1????????Soul Bound

  1.3??????Making a Splash

  1.3.2????An Allotropic Realignment

  1.3.2.36 Omnis exitus

  So the Phantoms didn’t win? It wasn’t a story book ending, but you didn’t always get that, even in games. And sometimes avoiding losing was good enough. You got to play again and here, where she had connections to both sides and wanted them to cooperate, perhaps a tie was a better precedent to set. Both sides had been able to demonstrate their skill and determination, while neither had been left with bitterness to fester. You could look at it either way and in this moment it would just take one person to set the ball rolling.

  She forestalled queries about quests from the other Wombles by letting out a massive unrestrained cheer, with all the vocal power she could muster. The next few minutes were a blur as she acted entirely on instinct, powering her words with all the verbal influencing skill she had, projecting joy and enthusiasm until everyone was infected, even if they didn’t know quite what they were celebrating. Not even notifications from System about gains in reputation and skill levels could distract her.

  She hugged both teams, she praised the referee, she thanked everyone including the crowd and emphasised particularly the attitudes and behaviour she wanted to set as the standard pattern for matches. In short, she bamboozled and steamrollered them all, and made them enjoy her doing so.

  It was massive fun, and the drinks she shared just put a cap on it. Alderney spent most of it in rapt conversation with Bungo, gesturing with hands even when outwardly silent because they had dived into a direct private chat. Bulgaria nearly had to drag her away in order to get her to create some medals, which she did on the spot, producing an anvil from her stash and hammering silver coins so fast she seemed to have at least four hands. By the time Tomsk had lined the players up for Kafana to present the medals to, Alderney had already returned to Bungo, thrusting the pile of disks and ribbons into Bulgaria’s arms with a brief “Here!”

  Eventually the pair of them deigned to share with the rest of them.

  Alderney: {Shade cats.}

  Tomsk: {What?}

  Alderney: {Shade cats. I need you to hunt me some. Ideally pelts from a boss, but an elite might do.}

  Tomsk: {Ok. Any particular reason?}

  Alderney: {Armour. I know what I’m doing for the armour. It’s going to be big. Really big. I think I’m going to have to recruit half the armourers CraftySquID have in Torello to help out. Give me a few moments, and I’ll also let you know the minimum stat points you need. This is going to be great!}

  Tomsk: {That’s good news. You made a breakthrough?}

  Alderney laughed.

  Alderney: {Not me. Bungo! He’s flipped out to run some calculations, but he’ll be back in a moment. I’ll let him tell you. He deserves it. Now excuse me, I’m flipping out too.}

  Bulgaria intoned solemnly: {Shade cats.}

  He made it sound like the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything.

  Kafana: {Shade cats?}

  Even Wellington joined in.

  Wellington: {Apparently so. Shade cats. Perhaps we should write it down in stone?}

  When Bungo did return, he was startled to find his vessel had walked over to the post where Wellington had hung the scores. Next to it was now a tall stone monument to Covob’s first proper football match, with the scores engraved upon it. It had been a joint effort, with Kafana and Wellington using the Reality Magic, while Bulgaria and Tomsk had persuaded the audience to tug on ropes and cheer the success. Deeply engraved upon the back of the monument was a single phrase: “Shade Cats”. Four pairs of eyes watched him expectantly, daring him not to explain.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  He looked at them, looked at the pillar, looked at them again.

  Bungo: “Shade cats?”

  All four of them nodded, not breaking eye contact.

  Bungo: “Ah, yes, for the armour. Alderney didn’t explain?”

  Bulgaria: “She said you’d made a breakthrough and would explain everything. The only thing she said was ‘shade cats’. But no need to rush. Take your time. I’m sure we can find something to do while waiting.”

