Chapter 66 – Obvious Solutions

AG. Feeling pretty good this morning. I expect to get the next chapter out as scheduled on Thursday.

“It was rank-two.” Tom said. “Fine. It was only rank-two. I accept that. But - so what? You can’t deny that the explosion trick worked, and it was the first time I’ve ever attempted something like that. It being effective is significant. I can ramp that up. I can make it stronger, and that will solve the problem. There’s no need for big changes.”

“No,” April interrupted. “Even if you practice that strategy and create a new spell to implement it, I don’t think it will be enough. This time, if it was ten percent heavier or quicker, you wouldn’t have been able to pin it. If you make a new spell, even a tier higher, that’s only going to help you against similar enemies. If you come up against one that’s significantly larger or faster, your pseudo-force spell won’t do a thing. You definitely won’t be able to amp it up enough to freeze a peak rank-four.”

“Will it really not work? Not even if I optimise it?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, the gap’s too wide.”

“But that trait was almost exactly what we decided I needed.”

“Not exactly.” She disagreed. “Don’t get me wrong, this is a great trait for what you’re planning. It’ll activate against almost every opponent you’re going to battle for the next decade, which means it’s an amazing combat upgrade. That’s absolutely incredible. But you’ve still got a problem with faster creatures who are immune to your lightning stun. You haven’t closed that gap in your abilities.”

“But how many monsters out there could be immune? What that sideways evolution grants Spark is extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything so powerful in a low-tiered ability. The stun ignores all resistances. It doesn’t matter if a monster’s magic resistance is a hundred percent, I can still stun it.”

She winced sympathetically. “Your logic is a little faulty. For example, did your spell stun the air condensate?”

Tom shook his head and grimaced. “No, but it should have. I don’t know why it didn’t. Was the description I received for Spark wrong?”

“No, nothing like that. You just don’t have the knowledge to interpret the terms properly. The sideways evolution you got is really good. Absolutely devastating against what I’d call the biological standard blueprint, even. And that’s not a small advantage, it’s a huge one. Seventy percent of what you’ll face is biological standard, and even more on the surface. But just like it’s deadly against them, the functionality is useless against elementals, silicons, madagas and chemicos. It doesn’t help against them at all.”

“What the hell are those?”

“They didn’t exist on earth, so English doesn’t have the specialised words I need, but I’m sure you’ve fought all four body types in the tutorial. Basically, biological standard is everything that uses nerves to convey information from the thinking centre to locomotion appendages. Spark can stun all of them. But not all creatures out there have that body plan. Elementals are energy given intelligence. They don’t have nerves or muscles or anything like that. Silicones are organisms that have silicon as their elemental base instead of carbon. They are susceptible to your new spell, but only partially so. Silicones evolve on elementally heavier worlds. That means metals are more abundant, and they tend to incorporate alloys in their exoskeletons and in the inlays through their body. Your stun will struggle to impact them because of how conductive their outer layer is, and because of those internal pathways. Madages are like the chosen you’ve met, and they use magic exclusively within themselves. Electricity can have literally no impact whatsoever. Finally, Chemicos are in the same boat, but use hormones, for lack of a better word, to control themselves, which, again, means Spark has nothing to effect.”

Tom wrinkled his nose at that last description. “Wouldn’t a nervous system reliant on chemicals be really slow?” He couldn’t help but ask, even knowing it was a pointless question. But it would buy him time to understand all of what she had just said. The creature features she had listed were not completely unknown to Tom. He had never named or really thought too hard about them, but he had fought all four types of monsters in the tutorial. He should have realised about the weakness of electricity against those body plans and used fate to focus the ability on extra damage rather than stunning.

“Not with their internal physics.” April answered his throwaway question, even though she was savvy enough to have determined the purpose of him asking it. “With what you’re used to from Earth, yes, it’ll be a ridiculous biological body plan. Way too slow. But part of the coming of integration into Existentia includes normalising the creatures bodies with the new reality. Usually that’s done by keeping the physical laws within their body consistent with their home universe’s physics.”

“I don’t… So does that mean when my spear enters something, the physics it’s subjected to is different?”

She rolled her eyes. “For a single atomic length thick layer at the edge of the weapon, yes. The physics vary, but mostly it makes no difference. Wounds, on the other hand, are impacted. You must have noticed, when you fought some monster types, that they would bleed faster or slower than you expected.”

“I just assumed it was the pressure and viscosity of their blood.”

She laughed at that. “In a way, you’re right.”

