I understood, intellectually, the importance of training all of my Skills equally. It makes sense to have a lot of different options both in and out of a fight, so that something can’t just counter your one thing and basically win.
However, my Lightning Bolt had come so far and I almost desperately wanted to see just how powerful I could make it. Plus, it was hard to imagine something being able to block or dodge an attack that travels instantly, so how could they even counter it? The answer to that is they couldn’t, it just doesn’t seem possible.
Having already gone through all of this reasoning, here I stood, in the salt pan once again. I wasn’t entirely certain just how I could improve Lightning Bolt itself, but there was one bit of metamagic that I’d been meaning to try ever since Kaelan mentioned it when I learned Channel Mana. Specifically, he said that I might even be able to turn it into a continuous beam if I wanted to.
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I really wanted to. Admittedly, Lightning magic was obviously better suited to quick bursts of power- that’s just what Lightning does- but there was probably a situation where it would be useful, so I may as well prepare for that.
There were no Crabs nearby, I’d test it on them when I actually got it working, so I was free to turn my focus entirely to my Mana. When I use Charge for Lightning Bolt, it continuously pulls Mana in towards a central point, where it gets expelled as a Bolt when I stop Charging. That seemed like it would lend itself well towards firing constantly, but the Bolt wouldn’t be fired unless I stopped Charging.
Thinking about the issue wouldn’t solve it, so instead I Charged a Bolt and carefully watched the entire process. Of course I’d seen this dozens of times already, since I saw it every time I cast Lightning Bolt, so I was mainly paying attention so that I could see what changed when I finally fired.
The Bolt was released and flew into the ground, kicking up a cloud of salt and rocks, but I hardly even noticed that. All of my attention was focused on that one specific point where Mana was turned into a Bolt. Right there, at the point of convergence where the Mana was focused down to a fine point, it seemed to burst out into a much more familiar size, being launched forwards based entirely on the initial force of that release.
Ah, I get it now. So I can’t release it more than once in a row without some kind of gap between them. All I need to do is keep pushing Mana through after I launch, and it’ll hopefully have enough force to keep going. Alright, seems easy enough.
I began to Charge another Bolt, but this time I used Channel Mana along the paths I instinctively formed with Charge, pushing the Mana faster and faster. Then I launched the Bolt, and the Channels didn’t go away. If anyone was nearby, they’d be able to see the excitement clearly on my face as I looked up to see what was happening, then the disappointment as the “beam” was something completely unexpected.
What I thought would happen was effectively a constant stream of Lightning Bolts, releasing so fast that they looked like a single beam of energy, but instead the Lightning came out in an uncontrolled burst.
It looked more like what happened when the Golem interrupted my Bolt, only in a much wider spread. The roar of the Lightning threatened to damage my ears, and had already damaged the ground in front of me, creating a triangle of burnt ground for just a metre in front of me. I was tempted to just stop the attempt right there, but decided to try just one more thing.
I took a deep Breath, and the gaps between the individual sparks of Lightning were filled in by bright white light. I will admit, it looked impressive, but it would only really be useful if there was an enemy right in front of me. At the very least, I highly doubted any close ranged monster would be at all willing to rush me whilst it was up.
And then it just stopped, and I collapsed to the ground as a searing headache seemed to appear in an instant.
Dang it, I forgot about that.
Using up all of my Mana in just a few seconds, possibly a little longer, didn’t create nearly the same effect as using it all instantly, but it was still debilitating enough that I had doubts that I’d be able to use much magic any time soon.
How long was I out last time? Like a day? This time I didn’t fall unconscious so it probably won’t be nearly as long, so maybe a few hours?
Then a thought struck me, the last time this happened I also managed to get a pretty good amount of levels, so with any luck the same would happen this time as well.
Robert Zeneki Lightning Adept 18 Level 16 Willpower 16 Wisdom 8 Strength 5 Agility 7
Path Skills Lightning Generator 15 Lightning Bolt 13 Lightning Cloak 5 Charge 10 Chain Lightning 1
General Skills MAX Lightning Steps 5 Breath Of Mana 4 Sense Danger 5 Channel Mana 8 Meditation 5
King Slayer
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Huh, I must not have noticed that level. Also, how many of these increased? I don’t remember what it was last time…
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After that disaster, I sat down and closed my eyes to meditate, spending the next few hours whilst waiting for my Mana Pool to recover trying to get back to that place where I was able to learn about Chain Lightning.
