Lucianowrites

Giving you a warning... Information dump chapter ahead. This story, in a surprising twist for me, doesn't have many of those, but this one is one. It's not just an information dump chapter, but it definitely is one. I apologize, that won't happen much here, but it does happen here. I like the information presented, but it is a lot.

As my perfect clone continued to gaze at me, excitedly, I considered what path was the best one to take from here. With this clone at my disposal, the total number of clones I could have out at any one time was six, five lesser clones, and one perfect one. If I truly wanted to take advantage of the power I now wielded, the best thing for me to do with my clone would have to have been going ahead and taking out the coven of magic-users who once owned The Sanctuary... 

It was with that knowledge in mind that I began to act far more decisively than I had in the past. I was armed with knowledge and power and I had the ability to act decisively but only if I could gain even more knowledge. If I truly wanted to build up my power I needed to be proactive and at the moment a part of that meant expanding my ability to acquire information. That was why I went ahead and rapidly selected a number of specific, potent superpowers to take as my rewards for unlocking the ability to purchase tier-two superpowers. 

The moment I selected them my mind instantaneously flooded with new information, thoughts, and ideas. One of the powers I selected was a "Type-Grey" power within the subclass of "Mind enhancements"; the potent "Assessment" superpower which used the totality of information I possessed to generate as many possible solutions to any possible problem I'm aware I could encounter in any situation. It was an extraordinarily powerful power that made my mind a perpetually active canvas of extremely detailed, extremely varied hypothetical scenarios so I could hone my reaction speed and more easily react to and overcome all sorts of problems. 

As soon as I selected it and confirmed the "purchase" I was making, it immediately began to work. With it, a not small corner of my mind would be endlessly devoted to catching problems before they could occur and coming up with solutions. There was a part of me that was comforted by that knowledge. 

The next power I purchased was a "Type-Green" power that fell within the rare but potent purely "Reconnaissance" subcamp of powers; "Arcanescience+" which was a direct, true upgrade to my "Minor arcanescience" power. And the very attosecond that I did, my mind was filled with an enormous degree of awareness that I had previously lacked.

The mini-map that was a part of my H.U.D., and displayed information concerning a large radius surrounding any of my clones, was abruptly brilliantly illuminated once I purchased "Arcanescience+". I began to study it, and as I studied each of the entries I felt my mind filling with more and more information, and the new part of my brain that was devoted to catching problems before they occurred began to go into overdrive as it considered hypothetical encounters I could have with the potent wielders of magic I was now learning about.

The mini-map in my mind's eye was suddenly filled with all sorts of new icons that depicted things like magic, magic-users, and places where natural magic was especially powerful. My especially powerful intelligence score, coupled with my high wisdom score further empowered the raw potency of "Arcanescience+" and enabled me to peer into other departments, even all the way to Copan. Which was where I saw them. And seeing them brought a massive smile to my face. 

"Looks like you can't hide anymore..." I muttered, even as the same knowledge that now filled my mind began to fill the mind of my perfect clone and he also began to smile. And that wasn't the only thing that brought a smile to my face, either. 

"Arcanescience+" was so massively an upgrade to the initial "Minor Arcanescience" ability from which it stemmed that it could actually detect supernatural beings even if they weren't magical. And that was why by looking at the mini-map in my mind's eye I could see that there were a number of such beings in Copan, including something called a "Knight Morph". And the instant that I began to focus on that thing, an alert filled my mind.

[Alert: Morphic Entity Detected & Description

Your immensely powerful senses have alerted you to the presence of a morphic entity. Morphic entities are hyper-dimensional entities from the spaces between universes, multiverses, and pleniverses, who possess the ability to manipulate 'Anomalies' which are how non-changelings utilize superpowers. 

There are two major types of morphic entities. The first kind is the more important and the more powerful, the dreaded 'Egregores' are powerful entities who surpass gods in their raw power, and who possess control over centillions of powers several of which, in the cases of each of the egregores, are nigh-omnipotent in scale.

There are only three such entities in existence; the first is Icarus, the egregore of raw power and iron will. Icarus is also the most powerful of the egregores in raw might and he was the one responsible for the current number of egregores being three, as until eighteen years ago there were actually seven egregores. He single-handedly slew four of the others during a calamitous, universe-ending battle in a distant universe, and in doing so absorbed their vast might. He champions those who covet strength and who possess inextinguishable wills, bestowing mighty physical powers upon them, sometimes even without their knowledge or consent.

