With the spell tome resting on my lap, I opened the aged leather cover to the first page. With a simple exertion of will, I sent my intention into the book. My desire to learn from the book opened a system prompt which I accepted without hesitation. While this particular spell was not exactly like chained lightning, which created a single bolt to automatically jump from one target to target, this spell would instead create a single beam as straight as an arrow. We expected the damage would be significantly higher since there was no System aid in automatically hitting our foes. Stella explained the portion of mana reserved for chained lightning’s homing feature would instead be used to increase the bolt’s lethality.
As soon as the prompt was accepted, slowly at first but swiftly picking up in speed, the pages began flipping over as if by an unseen hand. With each new sheet of papyrus, arcane knowledge was engraved into my mind. Unlike other instances when learning from a spell book, where the information was dumped in one significant thrust, this time, it felt as if a laser printer was encoding the details directly into my mind. It wasn’t painful, far from it. Instead, not only was the process gentle, but the process also seemed to slow down time around me. Stella shifted her position, but she was moving in slow motion like she was trapped in invisible molasses.
A diving hawk near the edge of our platform slowed to a tortoise’s pace, sluggish enough that it was easy to follow its plunging path. Leaves seemed to hang motionless in the air. Their usual whimsical descent to the forest far below became prolonged to a leisurely back-and-forth dance that seemed like it would take a full day to accomplish. As eyes returned to the venerable tome, the pages still rapidly turning despite the forward creep of time, an electrical current bound within seemed to reach a tipping point. A massive pulse of energy was released with the tome at its epicenter.
With my heightened perception of time, the nearly imperceptible shockwave exploded outwards in an ever-expanding dome of energy. It looked like watching the detonation of high explosives in slow motion, the transparent wave rippling through the air to reach hundreds of meters in all directions. Worry raced through me as the shockwave stretched closer to Stella. Sluggish as everything else, my thrusting hand had no chance of reaching her in time. However, when the blast inevitably reached her, not so much as a single lock of her ebony hair was disturbed.
The wave passed through her harmlessly, soon reaching Ripley, the wood construction of several nearby shops, and a few pedestrians walking by. In its wake, a super-charged sensation was left behind, as if you were standing too close to an electrical transformer or about to be struck by lightning. The air practically hummed with relentless energy. Anyone within twenty yards felt as if every hair on their body slowly stood on end, the sheer amount of static electricity amplified a hundredfold in a millisecond.
As the last remnants of the spell were encoded into my mind, a bolt of lightning did form, to our collective dismay. With my heightened perception ongoing, the crackling bolt slowly streaked downward, heading directly for me. Frozen as I was, I couldn’t so much as flinch to get out of the way. The intense beam was at least three feet thick, a perfectly straight column of energy, unlike the crisscrossing and chaotic instances in slow-motion videos. Unable to react in the slightest, my eyes widened in terror as the lightning slammed into the book resting in my lap. The entire world exploded with a blinding flash as the final vestiges of the spell were seared into my mind.
Thankfully, and to my great relief, even though I had clearly been struck by lightning, I didn’t feel a twinge of pain. As color returned to the world around me, we discovered the book had been wholly disintegrated at the lightning bolt's touch.
A cacophony of sound rushed back into my ears as normal time resumed. The diving bird instantly disappeared below the edge of our platform. Stella jumped in fright, her frizzy hair returning to normal. Shocked outbursts rang out around us as the startled passersby flinched by the sudden appearance of lightning. Such an occurrence should not have been possible with the abundance coverage of thousands of giant leaves over everyone’s head. While lightning had never once touched the city, at least nothing above the crown of the forest, it nevertheless did with me at ground zero.
Stella reacted quickly to the gasps and, in a playful tone, apologized for the outburst. “Sorry, sorry. We’re just learning a new spell, nothing to worry about. Hunter business and all, we didn’t mean to startle anyone.” If she could blush through the hair covering her face, she certainly would have been.
“Well, that was something else,” I commented in a hushed tone. I didn’t want to attract any more attention than we already had. Lightning bolt was the first average-tier spell we learned through a spell tome. Every other similarly tiered spell came from leveling up so I was curious if what happened here would repeat itself. “Is it going to be like this every time? It felt like time had slowed to a crawl like I became Quicksilver for a hot minute.”
