Chapter 7-197: To the Caldera (2/2)

It was a good thing the bugs all vivisized fast, or there would have been heaping mounds of them all around me, despite us moving slowly.

The Salamanders did try assailing us while the bugs surrounded us, and found out that the range on my Shards was at least four hundred meters, well beyond the range of their own bows and spells. I had no problems reaching out and touching them, and if they died way over there or right in front of me, it didn’t matter, I still got my Ki.

A couple of their Nobles did try sniping at me from that range. They obviously weren’t familiar with Seeking spells, as I promptly picked off any of them shooting Rays at us from the distance, the Shards zipping around their cover like winged birds to crash into them, explode, and kill them.

I’m sure the spotters out there had interesting expressions when I was able to keep Cryoclasming for three hours straight, making it Efficient to +2 Metas.

The nigh-endless Fire Asps, each of them twenty feet long and spitting outsized blasts of fire as they slithered towards me, with massive super-cobra Greater versions rising among them to lead them, started coming at me, just as I was about when I started working on the III’s.

That, of course, meant Widen, which meant a V Valence.

A five-hundred-foot-wide dome of feathered ice flames became a thousand-foot dome of feathered ice flames.

I could slaughter thousands of the smaller snakes, and pick off the sixty-footers with virtual impunity after they were weakened. Sure, there were dozens, perhaps even scores at a time of the bigger ones... but I could Pair eighteen Shards into thirty-six, or I could Chain Shardray twenty-five at a time, whatever was needed to be able to connect them, generally the latter.

Best of all, when it was time to go, we just left. They couldn’t keep up with Sleipner, except with fliers, and fliers were just asking to get shot down by me, more free rep counts. When you are half a mile in the air and still getting picked off by the icy cold being you are following, you start not wanting to follow them rather quickly.

We’d be gone for eight hours, and then come back the next day to start anew...

Fighting prepared Wizards really does suck, no?

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I was pretty happy as we paused at dusk, the nearest Elemental Swarm a mile away and coming our way relentlessly.

Lesser Restorations to get rid of fatigue and exhaustion dealt with mental and physical exertions, so everyone was fine as far as readiness to fight went.

I was feeling very good. Literally months of Rep Count work had been covered in approximately two days. Sure, I had boatloads of Valences and Slots, but even recombining Down and getting off a hundred or two spells a day didn’t compare to getting a thousand rep counts an hour.

During these last few days, I had completely caught up on any version of standard Rep Counts I could possibly have managed. This Ki Reaping method was indeed extremely powerful.

When my Renewal came and dusk came down across the land, I finished my Salute to Aethra as I was smugly dinged once again.

Arcane Theurge/5. Extra Spell Slot V, Sorcerer. Wisdom Mastery/5, for +1 Wisdom.

Full synthesis of Sorcerer and Wizard casting for all Valences, and an extra Spell Known. Casting at Faux Ten for Sorcerer.

Still a Six.

Unbelievable.

My four Sorcerer V’s were True Seeing, Wall of Force, Arcane Fusion, and Spell Resistance.

Spell Resistance cast at 25 was enough to give invulnerability to all the lesser targeted spells coming in at us. Arcane Fusion let me cast a I, plus a I to IV Valence spell at the same time, adding more spells to the carnage as needed. Wall of Force was the most obdurate hard defensive spell known. True Seeing was the single best spell for looking through illusions and all forms of magical concealment and disguise, very hard to fool.

They were all spells I wanted available all the time. My Bloodline was still at Six, so I hadn’t gotten my Bloodline spells permanently... but that was what Wizardry was for, placeholding until they were activated.

Archsorcerer/5 should be tomorrow, doubling my V Spell Slots, and giving me over a dozen Slots I could spend on V’s a day... or in a burst, to be restored for 2 Ki each.

Mmm...

“We still driving for the center of the volcano?” The Mick asked, Smior in hand and studying the moving, burning landscape of Elemental Fireborn heading our way.

“Yes. I’m going to Blight the Node and collapse their control and the expanse of this section of the Firezone. It should basically force the Fireborn back, especially when I vivisize the disruption.”

The Mick smirked at the irony of the Blight interrupting an undead’s control of the Fires of the Earth hereabouts, and being unable to remove it. “Shall we be about fetching our Karma, then?” It was plain he really enjoyed being able to Level every day.

“Very well. Forward, Master Sleipner!” And our unicorn led us into the fray.