The Wondrous Weaving of Wizardry
- Thread starter Witherbrine26
- Start date
Chapter 8
The Empire would be on a rampage, and I could assume that the PRT would be in upheaval for the next few months as they had to move people around the country as everybody was outed. I had a small part in this, so I had to try to help.
The issue was that while I could fight well and my White Magic would pass through most defenses to hit the SOUL, people like Kaiser could raise walls to block them, and Purity would fly and blast me with her beams. I had to choose who I would go after. As I was debating, I felt my Grimoire's energy build up before settling down again.
I did have another option; however, if I could get near Purity, I could pull her into Castle Burnestud. That would enhance my powers nearly fivefold as opposed to the two-fold the current Waning Crescent gave me.
Wincing as another building collapsed, I teleported to a roof nearby and saw Purity and another figure glowing, much less dancing around each other in the sky. However, it was clear that Purity was winning.
While Purity had dodged around the other figure's blast, she was much faster, and her shots would take down buildings, forcing the other person to stay away from facilities boxing him in. Looking at a building near her, I appeared on the rooftop before teleporting next to Purity.
Her eyes widened in shock as I pulled both of us into Castle Brunestud. The full moon beamed down on us. I teleported back a dozen feet and raised my hands as words were pulled into reality. I had meant to summon half a dozen; over thirty had appeared.
Purity shot up in the air glowing as the words shot towards her. As she weaved around the projectiles, light gathered in her hands as a massive double helix laser slammed into the ground I had been standing on just a few seconds earlier.
"What did you do to me!" She shouted in the lull between shots. Spreading my arms out, she could hear a smile in my voice as I replied.
"I brought you to where the Earth and Moon are closest, Castle Burnestud!" Snarling, more energy coalesced in her hand as another beam hit the ground near me, sending dirt and grass flying as I took a teleporting step to avoid the blast.
Reaching out a hand, I spread her timeline out, and she was now moving in slow motion. I then teleported up to her and conjured a platform under my feet, something that would have been impossible were I not being bosted fivefold by the light of the full moon.
Peering into her eyes unhindered by the light that formed her costume, I spoke a single word that sent her plummeting to the ground asleep. Another platform carried her to the floor. With a wave of my hand, the realm fixed itself as the spirit that inhabited the Castle walked out.
"So, what do you plan on doing with her?" It inquired
"The right thing would be handing her over to the PRT" My voice was hesitant as I remembered what she could and had done, an entire apartment building crashing to the ground, hundreds dead, fleeing the Empire only to come back when it was convenient for her, and claiming to be better but still attacking "lesser" races instead of trying to atone for her crimes.
"You could leave her here" The spirit that looked like me purred as it walked over the asleep form of Purity.
"What would you do with her?" I asked, still torn.
"I would have her repay her debt to society, and without the issues that would be people finding out about your warehouse, to add on top of that, I'll give you a small boost." Looking at Purity's form, I knew I should hand her over to the authorities; however, if I did, she would be out by the end of the week.
"All right, take her," I said, the barest flickers of tension creeping out. Pumping its fist, the spirit flicked a finger, and a platform scooped her up and carried her inside the house.
I then collapsed Castle Burnestud before teleporting back to the rooftop where I had staged my attack. Peering towards the man dressed in what appeared to be spartan armor and a crackling lance, I vanished and appeared back in my lab.
Catching myself as I fell a few feet, I felt the ruby's effects kick in now that I was back in this dimension. That pointed out a weakness; if I was not on Earth Bet, the gem couldn't transport mana. While I could fix that later the current issue of the Empire rampaging needed to be fixed.
Purity was out, and I was more powerfully than ever with the moon's boost, and being able to slowly refill my mana a practically infinite number of times meant that as long as I had a few minutes to rest, I could get back in the fight.
As long as the Empire had a figurehead to rally around, they would be unstable, which meant I needed to take out the Kaiser.
I focused on Max Anders, Kaiser, and Kinslayer and every facet I knew about the man I teleported. Appearing in a modern art warzone where spikes of metal were everywhere, Armsmaster pushed back Kaiser while Miss Militia and Battery were facing off against the two valkyrie twins.
Taking a step back, I dodged out of the way of Krieg slamming Assult into a lamp pole behind me.
I raised a hand and sent out a flurry of words that Krieg dodged between the simple pattern. I couldn't see his eyes, and my voice would be lost between the clashing of forces, so I grit my teeth and send out another onslaught.
Not bothering with words, he charged toward me. I could feel when I entered his power's range as I slowed down as if pushing through water.
I breathed out blue and saw time freeze near me; I sent out another barrage that slammed into Krieg with no way for him to avoid it. Dropping it before the strain grew too much to handle, I cast my green flaming eyes around to take in the battlefield.
With the help of Alabaster, Kaiser had taken out Armsmaster, lying on the ground, blood pooling out from his armor. Charging toward both of them, I sent out a volley of white magic, which Kaiser raised a shield out of the concrete in front of him, causing the words to shatter harmlessly.
Alabaster raised a massive gun to his shoulder and fired a shot, not even bothering to dodge; the weapon slammed into his shoulder with crack, followed shortly by the words which caused him to collapse.
The bullet slammed into my sternum, causing it to dust along with my ribs and most of my hip bone. My body hit the ground as I grabbed a health potion and downed it. I then stood up on my newly healed bones and focused behind the shield Kaiser had conjured, appearing next to him.
I caught a glance of his brilliant blue eyes filled with rage, speaking for the first time since the start of the fight I spoke in german.
"Sleep!"
Kaiser froze as his mind struggled against the command before he fell to with a clang, and his power's faint grinding sound faded.
Peering around the metallic barrier, I caught sight of the winding down fight. I sent a dozen words at the valkyrie twins, hitting them in the back and causing them to stumble, which allowed Battery, crackling with electricity, to slam into the one on the right and knock her unconscious.
The other swung her spear, hitting Battery in the side and sending her flying a few dozen feet, where she stumbled to her feet. Miss Militia fired off a few dozen shots from her shimmering gun, which knocked the valkyrie back.
Utilizing the opportunity, I sent a flurry of words that shattered on her back; she then shrank and fell forward unmoving. Vanishing, I appeared in an alleyway nearby before teleporting back to my lab.
Breathing hard, I shucked off my shirt and hoodie and patted myself. I was fine; despite being blown nearly in half, a swig of the healing potion worked as advertised, healing me of a mortal wound which meant as a Monster, it regenerated the missing portions as they were just magic and dust. The Grimoire's might tumbled through my marrow as it grew again.
As I stood there shirtless, the power coursing through my bones, I was struck with a brain-blasting realization. Beliefs, both great and small, change the world around them; what would happen if I changed my beliefs?
The world would change with them. The ideas flew through my skull faster; as Rudolf Clausius wrote, energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another, and what was mana but a form of energy.
At the same time, I saw how magic interacted with space from the first time I had picked up the Grimoire and ended up away from my home in that space where reality twisted and time could be stretched like taffy; I had made myself capable of replacing my Pattern here with my Pattern in another place which meant if I knew I was there, I would be there with minimal assistance.
With this newfound understanding of the world, I blinked, knowing that when I opened my eyes, I would see Hookwolf in front of me. I noticed that Hookwolf was in his massive truck-sized shredder form with nary a shift.
I locked flaming eye sockets with metal slits, held out my skeletal hand, and focused my mind. To my new sense, Hookwolf glowed brilliantly, and within the center of his form, I saw a fractal portal that led away from him.
As Hookwold charged toward me, I focused on my eight-year magus education and self-hypnotized myself with the understanding that energy was energy, no matter what mystical costume it took.
As one of his hooks missed my outstretched hand by an inch, I reached forward, and reality fell in line with my belief. The energy pulsing out from the fractal portal in Hookwolf's core collapsed as mana turned into gravity, and with a wet splat, there was a small metal sphere with a smaller meat sphere inside.
With a red blur, a figure wearing all red with everything showing sped up and stopped in front of me. His mouth opened; however, I was back in my lab before Velocity got a word out. A second later, my body followed my thoughts.
My green eyes shined every brighter under the cloudy sun as I walked towards the malformed sputtering portal that was Coil's Shard my new sense creeping through it towards its starting location.
Powers Gained
Gnosis
The root of all magic. Gnosis is a measure of how close you are to the supernal world. Higher Gnosis provides many benefits; Rituals will take less time, your mana pool is larger, and you may learn higher levels of Arcana. As a Mage you have one rank in Gnosis free. You may obtain a maximum of five ranks here or over the course of the jump, but cannot reach archmastery (higher than five gnosis) until post-spark. A higher Gnosis is also a danger as the higher it is the more likely a paradox is to occur when you use vulgar magic. When a paradox is invoked, its power will be equivalent to the level of your Gnosis.
Arcanum (Basic)
Arcana are the various expressions of supernal truths in the fallen world. Specifically, they represent a given branch or type of magic that a Mage may specialize in. The various ranks of mastery displayed below denote the level of a given type of spell a Mage is able to cast. Higher level spells require higher Gnosis to use and will likely cost more mana to cast/maintain. It should be noted however that the higher ones Gnosis and the higher the level of spells they have access to, the greater the chance of causing a paradox is. The effects of magic that cause the greatest and most wondrous effects (i.e. creating earthquakes o granting a machine sentience) all risk paradox and may result in a backlash even against an experienced Mage. For this reason overt expressions of magic are denoted as "vulgar" whereas the subtle effects that do not cause paradox are called "covert".
Prime
[1] You may perceive raw mana, and by extension magic in its untouched state. You are always aware when magic is being cast and where it interacts or intersects with all other things. You may see through mystical illusions as they are made of mana and so always look like mana to you.
[2] You may manipulate raw mana for a variety of uses. You may force a spell or mystical artifact to yield its purpose, function and proper use. You may also transcribe your own mystical knowledge (and those of others) into grimoires for use by others of the mystical persuasion.
Space
[1] You may view the tapestry of space and can discern the location of nearby hidden things, assuming you know what you are looking for. You are aware when others have tampered with space, such as when one has teleported or created a portal. You may even trace sympathetic connections, determining the strength and emotional weight held between people and objects.
The issue was that while I could fight well and my White Magic would pass through most defenses to hit the SOUL, people like Kaiser could raise walls to block them, and Purity would fly and blast me with her beams. I had to choose who I would go after. As I was debating, I felt my Grimoire's energy build up before settling down again.
I did have another option; however, if I could get near Purity, I could pull her into Castle Burnestud. That would enhance my powers nearly fivefold as opposed to the two-fold the current Waning Crescent gave me.
Wincing as another building collapsed, I teleported to a roof nearby and saw Purity and another figure glowing, much less dancing around each other in the sky. However, it was clear that Purity was winning.
While Purity had dodged around the other figure's blast, she was much faster, and her shots would take down buildings, forcing the other person to stay away from facilities boxing him in. Looking at a building near her, I appeared on the rooftop before teleporting next to Purity.
Her eyes widened in shock as I pulled both of us into Castle Brunestud. The full moon beamed down on us. I teleported back a dozen feet and raised my hands as words were pulled into reality. I had meant to summon half a dozen; over thirty had appeared.
Purity shot up in the air glowing as the words shot towards her. As she weaved around the projectiles, light gathered in her hands as a massive double helix laser slammed into the ground I had been standing on just a few seconds earlier.
"What did you do to me!" She shouted in the lull between shots. Spreading my arms out, she could hear a smile in my voice as I replied.
"I brought you to where the Earth and Moon are closest, Castle Burnestud!" Snarling, more energy coalesced in her hand as another beam hit the ground near me, sending dirt and grass flying as I took a teleporting step to avoid the blast.
Reaching out a hand, I spread her timeline out, and she was now moving in slow motion. I then teleported up to her and conjured a platform under my feet, something that would have been impossible were I not being bosted fivefold by the light of the full moon.
Peering into her eyes unhindered by the light that formed her costume, I spoke a single word that sent her plummeting to the ground asleep. Another platform carried her to the floor. With a wave of my hand, the realm fixed itself as the spirit that inhabited the Castle walked out.
"So, what do you plan on doing with her?" It inquired
"The right thing would be handing her over to the PRT" My voice was hesitant as I remembered what she could and had done, an entire apartment building crashing to the ground, hundreds dead, fleeing the Empire only to come back when it was convenient for her, and claiming to be better but still attacking "lesser" races instead of trying to atone for her crimes.
"You could leave her here" The spirit that looked like me purred as it walked over the asleep form of Purity.
"What would you do with her?" I asked, still torn.
"I would have her repay her debt to society, and without the issues that would be people finding out about your warehouse, to add on top of that, I'll give you a small boost." Looking at Purity's form, I knew I should hand her over to the authorities; however, if I did, she would be out by the end of the week.
"All right, take her," I said, the barest flickers of tension creeping out. Pumping its fist, the spirit flicked a finger, and a platform scooped her up and carried her inside the house.
I then collapsed Castle Burnestud before teleporting back to the rooftop where I had staged my attack. Peering towards the man dressed in what appeared to be spartan armor and a crackling lance, I vanished and appeared back in my lab.
Catching myself as I fell a few feet, I felt the ruby's effects kick in now that I was back in this dimension. That pointed out a weakness; if I was not on Earth Bet, the gem couldn't transport mana. While I could fix that later the current issue of the Empire rampaging needed to be fixed.
Purity was out, and I was more powerfully than ever with the moon's boost, and being able to slowly refill my mana a practically infinite number of times meant that as long as I had a few minutes to rest, I could get back in the fight.
As long as the Empire had a figurehead to rally around, they would be unstable, which meant I needed to take out the Kaiser.
I focused on Max Anders, Kaiser, and Kinslayer and every facet I knew about the man I teleported. Appearing in a modern art warzone where spikes of metal were everywhere, Armsmaster pushed back Kaiser while Miss Militia and Battery were facing off against the two valkyrie twins.
Taking a step back, I dodged out of the way of Krieg slamming Assult into a lamp pole behind me.
I raised a hand and sent out a flurry of words that Krieg dodged between the simple pattern. I couldn't see his eyes, and my voice would be lost between the clashing of forces, so I grit my teeth and send out another onslaught.
Not bothering with words, he charged toward me. I could feel when I entered his power's range as I slowed down as if pushing through water.
I breathed out blue and saw time freeze near me; I sent out another barrage that slammed into Krieg with no way for him to avoid it. Dropping it before the strain grew too much to handle, I cast my green flaming eyes around to take in the battlefield.
With the help of Alabaster, Kaiser had taken out Armsmaster, lying on the ground, blood pooling out from his armor. Charging toward both of them, I sent out a volley of white magic, which Kaiser raised a shield out of the concrete in front of him, causing the words to shatter harmlessly.
Alabaster raised a massive gun to his shoulder and fired a shot, not even bothering to dodge; the weapon slammed into his shoulder with crack, followed shortly by the words which caused him to collapse.
The bullet slammed into my sternum, causing it to dust along with my ribs and most of my hip bone. My body hit the ground as I grabbed a health potion and downed it. I then stood up on my newly healed bones and focused behind the shield Kaiser had conjured, appearing next to him.
I caught a glance of his brilliant blue eyes filled with rage, speaking for the first time since the start of the fight I spoke in german.
"Sleep!"
Kaiser froze as his mind struggled against the command before he fell to with a clang, and his power's faint grinding sound faded.
Peering around the metallic barrier, I caught sight of the winding down fight. I sent a dozen words at the valkyrie twins, hitting them in the back and causing them to stumble, which allowed Battery, crackling with electricity, to slam into the one on the right and knock her unconscious.
The other swung her spear, hitting Battery in the side and sending her flying a few dozen feet, where she stumbled to her feet. Miss Militia fired off a few dozen shots from her shimmering gun, which knocked the valkyrie back.
Utilizing the opportunity, I sent a flurry of words that shattered on her back; she then shrank and fell forward unmoving. Vanishing, I appeared in an alleyway nearby before teleporting back to my lab.
Breathing hard, I shucked off my shirt and hoodie and patted myself. I was fine; despite being blown nearly in half, a swig of the healing potion worked as advertised, healing me of a mortal wound which meant as a Monster, it regenerated the missing portions as they were just magic and dust. The Grimoire's might tumbled through my marrow as it grew again.
As I stood there shirtless, the power coursing through my bones, I was struck with a brain-blasting realization. Beliefs, both great and small, change the world around them; what would happen if I changed my beliefs?
The world would change with them. The ideas flew through my skull faster; as Rudolf Clausius wrote, energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another, and what was mana but a form of energy.
At the same time, I saw how magic interacted with space from the first time I had picked up the Grimoire and ended up away from my home in that space where reality twisted and time could be stretched like taffy; I had made myself capable of replacing my Pattern here with my Pattern in another place which meant if I knew I was there, I would be there with minimal assistance.
With this newfound understanding of the world, I blinked, knowing that when I opened my eyes, I would see Hookwolf in front of me. I noticed that Hookwolf was in his massive truck-sized shredder form with nary a shift.
I locked flaming eye sockets with metal slits, held out my skeletal hand, and focused my mind. To my new sense, Hookwolf glowed brilliantly, and within the center of his form, I saw a fractal portal that led away from him.
As Hookwold charged toward me, I focused on my eight-year magus education and self-hypnotized myself with the understanding that energy was energy, no matter what mystical costume it took.
As one of his hooks missed my outstretched hand by an inch, I reached forward, and reality fell in line with my belief. The energy pulsing out from the fractal portal in Hookwolf's core collapsed as mana turned into gravity, and with a wet splat, there was a small metal sphere with a smaller meat sphere inside.
With a red blur, a figure wearing all red with everything showing sped up and stopped in front of me. His mouth opened; however, I was back in my lab before Velocity got a word out. A second later, my body followed my thoughts.
My green eyes shined every brighter under the cloudy sun as I walked towards the malformed sputtering portal that was Coil's Shard my new sense creeping through it towards its starting location.
Powers Gained
Gnosis
The root of all magic. Gnosis is a measure of how close you are to the supernal world. Higher Gnosis provides many benefits; Rituals will take less time, your mana pool is larger, and you may learn higher levels of Arcana. As a Mage you have one rank in Gnosis free. You may obtain a maximum of five ranks here or over the course of the jump, but cannot reach archmastery (higher than five gnosis) until post-spark. A higher Gnosis is also a danger as the higher it is the more likely a paradox is to occur when you use vulgar magic. When a paradox is invoked, its power will be equivalent to the level of your Gnosis.
Arcanum (Basic)
Arcana are the various expressions of supernal truths in the fallen world. Specifically, they represent a given branch or type of magic that a Mage may specialize in. The various ranks of mastery displayed below denote the level of a given type of spell a Mage is able to cast. Higher level spells require higher Gnosis to use and will likely cost more mana to cast/maintain. It should be noted however that the higher ones Gnosis and the higher the level of spells they have access to, the greater the chance of causing a paradox is. The effects of magic that cause the greatest and most wondrous effects (i.e. creating earthquakes o granting a machine sentience) all risk paradox and may result in a backlash even against an experienced Mage. For this reason overt expressions of magic are denoted as "vulgar" whereas the subtle effects that do not cause paradox are called "covert".
Prime
[1] You may perceive raw mana, and by extension magic in its untouched state. You are always aware when magic is being cast and where it interacts or intersects with all other things. You may see through mystical illusions as they are made of mana and so always look like mana to you.
[2] You may manipulate raw mana for a variety of uses. You may force a spell or mystical artifact to yield its purpose, function and proper use. You may also transcribe your own mystical knowledge (and those of others) into grimoires for use by others of the mystical persuasion.
Space
[1] You may view the tapestry of space and can discern the location of nearby hidden things, assuming you know what you are looking for. You are aware when others have tampered with space, such as when one has teleported or created a portal. You may even trace sympathetic connections, determining the strength and emotional weight held between people and objects.
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I mean it sucks the MC is slowly being driven insane and the PRT is going to call an A/S class trice to kill him within a week since no one is going to let a teleporting cape kidnapping master run around, BUT the Celestial Grimoire is really showing it's stuff. The synergy in this last chapter alone with World of Darkness and Fate and how perception works between the two is amazing (admittedly I'm not sure if what he tried should have worked at sphere 1 level, but he was being juiced up). Can not wait to see more magic power synergy ramp, but I do hope for some stability sooner or later. Amazing chapter!
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
Hey, the new Glastig Uaine just dropped, better deploy the triumvirate, but also everyone else.
Yeah... I have to agree. Not a fan of the speed with wich how the Grimoire brainwash and corrupt the MC, but I do think you are showing it fairly well.
But it sure is showing it's power and synergies early.
But it sure is showing it's power and synergies early.
So... this continues in QQ?
I think the PRT will have realized the lack of everything from our bony friend.
Nothing so far has been unwarranted though? When people kidnap parahumans it's probably either for forced recruitment (including with Master powers), or for worse stuff like nonconsensual biotinkering and experimentation. Combined with the fact that MC definitely has at least some unknown Master power, caution is reasonable. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.
Also, reasonable vigilantes don't kidnap people. From Piggot's perspective the best it could be is some deranged vigilante committing morally questionable acts. At worst, a Master trying to start up a new gang from scratch, or a Trump doing something fucky.
Chapter 9
Sitting in front of Coil's comatose body, I peered with my new sense at the portal originating from his brain. Based on my meta-knowledge and the fact it was coming from his brain, I could assume that this was the portal the Shards used to power their hosts.
While, for now, I didn't dare to access it more directly, Coil's Shard would enable me to experiment directly, as while Scion was depressed however if somebody were messing around with his network, he would drop the hammer of god on them.
Standing back up, I walked back to my Grimoire and flipped it open. I had a few ideas, and my new understanding of the world would allow me to enchant a lot faster and slightly better. While I couldn't improve a whole sphere in enchanting, I could eke out a few improvements and streamline the items to work better.
However, first, it was time to level up; grabbing my Adventuring Card out of my pocket, I saw that I had leveled up quite a few times, which meant I had a decent number of skill points to use and a good amount of options.
While I had several skills and spells I could purchase, my current weak point was my survivability, with pathetically low HP and my Monster body being receptive to the emotions of a person striking me, as evidenced by Alabaster earlier, I needed more HoPe.
I placed my thumb on the HP section of the card and saw it rising as the number grew. I found my mandible, despite all biology saying otherwise, grin. After putting the card back in my pocket, I flipped open my Grimoire to see what I could improve.
The main improvement to make was on my clothing in general. The main thing was that the clothes I wore were designed for a person with flesh that could hold it up.
My lack of said flesh made it so that things like socks and sneakers were almost impossible to wear, and my pendant didn't help because it was only an illusion. While tapping a finger on the open Grimoire, an idea struck me.
I could enchant the clothing to, on a command, appear as if my pendant form was wearing them and, on other phrases, would return to how they looked now, baggy and barely holding on.
Stripping, leaving just my boxers on and moon white soul thrumming in my ribcage, I got to work. While the work was simple on its own, and my various sources of knowledge and power helped to speed up the process massively, it still took over a day to complete, which was a far cry from the week or more it would have taken before.
Around nighttime the next day, I had finished altering my clothing. I decided to test it out. I walked over to a tiny cracked mirror leaning up against the wall; I then picked it up and, with a muttered "Cast On" in german the clothes filled out, looked as if my original form was wearing them. With muttered "Cast Off," in german the clothes shrank back down.
As I picked up my Grimoire, I felt something crawling over my third rib. I brushed a hand over my shirt to get it out, the small insect fell out of my shirt, and I froze. The date was the 26th which meant that Taylor was going out for the first time in around twenty days. However, with the Empire imploding, she might have gone out early. Running my hands over my skull, I mimed the action of breathing in and out.
I could just be overthinking things; it could be an insect that simply was crawling on me. I snorted in response to that thought; insects and other bugs did not crawl on me because I was literally just a bag of bones as I thought about my following actions.
A grin snuck out as I turned my mind back to the possible parahuman who now knew about my hideout. I let a name tumble through my mind as I focused, on Taylor Hebert, Skitter, Weaver, Kherphi, and with nary a sound, I appeared outside next to a figure clad in black with yellow-tinted glass in her mask.
She jumped away, and I heard a buzzing sound as a massive black cloud blotted out the crescent moon. Raising my hands, I spoke quickly and with a whisper.
"Hey, no need to go all 8th plague on my ass; I just want to talk."
Her head darted to my skull, and skeletal hands before a voice snuck out of her helmet.
"8th plague?"
Leaning down a little so that I could look her in her covered eyes, my mandible grew into what must have been a disturbing smile as she flinched back. Chuckling a little, a spoke again, hands still raised.
"I know I'm scary and sorry for teleporting next to you like that. May I ask why you are out so late and sneaking bugs in my ribcage."
She sputtered for a moment before finding her voice
"I was patrolling when I felt strange bubbles that my bugs couldn't go in, so I spread them out, which must have let them crawl on you, sorry."
Her voice got softer and softer as she spoke, and by the end, her head was downcast and mumbling. Holding my hands as if she were a scared animal, I injected a little humor into my voice.
"That's fine. I didn't feel it anyway; I'm just a bag of bones. So your planning on doing hero work, that's good for you"
She perked up a little at the response before her shoulders hunched in again and mumbled.
"You really think so?"
"Course, anyway, I have work I'm attending to, so if you mind meeting for tea, maybe sometime tomorrow morning?"
I let my voice go slightly sing-song towards the end and pushed a little mana into my words as I used hypnotism on her to make her somewhat more suggestible.
She seemed to blue screen at the question before looking me in my green flaming eye sockets for the first time during the conversation and spoke with a note of hope in her voice.
"Really? You want to talk over tea with me? I-I mean yes!"
"Well then, would around ten work for you. Also, the name is Aidan."
I then extended my hand for a handshake. She reached out and shook my hand before replying.
"Uh, I don't have a cape name, but my name's Taylor."
"Nice to meet you, Taylor; see you tomorrow."
With that, I gave her a short nod and teleported back to my lab. I then puttered about for another five minutes, a smile tugging at my non-existent lips.
