World Boss: Break the Narrative

Spine jerked awake and blinked at me. Eventually he managed to get up. He must have picked up on something serious in my tone, or maybe the stress of the upcoming duel was weighing down on him. He walked closer with leaden steps and then after a moment’s hesitation climbed into a chair near me.

“I have a moral quandary,” I started. Then I realized I didn’t have a good way of vocalizing it.

Spine kept quiet and waited for me to speak.

I sighed, “I am going to do everything in my power to make sure you can win this duel.” to stall for more time to think I slid the daggers toward him. “Please show me your crossbow and the… bolts.”

Spine placed his crossbow on the table with the quiver of bolts.

Analyze Check… Successful!

Goblin Crossbow

This Common Scale crossbow fires a bolt as if it had a [Power] attribute of 8.

Requires [Power] attribute of 2 to use

Goblin Bolt

This Common Scale bolt inflicts [Power] plus 1 damage per hit.

Having Analyzed the weapon and its ammo I now understood how it worked. I mean it was a crossbow, not a rocketship, but I knew jackshit before.

Using the heavy bones and thickest tendons of a Megaleo I was able to craft a better crossbow for Spine. I used the fangs and ribs of a White Shadow to craft a dozen bolts.

Craft Check… Successful

You have Crafted Nail Driver

Craft Check Successful

You have Crafted Silent Bite x 12

Nail Driver

This Heroic Scale Crossbow fires a bolt as if it had a [Power] attribute of 40.

Require [Power} attribute of 10 to use. Bolts fired from this weapon ignore ten points of defense. Any target that had the Defense lowered to half of the total damage or less will be pierced through. This could allow the bolt to possibly hit more than one target.

Silent Bite

This Heroic Scale bolt inflicts [Power] + 5 damage. Gain one level of scale against targets that are unaware of attacks from these bolts. These bolts make no noise when flying through the air. Any attempt to sense them by sound automatically fails.

Again I thought about Howard. I didn’t actually want him dead, but could I weigh his life against thousands?

I slid the crossbow and bolts to him, “Here is the deal, Spine. I am going to give you these weapons. I trust you to use them responsibly. The last thing I can do is teach you something. Trouble is I am not sure it can be used responsibly.”

Spine gazed at the weapons, his eyes drifted to me, “What are we talking about?”

I cut to the chase, “The final stage of the Path of the Snow Lion is Mauling Claws. It causes the victim of a magical Attack to suffer the Extreme Agony Condition.”

“Dear god,” Seth muttered. He paled, no doubt considering possibilities I hadn’t yet thought enough to be horrified by.

Spine looked between us, “I don’t know. It sounds bad.”

I looked to Angelica. She nodded, and I turned back to Spine, “That Condition brought Angelica down. I felt it too. Even with Mental Resistance the overwhelming pain of the condition… It sticks with me. I am afraid of having to deal with it again. The creature that can do it, a Cat Sith, they scare me. I don’t think it is right to use this ability on someone. Like, ever.”

Spine nodded. “But you are still thinking about giving it to me?”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“That’s kinda fucked,” Spine said.

“Yep,” I admitted

Spine paused for a beat then said, “Okay, hear me out. Before you teach me, you use it on me once. That way I will know what it is like.”

Everyone else in the room said some variation of ‘No’ at the same time. Glad we are united on that.

Spine, seeing the room was against him there, changed tracks, “Then what should we do?”

“Kill Madigan,” Brunhilda spoke up as she kept laying on the floor, eyes closed.

“No,” I said, there was finality in my voice that surprised me. “That is the last resort.”

“I think you will just have to teach him, and then after the duel, make him swear to never use it again,” Seth supplied.

“That could work,” Spine said.

“Don’t do that. Having an option that you ‘swear’ not to use is just handing the universe a stick to beat you with. I wouldn’t teach him this at all,” Angelica cut in.

“Spectacle creep?” I asked.

She nodded, “Best just to let the dice roll. I think we are missing something. We need to think more.”

My mind drifted to the note Wilson had shown Celeste. Angelica probably knew what it said too. The code was fairly clear. Angelica was against this because of something Wilson had shown her. This was troubling. I trusted Angelica, but I distrusted Wilson. Wilson was as far as I could tell a master manipulator. He seemed to adjust the situation and trust people to be themselves. Wilson even said he trusted me to be me earlier.

My instinct was to trust Angelica. She and Celeste had looked out for me multiple times. But Wilson would know that. Was he smart enough to predict their response, and then plan for me to act according to their advice? Yes.

Everything I had seen so far was Wilson getting his way. I needed to do something different.

