Getting home was filled with far less stress than I anticipated even though I kept looking around like a nervous squirrel with a sky full of hawks. The run didn’t phase me at all with my Flesh Sorcery keeping my body fresh. The mindless exercise even gave me time to think about my eventual route forward in terms of using my powers.
Offensively speaking, I still have my two mundane firearms and a decent amount of ammo plus the various knives and tool-based stuff in my shed. The way I see it, my powers are more predisposed to fortifications and I might have to factor that in in deciding how I use my magic.
And well, if I follow that line of thinking then it means that I'm going the tank route. And I might as well do it right. The tank route for me doesn't just mean the literal ‘World War II’ meaning of tank, a large metal box with a giant cannon on the top to blow up anyone who has some oil for the taking. ‘Murica. Tanks in the personal sense are people who wear heavy armor and use shields and large swords/axes to draw attention from the enemy. It’s a more medieval concept. Sort of the heavily armored infantry keeping your attention while hidden archers shaft you down from behind trees. A tank’s main utility is to be the protector of more vulnerable damage dealers like archers but also to soak up big damage.
Putting this in the context of me and my new powers, the next idea that would best serve in helping me stay alive would be shields. In the books I’ve read and the movies I’ve seen, all magic users have some kind of magical force field that blocks bullets and spells and makes them semi-invincible. Even Iron-Man had shit like that. As it turns out, all that movie shit is crap.
My magic instincts didn’t give me an instant answer for this. Or maybe, my own shit is crap and I have to find a way to work around it. Returning from my adventures with the undead to getting back home in the security of my over armored basement was a huge relief. The magically reinforced walls of my suburban home gave me a feeling of security that allowed that tight feeling in my chest to loosen up a bit.
Justified paranoia motivated me to go through my house again room by room to make sure nothing got inside. After verifying that I was in fact alone, I went back down into the basement and took off all of my equipment, setting it down on a newly conjured stone table in the far corner.
The mana batteries in my vest were full due to my pocket generator and two of the main house generators were doing their thing so I decided to put the unused left generator to use since it wasn’t charging batteries. Linking myself to the generator and turning the power output to low, I conjured a piece of granite about the size of a dinner plate and then did the same for a piece of basic iron.
“Huh, I wonder how conjuration works exactly?” I wondered aloud as I stared at the materials in my hand. I fooled around with my instincts a bit more. I ran wild theories past them, pondering them and comparing the various feelings I got as my magic reacted. It wasn’t that I pulled off a God-like feat; I didn’t actually make something from nothing. That particular theory made me feel queasy.
“So the material comes from somewhere . .” That thought calmed my stomach. The achy feeling went away as I got closer to the truth. “And the material I’m holding, this granite is real granite and this iron is real iron. It’s not fake or falling apart when I stop messing with it.” My stomach completely calmed and a slight headache I didn’t notice before cleared up. “Weird.”
My experimentation was the very definition of easy until I started in on conjuring precious metals. The first few rounds of conjuring stone and basic metals instantly popped into my hand whenever I wanted, but that did not work the same way for gold or silver or platinum. Instead, the precious metals started out small and grew until I cut off the energy flow to the conjuration.
It took about ten minutes to conjure a disk that was the width of my palm and the double the thickness of paper. It took longer than that for the platinum. I put the various disks next to each other.
“So, materials that are generally considered more rare or valuable take a lot more power to conjure . . huh.” I tapped my chin as I banished and re-conjured the stone and iron on the table.
Time for more testing. I shaped my go-to rune sequence enchantment for durability in the stone while focusing on keeping the concept in my head and sinking it into the stone. The stone drank it in with a small bit of resistance. Doing the same to the iron was a lot harder, but well within my efforts, like a satisfying lift. The crazy part happened when I tried doing the same thing to the gold, silver and platinum.
The silver exhibited absolutely no resistance, accepting the rune energy matrix the way water accepts a falling rock with only a ripple. The gold on the other hand seems like a greedy child with a cookie, tearing into it with abandon forcing me to hold the frame with a lot more effort. But once it sank in, it almost visually crystallized in the gold and sealed it firmly, gripping it desperately. But the enchantment matrix simply slid right off the platinum.
