Chapter 13

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 7, Class: None

Exp: 1823/2100

Class: -/-

Points: 4

HP

80/80

150 per day

MP

510/510

532 per day

Strength

8

+0

[8]

Vitality

15

+0

[15]

Willpower

20

+0

[20]

Focus

20

+0

[20]

Concentration 7

Multiply your base MP regen by 2.66

Requirements: 20 Focus

Exp: 48/2100

Discipline 6

Multiply your base MP by 2.55

Requirements: 20 Willpower

Exp: 76/1300

Ward 5, instant, short range, 24 hours,

Create a Small Ward that can have Minor Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 10 MP + Z

Create a Small Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 15 MP + Z

Create a Special Ward. Variable Cost

Create a Medium Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 20 MP + Z

Create a Medium Ward that can have Medium Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 25 MP + Z

Minor Effects: Bug Ward, Temperature Ward, Alarm Ward

Small Effects: Visual Disruption, Audio Disruption, Weather Ward

Medium Effects: Area Hostile Visual Disruption, Area Hostile Audio Disruption

Special Ward: Eschew all other effects in order to shape, color, and illuminate a ward however you can. Skill at mana manipulation determines final outcome.

Exp: 150/800

Mana Shaping 3

Alter spell AOE in better, subtle ways, 10 MP + spellcost

Alter spell AOE in moderate ways, 30 MP + spellcost

Requirements: 10 Willpower

Exp: 10/300

Cleanse 5, instant, short range, 10 mana.

Purge an area equal to the level of the spell in meters of all Toxins, Disease, Filth, and Corruption.

Exp: 170/800

Mend 4, instant, touch, 10 mana

Touch a non-magical medium sized object, or small complicated, and restore it to its prime.

Exp: 50/500

Meditation 5

You are at Rest while Meditating.

Afflicted ailments: Slow movement

Requirements: 10 Willpower

Exp: 543/800

Erick woke up early. He couldn’t sleep. He could only stare at his skills, wondering where he had gone wrong.

One [Ward] last night was all he was good for, and it was eaten by one attack.

No, wait. Not one attack. The [Ward] was eaten by the decay damage of one attack. If it was his [Ward] up there instead of Bacci’s at the beginning, they would have all died.

No. That’s not right either.

He would have died. Just him. Jane has over 500 HP. Savral for sure has more than that. Bacci might, too? No way of knowing and it was rude to ask.

And the enemy threw… Like 5 of those green fireballs. Erick couldn’t remember. It was probably 5. If Savral had cast those drops of light faster, maybe the first green fireball would never have happened. Then Erick would have been completely useless.

“Hey, Dad.” Jane was looking at him from the other couch. “You’re awake too, huh?”

Erick sat up. “I’m awake.”

“I was completely useless.” Jane stared up at the darkened room. There were a lot of things broken in the attack, and the specialized wards that were the light orbs were one of them. Al replaced some of them, but not the one in this room; not yet. “I don’t even have [Mend] or [Cleanse], so I was useless on cleanup, too.”

Erick didn’t want to argue with that. She was right.

No. Wait. She was wrong.

“You saved my life jumping me into that river. I could never have done that on my own.” Erick stressed, “You’re good at this, Jane. This fighting, this protecting. You’re a shield, and you’re damn good at it. You just need some time to adjust to a world with magic and murderers.” He added, “Well. More murderers than Earth. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not solid on the actual numbers, but I’m pretty sure that earthling bank robbers try not to kill anyone.”

Jane looked at him. She smiled. She whispered, “Thank you, Dad.”

A minute passed in the darkness. Erick thought Jane might want to say something else, so he left space open for her, and he was still concentrating on how to fix his HP. Did he really want to dump almost 7 levels into getting his Strength to 20? He could. But should he?

Unlocking a Scion skill took a base stat of 50. Which meant levels in the 30s, at least, which would be the level of a proper adventurer; someone who goes out into the countryside and rids the world of threats to civilization. Erick did not think that was a realistic goal for him. He didn’t want to go out and kill wolves, no matter how much experience they granted, but he would have to if he didn’t want to be stuck at 18.

Apparently, skills only gave you experience until they hit level 10.

Even if a person only took skills that gained them experience, they’d cap out at level 23.

All of this was explained in the math on the papers Al wrote up. Those had mostly survived the attack, and when Erick [Mend]ed them, he took a minute to read the underlined TL;DRs at the bottom.

