Chapter 376

  Forced Aura Farming

  You ever know a moment that is going to spring instant karma? The moment when you are driving along, minding your business in an overcast day, but you have your headlights on for safety. When suddenly an officer pulls you over, for having a headlight out.

  This was a similar moment, one where I stated what I felt, but they were mean words. Words spoken out of frustration more than anything.

  My Simulacrum, knowing of my fear of the Void realm, but not wanting to let me sacrifice myself to save Penelope did what my stupid panicking brain couldn’t do. She acted.

  Terra-Ulacrum in an ultimate act of self-sacrifice changed positions with Penelope and me, saving us both in one resolute act of a well-timed Positional Switch. With that one act, Terra-Ulacrum did the one thing I could not, she saved Penelope and me, and all it cost her was her freedom.

  Gods she is too good. Too selfless. Worst of all, she is the me that deep down I wish I could be more often. The part of me that is almost too good that you can’t wait for her to fall. That was why, I spoke from anger, when my first words about her were.

  “Yeah, she is going to be insufferable once she gets back,” I knew Terra-Ulacrum would get back. I also knew what types of pressure she will be under while she is gone. Worse, she will not say a word, and likely go back to work. The way I did, doing the things that helped me feel real, that helped me feel grounded. She’ll do it all, in a form of stoic reverence that would appear smug, even though it would be all she could do to stand up straight at the end of the day.

  I knew the words were wrong the moment I said them. Venom filled words that allowed me to lash out, to feel like I had some modicum of power over the situation. Even if my power was to curse the person who chose to suffer for me.

  Immediately afterwards, I saw the threads of karma coming to life, as they began to pounce and spiral at me. I didn’t even resist when they appeared, knowing that it would be pointless. Knowing that I deserved some form of punishment, at least in that moment I wanted a form of punishment.

  Yet, Karma always the prickly mistress chose the worst form of punishment at that time. A punishment that I was likely one of the few who would think of as a punishment.

  What punishment? What could be so terrible that even I would flinch? Simple, the system forced me to make multiple Class Upgrades all at once.

  I could almost see this being the systems direct response to my anger. For at that moment I was angry at myself for being weak, too weak to think of a solution. Which was when it came up with this as a punishment, and as a slap to the face. That I might have been strong enough to stop the entire thing, had I just taken a moment to stop and apply my bonuses when I needed them.

  The only problem is that I am always hesitant to choose my future upgrades on the thought that I might need something different. Unfortunately, that hesitation came back to bite me, as I had nothing the moment I needed them.

  Worst of all, I knew the system was right. That I could have likely stopped that entire process had I just chosen a path and stuck to it. Now I was playing catch up, which meant I would be focused on solving the immediate problem of getting Terra-Ulacrum back, and might miss the important ways to actually improve myself and my classes. Fortunately, I don’t have the weight of future users to worry about, now that these classes are all Unique, it means that I am the only one who can ever have them. Meaning that if I mess up and choose the wrong option, it will only affect me. But still, I want to choose the most effective means forward.

  As the world forces me to choose these upgrades, I feel the strain on my mind release a bit. This is of course due to the world forcing me to focus on this upgrade, and simultaneously deactivating my Angel’s Sight.

  The last thing I see, or the last thing that my mind focuses on and chooses to follow until my mental neurons stop registering magical overlays of sights around me is a shocked looking Penelope. That’s right, the last look I see is of Penelope looking sadly disappointed by my mean comment about Terra-Ulacrum.

  “I’m sorry,” I cry out to the darkness, hoping that Penelope can hear me. But I am in a sea of darkness. Well blue text boxes forcing me to make a total of 10 major choices.

  The first six were fairly straightforward, as I needed to choose:

  Then my healer class needed extra attention as I had to choose four additional options.

  “I don’t think she can hear you,” I felt the gentle pulse of Raygunnr’s Mana Language pulse through me.

  “Is she gone?” I call out.

  “Yes, she is, and our hatch is closed, and you didn’t hit the megaphone speaker, so I didn’t advertise your words.” Raygunnr states, a note of concern in his words.

