Moonlight Relic, Ch 35: Last Bounty (Patreon)

Siwaha’s words echoed up from the valley, making Sam look down. Whatever enchantment she was using, it reached everywhere, and it made him feel a burst of gratitude. The villagers would think she was just celebrating the festival and welcoming the Horned Hunter, but she was declaring her relationship with him as clear as day, which would help to keep people from causing him trouble.

He studied the wards that were glowing from one side of the valley to the other as he rubbed his chin. They were deeply carved into the mountains, emanating a sense of life and age, and he could see familiar traces in them that reminded him of First Snow and First Spring, but they were far more advanced and barely recognizable.

Mana from the peaks flowed through them naturally, like a river pouring through a dozen smaller streams on its banks. Whoever had carved them had placed them in harmony with the world and the weather, and the location here where mana gathered naturally was enough to charge them without any trouble. Perhaps that was one of the secrets to their strength.

The power in them was beyond what he’d thought the sylphs had. At least some of their ancestors must have been at the Third Evolution, perhaps even many of them. He doubted anyone below that level could have carved these.

Siwaha had mentioned the Legions of Ice from their history. She’d also said once that other sylph clans existed, ones that had traveled out into the world. Perhaps they were the remnants of those legions. It sounded like they’d been a mighty force in the past, and perhaps they still were, just one that had long lain quiet, like a volcano sleeping beneath a blanket of snow.

Either way, Siwaha had made her position on the Horned Hunter clear, which would help to push Garild into doing what he’d asked. It might also help with pulling new recruits to the ruins and getting everyone to cooperate.

He looked away from the wards, turning his attention to the northwest. The last bounty was about forty miles from here. His father and the others should be getting close now. Part of his mind was on tracking it, but the rest was on how to deal with Micas.

He might be able to wear him down over time, or to overwhelm him if he pulled enough power together from the moons, but he expected the mage would be slippery, and that was before whatever artifacts he had. Anyone as arrogant as Micas would have something they could rely on.

He glanced at the astral energy running through the greenstone and the humming enchantments above and then at the moons that were hanging low and close. After a few moments, he nodded as plans began to fall into place.

Micas wasn’t the only one who had something to rely on.

---

“Move in!” Sam’s shout echoed through the night as his father and the others sent attacks hurtling forward.

A spinning hammer outlined in gold, a brilliant white lance of energy, a bolt of yellow Earth magic that tore upward as a row of long spikes sprouted from behind it, and the flare of Lesat sending a cutting edge of force from his sword all crashed against the bone slabs that served the monster as armor.

The massive Outsider let out a roar as it shook beneath the impact, but it continued to shoulder its way out of the earthen slope that had buried half of it a moment before. It was a shell of arching ribs and legs like bone pillars, all wrapped around a core of sinews and a skull full of long, yellow fangs.

It was twice the size of the Outsider war beasts that had been at the Grand Flaw, making all of them look like nothing more than blades of grass by its feet. From head to tail, it was almost two hundred feet long, and it stood forty feet tall at the shoulder. Its mass gave it a power that its level hid, and its core ability made it the most durable of the bounty targets they had faced so far.

Runes flickered between his talons as he continued working on a spell, but as he watched, shards of skeletal remains and bones flew up from the disturbed earth, flying toward the hound. When they struck, they fused into the bone plates, sealing over the cracks in them and adding a bit more bulk to the hound’s form.

Corrupted Boneweaver Hound. Outsider. Level 126.

[This hound was one of two guardian beasts that once accompanied a shaman through Aster Fall. When he was slain during an Outsider invasion, his body was claimed by a necromancer, who animated him and turned him into one of his followers. The power that allowed the hound to change his size at will was corrupted and bound to the bones of the dead. Now, he is able to grow and to heal himself only through consuming skeletons and his mind has long fled. He was sealed 304 years ago during the Plague Wars, after he consumed the graveyards of the fallen. Purge the Outsider essence animating him and allow his aura to return to the world.]

