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Chapter 134 - Signs of Preparation
🕑 Added 2024-09-15 20:00:06 +0000 UTCNate sat on the floor trying to process his emotions and everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. He was angry, furious even. What surprised him was the target of that fury. His anger was internally, at himself. How could he have let himself be taken or worse, caught so unprepared? He knew that if he still had his creations. His barrier bracer, his shadow scales or his acid wand that he could have fought back and won, but even to his own mind that felt like an excuse. He had been so convinced of his own Skills and strength that he hadn’t taken proper precautions. The price of his hubris had almost cost him everything.
Glancing at Kiri as she wandered around the room he realised how thankful he was that she had been tracking him. A small part of him, in the back of his mind, told him he should be angry or hurt by the deceit of hiding the Soul Tether from him. The greater part of him though, was thankful. It made him realise he didn’t really care if Kiri always knew where he was. It also made him think that maybe he should do something similar to her. He cracked his second smile, since the battle, as he reined his mind in from thinking about how to use the Target and Bridge Sigils to create a rune to do exactly that.
Once the battle had been over Frick had left to get Deverell and until Kiri’s mentor arrived they were trying not to disturb the scene of the fight. Thinking of the fight brought him back to his notifications and he glanced at them, preparing to dismiss them.
You have defeated an enemy utilising an Embodiment before achieving your own Embodiment.
Your achievement has been recorded.
Accrued Mana applied to Secondary Class.
Level up…
Level up…
Stats adjusted: +2 Magic Power, +8 Magic Control, +4 Channelling Speed, +4 Mana Reserve, +2 Mana Absorption +10 Free Stats
Empowered Amplified Magic 28 > 30
Empowered Runic Artistry 37 > 38
Runic Creation 39 > 41
True Teleportation 31 > 32
Conceptual Insight 41 > 42
Farsight of the Runic Artist 43 > 44
Conceptual Automation 14 > 16
Skills Available! Please Select 1* Skills.
Class Skill Options:
Spatial Expansion (Rare)
Space is malleable. So, why limit your space to the prescribed dimensions when you could spatially expand it. Carry your clothes, your supplies, even your house, with you wherever you go. This Skill allows the user to create spatially expanded spaces. Size of expansion is based on the user's Skill Level. Cost and duration is based on the user’s Magic Power and Magic Control. Spatial space starts at one- half a cubic metre. Skill Level increases space by Skill Level * one-half a cubic metre.
Spatial Reinforcement (Rare)
Space is not solid. It is a fluid, three-dimensional area that can be altered or distorted, shaped or dispersed. But, for those wishing to create spaces that will resist the warping of gravity or, that will stand the test of time, they need the ability to harden space. They need Spatial Reinforcement. This Skill will reinforce any spatially created space or zone the user focuses on. Extent of reinforcement is based on user’s' Magic Power, Magic Control and Skill Level.
Spatial Empowerment (Epic)
All Mages need to empower their Skills and Spells beyond what their affinities can provide. Some turn to tools, enchantments, alchemy or even spirits. You have turned to sequestering mana to further empower your Skills by concentrating mana with your spatial affinity. This Skill empowers all Spatial Skills and Spells. Empowerment is equal to Skill Level * 2 plus Magic Control / 50 percent.
Space is all around You (Rare)
Space is one of the true constants of the material multiverse. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you occupy space and move through it. Why then must you utilise only your own mana for spatial skills when the mana that surrounds you also occupies space? This Skill reduces the mana cost of Spatial Skills and Spells by drawing on ambient mana with an affinity for space to offset the mana required. Mana cost reduction increases at Skill Level * 1.
Spatial Portals (Rare)
While a Spatial Mage can normally teleport themselves, moving others can be a challenge. Mana under the influence of others will naturally resist manipulation. That is where portals come in. Why move someone when you can forcibly connect two locations, just like looking through a window?. Distance increases with Skill Level. Initial distance is five metres. Skill Level increases distance by Skill Level * five metres.
It still wasn’t done as he looked over the next notification.
Runic Creation (L) is ready to evolve.
Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.
Skill Evolution Options:
Lasting Runic Creation (M)
As a Runic Artist you have emphasised the aspect of Creation in your runes, creating runes out of mana and powered by mana, straddling the line between Runecrafting and Spellforms. This skill further emphasises that duality, creating runes from mana that will last and freeing the user to focus elsewhere. This skill allows the user to project Runes composed of mana onto any space or surface and dynamically alter them as they desire. Further, when the scaffold is made of mana it will maintain its shape without the user's focus for a period of time. Mana cost based on Intellect, Creativity, Skill Level, Rune complexity and Rune Tier. Mana scaffold runes will last for 1 second * Skill Level before dissipating. Additional Skill Levels decrease mana cost by 2%. Additionally increases Creativity by 15%.