  At that, I feel slightly ashamed that I didn’t react better sooner.

  “We should probably get going,” Raygunnr presses.

  Suddenly fear grips me, as I am in the middle of update purgatory, where I cannot see the world, but I do know the world is advancing beyond me.

  “Can you drive for us, I need to take care of a few things,” I ask, trying to focus on what is important, that is getting back access to my Angel’s Sight, which is currently being overwhelmed by the mass of forced upgrade choices I need to make.

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  “Wait? I get to use my own body? Are you sure?” Raygunnr asks.

  I can almost feel the trap looming, but I am so lost in other technical issues that I can’t quite see the cliff that I know we are going to. Still, I don’t have any other option, this parade must go on, and the parade will take us straight to our Regional Qualifier zone, where citizens of World’s End and the world the rest of BiPrism can watch us all compete like we were Roman Gladiators trying to earn enough money so we could live on for a few more years.

  “Yes, please and thank you,” I state.

  “Oh, buckle up, but don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Raygunnr states. As he speaks I feel the harness restraints strike out and wrap around me, binding me in place.

  “I thought we said no hentai tentacles,” I state, suddenly frightened by the restraints around me.

  “No tentacles, just safety. Now time for me to make our entrance,” Raygunnr states and suddenly the world begins to spin about, as I can tell we are twirling for some reason.

  Only once he pauses for a second do I hear the constant music that has been played on a continual loop.

  Dun-dah-dunda-da-dun-da.

  “Love this song. Mm-mm-mmmhm-mmm-mmm-m-da-mmm.” Raygunnr begins humming the song in Mana Language.

  At this moment I realize two things. First, I am a prisoner here until I am done making my ten class upgrades. Second, I am somehow safer here than I would be outside. At least with Raygunnr I know we will arrive at the right spot at the right time. Still, I can only imagine the destruction, or worse the spectacle that he is making right now. All of which is likely being attributed to me.

  Even worse, is the fact that since I am bound with safety restraints to moving bars, every action Raygunnr makes, my body mirrors. I almost want to stop, but I realize that this is karma.

  If I just go with karma now and accept my punishment and embarrassment then it will be over once the ten choices are made. If not, if I force Raygunnr to act normally, he will likely still do even worse things to embarrass us, but then he will also be mad at me.

  No, sadly, this is the best option, trust that Raygunnr won’t kill us, and quickly make my ten upgrade choices.

  “Slide, step, slide, slide, slide, step, now slide on this way,” Raygunnr calls out, noting his movements to the rhythm.

  To start with, I focused on the Auras, and knocked out my Quintessential Ethereal Healer class’s aura first, as it was the one requiring multiple upgrades. Also, the Aura I wanted for my Quintessential Ethereal Healer class was simple and straight forward. As we were about to enter combat, and I was wholly reliant on Raygunnr, having a passive way to make sure Raygunnr was safe and able to survive combat was beyond important. Seeing as I already had an Aura to heal other organic creatures, it made sense to focus this next one on healing the Teleiotís. That was why my first selection was the easiest.

  I did note the only real difference was that most level 250 Auras only allowed 1% regeneration, while this aura allowed for 1.5% regeneration.

  With that option taken care of, I decided next to focus on ways to improve my Simulacrums. Or at least that was my plan, especially as Terra-Ulacrum would need help, I decided to make the next Aura focused exclusively on helping out the cause.

  However, before I could begin, Raygunnr again tries to make things creepy.

  Shiver and shake.

  “VWOOO, you just made all my gyro-ty bits tingle,” Raygunnr states.

  “Ick, do you have to make things feel so dirty?”

  “Look honey, the only thing dirty here is my dancing. As for this feeling between the two of us, there is nothing unnatural about it,” Raygunnr continues, and I just decide to shake my head and continue to focus through these options so I can get more and more of the suffocating blue text out of my vision.

  Focusing back again on trying to improve the Simulacrums, while avoiding the suddenly bouncy Raygunnr I continue where I left off. And think of ways that would best help all the Simulacrums, especially knowing their task of Terraforming the world through Arcane Geomancy. Figuring that we already did something similar with their level 250 Blight-Healing Energy Aura, I decide that this time I will shift the focus to making Arcane Geomancy an automatic process.

