Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
- Start date
Chapter Sixty One
I ended up taking a short nap after soaking in the hot tub, Kali waking me up after an hour or so of rest. I was going to be spending the whole night working on New Waves gear, after all, I was due an hour to turn my brain off at least. The ability to cast a spell that washed away all the residual tiredness when I was done made the nap a viable alternative to a natural night's sleep, at least in terms of my mental health.
Once I woke up, had some dinner, and settled down, I once again started a small campfire to brush away the chill that settled in after dark. Brockton Bay may have startlingly mild winters, but that didn't mean the nights didn't get cold. Plus, there was something nice about the vibe of a fire pit. I would have preferred the wondrous wizard's workshop vibe, but I hadn't gotten the chance to work on that quite yet.
After a quick debate and sometimes bouncing ideas off of Alya, I decided to work on Eric Pelham's item first. I remember what it was like to be his age, and while I lacked the hero's perspective of that time in my life, I remember how fragile my self-esteem was. I could only imagine what it was like for the whole city to know what you sucked at.
Plus, what he wanted was cut and dry, a boost to his flight speed and his blaster effect. Shooting his energy blast harder was simple since I had samples of his mother and sister's blaster ability, which meant I had plenty of flexibility to improve his power.
The problem was that he wanted a boost to his flight speed first and foremost, which was something I didn't have an easy sample connection for. Thankfully, he could already fly, which meant I just needed to worry about buffing his speed, not giving him flight from the ground up. If a ritualized object for flight was something I could just sit down and create, I would have already made one for myself, after all.
A bit of mental experimenting and troubleshooting later, and I was pretty sure I had a solution, and from a classic course as well. I was considering different ways to fly and gain thrust when the image of Iron Man flying around popped into my head, using his hands as stabilizers, his repulsors functioning as thrusters and weapons.
I got to work on the ritual, settling on a pair of sturdy leather gloves as the object, which I bought secondhand from a used clothing store. Kali repaired a few hidden faults in the gloves while I started designing the ritual, spending about three hours on it. I wanted to keep it as open as possible so that the power of the ritual could come through as much as possible, but as I warned Eric, it was probably going to take a minor hit to power since I was keeping a relatively tight grip on the ritual effects.
When I completed the design, I immediately started laying out the ritual on the ritual platform, using my new, improved silver and gold ritual chalk. Once it was done, I put the gloves in the center before putting a sample of his energy blasts and his blood in a close ring of arcane symbols. In a second ring further out, I put a sample of his sister and mother's energy blasts on one side before putting a containment vial filled with a powerful airburst I conjured with one of my new instant cast spells, as well as several hawk feathers.
The final product was a pair of leather gloves that looked startlingly close to what Shielder already wore, save a feather wing motif stamped into the back of his hand. Now, unfortunately, because this piece of equipment relied so heavily on his pre-existing powers, I wasn't going to be able to test the gloves at all before handing them to him. Still, I was happy with how they had come out, and Kali seemed confident they would work how I intended.
I spent the rest of the night and into the next morning designing and ritualizing five more items. It was a bit rough of a task, but since these items were a lot less directed, they were considerably easier to design and implement. I sent a message to the Patrol text thread that the Pelhams had put together to keep track of any changes that needed attention or substitutions. I immediately got several excited responses despite it being relatively early.
"Okay, looks like I am seeing the group right after my patrol with Crow," I explained to Alya, sliding my phone back into my coat pocket. "I can show off what I did before passing off the patrol buck."
I cast a quick wake-up spell on myself, letting out a sigh as the fatigue and tiredness melted away. I got ready rather quickly as well before teleporting to Crow and our usual meeting spot. Troy already had the Pelham's equipment stored away in his torso. Crow, who was expecting me this time, barely even started when I arrived.
"That really is bizarre," She said, having once again watched and heard my arrival. "I always thought teleportation was supposed to be this loud, explosive thing as you punched through reality or whatever."
"I worked hard to keep it from doing just that," I explained. "It's unnerving, maybe, but better than an explosive surprise every time I want to go somewhere."
She begrudgingly agreed, and we left our meeting spot, heading off to ABB territory. We were only patrolling for a few minutes before Crow brought up her own side investigation.
"So I asked around a bit," She revealed as we both sat on Troy's back.
"Already?" I asked, looking back at her. "I was honestly expecting that to take a little longer."
"I was too, but apparently, they aren't hiding much. Lots of information is going around because a lot of low-level people are leaving," she responded with a shrug.
"Fair, hard to keep everything a secret when everyone is looking for a place to jump off," I agreed. "So what did you hear?"
"Well, for the most part, our prediction of infighting was right," She revealed. "Factions are forming around the major sources of income since they were already divided and self pretty heavily and already mostly self-sufficient."
"Any idea of the major divisions?"
"As far as I heard, there are three. Drugs and smuggling, racket and robbery, and… The prostitution and sex trafficking."
"Fuck. That needs to be obliterated. We somehow managed to beat Lung, which was the only reason I hadn't already started hunting it down, so now that needs to be stopped."
"Glad you agree. Problem is, that group is used to being hunted," She explained. "There are a few whore houses around the city and plenty of corners that mysteriously become popular when the sun goes down. But the Farms… nobody knows where they are. Worse, it's not the kind of secret you can pick up by asking some homeless people. We were lucky to get this much."
"Jesus…" I said with a frown, shaking my head. "I'll come up with something. If there is anything we should actively do, it's taking down these Farms. It's horrific, and rescuing everyone trapped inside before burning it down to the ground is the least we could do. It's like… An affront to humanity. I feel sick knowing it exists in the same city as me."
"How do you plan on finding them?"
"I recently just got access to a whole new level of flexibility to my powers," I explained. "It's why I can suddenly teleport."
She nodded in understanding, more or less just accepting my powers were just weird at this point. In this specific instance, however, blaming a shift in my powers was a lie. Alya was all I needed to find this, or possibly these "Farms," especially as she had already been looking for any massive concentrations of ABB gang members as we went on patrol. There had been a few times when she had pointed out a drug house or a gathering in a building we passed, but so far, I hadn't been sharing her information.
At some point, hopefully soon, when we were ready to start pushing the ABB out as an organization, we could use the air elementals information to wipe out any large gatherings. For now, we just noted what we passed by. So far, nothing we passed was even related to the Farm or even anything close to it.
Still, I wasn't exactly happy that I had been putting it off this long, especially since I was pretty sure I could get New Wave to help shut anything related to the Farm down.
We needed to dedicate more time to exploring the city, especially ABB territory. There were several chunks that Alya hadn't gotten a look at, and the Farm could be in any of them. And that was only if it was within city limits or ABB territory.
Crow and I continued our patrol, keeping our eyes open and ears to the ground, both of us on edge from our conversation. There were about forty-five minutes left in our patrol time when we stumbled on a small crowd grouped up around a seemingly random building on the edge of ABB territory. They were congregating and staring at a brick wall that ran along the back side of a gas station, which was covered entirely in graffiti.
As we approached, the crowd disappeared without a word, revealing a large purple M painted over a good chunk of the older graffiti. The M had two horizontal lines through it, which, if I had to guess, represented the bridges in Archer Bridge Merchants. The tag was painted hastily, with poor lines and a lot of dripping, but the point was clear and clearly out of the bag. The Merchants were encroaching on the ABB territory.
"Fuck." Crow said as I slid off Troy's back. "This is the last fucking thing we need."
"Just about," I agreed with a frown. "This is not good news."
After a few more seconds of examining the tag, I reached out to confirm it was still a bit wet. My fingertips stuck to the paint, and some of the purple residue came off on them as well.
"It's still tacky, which means it must have happened at least within the day or so…"
"Does it matter?"
"If it's the first step of escalating conflict?" I asked, looking back at her. "It could mean we still have some time before things get hot."
"How likely do you think that is?"
"Considering Merchants are known for being unhinged, and their leader is only worse?" I hypothetically asked. "I have no idea. I'll bring it up with New Wave, see what they think."
We finished our patrol, stopping a few more petty crimes but mostly just weathering the stares and sneers of totally innocent people, many of whom just happened to be wearing the same three matching colors. Rather than seeing Crow off, we teleported to the Docks community, both to check in and because it was where New Wave was going to meet me. I had just enough time to say goodbye to Crow, hello to Charles and John, and heal a few things before the family, including Panacea, landed on the same nearby rooftop I frequented.
"Hello, everyone," I said after jumping up to the roof, skipping the ladder. "Thanks for meeting me here, I wanted you guys to be familiar with the location just in case."
"We understand," Lady Photon said with a smile. "It's the least we could do, especially with you making our custom gear."
I could definitely see that the adults of the group were tempering their expectations on what exactly I had made for them. People knew I made golems, but there weren't a lot of examples of my ritualized creations floating around.
"I'm happy to help make the heroes of the city more powerful," I assured her with a smile. "But I'm guessing you guys are pretty eager to see what I've made, so let's get started. First, let's start with Shielder."
I dug through my duffel bag, handing the gloves to the teenage superhero. He eagerly accepted them, pulling his old gloves off and pulling the new ones on. He started for a moment as if surprised by something, but I raised a hand to stop him from doing anything.
"Alright, so my goal here was to make something that could interact with your powers, specifically your hard light blasts. You should have a mental gauge in your head. Do you feel it?" I asked, smiling when he nodded. "Good. Now, I want you to turn it all the way to one side. You should get a sense of expansion or maybe something like turning down the concentration."
"I… I think I got it," He said after a moment of concentration. "What now?"
"Now I want you to point your hands down, palms out, with your elbows locked. Then, when you're ready, fly upwards as fast as you can. After a few seconds, fire off your energy blasts," I explained. "Start off with a low blast and slowly increase it once you get a handle on the speed. And keep in mind, your natural flight is your steering until you get your mind around how it all works."
He looked confused for a moment before concentrating and following my directions. He took off into the air before firing his blasts. Instead of the blasts of blue energy that usually came from his hands, the energy was more diffused but still definitely pushing in one direction. He hesitated for a moment before pouring on the power a bit more, and suddenly, he was streaking up into the sky. For a moment, I thought he was just going to continue going up, but then he started to turn, making a huge loop before buzzing the building with a loud whooping sound.
"That… that is significantly faster than I have ever seen him move," Manpower said, using one of his large hands to block the sun from his eyes. "I-"
Suddenly, the teenager's hands glowed even brighter as he pushed his blasts as hard as he could. Instantly, his speed increased again, firing the young teen across the town like a multistage rocket. He flew around a considerable portion of downtown in only a few seconds, leaving his family speechless. His new boost didn't last very long, however, as he made his way back to the rooftop.
When he finally landed, his legs wobbled for a moment, and he sat down very quickly. He was also flip-flopping between laughing and breathing heavily.
"That was amazing!" He shouted, his words broken up with deep breaths. "So fast! I got tired really quickly at the end, though."
"You were definitely going faster than I can go," Lady Photon confidently revealed while Panacea approached and laid her hand on his forehead.
"He is just tired," The young healer confirmed. "Relax for a few minutes and drink some water."
For a moment, we quietly let Shielder recover, his sister passing him a water bottle from a pack she was wearing. As he recovered, I continued to explain his gloves.
"Well, in case you're wondering, Shielder, the opposite side of your gauge should return your energy blasts to normal and then some," I revealed. "You'll have to fiddle around to figure out what setting on the gauge is appropriate force, but it should become second nature the more you use it. Just take it slow-"
A powerful blue energy fired out into the air, cutting my words off. I turned to see Shielder, still sitting there, with his hand raised up into the air with a smirk on his face. Unfortunately, now he looked even more exhausted, and Panacea let out an exasperated groan.
"Seriously? What did I just say?" She asked, flicking the young man's forehead. "Do I need to put you to sleep?"
"No, I just had to try it out!" He said, just managing to not make it sound whiny. "I'm satisfied, Arcanum gets my vote."
I could hear a few of his family chuckling at the young teen's excitement while I just shook my head and reached into my bag.
"So… who is next?"
