Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 52

After ditching the pair of young drakes and trading them in for slightly lower-quality dragon eggs, I returned home and did it again.

I repeated that process a few times until there was only one drake wandering the Torchdragon shard and preventing the end of this stage of the integration. While I was there, I distributed the rest of the designs for my Mark Two armor to my people spread across the multiverse, and the passive experience I was gaining from them went up significantly.

I also gathered up all the in-progress power armor and put the final touches on it. I debated bringing it back to Crownhill, but in the end, just handed what we had to Gobgob on Mucaria. I’d just depleted Doomblade’s Armory’s funds to buy more dragon eggs of various sorts, so I wanted to make sure Gobgob was well supplied. Besides, soon these Mark Ones would be technologically obsolete.

I picked up a few skill books on my shopping trip while I was out as well, and all those came home with me. Two of my abilities, Mana Barrage and Lifesteal, were long overdue for upgrades. I wanted to update those while waiting for Reluna and Mimiko to finish their resurrection ritual.

The trip went well, and after briefly checking in with them I sat down down in my comfiest chair, which I usually used for some casual reading, and flipped through some of the skill books I’d bought. None were particularly impressive, so I wouldn’t be outright replacing Mana Barrage and Lifesteal, but I would be upgrading them along certain directions.

For Mana Barrage, I wanted something with a bit more punch to them. Mana Bolts were all fine and good when I was weaker, but they were still essentially an E-Grade spell.

I was using a half dozen tricks at once to push their power far further than it should and mixing various elements to target weaknesses, but I could only empower a mana bolt so much before a fundamental redesign was needed.

I wanted to keep its role in my spell arsenal. It was essentially the machine gun of my tool kit. I could make and fire off thousands of these things throughout a fight. I could sacrifice a little of that quantity for greater quality, but all in all, I still wanted something that took advantage of my elemental knowledge and my talent for holding so many spells in my head at once.

To that end, I bought Dragon Bolt, the Dragon Lodge’s signature alternative to Mana Bolt. Alongside it was the classic Fireball spell and something called Water Shot, which fired a bullet-like projectile of water.

The three spells and my existing one all followed a similar theme of taking a single element and throwing it at the enemy, but each did so differently. I planned to combine the best of all of them, along with the insights that had turned Mana Bolt into Mana Barrage, and make my own new, custom spell. Along the way, my mind went to the smooth-flowing way Mimiko wielded mana. I wanted something as powerful as a System ability, but also with that kind of flexibility.

I carefully visualized what I wanted, and then with an act of will and the sacrifice of a few relevant proficiencies, I urged the skill to evolve.

You have sacrificed 20 points of your Caster proficiency.

You have sacrificed 20 points of your Neutral Mana proficiency.

You have sacrificed 10 points each of your Water, Wind, Earth Fire, and Air proficiencies.

I kept my requirements in mind as I wove the spell into being, and after several long minutes of concentration, a new prompt appeared. I read it with my fingers crossed, hoping for success.

Your spell, Mana Barrage (Epic), has evolved to Mana Arsenal (Mythic)

Mana Arsenal allows the caster to form variable mana into visualized shapes and patterns and then utilize them as projectiles. The exact nature of these projectiles depends on the pattern of mana used to create the projectile. Each instance of the spell may be charged for as long as the elemental spell structure can remain stable.

I read the description a few times, hopes rising as I did so. This seemed mostly what I was going for. It would be slower to cast than Mana Barrage, and I suspected I’d be back to only being able to hold a handful at once like I had been when I first started using Mana Barrage. But on the whole, it was pretty much what I was looking for.

I exited my house and fired up the experience farm in my yard. A few specters materialized, and I spent half an hour shooting magical projectiles at the angry ghosts while they vainly tried to escape their prison and attack me.