My mouth then opened wide as high-pitched hiccupy laughter spilled from my mouth. I had just talked to the Talyor Hebert, the person who in another had slain Alexandria and Scion.
I had found this girl who could become something enormously powerful just when she was at her lowest, desperate for a scrap of affection.
I knew what I had to do now; I had to befriend her; all it would take was a few nice words in the right spot, and as an added side benefit, I could study Queen Admisntrater. However, I now needed to see what places served tea and where the tea was good as well.
As I paced back and forth, mind swirling with thoughts, I felt the Grimoire's power bubble up again. Power overwhelming began to flow through my marrow. I felt more magic rush through my SOUL, and my body improve.
Simply moving around, I was faster, and a thrown punch caused the air around my body to snap. Wiggling my fingers, I could feel how my stores had improved were as before; I could keep up Castle Brunestud for a minute at most now, and I could hold it open for ten or more minutes.
That was discounting the physical benefits; while I still was fragile to attacks, the magic making up my skeleton became denser as it would now not break from things that would break a normal bone.
Rubbing my hands together, I got to work setting up another circle around my batteries. This one would work two-fold; the first is that it would divert attention except for mine, and the second is that it would be an actual illusion of a blank warehouse wall.
While it did take a few hours, most of that was ensuring that it did not interfere with the gem that collected energy and sent it to me and so that fed off the energy produced by the parahumans inside the circles.
As I stretched, I checked my mental clock to see the current time. It was around eight, so I had two hours to find a good tea shop. Muttering the command word under my breath and slipping on the pendant, I headed to the Boardwalk.
While on my walk, I saw the results of the Empire's short rampage. They had only rioted for around two or three hours; however, that was still hours of people with superpowers lashing out in fear and anger, and while I felt a bit bad for the Protectorate as their identities were leaked, which meant they would be shuffled out as they brought in new people.
I did not feel the slightest bit of remorse for the Empire; they all were capital N Nazis who murdered people because they did not fit their hair-brained ideology that should have died out when its leader blew his brains out in a bunker.
Hearing a slight grinding sound, I unclenched my jaws as while I did not have to fear cracking a tooth, I did not want to risk it.
My walk ended as I walked into the untouched Boardwalk and started looking around. While many shops sold teas and coffees, most were shitting bagged tea, and while I wasn't a major tea snob, I wanted a good cup if I was spending time going out for tea.
However, after another fifteen minutes of searching, I found a tiny hole in the wall run by a woman with auburn hair, circles under her eyes, and a chipper smile. Walking in, I shot her a grin and opened my mouth as I stood at the counter.
"Hi, names Aidan. I'm looking for a table for two. My friend should be here shortly."
Grinning back, the woman replied in a cheerful voice while gesturing to one of the many empty tables in a corner.
"Of course! Would you like anything to drink?"
"A mint tea for me, please."
"You got it."
She said as she got to work making the tea. I then walked outside to wait for Taylor. A few minutes after ten, she stepped onto the Boardwalk, eyes darting about and shoulders hunched. I strode up to her, and she turned towards me as I stepped behind her.
"Hey, it's Aidan. I found this nice whole in-the-wall place that you might like. I ordered already, if you don't mind."
She nodded her head no and followed behind me as I opened the door for her and gestured to our seats. Settling down as she ordered, I started a quick circle into the napkin and activated the coil with a slight push of mana to prevent people from hearing inside our table.
As she sat down, I pushed a small bit of mana inside my eyes and hit her with hypnosis to make her more compliant with the conversation that would follow.
Powers Gained
Power Overwhelming
If one thing above all else defines a dragon, it is POWER! You contain within you the might of an entire raging storm, a torrent to drown any insects who try and match their magic to yours, and the physical strength to snap steel chains as if they were a minor irritant.
While, for now, I didn't dare to access it more directly, Coil's Shard would enable me to experiment directly, as while Scion was depressed however if somebody were messing around with his network, he would drop the hammer of god on them.
Standing back up, I walked back to my Grimoire and flipped it open. I had a few ideas, and my new understanding of the world would allow me to enchant a lot faster and slightly better. While I couldn't improve a whole sphere in enchanting, I could eke out a few improvements and streamline the items to work better.
However, first, it was time to level up; grabbing my Adventuring Card out of my pocket, I saw that I had leveled up quite a few times, which meant I had a decent number of skill points to use and a good amount of options.
While I had several skills and spells I could purchase, my current weak point was my survivability, with pathetically low HP and my Monster body being receptive to the emotions of a person striking me, as evidenced by Alabaster earlier, I needed more HoPe.
I placed my thumb on the HP section of the card and saw it rising as the number grew. I found my mandible, despite all biology saying otherwise, grin. After putting the card back in my pocket, I flipped open my Grimoire to see what I could improve.
The main improvement to make was on my clothing in general. The main thing was that the clothes I wore were designed for a person with flesh that could hold it up.
My lack of said flesh made it so that things like socks and sneakers were almost impossible to wear, and my pendant didn't help because it was only an illusion. While tapping a finger on the open Grimoire, an idea struck me.
I could enchant the clothing to, on a command, appear as if my pendant form was wearing them and, on other phrases, would return to how they looked now, baggy and barely holding on.
Stripping, leaving just my boxers on and moon white soul thrumming in my ribcage, I got to work. While the work was simple on its own, and my various sources of knowledge and power helped to speed up the process massively, it still took over a day to complete, which was a far cry from the week or more it would have taken before.
Around nighttime the next day, I had finished altering my clothing. I decided to test it out. I walked over to a tiny cracked mirror leaning up against the wall; I then picked it up and, with a muttered "Cast On" in german the clothes filled out, looked as if my original form was wearing them. With muttered "Cast Off," in german the clothes shrank back down.
As I picked up my Grimoire, I felt something crawling over my third rib. I brushed a hand over my shirt to get it out, the small insect fell out of my shirt, and I froze. The date was the 26th which meant that Taylor was going out for the first time in around twenty days. However, with the Empire imploding, she might have gone out early. Running my hands over my skull, I mimed the action of breathing in and out.
I could just be overthinking things; it could be an insect that simply was crawling on me. I snorted in response to that thought; insects and other bugs did not crawl on me because I was literally just a bag of bones as I thought about my following actions.
A grin snuck out as I turned my mind back to the possible parahuman who now knew about my hideout. I let a name tumble through my mind as I focused, on Taylor Hebert, Skitter, Weaver, Kherphi, and with nary a sound, I appeared outside next to a figure clad in black with yellow-tinted glass in her mask.
She jumped away, and I heard a buzzing sound as a massive black cloud blotted out the crescent moon. Raising my hands, I spoke quickly and with a whisper.
"Hey, no need to go all 8th plague on my ass; I just want to talk."
Her head darted to my skull, and skeletal hands before a voice snuck out of her helmet.
"8th plague?"
Leaning down a little so that I could look her in her covered eyes, my mandible grew into what must have been a disturbing smile as she flinched back. Chuckling a little, a spoke again, hands still raised.
"I know I'm scary and sorry for teleporting next to you like that. May I ask why you are out so late and sneaking bugs in my ribcage."
She sputtered for a moment before finding her voice
"I was patrolling when I felt strange bubbles that my bugs couldn't go in, so I spread them out, which must have let them crawl on you, sorry."
Her voice got softer and softer as she spoke, and by the end, her head was downcast and mumbling. Holding my hands as if she were a scared animal, I injected a little humor into my voice.
"That's fine. I didn't feel it anyway; I'm just a bag of bones. So your planning on doing hero work, that's good for you"
She perked up a little at the response before her shoulders hunched in again and mumbled.
"You really think so?"
"Course, anyway, I have work I'm attending to, so if you mind meeting for tea, maybe sometime tomorrow morning?"
I let my voice go slightly sing-song towards the end and pushed a little mana into my words as I used hypnotism on her to make her somewhat more suggestible.
She seemed to blue screen at the question before looking me in my green flaming eye sockets for the first time during the conversation and spoke with a note of hope in her voice.
"Really? You want to talk over tea with me? I-I mean yes!"
"Well then, would around ten work for you. Also, the name is Aidan."
I then extended my hand for a handshake. She reached out and shook my hand before replying.
"Uh, I don't have a cape name, but my name's Taylor."
"Nice to meet you, Taylor; see you tomorrow."
With that, I gave her a short nod and teleported back to my lab. I then puttered about for another five minutes, a smile tugging at my non-existent lips.
My mouth then opened wide as high-pitched hiccupy laughter spilled from my mouth. I had just talked to the Talyor Hebert, the person who in another had slain Alexandria and Scion.
I had found this girl who could become something enormously powerful just when she was at her lowest, desperate for a scrap of affection.
I knew what I had to do now; I had to befriend her; all it would take was a few nice words in the right spot, and as an added side benefit, I could study Queen Admisntrater. However, I now needed to see what places served tea and where the tea was good as well.
As I paced back and forth, mind swirling with thoughts, I felt the Grimoire's power bubble up again. Power overwhelming began to flow through my marrow. I felt more magic rush through my SOUL, and my body improve.
Simply moving around, I was faster, and a thrown punch caused the air around my body to snap. Wiggling my fingers, I could feel how my stores had improved were as before; I could keep up Castle Brunestud for a minute at most now, and I could hold it open for ten or more minutes.
That was discounting the physical benefits; while I still was fragile to attacks, the magic making up my skeleton became denser as it would now not break from things that would break a normal bone.
Rubbing my hands together, I got to work setting up another circle around my batteries. This one would work two-fold; the first is that it would divert attention except for mine, and the second is that it would be an actual illusion of a blank warehouse wall.
While it did take a few hours, most of that was ensuring that it did not interfere with the gem that collected energy and sent it to me and so that fed off the energy produced by the parahumans inside the circles.
As I stretched, I checked my mental clock to see the current time. It was around eight, so I had two hours to find a good tea shop. Muttering the command word under my breath and slipping on the pendant, I headed to the Boardwalk.
While on my walk, I saw the results of the Empire's short rampage. They had only rioted for around two or three hours; however, that was still hours of people with superpowers lashing out in fear and anger, and while I felt a bit bad for the Protectorate as their identities were leaked, which meant they would be shuffled out as they brought in new people.
I did not feel the slightest bit of remorse for the Empire; they all were capital N Nazis who murdered people because they did not fit their hair-brained ideology that should have died out when its leader blew his brains out in a bunker.
Hearing a slight grinding sound, I unclenched my jaws as while I did not have to fear cracking a tooth, I did not want to risk it.
My walk ended as I walked into the untouched Boardwalk and started looking around. While many shops sold teas and coffees, most were shitting bagged tea, and while I wasn't a major tea snob, I wanted a good cup if I was spending time going out for tea.
However, after another fifteen minutes of searching, I found a tiny hole in the wall run by a woman with auburn hair, circles under her eyes, and a chipper smile. Walking in, I shot her a grin and opened my mouth as I stood at the counter.
"Hi, names Aidan. I'm looking for a table for two. My friend should be here shortly."
Grinning back, the woman replied in a cheerful voice while gesturing to one of the many empty tables in a corner.
"Of course! Would you like anything to drink?"
"A mint tea for me, please."
"You got it."
She said as she got to work making the tea. I then walked outside to wait for Taylor. A few minutes after ten, she stepped onto the Boardwalk, eyes darting about and shoulders hunched. I strode up to her, and she turned towards me as I stepped behind her.
"Hey, it's Aidan. I found this nice whole in-the-wall place that you might like. I ordered already, if you don't mind."
She nodded her head no and followed behind me as I opened the door for her and gestured to our seats. Settling down as she ordered, I started a quick circle into the napkin and activated the coil with a slight push of mana to prevent people from hearing inside our table.
As she sat down, I pushed a small bit of mana inside my eyes and hit her with hypnosis to make her more compliant with the conversation that would follow.
Powers Gained
Power Overwhelming
If one thing above all else defines a dragon, it is POWER! You contain within you the might of an entire raging storm, a torrent to drown any insects who try and match their magic to yours, and the physical strength to snap steel chains as if they were a minor irritant.
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Oh boy. Aidan, what are you doing!
True what i was wondering about is how she'll mess up when she realises he's a powerful trump that is getting stronger and stronger. Will she go typical prt/cauldron and try to grt a deal made or just go total war mode and call in the ballistic missiles?
P.S. the smart thing would be to kill the mind altering mc while they still can but then again they are still speculating about what kind of master power he has and they have no idea that time is against them in this case.
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
Why would Coil's shard not go "Hey, network notice, someone just successfully simulated destroying the network on my hardware"? Or "Shit, someone is researching destroying the network with my alternate timeline, better call enforcement".
Depending on your stance on the whole simulation question.
That is due to the fact that Coil's shard is not from Scion and is from Eden. With Eden being brain dead the shard A is practically brain dead itself and B can't call out to a network because the network went down when Eden died
Powers Gained
Chapter 1
Psychic Abilities - Cyberkinesis:The cyberkinetic will never need to remember another password again, as this level of power can override the need for one, and any other code besides. The psychic can force a computer to do anything it normally could, from granting them admin access, to erasing data, or forging emails with an account on the system. The more secure a given computer is, the harder it is to manipulate thus
The psychic can now force a computer or other machine to outperform itself, making it more effective at its function than should be possible for it, at the cost of damaging the electronic
Song-Maiden:You were born with a beautiful voice and an amazing talent for song. Other people picked up on this, and all your life you've received formal training to enhance your singing even further, and turn it to more nefarious purposes. When used on the field of battle, your songs can fill soldiers with vast amounts of courage, hope and a will to fight, clearing them of any concerns like surrender, retreat, or hesitation and ensuring they'll fight to the death for your cause or the cause of your superiors as long as you continue to sing. Your voice alone can turn the very tide of battle. Restrained and judicious use can mitigate the downsides to this and be used heroically, but abuse will see you reviled as a witch or a monster for all the senseless death you cause.
Chapter 2
Magus Education(Formalcraft):An official education! The proper way for a magus to learn his arts, to travel to the famed Clocktower institution and learn from the greatest, and most egotistical, minds of the Mages' Association. Even if you're some country bumpkin from the Far East, you've had the chance to get a formalized education and degree at the Clocktower over the course of four to eight years. It taught you all the basics of being a Magus, such as decent capability with Formalcraft, Reinforcement, Gradation Air, and Hypnotism. The core arts of any magus, as well as a general familiarity with the supernatural world. You also took on something of a specialty, possibly even a family legacy you inherited, in magecraft. In a field of modern magecraft, you've made a name as having decent potential. An amateur to any professional but in your chosen field, from a rookie Alchemist to a burgeoning Elementalist to a spirit user or something more specific, you've got a few years training on the other students with no ability at all. Your time there also lets you gain a few friends and contacts at the Association, mostly classmates and perhaps a faculty member or two.
Chapter 3
Bullet Patterns:Magic is part of being a monster- It's literally a part of you! As such, all monsters have at least a rudimentary understanding of White Magic- That is to say, they can use magic to attack. Like almost all magic, this magic directly attacks the SOUL of an opponent and does not actually physically harm them- They might show bruises, cuts, or other superficial signs of damage, but otherwise the pain is all felt on a spiritual level. Since magic is so tied to their being, a monster's innate magic is invariably representative of their personality or appearance- A frog-like monster might use flies to attack, a skeleton might use bones, or a dog might use... dog-shaped attacks. This innate magic is typically rudimentary and easy to avoid, but many monsters prefer to use their bullet patterns as a way of expressing themselves rather than use them as actual attacks.
Chapter 4
Sorcery - Enchantment (One-Three Dots): The sorcery of creating items with magical abilities and properties. The creation of such items generally takes three days per dot required to make it. [1] The Enchanter creates a minor item with limited use only and a tight area of influence. Such as a jacket that works as abnormally good camouflage in a crowd, or glasses that never fog. The Enchanter creates a more powerful talisman that is noticeable as magic. A flask that blocks three bullets and no more, objects that increase a mundane skill by a noticeable amount when used. The Enchanter creates a talisman whose function is obviously magical. Shoes that double running speed, a charm that can protect its wearer from magic three times a day.
Chapter 5
Sorcery - Chronomancy (One Dot-Five Dots):
The magical power to manipulate time. However, it cannot divine information about the past or future, instead altering the flow of time within the present.
[1] The chronomancer gains the ability to keep track of time perfectly, detecting its passage
more precisely than any watch, and also sensing distortions in time as well as being significantly
harder to surprise.
[2] The chronomancer knows how to orient themselves in time to better perform any action that requires precise timing. This spell must be cast before performing the action.
[3] The chronomancer may now accelerate their own personal timeline, allowing them to perform actions and movements in what others perceive as a fraction of the time.
[4] Just as the sorcerer altered their own personal timeline, they may now affect the timelines of others, accelerating them or slowing them down, severely hampering their battle prowess in the process.
[5] This level of chronomancy allows its user to pause time in a small area, up to a square yard, for a short period. Under stressful situations, this spell can last up to fifteen seconds, while in calmer straights it can last up to five minutes. Anything that enters the paused area will also become frozen, though objects only partially within the area of paused time can be manipulated from the outside.
Chapter 6
Undead-Traits
You are undead. Between life and death. Your flesh and organs have long since rotted from your body, leaving you as naught but bones, animated by your own soul. Your soul remains within your body as a result of countless rituals and spells performed over your form prior to and during your burial. As an undead, you do not age. You have no requirements or ability to do bodily functions such as eating, drinking, sleeping or breathing. You have no organs to damage or blood to bleed. The only way to kill you would be to smash up your bones till nothing the size of a skull or larger remains.
You are enchanted so that, even despite lacking muscles or skin, you can move with superhuman strength and speed, as well as move and think at all. Whilst many lesser Nehekharan undead require the presence of a Liche Priest to maintain awareness and only have the most basic of personalities, you have no requirement for support from a Liche Priest and you maintain your full cognitive functions in this form. However, as you are just old bones, you are quite vulnerable to fire, despite the relative sturdiness of your form.
Brunestud
Crimson Moon Brunestud. The Ultimate One of the Moon, who made a pact with Gaia in order to create a race - the True Ancestors - to corral humanity. But this luminous being had its own agenda, wanting to make a suitable vessel able to exist within Gaia's laws and possessed enough purity for it to take over and then enact his own will upon the world. There are three suitable vessels on the planet - Arcueid Brunestud, Altrouge Brunestud… and you. Whether your body had enough 'purity' for Crimson Moon to consider as a candidate for being their vessel or you were some misbegotten attempt at replicating the True Ancestors, a 'fragment' of Crimson Moon exists within your soul. This fragment is a mix of of your own and Crimson Moon, so imagine yourself except more vampiric and with a persistent desire to wipe out humanity in any form. While you may use their power as per the perk Brunestud normally and regardless of their approval, being able to reconcile or come to an understanding with this personality will enable that fragment to grow stronger at a faster rate, becoming more and more of what the Ultimate One once was
First, you are able to manifest a copy of Millennium Castle Brunestud, a piece of Type-Moon's Reality Marble where his influence is the strongest, at will (curiously, even if you lack MarblePhantasm) and dwell within it. You may change the interior of the castle to your will, making anything from a luxurious manor to an eldritch hell only a monster could find comfortable. Your connection also causes your power, even those not tied to your nature as a True Ancestor, to wax and wane with the phases of the moon - during the night of a new moon, there is no change, but during a full moon, your strength and powers are magnified several times over. And when you dwell within the Castle itself, your power is always at its peak from this boost, functioning the same as the night of a full moon. An ordinary human (as miraculous as it maybe) with this could lift a tank one-handed on the night of a full moon. The might of a True Ancestor is likewise increased even further than before in the light of the moon, letting you outmatch others of your kind save for your two 'siblings'. Perhaps in a few centuries, this fragment' could grow into something matching the original...though that night is far, far away.
Chapter 7
The Way This Works
This world follows the same rules that it seems every new world does these days. On entering this world, you were given an Adventurer's Card which we'll describe later and the ability to gain and use skill points to level up. Skill Points are gained by killing monsters or other living beings and are automatically collected from them when the deed is done. Gather enough and you will be able to level up on your adventurer's card, increasing your base stats and learning or upgrading your existing Skills with your new points. You can't learn something you don't have the ability to learn, haven't been taught or that isn't part of your class. Ah, and Class? Another thing you'll automatically receive. This'll dictate your general stat growth through levelling up here and the sort of skills you can automatically learn and unlock via just skill points. Any fantasy RPG class can be taken, though your origin will limit you to specific types.
Adventurer Card
The sign of your adventuring nature. This is your Status Sheet, effectively. It denotes your level, statistics and any special abilities that you have. It's also proof that you're an adventurer and will give a good idea of how strong you are and how good an adventurer you are. If you ever lose it, it'll appear right back in your hand the next time you need it. You use the card to level up with skill points in this world, so don't let anyone else get a hold of it if you've got unspent points.
Chapter 8
Gnosis
The root of all magic. Gnosis is a measure of how close you are to the supernal world. Higher Gnosis provides many benefits; Rituals will take less time, your mana pool is larger, and you may learn higher levels of Arcana. As a Mage you have one rank in Gnosis free. You may obtain a maximum of five ranks here or over the course of the jump, but cannot reach archmastery (higher than five gnosis) until post-spark. A higher Gnosis is also a danger as the higher it is the more likely a paradox is to occur when you use vulgar magic. When a paradox is invoked, its power will be equivalent to the level of your Gnosis.
Arcanum (Basic)
Arcana are the various expressions of supernal truths in the fallen world. Specifically, they represent a given branch or type of magic that a Mage may specialize in. The various ranks of mastery displayed below denote the level of a given type of spell a Mage is able to cast. Higher level spells require higher Gnosis to use and will likely cost more mana to cast/maintain. It should be noted however that the higher ones Gnosis and the higher the level of spells they have access to, the greater the chance of causing a paradox is. The effects of magic that cause the greatest and most wondrous effects (i.e. creating earthquakes o granting a machine sentience) all risk paradox and may result in a backlash even against an experienced Mage. For this reason overt expressions of magic are denoted as "vulgar" whereas the subtle effects that do not cause paradox are called "covert".
Prime
[1] You may perceive raw mana, and by extension magic in its untouched state. You are always aware when magic is being cast and where it interacts or intersects with all other things. You may see through mystical illusions as they are made of mana and so always look like mana to you.
[2] You may manipulate raw mana for a variety of uses. You may force a spell or mystical artifact to yield its purpose, function and proper use. You may also transcribe your own mystical knowledge (and those of others) into grimoires for use by others of the mystical persuasion.
Space
[1] You may view the tapestry of space and can discern the location of nearby hidden things, assuming you know what you are looking for. You are aware when others have tampered with space, such as when one has teleported or created a portal. You may even trace sympathetic connections, determining the strength and emotional weight held between people and objects.
Chapter 9
Power Overwhelming
If one thing above all else defines a dragon, it is POWER! You contain within you the might of an entire raging storm, a torrent to drown any insects who try and match their magic to yours, and the physical strength to snap steel chains as if they were a minor irritant.
Chapter 10
Dust Attunement
Dust is naturally drawn to you. Wherever you go, Dust will come to you. Swirling in plumes and clouds, the brilliant golden Dust is pulled to you, gathering around and on you. While it may sound messy, are you really going to complain about being powdered in the most precious substance on the planet? Every mile you travel, you find roughly one Dust coin. Staying in one place gives you about 10 a day. This requires Dust to be present of course. It prefers dry, hot places, although it goes congeal around anomalies and buried in stone fields.
Chapter 11
Class Card Heart
Through some manner you have permanently gained the abilities of a chosen class card. You are free to choose any class card from the items list and wield its abilities naturally.
Archer
The Class Card of the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA.
Include: Limit Expand. This allows you to summon a noble phantasm that is in the form of a weapon.
Install: Phantasm Summon. This allows you to gain the abilities of a servant and their noble phantasms.
Parameters of skills and noble phantasms are more a ranking of how they are compared to fellow servants.
Cards can be installed for as long as your magical energy can sustain them, after being uninstalled they will require an hour before being able to be used again.
Parameters:
Strength: E
Mana: C
Endurance: D
Luck: E
Agility: D
Class Skills:
Independent Action: C - Independent Action is the ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from the Master. At the higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. For the purposes of the Class Cards this allows you to keep them installed for longer.
Magic Resistance: E - Magic Resistance grants protection against magical effects. Differently from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. At rank E it cannot cancel spells, but magic damage is reduced somewhat.
Personal Skills:
Clairvoyance: D - Clairvoyance connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this skill have acquired such abilities as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). At rank D Capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of two kilometers.
Eye of the Mind (True): C - Eye of the Mind (True) is a heightened capacity for observation, refined through experience. At rank B it is capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 10% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning.
Magecraft: C - Magecraft is knowledge about modern Thaumaturgy. At rank C is capable of using orthodox Thaumaturgy. Archer's rank in using Projection Magic when the target falls under the category of "sword" is A+.
Noble Phantasm:
Unlimited Bladeworks: E~EX - Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords is the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA. Emiya does not have a true Noble Phantasm that is the crystallized embodiment of a hero's existence like many demonic or holy swords, but if a Noble Phantasm is considered to be a symbol of the Heroic Spirit, then the Reality Marble is his Noble Phantasm. It is high-class thaumaturgy that embodies their internal worlds and imprints them upon the world as a bounded field. It is their one true specialization of magecraft, the result of "Sword" being both their Origin and their Elemental Affinity, and the basis of their projection and reinforcement skills. It is the definite answer obtained by someone whose life was saved by a sword, actually merged and lived with a sword, and acted as a sword all of his life. Emiya has no penalties from the world while utilizing his version of Unlimited Blade Works.
