> Okay, so; Magic names, specifically magic types. Like seriously, where did the name 'Pyromancy' even come from? No really, I heard it came from some divine language created along with the world ten-thousand years ago. But considering I heard it from an untrustworthy source, I can't help but doubt it.
>
> But anyways, that's not important, not at all. Where a name came from has never mattered, ever, including the meanings of names- No one cares about that, at least I don't, and I am the base-line for opinions. So, it doesn't matter, at all- But what is important, is that I can't find an easy way to name new magic! I've been playing around with a new mana attribute, Astral mana, an attribute born from the mixing Lunar, Solar and Stellar attributes to one single aspect.
>
> So, I can't find a name for it, the magic using astral mana. Lunar has 'Lunomancy', Solar has 'Solomancy' and Stellar has 'Lumomancy'... If only Lunar and Solar were used, then I could somehow find how to piece together a name if I really accepted that I was a nerd and committed to my own ego death, and accept 'Astromancy' as a proper name. But that just doesn't work!
>
> So, I have decided and will also now declare the new naming system for magic!
>
> First of all, let's stop with the '-omancy' shit, something a bit more... Simple at the end of each name, let's go with... 'Magic'. Yep, that'll be dumbed down enough that even the spiritually crippled can understand it. I kind of have to at least do something for the people I used to experiment on with
>
> Second of all, as you could see from the previous line, yep. The name of the attribute? Just put that before 'Magic', and boom! New magic made; '
>
> And if you're really that attached to the old names, then you can just use them instead of the 'High-' series. So, use '
-Exerpt from 'New names for a new age' Written by 'Lucaric Ba'alhos', the mad god.
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Andrew, the {Mad wizard}, slowly opened his eyes; his mind hazy.
But even then, he was confused as his woozy mind controlled his body to look around to the vibrant forest lacking any sign of civilization. Though he soon found his eyes drawn to cloud of gray smoke and mist, more specifically how reality seemed to strain in the figure's presence. It felt... Familiar, but Andrew's dreamy state seemed to stop him from remembering anything specific.
The figure raised its hand, and started to chant- Showing either a lack of familiarity with the spell it attempted to cast, a lazy nature, or a lack of talent "O' spirit of flame, obey my call. O' spirit of water, yield to my call. O' spirit of earth, heed my call. O' spirit of wind, hear my call. I, as the minister of magic, demand your support in suppressing my foes and trampling those who dare rival me. Form into a grand array of conflicting elements, destined to implode, and fated to defy order; Elemental hegemony!"
Though the chant was normal, and foreign to, his ears. Andrew was still surprised, specifically with its effects as the four base elements simultaneously through arcane command, mixing to a single large sphere of elemental chaos. Though, strangely, it did not manifest madness as the quartet of attributes intermingled.
It was madness- No, it was... Weird.
From what he knew, you either had to keep mana types that would form madness when combined separate, or mix them together as madness before shooting it off. But this 'Person'- Though he wasn't sure who- Was somehow able to mix to their heart's content without any repercussion.
But it wasn't over, as the ball quickly compressed to a denser as the mist-born man said "Hey, spirits, I think I told you to do your job. Don't you dare slack off, or I'll come over to the spirit realm and break your legs personally."
'???' The words quickly reached the dreamer's little brain, who just recently gotten a wake-up call 'What?!'
"Still being lazy? Well, I did hear that spirit souls are a delicacy, I'll treat the four of you to some- On a totally unrelated note, do you any of you have a relative or four?" Once again, the mystical sphere of four elements shrunk.
Andrew expected another to threatening line, but instead the figure shot it out without even the slightest of warnings, flying with maddening speeds.
Before he could even react, it had already caused an explosion miles away. Turning his head to face the epitome of destruction, the fall out of a spell far beyond what his young soul had ever recognized, coating the nearby world a crimson-orange. Every tree, every stone, everything- Even the land itself- Seemed to tremble as the chaotically attributed remnants of a distant mountain were casually distributed to the fellow mountains in its range.
