Before making his final decision, Lukas checked what conjunction abilities Biomancy and Stormdragon’s Eye spawned together. It wouldn’t influence what he or the other clones received, but considering the complete future arsenal felt sensible.
Draconic Biology: Morph will either adopt draconic features like scales or claws, or grow arcane organs unique to dragons and their descendant species. Specimens or remains aren’t necessary like with animances, but they will affect potency. Life Dragon’s Aura: Morph will gain the ability to emit an aura that washes away fatigue, enhances natural healing, and accelerates growth. His connection to the life attunement will be strengthened, accelerating magic generation and potency.Despite the versatility and power the first would give Morph, Lukas wanted the second option. Auras typically came from Heart or Soul abilities. The attunement would grant the clone great versatility and allow him to fill roles besides infiltrator and vanguard.
The clones had returned to the tunnels in the mountains around the Gray and retrieved one of the dead silver dragon’s fangs. Morph hadn’t figured it out yet, but Lukas hoped it would allow him to develop scales, claws, and hopefully draconic organs. As his wealth grew, he intended to procure more dragon remains for Morph to copy with Animancy. Draconic Biology would grant shortcuts, but since the same was possible without it, it felt unnecessary.
I want Life Dragon’s Aura. More attunements mean more options.
As a result, Lukas’s first instinct was to pick Attune Storms for the conjunction of Stormdragon’s Eye and Spellweaver. It would grant him more versatile clones, capable of using ice or wind spells. However, utilizing new elements wasn’t the same as getting access to Life magic, which was an entirely different school on its own. Instead, he re-analyzed Draconic Intelligence.
Lukas didn’t interpret it as the ability to turn spells into minions, but rather a means of programming complex functions into otherwise simple spells. It was a field where wizards excelled at using their complex spell scripts, but sorcerers struggled. Metamagic allowed the modification and reinterpretation of spells, but often lacked fine-tuning. He foresaw a large variety of functions.
Draconic Intelligence and Shadow Illusion together would allow for the creation of complex, moving illusions probably capable of doing far more than just standing still like a statue. Spellweavers would have an easier time turning flame spheres into drones capable of conducting complex, intricate maneuvers. Then there was the incredible possibility of smart passive spells that lay in wait and only activated when specific conditions were met. Stormweaver didn’t hold a candle to either of the other two options.
Finally, Lukas turned his attention toward the final selection. Dracometal Scales felt too powerful to give up. It would make any clone granted Alter Metal Mass even tougher, with not just physical toughness but also arcane defences. Any granted Stormdragon’s Eye would also have greater survivability. As much as he liked the idea of changing up and down, treating any surface as a floor, it didn’t feel like enough.
If only it granted gravity attunement.
A crippling headache descended on Lukas as he locked in his decision. The changes were too potent, too many, and had occurred far too swiftly. There was a reason most ascensions demanded long rest periods. Lukas expected them to grow longer as he continued to ascend.
Shadow Clone: Tier 3 | Rank 2
Mid-Tier Ability: Empowered Clone II
Tier 2 Ability: Shade’s Mantle II | Domineering Darkness
Body-conjunction ability: Shadow Steel
Mind-conjunction ability: Shadow Illusion
Altered Metal Mass: Tier 2 | Rank 8
Mid-Tier Ability: Cover Weaknesses, Emergency Alteration
Tier 2 Ability: Steel Weave
Heart-conjunction ability: Dracosteel Scales
Soul-conjunction ability: Shadow Steel
Stormdragon’s Eye: Tier 2 | Rank 0
Mid-Tier Ability: The Calm Before
Body-conjunction ability: Dracosteel Scales
Soul-conjunction ability: Draconic Intelligence
Spellweaver: Tier 2 | Rank 1
Mid-Tier Ability: Mage’s Instinct
Heart-conjunction ability: Draconic intelligence
Soul-conjunction ability: Shadow Illusion
Arcane Smithing: Tier 1 | Arcane 8
Mid-Tier Ability: Creator’s Touch
Biomancy: Tier 2 | Rank 0
Mid-Tier Ability: Mimicry
Heart-Conjunction Ability: Life Dragon’s Aura
Soul-Conjunction Ability: Shadow Mimic
For the time being, Lukas left the new shard alone. He had wasted long enough on the ascension and conjunction abilities. Just because the Revolution’s members were dead, it didn’t mean their forces were no longer a threat. It was unlikely any of them knew that all of their leaders had turned into food. Taking them out took priority. Only Zwei remained. All of his other clones were down, leaving all the work to a small squad of Shadow Seekers and Penelope.
First, he resummoned Morph. The clone didn’t need instructions. He immediately bathed Lukas in the life attunement aura. The headache dulled.
“Don’t adopt your character face,” Lukas instructed. “I don’t want anyone tying your Aquila face to me. It's best if the persona is kept separate from this business.”
“I thought as much, boss.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Journal, can you please ask Eins how things are out there?”
He is ignoring me and probably in the middle of a fight.
“Do you want me out there?” Morph asked.
Lukas shook his head, summoning Ace, followed by clones with an assortment of specializations and shard abilities. He waved over one with the necessary elements to be Flukas and handed him the Spell Sniper’s focus. “You’re me for the time being. Mira and Penelope need to believe you, too.”
“I don’t think any of us are going to need essences to mark our presences anymore,” Flukas replied. “I don’t know if you feel it, boss, but all our arcane signatures carry the same trace as the dragonblooded. It should mask whatever emptiness Ogden and Esther feel.”
“That might be true, but I’d rather not take any risks until we know for sure.” Lukas opened the journal’s storage and retrieved the Phoenix Glaive. “Morph and you.” He pointed at a Stalker with Alter Metal Mass. “You’re with me. The rest of you need to assist Penelope and Eins. Put on a good show.”
“Where are you heading, boss?” Ace asked, his face soured as he rooted around the journal’s hidden compartment. “Eins better have grabbed my hat.”
“The basement,” Lukas replied. “We need to investigate Ephram’s vault.”
“Investigate,” a Stalker said, throwing up air quotes. Several clones chuckled. “Got you.
“On the contrary, we’re not risking robberies today unless we come across something super tempting and we can pin it on someone else. Ephram is too closely tied to the Aquila guild and the Schwarzberg Kingdom. This is already going to piss them off further. A Stalker’s memory tells me there was a faint hint of Void energy down below. It's vital we find out what it is. If we can find tangible evidence linking Ephram to what happened in Reistein, no one can claim our claims of what happened here are hearsay.”
“You think the deed to the orphanage of special children won’t be enough?” Flukas asked. “We stashed it in the Hidden Compartment with what looked like research logs.”