The Reality Marble's purpose is a steel manufacturing factory that produces the countless famous swords without owners that extend into the horizon. It contains all of the raw materials and sorcery needed for the formation of the weapons, and it records and analyzes all weapons and defensive armaments encountered. The number of unique weapons encountered and recorded by Archer exceeds numerous thousands, most of which are Noble Phantasms. Their entire histories, compositions, and designs are all perfectly recorded, allowing for instant proficiency with the weapons by inheriting all combat skills and techniques utilized by their original owners. This allows for the reproduction of Noble Phantasms, which would generally be impossible for a faker.
They can also be modified to the user's taste with reinforcement as shown by Archer's Caladbolg II and Kanshou and Bakuya. Close combat weapons such as swords, spears, and halberds are the main focus of the Reality Marble in accordance with Emiya's Origin of "Sword", which also makes it impossible to record or reproduce modern weaponry like guns and other mobile weapons. Shields and defensive armaments can be reproduced with a much greater struggle, as the cost in magical energy is high, two or three times greater than a sword, and the effects are merely transient compared to the originals. Weapons encountered are immediately analyzed with a single glance, enabling them to be projected immediately afterward, and once projected, they are stored within the Reality Marble for later use. Shiro is able to instantly recognize dozens of weapons being fired from the Gate of Babylon at an extremely high rate and instantly counter with projections of the same weapons before they can strike.
The analysis of weapons is limited only to the direct use of human senses, meaning that blueprints and materials will be unable to provide the necessary information for a proper analysis. Shared memories, such as dreams shared with a Servant, can allow for weapons to be analyzed and projected, even if they have been lost like Caliburn. The quality of projected weapons will always be degraded by one rank due to humans being unable to fully conceptualize the existence of an object through only one sense, and they will never equal the originals without a technique such as detonating them as Broken Phantasms. The Reality Marble allows for projection and reinforcement in the real world. Weapons are produced within Unlimited Blade Works and then brought into the world, greatly lowering the cost of reproducing them and allowing for numerous weapons to be prepared at once to be projected. Weapons can be summoned directly to the user's hands, or they can be summoned to levitate within the air and fire upon the enemy as arrows much like the Gate of Babylon. Once the Reality Marble is deployed, all of the weapons are available for use, and any weapon can immediately be called to the user's hands or levitated even while the user is in direct combat. The weapons reproduced once the Reality Marble is first activated will not consume magical energy, but those used or destroyed within it will add to the cost of maintaining the bounded field. The amount of energy used to reproduce weapons that did not exist after the bounded field was expanded and the amount of energy used to recreate weapons destroyed while it is activated is extremely costly.
Komainu
You have a komainu, a lion-dog statue that watches menacingly over wherever you wish to put it. When you need it, perhaps when trespassers try to break in, it will spring to life (and naturally, turn into a cute girl) to defend you. While in statue form, it's semi-aware and can remember things such as who looked after the statue when it was not needed and keep a careful watch for potential enemies.
Chapter 12
Arcana of Matter
Dust is everything. You need to simply tell it what to become. With this Arcana, you can turn a handful into any portable object, a bag into something it'd take a couple people to lift, or an entire barrel into a hasty fortification.
Chapter 13
Magic Circuits
Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.
Mercenary Retainer
You can form a dozen armed human mercs, or six monsters, for use in your schemes. The troops aren't elite, but they are professional. If any of them die while carrying out your orders, you'll have to wait a week before summoning more firepower. If purchased twice, you have access to a team of up to 36 humans or half of that in monsters.
Chapter 15
Shard of a Selfless Wish
A wish that truly gives back to others, yet asks for nothing in return...such a thing isn't meant to exist in this world, yet, here it is. And such a thing could perhaps change the world. Holding onto this pink shard increases your own magical power greatly and gradually replenishes lost energy. 'Burning' this shard will let you dramatically increase your magical power tenfold, though the boost is temporary and will be lost afterwards until your next jump. Notably, any magic given towards aiding or healing others without any expectation of a reward, karmic or otherwise, are most powerful when used with this Shard.
Chapter 17
Sleight of Hand
You've had a good deal of practice at stage magic, street magic, or something in between. In addition to great skill at card tricks and various other illusions, you're none too shabby at picking locks and pockets. With some practice, you may even be good enough to do things like steal a watch right off of someone's wrist.
Chapter 18
Mother Knows Best
Mothers are highly treasured on the island, and you bring with you the talent of a (childish) mother. You are skilled in multitasking, and can cook, clean, darn socks, sew pockets onto clothes (even ones that weren't made for pockets to begin with), and in general look after a large number of children, even rowdy ones, effortlessly. Plus, you give these different things a "mother's touch": beds you make will feel cozier, clothes you make/sew will feel more comfortable, rooms you clean up will make people feel more at home, etc.; this may therefore enhance other domestic-oriented perks you have. You also become a skilled storyteller – at least one for children's tales – and can easily recall classic tales or invent your own; you can even take existing stories and give your own unique flair to them, such that Cinderella fights off pirates with a revolver, while retaining the wonder of the original. Moreover, it gives you an aura of respectful motherhood that makes anyone with the form of a child (even beings that are actually much older) much more likely to behave like a child and follow your instructions when you are present, with your control increasing the more you act like their mother. You can even have an effect on people with an older physical form if they long for a mother (it helps that the perk makes people more likely to want you to be their mother).
Chapter 19
Soul Gem
As part of your contract with Kyubey, your soul has been partially separated from your body. It is contained within a tiny gem with a color and aesthetic matching your personality and your wish...well, what WOULD have been your wish if you chose a background, or just a look that 'fits' for Drop-In. The benefits to this state are as follows:
Unaging - You do not physically age from the point of your contract onwards.
Magical Body - You can transform into a Magical Girl form by activating the Soul Gem, where it will rest on a part of your body either embedded onto your skin or as a piece of jewelry (it can remain in this form in your 'civilian' persona, as well). This creates a 'projection' around your physical form that is much more physically athletic and can take a lot of physical punishment with only some of the damage and the pain. Being knocked around or juggled by a powerful Wraith is still an unpleasant and painful experience, but you'd have a good chance of surviving the first few attacks instead of immediately dying like an ordinary person would. It's in this form that you can use your Magic, detailed below. Even better? As long as your Soul Gem is still intact, you can use magical energy to regenerate your body even if you were just a smoldering pile of ash, though this takes time and is a huge drain on your resources - you're more likely to disappear without a full 'tank' of energy ready than completely regenerate from a single cell. You will also be conscious through the entire experience, so...try not to get to that point.
Magical Girls, Represent! - As a bonus, your 'transformed state' has a neat costume and aesthetic of your choosing. It doesn't change its function, but if you want to wear a pretty dress into battle or look like an armored knight of some kind, you can. Just note that what you choose remains the same unless you find another way to modify it.
That said, this isn't all sunshine and pink dresses. There are some downsides.
No Wish For You - I'm holding onto that wish of yours until we're finished with your chain. Believe me, it is not worth cashing in here.
Energy Requirements - Everything I explained above, and the Magic it powers, is a product of the Soul Gem. The Soul Gem only has so much energy to spend and for the duration of this jump, you can only regain energy by using the remnants of Wraiths after defeating them. While you generally won't have to worry about this if you pick your fights wisely, using a huge amount of power or coming back from atomization will put you in the red fairly quickly. Your mood will also dampen and become increasingly manic and depressed the more severe your energy deficit is. This also ties into…
It's Called a Soul Gem For A Reason You Moron - The Soul Gem literally houses your soul. If you're separated from it (more than a small room's distance would do it), your body will drop dead and start decomposing, utterly helpless until the Gem is returned to it. You have no motor control or awareness in the Soul Gem itself, to boot. What's more, it's amazingly fragile and if destroyed, will instantly kill you. Hm? You can survive this somehow? Then your Soul Gem will reform with you, but it will lose the same amount of energy needed to restore your body from the ground-up. You'll need to 'refill' quickly.
Game Over - If your Soul Gem is destroyed (without some way to cheat death) or you exhaust all of your energy, you suffer the same fate as other Magical Girls and vanish from existence.
Chapter 20
Enhanced Dexterity
You are graceful and quick, able to move with great dexterity and aim with deadly precision. Your eyesight is also clearer and lets you take in more details than you could outside of your Magical Girl form. This can be bought multiple times, letting you keep up with a long-term firefight even as you're being juggled in the air.
Master Craftsman
You are a master of crafts and trades, from weapon-smithing to alchemy and more. This gives you the requisite knowledge, experience and skills to create and craft any item that you want, with the right materials. The items that you make tend to last for a long time without maintenance and are unlikely to break before their owners, along with it only costing a tenth of the original materials to make without sacrificing any quality and beauty. With enough time, research and materials, you can recreate any magical item that you can get your hands on with the same quality. The items that you have already made can also be mass produced by you at a faster rate and even less materials than before. This skill doesn't give you the ability to make items at the height of a god with a similar purview but your breadth of applicability should be broader. Through, with enough time and experience you could reach the level of a god's purview but it would take decades with only this perk.
Chapter 21
Origin
It's not really possible to determine the value of a human life or one individual's character with a single word...at least, most of the time. Still, every life in this world has a single defining word for them - a compulsion and an instinct that their actions move in harmony with.You also possess such an Origin, such as 'Taboo' or 'Nostalgia', which guides your actions towards it. Any actions you follow that line up with your Origin, particularly Magecraft, will enjoy a noticeable boost in competence as you work in tune with your own nature in this world.
Aquapulvistics
Where there is water, there is Dust. You know how to sift a sizable amount of Dust from any flowing water source. The larger the source, the more you can extract. Useless in Winter, but that's years away, right? Even after you leave Auriga, you still manage to find Dust in water across the multiverse. Nifty, huh?
Chapter 22
Arcanum (Additional) x3
Add a level to one Arcnum per level purchased
[3] You may enchant material objects in numerous fantastic manners depending on your other arcana. You may craft illusions out of raw magic that will fool sleepers and inattentive mages. You may give form and substance to mana, making the immaterial, material, at least for a time. You may use spells to draw mana from the environment into yourself, empowering you further. If the need is dire, you may unleash your raw mana in the unique form of celestial fire.
[4] Your spells may now be used to rend the magic of your enemies into nothingness, or allow you to feed on the mana hidden even in base materials. You are suffused with raw magic, and may sculpt it into any shape you desire, or command it as one would a trained animal. You may revitalize extinguished natural nexi of mystical energies or drain similar places of their power.
[5] You may create a simulacrum of a beings, animated by your power and subject to all of your commands. You may steal the mystical energies from others through your spellcraft, and use it to your own ends. You may create Hallows; nexi of mystical energy, though this requires great effort. Alternatively you may instead create mystical dead zones where no mage may regain their expended energy.
Chapter 23
Secret Home
You have a pocket dimension of sorts with a small home inside, with a small traditional Japanese house and enough room for all kinds of pets. It can only be entered by following a specific secret path that you may change on a whim. A side benefit is that inside this pocket dimension the weather is generally mild all year long – even a hurricane outside will cause nothing more than a particularly strong downpour inside.
Chapter 24
Flight
You can fly, a power that is nigh-universal in Gensokyo. Flying as fast as you can walk is simple, and you can push yourself to fly faster, up to how fast you can run, which will tire you proportionately.
Chapter 25
Blood of Kings
Interesting. Whether through a trick of fate or a stubborn bloodline, you're related to one of the bloodlines of Belka that existed during the Warring Ages that led to its eventual collapse.
Darkness - This isn't exactly a 'bloodline' per se, but somehow, you're connected to the original program of the Book of Darkness. Your hair becomes white and your eyes turn red, and you bear more than a passing resemblance to Reinforce Eins. You've also retained the Book's function of collecting magical knowledge through a Rare Skill called Collect and Use, letting you drain a subject of their magical energy and copy their spells with near-perfect accuracy. With time, you can even copy other Rare Skills. You may not necessarily be able to use it depending on your own energy reserves, but you'll have a magical target's complete repertoire so long as you can absorb it.
Chapter 26
Mini-Hakkero
You have a mystical, magical furnace shaped like an octagon and made of hihi'irokane. Each corner is emblazoned with a different trigram with different powers, such as generating a lot of heat, producing a cool breeze for hot days, and the ability to amplify magic through it to blast a Master Spark – enough to reduce a mountain to ashes. As such a potent magical item, it's very handy for magical research too.
Chapter 29
Rainbow Notes
While mermaids are superior singers, humans invented the art of song to begin with. You are now gifted in the art of music composition, and can creatively piece together the notes and lyrics for new songs effortlessly. In fact, your songs are good enough such that, when sung or played by a magical being such as a mermaid, or someone with magical music like a fantasy bard, they have magical powers of their own. And the greatest thing about music is that it is a treasure that can be shared with anyone. You can teach your songs, even magical ones, to companions and other pupils willing to learn. Please also note that the perk also applies to other musical forms outside of singing, such as the piano, as well as other things such as dancing, prayers, and spell chants.
Gaster Blaster
This device, run on the user's own magical power, is a semi-autonomous magical weapon. Resembling a floating dragon's skull with glowing eyes, the Gaster Blaster is an extremely powerful magic device capable of shooting very powerful magical lasers of variable width. While it's very draining to use and are only effective at close range, being unable to operate beyond 10 meters of the user, the versatility and maneuverability of this weapon is unmatched in the Underground.
Chapter 30
Brainwashing
You know how to brainwash people. Through a ritual you can suppress a restrained target's mind and create a false personality to take control of their body. Unfortunately pain is capable of awakening the suppressed mind and allowing them to regain control.
Chapter 31
Play Along With Me
Music is the soul of mankind… and, well, your soul isn't in your body anymore so it makes perfect sense you'd be good at it, right? What? That doesn't make any sense? Well, who cares! Pick a single mundane musical instrument. You are now amazingly talented at playing said instrument. You can, if you wish, give magical abilities you have a 'musical' aesthetic by having the sounds of your chosen instrument play along with whatever sounds your magic makes...though this won't add anything except a personal touch to it, mind you. Go forth, Jumper. And play.
Chapter 32
Unbound Casting
By keeping yourself untethered, it seems that your magic has similar freedoms. Your magic does not seem to suffer the same ill effects of counterspells or antimagic fields as other mages might. Regardless of the mystical circumstances, it seems that you will be able to cast your spells at full effect so long as you manage to complete them properly (note; You may still be stopped or interrupted during your casting, and some creatures still have innate resistance to magic which this does not bypass. Your magic will simply be unimpeded by any ambient effects or willful acts of countermagic.)
Arcana Of Renewal
How do you think the Ardent's survive being strapped to pillars and burned? Because the same power they call upon to destroy can be used to heal. As an Arcana, you can heal injuries quickly.
Chapter 33
Understand Lunarian Science
You have a comprehensive knowledge of Lunarian science, the same scientific technology that built a post-scarcity immortal utopia on the moon. You can integrate this technology into things you build, such as making something that can run without any need for a power source, somehow drawing power from the moon itself.
Chapter 35
ANOMNOMNOMALIES
Covering Auriga are strange places full of strange things. These can be mushrooms that sing to you and make a delicious bread, giant spines of stone that erupt through the earth and are held in place by a base small enough for a child to wrap their hand around it, red barked trees that are covered in flames yet never burn to down, to a fabled "tree" a hundred feet tall, made purely out of wind blown Dust. You have a wonderful habit of finding each and everyone one of them. No matter where you are, there will always be some strange, Endless made wonder for you to explore, examine, and gain from. I happen to LOVE Mosspearl jam myself. You might be more keen on a Escaped Specimen X104 steak, served with ruby cacti fruit wine on a bed of sauteed redsang?
For ANOMNOMNOMALIES and Landscapist, an Anomaly is any thing, place, area, lifeform, that clearly breaks the laws of reality, or are so distinctly unusual they can not be considered natural. The Zone in STALKER is a good example of a nonEndless anomaly. The weirder and more unnatural a place is, the stronger its anomaly nature. One helps you find weird places, things, and items, the other helps you draw power from them.
Physical Enhancement
Magical girls have to be fit. But when a monster is bearing down on you on your first night, that's a bit late to hit the gym. Fortunately, your power includes some basic enhancements.
Muscles a dozen times as powerful, capable of letting you lift cars without hurting yourself, tossing people through walls, and running across rooftops.
A full-body reinforcement by the same factor, protecting you from your new strength, as well as making most enemy attacks into lighter punches. Not completely ignorable, but you'll take a good beating without going down.
Enhancements to balance and reflexes, as well as some acrobatics training settled into your mind so you can use your new abilities to roofhop and stand on telephone poles without issue.
Chapter 36
Landscapist
There are many anomalies that cover this world, their magic gleaned but not understood. You, you understand it. You have listened to the voices of the Rumbling Stones. You have won a staring contest with a Wizard's Eye. You have eaten the fruit of the Life Tree, and you understand. Whenever you are within an anomaly, your magic is more powerful, growing with the strength of anomaly. Inside a chroma land, your spells would be rainbow hued and blinding. While standing within the whispering confines of the Ice Sculptures your spells would deafen your foes and sound as music to your allies. If you stood upon the Dust Tree, maybe, just maybe, you'd be on par with an Endless. You also have a better understanding of all anomalies, and how to best benefit from them.
Chapter 37
Battle Forged
Everyone who's anyone here is a hardened warrior, so now you are too. With this comes an average human's talent in melee (including everything from general swordplay to hand-to-hand), ranged combat, or battle sorcery, which focuses on your typical heal/buff/elemental projectile trifecta. Skill in both magic and weaponry can be obtained for a loss in some effectiveness in both due to the split focus. Valkyrie essentially receives skill in all three, though they still must make a choice as to which melee weapon and ranged weapon they use and which combat type they're most proficient in.
Chapter 39
Absolute Configuration
I take back any comments I made about you lacking experience - that's clearly not the case here. Magical Girls have a limited, singular arsenal that's determined by the nature of their wish and their soul. No 'power ups' are really to be found here. You've found a way to compensate - do one thing and do it well. You are now an undeniable master of using a single weapon of your choosing (likely your magical weapon) - muskets? You're a sharpshooter that would put even experts to shame and never suffer from jamming. A sword? You may as well be a painter who only uses red when you're wielding that steel. This even applies to using said weapon unconventionally, like using a gun as a blunt weapon or throwing swords en masse.
But wait, there's more. You're an incredibly quick thinker and tactician, enough so that you could fight someone with time stop powers on even ground if you got the drop on them - figuring out the abilities and limitations of your opponent is something you can do in mere minutes, and you can plan ahead far enough in a combat situation to know how your opponent plans to take advantage of a weakness of yours without skipping a beat. Can they keep up with you?
Raiment
The raiment of a magical girl is usually frilly, will probably have ribbons or a bow, and almost always has a skirt. (I suggest you follow my lead and at least wear shorts or something underneath. See?)
While those might sound impractical to some Jumpers, especially those with more combat experience, don't worry: your raiment will never get caught in something, trip you up, or interfere with your movements. It'll even make sure your hair never does that either.
In addition, the raiment is technically a form of armor, so you can import existing armors into and import the transformation trinket into other armors later.
Chapter 40
Magic Circuits
Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.
Chapter 41
Yuuka's Parasol
Kazami Yuuka has been said to be one of the strongest class of Youkai, that even with a relatively unimpressive power of being able to manipulate flowers, she is able to stand her ground against reality warping Youkai with far more potent powers on paper. She carries with her a parasol made form a flower that would never wilt, one of the only examples of such in all of Gensokyo. And now, you have a copy of it. This parasol can cut through the sun's rays of the harshest summers, never falter through even the heaviest rainstorm, and is strong enough to deflect attacks with ease. It seems like this parasol has embodied some of Yuuka's powers, and will allow the wielder to manipulate flowers as if it were their second nature. However, its most impressive feat is the ability to allow the user to travel to a pocket dimension of their design, defaulting to a sunflower garden for their relaxation. Though, that can be changed permanently if the user wills so.
Chapter 42
Spell Cards
The Spell Card system was invented to ensure that youkai and humans could fight each other in a non-lethal way and on relatively even ground. Under a spell card duel, all attacks are toned down to non-lethal levels, and the ability to fire an aesthetically pleasing barrage of bullets in all directions is prized over creating undodgeable attacks or invulnerability (which are banned anyway). Accordingly, you too can tone any of your abilities down as low as simply performing pretty light shows, and as your artistic skills improve so will the beauty of your spell card attacks.
Chapter 44
Risen Legend(Formalcraft)
There is a poisonous fetishism at the heart of magus society, an obsession with the old and the mysterious. A toxic belief that all that we have now is just a pale imitation of what came before. Age is power, an old family serves a magus better, we must reach the origin of it all. That's just so much shit. Magecraft may lack the raw power and direct use of systems from earlier in history but the idea that it is useless is the thought of someone without the will to persevere. A true magus would not stop, not until they tear open a path beyond their limits.
You're living proof of the idea that magecraft being an inferior system is not necessarily as true as much of the Clocktower thinks. Whatever your own innate power, you have taken a chosen specialty of magecraft to obscene heights, the likes of which is only matched within magecraft by things like Aozaki Touko's doll making styles or the impossible Bounded Fields of Araya Souren. Whatever your chosen field of study is, you're certainly one of the greatest users in many generations, if not centuries outright. Your spells within that field are stronger, cheaper, faster and far more skillfully controlled than any hopeful peers. Your knowledge and skill is near total, at least in regards to existing knowledge on the field, and you have the sheer talent to continually push the limits and learn impossible spells and actions, like discovering how to make Bounded Fields mobile around a person. It's far easier than normal, almost springing into your mind, to discover ways to combine other magic and magecraft you know into your chosen field to expand and empower it even further. As a finishing touch, whatever path you choose has revealed to you a method of immortality, a way to make yourself not just unaging but outright harder to kill in general. Touko's famous immortality puppet network as a sterling example.
In future worlds, you'll find anything similar enough to your chosen specialty will receive all the same effects. A brilliant alchemist here will be one in the future too. You may also buy this perk multiple times.
Chapter 45
The Leaner
Well, as you're certainly the newcomer here in this world, you've got a lot to learn. You learn new things 10 times as fast until you reach what would be considered an average level of proficiency. You also get a flat ×2 multiplier to any form of learning or training that you do. You can also learn innate traits of other beings, although it will be harder to do so than normal.
Arcanum
You may ward your sanctum against intrusion, forbidding entrance to certain objects, creatures or individuals, for space itself bares their passage. You may see into many places at once as well as binding or severing sympathetic connections as you are able. If you desire it, you may use your magics to transform a door into a portal to nearly anywhere else in the world.
You are very nearly unbound in space. You may be in more than one place at once, with the aid of appropriate arcana, though your spatial doppelgangers may never meet. You may use the threads of space to entangle enemies or bind them to a given location. You may travel without motion, disappearing and reappearing as you cross the illusion of distance. If necessary you may step into the gap between spaces, waiting in an impermanent tiny universe until you are needed.
You are able to alter the amount of space an object takes up, reducing a house to the size of a cat, or making a lonely road stretch out near infinitely. Just as you are able to be in several places at once, so to may you draw objects, places and even other people into a similar disassociated state of being; allowing them to be in more than one place at the same time. You may conceal locations within gaps in space, and twist the bonds of it to ensure that no mortal is ever able to find it. If you desire, you may ensnare others in twisting roads and winding paths with neither origin or destination.
Chapter 46
Mark of Tzeentch
Either on your body or permanently upon your soul, Tzeentch leaves a mark of his claim on your service. The Mark of Tzeentch causes your intellect to swell massively, and you'll find that even the most difficult mental tasks are child's play to you. You can easily translate languages that are completely new to you with even a small amount of information on the language itself, and information that would threaten the sanity of a stern mind is easily accepted by you as a simple truth, nothing more. Lastly, you have the basic capacity to utilize the Winds of Magic, and you are a decent sorcerer currently.
Chapter 47
Blessing Without End
Blessing of Destruction: Destruction is a strange being. Having long since grown tired of his duty as the embodiment of destruction and abandoned it to instead pursue (very flawed, due to his nature as the opposite) attempts at creation instead. With his favor, you gain insight into the structure of all things, and more to the point, the weakest points in the structures. Whenever you wish to destroy something, be it a simple physical object, a vast conspiracy, or something more abstract, you will always know where it is most vulnerable.
Chapter 48
Carcass Spark
An ember of a most radiant light. This spark never fades or burns without reason, and can consume materials and souls alike to grow like a bonfire. Its fire remembers the exact moment where all stones become water
Chapter 49
The Inspiration of Madness
Insanity is not something maligned amidst skaven society, as it is amidst the man-thing villages. Skryre's Warlock-Engineers are, one and all to a member, the most addle-brained and unstable of the rat-men to date - yet it was their madness that led to the creation of so many technological marvels. The warp-lightning rails that connect the great under-cities, such as Under-Altdorf and Hell Pit. The Doomwheels. The Skitter-Gates. Ratling mini-guns and poison wind and augmentation chemicals and all the myriad of spells that make the Warlock-Engineers a minor apocalypse upon the field. All born from diseased minds.
You count yourself as "inspired" as these demented predecessors of yours - a madness coming over your brain-meats. While this madness may be debilitating in any day-to-day interaction, it shines when you set to work. The magics you use and the technologies you set to experiment with and create will seem to branch, weave, intersect, and spark in ways that would never occur to a healthier mind. In short, through your mad eyes and addled brain, you can create and discover new spells, machinery, scientific theories, and interactions between the three that would never occur naturally even through rigorous years of study and experimentation. Creations that mock the very idea of common sense and decency, and violate every sense and sensibility.
Chapter 50
Fallen Goddess
You didn't come down to this world without picking up a bit of extra spark along the way. You're a former Goddess now, a divine being that has lost a large portion of its power but still retains incredible abilities and varied powers. Just for being what you are, your beginning stats in this world are far higher, equal to an end game adventurer. You are also able to draw magical energy from any who worship you in this world, though this particular trait won't persist past this world without a certain perk. As a Goddess, you also have a series of purviews over which you hold divine power. You may pick up to three different things to hold power over, such as Water, Luck or The Arts. You'll find yourself blessed in regards to these things, effortlessly skilled in anything relating to them and with vastly more power when you use magic associated with your purviews.
