SK4 - Prologue (Patreon)

[Author Note - Figured I would add this bonus to folks to hold them over for a bit longer until BS7 is done. Once I've got that marked as complete on my end I will probably alternate between editing it and producing SK4, as well as continuing with the next arc.

Also, I set the preorder date for BS7 release. 4-30

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2CG2LCD/



Enjoy!]

The underworld felt strange, to Nick. While it wasn’t like there was a sun or blue sky above their heads as they snuck through the scattered rocky terrain, the expansive empty space beneath the dense rock somehow produced a feeling or sense that there was one. 

There was an odd pervasive light that filled the underground territory, and there were even magical clouds or mist in the not-sky. Nick guessed it was some special function of the essence of Orion, somehow illuminating the underground world just enough to see and feel normal. 

The over a hundred Star Oni and Nick had been traversing the underworld, doing their best to not draw attention of the apparent Monster Kingdom nearby.

Using his people’s scouting, they thought they were keeping well out of view. They marched through the rocky terrain in a staggered line, doing their best to stay in the shadows or out of view from afar for too long. There were plenty of obstacles in the terrain in between once they had gotten to the ground, but it was good to be cautious. 

Myron’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “It feels like a strange realm, I’d say, young lord. Unique, yet also dangerous, I can feel.”

“Realm? I’m not familiar with that term. The worlds here on Orion are called Shards.”

“Outside of Orion, there are numerous pockets of existence we cultivators call Realms. Within each plane or pocket, there are different types of worlds. I’ve visited what was called a planar world, which was actually an immense sword sailing through the stars.” 

That sounded crazy to Nick. “What about this Starhold that your people were from?”

Myron let out a breath, before giving a small smile. “It wasn’t the name of the realm, but the location of our Race, and much of our Clan. In many ways, our Realm wasn’t much different from this world, but our home was on top of an immense mountain–far larger and taller than the mountains here on this world–that we’ve seen so far. The summit had our ancestral home far above the clouds. From there, we could see countless stars and realms, nebulas, and more, even during the day.”

Nick’s eyebrows were at the top of his head, as they continued to move. “Damn, that sounds pretty cool. Now I wonder if I could get something like that in Frosthaven. An observatory would be neat.”

“Why? I can’t imagine you’re into stars.”

Nick shrugged. “To make you guys feel at home. Frosthaven is on a hill or mountain too, but it’s not that high up really. We got plenty of towers already, so it would fit in.”

Myron looked back at his daughter, who appeared to be in earshot, before smiling at Nick. “I appreciate the thought, young lord. For many, the observatory is how one embarks on the journey or path of reading the stars. I’m far beyond that point, but I would still appreciate one to be available to me and my people.”

Before they had started to move through the underworld, Nick had allowed the Star Oni to recover for most of the day. He had waffled on whether he should wait a few days to allow Sable to shadow teleport to join him, or if they should rush instead. 

He had walked into his tent and asked if Myron had a preference, and he just replied with a grin.

“Well, why don’t we just divine it, then?”

Nick frowned. “I thought I screwed with that? Now that you guys are Pacters, I’d think it’d be even worse.”

Myron smiled. “I’m not so sure about that. What do you know about divination?”

Nick snorted. “I just know from fantasy stories from my old world. People do some magic bullshit like sacrificing pig or something sometimes, reading their guts somehow to read the future. Or maybe like you, they can read the stars or bones or tea leaves, and that somehow gives a foretelling. Usually gods can do it too.”

Myron nodded. “Not much then. I will teach you a little, since it’s relevant to the discussion. The way I see it, there are three main schools of divination, and all divination falls under these three umbrellas–though in some cases, they are mixed. How they accomplish and what limitations they might have is different among those that practice the arts, but the goals or results are often one of these three.”

“The first, and I consider this the cornerstone of all divination, is Information. You can gather information on something, whether it be location, the past, or just details about anything. They can be divined as long as the right information is known, often in order to link to it. Again, what requirements or limitations may depend on the method, like you mentioned the bone reading or tea leaves, but the main purpose of most divination is obtaining pieces of information, in the end.”

“The second, is Causality–this is my people’s specialty, as we read the stars and through our mystical calculations, predict the future of a certain course, including if nothing is done. Divinations about Causality often allow one to manipulate it. The more Information one has, the more accurately Causality can usually be predicted.”

“Being able to change the future seems like a big deal and sounds amazing, but I sense a big but coming.”

