The trip out of the Imperial Zone was fruitful and definitely had a lot of diversions to admire. Why, there were dead drow in every single kind of pose you could imagine, and so many ways to die.

There were also demons and daemons all over the place, which were promptly squashed as soon as they could be seen, without exceptions. After all, have to keep the Wake growing, and they were just the perfect fodder. If any drow got uppity in our way, they contributed to the cause, too.

Still, no need to go up and down the walls. We ran right down the roads, only the soon-to-be-dead tried to obstruct us, and headed out through the gates. There was only one gate that some opportunistic sorts tried to block. Alas, their opportunity was fleeting, and their feet not fleet enough. They probably realized something when Elder Arg loomed up with thumb-thick lightning crackling around his fists, but oops, too late.

So, it was long, but never dull, as there was too much incidental sniping to do. The Brothers calmly ran point, and I realized they weren’t showing off for Wayfair so much as working out a new combat language and synergy with their Helices. Very smooth of them, after all.

----------

Wayfair headed back inside me, and we stepped over the hill line of the next zone, looking ahead at...

At...

Briggs coughed. The Brothers really tried to hide their smiles. The company looked rather thoughtful...

The Wolf wondered what was up.

Yeah, it was another Mushroom Zone. Farmed by Mu Spores. They had a Mushroom Zone in between the two empires, which, come to think of it, was pretty efficient. Of course, behind us the empire was on fire, and the harvest teams had probably headed home on this side... but the far side of the Zone was probably the property of the other empire.

These Mu Spores didn’t look like they’d been informed of what had happened to their kin.

“Okay, take it backwards,” I said, and everyone withdrew after an eager minute, wondering what was up, but knowing enough not to question.

I didn’t let them wonder long, as Wayfair came back out, and everyone looked at me curiously.

“We’re going to be splitting up, AA staying with Briggs and I. I want this Zone totally cleared of Mu Spores.” I paused significantly. “However, there is no way under Heaven that we are going to miss out on all that Mu Goop. Which means, we need one-shot Compression Jars that can hold all the Mu Goop from one of these things. We are looking at what looks like approximately ten thousand square mile territory for these things, if what I saw in the last Zone and seems to match the spread here remains true.

“That means at least twenty-seven of these suckers, with a few extra in the central area around the Obelisk. Each of which is giving us a minimum of a hundred gallons of Mu Goop worth a minimum of a thousand gold a gallon.” There was a very interested hum from just about everyone. “However... we need something to put the Goop in!

“Wayfair, Rockborn, we need some Jars of high enough QL to enchant as one-shot Compression containers that can hold at least two hundred gallons of the stuff, use one per Mu. I believe we liberated enough stuff on the way out here to pay for those, they should only be a goldweight each, and the Runes are easy.

“To be on the safe side, we’re going to make fifty of them... and we’ll probably need to make more if there’s another mushroom forest on the other side of the next Empire.” More interested hums, cash registers going off in everyone’s head. It wasn’t greed, it was power! Gold made magic, magic made you stronger. The sums on the table here were just too high!

“Since taking these things down fast requires Interdiction, Briggs and I are going to be needed to get them down out of the sky. The Brothers can take them as we land.

“Our first tactic is going to be going right up the middle, because we have to draw the Wake. We’ll drag it to the Obelisk, clear the Obelisk, and then deal with whatever Mu Spores come crashing in on us.

“After that, I’m going left, Briggs is going right, and we’re going to take teams of Brothers with us. Our job is to crash them down, leave a Brother behind to loot and kill, and go after the rest of them. They’ll catch up when they are done.

“Four of the Brothers are going to go on dispatch duty to the most distant Mu Spores and track them for us when they wise up and start to disperse. Pure scouting, no need to kill them, just make sure you know where they are so you can guide the rest of us in. Of course, if they come in reach, you’re perfectly fine to Cut their Lives off.”

I clapped my hands as everyone once again visualized the sight of great flying abominations of fungi crashing to the ground again, and all that sweet, sweet money-to-be spilling out. “Alright, let’s get us some Mu-Mu Jars made to milk these fine fellows, and then make a real profit at all this.”

Nobody complained at all as they got to work.

----------

In Marktell...

-Damnation. Are you serious?- Errant /asked, stunned.

-Yeah. Elder Arg even worked out the comps already. I already sent out the requests for the materials for the boiler and mixers and stuff, to make when we can. Takes about twenty goldweight of Mu Goop, in addition to the Exemplar blood, to make the Elixir.- I didn’t beat around the bush with him.

