Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius​

Magnus Centenius pt.4 - Pill Forging-Aiming for 10th Heaven Stage-Training Trip

Magnus has finally reached gain recognition for all his efforts. His latest Bacterial Poisons were stronger than his wildest dreams. The rewards for his work finally gave him enough resources to charge past the bottle neck that had been plaguing him. Thankfully, the extra time spent opening meridians allowed him to charge all the way to the 9th heaven stage rather quickly.

While most would start forming their first Dao Pillar, Magnus was going to try for the 10th Heaven Stage. Even if it it made breaking into Foundation realm harder, Magnus knew that with all the resources he used to get this far had left its mark on his body. As a poison beast core cultivator, Magnus' body is fill with with bit and pieces of the beast left over from training that his body was not able to use. Even with his insights into forming a Dao pillar of adaption, his body just could not process everything from the beast bodies. Left over impurities weaken the body, since they block the body from working at peak efficiency. These left over parts also make it harder for the cultivator to absorb energy from the beast parts, so they need to hunt stronger and strong beast to get any benefit.

Then there are all the pills he has access to as a pill forger. As a pill forger, he knows that every pill from basic training pills to life saving healing pills leaves impurities in the body. This impurities build up and weaken the effects of similar pills, and slows cultivation. While there are pills that can flush out impurities from the body, most only can remove 10-20% of the impurities. These cleansing pills also require a Master lever pill forger using Core formation level herbs and animal parts to create. That is why the body purification of the 10th stage is so important for Magnus.

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As soon as this 9th stage cultivation stablized, Magnus left this family home for the first time in years to go to the main city of the Simmering Soup Sect. He was hoping to learn some of their cooking techniques. Cooking and poison making and pill forging all involve making a product with a specific goal by preparing ingredients in certain ways. Magnus wanted to see if cooking methods could be used to improve is other skills. Also, he hopes that he can make his pills and poisons taste better. Pills and poisons tend to be bitter in the natural forms, making cultivator and assassination more difficult.

He recently heard about how Minervina Barda used her poisons, including some of his personal scorpion venom, to fight off yet another Foundation Expert before killing an entire Qi Cultivator team all the while taunting them. Magnus wanted to make a scentless, tasteless poison that can kill his enemies before they even notice they are under attack. This believe was solidified when Magnus found a small bandit camp with a few Qi level Cultivators inside.

The camp itself was no threat as the strongest was only a rank 7 heaven stage, but the numbers were a little annoying. Magnus tried to kill them all by setting up his BP pills upwind of the camp and setting them off quietly. Unfortunately, as the colorless gas flew through the air, some of the bandits smelled its arid scent and let off a warning before dying. This cause a few of the bandits to escape before they could breathe in more then a lungful, forcing Magnus to grudgingly chase them down and kill them.

The one bright side for Magnus was after searching the bandits treasure horde, he found a life saving treasure. Apparently the bandits thought that the jade ring was just a normal spirit treasure, when it is actually a short range teleportation jade. Magnus quickly put the ring on as he continued his journey to the Simmering Soup Sect.

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@occipitallobe Got a live saving treasure, now I feel safer

Magnus finally leaves home to do some training, I think I accidently turned my seed into a copy of Kurotsuchi from bleach

@Katana1515 your seed can be the battle poison expert, my seed is going to be the best researcher/assassin

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Centenius pt. 5 - Just how many everyday foods are poisonous!!??

Magnus, a 9th heaven stage Qi cultivator, who recently made great contributions to his clan with his work in bacterial poisons, was peeling potatoes. His arrival at the Simmering Soup sect's main city and search for a master had been a bit of an embarassment. Magnus somehow ended up with food poisoning at a stall in the front of the city. Luckily, a kind chef decided to help him with a cleansing soup to make him feel better. After some begging, Magnus had a new master who agreeded to teach him cooking to keep him from hurting himself again.

"BOY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!" screamed Magnus's new master.

"Peeling potatoes?" Magnus asked looking up for the pail full of peeled green pototoes, unsure what he has done wrong.

"Your peeling green potatoes. Don't you know that anything green on a potato is poisonous? You eat that and you'll be parlayed while spewing from both ends! Throw them out can start peeling these carrots for the stew." insulted Magnus's master.

"Green parts on potatoes are that dangerous? But, they don't seem to be going bad."

"Not just the green parts, but also the leaves and stem and roots. Honestly, foolish young masters, like you, leave home for the first will eat whatever they find thinking its safe. Then they end up dying to normal animals because they are too sick to to stop any beast from eating them."

Magnus's master pulls out a book and throws it at the young cultivator.

"This is a book of common foods that can poison a person when eaten. Don't look at me like that, I know you work with poisons. Why do you think I make you wash up 3 extra times whenever you handle food. Now get to reading, I expect to you know that book front and back by your shift tomorrow." She then shoved Magnus out of the store and got back to work.

