Chapter 7-185: Burning the Sixth Ring (1/2)

I looked at the trembling Valence VI, struggling to materialize around the spirals of the other five. Magic all around me was trembling in reaction at this moment, preparing to do something... but I wasn’t going to let it.

With a lethal effort and all the Concentration modifiers, emulating what Aelryinth had done at this identical moment, my Core pulsed precisely, the dual Matrices of my Blood and Lore sides swirled in interconnected harmony, and in a gorgeous display of thaumaturgic power, lights in three spectra flared out around me.

My five Valences and Core moved in cutting harmony, both defensive and offensive, unwilling to let the Sixth Valence materialize, sensing a threat, but also wanting all the power it represented.

The materializing Valence was shattered like glass, and at the same moment, ignited in polyspectral flames of pure mana. Clavus’ vivic flames blazed like a white star as it devoured the Fire Qi around us, and the light show was doubtless visible a long way off.

That was fine. The more stuff came to us, the less we had to hunt.

I Burned the Sixth Ring, and then the threads of power reaching out to it sucked all the power back to themselves.

My Core and Valences surged with incoming power as they were reinforced and solidified. I advanced on the Foundation, not the Pillar, and V’s were all I was ever going to Cast... but oh, what V’s I could Cast!

My Pool swirled into existence, liquid flames of mana, representing the Intellect bonuses that would have been awarded to my VI Valence. With a 33 Intellect, I only had two at the moment, which broke apart into a fluid stream of power winding among all my Valences... and naturally enough converged on my intermingled Arcana Pool, and the Ki Pool it was interwoven with.

+12 Levels to my posh new Spell Pool. Sixth Ring burned. Upgraded Foundation Valences.

My 0-5 Valence spells now were considered Raised one Level if I chose them to be, meaning higher Potency, bypassing spell deflection barriers, and so forth. Furthermore, they received one of the benefits of being higher Valence, which meant the benefit of one of the +1 Basic Metas... Still, Silent, Reach, Extend, or a+2 Girding.

My Metacap for spells was now VI, if I had the power to boost something there from V... which I most definitely did!

Cold Reserve I was in place. The Dart it could toss was a non-issue, but the +1 Caster Level to Cold Spells went on the stack.

Holy Scourge Mastery/3 was Add Mastery Level to Spell Penetration Rolls against Evil. I didn’t know if that was a sign, but +3 Spell Penetration was hardly a bad thing.

I looked at the High Wizard Title.

You are the first native Wizard to break the Ten Ceiling on this world. The path you forge will be the template for all Casters of the Tradition who follow you.

Mmm. I considered that. It basically meant that nobody could pass me, as I was the one forging the Path. I also got to choose... and I had chosen the Foundation.

I would always be the highest-Level Wizard on this world, until I left. I considered the implications of that, and reflected that it meant that I simply couldn’t stay here, in the end, or none of them might be able to reach Eternal, and that was the ultimate goal of everyone.

After all, I was Sorcerer Primary, not Wizard! I’d have to reach 22 Sorceress to make Faux 21 Wizard, and that was if all went well.

+1 to my Intellect. With the Sacred Bonus from my Mark Tat hitting yesterday, that meant Intellect 35. Base +12 bonus, higher Spell Potency, other Stat buffs, Soak, bonus Spells and Spell Slots...

Favored Class, get one Soak, one Skill Point. Into the slurry it went, I think it found a home in Arcane Lore...

Pointedly, it didn’t raise my Skill Rank cap to Eleven, as I hoped it might. It looked like it would be leaving that to actual Class Levels, perhaps? At this point, I had no idea...

Ah yes, and I got two spells of up to the highest Valence I could Cast, too.

Arcane Fusion and Hallow. The latter was off my Arcane Domain from the Good spells I could access with that Domain Slot, allowing me to sanctify an area, and very pointedly remove a Blight; the former was a powerhouse of a spell that allowed me to cast two other spells of lower Valence I had memorized at the same time.

I would normally be able to just get Hallow from a Domain Slot, but I kept that occupied with Raise Dead, just to be safe, so it was easier to just take it this way, and to grab Cloudkill with Exemplar Surge today to Write in.

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By the time I opened my eyes, there were a bunch of dead bright red scorpions all around us, crunched and splattered, and Sama and Briggs were munching on a tail each with obvious relish.

She noticed I was moving, and tossed me a six-inch cut of the flaky white flesh, lightly smeared with a fresh cocktail sauce.

Damn, the stuff seemed to dissolve right on my tongue. I made little noises as the spices exploded around my mouth, the hidden fire of the scorp tail bringing them all out excitedly.

Obviously I was not the first one this had happened to, and they all laughed at me. The pot boiling on Sama’s Floating Forge clearly indicated that all this had taken longer than I’d expected.

I gobbled down the rest of the tail, tilted my head back, and let my mouth burn to the sky.

My increasing fire resistance didn’t do a bloody thing for spices, of course.

“Well?” Briggs asked for everyone.