Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 52

Training Quest Completed!

• Your Death Defier title has been significantly improved and provides massive bonuses to leadership. Also provides bonuses for resisting non-categorized energies. It also provides bonuses to vitality.

• Your Death Curse will be significantly less likely to lure in monsters in inconvenient circumstances, scaling off luck. Provides an experience bonus for monsters slain to you and your party, proportional to monster experience.

• Your reputation with the System has increased massively, granting you and anyone aligned with you increased access to rare training quests and growth opportunities.
  

You have gained the following new titles:

Masterful Craftsman (Epic)

• Your familiarity with masterwork-level magical constructs is profound, and any masterwork-level magical creations that stand at the pinnacle of their grade will be further enhanced.

Savage Conqueror (Uncommon)

• +50 Strength, +50 Vitality.

• It grants increased resistance to venom and a greater ability to detect surprise attacks.

Wildlands Explorer (Uncommon)

• +50 Agility, +50 Perception.

• Attacks from ambush are much less likely to deal a lethal wound.

Purger of the Unclean (Uncommon)

• +25 Charisma, +25 Luck.

• Grants Higher Resistance to Undead Energies and Necrotic attacks. Also grants resistance to being turned into an undead after death.

Your affinity for Life Mana has massively increased. +100 Life Mana proficiency.

Your affinity for all other mana aspects has moderately increased. +25 to all mana proficiencies.

You have been granted the following additional stat points:

• +50 Charisma, +50 Luck, +100 vitality

Your class, Sage of Forbidden Knowledge, has reached level 180!

Your race, Homo Fatum, has reached 179!

Your final quest was long and hard, but you not only survived but completed your goal and left behind broken hearts and a realm of powerful heroes that will be stable for generations to come!

You may select one of the following for your reward:

Scepter of Domination (Legendary)

• This scepter catches the awe of all who see it, and all are drawn to its wielder’s words and deeds. With it, a peasant can become a king, and a king can become a god.

• This item class is normally restricted within System space, but a special exception will be granted for your use alone.

System-Designated Species Uplifting (Legendary)

• This title designates you one of the System’s greatest problem-solvers, worthy of great reward and care. Upon selection of this title, you will be immediately killed and reincarnated on the world of Administratum, a peak A-Grade world and inhabited by the Architect race, the closest thing to current day descents of the System’s creators. Your new race will grant you incredible bonuses, and you will be incarnated into a family of esteem and influence, capable of managing hundreds of integrated worlds and solving critical problems to ensure the System’s continued existence.

• Warning: While as much of your soul and memories as can be preserved will be saved, retention of personality or identity are not guaranteed.

Blood of Heroes (Legendary)

• Yours is the blood of champions, paragons, and demigods, and all who inherit it shall be exceptional in their own way. This will bring out your greatest talents and enhance them beyond what is otherwise possible. Your specific bloodline bonuses will be related to your personal feats.

• Warning: You already possess a bloodline. Accepting this bloodline will cause the two to react in unforeseen ways.

I looked over the rewards the System offered me, and immediately the right choice seemed obvious. The scepter was powerful, but it seemed like it was basically a mind control item. The System was offering me an exception to being able to use it, which meant its use was normally forbidden.

And as I’d learned from that wizard healer I killed, sometimes things were forbidden for a reason. I suspected the scepter would be more trouble than it was worth. I could easily see a few right-thinking factions calling up a crusade to cleanse Crownhill of the mind-controlling evil tyrant who’d taken control of it.

The uplifting one was even worse. Essentially, I’d die. And while my soul would be reborn into a cushy next life, that was little help to me in the here and now. Especially when I had so many people counting on me. Still, hearing about these Architects was of interest to me. Lyra, the elf I had seen after I died, had mentioned she worked under an administrator. Given the name of the world, I couldn’t help but notice similarities.

Naturally, the only logical choice was the final one, Blood of Heroes. Taking it would be a gamble, so perhaps it wasn’t the wisest course of action, but I’d been known to be pretty lucky now and again. Still, I was fond of my Fate Harbinger bloodline, and I’d be very sad if this broke it.

But then I thought of the Samhain Clan and how their incredible Amazonian bloodline had carved out an empire for them across the Arcadia Multiverse. Perhaps this could do the same for my children, assuming I pulled through this integration.

So I made my choice. The System flashed another waiting screen in front of me, and then suddenly all I knew was pain.

