The place we’d been given to use was a little run-down, an old townhouse whose best feature was the big and spacious garage in back. It actually had the floor mounts and architecture set up to support a true private garage for modifying stuff, which Mr. Hill noted with approval after he pulled into it and took a look around.

“They sent a cleaning crew around quick for it, too,” I told him, flipping a Club Card out and sending whirlwind Suits around the place, picking up all the excess dirt and grime and ejecting it out a rear window.

“Look over the house, and then chill until dawn,” he reasoned. “You still want to take that trip to Queens?”

“It’s in range for a free Teleport, so I don’t need a Lived-Line,” I replied, as we walked towards the house. “Give me a couple hours for Meditation, we can take a trip over there, then go shopping for threads for you. You know a guy?”

“Yeah. My size, you rapidly get to know who can and can’t work with you. I’ll call my tailor back on the Coast, and he’ll give me a name.”

I didn’t bother with the keys to the lock, popping it open by Repulsing on the pins, hopping up the stairs ahead of Mr. Hill and opening the door for him properly.

He had to go low-grav to allow the floor to take his weight, which made him grunt.

“Put something up in the garage?” I asked him calmly.

“Yeah, floor’s too frail if something happens,” he nodded. He watched winds of Clubs swirl around the room, gather up the dust and grime, and toss it out the open door, finishing up the hasty job of the cleaning crew. He went to scan the kitchen while I headed upstairs to see the layout.

Definitely made for normal people. I could use the house, but the only area he could use with any comfort was the basement, which fortunately had a storm shelter entrance in the back he could duck into and out of if he was of a mind to. Unfortunately, it was too low for him down there to be comfortable.

“I’ll adjust the floor for you,” I told him, looking at the uneven slope of the basement floor, which had settled over the last century. “And give them some free resale value for rent, I guess.”

“Be obliged,” he agreed, seated on the edge of the steps from outside, and shaking his head as he looked inside. “We’re gonna be needing some decent furniture, too.”

“I can whip up some stuff out of stone easily enough, but let me settle the floor and walls before we move anything in here. Gotta get you some basic eating supplies, too.” I pulled out a cardboard box and handed it over to him.

“What’s this?” he asked, with that tone of another surprise coming.

“Silicon chips boiled in sulfuric acid and dried.”

He opened the box, pulled out a square dull white wafer carefully, and took a bite of it with a loud crackling crunch.

“Damn! Tastes like vinegar potato chips!” he swore, staring at the wafer.

“I won’t use the TV, so we can move it out to the garage for you after I make a lounge, and you can enjoy some snacks and watch the doom tube while I zone.” I waved another box I drew out of my Masspack. “Germanium.”

“That works,” he nodded, a cheerfully expectant tone in his voice. He got up, heading back outside to wait for me, and closed the metal storm doors with a crash, locking them from outside by bending a section of rebar around the handles.

------

It wasn’t like we were going to gather a bunch of expensive stuff here to be stolen, not that such an activity was wise for anyone involved. Breaking into the home of a sorceress and a Brick on The Mountain’s level... even if we weren’t here, that was just stupidity.

Basic security to keep idle snatch-and-grabbers out would just save me future effort, and magical ways to lock doors would foil any pickers. Reinforcing the house itself with an area Ward wouldn’t be hard to do, and really annoy anyone thinking to toss a brick through a window, or put graffiti on anything.

I exhaled as I entered Meditation after expending Valences on all the clean-up, fix-up, painting, Warding, dropping the basement down and evening out the foundation, removing rust and pests from everywhere and everything, and even fixing up the siding and shingles. I even cleared out the weeds from the lawn and trimmed everything properly.

The neighbors nearby, probably wondering who was moving in, were going to wake up in the morning and find this house looking the cleanest on the block.

I wasn’t worried about anyone saying anything about us. Neighborhoods were what they were, and if we were put here, someone would have spread the word. This was just a place to hang our hats for now. Permanent digs would be something we arranged for ourselves.

The bed was old but serviceable, and I lay there, quietly composed and recovering ki and mana. I didn’t need to be in any special lotus position or something to Meditate, as long as I stayed relaxed.

My current question was the direction I was going from here.

I had finished Investing all my Karma some time ago. This universe wanted to push me into following Tropes, which I had urgently pushed back against in pursuit of my triple-effectiveness.

Skill Class, Combat Class, and Utility Class, as it were.

I had the equivalent of ten Levels at Nine to start with. Energizing my Fire and Cold Rituals had taken two sets of Nines straight off me, pissant stingy Patron not restoring them for free like it should have. Reaching 9/9/9 had taken me another three-tenths of my Karma.

Reaching Ten took one more portion each, so 10/10/10 was eight-tenths. Reaching Eleven in one Tranche took two more, so 11/10/10 after my recent escapades brought me up just high enough.

Human/2, Human/3, and Human/4 took nothing much. So, I was left with just about nothing right now. Karma thirsty, as it were.

31 Class Levels seemed sweet, until I started allocating things.

I was way, Way, WAY too used to having tons of Secondary Classes. 93 Mastery Tiers was nothing!

It would take thirty Tiers just for all the Stat Masteries. Pffft, gone. All Stats +2, but wow! I... actually couldn’t bring myself to do that just yet, given the outsize physical bonuses I was getting from this Spider Totem Warlock Arrangement.

