A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri smiled as Sylvi looked at him with an uncomprehending expression. “What do you mean?” She asked.

“I’m going to get even stronger,” Imri replied simply.

“While I appreciate the enthusiasm, we need your help ASAP. We don’t have time for you to grind even more drakes,” Sylvi pointed out.

“No, not like that,” Imri said with a chuckle. “I just need a few minutes. I have an inspiration right now and don’t want to lose it.”

“You heard the man, stop gawking and get back to work,” Sylvi said, shooing everyone back towards Celestia to give Imri some space.

His meditation had given him an inspiration about time, having watched the effects of natural forces. Even the smallest forces, the drip of water or the gentle breeze, could erode mountains and form ecosystems.

Spells Learned

True Age (1F): Discern the age of something by seeing the effects of time. Mana cost varies by distance from caster to target and precision.

Aging (1F): Exert the force of time, accelerating the age of something based on its current conditions. Mana cost / second varies by distance from caster to target, amount of volume being affected, and exponentially based on the amount of time elapsed / second.

Imri smiled, though it wasn’t just because of the new spells he had learned. Another prompt tingled in the back of his mind, and he excitedly examined it.

Quest Completed

Relativity Mage E to D: Learn new space or time spells 5/5, rank up space or time spells 5/5

New Tier 2 Class Options Available

Chronomancer: Gain mastery over time, bending the laws of physics and rewriting reality. Gains limited abilities to reverse or stop time.

Dimensional Traveler: Travel all throughout the multi-verse, bending space to allow unfettered access to any location. Gains abilities that greatly improve personal mobility.

Celestial Mage: Take inspiration over the vast expanse of space and massive celestial objects shaped by time. Gains gravity and time-based abilities inspired by the cosmos.

Imri considered his options. There weren’t any options that were vastly superior to the others, it was mainly a question of if he wanted to specialize in one of the two aspects he had. He immediately dismissed the Chronomancer. While trying to break reality and gain further mastery over time was tempting, he had been using more spatial spells recently. Space seemed to be the more versatile of the two, and he was far from done exploring what he could do with that concept. That left Dimensional Traveler or Celestial Mage.

This decision was a bit more challenging. He wasn’t sure how much more he would be able to accomplish with temporal concepts. However, his Time Dilation and Time Contraction spells had been mainstays in his arsenal. It also seemed that the Celestial Mage slightly emphasized spatial concepts over temporal ones while still retaining a bit of both. Besides, something was appealing about being a Celestial Mage and founder of Celestia. Unfortunately, this probably cemented the misconception of mana storms as shooting stars. He made up his mind and selected Celestial Mage.

Celestial Mage (2F)

Primary Stats / Level

Strength .05% (+.05%)

Agility .1%

Constitution .1% (+.05%)

Intelligence .45% (+.15%)

Willpower .25% (+.1%)

Charisma .05% (+.05%)

Secondary Stats / Level

HP .25% (+.15%)

FP .1% (+.1%)

MP .5% (+.1%)

Mana Efficiency .5% (+.15%)

MP Regen Rate .5% (+.25%)

Primary Stats

Strength 127 (+6)

Agility 100 (+6)

Constitution 115 (+8)

Intelligence 192 (+22)

Willpower 161 (+14)

Charisma 104 (+6)

Secondary Stats

HP 161 (+25)

FP 119 (+20)

MP 423 (+118)

Mana Efficiency 410 (+101)

Crafting Efficiency 445 (+111)

New Skill

Spatial Beacon (1F): Create a nontangible semi-permanent beacon relative to a frame of reference. You always know the exact distance and direction of any beacon. The beacon is always considered visible for the purposes of targeting restrictions. The caster is considered to be 50% closer to the beacon for determining mana cost when the spell targets an area within a meter of the beacon. Beacons may be dismissed at any time, but will otherwise exist indefinitely on ambient mana. Mana cost varies by the number of beacons in the network and exponentially based on the distance from the caster to the target location when creating the beacon.

New Trait

Weight of the Stars (2F): Improves the mana efficiency of all spells that bend space by 7.5%.

New Quest

Celestial Mage Rank Up F to E: Learn new space or time spells 1/10, rank up space or time spells 0/10, learn new gravity spells 0/5, rank up gravity spells 0/5, visit celestial bodies 1/2.

Imri grinned as he reviewed his massive increase in stats. It was easily his largest improvement to date. He reflected on how far he had come in two months. His overall effective magical output had increased dramatically, mainly as a function of his increased mana and mana efficiency. From the first time he had cast Spatial Compression on the Ulfr Hound until now, he had more than five times effective output. This wasn’t even taking into account how much better he was at quickly defining the spell. Even compared to his first time using Spatial Tear to kill the Drake until now, he had more than doubled his output.

