Ar'Kendrithyst

Back in his stone tower in his house, Erick held up a full-torus diamond ring to the afternoon light. The ring was, perhaps, one of the most precisely carved rings he had ever made, and a culmination of a great deal of experimentation. But it had also taken a lot of work. Grinding, measuring. Regrinding. More measuring. Breaking failures and creating specially made tools of his own designs in order to grind properly.

Erick had wanted to make a ‘[Perfect Cut]’ spell in order to automatically grind his gems in a perfect manner, but in the words of Phagar: ‘All versions already invented. You have to wait 3 months to buy or make that one.’

Then Erick had asked, ‘[Condense Particle], then [Condense Carbon], then [Create Diamond], and then [Cut Diamond]? Or maybe tier 5, [Special Gem Cut]?’

‘There are several ways to get there. It’s what you have up to [Create Diamond], then you take [Gemshape] from [Stoneshape] and try to create [Measured Diamond Cut]. Other gems would require other [Create Gem] spells. If you make it well, you’ll get [Perfect Diamond Cut]. You could actually make that spell now, if you wanted. You just need [Gemshape].’

‘What about a generalized gem creation spell? [Grow Crystal]?’

Phagar words had taken a mildly joyful tone, as he had said, ‘That spell has already been made. The implementation is very, very tricky, though. But if you started with [Condense Crystal], you could work up to [Perfect Crystal Cut].’

After that conversation, Erick had almost bought [Gemshape], right past [Stoneshape], just so that he could then attempt to make a '[Perfectly Cut Diamond Toroid]' spell at tier 3, but he wasn’t sure he needed to do that in order to create a ‘good enough’ cut, or that he even wanted to risk the failure of a tier 3 spell. It would be ten days to remake that spell if he failed, and he didn't feel like doing that. So Erick stared at his toroid, and thought.

And then he set that down, back onto the soft, blue cloth of the table, ensuring it would not be scratched upon any stray diamond dust in the room. He picked up another, as-perfect-as-he-could-cut-it enchanting-worthy gem from that cloth. This one was about two inches across, and rather unusual. It was the basic octahedral shape that naturally formed as the seed diamond grew under [Crystallize Diamond], but instead of having all the jumbled, raised growth planes that naturally occurred on every diamond Erick grew, Erick had cut this one down to its base, perfect octahedral shape. It looked like two perfect pyramids stacked to each other’s bottoms.

The ring was a culmination of all of Erick’s attempts at enchanting All-Stat rings, and a minor experiment. The octahedron was an experiment in odd perfection. Both were weird. Soon, they’d be even weirder, because of a slightly different conversation Erick had had with Phagar.

The God of Death and Time, had said, ‘That’s technically a Particle Spell… It certainly already exists as a normal spell… which goes along with what you’re planning next, in two months...’ There was a pause. ‘Go ahead and try for it.’

The way Phagar had answered Erick’s question left a lot to be desired, and left Erick feeling slightly concerned. But he was going to make the spell, anyway.

Erick took off his rings and set them into a strong box under and beside his work table. Then, he took the perfectly carved, unenchanted ring and hid it away, taking care to wrap it in soft blue cloth first, to protect it from scratches. Diamond was really hard, but scratches of micrometers were horrible to [Mend] and then buff out; Erick had learned his lesson about that nuisance a long time ago.

He looked down upon his octahedral experiment.

Diamond had a very large refractive index. Larger than most other gems suitable for enchanting. This meant that when light went in, it had a tendency to stay inside, until it came out in tiny, glittering, ‘fire’, as they used to call diamond sparkles, back on Earth. Diamonds were already great for basic enchanting, because in basic enchanting, Stat light went in, and bounced around quite a while, before degrading. That degrading was due to diamonds being clear, of course. Natural light would come in to any un-silvered diamonds and interfere with the Stat light. This was why pearls were best for enchanting almost any Stat; they repelled outside influence, but also trapped whatever was in them for a very long time. You just had to get through that outer layer without breaking that outer layer.

… Now that Erick had [Duplicate], and a lot of money, maybe he should buy a really, really good enchanting-grade pearl.

… Oh. This was what the Headmaster did, wasn’t it? Ha!

… Or maybe not? Erick had no idea about any of that.

Sapphires, and their counterparts, rubies, were great for enchanting their respective Stats, because blue or red light could stay inside and not be interfered with, while every other color got disrupted by the gem itself.

But Erick had solved the problem of contaminated light inside diamonds with a well made reflective outer coating, made of diamond itself. The hope today, though, was to allow other people to take his idea, and create rings themselves, using the spell he was about to make, right now.

Erick picked up the octahedral diamond, holding it in his right hand, as he loosened up, then gave a tiny ditty to the world,

“A twist guides wavelengths of bright

“in to this space, one way; erudite!

“It’s not darkness, not here

“it’s reflection, my dear.

“Internally, perfected, [Trapped Light].”

For a brief moment, everything was too bright, too real, and then waves of mana rolled through Erick, into every pore and down his right arm, through the whorls of his fingerprints, into the gem, twisting blood out of his surface veins as darkness, pure and utter, soaked into the octahedron. Erick flinched, yelped, and dropped the diamond to the table, to the cloth. The diamond continued to darken as Erick winced like knives had gone down his arm, as he grabbed the rod of [Treat Wounds] he kept on an open shelf under the workbench. Wielding the rod with his left hand, he tapped himself once, activating the spell within, as he looked down at his bloody right arm.

