Unfortunately, with my current mana pool that was all I could do for now. Unlike some people, by which I mean every other person I know of, I don’t have any way of using Skills to increase my mana pool. I’m sure even Max’s mana pool will increase in size from his Stats. That left my options as to train it or to level up.
Strain from mana use doesn’t come from emptying your mana pool, that’s little more than just releasing something from your grasp, and mana manipulation is more a mental strain than a mystical one. The real problems arise from recovering it, which is also why most types of mana potions aren’t too widely used. I don’t know the actual mechanics of mana recovery itself, other than that the presence of mana makes it easier to generate more of it. As a result, by only using a small amount of my maximum at once, I can do more training overall without pushing myself too much.
Unfortunately, using Sun mana in these arrays means that I have to use quite a lot more mana at once than usual. I admit that I pushed a little too far on it with Force Ring, a name which I now realise is not particularly accurate for the Sun mana version, but it’s okay to regenerate your entire pool at once a few times in one day. So long as I don’t make a habit of it I should be fine, and there are even supposed to be specialised healing potions that can fix it.
Regardless, that meant that I would be practicing with my sword for a little while. What’s my biggest weakness as far as swordsmanship goes? Well, defensive moves obviously. But how can I practice those on a dummy?
-----------
As much as I hated to interrupt his exercise, I ended up asking Max if he could help, just whilst my mana regenerates. Obviously I had to wait until a little after it returns to full, just to give myself a chance to recover. It actually turned out to be the best for both of us, as it gave me the chance to teach Max some more as well.
“No, the angle isn’t quite right. It’s important that you are able to keep your sword perfectly perpendicular to the surface you’re striking, it will become much more important when your strength is higher.”
Max rolled his eyes at me, not that I’m surprised.
“Yes, as you’ve said what, 5 times is it?” He slashed again, horizontal this time. I quickly brought my sword up in a block, tilting it slightly so that his attack skittered up the flat edge of the blade rather than striking the edge, and letting me bleed out most of the force by shoving it upwards. My instincts, or Proficiency more likely, was telling me to follow the blow to the left, presumably to prepare for a counter attack. I ignored it, for now.
“Hey, who’s got the teaching Skill again?” I’d decided that, to avoid directly speaking about my Skill in public, I’ll just pretend I’ve got the specific Skill that I’m using at that moment. In this case, I’ll call it my ‘teaching Skill’. Not technically inaccurate, but certainly misleading enough to fool any lie detecting Skills people might have. Honestly, I think that the Guild Leaders paranoia is rubbing off on me and I’ve not even talked to her yet.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s probably helpful, for some reason.” My first, less Skilled thought was that he was mad at me, but as Proficiency started to bleed in I realised that he was probably just joking, or something along those lines anyway.
I nodded. It seemed strange to me as well, but who was I to say that my Skill was wrong, right?
“Could you hold on a second?” The question came out abruptly, but I was eager to get back to magic practice. I took a moment to try to figure out how long it’d been since my mana refilled. At my estimate, it had been around ten minutes, which seems long enough. Probably.
“Yeah, it looks like it’s been long enough that I can go back to magic stuff again. You should be fine to go back to exercising. Or you can continue to practice with your sword if you want, you’re good enough now to self correct on a lot of the important stuff, at least so long as you don’t practice anything more complex than this.”
“I think I’ll just hit the weights for now. I have a question though, what… exactly would more complicated sword strikes look like?”
Now that he mentioned it… I don’t quite know. Proficiency effects just as it says, proficiency. It doesn’t grant me knowledge of anything, only the ability to do them, meaning that in order to make full use of it I actually need to practice more than I thought. Sort of like being an expert chef without a recipe to follow. Well, it’s literally that, among other things. I would probably be able to figure stuff out pretty easily without a teacher, at the very least, with the skill to tell when I’m doing something major wrong.
“I don’t actually know. I’ll have to look into it, although there can’t be that much, surely. There probably aren’t very many more techniques that need to be learned, and it’s just tactics and stuff. Of course, I could easily be wrong on that.”
“Hmm. So, no flashy spinning around and backflip stuff?”
“An interesting way to put it. But no, I imagine not during combat at least. With your Skill you actually might be able to do something like that at some point and have it be genuinely practical.”