After reading the book, Magnus lays on his bed digesting the new information he just learned. As it turns out, many leaves and seed of food staples in the region are dangerous, including many things Magnus knows are in his family's kitchen. When he goes home, he will have so many new things to experiment on. First though, he needs sleep, tomorrow he will be allowed to chop some of the vegetables he peels.

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@occipitallobe
you know, its scary how many things contain cyanide in them, Apple seeds, cherry pits, bitter almonds and every part of elderberries that isn't a ripe berry. And nutmeg can get you high with a spoonful, and more than that will give seizures. My research for this Omake killed my like for so many foods.

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus pt.6 Adventures in Cooking

Normally, a kitchen in a popular restaurant would be a scene of controlled chaos and chefs move from station to station preparing dishes of great taste and effects. Instead, the kitchen is just a scene of chaos. Bright red smoke clouds the space as chefs run around blind with tears streaming down their face. Magnus, the poor fool who caused this mess, was rolling on the floor in pain as the first person to have been blasted in the face with the smoke. As it turns out, cook and chemistry does have some major differences. In this case, throwing in something is a decent water content to a pan that is cooking something spicy on high heat is not the best idea.

Now, most would just consider this a learning experience and move on, but for poor Magnus this was the third time that week something like that happened, and it was the first day of the week. The last time, he created some kind of melting soup that ate through the wood bowl it was poured into and through the floor until it hit the stone foundation. Then there was the time one of his BP somehow got into the stew he was making and it turned into some kind of monstrous blob that tried to eat the whole restaurant before Magnus could stop it.

His master, an old spirit chef named Mia, decided that if Magnus could only make poisonous food disasters, then maybe he could make something that is suppose to poison a person. Thus, Magnus was passed on to a Brew master to learn the ancient art of making popular consumable poisons. His new master, Sake, was a master of making strong and delicious wine. More specifically, he makes brandy and wines that become better with age. Some of the better ones can be aged for hundreds of years before reaching peak flavor.

Not that Magnus is trusted with such responsibilities yet. First, he has to successfully brew a drinkable wine, before refining the wine into brandy. Then, he will be allowed to learn the secret of making a long lasting brandy and wine.

After five years of failed batches, over cooked distilled brandies, and incorrectly made containers. Magnus was finally able to make passable batch of both wine and brandy made from that wine. His master allowed him to become a journeyman brewer, and promptly kicked him out to find his own way in the world.

Magnus put put his first successful batch of wine into 10 bottles and the brandy into a single barrel. He sent them home to store until they were ready to drink.

Happy with a new skill to practice, Magnus went off to the desert to find hallucinogenic cacti and new poisonous creatures to mix into his alcohol to create something new.

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@occipitallobe i think this is my worst Omake, it hated me. I think I'm going to have more fun making up fruits to make drinks out of. Not excuse me, I have a bottle of Moutai with my name on it

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 7 - Home again home again, and I brought Booze, made some too

Magnus spent the better part of 2 years searching for interesting and possibly poisonous fruits and plant to create various wines with. His current favorite is made from the Fire Flower Cactus plant. This cactus as the name suggest has a flower whose petals burn on contact with the air. The burning petals actually have a high sugar content that attracts animals and insects for the plant to feast on, oh yeah, this plant is a 8th heaven stage carnivorous plant. The main portion of the cacti also had a wonderfully potent hallucinogenic liquid.

When the two were mixed together to make wine, it would create a wonderfully potent drink. The drink would not only get a person pleasantly warm, it would also provide mild loss of coordination and judgement, and ability to tell time or distance to the drinker. The fun part of it was that when spit out, it would light itself on fire and create a mist that caused hallucinations and dull reflexes.

Magnus brought about 10 barrels of this wine and offered half at his welcome home banquet. The next morning there were about 3 divorces, 6 castrations, 4 marriages, and dozens of "spars". Magnus's father banned this wine from being served again unless it was to political enemies.

After coming home after so long, Magnus decided to try making a longer term wine project. He mixed 100 year old Iron Blood Grapes, 200 year old Copper Skin Peaches, and 50 year old Spirit Grain to make the base of a new wine. The hope is that this mixture would strength the bloodline of the clan, or at least provide strong metal Qi similar enough to the clan's to speed up training. The strength of the fruit in this mix required the mix to ferment for at least 20 years before the results could be seen.

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@occipitallobe
Another short because I don't have free time right now, new wine is how my seed will help the clan next turn, if good seed rolls happen in my favor.
So anyone interested, my guy is will help on the puppet project I suggested before, but no time to take the lead anymore

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 8 New Project, Preparing for the Trials

Magnus regained focus after breaking into the 10th Heaven stage. He looks around and wrinkles his nose at the horrible smell coming off him. Entering the 10th Heaven Stage purified his body of the leftover impurities from all the pills, beast cores, and poisons he subjected his body to. The think black sludge coming out of his pores smelled like sewage mixed with rotting meat. The poor Centenius family was forced to air out the family mansion for a week before the smell dissipated.

