It was the calm before the storm.
Auvanini was more Europe-sized to the gigantic Eurasia-too-small proportions of Pekothas. That caused Kingdoms to be small, trade to be frequent, and army march times to be short.
I took a leave from the Academy to grind my Proficiencies to the extreme before the fight. I needed to be in top shape before Sadian's army arrived. That wasn't the hardest part. Nenandil and Phyllis had to convince the lamias to stay in their quarters. That begged the question of who would defend Windemere, but we all knew it was me.
The tricky part would be to defend Windemere without revealing myself. I had just the thing if I could get that [Spellcaster] proficiency up, using up the fast-growth points I earned from Vukdon.
I learned that the difficulty to increase a Proficiency was proportional to the number of Abilities but not linear. It grew harder to increase a point the further away you were from zero. Fast-growth divided the difficulty factor, the number of Abilities, by two. That more than doubled the point acquisition speed but it was still hard work.
During the months I spent enchanting and grinding Exp for the girls, I got a several points of Proficiency all around.
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Leadership [ 293 / 329 ]. Select 2 Abilities:
* Self-Teaching: When teaching a subject, you accrue Proficiency training at a (Proficiency/8)% rate.
* Inspiring Presence: Up to (Proficiency/2) combatants under your command gain (Proficiency/90) Endurance and Willpower.
--> Self-teaching was self-explanatory. Teach others, learn something in return. Personal attribute bonuses usually grant (P/50) to a single stat. This gave (P/90) to two, across a lot of people. The scaling effect was great even though the bonus was minimal.
Jeweler (*) [254 / 283]. Select 3 Abilities
* Arcane Manipulation: Reduce (Proficiency/4)% of the penalties to craft jewelry using only magical effects.
* Gem Polish: Gems you cut and polish can hold (Proficiency/5)% more enchanting potential.
* Core Cutting: You can cut Magic Cores into gemstones. Retain (Proficiency/4)% of the Core shard's potential.
--> Sometimes a full core is either too big or too much for an enchantment. At 400 Proficiency, the cut would be lossless. However, the other gemstone potential multipliers were also applied.
Enchanter[ 498 / 528 ]. Select 1 Ability:
* Concentrated MP: You can enchant items to grant Base MP to the wearer.
--> Base MP is worth more than normal MP. With my current Status, I gained 29,700 MP per point of base MP. Since I just gained the 30 fast-growth points from the Quest, I had to convert them into actual Proficiency.
Appraiser (*) [249]. Select 1 Ability:
* Mass Appraise: You can appraise up to (Proficiency/5) targets at the same time.
--> Ridiculously useful for mass combat.
Combat Technique [197 / 275]. Select 2 Abilities:
* Multiattack III: You can execute up to (Proficiency/80) extra attacks at the same time. Add up the base damage.
* Multiattack IV: [...] (Proficiency/70) extra attacks [...]
--> Quantity has its own quality.
Mobility [ 281 / 348 ]. No new Abilities
Furtivity [ 628 / 661 ]. No new Abilities
Mental Mastery [ 564 / 619 ]. No new Abilities
Cartographer [ 254 / 315 ]. No new Abilities
Diplomat[ 433 / 489 ]. No new Abilities
Musician [276]. No new Abilities
--> Every little point counted. I'm playing the longest game.
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Not only Proficiencies, but I also earned eight levels grinding in the Dungeon. Getting the girls to level up their five paths then fuse all of them it was harder than I thought.
> You reached Half-Dvergar Half-Zenko-Kitsune level 18
>
> You gained 4 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 2 Endurance, 1 Mind, 1 Willpower, 1 Charisma, 1 Magic, 1 Ego, 2 Luck, and 1 Soul.
>
> You gained 2 rank 3 species Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 6 Attribute Points
>
> You reached Grandmaster Crafter level 18
>
> You gained 2 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 2 Endurance, 1 Mind, 3 Willpower, 2 Magic, and 1 Luck.
>
> You gained 2 rank 3 Class Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 6 Attribute Points.
I put nine points in Strength, to get the {Pinnacle} Perk, then dumped the other seven in Luck.
> * Pinnacle of Strength: Increase the physical damage bonus per point of Strength to 3%. Knockback moves you half the distance. You can lift 100% more weight. At the pinnacle, this Attribute cannot be involuntarily lowered.
>
> You gained the perks,
>
> * Zenko Wisdom (ultra-rare). You gain +2 Mind and Willpower. You learn proficiencies 10% faster.
