A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri was deep in thought as he went through another walking meditation. His new class, Celestial Mage, had not so subtly hinted at some spells that he was fairly certain he could acquire. Gravity was simply a bend in space caused by all objects, especially massive celestial objects. Unfortunately, he wasn’t yet at a power level where he could mess with gravity on a scale like a planet. However, he felt fairly certain he could amplify or lessen the curvature of space at a very localized level. As with most of his concepts, his first step was being able to measure it.

New Spell Learned

True Gravity (1F): Measure the effective curvature of spacetime and the resulting acceleration. Mana cost varies by distance from caster to target and precision of measurement.

Imri smiled, now effectively able to measure the direct impact of gravity. Just to sate his curiosity, he used the spell, getting the expected 9.8 m/s² acceleration. It did bring up an interesting question: How was the gravity the same on this new planet? He had suspected the planet was larger when everyone had been spread out and then confirmed that with his out-of-body experiences while meditating. Something in this new world was breaking or changing the laws of physics or had altered some universal constants.

He let the existential question fall into the background, instead focusing on learning his new spells. Instead of trying to alter the gravity of the entire planet, he instead focused on the small portion of it that was affecting him personally, which was basically the space his body occupied. If he could flatten out the space relative to his frame of reference, then gravity should affect him less. At this point, bending a small relative area of space wasn’t particularly challenging for him.

As he had hoped, he instantly felt lighter, and he leaped high into the air with relative ease. He whooped out loud as he slowly descended back to the ground. With his first success, it was almost trivial to produce the opposite effect, further bending space to increase the effects of gravity. However, that was a far less pleasant experience to test on himself, even at modest amplitudes.

New Spells Learned

High Gravity (1F): Increases the force of gravity upon a given object, effectively increasing its weight and falling acceleration by a factor of the amplitude. Cost / second increases by the distance from the caster to the object, the mass of the object, and the amplitude of the effect.

Low Gravity (1F): Decreases the force of gravity upon a given object by a factor of the amplitude, effectively decreasing its weight and falling acceleration. Cost / second increases by the distance from the caster to the object, the mass of the object, and the amplitude of the effect.

In some ways, his two new gravity spells reminded him of his time spells. They were incredibly variable spells that required constant mana to keep them active. They were essentially new buffs and debuffs for him to use, though they were more versatile than the time spells. He could see applications of both spells both offensive and in support. Low Gravity was useful as a buff, making it easier to jump or fall slowly to avoid taking damage. Conversely, it could be used effectively on an unsuspecting enemy that was trying to hold their ground, making it harder to stay in place with less friction. However, the most obvious use was making an enemy heavier, effectively making it harder for them to move.

For his first few experiments, he practiced using the spells on himself, starting with the Low Gravity spell. While it was impossible to reach zero gravity with the spell, with 100% amplitude meaning half gravity and 200% being one-third. At a high enough amplitude, there would effectively be less force from gravity than the buoyancy of air, allowing him to float like he was swimming in an invisible ocean. He could further increase the amplitude so he slowly floated upwards, conversely, he could decrease the effect and slowly start sinking back down. He only did this once, and only briefly since it consumed a great deal of mana. He also needed to be careful, if he floated too high and ran out of mana he would be in trouble, as normal rules of physics would return.

Testing the High Gravity spell was far less enjoyable, but he needed to understand how it felt to get a good idea of what amplitudes to use in combat. He found that 10-30% had a minor effect, it made it harder to move and would certainly sap his endurance, but it wasn’t crippling. At 50% it started to become hard to move, even though he knew the effect was coming. He didn’t dare raise it much further than that. Since this spell didn’t have an exponential cost, he determined that a higher percentage for a shorter duration would be more effective.

Once he got a good idea of how the spells affected him, he moved on to experimenting on objects. The first application was to make a heavy object light, allowing him to more easily lift it. He then hurled the once heavy object through the air, releasing the spell's effect at the zenith of its trajectory. This effectively allowed him to toss heavy projectiles that weighed considerably more than he normally could lift. Unfortunately, he still couldn't throw a truly massive object because its mass was unchanged, and required incredible force to move any significant distance. He found it incredibly difficult to aim his throws, as he needed to intuitively know how far the artillery-like projectile would travel depending on its new effective gravity. It also wasn’t intuitive to have something not follow the typical parabolic arc that all objects had followed his entire life. It would take a great deal of practice for this tactic to be effective in combat.

