Streetching Boundaries (Patreon)

Year 163

“We can’t afford to wait.” Lausanne once again made her case to the council. “The rifts will occur any time now, any time.”

I could sense the subtle twisting of space, already my magical sensors are sharper, and more sensitive to void mana.

“There will be a lot of death.”

“I don’t see why we should assist. There are still two living heroes, isn’t it? We should reserve our strength.” The skeptical group. The ‘turtles’.

“I agree with that view, Lady Lausanne. I strongly recommend we observe the heroes’ actions before even bothering to assist. What if the heroes use this chance to strike us?”

Lausanne paused, the earlier crusades were a bad taste that many still remember.

“The other temples have never assisted us.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m not recommending we assist the temples. We should find favourable countries, nations that are willing to shift their allegiances. Surely there are those who have lost faith in the temples, and we should step in. This is our chance to make a foothold on those kingdoms. The refugees are a sign that the winds are shifting, we should use this tailwind to make a stand.”

“I’m a little mixed on that.” Chancellor Brandak opined. “It’s a waste of good resources, and I think strategically, we would reveal our hands if we sent our Valthorns to the other continents. Currently, the other nations have limited info on our true combat abilities.”

Lausanne paused. The strategic element was a good argument.

“I think the value of Valthorn’s strategic abilities is overstated. Our true power is and always is Aeon’s set of skills and abilities. Revealing Valthorn doesn’t do much.”

“What if the other temples take this chance to capture the Valthorns? Surely, this is one of the few chances they get hold of our elite group. Would we risk sending our forces into enemy lines this way, far from Aeon’s reach?” It’s true. As long as they are on this continent, I can still interfere. But on the other continents, I couldn’t.

Lausanne frowned, she had a short flashback of her time as a captive. That was another good argument from one of the High Lords.

“That simply meant that if we do want to send aid, we must send a high-powered group. One that can resist such attempts to capture them, and it must be a large contingent as well.”

Lausanne read the unsaid words. It’ll be implied as hostility, simply because of the size of the force. No, it’s a flat out declaration of distrust. Who would want to play host to a force large enough to take over a kingdom? What if someone took offense and that force decided to lay waste to the kingdom.

Lausanne frowned, she decided to back away from her case. “Can we... assist indirectly? Surely if a public assistance program is unjustifiable, then can we provide indirect support?”

I personally disliked that idea, because it reeks of proxy wars played by world powers. But then again, I am a world power now. What kind of world power do I want to be?

In the council was one of the Pirate Lords, he spoke with a swagger befitting his class. “There are certain islands close to the other continents that are not heavily populated. We may use those as launchpads, if our intention is to take a foothold. But we will be noticed.”

Chancellor Kavio nodded. “Our naval force has not fought a real naval battle so far.”

The Pirate Lord agreed. “Only pirates. Some of the kingdoms may have high leveled Captains and Admirals.”

Lausanne shrunk a bit more, it was just a way of saying the idea wasn’t worth it.The meeting soon ended.

-

“Hytreerion.”

“Yes master.”

“Can you swim?”

“...Yes, after my recent level up I gained some ability to move over large bodies of water, but slowly. My combat abilities are also significantly curtailed in water.”

I thought about it momentarily, could I create additional Titans? I do have additional Titans that I should deploy for this cause.

It was time to relook at what other Titans I can bring. It’s a good way to prepare for the next demon king anyway. There must be new options by this point.

The prompts then came up again. It repeated those choices I had a long time ago.

[Giant Tree Serpent, Nydus - A massive serpent. Able to use earth and wood magic. Starts at level 70. Gains powers to summon all sorts of serpents and poisons. Master of poisons and has the ability to brew multiple types of potent poisons and cures. Able to grant poison immunity.]

[Giant Storm Bird  - A massive bird with powers of wind, water and thunder. Gains power to summon eagles and hawks. Eagles and hawks can carry goods and people. Has power to grant [Wind Mage] and [Flight] ability to those worthy. Can control the local weather and improve irrigation. Starts at level 70.]

