He needed someone that had never advanced, which left a very brief window from the time they awakened their core until their first promotion. If this was anything like Remior, it should be about five years.
The situation was even worse due to him looking for a Yellow-born specifically – who generally had an easier time earning enough sizian meat from the challenges to make it to Green.
‘It also means that this person will probably not have much talent,’ Percy thought with a mental sigh, though he still chose this body in the end.
Part of him felt a little guilty about all the other dying people he’d ignored over the past week, knowing that he could have chosen to save any one of them if he’d wanted. This was nothing new, since his bloodline had always worked like this, but it hit differently to just sit by idly outside the Vault’s vicinity, watching them perish one after the other.
Then again, he understood that it was silly to blame himself. How many quintillions of people had died in the universe since he discovered his ability? He’d never be able to save more than an infinitesimal fraction of them. Even if he’d picked someone else, he’d just be condemning this person.
Upon connecting with his host’s soul, he was greeted by a wave of indescribable hunger – which frankly made sense. Dying inside the combat challenges was hard, because one could always end the wave if they found themselves in danger. Most casualties in the Vault had to be from starvation.
‘If there’s anyone to blame, it’s Metatron,’ he thought, reminding himself not to be too buddy-buddy with the titan.
While the god had treated Percy fairly so far, it was all due to the value he provided. The moment he stopped being useful would be the moment he met the same fate as these people.
His host’s mind was present, but too weak to communicate much. Percy promised them a meal and a brighter future – which he fully intended to deliver as soon as he was done with his own challenges. Thankfully, that earned him the approval that he needed to begin stitching up their soul without having to resort to his Parasitic Connection spell.
Weaving one preservation rune after the other, he couldn’t help but wonder how the other clones were doing. Given how long it had taken him to pick a body, they might have arrived here earlier.
Their job was admittedly harder, because they needed to look for barren worlds. It was the best way to find people who had never advanced. Also, it was important to pick hosts in desperate situations for whom life in the artificial prison would be an improvement, as he didn’t want to condemn any unwilling sapients to this fate otherwise.
This meant that his other clones would have to try multiple bodies before they found a good match. The luckier candidates would end up with a stitched soul and the seed of a second core, left to resume their nearly-interrupted lives.
‘Whatever. Let them focus on their mission. I’ve got mine.’
As soon as he was done, he dropped a few morsels of food directly inside the child’s belly. He didn’t give them too much, as he’d rather not shock their body after a long period of starvation.
‘Kid, what’s your name?’ he asked through their connection.
‘Cassiel…’ the boy replied, a wave of contentment flooding his soul as he felt something in his stomach for the first time in weeks, presumably. ‘Sir, thank you for helping me. Could you please let me chew on a bite of food as well? It’s been so long.’
‘Sure,’ Percy replied, mentally berating himself for not realizing that the child would have appreciated that more. ‘Let’s wait a couple of hours… eh… that’s about six thousand rits, give or take. It’s best if we give your body a chance to process the first meal.’
Getting a mental nod back, he opened his host’s eyes, finding the boy resting on a bed that barely fit him, despite being not only a child, but also one of those short, green-skinned people that he had seen before. His room was barely a quarter of Gabe’s, and that was saying something. By Remior’s standards, it might not even qualify as a closet.
He didn’t rush to get up, opting to let the kid recover first.
In the meantime, he stretched out his arm, placing his palm on the wall before speaking in the Vault’s language. “Cube. I want to claim my life mana. User ID: WANDERER.”
Saying the nickname Metatron had given him out loud sounded weird now that his Status had granted him a similar title. Perhaps it wasn’t that strange given his bloodline, though he couldn’t help but wonder whether there was some deeper truth behind this “coincidence”.
Thinking back to what he knew about runecrafting, if it was possible to create enchantments by drawing arbitrary symbols and infusing them with meaning, maybe even names and titles given to people might possess some inherent property that he wasn’t privy to.
Percy’s contemplation was cut short, however, when the runic circle flashing under his hand misbehaved for some reason. While it had lit up in a silver light as it usually did when he tried to access the Vault’s system, it had remained like that for way too long. Eventually, its colour shifted to red as the cube spoke.
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“Error. Unable to identify user. Please try logging in again.”
Frowning, Percy repeated his actions a couple more times, making sure that he pronounced his ID correctly. Perhaps it was something about his host’s accent that made it difficult for the system to recognize him?
Yet, his borrowed heart began to race as the cube kept denying him access.
‘Fuck! Don’t tell me that Metatron is punishing me for sending random shit through the portals…’
No. It couldn’t be that. Percy hadn’t even done anything too egregious. Sure, he’d used the titan’s Decree to kill a sapient and a beast, but so what? Were a few bloodstains such a big deal? Besides, he’d paid him back in spades by giving him Kassorith and the critter. Or was it possible that Kassorith hadn’t survived the soul damage after all, and that was what had pissed Metatron off?
