-Robert Fayn-
It’s been a little over two months since we’ve dealt with the seeded monster and ended up with getting Neo Draceld Z and Tyrian Island of Blackcurrants: pretty much everyone except for me and Tabitha has raised their tier once or twice since then. PMF was definitely a pain in the ass when improving basically any form of spellcraft, but I wasn’t exactly the type of person that was serious about raising their tier and improving spellcraft beyond what was needed to survive as a blackzone manager.
Despite all the busy development of my Enigma, things have been pretty quiet I guess. Ras finally got the expansion core from the Glyirian government and actually made an expansion in Hollo Oceania called Embassy-Resorts a la Rainberries instead of the fishery expansion idea he had for the Glyiria side of the Enigma. We also managed to get the proxy services for the Halo System via the Alihi’a’Pounga Origin Land set up because of that, so we now have three proxy services for Historie Pastoria Sweets. All the resorts were formally named too: the Colada in Alihi’a’Sweets Resorts, the Mocktail in Tyrian Island of Blackcurrants, and the Noble Gin in Embassy-Resorts a la Rainberries. A lot of loans were no longer an issue cause of Mita selling the other secondary core he had from the Harbingers, so we only have to worry about our loans with the children of the locale of the Vox System from the Refresco hub and Halo System from Alihi’a’Pounga and the contract with Zethuron, which was diminished in effect for some reason since the seeded monster.
As for myself, I have done some progress in improving myself. I got a Memory Retention sub-feature from Ester that made use of my elemental time class specialty: it didn’t really help with my mental recall too much, but I’m pretty sure he got it for me because he helped defend against memory altering and degradation. I inscribed one of my sub-feature mandalas with System Assistant’s Blackzone Expertise so Sal could help Sous out in managing our Enigma and one of my lesser spell mandalas with Shamanic Cats cause Margaret showed she got a similar mandala inscription to turn her cat, Ollie, into a familiar to help the boon spells she had decided to specialize in. And honestly I figured it was finally time for me to get a cat of my own since I didn’t have to deal with a shitty New York apartment and long work hours. So I picked up two strays from Sugar Hills’s local pound, named the cream tabby Sugar and the tortoiseshell Spice, and made them into familiars: the two of them were pretty much an instant hit with Sous, Umi, Sal, and even Beath. I also got the mandala researcher guy from Glyria to make a synthesis features for Sous and Sal that connected them with my Lesser Contracted Cake-Eye-Balls subfeature called Synthesis: System Assistant’s Cake-Eye-Balls that allowed them to possess the cake-eye-balls, empowering them and increasing their range of operation.
I’ve also gave Final Cut Caketopia a much needed upgrade, adding another five floors by adding another apartment block between Lechiffe’s lair and the core-bearing floors. Although this apartment block wasn’t like one that made up the 41st to 45th floors: this one was made for two sets of entities I made with Sous’s help, caketopian apothecaries and caketopian courier-merchants. The caketopian apothecaries were made with affinities in Dreaming-Tonics, Hiveframe-Tea, and Nutrient-Implement and their physiologies influenced by milkshakes: great for helping with my potion making business. As for the caketopian courier-merchants, they were made with affinities in elemental agility and Spirits-Commerce and with meringue and graham bars in their physiology: our new couriers not just for day-to-day Enigma matters but moving my potions around to various stalls set up not only set up inside my Enigma but outside since they were made to be able to survive outside Historie Pastoria Sweets.
If I was going to make something that didn't 100% need the environs of my Enigma to survive, might as well make it be something that can get me money. Plus I wasn’t going to have Neo Draceld Z being the only doing it with her tyrian currantcracker entities over in Tyrian Island of Blackcurrants, dipping in and out of the Roving and selling basic gas glands to help with the funds for our resorts.
“There’s been another fight at one of your stands over soda-vitality tonics,” commented Sous, derailing my absentminded train of thought as I played with Sugar and Spice. “Two of the courier-merchants were killed but Umi was able to handle the situation with Fake-Reginald and Fake-Nevil.”
“You’re kidding right?” I asked with a frustrated sigh: I knew I shouldn’t have let her raise her own rank like that. Now that she was rank 25, she was picking up tertiary spirit halos, including a pair of them that made the Reginalds and Nevils from Guilty Conscience Manifest permanent options for her. Sugar, sensing my annoyance, meowed telepathically,
“It’s ffiinnee.”
