064, 1/2

Alone in the classroom, Erick dismissed all of the blackboards except his own; it was the only one with notes on it. With a few sheets of actual paper, he recorded what he had written down, and then dismissed that final blackboard, too. And then he bought a lot of spells; 11 points worth, out of his remaining 14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were still several spells left to buy or acquire, namely: [Fabricate], [Control Item], [Envelop Item], [Adjust Scent], [Husbandry], [Alter Size], [Alter Friction], and [Polymorph]. The last one came from a potion; not points. Jane had bought her potion from the Mage Trio. Erick would have to see them about getting one of those for himself, but he had a lot of skills to level, and not a whole lot of time to get it done. Maia had said that Erick was expected ‘whenever he arrived’, but Erick wanted to be there, at Oceanside, within the week. Which meant not only would he have to level all of this magic, but he would also need to find the [Teleport] path to the arcanaeum. That path apparently went over the Letri Ocean; the ocean that spanned the whole equator south of the continental Glaquin.

Looking over his new spells, the damaging ones looked… not very important. What was much more interesting were the utility ones. [Force Platform] and his [Stone Travel] he made the other day looked like they could mark the beginning of a flying castle, or at least a flying platform large enough to carry a lot of people.

Oh! Add in [Teleport] and he’d have a [Teleporting Platform], maybe. That’d be cool.

And what the heck did [Rebound] do? All the really nifty HP abilities had tiny texts, exactly like [Rebound]. Jane’s [Greater Shadowalk] was just ‘You are the everlasting night’. [Hunter’s Instincts] was just ‘You are the predator’.

Could [Rebound] bounce spells off of him? Like, could someone shoot a spell at him, and he’d bounce it back? Or would that be [Reflection]? [Reflection] came from [Ward], somehow, but it was probably related to [Rebound].

And what about [Find Target]! It was just ‘Find a target’, but that mana cost was huge. Erick recalled that [Find Target] was a component of [Scan], and [Scan] scanned over 10 km, if Erick recalled correctly, so that definitely explained why [Scan] cost 5000 mana a pop.

Speaking of 5000 mana a pop. Erick brought up the Kill and Exterminate Quest. It had changed, slightly.

 

 

Erick ignored the adjustment, for a second, because Denutha’s name was still on there, and that sight made him frown. A lethargy took hold in his chest, like a denial of hope. He did not envy the people deciding on Denutha’s fate. From what Yetta had said, and the fact that Denutha turned herself in, knowing they would kill her, just so she could tell her side of the story, Erick had a hard time believing that she knowingly and willingly worked with the Halls of the Dead in order to create a genocide-plant.

Erick sighed, then mentally pressed on the quest, trying to trigger the [Scan].

The blue box vanished. A brilliant orb of yellow light appeared. That was different.

The orb pulsed, and Erick winced. This was really different. A ring of yellow light appeared around the orb, then settled horizontally around the sphere. The orb pulsed again, forming another ring, below the first. Erick took a step back as a third pulse created a third ring, above the other two.

“Okaaaaay—”

Erick eep’d as the world flashed yellow. Light tore from the orb, ripping through the room and into the beyond, unaffected by walls or ground, expanding, expanding. Erick raced to the window. He watched as yellow light washed across the sky, looking green along the edges; the wave was already past the city walls. As Erick watched, the glow vanished completely, likely traveling well beyond the horizon.

Poi appeared at the door to the classroom, asking, “Sir!”

“It’s the Kill and Exterminate Quest!” Erick said, “I just chose the second option!”

Tendrils of thought flew around Poi’s head.

Erick continued, “I didn’t know it was going to do that.”

Erick could only see the yellow returning to him through the sky, out of the corner of his eyes, before it washed through him, turning everything bright, bright yellow, for one radiant moment.

A blue box appeared.

 

 

“It scanned 5000 kilometers.” Erick said, “And burned 3809 seeds.”

Poi frowned, saying, “Silverite is aware. She—”

Silverite’s voice came to Erick, full of sarcasm, ‘Thank you for this sudden crisis.’

‘Burned 3809 seeds,’ Erick instantly replied, hoping to head off whatever steam Silverite was building up.

There was a long pause.

‘… Just… warn me, next time.’

‘I had no idea it was going to do that!’

‘… It usually only does that for a Champion.’ Silverite sighed, ‘Or the leads in the Quest. Which is you, I suppose, so that makes perfect sense. I honestly should have expected this and been prepared, or at least prepared you. Talk to you later.’

