Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

Creating hundreds of crystals at once, their singing was a deluge of sound that echoed into white noise within the chamber. With each creation starting a bare second apart, it took eight minutes to wind down. As the last crystal of the session ceased glowing, Laergul gave a full-body stretch. “I’d swear some days you’re a construct. How you continually tolerate this is beyond me.”

[Crafting Summary (Category: Basic utility item [assorted]) - experience by item grade:

Minor Items - Masterwork: 400 x 147,200 = 50 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Basic Items - Masterwork: 450 x 73,600 = 100 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Total Experience gained: 46,000,000

Fallen: +9,200,000

Scion: +9,200,000

Ascetic: +9,200,000

Ostimë: +9,200,000

Ontãlin: +9,200,000 ]

“This has been simple work,” countered Amdirlain, and she dismissed the notification

“Having 480 crystals going at once in your echo chamber is not simple work,” argued Laergul. “Even if your powers’ advancement has plateaued from the repetition of these items.”

“I’ll need to create a space tailored to cut out the echo. I need more spheres from each session, but increasing the network’s size is important,” stated Amdirlain.

“We added those spheres over a year ago now. Will you share what they are for?” asked Laergul.

Amdirlain blinked innocently. “What, a girl can’t just want some balls to play with?”

Sarah snickered loudly, but her attention didn’t shift from the delicate enchantment she was preparing for a gemstone.

The sound had Laergul's gaze flicker past Amdirlain. “You both like your innuendoes far too much. Some of those most dedicated to your projects have levelled for the first time in years. Whatever you’re using the spheres for, I’ve hundreds that would be happy to assist with setting songs into them.”

“How’s the construction of the new central pillar going? Is it large enough to handle everything?” asked Amdirlain, and she gave Laergul a guarded smile.

More than the subject change, her smile caused Laergul’s spearmint gaze to glow with interest. “If you’re still not ready to share, I’ll leave it be. I will admit to being intrigued by whatever else you’re working on.”

“Once I’m happy with it, I’ll give you, Isa, and Roher a run-through. Mostly it's a refinement of things you know about, so it shouldn’t be a shock. How are the last lot of needles going?” asked Amdirlain.

“Most are ready. Did you want to wait for the full batch, or are the celestials expecting another delivery?” asked Laergul, giving into her subject change.

“Just once the full batch is ready; Sarah’s got an excess of weapons prepared, so we’ll wait,” replied Amdirlain.

Laergul looked towards the settlement and shook his head. “Your next singer is running late.”

“It’s okay. Let them know they’ve got the session off for today. I’ll work on polishing up my ball-handling skills,” replied Amdirlain, and she kept a straight-face despite Laergul's reproving expression.

As the Gate closed, Sarah impressed the runic pattern she’d worked on into the fist-sized ruby floating in the air before her. “They might have got caught up with the pillar’s erection.”

Even as Amdirlain went to gather up the last crystals, Sarah beat her to them and floated the different types into their crates.

“The Lómë don’t get the fun of innuendoes,” laughed Amdirlain. “I blame Polyglot; they catch all the meanings intended by the speaker at once, so there isn’t any subtle play to it. Still, I didn’t realise how prudish they’d become until I made Dúhel blush.”

“They’ve changed a lot, but not everyone had the same disregard for clothing as you do,” observed Sarah.

Amdirlain shrugged. “I used to tell myself I wasn’t a naturist, but don’t think I can still claim that.”

“Depends on your classification. The naturists I knew enjoyed getting their kit off; you seem to have stopped caring at some point if you’re clothed or not,” commented Sarah, and she rustled her wings absently. “Shall we move up today’s plans, or did you want to do more tunnelling?”

The realisation of when she’d completely stopped caring froze at Amdirlain’s heart, but she forced herself to nod. “Yep, and maybe test a full deployment if the weapon changes work. How is the education environment going?”

“It should be able to cope with eight thousand at a time once I iron the kinks out, but you'll need to wipe my latest test batch. There were some issues I caught,” said Sarah. With the energy array she’d been working on impressed into a gemstone, she gathered up the others she’d completed.

Amdirlain reclaimed a sphere from the chest and brushed her fingers along its tiny facets. “Think I missed deep scars? I could send them back through a treatment unit and see what shows.”

“Not sure; it could just be flaws in the simulated environment. Only had issues with two so far, so the sample size is too small to determine if there is a common pattern.”

