NOVEL FROG Chapter 335 - Appetite For Destruction
“We’ll be back, promise!” Lilly swore as she made her way along the massive steel cable once more, with several shadow pumas and orc revenants who had surrendered 25 foot long spears for the far more maneuverable gladius flanking her as they raced for the third steel cage. BunBun could only pray that the entire massive framework wouldn’t be surrendered to see them all fall into the crucible as the entire cauldron rang with a sudden blaring alarm.
“Fuck!” She hissed, glaring at the third lock, before channeling her favorite Titan Shout once more, cracking a smile as she hopped back onto the cable as another puma smacked away the remains of the shredded steel hatch, sharing a satisfied smile with Lilly that the little rabbit actually considered warm and friendly and hardly predatory at all, before her cat was sent cartwheeling into the fiery hot hell below.
“Pumi!” She cried in startled surprise, only registering the massive harpoon of ice that had spelled her cat’s doom a heartbeat after her pet had been sent crashing into the cursed soul steel below with a single mournful howl.
“Die, vermin!” Shrieked the gutteral voice of a goblin that Lilly instantly shifted her focus to, noting in the hyper-vivid clarity that only panic could bring every detail of her enemy’s scaly sharp-toothed features as it unleashed a second bolt of killing ice from the crackling wand it held. Its sleek arcane tool was a sharp contrast from the billowing robes of orange, green, and gold, that it wore as it glared it’s contempt BunBun’s way. Even as Lilly leaped right over the ice spike, her mind was processing a thousand frames a second, noting how the goblin’s three-fingered hand tightly gripped the shoulder of a smaller goblin wearing aviator goggles who appeared to be steering the flying carpet-like contraption that seemed to be held upright by nothing more than billows of steam coming from the bottom of the carpet as it hovered a good hundred yards away.
“This is Bloodtear property!” the arcanist screamed while flicking out a handful of warrants and contracts that burst into eldritch flame before they got within a foot of the furious rabbit. “You’re interfering with our Soul Forge, you no-good vermin! Don’t think you can get away with it! Your contracts specifically preclude any attempts at escape, so die already and--”
His words broke off in a surprised squack as crimson lightning forked from BunBun’s ears.
Find Weakness skill check made! You sense the arcane wards protecting this extremely annoying goblin who actually thinks he can bind you with contract law!
Your 20 in Mental Resistance EFFORTLESSLY trumps this mongrel goblin’s professional class!
Spell Cleave! - You have popped your opponent’s wards (thanks to sensing weaknesses AND your kickass blood-lightning) effortlessly!
You have critically struck your target!
Lightning FORKS to strike goblin pilot!
Goblin pilot has expired.
Goblin mage is screaming as he spirals into a vat of liquid iron!
BunBun smirked down at the doomed goblin flipping end over end, its piteous shrieks cutting through the air.
“What was that? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you, fuckwad, on account of the fact that you’re already DEAD!”
And before the panicked goblin could howl his final words as he desperately rubbed the ring on his hand, he fell into the vat of bubbling iron in an explosion of steam.
Congratulations! You have successfully slain: Level 30th Arcanist/Level 25 Barrister!
Your target is (almost) double your highest class (Necromancer) you are over 95% of the way to level 2!
Congratulations! You have successfully slain: Level 20 Arcanist / Level 20 Arcane Pilot!
You have successfully achieved Level 2 as a Primal Adventurer!
You have 9 level-up points to spend.
You are now 33% of the way to Level 3!
A dozen thoughts raced through Lilly’s enhanced mind as she hopped toward the next cage, namely that the goblins did have ways to snipe her from a distance. If she wasn’t careful, she could be joining a certain goblin mage in the soul-steel crucible below.
And despite the peril of the moment, she couldn’t help noting that it seemed that total class level as a fraction of her highest class level determined her experience gain. Hopefully this meant that it would require the same amount of potency for each level up until her Primal Adventurer class exceeded her Necromancer Profession, or until she leveled up Necromancer. Either way, she could feel the brimming potency of nine additional points for her to use to enhance herself, but didn’t dare do any such thing while racing across a cable stretching hundreds of yards over massive vats of liquid steel with thousands of her troops lives, or unlives, on the line.