Unfortunately, the land here was littered with skeletons, as the hound had been catching prey and sleeping on their corpses for a week or more. It was also pulling ancient bones out of the earth, ones that had lain here for many years. It was easy to see how it had become a bounty. Left to its own devices, there was no telling how large it could grow, although he suspected it would start to have trouble moving eventually, or that there was some balance between its mana and its size.

It had likely been far stronger when it was sealed. If it were left to its own devices, it would become a calamity for the area. Most of its power was in defense and recovery, which was dragging this fight out, but in terms of attacks, it only had its physical bulk and one deep-throated howl that stunned the minds of those around it.

Fortunately, the effects of the ability were mostly negated by Terror’s Bane. The trait was preventing the shout from disrupting Sam's mind and it extended that protection around him for about twenty feet, which was why everyone was staying close together. They’d been attacking it for half an hour now, testing its defenses as they familiarized themselves with its habits and abilities, and Sam was composed as he continued scribing the runes in the air.

They’d already reached a stalemate with it and slowed down their attacks to a level they could maintain. Even if the monster had mana to spare, the bones in the area weren’t unlimited and they were slowly wearing it down, crack by crack. It was dangerous, but it was also a good opportunity to practice. They could unleash their strongest attacks on it over and over again as they worked to improve them.

As for Sam, he’d already decided how he was going to kill it, and right now he was practicing with rune formations, trying out an idea while the moons were high in the night sky. He wanted to get the ambient astral energy to charge them for him, rather than having to act as the conduit himself, although he was having no luck with it so far. It was a test run for one his ideas on how to deal with Micas.

With his essence regenerating constantly, he just had to keep the strain of building the runes at a manageable level, right at the level of a moderate headache. He continued adding new ones, building different variants of First Snow and half of First Spring as he studied the effects.

Rune Formation was similar to crafting a scroll in a lot of ways, but it let him build things on the fly, and it had excellent synergy with his Heroic crafting abilities, especially Componentless Scribe and Aura Forging. If he could push it to the right level, he had the feeling that he could actually create any enchantment he needed on the air itself. It wouldn’t be as strong as something he’d prepared ahead of time, but it was infinitely more flexible.

He completed the latest line of runes and threw them toward the bone hound. They gleamed with sapphire flames as they stuck to its head and began to burn deeper. All across its body, there were already a handful of other spots with similar effects, which were beginning to connect to one another.

Another half an hour passed and his side was becoming too tired to keep up the game, but the bone hound was in just as bad of shape. It was staggering to the right and left as crystal flames licked along its length, burning from within the fissures across its body. When the time was right, Sam scribed the final rune in the air.

It wavered there like liquid crystal, flickering as his energy sank into it, and he sent it flying toward the bone hound. It burned through the air like a meteor as it struck a flat space on the bone hound’s forehead. With a flicker of his will, the rune activated. Essence spiraled out of it, burning along the flames that covered the hound’s body as it connected from one bright, flaming rune to the next and completed the pattern he’d been inscribing. Since the hound was durable but not at all intelligent, he’d done something a bit unique to it.

He’d inscribed a spell formation into its bones, one line at a time.

It was almost like using it as a type of living scroll, and he could feel an echo in Componentless Scribe as the pattern activated. It wasn’t what the ability was designed for, but if he’d had more time, he might have been able to enhance the bones into a proper material. Each of the lines he’d carved was a different variant of Ice or Life as he’d tested out concepts, but they all came together as one inside the formation. As for what it was designed to do, that was simple.

“Shatter.”

The word echoed out around him, rippling through the air as it struck the hound. The sapphire flames all along its body roared up, changing to a quickly spreading field of Ice that covered the bone plates and drove between the gaps. The runes for Life added an increased factor of growth that pushed it along faster, driving tendrils of essence down into the hound's structure as they took root and forced the fissures apart.

Essence poured through the runes as the pattern fully activated, and a moment later, the body of the giant hound exploded into a rain of frozen bone shards. Most of them flew outward, but some slammed into the Essence Shield he had prepared. The area where the hound had been was a swirling whirlwind of bone that was slowly crumbling to dust.