The pinnacle of magic, the zenith of power, absolute hegem- "Ahh~ I put so much effort into that, and it didn't even destroy an entire mountain range... Ugh, but the efficiency..."
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The shock had directly woken him up 'What was that?'
He had dreams before, yes, but it wasn't as if he remembered them often. Especially not so clearly, or so strangely, but, well; He could ask the elder about it.
But it wasn't as if he could do it right away, it was still early morning. The sun hadn't even come over the horizon yet, he would have to wait for a while. But just waiting was very boring, seeing that he had a bit of money stored up from selling slime nuclei to the crafter couple that came along with a merchant caravan a day or two ago.
They seemed to have been trying to set up a stall near the dungeon entrance, though Andrew wasn't exactly sure what their classes were. But still, he had free time 'Here's hoping one of them is an lark.'
After tidying up his act, putting on his clothes and eating some smoked meat, Andrew freshened up and found himself ready for the newly lit world infront of him with full clarity.
Though his house, and the rest of the village, weren't exactly close to the dungeon and the new outpost being built up there at rapid pace by {Builder}s and their variants. It was somewhat entertaining to just watch the adventurers cough up for the negligable fee newly set up by the owner of the 'Guest house', which was originally to either house outsiders who've yet to have a house built or used to punish children by certain households... It wasn't comfortable from what he heard.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And the fact that a good amount of people were still bleeding silver for it was slightly uplifting, for Andrew, not the poor souls probably sleeping on the floor with four others with the stink of piss drowning everything else out. Though, sadly for the owner of the Guest house, there did seem to be some plans in the works for a new inn, from what he heard from the adventurer friends made in the big expedition.
With coin bag at his side, he steeled his heart against all haggling skills, and pushed on with a heavy heart.
As he walked over to the outpost destined to become a proper dungeon town or city if the dungeon survived long enough for it, he took a moment to look at all the random stalls set up about between the few construction sites and even fewer completed wood and stone buildings.
Most of them were unmanned and lacking in goods, since not many people woke up at the very crack of dawn. He didn't either, normally, but things happen.
Though it did seem he wasn't the only one, seeing from the adventurer's guild having lighting on in a few rooms- Probably from a candle or something like that. Though seeing that the only proper stall, with a proper table and items loosely arrayed in a visible manner, was open. Andrew instantly recognized the man manning it, the husband of that crafter couple he had met a day or so ago.
There were a trio of metallic helms with accents of a light purple, a few daggers and other metallic weapons along with a few bows and iron-headed arrows.
"Hi, nice to see you again- Was it Andrew?"
Andrew flinched slightly at the sudden, and somewhat awkward, attempt to talk to him. It seemed his silent perusal of the man's goods wasn't as inconspicuous as he had thought "-Uh, yes."
"Haha," The weirdly wide-awake crafter laughed cheerfully "Well, good to see a fellow wide awake at the wee hours, anything catch your eye kid?"
Andrew pondered for a moment "Well, if I had to ask, what is it with the helmets?" It was kind of strange that there were helmets but no other armour, when the most danger from a regular slime was it jumping on you, and it wasn't as if some normal metal was going to protect someone from magical acid. Maybe normal acid, yes, but not the acid that adventurer's were dealing with. And it wasn't as if he could just peruse its information with a use of
"Oh, I made a few with some of the slime cores, they ward off the acid." The... From what Andrew could just piece out blacksmith seemed confident in his words.
But that confidence wasn't enough to convince him, who knew if they were just metal and the talk about nuclei- Which some people liked to call 'Slime cores', which was objectively wrong- Was just that, talk "Umm... Really?"
The blacksmith seemed a little peeved at the young one's words, though still somewhat understanding seeing from his own response "If you don't believe me, take a look if you can, or bring a friend that can."
"..." Andrew's eyes couldn't help but shift with suspicion, it could be a bluff since inspecting-type skills weren't that common "If you say so..."
Acid-resistant iron helmet Common
A standard helmet with a classic design, slightly altered through use of a slime nuclei to resist magically-charged acidity.
