Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.--] [New Year Celebrations]
How does dipping one’s finger into a perfect thermal conductor feel?
Deceptively innocuous… at least when doing so in a warm room.
Zeph had dipped his fingertip into the ‘pool’ of Magicules for merely a second, feeling as if he touched a very cold liquid, and yet soon after his finger swelled as a sharp, burning pain flared under his skin.
The ‘coolant’ paralyzed his finger by decreasing the temperature of its surface layers to just around 20 Celcius.
He shivered at the thought of touching it when it would have access to anything with a temperature below zero Celsius. An instant frostbite would be a guarantee.
On the other hand, he knew that his creation wasn’t perfect. It worked efficiently with gasses and liquids—transferring molecular transitional momentum with ease—but was much slower with solid matter, as the spectrum of amplitudes of atomic vibrations only partially overlapped with the Magicules’ attunement.
That didn’t change the fact that the Magicules were much better at cooling a living body than any physical medium he ever heard of. First, they were able to touch a body directly over the whole surface – even the smallest of nooks and crevices of his skin weren’t spared. Second, they actively escalated the dispersion of thermal energy. Third, no ‘buffer’ of air could form around bodies to slow down the process. And finally, Magicules had limited ability to penetrate solid matter – a thin layer of ice forming on the bodies of Zobies before him wasn’t enough to isolate them from the deadly shower.
Anyway, it was an ethereal experience, touching something without mass or pressure but being this cold.
It was a fundamentally different feeling than going into a Cryochamber or ‘touching’ the liquid nitrogen’s vapor. In both cases, the temperature difference would cause the air – heated by one’s body – to form the aforementioned ‘buffer’, and the air itself wasn’t the best thermal conductor.
Many examples of spontaneous thermo-isolation exist, even in everyday life. Droplets of water thrown on a hot metal surface tend to just hover over it, as the vapor from droplets creates enough pressure to actually lift them up while being a bad enough conductor to not heat the water too much. A fireplace or a grill wouldn’t lose their heat that fast if while left alone in the open air, a layer of ash additionally preventing them from cooling down. It was the reason they had to be doused with water. Liquids were quite good coolants in general, just because they could touch solid matter directly and then vaporize, taking a huge part of the energy with the vapors.
And that was the trick with his newly-attuned Force-Magicules. Because they touched everything at the same time and directly transferred the energy of atoms away, they were that much more effective. Even if they ignored some of the solid matter vibrations, no physical coolant could rival them.
But, as miraculous as his discovery was…
Why I am not getting any experience?! Zeph fumed internally.
Seeing the effects of his Spell, Aisha whistled loudly in admiration. “That’s something new, for sure…”
“Don’t just stand there,” Zeph frowned. “They are still alive, for some reason.”
“Well, that won’t be a problem. Are they frozen down to the core?” she asked, looking at him.
“The Hell I know. I don’t even know how they keep the temperature of their bodies up,” he looked straight into her disturbingly white eyes. “Normal organisms of their size should freeze completely in about a minute. But they are neither alive nor producing heat.”
She shrugged. “As if it was studied enough. How is their Life energy Veil faring?” she asked instead.
“Poorly. My Magicules are already close to affecting the first battle-line fighters. Their dissipation rate against other Mana formations is lower than expected…”—which meant the Magicules were penetrating quite deeply the high-density Mana environment, reacting mostly to atoms—“Actually… I will cut them off.”
He immediately stopped his already-slowed-down Beam Spell altogether by deforming it further. Then, he forced the walls of the telekinetic ‘pipe’ to expand outwards, sucking back the vestiges of original Force-Magicules remaining inside.
The flailing end of his Telekinetic arm wilted and, shortly after, started to fold back. The original Force-Magicules inside of the ‘pipe’ were almost spent, so the process was painstakingly slow.
He wasn’t going to replenish them just yet, though, as those Force-Magicules were already severed from the connection to his Soul and thus unresponsive to manipulation. Different from the new type he discovered – or rather, managed to connect to his Will – but still useful. Nonetheless, opening a hole at the back of the ‘pipe’ would just cause the whole construct to wither away.
“I am going in,” Aisha declared, squatting slightly on her improvised podium.
“No!” Zeph reacted immediately. “Wait for the Magicules to dissipate fully! If you bring more heat, the bodies will just start moving again!”
“Tch,” she straightened up, lowering her weapon. “What good is it then? Your new Spell seems awfully inept.”
“Just… shatter the frozen bodies, or something. They won’t die otherwise, either way,” he said, irritated.