I woke up feeling different. If I’d been born with my Fate Harbinger bloodline, I wouldn’t have known what it was, but my experiences meant I could pick out the change even before looking at my status sheet.

Fate Harbinger (Mythic) has evolved to Fateforged Hero (Divine)

• You are a shaper of destiny, and the fate of worlds turn on your axis. World-shaping events will be far more likely to occur in your presence, and you will have innate sense that draws you to important people or locations. Your danger sense has been vastly enhanced, and your instincts can seek out even the smallest opportunity to leverage to your advantage, making you exceedingly difficult to kill.

• Your metaphysical weight is enormous, and curses will have a difficult time exerting their effects on you. Any who inherit this bloodline are destined to become a hero whose legend shall echo through the ages, assuming they live long enough to make use of it. This effect scales with luck.

• People are naturally drawn to your aura and will find themselves eager to place themselves at your side, either as a companion or a lover. You are a natural hero, and those who align themselves with you may find themselves caught up in your conflagration of fate, rising as you rise and guided by your destiny. This effect scales with charisma.

• As a Fateforged Hero, your greatest abilities are those of a hero. The next time you enhance your core ability, the effects of your bloodline will make themselves known.

I blinked away the description. It seemed like fortune was on my side with the bloodline upgrade. The description, at least, made it seem like I had lost none of the core abilities I liked, and that now they had a little more momentum behind them. I was also glad to see my bloodline could extend to my companions more with these upgrades. When the day came that I finally made good on that promise to give Bridget a child, they’d have some big shoes to fill.

And the bloodline would hopefully impress the Samhain Clan. From the sound of things, anyone that had it would be caught up in important events whether they wanted them or not. That was part of the reason I’d gotten my old Mythic bloodline. Myrina had really liked that one, so a divine bloodline was even better. The bloodline I'd merged with my old one had been legendary, so this one was even rarer.

The one thing that interested me was the promised enhancement to my core ability. What was that?

I looked over my status screen again, checking to see if anything was labeled in that way. But no, my abilities were listed in the usual manner.

That would be another thing to ask about. Hopefully, Myrina or Reluna would know, though this seemed more like a Cyra thing.

The thought of Cyra brought a heavy feeling to my heart. I’d been gone for a month on that last quest. It would have been three months in the Mucaria pocket realm due to time dilation. Had I already missed the time to make my plan happen?

I stood in the wilderness near the dungeon entrance where the System swept me away. Unfortunately, there was no one present at the moment, though I suspected there was already a party in the dungeon.

So I ran all the way home as fast as my legs could carry me. These days, that was pretty fast. Along the way, I stopped in Crownhill, and I was lucky I had, since that was where most of my companions were. Someone on the wall must have spotted me coming this way because Bridget was waiting for me with wide open arms.

“You’re back already, Carter! And here I thought we’d get to finish redecorating and surprise you.” Bridget spread her arms wide, a smile on her face.

I wrapped her up in a hug that swept her off her feet. I planted a few kisses on her neck and cheek in the process.

“Missed me, did you? Well, I missed you too.” Bridget giggled, then she returned my kiss.

“What day is it?” I asked when I finally pulled away from her.

“It’s Thursday. You vanished just under three days ago.”

Three days? I frowned. That couldn’t be right. Could it?

Eowyn’s world had been a pocket realm of some kind, of that I was fairly certain. But the only pocket world I knew of was the Mucaria pocket realm, and people thought highly of its threefold time differential.

If Eowyn’s world ran twenty-five times faster than normal, that wasn’t just impressive, that was downright freakish. Sure, it was a tiny realm compared to Mucaria, and it was almost devoid of magic, but the sheer rate at which time flowed was incredible.

Maybe that was why the Chaos Gods wanted it so much. If they were gathering faith energy, they’d get twenty-five times as much from a pocket world like that one. The same would be true for new cultists or sacrifices they might get from it.

Bridget led me to Sakura and Myrina, and we returned home so I could share my adventure with them in full. Even Reluna slid in to join us. She’d been sticking close to my ladies as of late. I was glad of that, since she was well suited to filling in any gaps about the Arcadia Multiverse Myrina left when she explained things.

“So tell us more about Eowyn, the prince who was actually a princess.” Bridget leaned her head against my shoulder, eyelids heavy like I was reading her a bedtime story.

“Yes, that was interesting. I think High Priestess Calista and her were competing for your heart,” Reluna leaned closer and probably would have pressed herself against my other shoulder if Myrina and Sakura weren’t already wrestling for the other position.

