Ah, now that's just sad. Seems we can't get anything past Rihaku.
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A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Another thing to consider: we've got a pretty good warrior-mage type build going on right now. But we already have some trouble with our picks being split between Sword, Ring, Blood Advancements, Evening Sky, Edeldross, Praxis, ally-boosting, and in the future we're going to need Empire-building things as well! Do we want to add a stealth tree as yet another thing splitting our focus?
Fighter-Mage-Thief is definitely a thing we could do, but keep in mind that if you multiclass into too many things you end up weaker overall, due to your focus being split too many ways. I think that's something we should consider.
Not that I dislike Shadowlord - shadow powers are cool, and having an excuse to get Iridescence would be a good thing. I just worry that trying to add a whole new area of specialty to our build will cause existing areas to be left by the wayside, or that the new area we pick up will fail to be upgraded enough to be stay relevant in the long term.
Now this is just straight-up speculation. What exactly are you basing this off of? We've heard nothing of the sort, and if the Moon Ring's Sanctum doesn't have defenses, including anti-stealth defenses, far superior to anything we've seen so far then I will be extremely surprised.
The Moonslavers have been shown to be competent so far, do you really expect them to fail to account for the possibility of some sort of super-thief sneaking into their Innermost areas?
Fighter-Mage-Thief is definitely a thing we could do, but keep in mind that if you multiclass into too many things you end up weaker overall, due to your focus being split too many ways. I think that's something we should consider.
Not that I dislike Shadowlord - shadow powers are cool, and having an excuse to get Iridescence would be a good thing. I just worry that trying to add a whole new area of specialty to our build will cause existing areas to be left by the wayside, or that the new area we pick up will fail to be upgraded enough to be stay relevant in the long term.
Now this is just straight-up speculation. What exactly are you basing this off of? We've heard nothing of the sort, and if the Moon Ring's Sanctum doesn't have defenses, including anti-stealth defenses, far superior to anything we've seen so far then I will be extremely surprised.
The Moonslavers have been shown to be competent so far, do you really expect them to fail to account for the possibility of some sort of super-thief sneaking into their Innermost areas?
/shrug.jpg
TBH I kind of felt that commentary is more than a little bit weak, so don't worry about it too much.
Added some stuff, but not really much. This really needed more time and effort to get actually substantially better, but sleep is good and the xp growth curve encourages posting reactions when a lot of other people already posted lots of fanworks; meaning it is better to post this now rather than a modestly improved version tomorrow.
Welp, whatever. Gotta grind that arete.
I got no idea. Ever since EFB I associate glades with elves, but this doesn't look like it this time around. We are not dramatically powering up with a Pure Potential EFB this time, either.
Material goods often quite easily transfer into power. We had a possible remittance that could have produced items out of enemies, even. An item, or power that could directly transform money to power should be likewise possible, although nothing in our panoply currently fits. Maybe Talon could have evolved in that direction eventually...
This was a quality bait. Gisena doesn't not cease to amaze.
Yes Gisena, lay it on the madman. Lay it down properly, so we could actually maybe change some of that in the future. Right now the circumstances are not quite right, but eventually...
Though, to be entirely honest, we also did it to feed our daughteru and revel in obscene luxury, so. There are mitigating circumstances.
...Hunger is getting too adept at bantering with Gisena. If he'll get too good at this, he'll be impossible to convince of anything!
We are still guiding him but just blasting absurd amount of charisma makes it easy to almost accidentally suppress the points of other people. People who roll absurd amount of social dice with zero effort should really take care; I remember how Aurelia was all like "Are you really sure about this?" when Nyong proposed a plan to her to talk him out of being a spoiled arrogant ass through her brainwashing-tier charisma.
One day she'll actually become High Sorceress. One day. Not today though. Man, it is taking awhile. Imagine if we took an Evening Gown while expecting immediate results?
...I still kind of want to give her the evening gown tho. And other Night Sky Advancements. Ugh.
I kind of hope she'll get at least some power armor prototype or something to support herself with, eventually. Preferably self-built; if we continue buffing her int she might just manage in an acceptable timespan.
Time to indulge in luxury. I wonder of Letrizia actually had visited anything like that before; for all apparent bottomless wealth of her family, she does not seems to be terribly used to actual luxories.
...
Or maybe she really just does like her food that much. Man, "Devouring Sorceress" is kind of a little bit funny in retrospect. So much teasing material lost. Should we actually ever get to Quintessence, this will be one of the very first things to do.
If we chose vertex thou... But we didn't. But to be entirely honest, just Letrz+Gisena would probably be entirely enough to handle pretty much anything on that front. Their money-spending capabilities are not to be underestimated.
I can't argue with this logic. Arms to hug people with and carry sorceresses properly are of paramount importance, after all. Pity the combat benefits are somewhat substandard, but what can you do.
...Man, seriously, once we pick up Praxis Bladewinds this is going to be super-mega redundant. At least it didn't cost any arete.
That is honestly a little bit of a steal. I kind of hope we'll eventually get a pick that would allow us to grow more arms and more weapons to stab people with! More arms! More sword!
Keep at it Gisena. Slam some sanity into his thick skull!
...I wonder thou if most of these things even matter right now in terms of combat. Liver does have a notable debuff, but eye and lung got reduced to almost cosmetic status, I feel.
Well, also Letrizia likes it. Pampering your child soldier daughteru is pretty important, especially when her days are filled with crashing singularities and toppling thrones of Astral gods. Lords. Whatever.
I wish we could have done this. Alas. Maybe we could do something for these people later on. Navigating this place, moving around and so on is becoming progressively easier as we get stronger, so maybe if we get stupid strong we can help these people as a momentary diversion.