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
Once I woke up, had some dinner, and settled down, I once again started a small campfire to brush away the chill that settled in after dark. Brockton Bay may have startlingly mild winters, but that didn't mean the nights didn't get cold. Plus, there was something nice about the vibe of a fire pit. I would have preferred the wondrous wizard's workshop vibe, but I hadn't gotten the chance to work on that quite yet.
After a quick debate and sometimes bouncing ideas off of Alya, I decided to work on Eric Pelham's item first. I remember what it was like to be his age, and while I lacked the hero's perspective of that time in my life, I remember how fragile my self-esteem was. I could only imagine what it was like for the whole city to know what you sucked at.
Plus, what he wanted was cut and dry, a boost to his flight speed and his blaster effect. Shooting his energy blast harder was simple since I had samples of his mother and sister's blaster ability, which meant I had plenty of flexibility to improve his power.
The problem was that he wanted a boost to his flight speed first and foremost, which was something I didn't have an easy sample connection for. Thankfully, he could already fly, which meant I just needed to worry about buffing his speed, not giving him flight from the ground up. If a ritualized object for flight was something I could just sit down and create, I would have already made one for myself, after all.
A bit of mental experimenting and troubleshooting later, and I was pretty sure I had a solution, and from a classic course as well. I was considering different ways to fly and gain thrust when the image of Iron Man flying around popped into my head, using his hands as stabilizers, his repulsors functioning as thrusters and weapons.
I got to work on the ritual, settling on a pair of sturdy leather gloves as the object, which I bought secondhand from a used clothing store. Kali repaired a few hidden faults in the gloves while I started designing the ritual, spending about three hours on it. I wanted to keep it as open as possible so that the power of the ritual could come through as much as possible, but as I warned Eric, it was probably going to take a minor hit to power since I was keeping a relatively tight grip on the ritual effects.
When I completed the design, I immediately started laying out the ritual on the ritual platform, using my new, improved silver and gold ritual chalk. Once it was done, I put the gloves in the center before putting a sample of his energy blasts and his blood in a close ring of arcane symbols. In a second ring further out, I put a sample of his sister and mother's energy blasts on one side before putting a containment vial filled with a powerful airburst I conjured with one of my new instant cast spells, as well as several hawk feathers.
The final product was a pair of leather gloves that looked startlingly close to what Shielder already wore, save a feather wing motif stamped into the back of his hand. Now, unfortunately, because this piece of equipment relied so heavily on his pre-existing powers, I wasn't going to be able to test the gloves at all before handing them to him. Still, I was happy with how they had come out, and Kali seemed confident they would work how I intended.
I spent the rest of the night and into the next morning designing and ritualizing five more items. It was a bit rough of a task, but since these items were a lot less directed, they were considerably easier to design and implement. I sent a message to the Patrol text thread that the Pelhams had put together to keep track of any changes that needed attention or substitutions. I immediately got several excited responses despite it being relatively early.
"Okay, looks like I am seeing the group right after my patrol with Crow," I explained to Alya, sliding my phone back into my coat pocket. "I can show off what I did before passing off the patrol buck."
I cast a quick wake-up spell on myself, letting out a sigh as the fatigue and tiredness melted away. I got ready rather quickly as well before teleporting to Crow and our usual meeting spot. Troy already had the Pelham's equipment stored away in his torso. Crow, who was expecting me this time, barely even started when I arrived.
"That really is bizarre," She said, having once again watched and heard my arrival. "I always thought teleportation was supposed to be this loud, explosive thing as you punched through reality or whatever."
"I worked hard to keep it from doing just that," I explained. "It's unnerving, maybe, but better than an explosive surprise every time I want to go somewhere."
She begrudgingly agreed, and we left our meeting spot, heading off to ABB territory. We were only patrolling for a few minutes before Crow brought up her own side investigation.
"So I asked around a bit," She revealed as we both sat on Troy's back.
"Already?" I asked, looking back at her. "I was honestly expecting that to take a little longer."
"I was too, but apparently, they aren't hiding much. Lots of information is going around because a lot of low-level people are leaving," she responded with a shrug.
"Fair, hard to keep everything a secret when everyone is looking for a place to jump off," I agreed. "So what did you hear?"
"Well, for the most part, our prediction of infighting was right," She revealed. "Factions are forming around the major sources of income since they were already divided and self pretty heavily and already mostly self-sufficient."
"Any idea of the major divisions?"
"As far as I heard, there are three. Drugs and smuggling, racket and robbery, and… The prostitution and sex trafficking."
"Fuck. That needs to be obliterated. We somehow managed to beat Lung, which was the only reason I hadn't already started hunting it down, so now that needs to be stopped."
"Glad you agree. Problem is, that group is used to being hunted," She explained. "There are a few whore houses around the city and plenty of corners that mysteriously become popular when the sun goes down. But the Farms… nobody knows where they are. Worse, it's not the kind of secret you can pick up by asking some homeless people. We were lucky to get this much."
"Jesus…" I said with a frown, shaking my head. "I'll come up with something. If there is anything we should actively do, it's taking down these Farms. It's horrific, and rescuing everyone trapped inside before burning it down to the ground is the least we could do. It's like… An affront to humanity. I feel sick knowing it exists in the same city as me."
"How do you plan on finding them?"
"I recently just got access to a whole new level of flexibility to my powers," I explained. "It's why I can suddenly teleport."
She nodded in understanding, more or less just accepting my powers were just weird at this point. In this specific instance, however, blaming a shift in my powers was a lie. Alya was all I needed to find this, or possibly these "Farms," especially as she had already been looking for any massive concentrations of ABB gang members as we went on patrol. There had been a few times when she had pointed out a drug house or a gathering in a building we passed, but so far, I hadn't been sharing her information.
At some point, hopefully soon, when we were ready to start pushing the ABB out as an organization, we could use the air elementals information to wipe out any large gatherings. For now, we just noted what we passed by. So far, nothing we passed was even related to the Farm or even anything close to it.
Still, I wasn't exactly happy that I had been putting it off this long, especially since I was pretty sure I could get New Wave to help shut anything related to the Farm down.
We needed to dedicate more time to exploring the city, especially ABB territory. There were several chunks that Alya hadn't gotten a look at, and the Farm could be in any of them. And that was only if it was within city limits or ABB territory.
Crow and I continued our patrol, keeping our eyes open and ears to the ground, both of us on edge from our conversation. There were about forty-five minutes left in our patrol time when we stumbled on a small crowd grouped up around a seemingly random building on the edge of ABB territory. They were congregating and staring at a brick wall that ran along the back side of a gas station, which was covered entirely in graffiti.
As we approached, the crowd disappeared without a word, revealing a large purple M painted over a good chunk of the older graffiti. The M had two horizontal lines through it, which, if I had to guess, represented the bridges in Archer Bridge Merchants. The tag was painted hastily, with poor lines and a lot of dripping, but the point was clear and clearly out of the bag. The Merchants were encroaching on the ABB territory.
"Fuck." Crow said as I slid off Troy's back. "This is the last fucking thing we need."
"Just about," I agreed with a frown. "This is not good news."
After a few more seconds of examining the tag, I reached out to confirm it was still a bit wet. My fingertips stuck to the paint, and some of the purple residue came off on them as well.
"It's still tacky, which means it must have happened at least within the day or so…"
"Does it matter?"
"If it's the first step of escalating conflict?" I asked, looking back at her. "It could mean we still have some time before things get hot."
"How likely do you think that is?"
"Considering Merchants are known for being unhinged, and their leader is only worse?" I hypothetically asked. "I have no idea. I'll bring it up with New Wave, see what they think."
We finished our patrol, stopping a few more petty crimes but mostly just weathering the stares and sneers of totally innocent people, many of whom just happened to be wearing the same three matching colors. Rather than seeing Crow off, we teleported to the Docks community, both to check in and because it was where New Wave was going to meet me. I had just enough time to say goodbye to Crow, hello to Charles and John, and heal a few things before the family, including Panacea, landed on the same nearby rooftop I frequented.
"Hello, everyone," I said after jumping up to the roof, skipping the ladder. "Thanks for meeting me here, I wanted you guys to be familiar with the location just in case."
"We understand," Lady Photon said with a smile. "It's the least we could do, especially with you making our custom gear."
I could definitely see that the adults of the group were tempering their expectations on what exactly I had made for them. People knew I made golems, but there weren't a lot of examples of my ritualized creations floating around.
"I'm happy to help make the heroes of the city more powerful," I assured her with a smile. "But I'm guessing you guys are pretty eager to see what I've made, so let's get started. First, let's start with Shielder."
I dug through my duffel bag, handing the gloves to the teenage superhero. He eagerly accepted them, pulling his old gloves off and pulling the new ones on. He started for a moment as if surprised by something, but I raised a hand to stop him from doing anything.
"Alright, so my goal here was to make something that could interact with your powers, specifically your hard light blasts. You should have a mental gauge in your head. Do you feel it?" I asked, smiling when he nodded. "Good. Now, I want you to turn it all the way to one side. You should get a sense of expansion or maybe something like turning down the concentration."
"I… I think I got it," He said after a moment of concentration. "What now?"
"Now I want you to point your hands down, palms out, with your elbows locked. Then, when you're ready, fly upwards as fast as you can. After a few seconds, fire off your energy blasts," I explained. "Start off with a low blast and slowly increase it once you get a handle on the speed. And keep in mind, your natural flight is your steering until you get your mind around how it all works."
He looked confused for a moment before concentrating and following my directions. He took off into the air before firing his blasts. Instead of the blasts of blue energy that usually came from his hands, the energy was more diffused but still definitely pushing in one direction. He hesitated for a moment before pouring on the power a bit more, and suddenly, he was streaking up into the sky. For a moment, I thought he was just going to continue going up, but then he started to turn, making a huge loop before buzzing the building with a loud whooping sound.
"That… that is significantly faster than I have ever seen him move," Manpower said, using one of his large hands to block the sun from his eyes. "I-"
Suddenly, the teenager's hands glowed even brighter as he pushed his blasts as hard as he could. Instantly, his speed increased again, firing the young teen across the town like a multistage rocket. He flew around a considerable portion of downtown in only a few seconds, leaving his family speechless. His new boost didn't last very long, however, as he made his way back to the rooftop.
When he finally landed, his legs wobbled for a moment, and he sat down very quickly. He was also flip-flopping between laughing and breathing heavily.
"That was amazing!" He shouted, his words broken up with deep breaths. "So fast! I got tired really quickly at the end, though."
"You were definitely going faster than I can go," Lady Photon confidently revealed while Panacea approached and laid her hand on his forehead.
"He is just tired," The young healer confirmed. "Relax for a few minutes and drink some water."
For a moment, we quietly let Shielder recover, his sister passing him a water bottle from a pack she was wearing. As he recovered, I continued to explain his gloves.
"Well, in case you're wondering, Shielder, the opposite side of your gauge should return your energy blasts to normal and then some," I revealed. "You'll have to fiddle around to figure out what setting on the gauge is appropriate force, but it should become second nature the more you use it. Just take it slow-"
A powerful blue energy fired out into the air, cutting my words off. I turned to see Shielder, still sitting there, with his hand raised up into the air with a smirk on his face. Unfortunately, now he looked even more exhausted, and Panacea let out an exasperated groan.
"Seriously? What did I just say?" She asked, flicking the young man's forehead. "Do I need to put you to sleep?"
"No, I just had to try it out!" He said, just managing to not make it sound whiny. "I'm satisfied, Arcanum gets my vote."
I could hear a few of his family chuckling at the young teen's excitement while I just shook my head and reached into my bag.
"So… who is next?"
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
Heh, very good timing for the 'playing Santa' chapter.
- Pronouns
- Male
*sigh* teenagers...never gonna change lol
Not sure what you meant here with 'self pretty heavily'. Seems to be missing something important. @MetaBettaOmega
Chapter Sixty Two
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. You could get up to eight chapters early from this story and either four or eight from my other two. Board Members even get to vote on story beats, interludes, names, and the bonus unlock during Arcanum's recharge cycle! (The first vote was for Geomancy, and the second was Druidcraft!)
