Chapter 14-398: Rods and Scepters (1/2)

The Chinese had seized the anchor fortress at Jiayu Pass, reduced it to white dust, and now were literally cutting their way down the Great Wall, vivisizing it with the bones and dust of the uncounted multitudes of undead chained to it and what it represented, and were advancing along it grimly.

It had rapidly become a rite of passage for the Chinese to undertake, a purging of the last elements of their past trying to hold them down, and breaking the dead free of the chains upon them as they did so. For outlanders, it was a grim fight from dusk to dawn, the undead never stopping coming, and then more work destroying all the vivisized stone from dawn to dusk, rinse and repeat.

To the Chinese, it was more like a holy calling.

The other anchor of the Great Wall was at Shanhai Pass, right on the ocean, but that was surrounded by territory completely dominated by Cultivators at this point, near North Korea, where some of the most vicious fighting in the land was going on.

The Great Wall cut through multiple other Shroudzones on its way east, and there was no doubt it was not going to be resolved quickly... but it was indeed getting resolved, as the undead were slaughtered and pushed back by Weapons-wielding Chinese and vivic fire. As the Greyfield was pushed back, the Great Wall was crushed and obliterated repeatedly and forever.

They all knew that when the Great Wall finally ended, the Cultivators would be done, the last Shroudzone would have fallen, and the fight for the fate of the rest of the world would be here.

The freeing of China was great in scale, grand in demeanor, magnificent in tenor, and legendary in meaning. A lot of journals were being written about it, both in Visual File and in print, and there were many people vying to be the Great Historian of the fight.

But, as Briggs was warning them, it was all just a warm-up for the final battle that would determine the fate of the world, and what would come after.

The common Chinese were rising to that fight, determined to have a say in their own destiny, and not one chosen for them. As Forsaken, they could determine the course of their own Fate, and make their choices among gods and mortals.

Perhaps the Cultivators thought they were defying Heaven, rewriting Fate, changing their future, and making the world itself bow down before them.

They would likely have been very surprised to learn that the Forsaken rising from the powerless peasants they had subjugated and slaughtered in their millions were doing much the same thing, and one of the Fates they were going to overcome was the will of the Cultivators themselves!

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I sat there and watched all that happening, as Einz finished up his +II Luck Protection and started on the +III.

I was making trips up and down the Pacific now. The numbers of targets I had painted was growing, and grim plans were being finalized to deal with them all. It would take almost three months to paint the Pacific properly, and then I still had to do the Indian Ocean.

Coincidentally, tomorrow would be May 24, and Clavus would be finishing up Slot Zehn come Renewal.

I would then hand Clavus over to Commander Hara’Aru to begin his Legendary upgrade, which would take 100 days to complete and literally a solid two and a half tons of gold.

That meant it was time for me to make the first Rod, as I still needed an Implement.

From a magical standpoint, Rods and Scepters were counterparts to Staffs and Wands.

A Staff increased damage and Spell Penetration. A Wand increased the chance to hit, and the Spell Potency for Saves to resist spells. One was raw power, the other tighter control and focus.

Rods and Scepters exchanged those. Like a Staff, a Rod was designed as a potential weapon, either a light mace or jo, and was directly designed for Weaponized spells, increasing the chance to hit and damage... and could be used to thump heads, too.

A Scepter was not designed as a Weapon, purely a focusing Implement for Spell Penetration and Potency, usually made with precious metals and gemstones. Enchanting it as a Weapon was possible, but the materials it was made of and the weighting made them unwieldy at best. If they were useful as Weapons, they’d instead be Rods.

It then was just to determine what kind of Rod I wanted to have.

Getting the Title wasn’t hard, as an Immovable Rod was naturally the first feature I wanted mine to have, after a basic Ki-Bound Weapon Enhancement.

The usefulness of this effect was debatable at my level of power, but I didn’t care, because I wanted one. It allowed the Rod to get locked in place, and be VERY hard to move, as well as extend up to a total of eight feet long so it could be separated into four two-foot sections.

I wanted one, it was cheap to make, and it was a springboard to a Function Rod. Thus, a simple black Rod of adamantine, with the necessary Runework to be upgraded as I went along. I removed Clavus’ Orb while I handed him off to Commander Haru’Ara, and he started off on a thousand goldweight of upgrades to get Clavus past the Legendary Cap at Twenty.

I’d have a lesser Weapon for a while, but that was fine. I could spend Pool on it and upgrade it as needed, and I still had my Baneskull collection.