“If you don’t want to just toss them in for reprocessing, let me listen before you spend more time on them,” offered Amdirlain, and she grinned at Sarah. “Yes, I know you prefer it done your way, but if I can pick up anything, it will save you time. Shall we?”

Sarah nodded before she blurred into her willowy Human form and pulled on her usual hunting leathers.

Teleport placed them—and the crate—on the ground floor of a narrow gallery some five metres wide and thirty tall, with tightly packed niches carved into the stone walls. Along the wall to the right, spheres sat in every nook for the first hundred metres, forming crystal columns that rose to the ceiling. As Sarah opened the stone door behind them, Amdirlain distributed the new spheres into recesses on the right, the session’s spheres filling another fifty metres of slots.

“I still think we might have overdone the size of this place,” critiqued Sarah. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket—ring a bell?”

“To make a scratch, we’ll need a host of these. Between the wards and constructs Roher provided, they should prove sufficient security to deal with anything finding it by chance,” replied Amdirlain.

“You’re the only person I know that haggles to drive the price they’ll receive down,” stated Sarah, waving at the five elven statues arrayed along the five hundred metre corridor the gallery joined. “One in twenty of those you repair is seriously underrating your value.”

Besides the statues, the corridor was an empty, unadorned passage. They had ripped its five hundred metre length from the granite with one use of Sarah’s inventory—a capacity in mega tonnes that didn’t tempt Amdirlain to duplicate. Doors showed every ten metres on the right, but only one every hundred on the left.

“Yes, but now I’ve learnt all the songs I need to make my own,” countered Amdirlain.

Sarah snorted in mock surprise. “How many are you planning to make?”

“Not sure yet; their complexity means they’re a double gold mine of experience and pushing my capabilities,” replied Amdirlain. “I’ve got an image of a few million carving their way through demons with the Order-infused blades they use. Only, using them out in the open would be a complete giveaway, so it's not a top priority.”

“At your current rate, the Tier 7 Achievement is going to get more crucial and harder,” warned Sarah.

“I know. I’ve got a goal in mind that should do the trick, but I won’t risk going for it until I’m free of my Planar Lock,” admitted Amdirlain. “Hopefully, what we’re getting up to between now and then does the trick.”

“Not going to share?”

Amdirlain smiled. “What will you offer for the information?”

“I think we’ve pushed your Haggling Skill high enough,” huffed Sarah.

“It hit Master, yet still hasn’t combined with anything, so clearly not,” argued Amdirlain.

“You must have done something that aligned it towards a particular combination—all we can do is wait and see,” Sarah said before she pulled the next door open and stepped out onto a raised walkway. “Maybe set time aside to work on raising Diplomacy with Erwarth or Isa.”

“I’ll ask whichever one shows up first,” agreed Amdirlain cheerfully.

The walkway ran the length of the chamber and crossed it at several points along its length, dividing the workspace into sections.

The first twelve-metre section was a fantasy factory floor; an array of colour fields illuminated the chamber and painted the dark abyssal stone with a living rainbow. Butted up against the end wall was an acidic green energy cylinder filled with the souls of the damned. Crystals at the far end targeted souls within that cylinder and drew them through a spectrum of barriers that stripped emotions and memories before purging the corruption. They sent those wholly cleaned into a containment cylinder at the next section’s start, while it relegated rejects to join the few currently in a side niche.

Sarah smiled at Amdirlain. “I used to think your factory simulators were weird.”

“Bright lights, things moving, and goods being produced. What more do you want in a game?” blurted Amdirlain.

Her pretend glee drew a laugh. “Poor kitten, did you want to paw at the things on the screen?”

“I’ll leave the hand jobs to you,” quipped Amdirlain, and started along the walkway.

“Says the girl that likes to fist things,” Sarah retorted. Walking beside Amdirlain, Sarah tugged on a strand of Amdirlain’s electric blue hair.

“I do more than fist things,” declared Amdirlain, shooing Sarah’s hand away.

The response got an exaggerated sigh. “Promises, promises.”

The banter continued until they reached the next section, where rows of transparent treatment cubes ran the length. As they entered, a nearby unit sent a Soul to a container in the last area before it drew from the containment cylinder holding the cleansed damned.

