Shrink Touch - Early. Journeyman Rank. Various mana cost. Bigger ain't better if yer gonna be liftin' it up! Touch and infuse a creature or an object with your mana to isolate and affect the area it occupies within Space. Infusion costs [target's mana pool + (volume / 250m²)] mana with an additional mana cost of [volume shrinked / MAtk] mana. The effect lasts for [MAtk] seconds or until damaged.
Thank you!
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"Well," the girl began talking. "I'm Gwen, Gwen Schneider. And this is my brother Glenn Schneider. We are..." she regaled us with their life story. An extraordinarily gifted pair of twins that was born with both extraordinarily good looks and bright intelligent minds. The optimum results of a transnational marriage between the most beautiful actress in all of Asia and the most successful Businessman in the US that year. Unfortunately, human lives are fickle indeed, subjected to the whims of something greater. A major business opportunity, a plane that lifts off but never landed, and all they've known their whole lives came tumbling down.
Orphaned at a young age.
Their dreamy life under the wing of the mightiest predators came-a-tumbling down. As multiple someones once said; the higher they fly the harder they fall. Its one thing having all the talents and good looks when you're under the protection of people high above. It is another matter all together when said protection is lost. Envied for their talents, lusted for, broken pride from those that has been left in the dust.
The storm is heavy indeed; obnoxious people, insufferable members of the family, abhorrent bullies. Things only got worse. Until one day, during their university graduation, a part of their sight is taken away from them. An accident, who would think it a good idea to carry a scissor to their graduation celebration? Multiple whos? Alas, it is deemed an accident and both, each, have since lost the function of one eye.
An apt description would be; Tumbling down the mountain, off a cliff and into an ocean of sharks. My one mind listening, one keeping watch with Mana Sense, two pondering on known or new spell designs—I love Parallel Thoughts.
"That… I kind of understand…" Kirana whispered to herself, grief-stricken.
"Would you please find our treasured mementos from the upper floors," Glenn said next. "Mine, a diary book my mother promised would always bring me good luck."
"And mine is a teddy bear from papa that has and would always protect me from harm," Gwen added. "We had lost them since…"
Both twins looked down and went silent.
** Ding **
The lucky diary and the teddy guard
Funny entry that… Anyways, the two ghosts I don't really care about, if not for the Dungeon rewards. But I do care about Kirana. So, I approached her and silently gave her gentle head pats, she perked up after a while and gave us a slightly forced grin.
"Well, shall we?" She said and made to exit the Foyer, not even looking back to see if we're following along—we are. Walking straight through the double doors, we ascend the ornate stairs. The second floor is another hollow-rectangle shaped corridor that connects all the rooms together, same limitations also apply for Mana Sense. Maybe they're keeping things simple.
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I was sorely mistaken! There is no sense to the layout, opening the door to what seems to be a small room might instead be the door to a high ceiling ballroom, while a small toilet might occupy the large corner room. Fortunately, we had determined three consistent objects; the corridor, the stairs and the number of doors. Just chalking this up as another Dungeon Shenanigan.
By the end of our three seemingly hundred hour long searches, which was probably really only one hours of exploring all eight rooms in all five floors and collecting any diary or teddy bears we can find while being assaulted by the usual—with the addition of humanoid spirits—spawning group of 3 - 8 spirits, and two hours of enemy-spirit free search. We once again find ourselves in the Foyer and before the twins.
"So, lucky diary and teddy guard," I remind the others.
"Maybe we can Inspect each item?" Yuliana chipped in. But every single book is a Diary Book while the teddy bears are exactly Teddy Bear. So we tried to ask each twin if a diary or a teddy is theirs, but besides presenting both items at once, they would not respond, which, logically, makes it impossible to get lucky from the sheer amount of items present. And nobody wants to sit here all day trying every possible combination, so we decided to make educational guesses.
"A diary book that brings good luck and a Teddy bear that would provide protection." Henry reminded us again, not that he needed to.
"I'm gonna categorize these first," Kirana points at the diaries, "they are of various color schemes and design some too girly for such a handsome guy" she said. Then she further categorizes them into something that should be lucky and not so lucky. Leaving us with about six out of the initial thirty diaries; a particularly eye-catching one is an angpao like design, two follows a horse and a horseshoe design, while the last three are; a four leaf clover, a pretty lucky bamboo and panda combination, lastly, a toony oriental dragon.
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Yuliana and Natasha followed in Kirana's example and separated the 42 Teddy Bears acording to their costumes, one in particular was made to wear a cute armor, some others a handsome suit, a few has on animal costumes, while the majority are either naked or has random nice clothes. I also can't help but notice how there seem to be quite the distinction in how a select few looks very old and disheveled while the rest looks brand new.
"What now…?" We end up spending the next hour before finding the correct combination. Resolved to trying out all six diary books with all 42 dolls, fortunately we got lucky with the diary, finding the correct one on our second guess; the four leaf clovered one. The Teddy Bear ended up being a naked most disheveled one; apparently it's been with her since she's just a cute little baby.
Glad that this Trial Dungeon is over with.
