Aura Packet #2 [1 Refined Silver]
Socket Magic [3 Refined Silver]
Socket Push [3 Mundane Bronze]
Stone Push [1 Refined Silver]
Void Amber [1 Mundane Bronze]
Perfect Diamond [1 Exalted Gold]
Mage's Cosmic Robe [1 Mundane Bronze]
Pouch of Holding [1 Mundane Bronze]
The Raven's Whistle [1 Mundane Bronze]
Amulet of Arcane Greatness [1 Refined Silver]
Arcanecrylhik [1 Refined Silver and 4 Mundane Bronze]
El Unicornio [2 Refined Silver]
Kaiser Fists [2 Refined Silver]
Cloak of the Balanced King [6 Refined Silver] Applied to Socket Magic to uncap personal Sockets.
Wheel of Fortune [20 Mundane Bronze] - 98. Play through a different CYOA, then make your build in this one, or the reverse. Enabled the above build to be added to this one. Reroll selected 31 for Coin Forgery.
Black Debilitation [+6 Mundane Bronze]
Faustian Curse [+1 Exalted Gold]

5045 words, discounting this line.

Fayhem said:

Hmm, interesting point! @Aabcehmu would you be willing to clarify how Body Sacrifice interacts with power gains? Specifically, will Znel let you structure the order you gain powers in to avoid issues like gaining a power that attracts danger before gaining the power to cope with that danger?

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Znel will determine your lifepath if you take Body, and will do so with her personal entertainment in mind. Assuming you didn't sacrifice Memories (which it sounds like people are reasonably hesitant to do), they return to you as you grow up, mostly in the form of dreams. Your actual offerings will come to you via auspicious circumstances and events arranged by Znel.

From a Decimation perspective life may be useful for fixing damage. However. That's unlikely to work for any groups from other universes it hits who then get Apocrypha buffed to come bother us. The alternative is Artifice/Union for stage 3 mitigation. It also, being the Artifice domain, is Wombo combo setup if we ever end up needing to use Grail Keeper(Synergistic with Nova).

First, I thought "Hmm, let's stack some bodymods."
So I initially went
[-1H] Clay Magic (+++END, +AGI, +WITS, +WIS)
[-1M] Sacred Earth (+++STR, +++AGI, +++END, +INT, +WITS, +CHA)
[-3H] Snake Magic (+++AGI, +++WITS, +++MAN, +++LUK)
[-7E] Lead Magic ( ++++END, ++STR, ++AGI, ++WIS, ++COMP, ++PROT)
With total statline of +++++STR, +++++++++AGI, ++++++++++END, +INT, +++++WITS, +++WIS, +CHA, +++MAN, ++COMP, +++LUK, ++PROT.
A highly survivable build with lots of bodymods, but not much to scale, and honestly I'm not really sure what it would be doing.
Probably some form of combat, I suppose, due to the massive physical statline. I guess maybe go for insertion point
[Drop] The Colossus
and the related omen?
but then, Lea brought up the idea of building a bloodwraith to carry your World Tree around, and I thought "hmm, why not just plant it in yourself"
so I slapped in
[-1H] Tree Magic
[-1M] Seed of the World Tree
[+1H] Body
[+1M] Root
Root doesn't matter because you want to outscale the world anyway, body doesn't matter because the build already has massive initial survivability with lead/sacred earth/snek.
With total statline of +++++STR, ++++++++++AGI, +++++++++++END, +INT, ++++++WITS, ++++WIS, +CHA, +++MAN, ++COMP, +++LUK, ++PROT.
Take insertion point
[Drop] The Arbor
since root, make up a new omen of "I'll never be happy in this world? I'll just fuck out of here lmao", world tree letting you scale to that point.
Eventually, you end up with a body that aesthetically resembles the combination of a Torterra and Xuanwu.
Possibly delay planting tree in self until reaching some form of physical maturity or something, or at least whenever you unlock all the other build bits.
While world tree is a big, big target(and planting it in you makes you a moving target), you can probably survive with the other build components until it scales enough anyway.

