Draith
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Chapter 18 - The Grind
🕑 Added 2025-02-25 02:00:06 +0000 UTCDespite gaining access to Nexxa's spellbook, that didn't mean we slowed down on my spell cycling. In fact, with three impression slots, I was casting more spells than ever.
It was to the point that magic felt like a chore.
The second I realized that was when I called for a break.
"What do you mean, the wonder is gone?" Nexxa asked, tilting her head as she plopped down on the galley table.
"I mean, the joy of casting is… well, non-stop casting feels like a chore," I explained.
"Uh… duh," Nexxa said, shoving my shoulder. "This is the boring part. You're lucky it's going so fast. I had to spend months doing this on my own."
"I appreciate it. I just… we still have a week, and I'm not sure this is actually the best use of our time," I said, gesturing at her grimoire, which was the reason we were in the galley and not out on the deck in the first place. "Some of the modifications you've made… they completely ignore modern spell theory."
"Well, duh. Modern spell theory is a trap. Least that's the only reason I can think of for half their idiotic claims," Nexxa said as she flipped open her grimoire to near the middle. "Like, the idea that spells can't have instructions with a time delay. They taught us that when we were what, twelve?"
"I was ten," I replied, pulling forth the relevant memory. "And yeah, totally thought that was weird, since there were Magit's that could activate with a time delay."
"Right? It's one of the most obvious examples. And it's easy to work around. Here, see what I did?"
"Hmm. You added a decay loop. That's from the affliction branch, isn't it?"
"Yes. And you can change the rate of decay. Sure, it takes a little more mana, but presto, instant delayed spell."
It was refreshing talking about spells instead of just casting them non-stop. It was exactly the sort of break I needed to get back into the grind.
I hadn't actually added any of Nexxa's spells to my own grimoire, mostly because the constant motion of the ship didn't lend itself well to inscription. That and Nexxa didn’t want Books peeking at her grimoire. So far, there were two I'd tagged to add once we reached Nexxa's domain. There were several more that interested me, but now that I had a hard limit on scribing materials, I needed to be somewhat conservative.
Sure, I could scribe roughly fifty pages worth of spells, but that would run out quick once I started experimenting. And fifty pages would only cover five typical second order spells. Spells I'd be able to use in the foreseeable future, if our progress continued apace.
Nexxa had also confirmed that Memory Palace didn't allow us to copy spells we'd read before, though we could study them. She did have some ideas on how to rework Review Scroll to at least create single use copies. It would require some runes for imprinting onto paper we didn’t have yet though. Books confirmed they existed, though he refused any sort of trade of knowledge, claiming it was still to early in our relationship for something so intimate.
Our switch to discussing spell theory instead of constant casting meant I didn't unlock my next spell slot until the ninth morning after we left the capital, but it made the trip much more pleasant. And with four slots, I was able to keep all the spells I considered 'mandatory' slotted at all times.
At the time, my list of mandatory spells consisted of Mana Draw, Storage Access, Minor Heal and Detect Mana. Once I hit five slots, I intended to add Bloom to the mix, mostly to keep my nature affinity from falling behind. Something I wouldn't have to worry about once I ascended to Astral-soul and my affinities solidified. It would also mean raising them would require second order spells, but that was fine, since there were limits to how high I could raise an affinity with a first order spell.
Detect Mana wasn't as granular as I'd been hoping. It was basically a jacked up version of every sapient's ability to feel nearby mana, though its range was greatly increased. And that meant I could detect mana from much further away. Thankfully, Nexxa had already come up with several modifications that would improve it, and as we talked, we discussed how it could be improved even further. We even figured out how to combine several features, reducing the complexity close to the original’s. We just had to scribe the improved version before we could use it.
Something we were both hesitant to do until we had nice solid land beneath our feet.
We were also considering how I might be able to modify Assess Self to stress my affinities more. If we could modify it to simply maximize mana use without the diagnostic components, we could reduce the complexity by nearly half while keeping the cost the same. It would make balancing my affinities so I could become a proper archmage much easier, since I wouldn’t need to constantly be swapping out spells.
