105, 1/2

The horizon was an orange sandpit in every direction, with few clouds hanging in the blue above. Warm winds flowed from the north, and sand had gotten into Justine’s shoes. In a few hours, she’d have chafing. She was only level twelve; most of her points had gone into the few spells she needed to advance, and to get up to 20 in Willpower and Focus, as well as the tripling Skills for more Mana and Mana Regen. Thank Erick for his rings and that extra Strength, else she’d have blood blisters, for sure, as well as a horrendous sunburn. Her white skin burned rather easily under full sunlight, and 600 Health helped to mitigate much of that possibility. Her eyes were still at risk of sun blindness, but she’d only be out here for a little while. All this place could offer her was level 32, or maybe 34, if she wanted to spend five hours in the sun, instead of two.

The road to high level was long, and dangerous, but even with all of that in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel happy. She smiled at the sky, and then turned toward Ophiel, and the white map hovering above the sands. Studying it had not taken long; there were no people within a hundred kilometers. Justine and Ophiel were alone out here, in the middle of nowhere. Erick was here in spirit and in the eyes of the Ophiel flying high above, but he wasn’t really here.

The Ophiel currently controlled by Erick pointed north west.

Erick said, “It’s a hundred meters that way. I could blip you closer?”

Justine chuckled. She began walking north west, saying, “I haven’t walked more than the length of your house, in a week. This feels good.” She said, “The sun. The wind.” She smirked, as she kicked the sand. “The sand.” She admitted, “Though I do need to make myself a better pair of shoes.”

“I could get you shoes?”

Justine shook her head. “No thank you. You’ve done a great deal for me already.” And he had. Justine arrived at Erick’s house with nothing. But he had given her fabrics and plants and shelter from the Darkness. One of the only ‘non essential’ spells she picked up since then was [Fabricate]. Her shoes were self-made, along with her brown pants and white blouse. She was not a seamstress, but she could get by, and [Fabricate] helped to smooth out the small mistakes that hand creation would have caused. Justine would never be selling her clothes in any sort of shop, but not many people could. She said, “I’ll make myself a better pair, once I get back and I have the mana to spare for more [Fabricate]s.”

Ophiel floated forward, slightly, as he casually wreathed himself in light.

After a moment Erick said, “Only about sixty meters ahead, past those dunes.”

Justine smiled, and headed up the first of many dunes. Sand scattered down the slope as she trudged upward, her feet not sinking in too far at all. This was fine. When she reached the top, the vista of the Crystal Forest stretched out before her; undulating waves of orange under a blue, windy sky. Here and there sat crystal mimics, like splashes of glitter interrupting the horizon. The nearest one was only a dune away, its stigma barely visible on the other side of the sand. It was moving.

Gently, like it was simply repositioning itself, the stigma of the crystal mimic rose above the dune. It was probably positioning to get into the sun better, but whatever the case for the movement, it didn’t really matter. The upper spikes of the mimic were coming into view.

Justine waited for a good angle, and hoped that the mimic wasn’t preparing to attack her before she got a chance to attack it.

But honestly, though, she wasn’t in any real danger. The worst case scenario here, was that she embarrassed herself in front of Erick; unable to kill a mimic in one or two shots. Erick would certainly kill it if it got within ten meters of her. He had even said so, many times, probably to assure both her and himself that he wasn’t going to let her get hurt on his watch. That was good, and fine.

But Justine hoped to Koyabez that she wouldn’t embarrass herself. Erick might be an archmage, but Justine was twice his age, with many times his magical experience. She had killed much worse things than crystal mimics in order to survive, and at much lower levels than 12. The spell she had made for today was created in a corner of her room, against two expendable plants. It was adequate, but it wasn’t great.

The mimic came fully into view. It stopped atop the dune, and dug in with its bottom crystal spikes, securing itself to the crest. Ah, Justine realized, it was just repositioning for the sun. She knew that mimics positioned for the sun. Why had she thought that it was coming for her? She was too far away. Of course she was too far away.

She breathed. She could do this.