Not to mention screeching goblins on flying carpets, of which another pair were already coming her way.
“You’re in violation of contract law! You’re in violation of...”
Time seemed to stretch as she embraced battle mode, her ears already crackling with the buildup of crimson bolts of destruction as she unleashed heart-stopping lightning at first one, then a second target. Not the higher level mages, but rather the lower level pilots. Because a flying rug was only as good as its weakest link, or whoever was steering the damn thing.
“Sanguis Fulmen! Sanguis Fulmen!”
You have successfully slain two Level 22 Goblin pilots! Doomed aeronatic vehicles have fallen into soul-steel crucible!
Level 29th Arcanist/Lawyer slain!
Level 29th Arcanist/Foreman slain!
Experience earned!
You have gained 2 Levels in your Combat Class!
You are now a Level 4 Primal Adventurer!
“Fragor!” An increasingly anxious BunBun shouted defiantly, ignoring the messages in favor of what really mattered. Freeing her men by shattering yet another steel lock and hatch while dodging the fire, ice, and lighting bolts being sent her way, all the while struggling to get off this cable ride of death without falling into one of the multiple crucibles below or by being fatally struck by carpet flying psychopaths. And she’d better move fast, before any goblin administrator or foreman saw fit to take extremely drastic steps.
You have successfully burst the locks on five steel trap doors!
“Fragor!”
You have successfully burst the locks on six steel trap doors!
“Fragor!”
You have successfully saved versus DEATH!
You have dodged Imperious Death Swarm! Not even a thousand paper cuts will spell your end!
“Sanguis Fulmen, Motherfucker!”
You have FAILED to pierce enemy ward.
Your Lightning bolt has been successfully deflected.
“Kill the mongrel rabbit and all her master’s abominations!” Screeched one of the goblins leading a fresh squad of carpet bombers while pointing a staff crackling with that stunk of ink and brimstone her way.
Lilly howled her hate for the trio of sneering goblin elders wearing blood-rune scribed mockeries of a judge’s robe, all of them hanging on to the central shaft of a cobbled abomination of a steampunk helicopter that was absolutely crackling with arcane wards so strong that even BunBun knew she didn’t have a chance in hell of piercing it as things stood.
All she could do was glare her bitter hate at the cackling demonic barristers sending blizzards of razor sharp paper shredding the closest handful of her revenants that, for all their incredible strength, lacked one element of offensive mastery that her beloved master had completely overlooked.
Any sort of ranged attack.
Because who the fuck needed that if you could sprint upwards of 250 MPH, your revenants easily matching you for the first 150?
When you were fighting airborn goblins over a massive caldera filled with bubbling cauldrons of cursed steel, of course. Not that Eric knew that that was in his future… or his familiar’s
Which meant, she realized, as her eyes widened before a whole shitload of aeronautical goblins rapidly heading her way, she’d have to do it the hard way. Or not at all.
“Hold me!” She hissed to the closest revenant, sending a silent final command as she was immediately turtled by a full dozen of her revenants, as much as they could secure themselves safely along the width of the cable as she did that which both excited and terrified her, knowing all too well that there were certain lines her master just wouldn't cross.
Physical stats alone he worked on enhancing. Everything else he allowed diligent training, increased skill ranks, titles and dungeon clears to handle. But for BunBun dancing with death on the lip of oblivion… none of those options were available.
Only enhancing herself in the ways she knew Eric feared most.
Fortunately, she did receive a tiny bit of good news from messages long deferred.
Congratutations! Through forging yourself in the crucible of combat, you have managed to rank up multiple skills the hard way!
Blood Lightning is now Rank 15!
Psionic Rupture is now Rank 8!
Through diligent slaughter of multiple foes and surviving death’s embrace multiple times in less than twenty minutes, you have achieved Level 5 as a Primal Adventurer! You currently have 36 points to spend!
