Chương 92: 154- Battlefield Of My Making

Vraxious- Sanctuary Vrax had some ideas for what he would put the rest of his essence into; one he definitely wanted to level a little bit was the loam caller vines. While they weren't an amazing combat option compared to Adapt Life except for in a pinch. What they did have was some utility he had been lacking overall. His adapted life didn't listen to him at all unless the damned things wanted to or he bribed them, he could twist and shape it.

Morph life into more than it was before, but it was still its own being. And if that being wanted to go eat Ms. Rodrick down the lane, he couldn't just tell it no. He would either have to chase the damn thing off or Bribe it with some food it wanted more than a slightly musty retiree. Or have the damn foresight to give Ms. Rodrick a mark of Vurune so she got shuffled way down on the list of preferred foods. The loamcaller vines, however, while the skill said they fight for the paladid that wasn't its limit.

They listened to him, accepted and acted on commands, even at great distances. At least until they ate their hosts fully and melted away, returning to the cycle. Vrax had just barely gotten those letters to Chronus by finding some of the biggest birds he could and killing them in a way that left the Loamcallers plenty of food to feed off of for the flight there. Apparently they barely made it there anyway.

Chronus had told him the guild leader he had sent the letters to had really not been thrilled at the delivery method. An apparently undead bird the size of a man smacking into the guild leader whilehe was standing on the porch caused quite the uproar. Vrax probably should have been more specific with the instructions he had given the loamcallers. The statue for the loamcaller had taken his recent activities into account. Now it just showed Vrax turning a handful of dead crows into little harbingers of annoyance.

He smiled, birds could, at a high enough level, open up some interesting options for him, but for now he would start small with a basic, if probably expensive, change. Vrax looked at the loamcaller description again, still surprised at how they actually worked. Sure, they could fight, but they weren't great at it. I wonder… if I give up on an aspect of this skill, how much cheaper will other changes be?

[Skills] [Loamcaller Vines] Grow a vine that will utilize the corpse of a fallen entity for nutrients, animating its meal and fighting for the Paladin until the host corpse is reduced to nothing but dust. [Mana Cost: Medium] Vrax decided to get a bit creative with his attempt to level the skill up while limiting one of its core aspects. He knew it could be done; it was common knowledge that reducing the scope of skills was possible.

It was often done if someone had leveled up a skill and no longer wanted the changes they had made. It wasted essence, but that was better than having a useless skill. But he didn't know for sure if you could reduce the scope of a base skill in hopes of making future changes cheaper; this would be the first essence he assigned to it. Vrax shrugged; he was pretty sure it was impossible to truly break a skill accidentally. So he would try it.

Meh, if I can just use the loamcallers like my little useful minions, I would much rather just do that and stick with adapt life for actual combat forms. Although that definitely isn't going to help with people assuming I'm a necromancer… ehh, whatever. Vrax gathered his lake of essence in a few crashing waves until he had a maelstrom of swirling water that came up to his knees, bound to his will. He washed the waters over the sculpture, eroding part of the skill and rebinding its purpose.

He held the image of the loamcaller vines fighting in his mind and then tried to shift it towards just following simple commands, giving up a measure of autonomy. He held onto the image of simple commands while feeding the rest of the essence into the statue with a simple goal. Efficiency: if the vines were for tasks, they shouldn't need to consume corpses nearly as fast.

The essence finished washing into the statue, and he quickly opened the skill to see if the changes had worked, especially with the relatively moderate amount of essence he used. [Loamcaller Vines](lvl 3) Grow a vine that will utilize the corpse of a fallen entity for nutrients, animating its meal and following simple commands from the Paladin until the host corpse is reduced to nothing but dust. Vastly decreased rate of corpse consumption [Mana Cost: Medium] Haha! It worked!

Well, hot damn, now I have a way to send messages and more as long as I have a body around! Gods, that's going to be useful. No more packmuling loot out on my own. I'll carve off the good bits and make the monster corpse carry its own parts back… Okay, wow, that's a bit dark… still practical though… Vrax wandered around his lake thoughtfully for a few minutes.

He had two skills that were well within reach of evolution: his Cistern of Bloom and Decay, which he used all the damn time lately for everything from cover to providing life for his armor's shields to be fueled by. Then of course there was Adapt Life, and The menagerie his Stigmata held. Those skills working together were the cornerstone of most of his accomplishments so far. There was another contender, his Forest Specter talent.

