Amy’s take was that Sophia was really more of a spellcaster, so she didn’t need a Blades ability. Amy thought the Minor Imbue Blade Group Ability was better, because it would allow Sophia to Imbue a number of Amy’s arrows with a minor Imbuement that was would dissipate as soon as the “blade” hit anything, but it was still a way Sophia could give Amy’s primary weapon the same bonus she was giving her own and Dav’s. It wasn’t clear exactly how many arrows were in a group, but Sophia could definitely see the potential benefit. It was a little self-serving of Amy, but that didn’t mean it was a bad choice.
Dav thought she should lean into the benefits Cliff gave her and select one of the abilities she’d already found that worked based on Collected Knowledge. Sophia was pretty sure that part of the reason he was more interested in those Abilities was that they were based on the fact that made her Spellblade Sphere unique: she was linked to Cliff and both limited and empowered by his Collection. It would be taking a new path with both the risk and possible reward that came with not following the herd.
Rensyn was definitely more worried about the risk, while Amy didn’t care one way or the other and Dav was strongly in favor of trying it out. Dav’s argument that it was worth it because it wasn’t that expensive to change if it didn’t work really resonated with Sophia.
She was pretty sure she was making her decision because she thought it was the right one and she was interested in seeing where Cliff’s Collection led her. She wasn’t the type of person to do something just because it was what her boyfriend wanted if she thought it wasn’t the right choice.
No, it was the right choice. She didn’t need Spellblade’s Blades and Minor Imbue Blade Group was only a minor improvement for Amy.
There were still only four Abilities that seemed to use Collected Knowledge to harm enemies, and they came down to a choice of more damage to the shield or the creature and whether it was with a spell or a blade. Sophia was primarily a spellcaster and it seemed like shields were the primary defense of most monsters, so Antithetical Shattering Spell was definitely her choice for the slot she’d already bought. If she had extra Wisps, she’d pick up Antithetical Destructive Spell as well; it would have helped against the corpsevines.
Antithetical Shattering Spell
You know how best to use spells to break the Shield of enemies that you have Collected Knowledge of.
Now that she thought about it, that might even be a large step towards covering her missing Martial Techniques. If it took her spells up to the power of a proper “shieldbreaking” spell once she had fought an enemy before, that wasn’t that different from a Technique she had to use. It might even be better because there was nothing she had to do while she was fighting. The only downside was that it wouldn’t help the first time she fought something, unless maybe being similar was enough.
Yes, she definitely wanted to take Antithetical Destructive Spell. She might want the other two, as well, but that would probably depend on what she found out from Summon Echo. She hoped it duplicated her weapon if it needed one; having to carry extra weapons for her summoned creature would be annoying.
She didn’t think she’d have enough Wisps to take it immediately, especially not if she wanted to move up to level three to match Amy. Sophia thought she might hold off on that for a bit, since she actually had enough Shield to make do and she definitely didn’t have the Wisps to upgrade all of her Abilities and Slots if she did level. It simply wouldn’t be that beneficial yet. She was pretty sure that saving to upgrade her Abilities to level three was why Amy hadn’t bought many Abilities.
On the other hand, maybe Amy just didn’t have many categories for her Abilities. Sophia had six, but Dav only had five, and they both had a Species Spell Reservoir. Amy could easily have only three or four categories, which would mean far fewer cheap Abilities.
Sophia shook her head and focused on her Species Abilities. She wanted to finish while everyone else was gone so that she could pay attention to them, which meant she needed to get on with it.
She had a bunch of options for her free Ability, but she was going to take Magic Attuned Aura. She’d found it early in the section of Magical feats and read it to the group; both Rensyn and Amy told her to take it immediately and not worry about missing something else good. She’d finished going through the long list, even the Physical, Mental, and Team Abilities, but at the end she had to admit that Magic Attuned Aura was hard to beat.
Sophia couldn’t find anything like it in the records Rensyn found, but that was because the similar examples all had to do with a specific element or sub-element Sophia didn’t have. It was apparently a famous Ability tree for people who focused on a single element, regardless of what their other focus was, but neither Rensyn nor Amy had ever heard of it being able to affect all magic. Registry Master Jessamine had Light Attuned Aura, which was apparently a large piece of why she was called the Shield of the Sun. Samuel had Fire Attuned Aura, which explained why none of his fire spells set the forest on fire; he told them not to.
Magic Attuned Aura
Your aura resonates with the power of magic. You can weakly affect magic within your aura in any way you choose.
Sophia took her time and searched for anything that became available because she now had Magic Attuned Aura, but she couldn’t find anything new. If it unlocked anything, it was something she didn’t have access to yet for some other reason.
Sophia hesitated before choosing her next Species Ability. It was also an Aura Ability, but it was one she’d hoped to hold off on. Unfortunately, now that she had Magic Attuned Aura, she was pretty sure she needed it. MageSight was nice, but it didn’t tell her what was magical inside her aura and she couldn’t affect things she didn’t know were there. At the same time, there was a trick Amy mentioned that Sophia was going to try; sometimes, Abilities required each other to unlock but the old Ability didn’t have to be in an Ability slot. If it did need to be there, the Guide would warn you if you tried to remove a required prerequisite.
