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Chapter 116 - Intro to Magic: Advanced Edition
🕑 Added 2021-10-11 23:01:00 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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Serenity was overjoyed when he finally finished Steadfast. It had certainly lived up to its name; he’d had to persevere to get through it. He’d spent 13 Tutorials practicing with other instructors as much as he could to train it, which meant he’d spent more than a year on it, even though the time had passed in seconds outside the Tutorial. That certainly wasn’t terrible for a Path that leveled from something other than combat, but it was positively painful when it meant it was delaying getting back home.
He knew he could have waited and stretched it out over several nights, but he’d wanted it over, and the fact that he could feel time not passing while he was in the Tutorial did help.
As the options appeared before his eyes, he realized that either he was in his dragon form or they weren’t actually visible. He hadn’t thought of that the last time, and he pushed the thought aside this time; it wasn’t going to help him choose, after all.
This time, he wanted something with a magical bent. Battle Adept and Steadfast covered what he felt like he needed on the physical side for now; he’d choose another later, but probably not until another Tier.
Please only show me the magical options.
Mage
Death Mage
Time Mage
Space Mage
Void Mage
…
Serenity stopped reviewing them there. This wasn’t going to get him what he wanted.
Can we limit it to ones without a specific tie to an Affinity?
[Why? Most mages specialize, especially early]
I have the Affinities in my Evolutions and the Paths that come from them. And … what I need isn’t a single power, it’s flexibility. You can do that with a single Affinity and creativity; I did it with Death. But that doesn’t feel right this time. It doesn’t match what I want to be. I don’t want to limit myself that way.
Serenity wasn’t sure he was explaining it well, but surely the Voice would understand. Serenity wasn’t entirely certain he understood it completely himself. He was trying to reinvent himself and if some of that was trying to be as far from what he’d been before as possible, well, who could blame him?
[It will be a much shorter list. Many of the standard groupings are Affinity-based in some manner]
They all have to be, sort of, don’t they, since anything can be an Affinity? As long as it’s not grouped by one of mine it should be fine.
[There are several you are eligible for that do not fit any of your Affinities]
Mage
Summoner
Golemancer
Illusionist (Sense-based)
Diviner
Astrologist
Transmuter
Enchanter
Hexer
Cursor
…
Why does Illusionist specify Sense-based?
[There are also illusionists who specialize in tailoring the illusions to the target’s mind. You have the Mind affinity]
Ah, of course. Serenity felt like he should have realized that.
Can you remove the crafting professions?
[There are no crafting Paths on the list]
Enchanter?
[That Path specializes in temporary enhancement magic. While it is a common entry Path to an Enchanting crafting Path, it is a combat mage Path on its own]
Interesting.
Serenity remembered that he’d had far fewer magic-type Paths available when Vengeance first started practicing magic. He wasn’t certain what the difference was, but the most likely reason was that Vengeance hadn’t known anything about spellcasting other than Skill use, while Serenity knew quite a bit. Serenity also had higher Affinities, but that probably wouldn’t matter with the Paths that were tied to an Affinity left out. Probably, at least.
Several of the Paths so far were interesting, but none were quite what he was looking for. Buffing allies and debuffing enemies was very useful if he was in a group, but it didn’t quite fit who he wanted to be.
Transmuter was probably the best so far. He could already imagine combining it with his weapon skills to have a stronger strike or a sudden surprise. He would definitely keep it on his list, but he didn’t think it was quite what he was looking for this time.
Shaman
Priest
Witch
Druid
Arcanist
Wizard
Conjuror
Abjuror
Dragon Mage
Infernalist
Leaf Mage
String Mage
Glass Mage
Beastcaller
Technomancer
Evoker
Blaster
...
Serenity’s eyes were caught by an entry. When he saw Dragon Mage, he’d added it to his list, but he now suspected he wouldn’t end up choosing it.
He really should ask about the others as well. Transmuter was obvious enough he didn’t think he needed details, as was Blaster, but Evoker? What was that?
Stop! Please tell me about Dragon Mage, Evoker, and Technomancer.
He probably didn’t need to ask about Technomancer, either, but he’d learned his lesson with Death-Eater and Child of Time. Always read the fine print.
Why hadn’t he ever realized that there had to be an Affinity for technology? There were probably several Affinities for it.
