Day 22, 23, 24.
—
Name: Phoenix
Attributes: 4 points
Strength: 7 Constitution: 14, Coordination: 13, Mentality: 21, Will: 17, Charisma: 17, Luck: 13
Spells: Spark Bolt
Skills: Meditate 35%->44%, Magical Theory 45%->50%, Intensity 45%->50%, Duration 45%->50%, Range 42%->48%, Area 39%->45%, Passivity 45%->50%, Magical Shape 25%->31%, Magical Artistry 25%->31%
Hit Points: 15
Magic Pool: 29.6
—
They kept up this routine for several days, morning chores, breakfast, wide ranging instruction, spiritual practice, spell practice, some focused exercise, then paid the price for the next day. Tiana commented several times on how rapidly he gained skill levels, noting that ‘normal’ people might gain in one or two skills a month, and usually small incremental amounts in the one to two percent range. His rapid ascent she attributed to his skills ‘catching up’ to his mental age, due to his being reincarnated instead of born and raised. Another, hidden, gift apparently although from Arachnae or Numena he wasn’t sure.
The days warmed gradually, from barely too cold to almost warm, warm enough that his exercises would often cause him to strip out of his leather shirt to avoid staining it with sweat. Chepi seemed to find this hilarious, because she would steal his shirt and hide it somewhere while he was busy working out, and he would have to track it down while she raced around his legs, laughing and nipping at him all the while.
Tiana went out of her way to help him with his spell practice, helping him overcome the mental hurdle of balancing his emotional and rational mind, by building a kind of dissociated state, where he could have the feelings needed but maintain the necessary clarity to cast. His first Spark Bolt cracked one of the pieces of wood in half, but after another day of practice he had it intense enough to shatter the wood into kindling, which Tiana found very impressive. The downside was that it took quite a while to cast, at least from the perspective of a goblin charging at him with a sword, and they drained considerable Magic Pool for each strike. Flashy, loud, powerful, and draining, he would have to consider carefully when to use them, but at least the results were all he could ask for.
Concurrent with that, he tested his Illusory Earth walls. They were less draining, but still took extensive time to cast and required considerable concentration to move or change shape. However, they were incredibly durable once up, shrugging off direct hits from his Lance of Heat without apparent damage, and even absorbing a full powered Shock Bolt, although that did cause the wall itself to wink out of existence. So the lesson from that was that the wall was quite strong, but not very tough. It was an all or nothing proposition, it deflected a strike completely or it collapsed. Given enough time, he could fortify quite nicely, setting up an Illusory Earth wall, his Death Ward, the Light Halo plus Lance of Heat, and still toss out a Lightning Bolt or two and then recharge with Draw Breath. He was starting to feel properly dangerous.
Naturally, Tiana couldn’t let that stand.
“It will be an excellent practical lesson!” she repeated, taking up position approximately twenty meters away from him, and letting her arms hang loosely by her sides. Chepi had retreated to the roof of the house to watch, while Phoenix took up his spot a good distance to the side of the house to avoid any accidental damage.
“I assure you, I do not have a swollen head about this, I was merely saying that I could make a good go of it should I get attacked by goblins again.” he was extremely nervous that he was about to receive a very sound beating at the hands of someone several tiers higher than him.
“Don’t be humble, you have worked hard! Here, I will offer you something special indeed if you can hurt me, even a little. Do you best ok? I promise you, you can’t kill me.” Tiana was grinning now.
“Mistress, please, I know that you are trying to teach me, but no inducements are needed. I will always do my best for you, just for the asking, and would never give you less than everything I have. If you say to come at you hard, I will come at you hard, but we both know the outcome of this ‘contest’.” Phoenix was feeling a little ill used here. He had a recent and fairly painful experience at just how vulnerable he was, his confidence was actually starting to crumble before they even started.
Tiana tapped her finger against her chin, watching him carefully. “Well, you're not very competitive are you? And I suppose if bribery isn’t enough, then threats won’t be either. Fine, let us try it your way first, hmm? Phoenix, as your teacher, I want you to strike at me with everything you have, hold nothing back. I need you to show me everything you can do. This is important.”
He nodded at that. Fine. Fine, let’s do it that way, hold nothing back. I’m not going to hurt her so just dig deep and let go with everything. Fine.