The new arrival was a badly scarred Soul, and harmonics that pulsed against even Sarah's awareness went to work. The chamber’s enchantments put the Soul into a torpor state before it excised and sanded at the scars like a woodworker preparing a cut of timber. Fresh energy poured across the pitted surface that resulted and boosted the Soul’s recovery to full health. The enchantment twisted and kneaded the Soul like dough, and when it brought fresh scars to the surface, it began again.

Sarah caught Amdirlain’s discontented look. “Yeah, none of this will work for Torm. We’ll figure out something.”

“It’s okay, was thinking more about what improvement we can make on cleaning the damned. I’d hate to duplicate this only to find a basic flaw. Let’s look at the weapon unit.”

“You could create towers with inbuilt offensive enchantments,” observed Sarah.

The familiar argument earned a shrug. “I told you, we’re not in a rush. The weapon construction gets you experience, and I’ll bet you controlling a deployment will get you the kill experience the same as your hunting runs.”

“Normally they’re around me, it will be interesting to see if playing drone operator has the same effect,” admitted Sarah.

The last section they passed had four large containment cylinders with nearly half a million souls already thoroughly cleansed—and still, it was only a fraction of their capacity. A door at the end opened before they reached it and revealed racks that wouldn’t be out of place in an armoury on Earth.

The racks of tubular shapes vaguely resembled the RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers—minus the trigger and grip. They still had the shoulder brace beneath them, but one set with threaded holes as if intended to be fixed to something. Another difference was that there wasn’t any wood, as Sarah had constructed each from gleaming mithril that shone with the embedded runes.

A nearby silence caught Amdirlain’s attention as she studied their melody again. “Do you have enough ingots left?”

“Big ears. The stockpile you made me is in my Inventory. I’ll let you know when I’m down to a million tonnes, little miss overkill.”

“There isn’t-”

“Such a thing as overkill,” Sarah cut in as she stepped into the armoury, her words echoing in the vast chamber. “Just moving, or dead.”

“Fine, be that way,” huffed Amdirlain when a random thought occurred to her. “You know, you never told me what you did with the granite from the corridor here.”

“I got rid of it the next day. It was a present for a brigade of undead Sage had me playing with, though they didn’t enjoy it dropping on them from a few kilometres up,” replied Sarah, and she paused in thought. “With his focus on undead, I think you or Ebusuku should release him when he hits Solar. He is becoming more intent on wiping them out rather than serving the tenets in your Mantle.”

“We’ll see. Sage needs a few more Tier 7 achievements to get through Planetar yet. He feels guilty that others from the Maze still haven’t gotten one. I’m thinking that might slow him down,” offered Amdirlain.

“When did you speak to him?” blurted Sarah in surprise.

“What, do I need to tell you everything?”

“No,” allowed Sarah, before she gave a chin quiver and a fake sob. “Thought it would warrant a mention to your work-wife. Guess I’ll expect the divorce attorney to call.”

“Aww, don’t be heartbroken. You can join my mistresses,” quipped Amdirlain and gave Sarah’s shoulder a reassuring pat. Ignoring the flat look her response received, Amdirlain continued. “He accompanied Ebusuku and Gail on their visit yesterday. The bastard gave me a jump scare by standing right in front of the Gate when it opened. Freaking five metres tall, standing in the circle with his wings out as far as the circle allowed for,” described Amdirlain, throwing her arms out wide, she arched them forward threateningly.

“Oh, a real in-person visit, not just chatting through a Gate. Did he give you cuddles?” teased Sarah.

Amdirlain shot Sarah a glare. “A hug, not a cuddle. Gail complained Ebusuku still wouldn’t let her through to get one herself. Sage mentioned he’d been practising his Planar Shift to get it accurate enough to avoid needing someone to open a Gate.”

“Something to watch out for; you might get a surprise visit when you’re creating crystals solo,” cautioned Sarah.

“I’ve been expecting it for a while now, especially with Isa and others visiting more often. I’ll continue to restrict myself to creating it here or one of the bolt holes,” allowed Amdirlain, and they turned right at a crossroads among the racks. They stretched for fifty metres before the gap ended at a double door.

“I’m surprised you’ve had so many restricting themselves to messages passed along. The last time I popped into the Monastery, I got mobbed with demands for information.”

“What, they stood in neat lines around you?” laughed Amdirlain.

“Yes, but with such serious looks. I should have let someone else go for the texts you wanted,” grumbled Sarah.

