Wish upon the Stars chapter 26 (Patreon)

Being back in Doom Sovereign was weird. Specifically, it was weird to  note how differently all the actions I was taking affected the world  around me. Doom Sovereign compensated for levels and power enhancement  in an unusual way. Since people played with their real bodies, just  upgrading the character wouldn't work. Instead, as you became stronger,  the world around you was shifted. Items became lighter, gravity became  lower. Other people's avatars went through relative adjustments.

That  said, having played this game for quite some time, I was pretty used to  what level of power my body would have at different levels. My current  level shouldn't have been nearly enough to create the kind of effect I  was seeing. In retrospect, the concept that a stronger base body would  affect you DS character was nothing new, but the sheer power I had here  even at this low level was mind boggling. Still, it didn't matter that  much anyway. I was basically just moving like a higher level character.  As long as I didn't springboard myself into the ceiling or something  what I did in the game didn't matter.

What  mattered was that it was time for me to get some practice in. In fact,  Doom Sovereign in general was perfect for the way the skill worked,  because the way the scan box projected it onto the room meant I was  using my skill in the real world but still had a visual aid for it. I  was knocked out of that reverie when Benny's character showed up at the  house I was currently in. I'd been working my way toward a rep when I'd  been on last, and part of that was a good meeting place. A quick quest I  remembered from early on in my playtime had gotten me a bare bones  cabin to use.

This  whole forest was filled with them actually, since the quest was  repeatable, and the deed vanished when you got another house, so there  were almost always a few available, due to the out of the way location.  Luckily doors still worked, because Benny was banging on mine waiting to  come in. The strangeness of my best friend, who was in the room down  the hall, being at the door of a room I wasn't actually in and knocking  on said door with a second body that was technically part of a  holographic projection was not lost on me.

It  wasn't just me either, when I opened the door, Benny's orc shaman  looked...troubled. He nodded as I let him inside. "Man, remind me never  to play DS with someone in the same house again. My brain is twisting in  knots keeping track of both of our relative positions. This is deeply  unsettling." I nodded in agreement and he puffed out a breath. "Ok, so,  training day, part two. What are we going to do here? First you should  tell me how your Skill works by the way, is it character dependent? If  so let's go over your build."

That  seemed as good a place to start as any. "Yeah, seems to be character  dependent. As for my build." I shrugged. "Same as my last. I'm playing a  hybrid multi class rogue,diviner,and monk. Most of the websites call it  a Fatewalker build. The diviner's prediction and the monks elemental  attacks combined with the rogue's stealth and damage over time. So far  only my diviner layout has been available to me in real life. Makes  sense considering I started with the diviner class."

Diviner's  were mainly noncombat classes. Their prediction could be adjusted to  the template I had, with the multiple arrows and possible strike  options, but most people used them as a dowsing rod for finding deposits  of ore or rare plants. The further the divination the larger the arrow  and the less specific, but it was still a damn useful skillset. My build  was a somewhat unconventional one as far as DS characters went, but I'd  always enjoyed weird combinations in games, even if there were more  effective ways to do things.

Benny  blinked at that. "Huh. Diviner was the first to work? Even in order I  wouldn't have figured that. I'd have expected it to be rogue, or even  monk. Something physical based. Do you know why?" His character strolled  over and plopped down on my couch, one of those weird interactions that  was hard to figure out as someone watching from the outside. At his  question though, I had to stop and give that some thought.

Why  had my diviner skills been the first to unlock. Looking back, thinking  about the combination of factors, I was pretty sure it was because they  really only required a physical component, and I really only had  physical Skills. I didn't have the ability to throw fireballs or  mobilize Fantasy in a way that seemed like magic. I knew from talking to  Ian those skills existed, though they were mostly unlocked by mastering  enchanted items, still, I'd been firmly stuck in the mundane.

However,  that was in the past. I DID have a magical skill now. A crafting based  skill sure, but it still counted, and if the whole skill harmonizing  thing was what let me properly use my Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery  Skill, then now that I had Minor Enchanting Mastery, I should be able to  apply the less mundane aspects of my build. At least...a little bit. If  it worked the same I'd be limited to two attacks per day, but two  supernatural attacks was better than none, and I could potentially  improve that going forward.

Waiting  until I reached G rank wasn't the only way either. Apparently my number  of runes per point of Impact would rise when I hit Lesser Enchanting.  Only to two per point, granted, but still, it would be a big bump, and  it would compound the improvement from the Impact bump when I hit G  rank. I'd wondered why Zeke hadn't mentioned it, but in the end I'd  decided that he probably figured I would rush if I had the extra  incentive, and he wasn't wrong.

