Serenity was overjoyed when he finally finished Steadfast. It had certainly lived up to its name; he’d had to persevere to get through it. He’d spent 13 Tutorials practicing with other instructors as much as he could to train it, which meant he’d spent more than a year on it, even though the time had passed in seconds outside the Tutorial. That certainly wasn’t terrible for a Path that leveled from something other than combat, but it was positively painful when it meant it was delaying getting back home.

He knew he could have waited and stretched it out over several nights, but he’d wanted it over, and the fact that he could feel time not passing while he was in the Tutorial did help.

As the options appeared before his eyes, he realized that either he was in his dragon form or they weren’t actually visible. He hadn’t thought of that the last time, and he pushed the thought aside this time; it wasn’t going to help him choose, after all.

This time, he wanted something with a magical bent. Battle Adept and Steadfast covered what he felt like he needed on the physical side for now; he’d choose another later, but probably not until another Tier.

Please only show me the magical options.

Mage

Death Mage

Time Mage

Space Mage

Void Mage

…

Serenity stopped reviewing them there. This wasn’t going to get him what he wanted.

Can we limit it to ones without a specific tie to an Affinity?

[Why? Most mages specialize, especially early]

I have the Affinities in my Evolutions and the Paths that come from them. And … what I need isn’t a single power, it’s flexibility. You can do that with a single Affinity and creativity; I did it with Death. But that doesn’t feel right this time. It doesn’t match what I want to be. I don’t want to limit myself that way.

Serenity wasn’t sure he was explaining it well, but surely the Voice would understand. Serenity wasn’t entirely certain he understood it completely himself. He was trying to reinvent himself and if some of that was trying to be as far from what he’d been before as possible, well, who could blame him?

[It will be a much shorter list. Many of the standard groupings are Affinity-based in some manner]

They all have to be, sort of, don’t they, since anything can be an Affinity? As long as it’s not grouped by one of mine it should be fine.

[There are several you are eligible for that do not fit any of your Affinities]

Mage

Summoner

Golemancer

Illusionist (Sense-based)

Diviner

Astrologist

Transmuter

Enchanter

Hexer

Curser

…

Why does Illusionist specify Sense-based?

[There are also illusionists who specialize in tailoring the illusions to the target’s mind. You have the Mind affinity]

Ah, of course. Serenity felt like he should have realized that.

Can you remove the crafting professions?

[There are no crafting Paths on the list]

Enchanter?

[That Path specializes in temporary enhancement magic. While it is a common entry Path to an Enchanting crafting Path, it is a combat mage Path on its own]

Interesting.

Serenity remembered that he’d had far fewer magic-type Paths available when Vengeance first started practicing magic. He wasn’t certain what the difference was, but the most likely reason was that Vengeance hadn’t known anything about spellcasting other than Skill use, while Serenity knew quite a bit. Serenity also had higher Affinities, but that probably wouldn’t matter with the Paths that were tied to an Affinity left out. Probably, at least.

Several of the Paths so far were interesting, but none were quite what he was looking for. Buffing allies and debuffing enemies was very useful if he was in a group, but it didn’t quite fit who he wanted to be.

Transmuter was probably the best so far. He could already imagine combining it with his weapon skills to have a stronger strike or a sudden surprise. He would definitely keep it on his list, but he didn’t think it was quite what he was looking for this time.

Shaman

Priest

Witch

Druid

Arcanist

Wizard

Conjuror

Abjuror

Dragon Mage

Infernalist

Leaf Mage

String Mage

Glass Mage

Beastcaller

Technomancer

Evoker

Blaster

...

Serenity’s eyes were caught by an entry. When he saw Dragon Mage, he’d added it to his list, but he now suspected he wouldn’t end up choosing it.

He really should ask about the others as well. Transmuter was obvious enough he didn’t think he needed details, as was Blaster, but Evoker? What was that?

Stop! Please tell me about Dragon Mage, Evoker, and Technomancer.

He probably didn’t need to ask about Technomancer, either, but he’d learned his lesson with Death-Eater and Child of Time. Always read the fine print.

