The wind cut like blades as I paced out a dozen yards from the shelter and put my back toward the ice coated cliff. “Might as well go in order, plus a bit of [Light] goes a long way.” Unlike the tiny ball of golden light I’d shown my party on the sled, this time what I produced was more akin to a large watermelon in size, if not in shape. Despite how much it illuminated, the light remained pleasant to look at, which I was grateful for when I heard Raiju yelp at being exposed hiding in the snow near me.
“If you’re going to be out here, at least sit next to me and keep watch.” I beckoned her over and over the next few minutes of companionable silence, I summoned over a hundred globes of [Light] before the window I’d been expecting appeared.
[Light is ready to Evolve. Please choose one of the following for it to evolve into:
Skills
Illuminate
Continual Flame]
That was the easiest of the decisions I made that night, as I knew [Continual Flame] had a material component I didn’t want to need to source and [Illuminate] just did the same thing as [Light] without a visual source, with more options as to the appearance, and with a longer duration. The first time I used [Illuminate], it confirmed my action as it laid a nicely simulated sunlight for me to work by.
Before starting in on [Mage Hand], I realized I had one other Skill to evolve and there was every chance I’d need a few hours to pull it off. Pulling up [Sun Apostle’s Perdition], I checked the cooldown and verified it was still just under a minute.
“Raiju, this might be a bit brighter than [Illuminate], so I’d like you to shield your eyes just in case.” She nodded and hunkered down on the pallet I’d pulled out to sit on mid way through evolving [Light]. “[Sun Apostle’s Perdition].” I projected clearly with my hand extended…but nothing happened.
I checked the description and groaned. “Does it need a target to even cast?” I pulled a dagger training dummy covered in painted red rings over where a person’s vital spots would be from my ring and set it up a couple hundred feet away from the bunker, Raiju, and I. “I hope it doesn’t have to be alive to count as a valid target and that Dad never hears I used his favorite training aid for Spellcraft training. He’d never let me hear the end of it.” Hand extended, I tried again to cast the Skill and wasn’t disappointed by the results.
I was absolutely terrified.
The moment I targeted the dummy, a column of red and gold light fell from the heavens to hammer down on its location for less than a second. The training dummy had been replaced by a five foot by twenty yard deep hole. The most terrifying part wasn’t the damage, it was the fact that it was totally silent, despite the destruction it caused.
As Raiju and I hurried over to check and see if the dummy had somehow survived, not that I had much hope for it at that point, I winced at the state of my Mana pool. “Holy shit, that used more Mana than [Comet Storm]. I hope I don’t need to use it a hundred times for it to evolve, or I’ll be at this for a while.” Checking the hole, I confirmed my assumption. “Dummy’s gone. What am I going to do now?”
Raiju sniffed the hole before snorting a couple of times. “Light Mana, kind of stinky.” She shook her head and turned to walk back toward our previous position, but not before she asked me a painful question. “Why not just use a rock or a copper coin or something? Would those work?”
The color drained from my face. “I hope not…or I just pissed my Dad off in the future for no damn reason.” For the record, Raiju was right, and my Dad was indeed going to be pissed at me.
I started intermixing [Sun Apostle’s Perdition] in between castings of [Mage Hand] whenever it was ready to go. Each time, I aimed for a new rock and each time I erased that rock. A couple of minutes in, [Mage Hand] was ready to evolve.
[Mage Hand is ready to Evolve. Please choose one of the following for it to evolve into:
Skills
Ethereal Touch
Distant Legerdemain]
Despite the increased utility of being able to interact with the ethereal in [Ethereal Touch], I had to go with [Distant Legerdemain]. It would let me disarm traps and open locks like I was right next to them. The System even informed me it would mesh with [Trap Master] after I picked it, so I was confident I made the right choice.
The next Skill had me getting nostalgic with Raiju. “This one is Mom’s favorite, [Elemental Barrage], despite it evolving into [Elemental Cannonade], she always preferred the unevolved version. She said it just felt right for some reason.” I pointed off into space and let it loose, allowing the fire, lightning, and cold energy coil around each other to merge into a single purple beam of energy fifty feet away before screaming off into the darkness.
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“That’s neat.” Raiju couldn’t help but throw a [Lightning Bolt] out after me and we kept that up for almost a minute before [Sun Apostle’s Perdition] was off cooldown. Once I sent that off, I sat down next to Raiju while absentmindedly shooting [Elemental Barrages] out every few seconds.
“Mom wanted to teach this to me before I left, but I refused.” I shook my head after loosing the Spell once more. “I told her I was going to use a bow instead.” Tears formed in the corner of my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. “When this is all done and Jaegan is healed up, we’re going to Sunhome and I’m going to spend a week with Grandpa.” I ruffled her fur. “He’s going to love you.”
“Why wouldn’t he? I’m amazing.” Gone was her previous sense of inadequacy, she was a lot like a kid in that. Nothing lasted long for her besides her love for me and my food.
Another [Elemental Barrage] later, I patted her head. “You’ve got that right.”
[Elemental Barrage is ready to Evolve. Please choose one of the following for it to evolve into:
Skills
Elemental Cannonade
Elemental Cascade
Elemental Storm
Unique Skills
Elemental Mastery]
For a second, I hesitated, or that would have been the fastest decision over [Illuminate]. I snapped [Elemental Mastery] up immediately and pulled up the effect of it nearly as quickly.
