Augmented Aspects: Chapter 125 Growing Pains (Patreon)

Chapter 125

Growing Pains

I feel the throes of pain wake me, seemingly almost instantly from my slumber. As my muscles are cramping and expanding in ways, I cannot understand at first. That is until I finally let my mind process the system messages that are staring at me in the face, forcing me to awaken mid-slumber like suddenly realizing that you have a full bladder, where no matter how hard you try to fight against the pains, you know you must heed natures call. That is the same here, as I am forced to wake up and mentally accept the experience gained from the past battle.

The moment I accept the system message is the moment everything gets compacted and displayed to me.

Total Experience Gained from curing Blighted creatures:

166,150 / 83,075 / 83,075

Ding.

Level up.

Akashic Qi Master has increased to level 103.

New Class Evolution Point met.

Ethereal Simulacrums Master has increased to level 177.

Ethereal Healer has increased to level 206.

New Class Evolution Point met.

That was the experience gained for curing 3,323 creatures. Or roughly the experience gained from clearing the equivalent of 33.2 people’s worth of creatures. Given that one hundred creatures spawned from each participant, that number that I managed to cure completely was surprisingly light all things considered. If I had to guess that was less than a fifteenth of the total number of forces we faced, though I will admit it likely looked impressive given that the ones I took care of were the final fifteenth of the quest.

So, between my experience gained for curing so many creatures, and for finishing the Guild Quest, my overall gains were impressive. I managed to gain 11, 6, and 10 levels respectively to all my classes. This is not to mention the numerous Attributes that have been awakened thanks to my Legendary Bloodline providing me with additional Attributes per level. I have a feeling that that is where most of my discomfort is coming from. Well, who am I kidding, my classes are designed in such a way that every part of me will be affected from leveling. Thus, it would only be natural that leveling so much would cause a lot of pain.

Trying to divert myself away from the growing pains I am experiencing, I try to let my mind wander onto different topics. That is how I realize that, once again, I find myself being pushed to take yet another Akashic Qi Master evolution, when I still had not chosen the bonus for level 50. I know that if I am not careful, I will have my level 50 perk automatically chosen for me again. But right now, I do not care, as I have accepted the deluge of experience and my body has been allowed to finally expand to its proper shape and form. Fortunately thinking about this seems to be enough of a distraction, as I feel my consciousness slowly fading away.

With that, I can finally go back to sleep.

***

Pounding.

There is a pounding coming from outside my door.

Startled.

I crash awake, one second completely out. The next fully awake and processing that I am in the middle of a ship flying in the air a kilometer or more above the ground.

Blearily, I get up and rub my eyes. I don’t actually see, but I still find that I produce a glitter like substance similar to normal rheum, but mine is made from water that is mostly mana. Not too surprising given that I don’t eat or drink and just sustain myself off my own mana, but I am noticing that it is beginning to show itself more and more.

Now everything I secrete has glittery mana to it, my blood, sweat, and even my tears, well rheum.

WHAM! Bang! Wham!

There are two men outside my door, one of whom is banging loudly on my door. At least I think it is my door, as I feel the effects of my runes, but only on my left side. These are the wards I put up to both bleed off my additional spirit and healing auras that I have and try to make it so I don’t corrode the ships that I am on.

“Hello?” I ask, answering the door.

“See I told you, there was a stowaway on this ship.” The man next to the door shouts loudly.

“Stowaway?” I say trying to catch up to what is going on.

“Um, Steward, perhaps you should calm down here.” The man next to the loudly banging person says. It is clear from his voice that he has recognized me. I recognize him too as the captain of this airship.

Suddenly the situation becomes a little clearer, I am apparently in the wrong room.

“Calm down, why is this girl allowed to run around unsupervised. Also, look she has left glitter all over my bed.” The man, Steward, says as he barges past me and looks at the room. Then he looks at his mechanical equipment. “What did you do?” He says, grabbing a mechanical device that has clearly rusted in place and has that funky looking green residue on it. At least that is the way it looks to my eyesight.

Seeing that I want to argue, but then realize that might also be me as well, as I have a terrible time on mechanical devices.

“Oh, sorry about that. I was so tired that I think I crawled into the wrong bed.” I said.

“How? You know what, where are you supposed to be stationed, this floor is for the elite of the Guild!”

“Um, Steward, perhaps you should calm down…” The ship’s captain begins but is quickly cut off.

“No. A little brat comes in here destroys my clock, and my bed...” He trails off as he then opens a drawer with a very complex looking mechanical device in it. Well complex for basic standards. I’m pretty sure I was creating such devices when I was seven, but this is not the time to point that out as the man is clearly angry and shaking at this newly discovered broken device.

