Enohthree
Hypersane
Ten Thousand minds, so little time. Is it a build vote? Is it a CYOA? No, it's a build vote located entirely within a CYOA! Specifically this is a hyper niche build vote that assumes you picked my two favorite options to combine in Rihaku's Furthermost Reaches CYOA way back here (A Simple Transaction I Original), Ten Thousand and Gold. Ten Thousand let you manifest 10,000 different mental instances of yourself and dedicate them to any task while Gold let you have every single one of them interacting with the world around you so long as you had the cash for it.
This CYOA was built with an eye towards builds centered around choosing those two options at the very least, though there exist synergies with certain other magics. If you did not have a build that incorporated those two options, or if you did not have a build at all, play this under the assumption that those two options are what you've gotten and you're encountering the Quests at the end without much else.
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Fantasy Financial Planning CYOA - 4.5K words
Hey boss, it's mind Instance 3,090 here. I was created to format our future development in the form of a CYOA, since we spent way too much time reading those and filling them out prior to this.
As a recap we're currently in the middle of a spooky fairy tale forest in the Brothers Grimm sense, populated with walking Risen zombies and wolf like Shadow Beasts and frankly a lot more dangerous things that we're just kind of hoping we don't run into this early in the game. And you're the mind Instance in charge of selecting how we're going to do that, as far as our Gold Magic is concerned.
We've got 10,000 minds available and two arms worth of Gold construct bandwidth. And if we want to get out of this spooky forest alive and maybe even snowball our way out of this nightmarish fairy tale nonsense, we're going to have to prioritize!
Well, technically not 10,000. Your initial idle thoughts have spawned roles and uses for several thousand minds already, if you can't tell by the fact that I'm in the three thousands by designation and how my job as a narrator who reframes our life and death struggles into a CYOA build vote is kind of nonsense. If you want you can force the 3731 minds already assigned to different roles that aren't things to help with Gold testing, but that will mean taking them away from jobs like-
Running through the woods
Hyper focusing on the forest for threats
Recalling all the survival tips that snuck into our media sometimes
Attempting to meditate and be zen
Carving the faces and names of our loved ones into as much detail as we can remember so we never ever forget them
Trying to remember the exact tune of how certain songs go so we can recreate them later
Same as above but with books
Sobbing
Being happy about the whole magic thing
-and being you, boss leader number 1! Well you're actually Instance number 17 delegated to deciding among these options presented to you, but let's not dwell on that now.
The smart Instances in the 323 through 397 subgroup of magical researching have brainstormed some expected returns based on Gold bandwidth and how many Instances you dedicate to each option.
Don't worry about other magic system training or synergy, that's in the court of the 31 through 314 and 2110 through 2599 Instance subgroups respectively. Don't worry about losing track of what's what, we have an Instance on naming and remembering things and they'll get back to us when they work out a better system.
You have access to roughly two limbs worth of Gold bandwidth to make constructs with. We expect more on the way and you should plan ahead for that, but for now we need to get out of this forest and into our first proper adventure.
By combining the mental stamina of Instances 323 through 397 you can generate Stacks of focus, each one being able to select from an option below. By our reckoning you'll have accumulated 7 Stacks worth of focus by the time you make your way to towards any of the locations you scouted, though that may change depending on your final destination.
(Free)
We figured out these in the time it took to even make me, so consider these freebies. Costs 0 Stacks each.
[ ] Sphere - You can make a ball, right? Before you can go full Gamer expy and turn your mana ball into a mana bullet with spinning, drilling, elemental variants you have to make that ball.
[ ] Polygons - Before you can make ornate swords and shields, you must make pointy triangles and sturdy squares. These are the foundations of more complex shapes made up of millions of polygons, like certain people's anatomy or high resolution toothbrushes. And hey, a sharp enough triangle will still stab and a strong enough square is basically a shield already.
(Casting Style)
How Gold is cast is the mark of the maker. Select one of the following options below. Costs 1 Stack.
[ ] Solidworks - 'Solid gold' is a mark of quality when compared to being merely 'gold plated' for a very good reason. Practice giving your constructs weight and heft. At the cost of a quadruple penalty to Gold bandwidth spent on each construct, constructs no longer shatter when hit with peer level attacks and +100% CON and +40% STR to all constructs.
[ ] Infill - When humanity got into 3d printing they realized that solid construction was for people with way too much printing filament on their hands. Instead they could get away with using a fraction of the material nobody is going see anyway and still retain the large majority of the structural strength if they filled the hollow prints with a very specific pattern of squiggles. Task mind Instances with manually replicating the squiggle algorithms, double penalty to Gold bandwidth and +70% CON +25% STR to all constructs. -5 mind Instances while any construct is manifested.
[ ] Dynamic Loading - Any fool can make a usable bridge that doesn't collapse. It takes a really skilled engineer to make a usable bridge that almost collapses. Dynamically scale construct thickness with expected force exerted on it, making constructs as fragile as glass if they exceed expected weight loads but are otherwise perfectly usable in the day to day. +20% effective Gold bandwidth, incompatible with other construct construction methods.
[ ] Gold Lantern - You intentionally neglected training this aspect of your powers to focus on something else. Make sure it was worth it. +2 Stacks.
(Portfolio)
Each technique in your Portfolio builds on the next. Techniques are divided into [Assets]. Each technique costs 1 Stack, but within each [Asset] you can only obtain the next technique if the prior one was purchased.