“Denise, could you come down here?” I said.

“What’s up?” Denise asked, appearing behind me. Time stopped with that telltale stillness once again.

“I wanted to talk to Celeste without the audience seeing,” I explained.

“Damn,” Denise sighed.

Ticket Entered: Possible Exploit…

Review complete.

No Exploit detected…

To maintain Narrative integrity Intern access will be blocked for the next 24 hours.

No further action will be taken.

Time Stop will end in:

5…

4…

3…

2…

Denise was gone and time resumed. Well, shit. That was unfortunate. In the future I needed to be more circumspect.

Angelica raised an eyebrow.

I took a deep breath, “I don’t trust dice.”

The room was quiet for a moment.

Spine broke the silence, “Cool, what does that mean?”

“That I am going to teach you dark magic,” I said before standing.

Angelica shook her head.

“Are you sure that is wise?” Seth asked, stepping back.

“Nope,” I looked to Spine, “You ready”

Spine considered for the briefest of moments, “Let’s do this.

I put my hand on his head.

Time stopped.

Ticket Entered: Possible Exploit…

Review Complete.

No Exploit Detected

I hesitated.

[Flag] Delete Message

All Processes Stopped

Retcon begins in:

5…

4…

What the hell is this? I was just about to voice some curse in frustration when something moved in the impossible stillness of the time stop.

The Eyes of the Titan are upon you

I froze on reflex. I was afraid. I was afraid of the Titan. What was he going to make me do now?

[Flag] Delete Message

Retcon Aborted.

Time Stop ends in:

5…

4…

3…

2…

The world started again. I admit I panicked slightly. Between worry about Narrator fuckery and the Titan making me feel like a small battered child again, I needed to do something.

Mentor Check… Successful

I selected Dark Magic as the skill to teach Spine

Ticket Entered: Possible Exploit…

Review Complete.

No Exploit Detected

What the hell was going on in Narrator land? …fuck ‘em.

Warning!

This action will have consequences

Continue: Yes/No?

Everyone was watching me. Spine was impossibly still. Somehow I knew he wouldn’t move until I made a decision.

I hit ‘Yes’.

The Titan has Stayed Its wrath.

No Smite will occur.

Spine Spindle-Bite will survive

Spine’s eyes went round as hub caps. He began to sweat bullets. He opened his mouth but instead of words a beam of golden light exploded forth. Spine slowly lifted up off the ground, his eyes burning with golden light.

Suddenly the light cut off like a flipped switch.

Spine fell to the ground.

I caught the scruff of his jacket so he didn’t faceplant.

“Ulp!” Spine managed before projectile vomiting an impossible amount of black brackish liquid. Seriously, Spine was probably just under four feet tall and maybe weighed sixty pounds. He kept erupting for a solid minute. It was gallons. That didn’t seem healthy.

When it stopped I asked, “You okay?”

Spine heaved a few deep breaths and spit a mouth full of… stuff, “I just achieved Apotheosis. That shit stings.”

Everyone was very quiet for a second. Then everyone started yelling all at once. That kept going for a long while.

Eventually Angelica put two fingers in her mouth and did that piercing whistle thing some people can do.

“Thank you,” I managed over the ringing in my ears, “What does this mean?

“I am level 1 again,” Spine said.

“How?” I asked.

Spine shuffled his feet, “Okay, so when you unlocked Dark Magic for me. Shit got weird. Check this out.” He sent us a prompt.

New Achievement!

Someone Up There Must Like You

Spoiler alert: it is the Titan of Darkness. You are the third non-Titanic Scale being to be granted access to Dark Magic. That is a hell of an achievement. 99.997% of people who tried to get access to Dark Magic ended up Smote. By the Titan.

You really do not want that to happen.

Also

Warning!

Do NOT try and teach this to anyone else. It won’t go well for you.

Reward:

Besides access to Dark Magic…

25,000,000 XP

Forced Apotheosis at level 50

Note: XP in excess of Apotheosis will be lost.

That was concerning.

Analyze check… Successful

Analyze Skill is now at Trained Level

Name:

Spine Spindle-Bite

Race:

Goblin (Dark Touched)

Class:

Dark Huntsman

Level:

1

HP:

5

MP

2 (7)

Defense

62

Power:

2 (7)

Mobility:

2 (7)

Body:

2 (14)

Mind:

2 (7)

Face:

2 (7)

Magic:

2 (7)

Traits:

Improved Goblin Mode

Goblins can access a group collective. If a goblin knew it before, it is possible for the current user of this trait to know now. Accessing this knowledge requires a [Mind] attribute role. Use of this trait has consequences. Never go full Goblin.