“Nice! Well, see ya, I gotta get to training.!”
It seems that the idea of… ‘flashy spinning around and backflip stuff’ has lit a fire in him, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that he’d just started training. He… knows his limits, right? I’ll stop him if he goes too far. And until then…
I start going back to my corner, checking my notifications along the way. Or, notification singular.
Proficiency Lv 25 --> Lv 26
Current bonus: Lv 7 --> Lv 7
I was hoping that switching to teaching for a while would help a lot with my levels, but apparently not. I guess the Skill just really likes magic.
When I was in place I pulled out the array that I decided would be second, the Flamethrower. I won’t bother experimenting with additional Exhaust points, that’s not what I was looking to test. It could be cool soon though, once I’ve established a baseline with these three arrays. I wonder how far away I could make the Exhaust points? Could I make a wall of fire, a dome? You’d think that multiple Exhaust points is difficult, but apparently the formation of them is looser than other things, possibly because their only function is specifically not to hold the mana in.
I shake my distracted thoughts back into order, and focus on the now. The first order of business was to refresh myself on the array, as simple as it is. At the bottom was the conversion array, which lead into a circular junction, and then the Exhaust point. Obviously, I’m not even certain I need the conversion array. I’m going to try it both with and without it, with the hopes of streamlining the array down as much as possible. I imagine that there needs to be some sort of a line, just to help direct the mana, but is that all?
I started forming the array, beginning with the Exhaust point. By the time I had the entire thing, conversion array included, formed it was easily as long as my forearm. I felt an incredible satisfaction at completing a more complex array such as this one, a feeling which only made me even more excited to create higher-level arrays. This one only has two sub-arrays, the conversion array and the rest. Water Ball has three, and Force Ring only one. Past that the number of sub-arrays starts to increase drastically, all the way up to some that have almost a hundred. Guild Mages often use even more complex arrays, though of course are not legally allowed to distribute them. Even with their complexity barring most people from using them, there’s still always a chance for just the wrong person to succeed.
I ignore that grim thought, and start to feed mana into the conversion array. It starts to flow up it, through the sunburst-like pattern that connects to the bottom and into the semi-circle at the top. It slowly fills in the rest of the array, creating a flaming pattern floating in front of my palm, until the mana finally reached the Exhaust point. I definitely need to figure out how to cast these things faster, and there must be a quick cast Skill somewhere that would make it much easier.
When the mana hits the Exhaust point a gout of fire suddenly floods out of it, carefully aimed away from me. I grin, watching the flames dance into the air in front of me. It seems powerful, certainly, but I wonder…
Copying my technique from the not-a-Force Ring array, I feed a direction into the mana as I push it in. In this case, I want it all to go inwards. As I’d hoped, this focuses the Flamethrower somewhat. Not nearly as much as with the sphere, but that makes sense. For this array, the magic ends shortly after leaving the Exhaust point. The fire is still a magical construct, and with sufficient Skill I’d be able to manipulate it all the same, but for now there’s nothing to be done.
I walk the concentrated jet of flame over to the training dummy I used earlier, aiming it at the dummies left arm. As soon as the flamethrower impacts it, I can see it be pushed away slightly before settling back in position. I bet if I were to add in a little bit of force mana this could become a pretty good spell, although it would be more effective to keep enemies in the arc of the flamethrower as much as possible. It feels a little bit… cruel though? I’m not certain that I’ll want to use this array against weaker enemies, any way.
I cut off the flamethrower. Inspecting the dummy, it looks like it did much more damage than the other array, although it was also slower to cast and substantially more mana intensive. It’s almost triple the upkeep, draining through a third of my mana pool in the time I had it active. I sigh, settling in to wait whilst my mana recovers. Rather than waiting around doing nothing, or bothering Max again, I decided to quickly head back to my room and see if I have anything to read or something. I shoot a ‘be right back’ over to Max whilst I pass him, and rush over to my room.
When I entered my room however, the light was already on.
“Nathan Golding. You’ve been told of our meeting, I hope?”
A woman stood in the middle of my room. Or, I assume a woman based on what Anehlia said. She was completely covered in a green cloak that, in spite of the bright lights in the room, hid her face in shadow. The rest of her body was covered by the cloak in the more mundane manner of ‘there’s a cloak in the way’. Could this be the Guild Leader? Because, she was a day or two early. I quickly check her name, hoping to figure out whether she was who I thought she was.
