In Loki's Honor Life 28 - Chapter 50 - Your loss Is my win, I'm the boss Of

Not exactly five hundred. In the bargain bin of undead spellcasters, a lot of rounding was expected.

Even then, I was still trapped in the containnt circle. From what I've seen, I had a hunch this was one of those evil-binding magic circles where a single straw breaking the drawings would allow the entity inside to break free. That's why the liches only sent spells and didn't damage the granite underneath . They couldn't cross inside or I'd be free to go out.

I poured my Energy into {Soul Shepherd} and partially purified the lich ghosts floating around. I only needed one for the Dungeon Core and I already had it. After I got out of here and squeezed the information I wanted from them, I would keep ten or so of them in dolls and sent the others to Pandora. These souls were powerful and after potentialized by my Perk, I knew Pandora's power level was bound to soar. I was bound to gain more than enough power to create a baker's dozen of pegasi and still break even with yesterday's power.

All I needed to do was to escape this containnt spell. I focused on draining the chains of their magic. Now able to actively focus on them, they were quickly losing...

[Administrator Hotline]

CALL START

Wyxnos: What did...

Snowdrop: Busy!

CALL END

Dammit, I lost it. The chains squeezed with a vengeance.

Wyxnos kept pestering . Not like I could change my number but the guy should learn to take a clue and stop being so clingy. On the fifth attempt, I let him vent his bubbling anger. I decided to lie through my teeth. Maybe I could learn how much of the System Wyxnos really controlled.

[Administrator Hotline]

CALL START

Wyxnos: WHAT DID YOU DO!

Snowdrop: Magical Mishap!

W: How in tarnation are you making a spell circle with forbidden magic a mishap?

S: Just kiddng! Geez!

W: Please don't ntion other deities.

S: Sorry! I had these terrible headaches and flashes of a weird dream. Every ti I tried to rember why I had these mory blanks, it grew worse. But when I got {Pinnacle of Willpower}, so of it ca back and the headaches beca bearable. I had this magic affinity and I'd used its terrible power sohow... It made you guys angry at . I had to know, and who better qualified to tell than the most powerful undead mage in this world?

W: ...

S: Hey, you did it! How did you add ellipsis to the chat?

W: Not the point. You can't show that magic to anyone else! I'm serious! Damn, if he finds out I've killed his clones...

S: The liches, was it you? It felt weirdly familiar. This isn't the first ti it happened, right? Did you really smite down the liches?

W: It was an automated script! I forgot to turn it off!

S: Did you, now?

W: Did I what?

S: See? Everyone has mory issues! Just take it easy! Then turn it off. The script, I an. Look, I admit I did it. I showed them a diagram for Radiation Magic. You shouldn't be worried. Ask your best buddy about it.

W: Ask whom?

S: I'm so sorry.

W: You are insufferable.

S: Well, that makes two of us. Maybe that's why we get along so well. Look, I'll catch you later. I'm in this death trap, and I have to get out. Don't call or I might get the mind to show this magic circle to a few kings and wizards. I still consider myself one of the quote-unquote "good guys", but I might too vie for world domination.

W: What about that speech of yours? I checked his works, I'm not sure if Douglas Adams really said that.

S: Wyxnos, I'm a man inside. But your obnoxiousness triggers sothing in the female that you really shouldn't want to. Get a clue. We'll talk when I get ho. Don't call , I'll call you."

CALL ENDED.

Damn, that guy triggered sothing in . He made feel... so unwanted feelings. Like when a cat sees a new couch and has a divine imperative to scratch the hell out of it. Or when Tyler Durden "just wanted to destroy sothing beautiful." Not that Wyxnos was either beautiful or new. I just needed to see that couch scratched until his face was purple and bloated. Maybe I should cut him so slack but I couldn't.

Inside the circle, most of my powers worked but very few things crossed the barrier. I could retrieve items to the dinsional storage, but not place them. {Soul Shepherd} clearly worked. The ghosts enticed by it could enter but then they beca trapped like . The liches would co back sooner or later. I created small cloth dolls inside the circle and bound the souls to them, safely storing them in the item box.

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After all the souls were safely stored away, I tried sending Pandora out but she refused to move away from . Sotis I wondered who would end up as the master in this relationship. It wasn't the right ti to digress. Right.

The chains were weakening. Whatever supplied them with MP was failing. Magic in this world can only be self-sustaining to a degree. Put enough strain on anything magical and it will break unless it has sothing else powering it.

That's when a few portals opened and I wondered if I was fucked. How many liches did this guy have?

Kel'Caldor the First ground his teeth until a cloud of fine dust floated out in the stale air of his crypt. His long-range [Telepath] clones all died. His clairvoyant [Farseers] too. And he felt sothing really bad. Sending so of his clones to check on what happened, they returned with the most troubleso news.

"All clones attacking the centaur disappeared. Their phylacteries exploded. Those that were in the nursery destroyed other phylacteries when they blew up."

The flas from his eyes licked his forehead. "How many did we lose?"

"At least six-hundred-fifty," the clone replied chanically with a deadpan expression as it didn't concern him. "We had a hundred new phylacteries in the nursery that wasn't in the caldera. We lost all of them. I'm adding the [Telepaths] and [Farseers] that obviously perished in the count."

How did she do that? Soul resonance? Theoretically, it was possible to strike a lich with an attack powerful enough to resonate through their soul and shatter the phylactery. It would need a massive amount of magic, though. To do it with five hundred at the sa ti? It was absurd.

Yet it happened.