[Fusion with Horns. Starts at level 80. Transforms Horns into a Goliath Kingbeetle that’s able to use earth magic and various other protective and offensive abilities. Goliath Kingbeetle can create Royal Warbeetles. Also produces very high quality beetle-silk. Royal Warbeetles can improve crop output in the area]

[Fusion with a Giant attendant tree - Creates a Warmaster Treant. Starts at level 70. High toughness and use of wood magic. Warmaster Treant is able to create lesser treants to assist in combat and other duties. Also produces high quality teas and fruits.]

These were the old options I had, well, without the ones with Jura too. Strangely, I didn’t have an option for Edna. Anyway, I reviewed my new options.

[Great Levelling Dungeon - Fuse a dungeon with a titan Soul to create a dungeon that gets stronger as it levels. Starts at Level 100. Warning : Possible chance to loss of control of dungeon inhabitants]

Uh. That warning sounds like an inevitability.

[Crystalform Titan - Level 70 Crystal Titan. High toughness and tremendous magic resistance. Able to produce crystals. Can change ‘forms’ to perform different type of roles. Able to learn and use a certain range of magics.]

[Depth Worm - Starts at Level 70. A creature of the subterranean world. Extremely good at digging and making tunnels. Has very good ‘earth-sense’ and is able to detect hidden features in the deep ground. Weak to magical attack. Also produces certain types of mineral and metals.]

Hmmmm... these two seemed to be tied to my recent activities in crystals and digging underground tunnels. Seemed kind of a boring choice for a ‘titan’.

[Fusion with a Seagiant Tree - Seagiant Treant - Level 70. Similar to Warmaster Treant Titan, but capable of combat in shallow seas and swamps. Has various swamp and sea-type adaptations, and can create seagrass vines and seaweeds. Produces really high quality seaweed for consumption]

Ah. This was also not too bad, but nothing really revolutionary. Patreeck is pretty much in a class of his own with his psychic powers.

Ah. More to think about. Maybe my next generation of Valthorns will get some kind of special Titan?

-

“Here, we have our first tri-spell magical lattice.” Alka demonstrated the first three-spell amplification magical bomb. The whole thing was the size of a cow, and Alka theorised that it’s explosion should be really strong.

It was big, for sure. The magical explosion could level a city, but it’s intensity was somewhat lacking.

Kei was the one who asked. “The demon king always blows up right?”

“...most of the time, yes.”

“How do they do it?”

That was a good question. If the demon king always had a self-destruct button, why couldn’t I use the same mechanism to create an equally powerful bomb? No. Taking it a step further, if all demon kings had a self-destruct function, could I somehow trigger that self-destruction function as a means of defeating the demon king?

It’s pretty much cheesing the system if I could trigger their self-destruction.

I had Patreeck and my artificial minds relook into our data. How did the demons create such a powerful bomb that even heroes, with their incredible superstars and natural defenses, could not escape?

“Some heroes were able to protect themselves.” Patreeck said. “They were usually the defense-focused heroes.” Patreeck had indeed digested as much history as we could gather. Defensive heroes were usually able to survive the bomb. Especially if they had divine-tier supershield abilities. Offensive or more generalist heroes would still die, though.

I pondered whether it’s possible to augment generalist heroes with stronger defensive abilities, and so that they could survive it, but then, is it in my interest to keep the heroes alive? If anything, letting defensive heroes live is actually a good thing since these type of heroes generally tend to be passive, as their first instinct isn’t to blow shit up.

My artificial minds soon found a few areas worth experimenting on, mainly on the latticework and the runic formations. Patreeck soon theorised that the demon king’s inner structure was more of a natural amplifier, rather than a container. It’s a reverse from our present ways.