One of the other two egregores is named Daedalus and it is a master of secrets, knowledge, and flawless logic unburdened by emotion. It is a powerful being of wisdom, secrets, science, and philosophy. It rewards those who pursue knowledge and covet information, as well as those who care not for 'unimportant' things like mortality, morality, or emotion. It too can reward those it favors without their consent, and many serve it without knowing they serve it.

The final such being is known as Minos and it is a terrifying, 'Lovecraftian', for lack of a better word, entity of animal instinct, fear, and nature. It feeds on fear, and it champions those who cause fear, including and especially animals and monsters. Many of its champions who are humanoid or at least vaguely human-like tend to be protectors of nature and enemies of civilization.]

This was one of the first times that a notification was so long that it took up multiple textboxes but to my surprise, the notification cut off abruptly. And then it immediately continued in a new textbox. One that was somehow even longer. I grimaced as I felt the information flooding my brain, even though it wasn't overwhelming, just a lot all at once.

[Alert: Morphic Entities Continued.

The second kind of morphic entity are strange beings known as the 'Symbiotic Patrons' in universes where knowledge of such beings is commonplace. These entities are minor morphic creatures who possess powers themselves but have opted to bind themselves to wielders of superpowers, for a number of reasons. They are divided into three classes; the 'Fractal Morphs', the 'Knight Morphs', and the 'Biodependent Morphs'. 

All 'Symbiotic Patrons' boost the horizontal mutational capabilities of powers, increasing the ease with which they can gain new functionalities rather than focusing on increasing their maximum strength, which in your case would allow your powers to increase in diversity. All 'Symbiotic Patrons' also possess some ability to display a physical form, though how that operates differs in the cases of each kind of patron.

Finally, and most weirdly, all 'Symbiotic Patrons' are fanatically devoted to those whom they bond with. These beings appear to operate under the assumption that their hosts can expel them at any time, and so they understand that to minimize the chances of that happening they become utterly devoted to those they bond with, serving them with worshipful devotion for as long as their partners live.

The 'Fractal Morphs', which are perhaps the second most common class of such entities are hiveminds consisting of a number of entities who possess minor powers that vary from fractal morph to fractal morph and that are in search of possessors of specific powers. When they find powered beings who wield the powers they desire to add to their collective capabilities they approach them and offer to serve them, in exchange for their permission to use the power they seek.

They are hyper-intelligent beings, though sadly their biggest weaknesses are that the more of them that are bonded to any singular host the weaker their physical bodies become. That said, the more of them exist in any singular host the more their hyper-intelligence can be used which largely offsets the weaknesses of their physical forms. 

'Knight Morphs' are the rarest of the 'Symbiotic Patrons' and also largely considered to be the most valuable. They seek out hosts whose powers expel whatever kinds of energies they find the tastiest, and bond with those hosts for life to have a constant source of sustenance. This class of patron has the greatest initial ability to manifest physical forms and possesses the highest durability and offensive capabilities of all of the patron types. They not only possess superhuman strength and durability by default, but they can also wield the strength and durability of those they are bonded to, so such a being bonded to you would be immensely powerful. And if your abilities related to strength or durability increase in potency so would their strength and durability.

Their most unique trait, however, is that anyone who possesses touch-based powers that they are bonded to can channel those powers through them. This is a totally incredible power for assassins, healers, changelings, first-responders, and for anyone who needs to touch someone to be effective, especially since this class of patron is unharmed by any attacks which affect their projected forms. Even if their physical bodies are totally destroyed, only harm to their partners actually harms them, which encourages them to be seemingly fanatical in their protection of those they bond to. Their durability also increases over time and in response to harm, so the oldest and most used 'Knight Morphs' possess unbelievable durability.

'Biodependent Morphs' are easily the strangest of the lot as far as 'Symbiotic Patrons' go. These creatures are totally dependent on their hosts to survive, as they are unable to maintain biological homeostasis on their own. They require the blood and other bodily fluids of their hosts to survive once they've latched onto one, which makes them easily the most loyal of the lot even as far as the worshipfully devoted 'Symbiotic Patrons' go. 

