div class="message-content js-messageContent" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 auto; min-height: 1px; position: relative; color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13.328px; background-color: #191f2d;"
div class="message-userContent lbContainer js-lbContainer hasThreadmark" style="box-sizing: border-box;" data-lb-id="post-40691914" data-lb-caption-desc="Wrin ยท Oct 27, 2017 at 8:50 PM"
div class="bbWrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.875rem;"I did my best to look innocent and like I hadn't already conjured a barrel and started siphoning off water from the springs even before I noticed them. The barrel went in my inventory and I put my hands behind my back with a look of curiosity toward the angrily approaching beastmen. At the lead was an effeminate looking boy with one blue and one pink streak in his white hair wearing ornate armor. Prince Herb. He demanded to know why I was taking the spring water and that I never do it again, and I dropped my facade for a hard style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"It's none of your goddamn business why I'm taking it, and this is not your land. It's neutral. I checked with the Amazons to ensure I wasn't trespassing after they mentioned the other tribes in the area." Yes, I was looking for a fight. I span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"really/span did not like the Musk, and I wanted to see how I stood up to their prince. I started assigning defensive spells as I spoke, with [Barrier], [Mana Shield], [Mana Protection], and [Active Precognitive Defense] going up first. Herb's level was in the mid 200s, so I'd need the extra protection. Seeing my mana start to dip a bit, I reserved some for [Mystical Energy (Generator)] and it shot back style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb's eyes narrowed, and he gestured the wolf-eared boy next to him forward. He blurred forward and bounced off of a [Barrier (Force Wall)] produced by [Active Precognitive Defense]. I could follow him, if only barely. [Haste]ing myself made it much easier, and I allowed him to close this time before engaging the Boots of Kicking I'd enchanted back in The Gamer and improved several times since. The kick to the head would have sent him flying, but the extra telekinetic blast produced by the boots themselves ensured he left a crater in the side of the valley. Herb growled, and the rest of the cohort attacked. I engaged [Flight] and started picking them off with ki blasts courtesy of [Mystical Energy (Bolt)]. I might have been aiming to fling most of them into random Jusenkyo springs at the same time. style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb was furious now, and the few arrows and other projectiles that hit me did absolutely nothing. Most weren't enchanted or otherwise enhanced, so they never made it past my high vitality perks. Even the few that were enhanced by ki met [Physical Endurance], the mystical damage resistances granted by my high wisdom perks, [Mystical Energy (Resistance)], and [Energy Affinity (Ki)]. The few hit points I lost regenerated without conscious effort on my part before the barrage stopped. I cocked my head at Herb himself, as if asking him to try his luck. He style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /If Herb's bodyguard had been fast, the young man himself was greased lightning. [Active Precognitive Defense] surrounded me in a bubble of [Barrier (Force Wall)] in addition to the normal barrier I'd raised before the fight and even inside it I was knocked around like a ping-pong ball. My mana had taken a hit both to raise the barrier and to cast cushioning charms on the inside of it. By the time I recovered from the sudden onslaught Herb was charging a ki blast in one hand and holding a sword made of the stuff in the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Gamer's Mind fully engaged at that point so my emotions wouldn't interfere with the fight, and I erected a [Barrier (Reflect)] tuned to ki in front of me as I called on my own [Plasma Sword] technique. The man's eyes narrowed, and he actually span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"bounced/span the ki blast off a nearby surface so that it exploded against my first [Barrier]. My mana dropped by about five percent from [Mana Protection]. I hadn't used the skill a whole lot, but I knew that it saved me from five points of health damage per point of mana spent. That would have really style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I raised the amount of mana reserved for [Mystical Energy (Generator)] to twenty percent of the maximum to compensate, then poured the extra inflow into [Mystical Energy (Mastery)] to boost all of my stats further and launched myself at the dragon descendant. He didn't even try to block my plasma blade, instead using the opportunity to hack at my own defenses with his ki sword. I took the hit on my [Barrier] instead of my neck, and my mana dropped again even as it refilled. Herb, having expected to be hit with ki or fire based on the appearance of my blade, screamed in pain as the plasma cut away his fancy armor with ease and singed even his flesh. He was immune to pure fire, but this blade was also infused with lightning and a sharpened force style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I took the opportunity his flinch provided to strike at the hand in which he held the ki blade, but his reflexes were superior to mine. The blade itself melted into a coating over his hand, and he caught my plasma sword with a grimace and started pummeling my force wall with the