The Fractured Tower

Book 2, Chapter 15

Cold Resistance was an immediate no-brainer. It was light weight, being only F-ranked, and was extremely compatible with Heat Resistance. The two together would be slightly weaker than either one individually, but pouring some anima into it to make the E-ranked Thermal Insulation more than made up for it. Lorvaine didn’t so much as blink at handing it over to him, either, despite being twice as expensive as its counterpart.

His next acquisition was Swiftness, another simple F-rank that he crunched together with Warrior’s Vigilance. It didn’t take anything from the more powerful E-rank soulprint, but it did add a much-needed element of base speed to balance out the increased strength and durability Warrior’s Vigilance already had. Sorin would need to push it up to rank D if he wanted to modify it again, though, otherwise he’d start losing pieces.

For Iron Body, he added in the E-ranked Bulwark, a reactionary soulprint that would fortify him if he was about to get hurt. It didn’t play well with Iron Body on its own since the abilities overlapped too heavily, making one of them wasteful, but once he merged them together and dissected the trigger scenarios out of the anima pattern, Iron Bulwark became an excellent defensive soulprint. It had all the base resistance of Iron Body while allowing him to selectively choose when and where to reinforce himself further.

Lorvaine watched him take the three soulprints into his soulspace in silence. Perhaps she thought he was simply musing over his next choices while he worked, but in truth, Sorin still had almost as much extra room as he’d started with. Radiant Purge still needed to be addressed, though he was leaning toward mixing it with Aura Shock and just picking up a new area damage ability to replace it.

Or perhaps… That’d be tricky to balance, but… Yes, I can do it.

Sorin absorbed Aura Shock, then set about merging not two, but three soulprints. Using elements from Radiant Purge and Ice Blade, he quickly built his first D-ranked soulprint. It loomed over the other ones, easily three times the size of his E-ranks. The painting showed him standing in a forest full of snow with hints of monsters frozen at the edges. There was no movement depicted in the painting, no anima being flung about in combat.

Still Winter.

It was an area dampening effect that disrupted anima and froze enemies with biting cold, and it was extremely powerful. If Sorin had still been fighting with his team on a regular basis, he would have hesitated to build something like this without adding in an element of selective targeting. Since that was no longer the case, however, it was going to be a powerful tool in his arsenal.

He came back out of his soulspace to find Lorvaine standing inches away, her eyes wide and angry. “You lied to me,” she said. “I wasn’t sure at first, but that last one gave you away. You really are merging soulprints together.”

“In what way did I lie?” he asked.

“Because the deal was for you to fill your soulspace, which you’ve more than done, but then you emptied it again.”

“The deal was for as many as I could take, as long as I absorb them before we leave,” Sorin reminded her. “And let’s not act like you’re not getting the better end of this. We both know if you could get to that elemental font on your own, you would have. And we both know what you pull from there is going to be more monetarily valuable than the handful of extra E-ranks you lose today.”

“Well… hrmph. Potentially, maybe. We won’t know until we get there. Either way, no more merging soulprints! We didn’t agree to that.”

“Nope,” Sorin said shamelessly. “You’re asking me to play bodyguard on what would be a suicide mission for the average team of rank 3s. I’m not getting screwed on my payment. Besides, the stronger I am, the better our chances of success, and since you’ll be there with me, it’s in your own direct interest to help me out here.”

He needed a new ranged offensive ability to replace Ice Blade, a targeted healing spell just in case someone besides himself needed to be brought back from the brink of death, and some of the basic passive enhancements to boost his sword work. Sharp Edge and Pierce were excellent for that, though he’d combine them into something better rather than leave them as they started.

Addressing the hole in Blind Sense was also a priority. Things that didn’t or couldn’t move didn’t really show up, though the parts of Echo Trace in the soulprint helped to mitigate that. It was still difficult to move around pitch-black caves blindly, and Sorin meant to fix that right now.

From there, he’d focus on adding environmental navigation soulprints to do things like see and breathe underwater, move freely, and resist intense, crushing pressure or survive in airless vacuums. Those weren’t necessary yet. Floor 4 was supposed to look a lot like the first two floors, except with tons of shallow water in the forms of rivers and swamps. Water Walk was the favored solution there, but of course it was rare and expensive due to high demand.

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Lorvaine also didn’t have one, or at least, there wasn’t one in her open stock. Sorin didn’t doubt for a second that she kept the priciest pieces hidden away and had no intention of sharing them with him, not for such an open-ended deal. He’d have to acquire one on his own or, more likely, free cast it as needed.

He took Dark Vision, though he didn’t combine it with Blind Sense. They were two different types of sensory inputs, and merging them would be messy with a massive loss of utility on both sides. He’d find other soulprints to build off of, and they’d be better for staying separate.

Ice Dart made him hesitate. It was the same soulprint he’d just used. Technically, nothing was stopping him from absorbing a new one, pouring anima into it, and returning it to its former state. It would be even better, since he could rank it up properly this time.