“Speaking of serious looks, who gave Gail the idea about birthday presents?” asked Amdirlain with a smile. “I know it’s not a custom among any of Vehtë’s cultures.”

Sarah’s expression didn’t shift. “I don’t know, maybe Gail remembered something.”

“Guilty,” declared Amdirlain, her smile broadening.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” chuckled Sarah.

“What did you get up to on your last visit? Movie nights, as you did with Torm?”

“She was nearly ten when I figured she could handle the brain sludge that was Earth movies,” sighed Sarah.

“Did she remember any of them?” enquired Amdirlain softly.

“No, and she laughed at things Andre didn’t find funny,” admitted Sarah. “She got all the compensating references in Shrek. Gail finds innuendos funny, but with her parents, it's not a surprise she’s growing very liberated.”

Amdirlain laughed but said nothing further until she opened the door to the next chamber. Assembled machinery cluttered the space beyond with an assorted number of attached tubes from the armoury. Some of the small ones resembled quad anti-air guns, while larger clusters resembled a roman tortoise formation with the weapons bristling outwards between shields.

Walking past rows of the small assemblies, Sarah stopped at the first arrangement that resembled an old fashion Gatling gun on a pivot ball. The end of each tube flowed open and Sarah set rubies into each. Moving along the line, she repeated the process for the first thirty Gatling guns.

“Pick a random one for the test firing,” Sarah instructed.

Scrying first to ensure there wouldn’t be any immediate witnesses, Amdirlain teleported them, along with one of the adjusted units, to the edge of the Zealot's Maze. The clawing hands of those trapped showed which of the enfolding stone cages had occupants. A well-practised song pulled those visible into Amdirlain’s custody.

Sarah’s control reached out, and the assembly began to spin. Even before it had reached full speed it started to fire blasts of golden light—the colour of Celestial steel. Instead of the noticeable gaps that had been present in the first testing, the Gatling gun looked like it was producing a nearly continuous beam. Under the barrage, the rock cages, formed of abyssal stone, burst apart. They were rapidly approaching the perimeter of pens Amdirlain had drawn the damned from when she heard a ripple in the ground’s corruption.

“What’s that?”

At the question, Sarah stopped firing. “What?”

The air of anticipation around Sarah was all that stopped Amdirlain from skip-hopping them back to the storehouse. “There was a ripple.”

“Oh, that,” laughed Sarah. “You were always driving Yngvarr crazy, converting spells on the fly to use differently attuned Mana. I figured out a way to burn the corruption as an energy source. It is more sludgy than crude oil, but burning it should be good for the environment.”

“You what?”

Sarah shrugged. “The Abyss treats it as energy, so I pretended ignorance and followed its example. Well, not quite that simple, and it took years, but you felt it.”

“Yes, barely a trickle, but one drop at a time makes a river,” Amdirlain said, and she returned them carefully to their origin.

“You are getting all philosophical in your old age,” Sarah said when the last hop placed them back in the storehouse.

Amdirlain opened her mouth to protest but stopped herself. “I’ll have to set you loose on the dimensional space into which I’ve been accumulating the corruption. Did you want to test deployment or prepare more of them?”

“All the ones I’ve got ready are corruption fuelled. I only had to fix the recharge rate for the Gatling’s gems,” clarified Sarah.

“Right,” said Amdirlain, and extending her right hand, a sphere appeared atop it. Without warning, a cascade of sound battered Sarah’s eardrums, and she triggered an enchantment that brought silence, fixing Amdirlain with a flat stare. The torrent of sound coming from Amdirlain’s lips didn’t even earn a wince from her. As the songs wound down, Amdirlain shot Sarah a predatory smile. “Want to blow something up?”

[Crafting Summary (Major Relic)

Grand Master: 510,350 = 510,000 (category outcome) + 350 (exotic material)

Total experience gained: 510,350

Fallen: +102,070

Scion: +102,070

Ascetic: +102,070

Ostimë: +102,070

Ontãlin: +102,070]

“Next time you do that, I will walk away. Too loud; try some warning, Songbird.” grumbled Sarah.

The reprimand earned the wince the sound hadn’t, and Amdirlain had the good graces to look abashed. “Sorry.”

“Just be a little more careful; that wasn’t kind to my ears,” chided Sarah. “What did you have in mind to destroy?”

“Got a preference?”

