BECMI Chapter 2 – We’re at Character Creation and trying to Minmax!

What was I looking at for my current racial benefits?

Okay, that was… nice? Not? Something else I was going to have to buy off, or turn on its ear, or something, or all my potential Healing skills, especially use of vivus, were off the table!

… wonderful. I knew something else I was buying off as soon as I could.

Burn? Me? Wait, what? Oh, to heck with normal burns…

I ticked over a mental lever, and something uncorked on top of my soul, fire and ice beginning to swirl and wash through my heart and blood, a furnace of heat and streams of ice running through me, separate and powerful, yet mixing and impossible to feel normally. My skin might have reddened and blued for a moment, but wrapped up as I was, it passed unseen.

and , on the job! Suddenly the air felt neither warm nor cool, but just about right… and it would feel that way from close to absolute zero to plasma incandescence.

Just hope I lived to use it.

(Update)

Well, damn, didn’t that make all kinds of sense? I looked at the progression, and a black and silver star was now in place next to level Ten. I’d need to burn a Feat, but who cared?

Pheer me, creature of the night am I. Yay.

...Not a kick in the teeth, but it came with…

...wonderful. More investments into toughness required. I was going to have to do so much conditioning!

...Well, if I needed to live that long to make Eternal, good for me, I suppose. Everlasting youth and beauty by human standards… Should I seek out Alucard and take lessons, or something?

True Strike

Eh, useful enough. Noble vampiric descendant, was I? And I didn’t have the slightest clue what Bludevich-Jubvanyl meant. This world’s Dracula clan?

I was probably going to end up killing them, all things being equal.

I had to pick my Cantrips and my spells, and then where to go from here. Feats, Masteries, Favored Class bonuses… Hells, I only had one Class, it was always going to be Favored…

Ah, was already ensconced in my Matrix. So, two more.

, of course. There were a lot of things that could be done with that Cantrip.

And… , or . Because that might have a lot of uses, too.

Two Sorcery Rune Engrams of Valence One, i.e. Spells Known.

I needed to be able to move myself around. While I dearly wanted my handy, if there were limits, I first wanted to be able to remove myself from danger. If I had to Cast to fight, I was already dead.

They could be changed in the future, every two Levels, spells either swapped into an upgrade, or just exchanged. could do the job at the cost of Karma, too, and there were probably higher Valence spells, like or , that would do the same.

and , for now. Both had long durations, could carry me, and had utility uses. At later Levels I could make both if I so desired.

My two Bloodline Spells were, and . Not really useful at the moment, but who knew about later.

So, my alternatives now were… okay, Favored Class benefit was first. I winced, but went with , getting me another Cantrip.

, because I needed some way to protect myself right now, and the proto- spell was appropriate.

My needed a focus, and there were no Rings around to use, so I’d have to put up without that.

My Talent was already assigned, my default Feat at first Level. It also meant I could have Traits… or Traits assigned…

My shifted, and more words painted across the .

Great! I could act first and do nothing, because I was literally a newborn.

Purchased Feat, Level One:

Whoa, calmed right down there. A lot different than the odes of Heaven whispering in the ear and dispelling the jitters. This felt more like… idiot savancy? I should be freaking afraid, but I was too stupid to be?

Well, the vassals always said Ael’s mind didn’t feel right. Superhuman focus and lack of fear, wasn’t that a daunting combination, indeed...

Now, how many Masteries could I take? The Power of Ten limit was one, but this obviously was NOT the Power of Ten.

Let’s see. Shardcaster/1, gain an extra with attacks?

Yeah, that Slotted nicely into place. Worked with , so a Cantrip that would hit unexpectedly hard…

Concentration/1, Expend Focus to take 15 on a Concentration Check, or to reduce the Casting Cost of a Meta by 1, down to minimum of zero?

I wanted to gurgle in surprise and delight when it went through!

My mind spun as I began to list things out in my Visual File in the order I should acquire them, and…

Huh. Marks. Technically a magic item on the soul. If I could take that and fill it up instantly, it might mean something on the magic item side of things and how quickly such things could be made here. In Power of Ten, a Sacred bonus of up to +4 to a Stat was 32k to fully empower. Still a drop in my total Karmic Reserve… and they’d probably wonder where the damn thing had come from.

I needed to get to Five and access to Valence III’s, and I’d be functionally okay to survive solo. If I could reach Seven, I would have no difficulties whatsoever.

But… I really did want to see what was coming. I could either learn something about the culture I was in, or take off and stumble around while I was really a baby for years until my growth caught up with me.

