Broken Lands

Body: 5

Wisp Dedication - Sophia

Unaffiliated Abilities:

50 Wisps

Available Wisps: 10

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Feather Image)

Dedication Requires Available Slot

Core: 7

Ability Slots:

50 Wisps

Unaffiliated: 20 Wisps

Species Abilities:

Species: 10 Wisps

(None)

Spheres

Spellblade: 25 Wisps

Dedication Requires Available Slot

Spellblade (Hallow)

Level:1

Spellblade Abilities:

10 Wisps

(Empty, 1, 1)

Variable

Collector (Linked)

Level: 1

No Dedication Possible

The “Wisp Dedication” screen was on the same lightning background as the Status screen, rather than the feather background of the Guide’s messages. That probably meant something behind the scenes, but Sophia doubted there was any reason to worry about it now. If she ever became involved with the way the Guide worked, it might matter; right now, it didn’t.

“Is the Guide the same thing as all of the screens?” Sophia wasn’t sure why that was the first question she asked, instead of asking about the weird prices for “dedications,” but it was.

“We don’t think so,” the Wanderer answered easily, “but unless we can separate the Guide from his control of the screens and the power they represent, it doesn’t matter. Most people don’t separate them and simply use the name the Guide for both.”

That was an interesting way to answer the question.

“So the System and the Guide aren’t the same thing?” Dav chuckled at that. “Don’t tell me you’re setting me up to do something about the Guide.”

Sophia blinked at Dav. What?

The Wanderer answered slowly and carefully. “You are nowhere near strong enough to think about that. Even if you were, I cannot push you in such a direction.”

Sophia listened to what the Wanderer didn’t say as well as what he did. He didn’t say that it was impossible or unwanted, simply that they weren’t ready and that he was unable to push them. He’d talked about being unwilling to conceal things earlier; was this tension something else he did not want to conceal but also couldn’t actively promote? “Are you saying you’re limited?”

“We’re all limited,” the Wanderer agreed. “I told you I was once human, did I not? In any case, we no longer have time to waste. Are there any more questions before I have to leave?”

Sophia glanced at the Wisp Dedication screen, then asked the question she should have asked in the first place. “Price for dedications, how do they work?”

The Wanderer nodded, then spoke quickly. “At low levels, they’re consistent - they start at a set amount, usually ten, twenty, or fifty, though abilities vary more, then increase in price based on how many of them you have and your level. It gets increasingly complex as you level and at some point becomes inconsistent with other people, though we suspect that’s a factor we don’t understand rather than a breakdown in the prices. Unlocking a Sphere requires the necessary achievements. For your first Hallow, that’s your Patron’s permission plus anything the Sphere itself requires. You also have to have enough Wisps to unlock its basic slots but you aren’t required to have the Wisps to get the Abilities. Future Spheres aren’t relevant for a while, because you can’t get a second Sphere unless this one is disabled or you’re at least level five.”

Sophia blinked. There was a lot there, even if he didn’t go into details about what the numbers were exactly. The thought of having the exact numbers made her frown. “I get why you wanted us to see everything and go through it while you explained, but why didn’t you also give up the details somewhere we can look them up?”

“It’s not allowed. General guidelines are allowed but specifics vanish when they’re written down with the idea of sharing them; sometimes they’ll disappear even when you’re tracking them for your own use. We think it’s a choice by the Guide, but we don’t know for certain.” The Wanderer paused almost long enough for Sophia to interject and ask who “we” was, but he spoke again just as she got the first word out. “And that’s all the time we have; I’ll talk to you the next time I can, but probably not in front of anyone who I’m not the Patron for. On that note, you should probably not mention that I gave you Hallows; it would be better if everyone thinks you have Vocations instead. You may share the names, if you like; neither of you chose a Hallow that couldn’t also be a Vocation.”

With that, the ball of light that was the Wanderer dimmed quickly; the fogginess in the area vanished a moment after the light did.

“You ready to get moving?” Dav stood up and looked around, then turned back to the bugs. “Once we get this all in your bag, that is.”

“It won’t all fit,” Sophia stated, then dropped her backpack onto the fortunately dry ground. “I wish I knew if the dragonfly’s wings would be valuable or not. The brass is probably more valuable on modern Earth, but there are planets where colored glass like that comes from dungeons.”

“It’s not magic glass, then? Just mundane, everyday glass? Why would that be in a monster’s wings?” Dav sounded confused and Sophia couldn’t blame him.

“I don’t know either.” Sophia paused, then looked at her bag for a moment. “There’s no more space in the bag, but we’re not at the weight limit and there’s a good bit of air in the bugs. Do you think you can flatten them a bit so we can take them that way?”

“I can try.” Dav didn’t sound happy. “I think I’ll start with stripping the box’s fittings. They’re flatter than any of the bug bits except maybe the gears. You don’t have tools for it, do you?”

Sophia shook her head. “No, I don’t usually reclaim things that need disassembly. There aren’t that many mech dungeons around … that’s odd, when I think about it. You’d think they’d be more common. It’s probably because of how many dungeons are based on history and stories. Let me finish picking my new ability and I’ll help.”

“Do you need help?” Dav sounded cautious. “I’d be happy to go through them with you if you want.”

Sophia shook her head. “Nah, it’s my Path … er, my Hallow. I can handle it. Is there anything we need to cover? I’m not sure what you picked up.”

“Hm? Oh, sure.” Dav focused for a moment, then made a flicking motion at Sophia. She was about to ask what he was doing when she realized that another Status had appeared in her vision right next to the Wisp Dedication page.