Why hadn’t he ever realized that there had to be an Affinity for technology? There were probably several Affinities for it.

A moment’s thought gave the answer. The Tutorial only taught common elements, and few if any of the instructors would be from particularly technological worlds. He knew a lot about technology, but by the time he knew that almost anything had an Affinity, Earth was already destroyed and he didn’t have much access to the kind of technology Earth had. He was certain some people had figured it out … but none of them had been among the few survivors from Earth that he’d found.

He wondered if there was a Dragon with the Technology bloodline affinity. It seemed likely, at least if there were dragons on Earth - and given all the legends, there had to be dragons. They probably hid among humanity; current myths often talked about dragons having a human form, and there was probably truth behind that. For that matter, his own shapeshifting skill confirmed that it was a common draconic ability.

Dragon Mage

Dragons are a proud, ancient Species that has been allied with magic long enough that all Dragons have a bloodline Affinity. All dragons are taught a number of different magical abilities. While most have to do with the dragon’s specific Affinity, some are common to all Dragons.

These variant spells have been adjusted to work especially well for Dragons and those with a draconic heritage, but many of these spells will work for non-Dragons as well. This Path includes several of the draconic spells that are commonly taught to outsiders.

Evoker

Most magic users build a spell and cast it all at once. An Evoker knows that mana is a limited resource, but one that is not always in use. Evocation is a school that specializes in storing a spell in an object for later use. Unlike a proper crafter, these objects can only be used by someone with knowledge of Evoking, often only by the Evoker that stored the spell.

Technomancer

While many believe that magic and technology do not mix, this is not true for all mages. As some mages work with metal and wood, other mages work with silicon and electricity. Technomancers have the ability to influence, affect, disrupt, or even interface with technological items.

Either Dragon mage or Evoker would be useful on Tzintkra. Serenity definitely wanted to take Evoker at some point. Technomancer wouldn’t be useful until he could get back to Earth.

He very badly wanted to take Technomancer anyway.

It was an Affinity he was confident he could gain with some thought. He’d always been good with technology. That usually meant an Affinity, and even if he hadn’t had one, he knew a lot about several branches. He had to have something decent in the Concept - anything over 20% would be good; that was usually somewhere around a college degree in the subject. There were entire areas he didn’t know much about, of course, but that wouldn’t stop him from turning a Concept into unlocking an Affinity.

Technomancer would also strengthen his connection with Thomas. He felt far too close to the Final Reaper sometimes, and didn’t want to lose who he had been before.

The only thing holding him back was that he’d wanted to gather his Affinities on his Evolutions and his general skills through Paths. There were already some issues with that from Death-Eater, but he’d thought he could skate by that one because it was from an Evolution, even though he was taking another Death-based Evolution and Death-Eater was a Path. If he took Technomancer, he’d have to change his plan.

What would a Technology-based Evolution be, anyway? Would he become a cyborg? Serenity wasn’t sure he wanted that. On the other hand, if he took Technomancer, he might be able to work with technology even though he couldn’t see it.

No. For now he had to stick with the plan. He did want Evoker. Technomancer would be available later. He really should wait until he unlocked his Affinity; many Paths with strong Affinities would actually boost the related Affinity, and Serenity didn’t want to miss out on that.

Serenity hoped he wouldn’t regret overriding his desire, but there was no reason to think that he would.

Evoker

[You sound unhappy with the choice]

I want Technomancer, but it doesn’t fit my Path as I’m building it right now. And it won’t be useful until I’m back on Earth.

[Most of the time, the logical choice is the correct one. This choice does not limit your Path]

[Your desire for Technomancer has been Noticed]

Serenity would have blinked in surprise if he hadn’t been in the middle of a Path choice and more or less bodiless. He’d never seen a desire get Noticed before.

Evoker.

This time, Serenity was confident. He could take Technomancer next time, or perhaps it would wait until after he Evolved. Either way, the Voice had just told him that it or something like it would be available.

