I've always found the concept of friend inserts interesting, since to some degree it edges the concept of an "insert" around a lot of the things that tend to cause that genre to have problems (author ego, pursuit of fictionalized self-satisfaction, compartmentalizing character from omniscient narrative perspective, etc). And it allows you to have the fun of a crossover and an insert to some degree, since it allows you to have an insert that genuinely knows nothing interact with the setting, while still having someone knowledgeable handle the setting itself.
In return, it loses the fun of seeing someone try to problem solve using OOC knowledge of the setting, and has the awkwardness of coordination between people as an additional roadblock to fanfiction success, which is not a disadvantage that any story really needs. Solving things like a puzzle, or going at problems reasoning-first, is something I really enjoy reading about, so long as the puzzle is interesting and the viewpoint character is thinking well. So for friend inserts have trouble attracting me, since they're more likely to die and are missing a full third of what draws me to insert fiction in the first place. The other two-thirds being some mix of internet addiction, crippling escapist tendencies, inability to let go of fictional series that I've enjoyed once they're finished, enjoyment of the rare moments of cleverness/good writing, and habit.
Friend Inserts, oddly enough, are one of my favorite things to write, on either side. Gabriel and I have already created several (and completed one), and I can link some of them to you if you're interested.
There is something relaxing about it, or... something comforting, I should say. If I'm the "GM" of the given FI, I have full knowledge of canon. It's like being a painter, almost, and having a thousand shades of color at your disposal to create a virtual masterpiece, but the canvas is responsive to what you paint. The correct choice of shades, appropriate saturation; it's all important to craft the story, and the canvas will only build upon that, making the painting come alive in a way that normal Self-Inserts cannot due to their Unitarian mindset folded under one person.
It's why characters in SIs always suffer from that unique brand of "perfect infallibility," where they cannot do anything wrong, and always make the right choice or manage to pull through, even when logic would dictate otherwise. In a Friend Insert, you have no such problem. It's not that much different from a D&D campaign, except it's only a single player with the DM and there's no dice to roll. The player can't make their character do stupid things and just get away with it, and the DM gets the satisfaction of a painting well-crafted as I described in the metaphor above.
On the other hand, I've experienced frustration numerous times when the player in question failed to obtain the most obvious solution or answer that was hanging right in front of them. Sometimes, it almost hurts to see that bullshit.
I could talk about them a lot more, but I feel like it'd be an excessive non-sequitur. I'm replying in order to counter your wordcount, but I'm not going to post rubbish to achieve it. I have pride as a shinobi.
A Simple Transaction is an unsurprising setting to insert into, seeing as its practically built for it! Its origins are something like Internet CYOAs -> Jumpchain -> AST, and it itself is inherently the concept of "inserting" jacked up to the extreme. In fact, a big part of the way I structured the CYOA character options came from the realization that the Accursed's nature (the design of the Transaction itself, as inherited from Jumpchain) allows you to keep whatever universe your character is in already! AST inserts are really just inserting the whole universe (or local multiverse) into the Accursed's metaverse. That's some Rihaku-tier biggatons for you.
I did it for Arete back then, and I'm doing it to succeed right now.
The evolution of internet phenomena, even including forums or memes, is always... fascinating to watch, and can be nostalgic or conjure nostalgia in lots of ways. How many times have you looked across the internet and found a Troll Face, reminded of those good ol' early 2000s and late 90s? God, to think that was like, over twenty years ago... Shit's insane, man. Also, that's almost exactly what I thought: initially, I had some reservations about using the real Gabriel (since he'd be forced to play his own friends, family, etc,) but he said it was fine, so we decided to go with it.
Shit is, once more, crazy.
On that note, I stand by what I've said in the past about the way that the Transaction itself is deceptive to most people, since the scale of time and intensity of Rihaku's quests tends to be pretty divorced from human intuition, and even from the absurd power level jackoff that defines a lot of internet media geek communities. So we'll see how your well your friend handles what would essentially be the most important moments of his entire life, which theoretically now might stretch out into a time abyss so deep that it makes the age of our universe seem infinitesimal, not to mention the normal lifespan of a person!
People live in a moment. The journey of a thousand steps is but a step taken a thousand times, is it not?
I feel like - if you've ever read Terry Pratchett's Small Gods - a good description of what an actual Cursebearer's life would be like could be summarized with a quote from that book: "The weight of a thousand, very small tonnes."
