66 (I) Arsenal

A Pathbearer is more than their own skills, their team, their strategy.

A Pathbearer is also their equipment.

Your equipment will keep you alive. It will make you better. It will shore up your weaknesses and enhance your strengths.

If you have the right piece of equipment, you can face a Pathbearer a Tier above you—even beat them decisively. Indeed, a middling Pathbearer granted a Legendary weapon or armor could prevail against incredible odds, even when their personal power is lacking. But understand that this is not a guarantee. No, this is merely a possibility of victory offered when there was none before.

That’s the main benefit of equipment: new possibilities.

But understand that it works the other way as well. A Legendary weapon can be failed by a middling Pathbearer. These situations end with the weapon taken from the weak Pathbearer by a more deserving wielder. So understand that you do not end where your equipment begins, and it does not extend beyond you.

You are the wielder, and it helps you prevail. Understand the weapons and armor you possess, understand what you need, what you lack, and you can go far.

And should you be fortunate, the System will reward you. It may bestow upon you a blade when your offense is lacking, or offer you an instrument to stop Jump Mages from ambushing you if you had no recourse before. Perhaps even a shield may be granted as a boon if you are fragile and wanting in defense.

But whatever the case, do not rely on the System to reward you; seek out what you require. Your life is your responsibility, and that is why, above all, any Pathbearer who refuses to see themselves properly equipped for their task will not be ascending for long.

And regardless of what you receive, remember who is the wielder and who is wielded…

-The Paths of Ascension, Essential Reading at Phoenix Academy of The Yellowstone Republic

66 (I)

Arsenal

“Keep—keep her

It was a surreal sight, watching the almost 200-meter-long Dynamancer dragon grovel and beg. Its claws dug through clumps of dirt, and it wept like a traumatized, broken child. Just fifty meters away, its Inertium pike lay buried in the skull of its sole remaining companion.

Uva shared with Adam and Shiv what she did. She took hold of the Dynamancer’s mind. Then, as his sole surviving comrade tried to burn a team of wounded Trapdoor Weaveresses, she had the Dynamancer drive the weapon into its comrade from behind.

And now, the sole surviving dragon was barely sane. The trauma from being made to murder his own companion rendered it broken and hollow. It couldn’t even look at Uva—wouldn’t meet her eyes as she stared at him.

Uva extended her Psychomancy threads out across the battlefield, coordinating with the surviving Shadow Cells, calling them in, and telling them to bring Valor with them.

Nearby, Shiv and Adam looked upon the Umbral with differing expressions. Shiv had a light look of euphoria on his face, and a feeling of desire spread through his body.

“That was felling awesome,” he breathed, looking between the mind-broken living dragon and the nearby dead one. “Godsdamned, Uva. I mean… Godsdamned.”

For most of his life, Shiv was ostracized and alienated. Relationships weren’t a possibility for him, and he never truly thought about his type. He was attracted to certain people, but that was about it. Right now, though, he discovered a very particular thing about his preferences: He very much liked cold and terrifying women, and some part of him realized that was likely a result of spending so much time under Georges as well. That thought made him shiver for a moment, but he shrugged it off.

The kitchen really made me who I am, Shiv thought with wonder.

Comparatively, Adam’s eyes were wide, his pupils dilated in near terror. He kept looking at the dragon as it lay in the dirt, shaking and weeping. The Young Lord shuddered.

“Shiv, it is good that we have a reliable and potent ally in the form of Sister Uva, isn’t it?” Adam said, swallowing. Shiv found himself vaguely aware of what the Young Lord was doing. The man was trying to reframe the situation in more palatable terms. What Adam was really terrified about, however, was how Uva could now easily rip into his mind as well and use him as a meat puppet.

Adam clearly didn’t like the idea of being used as a meat puppet one bit.

“Don’t worry, Adam,” Uva suddenly said. “I would never do that to you.” She turned to smile at him. “Not without reason.” She clearly meant that humorously, but a burst of cold fear still came from Adam, and her expression turned serious. “Adam, I would never break your mind that way.”

