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Chapter 155: Pools of Reincarnation - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2023-09-29 04:35:50 +0000 UTCWe spent the next five days searching for pools of reincarnation. In total, we found four different pools of reincarnation. Three of them were just copies of the same pool we had been using up to this point: the very low entry fee, low quality reincarnation pools that gave us no particular control over our next life at all. They were the cheapest reincarnation pools, and also the least well defended. Despite that fact, up until this point, we had barely survived sprinting towards the reincarnation pool at full speed while being bombarded by spells, because during our last two reincarnations, we had no real way to deal with the skeletal mages that defended each pool.
However, Sallia and I were much stronger than we had been last time we came to the Market. Even though one of my rune abilities was tied to shutting down the attacks of the wooden butterflies, which was quite useless against skeletal mages and flesh giants, I had the ability to teleport, break down weaker skeletons using little jolts of alteration essence, and extinguish stronger enemies to either debuff them or totally kill them in seconds. Furthermore, now that my legs had been restored, I was at least competent enough in melee combat that I could contend with the regular skeletons, and probably overwhelm the skeletal spellcasters as long as I used my new weapon well and blocked spells at the right time.
Sallia was also far more terrifying than before: she could control bone and wood to create another copy of that devastating wave of shrapnel and wood, and it seemed likely that she could cut down even a flesh giant with it. Her manifestation spells were mostly focused around supporting herself, but with her massive advantage in runes and enough mental stats to keep up with her physical abilities, I was willing to bet that she could outmatch the flesh giants in terms of strength and speed. The two of us combined were probably able to take down the normal defenders of a pool of reincarnation pretty easily, especially with Felix and Anise supporting us.
However, the fourth pool of reincarnation that we had found gave us another option. Unlike the first three pools of reincarnation, the fourth pool of reincarnation gave us at least a little bit of control over the next world we landed in.
“Teleod’s Emporium: Reincarnation point 19,421 (Humanoid body-type X-14 Nursery edition)! Just pay 300 Achievement to proceed to your next life! Reincarnation point is built to ensure that any users will end up in a world with Binding Essence present. Extremely useful for those who either need to develop a binding essence keyword, or for those who want to experiment a bit with a different magic system.
“Those who sign up with Teleod’s Emporium as an item crafter or as part of customer service will not need to pay for entry: as an employee benefit, they may simply use the reincarnation pool as desired. Those who are interested in signing up with Teleod’s Emporium but don’t have a binding essence-related magic system, please talk with a recruiter so that we can make a contract that suits your needs.
“Start your career as a binding essence transmigrator today!”
Seeing the pool of reincarnation brought to mind the other pool of reincarnation that we had seen the previous time in the Market. That time, we had seen a pool of reincarnation that guaranteed that we would reincarnate in a world that was Tier 10 or below, and had a System of its own. It had been defended by some kind of ridiculously powerful nightmare creature, and had a cost of 2,000 Achievement to use when there were still people around to collect payment for it.
This reincarnation pool was a lot more interesting than the last one we had found. After all, Felix and Anise both needed keyword abilities to get their magic systems in order. Felix needed a binding magic system, and Anise needed a manifestation magic system. And the sooner we got everyone their magic systems, the better, since they still needed time to develop their keyword abilities before we fought for more lives. We only had 3 lives left, and while we weren’t quite running out of time yet, we needed to make every life and every second count.
However, using a more specific reincarnation pool also came with risks. Namely, the risk that we would get killed by the defenders of the reincarnation pool. The monsters that inhabited the Market tended to group up around areas that used to contain a lot of Achievement, and stronger monsters were also located in places where more Achievement and better items were held. There was a massive difference between a nearly free reincarnation pool and a pool that cost 400 Achievement per use.
After we found Teleod’s reincarnation pool, we returned to a nearby building, to make a choice on whether we wanted to try for Teleod’s reincarnation pool or simply bulldoze through the defenders of a regular reincarnation pool and use that.
“I vote that we go for it,” I said, kicking off the discussion. “I think that in the long run, it’s much riskier not to fight for the reincarnation point now. Felix needs to get access to a primary magic system that fits him, and this guarantees that he can get one next life. Given that his extreme affinity will make it easy for him to get a keyword ability, odds are pretty good that he walks away with a keyword ability if we use this pool. And it’s on the lower end for reincarnation pool fees: I still remember that last life, we ran into a reincarnation pool that was charging 2,000 Achievement per use. In comparison, this doesn’t seem too bad.”
“I don’t know,” said Sallia, wincing a bit. “I mean, that’s a good point, but at the same time, it’s a question of how well we can handle the dangers associated with using the pool. In the weaker reincarnation pools, the skeletal mages and flesh giants are the strongest defenders of the area. In this pool of reincarnation, they’re used as outer guards, and we have no idea what the strongest defenders of the pool will look like. If we manage to use the pool, it’ll obviously be a huge boost to Felix’s strength for the future. However, there’s also a good chance that this goes horribly wrong.” She gestured towards my restored legs, as well as my partially sliced up dress that hadn’t restored itself. “Miria almost got killed the last time we took a big risk in the Market. And Felix and Anise were both very nearly carved up and turned into smears of flesh during that fight, and were only saved because Miria managed to pull off her extinguish on time and finish off the plant monsters. Are we really ready for this? And will waiting one more life ruin things for us?”