Bright red and bleeding lightning bolt wounds traced down from the tips of each finger of his right hand, joining together in jumbled messes across his skin, following paths laid down by the veins and bones and tendons under the surface, tracing toward his torso. None of the wounds got much past his elbow. As the healing magic went to work, those wounds faded over, first with angry scars, then with silver skin, before fading further, back to normal. He flexed his hand. It tingled, but even that tingle began to fade.

He was fine.

He had been wounded, but whatever. Erick turned his attention to the dark diamond on the blue cloth in front of him.

The object was darker than black, and yet, it seemed rimmed by light; like a hole cut in the world, made all the more strange by the world highlighting the oddity in saturation and hue. The only thing visible upon the empty space were floating, bloody fingerprints. Erick tossed a tiny [Cleanse] at the diamond, and at himself. Blood evaporated in thick twirls, fully transforming the black diamond to unreality, as flaking blood peeled away from his right arm, turning into thick air.

Some blue boxes appeared.

Congratulations!

You have created a new Basic Spell. Your spell has been added to your skills for free!

The spell you have created will appear in the Script after a year and a day.

Your spell is the alpha version, and will shift with time and use.

The spell that appears in the Script might be different.

Here is your spell:

Luminous Trap 1, instant, close range, 250 mana

A large or smaller object or space traps and perfectly contains all light, both magical and mundane. If you cast Luminous Trap on the same object or space as before, you will renew the duration of Luminous Trap. Varying duration. .

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script.

+2 ability points.

Good job? ~Rozeta

Erick read the box, saying. “Ten days, eh?” He looked to his closed cabinets, and with his Handy Aura, opened one of the thick, small doors. He pulled out a box of tester diamond orbs. He set the box to the side, and got one orb. With a directed thought, and a small cast, the orb turned solid black. He checked the spell box. “Level 2, means… 20 days max? Oh. This one is going to last a long time.” Erick chuckled to himself, marginally thrilled to see [Luminous Trap] was such a long lasting spell.

He turned another diamond solid black.

Erick imbued a fourth diamond with [Luminous Trap], then cast a purple All-Stat lightmask across the workstation, clipping every black diamond made so far. He quickly tucked the octahedral diamond and all but one spherical gem into a cubbyhole under the work desk, then he conjured his armor, layering his body in thick, white padding and tough gloves, all except for the pointer tip of his finger on his right hand. His finger was still slightly traced with silver scars, but that was fine. He touched the remaining spherical gem, and began channeling mana through every one of his Stats, producing a purple prominence that soaked into the darkness.

The black diamond soaked, and drank, and devoured the mana light, without end. Which was weird. Normally, these things exploded at Plus-10 All-Stats. Erick got far past the explosion threshold, and kept going. And going. And going...

The diamond popped, like a fire cracker, but it was a tiny explosion, turning the diamond mostly to dust.

Erick got the second black diamond sphere and placed it on the workbench, in the purple lightmask. He channeled better, this time, stopping just before the last one exploded. From there, he retrieved a blank metal bracelet from another closed cabinet and [Metalshape]d the stone to the steel. Slipping it around his wrist, Erick checked his Status.

“Huh.” He stared down at the bracelet. “You’re plus 22. That’s twice as good as you should be—” His numbers went down in the blue box. “Oh!” He shoved his wrist, and the black diamond bracelet, back into the purple lightmask. The item did not degrade to plus-21. He pulled it out of the mask. It degraded to 20, then 19, then Erick stuck his hand back into the lightmask. It remained 19 for a good thirty seconds, before Erick smiled, and said, “I suppose I can enchant a purple lightmask onto each item. The purple reflection seems to—”

The diamond bracelet shattered like a cherry bomb going off on his skin. He yelped, but only out of surprise. The explosion did not hurt; not with all of his [Personal Ward] and the dense, prismatic air of the house all around him, and the fact that the explosion had been directed away from him. Erick slipped the charred bracelet off of his arm, and got the octahedral diamond out from under the workbench. He first dismissed the purple lightmask over the workbench, then enchanted the octahedron with a purple lightmask that adhered directly to the skin of the black diamond, giving the otherworldly, hole-in-reality gem an ethereal purple rim.

Now why was he doing this, at all?

He had gotten the idea from looking at his [Vivid Gloom], today, and seeing how it sucked in all light. Making the specific spell that duplicated that spell’s light trapping mechanism had seemed interesting, and it had worked. But what came after was quite another matter entirely. He did not expect to make something better than what he had already crafted, but that was the purpose of experimentation, was it not? To find new and interesting things, and then use them to find more new and interesting things.

Remaking his own rings into much better artifacts was only a few steps away. And now that he had [Duplicate], he could take his experiments in odd directions, multiple times per attempt. [Mend] was great for redoing minor failed experiments, but once enough magic got pumped into these little rings, [Mend] just did not cut it; they weren’t ‘minor’ magical items, at that point.

So while his thought process on this current experiment was a bit muddled, it was all connected to learning how to be a better enchanter. That was the actual goal, today. Everything else had been a happy accident.

Erick took the black, purple-rimmed octahedral, and cast [Duplicate]. A clear diamond, exactly the same as the first but without all the temporary spells, appeared in his other hand. He smiled.

And then he started to go through his inventory for further experimentation, and began crafting, in earnest. Platinum rains fell from the sky, occasionally, to fill up the trough and allow him to experiment further with silver coatings. It wasn’t long till he discovered that his silver coating was inferior to perfect internal reflection magic.

… Which was… interesting.

Also highly frustrating.

But oh well! Inventions happened in iterations. No one made a computer from scratch; everyone stood upon the shoulders of giants. As that thought occurred to Erick, as [Duplicate]d rings, toroids, and spheres littered his workspace, he remembered that he did not need to work through his own trial and error, either.