Dav

Summons:

Unaffiliated Abilities:

Chaos-Warped Human

(Bastion of Health, 1, 1)

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Eye Image)

Body: 8

Species Abilities:

Core: 2

(Empty, 1, 1)

Shield: 10

Eldritch Summoner Abilities:

(Eldritch Reinforcement, 1, 1)

Wisps: 0

Spheres

Eldritch Summoner (Hallow)

Level:1

The eye on Dav’s Status was slightly creepy; it almost seemed like it was watching her. She could understand why he didn’t like the theme.

“You’re stronger then I am but have less mana. At least, if Core means how much mana you have.” Sophia thought that was strange. She didn’t feel noticeably weaker than she had before, but she ought to be stronger than a Tier One like Dav. She hoped the Guide was simply missing or ignoring her increased Tier. If it had taken that into account, either Dav was a lot higher Tier than she thought he was or he’d been changed physically by the Origin.

On second thought, it was almost certainly the second option. There had to be a reason the Guide called him a Chaos-Warped Human when he called her a Warped Human. The Guide must recognize something about Dav that he had completely missed in her.

“Makes sense.” Dav stuck his head into the opening in the former bottom of the monster-maker. “We all have to have strengths and weaknesses, there’s nothing to tell people apart if they’re all the same. I figure my Core is probably because it just got kickstarted.”

“I’m sure Hallows matter,” Sophia countered. She wouldn’t mind if she didn’t have to worry about Body and Core. The fact that she apparently needed to specifically buy increases to them with the same “wisps” that were going to be needed to gain abilities and levels wasn’t great.

She focused on Dav’s abilities. The Guide was willing to tell her a little more, but not much. “If I’m reading this right, the Bastion of Health is something you can summon that will provide a health aura, maybe it speeds up healing?”

“That’s why I got it,” Dav agreed. “You said you aren’t a healer, I figured it’d be a decent out of combat healer and something we need right now. I can replace it later if it doesn’t scale. Eldritch reinforcement isn’t quite as clear, it just says it reinforces my body with eldritch power. I assume that means it makes me sturdier; I’m hoping it makes me stronger as well since this system seems to tie those things together.”

Sophia glanced at the description and noticed that Dav left out the warning noted on the Ability that the overuse of eldritch power “could have consequences.” Since he’d clearly bought the slot for a Species Ability even after the Wanderer’s warning, he must be comfortable with that gamble. She’d have to keep an eye on him, but that wasn’t really anything different from what she’d done before.

“So we need something that will work at a distance or something magic,” Sophia muttered. “Something that can hit multiple enemies would be even better, but I don’t think I’ll manage that without magic or a new weapon.” She didn’t wonder out loud if he could have just said that; she wasn’t sure her standards for what they needed and his were the same. Sharing his Status was probably the best option.

“Yeah,” Dav agreed. He sounded slightly grumpy but not actually upset. “I wanted to pick up a spell, but that’s apparently not an option for a Summoner, at least not at level one. I could have gotten a summons that could shoot darts, but I figured healing would be more useful.”

“Good choice,” Sophia approved as she started through her options. “I don’t see a heal in here anywhere.”

What she saw, mostly, was abilities she was never going to pick. Everything was in groups, which made it harder to figure out initially but made it easier to skip from category to category after she realized what each one was. The one that made her sword harder to control but increased its force didn’t seem worthwhile. The group that let her imbue magic into the blade to deal additional elemental damage looked good, but not like what they needed right now.

The one that would let her combine a Spell with a Martial Ability “in a basic manner” was probably important, but it was also useless for now. Similarly, there were a number of Spellblade Abilities that looked like they interacted with Cliff’s Collection to do things like increase damage against Collected monster types or offer protection against Collected attacks. They would almost certainly be impressive eventually, but right now they were useless.

There was an entire section set aside for “Bonding Abilities” that Sophia ignored. She wasn’t certain if that was to call a familiar, accept service with someone in exchange for power, or give her the ability to force a bond on someone else but she couldn’t think of anything she wanted out of a category with that name.

It took a lot of searching, but Sophia eventually found three viable options: Floating Blade, Phantom Blade, and Imbue Blade. Floating Blade was the easiest to understand, since all it did was let her move her knife at a distance. It warned she wouldn’t get the benefit of her Body when she used it, which made sense; it wasn’t like her body was with it if she was moving the knife with magic.

Phantom Blade would let her make her blade “phantasmic” to “more easily harm insubstantial creatures while partially bypassing armor.” That sounded great, but it was only going to work on things directly in front of her and wouldn’t have worked on the insects, since they were probably made of something it would consider “armor;” using it would likely have meant less damage and not just because the ability mentioned that its phantasmic properties limited what the weapon could do to flesh. She wasn’t that worried about the damage penalty; if it wasn’t better than not using it, she could always turn the ability off. As useful as it sounded, it was just a little too specialized when she didn’t know what she’d be fighting in the immediate future.

Imbue Blade would let her cover the knife in a shell made of mana. She was about to skip past it when she noticed that it would also let her “throw” the “sharp mana blade” without actually throwing her knife. That made it a direct competitor with Floating Blade; it would probably cost more mana but it had a secondary use when she was close to the enemy as well.

That settled it. Imbue Blade was the clear winner.

Sophia

Spells:

Unaffiliated Abilities:

Warped Human

(Empty, 1, 1)

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Feather Image)

Body: 5

Martial Abilities:

Species Abilities:

Core: 7

(Empty, 1, 1)

(None)

Shield: 10

Spellblade Abilities:

(Imbue Blade, 1, 1)

Wisps: 0

Spheres

Spellblade (Hallow)

Level:1

Collector (Linked)

Level: 1