Chapter 10-301 - Master-Sister (1/2)

Her killer eyes, as golden as the risen sun, went very wide open. “Do you mean that!” she squeaked, and I just raised an eyebrow. “WhatamIsaying, of course you mean that!” she cuffed herself. “Yes! Oh! I would love to be your apprentice! I have so many questions, so many things I want to ask about magic and- “

“You need to get Drained and re-Level,” I said calmly, stopping her in mid-squeal of delight. “Your Aura is all messed up and imbalanced by your Class choices. You had a wonderful chance of synergy with taking Sorcerer and Cleric together, but because you are so smart, you went with Wizardess.

“I am also extremely intelligent, and Sorcerer is still my Primary Class. Wizarding works best in support.” I inclined my head at her as she blushed furiously. “You will not be able to remain a research specialist as my apprentice. You’re going to be Doing Good Stuff. Sorcerers are far better active Casters than Wizards are. Wizards are better specialists at solving a particular problem, Sorcerers are better at being ready for any problem.”

“But they know so few spells!” Azaia wrinkled her nose cutely.

“Which is why you have Wizard Levels to back you up,” I noted dryly. “If there’s a special problem, go get the right spell. If it’s a general problem, be able to handle the volume necessary. If it requires six fireballs to kill all the attackers, being a Wizard just isn’t going to work.”

“Oh, that’s true...” Azaia admitted, thinking about it. “So few spells!” she still sniffed, and I had to smile.

I pointed a finger off to the side, and swiped it slowly across. A listing of spells by Valence dropped down from my finger, and she bent forward to stare at it intently.

She swallowed as she saw just how many spells there were. “Is, is that even possible?” she asked faintly, pointing at the display numbly. “That’s 27 Valence I’s! From three Traditions! And bonus spells from three Stats! You, you have a hundred and thirty spells memorized!”

She had her hands to her mouth, looking at the display, which admittedly was pretty impressive.

“And if you look at them more closely, you will realize that most of those spells aren’t primary-use spells. If you look at them really closely, you’ll see that most of them aren’t useful most of the time at all.”

She pursed her lips as she reviewed the names of each of them, and then admitted hesitantly, “I don’t know some of them...”

“Not surprising, as I’m probably the only one on the planet who does. Of course, that’s only half my Casting Matrix.” Her lips pursed again. “Typically, I never Cast out of my Prepared Matrix at all. Those spells just sit there and are Cast out of my Spontaneous Side if I need them. In doing so, they keep my Star Magery powered, which is very, very important to me.”

“You covered that in one of your videos! I tried it out, but there were always problems when I Cast... my... spells...” she trailed off as my eyebrow grew more and more arched.

“A pure Prepared Caster mindset. My, I haven’t seen one in such a long time,” I said, steepling my fingers. “Do go on.” I was sure my eyes were twinkling.

“Ahg!” I could see she had worked it out. “You have no problems getting your Wizard Levels up high enough to support your Star Magery, getting the Spell Power, and just leave it to keep enhancing your Sorcery, right?”

“Correct. My Wizardry is nothing but more Spells Known to my Sorcery. Ah, but I see you haven’t realized the implications of the Spontaneous side of your Matrix. Also not unusual.”

She had the face of someone who is so much smarter than the teachers, and is now getting schooled. “What did I miss?” she grumbled, thoroughly off-put.

“Spells Known from multiple Spontaneous Casting Classes Stack.”

“Well, sure, of course they... do...”

Her fingers began to work. She glanced at me from the side as she began to add things up, calculated, looked at me, calculated some more, and glanced at the list of Prepared Spells. Looking at all the things that were there, and were not there.

She swallowed visibly. “So few spells?” she repeated faintly.

“Sorcerer. Inquisitor. Minstrel. Binder,” I ticked off casually, watching her fingers. “Favored Class, Extra Spells Known for all of them. Extra Spells Known Mastery for all of them. Theurgic Spells Known for all of them.” I smiled slightly as she flushed in embarrassment. “Now, it is a great shame that there are no Stat bonuses to Spells Known, but, well, with Pages of Spell Knowledge and Rings of Spells Knowledge, it is kind of moot.”

“What are... You have... thirty-five Valence I Spells Known?” she asked faintly.

“Thirty-nine,” I corrected her mildly, after a glance inside. “Granted, some of them are completely meh and unlikely to be used often... but no worse than most of my Prepared spells of equal Valence. It is worse among the higher Valences, of course. I have only fourteen Spells Known, versus almost two dozen Prepared, at V.”

Thirty spells available in the V Valence. While there were certainly that number of Divine spells about, and the Angelos and other Soulbound had proliferated knowledge of them among the Churches, having that number available, all at the same time...

She gaped at me dumbly. “I don’t think I qualify to be your apprentice,” she mumbled to me. “Even picturing that is, is hurting my brain...”

I flicked away the list of Prepared Spells, and replaced it with a Stat line.

She looked at it. Blinked once, and then again to make sure she was not seeing things.

“Azaia Morningwind,” I said softly, and my voice thrummed on the lines of magic, making her sit bolt upright despite herself. “I am a Traveler from a far place, where magic is known, and I know what I am doing. Perhaps you too, would like to know what to do?”

She gawked at me like she’d probably never stared at anyone in her life. It was probably worse because she was smart enough to know what she was looking at, and still couldn’t help herself.