Reaction finished circa Day of Indpendence. 1694 Words
We all know this is a reference to the Tolkien bit about wizards being subtle and quick to anger, though at the point this was written we may well be about to pull a Harry Dresden and tell subtlety to go fark itself.
Letrizia was indeed capable of wielding an Imaginary Element. Her control and manifestation of 'Sharpbright' allowed her to manipulate a specialized form of Pressure, effectively increasing her Astral Rank.
That's good now all you need is a panopoly *Patrick from spongebob voice*. Verschlengorge would be an excellent start once we heal it up. Imagine Verschlengorge once it's benefiting from a Knight of Honor analogue because Letrezia's learned Accretion.
Direct control allowed her to focus the effects of Rank upon the world, creating avenues of influence unavailable to average practitioners.
Average practicioners of what. Accretion due to Letrezia not actually needing a panopoly?
Though it had little immediate application, it was a power with nearly limitless potential.
I suppose Lord Hunger would know having reached the heights in Accretion he has and having actual limitless potential from being a progression type Cursebearer. He sees all the skies above the skies. All of them.
He was happy for her; it aligned perfectly with her research interests and disposition, even if the combat applications would remain modest for the immediate future.
She has a giant robot and us for combat situtations so she's unlikely to have to worry about the combat applications of her power until Apocrypha is operational again. Let's hope it doesn't hit us like the second Death Star when it does. Though I suppose it could help us if our next apocrypha proc isn't combat based.
"This is so cool," Letrizia squealed, showing Hunger the slight distortion that passed through the air when she concentrated her Pressure on a nearby tree. It swayed slightly, creaking in the sudden breeze. A peach fell from its branches to land upon the grass.
I guess she's exploiting Isaac Newton and the apple falling on his head symbolism to fall into the metaphorical category of brightness per the Sharpbright blurb about it improving her rank when she needs to be sharp or bright, literally or metaphorically?
"Don't be wasteful," he admonished her, opening his window to grab a peach. "Here, eat."
You should be honored. A peach off Lord Hunger's metaphorical fishing line! It's like... made of condensed astral pressure and starstuff or something. Not the stars the Inner Ring residents are harvesting though. Lord Hunger isn't a ring-torturing monster like that.
"You have it," she said cheerfully, "I gotta stay focused on this!"
"Turning down food." He shook his head sadly, biting into the peach. It was delicious. "You've changed, Letrizia. Leaning magic has changed you. I always feared this would happen."
You were the chosen one! You were supposed to bring balance to the Astral Plane, not leave it in darkness! Lol.
"Hmph! The esoteric arts come through mastery of the self, after all." Playfully she turned up her nose.
Let's hope you actually attain some then.
"So, how powerful is your Pressure now? ...Care for a spar?"
You say that sarcastically now but you're getting into spars with High School students for actual stakes and handicapping yourself a couple of updates later.
"N-no!" Letrizia stopped, looking a him exasperatedly. "You know how that would turn out! My Pressure's not even as powerful as yours. Even if it were, your strength and speed are way superhuman. That wouldn't be an interesting fight at all!"
Interesting fight? Blood Knight Letrezia? More evidence for Letrezia being a blood knight. We should heal Verschlengorge, go ride in the cockpit, and enjoy the show against a higher level astral denizen. Maybe we could find some popcorn.
"Too bad," he threw away the peach core.
I'm not sure if I should be playing a grenade explosion like Lord Hunger has a set of thinking grenades or a wine glass shattering like he's Dracula from Symphony of the Night/Rondo of Blood. The wine glass is probably more apt given his ring and blood powers though.
"What about your lunchtime friends? Know any High Elementalists that would be interested in training with your bodyguard?"
"Maybe if you handicapped yourself," she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, I can think of one or two. But I thought you didn't get much from training, and only got stronger from fights with real stakes?"
Would one of them happen to be our little would be ninja Aeira?
