The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 54

Chapter 54

With so little material to work with, considering that the Drekkin didn’t wear pants, arranging the Fusions on the armor that the group reluctantly removed from their persons so that they all fit on them without overlapping was the hardest part. Thankfully, Larek was already planning on upgrading some of the boosting and defensive Fusions that he was working on getting placed on them, so in the end it just took some creative thinking to maneuver the areas of ambience to fit properly.

As he handed their armor back to each Drekkin, to their great thanks, the Combat Fusionist described what he had done. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, at least as far as Larek was concerned, but it certainly was a step up from what he’d done before.

“First, every piece of your armor has been upgraded with a Multi-Resistance Fusion that makes the material – either leather or steel – much more durable, as it will resist being cut through better than ever before. Blunt force impacts can still hurt you, because it does nothing to stop the damage from something slamming into or trying to crush your body, but lessening the probability that you’ll be cut in half if an attack hits your armor is at least something. For the Martials, your bracers have a little bit less resistance because I didn’t have as much room as I wanted due to some other Fusions I added. Still, a Magnitude 3 Multi-Resistance is nothing to scoff at. In addition, all of it will provide a slight resistance to magical and natural effects such as flames and cold, but my best suggestion is to try and avoid them altogether.

“Moving on, you may notice when you put them on that you’re going to feel a bit different almost immediately. That is due to the stat boosts I placed on your armor, which do exactly what they sound like: They boost your stats. In this case, they provide a 100% increase to your base stats, so they will effectively be doubled while you’re wearing the leather jerkins over your torsos.”

There were exclamations of shock and wonder as they experienced the sudden increase in their stats, and Larek grinned at their pleased expressions. He was just thankful that he was able to get the boosts on their armor at all, but he made it happen by combining all three of the Martial and three of the Mage stats into bundled Fusions instead of only having 1 or 2 boosts per Fusion.

New Fusion Learned!

Martial Stat Boost Suite +10

Activation Method: Permanent

Effect(s): Increases Strength

Effect(s): Increases Body

Effect(s): Increases Agility

Magnitude: 100% increase

Mana Cost: 275,000

Pattern Cohesion: 1,725

Fusion Time: 273 hours

New Fusion Learned!

Mage Stat Boost Suite +10

Activation Method: Permanent

Effect(s): Increases Intellect

Effect(s): Increases Acuity

Effect(s): Increases Pneuma

Magnitude: 100% increase

Mana Cost: 275,000

Pattern Cohesion: 1,725

Fusion Time: 273 hours

Theoretically, he could’ve made the boosts stronger, but after gauging how large each of the Stat Boost Suites were at Magnitude 10, their areas of ambience at a higher Magnitude would’ve exceeded what could fit on the armor. At the same time, he went ahead and altered his own Boosts, replacing them with a brand-new one that incorporated all 6 stats and freed up some room for additional Fusions on his clothes in the future.

New Fusion Learned!

Omni Boost +10

Activation Method: Permanent

Effect(s): Increases Strength

Effect(s): Increases Body

Effect(s): Increases Agility

Effect(s): Increases Intellect

Effect(s): Increases Acuity

Effect(s): Increases Pneuma

Magnitude: 100% increase

Mana Cost: 450,000

Pattern Cohesion: 2,875

Fusion Time: 342 hours

Again, he could’ve increased the Magnitude of the new Omni Boost Fusion on his own clothes past his accustomed 10, but he didn’t want to have to adjust to yet another increase in his physical stats quite yet. He already had plans to increase the Magnitude in the future, but for now it worked for him.