He could try and craft it to be even more, but it would be challenging and, in essence, gluttonous at best. He fucking loved the upgrade to the talent he had gotten from overachieving on his level 50 trial. It had taken his forest strider talent and dialed it up to an absurd degree. I'm practically fucking invisible if I have enough plants around and the freedom of movement it provides, especially in conjunction with me using the cistern on fucking everything; it feels damn near unfair.

But unfair is good, unfair keeps me uneaten. Vrax stopped at the sculpture of the cistern and thoughtfully opened the system's description of it. [Cistern of Bloom and Decay](lvl6) Manipulate the cycle of decay and regrowth around you. Life changed to decay in this way is stored within the cistern; stored life leaks away over time. Targeted decay will be reborn as what it once could have been. Improved control over what is reborn. Stored life may be used to heal the wounds of nearby entities.

[Mana Cost Moderate] Vrax was leaning towards the Cistern. Adapt life, at least at the moment, was still mostly limited by his mana, and he had just jacked that up by nearly a hundred points. So at least for the immediate future there was plenty he could still do with it. And if he was being honest with himself, he was curious what evolution options he would get. He had added the ability to heal with it, and that had saved his ass more times than the Smites slight healing effect did.

But he had used it for its original purpose more than anything else, a repository of life; he could seed the land with changing battlefields to suit his needs. Hmm alright… I have half-ish of my essence left, and there was a whole lot when I started; that should be enough to get it to level ten and trigger the evolution, but what the hell should I do with the skill for those four levels' worth of essence?

Its capacity is fairly large, and honestly, the mana doesn't ever become much of an issue unless I'm throwing smites around a bit too judiciously. I could expand on the nature of the cisterns' healing... or maybe get the plants to regrow after I rot them? Actually that's an insane idea… do I have enough essence for that? If the plants my shield rends for energy just regrow… continuing the cycle over and over, it would suck to fight on any battlefield I cast the cistern on.

There is no way it would be free, though I could probably get the skill to accept it with more draw on the cisterns' stored life. Vrax looked unsure at the large amount of essence behind him; he was planning to try something that would be stretching the skills' power and probably bump it up more than four levels. He shrugged and started gathering all of the lake behind himself. Worst case I waste five or six paladins' worth of essence; that's not bad, that's like one busy afternoon.

I really need to stop measuring quantities of essence in Paladins; if I ever say that out loud, even more rumors are going to get started. Vrax started pouring essence into the sculpture. He held the image of a forest roiling to life from rotted, blasted ground. Being ripped apart by battle and stigmata drains and then blooming forth again without him needing to use his cistern again. The essence washed in but didn't solidify; the image wasn't quite what he needed to make it work.

While holding the essence in place in the sculpture, he adjusted his will slightly, imagining a tether leading from him to the new life covering the ground, letting it trickle the bit more life it needed to continue the cycle. That did the trick, and the essence locked into place, upgrading the skill. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. [Cistern of Bloom and Decay](lvl11) Manipulate the cycle of decay and regrowth around you.

Life changed to decay in this way is stored within the cistern; stored life leaks away over time. Targeted decay will be reborn as what it once could have been; life, reborn in this way, will continue to be reborn, drawing slightly on the cistern if destroyed. Improved control over what is reborn. Stored life may be used to heal the wounds of nearby entities. [Mana Cost Moderate] [Skill Evolution Available] And there we go, hot damn.

I was worried that wouldn't be quite enough essence for that change, but it worked just fine. That's pretty great; I'll just have to make sure I don't empty my reserves fighting and leave myself with nothing left to heal myself. Vrax could instinctively tell that he could cut off the rebirth effect if he wanted to, so unless he was being totally incautious, it was all upsides as far as he was concerned. With all his essence spent for now, there was only one thing left.

He eyed the notification for an evolution with a satisfied smile and selected it. His view immediately was thrown upward into the familiar god's-eye view of the forested glade most of his skill options were presented in. The cloaked, slightly shadowy version of himself stood in a patch of especially dense grass with a small flock of devourers bobbing by overhead. Approaching him from the distance was a towering beast; each of its footfalls shook the glade heavily.

It burst from the treeline and charged towards the cloaked man. He darted backwards from the patch of grass; the moment his form cleared it, his arms swept inwards like he was compressing an invisible ball of force. The entirety of the thick patch of grass shriveled inwards on itself, along with a single tree on the edge. Compressing into a startlingly brilliant green orb. The inside of the orb swirled with the natural hues of the grass and occasional brown of the tree's bark.

