Chương 18: Taking it to the Grave

Soul Magic operated under some fairly rigid restrictions. There wasn't a lot of Soul Essence for her to Invest, but she actually had more than she needed right now. She would only be able to Invest two Essence into any Feat, or any Soul Tat that was scribed on her, and that wouldn't change until she was a Ten! Well, a Seven. It seemed there was a Mastery that gave you a headstart on virtua Soul Capacity level, too! And another Soul Feat that upped all her Soul Feat Capacity by one!

She had the impression that she was going to be behind in Soul to Invest fairly quickly, and being able to Inspire around those restrictions was going to be very useful, too… She admired the look of Bull with its burning Orange edge, resembling but clearly not a flame, the Color of her Soul.

"How is this better than just a normal Enchantment to make a better Weapon?" she asked, knowing this was much different than the varieties of magic Weapons she'd seen in the past. Those all seemed to glow a little at most, and didn't light up in this manner. Deuce was in brownie form, doing calisthenics, of all things… which she decided to join in on, not about to be out-worked by her newborn son!

It was all light and easy stuff for her, but even as light as he was, Deuce had to put in effort and could not outlast her at all, just like any beginner. He was happy to guide her through the more advanced forms and stretches, however, saying they were essential to her self-improvement. Given how the first exercises he'd showed her in the womb had kept her muscle in tone and taught her the Wave-Skating Steps, she paid strict attention to his directions... -A starter Enchantment opens up the Weapon to its Slots.

There are only two you can use: the standard +I, and Soulbound. A standard +I improves the durability of the Weapon, is easier to control and find its target, and bites a bit deeper when it hits. Soulbound has to first be filled with Soul Essence, but the key fact is that you can pump two Soul into it, and make it effectively +II instead of +I, meaning it has a more potent edge to it to start with… all for the same price for the one Slot. -"Oh, wonderful!"

Little edges turned into bigger advantages when they stacked up! -Plus, without the Starter Enhancement working, none of it works. So unless someone is a Soul-user and knows the Name of your Axe, they can't use any of the magic of your Axe at all if they happen to pick it up. -"Which could be very useful if I want to pretend I don't have a magical Weapon?" she asked, thinking about the uses of that. -Indeed! - Mother was already tough as nails for a Five, and the multiple boosts coming in were only helping her.

Adding another six Health and nine Soak on the stack was only going to be useful for her. The idea was to make her much more self-sufficient and reduce her reliance on me, which she understood and didn't begrudge me at all. My Greater Magic Weapon was still going to be better, but she could catch up quickly. Also, to make her an absolute witch in close combat.

Once her Ring was attuned, we could then work on adding Protection, then Soul-Warding to double up on her Saving Throw protection. Always more need for more Essence… The Spells going on Bull today were going to include Ghost Touch, Vivic, and Undead Bane, which would help clean up the incorporeals sure to be bothering us. She was also going to find out why Ghost Strike was a great Feat to have, but there were a lot of things we had to learn and tons of Feats to have.

Be nice to get Monk started for her, but that 17 Wisdom was a distance away. So was the 17 Intellect needed for Expert and Vizard and Rune Alchemist and Rune Artificer and whatnot. Ah, well. Eventually. There was a lot that had to be worked on, and among them was the alchemical Inks so I could start Tatting for both of us. Work, work, work. We hadn't actually visited the graveyard yesterday, of course, but Commune with City was not inhibited the way Commune with Nature was.

The city was perfectly aware of the undead infestation, didn't like it, nor the amount of necromantic activity taking place around the town. It didn't give me the exact layout of the ghoul tunnels under the place, but it made it obvious there was a dug-out network of them down there, and deeper chambers where their master laired and gave them instructions. Also, it was very apparent where all the entry points to the surface of the graveyard actually were.

There were tombs hundreds of years old, and tombstones so weathered no sign remained upon them of what or who was buried there, their covers cracked by age and frost and rain. The walkways were overgrown with weeds and grass, something a Caster with a Cantrip could have easily taken care of with an hour of work, but which was obviously deemed unimportant by the masters of the town.

No doubt the wealthy had their own private graves on their properties to bury the elders in, the better to Animate them in service to the living… or be converted themselves, whatever was appropriate. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. I picked a plot at the edge of the yard, and the edge of the ghoul tunnels that led up to it.

Mother levered it open with some enhanced strength, revealing a hole burrowing into the ground where should have been a casket and its dead contents, some Smilman Orgi~~~, date of birth and death illegible. I was bundled up, kind of, but in brownie form, gesturing softly and invoking the spirits of wind and air… and popping open the first bottle of Empowered Holy Water I'd made and Blessed that morning.

Sparkling white vapor appeared in front of me, and fell heavily into the burrow entrance below, where it rapidly expanded in all directions, air pressure and the sheer volume of the spell driving it to expand with great speed and fill ALL the nooks and crannies. The pained and muffled shrieks in the distance down below took only about twelve seconds to start up. The spell was racing in all directions as it tried to fill its volume, and the gas cloud filled a LOT of area!