Emily Bronze Lv 89
Guild Leader
Level 89? At least I knew it really was her, unless she had a Skill like Max’s Mask. Though, if she did it wouldn’t make sense to pretend to be Lv 89. I thought she was only, like, 28?
“Guild Leader? You’re early.”
I fell into my patterns of apparent stoicism, as I often do in very… stressful situations. It’s often made people upset, but I no longer see any reason to focus on hiding it.
“Apologies. If you don’t mind, I’d rather skip the pleasantries. First and foremost, if you could explain the situation with the Salamanders?”
I nod and ran through what I could remember of it, with an almost practiced professionalism. When I mentioned near the end that I’d started working on arrays using Sun mana she questioned me about those, and I started to explain with… I’ll just say a little more excitement.
“…and so I was actually just in the middle of testing them, you see. The arrays act completely different from when they’re performed with Essence, although I can’t say for certain just what differences they are because I don’t have Essence, though I’d certainly like to. I think that-“
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I have time for this, fascinating as it is. Perhaps when you’ve done more experimentation you could write a report, and have Anehlia send it to me. So far, you’re the only person to awaken to Sun mana, though others are close, so this is very important.”
“Really? The only- right, time. So, I guess we should start on the Quest then?”
Though she didn’t visibly change very much, I somehow get the sense that she was relieved when she nodded.
“Indeed. The Skill requires that you understand how it works, so I’ll explain. I give you a quest, mostly but not entirely directed by me. The precise details are determined based on your capabilities, and the duration of the quest. Similarly, the reward is determined by what is best for me, which is most often best for the receiver as well. For the duration of the quest, you receive a portion of my experience, which I lose out on. For as long as you live, I receive a very small portion of experience based on your own experience gain, which is not taken from you. I receive this even if you abandon the quest. I believe that’s everything of the mechanics of the Skill.” At this point, seeming to understand that she dumped a lot of information at once, gave me some time to process it.
“So, to put it simply, I get a Skill and a few free levels. Seems like a good deal. What’s the quest?”
“I wish to give you a longer term quest. My… acquaintance Ms Spark believes that both you and your Skills have potential, and I want to give you the best Skill you can get. You’ll get a lower percentage of experience, though the duration makes up for it. The Skill’s for these Quests are usually much better. The Quest itself is simple. I will task you to eventually eliminate the Elite. The quest is non-negotiable, so if you don’t want to do it you should say so now.”
The Elite… I’d be laughing if it weren’t the Guild Leader herself telling me about this. The Elite is one of those ‘crackpot conspiracy theories’ that are always circling the internet, in the same circles as creepypasta. There’s always some people that genuinely believe in them, but it’s hard to tell between all the trolls making jokes. People have accused them of everything from faking presidential elections to swapping their cereal with that of a different brand. That second one was a serious accusation as well, if you’ll believe it.
I think that should be sufficient for you to understand how ridiculous the idea that I’m being asked to eliminate them is. How am I supposed to find them?
“Right about now you’ll be thinking, how are you supposed to find them, right?” I considered whether she had the ability to read minds for a moment, before realising that I was distracted, and going back to paying attention.
“I’ll provide you a dossier containing everything we have on them, it will be enchanted so that only you will be able to read it by converting it into a random code whenever someone else looks at it. This isn’t infallible, but is the only method we have that lets you read it. The reason you specifically will be helpful? Well, you’re a spanner in the works. Forgive me for talking for so long, but I must say, there was absolutely no predicting these Mana surges, nor that an additional type of mana could come from it. So far, a member of my own counter-Elite group hasn’t been able to find any indication that anyone unexpected knows about your Sun mana, they just think that it’s a strange array or Skill. This provides us with a unique opportunity to combat them with a force they have no knowledge of. Your investigation will be tough, but fortunately you aren’t intended to do the majority of the leg work, just grow strong enough to defeat them.”
By the time she’d finished speaking, despite her clinical words and controlled tone, I could tell that she was passionate. Or perhaps excited? What’s important is that, somehow, the Guild Leader expects me to take down the Elite, a group so elusive that they exist only in internet jokes that I don’t understand. I don’t think that I can.
