The Power of Ten

The sorrow and pain of its wielder ran through the Sword with brutally cutting force. His Pacts were not in balance; his Hellpact and Heavenpact were actually at odds. The latter was warding his soul from any corruption and hellfire, but that left the demoted Hellpact free to punish his body.

He had killed a lot of Dark Warlocks. Werefolk, serpentfolk, dark priests, dark elves, multiple kinds of undead, malicious fey, spirits... and plenty of humans who either deserved to go Down or had hired themselves out to the wrong people.

No Good souls... except those three where it had plainly been a traumatic mercy...

The Sword’s memory didn’t give any indication of time passing, other than its wielder getting stronger as he was able to kill bigger things faster. Still, the Karma I saw there indicated he was definitely the highest-Level person I’d seen on this world. If this place didn’t seem so fixated on keeping people at Six, he could have made Ten.

He obviously knew the Sword was Mnecromonic, and seemed vaguely impressed I took the impact of the deaths of all those creatures without batting an eye.

“This is a Named Weapon. Given how long your career is, you must not know how to advance a Named Weapon properly.” He looked a bit confused as I removed my hand from his Blade. “Allow me to explain three things to you... Naming, Arsenal, and Slaughter.”

We sat down on the benches there, and went over the particulars of one of the key ways that the non-Powered got stronger... better Gear.

Naming was naturally the process of growing a Weapon through combat. He looked intensely interested as I described how to go about this. I could imagine the amount of gold he’d burned to get to where he was at... if he’d known about this, his Weapon could easily have been at Zeks Slots, and had dozens of Arsenal and Slaughter options.

But, that just meant he had to start now. Oh, and he could do the same with his Grit.

He quickly grasped how Quality Level restricted the ultimate power of a Weapon, and how they had to work inside those boundaries. Given his Sword was a 32 and his sidearm a 30, he actually had a lot more room than normal people. High QL stuff didn’t grow on trees.

Arsenal was the storage effect for magical effects on Weapons. Most Weapons were permanently enchanted to have specific effects, such as striking faster and biting deeper, flaming, shocking, freezing, or any number of things. Arsenal allowed a non-Caster to cycle these effects in and out of being active, in much the same way that a Powered could layer such effects over their Weapons with spells or class abilities.

This ability for endless optimization was very useful, and very strong.

Slaughter, and its lesser subset Massacre, were the bloodier extensions of this ability.

Because Bane and Enmity effects worked on a variety of Anathema, they had to have their own ‘Arsenals’. Furthermore, activating them and ‘storing’ them required you to actually kill something so as to trigger the effect, and do so within a day of paying for them.

Two Name-days to pay for Slaughter or Arsenal. Two more days to pay for each effect put into them... beyond the first one, which required normal Slotting costs of six or more days.

As Bane was hands-down the single strongest effect you could work into a Weapon against a specific foe for the cost, so getting Slaughter going was actually quite important.

It meant he was first going to be expanding his current choices, and changing some of them.

“One of the reasons I brought up getting lots of ki is for making a Ki-Bound Weapon. There doesn’t seem to be Soul magic here, but ki seems somewhat stronger, and takes its place.” Noted from watching a few Monks using what they call qigong on the Wall to duplicate some minor spell effects, and in their Weapons.

“Ki-Bound is a basic Weapon Enhancement that takes one Slot. Invest up to two Ki, the Weapon gains +I per ki point. Greater Ki-Bound will allow you to do the same again. So instead of two Slots for +II, you have two Slots with a continuous +IV.”

He was definitely interested in that.

“You can do the same with your Gun, of course. Just be aware that if you withdraw your ki, the Weapons may not even remain magical... which could be seen as not allowing an enemy to use them against you, so there’s that.

“The most brutally powerful Weapon Enchantment you can use against someone is the Bane Enchantment. However, it is very specific in its power, and so useless against anyone else. So, either they are made for Weapons specifically designed to fight a single type of enemy, or they are not used.

“Slaughter gets around that by allowing a non-Powered to store Bane effects.

“Enmity is a lesser version of Bane, with broader application. Where Bane operates on Curse-centered power, Enmity operates on anathema. Enmity can be aligned to oppose Evil, Chaos, Law, or even Good, where Bane cannot. Instead of Humanbane, it has Enmity to Mortals... which is basically any form of normal sapient being with a soul, including some you’d consider aliens. Instead of Bane to Animals, it has Enmity to the Natural... which includes Animals, Plants, and normal Vermin.

“Most importantly, Enmity stacks with Bane. Thus, if you have a Greater Ki-bound Weapon with Bane and Enmity applicable to a foe, you are wielding a +VIII Weapon against them.”

He blinked. I didn’t need to explain what a +VIII Weapon could mean in a fight. That was roughly the defensive power of plate armor. Such a Weapon would cut through plate armor like cheese, supernaturally tough hides the same way, and chew right through most forms of damage reduction. It wasn’t explosive power, but it was nigh-unstoppable.

