Path of Stars, Ch 23: Astral Paths (Patreon)

He spent nearly a day scouting around the system as he headed deeper, but most of the middle regions were also absent of lizards. Eventually, he managed to find one group and it was only by chance, since it looked like they’d been delayed in their retreat. He studied them from a distance. The group was five strong and there was one at Level 350, which was more than anything he’d faced so far, but he should be able to handle it.

The rest of the lizards had retreated even farther in toward the red stars. They weren’t as fast as him, but they had no trouble managing inside the system. The fire sails they created from the spikes on their backs allowed them to accelerate to a high speed in short order.

From this vantage point, the red stars at the center of the system were more than large enough to mark them as the local suns. There were three of them, which was odd for a system, but they were thriving on the fire-laden winds in the Chaos Wild and were much larger than most of the other red stars he’d seen so far. The essence in them was strong, which explained why it made such a good lair for the lizards.

As for this group, he might not have been able to find them if it hadn’t been for their stomachs. The lizards had been distracted when they were crossing a flame river that spun through the middle region of the system. Some flame-laden golden grasses were growing on the edge, right next to where a Wood current passed by and created an elemental intersection.

The lizards were viciously wrestling with each other to see who could get to the grasses first. Their massive bodies were shoving left and right as they clashed, but the most they were able to do was delay the Level 350 one, who was swatting three of the others out of the way with its claws and tail, but at the same time the weaker ones were enough to stop it from getting to the grasses too. It looked like the contest had been going on for a while, but the lizards had a lot of stamina and it wasn’t clear when they would determine a victor.

The area where the grass was growing was almost idyllic, at least in Sam’s perspective of the Void. There was a small amount of Earth and Water here as well, and perhaps those currents had been larger at one point, since there was a long stretch of crystalline sand that the grasses were growing from. The sandbar was about ten miles long and nearly a mile wide, and it was acting like a bank of the Fire river. Flickering motes of Water drifted along it like a faint mist.

It would have been a good place to rest if he were just passing by. The warmth of the Fire river brought a golden-red sheen to the area and the Wood current that crossed it created an area that was thriving with plants and other Wood-element natural creations, including some veins of emerald green that crisscrossed the sand like a web. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he could sense the elemental energy in it. The grass was growing up from it.

How the sand was holding together here was a mystery of the Void, a balance maintained by the pressure of the winds and the elements. It was enough for now, but eventually it would change and everything would blow away on the chaos winds. It was probably due to the stability of the Earth element in the sand. Once that faded, the rest would dissipate. The grasses got his attention and he gave a thoughtful hum as he analyzed what the lizards were fighting over.

Gold Fusion Flame Stalk. Legendary. Quality: Superb. Natural Treasure.

[An elemental treasure formed from a merger of three elements that was born in the Chaos Wild. Consuming this item or refining it into a more finished product can result in increased elemental affinity. If the leaves and inner pulp are made into ink, it can help to balance chaotic elements as part of an enchantment and strengthen the final product. The dried stalk can also be used for brushes or other enchantment materials, and some of the nature of the item will be transferred to the finished product.]

Sam let out a surprised breath. Surprisingly, the grasses were a mix of Metal, Wood, and Fire. It was the first time he’d seen a plant like that in the Chaos Wild. This was one of the treasures that daring individuals came here to find. He’d known they existed, but given the size of the Chaos Wild, they were few and far between. It was the first time he’d seen one of them, and he hadn’t expected to find it here.

He’d never dealt much with alchemy or herbs. His familiarity with the art was all secondhand from Siwaha, the leader of the Ice Sylphs near Highfold who was an accomplished alchemist and shaman, but either way, the grass would do a lot better in his hands than in the stomachs of these lizards. He could always use more enchanting materials and the combination of elements might give him some ideas for new spells.

A golden blade formed in his hand as his body turned translucent and he disappeared in a wash of crystal flame. The change was slightly faster than before, but he still hadn’t increased the tier of either ability.

He’d been practicing with both abilities while hunting the lizards, and as he reappeared above the head of one of the weaker lizards and brought his blade down, an idea occurred to him, which he held on the edge of his mind until he had time to examine it. The lizard’s head went flying as he disappeared again.

The attack sent the lizards into chaos as they tumbled over one another, their huge heads rising up as they let out terrifying roars that echoed across the Void. All their attention shifted away from the grass and locked onto Sam as he reappeared in the distance. The blade in his hand burned brighter as he raised it in a challenge.

The grasses were abandoned as they surged toward him, the spikes on their backs burning with a brilliant light as their claws tore at the Void. Arcs of flame gathered around them, turning into tall, billowing sails that extended for over a hundred feet into the air. The Level 350 opened its mouth and drew in a breath as reddish flames gathered between its fangs and swirled into a sphere.