But if the she, of all people, thinks I can… don’t I have the responsibility to try?
“I’ll do it.” I didn’t ask more questions, I’ll be getting the information in writing which I much prefer to speaking anyway. Her next words came with a distinct inflection, as though she were grinning underneath those shadows. It would make sense if she were, given what I’d just agreed to.
“Wonderful!” She waved a cloaked hand my way, and for a moment I saw the dark skin of her hand before it was hidden away once more. That wasn’t of much importance though, certainly when compared to the screen that popped up soon after.
Quest Received!
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Quest Giver: Emily Bronze
Parameters: Take actions that have a significant effect on causing the elimination of every member of the group known as the Elite within 3 years. [0/18]
Reward: 1 level to the Skill Action Multiplier per member defeated.
Action Multiplier: Multiply the effects of every action you take by a small amount.
Note: The levelling speed of Action Multiplier will be drastically reduced until all parameters have been met.
“Three years?” The Guild Leader, I refuse to entertain the idea of using her actual name so as to not risk ever saying it out loud, spoke, seeming to be surprised.
“Didn’t you set the parameters of the Quest?”
“I only direct the Quest, not control it. Just as I don’t control the reward. I… can’t say whether yours is good, though it must be, surely. The chance to use the Skill after killing only one of them is going to be a big help for you though, I’m certain.”
Kill. I… should have thought about that more. I’ll have to kill people, it seems. People that admittedly must be pretty terrible, but still. In the past I’d worried about what I’d do to get a Skill, but based on the fact that the main thing that’s making me consider killing people is not the prospect of getting a new Skill, but rather the fact that the Guild Leader thinks it’s a good idea.
Though, how does her opinion have such an impact on me, I wonder? I get a sense of concern coming from the Guild Leader, whilst I think about the Quest.
“I… have a Skill that alters peoples emotions slightly, only in ways that they’re okay with. It’s more a therapy Skill than anything else, albeit one with questionable morality. It often activates automatically, which is one of the reasons that I try to avoid human contact. Did you… notice anything like that?”
“Well, I’m not as upset with the idea of killing people as I used to be? Well, I’m still upset, but it… feels like I could ignore that for the greater good. If it was for the greater good, anyway.” I really should have asked more questions, in hindsight. Could I blame that on the Skill? I can’t really find it in me to care about it too much though. For some reason, she just gets more concerned.
“I-I best leave. I’m going to have a similar meeting with your friend, Max, tomorrow. Make sure to inform him. I’ll… just be careful around any mental manipulation Skills, okay?”
With that, she was out the door before I could say another word. What was that about? It’s… probably not important.
Or at least, that’s what I thought for about five seconds. Then, I started receiving sort of mental prods from Proficiency, like my subconscious telling me to do something important. I don’t even have to follow those impulses for them to work though.
They were telling me to feel emotions, directing me to experience curiosity and anger. It seems that just the seeds of those emotions from the Skill, after repeated prodding, were able to sprout until they took over my mind.
Or… maybe not?
I suddenly came out of a semi-lucid state that I didn’t realise I was even in, no longer imagining seed growing in my skull, or anything strange like that. What… was that? It didn’t seem to have been the Guild Leader, although she could have been lying, Am I just susceptible to mental Skills? Ever since a few years ago I have been feeling light headed around police officers, and I’ve heard that they often get compulsion Skills. Which really seems like a terrible idea but I guess there’s nothing that can be done about it.
But why would that be the case? As a result of just coming out of a conversation about them, I start to wonder if it could have the Elite? I feel like I’m going to be extra paranoid about them for a while, but that’s probably for the best. Reading the dossier could help me figure it out.
First I just want to think, would I have accepted that quest without the prompting of that overzealous compulsion Skill? I think that Proficiency broke me out of it for the most part.
After I thought about it in circles for ten minutes though, I came to one upsetting conclusion. I… wouldn’t have accepted it. It’s just, I have to kill people! Not only that, but 18 people, nor that I’d have known the exact amount at the time. 18 of some of the most elusive people I’ve ever heard of!
I’m not upset that I have the Quest though. I’m upset at myself. It’s… despite the mental control, that version of me was right. I do have the responsibility to help, even if I can’t do very much. I’m glad that this happened.
