NOVEL NEXT (Vol 5) Chapter 38: Foolin' Around
There was another minor issue related to Sammy’s [Bound] staff, which she thought about as she went through the motions of mirror travel — being an Artifact, it was supposed to have a name. The System seemed to taunt her with an empty custom entry just waiting there.
Well, all of the abilities are pretty disruptive. Shitting on lawns, raining on parades. And it brains people. Okay. I’d like it to sound like a diss… hmm… ah!
Staff artifact name successfully set to Foolmaker.
A snicker from the Ring of the Cheater told her it wasn’t too shabby at all.
As she made her way through the waiting portal, Sammy felt a burst of glee that she now possessed an artifact that she’d named herself. Between two mirrors, Sammy made a ‘psht!’ sound as she swung her staff, then a fake ‘Arrgh!’ pained grimace. “Ha, looks like you got made a fool, bitch! That’s why I call it… Foolmaker! Haha!”
Yeah, yeah, I’m the actual fool, swinging around a staff playing pretend — sue me, world! Everyone’s gotta be silly sometimes. Right?!
Her mirror-walking continued through the forests, hills, and scattered plains, all while invisible and cloaked in phantasmal illusions to avoid any chance of discovery, with her Resemblants looking out ahead the entire time in case something was an issue to come into. But there was nothing other than nighttime wilderness to greet.
Traversal through the mountains was no different and in fact briefer than the other biomes. She crossed over out of the northern Dominion territory into the nameless wilderness, then back over mountains eastward known as the Blackcrags into the sparsely populated territories northwest of Fobent.
Mirrors largely already distributed to cross the terrain nearly to Fobent shortcutted her travel even further. A final mirror walked through had a Pegasus and her carriage waiting under tree cover, so she hopped in and they took off for Geirkos with around 400 kilometers to go based on pre-existing travel routes. That was a few hours at mid-level Pegasus speed.
She could certainly find ways to take advantage of the time. She did happen to have the Ring of the Cheater on her mind, and it occurred to her she’d never ended up using its active ability though it had some utility. But that was also ‘abilities’ as she perused the description again because it had an innate spell she’d never bothered with: Mystical Trap.
I think it's mostly non-combat. But let’s read this in-depth real quick.
Mystical Trap (22 MP)
Note: This is provided by the magical item ‘Ring of the Cheater.’ Caster level is at +2 Effective Levels, with a minimum of level 10.
(Level 6; Abjuration, Evocation) You set a trap that triggers a violent burst of magic — choose one of Fire, Ice, Electric, Acid, or Sound when casting this spell. This is the wounding type of the burst, and the normal secondary effects of each are used.
The spell has a casting time of 5 minutes and requires a small sample of an elementally-attuned material to be consumed as a physical component, such as a 2-inch ‘elemental vial.’ Duration is permanent until triggered.
You must cast this on a physical object with an existing external trigger, most commonly from opening something such as a door or chest. It must not have any other ward cast directly on it. It can also be cast on any physical trap, in which case when it triggers it also triggers the spell.
When the burst goes off, it fills a 1-meter radius with the ‘triggering point’ as the center. Lethality Grade is Effective Caster Level +2 and ignores all non-magical armor as well as any [Physical Defense] modifiers. The triggering object and you personally are always immune to this effect.
While allies are not immune, you may prevent them from triggering it by authorization when cast or later by spellcraft modification. You may create ‘identifiers’ to easily screen out allies but note that this can be discovered and exploited. You may also create a ‘password’ of some kind to share that avoids triggering. Finally, you may simply screen any number of specific individuals by name, in which case their aura will determine authorization.
Base level is [Wizard]. One additional class may add as normal, providing (level/3, rounded up) to the base class — this only includes certain special classes (Note: [Goddess] adds).
Hmm. Ends up as solid damage, especially being Abjuration. Reduced casting time could make it useful as combat prep since I can create Hard Light or Phantom Construct traps. Otherwise, I might or might not use it for security. Password — psh! If someone forgot it suddenly, they might kill themselves. Gonna pass on that option.
It also occurred to her it would be useful to cast and trigger at least once just for the ‘runic comprehension’ benefits. She figured she could cannibalize quite a bit of know-how casting a spell herself that she didn’t technically ‘know.’
Shrugging it off for the time being, she shifted her attention to more spell research. She’d configured a first, second, and third level custom spell from the battery of auto-complete helper runes, but had one more first-level selection to sling out. It was something to think about because she already had massive versatility at Core spells thanks to knowing literally all of them. She’d basically be thinking about how to enhance one of them with extra bullshit.
Hmm. I should probably make use of the fact that Minor Contingency uses Core spells. I’ll get a lot more bang for my buck instantly casting an enhanced Core spell. Let’s see what I can get away with… Two wound negations for a level one arcane spell is almost certainly impossible, but we can surely sneak in some other bullshit…
With the time available, she hammered it out.