other fist. The barrier held, but [Active Precognitive Defense] seemed to be occupied with keeping it up. Herb began to force my blade back toward me, his hand sliding down toward mine for a better angle. I hadn't anticipated someone doing that, and made a note to myself to study a better way of allowing myself to use the technique through my shields than making it bypass them entirely. Being far stronger in magic than in body, I grabbed the blade itself with [Telekinesis] and slashed down at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The sudden apparent increase in strength was enough to surprise him, and I put a deep gouge in the arm he'd been pummeling my force wall with and a shallower cut in his ribs. He roared in anger, fire actually spewing from his mouth as he kicked my force wall hard enough to throw me down into one of the springs. The force wall held back the water, and Herb himself avoided the splash. He seemed to be healing as I watched from my position of relative safety. Oh. He was charging another ki blast, this one a lot bigger than the first. Did I say safety? I meant mortal style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I flew back up toward him and tried something new. Rather than erect a reflective barrier in front of me and allow him to bounce the projectile around it I instead waited until the very last moment. When he released it the blast I erected the reflective barrier directly in front of it. A brilliant flash and a scream of pain were followed by a splash, and I looked to the pool he'd fallen into. Oh that was not good. Not good at all. The Spring of Drowned Asura glowed brightly. Why, oh why, did the dragon prince have to fall in the one spring that made him even more ridiculous than he already was?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The water of the spring boiled and began to evaporate, and Herb rose from it. All three faces of his new (female) form were lit up with rage, and the six arms immediately started throwing fireballs at me. I dodged what I could to preserve my mana and started hastily altering my shields to meld together and allow purely thermal projectiles through. I'd actually benefit from fireballs, but if I fully dropped the barriers to absorb them Herb would be on me in an instant. The barrage stopped when Herb was once again level with me. Wait...hadn't Rouge, the only one in the manga with this curse, also been able to summon lightning? I wasn't completely immune to- OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Lightning bolts were not quite within my ability to dodge, but I did my best based on where Herb's hands were pointing, my limited sense of the building electric fields that came from my various electricity-themed skills, and precognition. I was only able to get around about half of them, and my mana was dipping and spiking like mad from the damage soaked up by [Mana Protection] and the energy I absorbed from the excess heat. A growl and blinding flash of light briefly blocked out my normal sight and I found out that I actually span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"could/span be affected by such things as flash blindness when the only thing I could see was the popup telling me I'd been inflicted with the blindness status style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Dispel] took care of that just in time for me be be pummelled into the ground by a six-armed ball of rage, fire, and lightning. One of the arms generated another ki sword and started hacking away at me too, which finally broke through the force wall since it was only designed to protect against non-mystical attacks and had been damaged by the fire and lightning earlier. The effort I'd put into merging them earlier hadn't been perfect so they'd still been in rough layers. I'd need to fix that style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb stood, his primary mouth breathing fire down onto me and turning the surrounding soil into smoky molten glass. He raised all six arms to the sky, and his other two mouths called out in unison, "span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"FLAMES OF THE STORM!/span" A lightning bolt as wide as a redwood flashed down from the heavens toward me, and I did the only thing I could think of. I teleported behind my attacker and beat him/her over the head with The Shovel of Light. This was both a great and a terrible plan. Getting out of the way of the lightning bolt that would leave a tremendous glowing hole in the ground was awesome. Attacking someone with a nominally metal object less than ten meters away from it at the same time was less style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The bolt arced and split, then struck the (thankfully) indestructible Shovel. The current traveled through it, my arm, and Herb before grounding in the earth. My [Barrier] dropped completely and my mana was reduced by half to mitigate the damage dealt to my body by the shock. Even with the damage dealt reduced by eighty percent due to my energy affinity that would have killed me without my last line of defense: [Mana Protection]. I blinked stars out of my eyes, wondering why I hadn't been attacked again as I struggled to recover. There was a tug on the Shovel as I swung blindly, then something fell from it with a wet squelch and thudded to the ground. As my vision cleared I saw Herb, still in asura form, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from his neck. He was surrounded by a pile of money, magical items, and skill books. I'd killed the prince of the Musk style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /No. I