"True," he replied, "But it doesn't have to be life or death. Wagering time or even large sums of money can work, though it's much less efficient. Why don't you go round up some interested parties while I awaken my Element this morning? Arrange some duels for tomorrow. I won't actively use my other magics and I'll limit my speed and strength. I'll kill some Rotspawn this afternoon for cash to pay out."
"You think you can beat experienced High Elementalists after only one day of fighting, without using your other powers?" Letrizia smiled. "Rather cocky, aren't we? Okay, I'll do it. But only because you've been such a good bodyguard lately."
More like because you're a blood knight and want to see other people fight even if you can't do it yourself right now I bet. Hunger due to the ring and sword is literally a blood knight as opposed to being the blood knight trope though he could be both.
"If you want a cut, you can say so. We agreed on thirty percent, right?"
"I-I don't care about this place's money! It's all illegitimate separatist roleplaying anyway!"
These roleplayers figured out how to actually be wizards! They're living the farking dream except for the whole rotbeast business.
He looked around their opulent quarters. "If yesterday's meal was a roleplay, I wouldn't mind a re-enactment."
*CSI yeah sound effect plays*
"G-go awaken your Element already! Then we can be wizards together."
Sure. Then we can kick it up a notch when/if we finally get Philospher's Wreath.
"If you insist."
Patting her lightly on the head, he walked into the master bathroom, pulling the Evening Sky into the form of a towel.
If he sees himself as the Evening Sky, does this mean Lord Hunger is naked in his own brain?
Turning on the faucets, he made the proper adjustments to his blood, settling in for a long wait...
There's probably a lot of dials on the metaphorical control console for blood manipulation.
Gisena dropped by at around the third hour.
"Oh, you're not pruney at all. A privilege of the destined hero, perhaps?"
"Of a sort." The Forebear's Blade granted him supernatural endurance, which apparently applied even to circumstances as mundane as this.
Swords can't get pruney in the water after all. Since he's a magic silver sword assuming I remember correctly, he doesn't have to worry about rusting either.
"Looks like your Element is percolating nicely. Should be done in about twenty more hours."
*Magic coffee bubbling noises*
"Perfect. More time to think."
"Aw, you're no fun! You're actually done now, want to go fight some Rotbeasts?"
"Who do you think you're fooling? I can see the Element in my blood just fine. Go play with your toys."
"Yes sir!" Gisena winked. "Though, if you miss me too badly, come and find me in the library!"
Contests of primacy would totally spice up this banter.
At around the fifth hour he finally emerged, his body fully saturated by the magic of the waters. It was the work of a moment to dry off and dress.
Is the Evening Sky super absorbent or is this stats bullshit that enables him to do it that fast?
He headed down to the generously-stocked hotel library where Gisena was immersed in various technical manuals. She waved happily at him.
Yes we apparently can't go more than five hours without missing Hunger's banter with you Gisena. Or not. I haven't been keeping too much track.
"We should buy some of these books and keep them in Verschlengorge! Such excellent reference texts."
"You mean to say you can't read and memorize them all in one day? Apologies, I thought you were a genius."
We might be able to pull that off if we take Philosopher's Wreath and undergo an intelligence explosion. Gisena may need Renaissance Woman to pull that off, I don't know.
"But I love these books!" She clutched one to her chest. "I just want to protect and save them."
"We all have to make sacrifices," he said grimly. "They would distract you from completing your meditations to become a High Sorceress. That could be life or death in the Temple."
Considering we've just killed High Marshal Avecarn at the point I wrote this bit and she still hasn't completed her breakthrough, Lord Hunger has a point about Gisena getting distracted here. At least the time to Aperture Science founding probably got reduced some from her reading those though I suppose.
"Aw, you're so thoughtful." Gisena smiled brightly. "Well, if you're so concerned for my well-being, I suppose I can give these up. Kind of like getting Letrizia to eat her veggies!"
"Disgusting. I'd much prefer-"
"Eating fish? Maybe one that you caught yourself? Well, mentally speaking Letrizia's still a growing girl. It's necessary for her self-discipline!"
