This is a
Jojo heartbeat reference? Thundering sound in your ears, etecetera. Or maybe simply the fact that we finally got to taking a look at Versch.
After dinner concluded (the soup was delicious)
Imagine how good it would've been if we had gone fishing. Well, we'll get to it eventually.
, Hunger stalked over to the Armament, Ring brimming with light. Slowly he ran his hand against the monstrosity's right shoulder-face, which in power-conserving mode slept ceaselessly through night and day. Verschlengorge's main head flicked open an eye, staring down with benevolent menace. It had a certain facility for making the most threatening expressions feel protective.
For a giant armored monster, Versh has good senses.
"He's not a dog, you know!" Letrizia came around his side, hands folded behind her. Her hair had, oddly, reverted to its natural shade. "You don't need to pet him to make him work!"
"Is that what dogs are to you? Just workers?"
"Huh?" She turned to face him, eyes wide. "Aren't they used in low-technology worlds to detect contraband?"
"On Earth we kept them as pets. On my second world as well. Hmph. I say 'we,' but I don't think I ever had one. Civilization, human society did."
"Ah. I think most people these days use synthoids or virtual pets. Natural-born pets can't compete with their cuteness! Plus, it's less cruel than keeping natural organisms in a human-optimized environment. No need to forcibly neuter them in order to control the population."
"...Are you looking down on my barbaric ways?"
"Well, you're a product of your times. I suppose it's forgivable."
One probably could go on a lengthy lecture about how continuing to breed people instead of transhuman progression-based kilobots is irrational and barbaric tradition with away too much cultural inertia behind it, but ehhh.
It doesn't matter if they are cute.
On mildly related note, Versch actually likes Letrizia, regardless of how she treats him. Or, I guess, you could even say she treats him well; she gives him enemies to fight and does not do stupid shit and that is probably everything it ever wanted in life.
I wonder if he treats his every pilot this fondly, or Letrz is just right for him. From that one talk, it sounds like the latter is true, but if it was particularly capricious it probably would have died a long time ago in some War in Heaven-esque conflict without a pilot.
"Or perhaps, somewhere along the line your civilization lost its way. Speaking of which, I'm trying to fix Verschlengorge's navigational system. You said it's Foremost technology, so it should be in its biologicals, correct?"
"Probably..." She leaned forward sternly. "Though I'm beginning to wonder if it's simply a function of his Rank. You're naturally able to navigate the Voyaging Realm yourself."
Rank does help with everything. On related note, the fact that a respectable percentage of Versch is still mecha rather than bio-abomination spells good things for Hunger's potential to become Unstoppable Cybernetic Chimera Juggernaut.
"May be. Still, four heads are better than one."
He began to circulate the equivalent of blood throughout the dizzyingly complex edifice beneath the Armament's skin. The head beneath his palm grunted discontentedly, shifting in its sleep.
I wonder if any of the four are actually primary heads, or Versch really can do with just one.
Ereadhihr. The Elder Implement. Though it had existed for eons of war, there was not so much as a scar or imperfection within the fantastically dense bio-circuitry of the Armament's body. Physical wounds existed, but what had healed had done so perfectly. Still, in some grimly intangible way he felt the weight of those eons as he communed with the creature, a legacy of savagery a billion times repeated, vigor and sheer heedless fury, the all-consuming urge to devour. So deep was the catalogue of its experiences that they'd been imprinted on its spiritual marrow, its very essence.
Such bio-engineering and Soldier's blurb points me to think that we could get some real cool augs, bio-augs in Human Sphere if we try hard enough. Improved efficiency of the human body, the equivalent of EFB's Form diagram spells would be rather incredible to pick up. Rank is a multiplier, but having a bazillion of stats and more efficient baseline really improves its effect. We already sort of started with Blood, gotta go deeper.
The Armament was no human veteran, whom war ground down to make hard and hollow. It was a being axiomatically designed for its purpose, and looked forward to battle and consumption with the invincible eagerness of deep instinct. To wade into chaos alongside its operator was its mission and inexhaustible purpose.
Notably, Forerunners are good at actually programming their bloodthirsty killbots. Versch does not seems to inflict terrible psychological trauma on Letrz, does not secretly wants to destroy everyone, nothing of sorts - so many cliches avoided. In any other work I'd expect Versch to be a barely contained rabid dog that is liable to eat
someone out of the beloved character cast to highlight how much of a rabid dog it is.
