Mage Tank-Chapter 278: Tray Tables Up, Buffs in the Full Upright Position

“May Sumrann sow the seeds of our victory and smile upon its harvest,” Tavio muttered as a wave of energizing light pulsed out of him.

Divine Inspiration: You gain 1 stack of Blessed! Sumrann, God of Harvest and Bounty, offers you the Sacrament of Redemption.

Sacrament of Redemption

You gain bonus Spiritual and Divine DR equal to your total stacks of Blessed.

Whenever you have at least 5 Blessed and would become Mesmerized, Dominated, Feared, Berserk, Paranoid, or Psychotic, you lose half of your Blessed and negate the status.

You currently have 2 of 2 Sacraments prepared: Sacrament of Mortality, Sacrament of the Dread Star. Would you like to replace one of these Sacraments with the Sacrament of Redemption?

I took a moment to parse the notifications. I’d seen the Sacrament of Redemption before, back when Avarice had sold me some of Yara’s holy water. Of course, the goddess herself had then upgraded it to a more potent temporary effect, and let me know I could get the more permanent, albeit weaker, Sacrament if I came and gave her a visit. Sumrann was also willing to hand this one out, it seemed, and as a member of Yara’s pantheon, I doubted he would make the offer if the Godqueen wanted to insist that I come to her temple first. Besides, we’d probably flown over a small part of Connas earlier, which meant that we’d already done the Fortune’s Folly version of ‘visiting’ by avoiding civilization completely on our way into danger.

I recognized the second Sacrament listed, the Sacrament of the Dread Star, of course. It allowed me to burn Blessed instead of mana for teleports. That was handy when using several mana shapes on Shortcut, which could make the cost balloon pretty fast. However, the first Sacrament on the list, the Sacrament of Mortality, wasn’t one I immediately recognized. The moment I realized that, comprehension bubbled up almost unbidden, and I understood that it governed the default behavior of Blessed. That is, I could spend Blessed to briefly raise my attack or defense. My understanding of the phenomenon didn’t change; the name of the Sacrament was simply attached to something I was already intimately familiar with.

After some poking around I found a spot on my status that listed the Sacraments, but I could tell that their nature wasn’t governed by the System. The entries catalogued their behaviors, but there wasn’t anything deeper for me to dive into, and I naturally understood them without the System spoon-feeding it to me. I didn’t need to review the descriptions, since the function of the Sacraments came naturally once I’d received one.

It wasn’t something I was willing to dive deeper into at that moment, so I moved on and considered the effects of the newly offered Sacrament.

The Sacrament of Redemption was pretty good, granting a flat bonus to Spiritual and Divine DR based on my Blessed stacks. While less flexible, a persistent defensive bonus was potentially better than the temporary burst bonus that Mortality could give me. I couldn’t use it offensively, but I rarely used Blessed like that anyway. Plus, the status mitigation on Redemption was pretty solid. Losing half of my Blessed stacks all at once could be rough, but it was hands-down better than getting Dominated or becoming Psychotic.

I was keeping the Sacrament of the Dread Star, naturally. Mana was my most precious resource at the moment, so anything that helped reduce the demands on my reserves was sticking around. I went ahead and replaced the Sacrament of Mortality with the Sacrament of Redemption.

It would have been nice to have all three, and the moment I wondered how I could expand my capacity, I realized it was determined by Luck. I discarded that factoid and decided that I shouldn’t be greedy in this regard. Two Sacraments were plenty, and it was a shame there was no reasonable way for me to increase that number. freeweɓnovel.cøm

“Oh!” said Etja, pulling me back from my thoughts on Sacraments. “I can help out with blessings.”

She pulled out a large stringed instrument that sat on the ground like a small table, reminding me of a Japanese koto, and began plucking out a tune. She hummed as she played, and my Blessed stacks ticked up again as she performed the soothing serenade. As ridiculous as the situation was, and despite our ongoing uncertainty as to what divinity was granting Blessed whenever Etja was the source, I ignored such trifles in favor of more practical matters.

I turned to raise an eyebrow at Xim.

“Normally, the best way to get blessings from me is to beat stuff up,” she said. I raised my eyebrow harder, and she grinned. “Okay, I’ll spend the mana.” She rotated her scepter through the air, and her body began to glow with a soft crimson light.

Sam’lia’s Warmth: You heal for 105 HP and gain 1 stack of Blessed every 6 seconds! Healing doubled by Body of Asclepius! You heal for 210 HP!

Spirit Guide: Xim Xor’Drel has used an active skill to bestow a beneficial effect upon you. You gain 1 stack of Blessed!