Sarah gave an unbothered shrug. “Dealer’s choice, but I’d suggest keeping it small for the first test.”

“Just the lasers and mortars; I want to keep the gauss rifles in reserve.”

“They’re not lasers,” insisted Sarah.

“I don’t care if they’re firing Celestial or Order Mana like the bigger cannons; they look like lasers,” argued Amdirlain.

“Enough. You still haven’t told me the nitty gritty.”

“I’d rather show you,” countered Amdirlain. “This sphere has a modified version of the arrangement I put together for recycled souls to use.”

“Recycled?” blurted Sarah, cackling with laughter.

“Recycled. I wouldn’t call them redeemed—they did nothing to earn it, and they’re not who they once were. We’ve blank slated them and impressed them with a basic VR life experience.”

Amdirlain's observation got a shrug from Sarah. “Fair enough.”

Creating a three-metre diameter platform with a divot in the middle between the rows of armaments, Amdirlain sat cross-legged on one side and motioned Sarah to sit across from her. When she did, Amdirlain placed the sphere in the divot. Pulling out the map orb, she presented an image of a small trade hub sitting on the edge of some foothills.

The town’s walls were massive blocks of orange stone, stacked almost haphazardly, the weight alone holding them in place despite sizeable gaps in their placement. Rust-eaten gates hung off their hinges and looked like they hadn’t been closed in years. Despite the lack of care, the town seemed busy with cart and foot traffic using all of its five gates.

The nearby foothills were overgrown with an abundance of thorny bushes. Amdirlain pointed to a location high on the slope away from town. “Should be high enough for the towers to have a line of sight over the walls.”

“We’re going to be out in the open,” stated Sarah.

“No we’re not. Wait and see; you’ve got an adaptation enchantment, so you’ll be safe.”

With that, Amdirlain triggered the orb, and hard-packed earth was suddenly surrounding the platform, a transparent energy dome keeping it from collapsing on them. Amdirlain, putting her fingertips on the sphere, caused a glowing illusion of a 360-degree perspective to appear above it. The image showed the same overgrown landscape the map orb had presented to Sarah.

“I’m only an observer,” explained Amdirlain. “Touch the sphere and think of towers deploying.”

When Sarah followed her instruction, eight twelve-metre towers surged upwards from the earth, and before they finished growing, Gatling guns capped four, while the rest had the quad gun batteries. The image jumped around momentarily while Sarah tried focusing it on different locations. Each time, the 360-degree perspective centred on her focal point, giving her a clear vision of approaching dangers from fourteen metres up, allowing her to see all the guns.

“What else can I deploy?”

“Ground defence and the mortars. You’ll need to accumulate energy to deploy more, and I’m sure you can figure out how to do that,” replied Amdirlain. “You’ll know when you can.”

A smiling Sarah settled the illusion’s perspective on the town’s wall and took in the scurrying defenders. Without a word, bursts of light cut across the defenders, and the quad guns started firing blasts that purified the walls' abyssal stone, causing demons to scream in pain.

“Where are we located?” asked Sarah.

The question didn’t take her focus from the visible gates, and the Gatlings chewed apart ill-prepared Schir guards, workers, and travellers alike as they attempted to get behind cover.

“We’re a few hundred metres from the circle’s centre point and about the same distance below ground. Shielded with various concealment auras within the sphere,” explained Amdirlain. “There is a banishment array dealing with any mortals within the town.”

“Why am I not surprised?” laughed Sarah, and a new gun appeared in the image. A fat pot belly cannon mounted on a mithril platform dug its supports into the ground next to the closest tower to the town; a second after it settled, it bleached a twisting coil of primordial energy on a flat arc towards the town. Even before the first landed, Sarah’s aim was already adjusting, and the cannon started rapidly firing each round in slightly different trajectories. Three were in the air when the first hit, caving in the front of a three-story building and dropping the rest of it to the ground.

“That’s got to hurt.”

“They need better wards,” Sarah crowed.

A defensive porcupine appeared off to one side before a second and then third mortar added to the barrage. When groups of demons teleported close, the energy blasts from the porcupine scattered them in clouds of crystallised dust, their demonic flesh having crumbled under bolts of pure Order. A follow-up group successfully dodged the first defensive strikes only to fall to a lethal surprise when they couldn’t teleport around to evade a Gatling pivoting down on them. More towers and other weaponry appeared, and the town's destruction escalated.