Even frozen, the Undead kept enough Soul links connected to their bodies to stay ‘alive’. In the first place, the dead bodies weren’t pumping blood, processing calories, or generating heat (probably; Zeph wasn’t sure). Even their brains should be inactive. If Zeph had to guess, they lived by the sheer virtue of Mana-L’s ability to imitate the processes of a living organism. It would be inefficient as fuck, but theoretically, a Soul could supplement enough Mana to imitate those processes. Also, a Soul could structure Mana, as it always had information about everything that body contained and about how it operated. Less so in case of the Undead Soul conglomerations, but still.
“Hmmm,” Aisha massaged her chin. “Well… our archers want some levels, so…”
Don’t pretend you have a better way to… wait! His eyes widened as he got an idea.
“Archers!” she shouted. “Indiscriminate volley! Permission for three explosives!”
Oh shit, she can just cause an explosion by presenting enough heat! Why didn’t I thou—
His thoughts were drowned by the sound of shattering sculptures of once-alive abominations of flesh. It wasn’t overly loud, but the scrapping sound of metal arrowheads hitting the ice-encased, hard muscles was eerily similar to scratching a chalkboard. Thankfully—for everyone involved—it was soon drowned by the explosions that soon followed.
You are partially responsible for killing [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 69]
… (9 more)
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
Gru vibrated in excitement, and a moment later…
Congratulations!
You have earned 170 [Universal Points]!
[Profession] [Shaman] is now level 34! (+1)
“Fricking finally,” Zeph murmured, furiously pumping up his ‘pipe’ in preparation for the second serving. He ignored the list of Spells and Skills that leveled up – they had a long day before them still.
Most of the Zombies around the center of the horde were already slowed down by the vestiges of his magical coolant, so the tempo of elimination skyrocketed and he only managed to use his new Spell combination once more before their troops started finishing off the stragglers.
Aisha stopped monitoring the battlefield at that moment and jumped down from her improvised podium.
“Ready for more?” she asked nonchalantly, putting her weapon on her shoulder and smiling brightly.
Zeph nodded immediately. “Definitely,” This one fight almost granted him a full level in his Class, if he wasn’t mistaken. “Although… what with the celebrations?”
She shrugged. “Our valley should be secured in a few hours. Kwan will probably keep most of our warriors busy, as we need patrols and reaction force, but that would be a matter of numbers by then – we won’t be needed.”
He sighed. “I just hope enough people will visit to actually make for the damage…”
She waved him dismissively. “If we can’t do anything about it, why bother?” She turned her head to the people resting at the back. “Situation report! Where is the next target?!”
~~~
It took them another six Corora hours to sweep through their territory. All in all, Zeph managed to kill, or assist in killing, another 36 creatures. However, Gru complained that their Souls were much smaller.
Most of the Undead that raised further away from the epicenter created by the Undead Heart could be considered, at the very least, second generation, as Aisha explained earlier. Because of that, Zeph wasn’t surprised at all that he only managed to finish the current level of his Class. Of course, he put all his free points into Flexibility.
It was the middle of the day already, and the mist started to subside. Not like it was a problem during the fights. Not with his new Spell – the coolant was efficiently freezing all the water in the air despite the abundant Mana-L that seemed to keep the mist afloat and unfrozen.
Zeph felt spent in too many ways for his liking. At least the streets were mostly empty.
As they were returning to Kwan’s hotel, Zeph allowed himself to space out slightly and started checking his Interface. Seeing his Mana Capacity, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
[https://i.imgur.com/WE77QzH.jpg]
[Table version:]
Name: Zeph Einar Perk: Precise Soul and Mana perception t. a. Race: Human (type 6671: 'Earthling') Passive Enhancements: Power 60 Intuition 196 Flexibility 29 Memory 67 Regeneration 50 Greater Willpower 68 Basic properties: Resource: Total: Available: Reserved: Matrix Space: 194 33 161 Mana Capacity: 807 795 12 Mana Generation [/s]: 127 98 29 Class: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Force Generalist [Seeded] 6 0 141 Profession: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Shaman 34 0 9 Soul contamination: Details: Space (type: B5001) 5.22%, slightly increases [Matrix space] Will (type: H1) 8.71%, enhances interaction between Will and Mana Iron Isotope Alloy (type: ZW1) [Synhronization] detected! [Soul contamination] is shrinking! 5.09%, stabilizes I.I.A. ZW1 in Mana environments
Slowly, but I am getting there. He rubbed his hands with glee. 500 more, and I can try out my Tier 2 Matrix Spells… The modulated Soul contamination is going nicely, too. That reminds me, I need to talk with Makani. Waking himself up from his delusional state, he quickly scanned the leveling-up summary and notifications.