didn't like them and they'd attacked me first, but it wasn't at all without provocation. From the way the guide had pointed at me they knew I was the one to drain the springs a year ago, and I'd been disrespectful of their prince after that. I still had about half my mana. If I tried to heal him and Herb attacked again I should have just enough for [Active Precognitive Defense] to get me home with a teleport. I cancelled my flight spell in favor of picking up my loot with a thread of [Multi-Focus] and telekinesis, then laid my hand over Herb's. His eyes were wild, but he didn't move. He knew it would only kill him faster to do so, and had no idea why I wasn't finishing the job with The Shovel. I gathered most of my remaining energy, then poured enough [Holy] energy into the cursed young man to heal an army on the verge of death. Several pop-ups filled my view but were swept to the side for later, and Herb's form shimmered back to his more human appearance. He was unconscious and lying in a pool of his own blood, but he was style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /A quick look around showed that the remaining Musk warriors had fled except for the speedster and one dressed in tiger furs. Herb's bodyguards from the series, if they were who I thought. It was entirely possible that there were other Musk warriors who dressed similarly, but I thought it unlikely. I gestured for them to approach, and they did so cautiously. When I made no move to stop them they picked up Herb and fled the way the others had gone. I'd nearly killed again, which was a bit troubling now that I was letting Gamer's Mind fade back to its passive state. I hadn't, though. I examined the area, noting several new cursed springs including the one into which some of Herb's blood had flown: Spring of Drowned Dragon Descendant. I let my mana refill as I contemplated the implications of that, and the description from [Observe] that said it could also be called the Spring of Drowned style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I returned to the warehouse apartment in a new form carrying a lot of loot dropped by defeated Musk warriors, loot dropped by Herb himself, several flasks of blood, and a lot more Jusenkyo spring water. My mana and ki both flowed more freely as a dragon descendant, and attempting to shift my skin into scales was almost pitifully easy now. I was exhausted for the first time in ages, even if it was mostly mental. I'd had to refill my mana several times and throw [Holy (Remove Curse)] and [Counter/Dispel] around for nearly an hour to cleanse the spring created with Herb's blood so no one else could use it. I still had all the water, of course. I wasn't going to waste it. I was, however, going to take a style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Active Precognitive Defense has gained twenty-six levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[By doing something repeatedly, you've created a new skill: Telekinesis (Augment Strength)!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[By doing something repeatedly, you've created a new skill: Dodge!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Barrier has gained fifteen levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Dodge has gained five levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Heat) has gained a level!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Ki) has gained seven levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Lightning) has gained three levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Mana Protection has gained eleven levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Multi-Focus has gained a level!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Mystical Energy (Bolt) has gained twenty levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Observe has gained two levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[You've gained four levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[You've slept in your bed! HP and MP are completely recovered and temporary status ailments have been cured!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I groaned, and silently thanked Washu for keeping the numbers straight on my character sheet or whatever record I accessed through the UI (also for condensing and sorting the pop-ups for while I slept). I wasn't sore or anything, I just didn't want to deal with the information right now. Ember, Guinevere, and Ukyo were staring at me over the back of the couch I'd collapsed on. Ember and Ukyo were in my party and could see my name tag, while Guinevere was linked to my soul and would know me anywhere. The fact that I was now covered in small golden scales and my features had shifted a bit didn't seem to do anything other than make them curious. The fact that I'd slept was probably more unusual to them than my suddenly having different features. Dismissing the notifications and distributing my stat points took only a tiny fraction of my concentration, so I sat up with a style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"Good morning, ladies!" They shared a look, then Ukyo style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"Good morning, Dad. Did you find something interesting to do last night?" I gave her an incredulous style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"I fought a dragon prince and emptied Jusenkyo again. How was your night, my dear daughter?" Guinevere face-palmed. Face-winged? She hit herself in the face with her wing. Ember rolled her eyes and went to start on breakfast. Ukyo stared at me style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"You'll catch flies that way, you know." Nothing. I started playing around with the scales and got them to recede to covering only the clothed parts of my body. The gold went well with the red hair I used in Ranko form and it was supposed to represent the strongest of the good-aligned dragons in Dungeons and Dragons, but it was really bright. I changed them flesh-colored and smoothed out the edges with a thought, just in case anyone got a look under my shirt or something. That left them looking like normal skin except under very close observation. Ukyo huffed and went into the kitchen to talk to style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Remove Curse success! Jusenkyo curse (Spring of Drowned Dragon Descendent) is broken!