Rune Seeker

An hour later – almost to the minute – six people stood around the raid interface and accepted their advanced classes. Everybody else in the fortress stood within eyeline of the event, some even on roofs and each others’ shoulders to give them all a good look. They’d made sure to give the evolvers a wide berth – since advanced classes evolutions tended to come with explosions – and they certainly weren’t disappointed this time.

While none of the evolutions were nearly as dramatic as Seena’s had been not so long ago, the fact that six of them came all at once sent shockwaves of power out like a tidal wave that washed over the assembled group. It was enough some of the lower Ranks were physically pushed back by it, though Hiral and his group barely even shifted beneath the pressure.

More than anything, Hiral’s attention was glued to what was within the waves of power. Snippets of meaning, insight, and the evolvers’ paths laced the energy, lingering on the PIMs they passed and leaving traces behind. Unsurprisingly, a notification popped up in the corner of Hiral’s vision, though he didn’t take his eyes off what the hidden energy was doing to them. His Runes of Time Dilation and Contraction activated on instinct to analyze the effects he was seeing.

This was why they’d gained Evolutionary Inspiration in the first place. Why defeating monsters bolstered their strength. It wasn’t just the energy their PIMs absorbed from their fallen enemies, but also the glimpses of their accrued gains. It was almost like they were stealing some of the learning their enemies had done to make themselves stronger.

It was probably also why defeating more powerful enemies led to greater results. They just had more to give. And it was definitely something Hiral could use going forward. The hints of how the process improved his own PIM right before his eyes was like a breath of fresh inspiration. Not in how he would edit his own PIM – at least not yet – but in how he could use his runes. The process wasn’t the same, but the end goal could be.

With ideas bouncing around his head – especially for his side project he’d finish as soon as he Ranked up – Hiral let go of his time runes. Within a few seconds, the mass-class-advancement finished, and the gathered crowd was left gasping and chatting with excitement. What were they all so excited about?

It could only be the achievement they’d all just gotten.

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Evolutions for Everybody!

You bathed in the energy of six simultaneous class evolutions.

Interestingly – and a little disappointing – Hiral didn’t see six more achievement notifications. They hadn’t gotten any random ability upgrades from their normal Evolutionary Inspiration+. Was that because the ability had gotten the upgrade instead?

“Everybody,” Grandmother said, a CRACK from her cane hitting the ground silencing the crowd. “I know you’re excited about your new achievements, but we need to quickly move you through the raid interface to claim the rewards.”

“As you can see,” Elezad continued. “We’ve got a lot to get through, and not a lot of time for it. We’re going to ask you to move up with your raid group as we call you, get only this achievement reward, then move away from the interface so the next group can get theirs.

“After that is done – for everybody here – we’ll go through any Rank evolutions that may be available, including our first raid group to reach A-Rank.” With those last words, Elezad and everybody else in the crowd looked in the direction of Hiral’s gathered group. It wasn’t a surprise for anybody, and…

“Seena! We love you!” the familiar gaggle of girls called out! Two of them even seemed to have little doll-like versions of Li’l Ur sitting on their shoulders. As soon as Seena looked in their direction and gave them a small wave, the dozen or so girls screamed, giggled, and hugged each other.

“Why’s she the only one with a fan club?” Yanily asked Hiral quietly.

“She’s the prettiest?” Hiral offered.

“I’m pretty pretty,” Yanily grumbled.

While Yanily grumbled about not having his own fan club – he said they could be called the spearettes – Elezad and the Trust got people organized and up to the raid interface. One after another, the got their achievement rewards as the line moved along. Almost surprisingly, it went smoothly, with the biggest problem being some people trying to rush too much to make room for the next person behind them. All in all, it took barely over ten minutes to get the assembled group done, and to bring Hiral and his raid group to interface.

They hadn’t been able to get every raid group back in time for this – unfortunately – but they probably had three-quarters of them. And, from what Hiral was hearing, he already had a bit of an idea what they would get from the achievement. Before that, though, they also had their achievements from Mechanized.

Except, before he activated the raid interface, his eyes landed on the spearman again. And the frown on the man’s face.

“You okay Yan?” he asked his friend. “Having a fan club probably isn’t all that great…” he trailed off when the spearman shook his head.

“Sorry,” Yanily said. “It’s not that. Not anything important, really.”

“What’s bothering you, Yan?” Seena asked after checking they still had a minute while people were getting organized around them.

“I didn’t see my father,” Yanily said simply. “Unless he’s hiding – he literally has skills for that – I don’t think he’s here. Do you think he went back up to the islands after…?”