I wonder if they ever actually had adventurers capable of killing Prime Rotspawns. We got a pretty standard-issue lecture on rewards for killing Rotbeasts, but it appears nobody actually expected us to accomplish anything but die in that swamp.
This is not unfair. That dig is absolutely not unfair. You'd think Hunger was actually into getting stabbed and almost killed, all things considered. It's not like he is really bound for the temple and its mortal perils either, at this point.
To be perfectly frank, we probably could overcome any sort of fortification without much issue as of now. Rotbeast actually hiding though, that could be a problem. Or it deciding to try to kill us with all of its spawns together, too. Proper tactics and such would be a complete bitch to deal with, theoretically.
Later we got confirmation that slaying mooks does make the terrain become less hostile to us, so we don't even need complicated cut through plans; just kill stuff until terrain stops concealing the rotbeast.
We are still not sure about state of rotbeast/rotspawn intelligence btw. There are more signs of some tactics-capable intelligence in later updates, but nothing indicating that rotspawn are anything more than meat-based killbots.
More banter. Hunger and Gisena got pretty comfy with it, too.
I wonder how she even got the idea. You can't one day just get up in the morning and go "Imma infiltrate a school today." Of course we got some practical benefits out of this, but... This was supposed to be a vacation, you know? Tells volumes about what she considers to be "fun."
Truly, she and Hunger fit each other incredibly well.
I smell animu hijinks. There surely have been some Adventures she is not telling us about. She managed to get at least one significantly powerful Surgecrafter fall in desperate love with her, surely there have been other interesting bits.
...Well, aside from getting caught. How did she manage to get the vials to us without them getting confiscated, anyway?
Pretty surprising, that! Well, Human Sphere has Issues navigating Voyaging Realm, but you'd think the could spare an Armament to retrieve an effectively irreplaceable resource.
And Hunger murdered a prime rotspawn just recently. They can't take him. They should know that, too. Not without involving a massive army operation in the middle of their settlement. The fact that he regenerated his arm and powered up is probably not missed on them, too.
Notably, more reservations about using children than Letrz's family. Elixir Sovereignty trying to be humane pretty hard, it seems. Maybe too hard - the existential threat right on their borders is pretty serious.
I sort of get the logic. Highly conceptual effects and all that... It still sounds stupidly pretentious, though. Surgecrafting meanwhile does sound cool without being too much. Hunger's naming scheme is superior!
Alongside with firepower, Sovereignty really is in for some tough times, on the social side. It has been repeatedly pointed out that surgecrafter-based society is a barrel of dynamite waiting to explode, and from what we later saw of advanced Surgecrafting affinities yeah I can see it.
Were there any upgrades equivalent to what Gisena has achieved in Seram's Transaction? I can't recall.
But surely there is Avatar, The Last Something Bender, a classic on the level of Neon Genesis Cathedrallion.
Absolutely accurate for the actual academic fieldwork. Naming schemes are serious bsns.
Hunger is starting to win these banters too often. I am getting worried.
Kaguya might be a reference to one of the old Grail War quest of Rihaku's.
Bullying their own child. Some parents. At least Letrizia is getting to be a wizard.
From what we saw of the sorcerous council in Simple Transcation
Maiden got noooo honor at alllll
A whole lot of Heartlessness, calculating ability and an occasional streak of bloodlust though, sure, yeah.
Interesting. I wonder where the "primary" cultural influences of this nation lie.
They seriously build an entire nation around this stuff. This would be hilarious if it wasn't kind of sad. Well, not every voyaging refuge group gets to occupy a giant moon temple and exploit a cosmic artifact for magic and power.
Spontaneous manifestation of empowering magic. How convenient. Gives some more fuel to Voyaging realm being an experiment in empowering and creating magical societies/new novel magic systems.
Well, this is just goddamn sad. We can't even warn them, it'll take much effort to convince them and all that it'll realistically achieve is mass panic.
....I wonder if kids of current Surgecrafting generation are going to be Surgecrafters too. Maybe this whole thing is not as significant as it seems, tourist trap stuff aside. And who knows, maybe there is/will be a surgecrafter that could recreate the waters independently of random magic spikes.
We honestly should get some perception powers of our own. Perhaps we should be a little bit more... Sharp of an eye. It'll help us with magic research and noticing more available options in the field.
TBH he could acquire a literally unlimited amount of currency in no time at all so, yeah, understandable.
magical neeeerd
And her element is going to allow her to be even more of a needed
....Hunger is such a good parent, giving magical systems and repairing his daughters mechas instead of draining them for power
I wonder how precisely she managed that. This takes a non-trivial level of social ability and non-trivial level of dumb from the people she tricked. Some kind of advanced dumb.
Completely reasonable concerns. Gisena tell her to be more responsible with this great power.
Gisena no
You also got in trouble with authorities for that. Letrizia Artiez, everyone, the future duchess - A criminal and a conwoman.
Elder tsundere shamelessly abusing social power and experience
No mercy
I'd say that this was some self-deprecating humor in this, but chances are Hunger was completely serious about this. This is pretty sad, and I am glad we picked a +san option at the next available opportunity.
100% if we actually drag along any of the kids on the adventure she'll make some quick stalwart friends. Then they'll pick up some lesser mechs, and she'll have her own quirky miniboss squad.
We are pampering Letrizia too much.
...Sorry, I meant not enough.
Food porn
Food-based magical system when Rihak... Oh wait, we passed Gardener's hallow. Much sad. Maybe we'll grab it later?