Myron continued, “It is, and you’re right. This and the first one, Information, are completely ruined by you and your Pact somehow. I couldn’t divine Causality or Information about you or any of those you’ve Pacted with, or even your home–Frosthaven. And now, I doubt I can divine Information about much of anything anymore, unless I simply haven’t figured out the restrictions.”

Nick nodded. “Makes sense. I do believe this immunity was meant to protect me from our enemies with a grudge, and the cost was us no longer being able to do the same foretelling.”  

“It’s a powerful protection, no doubt, and I can see how it would do that. However, I’ve already tested it during our battle and after, and I know the third school does work. The final one, is called Fortune. Rather than a direct read of the future or fate, it is a more general divination about the fortune of actions, people, or things, depending on the method. My people are not amazing at many types of fortune readings, but I do have a singular method that I often use that is effective and I am quite proud of.”

“What is it?”

“We call it the golden path, and I always use it when divining what we call my people’s Way. It’s essentially finding a path by reading the stars, measuring the fortune levels of several actions all at once, allowing you to pick the highest fortune action among the list. Because otherwise, there would be limitless possibilities from countless actions, and require far too much effort to divine. Even at the Nascent Soul level, I could only measure a few dozen possible actions against each other at once. I will be even further restricted as I am now, only able to do two possibilities at once.”

Nick was impressed. “Damn, that sounds kind of awesome. It sounds like you would be best off by combining the three schools, by just using several divinations.”

Myron grinned. “That’s exactly right. And this is how we choose or select our Way, and it has been my people’s strength for thousands of years. Sometimes, with just a single piece of Information, it can be the decider between victory or defeat. Thanks to you, I can do it now, and it won’t even hurt anymore. Before, using any amount of Qi would hurt my wound. It’s still not perfect, but I can see your healing has helped a lot. So! I will do a divination.”

He pulled back his sleeves, then placed two strange obelisk like items on the ground, and filled them with essence. Myron then gestured at each one as he spoke. “Should we wait… or should we go now?” Then he raised his hand up, and a chain with an odd figure dangled from it.

The stars within Myron’s eyes swirled, and he gazed at the cavern ceiling as if he could see the stars themselves somehow. The chain began to swing left and right, though Nick could feel Myron had not moved, and the essence felt quite odd to him. It did feel a little bit like Eirwen’s wish concept, but it was more that it was the closest thing he could compare it to from what he’d felt. 

It swung back and forth for a time, but eventually, it reached one of them and stuck to it. Myron grinned. “Looks like we should go. I’ll run through a few more, to determine when. I don’t think waiting is too bad, but our fortune is much better if we go. It would have swung for much longer if the disparity between the two was low.”

Nick shrugged. “Works for me. The sooner we get home, the better. We could have you and your wife in a new bod within a week or so, depending.”

They left just a short time later, and had been traveling for over a day. They only rested for a few hours, wanting to make sure that they weren’t found by the potential threats.

Many of the Star Oni that still lived were in fact in the second or third stratum but limited to the first, so their bodies were more resilient and they were able to go on without much sleep just like Nick. However, many of them, especially the women, were in the first stratum in truth, and did need more rest. And that they were all limited other than Nick, meant that the underground was dangerous. 

As they marched through the cavern, they moved with some measure of stealth because it appeared there were powerful monsters in this underworld. Myron’s scouts had already helped them avoid some creatures early in the third stratum because they were worried about the Monster Kingdom catching sight of their battles. 

Myron had also divined this, and determined the fortune of trying to make contact with them would go rather poorly, or at least learned that the fortune would be significantly higher by avoiding them for now.

Suddenly, on the second day of travel, Nick got a prompt that he wasn’t expecting, and Orion’s essence ran through him.

[Soul Pact Quest Complete: Kaya]
[You promised your beastfolk wife that you would obtain respected warriors, making her more respected in turn. You have reached ten rare class warrior followers within your kingdom.]

[Reward: Trait: Monstrous Transformation]

[Tap into your inner monstrosity, and become more in tune with your monster heritage. Your traits will be slightly enhanced, your ancestry coming to the fore.] 

“Oh what the hell?” He reasoned that as a result of the benefits from Shadowvale’s Conquest, a number of people must have met the requirements for Rare classes. Class rarity somewhat went up as people gained in level, by meeting the skill and attribute requirements. 

It was certainly a lot easier to unlock a Rare class at level fifteen than it was to do at level one, anyway. It appeared like how he had gained Dream Magic Affinity from Eirwen, he had gained a version of Kaya’s Bestial Transformation.