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
While Shielder relaxed and recuperated, I first helped Lady Photon, Glory Girl, and Laserdream with their gear, since they were up next to go on patrol. It took me a while to realize that it must be the weekend, a concerning thought since I had no idea. I made a note to put a calendar in the compound and start marking the days, if for no other reason than to keep track of holidays and the like.
First up, now that her son was satisfied and declared safe, was Lady Photon, who happily accepted a bracelet, a simple band of low alloy gold, that was easily hidden under her costume. Before she put it on, I stopped her so I could explain my general methodology.
"So, my goal with each of your pieces of gear was to give you a rating in a new category," I explained. "Since you, Lady Photon, are already a blaster and a mover-"
"And a shaker for my shields," She added.
"Right, well, you said you were interested in anything that would let you lead better, so I decided the best way to help with that was to give you a thinker rating," I responded, getting a surprised look from most of the group. "Your bracelet should give you an understanding of someone's condition and current drive or primary emotion. Its range is about fifty meters, but for people you care about and consider important, that should be a bit further. It works on allies and enemies, so with a quick thought, you should be able to tell how badly someone is injured, or whether someone is leading you into an ambush."
She seemed shocked by my description and, after a moment of looking down at the bracelet, quickly pulled it onto her wrist. She then looked around at her family, smiling as she saw each of them was okay. She was silent for a while as she absorbed the new source of sensory input, so I continued to speak.
"It shouldn't be anything too invasive, unless they are having some really intense thoughts," I explained before anyone could complain. "It's not mind reading or anything that precise, though she will likely be able to push deeper the better she gets with the ability."
"It's true. I can feel that everyone is in good condition, though a bit nervous and excited, though Shielder's is still exhausted," the superhero mom agreed, giving her son an unhappy look before continuing. "Nothing invasive unless it's life or death, I promise."
That seemed to mollify everyone, and Glory Girl quickly stepped up to the proverbial plate. She also received a new piece of jewelry, a palm or hand cuff, which was a piece of jewelry that wrapped around your hand to accent your fingers or palm. It was very extra, especially the gold one I got for Victoria, but having a second option for something on your hand other than gloves was valuable enough to me that I bought a few of them from the market stall at the Lord Street Market.
The palm cuff allowed Victoria to fire energy blasts similar to Lady Photons. It also gave her her aunt's protection against flashing bright lights. The cuff was actually a double-stacked ritual, as I first reinforced the hell out of it so it would survive being in Glory Girl's fist as she used her super strength, something she greatly appreciated.
Last from the first group was Laserdream, who received a necklace that gave her shields the ability to blend in like a chameleon, giving her a stranger rating. It was not invisibility, but she could make it pretty hard to see her up against a wall or up in the sky. I assured her that as she got better at visualizing the color shifting, the quality would get better as well. She smirked and said that maybe she could finally get some alone time at the library without people pestering her for autographs.
Before the three women left to go on patrol, I brought up some of the stuff Crow and I had discussed during our own patrol.
"First off, watch out for Merchant tags," I asked. "We spotted one along the line of the ABB and Merchant territories."
"They really plan on pushing in?" Lady Photon asked, frowning and shaking her head. "That's bad news, Merchants are hard to predict at the best of times, but with a situation like this…"
"We definitely need to keep an eye out for more," Manpower agreed. "Depending on where they are, it might even indicate where they plan on pushing in. They aren't exactly the brightest bulbs, even without the drugs."
"Not that we should underestimate them," Lady Photon added, giving the other adult a tired look. "Especially their cape leader, Skidmark. All reports show him being a pain to deal with."
"Great, then we can keep track of that and look out for issues," I agreed. "Crow and I also discussed what is happening to the ABB."
I spent a few minutes passing on what Crow discovered before finally bringing up the issue of the Farms.
"I'm pretty sure I can figure out where they are," I assured them. "But we need to work together to take them down, as there is no way they are undefended. They may not have parahumans, but that doesn't mean we can just start phoning it in because we assume we can handle them."
"If you can locate it, we will absolutely help," Lady Photon said with no hesitation. "Even if Lung was still around, we would have helped shut them down."
Most of New Wave had faces of disgust or frustration on their faces, most likely because the Farm's location was something that had stumped them and the PRT for a long time.
Once I promised to keep them in a loop, the women left for their patrol and I focused on Manpower, Flashbang, and Panacea. Manpower received a pair of boots very similar to mine, allowing him to jump multiple times in the air. With his super strength, this gave him some incredible air time and a relatively high mover rating. Rather than giving him steady feet, his boots gave him a subtle slow fall effect he could engage so he could have more control over his descents.
Flashbang's gear had been a bit more difficult, because I honestly wanted to give him multiple things. His blaster power was pretty powerful, but unlike everyone else on the combat team, he lacked a mover rating and a way to protect himself from injury. I could have attempted to give him both, but that would just make two weak improvements rather than two strong ones.
In the end, I went simple but effective, giving him an ablative shield like I had on my cloak, attached to a reinforced under-armor shirt. His was actually probably stronger than mine since it was reinforced by samples of the shield of New Wave. It also lacked the turtle shell ability mine had, but it did seem to recharge a heck of a lot faster.
The final creation was for Panacea. Part of me wanted to make her something like what I made for her adoptive father, but another part of me wanted to make her a mover since she was not really supposed to be in combat. A way to retreat sounded better than a way to fight.
Then I realized there was nothing stopping me from doing both for her, as I didn't think anyone would complain about me making sure the team healer was taken care of. So I gave her a nearly identical copy of her father's protection, tied to a necklace rather than a shirt, as well a pair of bracelets that improved her stamina, flexibility, and just generally agility and dexterity. A handy ritual I would have absolutely used for myself if my permanent geomantic absorption didn't already give that to me and more. I warned her that she would need to learn how to do the actual things, but she was basically now the most talented athlete on the planet. I then proved it to her by teaching her to do a forward handspring in a few minutes.
"Your shield should keep you safe from most things, including messing up if you're running around, learning, and practicing," I explained. "Feel free to call me otherwise. With my new Teleport, I can be anywhere I've been before in just a few seconds, a minute or two at most. That goes for patrols as well. I'm almost always going to be ready to back up a group if they run into trouble."
With their gear distributed, everyone expressed their thanks before eventually heading off. Shielder was the one giving everyone a lift, with Panacea, Manpower, and Flashbang all riding on one of his shields as he flew away. They were, apparently, heading off to do some training so they could get used to the new abilities I had given them. I was pleased to hear that they were taking it seriously, and I was happy to see they enjoyed my gear. With them armed and prepared, I felt considerably better about dragging the Parahuman family into this potentially large-scale conflict.
When they were gone, I let out a long breath before heading off to the hospital and the PRT to do my daily healing. I was also happy to see that the PRT had come through for me on an earlier request to pay in materials. When I was done with my healing, I walked out of the government building with a few bags of gemstones, enough for me to make the golem they wanted to run tests on and at least four or five more, considering just how simple I planned on making the PRTs version.
Rather than teleporting back to the compound, I rode Troy through the city, heading for one of the few scrap yards. After a long conversation with the manager and a wad of cash, I was left alone in one of the larger open areas, surrounded by scrap and trash. Ignoring the cloying, metallic, slightly chemically smell that permeated the area, I pulled out my spellbook. I flipped open my spell book, and after a moment of re-reading the spell, I began to chant.
"Metallum, sanguis terrae, fundamentum humanitatis, vocationem magicae meae sentio. Te voco, quod moderni mirum est, ut sequaris mandata mea. Egredere, metallo, et finge te in figuram quam cupio."
The piles around me shook and shifted slightly, rattling as seven circles appeared ahead of me, all connected by a circle. Each circle had two arcane symbols, and as I chanted, they began to spin. Tendrils of magic erupted from the spell, spreading through the piles around me, making various objects throughout them glow. After a few seconds, I could feel the link to the metal, and with a pull, they began to liquefy, pulling through trash and plastic until I had a huge pool of iron, copper, and aluminum in front of me. I had been focusing on a vague ratio of aluminum brass, heavy on iron, for flexibility, toughness, and speed.
Before I could start to shape the metal, the magic of the spell faded, leaving a massive chunk of golden brass in front of me. I had definitely underpaid for how much copper I was using, but considering there was no way the owner would have been able to pull the copper out of the electronics and piping as efficiently as I did, I considered it a fair trade.
Quickly, before the owner could come back and start to question how much money I had given him, I cast the spell again. As the glowing circles appeared again, this time, all of the magic poured into the substantial solid chunk of metal in front of me. It quickly became amorphous again as I forced it to grow into four different frames. Each of them followed my standard golem shape, a humanoid frame with a hunched, headless upper torso. Then, as the magic began to fade, I let the interior harden and focused on adding some basic designs on the surface, deciding that since these golems would be traveling with me a lot, they should look good as well.
By the time the magic finally slipped away, the golems looked like they were armor-plated, with "seams" along their thick, shiny plates. They were a good five or six inches taller than me, with thick limbs and a sturdy chest, meaning that they looked ready to take on whatever you could throw at them. Of course, at this point, they were basically just metal statues, I needed to get home and make them into golems.
Luckily, I knew that going in, so all of the statues were close by, meaning I could get Troy, use a quick plant manipulation spell to uncurl some of his body to tightly grip onto the statues, and then I could tightly hold on to him as I teleported us home. Between Troy and the statues, I was really pushing the Teleportation spell limits, but I managed to cast it just fine, even if it drained me almost completely.
Once we were back at the compound, I immediately got to work, moving the statues around by hand before turning each of them into high-functioning golems.
By this point, I was a practiced golem maker. Even better, with the frames already built and ready for charging, it only really took about an hour and a half per golem and another forty-five minutes for the simple super living wood golem, which I promptly delivered to the PRT. They were a little unsure of what to do until Assault finally showed up and took custody of it, letting me leave without the security officers complaining.
When I returned home, I got to work getting used to my golems, ordering them around the compound, having them push over things and lift up boulders, and doing my best to get a sense of just how fast and strong they were. The short answer was "very," with the longer answer being that they were better than any of the other golems in every way due to their superior material. The only issue they had was that they could not regenerate on their own, and they were on the heavy side. They contained a lot of aluminum, which helped keep their weight down, but each one still weighed considerably more than me. "Walking lightly" Was not one of their various selling points.
These golems were explicitly designed to accompany Crow and me on our patrols. They were more than capable of handling even the most heavily armed thugs, and with a command word could raise their strength to levels that would let them go toe-to-toe with a decently powerful brute. They were by far the most advanced golems I had made so far, and with plenty of time to modify them in the future, they would likely get better over time.
After a round of sparring with them, the metal golems putting my own buffs to the test, I finally settled down by the fire again. Not to design a spell or to design a ritual. It was finally time for me to make my primary spell focus, a staff that would blow my previous one out of the water. I was excited to get started, so I quickly ate a simple meal, before diving into my notes and starting to plan.
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
While Shielder relaxed and recuperated, I first helped Lady Photon, Glory Girl, and Laserdream with their gear, since they were up next to go on patrol. It took me a while to realize that it must be the weekend, a concerning thought since I had no idea. I made a note to put a calendar in the compound and start marking the days, if for no other reason than to keep track of holidays and the like.
First up, now that her son was satisfied and declared safe, was Lady Photon, who happily accepted a bracelet, a simple band of low alloy gold, that was easily hidden under her costume. Before she put it on, I stopped her so I could explain my general methodology.
"So, my goal with each of your pieces of gear was to give you a rating in a new category," I explained. "Since you, Lady Photon, are already a blaster and a mover-"
"And a shaker for my shields," She added.
"Right, well, you said you were interested in anything that would let you lead better, so I decided the best way to help with that was to give you a thinker rating," I responded, getting a surprised look from most of the group. "Your bracelet should give you an understanding of someone's condition and current drive or primary emotion. Its range is about fifty meters, but for people you care about and consider important, that should be a bit further. It works on allies and enemies, so with a quick thought, you should be able to tell how badly someone is injured, or whether someone is leading you into an ambush."
