The System spans countless worlds, and magic allows magi to travel distances unreachable even by the miraculous technologies of pre-Integration humanity. This being said, just because you can get to a place does not mean it might be wise to go there. Hence, it is essential for Dimensionalists and aspiring Portomancers to understand the most popular locations in the Integrated Dimensions and the dangers that lurk within glorious vistas.
Additionally, this book will also go into detail about summoning and contract rituals. The ability to reach across space and varying realities to call upon trans-planar allies is an immensely beneficial power, but not one to be wielded frivolously. After all, having a Greater Demon of the Shadowclaimed serving as your surveillance operative or protecting you from the shadows is immensely wonderful. It is less wonderful if you, because you did not research and understand their nature, offend them by summoning them to a place with any light at all and then refusing to let them eat your—or someone else’s—ability to ever sleep again.
The Integrated Dimensions are strange, incredible, and above all, different, and thus, so are all the creatures contained within them. Reaching across the boundaries is your first gift as a Dimensionalist. Knowing where to go, whom to call upon, and how to reach them will become your second gift by the end of this book.
-Dimensionals, Demons, and Dominions: A Dimensionalist’s Guide to the Integrated Worlds
47 (I)
Jealousy [I]
It had been some time since Shiv conducted a proper monster hunt. But this time wasn’t the same as all the ones he’d been on before, either. Before, he was just a desperate Pathless sneaking down into the ruins to slaughter nests of lesser vampires, hoping to earn a Path through triumphant bloodshed. His allies were daylight, fire, surprise, and a deep knowledge of his enemy’s habits.
Now, he was going after a Greater Demon—a powerful dimensional being offering its services and skills under the conditions of a contract. A pretty massive leap from the lesser vampires. The bloodsuckers were something a prepared and fearless Pathless could hunt. The Jealousy was something that cracked Shiv’s Heroic-Tier Mind Shield with its Psychomancy in mere moments. All things considered, this was, like Leu said, practically suicide.
And that just upped the thrill.
“Shiv… are you serious about this? It’s a Greater Demon. A Greater felling Demon.” Tran, meanwhile, was on the other end of the excitement spectrum. “Creatures like this… it takes a dedicated force of Slayers to defeat. A group of Masters working in concert. Or—or even a Hero! I don’t think Roland Arrow would enter this beast’s lair alone and take this fight.”
“Well. I guess I’m not Roland Arrow.” Shiv chuckled. It was kind of strange being more enthusiastic about killing a monster than a Slayer, but Shiv kind of got why Tran was worried. The man was traumatized, wanted out of this hellscape, and if Shiv died, his fate would be up in the air alongside Heather. Leu didn’t regard the Slayers or the goblin mercenary much. Most of her obsequiousness had been spent buttering Shiv’s ego, and that mostly because of his association to Valor and the fact that he just might help her fulfill her lifelong desire of killing her brother's murderer.
But if this went wrong and Shiv got his mind broken, well, things might not go so well for Tran and Heather. Even if they got out of the gateway over to the surface or the Abyss, they likely couldn’t fight off a small army of enemies. And then there was the small matter of them knowing too much.
Shiv wasn’t a complicated thinker, but basic secrecy and suspicion wasn’t that hard to grasp. If he was Leu and purely self-interested, he might just see Siggy, Heather, and Tran dead if this thing went wrong. That way, she could go back to hiding in plain sight and not risk anything. It was an ugly thought, but something Shiv thought Leu was absolutely capable of doing. After all, she served as Confriga’s Guardshead for a good while, and being a Guardshead for a slave-runner usually demanded a lack of morals.
I’m probably going to end up fighting it out with her over that once Confriga is dealt with. Or… I don’t know. The whole slavery thing still doesn’t sit right with me. Don’t want to just let her get away with it, but… Ugh, might be something else to ask Valor and the others once I meet up with them again. But for now… for now we got a bit more preparing to do.
Over the course of a half-day, Shiv crafted three more sets of heavy bone armor, six bone drills, ten bone daggers, and harvested thirty skin decoys. This was all of the adamantine variety. He had much more in terms of the older Diamond Shelled category, and he fully intended to use materials taken from his Adept-Tier corpses when faced with lesser enemies.
