Gehrman's Butcher Block was developing nicely. Of course, it had been done for a few weeks now, and the results were already evident.
Each "run" of the Butcher Block in which the Awakened would stand at their positions and fire when prompted lasted 2 hours each.
There had been some shifting in how long each run lasted, originally it had been 6 hours. However, Gehrman found that with his current abilities reaching the Nightmare Creatures around Fort Balmuth would only take so long, and since it was never an actual fight, the real reason it took so long was because it took time for Gehrman's tendrils to reach those farther away Nightmare Creatures.
In truth, it could have gone even faster, but pulling back the Nightmare Creatures (especially the ones of the Awakened Rank) took a lot longer since if he pulled them at hyper sonic speeds they would die on their own.
It took some experimenting with each new Nightmare Creature to see how fast he could pull them without ending them in transit, this further exacerbated the time each run took.
2 hours was the average that they ended up with.
Each run would yield roughly 100 Memories and 1 or 2 Echos. And since these would occur 3 or 4 times every 24 hours, the amount of resources the Government was acquiring was truly astounding.
On top of that, the death toll had dropped to almost zero.
Of course, Gehrman couldn't be an overseer at all times, he had other projects he had to work on. And though each death filled him with a slight amount of guilt, the thought 'I could have prevented that' was a useless one.
In his heart, he knew such a stance was the moral and correct one. Gehrman was glad to feel that stinge of pain because of that fact. However, he was practical above all else. Those lives were valuable, and their loss meant much, but so long as that number remained starkly diminished compared to how it was before Gehrman's Transcendence, then he let himself focus on other things.
At the moment, Gehrman was split between five projects. One was the Butcher Block, taking up 1/3 of each days time. The second was tearing through the Soul Forest with the aid of Mordret. The young man had begrudgingly decided to tag along with Gehrman, though he did evict himself from his Soul the moment it looked like his life was in danger.
It was funny, for such a scary guy who was seen as some undying monster, he was frightefully afraid of death.
Still, he was a prodigy. And it didn't take him long to start figuring out the same[Blood Manipulation] techniques that Gehrman utilized. Still, as a Master, there was only so much he could do with it. The qualitative change a Transcendent body (and Soul as it turned out) underwent meant that Gehrman could be far more forceful with his internal blood and intractice with his manifestations.
Mordret's use of the Aspect was simpler, but it was not too inferior to what Gehrman was doing himself when he was a Master. Out of all the creepy things Mordret did, the fact that he achieved that level of mastery with his Aspect after only a few days was the most inhuman.
Of course, he must have had practice mirroring hundreds of Aspects, but it was still unnatural. Gehrman wondered if the Divine Lineage of the War God was helping him out with this, but he had no way to prove it.
The good news was that with his addition Gehrman's search for Ritual Materials went much faster. After 4 days, Gehrman had found the first thing he was looking for– a chalice. It appeared in the same way that the bloodstones did, first a pale white light, and then a tangible thing.
In this case, it was a reward for defeating a Blood Starved Beast.
This struck Gehrman as notable since when Johann had first stumbled upon a Chalice – the Pthumeru Chalice – it had been hidden behind a Blood Starved Beast. Whats more, it was that very same Chalice was the one Gehrman now held in his Soul Sea.
He had thought for a moment after that. Where did I find the Ritual Blood for that first Chalice? Wasn't in that smaller, falling apart church with the dozens of crows? I didn't get it for killing anything though it was just left up on an altar.
After that he had explained the situation to Mordret, and the young man revealed he had seen similar creatures, but had not yet received anything for killing them.
There was a small voice in Gehrman that suspected that Mordret was lying, and indeed that could be a very real possibility.
The mirroring of [Walking Workshop] for him had manifested into an extended, smaller version of the Dream Workshop that manifested at the top of the hill for Gehrman's Soul Sea. It was attached to Gehrman's own Workshop, but had its own storage.
This was the real reason why Mordret had agreed to this situation. Despite not having access to his own Memories, he was still able to upgrade Gehrman's own Memories with the Bloodstones he had won.
Gehrman agreed that any Memory he upgraded, Gehrman would then untether it, and allow Mordret to keep it. Due to his Aspect, if there was one thing that he drastically underutilized it was Memories, and after having a taste of Gehrman's Memories, he had turned the corner, growing obsessive over getting some of them.