Unfortunately, that time seemed to have been a fluke, because by the time the headache disappeared I was still unable to reach that same level of Meditation.
I guess doing something one time isn’t enough for the Skills to improve to that level.
By that point, it had been a while since I’d last handed those Crabs over, and the sun was probably around halfway to the horizon. I judged that I still had time to hunt a few more, and got to work.
Whilst I hunted absent-mindedly, I thought more about that attempt at a beam. At first glance it seemed to have gone terribly, but I probably only thought that because of the horrible headache I got at the end of it. In reality, I was able to use Charge to create a continuous output of Charged Lightning. I wasn’t even sure if Lightning Bolt was actually necessary at this point.
Actually, is it?
I was just about to launch a Bolt at a Crab, but I immediately stopped and began to use Charge completely on its own.
Why is that even possible? Is Charge actually just a Skill for putting a lot of Mana in one place?
Ignoring my curiosity, I formed the Channels around Charge just like last time, but at the same time I also prepared a Channel from the concentration point of Charge that led right up to the Crab that was slowly making its way towards me. My danger sense wasn’t warning me of anything that could hurt me, so I just ignored its advance and finished preparing my Spell.
After a few seconds to let the Mana build up, I released it. There was an initial burst of more concentrated force at the end that looked both brighter and more solid, like a spearhead, and it was followed by a rope of jagged Lightning that seemed to be woven around each other. The Crab seemed to realise that something was wrong and tried to run away, which coincidentally put it just barely out of range for where I’d Channelled the Mana. Without enough time to try to extend the beam, I was forced to watch as the attack just barely failed to hit its mark.
Or that’s what I expected to happen, at least. Instead, the Lightning burst out of the end in an explosion of force, just like it had done when I attempted this without creating a Channel first. Predicting what was going to happen, I immediately cut off the flow of Mana. A Quick check of my Pool revealed that it had just about a tenth left after that one spell. I looked back at the Crab to see what happened to it, and saw that its shell was charred and cracked all over, with several chunks of it falling to the ground before my eyes.
But that wasn’t important, what mattered was that I’d actually managed to come up with a spell, completely on my own! Whilst it wasn’t quite what I was going for, it still technically counted!
Should I give it a name? It deserves some kind of name at least. Hmm. It wasn’t quite a beam or a laser, it was more like a ranged explosion or something. Actually, that’s not a terrible name, is it? Ranged Lightning Explosion, or something like that.
From what Kaelan had told me, making an original spell was the final requirement for completing most apprenticeships. Technically, it was supposed to be a spell created with Structured magic, so it needed years of practice and learning theory to do, but Unstructured spells still usually counted.
Although most people only use Unstructured magic for their spell if they want to get out early…
Whatever, I don’t care about that. I need to get a grimoire or something to write this down in.
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This adventurer might just be the strangest one that I’ve ever seen, and most adventurers are already strange. He’d gotten so many in the first few hours, but then takes the entire rest of the day to get the same amount, and he looks so proud of himself for some reason! It’s aggravating!
Well, he’d be able to remove the problem soon. The original plan was to wait for a week or so, but there would be no harm in speeding the process up by a few days.
As he was thinking, the adventurer asked one of the Followers if there were any stores that sold blank notebooks nearby. There were, but they were also completely unmanned, so the Follower would just have to say they didn’t bother to sell that kind of stuff around here.
Before he could get the command out, the Follower had already nodded and was gesturing for the adventurer to follow them.
What? Why? Is my control beginning to fail so soon? Shit! Fucking Shit!
He mentally scrambled to find another Follower that was close to the store they were headed to, and had them rush inside and pretend to be shop owner. Of course, this one had never so much as set foot inside that particular building, but that didn’t matter, because the adventurer wouldn’t be able to see anything amiss.
His Willpower is definitely higher than average, but he seems stupid enough that he can’t do anything with the information he has such ready access to. Ha! How lucky can I be? Perhaps I won’t even need to force this one into the Crypt, I can probably just ask him to carry the Crabs into it for me!
Matthias grinned and returned to the Crypt, plotting all the while.