After the End: Serenity - Chapter 475

As they walked to the doors, Serenity queried the Voice.

Am I remembering correctly that XP from actions in a dungeon awards at the end of each level, not just at the end?

Ever since he’d come back in time, the only multi-level dungeons he’d been in other than the Great Tutorial Dungeon were either on Tzintkra, where he hadn’t paid that much attention or Aki. Experience he’d accrued while inside Aki’s dungeon didn’t seem to have the normal dungeon delay, which was probably because he lived there and didn’t need to “complete” anything.

[It is possible for a dungeon to change the normal experience accrual pattern, but most do not choose to do so. Earth’s dungeons are currently operating using a limited feature set to soften the learning curve]

This is a Field Dungeon. Does it have levels? I don’t remember that sort of thing from other Field Dungeons.

[Progressive Field Dungeons usually have waypoints or defined difficulty increase points that serve the same purpose as a level increase in other dungeon types]

Serenity grinned. He was fairly confident that the Voice’s answer meant it wasn’t allowed to give specifics about a particular dungeon, but that it had still answered what Serenity needed to know. He’d be able to level a Path while still in the dungeon.

Andarit was quiet at first while they walked towards the exit, but once they were past the worst of the gore she seemed to relax and asked the question that had clearly been bothering her. “Something else?”

Serenity picked a spot next to the door out of the room and sat down; it would be as safe as anywhere. “Yeah. I need to replace the spells I evoked during that fight, maybe infuse a couple others for utility. First, though, I need to pick a new Path. I should’ve done that before we came in here. Wasn’t sure what we’d need.”

“A Healing Path,” Andarit immediately responded. “Neither of us is a healer; I have a hair ornament that gives me a really low out-of-combat healing rate, but you don’t have anything. I can lend it to you if you get hurt, but it’s pretty slow if the injury is large.”

Serenity smiled at that and shook his head. “I have excellent self-Healing. Almost certainly better than your hair ornament. I can’t heal anyone else, and I very much doubt I’ll get a true Healing Path. One of the odd specialties, maybe, but not true Healing.”

Andarit frowned. “Why not? You said you’re a mage, a lot of mages pick up some sort of minor healing spell.”

Serenity smiled slightly and shook his head. Even Vengeance hadn’t had a true healing Skill; he’d picked up a bodily repair Skill that worked on the undead instead, and Vengeance had had the Life Affinity at that point. “I don’t have the Healing Affinity or the Life Affinity. Healing isn’t in any of the Affinities I have. The closest I could get ... well, it might be possible but it wouldn’t really be healing.”

He might be able to find a Path that would let him turn back time selectively; that might “heal”, though there were potential complications depending on exactly how the Skill worked. Or something that let him shapeshift another; that seemed plausible for a shapeshifter. He doubted he’d take either Path, even if he did want a Time-based Path at some point.

“Still, that’s not what I think we need. You do have your hair ornament and I have my healing. What we need is a better way to deal with swarms; either a control ability or an area attack. So I figured I’d see if I could pick one up in my next Path. I need some ranged attacks, too; I only have one. It’s powerful but I’d really like some more flexibility.”

Andarit took a seat on the ground facing Serenity. “I should get some control Skills at some point, but it’s true I don’t have any yet.” She frowned, staring at the ground. “I should’ve used my enhancement Skills. I mean, I should’ve used them on you. I did have them on myself. They do more on me but they can be used on other people. I don’t think they’re as good on other people as the one you used, but they worked together really well with yours.”

Serenity could see why she’d think of the Quickness spell as an enhancement; it was. Still, thinking of what she should take wasn’t helpful unless she was at the end of a Path as well. As he thought about it, Serenity realized that they’d shared in general terms what they could do, but not where they were on their Paths. “Are you ready to take another Path, as well?”

Andarit laughed. It sounded bitter. “I would be if I had a good Path to take. I only have two Paths available, and neither of them is worth taking. Father wants me to take one about managing the Dukedom, but for some reason none of the ones he knows of will show up.”

As far as Serenity was concerned, the only Path that wasn’t worth taking was one that would be hard to level; you could always take another Path later, once you finished your current Path. There were Paths he’d never take because of the direction they’d take him, as well; those were easy to think of, but he’d have called them repugnant instead of “not worth taking”. Still, Serenity knew that many people tried to have their Paths lead them on a narrow route instead of a broad one like he’d followed. It was faster to Tier up, and that was important if your leveling was slow.

