Groaning as I pat off my duster of gore and dust from going through a few walls at random. Fucking armored zombies being tough pieces of shit. Checking the door I had sealed behind me after getting sick of going through walls and decided to rest. I took of my clothes and inspected my body, red tattoos that have been with me since my subsequent arrival in this world standing out immediately. The few scar markings remaining across my body reminds me of the numerous surgeries I've had in this life. My bones were reinforced over the years through Kratos's blessing and the magic in my body.
The doctors were startled to see my bones practically become organic steel with a gray coloring. Any attempts to then break or harvest samples from my bones were met with no results. My organs are more resilient as well due to magic, but that's about the only thing besides blood vessels that can still be damaged. Case in point being my back that's currently almost entirely pitch black from blood. Focusing Mending, spores, and summoning a healing artiliest drone from the materials nearby. My back slowly returns to normal condition and my spine I could practically feel realigning and popping.
"The Spore Circle is surprisingly useful… since spores are literally everywhere… quite literally as my eyes can actively see the microscopic spores in the air after I became a druid of the Spore Circle… and just kindly asking mentally for a bit of help gets them active… I actually look forward to using them more offensively in the future now or just watching them…"
Which reminds me from my druid circle I ALWAYS have a cloud of Necrotic Spores within ten feet of me. Halo of Spores it's called, with its support Symbiotic Entity, then the spells Blindness/Deafness and Gentle Repose. Warlock wise I got Silence, Feign Death, and Speak with Dead, and the boom Pact of the Blade. For Artificer I got The Right Tool for the Job, Artillerist, Woodcarver Tool Proficiency, Shield, Thunderwave, and Eldritch Cannon. As I leveled up while fighting through New York for over three hours, a painful three hours. But it was worth it, I got to push my limits and get used to timing the headaches from casting a lot of non-cantrips at will.
I've also noticed that because of my Artificer class that my Druid class is letting me wear actual armor. My guess is because I am a Druid that uses everything, even metals to survive and keep the balance of nature, that it's ignoring the armor rule. Hell the spores get agitated if I don't wear my armor as they cling to it and vibrate on it. The buzzing of TRILLIONS of Spores causes headaches that are extremely painful so I don't fight with the things about the rule. Plus even if I'm essentially a… emotionless doll… I find the spores endearingly cute in my opinion…
Waving a hand over some molding food I found on a shelf nearby, I watched as mushrooms of various kinds grew quickly. The fungi practically wiggled when I poke them each, the pitch black ones with a skull on their caps though vibrated while wiggling. Feeling an extremely faint pulse of amusement from my heart, I watched as the black fungi practically exploded into spores. Spores that covered my hand in a soft yet extremely protective and insulated mushroom like glove. The feeling I got from the Necrotic Fungi was one that could only be described as… adornment… but I don't know why the spores adore me.
Hearing a bang on the door to my temporary safe house I put on my equipment quickly. Then without warning, I fired an Eldritch Blast at the door, a hole the size of a basketball punching through it and the one banging on the door.
"Fuck! I thought that old lady was kidding! Hey man you can't just nearly blast a brother! I'm Tashaun Burnell, I work with the fire department! I came here to ask if you'd want to join my group! Decide quickly please, like quick, there are a bunch of zombies on my ass about to be here!"
Grunting in annoyance I pointed at the door and my cannon switched from healing to blast. The spider cannon bounding through the door, sending fragments of it flying while knocking Tashaun aside. It's cannon already punching holes through the undead that were swarming because of him. Raising my hands out flat like a knife, I clenched them into fists. The rigged palm firearms firing off in quick steady beats, bullets ripping through the dead with deceptive stopping power given they work off DnD logic.
"Fall back to the stairs. We're going up then jumping to a nearby roof after I blow the wall out. Be prepared to jump, also the ones up stairs are yours."
"Stairs? What stairs?!"
Keeping my attention on the swarm in front of me, using my right leg I kicked at a nearby wall. A severely underpowered Thunderwave crackled around it, before blowing the wall out when my leg bone cracked audibly. Grunting I lowered my leg, Mending highlighting my bone as the spell fixed it. Stomping my leg a bit I started falling back with Tashaun snapping out of his surprise. I mentally sighed at my self taught alteration of Mending to be able to fix my frail but high powered body. As we passed two floors with my canon clogging the stairs down, I followed the flow of the spores in the air.
My guns stopped firing, startling the firefighter, yet I didn't truly care. I struck the nearby window and wall, an Eldritch Thunderwave SUNDERS the wall entirely sending it all flying. The debris flying like miniature bullets or rockets that shred anything in the way or embed themselves into nearby structures. My entire arms light up, Mending fixing everything up to my shoulders. Casting Jump on myself and Tashaun, my cannon jumps ahead of us onto the nearby building.
