I made my way back to my garage, not wanting to be interrupted as I explored the new changes in my mana orbs. Before I started that though, I pulled up my chat window. I needed to push my abilities as far as I could. Too many people were counting on me now.
Another dancing weapon was in my future, though perhaps not next. I still needed to find a way to better regulate my own mana flow and socket switches for optimal growth, and Corey was quickly growing into a more and more desirable solution, assuming they were willing to take our partnership even further. That was a question for the future, once I even knew how to do what I was considering. Today, several of my mana orbs needed to be explored further.
I pulled up my life orb first and looked through the changes. There were two new mana skills available in the fifth tier, and they were mutually exclusive. Did all mana orbs eventually have split paths? There was also a new one in the fourth tier, which was a tier I could now invest in.
That added another reason to figure out soulfire and sure did seem to add some weight to Rabyn’s fate claim. I had a feeling, though, that I knew what had actually given me access to the Soul Regeneration mana skill, and quickly brought my Inner Vitality up to thirty ranks to test my theory. The odd feeling when I pushed mana across my channels was still there as I activated the skill and scanned my own body.
Just as suspected, the damage I had done to myself during the fight with the Jesters was registered as mana channel scarring. That wasn’t the interesting part of what the scan revealed, though. Apparently, the damage had been caused by a failed soul ignition. My memory was a bit hazy of what exactly I had done during the fight, but that meant I had taken the first steps toward actually unlocking soulfire, and that was some much needed good news.
I finally unlocked Bandaid and Regeneration, incredibly glad to have them. Making several of the storable healing items would be a priority before we returned to the Arena. Next up was investing ranks in all of my healing abilities, bringing them up to their new maximum values. Even after this, I was still sitting at over fifteen hundred skill ranks. With how much core abilities cost to upgrade, I was finally starting to see just how these could be limited in the future, especially considering I had barely been touching regular skills, and there were likely infinitely more that could be learned if really attempted. How many knowledge skills did Elicec have at this point?
Each of my Body-Modification orbs also had a new skill unlocked, one per orb.
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Overwhelming Strength seemed dangerous from the description. I easily imagined a situation where I went way too hard in a fight and found my body unable to cope with what I had done to it, only to still be stuck in the fight facing more people with nothing left to give. Mana Channel Reinforcement seemed like something I was going to need, though, especially if I wanted to further practice what was needed for Soulfire.
That seemed to be the best way to go, so along with maxing out my previous abilities to their new limits, I invested another twenty-five ranks there. It seemed so long ago that I’d read the basics of how the skill caps worked on them, but it was proving true, as the new max for the first tier skills seemed to now be thirty-six instead of the expected thirty-five.
The new additions in my Elemental orbs were even more interesting. It turned out the synergistic effects of some mana orbs were entirely real, and I had accessed my first set of them.
While Silent Casting was something I wanted, it wasn’t something I needed, and in the realm of wants, Synergistic Magic far outweighed Silent Casting. I quickly maxed out both of the skills on the two orbs and then disabled all my other sockets to see if I could feel anything differently.
Incredibly slowly, I pushed mana across my channels, focusing on the area between the two orbs, opening one of the switches I had placed there when I designed this but had long kept closed for fear of overloading myself. The mana trickled through the newly opened channel, flowing from the fire elemental orb into the aether; soon, I could feel the different flows intermingling and releasing further down my channels.
Focusing my thoughts on a small piece of wood on the table, I released the energy, letting it flow across the rest of my body and out through my hand. “Oxygen depart, wood ignite,” I said, the words flowing from somewhere beyond me like so many times before. Within seconds, the small piece of wood was blackened. I picked it up and examined it closely. It felt like what I had been attempting to create, but without something to test it on properly, I couldn’t be entirely sure. In theory, I had just created charcoal. While I was sure there were plenty of potential uses for it, at the moment, I just let myself relish the exhilaration of having done it. Another step down the strange path Karlinovo had envisioned had been taken, and for once, there hadn’t even been a potential disaster. As a message from Corey popped up, I briefly considered that I had doomed myself with such a thought.
With that done, I pulled out the book Elody had given me earlier, relaxed on my cot and started a deep dive into it. My earlier assumptions that what I had done against the Jesters had been a near ignition looked to be true. From what Karlinovo knew about Soulfire, the first step was to channel your soul directly into your mana channels, bypassing the usual reaction that refines the energy into something a person is more capable of handling.
Learning to do this posed a great deal of risk to the body, including both burning out your core as well as killing yourself, but the benefits were impressively useful. Virtually all defensive magic was designed to fight against standard mana. Soulfire would cut straight through anything like that. Karlinovo believed one of the important steps to proper control of it was someone’s presence attribute, apparently, there were some derivative attributes that helped the body handle the force. I guess it was time to stop ignoring that specific stat.
