Chapter 67
Do either of you know anything about the Order of Equinox? I asked once the tour was done.
All I know is that they are a royal pain in the ass sometimes. Damien gave me an annoyed look. I cant believe you joined them.
Of course you would see them as a pain in the ass. I could hear the eye roll in Ilores words. I wasnt a member of the order, but I knew people who were. Time wizards often run awfully close to the center of balance. They are very secretive, although their god is the same god no matter which Pantheon you go to. He might be under a different name though.
There are some very nice abilities that came with it, I told Damien. I dont know if I would have survived some of the things that have hit me without the resistance I gained.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Damien grumbled. A Lich with life magic thats not a complete anathema to his existence is rather nice.
And it extends to the undead I create, I added. Damien just snorted and shook his head.
You are the first Lich I know of being in the order, Ilore said. In a way it makes sense, you are about the only type of Lich I would expect to qualify. I truly thought you were a monster when I first met you, but the more I see you interacting with the world, the more I realize thats not true.
Do you have any idea how Im supposed to know what I have to do to continue to be in the order? I asked.
Maybe its that book the god told you to read. Ilore gave me a very pointed look.
In all honesty, Id forgotten about the book, and I smiled sheepishly. My bad, Ill do a little more reading.
Ilore told me what she knew about the order, which wasnt much. What she did know was interesting, and made me glad I joined, especially for the struggle I currently found myself in.
I looked away from the island and spotted the pyramid that contained my focus. Is it safe for me to enter that?
Damien followed my gaze. While youre here you should go see that. You have quite a stockpile of points to spend. I only spent a few of them when I saw a great need. But now that youre here, you can make a decision about what to do with the rest.
Before you go, I would like you to do a few things first, you promised, Ilore reminded me.
I glanced at her and sighed. The precognition ability was something I gained after mastering all of the emotions and reopening my Mindscape to the rest of the world. It was hard to quantify just how it affected me, though it was most notable in combat. More often than not I didnt even realize it existed.
I ran through a whole bunch of different exercises with Ilore and Damien. The majority consisted of Damien throwing things at me while Ilore examined the gauges and readings in the facility shed built.
When Ilore was finally satisfied, I followed Damien into the air leaving her behind to continue her work. The focus pyramid was essentially what had replaced a traditional skill tree for me. In the game, you could make a choice to make a transition away from skill-based abilities to knowledge-based abilities. Doing so made the game more real, and I had decided to take that choice, after all, immersion was everything. Little did I know that one day I would end up here permanently. Having made that choice back then benefited me now, if I had still been limited by skills I wouldve been in a sorry place when I first showed up in this world.
Reaching the top of the pyramid, I glanced at the stairs leading down into the focus chamber. For a long time, I was unable to enter because it had been too dangerous. Damien and Ilore had been able to enter because it wasnt their focus chamber. The emotion-based creatures we had to suppress were amalgamations of all emotion I would feel throughout all of time. The focus chamber had been even wilder from what Ilore told me. It had been every point I might spend and might not spend on every skill I might and might not have throughout all of time, it likely would have driven me insane if I entered.
I cautiously made my way down the stairs, followed by Damien. The room I walked into was large, and there were multiple tables, each containing a menu with different information.
The first table was for my skill with pole arm and staff type weapons. Ilore had been able to spend some of the points for me, but I was floored by how many there were. I looked at Damien. How come I have such a high level in this?
Damien smiled. I didnt see the point in telling you since you didnt have access and there is a very limited number of things we could or should do. You didnt lose your focus levels on any of your primary talents, and even though the values were reset, you can re-spend your points. You lost any levels you gained from training, which is annoying since those are so hard to gain. But they were taken at the lower-level spots, so, in some way its more of a boon.
Focus levels and specific skills under talents can be gained through incredible amounts of training. Truly, it is the only way to progress deeper into the focus levels, as the cost gets ridiculously expensive compared to how many points you get for each overall level and the related talent. Even though the cost for the next level only increases by two each time, that gets rather expensive after awhile.
The difficulty and work required to train up another level doesnt increase the same way it does to use the point system. Its always incredibly hard to progress in that manner, regardless if its level one or level fifty.
