TtOW! - Chapter 48: A Hero's Reward (Patreon)

NSLICE-00P walked out of the keep, heading back towards the inn.  After terminating the dungeon, the local authority designated ‘Magister Exploratores per Turannia Tiberius’ requested verification of her status, on the grounds that the sudden appearance of a dungeon in an Imperial settlement was a serious issue and they needed to confirm the termination.  NSLICE-00P thought to question him on the legality of her own core but thought better of it, especially as friendlies Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third and Lilussees strongly advised her against allowing her own dungeon to come to light.

She would adhere to local laws as best she could but that did not pertain to the potential destruction of her core, after all.  The Geo-Oscillator Engine was sensitive technology that was not to fall into unaffiliated hands, after all.

But from contextual clues, she determined Imperial status checks only ever read the human part of her information and only from the foreign system, and so it was safe for her to cooperate.

Or so she thought.

There had been a bit of commotion among Legion personnel after the status check this time.  They seemed particularly sensitive to the latest feat, the one named ‘Hero’.  As far as NSLICE-00P was concerned, ‘hero’ had been a colloquial designation for non-hostile non-standard beings at one point.  The wider populace had since ceased to use it, but it was still utilized among the Resistance on occasion.  Judging by the reactions of the Legion personnel, NSLICE-00P predicted that this society might have similar connotations for the term.

Well, that was incidental to NSLICE-00P.  She had paused her previous non-standard reaction protocols, pending review by a commander familiar with local conditions and demographics, and so had no required response to the designation.  Even if it was applied to herself.

Assuming it didn’t interfere with her primary objective, that is.

The soldiers running around in a panic and keeping her in the Legion Headquarters…just might be interfering.

Fortunately, Magister Tiberius had taken charge of the situation and declared her status classified, which NSLICE-00P approved of.  He asked her to stop by at a later date when they had settled down on their end, but otherwise she was free to go, as they had confirmation of the dungeon’s termination.  And so NSLICE-00P made her way back to the inn, actually staying in the rented room for once.

After all, tonight she had a lot of decisions to make.

“Status Update: This unit is conducting an independent upgrade routine. All friendlies may initiate upgrade routines as well.”

The monsters in her hangar all jumped at that.  01R trembled.

“Wise-Powerful-Gracious Boss-Queen, you are…leaving the decision to us? On how to spend the sacred boons you have given us?”

“Affirmative.  Observation: No command or maintenance personnel exist to manage upgrades, so independent upgrades are necessary until contact is established. This unit can attempt to provide combat footage analysis if friendly units deem personal processing capabilities as insufficient.”

01R trembled and bowed his head.

“Wise-Powerful-Gracious Boss-Queen, this lowly servant once again swears he will live up to your trust!”

It, of course, did not cross NSLICE-00P’s mind that she could manage her subordinate’s upgrades as well. Why would it? NSLICE-00P considered it a compromise to even conduct her own upgrades without input from command or maintenance personnel, so the idea of her managing other units’ upgrades never occurred to her, and would not have been considered if it had.  She still considered herself an enforcer for a currently unspecified commander, and nothing more.  Her command over the subordinate units was purely tactical.

And, of course, her two former dungeon master companions did not feel the need to inform her of this. Even Lilussees preferred to keep control of her own status, or something.  And the Great-High King of all the land would not surrender authority to anyone…provided said anyone did not present an immediate threat to his life that is.

So with the necessary authorizations for independent upgrades given, NSLICE-00P activated her own upgrade routine.

Terminating the latest dungeon and the resulting mana-phenomena had greatly increased several of her skills, and provided a great many new perk points to spend on additional upgrades.

First of all, Arcane Magic and Fire Magic had new spell choices, and Mana Barrier (Minor) had an upgrade available.  So NSLICE-00P took a look and analyzed the choices.

