187, 1/2

The moon slipped below the horizon and the sun rose in its place.

And Erick had not slept. He had mostly accreted, read some, and also got in some minor exercise. Well. ‘Minor’ compared to what some people back home in Spur did, like fighting monsters or racing each other across the desert while dodging monsters. Erick’s current exercise was still a lot compared to what he was used to back on Earth.

Sweat dripped from his brow and all the rest of him as he released the pullup bar and lightly landed on the stone floor, where he immediately dropped down to do fifty push ups. This was the tenth iteration of whatever sort of manic, physical activity he could think to do, and he had thought of a lot.

And none of it was stressing his limits, at all.

There was just something about gaining Strength and Vitality that made him want to move. It was mainly just pushups and squats and pullups and other calisthenics, for now. He kinda missed sparring, but he wasn’t about to do that with any of the people here. The accretion manuals didn’t mention the need for physical activity to ‘acclimate the body to its power’ or anything like that, but they did suggest that with a rise in Vitality, that one would be inclined to use that Vitality. As such, it was better to give in to that urge than to suppress it. Ophiel had supplied the pullup bar with a quick [Conjure Item], too, so there was no need to bother Maid Maria over gaining a pullup bar, either. Conjuring weights and stuff like that was beyond the [Conjure Item] spell, but things like jump ropes and balance beams and such were easy.

His necklaces barely bounced on his chest as Erick launched to his feet, for he had secured them in place with a conjured bandage that held them against his chest. It wasn’t too uncomfortable, and he had even managed to make the conjuring hydrophobic, so it didn’t get sweaty at all.

Fairy Moon’s little pink/green crystal looked quite dinky compared to the cyan-crystal encrusted Focus amulet, but they both did what they had to do, and Erick needed them on his body to benefit from their protection and their power. One protected him from the Sights of others, and the other enabled him to make a lot of gains in the last 24 hours.

Erick made a tight fist with his right hand and watched as his muscles corded underneath his skin. Sweat dripped down his chest and ran down his abs. His shoulders were nice, too. Everything was quite nice. Erick wasn’t sure if accretion or Stats or his Perfected Body pulled the most weight with regard to his physical changes, but there was something about accretion that was just… Nice.

His core was filling out nicely, but he had a while to go to get to Second Foundation, and not a lot of days before he had to make a decision about whether to tell Redflame about [Renew], or to let him find out on his own. Over his little bit of exercise time, though, he had regained over a hundred mana, so he grabbed the counting crystal cube and prepared to witness his gains. With a practiced (enough) touch, Erick threaded a hundred mana into the cube, and it started to flash.

His results appeared as flashing numbers; not an actual Status. They were easy enough to interpret into something understandable, though, even before Erick wrote those numbers down on a sheet of paper in order to track his progress. He glanced to his previous entry, first.

– –

Strength: 17

Vitality: 20

Dexterity: 18

Constitution: 17

Perception: 17

Willpower: 39

Focus: 52

Intelligence: 17

– –

Mana: 390

Mana Regen (Vit+Foc): 720

– –

That was one day ago. Erick calculated the Stats from his amulet (2 Vitality, 12 Willpower, and 25 Focus) and pulled that out of today’s numbers, separating it like the Script did. He smiled at his gains.

– –

Strength: 27

Vitality: 27+2=29

Dexterity: 28

Constitution: 27

Perception: 27

Willpower: 37+12=49

Focus: 38+25=63

Intelligence: 28

– –

Mana: 490

Mana Regen (Vit+Foc): 920

– –

He had gained about 10 stats in every category, which was completely in line with his advanced projections, thanks to his amulet. It was fantastic, allowing him to skip at least four days of accretion. But! It was not good enough. Plus 25 Focus? A smattering of smaller boosts to Willpower and a tiny boost to Vitality? Erick’s rings had granted him +31 to every Stat. It was a good amulet, though, and Erick was thankful for the enchanting books, and the materials, and the amulet itself. But it was time to make something better.

… Erick decided to go take a bath first, though, both because he would not be comfortable enchanting like this, and he needed half an hour to regenerate his mana. He happily plunged into his bathing pool and smiled as Ophiel joined him, playing around in the water like he was a very feathery fish. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye even bounced up and down in the minor waves, but his eye was immaterial, so he made no splashes like Ophiel did. He didn’t seem to mind.

