Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin watched as the others picked out their Spirit Gems and started going through their Bonding Rituals, with Alim making quick work with his [Mind of the Magister] Talent. As he drew out the ritual diagrams with light from his fingertip, Hadia talked with her at the center pedestal.

Scrolling through the overwhelming list, Jin listened as Hadia said, "We all discussed the various options for your particular powerset, and our recommendations would be the Dragon, Void, Dimension, Onslaught, Power, Speed, or Hydra."

"Hydra?" Jin asked with a raised eyebrow. "Like the monster with a bunch of heads, where, when you cut one off, two more grow back?"

"That's the one. Glad to know your world had those."

"Myths of those. Pretty sure if one was actually real, it would have destroyed humanity," Jin said, shuddering at the mental picture of a hydra with thousands of heads. "We didn't have magic, remember? Meant no monsters, luckily. Though I guess a nuke could have taken it out… maybe."

"Those were the big city-killing bombs you mentioned before, right?"

"Yeah. Not sure if you have a magic equivalent here, but I guess with the kind of powers we unlock, it's possible for someone to become like a nuke themselves…" Jin replied, thinking through the terrifying ramifications of a walking, talking bomb.

Hadia chuckled. "I don't think I've seen a Champion unlock a power where they just explode like that. Sounds like it would probably kill them in the process."

"Probably. Might make for a cool cinematic boss fight, but also totally unreasonable for, like, actually leveling up and normal grinding like we've been doing in here," she said, looking over the list once more. "So, why Hydra? Just because it's, like, dragon-adjacent?"

"And a powerful monster we recognized, which we think can give good self-regeneration or a multi-pronged attack or something else that has to do with many in one kind of theme, you know? Really depends on your powerset and what your soul thinks it needs."

"What did you go with?"

Hadia lifted a large, dark purple jewel cut like an eleven-pointed star. "I grabbed Distance because I really want some kind of ranged attack. I felt pretty useless in some of the fights where I couldn't get in close to the enemy, even with my [Battering Ram]."

"Makes sense. I actually like the idea of being able to redirect your powerset like that. If we weren't stuck in this tower and limited by what we could loot, I bet you could craft some pretty cool builds by just picking things from a list."

"A lot of people in the city will theorize powersets like that, even if it is a pipe-dream to be able to do so if you're not a noble. Most of the tower spoils go to the Speakers, even if they don't win the climb. They'll hoard things like extra Aspects and Spirit Gems everyone will likely pick up along the way, and then they'll be the ones to manage the 'distribution' of them to the people they deem worthy. Usually results in nobles getting to hand-pick which ones they want for every step and the added benefit of being able to do combination bindings."

"What do you mean by that? What's 'combination bindings'?"

"It's when you absorb all your Aspects at once, and then all your Spirit Gems at once. It usually results in more powerful, synergistic builds because the Aspects become aware of each other and can better understand what the end goal is."

"Well, shit. We got the worst kind of deal then, didn't we?" Jin lamented. She glanced over to Liraz, who was standing in the center of the ritual and binding to her new gem. A few moments later, the ritual was done, and Liraz was happily showing off her new ability to everyone.

"Wow, what gem gave you that?" Jin asked curiously.

"Battlefield," Liraz cheerfully replied. "I really liked that boss fight, and wanted even more slime everywhere!"

Both Jin and Hadia chuckled at that, shaking their heads, and Hadia patted her shoulder, "You definitely did good getting slime everywhere during our run."

Jin noticed Rayyan moving to take his place in the center of the next ritual Alim was drawing out. She called over to him, asking, "Which gem did you pick, Ray?"

"Tidalwave," he replied with a smirk. "I figured I couldn't go wrong with it as a Wave Enchanter."

"Playing it safe; not a bad way to go," she admitted with a nod. "Dragon for me is pretty tempting because of that. And honestly, I doubt I'll get another chance at it in this tower."

"That's why we recommended some of the others, too, like Void and Dimension. Those are normally pretty rare to get from a monster. Divine types like Void, Radiant, and Time almost never appear outside of lists like this."

"Well, shit, was Time on the list? That sounds like it'd be pretty good too."

"Nah, only void and Radiant. Time is actually the rarest of the three, and I can't actually recall when it showed up, even in this kind of list."

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"I think it showed up in a past season when Champion Stellor fought and looted a Clockwork Golem," Karam said from nearby as he waited for his turn with Clover perched on his shoulder while chewing on some snack they probably conned out of the boy. "Gave him an effect that let him slow enemies or hasten allies, if I remember right."

"That sounds cool," Jin replied. "What gem did you pick?"

"Pure," he said, grinning like he had unburied hidden treasure. "I'm really hoping it gives me a cleansing ability. We've needed it so much during this floor, and we've gotten lucky with finding or trading for potions."

"Definitely a fair point and a good pick," she admitted. She looked over at Alim but saw him absorbed in drawing runes, circles, and lines for the ritual. Turning to Hadia instead, she asked, "What did Alim pick? I think I missed him taking his turn while I was looking through the shop."