Sam’s left hand rose as a silvery-white sphere spun into existence on top of his palm. It was only a few inches wide, but he poured over two thousand points of essence into it in an instant, until the interior turned to liquid from the condensed force and began to roil from the pressure.

Runes swirled around the sphere, dancing across the surface. With each crash of the waves inside the sphere, dull tremors resonated with the Void and the passing winds.

As the lizards crossed half the distance between them, he threw the sphere forward into their midst. It was tiny compared to them, but it blazed like a miniature star. It reached them in an instant, at the same time as the biggest lizard released the fire sphere it was preparing.

A wave of silver-white light blasted outward in a sphere that covered the lizards and hundreds of feet around them. It was ephemeral at first, just a flare of light, but runes flickered along the edges as the sphere reached a thousand feet across and then stopped. A corona burned along the edge like the edge of a silver sun as flames licked around the edges. Each strand of flame was made of tiny runes.

The lizard’s fireball crashed against the field of light and exploded, rocking the Void at the same time as arcs of light cut across the sphere. They extended from the center out to the edges, and then the sphere contracted, shrinking back swiftly toward its origin. At the same time, the outer edge sharpened, turning into a cutting blade as the flames burned along the surface.

The lizards roared as they turned toward the edge of the sphere, lashing out with their claws and biting fiercely. Small explosions erupted where their attacks met it, but it wasn’t enough to stop the sphere from collapsing. Instead, the disruptions created twisting dark vortexes that sank inward as it shrank.

A moment later, the sphere returned to its origin, condensing down into a point that was just a few inches across. The cutting edge of flames left shards of claws and severed chunks of the lizards hanging in the Void. The edge skipped off some of the lizards’ thicker scales and didn’t manage to completely cut through them, but the four beasts were dragged together by the force of it.

The point at the center flared with a brilliant light and then it exploded outward again, tearing back through the lizards with an eruption of silver strands that tore through the lizards like spears. Each of them individually was small, just a few inches across and a few feet long, but there were over a thousand of them that tore through the Void.

When the blast faded, the weaker two of the lizards had been torn completely to pieces and a third was half dead. Only the larger one was hanging in there, but its scales were charred and layers were missing.

Sam disappeared, flashing forward again as a sapphire streak as he appeared above the bigger lizard’s head. A crystal flame blade formed in his hand this time, replacing the golden one as he brought it down. An edge of flickering sapphire flames crashed into the lizard’s neck. Some scales flaked off, but the edge of the blade bounced away.

Sam let out a growl as he channeled more essence into the blade and brought it down again, and then again, more like it was a staff than a sword. With each strike, he cut a bit deeper into the lizard’s neck. After nearly a dozen blows, he finally managed to get through the scales and he turned the blade, focusing on the point as he drove it home.

As the lizard thrashed in its death throes, he teleported over the last one and did the same. It took fewer blows this time since the lizard’s defense wasn’t as strong, but it was still a struggle to get through the scales. A few moments later, it was done and he was floating in the Void alone, surrounded only by the corpses of the beasts.

The spell he’d used on them all was a variant of the Void Moon he’d created, except that it relied mostly on astral energy. It was also imbued with Wind and Flame, which gave it a cutting force and explosive nature. It was another one he’d created a while ago, but he’d made some recent changes to it after his original plan, namely in focusing more on astral energy than on crystal flame.

He called it Nexus, since it concentrated everything to a point.

As for the crystal flame blade he was trying to use, he glanced down at the thing in his hand and scowled as he studied it. He hadn’t managed to redesign it in the same way as the astral blade at all, which left it as nothing more than condensed crystal flame. None of the principles that infused the astral blade worked in it. Every time he tried to add one, the blade exploded.

It was almost completely useless compared to the astral blade and it made him want to change his subclass out immediately. It was probably a matter of compatibility too, since crystal flame seemed to work well enough for the Cer’Aleth, but even in its simplest state, astral energy was also far stronger. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was that he needed to make a change.

Fortunately, the Nexus spell was more successful. Astral energy and essence had no issue working together with his runes or general spell constructs. He could have used crystal flame in the spell too, with almost no alteration, and that gave him an idea for how to proceed. Even if he couldn’t infuse crystal flame into an astral construct, there was nothing stopping him from going the other way.

He needed to try infusing astral energy into his crystal flame abilities and see what happened. Perhaps he could activate his teleportation with astral energy instead. That subclass ability was closer to the Void than any of his other crystal flame abilities, so it should work better than with most things. He also needed to try replacing the crystal flame in Crystal Focus and Aura of Crystal Flame with astral energy instead.