Most people didn’t have infinite time to level, after all.

Come to think of it, his current history of about two Paths per Tier was fairly close to some of the faster people he’d seen. They usually developed weaknesses he thought he was avoiding, but he had the advantage of experience and of his attributes growing through a different method.

The reason for Andarit’s issue was probably quite simple. “Have you ever managed the Dukedom?”

Andarit looked puzzled. “Only when Father was away, as a caretaker. Why would he have me manage anything until I was ready and had the Path?”

Serenity shrugged easily. “How does he expect you to get a Path for something you’ve never done?”

Andarit’s forehead scrunched as she tried to think of an answer. “By having me do related stuff? He said one of the Paths required me to have a retainer that was loyal to me first and the family only after me. And there’s one that’s supposed to be based on doing the dukedom’s finances … I didn’t want that one. Too boring.”

Serenity wished he’d quit getting offered Paths that talked about Lordship or Sovereignty just by skipping some of the duties.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Well, you said you want a Path that gives you the ability to control a battle, right? Let’s see if we can get you that first. Combat Paths are straightforward to level, you can finish it off whenever you’re ready to look for your next Path.”

When Andarit nodded, Serenity gave her the directions he’d decided on. “So, your enhancement Skills; they’re probably for a whole person, right? Try casting one of them on my arm. Only my arm.”

It took Andarit a few tries to manage it, and it was far slower than a normal Skill activation because she had to concentrate on using the Skill differently; she couldn’t just let it follow its built-in pattern. Serenity had expected that. This was simply getting her the practice that would let her gain a new Path, not altering the Skill itself. They didn’t have time for that, but more importantly there was no reason to do it. The skill was fine as it was; Andarit just needed to know how to do the opposite.

There were several ways to alter Skills to get credit for other Skills and gain a Path, but Serenity was trying the simplest one he knew for getting a control skill of any sort. “Okay, now I’m going to throw my ax into the room. I want you to buff my arm when it seems like it’ll throw off my aim. That’s all you’re trying to do; surprise me.”

It took about a dozen tries before Andarit succeeded, which was lower than Serenity had expected. He was using his ax because he could call it back to his hand and it wasn’t as potentially damaging as punching her, which was how he’d learned. Of course, he’d started as a melee combat specialist; he’d had no trouble getting repeatedly punched by a mage. The other way around seemed less reasonable.

Serenity made her repeat it several times before he sent her in to check if there was a new Path open for her.

Andarit opened her eyes and grinned at Serenity. “It was there. Looked pretty close to what I wanted, and it’s a combat Path. I don’t think they level all that easily but in our dungeon I should be able to get through it when I need to. I’m not at the Tier Three attribute limit, I’ll need another Tier Three Path to get there. I can take the one Father wants next. So what are you going to do to get your Path?”

Serenity wasn’t sure he needed to do anything; he expected it was probably already unlocked. Even so, giving her an example of how to unlock a Path was worthwhile. “I’ll cast the spell I want a Skill for. Probably cast a few similar ones. Get comfortable; this is going to take a while.”

Serenity started with a plasma-ball; fireballs were a classic for a reason. Fire was easy to use to destroy things. His second spell was an Energy Cone; it was more or less lightning, and he had to deliberately avoid allowing it to anchor to a spot other than the one near him; keeping it jumping was part of the spell, as was keeping it from spreading too far vertically or back towards him. Different shapes were important if he wanted to get a more general spellcasting Path, and it only made sense to use lightning for the cone. Sure, it might look a lot like a movie villain, but getting lightning to spread as desired wasn’t nearly as difficult as constraining plasma.

Unlike the more physical energy types, Death Affinity could be whatever shape he wanted it to be without any difficulty, so Serenity picked a rectangle. It was hard to do corners with energy. Normally it would be done with water or earth, but Serenity’s liquid and solid Affinities were poor and he didn’t see the point. There was no visible effect other than the magic itself, but Serenity heard Andarit back up a step so she must have been able to see something.

Serenity wasn’t certain how to attack with SpaceTime or Liminality as direct damage area spells; the best he could think of was using them to trip. Perhaps Liminality could be used as the equivalent of a monomolecular wire?