Plus I know about my possible weakness to mental control, that I can’t explain. Speaking of…
I realise that I don’t actually know where to find the dossier. I move to head out the room and ask Anehlia if I need to get it from her, but whilst I’m turning I notice a stack of stapled-together paper on my desk. Stepping closer I see the word ELITE written in block capital across the top. I don’t know what sort of stapler they used for this though, it’s almost two inches thick.
The ink has a strange shimmer on it, one that shifts and shimmers as I look at it from difficult angles. This must be the result of the enchantment then. It’s… a little obvious. Possibly less obvious if someone else sees it, given that it should be different at that point, but best not test it.
Though I want to take some more time to think about my possible new Skill, I know that this is more important. It could be good training as well, I’ve already levelled up to 28 today, not just from my talk with the Guild Leader of course.
Proficiency Lv 26 --> Lv 28
Current bonus: Lv 7 --> Lv 8
Without delaying for any longer, I sit down and begin to read, as… daunting as this monstrosity of a dossier may be.
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I was only a quarter of the way through the stack when I had to take a break. There was just so much information, and forcing myself to read it all was exhausting. I’ve already found out a few things though, such as an ‘interesting’ phenomenon that has arisen over the past few years and been linked to them. A number of people between 15-20, for the past five years, have for an unknown reason being showing extreme reactions to any Skills that effect the mind, even their own. One person got a Skill that increased the speed of their thoughts and the effect it had was twice what the Skill descriptions said it should be. More importantly, these same people have been more susceptible to other peoples mind Skills. Skills like Suggestion, the most common example found among law abiding citizens and just barely considered legal. The legislature on the subject is under review now.
It gets worse for some people. For unknown reasons, they just randomly lose all lucidity, not eating, moving, or even sleeping of their own volition. It’s horrible, and not much is known about it.
The Guild Leader’s Thinkers do, however have a lot of information to go off that connects this to the Elite. Whilst she forgets the identities and Skills of these people, she is able to use the Quest log, a part of her Skill she didn’t mention, to identify what sorts of Quests she gave out and when, Rewards included.
A few months before these started being discovered, someone got a Skill called Enhance, which is able to enhance the effects of a specific type of Skill on a person, this type chosen upon receiving the Skill. This, combined with the very slowly increasing effects of the Skill that line up with levelling speeds of other Skills prior to the completion of a Quest, was apparently enough.
A dark part of me wondered… will these effects go away when I kill that person. When, not if.
If I don’t think about killing these people, then surely I won’t worry about it either, so I don’t. Even though I can’t help but worry. What if the effect doesn’t go away? What if it does?
I wrench myself off that train of thought, trying to find something else to think about.
My mind had been a mess for the few hours up until that point since the meeting. I’d been trying to get myself to go tell Max about his own meeting but… how could I, right now? I can hardly think straight, but I’m too wired to go to sleep.
At the edge of my thoughts… there was a presence. I didn’t know what it was, but Proficiency kept drawing my mind towards it. Every time I thought of doing something to it though, I just couldn’t bring myself to. I knew that it was probably related to the mental compulsions issue, given when I found it, but… you know? Well, that didn’t actually make sense, but there’s no words I could find to explain it. Probably because there is no explanation, other than mental compulsions.
I feel a pang of hunger that tells me that I haven’t eaten since a few hours before the meeting, which itself was a few hours ago. It’s fine though, I’ll just eat later.
With a physical battle, the path to the outcome is simple. Fight. Using force, wits, and cunning, you fight. It’s… well it isn’t easy, but it’s simple to me. This though… fighting against someone else’s mind, if that’s what this even is, is different. I can think circles around the problem all I want but my thoughts won’t go towards it. I do briefly wonder if that new Skill of mine would work on actions in my head, but try to focus again.
Focus on what?
I hear a knock on the door. Was that it? No… It was something else, I’m sure.
Proficiency Lv 30 --> Lv 31
Current bonus: Lv 9 --> Lv 9
Oh, a notification? I could’ve sworn I was only on level 28, but I guess I misremembered. I’m happy to see my bonus going up, I could use that for… some reason.