I wonder if actual people cooked this or it is some sort of a hi-tech robo chef fare. Would be quite reasonable in sci-fi society; this nation-state seems to be a little small for such luxuries to be crafted the "normal" way, too.
No
Goddamn fishing joke
...Wonder if Hunger would get obsessed with Gardening if we get Gardener. Chasing interlopers away from his Quintessence-grade vegetables would've been hilarious.
A nice, efficient weekend. We powered up almost as efficiently as if we spent time grinding at the temple, occasional Vanreir-type spikes aside. Pity we didn't get to be a hero for these people, but we'll get more opportunities.
This had something to do with the camp, so naturally, it lost. Jokes aside, I hope we'll get more opportunities... I hope. It appears that, if anything, we'll probably be killing more camp people to buy our way into the Inner Temple. Very sad.
Notably reasonable risks. Inner temple still does not give a fuck about inner residents.
I actually quite liked this. Pity.
Discount coupons! Additional rank would've been really good, too. Alas.
Also quite reasonable! We leveled up gut. That said, that 5% chance does point that there is either a deadly combination of foes, or a single supreme foe to be defeated. I hope we don't encounter them during infiltration... Or that we encounter them in a somewhat peaceful environment so we would at least know what sort of things we are competing with.
Hunger had quite a bit of experience working as an agitator during Tyrant's reign. If he wants to, he got this. The only question if he is actually going to try agitating; people voted against, thankfully. As a progression-type, we don't really need to make as many hard decisions as a less heaven-defying protagonist.
As I unhappy I am with white/transparent sticky stuff being our surgecraft element, I am happy with Letrz getting some actually cool magic. One day we might even improve her stuff to an EFB equivalent as we did with Suizhen. Rank might not be terribly impressive on its own unless you have an absolute truckload of it, but it is an incredibly synergetic system with pretty much everything else.
CUT
THROUGH
Proud of our daughteru, she picks up all sorts of right and correct magic systems to overcome problems in most direct and Hungery way possible.
Thankfully we are a progression-based Cursebearer. We can help her progress to legendary levels of mastery as a matter of the norm.
I hope something cool turns out of this.
The way shadowlord works we get scaling stealth just by buying Pearlescence I think, the auto increasing +Prot from experience it grants would also grant +Stealth.
That's why he qualified if it works out. Either way though I expect stealth takes less time then social engineering in the vast majority of scenarios, even accounting for the additional day.
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The comment is valid. Still, there's not just Iridiscence, but also Pearlescence, which would give us an additional XP gauge for Protection and thus Stealth. That's going to keep our Stealth going for a long time and might open new options for Evening Sky.
Edit: Ninja'd again. What, is everyone but me suddenly a Shadowlord?!
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
And this will increase priority of pearlescence from "eventually" to "now."
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My position is that we should've considered that before voting for a course of action we don't have the skills for. Now that we're committed to infiltrate, I want to have infiltration skills rather than face characterization I don't like alongside risks I don't want to face.
- Location
- Philippines
Frankly, since we're doing Infiltration.
I'd really love a Dishonored sequence. Also wait.
Did ShadowLord protect us from...all. All sound and music based attacks.
Does. Does it protect us from the Abhorrent Word? Or it's more deleterious cousin, the Abhorrent Grammar?
Is it even sound based To begin with—if we don't hear the word then will it still cause the world to become the equivalent of an outdated box type TV in a b-rate horror movie?
I'd really love a Dishonored sequence. Also wait.
Did ShadowLord protect us from...all. All sound and music based attacks.
Does. Does it protect us from the Abhorrent Word? Or it's more deleterious cousin, the Abhorrent Grammar?
Is it even sound based To begin with—if we don't hear the word then will it still cause the world to become the equivalent of an outdated box type TV in a b-rate horror movie?
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
...that is a good question.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
Letrizia/Me: Rotbeast! Rotbeast!
Hunger/Rihaku: *Sigh* We have bossfights at home.
Fanwork#2887 Words
Everything is now as clear as this night is. When we finally piece together the Ruling Ring in the Inner Temple, needing a powerup before the last bossfight, it will emit an ominous hum. Dread courses through Hunger's spine. Slowly, silvery fog coalesces in front of him into the form of... a map. Of a room that looks similar to the one he's currently in, as a matter of fact. One section of the map brightens, and Hunger looks to the corresponding space. He leans over and picks up the still-screaming Moon Ring-
Contest of primacy over, congratulations. The real enemy was outside us the whole time!
Nah, it's unlikely. But I'm always looking for secret messages in Rihaku's depictions of the sky, and it would be entertaining if the contest would've forced us to come to this place before it came to us, we'd be ahead of the curve. Maybe he's just telling us to try to put the Moon in the Sky, but I was planning on that anyway, so there.
As usual, I want to be in the Kaguya, there's no richly-oiled wood in my apartment.
Even the key is ostentatious, this place is sickening.
Letrizia is a bubble-blowing baby, so she had it coming anyway according to Spongebob.
Pity we didn't take Evening Gown, but Gisena can't get everything she wants.
Brb, doing relaxation exercises. I already took my shower for the day, but I can untense my shoulders and take a deep breath. Do it with me! Ahh... there was some tension in my feet, nice to get rid of that.
Money is a social construct, but isn't "genius" also a social construct? Checkmate, Gisena. "Not if a genius says it isn't?" Curses.
Poor notebook-chan, introduced for a single update for the sole purpose of proving how unnecessary you were to become. The mental benefits of Sharpbright came more quickly than I would have thought, and there's more on the way. It's a pity that we're not in a situation that will allow that to really shine. Letrizia is weak to praise and headpats, whoever designed her is truly insidious.
