[Be Gone] Ch 44 – Breaking the System, Five Rings at Twelve

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            Once Korbald’s people measured the skill contributions to the result, figured out the huge upswings were from crits, and just what spending ki could do, they just laid the system out in other ways to apply to the local magic. Shugenja Spells were Cast by hitting certain numbers as you understood them, and then you improved them by getting higher results.

            So, a Fireball attack could be made much larger or do more damage if your Result was high enough to do so. Legendary results could do some awesome things.

            Pointedly, most beings didn’t have ‘magical talent’ here, as we understood it. They had ‘Harmony with the Spirits’. Only the most powerful Shugenja learned how to Cast spells without directly beseeching the Spirits at the time of the Casting, as they could reach past the Spirits straight to the magic without needing an intermediary. Spellcasting for Shugenja was actually praying/demanding/begging/bargaining/calling upon the Spirits to grant your request with magic. Your Stats determined how in Harmony with the Elements you were naturally, and your skill was how easily you synched up with the Spirits and manipulated the power they gave you.

            Even small Spirits could unload a massive amount of energy for you if you were Harmonized enough. Greater Spirits could actually give you more than you requested if they felt like it, so getting a spell answered by a Great Dragon might end up with half a city destroyed if you were an idiot.

            I eyed the basic layout of the math that Korbald and his people had figured out.

            The key thing was how Stats changed from one system to the next. Elemental Affinities here were important... but it was a capped system, at least as far as the mortal races seemed to go. Some of Korbald’s people had cleared the 30-mark on Stats, and a whole lot more did so once they got a Tat-Mark and powered it up to +4, but none of the natives that they’d met had managed to do the same on their own.

            Indeed, only the most exceptional of them made it to 6 or 7 Stat-die in their system, and Korbald had only met one who’d reached a Stat of 9: the legendary iajitsu master of the House of the Heron, who had achieved it in his Air Stat for Dexterity and Awareness.

            Of course, by their measures, I blew the system out of the water.

            A 1 in the local Stat system was basically any being of average or below ability, an 11 or less in the Power of Ten Rating system. Our 12 to 15 was their 2, and then basically every two points of our Stats equaled +1 of theirs. So, a 20-21 of ours was a 5-star of theirs, which was near the edge of genetic human possibility. Only truly unique people and heroic types got above a 20, and the local lack of powerful Healing magic didn’t help things, although access to ki powers certainly did.

            By their standards, my Stats were totally inhuman. The combination of Nogging to Perfection, Classes, Masteries, Class Advances, and no upper limit meant that I had exceeded 30 in every single Stat, and was basically some form of a superhero now.

            Strength 40, Dex 41, Con 42, Intelligence 48, Wisdom 40, and Charisma 38 were far, far beyond baseline human potential, especially the mental ones nobody wanted to consider. The only creatures who had such Stats around here were powerful oni and Greater Spirits, who weren’t mortal in the slightest, and who tended to be specialists in an Element.

            Let’s see. The Five Rings system curved after a 10 Stat, so I had the equivalent of Earth 13/12, Air 12/14, Fire 12/12, and Water 12/12. My Void was nominally 12, but I had boatloads of ki in terms of quantity.

            The key point here was that I used my Intelligence as my Primary Casting Stat for all the Elements, courtesy of my existing Theurgies and Primary Class, when it was nominally supposed to be a Fire Stat. A complete five-part Ring was the balanced system of advancement, where your lowest Stat signaled your ‘level’, but like anything else, the appropriate Stat for the magic was what was important.

            So, effectively I was radiating 14 to all the Elements as far as Casting Harmony, with an edge to Earth since my Constitution was my highest physical Stat. My Void was immense, giving me a flat bonus of its Ring to my results, i.e., +12 to the random numbers being pulled in, and I could spend a lot of ki before that Ring number went down.

            In terms of Skill, it seemed to be going with my Casting experiences and preferences, which meant Earth blew everything away, Fire followed, then Air, and Water was dead last. Divination magic was generally tossed into Void, and my Void was just as high as my Earth was.

            I may not have been a Div Spec at the moment, but I could still See the Now, and was fully capable of buying back and/or exceeding my Divination skills with Star Magery. I certainly hadn’t lost my Masteries, only my School benefits... which, except for the extra Spell Slots, could actually be made up with magic items of sufficient power...

            The local Skills seemed to top at +5 Dice, with 6 being legendary/superhuman. So, I had 6 in Earth and Void Magic, and 5 in Fire, Air, and Water.

            My Earth Magic was thus rolling 20 dice, keep 14, add 12 to the result. Oh, and +6 for Elemental Command... and +5 for my Crown of Fire.

            I found myself smirking just a bit. In terms of ‘experience’, the amount of Karma I could put into the Class was that of an Eight. But my skill in manipulating Elemental magic carried over from my Power of Ten Classes, so basically what I’d been putting things into had just been ‘buying spells’ from the Spirits eager to teach them to me, and any associated Skills, Masteries, and Traits that could apply.

            Making the two fortresses hadn’t been that hard. I’d had literally dozens of Earth Spirits clustered around watching me as I Shaped all that stone, chatting with them and explaining why I was doing thus and so.

            I got the first one done mostly by myself over the course of a week. The second one took only a single day as the Spirits happily moved mountains according to the designs and plans I gave them.

