Vraxious- Kings Road- Bertrand’s Respite Inn
Vrax let the steaming bathwater lull him into relaxation; he even sprinkled a bit of herbs into the water, filling the room with the scent of spiced fruit. A welcome and stark contrast from whatever horrors were leaking from Torvald's general direction. By the gods, that man needs a bath worse than I did. If he doesn’t take one before we leave tomorrow, I’m going to douse him in herbs the next time he falls asleep at camp.
As his thoughts floated by, he sank deep into himself, the wooden walls of the inn melting away, replaced by the gentle flickering colors of his sanctuary. A noticeable trickle of Diver Dandelion seeds now floated aimlessly over the glade just barely swirling around anything they might have attacked in nature. It added a beautiful, almost unreal quality to this place, everything around him in motion at all times. It would be perfect if it weren’t for those shapes flitting about in the darkness just beyond the borders of his sanctuary.
Vrax pointedly ignored them and made his way to his [Core]. He was already seeing things that needed improvement sooner rather than later. Mainly his mana and his strength. He wasn’t pleased at all with how much he was struggling to cause real damage with his weapon without using [Decaying Smite].
And more mana would just directly help him in every way at this point.
Vrax started with trying to improve his mana. It was a relatively easy visualization. It wasn’t about storing more mana in your body; it was about reinforcing the pathways your body naturally used for it and making more paths to allow it to travel more freely. He gathered a flowing wall of essence behind him, and it began to trickle into and out of his core statue, traveling as mana would through branching pathways. It continued this flowing path, becoming less and less as the essence was absorbed, reinforcing his mana pathways. Until finally there was no more essence gathered in the air around him.
Improved Attributes
Mental defenses: 1.3
Mana Capacity 1.2
Total Mana 122/122
The lake was still over half full of essence glimmering softly behind him. The Shriker fight plus the bit he had left over after level two had left him with a good amount to work with. But the mana upgrade had surprisingly been costlier than the mental resistance. Hmm, I guess not getting mind-controlled does fall under the purview of a paladin more than sheer magical aptitude does. Let's see about strength.
Vrax gathered up another sheet of essence trailing lazily through the air behind him and began evenly suffusing his core with it. He pictured muscles being compressed, made denser, his blows striking faster and with more force. It was a quick process, the statue almost greedily absorbing the raw potential given purpose. The lake behind once again had shrunk to the point where a few poor fish had been left flopping in the open air, but Vrax wasn’t done yet. He made his way to the sculpture of him reaching towards a monster [Adapt Life]. This was probably his most important skill.
He started gathering all of the essence he had left. Picturing his creations being friendly towards him and his allies. The image of Torvald petting the Everthirst root was held in his mind as he began to trickle essence into the sculpture. Immediately the sculpture's hungry, all-consuming pull on the essence told him this wasn’t going to work, at least not now. He cut off the stream with a start, trying not to lose hold of the essence he had gathered. Okay...so it is possible, but I will need far, far more essence for that change, possibly more than an entire level or two worth. Changing tactics to his backup plan, Vrax simply focused on efficiency, the slow, gradual change of a creature into more than it once was. The Essence flowed in, in slow stitchwork patterns, before solidifying. The size of the Devourer, his sculpture, reached for growing almost imperceptibly larger. I hope that means it worked?
Vrax pulled up his full status sheet to see what his changes had wrought.
[Vraxious Tier-1] (lvl 4) (Unique) [Paladin Of The Cycle]
You will safeguard the cycle of life and death. Wield the powers of growth, of change, and of decay to set the world free from those who would hold it stagnant. Stand tall with weapon held high and strike down those who would fetter you. You will adapt the life of the world around you to serve your will; life leads to change, change leads to death, death leads to rot, rot leads to life, and thus the cycle continues.
[Skills]
[Decomposing Smite]
Infuse your blows with entropy, corroding your foes and using their essence to heal your wounds.
[Mana Cost Variable]
[Adapt Life] (lvl 2)
Change living beings to better suit your needs. Entities changed with this skill will be less hostile towards the paladin. Faster changes or changes farther from the base functions of an entity will use exponentially more mana. The more powerful an entity, the more mana required.
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[Mana Cost Massively Variable] [Increased Efficiency]
[Duration Permanent]
[Stigmata Wrath Of The Grove]
Woe befall those that would cause harm to those under the sacred canopy of our protection. Life is a struggle. Life is pain. Life is hunger. Life is fear. Let those who threaten our beloved feel naught but the wrath of the grove until they are returned to the cycle.
[Stigmata Garden, Four slots available]
[Talents]
[Forest Strider]
The forest around you will subtly aid your movement based on intent, be that speed or stealth.
[Passive]
[Identify]
Reveal a living being’s name, tier, and level if it is an essence infused entity.
[Mana cost insignificant]
[Hunter's Ear]
Your hearing is as sharp as the predators of the deep wood, more easily discerning slight sounds.