Each moment in a Cursebearer's life of critical importance. They are affected by, and affect their world in a plethora of ways, and have more power than nearly anyone. Whether it's a Combat-type or a Progression-type, they're an existence far above the norms of humanity. More disturbingly, though, the absurd level of power means that even though each moment in their life is going to have tremendous consequences for the world surrounding them and the people living in it, their lifespan means that... it won't really be any more outstanding than any
other of a billion moments that held a similar, critical significance. This really goes to show how stressful that lifestyle must be, not to mention the (literally) damned curses.
Y'know, I feel like if there was a
theme song to encapsulate the totality of a Cursebearer's life, it'd be some unholy mash-up of, "It's a Hard-Knock Life," and "You Say Run." At least that's how I'm seeing it.
This paragraph reads like Gabriel has an enormous "hook" in the form of dearly cherished relationships, which is a dangerous position to be in for someone with the power of a Cursebearer. But then, it's also a good driver of conflict, which you want in a story! Maybe he'll be offered Retinue, if he's a Progression-type? For a normal person, even 25% of the base Cursebearer Progression in one area for one year would be a boon so far beyond the value of the sum of their lifetime's possessions that the former utterly dwarfs the latter.
For most people, good relationships would rule out the Geas of Indenture as a option, and I'm guessing that you won't want to deal with constructing another whole world. Wanting good relationships with people actually rules out a lot of Curses, which I suppose makes sense! Relationships are the most essential part of human experience for most people, so they're a great pressure point for Curses to target.
Very good analysis of the opener. You've mostly succeeded in realizing and understanding what I was trying to get Gabriel to establish there. I've known him for a long time, and so I know better than a lot of people that Gabriel's relationships almost define him (if he picks Surgecraft, it'll be something that buffs others for sure, I literally can't imagine anything else that'd fit for him.) For now, he'll focus on "cultivating" himself to a much higher level so he can put up a fighting chance, but his friends will play some role in the story by its very nature.
And by the Apocryphal and Rival's natures, he'll incontrovertibly, lose probably a majority of them. But don't tell him that. Eh, I'm sure he already knows... probably... I hope I didn't fail to impress the level of the Apocryphal's seriousness upon him.
Also, Doom of Judgement is going to make it super-difficult to execute (or allow for the execution of,) defeated Rivals. Gabriel has a kind of... I don't want to insult him, but I'm sure he'd agree on this: Gabriel has this dumb charisma to him, that's almost a perfect match for an anime protagonist's personality. If he grows better into the role of a Cursebearer, he might actually make some friends from his Rivals, and Progression will eventually let him expand his maximum links for Coterie. This might end up growing into something like a One Piece situation, with a thousand characters who are all friends with the protagonist and most of whom fought him once upon a time. Assuming he survives that long, of course.
Yeah, more hooks! I wonder if most of these people are relevant, or just set dressing? In the context of the story, obviously. I'm not that much of an ass.
I'm not sure. I'm rather confident that Hope and Francesca are going to come up again, even if not as actual party members, because the former is his best friend and the latter is his girlfriend. There's a non-zero chance some of them might join the Curse Squad, but Gabriel might prefer to distance himself or protect them in other ways. I can't predict what he's actually thinking or planning, though, so I suppose that it's up to him.
..oh man, this is going to be awful, isn't it?
Yes. Yes, it is, and there's absolutely nothing that you, me, or anyone in the universe - not even the Accursed himself - can do about it. Brace thyself.
If life has taught me anything, it's that you shouldn't ever lose yourself in sincere enjoyment and appreciation for the present, since that's prime time for the Irony Goblins to show up and kick you in the balls.
I'm glad that I've managed to immerse you so thoroughly. Soon enough, Tsukuyomi will sap any remaining degree of resistance and your powers shall be mine.
Hard to say that I would feel bad to be offered the Accursed's Transaction. I'm definitely not suited, so it would be rough, but it would definitely explode the whole course of my life. Yay, escapism!
I think that I'd make a pretty... passable Cursebearer, although I definitely wouldn't be happy about it. If the Accursed appeared to me out of nowhere, I'd consider for a very long time and probably, ultimately, refuse. Unless the selection of curses was so merciful as to be on par with Seram's, in which case I'd consider more strongly and
maybe accept.