            Korbald’s people are gonna be so good at this stuff...

            I sighed and looked back north as the ice seemed to tinkle and chime around me.

            It was time to really start working on stuff.

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            I went back to King Gravity’s Pit, as it was truly a place where a lot of Sin had burned, sitting right on the line of Taint coming off the main Vortex like it had been.

            It also had enough purified stone now for me to do this right, and the Earth Spirits in the area were raring to go to create something with me again!

            I didn’t know if this Shugenja ability would port over to the Power of Ten world, but it sure helped me with the amount of work I had to get done, and it saved a lot of my time!

            I would go ‘hunt’ for 4-6 hours a day, basically clearing off a large numbers of chaff and trying to locate more Boss-types for Korbald to deal with. I also lit off any profaned natural sources, cleansed away any Elemental Spirits too afflicted by Sin, and generally trailed vivus around in patterns that accelerated the withdrawal of the planar boundary, like great flaming teeth grinding into the realm of the Tainted.

            I also spent four to eight hours as normal in magic item Creation, if I had the resources to do so. If I didn’t, I just made Energized Elements, or Isotopes, which both Korbald and the House Lord of the Bear made sure I had plenty of raw materials for. Just the jade I was Energizing was starting to quickly cut down on the amount they needed for their soldiers, and the various bear-styled armbands, amulets, tokens, and the like I Shaped up were all much-sought after by the Bear and Horse members.

            Two hours of downtime, and the rest was spent making a Pyramid.

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            Xiong Ochotai, Daimyo of the House of the Bear, hissed out a breath as he stared at the great glowing Pit below.

            The Magos Aelryinth had returned several days ago, and ever since he had, more great things had been happening in the Pit below.

            Every six seconds, as regular as clockwork, a great block of stone rose from the depths below and joined a line of its kin floating there in midair, unmoving. Each block was twice the height of one of his people, weighing many tons, and they floated there as if fixed in the air.

            The first time it had happened, both of the Earth Dragon Fortresses had gone on alarm until a quiet wind blew over both, and all of the frantic korobokru within had Heard, I will be working in the Pit. There is nothing to be alarmed at.

            The first almost-crystalline cube of stone, so perfect that to stare at it too long was to make one’s nose bleed, yet carved with patterns and Runes and Seals inside and out, had floated up out of the depths, and affixed itself in mid-air.

            They had all watched as cube after cube had risen up to join it, every six seconds, the Bears staring at them, and they had suddenly comprehended how the human could assemble these fortifications as quickly as he had.

            He had a drawn a long line eighty cubes long, each cube affixed to the one before it, and then brought up a new line, sparkling with Runes, right next to the first, assembling all eighty of those into another unbroken line.

            Then the second line had moved over to join to the first.

            The first time they had seen it, the impression of something vast coming together into a greater whole they could not comprehend had straight out caused hundreds of the korobokru to blank out and fall unconscious where they stood. Ochotai himself had found himself kneeling and weeping bloody tears in the aftermath of the spiritual blow.

            Xiaongmao Xomo himself had coughed blood on seeing the lines come together, and the lesser Pandas had fared little better than his soldiers.

            Very quickly orders were given to not watch the lines coming together and building the massive square that was being assembled. Yet the sight of what they wrought was mesmerizing, and indeed soldiers were crouched on every site that allowed a view of what was being assembled there, feeling a profound enlightenment emanating from the sight of all those pieces coming together in such a great pattern.

            This was the power of the Earth, wielded in a way none of them had ever seen before! The Wards both given to them and which they had added to these Keeps were humming softly in response to whatever was being worked below. The Xiaongmao Shugenja were stumbling around in half-trances whenever they could be pulled away from meditating in sight of the Pyramid...

            Even now he could look on those blocks rising, sure as the pounding of a smith’s hammer, forging, making something that would shake the world...

            In twelve hours, the Magos had completed the entire initial Pattern, a solid eighty-by-eighty square of cubes.

            The Circles and Seals had shoved on the back of the Daimyo’s eyes with their perfection, a level of Craftsmanship he simply had not believed was possible. He had no idea what was wrought INSIDE the cubes themselves, scarcely able to believe something beyond what he was seeing so obviously was possible. In a rare moment of understanding, he ordered all his officers and senior soldiers to watch the moment the square was complete.

            The Circle... Circles! The Hexagram. The drawing of the Earth Dragon. That Silver Sword, etched with a clarity that seemed to pierce space and time. The hundreds, thousands of lesser Runes and Seals...

            When the last row of cubes had come together and completed the Whole, for just a moment, he saw it.

            A Silver Sword, raised up against the Dark! A Light of knowledge, skill, and purity of purpose unbowed, defiant to the end, bearing a sharpness of mind and body that would not fail nor falter!

            A Presence greater than the whole world, protecting worlds entire from the Dark...!

            He had woken up an hour later, the first of all those who had seen what was Beyond to do so. His eyes had instantly found the many upraised swords carved into the walls and towers of the Fortresses, and now he knew why that human had carved them there.

            Skill. Purpose. Defense. Will. Valor. All on a scale far, far beyond he had ever conceived!

            And the Earth Dragon, if not in vassalage to such a power, was at least in harmony with it at this time!

            That Presence’s name was Mithar, and He was waiting for them!

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