Seeing the second such device it is apparent that I likely need to move, lest I break something important that is required to keep this airship in place, as I am seeing firsthand the effect of one of my newest racial flaws.

Racial Flaw: Destructive Magical Presence: Your mere existence is enough to slowly degrade basic tier mechanical devices and has a half-life rating against intermediate tier level devices. Note: This is exactly the same expected wear and tear that a mechanical device would receive while inside an elemental realm of power.

I had placed wards within my own room and figured they would be enough, and they should, assuming I was in my room versus the room next to my own. Unfortunately, when I found the room, I was more than a little tired and nearing exhaustion I felt for my residual magical signature and jumped here.

“Captain, please find all things that I broke in this room and in the ship and charge them to my account.” I state.

“Very well,” the Captain says, bowing in agreement. He is clearly trying to deescalate the situation as much as possible by showing deferential treatment.

“Your account, do you know how much time and effort went into this?” Stewart screams, holding the item right in front of my face as if I am so blind I can’t see it without it being right under my nose. Joke’s on him, I am so blind that I couldn’t even see it with my eyes regardless of how close he put it.

Still, this is a bit much as he is now within my personal space and clearly only doing more to continue to agitate himself and hype himself up towards a path that will inevitably lead to violence. This is when I decided to show him all my eyes.

“Look!” I say, as I open my third eye and begin channeling power. Just a bit of Qi to both strengthen my body, this way I can better take a hit, assuming he does get violent. With this, I can also keep my mana free for a spell. See unlike using Qi, just cycling Qi within my body has a strengthening effect and a replenishing effect.

Honestly, the cycling of Qi is doing a lot more to awaken me than sleeping for four more hours would give me.

I should thank the man, but then realized that the only reason I got to this point is due to the fact that he seemed to be prone towards violence towards a child.

“Look, I said I was sorry. If you’d like I not only will pay for these items, but I will also try to work on crafting better items that could withstand going into an elemental realm.” I say, making note of the fact that I still have it on my list to improve my Gear Infusion skill, a skill that is said to be a gap between both mechanical devices and extreme magical powers. Something I will need to grow up with if I ever want to improve my current standing within the Mechanic’s Guild. Not that their opinion means much to me now, as I am pretty sure that my sponsorship with them has lapsed by this point. Come to think of it, even my Adventurer’s Guild membership was said to have expired as well.

Now that I have money, I can afford to get them reinstated, but I have other things to worry about. The main thing I must worry about is what happened to Hector and Golum, the two who had been maintaining my accounts in the various guilds before I left. While it had been a year, they did promise to keep my memberships active, but that was of course before the war between the Legrand and Maltese Empires.

Oh yeah, we lost that apparently.

That was sad, but seemingly inevitable. The Duke’s daughter is still in trouble, she was the one that burned my Tobias Spiritlight persona, and tried to get me indebted to her for life. Before I turned the tables on her and possibly used her as a smoke screen while I pulled off one of the best thefts the world had ever seen to that point. Humble brag to myself, as that was still a good one.

Silence.

Suddenly I realize the room is quiet as both the Captain and Stewart are both leaning away from me. Finally, they can sense the danger that was right before them.

Realizing I did that thing where my mind speeds up and gets lost in a moment, I collect myself and my thoughts, then realizing time still seems to be going slower I pause. Wondering if Qi somehow something has to do with the flow of time, or at least the way I seem to perceive time.

Regardless, I use the moment, stopping all flows of Qi, close my third eye and then wait for time to go back to normal. Or at least regular speed.

“Wha?” Stewart asks.

“All right, I think I’m needed back on the surface.” I say to the two of them.

“You can’t leave here yet!” Stewart says, moving towards the door as if that would stop me.

“Hah, do you think you could stop me?” I ask.

“Why you…” was all Stewart managed to say, before I disappeared completely from view.

Poof.

I cast Teleport and was instantly a kilometer and a half closer to the base. Fortunately, I had been so tired that I didn’t even dismiss my channeled spells, instead keeping them running just as I did for my Spirit Sustenance spell that is somehow always active.

As I arrive, I feel the distinct feel of Spirit magic.

There is a scent, or maybe a vaporous after effect that can only be felt when a soul is brought back to the realm of the living. Having experienced the sensation close to a dozen times myself by now, I know the scent and almost didn’t realize that there was any residual odor from such actions. Still, I can’t help but instantly panic, as I realize that I missed an important part of this process.

I was there for the entire battle, but then I left the cleanup to Jackie, well now Gwen, and the other remaining healers.

