The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As they made their way to the east and toward the Surging Aperture, Larek took stock of his current equipment and progression, making sure that he was as prepared as possible for his first real fight since eliminating the last of the Umbral Demons. First, he had a newly made axe from the blacksmiths of the Drekkin, which looked similar to his old best friend, but was different enough – with a metal haft, particularly – that it wasn’t something that his Axe Handling Skill applied to. That meant it was a bit awkward in his hands, though he was at least familiar enough with the weapon – not a too, but a weapon – that he’d probably be fine for the most part.

As far as Fusions went on the axe, it had the normal Strengthen and Sharpen Edge to the blade, but also the Variable Elemental Gust Sphere addition that had been very useful during the attack against the Umbral Demons, even if it had ultimately led to the tool’s destruction at the end. He planned on being much more careful with his new weapon, though he would gladly sacrifice it if necessary to save one of their lives.

Secondly, he had his clothing, which still had the same Fusions he’d added while in the safe room in the underground tunnels of the Drekkin. They had an Omni Boost to increase each of his stats as well as boosts for most of his Mage and Martial Skills, a Healing Surge Fusion, Multi-Resistance Fusion for the durability of the fabric, and an Automatic Ice Repulsion Field Fusion for protection.

Lastly, he had been able to find or replace all of his offensive Fusions that had been used during the attack on the massive Demon-controlled Aperture – though only one of each of the strongest ones. While he had only a single Healing Shelter, Binding Thorns, and Frozen Zone, he had around 40 of his Weaken Fusion stones in his belt pouches since they were fairly easy to replicate.

What he didn’t have with him, which he did when fighting the Demons, was a staff or other item that sent out projectiles – because Nedira was using it. He had debated using a stone or even some sort of metal rod of some kind to replicate the same Fusion so that he’d have one of his own, but decided against it until he had some wood to make another staff. He figured that he’d have plenty of time to do such a thing once he got back to the Kingdom; of course, he hadn’t been planning on attacking any monsters almost immediately after arriving, so that was a failing on his part.

With his staff in Nedira’s capable hands, however, he would be able to concentrate on defense rather than offense, because he could still use his Pattern Cohesion through the application of his Pattern Manipulation Skill. Along with a Pattern-based shield, he could also create an axe like the one he had lost, but would be able to swing it around with just a thought at any monsters that got too close. Unfortunately, even though it was a higher Level than it used to be, at Level 30, using it and moving around was still difficult, though he found that he could move slowly and still maintain whatever construct he had created using his Pattern.

In addition to Pattern Manipulation reaching Level 30 during his fight against the Demons, Larek had also increased many of his Mage Skills while creating Fusions for the Drekkin. Of course, before that happened, he had the chance to look at his Status once he had a moment to himself back in the tunnels when he was busy waking people up from their possession. He was glad that he did, too, because he found that not only did he reach Level 32 and had 23 Advancement Points to distribute to his stats, but he’d also accumulated 65,947 Aetheric Force throughout the battles against the shadowy forms of the Demon-controlled monsters. He immediately went on a spending spree with his available AP and AF, determining from his experience against the Demons that he needed to begin increasing his Martial stats again.

While he wasn’t exactly adjusted to the powerful speed and strength of his body, especially when it was boosted by 100% by his Fusions, he had definitely seen a need for it to increase during his recent fights. Not only was he soon likely going to be facing stronger monsters now that he was going back to the Kingdom, either intentionally or inadvertently, but with his new Pattern Manipulation Skill, the higher his Pneuma and Pattern Cohesion, the stronger his usages of the resource would be. The only way to increase those two stats would be to increase his Body stat, so that was exactly what he did – though he kept all three stats even so that he didn’t feel unbalanced.

Bringing all three Martial stats to 107 from 100 used 21 of his 23 AP, and he had spent the last 2 AP on Intellect since he had been preparing to make a whole bunch of Fusions at the time, which brought it up to 186. The additional 7 points in Body also increased his Pneuma by a base of 63, which was the calculation of his original Pneuma of 5 plus the 4 he had put in later times the increase of 7 AP to his Body stat; with the boost to his Pneuma through his Fusion, it equaled 126, which translated to an additional 1,260 Pattern Cohesion – bringing it to a total of 37,260. With his current limit of only 10% of his Cohesion being used by his Pattern Manipulation Skill, that equaled to an additional 126 Cohesion to his shield or axe or whatever construct he created when flexing his Skill.

