Chapter 8-230: Let Us Go South (1/2)

There was a tingle on my finger as hitting fake Thirteen Caster advanced Einz’ next Item Familiar advance. There was an add-on feed into my perceptions as Devilsight became active, and the world, if it didn’t become brighter, was actually no longer dark, and shadows were just something I could see, instead of things that didn’t let me see. Oh, this area is shadowed, without it actually affecting my vision.

Einz was beaming happiness to me. This was an unexpected upgrade that basically ate a bunch of Karma in an instant. It was still in the middle of upgrading to Indestructible, so I couldn’t increase any other powers, but now it was definitely helping me out.

As this was happening, my Seventh Ring was burning, and at the same time, my Pool was expanding, my Metacap was rising, my five Valences were being reinforced, and my power was still growing.

Arcane flames in all sparkles and hues were burning around me as my Seventh Valence burned away, and the power redistributed itself into my other five Valences and Core. I had 4 bonus Engrams at 6, 4 Spell Slots at 6, and 3 Engrams at 7, liquidated now and giving me 69 Pool Slots, totally overwhelming my Magus Arcana and Ki at this time.

I also received another Cantrip, I, and II Spell Engram. Yeah, I’d lost 7 bonus spells learned, but I had raw power to compensate... and anyways, that was what Archwizardry was for. I don’t think anyone would think that me having just 67 Wizard spells was weak... ignoring bonuses for Wisdom, Charisma, Arcane Domain, Druidic Domain, and not even touching Spells Known for my other Classes...

Right enough, I wasn’t feeling any pain about this. It was a time delay on further spell power, but seriously, I had some downright lethal Spell Power now, even on a general basis. It only took one use of Bardic Heartsong to last for however long was needed to kill even a Shroud, and with a Constitution of 31 and 10 Ranks in Song, my voice wouldn’t give out for that entire time.

So, it would take Grenadier/2 tomorrow, catch me up, and then either start me on the Masteries I hadn’t taken, or I’d proceed to Eight, and the whole conga line dance of getting all my Fives.

I wasn’t worried about having enough Karma. Mauling millions of powerful frosty undead, on top of the fiery undead from Yellowstone, had given me enough Karma to make a gamer weep. If I cleared this second Shroudzone ahead, the Glory Award would take care of any Karma I needed for anything Ten or below, unless I went completely ridiculous on the PrC’s like Aelryinth had, but I had no real drive to do so... or the years to do so, actually.

I didn’t know what the lifespan of a halvyr was, but it was already at +70 years, and I was just accumulating excess Karma, I hadn’t even caught up with Classes yet.

Given the humungous amounts of undead under the Shroud, and the Glory awards for breaking it, there was no way I was NOT going to get to Twenty, and I should be able to get all the way to the end.

It was just there were so many other things I had to accomplish at the same time.

Elven timelessness would definitely help balance human aggression for what was likely going to be a very, very long fight.

Any link to the Shroud was going to be cold comfort at the very best. I could only steel myself for the future, and do what needed to be done.

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As both Master Fred and I had effective Devilsight, night and day were basically temperature differentials now. Riding along and enjoying the misty, close-range scenery wasn’t much fun, but the direction was firm, the Shroud was still visible up in the clouds, and we knew the direction.

There were a couple more attempts to ambush us; one with shrieking wind spirits coming down to take out the burning Fire creature here, and one with gugs, the looming double-forelimbed, split-skulled hulking brute killers of the lands of Leng, predators of both the ghouls and ghasts... and actually just about anything else that wandered within reach.

Able to easily digest undead, they were a very effective lock on the area, so I only shot down the one instantly, and the other five hastily got out of the way.

That opened the road into the Shroud, and we paused just outside the border of it, looking on from about a mile away.

The incorps we could see formed an effective scouting pattern, covering the area visually, keeping within five hundred paces of one another, and thus able to relay what they found back to their masters. As it was ‘night’, they had expanded out leisurely a couple miles beyond the true Shroud, but would be sent right back under it come the dawn, hiding from the sun.

A cold wind was blowing past us, precisely from the mountain ahead of us, and the clouds were all moving from that direction. The negative energy on the wind was soul-chilling, and the long-term environmental side-effects for this world were definitely not good. The low ambient area temperature was not a coincidence if this cold wind was the source of the air for the entire trapped world...

Luckily, I was the kind of person who could do something about this kind of thing.

“We don’t have time to wander over such a large Shroudzone hunting things.” I studied the Shroud ahead through narrowed eyes. “This Shroud is not large because of numbers of undead, it’s large because this is conflux of magical power, possibly the central ley line for the stuff on the whole floating continent. There are probably fewer undead here than there were back outside, in the end. So, we just have to force them to return to the center in order to clear this place.”

-You’ll be able to lock down the Shroudlord?- he /asked for confirmation.

“Once I clear out his chaff guards, I’m going to Seal him up inside a Greysphere, line it with stone, and sit there and wait as his slaves are forced back to him regardless. We can probably start the process just by slaughtering our way right towards him. The restrictions on visibility will be annoying, but shouldn’t slow us down much. I expect to be popping more Pyroclasms.”