by Dakota Krout
Chapter Twenty-Eight
His blood was still running down his back, and there was a shallow pool of it on the top of the stone. Because of this surplus, the circle he created in an attempt to bind the bear was more like an oval, but even so, Andre had high hopes for taking the next step. The Cave Bear was weakened, it couldn’t struggle out of the circle, and its personal mana pool had run dry. The conditions were perfect. “Hope this works… I’ve got the theory down, but never had a chance to test it before. I’m sure you understand.”
“Bind by Blood!” The Druid roared in agony as the wound on his back popped open and a surge of fresh blood joined what had been added previously. His freshly regenerated mana pool plunged; blood and power circled the bear in two distinct circles before joining together into a purple stream. Symbols and runes formed as Andre’s hands rapidly formed seals, the apparent ease actually the product of a decade of study and practice. The circle shrank, moving from surrounding the entire bear to wrapping around its head like a crown.
Then it sank into the bear’s flesh, and the bear fell unconscious.
Binding successful! Cave Bear (T3, level 8, Male) has been bound!
Would you like to name this creature?
“Name him Arthur.” Andre sighed in relief as the binding took hold. Elation started to flow through him: he was officially a Druid of the Second Circle! Since he had started with one at this rank, he could get two more. Should he get a bird so he could have a scout? Maybe a pet, too, he could use some companionship. He stiffened as a new question appeared, one that his mentor had never hinted about.
Erase the mind of the creature to impose your own will, or imprint the creature?
“I don’t understand the difference?”
Erasing the mind will allow you to have perfect control of your bound creature. However, the creature will not take actions on its own. It will need to relearn all instincts over time.
By imprinting the creature, you will make it impossible for the bound being to attack you, but it will be up to you to convince it to follow your orders.
“Imprint.” Andre ordered firmly, the mana shifting into a new configuration on Arthur’s head as soon as he spoke. “I only wanted to get past this thing in the first place.”
Imprinting. Congratulations! You have imprinted a living creature! You have gained the qualifications of a Druid of the Second Circle!
You have gained Potentia: 2,200. (1,200 exp pulled from ‘Arthur’, 1,000 exp from your Kingdom by achieving the Second Circle while still in training! Make them look good, and the profit will continue!)
“Xan never explained how the Sigil can give us exp…” Andre squinted suspiciously at the text hovering in the air. “I bet they hold back on what they allow us to use after we gain it, or siphon it off somewhere.”
There was nothing he could do about that, so he simply decided to tend to his new bear companion. With a thought, all the plants fell off the bear’s body, taking most of the debris with it. Andre poured some fungus on the thickest sap and stimulated its growth, and in moments, the bear was covered in rapidly-growing, sap-eating mushrooms. He left it there to recover and climbed carefully to the ground. “Time to go look at the rewards!”
It was highly unlikely that there was going to be anything deeper in the cave. If there had been something stronger than the bear, well… Arthur would have been eaten. Anything weaker than Arthur would have also been eaten, but by the bear. “Ah, nature at work.”
Andre shook off his thoughts and reminded himself that this all came together to indicate a safe trip deeper into the cave. He entered the rocky enclosure, finding that the cave was as beautiful as he had expected it to be. After he had sidestepped all the bones and offal that the bear had left at the entrance, he started looking for the plant that was practically calling out to him. The fluctuations were reaching a peak, which meant that the breakthrough was about to happen. He picked up the pace, finding that there was a huge network of tunnels hidden by the cave entrance. Without the energy guiding him, Andre would have become lost very quickly.
He dropped glowmoss as he jogged along so that he could find his way back, and soon he came upon a huge, almost entirely empty, underground cavern. There was a soft sound of running water, and a single crack in the cavern high above allowed a stream of natural light in. This light fell upon a single flower, which was glowing both from the sun as well as the energy building up within it.
Andre slowed down as he stared at the beautiful golden flower. He could tell that its petals were normally white, but at the moment, all of it was gold. “What are you?”
