PoA The Concept of Death Chapter 7

PoA The Concept of Death 7

Melinda spent ten awful hours purging the contaminants from their systems, but she considered herself luckier than Sam and Mathew. Their suffering lasted a full two days, where they had to get the much larger dose of depleted copper out of their systems. Neither were willing to speak of their time in quarantine, only stating that it had been rough.

They did find out that there had been a slew of changes to how the point system worked after the first day of fighting. They were now earning points every day based on their ranking, which was nice.

They weren’t the only ones to have some troubles. To their surprise, Matt and his entire team had died after taking a fort. She, of course, healed them at Matt’s request. They were all healed perfectly by the Empire healers, as she expected, but she discreetly removed their healing cooldown. Matt had messaged her that he would act as if that hadn’t happened, but was thankful to know they were ok.

They even sparred with Matt’s squad twice. It was yet another learning experience for her team. Discovering that they had taken out two hundred people while defending a fort that they had just taken had been mind blowing. But the fight didn’t go as badly as she had feared.

Her team actually had better coordination than the three teams who were mashed together. They just didn’t have the raw power of the other party. With their newly absorbed skills, they fared better, but even with light sparring, it was clear they were still out of their depth.

That was when her husband had a bright idea to hire trainers with the slow, steady income of points they were earning.

Jacob was a Tier 11 they found on the CityNet who was willing to teach them team tactics and give them pointers on how to improve.

It wasn’t pretty.

After having them fight him, he told them that they needed to start dueling other teams. It was his easiest suggestion but not his only one. He had them rent time in a simulation chamber to hone their skills with various simulated team mates. He also had them simulate solo fights, so that they could always defend themselves should they be away from one another.

Fighting without her team was enlightening. She was so used to them following her commands without hesitation. Half the time, they already knew what needed to be done, and her commands were redundant. The simulated teammates were often recalcitrant towards her, demanding detailed reasoning for any and all of her orders. Other times, they followed her orders too well. If she said ‘move right’, they’d sprint in that direction nonstop, and even throw themselves off a cliff if she didn’t stop them.

Worst for her personally, these teams rarely tried to protect their healer. If an enemy moved to flank the back line, her allies just ignored it, focusing only on the opponent in front of them. Without [Bolt], she would have been completely defenseless. With it… she was still mostly defenseless. Her solo simulations were also a dissapointment; her mace skills were pretty rusty. Melee training had fallen by the wayside in the last few years. It was just another thing she had to add to her already full plate.

Baxter was helping her with her Concept, and with training her Talent to heal the spirit damage that her Concept inflicted. But the progression was so slow, she wasn’t sure that it was doing anything. The only good news was that she had gotten a bright idea when studying the effects of natural treasures, and while hearing a probably not so offhanded comment from her mentor.

“The Tree of Perfection was quite a boon for Matt. If only everyone could get Tier 15 bodies so much sooner. It’s essentially the opposite of your Concept, or at least, it’s function is the direct inverse of your Concept’s.”

To her eternal shame, she hadn’t even registered the importance of the comment at the time. She’d only asked how he knew about that. Apparently, Baxter made a point of checking up on Matt’s team. He knew that she’d be beside herself if they suffered any catastrophic injury while she wasn’t there to help. It was actually very thoughtful and reassuring. So reassuring in fact, that she overlooked the part about Tier 15 bodies until two weeks later, while she was in the shower.

It came back to her as she was washing the shampoo out of her hair. A realization struck her so hard, she nearly slipped and cracked her head open. She wanted to heal old age, and a Tier 15 body was unaging. Yet Matt was able to get that immortal body at a much lower Tier. If it could be done to him, could it be replicated in anyone else? A burst of excitement led to her jumping out of the shower and calling for Baxter. She managed to slip on some damp, sudsy pajamas before he appeared.

Her mentor smirked at her state, but he did explain more about what had been done to Matt. “Not quite. Eating the tree’s root brings someone’s body to the razor’s edge of Tier 15. But technically, it’s still at Tier 14. Besides, it’s not a cultivator’s Tier 15 body that makes them immortal, but the essence in their cores. The body just becomes hyper-efficient, and stronger in every way. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad starting point if you still want to try healing old age.”

The problem was, Melinda felt really uncomfortable asking Matt for even more help. It just felt wrong after just vowing to be more self-reliant. She did appreciate Baxter letting her know, though. He obviously thought it was a waste of time, but he did try to assist her. That was worth being grateful for. But how do you ask a friend, who had already given you so much, to let you try extracting and producing a personal aspect of themself.

After a big group dinner one night, she finally worked up the nerve while their teams were headed to catch a movie after. Matt seemed to think it was no big deal, but he hadn’t thought that all the skill shards he’d given them were a big deal either, so his opinion was suspect. Regardless, she was thankful. Inspecting Matt didn’t suddenly result in amazing, new progress, or instantly reveal exactly how to replicate what the natural treasure was doing, but she got a general idea of what was happening.