Uly looking stylish, as always. I like the juxtaposition here between the Accursed's heart-stopping, world-suppressing presence, and his personal manner of just chilling out on the counter.
The Curse of Swag. He can never not look like a badass, even if he
really wants to.
Well, that explains the Transaction, as well as the potential opening for Geas of Indenture. A victim of Fate, huh? Wonder how hard a Cursebearer has to scale up to punch an eldritch abomination to death? Hard to say with everything else this uncertain.
Scale a lot, unless it has a weak point that glows red like they often do in videogames. Wouldn't that be hilarious as fuck? Get pasted, beastie.
We saw the effects of Brand of the Wretched earlier, and I assume that The Accursed let the Plenary Brand flare a little bit earlier to force Gabriel to calm down, but I guess the connection necessary to wire someone into the Lathe of Heaven requires at least on full-force hit of Plenary to the dome. It's probably better this way, too, since it impresses the seriousness of the Transaction on the person who's about to pick their Remittances. And I guess it also assures them that The Accursed wasn't lying about not being the Devil, which some people may actually care about.
Gabriel is so atheist that I've once seen him grind up a Bible and use it as spice to add some taste of, as he described it, "crisp shit," to his breakfast cereals. Also, I'm kidding that never happened, but he is very atheist.
He'd sooner believe the Accursed is his Fairy Godmother than the Devil.
Still a rough way to find out how far down you are on the cosmic pecking order, compared to the previous incontestable knowledge of human superiority that most people take for granted. Being offered Progression is a balm to that wound, though. It's worse for people like Sten and Ber, who for all their eventual cataclysmic might are eternal ants in this grand game of power The Accursed plays with the Cursers.
The only reason he's not gone insane is because he accepted the offer, I'm pretty sure. And even then, you can see that he's kind of fucked afterwards like a guy working a ten-hour shift at the office and constantly fucking with excel sheets because he's got nothing else to do until his incompetent co-workers finish their own assignments and e-mail him the relevant data tables.
Ah, no details per the options offered? What even is a Transaction without hypothetical build votes?
(No, I don't have a problem.)
Lay down the Arete, Bard. It's not good for you.
Also, there were no hypothetical build votes because I wasn't savvy enough back then to realize how trendy those would be. I have grown, Bard! I have attained a state far beyond Titanhood, above the 26th Ordinal! You cannot defeat me, because the concept of defeat does not apply, etc, etc, [anti-hero ramblings]!
I'd actually want to take Geas of Indenture to keep my loved ones from being relevant and therefore subject to its whims. I see the Accursed's argument that Gabriel attracting the thing fucking up his whole reality doesn't mean he has to leave, but then taking Apocryphal and Rival on top of that and still thinking that it's fine to stay? That's some weak Will, man. You gotta pump up those numbers.
I know, right? Worst curse choices! If this boy survives, I'm actually going to be pleasantly surprised. Because his chances at this rate are low.
I'm still contemplating who his Rival should be, although I already have an idea for the first Apocryphal proc. The events are arranging themselves as we speak. It's going to be a complete shitshow, believe me. And completely unrelated to the Apocryphal, there's a Nameless
Thing attempting to gain uncontested access to reality and its doing its own shit that is gradually ruinating the collective foundation of Earth.
So what seems like a Regalia-adjacent Primary Remittance, with enhanced Retinue, some New Game Plus, a basic unspecific magic system, and some minor other bits. And some unspecified artifacts. Well, that makes staying not as bad, I suppose, though relying on others for power creates a lot of cracks for Apocryphal to pry into, like some sort of demonic tree slowly cracking its roots through concrete.
What a delightfully tasteful simile. I must congratulate you. I could not have worded it better myself!
(Believe it or not, but what you said has some non-minor relevance.)
Plus, this remittance doesn't seem to have the loyalty mechanics of Retinue at all, which makes things even worse. Apocryphal is going to find a way to make his friends kill him for sure, especially given that his attitude towards them would make him choose to take it and die instead of overcome it. Making your power rely on your relationships will just cause The Apocryphal Curse to start Brand of the Fated/Chaste-ing you.
To be fair, while the members of the Coterie are allowed to betray the Cursebearer, that's difficult to accomplish: to even
qualify as a member, you basically need the videogame equivalent of, "Bond: MAX," on both sides. Unlimited trust, and complete willingness to sacrifice for the person in question.