He went to find Kiri, in her room on the third floor.

Kiri was fully dressed in her own green [Conjured Armor], wearing thick goggles, and looking down at her lightmasks and her own piles of diamond dust. Her lightmasks were green, though. She did not instantly notice him at the doorway, but Sunny sure did. The little flying snake [Familiar] uncoiled from her resting spot on a plush white cushion, beside the door to the room. Ophiel twittered playfully at the snake, while Sunny shifted a dozen different colors, and took to the air.

Kiri startled, then whipped around. “Oh!” She asked, “Hey? What’s up?”

“What do you know of reflective magics cast on gems, to trap the Stat-light inside? Other people have done this before, right?”

She removed her goggles, then said, “Reflective magics? Yes. People have tried that route before, but the outcome is always weakened enchantments and destroyed gems.” She set her goggles aside, saying, “Your mundane solution of the silver diamond coating is both new, and one of the best versions of such a solution ever recorded. The fact that the bond is at the molecular level is how it works so well, as there is no room for surface inclusions like how you’d normally get.”

Erick walked into the room, taking out the [Luminous Trap]’s blue box, and handing it to Kiri. While she read, scrunched her face, and reread, and her eyes went wide, Erick picked up a stray diamond sphere from the box of spheres on Kiri’s table. He turned it dark and set it down on her table, not saying a thing, wondering how Kiri would respond.

Kiri’s eyes latched upon the dark gem, as she said, “Oh! I remember!” She laughed as she picked up the black diamond. “Oh my gods! Does it really take in Statlight, too?”

“Yes.” Erick said, smirking. “I worked out some minor problems and got a sphere up to plus-25 All Stat. You have to enchant the sphere with an All-Stat lightmask, though, otherwise stray outside influences get sucked in and the thing rapidly explodes. I got toroid rings over Plus 50.”

Kiri held the spot of void in her hand, saying, “It’s a Blackvoid Gem!”

Erick smiled. He knew Kiri would know something he didn’t.

Kiri explained, “Tulamana Blackvoid was an owl shifter from Nelboor, 500 or whatever odd years ago. ‘Blackvoid’ wasn’t her real name. When she invented the spell that made her famous, she took it as her last name; [Blackvoid]. The Script version is called [Trap Light]. It’s [Ward] and [Rebound], but no one has managed to remake her spell since her— OH! Probably! Now that I think about it! Because they didn’t have an understanding of light, but Blackvoid did! Oh wow! Mystery solved!”

Erick smiled; ‘Trap Light’ was already taken, which was why his spell ended up being called something else. No wonder Phagar had been weird, and Rozeta’s sign off message had been strange. Then, he looked up [Trap Light].

Trap Light, instant, touch, 50 mana

Contain the light in an object.

“That is certainly neither [Blackvoid], or [Luminous Trap],” Erick said.

Kiri said, “Certainly not! [Trap Light] is basically worthless. [Blackvoid] was fantastic, though. Tulamana Blackvoid churned out hundreds of thousands of gems, bracelets, everything, each of them for Plus-50 to Plus-150 of whatever. And the best part was, was that nobody knew how she did it! Because her spell lasted a hundred days, and then the item began to degrade, very rapidly, because she didn’t use gems. She climbed to the top of the enchanting world, with glasswork!” Kiri laughed, then said, “She was a glassworker, by trade! A sculptor and a bottle maker. She never enchanted anything until she made her [Blackvoid]. When that happened, she made glass, briefly, into one of the most studied items in the world.

“Her glasswork was widely considered trash by most of the world, but that was probably just jealousy writing history. She pissed off a lot of people. She was a savant with light, though. Her wardlight sculptures are masterpieces. Some of them still exist, in some parts of the world. Some of her rings still exist, too; they’re enchanted with permanent lightmasks, but the [Blackvoid] wore off long ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some examples of her work at Oceanside. She and the Headmaster were tight friends, until Blackvoid was assassinated by Shades.” Kiri said, “The Headmaster even wrote a biography about Tulamana Blackvoid, after her death, but it’s widely considered propaganda in her favor. Other immortals made their thoughts on Blackvoid’s life choices very well known.”

“Thank you, Kiri.” Erick said, “That was… a lot. I didn’t know any of that.”

Kiri waved him off, saying, “It’s trivia; nothing more.” She added, “But… I guess it works better than your silver coating?” She vacillated, “But it’ll only last a hundred days, and it’s probably prone to internal interference if you get subjected to a lightward. That was one of Blackvoid’s work’s main downfalls. Exposure to exterior light fields killed her gems until— OH!” Kiri suddenly turned serious, as she said, “I know it’s not my place, but I would like to create her— Ah. No. Um.” She calmed, saying, “You should invent the reflective ward she created to combat that weakness. [Perfect Mirror]. You cast [Luminous Void] on the gem, then you maskward it, then you [Perfect Mirror] it. You won’t be able to renew the [Luminous Void] while [Perfect Mirror] is active, but it does get rid of the weakness of contaminating the void.”

“That’s really good, Kiri.” Erick said, “You invent it, I’ll copy from you, and that’ll be good enough. You can have the points. You came up with the spell.”

“No.” Kiri said, “I even feel bad that I got [Hermetic Seal] from you.”

“I insist. Don’t argue. Make the spell, and let me see you cast it, and that’s good enough for me.” Erick asked, “Do you know why the Shades assassinated her?”

Kiri smiled softly, as she looked down at nothing in particular. When she looked back up, she said, “Thank you.”

Erick waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Then I won’t.” Kiri said, “Anyway. Uh. Blackvoid caught the Shades' attention and didn’t want to play their games. So they killed her. I don’t think you have that problem.”