You also have an innate affinity to your purviews which may provide passive abilities, such as being immune to heat damage if you pick Fire. You will also choose whether you are a good or evil Goddess, though this won't affect your actual morality. Instead it will give you either a Holy or Unholy attribute, respectively. You'll gain an immensely powerful aura for which attribute you choose, such that a Holy Goddess could kill high level undead with a single tear due to the holy energy infused within or badly harm them with a touch. It will empower any Holy or Unholy abilities greatly too. Lastly, buying this will boost any capstone perks or items that you purchase, as detailed in the notes section at the end of this document.
Chapter 51
Ritual Maker
Hard work pays off, and you, jumper, have spent quite some time studying the occult. With this power you can now create rituals through which others may temporarily access your perks or powers. These rituals can involve anything from chants, to performances, to tools, or even reagents, and if you've purchased the Rites of Initiation, you may even require one or more Principles from this world to be invoked using influences or affinity. All rituals must require at least 10 minutes to prepare and cast, but you can otherwise set the terms and conditions freely. Know that after imbuing any power into a ritual, that specific power will be much weaker for a few days, and unless the ritual has stringent conditions, anyone with the appropriate knowledge may use it.
Chapter 52
Arch-Sorcerer
The servants of Tzeentch are more connected to the Winds of Magic than any other beings of the Gods. Whether others desire to admit it or not, the truth is the same: All magic comes from the realms of Chaos, and Tzeentch is the controller of magic. All other theories are simply fools attempting to deny being truly damned. For your dedication to Tzeentch, he will make you mighty indeed, for as magic is his, his magic is yours. You ability to use the Winds of Magic to your own ends is impressive, and you will come to find that your magical abilities from other jumps have been boosted greatly. Where one meddler of magic would cause a rapidly growing fire, you would cause a impressive maelstrom of fire that torches all it touches.
Chapter 53
Graveyard Rose
Most of your Order are scrawny and pale, with voices the dusty tone of the long dead. And yet, one among you is known for her terrifying allure. Like Elspeth von Draken, the energies of death which now suffuse your form have made you beautiful in a grim and chilling way. Those who look upon you will at once be rapt in admiration and shaken in terror.
Favor of Lords
The Grey Seers keep, tightly locked under key and claw, the secret to creating the gnaw-holes into The Horned One's realm. To call forth the greatest of the ratfolk in existence, the Greater Daemons of The Horned Rat - The Verminlords, as great and powerful as any of the northmen's Princes. The Seers keep this tool not only to cow a clan or five with the threat of summoning one such Lord to the material realm - but also because the Verminlords are bloodthirsty and murderous creatures with their own millenia-long schemes and plans. The risk is always there that the first to die to a Verminlord is the Seer that summoned them.
Funny that the same doesn't go for you. You, Seer, start out on "amicable" terms with the Verminlords in the Horned One's Realm (as amicable as can be said for skavendom). You can contact the Lords for assistance or advice without need of lengthy and convoluted rituals, and can indeed summon them onto the field of battle without risk of being the first victim or meal. As well, you'll find that this friendly relationship can be cultivated with other daemonic, aetherial, and similar otherworldly creatures with remarkable ease - such as the Greater Daemons, Daemon Princes, and servitors of the greater four Gods of Chaos. Though you may come to factor into their own plans and schemes as a pawn or goal, you'll never need fear horrific death or torture at the hands of your newfound "allies."
Chapter 54
Alice Doll
A masterwork doll skillfully crafted by Alice Margatroid, utilizing such advanced magitech that an artificial soul was able to be implanted into the doll in order to create a fully sentient, autonomous being. This doll is completely loyal to you, and is surprisingly adept at combat despite its size, but specialize in mundane housework above all.
Frangiclave
The master key of the world, and the most powerful tool of the Principle of Knock. The Frangiclave is a key that doesn't so much open locks, but rather utterly destroys them.
Chapter 57
Superior Being
Queens in Wonderland often stand out by being the best (in some ways at least) of the "species" they represent and rule over. Your basic stats are enhanced to be slightly above the average member of your species; any additional boosts to your stats are stacked up on this initial enhancement. In addition, the perk makes those of the same species of your current form more willing to follow and obey you; if you change species between forms, you also change who you affect with your charisma for this perk.
Creating Spirits
Creating new youkai is a trivial task for you, even ones for ideas that have yet to exist, though you utterly lack any inherent control over them. You could easily flood Gensokyo with new youkai and throw the lands into chaos if you really wanted to. This is by far the most feared of Okina's true abilities, as it threatens the delicate power balance of Gensokyo. You can also change what, exactly, these new youkai need to survive – creating youkai that draw from your own power instead of fear, for instance.
Chapter 58
Atlas of Dreams
An occult journal that maps the dark side of the world. This atlas can guide anyone to anywhere, even places outside of reality, provided the user has a destination in mind. Do remember that some places are harder to reach than others.
Fairy Dress
A lovely outfit made from various plants that is designed by the finest of fairy clothiers to reflect your personality and abilities as a fairy. Neverland flora never truly dying even when plucked, the clothes remain completely fresh, and will regrow if damaged.
Tome of Secrets
This journal looks completely unassuming at first glance, but when one looks inside they will find that no matter how many pages they turn, the journal will simply have more pages available, the texts on those pages perfectly preserved regardless of the conditions. This will make an excellent place to write down information you keep to keep but also remain private, for if any who are not welcome attempt to take or open the book will be on the receiving end of a powerful blast of magic that will likely take off their hands and arms. The book will also magically notify you that an intruder is attempting to steal your precious secrets.
Chapter 59
Blessing without End
Blessing of Delirium: Once Delirium was known as Delight, but some event forever altered the youngest of the Endless into a twisted form. With the favor of Delirium, you never need fear this same fate. Your mind is a rock upon which madness breaks. Nothing, be it the passage of eternity or staring into the eyes of the Old Ones, may so much as scratch your sanity.
Friend of Fairies
Fairies, magical nature spirits that favor the light, though fickle and unorganized beings with no shared culture or civilization. The threat of their magic potentially supporting Zelda's armies was enough to have Cia begin hunting them at the dawn of the war.
In this world, fairies can be roughly divided into two groups of beings. Normal fairies like Link's speaker Proxi resemble small girls that could fit in the palm of your hand, each with insect wings and a magnificent glow that makes them appear as balls of light to those not close enough.
The other kind are Great Fairies, resembling giant red headed women with bizarre, revealing clothing and aquiline noses. Normal fairies live in the woods, while Great Fairies reside within fairy fountains and appear when prayed too.
Now, they and any other nature spirit you may find just loves you. Outside of just not being tricked by the more mischievous ones, you'll often find them coming to see you and generally being friendly unless you go out of your way to upset them. This is great, since both types have powerful magic, with Great Fairies turning the tides of numerous battles in the war.
Chapter 60
Waltzing with the Reaper
To be a Magus is to walk with death. The very act of using what we call magic, of mixing the Mana of the air with the Od of your body to create Prana and circulate it into your Magic Circuits, is something that has inherent danger. To accept that knowledge and revel in it is to take on the air of something more than human. The petty concerns of human life fade somewhat, making it so much easier to retain the sophistication and grace expected of a refined member of the Association. It requires a will stronger than normal people to brush up against death and that same will, in a rather less dramatic application, is something that allows most Magi to withstand the long hours of study, research and constant requirement for creative thinking when it comes to learning magecraft. Exam hell doesn't even begin to describe it, when you're studying to make sure you don't incinerate yourself from the inside out!
"When the loli is mass-produced: An introduction to cloning"
This book, by a famous Scandinavian Alchemist, details the fundamentals behind custom construction of human bodies, and then implantation of memories into them. When handled by a sufficiently skilled Alchemist, one can learn how to automate this process and the mechanics behind copying, implanting and transferring memories.
Chapter 61
Talent
Each fairy is born with an innate talent that defines her role in Neverland and what sort of magic she has. If you do not buy a talent, you will get a lot of strange looks from your fellow fairies. The power of the talent is proportional to your size. It is possible to teach your talent(s) to others, though it will take quite some time for them to learn anything more than minor little tricks (it's easier when you are teaching people with innate affinity for your talent); in turn, you might be able to learn a couple things from other talents, but not nearly as much as you would with it as your talent. Also, your control over your talent is enhanced with the One Feeling at a Time perk. Shoot the Birdie! lets you take leadership over people who specialize in/practice your talent.
Art- You are constantly inspired to produce various works of art, but your greatest strength lies in painting. For you, painting is not merely a physical skill, but a magical one, as you can literally determine the color of things by painting them. Any change you make to a target's color becomes its true, permanent color unless you use a new paint. The colors will also enhance certain traits and strengths of the subject depending on the symbolism; for instance, blue embodies depth and stability, while orange represents joy and excitement. And if the colors should belong on something else, it can become that thing; for instance, painting stripes on a horse makes it a zebra, and painting a dome brown or white could turn it into an earthy hill or an igloo respectively. This ability also allows you to change the seasons by painting leaves either green or orange; once you paint enough of them the same color, the world will conclude that it must be time for that season and change accordingly.
Chapter 62
Mind's Eye
Your affinity to Secret Histories manifests through your sight, allowing you to see in low light conditions and through supernatural illusions.
Specialties (Nomad's Desert Life)
Surviving in the Desert Lands is a struggle. You gain an ability to conserve water, ride camels and a plethora of common desert survival knowledge with a small boost to being able to go longer without water in hot climates. But the best thing is... you've learned how to create a cultural Taboo like what was once around the Desert Pyramid. Small children and their dares would be far too scared to ever cross your word, the common grave robber or thief would hesitate to tread within the boundaries of land the taboo is set on, but hardened souls with a purpose won't falter so easily. In other words it will keep the laymen off a property you own, but not the settings villains, big bads, or cronies sent by a villain to burn your house down. The rest? They'll think wherever you've set this is cursed. Surely keeping hapless common folk away from a set plot of land of yours where they could hurt themselves (or annoy you) is worth something right?
Chapter 63
Eternal Libary
Over the course of your life, you will learn so much of magic that it will become utterly impossible for a mortal to fully comprehend the extent of your mind, but with this warehouse attachment you might be able to help others stick their toes into the sea of your knowledge. This massive library can be access by a door in your warehouse that will automatically add books written from your magical knowledge. You could find absolutely every single magical technique you know somewhere in this library, and the library will keep expanding in size to accommodate your swelling intellect. The library will keep expanding and the books will come into existence with no upper limit, meaning that over the course of your adventures this could become the most complete source of magic knowledge in all of the multiverse.
Chapter 64
Elemental Seeds
An elemental seed is the condensed essence of an element, and they're almost exclusively produced by Druids or Mages capable of creating enchantments replicating their methods. They have various uses, such as powering enchantments or magical items, and are required in the process of giving an object an elemental ability. Druids also use them to introduce new elements into their Grove, and need them to cultivate their affinities past the 25% point. As such, each of them is fairly valuable, with the price skyrocketing once you go beyond the basic seven elements and to incredibly rare ones such as Time.
They are also pretty time intensive to make, requiring about an hour of work for each, even for people relatively skilled in their creation. But now, you won't ever have to worry about that, as you'll get a dozen Seeds for each of your affinities delivered either to your warehouse or another place you designate, every week. Their quality depends on the level of your affinities: from 5% to 25% you'll get low-grade ones, from 25% to 50% medium-grade ones, from 50% to 75% high-grade ones, and finally, from 75% up to 100% you'll get top-grade seeds.
Chapter 65
Sand Wand
This lovely little wand here has a magical ability to control sand, though admittedly only in a handful of preset forms. First off, it can cause sand to levitate, usually in the form of a cube. Basically, it slides it upwards a short distance, albeit only for a few seconds at a time. The range on this is quite nice, anywhere you can see AND, if you're absolutely certain that there's sand on the other side, even through walls. If you have magical energy to spare, it can even summon some sand for you to work with.
Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie Recipe
This is a recipe for home-made pie- Quite possibly the best pie ever made. If made using monster cooking techniques, a single slice of this is delicious enough to fully restore the consumer's vitality. However, the ingredients are rather specific, and to bring out its true potential, the pie must be home- cooked with fire magic. But the results... You simply can't argue.
Psychic Abilities - Cyberkinesis:The cyberkinetic will never need to remember another password again, as this level of power can override the need for one, and any other code besides. The psychic can force a computer to do anything it normally could, from granting them admin access, to erasing data, or forging emails with an account on the system. The more secure a given computer is, the harder it is to manipulate thus
The psychic can now force a computer or other machine to outperform itself, making it more effective at its function than should be possible for it, at the cost of damaging the electronic
Song-Maiden:You were born with a beautiful voice and an amazing talent for song. Other people picked up on this, and all your life you've received formal training to enhance your singing even further, and turn it to more nefarious purposes. When used on the field of battle, your songs can fill soldiers with vast amounts of courage, hope and a will to fight, clearing them of any concerns like surrender, retreat, or hesitation and ensuring they'll fight to the death for your cause or the cause of your superiors as long as you continue to sing. Your voice alone can turn the very tide of battle. Restrained and judicious use can mitigate the downsides to this and be used heroically, but abuse will see you reviled as a witch or a monster for all the senseless death you cause.
Chapter 2
Magus Education(Formalcraft):An official education! The proper way for a magus to learn his arts, to travel to the famed Clocktower institution and learn from the greatest, and most egotistical, minds of the Mages' Association. Even if you're some country bumpkin from the Far East, you've had the chance to get a formalized education and degree at the Clocktower over the course of four to eight years. It taught you all the basics of being a Magus, such as decent capability with Formalcraft, Reinforcement, Gradation Air, and Hypnotism. The core arts of any magus, as well as a general familiarity with the supernatural world. You also took on something of a specialty, possibly even a family legacy you inherited, in magecraft. In a field of modern magecraft, you've made a name as having decent potential. An amateur to any professional but in your chosen field, from a rookie Alchemist to a burgeoning Elementalist to a spirit user or something more specific, you've got a few years training on the other students with no ability at all. Your time there also lets you gain a few friends and contacts at the Association, mostly classmates and perhaps a faculty member or two.
Chapter 3
Bullet Patterns:Magic is part of being a monster- It's literally a part of you! As such, all monsters have at least a rudimentary understanding of White Magic- That is to say, they can use magic to attack. Like almost all magic, this magic directly attacks the SOUL of an opponent and does not actually physically harm them- They might show bruises, cuts, or other superficial signs of damage, but otherwise the pain is all felt on a spiritual level. Since magic is so tied to their being, a monster's innate magic is invariably representative of their personality or appearance- A frog-like monster might use flies to attack, a skeleton might use bones, or a dog might use... dog-shaped attacks. This innate magic is typically rudimentary and easy to avoid, but many monsters prefer to use their bullet patterns as a way of expressing themselves rather than use them as actual attacks.
Chapter 4
Sorcery - Enchantment (One-Three Dots): The sorcery of creating items with magical abilities and properties. The creation of such items generally takes three days per dot required to make it. [1] The Enchanter creates a minor item with limited use only and a tight area of influence. Such as a jacket that works as abnormally good camouflage in a crowd, or glasses that never fog. The Enchanter creates a more powerful talisman that is noticeable as magic. A flask that blocks three bullets and no more, objects that increase a mundane skill by a noticeable amount when used. The Enchanter creates a talisman whose function is obviously magical. Shoes that double running speed, a charm that can protect its wearer from magic three times a day.
Chapter 5
Sorcery - Chronomancy (One Dot-Five Dots):
The magical power to manipulate time. However, it cannot divine information about the past or future, instead altering the flow of time within the present.
[1] The chronomancer gains the ability to keep track of time perfectly, detecting its passage
more precisely than any watch, and also sensing distortions in time as well as being significantly
harder to surprise.
[2] The chronomancer knows how to orient themselves in time to better perform any action that requires precise timing. This spell must be cast before performing the action.
[3] The chronomancer may now accelerate their own personal timeline, allowing them to perform actions and movements in what others perceive as a fraction of the time.
[4] Just as the sorcerer altered their own personal timeline, they may now affect the timelines of others, accelerating them or slowing them down, severely hampering their battle prowess in the process.
[5] This level of chronomancy allows its user to pause time in a small area, up to a square yard, for a short period. Under stressful situations, this spell can last up to fifteen seconds, while in calmer straights it can last up to five minutes. Anything that enters the paused area will also become frozen, though objects only partially within the area of paused time can be manipulated from the outside.
Chapter 6
Undead-Traits
You are undead. Between life and death. Your flesh and organs have long since rotted from your body, leaving you as naught but bones, animated by your own soul. Your soul remains within your body as a result of countless rituals and spells performed over your form prior to and during your burial. As an undead, you do not age. You have no requirements or ability to do bodily functions such as eating, drinking, sleeping or breathing. You have no organs to damage or blood to bleed. The only way to kill you would be to smash up your bones till nothing the size of a skull or larger remains.
You are enchanted so that, even despite lacking muscles or skin, you can move with superhuman strength and speed, as well as move and think at all. Whilst many lesser Nehekharan undead require the presence of a Liche Priest to maintain awareness and only have the most basic of personalities, you have no requirement for support from a Liche Priest and you maintain your full cognitive functions in this form. However, as you are just old bones, you are quite vulnerable to fire, despite the relative sturdiness of your form.
Brunestud
Crimson Moon Brunestud. The Ultimate One of the Moon, who made a pact with Gaia in order to create a race - the True Ancestors - to corral humanity. But this luminous being had its own agenda, wanting to make a suitable vessel able to exist within Gaia's laws and possessed enough purity for it to take over and then enact his own will upon the world. There are three suitable vessels on the planet - Arcueid Brunestud, Altrouge Brunestud… and you. Whether your body had enough 'purity' for Crimson Moon to consider as a candidate for being their vessel or you were some misbegotten attempt at replicating the True Ancestors, a 'fragment' of Crimson Moon exists within your soul. This fragment is a mix of of your own and Crimson Moon, so imagine yourself except more vampiric and with a persistent desire to wipe out humanity in any form. While you may use their power as per the perk Brunestud normally and regardless of their approval, being able to reconcile or come to an understanding with this personality will enable that fragment to grow stronger at a faster rate, becoming more and more of what the Ultimate One once was
First, you are able to manifest a copy of Millennium Castle Brunestud, a piece of Type-Moon's Reality Marble where his influence is the strongest, at will (curiously, even if you lack MarblePhantasm) and dwell within it. You may change the interior of the castle to your will, making anything from a luxurious manor to an eldritch hell only a monster could find comfortable. Your connection also causes your power, even those not tied to your nature as a True Ancestor, to wax and wane with the phases of the moon - during the night of a new moon, there is no change, but during a full moon, your strength and powers are magnified several times over. And when you dwell within the Castle itself, your power is always at its peak from this boost, functioning the same as the night of a full moon. An ordinary human (as miraculous as it maybe) with this could lift a tank one-handed on the night of a full moon. The might of a True Ancestor is likewise increased even further than before in the light of the moon, letting you outmatch others of your kind save for your two 'siblings'. Perhaps in a few centuries, this fragment' could grow into something matching the original...though that night is far, far away.
Chapter 7
The Way This Works
This world follows the same rules that it seems every new world does these days. On entering this world, you were given an Adventurer's Card which we'll describe later and the ability to gain and use skill points to level up. Skill Points are gained by killing monsters or other living beings and are automatically collected from them when the deed is done. Gather enough and you will be able to level up on your adventurer's card, increasing your base stats and learning or upgrading your existing Skills with your new points. You can't learn something you don't have the ability to learn, haven't been taught or that isn't part of your class. Ah, and Class? Another thing you'll automatically receive. This'll dictate your general stat growth through levelling up here and the sort of skills you can automatically learn and unlock via just skill points. Any fantasy RPG class can be taken, though your origin will limit you to specific types.
Adventurer Card
The sign of your adventuring nature. This is your Status Sheet, effectively. It denotes your level, statistics and any special abilities that you have. It's also proof that you're an adventurer and will give a good idea of how strong you are and how good an adventurer you are. If you ever lose it, it'll appear right back in your hand the next time you need it. You use the card to level up with skill points in this world, so don't let anyone else get a hold of it if you've got unspent points.
Chapter 8
Gnosis
The root of all magic. Gnosis is a measure of how close you are to the supernal world. Higher Gnosis provides many benefits; Rituals will take less time, your mana pool is larger, and you may learn higher levels of Arcana. As a Mage you have one rank in Gnosis free. You may obtain a maximum of five ranks here or over the course of the jump, but cannot reach archmastery (higher than five gnosis) until post-spark. A higher Gnosis is also a danger as the higher it is the more likely a paradox is to occur when you use vulgar magic. When a paradox is invoked, its power will be equivalent to the level of your Gnosis.
Arcanum (Basic)
Arcana are the various expressions of supernal truths in the fallen world. Specifically, they represent a given branch or type of magic that a Mage may specialize in. The various ranks of mastery displayed below denote the level of a given type of spell a Mage is able to cast. Higher level spells require higher Gnosis to use and will likely cost more mana to cast/maintain. It should be noted however that the higher ones Gnosis and the higher the level of spells they have access to, the greater the chance of causing a paradox is. The effects of magic that cause the greatest and most wondrous effects (i.e. creating earthquakes o granting a machine sentience) all risk paradox and may result in a backlash even against an experienced Mage. For this reason overt expressions of magic are denoted as "vulgar" whereas the subtle effects that do not cause paradox are called "covert".
Prime
[1] You may perceive raw mana, and by extension magic in its untouched state. You are always aware when magic is being cast and where it interacts or intersects with all other things. You may see through mystical illusions as they are made of mana and so always look like mana to you.
[2] You may manipulate raw mana for a variety of uses. You may force a spell or mystical artifact to yield its purpose, function and proper use. You may also transcribe your own mystical knowledge (and those of others) into grimoires for use by others of the mystical persuasion.
Space
[1] You may view the tapestry of space and can discern the location of nearby hidden things, assuming you know what you are looking for. You are aware when others have tampered with space, such as when one has teleported or created a portal. You may even trace sympathetic connections, determining the strength and emotional weight held between people and objects.
Chapter 9
Power Overwhelming
If one thing above all else defines a dragon, it is POWER! You contain within you the might of an entire raging storm, a torrent to drown any insects who try and match their magic to yours, and the physical strength to snap steel chains as if they were a minor irritant.
Chapter 10
Dust Attunement
Dust is naturally drawn to you. Wherever you go, Dust will come to you. Swirling in plumes and clouds, the brilliant golden Dust is pulled to you, gathering around and on you. While it may sound messy, are you really going to complain about being powdered in the most precious substance on the planet? Every mile you travel, you find roughly one Dust coin. Staying in one place gives you about 10 a day. This requires Dust to be present of course. It prefers dry, hot places, although it goes congeal around anomalies and buried in stone fields.
Chapter 11
Class Card Heart
Through some manner you have permanently gained the abilities of a chosen class card. You are free to choose any class card from the items list and wield its abilities naturally.
Archer
The Class Card of the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA.
Include: Limit Expand. This allows you to summon a noble phantasm that is in the form of a weapon.
Install: Phantasm Summon. This allows you to gain the abilities of a servant and their noble phantasms.
Parameters of skills and noble phantasms are more a ranking of how they are compared to fellow servants.
Cards can be installed for as long as your magical energy can sustain them, after being uninstalled they will require an hour before being able to be used again.
Parameters:
Strength: E
Mana: C
Endurance: D
Luck: E
Agility: D
Class Skills:
Independent Action: C - Independent Action is the ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from the Master. At the higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. For the purposes of the Class Cards this allows you to keep them installed for longer.
Magic Resistance: E - Magic Resistance grants protection against magical effects. Differently from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. At rank E it cannot cancel spells, but magic damage is reduced somewhat.
Personal Skills:
Clairvoyance: D - Clairvoyance connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this skill have acquired such abilities as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). At rank D Capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of two kilometers.
Eye of the Mind (True): C - Eye of the Mind (True) is a heightened capacity for observation, refined through experience. At rank B it is capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 10% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning.
Magecraft: C - Magecraft is knowledge about modern Thaumaturgy. At rank C is capable of using orthodox Thaumaturgy. Archer's rank in using Projection Magic when the target falls under the category of "sword" is A+.
Noble Phantasm:
Unlimited Bladeworks: E~EX - Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords is the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA. Emiya does not have a true Noble Phantasm that is the crystallized embodiment of a hero's existence like many demonic or holy swords, but if a Noble Phantasm is considered to be a symbol of the Heroic Spirit, then the Reality Marble is his Noble Phantasm. It is high-class thaumaturgy that embodies their internal worlds and imprints them upon the world as a bounded field. It is their one true specialization of magecraft, the result of "Sword" being both their Origin and their Elemental Affinity, and the basis of their projection and reinforcement skills. It is the definite answer obtained by someone whose life was saved by a sword, actually merged and lived with a sword, and acted as a sword all of his life. Emiya has no penalties from the world while utilizing his version of Unlimited Blade Works.
The Reality Marble's purpose is a steel manufacturing factory that produces the countless famous swords without owners that extend into the horizon. It contains all of the raw materials and sorcery needed for the formation of the weapons, and it records and analyzes all weapons and defensive armaments encountered. The number of unique weapons encountered and recorded by Archer exceeds numerous thousands, most of which are Noble Phantasms. Their entire histories, compositions, and designs are all perfectly recorded, allowing for instant proficiency with the weapons by inheriting all combat skills and techniques utilized by their original owners. This allows for the reproduction of Noble Phantasms, which would generally be impossible for a faker.
