I held the third basic spell wand I had created in my hand, yielding a far greater result than the last two. It was my project this week, and it only took three days to yield a good solo creation. Making a magic item with others proved to be worthwhile, it seemed we could pool our skill levels together, creating something just above our weight class. Yet there was a different feeling when I made something on my own, created by my hands. Now I held a product of hard work and magic, a real wand crafted by me. A tool to defend the dungeon and my friends.
I had also been using my time to read through pages of spellcrafting hints and scouring the caves by the keeper pool for old remnants from the last keeper.
I watched Rolada stitch together damaged pages into a booklet for us to carefully examine after. The initial pass over them yielded little new information, just a handful of ways to stabilize metal items to accept magical charge. It had something to do with the magnetic field, and the book Terrance, the goblin mage from the tower, had given me had a similar formula. Between the two I received a very small buff when attempting to use the technique.
“So all items have a level of magic…what was the word?” I asked Rolada.
I startled Rolada and she put down her sewing needle and thread. “Magic temperance, it’s how attuned an item is to magical flow and limits how many effects you can cram into an item. Like these wands have mundane everyday materials so even if we were more skilled they would be limited to a tier two item. I think. Then again these only cost half a gold to make.”
Wand of Produce Fire
Tier 1 wand - Common quality
This wand can hold up to (1) charge and can only be recharged by expending (1) mana point from a caster or source of magic. A creature holding the wand can expend the charge and cast the spell imbued into the wand.
Produce Fire - Tier 0 Spell
It had the spell description with it and the common quality was the best I had made all on my own yet. I put a mana point into it and handed the slightly bent wood and copper wand off to Lin to give it a go. She was over the moon that the simple wands could be used by a non-caster such as herself. It did require a few more ingredients to do so, but in my mind it was well worth it. I had a plan.
“Produce fire!” The wand in Lin’s hand created the flaming orb and it hovered in the air waiting for her command. She flicked the wand and it sent the orb out, striking the target on the corner. Lin held up the wand and shook it. “A little awkward to use, how come you two are so much better at aiming?”
I shrugged. “Hey, we are mages, it's what we do. Not all of us can gracefully dance around a fight like you. Did you manage to figure out the penalties yet?”
She brought up a menu that showed a minor damage and accuracy penalty for her since she lacked casting talent. A ten percent debuff to accuracy and damage wasn’t the end of the world. I reached over to the table the caster minion was working at, and I picked up two of the jolt wands from a rack. He had three small racks ahead of him, each one holding up to twelve complete wands that met our standards. Currently on offer were six jolt wands, four produce fire wands, and two arcane trick wands.
Wand of Jolt
Tier 1 wand - Common quality
…
It read just like the other, and I tapped on the word Jolt, bringing up a separate pop up.
Jolt
Tier 0 spell (currently consumes 1 mana point from wand)
A short spear of lightning is summoned from either a weapon or in the hand of the caster. The caster can choose a target from a short distance away and the lightning spear will hit the target for a low amount of lightning damage then bounce to seek a new target. These additional bounces can hit a target for half damage (rounded down). The spear will continue to hit targets, halving the damage, until it reaches its lowest damage (1) and the spell ends.
Every 5 caster levels adds additional damage to the initial cast.
The spell had numbers that faded out beside the terms low damage and what the actual distance was. Rolada had told me only her illusion spells were well defined, a result of her focusing on working on it often. Sooner or later I would have some hard numbers, but that didn’t stop me from experimenting. It typically hit with less impact as produce fire, and lacked the ability to hang around and produce light. On the other hand jolt often bounced once or twice allowing me to hit up to three targets, and each target could only be hit once per cast. So far the furthest distance I could get with it was sixty feet on the initial hit and ten feet for the bonuses.
“Merp,” the caster said, tapping my spellbook showing me he was almost done copying a few spells over. “Zap, wotah-h step, and b-block.”
Most of his spellbook’s tier zero and one spells were similar to mine, with the expectation of three of his spells. He had jolt, a short duration water walking spell and a defensive barrier spell. The two other spells were first tier spells, and while the runes were hard to read I figured it would be good to pick up eventually.
I gave him a thumbs up and walked up to the target practice area. “Thanks bud.” I nudged Lin and lifted one of the wands. “Now my hope is to copy the gnomes. Jolt is pretty useful to soften up some people, and you can arc them over a wall. Wherever they hit they will bounce around to cause some havoc, like this.”
I aimed at the wall behind the target and used the first wand. As it flew through the air I saw a nearly invisible blue line showing where it was going to go and I mentally guided it. It hit the wall, bounced towards me and hit the floor then back towards the target hitting it an inch from the bullseye leaving only a tiny mark behind.