You have successfully invested 1 point in: Runic Spellforger! (Solid choice! You have locked in Journeyman tier in a Power you’re otherwise unlikely to advance without hundreds of hours of perilous lessons! You’re a bunny generalist with a knack for controlling revenants, after all. The farthest thing from a Hoggleworts mage!)
You have successfully achieved Journeyman Status in: Runic Spell Forger! S-Tier Node Configuration, Contender potential, and your sire’s blood allows you to claim 3 character points instead of the normal 2 for your increased Tier! - Spiritual Energy / Arcane Reserves / Psionic Potential each go up one point! (Yes, your Sire would have gained an extra point in Soul Reserves for his third point, but since your brain is MUCH better suited for Psionic battle than his is, you get the former!)
You may select from the following Perks that will effect ALL your Spells!
- Appetite for Destruction. - All spells cast are 33% more powerful than they would otherwise be, multiplicative of ALL other factors!
- Endless Reserves. - All spells cast cost 33% less to cast than they otherwise would, multiplicative of all other factors!
- Gifted Student – All skills will gain ranks from diligent practice 33% faster than they otherwise would. This includes combat revelations but does NOT include level-up points used to transcend ranks!
- More insightful than you realize. - Actually, our earlier assessment was wrong. Enough of Eric’s blood is now pumping through your veins and influencing your genetic heritage (all the more so, once you achieve your forbidden dream) that you actually DO have the potential to learn Runic Lore, much like the man who sired you! You may now choose Runic Lore as a node power when you clear your next Node at Level 10 or greater!
BunBun’s thoughts were whirling with the implications of what she was reading, sensing so much potential with the perks unveiled. The ability to grow as a mistress of Runic Lore, to embrace wild and wicked rituals and use them as the foundation for learning fresh spells directly. Also a fantastic path if she were ever to embrace her childhood dream of becoming a magus and going to some sort of arcane academy. So too, Gifted Student would allow her to to learn any mystic art 33% faster from practice than she otherwise would, and she was somehow dead certain that included any mystical art that involved mana of any sort in its mix, not simply the runic fusion of Arcane and Spiritual energy that was her sire’s path, and her own as well.
Yet neither of those things would help her or her men survive the next thirty seconds, let alone the next handful of hours. For that, there was only one path forward. Because as much as she hated being a burden to the man she adored, she knew his mana and spiritual energy were open to her, having drawn from it freely when given no chance to rest herself.
What she needed now was power, raw and simple. So with that thought in mind, she made her choice. Or more accurately, simply unleashed the potential that had always been there.
Congratulations, Primal Adventurer. Your Appetite for Destruction is unmatched! All spells you cast (from any discipline) are 33% more potent and destructive than they would otherwise be!
She knew it was madness. But FUCK IT if she’d hold back now and risk death when salvation could be a single mad perk away. With that thought in mind she did her best not to flinch, or scream, when ten additional points slammed into Runic Spell casting pushed her to Rank 20 in the blink of an eye.
An eye-blink that seemed to last an eternity as she found herself experiencing the final moments of countless wizards and mages lashing out with fire, lightning, ice, clouds of entropy and rays of light, desperate to strike down the unspeakable abominations slipping through the cracks of reality in countless ascending worlds whose growth no one had managed to stop in time before ascension became eruptions of unchanneled potency, and what could have been paradise instead became a hellish nightmare as reality itself warped to the point of madness from the flood of wild energies of creation that just wouldn’t stop.
Not until warriors and mages cresting the limits of Bronze, willing to put their very lives on the line for desperate insights that would lead to breakthroughs and Silver-tier ascensions, strove mightily to contain that madness.
Only to die as hideous tendrils of nightmare that pierced their strongest enchantments like paper, rupturing chests and ripping out throats as eldritch enchantments caused countless shrieking psyches to rupture like shrapnel minds. But not before those dying Classers and Cultivators unleashed massive storms of entropic flame, crimson storms of lightning, and spells of the void so hideously profound that reality itself warped and bent through their passing as countless insights on how to best compress and unleash magic for absolutely devastating effect instantly became BunBuns’ own.