I… had some planning to do. Namely getting to Three as fast as I could, which, if the magic here was to be believed, I might be able to do RIGHT NOW if I wanted to.

I really, really wanted to…

I was concentrating as I listened to their voices, recording them for later on when I could actually translate them.

It sounded like Elven that Aelryinth had heard in the past, but things were off with the cadence, and the basis of it was a full octave higher, sounding rather shrill and squeaky, different enough that I couldn’t get the basis of it quickly.

Well, that’s what was for.

Arcane Focus! and combined still is only +1! Expend Arcane Focus, reduce cost to +0, Cast basically as a mental action!

The words instantly resolved themselves into legibility, and I began to impress them into my nicely receptive infant brain.

I was going to need to learn ten languages before I could gain back and begin relearning ALL the languages. Wonderful, just wonderful…

But my new mother, what seemed to be her maid, and a newcomer were all talking. All were female, and my comprehension kicked on just as they were coming over to approach me in my cradle.

I was picked up carefully, long and slender fingers cool on my skin, and turned back and forth to examine me as my head was supported.

“She is indeed pale beyond the norm. You say this is because of the father, Lady Keffa?” the newest voice asked.

“Her father had skin of marble and hair of ink,” the voice of my mother affirmed calmly, obviously undeterred by the question. “Her eyes, however, are the most unusual.”

Careful fingers worked above and below my eyes, opening them up. I couldn’t focus, only see a dim blur above me, but that obviously wasn’t the reverse. “By Gaebrel!” the priestess invoked, clearly startled. “I have never seen so brilliant a red! They are almost glowing!”

I had red eyes? Interesting.

“I have seen red eyes among those creatures with superior darkvision, but I need to verify if this falls under Gaebrel’s strictures on mutant children.”

“These… are not the eyes of a dark-seer.” She waved her hand above me slightly. “Such eyes glow because they radiate heat in the darkness, or they reflect the scant light back. Her eyes glow with , Lady Keffa. Her talent for magic is very great! Was her father powerful in the craft?”

“I would not call him extraordinary at the time, save for his parentage. His sire is one of the Mage-Princes of the surface realm of Zanzyr, if you know of it.”

“Zanzyr,” she repeated, and I would have frowned if I could. She knew that word, and it had a hidden meaning to her. “Very interesting. Your work for the king carried you there?”

“Yes. It is a land of much magic, ruled over by mages alone, including two families of surface elves, including the strange dark-skinned Zorozo clan from the unknown south. The political situation is chaotic, to say the least, and there are many opportunities to gain knowledge or magic there, if one is wary. Alas, one must blend in, and a certain level of carefree behavior is expected of all elves there. One could say I got a bit carried away in my masquerade… but her father was very darkly charming and handsome!”

There was soft understanding laughter from all the women. “Did she bear the sacred markings, Lady Keffe, I would claim her for the temple in a heartbeat, and they would expect great things of her.

“On your side, it seems she will be very talented in the arts of magic. What heredity is her father, if I may ask?”

“Necromancy.”

Okay, I really wanted to wince, but I already knew that.

“That is a formidable and dangerous art, Lady Keffe,” the priestess murmured. “Those who practice it often come to dark ends. Those who can wield it well, however, can rise high on the secrets held by the dead…”

“So it is,” my mother agreed. “It is not an art held in high regard by our people, however, and we have little to offer her in terms of its study.”

“There are some things she can be taught, and perhaps in the future, she may be sent off to her human relatives to learn things that can be brought back here,” the priestess conjectured. “In the meantime, the main problem will be her hair, and skin even paler than our own. They make her stand out.”

“If she is as beautiful as her father was handsome, that simply will not be an issue,” my mother sniffed knowingly, stroking my head with what seemed like a smile now that I wasn’t going to be… what? Abandoned? Sacrificed? “I will raise her well in Gaebrel’s name, and see that she is exposed to magic and her talent developed.”

“Have you a name for her?” the priestess asked, as she gently handed me back over to my mother.

“Given her resemblance to her father, I think something from the surface world might be more appropriate than a name of our own. He spoke of an aunt he had admired, an iron-willed matron who kept him on the straight and narrow until he could escape her grasp. I will call her… Edgina.”

I had to wonder how in the heck my called that, chalked it up to magic and fate, and instead got myself a nipple and the start of an enthusiastic free meal.

It was about time, I was getting hungry.

And it was good I didn’t have to Cast and run away, too.