This final class of patrons has the greatest shape-shifting capabilities of all of the patrons, but requires time to learn how to shapeshift unless they bond with a shapeshifter, in which case they are at least capable of mimicking their host's forms by default. They are also the best patrons as far as understanding biology goes and they amplify any healing abilities their hosts possess, especially any self-healing abilities. They serve as incredible spies, assassins, and information gatherers, as well as can self-replicate if large enough and cut. Any children they have would bond with you by default but can also be sent to attach themselves to anyone you order.

All of these symbiotic beings would probably do well if bonded with you, but given your deceptive nature and your lack of need for things like blood, inarguably the best class for you to bond with right away with would have to be the 'Biodependent Morphs'. If you bonded with even a lesser, smaller one, your ability to give it all of your blood without any harm befalling you would make it gain a gigantic boost in power, and since you possess the power to shapeshift you'd also boost it even further in that respect. Any 'Biodependent Morph' you bond with would be quite fierce.]

When that information dump was finished, I chuckled and immediately realized what I needed to do. I now possessed an incredible amount of information, information that I was sure that the witches did not possess. And that information informed me of an opportunity lurking in Copan. The chance to not only catch my enemies off-guard but also potentially bond with a new ally was too valuable for me to put off. 

With a smirk on my face, I grabbed the clone's hand and closed my eyes. And as I did, we utilized an ability that I had not utilized until now, one given to me by The Sanctuary. We teleported, through "Teleportation", and went from standing inside of The Sanctuary to standing in the middle of the ruins of Oxwitik, an ancient city that was once inhabited by the Mayan people. I was able to teleport here because my parents and I had visited the ruins last summer, and "Teleportation" allowed me to instantly teleport anywhere I had previously been. 

A large full moon shone down on us, illuminating the area we were in, and the ruins around us were empty. As my clones and I laid eyes on the ruins which surrounded us, information began to flood into our brains due to my incredibly powerful, upgraded "Psychometry" power. I also went ahead and purchased the "Zero-Point Beam" power from the "Type-Violet" family of superpowers. 

A split second later I felt the world around me beginning to change, as my own potent arcane stores of energy began to seep out of me and into the air around me. I was manifesting an aura in response to the potent natural magic in the air! My aura was an eerie thing of solidified darkness, one which surrounded me totally and made my clone and I walking ink-blots in the otherwise relatively bright place we found ourselves in. 

The ground beneath us also began to glow, no doubt responding to our potent stores of magic. We actually shared a font of magical energy, but having two bodies from which magic could be flung made us incredibly dangerous, as well as gave us the ability to fire double the number of energy-draining beams at once, which meant that we could sap the energy out of anything twice as fast as we'd otherwise be able to do. 

I sensed vibrations beneath my feet, vibrations that I wasn't causing. And then I glanced at my mini-map. To my surprise, and annoyance, the tunnel in which the "Knight Morph" was located was slowly beginning to creep towards ground level, rising towards me. That was dangerous because if the creature arrived and sided with the witches they'd gain a new ally, and judging from the description given to me by the system one that was fairly dangerous. I closed my eyes and tapped the ground with my feet, fusing my ability to manipulate the earth with my ability to manipulate vibrations and forcing the tunnel to cease coming towards me, which it did but not quite willingly. 

My analytic mind was incorporating every bit of information I knew and quickly deduced that the innate magic around me, mixed with my own magic, and the magic of the witches, was causing some sort of reaction in the area around us. That would explain why I spontaneously manifested an aura the second I arrived here. My mental mini-map told me that this area was rife with naturally occurring magic, and so I knew that fighting the witches here would be interesting. 

I nodded at my clone, and we both readied ourselves right as we began to feel the subtle shades of different magical energies in the air grow in diversity and also grow slightly more familiar. And then the coven appeared, just two dozen meters away from the two of us, arcane fireballs in hand, and powerful hatred plainly visible in their eyes. The second they fully materialized they wordlessly hurled their fireballs at us, even as their eyes widened when they noticed that there were two of me here. 

My clone and I smiled, and with a single powerful footstep I stepped forward, towards them, and planted my feet in the ground. When I did, I used my ability to manipulate stone, dirt, grass and more, and rose a powerful platform of grassy dirt in front of me into the air, which promptly caught the fireballs and made them explode harmlessly, a good distance away from us. 

I hated to leave business unfinished, so I mentally committed myself to not letting the coven get away this time. And then my clone and I both began to laugh as we went on the offensive.