Chapter 20

Ascendant

I sat back on the beach thinking of what had happened, somehow I had created a buff for anyone who managed to land on the island. The problem was that players were not supposed to create a buff, at least no one like I had created. It opened the way to cheating in the game and the developers had made sure that it was not something a player should be able to do.

Yet some how I had done it, and it troubled me on several levels, first I did not want to attract attention to myself and having this kind of power would attract attention. Second it went against the game programming, the fact was that by creating that kind of buff I was rewriting game programming and that should have been impossible.

The third thing that bothered me was being an Ascendant, that kind of power was to much for a player to have, I knew that I did not really want to become a God. My goals were simple to get back to my wife and just enjoy the game. If it was a game anymore, I was having doubts. First traveling to other realms, it might have been part of the original coding, but I now doubted that.

If it was part of the coding, then why had I retained a bit of power and ability back when I was in the real world. The fact that Sebastian had been sent to earth to retrieve art and artifacts during WW2 should have been impossible. It all might have been part of the story line but after reading the homeland security scientist’s notes I did not think so.

The other thing that was bothering me was that after looking at my stats and character sheets again I noticed that the Ascendant level one skill tree was now active. I suspected that Nyx has done more that kiss me, she had somehow turned on the Ascendant skill tree which now was enabling me to access skills and abilities that I had no clue I had. What a mess.

As my thoughts drifted I began to think of what I had to do, it was clear that while I was in this realm I would have to complete the thief training and this spying quest for the King. I also had some other loose ends to tie up, reaching into my bag I dragged out the lot I had received from the Siren.

The art of singing

Or how to not have tomatoes thrown at you

Opening the book, I could see the pages were written in the language of the Sirens. As I slowly read the pages I could feel the magic leaving the book and imprinting itself upon me. After several minutes I realized the book was done and a window had opened itself on my interface. As I read the message I smiled, it stated,

Congratulations, you have received the gift of the Sirens

Your singing and musical ability is now greater than any bard

You now have the ability to sing any song that you have heard and the magic to have music accompany your singing

You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Shard this is a high frequency attack that bypasses armor to do soft tissue damage.

You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Blast an area of effect attack that causes a dazed and confused debuff on all enemies within its range for one minute, all damage done during this time is multiplied times two.

I sat back, these abilities were almost a class by itself, I quickly opened up the stats notes and added it to the list.

Elf

This race loves both the sea and the forests

Long-lived they are the masters of life magic

They favor the healing and magic class

Both hunters and melee warriors do arise

The Elf’s favor the night and worship the moon goddess

Racial ability quickness, for 5 seconds elves can move at twice normal speed

Strength - starting level one = 50 your strength starting level one =250

Agility – starting level one = 55 your agility starting level one =270

Intellect – starting level one = 55 your intellect starting level one = 55

Health – starting level one = 50 your heath starting level one = 200

Speed – starting level one = 50 your speed starting level one =200

Updated Stats at level 4

Strength = 280

Agility = 280

Intellect = 85

Mana = 5000

Health = 320

Speed = 280

New ability learned

You have mastered the ability of metamorphic change

You can now shift your body from human to demon

Be warned the transformation will allow others to see you as a Demon

Dragon Eyes

the ability to see as a dragon sees

Dragon shadows

the ability to wrap yourself into the Shadows and disappear from view

Dragon Fire

The ability to cast the Fire of Dragons

Skillset

Lock picking, the basics

Lock picking advanced

Lock picking master level

Pickpocketing, your guide to personal riches through the efforts of others

Climbing walls and hanging around, the right time and approach to let yourself in

Restraints, they are not for the free

What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine, confidence benefits a con man

Some gave all and all gave some, how to read a mark

You have discovered a hidden class

Thief

This class allows you to develop a subclass to display to the public, all classes are available

If you are found out you will incur one hundred percent reputation loss with all City NPC guards and King and will be imprisoned by the state

Class bonus

The ability to know when others speak of you if they are in the shadows

Nanobot integration into game avatar

Defensive capability, self-healing

Offensive capability, electrical discharge from hands

Strength increase four times normal human

PIM integration into Gaming Interface

Stealth detection enabled

Upgraded map functions

Ability to make calls to the Real World

Ability to access GNet from within the game

Ability to leave and enter the game

Avatar integration into gaming matrix

You are not recognized as a player and the gaming AI has no control over you

You have found a Companion

The Demon Sebastian

An NPC that will follow your leadership

You have accepted a holy entity into your party

The faction changes have been recorded

Komhether is now aligned with the Demonic Prince Torn

You have gained another companion

Komhether

New ability to persuade the followers of the Gods to see the truth and join you

New ability learned

You have mastered the ability of metamorphic change

You can now shift your body from human to demon

Be warned the transformation will allow others to see you as a Demon

Pet companion

You have gained a pet

Crusty the crab has been added to your pets

You have the ability to summon and dismiss your pet from wherever you are

Congratulations, you have received the gift of the Sirens

Your singing and musical ability is now greater than any bard

You now have the ability to sing any song that you have heard and the magic to have music accompany your singing

You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Shard this is a high frequency attack that bypasses armor to do soft tissue damage.

You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Blast an area of effect attack that causes a dazed and confused debuff on all enemies within its range for one minute, all damage done during this time is multiplied times two.

It all seemed to be normal until I checked the interface character and stat list and noticed a sub menu titled, Ascendant class all class abilities and skills set to level one. As I read the description I groaned out loud then added the information to my notes.

