Chapter 91: Echoes of the Deep - Markets and Multiverses

When I woke up, I could barely see straight. My body felt like… well, like an Orukthyri had fallen on me and crushed several of my bones. Even the parts of my body that weren’t broken felt like one giant bruise. The only thing I could see clearly were the System notifications I hadn’t addressed yet - apparently, I had gotten more while I was asleep.

Before I could check on them, I felt someone jerk my broken arm around, and my eyes started watering in pain.

I gasped, sucking in breath to scream, before I realized my arm hurt less than before. Someone gently stroked my head, and I finally realized I was safe.

“Sorry, I know it hurts. But don’t move: I need to finish setting your bones,” said Sallia, and the last vestiges of panic disappeared from my thoughts. I blinked a few times, and the cavern snapped back into focus.

I was laying on a cot of some kind. I had been moved to the side of the cavern, but in the distance, I could still see the Orutkhyri corpses on the floor of the cavern. Since nobody had even cleaned them up, I hadn’t been asleep for long. I slowly turned my head towards Sallia, wary of any lances of agony as I moved my broken body around, but thankfully, I didn’t hurt myself while moving.

I gave Sallia a cautious look, and frowned. Sallia’s arm was still broken. And instead of getting medical treatment for it, for some reason she had dragged me a little to the side of the cavern and opted to set my bones.

“You should get medical treatment for yourself, instead of helping me,” I said. “You rely on your arms a lot, and if something happens to your arm that permanently affects your abilities, it will be catastrophic.” My Extinguish spell didn’t really need my physical body to be in its prime to work, while Sallia’s swordsmanship would basically stop functioning if her body was permanently injured. Therefore, in the case of injuries that weren’t life-threatening, Sallia should prioritize her own treatment before mine. And while I was in a whole lot of pain, I wasn’t going to die anytime soon. Though I probably wasn’t going to walk anywhere in the near future.

“Your injuries are much worse, Miria. You have three broken limbs! Your arm looked like something that was shoved into a meat grinder! Your legs are much cleaner breaks, but they still look really painful! You did way more than you needed to!”

“The second Orukthyri looked like it was focusing on you. The blinded Orukthyri was just squirming around, but I didn’t want the second one to get in your way,” I said.

Sallia shuddered, taking in a deep breath, before she sighed. “I guess they were more intelligent than I thought. Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to keep them distracted. I just didn’t know what else to do, and if the stalemate continued, we seemed like we were going to lose. If I had been faster…”

“I am the one who decided I needed to kill the warrior,” I said. “So don’t get angry at yourself. While the soldiers and Lauren were slowly getting an advantage over their sides of the fight, if we lost our battle the whole battlefield might have come crashing down. You found a way to break the stalemate, and the four of us are alive. You killed an Orutkhyri caster and saved the fort. You did amazing.”

I paused, wincing a bit. I felt my voice start to grow a little less focused, as I remembered something unpleasant. I glanced around, to make sure nobody but Sallia heard this, because I didn’t want anyone else to hear what I was going to say next. After confirming we were alone, I swallowed a lump in my throat and continued speaking.

“Besides, I was panicking for a few moments during the fight. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure how we could win, or even how we could survive. You still found a way to keep the four of us alive, and kept this cavern from collapsing. You’re way behind me on purchases from the Market this life, and you were still the one that saved the two of us. I may have three broken limbs right now, but I’ll heal up sooner or later. You did great.” I felt a fond smile tug at my lips as I looked at my friend, although I also felt a little embarrassed. On the islands, I had known how to win every fight I had gotten into. Sure, the fight with the creatures of the ocean and the glowing fish had been brutal, and the creatures I had fought both times were much stronger than me. However, this time, not only had I felt completely overwhelmed by the creature I was fighting against, but I hadn’t had any idea how to turn the tables. Which was embarrassing: in the future, I needed to find ways to improve my reaction speed and my wits in dangerous situations.

“You were the MVP of this fight. Don’t forget that.”

I felt Sallia relax a little bit, and then she slowly nodded. “Let me… let me finish resetting your arm and your legs,” she said, but her voice sounded a little scratchy.

After that, a few more minutes of agonizing pain followed as Sallia quickly set all of my bones. Everything still felt like I had been run over by a truck, but the pain was at least less blinding now. While Sallia liked to complain about her parents originally forcing her to learn about medicine, right now I was thankful that Sallia knew what she was doing.

“I’m out of absorption essence, so I can’t heal much today,” said Sallia, after she finished setting my bones. “Tomorrow, though, I’ll help mend your flesh. I can’t heal bones, but I imagine your Fortitude help a lot with healing. And you also have your healing ability you created from your attunement, so hopefully you’re back on your feet soon.”