> * Shrine Guardian (very rare): You can designate a place as your ward. Your magic is 25% stronger when defending this place. You can only change your designated ward after a year.
> * Grandmaster's Pace (ultra-rare): Your crafting speed is (Dexterity +50)% faster.
> * Grandmaster's Patience (ultra-rare): You can deliberately craft at a tenth of the speed to improve the item quality by two full steps.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Attribute bonuses are always worth a Perk pick. Especially with added benefits. The 10% compounds with my general learning rate, going from 289.90% to 318.89% for weapons and technical proficiencies and from 241.58% to 265.74% for physical and mystical. {Shrine Guardian} couldn't cover all of Windemere, but this Perk triggered another combination.
> The Perks, Home Ground (rare), Shrine Guardian (very rare), Reef Home (rare), Improved Home Ground (very rare), and Stalwart Defender (rare) combined into:
>
> * Homeland Defender (combined): When defending your homeland and within 5 kilometers of its borders, you gain 20% damage reduction, evasion, accuracy, damage bonus, and increased spell effect. You can designate or change your homeland only after you've lived for 10 years in that country.
> Level 156
>
> Strength*: 77+23 (100) / 104 - Dexterity*: 71+31 (102) / 104 - Endurance*: 80+24 (104) / 104
>
> Mind*: 79+36 (115) / 104 - Willpower*: 76+31 (107) / 104 - Charisma*: 91+12 (103) / 104
>
> Magic*: 104+43 (147)
>
> Ego*: 82+32 (114) / 104 - Luck: 61+22 (83) / 104 - Soul: 41+22 (63) / 104
>
> HP 95.260.586 (1.322.756 HP/s)
>
> Energy 73.586.475 (131.349 E/min)
It wasn't the few-hundred-something million HP Snowdrop had but I had a crafter build. And no size bonus to HP.
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I activated my {Mana Wellspring} at full power inside Windemere. Just as I intended to put subordinate enchantments around the city that would yield to the cathedral one where they overlapped, all of them yielded to the original Perk when it was active. With the influx of the excess MP regeneration of hundreds of spellcasters, I started to train my magic in earnest.
Underneath the Academy, I hollowed out a room and installed one of the resonance synchronization enchantments like in the Arena, but without the measuring bullshit. This one was also mentally controlled by the users, so they could excuse themselves and lose the protection anytime. Finally, we hogged Marlowe for ourselves. The girls were with me because I would teach them while I trained my own magic, in hopes of stacking the multipliers.
"You might be the most skilled [Spellcaster] in the world, miss [Master of Magic], but your spell selection is lackluster. You win your fights, but often it is by overpowering the enemy. It's time to change it!" The cantankerous cloth golem berated me. "You won't gain much by casting spells, but I bet you'll gain Proficiency at an accelerated pace if you design some. You have an advantage because you follow several traditions. You can create an effect through {Sorcery} and then translate it into a {Wizardry} diagram."
Maybe he was right. The first thing I did was to reveal all twenty of my tails.
"How do they even stay connected to her ass," Marisol wondered from a safe distance. I wouldn't leech her MP from that far away.
With this many Affinities, I had to try and combine all of them. Facing a slab of enchanted stone tuned to my resonance frequency so the manga-esque trope of destroying the "impenetrable" training barrier didn't happen, I started on my newest spell designs.
The first one was a combination of all my combat Affinities. The eight Elements, Force, Shadow, Illusion, Nature, and Necromancy. The spell should create dozens of rays for each Affinity and shoot them randomly in a cone in front of me. The beams would move around, making sure anyone in the spell's area of effect would be hit by many of them. Each beam should have its own individual effect and resistance test. The MP cost wasn't an issue at this point. Once it was converted into a spell diagram, it could be fine-tuned but discovering this diagram was the problem. A [Wizard] could take weeks, months, or even years of research. As a [Sorcerer], I could just brute-force my mental image into reality through sheer Willpower.
Anyone who played that famous pen and paper RPG game knows which spell I "created".
"Prismatic Spray!" Millions of Energy rushed out of me and into the mental image I had. A laser show of kaleidoscopic lights, shooting from my hand. The spell became reality only with heavy System assistance. Immediately after, I used another Perk.
"Gah! My eyes," the sensitive cat-kin complained with her hands over her face.
"Arcane Imprint!"
I needed only four percent of the air intake of a person my size and yet this massive spell left me winded. I overlaid an illusion of the diagram on top of the one floating in the Ethereal so the people without extradimensional senses could see it.