Conceptual Runic Creation (M)
As a Runic Artist you have emphasised your deep connection with the Concepts of reality. The truths of the universe are yours to mould and through runes you tame these truths and make them your own. This Skill allows the user’s runes and the Concepts and Sigils involved to aspect the mana of any runes projected. Mana aspecting will increase the power of any runes created. Mana cost based on Intellect, Creativity, Skill Level, Rune complexity and Rune Tier. Mana aspecting is Skill Level * 1% resulting in an equivalent increase in the runes power. Additional Skill Levels decrease mana cost by 2%. Additionally increases Creativity by 15%.
Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.
He sighed as he saw the evolution. He should have been happy, perhaps even ecstatic. But his emotions were wrung dry from the torture and fear he had experienced. Still, there was no point leaving his evolution and new skill waiting and once it was done he could focus on the here and now.
He debated waiting for Frick to return to discuss the choices, but really, what was there to discuss? The Skill evolutions were both impressive and of course they were also both abilities he wanted. The former would let him do what he had been trying to do previously, allowing him to have more runes going than three or four at a time because he could create them then simply maintain a flow of mana to them while his mind could focus on creating another rune, and then another, and then another. He would finally be able to match pure Mages in the number of spells they had active or used at the same time. But, that didn’t align with his goals for his Embodiment. Conceptual Runic Creation was exactly what he had been going for. Building for a future opportunity to synergise with Conceptual Material. Perhaps even Conceptual Automation. Passing up on that opportunity was never an option. With a thought he selected Conceptual Runic Creation.
The spatial Skills were another matter. None of them appeared to help him resist Spatial Locks. Creating his own spatial spaces could be interesting, but then he could likely achieve the same with his runecrafting. Especially now that he could tier up Sigils. All he needed was a low tier Space sigil and he would be able to replicate the Spatial Expansion and Spatial Reinforcement Skills. Space is all around You was out as well. He didn’t need to lower the mana cost of his spatial skills. True Teleportation was plenty cheap as long as he wasn’t trying to repeatedly move long distances. That left Spatial Empowerment and Spatial Portals. There was a question of why it specified ‘spatial’ for portals. Did that mean there were other kinds of portals? Both Skills would be useful, but the decision came back to his first thoughts. With runecrafting he could likely make portals. Empowering his True Teleportation though could be incredibly useful. Making his selection he selected Spatial Empowerment.
All that was left was his ten Free Stats. Glancing at his Status he calculated in a flash that his Orb absorption limit was currently three hundred and sixty seven stat points. He had only used just over a hundred of that limit which meant he had room for over two hundred stats. This brought to the fore a consideration he had long had.
Glancing down at his robe he plucked at the Legendary threads of the dark blue material. They refused to give under his fingers which didn’t surprise him at all. The robe was impressive. A Legendary enchanted item and something that had been with him since almost day one. It was beautiful, perhaps more so to him than anything else, because even its design was a reminder of where he came from. Stars, the decorations that housed his runes. The robe proudly displayed fourteen of them. Other stars. Other galaxies. Other universes.
At the rate he and Kiri were going, in just a few years they could be visiting such places. With Conceptual Insight it was just a matter of time until he had Mythic, or perhaps even better, Sigils for space or similar Concepts, at which point he would finally open the book that had been sitting in his spatial storage since he first met Arikanvil. He wasn’t sure if he would use it to try and find his way back to Earth, or just to find other Universes. Other possibilities. Maybe even just to visit other places on Galle.
His eyes had grown unfocused as he thought over the possibilities. His mind was, as per usual, running off on tangents. As he refocused, the midnight blue of his robe filling his vision, he returned to the root of his problem and the decision he had to make. When he had first gotten the enchanted item he had thought that he could use such items to elevate the Stats he didn’t intend to invest in. But even a Legendary item only provided a total of thirty Stats, his robe splitting them with ten to Agility and twenty to Magic Power. Maybe a Mythic item would provide forty, he thought.
In some ways, that was incredibly impressive, especially when you considered even an Uncommon Class only gave six Stats per level. But that meant a Mythic item was only worth the equivalent of six and a bit levels in an Uncommon Class. His robe was also large. A full piece of clothing for a grown man. When he’d made his Runic Gloves, even though they were Rare, they had only offered a total of six Stats, going towards his Magic Power. That made him consider that the amount of material was a factor in how large the Stat boost was. Which brought him back to his problem. If he purely relied on items to shore up the Stats he didn’t invest in, at the rate he was growing, he would never manage to keep up.
