Chapter 459

“Eater, Vampiric Body, and Undead Body, are all Bad, and should go into that category,” Addavein said, as he handed Mark an entirely different list than the one Mark had given him. Mark looked at the list, muttering, “Ah, fuck. Yeah, okay— But I thought Vampiric Body was okay?”

Addavein’s actual house located on the other side of the Shine, after they came back from Endless Daihoon, as per regulations handed down from a bunch of bureaucracy that Mark couldn’t make himself care about, but he had been effectively living in the Mage District since about a week after that bureaucracy. If Addavein had ever stepped foot in his house more than twice, then Mark would have been surprised.

Addavein’s unsanctioned home in the Mage District had been the house of some mages, but Addavein had handed over some adamantium to the previous owners, asked them kindly to clear out, according to his story, and so he was living there. Addavein was barely at his Mage District house, either, but he had been there more than twice. It was a nice house, over top of a nice bakery and a nice cafe.

Mark was currently meeting with Addavein at that nice cafe. He had taken lunch here with Lola many times while he was at Arcanaeum, before the trip to Endless Daihoon… which wasn’t that often, really. Mark had been busy, even back then.

Mark was absolutely sure that at least one or two of the employees here were spies. One of them was named Gerald.

Gerald came around with his pitcher of coffee, smiling nicely and asking, “Would you two like a refill?”

Mark shook his head.

Addavein held up his cup while telling Mark, “Vampiric Body can be useful but it’s in the same category as all Undead-Body stuff, and therefore rather— Thank you, Gerald.”

Gerald did a little bow and walked away to refill other cups.

Addavein continued, “All Powers that control or modify Death mana are a lot more restricted than you think they are.”

“... The Transcendent Skills aren’t restricted?”

“Those deal with Death mana, so yes, they would be restricted, if anyone ever got those Powers in any real capacity except for one-offs here and there throughout history.”

“… Uh. They deal with Death mana? But I saw the Binding work and… They do? But it’s just Death-mana, right? The Transcendent Powers work by switching existence between Life and Death-shaped mana, making the wielder ‘transcendent’ from the mortal coil— Ohhhh. Wait. They can allow for actual Death and Life mana control, can’t they.”

Addavein nodded, saying, “It’s not a first-order action of those Powers, but calling those Powers ‘Life and Death Control’ would be mostly correct, and thus those Powers are restricted by pretty much every law in the Two Worlds. Again, if they were ever actually seen in any capacity in mortal hands, then they would be regulated. Based on extrapolations of current law, though, I am sure that Cade was automatically flagged in the systems of Empire as ‘acceptable’, and so he’s merely under overwatch, like Jessie, but for different reasons.” Addavein stirred sugar into his coffee, saying, “I am sure Cade’s father and the other Watersons are doing quite a lot right now to figure out where Cade falls in their noble family structure. He used to be a scion who would continue the family line, but now he’s something else.”

Mark hummed, thinking, reading the new list… he paused. “You put Detect Death and Life in the ‘Good’ category, along with Unseen Servant and Exorcist? I those all interact with Death mana… yes?”

“There are specific exceptions to the general laws,” Addavein said, nodding. “Lots to learn! The discussion of Powers and legality is a high level thing, conducted deep in Mage Society with lawyers that are worse than demons.”

That reminded Mark about something important. “The witches brought up wording and society and how I’m basically doing eugenics and Empire building and a whole lot of stuff, and how I shouldn’t speak of any Powers as ‘bad’. What do you think about that?”

Addavein pulled back a little, humming, then said, “There is some deep merit to that stance when considering how far this will go. I expect a lot of missteps, but I also expect the general direction of this whole thing to be rather fantastic.”

“Ahh, fuck.”

Addavein chuckled. “What’s with that reaction?”

“I was hoping you were going to tell me that the witches were being overly-soft with their words and like… leading to more harm in the end by not calling a thing a thing.”

“Pearl, Amy, and Uva have the exact right amount of softness. Softness is good, Mark. Softness is civilization. You Empire building, and thus it is up to you to set a baseline for propriety, because here’s the thing: You can do no wrong, and that is a responsibility. So be softer when you can, but not too soft, obviously. There’s a line to walk.”