“Who?” Stella asked, obviously unaware of any of the Marvel characters from my past life.
“Never mind,” I replied quickly, brushing away the question.
Stella shifted in mock annoyance before responding to my earlier question. “I think quite possibly so. Learning higher-tiered spell tomes differs slightly from those granted by the System when you level up. With tomes, the stored magic and knowledge of the book are released rapidly, with the end result like what we just saw. This last spell book looked like it was made ages ago, whereas the swarm one looks young in comparison. I suspect the older the tome, the more intense the experience will be, but it is only a guess.”
“Well, for now, let’s not use another spell book anywhere near people,” I stated, still mollified by the earlier outburst that had startled a good number of people. I would hate for a swarm of angry magical bees to frighten someone off the side accidentally!”
Stella promptly nodded in agreement but didn’t say anything more. Instead, she swiped a paw in the air triggering a prompt to appear. Lightning Bolt, my newest and most potent direct damage spell, was revealed.
[Lightning Bolt]. An intense beam of electricity discharges in a straight line away from the caster’s hand, striking any target caught within the three-foot wide column of energy, causing 500 plus 7n damage, where ‘n’ equals Intelligence. Additionally, struck targets have a high chance of being momentarily paralyzed, the length of which is dependent on the target’s Constitution. Targets incapable of being stunned or paralyzed are unaffected by this ancillary effect.
Cost: 200 mana. Cast Time: 1.0 second. Cool down: 1.0 second. Plus 10 feet maximum range, 100 base damage, and 1% additional chance to paralyze per spell level.
Note – At the caster’s discretion, the beam of electricity can be terminated at any point, up to the spell’s maximum distance. Additionally, the effect can be bounced off solid objects such as walls, barriers, and similar hard surfaces. While the caster can influence the direction of the ricochet, it is not guaranteed.
“Well, I’m glad to see we can truncate how far the massive beam of electricity will travel,” I stated, a little taken aback by the impressive damage the spell could dole out. “I’m a little worried ‘hostile’ is not listed anywhere in the description, meaning I could hit friendlies. Chained lightning had it,” I said, pulling up the other spell’s description with a thought. “Yup, it does—no such luck with good ol’ reliable though. We’ll need to be careful. This sure packs a wallop.
“Stell, do you know how difficult it will be for me to modify how far the bolt travels? I’m suspecting the bolt will be,” I paused for dramatic effect. “…Lightning fast.”
Stella gave me a look which implied, “Really, Xaz?” She rolled her eyes before continuing. “It’s not hard at all. When you cast the spell, you can designate how far you want it to go. From what I see, it’s pretty easy to do.”
Stella was right. Looking inward, I perused the recently acquired mountain of information about the spell. The verbal component, commonly expressed as the words uttered during spell casting, could, in fact, be subtly modified to adjust the range. Mentally reciting the customary phrases, I instinctually knew which syllables and words could be altered to accomplish the feat.
“Good. I’m a bit thrilled to try its ability to bounce off of hard surfaces,” I voiced while rereading the description another time. “From the wording, if I want it to ricochet in a certain direction, it will. The rebound is probably more predictable against something like a castle wall, but would it be more risky if I fire this off in the middle of a cave?”
“Yeah, that’s my take on it as well,” Stella agreed. “Against something flat, you’ll have easy control over where it goes. But, if you change that surface to something uneven, such as a craggy tunnel, less so. You could very well end up hitting yourself or friendlies.”
“Yeah, we’re not going to want to do that. The amount of damage lightning bolt puts out is beyond my expectations,” I added. “It’s seven times my intelligence stats, meaning when we finally hit our goal of five hundred, not including the already high base damage, it will hit for thirty-five hundred points of damage. One bolt, all by itself, would be enough to kill me if I didn’t have my empowered aegis up. It will get even higher when we earn levels, up another thirty-five hundred points when it reaches level thirty-five. There’s no way I want to be on the receiving end of such a phenomenal blast.”
“You kind of already were, remember? Duke hit you a high-level bolt, or at least with one closely resembling it,” Stella fretted, mirroring my same feeling when I recalled that particular part of the battle.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“All the more reason to level this bad boy up as quickly as we can.”
