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Chapter 393: Echoes of the Deep - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2025-05-22 04:22:07 +0000 UTCMy second Ability evolution was one that I was even more excited for than my first Ability evolution. This was because I considered my second ability, {Echoes of the Deep}, to be the true core of my abilities.
You have accomplished something exceptional with {Echoes of the Deep}, and have acquired a significant amount of Achievement using the ability’s aid.
Echoes of the Deep is able to be evolved.
Echoes of the Deep is able to be evolved. You have (3) options for upgrades. If you would like to unlock other options, it is recommended that you use this ability in new and interesting ways before you die.
Note: Ability evolutions must be purchased within 72 hours of returning to the Market after death. If you fail to purchase any available ability evolution within this time period, you will forfeit this chance for evolution, and will need to earn an Ability evolution in another life.
The current text of {Echoes of the Deep} is written below.
Keywords: Alteration, Ocean (2 Keywords.)
Glut Penalty: 10
So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence. Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.
You retain access to your previous world’s shaping magic system in its entirety.
Possible Evolution routes: 3
I looked at the ‘core text’ for {Echoes of the Deep} and smiled. After I had edited the text for this ability during our last visit to the Market, this ability had become incredibly potent. Then, I rubbed my hands in anticipation and looked at my options for evolution.
Available evolution paths: 3
(Note: All currently available evolution paths will change your ability from [Basic] Grade to [Intermediate] Grade unless they state otherwise.
Direction 1: Terraforming
Cost: 3,000 Achievement
Glut penalty: 10 -> 15
You have often used the effects of {Echoes of the Deep} to transform and change the dimensional laws of this world, and have accomplished something quite exceptional by relying on dimensional terraforming. This evolution is a reflection of your focus on dimensional terraforming, as well as its incredible potential.
Effects:
This Evolution drastically enhances your dimensional terraforming abilities, by stapling the dimensional terraforming magic system you have learned from your current world onto the shaping magic system already included in this Ability. In short, you will have access to two different magic systems if you take this evolution.
Furthermore, it will allow you to create a ‘shielded’ block of space, for a moderate amount of essence. A shielded block of space will no longer interact with other, nearby dimensional laws, meaning that you can create small spaces with completely different laws of reality.
These spaces are limited to 50 square meters in size, and no more than three can be maintained. Upon your death, these spaces dissolve, and all interactions between dimensional laws within will revert to regular interactions.
I only looked at my first evolution option for a few moments before I decisively turned up my nose.
The shaping magic system already had ways to do dimensional terraforming included in it. It was part of its identity. Sure, the dimensional terraforming magic system I had learned this time was more efficient - and the ability to create shielded blocks of space probably had some kind of fringe scenario use. Honestly, though, I didn’t think this was a good use of an ability evolution. Unless I had no other choice, there was no way I would take this one. A big part of what I was hoping for with this evolution was to head more in a direction that was {Eldritch} or helped me interact with souls. I had already paid for a consultation on the ‘best’ direction for my abilities back when we were in the Market, and I hadn’t forgotten the advice I had received. If an Ability evolution didn’t boost my access to souls or the eldritch, I wouldn’t pick it. This evolution just wasn’t good enough.
The second option proved far more interesting.
Direction 2: Flame of Hope
Cost: 10,000 Achievement
Glut penalty: 10 -> 20
You have used the effects of {Echoes of the Deep} to bring hope to a dying world, fundamentally changing the course of history and potentially reviving the world. To accomplish this, you have relied upon the powers of hope and sunlight. This evolution is a reflection of your ability to support and help others, and your predisposition to use ‘healing’ magic and to empower those around you.
Effects:
All of your healing magic, much like the sunlight of this world, will now restore a small amount of essence when it comes into contact with other people. Furthermore, all healing magic you cast upon others will now have very small effects on healing or repairing their soul, at the cost of nutrients. (You OR the patient in question can pay this nutrient cost.) This ability will allow your healing magic to transition into the realm of soul healing as a passive effect.
Second, your ‘renewal’ ability will gain the ability to ‘boost’ a few stats by up to three grades, depending on how much essence you spend during the healing and empowering process. Each stat increase lasts for 24 hours after being applied. Only one stat boost from this ability can be applied at a time PER ALLY. (So you can give each of your allies one boost, but you can’t give one ally multiple boosts).
Third, you gain the ability to summon a false sun once per lifetime. Those who bask in the light of the false sun will quickly heal from injuries, and will also grow more powerful by one grade in EVERY stat.
Summoning a false sun will require that you remain stationary and take no actions. The false sun lasts for one day. You may exclude any creatures you wish to exclude from the effect, so you can choose to buff ALL life near you or only strengthen select allies or other life forms. The false sun lasts for one day, or until you expend any amount of essence or move too much.
When I saw this ability evolution, I was very happy.
Despite the fact that I was holding out for an Eldritch ability evolution, this was tempting. Being able to heal souls and interact with them was one of the biggest reasons I was set on an eldritch ability evolution to begin with. While this evolution might have a bit less potential, it was still very good. Even more importantly, this one would also come with a built-in way to support my friends and make them stronger. I wasn’t entirely sure how much essence it would take to get someone a +3 grade boost, but if i could keep all four of us boosted semi-permanently, the potential would be massive. If Sallia had 3 extra grades of absorption essence, she would be a monster that could rampage unchecked through weaker battlefields. Felix would have an even easier time making items and strengthening himself. Anise would have far greater reserves of essence to throw around fireballs and use support and utility spells. If the situation called for it, I could even swap around the stat I was boosting - such as last world, when Felix had become one of the major political figures of the nation. If another situation like that arose, I could just swap the stat I was boosting from essence to Intelligence, or whatever was needed. This upgrade was highly flexible and incredibly potent.