Just the Mentals was fifteen Tiers gone, however. The other fifteen Tiers were scattered between Wolverine Mastery, Profound Strikes, Soft Metas, Nogging, and Ki Feats. I had none of the first Tranche’s Mastery Tiers left floating; it was like they had evaporated with how swiftly they were spent.

Thirty Tiers on Warlock Masteries was likewise nothing. Basic Mastery, Ward, Whim, and Wrath was four sets of Five Tiers. Webbed Wrath and some Invocation Masteries was thirty gone. I could spend sixty more Tiers on Warlock stuff very, very easily.

Which brought me to spellcasting and ancillary disciplines.

Sun Dragon Mastery. Ki Pool Mastery to Arcane Pool. Basic Metas. Battle Metas. War Metas. Shardcasting. Argent Mastery. Snowcasting Mastery. Spell Penetration. Item Creation. Toughness.

That was it. Masteries were full.

Thirty-one Purchased Feats, my Feats by Level, and Class Abilities remained. Those were really helpful, but the simple fact that I simply couldn’t regain all the stuff Aelryinth had was... annoying, to say the least.

That said, it didn’t mean I couldn’t do at least some gaming of the system.

The Skill Tranche, I had, after much trepidation, gone with Vizard/3, Alchemist/3, Creation Theurgy/4. The magic had let me take the Artificer-style Infusions instead of Spells-as-Potions, eating up extra Karma to do so.

The bombs of an Alchemist were a useful reserve source for extra damage. Of course, more Feats or Masteries were needed to improve them...

The key thing was the Blood Healing and Preserve Organs Discoveries I could access via Feats. 75% Immunity to crits was incredibly valuable to anyone living in a world with this much damage flying around. Magically charging up one’s insides to resist extreme damage was actually very easy to do with the Pact boosting me so much... and I dunno, but I got the impression impact/blunt damage was half as effective against people’s DR here, like we were built to beat the shit out of one another impotently...

The Combat Tranche was Monk/4 (Arcane Fist), which got me the Ki Pool I wanted, which I could then improve to the moon. I had then promptly switched over to Minstrel/3, Lore Theurgy/3, eventually aiming for Sublime Chord Mastery... which I could start with my next three Mastery Tiers from Minstrel.

For Spellcasting, I went Wizard/1, Ur-Priest/1, Sorcerer/1, Arcane Theurge/5, Mystic Theurge/3, with the two bonus Caster Levels from Human going into Ur-Priest.

Ur-Priest was a ten-Level ‘Advanced’ Class here, which eventually granted access to Valence IX’s. Broken on the face of it, but it still required the Caster Level and Stats needed to get them off... and this was a supers-verse. They had Level One quasi-gods and stuff here. What was a little early access to high Valences?

The Ur-Priest Caster Level was Ur-Priest Caster Levels, plus half the Levels in other Classes.

My Ur-Priest CL was effectively base Six. Wizard was Faux 9. Sorcerer was Faux 11. The other Classes added to 20. 40 functional Levels meant +20, so my working Caster Level for Ur-Priest was 26, and the Theurgies meant I used that base for both it and my Arcane Classes.

I also had access to VI Spell Engram Slots and Valence Slots. My Foundation style Casting didn’t allow me to form VI’s in the traditional manner... but Ur-Priest allowed me to steal them, if I was so inclined.

All my Minstrel Faux/6 Spell Slots had gone into Nogging up Wisdom and Charisma to power more Slots and support this, since they didn’t stack with Sorcerer. They weren’t maxed, but they were getting there. Eventually I’d be able to get all my Stats there, but I had plenty of time and work to get my physicals to optimal as I made the age transition and finished ‘growing up’ physically.

Being able to turn off my Warlock benefits so I could actually exercise properly was key to that. Doing squats upside-down on a ceiling was a new experience, for instance. Then add weights...

The Pact also seemed to be squaring the effect of any exercise. Giving me hypertrophy sure helped, so I made sure to do katas, stretches worthy of a yoga master, and whatever basic toning exercises I could do every day in my spare time.

The biggest benefit of the Class Levels was naturally the Stat bonuses, mostly to my Intelligence, which Sustained Effort reflected over to my Dex. Combined with the bonuses for Human/4 and reaching Ten, plus the Mental Masteries, and I was breathing much easier with a working 38 Intellect, getting me back up into the territory I had been used to as Aelryinth.

Of course, compared to what I had been at a month ago, that was ungodly, superhumanly smart, making me one of the most intelligent people on the planet. Being a Schmot Gurl without showing it off so much wasn’t nearly as hard as it seemed, because my intellectual abilities weren’t bent to technology as most of the brainy-types were, and very, very few people realized how smart you had to be to use magic like I did.

Naturally enough, nobody realized just how dangerous I was physically, save Mr. Hill, and he was so tough that it didn’t impress him like it should have, other than the fact that he literally couldn’t lay a hand on me if I didn’t want him to.

Every time my Warlock Blast went up, the effective power of this Totem Pact went up, too.

I had bought the Delimit Spell-Like Ability Feat, the one which allowed your Warlock Blast to break the default max of five tiers, and as an Eleven, I could get it to effective /6.

Without the Pact, my base Strength was like 12. With the Pact active, I was now a pure 42 Strength. Improve a little every day...

So ridiculous from a real standpoint. In super-hero land, well, lifting four+ tons wasn’t so much. If I got my Strength to base 18, that would be closer to thirteen tons if the boost held true...