The Power of Ten

Three Mastery advances, plus a Feat, were all part of the limits of a Level. I thought about what to do as I murmured another Faith Healing, and the raw ugly, nasty scar on my belly became a cold, dark scar. I had an intense feeling of wanting to piss and shit, except there was nothing there to do so. Blood was pumping through my veins again, replicated out of nowhere, and from bleeding out I was suddenly back to full Health and a little bit of Soak.

Healing Magic is what defined magical worlds, in my opinion. No other place could abuse healing so easily, and make it so wonderful to have. You could replicate offensive and utility powers with science or psionics or whatnot, but magic ruled on healing effects.

Assay, Detect Time, Elemental Dart, Prestidigitation, and Visual File joined Detect 0, my Favored Class choice of an extra spell, and Ghost Sound, the Arcane Bloodline Cantrip, as my permanent Sorcerer Cantrips. They couldn’t be swapped out like the Wizard ones could.

The Wizard Cantrips I filled in with Write, Minor TK, Firefinger, and Hologram 0. They could be changed after my Renewal.

I cast my Assay on myself, and hooked it into Detect Time, auto-Casting themselves on expiration if I wasn’t doing anything else. Prestidigitation I used to clean all the gore off myself as I swung my feet over to one side of the table I’d been laying on, avoiding the mess on the floor.

I recast Prestidigitation softly as I studied the Assay, and the somewhat surprising information on it. It began to clean up the mess on the floor. I didn’t want to leave my genetics around for some diviner to exploit.

It gave me my Stat Line, of course, and my current status, scanning my whole body, rendering that information down into universal standards, and enumerating them for my quick comprehension.

There was a double Karma bar there; one was much, much longer than the other.

I was a sliced-off Ten Levels worth of Karma, enough Karma to take me all the way to Ten several times over if I did nothing but Ironskull up one Class. That would be nice if I could just DO that, but gaining Levels was never that easy.

At this point, I was ‘reorganizing’ or filling in the abandoned blank Feat, Level, and Mastery Slots of the girl who used to use this pair of naked legs. When I took Sorcerer/1, that smaller bar of usable Karma had depleted, buying another Level, the equivalent of advancing to Two...

It wasn’t letting me buy any more. Either the girl was very low Level, or the rule of one Level a day was in solid effect.

I’d been a hunk of solid Karma, and I couldn’t even spend all of myself?! This was blatantly unfair! Ten Levels of Karma to play with could have made me an instant ass-kicker, even if I restricted myself to not passing Four!

Argh! I could only fume as I studied the Assay results.

===

The Traveler, Halvyri/1

Classes: Expert/1, Wizard/1, Sorcerer/1

Strength: 8 (6) -1(-2)

Dexterity: 18 (12) +4 (+1)

Constitution: 16 (12) +3 (+1)

Intellect: 22 +6

Wisdom: 14 +2

Charisma: 14 +2

Health: 11 (9)

Soak: 10 (5)

Talent: Naturally Centered

Racial Benefits: Low Light Vision, Keen Senses, 2 Favored Classes (Wizard/Sorc); immune to Sleep Effects; Dual-Minded; Skill Affinity: Wary

Traits:Experienced Warrior (Racial, Elf); Mark of Doom (Quest)

Karma: Current Two, Reserve Ten-B (100%)

Base Abilities...

Feats/Class Abilities...

===

The results of an Assay were specifically designed to look like a Stat block, because that was the best way to interpret something.

It was the subtle things I was looking at that were giving me odd hints.

I had retained an Expert Level I wasn’t expecting. That meant an extra Feat and Mastery... I promptly slotted Banespell and Arcane Toughness /1. The former would give me a +1 Metamagic that would do +2d6 to the creature type of my choice on casting, one of the best low-cost Metas at low level. The second would give my Intellect bonus instead of Constitution bonus at level One, and give me +1 HP/Level cumulative of Metamagic Feats I possessed, up to +4 scaling... which Signature Spell and Banespell made the +0 and +1 Levels.

+6 HP was no joke at my Level.

Naturally Centered and Wary were Skill-enhancing Feats, and should be giving me a message of doubling their bonuses at Ten... and were not. When I focused on them, there was nothing - +3 Concentration and Meditation for the former, +2 Concentration and Perception the latter - as if the doubling didn’t exist? Or just wasn’t known here?

Keen Senses was a flat +2 bonus to Perception, ‘elven senses’... Dual-Minded was a +2 bonus against Charm and Enchantment effects, as a dual magical lineage made it harder to lock me down...

Traits were something completely new. They didn’t have them in Power of Ten. When I focused on them...

Your breadth of experience carries over from life to life. +2 Trait Bonus to Initiative.

You have been marked by the power of Doom, and your struggle against it has birthed incredible mental focus. +2 Trait Bonus to Concentration.

And there was a linked Feat for gaining access to more Traits!

Both of them definitely drew on my past. Doom was what Curses were based on. I was still under a Death Curse...

I looked back at the top.

There was no name there, only a title... The Traveler.

The Curse was not letting me claim a name. If I tried... mmm. Let’s not go there...

