Chapter 1376 (Patreon)

With my prior experience in making the symbiote for Weylon, making another one just like his would be trivial. Making one focused on a different element would be slightly harder but still easy, not really a challenge. But it would also be rather boring. Sure, I could switch things up, but the big thing about magic, at least in my opinion, was its versatility. I didn’t want my Warlocks to be one-trick ponies, only able to channel a single element. If I were to act as patron for a bunch of Warlocks, I wanted them to be a force to be reckoned with, not just idiots only able to employ blunt force. 

So, versatility was almost as important as the power itself. Making one without an elemental bias would be one possible solution, at least as long as the Warlock in question was able to change the Astral Power’s aspect into something useful. Otherwise, the Warlock would be able to channel basic Astral Power, which wouldn’t allow them to do all that much. Activate Runic Formations, maybe operate other enchantments like those found on Dungeon equipment, but beyond that? Basic Astral Power had its uses, but to truly affect the world, an aspect was needed. So, it might be a solution, but only for aspirants with certain innate talents. For them, such a symbiote would likely boost their power, but it wouldn’t help someone like Weylon who had little arcane talent in the first place, nor would it be useful for Lisa, simply because she was too lazy and complacent to learn magic on her own.

Still, I wanted to compensate her for the numerous experiments I had performed on her mind, as those might have reinforced some of her issues. Maybe not, but the mind was, if nothing else, an incredibly complex thing and I wasn’t able to accurately predict the outcomes of my manipulations. I simply had yet to gain insight into the deeper mysteries of the mind, though I was making good progress towards those mysteries. But for now, I simply wanted to reward Lisa while also making her into a useful tool. It would be a win-win situation, with the added benefit that it would require only a little extra effort. 

Given that I was quite certain that a symbiote made to channel unbiased Astral Power would be rather useless, I decided to go down a different path. If unbiased was useless and a single aspect lacked versatility, why not try to make a symbiote that channelled Astral Power with two different aspects? In this case, a symbiote able to channel Earth and Water, allowing her to readily manipulate earth and rock, which opened up a lot of utility, or to conjure water? Both were useful abilities in their own right, even with only their most basic and crude applications. Even someone without talent and who put in little effort would be able to use them effectively, which made those elements the perfect complement for Lisa. 

Crafting the symbiote was a fascinating challenge. I had to keep the two different streams of Astral Power separate from one another, as merging them wouldn’t give me the result I wanted. Instead, I would get something different maybe an entirely new element, maybe a complete and utter mess; I wasn’t certain. Either way, it wouldn’t be good and implanting such a symbiote into a person would probably result in an even bigger mess, as the person’s body might just explode from the disjointed streams of power.

So, instead I had to craft the symbiote to keep the streams separate, allowing the person to channel one or the other, without a deep ability to differentiate between the elements. It wasn’t easy, and, ultimately, the resulting symbiote wasn’t really one entity; it was more akin to two distinct entities, each channelling their own element, inhabiting the same being. Not an elegant solution, but I was fairly confident it would work, even if the upper cap on the power Lisa could access was lowered. Not significantly, but she’d never be able to channel as much elemental power as someone like Weylon would; it was simply how the symbiote worked. Or rather, how it didn’t work, unless I wanted to increase the symbiote’s size, but that would soon start to completely compromise her mental abilities, or so I thought. 

It wasn’t as if I had tested that part, so it was merely conjecture. 

Once the symbiote was ready, I brought Lisa up into the shelter. She had been here before and had seen my throne, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when she immediately went down to her knees in front of my literal seat of power.

When I sat down on it, things got even worse, as her head immediately bowed, unwilling, or maybe unable, to even look at me while I was sitting atop my throne. Out of curiosity, I didn’t say anything; instead, I simply cast part of my mind out into the Astral River, sensing the world around me. I wanted to know how long she would maintain her current, undoubtedly uncomfortable, posture, whether she would start to fidget or ask what was going on. To further the deception, I closed my eyes and observed her through a small scrying construct to the side of the room, so she wouldn’t know whether I was watching. 

However, even after I had checked on a few projects out there, channelled my senses through a couple of scrying constructs and generally ignored Lisa for the better part of an hour, she had barely moved. Maybe she had shifted her weight a little as time had passed, but I hadn’t been able to spot any obvious movement, let alone large shifts in her posture. She might even have managed to remain perfectly still, which was a somewhat surprising accomplishment. After all, how many people could just remain kneeling on hard, cold stone, without making a sound of discomfort or fidgeting in any way? I wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage, simply because sitting completely still wasn’t in my nature. Some part of me, usually a small one like my fingers, was always moving, twitching a little or fidgeting. 

Finally, I opened my eyes again, looking at Lisa directly, and she still didn’t move. So, I stood, stepping across the short distance, curious if that would be enough to make her move, but she remained still, even as I was directly next to her and slowly prowling around her prone body. 

“I have decided to offer you a small piece of my power,” I began, and she remained in her position, unmoving. “It will allow you to control Earth and Water to a degree, including the conjuration of materials under that umbrella. In return, you will never be able to go against my word; my commands will be law to you. Is that an acceptable deal to you?” I asked, and finally, she reacted, though not quite in the way I had expected.

Her head went even further down, pressing against the floor as she responded. “If that is how you wish me to serve, I will.” The conviction in her voice was almost creepy, making me wonder whether the greed and lust for power I thought I had observed earlier had been my imagination. Or maybe she simply felt that devoting herself to me like this was the best way to gain power, in addition to shelter and security.

With her neck already exposed, I took the prepared symbiote and placed it there, watching as the semi-physical construct flowed into her body. It was quite interesting to experience, as a part of me remained connected to the symbiote, since it was composed of my own power, even as it integrated into her system. 

But then, instead of fading away, the awareness remained, growing stronger until I was able to feel Lisa’s body as strongly as I would be able to feel a scrying construct. 

“Oh, Mistress, thank you,” she moaned, the sound making me a little uncomfortable, especially when I realised just how much she was enjoying this. Out of curiosity, I started to move her body, as if I was moving a scrying construct around, and it worked just as easily. Lisa wasn’t putting up any resistance; she simply let me puppet her body and, going by the signals her body was sending and receiving, she was enjoying it a great deal. However, I had no idea what would happen if I tried to use magic through her. Or if she tried to pull power from me. 

“Fascinating,” I mumbled, “This needs to be explored a little further.” 

With that, I pulled on the shadows, engulfing Lisa in them and pulling her along towards the surface. I had no desire to test how much magic she could channel, how much I could channel through her and all that good stuff while in the middle of my shelter.

These experiments might be rather destructive, and I had no desire to have my base destroyed.