Leveling the Field

  The sun was passing behind us and the hilltops and the edge of the treeline were painted in golden light, as it disappeared under the horizon leaving the three of us in a rapidly diminishing twilight. We’d stopped by an outcropping of three large rocks standing in a triangle and carved with runes that were obviously not as old as they looked, having been created no earlier than the Tower.

  “Might as well camp here. There’s an incline for any rain to run off and the ground is soft enough,” I said.

  “Whatever you say, Alex, you know I don’t know shit about this shit,” Anna said.

  “Is your tent large enough to share?” Clarence said. And now that I thought about it, yeah- Anna hadn’t picked the tent as one of her token options and Clarence, of course, was left without any tokens at all due to him not leaving the first challenge through the gift shop as it were.

  “Sure. It’ll be a bit tight for three, but safer that way,” I said.

  “Anyone got any food?” Anna said.

  “During our conversation with Mr. De Leon the subject of sustenance did come up. I have flatbread and dried meat. It is rather good,” Clarence said.

  And so we set out to setting up camp. We used magic to boil water found in a nearby stream. With Anna’s spells producing hardly any smoke and heating the water very quickly indeed it wasn’t much of an impediment on our stealth. We set up the tent, drank some tea, ate bread and meat and rested our very weary bones. Nobody was in a rush to get inside the cramped tent- large enough for the three of us, but only so long as nobody rolled over- and so we spent an hour or so chatting by the rocks. Eventually conversation slowed, and I thought about the bookkeeping I had to do.

  I still had two unread spells, who knew how many log updates, and at least one magical item to go over. I also had a thought about Artemis and her quest system, and that was where I started. Writing in the starlight wasn’t easy exactly, but my eyes adjusted enough to see by a cinder of firelight provided by Anna.

  Chat

  We have reached the forest. I would like to try handing some of my quests in, do you think that’d work, Artemis? -Alex

  It took her a while to respond, busy as she was, but after a few minutes she did.

  Worth a shot. -Artemis

  And so I drew a reasonably decent map of the road to the mountains from Checkpoint and of the areas in the mountains as I could remember. I described details of the environment, landmarks, notable flora and fauna as best as I could remember.

  The dungeon quest was a bit sketchier. In the end I simply told her that we’d cleared out the Rock Toad Caverns. I felt silly for a moment, but then she responded.

  Looks like I can complete them for you. The item rewards will materialize here and you’ll have to pick them up later, but you should get the experience any minute now. Rest soon, we need you here as quick as possible and in a good condition. -Artemis

  Hi, Alex, good-night, Artemis is cool! -Will

  Just dealing with Journal stuff before bed. Good night and stay safe, all. -Alex

  This time I didn’t have to wait long. As soon as I snapped my Journal closed, scribbling came of it again. This time I opened it up to the log. It had expanded to several pages of monster killing, skill advancement and minor achievements. The most notable of these were the following.

  Log

  Quest Clear the Rock Toad Caverns completed! Experience to level 19 2200/75 000 Frog-Eye Orb reward available at the questgiver.

  Level Up! You have reached an odd level. New Class abilities available. You have gained 1 attribute point. You have gained 1 ability point.

  Cartography skill increased to 6

  Quest Find a Path to the Mountains completed! Experience to level 18 50 000/50 000

  Elder Tongue skill increased to 1

  Familiar Bond skill increased to 2

  Achievement Gained: Interplanar Traveller 1

  Tier 4 spell Spellrod is ready to advance to next rank

  Tier 1 spell Conjure Icicle is ready to advance to next rank

  “Well, this might take a moment,” I said to no-one in particular and began with going over my level-up options.

  First of all, I did as I’d planned before and put that sixth point in my Arcana, going over my Mind cap by one with my wizard ability. If I’d suspected that the shadow presence in my mind had had something to do with Arcana before, any doubt was dispelled. I could now sense an entire distinct self in my thoughts. It was not an unpleasant experience, and indeed it did feel like myself. It was simply also separate.

  Then, the fun part.

  Abilities

  You have reached level 18 with the Wizard title. You have three new abilities available to choose from. You have 1 point to spend on abilities.

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  Wizard 18 abilities:

  Prodigious Spellcaster: Requirements- Arcana of 6 or higher. You have reached the natural limits of human ability in Arcana. Reduces the incantations of all spells by one syllable. Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 10% (multiplicative). Increases damage of damaging spells.

  Infernal Conjurer: Requirements- have at least 1 point of Infernal alignment, have at least 1 conjuration spell. Learn the Conjure Demon Tier 2 spell. All conjuration spells will have additional infernal effects. Increases infernal alignment.

  Elder Script: Requirements- Elder Speech skill at at least level 1, Elder Speech ability. You learn the script of the Elder Speech. Eventually this will allow you to craft your own spells. Be forewarned that any spell creation attempted with the Elder Speech skill at less than 5 are almost certain to backfire violently.

  A three for three requirements met level. I’d seen an ability here or there where I’d needed to do something beyond gaining enough experience to level up, but this time all three of them were unlocked based on my actions. It wasn’t one of my easier level ups, but I had started thinking longer term. I had a tower and a town, and I hoped that once the siege of Checkpoint was dealt with, I would have time to rest and study. Real time, not a stolen hour here or there. And I didn’t feel like I was lacking straightforward blasting power at the moment. So I picked up the Elder Script ability, and felt the knowledge of strange symbols and associated sounds rush in my brain. I recognized several from the sigils and the incantations of my spells.