[Passive]
Improved Attributes
Mental Defenses: 1.3
Physical Strength: 1.2
Mana Capacity: 1.2
Total Mana: 122/122
Vrax was damn pleased with himself. The first few levels came fast for everyone, but four in about a week was good by any measure. Twenty percent higher strength—he couldn’t wait to see how that actually felt. And that much more mana plus the rather nebulous increased efficiency. He just might be able to actually make Thirsty into a bit more of a cloak now. Overall it was a productive delve into his soul, and he couldn’t wait to see what evolution options [Adapt Life] would receive whenever he got it to the tenth level. Skills leveled up independently of everything else and only when you improved them with your precious and limited essence. But every ten levels worth of improvements of a skill as deigned by the system you got to choose an evolution.
If he had had enough essence to make the change he had originally planned on to adapt life, that might have shot it straight to level three or four. Evolutions usually weren’t sweeping changes that altered the base use of a skill. The options, as far as Vrax understood it, were more catered to how you had used that skill up till that point. If he kept changing the colors of everything, one of his options could be something mostly useless but amusing, like being able to instantly change his adapted creatures' colors at will. Or if he kept making things like the Thirsty Cape, maybe a tweak that benefited worn, adapted life.
Vrax spent a bit longer wandering his sanctuary thinking of future changes and then drew himself back into the real world. He headed to bed, excited to experiment more on the next day's journey. And praying Torvald took a fucking bath.
Much to Vrax's relief, he awoke to Torvald freshly scrubbed, stuffing himself into his signature tan leather sleeveless shirt. A bowl of honeyed porridge sat on a small end table, beckoning to Vrax. After a quick meal, Vrax waited for Torvald to finish his own essence allocation, and they restocked on some perishables at the general store, continuing on their journey as the sun only just peeked its eye over the horizon.
The first day, Vrax managed to make his cloak into more of a three-quarter cape than the half cape it was before, but the mana costs increased very quickly with every bit of mass he added to the tangle of roots. He might need to rethink turning it into a cloak; it would probably be more effective for now to keep it as a half cape and strengthen it somehow.
Vrax took stock of his current armament. The Everthirst cape an unproven but promising wildcard for close combat. The three wicked lurker mushrooms had already proven savagely effective against smaller targets but with the large caveat that they were basically done for the fight once they grabbed something. The dandelion was actually terrifying and probably could distract or flat-out disable most smaller creatures. But it wasn’t safe to use around anything even close to allied and couldn’t get through any kinds of natural armor. He also had one jar of smelter moss still, but he wasn’t sure how he would adapt that without killing himself. There was zero margin for error with that volatile plant, and he didn’t think less hostile meant a darn thing for a plant that spontaneously combusted if you touched it too suddenly.
So Vrax kept traveling an hour past nightfall on the last days of the journey, hoping to see the slight red glow of a [Mandragora] floret sticking from the ground. Mandragora were technically native to the forsaken lands. They were, however, more useful than straight-up dangerous to most farmers, leading to their widespread breeding across this eastern half of the kingdom. Mandragoras came up to the top of a man's shin in height, small humanoid bodies made of a carrot-like proportion and texture.
They were very efficient little hunters, burying themselves for weeks at a time and luring gophers or moles to their dens with fake root-like limbs, where they would devour them. They weren’t harmless to people either; many a farmer’s child had been killed when they ignored a parent’s warning. The savage little creatures, if dug up, will try and consume anything moving around them in self-defense. They had maws more suited to crushing a mole's skull than tearing a throat out, but they were ruthless; only wolverines matched them pound for pound in sheer stubborn violence.
Vrax could easily see one of those, with some adaptations to it, being a menace on a battlefield. What if I gave it fangs and made it the size of a man, add some claws as well? Hypnotic gaze—is that something I can do? Torvald looked at him with concern. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but that expression on your face is terrifying. It’s what I imagine a hag looks like as she plans what seasoning to add to the child stew.”
Vrax made a face of mock indignation. “I’m simply thinking of the best ways to improve our chances in the dungeon.”
Torvald grunted doubtfully, then plucked a tiny yellow daisy peeking through the hardpack on the edge of the road. He held it towards Vrax, a mischievous look on his face. “So with how your make scary shit worse power is, could you take a plain old daisy and make it able to kill a man?”
Vrax took the offered daisy. “That’s not how that…” he trailed off in thought. “Actually, yeah, eventually I probably could.”
Vrax kept scanning for a Mandragora on the eve of the last night before they got to Hopes Path with no luck so far. He could probably buy one in the city, but any kind of monster trader would want a premium for it, and he didn’t exactly have a surplus of gold right now. He could sell the ring, but that thing had already proven its usefulness in recovery. They would save more money being able to skip needing a healer or post-combat potions for minor injuries in the long run. They made camp for the last time before they would reach town, and Vrax focused in on the simple daisy. He was going to see if he could scare the shit out of Torvald with this thing.