Kudos to Gisena for being perceptive enough to realize that. I'm not sure we've expressed our preference for self-caught fish explicitly yet.
"Is that so? Well. If a genius said it, it must be true."
"Now you're learning!"
Not fast enough for my tastes unfortunately, Philosopher's Wreath would help with that though. If it doesn't count as a soft or hard takeoff singularity, why bother with it /sarcasm?
Leaving her to her work, he quickly arrived at the border and engaged the Rotspawn. As with Letrizia, it had taken a few hours for his Element to come in. At first it was tentative, unformed, a bright purposeless warmth bubbling up in his chest. He sensed that it was some kind of augmenting effect, colorless but welcoming, like the radiant glow of a hearthfire or the sun veiled by clouds.
Thinking about it a bit, this process is about messing around with magic sensitive properties in peoples blood, then letting those properties react to the magic in Elixir hot spring water, leading to the formation of an element in a self sustaining reaction. I'm not sure what implications this has if there are any.
He called forth a surge of it, bathing himself in that nameless translucence.
Well the blurb did call it surgecrafting after all. Also, another bath already lol? Also for whatever reason nameless translucence somehow got connected to grossly incandescent as in Solaire from Dark Souls in my brain. I suppose the letter counts are pretty close, grossly has 7 letters, nameless has 8, and incandescent and translucence both have 12 letters. Maybe that's it with the concept of sunbathing having gotten mixed into here somehow.
Swiftly he felt his mind sharpen and body grow stronger, the powers of his self and soul tuned like a violin-string towards a more perfect expression. It was a powerful and comprehensive enchantment, hopeful and clean...
If he's getting tuned then who is the tuner? Catherine? Some esoteric law of nature? Whatever it is, it's playing Hunger like a goddamn fiddle and he is like wow where did you ever get tunes that sick. He's going to have to call Doctor House on these tunes because their illnesses are too sick for normal doctors to figure out.
For a moment he paused in consternation, having expected something bleaker, a power more in line with his other abilities. What did it mean that his personal Element had manifested in a form like this?
It means you're still a hero, Lord Hunger. You may be the Forebear's blade but the Forebear's Blade is also you now, and you are a better person than the Forebear was at the moment. It means you have the power to redeem the blade as you redeemed the Ring of Blood.
No point getting distracted in battle. He would ask the girls their opinions later.
A prudent decision. You are technically brain damaged right now after all.
Though he felt his Element was capable of much more, for now he focused on its core augmenting function, deciding to master that aspect before splitting his focus. Compounding its power with his blood enhancements and the superhuman force of the Forebear's Blade would be the surest path to further growth.
I forget, have we seen any Edeldross conjunctional advancements yet?
A small contingent of guards followed him into the mist, apparently intent on spectating in case he slew another Primary.
I wonder if our blood buffs would be enough for them to fight primary rotspawn at this point?
With the Forebear's technique, his new Element, and his second arm returned to him, the strength of his blows was simply incomparable to before.
Moving up a step on the infinite singularity husk will do that for you.
Rotspawn fell like wheat before the scythe. Even the obdurate mist of the deep swamp began to recede before him, deprived of the populace upon which it seemingly relied.
He's farming them like a veteran MMO player, grinding them all to dust and then snorting the dust for more experience points.
He took a break to experiment further, taking in the idiosyncrasies of this new power. He could summon forth the Element in great blasts and torrents, crudely shaping it into walls or other forms.
He's like an elemental bender from Avatar with a stranger element and a Rihakuverse suitable power ceiling.
To experience its benefits, one had to be immersed in the Element itself, which meant stepping into those (harmless) blasts and walls or centering them on himself.
I stumbled on an Avatar fanfic where Zuko managed to figure out how to set himself on fire without hurting himself. He heard the concept from Aang that with sufficient lack of ill intent you don't need control, and for a time he wasn't experiencing self loathing and actually pulled it off.
He launched a blast at a group of Rotspawn, which sprang upon him with unusual vigor, employing clever feints with uncanny coordination. Interesting.