She cut the connection.

Erick looked to Poi, and said, “I guess I’m a lead in the Quest.”

Poi lost his frown. “I guess so.”

Erick clapped his hands together. “Let’s go cast some magic!”

Ophiel clapped his wings together, mimicking Erick.

Poi did not sigh, but his look was one of those long-suffering sort he got every so often.

 

– – – –

 

Crystal Mimics raced away, across the ground, their blue-white crystalline arms churning sand and stone as the horizon turned to fire, to Force, to Decay. Explosions rocked the land, pulsing light and thunder across a tiny part of the world, and the mimics ran.

An archmage hovered in the sky, leveling his skills. A pointed finger carved a tiny explosion against a stone pillar one second, and a massive, all consuming fireball the next, completely obliterating the stone target. Force rolled out from the archmage’s flying form like a ripple expanding; horizontal one cast, vertical the next, half the size the next time, and four times as large the next, but super thin, like a ring of dilating laser light.

He hung walls of Force in the sky, then blasted them apart with crashing rains of fire, and of light. Rains of force flew sideways, or upside down, or at 45 degree angles, or condensed down to a small area where a dozen bolts of force, summoned over the course of one second, blasted the same space with destruction. Mostly those crashes just flew off into the Crystal Forest, or dissipated into the sky, but sometimes they hit the ground, throwing up huge plumes of sand and stone. Thunder rocked the land, as spell after spell crashed and blasted.

Fires burned on the ground, and then became whirlwinds of flame under his gentle touch, while shadows and light flickered and flashed. The touch of magic was small at first, but quickly turned from motes of change, to tendrils, to rushes meters wide. The world flashed dark around the archmage, then bright, then became a dual play of shadow and light.

The archmage smiled the whole time, happy to see the light show, like this was the Fourth of July and he was the fireworks. He purposefully picked an area with as few agave as possible, but that just meant it was full of mimics. The archmage took no such measures to avoid hitting the mimics; most of those kind had taken the hint and run away, when they realized they couldn’t attack the flying target.

The archmage methodically emptied his mana into the sky, or against targets, or against nothing in particular, getting a feel for the magic he had acquired.

By the time he was done, the land was a melted, burned, charred thing. Seeing what he had done, and done with his magic, for now, the archmage went over the ground with [Stoneshape], turning it back into sand. The archmage had cast magic into the air for hours, and he was done, for now.

The archmage extended a hand to his sapphire guard, who had watched the whole thing from within the safety of a crystallized sphere of air. Hand in hand, the archmage and the guard vanished in a blip of white.

Brown worms peeked up from the sand, to begin remaking their burrows

 

– – – –

 

Almost everyone went their own way for dinner, or in Teressa and Rats’ case, breakfast, but Erick had gotten enough sandwiches from ‘Meat! Bread! Cheese!’ for them all. He put the extras in the cold box, and sat down at the kitchen table to eat with Jane and Kiri.

He pulled out three boxes and handed them over, saying, “So I leveled these to 10, along with most of the rest. These changed a lot, but the rest didn’t.”

 

 

 

 

Jane took a bite of her sandwich, reading over the boxes, and looking into the air.

Kiri said, “What are you going to make with them?”

Jane’s eyes went wide as she read, saying, “[Force Crash] is so much freaking better than bomb!”

Kiri shook her head, saying, “No it’s not. It’s a stylistic choice.”

Jane paused. “What am I missing here? 50 Willpower means… Ah? [Force Crash] is really random?”

“Yes.” Kiri said, “To make it work as well as it can, you’d need to apply mana shaping every time, which massively increases the cost. And even then, it’s not that much better. You’d go from 2 out of every 5 blasts hitting a small size target, to 4 out of every 5.”

Erick said, “That’s not a problem. I have Sculpt Spell and that’s basically a hundred free mana every cast.”

Kiri added, “Don’t forget: HP is a shield. The bodies of many monsters are basically immune to the smaller spells, and that includes [Force Crash]. For the vast majority of those fights with those wyrms, they were at 0 HP.”

Erick nodded, saying, “I wondered about that.”

Kiri continued, “[Force Crash] is great for knocking out a lot of that Health shield, but to actually do damage against a wyrm? Your [Crystalline Air] ripping through their body was much more effective than hundreds of [Force Bolt]s, for example. Lightning was also pretty good. Physical objects or high-powered spells do a lot more than a hundred tiny taps.”

Jane ate a fry, nodding.

