193, Book 6 Epilogue

In his mage tower, with the stars shining outside and the lights of Spur dotting the night-cloaked land to the south, Erick was working late. Jane and he had spoken long into the night inside of his [Gate Space] but now she was in her bedroom upstairs, sleeping. Less than ten hours ago, Erick had been talking with gods and a fairy, trying to work out a new world order and somewhat succeeding, and now he was making lists. He had only been at this for roughly twenty minutes, but he had gotten through all the major points, so he stepped back from his summoned chalkboards.

He had a look.

– –

To do (basic):

Important Status work (Do first!):

Check for new Class Abilities

Turn on Class Abilities (spend a point / accrete for a point but hold it in and spend on that ability / Quest, probably just spend the points)

Possibly gain new Abilities (Quests)

Gain Scion of Balance, or other Scion if a possible unknown option should present

Spend Points till 20 remaining, in case I gain more Restricted Magics that cost Points, feel like buying a spell I don’t already have, etc

Advanced Status work (eventually):

Craft a unique boon for self with Rozeta’s help

Benevolence Experiments:

Learn to switch between boon and bane with an adjustment of emotion, or perhaps song

What does baneful benevolence do

What does boon benevolence do

Particle Mage stuff:

Make Class Ability for [Particle Sight], or maybe spell-based Sight. [Identify] + [Mana Sight] + [Condense Particle], maybe?

Produce chelation treatment, and then link up with Songli to see how their own efforts are going

General known and wanted Spellwork, in order of difficulty:

[Widespread Scry Denial] (may not be necessary)

[Baleful Polymorph]

[Reincarnation] / [Soul Renew] ; [Blessing of Renewed Soul]?

[Blessing of Core Renew], to remove the necessity to Accrete to keep a core whole and secure, without denying the ability to accrete whenever desired – Small Wizardry

[Blessing of Core Casting], increase the 500 mana-per-second natural limitations of casting through the core, but without creating more cores – Small Wizardry

[Blessing of Item Use], make it so all items work in all forms, manalight items in particular – Small Wizardry

General spellwork, unknown but useful:

Time Magic with Phagar (Jane has been trying for [Haste] for a long time but thought it was impossible; maybe it’s just Restricted)

Enchanting:

Undertow-based defenses / Various magic restrictions emplaced into a city, both to protect from without and from within

Gates, and experimentation with all that

Make my own Renewal Tank

Assorted [renew]-based utilities at Candlepoint + elsewhere; renewing cleanse showers

Staffs of fireball + etc made from metal and wood and Yggdrasil to see which lasts better

General experimentation with enchanting materials

Help Kiri make [Crystallize Diamond] so she can make perfect Stat items too

Inventions to mass produce / disseminate:

Record players

Electric engine, for [Small Spark] leveraging

Various basic electrical equipment inventions; transistor. AC/DC converter

Research printing press to make [Duplicate] unnecessary / find out more about Rozeta’s handwritten book point-based incentives

Plane, for easy access to [Fly] magics for the general populace? Shouldn’t be too hard. More [Small Spark]-based leveraging / easy physics

[Renew]-based appliances! That way people don’t have to figure out how to use [Ward] to preserve food. They can just buy a Flatt Fridge or something! [Renew] stove! [Renew]-[Cleanse] water treatment! No need to spend points at all on the necessities, either! Just spend money and buy my stuff! OH OH OH!

City work:

Hook up with Candlepoint and see what they’re doing

Check on validity of not actually making my own government at all, because I don’t actually want to run a government or a city

Use [Eternal Stonetree] and [Eternal Stonetreeshape] for major buildings

(I could get/make [Cityshape], but probably not. If I need that, hire it out; good opportunity to interact with other nations)

Planning for a walking city. One level to start

Planning for gate-adjacent warehouses

Planning for gate-support structure

Necessary (?) people:

mayor + helpers (eventual real government. Wrought will want to be involved.)

sewermaster + helpers (I could be the sewermaster? no. too much work)

guard (Slip from Candlepoint can help?)

army (I go here, along with most actual defenders of town)

gate network organization (I and wrought both go here)

House Benevolence (my main construction and organization)

farmlands (yetta goes here?)

interfaith church

various international guilds; Adventurer’s, Mage’s, Wayfarer’s. Will they even work with a Wizard?