She seemed shocked by my description and, after a moment of looking down at the bracelet, quickly pulled it onto her wrist. She then looked around at her family, smiling as she saw each of them was okay. She was silent for a while as she absorbed the new source of sensory input, so I continued to speak.
"It shouldn't be anything too invasive, unless they are having some really intense thoughts," I explained before anyone could complain. "It's not mind reading or anything that precise, though she will likely be able to push deeper the better she gets with the ability."
"It's true. I can feel that everyone is in good condition, though a bit nervous and excited, though Shielder's is still exhausted," the superhero mom agreed, giving her son an unhappy look before continuing. "Nothing invasive unless it's life or death, I promise."
That seemed to mollify everyone, and Glory Girl quickly stepped up to the proverbial plate. She also received a new piece of jewelry, a palm or hand cuff, which was a piece of jewelry that wrapped around your hand to accent your fingers or palm. It was very extra, especially the gold one I got for Victoria, but having a second option for something on your hand other than gloves was valuable enough to me that I bought a few of them from the market stall at the Lord Street Market.
The palm cuff allowed Victoria to fire energy blasts similar to Lady Photons. It also gave her her aunt's protection against flashing bright lights. The cuff was actually a double-stacked ritual, as I first reinforced the hell out of it so it would survive being in Glory Girl's fist as she used her super strength, something she greatly appreciated.
Last from the first group was Laserdream, who received a necklace that gave her shields the ability to blend in like a chameleon, giving her a stranger rating. It was not invisibility, but she could make it pretty hard to see her up against a wall or up in the sky. I assured her that as she got better at visualizing the color shifting, the quality would get better as well. She smirked and said that maybe she could finally get some alone time at the library without people pestering her for autographs.
Before the three women left to go on patrol, I brought up some of the stuff Crow and I had discussed during our own patrol.
"First off, watch out for Merchant tags," I asked. "We spotted one along the line of the ABB and Merchant territories."
"They really plan on pushing in?" Lady Photon asked, frowning and shaking her head. "That's bad news, Merchants are hard to predict at the best of times, but with a situation like this…"
"We definitely need to keep an eye out for more," Manpower agreed. "Depending on where they are, it might even indicate where they plan on pushing in. They aren't exactly the brightest bulbs, even without the drugs."
"Not that we should underestimate them," Lady Photon added, giving the other adult a tired look. "Especially their cape leader, Skidmark. All reports show him being a pain to deal with."
"Great, then we can keep track of that and look out for issues," I agreed. "Crow and I also discussed what is happening to the ABB."
I spent a few minutes passing on what Crow discovered before finally bringing up the issue of the Farms.
"I'm pretty sure I can figure out where they are," I assured them. "But we need to work together to take them down, as there is no way they are undefended. They may not have parahumans, but that doesn't mean we can just start phoning it in because we assume we can handle them."
"If you can locate it, we will absolutely help," Lady Photon said with no hesitation. "Even if Lung was still around, we would have helped shut them down."
Most of New Wave had faces of disgust or frustration on their faces, most likely because the Farm's location was something that had stumped them and the PRT for a long time.
Once I promised to keep them in a loop, the women left for their patrol and I focused on Manpower, Flashbang, and Panacea. Manpower received a pair of boots very similar to mine, allowing him to jump multiple times in the air. With his super strength, this gave him some incredible air time and a relatively high mover rating. Rather than giving him steady feet, his boots gave him a subtle slow fall effect he could engage so he could have more control over his descents.
Flashbang's gear had been a bit more difficult, because I honestly wanted to give him multiple things. His blaster power was pretty powerful, but unlike everyone else on the combat team, he lacked a mover rating and a way to protect himself from injury. I could have attempted to give him both, but that would just make two weak improvements rather than two strong ones.
In the end, I went simple but effective, giving him an ablative shield like I had on my cloak, attached to a reinforced under-armor shirt. His was actually probably stronger than mine since it was reinforced by samples of the shield of New Wave. It also lacked the turtle shell ability mine had, but it did seem to recharge a heck of a lot faster.
The final creation was for Panacea. Part of me wanted to make her something like what I made for her adoptive father, but another part of me wanted to make her a mover since she was not really supposed to be in combat. A way to retreat sounded better than a way to fight.
Then I realized there was nothing stopping me from doing both for her, as I didn't think anyone would complain about me making sure the team healer was taken care of. So I gave her a nearly identical copy of her father's protection, tied to a necklace rather than a shirt, as well a pair of bracelets that improved her stamina, flexibility, and just generally agility and dexterity. A handy ritual I would have absolutely used for myself if my permanent geomantic absorption didn't already give that to me and more. I warned her that she would need to learn how to do the actual things, but she was basically now the most talented athlete on the planet. I then proved it to her by teaching her to do a forward handspring in a few minutes.
"Your shield should keep you safe from most things, including messing up if you're running around, learning, and practicing," I explained. "Feel free to call me otherwise. With my new Teleport, I can be anywhere I've been before in just a few seconds, a minute or two at most. That goes for patrols as well. I'm almost always going to be ready to back up a group if they run into trouble."
With their gear distributed, everyone expressed their thanks before eventually heading off. Shielder was the one giving everyone a lift, with Panacea, Manpower, and Flashbang all riding on one of his shields as he flew away. They were, apparently, heading off to do some training so they could get used to the new abilities I had given them. I was pleased to hear that they were taking it seriously, and I was happy to see they enjoyed my gear. With them armed and prepared, I felt considerably better about dragging the Parahuman family into this potentially large-scale conflict.
When they were gone, I let out a long breath before heading off to the hospital and the PRT to do my daily healing. I was also happy to see that the PRT had come through for me on an earlier request to pay in materials. When I was done with my healing, I walked out of the government building with a few bags of gemstones, enough for me to make the golem they wanted to run tests on and at least four or five more, considering just how simple I planned on making the PRTs version.
Rather than teleporting back to the compound, I rode Troy through the city, heading for one of the few scrap yards. After a long conversation with the manager and a wad of cash, I was left alone in one of the larger open areas, surrounded by scrap and trash. Ignoring the cloying, metallic, slightly chemically smell that permeated the area, I pulled out my spellbook. I flipped open my spell book, and after a moment of re-reading the spell, I began to chant.
"Metallum, sanguis terrae, fundamentum humanitatis, vocationem magicae meae sentio. Te voco, quod moderni mirum est, ut sequaris mandata mea. Egredere, metallo, et finge te in figuram quam cupio."
The piles around me shook and shifted slightly, rattling as seven circles appeared ahead of me, all connected by a circle. Each circle had two arcane symbols, and as I chanted, they began to spin. Tendrils of magic erupted from the spell, spreading through the piles around me, making various objects throughout them glow. After a few seconds, I could feel the link to the metal, and with a pull, they began to liquefy, pulling through trash and plastic until I had a huge pool of iron, copper, and aluminum in front of me. I had been focusing on a vague ratio of aluminum brass, heavy on iron, for flexibility, toughness, and speed.
Before I could start to shape the metal, the magic of the spell faded, leaving a massive chunk of golden brass in front of me. I had definitely underpaid for how much copper I was using, but considering there was no way the owner would have been able to pull the copper out of the electronics and piping as efficiently as I did, I considered it a fair trade.
Quickly, before the owner could come back and start to question how much money I had given him, I cast the spell again. As the glowing circles appeared again, this time, all of the magic poured into the substantial solid chunk of metal in front of me. It quickly became amorphous again as I forced it to grow into four different frames. Each of them followed my standard golem shape, a humanoid frame with a hunched, headless upper torso. Then, as the magic began to fade, I let the interior harden and focused on adding some basic designs on the surface, deciding that since these golems would be traveling with me a lot, they should look good as well.
By the time the magic finally slipped away, the golems looked like they were armor-plated, with "seams" along their thick, shiny plates. They were a good five or six inches taller than me, with thick limbs and a sturdy chest, meaning that they looked ready to take on whatever you could throw at them. Of course, at this point, they were basically just metal statues, I needed to get home and make them into golems.
Luckily, I knew that going in, so all of the statues were close by, meaning I could get Troy, use a quick plant manipulation spell to uncurl some of his body to tightly grip onto the statues, and then I could tightly hold on to him as I teleported us home. Between Troy and the statues, I was really pushing the Teleportation spell limits, but I managed to cast it just fine, even if it drained me almost completely.
Once we were back at the compound, I immediately got to work, moving the statues around by hand before turning each of them into high-functioning golems.
By this point, I was a practiced golem maker. Even better, with the frames already built and ready for charging, it only really took about an hour and a half per golem and another forty-five minutes for the simple super living wood golem, which I promptly delivered to the PRT. They were a little unsure of what to do until Assault finally showed up and took custody of it, letting me leave without the security officers complaining.
When I returned home, I got to work getting used to my golems, ordering them around the compound, having them push over things and lift up boulders, and doing my best to get a sense of just how fast and strong they were. The short answer was "very," with the longer answer being that they were better than any of the other golems in every way due to their superior material. The only issue they had was that they could not regenerate on their own, and they were on the heavy side. They contained a lot of aluminum, which helped keep their weight down, but each one still weighed considerably more than me. "Walking lightly" Was not one of their various selling points.
These golems were explicitly designed to accompany Crow and me on our patrols. They were more than capable of handling even the most heavily armed thugs, and with a command word could raise their strength to levels that would let them go toe-to-toe with a decently powerful brute. They were by far the most advanced golems I had made so far, and with plenty of time to modify them in the future, they would likely get better over time.
After a round of sparring with them, the metal golems putting my own buffs to the test, I finally settled down by the fire again. Not to design a spell or to design a ritual. It was finally time for me to make my primary spell focus, a staff that would blow my previous one out of the water. I was excited to get started, so I quickly ate a simple meal, before diving into my notes and starting to plan.
I feel like she would have been better served shoring up her shield since she is pretty vulnerable to the double tap. I don't know if I remember correctly but I think she can only take a single hit before her shield is down for a few seconds. Pretty much any gun with auto or semi-auto would take her out easily.
Also, the ritual item effects seem a lot weaker and less useful than Crow's. Lady Photon, Panacea and Shielder got pretty good upgrades but the rest seemed kinda meh. I thought he was going to let the rituals mostly do what they wanted to allow them to be more powerful outside of specific requests?
Anyway, he needs to get some FMA style alchemy. Would make resource gathering a lot simpler... I'm pretty sure he doesn't have that yet, the fanfics I'm reading sometimes blend together in my head.
Making it durable for punching is also pointless - her shield should protect it, and if her shield is down, then so is her super strength. Best I can tell, her reliance on the shield is a (poorly kept) secret, so he doesn't know how to best help.
I had already been assuming the item itself would be durable and/or protected by her shield. I was more suggesting that the item could give her a level of durability under the shield so that when it drops she isn't completely defenseless in that few second window.
You are correct, she very well could have not told him about that weakness.
Duplicate wording - Either drop the 's or the is.
Left this to build up for months only to finish in a few hours😔 at least it didn't end in a cliffhanger🙄
Chapter Sixty Three
Despite the fact that I was tempted to, I did not skip sleep again that night. As excited as I was to finally get to work on a proper arcane focus, something beyond just a basic staff or book with the bare essentials, I did not want to push my limits too far. So far I hadn't seen any real effects from relying on my wake-up spell, but I also wasn't willing to put that to the test with the current situation. I had plenty of time to test its potency and long-term side effects when the Docks weren't about to explode.
I spent the rest of the night working on my design, planning out exactly what I wanted from my staff. By and large, staff and staves were the primary weapons of the warrior mage. They added power, strength, and resiliency to spells, while also leaving plenty of room for whatever little enchantments you could want. There were other options, of course, things like wands, crystal spheres, gloves, and plenty in between.
Different arcane focuses had different draws and uses, with some, like wands, built for detail and finesse over power and brute force. I might still make a wand for myself at some point, since it went well with healing, but for now, I couldn't deny that a staff worked better for my current needs. Not to mention that many of the negative aspects of each arcane focus could also be mitigated if you were willing to spend an extra bit of money and go through some hard work.