Furthermore, the ability to become a false sun was also quite good. It was a once-per-lifetime ability, but if we got into another situation where we were fighting on the front lines of a war, or we joined an expedition to hunt a powerful monster, this could turn the tides and also net me a huge amount of influence Achievement. This ability evolution had a lot of potential.
I turned my attention to my third ability evolution, and then my grin widened.
Direction 3: Eldritch Alteration
Cost: 50,000 Achievement
Glut penalty: 10 -> 15
This Evolution adds the ‘Eldritch’ Keyword to this Ability.
You have used the effects of {Echoes of the Deep} to potentially change the fate of an entire world. This time, it was for the better… though that may not always be the case. Those who have stepped into the path of the eldritch can bring about great cataclysms as easily as they bring about great blessings. This evolution will allow you to take a step forward on the path of the Eldritch, and will allow you to bring greater change to the worlds you touch - whether for better or worse.
Effects:
This Ability will make you fundamentally closer to an ‘Eldritch Creature’ than a regular one.
First, your existence will take a drastic step away from ‘humanity.’ Instead of a being of the physical world, you will become something closer to a half-physical, half-conceptual creature. In practice, you will be able to ‘link’ yourself to a certain concept each life, and then begin constantly growing your connection to that concept by doing things related to it. (For example, if you link yourself to the concept of ‘hope,’ you will grow your conceptual half by promoting and increasing hope.) This link will require a small amount of alteration essence to maintain, since your ‘innate biology’ is that of a being of flesh. (If you undergo soul surgery to change your innate species, this alteration maintenance cost may be removed.)
The stronger your conceptual half becomes, the stronger you will become. The extra Skills and stats you can gain will vary wildly based on what concept you choose to embody, but this cycle of growth will have no theoretical upper limit - only a softcap based on the grade of this Ability.
Whenever you die, the conceptual half of your existence will grow much weaker, and then you will be revived within an hour after death. The state of your previous body does not matter - you do not need to worry about keeping your corpse intact, or anything of the sort. This is more a form of ‘regeneration’ than anything else. (This weakening of your conceptual half is PERMANENT, although you CAN regrow any conceptual power that you lose through the same method you originally acquired your conceptual half).
This Conceptual half will be linked directly to your soul, and will also strengthen and empower your soul and allow you to interact with other souls in a variety of ways.
I looked at the final ability evolution path, and then I smiled. Eldritch Alteration was almost everything I had hoped for from this Ability evolution. It would give me a new way to grow each life, and even better, it would allow me to theoretically keep growing infinitely more powerful within each world, if I chose a good concept and stuck to it. This was kind of like getting an extra ability slot from the rune magic system, only it seemed infinitely more powerful and had far greater versatility.
I was also quite drawn to the idea of being able to constantly revive myself after death. The Ability hadn’t specified any sort of restriction at all - it just needed enough fuel to work. This Ability would allow me to take massive risks - both in and out of the Market. All I needed to do was make sure my conceptual half grew large enough to support my needs, and then I could take crazy risks each life to grow and improve. This Ability didn’t have any method of strengthening my friends, which was a bit of a shame, but I could probably turn this ability into a buff for my allies if I chose the right concept. I didn’t think this was a big problem for me, as long as I thought carefully about what concept I wanted to use each world.
I cackled. This was the kind of Ability I needed. It still had a few problems - most specifically, the fact that I wouldn’t retain much of my growth each time we returned to the Market. Hopefully I could change that by using some Ability-editing when we returned to the Market. However, I felt that this Ability evolution had a lot of promise.
After I finished looking over my Ability evolutions, my attention returned to my friends. It was time to hear about their options, and then we could start planning for the future.
Author’s Note:
I have some IRL stuff that will be happening during the last week of May. I am hopeful that it will not interrupt my chapter releases - but if it does, I apologize in advance. I try to give you more warning when things like this happen - but I just couldn’t get proper confirmation for what was happening and when until now, and I was hesitant to announce potential scheduling errors when I wasn’t even sure when those errors would occur. now that I have a definite ‘X is happening during this week’ bit of information, I am letting you know - May 27th - May 30th, some chapters may be cancelled if needed. Hopefully that won’t happen, but it might.
Join my Discord! (I’m much more active there than in the comments section).
Comments
Dax
Yeah... It kinda feels like the ability was written before this world's arc was. It doesn't seem to have much to do with her actions here, or how she was using her abilities, and it is basically word for word everything she wanted wrapped up nicely with a bow. Very convenient.
IDFree
Also, does anyone remember what her keyword slots look like now? Is it really only 3 in use now? Alteration, ocean and ocean? Edit: Also soul, space, madness from Eldritch Soul
IDFree
One of those was definitely unlike the others)
Moon Winchester
Oh my God, I deeply love that ability. I’m a huge fan of concepts. I feel how OG cultivation books used to be written with the DAO was so fun but nowadays it all just feel super diluted. People stopped exploring it and having fun with it. What are my most favorite books has a person who’s disciple after a long periods of struggling found horrifying success just through the DAO of cheese.
Luboš Hemala
Eldritch huh? :-D okey didn't see that one coming, but nice