BIG QUESTION:

Do I want to make a city? Or just House Benevolence and a [Gate]-based organization? Use Candlepoint as my city?

– –

It was a long list.

It was nothing compared to the second list, which held the names of all the people who he knew, both those who he wished to reconnect with and those he would need to be aware of in the coming weeks, months, and years. Possibly all the way into forever. Fairy Moon’s name was on that second half of this second list, as well as Kirginatharp, but there was also Syllea Wyrmrest of Treehome, and the various archmages of Spur. Tenebrae would be calling up sometime soon, too, and because of [Gate]. A lot of people were in odd positions, with circles of different chalk marking them as possible-ally, or possible-problem. The only ones marked as true allies were Jane, Teressa, Kiri, and Poi, and maybe the ‘Ascendant Prime’ from the Mind Mages who was supposed to show up in the morning.

Erick turned away from that second list. He’d deal with personal problems as they came, for there was no way to truly know where the chips would fall with any of them. A lot of them were probably going to sit back and do nothing as they waited for Erick to make some sort of move either for or against them.

The best thing for Erick to do right now, probably, would be to prove the sincerity of his own convictions; that he would make the world a better place by bringing everyone together in as much harmony as he could.

He’d take a cut of money from it all because that would legitimize the whole endeavor in the eyes of the world, and allow him to pay people to further legitimize everything he did. If it weren’t for the fact that Veird did run on a gold-coin standard, and people expected others to want personal power for themselves, and gold was power, Erick would charge nothing for any of his [Gate] services at all, because opening stable [Gate]s across the world would bring Veird into a new era of cooperation and trade with each other. And that seemed like a good idea to Erick.

And he had enough money anyway from all his other investments—

“Ah!” Erick spoke his next thought as he added to the list, “Check on Mage Bank. Do they still cater to known Wizards? Do I actually have no money at all? Also check on Songli investments with Clan Star Song.”

Something to find out!

There were so many things to do and probably not a whole lot of time to do them. He didn’t even have time to sleep. Everyone else had gone to bed and Erick was here now, so he was on night shift. Technically Sunny was actually on night shift, for Sunny was good enough to do that these days (and all ten of her were still out there on the corners of the house and in other locations), but Erick had requested to take over and so Kiri had let him. This relaxation of duty did not seem to relax the young emeraldscale, though.

Kiri seemed to be having nightmares as she slept. Twice, she had woken up and gasped flames from her mouth as she instantly reached for the diamond crown she kept on her bed stand. But then she winced, realizing that nothing was wrong, so she crashed back into bed and breathed for a while, calming down. She went back to sleep.

Teressa was in her room, on her bed. Though her eyes were closed and she was trying to sleep, Erick knew she was still awake. She hadn’t managed to sleep at all. She was watching Erick, and the future, or rather she was watching the space around Erick. She couldn’t actually see him with her mana senses while Erick had his necklace on, and perhaps he should have taken that off to better calm her down, but she had seen his core when he took off the necklace to show Jane, and even that much might have been too much. Quite understandably, Teressa was concerned that her boss had a core. Hopefully, when she felt more comfortable about what she had seen and was seeing, she would come to him.

Jane had crashed into her bed around 3:00 in the morning and fell asleep not five minutes later. She was happy, and that was good.

Poi was similarly asleep, and without any troubles.

And Erick was here in his mage tower at the south side of his house, making lists. Making plans.

The night sky outside of his tower was awash with stars, though they were somewhat drowned out by the lights of his new neighbors. The mansions of human nobility started only 50 meters away from his large picture window—

Erick quickly added ‘nobles? Do I want them? Probably not’ to the second list; his personnel list.