Hazé, who was listening in attentively, hissed in shock. -Gods in Heaven, Sama... the goldweight value of a Lesser Exemplar Template is... is...-

-A conservative estimate is 400k gold to duplicate the effects. So, giving up ten gallons of Mu Goop is like the best deal evah.-

-What’s the Skill Check?-

-40 for Alchemy and Spellcraft. Oh, and Elder Arg has confirmed with a Level of Vizard that Skill Focus at his Level is +10. He can make the check with no problem, which is how he figured out the formula.-

-Intelligent Epic monkeys really are useful for figuring out the high-end rules,- Errant /mused. -Ah, do Masteries go up past Five? I remember the Dragons informing us they didn’t at their Fourteen to Sixteen level...-

-He hasn’t tried to buy one yet, and if he did, it would probably be something totally awesome, like Stealth or Acrobatics.- Okay, they all had to grin. King Kong, the Primordial gorilla, bouncing stealther ghost. King Kong hiding ten feet away from you upside down in the tree and you can't see him!...-My guess is yes, because Eternals have their own playbook, given the shit they have to deal with.-

-Hmmm.- Hazé gave me the stink-eye. -You’ve got bad news again. The ‘this is so awesomely broken BUT’ look, I think.-

I had to roll my eyes. -Yeah. Once you take the template, your Racial Levels lock in. No more additional Racials.-

They both thought that over. -Okay, I can see that. It makes sense, making you an Exemplar of whatever you are at the time you get the Template. If you become something else, obviously you’re no longer an Exemplar. So, what’s the main issue?- Hazé asked.

-You have to max out your Racial Levels or the Template application is wasted. In other words, you already have to be at the top of your race for the Infused Template to take hold. I.e. you have to be a racial paragon, before you can be an Exemplar Lite. That means a /3, or a /4 if you are smart, and I don’t see any reason to give these out to non-Tens.

-If you don’t have a max Racial Level, all the minor ones are wiped, naturally enough.-

-Ahhhhhh. So, if we wanted to take some Celestial Racial Levels, we have to finish them off before we can take this Template.- Errant took a deep breath. -Damn. Like I don’t have enough incredibly expensive crap to pay Karma for right now.-

Hazé favored me with a knowing smile. -And how many Racial Levels do you have in the works, Sama?- she /asked me.

I /sighed. – I started Nymph, Succubus, Ghaele Ahren, Erinyes, Mantissari, and Hag. I need sixty-seven in total, and like fifty to go.-

They both gawked at me in Marktell. -Damn!- Errant /muttered. -You really don’t do things halfway!- He had to smirk, despite himself. -I mean, Nymph?-

-Eight free Druid Null Levels. Otherwise, it just counters the Succubus influence on appearance and Charisma.- His jaw worked around that for a minute. Naturally, I didn’t care about the good looks side of things. I acknowledged it, sure, but that wasn’t why I did it.

-Why such a spread?- Hazé had to /ask. -I mean, seriously?-

-Nymph, potentially Charisma as Deflection to AC (have to pay the Karma), eight free Druid Levels.

-Succubus, Seventeen Racial Levels, terminating in Lilitu. Demon racial bonus to Stealth and Perception. +10 Nat AC, True Sight, lightning and poison immunity, tail, +16 Strength, +16 Dex, +20 Con, +10 Int, +12 Wis, +20 Cha, base 60 Movement speed, Unarmed attacks equal to Monk of same hit dice, Profane Grace, DR 15/Good.-

-Hurk!- Errant /managed. -Seventeen!- Which was a lot of AB!

-Erinyes, fire immunity, natural Devilsight, potential access to wings, dunno. Mantissari, +18 to Dex, jumping, poison. Ahren, immune to Acid, Cold, Petrification, devasight. Hag, mostly a cheap way to buy off the Stat benefits of the other racial classes and reduce the cost.- And maaaaaaybe get to size L, if I wanted to be eight foot tall for the rest of my life. I was still considering that, especially since size-changing magic was pretty easy to come by.

Buying Racial Levels wasn’t so bad if you already had the Stats that they gave, as you could simply skip over that aspect of the class. As a Forsaken, I naturally didn’t have to pay the same thing as a Powered might, as they would also be getting ALL the magical powers, status, and effects... which meant they had to be a LOT more careful about the Racial Classes they took. Yes, Succubi, great Caster Stats. Chaotic Evil sex DEMON you’re turning into, people...

The problem with most of this stuff is that I could get most of the benefits that I wanted with only a few Levels in Ahren, Mantissari daemon, and Erinyes. I didn’t actually want to buy them up, even with reduced costs.

But I had no choice now, or the Lesser Exemplar thing was just going to wipe them out. I had to reach Seventeen and be a Lilitu Equivalent!

Argh. Just... argh... Like I didn’t have enough stuff to acquire...!

Yeah, I was going to kill so many damn Mu Spores... it was just too bad I had to share them with Brothers...

I had been seriously considering potential Marilith levels and evolving myself up four extra arms, just shapechanging them away when I didn’t need them. Good thing I hadn’t started that whole process...

Succubus to lilithi to lilitu. If I could task the free Favored Levels into Shifter, well... I really wouldn’t need more than a handful of the Null Caster Levels myself...

I still had to reach Seventeen. Tie the Tails and Wings to my Manticore Belt and Phoenix Cloak so I didn’t have seven extra limbs to worry about all the time...

I had one or two Levels in all those, and was going to buy up the Nymph first to get the Null Druid Levels out of the way at the same time. The Stat boosts would have been noticed, but given the relative Stat boosts the Brothers were getting after their three years of massacre, wouldn’t have stood out so much.

With Wayfair here, they also could be explained away as me borrowing from her.

Gah. So much Karma, so many Levels, so little time...

It was just so convenient that a soloed Mu Spore was worth about one Level...