There was clearly not going to be an answer, and Andre needed to make a choice. If he bound this flower right now, he would be able to pull out all the accumulated Potentia it had stored up. Breaking the tier limit meant that it was just reaching level ten in whatever tier it was in. Thanks to Bind by Blood, all of that pure Potentia could be his, right now. Or, he could see what the transformation would accomplish, and bind the flower after it had gone up in power.
It was a tough call, but he decided that he would let the process finish. He surrounded the flower with a binding circle and waited. Hours later, just before the last of the natural light vanished, all the fluctuations coming from the flower stopped suddenly. The golden light faded away, leaving a milk-white bloom. Then, red started to color the white of the petals, stopping halfway up each of the delicate corolla. As soon as the process ended, Andre bound the flower. He had been expecting resistance, a denial, a full-on magical fight. Instead, he swam through a feeling of gratitude as the flower bound to him. The plant was quasi-intelligent!
“Why do I get the feeling that this is thanks for not taking the Potentia?” he muttered uneasily. Plants, even magical-ish ones, had never sent along a concept like gratitude. It was far too alien for their instinctual lives. Intelligence in a plant indicated power. Dangerous, deadly, focused power. “Let’s see what you are…”
“I…! That’s not possible! I don’t understand… how… what?”
Sanctuary Lily (T10). This is the final form of a Peace Lily that has lived through a massive outpouring of death. After absorbing enough blood, the Peace Lily becomes a War Lily, a Lily of the Valley, a Plains Lily, a Death Lily, then finally, a Sanctuary Lily.
Would you like to see the ability of the Sanctuary Lily?
“Yes!” Andre shouted instantly, his eyes scanning across every word that crossed his vision.
This flower has seen peace, war, the rising and falling of the world around it, and become death for thousands by draining the life, mana, and Potentia from all living things around it for decades.
Sanctuary Lily (T10, level 0), Full Domain: Harmonious existence. This Lily will only bind, or remain bound, with something that has not directly killed any sentient being. Any living being which enters the area of its domain will have their bodies and mana held in a harmonious state, unable to stimulate either in a way that would intentionally harm or kill another, as well as being unable to deteriorate.
This does not impact the bound Druid. As the flower’s master, you are able to use your abilities to their fullest.
Domain size: 1 kilometer per level.
“I have a domain?” Andre fell to the floor, his mind weirdly whirling. When an ability, or apparently a plant, reached tier ten; all the other abilities that it had evolved over time became fused into a single ‘domain’ that perfectly controlled the area around it. There were higher evolutions, but those were things that only Paragons would likely ever see. Something at tier eleven could only be controlled by a Paragon, and even then, it was… unlikely. Most of the time, natural treasures that reached that point of development were incomparably violent. “Hah…! A Druid of the Second Circle has a domain.”
Seeing that the Sanctuary Lily had just changed from a Death Lily that drained the life out of everything in a large space around it, the desolate badlands surrounding this area - a place where nothing could grow - made much more s
ense. It was likely that if Andre had come here sooner in the life cycle of this treasure, or drained away the accumulated Potentia to get stronger, it would have reverted to eating him in return to empower itself. “All right. I can’t kill anything sentient. That’s the first rule. Good thing that I have the ability to gain Potentia in other ways…”
“I can use my mana to damage others, and I can use it to grow things, but no one else can do anything harmful in the domain?” Andre threw a handful of glowmoss up, controlling it as it landed on the ceiling. Mana poured out of him, and the patch of moss rapidly grew until it covered the entire ceiling and provided a soft twilight. “That’s a ‘yes’, then. I wonder what it means by ‘unable to deteriorate’? Can people not die in the area of effect?”
A few attempts later, the young Druid found that he couldn’t give any Potentia to the Lily. That was settled, at least. The Domain would need to grow naturally over the years, decades, or centuries. On the positive side, if there was one thing an Ascender had, it was time.