It would just take a bit of meditation and some planning to consciously change the energy that infused the abilities, like using the other hand for a familiar task. As he let the idea hover on the edge of his mind, he finished gathering the materials from the lizards and pulled their essence toward him. The Level 350 lizard was worth almost 75k essence by itself and the others were around 30k. The Titan Star announced the result.

Congratulations, Astral Artificer. You have gained two Class and General Levels and 193,105 essence.

You are now a Level 250 Astral Artificer.

Essence Constellation (Single Star): 1,691,532 / 2,000,000

You gain 286 Strength, 332 Constitution, 81 Agility, 10 Wisdom, 503 Intelligence, 503 Aura, and have 24 free attribute points to assign.

For reaching Level 250, a new Class Ability is available to you. Please choose from the following options:

Astral Pattern.

Astral Strike.

Astral Construct.

Make your choice.

Flames of astral energy and essence coiled around his body again, crackling with endless heat as the Titan Star waited for his answer. Information on the three class abilities flooded his mind. All of them were paths the Astral Artificer class could take, but unlike his earlier classes, each of the abilities diverged in their own way, branching into unique areas.

Astral Pattern.

[Provides the ability to create temporary enchantments and suspend them in the user’s aura. The enchantments can be activated at will. Each Astral Pattern will last for a day at the initial level of mastery and requires fifteen to thirty minutes to create.]

The first option was an enchantment path. Along with the basic information in the description, it made it faster to incorporate astral energy into spells and enchantments. Most critically, it would give him the option to create one or more temporary enchantments that would float around him, like spells that were ready to be cast.

The main difference between it and what he could already do was that it would be easier to create the spells and they would be stronger, on par with scrolls, so it would be almost like having two or three scrolls immediately at the ready. The only downside to it was the time it took to make each Astral Pattern.

Astral Strike.

[Provides innate concepts for using astral energy as directed offensive spells. The form of the spells is dependent on the user’s spatial affinities and imagination. Progress on this path also expands the ability to direct increasingly large quantities of astral energy.]

This one was an offensive path. Rather than relying on Fire or another element, like crystal flame, to infuse his spells, it gave him the innate concepts to create direct spell attacks from astral energy. Of the options, it was the closest to a pure combat mage path.

The promise of allowing for increasingly greater amounts of energy infusion was tempting, since right now it took a little while to push energy into his spells. It would probably help him to expand his meridians as he used it, which would increase the max amount of energy he could channel.

Astral Construct.

[Provides three basic golem patterns and the innate ability to imprint these patterns with astral energy into available material. Progress on this path will increase the speed and efficiency of golem creation, the amount of astral energy that can be infused into a golem, and the complexity of instructions that can be imbued.]

The last option was a golem ability. It would teach him patterns for golems constructed from astral energy, which he could imbue into whatever materials he had on hand. The patterns sounded like complex enchantments that would infuse the base material. Unlike the earlier two options, Astral Construct would let him create a small force of his own, but it was dependent on the materials he had available for the strength of the golems.

They were all very tempting.

The first two options were personal abilities that would augment his spell casting and direct combat ability, while the last one had a lot of potential but required more construction time for the golems. He rubbed his chin as he considered the options. All three of them were facets of the Astral Artificer class, whether it was building enchantments, increasing direct offense, or letting him create a golem army.

It didn’t take him long to narrow down the options, however, and after a few minutes, he chose the ability that was least familiar to him and which he thought had the greatest promise.

Congratulations, Astral Artificer.

You have gained the Class Ability: Astral Construct (Basic).

A vast amount of information on the ability poured into his mind as a silver flame joined the other abilities that he had. Three spiraling silver enchantment patterns sprang into existence in his awareness. They were superbly complex, and there were options for enchanting different types of material, but the core of each was an intricate and almost simple silver pattern for golem design. Runes for representing astral energy, the Void, the elements, rare materials, and other information came with them, filling his mind with the required knowledge to use the ability.

The patterns were more advanced than almost anything he’d seen before with the exception of the core enchantment on the Moonlight Relic, and surprisingly, there were some similarities between that enchantment and these that suddenly sprang out to him as he studied them. He hadn’t expected it, but the subordinate information that had come along with Astral Construct cleared away a great deal of the confusion he had regarding the artifact.

To his shock, his progress at understanding the relic’s enchantment suddenly jumped forward by 20%, bringing him to 72% completion.

It took a little while for all of the information to settle into his mind comfortably, and he floated in the Void as he felt the changes. A silver aura was pouring off of him as he finished adjusting, making him look like a burning star. After about fifteen minutes, it began to calm down and it left him feeling very pleased with the choice.

