The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

“That... resets our potential clock,” Red pointed out for everyone softly. “It raises the odds on our advancing our Magery by keeping us younger...”

I nodded once. “Exactly.” I held out my hand, and Noble flipped into it, promptly growing to its full length from its short form. “Then, we need to make you your Staffs. Wizards carry Staffs. No, this is not open to debate. I don’t give a fig for what others say about relying on tools to Cast. Wizards use Staffs... or Wands, or Rods, or Scepters, Orbs or Tomes, but you’re warcasters, not bookers, so you’re going to have Staffs.”

They looked over the glittering white ivory of Noble, laced with dark Runes drawn lovingly along the shadow-spirals of the bone, edged in glittering diamond, butter-silver mithral, blue-black adamant, and crimson atargold. It was topped by a new turquoise cap of about an inch of noquar, or Force Nickel, which clasped a black Orb with a shining silvery heart within it, little ripples and swirls of colors breaking about it in tiny stars with the slightest motion.

“Wizards do not channel magic through their bodies unless they have to,” I informed them loftily. “Channeling magic puts a LOT of stress on physical bodies, and is the number one reason for magical maladies affecting Casters, plus it tends to age you prematurely, encourage overdrawing of potential, and has literally no upsides to it. Thus, you Channel through a Staff, which is far harder, tougher, and stronger than you are, and can be made even stronger, and even reassemble itself if, for instance, some monstrously tough bastard thing manages to break it on you.

“No, it is NOT easy to get rid of your Staff, if you take any precautions at all, and I will not let you not take precautions.” I glared at all of them, and they flushed. “This will ONLY HELP YOU.

“Staffs, Wands, Rods, Scepters, Orbs, and Tomes are called Implements as a group. They are Tools made to enhance your ability to wield magic. They are not a ‘dependency’, they are not a ‘crutch’... they are Tools made to make you more effective at your job. They are crutches the same way a fork is a crutch, a knife is a crutch, and a spoon is a crutch. Just use your hands, right?” They all looked rather thoughtful at that. “Or, more appropriately, don’t use a sword, an axe, a spear, or a bow. Just go up and kill stuff with your bare hands, that makes more sense, right?”

They chuckled despite themselves. The whole point of using magic was so you didn’t have to go up and beat on stuff!

“So, all of you are going to get a Staff or Rod, and you are going to Infuse it, and you are going to improve it,” I started, and hands shot up all around. “Yesss?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“You can improve a Staff? Ongoing?” Bjorn asked urgently. “We can do it ourselves?”

I nodded slowly, and they all glanced at one another. “There are two ways to advance a Weapon, which includes Implements.

“The first method is to Artifice your way up, if the Weapon is of sufficient Quality. This is what your typical Crafter is doing when they make a magical item for someone else. They gather the appropriate materials, they make the raw item right to the Quality Level they need to in order to make it magical, fill it with power, and then they sell it. Because they make it right to the limit of its Quality, it has little to no potential to be improved on.”

I glanced around to make sure they understood, and they all nodded. “The other method is by Naming Karma. You Name your Weapon, you fill it with victory in battle, and let it grow along with you as you build a legend together. If you have built it to the required Quality Level, it will keep on improving as long as you do.”

“What are the benefits of the Staff, then?” the Mick urged me promptly. “That way we can have endless sword vs. saber vs. spear vs. axe debates!”

I snorted as they all grinned, and flicked up another Holo for them to peruse. “Staff and Wand make a set. Rod and Scepter make a set. Orbs and Tomes are generally considered more specialized and not used as often in combat.

“A Staff gathers a lot of energy and then disperses it. Spells become more powerful, and thus are capable of penetrating natural Spell Resistance and doing more damage. Spells Cast through Staves feel more explosive.

“A Wand is an Implement of precise control and focus. Spells Cast with Wands are more accurate and more difficult to resist via magical will and instinctive countering of magic directly. They usually feel tightly controlled and dangerous.

“Rods and Scepters do the same things, but they combine differently. A Rod wields a spell as a weapon, so it makes them more accurate and more powerful, doing more damage.

“A Scepter is more domineering, and thus overcomes the resistance of a target, be it their physical resistance, or their mental and magical defenses.

“Orbs gather power and send it out into the world smoothly. They increase the range and the area covered by spells, and so are preferred for use by those using sensory magic, and perhaps artillerists.

“Tomes fortify the magic brought through them. A Tome increases the duration of magic Channeled through it, and Girds the spell, making it harder to take down. It is mainly used for Casting long-duration spells or long-lasting Wards and the like.

“Staffs can also be enchanted as Staves, becoming actual Weapons, and Rods can be made as light Maces or Baton-clubs.” I snapped Noble out and back in basically an eyeblink, and despite themselves, they all flinched, moreso as I began spinning it between my fingers with the skill and ease of a performer, the whirr of it cutting through the air a nice buzzsaw effect... and that with one hand! “You do not want to get hit by this, and yes, I can totally Channel spells through Noble and blow you apart in the middle of personal combat, while keeping you completely unable to Cast yourself.”

They really hadn’t seen me physically hitting anything, so I brought Noble down on the floor.

The crystalline Orb topping Noble smacked the concrete, which promptly shattered around the point of impact, leaving a head-sized crater in the ground and spraying shards of cement everywhere, none hitting any of them not-miraculously.