First, I tried something akin to a fireball, which I made even faster than I remember Dramonar using when he cast the spell at me. Granted, he’d been a realm weaker than me at the time, and I doubted he was the most diligent student, so it probably took me a lot more concentration than a dedicated fireball spell took him. Still, it meant I essentially had the fireball ability, along with a bunch more.

I repeated the feat with Water Shot, the spell I’d picked up from Mucaria. Then, I used Dragon Bolt. That came even easier to me, likely thanks to my dragon-themed signature skill.

All in all, I was pretty satisfied with Mana Arsenal. But I was only half done.

The other spell I wanted to be upgraded was Lifesteal, and that one was perhaps even more important. This ability had saved my life quite literally after Craig killed me, and only fear of losing it had kept me from upgrading it. But these days, I’d leveled up so many times that the percentage of my health it healed was growing increasingly small. If I didn’t upgrade it soon, it was in danger of becoming irrelevant.

So, reluctantly, I prepared to roll the dice and evolve it into something better.

I’d unfortunately been rather short on similar skills to guide myself forward with. Finding a couple spells dedicated to flinging magic at an enemy was easy enough. Stealing the lifeforce of that enemy was a darker art, and not one the Dragon Lodge usually encouraged.

My shopping trip had only turned up a single spellbook that could increase the effects of other spells when the caster was heavily wounded, called Second Wind. I suspected it was meant to be used in conjunction with healing spells to let the caster patch themselves up mid-battle.

The spell wasn’t popular, since most students of the Dragon Lodge preferred to fire projectile spells from a safe distance, not fight in the thick of things. That was likely why the second part of the ability had escaped notice. The spell book had proved to be something of a two-for-one deal since it also came with an inverse ability, Last Wind.

That sapped the lifeforce of the target, and healing spells cast on them would require significantly more mana to power. It would likely be a good ability for finishing off foes through a lengthy battle of attrition.

I wasn’t so interested in those abilities, but the general principles were educational. Besides that, the only things I had to work with were the notes I’d stolen from Tharandul the Healer, the rogue professor I’d killed on a quest. He’d given me magical cancer, which had been a pain in the ass to cure. But it proved he knew a thing or two about living bodies, so I'd read through his notes more than once.

The other source of knowledge, surprisingly enough, came from Ted’s book, ‘Interpreting the Fairer Sex.’

For a crazy homeless man, he sure had a lot of good stuff in there. The diagrams were anatomically accurate, if a bit explicit. There were many lengthy descriptions of the body and soul and how the two interacted. Mostly, the analysis was somewhere along the lines of what organs would swell when a woman was sick or angry with you and how to detect and avoid angering them using that knowledge.

There was even an entire chapter on examining ripples in female souls. I’d originally dismissed such ideas as nonsense until very recently when I started studying up on souls myself. There was a lot more to this book than met the eye.

With my tools prepared and my references at the ready, I saw no further reason to delay.

You have sacrificed 30 points of your Regeneration proficiency.

You have sacrificed 20 points of your Dodge proficiency.

You have sacrificed 10 points each of your Running, Swimming, and Hiking proficiencies.

Once again I concentrated, drawing on the depths of my knowledge. Again, the spell took shape, and I felt Lifesteal fade away as an ability, but I held onto the vital essence of the skill that still had a home in my spirit. It was like cutting off a finger. I’d severed it, but it was still in front of me. And it would even stay alive for a while before it withered and died.

At first, everything went smoothly. New power filled the void the skill had left, and it slowly took shape into a new ability. I read the flow of mana and felt a bad tingle run up my spine. My instincts were telling me I wasn’t going to get what I wanted.

I realized the new ability was transforming into some sort of ranged healing power. While it was clearly much more powerful than my original Lifesteal power, it wasn’t what I was looking for. Losing this power would cramp my ability to fight up close and personal, so I couldn’t afford to finish this evolution and accept an unsuitable skill.

Before, I might have been helpless against this sort of thing. Now, I reached into my own spirit with all the powers of a Kindling Architect and heaved. It felt like prying apart two magnets that really wanted to slap together with all the force they could muster. I needed to slow the process down and introduce a new variable. I needed something that would push it back in the direction I wanted, but what?