“Too bad,” he muttered as he saw that. He wanted it to form into an effect similar to a real scroll, where he could send it at another target, but the essence imbued into it was dissolving, along with the material that had made it.

He’d love to do something similar to Micas, but creating the pattern had taken too long. He doubted the mage would hold still for long enough.

A moment later, the World Core’s voice descended, bringing with it the same sense of crushing pressure that it always had, despite his new Evolution. He could feel more depth in it now, like it was an ocean that went on forever, its power extending into the depths of time.

Congratulations, Chaos Smith. You have eliminated an enemy of Aster Fall.

You are Acknowledged. You have gained a Mark.

You gain 310,000 Class experience, as well as 250,000 bonus experience for slaying a bounty.

You have gained five Class Levels. You are now a Level 5 Chaos Smith.

Class Experience: 560,000 / 600,000

You have gained five General Levels. You are now General Level 105.

General Experience: 560,000 / 600,000.

You gain +10 Strength, +10 Wisdom, +10 Intelligence, +10 Aura, and have 20 free attribute points to assign (2 per Class Level and 2 per General Level).

As a reward for eliminating the bounty, you are granted one Ability advancement. You may choose to upgrade any Initial Class Ability to Epic or advance a First Evolution Ability by one tier.

Make your choice now.

The World Core’s voice paused as it gave him time to consider. The Ability advancement was slightly different than before, and for a moment he debated upgrading Modify Aura or Crystal Passage, but then he shook his head as he went with the plan he’d already decided on.

He chose to upgrade Crystal Focus to Epic. It was the core ability for his subclass and something that he should have done a long time ago.

A moment later, the pressure of the World Core descended, sending his mind spinning out into the void. The pain this time was far worse than it had been when he was under 100, so much that there was a dissociation pulling him away from it. He felt his body go numb as his meridians twisted and his mind splintered into fragments as a whirlwind of power tore him apart and rebuilt him.

He could feel his body realigning as the pattern that had been set during his Evolution was altered, rebuilt, and put back together again. When it passed, he was left doubled over and gasping for breath, but the world sprang into his mind with a clarity that he’d never experienced before a s Crystal Focus spread outward.

“Abilities do not like upgrading now,” he growled as he drew in a shaky breath and let it out. That had been far more difficult than he'd expected, and it made him consider what an Evolution really was. It had felt like he was fixing something after the fact.

Without the World Core, he wasn’t sure it would be possible to upgrade an Initial Ability any longer, at least not safely. If he’d tried to do that on his own, it might have destroyed his body. It made him wonder how old abilities leveled at the First Evolution, or if they could even still do it naturally.

Without the World Core to help, it was probably extremely difficult, if not impossible. It seemed like when you Evolved, whatever was done was done, at least for your class abilities. Perhaps that was why you needed a certain number of abilities at Epic in order to qualify for Evolution. It felt like Skills or Traits could still improve, since they were tangential to the main pattern, but each increase to the core was a small change to the entire Evolution and the foundation that it had been built upon.

It was becoming clear why the World Core had been built and its greater purpose. It wasn’t just because of the Nexus. It had been a hope for the future, perhaps something that the builders had seized to give people a second chance to be the best they could be.

As his mind extended around him, he could feel the range of his expanded awareness spreading out through the area for a thousand feet. Everything within that range sprang clearly into his mind, from the smallest parts to the auras and scents attached to the remains of the bone hound. For a moment, it was overwhelming, but then his First Evolution body caught up with the improvement as everything settled into a more steady familiarity.

As he glanced around, he could see his father and the others were still dealing with the experience they’d absorbed, and he only spent a moment Analyzing them to see their new levels. His father had reached Level 93, Lenei and Lesat were just behind at Level 92, and Krana had jumped from Level 69 to Level 78. All of them should have also gained another Mark, which might help during their Evolutions.

He turned back to the bone fragments that were all that remained of the Corrupted Boneweaver Hound and tore the essence from them. It rose up in a flood of brilliant white and red essence stars and flew toward him, converting to sparkling blue. It was worth a bit over 4,000 essence.