It could comprehend human minds, even feel compassion for their weakness and frailty, but that did not change the fundamental structure of its mind. A man could comprehend a beast, even feel pity for its misguided antics, without adopting the beast's values. So too with the Armament and its mortal operators. It was loyal to its pilot, and to its bonded Cursebearer, but understood that their minds were fundamentally alien to it.
"And bonded Cursebearer", huh.
Could make sort of a tortured parallel here about the difference between values of Hunger and Letrizia here, but I think we could do without it.
It that sense it was not so different from the Forebear's Blade, or, presumably, even the synthoid pets Letrizia had commented upon. A tool created to fulfill a goal. He wondered what it was like, to enter the world with such unshakeable purpose.
But you did enter the world with unshakeable purpose, Hunger! Killing Tyrant. You almost killed yourself doing it, even. You even have been pointed in that sort of direction by an inscrutable, powerful force of alien beings that then proceeded to do god-knows-what in your absence.
Maybe it was not quite as bad as not being capable of contemplating any other potential purpose or course of action, but Destiny is still a pretty heavy chain.
The Armament's blood sang with amusement. It shifted its currents and eddies, directing circulation to a specific lobe within its primary head. Was that the navigational system he sought? He found that the structure of the lobe was oddly self-evident, as if its three-dimensional shape were itself a glyph in some instinctual Cursebearer language. It was a focusing organ for the application of Astral Rank towards spatial perception and manipulation. Not simply a tool for traversing the Voyaging Realm, but for positioning in spacetime as a whole.
I think that structure of Armament is a good direction to go in when/if we'll get extensively modify Hunger's body. Praehir-language is probably a good aesthetic, too! Something like Philosopher-King EFB line we had in EFB, I imagine, accretion-augmented line of glyphs, specially crafted organs and alchemical augmentations forged specifically to amplify Hunger's strength.
He saw, too, that while the power of Blood could restore some functionality to the organ, there were hard limits to the work he could do without a much higher Rank. Technique alone was insufficient.
"The power of the Ring can repair some of it, but many capabilities remain locked," he said, frowning. "Still, we should be able to get around faster now. I'm curious how your technicians repair these organs. They seem to be well beyond the limits of human technology."
Well, unless we invest arete and picks into it, but who would do that. Surely not us.
...TBH we could have bought Blood Dominion which would have augmented this action, but need for SAVE is stronk under our current circumstances.
Letrizia shrugged. "I think they use serums harvested from high-level Astral Beasts. For best efficiency, they have to be specially processed with Foremost artifacts. Verschlengorge can regenerate from eating enemies as well, but his effective Rank's too low to use that function right now."
Notably, with Ruling Ring or high rank+Blood ring, we could make this process redundant, and charge money/favours/influence for repairing armaments! Cutting short the complicated management and logistical chain of the strategical weapon maintenance is surely worth some brownie points with important people!
He frowned. "Why is it that physical wounds can reduce its Rank at all? Typically you would need specialized attacks to do something like that. I could lose half my body and my Pressure would remain unaffected."
Except you would also probably die should that happen, regrettably. We need to fix that. And Vanreir managed an approximation with a soul evocation that really wasn't as non-exotic as it gets... Anti-everything brute force spec in Rihakuverse is really godlike.
"Your guess is as good as mine! When he's at full strength, most injuries don't weaken his Pressure by much. But if you hurt him enough, I think he begins ablating Rank to preserve his fundamental structure. Unlike you, the Armament's not a complete person by itself. It was designed with a pilot in mind. Its astral shadow only exists because of its physical body, but it may be that high-grade Foremost technology can't exist in the physical world without some degree of support from Pressure. Kind of like how a black hole can't exist below a certain level of mass density. Since the two are co-dependent, it may have to sacrifice one side to shore up the other if catastrophic damage is taken."
Such an ablative mechanism feels a bit strange, considering typically an arm or leg is less important than losing your Astral Rank. Oh well, perhaps it is simply incapable of regenerating more important bits even with the aid of the serums.
"How knowledgeable for a mere hobbyist."
"Hehe. It's important to be informed of things like this when you're entrusting your life to the device."
"How serious. You need a vacation."
"Hm? Not planning to head into the Temple tomorrow?"
