The Land: Monsters
Page 11
Pity those who are caught in the web of such a being. A byproduct of this gradient will be that other chaotic creatures and energies will be drawn to whoever possesses this aura. The strength of this attraction is proportional to the grade of an individual’s aura, with stronger auras attracting weaker.
This Aura has 7 grades: Paltry, Lesser, Weak, Moderate, Strong, Greater and Grand
Paltry – Potentially affects your life path and immediate surroundings
Lesser – Occasionally affects your immediate surroundings
Weak – Regularly affects your immediate surroundings and those you have prolonged contact with
Moderate – Affects your nearby surroundings. The strings of fate will twist to bring change to your life and the lives of others. All auras of this rank or higher exhibit a constant effect.
Strong – Affects a large area around you, measured in miles. Your aura is also not bound by physical proximity, and word of your deeds or objects you have interacted with can change the lives and fates of others
Greater – Constant effect on a massive area. Your aura can affect entire civilizations, given enough time and the right circumstances.
Grand – Your aura transcends time. Your existence ripples through the past and future, changing the fates of all.
Reading about the aura, a great many things started to make sense. He had only been in The Land for half a year, and yet he had already accomplished so much. He’d had to fight tooth-and-nail just to survive, but the dangers that had come his way had also let him become powerful. He’d waged wars, revived an ancient race and brought wonders to his village that hadn’t been seen in millennia. The fact that he had this aura finally explained why he always seemed to be at the epicenter of events. The Hearth Mother had suspected something very similar for a while. Knowing that he was literally attracting and warping the threads of fate, not just for himself but instead for entire civilizations, was mind-boggling.
There was also an implication to this that he didn’t like. He realized that without his aura he probably wouldn’t have been able to accomplish nearly as much as he had, but it also meant he was a threat to those around him. The prompt said as much. “Pity those who are caught in the web of such a being.” His aura wasn’t even the strongest grade, yet it could affect entire civilizations. The implications and responsibilities of that were intense. How many deaths was he responsible for that he didn’t even know about?
Richter immediately stopped that line of thought. There was no point in guessing. He could just as well ask himself how many lives he’d saved simply by breathing. Maybe one of the people he’d personally killed would have had a son that grew up to be the next Jack the Ripper. Maybe they would have grown up to be the next Ghandi. There was no way to know. Which meant it was a waste of energy worrying about it.
Hell, even the Doctor hadn’t understood time completely. If that was true, then it was definitely beyond his ability to do so. Richter focused on what he knew. That was all any man could do, and far better than most managed. Carrying guilt over things he could not control was a fool’s choice. No one made it through life unscathed. No one made it through life with causing at least some destruction. No matter what unintended consequences he created, he was a damn sight better than the bastards that actively worked to make the world worse every day.
Whatever his sins, he wasn’t one of them, so beating himself up was kind of self-indulgent BS. So far, he’d done a lot more good than harm. After thinking about that, he shrugged. To be fair, that was probably a matter of perspective. The goblins, bugbears and undead he’d slaughtered would probably disagree. On the other hand, fuck those guys.
It wasn’t the unknown that bothered him about his aura. It was the fact that he and other chaos seeds would be attracting each other. That was a recipe for a straight up Highlander “there can be only one” situation. Not only that, but because he had the next-to-strongest ranked aura, he’d be pulling in virtually every other chaos seed out there. The reason he’d only encountered one was probably because the Mist village was a South-Parky mountain town in the middle of nowhere, but now he knew it was only a matter of time before he met more. That thought made his blood run cold.
His life had been insane and filled with blood and gore ever since coming to The Land. One of the craziest people was that bastard Heman though. The man had abilities that made him an insane threat. For all he knew, the next chaos seed he met could be stronger. Richter gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw thinking about Heman. That guy had been such an asshole.
All he could do was get stronger as fast as he could. He’d already resolved to do that because the worst of The Land seemed to be gunning for him and his village. Now it looked like he’d have to deal with the worst of Earth too. Gah! This shouldn’t be how this worked. This shouldn’t be how any of this worked! Richter sighed heavily. He just had to hope the next chaos seed he pulled into his orbit wasn’t such a raging douche nozzle.
He turned his attention back to the statues in front of him.
Know This! Ascending to a Tier 2 existence allows a being to harness and utilize the power of a Bloodline. Most ascended beings cannot utilize this power but, for the fortunate few, this offers a path to much greater power.
Richter focused on the bold word and a further explanation appeared.
Bloodline – The power and legacy inherent in the blood of a creature, most often left over from a powerful progenitor
What was that supposed to mean? Would he have the power of a chimp? Or did it mean he was unlocking some power hidden inside himself? Maybe something that had been present the whole time, but sleeping? It raised interesting possibilities. Not only for himself, but for his villagers. Just what hidden power might be sleeping in his sprite best friend for instance? Or inside of a chamberlain who was half-elemental? The diversity of his village had been difficult to navigate several times since the settlement was founded, but now that very same variety guaranteed a better chance of his people manifesting useful powers… With this new bit of Lore, Richter’s heart thumped in excitement. He had to get back!