Jane had correctly deduced that the numbers behind the Script’s experience requirements was the Fibonacci Sequence. Jane was happy about that —because vindication— but also worried because of massively compounding leveling requirements. Most everyone who was not an adventurer got their necessary skills then dumped points into the base stats to get them to 20, and then budgeted one or two more points for the 2x – 3x HP, MP, or the recovery skills, and then called it a life. Usually sticking to the 20 strength one, or the 20 willpower one. Jane getting three base stats up to 20 and then taking the multiplier skills, all before she was a rookie adventurer, was a path only for those who started off with high numbers in every stat. Which she had.

Or a path for those who got some extra points. Which she also had. Thank you Irogh.

… And that crash in the desert, I guess. In a way.

In an unkind and traumatizing way. Seriously though. I think I might have a thing against heights now. I completely froze at the river room ledge. I had just seen Bacci jump. Why couldn’t I?

Jane said, “What are you thinking about?”

“Numbers and stats and how abysmal my HP is.”

“You can get that up to 12 or 14 Strength without spending points, you know.”

“No. I didn’t know that.” Erick asked, “How?”

“The healers at the Guildhouse thought I might have had monster-meat poisoning because I was trouncing level 25s in the training ring, but they cleared me for combat after an examination. Apparently, one of the big reasons those monster meat sandwiches we bought were so popular is because eating most monsters gives the body a natural, permanent boost in Strength. You just can’t overdo it or you’ll poison yourself, and it only works till 20 strength, though 20 would take decades so most people don’t do that. It works best when you’re below 14 Strength, anyway. Part of the dragonkin culture —of all Veird culture, actually— is adding a little bit of monster meat to children’s meals.”

That was really good news. Erick smiled in the darkness. “Is that 20 Strength how you were able to treat me like a 40 pound sack of potatoes?”

“That was mostly adrenaline.” She laughed, small and happy. “Maybe a bit of it was the 20 Strength.”

“So what you’re saying, is I should go and buy some dragonkin children’s lunchables.”

Jane laughed again, louder this time. “God! Do you remember when I was 12 and you filled the fridge with those things? Those were terrible!”

“I only bought one package of them on a lark, but then you went and grabbed a box every day for a week, rushing out of the door, barely saying ‘hi’ to me as you ran to the bus stop. I thought you loved them.” Erick laughed. “You’re the reason you ended up eating those for a year.”

“I don’t remember that. What I remember is you looking happy stuffing one in my backpack.”

“They were so easy! I was always so tired, too, working two or three jobs before I got that community job.”

“Yeah… I remember that.”

A moment passed.

Erick said, “I would’ve had 15 starter Strength when I was 22.”

Jane laughed.

“I had abs for days! Always in the gym! Maybe even 16 starter Strength.”

Jane laughed louder.

A few second later, a light appeared in the hallway, casting a glow across the entrance to the room.

“Hello? You two awake?” Savral said, “There’s still breakfast if you want some.”

Jane leapt at the chance. “Hell yes I do!”

Erick followed her up the stairs.

- - - -

Breakfast was mostly over by the time Erick and Jane got to the dining room on the second floor. There wasn’t enough to feed an orcol, but there was still plenty left to feed two hungry humans.

As they were eating, Erick said, “I want to get better at this job, but also afford a house of my own for Jane and I. And last night was terrifying. I hope to never be here again for an attack like that. Is this a problem? What happens now?”

Jane watched as Al answered.

“It’s not a problem.” Al smiled faintly as he leaned back in his chair. “Bacci is taking a vacation while the pools replenish and I redo the layout of this place. Savral is going adventuring into Ar’Kendrithyst with some of his friends. The sewerhouse is closed for now. I’ll still pay you for learning the job, of course, either 10 gold per tenday, or 1 gold a day, however you wish.

“But yes, you might want to look into some outside work. The Mage Guild has listings for young mages. Mostly odd jobs around town, like replacing [Ward] lights, mending, and cleansing. [Grow] can always earn you some money or food out on the fields, especially if you Aurify it and can hold that aura for an entire day. Replacing [Ward] lights can earn you some passable money if you have a good eye for color, and if you have some artistic talent then a lighting job might become a nice source of gold.” He quickly added, “You’d have to get [Ward] up to 10 if you want to take those warding jobs. No one wants lights that only last a day.”

Erick said, “Thanks. I’ll look into that, after I finish three iterations.”

Al smiled wider. “Of course.”

Jane looked to Savral. “Do you have space for—”

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m not taking anyone under 20, no matter how good you are.”

Al looked to Jane. “I agree with that assessment. It’s too dangerous.”

