“Magic circles are more than what most arcanists think they are; they are conduits of our proficiencies, of our power. They can be used in combinations, formations, even artifacts if one is willing to sacrifice that much.
And they can be improved even more.”
~Collegiate Hafner Soulard
“Do we really have to do this?” Ben groaned as he lagged behind.
“This is what you, and your loudmouth brother were begging for.” Bella yelled, not even bothering to look back as she led the twins through the monster infested woods that surrounded Bainbridge. “Now, sit back and enjoy the ride.”
Forced to wait to pummel that idiot little brother of hers, Bella had entertained herself by taking charge of the shitshow Devin had going on. She didn’t know what the dumbass was thinking, volunteering himself to take care of these boys—especially since he was barely any stronger than they were.
It didn’t matter; she planned to rectify that all tonight. She would make these two ascend to the first circle, get Devin to see that he really needed to worry about himself.
He’ll see her way, and if he didn’t, she’d wring his neck until he did.
The boys trembled like leaves as they wandered through the darkness, flinching at every snap and creak that echoed through the forest. It was borderline cute, in a baby deer way, but Bella was too annoyed to care about cute.
They needed some monsters to kill, preferably some strong ones.
The night shone like day in Bella’s eyes, due to her [Clear Vision] boon from her Assassin Archetype. As nothing could hide from her supernatural sight, she quickly found traces for the type of beast that could be just strong enough to earn the twins enough to condense their magic circle.
“Ok, here’s the plan. We’ll silently track our prey. I’ll soften them up, and one of you kills it. Rinse, repeat, and you both should be set to ascend.” She laid out.
“What did you mean by prey?” Ben asked cautiously.
“By ascend, you mean get superpowers, right?” Ken questioned.
“Didn’t I just say silently?” Bella sighed. “If y’all can’t be quiet, I’ll turn this bus around.”
As one, both the twins zipped their lips shut, and threw away the key. Bella shook her head and sighed. “Don’t make me regret my decision.”
““Yes ma’am.””
“Alright, now who’s ready to hunt down some giant ants?” Bella asked, smiling from the sight of Ben’s bulging eyes.
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Chittering and clanging reverberated through the pits of the Lost & Found as man and mouse tore apart the ever-growing piles of garbage in search of their treasure.
“You sure you got this?” Devin asked Dewey, dumping his finds into their own collection.
She answered his question with a series of annoyed squeaks as various pieces of trash and special knick knacks fell to the ground. The mouse spirit threw several more items into the pile before rushing back to the pits to gather more.
“Fine, I got it. No need to go over our age difference again.” Devin muttered. It had taken a while to get his head wrapped around sharing a mentally communicating in vague concepts with a mouse, but for some reason it took longer to get over the fact Dewey was a centuries-old spirit.
I don’t know why, but I thought of her as a boy more than a girl. He shook his head. With their time together limited, Devin put all the unnecessary thoughts out of head, focusing on what really mattered.
Making money.
Leaving Dewey to scavenge with her superior “junk radar” she had eloquently described it, Devin calmed his shaky breath as he took stood of the pile of dirty, broken items they gathered.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
None of it looked valuable or appealing, but with so many in close proximity to each other, Devin could feel the uncomfortable mix of aura they exuded. Their combined might was weighed on his growing sixth sense than their separated counterparts.
[Focus] flooded his entire existence as Devin picked a broken CD player. Enough pussyfooting around, it’s do or die time. He directed his attention on the dregs of powers that dwelled deep inside the cracked device.
Breaking down artifacts was both easier and harder than their cards counterparts. Cards were more like glass—in a metaphysical sense. They were hard to make, but easy to break.
Artifacts were the opposite; they were easier to come by, but goddamn were they hard to dismantle.
He prodded it with his will-infused arcanium, growing more familiar with the resource the longer he experimented. Devin soaked the CD player in his energy, searching for something specific within it. Infiltrating artifacts was child’s play compared to doing the same with a card.
The real difficulty laid in finding the keystone that tied its supernatural existence together in this physical realm.
WIth a card, the ebbs, and flows of energy were long and full of meaning Devin couldn’t decipher, but they all eventually lead you back to the heart of the card. At least, that's how it was from his experiences.
There were no such conveniences in an artifact. Traces such as those were few and far in between, so the dismantle process mostly came down to luck.
After failing to detect the core of the artifact, Devin threw the CD player back into the pile. Too [focus]’d to be discouraged, Devin got the most magically irradiated piece of material they could find.
A moldy, scum-covered, nauseating-neon green plastic toothbrush
Devin immediately wanted to drop the disgusting thing, but his objections were shoved into a box, and thrown to the side. [Focus] kept the goal firmly in mind, and his mind on a one way track to that destination.