Level 10 - Essence Sight - You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present.

Serenity had expected mana sight, not essence sight, since Evoker was supposed to be a mage class. Perhaps “magic” didn’t differentiate between mana and essence?

Level 25 - Physical Infusion - You can infuse spells into your own body to be evoked later. Infused spells may be evoked only by you and may be triggered at any time. All variable effects must be determined when the spell is infused. Infused spells will degrade with time and use of mana or essence in the area the spell is stored. You can evoke these infused spells.

That could be very useful, especially if he figured out how to cast a Quickness spell. Or perhaps he could store a Lightning spell and trigger it when he punched someone? That would be useful in a different way.

Level 50 - Spell Conversion - You can convert the power of any infused spell into a ranged mana or essence strike. The power of the strike depends on the stored spell power.

He could store things other than attack spells and use them to cause damage if he needed to. That would be especially useful if the number of spells he could store was limited, and he expected it would be - by how quickly they would degrade, even if there wasn’t a firm limit.

Level 75 - Infuse Spell - You may temporarily store spells in items to be evoked later. All variable effects must be determined when the spell is infused. The item must be strong enough to hold the spell, and synergy with the spell will slow spell degradation. Infused spells will degrade with time and nearby mana or essence use. Spell infusion can damage items used. You can evoke spells infused into items.

This ability was the one he’d expected from reading the Path description. It would be hugely useful as long as he had time to prepare; he did know the basics of many different spells, but they took too long to cast to be useful in combat. If he could cast them out of combat and then Evoke them in combat, it would be almost as good as adding the abilities of several Paths to his repertoire.

Level 100 - Designate Evocation Conditions - You may designate conditions for when an infused spell can be evoked. You can bypass any conditions you set, but you cannot bypass conditions set by other Evokers. This allows you to set conditions that will allow non-Evokers to Evoke infused spells, but spells Evoked by the untrained will be significantly degraded during the evocation.

That was definitely a capstone ability. The ability to cast a spell ahead of time and give it to someone else to use was worthwhile, and would probably have been a capstone ability on its own. The way it was worded, Serenity thought that was just a side effect of being able to limit when other Evokers could use your stored spells, but he suspected it was the part he’d use the most.

When Serenity went to spend his Ev, he realized why his last two Paths had taken so long. He’d forgotten somehow that he was putting most of his XP into Ev. Steadfast hadn’t actually been all that slow; the three months it should have taken was fast enough for a combat path being trained in a training arena that he suspected there was a Tutorial bonus he wasn’t considering.

Serenity was ready to Tier up, but he already knew from his last Path selection that no higher Tier Paths would be available until he Evolved - and he didn’t want to Evolve until he finished letting the Heart work. He decided to leave his XP allocation alone again. Finishing Evoker would be nice, but it wasn’t urgent. Saving up Ev would only help in the long run.

When Serenity opened his eyes in the Tutorial after choosing Evoker, he was greeted with a message.

[Technology Concept initiated]

He’d been credited with 40% understanding for doing little more than recognizing the Affinity had to exist. He still needed to unlock his Affinity, but that would be easy once he was back on Earth; it would probably happen on his own the first time he used anything technological.

Serenity looked forward to reaching level 25 so that he could try out Infusing and Evoking. In many ways, it was similar to things he’d done with undead, but it was potentially far more flexible.

It was exactly what he wanted in a Mage path, even though it almost certainly wasn’t a good Path for a beginner.