[Manipulator Assets] More ways to brandish weaponry, more ways to write with quills, more ways to wear enchanted rings.
[ ] Gripper Claws - If they're good enough for Doc Ock they're good enough for you. Stick a pincer on a cylinder and you have a near costless means of manipulating things, albeit crudely.
[ ] Hands - Four fingers and a thumb makes up humanity's favorite multi-tool. The benefits of having an extra set of helping hands, especially when they can be piloted by other mind instances, should be self evident. Prerequisite for [Body Assets]. By default manifest to scale copies of your own left and right.
[ ] Dominate Hand - Why manifest to scale? Suck up every ounce of Gold bandwidth available to you to make a proportionately large giant simplified hand construct. There are well worn magical resonances with such a thing, as a result develop a practice based hand-based path of construct creation. +Progression to any use of the Dominate Hand to do hand related things, such as 'firing finger guns' or 'winning rock paper scissors' so long Dominate Hand's volume is at least quintuple your body's volume.
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[Sword Assets] And spears and knives and axes. Killing implements and cooking implements to survive the harsh forest around you.
[ ] Butter Knife- Why make a hand to hold a sword when you can just make the sword float in mid air with exactly the same leverage? Gain a sword with the sharpness of a reasonably sharp kitchen knife. Mental instances can be tasked with maintaining greater degrees of sharpness, capped at 4 to reach razor sharpness.
[ ] Grindstone - Slowly develop the ability to imagine sharper and sharper swords. Increase the cap on sword sharpness by 1, doubling the time invested for each further increase with a cap on 7.
[ ] Shaving Commercial - Lets face it, you don't know the mechanics of monomolecular edges well enough to recite them from memory without making some sort of flaw. But you did sit through a catchy commercial for a shaving razor that included a facsimile overlaying their jingle. Dedicate a single mind instance to playing that commercial on loop, by mentally humming along to the jingle and advertising manifest a regenerating monomolecular edge. The mind forced to do this will not like this.
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[Shield Assets] You're not quite at the level where a familiar looking hexagonal field springs up to shield you from all physical harm yet. But Polygons was free so with enough personal wealth...
[ ] Adaptive Trapezoid - Better than a simple kite or buckler, this two stage construct has an ablative top layer meant to shape the second layer in such a way to best deflect the incoming blow. While this is not as helpful for nonphysical or elemental attacks it proves its worth when turning away fatal blows from sword swings, spear thrusts, axe swings, etc. It even provides some measure of defense against sonic based attacks.
[ ] Polished Gold - Whenever possible, collapse the adaptive shield in such a way that the incoming attack is not only deflected but thrown back at the attacker. Melee combat will usually not be applicable, projectiles often are. With a small investment of metallic dust you may reflect light based attacks however you like. Makes your already impressive shield shimmer majestically as it manipulates even ambient moonlight.
[ ] Greed - Microhair hooks, viscous velcro, threaded fibers, you have quite a few ideas on how to entangle melee components who were foolish enough to see gaps in the Reflection shield's coverage as weakness. --AGI to anyone or any weapon touching a shield construct.
[ ] Knight's Armor - Manifest a mobile suit of armor, capable of operating around a host or of acting alone with supervision. When encasing a living being provides ++STR and +++CON. Otherwise acts as an armored instance of your base body wearing fully protective plate armor.
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[Missile Assets] Its better that all of these monsters die while they're way over there and you're way over here, don't you agree?
[ ] Spheroid - A suite of upgrades to the simple 'bullet' sphere projectiles, such as spinning them like drills, encasing useful payloads, etc. These skills transfer over to many other construct options, not only projectiles.
[ ] Seeker Triangles - Unleash a swarm of tiny triangles and chevrons and upside down Vs on your enemy. Turn the battlefield into a low resolution RTS space game. Lethality or lack there of scales to construct strength and sharpness.
[ ] Slings - Don't tie up Gold bandwidth with attacks, instead just accelerate the endless projectiles found on the ground to lethal speeds with lethal aim. Doesn't scale to the extent of other options, but provides a useful flat amount of ranged damage to your repertoire if you wish to focus elsewhere.
[ ] Fly Wheel - You can't hold a construct bow taught but you can make a construct disk spin, and then bleed of its momentum. Summon two spinning disks that will launch whatever is placed inbetween them at high velocities. Limited only by personal skill and the ability to envision, you may one day reach a velocity considered 'sufficient.' Loud and subject to disruption.
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[Body Assets] Normally this would be harder, but you've got some perfect examples on hand. Requires the Hand technique to unlock this section.
[ ] Feet - After hands, feet! Undignified it may be, zooming out of the forest on what looks like the bottom half of an ostrich is optimal performance. If this is done decreased chance of encounter and decreased dignity for the duration.
[ ] Touch Feedback - You already kind of get feedback from how your gold pushes against certain material. Focus on refining that into a rough facsimile of the sense. This is the crude beginnings of a sensory array that might prove to be invaluable.
[ ] Vocal Cords - It was easy enough figuring out how to make noise by vibrating air with construct vocal cords. Recognizable sounds are much much harder, but doable with enough practice. Did you pick up a Verse as part of your starting package? Can't remember, but even if you didn't you might still learn to supplement magic requiring incantations or activation phrases like this. Increased chance of encounter.
[ ] Ears - Vocal cords in reverse when you get down to it. Practice based with a steep learning curve, eventually graduate into being able to understand sounds within range of this construct.