This was fine with Gehrman, since he already made a point that a few of his Memories were off limits. This had to be done after Mordret made it clear that what he wanted most were the [Blades of Mercy]. This didn't surprise Gehrman, as their enchantment to be more effective against humans were just what a psycho like Mordret would want.
Mordret then also wondered on the Sin series Memories, noting the interesting nature of a Memory "set".
The truth was, Gehrman still believed there was some secret to those Memories that he had yet to uncover. Unfortunately they had fallen to the back of his to-do-list in recent times. They were each uniquely potent, but it was clear that their true purpose had been to give him a fair shot at passing the 2nd Nightmare back when he was a Sleeper.
Instead, he had brute forced his way through after dying over a thousand times. Whatever secret they held, it wasn't as simple as "put them all together on a table".
Gehrman had decided then that he would make a proposition.
"If you can figure out the secret behind them then you can have one."
The emphasis on the one was stressed.
Even then it was obvious which one he would take.
Mordret used only one of the Sin Series Memories: the [Envious Executioner's Gloves].
He used them in tandem with the [Blades of Mercy] as a weapon (despite their effectivness not being as great against beasts) and the [Hunters Attire] as his attire. Additionally, utilized a Charm that Gehrman wasn't overly familiar with, one that he had gotten from a Holy Blade in the last Nightmare called [Iron Heart]. It's singular enchantment increased the potency of all blade attacks greatly in exchange for limiting other forms of offense. Since Gehrman killed mostly with his Blood these days, it wasn't entierly useful to him.
Gehrman also banned him from taking [Hunters Attire], but the Charm (and now the Tool) were now on the table, and he could tell that Mordret wanted them.
This was good.
The pair of them would work for about four hours a day, the rest of the time Mordret would either be meandering about Fort Balmuth, hopping from eye to eye of the civilians.
For only 1 hour a day Gehrman would check in with Sunny.
The shadow did not need any direction or companionship, but Gehrman had gotten him to go out to lunch or dinner with him every once and a while.
He had taken a heavy blow after the fall of Falcon Scott, and things were still tense with Nephis it seemed. A great uncertainty was clouding him, the only things that really focused him were weaving and working as a scout.
Now that Gehrman was the Siege Capitals overseer, Sunny's job had become a lot less strenuous. Still, he was needed. Gehrman's ability to comprehend his surroundings had increased to a nearly god-like amount, but it did not cover all of Antarctica, and he only really processed that much information in his Transcendent Form, when his multiple minds could bear the load of putting the information into comprheensible bits.
Needless to say, both he and Sunny needed the breaks, and it also allowed Gehrman to check in on his progress.
Working with Supreme Soul Shards and the materials made of Great Nightmare Creatures was very difficult, not to mention dangerous. Weaving involved making strings of Esence (in his case Shadow Essence) to complete a mystical pattern that acted akin to computer code, detailing the enchantmnets it had along with making the object a Memory itself. So it stood to reason that the fine threads had to be numerous and potent enough to bear the burden of the 5th Rank. Sunny's very blood and bones had been altered to make this possible, and yet it was still a fiendesh thing to Weave Supreme Memories.
Gehrman had proposed Sunny make complex Memories of mere Awakened Rank, and then allow Gehrman to upgrade them with his Aspect, but he had agreed to that only once.
At that time, Gehrman had made a specific request for a Charm, a ring of great beauty. Sunny had looked at him oddly when he was given the sketch.
It was identical to Johann's memory of the Betrothal Ring he had once offered Queen Annalise on a whim. He had found it very, very deep in an especially harrowing Chalice, and had been trying to find a use for it when Annalise told him of its nature, and then promptly turned him down.
Still, it was a nice ring.
One that she would enjoy, hopefully.
"You know, the tradition of giving rings in marriage isn't really a thing anymore, especially not with Legacys," Sunny had told him.
"Well thats why I'm making it a Memory," Gehrman snapped back.
He wasn't embarrassed about it. Not in the least.
This was all apart of Sunny's training as a sorcerer. It helped him in developing the Charm that he truly wanted to make.