General - Major changes: Core Progression, Path, Path History, XP, Tier points spent, Mana, Stamina, all Attributes, Ev, Etherium

Name: Serenity

Species: Essence Dragon Chimera (Hatchling)

Core: Unique

Progression: 52.6%

Tier: 1

Features: 4/11

True

Crystal

Link

Death

Path: Evoker

Level: 15 (0/160)

Tier: 1, 100/100 Spent

Path History:

1: Unbound, Steadfast

0: Death-Eater, Battle Adept

Condition: Healthy

Healing Available: Full

Mana: 2100/2100

Stamina: 2100/2100

Might: 200

Agility: 200

Phys: 200

Understanding: 200

Will: 200

Mind: 200

Perception: 200

Luck: 200 - 300%

Essence

Pure (Innate)

Ev: 248,855 (Purified)

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

First of A Kind

Named

Ghost in the System

Aspect Pathfinder

Incarnate

Coin

295 Etherium

Magic - Major changes: Void (Liminal) Affinity and Concept, Arcane Concept (+2%), Essence Concept (+10%), Technology Concept

Essence Techniques

Chimeric Alteration

Claim Mana

Devour Mana

Purify

Affinities

Arcane: 50%

Energy: 40%

Life: 14%

Liquid: 6%

Mind: 32%

Plasma: 42%

Solid: 17%

SpaceTime: 71%

Vapor: 14%

Void (Liminal): 70%

Concepts

Arcane: 80%

Energy: 52%

Essence: 25%

Mind: 15%

Plasma: 26%

SpaceTime: 30%

Void: 25%

Technology: 40%

Aspects

Essence: Growth (Bloodline)

SpaceTime: Nascent

Incarnate

Death

Physical - Major changes: Pain Resistance and Pain Resistance Active increased

Resistances

Chemical: 137+10

Cold: 553 (53 active)+10

Curse: 263

Darkness: 277 (27 active)+10

Heat: 532+10

Light: 298+10

Pain: 1040 (140 active)

Pleasure: 31

Shock: 334+10

Sleep: 1

Space: 250

Time: 1000

Unknown

Chimeric Heritage

Pure (Innate)

Essence Dragon (Bloodline)

Asura

Child of Time, Unbound

Draugr, Sage

Godling

Human, Earth

Lich, Paramount

Vampire, Daywalker

Known Heritages

Sea Lion, Earth

Abilities - Major changes: Path Abilities - Moment of Prescience (Unbound) and later are new; corrected ‘Child of Time’ Path Abilities to use the correct Path name, ‘Unbound’

Monster Biology

Eyeless Sight

Colorless vision that does not require light; no visual effect

Inherited from Final Reaper

Vital Sight (previously called Life-Sight)

Shows the primary animating Affinity, usually Life, for creatures. Makes the eyes glow with blue-white fire

Inherited from Final Reaper

Food for Power

Converts consumed material into a specialized power reserve

Self-created ability

Heal (almost) Anything

Uses stored energy (cannot use stamina or mana, pulls from the power reserve first) to heal. ‘Healing’ includes providing energy and raw material for cell growth and therefore other food consumption is not required. Can restore stamina or mana when the stamina or mana reduction is physical in nature

Self-created ability

Blossoms’ Sleep

Can induce sleep on self with a defined wakeup time

Dream Blossom Dust

Runic Shielding Tattoos

Resists one attack of any sort. Does not require preactivation if the attack will kill or disable. Fully drains current MP to establish, drains SP to maintain, ends when hit. MP drained determines strength of blow that can be resisted, will fail if strength is exceeded but may reduce the power of the attack even if it fails. Effect is better with automatic activation

Self-created ability (Not actually tattoos, his skin/scales grows “naturally” in the correct pattern and color to create the effect)

Claws

Hands and feet have claws (all forms)

Essence Dragon

Wings

Six-limbed creature; all forms have wings. The wings are strong enough to be noticeable and might assist in gliding, but are not large enough to support actual flight.

Essence Dragon

Scaled Hide

Thickened, resistant outer skin layer, covered in most places with scutes

Essence Dragon

Filter

Details unknown; so far, Serenity has determined that it will output Essence when fed mana, but it does not seem to have a use at this time.

Linked Crystal Seed (True Core)

Amplify Aura

Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown.

Linked Crystal Seed (True Core)

Increase Link Distance

Details unknown; has a Power Reserve that appears to be required to allow it to function, but the method to fill the Power Reserve is unknown.