Realizing just how many points I would have to deal with, I willed a pen and paper to materialize in my handa useful skill to have in the Mindscapeand began to take notes as I went over the different tables.
Focus Level: 92
Talent: Expert Polearm and Staff Weapons
Focus points per level: 3
Unspent Focus: 56
Spent Focus: 220
Skills:
Defensive Posture: 10 [cost for next level 22]
Offensive Posture: 10 [cost for next level 22]
Exotic Weapon Usage: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Heavy Blow: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Riposte: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Magic Channeling: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Fluid Combat: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Blade Staff: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Pole Axe: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Spear: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Ilore had spent the vast majority of the points I had from this, and while it wasnt necessarily what I wouldve chosen, it was a valid choice. The baseline levels in defensive or offensive postures would make a massive difference. Personally, I would put all of the points into exotic weapons and magic channeling, but at the time I had been so focused on using melee, it made sense to put them into the base stats that improved everything. The other thing that made this table different than the rest was all of the excess skills I had. Mercy was a highly specialized weapon that could change its form into different kinds of staff-based weapons. This had resulted in my gaining focus skills for each of the different weapons.
Focus skills dont directly increase your skill, like using a skill book does. That was an ability that was lost when he made the transitionthe process of players leaving behind most of the game systems and making the world more real. Instead, the focus levels improve the rate at which you comprehended and learned with a weapon or skill. Fundamentally it was a better approach than just learning skills and having no foundation for how it made sense or worked.
I took note of the available points and moved on to my other tables.
Focus Level: 53
Talent: Enchanting
Focus points per level: 2
Unspent Focus: 106
Spent Focus: 0
Skills:
Comprehension, written: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Comprehension, intuitive: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Macro Enchanting: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Advanced Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level]
Micro Enchanting: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Enchanting was one of the talents I picked up on my way to becoming a Lich. I rarely ever used it, and only learned it so I could learn ritual magic which was necessary in the process of becoming a Lich. Though I have gained a greater respect for it as of late. The power of enchanting can be immense, despite it being an uncommon talent.
Enchanting, while fairly easy to pick up, is considered an uncommon talent because it is very hard to master, and once you do the talent itself will upgrade.
Focus Level: 101
Talent: Ritual Magic
Focus points per level: 3
Unspent Focus: 303
Spent Focus: 0
Skills:
Comprehension, written: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Comprehension, intuitive: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Drawing: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Powering: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Sacrifices: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Spell Adaptation: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Delegation: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Ritual magic was a very interesting skill and talent, as Im sure you know. The sacrifice skill I had in it still made me uneasy. But I also knew it was what had allowed me to save Raven, so I didnt want to completely ignore that skill.
Focus Level: 111
Talent: Lich Necromancy
Focus points per level: 4
Unspent Focus: 444
Spent Focus: 0
Skills:
Comprehension, written: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Comprehension, intuitive: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Spell Modification: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Base Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Advanced Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Creation Fine Control: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Creation Mass Control: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Undead Constructs: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Soul Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Eldritch Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Focus Level: 130
Talent: Lich Magic
Focus points per level: 4
Unspent Focus: 520
Spent Focus: 0
Skills:
Comprehension, written: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Comprehension, intuitive: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Projectile Spell: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Enhancement Spell: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Protection Spell: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Control: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Secondary Magic Control, tier 1: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Secondary Magic Control, tier 2: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Secondary Magic Control, tier 3: 0 [cost for next level 2]
These two tables seemed to be modifications of talents from before I became a Lich. Necromancy and my skills of magic had always been two separate skills, now theyd been upgraded in here from rare to legendary. That gave me an additional point per focus level to spend, and to my immense gain it had been done retroactively.
Focus Level: 51
Talent: Death Energy Manipulation
Focus points per level: 4
Unspent Focus: 204
Spent Focus: 0
Skills:
Comprehension, intuitive: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Base Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Advanced Creation Enhancement: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Energy Projection: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Internal Energy Usage: 0 [cost for next level 2]
Death energy manipulation was something I hadnt had before. I was surprised about the level of focus I already possessed and was certain whatever had been causing me to gain at that rate would slow down eventually.
Technically there were more focus tables deeper into the pyramid, but like any sane person, I set most of them on automation. While talents could be difficult to gain there were lots of useless talents in the world.