The concepts included in the ability were very wide-ranging, far more than he'd expected, and they would help him to understand astral energy more comprehensively. There were even some parts to it that would help him to rebuild his subclass abilities, since the golems were designed to use astral energy to produce many different abilities of their own. He’d chosen this ability partly for the complexity that came with it, since he thought it would advance his understanding of enchantments in general, as well as enabling him to create some golem assistants to help him fight, but the result was better than he’d hoped.

The first two abilities were tempting, but Astral Construct offered the most. Astral Pattern would make it easier to set up spells, but he could do the same thing with scrolls in his aura, and with Spell Forging, he might be able to create that ability himself with some practice. He didn’t need to spend an ability selection on it.

As for Astral Strike, he already had Flame Strike from his subclass, which was similar in some ways, if probably more limited. He intended to revamp that ability completely with astral energy, which should go a long way to improving it. More importantly, just like with the Nexus spell he'd used against the lizards and in his astral blade, he was already able to infuse astral energy into an attack. Those concepts were part of him. He just needed to study them more.

It was very tempting to get a direct ability for using astral energy offensively, but the ability would start at Basic, which would require him to develop it anyway. Modifying Flame Strike should teach him just as much.

Expanding his meridians was also a continual process that was already happening over time. He could channel about two thousand essence into a spell in a few seconds and it continued to improve as he pushed himself. He didn’t really need help. It would be slightly slower to do it on his own, but in the long run it would be the same.

That left Astral Construct as the most useful. He was completely unfamiliar with golem construction, and he wanted to see what the patterns were like for several reasons. First, the Moonlight Relic used golems, and if he had the ability to upgrade them, it would make it easier to create a strong army on Aster Fall that could defend his home.

Second, he needed as much help as he could get right now and if he could create a few golems on the way to Alora’s world, it would be that much safer. On top of that, he had a good trait to use, Golem Commander, which let him gain experience from constructs under his command when they defeated opponents in battle as long as he contributed to supporting them and fighting. It seemed that wasn’t always the case with golems.

The last reason he’d chosen this ability was that he had Elemental Smithing, which allowed him to upgrade materials on his own. He didn’t need to find rare materials to make the best golems. With enough time and essence, he could create those materials on his own. He might even be able to create golems directly from condensed Astral Ice. That removed the main obstruction for this type of ability, and left him feeling very pleased.

He studied the new golem patterns for a little while as he hummed thoughtfully. It was broken down into many different sub-patterns that worked together to create a whole golem, all of which were now imprinted into his memory. The three patterns he’d gained were all dependent on astral concepts and runes, which was intriguing. Studying them should give him some insights into how to redesign his subclass.

Each pattern was for a different type of golem. The first one specialized in speed and offense. It resembled a triangular, deadly-looking eagle with wings that would send cutting blades of force at the opponent. It also had large and sharp claws that could rend an enemy, and its jaws were capable of crushing force for biting.

The second type of golem focused on defense. It was vaguely humanoid, but nearly as broad as it was tall. The front of its torso was a broad, curved surface like a shield and it had massive arms and legs that were able to brace it within space. Its head was a wedge that just barely peaked over its torso. It looked extremely durable.

The third design was the most humanoid and nimble of the golems. It was highly resistant to elemental energy and adept with its hands, but its overall build was slender and it didn’t have the same offense or defense as the first two golems. Instead, it was designed to assist in crafting. It looked like it would be useful at moving items around and helping inside a forge, or with other general tasks.

He decided to call them eagle golems, shield golems, and crafting golems, since that was the simplest way to remember them. Once all of that was dealt with, he glanced at his status sheet and then assigned the 24 free points to Charisma.

STR: 3,420

CON: 3,812

AGI: 1,014

WIS: 784

INT: 5,914

AUR: 5,914

CHA: 981

His attributes were growing at an extreme pace now that he was on the Path and hunting like he was supposed to. His Agility was over 1,000 now and he felt some changes as a result. His body was moving more easily and it felt like he could transfer strength from one point to another as quickly as a lashing whip. He also felt more flexible overall and he knew it would be easier to dodge and change his momentum in an instant.

Charisma was almost to a thousand too and he could feel his sense of self growing sturdier, like a mountain that was beginning to pierce the sky.

Overall, he was closing in on the Second Star with just over 300k essence to go. Ten or so normal lizards or a few bigger ones might do it, depending on their level. Hopefully, he would reach it before he had to head back.

Before that, however, there was something else he needed to do. He turned to look at the field of herbs where the lizards had been fighting. There were some grasses to collect and it shouldn’t take him too long. Overall, it looked like there were more than a hundred of the Gold Fusion Flame Stalks that were ready to be harvested.

He was looking forward to what he might be able to create with them. Perhaps he could even use it as enchantment ink for golem patterns. A short while later, all of the grasses were stored away in his cloak and a silver streak flashed across the Void as he headed deeper into the lizards’ domain.