It only takes a second to home in on the unique smell of Resurrection Magic, and then a quick Teleport later I am next to her.

“I am so sorry.” I say, coming down, and instantly finding the next nearest body and begin performing Perfect Resurrection on the body.

“Don’t worry, we all know you had to have been tired.” Gwen says, patting me on the shoulder and using me for balance as she moves next to me to begin Resurrectingthe next body. There as so many. Even with all the precautions we had.

“No, I was selfish and rested when there was still more to do.” I say, feeling bad that someone like my parents might not get resurrected or get a second chance to do this correctly.

As I say that a firm hand lands on my shoulder.

“No, you did the right thing and left while we were still gathering the bodies. Even if you were here the whole time, many of these bodies were not here until just now, meaning that you would have just been waiting for nothing. It was good that you rested when you did.” Mallory says.

Sigh of relief.

Even if she is lying, I do feel a lot better hearing her say those words to me. With that, I relax slightly into her strong grip, before going back to my Perfect Resurrection casting.

The only thing I wish is that I had more mana as Resurrections do take up a lot of mana overall. Then just as I have the thought, I get a system message.

Would you like to make Perfect Resurrection the Trait available to your class Ethereal Healer at level 200?

Seeing the message, I realize I didn’t check to see what was available at my level 200 evolution point. Last time I managed to get new schools of magic available. This time I got offered the ability to choose more Traits. While the Trait offered would be an immediate need, I felt it might be a little limited in the future of not only my survivability, but for those that followed in my footsteps.

Realizing that this was not something to do as a knee jerk reaction, I decided to slow down. For the moment I was fine with casting Resurrections, especially with the aid of my daughter beside me.

“You take the easier to resurrect bodies. I Ill take the ones that will require more work to full repair.” I said. With that, I end up taking the bodies that were cut in half or had arms and legs that were ripped or chewed off. In one or two cases I just saw a free-floating spirit.

Those were the ones I grabbed and just began forming a new body entirely. As for others I tried to just work my way through. As I moved, I found myself getting tired again. Call it prolonged fatigue from not adequately resting for long enough before going through with stage two of this process.

During this time I did realize that there was something I wanted. Before one was chosen for me, I began working with the system to get me a level 50 Akashic Qi Master class Perk. Since I was the only one who would ever earn this class, I realized that I could be as selfish as I wanted to be with the class. As such, I realized what I wanted was a way to Meditate with my Qi, in a way that would not interfere with my casting, while also making it so I continually felt refreshed by the action.

Akashic Qi Master Class Perk (Proposed): Sustained Meditation: You wish to push your Mind and Body further than anyone has ever managed before. By focusing on cycling your Qi constantly, you feel you will be able to achieve a state of near perfect consciousness. Proposed Effect: +100% Mental Acumen while Channeling your Qi, +100% Qi and Mana Resonance Harmony, +100% Dual Qi and Mana Casting Efficiency.

Note: Insufficient capabilities between suggested Perk and current capabilities. Lacking: Skill: Mental Acumen, Skill: Qi and Mana Resonance, Skill: Dual Qi and Mana Casting Efficiency. Level 20 is required in all noted Skills before Perk can be assigned.

Seeing the message, I felt like I had been given a life raft. I was still far away from my goal, especially as I needed three skills to do what I wanted. But now I realized that what I wanted was in fact available, so long as I was willing to work for it. And one thing I believe most people will say is that when I want something, I can be relentless at getting that goal.

Seeing the system message, I let a smile fill my lips, as I continued to both Resurrect the brave warriors who sacrificed themselves for our Guild, all while I imagine different ways that I can try to unlock and learn these new skills that I previously had no clue even existed within the game.

Hmm, hmm, hmm.

I was even so happy at the possible new things to study, that I only belatedly found myself humming out loud, oh well, no one is going to say anything to the Healer about being happy, right? Well at least not to her face, apparently.

Though I can’t help but notice that quite a few people, Mallory included are looking at me strangely. Well, for Mallory it is more strange than usual. As for Gwen, I can’t tell where she is looking, though if I had to guess she seems completely silent and focused on her task at hand. Perhaps I should do the same, but I can’t help myself, thanks to this moment, coming back and healing people, not only am I helping others. I am also helping myself by finding new ways to improve myself.

Who wouldn’t be happy with improving yourself and others at the same time? Just as I think that I see Mallory just shake her head before turning away.

Don’t judge, I just finally know what this game wants me to do, and I think I can have fun once again exploring my future. So, I’ll hum if I want to, even if I am doing so while Resurrecting people.