I nodded. I hadn’t actually practiced the healing side of my attunement anywhere near as much as I had explored the killing side of my attunement, but I could definitely speed up the healing of my bones a little bit. Unfortunately, magical healing in this world wasn’t very developed as a whole, so I would still probably need a week or so before I finished healing up. I sighed, but decided to take this as good practice for my healing abilities.

After that, Sallia finally started working on jerking her own bones back into place, and I finally observed the rest of my waiting System notifications.

It seemed that after the fight had ended, I had finally gotten the rest of my rewards.

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Slaughter: Assist in killing an Orukthyri variant warrior for the first time

Achievement +90

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This was probably an assist for the Orukthyri I had blinded.

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Influence: Contributed to the battle of the border cavern by a [Major] amount.

Achievement + 1,500

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I widened my eyes in surprise when I saw that I got 1,500 Achievement for this battle.

Thus far, I hadn’t really seen many differences in the amount of Achievement I got between the Tier 2 world of the Islands and our current Tier 4 world. After all, a higher tier tended to mostly have better rewards for influence Achievement, and the other categories of income didn’t really change much from one world to the next.

However, this battle put into perspective just how much richer a Tier 4 world’s rewards could be, as long as we were strong enough to actually impact events.

On the islands, I had gotten 3,600 Achievement for single-handedly engineering the destruction of a quarter of an invasion fleet. And that invasion fleet had been large enough and powerful enough to potential destroy the entire civilization of the islands. A civilization of only 10,000 people or so, which was rather small compared to a proper nation, but it was still nothing to sneeze at.

It could even be said that the battle against the invading fleet was a major historical moment And as one of the larger influences on that battle, I only got 3,600 Achievement.

Here, I got 1,500 Influence Achievement for stopping an Orukthyri raid on the city. The city would never have fallen to four Orukthyri warriors and one spellcaster. The border cavern was the first line of defense against monstrous incursions from the outside, but some of the other caverns had fallback defense forces, and the city had an entire army waiting to reinforce any border caverns once they fell. At absolute worst, this Orukthyri band we had fought would have slaughtered a few dozen civilians in outlying caverns before the army arrived and crushed them.

And yet, despite how insignificant the battle against the Orukthyri was compared to the historical battle of the islands, I had still gotten such a huge reward for the fight.

I whistled to myself. Even though Tier 4 worlds were incredibly dangerous, the rewards were also exceptional. The creatures that lived in this world were also stronger, so I got more Slaughter Achievement per fight, and the Influence Achievement I got for the battle was much richer as well.

The trick was actually being strong enough to survive interacting with the planet. The Orukthyri were nothing special in this world: one of the biggest obstacles to reclaiming the surface wasn’t just the incredible might of each Orukthyri, but the fact that they bred incredibly quickly. It took an Orukthyri baby around five years to grow into an adult, and Orukthyri never lived longer than 14 or 15 years. Since the Orukthyri we had just fought were only a little stronger than average, it gave me a new perspective on just how incredibly dangerous the surface actually was.

After settling my thoughts, I looked over my final System notification. One that made me feel delighted.

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After your action of stripping away the magical resistance of an Orukthyri, Creating and using a new ability that is significantly different from the magic system of your current world, and your contributions to the battle, you have formed the Keyword Ability ‘Echoes of the Deep.’

It may be purchased after your death for 4,000 Achievement.

This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.

This Ability has the following effects:

Keywords: Alteration, Ocean, Death, Duality (4 Keywords.)

So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence. Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting in will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.

You retain access to this world’s shaping magic system in its entirety.

You gain access to an innate connection to the duality of life and death, and may at any time choose which to embody. Swapping between being an embodiment of life and death will take several minutes of concentration.

If you are embodying ‘life,’ healing spells you use will be cheaper and stronger. Your body will naturally regenerate more quickly and perfectly, drastically reducing the risk of permanent injuries. Sunlight will generate extra alteration essence for you. Your Fortitude will be improved by 1 grade while embodying life. You will be able to breathe underwater.

If you are embodying ‘Death,’ the ‘extinguish’ ability you have created will become drastically enhanced if you have access to it. You may attack the lifeforce of any creature you are physically touching without needing a spell or ability to use as a medium: your touch itself will attack life using any essence you have available, if you will it. Making direct eye contact with a creature will allow you to inflict fear upon the other creature.

Glut Penalty: 25

Note: In order to use a magic system from another dimension, one must have three things:

First, they must have access to the essence in question. It’s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.

Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.

Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dimensional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn’t work in a dimension where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dimension doesn’t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dimension.

Some abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!

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My new Keyword Ability was… complicated. It would require me to always be embodying either life or death at all points in time, which meant that I would need to always think about what ‘mode’ was the best in a given situation. Since it would take several minutes to swap, I wouldn’t be able to change in the middle of combat.

However, I was already pretty sure I would be buying this skill. It let me use shaping in future worlds, which was incredibly important for me, and it also allowed me to do a lot of things that I found incredibly useful or interesting. Being able to embody life or death in a limited way seemed useful, but I was also willing to bet it had huge growth potential once I evolved the ability a few times. And the keywords appealed to me as well: Alteration and Ocean would probably almost always be turned on, and while I hadn’t experimented with Duality or Death keywords, I was willing to bet that duality would activate as long a I had swapped from life to death recently. Meaning it would be pretty easy to keep a lot of keywords active.

Even though the ability was a little odd, I thought it was an excellent ability to help me grow stronger in the future.

I grinned to myself.

I had expected forming a Keyword Ability to take much longer. However, I was happy to see that I had already gotten what I wanted.

I took one final look at my Status Screen, to see how much I had improved as a result of the fight, and to check what I had gained over years of training.

Current Vessel: Child’s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ‘alive.’ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.

Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.

(Bloodline notes hidden - focus on your Status Screen to see your bloodline breakdown).

Through years of usage of two separate items from the Market, your physical and mental stats have been improved by notable amounts. These improvements are noted in your Stats breakdown.

Immature Organic Brain: An underdeveloped humanoid brain that has yet to finish maturing. Several parts of your brain are also wired to make Manifestation and Alteration type spellcasting possible. Due to the influence of your ancestors, some types of magic may be easier than others.

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Physical (+73)

Strength:  (20+96)

Grade 9

Agility:  (20+104)

Grade 9

Fortitude:  (20+120)

Grade 10

Mental

Intelligence:  (20+113)

Grade 6

Willpower:  (20+131)

Grade 7

Perception:  (20+78)

Grade 4

Essence

Absorption:  (20+120)

Grade 7

Manifestation: (20+115)

Grade 6

Binding: (20+70)

Grade 4

Alteration: (20+123)

Grade 7

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Lives Remaining: 4

2/10 Keyword Slots used

Glut: 23/50

Abilities:

Keyword Abilities:

Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)

Held Abilities:

1.

2.

3.

Weapon Abilities:

Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)

Birth related Abilities:

Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)

Identity (1 Glut Penalty)

Achievement: 6,108.89

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Body-related Abilities

Magic Systems:

Runes: 4 (3 Physical, 1 whirlpool ability)

Attunement: Advanced Grade (Ocean of Souls)

Spellcasting: Second Circle (4 second-circle spells known)

Symbols Known: Water, Fire, Force

Skills and Temporary Abilities:

Skills:

Swordsmanship (Intermediate Grade)

Held Abilities (Endless Hunger of the Ocean):

1. +8 to all Phys. Stats and boosted magic resistance (Exceptional Magic Resistance)

2. +10 Manifestation Stat, Crude Fireball spell, wind symbol (Crude Manifestation Essence)

3. Acid and Poison symbols known, Acid and poison resistance (Acid and Poison control)

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Thanks to Sallia’s noodle bowl, my Perception was almost fixed. I had also gained a good amount of progress in my other Stats thanks to Sallia’s items, although Felix was the one who used Sallia’s training suit the most, since his physical stats were quite lacking. Once I finished fixing my terrible Perception, we would shift noodle bowl priority entirely to Felix to try to boost his physical stats to match Sallia and I. However, even though I felt awful since I had so many broken bones right now, I was still happy to see my progress.

Despite how painful and scary the fight with the Orukthyri had been, I couldn’t say that the fight hadn’t also been insanely rewarding.

Author’s Note: You know, I actually really like having a little more variance in my schedule for Markets and Multiverses. For my other story, I update every Friday. For this one, I can update on Tuesday if I feel like it, or update on Wednesday, or whatever. I can even update three times on Monday if I feel like it, or any setup I feel makes sense as long as I do three chapters in a week.

Random thoughts. Anyway. I tried creating a ‘magic systems’ tab for Miria’s stat sheet. I think it looks a little cleaner this way, but I’m still testing out how I want her Stat screen to look. I’m wondering if I want to have some sort of special designation for stats granted directly by Abilities, or maybe I should just show the total, and then not show the breakdown for how that number is actually created? Still thinking about that.