Erick got out of the bath after only ten minutes, dried himself off with a quick toweling, and put on some comfortable clothes. Then he went to the enchanting table. He had an idea for something truly special, but that could wait for later. For now, he just wanted to speed up his timetable till Second Foundation, which, according to what he was seeing in his core, and according to his Stats…

He might achieve Second Foundation at 65 in every Stat?

Second Foundation only happened when body saturation and spirit saturation were complete, and currently, his spirit saturation, as measured by the sphericality of his core, was pretty far off. Instead of a sphere, it still resembled a rather fat diamond.

Erick had absolutely no way to judge his body saturation, though. Apparently that topped off faster than spherical-core formation, though, so perhaps he was almost done with his body? Who knew.

He could certainly focus accretion for his core if he wanted, and make this thing go a bit faster, but there was no need to have a lopsided accretion at this juncture, and Erick felt that a good body would do him wonders in the coming… Forever?

Fuck.

He was planning on Forever, wasn’t he? Sheesh.

Eternity.

Damn that was a big word. Hopefully he got to actually experience some of that.

But anyway! Erick solidified his current stance of a balanced approach to accretion. He would get there when he got there, and when he did, his Second Foundation would be solid. And to that end, while Erick wasn’t willing to imbalance his accretion for short term gains, he was willing to ‘cheat’ with enchantments.

Ophiel helped Erick snip off some platinum from the block of the stuff and then shape it into something round and flat. Erick put the proto-amulet in the cradle he had made before, and then he got to work marking it up with chalk. That took another ten minutes. And then he was ready.

Ophiel turned the machine with practiced precision while Erick focused on carving out the inscription; this time in all capital letters, and with some extra words at the end that circled back around to the start. The goal was to have an endless flow. He had also changed the wording around so that it was more balanced when twisted into a ring-shape.

‘FOCUS ON THE FLOW SO IT FILLS YOU FULL SO YOU’

It was a mantra, repeated and circular, and it took 200 mana to inscribe on one side.

Erick then put the amulet in a second cradle that he had already made with Ophiel hours ago; a thing that would hold the amulet on its side, allowing him to inscribe the edge. Ophiel turned that machine this time, too, while Erick deftly carved the same inscription on that edge.

When he was done, Erick inspected his work. It was… decent. The words on the edge lined up with the words on the front surface, and the design had been mutated from a design in Inferno Maw’s books that was an example of a moderately advanced Stat enchantment. Erick expected to achieve about 75% of what the enchantment could actually do, though he would be fine with a 50% success. But! He was currently low on mana again.

So Erick went to the enchanting books for a little while, to read as he waited to regenerate to full.

According to the books, Erick’s newest design should work better than his previous attempt.

… Erick almost added a [Renew] rune to the center of the design, though, which would introduce all sorts of oddities to the amulet’s functions. Potentially fantastic oddities! But still oddities. And really… Now wasn’t the time for such wild experimentation. Erick was on a deadline, of sorts. Redflame was going to try for [Renew] in about five or six days. Erick couldn’t be wasting too much mana on possible wastes of time; not yet, anyway. He didn’t even want to practice with all the esoteric enchanting materials, either, for those too might end up being a waste of time.

… He was just worrying, is all. Erick went back to his amulet and made sure it was properly fitted to the cradle, and that it was flat, and that it was ready for enchanting. It was.

Erick stood before his creation, and centered himself. His mana was nearly full, which meant he had about 480 mana, which was more than enough for an enchant like this. So he stood, and lifted up his left hand to hover above the amulet, while with his right, he grabbed the inscription scalpel—

He stopped himself. The previous amulet still rested on his chest. He had almost forgotten. You weren’t supposed to wear any enchanted objects when you enchanted anything, for they could taint your creation. So Erick took off the crystal-encrusted amulet and Fairy Moon’s amulet (which he didn’t do that first time! Oddly enough. He probably fucked up there, too, somehow) and set them both aside, far away on his bed. As the power of his amulets broke away from his aura Erick felt momentarily weak and exposed, which was likely a combination of both the loss of Stats, and the loss of the obfuscation effect from Fairy Moon’s necklace.

Which was fine, for now. He was in his room, inside Fairy Moon’s manor. No one was spying on him except for known forces.

Erick went back to his workstation. He repositioned himself with one hand over the amulet and the other holding the knife with the blade against the thick part of his other palm.