The  important thing here was that I had an idea of how to do this. I was  going to get one shot at this today, since I still had a rune to do for  Jessie's wand. I had to pick carefully. Something easy to use  preferably, and hopefully something that didn't do too much damage. In  reality I was still in my game room and I was pretty motivated not to  blow a fireball hole in my wall. My rogue skills were all dangerous to  others, I didn't think a curse or a cloud of poison would be a good idea  even if I had the stats to manage them, which I probably didn't.

That  left me with monk skills. Most of those were elemental though, and of  the elements the majority would be too damaging for an indoor test like  this. Fire was a no go, obviously, as was wind, because air pressure was  brutal. Earth would be feasible because it mostly just coated my limbs,  but that seemed creation heavy, and I only had a single point of that  for the moment. I decided my best bet was probably a water style  technique.

I'd  never focused much on the water style of my monk class, I tended to  prefer speed and explosive force, either fire if I was fighting head on  or wind when mixed with my rogue skills. I did have a few of them  though, and it didn't take me long to pick out the low level water  skill. The actual water required was scant so most of the heavy lifting  should be done by Fantasy, which I had more of, besides it was a low  level skill anyway so I doubted it would require much in the way of  stats.

The  technique in question was called mistwalking. It was literally the first  skill in the water tree for monks, and I had only even gotten it to  unlock the next layer of the tree because there was a steam skill in  there that worked well as a surprise attack. Still, it suited my purpose  here pretty well, so I brought up the game menu for my character with  the gestures needed and activated the skill. As I did though, I focused  on my Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery, my Minor Enchanting Mastery, and  both the Fantasy and Creation stats.

The  feeling of the two skills resonating was...intense. Minor Gymnastics  Mastery had been a clear subordinate to my DS Skill, but the resonance  it had been able to elicit from the larger Skill had been pretty tame.  It was clear to me that the Skill I paired my Lesser skill with would  have a huge impact on how powerful the resulting attack could be. I was  almost positive this was a half step version of what Ian and Callie had  told me about, partially making a unique skill, but I could tell that  true merging between the skills wasn't something you could do by  mistake, so using them this way was safe enough.

I  reached out to the air around me, feeling for the moisture. In the game  this part was done by the system, the concept of using nearby moisture  was just a mechanic that balanced water skill users. In reality though  this was important. I was using Fantasy to engage the moisture in the  air, minimizing the need for Creation at this step so I could employ it  later in the technique. It was a slow and draining process, but  eventually I managed to draw in a cloud of mist. I could see the  technique around me in the game as well, and Benny was staring, wide  eyed from his spot on my virtual couch.

Slowly,  deliberately, I used the game menu to shut off the scan box, leaving  myself standing in the empty room, alone. Tock had gone with Benny when  he went to my room, and that left me alone in the game room. Just me,  the scan box...and a cloud of opaque mist clinging to my skin. I almost  cheered when I noticed the skill still active, though the disturbance in  my mental state cause the already pitiful cloud of mist to dissolve,  but it didn't matter. Despite it being weak and temporary, I'd still  done it.

Enchanting  was the key to using my Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery skill to the  fullest. This accidental and insane skill that no one else had to my  knowledge was going to be the key to my success, all I had to do was  build up my stats to allow me to use it properly. My rogue class curse  techniques and stealth skills, the other elemental trees of my monk  class, even some of the more powerful diviner abilities. I could gain  access to these in reality, and it was a powerful skillset that would  really help me out.

I  understood now what Ian meant when he said unique skills were powerful  but complicated to improve, but with my abilities, I was sure I could  manage it. Sure I could succeed where a normal person would have no hope  of growing further. I could keep gaining experience for my skill  through wishes. Maybe a single persons Doom Sovereign Skills would be  useless, being even below a Minor Skill. But what about a thousand. Two  thousand. Ten thousand. If I kept gaining more and more experience I  refused to believe I couldn't get this skill to Beginner, or even  higher.

For  now though I needed to focus on learning more about my abilities with  skill through my own training. A foundation of normal peoples  experiences wouldn't be enough without actual practice and ability to  fill it out with. If I was really going to make a unique skill like this  I needed to put in the work. In the end though, I believed this was a  great idea. I was going to have at least one ability in my corner that  no one would see coming. Hopefully that ace in the hole would be my  secret to surpassing the other candidates. The idea of being the  Wishmaster suddenly seemed a lot more enticing when I had hope.