Didn't is repeated except without the contraction.
It's been a fun ride, I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
- Start date
It's been a fun ride, I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
Until Arcanum gets something other than electrical spells (or the emoji goes away, or I forget, or....) you're getting lightning bolt likes. Thanks for the update.
Also I wonder how flat-footed Piggot felt when a cape walked in her door being reasonable and not actively trying to make her day worse. Is she kicking herself for not at least trying to recruit him with a soft pitch, or is she still being grumpy about stuff he's not responsible for?
Also I wonder how flat-footed Piggot felt when a cape walked in her door being reasonable and not actively trying to make her day worse. Is she kicking herself for not at least trying to recruit him with a soft pitch, or is she still being grumpy about stuff he's not responsible for?
EnygmaSoul
Company of Negotiable Virtue
- Location
- In your eyes and in your arms and in your head.
I feel this is true of organizations in general, not just governments.
More on topic, the Piggot dialogue was great. I could all of the mental math she was doing on her end, reassessing and recalculating things based on his answers. Very expressive representation of a character who can often feel flat.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
I'm guessing you meant to just say "didn't" or "did not" and typed both?
Also, AAHHHH I wanna see the next chapter!
Chapter Twenty
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The trip back to the shop was thankfully uneventful. Alya kept an eye open for any crimes or accidents as I made my way to the random alley that I used to swap clothes, but once I changed, I was "off the clock." Honestly, it made little difference to me, as I spent most of the time in increasingly deep thought. By the time I was climbing through the shop window, finally back at my temporary home, I was more or less just working through the motions. Thank God for Alya, who had to blow me back on course a handful of times, having to resort to harsher and harsher gusts of wind to get my attention.
My mind was working overtime, just a complete cyclical mess of anxiety about my incoming charges.
"Alya, I need to make a decision," I said, immediately starting to pace around the shop interior after sealing up the window. "I need to make up my mind about what I'm going to use my charges for."
"Why don't you talk it out?" She said, reforming into her physical form before sitting down softly on the couch. "What are your options?"
"Right, yeah… Good idea," I agreed, nodding as I paced. "Well… I'm going to have six points to spend. The plan was to spend a chunk of them on some sort of base-building topic. Magical strongholds or maybe wizard towers… Something like that."
It showed how frazzled I was by my incoming choices that my brain immediately started chasing after the proper name to call what I had planned on unlocking. I wanted something that would provide options for both protection and comfort. Obviously, protection was more important, but I still wanted a nice place to live, with running water and lights, and preferably a real bed. I had been slumming it for so long, and call me selfish but-
"William? I can feel you starting to spiral," Alya said, standing up and taking my hand, gently pulling me to the couch. "Take a deep breath and relax. Even if you can't figure out exactly what to spend your charges on now, they will keep until you can."
I took a deep breath and released it, nodding along with her words. She was right, of course. The worst thing I could do was panic and assign my charges while I was freaking out because I felt like I had to. I took a few more deep, slow breaths before I could finally feel myself calm down.
"Right. You're right," I agreed. "I need to relax."
"Good. Now, you have a plan, so why are you second-guessing yourself?" Alya asked, her cobalt blue hair flowing back as she looked at me.
"Well, I've been holding back from fighting capes because I'm worried I don't have enough power," I explained. "The Empire could easily overwhelm me, and I couldn't go toe to toe with Lung. Pretty sure he can melt real steel, never mind the resilience I get from geomancy."
"What sort of magic would you get in order to make yourself stronger?" Alya asked.
"Well… My first instinct is to double down on lightning," I responded, chewing my lip. "I have a feeling that the spells will start to get more flexible and more interesting at the third level."
"What about geomancy or healing?"
"I'm happy with where Geomancy is right now," I explained. "I'm never going to be a brute force, slug it out kind of fighter. Being able to make myself more durable is great, but I'm not spending three more points to unlock more of that. As for healing… I will probably end up getting more healing spells eventually. But what I have has served me well so far."
"So lightning spells do seem like a solid option," Alya agreed. "So why not put three points into whatever base-building subject you decide on? Then, you can hold on to the three remaining points while you work on your new home. Then, if the first two levels of base building prove to not be enough, you can consider your options, but if it is, then you can put them into lightning spells."
"I… yeah, okay, that's a solid plan…"
"But?" Alya asked, picking up on my indecision.
"But… I'm still worried about investing points into base-building," I admitted, standing up from the couch. I was no longer panicking like I was earlier, but I still liked to pace when I was thinking. "It seems frivolous to spend points on something I might only use a few times, especially when I'm so concerned about fighting the gang capes."
"Think of it this way. Having a safe home will make it easier for you to survive, meaning that you can help more people," The air elemental pointed out, floating up from the couch to stand beside me. "If you get killed in your sleep because someone ambushes you at night, you can't help anyone."
"I thought I had you to keep that from happening?"
"I do, but if today has proven anything," She said, pausing to reach out and touching my back, right where Shadow Stalker had managed to stab me. "It's that we can't trust Parahuman's powers to behave like we assume. Someone might be able to get by me."
I let out a long breath. In all honesty, Shadow Stalker making it through my absorbed resilience was freaking me out more than I was letting on. It was at least partially responsible for my previous rising panic. I knew very well that I was not invincible, especially not from some of the heavy hitters hanging around Brockton Bay. Still, being bullet and stab proof, as well as super strong, had given me some confidence to take on challenges I would have been nervous to approach before. Now, that confidence had been shattered by some stupid kid who could turn into smoke and was weak to electricity.
"Yeah… Having a safe place will make me feel… well, a lot safer," I admitted. "I'm just worried that I'm investing too many points into it and that I won't get enough in return. Three points is not a small investment at this stage, not to mention if I have to spend all six because the first three aren't enough."
"Well… perhaps you are approaching the problem from the wrong angle?" She suggested, not entirely confident in it. "We know being specific about what you want can help make things cheaper. Is there a way you can do that?"
I opened my mouth, for what I don't know, as I immediately realized she was right. Being specific and cutting down a concept to something specific had been the key to getting my lightning and healing spells powerful enough to be useful with only two levels. I had thought that restricting it to the subject of base building would be enough, but with Alya's suggestion, I realized I had more options than that.
"Rituals," I said, looking at Alya with wide-eyed excitement. "I need to learn rituals!"
Technically, I already knew a branch of ritual magic pretty well in the form of geomancy. But the concept of rituals as a whole was massive, beyond anything I had unlocked by a ludicrous degree. Buying rituals as a subject to get access to advanced magic, would be like trying to learn advanced lightning spells by buying repeat charges of the "spells" subject.
That said, it was still exactly what I needed. Rituals were, by definition, complicated and time-consuming, but they were capable of incredibly powerful and detailed results. Where a spell might have one or two actions, a ritual could do dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny little things, all working together to make massive, potent changes. They could do anything from instilling magic into an object to changing the weather.
But again, it was a massive subject. Buying the ritual subject in its entirety would be like trying to fill a five-gallon bucket with a teaspoon.
But I had an idea.
"If I invest points into something like magical strongholds, I'm going to get a whole lot of information about how to make magic buildings, right?" I asked, once again pacing. "But it's going to be from all sorts of different subjects. I might get an alchemical process to transform granite into a nearly indestructible magic rock or an enchantment that tells me who is at the door no matter where I am in the building. But I don't need all of that."
"You need rituals?" She asked, still not understanding what I meant.