Magnus then got a terrible idea. He should transform these impurities into a drink, hoping the strong smell would get stronger to weaken beasts and cultivators with strong senses. To this end, he made a mix with rotting spirit fruits, Decomposing Dorian Drupe(small spirit fruit with horrible smell and strong poison), and the impurities as his base for his new poison. Magus was forced to add a bag of yeast every 30 minutes for a week to keep the process going long enough to create a strong enough drink to qualify as a brandy. Then, our mad brewer placed this foul smelling mix into a burnt Walnut wood barrel that gave off a bitter smell. This mix was stored for a whole year before being opened in an empty part of the desert.

A single crack in the lid of the barrel released a smell so bad that all the animals and spirit beast in a 10 Li radius fled in a flood of foaming feral beasts. Poor Magnus nearly fainted from being so unprepared to just how foul the liquid was. He was barely able to fill all the bottles and seal them in his storage ring. So far, he has yet to test what would happen if a living creature drank this because no one had been able to stop vomiting long enough to actually drink it.

Still, Magnus has made a decent amount of money working for caravans along the Scorpion Road. The merchants love not having to fight beast and even bandits try to find targets that don't smell diseased. This has allowed Magnus to buy his own home after his parents kick him out every time he uses his new Stinking Beast-Repelling Brandy. Now, he just needed to find another cultivator ready to enter the 10th Heaven Stage and ask to collect the impurities they leave behind.

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With every mentally scarring, trauma inducing incident, a cultivator can find inspiration. In Magnus's case, the opening of the Stinking Beast-Repelling Brandy gave him an idea for poison bombs that would release a blast of poisonous air when opened.

The easy part was making a poison that would explode out, since he had everything he needed with his smoke bombs and BP. The hard part was finding a usable delivery system. Leaving barrels or pots in the middle of a field made for an obvious trap and easily avoided. Burying the traps did not help, because the poison would be contained underground. Magnus needed considered using a bird to drop the poisons on enemies, but wind could blow the packages off and any decent cultivator would see the birds coming from dozens of kilometres away.

Magnus thought that perhaps an empty golem or puppet could be used to run into an enemy formation and attack letting an enemy crack it open to release the gas inside. Unfortunately, while Magnus was skilled in several fields, building puppets and adjusting arrays for those puppets was not one of them. He was forced to post a request for any clan members who want help him work on a war weapon for the trials. Anyone was welcome, but he specifically need an array specialist first and foremost to change a standard puppet's array.

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Magnus was not like ordinary cultivators. Where a normal person out gain an epiphany in a single field after a great trial, Magnus gained two. First was his idea for a new weapon, and second was a breakthrough on his Dao path.

He realized that Adaptation was a big part of the Poison Dao, but there was a stronger pillar known as "Change". Poison, no matter if it affected itself or other things, it would force change. Sometimes that change would force something to adapt to the poison, sometimes it failed to adapt and died. No matter the outcome, a change was inflicted.

Everything in the world is constantly changing due to influences. Like how the Turtle Young was killed, the Expert that killed it could be considered a poison that slowly weaken the entire Virtuous Flipper Region . The entire region is still changing to this day from that one action. If that Demonic Soup Chef had not killed the Turtle, then the region would have continued as always with no world shattering changes.

The Demonic Altar Sect is another type of poison. It forces all the nearby groups to change and adapt to its actions, otherwise the near by sects would never work so closely together to beat the sect down. People and groups that force the lands to change are poison, both good and bad. If they were gone, then Righteous sect wold start competing with each other with out a big enemy to focus on.

The poison main method of change is to quicken or slow reactions. It can slow the aging of the body so nature death takes longer to arrive, but it can also quick the march of time on a person and send them to death sooner. In pill making, it special poison can slow a reaction so a catastrophic explosion is changed to a burn that transforms the pill into something useful. Pill bombs are also use these poisons to speed up a reaction to make it explode with more force.

Tying into this is his possible third Dao pillar of Medicine. Medicine is a poison that has beneficial effect, like curing sickness, speeding cultivation or strengthening that body. It is only considered a poison when the used in the wrong quantities and starts to hurt the body. Then it is called poison.

Poison is change, in the body, in the world, even Qi is a type of poison. If used correctly, it can change the body and spirit to make it strong, better, and extend life. If allowed to run rampant, it can destroy veins, break meridians, reverse blood flow, and even cause death. Therefore, cultivation is poison that changes you.

Magnus knew his first Pillar much be of change, like all the changes he has going through from the poisons he had taken. The poisonous pills, poisonous beast cores, poisonous wines, and poisonous Qi, all of it was what is the base of his strength and his Dao.

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@occipitallobe
The first part is how Magnus created that stinking beast-repelling brandy
second is working on that poison puppet bomb, that is going to be a background research, hoping some of the other seeds join in, maybe if my next fate roll is great I can finish it.
third part is Magnus working on his Dao pillar

Bonus this turn into his pillar/tribulation

@Mochinator
Your turn to add to our death puppet project

@Katana1515
If you can to join in, a poison puppet could always use more poisons that can hurt Formation level enemies, if you add those poisons, my seed will trade his BP with your for one of them

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 9 - How did I get promoted and how can I use this?