Percy took a few deep breaths to calm down, realizing that he was scaring the poor boy. ‘Let’s not panic. If he wanted to cut me out, he would have just retracted his Decree.’
Come to think of it, there was a more plausible explanation. The titan had set up the cube to recognize his soul, but hadn’t his soul technically changed slightly after his fusion with Micky?
Maybe this was a genuine malfunction that Metatron hadn’t accounted for. He’d have to talk to him later.
For now, he decided to repair Cassiel’s second core with his own means. It was a bit of a waste to consume his mushrooms when he was entitled to free life mana from the Vault, but it would be silly to cry over that expense after having cultivated and consumed so many fungi over the past few months.
For all intents and purposes, he had an infinite supply of them now, limited only by the space in his seals. Since he’d split up the storage into four parts rather than eight, each clone possessed eight times the previous volume as well, so he had more breathing room.
Summoning a pile of mushrooms on Cassiel’s chest, he waited for the Moirais’ Decree to drain them before storing away the inert powder and bringing out another batch. Had his host been a Starry Commander, he could have covered its massive frame in mushrooms and finished the task in mere seconds, though repairing the boy’s core would probably take a few minutes.
At the same time, he examined Cassiel’s first core, instantly noticing an affinity that he was intimately familiar with. The boy had even started clearing the channels for Circulation, though he’d clearly never managed to complete the spell in time to get further into the challenges and prevent his death.
Scanning his emaciated body, Percy frowned. Even if Cassiel had exercised to meet the requirements of the boosting art, all of his muscles had evaporated after his starvation.
‘Oh well… if eating properly isn’t enough, my healing potions will help him recover faster,’ he thought, pulling up his Status.
___
Cassiel (The Lone Wanderer’s clone)
Mana cores:
- [Mana core 1 – Yellow – Pure]
- [Mana core 2 – Seed – ???]
Domain:
- [Pulse – Dormant]
Spectral traits:
- [Weaving] – Boosts one’s proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.
- [Insomnia] – Eliminates the need for sleep.
- [Scribing] – Boosts one’s proclivity in expressing meaning onto any written medium.
Mindsets:
- [Ludwick's Compass] – Set mental checkpoints anywhere in the world. Instinctively track their location as you move away.
Spells:
- [Spectral Art: Parasitic Connection – Refined]
- [Spectral Art: Cauldron of a Thousand Whispers – Masterful]
- [Spectral Art: Instantaneous Formation – Masterful]
- [Spectral Art: Internal Magiscript – Masterful]
Alchemic principles:
- [Extraction] – Separate and condense an ingredient’s essence.
- [Pacification] – Delay an ingredient’s activation rate.
- [Redirection] – Adjust an ingredient’s effect.
- [Deattunement] – Prevent multiple conflicting ingredients from reacting with one another.
- [Bonding] – Enrich an ingredient with crystallized pure mana.
- [Restructuring] – Alter an ingredient's phase.
- [Scaling] – Brew a greater volume of ingredients at once.
- [Compression] – Elevate an ingredient to the next grade.
Decrees:
- [Phoebe’s Decree] – Grants access to your Status.
- [Moirais’ Decree (Incomplete)] – Grants the seed of a second mana core. Requires potent life mana to germinate.
- [Metatron’s Decree] – Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will.
- [Ea’s Decree (Modified)] – Augments and enhances your Status.
- [Obatala’s Decree (Modified)] – Augments and enhances your Status. Allows you to effortlessly deploy your domain in its strongest state.
___
‘Figures. No bloodline or blessing. Just a pure affinity.’
Percy sighed. The page was long as always, but most of the things in there had originated from him. The boy clearly wasn’t very capable, which explained why he’d had such a tough time getting through the challenges.
Over the next few hours, he helped Cassiel clear his channels, a precious surge of vitality invigorating the child once he managed to fill up his new core for the first time. Adding the food that Percy gave him and the healing potions he slowly emptied into his stomach, he was confident that they would build up the boy’s strength in no time.
The new affinity was fire. It wasn’t one that Percy was too proficient in, but still one that he had used many times before. It would certainly help, especially since he couldn’t reveal any of his most useful pure spells in the Vault. On the other hand, the boy’s petit frame would prevent him from doing well in hand-to-hand combat, so the challenges might not be as easy as Percy had hoped.
‘It doesn’t matter. If they’re anything like the ones we cleared with Gabe, Synchronization should be more than enough to power through the first six waves.’
He was about to go over their training plan with Cassiel and explain how they were going to help each other in the next few months, when their surroundings suddenly shifted. Percy found himself lying on the floor inside one of the smaller training cubes, a familiar pentapus standing a few metres away.
A tense smile formed on his lips. There were a lot of things that he had to hide from the titan, but also a few that he needed to talk to him about, so this meeting was unavoidable.
“Well, well… if it isn’t my favourite mortal,” the pentapus spoke first, a cold glint present in his eyes. “Are you done using my Decree as garbage disposal?”
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