Calbern continued to display his devastating aim, though he also seemed to know how much damage a monster could take, as he would disable them but never landed a killing blow.
"Unnatural it is, for a mortal to be so skilled with the weapons of the ensouled," I heard the captain mutter after Calbern's latest takedown.
It made me think. If Calbern was this skilled as a mortal, how good would he be as a mage?
Unfortunately, even after going through the awakening process, I didn't understand how it worked. Perth's had just happened when he'd been out for a ride with his brothers.
I knew a person had to condense their mana enough to form a semi-solid core in their chest. But until a person had a core, controlling mana directly was impossible. And having someone else attempt to create a core for them ended in either a stagnant or broken core.
Stagnant cores did have some benefits. Those with a stagnant core could channel mana into grimoires or certain Magits, much like I'd done when I was first exercising my core, but they'd never grow. Never have spell slots. They were even worse off than Lady Guniveer.
At least, according to everything we'd read. Obviously, we were both doubting the truth, but unlike our other theories, we couldn't test any of them without potentially ruining someone's future forever. And that was assuming we didn't leave them crippled with a broken core.
I still wanted to know more, but for the moment, it was set to the side.
There was more than enough I needed to get done.
Like figuring out the my move in the game Books was using for the day’s lesson. It was a sort of board game, only it incorporated both dice and magic. Each turn we could roll the dice, infuse the board with mana, then choose one effect based on where we landed. My current options included growing my orchards, which would prevent me from infusing mana next turn, but would give me an extra dice to roll every turn after. Or I could slay monsters, which would give me another spot to place a building. I did need more room, since expanding the orchards would use up the last of my free space, and not being able to infuse mana next turn meant I wouldn’t be able to fight monsters then.
Nexxa jostled my shoulder, and I chose to expand the orchards anyway. Better the cash in hand and all that.
After we finished the game, we dived straight back into stressing my slots. It was as we were getting close to unlocking my fifth slot that I noticed the problem. My spells were all costing me more than they should've. A lot more.
As we took a break, we soon realized it wasn't my spells that were the problem.
Sitting in the galley once more, Nexxa and I were attempting to figure out the problem while the cook prepared the evening's dinner. Roast monstrous bat, most likely, given how many of them were drawn to our blasting rod practice. Keeping meat on the menu was a nice side benefit.
"Am I… leaking mana?" I asked, rubbing my hands over my arms as if I'd be able to stop it.
"Feels like it," Nexxa confirmed, holding her own hand over my arm.
"Guess there's a reason folk don't jam as much mana as possible into others," I said, trying not to panic. Leaking mana was exactly what happened with a broken core. Though I'd read they also lived in excruciating pain, and I didn't have that. At least not yet.
"Yeah…" Nexxa agreed, her head thudding against the table. "This is all my fault."
"Nope. Either one of us could've guessed this would happen if we thought about it. Way I see it, we have two options," I said, ruffling her hair, earning myself a static shock for my effort. "The first option is we stop entirely, and hope that my core heals itself."
"Could work."
"Or… we could try pushing through to get all five slots unlocked… and hope I can build my formation fast enough that it'll solidify my core when I ascend to Astral. That's part of why getting my affinities up now is important, right? Cause everything gets re-solidified?"
"Affinities aren't ever fully locked in. They just take higher order spells to change," Nexxa said as she raised her head to look at me. "Still… it's not the worst idea I've ever heard.” She leaned back in her chair, putting her feet up on the table as she stared off into space. Something she never would’ve done back at the family compound. “I think there's room to compromise between the two. We wait for a few hours, maybe even overnight, and see if the leak slows. If it does, then the safe route is to wait for your core to heal. And if it doesn't…"
"Then I'll need to build my Astral core while my foundations threaten to crumble beneath my feet," I finished for her.
"Pretty much, yep."
"Well, whichever it is, I guess I know what I'm working on tonight," I said, closing her grimoire and pulling out my journal. "So… how did you set up your foundation?"
Nexxa blinked at me a couple times before her smile slipped back into place. “That’s the spirit. Can’t let a little thing like a few leaky spell slots slow you down.”
“Well. They are gonna slow me,” I said, returning her smile. “They’re just not gonna stop me.”
