Chương 2: BECMI Chapter 1 – Babyhood Sucks

The sudden pressure was astonishing, being squeezed from the size of something that rode the Veil and could see galaxies down to… whatever. Solidity was disturbing, settling in around me and feeling like crushing, impossible to breathe, the boom of a heartbeat like cannon fire in my ears… And then I was through the pressure, and there were glimmers of light as I was moved around roughly, then carefully.

There was a sharp blow on my backside, and phlegm spurted out my lungs, followed by a first instinctive breath of air. Perfume, piss, incense, blood, herbs… I couldn't open my eyes to see, nor could I understand what were certainly words being spoken.

"<Congratulations, Mistress. You have a beautiful baby girl! >" spoke a voice that was trying to sound enthusiastic and instead just sounded very wary and a bit pandering.

"<A male would have been stillborn! >" a sharp yet melodic voice replied, not sounding particularly friendly, as well as tired and strained.

"<Let me see her! >" Slender, strong hands received me with precise care, going over my skin, turning me over carefully. They lingered on my ears, tracing arcs up and down instead of around carefully, then returned me to what had to be right underneath her face, for I could feel her breath upon me.

"<She bears none of the markings of the Prophets. >" Definite disappointment.

"<And she definitely has her father's hair. What manner of magic has she inherited?... >" Gentle pressure peeled open my eyes. I couldn't focus, and a shadow loomed there, filling up my vision. I definitely felt her hands clench up, and a sucked-in breath.

"<M-Mistress? >" the first woman gasped in shock.

"<Blood and souls. Her magic is in blood and souls... >" There was an odd calm about the voice now.

"<I daresay her father would be quite pleased. >" Only a moment's hesitation.

"<That is true, Mistress. >" A pause.

"<What shall you name the child, Mistress? >""<She has not earned a name. Summon a shaman. Let them make a judgment on her worthiness, and only then shall she be worthy of a name. >""<As the mistress commands... >" The cold judgment in what was probably my mother's voice was not at all friendly, and I memorized every word I could not understand of the rather squeaky speech to my Visual File's auditory notes, determined to go over it in a few minutes. I had the feeling I had to act like, Right Now.

I was a bundle of living Karma, even if I was a baby. Take my first character level as per 'creation', I needed to spellcast right now, so- OUCH! I gurgled helplessly, probably had a spot of blood tear down my face.

It was a long moment before it was coolly wiped away, which didn't bode well for the future. I… could only take one Class? No choices whatsoever? Well, spellcasting came with it, at least. I Slotted Assay into a Cantrip slot, and used it internally, the core of my Matrix… Fuck, what was wrong with my Matrix? Black and red mana was swirling around it in a predatory flow of necromancy and hematomancy. I… had a natural Talent for Death and Blood Magic?! Oh, no. Oh, HELL no.

I was definitely not going to put up with this shit. Well, now I knew why the Void Phoenix had appeared to me. Telling me I had THEIR Bloodline, but to Awaken it I was going to have to do something about THIS Bloodline. And I so could. I had Slotted my Talent, and invested a Rank because I could while tumbling through the Void. I had Concentration, I had Focus, which meant I had this. Grimly, I started to spin my Matrix Core. I glared at the magic and the mana inside me and around me as it started to spin.

As it spun together, the black and crimson strands naturally wove and blended together into a murky, ugly slurry that looked like nothing less than crimson eyes on a tangle of black entrails. But as it continued to spin, faster and faster, more Bloodlines were teased out of the surrounding field. Completely dominated by the black and red, they were nevertheless dragged forth as the interior rotation of forces continued. Looked like a Verdant Bloodline there. Was that… elven? Another dark Bloodline, Vampiric?

Something Earth-based or crystalline. A touch of the Fey, that white-pink... The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Seven existing biases should mean… yes. The blue-white of the Arcane Bloodline congealed from the mana and joined the mess.

Unlike the others, mere threads which blended into or laid helplessly on top of the black-red spiral, the blue-white energies began to seethe, and build, clearly pulling on the other Bloodlines as the rotation pushed them together, and the fact that all Bloodlines used Arcane energy as their foundation meant it was the true core! Arcane Bloodline, the 'human' Bloodline, the mutt Bloodline. The Bloodline of magic itself, free of that goddamn Death/Blood bias, ignited, and began to consume all the others.

My Matrix, which had been weighted down by Blood and Death, insisting I Slot something to make use of them, flared the pure blue-white fury of Arcane power, and my Sage Bloodline was secured. I gurgled in relief, Slotted Assay there into one of my four starting Cantrip Slots, and Cast it into my Visual File.

========== Edgina Bludevich-Jubvanyl Halvyri/1 (Dhampir/shaden Elven) (infant) Str: 1 Con: 6 Dex: 3 Int: 18 Wis: 16 Cha: 17 Co: 20 Health: 4 (d6-2) Spells Known (Sage Sorcerer): 4/2 Spell Slots: -/3 Talent: Naturally Focused (Concentration Skill Checks +4) ============ My… base Class was a Racial Class? That… meant I only got one? No, wait, a DHAMPIR/shaden Elf? The child of a human vampire's get and… whatever a shaden Elf was. One elf for every possible terrain and elemental type, that was the trope, right?