Kiri added, “Those firebolts that those hunters used? I’m 95 percent sure those were also shaped from some combination of [Force Bomb] and Mana Altering to Fire, but instead of exploding outward, all that destructive force was condensed to a single strike.” She held a fry in her talons, saying, “It’s really a stylistic choice for which one you prefer. Though Bomb is one strike, and Crash is, like, 8. For me, anyway. Crash’s cost expands very, very fast, too.” She asked, “How many crashes were you able to make strike a single target?”

“Eleven.” Erick said, “They start shooting wide near the end.”

Kiri smirked, saying, “That’s pretty good.”

“I’m going to try to get ‘unerring’ on it,” Erick said.

Kiri nodded. “[Force Bolt Crash]. Though getting ‘unerring’ onto any spell beyond the basic [Force Bolt] is quite diffi—” She amended, “Usually quite difficult. You did manage to get ‘unerring’ on [Pure Force Beam Bolt], and [Ice Spike], after all. But just like the firebolts from those hunters, once you get enough power behind the spell, ‘unerring’ doesn’t do much besides basic course correction.”

Erick looked up [Force Bolt Crash].

 

 

Jane asked, “Show me?”

Erick plucked the box from the air and handed it to Jane.

Kiri said, “It’s around a thousand damage but it takes a second to happen, you can roll out of the way of a lot of it, if you time it correctly, and 500 mana is not a cheap spell.”

Jane dismissed the spell, asking, “Is this how you get to [Comet Swarm]?”

Kiri said, “Adding ‘Unerring’ makes that recipe much too expensive, and [Comet Swarm] is… tier 8? Yes. Tier 8.” She said, “I’m guessing, but [Stoneshape] and [Teleport] are in there, for sure.” She amended, “Sorry. Not [Teleport]; [Teleport Object]. [Comet Swarm] falls down from above the clouds. It’s super long range. At least that’s what the books say.”

“What about the ‘Generate new effects’, from Mana Altering?” Erick asked. “Instead of trying for [Stoneshape].”

Kiri nodded. “That’s an option. But… You know how Particle magic is so cheap? That’s because it uses what’s already there. For the vast majority of magical history, according to what I was told, everyone thought that the primary elements of Stone, Air, Fire, Water, Shadow, and Light, were the ‘particles’ of Reality. This is because when you used them to create magic, the end result was much cheaper than a Force version of whatever you were trying to do.” She added, “So, prevailing theory is that you use [Stoneshape] instead of Alternate Effects, or even Altering to Bludgeoning, because using actual stuff in the spell makes it cost less, and it does more damage.” She added, “Of course, you actually have to have the stuff there with you, in order to do such a thing. Force has no such restrictions.”

Jane said, “This is why weapons do more damage than spells. Actual damage, I mean.”

“Correct,” Kiri said.

Jane said, “So Particle Magic is just really efficient magic.”

“Gods yes.” Kiri said, “But it took a planar guy with knowledge that…” She paused. She said, “I don’t think we ever would have gotten this knowledge of atoms or electrons without outside intervention. The Elements as we know them obviously exist, but… they might have been the components of Reality from our pre-Sundering universe. When my ancestors were translated to this universe… everything else was translated, too?” Kiri paused. She said, “I have no idea.”

Erick ate his sandwich, while Jane and Kiri did the same.

Kiri said, “I just find it hard to believe that no one else thought to check on what this Reality was actually made of. Sure, the arcanaeums are full of pompous asses, but we also have more than enough insightful geniuses of our own.”

“That’s an easy answer.” Erick smiled, saying, “Magic is easy, and great. What need is there of knowing anything more?”

Kiri hummed, not approving. She paused again, then said, “I guess… There’s something to be said for a life without magic, since it forced your people to adapt to this Reality in order to travel to your moons without needing a ritual [Gate].”

“Just ‘moon’.” Jane smiled. “We only had the one.”

Erick took a bite and swallowed, then said, “Let’s talk about [Comet Swarm] some more. What sorts of ways do you envision the spell coming together?”

“Okay.” Kiri ate a fry and said, “You know how I said I have the recipes for a majority of the nicer high tier spells? The fact is, is that there are ways to get to something that looks like them without actually being them. Alternate Combinations, they’re called. So keep that in mind, as I tell you how I would combine to get [Comet Swarm]. The first half I know is correct. The second half is conjecture.”

She summoned a tiny blackboard, next to the dinner table, already filled with a branching diagram.