Ted’s book was the closest thing on hand, so I used telekinesis to flip through the pages.

“Come on... I know I saw a page on lifeforce somewhere...” I muttered as pages flew by. Eventually, I landed on what I needed and started reading from it aloud.

“The bonds between people are both powerful and precious, especially the bond between man and woman. This bond is strengthened through...” As I continued to read, I sensed my words having some effect on the constrained spell as it evolved. It was shifting in my direction, but not nearly fast enough. I needed to give it another shove.

You’ve sacrificed 10 points of your Taunt proficiency.

You’ve sacrificed 10 points of your Focus proficiency.

You’ve sacrificed 30 points of your Life Mana proficiency.

New prompts flickered by as I furiously sacrificed proficiency points to save my precious skill. Meanwhile, I continued reading aloud from Ted’s book. Slowly but surely, I felt the skill that had been Lifesteal moving back in the direction I wanted.

Eventually, the sharp and nervous tingling running up my spine turned into something far more pleasant, and later to something that felt good. I realized this was as close to perfect as I was going to get and I let the process finish.

Lifesteal (Common) has evolved to Lifeforce Absorption (Epic)

Lifeforce Absorption grants the user the ability to bind two bodies together through a connection in the soul. This connection can be used to either help or harm the target.

When I was done, I realized I had something workable. A few tests outside against my monster farm’s specters proved that the ability had retained the lifesteal ability I was so fond of, and had even boosted its effectiveness a bit.

The healing portion of the ability was harder to test. I didn’t want to disturb Mimiko and Reluna from their important work, so I knocked on the sunken barn and asked one of the goblins inside for assistance.

“Chief?” asked a small squat goblin, though not nearly as small and squat as I remembered. This guy seemed like the runt of the group, and he still had to duck to fit under the barn entrance. I didn’t have wild goblins to compare with, but I was pretty sure mine were about twice the size as when I found them. I blamed malnutrition. Even Bridget’s cast-offs were probably better food than whatever wild goblins could scrounge up.

“I need you to cut yourself with this knife,” I told the goblin.

He accepted the knife with trepidation, then pointed it at his own heart.

"Blood for the blood--" the goblin began, but I snatched the knife before he skewered himself fatally.

“Not there. Just a finger prick will do. Here, I’ll do it.” I took the knife and gave the goblin a poke. Then I placed a hand on his head and forged a Lifeforce Absorption with him. It was a weak and tenuous connection, but it was there. Then I blasted one of the specters with one of my new Mana Arsenal projectiles.

Instantly, the wound on the goblin’s hand closed.

“Thanks, you can go,” I said, tossing the goblin a snack for his trouble. He took his prize and retreated into the sunken barn while I contemplated what I’d experienced. There had been a pretty substantial healing effect on the goblin. More than that, though, I felt like most of the healing effect had been lost through the flimsy tether I had with that particular goblin.

The same ability used on Mimiko or Reluna would likely have been far more powerful. And something used on Cyra, Myrina, Sakura, or Bridget would be stronger still, especially when combined with Lifeforce Tether. I hadn't ever pictured myself becoming the team healer, but with this combination of abilities I probably could play that role, at least as long as I was dealing damage.

I got a few more hours of practice in with my new skill when Reluna and Mimiko finally burst out the door to my house. Each of them raced in my direction, eager to be the first to arrive at my side.

“We finished!” they both said simultaneously, each glaring at the other.

I blasted another specter as a smile spread across my face. “Really? Well then, why don’t you two show me what you’ve accomplished?”


<Note>
Someday, Carter will remember to pay the goblins.

Also, I haven't forgotten about Chief Wubwub. Eventually, I'll find a good time to bring him back.

(He was the goblin chief from book 1 who ran off with his warrior goblins when Carter defeated him.)