-Minerva Poppers-
“You two are going to continue delving here?” questioned Ras, watching as his uncle and the other Glyirians plus Francis and Aya left with the captured Soldier of Clay. “Uncle Ester probably just scared off the rest of the Soldiers of Clay with that mana pulse.”
“Yeah, Wes and I think we can go for a little longer,” I replied with a nod between sips of a low-attribute lemon-lime soda-potion. Compared to Ras and Terrin, all I was dealing with was drained reserves and that could be remedied with some potions; as for Wes, he was just fine from the last fight due to his beige-steel manas protecting him.
“Okay well just don’t get in over your heads, there might not be anymore Soldiers of Clay but that doesn’t mean the same for monsters and those weed-heads.”
“We’ll be fine, we’ll make sure not to head in the direction as those two went. Isn’t that right Wes?”
“Yeah,” replied Wes, reassuring the two Glyirians before they left for Historie Pastoria Sweets to give a report to Robert and the others and take the chance to mend their wounds and fatigue in absolute safety. Seeing that it was just the two of us, he sighed and asked, “You think this is a good idea?”
“Well, would you rather not have our date?” I teasingly shot back, tossing the empty bottle into my personal subdimension. Neither of us was going to turn down Ras and the others when it came hunting down Soldiers of Clay with how good the pay was, especially since we usually had winning odds to begin with along with revival insurance, revivalist, and anti-hex experts on fall back on. But it did partially ruin our plans of having a casual delve of a date today.
“I mean I was thinking we just go grab a coffee or something at this point.”
“We can do that after I check something out.”
“Check what out?...”
“I’m pretty sure those Soldiers of Clay were heading for a hidden cache before we started fighting them… and I’m also pretty sure Ester noticed that also.”
“Why didn’t he mention that though?”
“Probably to give us first pick, or at least give his nephews first pick,” I explained as I conjured up my cake-eye-balls: there was no reason to be without them if I was going to continue delving with my real body instead of my simulated one.
“So how did you notice that but not where? Also shouldn’t we have told them about it before they left?” continued to ask Wes, inspecting his conjured handgun and reloading it with his special conjured bullets.
“They got pretty battered in that fight. We’ll just have to make sure to bring them back something good.”
“Good enough for me.”
“And it’s good enough for me, now let’s just hope they didn’t leave any guards at the cache, if there is a cache at all,” I noted before retracing our steps to where we first found the trio of Soldiers of Clay.
It took a bit of time to find the cache, mostly because it was farther away than expected but luckily it was pretty obvious where it was when Wes and I noticed the four weed-heads with the same thick flowers that the Soldiers of Clay primarily used covering their faces in a ravine. Getting a feel of them, I could tell they were weakened, probably by that pulse of mana the Glyirian spellman used. I’m pretty sure that was the budget Grand Ascension he told us about, Noble Mana Fission… I wonder if Ester would be okay with telling me its mandala formula, definitely help with my options in spells, I mused to myself thinking about how nice it would be to have a mana pulse that wasn’t just for sensing stealthed enemies. Not to mention something like that would help with my mana generation, gain a multiplicative bonus between it and my low-attribute colour attunement when it comes to my magic missiles and bolts. Not having to worry about the strain on my mandalas would also be.
Silently looking over Wes, I went to circulating some mana through my system to see where I was at: I could handle another fight or two if we didn’t let things drag on and if I didn’t go all out. But that didn’t mean I could get cocky, I could feel the hints of warping on the parts of my mandalas that drew in mana for refinement. Having such a high colour attunement really was a double edged sword when it came to low-attribute mana and not having things to bolster base mana generation, but at least it wasn’t black mana: being unprepared with that just means you’re killing yourself.
“You thinking of hitting above your weight class again?” half-joked Wes as he sensed the clear translucent mana rolling off me in tight coils.
“Probably,” I answered with a slow nod as I carefully measured the amount of low-attribute mana I was putting out, waiting for when my mandalas had enough even with the efficiency in generating low-attribute mana granted to me from being a supreme ranked pure magus. With everything ready, I switched gears and started to cast a series of mana javelin spells as fast I could, throwing the full weight of both my mandalas and Sea of Phenomena behind it so the weed-heads couldn’t sense me and react in time.
With a series of low booms, the javelins soared forward into the ravine and struck each of the weed-heads multiple times along with their golem conjurations. I didn’t kill any of them but they were all rendered unconscious; after hearing about weed-heads could simply just be people trapped by the Hidden System of Flowers from Tabitha, I made sure to pull all my punches with them. Looking at the damage I dealt, Wes whistled,
“Your alpha strike is still amazing to see.”
“Thanks,” I replied with a smile before jogging over to see if these were just entities from hill of fantasy or actual people. Unsurprisingly it was the former, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. I wonder if this is what Robert feels like when he is dealing with intruders...