Gisena almost got sidetracked into a tech discussion, but her willpower saves the day. Surgecraft doesn't do "bolts" so easily, except actually Letrizia seems to have better control than Hunger started with. Sure, she shook the entire tree, but she still managed to knock a single peach down. Maybe she's more suited for wizardry than we think, all that frustrated studying catching up to her? Anyway, time to cast mostly-untested spells at our friends!
I like how Gisena gains her smug look as soon as she comes up with her theory, rather than after she finds evidence for it. What arrogant genius she displays. I think it's common-ish knowledge that there's a findross precursor? But I haven't read AST0 in a while. Findross uplifts and restores, and something else that I forgot, but Edeldross does the first two and also... redeems and cycles? Feels a bit like splitting hairs. But there might be something we can do with Gisena's idea and cycles, if we uplift something for Gisena to Nullify it repeatedly, might it learn to make Edeldross itself? Longshot.
It seems like Nullity is the exact opposite of Edeldross, yet it was created through findross. I have no idea what that means, sounds yin-yangy. And on that note, I think Gisena is actually flirting in this bit, as opposed the the flirty banter in her every line. Good luck, Hunger has a situational ++++++Protection against such things from his tragic backstory.
Letrizia did me an educate, I had no idea that Edel- had anything to do with stuff being bad. Hunger got fucking annihilated by the collateral damage of that attack, though. How does it feel that your daughteru considers you not only bad, but "traditionally" bad? You can't even snap back about her ego, you're straight-up dead.
Yay, he shares my thoughts about his Panoply! I feel validated.
I'd say that Gisena's desecrating his corpse at this point, but Hunger is disillusioned with the idea of being a Hero so she's actually on his side this time. It first appears that Hunger is saying that he's done with being a hero, and I dearly hope that he isn't also saying that the smiling part of his life is over. Pls be happy. Even the hero bit is a lie, though, because the moon is a stranger that he's dropping everything to help, so nyeh.
Letrizia seems to be enamored with heroism? You'd have to be, just a bit, to be a giant robot pilot, but I would've expected that line from someone a bit more... heroic. Not a ding against her, opportunity has been conspiring against her being able to show that off, but she struck me as slightly more self-interested. +Letrizia-related curiosity.
Letrizia was playing too hard and exhausted herself, probably mumbling about she still isn't tired. I prrroobably shouldn't infantilize a nineteen year old, but she's totally doing it on purpose. Hunger had better not make the connection between the waters healing exhaustion and the possibility of training even harder, Gisena might actually experience visible stress. Would serve her right.
I was making jokes about Letrizia being high, but an Edeldross-infused massage sounds more decadent than the rest of the Kaguya put together. A two-handed one, at that, Ruinous Valor is showing benefits already! Heightened senses for the experience, and on top of all the other benefits the additional toughness would let the masseuse really put their back into it. Gisena's getting her money's worth, we probably don't even owe her any dresses after that. Hunger needs to find something incredibly important to carry with his non-sword-holding hand to make Gisena pout when he gives her another piggyback ride, for science.
Hunger: X
Me: But I want to kill the rot-
Rihaku: We have bossfights at home.
Me: But
Rihaku: Fine! Later, geez!
I'm being teased with Hunger's notoriety growing in the margins of these updates, it feels like if we actually do something impressive soon we could grab a pick-free Rank up. That's an argument for Shadowlord, isn't it. The second most persuasive one.
For the most persuasive, fill in the visuals for the meme yourself.
:/ Shadowcord?
:> Shadowlord!
Some people take training trips, Hunger takes training vacations. There's nothing more relaxing than having enough power to not die, and that was a sarcastic sentence until I typed it and realized I completely agree, actually. That last line would be more appropriately final if it weren't possible that we're about to vote to delay another day, but we'll see what happens.
Nobody buys echoes anymore, blood upgrades are the new Echospam.
Buuut only like four people are voting for it, which is fair given all the competition. I just want the precious. ;_;
Local man is fucking invincible, the world thinks that he's too pretty to be allowed to come to harm. The only reason this isn't a must-have right this instant is because there are like five upgrades that are equally must-have.
Everything else about this is incredibly useful, it has something for everyone, because that's how Edeldross rolls. The best argument against it, I think, is that we could reach this level with just some more practice, but time burns, and the doubled speed of gracemaking is unique to Adept. If babby El Stats voter me from weeks ago could see this, he'd be crying tears of joy.
All of this comes at a cost, though, not only the 7 Arete but also the additional party member in Shadowcord. And the day that it takes to grind money, but honestly that might be a good think if we can get Rank out of our slaughter spree. I think this option is better than Edeldross Adept, but not 5 Arete better than Adept because it's really good.
Thats all I have to say about this vote. As for the infiltration, which still makes me nervous...
Idea! Using Shadowcord's stealthmode, we can skive off bodyguard duty for the return trip to the Temple and work on Graces instead. If Gisena isn't done with her breakthrough, we can buff her first, and then we can take advantage of Adept's 2x bonus to Gracecrafting speed to grab one. A social Grace (lol) would probably be too complicated, but simple power would be nice even if it doesn't directly help with the immediate mission.
Speaking of Gisena, we need to drag her with us everywhere. It's getting old to say that Gisena can help with social, but the Sublime social Sorceress should be an insane contribution to whatever con we're pulling. Even more so if we can snag Exalted Spirit at some point.
I was going to say that we should quiz Shadowcord for infiltration tips but she's 18 lol. Maybe we can hope that Letrizia's anime has infected her and she comes from a family of ninjas, and she actually has tips to share. She might be able to go after our actual objectives in secret while Hunger's loudly ingratiating himself to the Inners.
