Dawn gently broke, alleviating most of my nightly worries. At least for incorporeal undead. The corporeal versions would need to enlarge the entrance or teleport in, both which would be rather obvious from the mana expenditure. When I wasn’t watching for a random undead to show up, I was looking at my status sheet. I had a hundred points to use, and I was getting thoroughly sick of not being able to absolutely smash things with my spells. Constitution was starting to pull away from everything, but it wasn’t costing me any attribute points so that wasn’t a big deal. The best part of that was that my hit points were nearing a thousand. I was also eyeing the two adaptations I could use, and I decided to use at least one of them before I spent any more attribute points. I was only 4 constitution away from a third point, so this at least made a bit of sense. Without wasting any more time, I selected Mystic body I from the list.

Mystic body I selected!

Use your mind to reinforce your body. Mana can be channeled to increase STR, AGI, or DEX. Each odd level increases the number of attributes you can reinforce. Each point of increase requires 50 x (5 – Mystical body X) mana per minute. Every ten points in one stat doubles this calculation.

Synergy detected! Updating!

Divine Vessel I forged!

You have taken the first step toward the possibility of elevating yourself to divinity: Forging a proper vessel. A proper vessel requires mind, body, and soul to reinforce itself in a cycle. Your base attributes now reinforce each other, though this is not an infinite cycle. There are 5 levels of Divine Vessel, and upgrading costs 3 adaptations (one each for Stalwart Soul, Eidolon Reinforcement, and Mystic Body). As you already have Stalwart Soul at the second rank, upgrading to Divine Vessel II will only require 2 adaptations. Upgrading Divine Vessel will also upgrade its component parts.

Secondary Effects:

Secondary effect from Stalwart Soul: Your soul is now connected to both mind and body. You enjoy increased soul attributes. See note on calculations*

CON + (INT + STR)/(6 – Divine Vessel X)

END + (WIS + Average of DEX and AGI)/(6 – Divine Vessel X)

Secondary effect from Eidolon Reinforcement: Your body is now connected to both mind and soul. You enjoy increased body attributes. See note on calculations*

STR + (INT + CON)/(6 – Divine Vessel X)

DEX/AGI + (WIS + END)/(6 – Divine Vessel X)

Secondary effect from Mystic Body: Your mind is now connected to both soul and body. You enjoy increased mind attributes. See note on calculations*

INT + (CON + STR)/(6 – Divine Vessel X)

WIS + (END + Average of DEX and AGI)/(6 –Divine Vessel X)

Holy shit! I now had all my attributes reinforcing themselves in a merry round robin! Without any further delay, I dropped the final four points into constitution to upgrade to Divine Vessel II. After confirming the changes, I grunted as power coursed through my body. My muscles started twitching, my bones felt like they were cracking and healing a hundred times per second. It only took a few minutes, but those minutes felt like hours to me. Once it all passed, I felt amazing. I had no mental strain from casting spells the last few days, and my muscles felt like I had just been given the most perfect massage. Even the knot of tension just between my shoulder blades had disappeared. While Elendria continued to sleep, took a look over the descriptions and started to get a crazy plan. Once I reached Divine Vessel V, that annoying denominator would disappear. The best part of that would be that once that happened, so long as I didn’t put any points into dexterity or agility, they would propagate through the rest of my attributes. The major issue I was going to run into was getting Divine Vessel strong enough. At 45 constitution per level, I would need at least 135 more and I was only sitting on 96 attribute points.

“Sean?” Elendria murmured.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“What is that? What did you change? Something feels, different. Like I’m standing near a church of Shalora.”

“Oh? I guess it must have its own aura. I’ll have to learn to suppress that. I used some of my upgrades, and found a hidden synergy.” I explained, telling her all about divine vessel.

“So are you going to upgrade it further?” She asked as we started to prepare our breakfast. Nothing special today, just a bit of toast and jelly with some eggs.

“Yeah. In fact, I should probably get that up as high as possible, just to maximize my bonuses from it. The only thing that I need to worry about in the future would be just how many points to drop into constitution and how many to drop into endurance.”

“Why constitution and not intelligence?”

“The bonuses don’t apply to getting adaptations. If I drop 15 points into constitution, I gain another adaptation as well as 15 points in intelligence and strength. If I drop 15 points into intelligence, I only gain 15 extra points in strength and constitution.” I explained, getting a nod from Elendria.

“I see. The only issue I can see is if you run into the maximum number of adaptations, that might be something you could ask the gods about.”

“That, is something I hadn’t thought of.” I said, smiling at her. “Leave it to you to rain on my parade.”

“Oh come on now, it’s not like that.” She said, glaring at my chuckling.

“I know, I know. Gimme a second, I’m going to go ahead and drop the rest of my points into constitution and upgrade divine vessel two more times.” Bracing myself against the pain, though it was less this time, I went ahead and pushed all 96 free points into constitution and upgraded to Divine Vessel IV. Once it had passed, I marveled at my new stats.