It didn’t really seem right for that. He’d have to think about it more.

SpaceTime still seemed more useful for control than damage; he knew that rending space could work, as could extreme gravity, but either one was very, very mana intensive and not particularly efficient.

That left Nihility as a high Affinity that could directly do damage he hadn’t used yet. Like Death, he could make it whatever shape he wanted, so he decided to make a non-regular shape with holes. That was possibly one of the most useful shapes, since it wouldn’t hit his allies, but it was harder to create and aim.

When he triggered the spell, several of the bodies in the gym disappeared and Serenity heard Andarit gasp. He’d used way too much mana for that, and he’d taken a solid hour and then some building the spells, but he was satisfied with how it had gone.

“That set of spells should unlock a good area effect magic Path. Normally you’d do it as you learn them, and it’s probably already available for me, but I wanted to show you what to aim for.” Serenity turned back to face Andarit and found her staring into the gym with her hand covering her mouth.

Voice? I think I’d best choose that Path now.

[The Zonal Evocation Mage Path is the best match to the spells you just used]

Interesting name. I’ll take it.

[Are you certain you do not wish to advance to Tier Four first?]

I’d have to choose another Species, wouldn’t I? I’m not ready for that. I don’t want to mess up my Dhampir disguise; I’m sure I’d have to reestablish it, and that would give it away.

General

Magic

Resistances

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Heritages

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Chimeric

Pure (Innate)

Essence Dragon (Primary)

Asura

Child of Time, Unbound

Dhampir, Essence/Mana

Draugr, Sage

Elemental, Essence

Elemental, Mana

Godling

Human, Earth

Lich, Paramount (Primary)

Vampire, Daywalker

Potential, Sovereign

Wraith, Nightmare

Other Known Heritages

Azata, Lightning

Curse Witch

Healing Light

Hexen

Heavens’ Fire

Jiang-Shi

Knight of Blood

Malevolent Spark

Mote of Decay

Mote of Stasis

Mummy

Remnant Wisp of Life

Revenant, Star

Sea Lion, Earth

Abilities

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Other Stuff

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Earth’s Planetary-level World Core Authorizations

Portal Management

Dungeon Taxation

Quest Visibility

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Serenity’s Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

You were the Supreme Existence in a previous incarnation, and can remember some of what came before. Your status also grants you the Ghost in the System title. This title is hidden from all but you.

First of A Kind

You are the first True Chimera and the first Essence Dragon. Your Paths shall shape the future of those who follow in your footsteps.

Named

Your Name is known and respected or feared. No other can bear this Name.

Ghost in the System

You bypass certain restrictions. This title is hidden unless you share it with another.

Aspect Pathfinder

As the first person to discover a new Aspect, Concept, and Affinity, you set the path for those who follow you on the road of Essence Magic. Creating new methods and applying methods from other magical schools is easier.

Incarnate

More than an Aspect, you are an Incarnate. Your Concept sets what the meaning of the Affinity you Incarnate does and does not mean. Your Incarnate will always be a part of you, and you will always be a part of it.

As an Incarnate, you are not capable of combining or otherwise altering this Affinity.

There cannot be more than one Incarnate for an Affinity at a time, as no two people will ever have identical Conceptions of an Affinity.

Lord

You are recognized as the ruler of a Settlement. This comes with certain rights as long as you are within the Settlement or interacting with people who are identified as belonging to the Settlement. This Title will be removed if you are no longer the Lord of a Settlement.

DeathLord

You have a high enough combined Death Affinity, Concept, and Aspect to qualify to rule a Necropolis.

Tyche’s Mark

You have been marked by Lady Luck. Interesting things will happen around you. They may be good or bad.

This Curse removes your Luck and Luck % attributes and suppresses all Luck attributes that would affect you (directly or indirectly). Instead, Luck is in flux around you and unlikely events are more likely to occur when you are nearby.

Worlds’ Friend

Multiple worlds have declared you an ally. Others who are strongly tied to those worlds may sense a kinship with you. This may affect the reaction of other worlds or their servants.

Lillene

The description of Serenity’s new Path (and his usual commentary) will be in the next chapter. I’m already over the word count for this one.

He didn’t spend much time debating this time. He wants something straightforward, so why not take what the Voice thinks is the most straightforward Path?