He frowned, as he looked away. He said, “I guess not.” He lost his frown, and gestured to Kiri’s piles of blanks, and her green lightwards, asking, “Want some void diamonds to experiment with? How’s your— Oh. It’s all green?”

A thought came to Erick, quickly, and full of fright. Justine Erholme had demonstrated the colors of Constitution and Intelligence to Erick already. If green was a color of one of the new Stats...

Erick said, “I know I told you what Justine showed me; Constitution is sunshine yellow but Intelligence is near-ultraviolet. If some green color is a new Stat, then it’s either Charisma, or Dexterity, or nothing.” He looked to Kiri, worried, and said, “The Mind Mages have kill orders for Charisma users.”

Kiri nodded, all serious like. “I know. Poi already warned me. I’ve already been sworn to secrecy, but I can tell you that if my experiment works, I will gain the backing of a major organization. The Mind Mages are very interested in knowing more about Charisma in a controlled setting.” She said, “You have Oceanside and Spur, but I need something, too, and the Mind Mages are… They’re ruthless and hidden, but they’re also rather good people. Every one I ever met.” She added, “If I end up with Dexterity, then that’s fine, too. The ‘nothing’ would be troubling just for how much time I’ve spent on this, but it is what it is.”

“… Okay.” Erick didn’t know what to think about that, at first, but it sounded… good? He said, “That’s good, right? Let’s hope for Charisma?”

“I’m still staying here,” Kiri said, suddenly. “This is not me running away, but instead ensuring my safety along multiple avenues. I meant to tell you sooner, but… I didn’t know how to tell you. This happened… A while ago. The decision to pursue this option with the Mind Mages, I mean.”

“Kiri.” Erick spoke softly, saying, “That’s fine. Everyone needs their own life. You’re not an apprentice forever, are you?”

“Maybe so, but I’d like to continue bothering you for magic lessons for decades.”

A swell of quiet joy expanded in Erick’s chest. “Good. I’m glad.” He rapidly added, “And I’m glad you have a plan, too! Feels like I’m just rushing from unexpected fire to unexpected fire.”

Kiri grinned, as she said, “There are lots of fires out there that could use some rain.” She enthusiastically added, “And yes!” She pushed her box of blank diamond spheres at him, saying, “I want a whole box of gems turned into [Luminous Trap]s!”

Erick chuckled, as he took the box into one hand and tapped his other fingers across the contents, turning blank gems to black gems, as he asked, “I’ve got Ophiels pathing toward Killtree right now for some [Weather Control] horde kills in an hour. They’re too low level for you, right?”

Kiri nodded, saying, “I’m level 66 right now. Killing spiders would not gain me anything, but I would love to help, if you wish for help.”

“No need, then. Work on whatever you want, and also that reflective spell.” Erick finished tapping through most of the diamonds, turning a small part of the world into an optical void. He set the box back on her workbench, saying, “I am working on some crowns of plus 200 or 250 Willpower. Maybe I can pump it even higher than that, but the point is, I’m considering keeping one or two such crowns on hand for use in remote monster hunts. You’re more than welcome to use the ones I make, or even to make your own, when you hunt monsters for Mog, or whenever necessary.”

Kiri’s eyes glittered green, as she said, “That would be… Most wonderful.” She got a far off look, as she said, “I could actually cast some of my spells if I had— Ha! 250 more Willpower. Damn, that is a lot.” She looked to Erick. “The spells I messed up, I mean. I could actually cast them.”

Erick said, “Me too.”

- - - -

Under grey skies lay a land of streets, squat stone towers, and houses made of wood where every other wooden plank was missing. Some of the buildings were better made than others, but absolutely all of it was covered in mud, with roads that might have been solid in previous centuries, but were now not even fit for pigs to wallow within. And yet, people walked, and talked, and lived in this place, this northernmost Sovereign City of Killtree.

Jane’s description of the place had been too kind, even with the use of such descriptive phrases as ‘diarrhea shithole’ and ‘unending hive of scum and villainy’.

Ophiel hung out to the north of the city, high in the overcast sky, kilometers away from the obvious stench of hammered down humanity and the dilapidated structures they lived in, and yet, Erick could still almost smell the detritus of a strangled society. He certainly saw the problems, though.

Erick spoke through his [Familiar], asking, “What the FUCK is wrong with you people? [Stoneshape] is right there! One fucking point. You can buy it your very first godsdamned level.”

A fully covered black-clad ninja, for that’s all she could have possibly been, stood on a hovering platform nearby, and winced. Her name was ‘Elite Redwood’, but she was not one of the Headmaster’s Elites. That was one of the first things Erick had asked, when she showed up in the sky next to Ophiel and introduced herself, not ten minutes ago.

The other person was a man in full, off-white plate [Conjured Armor], who stood on his own off-white hovering platform. He was Guildmaster Rohn of the local Adventurer’s Guild chapter. Erick had no opinion about the ninja, but he certainly felt that the Guildmaster, of the international Adventurer’s Guild, should have at least felt bad about the state of his city.

The Guildmaster did not wince at Erick’s words, he merely stated, “We do not ask for your judgments, only for your ability to halt the horde, in accordance with bargains of trade laid down long ago with your Headmaster.”

Erick ignored the representatives of Killtree for the rest of the event.

Crafted wind set the grey sky tumbling to the ground, where burning spheres of land sent breezes back upward. Clouds churned, turning dark, as lightning flashed through the heavens, revealing the horde hidden above, on track to assault Killtree. The spiders were not expecting such a sudden change of weather, though. They also weren’t expecting thick air to pull their liquid insides to their outsides, killing every spider large enough to possibly affect what was to come.