Congratulations! The final dying revelations of countless Bronze-tier Classers have become your own as you gain the slightest taste of what it truly means to dare these waters of peril and power as you DARE to embrace Adept-tier mastery with a node that has been your own for less than an hour of your existence upon this world!
Willpower check made! You have successfully endured traumatic backlash! (Because you’re no stranger to agony, are you, BunBun? Already having died once before to the loving ministrations of countless savage orcs!)
No, Lilly. Now’s NOT the time to scream and rail against the System. Instead it’s time to pick yet another delicious perk. You’ve CERTAINLY earned it!!
You may select from the following Perks that will effect ALL your Spells!
- Endless Reserves. - All spells cast cost 33.3% less to cast than they otherwise would, multiplicative of all other factors!
- Gifted Student – All skills will gain ranks from diligent practice 33% faster than they otherwise would. This includes combat revelations but does NOT include level-up points used to transcend ranks!
- More insightful than you realize. - Actually, our earlier assessment was wrong. Enough of Eric’s blood is now pumping through your veins and influencing your genetic heritage (all the more so, once you achieve your forbidden dream) that you actually DO have the potential to learn Runic Lore, much like the man who gave you life once more! You may now choose Runic Lore as a node power when you clear your next Node at Level 10 or greater!
- Appetite for Destruction II - All spells cast are now AN ADDITIONAL 33.3% more powerful than they would otherwise be, multiplicative of ALL other factors! (And yes, that includes Appetite for Destruction I)
Not that we have any doubt that you’ll be picking this hot take. Goodness knows you’ve earned it, with the dying shrieks of countless Bronze-tier idealists releasing their final insights to the heavens (System!) Before eldritch abominations could tear them free! - Now they’re all yours… whether you like it or not!
Lilly wanted to shriek at the gameshow host-like voice in her mind that was such an horrific amalgamation of excitement and mockery on her behalf all at once. She could so easily imagine some divine announcer who would be chuckling at her ascension with the exact same rueful bemusement as he would at her absolute destruction. It was a voice that had seemed harmless and goofy with her first virgin point invested, that first 1 point rush shivering through her veins.
But like a strung out addict, she just had to go back for more. Ten whole points of delicious hideous torment and ecstasy, losing herself to a rush that had come so close to obliterating her in the storm of grief, agony and insight that had belonged not to a single prodigy’s gifted study session, but to over a dozen Bronze-tier monsters pushed to their absolute limits as they faced down nightmare abominations in a world that might mirror Earth’s own fate, if they didn’t manage to harness their world’s ascension in time.
“Yes, I’m taking the perk, damn you, just like you know I am!” She screamed, as her brain lit up with furious insights into the nature of potency and destruction with the end result that all her spells were now 78% more potent than they would otherwise have been, multiplicative of all other variables. An incredible boon, as were the additional 3 to her Psion, Arcane, and Spiritual potential... and it was a boon for which she had paid an absolutely hideous price she knew would give her nightmares… assuming she even survived the next fifteen minutes.
“Lesson learned, you stupid bitch! Don’t pump any fucking skill from Apprentice to Adept-tier in a single ascension!” She sobbed to herself, even as she furiously rode the brilliant fiery insights her glimpse into fury, madness, and destruction had granted her, howling her fury and defiance at the System trying to get her to shy away when she put not one but a full five points into Blood Lightning, bringing that to Adept-tier as well. Because if she was going to grab the System by the tail and wrench what power she could, just seconds away from being overwhelmed by goblin shits, she was going ALL THE FUCKING WAY! She could only hope that in having the advantage of all Eric’s formerly earned Blood Lightning Perks, it would cushion the madness somewhat.
Sadly, this proved only partially true. Yet her screams could be mistaken for manic laughter as she was flooded once more with horrific visions of doomed men and women furiously embracing their final moments before their very souls were sublimated by monstrous alien abominations feeding upon them with screaming teeth and eyes that tore through their minds like ripping pages out of a book.