“After those boosts to your stats and the increased resistance to damage, I added a way to recover in case you do end up getting hurt. For the Martials, you have a different Fusion called Healing Surge that is designed to work with your Body Regeneration Skill to increase your healing rate to incredible heights, similar to what I was able to heal some of you with earlier,” he said, nodding especially toward Gharix, who had been the worst damaged upon their first meeting. “Keep in mind that while you might be healed, you’ll be hungry and exhausted if the healing needed is extensive. For the Mages, you have something similar for healing, but in your case it relies on normal healing Effects that will temporarily paralyze the portion of your body that is injured while it is being healed. The Graduated Parahealing Fusion is also not quite as fast as the Healing Surge Fusion that the Martials have, and is completely reactive to your injury, so it will automatically attempt to heal you as soon as you take damage, with a stronger healing and paralyzing effect with greater injuries. For the Martials, you’ll have to activate the healing with just a simple mental activation, which I’ll show you how to do in just a moment.”

All of the Drekkin seemed thoroughly impressed at the existence of the healing Fusions, but Larek’s hope was that they wouldn’t have to use them all that much – especially with what he had next for them.

“That takes care of your stats, additional resistance to your armor, and healing, but I’ve also added in something for defense that is something new,” he continued his explanation. “For a while now, I’ve been using a Fusion called Repelling Barrier that effectively creates a strong gust of air that blows downward at an angle when it detects anything moving past a certain speed around my body. It worked fairly well for a long time, but the more I’ve used it in fights against monsters, the more inadequate it has become. I won’t list the faults that I’ve experienced in its application, as there were more than a few, but I think that I’ve corrected most of them with my new iteration of a defensive barrier to help prevent all of you from taking damage in the first place.

“Gharix, would you mind helping me with a demonstration?”

The group leader appeared confused, but he nodded after ensuring that he had his armor firmly settled around his body again. Larek got up from where he had been sitting since he had started creating Fusions, shaking his legs out a few times to get the blood flowing through them properly again, and approached the diminutive Drekkin. He stood in front of Gharix for a few seconds while lifting his right arm up…

…before suddenly striking out with his fist, directly at the lizard man’s face. He moved so quickly that Gharix didn’t even get a chance to flinch before Larek’s hand was stopped six inches away from the Drekkin’s face as it cracked into something solid, which also pushed it back slightly. It wasn’t a sudden gust of air that blew Larek’s hand back, nor was there a wall of hardened air blocking his fist; instead, it was almost as if his hand had hit the stone wall nearby. That wasn’t exactly what happened, though, because a second later a small block of ice shattered on the floor.

“Wha—? What are you doing?!” Gharix shouted as he scrambled backward, as if expecting Larek to continue hitting him. Larek did nothing of the sort, of course, as he stood there shaking his hand and seeing if he had actually hurt it.

“Don’t worry, I only wanted to demonstrate the new defensive Fusion I put on your armor,” Larek explained, dropping his fist to his side. “It uses some advancements in Fusion creation that I’ve learned over the last few months to detect anything attempting to strike you using your own perceptions – those that you actively use and those that are used subconsciously. There are some cons to this approach, as it will make blocking strikes that you can’t detect at all pass through it, as well as ones that you may not consider a threat, but it is also a huge step up on capability and blocking strength than what my old Repelling Barrier is capable of.

“As you saw, when my fist came close to you, even though you could barely tell it was happening, your Fusion automatically detected the threat through the use of your perceptions, which saw it coming before you could fully comprehend it. Once it detected the threat, it reactively created an almost perfectly clear, square block of ice that acted as a barrier, but that block of ice was also projected forward by a brief, if powerful, gust of air that not only blocked my punch but pushed my arm back slightly. The Fusion also considers the speed of which the attack is approaching you and adjusts the gust of air to at least negate its forward momentum, if not push it back like it did here.”

The Drekkin looked at Larek as if he was speaking nonsense. “That… seems impossible. If it was capable of that, then what’s to stop someone from walking unscathed through a cavern full of monsters?” Gharix asked, abruptly dismissing the fact that Larek had pretended to try and hit him.

