77 - Make It Mine

Joe, still a disembodied ghost floating beside his body, looked into his corporeal form, taking careful note of the clustered masses of corruption. He had gained two points in Strength, Perception, and Vigor and one point in Spirit from his secondary class. He had not taken any of the skills it was offering him as they wouldn't help him fight off Sougath's infestation. Dreadful Warden's skills all had to do with withstanding or battling beings of the other realms.

Even with [Crystal Mind], Joe's focus was being swamped by the pain the corruption was wreaking on his body. He had to start working and get back into his skin again before the specter recovered or the corruption became too deeply rooted to remove.

Targeting multiple masses in his head, Joe let the Mark of Change go at it.

The Mark of Death seeks to transform the monstrous alterations to your pattern into standardized personal skills.

will become [Tracker]

[Tracker] - Common - Perception: Your sense of smell is enhanced. You will be able to track, target, and locate objects and creatures by scent alone. Passive {Beast}

will become [Night Eyes]

[Night Eyes] - Common - Perception: Your eyes are far more sensitive to light than normal. You can see in areas of dim light as if it were bright light. Night Eyes will not improve your ability to see in complete darkness. Passive {Beast}

will become [Pack Master]

[Pack Master] - Common - Spirit: You will be able to dominate lupine creatures. Your ability to command, intimidate and charm gains a 10% bonus to overcome emotional resistance plus 2% for each skill rank you have with this skill. Wolfen creatures will be naturally drawn to follow you. Cost: Moderate Mana. | Range: Short. {Pack}

Joe had the pre-assigned points in Perception and Spirit from the Warden class to take all three of these. The moment he accepted the changes, the throbbing in his head vanished. Joe had become so enured to headaches during his cancer that he barely noted the pain until it was gone. Even so, having that grinding ache dissipate allowed Joe to think more clearly.

Unfortunately, Sougath was recovering as well, resuming its assault. Now that Joe was his only option, the Night Haunt seemed more desperate than ever. If Azbekt had not annihilated almost two-thirds of the wraith's essence, Joe likely would have lost in minutes. The red corrosion redoubled its efforts to chew away the soul tether.

It also resumed its body-warping assault on Joe's flesh and bones. Flaring [Crystal Mind] was not as good as [Diamond Focus], but it was enough for Joe to concentrate and find the mass in his chest that was responsible for the agonizing malformations.

The Mark of Death seeks to transform the monstrous alteration to your pattern into a standardized personal skill.

will become [Morphic Form]

[Morphic Form] - Uncommon - Vigor: You can transform your physical form to become more bestial, temporarily altering your physical attributes, appearance and/or reasoning. For five minutes, you can adjust an attribute or combination of attributes by 15% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill. Cost: Median Stamina. {Transformation}

On selecting this option, Joe's body eased back into its proper form. His hands remained feral, but that was a problem for another day. As there were plenty of cat-like and other such animalistic races with clawed hands, Joe wasn't too worried about being a complete freak with taloned fingers.

Joe still had two points of Strength and two free points to use, four if he passed up the bonus to experience. With his head clear and his body no longer twisting itself into pretzels, he could now truly concentrate on the squiggling tumors throughout his body and the black coils pushing against his defenses.

There were still eight more nodes of writhing red tendrils. Additionally, multiple smoky black blots were trying to get past Joe's [Iron Will] trait. Those ebon masses were more monstrous abilities, ones bound to the soul, not the flesh. Of the eight physical lesions, five of them were smaller, the same size as skills he had already altered. Three of the crimson lesions were much larger.

Joe was beginning to see how to [Identify] the power inside the coiling clumps. He quickly scanned the small clumps and found that almost all of the abilities offered were awful. One wanted to reshape his mouth, giving him a bite attack. Another was a berserker rage ability. Regeneration through consuming raw flesh and contagious saliva were two more things Joe wanted no part of.

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The last of the five lesser clots, Joe used the Mark of Death to modify.

The Mark of Death seeks to transform the monstrous alteration to your pattern into a standardized personal skill.

will become [Hunter's Pursuit]

[Hunter's Pursuit] - Common - Strength: This athletics-focused skill improves your ability to run, jump, climb, and swim by 5% plus 2% for each skill rank you have with this skill. You will be able to move through natural impediments, such as rocks, brambles, and underbrush, without being significantly slowed. Cost: Modest Stamina. {Celerity}

Happy to have an improved movement skill, he studied the four he had left alone. Once he got back into his body, he might be able to [Dispel Rot] those out with some help from Hah'roo or the Count if they were functional yet. Or at least keep disrupting them long enough to get to the Temple of Murrcee. From what he had seen of the Murrceeian clerics, someone there should be able to get the corruption out of him.