Xim and Pio shared a Leadership evolution, it seemed. The cleric’s skill hit everyone in the entire cabin, and Pio did a quick cast of another AoE heal that triggered four more stacks of Blessed. The healing didn’t do anything since we were at full health, but the skills still triggered secondary effects, and as a result I was getting my ass Blessed off.

After a couple of minutes bathing in a variety of divine glows and relaxing amidst the sonorous mutterings of soft prayers and life-changing plucking and strumming, I was capped. I now had an extra twenty-six DR against all Spiritual and Divine damage, a way to negate a variety of debilitating debuffs, a resource for teleporting without spending mana, and an infectious melody that I’d catch myself humming for the next several weeks.

While the Blessed stacks flowed, Baltae and Guar moved to the front and displaced Lieutenant Augustin, who didn’t have much he could do up there since our hammerhead had abandoned us. Tavio asked that I direct the pilot through the Closet portal, where he could focus on contacting the capital with his slate. It would keep the Level 3 Copper safe if things got dicey again.

Baltae guided Guar’s mana shaping as the beefy Littan placed his hands on the front windshield and began summoning a translucent barrier attached to the nose of our craft. The construct had a rounded body, slightly elongated and tapered like the lower half of a raindrop. There was a brief moment of turbulence as the barrier locked into place and started catching the wind, but the flight smoothed back out after a second. Once that was done, Baltae spread his hands and cast Telekinesis on the entire vessel. The mage’s spell suffused the craft, and a gentle pressure gripped every inch of its materials.

The moment the spell took hold, Varrin began accelerating at a casual pace compared to what he was capable of, which still left most of us hanging diagonally off of straps and handholds. Etja and her koto simply began to float, the serene mood of her performance striking a contrast against the groan and rattle of our metal tube. Her volume rose with the roar of the wind, which grew for a full sixty seconds before the acceleration leveled off.

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Over the next few minutes, some other buffs made the rounds. I ensured Life Warden was up on Etja while Xim used a new skill she’d picked up called Lifeguard. Despite the similar name, the skill was different enough from Life Warden that it didn’t infringe on my intellectual property rights.

Lifeguard

Divine

Cost: 20 mana

Requirements: Divine 40

Grant an entity you can touch the buff Lifeguard. Whenever an entity with Lifeguard is reduced to half health or lower, they heal for an amount equal to 10 times your CHA and lose the Lifeguard buff. If an entity with Lifeguard would be reduced to 0 HP, they are instead reduced to 1 HP before Lifeguard activates.

Xim had a Charisma score of 70, meaning the skill’s default healing value was 700. That was doubled to a mighty 1400 for myself, which was almost enough to take me from half health back to full when it triggered. The buff didn’t have a duration, so Xim had already given Lifeguard to everyone in our party ahead of time, but she graciously dolled it out to the Littans as well. Aside from the healing, it was also one-shot protection, which everyone appreciated.

I started to realize that when this many Delvers were pre-gaming together, things could start getting a little silly. This feeling struck me hard when Guar began handing out the most glorious pastries I’d ever encountered. It was some kind of fruit tart, still warm to the touch, beautifully presented, and it smelled absolutely fucking delicious.

“Pre-combat carb loading?” I asked him.

“That, and more!” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. His gauntlet landed hard enough against my pauldron that half the cabin’s occupants flinched from the noise. “My whole party contributed to making these. Just make sure to eat the entire thing.”

I’d been raised to believe in good manners, so I dutifully ate the scrumptious treat.

You gain the buff Monumental Macros! For the next 9 days, all food you consume is 4 times as filling and will leave you well-fed for 9 times longer.

You gain the buff Breakfast of Champions! For the next 9 days, your stamina and mana pools are increased by 25.

You gain the buff Tryptophan! For the next 9 days, whenever an activity or cooldown calls for an 8-hour rest, you may complete that activity or cooldown in 2 fewer hours.

You gain the buff Daily Apple! You can consume Daily Apple to negate one instance of Slowed, Immobilized, Paralyzed, Stunned, Stupefied, Blinded, Deafened, or Weakened. You can only have one instance of Daily Apple. Once Daily Apple is used, you must rest for 8 hours before gaining it again.

That was a lot of effects loaded into one delectable goodie.

Xim’s eyes widened as she popped the final bite of her own pastry into her mouth. “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” she said, licking some fruity filling from her fingers.

Etja kept playing her Koto with three hands as she ate her pastry with the fourth. She looked over at Nuralie between bites and asked, “Can you make your potions taste this good?”

