Serenity turned back to the spell he wanted to update. Was there any way to improve it?
No, any spell he built based around this structure would have many of the same downsides. He could limit them by optimizing the spell differently, but he couldn’t eliminate them. What if he didn’t do the active detection/movement portion, though, and just did an aura-sensor? That would nearly eliminate the risk of damaging the trace and ought to also reduce the issue with the speed, as long as he could get the sensor fast enough, but he’d lose some of the fidelity and the mana cost would-
“Serenity?” Russ’s voice penetrated Serenity’s thoughts and he turned to look at the man. “You’ve been silent for quite a while, are we still on track?”
Serenity was fairly confident there hadn’t been an alert, but he poked the spell status to be certain. “Yeah, it’s still forward. I was thinking about what you asked. I’m pretty sure I can make the spell work faster without destroying the residue we’re trying to trace, but there are some downsides. It won’t be able to save its spot, and I’m not sure I can get it to jump to the newer trail if it crosses itself - say the item was taken into a building, then left a few hours later. We’d have to retrace its path instead of being able to just follow the newest part of the trail. It would also lose some precision and use a lot more mana. It’d be a complete spell rebuild, but it’s possible.”
Rissa brought the car to a stop. “Can you make it so you can swap between the two?”
Serenity compared the two spell formulations and groaned internally. There was quite a bit of overlap, but if he wanted to take advantage of it, he’d have to use an overlay pattern. He wasn’t fond of those; they made debugging harder if he made any mistakes. Unfortunately, laying it out unfolded would greatly increase the spell fragility, and it wouldn’t be able to handle even remotely fast swaps. No, it’d have to be an overlay. “Yes, but I’m going to need more residue and some time to rework the spell. Probably a couple of hours?”
The second time they left the house following the trail of the stolen artifact, they were able to drive at the speed limit and still follow the trace. Unfortunately, the mana cost was just as high as Serenity had feared; he’d have less than an hour before he ran out of mana. If he’d been able to start from full instead of the roughly half that Earth’s environment allowed him, it would have helped.
The trail led across town. Serenity tried to stay aware of his surroundings, but before long they blurred into a haze while Serenity “watched” the trail with his aura and felt his mana tick down. He occasionally called out turns, but each time they had to circle around and find the trail again, because there was no way Rissa could turn that quickly in the now-heavy lunchtime traffic.
At the same time as the traffic kept them from following all of the turns immediately, it also kept their speed down. Serenity was grateful for that much; following a faint trace was bad enough at the speeds they were going. He didn’t want to think about what it would be like if they were actually able to get up to highway speeds.
Not that he was sure these roads ever got that empty; they were into busier parts of the city now. There was a reason the city was known as the city that never sleeps.
Serenity was starting to feel a little lightheaded when Russ’s voice came from the back seat. “Serenity, save our spot. Rissa, turn left at the next light…”
Russ guided them to a parking lot in a ley line, where they parked and Serenity tried to recover his mana.
“You’re barely glowing at all.” Rissa sounded worried. When had she started gauging his health by how much he glowed in a ley line?
“It’s not much of a ley line.” Serenity was sure that was true; it felt much less powerful than even the one they’d visited that morning. It still felt and tasted good, even if it also felt somehow incomplete. He got out of the car and sat directly on the ground; that helped, but it still wasn’t quite right.
“That’s true,” Russ agreed, “But that’s not all there is to it. I called a halt because you were about to pass out.”
Serenity shook his head. “People don’t pass out from running out of mana. It’s not comfortable, but it’s not harmful.”
“Most people don’t.” Russ sounded like he was agreeing, but Serenity had the sinking feeling that he wasn’t. “I’m less sure about you. The way you move magic around - yes, a lot of that’s skill. I think there’s more to it, though.”
He shrugged, then walked over and sat next to Serenity. In a quiet voice he said, “You glow silver when you aren’t in a ley line. I took us back to the last ley line I saw when I noticed you were barely glowing at all.”
Serenity nodded, distracted. The longer he sat there, the more something felt wrong to Serenity. After a few minutes, he decided it wasn’t his imagination, got up, and walked outside the ley line.
The ley line moved with him.
Serenity knew that was wrong. Ley lines didn’t just move. Not that easily. They certainly didn’t follow people.
[Anchor Point Conversion rejected]
[Rhea’s Promise “Home” activated]
Home
“Earth will always be a home to you.”
For a moment, Serenity could feel the entire ley line network of the planet, both on the surface and throughout the interior. He could tell where they were healthy and where there were issues. He was standing at a weak point, where there had once been damage and the ley line had shattered into a spray of weakened fragments.