“Without reason,” Adam replied, swallowing once again. “I think, I think that given the proper circumstances, and if I annoy you enough—”

“If you annoy me severely enough, at the most, I would perhaps take away your short-term memory. So you suddenly forget what you were on about and stop talking. Short of you becoming an enemy of the Composer and Weave, I will not harm or twist your mind.” Uva infused an injection of honesty into Adam. “Adam, hear my words. I will not hurt you this way. You are a noble friend and a reliable comrade. And Psychomancy is a heavy burden and a potent power to bear. I will not use it carelessly.”

Adam’s fear faded, and a slight affection replaced it. “Thank you, Uva. Why, if I was this terrified of Shiv, he would continuously tease me.”

Shiv eyed the Young Lord and poked him in the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Adam. I’m going to continuously tease you about being afraid of Uva.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Of course you are.”

The Young Lord sighed as he looked around. This stretch of the umbral wilderness was almost completely annihilated. The light of a burning forest beyond the horizon lit up their features. Adam's breath dragged as he pressed his lips together. “I didn’t appreciate how destructive fights between Master-Tier opponents could get.”

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“And this didn’t go unnoticed,” Uva said. “I can feel other minds approaching, many of them. Some of them are First Blood vampires. Dimensionals as well. They are avoiding the area, though. Just patrols, with no urge to die. I can feel the fear seeping from their minds.”

“How can you tell?” Shiv asked.

Uva hummed. “The way they think, the things they speak about.”

“Just how far does your mana reach now?” Adam blinked.

Uva regarded him for a moment and frowned in concentration. “Maybe a bit over twelve kilometers.”

“Twelve kilometers?” Adam blurted out. “Twelve?”

Uva narrowed her eyes at him. “You can shoot much further than that with your Awareness and your…” She regarded his bow. “Your new arrow. What is that?”

“That’s a Veilpiercer arrow,” Adam said, coughing as he suddenly adjusted his posture. He held his head high and pulled his shoulders back, puffing out his chest without even realizing it. “It allows me to fire an arrow across dimensions. More than that, it lets me create a temporary dimension between me and my target. The arrow also gets faster the longer it travels. Tell her, Shiv.”

Instead of telling her verbally, Shiv just sent her the memory—and especially of Adam saving him from the axe-bearer. Despite Shiv’s unrelenting urge to tease Adam, that memory of Adam extending a hand down to Shiv after distracting the axe-bearer meant a lot. Especially with the way his strange dream bled over into it. Shiv paused. There was a heaviness inside of him. The Young Lord and he—they didn’t have the best history. But after all this, after Shiv saved Adam and Adam came back for him, whatever they were before, it wasn’t anymore. He was sure of it.

“That is quite impressive, Adam,” Uva said. “And your arrows, they move faster the longer they travel?”

“Indeed,” Adam said. “I don’t even know the limits to that. And when it tears open a dimensional rift, the arrow doesn’t move in reality, right? It just accelerates even faster and travels on a shorter route. And we can travel through the dimensional tear. It’s not nearly as long as taking the direct route in the physical world. There are so many things I can do. There are so many experiments I can…” His words trailed as a flash of light washed over them.

All three of them turned and noticed three beams shooting high into the sky. The colors that composed the beams were dynamic, constantly shifting, and tendrils of mana zipped up from the land, splashing into the beams. More than that, the rising columns of magic called to each of them with a soft squeal.

Just then, notifications flashed across all three of their eyes.

Master-Tier Equipment Reforged

Shiv grunted a laugh. “Right, we still got some hidden Master-Tier items to pick up. I got a feeling I know what I’m about to get. What about you two?”

Adam briefly narrowed his eyes, his irises flaring as he activated his Seer of Horizons. A few moments later, his expression changed into one of fascination.

“What?” Shiv replied. “What do you see?”

“I… We should go and gather the items first. I’m pretty sure I know what the system prepared for you, Shiv, but me and Uva… might have some examining to do. Wait, let me make this quick.” The Young Lord promptly fired three arrows at once. Three different dimensional rifts then appeared before them, leading to three different glowing items. Uva and Shiv stared at Adam. He just grinned. “One at a time. Someone needs to watch the prisoner.”

***

Something about Tarlow’s kukri felt right in Shiv’s hand. The system applied its strange magics to reduce the great blade’s size and make it easier for him to wield, but there were some other minor changes as well. For one, the handle was now completely molded from adamantine bone, which let him mold it using his Biomancy.