  Bungo looked down at the perfectly sharp knife that Bulgaria just happened to be continuing to sharpen against a whetstone, with long smooth strokes. Wellington was using his athame on an apple left over from the lunch, apparently concentrating on creating a single long continuous strip of peel. Tomsk had a knife too, and was making it dance across his knuckles like a coin. Not to be left out, Kafana produced her chef’s knife and a slab of bleedingly raw meat. Her cook’s Preparation skill included using a knife, didn’t it? She visualised how the steak could be presented on a plate, and let her hands follow the training Columbina had given Vessel Kafana.

  Bungo looked at the resulting Bungo-shaped figure that Kafana was beating and piercing, licking her lips despite having blood drenched hands.

  [Group skill “Making a point” acquired - working together, your group can gain a bonus to contested social skill checks such as intimidation. Usage 1/day.]

  He replied rapidly.

  Bungo: “Yes, yes, all Kafana’s idea really, everything’s an allotrope, all I did was tell Proof Distillery to test her hypothesis against Alderney’s new failure-mode data. We’ve been back extrapolating the binding energy field strength constants to narrow down the parameters then verify the predictions with confirmatory b.f.a. and min-Kolmogorov rule statement iteration. Then…”

  Bulgaria: “In English please, Bungo.”

  Bungo took a deep breath.

  Bungo: “In Soul Bound, mithril and hepatizon aren’t new elements with unpredictable properties. They’re hyper-dense allotropes of silver and lead, stabilised by the large amounts of mana that soaked in as they were created. Each magic metal is based off a different normal element and contains a different mix of mana types. The details will take months or years to work out, even if every player becomes a smith dedicated to experimenting, but we’ve got a starting point - enough to make some estimates that are more than just guesses.”

  Kafana: “Don’t give me the credit, it’s your triumph. But, yay, well done! So, err, what does that mean for us in practice? We get cool armour to wear?”

  Bungo relaxed.

  Bungo: “Very cool armour. Alderney’s been getting the crafters on the Burrow to compete in coming up with dragon-themed armour designs ever since you picked a gold dragon on red for House Sincero. We’ve the hide from that troll-boss for regen and, if you can get it, shade cat pelts will help with staying quiet and hidden. The bottleneck has been the larger metal components which each need to be hand made by Alderney herself - she didn’t know how to work the ones that had the properties she wanted.”

  Wellington sounded cautious.

  Wellington: “They’re expensive, even when alloyed. Is she certain it won’t go wrong? Or would it be better to make something less ambitious now, something functional rather than cool looking, and then upgrade it later after CraftySquID publish their blooper montage?”

  The week before they’d started playing, when Tomsk was explaining virtual reality game magic systems to her, he had shown her a recording of dozens of alchemists dying in various ‘humorous’ (and explosive) ways. She’d remembered it chiefly because the soundtrack was Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, and they’d synchronised the shots so well that even flying guts had acquired a certain gruesome beauty. That had been CraftySquID, one of the guilds now formally supporting her?

  Bungo: “Not absolutely certain, but enough to bet on. As long as the minimum STR, DEX and INT stat point requirements she gives us are in the right ballpark, we can make up the difference by wearing magic rings until our next character level advance gives us additional points to spend. The big thing to avoid is being reset back to your current level by dying while questing far away from any cities and towns, then finding yourself without any armour you can use effectively, because reversing a character level advance also reverses the stat point gains.”

  Tomsk: “Not a good situation. Even if Kafana or Bulgaria learn how to resurrect us, being restored to full hit points wouldn’t help against a monster who already killed you once. You’d have to abandon the quest and respawn back at a sanctum.”

  She looked at Tomsk’s figure, and then at herself.

  Kafana: “We’re all getting the same dragon armour? Will it fit?”

  Bungo gave her a look full of guileless innocence.

  Bungo: “I wouldn’t want to steal Alderney’s thunder.”

  https://doi.org/10.7275/vk6g-0075

  Introduction to the subject :

  A beautiful example of an concept.

  -- Stendhal (aka Marie-Henri Beyle)