The cloaked man rushed forward and snatched the orb from where it hovered in the air; he considered throwing it to trip the beast briefly, then instead stood his ground, orb in hand. The four-legged beast crashed towards him, mouth open to swallow him whole. He side-stepped with incredible speed, lobbing the orb into the beast's mouth.

There was a flash of light, and suddenly the stolen patch of nature roiled free from the beast's mouth, roots digging into its flesh, and the tree explosively pierced free from one of its eyes. Well damn, that's a handy one. It lets you snatch sections of the damn world and unleash them wherever you damn well please. This is a great example of it in use. I could see it being fantastic against larger beasts or anywhere totally devoid of life or soil for the cistern to use.

I do wonder how long those little orbs last, though. With how the normal cistern leaks over time, I'm sure it's not anything permanent. But even a day or two would be excellent. The glade reset to the next evolution option for the cistern; this time the glade was filled with short trees ending just over the cloaked man's head. Each had thick, sharp-looking leaves that angled downward. And interspersed between them were fluffy, oddly perfect shrubs shaped like damned clouds.

The cloaked man stood unmoving in the center of the vegetation while threshers with a telltale green glow to their eyes battled against unadapted threshers. Each immune to the others' deadly gazes, so the battle came down to claw and fang. Beasts tearing into each other with savage efficiency. But the tide slowly shifted towards the cloaked man's side.

Each time an adapted Thresher took a vicious or potentially lethal wound, the nearest plant would sink inward on itself, sending life-giving energy to the Thresher, patching wounds and knitting arteries. Eventually the battle ebbed, and the man's forces stood whole among a field of dead enemies and the scarred landscape that had sacrificed itself to heal them. Uhhhh… that's fucking fantastic…

The drain on the cistern would be immense, but that would synergize beautifully with the cycle of regrowth I just built into the skill. My adapted life would be even more problematic. Something like a daisy that isn't really dead until you turn it into pulp would be unholy if it were constantly getting healed. One last vision of the glade to go! Gods I love evolutions and skill selections. The options I get are honestly just the coolest, and it gives me great ideas for the future.

Vrax happily watched the glade reform into another scenario. This time it just looked like a patch of the forsaken lands. Hissing acidic trees' glowing, waist-high mushrooms and ivy that slowly snaked around above the man. The man was calmly creeping through the forest, knees slightly bent to stay low, practically invisible as he weaved his way through a small patrol of golden-armored figures. They were fanned out, obviously searching for him.

They seemed terrified, whirling at every noise and shouting at each other regularly to check in. The cloaked man scoffed quietly and waited for a cluster of three of them to approach the roots of a large tree. Two stood in defensive positions while the third stabbed his sword into the hollow the roots made, seemingly sure that he had found their quarry's hiding place.

He held up his armored hand, wisps of emerald mana filtering from his fingertips near invisibly, fluttering through the forest before subtly landing on the large tree. Where the mote of mana landed, the tree erupted. The entire side grew in a confusing tangle of roots and bark that washed over a ten-stride section of the forest and felled trees. The men next to it were utterly buried under strides of wood and dirt.

The cloaked man staggered at the effort, breathing heavily before taking a knee to let his mana replenish. The greenery around him slowly browning as he refilled his cistern. The vision ended, and Vrax mulled his options while the visions began replaying one by one. That last option was fantastic as well! Some kind of rapid overgrowth evolution you could use offensively or, I'm sure, as a way to create obstacles. Seemed to have an utterly immense mana and cistern drain though.

Vrax went ahead and selected the second option. Having automated healing that targeted his wounded allies and only required plant life to fuel it was far too good to give up. [Skill Evolution] [Gift Of the Cycle] Lands blessed by your cistern will sacrifice themselves to heal your allies. Vrax let out a long happy sigh and went to pull up his full status. This time he willed it to show all the evolutions as well. He still left out a couple of his less relevant achievements.

They just made it so the darn thing was cumbersome, and they didn't matter too much for how he allocated his essence. At this point his list of powers was getting impressive. [Vraxious Tier-1] (lvl 71) (Unique) [Paladin Of The Cycle] You will safeguard the cycle of life and death. Wield the powers of growth, of change, and of decay to set the world free from those who would hold it stagnant. Stand tall with weapon held high and strike down those who would fetter you.