Well, besides the fact that it is just a straightforward Path. But it has a lot of stuff he wants, so why not?

As they walked to the doors, Serenity queried the Voice. Am I remembering correctly that XP from actions in a dungeon awards at the end of each level, not just at the end? Ever since he'd come back in time, the only multi-level dungeons he'd been in other than the Great Tutorial Dungeon were either on Tzintkra, where he hadn't paid that much attention or Aki. Experience he'd accrued while inside Aki's dungeon didn't seem to have the normal dungeon delay, which was probably because he lived there and didn't need to complete anything. It is possible for a dungeon to change the normal experience accrual pattern, but most do not choose to do so. Earth's dungeons are currently operating using a limited feature set to soften the learning curve This is a Field Dungeon. Does it have levels? I don't remember that sort of thing from other Field Dungeons. Progressive Field Dungeons usually have waypoints or defined difficulty increase points that serve the same purpose as a level increase in other dungeon types Serenity grinned. He was fairly confident that the Voice's answer meant it wasn't allowed to give specifics about a particular dungeon, but that it had still answered what Serenity needed to know. He'd be able to level a Path while still in the dungeon. Andarit was quiet at first while they walked towards the exit, but once they were past the worst of the gore she seemed to relax and asked the question that had clearly been bothering her. Something else? Serenity picked a spot next to the door out of the room and sat down; it would be as safe as anywhere. Yeah. I need to replace the spells I evoked during that fight, maybe infuse a couple others for utility. First, though, I need to pick a new Path. I should've done that before we came in here. Wasn't sure what we'd need. A Healing Path, Andarit immediately responded. Neither of us is a healer; I have a hair ornament that gives me a really low out-of-combat healing rate, but you don't have anything. I can lend it to you if you get hurt, but it's pretty slow if the injury is large. Serenity smiled at that and shook his head. I have excellent self-Healing. Almost certainly better than your hair ornament. I can't heal anyone else, and I very much doubt I'll get a true Healing Path. One of the odd specialties, maybe, but not true Healing. Andarit frowned. Why not? You said you're a mage, a lot of mages pick up some sort of minor healing spell. Serenity smiled slightly and shook his head. Even Vengeance hadn't had a true healing Skill; he'd picked up a bodily repair Skill that worked on the undead instead, and Vengeance had had the Life Affinity at that point. I don't have the Healing Affinity or the Life Affinity. Healing isn't in any of the Affinities I have. The closest I could get ... well, it might be possible but it wouldn't really be healing. He might be able to find a Path that would let him turn back time selectively; that might heal, though there were potential complications depending on exactly how the Skill worked. Or something that let him shapeshift another; that seemed plausible for a shapeshifter. He doubted he'd take either Path, even if he did want a Time-based Path at some point. Still, that's not what I think we need. You do have your hair ornament and I have my healing. What we need is a better way to deal with swarms; either a control ability or an area attack. So I figured I'd see if I could pick one up in my next Path. I need some ranged attacks, too; I only have one. It's powerful but I'd really like some more flexibility. Andarit took a seat on the ground facing Serenity. I should get some control Skills at some point, but it's true I don't have any yet. She frowned, staring at the ground. I should've used my enhancement Skills. I mean, I should've used them on you. I did have them on myself. They do more on me but they can be used on other people. I don't think they're as good on other people as the one you used, but they worked together really well with yours. Serenity could see why she'd think of the Quickness spell as an enhancement; it was. Still, thinking of what she should take wasn't helpful unless she was at the end of a Path as well. As he thought about it, Serenity realized that they'd shared in general terms what they could do, but not where they were on their Paths. Are you ready to take another Path, as well? Andarit laughed. It sounded bitter. I would be if I had a good Path to take. I only have two Paths available, and neither of them is worth taking. Father wants me to take one about managing the Dukedom, but for some reason none of the ones he knows of will show up. As far as Serenity was concerned, the only Path that wasn't worth taking was one that would be hard to level; you could always take another Path later, once you finished your current Path. There were Paths he'd never take because of the direction they'd take him, as well; those