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A Soldier’s Life: The Dimensional Space Explained
🕑 Added 2025-01-30 03:25:57 +0000 UTCI am writing tonight's chapter, but a few people are confused about dimensional space. Below is the explanation I wrote a year ago. I will answer questions and edit the explanations to try to clarify. For writing purposes, I am trying to avoid 'hard' numbers, preferring approximations that are close to the world mechanics.
A Soldier’s Life: The Dimensional Space Explained
This is how the dimensional space spell form evolved in the writing. It should explain everything—hopefully.
The MC has a 98 (it is 101 at chapter 335) space affinity, and he used it to create the spell form for a dimensional pocket spell form on his aether core. Think of a person’s aether core like a football (soccer football), each patch on it represents a person’s different affinity. The amount of space to imprint a spell form is based on the attribute score. You can only imprint one spell form for each affinity.
With his ridiculous 98 space affinity, the minor spell created a massive space, a cube that was ten feet to the side. It takes the MC two relative aether to materialize the cube that only he can see with the objects inside it. A part of that cube has to be touching his body. This means, with his hand outstretched, the cube can reach, at most, 12 feet from his body (using his fingertip as the extreme edge of the cube). He can ‘adjust’ the cube to move it to access any object by his hand. In other words, if he took the arm off an attacker holding a sword at the far end of the cube, he could make that arm and sword appear in his hand (gross, I know). Also this act would bottom out his aether, so it would not be immediate (see explanation below).
Now, Mage Castile showed him he did not need to open the cube to pull an object out. This requires a lot less aether and just relies on moving the mass of the object. It is also easier than making the cube appear, going into the space, and selecting something.
So, the amount of mass transfer into the space is related. But if the MC opens the dimensional space and selects a mental shape of the object he wants to be moved and that has a greater mass than he has aether for, the space will close, taking the object with it. He did this when he took the large stone cylinder into his space. He bottoms out his aether whenever the object exceeds his capable mass based on his aether. He can also only select one mental shape at a time.
Moving living creatures into his space involves overcoming the person’s/monster’s aether resistance. Aether resistance is like magic resistance. The MC’s dimensional space has a relative power of 98—ridiculously strong. It does not mean the target needs a 99 in aether resistance to resist. That is still being discussed in my head (there are a lot of conversations going on in there), but the latest chapter of Patreon hinted at least 30 points higher to resist. So anyone with 69 could resist him, with scores below 69 they would need some training (i.e. mages have a better chance to resist). If, for instance, he had tried to kill the storm giant, he would have failed as the storm giant’s aether resistance was higher than 69. Now we just need to hope the MC does not try his spell form on a dragon and think he is going to succeed.
If the MC faces aether resistance to moving a person or part of a person, it will always bottom out his aether in the act of moving between his space. This was to nerf his ability, a one-shot kill possible, but he would have to wait until his aether was restored to go again. Now, when he tries to move two different people/monsters at the same time, they multiply their aether resistance together to resist him. That was why it was so difficult to move the two rats together. This is another nerf, so he can not kill multiple people at once, by say, creating a thin plan and decapitating a group of people.
Inside the dimensional space, time does not pass, and there is no gravity. So he can put items in any open space. Objects can not occupy the same space. By expanding aether, he can move objects around in the space.
HOW LONG TO RECHARGE? (added 1/29/25)
In book 1, it was over two hours, but with his gains in the channeling attribute and the ring of channeling, it is now down to under 20 minutes. Now, this does not mean he cannot take objects out of the space earlier than 20 minutes, as the kill effect requires a minimum of 2 aether points, but Castile showed him in book 1 that he could retrieve objects without actually opening the space.
MAGIC POWER/AFFINITIES VS PHYSICAL/MENTAL ATTRIBUTES:
Physical and Mental attributes are on a logarithmic scale
Magical attributes and Magic Affinities are on an exponential scale, doubling in power every 10 points
WHEN HE BOTTOMS OUT HIS AETHER
His slow aging spell form and his mind fortress are turned off and need to be reset
THIS IS ALL SUBJECT TO EDIT BUT IT IS WHERE I AM AT NOW
Comments
Aspiring Sage
One question. If someone is attacking him with a sword or spear, can he choose to take, let's say, 2 feet from the end. So he avoids the aether resistance, but disarms his enemy? The surprise alone would likely give him an opening to attack with his own weapon.