Mark scoffed at the idea of him ‘not being able to do wrong’. Mark said, “I could absolutely do wrong by…” A sudden thought chilled Mark to the bone. Ice knives traced through his chest and jammed into his stomach. Mark shivered and looked away, toward greenery hanging in the windows of the coffee shop, and to flowers growing in pots. “I could do wrong by being slow.”

“Ahh… Yes. That was a difficult day.”

… Mark looked at Addavein. The guy looked composed and his neck was mostly healed. All he had left of the ‘soul infection’ were some silver blushes traced up and down parts of his otherwise-tan skin. Mark hadn’t helped him with that at all, and Mark was just now realizing that he had forgotten about that.

Mark said, “Sorry. I forgot to help with your wound. What is it? How can I help?”

Addavein softly smiled. “It wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be, so it’s mostly healed. All I need is some time and I imagine I’ll get that time. But thank you, anyway.”

“Ah… dammit. See! Right there. I did some wrong. This whole thing…” Mark didn’t know how to tell Addavein he felt like he was drowning sometimes, like there was too much to deal with all at once. But they were in public. They would be in public anywhere they went, really. Mark focused on the real problem, saying, “I haven’t heard about Okuana, or gotten any messages from Walaria. I expected to get one this morning, with schedules and marching orders.”

“It is quite tense,” Addavein said, as he picked up his coffee and sipped it.

Mark picked up one of the coffee cookies and dunked the hard, brown cookie into his creamy coffee, soaking the biscuit in the heat and the taste, softening the solid snack. The cookie melted in his mouth. It was good.

Addavein said, “Maybe if you were really trying, and if you weren’t you, I could see you doing wrong, Mark. But in reality? You’ll give the wrong person too strong of powers, and especially if you think Vampiric Body is something that is ‘good’. You’ll fail to save everyone multiple times in your life. But I have a real hard time believing that you could ever do wrong.”

Mark disbelieved, going, “Ehhhhh.”

Addavein chuckled, then continued, “But Undead Powers are not good. Breeder is actually useful, though, so you have that one in the right place. Very specialized, though, and mostly for bloodline propagation. Back when Aluatha had breeder houses and most children died in the Thresher at age 12, Breeder was a godsend.”

Mark shivered at that whole time of history.

Addavein smiled sadly. “These days, and with your capability, Breeder is even more useful. Any woman that marries into a noble house brings with them either a bloodline that is useful, or a bloodline that is harmful. Once your capability gets more widely known, I imagine you’ll get many young women coming to you, asking for Breeder to calm the objections of the man’s family, which are usually very loud, very serious objections. If a noble family cannot maintain their generational bloodline power they often lose their noble status, but a woman with Breeder would solve all of that.”

“I completely forgot about that noble obligation… Breeder is actually useful for people, huh?”

“Back when midwifery was truly terrible and the Pantheon wasn’t here for healing, women died in childbirth all the time. Breeder has been useful for much of history, and that's even before we get into the bloodline question. Most people these days don’t even know of the bloodline problem,” Addavein said, “And yet, many Skillers of Empire have rather routine requests to adjust the Binding of the mother or the father to make them more in-line with the bloodline of the family— If they can. Usually they cannot. Many times marriage proposals fail for bloodline reasons, or the people looking to marry choose to leave the family. So ‘Breeder’ is actually a ‘great’ Power under the categories you’ve decided upon.”

Mark asked, “What about Impregnate? Is that in the right category of ‘Bad’?”

“That one is a bit more complicated. Yes, Impregnate ruins bloodlines and you’d never want that Power for yourself since it would be the Power that goes into the next generation, but it’s great for meat production, and you got it from a bull, yes? So throw Meaty and Impregnate into one of the bulls at the farm, Breeder on another prize cow, and I’m rather sure that the Farmers of Verdago would be happy.” Addavein added, “There are uses for all of these Powers, if you use them right, but… Hive Mind? Perhaps not. You can safely dump all but maybe 3 of those. Or just get rid of all of them. Hive Mind is easy enough to find out there in the Wilds. 17 Breeders is too much, but you could easily find families that want those, either for outsider daughters marrying into a noble family, or for their own daughters to marry into other noble families with incompatible bloodlines but with highly compatible financials and such… you want to do that.”