However, this wasn’t the only application for projectiles. He threw a small stone in at a high angle, then as it reached the apex of its arc he cast High Gravity on it. The rock slammed into the ground like a small meteor from space, its gravity easier to amplify to a greater degree due to the low mass. This was a bit easier to aim, as he mainly just needed to activate High Gravity at a high amplitude just before the object was over the target. He then combined the two methods on a moderately sized boulder, starting with Low Gravity for the ascent and High Gravity for the descent.

Imri was able to do a large amount of testing in part thanks to his increased mana and mana regeneration, but he also supplemented from the mana his panels provided to the large Espeonite crystal. He had decided to restrict the mana his enchantments produced, requiring a request to be submitted before he would allow anyone access. He had found that without this, people were frivolous with mana, taking from his mana repository without much critical thought. This had so far prevented the settlement from ever gaining a surplus. Avery was currently working on the frames of a third and fourth panel, thanks to the newly acquired Zopralt vein, but it would be several days before those were up and running.

Having learned three new spells and extensively testing them, Imri was a bit disappointed he hadn’t gained the expected level. However, he could tell he had gained a good amount of experience and was close to another level up. It had become clear the experience required to level was also increasing exponentially, and at a faster rate than he gained in power.

Despite not having an imminent threat looming on the horizon, Imri knew he couldn’t relax. War was coming and he couldn’t let himself get complacent. While he no longer considered the Cliff Drakes to be a powerful enemy, relative to his capabilities, they were still the easiest monsters to farm xp from. His liquid credits had also dipped below the 100,000 number, and that simply wasn’t acceptable. However, he didn’t want to simply slay them with the same tried and true methods he had used when grinding for levels during the invasion. He wanted it to double as a practical exercise to use some of his new or less utilized spells.

That was how he found himself on a hike through the area where he had slaughtered so many of the Cliff Drakes. As a Cliff Drake dove towards him, he didn’t use Blink to teleport away like he always had. Instead, he used High Gravity on the airborne monster that was just beginning its dive, meaning it was both far away and had considerable mass. To compensate, Imri kept the amplitude low, only increasing the effect of gravity upon it by 15%. That turned out to be more effective than he had even intended, the massive creature having evolved to have just enough lift to keep it in a controlled dive. The Drake went from smoothly gliding to plummeting towards the ground like a rock. It slammed onto a rocky surface some thirty or forty meters in front of Imri, its bones crunching from the impact. Despite this, the resilient reptilian creature was still alive, and its rapid regeneration started to take effect. Imri closed the distance with a Blink and followed up with a small Dimensional Tear that went through the creature's skull.

For his next fight, he pushed the Amplitude of High Gravity spell to its limit for a brief duration. This time the poor Cliff Drake didn’t even have a chance, dying immediately from the hundred-meter freefall with a rapid acceleration downward. The dense creature had hit the ground hard enough that there wasn’t much left of it. This had the unfortunate downside of less monster parts that could be salvaged, but it still offered a decent haul. He left the salvage to a team of porters to return to Celestia, not worried in the slightest that they would steal from him.

The next Drake was slain with a different combination of spells. He repeated the same process to take the creature out of the air, though he used the lowest amplitude to effectively bring it down. Once grounded he continued the debuffs by using Time Contraction on it while it was also under the effects of High Gravity. He then added a third spell, casting Temporal Expansion on himself, gaining an extra few percentage points for his Being of Eons trait. The combination of buffs and debuffs made the Drake seem incredibly slow and weak. Unfortunately, this was far from the most efficient method, and he had burned through almost his entire mana pool in the brief fight that ended with decapitating the Drake with a Spatial Collapse.

Spells Ranked Up

Time Contraction F to E: +2.5% Mana Efficiency of spell

High Gravity F to E: +2.5% Mana Efficiency of spell

Imri Padar has reached level 26 (+1) in Celestial Mage (2F)

Imri Padar has reached level 26 (+1) in Primordial (1E)

Primary Stats

Constitution 117 (+1)

Intelligence 199 (+1)

Willpower 165 (+1)

Secondary Stats

HP 168 (+2)

FP 127 (+1)

MP 466 (+10)

Mana Efficiency 447 (+6)

Crafting Efficiency 489 (+7)

Quest Updated

Celestial Mage Rank Up F to E: Learn new space or time spells 7/10, rank up space or time spells 5/10, learn new gravity spells 5/5, rank up gravity spells 3/5, visit celestial bodies 1/2.

Imri smiled, it had definitely been a good idea to experiment with various methods of slaying the Cliff Drakes. While those hadn’t been his most efficient fights, pushing his Time Contraction Spell and High Gravity spells to E rank had been worth a little mana inefficiency in the short run. He was definitely improving his arsenal, and hopefully, that would be enough for the challenges they would undoubtedly face in the coming months. He smiled as he walked, thinking about all the new enchantments he could create.