Magnus had been sent to the border with the reinforcements Aikaterine requested. His cultivation level allowed him to be placed in command of a squad of 10 men. As a bonding exercise for the first night at the fortress and a final toast in case they don't make it, he provided some of his personally made Fire Wine and some of his. While many of the men were cultivators of the 6th Qi heaven stage, they are ended up so drunk many could not find their equipment in the morning. Somehow, a bottle of the wine ended up in the hands of Aikaterine who then promoted Magnus on the spot to Wine Quartermaster.

He was suppose to control the wine ration, and make sure there was enough wine for the troops to enjoy when the commanders determined it was time to celebrate. To this end, Magnus received access to several types on spiritual plants to make more wine for when the fortress loss access to the outside. The death of the Protostrator changed all that as mass confusion gripped everyone. Magnus took it upon himself to find a way to help the fight rather than just make wine.

He use a special honey and parts from a devil bee to change his Bacterial Smoke Bomb into a chitin eating bomb. The new strain of bacteria was too slow to really eat through the armor, but it did wonders in making large noticeable holes in the wings. Thousands of the new bombs covered the sky is a golden hazy as hundreds of bees and their riders crashed to their dooms.

Just as Magnus was given glory and a treasure to help with his tribulation, Minervina came and outdid him again. Her Hive Killing Powder directly killed the bees in the thousands eclipsing his contributions. Magnus would have been jealous of someone who started on the Path of Cultivation after him leaving him in the dust if not for her help in refine his first Dao Pillar.

Upon returning home, Magnus found that a young array expert named Castor has completed the work on the puppets he asked for. Castor had made a dozen of each 5 types of puppets based on the elements as prototypes. These puppets were not made for direct combat so the energy use for them is rather low. Magnus quickly5 got to work seeing what were the best poisons to work inside the puppets.

First were the most fragile puppets in the shape of Ospray representing Water, Magnus thinks that Castor was making a joke somewhere, These bird puppets were given a special liquid poison that would become a colorless mist when released into the air. They can fly over enemies and poison them without anyone even knowing they have been poisoned. The puppet after some testing proved to be able to fly to high for most normal Qi attacks to reach, of course range specialist can still hit it.

Next was the Cactus puppet representing wood. It was given a special blend of plant toxins. This puppet is made to sit in the desert out in the open where enemies will pass it by without a second look. Then the puppet's arms would spray out the toxins in the enemy faces. Inside the puppet are several pressurized containers so even destroying the puppet will cause the toxins to spray. It is also good for surprising spirit beasts in the desert.

Then, there is the large Earth Scorpion puppet. It can tunnel through the group relatively quickly and carries a poison powder that is light enough that a simple step will cause a good amount to float into the air. It is about the size of an actual Earth Scorpion or a small horse and carries enough poison to kill 100 men. It is also the most durable of the puppets, able to take a few hits before braking, making enemies think they are fighting a normal combat puppet.

The Fire Puppet is shaped like a Hedgehog and the size of a dog. Magnus had the hardest time working on the design of this puppet. The main body of the puppet was filled with an explosive poison that would devastate a large area when exposed to fire and push out a wave of poisoned air even farther, not to mention the Bronze quills on its back. The head of the puppet is filled with Magnus's signature Fire Wine that would light itself on fire in open air. The hedgehog puppet would open its mouth to light the wine before swallowing it to blow itself up. Magnus destroyed nearly all the prototypes before getting the amount of fire wine just right to light the explosives at the right time.

Finally, the Steel Spike Spine Snake puppet and the only true combat puppet. This puppet is the size of a Boa Constrictor with Steel Spine clusters on its back and a pair of large fangs in its mouth. This puppet used the metallic poison quicksilver also know as mercury. The skin of the snake is not actually steel but a coating of mercury. This poison does not kill on its own, but does mess with coordination and cause confusion. The fact that this puppet is actually made to fight a decent amount of time means it is the most expensive puppet to use.

Magnus stood proudly in front of his new works, ready to bring them before Manuel himself so the clan can put them to use in the coming trials.

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@occipitallobe I finally moved and got internet hooked up. I can finally type on my computer. My way to help the clan in the coming trials is ready, I think its time for the spread sheet for turn 5 to be set up

@Katana1515 @TheDuke I think my guy is getting really jealous of Minervina, and I have Castor make my puppets

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt.10 - Refining poisons, Improving puppets, Saving Lives

Truly, the reward for hard work was even more work. Magnus had 20 years before the start of the next trials and he needed 60 to finish getting ready. Magnus had to finish work on his puppets, improve the poisons for them, make some pills, and start planning with the group of seniors working to protect all the juniors in the clan.

