252 Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Two – Going After the Last Obelisk...? (1/2)
Briggs did give me a hairy eyeball. ”How high have you taken those Succubi Levels?” he asked suspiciously.
I lifted an eyebrow. ”Where did that come from?”
”You basically ordered some berserking, battle-crazed, flesh-starved super monkeys to quit chasing a fleeing foe, stop eating, and wait for us to feed them. And they patiently waited for three hours for us to get back across the zone border and butcher dinos to do it. You've talked two Exemplar animals into basically becoming your subordinates... and an Epic Ape!
”And despite the fact that a whole bunch of Tens just became super-people, they're all still marching to your orders with nary a lick of trouble... and you aren't even an Exemplar yet.” His eyeball was quite hairy, indeed. ”You aren't shining like a moon among the stars like Wayfair, but damn, Sama... and I won't even go into how the dragons aren't even trying to dominate you.”
I wrinkled my nose, glanced around, and leaned in to whisper, ”Fuzzy, you are being too observant. Allow me to think nobody noticed. The Brothers are being very polite and not saying anything. You're popping all my delusions!”
He took a deep breath. ”So... at Ten?” he asked quietly. Nobody was near enough to bug us, there were too many hundreds of tons of meat being roasted right now. It appeared all those Bloodline Investitures and Exemplar Templating also raised quite the appetite. Even the new angelic vohr were indulging... with very thin cuts, proper braising, spices, and competitions over recipes.
Naturally everyone had to sample what they were cooking, even if they loved raw meat, and so it had turned into a feast and cooking contest all at once, with Wayfair merrily playing the role of master chef, taste-tester, and MC for the entertainers who inevitably set up and began to play, sing, and dance.
”Yeah. I'm using Wayfair for the Lilithi portion of the Succubi advance. I've been pressing it up. It's not as expensive as you might think, since none of the magic transfers over, including the life-sucking kiss, nor am I going for permanent tail, horns, or wings. Also, the physical side got taken care of with Hag Levels, and a bunch of the mental side with Nymph, too. And no, no killing beauty,” I said, as his eyes narrowed appraisingly. Yeah, using Wayfair as the template basically meant I had a lot of synching with her Bloodline... and so over those winged, horned, and tailed ExLite angelic vohr over there.
He didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed, so, broad-minded fellow that he was, he opted for both. ”Ah, so you don't have to pay full price for benefits you don't actually receive?” That was logical. ”That probably includes skill points...” he added thoughtfully.
I nodded. ”Yeah, you get the highest numbers, so I'm sitting on eight per Level from the Succubi Levels, and I can access the Akasha of any of the Levels... not that it's relevant, since all Skills are Racial Skills to Soulborn.” I shrugged. ”I've actually sealed the Akashic links so I'm not downloading any Skills. I want to save the Ranks until I pass Ten.”
He raised a bushier eyebrow. ”You can do that?” He sounded amazed.
”Yeah, if you are Forsaken. It's a spiritual link to an alien Akasha, after all. Human/3 means I can deny them that link until I want to. Still have to pay for it, of course. But I really don't need another 56 Skill Points at the moment.”
”Given how Deep you are, I believe you. Especially with those Forsaken Caster Levels...” He sighed, thinking of how much Karma it was going to be for him to build those up. ”Oh, how did the Nymph's Druid Levels work out for you? And are you getting the Lilithi Favored Levels?”
I quirked a smile. ”The Nymph Levels were very efficient for me. They took my Null Druid Levels all the way to Ten. I made an adjustment to the Lilithi Levels, working off the faith and loyalty that's somewhat streaming in from my Marks.” He said nothing about the implications of that, just looking thoughtful. ”Two Levels per Level in Lilitu. So, I'm a Four Null Shifter at the moment.”
”With lots of Slots, and an assload of Con bonuses...” he mused.
”Which I can Nog away for other benefits,” I agreed. ”Have you been taking any?”
”Yes, buying up my Stats towards 18 base as I can. But I'm only a Three... and found I can't use the bonus Slots for a high Charisma to do so.”
”Yeah, but you can use the bonuses from Archsorcery or whatnot,” I told him, and he nodded.
”You spending for the same?” he asked calmly.
”Yes. All the Slots... I've got no reason to save them. If I ever decide to take a Bonded Caster, they'll have plenty to work with just off my Pool and Bonus Slots.” I harrumphed. ”So much power to not use...” He gave me that hairy eyeball again, and sighed. ”What?”
”Out with it. You found out something else.”
”You sure you don't want to be depressed?”
”Is it something I wanted to know at One?”
”Yeah.”
”Shit,” he summed it up nicely. ”What now?”
”Psionics.”
He closed his pale violet eyes. ”Okay. Okay, Forsaken Caster Classes came out of left field. Psionics... actually makes sense.” He opened them, fixated on me. ”What did you do, eat a 'vore?”
”Some of the Mu Goop, actually.” Firecrackers in the mouth. ”It was like, oh, it uses THAT energy? And there it was, right there, because I'm a sentient creature with a brain. Naturally I had psionic energy.”
He reached out and tunked on the air three inches from my face. ”I thought your Vajra was stronger. What is it now? Adamant Vajra? Transcendent Vajra?”
”That's a good name for it. It's like two to three points of Psi to one Mana, Ki or Essence.”
”And now you've got how many more Classes to Level up, too?”
”Null Psion is Con based; Null Psyker is Cha-based; Null Psychic Warrior is Wis-based; and Mindblade accentuates my Sword.”
”Plus Theurgies?” he prompted.