Hunger/Rihaku: *Sigh* We have bossfights at home.
Fanwork#2887 Words
The hot springs episode may be fleeting, but the vacation as a whole is eternal! Ignoring the fact that we're leaving tomorrow or the day after, this vacation has much more word count devoted to it than I expected. Course, we did vote to delay once already, but can you blame us given how Hunger's power has skyrocketed? The picks just keep happening.
The moon, presiding. The Moon Ring? Ruling Ring, contest of primacy?
Everything is now as clear as this night is. When we finally piece together the Ruling Ring in the Inner Temple, needing a powerup before the last bossfight, it will emit an ominous hum. Dread courses through Hunger's spine. Slowly, silvery fog coalesces in front of him into the form of... a map. Of a room that looks similar to the one he's currently in, as a matter of fact. One section of the map brightens, and Hunger looks to the corresponding space. He leans over and picks up the still-screaming Moon Ring-
Contest of primacy over, congratulations. The real enemy was outside us the whole time!
Nah, it's unlikely. But I'm always looking for secret messages in Rihaku's depictions of the sky, and it would be entertaining if the contest would've forced us to come to this place before it came to us, we'd be ahead of the curve. Maybe he's just telling us to try to put the Moon in the Sky, but I was planning on that anyway, so there.
As usual, I want to be in the Kaguya, there's no richly-oiled wood in my apartment.
Always take the private pool if one is available, who wants to have to socialize with people? Even if they aren't perverts. And perverts are also a concern, especially if Gisena's internalized some of her society's admiration of maiden-ness and would already be uncomfortable with showing skin. Not that she'd reveal any discomfort, of course. Letrizia... I can't tell how much of your concern is sincere and how much is anime, but it all leads to the same place so whatever.
Even the key is ostentatious, this place is sickening.
I'm probably projecting my mechanical incompetence on Rihaku, but I'm imagining him writing this nice description before realizing he'd already put a wall in the way. But most people know how blinds and windows work, I'm the oddball who took five seconds to figure this out by waggling my hand in the air. Seeing this city makes me want to protect it mumblemumblerotbeast.
Gisena's putting her superhuman speed to excellent use, putting her hair in a bun before Zee can even come out of the water! I think she's being a bully because she's jealous of the magic, Letrizia, don't take it personally. Or maybe do, Gisena's powers are very good at expressing her salt about her powers.
Letrizia is a bubble-blowing baby, so she had it coming anyway according to Spongebob.
Of course her clothing is monocolored, that's how you know she's a wizard! Gandalf the Grey, Gisena the Purple, that's just how it do. I think darker blues look good with purple, too. And some white, forest or envy-eye green? But my fashion choices are T-shirts and basketball shorts whenever I can get away with it, and they don't even have lace-patterns, so don't take my advice on this.
Pity we didn't take Evening Gown, but Gisena can't get everything she wants.
Hunger closes every last one of his single eyes and still notices Gisena's beauty, that's how you can tell that her +++App is becoming conceptual. She's becoming too powerful. I guess it's possible that he opened his eye without that being explicit, but my interpretation is more entertaining.
Brb, doing relaxation exercises. I already took my shower for the day, but I can untense my shoulders and take a deep breath. Do it with me! Ahh... there was some tension in my feet, nice to get rid of that.
Money is a social construct, but isn't "genius" also a social construct? Checkmate, Gisena. "Not if a genius says it isn't?" Curses.
Not only does she push me in the water and Nullify my magic, she's also hogging all the attention! Gisena was right to run away. I can't tell if there's a joke I'm missing with Letrizia's insistence on the "Lord" bit, or if she's just being polite.
Poor notebook-chan, introduced for a single update for the sole purpose of proving how unnecessary you were to become. The mental benefits of Sharpbright came more quickly than I would have thought, and there's more on the way. It's a pity that we're not in a situation that will allow that to really shine. Letrizia is weak to praise and headpats, whoever designed her is truly insidious.
Hunger's doing his Uttermost even against high school students, buuut this scene is almost exactly what us voters were doing yesterday, so I can't be too snarky about it. I'd talk about Undying Vanguard, which is constantly increasing in value as we get tankier, but somehow that's true of everything and the more Arete we grab the harder it is to part with. Opportunity Cost: the Game is real.
I'm not sure what Hunger told Letrizia earlier was exactly truthful, if anything the Edeldross helped the Rotspawn flail slightly less uselessly against Hunger. Hunger School of Indiscriminate Spellcasting? Has a nice ring to it.
Gisena almost got sidetracked into a tech discussion, but her willpower saves the day. Surgecraft doesn't do "bolts" so easily, except actually Letrizia seems to have better control than Hunger started with. Sure, she shook the entire tree, but she still managed to knock a single peach down. Maybe she's more suited for wizardry than we think, all that frustrated studying catching up to her? Anyway, time to cast mostly-untested spells at our friends!
Letrizia is high on Edeldross. In her defense, the impact of a single +Con on your mood would probably be fantastic, and the +Wits would let you feel it even more strongly, to say nothing of the rest of the holistic boost.
I like how Gisena gains her smug look as soon as she comes up with her theory, rather than after she finds evidence for it. What arrogant genius she displays. I think it's common-ish knowledge that there's a findross precursor? But I haven't read AST0 in a while. Findross uplifts and restores, and something else that I forgot, but Edeldross does the first two and also... redeems and cycles? Feels a bit like splitting hairs. But there might be something we can do with Gisena's idea and cycles, if we uplift something for Gisena to Nullify it repeatedly, might it learn to make Edeldross itself? Longshot.