Light-filled aura expanded from Erick’s skin like a cloying fog, but with swirls of power here and there drifting away like steam flowing in an unseen breeze. With a concentrated thought Erick brought his aura under complete control, forming a solid layer of light around his skin—

Flick went the knife. Ophiel whined, but Erick beamed nothing but calm and certainty, and Ophiel picked up what he was putting down. Ophiel calmed. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye just stared at the ceremony of it all, trying to understand exactly what was happening, as for the second time in as many days blood pooled on the thick part of Erick’s palm, and yet did not drip.

White light concentrated into that blood, turning it iridescent white, turning it from something real, into something Real, making it a part of Erick’s enchanting ceremony.

Erick put down the knife. With that now-free hand, he enveloped the amulet in his aura. The amulet began to glitter as Erick primed it even further. And then blood began to drop.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Drops of white magic fell onto the aura-enveloped amulet, vanishing completely, that power transferring into the letters, filling them up with gentle cyan glows. Erick was still focused on Focus, after all, and cyan was the color of regenerating mana.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Cyan crystals grew from the inscriptions, filling out the first circle of words with tiny prominences of power, and then flowing into the second circle. A ring of cyan crystals began to rise up from the edges of the crystal.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Erick was down 300 mana by now; almost a hundred mana more than what he had put into the prototype. This newest version was still sucking in mana and growing crystals, and did not seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

400 mana gone, soaked into the new amulet. Sweat trickled into Erick’s eyes, lightly stinging him, but he focused onto the amulet. The crystal growths had formed something odd. Erick ignored the oddness for now, and poured drop after drop of magic into the—

A drop of magic failed to enter the amulet. It sat on the surface. The whole thing flashed over in a bright, cyan instant. Erick closed off his flow of mana and blood and felt lightheaded, but a quick tap of healing from Ophiel made him feel better. Not fully better, but good enough. He wasn’t actually low on blood, though; he was sitting on an empty mana tank.

With a sigh, Erick sat down, closed his eyes, and Rested for a moment. A minute later he opened his eyes and looked at what he had created.

The overall shape of the amulet was a disk, about 6 centimeters in diameter and a centimeter thick. It was, in actuality, a rather big hunk of platinum. And now it was about doubled in size, due to sharp cyan crystals extending directly out from those edge inscriptions like a blue radiance, with four prominent points equally spaced around the rim. The inscriptions in the center added to that design, radiating outward in a similarly 4-pointed splash.

It was the F in each word that started the splash, Erick saw. He also saw that some of the crystals did not match up exactly with those Fs. In that moment, Erick realized he had likely messed up a bit by not workshopping his design a bit more. If he had had a perfectly balanced inscription, then perhaps he could have kept adding mana to the thing, making it better…

But he was already out of mana, anyway. This was as good as it was going to get, for now.

… And now that Erick looked at his work a bit more, the whole thing reminded him a bit of his Crystal Star, actually, but larger, and very blue. The extra points from all the smaller prominences made him think of a blue sun, though; not a moon at all. That was the oddity that had distracted him earlier. The whole thing looked like a pale reminder of the Crystal Star.

Whatever.

Erick strung a necklace through the back of his new amulet and put it on his chest, directly over his co—

Hot.

And yet cold.

That was what Erick felt as the amulet fully joined with his aura. He let it happen, breathing out the temporary discomfort for the imaginary heat and cold were already abating. Soon, he felt normal.

Ten minutes later he had enough mana to test himself with the counting crystal.

Erick’s eyes went wide as the numbers started blinking. He wrote down his new numbers while saying to Ophiel and Yggdrasil, “That worked out a lot better than expected.”

– –

Strength: 27

Vitality: 27+15=42

Dexterity: 28+4=32

Constitution: 27

Perception: 27

Willpower: 37+19=56

Focus: 38+59=97

Intelligence: 28

– –

Mana: 560

Mana Regen (Vit+Foc): 1390

– –

Ophiel twittered. Yggdrasil moved his eye to inspect the amulet on Erick’s chest. Erick lifted up the amulet a bit so the big guy could get a look, while he said, “I got about 80 points yesterday. Today, I should get 130-ish… Minus the two hours it took to do this and also test myself.”

Yggdrasil looked up at him, almost questioningly; about what, Erick could not say. He missed being able to talk to the big guy, and for some reason, direct telepathy didn’t reach all the way in here.

Erick said, “I’ll see you again in person, soon, Yggdrasil. I’ll be able to answer all your questions then, but until then, stay safe out there, okay?”

Yggdrasil’s eye bounced a little in recognition, and in answer, like he was saying ‘okay’ back.