Long, airy threads and desiccated corpses caught on each other, while smaller spiders clung on for dear life, as the horde fell to its churning, fiery tornado fate. Erick had gotten much better at this since that first spider horde tried to drop on Kal’Duresh.

Erick set a [Cascade Imaging] down on the ground, in the stone courtyard of the Adventurer’s Guild, set to search for more Ballooning Spiders. Guildmaster Rohn said nothing about that, but he did vacate the field, and Erick did see him tracking down spiders already in the city. Maybe he wasn’t a totally worthless Guildmaster.

Erick almost offered to [Withering] the city, but he was absolutely sure that the Guildmaster and the Elite would say yes, and Erick would end up killing just as many monsters and fully fledged cannibals as he would people suffering from intestinal rads. Maybe ending dozens of hidden threats was worth the bloody cost of such an outcome, but Erick wasn’t willing to pay that cost. No fucking way.

Erick briefly vacated the field, traveling back through strung out Ophiel connections, landing all the way back in his library, in Spur. He shivered in his chair, feeling terrible and not quite knowing what to do about the new problems appearing in Killtree, because of his actions.

Kiri looked up from her book. “Problems?”

“Oh my gods! There are so many.” Erick said, “I put down this imaging down below, of course. And now these adventurers in the local guild just tore through a house, looking for one of the spiders they saw on the map. There’s blood on the streets, Kiri. What the FUCK is wrong with these people’s governors?”

“The Cities are like that.” Kiri frowned, saying, “You always hear of some good nobles gaining a foothold of decent control, sometimes, but then the mob rises up and kills those kinds of people. They have a very strong culture of self governance, and a deep hatred of any and all control, even the kind that is good for them all.”

Erick shivered again. “That’s one way to put it.”

He turned his attention back to the horde, tumbling down from the lightning filled sky, into burning charnel pits. More Ophiels added more fire and more lightning. Ending a threat like the Ballooning Spiders made Erick feel slightly better than how he was feeling, but not much.

- - - -

After dinner, and while the spiders were mostly dealt with, Erick left a hundred Jewels and a few Ophiel in the area, to move the mess into piles of wealth, while he went back to his tower. After recasting the obscuring [Ward] on the large, southern window, he got out his octahedral gem.

He sorely missed being able to look up stuff on the internet, to figure out all of what he was doing, and trying to do, but the purpose of the octahedral diamond shape he had carved from the raw, jumbled octahedral diamond, was to see if carving on perfect, molecular planes, would cause manalight to stabilize better within the diamond. He was absolutely sure that he was missing some deeper understanding of why the diamonds grew like they did, but his gem carving books had not done much better with the deeper understandings, and so, he just [Duplicate]d his octahedron a few times, creating five perfect copies of his perfect gem.

He cast Willpower-Ultramarine lightmasks onto each individual gem, clipping the entire surface, with a centimeter to spare. He smiled. The octahedrons resembled deep blue sapphires. They were kinda pretty. The next casts turned each gem into a light devouring void.

Light layered down around Erick’s form, as he conjured his armor, but left a fingertip exposed. He pressed that exposed finger to the first gems, and began experimenting.

An hour later, Erick had exploded one gem, overloaded another into breaking after one minute, [Duplicate]d many more blanks and layered them with the proper spells, and finally, after too many failures, but not nearly as many as some people would have to suffer if they wanted to achieve the same success, Erick had created a rather good crown.

Wrought-class dark iron, pulled and shaped by magic, formed a heavy circlet, laden with three, eye-sized blue voids. Further metal formed small shields behind the gems, in the hopes that if the gems exploded, it would not kill the wearer, while smaller whorls of utilitarian metal held the gems into a proper resonance, as the whole thing worked together to create a magical item with a staggering amount of power.

The first iteration of the crown had exploded after he put it on, but Erick had been more surprised than hurt. He had needed a haircut anyway; he’d get one tomorrow when he went to the Registrar to get another Class Ability.

This second crown had lasted ten minutes already, so maybe it was okay?

Erick’s rings were already off, so he put the crown on his unarmored head.

The world went sideways for a brief moment, as Stat sickness caused his left eye to turn right and his right eye to turn left and up. He winced, closing his eyes, focusing on the darkness, centering himself with Meditation even though he was still in the Restful air of the house.

When the worst of it was over, he opened his eyes. The world was now more upright, but it was still doubled, as his eyes had trouble coming to terms with each other. Erick grabbed the rod of [Treat Wounds] and tapped himself. Three seconds later, he started to feel better, as his eyes adjusted, and the world straightened.

He checked his Status.

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 76, Class: Particle Mage

Exp: 7.64 e17 / 8.94 e17

Class: 7/8

Points: 10

HP

1901/600

18,600 per day

MP

7351/20,160

18,600 per day

Strength

20

+0

[20]

Vitality

20

+0

[20]

Willpower

75

+291

[366]

Focus

75

+0

[75]

Favored Spell waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Erick laughed, loud and happy—

He moved his head. The crown was… not shifting, at all. He waggled his head, and it stayed set. He grabbed the crown and lifted it, just a tiny bit, shocking himself in the process. But the crown came off. He put it back on. Briefly, the world shifted again, but Erick was ready for it, this time. Or maybe he wasn’t.

His stomach twisted, and then he did too, as he turned to the side and puked up all of his dinner, all over the floor. He heaved again. And again. Somewhere in all of that he managed to tap himself with the rod, settling his stomach back into its proper place. A [Cleanse] took care of the mess.