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Form template attained: Part-Dragon / Dragonborn!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I pulled up my alternate forms in the UI and smiled when I saw that I could layer Part-Dragon / Dragonborn over whatever form I was wearing for increased strength, vitality, defense, special defense, and optional scales and wings. There was also a note that I qualified as a dragon whenever it was beneficial so long so I used the template. I could think of a few uses for that. I switched over to my inventory and my smile became a bright grin. The loot from the previous eventing had included a bunch of skill books for Kung Fu and the various animal styles. Asura flash might be helpful too, but the best part was the last: Thu'um for Dummies. Washu was kind, Washu was wise, and I was going to learn how to alter the world with my voice alone. I shivered, hoping I got to pick the next jump. Most of Skyrim's perks weren't all that great compared to what I had now, but there were a few that would be awesome to have. Some of the equipment was nice, too./div
div class="js-selectToQuoteEnd" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; font-size: 0px; overflow: hidden;" /div
/div
/div
div class="sv-rating-bar sv-rating-bar-ratings-left js-ratingBar-post40691914 sv-rating-bar-under-controls " style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-start;"
ul class="sv-rating-bar_ratings" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"
li class="sv-rating sv-rating-empty-list" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; align-items: center; justify-content: center; cursor: default; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; border-image: initial; white-space: nowrap; transition: background-color 0.25s ease 0s; font-size: 0.813rem; border-radius: 4px; text-align: center; border-color: #395076 #496898 #496898 #395076; min-height: 24px; padding: 0px; display: flex; margin-top: 4px; margin-right: 4px;"
div class="sv-rating_icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 2px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;" /div
/li
/ul
/div
div class="message-userContent lbContainer js-lbContainer hasThreadmark" style="box-sizing: border-box;" data-lb-id="post-40691914" data-lb-caption-desc="Wrin ยท Oct 27, 2017 at 8:50 PM"
div class="bbWrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.875rem;"I did my best to look innocent and like I hadn't already conjured a barrel and started siphoning off water from the springs even before I noticed them. The barrel went in my inventory and I put my hands behind my back with a look of curiosity toward the angrily approaching beastmen. At the lead was an effeminate looking boy with one blue and one pink streak in his white hair wearing ornate armor. Prince Herb. He demanded to know why I was taking the spring water and that I never do it again, and I dropped my facade for a hard style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"It's none of your goddamn business why I'm taking it, and this is not your land. It's neutral. I checked with the Amazons to ensure I wasn't trespassing after they mentioned the other tribes in the area." Yes, I was looking for a fight. I span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"really/span did not like the Musk, and I wanted to see how I stood up to their prince. I started assigning defensive spells as I spoke, with [Barrier], [Mana Shield], [Mana Protection], and [Active Precognitive Defense] going up first. Herb's level was in the mid 200s, so I'd need the extra protection. Seeing my mana start to dip a bit, I reserved some for [Mystical Energy (Generator)] and it shot back style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb's eyes narrowed, and he gestured the wolf-eared boy next to him forward. He blurred forward and bounced off of a [Barrier (Force Wall)] produced by [Active Precognitive Defense]. I could follow him, if only barely. [Haste]ing myself made it much easier, and I allowed him to close this time before engaging the Boots of Kicking I'd enchanted back in The Gamer and improved several times since. The kick to the head would have sent him flying, but the extra telekinetic blast produced by the boots themselves ensured he left a crater in the side of the valley. Herb growled, and the rest of the cohort attacked. I engaged [Flight] and started picking them off with ki blasts courtesy of [Mystical Energy (Bolt)]. I might have been aiming to fling most of them into random Jusenkyo springs at the same time. style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb was furious now, and the few arrows and other projectiles that hit me did absolutely nothing. Most weren't enchanted or otherwise enhanced, so they never made it past my high vitality perks. Even the few that were enhanced by ki met [Physical