were easy to think of, but he'd have called them repugnant instead of not worth taking. Still, Serenity knew that many people tried to have their Paths lead them on a narrow route instead of a broad one like he'd followed. It was faster to Tier up, and that was important if your leveling was slow. Most people didn't have infinite time to level, after all. Come to think of it, his current history of about two Paths per Tier was fairly close to some of the faster people he'd seen. They usually developed weaknesses he thought he was avoiding, but he had the advantage of experience and of his attributes growing through a different method. The reason for Andarit's issue was probably quite simple. Have you ever managed the Dukedom? Andarit looked puzzled. Only when Father was away, as a caretaker. Why would he have me manage anything until I was ready and had the Path? Serenity shrugged easily. How does he expect you to get a Path for something you've never done? Andarit's forehead scrunched as she tried to think of an answer. By having me do related stuff? He said one of the Paths required me to have a retainer that was loyal to me first and the family only after me. And there's one that's supposed to be based on doing the dukedom's finances I didn't want that one. Too boring. Serenity wished he'd quit getting offered Paths that talked about Lordship or Sovereignty just by skipping some of the duties. He chuckled and shook his head. Well, you said you want a Path that gives you the ability to control a battle, right? Let's see if we can get you that first. Combat Paths are straightforward to level, you can finish it off whenever you're ready to look for your next Path. When Andarit nodded, Serenity gave her the directions he'd decided on. So, your enhancement Skills; they're probably for a whole person, right? Try casting one of them on my arm. Only my arm. It took Andarit a few tries to manage it, and it was far slower than a normal Skill activation because she had to concentrate on using the Skill differently; she couldn't just let it follow its built-in pattern. Serenity had expected that. This was simply getting her the practice that would let her gain a new Path, not altering the Skill itself. They didn't have time for that, but more importantly there was no reason to do it. The skill was fine as it was; Andarit just needed to know how to do the opposite. There were several ways to alter Skills to get credit for other Skills and gain a Path, but Serenity was trying the simplest one he knew for getting a control skill of any sort. Okay, now I'm going to throw my ax into the room. I want you to buff my arm when it seems like it'll throw off my aim. That's all you're trying to do; surprise me. It took about a dozen tries before Andarit succeeded, which was lower than Serenity had expected. He was using his ax because he could call it back to his hand and it wasn't as potentially damaging as punching her, which was how he'd learned. Of course, he'd started as a melee combat specialist; he'd had no trouble getting repeatedly punched by a mage. The other way around seemed less reasonable. Serenity made her repeat it several times before he sent her in to check if there was a new Path open for her. Andarit opened her eyes and grinned at Serenity. It was there. Looked pretty close to what I wanted, and it's a combat Path. I don't think they level all that easily but in our dungeon I should be able to get through it when I need to. I'm not at the Tier Three attribute limit, I'll need another Tier Three Path to get there. I can take the one Father wants next. So what are you going to do to get your Path? Serenity wasn't sure he needed to do anything; he expected it was probably already unlocked. Even so, giving her an example of how to unlock a Path was worthwhile. I'll cast the spell I want a Skill for. Probably cast a few similar ones. Get comfortable; this is going to take a while. Serenity started with a plasma-ball; fireballs were a classic for a reason. Fire was easy to use to destroy things. His second spell was an Energy Cone; it was more or less lightning, and he had to deliberately avoid allowing it to anchor to a spot other than the one near him; keeping it jumping was part of the spell, as was keeping it from spreading too far vertically or back towards him. Different shapes were important if he wanted to get a more general spellcasting Path, and it only made sense to use lightning for the cone. Sure, it might look a lot like a movie villain, but getting lightning to spread as desired wasn't nearly as difficult as constraining plasma. Unlike the more physical energy types, Death Affinity could be whatever shape he wanted it to be without any difficulty, so Serenity picked a rectangle. It was hard to do corners with energy. Normally it would be done with water or earth, but Serenity's liquid and solid Affinities were poor and he didn't see the point. There was no visible effect other than the magic itself, but Serenity heard