Chapter 10-308: Gamers and Thrones, Part Two (2/2)

Clavus completed his full Intelligence upgrade to 19 Wisdom and Intellect, and began his Detect Bane at V, which would alter depending on the Baneskull adorning him.

Einz was continuing with his Telekinesis, and was already moving around smaller items, practicing patterns and shifting things around constantly. I commissioned some adamantine razor-plates from Briggs, things I could upgrade to actual magical Weapons at a later time, along with lengths of coiled barbed chain Einz could use and manipulate. Telekinesis was an uber power in its flexibility and range, and if Einz couldn’t juice the damage it could do... so what?

I was the main damage; he was the supplement, defender, and controller. We were building to power with him, there was just a long way to go.

At the top end, having fifteen spinning razor disks that could serve as shields or weapons, along with a winding coil of barbed chain, all treated with +V Greater Magic Weapon and the like, should be plenty useful.

So would having his own Ranks in Sleight of Hand, Disable Device, Pick Locks, Spellcraft, and Perform (drums). That way he could be a sneaky git, subtle git, clever git, help make Potions and Scrolls, and do musical accompaniment, too. He could also tap all the Skill Points I had stored inside him, so he could write stuff down very quickly, play the piano, and do a bunch of other things no normal magic item could possibly do without being a highly-optimized Item Familiar.

Clavus was taking note of all that, too...

My own personal advancement was largely concentrated on maxing out my supply of ki.

I maxed out Extra Ki Mastery to /5, and Sun, Moon, Zen, and Shadow to Tier 3. Extra Arcane Pool was finished at /5, and I maxed out Bardic Lore Mastery to /5. The Mastery gave me a bonus in every Lore skill I had at least one Mastery in... which wasn’t much right then, but something I’d be acquiring in the future.

43 points of uninvested Ki gave me a LOT of room to play with for Buffs and stuff if needed. Spend it, get it back, spend it, get it back...

I also finished out Extra Channeling at /5. My total Pool was pretty impressive now, coming in at a nice 108 total points, before my Spell Pool, which was 62 points all by itself. Needless to say, I had no problems with spell caps now...

I maxed out the Eyes of Heaven at /5, Range now 360, stacking on top of its Permanent counterpart for a nice 240 paces of range, all the time. The other of Heaven Disciplines would be coming later...

From there, the rest of January was straight Skill Mastery increases. Diplomacy, Perform/Song, Sense Motive, and Intimidate Masteries were the main choices, resonating through the Allegiance with grace, style, awareness, and force respectively.

Thus it was that January passed by in a torrent of slaughter, harvestings, rewiring Shrines, and the world getting turned on its ear by everybody and their mothers trying to set up an Allegiance, and finding it weren’t anywhere as easy as it appeared.

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-My sister is having a concert tomorrow. I’d like to go.-

I lifted an eyebrow at the unspoken invitation in Azaia’s words. Her mental fatigue was apparent, as was hardly unexpected in someone who had gained forty Levels in forty days.

She had already reclaimed her Faux Nine Casting ability, and was now grimly going Deep and establishing a deeper foundation then she had ever believed possible. Karma flooded in, her Casting ability was continuously increasing, and Skills and Feats accumulated, giving her a breadth of knowledge and ability like nothing she had ever thought she could do.

That said, she was not a gamer, and her Empathy made it plain that, even with the reinforcements to her Will and additional mental disciplines, outright slaughter wore on her. She wanted to be about making the world better and more beautiful, not removing the ugly and corrupt. Even if she knew it was totally and unavoidably necessary, it was still hard for her.

The fact I could keep right on doing it, as could Sama, was both something she respected a lot, and feared some. It meant we were incredibly grim and resolute foes, unleashed swords ready to do what had to be done to defend the world.

She was more a song trying to lead people to a better day. I didn’t have a problem with that at all. Hope was a powerful thing.

It was also that mindset that would make it very difficult for her to use Pact Magic, either as a Warlock or a Binder. She didn’t have the martial mindset to be an eternal weapon for a profound force, even one she believed in, and she didn’t have the mindset to exploit all manner of other beings which was at the heart of being a Binder.

It meant she’d never be a Master Archtheurge of the Seven. Well, personality played a large part in such things, so we could only do what we could do. That she could be a Sylunar Priestess and start learning Druidism would just have to be enough.

She probably hadn’t realized that I was now going to start setting up things to make her the Queen of Europe. It was where she had grown up, after all, and Europe was big into Powered and elites and nobility and all that stuff. As a member of the Morningsun family, she already stood at the top, and that could only help her cause.

The Sylunar were naturally happy to start laying the groundwork for such an event. Even if she wouldn’t be a theocrat, a Sylunar Priestess on the Throne of Europe could only be good for them.

But, in the meantime, she had to endure the grinding that was going to be necessary to do that.

-A concert?- I /replied neutrally. -I can honestly say I’ve never been to one.-