The sky was a matte gray. Zanie said that there were supposedly storms headed in, but the clouds looked smooth and mundane and there was no wind to speak of. How she came by the information that there were storms rolling in, Jeremy had no idea. Traditional weather forecasting was impossible now, so maybe people had turned back to older ways like reading almanacs. Or maybe someone had figured out a spell for it, although Jeremy doubted that given how complex that would probably be.
Magic was so easy, yet so difficult. One could summon a flame with a mere thought, practical applications seemed to rapidly spiral into impossibilities. It made sense. Magic was not some mystical thing that just worked. It was a practice. Everyone could draw a line on a piece of paper, but it takes years to be able to create a photorealistic drawing.
After they had parted ways with the slime incident yesterday, they returned to the hotel for some rest. Zanie had woken from her nap in the cop’s car just fine, but they decided to go back to where they knew there was a bed, especially if storms were rolling in. She went back to sleep almost immediately. Jeremy assumed Hazel had done the same thing, because he had disappeared into his room not to be seen until they left this morning.
At some point he had re-cast the translation spell, though. Now they were walking along the road, past where the slime incident had occurred, following the line of stark, bare utility poles in hopes of tracking back the slimes’ route. At the end, Jeremy hoped they might find a dungeon that was putting them out, where they could perhaps find some crystals.
He was interested in their capacity to store information, but he was more interested in their capacity to fuel an enchantment, since the scan spell seemed to be rapidly spiraling in complexity. Adding in a modifier to translate the runes into English, or whatever language the caster spoke, made it difficult for them at level one to cast, as he had discovered last night while messing around. It simple was not practical to cast a spell to gauge the level of a potential enemy right before a fight if you then needed to take a nap to recover from it.
It had been interesting to read the translations of all of the different runes that Jeremy was unable to see with his own sight – the attributes as Hazel referred to them.
“Hazel,” he asked. “What exactly are the attributes?”
Hazel, who was walking right in the center of the road on the double yellow line with no fear and Atticus perched on his shoulder, pursed his lips and inhaled deeply. It was fair for him to walk in the middle of the road. While it was not blocked off the way the freeway had been, they rarely ever saw a car.
“They are…” Hazel paused while thinking. Perhaps this was another one of those things that was so incredibly basic that actually putting it into words was difficult, because to him it was intuitive. “…everything that you are.”
He was not doing a very good job of explaining it. Jeremy frowned and tried to think of a better question so that he might get a better answer.
“So, I understand that the Unique Personality Traits – or gifts as you call them – are denoting something specific to each person.” He said, although it was possible for people to have the same ones if having an affinity was common. “How is that different from the attributes?”
“Well,” Hazel said. “A Unique Personality Trait is a…sort of an attribute of its own, although not really. The attributes are something that everyone has that you increase every time you – as you put it – level up.”
“Hang on,” Caleb said from behind them, “I thought leveling up gave you more mana? And that was why we were able to cast more spells and more complex spells.”
Hazel hummed, “Well, not exactly. Practicing makes you more efficient at casting spells, but does not widen the pool of your reserves very much. This is something that happens constantly.”
Jeremy understood what he meant by that. People’s overlays were constantly shifting in color as they practiced and he had already come to the conclusion that they increased the amount of spells they could cast before exhaustion even before technically leveling.
“Leveling, or breaking through to the next realm, is more a matter of increasing your attributes.” Hazel turned to raise his eyebrows at all of them. “You have already done this, how were you not aware?”
“Well,” Jeremy defended, “we are just figuring things out as we go. And I did not even know the attributes existed until a couple of nights ago. So, what exactly do you mean by they are something everyone has?”
He knew that the runes stood for things like Dexterity, Wisdom, and Luck. It was fairly obvious that they were simply the things that made up a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual ability, but he was not sure exactly what Hazel meant by them increasing when you leveled. Wouldn’t those things be fairly static, or if they were not, wouldn’t they also increase incrementally just like efficiency at using mana did?
Before Hazel could answer his original question, he amended it, “I understand what they are, I suppose what I am trying to ask is what do you mean they increase each time you level?”
“Well, depending either on what you have been practicing, or if your leveling is controlled – which yours obviously was not – three of your attributes increase each time you level.” Hazel said, which sounded a whole lot like just repeating what he had already said. Jeremy huffed in frustration and looked off to the side.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I think I get it,” Caleb interjected again. “Are you saying that when you level up, you literally get a boost in…” He was obviously thinking back to try and remember the attributes he and Jeremy had seen last night. “…endurance or luck or something? Like your luck literally gets better.”
“Yes,” Hazel nodded. “That is what I am saying.”
“Damn, that’s cool.” Caleb said. “Jeremy, I think you should try to increase your intelligence some.”
“Haha,” Jeremy intoned.
“I believe Caleb is teasing you,” Hazel said in all seriousness, “but it would not be a bad idea to increase your intelligence, especially given that you have the sight and that you are trying to become a spell forger.”