It turns out 24, 000 cubic feet fills up a LOT of ghoul tunnel... The individual shrieks tended to stop quickly, too, as their owners were reduced to vivic dust and slime, new mists boiling up and adding to the mass of the cloud as scattered bones and bits of corpses Burned away, the earth ran white, and the ghouls present below us died.

Mother kicked the ghoul tunnel entry back into place, and walked slowly and calmly through the graveyard as the mists surged through the tunnels, squirting forth with speed as all that volume tried to find places to go and rapidly overwhelmed the things taking cover down below. They were rapidly moving towards the largest of the tombs here, a place with actual lowered chambers heading down below, although it was overgrown with vines and total lack of care.

There was no obvious way in or out of the place by design, which obviously hadn't stopped the ghouls from digging into it and taking it for themselves. That was fine, the mists were rapidly following them, cutting off retreat, and their instincts wouldn't let them flee outside during the day. So they were fleeing towards the best place of shelter, and holes they likely could actually see in the event of pursuers they weren't expecting.

Like a great shimmering cloud, the Holy Water Killcloud soon swept through the entirety of their crawlways, wiping out any ghoul too slow or too stupid to get away in time. Like pincers of an army, they closed in on that ghoul-hold down there, which was doubtless trying to block the two tunnels leading into the place.

Standing up above that point, my hand on the tomb and a very clear idea of their locations in my Behold the Heart of Darkness, I instead Shaped the incoming entry holes up to ten feet in diameter, actually hearing distant clunks of rolled stones falling over into the gaping opening. Motion in the Eyes was frantic, presences winking out rapidly as a couple of them were caught in the initial gusts of charged mists and literally fell apart under the assault.

Then there was a tap on the Veil as some dimensional magic failed to go off, and the strongest of the Auras there bolted this way for the door, chased by the spell that was rapidly filling the catacombs down there, igniting everything dead and necroic as it did so, and chasing it up this way. The non-obvious door to the tomb was thrown aside from within with great strength.

The lurching, finely-robed corpse that stank with a literally eye-watering stench inside its silks and jewelry bolting out into the sun had a purple tongue two feet long, black-clawed hands twice the size of a human's, and was cursing loudly as it did so. Mother almost decapitated it with her first strike, tearing a furrow down the side of its ragged beard with Orange, white, and black Flames. It lashed back at her, ripping through the top of her leather breastplate with hooked black nails and undead strength…

and then shrieked as Sword Beats Fist activated faster than thought and Bull came back up to chop that striking claw off with eye-blurring speed. Taking extra Feats, indeed. Now, that one hit should have been enough to paralyze her, and the smell should have had her heaving her guts out right now. Let us all praise a minor Curse to remove her sense of smell for the moment, and simple goggles to keep it away from her eyes.

Mother's eyes were also glowing Orange, because she'd taken a second Level of Soul Warrior after Renewal, which brought the Warding Defense of the Class into play. Chaotic Good Soul Warrior Twos were immune to paralysis, so the potentially lethal locking up of the muscles from the necroic effect spreading out from its claws had no ability whatsoever to freeze her in place and leave her absolutely vulnerable.

I was also on the ground and clutching a stick taller than I was that was a wee bit too heavy for a human my size, but not-a-Fey, hey, stronger than we look! I cracked it against his knee, Greater Mighty Wallop and Greater Magical Weapon doing what my strength could not, and crushed its knee just as it ripped another clawing strike at her, while its sickening, squirming purple tongue likewise lashed out, suddenly looking sharp and dripping something that was no joke.

If it winced as the Dispel Magic tore all of its hastily-Cast Buff spells to shreds, well, it didn't make its face look any less horrible than it was. The tongue splattered off her Vestmented shield uselessly, and his claw strike ran into it as well, thrown off by my taking out his leg. Riposte triggered, and Bull flashed into the opening hungrily, also triggered by Opportune Strike as I gave away an Attack of Opportunity on someone I had hit in combat.

Opportunist going off on her end whenever someone hit something she could hit would have to wait for later Masteries, unfortunately... Bull ripped a path through the silken robes and up the scrawny and pasty gray chest beneath, splitting open his belly, but only bisecting his lower jaw instead of his entire head.

"Amazon! What do you think you will accomplish here?!" he screeched in hate, turning to run away in a panic. Well, no, I wasn't allowing that. I whipped my currently Name-less Staff around and whapped his raised foot up and behind his other one, sending him stumbling and crashing to the ground and leaving him unable to flee properly as Stand Still went off on my end.

Bull came down and split his right collarbone, smashing him to the ground, where her Shield followed up with a brutal hit to the spine that cracked the stone and bone beneath it as her shield was temporarily Buffed with Main Gauche and borrowed Bull's power.