Chapter 313: Family and the True Nature of Id (Patreon)

Diana

Sitting at one end of the dining room table in Aalam and Mila’s penthouse condominium, Diana looked around the room and tried to wrap her mind around what she was seeing.

First, on the other end was Mila, sitting at the head position where she belonged, Aalam to her right, and the two of them were obviously communicating with each other through their bond, each making the other smile, looking every bit the happily married couple. Then to Mila’s left was Isaiah, who somehow looked comfortable despite all the people.

To Aalam’s right was Mila’s apprentice, Edi Tanorputra, a good looking C rank man with features dominated by south-east asian heritage, and across from him was Isaiah’s apprentice, Olivia Garcia, Edi’s fiancee and a young woman with a complicated ancestry which made her related to almost everyone else at the table.

Her mother was the third child of Anton Smith and Diana’s longtime friend Nitya Chakrabarti, both of whom were sitting to Diana’s right, two of their three children sitting elsewhere at the large table, and her father was Thomas Garcia, the child of one of her and Aalam’s deceased father’s great great nephews and a somehow existing aunt of Mila’s, Li Evelyn, who was the product of a thankfully short lasting marriage between Silvia Davies, the daughter of Sally and Francis Davies, and Mila’s grandfather, the man the only living member of that family tree not at the table.

Then there were Irena Krol, Mila’s grandmother on her mother’s side; Javier Garcia, Diana and Aalam’s second cousin and Diana’s old political rival; Javier’s husband Reginald Vin, the elf who’d tortured her brother in the F rank Trial Tower he’d participated in but who her brother had since forgiven; and Brom Karendesh, the large lizard-looking coran who Diana’d met in the War of the Chosen and who was especially close to Anton, Javier, and Reginald.

Finally, to Diana’s left, was Master Tedros, the only other non-C rank at the table, who looked like a four-year-old child thanks to the Polymorph skill he’d gained after the two of them had advanced to F rank.

There were a lot of new faces, a lot of old faces, and it was fun to watch all the various relationships at play, such as how almost everyone was more respectful to Mila than Diana’s brother, how their relationships with Isaiah were even less formal, and how no one other than Aalam seemed to dare make fun of Master Tedros’s new diminutive form.

The topics of conversation also shifted around from the important, such as what new universes Mila and her brother were in the middle of conquering, to the mundane, such as what new book or TV show people had enjoyed, and overall it was just a really fun time.

Li Evelyn especially seemed to be a gossip, and Diana gained more inside knowledge on the upper echelons of the United Federation of Planets through half an hour of listening to her than she had from talking with her brother, Mila, and Isaiah for days.

The most interesting part of the evening, however, was when, after desert, Edi Tanorputra turned to Aalam and asked a question seemingly everyone else had been waiting for. “Your sister is now revived and safe, so can you finally tell us what you found in the Spirit Smith’s inheritance?

“We’ve all seen the giant skeleton, but that can't be all the Primordial Humans were after.”

Aalam turned to look at Mila and his wife shrugged. “I trust almost everyone here.”

She was looking directly at Li Evelyn as she said the words and the other woman scoffed theatrically, causing about half the table to laugh.

The other half, however, were still focused on Aalam.

“Alright then.” Diana’s brother nodded his head and all the plates and silverware disappeared from the table, a black orb appearing in their place. Then the orb, the table, and all their surroundings changed as well, an illusion so realistic Diana couldn’t see through it appearing around them, showing a vault filled with raw materials, none of which Diana recognized.

“First, there were a whole bunch of A rank and divine level materials, enough to fully outfit over 700 A ranks or 5 gods. Most of these materials are incredibly rare, in some cases unique, and they, along with the Radiant Behemoth’s corpse, are probably the main things the Primordial Humans were after.

“With the Radiant Behemoth’s corpse and these materials, it would be possible to build an array around the Endless Battlefield which would keep the undead out for good without someone powerful breaking it from the Prime Material’s side.”

The illusion changed to show an empty void, two swords, a spear and armor set, a hammer, a knife, a needle, a seal, and a pair of glasses floating around them.

“Second are the nine divine artifacts.

“The Primordial Humans have their own divine smith and another smithing god on retainer, but neither is specialized in the elements of space and time like the Spirit Smith, not to mention how the two swords were designed to be the main weapons of the Lord of Twilight Flame and the Lady of Hellwater.”