There were a lot of things Sunny needed to be able to kill the Winter Beast as he so desired, but the most pressing was a powerful protection against the cold. That Corrupted Titan controlled the concept to a degree in which its winds could actually affect other concepts.
Dimly, Gehrman recognized it as an expression of Will. Which was odd considering such a thing should be reserved for Great Nightmare Creatures. Then again, he had managed to loosely wield a tiny bit of it at the end of the 3rd Nightmare.
He was practicing it often, trying to reach into the realm of Supremes and change reality not with is Aspect, but his very presence. So far, it was met with little success.
In any case, that Charm (along with upgrading a certain weapon of his) was the main thing he was working on at the moment.
It also seemed that along with that weapon, Sunny was making something far more disastrous. He wasn't sure if it was meant to be a Weapon, Tool, or bomb, but the Enchantments he appeared to be working on seemed to favor destructivness in exchange for it being of single use.
Gehrman wasn't sure how that would work, as the only thing similar to that was his [Wrathful Shaman Bone Blade], but even that didn't truly break, it simply returned to his Soul Sea.
What Sunny was working on would be a one-time only thing. No doubt built with the sole purpose of killing the Winter Beast.
The Butcher Block, Mordret and the Chalices, and Sunny were the three projects that took place in Antarctica.
However there was one more thing that took up his time in Antarctica, though he hesitated to call it a "project".
He was now going on "dates" with Seishan…at least, he was pretty sure. They were going out to eat at different restaurants, just the two of them, and they would talk about their lives.
Gehrman was 80% sure that constituted a date.
In any case, it was quite nice. Their topic of conversation strayed often to Nightmare Creatures, killing, and that sort of thing. It was common ground, after all. However there was also some venting that happened.
Gehrman enjoyed that.
He talked about the New Workshop and New Yharnam in the Dream Realm. Not the killing parts, but the funny or cultural things that were happening.
Seishan talked about her past growing up in the Jade Palace, how her sisters and her would often get into trouble exploring the ancient place. Then the politics of the Song Clan as well, her gripes with the Vassals or the events.
Nothing really romantic happened, but Gehrman wasn't sure he wanted it to. They had their talks and good food and then they went their separate ways after a walk. It would have been more romantic if it was under a beautiful starry night, but these months held only brightness from the sky above, so no such atmosphere was created.
Which was fine.
He wasn't upset about that.
He wasn't.
There were more important things to fret over.
…
Gehrman was lying a lot more these days. For example, when he dove into the abyssal ocean he claimed it was to hunt more Great Nightmare Creatures further in the depths. And indeed many Great Nightmare Creatures were dying.
However, he had not laid a hand on any aquatic beasts.
Instead, deep below where not even the eyes of the House of Night ventured, Gehrman found a large grey mass floating aimlessly amidst the deep ocean.
It seemed content, which of course made sense. The primary body Phantasam was formed from was Kos, whose connection to the sea was more than evident.
Indeed his Echo had been unleashed in the seas as a way of training it. Now that he was looking at it face to face again for the first time in a week, it seemed that the training finally paid off.
Class: [Monster]
Indeed two shimmering embers of great power now resided in the creature. Phantasam had been a Beast when he first came to be, but now he appeared to have taken his first step up the ladder of ascendancy.
The nature of his Echo was unique.
He was doubly sure of that now that he had talked to Sunny more about his Echos, or rather, his Shadows.
That guy really sucked at naming things, but this time the confusing name of his Echo-like creatures was due to the Spell, not himself.
Shadows were inherently different from Echos, it was in their nature to grow and evolve, and each appeared to develop a sort of individuality while retaining their monstrous power. Of course, they also held an affinity toward Shadow.
It was odd, creating and gaining Shadows appeared to be a part of Sunny's Aspect, but the way it worked was confusing at best and downright nonsensical at worst.
The Stone Saint that Sunny had gained during his time on the Forgotten Shore had been a normal Echo that had been transformed into a Shadow, thus gaining Shadow affinity while also maintaining its previous inclinations. In the case of "Saint" it was actually True Darkness, which was contradictory since Shadow needed light to be cast, and was thus an antithesis to True Darkness.
Not all Sunny's Shadows were formerly Echos though.