"I can't, not in this state. I'll need a few days to integrate my new powers and see if I can fix my liver. This latest enemy gave me a lot of 'digest.' "
Truth to be told, it would be incredibly strange for an Armament Pilot not to know such things. If we ever encounter a clueless child to whom Letrizia immediately starts explaining such things in the close future, there is going to a fair probability that they are some sort of an isekai protagonist.
That would in turn, mean that this realm too, has some sort of Hidden Master. But honestly nothing yet points toward that, other than Rings, Destiny, and the tendency of people to create shit like Moon Temple Civ.
"You and Verschlengorge really are two peas in a pod. This swordsman seems to have made an impression on you. You don't usually talk about your foes."
"His name was Vanreir Amarlt. I had the sense he was fighting to protect someone dear to him. Most of the outriders carry more mercenary objectives."
"Amarlt?! Huh, to think some of them landed around here."
Vanreir had enough impression on us that we almost ended up carrying his soul inside of us. And aside from such things, he was a fellow swordgang member. Pity it conflicted with a 4 pick EFB discount option and long-term ability to actually complete the temple, but what can you do.
"They used to be a big deal in the Republic. The Republic makes a fuss about not recognizing noble titles, but they're an oligarchy whose upper ranks are still filled with the high nobility. The Amarlt family used to command Procyon, the Plenary Armament, but fell from power a few centuries ago. Procyon's actually stationed here in the Voyaging Realm right now!" She went quiet, perhaps remembering that the pilot - likely a friend - could well have betrayed her.
Noble Titles being a thing that at some point was present in the entirety of the Human Sphere tells us that at some point it was a single big policy, or at least something reminiscent of such. How human sphere formed, and how they found/where Armaments and why Armaments are compatible with them is still a question.
Armaments potentially having a lot of different curses potentially points to Forerunner's civ contacting and then either allying with or somehow suborning many,
many Cursebearers; that is really impressive.
He coughed. "No match for you, I take it."
"Of course not! ...So, why've you decided you need a vacation?"
"I'd like to see the sights now that we're here," he deadpanned. "We're planning to overthrow their civilization, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves in the vicinity. And now that your Armament's spatial organ is fixed, we can do just that. Anything in particular you'd like to do?"
More glimpses of elder tsundere behavior.
"It'd be nice if we could recruit some mages... dangerous, though. I'd love to see some of the more exotic parts of the Voyaging Realm! The farmlands we passed through on our way here were beautiful, but a bit plain."
As I suspected - it was really obvious tho, probably everyone did - Voyaging realm has yet to show its best JRPG-esque high fantasy landscapes. We already seen relatively wide spectrum of Final-Fantasy-like creatures, so probably whatever landscape you can imagine being present in FF, is probably present somewhere in the voyaging realm.
Recruiting more mages would be good indeed! We even have an option to get one right away, and we theoretically could get someone irrelevant-but-still-counts from the Besieges city!
"How does that work, exactly? I'm surprised your civilization hasn't made a concerted effort to extract every mage they can from this place, especially if you don't have native magicians."
"Ah, well... it was tried. The Voyaging Realm will tolerate some level of exploitation, but industrial-scale extraction of magics leads it to act out in increasingly apocalyptic ways... these days we're mostly limited to those mages that find their way to our City, and even then half the magics only work inside the Realm itself. There are unsanctioned efforts to extract more, the Republic especially deploys strike teams for that purpose, but the casualty rates are horrific. It's frequently a death sentence even if you succeed."
I wonder how that defensive mechanism is set up. Is Voyaging realm Forerunner's long-running breeding ground for magical systems? It is some sort of a mega-beast that contains multitudes like Zang Kong, immensive side of which we are unable to yet perceive? Is it an Overgrowth equivalent?
But regardless, I must say - with sufficient power everything is possible! If we level up hard enough, Hunger could actually become an enabling factor for such operation, which, in turn, would be an immense boon to whatever faction we support. The morality of such things is a concern tho, we will not abide with kidnapping magical folk in the industrial scale... Right?
"Let's hope you aren't doomed for bringing two such mages outside the Realm, then. Gisena's findross is self-contained, so she should be alright. As for me..."