The first project on his list was actually the easiest one. Improving the puppets was surprisingly simple thanks to the new sticky and flammable poison made my Minervina. First, the hedgehog's quills were coated in the new sticky poison while some pouches of it were also placed just inside the skin of the puppet. now the puppet can spray the poison napalm on any enemy that damages it and shoots flaming quills that trail poison when it explodes. One more modification Magnus had made was the mouth area how held more fire wine so the hedgehog can spit some out to light attackers on fire, especially the ones covered in sticky poison.

The sticky poison was also added to the metal spikes of the snake. Now the snake's poisonous spikes can also cause enemies to have a higher chance of getting lite of fire. The more fun effect is with the sticky poison, the snake can be lit on fire and turn into a Flaming, Poisoned, Spiked, Steel Snake. Magnus ended up replacing the eyes of the Snake with glass balls filled with fire wine so that snake can light itself on fire whenever it wants.

The next project was a little bit harder as Xiao had an idea to disguise a poison to have similar effects to the White-Backed Scorpion poison, but gets stronger with the scorpion poison's antidote. Scorpion poison is a pretty standard neurotoxin, it causes muscles to go out of control, weakness, nausea and vomiting, and pain. Many poisons can have these effects and all Magnus had to do was test which of these poisons had a bad reaction to the antidote. After a month of testing different mixes in the bodies of mice, Magnus found that Devil Bee Poison Pollen reacted the worst to the scorpion anti-venom. Magnus loved the irony that their most recent attacker will be helping defend his clan now, as well as the fact that the pollen that attached to the dead bees was rather light and could spread father when released from the Osprey puppet.

This was about the time that it was announced that the clan would be buying a Cultivation Palace to strengthen Qi Cultivators, but not Live-Saving Pills. This threw out all the plans Magnus had for experimenting to make a healing wine that could use the alcohol in it to kill off diseases and infections while healing the body. This normally would take one pill to heal the wound and another to remove any infection or poison. With the little time left before the senior meet, Magnus thought it better to work on making more normal Life-Saving Pills. Unfortunately, Magnus was only at the journeyman level and could only make a few healing pills before the meeting date. These could be useful in helping with minor to moderate injuries and probably save a few lives, but it would not help with major problems like internal organ damage.

There was one creation of note during his weeks of pill forging. Working towards the end of weeks without sleep, during a fugue state he was able to make the Dead Rebirth Pill. This life saving treasure is to be taken when seriously injured and near death. The pill absorbs all the available Qi in the body and then puts the user into a death like state. While in this state, the brain and heart are preserved, but to the outside world the user has no Qi, heartbeat, or mind. The pill keeps the body in this state for 24 hours while continuously absorbing any Qi produced by the body. After the time is up, the pill uses the gathered Qi to repair all the damages on the body including replacing destroyed organs or limbs. The time in the death state can be longer if the body is more seriously damaged like several limbs being pulp instead of just cut off.

Magnus proudly walks towards the meeting ready to do what he can to help his fellow clansmen.

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@occipitallobe so I'm going with an extra life saving treasure since I'm going to help juniors.

@Mochinator @Katana1515 Thanks for the ideas on how to improve the puppets, what do you think about how I used the ideas?

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve my puppet forces let me know, also my puppets are free to use for anyone

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 11- More Puppets, and Survivor's Rum

After the meeting, Magnus got to upgrade the venom on his Snake puppets thanks to the Ninth Prince and his snake. As thanks, Magnus begins to customize a spare snake puppet in the Prince's colors as a gift.

Magnus then begins to work on his next series of Puppets after learning lessons from the first set. The first of the new puppets is a sabotage specialist puppet. This water puppet is in the shape of a frog and about as small. It carries a sac of liquid filled with Bacterial Poisons that the frog can drip into an enemies food supply where it will multiply can infect a whole camp. Also, if the puppet is destroyed, the poisons will spray out infecting anyone near by. This frog puppet can be used to kill with much better accuracy, but less wide spread damage. While the Osprey puppet had the bad habit of needing favorable wind to be used to full effect, but I could affect entire army formations. To optimize the differences, Magnus got a faster acting, but less dangerous poison for the Osprey and a slower but deadlier poison for the frog.

The new fire puppet was made in the shape of an unicorn. The unicorn would leave flaming hoofmarks where it passed and the fire could be used to light hedgehog puppets and other possible future fire puppets. The unicorn's horn has a hole where the Sticky poison can be sprayed out, and a wave of flames can also be spewed out of its mouth. This puppet was made more for direct combat compared to the hedgehog, but can still be self-destructed to cause massive damage to an area.

The old wood puppet was an immobile trap for then a puppet. The new puppet was shaped like a large tumbleweed and unlike so many other puppets, the poison is a hallucinogen. Several of this puppet can roll across incoming enemies releasing its poison with the dust it kicks up, causing confusion to entire legions as front lines no longer respond to orders.

The earth puppets are where Magnus made the most changes. The original Scorpion puppets had shovels in place of claws to help it dig and the stinger had most of its poison. It was modified to have poison-filled, heavily reinforced claws, and the stinger was replaced with a ballista. It also carries hollowed out bolts with a dust based poison the scorpion can fired into groups. The scorpion is now a direct siege weapon instead of a tunnel maker that strikes from below. The new sapper unit is based on the badger. This unit is has reinforced claws to dig faster and weaken walls. It also has vents to release a poison dust into the dust cloud formed with it collapses something.