Erick Thiemke
Maybe if he practiced doing it, it would help. I think of it like having a closed book and trying to remove a page without opening it. If he paged through the book and was familiar with the page he wanted, he could, but without seeing it, it is too difficult. Also, Longwinded One was trying to put together a DnD group of RR authors on Discord if you are interested. I have not played in a very long time, but it might be fun. Think he needs one more
J. L. Mullins
Since he can take out one thing from a crate (potions early on) and can move things around (reorient enemies to place them down for fireball splashage), why can't he remove equipment/etc from people/creatures/bodies within his space? Secondarily, can he 'compress' or fold things? If so, I have a LOT of ideas. 😋
Karnnie
If I remember correctly, his space is also close to 12' per side now as well.
Erick Thiemke
Our math was around 15 minutes and he hasn’t made too many gains since then
Karnnie
Does this include all the math we did a few months back? I see that you stated he can restore his aether in under 20 minutes, just curious if everything is currently up-to-date.
Erick Thiemke
no drakes are like wyverns, distant cousins to dragons
Trevayne
I take it the Ice Drake wasn't a dragon? I think it was intelligent and the summoner seemed to regard it as a close friend, but it looks like it didn't have that high of a magic resistance. Did Eryk get lucky there?
Shandlar
Fair. The reason that stuck with me in book 1 when he was playing with the 2 mice was because his channeling and core were both at 14, so it felt like easy math when 9 hours lined up exactly with 0.5 relative aether points per hour per relative channeling power. I know you can't really edit book 1 at this point, but it explicitly says he recovered half his aether between breakfast and lunch.
s1
Sounds like fun, but kind of useful when in dire situation without chance of survival. 2more questions Salvo asked below if its possible to store moving objects (spells, arrows, etc) along and if their momentum will be preserved when released? When do you plan to unlock book 5 for kitchen sink tier subs? I've kind of devoured Soldiers life and Town builder right after that.
Erick Thiemke
it would probably work, but he would be in stasis and trapped for eternity
s1
What would hapoen if MC tried to move himself into the cube?
Erick Thiemke
no it was considered. he has gained roughly 20 points in channeling by chapter 337. so that would half the time twice. one hour and then again to 30 minutes. wearing the channeling ring halves it again to 15 minutes. what has not been factored in was his aether pool growth. when i thought about the system, I set the base recovery as his entire aether pool in one day. if his aether pool increased, then so should his aether recovery from the channeling attribute. i failed to be consistent with this and may have to revert to that channeling flow is independent of aether pool size
Erick Thiemke
i mentioned he may be able to do small animals eventually
Shandlar
Seems fine tbh. The spell is the lowest space spell form and meant to be used as a storage space that is frozen in time. That's already an OP as fuck spell. Given that each relative point is 0.1cu feet and exponentially increasing, even just going from 98 to 101 increased his space from 920 to 1125 cubic feet. The cube volume being the cube of side length though means the distance gains are smaller despite being exponential, while the volume gains are huge. He only got 8 inches(7%) more reach from those 3 points, but he got a full 22% more space to hold stuff. I actually think the balance act the author did here is eloquently done. So if he gets space to 110 he'll double his volume and be practically an entire ships worth of storage, but only gain 28 more inches of "reach" for insta-kill. It's hard to overstate how huge that is. With a couple weeks preparation he'd be able to store an entire army of like 600 soldiers in his space and drop them out 20 at a time every 10 seconds anywhere he wanted.
Shane clark
My question is why Nerf the space so much at all? There are mages that could wipe out platoons of soldiers with their power. I like the idea of making a thin line to take a slice of multiple objects. I think if his score is high enough to overcome the resistance individually, that should be enough. It shouldn’t be multiplied for multiple objects or people.. If his score is high enough to overcome the object, he should be able to do it. It can still bottom out his ether if using on a living being. I think that’s enough of a nerf by itself. Also, the fact that he has to be within 12 feet.
Joseph Snyder
Making this a log system makes it much less functional. It's best if you just find the max multiplication to base untrained strength you're willing to do and creating a formula from there.
Joseph Snyder
Is this just a regular base 10 model? Where 10=1, 100=2. Which means after a ridiculous amount of effort in training and essences he would only be twice as strong as a normal farmer or is it formulated differently. If you did a log base 5 situation then at 100 strength he would only be 2.8 times stronger than a normal untrained not magically enhanced human.
seth dauer
Is there an aether score that won't bottom out his mana? Like, it takes 10x the opening cost to counter aether resistance?
