Ch 12: Magic and Mysticism_It Just Works

Larenia gave him a confused look, but shrugged and answered anyway. “It depends. Removing something from a person’s Pocket without them noticing takes skill. If they know you’re trying and actively resist you it’s nearly impossible. On the other hand, if they know and they let you, for whatever reason, it would be simple.”

“Do we have time to stop and let me try to take the Master tome form your Pocket; without you fighting it that is?” Simon asked, looking between Larenia and Hadvar. The Master tome should be worth enough to give him a good amount of Pocketry XP.

Larenia glanced at the nord and shrugged. “It’d be a couple of minutes at most. It’s really not that hard. Unpleasant for me, like the worst itch ever, but not difficult.”

“I don’t see why not,” Hadvar said, stopping and moving to lean against a nearby tree.

“Alright,” Larenia held out her right arm towards Simon. “Take my hand and push your Pocket out through your palm and into mine, like when you first picked up your equipment. Focus on the idea of seeing into me.”

Simon did as he was instructed and, as the there-yet-not-there space that was his Pocket passed into Larenia’s palm, he felt the boundary of a second space.

“Keep pushing,” she said.

There was resistance as he pressed outward. The area where the two Pockets met grew until it was larger than either of their palms. Finally, after around half a minute, something gave and suddenly there was an empty chunk of Pocket which was simultaneously Simon’s and Larenia’s.

“Good, now,” the Master tome appeared in the overlap, “focus on the idea of the tome being yours and pull back.”

He tried once, but the tome didn’t stay in his Pocket; he pushed back in to try again. It was difficult to really see the tome as his, if anything it belonged to Master Sergius’ next of kin. Then again, hidden as it had been beneath the ruins of Helgen, it was unlikely that it would ever have been anyone’s if not for Simon’s game knowledge.

That actually seemed to help, and this time, as he pulled out of Larenia’s Pocket, the Master tome came with him. As his Pocket returned to its normal state, one spell tome richer, he lost control of his limbs and collapsed to the floor. A veritable flood of knowledge, skill and experience raged through his mind, taking up every last scrap of his focus.

Much like experience in a video game, each successive Skill level required a greater degree of mastery than the last for a native to earn it. Simon didn’t know what level his Pocketry had reached but, from the overwhelming torrent of information, he did know that it was high.

Over the course of a minute or so the new knowledge settled in. He knew how to differentiate and store individual grains of sand, how to inspect and raid another person’s Pocket without being noticed, how to forcibly unequip an opponent’s weapons and armour. He even knew several philosophical explorations on the nature of property and ownership that would make it much easier to take things from other’s Pockets.

The instant he regained control of his mind and body, Simon opened his menu. He didn’t even get up first.

[Skills]

Summary

Stage

Body

+180%

Mind

+134%

Health

230/230

Magicka

100/100

Stamina

1340/1340

Warrior

Archery

Two Handed

Block

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

One Handed

Heavy Armour

Smithing

Skill Level

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Skill Level

Skill Bonus

115%

Skill Bonus

Mage

Alteration

Destruction

Restoration

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Illusion

Conjuration

Enchanting

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Thief

Sneak

Locksmithing

Speech

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

95%

Skill Bonus

Light Armour

Pocketry

Alchemy

Skill Level

100

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

75%

Skill Bonus

500%

Skill Bonus

For the first time since arriving in Skyrim, Simon felt honestly disturbed by his own levelling speed. He could feel from the knowledge inserted into his head, just how much time and effort would be involved in reaching level 100. It was the work of a lifetime and he’d done it in minutes.

He tried to look at the options for his second Perk, but he couldn’t see them without choosing his first one, so he closed the menu, a massive grin forming on his face as the time dilation faded.

“Exactly how valuable is a Master spell tome?” Simon asked as he got up.

Larenia shrugged. “Depends where you are. Probably somewhere around 50,000 gold. A bit less in the Summerset Isles or High Rock; a bit more in places like Skyrim. Why?”

“50,000… That would certainly explain how I just got 100 Pocketry levels in one shot.”

“WHAT!?”

