Chapter 1-18: It’s not True!

“<It’s lying. Something’s wrong with the spell!>” he immediately denied, staring at it, then at me. “<You’re trying to trick me!>”

I ignored the accusation, and pointed to the bottom. “You’ve enough Karma for Six, and you’d be well on your way to Seven. Even having bought your Human/2, you should already be a Six.”

He stared at the display, at his Level, at his Stats. “<How-how am I a Five, then?>” he demanded.

“You’re not.” His Human/2 Level unfolded.

======

Human/2

Health: +d8+Con (8)

Skills: 6 (Dancing, Flying, Language (Cirrus), Spellcraft, Concentration, Meditation)

+ Bonus Feat: Skill Focus (Concentration)

+1 Caster Level: Sorcerer

Fortitude/Reflex Save: +3

Will Save: +0

======

“You’re a Four, with a boost from your Human Level letting you Cast as a Five, kinda like screwing a longer barrel onto a pistol, instead of making it into a rifle. It’s why you don’t have two spells, and ‘picked’ your Bloodline spell. You wanted to fly pretty badly, and once you got it, you ignored the implications.”

I didn’t look at him, just the information, while he was looking back and forth between the Holo and me, hoping I was just joking.

“Did... someone tell you that you didn’t need to use your Stat boost from hitting Four on your Charisma?” I asked softly.

He stiffened instantly. It took a minute for him to force the word out of his mouth, “Yes.”

I noted he said it in Human. “He probably said taking the Human Level would take care of it for you, right?”

He started to breathe heavy. “Yes...”

“The Stat Raise from Mastery you’re trying for is Charisma Mastery/3. You can only take it if you’re a Five.” Or a bound Soul who qualifies as a Six... “I imagine you put the point into Intelligence.” That 9 was out of place. “You hang around smart people, and probably don’t like feeling dumb.”

His face sort of collapsed. “<I-I did...>”

“Under normal circumstances, this is something that would take you until you’re 40 to correct, and time and experience did their thing. Fortunately, you are at the one place where you can correct this, although you aren’t going to like it.”

He was silent for a moment, contemplating waiting until he was 40 before he could improve his magic... and what he was going to do to the wanker who gave him such misleading advice. “<What do I have to do?>” he almost croaked.

“You’ve got to burn the Level, and all that Karma, let it go, and earn it back again. The easiest way to do that is have a Wraith hit you, and then let the Level go when the sun rises.”

“<What?>” he protested. “<That’s... that’s crazy! I won’t do that!>”

“You can fly for the next fifteen years exactly as you are now, or you can fly again within a month, and be on your way to Six... and higher. You’re never going to reach Eight at this rate.”

“Eight?” he repeated, his jaw dropping. “<How... how am I supposed to reach Eight?>” His misery had turned to being flabbergasted.

I hadn’t seen a single person on this Wall above Six. That was unreal... and pretty much impossible, given the number of Powered here. Everything seemed to stop at Six.

That meant Six was a truly Hard Limit here. You couldn’t just advance past it with Karma and pluck. You had to find a way.

“First you have to reach Six... but you have to be a Deep Six, a powerful and Deep spellcaster with reserves, tricks, and power. If you are willing to do that, you can make Eight, eezy-peezy.”

He had been tricked into being stuck at Four, he was a gullible schmuck. He had stars in his eyes now.

Despite that, he swallowed, and looked back at the sun nearing the horizon. “”

“Yes. And when your Renewal comes, you have to let it go. That’ll be the hard part. Otherwise, you’ll just have to do it again.”

He made that horrible grimace again. “<I’ve seen people get soul-sucked, seen them die from it... seen the shadow rise out of their corpse...>”

“Yep. So, don’t die from the one hit.” This time I hissed up my full array of Shards. His eyes nearly popped at the power seething in them, and how hard and devastating they looked. “I can and have one-hit a wraith with these. It won’t get a second shot at you.” I actually smiled. “You have Energized Shocking Grasp, right?” He blinked and nodded at me. “Then I suggest you get your Level drained by plunging your fist into it and blowing it apart.” I lowered my voice and leaned in. “You’ll lose the Level, but you’ll get the kill Karma... as a Three.”

His eyes widened slightly. Getting the Karma as a Three would go a lot further than as a Five...

“Good. Here’s the very first thing you need to do right now.” He leaned in conspiratorially to me. “First, take a Level in Bard.”