I'm surprised that he didn't take any companions? They're way more valuable than artifacts if you pick them well, so far as Gabriel's paradigm of power-sharing goes.
*Snickering*
Billions? Not even close, buddy.
It was a half-decent guess for someone who's never had anything to do with this setting on any level. I warned him we're dealing with power-levels far beyond the highest echelons of the Nasuverse, which is oddly enough his closest available frame of reference, and he seems to have really taken it to heart.
The Accursed ducking out of there to avoid an awkward conversation where someone of baseline human intelligence attempts to outthink him regarding his origins.
"Look at this pea-brain trying to out-logic me, a galaxy brain." Is the Accursed really so shy? I never pegged him as socially anxious, but I suppose that could be attributable to a curse of its own.
Did, uh. Did they not notice him changing positions instantaneously? Or maybe it was all a mental illusion, I guess.
Even if it wasn't, it's pretty dark in there! I'm not sure how the Accursed's time-stop works, and I don't want to make (too many) assumptions because it feels like sacrilege. I actually wrote down an entire tree of custom Ordinals, right up to the 26th, but... eh, they kind of really suck. I feel like I'll need to work on them a lot more before they're actually on a half-decent quality level.
Next!
Pro-tip: the SV search function is actually decent, and lets you search by member, phrase, and limited location. Finding your original omake didn't take more than 30 seconds!
Thank you for the advice, but I already figured that out maybe a minute after I posted that. The benefits of being an Omakegan user: we can level up on any battlefield of prose, for our ocular power is immense! I can read an entire page in a mere glance, much like the Prolessarch.
lol
Maybe it's the long-term depressive problems talking, but being in a crowd of partying people while feeling distant and unhappy is sure a mood that I don't like remembering.
Damn. Non-sequitur but: can relate. I think a lot of people can, coincidentally. It can get especially bad now that the virus' out and about.
That's right, baby.
No, surely not. It said nothing about Gabriel taking any companions!
Are you sure?
Oh, it is! It's Prolessarch!
THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT, BABY!
God I love diagram liches. They're just so cool! Gabriel's reality just got like five times cooler from this alone.
Completely true. OOC, Gabriel actually picked Prolessarch, but I made the executive decision to play it off like he didn't actually choose shit, because this way, Prolessarch's intro is far better, wouldn't you agree? It helps not... clog things up, in a way. Lets the story focus better.
And also his chances of surviving shot way up, I guess, since Power-sharing Remittance and a basic magic system is a killer combination with Prolessarch in the mix.
It'll be a while before Prolessarch can be added to the Coterie, but it's something to look forward to. Until then, Gabriel essentially has a research hero unit that'll take care of research for him automatically. Free Progression!
Ah, so we see what I assume is the first of the artifacts that he bought, apparently something optimized for combat? And one of the minor boons he took from the Accursed.
lolno
I was actually confused when writing it. It turns out, you see, that Gabriel keeps a yellow pastel knife on his desk for some godforsaken reason. I have not even the slightest clue as to why, but I can see why you'd have the impression that it's an artifact.
Anyway, a slashing weapon is terrible against a skeleton. Grab a lamp for bashing, you fool!
Actually, his primary remittance is...not too different from Verdant Decipher Fortress, it seems like, though obviously he has that Retinue-adjacent power as the main source of his power, and a basic magic system instead of a luck effect like Fortune's Smile.
Keen eye. It's one of the better Remittance types, and it seems Gabriel was tempted by its multifarious nature.
Prolessarch's book conduct only increases his coolness in my eyes. Liches are truly rad.
Literally my favorite fantasy archetype. If someone ever asks me if I want to be: Hero, Dragon, Ninja, Pirate, Cyborg, or Lich, then I'll always choose Lich. Temporal power, immortality, and a badass robe to match. It's the fulfillment of all nerdy dreams!
The Isekai split that seems to come up a lot between our universe (which is basically sci-fi, haha) and fantasy universes is that our constant scientific investigation has allowed an unbelievably sharp knowledge of the particulars of the world, which itself is structured to encourage a very functional kind of empiricism that fantasy settings usually lack. Partly this is an effect of the complicated reality/idealized fiction divide. Leaving aside the boring "exploiting physics knowledge with magic to get gud" trope, there's a productive tension between something like TES Dwemer Tonal Architecture and the modern mathematical/physical analysis of sound in music, and I'm glad to see that recognized here in Prolessarch's conduct.
