A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri couldn’t help but grin as he inspected himself in the mirror. It grew even wider when he saw Emelia unabashedly staring at him. He had been a bit worried that she would be off-put by his strange new features, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Judging by her feelings, Imri couldn’t wait to leave the clinic and return to their home.

His good mood was only slightly dampened by how bad his head still hurt; if anything, he had been underselling how bad it felt. With his new physique, standard painkillers didn’t seem to do anything, so he just had to grit his teeth and endure the pain. To distract himself from the discomfort, he resorted to his second favorite activity: reviewing his progress.

Quest Completed

Prevent the planet from being xenoformed

Reward: 2.5 million credits, XP, achievement

New Achievement

Warden of Gaia 5: Prevented the planetary core from being xenoformed by the Azala

.1% to primary stats/rank (.5%)

Imri Padar has reached level 43 in Celestial Mage (2E)

Imri Padar has reached level 43 in Manifestation of Gaia (2F)

Primary Stats

Strength 155 (+1)

Agility 125 (+2)

Constitution 152 (+2)

Intelligence 288 (+7)

Willpower 236 (+4)

Charisma 127 (+1)

Secondary Stats

HP 331 (+10)

FP 243 (+10)

MP 1458 (+95)

Mana Efficiency 1194 (+75)

Crafting Efficiency 1375 (+86)

Traits Ranked Up

Primordial Intuition F to E: Intuit basic understanding of concepts without any prior knowledge. Increase the rate at which intelligence-based spells and abilities are learned and improved by 5.12% (+.12%).

Locus of Mana F to E: Mana is drawn to you and within you. Increases mana regeneration rate by 5.12% (+.12%) while within a sufficiently dense mana region. Increases resistance to all forms of magic by 5.12% (+.12%).

While the stat increases weren’t as impressive as his heritage rank-up, the multiplicative effect of his various attribute increases was starting to become significant. Between the heritage rank-up and the levels and achievement, his effective magical output had more than doubled. This didn’t even account for how much more effective he would be with his new skill and trait.

“So, I got a new skill. Well, it’s just an improved version of an existing one,” Emelia stammered as Imri dressed.

Imri could immediately guess which one it was based on the context. Only one skill would make her this uncomfortable.

“Oh, is that so,” he said, teasing her. It was rare that she was the uncomfortable one, and he would not let this opportunity pass. Unfortunately, she immediately caught on to what he was doing, and all unease left her as she glared at him in indignation.

“This is serious, Imri. If we use this skill, there is no turning back. If we somehow become immortal, we’ll be bound together for eternity, not just a few decades. There is no divorce or backing out unless you want a major soul wound,” Emelia said seriously.

“I don’t particularly want a soul wound,” Imri admitted flippantly, getting another glare from Emelia. “I’m taking this seriously, I swear. What does your improved skill do?”

Emelia took the time to read it verbatim. She repeated it a second time, even though Imri had perfectly memorized it and thought through the implications as she read it. When she was done, Imri shrugged.

“Sounds like it’s strictly better than the previous version,” he said nonchalantly.

“Did you hear anything besides numbers go up? It’s a soul bond; we’d have our souls bound together and our fates intertwined,” Emelia said.

“Sounds good to me,” Imri said, shrugging again.

“Are you serious? You had more of an emotional reaction to me checking out your body than to the idea of being stuck with me for all of eternity,” she said.

“When I proposed and said I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, it already had that implication. I never considered anything else a serious possibility, so this doesn’t change anything. So, to me, this is only a strictly numerical improvement,” Imri said.

Emelia blushed, and instead of saying anything, she kissed him passionately, almost fervently. It was heated enough that Imri considered not waiting until they got home and throwing her down on the hospital bed. If his willpower had a point under 200, he probably would have. Instead, he used his improved physical abilities to get dressed quickly.

She threw him down onto the bed the moment they returned to their house and were in their room. In seconds, their clothes were off, and they were absorbed in each other's bodies. Like the kiss, it was passionate and frenetic, emotionally charged with the day's implications.

“That was amazing,” she said as they cuddled in post-sex bliss.