Aabcehmu said:

The Demon of Dreams​

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As a rival to Birdsie, I have naturally failed. The build does, nonetheless, manage to entertain my particular preferences, and maintain an aesthetic of industrial, inhuman power.
I'm quite thrilled!

Build name: Steel, Lead and Fire

LOCATION
-[D] The Colossus
BODY MAGIC
- [A] Fire Magic
- [N] Secret Flame
-[G] Lead Magic
ARTIFIACT MAGIC
-[E] Living Steel Prosthetic
-[R] Steel Magic
- [C] Immortal Steel
-[L] Blank Mask
SACRIFICES
-[O] Memories
-[S] Fear
- [E] Heart

Spoiler: stats and bonii

++++++Strength, ++++++Agility, ++++++++Endurance,
0Intelligence, ++Wits, ++Wisdom,
+Willpower, 0Luck, ++Protection
0Charisma, +Manipulation, +Composure
++++++++++++Heartlessness, ++Progression
Misc. Bonuses:
The ability to temporarily raise these attributes further by consuming higher quality fuel, an aura of fire, and a burning hunger.
The ability to perfectly contain your spirit-flame, suppressing your aura of fire and its associated shedding of heat, allowing you to steadily build heat internally and only release it when needed, as well as eliminating your burning hunger. Additionally, the color of your spirit-flame shifts to black regardless of temperature.
Spirit senses, and spirit-proof skin.
The knowledge, skills, and equipment of a professional lifesmith, including a forge of living steel which can tend to itself. a smith's experience, a hardworking countenance, a living forge, and tools of the trade.
Knowledge of how to forge immortal steel and an idea of where you should find the components and reagents necessary for the process.
The Mask cannot be lost or stolen from you so long as you live.
++++++++++Heartlessness does not apply to Znel (is this a disadvantage?!)

Carrion was, for all its faults, a peaceful place. In spite of the wealth to be found in the great body, the danger of the gates and the rot was sufficient to keep the people in line.
Recently, things have begun to change. A bold new traveler vivisects his way deeper and deeper into the great corpse, buoyed by his protective mutations, and without concern for loss of limb and life.
His efforts are fruitful. The treasures which do not disappear into his forge enrich the people of carrion, and draw more of the young and foolish to his banner. As his forces swell, so too does his ambition, and we among the council fear that this cycle will continue.
We ask you, brave adventurer, to confront this creature who has made us prisoner in our own homes. We urge you to speak with him, to share your bright words, and show him the end that he so recklessly approaches.
We caution you, speak softly, for his sword is far kinder than his heart.

OMEN: Black Sun


The point is to carve down the superfluous elements a bit. He's only got ++Progression, but he's also positioned to exploit rare and valuable resources in order to build power through infrastructure. Wheelbarrow was tempting, but I wanna be different, and the Colossus offers both rare reagents and access to the Gates of Myth.
Stat-wise, my dude will unfortunately? be punked by the terrifying 13 agility of Birdsie's guy. Well-rounded physicals do not replace luck and speed. If given time, I think 「Iron Man」 could do well, but I mostly built him to match an aesthetic, not optimize a particular stat.
(except heartlessness, I love that shit)

[X] The Tree of Liberty

Unending Hunger is a good idea if we're willing to dump a lot of Arete into mitigation; otherwise, we should probably go for True Imprisoner or this - mostly so we're not as likely to be playing rocket tag.
My real reason for voting this, though, is so we can revive and bind Attramemnar. We have Exalted Battle Array; we should use it.
(Incidentally, @Rihaku, what happened to the planetary range on the curse link? Merely an artifact of how damaged Verschlengorge was?)