After I added the latest information to my notes and then compared the notes to my character stats I noted that my mana was now at 5000. I went back and changed that on the notes I had made and then let a smoke. I also took the time to add my pet Crusty the Crab to the character notes I was making and also highlighted the buffs Gaiatoci and Ama had given me and was not surprised to see that they were now active. I read the description and thought about the implications.

Gaiatoci’s Buff

You were buffed by the Earth mother in her dying moment and have received the ability to draw life and mana from each other as all life is mana and mana is life in all the realms.

Sitting on the beach hearing the waterfall was relaxing and it allowed my mind to think about where I was with my abilities and skills. At level 4 I had an excess of abilities that were OP, but I was dealing with issues normal players did not deal with. This whole cross realm God thing was a big pain in the arse. I would have to somehow learn all I could and then hope my leveling would catch up to the abilities I had and help me to be a power player.

As I sat there and dug my fingers through the sand thinking of mana and life, I thought all beings even the Gods I had met seemed to have a finite amount of mana, with the exception being Gaiatoci. She had limitless amounts of mana and I suspected her buff had to do with both life and mana. Life it was everywhere and I could see the mana flowing throughout all living things if I looked through my Dragon vision.

Staring at my notes I noted that they were a mess and I wanted something I could pull up that would be easy to read and understand so I began to compile the character list of stats and abilities into something more useful while thinking about the buffs I had.

Elf

This race loves both the sea and the forests

Long-lived they are the masters of life magic

They favor the healing and magic class

Both hunters and melee warriors do arise

The Elf’s favor the night and worship the moon goddess

Racial ability quickness, for 5 seconds elves can move at twice normal speed

Updated Stats at level 4

Strength = 280

Agility = 280

Intellect = 85

Mana = 5000

Health = 320

Speed = 280

Buffs

Ama’s buff of the succubae

Radiates sexuality

Gaiatoci’s buff of life and mana

Capable of receiving both life and mana as they are the same

Abilities

Dragon eyes the ability to see as a Dragon sees

Dragon Fire the ability to cast the fire of a Dragon

Dragon Shadows the ability to wrap yourself in the shadows

Sonic shard the high frequency attack that bypasses armor to do soft tissue damage.

Sonic Blast an area of effect attack that causes a dazed and confused debuff on all enemies within its range for one minute, all damage done during this time is multiplied times two.

Icy water bolt

The ability to cast an icy water bolt that freezes on contact

Electrical discharge

The ability to discharge electrical currents from your hands

You have mastered the ability of metamorphic change

Stealth detection enabled

Metamorphic change

You can now shift your body from human to demon

Skillset

Lock picking, the basics active skill set

Lock picking advanced

Lock picking master level

Companions

The Demon Sebastian

The holy Messenger Komhether

Pet companions

Crusty the Crab

Nanobot integration into game avatar

Defensive capability, self-healing

Offensive capability, electrical discharge from hands

Strength increase four times normal human

PIM integration into Gaming Interface

Stealth detection enabled

Upgraded map functions

Ability to make calls to the Real World

Ability to access GNet from within the game

Ability to leave and enter the game

Avatar integration into gaming matrix

You are not recognized as a player and the gaming AI has no control over you

Class

Ascendant class

You have gained the essences of three higher powers and have been transformed in a Higher Being.

You are now a Demigod and can continue the path of ascendency by gaining the essences of higher powers.

Thief class

You have discovered the hidden class of thief and have been accepting into the dark brotherhood.

You have an open subclass as part of the thief class.

I had covered the information I wanted to have handy and I updated the PIM with it.

My mind was still thinking about life and mana and how the two are the same. The smallest form of life I knew of was the microbe, which exists from the deep biosphere to the atmosphere, and in fact it exists in every other living organism. I could think of nothing else alive that was everywhere in all the world.

Focusing my Dragon eyes on the mana I saw everywhere I began to look at it closer and closer, clearly it was part of all the living things I could see but now that I focused I could see that it went deeper and smaller into individual strands that went smaller and smaller separating into more strands.

It had to be it, the source of both life and mana, I pulled back my vision and thought about it. These realms were an artificial creation but they were based on the real world. All magical beings could tap into this mana but were limited by the amount they could contain, even with my new mana pool at 5000 I knew that there was so much more available, the question was how to access it.

Considering that this world was really a computer program and I had hacked into it I decided to try to do some off the cuff hacking within the game, call it a magic mana spell and see if the game would allow me to create my own spell. I had managed to do a permanent buff and this was really the same principle.

Opening up my PIM I began to do some rough coding, and once it was done I gave the tiniest mana strands a value. Then I had them all join together within a 20-meter range and flow from all around with me as the target. Finally, I created an access port within myself to receive and set up a one-way valve of sorts to allow me to control the flow. Finally, I named the spell Manaflow and added it to my interface.

It really was a macro of sorts made to do several things one after another. Hoping it would work I activated the spell and observed myself for changes. I instantly could feel the power of the flow flooding me, and I turned down the valve. At one percent I felt a steady top up and I realized that I had succeeded. It seemed to achieve a balance between the man I was dispelling due to active buffs I had on.

I felt great the mana was life and I noted in this rawest form it actually was also boosting my health, it was regenerated at a small but constant level. Success comes with a price and I suddenly realized I was tired. Standing up I made my way to the cabin and crawled into bed, tomorrow I planned on trying out a couple of other macro spells to see how much I could do. But tonight sleep called.