Endurance], the mystical damage resistances granted by my high wisdom perks, [Mystical Energy (Resistance)], and [Energy Affinity (Ki)]. The few hit points I lost regenerated without conscious effort on my part before the barrage stopped. I cocked my head at Herb himself, as if asking him to try his luck. He style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /If Herb's bodyguard had been fast, the young man himself was greased lightning. [Active Precognitive Defense] surrounded me in a bubble of [Barrier (Force Wall)] in addition to the normal barrier I'd raised before the fight and even inside it I was knocked around like a ping-pong ball. My mana had taken a hit both to raise the barrier and to cast cushioning charms on the inside of it. By the time I recovered from the sudden onslaught Herb was charging a ki blast in one hand and holding a sword made of the stuff in the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Gamer's Mind fully engaged at that point so my emotions wouldn't interfere with the fight, and I erected a [Barrier (Reflect)] tuned to ki in front of me as I called on my own [Plasma Sword] technique. The man's eyes narrowed, and he actually span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"bounced/span the ki blast off a nearby surface so that it exploded against my first [Barrier]. My mana dropped by about five percent from [Mana Protection]. I hadn't used the skill a whole lot, but I knew that it saved me from five points of health damage per point of mana spent. That would have really style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I raised the amount of mana reserved for [Mystical Energy (Generator)] to twenty percent of the maximum to compensate, then poured the extra inflow into [Mystical Energy (Mastery)] to boost all of my stats further and launched myself at the dragon descendant. He didn't even try to block my plasma blade, instead using the opportunity to hack at my own defenses with his ki sword. I took the hit on my [Barrier] instead of my neck, and my mana dropped again even as it refilled. Herb, having expected to be hit with ki or fire based on the appearance of my blade, screamed in pain as the plasma cut away his fancy armor with ease and singed even his flesh. He was immune to pure fire, but this blade was also infused with lightning and a sharpened force style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I took the opportunity his flinch provided to strike at the hand in which he held the ki blade, but his reflexes were superior to mine. The blade itself melted into a coating over his hand, and he caught my plasma sword with a grimace and started pummeling my force wall with the other fist. The barrier held, but [Active Precognitive Defense] seemed to be occupied with keeping it up. Herb began to force my blade back toward me, his hand sliding down toward mine for a better angle. I hadn't anticipated someone doing that, and made a note to myself to study a better way of allowing myself to use the technique through my shields than making it bypass them entirely. Being far stronger in magic than in body, I grabbed the blade itself with [Telekinesis] and slashed down at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The sudden apparent increase in strength was enough to surprise him, and I put a deep gouge in the arm he'd been pummeling my force wall with and a shallower cut in his ribs. He roared in anger, fire actually spewing from his mouth as he kicked my force wall hard enough to throw me down into one of the springs. The force wall held back the water, and Herb himself avoided the splash. He seemed to be healing as I watched from my position of relative safety. Oh. He was charging another ki blast, this one a lot bigger than the first. Did I say safety? I meant mortal style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I flew back up toward him and tried something new. Rather than erect a reflective barrier in front of me and allow him to bounce the projectile around it I instead waited until the very last moment. When he released it the blast I erected the reflective barrier directly in front of it. A brilliant flash and a scream of pain were followed by a splash, and I looked to the pool he'd fallen into. Oh that was not good. Not good at all. The Spring of Drowned Asura glowed brightly. Why, oh why, did the dragon prince have to fall in the one spring that made him even more ridiculous than he already was?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The water of the spring boiled and began to evaporate, and Herb rose from it. All three faces of his new (female) form were lit up with rage, and the six arms immediately started throwing fireballs at me. I dodged what I could to preserve my mana and started hastily altering my shields to meld together and allow purely thermal projectiles through. I'd actually benefit from fireballs, but if I fully dropped the barriers to absorb them Herb would be on me in an instant. The barrage stopped when Herb was once again level with me. Wait...hadn't Rouge, the only one in the manga with this curse, also been able to summon lightning? I wasn't completely immune to- OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Lightning bolts were not quite within my ability to dodge, but I did my best based on where Herb's hands were pointing, my limited sense of the building electric fields that came from my various electricity-themed skills, and precognition. I was only able to get around about half of them, and my mana was dipping and spiking like mad from the damage soaked up by [Mana Protection] and the energy I absorbed from the