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Vorstallen Magic Preparatory - The Third-Best School for Young Mages in the Nation! Enrol Today!

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[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

We've been playing Ulos as the guy who will claw forward on the bleeding stumps of his fingers when everyone else has given up when they were merely short of breath.

The way thing usually go for us is "wrong", such that we need to stack every conceivable modifier to have a whisper of a chance of not failing.

This seems like the logical choice. 180 days of training, we've had 63 so far. That's a game changer. That's getting Ulos to start the second semester as if he had finished the fourth.

Whenever something like this shows up, I can't help but remembered when we rolled nearly minimally on Inukar's a time-cheat exam and missed the cut-off for "genius" by one, or getting absurdly trolled by Illusion Guy, or the various "I keep forgetting you are not as good as I am used to".

So yeah, to hell with it. Time to hop on the tiger yet again.
 
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[X] Kill with a Whisper
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

I don't think the time chamber is worth it. We gain 83 days of training as it takes a week to do it, but we will also lose the following week. It's likely we won't have any willpower for the following week which imo is bad. We can't train everything either and won't have access to action-efficient training like the study group or tutors. Ulos will also age crazy fast, which will lead to all sort of nasty questions (true Narubites will obviously think we dabble in Necromancy). This all means that the Elixir is better by all metrics. I think having a decent combat sigil could also be a good idea.
 
[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

Forge onward.
 
[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

Pretty much as Totally_Not_Evil says. Ulos is a nice guy in most ways, but also hungry. He got to Vorstallen by luck for the most part, and I think if there's one thing he's shown is that he's willing to keep gambling for real freedom and real power.

No way he'd turn down a chance like this.
 
N U T T Y

for all my bitching about high variance rolls, it does feel good to have the RNG cut our way under this kind of system. I'm happy we pushed for solving this sidequest and glad the rolls lined up so well, and especially glad that the critprotection from Waffle saved us. many thanks to them.

[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

I would also be satisfied with Whisper, since it does address a very tangible weakness of Ulos' but...then again, just this very update Ulos has noted that direct combat is not his strength. I think even if he had Channeling 6 still it wouldn't be a strength of his. He'd be strong but he wouldn't have Abraham's...whatever it is that makes him a fantastic combat mage. My sense is that he'd beat Channeling 3 mages but a strong Channeling 4 combat specialist would make him sweat or outright threaten him.

Additionally, Inukar, a very respectable mage, says Theory is the key and the gate to improving all other forms of magic, and that's the horse that Ulos has hitched himself to. Yes, maybe Ulos will only have slightly inefficient actions available. Yes, Ulos is really spending two weeks, not just one. But a whole pile of 'slightly inefficient' actions happening immediately during the break will immensely help Ulos' growth curve, and will lead to better sigils anyway. I mean, once we actually start converting that theory into functional utility and power...we're still rather short on avenues to do that.

On the topic of the 'cost' of the time chamber, frankly, 1.5 years off the end of your lifespan is barely even something to notice. People die anywhere from 60 to 100 with regularity and the factors leading to that are many. -1.5 years when the standard deviation is larger? Who cares? I don't, especially if that lifespan was spent making better the 58.5-98.5 years that I did get to spend as I pleased. The only irritation in my mind would be the possibility that Ulos would look like a 20 year old or something while going to high school, if that's how that works, but it's not like there aren't high schoolers who look like they're 30. And that's merely an irritation.

And with regards to the cost of the Elixir...well, we're putting ourselves back up to RNG's mercy but 72 hours of random memories, across all of his life, probably doesn't hit anything really important. Worst case, forgetting the hour of saving Abraham or forgetting some other on-screen, important moment: sad, sure, but even the results on a low rolls (as long as it's not a critfail) will probably amount to losing some exam prep or history points, in the pretty abysmal case maybe a few points of theory. In the eh case, maybe bits and pieces of that alchemy recipe Ulos nicked, maybe that damn mushroom patch, maybe some characters' names. Or maybe, you know, Ulos forgets exactly which dumb theory question Malkavian asked him three times in the hundreds of offscreen hours. Or he forgets the fourth time he got shook down for cash as a flit.

The favor and the runes aren't worth considering. While the runes would satisfy our deal with that rune tutor, we'll get plenty of other runes I bet...well...once we find a way to convert theory into functional utility and power.......

Finally, finally, 450 exam score: are we satisfied with this? Eh...probably.
 
[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

Yolo. This is in character, mechanically strong, possibly good for our relationship with Miranova, and interesting to read.
 
I think this question need to be answered before we commit votes (well it's still going to win since it has 2x the votes of other options)
@occipitallobe
Do we visibly age while in the Time Chamber? A jump from 16 to 18 years is big and it's not something we can hide. It's obviously not a flat time-dilation room since it consumes a lot more of our lifespan then it gives us days. We should be capable of hiding 3 months.
 