[] Eyes - Vision is very very hard to build up from the first principles. It was done from them once though. Start off with a simple light sensor and work your way up from there with corresponding effort.
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Outside of [Assets] there are a variety of other things to invest Stacks in, these without the requirement to purchase prior options.
(Penny Stocks)
Ways to spend your bandwidth unrelated to the above options. Each option costs 1 Stack.
[ ] Halo - Manifest a Halo type construct above your head, a simply gold band of suffice warm light. Makes you slightly better, just in a general sense. Instance 316 thinks this is just a placebo. Ignore them. +1% ALL STATS.
[ ] Competence - While Gold is great to build on itself its more useful as a training aid. There may be 10,000 of you but they're only as good as the you from the start was. Develop some skills in archery, aiming, parkour, and swordplay.
[ ] Orchestration - Instead of training combat you look to the future for money making potential. Manifest wind instruments with your bandwidth and develop some level of skill in the musical arts. Increased chance of encounter and +??? interactions with some Quest options
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(Dividends)
If you maxed out all of the [Assets] in a section you may select the following techniques for 1 Stack. You'll have the beginnings of this ability by the time you make it out of this forest, though nothing close to mastery.
[ ] [Sword Assets] Parry - The best defense is a flashy offense. Use the sensory film of the first layer of adaptive Shield, but rather than collapsing a shield construct into an optimal defense instead manifest an appropriately scaled sword construct to riposte. Shield constructs can not be used while this technique is up. The sword construct is naturally swift and the positioning allows for great opportunity to counter attack. +30% attack speed for sword constructs manifested this way.
[ ] [Shield Assets] Hardpoints - A network of floating points of light similar to a field of stars floats around you, dense enough to hamper motion from targets larger than a housecat. Each individual star may not stand up to the crushing maw of a Shadowolf bite or the brutal chop of a Felled Woodsman axe, but they're more than capable of catching them awkwardly on the elbows of the swing or in the crooks of the legs on the approach. More or less eliminate the majority of melee threat from any being who cannot shatter constructs en mass.
[ ] [Missile Assets] Air Cannon - Step 1: Encase some air in a construct. Step 2: Squeeze it smaller. Instance 401 insists that its not that simple but the end result is that you have a pressurized chamber ready to fire at surprising speeds. While you can achieve higher pressure gradients and other neat tricks through this method the real prize is being able to fire a prepared volley whenever you please.
[ ] [Body Assets] You (Classic) - Make a copy of yourself prior to obtaining your new powers or body, at the gold bandwidth cost of how much you were worth at the time. The objective answer to how much that was may seriously depress you! You're worth your weight in Gold now though, as an Instance can pilot You (Classic) and operate as if they were an independent being sans weakpoints such as vital organs or the ability to be bled out. Can make use of any magic you have obtained that an Instance can cast. +YOU
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(Mutual Bonds)
Select one of the following as a technique you believe you'll eventually obtain in the future. While there's obvious synergy with the earlier parts of your selected build they do not have to be tied to the requirements as per Dividends. Costs 0 Stacks, this is you selecting a destination, not traveling the road yet.
[ ] Astigmatism - Fill the gap between a source of light to the first surface it illuminates with a torrent beam of sharpness. In the case where a source of light is beyond your Gold casting range produce a ray from the furthermost reaches of that limit centered on the origin of the light source. Attack speed is hitscan. Moonlight, torchlight, make them fear the starry night.
[ ] You (Incorporated) - Mint out more and more copies of yourself, focusing on outfitting each instance to where they can adventure safely on their own. With the right kind of spatial abilities or transportation you may eventually seed your instances far and wide, each learning novel magics and earning good coin to send back to the original. +++++You
[ ] Asura - Quantity is a quality all of its own. Instead of painstakingly manifesting each extra hand individually with available bandwidth, suck up every ounce of gold bandwidth available to you to make a proportionate amount of hands centered around your person. The resonate nature of this act grants +15% gold bandwidth worth of hands if Gold bandwidth is insufficient for at least 9,998 hand constructs. All hand constructs gain ++All Stats if all are working towards the same task, and a further ++All Stats if performing the same action. Stacks with Dominate Hand. All hands gain +100% Might if used to punch someone.
[ ] The Chattering - Verse magic, and when you get down to it quite a few other spoken magic systems, activate when the activation phrase is complete. But what if they never were? Summon a rotating ball of mouths, constantly speaking the activation phrases of magic in such a way that said magic would only ever go off if the Chattering was silenced. Immense synergy as a deadman's switch with certain magics like Stitch in Time to cheat deaths you can't react to fast enough. Requires an investiture of hundreds of Instances to maintain, and is an obvious and creepy target unless stored somehow. Completely obviate the Stain of the Poet while active, as the Chattering interjects rhymes between every single word you say so you can once again speak freely.
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(Q1 Projects)
Quests are a thing that kind of just happen in this neck of the woods. Run from them, hide from them, a crisis will always rear its ugly head if given enough time. But as much as the common folk fear Quests, they are still grateful. They know the Furthermost Reaches are happy to drag their sons and daughters into the dark forests any time the sun sets and sometimes while its still broad daylight. Quests mean someone has a chance to turn that tale into an adventure instead of a cautionary tale. What was the first Quest you found yourself tangled up in?