“We didn’t get everybody back in time,” Hiral immediately said. “And he doesn’t run with a raid group, right? I bet they just couldn’t wait for him to make it here.”

“Your brother is fine,” Seeyela said. “Even if he was mad at you, there are too many opportunities here in the Cradle for him to go back. Vevus may be an ass, but he’s not a dumb ass. At least not when it comes to this kind of thing.”

“She’s right,” Seena said. “He’s down here – out there – somewhere exploring the nooks and crannies everybody else missed.”

“It’s the only thing that seems to make him happy…” Yanily agreed.

“Guess it’s ‘too bad’ he didn’t get this achievement though,” Seeyela said, fingers forming air quotes. “And all the bonus stats that come with it. Couldn’t happen to a ‘nicer guy’.” More air quotes.

“He’ll be pissed about it, though,” Yanily sighed.

“Let him take it out on some Chimeras down here,” Hiral said.

“You’re right,” Yanily said. “You’re right. So. Achievements! Evolutions! Let’s do it!”

Though the façade was forced, Yanily clearly needed to move on. The small, nagging concern wouldn’t go away, but there also wasn’t anything they could do about it now. Besides, they had bigger problems to worry about with the barrier between factions coming down soon. They needed more strength, and the answer to that was right in front of them.

“Ready?” Hiral asked the others – a glance in Yanily’s direction getting him a thumbs up – and when the three party leaders gave him a nod, he waved his hand above the interface crystal. “Achievement rewards.”

As soon as he said the words, a series of windows popped up in front of him, and he felt the fold in space where the PIMP hid ripple. Invisible connections of energy stretched out, linking with his PIM, and preparing the changes.

The more he observed it, the more odd it felt. Like the changes were coming loaded and ready, but they didn’t settle into place in the PIM until Hiral read the notifications. And then they didn’t finalize until he closed the windows. Spontaneous evolutions didn’t seem to need those time gaps. Maybe the PIMs and PIMP were a little more separate than everybody realized?

Sure, they’d all started in the same place, but the PIMsinside Hiral and the others in his raid party had clearly evolved beyond the default specifications. Just the fact they all had advanced classes – many of them two – meant they had grown well past normal.

Huh, what if the connection when we use a raid interface is a way for the PIMP to get information on how are classes have mutated? It does seem to be learning more about runes from how my PIM grows. It could be…

“Ahem,” Seena coughed beside him, and Hiral looked over at the party leader. “You don’t have the ‘wow, this is an amazing new ability’ look on your face. More the ‘I want to solve this puzzle while I should be doing something’ face.”

“Uh,” Hiral started. “J-just reading the finer print…”

Seena simply raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry. Achievements. Got it.”

“Good,” she said, gently patting the side of his face. “You’re adorable when you’re puzzle-solving, but we’ve got an Urn to go find. Between you and me, Ur is very worried about what Vorinal could do with it.”

“Or what he could accidentally unleash,” the small lich added. “As powerful as he was, I’m not sure he’s up to the task of controlling my Urn.”

“You’re both right. Let’s get this done so we can get to A-Rank, and head to the fog wall.”

Seena nodded at him, and Hiral turned his attention to the notification window. Really, this time. And the first one was from the tower trial they’d completed.

Achievement: Going Up

Reward: Class Ability: Spectral Support

Spectral Support – Summon three spectral combatants to fight by your side, with abilities based on your role within your party.

Note: Rank of Spectral Support at time of summons is one less than user’s current Rank, with levels being equal.

Note (2): Individual power of Spectral Support scales with user’s attributes, gear, and abilities.

Note (3): Duration of Spectral Support is 3 minutes per Rank (currently 12 minutes) with a 60-minute cooldown.

As he pretty much had to do with almost all his more recent abilities, Hiral read through the ability description a second time. From how it read, if he used the ability right now, he’d summon three, C-Rank, level-twenty, Spectres. What they’d do, well, that was the question. What was Hiral’s role in the group?

Or, maybe it went back to something Seena told him a long time ago, back when he’d first joined the Growers down on the surface, and she’d explained how their parties worked. She’d said they had tanks, healers, and damage dealers. Hrm, did she say anything about support? Then again, even if she did, Hiral was a damage dealer, wasn’t he? Despite the shoulder-tap phase before they got Romin, there was no way somebody with his laughable End could be the tank.

Except, his End really wasn’t all that bad with all the bonuses they’d gotten from things like Evolutionary Inspiration. It wasn’t up to the level of a B-Rank Shaper – not by a long shot – but it was decent.