He knew that over the next few decades, all of the weak ley lines would shift and try to regather if they hadn’t been anchored somehow. He could also feel that some were developing anchors where they crossed larger lines, but most were not.
A moment later, he felt the ripple as the ley line released him and he fell to his knees. He felt like he’d eaten something that disagreed with him violently, but he couldn’t actually throw up. It was the first time he’d felt that since the Tutorial started, and it was worse than he remembered.
“What was that?” Rissa put her hand on Serenity’s shoulder and he started to feel better. He wasn’t sure if it was time or her presence, but the intense nausea subsided.
“There’s something wrong with that ley line. It was … shattered?” Serenity couldn’t sense the ley line at all, now. It was outside his aura. He could see that Russ was standing where it had been and Phoebe was still in the car on the other side of the ley line.
Serenity braced himself and headed towards Russ. He was going to have to go through the ley line; hopefully it wouldn’t try to grab him this time.
Serenity could feel the ley line once he was in range, but he walked through it quickly, trying to interact as little as possible. It almost felt like it reached out to him, but he ignored it as best he could.
“I think we need to avoid the small ley lines in the future.” Russ followed Serenity out of the ley line. “That looked very strange, but I don’t know ley lines well enough to know what it was. It was like … you were pulling everything it had towards you, instead of most of it going past you the way it was at the ley line this morning. Then it didn’t want to let you go?”
Serenity nodded at Russ. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I hadn’t realized I was … blocking the ley line.” Serenity wasn’t an expert on planets, but he knew enough to know that ley line disruptions could have massive effects; he’d heard stories about civilizations that powered themselves using their ley lines. Legends said that it always led to worldwide catastrophes.
Serenity was sure that it would be tried again, eventually. Probably on Earth.
He clearly hadn’t done anything that severe, but it was probably why the ley line had felt wrong. He suspected that the “anchor point conversion”, whatever that was, was the ley line’s reaction - and that Rhea’s promise had somehow intervened. He wasn’t sure if it was what had stopped the anchor point thing or if it’d happened afterwards, but he was fairly confident it had prevented something he wouldn’t have liked.
He was also confident that he never wanted anything like that to happen again. He didn’t mind seeing the ley line network, but it wasn’t even close to worth it.
At a guess, Serenity thought he could go through ley lines without any problems, and large ones didn’t seem to have issues either. He simply couldn’t stop to eat in a small one. “Blocking a ley line sounds pretty bad. It was unpleasant. The good news is that I did mostly recharge my mana before that happened. As much as I can, outside a ley line, at least. So we can continue where we left off.”
Serenity looked inside the car before he got in. In the seat behind him, Phoebe slept, snoring lightly.
“It’s something to look for information on, I think.” Rissa started the car. “Shattered doesn’t sound good, but I don’t know of anything here that would have caused it.”
Serenity just nodded; there really wasn’t anything to say.
The trail led to a warehouse, but Serenity could feel the trace suddenly jump forward by at least half a day as they went by one of the loading docks. Russ dropped a pin before they moved on; it was likely that some of the other stolen goods were in the warehouse.
Several hours (and one fast food stop) after the ley line incident, the artifact led them to a gated neighborhood in New Jersey. The entrance was blocked by a huge gate, with a shelter just outside the gate. Serenity could barely see the shelter out the open window; he couldn’t tell if there was actually a guard in it or not.
As they approached, Phoebe started swearing.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
“Don’t go through this entrance. We need to use the one to the east.” Phoebe didn’t say why, and no one asked. Serenity was already starting to get used to Phoebe’s sudden pronouncements, and assumed there was a reason - but that it was entirely possible she didn’t know what it was. Living with an Oracle like her must be annoying.
Serenity felt fortunate that Rissa didn’t do that to him, even if it was useful.
Serenity's current Status - it's been a while, and I figured it was time.