Hadia grimaced slightly and told her, "He picked Overwhelm, hoping for some kind of attack instead of all his defensive stuff… It didn't go quite like he hoped, but I don't think it was bad overall. He got a Boon that can boost an ally to overcome an enemy's resistances and ignore Caste differences for a short while. Pretty powerful, but just not an attack like he hoped."

"Sounds seriously useful, though," Jin said, looking back at the list of options in front of her. She let out a frustrated groan and ran her hands through her hair. Growling out her annoyance, she complained, "I take it back, I don't want a huge list to pick from anymore. At least when I loot shit, I don't feel like I'm going to make a terrible irrevocable choice."

Rayyan laughed and surprised her by saying, "I actually understand that feeling completely. So many times during a match of Monarch's March, I find myself frozen, wondering if my next move might spell victory or defeat."

"At least when you pick wrong during a match, it doesn't permanently alter you," she muttered. "I think this is why I could never pick what tattoo I wanted to get when I dreamed of turning eighteen. I'd be stuck with it forever and didn't know if I'd regret getting something like Tinkerbell tattooed on my ass."

Looking over the list one last time, she groaned again and said, "Alright, new plan that's better than eenie meenie. Group vote: what do each of you pick most for me?"

"I voted Void," Rayyan replied just as Alim completed the diagram and stood up.

Jin waved to get his attention and signed the question again. He tilted his head for a moment and signed back, "I thought Hydra might actually be best because of how prone to getting injured you seem to be."

She gave him a flat look and sarcastically replied, "Thanks. That's so encouraging and complimentary of my fighting skills."

"I picked Hydra too!" Liraz signed excitedly, and Jin couldn't help but roll her eyes at the little monster girl picking the most monstrous one.

Hadia laughed beside her and admitted, "Alim does have a point. Something to help keep you alive when taking hits in melee might be nice, even with Karam's healing. I think whatever that one gives will definitely complement your style. I also thought the Onslaught one would be good if you were wanting more attacks specifically, but I think you've got enough of those, honestly."

"Yeah, I'm pretty steadily burning through my mana and stamina, even with the cooldowns," Jin agreed.

Turning to Karam, she didn't even get the question out before he answered, "I thought Dragon would be best and safest. It brought Clover to you, after all."

"Awwww," the little dragon said from his shoulder, pausing their snack consumption to hug the side of his face. "I knew I liked you best."

"You're my Familiar," Jin retorted incredulously.

"Yes, and you could learn a few things about being a proper minion from my gentle giant here," Clover quipped back, climbing further up Karam's head to curl up atop his fluffed locs like his hair was now a bed.

Rolling her eyes, she finally chose her gem. "Looks like Hydra wins, so here's hoping for the best, and that I don't sprout extra heads or something horribly monstrous."

"Join my cavalry, for I am stronger with you by my side. Through me, many become one," Jin incanted, then almost collapsed again from the mana and stamina exhaustion after casting her first and only Spell for the fifth time. Opting to sit on the floor of their base's greenhouse where they were all gathered, she muttered to the others, "I'm so glad I'm not a mage or have to deal with figuring out the best time to cast this one."

After finishing up the rituals and getting their tokens, they hurried back to their base to get it upgraded. Alim was feeding in each token currently, and she had spent the last four hours chain-casting this stupid Spell her Hydra Spirit Gem tricked her into.

She had honestly been surprised by the ability. With the Hydra gem bonding to her Agile Aspect and being influenced by both her Abyssal Dragoon Class and the rest of her soul, she hadn't expected something so different from the rest of her abilities so far.

Maybe what her soul was screaming right now, though, was that she really needed her friends…

Jin shook her head and refocused on the newest Boon she got from Rayyan, tapping on her bracelet to show a condensed list of all her current Boons.

"That last one Rayyan gave me is pretty interesting," she admitted, then explained it to the others since she couldn't show them. "Missing my strikes less would be nice."

"And hopefully helping time your dodges," Clover teased from atop Karam's head, and Jin realized that the little monarch likely chose him simply so they could look down on the rest of them.

"I, for one, am very grateful for her not dodging," Rayyan said in her defense. "Otherwise, I believe you'd have one less member of your cavalry."

The room suddenly began to shake around them, and Hadia grabbed Alim's shoulder to sign at him, "What did you do?!"

"I upgraded it! That's all! It said we unlocked a second floor to the cabin and a Travel and Follow mode like Pax had told us," he hastily replied. When the shaking stopped, he pressed another option on the display, then wrote in the air, "It says we all need to get out of the cabin for it to enter Follow mode."

Dragging herself back to her feet, Jin joined the rest of them to exit the cabin, which had also expanded its front section to include a stairwell leading up to the new second floor. She'd be sure to explore that later, when they weren't in such a time crunch.

Once all of them were on the ground instead of the expanded porch and stairs, the ground began to shake, and the giant Cultivating Guardian Home began to shrink. Smaller and smaller, impossibly breaking some laws of physics, in Jin's scientific opinion. Until the tree home looked more like a chubby baby treant that actually smiled and cooed as it waddled over to them and affectionately hugged Alim's leg.

"Oh my gods, it's a baby Snuggles," Clover said, giving their own little squeal as they flapped down to cuddle the adorable bundle of leaves.