When she asked her husband for a baseline example of a Tier 6 body for comparison, he teased her about comparing his to Matt’s. Bad jokes aside, she did learn a few things.

In a lot of ways, the natural treasure was still inside Matt. What it was doing there was interesting to say the least. There was essence cycling throughout his body. That in and of itself wasn’t very special. Whenever someone was injured, the essence they allocated to regeneration was cycled through the body, slowly healing any damage. Even when someone was perfectly healthy, a small amount of essence still cycled, repairing the everyday wear and tear. In Matt’s case, the amount of essence cycling through him was abnormal. Honestly, she was surprised that he was still standing. That amount of cycling essence usually indicated some sort of body-wide infection, but according to her Concept, he has never been healthier. She just couldn’t figure out why.

The next evening, she met with Baxter for her Concept training. Before he could even say hello, she had a million and two questions for him. The man who had untold lifetimes of experience as a healer; it was time to cash in on that.

“What would happen if Matt lost a limb? Would that limb not have the effect? Would having a Tier 6 arm on a Tier 15 body cause problems? Would the effect just expand into the new arm over time? What about the severed arm? If Matt loses a limb fighting, I’ll have to ask him to let me look at it. Also, why wasn’t I able to notice any of the tree’s effects on Liz or Aster? The effects on Matt were pretty obvious. Can someone recreate the effect of a natural treasure like that? I feel like it should be possible. People should be working on that. Why aren’t people working on that? Who do I need to talk to about working on that?”

Finally, Baxter just forcibly shushed her with a flex of his Concept. He pointed at a boar that had been attracted by Melinda’s tirade, and was now charging at them. “Melt that first, and I’ll answer some of your questions.”

Seeing him ignoring her, she uncaged her Concept in the direction of the boar. A grotesque minute later, they studied the clawing destruction and blight that it left behind. This practice was draining, but she had to admit that it was a good way to improve her willpower capacity. The passive effect wasn’t a burden anymore, even in a large crowd. Turning it off was still beyond her, but she didn’t get the headaches from perpetually overdrawing it anymore.

“Your friend would be fine if he lost a limb. In fact, it would have helped him.” Seeing her incredulous look, he rolled his eyes. “There’s been a lot of testing with a lot of different items—even the Tree of Perfection. Remind me later, I’ll find the old studies and send them to you. Read through them; maybe you’ll learn something. But I doubt it. ”

Melinda still intended to read those studies, just in case there was something useful. But she had to admit that it wouldn’t be simple if even the Empire’s best couldn’t copy the effect. Her Talent did grow as she pushed it, so maybe it had the flexibility to copy the effects of the Tree of Perfection’s root.

“You can’t see what’s going on with the other two because you’re too weak. I’m not being derisive, that’s just the way that cookie crumbles. Normally, you shouldn’t be able to see what’s going on with Matt. But your Talent is a giant cheat. The ability to see the physical effects of the Tree cannot be understated. Also, the root’s effect on the body is the most obvious of the three. Mind and spirit are trickier to detect. The Tree changes the spirit so it reflects the aspect of the Tree that they ate.” He chewed on his lip for a minute. “Well… You normally might have been able to see the effect of the leaf. But with Liz, she shouldn’t be getting a ton out of it, so it’s more subtle.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Baxter poked her nose. “Think about it. Aren’t you the one who’s all about growing and being self-sufficient now? Figure this one out on your own little chick. Spread your wings and fly before I give you the boot.”

She ignored the jab and pondered what he said. After a minute, the dots finally connected, and she felt a little silly for not getting it sooner.

The Tree of Perfection was exactly that, perfection. Perfection was Tier 15. Children of Tier 15 parents would be the offshoots of perfection. Presumably, they would have less to fix than the children of imperfect, mundane mortals.

“She had parents over Tier 15?” Baxter just shrugged, which she took as confirmation. “I would have thought that there’d be more advantages. Or are there?”

Baxter barked a laugh at that. “It’s not some cheat, unlike a certain someone’s Talent. It’s a head start. If having immortal parents was the end all be all, no mortal-born cultivators would ever be able to keep up. You know that’s not the case. In the end, it’s just a slight advantage until Tier 15, where it equals out.”

“But why has no one created a pill or something to mimic the effects of a natural treasure?”

“What’s to say that they haven’t?”

That shocked Melinda dumb. She just stood there as she imagined the nobles keeping the secret powers that they showered on their children to themselves.

Reading the expression plain on her face, he smirked at her. “Once again, it’s not what you’re thinking. What do you think bottled Concepts are? What do you think that half the potions out there are? Most potions were originally derived from natural treasures. Bottled Concepts in particular. We had a treasure, someone figured out how to recreate its effects, and then they mass produced it. Well, not ‘we’; it was done well before my time. It was before the current dynasty as well. To be honest, it’s really old tech. Cultivators have been around for a very long time, and all the low hanging fruit have long been harvested. There hasn’t been a new discovery made in millennia.”