By around eleven PM, I was done with the design, and I decided to call it a night. I tore out a shopping list from my notebook and stored it in my coat pocket before heading to my living area and crawling into bed. Sleep came easily, and I woke up the following morning feeling rested. I was tempted to wash the remaining normal morning fatigue away with a wake-up spell, but ultimately settled for a steaming cup of mocha coffee, prepared by a joint effort of Kali and Alya.
"Okay, today's overall goal is to start and hopefully finish my staff," I said, drying my hair from my shower. "I have to go heal in a few hours, but I'm not needed for patrols today since it's Sunday, and they offered to cover the full day and into the night. I want to spend the next few hours looking for the wood for my staff, then I can go heal."
"Is yew not an appropriate wood?" Alya asked. "The tree in which you made your first staff and your spell book has plenty more branches."
"I have a spell now that should locate wood that is more suitable for me, so I'm going to give that a shot," I responded, shrugging after a moment. "But who knows, we may end up back there. The druidcraft spell did latch on to it pretty hard as being the most powerful tree in the forest."
Once I was ready, I teleported deep into the woods, appearing at the furthest point I had been so far. I quickly cast the locate spell, this one specifically from my arcane focus creation subject rather than the druidcraft spell I had used to find the yew tree for my first staff.
The spell was long enough that even with a quick cast, I still had to chant three words before three repeating arcane symbols began to circle by my feet, before small paths of light began to stretch from the circle, reaching out into the forest around me. Most of them were weak and faded, but one of them stood out, clearly visible even in the early morning sun.
"Looks like we found a hit," I said with a smile, healing off to follow the lightly glowing trail through the undergrowth.
"Is there no way to tell the distance?" Alya asked, floating through the forest alongside me in her partially corporeal form.
"Nope, save that it's inside the maximum radius of the spell, which is five miles," I admitted woefully. "If we don't reach it by the time we need to go heal, I can just teleport back later."
My walk soon turned into a jog as I made my way quickly through the woods, jumping over fallen trees and through thorn bushes as if they weren't even there. Between my protective cloak and my own hardiness, I probably could have walked through the fallen trees as well, but it was easier just to jump over them.
After about forty-five minutes of jogging, I arrived at my destination. At first, I thought the spell was pointing to a large group of oaks that had taken over a decent chunk of the forest. They were old and gnarled, each at least a hundred and fifty years old, judging by the width of their bases. As I got closer, I realized my spell was pointing further into the large cluster. I followed it between the large trees, and after a few rows of oaks, I finally spotted it. A single towering mahogany tree growing straight and tall despite its difficult placement. Its canopy was well above the oaks, meaning the tree was thriving, and judging from its width, it was a good fifty years younger than them, too.
I silently approached the tree, pressing my hand against its side and checking its health. When I was sure it would survive losing one of its larger branches, I cast a few spells to support it, helping it set down thick roots and basically just giving it an all-around health boost. If this tree was so compatible with me, I wanted it to be around for as long as possible.
When I was done giving it a check and general boost, I carefully separated a large branch from the tree, catching it easily and sealing the damaged connection. When I was sure the tree was fine, I inspected the branch. It was almost two meters long, as thick as my arm along the base, and had plenty of wood for a staff, plus plenty extra, which I would no doubt out to use, as a wood that was in tune with your magic was always a valuable thing to have.
After taking a good look around, I teleported back home from the mahogany tree. I carried my branch to the ritual platform, where I carefully cut the branch down to two meters long, storing the extras away. I then stabilized the branch with various druidcraft spells, compressing it down as much as possible and shaping it into a coil, just as I had my first one. Thankfully, living wood staffs were not uncommon, especially those who specialized in nature magic. I didn't, my druidcraft was all I had so far, but I couldn't deny that having a staff I could control the shape of was extremely practical and well worth the extra maintenance required to keep it alive.
When I was done messing around with it, I hooked the coiled length of wood back to the same hook I had kept my previous staff on. With the compression and the coil, it was hardly visible under my cloak, which was just a bonus since I was more concerned about the convenience than hiding it.
With everything set, I teleported to the hospital, leaving Troy home but taking one of my brass golems with me. I wanted to get people used to seeing them around me, and taking one of them as a "bodyguard" while I was walking around the hospital was as good a place as any to start.
It didn't take long for me to finish healing at the hospital, and while the PRT wasn't ecstatic about my metal golem following me around, they didn't complain. When I was done, I left to go on a quick shopping trip, spending a massive amount of money before finally teleporting back home. I had a long day ahead of me, and I couldn't wait to get started.
The process for making a real arcane focus, not the fill-in, basic, standard kind I had made my spellbook into, was by and large up to the person making it. I now knew quite a few specialized enchants, rituals, crafting techniques, and potions, all of which had to do with various different types and styles of arcane focus.
For example, if I was some style of fire mage, the first thing I would do to a wooden focus was to make it fireproof. I could soak it in a specialized potion, which would bind to the wood, strengthening and sealing it from fire. Or I could ritualize it to be impervious to fire. Or I could cap the end with some sort of heat-dispersing metal, perhaps copper. All of these options were possible and viable, but somewhere better than others, depending on the circumstance. If I already had a bunch of rituals planned for the staff, it might be better to get the fire resistance from somewhere else, as each subsequent ritual would get more and more complicated.
Unfortunately, because of my knowledge, skill, and pre-existing setup, I knew I would be leaning on rituals a bit before using enchantments to finalize the staff's more specific functions.
There was also the matter of cost. Arcane materials weren't cheap, usually, so I needed money and or resources to get my hands on what I needed. Thankfully, I was already starting to accumulate a good chunk of money through my healing, despite a serious pay cut while I was covering for Panacea.
Step one of making my arcane focus was to ritualize the crap out of the ingredients for the staff. I wanted everything to be as magically in tune and tough as possible before we even started adding functions and affinities. In total, there were around eight items that needed to be reinforced and ritualized, working my blood, gold, silver, several precious stones, and several other ingredients into each. I was burning money with each step, but the further I went, the happier I was to throw more into the blaze, as I had already blown completely past my original staff and was now working at a whole new level of power.
When the process was done, I began weaving enchantments into the staff. The process was the same as I had used on my spellbook, weaving floating runes around the staff, before sealing them in place by "burning" a chunk of silver. Each enchantment took up a chunk of the staff's space, slowly filling in the large wooden weapon.
The last process was a final sealing ritual, which protected the previous rituals and enchantments from my own magic, solidifying and sealing them in place. An iron cap was the keystone of the sealing ritual, and should I want to work on the staff again, removing the cap would allow me to. When the sealing ritual finally burned out, I walked to the center of the ritual platform, looking down at my finished product.
It was a seven-foot-tall staff of mahogany with an amethyst crystal cluster at the end. The mahogany was polished to a shine, with a dual spiraling inset of copper that started at the iron cap and continued to the grip, turned solid with knurled lines before returning to the spiral, all the way to the amethyst. Just above the grip, the staff bent out slightly, continuing on before correcting and pulling back in, ending straight at the end. Along the bend were six half-quarter size loops, a two-inch strap of leather tied to each. At the end of each strap were three pieces of fulgurite and three polished pieces of clear quartz. Each one of the stones could contain a single spell for on-the-spot use, with the fulgurite specifically designed to hold lighting spells.
The final part was the Amethyst tip, which sat in the crook of two branches of mahogany, one reaching higher than the other, both of them almost cupping the large gem without touching it. The amethyst itself was set into the staff with a base of gold, which continued up into the gem to create lines and inclusions of the expensive metal.
Of course, there was more to the staff than just what you could see. Both the amethyst and the mahogany were treated to cast lightning and healing spells as easily as breathing. Fulgurite and several other materials went into making my basic to intermediate lightning spells cost next to nothing, while my healing magic was buffed in effectiveness by the gold and amethyst. Perhaps the most impressive part was the core of woven gold and silver, ritualized to respond to my mana and my will, that lay buried in the wooden shaft. This would allow a measure of finesse from a usually over-powering focus.
Of course, there were also enchantments running around every inch of the wood as well. Like my book, I could pull the staff to myself. If I pulled hard enough, it would drain my mana to teleport to my side. Beyond that, I crammed every quality of life and ease of use enchantment I could find. It was self-cleaning and self-repairing to a degree, could float in place, and could respond to simple commands. I could cast a simple persistent spell through it and leave it floating in place, using mana stored in the amethyst to maintain the spell for me.
It was a behemoth of a staff and, so far, was probably my greatest creation yet. Really, in all honesty, it had turned out significantly better than I could have ever predicted. Kali had been a massive help, poking and prodding each enchantment and ritual I did, the effects stacking as I layered each one on top of the other.
After a moment, I reach out with my mind, feeling my mana curl and coil inside me before giving the staff a mental pull. A purple spark of lightning arced across the staff, snapping and hissing before the entire seven-foot construct swirled and popped, appearing beside me with a crack of thunder, the same purple spark heralding its appearance. I reached out and grabbed it, a rush of energy flowing into me, whooshing through like I was standing at ground zero of a winter microburst. My hair ruffled as my magic thrummed, settling just under my skin like a partially concealed but still very much live wire.
"Holy shit!" I nearly shouted, taking a physical step back, reeling from the contact.
With a giddy grin, I spun, swiping the staff, instantly casting an ice spell of my own design. A ray of frost flew from the end of my staff, slamming into a nearby stone. Normally, with my own hands or with my spellbook, the blast of icy magic would have been just enough to freeze a couple cups of water. Now, with my staff, I could only watch as the entire stone was covered in crystalized frost, the rock creaking under the sudden shift in temperature.
I couldn't help but laugh before turning around and jabbing the staff forward, this time a blast of focused water launching across the compound. It barely arced until it eventually slammed into the dirt, digging a furrow into it. I spun again, this time calling forth fire, a sphere of bright, dancing flames launching out and exploding against a distant tree. I spun the staff around over my head, bringing it down and blasting the tree with water to douse the crackling flames.
Finally, I turned again, aiming at a distant stone. I jabbed the staff forward and cast my wordless spark of electricity. This time, however, rather than just letting the mana flow through normal, I pushed, feeding the almost instinctual spell to its max, the staff holding it all together. A column of electrical energy lanced out from the staff and slammed into a boulder, cracking a huge chunk of it away and sending shards of stone careening into the woods, cutting through leaves and branches. I could see the stone was cherry red at the sight of impact, slowly cooling down as I watched.
In one last test, despite not having a specific target, I raised the staff and brought it down, the iron cap slamming into the dirt. The staff glowed gold as I cast a simple healing spell at a level of potency I had never achieved before. The whole clearing glowed gold, almost blinding me, until the spell faded and bright golden light faded to nothing.
The compound was uncomfortably dark for a moment after the light faded before I could feel Kali flick on the glowing light vials, and everything was bright again.
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
I spent the rest of the night working on my design, planning out exactly what I wanted from my staff. By and large, staff and staves were the primary weapons of the warrior mage. They added power, strength, and resiliency to spells, while also leaving plenty of room for whatever little enchantments you could want. There were other options, of course, things like wands, crystal spheres, gloves, and plenty in between.
Different arcane focuses had different draws and uses, with some, like wands, built for detail and finesse over power and brute force. I might still make a wand for myself at some point, since it went well with healing, but for now, I couldn't deny that a staff worked better for my current needs. Not to mention that many of the negative aspects of each arcane focus could also be mitigated if you were willing to spend an extra bit of money and go through some hard work.
By around eleven PM, I was done with the design, and I decided to call it a night. I tore out a shopping list from my notebook and stored it in my coat pocket before heading to my living area and crawling into bed. Sleep came easily, and I woke up the following morning feeling rested. I was tempted to wash the remaining normal morning fatigue away with a wake-up spell, but ultimately settled for a steaming cup of mocha coffee, prepared by a joint effort of Kali and Alya.
"Okay, today's overall goal is to start and hopefully finish my staff," I said, drying my hair from my shower. "I have to go heal in a few hours, but I'm not needed for patrols today since it's Sunday, and they offered to cover the full day and into the night. I want to spend the next few hours looking for the wood for my staff, then I can go heal."
