Chapter 232: Information in the Unconscious

Chapter 232: Information in the Unconscious

Sitting in the back of the carriage transporting us through the desert, I closed my eyes and began meditating. At the same time, I also handed Erani the two Fire Spell Crystals for her to make her own choice, as well. Firebolt had been at Rank 19 for a while now, so it would be great for the Spell to finally reach its next Upgrade. From my talks with Erani, it was clear she still had no idea which of her options she would pick, but I figured now was a good time for her to take some dedicated time to figure things out in meditation.

The moment ten minutes had passed, I eagerly opened my options.

Choose one Upgrade for Crippling Chill:

Weakening Chill

Crippling Chill now reduces the beings Strength equal to the amount it reduces its Dexterity. (Currently 16.3 Strength)

Contagious Chill

+Poison

When a being that has been coated with frost dies, Crippling Chill is spread to up to three other beings of your choice within 40 paces of both it and you. N♡vεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

Ruining Chill

Crippling Chills Health and Stamina drain are doubled. (16.3 Health per second and 13.04 Stamina per second)

Choose one Upgrade for Expedite:

Expanded Expedite

Expedite can be cast on any being within 25 paces of you, rather than any being you are touching.

Hefty Expedite

Index, I thought after reading through the options, got any additional info for me? Future options and whatnot?

Lets see it responded. I always imagined it was sitting down, flipping through a gigantic booklet of every single Spell and Upgrade in existence whenever we had these conversations. It continued after a pause, So, Weakening Chill and Ruining Chill progress just about as youd expect, each with their future options focusing on strengthening their respective aspects of the Spell. Weakening Chill will allow you to become more adept at attacking your opponents capabilities, while Ruining Chill will grow the Spells overall deadliness. At least, those are the general trajectories the Upgrades go into; theres obviously still a lot of input from you that can change things when it comes to what theyll do, specifically. Contagious Chill, as you could expect, has a broader and stranger future trajectory, but its nothing too insane.

Like what?

Well, overall it likes the idea of going for efficiency and ease of use. There are some Upgrades that also just do whatever they want, with the only thing tying them with their preceding Upgrade being the overall theme of disease. Ironically, despite being the most individually unique Upgrade out of the three, its future options are the most non-specialized.

And for Expedites options?

Right. Going through them one-by-one, Expanded Expedite has a lot of options thatll grow the Spells capability to buff others. Theres even an option down that path that completely forbids you from casting the Spell on yourself. But its not only that, there are also a good few options that go for a wider suite of effects, like helping with the general usability of the Spell. Hefty Expedite has a few different focus areas; some future options go for the concept of Mana efficiency, since thats a big upside to the Upgrade, while others go for the concept of making the Dexterity buff as powerful as possible, while others still go in different directions. And finally, Rejuvenating Expedite goes in a broad number of ways, but generally likes increasing survivability and adding on new use-cases for the Spell.

Not too much specificity with a few of those, huh?

Nope. Well, generally speaking, any Upgrade that adds on a new School to a Spell can often introduce a wide range of possibilities for the Spell to explore, simply by merit of putting the new label on the Spell. Like I said with Contagious Chill, since it adds on the Poison School, there are plenty of other Upgrades that have nothing to due with Contagious Chills effects, but simply sneak their ways into the list of future options because they thematically fit the idea of a poisonous Spell. Same with Rejuvenating Expedite. By turning Expedite into a Holy Spell, youre opening the door into all kinds of new Upgrade avenues if youre willing to further pursue the holy angle.

So is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Depends on how you view it, I guess. Specializing your choices can be a good strategy if you have a specific idea of what you need from a Spell, and all you want is for it to do that thing more, but if youd like to see more concepts for what a Spell can offer you, then going the opposite route and broadening your options as much as possible is probably the superior play.

Hm. I frowned as I looked over my options once more, trying to factor in all of my current knowledge. Most of them felt like solid candidates for being my final choices, but

Oh, wait, I thought, I almost forgot the last piece of knowledge I can acquire before I have to make my choice.

I was about to interrupt and remind you, Index commented. So, this is gonna cause a visual and auditory effect, meaning your carriage friends are definitely going to notice and probably cause a fuss. But the moment you do it, Ill go ahead and quickly explain how this actually functions, and then you can make your Spell Upgrade decisions, and then leave your meditation to deal with them and go fight some monsters.

Alright. Hopefully I dont scare this lady and her guards too much.

Yes, it would be troublesome if they shook you out of your meditation too early.

Well, sure, but I also dont wanna be that much of a dick to the people who picked us up off the side of the road to offer us a free ride.

Technically, it wasnt free. They gave it to you in exchange for the protection of having Classers travel with them.

Sure, sure, whatever. So then, how do I activate this Beacon Anchor Point thing, exactly?