“I wish moments like these could last forever,” he said, trying to think of what sort of spells he would need to accomplish that feat.

The moment faded as Imri began thinking of all he would need to accomplish before more Azala could threaten them. Emelia immediately sensed his change in mood and gave him a light kiss before they disentangled themselves.

“So, are we really doing this?” she asked nervously.

“I think we should,” Imri said confidently.

Emelia tentatively activated the skill. Like all abilities granted by the system, its effect wasn’t pronounced with bright lights or incantations. It simply took effect, immediately recognizing that both partners consented without having to confirm it verbally. With that, their souls were bound together.

Imri reached out, feeling the familiar presence of Emelia's emotional state. It was functionally the same, though he thought everything was clearer and more precise. He just intuitively knew exactly how nervous she still was.

‘You're adorable when you're flustered,’ Imri teased her through their telepathic link.

‘You’re insufferable when you have the upper hand,’ she shot back telepathically, but the grin on her face suggested the opposite.

Imri dressed himself but didn’t go far. He went across the hall to the room he had set aside for meditation. While he typically preferred a walking meditation, he didn’t think that was appropriate for his first delve into his Inner Domain.

He took several deep breaths and entered Transcendant Meditation with ease. He turned his mind’s eye inward, instantly noticing the blinding light near his solar plexus. A moment later, his mental projection was inside his Inner Domain.

The vast majority of space was dominated by the planetary core, which pulsed with the same blue and green energies as when it was in the planet's center. The cancerous growth and black motes were still present, though the contamination was contained and no longer spreading.

The ground of the Inner Domain had more life than he expected. Already, it was covered in a layer of dirt, and signs of numerous plants emerging could already be seen. Air, light, and water all nourished the life around him, and the plants responded by visibly growing a small amount while Imri studied them. He stared off toward the boundary of where his domain should have ended, but instead, he saw an inverted version of the space, complete with a mirror image of himself. He quickly confirmed they weren’t copies but were continuations of the space looping back on itself. If he traveled west, he would simply reach the eastern edge of his domain, like a sailor circumnavigating a very small globe.

Imri shifted his gaze toward the dirt ground so he wasn’t looking at the core, then switched his perception to see the mana. The entire space was saturated with mana. Vast swathes of it were pulled in from outside his domain, but an almost equal amount was going out. However, the mana leaving wasn’t simply pure mana, as it had another quality to it. His first thought was that it was some sort of subtle life spell conducted on a massive scale, a planetary scale. However, he realized that wasn’t quite right. It was more accurate to call it growth and vigor.

Imri wondered what implications the core’s placement had on the planet. It clearly was still accomplishing its intended function while within his domain, but he didn’t know if there would be consequences the longer it was away from its intended location. He also didn’t want to discover what would happen if he was whisked off the planet while the core was still in his domain. Unfortunately, he couldn’t simply return the core while the Azala were in power. It was safest with him for now, but it was only a temporary solution.

He let his mental projection fade and recentered himself within his physical body. He opened his eyes and looked around the room while perceiving mana. Like inside his domain, vast quantities of mana flowed into and out of the area.

Imri left the house and began a circuit around the lake. He continued tracking the mana as he walked. As expected, mana flow continued to be centered around him as he moved. He also noticed the mana infused with growth and vitality settled onto the nearby vegetation and seeped into the ground. He suspected Celestia, or wherever the core was located, would become a verdant paradise. Unfortunately, he worried the opposite was true for the areas located on the opposite side of the planet. Still, he suspected this outcome was preferable to anything the Azala would have done.

When he returned from his walk, he went straight to his workshop. He quickly perused the shelves for items of various sizes and began experimenting with them. It was easy enough to place them into his inner domain, and it only required a minuscule amount of mana. However, he found placing the items in a specific location within the Inner Domain incredibly challenging. Instead, they simply went to seemingly random locations. Fortunately, the location didn’t seem to matter overly much at the moment; he intuitively knew everything inside the inner domain at all times and could easily summon the item outside. He also noticed that the mana cost increased slightly with the amount of mass the item had. Fortunately, even larger items were still relatively inexpensive to move; otherwise, he would never have been able to place the core inside his domain.