"Is yew not an appropriate wood?" Alya asked. "The tree in which you made your first staff and your spell book has plenty more branches."
"I have a spell now that should locate wood that is more suitable for me, so I'm going to give that a shot," I responded, shrugging after a moment. "But who knows, we may end up back there. The druidcraft spell did latch on to it pretty hard as being the most powerful tree in the forest."
Once I was ready, I teleported deep into the woods, appearing at the furthest point I had been so far. I quickly cast the locate spell, this one specifically from my arcane focus creation subject rather than the druidcraft spell I had used to find the yew tree for my first staff.
The spell was long enough that even with a quick cast, I still had to chant three words before three repeating arcane symbols began to circle by my feet, before small paths of light began to stretch from the circle, reaching out into the forest around me. Most of them were weak and faded, but one of them stood out, clearly visible even in the early morning sun.
"Looks like we found a hit," I said with a smile, healing off to follow the lightly glowing trail through the undergrowth.
"Is there no way to tell the distance?" Alya asked, floating through the forest alongside me in her partially corporeal form.
"Nope, save that it's inside the maximum radius of the spell, which is five miles," I admitted woefully. "If we don't reach it by the time we need to go heal, I can just teleport back later."
My walk soon turned into a jog as I made my way quickly through the woods, jumping over fallen trees and through thorn bushes as if they weren't even there. Between my protective cloak and my own hardiness, I probably could have walked through the fallen trees as well, but it was easier just to jump over them.
After about forty-five minutes of jogging, I arrived at my destination. At first, I thought the spell was pointing to a large group of oaks that had taken over a decent chunk of the forest. They were old and gnarled, each at least a hundred and fifty years old, judging by the width of their bases. As I got closer, I realized my spell was pointing further into the large cluster. I followed it between the large trees, and after a few rows of oaks, I finally spotted it. A single towering mahogany tree growing straight and tall despite its difficult placement. Its canopy was well above the oaks, meaning the tree was thriving, and judging from its width, it was a good fifty years younger than them, too.
I silently approached the tree, pressing my hand against its side and checking its health. When I was sure it would survive losing one of its larger branches, I cast a few spells to support it, helping it set down thick roots and basically just giving it an all-around health boost. If this tree was so compatible with me, I wanted it to be around for as long as possible.
When I was done giving it a check and general boost, I carefully separated a large branch from the tree, catching it easily and sealing the damaged connection. When I was sure the tree was fine, I inspected the branch. It was almost two meters long, as thick as my arm along the base, and had plenty of wood for a staff, plus plenty extra, which I would no doubt out to use, as a wood that was in tune with your magic was always a valuable thing to have.
After taking a good look around, I teleported back home from the mahogany tree. I carried my branch to the ritual platform, where I carefully cut the branch down to two meters long, storing the extras away. I then stabilized the branch with various druidcraft spells, compressing it down as much as possible and shaping it into a coil, just as I had my first one. Thankfully, living wood staffs were not uncommon, especially those who specialized in nature magic. I didn't, my druidcraft was all I had so far, but I couldn't deny that having a staff I could control the shape of was extremely practical and well worth the extra maintenance required to keep it alive.
When I was done messing around with it, I hooked the coiled length of wood back to the same hook I had kept my previous staff on. With the compression and the coil, it was hardly visible under my cloak, which was just a bonus since I was more concerned about the convenience than hiding it.
With everything set, I teleported to the hospital, leaving Troy home but taking one of my brass golems with me. I wanted to get people used to seeing them around me, and taking one of them as a "bodyguard" while I was walking around the hospital was as good a place as any to start.
It didn't take long for me to finish healing at the hospital, and while the PRT wasn't ecstatic about my metal golem following me around, they didn't complain. When I was done, I left to go on a quick shopping trip, spending a massive amount of money before finally teleporting back home. I had a long day ahead of me, and I couldn't wait to get started.
The process for making a real arcane focus, not the fill-in, basic, standard kind I had made my spellbook into, was by and large up to the person making it. I now knew quite a few specialized enchants, rituals, crafting techniques, and potions, all of which had to do with various different types and styles of arcane focus.
For example, if I was some style of fire mage, the first thing I would do to a wooden focus was to make it fireproof. I could soak it in a specialized potion, which would bind to the wood, strengthening and sealing it from fire. Or I could ritualize it to be impervious to fire. Or I could cap the end with some sort of heat-dispersing metal, perhaps copper. All of these options were possible and viable, but somewhere better than others, depending on the circumstance. If I already had a bunch of rituals planned for the staff, it might be better to get the fire resistance from somewhere else, as each subsequent ritual would get more and more complicated.
Unfortunately, because of my knowledge, skill, and pre-existing setup, I knew I would be leaning on rituals a bit before using enchantments to finalize the staff's more specific functions.
There was also the matter of cost. Arcane materials weren't cheap, usually, so I needed money and or resources to get my hands on what I needed. Thankfully, I was already starting to accumulate a good chunk of money through my healing, despite a serious pay cut while I was covering for Panacea.
Step one of making my arcane focus was to ritualize the crap out of the ingredients for the staff. I wanted everything to be as magically in tune and tough as possible before we even started adding functions and affinities. In total, there were around eight items that needed to be reinforced and ritualized, working my blood, gold, silver, several precious stones, and several other ingredients into each. I was burning money with each step, but the further I went, the happier I was to throw more into the blaze, as I had already blown completely past my original staff and was now working at a whole new level of power.
When the process was done, I began weaving enchantments into the staff. The process was the same as I had used on my spellbook, weaving floating runes around the staff, before sealing them in place by "burning" a chunk of silver. Each enchantment took up a chunk of the staff's space, slowly filling in the large wooden weapon.
The last process was a final sealing ritual, which protected the previous rituals and enchantments from my own magic, solidifying and sealing them in place. An iron cap was the keystone of the sealing ritual, and should I want to work on the staff again, removing the cap would allow me to. When the sealing ritual finally burned out, I walked to the center of the ritual platform, looking down at my finished product.
It was a seven-foot-tall staff of mahogany with an amethyst crystal cluster at the end. The mahogany was polished to a shine, with a dual spiraling inset of copper that started at the iron cap and continued to the grip, turned solid with knurled lines before returning to the spiral, all the way to the amethyst. Just above the grip, the staff bent out slightly, continuing on before correcting and pulling back in, ending straight at the end. Along the bend were six half-quarter size loops, a two-inch strap of leather tied to each. At the end of each strap were three pieces of fulgurite and three polished pieces of clear quartz. Each one of the stones could contain a single spell for on-the-spot use, with the fulgurite specifically designed to hold lighting spells.
The final part was the Amethyst tip, which sat in the crook of two branches of mahogany, one reaching higher than the other, both of them almost cupping the large gem without touching it. The amethyst itself was set into the staff with a base of gold, which continued up into the gem to create lines and inclusions of the expensive metal.
Of course, there was more to the staff than just what you could see. Both the amethyst and the mahogany were treated to cast lightning and healing spells as easily as breathing. Fulgurite and several other materials went into making my basic to intermediate lightning spells cost next to nothing, while my healing magic was buffed in effectiveness by the gold and amethyst. Perhaps the most impressive part was the core of woven gold and silver, ritualized to respond to my mana and my will, that lay buried in the wooden shaft. This would allow a measure of finesse from a usually over-powering focus.
Of course, there were also enchantments running around every inch of the wood as well. Like my book, I could pull the staff to myself. If I pulled hard enough, it would drain my mana to teleport to my side. Beyond that, I crammed every quality of life and ease of use enchantment I could find. It was self-cleaning and self-repairing to a degree, could float in place, and could respond to simple commands. I could cast a simple persistent spell through it and leave it floating in place, using mana stored in the amethyst to maintain the spell for me.
It was a behemoth of a staff and, so far, was probably my greatest creation yet. Really, in all honesty, it had turned out significantly better than I could have ever predicted. Kali had been a massive help, poking and prodding each enchantment and ritual I did, the effects stacking as I layered each one on top of the other.
After a moment, I reach out with my mind, feeling my mana curl and coil inside me before giving the staff a mental pull. A purple spark of lightning arced across the staff, snapping and hissing before the entire seven-foot construct swirled and popped, appearing beside me with a crack of thunder, the same purple spark heralding its appearance. I reached out and grabbed it, a rush of energy flowing into me, whooshing through like I was standing at ground zero of a winter microburst. My hair ruffled as my magic thrummed, settling just under my skin like a partially concealed but still very much live wire.
"Holy shit!" I nearly shouted, taking a physical step back, reeling from the contact.
With a giddy grin, I spun, swiping the staff, instantly casting an ice spell of my own design. A ray of frost flew from the end of my staff, slamming into a nearby stone. Normally, with my own hands or with my spellbook, the blast of icy magic would have been just enough to freeze a couple cups of water. Now, with my staff, I could only watch as the entire stone was covered in crystalized frost, the rock creaking under the sudden shift in temperature.
I couldn't help but laugh before turning around and jabbing the staff forward, this time a blast of focused water launching across the compound. It barely arced until it eventually slammed into the dirt, digging a furrow into it. I spun again, this time calling forth fire, a sphere of bright, dancing flames launching out and exploding against a distant tree. I spun the staff around over my head, bringing it down and blasting the tree with water to douse the crackling flames.
Finally, I turned again, aiming at a distant stone. I jabbed the staff forward and cast my wordless spark of electricity. This time, however, rather than just letting the mana flow through normal, I pushed, feeding the almost instinctual spell to its max, the staff holding it all together. A column of electrical energy lanced out from the staff and slammed into a boulder, cracking a huge chunk of it away and sending shards of stone careening into the woods, cutting through leaves and branches. I could see the stone was cherry red at the sight of impact, slowly cooling down as I watched.
In one last test, despite not having a specific target, I raised the staff and brought it down, the iron cap slamming into the dirt. The staff glowed gold as I cast a simple healing spell at a level of potency I had never achieved before. The whole clearing glowed gold, almost blinding me, until the spell faded and bright golden light faded to nothing.
The compound was uncomfortably dark for a moment after the light faded before I could feel Kali flick on the glowing light vials, and everything was bright again.
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It/Its
Mahogany is a tropical species, so you might want to either change that to something that could plausibly growing that far north or else have some confusion MC's part about it + a line about how a wizard parahuman must have done it or something.
- Location
- Here
I also reacted to him finding a mahogany tree in New England. They prefer to grow where the temperature is in the 70°F to 95°F (21°C to 35°C) range. They can tolerate minimum temperatures down to 30°F (-1°C). However, frost can significantly impact both young and mature trees, potentially leading to stunted growth or even death.
I would prefer for him to simply switch to another type of tree, as it would be hard to explain how a 100 year old mahogany tree managed to grow and thrive there.
AntaeusTheGiant
Child of Gaea
- Location
- Lawrence, KS
I see someone already pointed this out, but yeah, definite signs of a parahuman power involvement. Did Blasto ever get this far into the woods, or could it be a Barrow leftover? Maybe Barrow and Labyrinth had an interesting interaction like she and Scrub did in canon?
Last edited:
Chapter Sixty Four
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. You could get up to eight chapters early from this story and either four or eight from my other two. Board Members even get to vote on story beats, interludes, names, and the bonus unlock during Arcanum's recharge cycle! (The first vote was for Geomancy, and the second was Druidcraft!)
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
As the compound lit up around me, my vials of light providing a warm, constant glow, I stood there silently. After a moment, I released a long breath, feeling the magic around me hum energy. I could feel my power, feel my mana at my call. It was as if I had stepped up and advanced to a higher level of magic, if not in understanding, then at least in sensitivity or power. After a moment, I released the staff, the amethyst humming slightly as it stayed perfectly upright despite me taking a step back.
With the staff no longer in my hands, the intensity of the feeling slowly faded until it was barely noticeable. I could still feel it, feel the power that always resided in me flowing, but it was no longer snapping and writhing just under the surface.