“I know it’s just… did she seriously have to get a second Fungal Eyeballs of Guilt secondary spirit halo? And get those blasted tertiary ones from the temples of halos?”
“Her path of development was a sound one, Guilty Conscience Manifest is a potent ability and she is capitalizing on that while exploring the options presented to her by the fact that she also has origins in the Flasaporium hub’s Obscurus System and the Refresco hub’s Vox System,” explained Sous nonchalantly before appearing in his crystalline mote form to play with Sugar and Spice. I swear he cuddled and spoiled all my spirits and familiars, you’d think he would do some of that for me. Everyone is just living it up except for me.
“I would think you are living quite luxuriously with all the ingredients at your disposal, ingredients you are often too lazy to work with.”
“Seriously Sous? I’m stuck in here cause that freaking end of days sending it plague clouds everywhere. I wouldn’t exactly consider that luxuriously,” I shot back, leaving him to play with the cats before they decided to go back to their personal space in their mandala. One month, it’s been an entire month since Borolio of the Plague Clouds appeared on this Earth’s Asia and started creating storm clouds that inflicted with people manalogical versions of lyme disease and summer flu: didn’t matter how many times people killed him, he was just going to keep popping back up until he migrated to another world. Luckily for my Enigma, all its resorts were offworld so our tourism wasn’t taking too big of a hit, but with pretty much everyone and their mother trying to stay indoors, proxy body use here was through the roof.
Making my way down to the entity’s apartment block, I found Tabitha and Tala having another one of their dates with Alexander, one of the most experienced caketopian apothecaries. Being the first to notice me, the multicolour haired vox reborn waved me down as I walked down the central spiral staircase,
“Robert, it’s good to see you.”
“Thanks, more Neo Hollo Oceania business with Tabitha? Or just another date?”
“Just a break. The Vox Iustitia’s people and the Vox Pyra’s people are butting heads, and the Vox Iustitia is having me get the Vox Phantasm involved now.” Vox reborn of the Vox Phantasm on top of being apprentice vox reborns of the Vox Phobos, Vox Discoria, Vox Iustita, and Vox Mira… Dreams, fears, chaos, justice, and miracles. Tala seriously is a powerhouse now.
“That’s all beyond me. Honestly, I’m still trying to wrap my head about how many fellowships, guilds, and groups are dedicated to the voxes outside of the vox reborns.”
“Well it only makes sense that people would fall under the banners of the various voxes, it is the nature of the Vox System and being influenced by the voxes is considered an honor by many. Anyway, how is your Enigma going?”
“Hectic, Borolio is causing everyone to self-isolate cause all the random plague clouds, so proxy body usage is stupidly high. And well since we have three different proxy services, Historie Pastoria Sweets is getting a lot of traffic. It also means people are buying my health-centric potions and tonics and getting fights over them, and two of the courier-merchants just got killed because of it.”
“The issue with Borolio aside, can’t you just remake them?” asked Tala with a curious look in her eyes as I sat down and waved my hand to Alexander, cueing him to make an Alexander to drink.
“He can, but apparently it’s not reviving a magi-sentient, some parts of them change in the process,” explained Tabitha for me, nodding in understanding to my frustration. It was such a pain and weird feeling, being attached to entities like the way I was: most normal people just don’t get how similar entities can be to us in terms of living and sentience.
“What Tabitha said. And because they are just normal entities not a raid or legion monsters like Lechiff or Furher Vel, their souls get warped more when the Enigma recycles them along with their other pieces of being,” I followed up with a drawn out sigh.
“It’s why us entities view death differently than you magi-sentients,” noted Alexander, sliding me my cocktail with a sloshing motion. “Sadly though, it doesn’t help it causes more misunderstanding about our sentience and status.”
“It is a frustrating matter,” quipped Sous from the back of my head.
“Yeah well not every entity like you wants to become a magi-sentient, and not every sentient can just become a magi-sentient,” I commented, thinking about how adamant the system assistant has been about becoming a magi-sentient since Neo Draceld Z became a thing. The conversion was possible, it’s just you usually had to become the exception to the norm in the process. Not everybody or everything can be elevated to a magi-sentient or even the half-goal of partial-magi-sentient and be given full access to mandalas: life wasn’t that easy.