“Bard?” He blinked. “”

“You like to dance, and you like being around people.” I wagged my finger at him. I had his Assay, after all. I knew all his Skills, Feats, and even Spells Known. “Do you know what a Bard is, and can do?” He hesitated, and shook his head. “They are Charisma-based prepared Casters with access to the whole Druidic spell list.” He blinked. “That means they can change their spells every day. It’s a whole new Matrix getting added to your own. And,” my voice dropped again, and he leaned in even closer, “If you don’t do it, you’ll never make Eight.”

“<How do I do it?>” he blurted out instantly.

“It’s magic. Push the magic in the direction of the Heartsong. You’ve heard them sing, right? Push all your Karma in the direction of that magical song, and let it know you want to sing!”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began to concentrate.

It actually wasn’t that hard, once you knew you could do it. But realizing you could do it, and how to go about it, could actually be quite the pisser to figure out. But I was sending him down the road of Charisma-based magic again, and so this wouldn’t be nearly as hard as he thought.

He was humming something under his breath when I felt the tug of magic moving. Power was coming to him, and that hum was starting to thrum. Power was building in his throat, and his aura was circling and cycling in a new and rhythmic manner.

The magically-sensitive all noticed the feeling of someone breaking through, and turned to look at him in interest, wondering exactly what he’d just done.

He looked around, grinned rather foolishly and proudly, then hurriedly tamped it down and looked at me. “<It worked!>” he exclaimed in a stage whisper. “<Wow! I never knew this was possible!>”

“Listen up.” He focused quickly. “Now that we’ve done that, any Karma we spend is tied to the new Bard Level, instead of your Sorcerer Level. Feat: Druidic Domain, Weather!”

He pursed his lips and focused, following the same Heartsong flow, and despite himself, almost jumped as a wind blew past and swirled about him. “<Holy Shit!>” he said excitedly, almost hopping. “<This is so cool!>”

“Take Mastery Advance, Basic Metamagic Mastery, Extend Spell.”

He nodded urgently, focused again, and popped them back open in delight. “<Oh, ho! I can double the length of my Buffs now!>” he almost squealed in delight.

“Put Karma towards +1 Soak towards your maximum.”

He blinked. “<You can do that?!>” He closed his eyes, focused, and popped them open. “<You can!>”

“Assign your Bardic bonus language to Elven. It should automatically bonus you Human.” Elven cause musical romantic bullshit language tear-droppy all over the girls.

He looked at me strangely, but did as I directed, and his eyes snapped open again. “How do you know all this stuff?” he asked me, totally unaware he’d just switched languages.

I tapped my head. “Assign six Skill Points, three to Singing, three to Sense Motive. You’re going to be much better at reading people in the future, Helix.”

His face fell as he was reminded of what he’d done, and he sighed as he closed his eyes, opening them a moment later with a weird look on his face. “I can recall the words to every one of my favorite songs... and the notes to go with them!”

“Slot your four Cantrips. Pick Assay, Light, Visual File, and Detect Time. Your Domain should have given you Protection from Rain.” He blinked, closed his eyes, and his eyeballs ran back and forth inside his eyelids. “Those are changeable. Activate your Visual File.”

He hummed a pair of notes, and nodded at me, kind of starting when the mental file came up in his head. “Hey, this is like a computer screen!” he hissed.

“Exactly, running off your brain. This is the list of Valence I Druid Spells I know of. Copy it to your Visual File. These are the important ones. You should only get two, so I suggest Cure Light Wounds and Detect I for now. You can change them at Renewal as you wish.”

He stared at the list of spells he could potentially Cast now, and started to drool a little bit. Sorcerers had a very restricted set of spells, after all. “I can be a healer...” he said, as if it was the strangest thing in the world.

“And you definitely should. Healing Reserve is one of the very best Reserves to get, and it requires you to cast five hundred levels of healing spells on others without payment.” He blinked. “So, heal away, and give it away.”

“I-I will remember that,” he nodded. I stared at him, and he began to fidget.

“If you want to make Eight, you have to apply that Human Racial Level bonus to Bard when it is time.”

“Not Sorcerer?” He was shocked.

“Not Sorcerer.”

“Why?” He couldn’t figure that out.

“Because your Bard Levels have to push your Sorcerer Levels past Six.”

“Oh.” He blinked. “I didn’t know that, either...”

“Understandable.”

“So...” he cleared his throat. “Do we get ready for the big moment?...” He glanced at the almost-vanished sun in the distance.