Was there something I was doing? I feel a prodding from Proficiency, like a guiding hand pushing me to look in a specific direction. In my head… I feel someone. Their pinkish-grey Ghostly Tendrils in my mind. Ghostly Tendrils… those words feel important. Like… Proficiency? That doesn’t make sense, it’s way too cobbled together to compare to a master-work like Proficiency.
Like comparing a few shards of pottery to… some important vase.
What was I thinking about? Ah, the path to victory in a battle. It’s simple, really. Just fight. That seems important. Fight. It’s like some part of my subconscious is putting more weight on that word. Should I…
I looked around my room, finding nothing to fight. Is there something in my head? I felt around my mind, looking around the edges of it. Maybe that ghost guy from earlier? I mentally poke at his presence, causing a sudden unfurling. Well, that’s the best description I could think of anyway. I feel a massive eye with wings looking my way, seeming surprised. How does something that isn’t there feel like an appearance?
And then, a voice.
“What are you… oh. You again. Why don’t you just go back to sleep, little pawn?”
Again? Back to sleep? I feel this presence pushing down on me, but I push back. It’s power overwhelms we easily, but I find that I can slip away, turning my thoughts smooth like silk, or more like cheap cloth, but it’s enough. The onslaught… well it doesn’t go past me, does it? I somehow feel more present though. Enough to know that something was wrong.
I hear a knock on the door, insistent. They should be a little calmer, it’s not like they’ve knocked before so why would the be so impatient?
I look back to the eye, or think back to it I supposed. It seems to have narrowed.
“Another little trick. Well, it won’t work again, just like the last.”
Tha onslaught begins anew, exactly the same as the first. When I try the same trick it shifts it’s focused, stopping me from slipping away. I double back, switching around as much as I can, which gives me a bit of a mental breather. I feel my thoughts slipping away again, and frantically claw for some form of purchase.
“Ha! You think the scrabbling of a novice can beat me? This Skill may be low level, even after all these years but, well, I’ll just say there’s more to it than you could imagine.”
More to it… that cobbled together feeling I picked up on, multiple shards… I speak into my own mind, hoping for a response past the continuous mental attack.
“Is Ghostly Tendrils made up of multiple Skills?”
The attack pauses, the presence seeming shocked. Was I right? No, it can’t be possible, how would I be. The presence seems to fade, though I can still feel it, like I’m on a video call and it leaned away from the microphone to talk to someone else. I can faintly hear it speaking, as it yells at someone else, before returning.
“Damned two-way! You! Don’t even think about using that damned connection again, got it!”
So, it’s Skill forms a two way connection then, does that mean I can attack this person, just as they attack me? Well, perhaps, if I knew how to think offensively somehow. Maybe I just try to copy it? It’s stopped attacking me for now, not that it seemed to be doing very much with my attempts at a defence.
I pull together my mental energy, my desire to take action, in effect. It’s difficult to be certain, but the input that I get from Proficiency helps me when I do something majorly wrong. All the while the presence is watching, as though curious. It seems almost like it’s… learning from me? That can’t be right of course, surely it’s Skill is high enough level that it doesn’t need to do that. As I approach the end of my task I get distracted by something for the moment, a burning in my stomach. All my thoughts are tied up in this attack however, so I can’t tell what it is. And I mean that literally.
Somehow, my thoughts feel clearer than they have in a while. Like… months. Again, I don’t have the bandwidth to think of anything other than this attack. I’m almost done, just a few more seconds.
“Hmm. That’s about enough I think.”
I feel the presence gearing up to attack again, although it’s taking much longer than before. Is it… actually copying me? I know that it said it’s Skill was low level, but seriously? If it even falls under Proficiency it would only be, what, level 8?
I’m not prepared to let this attack go however. What I seem to have done with it is make a sort of conceptual array. Where the lines are thoughts and the mana is feelings. After I’ve used it once though, it’ll fall apart, back into the shape of my own mind.
I don’t like the sound of any of this, but it’s been done. The Presence’s attack finishes, so I hurriedly push feelings through this thing. There’s a lot of confusion in there. And a healthy does of fear too, along with every other emotion I’ve felt in the past hour.
Unlike the uncontrolled, unending wave of force I’ve been subjected to, what I fire is more like a compressed ball of air, impacting the presence and dispersing. It doesn’t disperse into my own mind though, going entirely into it’s I can feel as it visibly/not-visibly shivers, and I feel something… snap.