 

—

t1[Teleport] + (other) = t2[Teleport Object] (This is arguably the most difficult part)

t1[Force Wave] + Mana Alter Fire, over stony surface = t2[Lava Pool]

t2[Lava Pool] + Mana Shaping, extreme = large range t3[Lava Sea]

t1[Stoneshape] + t1[Fireshape] = t2[Lavashape]

t1[Force Crash] + Mana Shaping, extreme = extend to Super Long Range t2[Force Crash SLR]

t2[Lavashape] + t3[Lava Sea] = t4[Lava Orbs]

t4[Lava Orbs] + t2[Teleport Object] = t5[Lava Rain]

t5[Lava Rain] +t2[Force Crash SLR] = t6[Lava Swarm]

t6[Lava Swarm] + Mana Alter, Bludgeoning = t7[Meteor Swarm]

t7[Meteor Swarm] + Mana Alter, Fire = t8[Comet Swarm]

—

 

Kiri said, “The big cost increases here are the mana shapings. The big decrease, here, is [Teleport] to [Teleport Object], and only combining two spells at a time, so that you can combine them for minimal costs. Everything else, should, if it’s made correctly, be kept below Apparent Costs.”

Erick read over the blackboard.

Jane asked, “What’s Apparent Costs?”

“Ah?” Kiri had taken a bite of her sandwich. She chewed and swallowed, then said, “The costs it should increase by, according to the basic math of it. Take [Telekinesis], for example—”

 

 

“—The ‘Quick’ version, according to the math, should cost you 300 mana to keep running for an hour. But when you Aurify this, according to the math, it should only cost you 1 mana every 20 seconds. This is the Apparent Cost. But because Auras are a constant drain, it’s rare to see the listed cost of an aura cost less than 1 mana per second. In the case of Aurify, the Apparent Cost is out of touch with the Actual Cost.” Kiri said, “That’s because the opportunity cost of being able to turn your aura on or off is also worth some number Rozeta only knows. And the area is increased by a lot, of course.”

Erick looked over the board, and threw out a number that felt right. “This [Comet Swarm] is 3500 mana?”

Kiri smiled. “If you’re lucky. Maybe. The [Teleport Object] and the Mana Alterings at the end add a considerable multiplier because of the vast amount of material that is being ‘ported and altered. If your [Teleport Object] is fractionally worse than perfect, your costs could go from 3500 mana, to 10,000 mana.”

Jane waved a hand at the board, saying, “Couldn’t you just… not do a lot of that? Like just use stone, by itself? And focus on impact damage?”

Kiri said, “Sure. You can make [Comet Swarm] a lot of ways. Just like you can make [Fly] a lot of ways.”

“Ah!” Erick said, “Right. You’re not referring to an actual spell when you say [Comet Swarm]. You mean the idea of [Comet Swarm].”

“Sort of.” Kiri said, “There is an actual [Comet Swarm] in the Script, and its about where I guessed at, I think. For the spell itself, if I recall correctly, it’s 10,000 mana, and throws 10 flaming boulders down from two kilometers up. The listed damage is 0, but it’s still boulders dropping from the sky and setting fire to stuff.”

Jane smiled, and said, “How about… none of this fire magic, except to propel the stone faster into the target? No [Lavashape] at all.”

“But the point is to do widespread damage, and fire does that. Stone is just—” Kiri thought, then said, “Wham, slam, and you’re done. Fire decimates everything that wasn’t directly damaged, leaving lava where it struck the surface.”

“What do you need this for, though?” Erick asked, “What monsters?”

Kiri said, “Ah. Well. [Comet Swarm] is usually used against armies. Or cities. Like Spur. What monsters? Not many. A Cloud Giant castle, sure? Maybe— Oh yeah. A Desert Rose. For sure.”

That was interesting, but all Erick could focus on was the fact that [Comet Swarm] was an existential threat to Spur. He asked, “How do you defend against that?” He added, “Since you’re using raw material… [Dispel] doesn’t work, does it?”

“Not on the whole spell, but [Dispel] will remove the vast majority of the damage of a properly made [Comet Swarm]. Since there are so many individual comets, you won’t have to guess with the amount of power to put behind your [Dispel], either. You can safely guess at 1000 mana per comet; unless they’re using an aberrant version that costs twenty thousand mana, or such.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Jane said, “And then your side would have wasted time and mana throwing ineffectual defenses at the swarm.”