For the first ti in thousands of years, Kel'Caldor was afraid, and he hated it. Losing that many clones would set his projects back for thousands of years. If the damned fairy hadn't jumped in front of his spell... He thought the bindings would apply to her too but they obviously didn't. The only explanation was that the fairy wasn't a System construct born from a Perk, but a living creature with her own soul.

He considered cutting his losses and hiding but his pride spoke louder. Kel'Caldor wouldn't cower before so barbarian. He wouldn't show up in front of her to get an alpha strike on his skull either. He knew she had great [Spiritualist] powers. She had just resurrected thousands of people at once the other day. But resonance was another beast. The two feats were as apart as lighting a candle with a cantrip and opening a portal between two continents.

Yet it happened.

She did have that [Wisp of Creation]. A divine core and a divine spark, transford into a pet. The entity didn't even have System statistics. It was as if the System couldn't really control it, only recognize it existed. His goal of obtaining control of the System was impossible now. He expected to capture her soul and learn how did she beco immune to the gods and the system's influence.

He replayed their conversation. Her confidence, the certainty in her words. She was playing with them. Kel'Caldor underestimated an enemy. He would surely not repeat the sa mistake.

"Send the clones that already engaged and have above eighty percent of their MP pool to investigate," he ordered.

The ssage would move slowly across the world to the hidden sanctum of those clones as each lich passed it to others within their limited range. But they would obey. They were him and served his interests, after all.

The liches seed confused. They looked around, cast detection spells, looked at .

"Hey, fake Kel'Caldor, wanna talk, or will we keep my [Physical Mastery] training?"

They stared with with their lifeless skulls and red flickering flas. I shrugged and zoned out, looking at my gains. Taking damage as a whale greatly improved my training ti. {Constitution VII} was the new cap for that ability but it would still grow with my proficiency. A new rank with three abilities, one for each physical Attribute, opened at six hundred. I could pick only one of them, ever. After thinking for a long while, I made my choice. I picked the Dexterity one.

Physical Mastery [ 601 ]. Select three abilities.

Damage acclimation II: After getting hit (100 - Proficiency/18) tis with the sa attack in the last hour, reduce all damage from that type by (Proficiency/18)%. Track [...]Damage acclimation III: After getting hit (100 - Proficiency/16) [...] by (Proficiency/16)%. [...]Precision Movents: Increase Dexterity by (Proficiency/60). Add (Proficiency/15)% to stealth, evasion, attack, and critical hit chance.

My attempts to escape the chains also pushed [Furtivity] to its soft-cap and then so.

Furtivity [ 502 ]. Select four abilities.

Escape Artist: Add (Proficiency/5) to escape bonds.Slippery: Add (Proficiency/5) to escape manacles, grappling, and other restraints.Slip Past Wards: Add (Proficiency/5) to move through wards without triggering them.Drain Magical Containnt: Increase the cost to restrain you with magic by (Proficiency/5)%. You gain (Proficiency/10)% of the extra spent resources.

My guess was that six hundred was the expected threshold one could reach in a (really long) lifeti of dedicated training. 200 Proficiency points from leveling, 400 from training. The capstone ability showed how tuned it was for 600 as if the bonus was expected to be static. 10 to Dexterity, 40% to combat. It was a soft cap, however. I already had one point above that, and another potential sixty if I maxed out my level.

I put that aside. The chains were weakening. With the stealth bonus from the latest Ability, I almost could slip out of them. I needed to buy ti, so the obvious choice was to negotiate with my captors.

"What happened to our brethren?" One lich asked.

"Alas, we both know they've perished. However, as you can see, I've been an exemplar prisoner. Kel'Caldor, if we could only set our differences aside and sit to negotiate. You're a King, I'm a Queen, and even your undead condition doesn't stop you from worrying about your own subjects, even if they are all copies of you. We can find a middle-term if you are only willing to sit down and negotiate. I'll tell you what happened to them if you let out of here."

I slipped one arm free of the chains binding it. These chains crumbled into nothing, but another fresh set shot out of the granite to bind it again.

"Or I can get out myself."

Marauder Coercion ( 92)

Divine Negotiator ( 61, 50% resistance)

Spectral Diplomacy ( 54)

Friendly (up 9 reaction levels)

Mostly Harmless (ignore 9 negative reaction levels)

Unbiased (ignore 9 negative bias levels)

Oratory ( 54)

Charismatic ( 54)

lodius Voice ( 94)

Harmless-Looking (up 1 reaction level)

Royalty (up 1 reaction level)

Diva Aura (up 1 reaction level per aura Perk [total: 12])

Pinnacle of Charisma (up 2, negate 2 negative reaction levels, 2 per modifier [total: 26])

Total Charisma: 112 374. Reaction UP: 25 Ignore negatives: 20.

Initiating charisma test. Assessing opponent modifiers.

Starting reaction level: -100 Death feud. Initial reaction level: -71 Dire hatred.

Contested Charisma test: 486 vs 234 (halved). You won.

Modifying reactions by 17 levels. Final reaction level: -54 Mortal enmity.

Your proposal offended the other side. Negotiations failed.

Kel'Caldor clones were offended and one of them, a bit more hot-headed than the others, shot a spell at .

Diplomatic Immunity active. You are immune to all of the other parties' attacks and effects for 9 seconds or until you attack.

Smiling, I walked. The chains slipped out of my limbs as if they were greased. The liches attacked, but it was for naught. I crossed the containnt barrier as if it wasn't there. Then I drew my spear.