148. The Confluence (Patreon)

Please name your Confluence ability.

“Shadowsteel Fortress.” Lukas liked it better than Merlin’s preference: Shadowsteel Keep. He liked the sound of it better.

Confluence ability complete.

“No ranks or tiers for this one?” he asked.

Confluence abilities are unique to the creator. There is no metric for measuring their power levels. However, you may use your leftover rewards from the last quest to develop a tracking function. 

“Lady Silverspine still won’t allow you to bump up my abilities?” Lukas asked.

It’s not a matter of won’t. All your abilities besides Storm Dragon’s Eye have reached a point where forcing them upwards would drain too much from my stores and might damage the connection to Lady Silverspine. She believes the path is no longer ideal.

“So what rewards can I get?”

If my available functions aren’t good enough for you, you could create a new one. There is also the possibility of another essence. 

“You mean to compensate me for Lady Silverspine’s interference and theft.”

If you and your clones were to hand over the Dracosteel Node, Lady Silverspine would consider empowering two abilities and—

“I won’t tolerate coercion,” Lukas interrupted. “What little trust I had in your word, and the quests is now gone. I have no intention of just handing something over for the damned lizard’s horde.”

The Great Silver Dragon—

“What is she going to do? Penalize me for calling her names? Does she think I’ll continue serving her interests if she does so? Or am I more likely to work against them?”

What rewards would you like to claim?

“I’ll take an essence if there is anything I can use for Morph. Afterward, we’re going to put together a tracking system for the Shadowsteel Fortress.”

The following are available and compatible with Biomancy:

Essence of Land Drake: The clone will gain access to greater draconic animancy and control over such transformations. Land Drakes are also known for their toughness and recovery power.

Essence of Regeneration: Besides the ability heal himself, the clone may also grow his own biomass to use however he pleases. His connection to Life and Reinforcement magic will improve considerably.

Essence of Golemancy: The clone will gain the ability to create and control flesh golems, putting his biomass to greater use. The minions can be many but unintelligent only capable of completing simple tasks or the opposite.

Lukas discounted the third option straight away. He was fine with a clone commanding a small squad of subclones. However, golems took it a step too far that he wasn’t fine with. He was tired of justifying his reasoning to Penelope and the others, but he didn’t want a full-on minionmancer around. Lukas didn’t like golems.

After some thought, he went with the Essence of Regeneration. As good as the other option sounded, Lukas was desperate for access to more types of magic. He already had both through Morph, but Assistant Spindle had sparse threads of the two. Lukas wanted greater volume so he could comfortably utilize more powerful and magic-hungry spells, and also eventually integrate them into the Fortress. An internal garden for growing alchemical ingredients excited him. He used the essence as soon as the journal spat it out.

As expected of a shard and essence with high compatibility, the journal didn’t give Lukas any options.

Generate Biomass: The clone’s connection to Life and Reinforcement magic has significantly increased. He will now passively grow Biomass in his nonphysical stores and will need to use or shed them. 

Morph Prime and the Sub-Morphs had to spend significant time in the mountains seeking biomass for their expedition to the Jotun camp. Growing their own biomass would reduce such dependencies, but at the end of the day, it was just a bonus. When Lukas summoned Assistant Spindle, he was pleased to find a greater volume of crimson and emerald threads. Even though Morph had access to the passive abilities of Spellweaver, he rarely cast spells or utilized magic. Now, he had no reason not to make the most of them. 

“If you have no metric for confluence abilities, you can’t track its growth. Correct?”

Correct.

“Can you help me track its resources, though? We could start with Heart Chamber’s energy production and stores. All subsequent rooms’ energy drain can follow.”

The forge seems near completion. Do you want it included straight away?

“Yes.”

The Heart Chamber’s energy generation is currently lagging far behind the Forge’s drain.

Heart Chamber: 40% | +5%

Forge: -25%

Lukas brought the issue to Merlin straight away. The clone currently occupied the basement, working with two Spellweavers on construction. After recovering from the Heart Chamber construction’s magic drain and mental stress, Lukas helped the duo settle the foundation of the forge. The trio was more than capable of working on it without his help. He hoped the Forge’s energy drain would decrease once they completed the room and the attached spells. According to Merlin, the forge’s magic demands would decrease upon completion. Currently, the clones were using extra energy for construction, ensuring Lukas didn’t need to be involved in the process. 

Merlin also claimed that the Heart Chamber was still incomplete. Lukas could speed things up by feeding it magic, but there was a risk of overload or decay. The core needed to gradually build over time, picking up speed, drawing in more energy, and learning to hold it. The Fortress was a living structure in its soulspace, and there was no rushing things. Much like reaching the point of awakening that allowed the creation of a confluence ability, Lukas needed to allow things to progress naturally.