Savral added, “Especially without any basic gear. No weapons, no armor, no plus-Base-stat accessories. It’s a thousand gold investment in gear to start adventuring. You should look into joining a party into the Crystal Forest. The monsters there are better than slimes.”

Jane smiled. She nodded. “I’ll look into that.”

“In other news...” Al looked out the window, down toward the street. “The city investigators will be here before noon. I would like it if you two added your stories to my son’s. Be aware that they’ll question you rather hard, but there should be no violence, no matter how much they threaten.”

Erick nodded. “I’ll work through some iterations before they come and then go out to the Mage Guild.”

“Me too,” Jane said. “But the Adventurer’s Guild.”

- - - -

While Jane practiced her craft by throwing out 500 point [Ward]s and then meditating until the investigators showed, Al took Erick around to try Erick’s hand at crafting light [Ward]s. The relevant part of [Ward] for this task came from [Ward 3].

Ward 3, instant, short range, 24 hours,

...

Create a Special Ward. Variable Cost

...

Special Ward: Eschew all other effects in order to shape, color, and illuminate a ward however you can. Skill at mana manipulation determines final outcome.

They stood in the front room. The doors to the street were shut and locked, while the room itself was barely lit, save for a single light orb hanging in the front, over where the glass display case was located. The glass case had been found and [Mend]ed last night, but it was empty. The rad dust and individual rads were likely swept out by the river flood that Bacci used to clear the sewerhouse of threats. If the rads weren’t in someone’s pocket or nestled in the cracks of the city outside of the sewerhouse, then there was no telling where they had gone.

“Watch me first, then you can try to do the other ones.”

Al lifted his hands to the ceiling to the left of the closed front door. Mana swirled around him, a dark black glitter the same shade as Savral’s, but the black shifted to yellow. A [Ward] sprang up above his hands like a cradled sun, blossoming into pure white-gold light.

He lowered his hands. “There’s one light. It’s a short one for now. I can do permanent level 10 ones for about 300 mana apiece, but I might be changing up the sewerhouse completely in the coming month.” He looked around. “Go ahead and make anything you wish. Spend all your mana and learn how to make some proper lights. Mana Shaping can help you with this process, so you might use that to get an initial feel for how to shape a special [Ward], but level 3 of [Ward] does not require you to use Mana Shaping to make a perfect special ward. You’ll figure it out.” He stood up straight. “Before I forget. Do you want to be paid daily, or every 10 day?”

Erick thought for a second. “Daily for now would be great.”

Al took his hand and placed ten gold pieces in the center of Erick’s palm.

“Uh?”

He tried to hand it back, but Al refused.

“This is not a perfect, calm job. There is a hazard to working here. Hopefully you won’t have to experience something like that more than once or twice in your career.” He smiled. “Bacci made it five years before she actually had to use the training I demanded of her.”

Erick looked at the gold in his hands, then put it in his pocket. “Thanks, Al.”

“You should look into opening a bank account at the Mage Guild today while you’re there.”

Erick smiled. “I probably will.”

- - - -

“No! Not like that!” Al waved his hand through the malformed purple and blue [Ward]. It moved at his touch. It was not supposed to move at his touch. “Have you never seen the sun?”

“That is literally the 6th specialty [Ward] I have ever made.”

“Bah!” Al shook his head, walking away. “Put up lights wherever. I don’t care.”

“I’m out of mana.”

Al stormed out of the room.

Meditating on his failures and [Meditating] for his MP, Erick watched the flows of mana around him, trying to understand the difference between his 6 horribly misshapen light orbs and Al’s perfect white-gold orb.

He was not understanding much.

180 exp to Mana Shaping and 323 exp to [Ward], though. The ‘varies’ part of [Ward 3] was hard to pin down, but it was easily 50+ mana to make a light ward actually light up, not to mention take the proper shape. That tracked with what Al had said waited at [Ward 10], when compared to his own admission that it took 300 mana to make a good light orb.

Ward X, instant, short range, 24 hours,

...

Create a Special Ward. Variable Cost

...

Special Wards can be made Permanent. 250 MP + Variable Cost

...

Special Ward: Eschew all other effects in order to shape, color, and illuminate a ward however you wish. Skill level at Mana Manipulation determines final outcome. Variable Cost

The problem was, that this was the first part of the Script that seemed more about ability than numbers. It took skill to shape mana. It also took experience —not Experience— to know how to do what you were trying to accomplish.

Being told how to cook a steak was not as great a teacher as actually cooking the steak yourself.