"Exactly! But rituals are a massive subject, too big to try and level up in mass," I explained. "So I'm going to cut out a massive portion of the subject, and then invest all six points into it."
"Wait, what happened to lightning spells?" She asked, now thoroughly confused.
"I was holding back those three points because I need to be stronger, but rituals can absolutely do that for me, as long as I can get deep enough into the knowledge," I explained. "The key is cutting out everything that I don't need. When I bought lightning spells, I got a good chunk of knowledge, but it was very lopsided. I have no idea how those spells work other than an understanding of what they do. I couldn't tell you one arcane symbol from another. But what if I flipped it around? Instead of buying a whole list of rituals and only scratching the surface, I invest points into ritual design and crafting?"
"You… you would get all of the building blocks of rituals…" Alya said, her eyes widening as she realized what I was saying. "But because you're not actually getting any of the specific rituals, each point of investment would go much further."
"Exactly! With three levels invested in ritual crafting and design, I should get the knowledge of how to make ritual several degrees more complicated and powerful than I would have if I bought the ritual subject wholesale."
"But, you would have to design everything yourself," She pointed out.
"Maybe, but with the way Marvelous Mage works, that should be much more simple than if I was a mage learning new things," I pointed out, my anxious pacing now turning into excited pacing. "Rather than having a list of symbols that I would have to work out to define, I should just get a download of the information about each aspect, with all the blanks filled. I mean, I don't think I'm going to unlock the entire subject with three charges, but I think I will make enough progress to be useful. And best of all, it's going to be useful in everything, not just for base building. We already know what they are capable of from geomancy, but who knows what else I'll be able to design?"
"If that is what you think is the best path, then very well," Alya said with a smile. "I agree, having the ability to design your own rituals does sound like an incredible boon. Should you consider doing the same for spells?"
"It's certainly an option," I admitted, nodding in agreement. "But I'm wary of having two subjects that require work and training. I guess we will see how this works first."
She nodded, and we continued to discuss the idea, making some tentative plans about what sort of rituals I would be able to design. Despite my excitement, though, there wasn't much we could do until I unlocked the points.
With a new plan set, one I was actually confident in, I started setting up the bed and pulling out the cushions on the sofa. I had six hours before my charges returned, and I wanted to get as much sleep as possible before then since there was absolutely zero chance I would go back to sleep after. Somehow, by some miracle, I managed to fall asleep pretty quickly once I laid down.
When I woke up, I could feel the charges starting to build in my mind. Rather than jump up and panic, I simply rolled over onto my back, letting the slow, trickling energy fill up, slowly counting upward. One, two, three, four, five, and finally, six mental little pips of energy, representing the potential increase of my powers. I could feel that they wanted to be used, wanted me to pick what they would unlock. Rather than give in to the temptation, I ignored them, pushing them down and waiting semi-patiently.
It took a few minutes, just long enough for me to start worrying that it wasn't coming, but the extra subject finally arrived. It started with the same feeling of the points recharging, but rather than the points feeling like potential, they felt like they had already been focused. Once the first charge settled, a deluge of information flooded my mind, all about the lower levels of… Druidcraft?
I barely had enough time to be confused by the name before the second level started to fill, eventually releasing the knowledge when it was complete. The sensation of trickling power faded, leaving me with six unused charges and two new levels.
Slowly, I sifted through the levels of druidcraft, expecting to find information on summoning animals, shapeshifting, or even communicating with nature. Instead, I got magic pertaining to the care and growing of plant life, from daisies and roses to mighty sequoias and just about everything in between. At the lowest level, this magic was used to affect and heal plants, encourage growth, and increase seeding, all on a small scale. Mid-range had more large-scale magic of the same variety, including spells and rituals that would let a whole field grow with minimum water or in weather it normally never could. At the highest level, that I had access to, at least, I could grow and direct the growth of plants and trees on a large scale.
The strangest thing about it was how it was presented. From the name, I expected a touchy, feely, earthy-crunchy type of magic, but instead, it came across as more… industrial. This was magic meant to be applied to harvests and gardens, things meant to produce food for large amounts of people and manipulate tree and plant life in ways that were useful for people, not exactly conducive to mother nature. Some of the spells, if pushed too far, would absolutely kill the plants in exchange for one more bountiful harvest. It was as if someone had taken the name druidcraft and slapped it onto a farmer's grimoire.
After a few minutes of "exploring" my new knowledge, I stumbled on something that I couldn't help but laugh at.
"Well… I guess I know what kind of wizard home I'm going to build." I said after calming down a bit.
"How so?" Alya asked.
"My bonus levels are all about something called druidcraft," I explained. "Basically, a bunch of magic that would make any farmer jealous. But at the very high end, I can do some pretty interesting stuff with trees, like controlling their growth and shaping them into just about anything I want.
"And that means…?"
"It means that we are going to build a treehouse," I explained with another chuckle. "I'm going to make the coolest fucking treehouse anyone has ever seen."
"I... That certainly sounds like an interesting home," She admitted with a smile. "Have you invested your other points yet?"
"No, I wanted to see what the bonus subject was," I explained. "I still don't know how it works."
I closed my eyes and focused on my idea. Rituals, one of several basic forms of magic, was truly a massive subject, one that held untold potential. But I didn't want rituals themselves. I just wanted to know how to make them.
As I focused, I slowly introduced the first charge into the idea. Immediately, it latched on, almost eagerly accepting the concept. The knowledge arrived, like it did every time, in a flood, filling my mind before slowly pulling back to a more stable presence. As I explored my purchase, I couldn't help but laugh again, nearly jumping out of bed to celebrate.
The knowledge I had gained wasn't flashy, that was, until I focused on an idea for a ritual. But, when I imagined the need for a healing ritual, my mind was suddenly filled with options. It was not a wholesale ritual waiting to be copied down on the floor, but instead, everything I needed to know to design a ritual of my own. Several of them, in fact.
I would need to do some work, but I had, at my fingertips, all the parts and knowledge that I needed to get it done. Even more impressive was how the options shifted when I wondered how to make one that was even more powerful. There was a surprising amount of depth to my knowledge, especially considering there was only one charge in it.
It had worked.
All that was left was to invest more charges and see what I got.
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!
The trip back to the shop was thankfully uneventful. Alya kept an eye open for any crimes or accidents as I made my way to the random alley that I used to swap clothes, but once I changed, I was "off the clock." Honestly, it made little difference to me, as I spent most of the time in increasingly deep thought. By the time I was climbing through the shop window, finally back at my temporary home, I was more or less just working through the motions. Thank God for Alya, who had to blow me back on course a handful of times, having to resort to harsher and harsher gusts of wind to get my attention.
My mind was working overtime, just a complete cyclical mess of anxiety about my incoming charges.
"Alya, I need to make a decision," I said, immediately starting to pace around the shop interior after sealing up the window. "I need to make up my mind about what I'm going to use my charges for."
"Why don't you talk it out?" She said, reforming into her physical form before sitting down softly on the couch. "What are your options?"
"Right, yeah… Good idea," I agreed, nodding as I paced. "Well… I'm going to have six points to spend. The plan was to spend a chunk of them on some sort of base-building topic. Magical strongholds or maybe wizard towers… Something like that."
It showed how frazzled I was by my incoming choices that my brain immediately started chasing after the proper name to call what I had planned on unlocking. I wanted something that would provide options for both protection and comfort. Obviously, protection was more important, but I still wanted a nice place to live, with running water and lights, and preferably a real bed. I had been slumming it for so long, and call me selfish but-
"William? I can feel you starting to spiral," Alya said, standing up and taking my hand, gently pulling me to the couch. "Take a deep breath and relax. Even if you can't figure out exactly what to spend your charges on now, they will keep until you can."