Weakness; Non-acidic magic.
'Huh, it is real.' He couldn't help but think in slight shock, a bit embarrassed, and even a slight bit peeved that
"What do you think? Great right?"
From what Andrew could see, the helmet was priced at a total of 7200 andrus... Seeing that I have more than thirty thousand, and I don't have a use outside of it... I can afford it "It's great, I'd say it's worth every drop of silver."
The somewhat burly man couldn't help but prop up in pride "You've got a good eye kid, unlike certain people." He did seem to show a bit of... From what he could see, a mix of resentment and annoyance, even if the resentment was barely noticable.
He took another look, just to make sure of the price, and started to ruffle through his coin bag silently 'Let's see... What was a thousand again, I think it was the silver one? Well, I guess that's right considering it was the most valuable coin I got.' Andrew took out a total of eight silver coins "I don't have the space for eighty coins right now, so keep the change."
Though it seemed Andrew's wishes were not that important "Nonsense, I won't take pity. Give me a moment please..." The man took the coins before scrummaging behind the table, hidden by the make-shift wooden add-ons "Ah, here you are."
Andrew suddenly had a new pouch forced into his hands, the perks of being a high level really showing. He was only level 3 right now, not really a peak specimen, slimes weren't the best for leveling "Here, eighty bronze coins and a sack to store 'em, I'm not accepting any charity from a kid."
Andrew took a moment to process, but quickly accepted- It would be rude not to "Well, thanks, can I have the helmet now?"
"Say no more, take it."
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Zera watched from her office, through the glass-less window, at the 'Edge' of what may be called a 'Town'. There she could see the major share holders of the most recent caravan negotiate, with Thalos of all people.
He had instantly started to prepare the moment he saw them coming over the horizon- Actually he didn't see them coming at first, one of the adventurers helpfully informed him while he socializing early in the day.
She might've thought he might actually start being responsible for a change, but then he bought a helmet made of basic, non-magical, iron. It wasn't even a full head piece, just a basic helmet costing a good bit too much.
Even if it was the inexperienced Norman taking the wheel, she'd feel more assured. Thalos was overly active and didn't think before doing something, just like with the dungeon and now too. He was probably either going to fumble the ball and destroy relations, or take up an unreasonable deal. Even if he came from a high and mighty guildmaster's family, some people just weren't made for politics.
She shook her head, and nervously thought to herself how to somehow fix Thalos' mess. He may be able to do paper work, but that never equivocated to actual management ability.
After she finally got an idea, a minute or two later, she looked back and saw Thalos and said merchant drinking it up full with cheer. It was obvious what happened, Thalos got ripped off. Definitely, Zera couldn't reason any way for a merchant to be handling him so joyfully. That would be a lot harder to handle compared to Thalos completely offending him, a lot harder.
'-Oh, my lord Cel.' Zera, now about three hours later, saw a pile of coins on her desk that Thalos had set down.
"D-Did you steal these?" She asked with honest shock easily plastered on her face, either it was from his personal stash, or he had stolen them. There was no middle ground.
Thalos, seemingly offended, reprimanded her "What do you think I am? No! It's royalty fees from the merchants, why do you think I let them use the front? Didn't we need money? Or were you just lying?"
Zera was instantly frozen 'He actually negotiated payment?!' This was honestly unprecedented for her "Tell me the details, right now."
"You aren't hearing it with that attitude."
"...Please?"
Thalos shook his head "Not good enough, I'd like an apology for your blatant transgressions against my good name."
He was messing with her, it was impossible he wasn't, she could just see it from his confident- Though small- smirk.
...She wasn't doing it.
"Fine, be that way." Thalos shrugged, very obviously a bit disappointed at her very forced poker face.
He walked over and to the helmet he had just put down, putting it on with weird familiarity "-Oh, and also, I'm setting up another expedition in a day or two; And you can't do anything to stop me~"
Though he himself couldn't see it after he turned around to leave, a few cracks started to show in Zera's perfect mask of calm.