“Wizards use a Staff because it is the best weapon of the bunch,” there was a deadly hum as the bright golden light of my Soulblade manifested in a Spear-tip of force nearly two feet long from the Orb, “and because you can integrate a Wand into it via a Wand Chamber,” I twisted Noble, which opened up a slot in the side of it. I took out the length of dark metal inside, etched with delicate silver Runes, waved it around once as their eyes followed it haplessly, and put it back before snapping the Wand Chamber closed, “and you can mount an Orb on top of it. This one happens to be a modified Star Jewel from an Emperor-Class Shade.”

Their eyes almost popped out, staring at the Rank 5 Soul Crystal, now changed in nature completely and mounted atop my long stick.

“I want to emphasize something for you all.” I put Noble on my crossed legs as I sat down, and met their eyes one by one. “Noble is fairly recently made, and the circumstances bade me use what was available. Thus, it is Marrowmelded from the horn of a Ruler-Class Unicorn, which is some transcendent-quality bone.” The Mick and Red promptly whistled despite themselves.

“Most Staffs are wrought of wood and then reinforced with metal. You do NOT have to acquire Bone of any sort to make one, and given the nature of most Beasts, doing so would actually limit what kind of Magic you could use through one. The reason I have a Shade’s Orb atop a Unicorn Staff is precisely to offset those limitations!

“Finding the proper kind of Wood might be difficult, but a Staff can also be made of metal, and the weight won’t be an issue for you once you hit Mage. So, don’t feel you have to go out and buy some obscenely overpriced Bone like some Mage-Crafter would. You’re using Wizardry, not Magery, here. Wizardry works just fine with non-Beast materials.”

That appeared to relieve them somewhat. “Will it be strong enough?” Bjorn asked urgently. “The kind of things armorers work with are way stronger than metal...”

I gave him a weird look. “Magical Beast materials are basically organic skin, hide, scales, and bones which have been fortified with a LOT of magic, Swampy. You want to tell me what’s stronger by default: skin and bone, or steel?”

He blinked, along with everyone else. “Well, steel, of course...” he said slowly.

“So, when you fortify steel with a lot of magic?”

He blinked again, his eyes widening. “Oh, right!” he had to agree.

“Comparing magically-enhanced stuff to non-magically enhanced stuff, of course the Beast stuff looks better. You just need better raw materials.”

They were looking at one another again, and Red had that weird look on his face. “Have you heard about the Golden Hag and Briggs?” he asked me.

It took immense amounts of self-control not to cough, jump up, and start shaking him for more information. I instead made one of those thinking faces with a raised eyebrow. “The names are familiar. Why are you asking?”

“They are a couple of non-mages leading an organization of non-mages. They use different means to kill things than mages use, but they’ve been having some luck killing lower-end Beasts and things. Supposedly they use a lot of strange gear that isn’t made from magical Beasts,” he informed me eagerly.

“Sounds like someone who knows proper Artificing,” I nodded, while thinking, So Einz’ Sending to Aelryinth was right even here. Wait, that means the Hag Curse is here? Wonder how that manifests...

I also wondered how long she and Briggs had been around. Furthermore, had they been able to find more Nulls and Sources, or, gods bless us all, Void Brothers?

I was definitely going to have to hook up with them, and quick. I needed the protection!

“I want you to get in contact with them, and set up a meeting. I think what they are doing is going to be hugely valuable for us, and we need a viable base of operations. As soon as the Light spells are up and running, we are shifting our base of operations, as I’ve the feeling we’ll be attracting some very greedy attention.”

The Hunter’s Guild would be running the show, as even with token admittance, they’d be clearing tens of thousands of dollars a day, for basically just oversight work, and drawing some blood.

“Alright, you know where we’re going in the short term. Today is your first lesson on Cantrips and actual Casting, Wizard-style.” I smiled, and they all grinned hungrily. “Your first Cantrip will be the most important one, Visual File.” I lifted my Tattooing Kit. “Let’s get you all Marked, first, so I don’t have to spend power to share a telepathic lesson.

“Once we’re done with the Mark, you’ll have your lesson, and then we’re going to take a short trip north for some casual hunting to power up your Mark. If you hunt and power it up every day, you’ll get it to full power, that +4 of awesomeness, in only a month.”

---

They were totally ready to get that done, and with Fabricate, the scribing of a Mark literally took a minute each. I put it on the upper deltoid of their left arms, but they were shocked and impressed when I demonstrated that they could drag it around and put it anywhere they wanted to. I noted that included inside their nasal cavity if they didn’t want someone else finding it.

Once that was done, it was on to basic spellcraft principles and magic.

They had to unlearn a lot of what Magery taught them, as Wizardry was about precision and rules, cause and effect, pressing levers and pulling strings and getting results. Magery was about force of will, visualization, and emotional harmony with Mana types. Wizardry literally did not give too much of a care about Mana types, save for the positive/negative types, which literally had their own Schools of magic.

It was literally a heartstopping moment when they saw me take a basic Fire spell like Fire Fan, which wooshed out a jet of fire, and turn it into something that blew out lightning, acid, cold, wind, and even crystalline shrapnel. Energy Fan, the proper overspell, literally did not care about what energy type was used to power it; it only changed one factor of the spell, instead of everything about it suddenly being useless if you weren’t of the right Element.

I could feel their immense regret that they couldn’t use Typeless Mana, but they had two Starfields, had the easy potential for three Nebulas, and maybe even four Galaxies. They had tons of power, and even if their choices of spells were restricted, Wizardry was going to give them a lot of versatility.