I took a deep breath and released it, nodding along with her words. She was right, of course. The worst thing I could do was panic and assign my charges while I was freaking out because I felt like I had to. I took a few more deep, slow breaths before I could finally feel myself calm down.
"Right. You're right," I agreed. "I need to relax."
"Good. Now, you have a plan, so why are you second-guessing yourself?" Alya asked, her cobalt blue hair flowing back as she looked at me.
"Well, I've been holding back from fighting capes because I'm worried I don't have enough power," I explained. "The Empire could easily overwhelm me, and I couldn't go toe to toe with Lung. Pretty sure he can melt real steel, never mind the resilience I get from geomancy."
"What sort of magic would you get in order to make yourself stronger?" Alya asked.
"Well… My first instinct is to double down on lightning," I responded, chewing my lip. "I have a feeling that the spells will start to get more flexible and more interesting at the third level."
"What about geomancy or healing?"
"I'm happy with where Geomancy is right now," I explained. "I'm never going to be a brute force, slug it out kind of fighter. Being able to make myself more durable is great, but I'm not spending three more points to unlock more of that. As for healing… I will probably end up getting more healing spells eventually. But what I have has served me well so far."
"So lightning spells do seem like a solid option," Alya agreed. "So why not put three points into whatever base-building subject you decide on? Then, you can hold on to the three remaining points while you work on your new home. Then, if the first two levels of base building prove to not be enough, you can consider your options, but if it is, then you can put them into lightning spells."
"I… yeah, okay, that's a solid plan…"
"But?" Alya asked, picking up on my indecision.
"But… I'm still worried about investing points into base-building," I admitted, standing up from the couch. I was no longer panicking like I was earlier, but I still liked to pace when I was thinking. "It seems frivolous to spend points on something I might only use a few times, especially when I'm so concerned about fighting the gang capes."
"Think of it this way. Having a safe home will make it easier for you to survive, meaning that you can help more people," The air elemental pointed out, floating up from the couch to stand beside me. "If you get killed in your sleep because someone ambushes you at night, you can't help anyone."
"I thought I had you to keep that from happening?"
"I do, but if today has proven anything," She said, pausing to reach out and touching my back, right where Shadow Stalker had managed to stab me. "It's that we can't trust Parahuman's powers to behave like we assume. Someone might be able to get by me."
I let out a long breath. In all honesty, Shadow Stalker making it through my absorbed resilience was freaking me out more than I was letting on. It was at least partially responsible for my previous rising panic. I knew very well that I was not invincible, especially not from some of the heavy hitters hanging around Brockton Bay. Still, being bullet and stab proof, as well as super strong, had given me some confidence to take on challenges I would have been nervous to approach before. Now, that confidence had been shattered by some stupid kid who could turn into smoke and was weak to electricity.
"Yeah… Having a safe place will make me feel… well, a lot safer," I admitted. "I'm just worried that I'm investing too many points into it and that I won't get enough in return. Three points is not a small investment at this stage, not to mention if I have to spend all six because the first three aren't enough."
"Well… perhaps you are approaching the problem from the wrong angle?" She suggested, not entirely confident in it. "We know being specific about what you want can help make things cheaper. Is there a way you can do that?"
I opened my mouth, for what I don't know, as I immediately realized she was right. Being specific and cutting down a concept to something specific had been the key to getting my lightning and healing spells powerful enough to be useful with only two levels. I had thought that restricting it to the subject of base building would be enough, but with Alya's suggestion, I realized I had more options than that.
"Rituals," I said, looking at Alya with wide-eyed excitement. "I need to learn rituals!"
Technically, I already knew a branch of ritual magic pretty well in the form of geomancy. But the concept of rituals as a whole was massive, beyond anything I had unlocked by a ludicrous degree. Buying rituals as a subject to get access to advanced magic, would be like trying to learn advanced lightning spells by buying repeat charges of the "spells" subject.
That said, it was still exactly what I needed. Rituals were, by definition, complicated and time-consuming, but they were capable of incredibly powerful and detailed results. Where a spell might have one or two actions, a ritual could do dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny little things, all working together to make massive, potent changes. They could do anything from instilling magic into an object to changing the weather.
But again, it was a massive subject. Buying the ritual subject in its entirety would be like trying to fill a five-gallon bucket with a teaspoon.
But I had an idea.
"If I invest points into something like magical strongholds, I'm going to get a whole lot of information about how to make magic buildings, right?" I asked, once again pacing. "But it's going to be from all sorts of different subjects. I might get an alchemical process to transform granite into a nearly indestructible magic rock or an enchantment that tells me who is at the door no matter where I am in the building. But I don't need all of that."
"You need rituals?" She asked, still not understanding what I meant.
"Exactly! But rituals are a massive subject, too big to try and level up in mass," I explained. "So I'm going to cut out a massive portion of the subject, and then invest all six points into it."
"Wait, what happened to lightning spells?" She asked, now thoroughly confused.
"I was holding back those three points because I need to be stronger, but rituals can absolutely do that for me, as long as I can get deep enough into the knowledge," I explained. "The key is cutting out everything that I don't need. When I bought lightning spells, I got a good chunk of knowledge, but it was very lopsided. I have no idea how those spells work other than an understanding of what they do. I couldn't tell you one arcane symbol from another. But what if I flipped it around? Instead of buying a whole list of rituals and only scratching the surface, I invest points into ritual design and crafting?"
"You… you would get all of the building blocks of rituals…" Alya said, her eyes widening as she realized what I was saying. "But because you're not actually getting any of the specific rituals, each point of investment would go much further."
"Exactly! With three levels invested in ritual crafting and design, I should get the knowledge of how to make ritual several degrees more complicated and powerful than I would have if I bought the ritual subject wholesale."
"But, you would have to design everything yourself," She pointed out.
"Maybe, but with the way Marvelous Mage works, that should be much more simple than if I was a mage learning new things," I pointed out, my anxious pacing now turning into excited pacing. "Rather than having a list of symbols that I would have to work out to define, I should just get a download of the information about each aspect, with all the blanks filled. I mean, I don't think I'm going to unlock the entire subject with three charges, but I think I will make enough progress to be useful. And best of all, it's going to be useful in everything, not just for base building. We already know what they are capable of from geomancy, but who knows what else I'll be able to design?"
"If that is what you think is the best path, then very well," Alya said with a smile. "I agree, having the ability to design your own rituals does sound like an incredible boon. Should you consider doing the same for spells?"
"It's certainly an option," I admitted, nodding in agreement. "But I'm wary of having two subjects that require work and training. I guess we will see how this works first."
She nodded, and we continued to discuss the idea, making some tentative plans about what sort of rituals I would be able to design. Despite my excitement, though, there wasn't much we could do until I unlocked the points.
With a new plan set, one I was actually confident in, I started setting up the bed and pulling out the cushions on the sofa. I had six hours before my charges returned, and I wanted to get as much sleep as possible before then since there was absolutely zero chance I would go back to sleep after. Somehow, by some miracle, I managed to fall asleep pretty quickly once I laid down.
When I woke up, I could feel the charges starting to build in my mind. Rather than jump up and panic, I simply rolled over onto my back, letting the slow, trickling energy fill up, slowly counting upward. One, two, three, four, five, and finally, six mental little pips of energy, representing the potential increase of my powers. I could feel that they wanted to be used, wanted me to pick what they would unlock. Rather than give in to the temptation, I ignored them, pushing them down and waiting semi-patiently.