—and many of them had guard lights and small patrols. The city beyond had even more lights to it, and some of them were quite bright as some places stayed open very late, and the walls were always lit up, too. Spur was a happening place these days. That was because of him, but also because Spur had everything going for it already, mostly in the shape of Silverite and Killzone, and in the grand attraction/horror-that-needed-to-be-contained to the south, known as Ar’Kendrithyst.

Beyond the noble manors, which only partially obstructed his view of Ar’Kendrithyst, the wall of the Dead City was like a black horizon, raised higher than the real horizon. A year ago, from his seat in this tower Erick would have seen red and purple lights glowing above that wall. Faint, most of the time. Some days it would be brighter.

Now, though, through the gaps in his neighbors’ mansions, all Erick saw was an expanse of white light glowing above the Dead City’s wall. That was Anhelia’s creation; her attempt to take back the Dead City that her mother had once thrived in, back before Melemizargo broke the Geode and floated the whole thing to the Surface 950-ish years ago. She was bringing the Dead City back to life.

Erick wished her luck.

… He added to the list ‘Yggdrasil in Ar’Kendrithyst? Ask Anhelia/wrought’

Anhelia’s retaking of the Dead City. Candlepoint’s creation and expansion. Erick’s own idea for a city-like space north of Candlepoint’s Yggdrasil. They were all part of a trend that Erick hoped to grow; the retaking of the Crystal Forest

If he had anything to say about it, a lot of people were going to be building new cities all over the place, and the Crystal Mimics would be relegated to small habitats, or wiped out entirely; Erick wasn’t sure about that quite yet. Erick’s own Gate City would only be one of hundreds… Thousands? Well. Not ‘thousands’ of cities; not for a long while. Eventually, though!

… Gate City?

Was he happy with that name?

Eh. Whatever. Erick added it to his third list.

– –

Candlepoint North

America

Halfway House

Yggdrasil City

Yggy

Drasil

Wizard City

Gate City

Lakeside

Weald

Hearth

Treeside

Roots

Gatelandia

Pathlandia

Oasis

Gatevolent

Gatehouse

Gate City

– –

Erick wasn’t happy with ‘Gate City’. He wasn’t happy with any of his names, though some of them were marginally better than others. ‘Gatehouse’ seemed okay. ‘Roots’ seemed nice. When everyone else woke up, or decided to actually get up, he’d ask for suggestions. But that was still hours away.

There were a few things he needed to do which didn’t require other people, though. One, was to create a [Fairy Stronghold] at Candlepoint’s Yggdrasil. That needed to be done sooner, rather than later; before all the other junk got started. The other thing, perhaps even more important, was to fix the easy-to-fix problems in his Status; the bullet points at the start of his ‘basic problems’ list. So for now…

It was time to spend these points and do some serious Status housekeeping.

While positioning an Ophiel half inside his next spell’s effect, Erick put up a [Sealed Privacy Ward]—

Teressa flinched up in her room. And then she realized she had flinched, which seemed to start a chain reaction of embarrassment and other unsaid emotions as she curled in on herself and then buried her head into her pillow. She knew that Erick knew that she wasn’t actually sleeping at all. But how had she noticed him noticing her—

Ah.

Erick was very worried about everyone, and while his own worldline was hidden by a fairy necklace, Ophiel was not, and Ophiel very much responded to Erick’s own emotional state. Perhaps Erick had given himself away by the subtle twitches of Ophiel, when Erick subconsciously responded to Teressa’s own flinching? Teressa was worried about him being a Wizard, and now that his Privacy was up, she was both worried and embarrassed that she had been seen through that easily—

Oh?

Did she think he put up this Privacy so she couldn’t see his effect on the world? Or something?

Ah.

That eventual conversation would be a tangled thing, for sure.

Erick let her be. Eventually, she would want to talk…

And then they would talk.

The purpose of his Privacy was not to hide from Teressa, though, but so that he could do some Minor Entity of the Script stuff, which is exactly what he did. While in his Normal Form, since that should take the least amount of time, Erick pulled up his Status.

Except for the weird age, it looked good.