And… he’d let his mind wander off-topic. He could practically feel Seena glaring at him. Nope, that was his sensory domain telling him she really was glaring at him. Back to the ability!

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

When they Ranked-up here in a minute, that would mean the Spectres would suddenly be B-Rank when he called on them. Depending on the power disparity between Ranks – and how much his individual stats, gear, and achievements affected them – they could be quite an asset. If the whole raid group suddenly summoned fifty-four more combatants into a fight…

Even if they weren’t individually very powerful, the sheer number could swing things in the party’s favor.

Kind of like a domain that walks. I like it.

Definitely something they’d want to test out before they left. With a one-hour cooldown – not even including their cooldown-reduction abilities – the ability would be ready to go again in no time. One more look at the notification window to make sure he didn’t miss anything – and a glance at his own PIM to see how the ability was getting imprinted there – and Hiral moved on to the next window. He could always study the ability in his PIM later, and he had a pretty good understanding of the engraving process already.

As soon as the window vanished, another immediately replaced it. One Hiral was very eager to see – the achievement for creating an S-Rank item.

Achievement: The Beginning of a New Legend

Reward: Class Modification: Greater Entwined Destinies

Having been part of the creation of an artifact bound to the soul of its user, you and your PIM have gleaned a hint of how to tie the destiny of an item in your possession to your destiny.

Greater Entwined Destinies – Choose an item – or pair of linked items – to bind to your PIM, allowing the item(s) to grow in strength with you as your progress down your path.

As you have a greater understanding than most, you can nudge your item’s growth in a direction of your choosing, allowing it to truly become the perfect partner on your journey.

Note: Only one item – or pair of linked items – may be chosen for Greater Entwined Destinies. Choose wisely.

Note (2): Decision on which item(s) is chosen for Greater Entwined Destinies does not need to be made immediately, but is permanent and irreversible upon selection. Choose wisely.

Note (3): Item(s) selected for Greater Entwined Destinies will share the same Rank as user, and will continue to progress alongside them without limit. Choose wisely.

Note (4): Items chosen for Greater Entwined Destines of higher Rank than the user will not suffer power loss or drawbacks. No new Ranks will be gained by the item(s) until the user progresses beyond the initial Rank of the items. Choose wisely.

Note (5): Personalized benefits of choosing items for Greater Entwined Destinies will begin to emerge immediately upon selection. Choose wisely.

I guess the PIMP wants us to really ‘choose wisely’ before we make a choice for this ability, Hiral thought to himself with a chuckle. The fact it said it five times seemed a bit overkill, but the more he considered it, the more it really was a big decision. With this ability, the raid group could theoretically take eighteen items – or pairs of linked items – to S-Rank.

Eighteen S-Rank items. Just like that. Considering the power of the S-Rank items Hiral used – even considering their weakened states because he was lower Rank – this was an incredible ability. Well, assuming they all made it to S-Rank themselves. Something he was one-hundred percent planning to do anyway.

And, from the way it read, whatever item or items he chose – along with Seeyela’s, Yanily’s, and Nivian’s – would have the additional benefit of being a bit more personalized. How much he could influence the item’s growth was an interesting question, but even anything to better align it with him sounded like a huge benefit. In a lot of ways, he’d been very lucky so far with how good the items they’d gotten from the PIMP were.

He still had some issues with being a puppet, but that was mostly an emotional response. When he stood back and looked at it logically, he knew the PIMP had done a lot to help them. The gear. The opportunities. They hadn’t just been to benefit the PIMP. Hiral and his party had gotten a lot out of it. Fallen Reach had been saved because of it.

Logically.

It didn’t mean he’d blindly trust the PIMP to have his – or his friends’ – best interests at heart. The PIMP had been designed to save humanity and the world. Not individuals. So, Hiral would follow that path and work with the PIMP to make that big goal a reality. Just, Hiral might alter things a little bit to make sure his reality came to pass as well.

The one where he and his friends lived to see the results of all their hard work.

And this new ability – Greater Entwined Destinies – would help with that. Once he decided what he wanted to bond with. He had a few ideas for it, but like the notification suggested, he wasn’t going to rush into it. He had a little bit of time to consider his options, and he was going to use it. From a quick look at the faces of the others around him, he wasn’t the only one struggling over the choice.

Except for two people. Yanily and Bash. From the stupidly huge grins on their faces, it was more than obvious they’d made their decisions. And from the energy circulating between them and their weapons – the spear and hammer respectively – the process had already begun.

‘Begun’ was definitely the best way to describe it, too, with energy fluctuations sparking in unison between the two, previously separate entities. It’s not an instant effect. Good to know.