Andarit back up a step so she must have been able to see something. Serenity wasn't certain how to attack with SpaceTime or Liminality as direct damage area spells; the best he could think of was using them to trip. Perhaps Liminality could be used as the equivalent of a monomolecular wire? It didn't really seem right for that. He'd have to think about it more. SpaceTime still seemed more useful for control than damage; he knew that rending space could work, as could extreme gravity, but either one was very, very mana intensive and not particularly efficient. That left Nihility as a high Affinity that could directly do damage he hadn't used yet. Like Death, he could make it whatever shape he wanted, so he decided to make a non-regular shape with holes. That was possibly one of the most useful shapes, since it wouldn't hit his allies, but it was harder to create and aim. When he triggered the spell, several of the bodies in the gym disappeared and Serenity heard Andarit gasp. He'd used way too much mana for that, and he'd taken a solid hour and then some building the spells, but he was satisfied with how it had gone. That set of spells should unlock a good area effect magic Path. Normally you'd do it as you learn them, and it's probably already available for me, but I wanted to show you what to aim for. Serenity turned back to face Andarit and found her staring into the gym with her hand covering her mouth. Voice? I think I'd best choose that Path now. The Zonal Evocation Mage Path is the best match to the spells you just used Interesting name. I'll take it. Are you certain you do not wish to advance to Tier Four first? I'd have to choose another Species, wouldn't I? I'm not ready for that. I don't want to mess up my Dhampir disguise; I'm sure I'd have to reestablish it, and that would give it away. General Spoiler Name: Serenity Species: Chimera Base Form: Essence Dragon Hatchling Core: Unique Progression: 85% Tier: 3 Features: 5/11 True Crystal Link Death Origin Path: Zonal Evocation Mage Level: 0 0/40 Tier: 3, 100/100 Spent Path History: 3: Origin's Potential 2: Magic Dhampir of the Origin 1: Unbound, Steadfast, Evoker 0: Death-Eater, Battle Adept Core History: 3: Sovereign of Potential 2: Dhampir Mana/Essence 1: Child of Time 0: Essence Dragon Mana: 8800/8800 Essence: 8800/8800 Stamina: 4100/4100 Might: 400 Agility: 400 Phys: 400 Understanding: 400 Will: 400 Mind: 400 Perception: 400 Ambit: 400 Essence Pure Innate Ev: 2,767,740 Purified Titles Aspect Pathfinder DeathLord First of A Kind Ghost in the System Incarnate Lord Named Previous Supreme Existence Tyche's Curse Worlds' Friend collapse Magic Spoiler Affinities Energy: 45% Liquid: 6% Liminal: 90% Magitech: 37% Mind: 32% Nihility: 50% Plasma: 56% Solar: 25% Solid: 17% SpaceTime: 73% Vapor: 16% Concepts Arcane: 80% Energy: 52% Essence: 25% Life: 20% Liminal: 39% Magitech: 51% Mind: 15% Nihility: 36% Plasma: 26% SpaceTime: 54% Topology: 13% Aspects Arcane Mana: Initiated Vital Essence: Growth Vital SpaceTime: Nascent Incarnate of Death collapse Resistances Spoiler strong Chemical: 137 Cold: 303 Curse: 265 Darkness: 177 Debasement: 13 Death: Immune Heat: 533 Life: 417 Light: 298 Mind: 278 Pain: 641 Poison Neurotoxin: 486 Pleasure: 32 Shock: 334 Sleep: 57 Space: 250 Time: 1000 Unknown collapse Heritages Spoiler strong Chimeric Pure Innate Essence Dragon Primary Asura Child of Time, Unbound Dhampir, Essence/Mana Draugr, Sage Elemental, Essence Elemental, Mana Godling Human, Earth Lich, Paramount Primary Vampire, Daywalker Potential, Sovereign Wraith, Nightmare Other Known Heritages Azata, Lightning Curse Witch Healing Light Hexen Heavens' Fire Jiang-Shi Knight of Blood Malevolent Spark Mote of Decay Mote of Stasis Mummy Remnant Wisp of Life Revenant, Star Sea Lion, Earth collapse Abilities Spoiler strong Monster Biology Eyeless Sight Colorless vision that does not require light; no visual effect Vital Sight Shows the primary animating Affinity, usually Life, for creatures. Makes the eyes glow with blue-white fire Blossoms' Sleep Can induce sleep on self with a defined wakeup time Runic Shielding Tattoos Resists one attack of any sort. Does not require preactivation if the attack will kill or disable. Fully drains current MP to establish, drains SP to maintain, ends when hit. MP drained determines strength of blow that can be resisted, will fail if strength is exceeded but may reduce the power of the attack even if it fails. Effect is better with automatic activation Crystal Seed Remote Link Allows Serenity to access the World Core features as though he were at a Node, even when he isn't on a ley line. Functionality may be limited inside dungeons. Dhampir's Default When a Dhampir is casually examined, he or she appears to be a normal member of the living population. Down to the River When you physically envelop a being with a soul, you may choose to send their soul to the River of Souls. The soulless body will remain if applicable. Success rate depends on Ambit. When you do this, you