Major upgrades:
Shaman [+1]
==> Memory [+1], Allocated [Flexibility] [+2]
==> Matrix space [+5], Mana capacity [+49], Mana generation [+4]
Force Generalist [+1]
==> Intuition [+2*2], Greater Willpower [+1], Allocated [Flexibility] [+2] [+3]
==> Matrix space [+4], Mana capacity [+27], Mana generation [+2]
Congratulations! [General Skills] leveled up:
[Will] is now [T2] [L75]! (+5)
[Will manipulation] is now [T2] [L87]! (+3)
[Will-powered Mana manipulation] is now [T2] [L80]! (+4)
[Life Energy] is now [T1] [L39]! (+7)
[Spear (style: E2M1)] is now [T2] [L50]! (+1)
…
Yep, I’ve learned a lot about Will and Mana-L, he smirked sarcastically. Of course, the Skills only gained levels after he proved his proficiency ‘experimentally’. Well… to be fair, I did learn a lot thanks to my new Force-Magicules and Aisha’s knowledge on the matter. Especially because both, the Undead and the aquatic organisms, produce so much Mana-L.
And it was mirrored by the development of another of his General Skills.
…
[Corora lifeforms] is now [T1] [L36]! (+13)
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
…
His practical knowledge about how Undead worked aside, they had to push back some of the big fishes that decided to seek the meat from sliced-apart Undead on the land. Aside from anatomy snippets, Aisha had to explain a few things about them, too. All in all, it resulted in something unexpected.
[General Skill] [Survival] is now [T1] [L100]! (+1)
Congratulations! All requirements met for the [General Skill] [Survival] to cross the [Tier] threshold without [Specializing]!
Congratulations! [Basic Requirements] met for [General Skill] [Survival] to [Expand]! To proceed, fulfill all requirements:
· [General Skill] [Corora lifeforms] at [T1] [L100];
· [General Skill] [Corora herbarium] at [T1] [L100];
· [General Skill] [Soul] at [T2];
· [General Skill] [Life Energy] at [T2];
· [General Skill] [Ambient Mana] at [T2];
Fulfilled requirements:
· [General Skill] [Survival] at [T1] [L100];
· [General Skill] [Will] at [T2];
· One [General Skill] classified as [Exotic knowledge] at [T2]. Found [2]:
---- [Memories of the Earth]
---- [Ancient Civilizations]
· Proven survivability in 5 different categories of encounters classified as [Disastrous]. Confirmed:
---- [NATURAL]: [Undead], [Hive (Myconid)]
---- [PHYSICAL]: [Immunological Hazards]
---- [MENTAL]: [Critical Brain Overload], [Leadership-fatal Conspiracy and Social Manipulation], [Greater invention]
---- [MANA]: [Mana Overload], [Mana Depletion]
---- [SOUL]: [Harmed by Netherbeing], [Critical Soul Fragmentation]
---- [HIDDEN] – [WILL]: [Will depletion]
---- [HIDDEN] – [IMMORTAL]: Risk your very Soul for an [Onji]
…..
Gah, what is that? he thought, looking with disgust at the last of the hidden categories of encounters. Not ominous in the slightest… Fucking System… he sighed and shook his head. The description was so cryptic that it could actually mean Gru’s very existence, not just their deal. But that was old news. They could at least leave a link to the extended explanation, but nooo… ‘Zeph, this information is all you need to know to thrive’, he thought in the imitation of his imaginary, mechanical voice of the System. Bleh! At least my excursion into that assassin’s trap and our little investigation in the laboratory building brought some results… But the ‘Greater invention’ is classified as ‘Disasterous’? Why? I hope it’s from my new Spell and not other things. If that assessment is even true, that is… he ruminated while reading the rest of the fulfilled requirements.
……
· At least three perceptive abilities from the above categories (Spells discarded). Found [6]:
---- [Mana perception]
---- [Will-powered Soul perception]
---- [Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli]
---- [Will-powered Soul Memory access sharing].