“Ugh,” he moaned. “Maybe I should stick with All-Stats.”

The crown had not moved at all when he was vomiting. It had been locked in place, somehow, and that was worrying. Erick put his hands on the crown, and lifted—

It did not come off. Uh oh.

Erick gripped the crown with both fists, and yanked, tearing skin and hair in the process. Blood dripped in his eyes as he shook a little, and the world briefly seemed smaller. He blinked hard, then set the crown down on the work table. A small [Cleanse] cleaned up the blood and skin, while a tap from the rod of [Treat Wounds] healed up the wounds. He definitely needed a haircut, now; an entire ring around his scalp had been seared, somehow. Hair burned, unevenly.

Poi spoke from the doorway, “That looked unpleasant.”

Erick laughed, unbidden, as he turned to the sapphire-scaled man. “It was!” He gestured to the crown. “But two hundred and ninety Willpower!”

He thumbed backward, saying, “Kiri just made a belt worth 11 Charisma. I’m not sure which is more impressive.”

Erick paused. All mirth vanished, as he asked, “Really?”

“I’m also not sure which is more dangerous.”

“… Yeah...”

“She already told you about all that. So I’ll be candid, now.” Poi said, “She’s going with a colleague to another location, where they will take some time to talk, and she’ll come back tomorrow. Do you wish to go?”

Erick paused. He asked, “That’s an option?”

“Not normally. But she only managed to enchant Charisma with your [Luminous Trap] diamonds.”

Did he want to meet the Mind Mages? Erick wasn’t sure, as he mumbled, “Should I go? I feel like I shouldn’t.”

“You don’t have to go, but it’s an option. Kiri has already been introduced to the organization, but you have not.”

Erick decided, “Some other time, perhaps. Kiri is looking to get in good with you guys, and if I’m there, maybe she won’t get all the attention she deserves.” He added, “But besides that, you’re way too secretive for me.”

Poi nodded, saying, “Most people never know when there’s a Mind Mage among them, by design. You sort of shot me up to renown status, though.”

Erick smirked. “You’re the one that volunteered to be my minder, didn’t you?”

“I did not expect any of this to happen.” Poi said, “But it is what it is, and I am not unhappy. It’s kind of freeing, not being so hidden.”

“Why are the Mind Mages so insular?” Erick asked, not expecting an answer, but needing to ask the question, anyway.

“Shadeling hunts— Er. ‘Witch hunts’, I think you’d call them; those are just the unfounded worries, though.” Poi said, “Then you have the genocidal acts committed against Mind Mages. Mind Mages committing horrific revenge against those with no defense. Abuses of power on multiple levels, both at the international level, and at the personal level. The Headmaster told you once about Quintlan? That whole continent fell to more than just [Create Food] being taken from the people. [Duplicate] is rife for abuse, but Mind Magic is even worse.”

Erick asked, “You know?… I mean. You do know what I’m going to say, but I guess I’ll say it anyway: You know. I always got the impression that you’re not actually Class: Mind Mage. That not every Mind Mage is actually a Mind Mage. Is that true?”

Poi smiled small, then said, “I am actually a Classed Mind Mage.”

Erick waited.

“… I’m not gonna get anything more than that, am I?”

“Nope.” Poi looked to take a small joy in saying, “Sorry. Not part of the club.”

Erick smiled, and let it be.

- - - -

Erick met Kiri in the foyer. She happily held up a chainlink belt, dotted with void gems rimmed in green. Sunny flitted around her, undulating, shifting colors all through the rainbow.

Erick said, “That was fast progress, Kiri.”

“I know!” She said, “It’s amazing—”

Poi interrupted, “It’s dangerous.”

“It can be both,” Erick said.

“Right.” Kiri looked to Poi, smiling as she said, “It can be both.”

“How did you make the belt?” Erick asked, “What Stat did you channel through to get Charisma?”

“Pure mana. My natural color was pretty close to Charisma Green.” Kiri smirked, saying, “You could probably make a True All-Stat belt, mister white mana, but I’m stuck with what I have, and what I have is classified as a Mental Hazard.”

Poi said, “You shouldn’t try it, sir. Let it remain untouched.”

He felt a spike of worry, as he asked, “Are you going to be okay, Kiri?”

“Pff! Yes.” Kiri said, “I’m fine. I worked a bit on the [Reflection] we talked about, but then this happened. So I’ll have to make that spell another day; when I get back.”

Erick looked to Poi, and amended, “Maybe I’ll try for Intelligence or Constitution, then. Or Dexterity?”

Poi had nothing to say about that, except to turn to Kiri, and ask, “Ready?”

Kiri smiled wide, as she held her belt in one hand, swaying it gently. “Where am I going, Sargent Fulisade?”

A tendril of intent leapt from Poi’s head, to touch Kiri’s, as he said, “This series of [Teleport]s is good for one minute. Your contact will meet you at the end, for further [Teleport]ing.”

“Then I’m off!” Kiri said, “See you both later.”

She blipped away, in a double flash of green, taking Sunny with her, around her shoulders.

Erick looked upon the empty space for a moment, then he asked, “Do you know where Teressa is?”

“Out working late at the Guardhouse.”

Erick kinda wanted to experiment with some Constitution and Intelligence lightmasks, but he asked, “Does the Guardhouse need help finding missing people?”

After a moment, and a few more tendrils of thought cast out into the world, Poi said, “No. Not right now.” He looked to another part of the air, adding, “The Ballooning Spiders headed for Outpost have delayed. Forecasts no longer show them on track for the city. That might change, but, tentatively, the schedule for tomorrow has changed, with them.”