Back in NQSC with his sister, one of his Shadows that he gained from his Aspect Legacy of all things was protecting his sister.
That had started a whole conversation on Sunny's Aspect Legacy that was cut off by the man himself after he made it quite clear this was something he'd rather not share with anyone.
The nature of his Shadows were one thing, but this appeared to be an ace up his sleeve. Gehrman could respect that, he was doing the same thing, after all.
In any case some of the Shadows were simply Shadow Creatures that were then tethered to Sunny, both the horse (named Nightmare) and the little gremlin thing that he had recently acquired (Imp) had been Shadow Creatures before falling to Sunny.
The most notable thing beyond their ability to grow in Rank and Class though was that individuality that Sunny had glossed over. They appeared to have something akin to personalities, though in no case were they fleshed out. Still, this combined with their ability to improve allowed them to do something that no other Echo could: learn skills.
Combat was not limited to pure bestial intent or even clever tricks, actual Battle Arts were employed by Saint and were now being passed down to Imp. Nightmare too fought much differently from even its former Terror self, using its hooves and fangs (which still freaked Gehrman out, why did this horse have fangs like a carnivore?) in efficient ways.
Phantasm was not a Shadow, but he did have these same uniqunesses.
It's [Dreamborne] Attribute allowed him to grow while his [Finality Abosorption] allowed him to consume the remains of others.
Still, Gehrman wasn't confident that Finality Absorption actually improved his Class. It's description indicated it was meant more as means to "anchor" itself to reality, which had been a big problem back when it was first gifted to him and was phasing between planes of existence.
However now that the anchor had been made and Phantasam had completed total physical manifestation, would consuming the flesh of creatures allow it to grow stronger still? Despite its work in the Nightmare it had not grown any stronger.
Sunny said that in the case of Saint growing more powerful, it had consumed something of its source element (in that case it had been True Darkness) that forced her evolution into a Demon, and then Devil. Improving the creatures Rank was fortunately done for by the Spell, though the cost was hefty. The mechanics of that did not pertain to Gehrman and Phantasam though, so it didn't really matter.
The idea of a Source Element for Phantasam was a bit dubious. According to its description, it's Source Element should technically be Dreams. It was born of clashing dreams after all. However in this world Dreams felt less like an element or concept and more like an overpowering and innate law, like gravity or mass.
So what else was there besides the sea?
In the end, Gehrman wasn't sure if it was being in the sea that pushed Phantasm over the edge or the thing that now caught his eye when looking at his Echos runes.
None of Phantasm's Attributes had changed, but he had gained an additional Ability.
Abilities: [Finality Absorption], [Absolution]
[Finality Absorption]:
Abandoned flesh may be absorbed by this Phantasm to anchor itself to the physical plane. At the behest of its master, it will feast.
[Absolution]:
The remnant energies of the fallen may be absorbed by this Phantasm to increase its own power.
It was a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma. Theoretically [Absolution] must have been gained when acquiring the Class of Monster, but how would it have gained that Class if it had not had the Ability in the first place?
Gehrman didn't suppose it mattered much, just that it was working.
There was now a clear path to improvement for Phantasm when it came to Class.
When it came to other things…well that was why Gehrman was here now. His fourth project was training Phantasm in combat and at using its formlessness better.
The [Invertebre] Attribute that allowed Phantasm's grey blob form to take on the appearance of a demented half-Orphan of Kos half tentacle monstrosity that it had taken during the end of the 3rd Nightmare had a lot more potential that just growing tentacles.
In theory, he should be able to get Phantasam to get a human form, dress him up in some clothes and a mask, and then parade around town with him.
He would never do such an odd thing, of course, but the possibility was there.
Truthfully the biggest thing that Gehrman wanted was Phantasam to get better at morphing his tentacles into sharp blades. Blunt weapons were all well and good, but piercing and slashing were also very necessary to have in one's tool kit.
Phantasam would need them if he wanted to continue his under-the-sea adventure.
It was indeed dangerous to just let his Echo explore the depths on his own, but there were a few things that put Gehrman's mind at ease.
The first was the fact that though Phantasam had yet to develop critical thinking, he was good at listening. So when Gehrman had told him very clearly and repeatedly "If you get hurt, or it look like you might get hurt, swim away as fast as you can" he knew that his Echo would abide his orders.