“Exactly. [Dispel] doesn’t de-spell unless you spend the full amount of mana to unmake whatever you’re trying to unmake, though it will punch holes in auras, and it partially works when a spell is carved into parts, like [Comet Swarm]. Clarity does work when calculating [Dispel] costs, but every mage has Clarity, so that hardly helps you.” Kiri said, “But even with [Dispel] you still have multi-ton comets coming toward your front lines, or your buildings.” She swiftly added, “This is all academic, mind you. I have no actual experience fighting against a [Comet Swarm].” She said, “I don’t know who wo— Merit would. Guardmaster Merit would have that information. And Killzone. And Silverite.” She held a fry, saying, “Lots of people in Spur would have that sort of experience.”

Jane said, “I’d like to try my hand at this idea of spell creation.” She gestured toward an empty space beside the kitchen table. A blackboard appeared, with a detailed diagram of creation. “Ah. No.” She gestured again, and a slightly different board appeared. “Yes. That’s it.”

Kiri read the board, teasing, “Don’t worry, Jane. You’ll get the hang of correct item conjuring eventually.”

Jane exaggerated, “Haaa.”

Erick smiled as he read.

 

–

t1[Force Crash] + Mana Alter Extreme = t2[Sky Fall]

t2[Sky Fall] + [Force Bomb] = [Sky Bomb]

t3[Sky Bomb] + Mana Alter, Bludgeon = t3[Sky Crash]

t4[Sky Crash] + Ice = t5[Sky Ice Crash]

t5[Sky Ice Crash] + Fire, to propel it faster = t6[Comet Swarm]

And no need for stone to start!

–

 

“Nope.” Kiri said, “You won’t get [Comet Swarm] at that level. You might get [Meteor Swarm].”

“What?” Jane asked, “Why?”

“Because each tier has a…” Kiri paused. She said, “Prevailing theory is that each tier has a certain amount of damage it is able to do. Higher tiers can do more damage, or have larger effects. Erick’s [Call Lightning] kinda broke that theory, though.” She added, “And fire and ice? Really?”

“You saw what Erick was able to do with ice and fire.” Jane said, “Besides! Comets are ice and stone. The only reason they have a fiery tail is because the sun boils away the icy surface into a plume of particulates the closer the rock gets to the sun.”

Kiri frowned. “There is a lot to be said for the validity of sympathetic magic with proper imagery… But…” Her frown deepened. “This is the point where I would normally argue that you have no idea what you’re talking about. But I can’t tell if you’re teasing me, or not.”

“This is one of the rare times Jane is not teasing.” Erick said, “Comets are hunks of ice and stone. And you don’t want one anywhere near your planet. A real comet would cause the death of everything if it actually hit Veird.”

A silence filled the room, as Jane nodded.

Kiri breathed at her sandwich. She looked up to Erick, asking, “Really?”

Erick said, “They’re multi-kilometer wide hunks of rock and ice, traveling at….” Erick looked to Jane. “Help me out here.”

“50 kilometers per second?” Jane guessed. “That seems right. And yes. You don’t want them anywhere near Veird. The impact of an actual comet would kill all life… Actually. I’m not sure. You guys have gods.”

“Yeah.” Erick agreed. “The gods would likely step in at that point in time. Hopefully.”

“There’s a lot of terrifying shit out there.” Jane said, “Black Holes.”

“Gamma Ray Bursts,” Erick added.

“Comet and meteor impacts.”

“Antimatter explosions.”

“Oh yeah. The Tuskegee Event thing?”

“Yup— Uh. Tunguska Event, I think. Tuskegee was something else.”

“Ah. Yeah.”

Erick nodded, saying, “And black holes traveling at the speed of light could just suck up the whole planet in a millisecond. All very terrifying.” He looked to Kiri, and suddenly reconsidered what he was saying. “Uh. But none of that is likely to happen!”

Kiri breathed harder, more focused. Her green face seemed to be a slightly different green.

Jane looked at Kiri. A slow smile crept upon Jane’s face. She almost said something, but Erick shook his head. Jane settled back into her chair, wearing a wider smile

Kiri softly said, “Okay.” She returned to eating her sandwich. She whispered, “I don’t even know what all that is… but… it sounds… not great.”

Jane said, “An actual realistic [Comet Swarm], would be like a mini-Sundering. But I guess there’s some artistic license when it comes to naming spells. And your gods already protected against one Sundering already.”

Kiri sharply inhaled.

Erick whispered, “That’s enough, Jane.”

Jane rolled her eyes, whispering, “Yeah, yeah.”

 

– – – –