They can also be modified to the user's taste with reinforcement as shown by Archer's Caladbolg II and Kanshou and Bakuya. Close combat weapons such as swords, spears, and halberds are the main focus of the Reality Marble in accordance with Emiya's Origin of "Sword", which also makes it impossible to record or reproduce modern weaponry like guns and other mobile weapons. Shields and defensive armaments can be reproduced with a much greater struggle, as the cost in magical energy is high, two or three times greater than a sword, and the effects are merely transient compared to the originals. Weapons encountered are immediately analyzed with a single glance, enabling them to be projected immediately afterward, and once projected, they are stored within the Reality Marble for later use. Shiro is able to instantly recognize dozens of weapons being fired from the Gate of Babylon at an extremely high rate and instantly counter with projections of the same weapons before they can strike.
The analysis of weapons is limited only to the direct use of human senses, meaning that blueprints and materials will be unable to provide the necessary information for a proper analysis. Shared memories, such as dreams shared with a Servant, can allow for weapons to be analyzed and projected, even if they have been lost like Caliburn. The quality of projected weapons will always be degraded by one rank due to humans being unable to fully conceptualize the existence of an object through only one sense, and they will never equal the originals without a technique such as detonating them as Broken Phantasms. The Reality Marble allows for projection and reinforcement in the real world. Weapons are produced within Unlimited Blade Works and then brought into the world, greatly lowering the cost of reproducing them and allowing for numerous weapons to be prepared at once to be projected. Weapons can be summoned directly to the user's hands, or they can be summoned to levitate within the air and fire upon the enemy as arrows much like the Gate of Babylon. Once the Reality Marble is deployed, all of the weapons are available for use, and any weapon can immediately be called to the user's hands or levitated even while the user is in direct combat. The weapons reproduced once the Reality Marble is first activated will not consume magical energy, but those used or destroyed within it will add to the cost of maintaining the bounded field. The amount of energy used to reproduce weapons that did not exist after the bounded field was expanded and the amount of energy used to recreate weapons destroyed while it is activated is extremely costly.
Komainu
You have a komainu, a lion-dog statue that watches menacingly over wherever you wish to put it. When you need it, perhaps when trespassers try to break in, it will spring to life (and naturally, turn into a cute girl) to defend you. While in statue form, it's semi-aware and can remember things such as who looked after the statue when it was not needed and keep a careful watch for potential enemies.
Chapter 12
Arcana of Matter
Dust is everything. You need to simply tell it what to become. With this Arcana, you can turn a handful into any portable object, a bag into something it'd take a couple people to lift, or an entire barrel into a hasty fortification.
Chapter 13
Magic Circuits
Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.
Mercenary Retainer
You can form a dozen armed human mercs, or six monsters, for use in your schemes. The troops aren't elite, but they are professional. If any of them die while carrying out your orders, you'll have to wait a week before summoning more firepower. If purchased twice, you have access to a team of up to 36 humans or half of that in monsters.
Chapter 15
Shard of a Selfless Wish
A wish that truly gives back to others, yet asks for nothing in return...such a thing isn't meant to exist in this world, yet, here it is. And such a thing could perhaps change the world. Holding onto this pink shard increases your own magical power greatly and gradually replenishes lost energy. 'Burning' this shard will let you dramatically increase your magical power tenfold, though the boost is temporary and will be lost afterwards until your next jump. Notably, any magic given towards aiding or healing others without any expectation of a reward, karmic or otherwise, are most powerful when used with this Shard.
Chapter 17
Sleight of Hand
You've had a good deal of practice at stage magic, street magic, or something in between. In addition to great skill at card tricks and various other illusions, you're none too shabby at picking locks and pockets. With some practice, you may even be good enough to do things like steal a watch right off of someone's wrist.
Chapter 18
Mother Knows Best
Mothers are highly treasured on the island, and you bring with you the talent of a (childish) mother. You are skilled in multitasking, and can cook, clean, darn socks, sew pockets onto clothes (even ones that weren't made for pockets to begin with), and in general look after a large number of children, even rowdy ones, effortlessly. Plus, you give these different things a "mother's touch": beds you make will feel cozier, clothes you make/sew will feel more comfortable, rooms you clean up will make people feel more at home, etc.; this may therefore enhance other domestic-oriented perks you have. You also become a skilled storyteller – at least one for children's tales – and can easily recall classic tales or invent your own; you can even take existing stories and give your own unique flair to them, such that Cinderella fights off pirates with a revolver, while retaining the wonder of the original. Moreover, it gives you an aura of respectful motherhood that makes anyone with the form of a child (even beings that are actually much older) much more likely to behave like a child and follow your instructions when you are present, with your control increasing the more you act like their mother. You can even have an effect on people with an older physical form if they long for a mother (it helps that the perk makes people more likely to want you to be their mother).
Chapter 19
Soul Gem
As part of your contract with Kyubey, your soul has been partially separated from your body. It is contained within a tiny gem with a color and aesthetic matching your personality and your wish...well, what WOULD have been your wish if you chose a background, or just a look that 'fits' for Drop-In. The benefits to this state are as follows:
Unaging - You do not physically age from the point of your contract onwards.
Magical Body - You can transform into a Magical Girl form by activating the Soul Gem, where it will rest on a part of your body either embedded onto your skin or as a piece of jewelry (it can remain in this form in your 'civilian' persona, as well). This creates a 'projection' around your physical form that is much more physically athletic and can take a lot of physical punishment with only some of the damage and the pain. Being knocked around or juggled by a powerful Wraith is still an unpleasant and painful experience, but you'd have a good chance of surviving the first few attacks instead of immediately dying like an ordinary person would. It's in this form that you can use your Magic, detailed below. Even better? As long as your Soul Gem is still intact, you can use magical energy to regenerate your body even if you were just a smoldering pile of ash, though this takes time and is a huge drain on your resources - you're more likely to disappear without a full 'tank' of energy ready than completely regenerate from a single cell. You will also be conscious through the entire experience, so...try not to get to that point.
Magical Girls, Represent! - As a bonus, your 'transformed state' has a neat costume and aesthetic of your choosing. It doesn't change its function, but if you want to wear a pretty dress into battle or look like an armored knight of some kind, you can. Just note that what you choose remains the same unless you find another way to modify it.
That said, this isn't all sunshine and pink dresses. There are some downsides.
No Wish For You - I'm holding onto that wish of yours until we're finished with your chain. Believe me, it is not worth cashing in here.
Energy Requirements - Everything I explained above, and the Magic it powers, is a product of the Soul Gem. The Soul Gem only has so much energy to spend and for the duration of this jump, you can only regain energy by using the remnants of Wraiths after defeating them. While you generally won't have to worry about this if you pick your fights wisely, using a huge amount of power or coming back from atomization will put you in the red fairly quickly. Your mood will also dampen and become increasingly manic and depressed the more severe your energy deficit is. This also ties into…
It's Called a Soul Gem For A Reason You Moron - The Soul Gem literally houses your soul. If you're separated from it (more than a small room's distance would do it), your body will drop dead and start decomposing, utterly helpless until the Gem is returned to it. You have no motor control or awareness in the Soul Gem itself, to boot. What's more, it's amazingly fragile and if destroyed, will instantly kill you. Hm? You can survive this somehow? Then your Soul Gem will reform with you, but it will lose the same amount of energy needed to restore your body from the ground-up. You'll need to 'refill' quickly.
Game Over - If your Soul Gem is destroyed (without some way to cheat death) or you exhaust all of your energy, you suffer the same fate as other Magical Girls and vanish from existence.
Chapter 20
Enhanced Dexterity
You are graceful and quick, able to move with great dexterity and aim with deadly precision. Your eyesight is also clearer and lets you take in more details than you could outside of your Magical Girl form. This can be bought multiple times, letting you keep up with a long-term firefight even as you're being juggled in the air.
Master Craftsman
You are a master of crafts and trades, from weapon-smithing to alchemy and more. This gives you the requisite knowledge, experience and skills to create and craft any item that you want, with the right materials. The items that you make tend to last for a long time without maintenance and are unlikely to break before their owners, along with it only costing a tenth of the original materials to make without sacrificing any quality and beauty. With enough time, research and materials, you can recreate any magical item that you can get your hands on with the same quality. The items that you have already made can also be mass produced by you at a faster rate and even less materials than before. This skill doesn't give you the ability to make items at the height of a god with a similar purview but your breadth of applicability should be broader. Through, with enough time and experience you could reach the level of a god's purview but it would take decades with only this perk.
Chapter 21
Origin
It's not really possible to determine the value of a human life or one individual's character with a single word...at least, most of the time. Still, every life in this world has a single defining word for them - a compulsion and an instinct that their actions move in harmony with.You also possess such an Origin, such as 'Taboo' or 'Nostalgia', which guides your actions towards it. Any actions you follow that line up with your Origin, particularly Magecraft, will enjoy a noticeable boost in competence as you work in tune with your own nature in this world.
Aquapulvistics
Where there is water, there is Dust. You know how to sift a sizable amount of Dust from any flowing water source. The larger the source, the more you can extract. Useless in Winter, but that's years away, right? Even after you leave Auriga, you still manage to find Dust in water across the multiverse. Nifty, huh?
Chapter 22
Arcanum (Additional) x3
Add a level to one Arcnum per level purchased
[3] You may enchant material objects in numerous fantastic manners depending on your other arcana. You may craft illusions out of raw magic that will fool sleepers and inattentive mages. You may give form and substance to mana, making the immaterial, material, at least for a time. You may use spells to draw mana from the environment into yourself, empowering you further. If the need is dire, you may unleash your raw mana in the unique form of celestial fire.
[4] Your spells may now be used to rend the magic of your enemies into nothingness, or allow you to feed on the mana hidden even in base materials. You are suffused with raw magic, and may sculpt it into any shape you desire, or command it as one would a trained animal. You may revitalize extinguished natural nexi of mystical energies or drain similar places of their power.
[5] You may create a simulacrum of a beings, animated by your power and subject to all of your commands. You may steal the mystical energies from others through your spellcraft, and use it to your own ends. You may create Hallows; nexi of mystical energy, though this requires great effort. Alternatively you may instead create mystical dead zones where no mage may regain their expended energy.
Chapter 23
Secret Home
You have a pocket dimension of sorts with a small home inside, with a small traditional Japanese house and enough room for all kinds of pets. It can only be entered by following a specific secret path that you may change on a whim. A side benefit is that inside this pocket dimension the weather is generally mild all year long – even a hurricane outside will cause nothing more than a particularly strong downpour inside.
Chapter 24
Flight
You can fly, a power that is nigh-universal in Gensokyo. Flying as fast as you can walk is simple, and you can push yourself to fly faster, up to how fast you can run, which will tire you proportionately.
Chapter 25
Blood of Kings
Interesting. Whether through a trick of fate or a stubborn bloodline, you're related to one of the bloodlines of Belka that existed during the Warring Ages that led to its eventual collapse.
Darkness - This isn't exactly a 'bloodline' per se, but somehow, you're connected to the original program of the Book of Darkness. Your hair becomes white and your eyes turn red, and you bear more than a passing resemblance to Reinforce Eins. You've also retained the Book's function of collecting magical knowledge through a Rare Skill called Collect and Use, letting you drain a subject of their magical energy and copy their spells with near-perfect accuracy. With time, you can even copy other Rare Skills. You may not necessarily be able to use it depending on your own energy reserves, but you'll have a magical target's complete repertoire so long as you can absorb it.
Chapter 26
Mini-Hakkero
You have a mystical, magical furnace shaped like an octagon and made of hihi'irokane. Each corner is emblazoned with a different trigram with different powers, such as generating a lot of heat, producing a cool breeze for hot days, and the ability to amplify magic through it to blast a Master Spark – enough to reduce a mountain to ashes. As such a potent magical item, it's very handy for magical research too.
Chapter 29
Rainbow Notes
While mermaids are superior singers, humans invented the art of song to begin with. You are now gifted in the art of music composition, and can creatively piece together the notes and lyrics for new songs effortlessly. In fact, your songs are good enough such that, when sung or played by a magical being such as a mermaid, or someone with magical music like a fantasy bard, they have magical powers of their own. And the greatest thing about music is that it is a treasure that can be shared with anyone. You can teach your songs, even magical ones, to companions and other pupils willing to learn. Please also note that the perk also applies to other musical forms outside of singing, such as the piano, as well as other things such as dancing, prayers, and spell chants.
Gaster Blaster
This device, run on the user's own magical power, is a semi-autonomous magical weapon. Resembling a floating dragon's skull with glowing eyes, the Gaster Blaster is an extremely powerful magic device capable of shooting very powerful magical lasers of variable width. While it's very draining to use and are only effective at close range, being unable to operate beyond 10 meters of the user, the versatility and maneuverability of this weapon is unmatched in the Underground.
Chapter 30
Brainwashing
You know how to brainwash people. Through a ritual you can suppress a restrained target's mind and create a false personality to take control of their body. Unfortunately pain is capable of awakening the suppressed mind and allowing them to regain control.
Chapter 31
Play Along With Me
Music is the soul of mankind… and, well, your soul isn't in your body anymore so it makes perfect sense you'd be good at it, right? What? That doesn't make any sense? Well, who cares! Pick a single mundane musical instrument. You are now amazingly talented at playing said instrument. You can, if you wish, give magical abilities you have a 'musical' aesthetic by having the sounds of your chosen instrument play along with whatever sounds your magic makes...though this won't add anything except a personal touch to it, mind you. Go forth, Jumper. And play.
Chapter 32
Unbound Casting
By keeping yourself untethered, it seems that your magic has similar freedoms. Your magic does not seem to suffer the same ill effects of counterspells or antimagic fields as other mages might. Regardless of the mystical circumstances, it seems that you will be able to cast your spells at full effect so long as you manage to complete them properly (note; You may still be stopped or interrupted during your casting, and some creatures still have innate resistance to magic which this does not bypass. Your magic will simply be unimpeded by any ambient effects or willful acts of countermagic.)
Arcana Of Renewal
How do you think the Ardent's survive being strapped to pillars and burned? Because the same power they call upon to destroy can be used to heal. As an Arcana, you can heal injuries quickly.
Chapter 33
Understand Lunarian Science
You have a comprehensive knowledge of Lunarian science, the same scientific technology that built a post-scarcity immortal utopia on the moon. You can integrate this technology into things you build, such as making something that can run without any need for a power source, somehow drawing power from the moon itself.
Chapter 35
ANOMNOMNOMALIES
Covering Auriga are strange places full of strange things. These can be mushrooms that sing to you and make a delicious bread, giant spines of stone that erupt through the earth and are held in place by a base small enough for a child to wrap their hand around it, red barked trees that are covered in flames yet never burn to down, to a fabled "tree" a hundred feet tall, made purely out of wind blown Dust. You have a wonderful habit of finding each and everyone one of them. No matter where you are, there will always be some strange, Endless made wonder for you to explore, examine, and gain from. I happen to LOVE Mosspearl jam myself. You might be more keen on a Escaped Specimen X104 steak, served with ruby cacti fruit wine on a bed of sauteed redsang?
For ANOMNOMNOMALIES and Landscapist, an Anomaly is any thing, place, area, lifeform, that clearly breaks the laws of reality, or are so distinctly unusual they can not be considered natural. The Zone in STALKER is a good example of a nonEndless anomaly. The weirder and more unnatural a place is, the stronger its anomaly nature. One helps you find weird places, things, and items, the other helps you draw power from them.
Physical Enhancement
Magical girls have to be fit. But when a monster is bearing down on you on your first night, that's a bit late to hit the gym. Fortunately, your power includes some basic enhancements.
Muscles a dozen times as powerful, capable of letting you lift cars without hurting yourself, tossing people through walls, and running across rooftops.
A full-body reinforcement by the same factor, protecting you from your new strength, as well as making most enemy attacks into lighter punches. Not completely ignorable, but you'll take a good beating without going down.
Enhancements to balance and reflexes, as well as some acrobatics training settled into your mind so you can use your new abilities to roofhop and stand on telephone poles without issue.
Chapter 36
Landscapist
There are many anomalies that cover this world, their magic gleaned but not understood. You, you understand it. You have listened to the voices of the Rumbling Stones. You have won a staring contest with a Wizard's Eye. You have eaten the fruit of the Life Tree, and you understand. Whenever you are within an anomaly, your magic is more powerful, growing with the strength of anomaly. Inside a chroma land, your spells would be rainbow hued and blinding. While standing within the whispering confines of the Ice Sculptures your spells would deafen your foes and sound as music to your allies. If you stood upon the Dust Tree, maybe, just maybe, you'd be on par with an Endless. You also have a better understanding of all anomalies, and how to best benefit from them.
Chapter 37
Battle Forged
Everyone who's anyone here is a hardened warrior, so now you are too. With this comes an average human's talent in melee (including everything from general swordplay to hand-to-hand), ranged combat, or battle sorcery, which focuses on your typical heal/buff/elemental projectile trifecta. Skill in both magic and weaponry can be obtained for a loss in some effectiveness in both due to the split focus. Valkyrie essentially receives skill in all three, though they still must make a choice as to which melee weapon and ranged weapon they use and which combat type they're most proficient in.
Chapter 39
Absolute Configuration
I take back any comments I made about you lacking experience - that's clearly not the case here. Magical Girls have a limited, singular arsenal that's determined by the nature of their wish and their soul. No 'power ups' are really to be found here. You've found a way to compensate - do one thing and do it well. You are now an undeniable master of using a single weapon of your choosing (likely your magical weapon) - muskets? You're a sharpshooter that would put even experts to shame and never suffer from jamming. A sword? You may as well be a painter who only uses red when you're wielding that steel. This even applies to using said weapon unconventionally, like using a gun as a blunt weapon or throwing swords en masse.
But wait, there's more. You're an incredibly quick thinker and tactician, enough so that you could fight someone with time stop powers on even ground if you got the drop on them - figuring out the abilities and limitations of your opponent is something you can do in mere minutes, and you can plan ahead far enough in a combat situation to know how your opponent plans to take advantage of a weakness of yours without skipping a beat. Can they keep up with you?
Raiment
The raiment of a magical girl is usually frilly, will probably have ribbons or a bow, and almost always has a skirt. (I suggest you follow my lead and at least wear shorts or something underneath. See?)
While those might sound impractical to some Jumpers, especially those with more combat experience, don't worry: your raiment will never get caught in something, trip you up, or interfere with your movements. It'll even make sure your hair never does that either.
In addition, the raiment is technically a form of armor, so you can import existing armors into and import the transformation trinket into other armors later.
Chapter 40
Magic Circuits
Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.
Chapter 41
Yuuka's Parasol
Kazami Yuuka has been said to be one of the strongest class of Youkai, that even with a relatively unimpressive power of being able to manipulate flowers, she is able to stand her ground against reality warping Youkai with far more potent powers on paper. She carries with her a parasol made form a flower that would never wilt, one of the only examples of such in all of Gensokyo. And now, you have a copy of it. This parasol can cut through the sun's rays of the harshest summers, never falter through even the heaviest rainstorm, and is strong enough to deflect attacks with ease. It seems like this parasol has embodied some of Yuuka's powers, and will allow the wielder to manipulate flowers as if it were their second nature. However, its most impressive feat is the ability to allow the user to travel to a pocket dimension of their design, defaulting to a sunflower garden for their relaxation. Though, that can be changed permanently if the user wills so.
Chapter 42
Spell Cards
The Spell Card system was invented to ensure that youkai and humans could fight each other in a non-lethal way and on relatively even ground. Under a spell card duel, all attacks are toned down to non-lethal levels, and the ability to fire an aesthetically pleasing barrage of bullets in all directions is prized over creating undodgeable attacks or invulnerability (which are banned anyway). Accordingly, you too can tone any of your abilities down as low as simply performing pretty light shows, and as your artistic skills improve so will the beauty of your spell card attacks.
Chapter 44
Risen Legend(Formalcraft)
There is a poisonous fetishism at the heart of magus society, an obsession with the old and the mysterious. A toxic belief that all that we have now is just a pale imitation of what came before. Age is power, an old family serves a magus better, we must reach the origin of it all. That's just so much shit. Magecraft may lack the raw power and direct use of systems from earlier in history but the idea that it is useless is the thought of someone without the will to persevere. A true magus would not stop, not until they tear open a path beyond their limits.
You're living proof of the idea that magecraft being an inferior system is not necessarily as true as much of the Clocktower thinks. Whatever your own innate power, you have taken a chosen specialty of magecraft to obscene heights, the likes of which is only matched within magecraft by things like Aozaki Touko's doll making styles or the impossible Bounded Fields of Araya Souren. Whatever your chosen field of study is, you're certainly one of the greatest users in many generations, if not centuries outright. Your spells within that field are stronger, cheaper, faster and far more skillfully controlled than any hopeful peers. Your knowledge and skill is near total, at least in regards to existing knowledge on the field, and you have the sheer talent to continually push the limits and learn impossible spells and actions, like discovering how to make Bounded Fields mobile around a person. It's far easier than normal, almost springing into your mind, to discover ways to combine other magic and magecraft you know into your chosen field to expand and empower it even further. As a finishing touch, whatever path you choose has revealed to you a method of immortality, a way to make yourself not just unaging but outright harder to kill in general. Touko's famous immortality puppet network as a sterling example.
In future worlds, you'll find anything similar enough to your chosen specialty will receive all the same effects. A brilliant alchemist here will be one in the future too. You may also buy this perk multiple times.
Chapter 45
The Leaner
Well, as you're certainly the newcomer here in this world, you've got a lot to learn. You learn new things 10 times as fast until you reach what would be considered an average level of proficiency. You also get a flat ×2 multiplier to any form of learning or training that you do. You can also learn innate traits of other beings, although it will be harder to do so than normal.
Arcanum
You may ward your sanctum against intrusion, forbidding entrance to certain objects, creatures or individuals, for space itself bares their passage. You may see into many places at once as well as binding or severing sympathetic connections as you are able. If you desire it, you may use your magics to transform a door into a portal to nearly anywhere else in the world.
You are very nearly unbound in space. You may be in more than one place at once, with the aid of appropriate arcana, though your spatial doppelgangers may never meet. You may use the threads of space to entangle enemies or bind them to a given location. You may travel without motion, disappearing and reappearing as you cross the illusion of distance. If necessary you may step into the gap between spaces, waiting in an impermanent tiny universe until you are needed.
You are able to alter the amount of space an object takes up, reducing a house to the size of a cat, or making a lonely road stretch out near infinitely. Just as you are able to be in several places at once, so to may you draw objects, places and even other people into a similar disassociated state of being; allowing them to be in more than one place at the same time. You may conceal locations within gaps in space, and twist the bonds of it to ensure that no mortal is ever able to find it. If you desire, you may ensnare others in twisting roads and winding paths with neither origin or destination.
Chapter 46
Mark of Tzeentch
Either on your body or permanently upon your soul, Tzeentch leaves a mark of his claim on your service. The Mark of Tzeentch causes your intellect to swell massively, and you'll find that even the most difficult mental tasks are child's play to you. You can easily translate languages that are completely new to you with even a small amount of information on the language itself, and information that would threaten the sanity of a stern mind is easily accepted by you as a simple truth, nothing more. Lastly, you have the basic capacity to utilize the Winds of Magic, and you are a decent sorcerer currently.
Chapter 47
Blessing Without End
Blessing of Destruction: Destruction is a strange being. Having long since grown tired of his duty as the embodiment of destruction and abandoned it to instead pursue (very flawed, due to his nature as the opposite) attempts at creation instead. With his favor, you gain insight into the structure of all things, and more to the point, the weakest points in the structures. Whenever you wish to destroy something, be it a simple physical object, a vast conspiracy, or something more abstract, you will always know where it is most vulnerable.
Chapter 48
Carcass Spark
An ember of a most radiant light. This spark never fades or burns without reason, and can consume materials and souls alike to grow like a bonfire. Its fire remembers the exact moment where all stones become water
Chapter 49
The Inspiration of Madness
Insanity is not something maligned amidst skaven society, as it is amidst the man-thing villages. Skryre's Warlock-Engineers are, one and all to a member, the most addle-brained and unstable of the rat-men to date - yet it was their madness that led to the creation of so many technological marvels. The warp-lightning rails that connect the great under-cities, such as Under-Altdorf and Hell Pit. The Doomwheels. The Skitter-Gates. Ratling mini-guns and poison wind and augmentation chemicals and all the myriad of spells that make the Warlock-Engineers a minor apocalypse upon the field. All born from diseased minds.
You count yourself as "inspired" as these demented predecessors of yours - a madness coming over your brain-meats. While this madness may be debilitating in any day-to-day interaction, it shines when you set to work. The magics you use and the technologies you set to experiment with and create will seem to branch, weave, intersect, and spark in ways that would never occur to a healthier mind. In short, through your mad eyes and addled brain, you can create and discover new spells, machinery, scientific theories, and interactions between the three that would never occur naturally even through rigorous years of study and experimentation. Creations that mock the very idea of common sense and decency, and violate every sense and sensibility.
Chapter 50
Fallen Goddess
You didn't come down to this world without picking up a bit of extra spark along the way. You're a former Goddess now, a divine being that has lost a large portion of its power but still retains incredible abilities and varied powers. Just for being what you are, your beginning stats in this world are far higher, equal to an end game adventurer. You are also able to draw magical energy from any who worship you in this world, though this particular trait won't persist past this world without a certain perk. As a Goddess, you also have a series of purviews over which you hold divine power. You may pick up to three different things to hold power over, such as Water, Luck or The Arts. You'll find yourself blessed in regards to these things, effortlessly skilled in anything relating to them and with vastly more power when you use magic associated with your purviews.
You also have an innate affinity to your purviews which may provide passive abilities, such as being immune to heat damage if you pick Fire. You will also choose whether you are a good or evil Goddess, though this won't affect your actual morality. Instead it will give you either a Holy or Unholy attribute, respectively. You'll gain an immensely powerful aura for which attribute you choose, such that a Holy Goddess could kill high level undead with a single tear due to the holy energy infused within or badly harm them with a touch. It will empower any Holy or Unholy abilities greatly too. Lastly, buying this will boost any capstone perks or items that you purchase, as detailed in the notes section at the end of this document.