Erick briefly left his body, his senses stretching through Ophiel, across the Crystal Forest, across the western mountains, and the Wasteland Kingdoms, to the Sovereign Cities, to Killtree. The storm was doing fine. Some of his [Shimmer]s had failed, so Erick recast those, and recast a few other spells to keep the tornadoes whirling strong.

He came back to himself, and said, “Then I’m going to make some better rings. Tell me if anything changes, please.”

“Very well, sir.”

- - - -

Hours later, through the use of [Duplicate] and temporary silver rains and [Crystallize Diamond], and all the rest of his Stat enchanting expertise, Erick had several sets of silver rings sized for himself, but that everyone else could probably wear on one finger or another, and two crowns.

The power of [Luminous Trap] was obvious, but the weaknesses of the spell were not entirely obvious. Erick had attempted a [Lightwalk] while wearing the void rings, and nothing happened; the void rings went with him, of course. But when he went to touch a void gem sitting on his workbench, he instantly lost his hand, as that piece of him broke off and went into the void. Still in lightform, Erick had tried to get his hand back with focus and flaring his magic, but he only retrieved his lost hand when he canceled the [Luminous Trap] on the gem. When he did that, motes of light flickered up from the gem and rejoined his body.

Erick did not want to think what would have happened to him if he had canceled [Lightwalk] while part of him was still trapped in the void.

So Erick made a [Luminous Trap] crown out of octahedral, purple-lightmasked gems. It was worth 210 All Stats. Putting it on and taking it off gave no ill effects, but it was not a safe item for every day use, so Erick wore it for a while, getting his Mana up to its temporary maximum of 17,100, before recasting [Prismatic Ward] across the house, creating a 250,000 point defensive dense air around the whole place; almost 2.5 times stronger than what had been there before.

His new rings, made of near-perfectly crafted toroid diamond, and covered in their permanent silver coating, gave him plus-31 All Stats, apiece. He still couldn’t wear them with any other Stat jewelry, though. Two pieces, or a single larger item seemed to be the limit. Erick tried combining rings and bracelets and necklaces, but they all tended to explode; sometimes those explosions just happened sooner, rather than later. He’d figure out that problem another day, but for now, his Status looked pretty good.

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 76, Class: Particle Mage

Exp: 7.64 e17 / 8.94 e17

Class: 7/8

Points: 10

HP

2460/2460

35,340 per day

MP

8220/8220

35,340 per day

Strength

20

+62

[82]

Vitality

20

+62

[82]

Willpower

75

+62

[137]

Focus

75

+62

[137]

Favored Spell waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

More mana and regeneration truly was wonderful. Even the silver scarring on his fingers was gone. He wasn’t quite sure how all that Health Regen worked with his actual, physical healing, but it seemed to give him more energy than he ever had before, and all his scars never lasted very long.

With one last check on Killtree, he finished off the last of the spiders threatening the place, and then went to bed, feeling good. In the morning he would go see the Registrar and figure out his empty Class Ability, as well as get the Slot Increase Quest again. And maybe a few other things.

- - - -

In the morning, he did not immediately go to Irogh for his appointment; his time slot wasn’t for a few hours, anyway. But he did wake up bright and early, and inspired. He quickly went about making breakfast, slicing up potatoes and frying them up for home fries, as he made cheese omelets for Teressa, Poi, and himself. Toast was made, and jams distributed, as coftea seemed to brighten everything with its uniquely bitter flavor, and its caffeine boost.

Teressa said her ‘See you laters’ as she went off to the Guardhouse for a few morning hours, smiling at the overcast sky as she walked out the door. Clouds lined the sky, changing the normal, bright and way too hot Spur day, into a gentle, breezy heat. The clouds were thin this morning, but by this afternoon, the rains would come, in an almost natural manner.

Erick’s [Control Weather] had set up the sky to rain every four or five days across the whole city, with him only providing platinum rain to the Gardens every weekend. With all that rain the harvests from the Gardens were coming in on normal, easy-growing schedules, like this was the Greensoil Republic and not the middle of the Crystal Forest. The alchemists who usually supplied growing tonics and potions to the farmers of Spur were happy; they were back in business, now that most of the [Grow]ing was getting done outside of Erick’s platinum rain days. The adventurers visiting the city from elsewhere were happy; Spur wasn’t a dry wasteland that only bloomed in Water Season, and there was no water rationing. The Community Garden Council was happy; their harvest schedules weren’t as strict as before, when Erick’s focused presence was needed for the rains.

Erick was happy, too. He ‘worked’ only two days a week, and played around with magic the rest of the time. He could have done without the drama of Candlepoint, but they seemed to be quiet, for now. They wouldn’t be that way forever, but they had rains, too, just like Spur, so they were fully capable of surviving on their own. The spells over Spur and Candlepoint only lasted two or three days, though, so he had to renew both places as necessary, but, by design, he hadn’t seen Justine in a while except for from far away.

A new spot of land had opened up at Candlepoint, called the Farm. A few days ago, Erick had hung out in the sky and watched the sand be turned into loamy field by shadelings, while Bulgan put up the sign naming the place ‘The Farm’, himself, taunting Erick with a childish, megalomaniac smile as he did so.

Justine worked in the Farm quite a lot, mainly as a [Grow]er. Valok was there, too, working the fields with magic and tools, as a picker and a planter, alongside others who did the same. He looked happy, and healthy. They all did, really. But a few of the other shadelings working in those fields and greening that space had to be some of the farmers who had been killed at Spur’s Farms. Erick was sure he recognized a few of them, though he had no names to go with their faces.