Frowning at the platinum, I shaped the enchantment engravings and pushed even more energy into it and put both of my hands on top of the platinum disc. With a solid PUSH, the whole energy matrix collapsed and the rune engravings splintered.
“What the hell?” I muttered, looking at the platinum disc. “I can shape it with magic but I can’t enchant it? What good is it?” Taking a few minutes to use the restroom, the idea hit me mid-stream, magic shields. This is what I was looking for.
After putting together a quick snack of tuna salad in a bowl, I wolfed it down and got back to work. I put the silver, iron, and the granite next to each other on the table, shaping the silver to make it into a rectangle about the length and width of my forearm but thin enough to not be heavy. When that was done, I shaped the others to match the same dimensions. The plan was to layer them to serve as a magic shield. The stone would function as the middle layer with engraved enchantments to be overly durable and to project a field that repels physical force (bullets and punches).
The iron functioned as the outer covering to hold my untested enchantments for my idea of ‘dispelling’ which hopefully would block magical projectiles such as curses or fireballs. Hopefully that would protect me from deadly stuff like the deathbolts from this morning. The base layer of silver was designed to be the inner layer with my control enchantments. Through that, I should be able to control the shape and size of the shield.
Stolen novel; please report.
After the enchantments were done, I bonded all of the layers together and sealed the outer edges with a crystal that was similar to (but much harder than) quartz, and then edged the outer covering with the gold leaf for a bit of pizazz.
The combined shield plate was about an inch thick and somewhere in the ballpark of eight pounds. Then, for my pièce de résistance, I put an experimental enchantment on the outer crystal covering to project a field of pulling and draining. The runes covering the crystalline outer plate were in the shape of a whirlpool to properly capture my meaning.
My intent woven into the crystal covering should be able to try and pull apart the spellweave of whatever attack (let's say a fireball) as it got closer to my shield plate, and it would also serve to weaken any curse that came my way. Theoretically, the fireball would be pulled apart and my other enchantments would then absorb what they could from the fireball’s weakened structure and then the rest of the runes would divert the remnants of the power to an overflow battery while shielding me from the rest.
Multiple layers of protection, first the controlled draining layer, then the dispelling layer, then the physical layer, then the intent control layer.
With my prototype built out in front of me, I conjured a bone gauntlet on my left arm to hold the multi-layered shield plate and sealed my experiment inside of it by growing the bone gauntlet around it. Putting it on, I noticed that the entire assembly was actually a bit unwieldy. It took me almost an hour to get all of the adjustments right until I felt that I could easily move with it on.
The main armor plate had to be shortened, the bone covering had to be thicker and rounded out instead of ending in hard lines like a brick. Comfort matters. I don’t know how much power it’s actually going to take to use, but I set up the link to the battery vest just in case.
The golden light streaming through my basement windows showed me that it was well past noon. I had taken a stab at a shield for my defensive needs, now I had to figure out the offensive. Since I worked well past lunchtime, I grabbed a meal shake from the fridge because those things stay fresh for years. This should keep me going till dinner.
I hadn’t realized it due to the events of the past day or so, but I was absolutely gross, again. I stank. I went to the bathroom and turned on the hot water without thinking. Nothing.
Of course. No electricity, no running water, no shower. Maybe I could do one better. I grabbed the soap and conjured a constant stream of water from my palm and fingertips. Perfect.
Within a few minutes, I was clean. It took me longer to get dressed and undressed than it did to scrub myself down and get clean. I stepped out of the tub and banished the water there and on me. Towels are old school. I looked in the mirror; my tired face glared back at me.
Grumbling at my own visage, I made a bunch of faces to loosen up a bit. “Dude, gotta do something with the racoon eyes, and maybe some of these old acne scars can go too.” I poked around my face with my flesh magic for a bit as my inner vanity reared its ugly head.
It was easier than I thought. Just envisioning what I wanted made the scars vanish along with the current under-the-skin acne, and I tightened up the very beginnings of a double chin. Even my jawline got a little sharper. Flesh sorcery renewed my skin from the ground up.
I laughed as my highschool insecurities vanished. [Yo! This is awesome! If I can do that, what can I do with the rest of me?]