Chapter 51
Ritual Maker
Hard work pays off, and you, jumper, have spent quite some time studying the occult. With this power you can now create rituals through which others may temporarily access your perks or powers. These rituals can involve anything from chants, to performances, to tools, or even reagents, and if you've purchased the Rites of Initiation, you may even require one or more Principles from this world to be invoked using influences or affinity. All rituals must require at least 10 minutes to prepare and cast, but you can otherwise set the terms and conditions freely. Know that after imbuing any power into a ritual, that specific power will be much weaker for a few days, and unless the ritual has stringent conditions, anyone with the appropriate knowledge may use it.
Chapter 52
Arch-Sorcerer
The servants of Tzeentch are more connected to the Winds of Magic than any other beings of the Gods. Whether others desire to admit it or not, the truth is the same: All magic comes from the realms of Chaos, and Tzeentch is the controller of magic. All other theories are simply fools attempting to deny being truly damned. For your dedication to Tzeentch, he will make you mighty indeed, for as magic is his, his magic is yours. You ability to use the Winds of Magic to your own ends is impressive, and you will come to find that your magical abilities from other jumps have been boosted greatly. Where one meddler of magic would cause a rapidly growing fire, you would cause a impressive maelstrom of fire that torches all it touches.
Chapter 53
Graveyard Rose
Most of your Order are scrawny and pale, with voices the dusty tone of the long dead. And yet, one among you is known for her terrifying allure. Like Elspeth von Draken, the energies of death which now suffuse your form have made you beautiful in a grim and chilling way. Those who look upon you will at once be rapt in admiration and shaken in terror.
Favor of Lords
The Grey Seers keep, tightly locked under key and claw, the secret to creating the gnaw-holes into The Horned One's realm. To call forth the greatest of the ratfolk in existence, the Greater Daemons of The Horned Rat - The Verminlords, as great and powerful as any of the northmen's Princes. The Seers keep this tool not only to cow a clan or five with the threat of summoning one such Lord to the material realm - but also because the Verminlords are bloodthirsty and murderous creatures with their own millenia-long schemes and plans. The risk is always there that the first to die to a Verminlord is the Seer that summoned them.
Funny that the same doesn't go for you. You, Seer, start out on "amicable" terms with the Verminlords in the Horned One's Realm (as amicable as can be said for skavendom). You can contact the Lords for assistance or advice without need of lengthy and convoluted rituals, and can indeed summon them onto the field of battle without risk of being the first victim or meal. As well, you'll find that this friendly relationship can be cultivated with other daemonic, aetherial, and similar otherworldly creatures with remarkable ease - such as the Greater Daemons, Daemon Princes, and servitors of the greater four Gods of Chaos. Though you may come to factor into their own plans and schemes as a pawn or goal, you'll never need fear horrific death or torture at the hands of your newfound "allies."
Chapter 54
Alice Doll
A masterwork doll skillfully crafted by Alice Margatroid, utilizing such advanced magitech that an artificial soul was able to be implanted into the doll in order to create a fully sentient, autonomous being. This doll is completely loyal to you, and is surprisingly adept at combat despite its size, but specialize in mundane housework above all.
Frangiclave
The master key of the world, and the most powerful tool of the Principle of Knock. The Frangiclave is a key that doesn't so much open locks, but rather utterly destroys them.
Chapter 57
Superior Being
Queens in Wonderland often stand out by being the best (in some ways at least) of the "species" they represent and rule over. Your basic stats are enhanced to be slightly above the average member of your species; any additional boosts to your stats are stacked up on this initial enhancement. In addition, the perk makes those of the same species of your current form more willing to follow and obey you; if you change species between forms, you also change who you affect with your charisma for this perk.
Creating Spirits
Creating new youkai is a trivial task for you, even ones for ideas that have yet to exist, though you utterly lack any inherent control over them. You could easily flood Gensokyo with new youkai and throw the lands into chaos if you really wanted to. This is by far the most feared of Okina's true abilities, as it threatens the delicate power balance of Gensokyo. You can also change what, exactly, these new youkai need to survive – creating youkai that draw from your own power instead of fear, for instance.
Chapter 58
Atlas of Dreams
An occult journal that maps the dark side of the world. This atlas can guide anyone to anywhere, even places outside of reality, provided the user has a destination in mind. Do remember that some places are harder to reach than others.
Fairy Dress
A lovely outfit made from various plants that is designed by the finest of fairy clothiers to reflect your personality and abilities as a fairy. Neverland flora never truly dying even when plucked, the clothes remain completely fresh, and will regrow if damaged.
Tome of Secrets
This journal looks completely unassuming at first glance, but when one looks inside they will find that no matter how many pages they turn, the journal will simply have more pages available, the texts on those pages perfectly preserved regardless of the conditions. This will make an excellent place to write down information you keep to keep but also remain private, for if any who are not welcome attempt to take or open the book will be on the receiving end of a powerful blast of magic that will likely take off their hands and arms. The book will also magically notify you that an intruder is attempting to steal your precious secrets.
Chapter 59
Blessing without End
Blessing of Delirium: Once Delirium was known as Delight, but some event forever altered the youngest of the Endless into a twisted form. With the favor of Delirium, you never need fear this same fate. Your mind is a rock upon which madness breaks. Nothing, be it the passage of eternity or staring into the eyes of the Old Ones, may so much as scratch your sanity.
Friend of Fairies
Fairies, magical nature spirits that favor the light, though fickle and unorganized beings with no shared culture or civilization. The threat of their magic potentially supporting Zelda's armies was enough to have Cia begin hunting them at the dawn of the war.
In this world, fairies can be roughly divided into two groups of beings. Normal fairies like Link's speaker Proxi resemble small girls that could fit in the palm of your hand, each with insect wings and a magnificent glow that makes them appear as balls of light to those not close enough.
The other kind are Great Fairies, resembling giant red headed women with bizarre, revealing clothing and aquiline noses. Normal fairies live in the woods, while Great Fairies reside within fairy fountains and appear when prayed too.
Now, they and any other nature spirit you may find just loves you. Outside of just not being tricked by the more mischievous ones, you'll often find them coming to see you and generally being friendly unless you go out of your way to upset them. This is great, since both types have powerful magic, with Great Fairies turning the tides of numerous battles in the war.
Chapter 60
Waltzing with the Reaper
To be a Magus is to walk with death. The very act of using what we call magic, of mixing the Mana of the air with the Od of your body to create Prana and circulate it into your Magic Circuits, is something that has inherent danger. To accept that knowledge and revel in it is to take on the air of something more than human. The petty concerns of human life fade somewhat, making it so much easier to retain the sophistication and grace expected of a refined member of the Association. It requires a will stronger than normal people to brush up against death and that same will, in a rather less dramatic application, is something that allows most Magi to withstand the long hours of study, research and constant requirement for creative thinking when it comes to learning magecraft. Exam hell doesn't even begin to describe it, when you're studying to make sure you don't incinerate yourself from the inside out!
"When the loli is mass-produced: An introduction to cloning"
This book, by a famous Scandinavian Alchemist, details the fundamentals behind custom construction of human bodies, and then implantation of memories into them. When handled by a sufficiently skilled Alchemist, one can learn how to automate this process and the mechanics behind copying, implanting and transferring memories.
Chapter 61
Talent
Each fairy is born with an innate talent that defines her role in Neverland and what sort of magic she has. If you do not buy a talent, you will get a lot of strange looks from your fellow fairies. The power of the talent is proportional to your size. It is possible to teach your talent(s) to others, though it will take quite some time for them to learn anything more than minor little tricks (it's easier when you are teaching people with innate affinity for your talent); in turn, you might be able to learn a couple things from other talents, but not nearly as much as you would with it as your talent. Also, your control over your talent is enhanced with the One Feeling at a Time perk. Shoot the Birdie! lets you take leadership over people who specialize in/practice your talent.
Art- You are constantly inspired to produce various works of art, but your greatest strength lies in painting. For you, painting is not merely a physical skill, but a magical one, as you can literally determine the color of things by painting them. Any change you make to a target's color becomes its true, permanent color unless you use a new paint. The colors will also enhance certain traits and strengths of the subject depending on the symbolism; for instance, blue embodies depth and stability, while orange represents joy and excitement. And if the colors should belong on something else, it can become that thing; for instance, painting stripes on a horse makes it a zebra, and painting a dome brown or white could turn it into an earthy hill or an igloo respectively. This ability also allows you to change the seasons by painting leaves either green or orange; once you paint enough of them the same color, the world will conclude that it must be time for that season and change accordingly.
Chapter 62
Mind's Eye
Your affinity to Secret Histories manifests through your sight, allowing you to see in low light conditions and through supernatural illusions.
Specialties (Nomad's Desert Life)
Surviving in the Desert Lands is a struggle. You gain an ability to conserve water, ride camels and a plethora of common desert survival knowledge with a small boost to being able to go longer without water in hot climates. But the best thing is... you've learned how to create a cultural Taboo like what was once around the Desert Pyramid. Small children and their dares would be far too scared to ever cross your word, the common grave robber or thief would hesitate to tread within the boundaries of land the taboo is set on, but hardened souls with a purpose won't falter so easily. In other words it will keep the laymen off a property you own, but not the settings villains, big bads, or cronies sent by a villain to burn your house down. The rest? They'll think wherever you've set this is cursed. Surely keeping hapless common folk away from a set plot of land of yours where they could hurt themselves (or annoy you) is worth something right?
Chapter 63
Eternal Libary
Over the course of your life, you will learn so much of magic that it will become utterly impossible for a mortal to fully comprehend the extent of your mind, but with this warehouse attachment you might be able to help others stick their toes into the sea of your knowledge. This massive library can be access by a door in your warehouse that will automatically add books written from your magical knowledge. You could find absolutely every single magical technique you know somewhere in this library, and the library will keep expanding in size to accommodate your swelling intellect. The library will keep expanding and the books will come into existence with no upper limit, meaning that over the course of your adventures this could become the most complete source of magic knowledge in all of the multiverse.
Chapter 64
Elemental Seeds
An elemental seed is the condensed essence of an element, and they're almost exclusively produced by Druids or Mages capable of creating enchantments replicating their methods. They have various uses, such as powering enchantments or magical items, and are required in the process of giving an object an elemental ability. Druids also use them to introduce new elements into their Grove, and need them to cultivate their affinities past the 25% point. As such, each of them is fairly valuable, with the price skyrocketing once you go beyond the basic seven elements and to incredibly rare ones such as Time.
They are also pretty time intensive to make, requiring about an hour of work for each, even for people relatively skilled in their creation. But now, you won't ever have to worry about that, as you'll get a dozen Seeds for each of your affinities delivered either to your warehouse or another place you designate, every week. Their quality depends on the level of your affinities: from 5% to 25% you'll get low-grade ones, from 25% to 50% medium-grade ones, from 50% to 75% high-grade ones, and finally, from 75% up to 100% you'll get top-grade seeds.
Chapter 65
Sand Wand
This lovely little wand here has a magical ability to control sand, though admittedly only in a handful of preset forms. First off, it can cause sand to levitate, usually in the form of a cube. Basically, it slides it upwards a short distance, albeit only for a few seconds at a time. The range on this is quite nice, anywhere you can see AND, if you're absolutely certain that there's sand on the other side, even through walls. If you have magical energy to spare, it can even summon some sand for you to work with.
Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie Recipe
This is a recipe for home-made pie- Quite possibly the best pie ever made. If made using monster cooking techniques, a single slice of this is delicious enough to fully restore the consumer's vitality. However, the ingredients are rather specific, and to bring out its true potential, the pie must be home- cooked with fire magic. But the results... You simply can't argue.
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Chapter 10
Stretching out my hand, I reintroduced myself, my illusion's mouth, curving up in a small smile.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you; I'm Aidan."
Slowly she reached out to shake my hand, and as she did so, I focused the hypnotism on altering her perception so that she felt and heard that I had a woopie cushion in my hand. She then froze for a moment before stifled giggles snuck out as she clamped a hand over her mouth. Shotting her a sardonic grin, I opened my mouth.
"Ah, the ol' woopie cushion in the hand trick. Gets em' every time."
Giving me an incredulous look, she spoke, confusion filling her voice.
"Did you really stick a woopie cushion in your hand for a stupid joke?"
"Yup, honestly, I'm not the best at small talk, so I thought a stupid joke to break the ice would work well enough."
A small smile snuck onto her face as she relaxed back into her seat and took a sip of tea. As I sunk back in my seat, I felt the Grimoire's energy grow again; this time, it simply faded to the back of my mind, larger but with no benefit. Setting the tea down again, she spoke slowly and hesitatingly.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you invited me here, but why?"
"To be honest, it's because I'm an independent and need allies, and since you were patrolling on your lonesome, I assumed the same. Correct me if I am wrong."
"No, you are not wrong."'
"In that case, I thought that we get to know each other a bit, you know. Worst-case scenario, we simply part ways. On the other hand, if we want to work together well, that would be good."
We were interrupted by a slight clink as the person running the counter placed down my tea and gave a small nod before leaving. I brought the tea to my illusory lips and took a long gulp before setting the cup down to a gobsmacked face and sputtering from Taylor before she finally spat out and hushed.
"How?"
Doing small jazz hands, I replied in an equally hushed voice
"Magic, no, but seriously, I have no clue how I eat or drink like this."
Sighing, Talyor just put her face in the palms of her hands for a long moment before speaking again.
"So, how do you want to do this?"
"Well, I suppose we could cut straight to the chase. My power is vast; however, the main thing I can do is what I call Enchanting. To put it simply, I can imbue objects with minor powers."
"I can control bugs within a few blocks."
We engaged in causal conversation and eventually hammered out some details. She would pass by my warehouse, and we would talk about her patrol pattern, and I would give her some stuff to help her in her heroism.
In exchange, she would points out dangers that she couldn't take out and could be dangerous to me. With another dose of hypnotism to ease any remaining suspicions, I left after paying for the drinks along with a hefty tip.
Giving a wave as we parted ways, I stopped by an ATM to refill my funds and then continued to my lab. When I had the door closed, my giggles finally escaped my chest; I had gotten Taylor Hebert, a person who could do amazing things in the future, to start to trust me.
Even if what I had read did not come to pass, she was still a powerful parahuman who could accomplish great things if steered the right way. I now needed to plan my way forward.
I first needed something to stop Taylor from finding out about my mana sources. While hypnotism would work in the short term, I did not know enough to make it seem natural to outsiders and at some point, I would have outsiders in my lab.
Grabbing my Grimoire and looking through the pages, it seemed that I would need to fall back to enchanted items.
Something like a ring or an item that would be worn daily and provide another function besides the hypnotism would be ideal. Pacing back and forth in my lab, I ran enchantments through my mind.
Teleportation wouldn't work; it was too powerful and required a better reaction time to be used defensively. Straight invincibility wouldn't work either; I didn't know enough to make an item that could grant it.
The person was also vulnerable to other things, such as being poisoned or drowning. The last option was a form of regeneration; it would have to be low tier if I wanted to accommodate the hypnotism.
While it wouldn't provide active combat benefits, it would prevent somebody from bleeding out and heal them faster than it would otherwise take.
In fact, it would be better to make it not proper regeneration and something more like Rin's magic crest, ensuring a person lived past where they should have succumbed to injury.
While it wouldn't be a true phylactery, it could still keep a person alive so long as their brain remained primarily intact. It would also ensure that Taylor still needed me for healing and other magic items. Rubbing my hands together in silent glee, I got to work.
Leaving my lab, I decided to head to a jewelry shop to purchase a hairclip or something similar so that even if Taylor were decapitated, she would still live as the item would be attached to her head.
Passing by several people on my way to the Boardwalk, I saw that the Protectorate was out in force today; I saw a few new faces, most likely from the nearby towns, to shore up the PRT while they transferred the members who were outed.
Walking into a small jewelry shop with the bell tingling merrily, I looked at the person operating the counter. He was elderly with a hair full of balding wispy grey hair and dull green eyes peering through a pair of half-moon spectacles. Sweeping in, I raised a hand in a wave and spoke.
"Hello, I'm looking for a hairclip or something similar."
With a small smile, the man responded.
"Ah, looking at something for a lady friend, are you?"
Letting out a small guilty chuckle, I rubbed the back of my neck before replying.
"Yes, I am. Do you have something of the sort?"
Looking at me with a discerning eye, he nodded and rummaged in a few drawers before coming out with a simple silver hairpin gleaming in the shop's light. Letting my illusion perk up, I responded.
"That looks wonderful! How much?"
"For you, young man, let's say twenty-five dollars."
Setting the money down on the counter, I gently took it from his hand before shaking it while thanking him vigorously. Gently pealing my hand off his, he replied.
"No, thank you, and have a nice day."
Leaving the shop, I pocketed the hairpin as I felt a swell of power tumble out of my bones. Walking back to my lab, I saw a faint glowing, swirling storm surround my feet. The storm started to climb my legs and bemused.
It felt like tiny motes of dust were clinging to my leg bones as if they were lichen. Walking quickly, I soon ducked into an alleyway and teleported back to my laboratory. Grabbing the Grimoire in no small panic, I let my eye sockets dart over the new page.
It was labeled Dust Attunement and described how I now drew Dust, the capital letter included, to me in a storm. Recalling the similarities between this Dust and the Dust of the Endless series, I reattacked the book with a vengeance, trying to see if my theory was confirmed.
A few minutes later, with Dust trailing up my legs in vein-shaped patterns, I had my theory confirmed.
This Dust I drew to myself was the same as the Dust of the Endless. It was also known as a self-computing cloud of nanomachines that got smarter the more of them were connected and could be used to alter the base state of the universe to build things in an instant or cast spells.
I, however, had no clue on how to use the Dust, so for now, it could simply act as storage and enhancement for my spells. If I stayed within roughly a mile, I could amass a tremendous amount of Dust in a single day.
However, if I focused and wandered, I could gain enough Dust to bankrupt the Borken Lords themself.
This did come with the downside in that I would need to shed myself of Dust regularly; otherwise, the massive storms of it would become noticeable. Now with access to Dust, I could theoretically enhance Talyor's hairpin in a manner reflecting a true phylactery.
The issue came down to the fact that I did not know how to use the Dust and when trying to store a person's mind, you could not afford to make a single mistake.
Settling down for the night, I finished crafting Taylor's hairpin. It took a few hours, and the rest were spent sleeping as while my new form waived the biological and a majority of the mental needs, I still enjoyed sleep.
Stretching as I got out of the makeshift corner I had slept in, I remembered that I needed to set my lab correctly. I didn't want to waste time or possibly forget about essential things on the way back to my apartment. That would also help to obfuscate me from the PRT as I would have no legal address, and I doubted they could pick up my lab.
Leaving my lab, I decided to start today by buying some essentials such as a bed, an electric stove, and other small items that would be useful to have. All in all, the shopping trip took several thousand dollars and a few hours.
However, by the end of it, I had a small portion of the warehouse I had claimed cleaned out and set up as a possible living space.
My inner wizard chuckled glee as I finally fulfilled my favorite wizard stereotype—the one who lives in his lab, working day and night on his work. Now that I was a proper Magus, I could understand the appeal.
It was Magecraft and Magic. After all, who would not want to spend as much time as possible working on plumbing its depths for secrets and power.
All the walking around had, however, accumulated a far bit of Dust. It was weaved in tight interlocking patterns all the way to my shins, and even without putting any mana in it, I could feel its raw might.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, I placed my hands on the thin layer of reality-shaping material and let it tumble through my skeletal fingers; I focused on it and my SOUL.
I resonated as I poured magic into the tiny nanomachines, and looking at it so closely, I could see why the people of Agria thought it magic. After all, sufficiently advanced science was indistinguishable from magic, and the Endless got pretty damm close to magic as they could get in their universe. Sitting on the ground, my mind and SOUL were interwoven with Dust.
I almost missed the silent ping in the back of my head that let me know it was mine and Taylor's agreed-upon time to meet.
Standing up and letting the Dust reacclimate around my legs, I double-checked to make sure that my mana sources were hidden from sight and passway. Striding over to the door, I then opened it to the mildly terrifying face of Skitter and flinched back.
The image was ruined, however, as Taylor started stammering apologies. Chuckling, I gestured for her to come inside. She then took off her maks and set it down.
"How was your day?"
Mumbling under her breath, Taylor responded.
"It was fine"
While I knew of the bullying, I had no reason that I could explain to be aware of it, so I simply nodded and pulled out the hairpin.
"This, my dear, is an item in the Toshaka lineup of items."
"What is the Toshaka lineup?"
"It is a lineup of items that cover things from gems to healing items."
"Why those that is such a broad range."
Shrugging in response, I replied
"Dunoh, it just felt right. Anywho you want an explanation before you go galavanting off?"
Jerking her head in a rapid nod, she singled her affirmation
"This item is fairly simple; as long as your brain is mostly intact, you will not die. Not from blunt force trauma, bleeding out, poison. Nothing can slay you while this is worn."
Eyes wide, she looked stunned, and I interrupted her before she had a chance to speak.
"Now, that does not mean you are immortal, far from it. Your body still will obey basic biology; if you don't have enough blood, you will not be able to move, blunt trauma will still break bones, and poison will still make you feel miserable."
I then handed it to her; she, with great care, accepted the item before with shaky hands clipping it in her hair. With an internal smirk, I nodded. I had her snared. Over time the hairpin would change her thoughts until listening to me became second nature. With a small grin on her face, Taylor spoke.
"Is there anything else?"
"Nah, that's everything. Have a good night. Don't forget to come back here in the morning."
Giving a nod, she slipped her mask back on and left a small cloud of insects following her wake.
Powers Gained
Dust Attunement
Dust is naturally drawn to you. Wherever you go, Dust will come to you. Swirling in plumes and clouds, the brilliant golden Dust is pulled to you, gathering around and on you. While it may sound messy, are you really going to complain about being powdered in the most precious substance on the planet? Every mile you travel, you find roughly one Dust coin. Staying in one place gives you about 10 a day. This requires Dust to be present of course. It prefers dry, hot places, although it goes congeal around anomalies and buried in stone fields.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you; I'm Aidan."
Slowly she reached out to shake my hand, and as she did so, I focused the hypnotism on altering her perception so that she felt and heard that I had a woopie cushion in my hand. She then froze for a moment before stifled giggles snuck out as she clamped a hand over her mouth. Shotting her a sardonic grin, I opened my mouth.
"Ah, the ol' woopie cushion in the hand trick. Gets em' every time."
Giving me an incredulous look, she spoke, confusion filling her voice.
"Did you really stick a woopie cushion in your hand for a stupid joke?"
"Yup, honestly, I'm not the best at small talk, so I thought a stupid joke to break the ice would work well enough."
A small smile snuck onto her face as she relaxed back into her seat and took a sip of tea. As I sunk back in my seat, I felt the Grimoire's energy grow again; this time, it simply faded to the back of my mind, larger but with no benefit. Setting the tea down again, she spoke slowly and hesitatingly.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you invited me here, but why?"
"To be honest, it's because I'm an independent and need allies, and since you were patrolling on your lonesome, I assumed the same. Correct me if I am wrong."
"No, you are not wrong."'
"In that case, I thought that we get to know each other a bit, you know. Worst-case scenario, we simply part ways. On the other hand, if we want to work together well, that would be good."
We were interrupted by a slight clink as the person running the counter placed down my tea and gave a small nod before leaving. I brought the tea to my illusory lips and took a long gulp before setting the cup down to a gobsmacked face and sputtering from Taylor before she finally spat out and hushed.
"How?"
Doing small jazz hands, I replied in an equally hushed voice
"Magic, no, but seriously, I have no clue how I eat or drink like this."
Sighing, Talyor just put her face in the palms of her hands for a long moment before speaking again.
"So, how do you want to do this?"
"Well, I suppose we could cut straight to the chase. My power is vast; however, the main thing I can do is what I call Enchanting. To put it simply, I can imbue objects with minor powers."
"I can control bugs within a few blocks."
We engaged in causal conversation and eventually hammered out some details. She would pass by my warehouse, and we would talk about her patrol pattern, and I would give her some stuff to help her in her heroism.
In exchange, she would points out dangers that she couldn't take out and could be dangerous to me. With another dose of hypnotism to ease any remaining suspicions, I left after paying for the drinks along with a hefty tip.
Giving a wave as we parted ways, I stopped by an ATM to refill my funds and then continued to my lab. When I had the door closed, my giggles finally escaped my chest; I had gotten Taylor Hebert, a person who could do amazing things in the future, to start to trust me.
Even if what I had read did not come to pass, she was still a powerful parahuman who could accomplish great things if steered the right way. I now needed to plan my way forward.
I first needed something to stop Taylor from finding out about my mana sources. While hypnotism would work in the short term, I did not know enough to make it seem natural to outsiders and at some point, I would have outsiders in my lab.
Grabbing my Grimoire and looking through the pages, it seemed that I would need to fall back to enchanted items.
Something like a ring or an item that would be worn daily and provide another function besides the hypnotism would be ideal. Pacing back and forth in my lab, I ran enchantments through my mind.
Teleportation wouldn't work; it was too powerful and required a better reaction time to be used defensively. Straight invincibility wouldn't work either; I didn't know enough to make an item that could grant it.
The person was also vulnerable to other things, such as being poisoned or drowning. The last option was a form of regeneration; it would have to be low tier if I wanted to accommodate the hypnotism.
While it wouldn't provide active combat benefits, it would prevent somebody from bleeding out and heal them faster than it would otherwise take.
In fact, it would be better to make it not proper regeneration and something more like Rin's magic crest, ensuring a person lived past where they should have succumbed to injury.
While it wouldn't be a true phylactery, it could still keep a person alive so long as their brain remained primarily intact. It would also ensure that Taylor still needed me for healing and other magic items. Rubbing my hands together in silent glee, I got to work.
Leaving my lab, I decided to head to a jewelry shop to purchase a hairclip or something similar so that even if Taylor were decapitated, she would still live as the item would be attached to her head.