Apparently there was no level 100, according to Jane, which was a bit of a surprise, but didn’t really matter. Erick was comfortable with his level, and though he was near the ‘cap’ and he wouldn’t be getting any more easy points that way (probably never again, actually, because he wasn’t going back down to the Core unless he needed to), he could still get points through the Quest Board.

So Erick planned out how he would spend his points all the way down to 20, in case he needed some Restricted Magics later. Those special spells, of which Erick actually didn’t know of aside from [Create Food and Water], each cost 5 points if you accidentally or purposefully unlocked one. [Duplicate] had cost him 5 points when he Remade that one. According to Kirginatharp, unlocking a Restricted spell without having 5 extra points on hand was a Bad Time, and usually resulted in points being stripped from your highest Stat in order to pay the cost.

Such a removal was what actually caused the Bad Time, and not only because of the loss of 5 points from a high-point Stat usually meant a lot less Health or Mana or Regen, but it also hurt like a terrible soul wound.

… Erick decided to keep 21 points around in case of emergency. He liked having even Stats, after all.

Otherwise, 28 points went into both Willpower and Focus.

Erick looked at his Status.

… And he wasn’t sure he liked it, actually.

Not for any numerical reasons. The numbers were fine. Now that he was back on Veird, with Intelligence pulling a lot of weight and his Normal Form’s Scion filling in his missing mana, he cast spells for pennies on the dollar and recovered faster than he needed to.

No. He wanted something simpler, and mainly because he’d probably rarely ever be looking at his Status ever again. Like, sure. He still had use for his Status, but he rarely needed to look at all those numbers anymore. He knew that other Statuses were possible, but he had never looked into that option for himself. Such a thing was easy enough to find with his Minor Entity access, though.

And so, Erick started perusing through Variant Status options. He glanced over the ‘build your own Status’ option, too, but he didn’t think that would be necessary. The offered options were pretty good. In fact, Erick found one he kinda liked—

Oh! And there were options to have dual Statuses; He could have one Status for normal use, while keeping the expanded one in case it was needed to check on his actual numbers. That was good. Erick liked that a whole lot… But he didn’t actually like the offered Statuses, since they didn’t reflect his [Blessing of Recovery] very well. So he tinkered around with the options for a little bit, and then he selected his new Status. The change deducted 1 grand rad from his current stock of hundreds he had already banked with Rozeta, but that was fine.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Erick pulled up his new Status

… Now that he looked at it, he wasn’t sure if he liked what he had done. It was kinda… Simple. Too simple? Probably too simple.

One thing that the Script lacked was the ability to show active spell effects, and it had always lacked that option, so the most important things to keep track of were untrackable. Erick couldn’t see at a glance how much his [Unbreakable Form] was blocking, or even how much a [Personal Ward] still had left in it. Ah! Oh well. He probably wouldn’t use the new Status much.

Ah. But wait. Erick reconsidered. What was the purpose of the smaller Status? It would be to prove who he was to people who might not know. With that in mind, Erick spent another grand rad out of his hundreds available, and made himself a slightly different Status.

Yup! That worked.

He moved on. It was time to check Class Abilities.

He checked his current Abilities first, to remind himself what he had, but also to see if any Benevolence-stuff had happened to Light Dedication, like what had happened to his [Greater Lightwalk] and [Lodestar].

Huh. Surprisingly, nothing had changed there. Which was good! So Erick checked to see if he had gained any new Ability options—

His eyes went wide.

Apparently all of his Abilities were up for reevaluation.

Erick hadn’t thought that he would ever consider replacing his Double Mana or Double Mana Regeneration Abilities, but Lesser World Warden was just better. And for half opportunity costs, too.

… It was possible that the Abilities would stack, though, and so Erick would need to clear out something else in order to accept Lesser World Warden… So what would go?— Eh. No need to guess without full information. He was a Minor Entity, so he could just ask the developer these questions.

“Does Lesser World Warden stack with the other multipliers? And why ‘lesser’?”

Erick had expected Rozeta to telepathically talk to him, as she had before, but instead a blue box appeared.

“No Boon right now. And I do like the Lesser version better. Thanks.”