Equipment Obtained: [Rememberer of Wounds]

Tier: Master

Condition: Perfect

Composition: Adamantine Bone; Stellarite

Enchantments > Speed-Amplification; Self-Mending; Conduit of Dawn; Chrono-Anchored Strike; Binding

As Shiv held the blade, he examined its composition beyond the handle. The blade itself was Stellarite, much like the saber he got for Adam. Much like Harkness’s rapier as well. The blade thrummed with power, but it wasn’t just Shiv’s Deepest Edge. Instead, fractals of gold rippled out from its curved length as Shiv studied the blade. It also made his body feel lighter and faster. No wonder Tarlow felt so absurdly fast with the blade in her hand.

Shiv examined its Enchantments and frowned. He knew what most of them meant. Conduit of Dawn was how she unleashed beams of intense heat from the blade, but Chrono-Anchored Strike was something unknown to him. To him, but not to Uva.

“A Chronomancy Enchantment…” Uva blinked. “That is remarkable. For someone to invest such a skill into a blade… It's unthinkable. The number of people who develop Chronomancy—it’s rarer than even becoming a Psychomancer.”

Shiv spun the blade in his hand and tested it. He walked over to the dead dragon nearby and slashed at it. Deepest Edge carried the cut all the way through, and the unmoving corpse was hewed open as if someone had dropped a 100-meter-long guillotine upon its neck. Shiv took a few steps back and reached into the blade’s Enchantment, focusing on the deep power within, and just as he remembered performing the cut, he immediately jolted across existence—across time as he repeated the very same slash. Once more, his Deepest Edge and other skills triggered, and this time, the dragon was completely beheaded. Blood spewed across the ground, and Adam shuddered.

“Wow,” Shiv breathed. “That explains how she kept stabbing me in the back the same way every time—how it felt like she just kept blinking into me. I guessed it might have been spatial magic, but Can Hu said it could be—” Shiv paused. “Shit. Can Hu!”

He was about to launch himself into the air to seek his downed automaton companion when Uva told him to remain calm as her mana strings twitched with new information.. “Trapdoor found him. He is well. They will transport him soon. He also wishes to convey a message: He says that he is ashamed that he couldn’t help more.”

Shiv shook his head. “The only reason why I managed to block practically anything Tarlow did was because of Can Hu. When I lost it, she started smashing me around—flung me into the big guy, and he cracked my skull open, even though Adamantine Adaption reduces the damage from repeated attacks a lot.”

“Right, about that. Shiv, have I told you what a bloody cockroach you are?” Adam asked.

Shiv nodded indifferently. “Practically every day.”

“It’s a compliment, this time. That thing was hitting you hard enough to cause small earthquakes. When it struck you with its axe the first time, I passed out just from the shockwave.”

Shiv considered that, and he snorted. “Yeah, you do have kind of a glass jaw.”

Adam scoffed. “Or maybe I’m a normal person who doesn’t get skills meant for monsters.”

Shiv grunted. “Maybe. I don’t see a problem with being an obscene monster. Helps me survive.” He rubbed his face. There were a lot of pieces in him that were still broken. When his Biomancy recovered, he was going to store some of his new wounds for examination. He had almost managed to create a magically constructed injury against the Psychomancer, but he was still missing a lot of details. This would be good for practical study.

“Well, anyway, perhaps this might help me with my fragility,” Adam muttered. He plucked a vambrace off the ground, and Shiv stared at it. It looked like a cracked, broken, withered length of blackened leather, but it was still held together by something he couldn’t see. As Adam stretched his armored hand through the vambrace, a fissure splashed over his arm—a fissure of green and corrosive energy.

Shiv flung himself back twenty meters. “Shit, Adam! Felling warn me when you put on something Necromantic!”

But the Young Lord was no longer listening. Instead, he observed his new vambrace, flexing his fingers, and the corrosion danced between every digit. Slowly, a fissure opened atop his palm—a fissure that expanded and became a realm filled with lashing, corrosive power. It widened into a dense shape that pulled at the world, drawing in motes of withered blackness. Studying the item through Adam’s mind, Shiv saw its Enchantments as well.

Equipment Obtained: [Vambrace of the Corroded Domain]

Tier: Master

Condition: Corroded

Composition: Withered Leather

Enchantments > Master Spatial Anchor; Master Dimensional Corrosion; Necromancy 50; Binding