Infinite types of elves... If that Sending was on the ball, and I was a weird Halvyr, that meant I could also take an advance in my parent races. It wouldn't stack, but it would draw on their strengths and lay in a stronger foundation, a hybrid instead of a half-breed. I wanted to waffle in choice paralysis. I had a LOT of choices to make, I had to respin how I was going to advance, and I had the feeling I had to do it quickly, because something just felt wrong in how I was being handled. Distant. Unloved.

Like a thing instead of a precious baby. Damn, that felt cold to even think. Then again, looking at my ancestry, I could only think it was appropriate for a background like mine. Should I be perversely proud of it and the challenge that was coming? No, I should plan like goddamn crazy to survive, was what I should do! I focused my Assay on my Halvyri/1, wanting to know my current options and future paths. There was almost a blip as my Class Progression was laid out before me. I stared at it in consternation.

It was… very strange. Five saves, divided by style of attack instead of type. So, Physical/Death/Poison, Magical Items, Creature Magical Abilities, Breath Weapons, Cast Spells. No Stat modifiers to them at all... The save modifier didn't go up, the base number needed went down, and it went down quickly. From a starting 8/9/10/13/12 on a 20 scale, it dropped all the way to 2/3/4/4/3 at 10, but never improved after that, despite the Progression going all the way to 21 before trailing off.

Did that mean that static spells didn't have improving Save DC's? Wow, that felt… odd. And would mean that high-Valence Save or Die spells were next to worthless against high-level people with any kind of Save Boosters. It basically rendered things like the Sun Saves totally ambivalent. I would have to revise my magical combat tactics accordingly… GET ON TRACK, EDGE! Hah, my nickname would be Edge. Edgelord, Lord Edge, Lady Edge? I wanted to giggle in incredulity…

GET BACK ON TRACK, FOCUS, FOCUS, ignore how cool Mom felt, was she even going to give me a chance to nurse?... Racial Hit Dice stopped at 9. That didn't bode well, especially if they were d6's. Increasing my toughness was going to be a priority. The Spell Progression was wonky, too. It was definitely faster and accrued more rapidly on the lower Valences. The tables I was familiar with maxed at six base Slots, with bonus Slots for high Stats.

This progression kept accruing more Slots, and at Twenty-One, or Rank M, were up to a full base 11 Spell Slots in Valences I and II! … but there were no bonus Slots for high Stat lines, either. There was absolutely no visible room for other Classes. No multi-Classing, no dual-Classing. I had one road, and I was stuck on it. Huh. Well, eff that. The combat progression followed the magical, although there seemed to be some glitching, as if I had to choose between one System after Ten and not the other.

Magically adept, or martially adept? Hah, no, I wasn't going to accept that limitation, either. And as long as there existed some Class somewhere you could take or advance in after starting your ride, I should be free and clear to do so! There was a hesitation, and then the advance schema in front of me crystallized into 'Yes, you can take that, just pony up the extra Karma.' I eyed the new progression, and pictured how far I could rise if I went Ironskull on both sides.

There was some recalculating, and it glimmered all the way to H/H, or about a 16/16, if I just followed the paradigm in front of me and did little else. Uh-huh. And since I couldn't go Wide, if I went full Deep, took all my Feats at each level, and maxed out my Masteries? … There was some variability, given the randomness in how much Feats and Masteries could cost, but it contracted down to D/D, or about a 12/12.

Which was a major cost in Karma, all things told, but looking at the Karmic scale, advancing to high Levels was actually fairly easy, taking the same amount per Level, instead of increasing after Ten like the PoT Matrix system did. Whether the same things were worth the same xp as you went up in Level was another question, of course. That meant that delaying taking Feats and Masteries early capped at later cost. Interesting.

However, it also meant I had a very fixed amount of Skills, Feats, and Masteries I could rely on, as going wide would restrict my choices! Anything else I was missing on the basic advance? Skill points? Four at first, plus Intelligence bonus. No rogue-style Skills, except Stealth, either reserved to that Class or not considered Skills here. No particular 'class skills', and you got one additional Skill every +3 levels. So for me, at 4, 7, 10, E, H, and K.

Maybe past M, if I could still accrue XP, even if only for AB and Caster Level? Blip! The top end extended up at fixed cost past M, indicating that was so. The only thing that would improve otherwise would be my attack bonus and Caster Level… which was fine, I guess? … Basically, this advance schema worked out to a Warrior-Caster. Which was fine enough for me to work with, I was just going to have to be careful, because being a Sorcerer came with some extreme drawbacks… namely, a largely fixed spell list.

I knew half a dozen ways around such a thing, from a Ring of Spell Knowledge to Versatile Spontaneity to Pages of Spell Knowledge, but pure breadth of spells in memory required a Wizard for all those edge cases and corner solutions. But… what about those side Racial Classes there? They were there as alternate choices for advancement, and looked like my only chance to go Wide. I could take them as supplements at Four or Seven, or just non-stacking Width right now. Could I take them right now?