With the Prolessarch and Eye of Knowledge, Gabriel is going to unlock a truly staggering amount of magic systems and other things, given enough time. If he isn't a PhD-level engineer by the time of the first Apocryphal proc, I'll be disappointed. Not that engineering is going to help him with, y'know, his doom, but it's always nice to know how to construct a coffin with all the right dimensions for yourself, your friends, and your dignity.
And the world you live in, I suppose.
Also, I know it said "spiritual", but the image of The Accursed calmly chokeslamming someone into a wall is really, really funny.
Making that comedic was the intent, so very good for you!
Prolessarch rapidly ascending the Infinite Radness Husk in my estimation. Also, the second artifact. I'm...not super jazzed about Eye Scream horror, but hopefully we'll get to see what it does in more detail, beyond "Vitalism multiverse stuff"? The knife still hasn't really been explained.
The knife is a knife, but the Eye is the key to everything.
Asinine comparison, but when I write Prolessarch, I picture a gestalt entity that's 10% Nameless, 10% Sans the Skeleton, 30% my old biology teacher who was a really awesome dude, and 50% the embodiment of Diagram Liches everywhere.
There's the third, and I assume final, artifact. Ring! Ring! Ring! Prowess is actually really, really valuable as a domain, since it's a effectiveness and Progression multiplier if you're smart about it.
C o r r e c t.
The Ring of Prowess is objectively Gabriel's most valuable pick from the list, not counting his Primary Remittances which are going to be equally invaluable with enough time. He accumulates one Coterial Orb, to no hard limit: he can stock them infinitely. Eventually, he'll possess enough of them to turn a single person into Superman, or four people into a mini-Justice League, and when he does it's going to be really fucking awesome. Especially once he starts unlocking advancements for it that let him add even more people, then it'll
really be the Justice League! And the Eldritch Beast shall not prevail, for the dawn of tomorrow is here, and Justice shall not suffer weirdness.
And as we all learned from EFB, the only thing better than making yourself more effective at gaining power is giving yourself more time to do so with! As a Progression-type without Slumber or something like Might's Repose and with The Apocryphal Curse, I would absolutely rush to eliminate or reduce sleep. More time to train.
Honestly, this is going to be like Dragonball Z at times. Just training, training, training, then kicking the shit out of a Rival alongside your superpowered friends, then convincing the Rival to become your superpowered friend. The Apocryphal will keep things fresh, relevant, and introduce power creep as necessary for that proper anime feel.
Add Gabriel's personality to that and... I've really created a typical late 80s anime, huh? I'm not sure how to feel about that. I mean, generally, I'm happy, but it's kind of disorientating to have that realization just now, after I wrote down like three chapters of this thing.
I wonder what The Ring of Prowess's other domains are. Is it just the one?
It rules over shit like prowess, skill, proficiency, and eventually some esoterica that I won't mention here.
It's worth noting that, much like Hunger, Gabriel can use the Ring both on himself and others, and much like Hunger, he can also use it both ways.
It's totally possible to grind a bank robber's, "firearms proficiency" so low that he'll be unable to shoot you even when you're twenty meters away because of how bad his aim is. He might even forget that you need to squeeze the trigger to fire the gun! Meanwhile, Gabriel can grab a plastic katana and fill his head with expert swordsmanship, then refine it even more until it's perfect. Ennobling, etc, will also be options later on.
Ah, more clarification about the eyeball as well. So it allows one to trade knowledge for knowledge?
Correct, usually some shitty stuff, but it can scale to offer entire magic systems or spells.
And Prolessarch figured out some of the native magic system already (which is presumably the stuff that Gabriel got as part of his Remittance)? Wow, he's got to be glad that the Accursed got him Prolessarch, thereby increasing everything he bought by enough value to make up for his bad choices.
Prolessarch is a gem.
Surely he wasn't about to call it a knock-off Diagram? It doesn't seem anywhere near that powerful from the feats in this chapter.
Hah, no! He was going to call it the knock-off Domain of Evocation.