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 33

Titles:

Chosen of Ariana

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Grandmaster Sage

Divine mage

Heretic

Shalora’s Gratitude

Calamity Bane

Attributes:

STR – 20 (152)

AGI – 57 (116)

DEX – 60 (119)

INT – 48 (166)

WIS – 75 (125)

CON – 216 (250)

END – 42 (109)

Health: 755/1,320

Mana: 13465/13880

Health regen: 0.360/min

Mana regen: 709.55/min

Spirit: 380/380

Spirit regen: 15.8/hour

Level: 14/100

Exp to next level: 24%

Free attribute points: 0

Major adaptations: 0

Adaptations used: 14

“Gods above, that is insane.” I muttered, simply sending Elendria my stat sheet when she raised an eyebrow in my direction.

“Lokir’s Balls Sean!” She cried once she saw what I was looking at. “You don’t have a single attribute under a hundred!”

“I know!” I said, grinning like a madman. “And the numbers are going to double once I gain a few more levels.”

“You truly are a broken existence.” She said, shaking her head and going back to breakfast. Deciding she was probably right, I went and dug into my own breakfast as well. I was feeling awfully excited about the coming battles today, and I was looking forward to it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Elendria’s POV

I followed along with Sean to the edge of the desert, still shocked at the extent of his character sheet. All of his stats were now twice as strong as what a normal human could maximize, and he still had over 80 levels to grow! That was sheer insanity! I shook my head once more, before I asked him about our plan, “Hun. Why are you flying toward the front gates? Shouldn’t we be sneaking in since we can pass through the barrier at will?”

He looked at me and grinned, “Normally I would agree with you, but we will have to fight at least two incredibly powerful undead. Back home we would call them boss fights, and there is one thing all of the worst boss fights have in common: the ability to summon minions. If we don’t whittle down the most powerful forces, we are setting ourselves up for failure.”

I thought about what he said as we flew, before giving up. He was right, and we just didn’t have the time to assassinate the majority of strong powers that could be found in a city like this even if we had the skills that it would take to pull off such a move. Besides, most of Sean’s spells tended to destroy an area, and he would be severely hampered if he had to fight within a city that we had to save. As we neared the city, we swung south so that we could come straight at the city gates and to the small army that awaited us.

As we neared, I noted the army was much different than what I had expected. There were the occasional ghoul lord with his entourage of ghouls, but I still couldn’t remember ever fighting a single wight. That said, unless they were well hidden within the group there wasn’t any wights awaiting us. Instead the majority was made of skeletons, but I got a deep sense of foreboding when I saw the line of mages standing six deep on the ramparts, protected by the city shield.

“I don’t like the look of the mages.” I said to Sean, as he was busy studying the ground forces.

“I don’t either, but we can’t do much while they stay behind the barrier. Try and maintain a mana shield around yourself, as I can’t guarantee we will be close enough to cover in an emergency.”

I nodded, and looked again at the army. Skeletons and zombies, no. Desiccated dead, a cross between a zombie and a mummy. Zombies tended to be wetter. They were all armored in half plate with tower shields, though there were the occasional giants that eschewed defense like a shield for the pure destructive power of an axe and a hammer. The scariest was the hulking monstrosity in the back. Easily twenty feet tall, it was covered with bulging muscles and strips of bone armor. It wasn’t bothering with any weapons at all, instead the bone armor turned its hand into a spiked fist. Even from the massive distance between us I could feel the magic reinforcing those bones.

“Relax, we got this.” Sean said, dropping down into the sand and striding forward. He stopped when he was about 50 yards away from the enemy front line, and used a bit of magic to amplify his voice, “I don’t suppose you would all just lay down your weapons and let us pass, would you?”

I guess that was too much, as the horde started rushing forward only to be met with six massive jets of water. “Hey Elendria? Would you do me a favor and start freezing the desert? I want to build up a block of ice beneath that army.” Sean asked nonchalantly.

“With pleasure.” I said, stepping so that I was between the sprays of water. “Creeping frost.” It was a low level spell, but it only worked along the ground. Over the next several minutes, the water went from draining away to forming a large sheet that was growing and trapping more and more skeletons. I was wondering what Sean had planned when I felt my hair start rising on the back of my neck. I quickly started turning, trying to find the source only to see Sean smiling. I went to speak, but stopped as I got a bit of the water in my mouth. Salt? Why would he try and summon the ocean here? Besides, creeping frost wasn’t powerful enough to keep these undead bound. Even now, the front lines were angling their shields to deflect the spray as those behind them chipped away at the ice that had grown to their ankles. Suddenly, the jets of water ceased. Oddly enough, there was a faint rainbow separating the two sides.