[Elemental Mastery is a Unique Skill earned by impressing at least one Elemental Duke, though you’ve done so with all eight of them. Elemental Mastery has a number of effects and the passives are always active. The effect of all elemental damaging Spells or Skills will be increased by twenty-five percent and elemental damage dealt to you is reduced by one tenth of your Arcane. In addition, you are now immune to the effects of inclement weather, including intense heat and cold.
The active portion of Elemental Mastery allows you to form elemental energy into constructs of all types, be they for attacking or otherwise. The only limit is your creativity and your Mana supply. Any elemental constructs not generated from natural terrain will last one tenth of your Arcane in hours.]
I hesitantly reached back to touch the wall of ice and chuckled when it felt cold, but not unpleasantly so. With a pulse of Mana, I tried drawing a step out of the wall near my hand and grinned when it came out smoothly.
“Well, there’s always that option for getting up, but I’m hoping [Elemental Teleportation] will be faster and cheaper, Mana-wise.” I leaned back against a chair I formed of ice and settled in for the long haul. “This is going to be a long night.”
Raiju shifted to dog size and settled in my lap. “I’ll be here the whole time.”
“You’re the best.” I held her close.
She snorted. “I know.”
***
Over the next two hours, pushing well past the night and out into the wee hours of the morning, I managed to upgrade all the Skills I had that were floating at ninety-nine percent except [Backstab], considering I had nothing living to stab besides Raiju. I figured that could wait for the end of the floor, if I were lucky.
In a strange, but welcome turn of events [Wall of Fire], [Transmute Rock to Mud], [Geyser], [Maelstrom], and [Storm Sphere] all had the option to merge with [Elemental Mastery] when they evolved. After considering it the first time for [Wall of Fire], I decided to go through with it and I was so glad I had. Not only did I not lose access to the function of the Spells in question, but now I wasn’t tied to the rigid form many of them were supposed to take. In exchange, my Mana efficiency with fire, earth, mud, water, air, and lightning were all increased by fifty percent when using [Elemental Mastery] to produce effects related to those elements.
As for [Elemental Body], I ended up picking [Elemental Form] as the evolution. It would let me take on the physical stats of an S-Ranked elemental of the element I chose when using it. I planned on using it as a sort of emergency escape or tanking option, given how maneuverable and/or tough those forms tended to be. Especially at S-Rank. When I’d tested it out, I’d chosen fire and ended up turning into an [Inferno Baron], a ten foot tall figure of pure blue flame. The Mana drain was significant, but my inflated casting stats and [Wits] were more than up to the task of maintaining it as long as I didn’t use any other Skills at the same time.
[Chain Lightning] gave me an option I’d never considered and I just had to take it. [Bunker Bolt] worked just like [Chain Lightning]...unless the target was wearing some sort of hardened armor or was entirely made of a non-living material. If that was the case, the bolt would instead pierce deep within the target and detonate each of the six ‘chain bolts’ within the target all at once. Based on my [Status], it wasn’t an undiscovered or Unique Skill per se, but I’d never seen it in any of the books I’d been given while studying evolved Skills, so it couldn’t be common.
Gramps should know more about it. I’ll ask him the next time I see him.
On its hundredth cast, [Sun Apostle’s Perdition] decided to let me evolve it, and I was anything but surprised at what it turned into. I was only given one option and I knew why. Dominus wanted a chance to smite some bitches.
[Dominus’ Fury is a Unique Skill first developed by Arthur Bajbub Neilson, Chosen of Dominus. Unlike the Skill it evolved from, Dominus’ Fury doesn’t need to be aimed. Instead, once activated, Dominus herself gains the ability to unleash one ten thousandth of her might upon the battlefield upon anything/anyone there she so chooses.
In exchange for this flexibility and power, this Skill has a cooldown of one year. This cooldown will decrease based upon the number of people following Dominus on Genovia. The Mana cost of this Skill is one.]
The moment I unlocked it, I knew I’d have to use it someday, but it would be my absolute last resort. It was nice to have an option like [Dominus’ Fury] in my back pocket, but I couldn’t help but feel like she was watching me a bit closer than before and I didn’t love the idea of that when I wasn’t in danger. A quick prayer later and the feeling receded, but it didn’t fade entirely.
Finally, the Skill we’d be using to go up the wall in less than five hours decided to evolve. The options were limited, but another Unique Skill called my name and I knew I had to take it. [Elemental Surge] was a bit like the Skill it evolved from, but it was now a hell of a lot more flexible. Gone was the need to do a huge burst of elemental damage at the exit point of the teleportation, and instead it gave me a number of ways to travel with my companions. Teleportation, flight, swimming, sliding, tunneling, or sheer ground speed were all options with [Elemental Surge].
The only downside I could find was that the people I brought with me would have to be moving the same direction as me, or at least stay close, as the range they could spread from me was only one fifth of my [Wits], or a little less than twenty-five feet right then. All in all, I couldn’t wait to test it out, so Raiju and I slid up and down the wall a bit to get a feel for it. She left the Skills’ range once and immediately fell, which was good to know, but she didn’t appreciate falling thirty feet to the snow below very much. After using [Elemental Mastery] to dry her fur out, we went back into the shelter and I caught the four hours I needed to meditate and feel refreshed.