A moment’s thought gave the answer. The Tutorial only taught common elements, and few if any of the instructors would be from particularly technological worlds. He knew a lot about technology, but by the time he knew that almost anything had an Affinity, Earth was already destroyed and he didn’t have much access to the kind of technology Earth had. He was certain some people had figured it out … but none of them had been among the few survivors from Earth that he’d found.
He wondered if there was a Dragon with the Technology bloodline affinity. It seemed likely, at least if there were dragons on Earth - and given all the legends, there had to be dragons. They probably hid among humanity; current myths often talked about dragons having a human form, and there was probably truth behind that. For that matter, his own shapeshifting skill confirmed that it was a common draconic ability.
Dragon Mage
Dragons are a proud, ancient Species that has been allied with magic long enough that all Dragons have a bloodline Affinity. All dragons are taught a number of different magical abilities. While most have to do with the dragon’s specific Affinity, some are common to all Dragons.
These variant spells have been adjusted to work especially well for Dragons and those with a draconic heritage, but many of these spells will work for non-Dragons as well. This Path includes several of the draconic spells that are commonly taught to outsiders.
Evoker
Most magic users build a spell and cast it all at once. An Evoker knows that mana is a limited resource, but one that is not always in use. Evocation is a school that specializes in storing a spell in an object for later use. Unlike a proper crafter, these objects can only be used by someone with knowledge of Evoking, often only by the Evoker that stored the spell.
Technomancer
While many believe that magic and technology do not mix, this is not true for all mages. As some mages work with metal and wood, other mages work with silicon and electricity. Technomancers have the ability to influence, affect, disrupt, or even interface with technological items.
Either Dragon mage or Evoker would be useful on Tzintkra. Serenity definitely wanted to take Evoker at some point. Technomancer wouldn’t be useful until he could get back to Earth.
He very badly wanted to take Technomancer anyway.
It was an Affinity he was confident he could gain with some thought. He’d always been good with technology. That usually meant an Affinity, and even if he hadn’t had one, he knew a lot about several branches. He had to have something decent in the Concept - anything over 20% would be good; that was usually somewhere around a college degree in the subject. There were entire areas he didn’t know much about, of course, but that wouldn’t stop him from turning a Concept into unlocking an Affinity.
Technomancer would also strengthen his connection with Thomas. He felt far too close to the Final Reaper sometimes, and didn’t want to lose who he had been before.
The only thing holding him back was that he’d wanted to gather his Affinities on his Evolutions and his general skills through Paths. There were already some issues with that from Death-Eater, but he’d thought he could skate by that one because it was from an Evolution, even though he was taking another Death-based Evolution and Death-Eater was a Path. If he took Technomancer, he’d have to change his plan.
What would a Technology-based Evolution be, anyway? Would he become a cyborg? Serenity wasn’t sure he wanted that. On the other hand, if he took Technomancer, he might be able to work with technology even though he couldn’t see it.
No. For now he had to stick with the plan. He did want Evoker. Technomancer would be available later. He really should wait until he unlocked his Affinity; many Paths with strong Affinities would actually boost the related Affinity, and Serenity didn’t want to miss out on that.
Serenity hoped he wouldn’t regret overriding his desire, but there was no reason to think that he would.
Evoker
[You sound unhappy with the choice]
I want Technomancer, but it doesn’t fit my Path as I’m building it right now. And it won’t be useful until I’m back on Earth.
[Most of the time, the logical choice is the correct one. This choice does not limit your Path]
[Your desire for Technomancer has been Noticed]
Serenity would have blinked in surprise if he hadn’t been in the middle of a Path choice and more or less bodiless. He’d never seen a desire get Noticed before.
Evoker.
This time, Serenity was confident. He could lake Technomancer next time, or perhaps it would wait until after he Evolved. Either way, the Voice had just told him that it or something like it would be available.
Level 10 - Essence Sight - You can already sense Essence with your Aura. Sight adds precision and distance to your detection capability. This may be enabled or disabled at will. A visual effect may be present.
Serenity had expected mana sight, not essence sight, since Evoker was supposed to be a mage class. Perhaps “magic” didn’t differentiate between mana and essence?
Level 25 - Physical Infusion - You can infuse spells into your own body to be evoked later. Infused spells may be evoked only by you and may be triggered at any time. All variable effects must be determined when the spell is infused. Infused spells will degrade with time and use of mana or essence in the area the spell is stored. You can evoke these infused spells.