Raron said:
I think this question need to be answered before we commit votes (well it's still going to win since it has 2x the votes of other options)
@occipitallobe
Do we visibly age while in the Time Chamber? A jump from 16 to 18 years is big and it's not something we can hide. It's obviously not a flat time-dilation room since it consumes a lot more of our lifespan then it gives us days. We should be capable of hiding 3 months.
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Yes, but you age rather than grow. It's a weird distinction - you don't get all the growth and filling-out of a 16-year old going to 18. The aging itself will be noticeable, but it won't be so significant that you can't pass it off.
 
occipitallobe said:
Yes, but you age rather than grow. It's a weird distinction - you don't get all the growth and filling-out of a 16-year old going to 18. The aging itself will be noticeable, but it won't be so significant that you can't pass it off.
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Wait, so will Ulos grow as he's originally supposed to after he leaves the chamber, or will using the chamber mean that Ulos' growth is permanently stunted?
 
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occipitallobe said:
This isn't a quest reward generated ex nihilo from a chest, this is Miranova working to tempt Ulos with something he badly wants so she can experiment on him in ways that would absolutely get her killed if she did it to a kid who had important parents.
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In other words: this is an elaborate ruse by Miranova to get Ulos to think that we're being rewarded for completing her puzzle, while the entire setup is in fact about delivering a willing labrat to her who she can experiment on without being held accountable.


I wonder if she'll even offer the two first rewards to the other freshers who complete her puzzle if we were not to take them, or that's just something she tells Ulos. I imagine that even offering those to a scion would be pretty awkward if the kid were to tell his parents the crazy Spirits teacher offered to drop him in a dangerous Undying time-dilation chamber which consumes lifespan by way of experiment.
 
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[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

I'd never take either prize but Ulos sure would!
 
I'll point out that the rewards which don't win will go to the second and third place (if somebody else can pass this death challenge, though I guess there could be upperclassmen in this class).

In theory this could mean that a classmate of ours could acquire the runes (and sigil/favor, but that is bound to the winner) and we could trade them for it. The only one with which we could make that trade is Lucy. Of course, who wants to piss of a Xianxia protagonist that is our teacher if she finds out?
TotallyNotEvil said:
What is that, by the way?
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He got a omake bonus which prevents us from critfailure, once. It was picked during the tea drinking so it wouldn't "cripple" us, but remained unused until now.
 
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occipitallobe said:
Current Theory Exam Score = 31 * 13.5 = 450.
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Just noticed that something seems wrong with our displayed exam score calculation in the update, given that 31 times 13.5 equals 419 (rounded up), not 450.

Correct calculation would seem to be 31*14.5 = 450 (rounded up), which makes sense, since our previous exam score was 29*13.5=392, and we one additional skill multiplier this turn.
 
BunnyLord said:
But what if somebody beats us? One more week of prep, to get past 500! :V
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I believe we have one more week of tutoring before the exams. Every +1 that we gain there is effectively +15 added to our final score based on our current modifiers and exam prep. Statistically, we will pick up at least +1 Magical Theory, get +2 more points of Magical Theory on an average roll, and +3 on a high roll.

Our tutor's bonus is really good. Mathematically, he's effectively worth +2 Intelligence when it comes to learning Theory.

@occipitallobe how do training rolls work? I've been looking over the past few updates and I don't really understand what determines the number of d5 rolls each subject gets.
 
So my only real concern about taking the elixir is if we forget information about the guy who took our magic. Other then that it seems like a decent idea

[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
 
BunnyLord said:
But what if somebody beats us? One more week of prep, to get past 500! :V
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I think at this point we are pretty close to good, I would rather Study Group to help our friends pass, and start messing with Thomas to make him bomb. If he's farther behind messing up his cramming could be multiplicative with messing with him on finals week.

[X] The Hyperbolic Undying Time Chamber (CRITICAL REWARD)
[X] Xayide Elixir (HIGH-END REWARD)

The question is what do we study while we're in there. My first thought is Lore:Alchemy and Lore:Runes, so we can really get ahead and be able to get better gains as Edward's Lab assistant. But I'm curious if we should also slip some Lore: Souls and Spirits in, on one hand it helps us with our goal we probably are going to need the knowledge if we are trying to make Alchemy potions to help ourselves, but I'm not sure if we're going to keep taking the class. I would think do a 50/30/20 splits Alchemy/Runes/Souls.

The other option is just do 100% Runes. It seems crazy, but it fits with the advice from the Combat Teacher on specialization and we know there are things we can make with it that would help us in other classes. We could make our own combat orb training thing, or a copy of the Alchemy Charm we gave Edward. But there's a big question in that we have no clue what level of Lore we could need to make an attempt at these things.
 
Sickul said:
The question is what do we study while we're in there
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For the time chamber I believe our top 3 should obviously be Magic Theory, Lore:Alchemy and Lore:Runes (30 training rolls in each maybe some more in theory), following that would be some study in Lore:Soul & Spirits and Lore:Necromancy to both help understand our curse and because souls is applicable to basically all magic (maybe 20 in each), finally, getting a little Lore: Magical Inheritance might help understand why we were born with high channeling and Lore:Illusions to avoid getting trapped into an illusion again (maybe 10 in each, skippable).
 
Profectus said:
For the time chamber I believe our top 3 should obviously be Magic Theory,
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Magical Theory doesn't get the bonus from the elixir, I don't think, since it's not a memory based.

Necromancy is an interesting thought, might be useful to get and its hard to train normally because no class so far teaches it. I'm not sure how readily studying materials for it would be though.
 
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