will gain some of their knowledge but not personality. Decreased chance of success in any form other than Sovereign of Potential. Link Core While touching an Essence Core, you can attempt to create a Sovereign Link. Enhanced by Ambit. Multiform You may assume the shape of any Form you know. All Forms reflect yourself and all Forms are reflected in some manner in your Chimera Form. Detailed control of Forms increases with familiarity. Any Forms above the minimum require a continual maintenance cost of both Mana and Essence. Minimum number of Forms: 2. Maximum number of Forms: 4. Forms may be repeated. Forms passively return to their normal condition. Current known forms: Chimera, Hatchling Essence Dragon, Sovereign of Potential Kernel, Human?, Crystal Hilt, Armor, Sterath? Rift of Potential You can manifest a small rift between your location and the Origin Point. Path Abilities Loot Core Teleports a monster core from touched monster body to the user. Usable on any dead monster with a core. Costs mana Resilience of the Dead Slightly increased resistance to certain status alterations Eat Death Absorb Death energy found within the Death Eater's aura. Absorption based on Affinity. Intensity of absorption can be varied but the ability cannot be completely disabled. Absorbed Death energy may be used as if it were Death mana. Dissipates with time. Ability damaged Basic Analyze Analyze a being for basic information. The being may be animal, Pathed, or monster. Other beings may be analyzed if they have any appropriate features. Items may not be analyzed Intermediate Unarmed Combat Claw Variant Losing your weapons is not a disaster when you have weapons attached to your hands. Your expertise with claws is nearly nonexistent, but your general training with unarmed combat is transferable Adept Aspect Form Instead of infusing an Affinity into your weapon, infuse your Aspect into yourself. Limited time, consumes both stamina and mana, induces unconsciousness when the Form lapses Basic Sense Raw Magic Detect background, non-attuned energy. This sense is always active Linked Sight You may share your vision and vision-based abilities with your Seer or anyone whom you share a similar Link with. They may also share their vision and vision-based abilities with you. Consumes Stamina per vision or vision-based ability shared in either direction. Vision ability costs are paid by the user instead of the originator of the ability, if applicable Moment of Prescience Know a moment ahead of time when something will kill or disable you or someone you wish to protect. Activation is automatic. Cannot be activated more than once a minute. Consumes stamina in inverse proportion to the threat Time's Eye Your eyes see the motions of Time as it stretches and changes. The hidden is easier to see and the false easier to see through. Consumes Stamina Note: the Stamina cost is low enough that it can be maintained for hours at a time, though that will significantly reduce Serenity's available Stamina for other uses Unbound Time does not quite have the same hold on you as it does on others, and Fate does not rule you. You can slip between the lines of the future and past or even blur them if you have the desire and the strength. That which will be has no power over you, and you can break the strands of Destiny for others if you dare. This ability is always active and has always applied to you Basic Identify Identify an object to gain basic information on it, such as its name, basic properties, materials, and/or minor enchantments Scale Hardening Use Essence or Mana to reinforce your scales, making them harder to damage and more protective. Costs Stamina to maintain Wait for an Opening Study an opponent's actions in combat to gain an intuitive understanding of the right time to strike Second Wind Convert some of a more filled resource pool Mana, Stamina, or Essence into an empty one. Consumes some of the converted resource Stand Tall Whether you are the last wall between your loved ones and your enemies or you simply love to fight, your ability to take a beating is exceptional. Blood loss, bruises, injuries, and even broken bones will not stop you. You can fight at the full effectiveness your body is capable of despite your injuries Essence Sight You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present Physical Storage You can store spells inside your own body to be evoked later. Stored spells may be evoked only by you and may be triggered at any time. All variable effects must be determined prior to casting. Stored spells will degrade with time and use of mana or essence in the area the spell is stored. Spell Conversion You can convert the power of any spell you can Evoke into a ranged mana or essence strike. The power of the strike depends on the stored spell power. Store Spell You may temporarily store spells in items to be evoked later. The item must be strong enough to hold the spell, and synergy with the spell will slow spell degradation. Stored spells will