One of the side-effects of importing a couple million people of all ages into the Caldera was that a few, a very few, started to pick up stellar Affinity. Three Chiuxatli tripped my stellar core, one for [Skywatcher], exactly the sa as Sunas Class, and two for a second-tier transition from generic [Mage] into [Stellar Mage]. I just approved them all, but Id have to see if Shayma could just set the stellar core to auto-approve. A few at a ti was no real problem, but I could see it scaling to hundreds a day and that would get really irritating.
Each of the new Classes registered to my stellar core and increased my mana capacity, if ever so slightly. It would take an awful long ti to really make a significant contribution, or at least an awfully large number of Classers, but it was sothing. I decided Id have to lend a [Contained Star] to Iniri so Tarnil citizens would have more opportunity to get stellar Affinity. Iniris tal wasnt going to be as influential as an actual Origin Relic.
The Chiuxatli had hauled a lot of infrastructure with them and were getting established fairly quickly, though that was partly because the Caldera was flush with resources they could use. Five days was a lot of labor when there were thousands of third-tier crafter Classes. The Chiuxatli seed to use a lot more fabric in their construction than anything else, and hundreds of square kiloters of the stuff had been pulled out of baskets and trunks and packs to turn into walls and ceilings.
What really awed was that for so portion of it, the fabric and embroidery on that fabric was enchanted. Runes were stitched on. They could and did move around sections of brightly-colored fabric to produce impromptu hospitals, forges, sparring arenas, and the like. There were even embroidered hammocks for sleeping, which made wonder if it was sothing like [Restful Night] or if there was so enchantnt that just made things more comfortable.
I wanted to ask, but Shayma was down in Ir, helping them clean up the Anells. For those operations, I was far more impressed with Wrights people than I was with Virns, because they basically appeared inside the Anell houses and compounds when people were asleep and hustled them into cells. Shayma barely had to do anything, aside from suppress the Ell. The void agent looked just a touch younger than Giorn, and he actually surrendered instead of trying to fight.
She still used her Scalemind form to put the guy to sleep, but it was a hopeful sign. It would have been unfortunate if Girul was representative of the Ells. Though, even if they were willing to rehabilitate and cooperate, Shayma couldnt spend all her ti watching over them. I trusted shed figure sothing out, though I was just as glad it wasnt my imdiate problem. In fact, I had a hunch that Sienne was going to end up taking over, from what I saw of her conversations with Shayma.
Regardless, the new Ell, Hirae Ell, was laid out on a bed next to Girul while Brothers of Burden took shifts poking at their minds. Apparently what they were doing was complex enough that Dreams-Ahead couldnt or didnt want to do it all in one session, and had negotiated things with Shayma. I was actually weirdly proud that had all happened without my involvent, and I really needed to figure out a good way to let the Scalemind have more contact with the Village and not just rely on Shayma or myself setting up portals. I had so many things to bring up to the Chiuxatli when Shayma got back.
For the mont, she was helping Wrights intelligence squads comb through Anell warehouses. With her Domain perception and maybe so help from her Quest she was able to quickly find all the secret stashes, and simply pull the contents out of them. Obviously there were magical protections on a number of them, but Shayma had ridiculous Skills and the ability to pull from my mana if she needed to punch through sothing, so none of them stopped her.
Frankly, the Domain was absurd.
Ansae, Shaymas Domain skill is stuff like that common at the higher tiers? I still didnt know what Ansaes Skills were, but from the way she acted it was quite possible she had so enormous domain herself, and thats how she ca by her obscene perception.
No. Its not the first Skill like that Ive seen, but its extrely rare. Most of the people Ive seen with a Domain had evolved techniques where they were outside of their body as much as anchored in it. Ansae waggled an equivocal claw. Id considered trying to make one myself, but in the end it just wasnt a good match for .
Huh. Well, its pretty potent.
Your Voice is well equipped, Ansae agreed. But look at the powers of the mage-kings and you see that is not so unreasonable.
Ah, point. I hadnt even co up with a good weapon for her yet, though figuring out sothing that would work best with shapeshifting or was more useful than her illusions or the ability to channel Fields was difficult.
I was considering that when I realized Id missed sothing while talking with Ansae. It was bad enough that I hadnt noticed dragons flying around, now Id missed so Leviathans ascending up to swim through the canal. I really needed to get those wards implented, or sothing to alert to movent like that.
For a while I thought they were there for Iniri, then when they ignored the il moon pool I figured they were there for . Then I rembered the communications device Uilei-nktik had given , and if he hadnt called ahead they really werent for either. Which left only one option.
Hey Ansae, I think youve got a bunch of Leviathan visitors.
Ah. She sighed. They were only supposed to send one, but for so reason Im not surprised. Those would be acolytes of the Silver Temple. They worship , despite how much Ive discouraged the practice, and at this point Ive given up trying to stamp them out. I do admit its useful having so Leviathans willing to fetch and carry.
So, I should reroute them to you?
Yes, Ansae confird. I am going to have to trade for a place for them to stay, as well. Your inland lake is impressive but they will need true abyssal depths if theyre going to remain for any length of ti.
Sure, that wouldnt be too difficult. A one- by four- by four-hundred-ter space located sowhere under the Caldera would be more than big enough once I Expanded it. So Im going to have the Chiuxatli ward up the Caldera for , do you think you could design anything for that? I can still have them actually set it up I was just wondering if you might have better ideas than they do, considering.
Hmm, that could be an interesting challenge. A very large spatially distorted area, especially open to the sky as it is and with how much mana is involved, to say nothing of your ability to change it so quickly. And your penchant for doing so. Ansae looked pleased. I will see what I can co up with.