Imri quickly realized he could summon the item anywhere as long as some portion of the item touched a part of his body. With some practice, he materialized a weapon into his hand midswing. The weapon was only misoriented on the first few attempts. Clothing was a bit more challenging, but he could summon it onto himself after practicing several dozen times with his shirt. He would need to purchase a wider variety of armor and weapons to take advantage of this unique advantage, and he had plenty of credits to do so.

With the fun experiments over, Imri resolved himself to complete his next task. From what Emelia had told him, he had almost died from an Azala infiltrator. He needed to ensure they rooted out potential agents well before any larger engagements with the psionic parasites. He hoped to develop a long-term solution that didn’t involve manual intervention, but the exact mechanism for that currently eluded him. Instead, he would need to weed out any spies personally.

He would eliminate all of them in one fell swoop; he just needed every one in one place. To that end, he enlisted the council's help, having them call an emergency town meeting. The subject of the meeting was deliberately vague. It had been a while since they had an emergency all-settlement meeting like this, the last time being when the Chixel invaded, so it didn’t take much embellishment to sell the importance of it.

While not everyone could come on such short notice, a large crowd had assembled in a field at the edge of the settlement. It looked like most of the population was there, and Imri began mentally cataloging people and checking for any notable absences. Most of those gathered gaped openly at Imri, taking in the more noticeable aspects of his new heritage.

Instead of speaking, Imri simply used his new skill, Manifest Domain. Imri practically staggered as the flood of information threatened to overwhelm his mind. Everything within a 236-meter radius immediately became apparent to him. He knew their name, classes, and levels as if he had personally identified them. In addition, he knew where they were standing at this exact moment. He knew the terrain and any information about the various minerals under their feet, including several small valuable deposits. If it weren’t for his higher mental attributes, he would never have been able to make coherent thoughts out of the plethora of sensory inputs.

Fortunately, his mind was up for the challenge and he immediately sifted through the pertinent details. Three infiltrators were in their midst, all between levels 15 through 20. Imri then shifted to using the second portion of his ability. Using his domain, he cast a Temporal Collapse targeting everyone besides himself and Emelia. While it would normally be impractical to debuff hundreds of people, he had no such issue with his domain; he simply defined the spell to target all those within its boundary and defined the amplitude, which he set to 40%. He also activated a ring of Temporal Expansion at 30%. He would be a blur to the unsuspecting spies between the two effects. The benefits didn’t end there. Because he was aware of everything within the boundary of his domain, he could Blink to any location, even if he couldn’t see it.

He teleported away, appearing directly behind the first Azala, the one closest to the boundary of his domain. With a flourish, Imri summoned his short sword and plunged his short sword into the creature's chest. His physical strength, while not as impressive as his mental stats, still exceeded most professional athletes before the integration, including Zhaire. When that was combined with a powerful Temporal Expansion effect, the force of the blow easily carved through the creature's chest.

Imri didn’t celebrate the victory. Instead, he methodically dispatched the other two with brutal efficiency. While teleporting around while maintaining two high amplitude effects wasn’t the most mana-efficient way to kill his enemies, it did send a message.

He reappeared in the center of the crowd. He summoned an Immovable Platform and affixed it in place before using a final Blink to appear on top of it. Only then did he release the two time-altering effects. To the gathered crowd, the entire ordeal had only taken a couple of seconds.

“There were Azala spies amongst us. As you can see, they have been dealt with,” Imri said in a booming voice that carried to everyone present as he pointed to the three corpses. There were murmurs amongst the crowd, and Imri let them continue for a while before continuing. “Everyone here is human, and you can trust in one another. Trust me; I will keep this bastion safe from outside influences. I will make this a safe place to raise a family and pursue your dreams. I will make this a place that our enemies fear and our allies look at with envy. I will make this place the capital of this planet and the seat of humanity.”

Imri studied everyone present as he finished his theatrical display and declaration. While it had been a bit over the top, he thought it was important to leave no doubt in his capabilities and ambitions. Some looked at him reverently, like a deific figure, while others looked at him with undisguised fear. With his display of power and physical changes, he would never be mistaken for a normal person again.