"Moderation is not a word you are familiar with, miss Stouthammer," Marlowe remarked as he studied the ridiculously big spell circle.
"I can't believe how powerful is the [Matriarch]'s magic!" Melania fangirled [1].
"I can't believe how wasteful is the [Matriarch]'s magic!" Marlowe derided. "[Sorcerers]!" He triumphantly snorted.
"How many MP did this spell cost?" Mirina asked.
"A bit more than six million," I replied.
"Yes, we're bringing this cost down to near the hundred thousand mark," the [Archmage] decided. "Each one of you should raise your own Wall of stone! Engrave the best copy of this diagram you can. Miss Haru, you'll assist your fellow classmates in fixing any mistakes in the glyph sequence. Remember to isolate your MP pools so you don't accidentally cast it while you engrave!"
Exercises upon exercises. However, it was worth it. By the end of the day, we'd refined the {Prismatic Spray} spell to half a million MP and nobody suffered any mishaps. I converted three points of fast growth into [Spellcaster] proficiency.
The next morning, we conveyed back to our training area.
"Today, we are fine-tuning the {Prismatic Spray} to cost a hundred thousand MP, more or less ten thousand," Marlowe instructed. "The spell is functional as is, although we can get more efficiency in damage-per-MP spent if we tune it down. While we will end up with a weaker spell, a magical duel is decided by either overwhelming power or resilience."
He then explained my time in Kel'Caldor's trap as an example of both, since the massive disintegrate spell he used would've ended me if my familiars hadn't taken the hit for me.
"A cost-effective spell can be cast twice, five times, or several. With [Wizard] Perks such as {Rapid Casting}, {Repeated Casting}, and {Reuse Diagram}, you could even use five hundred thousand MP in what may seem like a single casting to deal a lot more damage," He oriented as we worked on several downsized combinations of glyphs to get into that sweet spot he mentioned.
Each of us had our own diagram but we collaborated. The end product would be only one spell diagram with the best insights we could muster. I worked on mine but also helped the other girls with theirs, to get the teaching bonus.
Another day, another two [Spellcaster] proficiency points and two in [Leadership]. Four before I could pick the next Ability. My classmates, however, were gaining Proficiency in leaps and bounds. Not only their scores were lower and way easier to improve than mine.
As we took another three days to finish the spell, I could compare our gains to reverse-engineering the formula for Proficiency training.
> Effort per point = (1+Current Proficiency/15)^3/2 [2].
At my current level, each point required more than 300 times more effort than someone just starting to learn how to fling spells. Anyway, I finally reached the next milestone. I was split between two choices for the Ability. {Tradition Conversion}, which helped translate a spell from one tradition to the other, and the one I picked.
> Spellcaster (**) [ 692 / 711 ]. Select one Ability.
>
> * Multi-Targeting: You can assign up to (Proficiency/5) targets for your spells in the time usually required for one.
This would be invaluable for the upcoming mass battles. With {Prismatic Spray} finished with a base cost of 90,000 MP, we started on the next project. Instead of a spell, it was a modifier addon to the diagram that would enhance the spell adding another effect. Inspired by the cluster missiles back on Earth, it was made to take advantage of my new Ability.
Despite being more complex than a brand new spell as we had to rely heavily on Marlowe's theory of modular diagram design, this also took five days but only granted me seven points of Proficiency, leaving me one point short of the magical seven hundred. It was frustrating. I had to use principles of functional programming to expand the diagram as the addon rewrote and copied the spell on its own.
"This is scary," Marlowe remarked at the finished diagram addon.
"Yes. I'm calling it 'Multiple Independent Targeting Hexes'. It can't only deliver curses, but it will make my enemies curse a lot. I'll call it MITH because the full name is a mouthful."
"Just staring at it gives me headaches," Camilla whined.
"Give us a demonstration!" Jocelin shouted.
"{Shadow Workshop}!" I splurged and summoned two hundred mannequins to be the target dummies. Then I cast the spell, "{MITH Force Javelin Volley}!" The damn diagram was hard to draw on the fly and was a big one, almost as tall as I was. As mana infused the {Wizardry} diagram, the addon expanded to cover the original one with copies on both sides, then more copies of the basic {Force Javelin} spell in concentric circles all around the two copies. I marked all the mannequins and fired the spell.
The circles became larger javelins and the magic projectiles shot toward the targets. Mid-flight, they broke down into smaller javelins and spread out into several volleys, skewering the poor shadow constructs dozens of times each.