Small sparks covered the impact zones for a heartbeat before they died out. I took out a menu from my notes that had a fun tidbit of information. All elemental attacks had a small effect chance, even if the spell didn’t explicitly say it. Fire could ignite things, and lightning had a low chance to stun the target for a few seconds, around five percent.
“Not a lot of damage by the end,” Lin said, leaning on the table. She picked up one of the discharged wands and waved it. “Might be enough to scare away someone.”
I placed the wands down in a line, then pointed at the target. “Ah, but that’s why we give the minions a dozen of them. Accuracy by volume of fire. In some cases literally.”
Lin’s ear wiggled and she tilted her head as she thought about it. She graced me with a smile and looked more keenly at the wands. “Look at you, turning into a real noble thinking about war. Yara must be proud.”
“Oh right,” I slapped my forehead and put the wands away. “I got to see if the next shrine room is done. I’m running out of time with that divine quest, and I need to look about levelling up.”
Current Experience : 3829 / 3900
Magical crafting was proving wonderful for experience, but it was starting to dry up, I was only getting five experience per wand now. Switching to a different spell had yielded more experience, so I needed to keep making more types of them. Rolada walked up to us with a dusty fire priest's tome in hand, she stood straighter than normal, and I saw a nervous twitch in her tail. Something was bothering her.
Insight : Success!
+3 XP gained.
The words level up stressed her out, and I wondered why.
Lin was out of Rolada’s sight and gestured to me that we would speak later. I turned my focus back to Rolada’s book showing a depiction of Orothalos, the fiery snake god that was the patron of Lord Gastov and for some reason had helped me.
“I don’t have the complete image yet mind you,” Rolada stressed. “But from these clerical texts I can tell he's a dark minor god of fire, battle and change.”
“Yeah, like changing a nice town into a flat ruin,” Lin said.
“Uh Lin, we blew up the town,” I said.
“Oh please, a stiff wind would have knocked some of those places over,” Lin said.
“Like I was saying,” Rolada said, grabbing our attention. “He believes since combat is one of the fastest ways to level it's the best. If his champions stagnate too long he will help an enemy surpass them as his new champion. There's a fable here of a chosen champion raiding farms instead of cities because it was easier, but the experience was slim. So our lovely snake god made a random farm boy an avatar for the night, and he slew the champion and his cult. The boy ended up becoming a baron and fighting off the cult for years as Oro-, the snake god sent his tests. The baron died of old age and the god went elsewhere.”
“Really?” I asked, taking the book. I scoured the Igni text and sure enough it was all there in ink with some added flare and lessons about fighting equals or the god would make them equal. “Icharn was keen to learn about elemental strike, it looks like it's mentioned here as a fighting style of the baron.”
I felt a trickle of cold sweat go down my neck. Of course this felt like a familiar reminder of what happened to me. This only raised more questions than answers, but at the very least I seemed to be in line for the normal behaviour of the dark god. The bigger worry was what kind of tests I got to look forward to.
“It’s not complete though, and I really need to pick up this research talent I have lined up when I reach level six,” Rolada said to me. “So, maybe hold off on levelling up to five, just for now Josh. I’m sure I can get you a good talent from one of these tomes, I just need a little time.”
I felt a touch on my arm from the fox girl and I felt myself agreeing. All I had been doing was looking at books, trying to make wands and learning more. The only time I took a break was to run around the gym with Yara or Bent Plate and Sten up above in the ice covered streets. The headache was building still, rearing its angry, hot fangs making the inside of my head a pressure cooker.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Yeah, I think after this shrine thing I’ll take a day or two off,” I said. I gently tapped Lin on the rump. “A hunting trip is what a noble does, right? Want to come with?”
The Freudian slip by mentioning noble nearly made Lin jump out of her skin. Rolada had her gaze focused on me and didn’t seem to notice. After Lin smoothed out her ruffled tail fur she shrugged and pulled Rolada into a hug. “Sure thing Josh. Rolada and I are going to have a little fun in the bath if we are going to be gone for the day. Want to hunt a stag hare like old times? I’d love a hare stew.”
I put the wands away and rolled my shoulders. “Sure, I’ll send an order asking a minion to fetch us some crossbows from the tower and camping gear.”
The headache was already receding, the thought of nature and getting outdoors pushed aside the building list of tasks in my mind. It was as if it was being gently guided by an unseen hand. There was one part of me that pushed back, it knew something was not quite right, but at the same time I decided it might be for the best. At this rate my head was going to explode.
The caster put my spellbook away with my bags, but I pushed it from my head. Learning the new spells in his spellbook was another task for another day. It was still early in the day, and I was looking forward to going on a nice nature walk. The only troubles around my neck of the woods right now should be stag hares, or low level gnomes and skeletons. If anything it could be target practice for Lin with a wand.
“Yeah, I should bring a few to test in the field,” I said.
