Surviving The Myriad Worlds (A Multiplanar LitRPG)

This specialization had the fewest options than most of the previous ones and seemed to have a common theme. Every single one of them had 'force' in its title.

Perhaps it is considered the upgrade to 'warding'?

Dante wanted every single one of them. They were all good. But he could only pick one.

[Force Embodiment] seemed the most aggressive out of the options. It would work well with martial arts, helping him punch hard, move faster, and take less damage. However, Dante was really reluctant to let the aura affect his own body given its previous track record.

By comparison, [Force Conduit] seemed largely defensive and much safer. It would be useful in protecting allies and in fortifying positions — something that he had done all too much these days. But it would be impossible to hide and Dante had no idea how valuable semi-permanent remnants of his aura would be. The Empire would already desire him for his blood if they found out. It would probably be unwise to make himself even more valuable to them. Likely, they would one day be permanent if it was leveled high enough. It seemed hard to hide when he escaped and was on the run as well.

The last option, [Force Paragon], had no downside he could think of save that it wasn't the other options. It didn't seem as immediately strong as the others. In his opinion, it seemed more of a utility option. But it impacted a lot of his aspects and would make his skills work better together.

… Perhaps I should ask Pauwna's advice on this. The days when I had to make this decision alone are gone. I have the time anyway, I think this is the safest I have been since coming to this world. Besides, I finally have the time to test the ideas I had in that canyon. And now, a private space as well.

Dante dismissed the status window, stood up, and closed the door to the training room. Then, he strode over to the training racks and retrieved a spear. Focusing, he created an open space in his aura and then dropped the spear into it. The spear fell a short distance, hit the repulsion, and bobbed in the air. He let aura close around it until it was near form fitting. This ceased the bobbing.

Excellent, that's step one accomplished.

Dante ran a finger along the spear's shaft and found it firmly locked in place. It was able to bear a decent amount of weight, though nowhere near his full body weight. He grabbed it between his palms, then pushed forward with the top and pulled back with the bottom, causing the shaft to spin. Dante watched the spinning spear for a few minutes and was thrilled that it showed no signs of slowing down.

That confirms it, the edges of my aura are frictionless and the inside of my aura is essentially a vacuum. Which is just wild to think about. I am essentially a walking patch of space. I wonder what would happen if my aura cut out entirely? … Actually, let's not think about that. Now, it's time for the significantly more dangerous steps. I hope this room is reinforced. It would have to be for the like of Ahzi to spare here.

He concentrated again and moved the pocket of space as close to the edge of his aura as possible. Delicately, Dante extended a small tendril of aura to the spear's space and extended it into the very surface of the shaft of the spear. The spinning accelerated and it soon no longer was possible to see any details on the spear as it became a blur. Dante hesitated, conflicted on if he should stop.

I am glad that this worked, but the speed of these rotations makes me nervous. How am I supposed to know when to —

With a massive crack, the training spear shattered into countless pieces which shot out in all directions. Several shards stopped a few feet away from him, caught by his aura, and then were spit out. After extracting his heart from his throat, Dante checked the room and was relieved to find no damage. Even the mirror was still unblemished, so he supposed that the room had been reinforced after all. Soundproofed too, as no one had opened the door after a few tense seconds.

That was dangerous. Glad I did this when no one else was in the room. I guess I know how to make shrapnel on command now. Which is not exactly what I wanted. I need to figure out how to make them spin fast, but not explode reliably. Nothing is coming to mind to fix it, so I'll worry about it later. Time for the next idea.

Dante fetched another spear and placed it in another auraless space. This time, he stretched it out until it was a thin torus around him. He placed the spear in it, then pushed. It raced forward, encountered the outer torus edge and was nudged back to the center. It overcorrected and bounced off the inner edge back towards the outside in a vicious cycle. With each bounce, the spear lost some of its momentum until it stopped after a few revolutions. After a few more tries, he realized that each bounce stole some of the spear's energy. Dante tried again with a tighter torus, but that only worsened the problem.

Dante assisted it by extending small aura tendrils into the torus that faced the direction the spear was traveling. Each time the spear hit one, it received a boost. This was more successful, and the spear whipped around in the circle faster and faster until, with a whistle, it escaped and flew off in a random direction. It ricocheted off a few walls and ultimately settled buried in a dummies throat. Dante rated it as less scary than one that exploded. In truth, it hadn't been moving all that fast. But it was faster than he could throw it, so an improvement overall.

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I've got to try this with arrows next time. I wonder if it would activate my [Artillerest] skill? I could also do it with multiple projectiles, though one was hard enough.

The next test was to combine the spinning spear with the accelerator, but that turned out to be an utter failure. It was really hard to divert the trajectory of the spinning spears and even trying would cause the rotations to slow. It was a bit hazy since it had been years since he had learned about physics, but Dante thought that this was due to inertia. Whatever the reason, it was inconvenient.

It's so frustrating. I have a solution to the problem, I could only spin it when it's ready to launch and traveling in a straight line, but it's beyond my capabilities right now. Whatever. For the moment, I guess I have a choice between giving the spears a spin or making them go extra fast.

Though, after trying to launch one of the spinning spears in a straight line, he was forced to admit that it still traveled pretty fast.

The spear accelerator is currently a lot of work for not a lot of return. I need to refine it, make it second nature. A bonus that the simpler method has is that I can use that extra brain power to do this.

With a careful application of will, Dante used aura tendrils to nudge more spears off the wall one by one. He wrapped them in auraless bubbles, drained the air, then spun them up for a few seconds. Dante was able to manage four spears like this with some effort. He hovered them in an arc above his head, then struck a martial arts pose he learned from Pauwna. A wide grin spread across his face.

Now this … this is some hot shit.

He truly looked like a fantasy warrior. He wasn't helpless anymore. These spears wouldn't be taking down Lightbringer or the Black Wind anytime soon, but they would be a threat to anyone on his level. He could even still use [Martial Arts] as he was holding none of the weapons. For the first time since Dante had inherited these powers, he felt strong.

I can do more.

Pushing past his developing headache, he plucked a shield off the wall with his aura and positioned it in front of him. Given his experience with [Overloaded Warding Flesh], he knew that this shield could only block with the same amount of force that his aura already could — rendering it pointless against physical attacks. That was not why he picked it up. It was so that he could defend against attacks like Ren's. His repulsion would not do a thing to block her light. Presumably, there would be other foes like that, so carrying shields could help. Though, Dante could see three problems with fighting like this.

The first was that all of this weighed a significant amount. Dante's strength was still below average for a normal human and this would wear him down quickly. The second was that it would be cumbersome to carry this many armaments. Four spears and a shield were a lot for one man to carry.

I wonder if bags of holding are a thing here? It would be very convenient given how my fighting style is shaping up. It would also help with this next part.

Dante carefully slowed down each spear and returned them to the rack. If he wasn't careful about it, he would send them rotating in the other direction and have to start over. Then he sat back down and let his head rest against the wall. He well and truly had a headache now.

There has to be a way to increase my tolerance. I will have to ask Pauwna about that too.

He wanted to practice more of his ideas. So far he had only attempted the easy ones, but that could wait until he wasn't at risk of a nosebleed. Dante opened his [Status] and took stock.