Vigil's Valor: 33 – Ascended

Like Kerra, I also intended to get some answers, but before I went kicking the hornet’s nest, I figured it was best to put some boots on. No point in getting stung worse than I had too. That meant I needed to pay a trip to the Soul Vault and swing by a couple of stores before I got busy. I was the weapon, I reminded myself, and I needed to hone my edge. Just because I had shit to do, though, didn’t mean I couldn’t send out my bloodhounds to start sniffing around.

“Cal, Renholm,” I said, calling over my two minions, “I’ve got a couple of jobs for you to do.”

Cal rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’m you’re spirit guide, not your bellhop. It’s always, ‘Cal, I have a job for you to do,’ and never a ‘Cal how are you doing? We should hang out and get beers.’”

“Dude, you can’t even drink beer anymore,” I said, “and it’s not like you have anything else to do. Besides, you said it yourself, you’re my spirit guide and I need guidance. Very specific guidance that might require a little leg work. And larceny. Maybe some light finger breaking. I feel like that’s right up your alley. Come on.”

“Yeah, fine. Whatever,” he said, tossing up his hands in indignation. “I’ll do your stupid mission, but only because I am bored and don’t have anything better to do.”

“As long as there’s stealing involved, I won’t say no,” Renholm said. “Stealing is one of my favorite hobbies, second only to murder.”

Every conversation I had with Renholm left me a little more disturbed. I was just glad he was the size of a barbie. The thought of a human sized Renholm with magical powers was legitimately terrifying. But he was on my team, so I was willing to gloss over the notion that murder was his favorite hobby.

“Right. I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that,” I said. “First, I need to know more about these Chaos Aberrations. Something about this whole thing feels wrong, but I’m not sure why. Kerra mentioned something called the Library Supreme, which is supposed to be accessible to anyone visiting the Citadel. She said people come from all over the world to look for answers, so if there’s a book on Chaos Aberrations, I bet we can find it there. And if not… Well, she also mighta mentioned a second library, bursting at the seams with secret knowledge.”

“Do you mean, the Custodian’s Athenaeum?” Cal asked with a sly smile. “The special library that only the Custodians are allowed to use and which she told you not to set foot in under any circumstances?”

“Yeah, that’s sort of ringing a bell,” I said. “Thing is, I’m technically following the letter of the law. I’m not going to put one toe into that library. I’m merely seeking guidance from my deity-appointed spirit guide and if that guidance should happen to be located in the private Custodian’s Library, well who’s fault is that?”

“Excellent!” Renholm cackled. “Perhaps I really am starting to rub off on you after all, my protégé. Being technically correct is the best kind of correct, in my opinion, especially if it helps you break the law.”

Damn, he really was a bad influence.

“There’s also one other thing that’s been bugging me. About a week or so back, I walked in on this Arbitrator giving this hellfire and brimstone sermon over in the Chapel of Wrath. Lean guy, real serious looking, had salt and pepper hair. He was spouting off a bunch of bullshit about how the Chaos Aberration is divine punishment from Raguel. The whole thing rubbed me the wrong way. After you guys check the libraries, I want you to take a look into this guy and see if you can’t find anything out.”

“Can we murder him if he ends up being a dangerous miscreant?” Renholm asked hopefully.

I frowned. If this Arbitrator was the goathumper behind these attacks, then I had no problem with Cal and Renholm smothering him in his sleep. It didn’t have to be some grand battle for all the world to see, so long as justice was served, and the killings stopped. Problem was, Renholm was a devious little shitbird and would probably classify a dangerous miscreant as someone with unpaid parking tickets. Best to rein him in as much as possible.

“No,” I finally said, “but I’ll happily let you help me kill him if the situation calls for it. Now, get moving, but be careful. There’s no telling what kind of wards the Custodians will have on their library, so keep your heads on a swivel, okay?”

“Aw, he does still care,” Cal said. “But don’t sweat it, dude. It’s not like this is our first magical B and E. We’ll be fine. Just don’t get yourself killed before we get back.”

***

With Cal and Renholm deployed and Kerra on the warpath, I headed over to the Chapel of Justice to go handle some business of my own.