But with Still Winter in his arsenal, he already had cold damage. He didn’t really need the overlap, especially when he was still limited on space. It was only now that he was starting to have room to pick up all the utility he needed. Variety was what he needed. Another Ice Dart could serve him well, but Earth Spike or Firebolt would fill the same niche.

All three of those were options for basic ranged elemental attacks, but what he actually ended up going with was a kinetic type called Force Edge. It was far more flexible than Ice Blade had been, though in exchange, it cost a bit more anima and lacked Ice Blade’s ability to create solid mass. More importantly, it had far greater synergy with his sword and could be used to help chop through things like stone pillar spider legs.

That left him with just enough space for one single F-ranked soulprint. He’d reclaim some space after he merged a few of his later acquisitions so that he could free cast again, but the terms of the deal stipulated that he was done once he walked out from under the pavilion, so he figured he should take advantage of it.

“Are you finished yet?” Lorvaine asked waspishly.

“What? You don’t want to flirt anymore?”

She said nothing, instead giving him a glare so harsh it could have killed a Floor 1 monster on the spot.

“One more F-rank.”

“If I hadn’t watched you absorb each one of those soulprints with my own eyes, I’d think you’d cheated me somehow. But I’ve checked, over and over…” she trailed off, her muttering becoming subvocal as she watched Sorin.

“You knew I wasn’t a normal rank 3,” he told her mercilessly. “And trust me, you’re getting the better end of this deal.”

“We’ll see.”

Now, what to choose. What do I need? Maybe just something like Minor Restoration… which she doesn’t seem to have. Seriously? So much for ‘everything.’ What else then?

His eyes settled on a small glass jar full of some preservative fluid. Inside was a single black eye. “Huh… This looks familiar,” he said with a soft smile. “Warbler frog eye. Expertly harvested, but starting to decay because it wasn’t properly preserved.”

“The soulprint it contains is still functional. I confirmed that myself,” Lorvaine cut in.

“Oh, I know. I’m just laughing.”

“I don’t see what’s so funny.”

“Well, I harvested this eye back on Floor 1 and sold it at the portal hub, probably for less than a quarter what you’re asking for it, by the way. I wanted to absorb it back then, but I didn’t have the space.”

“It must be the will of the tower that it’s made its way back to you then,” Lorvaine said dryly. “Hurry up and absorb it so I can get this all closed up.”

Sorin did just that, but he didn’t move. “I’ll need a few minutes to… consolidate…”

“I’m not giving you any more soulprints! You’ve taken enough, you conman!”

“No, don’t worry about that. I’m just cleaning up some clutter. I’ll be done before you know it, and then we can go.”

As he’d promised, it didn’t take long. Sharp Edge and Pierce merged into Blade Work. Dark Vision and Aquatic Vision became Clear Eyes. He poured anima into Force Edge and Still Winter, making them as strong as he could without ranking them up, and left the rest in place to free cast with. It didn’t give him much, but F-rank and some of the smaller E’s were still within his grasp.

Not bad at all, he thought as he looked around. Still Winter at D, Warrior’s Vigilance, Blind Sense, Clear Eyes, Speed Burst, Blood of the Mountain, Counter Heal, and Iron Bulwark at E, and Thermal Insulation, Blade Work, and Force Edge at F.

He came back out of his soulspace to find the tables all mysteriously vanished, leaving nothing but an empty pavilion and the sand he stood upon. Lorvaine was walking a lap around the outside, deftly untying each rope and pulling up the two-foot-long anchoring pegs like they were nothing. That was probably the case, since they were obviously enchanted to bite into sand and hold.

She didn’t look happy, and Sorin didn’t much blame her. If he’d consumed less than a thousand danirs worth of product, he’d be surprised. It was probably the single biggest upgrade he’d ever done for himself, though there’d been a few promising climbers he’d sponsored who’d undergone similar build transformations in the past.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“The moment you are,” he replied.

“Good. Then let’s go make sure my investment pays off. I don’t like losing money, especially on these lower floors.”

It was hard to feel bad for her, considering he’d only taken a dozen or so soulprints, and she’d had several hundred on display. That wasn’t even counting whatever else she had hidden, and he hadn’t really gotten anything too rare or valuable from her. She could easily afford the loss, but he’d still do his best to help her recoup. That was just good business, and if things went well, she’d be more inclined to help him when he was ready for his next build tune up.

“Not to put too fine a point on this,” he said, “but how much protection are you going to be needing? Should I assume your build is entirely devoted to soft soulprints with no combat applications?”

“Probably best that you do,” Lorvaine said with a sniff. “That’s what I’m paying you for, after all.”

“That’s fair, and I don’t mind doing the fighting, but I was hoping we could travel at a bit faster than a walk across the desert.”

In answer, Lorvaine reached into her pocket and pulled out some sort of sled that couldn’t possibly have fit in there. It was big enough just for her, and despite having nothing to pull it, it launched itself smoothly across the sand the moment she stepped onto it. Sorin couldn’t help but chuckle as he ran after it.