Our present magical crystal all functioned as a container, with some amplification added through the runic formations etched into said crystals. If the crystal was naturally amplificative, and the runes was then the one playing the container. Using the crystals as a means of creating power, that meant its’ likely multiple types of crystals was layered in order to create a kind of ‘exponential’ power.

Surely that isn’t all, is it? Patreeck’s calculations quickly concluded that depending on the types of material... this may be the answer, or is there something else?

If it’s so simple, my vines should have been able to drain away the energy and significantly lessen the damage...

Our thoughts turned back to the Demon Core. Could my answer lie there? That damned thing that I have yet to figure out.

-

The rifts opened. It was in the Northern Islands, roughly. At this distance, the energies of the rift are quite diffused and its hard to know where exactly. There’s also the issue of poor quality maps that generally presented the world as bits and pieces. This is after all a world without satellite position systems and satellite imagery. The maps built via fliers and cartographers are quite good for their local areas, but often have huge errors when dealing with turbulent oceans.

“Maybe we shouldn’t aim so high.” Kei laughed as Stella exerted herself again. The idea of teleporting themselves to the moon was pretty crazy.

“If we can’t even teleport to the moon, how am I supposed to get home?”

“Maybe it’s something a lot simpler. Maybe the worlds are folded together like layers of rags stacked on one another, and interdimensional world movement is just us changing floors, rather that moving across the floors.”

“What, there’s some kind of interdimensional lift?” Stella rolled her eyes. “Surely magic isn’t that simple.”

Kei laughed. “Magic is whatever this world wants it to be. Why should it be that complicated anyway? The gods certainly dumbed it down for the heroes. Did you know heroes can skip so many steps when they use spells? Fucking hell now that I’m not a hero any more I have to do it the normal way and it totally sucks.”

Stella’s eyes rolled even more. Metaphorically.

“I’m serious, Astia. The gods give life-hacks for the heroes to skip steps, and in some cases, we even get straight-up auto-casting functions.”

Every time I learn about how the heroes have everything rigged, I just feel absolutely unfair. How do I replicate that? A familiar that assists with magic casting?

Wait. Waitwaitwait. I could do that, isn’t it? Would it be possible to design a tree familiar with a focus on mental and magical abilities that augment the hosts’ spellcasting, rather than just give them more abilities? It should be possible, right?

I have my artificial souls all functioning as my assistants, but could I replicate this on a smaller scale with them?

“It requires quite a bit of processing power.” Patreeck commented. “A familiar fused with an artificial soul on its’ own can provide some support, but being only one, it’s not enough to match the kind of assistance the heroes get.”

Effectively, yes, a familiar with an artificial soul can function as a ‘2nd mind’ for a warrior, but compared to the heroes’ super AI, it’s still too far behind.

I thought about it for a while... but then I remembered.

“No. The artificial mind doesn’t need to be the one doing all the thinking.” Rather than ‘tag’ the artificial mind and have all the computational load be with the combatant, why can’t it be ‘hived-off’ to a ‘cloud’?

If the artificial mind and familiar functions as a gateway or a connection, and all the actual assistance and mental computation happens here, with Patreeck and a massive network of stationary, dedicated artificial minds?

“That is... possible, but we would need a familiar that can form a kind of... mind-link?”

I needed to test it out, and already I have candidates. The best people I can test this on are treefolks. They are naturally already able to connect with trees.

Could I juice the treefolks with the power of an entire network of trees? Use the power of the remote ‘forest of minds’ to significantly increase a treefolks’ combat powers? Essentially, the treefolk would have to allow us to control certain parts of their body.

The minds stewed on the idea, I could sense them thinking about it in detail.

I approached the treefolks on the idea as well.

I summoned Lord Kraveik, the de facto lord of the Treefolks, though there are few others like him, and pitched the idea.

“We’re looking to create specialised treefolk champions, augmented by powers of the forest.” The concept of artificial souls is not everyone knows, and many of them believe those artificial souls are just extensions of me. It’s true, to some extent, so I don’t correct it. “We’re hoping to test whether treefolks can act as our ‘gateway’ and ‘avatars’.”