It couldn't possibly be because there are some changes coming in the next few chapters. No, not at all. ;-)
General
Spoilerstrong>
| Name: Serenity | ||
| Species: Essence Dragon Chimera (Hatchling) | ||
| Core: Unique | Progression: 1.6% Tier: 2 | Features: 4/11 True Crystal Link Death |
| Path: Evoker | Level: 55 (140/550) | Tier: 1, 0/55 Spent |
| Path History: 1: Unbound, Steadfast 0: Death-Eater, Battle Adept | ||
| Condition: Healthy Healing Available: Full | Mana: 2000/4000 Essence: 2000/4000 | Stamina: 2100/2100 |
| Might: 200 | Agility: 200 | Phys: 200 |
| Understanding: 200 | Will: 200 | Mind: 200 |
| Perception: 200 | ||
| Essence | Pure (Innate) | Ev: 376,951 (Purified) |
| Titles | Previous Supreme Existence | First of A Kind |
| Named | Ghost in the System | |
| Aspect Pathfinder | Incarnate | |
| Lord | DeathLord | |
| Tyche’s Mark | Home | |
| Coin | 1376 Etherium |
[collapse]
Magic
Spoilerstrong>
| Essence Techniques | Chimeric Alteration | Claim Mana |
| Devour Mana | Essence Drawing | |
| Purify | ||
| Affinities | Energy: 40% | Liquid: 6% |
| Mind: 32% | Plasma: 42% | |
| Solid: 17% | SpaceTime: 71% | |
| Technology: 27% | Vapor: 14% | |
| Void (Liminal): 90% | Void (Nihility): 50% | |
| Concepts | Arcane: 80% | Energy: 52% |
| Essence: 25% | Life: 20% | |
| Mind: 15% | Plasma: 26% | |
| SpaceTime: 42% | Void (Liminal): 25% | |
| Void (Nihility): 30% | Technology: 40% | |
| Aspects | Arcane (Mana): Initiated (Vital) | Essence: Growth (Vital) |
| SpaceTime: Nascent | ||
| Incarnate | Death |
[collapse]
Physical
Spoilerstrong>
| Resistances | Chemical: 137+10 | Cold: 303+10 |
| Curse: 263 | Darkness: 177+10 | |
| Death: Immune | Heat: 532+10 | |
| Life: 417+10 | Light: 298+10 | |
| Mind: 276 | Pain: 640 | |
| Pleasure: 31 | Shock: 334+10 | |
| Sleep: 52 | Space: 250 | |
| Time: 1000 | Unknown | |
| Chimeric Heritage | Pure (Innate) | Essence Dragon (Primary) |
| Asura | Child of Time, Unbound | |
| Dhampir, Essence/Mana | Draugr, Sage | |
| Elemental, Essence | Elemental, Mana | |
| Godling | Human, Earth | |
| Lich, Paramount (Primary) | Vampire, Daywalker | |
| Wraith, Nightmare | ||
| Known Heritages | Azata, Lightning | Curse Witch |
| Healing Light | Hexen | |
| Heavens’ Fire | Jiang-Shi | |
| Knight of Blood | Malevolent Spark | |
| Mote of Decay | Mote of Stasis | |
| Mummy | Remnant Wisp of Life | |
| Revenant, Star | Sea Lion, Earth |
[collapse]
Abilities
Spoilerstrong>
| Monster Biology | ||
| Eyeless Sight | Colorless vision that does not require light; no visual effect | Inherited from Final Reaper |
| Vital Sight (previously called Life-Sight) | Shows the primary animating Affinity, usually Life, for creatures. Makes the eyes glow with blue-white fire | Inherited from Final Reaper |
| Food for Power (Stomach) | Converts consumed material into a specialized power reserve | Self-created ability |
| Heal (almost) Anything (Stomach) | Uses stored energy (cannot use stamina or mana, pulls from the power reserve first) to heal. ‘Healing’ includes providing energy and raw material for cell growth and therefore other food consumption is not required. Can restore stamina or mana when the stamina or mana reduction is physical in nature | Self-created ability |
| Blossoms’ Sleep | Can induce sleep on self with a defined wakeup time | Dream Blossom Dust |
| Runic Shielding Tattoos | Resists one attack of any sort. Does not require preactivation if the attack will kill or disable. Fully drains current MP to establish, drains SP to maintain, ends when hit. MP drained determines strength of blow that can be resisted, will fail if strength is exceeded but may reduce the power of the attack even if it fails. Effect is better with automatic activation | Self-created ability (Not actually tattoos, his skin/scales grows “naturally” in the correct pattern and color to create the effect) |
| Claws | Hands and feet have claws (all forms) | Essence Dragon |
| Wings | Six-limbed creature; all forms have wings. The wings are strong enough to be noticeable and might assist in gliding, but are not large enough to support actual flight. | Essence Dragon |
| Scaled Hide | Thickened, resistant outer skin layer, covered in most places with scutes | Essence Dragon |
| Filter | Details unknown; so far, Serenity has determined that it will output Essence when fed mana, but it does not seem to have a use at this time. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Amplify Aura | Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Increase Link Distance | Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Change Stone Type | Details unknown | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Raw Mana Control (Horns) | When in a ley line or other high concentration of raw mana, choose where it flows in the body. | Self-created ability |
| Dhampir’s Default | When a Dhampir is casually examined, he or she appears to be a normal member of the living population. | Dhampir |
| Path Abilities | ||
| Loot Core | Teleports a monster core from touched monster body to the user. Usable on any dead monster with a core. Costs mana | Death-Eater |
