Forged Legacy

Nobody else was home when Harvey stumbled through the front door, letting him take a quick shower and climb into bed without answering any questions. He woke up to Max pounding on his door to let him know dinner was ready, and he made a point not to answer when his Mom asked him where he’d been that morning. Excusing himself to the garage, he got to work on Eleanor’s armor.

His original plan was to dip into his reserves of G-Grade essence-infused iron that he’d looted from the mine full of elementals back in Veils End, but opted to start her off with an F-Grade set. Ever since Cash explained that G-Grade was a synthetic stage of cultivation that the System provided newly integrated worlds, Harvey’d started to think of his old G-Grade creations as nothing more than watered-down versions of what he could make now. The real problem with using higher-grade gear was the added weight of the materials and the amount of essence it took to power any arrays. Theoretically, he could slip on a set of A-Grade armor right now, but his spine would snap just trying to hold up a helmet. The jump from G to F-Grade was more of a hop, and with 25 Profession levels under her belt, she would already have the stats to make fighting in silver plate armor very doable.

The bulk of the pieces were finished by the time he needed to leave for the battlefield, and the last round of hammering could wait until he got back. Returning to the same basketball court he’d used as his launchpad yesterday, Harvey blasted off into the sky and flew towards his hideout. A quick scan of the area showed nobody had come snooping, and even if they had, he doubted they would find anything. He’d picked up as many of his spent shells as possible, and any he missed would’ve dissolved back into raw essence by now thanks to Echo Forge’s lacking ability to create permanent replicas.

Shimmying backward into his hidey-hole, he pulled out his sniper and settled in for the long wait til morning.

[Are you ready for this?]

Killing more of our allies?

[We’re not killing any angels. Just the beasts they’re already sending to be slaughtered.]

Julius had a point, but Harvey didn’t want to make this sort of pragmatism a habit. The multiverse might want them all to follow the law of the jungle, but he hoped civilization could rise above that once the integration was over.

As the hours passed, Harvey let his aura wander over his surroundings to act as an early warning system for anything roaming the empty battlefield. He didn’t find anything, but it made him think about the implications of his ever-growing Willpower. He could sense hundreds of feet in every direction if he blasted his aura to its limits, letting him find other ascendants and get a decent idea of their strength. He could also draw it in close, but he didn’t know if that made him a beacon others could sense from a mile away or kept him hidden from others. There had to be a way to conceal it. Otherwise, nobody would ever make an assassin-based skill set work.

[I think you’re onto something. We need a way to hide your aura. Otherwise, we can’t exactly use Awakened Armament for anything more than open combat.]

Julius had hit the nail on the head before Harvey could even bring it up. If the only way to hide his aura was to draw it in completely, he wouldn’t be able to use Julius outside his body at all. Telekinetically controlling his gear required it staying in range of his aura, and most of his plans for E-Grade revolved around Julius and the Cognition Matrix.

What if instead of hiding my aura, we made it blend in?

[You’re not exactly a stealth specialist, but we can probably make something that dilutes your presence enough that nobody can pinpoint exactly where you are within the projection.]

That’s fine. My range is only going to get bigger.

[What if it helped camouflage the bunker?]

Like a deer blind?

[Yeah, you shoot from your deer blind while I fly around outside.]

It was a decent idea, and they refined it while they waited for the armies to gather outside their walls. Harvey’s plan for E-Grade was to create a mix of skills that empowered the things he created with his Profession as well as a few that were useful in any circumstance. Fangburner, Fireball, and Flamestrike were his current bread and butter abilities, but he wanted to move more in the direction of Inkbound Ordnance, where the effects could be modified by feeding the skill ink alongside his essence. The rest would lean into the Cognition Matrix, letting his Willpower advantage created by the 43% boost to the stat he was getting from his legacy, weave, and the matrix itself blossom into a combat style where he acted as a mobile fortress. An aircraft carrier sending out tools specially designed for whatever mission he needed to accomplish. The only way that would work is if he could keep his aura extended without painting a massive target on his back.

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Dreams of power yet to be obtained were interrupted by a stampede of heavenly beasts rushing past his hideout. This time, a herd of Floodtusks came close enough for the pile of rubble he was hiding under to topple over, pinning him to the ground while fortunately not exposing his gleaming silver armor to the sunlight.

Oof!

[Don’t be a baby. Start shooting!]

That knocked the wind out of me.

[So you can kill a dragon, but some kitchen cabinets falling over is where you draw the line?]

Shut up.

The shifting debris cut off most of his line of sight, but he still managed to kill enough to reach Level 65 by the time the fighting was done. He waited an extra hour before digging himself out, careful not to make the rest of the pile collapse. Today was Saturday, which meant both sides would be on high alert watching for anyone trying to spend Sunday on the wrong side of the wall. Harvey made sure to fly as high as he could before crossing back into Heaven and once again landed on an empty rooftop. There was no way the gargoyles hadn’t noticed him, but nobody had come to ask why he was flying around yet. He could always claim he was just blowing off some steam. As long as nobody saw him actually leave Heaven’s domain, he should have plausible deniability.

Stopping at a chapel on the way back, he made his way to the Loom for his Level 65 Class skill. Having spent the long hours waiting for the battle brainstorming with Julius, it didn’t take long to find the best combination of memories.

First, Harvey found the time he, Steve, Tyler, and Cash hid from the flood of Tortured Souls that couldn’t pass the barrier of life provided by infusing Legacy’s Redoubt with Guardian of the Gilded Return Imprint. He hoped a memory where his bunker became the medium for his aura to channel his Legacy would create the foundation for his defensive skill to manipulate his aura in other ways. Next, he added his experience using Awakened Armament to aid in assassinating the first demon lieutenant. Floating his shotgun up under the table and blasting the man’s stomach was one of the key reasons they managed to kill him so fast, and Harvey hoped adding the rationale behind creating the skill in the first place would aid the loom in weaving something useful. Then he added his time spent sniping from the rubble, along with his active use of his aura to aid in his ability to remain hidden while he flew in and out of Heaven’s domain. Finally, he added his time working on the silencer for his sniper rifle and the sound-muffling inscriptions on his armor.

The last ingredient he wanted to include was one of his Imprints, but none seemed to be a good fit. That made sense considering stealth wasn’t really a part of his legacy. Most of his levels so far came from blowing things up. Hell, the Architect of the Veil's End Imprint was his reward for turning an entire Outpost into a glorified IED. Nobody would call his work subtle, but who’s to say that couldn’t change with this new skill?

Nodding his assent, the collection sank into the Loom. A sigil depicting a pile of rubble merged with various shrubbery and plant life surrounded by a haze of white fog rapidly took shape, floating off the Loom to merge with the existing sigil of his Legacy’s Redoubt. Combined, it looked like the fog was leaking from the firing windows, and the thick steel walls were covered with dense camouflage.

Pulling his hands away from the orb, Harvey checked the description.