I went down the hall to the shrine and found it much the same as it was before, with a few additions. Mason had placed some artwork in coloured tiled stones between new reinforcing pillars on the walls. They depicted random things of leisure, reading, fine foods, wine, and dancing. The red demon girl looked similar to Yara, with some artistic liberties, and someone to approximate Lin mid dance. It had that tiled mosaic style he was using more and more, and I was growing fond of it.
Yara came out of the new side room with a silk sheet, humming a song to herself. She didn’t even notice me as she placed it on the stone altar and set up the gold bowl and wine pitcher. As she aligned the sheet to be perfectly square like a tight military bed a bright golden ball appeared over the altar. It burst with harmless light washing over the room.
Ishaka’s Divine Massage : Quest step complete!
A fine quality massage room was built within the time limit. Rewards have been added to the shrine and can be redeemed by the shrine keeper or the head priestess.
+250 Experience
+1 Skill points
+Boon of calmness (7 days)
New Quest step Issued!
Quest giver has been informed of your progress, please wait for further instruction.
The rewards went into a bank, much like the experience in the tower was, but with more free control of how to take it out. Instead of being forced to issue a quest, anyone that gave a tithe to the shrine would be in good standing and could be given rewards. I didn’t expect a reward while only halfway done, but it was certainly a nice surprise. As for the boon it seemed to grant someone an effect that reduced stress for the duration.
“Huh, neat,” I said.
Yara’s horns struck the wall and she gasped as she clutched her chest while backed up against the altar. The motion sent the bowl and pitcher sliding along with the silk cloth and Yara twisted around with surprising speed to stop it. Once everything was perfectly aligned again she set her gaze on me. She was dressed in her normal clothes with a light dusting of mortar on her sleeves.
“You're getting new shoes while in the dungeon. Those wizard ones are way too quiet on the carpet,” Yara said. “Doing that!” she jabbed a finger at me, “will end with my fist in your face.”
“Sorry, I must get a stealth buff with them,” I said in a mock apology. “My ever vigilant priestess was just caught singing is all.”
Yara’s eye twitched, her magenta irises flared and her tail lashed out. “I don’t sing. You are getting awfully bold, keeper.”
Yara’s anger vanished as quickly as it showed up. There was a presence in the room, yet we were alone. “The minions did a nice job, come see.”
The massage room was nice, and it was spacious for air flow. There was a dividing curtain in the middle with the closest part of the room set up for meditation. There were several pillows stacked up against the wall to sit on, or a rolled up bed roll to lay out on while the meditator focused on breathing. There were plenty of cabinets stocked up with incense, candles and slate tablets with chalk. The walls were decorated with stone carvings and there were a few accent tiles with foreign script, some recently placed, mortar still damp.
Knowledge Religion : Success!
One meditation ritual of Ishaka involves writing down one's woes and wiping the slate clean, sending them to the Hall of Woes. It is believed that Ishaka’s servants will observe the issues and in turn work on granting joys to counteract them. Often a simple hug and conversation with one of her priestesses has achieved great results with young adult men and women. For others, notably dwarves, a party with vast quantities of drinks is a solution they find adequate.
+1 XP gained.
As I filed an interesting tidbit of information away I observed the second half of the room beyond the curtain, which was more of what I expected. There were three padded tables bolted to the floor with their own dividers. It was the type of massage table I had seen before, with a cut out for a person's head to rest in when they faced the floor. There were spare blankets and towels for decency, and several short cabinets with various jars. At the back there was more storage and I felt a swelling of pride. My minions were constantly getting better, the cabinets were even level.
Yara opened a jar and let me take a sniff. “It’s nice, isn’t it? When we started finishing the room the other day I got a bunch of recipes for the massage oils from the shrine. I still had some with my things, but I asked Burn to make a few more options. He just finished them an hour ago, they are even hot to the touch still. He claims they use a base similar to oil bombs-”
“Heinekia’s tits, he's making more bombs,” I said.
Yara squeezed my shoulder. “Bombs are helpful. I would have blasted those bots with them. Josh, are you alright? You look pale, maybe you should sit down.”
I felt fine, but Yara insisted. She got out the meditation pillows and sat behind me, inspecting my back. She placed one hand on my head, then another on my back. I felt her nails touch my shoulder blades as if looking for something.
“What’s up doc?” I asked.
“Your lines are shifting off,” Yara said, “right here and here quite a lot. It's time for a meditation session.”
Sliva poked her head through the door. She took one look at Yara, me and the line of red candles Yara was putting in front of me. “Lovely, I was about to ask if you wanted to meditate, Yara. Group session time!”
