Selvara had really enjoyed her nap. No disasters, no adventurers around... It had just been quiet enough. She had enough faith in Malvorik by now that she trusted him not to get into mischief if she left him alone for a few hours. She walked through the tunnel from her room and opened the door to the heart room.
"What have you done now!"
The floor was covered in silver lines, runes and symbols. Magical energy twitched through the room. Pieces of metal whirled through the room without any recognizable system. Selvara stopped in the doorway. A metal blade cut the air directly in front of her and then continued to swirl in a spiral through the room.
Selvara refrained from answering. Malvorik had never been so short and concise. He sounded extremely focused. She carefully took another step back and watched. The chaos of lightning, magic and metal grew wilder and wilder. When it seemed as if everything was going to explode and Selvara on the verge of slamming the door shut and putting the iron bolt in place.... everything stopped.
For a heartbeat, even the lightning seemed to hang in the air. Then everything was pulled to a point in front of the heart crystal and slammed together. A short sword hung in the room with the blade pointing upwards. Only the hilt was missing. A four-step-long metal rod floated below it. The two connected. Magic runes circled the connection point and more glowing signs flashed on the surface. The staff slid upwards into the underside of the crossguard until only a short piece protruded as a handle. Then only a simple short sword hung in the air. Slowly, it floated to the ground and fell the last handbreadth to the stone floor with a clatter.
"Please wait. Start at the beginning. Is this a magical short sword? Then what was the metal rod for? Did you use the extra mass to make the sword heavier or harder?"
One of the lurking stranglers came waddling into the room and picked up the sword. In his hand, the hilt seemed far too small.
The strangler swung the sword a little and stopped it with a jerk. The blade hissed forward while the handle grew longer and longer. From one heartbeat to the next, the short sword had become a polearm. The blade bent down briefly before the strangler grabbed the pole further up with his other hand and stabilized the weapon.
"A spear?"
Selvara flew down and the strangler held out the blade in both hands for her to examine.
"The handle is round."
"Have you ever heard of blade alignment? How is the user supposed to recognize in which direction the blade is aligned when striking? If it's not exactly right, the blow will bounce off."
"Wait, wait! How did you create a mental link to the carrier? Don't you need some extremely rare crystals for that?"
"Why did they have cerebrum crystals in their bodies?"
"I don't understand. What does that mean?"
Selvara fluttered around the room for a while, thinking.
"And who will you give this blade stick?"
"Of course. I thought he was dead a dozen times. But somehow he wriggled out of every mess."
"Too bad you didn't get any XP for saving the duskgnomes. Maybe that would have been enough for another level as a mage."
The crystal next to her suddenly turned pale.
"Malvorik?"
Previously unread messages from the voice of the world flashed past on the mirror wall. He stopped at one of them.
Quest completed: Save the duskgnomes
Success rate: Significant contribution.
Bonus for long-term accommodation
Reward: 500 XP
Material reward (gold) cannot be applied to dungeon hearts.
Alternative reward required...
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Additional patterns learned:
Simple furniture (chairs, tables, stools, beds)
Simple household items (wooden buckets, wooden plates, wooden spoons, wooden cups)
Simple house components (doors, windows, trap doors, shutters)
Food (gnome bread, trail rations, mushroom stew, mushroom soup, rat goulash)
Malvorik's crystal sparkled with delight.
"Yes, great. We get a horde of gnomes on our doorstep and as a reward for taking them in, you get the necessary interior design patterns."
"Feel free to increase your mage class. More than two levels difference will result in heavy deductions on further XP gains. I don't want that either."
Character class increased: Mage to level 6
Cannot increase mana capacity: Incompatible race.
Cannot increase mana regeneration: incompatible race.
Select Level 3 spell from list...
"Battle magic?"
"I actually meant for me. I don't want to be selfish, but..."
A long list of spells appeared on the mirror. Selvara read through it with increasing confusion.
"I don't understand most of the names. With the others... What's the difference between a firebolt and an ice projectile? There are quite a few spells that sound like battle spells, but which is the strongest?"
"I can tell from your emotions that you don't agree."
"What would you recommend then?"
"Keep it short. No matter how hard I try, I have too little prior knowledge to make a decision here myself."
Selvara thought about it for a moment: "Sounds good. I'll take it."
Spell learned: Level 3 - Frost breath (Layman I)
Malvorik tested the spell and a light blue cone of concentrated cold traveled from the heart crystal across the room towards the entrance of the heart room. Frost spread across the floor where the cone touched it. Flowers of ice covered the stone wall around the door. The rat minotaur looked in through the entrance in alarm, but immediately calmed down at a mental signal from the dungeon heart.
Selvara whistled through her teeth in awe: "Wow. Now let me have a go!"
She concentrated on her familiar connection and the spell also appeared in the list of spells she knew. She carefully read through the detailed description of the spell, flew out of the heart room into the antechamber and beckoned the rat minotaur to take cover behind her. The massive figure shuffled reluctantly into the corner.
Selvara concentrated and cast the spell. As stated in the description, she deliberately exhaled strongly with the last syllable and a cone of cold spread into the room. However, it was much smaller and weaker. Where Malvorik had covered almost half the room with hoarfrost, in her case it was at best a two-step wide area.
Information: The effect of spells of the "Breath" class scales with the size of the user. As a dungeon, Mage Malvorik counts towards the maximum size level and therefore achieves the maximum permitted effect for a level 3 spell.
"That's all right. It's still very practical. At least I can use it near the rest of the group. At least indoors, otherwise it would be far too dangerous."
Select special skill from list...
Malvorik displayed the special skills on the mirror wall. The list was almost endless. Advantages with certain types of spells. More complex artifact possibilities. The ability to create golems, animated armor or flying self-fighting weapons.
Names of special skills appeared on another wall, where he sorted them and kept removing or adding special skills.
"There's no end to it. Mages who don't spend their lives on quests and in dungeons normally only get to level 6. Do they then have to choose six special skills from this endless selection?"
"You did it pretty quickly the first time."
"What will you choose now?"
"That means? Don't make it so exciting."
The voice of thought sounded very self-satisfied. He made the descriptions appear on the mirror wall, where Selvara could study them.
Limited Spell Matrices
Enables the creation of artifacts with spell matrices with spells up to level 2. Spell matrices can also be used by non-mages. The spells used must be defined in all variables and produce a significantly reduced effect. To use them, you only need to say a command word and physically aim the artifact. The artifact drains the required mana from the user, even if he normally has no access to his mana supply.
The mana consumption is adjusted in proportion to the reduced effect.
Predecessor (but not required for) spell matrices.
Spell Matrices
Prerequisite: Mage level 5+
Enables the creation of artifacts with spell matrices with spells up to level 2. The user can use the full scope of the spell cast with all variables.
Can only be used by mages. Requires the utterance of a command word.
Mana consumption increased by one level.
Prerequisite and required for reinforced magic matrices
Reinforced Spell Matrices
Prerequisite: Mage level 6 + and Spell Matrices
Enables the creation of artifacts with reinforced spell matrices with spells up to level 3. The user can use the full scope of the spell cast with all variables. One of the variables can be increased. Can only be used by mages. Requires the utterance of a command word.
The mage must be able to cast spells at least one level higher than the desired level of the artifact spell.
Mana consumption significantly increased.
"Isn't the one in the middle better?"
"What kind of spells do you intend to use for this?”
"How exactly do you imagine that. We're broke. Should Weylan just bludgeon a novice in an alley and steal his grimoire?"
.
"I think Weylan and Trulda are already busy looking for work."