Hmm, I guess Ill be getting Leviathan inhabitants. That should be interesting. In a way, the habitation benefits of getting Leviathans would probably be worth the effort. Sothing I appreciated about Ansae is she never tried to pretend incidental benefits like that were paynt. Of course, she was so wealthy and knowledgeable she really didnt need to haggle, but it was still nice.
I redirected the portal in my entry hall from my audience chamber to Ansaes while I went about making the Leviathan area. It wasnt as big a deal as the Caldera, though itd still be absolutely huge when it was done, mostly because I had extra stone inco from the Caldera. Not to ntion that I didnt need to seed it with resources.
The only real Leviathan resource I had was the coral, and while Taelah had adjusted it to use my mana, it was still growing. The rate was pretty awe-inspiring, almost doubling in a few days, but it wasnt anywhere near what Id need to cover a sixteen hundred square kiloter habitat. Theyd have to make do with stone and deepwater chrystheniums until I had enough. The end result was a sprawling complex of vertical, spiraling Leviathan hos and gleaming Chrystheniums decorated with my hardiest seagrass and other such flora.
I still hadnt gotten any underwater Climates. To be fair, I hadnt tried drilling down and taking over the undersea ocean Id discovered either, and I really should have. Id definitely do that after my second expedition into the depths found sothing. I didnt have to worry too much, though, since the Scalemind had really taken to fishing.
The whole thing was done by the ti Ansae finished hosting the audience with the Leviathans. I couldnt understand seaspeak or exactly read bioluminescence, but there seed to be a lot less groveling than I would have expected and more excited flailing. More like eting a celebrity than an actual god, though I had to admit watching a Leviathan flap its enormous forward fins in excitent was pretty amusing.
Where do you want to put a portal? I asked her, and got a reply back through magic projected above the water.
In the moat, she said, which made sense since the leviathan eting room was connected to it. I started to put a normal portal in, then had a better idea and made almost the entire bottom of the moat a ring-shaped portal, up against the foundation of Ansaes island. It gave the illusion that Ansaes tower was floating on top of an enormous abyss, which was pretty neat and certainly added to the effect of the huge structure. The Leviathans sure seed impressed as they left the audience chamber and dived downward.
Core Specialization: Habitation
Leviathan: All Leviathans adapt to shallow waters more quickly. Those adapted to shallow waters gain [Size Adaptation]: Automatically adjust apparent size to smaller bodies of water. Dungeon water Affinity mana enhances depth effects and abyssal qualities.
I wished Id gotten that before I made the habitat, since I could have made it far smaller, or even given them license to live in the lake, but I was used to that sort of thing. My overlay and entire general system were not exactly transparent or user-friendly, but at least it seed to reward my labors. For the most part.
The Leviathans released a bunch of fish from the wooden spheres they were toting around, but they were all small and colorful, and clearly wouldnt be nearly enough to support kiloter-long beings. So far as I could tell Leviathans were at least partial thaumivores like dragons. Anything that size couldnt operate from mundane biology alone, though they definitely ate live fish as well. Probably larger things, considering their size, but I had none of that available. I just had to hope that my new residents had taken that into account.
Once the Leviathans were settled I went back to the slow grind of filling and triggering lots and lots of [Mana Diamond Anvils]. The costs for creating models for Keri, Cheya, Sienne, and Giorn were far more reasonable than they were for Ansae, but that only ant the costs were in the single digits of Argentum. Which still ant thousands of cycles through my anvils.
With the raw materials for two additional [Contained Stars] and no imdiate need for additional [Firmant], I was free to focus on Argentum and Aurum. The raw silver and gold were growing fairly well between my Climates and my tallic chrystheniums, though I didnt have hundreds of tons of the stuff like Ansae seed to. Still, the generation rate could pretty much keep up with my anvils. Given a couple weeks I would be able to make [Soul Prostheses] for everyone.
I also wanted to see if I could sohow do sothing to help Yamal. He was still in a coma, being kept alive by healers and so specialists from Wildwood, paid for out of Yamals apparently significant wealth. Obviously shielding him from depletion wouldnt be enough, but with a soul prosthesis he might be able to reconnect to the Akasha enough for him to function again. There were a number of potential problems with that, but it was worth a try.
While I was thinking of it, I tried to use [Model Soul] on him. His Primal Source was gone and that was how I was linked to and saw souls, but if his soul had collapsed I wouldnt see anything anyway. Unfortunately, it seed that the connection was well and truly broken, the Skill not even giving any sort of error feedback. He just didnt count. In a sense that was actually a relief, because it ant there was still hope I could link up sohow.
Part of was hoping I could surprise Iniri with it, but I always knew it was a long shot. I could still surprise her with one for Cheya, though. Maybe I should have inford her of my new soul skill stuff in advance, but it wasnt too much of a delay to wait until I had one ready, and it ant Cheya wouldnt have a chance to try and turn it down.
Of course, it was at the exact mont that everyone was busy that Tlulipechua decided he needed to talk to . Id been keeping as much of an eye on them as I did on Tarnil in general, which was to say, not much of one, but I hadnt yet seen any imnse crises. The Flight-Alpha probably knew his people better than I did, though, and I doubted that he would disturb for sothing trivial. Shayma had really impressed the guy.
Taelah, I hate to interrupt you, I said, interrupting her. She was actually chatting with Syrinu in the Village central square, which was moderately surreal and amusing. The Flight-Alpha needs sothing and Shaymas down in Ir, so could you see what he has to say?
Certainly, Taelah said, holding up a hand to pause her discussion with Syrinu. Ive been aning to talk to him anyway.
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