This version works better… as far as you know.

[Titanic Regeneration] Reduced to Heroic Scale

Titan Spawn are often beyond mortal concerns. With this perk, your power allows your physical body to heal [Body-2] hit points per second. This will allow you to regenerate missing body parts and overcome damage based conditions.

Note: This Trait is from a Pact. it is reduced to Heroic Scale. Health Regeneration is reduced to [Body-2] HP per minute.

Perks

Shadow Assassin

Servants of the Titan Spawn can be both Cunning and Brutal in their work. This perk will unlock the skill needed to be the thing people fear in the night. Unlocks the following Skills: Blend In, Move Silently, Ambush, Detect Weakness, Terrify, and Manipulate Shadow.

Near Perfect Foundation From a Great Master

You have pledged yourself to a Master greater than you. You have rendered yourself a vessel for their teachings This perk allows user to learn Martial Arts faster provided their Master knows the martial art, the pupil is treated as three levels of scale higher with regards to meeting requirements. Also their Master is treated as Two levels of Scale Higher when using the Mentor or any other educational Skills on the pupil.

Note: this perk requires a bond beyond basic Master-Pupil.

Please Select third Perk

Please Select fourth Perk

Please Select Fifth Perk

Disposition: Spine has had a day… which is concerning cause it is just starting.

It took an actual Willpower roll to not start cussing.

I had been worried about Spine when he had 41 HP now he was down to 5.

Spine was the one that looked scared. Yeah he was up a level of scale, but he was weaker. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” He was repeating that on a loop.

“Spine, look at me,” I kneeled to get closer to his level. When Spine met my gaze I continued, “This is like everything else. Let’s approach it one step at a time. First define the problem.”

“I am weak.” Spine started.

“That is not the problem,” I cut in. “Think more basic. Something you can directly act on.”

Spine almost snapped at me but he paused for a moment, “I have a duel to fight.”

I nodded, “And you want to be as powerful as possible for it?”

Spine Nodded. He was clearly still jittery and close to panic but his focus was still locked on me.

“Let’s start with the easy things first. You have weapons, and armor.” I explained.

“I am not strong enough to use the crossbow anymore,” Spine said, stress cracking his voice.

“So you need more Power. Do you have any available perks that will improve your Power attribute?” I asked, forcing my voice to be calm and confident. Me panicking would mess this up.

Spine’s eyes glazed as he checked, “yeah… Heroic Physique is an option.”

“What is the other choice?” I asked quickly but still forcing my tone calm.

Spine frowned, “Uncommon Strength. It would give me +3 to Power. Heroic Strength is better in every way.”

“Hold up!” Angelica said. “That Perk has a hidden effect. You will get taller and your body is going to end up muscular.”

“How much?” I asked.

Angelica blinked at me, “Doug, I am Latina and because of that perk I’m six-foot-five,” seeing I wasn’t fully appreciating the statement, she went on. “Alot. I am like a foot and a half taller than the average, something like five-foot-two. It is how I ended up built like a monster truck.”

Quick number crunching, assuming proportional dimensional chanaged. And Angelica would have been ‘average’ sized. That meant that she was about 1.242 times taller than average. Cubing it worked to 1.92 times more volume than the stated average.

“You would almost double in size,” I told Spine.

“I am gonna be eight feet tall?” Spine asked, concerned.

“Just under five feet tall,” I corrected. When he gave me side-eye I said, “Trust me.”

“I am taking it,” He said. In the space of about four seconds he was almost a foot taller. Spine was still kinda lanky but he clearly had packed on some muscle.

“Do you need help with the other perks?” I asked.

“No, the choices are obvious,” Spine said, his eyes glazing over.

Good he was at least feeling in control. In the end he took a perk that improved his Mobility and another that improved his Magic.

“Good, Now that weapons and Perks are settled, what about your Martial Art?” I asked. I wanted to pile a quick win on this fiasco.

“Yep,” Spine grinned, “I am a master.”

I nodded, “And Dark Magic?”

“I only have one spell currently, but it is a good one,” Spine said, before sending the prompt to me.

Dark Strike

MP: 4

Duration: 1 Minute

Range: Self

Empower your next melee attack with the power of darkness. Add [Magic] to the damage of next successful melee attack

Mixing that with an Ambush would definitely do damage.

“Good,” I said, as Brand walked in.

Brand shook snow from his head and coat, “Good News. Janie and I were able to almost complete a Codex of Goblin and English Language.” he held up a book, “With some help from Mr. Spindle-Bite… What is going on?”