It seems like Nullity is the exact opposite of Edeldross, yet it was created through findross. I have no idea what that means, sounds yin-yangy. And on that note, I think Gisena is actually flirting in this bit, as opposed the the flirty banter in her every line. Good luck, Hunger has a situational ++++++Protection against such things from his tragic backstory.
For some reason, I thought the names of Imaginary Elements came instinctually to the wielders, like how Truth can only ever be Truth and how the Call of the Moon apparently can't be faked. Does that mean that the surgecrafters just pick them, like superhero names? How appropriate.
Letrizia did me an educate, I had no idea that Edel- had anything to do with stuff being bad. Hunger got fucking annihilated by the collateral damage of that attack, though. How does it feel that your daughteru considers you not only bad, but "traditionally" bad? You can't even snap back about her ego, you're straight-up dead.
Yay, he shares my thoughts about his Panoply! I feel validated.
Stop, he's already dead, add 1 to the undeath form counter. I actually do think that Hunger's intentions in fighting the rotspawn were at least 70% selfish, despite what the cheer squad might've thought. But he's 100% heroing the shit out of the Moon. So much that he's killing people and using shady tactics, in contrast to the straightforward SORD heroism he's exhibiting for murder money and XP.
I'd say that Gisena's desecrating his corpse at this point, but Hunger is disillusioned with the idea of being a Hero so she's actually on his side this time. It first appears that Hunger is saying that he's done with being a hero, and I dearly hope that he isn't also saying that the smiling part of his life is over. Pls be happy. Even the hero bit is a lie, though, because the moon is a stranger that he's dropping everything to help, so nyeh.
Letrizia seems to be enamored with heroism? You'd have to be, just a bit, to be a giant robot pilot, but I would've expected that line from someone a bit more... heroic. Not a ding against her, opportunity has been conspiring against her being able to show that off, but she struck me as slightly more self-interested. +Letrizia-related curiosity.
Ha! I knew that the reason Gisena was trying to bully Hunger was because she was mad about his prune-immune constitution. There actually is a minutes-long conversation to be had about Hunger's wardrobe, I now realize, if he can shift the Evening Sky into a towel so easily. His color scheme is set, but the possibilities for form are endless! Evening Tuxedo, Evening Hawaiian Shirt, Evening Hazmat Suit? A sky for every occasion.
Letrizia was playing too hard and exhausted herself, probably mumbling about she still isn't tired. I prrroobably shouldn't infantilize a nineteen year old, but she's totally doing it on purpose. Hunger had better not make the connection between the waters healing exhaustion and the possibility of training even harder, Gisena might actually experience visible stress. Would serve her right.
Both Gisena and Hunger are cheaters when it comes to water fights, they deserve each other.
I was making jokes about Letrizia being high, but an Edeldross-infused massage sounds more decadent than the rest of the Kaguya put together. A two-handed one, at that, Ruinous Valor is showing benefits already! Heightened senses for the experience, and on top of all the other benefits the additional toughness would let the masseuse really put their back into it. Gisena's getting her money's worth, we probably don't even owe her any dresses after that. Hunger needs to find something incredibly important to carry with his non-sword-holding hand to make Gisena pout when he gives her another piggyback ride, for science.
Hotel staff: Heeeeey, wanna fight some rotspawn!
Hunger: X
Me: But I want to kill the rot-
Rihaku: We have bossfights at home.
Me: But
Rihaku: Fine! Later, geez!
I'm being teased with Hunger's notoriety growing in the margins of these updates, it feels like if we actually do something impressive soon we could grab a pick-free Rank up. That's an argument for Shadowlord, isn't it. The second most persuasive one.
For the most persuasive, fill in the visuals for the meme yourself.
:/ Shadowcord?
:> Shadowlord!
Some people take training trips, Hunger takes training vacations. There's nothing more relaxing than having enough power to not die, and that was a sarcastic sentence until I typed it and realized I completely agree, actually. That last line would be more appropriately final if it weren't possible that we're about to vote to delay another day, but we'll see what happens.
We are choosing to sneak with the sneaky person? Too synergetic, 2/10. I was actually worried that Shadowcord and Methodical would be the winning combination despite that being a nasty snarl, so I'm glad. Rihaku will, of course, drop the EFB blurb when it will cause the most chaos.
Damn, we're getting picks again? You spoil us. The coin landed heads for the trip here, we got three picks from a fight with a maximum of two, two picks in addition to the magic system, and now this. That's, like, five more than I might have expected. We're gonna need them.
Nobody buys echoes anymore, blood upgrades are the new Echospam.
Have you heard of our lord and savior, the Ruling Ring? Our Rank is lagging, dontcha know. It builds towards Preeminence, which has +All Stats, the value of which is dramatically improved by our Willpower feeding our physicality and the Edeldross boosting everything!
Buuut only like four people are voting for it, which is fair given all the competition. I just want the precious. ;_;
This is very efficient towards the goal of making us more killy, which is always welcome but not the priority when Plan A is not killy. Pass.
The scaling mechanic of this upgrade is very interesting: could we bank picks for it? It doesn't matter, 'cause our base Rank is so low that picking conditional boosters for it makes less sense than it will when base increases become harder. Pretty soon Blood+ will look amazing.
You've heard of Sublime Gisena, how about Sublimer Gisena? Are you sad about Hunger being too heartless to be a hero and kill the Rotbeast? Make yourself and everyone around you smarter and more charming with this product, now for only Arete1.99!
How the hell did I not realize that lime is in lime until just now, that joke has been all over the thread. Healing Verschlengorge is cool, but this probably won't help us infiltrate. We could negotiate with healing potions made of our blood, buuuut according to precedent they'd probably decide that strapping us down and torturing us for eternity would be more efficient, fuck the Inners.