Most people assume your presence is just how well you interact with those around you, and while that can be true on some level, on a fundamental level, it’s how your soul interacts with the universe itself. The higher your presence, the more you become the kind of person able to look into the uncaring void of eternity and assert your own right to claim an existence. Yell this loud enough, and sometimes the void even backs down.
Breakdown of the Soul-Core Reaction by Karlinovo
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Mana Orb
~Life (2)~
-First Tier-
Inner Vitality (8)
Requirements: N/A
Inner Vitality allows the host to understand the functions within themselves beyond what they are normally capable of. Further growth and development will allow for synergistic applications with the host’s senses to build a detailed understanding of everything within themselves.
-Second Tier-
Lesser Regeneration (25)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (5)
Lesser Regeneration uses the host’s mana flow to slowly repair their body. This is uncontrolled, and body parts need to be placed in their proper position for full effect. Further ranks increase the rate of healing.
Medical Telemetry (15)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (1)
Medical Telemetry allows the host to apply what they’ve learned through Inner Vitality to others. Further ranks allow for more data to be transmitted.
Pain Management (25)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (3)
Pain Management allows the host to reduce the pain of injuries. It does not do anything to treat them, and further use of a damaged body part could make the injury worse. Further ranks have increased benefits.
Stitch (25)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (2)
Stitch allows the host to seal their own wounds with a mana-based stitch that reinforces itself as the wound heals, dissipating once completed. Further ranks have increased benefits.
Sling (25)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (3)
Sling allows the host to immobilize and protect damaged or broken bone using a mana weave that decreases the healing time. Further ranks have increased benefits.
-Third Tier-
Cast (25)
Requirements: Sling (15)
Cast further refines the Sling skill, allowing the host to better immobilize bone damage. This skill allows even the worst of comminuted fractures to be healed with Sling. Further ranks increase how much destruction of bone that Sling is able to repair.
Regeneration Efficiency (25)
Requirements: Lesser Regeneration (15)
Regeneration efficiency decreases the rate of mana needed for lesser regeneration. Further ranks will allow for even less mana expenditure.
Regeneration Efficacy (25)
Requirements: Lesser Regeneration (15)
Through the use of Regeneration Efficacy, the host is able to direct which parts of the body to focus their regeneration on at triple the speed. This halts regeneration effects on the rest of the body while repairing the singular location. Further ranks increase how many pieces of the body can be selected at one time.
Sling Other (25)
Requirements: Medical Telemetry (15) Stitch (15)
Sling Other allows for the host to use Sling on another person through the use of Medical Telemetry.
Stitch Other (25)
Requirements: Medical Telemetry (15) Sling (15)
Stitch Other allows for the host to use Stitch on another person through the use of Medical Telemetry.
-Fourth Tier-
Bandaid (25)
Requirements: Cast (15)
The use of this skill allows the host to create physical bandaids out of mana that do not degrade until used. These bandaids work to heal anything they are applied to. Each rank increases the effectiveness of the bandaid.
Regeneration (25)
Requirements: Regeneration Efficiency (25) Regeneration Efficacy (25)
Regeneration builds on everything from the tiers below it, now allowing the host to continue to focus their greater efforts without halting the regenerative effects in the rest of the body. While initially decreased still while using Regeneration Efficacy, each rank further increased the speed of Regeneration.
Soul Regeneration (0)
Requirements: Inner Vitality (30) Pain Management (30), Soul Ignition
Soul Regeneration allows the host to repair the damage done by afflictions of the soul, ranging from soul degradation to the mana channel scarring. The ability to directly channel soul energy is required for the use of this mana skill. Further ranks decrease the mana required.
-Fifth Tier-
Eternal Body (0)
Requirements: Regeneration (25)
Eternal Body allows the host to specialize the life orb towards ailments of the body. Only one mana skill in the fifth tier may be chosen.
Eternal Soul (0)
Requirements: Soul Regeneration (25)
Eternal Soul allows the host to specialize the life orb towards ailments of the soul. Only one mana skill in the fifth tier may be chosen.
Mana Orb
~Body-Enhancing Orb (2)~
-First Tier-
+Brains Over Brawn+
Soul-Core Bonding (36)
Requirements: N/A
Soul-Core Bonding reinforces and further strengthens the bond between the host's soul and core, allowing for future growth paths for all features of the host. Further ranks increase core energy regeneration speed.
-Second Tier-
Lesser Mutation (0)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Mutation allows the host to mutate their body in a permanent way. The amount of mana used directly impacts the strength of the mutation. Each rank in this allows for a new mutation with a maximum of 10.
Mental Training (30)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Mental Training allows the host to use their mana to increase their mental retention well beyond normal levels as they expand their mind. Further ranks in this skill increase the effectiveness.
Strength Training (30)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Strength Training allows the host to use their mana to increase muscle strength well beyond normal levels during training. Further ranks in this skill increase the effectiveness.