Three Small Fortunes (6 MP, 1 Fate FE, 1 Pneuma FE)
(Protection, Luck) A faint, glittering aura enshrouds you, protecting you from harm and giving you small defensive edges in battle. You have 1 wound negation, and once negated, add 2 (+1 fr. Abjurer) Effective Levels to Armor as a (Luck) modifier.
Reduce the first wound suffered by any means by one grade, to a maximum end state of Critical.
Once, you may add 2 (+1 fr. Abjurer) Effective Levels to any Dodge, Parry, Block, or other conscious, active defense, as a (Luck) modifier.
If this spell is recast, all elements are ‘recharged’ but cannot be stacked.
Casting time is 30 seconds and duration is 1 hour per two full caster levels. Base caster level is [Wizard]. One additional class may add as normal, providing (level/3, rounded up) to the base class — this includes [Bard] as well certain special classes (Note: [Goddess] adds).
There we go! This is useful even before a contingency use. Abjurer does some serious work making it pretty fucking good. The only thing I ‘lose’ from Mystic Armor is some potential physical armor replacement, but the base bonus as Luck-based is way fucking better. Adds to totals while in [Sheath of Light] too, where my armor is already perpetual.
You have gained 1 exp in [Magineer] through spell acquisition thanks to [Comprehension: Accelerator].
Once she started considering re-casting Minor Contingency, she realized suddenly that she had cleared the ‘level 10’ requirement and could have two of them active. It confused her for a split second considering virtual [Pneumancer] levels had not even given her that, but then she snapped her fingers as she realized.
“I’m base caster level ten with multiclass!” she declared with a laugh. Without any boosts, she was a level seven [Magineer] and level seven [Goddess], and almost always the latter added to pretty much anything spellcraft-wise. With the one-third rounding up bonus, she was basically level ten for a large assortment of things, and by appearances, the System tracked the highest total as one’s functional ‘true’ level.
A pretty great milestone. I’m not ‘World Class’ in the flesh yet, but I’m halfway there, right?
Sammy went ahead and cast Minor Contingency — Three Small Fortunes on top of the existing Mystic Armor, wording it to have priority with the wound negations. She effectively had two emergency ones at that point.
With all of the auto-complete spells out of the way, it was time to dig in and go for a level 4 protection spell to complete the old quest she had. Within the carriage, she pulled physical reference books and her spellbook out and engaged fully. [Magical Invention] largely made the setting irrelevant. She could doodle her own runic cipher on notepaper and begin spell research.
Very soon, she was totally absorbed and obsessed with excited hyper-focus. Micro-eurekas came with great frequency. She began crafting the spell bit by bit — to her sudden surprise sitting back and looking at it at one point, she was taken by the beauty her hand had drawn.
Runes, artistic shapes, and geometric patterns made multiple layers of a circle she designed from the inside out. In many cases, artistic shapes themselves were made out of small, fine runes.
Pretty. Okay, but let’s finish it pronto!
Her over-leveling of the spell, various learning boosts, and the massive build-up from numerous magic-thick combat encounters and novel experiences made the development something of a breeze for the highest-level thing she’d ever tackled learning. It slowed down in the last 20% or so, and working through it by the books became fairly unpalatable.
So she made use of things that were already prepped for just such an occasion — recorded spellcraft in the mirrors. Zephyr of Geirkos had provided the best of them, going intricately through the motions of a spell and showing the breakdown multiple times from different angles, always with an appropriate, logical target.
He was an excellent teacher. And he happened to have performed precisely the spell she was basing hers on: Missile Ward. Fortuitous, but then again, it was a popular spell, especially in Geirkos.
This dude, for being behind the scenes all the time? What a fucking champ! A real lifesaver.
From his example, she gained a massive boost to completion percentage and was able to finish it off much quicker, though still with some final molasses-slow finishing touches. But finally, she succeeded and made the final stroke of her rune pen.
Missile Blocker (20 MP, 1 Illusion FE, 1 Light FE)
(Level 4; Protection, Conjuration) You create a small, diamond-shaped disk of Hard Light over your heart, pressed against the skin and generally under any clothing and armor. This will stretch and grow out over any part of your body to present a barrier to any physical-based, ranged missile attack, whether aware of it or not.
This provides +4 (+1 fr. Abjurer) Magic Armor against the specified attacks, not stacking with other Magic Armor bonuses. Add an additional +1 to this bonus at caster level 15, or +2 at 20+.
In addition, even if still penetrating, ignore any further benefits from ‘vitals’ targeting — this spell deflects to non-severe areas or forces generic absorption. It reduces any wound grades of Major or worse. It can reduce a total of seven grades, only up to three at once, and only down to Minor.
If wound grade reductions are ever expended, the spell ends. Duration is 1 hour per caster level. Base level is [Wizard]. One additional class may add as normal, providing (level/3, rounded up) to the base class — this only includes certain special classes (Note: [Goddess] adds).
You have gained 1 exp in [Magineer] through spell acquisition thanks to [Comprehension: Accelerator].
Unconsciously rubbing her chest where her heart was, Sammy smiled to herself. Never again.
Patreon Link — 69 Advance Chappies!
Nice.