Which meant he had a decision to make. Where to focus his Free Stats going forward? Up until now he had prioritised Intellect and Magic Power with a smattering in his other Magic Stats and Perception. Creativity had gotten the short end of the stick with even less invested in it than his Constitution Stat. And that was where he was now looking. Realmwalker would continue to level his Magic Stats. His Intellect and Perception were growing just from his Skills. Creativity was languishing a bit, but no one had said that his Stats would affect his Embodiment so he wasn’t overly concerned with that. He might have considered Willpower, but with the Soul Engraving, something he hoped to replicate himself in the future, his Mana Reserve and Magic Power acted as an effective defence against Mental and Soul related Skills and spells. But his durability was absolutely garbage.
He didn’t care about Agility as his speed was related to his mind and his Magic Stats. Yes, there was a flaw in that thinking, if they were able to lock space down and prevent him from using mana externally, but he could get around that with runecrafted items. Of that, he was certain. Strength was pointless. He wasn’t a melee fighter and never would be. He was a crafter and a mage, in that order. Dexterity was useful for his painting, but it was already decent from his Runic Artist Class and he rarely crafted runes with his fingers these days. That was a function of his Magic Control, which would soar thanks to it being the primary Stat for the Realmwalker Class. That left Endurance and Constitution, which were the two he was looking at. Both had value. If he was more resistant to taking damage, then even when his defences failed, he wouldn’t immediately be defeated. If it bought him time, then he would be able to react and if he could react, perhaps he could snatch victory from the claws of defeat.
He nodded, making his decision that the rest of his Free Stats for his remaining Realmwalker would go towards Endurance and Constitution. Adding the ten stats he had available to Constitution he was about to continue thinking and planning for the future, mostly to distract himself from thinking about how it felt to have the skin on his chest melting, when Kiri gave a yell.
Climbing to his feet he walked across the shattered wood from the crates and barrels, avoiding looking at the various corpses that littered the place. His Farsight of the Runic Artist refused to spare him the details though, and he refused to pull in his sensory ability, or drop the barrier he had enclosed himself in. The wounds on the dead were consistent. Stab wounds targeting vital areas. Eyes, throat and the back of the head. A couple had other defensive wounds on their forearms and chest. The ones who had managed to react, if only for a moment, before his best friend put them in the dirt.
It was only his second time seeing dead humans. The first, even though they had deserved it, had left an ache in him. That ache had faded with time, and he had expected to have a similar reaction this time. Instead, he felt ambivalent. A numbness resting in his chest where caring for their deaths should have resided. These people had captured him. Even if it hadn’t been their hands that held the flame, they had chosen to ignore his screams as he was tortured by a noble for the crime of having knowledge that the wealthy wanted. He ground his teeth and tried to suppress the surge of anger. These mercenaries or whatever they were could rot in hell for all he cared.
Finishing crossing the warehouse floor he found Kiri standing in a small office. The decor made it clear that this was where the mercenary leader had holed up. A decent bed in the corner, a table with a glowing enchanted gem, a simple wooden chair and some clothes and other accoutrements told the story of a man who didn’t settle in one place. Kiri was standing over the desk, looking through a notebook.
“What do you make of this?” she asked, handing the book to him.
Inside were simple details, that unless he missed his guess, was a log of some kind. There were columns for dates, locations, numbers of crates and how much they were paid. At first he thought the final column was just the item that was in the crates. But when he looked at the number of crates that made no sense to him. Fifteen crates of topaz would make them rich enough to not have to worry about taking risky jobs like kidnapping him. A few lines down was thirty crates of sapphire. Farther up in the list was ten crates of garnet. If they had been moving this many gems in the last two years they should’ve been rich. Worse, of the thirty entries recorded over the last two years, they were always the same five gems. Sapphire, topaz, garnet, amethyst and malachite.
In some ways he was impressed that the stones had a direct translation via Divine Translation, but he supposed that the physics here on Galle, even if it could be influenced by mana, seemed to be the same as Earth. So, the formation of rocks should be the same or at least similar. But that didn’t explain this list, or the payments they had received, which were a pittance compared to the worth of that many crates of gems. Unless, they weren’t gems. Were they codes for something else?
Nate looked up as he sensed Deverell enter his sphere of awareness, glancing at the door as the quietly efficient man joined them.
“What do we have here?” asked the Dagger Dancer as he glanced at the notepad in Nate’s hands.
Comments
GoodMornin2U2
Thank you for the chapter!
Secret Weapons
Tftc! I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet... maybe its coming next chapter now that Deverell's there to snoop around, but I hope we can get some confirmation that Nate was able to recover everything that was briefly taken from him by that woman. Bare minimum I hope he breaks even here..... frankly now that she's dead he and his friends should be quickly rushing to her shop/house to ransack it for all her private knowledge and maybe some nice shiny things too lol she ain't gonna miss it.