It took a few minutes, just long enough for me to start worrying that it wasn't coming, but the extra subject finally arrived. It started with the same feeling of the points recharging, but rather than the points feeling like potential, they felt like they had already been focused. Once the first charge settled, a deluge of information flooded my mind, all about the lower levels of… Druidcraft?
I barely had enough time to be confused by the name before the second level started to fill, eventually releasing the knowledge when it was complete. The sensation of trickling power faded, leaving me with six unused charges and two new levels.
Slowly, I sifted through the levels of druidcraft, expecting to find information on summoning animals, shapeshifting, or even communicating with nature. Instead, I got magic pertaining to the care and growing of plant life, from daisies and roses to mighty sequoias and just about everything in between. At the lowest level, this magic was used to affect and heal plants, encourage growth, and increase seeding, all on a small scale. Mid-range had more large-scale magic of the same variety, including spells and rituals that would let a whole field grow with minimum water or in weather it normally never could. At the highest level, that I had access to, at least, I could grow and direct the growth of plants and trees on a large scale.
The strangest thing about it was how it was presented. From the name, I expected a touchy, feely, earthy-crunchy type of magic, but instead, it came across as more… industrial. This was magic meant to be applied to harvests and gardens, things meant to produce food for large amounts of people and manipulate tree and plant life in ways that were useful for people, not exactly conducive to mother nature. Some of the spells, if pushed too far, would absolutely kill the plants in exchange for one more bountiful harvest. It was as if someone had taken the name druidcraft and slapped it onto a farmer's grimoire.
After a few minutes of "exploring" my new knowledge, I stumbled on something that I couldn't help but laugh at.
"Well… I guess I know what kind of wizard home I'm going to build." I said after calming down a bit.
"How so?" Alya asked.
"My bonus levels are all about something called druidcraft," I explained. "Basically, a bunch of magic that would make any farmer jealous. But at the very high end, I can do some pretty interesting stuff with trees, like controlling their growth and shaping them into just about anything I want.
"And that means…?"
"It means that we are going to build a treehouse," I explained with another chuckle. "I'm going to make the coolest fucking treehouse anyone has ever seen."
"I... That certainly sounds like an interesting home," She admitted with a smile. "Have you invested your other points yet?"
"No, I wanted to see what the bonus subject was," I explained. "I still don't know how it works."
I closed my eyes and focused on my idea. Rituals, one of several basic forms of magic, was truly a massive subject, one that held untold potential. But I didn't want rituals themselves. I just wanted to know how to make them.
As I focused, I slowly introduced the first charge into the idea. Immediately, it latched on, almost eagerly accepting the concept. The knowledge arrived, like it did every time, in a flood, filling my mind before slowly pulling back to a more stable presence. As I explored my purchase, I couldn't help but laugh again, nearly jumping out of bed to celebrate.
The knowledge I had gained wasn't flashy, that was, until I focused on an idea for a ritual. But, when I imagined the need for a healing ritual, my mind was suddenly filled with options. It was not a wholesale ritual waiting to be copied down on the floor, but instead, everything I needed to know to design a ritual of my own. Several of them, in fact.
I would need to do some work, but I had, at my fingertips, all the parts and knowledge that I needed to get it done. Even more impressive was how the options shifted when I wondered how to make one that was even more powerful. There was a surprising amount of depth to my knowledge, especially considering there was only one charge in it.
It had worked.
All that was left was to invest more charges and see what I got.
First Geomancy, then Druidcraft... Is the planet alive? Could be the Earth itself acting as a benefactor?
Spending points on the fundamentals is a clever twist of his power. It makes sense in hindsight-if you ask it how to heal, it'll give you every word, shape and movement needed to make it happen, without actually providing you why the things it gave you worked. If you ask it for the reverse, you dont get to plagiarise someone elses homework, but you do get the building blocks needed to get the same result, just with your own handiwork. Cool!
Point based systems like Inspired Inventor can often feel a little cheap, in that you end up with inventors who don't actually know a damn thing about engineering or science, they're more or less just being puppeteered by their own powers. Going the route of having the power be more or less a teacher instead is a good route for making the protagonist feel like their feats are a little more earned.
Spending points on the fundamentals is a clever twist of his power. It makes sense in hindsight-if you ask it how to heal, it'll give you every word, shape and movement needed to make it happen, without actually providing you why the things it gave you worked. If you ask it for the reverse, you dont get to plagiarise someone elses homework, but you do get the building blocks needed to get the same result, just with your own handiwork. Cool!
Point based systems like Inspired Inventor can often feel a little cheap, in that you end up with inventors who don't actually know a damn thing about engineering or science, they're more or less just being puppeteered by their own powers. Going the route of having the power be more or less a teacher instead is a good route for making the protagonist feel like their feats are a little more earned.
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Ok ritualistic magic is very versatile and has a broad range but it needs capital. ingredients are probably not cheap and since he got "the idiot guide to" he will definitely make mistakes especially as he doesn't have any of those tinker bullshit hax to help
Wait, so are all rituals druidcraft or is this working off of what he knows of geomancy and thus he has a solid grounding (ba dum tiss) in something that druidcraft gets the most out of for his charges?
Also setting up his own homeless shelter with apples on demand, a roof over your head and surprisingly good medical care could help people get their feet under them. I wonder if he'll try something like that.
Also setting up his own homeless shelter with apples on demand, a roof over your head and surprisingly good medical care could help people get their feet under them. I wonder if he'll try something like that.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Whenever Will gets charges, he gets two bonus charges that are automatically spent on a random category. The category last time was Geomancy. The category this time was Druidcraft.
The charge spent on Rituals was separate, and from his choice of point use.
@MetaBettaOmega, I do think it would be a good idea to have, at some point, an informational threadmark with a list on what charges Will has, what he's spent them on, and how the mechanics of Marvelous Mage works. Just to help combat any confusion that builds up.
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Charge count so far and Marvelous Mage Information
SPOILERS! This information is up to date to the latest chapter! If you aren't up to date, do not read!
A subject is considered full when there is nothing left to learn about the subject, or when any more knowledge about that subject is so far from the original idea, that it should be considered something different. For example, eventually, the subject of lightning magic would start to delve into the knowledge of subatomic particles and their charges, which is really no longer lightning magic.
The MC can be given quests to earn more charges. Not much is known about the quests, as only one has occurred so far. May be on a schedule of once per charge cycle.
With every new cycle, the MC gains something "random." In reality, these subjects are voted on by my patreon members. Every new cycle, I take the winner and second place of the previous vote, as well as two more new subjects for Board Members to vote on. These subjects are specifically chosen to be separate from the general direction that the MC is thinking/headed, to keep things interesting, and to keep him from just mainlining once concept. The special bit about this vote, is that if a new subject is picked, it starts with two levels of knowledge, and if the subject already has levels, it counts as a full level, whether it would have cost three or twenty. Note that the options for the vote will never be subjects the MC chooses to spend charges on, nor things he is considering to spend charges on. (This does not count for subjects he receives at "random" but then chooses to invest in because it's been useful.)