My desk job and pre-Ripple life choices had been less than kind to my body over the past couple of years. I parked my naked self in front of the full length mirror and started from the neck down. Quick applications of my magic removed some stretch marks from my sides and shoulders and a few old scars. Testing out my sorcery, I grew out my nails a bit from my hand just to see if I could. The extra chunk of some desk job pudge shrank away. Time for the hard part. I need more muscle.
The current body I have is weak. It’s human. The concept of offense has to start from the body. I went and got my pocket generator and held it in my hands, upping the power flow until it was wide open. Letting it fill me up with power, I ended up deciding to lay down on the soft bathroom mat for comfort and began to work on my body.
Ethereal power coupled with involuntary shakes pulsed through my body as my Flesh Sorcery was more than happy to bend everything about my body to my will. My body rippled and shook as intense exercise was magically simulated at an accelerated rate; muscle fibers snapping and regrowing in tandem with my bone cells growing harder and more dense. Tendons were strengthened to keep up with the growing strength and even my nerve endings were revitalized.
After an hour of almost vibrating out of my skin, I fought my exhaustion with the ravenous clawings of my appetite. The experience was draining, like going to the gym and dieting hardcore for three years rolled into one intense hot yoga session. I needed to freaking shower again. The tile floor was covered in sweat and nastiness. Working quickly to contain the stench, I conjured water over the unidentifiable translucent fluids and levitated the water-contained nastiness down the tub’s drain.
I could make a fortune as a maid.
The fifteen steps from the bathroom to the kitchen were the longest hike of my life. I stumbled to the counter, found the vitamins and downed them one at a time with conjured water until my flesh Sorcery let me know it had enough of the concentrated goodness.
Chugging more conjured water, I slugged two cans of soup from the pantry and four of the meal shakes. I was too tired for the rest of the day. Even though my girlfriend took up most of the broken couch, it’s where I planted my weary head. My last thought of the day was, [Shit, forgot to plant the damn acorns].
******
Inhuman screeching yanked me from a deep sleep. Awful, high-pitched, angry screeching. I woke up in a deep sweat half naked on the couch. Fumbling around in the dark for my equipment, my hindbrain screamed at me to do it quieter. The lack of sunlight through the windows clearly let me know that it wasn’t morning yet but there wasn’t a clock around for me to be specific. I could barely make out my scattered things but fear made me quick. In less than two minutes, I had my stuff slapped on and weapons in my hands.
I put my new fancy shield gauntlet on as well, its crystal edges barely glimmering in the dimmest light of the stars coming through the quartz windows. I had nothing prepared for the night; I hadn’t even wanted to consider what might be out there at this point. [Lamps!] I cursed. [Could’ve made magic lamps or even lit some damn candles!]
The screeching stopped as my rustling slowed though my fear made my own breathing louder than a bongo drum in my own ears.
Common sense slapped me upside the head with my memories of the day before when I had used the makeshift flashbangs. Forcefully calming myself and taking a few deep breaths, I conjured a handful of the flashbang pebbles and put them in my pocket. Taking a few more seconds, I carefully made sure they were full up on mana to the brink of them exploding on their own.
At this point, I was fairly used to making them which made the whole process laughably quick. The made-up rune of an exploding lightbulb next to cymbals easily imprinted on the stones and they soaked up any extra mana as if they were eager to go BOOM. I conjured two more and held them in my left hand with my pistol in my right. My knife sat in its sheath on my belt. Common sense again reared its annoying head yet again and pointed out that I need light, a constant source of it too.
[Duh.] I grunted internally. Quickly conjuring a footlong rod of quartz with a lightbulb rune stamped to the top, I extended a slim tendril of mana into it making it a makeshift glow rod that emitted a dim red light to preserve my night vision.
I tiptoed through my house just to make sure again that it was secure and that nothing had gotten in. I wanted to go to the windows to look outside, but my instincts told me that wasn’t a good idea. I really didn’t want to attract any attention.
I turned off my glow rod and sat on the couch, waiting. All of my attention was focused on scanning the overly large windows that typically adorned suburban houses. After a few minutes, a faint scratching sound came from the windows on the left side of the living room. I looked at the direction of the noise but still didn’t see anything. My windows weren’t perfectly see through, but the starlight should have illuminated a shadow. I sat there in silence, just waiting for the dawn to break.
This is not a good start to my day.