“I’m going to need to get on good terms with Arthur, and then start bringing life back to this area.” Andre briefly pondered how he kept getting projects that made him start from nothing and shrugged. He might as well get good at doing it: the Scarroco desert stretched for hundreds of miles. Anything he could do now to refine that upcoming process could potentially save him decades. “Interesting… I need to reform the life above this area, but I could start by making this entire subterranean network into a hidden grove.”
“That means I would need to find or breed plants that can handle the dark. Then I need plants that can live in sparse soil for a long time before I transition to larger and more stable plants. Night plants, regular plants. Animals, too; gonna need to build an entire ecosystem. Eventually gonna have to do the land as well, if I want a true foothold for myself and my Kingdom.” He scratched his beard and looked up at the rocky, moss-covered ‘sky’.
“I have no idea why this sort of thing is appealing to me. All I’m doing is making my life harder than it needs to be. I shouldn’t take on so many decade-spanning projects.” Even though he said those words, Andre was beaming at the rocky ground that had nothing in it beyond a single flower. “All right, I’ve decided. It’s a fixer-upper, but it looks like I’ve found my new Grove.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Taylor -
“Taylor, you are six years into your training, and I still have to look over your shoulder to make sure that you are doing what I tell you to do.” Master Don’s voice was calm and collected, but it still made Taylor shiver to hear his admonishing words.
She had seen all too much of what Master Don was like. Over the years, the veneer of being a good person had faded, and faded… until one day he had just given up all pretenses. The Archmage wanted out of his deal with the Kingdom, and the only way that he was going to be able to focus on Ascending was to stay in the World of Names at all times... and place her in charge of his responsibilities. “Master, the issue isn't that I don’t want to listen. The problem is that you are looking over my shoulder. Look at this wreck of a man.”
Taylor waved her hand at the etiquette trainer that Don had brought in to train her. He was shaking like a leaf, and had soiled himself again. “He’s terrified of you, and every time you appear, we lose an hour’s worth of our time. Cleanse, Purify? Fix him up again.”
The stench roiling from the rumpled, sweating man vanished even as his clothes smoothed themselves. Taylor nodded as her spells came back to swirl around her, acting like small dogs that needed attention. Master Don looked at the trainer and softly asked, “Is that true? Am I the issue, or is Taylor not paying attention as she should be?”
“M-m-master D-don, there is no way that you-” No more words got out of his mouth before Master Don had grabbed his neck with his left hand and had a sparkling icicle pointed at the man’s eye with the other.
“There is no call for lying to me, Rupert,” Master Don practically whispered. “I have trained Taylor personally, and if you think I don’t know exactly what she is capable of… hmm. Tell you what? I haven’t ever hurt you. But if you fail to train her properly, I will. I will hurt you. You won’t even remember why you are in pain for the rest of your life. Do the job you are supposed to do, and this will only be a dream. You’ll have a week of your time vanish from your memory, and a fat sack of gold to retire with. How does that sound?”
“S-s-so generous!” Rupert managed not to faint, his own personal training the only thing allowing him to remain conscious. Master Don nodded and walked out of the room that they were staying in, and the man started shaking.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Cleanse, go on out again.”
After Rupert was cleaned up, he started teaching Taylor with a vengeance. Classes had been on-again-off-again over the last few days, but now he was motivated to focus. Taylor appreciated this. When Master Don was watching her as carefully as he had been the last few days, she couldn’t make progress.
She had thrown the Archmage’s training program away long ago, but she had still been exceeding expectations. Still, she wanted her methods and secrets to stay secret. As Rupert babbled, Taylor pulled up her status to see what had changed in the six years she had been training.
CAL Scan
Level: 7
Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 2/3,400 to level 8!