[ ] Rising Tide - You followed the signs of civilization until you found a quaint provincial village. So did everyone, no, everything else in that awful forest. A horde of undead is on your heels and will wash over the town in short order, their defenses not able to withstand the surge. For all that you can help them, ultimately you don't have the Gold bandwidth to defend all of the town at once. +Gold upon completion of the quest, +1 Stack as the village was very sensibly far away from the center of the forest you woke up in.
-[ ] Entrench - Hundreds of zombies, ten thousand of You. When you think about it the horde's technically outnumbered. Hold your ground and defend this provincial village to the best of your ability, making use of its existing defenses and choke points. They lived near the forest so they did plan against attack. Increased reward compared to Evacuate.
-[ ] Evacuate- But you can save the most important parts of a village, their people. Offer a way out for these people to a more fortified trading partner instead of making a desperate last stand to protect some property. With you acting as a spearhead for the group, less chance of villager death compared to Entrench.
-[ ] Extort - Its for a good cause, you swear! Every coin or deed they are pressured to give you under duress, every deceased estate you are able to pillage, is going to be reinvested directly into Gold Bandwidth to better protect these people. You must select this in conjunction with either of the other two options. +Gold
[ ] Woodland Manor - When you stumbled upon a creepy mansion estate in the middle of an eerily quiet part of the woods, seemingly dilapidated and abandoned despite the gates inviting you in, you did the sensible thing and didn't fall for the obvious storybook trap. Sadly any attempt to walk back into the nightmare forest just takes you through a silent grove of trees and loops you back to the gate. You're investigating this one way or the other it seems. +0 Stacks, Manor guests arrive promptly on time.
- [ ] The Grove - You refuse to engage with what's clearly an obvious trap. Check to see if you can't escape the looping grove. Even if you can't the spatial effect keeping you here is more appealing to poke at than walking blindly into the estate. Quiet too, compared to the unearthly growls in the forest proper. Oddly quiet. +1 Stack.
- [ ] The Grounds - Nothing says you have to just walk up to the looming mansion proper. Take the time to explore the unkept grounds for something interesting. Even a gardener's shed would leave you much better equipped to face the trials ahead than before. Chance at finding usable weapons or relevant history about the estate.
- [ ] The Great Hall - You know what says you should walk up to the looming mansion proper and not loot their property first? Manners. Go up and knock on the door, introducing yourself politely. +??? and special interaction if Orchestration is chosen.
[ ] Royal Convoy - You come across a line ornate carriages snaking through the forest, toppled over and slathered in gore and muck. Whatever battle led to this scene is long since over and now scavengers are picking at the remains. With no one to save, are you really any better?
The dead men littering the forest floor have no use for the wealth spilled out alongside them. That doesn't mean you'll be able to take all that you can see. You can hear thunderous footfalls off in the distance, looks like you'll only have time to search through at most one third of the snaking convoy before something big this way comes and confronts you. -1 Stack as you stumbled across this scene unnaturally quickly, leaving you less time to practice.
- [ ] Tip - Valiant knights died here, their armaments yours for the taking if you can bring yourself to pry them out of their cold dead hands. Though they ultimately failed, the weapons dedicated to the defense of passengers so opulent are prizes in their own right. Obtain an enchanted sword and a cache of high quality non-magical weapons and armor, bloodstained but usable. ++Gold from the sheer market value of it all.
- [ ] Torso - There must have been some sort of supply wagon before it was raided, given the pile of vegetables and assorted jewelry strewn about a very large gap between two carriages. Animals are already fighting over the spoils, though there also seems to be a couple of rats ignoring the massive bounty of shattered pumpkin to fight over shining red gemstone set in a ring. +++++Gold, must declare how you deal with the frenzied rats if you choose to take the ring.
-[ ] Tail - There's something in the final carriage, rocking the cart with its weight as it shifts. Basic deductive skills tells you that nobody human survived whatever attack happened. And all the same you can faintly make out unintelligible mumbling. Higher risk does not always imply higher reward, but there's definitely something disquieting about just leaving it be with another enemy approaching. +??? and special interaction if Orchestration is chosen.
[ ] Gold [1 Platinum] - The Resplendent Gold has powers twofold, each formidable in its own right. Its wielder may project constructs of golden light from their body, and her fortunes outside of combat are substantially improved. Advances in power by accruing material wealth, most efficiently in the form of precious metals. Construct strength is purely a function of advancement, while proficiency in use relies on a combination of advancement and skill.
At baseline, the wielder may create two constructs each the size and strength of a limb. With a minor lord's treasury, they could conjure ten constructs the size of a full-grown man. With a queen's, they could emplace entire armies with Color magic alone. The secondary power of good fortune accumulates more slowly, but at high levels can reach soundly implausible levels of benefit, such as finding true love in a year, or winning sizeable jackpots on a weekly basis. Its greatest strength is its Majesty, its greatest weakness its Arrogance.
Appearance: Warm golden light that solidifies when deployed in construct form.
[ ] Ten Thousand [10,000 Copper or 1 Jade] - Perfect multi-tasking of up to ten thousand instances simultaneously. Allows you to act as if devoting your full attention to each task, with only physical limits constraining effectiveness, and 'stacked' instances improving mental stamina for that task. Type twenty essays at a time, one with each finger and toe, while remaining as alert as if you'd devoted your full attention to each quadrant of each sense individually, while mentally training every magic system you possess, while reading two books (one with each eye) and holding a conversation, while meditating, day-dreaming, collating learned information, brainstorming your next creative endeavor, and making contingency plans for the next thousand most feasible scenarios given current information.