In short order, I found myself staring down my avatar with my stats displayed before me.

<<<>>>

Boyd Knight

Race: Vigil Bound

Level: Adept, Silver Rank

Current Essence: 18,435

Next Ascended Rank: 50,000

Attribute Points: +5

Ward Points: +12

Characteristics

Brawn: 22

Verve: 22

Finesse: 20

Arcana: 25

Insight: 20

Vigil Wards

Ward of Justice: Soul Bound Weapons (Boon), Overcharge, Rend, Peerless Warrior, Festering Wound, Weapon Mastery: Blunt, Armor Evocation

Ward of Valor:Diamond Body (Boon), Combat Sense, Matchless Endurance

Ward of Wrath:Arcane Insight (Boon), Electro Arc, Rain of Fire

Ward of Balance:Language of the Heavens (Boon), Sidhe Pact, Fae Tether

Ward of Truth:Threads of Fate (Boon), Master Mentalist

Expand Ward List

<<<>>>

I whistled through my teeth in appreciation.

Once again, I had to admit that Kerra knew how to train for optimal results. I’d almost died several times over the course of the past week, but the key word was almost, and the results were more than worth the pain and trauma I’d endured. Not only had I cleared another level threshold—ascending from Adept Bronze to Adept Silver and earning another Attribute Point and ten more Ward Points in the process—but I’d gotten a third of the way toward Adept Gold.

I planned to sacrifice all of that accumulated Essence to bump my stats, but those were still some impressive gains. I took a deep breath then plopped down onto the floor, stretched my legs out, and braced for the pain marathon I was about to endure.

With over eighteen thousand available Essence, I could raise quite a few of my stats. Up until now, I’d been keeping things relatively well distributed—I didn’t want to be a lopsided, min-maxed bitch, since this was real life—but now that I’d pushed all my stats up to an acceptable, superhuman level, it was time for an honest, come-to-Jesus assessment of my abilities. And if my time training with Kerra and the new Vigils had taught me anything, it was that I excelled in two areas: hitting shit hard and blowing it up with magic.

That was where I needed to focus.

My Arcana was already at 25, which was upper tier for my current rank, but my Brawn score could stand some improvement. For 14,200 Essence I could push that right through the roof and all the way up to 26. I still wouldn’t be at Superman levels of strength, but I’d probably be solidly into the Captain American Range of asskickery. I could live with that. And I’d still have just enough Essence left over to increase my Arcana by another point, bringing that up to 26 as well.

Hit shit hard, blow shit up. My new Vigil motto.

You must Sacrifice [14,200] Essence to increase Brawn to 26 and [3,800] Essence to increase Arcana to 26.Proceed with Soul Sacrifice? Yes/No

I hit ‘Yes’ before I could think of how bad this was going to suck, then settled in for the ride down Fuck-You-In-Particular River. For the next few minutes, I underwent a spiritual and physical metamorphosis, much like a butterfly. Not the part where I grew wings and emerged from a silky cocoon majestic as fuck. The part where it felt like my body was being liquified by acid. Good times, good times. But when the pain finally passed and faded away to a dull ache behind my eyeballs… holy shit was it worth it.

I could feel strength coursing through my muscles and Arcana energy buzzing in the center of my chest like a car battery.

I stood and flexed, feeling my bicep strain against my armor. I looked over my avatar, spinning slowly before me. I was noticeably bigger than I had been just a few minutes before. I didn’t have the physique of a bodybuilder—that would be too slow and lumbering—but rather the body of a Greek God. One of my buddies back in the Corps, Pauli Hoyt, had damn-near lived at the gym—the guy had worshiped at the altar of fitness. Even after years of working out, slamming protein shakes, and eating bland chicken and boiled broccoli for every meal, he’d never even come close to this.

I took one last glance at my elevated stats:

Characteristics

Brawn: 26

Verve: 22

Finesse: 20

Arcana: 26

Insight: 20

I grinned. It was damned good to be a Vigil.