| Basic Draconic Shapeshift | An adult dragon is a force to behold, but there are many places they simply can’t go. Young dragons are commonly taught to take on another form, often humanoid, to fit in small places and interact with non-dragons. A skill normally gained much later in life, you get a basic version of it now since you don’t get Species abilities. Lucky you! You can shift between your Draconic base form and your True Chimera form. Costs mana to shift | Death-Eater |
| Deathstrike | Infuse your body or weapons with Death energy to deal additional damage. Costs Stamina | Death-Eater |
| Resilience of the Dead | Slightly increased resistance to certain status alterations | Death-Eater |
| Eat Death | Absorb Death energy found within the Death Eater’s aura. Absorption based on Affinity. Intensity of absorption can be varied but the ability cannot be completely disabled. Absorbed Death energy may be consumed or used to restore mana or stamina used as if it were Death mana. Dissipates with time. Ability damaged | Death-Eater |
| Basic Analyze | Analyze a being for basic information. The being may be animal, Pathed, or monster. Other beings may be analyzed if they have any appropriate features. Items may not be analyzed | Battle Adept |
| Intermediate Unarmed Combat (Claw Variant) | Losing your weapons is not a disaster when you have weapons attached to your hands. Your expertise with claws is nearly nonexistent, but your general training with unarmed combat is transferable | Battle Adept |
| Infused strike | Infuse your body or weapons with energy to deal additional damage. Replaces Deathstrike. May use any Affinity held. Power of infusion scales with Affinity used. Costs Stamina | Battle Adept |
| Far Strike | Discharge the magic infused in your weapon to strike a single opponent at a distance. Stamina cost increases with distance | Battle Adept |
| Adept Aspect Form | Instead of infusing an Affinity into your weapon, infuse your Aspect into yourself. Limited time, consumes both stamina and mana, induces unconsciousness when the Form lapses | Battle Adept |
| Basic Sense Raw Magic | Detect background, non-attuned energy. This sense is always active | Child of Time |
| Linked Sight | You may share your vision and vision-based abilities with your Seer or anyone whom you share a similar Link with. They may also share their vision and vision-based abilities with you. Consumes Stamina per vision or vision-based ability shared in either direction. Vision ability costs are paid by the user instead of the originator of the ability, if applicable | Child of Time |
| Moment of Prescience | Know a moment ahead of time when something will kill or disable you or someone you wish to protect. Activation is automatic. Cannot be activated more than once a minute. Consumes stamina in inverse proportion to the threat | Child of Time |
| Time’s Eye | Your eyes see the motions of Time as it stretches and changes. The hidden is easier to see and the false easier to see through. Consumes Stamina (Note: the Stamina cost is low enough that it can be maintained for hours at a time, though that will significantly reduce Serenity’s available Stamina for other uses) | Child of Time |
| Unbound | Time does not quite have the same hold on you as it does on others, and Fate does not rule you. You can slip between the lines of the future and past or even blur them if you have the desire and the strength. That which will be has no power over you, and you can break the strands of Destiny for others if you dare. This ability is always active and has always applied to you | Child of Time |
| Basic Identify | Identify an object to gain basic information on it, such as its name, basic properties, materials, and/or minor enchantments | Steadfast |
| Scale Hardening | Use Essence or Mana to reinforce your scales, making them harder to damage and more protective. Costs Stamina to maintain | Steadfast |
| Wait for an Opening | Study an opponent’s actions in combat to gain an intuitive understanding of the right time to strike | Steadfast |
| Second Wind | Convert some of a more filled resource pool (Mana, Stamina, or Essence) into an empty one. Consumes some of the converted resource | Steadfast |
| Stand Tall | Whether you are the last wall between your loved ones and your enemies or you simply love to fight, your ability to take a beating is exceptional. Blood loss, bruises, injuries, and even broken bones will not stop you. You can fight at the full effectiveness your body is capable of despite your injuries | Steadfast |
| Essence Sight | You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present | Evoker |
| Physical Storage | You can store spells inside your own body to be evoked later. Stored spells may be evoked only by you and may be triggered at any time. All variable effects must be determined prior to casting. Stored spells will degrade with time and use of mana or essence in the area the spell is stored. | Evoker |
| Spell Conversion | You can convert the power of any spell you can Evoke into a ranged mana or essence strike. The power of the strike depends on the stored spell power. | Evoker |
[collapse]
Serenity turned back to the spell he wanted to update. Was there any way to improve it?
