B2 Chapter 186: The Second Spell

Kaius shook his head at Porkchop’s antics, though he couldn’t help but agree that his latest glyph—Aelina—was rather graceful in its design.

As soon as the system retreated and left him with a new mark on his flesh, and knowledge in his mind, he felt the familiar ding of a system notification.

No doubt it was his waiting spell-hymns. From what his class guide had said, it would involve some level of hands-on guidance from a system construct—similar to the space he had arrived in to select his class.

Still, he was unsure of how it worked. Would he make the choice there? Or beforehand? If he jumped in right now and it was the former, he would lose all of his ability to discuss their thoughts on what could benefit them as a team.

Thankfully, the problem was easily solved by simply asking. From what Ianmus had told him, the way he learnt spells wasn’t uncommon amongst sorcerers, and Kaius was all but certain the man would know the answer.

“Oh, yes! I hadn’t realised that you didn’t know.” Ianmus nodded enthusiastically at his question. “It can vary, as the system has a tendency to personalise itself to an individuals needs, but generally you can expect to make the selection much like you did with your class skill—often it is only when someone is in danger, or they have an extreme predilection to lengthy decision making, that they go to the system space for their actual choice.”

That was a relief. Sharing his options would not just help him to more clearly work through his choices and direction, but would help him uncover the secrets of his class. Skills built on skills, so every spell choice he made would inevitably have some level of effect on the kind of options he would receive in the future.

With someone as knowledgeable as Ianmus on hand, he could hopefully get some insight on what their long term effects might be. After all, if there was a good spell for individual one off utility, but it led to him receiving more and more options of a similar bent, he wasn’t likely to pick it.

“In that case, let’s dive right in.” he said, bringing up the waiting notification as he bent down to put his boot back on—no point in giving Rieker even the smallest advantage by letting him see the glyph when he returned.

**Ding! Spell-hymn available for selection!**

Yellia’s Slip Step:

Runic Hymn – Tier I (Translocation)

Affinity: Space, Dimension

Glyph: Aelina

80 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn partially submerges the user in slip space for 10 steps, lengthening distance travelled and intermittently rendering them incorporeal.

…

Galewind Dash:

Runic Hymn – Tier I (Mobility)

Affinity: Air, Storm

Glyph: Aelina

60 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn summons a howling tailwind that drastically increases movement speed and seeks to disrupt incoming attacks.

…

Ingrid’s Localised Downness:

Runic Hymn – Tier I (Translocation)

Affinity: Gravity

Glyph: Aelina

50 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn temporarily reorients the effect of gravity on the user to be directly beneath their centre at all times for 1 minute.

…

Defensive Transference:

Runic Hymn – Tier I (Mobility)

Affinity: Kinetic, Martial

Glyph: Aelina

200 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn infuses the body with an energy field that will absorb and store 70% of the force of the next attack weathered—up to a certain limit. This stored energy may be used to empower a single step at 300% efficiency.

Reading each of the spell’s descriptions, Kaius leaned back into his chair bodily and crossed one leg over his knee.

It was a wide array of exactly the skills he was hoping for, though while all were movement related it was plain to see that they all had a clear bent to either defense or utility.

Slip Step and Defensive Transference were the most immediately interesting to him. Both would serve something he distinctly lacked—active defense and evasion.

The former seemed like it would be fantastic for unblockable and unavoidable attacks, especially as his glyph levelled. Afterall, he had no doubt that both the amount of steps he would take, and the amount of time he would spend incorporeal, would grow. That, and increasing the distance he could cover in a step would no doubt be disorienting as all hell for his opponents.

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On the other hand, Defensive Transference seemed…potent. A massive reduction to incoming blows, combined with a way to explosively create or close distance? The only major downside was its comparatively extreme cost—though even that would grow far less of a hindrance as he continued to level.

Kaius turned to his team members, taking the time to run them through his options, and his thoughts on the spells. Running his hands through his hair, he asked their opinions. With how torn he was between both spells, he hoped there was something that would make it a clear cut decision.

“Slip Step, without question!” Ianmus was surprisingly vehement with his response, clenching the armrests of his chair in a white knuckle grip as he half rose from his seat.

A moment later, the half-elf coughed as he realised that both Kaius and Porkchop were staring at him with half tilted heads.

Slowly lowering himself back into the chair, he cleared his throat. “Sorry. But you said it was a space and dimension affinity? Truly?”