There was no telling how the Dracosteel Node Morph had recovered with interact in the soulspace. The book Penelope had given Lukas spoke of using outside materials ot strengthen and grow one’s soulspace. The druid had used a variety of magical and mundane vegetation, and they had become a part of him, improving the grove and expanding the user’s arcane arsenal. Lukas theorized that only living materials could become part of the soulspace, but Morph claimed the node was living. They didn’t want to risk his former master stealing it, and he would have to wait until the clone returned with whatever he had found buried under the rubble. 

Lukas looked over the plans. Since there was no outside the fortress yet, they were building outwards, locking rooms into the side of the buckyball-shaped Heart Chamber. It would eventually stand on the fortress's first floor with the forge underneath and around the base, acting as a semi-spherical socket for the heart. The spell garden would sit atop the forge, creating a massive ring around the central room. Together, they’d feed on the storm energy core, but also cycle energy back into it.

“He really does deserve the title of Merlin,” Lukas whispered to himself, looking through the many notebooks the clone had filled while putting the blueprint together. The sheer volume of theorycrafting, design variations, and spells for each room was daunting. During discussions, they had discussed making the central structure an incomplete sphere with spires growing out of the spell garden’s ceiling around the buckyball-shaped heart. The final plans had changed the fourth room’s design and placement, making it a dome that sat atop the Spell Garden, turning the central structure into a sphere. Lukas read its name out loud. “Dome of Life?”

It wasn’t a part of the initial plan. Merlin. The clone had noted that they needed to find a source or learn how to produce spirit glass for the ceiling. The spellforms required powerful Life and Reinforcement magic. It seemed the clone had made it a dual purpose. The space would help Lukas or anyone within recover magic and heal injuries faster. It was also perfect for growing vegetation. The plan Lukas helped with had a balcony around the Spell Garden with the same function. 

At first, Lukas assumed that the change was so he and the clones could emulate the druid and make arcane plants a part of the soulspace and give them a more controlled place to flourish. But then he got a closer look at Merlin’s work and his jaw dropped. The Dome of Life would store energy that Lukas could grant to clones while summoning them, making them extra powerful. It connected directly to the Spell Garden, allowing the empowered clone to have a piece of magic be an innate part of them. 

All clones working in the first four rooms would also accumulate magic, going past their ordinary limits and coming out stronger and with more energy. Of all four sections, it seemed the most complicated and difficult part of the fortress. Besides Spirit Glass, it also required vast quantities of Quicksilver for the complex arcane circuitry.

“That clone deserves a bonus.”

Lukas’s initial vision of the fortress’s central structure was vetoed by Merlin. It was a cylinder with a domed top. The clone had insisted that the others would make fun of the phallic shape. The jokes would be annoying and endless. The sphere removed all such ammunition. It wasn’t too much of a concern for Lukas since he didn’t foresee drawing the structure into the material world often. He imagined it would demand far more than magic he could currently muster. Or the Pillars of Self would reach a point where the process became second nature to him. 

Now, Lukas believed bringing the structure into the material world was a priority and something they needed to accomplish as soon as the first-floor rooms were complete.

Not a lot of people will want to fuck with the guy with a floating spherical metal fortress.

Future additions involved a new base level under the Forge. It was an entertainment space that enjoyed the Dome of Life’s benefits. It had a stage for Bowie to do his thing. Then there were spires that reached into the non-existent sky. Merlin had given himself an isolated study. There was another for the new Dreamfire clone to practice his chaotic magic that blended illusion and reality bending. 

The schematics included four spires, and Merlin hadn't granted two of them a purpose yet. Lukas left a few notes suggesting a storage space for Morph’s biomass and making one of the spires a divination tower. After much testing, Lukas had realized that only Ace could use his magic for scrying and divining. When anyone else tried, the spell fell apart.

Don’t get ahead of yourself. Let the clones take their time with the rooms. The Heart Chamber also needs time to power up and reach its terminal production rate. 

Arcane Chronicling has reached rank 8!

The message appeared on top of the plans and notes copied into the journal’s secret library. Lukas struggled to suppress his annoyance once again. He had risked a lot for the dracosteel obelisk only for it to be ripped away from him. He didn’t see a way to move past the theft. Merlin had questioned whether Lady Silverspine guessed that Lukas was done with the journal’s quests and intended to get whatever she could out of him before he quit using its resources altogether.

We need a ritual chamber that’s arcanically isolated from everything outside. What’ll happen if the journal’s connection to the lizard is interrupted? Even if it’s for a moment?

Lukas added the thought to Merlin’s notes before setting the task aside for the day. There was no point thinking about it any longer. Things were going to get chaotic again. Penelope and Mira would return to the Gray within a day or two. They’d need to address the city afterward. The clones had gathered evidence of Wyrmskin activity, just in case Penelope tried to rile them up for a war against the Jotun. There was no guarantee the chieftain would call off the war altogether, but Morph had bought them valuable time.