Aalam turned to look at Master Tedros. “Side note. Those two blades won’t work for me even after I took over the Spirit Smith’s demiplane, but I have a plan to make them willing to work with Diana, so make sure her training includes the ability to properly wield them.”

The illusion changed again and they were in what looked like a futuristic library, an open room filled with orbs of information, artifacts capable of holding vast amounts of knowledge which the System could then help directly transmit to a cultivator.

“Finally, and most important to me but probably not the Primordial Humans, the Spirit Smith’s demiplane held vast amounts of knowledge.

“Skill combinations, non-combat paths to power, and blueprints for artifacts of all kinds, pretty much anything related to crafting you could think of.

“But I’ll just give you the highlights.”

A complicated set of multi-dimensional lines Diana couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around appeared hovering over where the center of the table would have been.

“First, the skill array for helping to awaken spirits in artifacts.” Aalam made a face of disgust. “I was really looking forward to learning this skill originally, but, having met some of the spirits which the skill created, I’m no longer going to. Tools which don’t do what you tell them to are kind of useless and I’m not lonely enough to need to create my own friends.

“The type of spirits which awaken naturally in artifacts which are closely bound to a cultivator’s soul, such as my Left Hand of the Runescribe, Mila’s Twin Dragons of the Future Divine Queen, and Isaiah’s Bloodforged Living Armor, are just as functional while having less self-identity. And, for artifacts unable to awaken a natural spirit, lacking a spirit is better than what the Spirit Smith did.”

The skill array disappeared and was replaced by 52 others which floated in front of everyone.

“That said,” Aalam continued, “the Spirit Smith’s inheritance included the inheritance of other notable figures, a few gods, and even Runemaster Alashan.

“From the gods, our library of cultivator races, racial abilities, and bloodlines has been vastly improved, offering quite a few higher grade options Mila’s fake identities couldn’t gain access to while infiltrating divine forces, but we also discovered there is a reason Runemaster Alashan is still known today while most of the fallen gods have been lost to history.

“The Runemaster’s inheritance included detailed methodologies for creating skills from scratch and for modifying skills already attached to one’s soul. For example, my experiment in how to advance a skill without merging it with other skills, attempting to transform Triforce Law Blast to Royal Law Blast, has been sped up greatly, and I think I’ll be able to do so within a few hundred years at most.”

Aalam waved his hands and the 52 arrays floating in front of everyone all began to morph, transforming into simplified versions of themselves, then growing more and more complicated and detailed until they reverted to a simple form and began the cycle again.

“Probably more important to everyone here, though, the Runemaster’s inheritance also included 52 designs for powerful skills which have never been used before due to the Runemaster not having any cultivators or monsters which met their requirements, each with versions available at various grades from G to A rank.”

Aalam pointed at one skill array in particular, one which, even when looking at it, Diana could barely tell it was there.

“This skill in particular requires a sublime soul variant race to learn, for example, and it will allow me to lower the pressure my soul places on a universe so that, when I become a B rank, I will still be treated as a C rank for the purpose of traveling through inter-universe portals and the like.”

Aalam then pointed at another skill array, this one giving Diana a feel of constant change and adaptability.

“And this skill, which I will be using to fill one of my two remaining skill slots at C rank instead of the skill to awaken spirits, also requires a sublime soul, along with at least a Law Scarab of each of the twelve elements, and it will allow me to modify my soul signature at will, enabling us to more easily hide our activities in the Prime Material.”

Aalam waved his hand again and all the skills disappeared, this time replaced with a diagram of a human soul which showed all the normal soulstructures—a core container in the lower dantian right below the navel, multiple mana wells situated around the center of the chest between where a body’s lungs would be, and a mental forge right behind the forehead—along with all a soul’s normal energy channels, including all 108 acupoints for allowing the energy channels to interact with the outside world.

“Finally, and most important for me, there was a lot of new information about uniquenesses, several of the crafters whose inheritances the Spirit Smith held having done research in the area, so we now know some pretty firm rules.

“First, uniquenesses that boost the same stat are impossible to awaken. So Diana and I, who both have a soul line uniqueness which purely boosts the Soul stat, aren’t able to awaken a uniqueness of the soul slot line common in descendants of the Yin Yang Sage that boosts both the Soul stat and the number of skill slots of a class.