Pit instances against each other in adversarial hypotheticals to game out likely responses to feints, techniques, stratagems and conversations. Control every consciously-available muscle simultaneously in perfect unity with the precision commensurate to your full attention. Attain enlightened perspective with the speed of one engaged in meditation with functionally limitless mental stamina for every waking hour. Act at full mental capacity at all times, in all relevant tasks, without the accompanying boredom, fatigue, or lack of executive function.
At baseline, the wielder may create two constructs each the size and strength of a limb. With a minor lord's treasury, they could conjure ten constructs the size of a full-grown man. With a queen's, they could emplace entire armies with Color magic alone. The secondary power of good fortune accumulates more slowly, but at high levels can reach soundly implausible levels of benefit, such as finding true love in a year, or winning sizeable jackpots on a weekly basis. Its greatest strength is its Majesty, its greatest weakness its Arrogance.
Appearance: Warm golden light that solidifies when deployed in construct form.
[ ] Ten Thousand [10,000 Copper or 1 Jade] - Perfect multi-tasking of up to ten thousand instances simultaneously. Allows you to act as if devoting your full attention to each task, with only physical limits constraining effectiveness, and 'stacked' instances improving mental stamina for that task. Type twenty essays at a time, one with each finger and toe, while remaining as alert as if you'd devoted your full attention to each quadrant of each sense individually, while mentally training every magic system you possess, while reading two books (one with each eye) and holding a conversation, while meditating, day-dreaming, collating learned information, brainstorming your next creative endeavor, and making contingency plans for the next thousand most feasible scenarios given current information.
Pit instances against each other in adversarial hypotheticals to game out likely responses to feints, techniques, stratagems and conversations. Control every consciously-available muscle simultaneously in perfect unity with the precision commensurate to your full attention. Attain enlightened perspective with the speed of one engaged in meditation with functionally limitless mental stamina for every waking hour. Act at full mental capacity at all times, in all relevant tasks, without the accompanying boredom, fatigue, or lack of executive function.
This CYOA was built with an eye towards builds centered around choosing those two options at the very least, though there exist synergies with certain other magics. If you did not have a build that incorporated those two options, or if you did not have a build at all, play this under the assumption that those two options are what you've gotten and you're encountering the Quests at the end without much else.
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Fantasy Financial Planning CYOA - 4.5K words
Hey boss, it's mind Instance 3,090 here. I was created to format our future development in the form of a CYOA, since we spent way too much time reading those and filling them out prior to this.
As a recap we're currently in the middle of a spooky fairy tale forest in the Brothers Grimm sense, populated with walking Risen zombies and wolf like Shadow Beasts and frankly a lot more dangerous things that we're just kind of hoping we don't run into this early in the game. And you're the mind Instance in charge of selecting how we're going to do that, as far as our Gold Magic is concerned.
We've got 10,000 minds available and two arms worth of Gold construct bandwidth. And if we want to get out of this spooky forest alive and maybe even snowball our way out of this nightmarish fairy tale nonsense, we're going to have to prioritize!
Well, technically not 10,000. Your initial idle thoughts have spawned roles and uses for several thousand minds already, if you can't tell by the fact that I'm in the three thousands by designation and how my job as a narrator who reframes our life and death struggles into a CYOA build vote is kind of nonsense. If you want you can force the 3731 minds already assigned to different roles that aren't things to help with Gold testing, but that will mean taking them away from jobs like-
Running through the woods
Hyper focusing on the forest for threats
Recalling all the survival tips that snuck into our media sometimes
Attempting to meditate and be zen
Carving the faces and names of our loved ones into as much detail as we can remember so we never ever forget them
Trying to remember the exact tune of how certain songs go so we can recreate them later
Same as above but with books
Sobbing
Being happy about the whole magic thing
-and being you, boss leader number 1! Well you're actually Instance number 17 delegated to deciding among these options presented to you, but let's not dwell on that now.
The smart Instances in the 323 through 397 subgroup of magical researching have brainstormed some expected returns based on Gold bandwidth and how many Instances you dedicate to each option.
Don't worry about other magic system training or synergy, that's in the court of the 31 through 314 and 2110 through 2599 Instance subgroups respectively. Don't worry about losing track of what's what, we have an Instance on naming and remembering things and they'll get back to us when they work out a better system.
You have access to roughly two limbs worth of Gold bandwidth to make constructs with. We expect more on the way and you should plan ahead for that, but for now we need to get out of this forest and into our first proper adventure.
By combining the mental stamina of Instances 323 through 397 you can generate Stacks of focus, each one being able to select from an option below. By our reckoning you'll have accumulated 7 Stacks worth of focus by the time you make your way to towards any of the locations you scouted, though that may change depending on your final destination.
(Free)
We figured out these in the time it took to even make me, so consider these freebies. Costs 0 Stacks each.
[ ] Sphere - You can make a ball, right? Before you can go full Gamer expy and turn your mana ball into a mana bullet with spinning, drilling, elemental variants you have to make that ball.
[ ] Polygons - Before you can make ornate swords and shields, you must make pointy triangles and sturdy squares. These are the foundations of more complex shapes made up of millions of polygons, like certain people's anatomy or high resolution toothbrushes. And hey, a sharp enough triangle will still stab and a strong enough square is basically a shield already.
(Casting Style)
How Gold is cast is the mark of the maker. Select one of the following options below. Costs 1 Stack.