But not before Lilly claimed her OWN pages on how to master the crimson lightning that had torn through so many of those eldritch nightmares before the young Bronze-tier prodigy who’s mind she had momentary inhabited, a girl who had once had such high hopes of forging a beautiful paradise of her own, was forced to spend her final moments screaming in terror as her husband transformed into a pulsating mass of eye-covered tendrils, right before ripping out her throat and devouring her from within.
Congratulations! You have achieved Adept-tier in Blood Lightning, embracing the desperate fury of a doomed woman’s final seconds over hours that ended in the blink of an eye! Soul Reserves, Arcane Potential, and Spiritual Energy have all increased by 3 points! Take heart, dear bunny. Your master would be proud! You two are definitely pees in a pod. (Not that that’s a surprise to anyone!)
Now Pick Your Perk!
Oblivion’s Master – You understand the elements in ways few of your contemporaries could possibly dream! You’re no academic, studying esoteric lore for it’s own sake. Rather you have focused your killing intent in mastering the flow of all arcane forces and fields as it pertains specifically to your chosen handful of spells, and how best to use your magic to RUPTURE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PATH!
Your Blood Lightning can now rupture ALL Wards just as well as it once could Soul Wards! You want to rupture Goblin forcefields? You ALREADY know what you’re going to pick, little bunny!
Appetite For Crimson Destruction. - Let’s keep it simple and sweet. PURE DESTRUCTIVE POTENCY ABOVE ALL ELSE! You now enjoy an additional 50% damage multiplier when casting Blood Lighting, Multiplicative of ALL OTHER FACTORS! - Who needs to pierce shields and wards through finesse when you can BLAST THROUGH THEM WITH PURE POWER?
Efficiency II. - Worried about draining your master dry? Don’t be! Your Blood Lightning is so well mastered that it only costs you 50% of what it otherwise would. (This is in addition to your master already claiming the Tier 1 version of this perk. Thus your Blood Lightning will be unleashed at just ¼ of baseline cost!)
Vampiric Lightning - An enhanced version of your master’s perk that gives you partial healing based on your Blood Mastery Skill rank! This Evolution will automatically heal you of Half the damage you inflict to everything!
Chain Lightning - Now your lightning can chain to multiple foes and targets! A simple Blood Lightning skill check is needed to automatically fork this attack at full potency to adjoining foes! Each adjoining foe will be the equivalent of -1 to skill (or Willpower, whichever is greater) check! Note, every friendly potential target in range will also induce a -1 penalty to skill check to avoid hitting them! You want a powerful spell that can tear through a whole cluster of your foes? You already know which enhancement you’ll be claiming!
Here Lilly made what she considered a hardcore Willpower check, no smarmy interface announcer voice needed. Because as tempted as she was to follow her first furious impulse, she forced herself to hold off. Because the passion that had allowed so many Bronze-tier monsters in her System-forced visions to push past their own limits was still less than ideal for tactical thinking.
Such as forgetting the simple fact that nothing was better for piercing wards than Power, and with rank 26 Find Weakness and just a couple second’s practice, she could at least sense the weakest part of any arcane ward or physical body.
So too, her Blood Lightning already cut through wards at least partially, and included at least mild healing properties she hadn’t even needed to use yet. Since she was far more interested in evading than tanking as a foot-tall bunny despite her relatively absurd physical stats… yeah. Vampiric and Oblivion’s Master perks were both out. At least for this spell evoluion.
As for forking… she had already forked once before on a critical hit that she intuitively sensed was damaged based. And considering the damage boons she could expect both from Rank II Appetite for Destuction AND just from hitting Adept tier… she had the distinct impression that a lesser forking perk might be hers to claim with sufficient practice alone, like her master had claimed multiple lesser skill perks.
Which left her with one strong choice that she didn’t regret for a moment taking. A perk that fit her path perfectly and that was already hers, the system merely confirming a foregone conclusion.
