“Say you killed something that wasn’t a monster but an animal,” Jason said. “A giant snake, for example. That wouldn’t dissolve into a stinky cloud?”
“Exactly. Monsters frequently aren’t a problem when they first manifest, but as they get closer to breaking down they become highly aggressive. The bulk of our job as adventurers is hunting them down before they reach that stage.”
“It isn’t just going places and killing everyone you find?” Jason asked.
“No,” Rufus said. “I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for that. I definitely wouldn’t care to work with those that did.”
“How long do monsters last before they go berserk?” Jason asked.
“Depends on the rank of the monster,” Farrah said. “Lesser monsters only last a week or two. They start so close to breaking down that they’re aggressive from the moment they appear, but they aren’t really a threat. An old woman with a broom can handle them. Iron rank monsters last about a month, getting aggressive in the final week or so. It goes up from there, but this is a low magic region so mostly you’ll see iron rank with a smattering of bronze.”
“Monsters have ranks, then?” Jason asked. “Do they use essences too?”
“No,” Rufus said. “It just means they exist within a certain power threshold. Whether an essence user or a monster, each rank has a suppressive effect on lower ranks. We’re all bronze rank. If you were to fight any of us, your iron-rank abilities would have much less effect.”
“You can overcome that briefly by boosting your attributes with spirit coins,” Farrah added. “That only works to a degree, though, and not for very long. You have to pick your moment, because it will leave you weaker once the strength fades.”
“I know all about that,” Jason said.
“There are other manifestations of magic,” Rufus said. “They’re not alive, which makes them more stable and they stick around until you use them.”
“Essences,” Jason said.
“That’s the most powerful manifestation,” Rufus said. “Also, the rarest. Then there’s quintessence, which is kind of like chunks of essence.”
“Could you get a pile of it and use that as an essence?” Jason asked.
“Afraid not,” Rufus said.
“People have been trying to make that work for years,” Farrah said. “There’s always some crackpot who claims to have figured it out, but it isn’t possible.”
“Quintessence is still useful, though,” Rufus said.
“It may not be as powerful as an essence,” Farrah said, “but it gets used a lot more. Ritual magic, alchemy, weapon forging.”
“I make weapons and armour,” Gary said. “I go through quintessence by the pile. Literally, piles of it.”
“We found a magic supply storeroom yesterday,” Farrah said. “They took all the good stuff when they left, but there was quite a lot of iron-rank quintessence left behind.”
“Nice,” Gary said.
“The last manifestation of magic is awakening stones,” Rufus said. “Mostly they’re used to awaken essence abilities, but they can be used in various kinds of magic as well.”
“Like the thing they were trying to sacrifice us to,” Jason said. He took out four red crystals from his inventory, laying them on the table in a row.
“We all had one of these in some kind of ritual bowl, wired into our cages in the chamber,” he said.
Rufus picked one up. “I wonder what kind of stone they are.”
“Awakening stones of the feast,” Jason said. “All four are the same.”
“They’re pretty common,” Farrah said.
“I had one manifest in my kitchen when I was a kid,” Gary said, “right into a pot of soup. My dad said that’s why the soup tasted funny, but I think he was just bad at making soup.”
“They can be useful with the right essences,” Rufus said. “They’re common, so there’s no telling what kind of ability it can give you. They’ll be related to the concept of a feast, but that can manifest in any of hundreds of powers.”
“Thousands,” Farrah said. “The more rare an awakening stone is, the more specific the powers.”
“So, rare stones are better?” Jason asked.
“Not necessarily,” Rufus said. “A common as muck awakening stone can give you any ability the rarest could. It just has a much higher pool of potential powers. Rare stones don’t give out better abilities, just more specific ones. So, if you want a specific kind of ability, that’s when you need to find yourself the right flavour of rare stone.”
“There aren’t any guarantees, though,” Farrah said. “Even the rarest stone might not give you what you want. You should always remember, though, that the biggest determinate of what ability you get is the essence it comes from.”
“I have this blood essence,” Jason said, pulling a red cube from his inventory. The slick surface looked like it was wet with blood, but it was dry and warm to the touch.
“Hardly surprising that you found a blood essence around here,” Rufus said.
“Blood is a fantastic essence,” Gary said enthusiastically. “You might get a health-drain power if you use all those feast stones. Then you can be your own healer.”
“Maybe,” Farrah said. “It could be almost anything with common stones, but blood, plus feast? The chances are decent.”
“Self-healing would be useful,” Rufus said, “given how hard it can be to get a healer on your team. We’ve struggled with that ourselves.”
“What about Anisa?” Jason asked.
“Anisa is a temporary addition,” Rufus said. “It’s usually just the three of us.”
“Self-healing is very common with the blood essence,” Farrah said. “Don’t expect much in the way of powerful attacks, though,” Farrah warned. “Blood essence abilities tend to be more insidious. Bleeding, poison, that kind of thing.”
“No lava cannon?” Jason asked.
“Sadly no,” Farrah said with a chuckle.
“But I want a lava cannon.”
20
By the Power of Grayskull
“You probably want your essence abilities to be more well-rounded than Farrah’s,” Gary said.
“Hey,” Farrah complained.
“In terms of raw power, Farrah is easily the strongest of us,” Rufus said. “But that focus comes at the cost of versatility.”
“She’s great at blowing things up,” Gary said.
“It’s true,” Farrah said. “I am good at blowing things up.”
“Which, admittedly, solves the bulk of our problems,” Rufus said. “But when overwhelming, barely-contained annihilation isn’t the answer, it leaves her somewhat at a loss.”
“Power is always the answer,” Farrah said.
“Mass destruction sounds pretty good to me,” Jason said, “but it doesn’t seem like the blood essence would give me that. Should I use it, or hold out for something better?”
“That’s up to you,” Rufus said. “It’s best to consider what other essences you’ll have.”
“Well, I’ve already used the dark essence,” Jason said.
“That could work,” Farrah said. “A sneaky assassin type. A bit of poison here, exsanguination there.”
“Just make sure you avoid the death essence,” Rufus said, the others nodding in agreement.
“Death essence?” Jason asked.
“The death essence has some powerful abilities,” Gary said, “but they come with big drawbacks. Very few essences have side-effects, but death can produce some nasty ones.”
“Remember how we explained about confluence essences?” Rufus asked.
“That’s your buy three, get one free deal on essences, right?” Jason said.
“That’s right,” Rufus said. “More or less. Some confluence essences are produced by a wide variety of combinations. The death essence has a nasty habit of producing the confluence essence undeath. There are many combinations that produce it, almost all of which involve the death essence.”
“Take the blood essence you have here, for example,” Farrah said. “Add in a death essence and pretty much anything else and the undeath essence will pop right out.”