Chapter 44: Progress (1/2)
One month later.
Spring was in full swing. Birds sang, flowers had bloomed to turn the grass into colorful carpets. Local insects that looked suspiciously like bumblebees buzzed around. The air was filled with cries of things trying to eat and fuck each other. It was all very distracting.
Viv closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The clearing she had used to test her blight spell was now a nice meadow dotted with plant arrangements that Varska had curated to make the place more zen. Or the Helock equivalent, whatever. It was nice.
Viv breathed carefully and extended a hand. Gestures were important until you got a good feel for it. She felt her own mana push out and willed the color to remain trapped inside.
It was an extremely complex feeling of separation, akin to feeling in two places at the same time. It was also unnatural, in the sense that she had to go against those instincts that made her so good at manipulating black mana. It had taken her weeks of effort to get it right.
Colorless mana gathered in a ball in her hand. Contrary to its black equivalent, this one was tame. No, more than tame. It was not ‘alive’.
Viv compared her experience to using software. Colors were the normal, basic functions. They were what the creator of the software had made available to the users. Thus, using colored mana felt natural to most casters, because they were manipulating the consciousness of Nyil in ways that it allowed.
Moving colorless mana was like delving into the programming of the software and changing its functions. Playing with the code, so to speak. With her experience of intellectual property rights Viv almost expected a sort of resistance from Nyil itself but it was not the case. Colorless mana just felt… neutral. Indifferent. It was not so much reluctance as inertia that made it difficult to yield.
Viv infused the energy in a pair of linked ‘seek’ and ‘north’ glyphs, and watched as the sphere flattened and gained an arrow pointing in front of her, to the deadlands.
“Yay, it worked.”
It was completely useless as things went for now, but, well. Progress. She checked her stats.
Current status:
Mana distribution:
Current attunement: 19.1%
Her attunement had increased again, which was a consequence of her constant training. The more attuned she was, and the more complex and powerful spells she could cast. Varska had talked about strategic spells that could change the weather for weeks, alter the course of a river or raze a small city. Those were still far away though.
Her mana channels had also improved. Besides helping her cast faster, it also made overcasting less likely. She could exert herself for longer periods of time without falling. The better her channels were, and the easier she could exhaust and recharge her mana without burning out. It helped with her training since she could keep going for longer periods of time.
Sometimes, Draconic Surrogate Mother appeared as Draconic Surrogate Mommy when she summoned the interface, but it changed back to normal when she took a second look.
Both Finesse and Power had improved as a result of her favorite way of recharging mana: meditative trance. She would go through a series of complex and relaxing motions under Solfis’ direction. He had taught her a sort of soft martial art designed for casters, as far as she could tell, and it had the advantage of providing a full body workout. Kind of like dancing.
Solfis and Varska agreed that most adults plateaued at the low twenties in stats that had a limited impact on their career. After fifty years, dedicated people could get to thirty or above across the board. That meant that someone like Gogen must really have started low to still be so simple. Possibly, she was a little bit daft.
Her Focus and Acuity had risen by two and Willpower by one. That was the result of a strict daily training regimen that would have driven her crazy, were it not for how well-tailored it was to her abilities and mood. Even then, very few people could match that incredible speed. She could thank her two bossy trainers and her traveler’s blessing for such stellar progress.
General skills
Polymath
Beginner 3
Athletics
Intermediate 2
Survival
Intermediate 1
Householding
Apprentice 8
Hand to hand combat
Apprentice 6
Pain tolerance
Intermediate 8
Small blades
Beginner 7
Intimidation
Intermediate 2
None of her general skills had progressed. That was expected. For Nyil to offer a reward, one had to show dedication, and Viv simply had no time to work on anything but magic. All her efforts had gone towards her path skills.
Path skills
Meditative Trance
Expert 1
Mana manipulation
Intermediate 2
Mana sense
Intermediate 1
Danger sense
Apprentice 3
Mana absorption
Intermediate 2
All her skills had reached the third tier, except for Danger Sense which lagged behind. She had only reached apprentice by attending an expedition in the deadlands to rid a specific area of burrowing undead centipedes. There was no way to train easily in Kazar.
Not because of a lack of techniques. Solfis was sure that he could have her improve.
It was because of Arthur.
First, the tiny dragon’s intuition and senses were simply off the chart. She could feel a trap coming from miles away and warned Viv every time. Second, she attacked whoever tried anything. Spars were ok, somehow. Surprise attacks were not. The only thing they could do was to burrow traps in training areas for Viv to fall into. It was inefficient, but Viv refused to confine Arthur while she trained.