[Available Spell Choices for Arcane Magic:]

• [Detect Magic (minor): Locate spells.]
• [Mana Transfer (minor): Transfer mana to a target.]
• [Spell Shield (minor): Boost target’s RES.]
• [Telekinesis (minor): Utilize mana to grasp and move objects.]
• [Drain Mana: Forcibly drain mana from a target.]
• [Antispell: Attempt to forcibly disrupt a magic circle or spell structure.  May cancel a spell if successful.  Use with caution, a spell might explode or act unpredictably if improperly disrupted.]
• [Mana Blade: Form mana into a blade to attack.]
• [Mana Bind: Form mana into restraints that attempt to bind the target.]

[Available Spell Choices for Fire Magic:]

• [Fire Wall: Create a wall of fire.]
• [Flame Armor: Wrap the target in flames that damage all close enemies.]
• [Cleansing Flame): Utilize fire mana to burn hostile effects.  Cures negative status conditions, but may cause minor fire damage to target.]
• [Fire Lance: An iteration of Fire Bolt that deals heavier damage at the cost of more mana.]

[Available Upgrades for spell Mana Barrier (Minor)]

• [Dense Mana Barrier: Increase the mana density of Mana Barrier, improving its durability.]
• [Hardened Mana Barrier: Improve Mana Barrier performance against piercing effects.]
• [Instant Mana Barrier: Bypass use of magic circle when casting Mana Barrier.]
• [Mobile Mana Barrier: Allows user to move existing Mana Barriers.]
• [Fusion Mana Barrier: Allows Mana Barrier to combine with itself or other compatible spells.]

She made her choices fairly quickly this time.

[You have learned the spell Mana Blade!]

[You have learned the spell Flame Armor!]

[Spell Mana Barrier (Minor) upgraded to Fusion Mana Barrier (Minor)!]

The choice of Fire Magic was fairly straightforward.  Fire Wall was useful but she could achieve a similar effect with Fire Blast.  Cleansing Flame was redundant with and likely inferior to Cure.  Fire Lance was just an improved Firebolt that she could replicate with Supercharge.

When considering herself, Flame Armor would technically be redundant with Fire Blast and her flamethrowers, but she did not only consider herself.  Her subordinates had expressed a desire to participate in active combat, and so she needed to consider combat support protocols as well.  Her fire-related offensive capabilities were already substantial between the Fire Magic spells, flamethrowers, and the Rain of Fire strategic spell, but she didn’t have any fire-related support capability. Flame Armor provided one such option, should it be necessary.

Arcane Magic had a few more options, including some anti-magic options like Drain Mana or Antispell. But those capabilities could be accomplished by the Equalizer, so NSLICE-00P looked at the next options. Mana Blade and Mana Bind were both interesting in that they involved forming mana into function-focused shapes, and so could provide useful comparisons for her magic circle analysis.

It was a close decision but she ultimately chose Mana Blade. Mana Bind seemed more immediately useful to expand her non-lethal options…but she had seen a variation of Mana Blade in Light Magic. If she could acquire a second ‘blade’ spell and compare the magic circles, she could likely identify parts related to mana shaping and their interaction with elemental attributes. The only corresponding spell to Mana Bind might be Vine Grasp…but as that spell dealt with the growth and manipulation of living plants she couldn’t be certain it functioned in the same manner as Mana Bind would, and so the comparison would likely be more complex.

Finally for Mana Barrier she went with the Fusion option. She had already determined the efficacy of that modifier through Light Beam, in fact it may have been her use of fusion abilities that enabled this upgrade to begin with. She had already been utilizing multi-layered Mana Barriers for her defense, so the ability to combine them outright would strengthen a primary use case. Likewise, the other options were things she could do herself, whether through the assistance of her AI or through the use of other skills, so Fusion seemed to provide the most options.

With that determined, it was time to analyze the available perks.

She had a truly impressive bank of perks…and an equally impressive list she could spend it on.

And there was new area of the perk menu for her to peruse:

[Heroic Skills]

• [Learn Heroic Strength (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Speed (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Defense (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Endurance (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Control (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Reserves (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Power (Level 1): 20 points]
• [Learn Heroic Challenger (Level 1): 40 points]
• (continued...)

And so on, so forth. And all these options had two things in common. One, they required the ‘Hero’ feat to purchase.

Two, they promised exceptional performance in exchange for heavy expenditure.

[You have learned the skill Heroic Challenger!]