The second more subtle reason was because of Phatnasams primary attribute: [Great One's Familiar]. This directly tied him to Gehrman. The effects of this in the description were that he shared in Gehrman's affinities and resistances, which was an incredible boon since Gehrman was pretty damn resistant.
Perhaps it was a loophole created by Paleblood, but it appeared that so long as Gehrman kept the [Greedy Bloodstone Tailsman] on, the resistances given to him by the Charm were further shared to Phantasam, even if they weren't innate to either of them.
This would offer Phantasam absolute protection against any fiendish trickery that the depth dwellers of this world might try to pull (so long as he didn't venture too deep).
Additionally – though it wasn't stated in the description – this Attribute meant that Gehrman had an undefinable connection to his Echo. Phatnasam's state was always apparent to Gehrman, as if he had simply checked in on himself.
At that moment the feeling was one of joy and satisfaction. Gehrman assumed it was because he had arrived, but then a subtle cracking sound rang out from the grey mass and a dim light Gehrman hadn't realized existed was extinguished.
So thats what the Ability Description meant by "Lingering energies".
Indeed, it seemed that Phantasam had been absorbing Soul Shards, just like a proper Awakened! A surge of nonsensical pride swelled in Gehrman.
His boy was growing up so fast.
At the same time, across the sea, his other boys and girls were doing the same.
…
It was a bit macabre to mass produce Awakened like this, but Gehrman was pulling out all the stops to make sure it was as safe as possible.
For one, it was a secret. As most things went secrets didn't hold well in this world, but fortunately not many people were looking, and if they were, they were just curious mundanes intrigued by the documentaries.
In order to be fit for Gehrman's Awakening Program one needed to fufill multiple conditions. Firstly they needed to be from the Outskirsts. This was non-negotiable for the simple reason that since the very beginning the worth of these people and this program had been built off the fact that these people were desperate.
Those of the Outskirsts knew what it meant to have nothing, so they would fight like hell to have something. In this case, that something was citizenship. Not through years of gureling labor and a string of good luck, but through continuous application of rigorous training and learning.
Still, this was a bit too good of a prize. Even though the New Workshop offered them a safe home that they would certainly return too, the citizenship they would be afforded was not just that of the most basic common-man, but an Awakened.
Awakened naturally held prestige, and were automatically gifted either the second highest or the highest level of citizenship one could receive. The benefits that came with that went well beyond getting basic human rights.
So Gehrman made sure there were strict guidelines in place.
First, they needed hours of training and enough knowledge on survival and other necessary techniques. This was not too hard, though it was time consuming. Still, the requirements to move onto the next stage were damn near close to perfection in those classes.
If they were fortunate enough to move on, they would start combat in earnest, learning more advanced techniques and also getting access to simulations in which they could encounter "real" Nightmare Creatures, learn their attack patterns, and respond accordingly.
Gehrman had not been able to learn all about programming and VR application development, but the basics were enough to allow him to help the coders to make the best possible models with which the people of the New Workshop could train with.
Only after 100 perfect defeats of virtual Nightmare Creatures could one move on to the final step: killing a real Nightmare Creature.
Naturally, a bunch of the Hunters in Antarctica had already completed that step, but they were still required to go to the Dream Realm and kill a creature their before they could be brought back and sent into their 1st Nightmare.
If they failed to complete that mission, they would live their indefinitely, either making a new home or making repeated efforts in order to earn the qualifications to take on the 1st Nightmare.
It was perhaps overkill.
Even Legacy Clans didn't make their mundane children take on real Nightmare Creatures. Then again, those had been children, and these were adults. That was the key difference.
As prepared as Legacy Clans made their kids, they could only get so much training, they could only understand what they were up against to a certain extent.
Gehrman was eliminating all questions and mystery. His method ensured that the people being sent into the Nightmare were battle ready, mentally fortified, and terribly clever.
This was something they volunteered and poured thousands of hours into in order to reach a level as close to perfection as possible.
And so, the results started to show themselves.
Gehrman spent the rest of his hours in the Dream Realm or popping over to the New Workshop to oversee training and teaching.
And now, those Nightmares – and new Hunters – were starting to blossom.