A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri examined the monster core he had taken from the Chixel. It was slightly larger than the one he had absorbed from the Ulfr Hound, about the size of a marble. He couldn’t find a reason why Emelia had been so uncomfortable with it. He willed his body to absorb the energy, the core responding instantly. He felt the surge of leveling up and reviewed his recent gains.

Base Willpower has increased from 125 to 126

New Achievement Gained Rank Primary Stats / Rank Description

Group Hunter 3 .05% Slay a creature above your level with a group of 4 or less.

Imri Padar has reached Level 4 in Relativity Mage (1F)

Imri Padar has reached Level 4 in Primordial (1F)

Primary Stats Gained New Value

+1 Intelligence 141

+2 Willpower 128

Secondary Stats Gained

+5 MP 183

+2 Mana Efficiency 199

With this new level came a new realization. When he improved a primary stat, such as his intelligence, it didn’t change how he thought. Instead, his increase in intelligence made it easier to process and remember. Likewise, if someone eventually gets major boosts in physical attributes, such as strength, it wouldn’t change their actual body. So, someone high enough in level could appear physically weak while actually being quite strong. Imri guessed that this was more theoretical than practical. He suspected that those with a physical class would also be physically imposing people, gaining base strength as they used it. He also noticed that the stats gained summary included everything from the last time he had checked it. So, the 2 willpower included 1 from the base increase and 1 from the level up.

Imri returned his focus to the room he was in. The sacrificial victim was an older man Imri didn’t recognize, probably in his mid to late sixties. He had a jagged cut where his throat had been slit, and judging by the still-wet blood, it had been recent. The man might still be alive if they arrived an hour or two sooner. Imri turned his attention to the dagger, lying in a pool of the Chixel’s blood. While he was loath to use such a vile weapon, it was too powerful to discard. He picked it up and carefully put it onto his belt after not finding a sheath for it.

He had been studying the runes throughout the room, and he felt like he was close to a breakthrough. It reminded him of his days spent as a software engineer. When looking at the entire jumble of runes, it seemed incomprehensible, but broken into discrete blocks, it was doable. For example, he had quickly been able to separate the runes that controlled the orientation of the crystal. This was followed by a script that took energy from the crystal and passed it to another function. Some runes took inputs from some unknown source, seemingly having something to do with distances and angles, which then fed back into the function controlling the amount of energy drawn from the crystal. The final function simply converted the energy into an upward force. It was so simple, yet he was stumped. Why have all these runes only to essentially shoot up a beam of force? Why did the angle and amount of energy need to be so precise? Why use so much energy?

Imri thought about it, then had an epiphany when he remembered the waterfall. He rushed out to speak with Emelia.

“It’s an active support,” Imri explained.

“What’s a what?” Emelia asked.

“That beam, this whole structure. I was confused why they would spend so much energy, but active support explains it.”

“Back up, what is an active support?”

“It’s a science fiction concept. Basically, you use energy to support a larger structure as opposed to passive support, which simply relies on the strength of your building material. In practice, active support usually supplements passive support. This is just a ridiculous waste of energy,” Imri explained.

“So you could build bigger buildings with energy, but this creepy temple isn’t that big.”

“It’s not just a temple. There is something above us, something massive based on the amount of energy.”

“I don’t get it. How can a beam of energy hold anything up?”

“Think of it like this. Suppose there was a piece of paper floating in the air. It could stay up in the air for as long as a wind current shot up, canceling the downward force of gravity with an exactly equal force opposing it. Now, scale up the piece of paper to something like a giant floating island, and the air would need to be replaced with something equally powerful. Something like a beam of soul energy,” Imri explained.

“Are you saying there is an island floating above our heads? How do you know that?” Emelia asked.

“I’m not certain, but it’s the only explanation I can think of. You remember how the waterfall appeared to come from nowhere?”

“You think it’s that large? What would they need a giant floating island for?”

“Yes, though I suspect there are several of these temples, probably at least three for stability. As for why, I'm not sure. Maybe it's a religious thing? That Chixel called me a blasphemer and said I would be sacrificed to Ulzo, which I’m assuming is their god or something equivalent.”

“You understood that? How the hell do you speak lizard?” Emelia asked.

“I guess my understanding trait expands to languages,” Imri said with a shrug.

“This floating island isn’t going to come crashing down, is it?” Emelia asked.

“I don’t think so. That crystal has a lot of energy, but it’s also burning through it rapidly.”

“What is quite a bit? Hours, days, years?” Emelia asked.

“Days, maybe a week,” Imri said after doing some quick math. Emelia relaxed a little but was still on edge.