“Does this just keep letting me bring in more?” asked Sarah once large swathes of the town were on fire or flattened.

“I haven’t decided yet—it's interacting with a crystal in the compound and some bolt holes. The crystals are skip-teleporting the equipment into place, so it doesn’t come straight from the storerooms,” Amdirlain explained. “Also, if things went wrong, you could trigger an evacuation.”

“Is that going to damage the equipment at all?”

“Only someone successfully hitting them will damage the gear. The evacuation shifts all the equipment away first, then has a blast. There is a faster option if things go pear-shaped while you evacuate, but there is more collateral damage,” grinned Amdirlain. “Don’t resist the teleport series when you trigger it.”

The mortars and other emplacements ceased firing and vanished quickly before the earthen towers exploded outwards in a release of raw Mana. Their detonations shook the ground but didn’t break the dome protecting the pair. The sphere hopped them through seven locations before it returned them to the armoury.

“Not a massive amount of experience, but nice,” allowed Sarah, and she motioned Amdirlain towards the door opposite the warehouse and its racked weapons. “Let’s have a look at the training groups. The two with odd reactions are in the first training chamber.”

“No experience for me, just the driver,” stated Amdirlain as she headed off.

When Amdirlain slipped into the training chamber, she stayed well back from the crystal barrier. Unlike the black granite that made up the rest of the facility, a room of polished white granite was beyond the floor-to-ceiling window. Its purification wasn’t her doing, but the concentrated Celestial Mana used to create the slimes within the chamber. Hundreds sat in rows looking like torso-sized Petri dishes filled with a silvery-white gel. Above each, a psi-crystal projected a unique simulated environment for them, letting the Soul’s new life form experience the simple life it would find on a Heavenly Plane.

“How do you intend them to interface with the sphere?” asked Sarah, and unlike Amdirlain’s care, she stepped close and rested her fingertips on the window.

“Instead of a visual illusion, the crystal will project a VR presentation to them as if they’re sitting on the ground. An attempt to grow a new pseudopod or shift in a direction will trigger new towers to deploy. Lashing out at a foe will trigger the towers’ weaponry. Once they get a few levels into their classes, they should have enough intelligence to react in a more organised fashion.”

“Classes?” started Sarah, her attention fixed on the closest slime. “What did you do?”

The buzz of Analysis from Sarah prompted Amdirlain to ensure it hadn’t shifted from what she’d sung into it.

[Species: Slime (Celestial)

Class: Fighter / Siege Engineer / Scout / Wizard

Level: 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1

Health: 44

Mana: 8

Melee Attack Power: 11

Defence: 12

Combat Skills: Pseudopod [B] (1), Engulf [B] (1) ]

“No wonder you had me introduce you to those engineer types from Mechanus.”

“I was saving it for a surprise,” admitted Amdirlain. “I needed to talk to the engineers about my tunnels more than pilfering their Class songs.”

“If it doesn’t work?”

“Then we’ll try a different species or training program. The deployment will present a situation where invaders are threatening their life. As the towers spread out, they’ll feel like they’re growing, taking over more land around them.”

“How do they trigger the retreat you had me use?”

“If all their towers get destroyed, it’ll present cover they can slither into, and that decision will pull them back here for rest and refit. The sphere will end up in the niches on the opposite walls, and I’ll check them before they get used again.”

“What about sending them to Judgement, or will you keep them levelling?”

“I don’t want to flood the heavens with billions of slimes. If they accumulate enough experience to reach level 50, they’ll perceive a heavenly gate to flee. If they choose that option, it will send the Soul onto Judgement, and the accumulated energy of the slime will end up sprayed across the landscape above the deployment site—similar to the tower’s detonation.”

“You're going to level up the slimes so they can leave patches of Celestial energy all over Culerzic?” snickered Sarah.

“Don’t forget your blue light when you check into this hotel, boys and girls,” quipped Amdirlain. “Now let’s sort out your problem children, and expand the horizon of the rest.”

Sarah paused in thought and beckoned Amdirlain to wait. “Are you still hoarding your points, or do you have spare?”

“The Skill and Knowledge points I’ve been holding onto,” Amdirlain admitted. “I’ve been more conscious of spending attributes points as I go.”

“How many Skill points are you sitting on?”

“142,” sighed Amdirlain. “Do I want to know what you have in mind?”