“Wait, let’s not get distracted. You’re telling me my new trait doesn’t solve the main issue I’m facing?”

“Not by itself.” She handed him a clipboard. “Like I said at the start, I have a solution. You need something extra to close the gap.”

He glanced down at the skill she was recommending.

Skill: Instant Strike – Tier 1

Instantly strike an opponent passing within a thirty-degree cone of the reach of a spear thrust.

The attack will be ninety percent as strong as your base attack with a plain tier zero weapon. Modifiers from the spear you are currently using are not applied, even if the description indicates they are compatible with skills. 

After the strike, your body’s effective attributes will be instantly reduced by 80%, a reduction which will recover linearly over 2.4 seconds.

Tom swallowed while he absorbed the details of the proposal and then looked up at April with a look of disbelief. “That’s a shit ability.” He said finally.

“Yet it would have allowed you to kill the air condensate effortlessly.”

He reread the ability. Yes, her claim was, of course accurate. But the debuff it inflicted after use was crippling and that was without mentioning the reduced damage it gave and the huge limitation on when it could be used. In almost all cases, it would be infinitely better for him to attack normally. “This is unusable in most fights.”

“Well, yes. This is a niche skill. It’s trash, but like many trash abilities, it can be useful when used appropriately. This will close the gap against quick monsters, Power Strike would help against the behemoths, and the rest of your skills would allow you to defeat the rest. I think with this you’ll probably reach the level you want to.”

“But if I use this and fail, I’m dead. Two seconds with that debuff active would almost always be lethal.”

“In the cases when you’d be forced to use this, if you didn’t have it, you’d have lost already. This is not an ability to use regularly. It has a niche application to allow you to hit something that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It’s a last gasp, pull-a-trick-out-of-your ass type of manoeuvre that you seem to enjoy having. Plus, it’s a prerequisite for some of the better, higher-tier skills. Things like multi weapons or phantom stealth – and, believe me, they aren’t trash.”

Tom looked up sharply at that comment.

She smiled. “See,” she waved her hand and new writing appeared on the clipboard below the description of Instant Strike.

Skill: Phantom Stealth Strike – Tier 5

Create an instant spear thrust within three metres of you that stacks only the beneficial modifiers.

Tom read it. While it was obviously better than Instant Strike, it did not seem significantly more powerful. Not having the negative debuff was useful, but hardly worth four tiers.

April chuckled. “I can almost see the gears turning.” Then she pointed at him with a triumphal grin. “And there it is the realisation of what that description actually implies. It’s much better on reflection than at first glance, isn’t it?”

“How often could you use this?” Tom asked almost reverentially. 

“If you’re not using any other spear skills, then once or twice a second.”

“And I’m not jumping to silly conclusions when I say it really ignores all debuffs? I could be paralysed, and I can still attack with this?”

She grinned. “That’s exactly what it says. Only beneficial modifiers apply to it. No debuffs, all damage enhancement buffs, and you can use it to strike anywhere you want. Unless they’ve got an opposing ability, you’re guaranteed to land a blow on a monster’s weak spot or an existing wound. Poke out their eyes one after another.”

Tom whistled as he imagined just what that could do in a duel. “That’s seems more powerful than it should be at tier-five. At least, when compared to Instant Strike.”

“The fifty percent boost per tier is a guidance, not a hard rule. Plus, Instant Strike is trash level. This is peak, and that explains the full extent of the differences you’re seeing.”

Tom reread the simple spell description and considered some of the usages that April had suggested. “Is this something I could get before I turn fifteen?”

“With your talent, yes. You’d have to drop everything else you were focusing on, but you could do it.”

He nodded at the unspoken implication in her words. As fun as that ability was, there were clearly better areas for him to be developing along. Phantom Strike, despite its power in some fights, was flashy and niche. Against a swarm of monsters, which he was going to face often, it only provided a minor benefit. Until he established proper fundamentals, it was not something to pursue.

He glanced down at the skill she was suggesting he focused on. April had proven the accuracy of her advice more than enough, and he could see her logic. Even if he disagreed or couldn’t understand the reason, he would still do as she suggested. “Let’s do it next,” he told her.

The trial administrator nodded. “Definitely, but there’s a but.”

“Yeah, there’s always a but,” Tom complained.

“Because nothing is ever for free. If you want it ready by the time you finish Power Strike, then… you know what I’m going to say.”

Tom groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. “More crafting?”

“More crafting,” she agreed cheerily. Suddenly there were a hundred empty bands on the table, waiting for him to get to work.