“It’s actually much more than I’d need for level 100. I wonder if the excess gets stored for when I unlock Legendary levels…” Simon’s musing was cut short when Larenia grabbed him by the collar of his armour and shook him.

“Explain,” she demanded, staring at him with an almost manic look in her eyes.

He shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say. My blessing is incredibly broken. Although,” he smiled a little as he had a thought, “if you’re interested I could probably help you raise your Pocketry level as well.”

The tiny elf squinted at him, the manic light growing in intensity. “How?”

Simon reached down into the ground with his Pocket. Its base range was 10 centimetres from his skin, which his 500% Skill Bonus expanded to 60. He plucked up a dozen small stones and effortlessly slipped them into Larenia’s Pocket.

“Check your Pocket.” He smirked at her shocked expression. “You try to give them back to me, I’ll try to give you even more. The winner is the person with the fewest stones at the end of the day.”

She frowned. “If you really have level 100, I won’t stand a chance.”

“Ah, but I will have a handicap” Simon said, turning the majority of his attention to the spell tome now stored in his Pocket. “I’ll be learning magic at the same time.”

Before Larenia could object further, he gave her a few more stones using what attention he had to spare. He was still a lot more skilled than her but, with his limited focus, she actually managed to block one.

They set off again, Simon and Larenia trading stones while Hadvar kept them both from tripping over or wandering off; complaining about levelling-maniacs as he did. For Simon’s part, most of his focus was the Master tome. Being able to read and manipulate objects inside his Pocket was a very handy technique.

The first Journeyman spell of the tome was called Jolt. It used a simple spell form consisting of a still image of a lightning bolt connecting a cloud to a small patch of ground. He was able to hold the image in his mind easily enough but, though it didn’t cause a headache like the last spell form he had seen, it left his mind fuzzy and slow.

Regardless, he persevered and formed the second component of the spell over the top of the image. The beam rune used in Jolt was supposedly on the more basic side but it was still an indecipherable mess of squiggly lines, circles and accent-like dashes confined within a square box.

With the mental aspects of the spell complete, Simon followed the instructions of the tome to make a single-burst hand sign, forming a fist with his left hand and holding his thumb against the second bone of his middle finger. He pointed it towards the ground and pushed the tension of arcane weight out through his left arm, benefiting greatly from his Pocketry experience.

Immediately, there was a loud crack and a finger-sized bolt of lightning flew out from his fist to char the earth several feet in front of him.

“Oh, come on,” Larenia griped. “It’s been like five minutes.”

Simon laughed. “What can I say, I’m just that good.”

“Oh, please. If anything, the divines are just that good,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Actually,” Simon replied with a smug grin, “in this particular case, other than my Mind Bonus, it was all me.”

“You’re not joking? Even with a Mind Bonus over 100%, five minutes to cast your first ever spell is insane.”

“I guess I’m just a natural-born Mage.”

“Yeah,” Larenia said, for once looking genuinely impressed. “Yeah, you are.”

“Huh,” Simon frowned, taken aback, “that suddenly puts the Mage Perk well in front of the other two. Especially with my crap Physique.”

“Perk?” Larenia asked.

“The other part of my blessing. Every third Stage, as well as Stage 1, I get to pick one of three Perks that give me a boost in power. The Stage 1 Perks affect a fifth of all the rest so I’ve been holding off. The Warrior is a writeoff given my Physique, and The Mage is looking increasingly preferable to The Thief.”

“The Mage. Take The Mage, it’s objectively the right choice.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Hadvar cut in.

Larenia snorted. “With his levelling speed he’ll be the toughest Mortal being before long. It’s not about honourable Warriors vs bookworms; at the highest levels, the sheer power and versatility of magic combined with an insane Health pool is objectively better than stabbing things real good.”

“Just to check,” Simon asked as Hadvar all but pouted, “high level magic does deal good Damage right?” The damage scaling for the game’s magic was rubbish, but this Skyrim’s magic system was very different.

Larenia looked almost offended. “If an official Master of Destruction burned all of their Magicka at once, they could deal over 20,000 Damage in a single spell.”

“Well that settles it then.”

Simon opened his menu and selected The Mage.

Ch 12: Magic and Mysticism

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