Felix frowned, and gave the massive sign in the distance a longing look. “I don’t think I can provide good advice in this situation. I’m too attached to the outcome. I’ll abide by whatever the group decides makes the most sense,” he finally said, after several seconds.
Anise gave Felix an assessing look, before finally she looked in the distance again.
“I think we should go for it,” she finally said. “I know that it’s a little risky, but if we don’t take any risks, we probably won’t be strong enough to buy more lives in the future. If we had another five lives, I think waiting would be the correct choice. But we don’t have that luxury,” she said, sighing. “I may be new to all of this, but I can still see how bad our overall situation is. We need to take steps to prepare for the future and get as much preparation time as we possibly can. The sooner we get started, the easier it will be for us to earn more Achievement in the future and grow stronger. Also, if we end up in a world without either binding or manifestation essence next life, Felix and I will lag considerably behind you two. That might create a critical weakness, not just in the final fight to buy lives in the future, but also in future worlds, if Felix and I die early or something. Ideally, all four of us will survive as long as possible in each world - but even though I know you and Miria would never let us die intentionally, you two also can’t be by our side every moment of the day. And we also need ways to earn Achievement and get new Abilities on our own.”
Sallia spent nearly a minute mulling over Anise’s words, before she turned towards me. “Miria, what do you think about Anise’s argument? I know you were also in favor of attacking, but do you think Ansie’s reasoning is valid?”
I spent several seconds thinking about it. I wanted to give Sallia’s concerns as much weight as I possibly could. Eventually, I nodded.
“I think Anise’s argument is solid, and closely mirror my thoughts on why we should attack the more expensive pool of reincarnation,” I said. “We just can’t miss this opportunity. Otherwise, we’ll have to waste a fair amount of time next market visit finding a similar pool of reincarnation, and Felix will lose a life that he could be using to evolve his ability and grow.”
Sallia sighed, and then nodded. “All right then. Let’s go for the binding essence pool.”
Felix’s eyes lit up, and Anise grinned and cheered.
“But,” said Sallia, raising her voice to make sure we could hear her clearly. “I think we should scout it out for a few days first. Miria’s soul sight could give us a better idea of what we might be facing, and give us the chance to back out if we see something too scary. If we fight something as strong as a Dragon from the world of the black sun, we’ll get flattened almost immediately. We need to manage the threat of the creatures we face.”
I nodded as I tried not to grin.
With any luck, Felix would get his magic System as early as next life!
* * *
We spent the next three days scoping out the pool of reincarnation, trying to get a feel for how much resistance we would face. In our past two lives, we had gotten into pools of reincarnation by sprinting past the defenders and hoping for the best - and I still vividly remembered that the first time we had reincarnated, I had nearly been melted by an acid spell before Sallia got us into the pool. The sprint to a pool of reincarnation has worked for us twice, but both times, they were very dangerous sprints through spell bombardment and enemies that we couldn’t fight, hunting us down. Even if it had worked so far, one mishap could have permanently dropped a life from us and completely screwed over all of our long-term plans.
This time, the idea was to actually fight our way through, thus clearing out the defenders, harvesting a final batch of Achievement, and hopefully ensuring that in the future we didn’t need to sprint through storms of hostile spells. Fighting our way through squads of cannon fodder backed by spells might be less dangerous than hoping to not get hit, oddly enough.
Sallia and I ended up being the two biggest components of the scouting force. My soul-sight proved especially handy for getting a grasp on larger threats, numbers, and troop distribution, especially for troops that were hidden behind walls. Sallia, meanwhile, had very good eyesight, and could use that to get a better grasp on weapons and items that might not be covered by my soul sight.
I got the impression that there were probably around 17 flesh giants and spellcasters patrolling the building, along with about 100 skeletal warriors and archers. All of the spellcasters and flesh giants had souls, but they were much smaller than the soul of the tree root, meaning we could expect much easier fights against them. The skeletal warriors and archers weren’t really threats anymore - Felix and I could just drop them with quick bursts of alteration essence, so they would only slow us down a bit at worst.
Deeper inside of the compound, there was also a pair of larger souls. They were still nowhere near the size of the tree root, but they were probably still dangerous to us, especially if they fought with the other skeletal mages and flesh giants to back them up.
Interestingly enough, seeing the souls of the creatures inside was enough for me to activate my tarot deck. I ended up drawing Strength, the Chariot, and Justice. I had no idea what those three cards did, but I hoped the curses laid upon the soul of the creature I was targeting would be helpful. The creatures didn’t seem to notice or resist my attempts to curse them, so for now I assumed it would do something when we needed it.
The most troublesome obstacle was the fact that the skeletal mages were intelligent, meaning that we couldn’t simply pick off defenders from a distance. If we did that, the mages would certainly notice, group together, and not give us any opportunities to whittle them down more until our bodies deteriorated and we wasted a life. However, after we finished scouting, we still felt that the fight was winnable, if a bit tricky.
Therefore, we started preparing for a proper fight to reincarnate. A fight where, instead of running away, we properly secured the reincarnation point for ourselves.
Author’s Note:
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Comments
Stephen Pearson
How so? I don't think the group has area of effect attacks, do they?
Arkeus
Honestly the mages grouping up is not actually bad for the group, there are a lot of advantages there. Mages in specific wouldn't like groupings anyway because they know it makes them more vulnerable, not less.
Jackjargon
A worthy gamble
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter! Good to see them being proactive:-)