Charges So Far -
Geomancy: [x][x]
Healing Spells: [x][x]
Lightning Spells: [x][x]
PM Enhancement Spells: [x]
Druidcraft: [x][x]
Ritual Design and crafting: [x][x][x]
Healing Spells: [x][x]
Lightning Spells: [x][x]
PM Enhancement Spells: [x]
Druidcraft: [x][x]
Ritual Design and crafting: [x][x][x]
Marvelous Mage Mechanics -
The Marvelous Mage system works similarly to how Inspired Inventor works. For every standardized chunk of time (for this story it is every two weeks) the the MC gets a certain amount of charges, in this case, six. These charges can be spent on magic subjects, like healing spells or lightning spells. The cost of each level is the level itself, meaning level three costs three charges, and level ten costs ten. The higher the level, the deeper and greater the knowledge and understanding of that subject is.Subjects can be concrete, like specific type or variety of spells or more conceptual, like "mana efficiency" or "ritual shorthand". These conceptual subjects will frequently bridge or link to other subjects, and will seem to "grow" as new subjects are learned. Think of these conceptual subjects as a secondary lens to view other subjects through.
A subject is considered full when there is nothing left to learn about the subject, or when any more knowledge about that subject is so far from the original idea, that it should be considered something different. For example, eventually, the subject of lightning magic would start to delve into the knowledge of subatomic particles and their charges, which is really no longer lightning magic.
Addendums or add-ons-
Quests -
The MC can be given quests to earn more charges. Not much is known about the quests, as only one has occurred so far. May be on a schedule of once per charge cycle.
Quests do in fact come in once per cycle, however, how many points the MC receives is dependent on how deeply they decide to delve into the quest. Just barely stopping the event from happening and running away is only worth one, but going in deeper, rooting out issues, and going the extra mile will earn more.
Bonus Variety -
With every new cycle, the MC gains something "random." In reality, these subjects are voted on by my patreon members. Every new cycle, I take the winner and second place of the previous vote, as well as two more new subjects for Board Members to vote on. These subjects are specifically chosen to be separate from the general direction that the MC is thinking/headed, to keep things interesting, and to keep him from just mainlining once concept. The special bit about this vote, is that if a new subject is picked, it starts with two levels of knowledge, and if the subject already has levels, it counts as a full level, whether it would have cost three or twenty. Note that the options for the vote will never be subjects the MC chooses to spend charges on, nor things he is considering to spend charges on. (This does not count for subjects he receives at "random" but then chooses to invest in because it's been useful.)
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- Location
- UK
Some charges into dimensional magic should probably suffice.
He should look into more esoteric magics though. Some conceptual stuff like death magic etc to stand against Endbringers and the like.
- Location
- U.S.
or learn magic to take control of the endbringers?
- Location
- UK
I just can't see MC being comfortable doing so tbh… And never minding what he'd do with them, if he sticks to this world for a while.
KillerFish
Grumpy Owl, Bird Lawyer
Ahh, rituals. Slower, yes, but ultimately more solid and longer lasting.
*Snap* casting is good for battle magic and healing, but rituals are often the bread and butter of a rich mage.
*Snap* casting is good for battle magic and healing, but rituals are often the bread and butter of a rich mage.
- Location
- Louisville KY
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As someone who used to GM WoD and other TTRPGs, rituals is a deep choice but it will be a possibly exorbitantly expensive choice depending on the required material components. I'm hoping that he focuses on rituals to locate things. Then, we can eventually witness him realizing the power of the 'scry and die' combination.
Without knowing what form of exponential growth is obtained by gaining a level (we don't have any documentation listing what all 6 points would give in such a broad topic as rituals), it's all conjecture. MC needs to keep his head down for a couple of months to build up charges and start looking into subclassing his points so that he can min-max what he can do.
For example, he has lightening, geomancy, healing, druidcraft, healing and rituals. There are several combinations that our guy can do if he combines things. Lightening is really a form of electricity and our bodies require electricity to literally live. If he twists his healing into manipulation of bodily processes, he could conceivably cast a spell to remove all electrical current from a person's body which would be very terminal to the recipient. Scry the location to some random group that has a bounty on their head and pop them. Alan Gramme would likely be the simplest target.
Of course if he did this and let others know so as to collect the bounty, it would place a big bullseye on his back by the big players so he could do it and attempt to remain anonymous so again leaning into rituals would help there but again, we run into the problem of material components for his rituals... lol, he's going to be running into the Tinker cycle of needing materials so in this series of events, he's going to be needing to find funding.
Wouldn't it be a kick if he joined Toybox or the Elite to gain what he needs? Of course, I honestly don't remember what if anything he knows about Bet so there are other avenues that he could explore to gain resources. Safest thing that he could do is try and remain street level for as long as he can while he invests charges.
Without knowing what form of exponential growth is obtained by gaining a level (we don't have any documentation listing what all 6 points would give in such a broad topic as rituals), it's all conjecture. MC needs to keep his head down for a couple of months to build up charges and start looking into subclassing his points so that he can min-max what he can do.
For example, he has lightening, geomancy, healing, druidcraft, healing and rituals. There are several combinations that our guy can do if he combines things. Lightening is really a form of electricity and our bodies require electricity to literally live. If he twists his healing into manipulation of bodily processes, he could conceivably cast a spell to remove all electrical current from a person's body which would be very terminal to the recipient. Scry the location to some random group that has a bounty on their head and pop them. Alan Gramme would likely be the simplest target.
Of course if he did this and let others know so as to collect the bounty, it would place a big bullseye on his back by the big players so he could do it and attempt to remain anonymous so again leaning into rituals would help there but again, we run into the problem of material components for his rituals... lol, he's going to be running into the Tinker cycle of needing materials so in this series of events, he's going to be needing to find funding.
Wouldn't it be a kick if he joined Toybox or the Elite to gain what he needs? Of course, I honestly don't remember what if anything he knows about Bet so there are other avenues that he could explore to gain resources. Safest thing that he could do is try and remain street level for as long as he can while he invests charges.
Rituals are a good choice.
Now he just needs to specify what kind of ritual crafting he wants...
so housing creation and protection ritual crafting.(Excessively specific)
Power of the self increasing ritual crafting.(Again. more words and more specificity.)
superrrrrr.
then we god... self designed Ritual requirement reduction
thats 3 points for epic powwerrr
Now he just needs to specify what kind of ritual crafting he wants...
so housing creation and protection ritual crafting.(Excessively specific)
Power of the self increasing ritual crafting.(Again. more words and more specificity.)
superrrrrr.
then we god... self designed Ritual requirement reduction
thats 3 points for epic powwerrr
I'm not sure if I am interpreting this right. It sounds like when he asked for lightning magic and healing magic he got a bunch of spells he can cast, but very little actual knowledge of how they work. This feels like a pretty artificial and forced division. I guess if he specifically asked for spells, it would make sense, but lightning or healing magic in general should include a fair bit of theory in addition to the spells. Maybe not spell design level, but some info on how they work and why they work. I mean this is loosely based on inspired inventor, which is all about knowledge. I know the connection isn't that close, but forcing him to specifically ask for knowledge rather then just spells feels forced.
I know that for rituals he was trying to get more for his points by focusing on design, and maybe I misunderstood what you were implying about his other points. If so, all good.
I know that for rituals he was trying to get more for his points by focusing on design, and maybe I misunderstood what you were implying about his other points. If so, all good.
Chapter Twenty One
I took my time investing my points, each added level resulting in a rush of new knowledge washing over me. It was an incredible sensation, to feel my skill advancing, to suddenly have access to so many more tools and concepts. The magic behind rituals was fascinating, and I was chomping at the bit to test it out.