Mark wasn’t sure how he felt about any of that, but… “I can keep a few of them around. I got space.”

“Put them into a new ‘Specialized’ category, and that’ll likely be good enough, though you should still have a talk with Walaria and the witch girls about naming conventions. Consider a ‘public list’ and a ‘full list’, and maybe a list for Powers that are available for Empire versus a list that is available for all of the routine warriors.” Addavein added, “In fact, get rid of the ‘Bad’ designation and say instead ‘Restricted’, because most of them in that category would be restricted. Animate Undead is highly useful for war, so don’t get rid of that one at all, but it’s also inherently dangerous because the shambling corpses and undead horrors carry parasites and diseases, spreading them everywhere as a side effect, and that’s not even touching the emotional damage of seeing the clearly dead rushing back into battle, spears in hands and heads smashed open.”

Mark decided, “I’ll fix most of that.”

Addavein smirked. And then he began a deep dive into every single Power Mark had, beginning with, “Brawny is a specialized kind of Strong Body Power that some people on Earth have, but which specifically lends itself more toward physical fortification instead of just a Strength modifier, and so that needs to be ‘good’, and you should consider people coming to you for ‘looks based Skilling’, and in that case Brawny produces a more aesthetically pleasing body than Strong Body. Brawnies barely have to work out at all, unlike Strong Bodies who usually degrade due to lack of effort.

“Slick Body and Stunner Body are both usually detrimental to the user, so those two need to go into the category of ‘Specialized’.

“And Breeder Body can go on anyone. Not just women. You might even get some guys who want that one. Like, you have your uncles, yes? If they want children of their own —and I imagine they will since they’re effectively immortal— they might want Breeder if only for a few pregnancies.

“Not all Shaper Powers are equal, but, as you’ve already seen based on these designations you have here, you see that ‘Shaper’ is usually a lesser form of ‘Kinesis’, but that’s mostly the fault of the user. Metal Shapers can be just as strong as Adamantiumkinesis, but in specialized ways...”

It was so much to think about.

With Addavein’s help, Mark ended up sending out a different list of available Powers.

Later, when he was back at the house, Mark sat down in a small room and recorded a video message to his uncles. He had to start over a few times because the entire subject matter squicked him out, but his uncles deserved to be spoken to in a clear and non-judgmental manner.

“Hey, Alexandro and Gabriel! So there’s this thing I can do now, where I can put Powers into people and take other Powers out. It’s a big deal. I was pulling Powers out of cows for Healthy Body to give to people— Oh! And if you want a pair of those you two can certainly have them. The whole process is called ‘Skilling’, and you can look up what that is, though I’m sure you already know what it is… Ah. I’m just delaying actually talking about the subject. So…” Mark took a breath, and said, “I pulled Breeder out of some cows, alongside the Healthy Bodys I was going for. Apparently, according to Addavein, when given to a male the male becomes, uh, capable of, uh, pregnancy. I did not get all of the details, but apparently there’s some deep history about that Power and… Well! I have Healthy Body on option for both of you, if you want it. But I also have Breeder if you guys want your own kids. Only one of you should take it.

“It will adjust your body for pregnancy and I can take it back after a few years so you can heal yourself back to how you are now.

“Gabriel, if I give you a Power, it will override your Knack for People. I don’t know how to fix that. I do have some Smart Mind Powers available and those can somewhat replace a Knack for People, but if you take this Breeder or Healthy Body option then your Knack for People goes away.

“Alexandro, if I give you a Power, it will go right alongside your Arch Power of Age Manipulation, but you won’t be able to pass on that Power to your kids, if you’re the one holding the pregnancy.

“I do not need to know any details about your lives, so that’s why I’m sending this message and talking about most of the obvious concerns. Give me a call later and we can talk about this, or you can tell me to never bring it up again. Either works! Love you two! Bye— And oh, yeah, uh… We’re at war with Okuana now, because of the Winter’s Ball Attack. So, uh. Talk to you later! Love you.”

Mark ended it there.

He sat in the comfort of the room for a long minute, and then he got up.

“Gods, that was fucking awkward.”

Mark shook himself out, and then… Gods, he needed to do something else— Oh!

Shawn.