excess heat. A growl and blinding flash of light briefly blocked out my normal sight and I found out that I actually span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"could/span be affected by such things as flash blindness when the only thing I could see was the popup telling me I'd been inflicted with the blindness status style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Dispel] took care of that just in time for me be be pummelled into the ground by a six-armed ball of rage, fire, and lightning. One of the arms generated another ki sword and started hacking away at me too, which finally broke through the force wall since it was only designed to protect against non-mystical attacks and had been damaged by the fire and lightning earlier. The effort I'd put into merging them earlier hadn't been perfect so they'd still been in rough layers. I'd need to fix that style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Herb stood, his primary mouth breathing fire down onto me and turning the surrounding soil into smoky molten glass. He raised all six arms to the sky, and his other two mouths called out in unison, "span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"FLAMES OF THE STORM!/span" A lightning bolt as wide as a redwood flashed down from the heavens toward me, and I did the only thing I could think of. I teleported behind my attacker and beat him/her over the head with The Shovel of Light. This was both a great and a terrible plan. Getting out of the way of the lightning bolt that would leave a tremendous glowing hole in the ground was awesome. Attacking someone with a nominally metal object less than ten meters away from it at the same time was less style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The bolt arced and split, then struck the (thankfully) indestructible Shovel. The current traveled through it, my arm, and Herb before grounding in the earth. My [Barrier] dropped completely and my mana was reduced by half to mitigate the damage dealt to my body by the shock. Even with the damage dealt reduced by eighty percent due to my energy affinity that would have killed me without my last line of defense: [Mana Protection]. I blinked stars out of my eyes, wondering why I hadn't been attacked again as I struggled to recover. There was a tug on the Shovel as I swung blindly, then something fell from it with a wet squelch and thudded to the ground. As my vision cleared I saw Herb, still in asura form, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from his neck. He was surrounded by a pile of money, magical items, and skill books. I'd killed the prince of the Musk style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /No. I didn't like them and they'd attacked me first, but it wasn't at all without provocation. From the way the guide had pointed at me they knew I was the one to drain the springs a year ago, and I'd been disrespectful of their prince after that. I still had about half my mana. If I tried to heal him and Herb attacked again I should have just enough for [Active Precognitive Defense] to get me home with a teleport. I cancelled my flight spell in favor of picking up my loot with a thread of [Multi-Focus] and telekinesis, then laid my hand over Herb's. His eyes were wild, but he didn't move. He knew it would only kill him faster to do so, and had no idea why I wasn't finishing the job with The Shovel. I gathered most of my remaining energy, then poured enough [Holy] energy into the cursed young man to heal an army on the verge of death. Several pop-ups filled my view but were swept to the side for later, and Herb's form shimmered back to his more human appearance. He was unconscious and lying in a pool of his own blood, but he was style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /A quick look around showed that the remaining Musk warriors had fled except for the speedster and one dressed in tiger furs. Herb's bodyguards from the series, if they were who I thought. It was entirely possible that there were other Musk warriors who dressed similarly, but I thought it unlikely. I gestured for them to approach, and they did so cautiously. When I made no move to stop them they picked up Herb and fled the way the others had gone. I'd nearly killed again, which was a bit troubling now that I was letting Gamer's Mind fade back to its passive state. I hadn't, though. I examined the area, noting several new cursed springs including the one into which some of Herb's blood had flown: Spring of Drowned Dragon Descendant. I let my mana refill as I contemplated the implications of that, and the description from [Observe] that said it could also be called the Spring of Drowned style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I returned to the warehouse apartment in a new form carrying a lot of loot dropped by defeated Musk warriors, loot dropped by Herb himself, several flasks of blood, and a lot more Jusenkyo spring water. My mana and ki both flowed more freely as a dragon descendant, and attempting to shift my skin into scales was almost pitifully easy now. I was exhausted for the first time in ages, even if it was mostly mental. I'd had to refill my mana several times and throw [Holy (Remove Curse)] and [Counter/Dispel] around for nearly an hour to cleanse the spring created with Herb's blood so no one else could use it. I still had all the water, of course. I wasn't going to waste it. I was, however, going to take a style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Active Precognitive Defense has gained twenty-six levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[By doing something repeatedly, you've created a new skill: Telekinesis (Augment Strength)!