Inserting new metaphysical systems underneath pre-existing structure is kind of like playing Jenga by digging into the ground below the tower and inserting new bricks. Not smart.
No one said eldritch beasts have to be smart. Their morality works on an axis of orange and blue, and their intelligence works on a q-scale.
...yet another reason why leaving would've been the right choice. I guess Doom of Judgement's "modern moral sensibilities" are relatively lax on the question of whether one has the obligation to act against their own desires in order to spare billions of other people hardship, huh?
He doesn't yet quite fully realize the utter fuckshow he initiated by taking Apocryphal. Don't worry, there'll be time for him to do so.
God the Ring of Prowess is OP. I think it's potentially worse than most of the other Rings we've seen in The Accursed Metaverse, Truth aside. If it doesn't surpass Aurelia's Ring of Majesty in the short and mid-term, it certainly kicks the shit out of the Crown of Majesty the CYOA offered. Think about it: Prowess is expertise in theoretically any skill, and since it improves performance it's practically a free Arete machine! I don't even want to see what a Ruling Ring of Prowess advancement might look like, jesus.
Prowess is one of my better ideas, and likely the best Lesser Remittance other than Prolessarch that Gabriel had on the option list. He doesn't have any significant skills that apply to combat. How to fix that? Pick up an item that lets him do that, much more, and do that, or the reverse of that to other people! It's basically ingenious! An ideal way to patch up the primary hole in his ability set, although Prolessarch and the Eye both help with that a lot, as well.
I'm curious to see how Gabriel will develop from here. I've actually got a sort of... minor advancement outline prepared for him, though I'm not sure how good he'll be at recognizing the shitty choices apart from the really good ones.
Good to finally get some Pentexplanation! (This is dedicated to you, Strange9). I really like the mechanics, since they're a good combination of solid limitations, the combinatorial chance factor people tend to like, and wide-open theoretical possibilities. Plus, its universal accessibility via Prolessarch's teachings means that once Gabriel comes clean to the people he trusts (which better be soon, if he knows what's good for him), the faster he can get them enough power to help him not die to the Apocryphal.
Pentex essentially draws on elements from the user's environment and lets them recombine those elements into spells. It channels solid reality into Platonic abstrata that can be used to channel solid reality. In the hands of a particularly smart caster, this might be used to create minor feedback loops, but even then, Pentex spells are incredibly limited and weak. Even a pretty good spell would only be worth a 3rd-Level D&D Wizard spell, if that. Most of them would be on the level of cantrips.
The Ring, Eye, and Progression might be able to help with this, but they can't alter the system so much as to make it unrecognizable. It'll always hold those same limits, even if Gabriel applies [To Shatter Heaven] to it, or some other attainment of a similar type. It'd be better to acquire other forms of power, and fortunately, the Prolessarch agrees with that and he'll even teach Gabriel and guide him on that path.
In a way, if Kazuma has a number of failsafe in case he dies, (temporal reversion, Aqua, Subaru,) then Gabriel instead took a large number of teachers (Ring, Eye, Prolessarch) to bestow more knowledge upon himself. Now that I'm reading deeply into it, Gabriel's build is actually pretty decent, even for his circumstances. He certainly could have done worse!
There has to be some sort of harsh limit that we aren't aware of yet. I mean, there's the whole "it won't allow you to change society, since spells are necessarily individualistic and can't be industrialized", but that's shortsighted, seeing as you can absolutely revolutionize a bunch of industries without automated magic if spell effects are as reproducible as this chapter makes them seem! No, this magic system is too good for it's price, even if it doesn't have unlimited omni-dimensional reliability. So there has to be some other limit that makes things worse. Can't be limited spell power or casting limitations, since arranging combined synergistic spells with others would jump that hurdle without an issue. I guess we'll see, then.
It's harder to use Pentex than you think! There's no real way to predict the outcome of what the elements in any given spell produce. Pentex spells tend to lack permanency of any sort, and their power is also near the very bottom of the scale. It's versatile, sure, but it lacks the usefulness that preparation time might yield.
With Pentex, you're essentially playing gacha for very shitty, one-use superpowers. The chances you'll get something like, "Create Metal" are low, and even if you do, it'll be spent after one casting. It's a good boon for a Cursebearer who needs some immediate tools for self-defense, but it's nothing to elevate civilizations with. Unless Gabriel manages to surprise me with some ingenious solution that I, in my arrogance, was blind to. I'd be very pleased to see anything like that from him.