Mark had already given Shawn all of his new Powers of Battlemind, Telekinesis, and Strength Unending. Mark had already given Yoro his Curse, too, but Mark didn’t feel like he could call up Yoro and asking ‘hey so how is that cursing people going!’. However, calling up Shawn about his new Powers seemed very possible.

Mark called up Shawn.

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- -

Shawn stared at the wonderful, beautiful sky as he stood resplendent in his paladin’s armor, his adamantine sword held softly in his right hand. All around him were the corpses of a rather standard wasp-type monster. They were really more of a butterfly, but because of the stingers and the mandibles and how they swarmed and how they ate meat, they were classified as wasps.

Shawn, Lenny, and Tartu were at an almost-reclaimed farming land north of the settlement. The place had been full of lightbee hives, the glowing hexagons of their habitats nestled tight and tall against many different trees, the trees almost fully eclipsed by solid light constructs full of liquid light honey and many, many different bees, each the size of a hand. And then the wasps came in, about a day ago.

The bees were trapped behind their own failing light shields, the torso-sized wasps still swarming, their black stingers and black claws and black jaws carving into that light, trying to get at the bees below.

But Shawn was here, and the wasps flew at him at full speed, zipping across the sky and over the land and right at Shawn, their stingers out and dripping with acid poison.

Shawn ‘black stinger’ was better.

Shawn physically let go of the sword, but it was still telekinetically in his grip, as he stepped to the side of a wasp, his sword flowing and carving right through the wasp’s stinger, through its body, and then right out of the head, bisecting the aggressive monster right up the middle. Shawn had needed to compensate for the twisting body of the wasp as it reacted to him, trying to fly away, and then as it thrashed apart as it died, but Shawn managed a full central-aimed cut well enough by just looking at the thing halfway through its death, and then following through as he turned his attention to the other 23 wasps coming his way.

He could have killed the wasp quicker with a slice through the torso and out the head, but he was challenging himself and his new Battlemind.

With a tap on the ground, Shawn leapt up into the air, way, way too high. 41.6 meters. He had overshot his goal, which was fine. He pulled his blade up into the air and spun it too fast, along with a telekinetic grasp of the air, and he shot himself back to the ground, toward a swarming horde of wasps.

Indiscriminate slaughter followed as Shawn twisted the very air around wasp wings, carved through wasp heads with utmost precision, but some of the wasps had brainstems that remained active and hateful toward anything that killed them, so Shawn had to reorient and kill the bodies. Soon, it was just him and 3 more wasps left. Shawn let those last 3 simply splash against his body, against his armor striking with 24 to 27 centimeter long stingers. Golden Retribution sparked through them, and then leapt through the air to strike at four different hordes still swarming around the other lightbee hives.

And then Shawn landed, soft as a feather, before absorbing all of his weight into the ground and orienting against the rest of the oncoming hordes.

Shawn slaughtered wasps, sometimes with a blade that he held 10 meters from his body, sometimes with a blade he held in his grip. Sometimes he jumped into the sky, getting a better understanding of his new Powers, and sometimes he struck the ground with his feet and carved waves of rocks to splash up against the hordes, knocking them off balance in the sky while tailoring his ground crashes to leave the underground hives —and also Lenny!— undisturbed.

When he was done, he felt he could keep going, but that was enough. The enemy was dead, and Shawn had been glorious.

Shawn sparked some remaining Retribution across his clothes and armor, shaking off the few bits of green blood and sticky, broken carapaces that had fallen onto his body, and then he stood, radiant and clean. By all the gods, he was magnificent.

Tears gathered in stoic eyes, for Shawn knew that his entire life, from this point on, was going to be amazing and difficult, and he welcomed that change—

“Showboat,” Lenny said, stepping out of the ground a good 23.7 meters away, grinning. “And what the fuck was with that ground stomp! You coulda hit me!”

Shawn laughed, and said, “Nuh uh! You were on the other side of the battlefield, closing up wasp holes way, way far away! So , dude.”

“We’ll have to make some team adjustments but that Battlemind is invaluable,” Tartu said, about 77 meters away, where he regrew a tree that the wasps had eaten through. Shawn wasn’t quite sure of the distance because he had more difficulty gauging things beyond 52.5 meters away, but that was just a matter of time to solve. Tartu asked, “I’m actually wondering if I should get Battlemind, too, instead of Healthy Body.”