Man that must suck. To still get killed even after you've been uplifted, thinking more clearly and effectively than you've ever thought in your entire life.
Repeating the experiment, it appeared that any being who touched the Element was indiscriminately augmented. Friend or foe, it didn't matter, this power desired to uplift all things, or at the very least not to bring them harm.
Edeldross has the mind of a trashy isekai protagonist wanting to give everybody technological uplifts? Or Sabrina Vee from Puella Magi Adfligo Systema with her desire to uplift people out of a darwinian hellscape of an economic system, or of course, the obvious Catherine.
Therefore he had to be careful where he fired. He could launch a blast perpendicular to the ground, then leap into that blast to launch blade-winds, but melee combat would be tricky without further practice.
You'll get some tips on that from a Vigorflame user later, don't worry about it.
Frustratingly the Element refused to come forth except in massive quantities; target discrimination was quite difficult.
Unfortunately, no suitable challenger emerged this time, even as he cut down Elites by the score. Previously it had taken two or three blows to slay even one, but now they fell in droves to a single slice. It was almost boring.
I'm sure the Elixir Sovereignty guys are glad you're doing the purging you're doing, even if you probably aren't going to purge the rotbeast.
He sprinted into the depths of the swamp, outpacing the retreat of the mist, gathering Rotspawn about him like the eye of some inestimable storm.
Too bad we don't have some of the Warframe powers we can use to drag enemies to us. I've seen a nasty combo involving slam attacks with Telos Boltace to drag enemies to him with a vortex and the Ironclad Charge augmentation to improve Rhino's defense in proportion to the number of enemies hit by the charge.
Only when they were packed so densely as to crush one another did he finally stop. Setting his feet, he brought his Blade around in a single full-bodied strike, weight and furious momentum as if swinging for the fences, and with a terrible crack of thunder laid earth and sky bare around him.
*The dramatic instruments play from when Kenshin turns his sword around and is about to kill Jinei*
The force of his blow tore great fissures into the earth; the wind howled into the sudden vacuum of his wake; like the aftermath of a great tempest the world went quiet and still.
I'm getting All Might vibes now for whatever reason though.
Rotspawn like cut daisies fell slowly back to earth, pulverized and obliterated by that ruinous force, piling high atop each other like impromptu battlements.
Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor...
Behind him, the guards began to cheer wildly, whipping off their caps and waving them in a frenzy as the few remaining monsters began to rout. Whether out of animalistic fear or tactical prudence, the Rotspawn had broken, at least for today.
If they're a hivemind maybe they managed to keep some of the ideas from the edeldross buffs you gave them.
Still no viable opponent emerged. Perhaps that was to be expected. Hunger shrugged and departed the battlefield.
Apocrypha's not online yet after all.
He walked back to the border, collected his murderer's wage and returned to the city after, dismissing the guards who importuned him to drive to the Rotbeast itself. Their vocal adulation only served to remind him of previous victory parades, though the crowds then who'd cheered the Tyrant's death had been so much louder and more joyous still...
You were also probably feeling a lot sorrier for yourself at the time, like Colonel Steele was after he had activated Black Sun in Luv and Hate.
Arriving at the hotel, he convened party in his room to discuss the day's events.
Hunger dropped a thick bag of Sovereign currency and gold plates on the table. "They gave me a bonus for exceptional work. They want us to stay."
Unfortunately for them we can't do that.
"I recruited some prospective duelists!" Letrizia said, opening her hand-written journal to a densely notated page. "There are some really interesting Elementalists in my class. I think you'll have fun sparring tomorrow!"
They're probably at least as protagonisty as class 1-A from Boku no Hero Academia. Unfortunately for them, this is closer to Dragon Ball Z or Xianxia.
"I'm touched by your diligence, both of you." Gisena wiped a single tear from her eye. "I slacked off the whole day, but you guys more than compensated!"
It's a good thing this isn't Gisena quest then.
"And now our due reward," Hunger deadpanned. "The hot springs at last."
And you even have a physical body to enjoy them with too, good for you!