He also took the time to contemplate all the new abilities he had gained in the past few minutes. The first was his Transcendant Meditation, which now doubled as a divination effect. While the visions had helped him learn a great deal about his surroundings and this new world, it was far from a simple scry. It had been vague impressions of natural forces, visions of eons passing in the blink of an eye. He wouldn’t be able to get useful information about the Chixel army or other such mundane affairs. He could also use the skill to better understand and control his body, helping him identify illnesses or toxins within his own body. It even allowed him to control previously autonomic functions of the body, manipulating his blood flow via heart rate or triggering or suppressing certain reflexes. Another benefit was that meditation could now completely replace sleep, allowing him to gain those benefits while doing something more productive. The bonus to regenerations also applied to all three resource pools, not just his mana.

Next were his heritage abilities. Locus of Mana was the more straightforward of the two, allowing him to regenerate his mana faster while making him slightly more resistant to other spell casters. The only hidden nuance to this trait was that the improved mana regeneration was a factor for over-channeling. This allowed him to absorb more mana per day without getting the debuff Emelia had gotten when she needed to absorb mana from crystals to keep Zhaire alive. The Shaped By Mana trait likewise was straightforward. His increase in mana helped up his overall output, though he would have slightly preferred efficiency due to external mana sources and his limit on how fast he could channel, which was directly tied to his willpower. The more profound impact was his ability to convert mana to health, even if it wasn’t instant. If he combined with his Transcendant Meditation and the bonuses while within Celestia’s borders, he could go from completely spent and near death, to completely recovered in all three pools within two days.

He also couldn’t forget about the two new spells he had learned. While True Age had very marginal utility, analogous to his True Distance or Metronome spells, it could become useful in attempting to understand what had happened with the integration, or even unraveling some of the mysteries of the multi-verse. Likewise, he didn’t think his Ageing spell was a straightforward attack spell. Sure, he could age someone until they were old and enfeebled, but he intuitively knew that the amount of magical work to produce that kind of effect would be astronomical. At that point, it would have been far easier to crush them with Spatial Compression or bisect them with a Dimensional Tear. No, the far more likely use case was more utility-based. Small objects with a subtle effect over time. For example, he could help grow crops faster, age spirits faster, or help Caroline reduce the amount of time it took to brew a potion. Nothing system-shattering, but useful utility he was glad to have.

Finally, his two new class abilities rounded out his current capabilities. The Weight of Stars trait was straightforward, it increased his mana efficiency of spatial spells that relied on bending space. This currently affected his Spatial Compression and Boundless Step spells, giving them a decent buff. His Spatial Beacon skill was the one that intrigued him the most. His first thought was to use it before combat, giving him a location where he could always use Boundless Step to escape, regardless of line of sight. The greater implication was that he could eventually use waypoints for long-distance travel, making it easier to establish a portal between two fixed points. At least it would be when he learned some way to create a portal. Finally, there was the utility aspect of knowing exactly how far away the beacon was. He fully intended to place one in the heart of Celestia, meaning he would always be able to find his way back. There was also some utility in tethering a beacon to a physical object that could be carried with someone. He could even define the frame of reference to the person, easily allowing him to follow and track their movements.

Imri returned to Celestia in high spirits. He made good on his idea and created a Spatial Beacon, tethering it to a space near the nexus. As he had hoped, the mana cost was insignificant, though he expected this wouldn’t always be the case when he had extensive networks of the spell-like effect.

Sylvi was absorbed in maps and reports, bouncing her ideas off Caroline, who had become their defacto intelligence officer based on her divination capabilities. They both stopped and looked at him expectantly as he approached. “Sorry I’m late,” He said a bit sheepishly, not knowing what else to say. He felt guilty for being absent for so much of the war, but he had done the right thing, he just hoped everyone else would see it the same way. Now was his time to prove they hadn’t misplaced trust in him.

“We’ve been trying to harass them, using guerrilla tactics to stall for as long as possible. Unfortunately, they always seem to anticipate our every attack, and we likely have Rhesk to thank for that. The forward team has had similar issues, constantly harassed by patrols that know their every move. We have one final location to make our last stand. It’s a narrow switchback just before the healing spring,” Sylvi explained.

“The inquisitors have gotten more cautious since the forward team managed to eliminate one. However, they will join the battle when they spot an opening, and we’re screwed if they manage to start killing people. I can slow them down and weaken them, but not enough to outright stop them,” Caroline added.

“We need to get Rhesk, either kill him or capture him. Without his divination magic, we can more effectively harass them. If we can get all the inquisitors and their weapons, then we win, the rest is just mop-up duty,” Imri said confidently.

“I wouldn’t call over a thousand Chixel ‘Mop-up duty’, but you’re right. If we can eliminate their leaders we can turn this into a more conventional war where we have the terrain advantage, we’ll eventually disperse them,” Sylvi agreed.

“We’re fairly certain Rhesk is in the middle of their made camp, which is still down at the base of the mountain. There are hundreds of Chixel there, and only the forward team is capable of getting there with all the demo we’ve done to the passes,” Caroline pointed out.

“Suppose we could move a team from the edge of the plateau down to the plains below. If the Chixel were already fighting a war on two fronts, we could slip into the camp and assassinate Rhesk,” Imri said.

“But how would we get down?” Caroline asked.

“Fucking space mage,” Sylvi cursed, though she had a broad grin.