“You… why you… you mother fu-“
I don’t do the same attack again, it’s far to slow. Whilst the presence is talking I use an idea I thought of whilst making it though, utilising the wider opening created by it’s speech to shove Sun mana into it’s mind. I interrupt it in the process, which is probably a good thing. I could feel ethereal pink-grey tendrils snaking into my mind as it spoke.
The presence recoils, almost fading from my mind entirely. Using mana manipulation in a direction that definitely isn’t real, given that it’s entirely conceptual, I reach into my mind and start prying out the tendrils. I’m shaken out of my reverie by the person at my door knocking for a second… no, third? More? How long have I been in here?
It could be days and I wouldn’t know.
I need to focus though, because the presence is returning.
“Why did you have to accept that damned Quest! And then actually read about us. I wouldn’t have even known about you if you hadn’t thought about killing me! Damn alarms! If it weren’t for that I could have just left you alone, gone for easier targets. But no, the fact that I already had you in my grasp was ‘too good an opportunity’ or whatever the fuck. Just- Ugh! I hate you!”
The intimidating presence, that I can only conceptualise as an ominous eye with wings, was whining. Admittedly, it’s form was perhaps not that intimidating in the first place, but I guess that sort of power changes things.
I can feel as it starts to prepare another attack, copying techniques from me to properly form a conceptual array, or what I’m calling a conceptual array. I feel like I could just… reach out and grab it though. I twist something in the array, the targeting part of it. I just spun it around, so as far as visuals are concerned it’s the same. It’s only if it actually looks that it would be able to tell that anything’s wrong, and I don’t imagine that’s the case.
Unlike with regular arrays, conceptual arrays are obviously conceptual. When you reverse a concept, well…
With a mental grin of satisfaction it released the attack towards me, obviously away from itself. Contrary to it’s expectations though, the attack came right out of it’s mental grasp and into it’s mental face. I could feel a shriek of pain, mental pain of course, from the presence. That seemed much more effective than my attack.
I watch the presence, trying to plan my next attack, until I feel the presence continue to get attacked. I try to figure out, why is that?
It said I read about it’s original Skill, well what was the last thing I remember? I was thinking about something, I needed a break… The dossier! I was reading about the Elite! Specifically, I was wondering about the weakness to mental Skills, and… whether killing the person who made it would help.
Is this the person responsible?
As I watched the presence get peppered with attacks through the connection it’s Skill set up, I find myself not caring as much about whether he lives or dies as I would’ve liked. In fact…
I start to construct the conceptual array again. It feels like it’s been imprinted in my mind, and I follow the exact same steps as before as though in a trance, until a metaphorical loaded gun was in my grasp. Before I could second guess myself I aimed, and I fired.
For a blissful moment my mind was silent. And then…
Proficiency Lv 31 --> Lv 32
Current bonus: Lv 9 --> Lv 10
Quest Updated!
Quest Giver: Emily Bronze
Parameters: Take actions that have a significant effect on causing the elimination of every member of the group known as the Elite within 3 years. [0/18]
Member 1/18 has been defeated! Level 1 of Action Multiplier has been granted!
Nathan Golding Lv 12
No Achievements
Skills
Skilled Lv MAX
Proficiency Lv 32
Action Multiplier Lv 1
Skilled Lv MAX
Provide a percentage increase to the effects of all skills relative to level. Minimum value of [10%]
Current bonus: 30%
Proficiency Lv 32
Provide a passing proficiency with every discipline, equal to a quarter of the level of this skill. Minimum value of [Lv 1]
Current bonus: Lv10
Action Multiplier
Can create a duplicate of an action a second or more after doing it, thereby multiplying the effects of that action. The total multiplier increases by 0.01 every level, and range is based on your Theoretical Mana Control Limit. Minimum value of [x1.05 at 1m]
Current effect: x1.00 (x1.065) at 5m
But that wasn’t all.
I felt the air on my skin, I felt the burning in my stomach intensify, the dryness in my mouth. I felt the weakness in my limbs, my lungs trying to draw breath. I felt the sun in my eyes. I heard the bracelet on my arm crack in two, and fall to either side of me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something of a pinkish-grey colour disperse into the air. I saw a blue glow at my door as it finally opened after… three days?
I saw darkness claim me.