It had automatically awarded me the Favored Class bonuses, assigning a hit point for Wizard, and an Extra Spell Known for Sorcerer, meaning a Cantrip at my Level.

I could take Elven Traits. Knowing nothing absolute about elves, did that mean I could take Elven Feats? Human ones?

Racial Levels? I glanced sharply at Halvyr/1, my Racial Level, and where I could go from there.

Elf/1, Human/1... Halvyr/2 was greyed-out and inaccessible. Generally speaking, I would probably need to be a Four to take it...

I had been part of a human once, so there was no way it could deny me a Human Level. I clicked over Elf/1 thoughtfully. Taking a Racial Level was not the same as taking a Class Level...

A sense of timelessness swept past me, as if the world was moving too quickly, and needed to slow down. Detachment, aloofness, yet sensitivity to all the changes...

Huh...

My Assay updated instantly, even as I noticed the details on the cement floor and walls, and the pipes overhead seemed to suddenly get even clearer.

Cement?...

Elven Spell Lore:Your affinity with magic equals that of the most talented elves. +2 to Spell Penetration and Dispel Checks.

Elven Senses: Your senses equal those of any of the elven peoples. +4 to Perception (from +2), triple low light vision, darkvision to 60 feet.

Hey, the room just got a LOT brighter!

Quickfoot:Elven grace and agility are in every motion. Your base movement improves by +5.

Sure, when I can actually walk decently...

Arcane Empowerment: Your affinity for a School of Magic is clear. You have Spell Focus (Good).

It wouldn’t let me take Human/One; I would have to wait until after Renewal. Good enough. The extra racial benefits were pretty nice. Elves, you are OP...

I was standing on cement.

There was no cement in Power of Ten, there wasn’t any ‘old’ cement on Terra-Luna, and it indicated a certain level of technology, as did the tubing across the ceiling, conduit on the walls... and the electrical outlets and light switch.

I had a very surreal feeling. Was I in some place with active technology? Did guns still work here, too?

Wow? Was this an alternate Earth that never met The Thing? With magic and elves and stuff? Even if it was another world entirely... huh. Even a steampunk world would be a huge shift...

Well, I’d just have to find out.

I glanced at Detect Time. It operated off whatever the rotational period of the planet was, and was telling me it was just past 9 PM... and I could feel a Renewal looming in front of me.

Wasn’t that just all kinds of fortunate. So many things to distract me...

I still had a Feat and a Mastery to purchase. Or three Masteries.

I looked at the Extra Traits, to see my choices.

There were no ‘choices’. Two more came up immediately: Favored by Faith (Religion), and Magical Lineage/Shards (Magic).

Intrigued, I focused on them further, even as I expended a third Faith Healing to get my Soak back to full.

You have clung to Silver Magic in the face of all, and Silver Magic now clings to you. +1 to all Sacred bonuses you receive.

This... I felt a lump in my throat. It was a subtle thing, a reward for being faithful to a cause... and that sacred cause was being faithful to me. Ah...

I didn’t have a tear welling up as I looked at the other one, of course not...

Highmoon and Darkmoon, Phoenix and Shroud. Magic is in your blood, and your preferred magic is actualized around it.-1 to the total cost of Metamagic on your Shard spells, down to 0.

Wah! Oh, could that have possibly come at a better time? I had no idea what those were, but probably this girl’s magical heritages? Good enough for me to work with... I flicked the karmic lever over.

I could Cast an Elemental Dart with both Vivic and Banespell attached! This was basically perfect for the scenario that I was in.

Vivic Spell gave the spell the Healing descriptor, even if it didn’t actually heal damage. I clicked over Battlemagic Mastery/1, Vivic Spell.

That meant Augmented Healing’s +2/die worked with it. It wasn’t great, but it all went on the stack with Power in the Blood... So did the +1 Caster Level for Healing spells from the Healing Domain...

The main shortcoming with the Cantrip was the short range, but a full stack of Shards would still be at full power and decent range; so as long as I was extremely careful, I should be okay... maybe?

I was at Level One. I hated Level One. There was no way whatsoever I was going to truly be okay... I was one good hit or crit away from dead, and I wasn’t going to get much time to do anything.

I didn’t have a spellbook, so I literally had no Wizard spells I could slot. I could only fill in the Healing Magic from the Arcane Domain... I wouldn’t be able to change my Wizard Cantrips until I could find one, either... eesh...

Skills, now...

Whoa, I was blowing the curve on Skills. I looked at them, furrowing my brow, before realizing it was a nod to being what I was.

These were all Skills that Ael had already, and core to him. Obviously regaining Knowledge was not as draining as returning all my Karma to me instantly, so I was blowing the Level Caps on Skills, of which 24 Ranks had been allocated for me already.

Perception, Concentration, and Meditation were all at six Ranks. Stealth was at four. Faith and Spellcraft were at one each.

Add in all the Stat modifiers, and my Concentration was at +24, priceless thing that it was, Perception at +15, and Meditation at +20.

Alert, focused, and aware. The things I needed most in the situation that I was in right now.