Passing by several people on my way to the Boardwalk, I saw that the Protectorate was out in force today; I saw a few new faces, most likely from the nearby towns, to shore up the PRT while they transferred the members who were outed.
Walking into a small jewelry shop with the bell tingling merrily, I looked at the person operating the counter. He was elderly with a hair full of balding wispy grey hair and dull green eyes peering through a pair of half-moon spectacles. Sweeping in, I raised a hand in a wave and spoke.
"Hello, I'm looking for a hairclip or something similar."
With a small smile, the man responded.
"Ah, looking at something for a lady friend, are you?"
Letting out a small guilty chuckle, I rubbed the back of my neck before replying.
"Yes, I am. Do you have something of the sort?"
Looking at me with a discerning eye, he nodded and rummaged in a few drawers before coming out with a simple silver hairpin gleaming in the shop's light. Letting my illusion perk up, I responded.
"That looks wonderful! How much?"
"For you, young man, let's say twenty-five dollars."
Setting the money down on the counter, I gently took it from his hand before shaking it while thanking him vigorously. Gently pealing my hand off his, he replied.
"No, thank you, and have a nice day."
Leaving the shop, I pocketed the hairpin as I felt a swell of power tumble out of my bones. Walking back to my lab, I saw a faint glowing, swirling storm surround my feet. The storm started to climb my legs and bemused.
It felt like tiny motes of dust were clinging to my leg bones as if they were lichen. Walking quickly, I soon ducked into an alleyway and teleported back to my laboratory. Grabbing the Grimoire in no small panic, I let my eye sockets dart over the new page.
It was labeled Dust Attunement and described how I now drew Dust, the capital letter included, to me in a storm. Recalling the similarities between this Dust and the Dust of the Endless series, I reattacked the book with a vengeance, trying to see if my theory was confirmed.
A few minutes later, with Dust trailing up my legs in vein-shaped patterns, I had my theory confirmed.
This Dust I drew to myself was the same as the Dust of the Endless. It was also known as a self-computing cloud of nanomachines that got smarter the more of them were connected and could be used to alter the base state of the universe to build things in an instant or cast spells.
I, however, had no clue on how to use the Dust, so for now, it could simply act as storage and enhancement for my spells. If I stayed within roughly a mile, I could amass a tremendous amount of Dust in a single day.
However, if I focused and wandered, I could gain enough Dust to bankrupt the Borken Lords themself.
This did come with the downside in that I would need to shed myself of Dust regularly; otherwise, the massive storms of it would become noticeable. Now with access to Dust, I could theoretically enhance Talyor's hairpin in a manner reflecting a true phylactery.
The issue came down to the fact that I did not know how to use the Dust and when trying to store a person's mind, you could not afford to make a single mistake.
Settling down for the night, I finished crafting Taylor's hairpin. It took a few hours, and the rest were spent sleeping as while my new form waived the biological and a majority of the mental needs, I still enjoyed sleep.
Stretching as I got out of the makeshift corner I had slept in, I remembered that I needed to set my lab correctly. I didn't want to waste time or possibly forget about essential things on the way back to my apartment. That would also help to obfuscate me from the PRT as I would have no legal address, and I doubted they could pick up my lab.
Leaving my lab, I decided to start today by buying some essentials such as a bed, an electric stove, and other small items that would be useful to have. All in all, the shopping trip took several thousand dollars and a few hours.
However, by the end of it, I had a small portion of the warehouse I had claimed cleaned out and set up as a possible living space.
My inner wizard chuckled glee as I finally fulfilled my favorite wizard stereotype—the one who lives in his lab, working day and night on his work. Now that I was a proper Magus, I could understand the appeal.
It was Magecraft and Magic. After all, who would not want to spend as much time as possible working on plumbing its depths for secrets and power.
All the walking around had, however, accumulated a far bit of Dust. It was weaved in tight interlocking patterns all the way to my shins, and even without putting any mana in it, I could feel its raw might.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, I placed my hands on the thin layer of reality-shaping material and let it tumble through my skeletal fingers; I focused on it and my SOUL.
I resonated as I poured magic into the tiny nanomachines, and looking at it so closely, I could see why the people of Agria thought it magic. After all, sufficiently advanced science was indistinguishable from magic, and the Endless got pretty damm close to magic as they could get in their universe. Sitting on the ground, my mind and SOUL were interwoven with Dust.
I almost missed the silent ping in the back of my head that let me know it was mine and Taylor's agreed-upon time to meet.
Standing up and letting the Dust reacclimate around my legs, I double-checked to make sure that my mana sources were hidden from sight and passway. Striding over to the door, I then opened it to the mildly terrifying face of Skitter and flinched back.
The image was ruined, however, as Taylor started stammering apologies. Chuckling, I gestured for her to come inside. She then took off her maks and set it down.
"How was your day?"
Mumbling under her breath, Taylor responded.
"It was fine"
While I knew of the bullying, I had no reason that I could explain to be aware of it, so I simply nodded and pulled out the hairpin.
"This, my dear, is an item in the Toshaka lineup of items."
"What is the Toshaka lineup?"
"It is a lineup of items that cover things from gems to healing items."
"Why those that is such a broad range."
Shrugging in response, I replied
"Dunoh, it just felt right. Anywho you want an explanation before you go galavanting off?"
Jerking her head in a rapid nod, she singled her affirmation
"This item is fairly simple; as long as your brain is mostly intact, you will not die. Not from blunt force trauma, bleeding out, poison. Nothing can slay you while this is worn."
Eyes wide, she looked stunned, and I interrupted her before she had a chance to speak.
"Now, that does not mean you are immortal, far from it. Your body still will obey basic biology; if you don't have enough blood, you will not be able to move, blunt trauma will still break bones, and poison will still make you feel miserable."
I then handed it to her; she, with great care, accepted the item before with shaky hands clipping it in her hair. With an internal smirk, I nodded. I had her snared. Over time the hairpin would change her thoughts until listening to me became second nature. With a small grin on her face, Taylor spoke.
"Is there anything else?"
"Nah, that's everything. Have a good night. Don't forget to come back here in the morning."
Giving a nod, she slipped her mask back on and left a small cloud of insects following her wake.
Powers Gained
Dust Attunement
Dust is naturally drawn to you. Wherever you go, Dust will come to you. Swirling in plumes and clouds, the brilliant golden Dust is pulled to you, gathering around and on you. While it may sound messy, are you really going to complain about being powdered in the most precious substance on the planet? Every mile you travel, you find roughly one Dust coin. Staying in one place gives you about 10 a day. This requires Dust to be present of course. It prefers dry, hot places, although it goes congeal around anomalies and buried in stone fields.
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We'll that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Honestly the mastering magic was unnecessary. The gifts and kind words would work well on their own. Taylor is mistrustful, but she's also desperate for affection and friendship. I don't think her paranoia would really extend to a random cape either. He's too different from the teens and faculty of Winslow.
Chapter 11
Standing in my lab, I felt the might of the Grimoire build again. Grunting, I felt an energy build in my chest as I could sense grinding and shifting from my SOUL. Diving into the location, I immerged into a world of swords. All around me were swords of all types sticking from the dead soil, and hovering in the sky endlessly churning away were giant gears with the moon shining brightly between them I recognized what this was, and it worried me. This was Unlimted Blade Work with several alterations; the main one was that instead of being day, it was nighttime with a full moon in the sky, and Castle Brunetud was here.
I Slowly walked up to my house on a hill while gently running my hands over the hilts of the swords embedded in the ground. Each of them trembled slightly as I touched them as if waiting to be used. Opening the door to Castle Brunestud, I stepped inside to see the vampiric spirit standing in the room off to the right. He had pushed aside the low coffee table and the fancy chairs and was swinging two small blades; one was primarily white while the other was mostly black.
Twirling them as if they were pistols, they vanished as he grinned fangs on broad display. Sighing while placing the palm of my hand on my face, I spoke to him.
"Kanshou and Bakuya, really?"
"Well, duh! I mean, come on, this is EMIYA; he can summon a ton of blades while he sits at the back. Imagine the destruction we could cause!"
"Of course, that is what you are interested in. I'm leaving now."
As I vanished, I saw his mouth move; however, I was out of my SOUL before I could hear him.
Standing still, I held my hands out face up and focused. I called upon Kanshou and Bakuya and felt a heavy weight drop into my hands. A grin like my vampiric alters snuck on my face as I swung the blade around.
While no doubt I would have sliced my arm off before I got this new power if I tried such fancy tricks, it was now a matter of Instinct to twirl the two blades about with no difficulty.
Dismissing the swords, I pulled open my Grimoire and flipped to the newest page. It was titled Class Card Heart, and further down was Archer. I listed how part of my SOUL now contained the crushed ego of a Heroic Spirit.
Paling slightly, I continued ready as I remembered what happened when people had tried to crush the ego of sufficiently powerful spirits. Mainly, the person in question would be dead or wish they were dead.
Calming down as I read further and the page made it clear that I would not have to worry about a pissed-off EMIYA tearing my SOUL apart. Gently putting the book away, I focused on the faint grinding I could feel coming from my chest and focused on calling upon a few no-name swords. An instant later, I had half a dozen steel, bronze, and other metal blades floating in the air behind me.
With a mental flick, the blades started moving around my laboratory, dancing in between each other as I tested my fine control. It seemed that D ranked Clairvoyance and C ranked eye of the Mind(True) were enough to control a few dozen blades with minimal focus.
Pulling more and more blades, I soon had a large armory worth of blades dancing through my lab, many of them weapons that a Magus would sell their family to get.
Letting the blades vanish back into my SOUL, I decided to run a few more tests. The first test was to see if Independent Action did anything. Standing in the middle of an empty warehouse did not make me feel any less stupid as I tried to focus on my magic, and after over an hour, I felt that it either did nothing or something so small I could not tell what it did.
The following skill was Magic Resistance; however, I would not be hitting myself with my magic, and at rank E, it would be more of a pleasant surprise than anything I could count on. I had already tested Clairvoyance and Eye of the Mind(True), which left Magecraft.
Unfortunately, while Magecraft was potent for Archer, it didn't do all that much while he had spent a fair time honing it; the skill did not measure up to an entire eight-year education in the Clocktower. An upside, however, was that projecting swords that were not in Unlimted Blade Works was very easy.
I did not have any new weapons that I could add; however, things like Chevalier's gun blade would be a fine addition to my collection. As I had been practicing, more Dust had collected around me and formed pseudo muscle, and at the tips of my feet, I could see a few toes made out of pure Dust.
Bending down to observe them closer, I noticed that while they looked much better and glowed slightly, they were still my toes. However, anything further would have to wait until more Dust gathered around me.
Standing up, I felt my Grimore's power build up again; this time, it faded back, letting the power simmer in my marrow. Wriggling my fingers to dispel the pins and needles, I decided to look over my Grimoire to implement my next plan.
I needed to prepare for when outside capes came to the Bay. I could assume that the Butcher and Accord would arrive; however, I didn't know if anybody else would.
I had no clue how I would react to killing the Butcher, so while over a dozen powers would be excellent, the insanity is a definite downside. However, I scribbled down to see later if I could make something to block mental effects.
Accord would be the bigger problem. He had the Ambassadors, a potent team that, backed by my Accord's ludicrous power, could most likely end up a ruling power in the bay.
My plan for him boiled down to a scry and die. I would try to find his location and toss half a dozen broken Phantasm at it. No matter what, your plan was something that could kill Hercules at least once and would be almost impossible to stop.
If anybody else was coming to town, I couldn't remember them from canon; the S9 avoided places that were not already run down. Levithan would most likely avoid Brockton due to my butterflies.
That was all the other threats I could remember from Worm. My new plan was to build something that could protect me from mind control or mental tampering of any sort.
While I didn't have a physical brain or most of a form anymore, I didn't want to take any risks, which meant something that could protect me. Pulling open my Grimoire, I started looking over my options.
Straight Enchanting was out as I didn't know enough to make me immune to mind-altering effects. Looking over at the illusion covering my batteries, I thought over to Skidmakrs power.
From what I could remember, he could stack them infinitely, and they would fade after thirty-ish minutes of a new one not being applied. I could then theoretically apply that concept of a stacking defense that grew more powerful after applied uses and would fade after not being used. Standing up and stretching while feeling my spine crackle and pop, I got to work.
The first step was to take a blood sample. This was difficult as I did not have a needle or any method to prevent Skidmark from dying from infections or the like. Pulling out a knife, I cut his filth-encrusted arm and let a little blood spill out into a cup.
Wrinkling my nose at the smell, I stepped back and started drawing my customary circle in dust and white magic.
A few minutes later, I set the cup in the center and stopped, realizing I had forgotten to get an item to enchant. With a roll of the green flames spilling out my eye socket, I teleported to the pawn shop I had purchased most of my jewelry.
Periodically it was closed at this time, so I started to collect a large sum of items that could be enchanted in the near future—frowning slightly as I was about to leave, I set down the amount it would have cost to buy the items as well as an extra 10%.
While that did drain my funds, I was not screwing over some innocent shopkeeper. Besides, I liked the small gnome-like man; he didn't ask questions and appeared reasonably amicable. Arriving at my lab, I set a small silver ring inside the circle and started chanting in german.
"Drown, drown the ring, the ring, the defenses grow bigger as they grow smaller!"
As the last line faded away, I saw mana tremble and soar into the ring. Dismissing the words and scraping away the Dust, I put the cup of blood under the illusion in case I needed it later.
Picking up the ring and sliding it onto the ring finger on my right hand, I saw a shimmering field of mana pop up around me, and a few seconds later, another appeared. While invisible to the average eye, I could see the fields that would appear and, after thirty minutes, would vanish.
The fields were so thick it was hard to see how many there were; however, by eyeballing it, I could assume I had around a hundred or so, and while each field was weak, I doubted that most mental attacks could pass through now.
While I was cleaning up the sight of the ritual, I heard a soft knocking at the door and walked over before putting where my ear would be to it and asking.
"Who is it?"
I received a rasping gurgle in response, decided to risk it, and pulled the door open, ready to toss out magic. I was unprepared for a Taylor stumbling into me as blood pooled out of her throat.
It was clear the only reason she was alive as my hairpin and the only reason she was standing was spite and that she had managed to hold enough blood to keep her legs working.
Dragging her inside and fishing a health potion out of my pocket, I tore off her mask and pored the brew down her throat. The stab wound that had made a hole you could see through sealed up, and soon, Taylor was coughing up the blood that had pooled in her throat.
She tried to push herself up until I gently pushed her down and started talking.
"What happened?"
Her voice raspy and face pale, she managed to spit out
"Oni Lee"
Seeing that while her lethal wound was healed, the potion could not restore her completely, I grabbed another and ensured that she drank it. Looking much better, she started to speak.
"I was patroling where the ABB is and saw a figure blinking about. After I saw the first few people turn to dust, I guessed that it was Oni Lee and decided to see if he would lead me back to his base; once he did that, I could contact the PRT."
My voice was as dry as the Sahara when I responded.
"So you decided to tail the mass murderer you regularly suicide bombs, civilians."
Flushing, she nodded before continuing.
"I must have alerted him because one moment I was creeping around a corner, and the next I had a knife in my throat. I then dropped to the ground clawing at my throat, and then he left."
"You got fortunate that he did not double-tap. Going forward, I will give you a healing potion and make sure you don't do something this stupid again. You understand that you were most likely a minute or so from being unable to move as your heart failed to pump blood to your legs?"
She nodded again, eyes downcast; I reached over and lifted her chin with a figure before smiling at her.
"It's fine; this is your first night, after all. There is a reason I gave you the hairpin. Now it is late, and I recommend going home and getting some sleep and a snack to replenish your lost blood. You will be weak for another few hours so take it easy."
"Ok, and thank you a ton."
She then picked up her mask and darted out, letting the door swing shut behind her. Unfurling myself from where I had crouched, I resolved to get something that would allow us to communicate, whether a phone or something more mystical.
As I stood there, I felt the Grimores power start to grow before it seemed to split off and light flew off me. Looking back after the light had faded, I saw a small girl clad in a kimono with her black hair pulled up into twin tails. Beaming up at me, she spoke in a high childish voice while she jumped onto me and started hugging me.
"Hello, Master! It's great to finally meet you!"
Stumbling back, I managed to croak out a faint
"What?"
Powers Gained
Class Card Heart
Through some manner you have permanently gained the abilities of a chosen class card. You are free to choose any class card from the items list and wield its abilities naturally.
Archer
The Class Card of the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA.
Include: Limit Expand. This allows you to summon a noble phantasm that is in the form of a weapon.
Install: Phantasm Summon. This allows you to gain the abilities of a servant and their noble phantasms.
Parameters of skills and noble phantasms are more a ranking of how they are compared to fellow servants.
Cards can be installed for as long as your magical energy can sustain them, after being uninstalled they will require an hour before being able to be used again.
Parameters:
Strength: E
Mana: C
Endurance: D
Luck: E
Agility: D
Class Skills:
Independent Action: C - Independent Action is the ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from the Master. At the higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. For the purposes of the Class Cards this allows you to keep them installed for longer.
Magic Resistance: E - Magic Resistance grants protection against magical effects. Differently from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. At rank E it cannot cancel spells, but magic damage is reduced somewhat.
Personal Skills:
Clairvoyance: D - Clairvoyance connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this skill have acquired such abilities as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). At rank D Capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of two kilometers.
Eye of the Mind (True): C - Eye of the Mind (True) is a heightened capacity for observation, refined through experience. At rank B it is capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 10% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning.
Magecraft: C - Magecraft is knowledge about modern Thaumaturgy. At rank C is capable of using orthodox Thaumaturgy. Archer's rank in using Projection Magic when the target falls under the category of "sword" is A+.
Noble Phantasm:
Unlimited Bladeworks: E~EX - Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords is the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA. Emiya does not have a true Noble Phantasm that is the crystallized embodiment of a hero's existence like many demonic or holy swords, but if a Noble Phantasm is considered to be a symbol of the Heroic Spirit, then the Reality Marble is his Noble Phantasm. It is high-class thaumaturgy that embodies their internal worlds and imprints them upon the world as a bounded field. It is their one true specialization of magecraft, the result of "Sword" being both their Origin and their Elemental Affinity, and the basis of their projection and reinforcement skills. It is the definite answer obtained by someone whose life was saved by a sword, actually merged and lived with a sword, and acted as a sword all of his life. Emiya has no penalties from the world while utilizing his version of Unlimited Blade Works.
The Reality Marble's purpose is a steel manufacturing factory that produces the countless famous swords without owners that extend into the horizon. It contains all of the raw materials and sorcery needed for the formation of the weapons, and it records and analyzes all weapons and defensive armaments encountered. The number of unique weapons encountered and recorded by Archer exceeds numerous thousands, most of which are Noble Phantasms. Their entire histories, compositions, and designs are all perfectly recorded, allowing for instant proficiency with the weapons by inheriting all combat skills and techniques utilized by their original owners. This allows for the reproduction of Noble Phantasms, which would generally be impossible for a faker.
They can also be modified to the user's taste with reinforcement as shown by Archer's Caladbolg II and Kanshou and Bakuya. Close combat weapons such as swords, spears, and halberds are the main focus of the Reality Marble in accordance with Emiya's Origin of "Sword", which also makes it impossible to record or reproduce modern weaponry like guns and other mobile weapons. Shields and defensive armaments can be reproduced with a much greater struggle, as the cost in magical energy is high, two or three times greater than a sword, and the effects are merely transient compared to the originals. Weapons encountered are immediately analyzed with a single glance, enabling them to be projected immediately afterward, and once projected, they are stored within the Reality Marble for later use. Shiro is able to instantly recognize dozens of weapons being fired from the Gate of Babylon at an extremely high rate and instantly counter with projections of the same weapons before they can strike.
The analysis of weapons is limited only to the direct use of human senses, meaning that blueprints and materials will be unable to provide the necessary information for a proper analysis. Shared memories, such as dreams shared with a Servant, can allow for weapons to be analyzed and projected, even if they have been lost like Caliburn. The quality of projected weapons will always be degraded by one rank due to humans being unable to fully conceptualize the existence of an object through only one sense, and they will never equal the originals without a technique such as detonating them as Broken Phantasms. The Reality Marble allows for projection and reinforcement in the real world. Weapons are produced within Unlimited Blade Works and then brought into the world, greatly lowering the cost of reproducing them and allowing for numerous weapons to be prepared at once to be projected. Weapons can be summoned directly to the user's hands, or they can be summoned to levitate within the air and fire upon the enemy as arrows much like the Gate of Babylon. Once the Reality Marble is deployed, all of the weapons are available for use, and any weapon can immediately be called to the user's hands or levitated even while the user is in direct combat. The weapons reproduced once the Reality Marble is first activated will not consume magical energy, but those used or destroyed within it will add to the cost of maintaining the bounded field. The amount of energy used to reproduce weapons that did not exist after the bounded field was expanded and the amount of energy used to recreate weapons destroyed while it is activated is extremely costly.
Komainu
You have a komainu, a lion-dog statue that watches menacingly over wherever you wish to put it. When you need it, perhaps when trespassers try to break in, it will spring to life (and naturally, turn into a cute girl) to defend you. While in statue form, it's semi-aware and can remember things such as who looked after the statue when it was not needed and keep a careful watch for potential enemies.
I Slowly walked up to my house on a hill while gently running my hands over the hilts of the swords embedded in the ground. Each of them trembled slightly as I touched them as if waiting to be used. Opening the door to Castle Brunestud, I stepped inside to see the vampiric spirit standing in the room off to the right. He had pushed aside the low coffee table and the fancy chairs and was swinging two small blades; one was primarily white while the other was mostly black.
Twirling them as if they were pistols, they vanished as he grinned fangs on broad display. Sighing while placing the palm of my hand on my face, I spoke to him.
"Kanshou and Bakuya, really?"
"Well, duh! I mean, come on, this is EMIYA; he can summon a ton of blades while he sits at the back. Imagine the destruction we could cause!"
"Of course, that is what you are interested in. I'm leaving now."
As I vanished, I saw his mouth move; however, I was out of my SOUL before I could hear him.
Standing still, I held my hands out face up and focused. I called upon Kanshou and Bakuya and felt a heavy weight drop into my hands. A grin like my vampiric alters snuck on my face as I swung the blade around.
While no doubt I would have sliced my arm off before I got this new power if I tried such fancy tricks, it was now a matter of Instinct to twirl the two blades about with no difficulty.
Dismissing the swords, I pulled open my Grimoire and flipped to the newest page. It was titled Class Card Heart, and further down was Archer. I listed how part of my SOUL now contained the crushed ego of a Heroic Spirit.
Paling slightly, I continued ready as I remembered what happened when people had tried to crush the ego of sufficiently powerful spirits. Mainly, the person in question would be dead or wish they were dead.
Calming down as I read further and the page made it clear that I would not have to worry about a pissed-off EMIYA tearing my SOUL apart. Gently putting the book away, I focused on the faint grinding I could feel coming from my chest and focused on calling upon a few no-name swords. An instant later, I had half a dozen steel, bronze, and other metal blades floating in the air behind me.
With a mental flick, the blades started moving around my laboratory, dancing in between each other as I tested my fine control. It seemed that D ranked Clairvoyance and C ranked eye of the Mind(True) were enough to control a few dozen blades with minimal focus.
Pulling more and more blades, I soon had a large armory worth of blades dancing through my lab, many of them weapons that a Magus would sell their family to get.
Letting the blades vanish back into my SOUL, I decided to run a few more tests. The first test was to see if Independent Action did anything. Standing in the middle of an empty warehouse did not make me feel any less stupid as I tried to focus on my magic, and after over an hour, I felt that it either did nothing or something so small I could not tell what it did.
The following skill was Magic Resistance; however, I would not be hitting myself with my magic, and at rank E, it would be more of a pleasant surprise than anything I could count on. I had already tested Clairvoyance and Eye of the Mind(True), which left Magecraft.
Unfortunately, while Magecraft was potent for Archer, it didn't do all that much while he had spent a fair time honing it; the skill did not measure up to an entire eight-year education in the Clocktower. An upside, however, was that projecting swords that were not in Unlimted Blade Works was very easy.
I did not have any new weapons that I could add; however, things like Chevalier's gun blade would be a fine addition to my collection. As I had been practicing, more Dust had collected around me and formed pseudo muscle, and at the tips of my feet, I could see a few toes made out of pure Dust.
Bending down to observe them closer, I noticed that while they looked much better and glowed slightly, they were still my toes. However, anything further would have to wait until more Dust gathered around me.
Standing up, I felt my Grimore's power build up again; this time, it faded back, letting the power simmer in my marrow. Wriggling my fingers to dispel the pins and needles, I decided to look over my Grimoire to implement my next plan.
I needed to prepare for when outside capes came to the Bay. I could assume that the Butcher and Accord would arrive; however, I didn't know if anybody else would.
I had no clue how I would react to killing the Butcher, so while over a dozen powers would be excellent, the insanity is a definite downside. However, I scribbled down to see later if I could make something to block mental effects.
Accord would be the bigger problem. He had the Ambassadors, a potent team that, backed by my Accord's ludicrous power, could most likely end up a ruling power in the bay.
My plan for him boiled down to a scry and die. I would try to find his location and toss half a dozen broken Phantasm at it. No matter what, your plan was something that could kill Hercules at least once and would be almost impossible to stop.
If anybody else was coming to town, I couldn't remember them from canon; the S9 avoided places that were not already run down. Levithan would most likely avoid Brockton due to my butterflies.
That was all the other threats I could remember from Worm. My new plan was to build something that could protect me from mind control or mental tampering of any sort.
While I didn't have a physical brain or most of a form anymore, I didn't want to take any risks, which meant something that could protect me. Pulling open my Grimoire, I started looking over my options.
Straight Enchanting was out as I didn't know enough to make me immune to mind-altering effects. Looking over at the illusion covering my batteries, I thought over to Skidmakrs power.
