+40 to STR! +44 to PER! +44 to VIT! +52 to END! +48 to INT! +56 to WIL! +52 to AGL! +58 to DEX!
+40 All Harmonic Stats!
You Have 30 Unused Stat Points!
A glitch like static sizzled through Felix, before everything blinked back into order with a deep chime. System energy roared through his cores, echoing back outward into his Aspects in a cataract of power. Felix gritted his teeth, more than used to the sensation of leveling up. He was blindsided, however by a glut of information that flooded his potent Mind as the increasing weight of Authority pressed itself into the weft of his Spirit. It hurt at little as his Mind started to heat up, a scorching burn as new, Territorial information found pieces of his Mind and drilled into them. Bits of ancillary knowledge floated up, things like tax rates and yield from the crystal mines, but they were fugitive concepts, fading just as quickly as they arrived.
The Authority, however, spread itself throughout his Spirit. It joined seamlessly with his extant Authority, a mantle that spread out to fill his giant room to the brim with an invisible, intangible potency.
Your Authority Has Grown!
As Lord Of Two Territories You May Share A Single Specialized Benefit Of Your Primary Stronghold!
Choose One:
Tier III Forge
Tier III Alchemical Lab
Tier III Storage Facility
Tier III Glyphworks
WARNING!
Sharing Crafting Facilities Will Increase Production Speeds.
Sharing Crafting Facilities Will Also Increase Resource Loss.
Putting aside the annoyance of that Primordial Slayer Title he'd almost gottenagainFelix focused on the things he could affect.
"Karys? Which should I do?" Felix asked, but the buzzing of his Inheritor's Will was absent. In fact, none of his weapons were anywhere in the large, palatial room and Felix advanced his worry from sleepy confusion to mild concern. Even his vambraces and greaves were gone. Still, he was more than dangerous enough without armor or a blade. If he'd been captured by some Master or something, they'd realize their mistake soon enough.
Once he gave it a little thought, the decision before him wasn't so hard to make. He could pick Karys' brain later about other things, but to Felix there was only a single solution.
You Have Chosen To Share:
Tier III Storage Facility
Due To Advanced Authority, Storage Capacity Has Doubled!
You May Erect A Single Beacon In Your New Territory!
Choose Placement.
A trickle of more information fed into his Mind, while at the corner of his vision the castle icon of his Authority Screen flashed at him. He toggled it open and quickly navigated to the Maps subsection. There he found two sub categories, one labeled as Nagast and the other as The Leviathan Depths. He selected it. A half-fogged map of the former Expanse expanded before his eyes, with Ahkestria nestled a little north of its middle.
"Wow, that's...that's a lot," he said. "Almost as big as the Foglands...and its mostly underwater now."
That would affect his Beacon placement a great deal. The Beacons were crystalline lampposts that allowed people in his Stronghold to immediately store and retrieve supplies from his Storage Facility, and it was the precise reason he'd chosen it over one of his Crafting Halls. The benefits of increased production speeds wasn't worth losing more resources during crafting, not for him. Access to his Storage Facility from multiple Territories away? That would prove useful, for many reasons.
Thunder rattled the window casements, and for the first time Felix realized the light in the room had faded to a dull, dim gray. He could still see perfectly, but if the lighting were to be believed, night was soon to set. He strode to one of the many tall windows and peered out onto lush, grassy grounds and thick with trees, each heavy with fruits and nuts. Beyond them, through the haze of driving rain, were tall walls made of bright orange stone. Even that color was leached, faded beneath the crackle and gloom of the storm above their heads.
"Maybe I'll wait on placing the Beacon, for now." Felix needed to figure out where he was, and why he was there. Last he knew, he had been in the Tomb when the exhaustion of his Adept Temper had knocked him out cold. Now his Map told him he was in Ahkestria again...and the open sky meant he was at the top, in the Risen Ward. "Who's mansion is this?"
The room gave him little in the way of clues, other than it was someone obscenely rich. That left the Matrons, Masters, or one of those merchant lords he'd heard about. And seeing how he hadn't been chained up or collared, Felix was leaning toward his allies having somehow found him. With a minor effort of Will and Mana, his Garment shifted into a full-sleeve blue tunic, black, waist-length jacket, and dark trousers ending at calf-height leather boots.
There were three exits from the chamber, one leading to a huge closet, another to a long, tiled hall and smelling of water and soaps, and a third that was the most ornate of them all. That one he eased open, and found a smaller antechamber, filled with sumptuous, well-padded couches and thick rugs. A fire burned merrily in a fireplace bigger than Felix, and all along the walls were framed oil paintings depicting bald, scowling men and severe-looking women. Atop one of the long couches and neatly filling it up, was a mass of feathers and fur that he recognized.
Pit, Felix sent with a smile. The tenku snorted, clearly asleep, and Felix's smile grew before it froze. His friend was different than before, smaller and sleeker by a great deal. The tenku had always resembled a fox and raven mixed together, but now the black of his feathers and russet of his fur seemed to radiate a vibrancy Felix had never seen before. He was naked, without his barding or saddlebags, and Felix could easily perceive small flashes of lightning coursing down his sides and pinions. In fact, his wings were changed too, covered with a number of crimson feathers on the interior while his outer flight feathers were all a brilliant cyan. The sparks of electricity seemed to congregate on those far more than the rest.
The shape of Pit's head and sleek, glossy black reminded Felix of Lord Wonderment. The raven-like Korvaa from the Void. You've changed a lot since then, he sent quietly. We both have.
A second, daintier snort caught Felix's attention, and he belatedly realized there was another person in attendance. Vess sat only a couple chairs away, covered in a thick blanket with her head propped up on a chair. Her mouth was open as she lightly snored and her dark brown hair was mussed, but even so she was beautiful. The firelight played off her dark skin, shining off a number of metal objects she cradled loosely against her chair. Weapons. His weapons.
Shes been waiting here all night.
"AH!" Felix shouted and skipped backward. He hadn't heard anyone else come in, and when he looked, Felix only found Pit sitting up and staring at him with his big golden eyes. "Pit? Who said that?"
"I did," Pit said in a high tenor. He sounded like a teenage boy, of all things, just without the cracking tone.
"Whayou can talk?" Felix asked. This was blowing his mind, and when the back of his knees hit a chair, he sat down happily. "Since when?"
Pit lifted a wing, letting lightning crackle impressively along its length. My Evolution. A'zek said it could affect many things about me...and then you ripped apart a Primordial and shoved it through us.
Felix paused. He did do that didnt he? But you're okay? It didn't hurt your or anything, right?"
Pit trilled, his version of a laugh, same as it always was. "I'm fine. You worry too much."
"This is weird," Felix said, before lifting his hands to cut off Pit's frown. "Awesome for sure, don't get me wrong. I know we could talk before, but doing it out loud feels a little nuts."
"It was...odd for me, too. Everyone reacted about the same as you when they found out." Pit trilled again, pleased. "The Fiend's Claw even started bowing to me. That was pretty nice."
Felix frowned. The Fiend's Claw was his personal militia of sorts, and they had a distinct problem with hero worship. Still, it was hard to blame them; Pit was hard not to like. "What else changed in your evolution?
"Take a look," Pit said and flexed a wing. A series of blue boxes rapidly appeared in front of Felix's face, each one more wild than the last.
"Whoa."