That could be very useful, especially if he figured out how to cast a Quickness spell. Or perhaps he could store a Lightning spell and trigger it when he punched someone? That would be useful in a different way.
Level 50 - Spell Conversion - You can convert the power of any infused spell into a ranged mana or essence strike. The power of the strike depends on the stored spell power.
He could store things other than attack spells and use them to cause damage if he needed to. That would be especially useful if the number of spells he could store was limited, and he expected it would be - by how quickly they would degrade, even if there wasn’t a firm limit.
Level 75 - Infuse Spell - You may temporarily store spells in items to be evoked later. All variable effects must be determined when the spell is infused. The item must be strong enough to hold the spell, and synergy with the spell will slow spell degradation. Infused spells will degrade with time and nearby mana or essence use. Spell infusion can damage items used. You can evoke spells infused into items.
This ability was the one he’d expected from reading the Path description. It would be hugely useful as long as he had time to prepare; he did know the basics of many different spells, but they took too long to cast to be useful in combat. If he could cast them out of combat and then Evoke them in combat, it would be almost as good as adding the abilities of several Paths to his repertoire.
Level 100 - Designate Evocation Conditions - You may designate conditions for when an infused spell can be evoked. You can bypass any conditions you set, but you cannot bypass conditions set by other Evokers. This allows you to set conditions that will allow non-Evokers to Evoke infused spells, but spells Evoked by the untrained will be significantly degraded during the evocation.
That was definitely a capstone ability. The ability to cast a spell ahead of time and give it to someone else to use was worthwhile, and would probably have been a capstone ability on its own. The way it was worded, Serenity thought that was just a side effect of being able to limit when other Evokers could use your stored spells, but he suspected it was the part he’d use the most.
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When Serenity went to spend his Ev, he realized why his last two Paths had taken so long. He’d forgotten somehow that he was putting most of his XP into Ev. Steadfast hadn’t actually been all that slow; the three months it should have taken was fast enough for a combat path being trained in a training arena that he suspected there was a Tutorial bonus he wasn’t considering.
Serenity was ready to Tier up, but he already knew from his last Path selection that no higher Tier Paths would be available until he Evolved - and he didn’t want to Evolve until he finished letting the Heart work. He decided to leave his XP allocation alone again. Finishing Evoker would be nice, but it wasn’t urgent. Saving up Ev would only help in the long run.
When Serenity opened his eyes in the Tutorial after choosing Evoker, he was greeted with a message.
[Technology Concept initiated]
He’d been credited with 40% understanding for doing little more than recognizing the Affinity had to exist. He still needed to unlock his Affinity, but that would be easy once he was back on Earth; it would probably happen on his own the first time he used anything technological.
Serenity looked forward to reaching level 25 so that he could try out Infusing and Evoking. In many ways, it was similar to things he’d done with undead, but it was potentially far more flexible.
It was exactly what he wanted in a Mage path, even though it almost certainly wasn’t a good Path for a beginner.
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General - Major changes: Core Progression, Path, Path History, XP, Tier points spent, Mana, Stamina, all Attributes, Ev, Etherium
Magic - Major changes: Void (Liminal) Affinity and Concept, Arcane Concept (+2%), Essence Concept (+10%), Technology Concept
Physical - Major changes: Pain Resistance and Pain Resistance Active increased
Abilities - Major changes: Path Abilities - Moment of Prescience (Unbound) and later are new; corrected ‘Child of Time’ Path Abilities to use the correct Path name, ‘Unbound’
Only the new abilities are shown below to save space. When this goes live on RR, the full ability list will be in the spoiler.
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Author's Note: Serenity really, really doesn't want to do more Tutorials right now.
He just wants to go home. He knows that home isn't going to be the same because he isn't the same, but even so ... he misses it.
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Evoker is an unusual Path. Most people need to learn more spells, after all, so they take Paths that help with that. Evoker is the sort of Path you usually see specialist mages take - the ones who are trying to get enough variety to qualify for an Archmage Path. They have enough mana that it's simply seen as a neat thing that can be done to make temporary items, not something that's useful in its own right.
Anyone building a normal Path route would ignore it at this point; even the Voice knows better. Of course, Serenity isn't exactly normal...
Comments
It's an easy thing to forget, when you're not used to it. He's going to leave it there for a bit longer, but at some point he's definitely going to want to start pushing XP or Core again.
Patrick Ralston
I was wondering about the xp allocation, but I figured there was a good reason for it. Forgetting works too I guess.
