The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [81] System User

When Tanisha and Fuyumi returned to the boys, they found them both still fast asleep. She considered attempting to open the next door, given how easily the previous one had yielded. However, she hesitated. The entrance to the ruin had been deceptively simple to unlock, yet it had led to an ambush. There was no telling what might await beyond the core room’s door. Deciding it was wiser to wait until everyone was rested, she let the thought pass.

Her mind drifted to what Signe had mentioned about enchanters crafting lock spellforms, some elegantly simple, others intricate and layered. Perhaps this door was locked with a spellform far more complex than the others, which were merely shut. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

The two women settled down and she placed the unusual golem arm on the ground beside her. It was too heavy to fit in her personal inventory space, already packed with supplies. Removing her armor with a practiced hand, she took a moment to inspect the areas where the strange golems had shot her. The faintest scratches marred the surface, cosmetic damage, nothing more. Her armor, designed to resonate with her aura and enhanced by the Chain Breaker’s Mantle, grew tougher the more she channeled her power. It had held up well, as expected.

Still, the attacks intrigued her. The projectiles relied purely on kinetic force, which would be less effective against magic casters. For those who were magically dense, like herself, mundane weapons will continue to pose less and less threat. In time even a magicless arrow would bounce off their skin, perhaps causing minor irritation but little more. On the other hand, place that same weapon in the hands of a mage or wizard and their aura alone would make it far more effective and potentially dangerous.

Tanisha wasn’t sure if she was at the level to be shot by these things without her armor and not get hurt but she wouldn’t fight them without her armor anyway. Her gaze returned to the odd weapon, integrated into the golem’s arm. It lacked a traditional mechanism for her to fire it; the design suggested it was built solely for the golem’s use. 

She managed to pull out one of the projectiles from it and looked over the tiny piece of pointed metal wrapped in a casing. It looked hard to make but completely useless on its own.

“A loud, primitive crossbow with smaller projectiles,” she mused aloud, turning it over in her hands. “The bolts are so small it would be hard to put any mana in them.”

Its design, while ingenious, seemed surprisingly mundane in function, relying entirely on mechanical force rather than magic. After fiddling around with it a little she decided she would show it to Bjorn when he woke up before taking it apart forcefully. With the weapon set aside, Tanisha decided to check her status, not expecting much. The enemies they had faced were, after all, little more than animated dolls.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw her level had jumped by two. Her mind was already racing with possibilities for how to allocate her new points.

“Well, that’s unexpected,” she murmured.

Unassigned Cultivation Points Distribution

You have leveled up 2 time(s) before assigning your UCP.
You have 20 UCP

You have not appeased your heritage no additional benefits

Please assign all UCP within 6 day(s) or UCP will be automatically assigned.
Assign [yes/no]

She didn’t understand why she gained new levels. The golems didn’t use magic and from what she understood that was the requirement for her gaining the energy necessary to increase her level. Did they have magic and she just didn’t sense it or does her cultivation work differently than she had originally thought. She was never trained in cultivation and wasn’t sure how it worked. It was a good thing she was with Fuyumi and Aurelius as both should be knowledgeable since one came from a clan with cultivators and the other was one.

Without a second thought she went ahead and assigned her points continuing the trend of trying to get all of her stats over one hundred. She decided to go with stamina as it had become a bottleneck for her. She could barely keep up with Fuyumi and Aurelius because it was so low even with her Chain Breakers Mantle.

Status Menu

Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
+ Level: 44 < 46
Vitality: 110
Restoration: 110
Constitution: 110
Willpower: 140
Strength: 76
Dexterity:  85
+ Stamina: 50 + 20 = 70
Seiðr: =  520
Seiðr Regeneration: 520 (+200 from bond)
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Fuyumi’s voice pulled Tanisha from her revelry. “What did you just do?”

“Oh, uh… I just assigned my cultivation points.” Tanisha admitted. 

Fuyumi’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Cultivation points,” she echoed. “What does that mean? Did you just use the attributes of the cultivation you acquired? How did you do that so quickly? What realmof cultivator are you?”

It was now Tanisha that was confused. “Uh… what? I am level forty six now?”

“Level…am I not understanding Muaian correctly? No, your cultivation rank. Do you not know what that is? How are you cultivating and don’t know what it is?” Fuyumi sighed as she saw the blank expression on Tanisha’s face. “Cultivation requires you to meditate to grow your own power and transcend mortal limitations. It is the refining of one's own essence, body and spirit. In this way it is similar to the material users and is why more of them become cultivators than mages.”