With my Essence reserved wiped out, I reclaimed my ward points—enduring another round of hellish soul flaying—then clambered to my feet and got busy picking out my new skill set, this time with a crafter build firmly in mind.

I had a hundred Ward Points to play with and the first forty points went into the College of Reason: Sage Smith, Mortka Forger, Affinity Retrofitter, and Arcane Transmuter.

Sage Smith was the basic skill employed by those who wanted to master the Soul Forge. When unlocked, the ability allowed me to destroy items and generate detailed blueprints that could be used to replicate the item or—in the case of weapons—create a “Soul Skin” that could be applied to my Soul Bound weapons. Sage Smith by itself was powerful, but it really shined when combined with Mortka Forger.

Who wanted a dagger made of iron when they could have one crafted from Grass Hound Talons? That’s what Mortka Forger did—instead of fabricating basic-bitch items with only run-of-the-mill ores and ingredients, I could incorporate Mortka elements into my designs to craft things that were far stronger and more durable, with innate properties that could be further augmented by Arcanum Tokens.

And speaking of Arcanum Tokens, that’s where Affinity Retrofitter came into play. Getting my hands on powerful tokens of faith—such as the Eldritch Wither Heart Seed I’d earned—was pure luck. Affinity Retrofitter allowed me make my own luck by stripping Scales of their Affinity and distilling it into manufactured Arcanum Tokens of my own design. Even better, the process left behind Pure Affinity Scales which were necessary to manufacture items and were worth their weight in gold, since there was no natural way to obtain them.

Next came Arcane Transmuter, a seemingly mundane skill with a ton of hidden potential. Crafted items required very specific ingredients, some of which were incredibly hard to come by. Getting enough Master or Sage class Affinity Scales to build a .50 Cal was a legitimate nightmare, as I was coming to discover. Arcane Transmuter was a shortcut that allowed me to combine lower-quality fabrication elements and Affinity Scales of the same type into a higher quality fabrication elements.

For example, I could take four Novice Class Glamor Affinity Scales and mash them together to forge one Disciple Class Glamor Affinity Scale. The same was true for Transformation Tokens, metal ores, Mortka horns, or any other fabrication component.

Pascow had also casually mentioned that to be a true master builder, I would need the skills Absorb Elements, Water Wright, Metallurgy Manipulation, Unbound Flame, Arctic Spike, and Electro Arc. I had no idea why I would need those things, since the specific spell descriptions didn’t mention anything about crafting, but I was going to take his word and go all in. The worst thing that could happen was that I wouldn’t need them and then I’d reclaim my points in twelve hours, which I was going to do anyway.

It was a no-lose scenario.

Unfortunately, unlocking all of those spells and abilities cost sixty-two total points. I only have sixty points left to my name, which meant I had to pick between the three Ward of Wrath Spells available to me. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be using them for, so I just closed my eyes, twirled my finger and jabbed at the page in my Grimoire. You know, the scientific method. I ended up cutting Arctic Spike and used the remainder of my Ward Points to pick up the rest of the abilities Pascow had casually suggested.

That done, I headed over to my storage room and rummaged through all of the goodies I’d picked up over the last week. I had a variety of mundane weapons and armor that I didn’t have any use for; I broke those items down into blueprints to sell off, which only took me a couple of hours. And since I was running Affinity Retrofitter already, I spent a little extra time stripping down Affinity Scales, manufacturing Arcanum Tokens, and combining the heaps of low-quality fabrication ingredients I had in my storage room into better quality materials.

By the time I was done, I’d created Hunger and Barkform Arcanum Tokens which could be inserted into any of my gear for added bonuses, and a slew of Pure Affinity Scales. The same kind of Scale I’d given to Marina during our battle against the Eldritch Wither Vine. With Arcane Transmuter, I further compressed several of the lower grade scales into a handful of Master and even Sage Class Scales. Those could be used to manufacture more weapons skins or traded at a premium for cash or other rare items.

Satisfied with my work, I grabbed a couple of the excess Weapon Blueprints I’d made, along with extra coins and scales for trade, then left the Soul Vault behind and headed over to the marketplace, where I could hopefully find what I was looking for.

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