-Third Tier-
Brains & Brawn (0)
Requirements: Strength Training (15) Mental Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
Brains Over Brawn (1)
Requirements: Mental Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
Brawn Over Brains (25)
Requirements: Strength Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
-Fourth Tier-
Mana Channel Reinforcement (25)
Requirements: Mental Training (25) Brains Over Brawn (10)
Mana Channel Reinforcement strengthens the mana channels at a slightly enhanced rate as mana is channeled, speeding up both the rate and amount at which the host can move mana across their body. Further ranks further increase the rate of reinforcement.
Mana Orb
~Body-Enhancing Orb (2)~
-First Tier-
+Brawn Over Brains+
Soul-Core Bonding (36)
Requirements: N/A
Soul-Core Bonding reinforces and further strengthens the bond between the host's soul and core, allowing for future growth paths for all features of the host. Further ranks increase core energy regeneration speed.
-Second Tier-
Lesser Mutation (0)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Mutation allows the host to mutate their body in a permanent way. The amount of mana used directly impacts the strength of the mutation. Each rank in this allows for a new mutation with a maximum of 10.
Mental Training (30)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Mental Training allows the host to use their mana to increase their mental retention well beyond normal levels as they expand their mind. Further ranks in this skill increase the effectiveness.
Strength Training (30)
Requirements: Soul-Core Bonding (25)
Strength Training allows the host to use their mana to increase muscle strength well beyond normal levels during training. Further ranks in this skill increase the effectiveness.
-Third Tier-
Brains & Brawn (0)
Requirements: Strength Training (15) Mental Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
Brains Over Brawn (0)
Requirements: Mental Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
Brawn Over Brains (25)
Requirements: Strength Training (15)
Combining the benefits of both the lesser skills, the host is able to, and for an increased mana expenditure, train both aspects of their body even further. This skill stacks with those below it. Further ranks increase the benefit at an increased mana cost. Once this skill is unlocked, no other tier-three skill will be available on this orb.
-Fourth Tier-
Overwhelming Strength (0)
Requirements: Strength Training (25), Brawn Over Brains (10)
Overwhelming Strength allows the host to temporarily increase their strength to their current maximum potential. The longer this skill is used the further the recovery time the body will require. Increased ranks decrease the recovery time needed.
Mana Orb
~Elemental (2)~
-First Tier-
+Aether+
Fundamental Forces (30)
Requirements: N/A
From the small to the large, all manners of interaction are made from minute changes that grow into something well beyond themselves. Fundamental Forces allow a host to connect with these changes and understand how to direct them. Further growth creates a synergistic effect with mental attributes for a more detailed understanding.
-Second Tier-
Components (0)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (5) Recall (5)
The host is able, through the use of various components described in their entry, to further empower their spells. Each rank allows for further empowerment.
Elemental Focus (1)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (25)
Only a single rank may be invested into this skill and doing so will prompt the host to pick an element, locking this orb into a specialization of that element. Once this is done, Elemental Mixture may no longer be selected.
Recall (25)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (5)
The host gains the ability to recall the various interactions they have discovered through the use of Fundamental Forces. Each rank allows the recall of one additional spell.
-Third Tier-
Silent Casting (0)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (30) Recall (10)
The host is able to dampen the noise required to cast recalled spells. Additional ranks spent further reduce the noise of all components of the spell.
-Fourth Tier-
Synergistic Magic (0)
Requirements: Elemental Focus Aether (1) Elemental Focus Fire (1)
Utilizing two Elemental orbs of different types, the host may combine their effects to produce harmonized spells. Equal ranks must be invested into this skill on both orbs, and both must be accessible by the core at the same time for these skills to function.
Mana Orb
~Elemental (2)~
-First Tier-
+Fire+
Fundamental Forces (30)
Requirements: N/A
From the small to the large, all manners of interaction are made from minute changes that grow into something well beyond themselves. Fundamental Forces allow a host to connect with these changes and understand how to direct them. Further growth creates a synergistic effect with mental attributes for a more detailed understanding.
-Second Tier-
Components (0)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (5) Recall (5)
The host is able, through the use of various components described in their entry, to further empower their spells. Each rank allows for further empowerment.
Elemental Focus (1)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (25)
Only a single rank may be invested into this skill and doing so will prompt the host to pick an element, locking this orb into a specialization of that element. Once this is done, Elemental Mixture may no longer be selected.
Recall (25)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (5)
The host gains the ability to recall the various interactions they have discovered through the use of Fundamental Forces. Each rank allows the recall of one additional spell.
-Third Tier-
Silent Casting (0)
Requirements: Fundamental Forces (30) Recall (10)
The host is able to dampen the noise required to cast recalled spells. Additional ranks spent further reduce the noise of all components of the spell.
-Fourth Tier-
Synergistic Magic (0)
Requirements: Elemental Focus Fire (1) Elemental Focus Aether (1)
Utilizing two Elemental orbs of different types, the host may combine their effects to produce harmonized spells. Equal ranks must be invested into this skill on both orbs, and both must be accessible by the core at the same time for these skills to function.