Unlike standard Dungeons, we are specifically awarded familiars, spirit familiars. The twins too, would each join us as a familiar, but they may only follow one person per rewarding. While the rest of us are awarded our choice of a Greater Anima, they were presented as a small sphere of fluffy light, a spirit egg.
An anima spirit familiar does not always speak a language but will generally understand the intentions of their bonded. They have all the physical, non-energy, non-magical abilities of their mimicked forms and may share their senses. In addition, through the soul bond between the familiar and a bonded individual, the familiar may act as a conduit for any spells with a mana cost no more than three times their bonded's levels. Upon death they return to their bonded's soul as a dormant spirit egg to recover for a minimum duration of 24 hours. Last but not least, Greater Animas may act as a mount and may freely shift between their greater or lesser anima form. A person may have more than one bond if they so choose.
While that may be the case for Anima spirits, the Schneider twins are on a league of their own. Gwen is a genuine spellcaster while Glenn a powerful vanguard. And so, Gwen agrees to follow Kirana the DPS. While Glenn agreed to join Yuliana the spellcaster.
I have no idea what large animal forms the others selected. But, if I am to gain a soul bonded companion, it shall be one in the form of a dragon; a European dragon; four legs, long neck, powerful tail, and a rideable torso. Too bad they only look like one and are not actually one, though I'm still looking forward to riding a dragon. Maybe even get my hands on a flamethrower spell or something. Upon exiting, I ended up in the usual extra Dungeon rewards room and was rewarded another Greater Anima spirit egg of my choice. I got one in the form of a Gryphon this time, as I currently only need one. Maybe I can give this egg to someone else who needs a decent mount and extra combatant.
Together, all six of us find ourselves deposited before the Dungeon gate, which is now under Global Cooldown for exactly 24 hours—unlike a Cooldown which only applies to each individual, a Global Cooldown applies to everyone—which means farming for familiar spirits would be a major chore. The four of us may choose to forcefully enter on account of our title but do not really see a reason to, as there must be a purpose for such a cooldown and we wouldn't want the Dungeon to malfunction.
The dungeon took longer than expected, it is now two hours past midnight. So, we make a simple camp a little further away to bond the egg, check our updates and to rest for the night.
All settled down. I begin by bonding with my Dragon Spirit Egg, which is simply mana infusing the egg and agreeing to a soul contract of sorts to protect and grow together. I made sure to check and found nothing nefarious.
** DING **
Bond with Spirit Familiar?
Y/N
'Yes!' There was a slight twitch on my soul that lasted barely a fraction of a second before I felt a connection form between me and a creature; the spirit dragon. Instinctually I summon him out of my Mindscape into True Space. A bluish ball of ethereal light flew out of my head and grew to form a similarly transparent bluish European Dragon, its torso alone is as tall as I am when fully standing, with a strong and tough build. Its tail is again the length of its body. A one meter long neck ends with a basketball sized roughly triangular head.
It is scrutinizing me just as I am it.
After a while, I lift my right hand and gently positioned it near its head. At this, its focus shifts to the hand in question, before sniffing at it and finally nuzzling into my embrace. "Hi buddy!" I laugh and greet the creature... After a few moments of getting to know each other, I continue scratching its head whilst pinging The System. 'Updates please, thank you.'
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Lesser Anima lv 17 x 332
Greater Anima lv 17 x 83
7055 syscred and 19,989 exp awarded
Skill level up, Mana Sense 24 > 25
Skill level up, Harvest Flora and Fauna 3 > 4
Skill level up, All-Weapon Proficiency 13 > 14
Will-o'-Weal - Novice rank, Early mastery expanded
First clear achieved!
Title awarded Depthblazer4
Not much has changed, for it has been long days of travels, then the dungeon. But I hope to fix that soon. Mana Sense finally broke through its threshold, now, individual objects or creatures are clearly defined.
As the others go to sleep, I, who now only needs a few minutes of sleep a day, keep one mind on Mana Sense watch duty. While the other three continue finalizing new spell designs and pondering on improving my known spells.
Well, there is no time like the present! But, in order to not disturb my resting party, I decided to start with further mastering the silent Blink. So far, I have managed to create a stable tunnel that may be used multiple times before it deteriorates and breaks down. Which gave me about a hundred uses last time I checked, which is plenty and all but I figured that if I can make it stable and sturdier, what's stopping me from repairing it for a fraction of its cost instead.
Waste not want not! So I cast the spell as I don't currently have one active, used the spell to Blink a few twenty times around the area to create wear and tear, and sat myself back down to begin the reparation…
It was easier than expected, helps that my mana is so accommodating to my wills. 60 mana to create the whole tunnel, while repairing one I have used one fifth of only cost a little more than four mana. While I'm at it, I figured why not make it repair itself? So I dismiss the current construct and remake another one that is built to passively absorb ambient mana, intuitively, I make it so that one side of the tunnel is always anchored to my person, though which side in particular is flexible and interchangeable between the two. The other unanchored exit will either move in accordance with my control or, when uncontrolled, maintain its position in relation to the me-anchored entry point.
The spell is now permanently active, if given time to repair itself. I feel deeply satisfied. This spell might save my life one day…
Next up for an upgrade, Pocket Suspense!