---- [TRAIT]: [Greater Will]
---- [TRAIT]: [Well-informed]
· At least two defensive abilities from non-physical categories. Found [17]:
---- [Willforce]
---- [Will manipulation] + [Soul contamination]: [Will (type: H1)]
---- [Mana masking]
---- [Resonation Supression]
---- [TRAIT]: [Mana incompatibility]
---- [TRAIT]: [Greater Will]
---- [TRAIT]: [Soul dissipation resistance]
---- [TRAIT]: [You were right]
---- [BIOLOGICAL IMPLANTS] x3: [Phleya] + [Garuan] + [Mutagenic Bacteria B652H81] + [OTHERS (see below)]
---- [MIXED ENERGY ENHANCEMENTS]: [Homeostasis defense] + [Willforce]…
---- [MIXED STRUCTURAL MODIFICATIONS] x4: [Willforce Morphon] + [Modified Metabolism…
---- [MIXED MECHANICAL IMPLANTS]: [Planaria Ferrium Fullerene CON8795-XA65]…
· At least one offensive ability from non-physical categories. Found [5]:
---- [Mixed Enchanting Arts]
---- [Will-powered Soul manipulation]
---- [Will-powered Soul whack]
---- [Mana rapture]
---- [TRAIT]: [Greater Will]
“…”
Zeph was left speechless for a moment.
Why is it so… convoluted? He squinted his eyes at some of the listed ‘abilities’. Why is ‘Greater Will’ in each category? And why, for gods’ sake, is the ‘You were right’ Trait mentioned in the defensive abilities? Is that a joke, or something? No, that’s not important! Why a General Skill even has so many requirements to advance in the first place?!
It was absolutely beyond him. It was, simply put, the most complicated and convoluted way to assess his progress he had seen up until now.
And General Skills can only give me knowledge, nothing more… Okay, okay, I wasn’t exactly an avid ‘reader’ until now, so maybe I am missing something here… he glanced below before going into that rabbit hole and was immediately rewarded for that display of wisdom.
[Hidden] conditions met!
[User] has unlocked two [Hidden] fundamental categories of requirements and surpassed overall [Basic Requirements] for the [Skill] [Expansion] two times over!
The following rewards are in effect:
· All information about the possible progression of the [General Skill] [Survival] is uncovered!
· [General Skill] [Survival] has a potential to achieve [Tier 4] after [Expanding]!
· [General Skill] [Survival] has a potential to influence future [Specializations] and [Sub-specializations] of [User’s] [Class] and [Profession]!
Huh? He blinked in surprise. That… explains a lot. With my—he glanced at the text above—seventeen? Jesus, I invested a lot in my defenses… But yeah, with that score, no wonder I am well above the Basic Requirements… Although, I am not so convinced about those ‘hidden categories’… Will? Immortal? Why do I have a feeling there is a lot more? Like… ‘cataclysm’, or something? Well, the Skill is called the ‘Survival’… still, it’s unreasonable…
He sighed. After imagining the inevitable talk with Aisha about this new development, he promptly decided to leave it for his and Makani’s trip into the wilderness. He would then leave the Manacaster in her clutches to be tormented. At least that way, he would have a chance to get a short version of the lecture back from him. Because he was sure that if she knew about this ‘hidden’ achievement, she definitely elaborately set him to fulfill the requirements, which meant she would then start a lengthy explanation on why she didn’t tell him a thing beforehand. He simply didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with that. Definitely not now, and especially when she was that excited by the ongoing fighting.
It’s all far into the future, either way. He shrugged. I know my mundane ways around survival, so I don’t need the Tier 2 right now. If going for the Tier 4 version would help me with the Mana environment, I would gladly work for it. In the future. He slapped the notification shut, figuratively speaking.
And another one surfaced right after.
What now? he thought with resignation.
[Spear (style: E2M1)] is now [T2] [L50]! (+1)
Congratulations! You had put foundations to a new [Martial Art] style!
As the founder, you are entitled to artificially enhance your creation. In which direction would you like to guide your style?
1) General – continue without interference;
2) Physical – achieve a better understanding of spatial movements;
3) Enchanted – achieve better context for the usability of enchantments;
4) Mixed – develop a style that depends on both the physical movements and enchantments;
5) Other – propose a different road to follow;
Ugh… He facepalmed. He quickly scrolled down and found that his Telekinesis had leveled up too – the only Spell that did. No wonder, too, as he used Force-Magicules better attuned to the arm’s functionality.
After finally seeing the end of the list, he started to trot to catch up with his ‘martial arts mentor’.
“Hey, Aisha!”
She stopped and turned around. Because they were close to the hotel, everyone else allowed her to break the formation without a fuss.
“Whassup?” she asked as he got closer.
“I’ve reached Tier 2 Level 50 in my Spear General Skill,” he quickly explained.