No, any spell he built based around this structure would have many of the same downsides. He could limit them by optimizing the spell differently, but he couldn’t eliminate them. What if he didn’t do the active detection/movement portion, though, and just did an aura-sensor? That would nearly eliminate the risk of damaging the trace and ought to also reduce the issue with the speed, as long as he could get the sensor fast enough, but he’d lose some of the fidelity and the mana cost would-
“Serenity?” Russ’s voice penetrated Serenity’s thoughts and he turned to look at the man. “You’ve been silent for quite a while, are we still on track?”
Serenity was fairly confident there hadn’t been an alert, but he poked the spell status to be certain. “Yeah, it’s still forward. I was thinking about what you asked. I’m pretty sure I can make the spell work faster without destroying the residue we’re trying to trace, but there are some downsides. It won’t be able to save its spot, and I’m not sure I can get it to jump to the newer trail if it crosses itself - say the item was taken into a building, then left a few hours later. We’d have to retrace its path instead of being able to just follow the newest part of the trail. It would also lose some precision and use a lot more mana. It’d be a complete spell rebuild, but it’s possible.”
Rissa brought the car to a stop. “Can you make it so you can swap between the two?”
Serenity compared the two spell formulations and groaned internally. There was quite a bit of overlap, but if he wanted to take advantage of it, he’d have to use an overlay pattern. He wasn’t fond of those; they made debugging harder if he made any mistakes. Unfortunately, laying it out unfolded would greatly increase the spell fragility, and it wouldn’t be able to handle even remotely fast swaps. No, it’d have to be an overlay. “Yes, but I’m going to need more residue and some time to rework the spell. Probably a couple of hours?”
The second time they left the house following the trail of the stolen artifact, they were able to drive at the speed limit and still follow the trace. Unfortunately, the mana cost was just as high as Serenity had feared; he’d have less than an hour before he ran out of mana. If he’d been able to start from full instead of the roughly half that Earth’s environment allowed him, it would have helped.
The trail led across town. Serenity tried to stay aware of his surroundings, but before long they blurred into a haze while Serenity “watched” the trail with his aura and felt his mana tick down. He occasionally called out turns, but each time they had to circle around and find the trail again, because there was no way Rissa could turn that quickly in the now-heavy lunchtime traffic.
At the same time as the traffic kept them from following all of the turns immediately, it also kept their speed down. Serenity was grateful for that much; following a faint trace was bad enough at the speeds they were going. He didn’t want to think about what it would be like if they were actually able to get up to highway speeds.
Not that he was sure these roads ever got that empty; they were into busier parts of the city now. There was a reason the city was known as the city that never sleeps.
Serenity was starting to feel a little lightheaded when Russ’s voice came from the back seat. “Serenity, save our spot. Rissa, turn left at the next light…”
Russ guided them to a parking lot in a ley line, where they parked and Serenity tried to recover his mana.
“You’re barely glowing at all.” Rissa sounded worried. When had she started gauging his health by how much he glowed in a ley line?
“It’s not much of a ley line.” Serenity was sure that was true; it felt much less powerful than even the one they’d visited that morning. It still felt and tasted good, even if it also felt somehow incomplete. He got out of the car and sat directly on the ground; that helped, but it still wasn’t quite right.
“That’s true,” Russ agreed, “But that’s not all there is to it. I called a halt because you were about to pass out.”
Serenity shook his head. “People don’t pass out from running out of mana. It’s not comfortable, but it’s not harmful.”
“Most people don’t.” Russ sounded like he was agreeing, but Serenity had the sinking feeling that he wasn’t. “I’m less sure about you. The way you move magic around - yes, a lot of that’s skill. I think there’s more to it, though.”
He shrugged, then walked over and sat next to Serenity. In a quiet voice he said, “You glow silver when you aren’t in a ley line. I took us back to the last ley line I saw when I noticed you were barely glowing at all.”
Serenity nodded, distracted. The longer he sat there, the more something felt wrong to Serenity. After a few minutes, he decided it wasn’t his imagination, got up, and walked outside the ley line.
The ley line moved with him.
Serenity knew that was wrong. Ley lines didn’t just move. Not that easily. They certainly didn’t follow people.
[Anchor Point Conversion rejected]
[Rhea’s Promise “Home” activated]
Home
“Earth will always be a home to you.”
For a moment, Serenity could feel the entire ley line network of the planet, both on the surface and throughout the interior. He could tell where they were healthy and where there were issues. He was standing at a weak point, where there had once been damage and the ley line had shattered into a spray of weakened fragments.
