Broken Lands

Sophia thought she’d already said what she thought, but that was before Dav told her there was only one option and what it was. “Eldritch? I can guess what that means but it’s only a guess. I think it comes down to how much you want to follow your Hallow’s theme. I think it’s about specialization or keeping your options open. If you take it, I bet the Guide won’t give you any magical options that aren’t eldritch.”

“How much of a limit is that, really?” Dav shook his head. “I’m an eldritch summoner; anything I summon will definitely be eldritch.”

“There could be some spells or something in Unaffiliated that you’d be blocking yourself out of, but Eldritch does seem pretty open. It might still be worth asking Vramt. He’ll know more than I do.” Sophia was pretty sure Vramt would tell Dav to specialize. He was a specialist and seemed to do quite well at it. “He might also have some ideas on how to stay flexible if you do take it; I’m pretty sure his beads have something to do with his Vocation, but they also seem to give him a lot of options.”

Dav frowned, then nodded slowly. “I’ll wait, but that’s what I’ll end up taking unless he says not to. It should improve everything my magic does, after all. Do you need me to look at more options? I’m nowhere near the end.”

Sophia shook her head. “No, that’s enough for me to get an idea of what’s there. I’ll probably open it up the next time I have enough Wisps, but this time I think it has to be Species abilities.”

Something hit Sophia’s ankle. She almost flinched before she realized that it was Dav’s foot. He was flexing his ankle, like it needed to be stretched in the warm water. Sophia shifted her ankle slightly but kept it next to where Dav’s was. Heat rose on her cheeks, but that was just because the water was warm. Really.

Sophia resolutely turned her attention to her Wisp Dedication page and Dedicated Wisps to an Ability Slot for her Species. She hadn’t felt anything when she gained the Hallow or when she bought Imbue Blade, but this time she felt something. It felt almost familiar but somehow also strange. It lasted only a fraction of a second and left her wondering if she’d felt something after all. Were Species abilities and ability slots different from everything else, or had she imagined it?

The question vanished from her mind moments after she checked possible abilities. The options were broader than she’d thought possible.

Available Species Ability Categories for Mana-Warped Human (Sophia)

Human Abilities

These Abilities are available to all Humans. Some Abilities may be blocked by certain Mana Warps.

Permanent Physical Warps

Your Mana-Warping has hidden secrets within your body. Allow them to emerge and grow closer to the source of your Mana-Warp. A cat's claws, a hawk's vision, or a turtle's shell could be useful, but which you gain depends on what your Warp has hidden within you.

Temporary Physical Warps

It takes power to maintain a temporary change, but sometimes that is worthwhile. These Warps draw on the hidden secrets of your Mana-Warp to enhance your body for a short time.

Warped Magic

Your Mana-Warping affects your magic as well as your body. Explore the alteration.

This includes the potential to learn spellcasting associated with your Mana-Warp even if your Spheres do not include spells.

Warped Spirituality

Your Mana-Warping affects your Spirit as well as your body. You are sensitive to the movement of a power few can touch without assistance. Explore the alteration. This includes the potential to gain a greater understanding and control of your natural aura even if your Spheres do not include aura use.

This includes the potential to collect the spiritual power of a group and use it in spiritual spells even if your Spheres do not include spells.

Sophia wasn’t sure where to start, but one thing stood out to her. “Dav? Do you have a category of Species Ability named something like Warped Magic? It looks like there might be spellcasting there.”

“Yeah,” Dav answered almost immediately. “I looked through it while you were picking out Imbue Blade. It was pretty limited; I could get spells but each one was an Ability Slot and they looked more like separate powers than real spells anyway.”

Sophia frowned and opened the category. Dav was right; most of the items listed were what Sophia would think of as individual spells. They were all very basic. “Really? A spell that creates a dot of light? That’s not even as good as my magelight.”

“Yeah,” Dav sounded a little sad. “The few that look powerful enough to be useful have drawbacks that make them pretty bad, too. The one that lets you shock people specifically says that you aren’t protected from the lightning, while the one that makes wounds bleed more easily requires you to touch the enemy; hitting them with a weapon doesn’t work. That could be useful if we are ever in the right situation, but it seems like it’d be less useful most of the time than stabbing them one more time.”

“That sounds pretty useful, actually.” Sophia knew Dav hadn’t ever fought monsters in reality before she escorted him through Cliff’s dungeon and everything went sideways. He’d fought them in his games, but that wasn’t the same thing. “It sounds especially useful here; if we get in a long fight against something with a lot of Shield, well, we’re going to keep scratching it but that’s all. If you could make those scratches bleed, we might be able to kill it without ever getting through the shield, or at least make it woozy from blood loss.”

Dav grunted deep in his throat. “I’m not sure those scratches would be enough, but I guess it depends on how much the spell does. That sounds like something else to ask Vramt about. Also-”

Sophia stopped looking through the Warped spell options when Dav didn’t go on even though she hadn’t found a spell that would make enemies bleed yet. “Also?”

“Spell Reservoir: Learn to cast the spells of your species. Does not include any Spell Slots or Spells. If selected, all Species spells will be reserved for the Reservoir.” Dav made a splash as he leaned back against the stone seat. “I think that’s how you’re supposed to get species spells. Since slots seem to go up in cost separately, you probably can’t buy many without it and still get any other species abilities.”