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[By doing something repeatedly, you've created a new skill: Dodge!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Barrier has gained fifteen levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Dodge has gained five levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Heat) has gained a level!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Ki) has gained seven levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Energy Affinity (Lightning) has gained three levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Mana Protection has gained eleven levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Multi-Focus has gained a level!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Mystical Energy (Bolt) has gained twenty levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Observe has gained two levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[You've gained four levels!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[You've slept in your bed! HP and MP are completely recovered and temporary status ailments have been cured!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I groaned, and silently thanked Washu for keeping the numbers straight on my character sheet or whatever record I accessed through the UI (also for condensing and sorting the pop-ups for while I slept). I wasn't sore or anything, I just didn't want to deal with the information right now. Ember, Guinevere, and Ukyo were staring at me over the back of the couch I'd collapsed on. Ember and Ukyo were in my party and could see my name tag, while Guinevere was linked to my soul and would know me anywhere. The fact that I was now covered in small golden scales and my features had shifted a bit didn't seem to do anything other than make them curious. The fact that I'd slept was probably more unusual to them than my suddenly having different features. Dismissing the notifications and distributing my stat points took only a tiny fraction of my concentration, so I sat up with a style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"Good morning, ladies!" They shared a look, then Ukyo style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"Good morning, Dad. Did you find something interesting to do last night?" I gave her an incredulous style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"I fought a dragon prince and emptied Jusenkyo again. How was your night, my dear daughter?" Guinevere face-palmed. Face-winged? She hit herself in the face with her wing. Ember rolled her eyes and went to start on breakfast. Ukyo stared at me style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"You'll catch flies that way, you know." Nothing. I started playing around with the scales and got them to recede to covering only the clothed parts of my body. The gold went well with the red hair I used in Ranko form and it was supposed to represent the strongest of the good-aligned dragons in Dungeons and Dragons, but it was really bright. I changed them flesh-colored and smoothed out the edges with a thought, just in case anyone got a look under my shirt or something. That left them looking like normal skin except under very close observation. Ukyo huffed and went into the kitchen to talk to style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Remove Curse success! Jusenkyo curse (Spring of Drowned Dragon Descendent) is broken!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /[Form template attained: Part-Dragon / Dragonborn!]br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /I pulled up my alternate forms in the UI and smiled when I saw that I could layer Part-Dragon / Dragonborn over whatever form I was wearing for increased strength, vitality, defense, special defense, and optional scales and wings. There was also a note that I qualified as a dragon whenever it was beneficial so long so I used the template. I could think of a few uses for that. I switched over to my inventory and my smile became a bright grin. The loot from the previous eventing had included a bunch of skill books for Kung Fu and the various animal styles. Asura flash might be helpful too, but the best part was the last: Thu'um for Dummies. Washu was kind, Washu was wise, and I was going to learn how to alter the world with my voice alone. I shivered, hoping I got to pick the next jump. Most of Skyrim's perks weren't all that great compared to what I had now, but there were a few that would be awesome to have. Some of the equipment was nice, too./div
div class="js-selectToQuoteEnd" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; font-size: 0px; overflow: hidden;" /div
/div
/div
div class="sv-rating-bar sv-rating-bar-ratings-left js-ratingBar-post40691914 sv-rating-bar-under-controls " style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-start;"
ul class="sv-rating-bar_ratings" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"
li class="sv-rating sv-rating-empty-list" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; align-items: center; justify-content: center; cursor: default; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; border-image: initial; white-space: nowrap; transition: background-color 0.25s ease 0s; font-size: 0.813rem; border-radius: 4px; text-align: center; border-color: #395076 #496898 #496898 #395076; min-height: 24px; padding: 0px; display: flex; margin-top: 4px; margin-right: 4px;"
div class="sv-rating_icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 2px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;" /div
/li
/ul
/div