[Heroic Challenger (Level 1): A hero never gives up, no matter the odds. Attacks ignore a small percent of target DEF/RES/immunities and always deal a minimum amount of damage. Gives a small chance to survive a fatal hit with 1 HP.]

It was an exceptionally expensive skill, a whopping 40 of her Personal Perk points…but with good reason. With this skill, NSLICE-00P could be sure her attacks would always be effective, even if she faced an opponent significantly more powerful than herself, or an opponent with specific counters to her abilities.

[You have learned the skill Heroic Power!]

[Heroic Power (Level 1): To handle great responsibility, a hero needs great power. Doubles mana density for a short time. May damage user if reused too quickly due to strain from excess mana.]

Heroic Power would synergize well with Supercharge, massively boosting the raw power of her spells. Likewise, when combined with Heroic Challenger it should grant her reasonable offensive capabilities no matter what kind of defenses she faced.

And so, suddenly 60 of the 100 personal points had vanished.  40 was no small number by any means, but from NSLICE-00P’s observations Personal levels came much slower than dungeon levels, so she determined it was best to save some points for additional adjustments based on real combat data.  But, there was one final perk she considered:

• [Passive Skills]
  • [Physical Skills]
  • [Weapon Skills]
  • [Magic Skills]
    • [Learn Mana Shield (Level 1): 12 points]

[Mana Shield (Level 1): When active, may convert HP damage received into Mana damage. Mana density will be used instead of DEF/RES in that case. HP damage will resume if Mana is fully drained.]

This perk would allow NSLICE-00P to utilize her mana defensively instead of her HP, which would more than double her effective HP pool and significantly boost her survivability.  Even more, she observed her mana regenerated much more quickly than her HP, boosting her endurance even further. And using mana in this way meant the new Heroic Power skill could be used to effectively double her defense, should said measure be necessary.

She could already use mana defensively via spells such as Mana Barrier, but it was hard to pour all of her mana into a single, small spell like that, so using the mana directly was still an improvement.  Likewise, just relying on her raw mana instead of multi-casting and Supercharging Mana Barrier would allow her to focus all her attention on counter attacking.  And…there was another angle. By taking this perk now, any improvements to her mana were now effectively improvements to her HP.  Improvements to her primary offensive resource now also improved her defensive resources.

As such, if she took this perk, she could specialize her future purchases mostly into mana. She could defer upgrades to her armor and HP pools. She did not need to weigh additional offensive upgrades against the need to shore up her defenses.

And mana was the source of everything for her. Her spells, both offensive and defensive, new implants, new subordinates, all of this was dependent on mana. Additional mana was never wasted, any excess mana could be used to cast more spells, could be used to Supercharge spells to a greater degree, or could be dedicated to additional dungeon systems.  She could always justify expanding her mana pool even now.

Not to mention…it appeared to be a comparative advantage for her as well.  She had observed other beings, including her own opponents at times, running low of the resource, resulting in reduced effectiveness.

Meanwhile her mana restored itself almost as quickly as she could spend it, thanks to her core.

As such, she predicted that the benefit of resource specialization like this would outweigh the redundancy of the perk and the additional demand on the mana pool.

[You have learned the skill Mana Shield!]

With that, she had 28 Personal perk points remaining. Barely a quarter of what she started with.  At this point, it was more efficient to wait for additional combat data before any additional upgrades via personal perk points.

It was then that something occurred that she did not expect.  A new message from the foreign system appeared on her UI.

[Subordinate Rattingtale would like to evolve.  Approve?]

Author’s Note:

And so NSLICE-00P slowly begins to learn the art of min-maxing!  You don’t need HP if you just terminate the other guy first!

What’s that?

You think the hero skills are just a method for the author to avoid thinking about all the possible regular skills NSLICE-00P could potentially buy with 100 perk points?

Nooooooo of course not!  That’s definitely not what’s happening!

Which is why we definitely won’t also spend all the dungeon points on expensive raid boss perks or anything!

Anyways!

What is the next form of the Great-High King of all the land? How will the author avoid thinking of…err…what sort of amazing (and expensive) upgrades will the author show NSLICE-00P next? Tune in next time, to find out!