Not long after dropping my last three charges into the third level of ritual, I left the shop at a quick walk. It wasn't even one AM, but this Earth had its own version of chain, one-stop-shop stores like CVS and Walgreens. With any luck, they would have what I needed. Rituals were a magic of materials and design, which meant I couldn't just jump in. I needed to buy a few things first, then spend some time preparing.
As I walked with purpose, my brain was still alight, examining all of the knowledge I had gained.
The first thing I realized was that I hadn't been entirely correct in thinking that rituals could be used to create complicated things. The process of designing and creating a ritual was complicated, though I had a significant leg up with all of the knowledge that had just been downloaded into my brain. Despite their complicated nature, they were almost always dedicated to creating singular effects or phenomena. I could create a ritual to enhance a shield's ability to withstand attacks, but it would be nearly impossible to create one to allow that same shield to react to different types of attacks in different ways. That was the work of enchantment.
That isn't to say that it was impossible, just that it was very difficult and would likely result in a hilariously expensive and complicated ritual circle, to the point of being completely unfeasible.
There was a lot of overlap between rituals and enchantment, at least in physical objects, with each side having things it could and couldn't do, as well as pros and cons and strong and weak points.
That said, the width and breadth of what rituals were capable of was staggering. With every idea that popped into my head, I could see some way to achieve the concept. Some of the results wouldn't even be close to feasible since creating boots that would blast me in one singular direction with enough force to fling me through the air was not actually flying, but still.
The second thing I realized is that despite having a clearly wide spread of knowledge, I did not gain everything connected to rituals. There were several spots I could "see" that were clearly missing continuations, almost as if the subject stopped dead in its tracts. I would have assumed this was knowledge I just didn't have access to for this level, except that geomancy fit rather neatly at a space quite similar to suddenly cut subjects.
It took me a minute to realize that these spots were sections of ritual magic that were either so specific or had shifted and evolved so much that they weren't considered to fall under the broad title of rituals. Like geomancy, these would likely be ritual adjacent but still clearly be their own things. I had some loose sense of what some of them could do, like Chimerization, which was basically like geomancy but with animal parts.
Yeah, I was glad I got geomancy.
When I finally arrived at the store, I made my way back to the office and school supplies section. I filled a shopping basket with graph paper notebooks, a calculator, pencils, a whiteboard, dry-erase markers, highlighters, a protractor, a compass, and several boxes of simple white chalk. I grabbed some breakfast as well, but it wasn't anything exciting. When I paid for everything, I immediately headed back to the shop, relying on Alya to get me back safely.
When I finally arrived back at my temporary home, I immediately got to work. There were so many things that I wanted to make, but I decided my first creation would be a bit of a test. The urge to start big was strong, especially since my understanding of ritual crafting meant I could have puzzled out some incredibly impressive rituals in essentially the same time it took to design something on the simpler side.
Designing a ritual was an interesting process. There was a disturbing amount of math involved, though the subject wasn't nearly as scary as it used to be. I was pretty sure I now had what was a college level of mathematics in my head, though it obviously didn't really apply to any equivalent fields. Building the ritual itself was like a combination of solving a complicated equation, balancing a geometric proof, and discerning a difficult logic puzzle, all of which were interconnected and, therefore, had a tendency to shift and move as you tried to solve different aspects. Altering one angle would change the value of a separate variable, requiring a new solution to a later logic loop, which in turn affected the original required angle.
There were also rules that affected the ritual's effectiveness. For one, sacrificing materials was a core part of ritual magic. I could do a frankly ridiculous amount of things with nothing but some treated chalk and a flat surface, but most of that would be low-level, and frequently it wouldn't be permanent, either.
Not only that, but as a general rule, the more simple a ritual was, the less powerful, potent, or specific it was. With several lines, some circles, and less than two dozen arcane symbols, I could create a bowl that would heat its contents. It would work, but it would only have one setting, and would require me to constantly feed it energy, which it would burn through ridiculously fast. With a hundred symbols, fifteen layers of circles, and hundreds of lines, I could create a bowl that would heat its contents, use ambient magic, the bowl itself wouldn't heat up, and it could just kind of tell how hot its contents needed to be.
The first ritual I would need to complete was actually one of a handful of complete rituals I had gained from the three levels of ritual design and crafting. The purified, treated chalk that was required for a significant portion of rituals was apparently considered part of the ritual crafting portion, meaning I got its creation ritual circle in full.
I took some of the spare slate from the tiles I had bought for the upgraded geomancy partional and laid it out on one of the still-standing shop counters. I then used a rather gnarly spell to cut a slit into my pointer finger and create a sort of magical, glowing fountain pen, formed around the newly cut hole. I spent about an hour setting up the small, basic ritual, finishing the process by carefully laying a dozen sticks of chalk into the center focus circle. There were several different chalk creation rituals bouncing around in my head, all of them with various levels of complexity and intent, but this was the most basic.
"Alright… You watching Alya?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the small, blood-red ritual circle.
"I am," She responded, sounding confused. "Why are you so excited? Your geomancy rituals are much more complicated than this."
"Yeah, but this is step one," I explained. "When it's done, I'll be able to do all sorts of rituals."
"After you design them."
"Really?" I asked, standing up straight and looking around. "This is groundbreaking stuff, Alya. Magic of a new type, something fundamental. Don't harsh the vibe, dude."
I could actually feel her internal eye roll through our connection, and I couldn't help but snicker to myself as I turned back to focus on the ritual. I gave it one last check before reaching out with a singular finger, touching a specifically designed line of blood. I pushed my magic out of my finger and into the line, the ritual eagerly drinking my magic. After a moment of feeding the spell, it flashed, a dull red glow flaring up from the arcane symbols. The blood I used to write out the ritual burned away in a blink, leaving behind black soot that I would have to wipe away.
In the center of the ritual, sitting in the focus circle, were twelve purified sticks of chalk. I knew that several aspects of their makeup had changed, but the only visual cue that something had happened was that they were all now a pastel red rather than pure white. I clapped and pumped my fist, celebrating the successful ritual. I took the chalk, slid it back into the box I had taken it from, and took out the next twelve, repeating the ritual after wiping the slate down. Now, I had a full box of twenty-four purified chalk pieces.
With the most basic ritual ingredients complete, I grabbed the bag of stuff I bought from the store and sat down on the couch. Now that I had chalk, it was time to start designing my first ritual.
Again, I could have gone big and made my first custom ritual something crazy, but I thought it would be best to start small, something basic and easy to recover from if something went wrong. That said, I still wanted my first creation to be something useful, so I set out to find a middle ground and make something appropriate.
A wizard's staff.
It was more than a bit cliche, but then again, everyone clearly thought I was already leaning into the "my powers are magic" shtick anyway, so what was a bit more lean?
The first part of the project would be the main staff, which I would ritualize to infuse with lightning elementalism. Depending on how complex and potent I was willing to push the ritual, it could have a pretty solid increase to my casting power. Not all spells would work with it, but those that did would be much more potent. The second part would be a crystal of some sort, one that I would ritualize to contain a single spell, which I would have to charge it with. Depending on what I stored inside the crystal, it could really up my on-demand power.
I would probably end up shoving the most powerful lightning spell I had inside it, since it took too long to use in most combat scenarios.
The staff part was easy, as I could grow it from just about any tree, though I hoped to use a spell from my druidcraft to locate a particularly old or magical tree if such a thing existed in this world. The crystal didn't necessarily need to be anything specific, but it needed to be the size of my fist at least, so I thought my best bet would be to call around places selling interior decor. All I needed was a big chunk of quartz or something, the most important part being that it contained a crystalline structure of some sort.
