Chapter 170

Like a Fool Barking In The Rain

“You sure it is midnight?” I ask, wanting to make sure we get the most out of one day.

“Yes, the time just turned, and we are at 12:01 AM.” Mallory confirms for me.

“Okay, send out the commands for us to begin.” I state, as I begin casting Cleansing Rain.

How are we here? How did I avoid the interrogation of Mallory about the Library of the Tribunal? Simple, misdirection and the fact that it was almost midnight when I was found, meaning that we had the perfect time and set of circumstances to finish our Guild’s land reclamation quest. A quest that was clearly causing problems as we have had more than one or two close calls in the past few months.

Now it is just a matter of us erasing the infertile strips of land that separate our cultivated areas, and boom, we end up claiming a humongous quest reward. All by casting one simple spell.

Honestly, by now the spell is rather simple to cast, almost as if it has somehow become second nature to me. My mind imagines the spell’s structure, and then with seemingly effortless flare the spell fires from my fingers up to the sky and instantly starts a cascading reaction of rain to fall.

I made note that we had long ago linked together multiple eighteen-to-nineteen-acre plots of purified lands that were only separated by the narrowest of margins. Well now, as a team we had one day to link as many of these parcels together in one massive plot of land.

This would be the world’s largest land grab at one time, namely because we could only do this in a desert, or other land where there was clearly a separation and then a merging point.

Everyone else that had tried similar feats were relegated to either conquering lands from other nearby guilds, or via conquering lands from the indigenous people, or other odd experimentations that would all invariably fail one way or another.

My plan still had a margin of failure associated with it, as I am one person, I could only legitimately merge so many areas together myself. Which was why we divided up the parcels of land to different quadrants, where I would take care of clustering the central plains area, this included things like the airfield, my school yard compound, the command center, registration office, and the like.

Then others would take care of the outer sectors that would be harder for me logically get to at the same time.

Through our design, we found that we could get all sixty-four parcels of land together, if we but connected long passageways. The key to remember was that not every segment had to be connected on all sides to other land segments. Rather, we just needed enough of the segments to be connected to form one continuous parcel of land that met our desired size limits.

The initial goal that we had been given was to connect twenty acres of land. We were going to obliterate that goal and try to reach a thousand acres of connected land. Sixty-four parcels of land, all in patches of eighteen to nineteen acres made it so we could easily make the thousand-acre mark.

While I was a bit hesitant to put Arch Sky Mage Belton in control of connecting one segment of the lands, I realized that he like the rest of us all wanted to not only meet, but exceed the standards laid out before us. I also have to admit that after our duel where he was forced to never even utter my name, dealing with him has been relatively easy. I just tell him what to do and he can’t even ask questions.

Now, is this the best way of being an effective leader? Probably not, but I never made any claims about being an effective leader. Instead, I have accepted that I will likely be mediocre at best.

Warm rain begins to fall, and I let myself get soaked and enjoy the feeling of flying, well floating in place, with my wings, while letting the rain pour over me.

There is something calming about warm rain that is hard to describe. Almost like a shower, but slightly more enjoyable. I think the enjoyment comes from the spontaneity and the randomness of the rain.

My body also appreciates this rain as it is clearly charged with mana, meaning that it has extra energy held within that my body can take in, cycle and turn into condensed Qi.

The entire process from start to finish for creating a storm overhead that will pour out Cleansing Rain took only a few minutes at most. The majority of that time was spent on establishing the spell framework that would be used to link together the four corners where four different parcels of land will merge together.

Again, the idea is not to get every strip of land covered, that will come in time. Instead, we are focusing on keystone areas that will link four different plots of land together at once.

Guild Quest Updated: Unclaimed Land Acquisition Charter: Your guild has managed to claim twenty acres of land. Continue to conquer more habitable swaths of land, but realize your guild will now be forced to defend the land you now claim from the indigenous peoples. Nearest faction: Ancient Deolar Empire. Time left to defend your land (23 hours 56 minutes 41 seconds). Acres of land claimed (73/20). Rewards: Experience, Guild Title, Guild Land, variable.

There we go, just as expected, the world tried to throw a wrench into our plans. Fortunately, we already have most of the issues fixed in this case. Particularly as I am both the Princess and King of the Deolar empire, while also being the Doctor of the Midnight Hunters guild, meaning we already have a truce in this.

Yes, traditionally, people have waited to do similar land claims closer to midnight, so the time needed to claim the land and hold it from enemy forces is less strenuous. However, we as a guild decided that it would be better to claim as much land as we could, knowing that the worst part, the invading forces would not be an issue.

Normally, one major portion of your forces would be occupied with claiming land. Either ground forces holding out every patch of land. To engineers building railways that connected multiple parcels of land together, to many different other ways to show ownership.

In this case, the majority of our elite mages would be taken away from fighting as we would be used to cast Cleansing Rain, being a Tier VII spell, it means that only the strongest of mages could be tasked with casting such spells. This means that if we had to mount a counter offensive, we would be at a severe disadvantage as seven of our top mages would be out of the operation.

Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the Deolar forces due to our temporary truce and treaty that is established between our guild and the undead inhabitants of Deolar.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I give my section a few more minutes of love, making sure that the four corners that I have connected together are officially cured of the Blight, and once again able to host plant life, a fact that is proven in short order as the elven grass takes hold and springs up almost automatically.

That grass has got to be the most amazing weed, it can grow in almost any condition, and grows to be just an inch and a half tall, before meeting its full growth length. From what I can tell, the grass also looks pretty. To me it is a vibrant green for life magic, with a few hints of blue in for water magic and that is all. The rest is just perfect breeding and magical alteration of the elves of Deolar. Truly a testament of how great the ancient tribe of elves were before the Blight took them.

With my one corner complete, I begin going to the next section. We have calculated this out to the last degree. With eight rows by eight columns, we have sixty-four plots of eighteen to nineteen acre stretches of land to link together, giving us a total of twenty-three spots to link together in order to claim as much land as possible.

Logically, if we wanted to make the most effective use of our time we would have started from a corner or side and worked our way inward, but we felt that there might be something off, if we combined parts other than our critical infrastructure first. As such, that task was given to me, linking the four most vital points of our territory together, before going onto another site so we could begin linking even more of our plots.

Thanks to the fact that I am flying, and the fact that I can move while casting, I am already creating a new spell structure once I get within reasonable range of the next marker.

Of the seven of us that can cast this spell, it was surmised that them casting the spell twice and being able to clear up two of the twenty-three overall spaces would be enough, as that would be twelve of the twenty-three, leaving me with just eleven spots to worry about.

The goal posed to each mage was three spots each, meaning the majority of mages would take care of eighteen of the twenty-three spots, leaving me with five spots to contend with on my own, but that was an optimistic number at best. Which was why I was mentally preparing for a number closer to eleven than the five I had been given.

My idea was for me to take the center and try to work my way outwards, while the others would all take outer areas and try to work their way inwards.

While others wanted to argue, eventually Mallory put an end to the squabble and laid out a mostly compromised plan of action for each mage who would be given an individually assigned transportation team.

My team was down below, but had mostly been relegated to the duty of spotters and overall updaters of the master grid.

Thunderclap.

Off in the distance the first mage began manifesting their own version of Cleansing Rain. One would think that after months of casting the same spell over and over that they would have fixed a few of the flaws.

See generic spells, or spells designed to be cast by everyone with an appropriate affinity and aptitude are loose. Consider them the Ikea of spells, sure they come with all the parts and can roughly resemble what you want, but by and large you don’t expect them to be the top-of-the-line product that would withstand the test of time. Instead, you build it hoping that you can keep it in place, and not truly shocked when you try to move the item from one space to another. The same thing can be said for the spells being cast, currently.

While I kept my original spell going in the same area as creating a new Cleansing Rain formation would not be too taxing, I could have moved the spell along with me and not experienced too many difficulties. Whereas the spell being cast now by Arch Sky Mage Belton, while capable of doing what it was originally designed for, likely wouldn’t be able to be moved. At least not without reinforcing a few integral parts of the spell lattice framework.

Though I do take the moment to realize two things. First, I realize that my standard use of Dispel would be unable to break apart the spell work that is off in the distance. By now the spell is just too big to be taken down with what would effectively be one screwdriver. Instead, I mentally think of a way to shake apart the spell that would work similar to a Dispel, but without the need to directly attack the core components of a spell, rather I would attack the lattice framework of the spell on the outside. I guess the best description of what I am intending to create would be an Area Dispel, or something to that effect, but that would not quite be the correct term, as it would mostly be an Area Resonance Framework Disruption spell, but that would be a mouthful. No, if I end up creating such a spell it would be called Area Dispel, while less accurate, it would be less annoying to say and tell others. Though maybe shortening Area Resonance Framework to ARF would be a good compromise? The ARF Disruptor Spell? No, that is terrible as well, as it sounds like I am trying to get dogs to stop barking. Though that spell could be handy as well, no Cass, focus. You have a lot of stuff to do today, and we only have a day to do it.

With that I pause, get into position, clear my mind and focus on the spell framework.

Of course, before I do, the thought about me being terrible at naming things comes to my mind, but fortunately I am able to purge that negative thought and focus.

Cleansing Rain.

Within seconds the framework for my personalized version of Cleansing Rain forms in the air, and then a few seconds after it takes form, condensation in the form of Blight cleansing rain drops appears. Then less than a minute after that, the rain begins to pour down.

This time the spell took a bit longer than usual, but I was mentally reinforcing the impact areas where I would try to use my ARF Disruptor to break apart the spell work. While the spell does require a bit more mana to set up, I do feel better knowing that in a prolonged casting, the improvements made will likely cut down on overall mana depletion.

Within minutes of my starting this second spell, I am met with an updated system message.

Acres of land claimed (109/20).

I mentally nod, knowing that this section has been cleansed as well and joined to the initial patch I cleared. However, I still give it more time, not wanting to have to come back at midnight to fix shoddy workmanship. As such, I stay and continue to link these four parcels of land together. Well really, I am just adding two additional parcels at this point, but who is counting.

Thunderclap.

Thunderclap.

By now three casters have managed to get their own version of Cleansing Rain up and running. This means that three are still having trouble forming the spell work and pumping enough mana into their structures to get their first cast going.

This is another reason why I am going slightly slower, as I don’t want to make the other mages feel bad. I mean honestly, they could theoretically take eight hours to cast their spells and end up with their goal of three casts for the day. It is just that taking so long to cast a simple spell, well no, not simple. I realized through one of my leadership courses that I was forced to take that calling something simple was not productive.

Right now, every mage had the same goal and task, to cast one very intricate spell two to three times individually. While many had done so as part of a group, this would be their first time casting such master level spell workings by themselves and it was likely scarry.

Honestly, I don’t know how I would do with these castings if I had to rely on regular eyesight either. Which is why I need to relax, lower my expectations and prepare to compensate for the things that only I can do. Everything else will either get done, or it won’t and that is the best I can hope for in such a case.

See, Meditation already paying off as I let my mind relax and focus on the things that I can do better. While I have a minimum of five spots to cover, I mentally prepare for having to cover eleven spots.

That is of course, if we only have to worry about the current threats facing us and the world doesn’t throw anything else that is too crazy at us.

“GRAAHHAGAHHHAAA!”

An ear splitting screech rips through the stormy sky. I can’t see anything, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling the direction that the draconic yell is coming from. And yes, somehow my mind interprets the sound as a large draconic creature, likely the call of a naturally obsidian dragon, though I don’t know where or how I have such details from a simple scream. Though I guess part of it might be my ability to detect dialects of dragons? Is that even a thing? Do obsidian dragons have a distinct dialect? Or is there something else related to the scream that I picked up on.

On instinct I begin Teleporting towards the disturbance.

After three quick hops, I can begin to see the gliding and twisting form of the dragon, who clearly has a deep resonance with death magic. Mentally I praise myself for somehow noting the obsidian twang to his howl, but that elation is shortly lived, as I realize I am going to have to deal with this dragon, particularly as he is drawing in a massive amount of energy and weaving it into a spell lattice that can clearly be cast from a great distance by the beast.

GRRAHGGHAHHHH!

The dragon shrieks violently, infusing Death Magic into its massive breath. Being so far away, there is no way I can Dispel the attack, at least not with my regular spells that are available.

Instead, I will need to go with the Area Dispel type spell work that I had been contemplating moments ago.

Seeing the massive ball of Death Magic, and realizing the fact that it came from the massive roar of a dragon, I realize that the name ARF Disruptor might not be too bad of a name after all.

No wait, it’s still terrible, but I go for it anyways, weaving together an anti-lattice spell work that would grab onto a spell and shake it violently with power and form at designated spots.

New Spell Created: ARF Disruptor [Tier VII] (C): A spell created by Cassiopeia Spiritlight that finds the Arcane Resonance Framework of an area of effect spell that has been cast and attempts to disrupt the core components of the spell before the true effects of said spell can take place. This spell’s name can be spoken out loud to double spell’s overall effectiveness.

Even the description of that spell was convoluted. While I did like the fact that it made me sound slightly more intelligent by changing Area to Arcane, I can’t help but feel that the world is out to make me the butt of a joke by making me say “ARF Disruptor” with any form of seriousness just to be twice as effective with my casting.

Yet, looking at the size and scope of the ball of Death Magic flying straight towards us, and in particular the members of my guild who are on the ground, I realize that I can’t take any chances as I will likely only get one chance to completely dispel this thing.

Deep sigh.

With a reluctant sigh, I breathe in, then breathe out and then breathe out, knowing that I will only look stupid from here on out, I relax and resign myself to my fate, as I begin to channel counter magic into and through my very voice.

“ARF…”