Chapter 9-274: Points South (1/2)

Another day of random Crafting lost. It was good Naming Karma was a thing.

Guangzhou was digging out from the wind and rain and devastation, but for all the deafening assault of the magical storm, it had done precious little damage to the abodes of normal humans. Some had died as buildings collapsed, and I regretted it, but the way it hampered the mobility and visibility of both forces of Cultivators, and provided an extra punch from above that had killed thousands of them and breached all their strongholds was not something I could give up.

It was war. When they saw the stacked corpses burning unwhite with unnatural vigor as the power they’d stolen was returned to the Land, they’d probably think the same.

“Brother Wavespear, Brother Wayfist, Brother Lightscepter, there is no need to conceal yourselves. I am not your enemy.”

The three Presences that had gathered around me hesitated, so I dropped pebbles on their heads to show that I could tell exactly where they were. Chagrinned and nervous, they melted out of cover to look at me there on the edge of the cliff, still riding Sleipner.

“You will forgive us if we are cautious,” the trim middle-aged Wayfist half-bowed to me, moving with a deft precision that heralded very advanced open-hand skills. “Your senses are keen to notice us, great Lady,” he said carefully.

“On the contrary, I can’t detect you at all. What I can detect is those trails of Qi you’ve ripped apart and exuded as the purest mana behind you, and the touch you’ve left on them.” I flipped around to face them, while Master Fred just sat there as his scarred self and said nothing, although one could say he had a certain pressure to him.

All three of them sighed. They needed to manifest Voids to escape magical senses, but the Qi here was so thick that it meant they started carving paths through it in so doing.

“There are other ways to sense you, of course, but the obvious trails you are making are merely the easiest to notice, Brothers. Did you come here to receive a Blessing?” I asked them cheerfully.

The three humans looked at each other uncertainly. Brother Wayfist was the oldest, trim and athletic, small as the Chinese often were. Brother Wavespear was also short, but brawny and paler of eye than a normal Chinese, with wide shoulders and banded with muscle. Brother Lightscepter was tall and with a receding chin, giving him a rather weak face, but his eyes were large and very intense, a disturbing combination that made him look like a fanatic... and since he could feel Faith, that probably wasn’t far off.

“Our apologies, but we do not know who you are,” the Wavespear grunted suspiciously. “The level of power you have displayed is far beyond that we’ve ever seen from a mortal.”

I noticed they were not speaking Human. Of course.

“Would you like to speak with your Brothers about me and mine?” I flicked up a Holo of the orc, human, and hyn of Ancientaxe, Firesword, and Shadowknife, and they all blinked.

“You... have contact with them?” Lightscepter asked, staring at me, probably not even aware of how unnerving he was.

“I do. As a matter of fact, I can get you in contact with them on a direct basis in mere seconds, or...” I nudged Master Fred, who held up his Vaccine, “I can just get them on the phone. Which would you prefer?”

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They ended up turning down the phones, mostly because someone else was assigned to them to handle their data and communication needs, and they had no phones themselves. Batteries and charging weren’t easy to come by out here.

Then they decided to keep their +4 to Intellect bonuses, talking with other Void Brothers here and across the ocean, learning Human, and generally were rather agog at the massive community of people with all that not very pragmatic goodwill in the Markspace.

One of the Skills all of them received was Tattoo Artist. They were all Tens, if with, um, not very optimized builds and Gear, but ten Ranks is ten Ranks, and they could train it up to be able to apply Marks... if they went Veil-walking up to Sama and got a Mark of their own to fit their Blessing inside.

Spreading Marks to the deserving was like a really Good thing, and a great way to reward those who worked with them. The trio were on their way north while Master Fred and I headed south... south along the road the Buddhists had come by, riding invisibly, and with a Duskstopped Commune with Nature moving with me, giving me perfect knowledge of the terrain for The Map for ninety miles around... and awareness of Qi and those drawing on it.

Sleipner was plotting his course accordingly.

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“... and dreams of the wind at dawn.”

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The last three days had been hectic, and I really hadn’t cared what I’d been getting, focused on rep counts, gawdawful Levels of Concentration and targeting, and simply monstrous levels of spellcasting.

Today’s addition was Witch/5. The previous days had been Warshaper/3 and Magus/5.

It appeared the Shroud was worried about shapeshifters for some reason, because the first two Feats were directly related to it. Countenance of the Mage gave me a Unique appearance, instantly recognizable; grooming at will; and altering my own clothing at will. Basically, it let a spellcaster always look sharp, tidy, and stylish if they willed it.

True Name meant that I could not be duplicated or imitated believably. Conversely, I couldn’t seem to be anyone else, as no other Name would stick to me.

I was the Lady Traveler, and nobody else could pretend to be so without instantly looking like a cheap fraud, no matter how closely they imitated me.

It also built upon my online identity and prepped me for the world stage.

Spellwarp Mastery/4 now extended to converting IV’s to Rays.