Finally, the new steel puppet is the largest one made yet. It is a great Bronze Bull that breathes out white clouds of poison. The bull will look like a Bronze Bull covered in Bronze Armor. The most seemingly most straight forward puppet made by Magnus, this bull is twice the size of an average one and is actually made to transport large quantities of goods without a spacial treasure. The torso area is actually sealed so none of the poisons the bull breathes out can reach any of the goods inside.

This time, the new puppets are all sent to different members of the meeting to get the testing done quicker than before. Magnus personally meets with every person so see which puppet they would like and to explain the uses. He hopes that at the very least they will have more improvement ideas.

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It is 2 years before the trials and Magnus enters his personal brewing center. One of the perks ok being a Wine Quarter Master for a whole legion. Magnus is working on a new project. A great Red Wine for the end of a war or major conflict like the recent battle with the Devil Bees or the coming trials. It need to be a strong liquer that is good enough to send a friend off, while invoking memories. The bitter losses, sweet victories, and sour defeats must all be present in this drink or it will be a great failure.

For the first three month, Magnus scourers every fruit stand, every passing merchant, every hidden oasis to find all the pieces he needs. The Wine will the his next and possible last crowning achievement, nothing less will do.

The base and main ingredient to this wine are sour red grapes grown from the arid soil of the desert near the main base of the clan. Magnus spent days going from vineyard to vineyard searching for those perfect grapes. Ones that could hit you with their sour flavor but not overwhelm everything else. He found them in the Great Red Star Grapes. These grapes were the size of oranges. They had clear skins, but black see through meat. The seed glowed a dark red making them look like red giant stars in empty black space. These grapes were known to be a mild sour flavor and oddly a rich Earth Qi.

Next were Blinding White Spiral Grapes, whose smaller seeds looked like a spiraling galaxy. This grape's seeds are so bright that many have trouble looking at them directly and are sometimes used to blind enemies for a quick escape. The fruit itself has mild sweet flavors with strong metal Qi coming from the skins. These grapes were only found in the middle of the most fertile land and a lot of ambient Metal Qi to survive. It was said that a single cluster of grapes could hold as much Qi as a low ranked spirit stone.

For the last touch Magnus had to commission some of the clans more skilled farmers. The sheer difficulty was because these grapes required to be grown in pure darkness with only natural light coming from the stars on moonless nights. These Empty Night Grapes have a bitter tart flavor that were known to give strange cool feelings to any who ate them. They are also strong in Yin energy due to never seeing much light.

Finally, no wine is complete without aging in barrels. In this, Magnus found some truly unique wood to make the barrels out of. The 24 Star Palm trees were trees that only lived 24 hours. They would sprout at twilight and gain one star like seed on its trunk every hour. The tree would grow to hundreds of meters high during night, absorbing the energy from the starlight. Then at dawn, the tree begins to wither and dies at dusk. After the tree dies, the seeds begin to grow from the corpse of the parent tree. When harvested, the wood keeps its accelerated aging and will rot away after a few year instead of centuries like many other woods. This affect will also apply to the wine when placed in a barrel made form this wood. The wine can age a year every month in the barrels.

Magnus wanted those drinking this wine to feel life. From the early happy days to the sourness of growing older to the bitterness of death, the flavors must flow in that order and circle around again. Magnus spends weeks in his brewery mixing dozens of versions of this wine and aging them to get the balance just right. Sometimes the order was wrong, sometimes one flavor over powered another, sometime the Qi interacted badly and turned the wine to a poisonous bomb for the body(Magnus kept those), but he did not stop working until it was just right.

The wine would need to follow the story of the clan. The sweet good times as the clan grows stronger, then the sour feelings as the clan is battered down by the heavens, then the bitter feels of the trials as many die, before returning to the sweet happy times of the new generation. The Qi strengthen the wine into a spirit wine also told the same story. The Metal is ground down back to Earth, before becoming the Darkness of Yin, when finally new Metal arrives to start the cycle again.

The Stardust Memories Wine was almost ready. Magnus filled the basement of his brewery full of his new wine and wanted to age them for a year or a relative 120 years. It would be his Master work and perhaps if he survived, he could make something even greater one day.

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@occipitallobe

1.4K almost 2x more then my normal Omakes, I seem to have an alcohol problem
Also 3:30 am here, I should sleep

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 12 - Obligatory Training Montage

Magnus would have said he had Heavenly Luck if he were born into any other clan, so maybe the devil's luck. He had avoided any direct combat during both conflicts in the last century. In the battles with the Blood Cannibals, his legion was not assigned to the front lines. Against the Devil Bees, he was promoted to Wine Quartermaster and later on, busy producing bacterial poisons and did not have time to fight directly before the battles ended. While this was great for keeping him save, the lack of combat has weaken his fighting strength. There are only a few years left before the Trials and while the battle puppets will help, Magnus felt his use of them was lacking.