It’s still disgusting.
Ignoring his reservations, he waved his hand in and around the field the toothbrush produced. His own arcanium instinctively welled up in response to the stimuli, repulsing the magical radiation like the identical poles of two magnets.
Opting to touch the toothbrush as little as possible, Devin tried to push his arcanium further, attempting to interact with the aether and essence—the smallest form of shard energy—without making contact.
His heart thumped in his chest as his arcanium gushed out uncontrollably. His AP dropped to the floor, falling to just about half his reserves before he managed to clamp down on the flow.
More artifacts fell onto the pile as concerned squeaking echoing from Devin’s side. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, and keep looking. Please.” He pleased.
Dewey hesitated for a moment, before running back to the still-growing mounds of garbage. Devin turned back to the overcharged artifact, watching sparks fly across its plastic body.
Even if I do finish with this one. I won’t have enough in the tank for anything else. It’s not enough to just dismantle. I need to be fast, and efficient.
[Focus] streamlined his thoughts, bringing anything relevant to the forefront while banishing the rest. He concentrated on the task at hand, trusting his skill, and letting the knowledge flow through him rather than wasting energy on picking and choosing.
Inspiration came from one of his prior reads, one that detailed alternate uses for resources than to just empower cards and spam without any finesse.
Magic circles aren’t just limited to activating a card, they can be used for formations, directly empower skills with their focus, or even act as a liaison for their perception. The limits are the arcanists imagination.
His magic circle—Nature’s Elite—burned into existence around the artifact and traced geometric shapes in the air as it centered on the toothbrush. The artifact’s power surged to meet his, but Devin weathered the repulsion silently. His ring continued to manifest, unfettered by the meager resistance the artifact put up.
Devin kept his hand at the edge of the item’s field, feeling at the currents of essence, and arcanium underneath its physical form. Similar to blood rushing through the limbs, the power inside the artifact raced back and forth.
The only reason Devin could sense it was because of his new skill. It magnified the phenomenon in his awareness, allowing to perceive something so fleeting yet complex.
After admiring it, Devin reined in his arcanium. The repulsion effect intensified, every bit of the artifact’s power leveraged to repel his hand.
Although he had withdrawn most of his arcanium, Devin was able to sense the artifact through his magic circle. He noticed that the repulsive field covered every inch of matter within 3 inches of the toothbrush, all except two points on either end, where the repelling effect was noticeably weaker.
Devin placed his palms on either end of the artifact while his circle began to spin. He forced arcanium into the weak points, overpowering the resistance by taking advantage of its weakened.
Despite the success of his new method, it wasn’t enough. With his budding instincts, Devin knew he had to connect the two streams of energy if he wanted to create enough turbulence to break the artifact down.
He tried to move his arcanium further into the artifact’s body, but something pulled at his energy, ripping it from his grasp and burning the wisps of will to crisps when they got too close.
After some trial and error, Devin managed to thread the needle, connecting both poles of the toothbrush via a string of arcanium.
The two weak points connected in a flash of light. Devin blinked the blind spots away to see several blue-tinted shards and a round skill shard neatly stacked in his magic circle.
“If [Focus] can help me do this, I wonder what a skill geared to actually dismantling can do.” Devin said aloud, thinking it over.
Although he had just become an arcanist, the skills he already had were an immense help. With a little creativity, Devin was sure he could find something that would not only be a great help to him here, but also well into the future.
Pullimg up his soul card, Devin cycled through the earlier notifications for a particular reward. The Request Reward Ticket.
His dabble into histories of various civilizations informed him just how valuable an achievement reward like this was. Wars were started over things like this, and here he was about to cash it in so he can look through garbage faster.
Heh. The duality of man. Devin activated the coupon with a sliver of arcanium. The coupon disappeared into the air, as a screen replaced it.
What do you desire?
Wealth
Power
Knowledge
Opportunity
Devin took in the options, making sure he wasn’t missing anything before sticking with his gut.
You have chosen Knowledge.
Name the Knowledge you seek.
This isn’t a trap, is it? Devin didn’t want to get stuck with something he didn’t want just because he wasn’t super specific. Just in case. He told himself as he thought over his answer. “...I wish to know the skill to help refine any material.” He was sure that if there were any tricks, that his request was airtight.
The screen blipped.
Searching…
Compatible reward found!
Skill Gained!
Refine (Unique)
Maximum skill capacity reached.
All skills learned will be vaulted until
another skill slot is created
Bits of otherworldly knowledge filtered into Devin’s head, giving [focus] new avenues to take in inspiration. He looked at the pile Dewey had gathered while he worked, almost half as tall as the rest of the garbage hills. He cracked his knuckles, ready to put his new skill to work.