It was a shame, really. The ladies had looted an enormous set of plush couches and sofas to surround the castle’s main fireplace, but instead of using them, they all were perched atop the arms and back of the single-piece recliner I was sitting in.

“The important part was the Chaos Gods. They wanted to take over the place using their appointed Demon King. I think it was because of the incredible time differential and--“

Bridget poked me in the chest. “No no no... back! You’re not telling the story right. What did you feel when you locked eyes with Eowyn for the first time?”

“Hmf. This Eowyn and High Priestess Calista were lucky I didn’t get summoned too...” Sakura grumbled as she nuzzled against my shoulder.

With a sigh, I began the story again, this time with all the details from start to finish. Telling the tale took two hours, but I wasn’t nearly as pressed for time as I thought, given the time differential rate I’d just experienced.

I also got a few of the answers I’d been hoping for out of Reluna.

“Yes, the low magic you experienced was probably a tradeoff to the high time dilation rate. And no, I’m afraid it is extremely difficult to find the entrance to a given pocket realm. It could be floating in empty space, in the belly of a void beast, or locked in some wizard’s laboratory. That teleportation array you gave out might make the search easier, but instead of looking for a grain of sand in a hay bale, now you’re only looking for a needle.” Reluna flashed me an apologetic look.

“That’s a shame. Seems like you had a lot of fun there. And with a time differential like that, you could show up and rampage across the whole realm in a weekend! Then, in a couple years, when they thought your previous rampage was just myths and legends and they’ve rebuilt all their castles, you could show up and do it again!” Myrina let out a mischievous giggle.

“If we find Eowyn’s pocket world, nobody let Myrina in alone.” I chuckled. “Anyway, I haven’t told you all about my quest rewards! I have a fancy new bloodline. You’ll be interested in this, Bridget.”

I shared my new bloodline description with all of them, including Reluna.

“This is awesome!” Myrina grinned.

“Any child of ours will have big shoes to fill,” Bridget said.

“This is alarming. If what I’ve heard of bloodlines is true, half the women in the Arcadia Multiverse will want to be impregnated by you. We must keep this secret.” Sakura combed her fingers through my hair possessively.

“Sakura is right,” Reluna said in agreement. “Legendary bloodlines are incredibly rare, and I'm not sure I've ever even heard the description for a Divine rarity one. Especially not one with such a flexible description. Imagine having a hero of alchemy in the same clan as a hero of battle and a hero of leadership? Such a clan would be able to diversify to a far greater degree than most other clans with powerful bloodlines. Perhaps you're giving up a bit of raw power for that level of flexibility, but it still sounds like the foundation of an extraordinary clan.”

“Sakura is right? Lame... I wanted to rub Carter's shiny new bloodline in everyone's faces.” Myrina grumbled. She received a playful punch on the shoulder from my oni lover a moment later, and soon the two of them were back to wrestling over who got to claim my right side.

They tumbled to the floor, and Reluna gracefully slipped into their vacated spot.

“Though one thing bothers me about this description. It claims your core skill will be enhanced. I’ve rarely seen such terminology used. Have you identified what your bloodline considers your core skill?” Reluna asked.

I frowned, pinching my brow. “Maybe Corrupting Mark? I use those all the time.”

But as soon as I voiced the words aloud, I knew it wasn’t right. My bloodline-given instincts just didn’t agree with that line of thought.

“Mana Bolt? Shadowrealm Stride?” I quickly spoke the names of all my most common abilities, but none felt right.

“I think you’re forgetting one, dear! Our favorite spell of yours...” Bridget’s fingers crawled down my chest to the loop of my pants. It had been an entire month since I’d been with my three ladies, and I’d been busy throughout the entire series of training quests. I hadn’t been able to sneak off for some alone time even once, so just the gentle touch of Bridget’s fingertips was enough to get me going.

Still, I laughed off her suggestion. “My core most skill couldn’t possibly be Fabulous Phallus.”

I felt my bloodline tingle with delight, and I knew without a doubt that I was wrong.

And so my companions reacted with great glee when I told them what ability I was about to upgrade.

<Note>
Might buff the bloodline in editing. Feels like it should be more than baseline legendary, but I'm not so sure people remember the Divine rank I briefly introduced.

Could also have it listed as a suppressed bloodline or something. Haven't decided yet.

But the point is that all Carter's kids will be Primarchs.

Edit: Just ended up making the bloodline Divine and adding a little reminder that it is higher than Legendary. I think that's the simplest thing to do.