As the energy continued to swirl and ebb between the two and their weapons, Hiral let his eyes linger a few seconds longer. Mainly because Seena seemed distracted by considering her own options. As soon as she came to the same conclusion he had – it was a choice that’d take more than a few seconds – and focused back on the window in front of her, Hiral did the same. He could study how the bonding took place when he eventually did it with his own selection.

One more read through the notification in case he’d missed anything important – he didn’t – and he closed it for the reward from Mechanized to pop up.

Achievement: Technological Superiority

Reward: Class Modification – PIM Upgrade: Combat Suite

Combat Suite – By incorporating cutting-edge technology from the Custodian of Tomorrow’s esoteric inventions and knowledge, the base statistics of your PIM have been upgraded.

Physical-reaction and mental-processing speeds have improved.

Analysis-speed of opponents and surroundings have improved.

All Weapon Skills have been improved.

Energy flow to PIM-granted abilities has been improved.

Note: Combat Suite improves all base combat abilities, including (but not limited to): Damage, damage resistance, critical hit chance, critical hit resistance, critical hit damage, hit chance, evasion, ability-activation rates, solar attributes, efficiencies, cooldown reductions, etc, by a multiplicative amount based on Rank.

Current amount = 8%

Hiral read through the notification once and his eyes widened. A PIM Upgrade. Every time they got one of those…

Pain seared through his body like a combination of liquid fire and lightning all at the same time. Every single inch of him was agony, his sensory domain vanishing in the time it took for his back to hit the ground. There was a vague sense of confusion and panic around him, voices rising as people began to move, but he couldn’t focus on what was happening. Even his eyes were agony, the scene of the fake sky above him bending and twisting like it was being rebuilt.

Except, it wasn’t the sky being rebuilt, but his eyes themselves. Much like the Chimeric blood had done to him, the PIM Upgrade was improving his physical body beyond just the solar-energy channels it occupied. Within seconds, it was over, the pain vanishing so quickly, it left him twitching on the ground.

Vision blurry, he blinked rapidly as two shapes loomed over him, but it didn’t help clear his sight. Finally, he reached up with his unbelievably soft sleeve to wipe gunk out of his eyes. Waste from the body improvement? He tried to Reject more gunk he felt across his body, but the rune didn’t respond. Panic welled up in him that the upgrade had impacted his connection with his runes… until he got a look at his arm.

And the Meridian Line across it.

He’d reabsorbed Right and Left during the crippling pain.

But, if it wasn’t them leaning over him…?

“Hiral?” Nat asked, worry clear in her voice. “You okay?”

“Did you eat bad meat?” Milly asked. “Is your tummy okay?”

“My… tummy?” Hiral asked.

“Uh… you don’t normally smell like this,” Milly said, at which point Hiral realized she was pinching her nose. “None of you do. Oh my… is it getting worse?”

“It… it really is,” Nat gagged. “How? How is it this bad? Is that A-Rank? I don’t want to be A-Rank anymore!”

“We didn’t Rank-up,” Hiral said, mind clearing impressively fast. And, oh, nine hells! The smell – to his new and improved nose – was impressive. Foundational Split came quickly, the two doubles peeling off and immediately putting their hands to their noses.

“Why would you summon us for this?” Right asked as he pulled Nat into a tight hug to bury her face against his soft Coat of Amin Thett.

“To do this,” Hiral said, running energy through his Runes of Rejection, Dreaming, Decrease, and Energy. Stealing a hint of Seena’s fire through Empower, he simultaneously pulled the grime off his raid party and incinerated it. There was a second of an even more pungent, burnt smell, before it too vanished.

“What happened?” Elezad asked from nearby while he helped Sera to her feet.

“A PIM Upgrade,” Sera explained. “It seems the process expelled built-up waste in our bodies to make us more efficient.”

“That was wildly unpleasant,” Ilrolik said.

“For more than just you,” Grandmother said, her hand just now coming away from her mouth. Around the party, more than a few people were on their knees with pools of vomit in front of them. “We learned a good lesson, here, though.”

“What’s that?” Hiral asked.

“That when you’re Ranking up, we need a much bigger circle of distance to stay safe,” Grandmother said, with a rap of her cane on the ground. “Everybody, back up until you think it’s a good distance. Then back up another twenty feet.”

“This wasn’t just me…” Hiral said quietly.

“You are the one with a reputation for exploding,” Seena said from nearby, and gave his sisters a nod. “I hear you two are doing well. Be careful out there, though, okay?”

“Don’t worry, we remember what you told us before,” Milly said. “We’re stronger, but so are the things we’re going to be fighting. We’ll be careful.”