First things first though. There were more windows waiting to be read.
Know This! Choosing a path of ascendance does not guarantee success. Each path available to you is based on your nature, experiences and Potential. Some Paths of Ascendance will be better suited for you than others. Choose wisely!
You have found a common ranked evolution:
Tier 2 Human
This is the most basic and quotidian evolution of a Tier 1 Human. The racial tendency of humans to have a broad affinity for many skills is strengthened. Skills are learned 25% faster and affinities are randomly increased by up to 30%.
Maximum life expectancy is increased to 250 years.
As with all evolutions, many other factors will be affected by your ascension.
As a common class ascended form, there are 2 ranks of this evolution. You will begin at Rank 1. Advancing ranks will unlock greater power, and > 50% of ranks must be unlocked before Ascendance to a new form is possible.
Ascension Likelihood: 98%
Penalty for Failure: -1 point to each Primary Attribute, -1% chance at next Ascension attempt
Prerequisites: Level 45 Human. 1 Attribute over 50
Evolution Rank: 1
Changes if Tier 1 Human evolution is successful
Tier 1
Tier 2
Body
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Human
Mind
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Human
Soul
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Human
Special
Chaos Seed
Chaos Seed
Aura
Chaotic Gradient (Greater rank)
Chaotic Gradient (Greater rank)
Bloodline
N/A
No Cohesive Bloodline
10% Chance to Awaken a Bloodline with each level
&nb
sp; Attribute Bonus
N/A
+5 to all Primary Attributes
+10% to highest Primary Attribute
Some of the excitement Richter had been feeling faded. He’d thought that ascending a tier would make him a superhero. He’d been banking on it being his ticket to climbing out of the depths. This didn’t look like enough to ensure his survival. His mind, body and soul would advance to Tier 2, but he had no idea what that meant.
The only real change in becoming a Tier 2 human looked to be the attribute bonus. That was definitely a substantial boost. If all nine of his stats got +5, it would be like gaining seven levels all at once. That wasn’t even taking the 10% boost to his highest stat into account. From what Richter saw though, the real difference between being a Tier 1 and Tier 2 being was that ascending allowed you to use a bloodline, whatever that meant.
Even though he didn’t know the significance, he was absolutely certain that it mattered. If it was only available to Tier 2 and above, then what would happen when he ran into a Tier 2 enemy that did have a bloodline? For the first time, Richter felt like his natural gifts might be inadequate. His stats were stronger than regular humans’ because he gained 50% more points per level. Yet attributes weren’t everything.
He had no idea what bloodlines could do. Which meant he had no idea what powers an enemy might have that he couldn’t match. What if it let them spit acid or gave them diamond-hard skin? If he was going to ascend, he needed a Bloodline. It was obvious now that the stronger he got, the more challenge he invited. Without all the perks ascension could offer, he might be better off staying at a lower tier.
Richter was going to examine his other options, but first he examined the Tier 2 human’s physical appearance in greater detail. The figure looked just like him. Try as he might, he couldn’t really see any differences in this Tier 2 human.
The physical appearance of the avatar didn’t hold his attention long, so he turned his attention back to the chart. While he was still a bit disappointed by the absence of a bloodline, the evolution did increase his stats significantly. Attributes weren’t everything, but they were up there!
There were even nuances to each category that he used to not understand. Something Richter hadn’t known for several months after coming to The Land was that while attributes could give godlike powers, a lack of them could cause serious issues. There was a difference between Intelligence, which gave you mana and increased your spell power, and intellect, which was how smart you were. The two were related, however.
Increasing your Intelligence would increase your intellect in some small, barely detectable way, according to Hisako. What wasn’t hard to deduce was the impact of having attributes that were too low. Every race had a minimum value they had to meet in each of the nine or they would suffer a potentially debilitating debuff.
With low Intelligence, the person would be, simply put, a dummy. Low Strength would make them a weakling that anyone could slap around, and low Charisma would make you fugly and unlikeable. Low Luck was a bit harder to define, just like the benefits of high Luck, but you’d find things were always turning against you. You’d trip on every rock, get stung by every bee, and that hot chick you’d been scoping at the bar? She was a nun that somehow still had the clap.
The bare minimum for attributes varied from race to race. For an adult human, it was tens across the board. For sprites, the Strength requirement was only eight, but Dexterity had a demand of twelve. Every race seemed to have their own perfect balance. Now it seemed like he had learned another secret effect. The prompt hinted that there was a “correct” distribution of points to maximize a human’s lifespan. Did that mean there were other distributions that were detrimental, or gave other boons? It was something to research in the future.