Shawn scoffed. “You’ve been trying to grow that Healthy Body to something respectable for years, bro. Don’t give up now!”

Lenny waved his hand against the ground and the ground snapped upward against every wasp corpse, like a wave of dogs taking big, crunching bites and then leaving behind the mess. It was loud, but Lenny raised his voice louder, “Just need to go fight a whole bunch of goblins and have one soul-fuck you to higher heights, Tartu!”

Shawn smirked.

“Oh Ha Ha,” Tartu called back, as he regrew the forest underfoot, turning mulched bodies into fertilizer and fresh stone into grasses and flowers. He walked by some dead, broken trees that had once held massive lightbee hives, but which now erupted into mushrooms. As the trees collapsed into more fertilizer, Tartu said, “I’m not sure I could ever go into a war like that on my own… And the more Mark does, the more I realize I’m just not in the same league at all, and I kinda fucking hate it.”

Shawn smiled wide and then he tapped off of the ground, landing beside Tartu and grabbing him into a shaking half hug, saying, “Awww! Leader is having some inadequacy issues!”

Tartu scoffed and pushed away. “Perspective is not the same as inadequacy. I would never go into a goblin war like that, all alone and needing to figure out shit on the fly. And I’m cool with that! I like knowing that running from battle is the right choice—” Tartu fixed Shawn with a heavy stare, causing Shawn’s Battlemind to focus, but then Tartu said, “Which is something that you will need to keep in mind, Shawn. Don’t let all these powerups go to your head.”

Shawn grinned and telekinetically swept his adamantium sword up and into the sheath on his back, the metal clicking dully into the scabbard as he said, “It’s gonna be hard to hold back all this power from my head, because I’m already doing everything I can to hold back my raging hardon.”

Tartu laughed.

“Seriously, though!” Shawn said, “If it weren’t for TT I’d have blown through this armor!”

Tartu smiled happily—

And then Lenny slapped Shawn on his back, saying, “Let’s go to the Pink House!”

“Fuck yeah!” Shawn said.

Soon, they were flying back to the settlement on some hoverboards—

The phone rang in Shawn’s ears.

Shawn tapped the comms, saying, “Heyyo!”

Mark asked, “How’s it going with the new Powers?”

“Fucking AWESOME, dude.”

Tartu gave Shawn a questioning look.

“It’s Mark,” Shawn told Tartu and Lenny. Then he said to Mark, “I just killed about 768 wasps at the Nordfolk Lightbee Farm, and Tartu repaired the trees, and Lenny filled out the ground to get rid of the wasp nests, and it was awesome. Easiest fight I’ve ever had. I still feel so full of energy! Strength Unending is awesome.”

“Neat! I’m really glad to hear it. If you guys want anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Shawn grinned, and then he joked with Mark, “We’re gonna hit up the Pink House if you wanna come out!”

Mark scoffed, and said, “No. You guys have fun— Oh gods… You won’t, uh, break anyone?”

Shawn laughed. “Nope! They got good girls with good Powers, though my dick is about 6.9 centimeters bigger so I might need to hire one of their Best Girls.”

Mark asked, joking back, “Does it even count as a big dick if it doesn’t have fan sites?”

“I’ll have to work on that!” Shawn said, smiling wide.

“You guys have fun!” Softer, Mark added, “And don’t kill anyone, holy shit.”

Mark hung up.

Shawn told Tartu, “I should have asked him about getting you a better body, but we can work on that later.”

Tartu scoffed.

Shawn entered the Pink House with his best friends. Three hours later Shawn left feeling just as good as he had entered, and in a completely different way. The guys went their own way, tired and not wanting to do more, so Shawn had a big lunch at one of his favorite restaurants, splurging for a whole chicken dinner, and then he went magic item shopping with new money from his new job working at Blackleaf.

Gods, this was a good life!

- -

“Oh my gods,” Aurora said, as she conducted a sweep of the settlement and noticed a major problem… She paused.

Aurora fixed the situation, but there was too much to monitor and these new Tri-Talents were not going to be problem. Aurora typed up a quick message and sent it out to Shawn Bench, and then she called up Cedric Umbral.

“Ma’am?” Cedric asked.