You will adapt the life of the world around you to serve your will; life leads to change, change leads to death, death leads to rot, and rot leads to life, and thus the cycle continues. [Skills] [Loamcaller Vines](lvl 3) Grow a vine that will utilize the corpse of a fallen entity for nutrients, animating its meal and following simple commands from the Paladin until the host corpse is reduced to nothing but dust.

Vastly decreased rate of corpse consumption [Mana Cost: Medium] [Decomposing Smite](lvl10) Instantly infuse your blows with entropy, corroding your foes and using their essence to heal your wounds. You may shape the path of the entropic energy with your will and cast it beyond your weapons. The entropic power decreases rapidly with range. [moderately more effective vs resistances] [Skill Evolution] [Primed Smite] Smites may be layered upon one another and detonated as a unified attack.

[Cistern of Bloom and Decay](lvl11) Manipulate the cycle of decay and regrowth around you. Life changed to decay in this way is stored within the cistern; stored life leaks away over time. Targeted decay will be reborn as what it once could have been; life, reborn in a way, will continue to be reborn, drawing on the cistern if destroyed. Improved control over what is reborn. Stored life may be used to heal the wounds of nearby entities.

[Mana Cost Moderate] [Skill Evolution] [Gift Of the Cycle] Lands blessed by your cistern will sacrifice themselves to heal your allies. [Adapt Life] (lvl 16) Change living beings to better suit your needs. Entities changed with this skill will be less hostile towards the paladin and towards those who wear an adapted mark of the cycle upon themselves. You may view and adapt the [talents] and [skills] of adapted entities.

Faster changes or changes farther from the base functions of an entity will use exponentially more mana. The more powerful an entity, the more mana required. All adapted entities can be called back to you; the willingness of them to return hinges on distance and if they are occupied. Adapted entities may be grafted together; this process destroys the lesser creature and is subject to all normal mana requirements.

[Mana Cost Massively Variable] [Increased Efficiency] [Duration Permanent] [Skill Evolution] [Apex Guardian] [2/2 Guardians Chosen] You may designate an adapted creature as your apex guardian. This will strengthen the bond you share with it as well as vastly decrease the mana costs required to adapt it. [Stigmata: Wrath Of The Cycle] (lvl 23) Woe befall those that would cause harm to those under the sacred canopy of our protection. Life is a struggle. Life is pain. Life is hunger. Life is fear.

Let those who threaten our beloved feel naught but the wrath of the grove until they are returned to the cycle. [Menagerie of Predation, twenty slots available] Entities and seeds in the Menagerie will make copies of themselves. The drain of the menagerie now seeds the sparks of life. Your stigmata will drain the life from your surroundings to shield itself. The stigmata will burn in the presence of enemies of Vurune, granting increased aid in slaying them.

When clad in your stigmata armor, nothing shy of the mightiest of divine magics will reveal anything other than that you are [The Paladin Of The Forsaken Lands](Chosen Of Vurune). [Talents] [Forest Specter] The forest around you will drastically aid your movement based on intent, be that speed or stealth. [Passive] [The Herald Of The Hunt] Shrines to Vurune in places where the cycle reigns supreme allow the Champion of Vurune to stake a king's claim. Maintain supremacy to maintain your claim.

Claw and Fang, Sword and Staff, will answer those who question the resurgence of the god of life, the god of death, and the ever-changing progress he brings. Craft places of savagery and growth that revel in the challenges of the constant struggle between life and death, my champion. [Passive] [Predator's Gaze] Reveal a living being's name, tier, and level if it is an essence-infused entity. Entities will have a threat rating relative to their level shown.

[Passive Slight Mana Drain] [Hunter's Ear] Your hearing is as sharp as the predators of the deep wood; you more easily discern slight sounds. [Passive] Improved Attributes Mental Defenses: 3. 0 Reflexes: 1. 4 Physical Strength: 2. 4 Mana Capacity: 4. 0 Mana Regeneration: 1. 4 Physical Defense: 2. 8 Total Mana: 408/408 Vrax let his awareness seep back to the real world. He stood up from his desk in a small shower of dust. He had so much to do, and now he finally at least had some time.

He froze as Slev's familiar cruel voice echoed outside somewhere down the street.

"Where are you, you filching bastard!

"I'M OWED MONSTERS!" Slev wrathfully shouted. Oh damn, well a deal is a deal afterall.