He knew that over the next few decades, all of the weak ley lines would shift and try to regather if they hadn’t been anchored somehow. He could also feel that some were developing anchors where they crossed larger lines, but most were not.
A moment later, he felt the ripple as the ley line released him and he fell to his knees. He felt like he’d eaten something that disagreed with him violently, but he couldn’t actually throw up. It was the first time he’d felt that since the Tutorial started, and it was worse than he remembered.
“What was that?” Rissa put her hand on Serenity’s shoulder and he started to feel better. He wasn’t sure if it was time or her presence, but the intense nausea subsided.
“There’s something wrong with that ley line. It was … shattered?” Serenity couldn’t sense the ley line at all, now. It was outside his aura. He could see that Russ was standing where it had been and Phoebe was still in the car on the other side of the ley line.
Serenity braced himself and headed towards Russ. He was going to have to go through the ley line; hopefully it wouldn’t try to grab him this time.
Serenity could feel the ley line once he was in range, but he walked through it quickly, trying to interact as little as possible. It almost felt like it reached out to him, but he ignored it as best he could.
“I think we need to avoid the small ley lines in the future.” Russ followed Serenity out of the ley line. “That looked very strange, but I don’t know ley lines well enough to know what it was. It was like … you were pulling everything it had towards you, instead of most of it going past you the way it was at the ley line this morning. Then it didn’t want to let you go?”
Serenity nodded at Russ. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I hadn’t realized I was … blocking the ley line.” Serenity wasn’t an expert on planets, but he knew enough to know that ley line disruptions could have massive effects; he’d heard stories about civilizations that powered themselves using their ley lines. Legends said that it always led to worldwide catastrophes.
Serenity was sure that it would be tried again, eventually. Probably on Earth.
He clearly hadn’t done anything that severe, but it was probably why the ley line had felt wrong. He suspected that the “anchor point conversion”, whatever that was, was the ley line’s reaction - and that Rhea’s promise had somehow intervened. He wasn’t sure if it was what had stopped the anchor point thing or if it’d happened afterwards, but he was fairly confident it had prevented something he wouldn’t have liked.
He was also confident that he never wanted anything like that to happen again. He didn’t mind seeing the ley line network, but it wasn’t even close to worth it.
At a guess, Serenity thought he could go through ley lines without any problems, and large ones didn’t seem to have issues either. He simply couldn’t stop to eat in a small one. “Blocking a ley line sounds pretty bad. It was unpleasant. The good news is that I did mostly recharge my mana before that happened. As much as I can, outside a ley line, at least. So we can continue where we left off.”
Serenity looked inside the car before he got in. In the seat behind him, Phoebe slept, snoring lightly.
“It’s something to look for information on, I think.” Rissa started the car. “Shattered doesn’t sound good, but I don’t know of anything here that would have caused it.”
Serenity just nodded; there really wasn’t anything to say.
The trail led to a warehouse, but Serenity could feel the trace suddenly jump forward by at least half a day as they went by one of the loading docks. Russ dropped a pin before they moved on; it was likely that some of the other stolen goods were in the warehouse.
Several hours (and one fast food stop) after the ley line incident, the artifact led them to a gated neighborhood in New Jersey. The entrance was blocked by a huge gate, with a shelter just outside the gate. Serenity could barely see the shelter out the open window; he couldn’t tell if there was actually a guard in it or not.
As they approached, Phoebe started swearing.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
“Don’t go through this entrance. We need to use the one to the east.” Phoebe didn’t say why, and no one asked. Serenity was already starting to get used to Phoebe’s sudden pronouncements, and assumed there was a reason - but that it was entirely possible she didn’t know what it was. Living with an Oracle like her must be annoying.
Serenity felt fortunate that Rissa didn’t do that to him, even if it was useful.
Serenity's current Status - it's been a while, and I figured it was time.