“You know, there is a true downside with most of you undead.” Sean said, still channeling mana. “You lack hair. The same hair that would be warning you of imminent danger.” As he spoke, he summoned that constellation that looked like a coffin, causing the horde to start shrieking in terror, but they were helpless as they were locked in place. “See, hair is the first warning most of us get before a shock. And unfortunately for the lot of you, you are covered in metal that has been sprayed with salt water. And thanks to Elendria’s ice magic, the only way for that charge to go away is through you. Watch.” He taunted, sending a bullet of air at one of the front line skeletons. It rocked back under the force, but that wasn’t the crazy part. As a skeleton behind it reached out to steady it, there was a bang and a flash as both were repelled.

“Now, let’s get this party started. Chain lightning!” Sean created four orbs, each one shooting out a massive bolt of lightning. Once each of them struck a target, they branched out and worked their way through the throng, the constant rumbling drowning out what was without a doubt the screech of the undead dying once more.

“SEAN! FLY!” I screamed. As he was attacking, I noticed several undead souls tunneling toward us from beneath the sands. We both took to the air just in time as the sand we were standing on erupted into the slavering jaws and slashing claws of hundreds of ghouls. One managed to leap higher, getting a boost from a neighbor, and clamped down on Sean’s leg. He still climbed, saved by a blue shield that prevented the saliva and teeth from breaking the skin.

“Freezing bolt!” I cried, sending a concentrated ray of ice energy into the ghoul’s skull. It froze rapidly, and Sean blasted it with one of his bullets. I breathed a sigh of relief for a second, glad he hadn’t gotten bit before I heard something terrible.

“You’ll pay for underestimating us, mage! Corten! You and your men take the woman! He’s mine!” The hulking monster from before screamed as he seemingly flew through the air at us. As soon as he said mage, he smashed Sean with the most powerful punch I had ever seen, sending him rocketing off into the distance and smashing through several sand dunes.

“Sean!” I cried, only to swerve as I felt a tremendous sense of danger. Looking back, I saw a second creature, one much smaller than the first, heading straight toward me with a sinister looking black spear thrusting toward my heart. I flew up and backward, desperately trying to conjure enough ice in between us to deflect or slow that terrible spear. I managed the dodge somehow, though this Corten still managed a numbing blow to my thigh with the butt of his spear as he passed. When he turned back to me, I could see the yellow in his eyes glow as the sky darkened.

“Welcome to Night Eternal! You didn’t think we wouldn’t have counters to you flying, now, did you?” Corten taunted as leathery black wings emerged from his back. A quick glance around me told the truth. Corten was between me and Sean, and his mysterious boss was already lost to the distance. Coming from the city were swarms of incorporeal undead. Ghosts and shades flew side by side with banshees. There were several winged corpses as well, but none were like Corten.

Not wanting to deal with them, I tried to move around him and head to help Sean, but he cut me off every time. “Ah, not today sweetie! We’re gonna have some fun first!” He chuckled, and I raged. I knew that chuckle. That was the chuckle of my former masters. Those who thought that they had the upper hand, those who looked down on others. Feeling themselves invincible because of money and position. Those who had abused me for so long. No. NO! Those who had abused the weak frost elf Elendria for so long. Who shackled her power with the collar of a slave, who tried to break her spirit with their depravity.

“But I am no longer shackled.” I growled to Corten’s confusion. “You wish to see my strength? Very well, beast. I shall show you my power. And when you lie there, broken and defeated, remember in your next life that women can be just as powerful as men. Behold, the freezing maelstrom that is the Tempest of Mahapadma!” From deep within, I called forth the icy rage of all the injustices I had seen but had been powerless to prevent. And answering the call was the frozen hell that had given me my evolution. As the undead split to surround me as best they could, a sphere of freezing cold erupted from around me. I watched without emotion, my only movements the wings keeping me aloft and the clouds of breath as I exhaled. The temperature dropped, cold enough that flesh would freeze and crack. Cold enough that the wounds barely had time to seep. Winds carried icy shards in a swirling sphere of destruction around me, ripping through ghosts and shattering the frozen bones of the skeletons. Soon there was just Corten and myself, the former desperately protecting himself with a shield of dark energies.

“While I would like to see how long your shield can withstand the cold, I need to return to Sean’s side. Perish.” I said, lunging forward with a rapier of ice that easily pierced through his heart. As his eyes stared at me in shock, I channeled ice energy through the sword and into his body. As he froze, the darkness blew away. I let him drop and shatter on the ground below, and stopped channeling the tempest spell. I gave a quick glance toward the city, seeing that nothing was chasing me and the mages had apparently decided to stop channeling their spell. As proper daylight returned, I started toward where Sean was only to freeze as the world was rocked under a massive impact. I stared in horror as a gigantic plume of dust was sent skyward, before taking off at the fastest speed I could manage.

“SSSSEEEEEEAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!”