Body: 4.15
Fitness: 5.2
Resistance: 3.1
Mind: 12.15
Talent: 13.1
Capacity: 11.2
Presence: 3.4
Willpower: 4.7
Charisma: 2.1
Senses: 20.05
Physical reaction: 20.8
Mental energy: 19.3
Health: 81
Mana: 214
Mana regen: 3.5 per second
Spells
T1: 2
T3: 2
T4: 1
See full listing?
Flame Lance, Shatter Shot, Purify, Cleanse, and Nullify. Against the orders of Master Don, she hadn’t taken on any other spells than these. Taylor chose only to look at what had once been Shatter and Fireball, the only two offensive spells to which she currently had access. Thanks to dedicating herself to these two spells, she had brought both of them up a tier and evolved their next spell traits.
Flame Lance (T3): 0/500 to level 4! Mana cost: 12
Effect 1: Create a ball of fire that detonates for 10 fire damage within a ten-foot sphere centered on impact. To cast, the full chant of ‘Fireball, heed my call, burn the world, burn it all,’ must be used.
Bonus 1, at range: The ball of fire can now be used at range, up to thirty feet. Damage becomes 10+5n fire damage, where n = spell level. (Starts at T2)
Effect 2: This spell can be used as a single-target spell. If it is, the damage is doubled, as is the mana cost. A chant is no longer needed to cast this spell.
Shatter Shot (T3): 0/500 to level 4! Mana cost: 10
Effect 1: Create a spike of ice that chills the target, dealing 5 ice damage and 5 force damage. To cast, the full chant of ‘Destruction, neither frost nor force, the best of both. Shatter,’ must be used.
Bonus 1, at range: The spike can now be used at range, up to twenty feet. Damage becomes 10+(2.5i+2.5f)n damage, where i = ice damage, f = force damage, and n = spell level. (Starts at T2)
Effect 2: This spell can be preemptively shattered to create shrapnel that flies out in a cone for ten feet. If it is shattered before landing, only the ice damage is applied. A chant is no longer needed to cast this spell.
Raising these spells to their current rank and level had cost her almost the entirety of the Potentia that she had gained, but she unraveled spells - how they described forcing the spells to respawn - so often and casually now that she had been able to bring her personal level to seven. It still made her grit her teeth in anger that she wasn’t able to improve herself faster. Master Don kept bringing her to more dangerous areas to force her to find ‘creati
ve’ ways to survive, and if her spells were too weak to unravel her opponent, she would get killed.
“…which brings us to the newest addition to the… the lineage of the Royal family, Crown Prince Vir! He stands to gain the throne of his father, and oh, Celestials above, please be paying attention. I don't want to get an icicle through the eye!” Rupert muttered these last words when he saw the far-away look in Taylor’s eyes.
“Rupert, I can repeat verbatim every word that you’ve said in my presence since you arrived.” Taylor grumped at him, forced to look away from her status. “Relax. I am the best student you will ever have.”
“And so humble.” Rupert scathingly retorted, turning to the board he was writing the royal genealogy on. But when he faced it, Taylor was already in front of him, inches from his face. He screeched and jumped back, “Ah! How did you-”
“Rupert. Whether I like it or not, I am the next Archmage. Don has already told you that your time here will basically have been a dream. But, when I leave here, I will remember everything about my time. Everything. Keep that in mind.” Her words were perfectly inflected, respectful, and in accordance with the etiquette she was learning.
Even still, Rupert’s eyes were rolling around, and he seemed faint again. The elderly instructor frantically nodded and bowed several times. “Is there any training method you prefer; anything that I can do to help with your absorption of this information?”
Taylor appreciated his shift in his attitude, and decided to be as direct as possible. “Yes. I need all of the information that you have. I can remember it all, I just need it in front of me. After that, we will work on anything else that is required. Utensils for salad, how low to bow or curtsy, any dances that I will need to know, proper forms of addressing each member of the Noble class. Give me the information. Expect that I will understand it and be able to put it into practice immediately. Save your snark and your casual dismissal for the Noble brats that you usually have to train.”