Hell, with a little research, I could probably set up a ritual to make a giant salt crystal. A natural source would be better, but beggars can't be choosers.
I spent the rest of the night and the first handful of hours of the morning working on the two separate rituals, managing to finish them both by nine o'clock. After that, I did my normal morning routine, including a steel absorption. All the while, ideas for my eventual new home danced around in my head. Of course, a project like a wizard stronghold was likely to be a work in progress for many years.
When I was ready for the day, I headed off for the nearest forested area. Brockton Bay was a decent-sized city, smaller than Boston, but only by about twenty percent. What it did have going for it, beyond its expanding harvest of parahumans, was a surprisingly large forested area around its outskirts. It was some sort of government-backed preservation or conservation area, a remarkably large swath of land without anything but a few hiking trails running through it. This area continued right up to and around the mountains responsible for the Bay's abnormally temperate winters, at least for its location.
It took me half an hour to walk to the outer limits of the city, which was where I quickly changed into my costume. While I didn't like the idea of showing off my interest in the area at all, I would be using magic in the open, so I needed to wear the costume, just in case.
Once I was changed, I walked into the forest, ignoring the trails completely. Alya could guide me back if I got really lost, and there was very little chance I would be able to find what I was looking for along one of the many trails.
Once I was a good way into the trees, I cast my first spell from the druidcraft subject. It was designed to locate powerful trees and plants, most likely for harvest if the theme of the subject held true. It was a simple spell, not surprising considering it had no control scheme, no discrepancy adjustment, and no way to control its selection. You just cast it, and it points you to magical plants.
Considering my assumption that magic didn't exist in this world save for me, I was suitably surprised when the spell latched on to something immediately. I quickly oriented myself before taking off at a run, the spell guiding me deeper and deeper into the forest.
After a good twenty-minute run, using the marathon spell to keep me going, I arrived at a small clearing, at the center of which was a truly massive yew tree. With how large it was, it had to be ancient, and considering yew trees could live up to three thousand years, that was saying something. I also realized that I had gotten a bit more than just magic from my levels in druidcraft.
I approached the tree slowly, running my hand over its flakey, peeling bark. It was far from what I would call a beautiful tree, with moss growing on its branches and trunk showing its age. Still, you could practically feel its age as you stood next to it.
Rather than force it to grow a whole new branch, putting a lot of strain on the tree in the process, I used my enhanced strength to climb up the trunk. When I reached the first branch of appropriate length, I put my hand at the base, my fingers splayed wide.
"Parere voluntatem meam, et incrementum ac figuram huius plantae mutare," I intoned, magic flowing through me.
Between each of my fingers, arcane symbols appeared, flaring with green energy. A second set of symbols appeared ahead of them before both sets sank into the tree, disappearing into the living wood. The tree seemed to shudder as I could suddenly feel my will cut into the wood. After a moment, I let out a breath, my eyes closed, forming what I wanted on feel alone. When I opened my eyes, I was holding a smooth, almost polished staff, two meters long. I had smoothed the branch out everywhere but its grip, growing a gnarled cup where I could place the gem. Until I was ready, I would need to keep the branch alive with magic so I could seal the crystal cage shut when I was done.
With a final mental command, I cut the branch from the trunk of the tree before I quickly jumped down. There, I spent another minute examining the fruits of my labor.
"What do you think?" I say, asking Alya. "Not bad, right?"
"It is more than adequate," She commented. "Congratulations."
"Thanks..." I said, looking around now that my forest task was complete. "Let's head back, I still need to find a crystal."
Not long after dropping my last three charges into the third level of ritual, I left the shop at a quick walk. It wasn't even one AM, but this Earth had its own version of chain, one-stop-shop stores like CVS and Walgreens. With any luck, they would have what I needed. Rituals were a magic of materials and design, which meant I couldn't just jump in. I needed to buy a few things first, then spend some time preparing.
As I walked with purpose, my brain was still alight, examining all of the knowledge I had gained.
The first thing I realized was that I hadn't been entirely correct in thinking that rituals could be used to create complicated things. The process of designing and creating a ritual was complicated, though I had a significant leg up with all of the knowledge that had just been downloaded into my brain. Despite their complicated nature, they were almost always dedicated to creating singular effects or phenomena. I could create a ritual to enhance a shield's ability to withstand attacks, but it would be nearly impossible to create one to allow that same shield to react to different types of attacks in different ways. That was the work of enchantment.
That isn't to say that it was impossible, just that it was very difficult and would likely result in a hilariously expensive and complicated ritual circle, to the point of being completely unfeasible.
There was a lot of overlap between rituals and enchantment, at least in physical objects, with each side having things it could and couldn't do, as well as pros and cons and strong and weak points.
That said, the width and breadth of what rituals were capable of was staggering. With every idea that popped into my head, I could see some way to achieve the concept. Some of the results wouldn't even be close to feasible since creating boots that would blast me in one singular direction with enough force to fling me through the air was not actually flying, but still.
The second thing I realized is that despite having a clearly wide spread of knowledge, I did not gain everything connected to rituals. There were several spots I could "see" that were clearly missing continuations, almost as if the subject stopped dead in its tracts. I would have assumed this was knowledge I just didn't have access to for this level, except that geomancy fit rather neatly at a space quite similar to suddenly cut subjects.
It took me a minute to realize that these spots were sections of ritual magic that were either so specific or had shifted and evolved so much that they weren't considered to fall under the broad title of rituals. Like geomancy, these would likely be ritual adjacent but still clearly be their own things. I had some loose sense of what some of them could do, like Chimerization, which was basically like geomancy but with animal parts.
Yeah, I was glad I got geomancy.
When I finally arrived at the store, I made my way back to the office and school supplies section. I filled a shopping basket with graph paper notebooks, a calculator, pencils, a whiteboard, dry-erase markers, highlighters, a protractor, a compass, and several boxes of simple white chalk. I grabbed some breakfast as well, but it wasn't anything exciting. When I paid for everything, I immediately headed back to the shop, relying on Alya to get me back safely.
When I finally arrived back at my temporary home, I immediately got to work. There were so many things that I wanted to make, but I decided my first creation would be a bit of a test. The urge to start big was strong, especially since my understanding of ritual crafting meant I could have puzzled out some incredibly impressive rituals in essentially the same time it took to design something on the simpler side.
Designing a ritual was an interesting process. There was a disturbing amount of math involved, though the subject wasn't nearly as scary as it used to be. I was pretty sure I now had what was a college level of mathematics in my head, though it obviously didn't really apply to any equivalent fields. Building the ritual itself was like a combination of solving a complicated equation, balancing a geometric proof, and discerning a difficult logic puzzle, all of which were interconnected and, therefore, had a tendency to shift and move as you tried to solve different aspects. Altering one angle would change the value of a separate variable, requiring a new solution to a later logic loop, which in turn affected the original required angle.
There were also rules that affected the ritual's effectiveness. For one, sacrificing materials was a core part of ritual magic. I could do a frankly ridiculous amount of things with nothing but some treated chalk and a flat surface, but most of that would be low-level, and frequently it wouldn't be permanent, either.
Not only that, but as a general rule, the more simple a ritual was, the less powerful, potent, or specific it was. With several lines, some circles, and less than two dozen arcane symbols, I could create a bowl that would heat its contents. It would work, but it would only have one setting, and would require me to constantly feed it energy, which it would burn through ridiculously fast. With a hundred symbols, fifteen layers of circles, and hundreds of lines, I could create a bowl that would heat its contents, use ambient magic, the bowl itself wouldn't heat up, and it could just kind of tell how hot its contents needed to be.
