Chapter 6-174: The Portal is Closed (2/2)
“You killed a balor!” I pointed out. “And you’re still not a Seven?” I had to ask.
“Karmic Award divided by thirty-four,” she replied. I screwed up my face. Okay, that was a heck of a divisor... “Which meant a metric arse-load of Karma got dumped on those girls, even the ones who were so terrified they fainted. They were taking Levels for a week, like it was mana from Heaven.”
“I’m missing something,” I had to admit. “Are your Rantha Levels really that pricey?” I had to ask.
She inhaled, her nostrils flaring in irritation. “There’s a limit where we have to pay stuff, and it starts at Six. A lot of stuff.”
“A ceiling? How heavy?” I asked.
“Epic pricing.”
I blinked, reviewed that, made a mental leap, and found my lips pulling back in sympathetic horror. “Oh. Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit,” she agreed.
Epic pricing was something theorized in the game, a ceiling mortal magic hit, after which you were getting into Eternal-Level effects. Nobody had been able to get a straight Weapon Enhancement above +V base; ditto to Armor, or Natural Armor, regardless of your Caster Level (and they used lots of method to boost it to test it out). Likewise, temporary Stat Enhancements were limited to +6, which was the CL 12 limit. You could get ‘effective’ higher bonuses for Strength and Natural Armor by use of Polymorph Magic, but that was it... and overuse of that was another problem...
Aelryinth had verified the existence of the Epic Pricing via the World-Angel Urlhmenuus, as well as needing a post-Twenty to make something that could exceed the limits.
It was a cool million gp, 2000 goldweight, JUST to break that barrier for Enhancement bonuses or Slots on most items. For Stat Boosters... exceeding +6 multiplied the cost by ten. There’d been very few attempts to make mental Stat enhancers due to the side-effects associated with them, and even physical ones were watched warily for signs of addiction. Girdles of Giant Strength were about the only Items that seemed to have no major side effects...
“So, what have you got that’s exceeding +6?” I had to ask.
“Basically most Stats, for this Level.”
36,000 in comparative cost for +6 to her Stats, suddenly rising to 490,000 for +7. 454,000 for another +1. 15 months of patient investing in one Stat and nothing else...
“Mithar.” No wonder she hadn’t broken Six. If all this was coming to a head at this Level...
“One point of Regeneration alone was 90k equiv.” Same as buying a magic Ring of Regeneration, except nobody could buy that magic Ring, because nobody here could make Rings.
Then again, it was Regeneration. It kept her alive with a severed head. It was totally worth it!
“And you can’t break Seven in Classes until you do it in Race?” I had to shake my head. “Okay, that is a freaking tall order of a ceiling, Sama.”
“Yes.” Her toothy smile was back. “So, please, feed me Shroudzones before I head off to China. I have to break it before I go over there and wreck them.”
She had literally the opposite problem that I did: awesome Class Levels to take, and an endless appetite for Karma. I was being sent into all sorts of secondary Classes to maximize my efficiency of Karma, had a surfeit of Karma, and couldn’t Level up, either.
Both stuck and slow right now, for different reasons.
Ugh, so crazy. That was one Heavenly Racial Class she had there, and looking at the later benefits, I could totally see why. Those were just insane potential Stats...
“You alluded to Imprus having something to do with all this?” I asked, going back to her story.
“They figured out who I probably was, and one of their disciples in the service specifically tried to stop Tremble from eating that balor’s Sword.” She smirked. “The git screaming excuses about power sources and magic and study and stuff tripped, fell, brushed up against the Sword, and took his 10-100 damage for doing so.”
I flared my fingers, and she just nodded. Any enthusiasm for stopping Tremble probably evaporated with said idiot blowing up messily, and the officers in charge simply dithered on making a decision until Tremble was done treating a demon warlord’s Sword as a power-up, and the point was moot.
They hadn’t known how dangerous the demon’s Sword was, and they had found out in graphic manner. Don’t try to study the power of Evil, thank you, have a bad day...
“But, I was untouchable for securing Portal... and when they learned I could actually make magic Swords for the correct price, I instantly became prized material. I had officers from every branch of service requesting melee Weapons from me.”
“Hack all night when needed, pound all day. I bet those two years passed pretty quickly.”
“Yeah. The senior spirits would return every now and then for a rematch. Kept things fun, and the Karma was pretty steady, as things go.”
“Is Tremble fully sapient and talking yet?” I asked quietly. I hadn’t spent that much money on Einz or Clavus yet, because there was literally nothing for them to do.
“Yes!” piped up a soft stereo voice from behind Sama, barely audible. “Need more goldweight or Naming Karma, please!”