Essence Constellation (Fourth Layer): 20,431 / 45,000.

Your Strength has increased by 6.

Constitution by 9.

Agility by 2.

Intelligence by 8.

Aura by 8.

The rush of essence filled the new layer, sending a spiral of light through the void in his spirit as stars flooded through it, bringing life to what had been dark. They formed a vast, sparkling web that was slowly spinning upward, reaching to the realm above. Now that there were more of them, he could feel the entire network beginning to spin, like an ocean swirling in the night.

The motion sent a new and deeply familiar pulse of astral energy through him that sang as it pulled him upward, making it feel as if he were connected to the void. A moment later, the feeling stabilized, settling in with a familiar sense of flowing power at the back of his mind that he recognized as the movement of the heavens. It was almost like the energy from the moons. It took him a little time to adjust to it, and then he pulled his attention back to the rest of his advancement.

The number of attributes he was gaining at the First Evolution was nearly five times what it had been for his Initial Class and he shook his head in disbelief as he looked at the options. The basic increase and essence attributes had boosted his Strength to 105, which broke past one of the main barriers he’d considered for Elemental Smithing. It also raised his Constitution to 164, his Wisdom to 136, Agility to 61, and his Intelligence and Aura to 294. Charisma was still the same at 100.

It didn’t take him long to assign 19 of the free points to Wisdom, which brought it to 155. That would be enough to get the max 85% to reclaim an Epic aura, but he had the feeling that more would be needed for something in the future. As for the last point, he put it in Agility, bringing it to 62.

When that was complete, he searched for the bone hound’s aura, but it was no real surprise when it crumbled to ash in his hands. Even with a 50% chance to instantly Identify an aura, he wasn’t going to get them all.

He stretched, cracking his joints as he felt his muscles realigning. The new attributes were settling in and no longer altered him as much as they had in the beginning, but it still felt like the world was a little more real and a little more understandable. Wisdom allowed him to see more deeply into events and how they were connected, while Intelligence tracked the quantity and effect of them. Both were going to be useful for what he had in mind.

As he waited for the others to finish adjusting to their new levels, he turned to look down the slope toward Highfold. The city was fifty miles away, but it was large enough that he could see it from where they were. It was nearly midnight, but fireworks were still exploding over the walls in every color. Green, blue, and purple for the moons were popular, but crimson, white, gold, silver, orange, and even stranger colors, as well as rainbows and the shapes of monsters continued to appear intermittently.

The celebration for the festival was only growing more intense as the alignment approached, with each night more dramatic than the last. More importantly, all of the major shops were open and would be until dawn, since the celebration encouraged people to spend money like water. The festival was when they did some of their best sales.

That was the point he was thinking of now, as he considered what he might need to deal with Micas. He could make his own materials, but it would take longer, and right now time was in short supply. It would be better to find something useful and improve it, rather than to create it all from scratch.

Before long, his father walked up beside him, his arms on his hips as he followed Sam’s gaze into the valley.

“For some, this is a once in a lifetime event,” Jeric said, shaking his head as he saw the celebration in the city. Then he looked up to where Amaris was, her purple face pressing low above the slopes of the mountains. “They say that the Moon of Passion reigns over emotions and intensifies the celebration, bringing out the truth in all things, as well as all the madness, but that under her watch, it is cathartic, releasing tensions that have built up for the last seven years since she last visited.

“Highfold is the highest city in the kingdom and the closest to the moons. Perhaps that’s why it’s so intense here. Other cities also celebrate the alignment, but this is different than anything I’ve ever seen.” He hooked his thumbs into his belt, automatically testing the loops that held his hammers to make sure they were loose. “Why don’t we head back to the village? We can get some sleep before dawn.”

“I’m going to stop by the city,” Sam said slowly, shaking his head as he thought about the list of enchanting materials that Garild had given him, as well as a few of the food and drinks. Those items had been more helpful than he’d expected. The city had spent years gathering items that resonated with the moons to make the festival more intense, even if they just used them as decorations and treats. Now, those items were the ones he had in mind as he looked toward tomorrow night.

“I need to prepare a few things.”