Blood Lightning has been enhanced by Appetite For Crimson Destruction! New modified damage is now 178% x 1.5 = 267% of what it would otherwise be with skill rank, additional perks, boons, and potency pools in effect!
You have spent 16 out of 36 points!
Of course she had one final skill to enhance by two bloody points, with absolutely no desire to dare push any Psionic gift to Rank 20. Because if the other two skills had been a torment… She shuddered to think what a Psionic attack force-leveled to Rank 20 would do to her poor mind.
Rank 10 was good enough for her. And when the perk options were laid out before her, the choice wasn’t hard to make either.
Congratulations! You have achieved Journeyman Rank in a Psionic hybrid skill! Arcane Potential, Spiritual Energy, and Psionic Potential have each increased by one point! How do you wish to evolve this skill?
Appetite for Psionic Destruction! - Increase the potency of your attack by 50%!
Psionic Efficiency! - Decrease the cost of your psionic shout by 50%!
Area Effect – Pop multiple skulls at once!
Soul Reaver – Necromantic background gives you a unique path of advancement! Your Psionic Rupture no longer effects the physical plain at all! In return for a fourth potency pool used (Soul Reserves) you now have bonuses to attack your opponent’s soul directly.
BunBun frowned. Because even in the perilous instant stretching forever, she could take a heartbeat to appreciate just how sweet some of those perk advancements might be, yet they weren’t without drawbacks.
Area Effect might be a fantastic choice, but she already knew from her final communion with Eric half an hour? Days? Ago… time passing strangely for some reason for the two of them, that even at its baseline, Psions Rupture could effect multiple targets thanks to explosive shrapnel in the form of skull-popping goodness. In fact, her master and friend now had to worry about causing his friend’s ears and eyes to bleed just from being within 20 feet of his Psionic shouts. If his situation was that bad with no perk advancement at all, BunBun was pretty damn sure that there would be no good way to tune down that area effect without constantly putting future allies and maybe even her present revenants at risk.
Soul Reaver might also have sweet possibilities, attacking a soul directly. Would it allow her to slip past wards or do more damage? She couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that it would effectively be a perilous trap, since she was counting on that very spell to rupture the very physically locked trap doors trapping her men and at risk of consigning them all to fiery oblivion. So for now, at least, Soul Reaver was a hard pass.
As far as efficiency went, it might be great for Eric, who’s elven brain had a hard time increasing Psionic Potential naturally. She had the feeling he was relying on dungeon clears, boons, and similar backdoor methods to boost that stat, since his racial limitations meant he couldn’t place a single character point in that pool.
But Lilly, with no such restrictions, wasn’t at worried about the cost. Not when she could boost that pool whenever she wished. Here too, she decided it was Power all the way.
You have chosen the Spell perk: Appetite for Psionic Destruction!
New modified damage is now 178% x 1.5 = 267% of what it would otherwise be with skill rank, additional perks, boons, and potency pools in effect!
You have spent 18 out of 36 points!
That final line made her smile. Because it really was all about the potency pools, and now it was more than time to boost her own, boosting both Spiritual Energy Reserves and Arcane Potential by 9 Fat points. Which, when taking all her stat boosts from the skills she had just ranked up, meant she now had matching Mana & Qi Pools of 324, A Psion Pool of 297, and 116 in Soul reserves.
And unlike her poor master, she didn’t feel any weird sense of System worms filling her brain with sweet silvery goodness at all. Of course, considering that she was a teenage girl who had been brought back from the dead in the form of a bunny somehow containing the entirety of her sapience and personality, she figured she was far more inured to System shenanigans than her master, and wasn’t quite so stressed about not being 100% organic, so to speak. She was just happy to be alive and kicking and ready to FUCK THOSE GOBLINS UP!
With that final thought she opened her eyes once more, both surprised and gratified to find that the seemingly endless hours of her ascension had only been sufficient seconds for her psychotic pursuers to blast another dozen of her cherished revenants into the fire pit below.
A favor she was more than happy to return, with interest.