“Ah, well, there are limitations, of course,” Larek said, rubbing the back of his head in professional embarrassment. He hadn’t been able to eliminate all of the drawbacks that the Repelling Barrier possessed, but he at least got rid of most of them; the ones that were left in had fewer limitations, but they still existed. “For one, it will rapidly use the ambient Mana in the area, just like many of the other Fusions I’ve created for you if used excessively, so being almost hit dozens of times within a minute or two would deplete the necessary Mana to keep this new Automatic Ice Repulsion Field +12 Fusion running. The idea is to avoid getting hit in the first place, but when you have to take a hit, this will protect you.

“Secondly, it is still ice, and it doesn’t have the same sort of defensive properties as, say, stone, so anything strong enough that attacks you will still be able to penetrate the ice and hurt you. That being said, the ice and air gust combination provides up to five times the protection when compared to Repelling Barrier, so it definitely a step up in the right direction.  Also, before you ask why I didn’t just use stone, that would be because most of the monsters down here have an affinity for sand, dirt, and stone, meaning that using it as a protective device might have unintended consequences.

“Third, the Fusion—as you can see—produces ice blocks, which can be slightly hazardous underfoot. Their presence could be detrimental or advantageous depending on how they are approached, as they could be an obstacle that could either aid or hinder the monsters around you.

“Lastly, if for some reason you are assaulted by more than a dozen individual attacks within a certain time period, the Fusion will not be able to block them as there is a Limiter on the number of consecutive blocks of ice that can be produced; in addition, there is a cooldown similar to your weapons on the Fusion. This is to reduce the stress on the Fusion’s formation do to too many rapid infusions of Ambient Mana, adding to its longevity and usefulness.

“As for the cooldown time, it is dependent upon the Magnitude of the ice blocks and air gusts being used. For all intents and purposes, the stronger and more frequent of attacks that are blocked, the longer the cooldown time. For example, an attack by a half-dozen weak monsters would be the equivalent of being attacked by a single strong monster, whereas you might be able to handle blocking dozens of weaker attacks, only a handful attacks by the solitary monster might trigger the cooldown.

“To be more specific, the threshold for a full 60-second cooldown is 100 within a five-minute period of time. What exactly does that mean? Well, for each attack blocked by a Magnitude 1 ice block and gust of air, the count toward the threshold is 1. For Mag 2, the count would be 2, and so on all the way up to 12. Therefore, you could block 99 weak Mag 1 attacks or 8 of the strongest Mag 12 attacks within a five-minute period before the next attack would trigger the 1-minute cooldown. Unfortunately, I have no means of displaying how close you may be to triggering the cooldown; again, this is meant to be an emergency defense against attacks that you have no way of dodging, so your first objective should be to avoid being hit in the first place.”

Speaking has reached Level 19!

The increase in his Speaking Skill was a surprise, though with all the explanations and the intent listening being done by the Drekkin, it really shouldn’t have been. It went along with his other Mage Skill increases that he’d gained while making the different Fusions, which certainly hadn’t been insignificant in and of themselves now that he took a moment to review them all.

Pattern Recognition has reached Level 36!

Pattern Recognition has reached Level 37!

Magical Detection has reached Level 36!

Spellcasting Focus has reached Level 36!

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 43!

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 44!

Focused Division has reached Level 48!

Focused Division has reached Level 49!

Mana Control has reached Level 52!

Mana Control has reached Level 53!

Pattern Formation has reached Level 52!

…..

Pattern Formation has reached Level 54!

Fusion has reached Level 52!

…..

Fusion has reached Level 54!

Larek had also reached a personal Level of 31 at some point during the Fusion creation process, giving him an additional 23 AP to spend on his stats. Still not wanting to add anything to his physical stats because he wasn’t quite ready to tackle the adjustment – especially when he was just about to go into a fight against the Demons and their possessed monsters – he instead placed 15 points into Acuity, bringing it up to 140, and 8 into Intellect, bringing it to 184.

All-in-all, it had been extremely beneficial for Larek to take some time out to create all these Fusions for his new companions – but wasn’t even done explaining what he’d created.