What he did know was that +5 to all his stats would let him lift another hundred pounds. It would give another fifty points to health, mana and stamina, and provide many other bonuses to his other attributes. Perhaps more powerful than the +5 was the modifier to his highest attribute.
For Richter, that meant a 10% boost to his Intelligence. Coupled with the bonus from consuming the First Fruit of the Quickening, that was a permanent +20% increase to this attribute! Every attribute did many different things, but every point in Intelligence made his Basic Element spells 2% stronger and gave another ten points of mana.
The 10% boost to Intelligence wouldn’t matter much if his numbers were low, but in his case the modifier would be like being awarded an additional one to two levels-worth of free points. Intelligence was his highest attribute, so it would translate into more than a hundred mana points and a healthy boost to his spell power.
The extra points would also be a powerful boon even at level forty-five. Not enough to solve his current problem, admittedly, but certainly nothing to scoff at. When you factored in that humans gained four points per level, they would have gotten only one hundred and eighty free attribute points by the time they were eligible to ascend to the next tier. +5 to all attributes was forty-five points. That meant just for ascending their overall Attribute Points would increase by 25%! Just ascending would make a warrior hit harder, and a mage able to cast more spells.
Also, the basic description of a Tier 2 Human showed that a human’s innate bonus to learning a wide range of skills would be increased. Humans got less Attribute Points per level than most other races, but they also had a broader affinity for skills as a balance, if you could call it that. Choosing this path of ascendance seemed to lean into that.
A 25% boost to skill leveling was a serious boon. Coupled with his Fast Learner ability, which gave a 30% increase to his skill leveling and his Limitless ability, it would be enough to skyrocket him even when his skills reached higher ranks and leveling became more difficult. In fact, the boost to affinity might even get him free skill levels immediately. After eating the First Fruit of the Quickening, his affinity in Enchanting had gone above 100%. That had automatically earned him a free skill level, and had saved him weeks to months of effort.
Richter nodded to himself. Even this common-ranked ascended form would greatly increase anyone’s power. When he had first come to The Land, his nine primary attributes were all set at +10, giving him 90 points total. Even without the bonus to his highest stat, the +5 that evolving into a Tier 2 human was forty-five points. That was half his level one starting amount.
The first evolution could definitely be helpful. As great as it sounded though, it was only common ranked, so he turned his attention to the next figure. Walking forward, the sphere of light remained hovering in the air behind him.
The next figure was about seven yards further than the first one. He looked at Nexus as he walked over, still not trusting the powerful being. To his surprise, the Auditor was not even paying attention to him anymore. He was holding something that looked for all the world like an iphone, and his thumb was swiping right.
Shaking his head at the weird demigod, he examined the next figure. It looked like the last, but the top of its head was slightly larger.
You have found an Unusual-ranked evolution:
Tier 2 Human Telepath
This path of evolution transforms you into a human being with psionic capabilities. Mind reading, mental communication and mind control are all possible with this form. No appreciable changes in body type besides a slight increase in skull and brain size.
Maximum life expectancy is increased to 250 years.
Mental defenses are substantially increased by adding +1 to the Secondary Attribute: Mental Aegis. Your base MA is currently 1.16.
The racial tendency of humans to have a broad affinity for many skills is strengthened. Skills are learned 10% faster and affinities are randomly increased by up to 15%. As with all evolutions, many factors will be affected by your ascension.
As an unusual ascended form, there are 4 ranks of this evolution.
You will begin at Rank 1.
Advancing ranks will unlock greater power, and > 50% of ranks
must be unlocked before Ascendance to a new form is possible.
Ascension Likelihood: 77%
Penalty for Failure: -3 points to each Primary Attribute, -3% chance at next Ascension attempt
Prerequisites: Level 45 Human. Mental Resistance > 50%
Evolution Rank: Unusual
Changes if Tier 2 Human Telepath evolution is chosen
Tier 1
Tier 2
Body
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Human
Mind
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Psionic Human
Soul
Tier 1 Human
Tier 2 Human
Special
Chaos Seed
Chaos Seed
Aura
Chaotic Gradient (Greater rank)
Chaotic Gradient (Greater rank)
Bloodline
N/A
No Cohesive Bloodline
20% Chance to Awaken a Thought-focused Bloodline with each level
Attribute Bonus
N/A
+5 to all Primary Attributes
+10% to highest Primary Attribute
+1 to Mental Aegis
This evolution was clearly superior to the first one. The attribute bonus was the same, but he was twice as likely to earn a bloodline with each level he reached. The only downside was that the boost to skill acquisition and affinities were a bit weaker. That was a small price to pay for a boost to his mental capabilities. He knew full well the power of psionic abilities. Those that lacked mental resistances were easy prey to those who could make psi attacks. Alma had shown that many times when her Psi Blast cut through magical shields like they weren’t there. Mental capabilities fell under the province of Thought, which was a Deeper Magic, an order of magnitude stronger than magics of the Basic Elements like Life, Dark or Fire.