“So, what is a cultivator realms?” Tanisha asked.

“There are ten realms of cultivators each of which takes years of dedication to master.” Fuyumi stated.

The yuki-onna continued to explain the different realms starting with the Seedling which was the lowest rank and is the point the cultivator awakens their spiritual essence. This power could take the form of mana for magic casters and material for the material users. Then came the Rooted, Sprouting, Leaf, Blossoming, Fruiting, Harvest and Ascension which was the highest realm most people could ascend to in a lifetime. Then there were the truly gifted and long lived that went beyond into the Ethereal Sovereign and even the Immortal Transcendence realms which both apparently required someone to achieve enlightenment.

Tanisha noted several major differences between the Yuki’s cultivation method and her own. The standard cultivation method required someone to meditate for hours or even days to assimilate the energies within themselves. There was once a time they could directly place it into different attributes but those techniques were rare and largely considered lost to time. For the most part the gathered energy had to go through what they called stages of refinement before it could become their own.

Tanisha explained her way of gaining power through levels which didn’t require her to meditate. Once she reached a threshold she would gain a new level and obtain what her mental projection magic called unassigned cultivation points. This made Fuyumi’s jaw drop in surprise. 

“Tanisha, what you have isn’t really cultivation.” Fuyumi said more animately than she had ever seen the ghostborn. 

“Well, not entirely. You have a System which is extremely rare even amongst sages. You have to tell me, how did you get it?”

Tanisha hesitated, unsure how much to reveal. Fuyumi, however, wasn’t about to let the matter rest. She crawled over to Tanisha, her movement unnervingly fluid, and invaded her personal space. Startled, Tanisha fell onto her back, with Fuyumi now on her hands and knees above her, staring down with unblinking intensity. 

The ghostborn’s eyes lowered to her chest but deeper as Tanisha knew she could somehow observe other people's cores from a distance. The cold breath of the yuki-onna sent shivers racing down her spine. Her red eyes had a faint glow as she stared into her. The unsettling nature of the woman made Tanisha want to lie and hide the fact it came from her bond with Bjorn. However, if Fuyumi was going to help her train she needed to know how her powers worked.

“It first appeared when I bonded with Bjorn,” Tanisha admitted cautiously.

Fuyumi looked her in the eyes and leaned even closer, their faces mere inches apart as she continued to scrutinize Tanisha, her piercing gaze making it impossible to look away.

“Next time you or Bjorn have these points to spend, tell me before you use them,” Fuyumi instructed. “I want to see exactly how this power integrates into you.”

Before Tanisha could respond, a loud yawn broke the tension. Both women turned their heads to see Aurelius stirring. He sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes, before his gaze fell upon them. His expression shifted instantly as his face turned a vibrant pink. 

“Uh… s-sorry! I didn’t mean to intrude,” Aurelius stammered, scrambling to his feet. “I’ll just, uh… I’ll go on guard duty now.”

“Wait, before you go,” Fuyumi said calmly. “There’s something you can help with.”

Aurelius froze, his blush deepening. He avoided looking at them directly, instead glancing awkwardly at the ground. 

“I-I don’t think there’s much I can do if you two are… well… in the middle of that.” He trailed off, his voice barely above a whisper.

Fuyumi blinked in confusion. “What realm of cultivation are you?”

“I’m waiting for marriage,” Aurelius blurted reflexively, then paused. “I appreciate the offer but, wait… what?”

“What realm of cultivation are you?” Fuyumi repeated.

Aurelius looked at the two women and seemed to come to a decision. “I am still in the Seedling realm although I am close to a breakthrough. By the time we get to the Force Isles I was hoping to be in the Rooted Rank.”

Fuyumi nodded and backed off of Tanisha allowing her to sit up as well. 

“That is what I thought. In terms of cultivation you two are in the same realm.” Fuyumi put a hand on her chin. “However, Tanisha’s method seems to be more efficient thanks to her system.”

“Tanisha, you’re a cultivator too?” Aurelius asked.

Fuyumi answered for her. “Not entirely, she is a system user. That does change how I was going to teach you. There aren’t any system users amongst the Yuki clan so I will have to train you as a normal cultivator. Since you are closer to them than to a normal mage. We will start when you wake up so get some sleep.”