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There was no warning. Sophia’s addition of Aural MageSense and removal of MageSight went smoothly. It was actually a little disconcerting; she couldn’t turn off her Aural MageSense, though she could manage to not pay attention to it. It was like hearing; the sense couldn’t be closed but that didn’t mean she was always listening. It was also strange to realize that Aural MageSense was significantly shorter range than MageSight, because she couldn’t sense any magic that wasn’t in her aura now that MageSight was gone. Sophia almost reslotted MageSight, even though she knew she had other Abilities she wanted more right now.
Aural MageSense
Feel the magic within your aura.
She still had one slot open and it was the hard one. She didn’t even have to look back at the abilities she’d noted as possibilities earlier; a whole new set of Species Abilities were available and some of them were amazing.
Magical Translucence
You can choose to diffuse magic that strikes you, reducing its effect on you and spreading a weakened effect over a wider area.
She didn’t even have to ask to know that Magical Translucence was good. The only real question was how common magic was. She could easily see it having similar abilities that were either better or possibly shareable at higher levels, as well.
Scaley
Call upon your heritage to gain the scales of your ancestors.
The description didn’t actually say what the scales did, but if they were really dragon scales, Sophia didn’t need to know more. Dragon scales could be broken, but it wasn’t easy.
Manifest Wings
Temporarily create a pair of wings formed of magic that can lift you into the sky.
Sophia wanted to be able to fly. It wasn’t a practical wish, but she still wanted to be able to fly.
Discordant Magic Aura
The magic that surrounds you is yours. It is more difficult for others to cast spells within your aura.
The Ability didn’t sound like it cared whether the other person was an ally or not, but that wasn’t entirely a bad thing. It simply meant she needed to have control of her aura; even if she couldn’t control the discordance, she could always withdraw her aura from around her allies. She’d probably eventually learn to control it. The real question was if it was a permanent addition to her aura or an Ability she had to use; there were advantages and disadvantages for both possibilities.
Magic Sapping Aura
The magic that surrounds you is yours. Drain some of the power from spells within your aura.
Like the discordant aura, the sapping aura didn’t mention a way to exclude spells she didn’t want to weaken. That was worse for the sapping aura; it would drain spells that were cast to air Sophia as well as ones meant to hurt her, and Sophia couldn’t exactly exclude a spell cast on her from her aura. The upside was that it would work even when the spellcaster wasn’t inside her aura. The Ability also didn’t mention where the magic that was drained went; did it simply dissipate in the air and turn into natural magical residue or could Sophia steal some of it for her own mana pool?
It almost didn’t matter what the answer was. Sophia thought the aura was interesting, but she wasn’t going to choose it at this point and would probably never choose it. She expected to overall be aided by magic more than she was hindered, so it would only be hurting herself.
Harmonious Magic Aura
Your magic is in tune with the world around you. It is easier for others to cast spells within your aura.
This Ability was exactly the opposite of the Discordant Magic Aura. Sophia liked it more, and she had to wonder if it was possible to take both and change between them.
Maybe she could learn to manage one or both on her own? She expected that to be extremely difficult, but if she managed it she’d have exactly the sort of fine control she was worried about.
The list of possible auras that could affect magic in one way or another went on and on. She could boost others’ spells, but that one did mention that it cost mana. She could make her aura visibly radiate magic, gently push people away from her, erode their energy, or draw those with false life towards their end. Sophia could fairly easily figure out that all four of those were her elements and sub-elements. She wasn’t impressed.
She could apparently also boost or hinder any specific element or common sub-element with her magic; that list was impressive but also basically useless as far as Sophia was concerned. She wasn’t confident it would be a noticeable change with any elements other than the ones linked to magic; more importantly, Amy didn’t have a preferred element and Dav’s element wasn’t on the list.
After the auras, Sophia only found one more extremely interesting Ability. She had no idea whatsoever when it would be useful, but that made it more interesting.
Prismatic Magic
Split magic into its constituent elements.
There were also four options she’d noted as being possible upgrades from the older list. Two of them were upgrades to her shield, and she simply wasn’t getting hit so they didn’t seem that important. The other two were worth another look.
Warped Breath
Infuse your breath with your Warped element, then exhale to damage your enemies.
Death’s Embrace
There are those that walk the line between life and death. Many are difficult to harm, yet you know the way to bring them to the sweet embrace of death as easily as the living.
Range still seemed like a possible issue for Warped Breath. If it actually had a useful range, like dragon’s breath from the stories, it would be quite useful.
Death’s Embrace would be great if she was fighting things that needed it, but that was why she had the spell True Death Bolt. It probably wouldn’t be as effective, but she also wasn’t fighting those enemies.
With this many good options, Sophia tossed away any notion of moving up to level three immediately. She was definitely buying some more Abilities. The only question was which ones.
They weren’t all the same price, but she was still pretty sure she could work out how many she could get. She had one slot open; if the prices went up the way she expected, she’d definitely be able to afford two slots and three Abilities. Four was only possible if she took Warped Breath, Death’s Embrace, Prismatic Magic, and one of the two shield improvements that she’d already dismissed. Any other set of choices was simply too many Wisps. That meant she had three slots available, not four.