A spell forger. Jeremy liked the sound of that. But he was focused in on another detail of what Hazel had said.
“You talk as if it is something that you can control, but when we leveled up there was nothing to even indicate that there were attributes, let alone how to choose one versus the other.” He said to Hazel.
“Well, in the case of studies, such as when you are in schooling,” Hazel said, “You simply meditate in order to channel into which attributes you wish to increase with each practice session. There is always a practical practice, paired with an intentional meditation.”
Jeremy thought back to the Council’s meditation practices and wondered if they had actually perhaps been onto something.
“This is, of course, only necessary if you are attempting to increase a specific attribute to which the activities you are practicing are not specific.” Hazel expanded, “For example, if you are practicing sparring and you wish to increase your dexterity, there is no true need to meditate. But if you are focusing on increasing your faith, then it would be necessary to redirect that experience after the sparring session.”
Jeremy rubbed his forehead. If the scan spell was meant to help people with leveling up, as well as understanding the levels of the creatures and potential enemies around them, this was actually a very important aspect. Trying to create this spell was like trying to conduct a scientific experiment – even when he got an answer, it seemed to lead to more questions. He developed one part of the spell and it seemed to lead to another that needed development.
While perhaps a bit of a headache, the idea that the scan spell would not only display and record people’s efficiency at casting spells, but also all of these other attributes would make controlling their increases much easier. After all, Jeremy, Caleb, and Zanie, may have been able to be more deliberate about the way they leveled if they had at least known the attributes were a thing.
He definitely needed to include the modifiers for people to be able to see their attributes, including translating the runes and showing the progress of each numerically instead of as a color like they had been last night. Once he had that complete, hopefully tonight, the spell would probably be good enough for Zanie to send out in the first newsletter with the caveat that it was in an experimental stage as was not applicable for practical use, even for those at level one.
Or higher if what Hazel said was true and their mana pool really did not expand as they gained experience. The only people who would ever have an easy time casting the spell would be those practiced as illusion magic. Suddenly the thought struck him that he might not be practiced enough himself to actually enchant the mana crystals with the scan spell the way he intended to.
The spell itself, with all of the modifiers, along with the enchantment runes, along with the runes to direct the spell to not only display an output but record the data within the mana crystal sounded out of his reach. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh.
“What’s wrong with you?” Caleb asked, interrupting the bit of conversation he and Hazel had continued having while Jeremy spiraled into his thoughts.
“I’m just wondering if I’ve bit off more than I can chew with this spell,” he said morosely. “I’m thinking that it’s getting too complex to actually be feasible.”
Hazel actually barked out a laugh, which was startling in and of itself, because Jeremy was not sure he’d heard the elf actually laugh yet. Chuckle a bit, and sometimes appear amused, but not outright laugh.
“I apologize,” he said when he composed himself. “It is just that I find it incredibly refreshing and sometimes surprising to watch you humans learn about magic. This spell of yours is hardly all that complex. It is creative, for sure. In all the history of my world, we have not thought to create something so simple as a spell that allows you to visualize and track your progress. But it is not terribly complex - as of yet. Do not become discouraged.”
“But I don’t think we’ll even be able to enchant a crystal at this point,” Jeremy pointed out. “I mean, Caleb can’t even enchant a bag of holding yet.”
“You see, this is what I find so amusing,” Hazel shook his head with a grin. “A bag of holding is actually an incredibly difficult enchantment that only advanced practitioners can manage, simply because of its structure. Because all of its components are so interwoven that it must be cast all at once, among other challenges.”
“Even for someone like me?” Caleb asked.
“Of course,” Hazel glanced over his shoulder at him, “Just because you are able to use spatial magic, does not mean you are practiced at enchanting, and that is what really matters.”
“So, wait,” Zanie piped up for the first time since the conversation had begun. “Are you saying that the structure of the scan enchantment means it would not have to be cast all at once like that?”
“Correct,” Hazel told her. “With a bag of holding, you are creating an object with properties. Your enchantment, however, is not necessarily giving an object property, but creating a display and storing information, correct? So, you can create the enchantment piece by piece and when it is actually utilized, it will progress through the enchantment piece by piece, but still show the full display at the end. Does that make sense.”
Zanie nodded enthusiastically.
“In fact,” Hazel said, “While we are looking for crystals to use, you could begin the enchantments.”
“How would we be able to begin the enchantments without the crystal?” Jeremy asked. “Aren’t we enchanting the crystal?”
“Well, that is not how I would go about it,” Hazel said. “You want to use the crystals to store information and to power the enchantment, correct? Again, it is not like you are giving the crystals a property, you are simply using them as an aspect of the spell. I would suggest carving the enchantment onto something and inlaying the crystals in the array.”
He held his arm out and shook it so that the bracelets around his wrists jostled around. For the first time Jeremy took a good look at them and realized that the beads and woven leather had runes carved into them as well as crystals inlaid. Jeremy palmed his forehead and sent up a prayer of thanks to whatever old god was listening that he had run into this very useful elf.