[X] Refinement of War: The Iron Fist
[X] The Tree of Liberty
(I mostly just decided on tree for +letrizia lmao)
(but iron fist ... good)

Clay Magic Initiation: (0, 1, 0)
Fire Magic Initiation: (0, 1, 0)
Steel Magic Initiation: (3, 0, 0)
Powder Magic Initiation (2, 0, 0)
Blood Magic Initiation (2, 1, 0)
Tree Magic Initiation (0, 1, 0)
Mask Magic Initiation (0, 0, 1)


Vitruvian Man: All currency is spent on being initiated into a different type of magic. The statistical boosts of these systems are somewhat synergistic: Agility, Endurance, and Wits of the polymath are elevated by 30 times or more over an average person, while Wisdom is at 10x. This is the pure mechanical list, without considering cross-system synergies or effects of the Mage's first efforts at self improvement. Consider that Blood Magic Initiation provides knowledge of Blood-Codes that can be implemented by the Clay Magic Initiate. Knowledge of both Mask Spirits and Blood spirits may similarly confer some insight or cross-system epiphany.

In addition to mechanical boosts, the Journeyman Magus is provided with a variety of resources upfront (a small fortune in ritual salt, a living forge & tools of the Blacksmith trade, and innate artistic skill). These resources can help to secure the builds' long-term Progression paths of Blood Rituals and Mask Construction. Even a completely blank mask is +Progression, and communicating with existing masks allows for dramatic acceleration within the field by learning from established players!

This build benefits enormously from starting in Wealbierogh, where there will be financiers ready to fund any meaningful innovation and peers ready to brainstorm every novel idea. In fact, a place like Wealbierogh makes something like [ ] Root (Snake Magic Initiation) + [ ] Memories (Oak Acorns) worth it. The loss of memory hides the serious metaphysical grounding for the Vitruvian's ennui, leaving him free to try any amount of hedonism in the city where he is uniquely equipped to make money and accumulate influence. Snake Magic even insulates him from the consequences of his own choices!

Snake Magic Initiation: (0, 0, 1)
Oak Acorns: (1, 0, 0)


The final build has really spectacular stats:

The character's body is pulled in many different directions by the disparate magics:
Clay imposes an earth-elemental's substance at all times, but reverts to a serpentine bodyplan by default. Only his eyes remain a piercing gold color throughout every shapechange. The character is shrouded in Fire's aura and haunted by Fire's gnawing hunger.



...
Here's a second build-bid towards earning your vote, @Aabcehmu

Here's the build I'd use for Questing Magic, were I to go that route:

The Hero Without Fear
Fatiseade
Sac Name, Fear
Earthly (8): Sculpt Body (-3, Focus Intelligence, Charisma, Agility), Questing Magic (-3), Rod and Ring Magic (-2)
Heavenly (5): Father's Mask (-2), Questing Magic (-2), August Ring (-1, Uttermost: Willpower + Recklessness-based reality bending, basically a scaling version of Exalted stunts)
Empyreal (1): Questing Magic (-1)

This build has disgusting initial stats, outclassed only by an August Ring/Father's Mask/Blood Scion build, which it leverages to undertake heroic tasks, thus scaling up rapidly and relentlessly.

Strength 6 + 2 + 1 = 9
Agility 6 + 3 + 2 = 11
Endurance 6 + 1 + 1 = 8
Intelligence 6 + 3 = 9
Wits 6 + 1 = 7
Wisdom 6 - 2 + 1 = 5
Charisma 6 + 2 + 3 = 11
Manipulation 6 - 1 = 5
Composure 6 - 1 + 1 = 6
Willpower 6 + 2 + 5 + 1 = 14
Luck 6 + 5 = 11
Protection 6 + 5 = 11
Progression 3 = 3

With a whopping 72x baseline human strength, 188.1x human speed/dexterity, 45x human resilience, 72x human intelligence, 188.1x human Charisma, Luck, and Protection, 786x human willpower, etc... and three Progression +s to back it up, this build presents a terrifyingly hypercompetent hero with immense capabilities in the physical, intellectual and social spheres backed up by huge amounts of plot armor and broad-spectrum effect resistance (Protection). He also possesses the combat skills and Weapon Arts from the Father's Mask, as well as the ability to quickly acquire more exotic effects from Ring and Rod magic.

[X] Zampano

God, I feel so alive. People know I exist, they're interacting with something I've made on a level I'm so unused to. It's addicting.