Poi brought Erick out of his reverie, “Guardmaster Merit has some people she would like you to find in an hour. Three missing people in one day.”

Erick looked away from the window, and its clouds. “Oh? Sure. I’ll be ready. Irogh’s appointment isn’t for hours.” He pushed his empty plate away, and said, “I have something to try out, first, though.”

Poi began cleaning up breakfast, saying, “Good luck.”

- - - -

Erick stood in his tower, and thought back to how Jane had described her [Greater Shadowalk], and how he had failed the recreation Quest to make [Lightshape] out of his own [Lightwalk]. [Lightwalk] was definitely capable of transforming into [Greater Lightwalk], though; Jane herself was proof of that truth.

The differences between Greater and Normal were known to Erick, too. Greater allowed the user to see and hear and be practically everywhere in a large area around themselves. Jane could spy across the room; listening through the shadows in people’s ears. She could see through the shadows under their chins. She could feel into pockets, and bring shadowy hands to bear far away from herself. And, she had a shadow capable of full physicality; one that didn’t deform if she didn’t want it to deform.

So what did [Greater Lightwalk] look like?

Erick wasn’t sure, but he was sure that there was at least one way to get there, and he was going to try. So he held out his hand, and channeled mana through [Lightwalk], as ten Ophiel, scattered around his tower, on lathes and benches, on troughs and tables, stood ready to record and amplify the sound.

A bright wash of rainbow flowed from his hand, like a heat mirage and an oil slick and a flare of white, all in one. It was the sound of revelations, but not in an apocalyptic manner, but in the way that one person tells another about themselves, revealing who they are to the world. It was vulnerability. It was openness. It was strength in weakness, and weakness open to be exploited, but it was also power, pure and unadorned.

And then in the strange way that things sometimes are, it was also its opposite. The sound of [Lightwalk] was one of false fronts, and hidden daggers. A flashy showing in one place that mesmerizes the senses so that you can’t see that you’re being robbed blind.

Sight and soul, but also sleight of hand, and illusions too intricate to ever be understood.

And tying it all together, was the faint sound of possibility, of magic.

Ophiels took up the sound of Erick’s [Lightwalk], their little wings fluttering as their eyes rolled back and each of them raised from their perches, to float around Erick in a ring, each of them mirror images of each other, each of them helping to solidify what was coming. Erick saw none of this, though. He was already a being of light.

With eyes no longer strictly in his head, and ears no longer strictly where they seemed to be, Erick listened to the world, and vibrated with the mana.

If someone were to look from outside, they would see a faint glow coming from the Flatt Estate. The orange stone was a tiny bit brighter than usual, or maybe the clouds above had parted in an odd way, to let the morning light shine down in an odd manner. But the southernmost window on the southern tower, was pure white. That, in particular, was not an odd sight to see. Erick often put up visual obfuscations when he was in-tower.

A few morning farmers looked up anyway, to see the tower, and saw the white light, but they went right back to tending their fields; it was going to rain this afternoon, for sure. Some of them smiled at that fact, and joked about the weather, as they planted seeds and sprinkled potions on the soil.

In another part of Spur, Silverite was working on paperwork, in her office, as the yellowscaled Hera brought her more.

Al was down in the sewers, cleaning up a late night raid on the place, committed by drunk kids and guards at the entrance paid to look the other way. The veteran adventurers had turned part of the place into rubble and plunged through three layers of waterways in what spectators referred to as ‘a good old romp’, but they had not reached upward with their spells; the city was never in any danger.

Mog was checking numbers on the quest board at the Adventurer’s Guild, and looking over reports of larger beasts in the desert, and strange reports of holes found here and there in the sands. The reports were par for the course, though; nothing too odd about any of it.

Sirroco Zago was reading a hand-held book as she pet her black cat on her lap, while the white one pawed at her, but there was only room for one cat at a time; the Guildmaster said as much, in a happy little voice, telling ‘Star’ that she’d get her lap on the next book. It was ‘Void’s turn right now.

Merit waited in the Guardhouse, getting her Scryers together, along with some body parts on silver trays for Erick, later, whenever he felt like showing up. Honestly, what was his problem? It’d take an eyeless, deaf and dumb child, not to see the problems that man had with guards.

Eyes looked out from shadows, as other eyes, made of light, peered into the shadows. There was a smile on one side, and a concern on the other, though it was anyone’s guess as to which was which. Or perhaps it was both. Emotions were complicated things, after all, and light and shadow always chased each other.

Clouds roiled in a deep sky, but sucked into an invisible space, hardly seen by anyone, except for Erick, right now. But it was invisible. Hmm. Erick shifted his sight into the infrared, and saw it all. Cloud Giants. Streets made of air. Houses made of wind. It was an imperfect sight, Cloud Giants were very good at [Invisibility], but Erick could see some of the place, and the people. It was an entire city, hidden in the clouds! It was rather large, too. But the Cloud Giants never bothered Spur, right? So… No bother to Erick.

Erick looked around for a little while, enjoying himself as he spied further and faster, and heard better than [Scry] was capable of achieving. And then he came back to himself. His Ophiels sat around the room in their normal manners, hanging out on lathes and workbenches, twittering and chirping and sounding of violins, harps, and endless expanse. Erick smiled, as he patted the closest one, and dismissed the rest. That single Ophiel squealed in delight as he flipped up onto Erick’s shoulder, proudly taking his spot.

A box appeared.

Greater Lightwalk, instant, long range, 10 MP per second + Variable

You are the radiant day.

Erick smiled. The ongoing costs doubled, but the uses of such a spell more than made up for that. And the distance! How far had he actually gone? This required more experimentation, for sure.