The first ritual I would need to complete was actually one of a handful of complete rituals I had gained from the three levels of ritual design and crafting. The purified, treated chalk that was required for a significant portion of rituals was apparently considered part of the ritual crafting portion, meaning I got its creation ritual circle in full.
I took some of the spare slate from the tiles I had bought for the upgraded geomancy partional and laid it out on one of the still-standing shop counters. I then used a rather gnarly spell to cut a slit into my pointer finger and create a sort of magical, glowing fountain pen, formed around the newly cut hole. I spent about an hour setting up the small, basic ritual, finishing the process by carefully laying a dozen sticks of chalk into the center focus circle. There were several different chalk creation rituals bouncing around in my head, all of them with various levels of complexity and intent, but this was the most basic.
"Alright… You watching Alya?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the small, blood-red ritual circle.
"I am," She responded, sounding confused. "Why are you so excited? Your geomancy rituals are much more complicated than this."
"Yeah, but this is step one," I explained. "When it's done, I'll be able to do all sorts of rituals."
"After you design them."
"Really?" I asked, standing up straight and looking around. "This is groundbreaking stuff, Alya. Magic of a new type, something fundamental. Don't harsh the vibe, dude."
I could actually feel her internal eye roll through our connection, and I couldn't help but snicker to myself as I turned back to focus on the ritual. I gave it one last check before reaching out with a singular finger, touching a specifically designed line of blood. I pushed my magic out of my finger and into the line, the ritual eagerly drinking my magic. After a moment of feeding the spell, it flashed, a dull red glow flaring up from the arcane symbols. The blood I used to write out the ritual burned away in a blink, leaving behind black soot that I would have to wipe away.
In the center of the ritual, sitting in the focus circle, were twelve purified sticks of chalk. I knew that several aspects of their makeup had changed, but the only visual cue that something had happened was that they were all now a pastel red rather than pure white. I clapped and pumped my fist, celebrating the successful ritual. I took the chalk, slid it back into the box I had taken it from, and took out the next twelve, repeating the ritual after wiping the slate down. Now, I had a full box of twenty-four purified chalk pieces.
With the most basic ritual ingredients complete, I grabbed the bag of stuff I bought from the store and sat down on the couch. Now that I had chalk, it was time to start designing my first ritual.
Again, I could have gone big and made my first custom ritual something crazy, but I thought it would be best to start small, something basic and easy to recover from if something went wrong. That said, I still wanted my first creation to be something useful, so I set out to find a middle ground and make something appropriate.
A wizard's staff.
It was more than a bit cliche, but then again, everyone clearly thought I was already leaning into the "my powers are magic" shtick anyway, so what was a bit more lean?
The first part of the project would be the main staff, which I would ritualize to infuse with lightning elementalism. Depending on how complex and potent I was willing to push the ritual, it could have a pretty solid increase to my casting power. Not all spells would work with it, but those that did would be much more potent. The second part would be a crystal of some sort, one that I would ritualize to contain a single spell, which I would have to charge it with. Depending on what I stored inside the crystal, it could really up my on-demand power.
I would probably end up shoving the most powerful lightning spell I had inside it, since it took too long to use in most combat scenarios.
The staff part was easy, as I could grow it from just about any tree, though I hoped to use a spell from my druidcraft to locate a particularly old or magical tree if such a thing existed in this world. The crystal didn't necessarily need to be anything specific, but it needed to be the size of my fist at least, so I thought my best bet would be to call around places selling interior decor. All I needed was a big chunk of quartz or something, the most important part being that it contained a crystalline structure of some sort.
Hell, with a little research, I could probably set up a ritual to make a giant salt crystal. A natural source would be better, but beggars can't be choosers.
I spent the rest of the night and the first handful of hours of the morning working on the two separate rituals, managing to finish them both by nine o'clock. After that, I did my normal morning routine, including a steel absorption. All the while, ideas for my eventual new home danced around in my head. Of course, a project like a wizard stronghold was likely to be a work in progress for many years.
When I was ready for the day, I headed off for the nearest forested area. Brockton Bay was a decent-sized city, smaller than Boston, but only by about twenty percent. What it did have going for it, beyond its expanding harvest of parahumans, was a surprisingly large forested area around its outskirts. It was some sort of government-backed preservation or conservation area, a remarkably large swath of land without anything but a few hiking trails running through it. This area continued right up to and around the mountains responsible for the Bay's abnormally temperate winters, at least for its location.
It took me half an hour to walk to the outer limits of the city, which was where I quickly changed into my costume. While I didn't like the idea of showing off my interest in the area at all, I would be using magic in the open, so I needed to wear the costume, just in case.
Once I was changed, I walked into the forest, ignoring the trails completely. Alya could guide me back if I got really lost, and there was very little chance I would be able to find what I was looking for along one of the many trails.
Once I was a good way into the trees, I cast my first spell from the druidcraft subject. It was designed to locate powerful trees and plants, most likely for harvest if the theme of the subject held true. It was a simple spell, not surprising considering it had no control scheme, no discrepancy adjustment, and no way to control its selection. You just cast it, and it points you to magical plants.
Considering my assumption that magic didn't exist in this world save for me, I was suitably surprised when the spell latched on to something immediately. I quickly oriented myself before taking off at a run, the spell guiding me deeper and deeper into the forest.
After a good twenty-minute run, using the marathon spell to keep me going, I arrived at a small clearing, at the center of which was a truly massive yew tree. With how large it was, it had to be ancient, and considering yew trees could live up to three thousand years, that was saying something. I also realized that I had gotten a bit more than just magic from my levels in druidcraft.
I approached the tree slowly, running my hand over its flakey, peeling bark. It was far from what I would call a beautiful tree, with moss growing on its branches and trunk showing its age. Still, you could practically feel its age as you stood next to it.
Rather than force it to grow a whole new branch, putting a lot of strain on the tree in the process, I used my enhanced strength to climb up the trunk. When I reached the first branch of appropriate length, I put my hand at the base, my fingers splayed wide.
"Parere voluntatem meam, et incrementum ac figuram huius plantae mutare," I intoned, magic flowing through me.
Between each of my fingers, arcane symbols appeared, flaring with green energy. A second set of symbols appeared ahead of them before both sets sank into the tree, disappearing into the living wood. The tree seemed to shudder as I could suddenly feel my will cut into the wood. After a moment, I let out a breath, my eyes closed, forming what I wanted on feel alone. When I opened my eyes, I was holding a smooth, almost polished staff, two meters long. I had smoothed the branch out everywhere but its grip, growing a gnarled cup where I could place the gem. Until I was ready, I would need to keep the branch alive with magic so I could seal the crystal cage shut when I was done.
With a final mental command, I cut the branch from the trunk of the tree before I quickly jumped down. There, I spent another minute examining the fruits of my labor.
"What do you think?" I say, asking Alya. "Not bad, right?"
"It is more than adequate," She commented. "Congratulations."
"Thanks..." I said, looking around now that my forest task was complete. "Let's head back, I still need to find a crystal."
- Location
- Elsewhere
You mean you don't want to be a cat-boy?
Just imagine the fluffy tail!
This commute is going to be a pain.
Every time you have to go have a superbattle, it's like an hour hike!
And good luck with groceries...