30 Chapter Thirty – The Sage of Swords Turns Five (1/2)

My best so far was eight of them.

Two months had passed. I had been patient.

Twelve banshees solo was a completely ridiculous encounter. If it wasn't for the fact that my Fort save was so damn high against them, just the screams going off could have done for me. But the negative energy shrieking swipes they doled out on me were simply too much, even with my Vajra Resistance being as high as it was. The screams of the damned erupted out of their touches, shredding body and soul. It was not pleasant.

I had improved my Vajra Resistance tremendously in the last month. I had all Seven Dragon Houses Mastery at /2, and I'd taken every Soul Feat I could, Soul Mastery, even if I'd likely never use them, just to stack on top and drive my Vajra higher.

Vajra Resist was now over 30, which had really helped with the damage… but when they were doing about 50 a swing with touch attacks, well, my Soak still tanked like a mofo.

However, I was getting to them with more Soak remaining and less healing used, as I was dominating the damage of the ghosts and witchfires so badly they weren't doing much to me before I vivic'd them dead.

The list of Masteries I had to take, and the Feats I had to pay for outside of Class Levels, was as long as my arm. Literally, because I had to get Mastery/2 and Skill Focus in pretty much all my Skills, plus Weapon Focus and Mastery in over a dozen weapons. It was all part of my Grandmastery and Sage Training, and I knew that I couldn't advance to Five without getting all this stuff. So, I could only sigh and hit the next lever on the mental wall of my Visual File, while I dreamt of tactics and stuff for the fight.

In the end, it came down to a numbers game, and my numbers weren't quite good enough for that whole lineup after everything I had to do to get me there.

But two months was a long time. Long enough for me to do another 6,000 gp worth of refining crafting work on Tremble. That was enough to get me to QL 32 after purifying the metal a bit, and it opened Slot Zex.

Opening six Slots out of the ten possible made Tremble a very impressive and powerful Weapon, almost a living legend. It was a lot of Karma stuck into a Weapon, the sign of a lot of fighting and a lot of victories and defeats.

It allowed me to add Greater Soulbound as Primary at Vier, Enmity/Mortals as Primary at Funf, and Courageous as Primary at Zex.

More importantly, it allowed me to add more +I Enhancements to Arsenal… and it allowed me to open Arsenal II, and add +II alternates.

I could literally and easily fill all ten Slots on Tremble with +I's, there were that many of them, and they could be mixed and match to great effect so easily. +II Enhancements were definitely stronger than +I's, but they also tended to be more situational, which meant wasted Slots if not in the right situation.

There were a few universal exceptions, and one was the first alternate I put up… Sharding.

Sharding was a +II Enhancement that converted your Melee Weapon damage to a ranged attack, i.e. it generated a windblade for you. The range wasn't much, with a range increment of ten feet meaning a maximum of fifty feet… but when you have no ranged attack at all, it was priceless.

Far more importantly, at least for me, it didn't require ammunition, and it would hit exactly as hard as I did.

Oh, and it was a ranged attack, and guess who had Archer levels? Including Far Shot, which increased range by 50%? And who could put an alternate +I into her Sword, of Distance, which would double the range?

A range of 150 feet let me span the whole room, if need be. I could pop spiders off the ceiling.

Greater Spiritbound brought my Sword to +IV base. Bane brought that to +VI, with +2-12 damage as a kicker.

Enmity was a soft Bane-style effect, although not Curse-based, providing +2 against a broader set of foes then Bane did. Enmity/Mortals basically meant it worked against all humanoids with souls, but would still be useless against magical creatures. It also hooked into Slaughter, and so could be alternated with other types of Enmity. Enmity/Evil, called Wrath if purchased alone, was popular, for example.

Courageous was Tremble's favorite, as it increased any morale bonuses I had by half the Enhancement bonus of the Weapon, and for those around me if Tremble was Singing, which he preferred to be doing. Combined with Profound Bardsong, it could provide a tremendous kicker for any people around me… and for myself, if I wanted them.

With a functional +VIII Enhancement bonus, that was an additional +4 to Bardsong or Favored Enemy/Hunter bonuses. If I was Wardancing… that was +8!

And all that fed into another routine and oft-ignored +I in Arsenal… Defender, and its brother, Guardian.