And you know? Having specialty [Ward]s turn out this way was actually the best thing that had happened to Erick since coming to Veird and witnessing this weird magic system that was way too numerical. Where was the whimsy? Where was the imagination?

Where was the magic?

Well, as it turns out, the magic was always there. Erick just needed to get to the level where he could start mixing and matching the Script through his own personal lens.

His MP returned fast enough.

Erick created many, many more [Wards], going through three more iterations with a distribution of 180 exp to Mana Shaping and 321 exp to [Ward] going down, and 500+ exp in [Meditation] going up.

There were some level ups in there. Erick ignored those. There was a lot of exhaustion; Erick tried to ignore that. And still, he continued. This was really, really fun.

He wasn’t even done, but already the front room was awash in horrible and malformed light orbs, some lime and blue, others orange and purple. Some were red and crimson, swirling and ebbing a violent light. Two were pale blue wisps that shimmered in the air like mirages, casting glows as powerful as any other bright light, but barely visible themselves. Three were almost perfect spheres of white gold, except one was as radiant as a phosphorus burn. That one had to be dispelled immediately. The other two were too dim to ever be useful.

So.

Progress.

Not very good progress, but taken together as a whole, the room was quite—

“This is a mess,” said Savral.

Erick glared at him. “It’s not that bad! I think it’s quite pretty.”

“No way, dude.”

Jane came up the stairs behind him. “Wow, Dad. Looking kinda abstract up in here.”

Next came Al. “Not… Not great. Progress though!”

“I’m getting there!” Erick frowned at his latest specimen. It was a green thing that looked almost like cut glass and glowed like it was radioactive. “This one is kinda pretty. I don’t know how I got it to look like crystal glass, but I like it.”

Jane stood next to him, looking at the green light orb. “Looks like Mountain Dew.”

“It is NOT Mountain Dew. It’s Depression Glass. Like at Grandma’s. You know?”

Jane slapped a fist into her hand. “Oh! It’s glass armor and weapons from The Elder Scrolls!”

Erick said, “I don’t know what that is.”

Savral asked Al, “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

“Nope.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Erick changed the subject back to his light orbs. “I’m getting there!” He gestured to the green glass orb. “I want to keep at this kind of orb. I think it’s pretty. What do you think?”

Al stepped closer to the orb. He put his hand through the space. The [Ward] distorted, grains of wardlight clinging to his fingers, like pulling sand up from under the waves of a beach. Slowly, the grains fell back to their place on the green glass orb, but the damage had been done. The illusion of glass had been broken. Al’s fingers left a mark on the [Ward] that could not be healed.

“You broke it,” Erick said.

“I like the idea and the execution.” Al said, “But you still need to learn how to mimic sunlight. Are you still using Mana Shaping in conjunction with the casting of the [Ward]?”

“Yeah.”

“Try it without Mana Shaping. How many iterations are you at?”

Erick looked up. How many had it been? “Four? I think?”

Al’s face broke into a big smile. “Good man! Aurify?”

“Almost.”

“Excellent!”

*Knock Knock*

“Right! Them. The reason we came downstairs.” Savral strode to the front door and opened it wide. “Sorry about that. We got distracted in the front room.”

Two dragonkin in well tailored clothes walked into the sewerhouse, both of them with leather shoulderbags wrapped around their torsos. It was a jarring look, but it seemed like they moved comfortably. Both immediately gawked at the light orbs.

Savral added, “The male human is working on his light orbs.”

“They’re quite…” The bluescale male dragonkin said, “Something.”

Yellowscale said—

“Oh! I know you.” Erick smiled. “Hello, Hera.”

Hera smiled wide at Erick. “Are these yours?”

“This is attempt 1 through 24 of making a light orb. I kinda deviated into art somewhere along the line, and a few were too ugly or too bright so they had to go. I thought you were a prosecutor?”

“I am.” She stepped over to the blue-mirage light orb. She said, “Nearly invisible light. I like it.”

Bluescale grunted at her.

She said, “Right. Right. Let’s get down to it. Felair will be casting [Witness] while I [Scry]. When we’re done we will have some words for you all.” She looked around. “Where is Miss Kygron?”

Savral spoke with an edge to his voice. “Bacci is at her house preparing for a vacation. The sewerhouse is closing for a month and a lot of us are going our separate ways for a while.”

Hera frowned. “This looks bad on her.”

“She didn’t do shit.” Savral said, “No one here did.”