“142! Are you planning to melt your brain by forcing an upgrade on True Song Architecture?” gasped Sarah.

“Pushing it fast if it gets into Grand Master without evolving again is one thing I was considering. Why?”

“Notice how various merges happen when everything hits Master?

“That’s not always the case,” argued Amdirlain.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I said various, not all. Push Diplomacy or spend some time with Roher learning various cultural mores.”

“Why don’t you teach me?”

“A Dragon’s version of Diplomacy is Intimidate; we just eat those that don’t do as they’re told,” huffed Sarah.

“Lies,” snorted Amdirlain.

“How close is your Diplomacy to Master?”

“6 more levels,” concedes Amdirlain.

“Push it, so I don’t have to hear grumbles about lessons for years to come,” prompted Sarah. “Think of it as freeing up time.”

Amdirlain ground teeth momentarily. “And if it doesn’t trigger any merger?”

“Then it’s ready to merge with another Skill later. You just don’t want to spend the points because you deliberately fucked around with it before,” argued Sarah, mirth sparkling in her gaze.

“This isn’t about that at all,” protested Amdirlain. “Have you figured out something?”

“Maybe, come on, do it, please!” pleaded Sarah, clasping her hands together as she beamed at Amdirlain.

“Why?” asked Amdirlain suspiciously.

“I want to see your face if I’m right, and I’m not always around for your lessons,” admitted Sarah, grinning with unrepentant glee.

“Why do I feel I’m going to regret this?” muttered Amdirlain, giving Sarah an exasperated glare as she reluctantly spent the points.

[Diplomacy [Ad] (45) -> Diplomacy [M](1)

Previously incarnated as Succubus!

Succubus Class detected!

Assassin Class detected!

Diplomacy [M] (1) evolved into Femme Fatale [M](1).

Erotic Dance [M] (10) merged into Femme Fatale [M] (1->4).

Acting [M] (40) merged into Femme Fatale [M] (4->32).

Haggling [M] (1) merged into Femme Fatale.

Intimidate [M] (4) merged into Femme Fatale.

Sense Motive [M] (15) merged into Femme Fatale [M] (32->34).

Danger Sense [S] (17) merged into Femme Fatale [M] (34) -> [S] (10).]

“Fuck! Femme Fatale?”

Sarah howled with laughter.

“What made you think this was going to happen?” asked Amdirlain once Sarah’s laughter eased.

“Assassin, a double dose of Succubus, having used sexual stimulation to get your way with the hags, and luring the demons in with Erotic Dance multiple times, to name a few,” Sarah rattled off. “I didn’t think about it until your planned innuendo-ish situation with the slimes.”

“Great, I’ll have to leave it off until I get it under control.”

“It’s an active-passive Skill, sweetie,” sighed Sarah, the realisation stealing her humour. “The aspects you’re most concerned about will always be active along with Sense Motive, Danger Sense, and yeah, your Dance Skill.”

[Femme Fatale

Details: Often developed by those whose beauty and charismatic allure help get their way with others. Possessors always present themselves enticingly to their audience. It provides them with an intuitive awareness of social and emotional cues and environmental shifts that represent a danger to themselves or their goals.

This composite Skill also includes automatic recognition of the best approaches to seducing or manipulating individuals. Even the most intractable individual—without the required counter skills—is likely to open up to individuals with high levels of this Skill.]

“Fuck!”

“Try to break that habit. Unless you want to spend a lot of time and energy explaining to strangers that it isn’t an offer,” cautioned Sarah.

“I better keep a tight lid on things then,” groaned Amdirlain.

Sarah gave a tight smile. “More lessons with Ilya. What did it end up at?”

“Senior Master 10.”

“Okay, well, yeah, that merits a string of profanities, not just fuck. From what Analysis says about it, there is an upside,” offered Sarah.

Her mouth twisted, and Amdirlain had to restrain her response. “What’s that?”

“Your objectives are usually to help others achieve their goals, so I see you learning a lot about what people truly want and not just what they’re normally comfortable sharing.”

Amdirlain pulled a displeased face. “Intrusive busybody, great.”

“Pretend you're the old-fashioned bartender lending a sympathetic ear,” counselled Sarah.

“Instead of the con artist picking up a mark,” groaned Amdirlain, scrubbing at her face. Cataloguing all the stunts she pulled, Amdirlain came up with more that might have influenced the combined Skill’s evolution.