“Spine had an Apotheosis,” I offered, like it was a fun turn of events rather than a massive pooch screw.

“Oh,” Brand said, choosing to respond with my lack of concern also, “Would he have the time to help finish the translation? Perhaps two hours? The achievement would likely be significant.”

“How significant?” I asked.

“Hard to say, probably around 15,000,” Brand said, “His portion at least.”

I turned to Spine, “Hit the books.”

“Shouldn’t I… I don’t know, sit on your shoulder as you go murder Snow lions?” Spine asked.

“No,” Seth offered, “You are more powerful that any level 1 Uncommon Scale player alive, but you are still fragile. Violence isn’t always the best path forward.”

“Listen to him, Spine. He has the right idea…” I realized what needed to be done as soon as the prompts hit.

Mentor Check… Successful

Spine Has access to Linguistic Skill

Leadership Check… Successful

Pupil will have a bonus equal to difference in scale (7) for Linguistics checks for this day.

Skill Successful without roll. Checking for breakthrough…

Mentor Breaks through to the Trained Level!

Leadership Breaks through to the Trained Level!

Cosmic Martial Art has advanced

The final stage of the martial art is Source of All Rivers

The Glacier is not just a force of change and destruction. Its true power is not its resilience, but its ability to sustain life. Water flows from the Glacier and power flows from you. This ability allows you to transfer any or all aspects of this Cosmic Martial Art to any valid combination of beings. This ability requires a WIllpower roll to maintain.

New Achievement!

A True Master

You have mastered a cosmic martial art. Not just that but you managed this achievement fast. Only Three beings have learned Cosmic Martial Art Faster than you. They are -in order- Cole, Aella, and Zach, all students of the All-Death. This is one of those actually impressive achievements. Shame the Martial art isn’t more carnage-based like the Ever Burning Flame, or visually impressive like the Untouchable Wind, or devastating like Wrathful Storm. You should look into that. Otherwise you will end up with something like The Mountain Has No Peak, or Peaceful Eternal Sleep as your next style.

Reward:

Experience withheld.

Again with the experience hold. Somehow I was learning martial arts by doing things other than kicking people in the dick. Strange but a tomorrow problem.

I turned to ask Seth what that meant only to get a face full of black vomit.

It actually took Brand and Spine, and eventually Janie about three and half hours to finish the codex they got the achievement and Spine was bumped up to level 5. Trouble was Spine got completely hosed on the level ups. Four levels got him only 9 more HP, for a total of 14. It did get him eight more attribute points. Between them and the attributes from the perks, Spine was significantly stronger. 40 total attribute points versus his previous 25 total excluding the buff he got from our pact.

I would have taken him into the storm to beat the hell out of the inevitable swarms of Snow Lions, but there weren’t any. After telling the increasing crowd outside Seth’s place to ask Madigan about the wall, I basically just wandered around in the snow.

Denise was still blocked. To hell with it.

“Wilson, can we talk?” I asked.

“What trouble are you causing now, Kid?” Wilson asked. The storm froze. I looked through the now still flakes and snow a good mile of mobless space in every direction. Shit.

“What is up with the intern ban?” I asked.

“You are breaking the rules, no spoilers allowed. Since you didn’t spoil anything, nor was any part of the ongoing plot disrupted, it was decided to put Denise in time out so you could think about what you have done, and limit possible risk.” Wilson explained.

Somehow my bad behavior resulted in Denise getting punished, that sounds like the intern experience.

“So you wouldn’t have come down here if Angelica and Celeste were around?”

“Only if it was funny,” WIlson quipped, “Seriously what do you want?”

“Two things, Where are the mobs, and why is my XP being withheld?” I cut to the chase.

“Oh the Mobs are being redirected.” Wilson said. Seeing the look on my face he grinned condescending, “This isn’t about you. There are quite a few other players wandering around out here. A horde of goblins for example.”

“Oh shit,” I muttered.

“Relax, You will never find them anyways. Stay here and tend to the duel.” WIlson said. He sounded serious, which was Concerning. “Your XP is being withheld because certain high end players have effectively lobbied to slow your roll until you do certain things.”

“Like?” I asked.

“The Angel!” WIlson said, slapping his forehead while looking at me like I was stupid.

“What else,” I pressed.

“Another wants you to stay relatively humble until after the mob rush. Apparently there is a concern you could disrupt the natural order. Another wants you held back until the duel is resolved because of balance reasons.” Wilson shrugged.

“And you are just letting them do that?” I asked.

