Chapter 5-150: Wheels Begin to Turn (1/2)

Dusk...

“...where rest the weary, and dream of the wind at dawn.”

Aethra’s Salute finished, and Dusk Renewal swept past me. I didn’t get all my Slots back, but I had most of them.

We were on the road now, having flown out of the Deadzone, back to where our vehicles were parked, and we were now heading away and out of the place.

We could see fireworks going off in the distance occasionally, and the phones of the people were lighting up with newsfeeds from Heavenbound Hall, and things going on in Mexico.

The collapse of the Shrine of the True End was definitely making news, and the sudden vacuum as the Sinbound and their agents abandoned their positions and vanished was all over the place. Certain of the warlords and people in the area were finding themselves suddenly in possession of a lot of weapons and money, and even new volunteers eager to work for them, while word of the fall of the assassins was cause for celebration for many of the peasants.

Information that x had killed y using z, however, was also spreading out, and taking down the power structure and delicate balance among the warlords, turning them upon one another, and often pitting subordinates against leaders when they found out some of the things their bosses had done.

There was a lot of shooting going on amid the fireworks, and the balance of power was changing.

Too, the report that a fireteam had walked into a Shroudzone, and walked out after killing hundreds of thousands of undead, was noteworthy. No one had ever done such a thing.

Our excursion into the Shrine had not been free of damage, but with Master Fred there to eat away the Curses with Wrath and heal everyone who was shot, while I treated everyone except Topaz to Imbued Healing’s Healing Domain kicker effect of an hour of +temporary Soak after getting hit by Darts that couldn’t hurt them, it was basically impossible to one-shot any of them. Having to get through 21 points of damage before you could even injure any of them was as good as False Life... and I could keep re-applying it if it was used up.

I closed my eyes and held little Collin Highmoon as Karma was released, crystallized, actualized.

No dings...

I took my Wizard/3 Level, as high as I could go with Sorcerer still at Five. With four Theurge Levels, that meant I was Casting as a faux Wizard/7. +2 skill points, +1 Soak for Favored Class benefit.

General Feat, I picked the Fire Meta/3, Burning Spell, a +1 Meta that gave additional damage equal to +2 per Valence of the Spell. It wasn’t as good as Fiery Spell, but it all went on the stack... and was even better when it applied per Shard.

Purchased Feat, I went back and picked up the Basic +1 Meta, Still Spell. It was automatic with Shardcaster/2 for my Shards, so I hadn’t been quick to grab it, but it would round things out... and I needed to get rep counts for it. Being able to Cast without gesturing on any spell was always useful, especially when it was free.

Purchased Mastery was Concentration/4, Extraordinary Concentration, which I could grab as a Fake 7. Maintain concentration on two separate spells at one time, or on one effect while Casting another, with a Check that topped at 40. My check defaulted to 48. It was not a problem.

I had officially stepped into Caster/7, even if I didn’t actually have the Level. That meant I had broken the Six barrier, I could zip past it at anytime, and now was the time to double down.

I had Valence IV’s, but only a few spells to fill them. Importantly, I didn’t have Mystic or Elemental Theurgy at this Valence yet... yet.

I ticked over Halvyr/2, my natural Racial Level.

It was an interesting effect, combining the radical obsession of the Human side with a timeless patience and carefree existence of the elven side. A willingness and energy to do things now, to claw for power in the time remaining... and a patience that all things would come in time regardless.

An interesting dichotomy, given how focused I was on getting stronger.

A d8 of Health, + Con modifier. 6 Skill Points. +2 on all Charisma based skills. My Skill Affinity/Wary was increased from +2 to +3, the level of a Talent.

+1 Caster Level, to a Class of my Choice. I solemnly ticked over the bar, and I was a Wizard/3 (8), jumping two Caster Levels in one day.

I was now basically the equal of the top.01% of spellcasters in world, just with that Level, and ignoring the fact I was Deep as Heaven.

Shard Casting Level at 23...

Technically I could make my Second Star, but my choices on spells would be pretty limited.

I quietly murmured Exemplar Surge, and as the magic surged through me and made me an actualized super-halvyr, I grabbed and Wrote Control Summoned to Einz.

The list of IV’s the Hall had copies of was pretty extensive, traded from the elves or Sorcerers who had reached Seven and picked some odd stuff. Control Summoned was a fairly niche spell that such folk generally didn’t research, wanting more general purpose stuff, like, oh, Wall of Fire, or Dimension Door, or the incredibly nasty Improved Invisibility.

Expanding their repertoire of spells was another of my jobs. The biggest task would be expanding the list of V’s, as there were literally only six of them publicly known in the whole world. Bloodline overlap was a thing, after all...

Teleport, Energy Cone, Wall of Force, Conjure Elemental, Illusion V, and True Sight. That was it... a nice list, a useful list, but far from what I considered a decent spell collection. It would be much longer if anyone had reached Nine in a Divine Casting Class, but that hadn’t happened yet... although Azaia Morningwind might be able to, if she reached that Level.

It would explode shortly in the future, of course, once the proper Leveling Pattern was made public.