Shara suddenly called out to him. “What was that? You just lit up?” 

“Oh hey, you’re talking to me now? Feels like you’ve been avoiding me since our tea. Don’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking out the back of Myron’s tent when he divined that we should leave.”

Shara laughed awkwardly. “Ahaha… I’m sorry. It’s just… I had a lot on my mind, you know? I’m not…ready to talk about it yet.”

Nick started looking around them, making sure there were no boulders for her to grab, before looking back at her. “Fine. I’ll tell you what happened, but lemme hold on to that club for a minute.”

“My Tetsubo?” She clutched it tightly to her chest–defensively, frowning. “Why?” 

“Nothing much, I just remembered that boulder. Didn’t want to become like it.”

She blushed. “That… I won’t do that… probably.”

Nick chuckled, and continued his walk. “The light was from Orion. It came because I finished a Quest.”

Shara kept pace with him this time, stepping quickly to walk next to him. “Quest? Why would that…make me want to smash you?”

“Orion sometimes provides quests to earn rewards, usually in Essence, but also other things–like what you received in that Trial. This was actually a part of a Soul Pact I made with my wife, Kaya. I promised to make her dream come true, and Orion rewarded me with a Trait of hers for completing it.”

Shara looked at him skeptically. “You made her dream come true just now? How?”

“It was what I’d consider a minor wish. Since she was a child, she wanted to become an honorable warrior who served a respected Lord, just like her Beast Warrior mother before her. So when I made a Soul Pact for her to be my wife, I promised her that I would gather numerous strong warriors under my banner, which would make me a respected lord. And that was what was just completed. A bunch of our warriors just finished becoming stronger as a result of conquering Shadowvale.”

“That’s…odd. From them? Not from us?”

Nick shook his head. “Your people haven’t been initiated. You don’t yet count for that, as you do not have classes yet. I did get stronger from your father and mother becoming my Followers though, since they were so strong. In a way, I get stronger from forming Soul Pacts with wives and followers, and that quest was a part of that.”

“How…strange. For most cultivators, to be weak is to invite death. So that would mean it’s your duty to get as much strength as you can…”

Nick shrugged. “I don’t think Orion is much different. But even if that’s the case, there are still things I’d rather not do for power, and adding wives as a means to an end seems shitty to me. I guess things sort of worked out in that I found all these girls that both are actually really awesome, and on top of that, seem to actually want me to have more. Then, that they all got along with one another. So then it’s a win-win, I guess.”

Shara looked conflicted, but then she changed the topic. “I hope this city of yours is as special as you said.”

Nick started listing off the many items, proud of his Frosthaven. “It’s probably even better than I said. Your people might like the Training Grounds, a place where people can duel and actually cultivate when they win, and now there’s even a special garden for pondering the dao as you’d call it. Then, we even got a mall. It’s got restaurants, a swimming pool, robots, an obstacle course and an arcade… I guess your people might actually like gambling huh? We got a sort of casino, too.”

Shara chuckled. “Not many like to gamble with us. And I don’t know what half of those things are, but you sure seem excited about them.” She smiled at him, then blushed and cleared her throat.

Whatever she was about to say next was interrupted by a piercing roar. Understanding the danger, Nick donned his Cloak of Twilight: Darkness, and rushed in the direction of it. Unfortunately, he had felt two of his Followers expire, each in rapid succession.

It was some distance ahead, and when he came around a large rock, what he saw was surprising.

It was a large stone tiger of some kind, but it was covered in Soul Essence, as seen by his Soul Sense. Its claws had torn through an Oni male and female, who were near the middle of the formation. An ambush predator.

It was in the third stratum, but thankfully, it was early within it. And Nick had most of his essence, and now, dozens of angry Star Oni with clubs. Two of the Star Oni women were defending their slain brethren’s corpses, and Nick was happy about that. He would be able to revive them.

Nick’s Frost Aura washed over the monster, and he triggered his new Monstrous Transformation. Strangely, his limbs–his arms and legs–elongated at most a few inches, and his senses improved, judging by how suddenly he could smell so many new things he had difficulty parsing as he breathed through his nose.

Chains rose up around him, and the tiger seemed to sense that he was the biggest threat, its eyes narrowing on him. The Frost Aura had only a mild effect on the Third Stratum creature. He could feel that his immense Soul Power and the enhancement from the aura synergizing with his Concept was the only reason why this was possible at all without imposing his will.