Magnus decided to get help from the strongest person he could, his fight loving big sister Maxima. Maxima loves fighting at the front lines, the feeling of her life hanging on my a thread, and honing her skills in the forge of battle. Her one minded slaughter of her enemies had given her great amounts of contribution, that she used to boost her cultivation so she could fight more. His sister was already at the 9th Heaven stage 100 years ago, and recently reached the 12th Heaven Stage ready to break through after the trials.

"GET UP! 1000 MORE SWINGS!! THEN WE SPAR AGAIN" thundered Maxima as Magnus quivered on the ground in a puddle of his own poisons. Magnus had been getting slapped around for the last hour, and "warming up" for 2 hours before that.

"Sis, I don't think I can move right now." Magnus groaned painfully.

"Your still conscious, that mean you can still do more, but if you feel you can't. We can stop here. You can just join me in my personal workout tomorrow instead." Maxima grins darkly.

Magnus jumps up and starts swinging his sword is the energy of a person who hadn't been training for hours.

"See, I knew you had more strength in there" Maxima's grin turns in to a sweet smile.

"What strength, I had to use a restorative pill to heal enough to move you crazy single Amazon " Magnus grumbles under his breath.

Maxima's smile turned a bit brittle, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that. What exactly did you just say?" Clouds suddenly cover the sun, while the temperature drops dozens of degrees. Magnus freezes in place as he realizes he said that out loud.

"U-u-u-um, thank you my beautiful, kind, sweet older sister for helping this weak, foolish, little brother with my training" Magnus desperately uses compliment and groveling on his sister.

"So, not only does you sword skills need work, your flattery is pathetic as well" It's not effective.

"SMOKE BOMB!!!" Magnus panics and uses a paralyzing bomb to slow his sister down while running away.

Maxima simply uses her Qi to catch the bomb and throws it into the air. Before using her movement technique into appear in front of Magnus.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk. Foolish little brother. Did you really think it would be that easy?"

"No, but it was worth a try."

"No it wasn't." Maxima states ominously as she drags Magnus into her personal training building. For the next week, the servant avoided the building as cursed wails came out nonstop.

"For being the smart one, your really stupid sometimes Magnus." Markus comments from outside the building praying for his twin. "Acting like every boy she every liked by running away screaming just pisses her off, and the running bring out her beast-like instincts."

"Who is a ugly scared beast who drives away boys like some soul devouring monster?" Maxima comments from behind him.

Markus, being the genius of the family, says nothing, but quietly walks into the building to join his brother. All life missing from his face. Soon, new wails join the first one.
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@occipitallobe

This was suppose to be a bandit killing montage as Magnus practices with his puppets, how did this end up an anime martial arts comedy?

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
​

Magnus Pt. 13 - At the Gates of Pleuron

Magnus and his brother Markus watch as Xiao Yi stabbed himself and the vines that burst from him destroy dozens of Foundation realm cultivators. Seven days of relative safe retreat toward Pleuron as Xiao Yi dueled everyday had been both inspiring and terrifying. No one knew when Xiao would finally fall and the hordes would be unleashed to attack again. Every injury Xiao endure was like a wound on the hearts and morale of each member of the Clan. Magnus refused to be scared, he would do his part for the clan like Xiao.

Everyday, after the duel, Magnus would inspect the dueling field and gather any residual energy he could. Foundation level energy is not easy for a Qi cultivator to handle, even on in the 10th stage half way to entering Foundation level. Magnus had to cover his hands in a thick layer of Qi to just barely be able to move the energy into containers. Even with the help of his brother, Magnus almost didn't have enough power to contain all the energy they were throwing around by the 4th day.

Every night, Magnus took the energy and began to increase the strength of the foundation level bacterial poisons. These poisons could already kill an enemy at Early Foundation Level and injure and weaken a Late Foundation Level if they hit. Now with actual Early Foundation level energy in their making, they could be boosted to strong enough to kill Mid and maybe even Late Foundation cultivators if they get hit with enough. For seven days and nights, Magnus worked without sleep to refine and strengthen his Bacterial Poisons to a base Foundation Level Strength.

On the seventh day, the group had finally reached Pleuron and the final duel and slaughter happened. Both sides continued to stare at the Forest of Vines with Xiao's body in the center continues to sway as it searched for more cultivators from the Fifth sea to feed on. This hazard blocked one of the paths to the gate of Pleuron reducing the paths of attacks, but forcing clan members to crowd the remaining path to enter the fortress gate. The Clan members were the first to wake from their shock as they rushed to enter the fortress first. The Fifth Sea Cultivator could not understand how barbarians from the weak Third Sea could kill so many of their numbers, but their greed for more karmic luck pushed them to attack almost as soon as the Clan retreated.

The Thirteen gathered together ready to delay the attacker so their forces could safely retreat into the castle.

"Everyone, go back, I'll hold them here." ordered Magnus.