First he set up his Death Ward and Illusory Earth wall. The wall he made into a completely transparent dome, with two oval holes on either side that he could use to stick a limb out of and direct his attacks as needed. Lighting his Halo, he was finally ready, all too aware that all those preparations had taken a minute or so to set up, a lethal eternity in an actual fight. Draw Breath, to recharge his Magic Pool, and then his first strike.
The Lance of Heat struck forth, pencil thin and deadly, only to bounce off her hexagonal shield and dig a line of burning sod into the ground nearby. He had fully expected that, so he set up his Spark Bolt, spinning it into existence while at the same time launching another barrage of Lance’s, a trick that was made possible by her lesson in dissociation. While he could certainly use one part to feel and the other to think, he could also use both parts to think, especially when the first was restricted to something as straightforward and practiced as his Lance. Although the multiple Lance shots had no more effect than the first one, he hoped that they distracted her from what he was doing with the Spark Bolt. Once he was ready, he pulled in all the remains of his Magic Pool, nearly fully emptying it, and started the Spark Bolt not from his hand inside the Illusory Earth wall, but directly behind Tiana, to leap towards his own wall, bisecting her and shattering his own defense at the same time.
The electrical energy seemed to corascate around her in a thin film of magical force, and she was left completely unharmed, while he dropped to one knee from the drain.
—
Magic Pool: 1 (29.6) [respiration, 16.1 hours remaining]
—
He looked up at her, still annoyed by the utterly predictable outcome of this little display and unsure of exactly what this was meant to prove. Suddenly he felt her eyes impinge on his consciousness, like a mental slap, and instinctively he fought to keep his mental balance. The pressure was almost overwhelming, but somehow he managed to fight it off, staggering to his feet. Tiana stopped tapping her chin then, and pointed behind him. Turning drunkenly, he let loose a scream as a horrific face, ghostly and pale, opened its jaws impossibly wide and bit down on him. Instantly he collapsed to the ground, flailing his hands in front of him to ward off the being, but it ignored his pathetic gestures and simply twisted.
—
Magic Pool: 0 (29.6) [respiration, 16.7 hours remaining]
Magic Pool Exhausted
—
He felt his soul shaken like a terrier would a rat, and he collapsed into darkness.
Day 25
—
Name: Phoenix
Attributes: 4 points
Strength: 7 Constitution: 14, Coordination: 13, Mentality: 21, Will: 17.1, Charisma: 17, Luck: 13
Skills: Spiritual Combat 0%->18%
Magic Pool: 14 (29.7) [respiration, 8.6 hours remaining]
—
Phoenix dragged himself out of that dreamless dark to the feeling of someone caressing his hair gently. When he opened his eyes, he found his head cradled in Tiana’s lap, her stroking his hair and watching him, an unreadable expression on her face. Quickly, he struggled to a sitting position, and she helped him up. He found himself in her bed in the loft, Chepi at his feet, candles lit to combat the dark. He realized he was quite naked under the blankets, so he wrapped an arm around his legs and rested his chin on his knees, avoiding looking at Tiana. He reached out to scratch Chepi under the chin, and she gave a little rasping laugh in greeting.
“You are angry at me.” Tiana said, not as a question.
“I… Mistress, it is not my place to judge your teaching methods. I am confused and unsure about what happened, but that is my ignorance causing me to react. I am sure in time it will all become clear.” he replied.
“You are very angry at me. Did you know you get extra polite when you are scared or angry?” she placed greater emphasis on the very. “It is ok, you know, to be angry. I ambushed you with those two blows, and the disparity in our Tiers made the outcome predetermined. I am sure that feels quite unfair, to you who were on the receiving end of it.”
“Of course, mistress, yes, I am angry, you are perceptive as always. If the outcome was predetermined, what was the point? And didn’t you say you wouldn’t cause any harm, that I could trust you? Why violate that?” Suddenly he was struggling with his feelings again, the totally unfair feeling of betrayal from his crush terrifying him so badly he fainted in front of her. He knew he was being quite childish, which made him feel ashamed, which then fed into his anger more.
Tiana reached out to take his hand, the one scratching Chepi, and surprisingly Chepi growled at her. Shocked, Phoenix watched as Chepi got up and left the bed, stopping only to cast a reproachful look back at Tiana before bounding down the stairs to the first floor and disappearing. Tiana just shook her head, and finished taking his hand and pulling him around to face her.
“I will explain.” Tiana held his hand in both of hers, in her lap, as she spoke. “You are a very cerebral young man, Phoenix, which is your strength. I watch you throttle your emotions, necessary of course to use sorcery, but you are too cerebral. It is opening up some dangerous blind spots in your thinking. The first blind spot is that by ignoring your emotions like you have been, you leave yourself vulnerable to magical attacks on those very emotions. The second blind spot is that you have no experience whatsoever in Spiritual Combat, or even knowledge of its existence. The purpose of that display yesterday was not just to get a feeling for your level of growth and preparedness to graduate to Journey Tier. It was to expose your weaknesses in a way that would be visceral and real. You have a stunningly spectacular mind, Phoenix, and you can now look back on the experience that you had and devise means to defend yourself in the future, far more effectively than my fumble-headed attempts to teach you, a sorcerer, using my knowledge as a spiritualist.”
Reluctantly, he stamped down on his emotional response to accept the truth of her words. And then reeled at the irony of repressing his emotions so he could accept the truth. What a mess. And of course she is either ignorant of my crush or very kindly ignoring it to not embarrass me further.
At that point, Chepi gave a sharp bark from the ground floor, and Tiana smiled. Phoenix was still puzzled however. “Why is Chepi upset?” he asked.
“She thinks I could have handled this differently. But I can prove my point easily enough.” She slid up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders then sliding down his arms to take his hands and form them into the shape of his panel. “Show me your panel, if you would.”
Phoenix was becoming very aware of her presence, right about then, and his attempt to hide his reaction and the fight between his blush and other body parts for his limited blood supply was quite dramatic. In an effort to disguise this internal conflict, he brought his panel up for her.
“I knew it!” She crowed. “Eighteen percent in one day! And the start of growth in your willpower! You have no idea how impossible that is, under normal circumstances!” Tiana hugged him tight, before scooting off the bed and heading downstairs. “Go ahead and get dressed, I think we can continue teaching some Spiritual Combat through theory rather than practice, and I want to discuss with you what you want to do with those attribute points now.”
He took a few minutes to breathe deeply, calming down from everything. He still felt… fragile, emotionally. Chepi ‘clip clip clipped’ up the stairs, her claws oddly loud for once, and sat down on the floor to stare at him in the bed. He reached out a hand to offer to pet her, but she shook her head, a very obvious ‘no’, and then spoke quietly.
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“I know why you feel that way, Phoenix. She is not immune to loneliness either. Yet it's not to be, you know that of course.” Chepi’s voice was very soft, but distinct and understandable.
He sighed and let his hand fall back to the bed. “I know. But she just got done lecturing me about suppressing my feelings, and it’s not like I get a choice here, in who I fall in… whatever… with.”
Chepi leapt on to the bed, and walked around him, swishing her amazingly soft tail over his face and arms, then stopped at his side and placed her snout on his knees. “You are traumatized. Not from yesterday, from before you came here. And your response to this trauma has been to freeze. And when you did that, you became just a little too eager to let down your walls, to be vulnerable. So far, that hasn’t hurt you, but it will. I am not saying don’t let people in. You can trust us, Tiana and I. But you need to teach yourself to set boundaries, and enforce them. Or some very evil things are going to infiltrate your heart and seize you from the inside.”
A chill ran down his spine at that, and he shivered uncontrollably. Chepi wrapped her tail tighter around him, warm and soft. “My primary job, in this relationship I have with Tiana, is to protect her body and soul while she is busy doing dangerous things in the other world. I have extended that protection to you, while you are here, because that is the right thing to do and I like you. You won’t be here forever though, so you will need to figure out a way to protect yourself. I will practice with you. It will be a lot less traumatizing than facing whatever spirits she digs up. Plus, it will repair a little of the trust that you lost yesterday, and maybe help you see a few more layers of what she tried to do.”
“Thank you, Chepi.” he said, after a minute. Then, curious. “I was sure you could talk. Why don’t you talk more?”
“You are welcome, dear. And Tiana has no need for me to speak to understand what I have to say.” Chepi unwrapped herself from him and ghosted back downstairs, and he busied himself getting dressed and went to join them both. Tiana was cooking breakfast, cheerful and chatting about various magical theories they had already touched on earlier in the week. Basically keeping things light and airy, avoiding the heavy topics of the morning. Phoenix allowed himself to be carried along by the conversation, letting his feelings settle out and the sharp pointy part of the pain to dull a little. Once they were settled and had started to eat, Tiana brought up her topic of conversation.
“So, four attribute points available. I am glad you have held off till now on spending those, but I think at least a few points placed here and there will be necessary to proceed forward. Based on what you told me earlier, you are currently at your hard limit for how many Glyphs you can resonate with. While I do not know exactly the relationship between Mentality and how many Glyphs, it is known that the higher your mentality, the more Glyphs. Because we need to add the Magic Glyph, at least one point should go into Mentality. And I would add a second point there for the next set of lessons we are going to have, on protecting your spirit in Spiritual Combat. A third point might be necessary depending on what kind of relationship you have between mentality and Glyphs, so reserve it just in case. That leaves a point behind. Now, easy enough, could just dump it into Mentality and open up some new boons, but it could be years until your next boon shows up and plenty of time to get more Mentality. My recommendation would be either Willpower or Charisma. What do you think?” Tiana’s torrent of words finally ended and she turned to her meal while she waited for his response.
Phoenix gave it some serious thought. On the one hand, he had a tenth of a point in Willpower just from the event yesterday. If they could replicate that experience for another week or so, that would be a free point. So Charisma seemed like a good candidate, according to Tiana.
“What does Charisma do for me, anyway?” he asked.
“Hrm, well Charisma is your strength of personality. It factors into your passageway, specifically your respiration rate. It will also, at certain breakpoints, help improve your magical skills. For you, that is really it. Divine and Spiritual magic users depend on Charisma more than Mystic or Arcane magic users do.” Tiana shrugged. “If you planned on going into politics or the military, you would value it more, as it is a major factor in getting groups of people to do things as a group, and not as a leaderless mob.”
“So, not to say that isn’t all valuable, but perhaps Willpower then? Even if I can train a point, and it looks like I can, having two extra points there might be better than one point in Charisma.” he was thinking out loud at this point.
Tiana nodded along “It is ultimately up to you of course, and that isn’t bad reasoning. How many attribute points people get in their life is incredibly variable. For some, each point is quite valuable so they must specialize, for others it makes sense to spread things about and take advantage of synergies. You have done the latter already, Arcane Adept is a powerful synergy boon that is a big reason for why you are so advanced in your Arcane abilities already.”
He perked up at the sound of synergy “So if I spread more points into Charisma, Willpower, and Mentality, I might see an upgraded Arcane Adept boon?”
“Certainly. Arcane Master does what Arcane Adept does only more so. Bit down the road for you but every journey starts with a single step. Normally only a Hero would have access to it, but your Mentality can already go above the normal human maximum so it is reasonable to expect that you can get it early. Your goal is twenty five Mentality and twenty one in Willpower and Charisma.” Tiana said.
So even though Charisma isn’t that exciting for me, getting closer to Arcane Master definitely is. All right, it's a plan.
He opened his panel up, and started with the two points in Mentality. Tiana looked at him, then got up and with an excited cry came over to his chair and put her chin on his shoulder. “Show me show me, this is a special moment!”
Blushing, he manifested the panel so she could see it, and confirmed the two points in Mentality. He then put a point into Charisma and confirmed that.
—
Name: Phoenix
Attributes: 1 points
Strength: 7, Constitution: 14, Coordination: 13, Mentality: 23, Will: 17.1, Charisma: 18, Luck: 13
—
Tiana let out a noise that Phoenix could only describe as a squee, and Chepi ran back and forth under the table, doing her fox laugh and nipping at their legs.
“Do you feel any different?” Tiana asked, still hugging him.
Well, other than being very warm from you holding me…
“Hard to say. Maybe a little?” he offered instead.
She backed away and returned to her meal, still excited and smiling. “Yeah, the mental changes can be kind of subtle honestly. Strength is the most obvious, you bulk up. Dropping four points into Strength can be really dramatic, gain a bunch of weight and your muscles just pop!” she poked the air for emphasis.
“Have you had a lot of attribute points to spend?” he asked, innocently enough he thought.
Tiana actually blushed at that, and Chepi was rolling on the ground laughing and gasping. Phoenix looked under the table in wonder at the fox, admiring her antics. “I say something rude?”
“Not… rude, precisely.” Tiana temporized. “It’s very intimate, knowing someone's panel information. Normally I wouldn’t have to have you show me, the Apprentice link would let me look anytime I wanted. But that isn’t a two way street, like Apprentices don’t get to see their Masters panel. So asking is a little presumptuous?” She shrugged. “We are a special case though. It’s fine! Stop trying to apologize, I am not offended. And I am not trying to brag here, ok? But yes, more than the usual share of attribute points I think, over my life. In Arachnae’s name Chepi, it isn’t that funny!”
Tiana gave a very half-hearted kick at the fox, who dodged easily and started racing around the room, picking up pillows and dragging them about, tugging on rugs, and in general adding to the disorder of the place, all the while laughing and barking. After Tiana chased Chepi down and wrestled with her for a bit, they calmed down and it was time for instruction.
“So today, I am going to guide you in resonating with the Magic Glyph, and if that goes well, with the Spirit Glyph. That is the most we can hope for with two points of Mentality, but if the Magic Glyph goes poorly and you suffer mana burn, that last attribute point you will want to place in Mentality so we can unlock the Spirit Glyph.” Tiana explained, and Phoenix nodded along.
“My plan of course is two fold.” she continued. “The time is ripe to graduate you to Journey tier, so once you have the Magic Glyph that is exactly what we are going to do. For most people that can take some time, a year or even more, but I strongly suspect you will go just a little faster than that. Still, a few days at least, I imagine, even for a magical prodigy such as yourself. So in the meantime, I will have you do some self directed study with Chepi here, on how to develop some spiritual defenses using sorcery. Of course, I will continue to explain some theory to you as well, both magical and spiritual. Does that sound fair?”
“It does.” Phoenix agreed. Spirit Glyph? He was going to have to get her to sit down and list all the Glyph for him at some point.
Tiana led him outside for this, and climbed up to the roof. He found there a kind of balcony built on the south face of the roof, with a large circle with a Glyph imprinted in the middle of it. Here, she had him sit on the edge of the circle facing the Glyph, while she placed several crystal devices at the corners of the balcony.
“So the safe way to do this.” she started, gesturing to the crystals. “Is to have the Glyph itself in front of you while you resonate. Each of these crystals will moderate the experience. If you ever get a chance to pick up a set for yourself, I recommend you do so. Mana burn occurs for many reasons, but the primary reason is the sudden surge of power through your brain getting hung up on impurities and blockages there. Those impurities and blockers translate some of the Magic Pool flux into various unfortunate energies that are unhealthy, even fatal, to magic users. The crystals buffer that flow, slow it down, to allow your brain and body to adjust safely and resonate slower. This lengthens the time. You are used to resonating in minutes, even seconds, which is frankly insane. This will take you all day. You can take short breaks, no more than a few minutes each, to eat quickly or use the restroom, but the whole day will be needed and each break just extends that time.”
Sitting down, he nodded his understanding. She continued “You will have to discipline yourself to focus on the Glyph the entire time. This is tedious and boring and utterly necessary, and another reason it takes so long. Every moment you are distracted is one less moment towards successful resonance. Just relax while I connect the crystals to you. I will have to touch your skin to do this, so I am asking you now if that will be ok. I will have to touch you here, here, here, and here.” Tiana pointed to his forehead, his sternum above his heart, his belly button, and just above his pubic area. He blanched at that last part. “It will be very brief, I assure you. I can even have Chepi do this if that would be more comfortable” she offered.
“No, it’s ok, go ahead.” he coughed out.
Each place she touched she drew out a golden thread like substance, which attached to the crystals, and she was true to her word, quick and efficient. “Now, fall into your trance, holding the image of the Glyph foremost in your mind. Do not dwell on any thoughts that might impinge on your consciousness, just let them pass through you. Especially do not dwell on any clever ideas you might have about how the Glyph will work for you, that is a trap that will lead you to resonating with multiple Glyphs at once, and is what killed you last time. Just this one Glyph, for the next twelve hours. Begin.”