"You shouldn't even qualify, Lord Hunger! You only have an unusually high Astral Rank, which the Foremost themselves were theorized to exhibit in select individuals. That's hardly magecraft. And, while you're able to efficiently channel that Rank through your artifacts in unusually reliable ways, in principle that's no different from an Armament's Shroud-derived unique abilities."
She is really dissing Accretion, here. Come on, the ability to accumulate Noble Phantasms is a right and proper magical system in its own right! You can't really diss it as "merely anomalously high rank" when it can make stuff like Ruling Ring! Like, seriously, if we had no Accretion Artifacts on arrival, we would have made some, that capability is not "merely anomalously high rank!"
Bleh. That feeling when you daughteru disrespects your passion but tells you that it's alright she still loves you in spite of your habit of studying the blade waaaay too much.
"Why do I feel vaguely insulted? And just 'Hunger' is fine, Letrizia, we've talked about this."
"Hey, the path of magecraft is not for everyone! Wouldn't it interfere with your teamwork alongside Miss Gisena?"
"Just you wait. And here I was going to teach you magic once I'd acquired some."
"W-who'd want to learn magic from you? I'd much prefer Miss Gisena as a teacher."
"Good, that's one thing taken care of. We set out first thing in the morning."
"Hmph. I'll become the best sorcerous apprentice ever! That'll show you!"
"Yes, show me up. We could use the firepower."
A synergetic magical system that allows her to empower Versch would've been so damn good. Well, we still can do it in the medium term if we encounter a good magic-sharing pick, or in the long-term when we shoot for completing our version of Thrice-Great synergy between Quintessence-Accretion-Ruling Ring.
Also, good argument on mage-path not being particularly synergetic with Gisena's speciality, buuut... Come on, it just requires some teamwork. If we committed to the mage path, we'd probably would have a "Nullity-synergy" pick as we had for the Nullity+Forebearer blade by now.
The winners are [X] Vigor Itself and [X] Vacation. How well could Hunger heal Verschlengorge via its circulatory system alone?
[ ] To Rank 4.5
50% chance of basic encounters
50% chance of modestly productive encounters
Get minor benefits, eat some inefficiencies, SAVE, get EFB and break the temple like a egg an update or three later. Dead simple, but KISS is a good principle. Proceed to get either soul evocation or RR afterward. Former would be good as Rihaku started warning us about running out of Rank-increasing enemies eventually, latter would be incredibly good for everything.
[ ] To Rank 5.25 - Req. 2 Arete
50% chance of productive encounters
30% chance of moderately challenging encounters
20% chance of significantly challenging encounters
"Use arete to purchase moderate benefits in short term" option. Well, you actually could even say great benefits, it's just it delays getting game-changing benefits that are actually pretty much in reach.
[ ] To Rank 5.75 - Req. 2 Arete, -1 future pick
Percentage mess
If we actually wasting Arete, I would've preferred this option. But it was eliminated from the vote tally, and so it is either death or victory. Alas.
Rank 5.75 is actually very respectable, being almost a full rank above what Hunger could have been after slaying Amaralt and taking rank-increase feat! We probably could have actually taken Versch to the temple with this. Bonuses from farming beasts are pretty good, too, and we have a build that sort of actually functions properly at not-insignificant percentage of its full power thanks to Uttermost. Maybe we could have recouped some arete loses with this, and mitigated complications with Elixir springs. Eh, whatever.
Higher Ranks mean quicker travel time, stronger Astral Beasts and a more useful mech overall. Rank >5 enables Totality control method and potential access to more information.
This could have been so good... If we actually purchased the option that enhanced Heal Versch option and didn't have a short-term plan of getting an EFB!
What did they encounter on their attempted scenic escapade?
Even on Vacation, we get into trouble. It is not even Apocryphal curse this time, Hunger just can't help but be a JRPG-hero with jacked-up random encounter rate.
Being a hero does sounds nice, and as this update shows, grants a bunch of other opportunities.
A lil Fairbright. Well, possibly not, but we could make her into one anyway with Progression. We could make Letrz a sorceress even now, apparently.
A potential source of lore, too. Oh well.
These guys alongside with Versch-biocircuitry are one of the reasons why I think that augmenting Hunger into some sort of a cyber-samurai...ninja...knight thing is possible. Other than that, I don't terribly like this option, as I feel that straightforward nature of it all might cut down on the number of updates before temple, while we need every single one of them to get an EFB.