"Any idea what that was?" I asked, feeling Kali watching closely and Alya floating at the edge of the ritual platform.
"... It reminded me of when an elemental finds a home that is filled with and aligned their element," She admitted. "They end up in a loop refinement. It feels dramatic at first, but it usually equalizes over time."
"And you think that's what is happening here?"
"No, not exactly," She admitted hesitantly. "You made something that resonates well with you, and it's drawing out your mana, like the mana circulation meditations you used to do before you outgrew them."
I frowned, running through a few diagnostic spells on myself. Most of what I knew about healing spells were about physical injuries, but I did know some that were about checking in on a wizard's mana and a few other more esoteric things. Concrete diagnoses with a simple spell were beyond me, but I could definitely get a sense of my non-physical well-being.
When everything turned up green, I reached out again and took my staff. I could feel my power swelling up, and sure enough, there was a certain amount of mana circulation going around. It felt as if I had been pushing and pulling water that resisted my efforts, but now the staff was causing it to flow more freely, my mana ready to jump to my commands.
After a few more minutes of experimenting, namely by grabbing the staff and letting it go over and over, I decided to not complain too much about making something so powerful that touching it seemed to make me more powerful. After all, neither Kali nor Alya were worried about it, and Kali's understanding of magic was instinctual to a level I couldn't really comprehend. If it was hurting me somehow, she would be able to feel it.
By the time I was satisfied that my new creation wasn't actually hurting me, it was getting pretty late. Unfortunately, I felt absolutely wired, which meant sleeping, at least at the moment, was off the table. However, despite a general lack of tiredness, I was feeling a bit drawn out. I had been working nonstop on my staff for nearly twelve hours, and while the process and results had both been thrilling and exciting, I was now firmly done with work in any form.
"I… feel like going for a walk," I said, holding out my hand and summoning my staff to me, ignoring the now familiar and somehow more manageable sensation. "Anything you want, Kali? I still owe you something for all your hard work."
A feeling of indecisiveness settled over me, and I nodded in understanding, reaching out and patting one of the golem wolves I had made for her. I found that she tended to keep at least one of them at the compound at all times while sending the others running around and exploring.
"It's fine, you just keep thinking about it. Just let me know if you think of anything," I said with a smile. "This isn't a transaction, I want you and Alya to be happy. With all the help you guys give me, it's only fair that I dedicate some time to doing stuff you guys want."
Both of my partners seemed happy with my statement, and after talking about the sort of things I could do for them, I teleported away from the compound, landing on a small part of the Brockton Bay beach. The tide was out at the moment, and with how dark it was, how cold the water was, and how poorly the beaches were maintained at the best of times, it was completely empty. On my left, I could see the Boardwalk in the distance, and on my right, even further than the Boardwalk, I could see one of the city's ferry landing docks.
The most prominent landmark, by far, was the massive oil rig sitting in the farther reaches of the bay. The shield surrounding it glowed slightly, and through it, I could see the rather impressive-looking Protectorate ENE Headquarters. The colors were off due to the glowing shield, but I could see the buildings behind it, as well as the spotlights lighting it all up. I looked out at it for a long while before shaking my head. It was an impressive base, and as much as looking out at it made me want to one-up them, now wasn't the time.
"Alright, I've been wanting to try this since I first went to that scrap yard," I explained to Alya, who I could feel keeping watch, but mostly watching me.
I pulled my spell book from my hip book holster, mentally controlling its pages until I was on the metal control spell. I read it once more before beginning to chant.
"Metallum, sanguis terrae, fundamentum humanitatis, vocationem magicae meae sentio. Te voco, quod moderni mirum est, ut sequaris mandata mea. Egredere, metallo, et finge te in figuram quam cupio."
Just as before, seven connected circles appeared around me, slowly spinning as tendrils began to reach out. However, this time, instead of there only being a few tendrils reaching out to large chunks of metal, several dozens of them reached out across the beach, pushing into the sand. Rather than reducing the metal to a liquid, I simply gave it all a mental pull, the strands slowly pulling out several dozen rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, all of them containing enough gold to register to the spell. I couldn't help but chuckle as it all piled on the floor by my feet. I repeated the process, this time looking for silver, the pile growing to nearly double the size.
"Well damn… that's my gold and silver set for a while," I said to Ayla, who was floating even closer now, having watched my magic. "Even better… I can do this at a few other beaches if I wanted to…Or I could find a sunken treasure ship, assuming I don't go near Leviathan…"
For a moment, I let the ideas spiral into my mind before shaking them away for later. If I ever needed hundreds of pounds of gold, which was absolutely a possibility with how magic worked, I would consider raising a few sunken treasures. Otherwise, beach combing and junkyard visits would have to do for now.
I took a walk along the beach, heading in the direction of the Boardwalk, intent on stepping back up to the usual road when I got closer. I ended up casting the spell a few more times, filling a backpack full of dirty gold and silver jewelry, a good amount of it being unsalvageable in terms of ever being jewelry again. I walked the streets, the few people who were still around giving me looks, though they quickly seemed to recognize me. Despite the time, I was asked for several photos and autographs, which I took with a smile. I knew that, to a picture, my mask would appear to be a simple copper mask, so the pictures weren't a problem.
Eventually, after a short impromptu patrol, I teleported away from the city and back to the compound. I dropped my bag at the edge of one of the storage trees and had a quick conversation with Alya about tomorrow's plans, before heading off to bed. Between the walk, the talking to random people, and the magical beach combing, the wired and energy-filled feeling had long since passed.
The next morning, I woke up early, rolling out of bed and rushing through my morning routine. Crow and I were on patrol for most of the morning, at least until I had to leave to work at the hospital. Once I was ready, I teleported to our meeting place to find Olivia seemingly fast asleep on her usual chair of milk crates.
"Good morning, Crow," I said, standing back a bit in case she woke up with a start.
"Who says?" She asked, barely sifting, turning her head slightly to look at me. "Morning. Mind hitting me with that expresso shot thing you do?"
"Yeah, sure, but I hope you're also getting actual sleep as well. I haven't tested the long-term effects of replacing sleep with magic rejuvenation," I pointed out before quickly waking her up entirely with the flashy spell, feeling the effects roll over me as well. "How is that, better?"
"Yeah, thanks," She said, standing slowly, her cloak shifting into a billowy, star-studded look with black feathers along her shoulders. "So, got some new stuff I see?"
"Yeah, been working up to some new gear," I said with a smirk, tapping my staff once on the ground. "What do you think?"
Not only had I brought my new staff with me, but my four golems had also come along. Troy had stayed behind so I could free up another slot for teleportations since all together with Olivia, the golems, and myself, we were up to six, which was just along the edge of my teleportation abilities.
Crow walked around the golems, leaning forward to inspect them as if she had any knowledge about golem creation. She even gave them a little nudge to test their balance, but the golems weren't affected. When she was satisfied, she nodded as if she had found what she was looking for, before turning back to me and immediately examining my staff.
"It all looks pretty cool, and considering the kind of things you make, I'm sure it's impressive," she said, wincing slightly as she continued. "But… you really need to pick what kind of wizard mage look you're going for."
"What do you mean?" I asked with confusion, looking down at my outfit. "I thought it all looked cool."
"Individually, sure it does, but the staff screams high fantasy wizard," She explains. "The rest of your look is… well, it's kinda like a tired beat cop meets underpaid detective, with a hint mage. I mean, you're wearing a beanie and a circlet, Arc. Kind of sending mixed messages."
I frowned and nodded, unable to really deny her statement. It was unfortunate but honestly unsurprising, considering I had just been throwing stuff together for a while. I wasn't about to take off my costume and drop my staff just cause it didn't all match a theme, but it was good to know. Going forward, I could try and tighten up the theme as best I could, though I would almost always choose function over form.
I did take my beanie off, though, stuffing it into my pocket. It only had a basic protection ritual on it, which was utterly redundant with how many types of protection I had already. Without the beanie, to the outside observer, the only thing on my head was my circlet. That was my mind resiliency and strength circlet, an attempt to make me resistant to mind control, so there was no way that was coming off.
"Better," She said, nodding her head. "Still a bit confused, but at least now you don't look like you're also late for your job unloading cargo at the docks."
I snorted at her sass before checking if she was ready to begin our patrol or if she wanted to spend more time critiquing my outfit. She pretended to debate the question, so I just rolled my eyes and started the teleport spell. It was long enough that if she actually needed some time, she would have plenty of it to stop me.
My partner on patrol said nothing, however, so the spell went through, sending us deep into ABB territory. We appeared, with the usual strange noises, on top of a boarded-up and empty gas station. Once we were confident we were clear, we jumped down to the thankfully empty street. It was still very early, so the usual hustle was completely absent. We walked the area for about an hour, the city slowly waking up as we did. Eventually, I got a message from Lady Photon, causing me to curse under my breath.
"What's wrong?"
"Lady Photon just confirmed they found multiple Merchant tags during their patrol," I said, showing her an image on my phone. "The Merchants are definitely pushing the envelope here… something must be really stirring them up."
"I've been hearing things too," Crow admitted. "The Merchants didn't really qualify as a gang before, more like… a vague grouping of drug distribution lines. Not even the good stuff either, the crap only the desperate would buy. That started to change recently, though, even before we took down Lung and Lee. Skidmark is working to wrangle them together into a gang, holding rallies and block parties, giving out drugs to people who join up."
"How long has this been going on?"
"From what I've heard, a few weeks, not much more than that," She responded, shaking her head. "And what's worse, what better way to stir up a crowd of high, demented drug dealers than by pointing out the nice, shiny territory next door that is mostly defenseless."
"That's what I'm worried about," I agreed, chewing the inside of my lip. "Alright, let's cut down this next road and head to that line between the two territories. With any luck, if something happens, we can stop it before it spirals out of control. I can always teleport us out if something else comes up."
Crow agreed, and together with our cadre of shiny new metal golems, we made our way through ABB territory. Once we arrived, we began our new patrol, walking along the divide between Merchant and ABB. The streets were tense, but there were quite a bit fewer people than what we were used to, enough for it to be noticeable.
"What are the chances it's like this because everyone decided to just take Monday off?" I asked, frowning as we passed another area that would have normally held at least a few people.
"Lower than you want," Crow responded, sounding just as tense as me. "Not to sound cliche, it feels like the calm before the storm. Like everyone knows something that we don't."
"If anyone knows what the gangs are feeling, it's the people who live here," I pointed out. "I'm… I'm going to make a call, tell New Wave to be on standby whenever possible."
"What about when you leave for healing?"
"Well... I'm just a teleport away. How do you feel about finding a shadow somewhere and keeping watch?" I suggested. "I'll pick you up some lunch when I'm done healing and I'll buy dinner if we end up hanging around that late."
"Deal," She said. "For now, let's keep up with the patrol. Maybe we will discourage anyone from doing anything stupid just by hanging around."
"Do you really think that?" I asked with a disbelieving raised eyebrow.
"Fuck no, but I can dream."
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
As the compound lit up around me, my vials of light providing a warm, constant glow, I stood there silently. After a moment, I released a long breath, feeling the magic around me hum energy. I could feel my power, feel my mana at my call. It was as if I had stepped up and advanced to a higher level of magic, if not in understanding, then at least in sensitivity or power. After a moment, I released the staff, the amethyst humming slightly as it stayed perfectly upright despite me taking a step back.
With the staff no longer in my hands, the intensity of the feeling slowly faded until it was barely noticeable. I could still feel it, feel the power that always resided in me flowing, but it was no longer snapping and writhing just under the surface.
"Any idea what that was?" I asked, feeling Kali watching closely and Alya floating at the edge of the ritual platform.
"... It reminded me of when an elemental finds a home that is filled with and aligned their element," She admitted. "They end up in a loop refinement. It feels dramatic at first, but it usually equalizes over time."
"And you think that's what is happening here?"
"No, not exactly," She admitted hesitantly. "You made something that resonates well with you, and it's drawing out your mana, like the mana circulation meditations you used to do before you outgrew them."