Ah, yes, a straightforward blood option, add Cha to Pro. Not worth ment- ha, can't type that with a straight face. This is obscene, stat converters are at the end of the bloodecho line? Half of me wants to be consoled that we don't need the Ruling Ring if Bloodmight gets us upgrades like this, but the true half of me realizes that the Ring upgrades must be even better!
Local man is fucking invincible, the world thinks that he's too pretty to be allowed to come to harm. The only reason this isn't a must-have right this instant is because there are like five upgrades that are equally must-have.
How useful, exactly, is a sword made of Edeldross? Sword of Buffing +1, stick enemies with the pointy end to make them stronger.
Everything else about this is incredibly useful, it has something for everyone, because that's how Edeldross rolls. The best argument against it, I think, is that we could reach this level with just some more practice, but time burns, and the doubled speed of gracemaking is unique to Adept. If babby El Stats voter me from weeks ago could see this, he'd be crying tears of joy.
Is one teenager too much for you already? Do you want to spend even more time on vacation? How about those never-before-seen (Thief King isn't real) stats, huh. Another stat converter, you just saw me squee about that on Vigor Itself. And Vigor Itself converts a stat into the stat that Shadowlord converts into another stat, the ludicrous chaining possibilities make me drool. I actually think that Shadowlord voters haven't been hammering in how awesome that 100% crit chance from stealth is, it only takes one stroke to decide a battle, and the first hit is the most important. And gofast and gosmirk. Be a ninja. Also immunity to sound based attacks, which is too situational to hype for but would be nice if we bump into a siren or a banshee or a rock concert, I guess.
All of this comes at a cost, though, not only the 7 Arete but also the additional party member in Shadowcord. And the day that it takes to grind money, but honestly that might be a good think if we can get Rank out of our slaughter spree. I think this option is better than Edeldross Adept, but not 5 Arete better than Adept because it's really good.
Thats all I have to say about this vote. As for the infiltration, which still makes me nervous...
Idea! Using Shadowcord's stealthmode, we can skive off bodyguard duty for the return trip to the Temple and work on Graces instead. If Gisena isn't done with her breakthrough, we can buff her first, and then we can take advantage of Adept's 2x bonus to Gracecrafting speed to grab one. A social Grace (lol) would probably be too complicated, but simple power would be nice even if it doesn't directly help with the immediate mission.
Speaking of Gisena, we need to drag her with us everywhere. It's getting old to say that Gisena can help with social, but the Sublime social Sorceress should be an insane contribution to whatever con we're pulling. Even more so if we can snag Exalted Spirit at some point.
I was going to say that we should quiz Shadowcord for infiltration tips but she's 18 lol. Maybe we can hope that Letrizia's anime has infected her and she comes from a family of ninjas, and she actually has tips to share. She might be able to go after our actual objectives in secret while Hunger's loudly ingratiating himself to the Inners.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Shadowlord+Pearlescence would be very good, yes. It would get us scaling Stealth and Protection, meaning we wouldn't have to invest in protection or stealth ever again, and could focus purely on other aspects of our build. That would solve my concern about splitting our focus too much.
However, Shadowlord+Pearlescence is also 16 Arete. And, as a Maeg Gang guy, it feels pretty bad to throw 16 Arete into Stealth when Mage has gotten 7, and Ring and Sword have both gotten a lot more. Despite my promise to be more positive about this, anything that looks like Mage build getting shafted provokes emotional responses.
There's also the fact that many people want to rush EFBs, but if we're going to get Pearlescence we've going to have to give up on that. Which I don't mind! I've never believed that EFBs are the only path to victory as some do.
But if we commit to getting Shadowlord, we absolutely need to give up on EFBs for a while. We can't be trying to do multiple high-Arete plans all at the same time, that will result in none of the plans being done and lots of wasted potential.
And really, we already have an EFB. I don't think we really need more at the moment.
However, Shadowlord+Pearlescence is also 16 Arete. And, as a Maeg Gang guy, it feels pretty bad to throw 16 Arete into Stealth when Mage has gotten 7, and Ring and Sword have both gotten a lot more. Despite my promise to be more positive about this, anything that looks like Mage build getting shafted provokes emotional responses.
There's also the fact that many people want to rush EFBs, but if we're going to get Pearlescence we've going to have to give up on that. Which I don't mind! I've never believed that EFBs are the only path to victory as some do.
But if we commit to getting Shadowlord, we absolutely need to give up on EFBs for a while. We can't be trying to do multiple high-Arete plans all at the same time, that will result in none of the plans being done and lots of wasted potential.
And really, we already have an EFB. I don't think we really need more at the moment.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
Maaaaybe.
Depending on whether or not the ++Charisma we have from Evening Sky, that gets converted into ++Protection from Vigor Incarnate, counts as coming from the Evening Sky or from Hunger, we could get an extra ++Stealh from the pick. Definitely not the Blood boosts themselves or the Thick as Thieves picks, obviously.
- Location
- Italy
But we never voted for a stealth operation, so why would we need the skills for one? If we want to turn this into a Metal Gear mission ok then, sure, but our original plan was for a social infiltration with the main purpose of learning more of the Inner Temple before we fully committed to a final push.
I mean, technically my plan was to just sord everything and worry about stuff later, but well the other vote won and I wasn't really against it either. Now I'd rather get a good power and progression multiplier, not get Hunger distracted with trying to fulfill an entirely different party role when we can just recruit people for it, and worry about stuff later cause I think we're being spoiled with fantastic picks which will come useful one way or another.