From what I could remember, he could stack them infinitely, and they would fade after thirty-ish minutes of a new one not being applied. I could then theoretically apply that concept of a stacking defense that grew more powerful after applied uses and would fade after not being used. Standing up and stretching while feeling my spine crackle and pop, I got to work.
The first step was to take a blood sample. This was difficult as I did not have a needle or any method to prevent Skidmark from dying from infections or the like. Pulling out a knife, I cut his filth-encrusted arm and let a little blood spill out into a cup.
Wrinkling my nose at the smell, I stepped back and started drawing my customary circle in dust and white magic.
A few minutes later, I set the cup in the center and stopped, realizing I had forgotten to get an item to enchant. With a roll of the green flames spilling out my eye socket, I teleported to the pawn shop I had purchased most of my jewelry.
Periodically it was closed at this time, so I started to collect a large sum of items that could be enchanted in the near future—frowning slightly as I was about to leave, I set down the amount it would have cost to buy the items as well as an extra 10%.
While that did drain my funds, I was not screwing over some innocent shopkeeper. Besides, I liked the small gnome-like man; he didn't ask questions and appeared reasonably amicable. Arriving at my lab, I set a small silver ring inside the circle and started chanting in german.
"Drown, drown the ring, the ring, the defenses grow bigger as they grow smaller!"
As the last line faded away, I saw mana tremble and soar into the ring. Dismissing the words and scraping away the Dust, I put the cup of blood under the illusion in case I needed it later.
Picking up the ring and sliding it onto the ring finger on my right hand, I saw a shimmering field of mana pop up around me, and a few seconds later, another appeared. While invisible to the average eye, I could see the fields that would appear and, after thirty minutes, would vanish.
The fields were so thick it was hard to see how many there were; however, by eyeballing it, I could assume I had around a hundred or so, and while each field was weak, I doubted that most mental attacks could pass through now.
While I was cleaning up the sight of the ritual, I heard a soft knocking at the door and walked over before putting where my ear would be to it and asking.
"Who is it?"
I received a rasping gurgle in response, decided to risk it, and pulled the door open, ready to toss out magic. I was unprepared for a Taylor stumbling into me as blood pooled out of her throat.
It was clear the only reason she was alive as my hairpin and the only reason she was standing was spite and that she had managed to hold enough blood to keep her legs working.
Dragging her inside and fishing a health potion out of my pocket, I tore off her mask and pored the brew down her throat. The stab wound that had made a hole you could see through sealed up, and soon, Taylor was coughing up the blood that had pooled in her throat.
She tried to push herself up until I gently pushed her down and started talking.
"What happened?"
Her voice raspy and face pale, she managed to spit out
"Oni Lee"
Seeing that while her lethal wound was healed, the potion could not restore her completely, I grabbed another and ensured that she drank it. Looking much better, she started to speak.
"I was patroling where the ABB is and saw a figure blinking about. After I saw the first few people turn to dust, I guessed that it was Oni Lee and decided to see if he would lead me back to his base; once he did that, I could contact the PRT."
My voice was as dry as the Sahara when I responded.
"So you decided to tail the mass murderer you regularly suicide bombs, civilians."
Flushing, she nodded before continuing.
"I must have alerted him because one moment I was creeping around a corner, and the next I had a knife in my throat. I then dropped to the ground clawing at my throat, and then he left."
"You got fortunate that he did not double-tap. Going forward, I will give you a healing potion and make sure you don't do something this stupid again. You understand that you were most likely a minute or so from being unable to move as your heart failed to pump blood to your legs?"
She nodded again, eyes downcast; I reached over and lifted her chin with a figure before smiling at her.
"It's fine; this is your first night, after all. There is a reason I gave you the hairpin. Now it is late, and I recommend going home and getting some sleep and a snack to replenish your lost blood. You will be weak for another few hours so take it easy."
"Ok, and thank you a ton."
She then picked up her mask and darted out, letting the door swing shut behind her. Unfurling myself from where I had crouched, I resolved to get something that would allow us to communicate, whether a phone or something more mystical.
As I stood there, I felt the Grimores power start to grow before it seemed to split off and light flew off me. Looking back after the light had faded, I saw a small girl clad in a kimono with her black hair pulled up into twin tails. Beaming up at me, she spoke in a high childish voice while she jumped onto me and started hugging me.
"Hello, Master! It's great to finally meet you!"
Stumbling back, I managed to croak out a faint
"What?"
Powers Gained
Class Card Heart
Through some manner you have permanently gained the abilities of a chosen class card. You are free to choose any class card from the items list and wield its abilities naturally.
Archer
The Class Card of the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA.
Include: Limit Expand. This allows you to summon a noble phantasm that is in the form of a weapon.
Install: Phantasm Summon. This allows you to gain the abilities of a servant and their noble phantasms.
Parameters of skills and noble phantasms are more a ranking of how they are compared to fellow servants.
Cards can be installed for as long as your magical energy can sustain them, after being uninstalled they will require an hour before being able to be used again.
Parameters:
Strength: E
Mana: C
Endurance: D
Luck: E
Agility: D
Class Skills:
Independent Action: C - Independent Action is the ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from the Master. At the higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. For the purposes of the Class Cards this allows you to keep them installed for longer.
Magic Resistance: E - Magic Resistance grants protection against magical effects. Differently from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. At rank E it cannot cancel spells, but magic damage is reduced somewhat.
Personal Skills:
Clairvoyance: D - Clairvoyance connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this skill have acquired such abilities as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). At rank D Capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of two kilometers.
Eye of the Mind (True): C - Eye of the Mind (True) is a heightened capacity for observation, refined through experience. At rank B it is capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 10% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning.
Magecraft: C - Magecraft is knowledge about modern Thaumaturgy. At rank C is capable of using orthodox Thaumaturgy. Archer's rank in using Projection Magic when the target falls under the category of "sword" is A+.
Noble Phantasm:
Unlimited Bladeworks: E~EX - Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords is the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA. Emiya does not have a true Noble Phantasm that is the crystallized embodiment of a hero's existence like many demonic or holy swords, but if a Noble Phantasm is considered to be a symbol of the Heroic Spirit, then the Reality Marble is his Noble Phantasm. It is high-class thaumaturgy that embodies their internal worlds and imprints them upon the world as a bounded field. It is their one true specialization of magecraft, the result of "Sword" being both their Origin and their Elemental Affinity, and the basis of their projection and reinforcement skills. It is the definite answer obtained by someone whose life was saved by a sword, actually merged and lived with a sword, and acted as a sword all of his life. Emiya has no penalties from the world while utilizing his version of Unlimited Blade Works.
The Reality Marble's purpose is a steel manufacturing factory that produces the countless famous swords without owners that extend into the horizon. It contains all of the raw materials and sorcery needed for the formation of the weapons, and it records and analyzes all weapons and defensive armaments encountered. The number of unique weapons encountered and recorded by Archer exceeds numerous thousands, most of which are Noble Phantasms. Their entire histories, compositions, and designs are all perfectly recorded, allowing for instant proficiency with the weapons by inheriting all combat skills and techniques utilized by their original owners. This allows for the reproduction of Noble Phantasms, which would generally be impossible for a faker.
They can also be modified to the user's taste with reinforcement as shown by Archer's Caladbolg II and Kanshou and Bakuya. Close combat weapons such as swords, spears, and halberds are the main focus of the Reality Marble in accordance with Emiya's Origin of "Sword", which also makes it impossible to record or reproduce modern weaponry like guns and other mobile weapons. Shields and defensive armaments can be reproduced with a much greater struggle, as the cost in magical energy is high, two or three times greater than a sword, and the effects are merely transient compared to the originals. Weapons encountered are immediately analyzed with a single glance, enabling them to be projected immediately afterward, and once projected, they are stored within the Reality Marble for later use. Shiro is able to instantly recognize dozens of weapons being fired from the Gate of Babylon at an extremely high rate and instantly counter with projections of the same weapons before they can strike.
The analysis of weapons is limited only to the direct use of human senses, meaning that blueprints and materials will be unable to provide the necessary information for a proper analysis. Shared memories, such as dreams shared with a Servant, can allow for weapons to be analyzed and projected, even if they have been lost like Caliburn. The quality of projected weapons will always be degraded by one rank due to humans being unable to fully conceptualize the existence of an object through only one sense, and they will never equal the originals without a technique such as detonating them as Broken Phantasms. The Reality Marble allows for projection and reinforcement in the real world. Weapons are produced within Unlimited Blade Works and then brought into the world, greatly lowering the cost of reproducing them and allowing for numerous weapons to be prepared at once to be projected. Weapons can be summoned directly to the user's hands, or they can be summoned to levitate within the air and fire upon the enemy as arrows much like the Gate of Babylon. Once the Reality Marble is deployed, all of the weapons are available for use, and any weapon can immediately be called to the user's hands or levitated even while the user is in direct combat. The weapons reproduced once the Reality Marble is first activated will not consume magical energy, but those used or destroyed within it will add to the cost of maintaining the bounded field. The amount of energy used to reproduce weapons that did not exist after the bounded field was expanded and the amount of energy used to recreate weapons destroyed while it is activated is extremely costly.
Komainu
You have a komainu, a lion-dog statue that watches menacingly over wherever you wish to put it. When you need it, perhaps when trespassers try to break in, it will spring to life (and naturally, turn into a cute girl) to defend you. While in statue form, it's semi-aware and can remember things such as who looked after the statue when it was not needed and keep a careful watch for potential enemies.
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MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
MC's blindness to the cares of other people strikes again. Can't help but notice you opened Skidmark's arm and didnt stop the bleeding or disinfect it at all. He so dead.
So you wont be getting the Butcher powers, and any Butcher you kill will fail to inhabit you and move on to someone else? I guess a recurring enemy who keeps gathering more powers sounds fitting for this MC.
Site
Chapter 12
"Who are you?" I replied after I had dislodged the small girl from me. Going into an over-dramatic bow, she squeaked out.
"I'm a Komainu Master! Call me Komainu; I will protect you and watch over your territory when you are not around."
Letting a smile creep on my face at the pure teeth rotting enthusiasm she showed, I gently ruffled my hand through her hair as I responded.
"That's great; do you mind if I show you around, and please just call me Aidan"
Pushing her head into my hand, her smile grew larger as she spoke again while giving me two thumbs up.
"You got it, Ma-Aidan!"
Walking over to the illusion covering the parahuman batteries, I stepped inside and was assaulted with the smell of blood coating the floor. My eyes shot over the four people and saw the culprit.
Skidmark was paling as blood pooled around him from his arm, and while it had only been around thirty minutes, it still was almost enough to kill him. Darting over, I pulled a health potion out of my pocket and let it pour over his wound, watching as it sealed up.
Swiping a hand over his skull despite the lack of sweat. I then continued my tour for Komainu.
"These terrible people would hook people on life-ruining drugs, blow innocent civilians up or be a pedophile and attempt a coup. I currently have them hooked up to a system that drains their source of superpowers for energy. A part of your job will be ensuring these people do not die."
I then handed her three health potions before continuing.
"These health potions can heal a single mortal wound a peace. If you are hurt, you are to use these to heal yourself before you anybody else. Is that understood?"
Looking her in the eyes, I attempted to hammer in that fact. The semi-serious moment was halted in its track by her giggle and grin that showed her small fangs where canines would be on an ordinary girl. Breathing out, I continued.
"I'm saying this because I want you to be safe. I understand you are supposed to guard me; however, I do not want you dead because you tried to heal one of the stupid mouthbreathers filling this world."
With another grin, she replied semi-seriously this time around.
"Understood, is there anyplace you need me to guard in particular?"
"The main door, and feel free to be in this form as long as it is just you and me here. However, I need you to turn into your statue form for a bit.
She nodded before her form twisted, and a statue up to my chest rested on the floor before me. Grinning at this, I drew a circle around her and started chanting. If this worked, I could enchant her like she was an object which would open many paths.
As of now, she was, while a decent guardian, not all that powerful and would have to resort to simple physical attacks to fend off an attacker.
A few minutes later, I got the spell results back, and they were promising. She counted as an object with a soul, lowercase; this meant as long as I was careful, I could grant her quite a few power via enchantment. I could also write down my spells, and my Arcanum would allow her to study and gain my magic.
Speaking to her again, I started to walk out. "Feel free to turn. Don't touch anything; turn back if somebody knocks on the door."
Hearing the faint swoosh of air filling in the now vacant spots, I closed the door behind me. I needed to purchase a few items at the Boardwalk. As I walked, I felt the Grimoire's power swell again before fading back into my marrow, ready for the next surge; striding onto the Boardwalk, I took in the new sight.
On the weekdays, very few people were on the Boardwalk except those who worked there, making it feel empty and desolate. On the weekends, however, the Boardwalk was overflowing with people moving around.
This sheer deluge of people made me smile as even in a shit hole like the Bay, people still adapt. While they may not be as great or as important as people like Armsmaster, they were still improving and surviving, which was good to see.
Tearing myself from my musing, I start walking towards a small bookstore I had passed the last few times I was here. Nodding to the people as I passed them, I had a faint smile as I walked into the small store labeled The Little Nook.
An older man with a slight paunch wearing a turtleneck looked down from where he was standing, shelving books before talking.
"I'll be with you in just a moment."
Shimming down with surprising agility, he soon stood before me. I started talking, matching his smile.
"I'm looking for quite a few blank books."
Raising an eyebrow, he responded
"Let me see what I have in the back."
Sweeping away, he left me alone, so I looked around to see what kind of books this place sold. It was mainly non-fiction, and after picking up a few, it seemed that the shelves were stocked with whatever the owner could get his hands on at the bargain bin.
A few minutes later, the man came back, balancing half a dozen small journals in his arms before setting them down with a thump on the counter.
"That will be 32 dollars," He said, holding his hand for the cast. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the required amount before handing it to him.
Putting the money away, he pushed the books across to me after placing them in a bag. Giving him a thank you, I left the shop and started heading back to my laboratory.
Letting the bag swing by my side, my nose curled up as I walked past a group of people lying on the ground, eyes glazed over. I had entered the docks and was opposed to the bustling commerce of the Boardwalk.
The Docks were full of wastrels who sat around doing nothing, not even attempting to reach for better. I opened my lab door and saw Komainu lying on her back in girl form. She was tossing the Grimoire up in the air, catching it and repeating it.
Rushing over to her, I grabbed the Grimoire before looking down at her as she wilted. Sitting up, she started to explain.
"I was sooooo bored."
My mind had to take a minute to reboot after the fact that Komainu, a guardian spirit, was bored after forty minutes without me here. Sitting down next to her and, setting my Grimoire next to me, I ran my hand through my illusionary hands before I started talking.
"Sorry, I didn't think that you might get bored. Next time I go out, I'll make sure to bring back a TV or something of the sort, ok?"
I then ruffled my hand through her hair, causing her to giggle and lean into me as she looked up at my eye sockets.
"Ok," she chirped before rolling on her butt and standing up.
"What now?"
"Now, I take some time to write out some basic Magecraft and see if you can learn that. While I work on that, feel free to poke around; just let me know if you are going into the batterie's containment circles; I don't want you to get trapped."
Shooting me a thumbs up, she darted past the illusion hiding my batteries and started observing them. I, meanwhile, sat up against the wall and started writing what I knew about Reinforcement, which while not much, should help Komainu in a fight.
Typically this would take years to teach somebody, even the basics; however, Arcanum(Basic) would let me transcribe my knowledge that other people could learn quickly. Komainu would never reach my skill level, not without years of training; however, Reinforcement would allow her to become a true terror on the battlefield.
As a magical being, Reinforcement would enhance everything about her as Reinforcement improves objects, and she counted as both an object and a person due to her unique nature.
Writing this down properly would take a few hours, so I locked the door and kept an eye on my newest lion-dog statue, which was currently poking Coil's toe near the edge of the circle while giggling the whole time.
Several hours later, I stood up and set the new grimoire down before shuffling over to Komainu, who had transitioned to slapping the top of Skidmark's head.
Skidmark, while still pale, was much better now that he wasn't actively bleeding out. Tapping her right shoulder and ignoring the yep that popped out, I through a thumb over my shoulder as I steered her toward the grimoire.
"Alright, I wrote down everything I know about Reinforcement. Your secondary job is to study what I wrote and try to reproduce its effects."
Pouting as I assigned her actual work for the first time, she dragged over the book and pushed her back into the wall as she cracked it open and cast her eyes on the words inside.
My next task was to provide her with an actual way to use Reinforcement. While she could use her inner magical energy that could lead her to be exhausted at the wrong time. So I landed on an idea similar to my ruby in my head.
I would enchant an item to pull energy from the batteries she could use instead of her inner pool. The principle was essentially the same, so it would only take me around a day to make as opposed to the multiple that it took last time.
As I started gathering more materials for the process, Grimore's energy bubbled up much more literally. The Dust coating up to my waist began to flicker as some of it dropped away as the reagents I needed while others turned into half-imagined items.
Forcing down the new power, I pulled a little Dust off my leg and held it in my hand. Taking a moment to focus on it before the Dust shimmered, and after a few seconds of very faint whirring, I had a perfectly cut diamond in my hand.
Picking up my Grimoire, I flipped to the newest page labeled Arcana of Matter. As I pored through this most recent portion, the flame in my eye socket grew wilder as the sheer potential of unlimited transmutation sunk in.
As long as I had Dust, I could make nearly anything, and while this perk was based on Endless Legend, I knew from Endless Space the true power of this power. Given sufficient Dust, I transform an entire planet instantly, build spaceships with the snap of my fingers, and more. The only limit was Dust; I now knew why some people worshipped Dust.
Arcana of Matter
Dust is everything. You need to simply tell it what to become. With this Arcana, you can turn a handful into any portable object, a bag into something it'd take a couple people to lift, or an entire barrel into a hasty fortification.
"I'm a Komainu Master! Call me Komainu; I will protect you and watch over your territory when you are not around."
Letting a smile creep on my face at the pure teeth rotting enthusiasm she showed, I gently ruffled my hand through her hair as I responded.
"That's great; do you mind if I show you around, and please just call me Aidan"
Pushing her head into my hand, her smile grew larger as she spoke again while giving me two thumbs up.
"You got it, Ma-Aidan!"
Walking over to the illusion covering the parahuman batteries, I stepped inside and was assaulted with the smell of blood coating the floor. My eyes shot over the four people and saw the culprit.
Skidmark was paling as blood pooled around him from his arm, and while it had only been around thirty minutes, it still was almost enough to kill him. Darting over, I pulled a health potion out of my pocket and let it pour over his wound, watching as it sealed up.
Swiping a hand over his skull despite the lack of sweat. I then continued my tour for Komainu.
"These terrible people would hook people on life-ruining drugs, blow innocent civilians up or be a pedophile and attempt a coup. I currently have them hooked up to a system that drains their source of superpowers for energy. A part of your job will be ensuring these people do not die."
I then handed her three health potions before continuing.
"These health potions can heal a single mortal wound a peace. If you are hurt, you are to use these to heal yourself before you anybody else. Is that understood?"
Looking her in the eyes, I attempted to hammer in that fact. The semi-serious moment was halted in its track by her giggle and grin that showed her small fangs where canines would be on an ordinary girl. Breathing out, I continued.
"I'm saying this because I want you to be safe. I understand you are supposed to guard me; however, I do not want you dead because you tried to heal one of the stupid mouthbreathers filling this world."
With another grin, she replied semi-seriously this time around.
"Understood, is there anyplace you need me to guard in particular?"
"The main door, and feel free to be in this form as long as it is just you and me here. However, I need you to turn into your statue form for a bit.
She nodded before her form twisted, and a statue up to my chest rested on the floor before me. Grinning at this, I drew a circle around her and started chanting. If this worked, I could enchant her like she was an object which would open many paths.
As of now, she was, while a decent guardian, not all that powerful and would have to resort to simple physical attacks to fend off an attacker.
A few minutes later, I got the spell results back, and they were promising. She counted as an object with a soul, lowercase; this meant as long as I was careful, I could grant her quite a few power via enchantment. I could also write down my spells, and my Arcanum would allow her to study and gain my magic.
Speaking to her again, I started to walk out. "Feel free to turn. Don't touch anything; turn back if somebody knocks on the door."
Hearing the faint swoosh of air filling in the now vacant spots, I closed the door behind me. I needed to purchase a few items at the Boardwalk. As I walked, I felt the Grimoire's power swell again before fading back into my marrow, ready for the next surge; striding onto the Boardwalk, I took in the new sight.
On the weekdays, very few people were on the Boardwalk except those who worked there, making it feel empty and desolate. On the weekends, however, the Boardwalk was overflowing with people moving around.
This sheer deluge of people made me smile as even in a shit hole like the Bay, people still adapt. While they may not be as great or as important as people like Armsmaster, they were still improving and surviving, which was good to see.
Tearing myself from my musing, I start walking towards a small bookstore I had passed the last few times I was here. Nodding to the people as I passed them, I had a faint smile as I walked into the small store labeled The Little Nook.
An older man with a slight paunch wearing a turtleneck looked down from where he was standing, shelving books before talking.
"I'll be with you in just a moment."
Shimming down with surprising agility, he soon stood before me. I started talking, matching his smile.
"I'm looking for quite a few blank books."
Raising an eyebrow, he responded
"Let me see what I have in the back."
Sweeping away, he left me alone, so I looked around to see what kind of books this place sold. It was mainly non-fiction, and after picking up a few, it seemed that the shelves were stocked with whatever the owner could get his hands on at the bargain bin.
A few minutes later, the man came back, balancing half a dozen small journals in his arms before setting them down with a thump on the counter.
"That will be 32 dollars," He said, holding his hand for the cast. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the required amount before handing it to him.
Putting the money away, he pushed the books across to me after placing them in a bag. Giving him a thank you, I left the shop and started heading back to my laboratory.
Letting the bag swing by my side, my nose curled up as I walked past a group of people lying on the ground, eyes glazed over. I had entered the docks and was opposed to the bustling commerce of the Boardwalk.
The Docks were full of wastrels who sat around doing nothing, not even attempting to reach for better. I opened my lab door and saw Komainu lying on her back in girl form. She was tossing the Grimoire up in the air, catching it and repeating it.
Rushing over to her, I grabbed the Grimoire before looking down at her as she wilted. Sitting up, she started to explain.
"I was sooooo bored."
My mind had to take a minute to reboot after the fact that Komainu, a guardian spirit, was bored after forty minutes without me here. Sitting down next to her and, setting my Grimoire next to me, I ran my hand through my illusionary hands before I started talking.
"Sorry, I didn't think that you might get bored. Next time I go out, I'll make sure to bring back a TV or something of the sort, ok?"
I then ruffled my hand through her hair, causing her to giggle and lean into me as she looked up at my eye sockets.
"Ok," she chirped before rolling on her butt and standing up.
"What now?"
"Now, I take some time to write out some basic Magecraft and see if you can learn that. While I work on that, feel free to poke around; just let me know if you are going into the batterie's containment circles; I don't want you to get trapped."
Shooting me a thumbs up, she darted past the illusion hiding my batteries and started observing them. I, meanwhile, sat up against the wall and started writing what I knew about Reinforcement, which while not much, should help Komainu in a fight.
Typically this would take years to teach somebody, even the basics; however, Arcanum(Basic) would let me transcribe my knowledge that other people could learn quickly. Komainu would never reach my skill level, not without years of training; however, Reinforcement would allow her to become a true terror on the battlefield.
As a magical being, Reinforcement would enhance everything about her as Reinforcement improves objects, and she counted as both an object and a person due to her unique nature.
Writing this down properly would take a few hours, so I locked the door and kept an eye on my newest lion-dog statue, which was currently poking Coil's toe near the edge of the circle while giggling the whole time.
Several hours later, I stood up and set the new grimoire down before shuffling over to Komainu, who had transitioned to slapping the top of Skidmark's head.
Skidmark, while still pale, was much better now that he wasn't actively bleeding out. Tapping her right shoulder and ignoring the yep that popped out, I through a thumb over my shoulder as I steered her toward the grimoire.
"Alright, I wrote down everything I know about Reinforcement. Your secondary job is to study what I wrote and try to reproduce its effects."
Pouting as I assigned her actual work for the first time, she dragged over the book and pushed her back into the wall as she cracked it open and cast her eyes on the words inside.
My next task was to provide her with an actual way to use Reinforcement. While she could use her inner magical energy that could lead her to be exhausted at the wrong time. So I landed on an idea similar to my ruby in my head.
I would enchant an item to pull energy from the batteries she could use instead of her inner pool. The principle was essentially the same, so it would only take me around a day to make as opposed to the multiple that it took last time.
As I started gathering more materials for the process, Grimore's energy bubbled up much more literally. The Dust coating up to my waist began to flicker as some of it dropped away as the reagents I needed while others turned into half-imagined items.
Forcing down the new power, I pulled a little Dust off my leg and held it in my hand. Taking a moment to focus on it before the Dust shimmered, and after a few seconds of very faint whirring, I had a perfectly cut diamond in my hand.
Picking up my Grimoire, I flipped to the newest page labeled Arcana of Matter. As I pored through this most recent portion, the flame in my eye socket grew wilder as the sheer potential of unlimited transmutation sunk in.
As long as I had Dust, I could make nearly anything, and while this perk was based on Endless Legend, I knew from Endless Space the true power of this power. Given sufficient Dust, I transform an entire planet instantly, build spaceships with the snap of my fingers, and more. The only limit was Dust; I now knew why some people worshipped Dust.
Arcana of Matter
Dust is everything. You need to simply tell it what to become. With this Arcana, you can turn a handful into any portable object, a bag into something it'd take a couple people to lift, or an entire barrel into a hasty fortification.
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- Location
- Wisconsin
- Pronouns
- He/Him
True, he'll have to see about getting a prescription from Medhall first, take two weekly and all that.