[ ] Solidworks - 'Solid gold' is a mark of quality when compared to being merely 'gold plated' for a very good reason. Practice giving your constructs weight and heft. At the cost of a quadruple penalty to Gold bandwidth spent on each construct, constructs no longer shatter when hit with peer level attacks and +100% CON and +40% STR to all constructs.
[ ] Infill - When humanity got into 3d printing they realized that solid construction was for people with way too much printing filament on their hands. Instead they could get away with using a fraction of the material nobody is going see anyway and still retain the large majority of the structural strength if they filled the hollow prints with a very specific pattern of squiggles. Task mind Instances with manually replicating the squiggle algorithms, double penalty to Gold bandwidth and +70% CON +25% STR to all constructs. -5 mind Instances while any construct is manifested.
[ ] Dynamic Loading - Any fool can make a usable bridge that doesn't collapse. It takes a really skilled engineer to make a usable bridge that almost collapses. Dynamically scale construct thickness with expected force exerted on it, making constructs as fragile as glass if they exceed expected weight loads but are otherwise perfectly usable in the day to day. +20% effective Gold bandwidth, incompatible with other construct construction methods.
[ ] Gold Lantern - You intentionally neglected training this aspect of your powers to focus on something else. Make sure it was worth it. +2 Stacks.
(Portfolio)
Each technique in your Portfolio builds on the next. Techniques are divided into [Assets]. Each technique costs 1 Stack, but within each [Asset] you can only obtain the next technique if the prior one was purchased.
[Manipulator Assets] More ways to brandish weaponry, more ways to write with quills, more ways to wear enchanted rings.
[ ] Gripper Claws - If they're good enough for Doc Ock they're good enough for you. Stick a pincer on a cylinder and you have a near costless means of manipulating things, albeit crudely.
[ ] Hands - Four fingers and a thumb makes up humanity's favorite multi-tool. The benefits of having an extra set of helping hands, especially when they can be piloted by other mind instances, should be self evident. Prerequisite for [Body Assets]. By default manifest to scale copies of your own left and right.
[ ] Dominate Hand - Why manifest to scale? Suck up every ounce of Gold bandwidth available to you to make a proportionately large giant simplified hand construct. There are well worn magical resonances with such a thing, as a result develop a practice based hand-based path of construct creation. +Progression to any use of the Dominate Hand to do hand related things, such as 'firing finger guns' or 'winning rock paper scissors' so long Dominate Hand's volume is at least quintuple your body's volume.
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[Sword Assets] And spears and knives and axes. Killing implements and cooking implements to survive the harsh forest around you.
[ ] Butter Knife- Why make a hand to hold a sword when you can just make the sword float in mid air with exactly the same leverage? Gain a sword with the sharpness of a reasonably sharp kitchen knife. Mental instances can be tasked with maintaining greater degrees of sharpness, capped at 4 to reach razor sharpness.
[ ] Grindstone - Slowly develop the ability to imagine sharper and sharper swords. Increase the cap on sword sharpness by 1, doubling the time invested for each further increase with a cap on 7.
[ ] Shaving Commercial - Lets face it, you don't know the mechanics of monomolecular edges well enough to recite them from memory without making some sort of flaw. But you did sit through a catchy commercial for a shaving razor that included a facsimile overlaying their jingle. Dedicate a single mind instance to playing that commercial on loop, by mentally humming along to the jingle and advertising manifest a regenerating monomolecular edge. The mind forced to do this will not like this.
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[Shield Assets] You're not quite at the level where a familiar looking hexagonal field springs up to shield you from all physical harm yet. But Polygons was free so with enough personal wealth...
[ ] Adaptive Trapezoid - Better than a simple kite or buckler, this two stage construct has an ablative top layer meant to shape the second layer in such a way to best deflect the incoming blow. While this is not as helpful for nonphysical or elemental attacks it proves its worth when turning away fatal blows from sword swings, spear thrusts, axe swings, etc. It even provides some measure of defense against sonic based attacks.
[ ] Polished Gold - Whenever possible, collapse the adaptive shield in such a way that the incoming attack is not only deflected but thrown back at the attacker. Melee combat will usually not be applicable, projectiles often are. With a small investment of metallic dust you may reflect light based attacks however you like. Makes your already impressive shield shimmer majestically as it manipulates even ambient moonlight.
[ ] Greed - Microhair hooks, viscous velcro, threaded fibers, you have quite a few ideas on how to entangle melee components who were foolish enough to see gaps in the Reflection shield's coverage as weakness. --AGI to anyone or any weapon touching a shield construct.
[ ] Knight's Armor - Manifest a mobile suit of armor, capable of operating around a host or of acting alone with supervision. When encasing a living being provides ++STR and +++CON. Otherwise acts as an armored instance of your base body wearing fully protective plate armor.
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[Missile Assets] Its better that all of these monsters die while they're way over there and you're way over here, don't you agree?
[ ] Spheroid - A suite of upgrades to the simple 'bullet' sphere projectiles, such as spinning them like drills, encasing useful payloads, etc. These skills transfer over to many other construct options, not only projectiles.
[ ] Seeker Triangles - Unleash a swarm of tiny triangles and chevrons and upside down Vs on your enemy. Turn the battlefield into a low resolution RTS space game. Lethality or lack there of scales to construct strength and sharpness.
