Forged Legacy

“What about you, Steve? Any idea what you want your Class to be?” Cash asked.

“I was already planning on choosing the Sentinel path. Skills to protect my family are exactly what I’m looking for.”

“Perfect! You already have the Mark, and all the resources you’ll need to evolve your weave to E-Grade are readily available,” Cash explained.

Harvey perked up at that. “Evolve your weave? Doesn’t the Loom do that for you?”

“I forget how much you still don’t know,” Cash chuckled. “The System is pretty callous for making the dead figure this out on their own. Did you know that only newly integrated species start at G-Grade?”

Harvey nodded, “Yeah, I heard it evens the odds of the integration trials.”

“The extra skills are one of the few advantages you have over existing factions, but it’s really there to give your bodies time to adjust to essence. The rest of us are born at F-Grade, meaning we start with an F-Grade weave. The System helps pick up the slack the first time you evolve, but from here on out, you will need to upgrade your weaves like the rest of us.”

“How? I unlocked the weave screen early after injuring myself. Does it have something to do with that?”

“No,” Cash laughed. “If near-death experiences were the only way to push our bodies forward, nobody would ever make it past D-Grade. We upgrade our weaves through anointment.”

“Anointment?” Harvey had heard the word before, but where?

“Like when Samuel anointed David?” Steve asked.

Church. That was where he heard it. Harvey was happy working with Cash, but he was leery of tying his ascension to Heaven’s chariot when the rest of the angels seemed unbothered about saving the humans who believed in them. He was about to interject when Cash continued.

“Yes and no. That story is another echo of the Lord’s S-Tier legacy bleeding into your world before the integration. The methods themselves are the same, but anointing yourself with ink and oil resonant to your path is something all beings living under the System do.”

That calmed him down a bit, and he listened with rapt attention.

“Essentially, our bodies start as blank canvases. Yours more than most, as mine was born with echoes of our Father’s path. We anoint ourselves with ink and oil made from powerful ingredients that contain the resonances we want our weaves to generate. It’s actually a lot like the inscriptions you create, Harvey. Crude methods, where you simply cover yourself in ink, will help you make some progress, but painting yourself with specific arrays is preferable. You just need to be careful that the design doesn’t damage the patterns provided by the System.”

The light outside the window suddenly seemed brighter as an ocean of new possibilities appeared in his mind. He’d always wondered if inscribing your own body was possible, and now it seemed like that was mandatory. But instead of shooting lightning out of an array on your elbow, you’d actually change your weave to empower your essence with the resonance directly.

“So you’re saying you already have the materials to make my body… what?” Steve asked, confused.

“Holy,” Cash answered. “The reason we push you towards these pre-defined paths is that we have the materials and expertise to help you walk them. I hate to say it, Harvey, but you’re walking through the wilderness on your own right now. I’m sure there is some faction out in the multiverse that can help you, but I have no idea what you need. But for a Sentinel and a Templar baseball enthusiast? We have everything you need to make sure your race, legacy, skills, and weave all slot together smoothly.”

“Ha. I’m going to be a holy man,” Steve chuckled.

“Literally,” Tyler smiled.

Excited chatter filled the room, but Harvey didn’t hear any of it as he stared down at the table. Had he messed up? Since the beginning, he’d felt like Earth had become a shipwreck that left him drowning in a black ocean. Unable to see land, the bottom, or any wreckage to grab on to, Harvey learned to swim. He’d braved the darkness and put his body on the line to make it over to his family, only for a celestial speedboat to come and whisk them away.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

[Don’t panic. Just because their path isn’t yours doesn’t mean you made the wrong decision. You wouldn’t be here right now without it, and your family would still be living in blissful ignorance waiting for the angels to save them.]

You’re right. We’ve flown solo so far, might as well keep going.

“You said crude anointment rituals might still work?” Harvey asked.

“For reaching E-Grade? Yes. Any farther than that could cause issues. Forcing conflicting resonances into a weave is dangerous. Best case, the ability to channel power through your body slows down. Worst case, you break the weave entirely and die of energy starvation. The real problem is zeroing in on what your path is going to be,” Cash replied. “It seems like most of your skills involve fire?”