She looked up with visible relief. “At last! I worried you would have to add another style into the mix!” She started walking with the squad and Zeph followed. “What choices?”
“General, physical, enchanted, mixed, other,” he listed.
“With descriptions, if you will.” She sent him a disapproving look.
Instead of speaking, he just touched her and sent an Effigy. Aisha was silent for a few minutes after that, massaging her chin while thinking intensively.
“Your first thoughts?” she asked finally, looking up.
“Other. I want to mix Spells into it. And maybe something more,” he said shortly, shrugging nonchalantly.
“That’s a bad idea,” she answered immediately. “You can mix external Mana manipulation all you want with your style, but only after you internalize it.” she poked his arm, hard. “What a style does, is making sure that you have an outlet for the forces your body can wield. Even if you are too preoccupied to use any form of Mana manipulation. And your hand-to-hand style won’t change that fact, no matter how deeply engraved in your spear-fighting it is. Besides reacting to your opponent, you have to instinctively know how to move.”
He frowned, not sure if that made any sense. After a brief moment, he concluded that it simply didn’t. “So what? Are you also ‘internalizing’ your internal Mana flow to activate enchantments? I am fighting reactively. Not to mention, I always make other preparations. Like beads. How am I to include all that into… learned movements? Well… it is an external Mana manipulation, partially, but you know how it goes for me.”
She sighed heavily and put a hand to her temple. “I knew you would oppose me on it. Especially because you are ‘winning’ in hand-to-hand with me.” She shook her head. “But that’s the most basic tenet of melee – you prepare for the worst. For the time when Mana simply isn’t available, for whatever reasons. Your reaction times have developed way beyond your Passive Enhancement, so you have no excuse. You can train your body to keep with your mind, even if on automatic reactions only, and that’s what counts.” She looked at him seriously. “If you can fire Spells faster than cut with a weapon, do it. Use Spells when fighting in melee like you always did. But, for Onji’s sake, keep those forms separate! Mixing everything into one style will limit your overall versatility and options.”
His frown wasn’t going away, though. “And how exactly is that different from making my style dependent on enchantments?”
“Because System Onji is presenting you with three best-fitting options.” She said without vigor. “Enchanted style? I heard some rumors, but it’s not normally presented to warriors. Your ability to enchant any weapon on the fly is why it showed up.”
He blinked and looked at her incuriously. That definitely didn’t sound right. “What do you mean by ‘on the fly’? Do you even know how long it takes? Not to mention, how limiting the process is for using Mana for anything else?”
“Whatever. You didn’t even test your ‘Spell frameworks’ for enchanting,” she dismissed him without a thought.
He didn’t have anything to say to that, because she was absolutely and painfully right. He slowly closed his open mouth. P’pfel had to clue her in.
“And yet,” she continued, “Onji is trying to give you even more information on how to work around enchanting problems better. With the ‘Enchanted’ path, you would have a way to always use half of your style – even with a simple stick. In normal circumstances, losing your weapon means changing styles or finding a new one. It’s especially true for heavy-weapon users like us. That’s also why with the ‘Mixed’ path you would be more dependent on heavy weaponry.”
“Okay, that actually sounds convincing,” Zeph said with wide eyes. He totally missed some of those points, but he convinced himself that it was the fault of him possessing and utilizing multiple weapons for the longest time. He decided to think over that a little more but was mostly convinced at this point. “Is there a style that can work for many different weapons even?” he asked with interest.
“Eh… They were, but it never worked that good.” She waved her hand. “I once Dueled with a guy who could use any short-bladed weapon. It was a technique-based Duel, mind you, so no Mana shenanigans. He was wearing thirty different weapons on himself, more or less, so I brought thirty cheap replicas of my warhaxammer and just threw them all around the arena in case he disarmed me,” she laughed, reminiscing the good times. “He argued that it was against the rules, as he could wear all of his weapons on himself, but the judge noticed that I didn’t have any peculiar difficulty with bringing my weapons on the stage, and with only one arm…”
Aisha continued her ramblings all the way to the hotel. It was, strangely, quite interesting recounting of strange encounters she had in the past…
~~~
“Welcome back, La-Zora, La-Einar,” an attendant greeted them as soon as they entered the lobby, bowing slightly. “Please take your rest in the leisure room on the third floor. Other Heads and core members are already perusing the buffet there.”
“Thank you,” Aisha answered happily, skipping to the elevator in the corridor ahead.
Time to get things done, it seems, Zeph thought, fighting with fatigue. The last day or two were definitely too long…