“How many more do I need to do?”

“I would rather not discourage you so…”

“April,” he said warningly.

“Far more than you’ll be happy with, but I don’t think we have a choice.”

With a sigh, he went back to crafting. 

Three weeks later, he was in the trial once more, practicing striking the dummy with the fragile ceramic spear. He could feel the use of his skill with each thrust. The effect had become so pronounced that April was only allowing him forty thrusts per session as opposed to the thousand plus he had been allowed to do initially.

Even with the restriction, he was leaving the sessions mentally drained and on the edge of skill exhaustion.

It was so close.

“Invest your fate.” April ordered.

He startled slightly, but beyond that did not react. “Any hints?”

There was a long pause. “Is there a specific direction you want to develop it in?”

Tom considered that question. It was one he had given prior thought to. Any bonus he added would be most effective if it aligned with the nature of the skill. Durability was out, because Living Wood was already giving him a massive advantage in that space. Any wooden weapon was already going to be continuously reinforced and repaired. With that discounted, and the need to align with the nature of the ability taken into account, he only had two choices. Would it be best to boost the physical penetration ability or the magical shield piercing? He guessed the best choice was obvious. Carefully, he constructed the image in his head, then released his full fate pool.

The weapon felt firm in his hand.

The dummy was facing him. It was a construct that had been upgraded multiple times since his first day facing it. To be honest, it seemed that, every time the target had improved the spears he had to use against it, had deteriorated by a similar amount.  Today’s spears were the worst ones yet. They had the same initial hollow ceramic design, but it now had large holes along the shaft. 

While the first designs had broken easily when it struck the dummy, these newest ones, on Tom’s estimate, were at least ten times more fragile. Their brittleness was beyond ridiculous, and despite the care he took when picking them up, they occasionally broke.

He triggered the half-formed skill and layered its components. The reinforcement that, for the first few weeks had only been on the surface, now extended to the centre. Nothing else would stop it from breaking. Then he shaped the idea of sharpness and penetration along with a slight repulsive force to the surface beyond the cutting edge to prevent flesh from gripping onto it and slowing the momentum, and then finally an extra vibrating force to pierce magical shields. Given his experience with constructing magical shields, he had a good understanding of the theory, including the use of opposite and destructive overlapping frequencies of energy to allow a single attack to have more impact.

A dynamic shield-breaking technique was superior to one that relied only on blunt force, so he used precognition ability to mimic that effect. Practically, Tom’s skill created random vibrating frequencies to break the magic shields, but with his precognition affinity bearing down at the same time, that randomness became a directed scalpel. 

He thrust forward.

A blue sheaf of energy covered his spear, then briefly flashed red as it impacted the white magic barrier that surrounded the dummy. The barrier failed, and then the spear tip went through the hardened tier-one leather covering the mock torso as though it were a sponge, with the tip penetrating a full inch into the target.

There was a ding.

Tom carefully pulled the weapon back. Given the nature of its construction, the fact it was still intact was miraculous.

“Again.” April ordered.

The dummy was restored, this time with the shield being coloured a pearlescent pink.

He struck it again, and, once more, the blue changed colour to dark grey. The new shield split apart almost without resisting, and his spear punched deep into the dummy once more. The combat effectiveness of Power Strike, even his half-formed version, was impressive. His spear, especially this nearly-broken ceramic one, usually wouldn’t be able to pierce the higher tier material cladding the dummy, even without the shielding. But the dedicated combat skill allowed it to do so easily. It was a massive combat enhancer.

He kept the routine up. Pull back and thrust against a different coloured shield. Every time, the colours of the magic defence changed, and his spear seemed to adjust to counter, and then the barrier shattered on contact.

A headache was forming and then, while he was striking a bright orange shield with a white-hot looking weapon, there was a ding.

He sagged slightly, then stood up and prepared to keep going, but the world blurred, and he was back in the café.

Quietly, April handed him a clipboard.

Skill: Magic Breaking Power Strike - Tier 1

This advanced skill, in addition to the standard boost to sharpness and weapon durability, also allows the infusion of a single point of precognition affinity mana to enhance the ability to pierce magical shields.

Exact benefits can’t be quantified, as it depends on the construction method of the magical shields, but the magic effect is, at a minimum a 100% stronger than the base ability, and, for poorly constructed magical defences the benefit can exceed 1,000%.

Tom smiled as he read the description of the new skill.

His spears would now be able to hurt everything at the rank-four level. Once he mastered Instant Strike, he would get access to the divine trial. He could already taste his coming success.