"Are you crazy? Do you think you can copy what Xiao just did?" Rina asked disbelievingly. "I should do it, I'm stronger."

"I'm a Poison Master. I am better at fighting against large groups, if you leave I can fight without holding anything back." Answered Magnus.

"We don't have time to debate this. Hold as many as you can, and die well." Ferenike sighed before leading the others away.

Magnus had set up his puppets almost as soon as the last duel location had been decided. Magnus was standing on his Scorpion with the balista aimed at a 12th heaven stage cultivator. His Fiery Unicorn,, Steel Snake, and Bronze Bull were in front of him ready to charge with the Exploding Hedgehog in front of them ready to blow. The badger was tunneling under the enemy lines and making a few hole.

When the retreat started, several groups of enemies charged in the wrong direction and attacked allies causing confusion and breaking up the charge. While some of the others tripped over their own feet and their bodies did not react properly. This was caused by the tumbleweed following the Badger through the tunnels and sending its
hallucinogenic poison up the holes. The Osprey was also circling the Fifth Sea Forces releasing a mist that can slow reflexes. In this confusion, Magnus sent his for combat puppets to charge the center of the group. The Hedgehog's Spines for several cultivators to roll out of the way causing even more disorder in the lines and the bull simply smashed through any cultivators still in formation. The unicorn followed the bull breathing fire on anyone still standing with the snake stabbing anyone who came close with its tail. Then, the Hedgehog exploded in the middle of the formation and scattered them even more.

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Vali was a Fifth Sea Cultivator at the 12th stage of Prana Gathering and unbeatable at this level. He was a Battle Poet. His songs and Voice could give courage to his side and weaken the morale of the enemy. So when his fellows fell into chaos thanks to the dishonorable tricks of the demons, it fell to him to rally everyone in the name of the Heavens and slaughter the demons. "TOO ME! TOO ME MY BRETHEREN! WE WILL NOT FA...gurk" Vali started, but stopped just as suddenly as a Ballista bolt as long and wide as his leg punched through his neck sending his head flying into a 4th stage knocking them out.

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'What an idiot' Magnus thought to himself 'I don't even study strategy and I know better than to blindly yell in a battle and attract attention to myself. Though, considering I'm fighting a whole army by myself, I don't have much ground to stand on.'

With the death of the rallying the cry, the knot of cultivators forming fell apart into everyone fighting for themselves again. In the end, all good things come to an end. The Fifth Sea Cultivators, while not use to fighting in large formations, were the cream of the crop of their Sea and soon rallied enough forces to shoot down the Osprey, and butcher the bull. The Unicorn with his Snake scarf was able to keep going, but was being contained.

Magnus himself was forced to jump from his scorpion as a huge hunk of steel smashed his Scorpion apart.

"You fought well Puppet Master, but you devils are truly nothing compared to us" Gloated the giant man who had smashed Magnus's puppet.

Magnus looked up from where he had fallen and whispered something too low for the giant to hear.

"Praying to the Gods for Mercy, Demon? Could it be your repenting in the final moments? It too late, for your death will soon give more great Karma, enough to push through, and then I will destroy your pitiful Clan once and for all. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!" the giant continued to gloat.

"I said," Magnus replied "I'm not a puppet master, I'm a Poison Master", before flinging his old BP formula into the fsce of the Gloating Giant.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...*gurgle*" Screamed the giant before the blood spilling from his orifices blocked it.

Magnus slowly got up to his feet to see hundreds of Prana Gathering experts take a few steps back from the dying man not willing to risk such a messy death.

"Nice try, but you all failed, now DIE." Magnus exclaimed, as they forgot tunnels and holes released his improved Bacterial Poison. Those breathed in the poison instantly turned purple and the blood fountained out of their pores and they turned into blood covered husks.

Those to avoided breathing any poison but touched still touched some or got drops of blood on them grew purple spots. After a moment, these spots started spraying blood as well and would grow to about twice initial size before stopping because the infected died. The bacteria spread quickly from so many crowding together hoping to break though and start the slaughter. This meant that Magnus was also splashed with the BP. He luckily only got some on part of his left hand, and with a quick stroke, he cut it off before it could spread.

In the chaos and fountains of blood, Magnus tried to fall back to the gates, his work and most of his battle power expended for now. Too bad there was no way that any of the Fifth sea cultivator would be willing to let him go. Over a dozen 9th rank experts attacked as one, hoping to end him before he could release another poison wave. As the multicolored beams of death approached, Magnus closed his eyes and finally relaxed. When he opened them again, he saw his brother activating a teleportation talisman saving both of them and sending them into the fortress.

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@Alectai @BungieONI @Mochinator mentioned you guys, and added a few lines for some

@occipitallobe I decided to talk about it, 1.4 K

My first real fight scene, also I like the thought that the only real injury was cause by his own over powered weapon.

At least now he has a reason to take some time off to start that winery restaurant

Edit: so changing somethings, because he's not suppose to lose his hands yet, so he lost only one, the other will be gone later