"I won't sully my hands with your dirty, dirty commoner's magic! Only the Diagram, that wonderous cascade of ultimate mystery and wonder, is worthy of my bony fingers.
Also, The Praxis is too good to be real. I refuse to believe that hooligan could devise a system better than my Diagram~."
Pretty much, yeah. This cantankerous lich is both a human supremacist and really believes his methods are superior to anyone else's.
I'm assuming that Gabriel is relying on the "outsource power to those around me" strategy to indirectly mitigate Doom of the Rival, but it doesn't seem like it will work since Gabriel hasn't made an attempt to get his loved ones involved yet. I know it's only been a day, so I would normally give him a break, but he took The Apocryphal Curse! If I took the Apocryphal Curse in the middle of birthday party with my family and friends, I'd say "Fuck it" and tell everyone I was planning to bring in right then and there, shit. I guess he doesn't know how punishing it can be yet.
You are 100% correct on that last assumption. As for his friends, and the Doom of Judgement, it'll be a while before the Apocryphal procs for him, and the first one is going to be relatively bearable if he keeps training at his current rate. I would definitely hope that he's going to look for allies soon.
I am not actually afraid to kill him and end this if he fails to be adequate, albeit his temporal reversion means that he'll get at least one extra try if he fails to live up to the standards of the Accursed.
If he waffles on it too long, The Doom of Judgement is likely to start weighing down on him. It's not ethical to be knowingly suffering from something as volatile and malevolent as the Apocryphal Curse and not give the people who know you a chance to dip out before they get hurt.
If Apo-chan heard you call her volatile and malevolent, I'm pretty sure that she'd toss a nuke in your way. Again, Gabriel hasn't correlated how bad the Apocryphal is, but once he does, the Doom is going to start hitting like a freight train rolling down a mountain with a high-pressure jet strapped to the back and set on full throttle. It's going to be seriously cruel and nasty to observe, kind of like someone murdering an innocent kitten with a shovel.
"Let Prolessarch go on an enthusiastic walk" is yet another thing to put on the list of "Apocryphal-chan's no-nos". I'm not going to be surprised by this backfiring.
lol
Gabriel is going to have a really, really bad time until he understands the full implications of the Apocryphal Curse's capabilities.
Bad time isn't enough to describe it properly. Also, another damn reference to Sans the Skeleton! When is that monstrous buffoon going to stop bothering my poor, poor head! I need to eradicate the idea from my sensorium.
There's no need for false modesty at this point, Birdsie. You can just admit that it's EX-rank. It's fine.
Well, I suppose that I
am quite good at ninjutsu. Thank you.
UWU, what's this? *Notices your resolve*
Are you trying to become a curse of your own, Bard-kun?
Alleviating the need for sleep is a must, and meditation might begin to handle that while being super useful and actually just necessary for Pentex. I would do a loop between meditating and exercising, with the meditation serving as the mandatory rest periods.
If it matters, Gabriel's current stat upgrades mean that he only needs to sleep about 88% as much as a normal human in order to fully restore his stamina. That'll only keep increasing, given enough time and effort on his part. He could also learn to meditate in lieu of sleeping, not unlike a D&D elf, which ought to be really useful. It'd allow for cyclical growth: the soul trains while the body rests, and the body trains while the soul rests. He'd be able to maximize his gains utterly using this! It'd scary to even think what Prowess might be able to do with this level of competence.
Yep, nailed it. The Ring is really pulling out the stops, huh? Actually, that reminds me of that one story with the earrings that give perfect suggestions. You know, the one that tells you what to do next that will make you happiest, and it gradually narrows the immediacy and complexity of the suggested actions down to individual muscular movements, removing your need to think or make decisions at all. Does anybody know the story I'm talking about?
I do not remember anything like that, but your description has piqued my curiosity significantly. What is it?
Anyways, it's good that he has to actively engage the Ring to some degree in order for it to activate. I would expect it to handle things beyond exercise, too. Like, thinking about things and making decisions are also active skills that you can be imperfect at, so I wouldn't be surprised if it rapped his knuckles for poorly optimizing training time or making bad decisions about how to break new to his allies, etc. Though I guess having it do that would be pretty annoying to read about, so maybe it's good that things are constrained to avoid that.