She did not point. She did not move, to give a hint that she was attacking. She just cast from the air around her body; from her aura. Red splashes of bright Decay pulsed from her body, one after the other, the first one still arcing in the air, toward the mimic, as Justine fired the third red Bolt. Red magics hit the mimic, center mass, like a rotten melon, splashing red light onto crystalline limbs, as Justine cast again, and again.

The mimic chimed into action like jumble of angry greatswords, clashing against itself, briefly, before it rotated and saw Justine.

She had no idea how these particular monsters could see their prey from this far away, and yet, if you didn’t disturb them, if you just walked outside of ten meters from them, they would leave you alone, most of the time. But strike at one from well outside of their range, and they instantly recognized who had attacked them, from even this far away.

Justine’s red splashes kept striking as the mimic tried to rush down the dune. Red soaked into crystal. Crystal broke. Red splashed across the mimic’s central spike, finally doing enough damage to crack the stigma. The top spike of the monster fell to the ground, like so many other crystalline spikes, as the mimic kept rushing toward Justine, clawing forward on whatever crystal spikes it could.

She almost smiled. Her spells were actually doing enough damage, thanks to Erick’s rings.

 

 

The mimic survived the initial onslaught, but barely. It tumbled down the dune like a broken chandelier, all crystal and sludge and oozy juveniles tucked into its ‘leaves’. The babies were bubbling away like their parent, but not nearly as bad. They might survive her attack for they weren’t plants yet, since they weren’t actually [Polymorph]ed into crystal agave.

Justine threw more bolts at the broken adult. Decay was great for a dozen different reasons, but its main selling point was that you could create spells that were artificially stronger against specific creatures, much easier than you could with the vast majority of other alters. In this case, Justine’s spell had been created to work well against ‘all plants’, and little else. She could have made a magic specifically against crystal mimics, but she would have needed to experiment on the creatures to create that magic. That would have been overkill, by Justine’s estimation, since extra damage versus all plants was fine for the long run. But still… She had hoped that her [Plant Killer Bolt] would have been better than it was. She had not killed one of these things in a long, long time. She had forgotten their toughness, and past a certain toughness, Decay’s failings became apparent; Decay just couldn’t harm like other magics. It certainly didn’t help that her base spell was [Force Bolt].

Justine threw another bolt of red sludge at the pile of blue sludge that had been the crystal mimic. And then another. Finally, a blue box hovered into the air.

 

 

Justine smiled as she breathed deep the desert air. Just like that, she was level 24. 12 levels gained on one monster.

Erick spoke up, “Splashy bolts?”

Justine shared the blue box for [Plant Killer Bolt] with Erick, saying, “I’ll make something better once I can come out here on my own to cast and experiment, if for no other reason than to be able to kill a mimic in one spell.” She looked to the melting pile of mimic, saying, “I had forgotten they were this tough.”

“Do you need to rest?”

“Nope!” Justine said, “I’m doing great.”

And she was. Today was much better than last night. She smiled at the sky, as she dumped those twelve levels of points into her Focus, bringing her natural Focus into the 40s. A few more mimic kills and she could get Scion of Focus— Hmm. Later. Not right now. Not when she was out here, killing mimics. When she got back home, though, then she would allocate that Skill. She didn’t want her Scion Revelation to knock her out when she was supposed to be hunting.

“Do you want the rad?” Erick asked, as Ophiel hovered a meter towards the blue sludge.

Justine looked at the dead mimic. “… I probably destroyed it. Decay isn’t very good about leaving intact corpses and I know I did not craft this spell well enough to have it ignore rads.” She looked closer at the body. It was utterly still. “Not even the juveniles survived.”

Ophiel dipped in acknowledgment, then pointed to the north east. Justine began walking down the dune, in the pointed direction.

Erick asked, “What sort of vision do you have when you allocate your Scion, as a shadeling?”

Justine almost faltered. “Uh.” She took a step down the dune, steadying herself, thinking of what she wanted to say. She decided to say, “It’s a talk with Melemizargo. Usually, it doesn’t go so well, with him not being all there, but last time… Last time he was rather present. That’s a recent change. I’ll get Koyabez, this time, though. Or maybe Rozeta. I’m not sure.” She added, “I even got [Shadow Healing] last time, and that’s never happened before.”