It was the three big masses that had him the most worried. Each time he had transformed a spell so far, he felt Sougath's hold and suppression diminish. He was not sure how he knew it, but he was certain that some part of the trio of large tumors was what was preventing him from returning his spirit to his body. Using [Identify], Joe was able to see what those writhing clumps represented. They were called <Soul Taker>, <Mage Bane>, and <Flesh of the Were>.

Joe suddenly understood why these were different from the smaller crimson clusters. The three denser masses did not feel like monstrous skills; they felt more like unnatural traits. These would not be things he could just choose not to use. They would be fundamental parts of who he was.

The first one,<Soul Taker>, would allow Joe to take over someone else's body if his was destroyed, basically, what Sougath was trying to do now. Looking into the blots of black vapor, Joe found the same trait there, too. <Soul Taker> was both a spiritual and physical ability. He recoiled from the vile power. The last thing he would want to become was some sort of body-theiving parasite. That path never ended well, invariably leading to evil.

The next one was something Joe normally would want. <Mage Bane> was how the Night Skinner had such an exceptionally high resistance to magical and a moderate resistance to spiritual attacks. Unfortunately, the cost was too high. Any non-curse spell Joe wanted to cast beyond himself would have to pass through those resistances. He would be failing most of his heals and cures. If Joe was a Hexer, then <Mage Bane> would be a devastating combination. But as a Healer, he would be crippled by the trait.

The last one, <Flesh of the Were>, was also a mixed bag. It was the reason the werebeast's skin was impervious to anything but silver. It came with major vulnerability to silver, which explained how his makeshift spear had been so devastating. Joe could live without touching silverware again. It was what the trait would do to his body that completely revolted him. Joe would have to take on the heavy hairy hide of a werewolf. In video games, the affectations your character had were easily ignored. Half the time, Joe forgot what his character's hair color was as it was always under a helmet. But this was his real body now. His hands were bad enough; the thought of having his whole body covered in coarse fur was repugnant.

Still, there had to be a way to deal with these three. Joe tried to force the Mark of Change to radically alter the trait into something more palatable, but there clearly were limits to how much change he could invoke. Converting the powers from monstrous abilities to nearly identical personal skills seemed like the best he was going to get.

As the one he hated the most, Joe kept working on <Soul Taker>. The power would become [Soul Binding], a {Domination} affinity skill. Joe already had one {Domination} effect, the [Band of Beguilement], and he was not a big fan of that already. He really didn't want more subjugation powers. Mind control just felt scummy. One was bad enough.

A weird idea hit Joe. The mark could only alter something so much, but what if he was willing to toss more ingredients into the pot? Joe offered the mark both <Soul Taker> and the twisted purple bracelet. After a lengthy pause, the bell toll shook his spirit.

The Mark of Death seeks to transform the monstrous alteration to your pattern into a standardized personal skill. By absorbing a compatible magic item, the monstrous ability has been redefined.

and the [Band of Beguilement] will become [Mesmeric Command]

[Mesmeric Command] - Uncommon - Spirit: By overwhelming a target's mental resistance, you can force it to obey your commands. The target will not obey an obviously self-destructive order, but it can be compelled to perform actions that conflict with its own self-interests. Cost: Major Mana | Cooldown: Moderate | Range: Medium. {Domination}

He couldn't help but let out a whoop of jubilation. The skill version of the [Band of Beguilement] had the same functionality as the item but would now be based on his skill ranks instead of his raw Spirit. Shortening the cooldown would be great if it was an ability he used frequently, but since it wasn't, Joe took it as a minor bonus. The biggest boon was that he would not have a categorically evil trait bound into his pattern.

As Joe wracked his brain on how to deal with the last two masses of lycanthropy, he noticed a flicker of light heading toward the tower. It was a torch carried by some unknown number of Peregrine Harbor citizens. Joe realized that while he had undergone some massive fundamental changes, only a minute or so had passed since the thunderclap from his latest lost staff had boomed out into the night. Or the blast of Azbekt's following smite.

While help could be a good thing, it also might be a disaster. Joe was by no means a powerhouse, but thanks to his prophetic mark, he was holding his own for the moment. Who knew if those coming to investigate would be able to resist Sougath or would they be instantly overwhelmed by the Night Haunt?

Joe decided not to chance it. The specter, if anything, looked worse now than it had right after the hammer blow from Phealti. It had been expending itself to break Joe with pain, fear, and corruption, but Joe had taken everything it had to hit him with and was still fighting back.

Even so, he had a very bad feeling that Sougath would recover its strength if it got a chance to feed on an unprotected onlooker.

This had to end and fast.

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