  Currently Arcane Geomancy is a Bloodline Trait that my Simulacrums and I all share. To help speed up the timeline of what the Simulacrums have, and yes, partially as a way to apologize to Terra-Ulacrum for being terrible to her, if only verbally, I choose Arcane Geomancy Energy Aura, for my level 500 upgrade.

  That reduction in Stealth might affect Espy-Ulacrum, but she is used to this process by now. Still, it should help Terra-Ulacrum, if this update is somehow able to reach her, then even when she passes out, her body will just passively terraform the land around her. I almost have the thought of her being out of range and thereby unable to receive this Aura upgrade, which would be sad as the other Simulacrums by just a matter of moving about might be able to convert more land mass than Terra could on her own. That thought does somehow make me feel better, not that Terra-Ulacrum’s contributions will be minimized by this new Aura, but that everyone of the Simulacrums will be able to help out and continue her mission while she is gone.

  I pause, waiting for more inappropriate comments from Raygunnr, but all I can feel is my body being twirled about violently, forcing me to realize I need to hurry up with this process. That’s when I go onto my third and final class for an Aura upgrade. I really want a cheat, like an aura that produces air around me at all times. Not going to lie, going into space with nothing but Raygunnr’s thin metal beams protecting me from life, and asphyxiation and ebullism related deaths.

  Shiver.

  Just the thought of having my blood boil internally due to lack of pressure causes me to have the heebie-jeebies. But unfortunately, Space, Gravity, Pressurized anti-vacuum, and other options for a permanent aura around me are not possible.

  For a moment I think about going for a similar Aura like I did last time, where I went for a Concealed Cultivation Aura, but that seems rather lame at this point. Especially as everyone knows me to be the Main Instructor for the Qi courses at SVC. No, for this one, I want something that would help me constantly. An aura that produced power, a form of life, of energy that could be used to make the world around me better.

  Then it hits me, an idea that while it might not help me live longer, could help me last longer in a metal container stuck in space that I am forced to use as the only method of saving my life.

  With that I think I am done with Auras and can move on to address the number of class related Perks. But of course, things aren’t that easy, for apparently the system thinks that because we are already choosing Auras for the level 500 class updates, I should do the same for my level 750 Quintessential Ethereal Healer class as well.

  Fortunately, my mind is already in the process of understanding what sort of Auras are allowed and which are not, meaning there is likely some validity to forcing me to make my last and final Aura option now, but it is still frustrating. Still, I focus my mind and try to come up with a new Aura that just might help.

  Many different thoughts cross my mind.

  That’s when I think of an aura that helps people rejuvenate to a younger more ideal form. Only to immediately dismiss that idea as it would likely mean everyone would want to hang around me and not just Penelope, I mean people that I want to be around. Though why was she the first person I thought of? Anyways, from there, I try to think of maybe a Nature based aura, one that helps grow all plants.

  While the Simulacrums and I are now Terraforming the world with our Arcane Geomancy Energy Aura, we might need help planting trees and the like. Thus an aura devoted to helping nature grow would be amazing. I am about to accept that, when I realize that knowing my luck, that exact aura will help infectious pixie focused mold to grow in my space suit while I begin these competitions.

  No, if I am going to get an aura that works, it needs to be both powerful and practical. That’s when I realize my number one goal right now is to continue to Resurrect as many people on this planet as possible, so that we might all avoid having to be forced to be Resurrected on one of the core planets.

  That’s when I make the try, and find that my wish is ultimately granted, as I am granted the ultimate of Level 750 Quintessential Ethereal Healer related auras.

  Now that the easy part was over, it was time to start delving into my Class Perks.

  Book 2 Release Day!

  Renaissance available here: Book 1: , .

  Book 2: Royal Blood available here: Book 2: ,

  Also, minor note, that with this new release the chapters for books 1 and 2 have been stubbed.

  Thank you all and hope you have a great day.