[ ] Slings - Don't tie up Gold bandwidth with attacks, instead just accelerate the endless projectiles found on the ground to lethal speeds with lethal aim. Doesn't scale to the extent of other options, but provides a useful flat amount of ranged damage to your repertoire if you wish to focus elsewhere.
[ ] Fly Wheel - You can't hold a construct bow taught but you can make a construct disk spin, and then bleed of its momentum. Summon two spinning disks that will launch whatever is placed inbetween them at high velocities. Limited only by personal skill and the ability to envision, you may one day reach a velocity considered 'sufficient.' Loud and subject to disruption.
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[Body Assets] Normally this would be harder, but you've got some perfect examples on hand. Requires the Hand technique to unlock this section.
[ ] Feet - After hands, feet! Undignified it may be, zooming out of the forest on what looks like the bottom half of an ostrich is optimal performance. If this is done decreased chance of encounter and decreased dignity for the duration.
[ ] Touch Feedback - You already kind of get feedback from how your gold pushes against certain material. Focus on refining that into a rough facsimile of the sense. This is the crude beginnings of a sensory array that might prove to be invaluable.
[ ] Vocal Cords - It was easy enough figuring out how to make noise by vibrating air with construct vocal cords. Recognizable sounds are much much harder, but doable with enough practice. Did you pick up a Verse as part of your starting package? Can't remember, but even if you didn't you might still learn to supplement magic requiring incantations or activation phrases like this. Increased chance of encounter.
[ ] Ears - Vocal cords in reverse when you get down to it. Practice based with a steep learning curve, eventually graduate into being able to understand sounds within range of this construct.
[] Eyes - Vision is very very hard to build up from the first principles. It was done from them once though. Start off with a simple light sensor and work your way up from there with corresponding effort.
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Outside of [Assets] there are a variety of other things to invest Stacks in, these without the requirement to purchase prior options.
(Penny Stocks)
Ways to spend your bandwidth unrelated to the above options. Each option costs 1 Stack.
[ ] Halo - Manifest a Halo type construct above your head, a simply gold band of suffice warm light. Makes you slightly better, just in a general sense. Instance 316 thinks this is just a placebo. Ignore them. +1% ALL STATS.
[ ] Competence - While Gold is great to build on itself its more useful as a training aid. There may be 10,000 of you but they're only as good as the you from the start was. Develop some skills in archery, aiming, parkour, and swordplay.
[ ] Orchestration - Instead of training combat you look to the future for money making potential. Manifest wind instruments with your bandwidth and develop some level of skill in the musical arts. Increased chance of encounter and +??? interactions with some Quest options
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(Dividends)
If you maxed out all of the [Assets] in a section you may select the following techniques for 1 Stack. You'll have the beginnings of this ability by the time you make it out of this forest, though nothing close to mastery.
[ ] [Sword Assets] Parry - The best defense is a flashy offense. Use the sensory film of the first layer of adaptive Shield, but rather than collapsing a shield construct into an optimal defense instead manifest an appropriately scaled sword construct to riposte. Shield constructs can not be used while this technique is up. The sword construct is naturally swift and the positioning allows for great opportunity to counter attack. +30% attack speed for sword constructs manifested this way.
[ ] [Shield Assets] Hardpoints - A network of floating points of light similar to a field of stars floats around you, dense enough to hamper motion from targets larger than a housecat. Each individual star may not stand up to the crushing maw of a Shadowolf bite or the brutal chop of a Felled Woodsman axe, but they're more than capable of catching them awkwardly on the elbows of the swing or in the crooks of the legs on the approach. More or less eliminate the majority of melee threat from any being who cannot shatter constructs en mass.
[ ] [Missile Assets] Air Cannon - Step 1: Encase some air in a construct. Step 2: Squeeze it smaller. Instance 401 insists that its not that simple but the end result is that you have a pressurized chamber ready to fire at surprising speeds. While you can achieve higher pressure gradients and other neat tricks through this method the real prize is being able to fire a prepared volley whenever you please.
[ ] [Body Assets] You (Classic) - Make a copy of yourself prior to obtaining your new powers or body, at the gold bandwidth cost of how much you were worth at the time. The objective answer to how much that was may seriously depress you! You're worth your weight in Gold now though, as an Instance can pilot You (Classic) and operate as if they were an independent being sans weakpoints such as vital organs or the ability to be bled out. Can make use of any magic you have obtained that an Instance can cast. +YOU
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(Mutual Bonds)
Select one of the following as a technique you believe you'll eventually obtain in the future. While there's obvious synergy with the earlier parts of your selected build they do not have to be tied to the requirements as per Dividends. Costs 0 Stacks, this is you selecting a destination, not traveling the road yet.
[ ] Astigmatism - Fill the gap between a source of light to the first surface it illuminates with a torrent beam of sharpness. In the case where a source of light is beyond your Gold casting range produce a ray from the furthermost reaches of that limit centered on the origin of the light source. Attack speed is hitscan. Moonlight, torchlight, make them fear the starry night.
[ ] You (Incorporated) - Mint out more and more copies of yourself, focusing on outfitting each instance to where they can adventure safely on their own. With the right kind of spatial abilities or transportation you may eventually seed your instances far and wide, each learning novel magics and earning good coin to send back to the original. +++++You
[ ] Asura - Quantity is a quality all of its own. Instead of painstakingly manifesting each extra hand individually with available bandwidth, suck up every ounce of gold bandwidth available to you to make a proportionate amount of hands centered around your person. The resonate nature of this act grants +15% gold bandwidth worth of hands if Gold bandwidth is insufficient for at least 9,998 hand constructs. All hand constructs gain ++All Stats if all are working towards the same task, and a further ++All Stats if performing the same action. Stacks with Dominate Hand. All hands gain +100% Might if used to punch someone.