It couldn't possibly be because there are some changes coming in the next few chapters. No, not at all. ;-)
General
Spoilerstrong>
| Name: Serenity | ||
| Species: Essence Dragon Chimera (Hatchling) | ||
| Core: Unique | Progression: 1.6% Tier: 2 | Features: 4/11 True Crystal Link Death |
| Path: Evoker | Level: 55 (140/550) | Tier: 1, 0/55 Spent |
| Path History: 1: Unbound, Steadfast 0: Death-Eater, Battle Adept | ||
| Condition: Healthy Healing Available: Full | Mana: 2000/4000 Essence: 2000/4000 | Stamina: 2100/2100 |
| Might: 200 | Agility: 200 | Phys: 200 |
| Understanding: 200 | Will: 200 | Mind: 200 |
| Perception: 200 | ||
| Essence | Pure (Innate) | Ev: 376,951 (Purified) |
| Titles | Previous Supreme Existence | First of A Kind |
| Named | Ghost in the System | |
| Aspect Pathfinder | Incarnate | |
| Lord | DeathLord | |
| Tyche’s Mark | Home | |
| Coin | 1376 Etherium |
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Magic
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| Essence Techniques | Chimeric Alteration | Claim Mana |
| Devour Mana | Essence Drawing | |
| Purify | ||
| Affinities | Energy: 40% | Liquid: 6% |
| Mind: 32% | Plasma: 42% | |
| Solid: 17% | SpaceTime: 71% | |
| Technology: 27% | Vapor: 14% | |
| Void (Liminal): 90% | Void (Nihility): 50% | |
| Concepts | Arcane: 80% | Energy: 52% |
| Essence: 25% | Life: 20% | |
| Mind: 15% | Plasma: 26% | |
| SpaceTime: 42% | Void (Liminal): 25% | |
| Void (Nihility): 30% | Technology: 40% | |
| Aspects | Arcane (Mana): Initiated (Vital) | Essence: Growth (Vital) |
| SpaceTime: Nascent | ||
| Incarnate | Death |
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Physical
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| Resistances | Chemical: 137+10 | Cold: 303+10 |
| Curse: 263 | Darkness: 177+10 | |
| Death: Immune | Heat: 532+10 | |
| Life: 417+10 | Light: 298+10 | |
| Mind: 276 | Pain: 640 | |
| Pleasure: 31 | Shock: 334+10 | |
| Sleep: 52 | Space: 250 | |
| Time: 1000 | Unknown | |
| Chimeric Heritage | Pure (Innate) | Essence Dragon (Primary) |
| Asura | Child of Time, Unbound | |
| Dhampir, Essence/Mana | Draugr, Sage | |
| Elemental, Essence | Elemental, Mana | |
| Godling | Human, Earth | |
| Lich, Paramount (Primary) | Vampire, Daywalker | |
| Wraith, Nightmare | ||
| Known Heritages | Azata, Lightning | Curse Witch |
| Healing Light | Hexen | |
| Heavens’ Fire | Jiang-Shi | |
| Knight of Blood | Malevolent Spark | |
| Mote of Decay | Mote of Stasis | |
| Mummy | Remnant Wisp of Life | |
| Revenant, Star | Sea Lion, Earth |
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Abilities
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| Monster Biology | ||
| Eyeless Sight | Colorless vision that does not require light; no visual effect | Inherited from Final Reaper |
| Vital Sight (previously called Life-Sight) | Shows the primary animating Affinity, usually Life, for creatures. Makes the eyes glow with blue-white fire | Inherited from Final Reaper |
| Food for Power (Stomach) | Converts consumed material into a specialized power reserve | Self-created ability |
| Heal (almost) Anything (Stomach) | Uses stored energy (cannot use stamina or mana, pulls from the power reserve first) to heal. ‘Healing’ includes providing energy and raw material for cell growth and therefore other food consumption is not required. Can restore stamina or mana when the stamina or mana reduction is physical in nature | Self-created ability |
| Blossoms’ Sleep | Can induce sleep on self with a defined wakeup time | Dream Blossom Dust |
| Runic Shielding Tattoos | Resists one attack of any sort. Does not require preactivation if the attack will kill or disable. Fully drains current MP to establish, drains SP to maintain, ends when hit. MP drained determines strength of blow that can be resisted, will fail if strength is exceeded but may reduce the power of the attack even if it fails. Effect is better with automatic activation | Self-created ability (Not actually tattoos, his skin/scales grows “naturally” in the correct pattern and color to create the effect) |
| Claws | Hands and feet have claws (all forms) | Essence Dragon |
| Wings | Six-limbed creature; all forms have wings. The wings are strong enough to be noticeable and might assist in gliding, but are not large enough to support actual flight. | Essence Dragon |
| Scaled Hide | Thickened, resistant outer skin layer, covered in most places with scutes | Essence Dragon |
| Filter | Details unknown; so far, Serenity has determined that it will output Essence when fed mana, but it does not seem to have a use at this time. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Amplify Aura | Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Increase Link Distance | Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown. | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Change Stone Type | Details unknown | Linked Crystal Seed (True Core) |
| Raw Mana Control (Horns) | When in a ley line or other high concentration of raw mana, choose where it flows in the body. | Self-created ability |
| Dhampir’s Default | When a Dhampir is casually examined, he or she appears to be a normal member of the living population. | Dhampir |
| Path Abilities | ||