As for his incredible boon of nearly 66k Aetheric Force, he spread the wealth around to almost all of his Skills, Mage and Martial alike. Some of their maximums increased by 10 or 15, especially many of the Martial Skills, while others only increased by 5; one of his goals had been to increase his Martial fighting techniques once he returned to the Kingdom, after all, and he needed to not be hindered by low maximums on his Skills if he wanted to fully take advantage of any training he received.

During his marathon sessions of creating Fusions for the Drekkin, he managed to increase quite a few of his Mage Skills, though they quickly starting hitting a wall at a certain point. The most important examples of this were his Mana Control, Fusion, and Pattern Formation Skill, which he’d increased the maximums up to 60, but despite making hundreds of Fusions, he was only able to increase those three up to 57. He figured he either needed to create many, many more of them to get to 60 or to create brand-new Fusions to demonstrate his abilities and how he executed the knowledge he possessed.

All-in-all, he had advanced greatly in just the last few months – but he knew it wasn’t quite enough if he wanted to not only survive but thrive in the Kingdom in the future. He pulled up his Status one last time before he threw himself back into danger.

Larek Holsten

Combat Fusionist

Healer

Patternal

Level 32

Advancement Points (AP): 22/24

Available AP to Distribute: 0

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 47

Stama: 2140/2140

Mana: 3720/3720

Strength: 107 [214] (+)

Body: 107 [214] (+)

Agility: 107 [214] (+)

Intellect: 186 [372] (+)

Acuity: 140 [280] (+)

Pneuma: 1,863 [3,726]

Pattern Cohesion: 37,260/37,260

Mage Abilities:

Spell – Bark Skin

Spell – Binding Roots

Spell – Fireball

Spell – Furrow

Spell – Ice Spike

Spell – Lesser Restoration

Spell – Light Bending

Spell – Light Orb

Spell – Localized Anesthesia

Spell – Minor Mending

Spell – Rapid Plant Growth

Spell – Repelling Gust

Spell – Static Illusion

Spell – Stone Fist

Spell – Wall of Thorns

Spell – Water Jet

Spell – Wind Barrier

Fusion – Acuity Boost

Fusion – Adjustable Illumination +8

Fusion – Adjustable Illumination +10

Fusion – Agility Boost

Fusion – Area Chill

Fusion – Automatic Ice Repulsion Field +8

Fusion – Automatic Strong Temperature Adjustment +10

Fusion – Binding Thorns +1

Fusion – Binding Thorns +10

Fusion – Body Boost

Fusion – Camouflage Sphere

Fusion – Directional Illumination +7

Fusion – Directional Illumination +8

Fusion – Extreme Heat

Fusion – Flaming Ball

Fusion – Flying Stone

Fusion – Frozen Zone +1

Fusion – Frozen Zone +10

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong

Fusion – Graduated Parahealing

Fusion – Healing Shelter +1

Fusion – Healing Shelter +8

Fusion – Healing Surge

Fusion – Icy Spike

Fusion – Illuminate

Fusion – Illusionary Image

Fusion – Intellect Boost

Fusion – Intellect and Acuity Boost

Fusion – Left Gust of Air +4

Fusion – Left Gust of Air +7

Fusion – Mage Skill Hexa-Boost +10

Fusion – Mage Stat Boost Suite +10

Fusion – Martial Skill Hexa-Boost +10

Fusion – Martial Stat Boost Suite +10

Fusion – Muffle Sound

Fusion – Muffling Air Deflection Barrier

Fusion – Multi-Resistance

Fusion – Multi-Thruster +6

Fusion – Omni Boost +10

Fusion – Paralytic Light

Fusion – Paralytic Touch

Fusion – Perceptive Misdirection +1

Fusion – Personal Air Deflection Barrier

Fusion – Pneuma Boost

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate

Fusion – Repelling Barrier

Fusion – Repelling Gust of Air

Fusion – Right Gust of Air +4

Fusion – Right Gust of Air +7

Fusion – Secure Hideaway +10

Fusion – Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Space Heater

Fusion – Spellcasting Focus Boost

Fusion – Stone Shredder Dome +1

Fusion – Stone Shredder Dome +6

Fusion – Strength Boost

Fusion – Strength and Body Boost

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Strengthen

Fusion – Strengthen Area +1

Fusion – Strengthen Area +10

Fusion – Temperature Regulator

Fusion – Tree Skin

Fusion – Variable Elemental Gust Sphere +7

Fusion – Variable Repeating Elemental Projectile +8

Fusion – Water Stream

Fusion – Weaken +10

Martial Abilities:

Battle Art – Furious Rampage

Battle Art – Consuming Speed

Battle Art – Tactician Mind

Mage Skills:

Pattern Manipulation Level 30/50 (500 AF)

Pattern Recognition Level 37[47]/50 (500 AF)

Magical Detection Level 38[48]/50 (500 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 37[47]/50 (500 AF)

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 48/60 (600 AF)

Focused Division Level 53/60 (600 AF)

Mana Control Level 57[60]/60 (600 AF)

Fusion Level 57[60]/60 (600 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 57[60]/60 (600 AF)

Martial Skills:

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 1/35 (350 AF)

Stama Subjugation Level 2/35 (350 AF)

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 2[12]/35 (350 AF)

Unarmed Fighting Level 3[13]/35 (350 AF)

Throwing Level 18[20]/35 (350 AF)

Dodge Level 23[30]/35 (350 AF)

Pain Immunity Level 20/20 (N/A)

Body Regeneration Level 36[40]/50 (500 AF)

General Skills:

Cooking Level 8

Bargaining Level 9

Beast Control Level 9

Leadership Level 13

Writing Level 11

Saw Handling Level 15

Reading Level 17

Speaking Level 19

Long-Distance Running Level 20

Listening Level 43

Axe Handling Level 92

He knew that once he had some time to spare, his Fusion list was getting a bit long again and he wished to combine the different magnitudes into consolidated Fusions once again. He had ended up creating quite a few Fusions throughout his journey in the Empire and in Lowenthal, but now all of those creations just cluttered up his list; it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but he really wanted to clean it up once again.

Unfortunately, that was going to have to wait until he wasn’t in the middle of assaulting an Aperture with the intent of closing it.

Bringing his attention back to the world around him, he knew he was as ready as he could be without stopping and creating more Fusions. As time was apparently of the essence when it came to Surging Apertures, he didn’t have the luxury of waiting any longer.

Unfortunately, despite all of his advancements, as soon as Larek sent his Air Skimmer into the territory of the Aperture they were set to close, he immediately knew they were in trouble.

It wasn’t the environment that caused him to worry, because while the Aperture had transformed the rolling, grass-covered hills of the western side of the Kingdom into what was essentially a rocky wasteland with no vegetation in sight, it wasn’t that big of a deal considering that they were essentially flying over it in his vessel.

Instead, it was the monsters that inhabited the stone-covered wasteland that brought about a whole heap of concern.

“Sand Vultures,” Nedira said as soon as she saw them. Larek only vaguely recognized the large bird-like monsters with 12-foot wingspans which flocked together in formations ranging from six to twenty in number, but what little he remembered from class and what he saw of them now was more than enough information.

Formed from air-compressed sand, the Sand Vultures were neither biological in nature nor were they completely solid, meaning that he couldn’t simply cut them in half with his axe – either the metal one or the one created from his Pattern. Or, more accurately, he could cut them in half, but they would reform with only a slight lessening of their overall form as some sand was lost. The Gust Spheres created from the Fusion on his weapon might disperse the sand a bit more than a slice by his axe, but these monsters were formed from the combination of air and sand, meaning that they wouldn’t be as devastated by the Fusion’s effects as most others.

Sending a questioning glance at Nedira, he could see that she also had a troubled look on her face, as if she just realized they were a bit over their heads at this point.

Great. Should I turn around now?

The determined look on Nedira’s face told him that wouldn’t likely be an option.