However, the Jealousy was a monster, and a Heroic-Tier monster at that. From what Leu elaborated, though only its Psychomancy and Physicality were in the Heroic-Tier Threshold, its Toughness was Master-Tier as well, with only its Reflexes lacking at Adept. And there was more she didn’t know about the beast, such as if it had weapon proficiency skills and just how intelligent it was.
Much like a cave biter, most Jealousies started out as non-thinking parasites that devoured the minds of conscious beings. From there, the ones that ate and leveled enough would ascend and attain a metamorphosis into a higher form—that being the colossal, angular, mind-crushing octopus-thing Shiv saw guarding the gateway in the Abyss. This Jealousy had been alive for well over five hundred years, so its power and experience had to be staggering.
But that provoked a question from Shiv. “Why’s it only Heroic?”
Leu was bewildered by his question. “Only? Master Shiv… You must understand that most simply do not accumulate the experiences and stresses required to progress at your prodigious rate. In fact, if what you have claimed about your rate of advancement is true, then you are truly a monster among prodigies.”
Maybe. Or maybe my Unique Feat is just pretty damn good. But that still didn’t sit right with Shiv. “But still. Five hundred years is a long time.”
“Consider how it spent the five hundred years,” Leu said. “Its initial growth, like most Pathbearers, is likely rapid—reaching Adept in months to years.”
“Years, usually,” Heather commented from the side. “Not weeks.”
“Technically, I got my Adept-Tier Toughness in days,” Shiv corrected.
The Jump Mage looked close to being dangerously ill.
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“But after it ascends to Adept-Tier and undergoes the initial stages of its metamorphosis, it will start to think and learn,” Leu continued. “And among the first things a thinking creature learns are more sophisticated acts of self-preservation. Its natural lifespan is long, and its advancements in Physicality only lengthen the time it has. It need not hurry to progress, as most Pathbearers do not. It is also not uncommon for most Master-Tier Pathbearers to slow their progress and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Or face a bottleneck that leaves them trapped. After all, it is hard to achieve greater and more significant acts of legend as you evolve your skills and rise through the thresholds.”
Shiv didn’t get that at all. “I thought the whole point of being a Pathbearer was to claim more freedom through skills and power. To face stronger enemies and do greater things.”
“Yeah, but most of us want to live too,” Heather remarked. “Can’t exactly do any of the great and history-shaping stuff if you’re dead.”
The Deathless stared at her. And slowly smiled under his helmet. He made sure it came through with his voice. “Well. I suppose that’s true for most people.”
“Still, Shiv,” Tran interjected, interrupting their one-sided bickering. “If this plan goes wrong—this is a Heroic-Tier Psychomancer. Death isn’t the first thing it might do to you.” Tran looked uneasy, and he sounded genuinely worried about Shiv. “You said your mask got cracked by its mind magic. How many more hits do you think it can take?”
Shiv regarded his Mask of False Paths.
Equipment: [Mask of False Paths]
Condition: Moderately Damaged
“Probably at least another good hit or two from a Heroic-Tier adversary,” Shiv said. “But Leu says the thing will be sluggish, confused, and weakened while in its digestive state after eating the minds of the slaves. And it’ll be distracted and unfocused while trying to eat the slaves. That, and its sanctum will be sealed during its feeding time to protect the rest of the gate from… what did you call it, Lue?”
“Psychoactive Overflow,” the Vulteg reminded him.
“Psychoactive Overflow. Meaning, if I manage to sneak in with the slaves, it’ll just be me, them, and the big ugly bastard for a good few hours. Plenty of time to either kill it, or get my mind broken for good. Preferably the former. That being said…” Shiv tossed the last of his bone drills into his cape. It felt like it was nearing capacity in terms of weight and storage by now, but Shiv had a feeling it would get a lot lighter real soon. “I’m probably going to ask you to return that armor to me, Heather. Way this fight’s going to go, I’m going to need every bit of Magical Resistance I can afford. Especially since I got none.”
“What?” Leu said, her voice low with disbelief. “N-none?”
“Yeah, the mask got a Heroic Mind-Shield, but aside from that, I got my Master-Tier Biomancy, and… well, the other magical skills are still growing. Just… not as fast.”
The Guardshead just stared at him, her glowing eye shrinking at its core. “Master Shiv, your skills and evolutions are… The nature of your capabilities is beyond my comprehension.”