“Are we leaving then?” she asked.

“Not yet. I noticed there was a set of stairs,” Imri said.

“You still want to explore the rest of that temple, don’t you?” Emelia asked with a sigh of exasperation. Imri nodded without hesitation. “Fine, but we’re getting the hell out of here the moment we see another one of those lizard things.”

Imri had discovered the passage downward from the ritual altar. It was a steep descent with shallow steps, clearly designed for the more nimble Chixel. The pair descended, carefully taking each step one at a time. As they went down, the bright light from the beam reflected behind them, backlighting them. They descended the equivalent of two flights of stairs before it leveled out, continuing straight through a passageway. The glow from above was faint at this depth, but a similar, if fainter, glow emanated from smaller crystals embedded in the wall.

“The Chixel have used magic like we used technology,” Imri said in wonder as he stopped to examine the light source.

“So we’re screwed? This world is playing by their rules, not ours?” Emelia asked

“Not necessarily. I don’t see any reason why our technology wouldn’t work, possibly even be better with magic. No, the issue will be establishing new supply chains, and I think they will have as much of an issue with that as we will.”

“You're saying a fantasy world will be dominated by logistics, not swords and fireballs?” Emelia asked, to which Imri just nodded.

“I’ve been considering it since I fought the Ulfr Hound. When I used Identify, it said it was a pack hunter, but it was by itself. We were a couple of meters apart when the integration happened. We were relatively close together in the new world but obviously more than that apart.”

“You're saying it spreads everyone out, but not entirely?”

“It keeps the relative position of things. So, someone a kilometer away would have come into this world twice as close to us as someone who was two kilometers away. I'm not sure what that exact scale is, but it’s significant given we didn’t see each other right away.”

“That would make this new world unimaginably large. How is that even possible?” Emelia asked. Imri shrugged.

While they were conversing, Imri looked for runes similar to the ones found near the soul crystal. Despite his careful search, he could find no such runes empowering this crystal. Curious, he took out his knife, pried one of the small crystals off the wall, and identified it.

Item Tier/Rank Quality Description

Quartz Crystal 1F 5 A crystal that is capable of mana storage. Stores 1050 mana / cubic meter.

The F-grade quartz crystal fit in his palm, far smaller than a cubic meter, and could only store a few mana. It was insignificant compared to the larger crystal above. The crystal still held some residual mana despite the light having gone out when it had left contact with the wall. Also, the crystal appeared to hold the mana, not leaking it meaningfully. Curious, Imri willed a small amount of his mana into the crystal. There was a slight resistance before the mana entered, filling the crystal to capacity. He noted that some mana was lost in the transfer, a small amount but significant in terms of percentage. It seemed that directly infusing the mana wouldn’t be an efficient storage solution, especially because there would also be a loss when withdrawing the mana.

Imri examined the empty socket where the crystal had been secured to the wall. He noticed a small copper setting that would have been in contact with the crystal.

Item Tier/Rank Quality Description

Copper Setting 1F 3 A conduit for mana conductivity. 14.55% mana lost / kilometer and through transference of mediums.

The copper was used as a mechanism for energy transfer, similar to copper wiring. He also noticed the runes he had been searching for were etched into the copper setting. He carefully pried the copper setting out of the wall, careful not to warp or scratch any of the runes. Once the small copper setting was free, he touched it to the crystal, instantly causing it to light up. Imri absorbed all the mana from the small quartz crystal, cringing at the inefficiency of the transference, even though he had only wasted a couple of mana by transferring in and out of the crystal. The moment the last mana had been absorbed, the light ceased. Finally, he repeated the experiment, this time infusing his mana into the copper setting, noting that it was slightly more inefficient than the direct infusion into the crystal.

Imri felt Emelia’s gaze on him, noting her impatience with his experimenting with the lights in the creepy temple. She undoubtedly didn’t want to be down here any longer than necessary, though she didn’t voice her complaints aloud. Satisfied, Imri continued down the hall.

The hallway eventually opened up into a larger room with high ceilings. The side of the room was supported by functional and decorative pillars. An altar stood on a raised dais near the point where they entered. The center of the room had stone benches made of the same dark stone from which the temple was constructed. The room made Imri’s description of the structure as a temple more apt, confirming that this structure held some significance besides being purely an active support pillar.

Movement caught Imri’s eye, shifting his attention to a lone figure who sat on one of the benches. It was another Chixel, though this one moved slowly compared to the priest above, with an even slighter build and shorter stature. It was unarmed and wore unadorned black robes. Emelia drew her knife, awaiting the attack from the Chixel. Imri frowned, not concerned.