“I managed to turn them into a gummy form, but I am still working on the flavor,” said Nuralie. “Waiting for gravity to pull the liquid into my mouth was too slow.” Pause. “If someone with the Cooking skill prepared ingredients, would they maintain their effects when utilized in my Alchemy?”

“Only if your potion counts as a meal,” said Baltae. “Or maybe if the chef’s meal also counted as a potion?”

“You can add butter to anything,” I said. “Easy calories.”

“One cannot add butter to a potion and say that it is food,” said Baltae.

“Agree to disagree.”

“I will undertake further research,” said Nuralie.

It was about this time that Madel reappeared in the cabin, covered in dried blood. The sticky viscera had the downy remains of feathers caked in and stained her cape in splotchy patches.

“You look like shit, sister,” said an eerily familiar masculine voice from behind us. I turned to see myself scarfing down one of Guar’s fruit tarts.

“Lieutenant,” said Captain Pio to Madel, ignoring the second me. “Are we flying into trouble, or did you take care of it?”

“The former, Captain,” said Madel.

After a moment of consideration, I raised a hand, and watched myself raise the opposite hand in perfect unison. I frowned, and my clone also frowned at the exact same moment.

Madel studiously ignored us alongside Pio. “I encountered two additional species of avian mana monsters a mile outside of Krimsim’s walls,” she said. “Grades eleven to twenty. They are numerous enough that sightlines to the city are obscured.”

“That’s a lot of birds,” said Guar, his golden eyes flashing with excitement.

I reached out and plucked my feathered cowboy hat from my inventory. The double mirrored the motion, and somehow produced the exact same hat. The little boots dangling from its brim even clacked together with the same pleasing woody sound.

We put the hats on and we looked myself up and down.

“Hey, I look pretty good,” I said.

“I mean, I’d fuck me,” I replied.

Captain Pio turned to Tavio. “Should we have Lord Ravvenblaq slow our approach once he has a visual on the new enemies?”

Tavio ran a hand along the fur of his scalp. “How fast were they?” he asked Madel.

“Fast, but slower than me,” she said, then looked up at the ceiling in Varrin’s direction. “Slower than we are moving right now, as well.”

“And there were still too many for you to maneuver through them to scout the city?” asked Tavio. “You could not teleport past them?”

“My teleport range is short, and like Guar said, it is a lot of birds. I could have gotten past them with a little time, but felt it more important to bring you my report before you encountered them yourselves.”

Tavio hummed in thought. “If we slow, they will have an easier time swarming us.”

Captain Pio’s whiskers pulled back slightly. “Colliding with high-grade monsters at our current speed would be unwise.”

“Arlo’s spell is still active and has a knockback effect,” said Tavio. “This vessel has mana weaves for Physical DR. Consecrate is enhancing that, along with Baltae’s Telekinesis, and Guar’s Shield Walls.”

Captain Pio turned to her stout subordinate. “How much damage can your Shield Walls take?”

“Two thousand,” Guar replied. “Each. I got all three of them up there.”

“What about Lord Ravvenblaq?” asked Pio.

“He’s got the best Physical defense in our party,” I said. “He’ll be fine. If anything, stopping and giving the birds a chance to hit him with a different damage type would be more dangerous.”

“That is true for our vessel as well,” said Tavio. “We need to breach that blockade and get a look at the city to see if it is still standing. If Sergeant Baltae is correct about there being some kind of Alpha, we need to identify it as well.” Tavio looked past me. “Specialist Cezil.”

My copy whipped his head towards the major, the wooden boots clattering about. “Yes, Major?” the other me asked.

“Stop fucking around and take the pilot’s seat. You have the best eyes.”

“Aye, Major,” other me said, giving a boot-rattling salute. Then the duplicate marched towards the front of the plane, my body smoothly transitioning into the red-eyed Littan mimic.

“Moving through the flock that quickly, there is a chance that we will hit friendly air support,” said Captain Pio.

“I can assist,” I said. “I assume the air support is other Delvers?”

“Correct,” said Pio. “They will be mounted on hammerheads.”

“I can filter my Soul-Sight to spot them through the enemy. I’ll relay that to Varrin, and he can dodge them if needed.” Pio nodded reluctantly, and I moved up to join Cezil at the front, who was lounging in the pilot’s seat. She gave me a smile and a wink when I knelt beside her.

“So, like, are all of your clothes fake too?” I asked her.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she said.

I tilted my head to the side as I got a psychic update from Varrin, and our path angled down slightly. Then I focused out through the windshield ahead of me. Pio was still trying to convince Tavio that this move was unwise.

“No more time for debate!” I shouted back into the cabin. “Brace for impact!”