degrade with time and nearby mana or essence use. Storage of spells can damage items used. Designate Evocation Conditions You may designate conditions on when a stored spell can be evoked. You can bypass any conditions you set, but you cannot bypass conditions set by other Evokers. This allows you to set conditions that will allow non-Evokers to Evoke stored spells, but spells Evoked by the untrained will be significantly degraded during the evocation. Entwined Magic You can mix Mana and Essence magic freely, to achieve effects not possible with Mana or Essence alone. Passive. Gaze of the Origin When you choose, you can infuse your gaze with the power of your connection to the Origin. Effects vary. Power depends on Ambit. Aura of Magic When you choose, you can reveal your Mana and Essence pools with your aura. Passively increases the maximum size and regeneration of your Mana and Essence. Increases the regeneration of others' mana and essence at a slight cost to your regeneration rate. Easily sensed. Power depends on size and regeneration rate of mana and essence pools. Mold Magic You can alter magic that has been given a steady form. Passive. Potential of the Rift Your Rift to the Origin will allow you to move items or creatures to the Origin and retrieve them later. Items or creatures stored in the Origin will be exposed to it. You may travel to the Origin using the Rift. Rift Control You may control the Potential that leaks from your Rift to the Origin as long as it is within your aura, including increasing or decreasing the amount that leaks. Call on the Origin The Origin is just that: the beginning of all things. Bring something temporarily into the real world, limited only by your imagination and power. Variable Cost. Revivify Potential can become warped in many ways. Restore something to its original Potential. Quality of repair affected by the level of understanding of what the repair requires, the amount of damage being repaired, the time since the damage occurred, and the Time Affinity, Concept, and Aspect of the user. Realize Potential Use Potential drawn through the Rift to temporarily gain something from your Heritage. Variable Cost. Death Magebolt Throw a mass of Death-attuned magic at your enemy. collapse Other Stuff Spoiler strong Earth's Planetary-level World Core Authorizations Portal Management Dungeon Taxation Quest Visibility ------------ Serenity's Titles Previous Supreme Existence You were the Supreme Existence in a previous incarnation, and can remember some of what came before. Your status also grants you the Ghost in the System title. This title is hidden from all but you. First of A Kind You are the first True Chimera and the first Essence Dragon. Your Paths shall shape the future of those who follow in your footsteps. Named Your Name is known and respected or feared. No other can bear this Name. Ghost in the System You bypass certain restrictions. This title is hidden unless you share it with another. Aspect Pathfinder As the first person to discover a new Aspect, Concept, and Affinity, you set the path for those who follow you on the road of Essence Magic. Creating new methods and applying methods from other magical schools is easier. Incarnate More than an Aspect, you are an Incarnate. Your Concept sets what the meaning of the Affinity you Incarnate does and does not mean. Your Incarnate will always be a part of you, and you will always be a part of it. As an Incarnate, you are not capable of combining or otherwise altering this Affinity. There cannot be more than one Incarnate for an Affinity at a time, as no two people will ever have identical Conceptions of an Affinity. Lord You are recognized as the ruler of a Settlement. This comes with certain rights as long as you are within the Settlement or interacting with people who are identified as belonging to the Settlement. This Title will be removed if you are no longer the Lord of a Settlement. DeathLord You have a high enough combined Death Affinity, Concept, and Aspect to qualify to rule a Necropolis. Tyche's Mark You have been marked by Lady Luck. Interesting things will happen around you. They may be good or bad. This Curse removes your Luck and Luck % attributes and suppresses all Luck attributes that would affect you directly or indirectly. Instead, Luck is in flux around you and unlikely events are more likely to occur when you are nearby. Worlds' Friend Multiple worlds have declared you an ally. Others who are strongly tied to those worlds may sense a kinship with you. This may affect the reaction of other worlds or their servants. collapse Lillene The description of Serenity's new Path and his usual commentary will be in the next chapter. I'm already over the word count for this one. He didn't spend much time debating this time. He wants something straightforward, so why not take what the Voice thinks is the most straightforward Path? Well, besides the fact that it is just a straightforward Path. But it has a lot of stuff he wants, so why not?