I'd be rather sad if we end up leaving our new professional assassin daughteru here rather than bring her with us though (and again, we're recruiting Shadowcord for a month, it hasn't even been a month since the beginning of the quest yet, anyone who isn't considering her a permanent addition to the party is working on an entirely different timescale or is expecting a timeskip for some reason).
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Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
[X] +1 pick below
[X] Edeldross Adept
Is the momentum shifting? Don't worry, Edeldross, I'll save you!
[X] Edeldross Adept
Is the momentum shifting? Don't worry, Edeldross, I'll save you!
You've got to admit that Stealth pairs wonderfully with the rest of his abilities tho. It's not just something tacked on, it's an organic addition that takes advantage of his existing powers. Plus being a rogue is something uniquely his! Its legend originally comes from his own efforts at theft and Abduction, which is why we could have gotten King of Thieves.
Duquette7
I am Fire, and I am Rain
[X] +1 pick below
[X] Evening Sky: Shadowlord
Urg, this is hard, they're both so good!
Unfortunately, a good point was made earlier that a substantial portion of the Surge advancement is buying things now that we will get through training latter, the magnitude, the consistencecy, and the uptime are all baked into the 7 Arete we've already spent on the system, the only lasting benifit we get besides time is the faster grace generation, and while that's good, it doesn't quite edge out a 30% Agi increase.
[X] Evening Sky: Shadowlord
Urg, this is hard, they're both so good!
Unfortunately, a good point was made earlier that a substantial portion of the Surge advancement is buying things now that we will get through training latter, the magnitude, the consistencecy, and the uptime are all baked into the 7 Arete we've already spent on the system, the only lasting benifit we get besides time is the faster grace generation, and while that's good, it doesn't quite edge out a 30% Agi increase.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
After leaving the Temple as a wounded basically-warrior, coming back as a largely-healed ninja gish would be satisfying for the sheer ??? of it. Only the sweetness of Edeldross is more tempting, this is a nice low sodium vote like that.
- Location
- Philippines
I mean, two points below and sry phone posting
Hunger probably knows how to Stealth better than most. If anything, he'll be the one teaching dohteru2. Lived a life that was closer to being a fugitive than a hero, for one. Dude might have galvanized and instigated hurricanes warfare against the Tyrant, but that doesn't preclude him from knowing how to get into the soft underbelly portions of society. He's got that backstory experience, being an abductor and all. And given how the Tyrant practically (I think) controlled his fair share of heavily defended castles and fortresses, our ever guile loving hero would've most likely snuck in and dealt some inner turmoil shit before the allied forces swooped in to deal more direct damage. Unless it really called for it, I can't imagine Pre-Hunger actually going to the open field to do some knock-off martial stances as his first option.
Pre-Hunger might have been a hero with a sword, but he matured up into a thief and a rogue first and foremost.
The second point is like:
Hunger being able to A+ stealth means he can leave Gisena and Letrizia together for his own peace of mind. Aside from the moon temple and Rotspawns, and apocryphal too. We've still gotta handle bearic. And if Hunger can be more comfortable with knowing his Important People at least have more means of self-protection, then the less he has to feel guilt and worry over when he's off trying to Not-Hero the Lunar Ring away.
Justabitto insight of some background stuff for Hunger. For as much as we wanna look forward, the past is what really Hunger ends up measuring himself against. At least until he gets strong enough to just ffffffuck over the Tyrant again.
250 words for what matters, I guess.
Oh shit additional edit:
Temple guys know we can sord really good. If we show off some magic shit, they'll think that we picked up something new along the trip.
And they'll feel at least somewhat complacent. BEcause sure he's an R Type but what kind of fucking freak suddenly pulls out another skill tree in the week he's been away.
Just s thought. Maybe.
Hunger probably knows how to Stealth better than most. If anything, he'll be the one teaching dohteru2. Lived a life that was closer to being a fugitive than a hero, for one. Dude might have galvanized and instigated hurricanes warfare against the Tyrant, but that doesn't preclude him from knowing how to get into the soft underbelly portions of society. He's got that backstory experience, being an abductor and all. And given how the Tyrant practically (I think) controlled his fair share of heavily defended castles and fortresses, our ever guile loving hero would've most likely snuck in and dealt some inner turmoil shit before the allied forces swooped in to deal more direct damage. Unless it really called for it, I can't imagine Pre-Hunger actually going to the open field to do some knock-off martial stances as his first option.
Pre-Hunger might have been a hero with a sword, but he matured up into a thief and a rogue first and foremost.
The second point is like:
Hunger being able to A+ stealth means he can leave Gisena and Letrizia together for his own peace of mind. Aside from the moon temple and Rotspawns, and apocryphal too. We've still gotta handle bearic. And if Hunger can be more comfortable with knowing his Important People at least have more means of self-protection, then the less he has to feel guilt and worry over when he's off trying to Not-Hero the Lunar Ring away.
Justabitto insight of some background stuff for Hunger. For as much as we wanna look forward, the past is what really Hunger ends up measuring himself against. At least until he gets strong enough to just ffffffuck over the Tyrant again.
250 words for what matters, I guess.
Oh shit additional edit:
Temple guys know we can sord really good. If we show off some magic shit, they'll think that we picked up something new along the trip.
And they'll feel at least somewhat complacent. BEcause sure he's an R Type but what kind of fucking freak suddenly pulls out another skill tree in the week he's been away.
Just s thought. Maybe.
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- Location
- Omniverse #1345
I don't really like this "measure how much arete my favorite option has gotten!" tendency. A lot of our current problems go back to us having foolishly taken on an area outside our level, forcing expenditures into immediate survival. So trying to balance expenditures without accounting for our position feels... unwise.