“When you set up your Slot with Bane, your first Bane will be Humanbane.” He blinked at me. “Primos are not subject to the Curse Effect of Bane to their own species like the Powered are, but a Slaughter cannot gain a Bane to the one wielding it. Thus, your first Bane must be to your own type.”

A normal person would have grunted, he just exhaled. AND ENMITY?

“Is not subject to the same side effect, although it is very uncomfortable wielding something with Enmity to yourself if you are Powered. Primos, not so much.” He nodded in slight relief. “One restriction, however... unless you are an Artificer with Battlesmith Mastery, you can only feed one Name a day.”

He visibly considered that. I CAN ASSIST A SMITH, BUT I AM NOT AN ARTIFICER BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION. IS THERE ANY REAL BENEFIT FOR GAINING LEVELS IN SUCH?

“Well, you can Name-Feed two Weapons a day, plus Invest another. Four skill points a Level. Better aptitude with magical devices. Attune yourself to a select magical Weapon, (s). Learn how to make all sorts of magical devices minor and major for something to do in your downtime...”

He was watching me and my droll tone of voice. AH. IT SEEMS I SHOULD BE QUICKLY TAKING SOME ARTIFICER LEVELS, IF I CAN.

“I think that would be a monstrously intelligent thing to do.” I leaned forward slightly. “Being able to use the Wrath through all sorts of magical devices via Servant’s Theurgy could be very useful, you see. And Warlocks can charge up Wands and stuff VERY quickly...”

He blinked at me, and was silent for a few breaths, then sighed softly. CLEARLY THERE ARE EXTRAORDINARY ADVANTAGES TO HAVING A COMPLETE MAGICAL HERITAGE TO DRAW FROM.

“Yes,” I agreed, being shard-of-a-soul proof of that in all the ways.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I THOUGHT THERE WAS LITTLE I COULD DO TO IMPROVE MYSELF FURTHER WITHOUT SOMEHOW BREAKING THE LEVEL CAP... BUT NOW I CAN SEE THAT THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT.

I had to smile. “That is very true. There’s always ways to improve more. It never actually stops.”

IT WILL BE CONVENIENT HAVING SOMEONE SO KNOWLEDGEABLE AROUND. GET TOUGHER SO YOU WON’T DIE, PLEASE.

“That IS the plan. It’s just this little need to grow my Named stuff along the way...”

==========

“I don’t know if I should admit to being surprised or worried,” Sir Pellier admitted, after learning that Warlock Fred had agreed to escort me to Baltimore.

“You both have military obligations. This is the best alternative.” I snapped my fingers, Warlock Fred hit a button on his Vaccine, and both of their phones beeped. “I wrote up some leveling guides for both of you. Sir Pellier, follow it, and you might be the first true Eight Paladin on the planet.” Ignoring his astonishment, I turned on Helix, who looked excited, and then wary at my stare.

I didn’t say he could be the first NINE Paladin. I didn’t want them to fall down or gape at me.

“Helix, you are going to have to fight your own nature very, very, VERY hard if you want to become the first true Sorcerer Eight. If you start blabbing about how this is done, people with more discipline than you are going to zip right on by you.

“I am giving you a chance here. A chance to become smarter, more educated, stronger, with a firmer foundation, and become one of the very best and most powerful spellcasters alive.

“It will require you to keep your mouth shut and pretend to be weak and having a hard time Leveling, while those around you berate your and mock you and taunt you. If you want to show them all, you are going to have to shut up, take it, and build to power. Do you understand me?”

He was a little wide-eyed as he looked at me, obviously dying to see what was on his phone. I waited until he nodded slowly, then more urgently, finally saying, “Yes, yes, I promise I won’t say anything!” he blurted out.

“The key to this process is quiet Levelling.” I looked back and forth between the two of them. “For five minutes every night, Sir Pellier can ask the spirit of his gun to make it Vivic. You and he can pop shadows for those five minutes, and they won’t come back.

“You can make slow, steady, discrete progress. If you bring in Father Bower, so can he. But that’s it. Those minutes are for the three of you, and the three of you alone.”

“Got it, got it, got it!” Helix said, head bobbing urgently.

“Sir Pellier, if he blabs to anyone, cut him off. It’ll take him years to do what needs to be done without your help, and you can actually have anyone you like help you during those minutes.”

Helix flushed, and the amused Sir Pellier just nodded. “So, you’re saying a Paladin’s Weapon spirit can bring the Vivus?” he clarified. That was something just about any Paladin would be able to duplicate.

“Yes.” No reason to deny it.

“I’m not a greedy man, Miss Traveler. I’ve no real reason to sit on this.”

“I’m pretty sure the moment you spread knowledge of this you are going to be targeted and then dead within a week.” He blinked at me. “Every free undead, lurking Fiend, depraved Fey, and Darkbound Warlock alive, as well as necromancers and evil priests, is going to want you dead in the worst way. So will anyone or anything that profits in having the undead around.”