[ ] The Chattering - Verse magic, and when you get down to it quite a few other spoken magic systems, activate when the activation phrase is complete. But what if they never were? Summon a rotating ball of mouths, constantly speaking the activation phrases of magic in such a way that said magic would only ever go off if the Chattering was silenced. Immense synergy as a deadman's switch with certain magics like Stitch in Time to cheat deaths you can't react to fast enough. Requires an investiture of hundreds of Instances to maintain, and is an obvious and creepy target unless stored somehow. Completely obviate the Stain of the Poet while active, as the Chattering interjects rhymes between every single word you say so you can once again speak freely.
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(Q1 Projects)
Quests are a thing that kind of just happen in this neck of the woods. Run from them, hide from them, a crisis will always rear its ugly head if given enough time. But as much as the common folk fear Quests, they are still grateful. They know the Furthermost Reaches are happy to drag their sons and daughters into the dark forests any time the sun sets and sometimes while its still broad daylight. Quests mean someone has a chance to turn that tale into an adventure instead of a cautionary tale. What was the first Quest you found yourself tangled up in?
[ ] Rising Tide - You followed the signs of civilization until you found a quaint provincial village. So did everyone, no, everything else in that awful forest. A horde of undead is on your heels and will wash over the town in short order, their defenses not able to withstand the surge. For all that you can help them, ultimately you don't have the Gold bandwidth to defend all of the town at once. +Gold upon completion of the quest, +1 Stack as the village was very sensibly far away from the center of the forest you woke up in.
-[ ] Entrench - Hundreds of zombies, ten thousand of You. When you think about it the horde's technically outnumbered. Hold your ground and defend this provincial village to the best of your ability, making use of its existing defenses and choke points. They lived near the forest so they did plan against attack. Increased reward compared to Evacuate.
-[ ] Evacuate- But you can save the most important parts of a village, their people. Offer a way out for these people to a more fortified trading partner instead of making a desperate last stand to protect some property. With you acting as a spearhead for the group, less chance of villager death compared to Entrench.
-[ ] Extort - Its for a good cause, you swear! Every coin or deed they are pressured to give you under duress, every deceased estate you are able to pillage, is going to be reinvested directly into Gold Bandwidth to better protect these people. You must select this in conjunction with either of the other two options. +Gold
[ ] Woodland Manor - When you stumbled upon a creepy mansion estate in the middle of an eerily quiet part of the woods, seemingly dilapidated and abandoned despite the gates inviting you in, you did the sensible thing and didn't fall for the obvious storybook trap. Sadly any attempt to walk back into the nightmare forest just takes you through a silent grove of trees and loops you back to the gate. You're investigating this one way or the other it seems. +0 Stacks, Manor guests arrive promptly on time.
- [ ] The Grove - You refuse to engage with what's clearly an obvious trap. Check to see if you can't escape the looping grove. Even if you can't the spatial effect keeping you here is more appealing to poke at than walking blindly into the estate. Quiet too, compared to the unearthly growls in the forest proper. Oddly quiet. +1 Stack.
- [ ] The Grounds - Nothing says you have to just walk up to the looming mansion proper. Take the time to explore the unkept grounds for something interesting. Even a gardener's shed would leave you much better equipped to face the trials ahead than before. Chance at finding usable weapons or relevant history about the estate.
- [ ] The Great Hall - You know what says you should walk up to the looming mansion proper and not loot their property first? Manners. Go up and knock on the door, introducing yourself politely. +??? and special interaction if Orchestration is chosen.
[ ] Royal Convoy - You come across a line ornate carriages snaking through the forest, toppled over and slathered in gore and muck. Whatever battle led to this scene is long since over and now scavengers are picking at the remains. With no one to save, are you really any better?
The dead men littering the forest floor have no use for the wealth spilled out alongside them. That doesn't mean you'll be able to take all that you can see. You can hear thunderous footfalls off in the distance, looks like you'll only have time to search through at most one third of the snaking convoy before something big this way comes and confronts you. -1 Stack as you stumbled across this scene unnaturally quickly, leaving you less time to practice.
- [ ] Tip - Valiant knights died here, their armaments yours for the taking if you can bring yourself to pry them out of their cold dead hands. Though they ultimately failed, the weapons dedicated to the defense of passengers so opulent are prizes in their own right. Obtain an enchanted sword and a cache of high quality non-magical weapons and armor, bloodstained but usable. ++Gold from the sheer market value of it all.
- [ ] Torso - There must have been some sort of supply wagon before it was raided, given the pile of vegetables and assorted jewelry strewn about a very large gap between two carriages. Animals are already fighting over the spoils, though there also seems to be a couple of rats ignoring the massive bounty of shattered pumpkin to fight over shining red gemstone set in a ring. +++++Gold, must declare how you deal with the frenzied rats if you choose to take the ring.
-[ ] Tail - There's something in the final carriage, rocking the cart with its weight as it shifts. Basic deductive skills tells you that nobody human survived whatever attack happened. And all the same you can faintly make out unintelligible mumbling. Higher risk does not always imply higher reward, but there's definitely something disquieting about just leaving it be with another enemy approaching. +??? and special interaction if Orchestration is chosen.
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