Say, @Rihaku. Question about White. I'm working on subsuming the Lost Realm, Unkindness Untolerated, and Dream Demon CYOAs into the Greedyverse build. I'm working off the presumption that 100 Inherent Memories can be produced relatively trivially by Greedy via a similar method she uses to mass-produce Blue Roses via Coin Forgery, so Fake*7 White(128 Memories) with 2 consumed by TSH and Legendary leaves 5 True-equivalent boosts. Would that push her up to three instances of Legendary total from White and the other mental protections she's got? White with Legendary seems to just barely cover itself enough for a second Legendary to be possible, so I figured 5 boosts equivalent to making an Imaginary Element True might be enough to squeeze out a third when all that other mental protection stuff is afoot. Particularly when the Colors she's already gotten from the Curse Broker will automatically be training White with the combined benefits of Red, Cursebearer Progression, and TSH.

Mm... probably not, Legendary's cost scaling is just too absurd. She'd probably have something four to five orders of magnitude more powerful than a normal Legendary White, but the gap between Legendary 2 and 3 is far, far greater than that, not even considering its ISH bonus. In terms of cost efficacy, you'd be much better off pursuing other forms of scaling rather than aggressively attempting to get another Legendary effect - after all, a single broad ISH 3.8 effect is usually much better than two less broad ISH 2.8 effects in the first place!

OctarineShrike said:

From a Decimation perspective life may be useful for fixing damage. However. That's unlikely to work for any groups from other universes it hits who then get Apocrypha buffed to come bother us. The alternative is Artifice/Union for stage 3 mitigation. It also, being the Artifice domain, is Wombo combo setup if we ever end up needing to use Grail Keeper(Synergistic with Nova).

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Hm... why do you guys think that Unending Hunger offers Stage III mitigation for all Curses? That's the second post I've seen.

Rihaku said:

Mm... probably not, Legendary's cost scaling is just too absurd. She'd probably have something four to five orders of magnitude more powerful than a normal Legendary White, but the gap between Legendary 2 and 3 is far, far greater than that, not even considering its ISH bonus. In terms of cost efficacy, you'd be much better off pursuing other forms of scaling rather than aggressively attempting to get another Legendary effect - after all, a single broad ISH 3.8 effect is usually much better than two less broad ISH 2.8 effects in the first place!



Hm... why do you guys think that Unending Hunger offers Stage III mitigation for all Curses? That's the second post I've seen.

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Comprehension fail/Forgetting what the Blurb actually said in my case.

Aabcehmu said:

[X] Zampano

God, I feel so alive. People know I exist, they're interacting with something I've made on a level I'm so unused to. It's addicting.

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I know right? Having Pittaro react to Lost Realm gave me a similar feeling.

Rihaku said:

Mm... probably not, Legendary's cost scaling is just too absurd. She'd probably have something four to five orders of magnitude more powerful than a normal Legendary White, but the gap between Legendary 2 and 3 is far, far greater than that, not even considering its ISH bonus. In terms of cost efficacy, you'd be much better off pursuing other forms of scaling rather than aggressively attempting to get another Legendary effect - after all, a single broad ISH 3.8 effect is usually much better than two less broad ISH 2.8 effects in the first place!

Hm... why do you guys think that Unending Hunger offers Stage III mitigation for all Curses? That's the second post I've seen.

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Fair enough, Progression already breaks the ceiling, and getting TSH on them is fairly trivial as-is. Greedy would probably go for Legendary on White and Battle Magic, the former to allow for madness like getting literally every single one of the Colors, which seem to be more in line with straight multiplication than Legendary's exponential Mental Contamination, and the latter offering a ton of fighting power for the conflict with the Dark Ones. Especially with the utter madness of Fake*6 as a minimum on everything Forgotten's got, and more like 10 in some of the lower Inkling purchases.

[X] Refinement of Battle: The Best Defense

Man, 90% is quite a lot. Having perma RoW is very good, but is it really good enough to justify the cost?

Choosing the domains is super hard, actually. For now I will go with

[X] The Imprisoner True

We already talked about how strong Space is for multitude of reasons, and this additionally has a special synergy with both Adorie and Hunger! In particular, I'm interesting to see how Law-enabled access to Seven Seal will look like, that sounds pretty powerful.