“Now then... more entities from this place?” commented Wes, finishing off the ex-weed-heads for me as I scoped the surrounding ravine with my cake-eye-balls. “I don’t know why you go soft on these guys.”
“It’s because they are sentients also.”
“Yeah, but they aren’t like the sentients back in Historie Pastoria Sweets or the ones we see walking around in Blackentrail or even the ones from Starport Cyber. They aren’t exactly built for independence or conversation.”
“It’s hard to explain. I think it’s just Robert rubbing off on me...” I said trying to rationalize not just to Wes but myself: when you live with so many entities and beings that aren’t expressly built for combat, it’s hard not to get a coloured opinion about what they deserve and where they fit in the metaverse and society. And when those entities and beings were highly intelligent and possessing actual individualism like the staff, chefs, and other entities of Historie Pastoria Sweets, that opinion usually ended up being a strong one.
“Yeah, I can see what you mean. But you have to remember not everyone was made the same way,” sighed Wes in defeat, realizing I probably had more experience with entities than he did even with his time greater gaming in Grand Fantasia Gates and its various entities and GNPCs.
It didn’t take too terribly long for the two of us to find the cache, hidden in the side of the ravine by glamour. The inside was terribly bare but that wasn’t surprising given the fact that the Soldiers of Clay were militaristic golem sentients. Most of the loot was simple enough but was useful to take: a variety of enchanted weaponry, mostly rifles and sabres; coded system slot’s connections already attuned to various types of claydal flowers; a few vials of mutagenic strain of some sort of primeval man, something spellites would definitely spend money on.
“Holy shit, I think we just hit the jackpot,” shouted Wes, breaking open one of the more sturdy locks.
“What do you find?” I asked as I jumped back a bit in shock.
“A freaking artificial Trascendation and the makings for an anachronistic class specialty.”
“Oh my god, you’re kidding right?”
“No!” Wes replied back before taking out the thin fragments of circular discs covered in inscribings that were the makings for an anachronistic class specialty and an inverted tesseract that radiated with power that was obviously an artificial Trascendation. That must be a quarter million dollar easily, I mentally gasped to myself, looking at the bounty in Wes’s hands. The anachronistic class specialty was a rarity on it’s own, granting another class specialty with added benefits, but an artificial Trascendation, even a cheap one, was incredibly valuable. To be able to make full use of Lesser Trascendation magic without a pinnacle point was something that only spellites, the super rich, the super famous, superheroes, and villains could afford... and even they often rushed to gain a budget Grand Magus-grade mandala to get the proper type of pinnacle point so they can could permanently bond to it with an object-binding or service-sharing.
“Do we know what it does?” I pressed, still amazed we stumbled upon such a find.
“The translation I’m getting is a little fuzzy, written Geovian is a mess, but it looks like it is a sigillum tag mana storage one that requires a saint pinnacle point and Advanced Moral Glyphs. And umm... let’s see, the advanced class specialty used is just Advanced Moral Glyphs, and oh, one of its mana source connections is Domain of Clarity. Then oh yeah it also can make mana crystals, that’s awesome,” explained Wes as he fiddled with the sheaf of papers that was with it. Pausing for a few seconds, he looked up at me and continued, “I think you should take it.”
“Really? It’s just mana storage and mana crystals though, not mana generation.”
“Yeah, but its a mana storage Trascendation, well an artificial one. It may just be an ability granting artificial and not a Trascendation Effect set granting one, but it fits you the best between you, me, Ras, and Terrin.”
“Well then what are you going to take? I’m not just going to be the only one taking something if I’m taking an artificial Trascendation.”
“I’ll take two of the mutagenic strains. I think I can make it work for me, maybe turn the second one into a sub-feature or something so that it is more permanent. And then you can talk with Ester about getting yourself a budget Grand Magus-grade mandala and then an object-binding or something.”
“That... does make sense.”
“Yeah, consider it my late July the Fourth gift to you, for putting up with me as your boyfriend,” commented Wes as he tried his best to put on a smile that wasn’t awkward and overwhelmed. “Besides this should give you something to go toe to toe against Tabitha and Vertrala with.”
“I might need a bit more than an artificial Trascendation for that, even if I get everything needed to permanently bond with it,” I laughed, aspecting the loot and the prospect of being on equal footing with Tabitha. “But right now let’s just celebrate what we’ve got and think about how much damage we’re doing to the Soldiers of Clay.”
“Oh yeah, they are going to be really pissed when they find out we stole this,” laughed Wes back as he went to pack everything up so we could make a clean escape. Let’s just hope that Ester knows of a mandala formula for a cheap Grand Magus-grade mandala that gives a saint pinnacle point that I can get... otherwise I’m going to have a very long fall project on my hands.