“Might depend on the species, but I think you’re right,” Sophia agreed. “I wonder how it plays with the spell slots I already have?” She started looking for the ability and found it right before Dav asked if it was even available to her.

“Looks like it is.” Sophia bit her lip, then shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to take it, though; I ought to get spells through Cliff and my class. I’m not seeing anything that I have to have, though there are a few basic things that could be useful. If I don’t find anything else I want, I can come back to it.”

Sophia was completely confident she wouldn’t. The other possibilities were simply too good, especially if they actually pulled from her draconic heritage.

For completeness, Sophia moved to the Human abilities first. She knew she wouldn’t take any of them, like the spells, but she wanted an idea of what was there. It was a decent list; faster movement, more flexibility, lowered food or air requirements, both deeper sleep for better rest and lighter sleep to wake more easily if there was danger, an easier time gaining muscle, improved healing speed, better temperature tolerance … there was a lot of useful stuff there. Most of it wasn’t amazing, but she could see how it was useful. None of it sounded like it would push someone beyond the normal human limits, but it would push them a little bit that way.

Permanent Physical Warps was the next section Sophia thought she wouldn’t take. Even a quick glance told her that she was right; while there were a few things she might consider eventually, none were worthwhile now. The one reassuring thing was that the section very distinctly showed that it knew about her draconic heritage.

She still wasn’t going to take something that would increase her height by a foot and everything else proportionally, claws, or a lengthened muzzle. Sharpening her horns was more interesting than lengthening them and she wasn’t going to do either of those, either, any more than she wanted to shift her vision to see in a different frequency range. Exude Wild Magic seemed like a weird version of the classic dragonfire, adjusted to her draconic type, but it also sounded less controlled than she thought was wise.

It offered wings, but the description talked about “slowing and guiding a fall” rather than actual flight, so they were probably relatively small. That was tempting, since she’d always wanted wings, but it seemed a poor use of her Wisps. It was probably necessary to get actual flight, but she wasn’t yet certain that was worth several Abilities. They seemed pretty weak compared to what she was used to. Even as expensive as they were, they were faster to get, but she wasn’t sure it was a good trade unless there was a much better way to gain Wisps.

The only other possible chain that she’d consider taking permanently from what she could see now was toughened skin, because that probably led to scale armor. She’d check back later; with luck, there would be something interesting that required a higher Level to be offered that simply wasn’t shown.

Unfortunately, the temporary physical warps were almost identical to the permanent ones, but with a note that they required mana to initiate and maintain. There was also a note that they could, with the dedication of additional Wisps, be turned into the permanent version later. The fact that the permanent versions didn’t have a similar note didn’t escape her attention.

Sophia felt a little down about it; while there was definitely some interesting stuff, none of it screamed to her to take it. On the other hand, she’d tried to save the best for last; with luck, she’d succeeded.

Warped Spirituality was boring at first; expanding her aura’s size and density would happen naturally as she Tiered up and increasing her sensitivity to both aura and mana was a matter of practice more than anything else. None of those were worth spending Wisps on, at least not at the amounts listed.

Of course, that assumed leveling was like Tiering up. She thought it probably was, but she didn’t know for sure. Well, she’d see when she got there; she could always buy a bigger aura later if that was the only way to get it.

There was a set of abilities that would let her aura affect people around her; each one said it was a slight effect, but she could draw attention, push it away, inflame emotions, or act as a soothing presence. Each one said it was a weak effect unless she focused on it. She wasn’t particularly interested in any of them, but she could see where they would all be useful to the right person. She could also see that using them on the wrong person could completely piss that person off. Some level of each was normal with aura, but normally it reflected the actual feelings and control of the person whose aura it was.

When she saw the ability called Deadly Aura, she paused for a moment. That wasn’t her Affinity; her Death Affinity was good, but that was simply because of her family. She relaxed a little when she read the ability; the ability to instantly kill creatures vastly weaker than her with her aura alone was not very useful right now. If she were surrounded by ordinary scorpions that were for some reason pissed at her, she might feel differently, but it seemed exceedingly niche.

Aura Sight looked interesting, as did Aura of Healing, but neither seemed worth taking. Aura of Healing seemed like it overlapped with Dav’s Healing Beacon, so while it might be worth taking at some point, it wasn’t worth it now. Aura Sight sounded far less comprehensive than her old ManaSight Skill; maybe she ought to take another look at the Warped Magic section and see if it was there.

Aura Armor stopped Sophia in her tracks. It sounded minor the first time she read it, but every time she reread it, she liked it more. All it said was that she could use her aura to passively slightly deflect attacks before they hit her shield. That wouldn’t help much against a battering ram, but it would be huge against many other attacks.

There was a similar aura defense against spells available, but Sophia didn’t care. She could take it later, when she started actually fighting creatures that could cast spells. Aura armor was far better right now and would likely stay useful forever.

A quick check of the Warped Magic section later, Sophia had two options to choose between: Aura Armor and Mage Sight, which sounded almost exactly like her old ManaSight.