Linked Crystal Seed (True Core)

Change Stone Type

Details unknown

Linked Crystal Seed (True Core)

Path Abilities

Loot Core

Teleports a monster core from touched monster body to the user. Usable on any dead monster with a core. Costs mana

Death-Eater

Basic Draconic Shapeshift

An adult dragon is a force to behold, but there are many places they simply can’t go. Young dragons are commonly taught to take on another form, often humanoid, to fit in small places and interact with non-dragons. A skill normally gained much later in life, you get a basic version of it now since you don’t get Species abilities. Lucky you!

You can shift between your Draconic base form and your True Chimera form. Costs mana to shift

Death-Eater

Deathstrike

Infuse your body or weapons with Death energy to deal additional damage. Costs Stamina

Death-Eater

Resilience of the Dead

Slightly increased resistance to certain status alterations

Death-Eater

Eat Death

Absorb Death energy found within the Death Eater’s aura. Absorption based on Affinity. Intensity of absorption can be varied but the ability cannot be completely disabled. Absorbed Death energy may be consumed or used to restore mana or stamina used as if it were Death mana. Dissipates with time.

Ability damaged

Death-Eater

Basic Analyze

Analyze a being for basic information. The being may be animal, Pathed, or monster. Other beings may be analyzed if they have any appropriate features. Items may not be analyzed

Battle Adept

Intermediate Unarmed Combat (Claw Variant)

Losing your weapons is not a disaster when you have weapons attached to your hands. Your expertise with claws is nearly nonexistent, but your general training with unarmed combat is transferable

Battle Adept

Infused strike

Infuse your body or weapons with energy to deal additional damage. Replaces Deathstrike. May use any Affinity held. Power of infusion scales with Affinity used. Costs Stamina

Battle Adept

Far Strike

Discharge the magic infused in your weapon to strike a single opponent at a distance. Stamina cost increases with distance

Battle Adept

Adept Aspect Form

Instead of infusing an Affinity into your weapon, infuse your Aspect into yourself. Limited time, consumes both stamina and mana, induces unconsciousness when the Form lapses

Battle Adept

Basic Sense Raw Magic

Detect background, non-attuned energy. This sense is always active

Unbound

Linked Sight

You may share your vision and vision-based abilities with your Seer or anyone whom you share a similar Link with. They may also share their vision and vision-based abilities with you. Consumes Stamina per vision or vision-based ability shared in either direction. Vision ability costs are paid by the user instead of the originator of the ability, if applicable

Unbound

Moment of Prescience

Know a moment ahead of time when something will kill or disable you or someone you wish to protect. Activation is automatic. Cannot be activated more than once a minute. Consumes stamina in inverse proportion to the threat

Unbound

Time’s Eye

Your eyes see the motions of Time as it stretches and changes. The hidden is easier to see and the false easier to see through. Consumes Stamina

(Note: the Stamina cost is low enough that it can be maintained for hours at a time, though that will significantly reduce Serenity’s available Stamina for other uses)

Unbound

Unbound

Time does not quite have the same hold on you as it does on others, and Fate does not rule you. You can slip between the lines of the future and past or even blur them if you have the desire and the strength. That which will be has no power over you, and you can break the strands of Destiny for others if you dare. This ability is always active and has always applied to you

Unbound

Basic Identify

Identify an object to gain basic information on it, such as its name, basic properties, materials, and/or minor enchantments

Steadfast

Scale Hardening

Use Essence or Mana to reinforce your scales, making them harder to damage and more protective. Costs Stamina to maintain

Steadfast

Wait for an Opening

Study an opponent’s actions in combat to gain an intuitive understanding of the right time to strike

Steadfast

Second Wind

Convert some of a more filled resource pool (Mana, Stamina, or Essence) into an empty one. Consumes some of the converted resource

Steadfast

Stand Tall

Whether you are the last wall between your loved ones and your enemies or you simply love to fight, your ability to take a beating is exceptional. Blood loss, bruises, injuries, and even broken bones will not stop you. You can fight at the full effectiveness your body is capable of despite your injuries

Steadfast

Essence Sight

You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present

Evoker