I sat on the stairs and began to push some numbers around to decide how I wanted to distribute all of my points. I loved this part, but I know its boring, so I will spare you the details of my reasoning.
***
I can feel your interest, Ezekiel chuckled.
Marissa diverted her attention from Ezekiel back toward the valley stretching out below them. The tall dark trees moved in an unseen breeze. I know its impolite to ask.
Youre not going to ask anything that would give away secrets Im not willing to share, Ezekiel assured her. Dont take this the wrong way, but you simply do not know enough to ask the questions that would dig up that information. Ask away.
Okay. Eagerness entered Marissas voice as she turned to a new page of her notes. I dont know if you know this, but I became a Lich by very different means than you. I didnt learn enchanting or ritual magic for the process. Instead, I worked with a team of other players to accomplish it. I also havent been able to interact with my focus chamber yet. While my Mindscape is in much better shape than yours was, that place is still a little unstable.
What skills do you want to know about? Ezekiel asked.
Um, well, mostly I want to know the difference between Lich necromancy and Lich magic, and regular necromancy and regular magic skills. Also, what are exotic weapons? Marissa asked. Is ritual magic what youre using to build that big style diagram?
Okay, starting with your first question. The difference between what we can do as lichified necromancers and casters is a matter of scaling. In some respects, our bodies resist the magic flowing through us. Now, when we channel death magic and other secondary magics, our body is like copper wire for electricity. Outside of that the other major change is the access to eldritch and soul energy, both of which are powers that I had yet to explore very much. Suffice it to say, that allows for very powerful upgrades and modifications to the minions we create and our spells.
How is that different from death energy? Marissa asked.
Death energy is more of an extension of us. Ezekiel tilted his head to the side and shrugged. Kind of. Think of it as a muscle we can use to affect the world around us. We can expend energy from that muscle to enhance things, protect ourselves, and in general effect things around us. It has replaced the stamina value for us, and our death core replaced most the physical stats. If you ever notice if you lift something incredibly heavy, you expend small amounts of death energy, or even sprint at your top speed. We also recover death energy fast enough that it outpaces those expenses.
I guess that makes sense, Marissa nodded in agreement. Its why we have such high endurance compared to living things. Now what about exotic weapons? I had a friend with that skill, but he was very secretive about what it meant.
Ezekiel let out a long laugh. He was just being an ass. Likely just trying to seem mysterious. Exotic weapons is very straightforward. Getting up, Ezekiel reached his hand out and summoned Mercy into existence. He fell into a stance and began going through different motions, as he did, he shifted Mercys blade into different forms. The power the weapon gave off was almost palpable to Marissa, and it briefly distracted her from what he was saying.
Marrisa refocused on Ezekiels words. Exotic weapon usage helps you to adapt and change your fighting stance for weapons that do not fit into the norm or have very unique abilities. With it, it enhances both my defensive and offensive postures. If you are familiar with fluid combat, its similar to that, enabling you to change from defensive to offensive quickly. Exotic weapons allow me to adapt from using a pole arm to a blade staff to even a hammer if I wanted. The effect is different for each exotic weapon, and you technically would have to have a new focus skill for a weapon that varies too much from the one you gained your initial exotic weapon usage for.
Whatever routine Ezekiel was going through continued to distract Marissa. She finally asked, What is that pattern?
Oh, this? Ezekiel stopped. Its a meditation technique I learned, sometimes its hard for me to sit and meditate, so I do this. Vito taught it to me. I can teach it to you if youre interested.
I would like that, Marissa smiled.
To answer your question about the ritual magic, yes that is what that was, Ezekiel said. The delegation ability allows me to task other people to different parts of my rituals, incredibly useful when making them. Otherwise, it takes forever to do it by yourself, especially for bigger ones. That one is also a spell adaptation. It should be done in a few days, and you can see what it does then.
I look forward to it. Marissa looked away from Ezekiel and back down to the valley. In the dead silence that followed, she thought she could hear the trickle of water below.
Anyways, I was about to tell you how I spent all those points. Ezekiel sat back down. To be honest, I dont remember exactly, so Ill give you the best approximation from what I remember and my thought processes at the time.
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