The creature blurred toward him, activating some kind of Skill that enhanced the body. Nick barely ducked under its paw with preternatural grace and followed his momentum with a twist of his body. When he swung upward at the giant tiger’s chest to counter and wound the monster, something told him he should change his aim. He followed his instincts, and whipped his arm upward, and his blade of blue and white light went straight for the monster’s throat. 

Nick and the tiger’s eyes widened at the same time, shocked that this was possible. His arm had stretched unnaturally, probably several extra feet longer than he himself expected. The stone tiger then expended a large amount of essence, and the stone coat around its neck bulked up as his blade sliced into it like the crack of a whip.

He could feel that his blade didn’t go very deep, but he pushed the attack, charging the shocked tiger as he swung his long arm and sharp Soul Blade. His blade and arm whipped almost like that of a slingshot with each swing, and the tiger itself started to look wronged at how wounds accumulated and it was unable to block or dodge his strange attacks. 

It was a significant amount of essence sacrificed to make that thick band around its neck, and it was created in a rush. The tiger might have wasted a significant amount of energy making just a band instead of covering its whole body, Nick guessed.

And that was when a few Star Oni women with clubs arrived, smacking and sending it tumbling away from him. The Star Oni were pissed, and they came after it with powerful swings of their clubs, seeking vengeance for their downed compatriots. Birdy also rained icy shards down on the tiger from above, cawing all the while.   

The tiger took several of their blows with a growl, and swung its big meaty paw in counter to one of the Star Oni women. They blocked with their tetsubo, but several ribs shattered as they were sent flying, and Nick was able to hear the cringe-inducing sound of each bone crunching with his enhanced senses.

His chains wrapped around the tiger’s rear legs, and he countered a few of its swings that attempted to tear them away. He added many more wounds, and then the monster’s hair raised, as it readied its Concept. It was a form of strength or power, and Nick’s monstrous instincts told him to stand against it rather than dodge. 

Nick’s Cloak swapped to light as he gave his martial arts shout, and Monstrous Blow triggered. His arm bulked up, and he met the downward swing as he swung upward, which appeared to hold a special form of ferocity and power. The two blows met, and Nick’s blade sheared through its paw and arm, causing it to roar out in pain as his blade continued to its chest, cutting into the tiger deeply.

He knew that he could likely finish it by piercing its soul core or heart, but his eyes honed in on the strange soul essence coursing through it. Looking closely, he saw what looked like a tiny thread heading toward the Monster Kingdom from its chest. He used Frost Shock and wrapped the creature in more chains as it wailed in pain, but eventually, it could hardly move at all from the frost.

“Everyone, back off!” He ordered. Then, he turned and looked to find Myron, spotting him next to Shara, who seemed to look a little excited for some reason, her cheeks taking on a pink hue. “Quick, Myron. Let’s do a reading.”

“What?” Recognition came to his eyes a moment later, and he started taking out his divination tools. “What two outcomes?”

“Killing this thing or leaving it. Which is better?”

Myron did his calculations, his eyes full of essence. “Leaving it. Huh, that’s a surprise. It seemed like some kind of trained beast, in my eyes. It knew how to counter the clubs too well.”

“Guess we’ll leave it alive then. And you’re right, I feel like someone or something is sort of controlling this. But maybe they don’t know exactly what it’s doing. Perhaps, they’d know if it suddenly died and would come to take a look.”

“We’re not far from the cavern exit, we’re assuming. If we hurry, we can rush and enter it.”

“Might be the best idea to get out of view of this place as quick as we can now. I’ll take the lead with Birdy, I can sense ambushes better than most. Let me just get our people up.”

Nick revived the two fallen warriors with his Create Soul Servant, placing their souls back within their bodies and healing them somewhat. The tiger would likely free itself in time, but it was already too weakened. He thought it would survive, but it would be close enough that it wouldn’t dare chase them.

Myron frowned as he watched this be accomplished. “Truly remarkable, young lord. It certainly doesn’t feel like unorthodox magics…”

Nick chuckled, and patted his shoulder. “I swore I would protect you guys as Lord Noblefrost. This is what that means. No matter what, unless you choose to risk yourselves and become more in one of Orion’s Trials, that’s part of what this means.”

“I…on some level, I understood that, when I accepted your Pact. But seeing it is still different.”

Nick looked around, and once again found Shara blushing and hiding behind others–avoiding him. Just what was going through that chick’s head? Nevertheless, he would be on scouting duty.

The large group of Oni and Nick entered the cavern, continuing their trek.