“Oh.”

Melinda flushed and glared at Baxter a bit. That made far more sense. It also explained why bottled Concepts only targeted one aspect; they were derived from natural treasures. She paused… why was it like that? It wasn’t hard to imagine a natural treasure that targeted multiple aspects. She thought about the bottled Concepts that her friends had to choose from. “Why aren’t there bottled Concepts that target multiple aspects?“

“There are, but the bottled Concepts that are sold on the regular market only target one aspect of cultivation at a time because they’re way easier to make. The price doesn’t feel like it, but it takes a Tier 25 or higher to make a Tier 5 bottled Concept. The Tier 10 version takes a Tier 35 or higher. Both obviously need an Intent. The Empire gives a tax credit to anyone who produces enough of them. As to why they do a single thing, that’s easy to answer. It’s a pain in the ass to make them with more. To add context, at the last auction they sold a bottled concept with three aspects. Do you know how much it sold for? Or how much it would have on the open market?”

Melinda had no idea and said as much.

Baxter chucked. “It was the most expensive item in the entire auction. It would have taken a Tier 45 with an Aspect and masterful control to make one of them. If three or four a year appear on the market, it would be a miracle. On the open market, the King of this little shithole wouldn’t have been able to afford it if he shook down everyone in this vassal state.”

“Still, that feels like a cop-out. It can’t be that hard.”

“Ha! When you’re Tier 25, I’ll remind you about this, and you can see for yourself. I look forward to watching you fail a few thousand times.” Baxter grinned off into the distance.

“Still, no one has recreated a natural treasure in how many millions of years?” Melinda wasn’t sure if she should be proud of the milestones that she would hopefully, absolutely accomplish one day, or if she was just embarrassed for all the slackers that came before her.

She liked the idea of inventing something new. Something that would change things for the better. There was something thrilling about the thought of it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

***

A week later, the Queendom launched a massive campaign against the Kingdom without warning, causing a rush of attention. They were moving in on a Kingdom city. Early speculation implied that the city would fall easily and quickly. The city was under-defended, and The Princess had clearly found a chink in the Kingdom’s armor. After an easy conquest, she’d have a staging point to march on a key location further into Kingdom territory.

That’s not what ended up happening. Instead, there was a mass mobilization of millions of Queendom troops to the ‘quick’ city siege that was supposed to have ended days ago. Even the Pathers were mobilized in force. They arrived to find thousands upon thousands of tents surrounding a battered city of stone. She and her team joined the western gate, where all of the Pathers were being funneled.

It was a madhouse.

The ground was churned into mud except where earth mages had created paths. It still left everyone trekking through ankle-deep muck to get nearly anywhere except the chow hall. The sanitary situation was equally bad, with latrines being dug out and then too quickly filled by the multitudes crammed into the encirclement around the city. Showers were nonexistent, and the rare Pathers with [Cleanse] were charging a premium to use the skill. Her and her team made due with the refilling canteens and using damp cloths to approximate a facsimile of cleanliness.

Melinda loathed every minute.

Things couldn’t be worse. Or so she thought, until seeing the situation inside the city itself. The once majestic walls were being pounded into rubble when they first arrived. But things suddenly escalated after the Kingdom trapped and eliminated a number of their elite Tier 7 fighters using a trick with the city’s shield.

Everyone in the vassal state’s military was out for blood after that. Over the course of a few hours, the artillery tactics went from a gentle bombardment to maintain valuable infrastructure to a brutal salt-the-earth campaign. The nearby forest was logged flat to construct even more trebuchets and new housing for yet another wave of new troops. The Pathers were in a weird situation, as the normal army was either unwilling or unable to order them to attack. From what Melinda gathered, it had something to do with the new war rules that prevented Pathers from being sent on suicide missions. Whatever the reason, they mostly sat around until the Queendom’s losses built up, and they started offering lucrative rewards to join the assault.

Having done nothing for the last few days, most Pathers eagerly volunteered, filling out a full seven regiments for the attack. Part of her wanted to suggest that her team sit this one out, but if they wanted to get stronger, they needed to make the best of the opportunities that the war provided.

They needed this experience, no matter how much she dreaded it. So when the time came, they went to their assigned positions and joined the siege.

It was everything she’d feared and more.

Standing in the formation with her team around her, she could only think how haphazard and uncoordinated they all looked compared to the standardization of the Queendom regulars. Those battalions were full formations of shield-bearers or archers, with the random mage or two to round them out. The menagerie of two hundred Pathers they’d been assigned to was more akin to a very well armed mob. The man next to her seemed less confident by the minute, with eyes nervously drifting down to the whip in his hand. She didn’t blame him, you couldn’t block much with a whip.