Sliva grabbed her own pillow and plopped down on one side of me, while Yara took the other. The initial instruction sounded like advice from Earth. Controlling breathing, focusing on the candle lights and emptying my mind. The wall of thoughts that made the headache only seemed to swell in the silence. Watching the melting wicks reminded me of fire magic and Orothalos, the god with strange goals.
Emptying my mind seemed impossible. Which did not help me relax.
“Half candles, still nothing. Sliva, I need you to take over,” Yara whispered.
Sliva touched my wrist. “Look at your own spell lines. Listen to the flow of mana in your spirit veins.”
“The weird ones that look like nerve ends?” I asked. I got hushed for blurting out loud. “Sorry.”
That was much easier to accomplish. The world blurred and the lines that made up the magical connections in my body came to the forefront. Things looked fine for the most part, so I focused harder. The minutes ticked by, the candles burned lower going down to a quarter, and then everything came into sight. I had blockages in some places, bulging out like a vein about to burst, while others had rotated and got twisted up. Several branches off near my tailbone looked like a pair of headphones left in a pocket, a complete mess.
“Good, now imagine untangling them, or picking them up to place back properly,” Sliva said. When my arm moved she pushed down to stop me. “With your mind sweetheart.”
I looked at the one about to explode, there was a shift of colours like two different pieces that were not lined up. I imagined them separating into two before coming back together, neatly seating into one another to look seamless. There was a moving sensation, and I saw my hands were plucking them apart, but they were ethereal and made of silver powder. There was a definite snap sound and I blinked. I was sitting at a table with two plastic bricks in my hands, neatly pushed together.
“Uh, what?” I asked, completely bewildered.
I was at a hexagon table, Yara and Sliva were across from me, and between us was a small village made with the plastic bricks, with fake grass hills and an epoxy river. Little figures dotted the surface and the fake grass tickled my forearms. The rest of the area around us was obscured in candle smoke and surrounding us was a hundred candles melted down to their final quarter.
“How interesting,” Sliva said, holding a melted brick up to the light. “What are these?”
I turned over the two in my hand, the saturated blues standing out clearly. “They look like Legos, but like a knock off brand.”
Yara had a small pile in front of her and she snapped a few together. “They don’t seem like tools.”
I shook my head. “Their toys. You use them to…build.” I looked up to see the small village was off, several buildings had wrong coloured tiles on the roof or were missing pieces. Pieces in front of us. The section of wall closest to me was missing two bricks, so I reached out with the bricks in my hand and snapped them in place. The blue bricks changed into grey and the wall of the village was restored.
I was terribly confused, but the simple act was easy to focus on. Silva and Yara joined in on the fun, and each time someone placed a new brick they sat up straighter, or moved more quickly. Each time I fixed a house I felt something shift inside me and I found another spell line was ironed out. The candles burned down to nubs, and I placed the final brick down to fix the dock.
The small village was now fixed, and even a hair bigger than we started. Silva and Yara seemed pleased with themselves and I held up one of the replaced bricks. The half melted brick covered my fingers in a layer of soot, how strange.
“Curious, all mages have a different method. It reveals something about themselves. I’ve never seen one that was so…fun,” Sliva said, sounding pleasantly surprised. She placed a hand over her heart. “I see a long tapestry on the wall with threads and needles strewn about the ground. If you ever join me in meditation you get to help repair the tears.”
“Reveal something?” I picked up one of the little plastic men. He looked like a fisherman, so I placed him at the dock. “I played with this stuff when I was a kid. My uncle bought a huge mixed bucket of it so I had something to do at his place. But that was just so I didn’t touch his massive train set in the basement.”
“It’s pulling a memory, something tangible you can work with. I’ve helped with a lot of garden’s over the years. Way to many gardens,” Yara said.
I tilted my head, trying to look at the town in a different lens, seeing the peaceful village it was. It spoke to me, and I felt a calming sensation that let my shoulders drop. “I want to make this.”
“You just did Josh,” Yara said. She raised a fist. “Do we smash it and do it again-”
“No, I mean like for real. A nice town with safe, happy people where I can practice magic or travel,” I picked up a plastic man in wizard robes holding a staff. I smirked at it. “I think I like to make things.”
I placed the wizard on top of a tower, and I felt like something was missing. I saw in my pile was a tiny wizard hat. I pinched it between my fingers and as I placed it on his head the table blurred away. My real hand was outstretched pinching out a sputtering candle running out of fuel.
There was a completeness in me, a grounded sense that connected me to my magic and the crystal. I felt weightless, like I was lifting off the cushion. It ended a heartbeat later, but I knew what it felt like now, what it felt like when everything was perfectly lined up, even for the briefest of moments. The headache was gone, a rush of blood flooded to the tips of my fingers and toes making me shiver.
“I need to meditate more,” I said.
Sliva clasped her hands and bowed. “I am willing to guide you again as a follower of Ishaka. After all, that was fun!”