“I believe they should be receptive, but I’ll need to raise this topic with the warriors.”

In the meantime, I need to figure out how to change familiars and artificial souls so that they can perform such a function.

-

> Are the demons near? < Reefy asked one fine day. Its language had improved quite a bit, mostly due to exposure to me.

< Maybe. >

> Will they hurt us? <

< Again, maybe. >

> When will they come? <

< We don’t know >

Reefy expanded in his coral reef area, and at the same time, also embedded his core somewhere deeper into the reef. I could sense his curious magical energies touching my sea-roots, like a small octopus, afraid, but yet couldn’t resist it.

He’s also taken control of some fishes. I wasn’t exactly sure how he did it, but perhaps it is a similar mechanism to my control of the beetles. Out of friendliness I didn’t attack any of those fishes that he controlled, so I wasn’t sure whether those fishes are actual living things or some kind of ‘summon’.

As he expanded, I decided to retreat and give him a little bit more space.

At the same time, I introduced Reefy to Lilies. Lilies was mostly aloof, and also very curious. The two spirits were really far away from each other, and would likely never interact in normal circumstances. Their communication required me to create some kind of dedicated paths on [rootnet], but not exactly impossible. Sadly, no new skill from that.

Strangely, both of them had very little concept of privacy and did not attempt to shield their conversations from me at all.

> If they come, will we fight? < I vaguely sensed that Reefy felt comfortable with me, but I still wasn’t sure myself what my relationship with it was. Were we friends? I’m not even sure if it is a friend.

At the same time, Reefy was aware of the kind of conflicts we faced on land, the demons and their invaders. Reefy, reciprocated with images of his own battles, smaller in scale, with the monsters that attempted to dominate the reef, some that thought they could even seize its core.

Those shared visions were when I realised how different Reefy’s sense of the world is. It viewed the world in movement, in a state of constant fluctuation of inhabitants. The reef was rarely a permanent home for the sea creatures that lived there. They were mostly nomadic.

I saw creatures that were strange, and colorful. Reefy viewed the world in a tightly mixed set of color and sound through the little nodes and eyes throughout the reef, and at the same time, sound was a very very big part of his vision. His sight was always blended with an associated sound, they were inseparable when he described things.

That was when we started sharing the recorded sounds of the creatures, animals. Whatever we have stored in our [Registree], and it was something that delighted Reefy. At least, I thought it was delighted. I wasn’t sure whether it felt those emotions, despite the presence of intelligence.

Reefy expanded mostly around the shelf, and it had a mix of combat powers, such as controlling the reefs to release various types of projectiles, to support powers like accelerating reef growth. I was pretty sure it had some fish-control abilities too.

“Our information from Reefy’s direction is limited because we pretty much gave up the area around it.” Patreeck shared.

Thankfully, it was relatively easy to convince Reefy to share intel, especially when my interest was on boats and ships that happened above its location.

It didn’t like boats. It didn’t like people very much either, and was fond of killing those who ventured too near.

I quickly declared the reef area a natural reserve, so that none of the fishers ever come close.

There were protests from the kingdoms that shared a border with that part of the sea but between a sentient reef, or kingdoms, I soon decided it was better to keep Reefy’s goodwill.

I would educate it on the ways of the natives, their fishing habits and why they do so. It responded with anger and hatred, but over time, it soon softened its stance to one of displeasure, and then negotiated ‘safe’ paths through Reefy’s area of control. Paths where ships could sail, but no fishing or diving.

There were those who did it anyway, but a few deaths later, the sailors and merchants learned their lesson. Reefy was very aggressive when faced with swimmers and divers, and would not hesitate to spear a diver to death with sharpened corals.

I would try to educate Reefy on a less lethal approach, but I foresee it will take some time.

-