Hah!
Don't worry, the Ring's not quite on that level yet, although if you give it time, it'll become essentially like a second, much better brain! Who needs decision-making and growth when there's a supercomputer that downloads neuro-memory files into your head at the speed of light sitting on your finger, right there? Prowess is a cruel mistress, but through its yoke, it creates the best kind of horse breed.
This is bullshit. The Ring agrees with him about the necessity of proper calorie intake, but doesn't tell him off from the massively substandard choice of carbonara? Pfft.
The Ring's an excellent trainer because it teaches through Pavlovian conditioning, so it understands the value of a carrot and stick approach. Furthermore, it's not like it can argue for him to summon ingredients from thin air, and leaving the house while Prolessarch is out might be a risky proposition. You can't know what kind of threats lurk out there, in the Italian countryside!
Unsurprised that it seems to apply to cooking as well. As always, Gardener's Hallow-esque systems lurk just out of reach.
Even if it's fanfiction, it's in the Rihakuverse. Food porn is a must.
If I were part of a government special forces magical black ops incident squad, I too would throw lightning bolts at a spooky robed skeleton man, no matter how jovially polite he was. Who knows what the wrist-slitting is about, though. Imperfect use of Pentex, or deliberate exploitation of some more appropriately Lovecraftian astral subsystem that allows one to convert blood sacrifice into mystical might?
Ironic, isn't it? The Supernatural Haunting and Investigation Team (not their actual name, but the acronym is funny,) is racist towards the human supremacy-preaching skeleton. Also, I'll reveal that while those people who caught the Prolessarch reading in the library do know about the Pentex and how to practice it, the specific magecraft they were using was something else, close to what you guessed. Most of the systems the eldritch beast is introducing are rather weak, at least for now, though, so Prolessarch had nothing to worry about.
I assume that this is supposed to read "Crystal Eyes across the multiverse", since the presence of other Crystal Eyes in this universe is a cause for significant alarm, given how useful of an artifact it is and how soon the total accumulated knowledge of modern humanity will no longer be able to be exchanged for practical magical knowledge.
Knowledge for knowledge, its nature doesn't matter! Also, the universe is a very big place, Bard. You don't need multiversal travel to go to places that are truly wild and strange.
Wow, that's a lot? What he got seems like it's worth a lot more than what he fed in, seeing as Prolessarch can't possibly have an omnidimensionally, omnimagically reliable understanding of how to manufacture phylacteries. And the technical knowledge to do one really useful thing in one system that Gabriel can't even use should probably spit out something similar, right? I mean, I wouldn't complain about the power, since he's going to need it, but shit that's a lot of low hanging fruit. And it didn't even take that long to do! Quick, ask Prolessarch for another secret of equivalent value: you might get another three (!!!) magic systems out of it.
The Eye does not discriminate based on the relativity of knowledge to the user. That information would be invaluable to someone else in the right universe, so Gabriel receives something that's of equivalent use of him. It's a benevolent system!
Oh? I suppose Prolessarch isn't actually a Diagram lich in this, then. Huh.
Oh, he is, but he also practices Domain Magic, which is something that I made up, as well as some other minor arts. It's close to typical D&D Wizardry, but with some caveats. Never Cultivation, though. That's filthy as shit, never touch that, m'kay?
Idolatry is theoretically super useful for home defense, which Gabriel should care about a lot. But Apocryphal doesn't care and will simply out prepare against him. Surgecraft is too strong in utility effects/direct combat to not immediately take and dump a day of Prowess-boosted Progression grade effort on, at the very least so that Gabriel has some meaningful, consistent supernatural combat capabilities right away.
Idolatry can scale to a really high level. If the user of Idolatry can make an accurate model of the entire planet (or individual places on the planet) and make a ritual that's lofty enough to establish correspondence on such a large scale, he'd be able to essentially gain worldwide control. A single lighter, some ice cubes, a battery-powered fan, and a drill and Idolatry lets you replicate the use of all major four elements on a level that surpasses even Surgecraft!
But again, Idolatry relies on preparation time, and Gabriel doesn't exactly have a whole lot of that. At least, he might not. It could be useful against some Apocryphal procs, but it's much better to have immediate power. Idolatry is on offer in case you'd prefer some long-term power instead, and frankly,y because I wanted to share it.
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