“We’ll determine that for ourselves.” Bluescale said, “Thanks for greeting us —eventually— but you can go away now until we need you. Stand in your corners. Whatever. Just don’t get in the way.”

“Don’t vanish just yet.” Hera said, “I need to see all of your Statuses. You can show me now, or—”

Savral said, “Where’s your warrant.”

“I am with my son on this.” Al stood firm. “I’m going to need to see the warrant before I show you my status, and it will be done in private.”

Hera produced a slip of paper from her shoulderbag then handed it to Al. While he read the paper, Erick wondered at how easy it was to counterfeit things in this world, like coins, or identifications, or government search warrants. Savral and Jane craned their necks to look at the paper in Al’s hands.

Al handed the warrant back to Hera. “Fine. Come to my office when you’re ready to read mine.”

“I’ll be upstairs,” Savral said.

“I’ll be downstairs,” Jane said, and then left, following Al.

“Well here’s mine.” Erick said, “Status: Reveal All.”

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 9, Class: None

Exp: 247/5500

Class: -/-

Points: 8

HP

80/80

150 per day

MP

532/532

532 per day

Strength

8

+0

[8]

Vitality

15

+0

[15]

Willpower

20

+0

[20]

Focus

20

+0

[20]

Concentration 7

Multiply your base MP regen by 2.66

Requirements: 20 Focus

Exp: 2060/2100

Discipline 7

Multiply your base MP by 2.66

Requirements: 20 Willpower

Exp: 788/2100

Ward 6, instant, short range, 24 hours,

Create a Small Ward that can have Minor Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 10 MP + Z

Create a Small Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 15 MP + Z

Create a Special Ward. Variable Cost

Create a Medium Ward that can have Small Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 20 MP + Z

Create a Medium Ward that can have Medium Effects, or prevent Z damage from attackers. 25 MP + Z

Personal Ward: Any Ward of any type can be made Personal, to move with you. Original Cost x2

Minor Effects: Bug Ward, Temperature Ward, Alarm Ward

Small Effects: Visual Disruption, Audio Disruption, Weather Ward

Medium Effects: Area Hostile Visual Disruption, Area Hostile Audio Disruption

Special Ward: Eschew all other effects in order to shape, color, and illuminate a ward however you can. Skill at mana manipulation determines final outcome.

Exp: 642/1300

Mana Shaping 4

Alter spell AOE in better, subtle ways, 10 MP + spellcost

Alter spell AOE in better, moderate ways, 30 MP + spellcost

Requirements: 10 Willpower

Exp: 430/500

Cleanse 5, instant, short range, 10 mana.

Purge an area equal to the level of the spell in meters of all Toxins, Disease, Filth, and Corruption.

Exp: 170/800

Mend 4, instant, touch, 10 mana

Touch a non-magical medium sized object, or small complicated, and restore it to its prime.

Exp: 50/500

Meditation 7

You are at Rest while Meditating.

Afflicted ailments: Normal movement, small actions/spells.

Requirements: 10 Willpower

Exp: 455/2100

Huh. He leveled quite a bit. No wonder [Meditation] felt so much better. He could even cast ‘small spells’ and take ‘small actions’ when meditating, whatever that meant. And look at that [Ward], it was up to 6! He could make a personal [Ward] now. Cool. And he wasn’t feeling quite so bad about spending so much… mana…

Nope. No, that wasn’t true. Mana Exhaustion was creeping on strong. He could use a nap.

He probably wouldn’t get a nap, today.

Hera swiped her hands through the floating blue boxes, dismissing them. She looked at him oddly, then the scales on her face tinted pink. She looked away, saying, “Sorry. Terribly sorry.”

He laughed. “That bad, huh! I’m the one who should be embarrassed, but I’d like to know what is so embarrassing.”

Hera looked like she didn’t want to speak but she couldn’t help herself. She blurted out, “You’re still leveling basic skills?”

“Ahh… Yeah. I’m not from around here. Still getting used to the Script. Human, yes. Extra planar, too. Or something. Irogh said something along those lines.”

“Oh?” Hera’s blush faded. She nodded. “That explains a lot.” She eyed him up and down. “Nothing bad… You are a human, but not like any of the ones I’ve ever met. This explains a lot. Including how easily you got a Silver Star.”

“So what next? Do I… spit in a cup? You touch my forehead and experience the last week of my life? You do a Deep Scan on me, whatever that means.”

“A Deep Scan? … No.” She frowned, like Erick was a child needing guidance. “You really are new to Veird.” She pulled a small glass stone from her shoulder bag. “I’m going to ask you some questions...”