“Now, in addition to all of these Fusions, because I was able to consolidate many of them into more comprehensive formations, it left me room to add something that I’d been wanting to create but never exactly had the chance or space to do so before. If you take a look at your Statuses, you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about in your Mage or Martial Skill list.”

They dutifully all had that faraway look that indicated that they were looking at their Statuses, and the exclamations of shock were rewarding in and of themselves.

“How—?”

“Fusions, of course,” Larek answered Hakkin with a grin. “I was able to make relatively simple Advanced Fusion that boosted 6 of your Mage or Martial Skill Levels by a flat increase of 10; I wasn’t exactly sure how expensive it would be as far as Mana Cost and Pattern Cohesion, but 10 felt about right. Any more than that, especially with Martial Skills, would likely throw you off until you were able to adjust to the changes.”

Martial Skill Hexa-Boost +10

Activation Method: Permanent

Effect(s): Increases Bladed Weapons Expertise Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Unarmed Fighting Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Pain Management Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Throwing Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Dodge Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Body Regeneration Skill Level

Magnitude: +10 Skill Level increase

Mana Cost: 125,000

Pattern Cohesion: 1,725

Fusion Time: 171 hours

Mage Skill Hexa-Boost +10

Activation Method: Permanent

Effect(s): Increases Pattern Recognition Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Magical Detection Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Spellcasting Focus Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Mana Control Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Pattern Formation Skill Level

Effect(s): Increases Fusion Skill Level

Magnitude: +10 Skill Level increase

Mana Cost: 125,000

Pattern Cohesion: 1,725

Fusion Time: 171 hours

The Fusions weren’t overly expensive when it came down to it, but he was sure they would help the Drekkin out significantly. Larek also was able to place them on his own clothing, adding to his own Skills in the Process, but he hadn’t really felt a change in his Mage Skills once he had them. It probably had to do with the fact that they didn’t seem to go past his maximum, despite the 10-Level boost to the skills, so they weren’t exactly as beneficial to him as he would’ve hoped. However, he was interested to what sort of difference his Martial Skills would have once he finally got a chance to test them in actual combat.

Mage Skills:

Pattern Manipulation Level 22/40 (400 AF)

Pattern Recognition Level 37[40]/40 (400 AF)

Magical Detection Level 36[40]/40 (400 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 36[40]/40 (400 AF)

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 44/45 (450 AF)

Focused Division Level 49/50 (500 AF)

Mana Control Level 53[55]/55 (550 AF)

Fusion Level 54[55]/55 (550 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 54[55]/55 (550 AF)

Martial Skills:

Stama Subjugation Level 1/20 (200 AF)

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 1/20 (200 AF)

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 2[12]/20 (200 AF)

Unarmed Fighting Level 3[13]/20 (200 AF)

Throwing Level 13[20]/20 (200 AF)

Dodge Level 22[30]/30 (300 AF)

Pain Immunity Level 20/20 (N/A)

Body Regeneration Level 35[40]/40 (400 AF)

He had been slightly worried that having them maxed out would mean they wouldn’t Level up naturally, but he did manage to gain one more Level in Pattern Formationafter he had the Mage Skill Hexa-Boost +10 on his clothing, so it didn’t look like their development was hindered in any way.

“And… no, that’s it. What do you all think? Are you better prepared to face the unending armies of monsters created by the Aperture and Umbral Demons?”

The clearly overwhelmed group of Drekkin looked at him in shock before what he could’ve sworn were smiles flashed over their faces.

“Yesss…. Let’sss kill them all,” Pyluxa suddenly said into the silence with a bloodthirsty-sounding hiss.

Larek just nodded in response with his own smile, wondering if he was crazy to be looking forward to facing hordes of monsters and insubstantial shadow demons that could possess people. Regardless, he wasn’t alone now, and his confidence in their success was high…

…but then again, he had no clear idea of what they would be up against.