Shandlar
The only issue I can see is you've missed the exponential nature of channeling a bit. In chapter 37 and 38 with the intruders in the city, Eryk recovered half his aether between the time of breakfast and lunch when he was 14 in both core and channeling. That implies 4.5 hours to gain 9 points of aether with 18 relative points in channeling. 18 core and 18 channeling. That's exactly 0.5 aether per hour per relative point in channeling. A nice even number I assume you did the math on purpose at the time. So if it only takes 2 points to put a live being into his space, his current 42 channeling is 166 relative points or 83 aether an hour. That means it should only take him like 88ish seconds to recharge from zero until he can use the space attack again if the channeling ring doubles his recovery again. 20 minutes is way too long. Does channeling go 10/20/30/40 etc or is it exponential like the core was explained before and go 10/20/40/80 as it goes up each 10 points on the tablet?
Salvo
Very helpful thank you. I hope you understand most people are commenting about these things like we are watching a movie with director commentary. You don’t need a reason for the dorlean to go 88 mph; but you do need a scene of going fast and the tension of the imposed limit is yours to draw on. The angry glares and pantomime crushing the audience tiny skull when someone cares if the hovering in the air counts as 88 mph, is a unique gift from autistic people. Some were asking if Eryk can catch spells with the space, unsure if energy has an aether resistance. Could you store fireballs? Arrow in flight, does the flight speed momentum get stored as well?
Silver Beard
I'd say density... when it comes to a tree. More dense more likely Eryk will bottom out his pool trying to manipulate it.
Erick Thiemke
yes it is mentioned in book 3 a few times. you brought this up before and I told you to assume he turned it back on when safe after a battle
Erick Thiemke
only if he trys to destroy an artifact would it resist his dimensional space - but yes, he could remove a hand with a ring on it in a fight. but why bother if he can remove the chest cavity
Erick Thiemke
after a certain point, yes. I see it as the constraints of a mortal body
Erick Thiemke
yes, and he had used that extended range in a chapter or two
Erick Thiemke
bacteria and insects have 0 for aether resistence
CluelessTurtle95
Kind of curious that the mental/physical attributes are logarithmic while the magic attributes are exponential. Does this mean the value of each additional point in power become less and less ?
Alexander
Just want to point out something about the range of his dimensional space. You say it’s 10 feet plus an additional 2ish feet if he reaches out his hand. However, if he orients the cube properly, he should be able to use the long diagonal of the cube so 10*3^(1/2)+2=19.321. It should now actually be a bit longer because he raised his space affinity to 102 so the side length of the cube is longer than 10 feet.
mackenzie Fahlgren
What's up with him struggling to remove part of a tree? Do plants have similar ether resistance to people? Also do bacteria/parasites Multiply their ether resistance? (It would be funny if he was unable to store a monster because it was infested with hookworm)
Joel
From a meta physics perspective, it seems like the hair thin slice to decapitate would use far less aether and fight against less resistance, compared to ripping out a piece of the heart or brain. I imagine the resistance a person has is like a shield, where a sharp point can pierce through much easier than a blunt object. HOWEVER, to keep it nerfed, the drain of being open inside a magical being could act like a short circuit to his ability. The dimensional space needs to cross the boundary of the target's skin and the spatial connection must lock into formation. If the lock succeeds, the field then immediately collapses taking everything inside with it, since our MC cannot sustain the overwhelming requirements to sustain the spatial field.
LogicalGay
Enlightening! I'm curious why those with dimensional storages on their body is immune to his one-hit skill even if he doesn't target the object in question? Such as someone who has a storage ring and the MC aims his amity at the head, why does the object protect the entire body if that's how it works.
Silver Beard
That'll be a nightmare to edit- I don't think you ever mentioned he had to turn slow aging back on after learning it. Better to just assume it resumes it's function when aether is available and only turns off on purpose. Shall we look? How many times has he bottomed out his aether? Tons... and he actually manually turned slow aging back on... never I guess that'll be the new line every chapter... did MC turn his passives back on? Shit- are they working now?
Silver Beard
Also last chapter his shield amulet got used, but there was no mention of him replenishing it while he collected flowers.
Erick Thiemke
it has been noted the passives get turned off when he bottoms out his aether. he has to turn them on
Silver Beard
I don't see any reason to edit- BUT he has two passives; perhaps it should be noted that the passives (Slow aging and now Mind Fortress) get priority on his regen unless specifically turned off.
Ayszed
Illuminating, thanks. Can't wait to see Erik try and turn a dragon into an organ donor 💀