“Second, uniquenesses increase the quality of a soul, the more of them there are and the more powerful each one is the better.

“This provides a similar effect as B rank oaths, making it easier to use Law energy at A rank and control other types of energy, such as natural energy for me and faith energy for Mila, and it also makes a cultivator or monster’s energy purer, allowing for a stronger foundation, making it easier to absorb natural resources.

“Strong soul variant races become much more common at A rank, and oaths and uniquenesses are the reason why.

“Third, uniquenesses which boost a single stat with no other additional effects provide a more solid foundation than other types of uniquenesses, thus why this type of uniqueness is more common in divine lineages.

“Fourth, as uniquenesses are intrinsically connected to a user’s soul and thus each other, it becomes much easier to raise the grade of a uniqueness if a cultivator or monster already has a uniqueness of a higher grade, something we’ve already discovered. Also, new uniquenesses are generally awakened at around the average grade of all existing uniquenesses, so raising the grade of a few uniquenesses before awakening new ones is generally cheaper.

“And, finally, fifth, the more solid the foundation the easier it is to awaken to uniquenesses which boost no stats directly.

“These rare types of uniquenesses, such as my royal line, Isaiah’s slaughter line, and the more common affinity boost lines also increase soul quality, and they avoid the limitation on only twelve stat boosting uniquenesses, so they are greatly desired.”

There were some quick discussions which happened afterwards, where Diana learned the basic stat boosting uniquenesses, other than for Attunement, were almost unheard of for Earthlings other than her and her brother, and a few questions sent Aalam’s way also had him explain how uniquenesses with similar effects, such as the royal and shadow line uniquenesses, were nearly impossible for one soul to awaken.

But then Nitya asked a question which caused everyone to stop talking and all turn to Aalam, “But what about Id? Doesn’t that currently boost three of your stats basically permanently?”

“Ah, that one.” Based on Aalam’s smirk, an expression Diana had never seen on his face before, and the way Mila rolled her eyes, Diana got the distinct impression her brother was feeling smug, and she felt both proud and a little sad, proud for his character growth, even if it meant he’d become a bit more of an asshole, and sad she’d missed it.

Well, at least he’d had the courtesy to leave the part of the discussion which made him feel special out of his original explanation, waiting for someone to ask instead.

“Id is a bit special. At Mythic grade it allows for a berserking state which appears to boost the Spirit stat by the maximum amount possible for a uniqueness, at Empyrean grade it adds to that berserking state what appears to be a boost to the Endurance stat by the same amount, and at the Divine grade it adds what appears to be the same type of boost to the Magic stat. But this interpretation is wrong, an artifact of the System not being able to correctly read uniquenesses combined with an effect no other ability any of the famous crafters or gods had ever learned about.

“Id doesn’t affect the Spirit, Endurance, or Magic stats directly. Instead, it affects the basic soul structures—mental forges, core containers, and mana wells—giving them overcharged states which have pretty much the same effect as a 1100% increase in the soul structures’ related stats.

“In practice, this isn’t much different than what we thought Id’s effect was, but this more true understanding makes Id’s advancement criteria make a whole lot more sense.

“For the first advancement, my number of mental forges needed to match my number of core containers and my Soul stat needed to be high enough to allow my mental forges to stay in their overcharged state indefinitely. And, for the second advancement, my number of mental forges and core containers needed to match my number of mana wells while my Soul stat and Vitality stat had to be high enough for my mental forges and core containers to permanently stay in their overcharged states.

“This wasn’t my soul holding back the advancements until they wouldn’t cause me to self-implode like I’d thought, but that my soul needed to be fully stable before my soul structures could connect in a unique way caused by the uniqueness, allowing the overcharged effect to spread between them.

“And, now that my basic soul structures are all overcharged, the next advancement criteria is pretty obvious. Each of my mental forges, mana wells, and core containers are connected in thirteen sets of three, but only one set has been used to form my singular core. So, to advance Id to Supreme grade and gain the effect of boosting the power of all of my cultivation cores, I need to form my other twelve cores and make my twelve extra mental forges and core containers, created from skills, permanent, something my instincts have already been leading me to do.”