“I thought shadelings didn’t get healing spells?”

“They don’t. No one would consider [Shadow Healing] a healing spell. It’s just called that. It’s all a recent change, too.” Justine made it back down to the flat land between the dunes. “Back before Particle Magic brought him back to some sanity, you were lucky to get the Scion you wanted when you picked a Scion. Sometimes your Stats would change to reflect his decision, too. One time, when I was working for Cludolphis, the Shade of Mending, she had me killed and brought back three times, because I needed Scion of Focus to assist with repairs to the city. I kept getting Scion of Vitality.” As Justine walked up another dune, she said, “This [Shadow Healing] is completely new.”

“What does it do?”

“Not a lot.” She said, “It was worse than [Rejuvenation]. I’m not sure why I got that spell, either.” She said, “I didn’t talk much during the Revelation.”

“… I’m glad I made that [Shadow Radiance].”

Justine smiled as she neared the top of another dune; she was getting a real workout, out here under the merciless sun, atop these sandy dunes. She said, “I’m glad you made that [Shadow Radiance], too. I’m sure it will help a lot of people come back to themselves.” She crested the dune.

The mimic was on top of another dune, thirty meters away.

Erick said, “What kind of [Fly] are you going to make?”

“Just a platform… Maybe. Flat, unadorned.” She focused on the mimic, and cast. Red Bolts flowed through the air, slamming into the mimic, splashing from stigma to center, coating the mimic in bubbling red power.

Fifteen Bolts later, Justine got another notification and gained more levels, then said, “It’ll be weird not having [Shadow Blend]. Usually I’d just make a [Crystal Platform] and Blend myself into it, and fly anywhere I needed to fly.” Ophiel pointed forward, and Justine walked. As sand followed her down the dune and got into her shoes, Erick’s question over [Fly] settled into her mind. She said, “Actually. I probably need to change that platform plan. As a Scion of Focus, I really should consider making an aura.”

“Auras are great!” Erick said, “I made mine with [Airshape], [Telekinesis], 500 Mana shaping, and Aurify.”

Justine almost shuddered. She knew about that spell of Erick’s, of course; it was part of her required knowledge for becoming the ‘face’ of Candlepoint for Erick, when he first arrived at the shadeling city. How he had ever managed to make that spell cost 1 mana per second was ridiculous.

She said, “I’ll try that one, but I doubt I can be that successful.”

“Maybe you can!”

As she smiled, Justine threw a few more points in Focus, just to get up to 50. She had worked hard to get Meditation high enough to use in the field, and Clarity high enough to chop off some of her spell costs, but almost none of her Skills or Spells were at 10. She had barely done enough to do what she was doing right now, and would never have chosen to go mimic hunting if it weren’t for Erick’s oversight. His rings helped a lot. At 100 Focus, it was a little over 15 seconds to regenerate enough mana to fire a single [Plant Killer Bolt], meaning 4 minutes to regenerate enough to kill a single mimic. That was fine. The walk from one mimic to the next was almost enough to regenerate that much mana. But besides all that, this ‘hunt’ was much, much easier than even the nicest strolls on the most empty skyroads of Ar’Kendrithyst.

But after the first twenty minutes, and five mimics, the sun was getting to be a bit too much. Maybe she should have made herself a hat, too—

Ophiel handed her a wide brim, white hat, with holes for her horns, along with a pair of dark glasses, both of which were in a style completely unlike Justine had seen before; moreso the glasses, than the hat. They were full face coverage, and iridescent. The hat was just wide, stiff, and white.

Justine didn’t know what to say.

Erick said, “I see you squinting.”

Justine smiled softly, then put the hat on her head, making sure to string her horns through the openings. Almost instantly, the hot day felt less oppresive, as the northern breeze brushed through her airy clothes, and across her shaded neck. “Thank you.” She held the glasses, but paused. She glanced at the rod of [Treat Wounds], stuck in Ophiel’s feathers, and decided that she could deal with a bit of sun blindness from wearing dark glasses. She put the glasses on.