I frowned, running through a few diagnostic spells on myself. Most of what I knew about healing spells were about physical injuries, but I did know some that were about checking in on a wizard's mana and a few other more esoteric things. Concrete diagnoses with a simple spell were beyond me, but I could definitely get a sense of my non-physical well-being.
When everything turned up green, I reached out again and took my staff. I could feel my power swelling up, and sure enough, there was a certain amount of mana circulation going around. It felt as if I had been pushing and pulling water that resisted my efforts, but now the staff was causing it to flow more freely, my mana ready to jump to my commands.
After a few more minutes of experimenting, namely by grabbing the staff and letting it go over and over, I decided to not complain too much about making something so powerful that touching it seemed to make me more powerful. After all, neither Kali nor Alya were worried about it, and Kali's understanding of magic was instinctual to a level I couldn't really comprehend. If it was hurting me somehow, she would be able to feel it.
By the time I was satisfied that my new creation wasn't actually hurting me, it was getting pretty late. Unfortunately, I felt absolutely wired, which meant sleeping, at least at the moment, was off the table. However, despite a general lack of tiredness, I was feeling a bit drawn out. I had been working nonstop on my staff for nearly twelve hours, and while the process and results had both been thrilling and exciting, I was now firmly done with work in any form.
"I… feel like going for a walk," I said, holding out my hand and summoning my staff to me, ignoring the now familiar and somehow more manageable sensation. "Anything you want, Kali? I still owe you something for all your hard work."
A feeling of indecisiveness settled over me, and I nodded in understanding, reaching out and patting one of the golem wolves I had made for her. I found that she tended to keep at least one of them at the compound at all times while sending the others running around and exploring.
"It's fine, you just keep thinking about it. Just let me know if you think of anything," I said with a smile. "This isn't a transaction, I want you and Alya to be happy. With all the help you guys give me, it's only fair that I dedicate some time to doing stuff you guys want."
Both of my partners seemed happy with my statement, and after talking about the sort of things I could do for them, I teleported away from the compound, landing on a small part of the Brockton Bay beach. The tide was out at the moment, and with how dark it was, how cold the water was, and how poorly the beaches were maintained at the best of times, it was completely empty. On my left, I could see the Boardwalk in the distance, and on my right, even further than the Boardwalk, I could see one of the city's ferry landing docks.
The most prominent landmark, by far, was the massive oil rig sitting in the farther reaches of the bay. The shield surrounding it glowed slightly, and through it, I could see the rather impressive-looking Protectorate ENE Headquarters. The colors were off due to the glowing shield, but I could see the buildings behind it, as well as the spotlights lighting it all up. I looked out at it for a long while before shaking my head. It was an impressive base, and as much as looking out at it made me want to one-up them, now wasn't the time.
"Alright, I've been wanting to try this since I first went to that scrap yard," I explained to Alya, who I could feel keeping watch, but mostly watching me.
I pulled my spell book from my hip book holster, mentally controlling its pages until I was on the metal control spell. I read it once more before beginning to chant.
"Metallum, sanguis terrae, fundamentum humanitatis, vocationem magicae meae sentio. Te voco, quod moderni mirum est, ut sequaris mandata mea. Egredere, metallo, et finge te in figuram quam cupio."
Just as before, seven connected circles appeared around me, slowly spinning as tendrils began to reach out. However, this time, instead of there only being a few tendrils reaching out to large chunks of metal, several dozens of them reached out across the beach, pushing into the sand. Rather than reducing the metal to a liquid, I simply gave it all a mental pull, the strands slowly pulling out several dozen rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, all of them containing enough gold to register to the spell. I couldn't help but chuckle as it all piled on the floor by my feet. I repeated the process, this time looking for silver, the pile growing to nearly double the size.
"Well damn… that's my gold and silver set for a while," I said to Ayla, who was floating even closer now, having watched my magic. "Even better… I can do this at a few other beaches if I wanted to…Or I could find a sunken treasure ship, assuming I don't go near Leviathan…"
For a moment, I let the ideas spiral into my mind before shaking them away for later. If I ever needed hundreds of pounds of gold, which was absolutely a possibility with how magic worked, I would consider raising a few sunken treasures. Otherwise, beach combing and junkyard visits would have to do for now.
I took a walk along the beach, heading in the direction of the Boardwalk, intent on stepping back up to the usual road when I got closer. I ended up casting the spell a few more times, filling a backpack full of dirty gold and silver jewelry, a good amount of it being unsalvageable in terms of ever being jewelry again. I walked the streets, the few people who were still around giving me looks, though they quickly seemed to recognize me. Despite the time, I was asked for several photos and autographs, which I took with a smile. I knew that, to a picture, my mask would appear to be a simple copper mask, so the pictures weren't a problem.
Eventually, after a short impromptu patrol, I teleported away from the city and back to the compound. I dropped my bag at the edge of one of the storage trees and had a quick conversation with Alya about tomorrow's plans, before heading off to bed. Between the walk, the talking to random people, and the magical beach combing, the wired and energy-filled feeling had long since passed.
The next morning, I woke up early, rolling out of bed and rushing through my morning routine. Crow and I were on patrol for most of the morning, at least until I had to leave to work at the hospital. Once I was ready, I teleported to our meeting place to find Olivia seemingly fast asleep on her usual chair of milk crates.
"Good morning, Crow," I said, standing back a bit in case she woke up with a start.
"Who says?" She asked, barely sifting, turning her head slightly to look at me. "Morning. Mind hitting me with that expresso shot thing you do?"
"Yeah, sure, but I hope you're also getting actual sleep as well. I haven't tested the long-term effects of replacing sleep with magic rejuvenation," I pointed out before quickly waking her up entirely with the flashy spell, feeling the effects roll over me as well. "How is that, better?"
"Yeah, thanks," She said, standing slowly, her cloak shifting into a billowy, star-studded look with black feathers along her shoulders. "So, got some new stuff I see?"
"Yeah, been working up to some new gear," I said with a smirk, tapping my staff once on the ground. "What do you think?"
Not only had I brought my new staff with me, but my four golems had also come along. Troy had stayed behind so I could free up another slot for teleportations since all together with Olivia, the golems, and myself, we were up to six, which was just along the edge of my teleportation abilities.
Crow walked around the golems, leaning forward to inspect them as if she had any knowledge about golem creation. She even gave them a little nudge to test their balance, but the golems weren't affected. When she was satisfied, she nodded as if she had found what she was looking for, before turning back to me and immediately examining my staff.
"It all looks pretty cool, and considering the kind of things you make, I'm sure it's impressive," she said, wincing slightly as she continued. "But… you really need to pick what kind of wizard mage look you're going for."
"What do you mean?" I asked with confusion, looking down at my outfit. "I thought it all looked cool."
"Individually, sure it does, but the staff screams high fantasy wizard," She explains. "The rest of your look is… well, it's kinda like a tired beat cop meets underpaid detective, with a hint mage. I mean, you're wearing a beanie and a circlet, Arc. Kind of sending mixed messages."
I frowned and nodded, unable to really deny her statement. It was unfortunate but honestly unsurprising, considering I had just been throwing stuff together for a while. I wasn't about to take off my costume and drop my staff just cause it didn't all match a theme, but it was good to know. Going forward, I could try and tighten up the theme as best I could, though I would almost always choose function over form.
I did take my beanie off, though, stuffing it into my pocket. It only had a basic protection ritual on it, which was utterly redundant with how many types of protection I had already. Without the beanie, to the outside observer, the only thing on my head was my circlet. That was my mind resiliency and strength circlet, an attempt to make me resistant to mind control, so there was no way that was coming off.
"Better," She said, nodding her head. "Still a bit confused, but at least now you don't look like you're also late for your job unloading cargo at the docks."
I snorted at her sass before checking if she was ready to begin our patrol or if she wanted to spend more time critiquing my outfit. She pretended to debate the question, so I just rolled my eyes and started the teleport spell. It was long enough that if she actually needed some time, she would have plenty of it to stop me.
My partner on patrol said nothing, however, so the spell went through, sending us deep into ABB territory. We appeared, with the usual strange noises, on top of a boarded-up and empty gas station. Once we were confident we were clear, we jumped down to the thankfully empty street. It was still very early, so the usual hustle was completely absent. We walked the area for about an hour, the city slowly waking up as we did. Eventually, I got a message from Lady Photon, causing me to curse under my breath.
"What's wrong?"
"Lady Photon just confirmed they found multiple Merchant tags during their patrol," I said, showing her an image on my phone. "The Merchants are definitely pushing the envelope here… something must be really stirring them up."
"I've been hearing things too," Crow admitted. "The Merchants didn't really qualify as a gang before, more like… a vague grouping of drug distribution lines. Not even the good stuff either, the crap only the desperate would buy. That started to change recently, though, even before we took down Lung and Lee. Skidmark is working to wrangle them together into a gang, holding rallies and block parties, giving out drugs to people who join up."
"How long has this been going on?"
"From what I've heard, a few weeks, not much more than that," She responded, shaking her head. "And what's worse, what better way to stir up a crowd of high, demented drug dealers than by pointing out the nice, shiny territory next door that is mostly defenseless."
"That's what I'm worried about," I agreed, chewing the inside of my lip. "Alright, let's cut down this next road and head to that line between the two territories. With any luck, if something happens, we can stop it before it spirals out of control. I can always teleport us out if something else comes up."
Crow agreed, and together with our cadre of shiny new metal golems, we made our way through ABB territory. Once we arrived, we began our new patrol, walking along the divide between Merchant and ABB. The streets were tense, but there were quite a bit fewer people than what we were used to, enough for it to be noticeable.
"What are the chances it's like this because everyone decided to just take Monday off?" I asked, frowning as we passed another area that would have normally held at least a few people.
"Lower than you want," Crow responded, sounding just as tense as me. "Not to sound cliche, it feels like the calm before the storm. Like everyone knows something that we don't."
"If anyone knows what the gangs are feeling, it's the people who live here," I pointed out. "I'm… I'm going to make a call, tell New Wave to be on standby whenever possible."
"What about when you leave for healing?"
"Well... I'm just a teleport away. How do you feel about finding a shadow somewhere and keeping watch?" I suggested. "I'll pick you up some lunch when I'm done healing and I'll buy dinner if we end up hanging around that late."
"Deal," She said. "For now, let's keep up with the patrol. Maybe we will discourage anyone from doing anything stupid just by hanging around."
"Do you really think that?" I asked with a disbelieving raised eyebrow.
"Fuck no, but I can dream."
- Location
- England
I think you are missing a word, "filled with and aligned to their element"
That seems optimistic, about five times what I would have estimated you'd get. It's obviously not directly comparable, but one guy with a metal detector over one summer might get a couple dozen items of gold jewelry (nearly all rings). Metal detectors don't go very deep, but that's long enough to cover a whole lot of beach.
Last edited:
ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
The hell is she talking about, the magic PI look is perfect.
I'm thinking he looks like a cross between Constantine and Gandalf/Elminster/Dumbledore, and would do well to pick one and stick with it, just for recognition's sake.
Eventually it'll come out that he's not a proper parahuman, and his literal magic abilities don't have a realistic cap to them. At that point, if he looks 'wizard' enough, he won't have to rebrand.
Eventually it'll come out that he's not a proper parahuman, and his literal magic abilities don't have a realistic cap to them. At that point, if he looks 'wizard' enough, he won't have to rebrand.
- Location
- Earth
Y'know, it was mentioned all the way back in ch.2 that Alya benefits a bit from the 'lightning spells' investment because it boosts her 'storm' aspect.
But the MC doesn't even seem to have considered (even just in his head) putting a single point into, say, Wind Spells. To see how much benefit that could give Alya. Or say, a point into 'water spells' or 'cloud spells' if investing into wind spells is redundant/non-helpful for some obscure soul-magic-familiar deep-lore reason.
But the MC doesn't even seem to have considered (even just in his head) putting a single point into, say, Wind Spells. To see how much benefit that could give Alya. Or say, a point into 'water spells' or 'cloud spells' if investing into wind spells is redundant/non-helpful for some obscure soul-magic-familiar deep-lore reason.
Last edited: