Well my plans to leave in the next month or so got kicked back by at least six if not more. Anytime I thought I was ready, gung-fuckin-ho to kick some ass, Kraken would emerge from Gungnir, laugh, and then shoot me a made-up vision or scene of me getting annihilated in some stupid way. And it’s not that I’m actually an idiot, it’s more like I’m ignorant. The multiverse is inconceivably huge, and I just don’t know anything compared to some child who’s had magic his entire life. It just frustrated me that Scion, who openly considers himself young, a veritable baby of his race, and yet has so much more knowledge than me. I did manage to get some grudging respect from him when he first examined my armor as he noted that platinum is especially difficult to work with.
I spent a week just straight up coming up with runes that I could use to conceal myself and my magical signature with better. The runes on my armor do a pretty good job at muting my magical signature, but actually vanishing from sight is a really hard thing to accomplish. The best I came up with was a sort of lame blending, but magical creatures that survive by hunting either with their noses or mana fluctuation would be able to instantly notice me as they tend not to be vision oriented. My worst enemy would be a damn dog since they’d probably smell Spot all over me.
My focus of magical self-improvement has been based on staying alive, defense. And defense is great for sittin’ tight and surviving, which is my main plan. The problem with defense is that you don’t go out and assault an enemy with a castle. You need some freaking offense. For all of my power, I still felt some reticence in using all of my abilities to the fullest. My flesh sorcery so far has been utilized in minor ways, healing, fortifying my body, conjuring bone armor that self-heals, but I know that I could take that way further. The biggest issue with that is time and ignorance. I could grow a freaking monster army to assault the North and South pole, but monsters have to be fed, and they can die which means they could be resurrected by the Hungry Ones against me.
Also, experimenting with life itself is incredibly dangerous on the macro scale as well. If I introduce a new life form, there’s no guarantee that it won’t wipe out a natural ecosystem, or go mad with power. Playing god is not what I want to do. The mana and rune sorcery is perfect for long-term figuring stuff out, kind of like what I’m doing right now, and it has seriously buffed me in the defense and implement department. Even my nature sorcery is perfect for defense or localized ambushing, but air or fire would have rounded me out to be a better magical fighter.
Meditating in the clearing was helping me to go through my options. If I couldn’t solve this problem then there would be no point to me ever leaving this area ever again. I’m still human which means I’m still squishy. Offense, offense, offense. Using the process of elimination, I managed to define what was left once I removed enchantment, earth, and nature as those primarily are defense. What was left was flesh, water, and mind sorcery. “Damn,” I grunted. “It’s still a lot left, more versatility if I can just pound my brain to give me a bit more.”
Let’s go back to flesh. Keeping in mind that it’s probably not the best option against the undead, it can still buff me personally. I can alter my body so that I myself am a singular weapon. I can wield a sword or staff or mace and fight off opponents while being enhanced with flesh sorcery. The constant healing as well as alterable bone armor and bone spikes would make me a pain, hahaha, to deal with. If I got close enough, I could probably even attack a living thing’s internal workings from the inside, and if worse came to worse I could use blood as a weapon. I’m pretty sure that if I tried hard enough, I could literally rip the life out of someone, but again, that would not work against the undead.
My mind sorcery is definitely something I could use as a weapon. In the past, I dominated the mind of Kong and Norn, but that really made me sick to my stomach, in the moral sense. Fighting someone inside of their own mind is also a kind of offense, but one that is singularly focused, not the kind of widespread magical destruction that a good fireball would provide. Which leaves me with water.
[Now you’re getting somewhere, just think about where you’re going, eventually]. Kraken’s mental interruptions are something that I’ll never get used to. It’s not that his voice is like a weird oily sensation in my head, cause it kind of is, it’s that the deeply sonorous tones of his voice just don’t fit the almost cute image of the aquatic-based spirit familiar of knowledge. His voice should be high pitched and cute, or that’s what modern cartoon culture has taught me. He should be like a squeaky kitten, but he’s not. His fucking voice is smooth and dark, like Mr. Clean combined with the Koolaid Man coming out of the woodwork to wreck my concentration.
But the melodious little shit had a point. Everything past the upper part of the former United States and on up through Canada is frozen, which means that ice and snow with a little bit of dirt mixed in is where my water sorcery will fucking shine. Instant ice coffins, easy to use blades of water and firehouse power combined with tons of dirt, the very material of the surroundings at my beck and call, yeah, maybe I won’t be so weak up north.
[Keep going, think harder . . .].
[FUCK YOU SQUID!].
[Don’t be like that,] Kraken teased, condescension dripping from every syllable. [It’s just so fun to watch your hamster wheel turn but with no one running on it.]
[I swear you insignificant speck, if you don’t SHUT UP and let me work I’ll create a whole bunch of elementals to hound you forever! And I’ll make sure that they’re water elementals too. That way, you won’t even be able to hide in the depths of the damn ocean!]
[Bingo folks! Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!] Kraken cheered, doing a little tentacle dance on top of Gungnir. [The monkey has won the prize, the mouse has beat the maze and earned the cheese!].
I was so mad at the annoying familiar that it took me a second. Water elementals, perfect, they would literally be perfect for what I’m trying to accomplish. They won’t have a problem up north; slicing up some zombies is right up their alley, and they don’t even have to be big elementals like Everest.
[Yes monkey-boy, that train of thought is exactly correct. Sheesh, anyone with half a brain could see you aren’t using the full range of your magics,] Kraken lectured. [You could even attack from the ocean if the Hungry Ones have some kind of coastal stronghold. Ice and snow are not hindrances to one such as yourself and little elementals would do anything for the chance to spend some time on this particular plane of existence.]
I stared at Kraken, wondering the whole time why it took me so long to figure it out. Guess I just got stuck, pigeonholed into the viewpoint of what I’ve been doing that’s worked for so long. It’s as if a fighter used his fists for every single situation even though it’s clearly not the answer. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I let out the rest of the annoyance that led to a stroke of genius.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Water, fucking water. Great, no problem, none at all,” I mumbled to myself as I got up and started walking off to the nearby river. “Easy day huh, stupid fucking easy answer staring me right in the face the entire damn time.” My hands were in my pockets as I walked, one foot at times kicking small rocks out of the way. You know how when you mess something up but the answer was so simple? Kind of like when you have your alarm set for the right time number-wise but put PM instead of AM and then you’re really late for work? I felt like that kind of idiot.
My walk didn’t take long as the river wasn’t far at all. I didn’t even stop at the bank of the river, nope, I just kept walking while using water sorcery to pull a Jesus. This formerly tiny excuse for a river at one point now raging silently underneath my feet was a simple sidewalk to me. Looking down I could see the fish, playing as larger fish swam past twisting their mouths to snap up a quick meal. It spoke to me, called to me, the soft chill of the ever-winding river playfully moved as I looked across its width. What used to be a shallow river that a ten year old could cross now required a boat, or water sorcery.
Pulling with my water sorcery, the greenish blue liquid climbed up my body until I was fully encased, minus my face, and had four extra limbs of water hanging off my back like Dr. Octopus. It felt cold, but in the way that a nice fall does, where the cold doesn’t bother you because it feels great and your body still remembers the ever present cloying heat of summer. Flexing my will a bit more, I pulled globes of water out of the river, some had fish still swimming along not even realizing that their environment had changed.
Chuckling at their blank expressions, I released my hold on the water, the fish diving back down to safety. “Take me to the river!” I sang as I skipped across the surface of the river. “Drop me in the water!” I crafted a small kayak shape out of water and then froze it solid. Dissolving it a second later, I made more shapes and then froze them as I kept on singing. A small ice castle, an epic surfboard, a dolphin, each new thing I made floated along the surface as I played, I mean experimented, with my abilities. I made weapons of ice and water, shields, suits of armor, and then when I got bored of that I made cars and motorcycles, biplanes and lawn mowers. Each creation melted with a flick of power and returned to its source.
Yes I was having fun, but there was a purpose in me being here. I needed to get comfortable with this, humans are not meant to live in the water but near the water. Here I am, the magical anomaly, and I needed to be, to feel as much at home here as I do with my feet on solid ground. This environment favors me, it actually empowers me. The rushing current of the Rappahanock is renewing and I could feel it fill me mana effortlessly as if it were a ley line.
“Come on, come on,” I said, looking around as I continued to goof off. There was more here as well that I wanted to accomplish. One of the discussions I had with Kraken on my short walk here to the river was about water elementals and how flexible they are, in both literal form and metaphorical ability. Water is change, water is movement, water can sit still but it also exists in multiple states easily. A water elemental can surge up from a river, take on an almost human or beast form, and then shoot ice and then evaporate into fog to run away. It’s the whole symbolism of how Aphrodite came out of the sea, water is tempermental and constantly changing, which is why we men sort of equate the two. The number one trait of the water elemental is adaptability, which is really what I’m after.
Hefting a sunstone in my hand about the size of an acorn, I conjured an aquamarine stone of equal size and pushed them together with earth sorcery. Writing tiny runes of power and mind on its surface, I examined my experiment in the sun. The sunstone half filled with light and I could feel it gaining power, but the blue aquamarine half was starting to shake. Squatting down, I held it under water and watched as the river flowed around and past my creation, constantly adding mana and balancing out the almost opposing energies. “Any water elementals want a home?” I asked out loud, still holding the two-sided gem under the water as I used earth sorcery to continually meld the two sides. “I’ll be honest, I need some help taking out some zombies and would really appreciate it. I can make more of these too.”
[You’re doing it wrong,] Kraken interjected, [You have to command them! You don’t ask them!].
A happy bouncing bubble zig-zagged underneath the water before resting its outer edge on my hand. The sensation of joy and light like children happily popping bubbles resounded in my head. “I’ll take that as a yes!” I laughed as I watched the bubble dissolve into a million tiny bubbles and ram into the sunstone/aquamarine sphere.
Kraken’s disbelief echoing in my head made me laugh even harder, his sputtering sounding the opposite of the happy water elementals. [Earth elementals don’t mind being bound but water elementals hate it! How did you, what did you, whaaa??]. Taking my sweet ole time, I made about nineteen more sunstone/aquamarine fused cores, singing the entire time. “This is what dreams, are made of!”
My happiness came through in my magic, my water sorcery pulsing gentle waves of joy to which bunches of water elementals came bubbling over to me. Each one was more than happy to get their own core and seemingly did not care that I was going to fight zombies, even though I made sure to tell each one what my goal was and that the sunstone part was supposed to help them do it too.
[That’s not even possible? Elemental fusion?! What are you going to do, have water elementals that are fully capable of absorbing and redirecting stored sunlight as a weapon? Who the fuck thinks of that?]
Rubbing my face on the first fusion stone, I cooed as if it were the cutest kitten ever. “Who’s a good zombie killin’ sunlight blastin’ baby? You are, that’s right, you are! And who do I get to shove in the cranky squid’s just to show him how awesome I am? That’s right, you! All of you!”
I was in a damn good mood. I went with a ‘fuck-it’ moment and let inspiration guide my magic and it paid off. Twenty fused elementals that love me, probably due to my water sorcery and the fact that I gave them a home, and they were also more than happy to be stored in Gungnir. Visions of me launching them out into a crowd of zombies made me chuckle as I imagined them washing them away with sunlight infused water. With solar panels and sunstone batteries combined with the frosty terrain of the north, I actually had a viable offense against my personal weakness.
I took the rest of the day to make a big stone pier that extended out about fifty feet into the river. I sunk granite columns down past the mud and anchored it into the bedrock and then put up a modifed guardrail along the edges. The guardrail was expanded so that at certain places it looked like I had tables set up along the edges. On these flat portions, I made smaller than normal sunstone solar panels and then set them up with crystal batteries that were hidden inside of the stabilizing pillars of the pier with a thin line of copper wire to act as the transfer for the gathering energy. Two hours of creative magic work later, my pier looked like a longhouse without a roof. I had a nice wooden frame for a bed with two nice desks that I grew out of a small tree and even little diving platforms off the side. Sticking Gungnir in a slot I made just for it, I placed one of the smaller solar panels there for it to charge.
“Come on out you bubbly things!” I called, pushing my will into Gungnir. The small water elementals popped and started snooping around. Each one took its own land-based form, some were frogs hopping around while others were snakes and lizards. Three of them stayed as blobs and just rolled around aimlessly. Projecting my intent with mind and water sorcery, I communicated as best I could. “River over here or constant fresh water,” I said as I pointed out over the greenish blue expanse. “This is my home and also yours too,” I kept on, pointing at the new deluxe pier. “And over here, and here, and there, are fresh sources of concentrated mana and sunlight.”
[What are you doing? You’re giving them a home? I thought they were for killing zombies, aren’t you ready to go?]
[Dude, don’t be a dick.], I sent back. [Trust me, they feel like the weakest of all water elementals, so, I’m going to get them to the point where they’ll be unstoppable. I just don’t know how long it’ll take exactly but with almost unlimited power and sunlight and access to water . . . ].
[Right! Why contact and bind a big powerful elemental that won’t want to listen to you when you can just bind twenty little guys who you can feed till they’re big and will love you forever!].
[Yes Pinky, it’s how we’re going to take over the world!].
[What?].
“Nevermind,” I said, turning towards the newly minted paradise. “You wouldn’t get it.” Grabbing a couple graftings of different trees along the river bank, I planted them near the pier and spent the rest of the day growing them so they covered the half closed to the shore like a roof. “Haha! Improv mangrove trees! Damn I love magic!”