| Loot Core | Teleports a monster core from touched monster body to the user. Usable on any dead monster with a core. Costs mana | Death-Eater |
| Basic Draconic Shapeshift | An adult dragon is a force to behold, but there are many places they simply can’t go. Young dragons are commonly taught to take on another form, often humanoid, to fit in small places and interact with non-dragons. A skill normally gained much later in life, you get a basic version of it now since you don’t get Species abilities. Lucky you! You can shift between your Draconic base form and your True Chimera form. Costs mana to shift | Death-Eater |
| Deathstrike | Infuse your body or weapons with Death energy to deal additional damage. Costs Stamina | Death-Eater |
| Resilience of the Dead | Slightly increased resistance to certain status alterations | Death-Eater |
| Eat Death | Absorb Death energy found within the Death Eater’s aura. Absorption based on Affinity. Intensity of absorption can be varied but the ability cannot be completely disabled. Absorbed Death energy may be consumed or used to restore mana or stamina used as if it were Death mana. Dissipates with time. Ability damaged | Death-Eater |
| Basic Analyze | Analyze a being for basic information. The being may be animal, Pathed, or monster. Other beings may be analyzed if they have any appropriate features. Items may not be analyzed | Battle Adept |
| Intermediate Unarmed Combat (Claw Variant) | Losing your weapons is not a disaster when you have weapons attached to your hands. Your expertise with claws is nearly nonexistent, but your general training with unarmed combat is transferable | Battle Adept |
| Infused strike | Infuse your body or weapons with energy to deal additional damage. Replaces Deathstrike. May use any Affinity held. Power of infusion scales with Affinity used. Costs Stamina | Battle Adept |
| Far Strike | Discharge the magic infused in your weapon to strike a single opponent at a distance. Stamina cost increases with distance | Battle Adept |
| Adept Aspect Form | Instead of infusing an Affinity into your weapon, infuse your Aspect into yourself. Limited time, consumes both stamina and mana, induces unconsciousness when the Form lapses | Battle Adept |
| Basic Sense Raw Magic | Detect background, non-attuned energy. This sense is always active | Child of Time |
| Linked Sight | You may share your vision and vision-based abilities with your Seer or anyone whom you share a similar Link with. They may also share their vision and vision-based abilities with you. Consumes Stamina per vision or vision-based ability shared in either direction. Vision ability costs are paid by the user instead of the originator of the ability, if applicable | Child of Time |
| Moment of Prescience | Know a moment ahead of time when something will kill or disable you or someone you wish to protect. Activation is automatic. Cannot be activated more than once a minute. Consumes stamina in inverse proportion to the threat | Child of Time |
| Time’s Eye | Your eyes see the motions of Time as it stretches and changes. The hidden is easier to see and the false easier to see through. Consumes Stamina (Note: the Stamina cost is low enough that it can be maintained for hours at a time, though that will significantly reduce Serenity’s available Stamina for other uses) | Child of Time |
| Unbound | Time does not quite have the same hold on you as it does on others, and Fate does not rule you. You can slip between the lines of the future and past or even blur them if you have the desire and the strength. That which will be has no power over you, and you can break the strands of Destiny for others if you dare. This ability is always active and has always applied to you | Child of Time |
| Basic Identify | Identify an object to gain basic information on it, such as its name, basic properties, materials, and/or minor enchantments | Steadfast |
| Scale Hardening | Use Essence or Mana to reinforce your scales, making them harder to damage and more protective. Costs Stamina to maintain | Steadfast |
| Wait for an Opening | Study an opponent’s actions in combat to gain an intuitive understanding of the right time to strike | Steadfast |
| Second Wind | Convert some of a more filled resource pool (Mana, Stamina, or Essence) into an empty one. Consumes some of the converted resource | Steadfast |
| Stand Tall | Whether you are the last wall between your loved ones and your enemies or you simply love to fight, your ability to take a beating is exceptional. Blood loss, bruises, injuries, and even broken bones will not stop you. You can fight at the full effectiveness your body is capable of despite your injuries | Steadfast |
| Essence Sight | You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present | Evoker |
| Physical Storage | You can store spells inside your own body to be evoked later. Stored spells may be evoked only by you and may be triggered at any time. All variable effects must be determined prior to casting. Stored spells will degrade with time and use of mana or essence in the area the spell is stored. | Evoker |
| Spell Conversion | You can convert the power of any spell you can Evoke into a ranged mana or essence strike. The power of the strike depends on the stored spell power. | Evoker |
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