She was right about it being tedious and boring. HIs mind was usually quite awhirl with ideas, plans, hypothesis on magic or spells, or distractions of various sorts. Focusing on just one image for twelve hours without interruption or breaks proved impossible to do. Tiana was never upset with him for taking a break, assuring him that it was normal for people to take longer than the minimum and only the most experienced or heroic would resonate in the strict twelve hours.
In the end, it took him close to sixteen hours, and it was full dark once again once he was finished. The Magic Glyph was different from the others in how it felt. The other Glyphs had resonated with their physical or philosophical aspects- heat, the knife's edge, solidity, and so on. This was more like a layer of power that infused him, wrapping itself around his mind and soul and expanding to fill all the little gaps and sharp points there.
—
Magic: Magic
Magic Pool: 28.6
—
He hauled himself down off the roof, mentally exhausted and feeling a little sunburnt on top of it all. Tiana had a nice dinner all laid out for him already, which he picked at, too tired to really enjoy.
“So, all resonated?” She asked, lightly.
“Yeah, that was, woof, almost prefer the mana burn.” he replied, holding his head and trying his best to enjoy the food.
Tiana laughed at that. “I understand the impulse, but as you discovered, every Mana Burn is a setback in terms of your spiritual growth, quite aside from the possibility of death. It really is in your best interest to avoid it when you can. You won’t always be lucky enough to have Melite’s power to heal you and smooth the way for you to repair your passageway.”
“Wait, the rose water helped repair my passageway too?” he asked.
“Of course! Did you really think it would be a matter of days only to come back from a mana burn like you inflicted on yourself? Months, more like. Ofttimes you might never fully recover. Taking shortcuts is a good way to limit your future growth or prohibit it entirely.” She moved to clear up the ritual space while he ate. She must have taken care of the farm chores as well, which made him a little guilty, so he refrained from complaining about his tiredness. He didn’t really want to spend more time meditating today, but a contract was a contract.
“So, when I do make Journey, what should I use the boon for?” he asked, recalling the list of his options.
“Oh you definitely want to hold on to that. Upgrading to Arcane Mastery is worth the wait, unless you have Self-Resurrection unlocked somehow?” she looked at him quizzically.
“Ah… no. Arachnae said I don't have enough Heroic Soul Power stored yet.” He said it in an offhand way.
“You, um, spoke with her directly?” Tiana was being very casual, too casual actually.
“Yeah, well you saw it, my contract. Part of the commitment I made is to contact her once per lunar month. Last time was a few days before we met, she told me how to find you actually.” He looked up from his meal to try and see Tiana’s reaction.
“You are quite blessed. I might be jealous.” She said in time.
Chepi padded over to lay her muzzle on Tiana’s leg, looking up at her. Tiana took both of Chepi’s ears in her hands and rubbed them lovingly. “Oh Chepi, don’t be silly, it is all fine.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this, you know.” Phoenix said, quietly.
Tiana stopped petting Chepi and looked over to him at the table.
Phoenix continued. “I died, not in accordance to plan and at the wrong time, is what I was told. I remember… pieces… of my last life. Whole scenes, separated by years sometimes. I had a job, a family, a house. A life. All taken away and replaced by this. Am I young? Am I old? I don’t even know, not really.” He shut his mouth with a click, to keep more from pouring out. He was just tired, mentally. Shouldn’t let it get to him like this.
Tiana patted the floor in the center of the pentacle, and he got up and sat down there, morose but willing.
“Nothing really turns out quite like how we would like it, does it.” She said, lighting the candles one by one. “Arachnae gave me a sign, that you would be coming, and that your coming would force me to choose one path to my destination over another. I had feared you were another young woman, from the Free Elves or Empire, coming to be my last apprentice. Instead you are so much more than that. Yes Chepi, I know. I made my choice and I do not regret it. One door closed, another opened. This is by far the better path, even with what uncertainty lies ahead for me. Arachane always does know best, in the end, even if I would dearly like to ask her some rather pointed questions.” Tiana sighed, and then plastered on a smile. “Not your fault of course! The ways of goddesses are often entirely opaque to mortals, even want to be heroes. Come, let’s do this and go to bed, we are both tired.”
The ritual itself had become routine, and afterwards while he drifted, he wrestled with himself over what he wanted, out of all of this. Just survival and achieve a deity's goals? Or was there something he wanted too, just for himself? He didn’t really know.