Swap TH/Dmg bonus from Enhancement for AC with Defender, or Saves with Guardian. With the boosted morale bonuses, it was like I didn't lose anything!

Saves juiced my Null, which crystallized it and basically made it impossible for their screams to affect me. The AC bonus, combined with defensive fighting and Expertise, meant I was parrying their attacks and dropping their hit rate drastically. Combined with their lowered damage, I could now make a fight of it.

Better, with a ranged attack I could now skim, kite, skirmish, and every single time I swung, I could attack without letup.

If they were within a hundred and fifty feet, I had no downtime and could always be attacking.

Importantly, I could turn a Cleave into a shot, which was very important. I would never waste a kill if there wasn't one of them in 'range'.

And not last and not least, Penetrating Shot allowed me to take a ranged attack and hit a target behind my original target, up to 70 feet in a line, taking a -4 to hit on each penetration, stacking.

All of this meant being able to change the active configuration of the Slots quickly and when needed, and me and Tremble got into this with gloating enthusiasm for all the configurations that would be needed… and would only increase as Arsenal expanded.

And his QL increased, to give us those options. 100 gpv a day, slow and sure.

But… this was the big combo. I twitched a finger, and my Training Technique for Melee/5 slowly ticked over.

Skill Focus, Mastersmith. +3,+6 at Ten, to Blacksmith, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, and Whitesmith. My Sage of Swords triggered, and Leatherworker and Woodcarver were also sucked in, because they were required support skills for true smithwork. These skills were now basically combined, any modifier to one of them was treated as affecting all of them, so Mastersmith applied to all the skills, and the Ranks combined towards my cap.

Skill points, 4. +1 FC, +1 Resolve, +5 Intelligence, so 11.

One point each to max out Stealth, Perception, and all six Smithing skills, plus Martial Lore, Miner, and Gemcutter.

There were all now at five Ranks. Synergy bonuses started at five Ranks.

I ticked over my Combat Technique, and my Sage of Swords was humming at me.

Profound Artisan. I could almost feel two months of collected breath release as I ticked that over, and picked Mastersmith.

Profound Artisan, pick a Skill, add the synergy bonus from that Skill to your Focused Weapon.

Mastersmith was about using tools. So, knowing how to use the hammers and knives and chisels of the main six skills added together into a profound driving force.

But wait, Miners used hammers, chisels, and picks. So did Gemcutters. Perception had a Feat, Find the Weakness, where if you made a spot check vs. an opponent's AC, it was a touch attack, turning your eyes into a tool for attacking.

Stealth reduced your opponent's AC to flat-footed if they didn't see you coming, no matter what tool you used. It was basically the foundation for Sneak Attack damage.

Know the School allowed you to use Martial Lore to find an opening in your opponent's fighting style, it was a duelist Feat. Knowledge… became a tool of war with a Skill check.

”Whoa whoa whoa whooooooa!” Tremble murmured, as he felt my Vajra almost crystallizing around him.

My Grandmastery was: The sword is a shitty weapon, but it's better than all the rest.

The premise was that the sword did every weapon's job better than any other weapon could. The sword was my hammer, my spear, my mace, my axe, my knife, my saber, my staff, my club, even my shield or javelin. My Grandmastery required me to take Weapon Focus and Weapon Mastery in all those weapons… but what I could then do is apply any weapon dependent feat for those weapons to my sword.

I could take Axe, Hammer, Mace, Spear, Lance, Knife, Scimitar, Short Sword, Pick, and so forth Feats with my Sword, and use them, if it was mechanically possible.

All this resonated through my Sage of Swords. Any Skills that used tools that were also weapons or could directly affect combat instantly became sources of martial strength.

I had eleven Skills hit five Ranks. Synergy bonus on each of them was +2.

I now had another +22 damage with my Sword.

Tremble rose, his hum was quavering. He could feel the power moving him was far more than flesh and bone now, this was my soul and life energy settling on him with a form of martial comprehension he had no prior idea of. Sure, it was only the equivalent of a 6d6 attack… but it was with every blow, and unlike dice, it multiplied on crits and One Strikes and charges.

This, my Grandmastery and my Sagedom, had made me what I was, back in the game. Now, they were going to make me something in my dream.