Without any fanfare I jumped, easily bounding across the distance and then some, Tashaun following after me screaming. Yet even as I landed I took off running, my cannon blowing a hole into the next building. Raising my hands into fists once more I began firing, the undead in the building ahead dying as they dove from the hole. Summoning a Wild Companion in the form of an Orangutan, I send it and my cannon into the building. One went left and the other right, leaving dead ahead in what looked like an office building. As my foot touched the edge of the building, I jumped into the building while curling up. Becoming a rolling gun fire ball temporarily before springing up onto my feet.
The fire fighter right behind me panting for breath, his fire axe swinging immediately and cutting a zombie's head in half. Blood and the severed half flying with the body hitting the ground. Moving fast I knocked out supports with gun fire and Eldritch Catapult using my feet when I kicked zombies getting to close. Office furniture and appliances flying harshly with the combined spells. The floors in the knocked out sections caving in due to the weight of the dead above us along with everything else. Creating essentially a funnel that I quickly used to cast Sanctuary between.
The target being a trapped zombie, pulling Tashaun through the barrier with my summons tagging along. The golden barrier of holy power rebuffing the zombies as they slammed against it. Jumping through a broken window into another building, landing a subway within what looked like a shopping mall tower. I quickly dispatched the undead nearby and opened the metal door leading to the restaurant's food storage. Tashaun raced into the small room with my Eldritch Cannon skidding in as it began to lose power. Whispering to my Wild Companion, the ghostly monkey screeches as it begins breaking things. Last I saw of it as I closed the storage door was it running out of subway with a chair swinging it into glass.
Grabbing several small objects while my tools hidden in my duster reacted, I turned every object I could hold into lamps essentially. Lighting up the dark room around us before placing the now, all but permanently, glowing objects around the room to light it up evenly. Tashaun fell back onto his ass visibly tired from everything. Before he could speak I held up a finger pointing at the door, he looked confused, but then we heard it. A small scale Zombie Tsunami sweeping through the store as glass broke or walls gave out. We waited for nearly an hour until it was deathly quiet to speak or do anything.
"Before you ask, have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons?"
"Yeah… I played when I was in college when my brother was a senior in highschool…"
"There's your answer, I'm a living embodiment of DnD. Though I'm more support based as I'm an Artificer before I'm a Druid or Warlock."
"Damn… but what is with your spells then? Those aren't the normal ones from what I remember."
"I've figured out how to combine or link them together. I've got a number of them under my belt along with features."
"Wait if you're the uh… shooty shoot Artificer, what about the other two?"
"Undying and Spores."
"Wait so you're essentially fucking immortal!"
"In a sense, but my body is extremely frail in exchange for so much power."
"Shit man if that's the trade off give me some!"
"Denied. You lack the requirements, although should I be able to permanently create items like a Flame Tongue. Then you'd be able to use them after attuning to only ONE otherwise your mortal shell would implode."
"I'll take that… I'll take that over nothing…"
Smirking, I handed him his fire axe that had a few temporary infusion runes on it. Enhanced Weapon, from my bag I pulled out a small winged metal statue. Pulling out a ruby carved out to look like an eye, I spotted it within the metal statue. My intent causes magic to flow into it and make it come to life, thus a Homunculus Servant is born.
[Homunculus Servant, Tiny construct
Armor Class: 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 15 (1 + Intelligence modifier + artificer level (the homunculus has a number of Hit Dice [d4s] equal to artificer level))
Speed: 20 ft., fly 30 ft.
— — — —
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
4 (-3) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 7 (−2)
— — — —
Saving Throws: Dex +2 plus PB
Skills: Perception +0 plus PB x 2, Stealth +2 plus PB
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: exhaustion, poisoned
— — — —
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10 + (PB x 2)
Languages: understands the languages you speak
Challenge: —
Proficiency Bonus (PB): equals your bonus
Evasion: If the homunculus is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails. It can't use this trait if it's incapacitated.
— — — —
Actions:
Force Strike: Ranged Weapon Attack - Your spell attack modifier to hit, range 30 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d4 + PB force damage.
— — — —
Reactions:
Channel Magic: The homunculus delivers a spell you cast that has a range of touch. The homunculus must be within 120 feet of you.]
The small statue resembling a biblically accurate Seraphim twirled in the air as it flew out my hand. Chuckling at the childish action I grinned at how useful it'll be given I can now cast a lot of spells like Spare the Dying as long as it's within a hundred twenty feet of me. Meaning I can surprise prey with destructive spells that have short range from right upon them. Or I stop people from dying for a bit which will give me temporary hit points that can then be used for things like Symbiotic Entity which burns temp hp.
"Well shit man… you just gave me something good and created life… any plans on how to get out of here though?"
"Ventilation shafts, the spores tell me they're safe and will get us where we need to go."
"Sounds like a plan man."