***

The morning was full of surprises for Bjorn, it started with a notification indicating he had leveled up twice. That could only mean Tanisha had killed something while he was asleep. Then he found her meditating with Fuyumi and Aurelius to start her path to enlightenment so she could control the aether better. Finally she found a gun. It wasn’t one they could use as it looked to be a part of a detached arm.

It was so much information that he had to compartmentalize what he was going to focus on, first of which was trying to get answers from Tanisha. She was in the middle of deep meditation but opened her eyes when she felt his emotions darting all over the place from the new information he was taking in. She thankfully filled him in on the events of the previous night while he was asleep. 

“Golems from your time still walking around, do you know anything about them?” Failsafe asked.

“No, I haven’t had any memories since we got down here.” Bjorn said. “We leveled up though so we should both see the next memories, right?”

“Yeah, shame it happened while we were already sleep otherwise we could have had additional memories last night.” Failsafe said.

“So we aren’t really cultivators.” Bjorn said to Failsafe mentally as Tanisha finished her explanation. “So apparently you did make a new thing and didn’t just reinvent cultivation.”

Failsafe sounded proud as he spoke. “Yeah, what I made is better! We don’t have to sit around for hours doing nothing.”

“We also can’t passively cultivate like actual cultivators though.” Bjorn mentioned. 

“Okay, so, there were some tradeoffs,” Failsafe admitted rather reluctantly. “But at least I didn’t name any of the milestones after the plant growth cycle like we are gardeners.” 

“Yeah because numbers are so much more creative.” Bjorn retorted.

“Fuyumi, we are going to get started.” Tanisha’s words pulled Bjorn out of his internal conversation. “Bjorn, are you ready? Go ahead and choose whatever you are going to for your UCP,” She leaned over and whispered her next words. “Then let's start the evolution.”

Bjorn nodded and opened his menu to assign the twenty points. He was pleased to see that all of the running they had done over the past few days had raised his strength and stamina stats by ten each on their own. His vitality had also risen but only by three points. It had been a long journey so far and the Chaos Land have most certainly lived up to its name.

They were underground again which would limit what he could do in terms of combat. Since his Plague Fire could have the unintended consequences of eating up their air or damaging something important. Intimidation Roar, Poison Cloud and any of his venoms would not work on non-magical and inorganic golems. That means down here he would be relegated to physical attacks. That in mind he placed his points in Strength.

Status MenuNôv(el)B\\jnn

Name: Bjorn Isin Scalebound
Species: Lernaean Hydra
+ Level: 44 < 46
+ Vitality: 175 + 3 = 178 / 195
Restoration: 270 / 270
Constitution: 140 / 140
+ Strength: 90 + 30 = 120 / 130
Dexterity: 80/ 100
+ Stamina: 90 + 10 = 100 / 115
Primana: 70 / 100
Primana Regeneration:  100 / 100  (+200 from bond)

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As Bjorn confirmed the changes he noticed something he hadn’t previously put any thought into. The amount he was getting back from the Familiar Bond had grown to two hundred. He didn’t know when that had happened or why he didn’t notice before. A lot did recently happen with both the bond and the soul tether getting stronger. He hadn’t been notified by Failsafe about it and he was still a Delta Familiar so it must have just been growing closer to whatever the next stage was, he just didn’t know how close they were.

“Okay, Failsafe be sure to monitor what this does too.” Bjorn said mentally.

“I am on it!” Failsafe said cheerily.

Follower Ascension Panel

Name: Aki’al Hashemi
Title: Sonr Orma Eilífra
Divinity: Demi True Immortal
Divine Realm: Venom
Followers: 1

Follower List:
Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
Level: 46
Status: Alive
Special Status: Soul Bound (Partial)
Evolution Status: Pending

Follower Evolution(s) Status

Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos (Greater Wendigo < Normal Cernunnos) - Dagda (Greater Cernunnos)
Evolution Prerequisite  4 / 10
Approve Current Evolution Status Prerequisite Met:
Mana Gate Open, Blood Gate Open, Maya Meridians and Veins, Pledge of Soul
[Yes/No]

Status Not Met for Evolution: Cernunnos - Dagda
Complete Communing (2/5), Bone Gate Open, Spirit Gate Open, Mind Gate Open, Aetheric Tool Bound, Level 100

Page 4 of 4

Bjorn selected yes and approved the prerequisite that Tanisha met and waited to see what would happen.