  And there was still plenty of mechanical nerdery to go over. I’d really neglected this since escaping the Rock Toad Caverns, and it was really not a good idea to leave power on the table.

  Spells

  Conjure Icicle, Tier 1, Rank 3

  This conjuration spell is most often used in combat. Focus on a point and direction with the incantation ho-alo-nix and a pseudo-portal to the Elemental Frost will briefly open, expelling a large icicle at terminal velocity from the point and in the direction that you designate. Levels increase the size of icicles you can conjure. Current size 360 cubic inches.

  You can shape the form of the ice you summon in one of three following forms: shard- a sharp, dense shard of ice, block- a heavy block of ice, sheet- a 4ft by 4ft 1 inch thick sheet of ice. The sheet version may be conjured in a stationary form. Increasing the level further will increase the sharpness and density of the shard and add new shapes.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 3:

  Exploit enemy damage type weakness using this spell 120/120 times

  Spell rank increased. Choose one of the following upgrade options:

  Conjure Icicle Elementals

  Conjure simple ice constructs from the Elemental Frost. Until the point of impact the spell functions the same as before. If a piece larger than 50% of the mass survives the impact, it comes to life and attacks your enemies. The icicle elementals have no self-preservation instinct or intelligence, simply attacking the nearest enemy until destroyed. Their attacks are magically imbued to deal comparable damage to the initial strike and their shape is based on the initial shape of the conjured icicle. You may now choose to drop the icicles at a rate of normal acceleration from the portal instead of terminal velocity to make the survival of the elementals more likely.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 4:

  Field 0/100 icicle elementals in one battle alive at the same time.

  Conjure Frost Armaments

  Instead of conjuring an icicle you may choose to conjure a 2 handed weapon, two one handed weapons or one weapon and one shield made of True Elemental Ice. Your arcana attribute influences your ability to use these weapons as if you had 75% of the physique attribute. The weapons are magically sharp, harder and more durable than steel.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 4:

  Conjure Frost Armaments with blood magic and win the ensuing melee battle 0/5 times before restoring enough mana to cast another spell

  This, to me, seemed to really stretch the concept of ‘upgrade’, but on the other hand I had often wondered about using high tier spells in active combat. Sure, with my chronomancy shenanigans I could squeeze out a 4th tier spell once per combat if I had the time to cast a 2nd tier, but any higher than that would likely take more than even the ten minutes of the duration. So it made sense to have low tier, high rank spells be able to do some interesting stuff.

  I decided on the elementals, based mostly on the argument that even if I was better at using the weapons, until I could deal with my Nerd trait and abysmal defensive abilities, I didn’t want anything to do with the front lines.

  Spellrod, Abjuration Tier 4 Rank 2

  The Abjuration spell Spellrod is a powerful anti-magic abjuration. Upon casting the spell a physical rod of solid, indestructible spell-crystal will shoot up from the ground at a point indicated by the caster. From that point on, for the next 4 hours every harmful spell cast against the caster, their allies, or an area of effect including their allies within 120ft from the rod will be drawn to the rod, failing instantly and restoring mana to the caster equal to the mana cost of the spell. The caster may choose to drain all spells, not just hostile ones, when casting this spell, allowing for pooling of mana for major workings when working together with allied mages. Any mana over the maximum mana capacity of the caster will quickly dissipate at the rate of 2 mana per second, but the caster will not suffer any ill effects from mana overload from mana acquired through this spell. This spell consumes any dispelling magic of its rank or lower. If targeted by a higher level dispelling spell or ability, the caster still regains the mana used on the dispel, but the rod is destroyed.

  Requirements to increase the spell to Rank 2:

  Mana Drained 1000/1000

  Spell rank increased. Choose one of the following upgrade options:

  Staff of Spellrod

  You may choose to increase the duration of the spell to 8 hours, reduce the range to only spells targeting you, and create the spellrod as a portable staff. Once per duration you may activate the staff and restore its area of effect to the original, but in this case the spellrod will expire in ten minutes.

  Requirements to increase the spell to Rank 3:

  Drain the spells of 0/12 schools of magic with your staff

  Rod of Deflection

  You may choose to activate the spellrod in deflection mode. If done so, you no longer drain the magic and mana into yourself. The spellrod lasts 50% as long. Any spells cast by enemy combatants in the area of the spellrod are immediately turned around against them. Dispel magic of higher ranks still dispels the spellrod.

  Requirements to increase the spell to Rank 3:

  Reflect 0/10 000 damage

  That seemed more straightforward at least. With the first spell I would be effectively immune to enemy spellcasters without spell penetration or dispelling abilities, and I could just about carry it on my person at all times. Deflection seemed good in theory, but any enemy smart enough to cast spells would also be smart enough to avoid casting them after one such miscast, so unless I took them down in one casting, it wasn’t going to do much more good than the base version.

  As I looked up from the Journal I saw that I was alone under the stars, Clarence and Anna having gone into my tent and sleeping soundly. And so I crawled in with them, and swiftly fell asleep in the tent.