Heritage/Class Tier/Rank Level Description

Chixel 1F 1 The Chixel are an enlightened race known for their agility and soul sacrifice rituals

Acolyte of Ulzo 1F 1 Acolytes are youths who assist the Priests of Ulzo, preparing prisoners to be sacrificed

“It’s an Acolyte. It's not a threat,” Imri explained to Emelia.

“So what? Do you really think this ritual-sacrificing lizard will be nice just because he’s younger and more progressive? I don’t think so,” She said, not lowering her knife as the Chixel regarded them. Imri sighed and approached the Chixel without hostility, causing a steady stream of curses from Emelia.

The Chixel was still a dozen meters away, but it stopped and stared at Imri. Its body language shifted when it spotted the soul-capture dagger on Imri’s belt. It hissed, lashing out its forked tongue in displeasure. Despite its obvious distress, it didn’t react violently, instead shrinking back in obvious fear. Its discomfort also caused Emelia to relax slightly, though not enough to put her knife away.

“That one has come for this one’s soul,” it said, staring at the black dagger.

“I’d prefer answers,” Imri said in the hissing language of the Chixel, startling the acolyte, who had clearly not expected a response.

“That one speaks the Chixel language? How is that possible?” the acolyte asked.

“I got a skill that allows me to speak any language,” Imri lied.

“That is a great skill. Is that one an ambassador for that one’s species? If so, these ones would be glad to open dialogs for those ones’ species to become a vassal to the mighty Chixel,” he said, seemingly pleased to have found what he considered a negotiation partner.

Imri snorted, getting surprised looks from the Chixel and Emelia. “I am the farthest thing from an ambassador. I’m closer to a scientist, and negotiations are not my strengths. She would be closer to an ambassador,” Imri explained, pointing at Emelia.

“That one's mate speaks for that one?” the young Chixel asked in confusion. This time, Imri couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“What the hell is so funny?” Emelia asked, clearly frustrated by being left out of the conversation.

“He thought I was an ambassador and that we were a couple,” Imri explained between laughs.

“Yeah, very funny. Can you take this a bit more seriously? The emotions I’m getting from him give me the creeps. I don’t know what he’s saying, but it is malicious and thinks of us as bugs.”

“You got all that from his body language?” Imri asked.

“Something like that; remember, I am an empath.”

“Well, he did ask me to negotiate on behalf of humankind to become vassals to the Chixel. I get the sense the Chixel are a bit racist, or maybe speciesist?” Imri mused.

“Just tell him to fuck off; humankind will never submit to a bunch of lizards,” Emelia said. Imri nodded and turned to the Chixel, relaying Emelia’s message verbatim in the Chixel language.

“That one’s species will rue the day they made an enemy of the Chixel. These ones will enslave that one’s entire species; that one will be cattle to empower the Chixel empire,'' The Chixel hissed.

“What do we do with him?” Imri asked as the Chixel continued to rant about the horrors that would be afflicted upon humanity.

“As much as I would like to kill him, it’s only a kid. Killing it would make us no better than them; we will lead by example,” Emelia said. “Now, can we get out of here?” Imri nodded, and the pair turned to leave the way they had come in.

Apparently, turning their back to the Chixel and considering him a noncombatant was regarded as a grave insult. Enraged, the Acolyte hissed and charged towards them faster than Imri thought the youth could. Still, it was nothing like the movements of the priest they had faced earlier, perhaps slightly superior in agility to the average human. Unfortunately for the Chixel, Imri now had a strategy for dealing with their superior agility: takedowns. It was far easier for Imri to get a hold of this Chixel, and as he took it to the ground, he felt the give of several bones breaking under his weight. A few heavy punches later, the Chixel lay motionless on the ground.

“So much for leading by example,” Imri said as he stood up, blood smeared over his hands and robes.

“It had its chance,” Emelia said.

Imri sighed and did the gruesome work of digging out the core. He was far from having surgical precision, but he managed better on the second attempt. Its core was tiny, around the same size as the Ulfr Hound. He was about to absorb it when he noticed Emelia looking at it.

“Did you want it?” Imri asked.

“Absorbing that thing will make me stronger? It won’t infect me with anything that lizard has?”

“It will make you marginally stronger, and it's completely safe,” Imri reassured her.

Emelia held the core in her palm, staring at it. It took her a moment to intuit how it worked, but eventually, she absorbed the energy within.

“What made you change your mind?” Imri asked.

“I don’t want to get left behind,” she said after a long pause. “Now, come on, we’re getting the hell out of here,” she ordered.