[X] Vigor Itself and [X] Control were the winners. Hunger will become competent at self-buffing (without including enemies) and basic blasting / shielding, before the benefits of Control are applied. Hunger has earned another 12 currency units today.
In retrospect this wasn't a bad result, especially considering we got Edeldross Adept and the Thousand Cuts plan for fighting the immortals has the possibility of unlocking a new pseudo-grace.
Who does Hunger focus his conversation on during the hot springs visit?
[ ] Focus on Gisena - ++Gisena, reveals the conditions for Gisena's EFB-equivalent, +Mental Stability.
Hopefully one plus was enough to reduce the ability of the Apocrypha to fark with our head. Tangentially, the Renaissance Woman unlock was totally worth it.
[ ] Focus on Letrizia - +Letrizia, discounts Super Juggernaut Undead Chimera by 1 Arete, +Information.
Not sure what information we would have gotten but oh well.
Letrizia has befriended the wielder of one exceptional Element, who along with some other classmates will attend the sparring tomorrow. Choose below:
[ ] Fullmight - This boy seems to be crushing hard on her. How unfortunate for him! Though his buffs don't stack with those of Edeldross, he's highly experienced at using an indiscriminate buffing Element. There are all sorts of buffing-specific tips and tricks he can give you, making him the best of all available trainers, though there wouldn't be much point in recruiting him.
The Deku expy I guess? Might have been helpful if we had taken Philospher's Wreath and were chasing the singularity.
[ ] Roilweft - This taciturn boy wields impressive mastery over space and chaos, but his crippling social anxiety and drastic lack of self-confidence make it difficult for him to communicate with others. Difficult to recruit without socially steamrolling him, as basically every kind of approach would qualify as steamrolling. Almost inevitably doomed to ostracisation or exploitation in his current society. Still, the utility of his powers is undeniable, and he would be a great help infiltrating the Temple, moreso than any other recruit. [Costs 2 Arete to recruit]
The Shinji expy I guess? He could probably break through the dimensional barrier of the ring under his own power just like we can. And then he could do other stuff for us as our mission control.
[ ] Shadowcord - This soft-spoken girl is diligent and quietly professional. Her power makes her an unparalleled assassin and duelist among Elementalists, and she cares primarily for money. With her family's blessing, she has decided to strike out into the Voyaging Realm upon her age of majority, seeking fame and (mostly) fortune. She would be a competent sparring partner (with handicaps) and valuable ally, capable of cloaking the entire party (even Verschlengorge) in attention-deflecting darkness, and performing various feats of aural magic with her synesthesial Element. [Mercenary; costs 7 currency / month to hire]
She synergized well with infiltration. Then we took combat to improve her progression instead of her standard stealth build. In hindsight it was foresighted given our brain damage but it would have been even more foresighted to just take Shadowlord or pick Roilweft or Fullmight.
---
Finally, after the spar. Now that Hunger's familiarized himself with his new capabilities, it's time to decide on his approach to the Temple proper.
[ ] Methodical Onslaught - Clear out the Middle Temple until it's trivial for you, if not interrupted by higher-level foes. Recruit from the Encampment to get some cannon fodder. Then move to breach the Inner.
Given our 20 percent debuff to social stats and 15 percent penalty to mental functioning, in hindsight we should have done this.
[ ] Infiltration - Pretend to be interested in their offer of recruitment and see if your power will grant access to the Inner Temple. Gather information, perhaps even perform a few missions for them to size up the Inner Defenses before striking when they are weakest. With Edeldross improving your Charisma, Wits, Wisdom and Luck this has far better chances of working than previously. +Information.
Aeria proved her worth, but unfortunately, we were not up to the challenge, going at Avecarn as brain damaged as we were.
[ ] Write In - You may write in a plan. Detailed and carefully considered plans may offer better odds than the default options. Much is possible!
I have no idea. Have we ever came up with a decent write-in plan in a Rihaku quest?
) but I'm still waiting for that King Stands Alone pick so I really don't want to get Hero Defeating unless truly necessary.