Erick grabbed Fairy Moon’s necklace and put that one on, too. And when nothing happened between either his new monstrosity of an amulet and Fairy Moon’s tiny pink/green crystal, he smiled; No resonance issues.

It was time for another break.

It was time for breakfast.

His new amulet bounced against his chest as he took the stairs two at a time, and Erick was thankful that his provided shirts were of good quality, for the amulet was very pointy. It was pretty damned fancy, though. Probably too fancy. He’d only be wearing it around the house, he decided, so this much bling was probably fine.

Erick walked into the dining room right as Fairy Moon and Maid Maria walked in from a corridor on the other side. Both of them looked at the new shininess on his chest. Both of them had also seen the old amulet, too, but this new one was much bigger.

Erick began, “Good morning. Time for breakfast?”

Fairy Moon narrowed her eyes at Erick’s amulet, then she looked at him. “Yes. Maid Maria was just on her way up to alert you, but I see that is not necessary. I ask, though… Does this day feel auspicious to anyone else?”

Erick instantly smiled and brightly said, “Nope!” shutting down all other options.

Fairy Moon and Maid Maria looked at him, questioningly.

And then Fairy Moon said, “Very well then.” She said to Maid Maria, “I will be having the sausage, pancakes, eggs, and steak.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Maid Maria curtsied. She asked, “And for you, Archmage Flatt?”

“White rice and fried chicken and assorted vegetables. I’d call it a stir-fry, but I don’t think you know that phrase.” It wasn’t the ‘breakfast’ option, but Erick had been awake for a while, and he felt like having dinner right now.

Maria curtsied again, then turned around and went to fetch the food.

Erick sat down at his usual spot.

Fairy Moon took her spot, and she began, “Are you sure you don’t want the day to be detailed?”

“I’m not sure your meaning, exactly, but I am at another breakthrough with my accretion, and I do not desire a distraction.”

Fairy Moon narrowed her eyes, then decided she knew better. She plucked a pure white staff-sized bit of wood from the air, and set it on the table between them. Yggdrasil hopped from Erick’s shoulder and alighted on the branch like he knew it, personally. Which he did.

It was a twig from Yggdrasil.

Erick frowned. “Explain?”

“I asked Yggdrasil for a branch and he broke one off and now here it is for your enchanting education.” Fairy Moon said, “Do with it what you will, though I suggest you start experimenting with the manawood I provided for your purposes before you break open this white wood.”

Yggdrasil’s eye spun in recognition. He seemed… Happy? Clearly, yes. He was happy.

So Erick ignored what he was going to say to Fairy Moon, and instead told Yggdrasil, “I will be sure to use it well, Yggdrasil. I appreciate this.”

Yggdrasil bounced up and down again in acknowledgment, and then he nuzzled into Erick’s shoulder. He was still immaterial though, so Erick felt nothing except good, distant thoughts of joy.

Maid Maria returned with the food a moment later.

And then she joined them for breakfast, sitting across from Erick, while Fairy Moon sat at the head of the table. Though the conversation that morning was stiff with Maria barely saying anything, Erick couldn’t help but smile a little that she had finally decided to join them for a meal. Like, sure, these people were his kidnappers, but Erick was getting over it. As long as they didn’t do anything else to him, or to his people, this was fine.

Despite how he had arrived in Ar’Cosmos, now that he was here, he was learning a lot, and unlike how the Script could be stripped from him the moment he crossed that final line, making magic himself meant that it could never be taken from him, again.

After breakfast Erick went back to accretion.

12 hours later, Erick had gained around 8 more Points in every Stat, and according to the books, he was either at the very end of his First Foundation, or in the middle. The cutoff point for everyone was different, but the normal cutoff was somewhere between 20 in every Stat, or 50, or 75, according to how much power the body and spirit were accustomed to before one began accretion.

Erick was used to 87 in everything except for Willpower and Focus, which had been at 227. With a core that was still rather like a flat-ish, faceted computer mouse than a true spherical core, Erick suspected that it might be a long while before he achieved spirit saturation.

Another 12 hours after that, the morning sun had risen once again, Erick had gained around 9 points in every Stat, and he once again ate breakfast with Fairy Moon and Maid Maria. Both of them eyed him the whole time, Maid Maria with concern, and Fairy Moon with judgment, because Erick almost nodded off right on top of his omelet. No one actually said anything about his obvious sleep deprivation, though.