… There was something different about these glasses. Something cooler. They were easier to see through than other desert glasses she had worn before. Were they enchanted to remove the natural Blind effect of the light from the sun? They certainly seemed that way, but she wouldn’t be able to tell until the hunt was over, and she was back home, possibly nursing a Blinding headache.

Justine paid the glasses no more mind, and walked forward, up another dune, to spot another mimic on the ridge of another dune, just ahead. She blasted it from a few different parts of her body, getting a feel for her aura.

Yes; she would definitely make an aura flight spell, this time.

 

– – – –

 

Erick returned to himself, and looked down at his stomach. With a bit of concentration, a bolt of white light emanated from his stomach and slammed against the ceiling, chipping the orange rock.

Poi looked up from his book. “… What?”

“I had never tried that before— on my own, I mean; cast from parts that aren’t my fingers. I do that with Ophiel all the time but never tried on my own… I suppose I did with the eyebeams, once.” Erick reached up with a tendril of light and touched the tiny crater. [Mend] erased the damage, as he explained, “Justine is always firing from every part of her.”

Poi returned to his book, saying, “Casting in odd ways is one of the first steps to aura control.”

Erick thought back to Al’s lesson. He frowned. He said, “Al started me on materializing my aura.”

Poi shrugged, as if to say, ‘There are several ways to start.’

Poi glanced back up from his book and stared at Erick, saying, “Your empathy is practically Mind Magic.”

Erick laughed. He asked, “Does this mean I can know more about your secret Mind Mage Cabal?”

“If empathy was all it took to make one a Mind Mage, then this whole world would either be a paradise, or a graveyard.” Poi said, “The greatest minds of Veird are still split on the most likely outcome.”

Erick took a moment to think about that, while he oversaw Justine kill another two mimics. He said, “Because then people would understand each other, and then people would understand each other.”

“Thank all the Gods that only the few are cursed with Mind Magic.”

“… You’re actually talking about this, now?” Erick said, “Do you mean to say that it takes something besides spending a few points and study to become a Mind Mage?”

Poi struggled with something for a moment, before deciding to say, “Yes. A lot more.”

Erick almost continued the conversation, but Poi resolutely turned to his book. That must have been enough Mind Mage talk for this month. Next month, Erick would ask about genetic predisposition; if the factor for becoming a Mind Mage was some inborn trait, either cropping up on family lines, or if certain conditions needed to be met, like unlocking hidden options in the Script. Maybe you need to be born with a ‘Mind’ Element, or something similar.

Poi grumbled.

Erick turned his focus back to Justine.

 

– – – –

 

Two hours later, along with one break in the middle of that, Erick blipped Justine home. She appeared in the foyer, sweaty, but happy. She took off her hat and her glasses, revealing bright red eyes that were brighter than the days before, when she was recovering, somewhat, from her panic attack.

Justine handed Erick back the glasses and the hat, saying, “The glasses work great. Thank you. The whole experience was a world apart from how I’ve done it before.” She bowed. “Thank you, archmage.”

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Erick smiled. “You did all the work, so raise your head.” With a dot of unraveling intent, Erick ended the conjured hat and glasses, turning them briefly to white light before that, too, vanished back into the manasphere. “There’s no need for this formality.”

Justine stood up, saying, “There is, though. Almost no one in power is as calm and dismissive of formality as you. I would get in to bad habits if I followed your lead.”

“… Probably true.”

Justine said, “I might be headed back to Candlepoint today, or I might be headed off somewhere else entirely.”

“You can stay as long as you need, you know. They’re all level 55 over there, but you’re not.” Erick glanced through Ophiel, to see Candlepoint. He came back, saying. “The city seems fine.” He added, “Though if you don’t get back soon, then… Mephistopheles seems to be in a power struggle with Zaraanka, while everyone else just lets Slip do his own thing…”

Candlepoint could use a third and fourth person on site, though. And soon. Erick didn’t really count Slip among the powers of the city, but Ava might become a power. What little he had seen of the woman left him impressed at her drive.

Justine bowed again, then looked to Erick one more time, before saying, “Thank you for your hospitality. I will take your words under advisement.”

Erick nodded, then turned his attention back to Candlepoint.