“I understand what you mean, I’ve seen plenty of sentients, including entities, become partial-magi-sentients and magi-sentients through various means. But I’ve also seen plenty more die trying to achieve it,” proclaimed Tala between sips of her own cocktail before pausing and continuing. “Although that might be cause I’m connected to the Vox Phantasm… it’s only natural I see people of all walks of life strive toward their dreams, and see many fail in the process.”
“Wow, morbid much?” pointed out Tabitha before downing your mocktail. “You’re making me want alcohol now.” It was weird how quickly the sweet tooth flipped her attitude on alcohol since becoming twenty-one: going from trying to sneak a drink at every chance possible to only occasionally drinking.
“What would you like then, Tabitha?” asked the caketopian apothecary, already pulling out a few of Tabitha’s prefered liquors.
“What Robert is having.”
“One Alexander Special coming up.”
“So Alexander, do you dream of becoming a magi-sentient?” questioned Tala as Alexander went to shaking the cocktail.
“Sometimes, but I don’t think I would go out the way to try and become one. I’m content with what I am and do right now, if magi-sentience or even partial-magi-sentience or one of the alternative types of manalogical sentience happens down the line, that will just be a bonus.”
“What a modest way of thinking.”
“I am a bartender and potion maker, collecting mutagenic experience and raising my theoretical tier is not my primary nature. Besides, I am already blessed with my current level of intelligence and sentience needed for my purpose.”
“How about being contracted as a familiar?” I followed up, currently hooked on this line of questioning. It would be nice to have a caketopian apothecary as a familiar, especially since I've already been getting a real collection… Umi and Beath… Sous and Sal… Neo Draceld Z… and hell, even Sugar and Spice now. Not to mention the cake-eye-balls.
“That would be a pleasant surprise. Are you suggesting it because you want to contract me?”
“Uhh… honestly no clue right now. Just thought I ask.”
“You thinking of becoming a spirit mage like Tabitha?” inquired Tala as I awkwardly sipped on my Alexander.
“Once again no clue. I’ve sort of hit an impasse… before I became a blackzone manager, I was just a tier 1.7 nobody. Then all of this stuff happened and I’m now a triple race advanced tier 4.0 blackzone manager, but I currently have PMF. I feel like I’m stagnating now.”
“Yeah Vertrala and I feel the same way though,” commented Tabitha, once again nodding in understanding as Alexander slid her her drink. “I’m only getting antsy now that my PMF is finally clearing up.”
“But you have Vertrala and all his legacies and Grand Key. Not to mention Tala helping you out with being a vox reborn. I just have this jumbled mess for a portfolio of mandalas. I’m a blackzone manager, a vox reborn, and a surcia-curcumedioia. I have a bunch of spirits and familiars, a bunch of potion making stuff, and even a handful of transformations and a few other things. Not exactly uniform.”
“You’re triple race advanced though, you don’t have to worry about counting your inscribed mandalas like everyone else.”
“Tabitha is right, the variety of your inscriptions is not an issue for people like us. There is a lot of room for error and many great mages have turned their previous errors in mandala inscriptions into great successes,” noted Tala, not missing a beat.
“Except I’m not a great mage. You can barely even call me a powerhouse,” I complained with a groan before doing the last of my Alexander and requesting another cocktail with a hand wave.
“I understand that your combative spellcraft is… rather crude and double-edged. But that is why I think you should try to make the best of your current circumstances with the end of days and your prolonged mandala fatigue.” Make the best of my circumstances? Borolio was an absolute shit show, I was getting flak from both Glyiria and Neo Hollo Oceania over it despite the fact their plague clouds don’t cross worlds and the contagiousness of their diseases also plummeted offworld. Not to mention cause of my PMF, most spellcraft could leave me manalogically winded! Is she seriously going to go on another one of her ‘follow your dreams’ tangents or something?
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Use one of your system slots, forge a new connection potentially. Make use of a proxy body to explore a special locale and take the time to think about how you want to further develop and define your portfolio of mandala and spellcraft. Maybe even use one for the World System, explore those rare system lairs of the Earths that I keep hearing about.”
“Oh…” I muttered, suddenly thinking about my Sins of the SteelStar account: it should still work, not like becoming a blackzone manager erased or altered the system slot for it. Besides the World System? No one ever bothered with that, the children of the locales of the Earth almost never made or maintained system lairs and it was stupidly expensive to use that system compared to normal magics. “Yeah… I think I can do that…” Although maybe it was time to actually kick back and greater game some. Not like I was getting much done right now anyway.