“Shawn Bench, known as Reflectman in the HVP, now has Strength Unending, Telekinesis, Battlemind, he’s also in the Chosen System for Drakarok, Mark gave him an unenchanted adamantine blade. The guy just finished fucking some girls at the Pink House and they were planning on baby-trapping him by selling his stuff to an unknown buyer. I have already ruined the samples they collected and sent him a message alerting him that fact. You will inform him of the rest of the realities of his new life, and prepare for more like him.”

Cedric’s voice gained the barest hint of tension to it as he acknowledged, “Ma’am.”

Aurora hung up.

- -

Shawn, happy as could be, heard his phone ping with a priority message.

Shawn rapidly pulled the phone out of his pocket, saw the message was from Aurora, and his eyes went wide, mind spiraling with worry.

And then he read the message.

Shawn crashed to his ass on a low stone wall. He couldn’t breathe, his mind working overtime as he thought about things he had never thought about before. Sure, he knew had to be careful, but—

Shadows resolved under a tree, coming together and then falling away, revealing a stern older man with pale skin, dark leathers, and bright white hair and a short beard. His eyes pierced through Shawn, and Shawn recognized him. He was Lord Cedric Umbral, of House Umbral, the leader of the special forces of the settlement, and he was also known by his villain name, Shadowstrike, though he had only ever joined the HVP to keep tabs on people. He ran the Operative’s Office, also known as Double-O, and he was very selective with his people. Shawn had almost joined OO when Tartu had vanished into Endless Daihoon, but Shawn had never actually talked to the man, or to anyone near him at all.

Shawn got to his feet and stood tall, saying, “Sir!”

“You’ve read the letter, so you know the issue,” Lord Cedric said, getting right into it. “Don’t ever go to the Pink House ever again. You will go to Bouncing Betty’s or The Pale Dragon if you should ever feel the need to vent ever again, which I am sure you will.” Lord Cedric picked up Shawn’s adamantine blade from the shadows beside his leg, and Shawn winced. He hadn’t even noticed the sword leaving his possession, but it was gone, and now Lord Cedric held it. “You will be more careful with this in the future, for the next person to take it from you might not give it back.” He handed it over.

Shawn felt inept as he took the sword and put it back into the sheath on his back, holding it there solidly with his Telekinesis, saying, “Thank you, sir.”

“Consider leaving that at home or at the vaults of Castle South, for use in emergencies only. A normal blade made of mithril would do just as well for almost all purposes.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Lord Cedric Umbral nodded a little, and then he asked, “Why did you never join my Office? We’re not exclusive, though everyone likes to think that we are. We simply do the difficult missions.”

“I… I was hoping that Tartu was coming back, sir.”

“Well he did come back and we’re all thankful for that. And now here you are, also a full Tri-Talent, and without anyone truly guiding you. Sure, the Solaris are there for you, and surely Rekaro was getting around to actually doing more, but everyone is busy, so you're mine, now.” Umbral locked eyes with Shawn, and said, “Aurora has charged me with wrangling all of the new talents that Mark lands in the settlement… though I suppose he is calling it Dawncoast now. Whatever the case, you no longer report to Kandon as your superior officer. You report to me. Part of this new arrangement is that you are to act like a noble in all manner of being, and that includes when you’re out whoring.”

“Yes sir! Thank you, sir. What does that mean, sir?”

“When I know what it means, I’ll let you know. For now, just do your missions through the Operative’s Office Mission Portal. Not through the normal portal at all. I cleared you for that part of the settlement project’s app, so just click through a few screens and figure it out.”

Shawn rapidly bowed. “Thank you, sir!”

“… And a bit of advice. Act more like Mark does when it comes to nobility. You’re a Tri-Talent, now. Bowing is good, but not this much.”

Shawn… straightened up. “Yes, sir… Shall I call you ‘Cedric’?”

Lord Cedric Umbral said, “Only when we’re out drinking after missions or after you’ve earned it. I expect you to earn that honor quickly.”

And then the guy vanished into the shadows.

Shawn took a deep breath… and then he hopped on the tram to head home, to the Solari Residence.

He put his adamantine blade into the vault then he grabbed one of the typical mithril blades he usually used, telling himself, “Don’t get cocky, Shawn. Cocky dudes die all the time…” He shuddered. He muttered, “Holy fuck.”