“My Class is called Forgefire Arsenalist, but I kind of wanted to incorporate all resonances into my path. That’s what drew me to inscriptions in the first place, since it seemed like the easiest way to get my feet wet.”

“You gotta have a pretty mighty appetite to incorporate everything,” Cash whistled. “Maybe a branching path where your main resonance is something like creation or…”

“Innovation,” Harvey interrupted.

“Sure, that could work.”

“My first Mark was called Born Innovator. It became my Architect of the Veil’s End Imprint.”

“Ok, what about the other two? I’m assuming the healing one you used in the bunker was a reward from your last trial?”

“You could say that. Every Outpost leader had a Mark that combined into the Guardian of the Gilded Return once the war was over.”

“Then that’s a nobility Imprint. You probably won’t lose it even if you don’t make life part of your path.”

“You can lose Imprints?” Tyler interrupted.

“Legacy change. Forgotten pieces fade. Violated pieces mutate into Stains and Scars. You’ll learn that Marks come and go the longer you live with the System. It’s up to you to reinforce the ones integral to your path into Imprints and Brands. Anyways, what is your third Imprint, Harvey?”

“It started as a Stain from when I killed my…” he caught himself when Max perked up. “Died. After proving my Willpower, it transformed into the Tempered Heart Imprint.”

“Innovation, Willpower, and Life,” Cash mused. “Those don’t really resonate with Forgefire. You might want to push for a resonance Mark.” Cash raised his hands, signalling him to wait once he saw the burning question in Harvey’s eyes.

“Legacy comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. Some come from Nobility assigned by the System, like your Guardian of the Gilded Return. Others come from life-defining actions like your Tempered Heart. Then you have some that come from your personality, like Architect of the Veils End. You also have resonance Marks that come from anointing your body and path under a specific resonance,” Cash explained. “Holy, fire, lightning, undeath, life, and hundreds more. A forgefire Mark would be the quickest way to boost your combat power, Harvey.”

“That sounds great and all, but how would I get something like that?”

“Time and understanding. I know you think our education programs are lacking, and with where things are headed with the war, I tend to agree with you, but taking the time to learn and understand our Father’s path is how your parents got their Holy resonance Marks.”

Cassandra’s eyes lit up, “So you’re saying he needs to come back to church?”

“Definitely not,” Cash answered. “His path is wide enough as it is. Adding Holy to it would do more harm than good.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cassandra complained. “What kind of shepherd are you!”

“An honest one?” Cash laughed. “Listen, none of you needs to have all the answers for the rest of your life today. The starting points you have are good enough, and you’ll find there is a lot of room for bending before things start to break with the System’s help. For now, let’s get to the church so the two of you can create your Classes.”

A million doubts spawned a thousand questions that Harvey desperately wanted answered, but he knew that now wasn’t the time. Cash had expanded Harvey’s window into the inner workings of the System from a keyhole into a windshield, and it would take time to digest all the new sights he was seeing. Part of him wanted a textbook that laid everything out, but another part of him was excited to see what he could come up with on his own.

His path was unique, and he needed to explore it on his own. He wouldn’t listen if Cash tried shoe-horning him into Heaven’s plan anyway.

“Can we come watch?” Eleanor asked.

“Sure! Seeing the process will help a lot when you decide to make your own,” Cash said.

“Let me grab my bat,” Tyler blurted, his chair groaning as he pushed back from the table and sprinted upstairs.

“You don’t need an actual bat, Tyler!” Harvey called out.

“Thank you so much for taking the time to help us,” Cassandra said. “By the way, I heard you’re a healer? Are you going to be with my sons while they fight?”

“Of course! I’ll be fighting right alongside them, so taking the time to help them prepare is the least I can do,” Cash smiled.

“Oh, thank heavens,” Cassandra rejoiced. “I love Harvey, but it’s good to know my husband will have you watching over him.”

Cash turned towards him, an amused look meeting Harvey’s annoyed glare. “I heard that.”

“I know, sweetie, put your shoes on,” his mother instructed.