“Good, now you should probably go join Dad,” Hiral said.

“Exploding time?” Nat asked as she disentangled herself from Right’s soft coat.

“One more achievement, then, yeah, probably,” Hiral said.

“A-Rank,” Nat said, almost dreamily. “The first person from Fallen Reach to get there. You sure proved them wrong.”

“Wasn’t why I’m doing it.”

“Doesn’t hurt.”

“Not in the least,” he chuckled with his sisters, who quickly jogged off with their father.

When the group once again had a safe distance between them and the crowd – and an extra twenty feet, as Grandmother suggested – Hiral went back to his achievements. His body already felt lighter, and it was like his mind was processing information from his senses faster. Even his sensory domain felt like it was picking out finer details than before. It was all something he’d need to test later, though.

Closing the Technological Superiority window, he opened the achievement the entire camp gotten for witnessing six class evolutions at the same time.

Achievement: Evolutions for Everybody!

Reward: Class Modification: (Lost) Evolutionary Inspiration becomes Class Modification: (Lost) Greater Inspired Evolutionary Inspiration+

(Lost) Greater Inspired Evolutionary Inspiration+: When a nearby creature experiences an evolution, you gain a permanent bonus based on that evolution, along with a chance to experience a Greater Inspiration.

Note: Benefits are gained when allies or enemies evolve in your presence.

Note (2): Greater Inspirations may result in immediately upgraded or unique abilities, influenced by personal experience, traits, or personal concept.

Additionally, whenever you evolve your class, you gain an additional bonus of +6 to all attributes per level of the advanced class.

Hiral could only smile as he read through the window, then smile bigger when he realized this wasn’t exactly the same as what he’d heard others talking about. While, yes, they’d all been around for the six evolutions, most of the camp hadn’t gotten the earlier versions. From what he’d heard, most of the camp had just gotten an ability called Inspired Evolutionary Inspiration. And, while the name was more than a bit redundant – and different from Hiral’s – it was still a good ability.

The others didn’t get greater inspirations, just inspirations. They also only got plus-four to their stats, instead of plus-six. Hiral almost opened his status window to look at his stats with the new achievement, but he held off, knowing A-Rank – and the real upgrade – was just a minute or two away.

Closing his notifications – the changes to his PIM finalizing at the same time – he looked over to find his party likewise turning in his direction.

“What?” he asked.

“We had a bet going on how many extra achievements you’d have this time,” Yanily said. “So, how many?”

“None,” he said.

Seven groans echoed from those standing around, while Nivian crossed his arms.

“Told you,” he said simply.

“But,” Wule started. “This is Hiral we’re talking about. There’s always something with him. Not even one? Really?”

“Really,” Hiral said. “Nothing extra. I guess I haven’t done anything impressive recently…”

“I was sure there were at least two,” Seeyela said with a sigh. “Hiral, I’m disappointed in you. I just don’t know if you’re good enough for my sister anymore. Seena, rethink things!”

“You’re just being a sore loser,” Seena shot right back.

Hiral looked between Seena, her sister, Wule, Nivian, and then back to Seena. “How many did you guess?” he asked the party leader.

“Uh…” she started. “Why would you assume I was part of this childish…”

“My Mistress put her wager on three achievements,” Li’l Ur said. “You clearly didn’t live up to her expectations. And yet you somehow call yourself my would-be-apprentice.”

“You call me that!” Hiral said. “And, three?”

“Well, I thought you were pretty impressive and deserved that many achievements,” Seena said. “That thing you did to plop us into Nivian’s Aspect alone was pretty wild.”

“Notice she used past tense there?” Yanily asked. “Doesn’t think you’re so impressive anymore, apparently.”

“Thanks, Yan,” Hiral said flatly.

“If everybody is finished bullying my not-as-remarkable-as-you-expected son,” Elezad interrupted. “Or, are at least willing to pause it for the time being…”

“C’mon, Dad! You too?”

“I also said at least two,” Elezad said. “I’m out a significant amount of dessert credits because of you.”

“There are dessert credits…?” Hiral asked, his head turning to Right. “Why didn’t anybody tell me about… Oh. You’ve been keeping them for yourself, haven’t you?”

“Pretty sure your father was going to say something important,” Right deflected, thanks to his Combat Suite upgrade.

“I was,” Elezad said. “I believe that you, Hiral, are scheduled to become A-Rank. While it may not get me my dessert credits back, I suspect it will be notable enough to make us – at least temporarily – forget your lack of extra achievements.

“So, let’s see it, son. Get A-Rank for real.”