Shiv blinked. He wasn’t sure if she was insulting him or praising his power. “Thank you?”
Leu gawked at him for a few moments longer before turning to stare at Heather, Tran, and Siggy.
“Don’t look at me, I’m just a hostage,” the goblin muttered.
“I’m as grossed out as you look,” Heather said. Beside her, Tran just shrugged.
“Against a Greater Demon like the Jealousy, a damaged piece of equipment will not do.” Leu hesitated for a moment, before turning, staring in the direction of her personal armory and wardrobe. “Please wait here, Master Shiv. I may have something that might be of service to you in the battle ahead.”
As the Guardshead departed, Shiv flinched as two of her slugs began smashing into each other in the spatially expanded enclosure below. It seemed like they were fighting over some large—Wait, is that 811’s body? Hells yeah! Get that body, slugs. Eat the bastard and shit him out again!
“Shiv, hey, listen… I know you don’t trust me, but can I take a look at the mask again?” Tran asked, interrupting Shiv’s thoughts.
Shiv paused, and after a beat of consideration, removed his helmet and mask before handing the item off to Tran. Its surface was veined with deep fissures, but the mask was still holding together. It was surprisingly resilient for something that was supposedly just made from bronze, but magical items were weird that way.
“How many Enchantments is this thing running?” Tran asked, running a finger across the cracks in the mask.
“About four. Perfect Semblance. Adept and Initiate-Skill Thief, and… uh, Heroic Mind-Shield.”
The Slayer whistled. “Those are some pretty hefty Enchantments, Shiv. I’m guessing this mask is pretty close to its current mana capacity, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to apply a Self-Mending Enchantment to it, but I can try.”
“You can enchant?” Shiv said, taking in Tran with new eyes. “I didn’t know that.”
Tran smiled miserably at Shiv, and he laughed. “We barely know each other, Shiv. Lots of things you didn’t know about me, and I certainly didn’t expect about you. I’m no dedicated enchanter—mostly got the skill because I wanted to avoid spending money I didn’t have at the academy… But I should still have a few skill levels in repair that I can invest into the mask. If it takes, the damage should go away.”
Shiv didn’t know what to say. “You’re willing to do that? Just… give up some of your skill levels.”
“I’d be willing to give up an entire Skill Evolution if it means keeping you alive and getting all of us out of this miserable place,” Tran said, sighing. “Even if that’s impossible to do.”
Shiv frowned. “Tran, I know it’s going to be a rough and ugly fight even with the demon weakened, but I wouldn’t call the odds impossible.”
“No, not that: Investing a full Skill Evolution into an item is impossible.”
“Huh?” Shiv blinked. “It is?”
“Yeah,” Tran said. He looked around and muttered something under his breath about needing to ask Leu if she had an enchanting table somewhere. Heather, meanwhile, was looking down at the slugs, appearing lost in thought.
“So,” Tran continued, “skipping through all the academic theories, items usually have Tiers of their own—a bit like a Pathbearer or a core. But an item’s Tier determines how many skill levels it can contain with its mana. The thing about investing skills into an item is that our skills are shaped in relation to us as people, and with how mana is actively attuned by the mind… Well, most skills transform a bit once they get put into an item, because there’s usually no longer a mind that can mold them and due to a lot of other details that’d take all day to explain.”
“So, the reason why you can’t just give an Evolved Skill to an item is because it won’t be the same skill?” Shiv asked.
“That, and you can’t invest anything below your evolution thresholds. Skills don’t exactly devolve back to what they used to be, no matter how much some people might want to get another try at a better Skill Evolution. It’s like a crystallization of who you are to some extent. A hardened aspect of your soul formed by your mind, vitality, unattuned mana, and other experiences.”
“Is that why my body and mana fields change too?” Shiv asked.
“Yeah,” Tran said. “Something like that.” The older Pathbearer closed his eyes and shook his head, letting out a stressed, humorless laugh. He ran a hand over his short beard. “Broken Moon, Shiv. You really just fought your way across the Abyss and just made it through by dying over and over again, huh?” He met Shiv's eyes, and his expression flattened into something bordering on apologetic and regretful. He breathed in deeply. “I wanted to tell you.”
As he looked upon Tran’s face, Shiv understood. “About keeping tabs on me for Roland?”