“It is about give and take, Kid. I let them exhaust themselves on piddly shit so I can get what I want. Why do you think I am only manipulating your Notice or Perception rolls for detecting Snow Lions? They want you nerfed by having you fail a certain percentage of rolls. I picked my moment.” he vanished before I could respond.

I braced for a snow lion. But no attack came.

God Dammit.

I had to wade through the crowd to get back into Seth’s place. Word about the impending Mob Rush had spread, and folks weren’t taking it well. Most were just scared. Maybe it was me being both tremendous, and powerful, but rather than yell at me they were demanding I help them. Some wanted me to promise to protect the Greenhouses, others wanted me to protect the School which would house the children, others wanted me to finish the wall, and a few wanted to fight alongside me when things got nuts.

It cost me something to hold back, “Talk with Madigan, He is going to determine whether I help or not.” I yelled to the crowd before closing the door. “No luck with the mobs. The wilds are empty now.”

Spine shrugged. He tried to be nonchalant but he had the too quick jerky movement of a kid with nervous energy, “Oh well, I will just have to win the duel fair and square.”

Oh shit. Spine didn’t realize you never get into a fair fight. That is a losing strategy.

“Yeah, about that,” I sat down, “I have a plan to… rig the system.”

“Oh,” Spine asked. He sounded hopeful.

“I can’t tell you what it is,” I said expecting an argument.

“What the fuck?” Spine demanded.

“You need to go into this expecting to fight. Don’t rely on what I am going to try,” I advised.

“Doug, It is my life on the line! My family at stake! Don’t treat me like a kid! What is the plan?” Spine stomped toward me and was glaring up at me. He seemed to realize this wasn’t intimidating and took a few steps back to glare at me without straining his neck.

“I understand your concern, but secrecy is needed. Also I need you to train like you are going to fight.” I explained.

“Tell me what the plan is!” Spine all but shrieked.

“No, you have to trust me,” I implored.

Spine wasn’t impressed “Fuck you, Doug! You are back to yanking me around! You don’t get what it is like to be small to be weaker than others. Do you have any idea what it is like? To need to rely on others? What it costs you?” He glared at me waiting for an answer.

I sighed, “That is a bit of a philosophical question. I have the memories of the Titan. I know the World that Was. All of my earliest memories were people larger and stronger than me brutalizing me. They did it out of neglect and malice. Even now I… I still bear some of those scars. As far as depending on people, I know. If not for the intervention of two kind people I - the Titan- would have died freezing in an alley or worse. It only costs, owing your existence to someone, when they hold it over you. That isn’t what I am trying to do. Surprise is the weapon here. I would do the same with Brand. I know I am asking a lot, but please trust me.”

Spine looked at Brand.

The spy nodded, “I had to do the same for him.” He opened and closed a hand.

Spine was quiet for a long time, “Okay.”

“Thank you. Now stab me,” I instructed.

“What?” Spine asked.

“I want you to get used to using the knives, the crossbow, and dark magic.” I said as I updated the pact to allow harm during training.

Two more hours of training and well… things were as good as they were going to get. Spine could strike to kill. He was pretty fast with the knives. The bolts from the crossbow packed a surprising amount of force. Spine didn’t have any trouble picking up the use of Dark Magic. It took more than a little coxing to get him to actually try and use it. We got him there eventually. The Extreme Agony Condition lived up to its name. I knew it would. I would like to say I handled it in a stoic and macho way, so I won’t admit to shouting profanity for a good three minutes, before I finally realized I had Titanic Toughness. Upon Ignoring the condition it just sat there… waiting. I was going to have to deal with it at some point. Not now though. Suck it, future me.

I stopped Ignoring the Frozen condition, and my body immediately dropped to sub-zero temperature, and began to form layers of frost.

The last direct force multiplier to mess with, was testing Source of All Rivers. I passed Crushing Defense over to Spine. He was able to use it and Path of the Snow Lion at the same time. Each time he successfully blocked and counter-attacked the prompt popped up.

Willpower check… Successful

Source of All Rivers maintained

I transferred everything to Spine. This worked about the same but required a separate willpower roll for each stage transferred.

Again it took some monkeying around but he was eventually able to grow an Ablative Shell. Apparently my advice of: think ice armor, while accurate was not immediately clear. This didn’t immediately freeze him or harm him. The armor had a Structure equal to Spine’s Face attribute, but it did include the boost from the pact for a total of 9 per layer. It had no deflection because Spine didn’t have the perks. That said with three full stacks of Ablative Shell Spine would have …41 effective hit points.

Fuck me.