“Don’t we know it,” Stella shot back with a dash of optimism.
I was about to pull out the next tome when Stella rushed forward and put her paw on my hand. Looking at her questioningly, she shot me an incredulous look, “Remember, we’re not using this one around… you know, other people. Let’s find a secluded spot somewhere else, yeah?”
I had forgotten my own desire to do just that but had been distracted by the excitement of seeing how powerful a lightning bolt was. Whole-heartedly supporting her suggestion, we hurried away from Spell Alley. Not long after, three platforms over, we came across a slightly elevated platform, half as narrow as most, angled up to another section of the city. Beyond a few stragglers moving about, it was mostly deserted. Most people had come and gone with lunch, so we were not surprised with how few people were around. As alone as we could reasonably be, it was as good a place as any for what would happen next: learning piercing swarm.
Finding an isolated bench a quarter up the ramp, we sat down, Stella landed beside me. Ripley, as ever, stood watch a few feet away. She panned her gaze back and forth, scrutinizing anyone nearby. We were perfectly safe in the city, but her presence and steadfast vigilance always felt comforting. If the exceedingly rare chance someone was up to no good, she had an answer for that too. No one could get the drop on us. I was mostly confident such was the case.
Not even a stealthed foe could approach us without detection if they meant any harm. Thanks to Ripley’s permanent AoE buff, anything hostile would begin taking damage if they got too close. While the damage was nothing comparable to my lesser and above DoTs, it was respectable in its own right. It only affected hostile enemies and was otherwise mostly undetectable until it triggered. Ripley’s invisible sphere of protection brought me comfort, and should someone have ill intent towards us, we would get plenty of warning before they got within striking distance.
Alone at last, the tome of ‘Piercing Swarm’ was withdrawn from my inventory. Resting the heavy book on my lap, I examined it. Unlike Lightning Bolt’s timeworn hardcover, which looked like it went unprotected from the elements for decades, if not several hundreds of years, this latest tome appeared to have only been created recently. The taut bookbinding leather was soft and supple to the touch, allowing easy grip. The cover and spine were smooth, without so much as the slightest imperfection usually found on similar books over long years of storage and normal wear and tear.
In many ways, the hardcover was pristine. However, the feeling coming off the book was far from comforting. While there was no outward appearance suggesting otherwise, I half expected to see insects flitting around the thing after withdrawing it from my inventory. The sense of foreboding practically oozed from the leather. It was as if a wasp’s nest, with millions of small predators, moved right below the stretched leather. The tome resonated. That was the best way I could describe it. The constant drone… a vibration, alluded to a veritable swarm of angry wasps were moments away from rushing out to dissuade any intruder.
Unlike the last book, which had only a single large rune, the piercing swarm was covered by hundreds spanning nearly every inch front to back. Several, the size of post-it notes or stamps, wrapped around the leather binding. Each glowed with a sickly emerald green that seemed to seep directly into the air. Though I had no hope of understanding even the smallest fraction of the multitude of symbols, this book was far more detailed than anything we had ever encountered.
The intricate lines of each rune, to our surprise, were not lines at all. Instead, each was comprised of thousands of microprinted symbols, not unlike the tiny script seen on modern currencies back on Earth. To the naked eye, the runes looked nothing out of the ordinary, but, when viewed from inches away, the amount of script tightly packed together was astounding. We would need a magnifying glass to have any chance of making out the tiny symbols. Whoever crafted this book must have unbelievable talent to outshine anything modern microprinters could accomplish. And, we hadn’t even cracked the book open yet!
After gazing at the intricate runes for what seemed like several long minutes, I finally flipped open the cover. I was not at all disappointed by what we found. Each and every page was absolutely blanketed with intricate mystic phrases. Not an inch of the delicate papyrus was wasted. Reconsidering the book in my hands, perhaps it was far older than the former lightning bolts tome. It must have taken decades of the utmost precision in craftsmanship to create such a breathtaking item. Either that or a staggering amount of mana must have gone into its meticulous construction.
Stella saw the wonder in my eyes and smiled softly, “Magic is something else, isn’t it?”
With the book unfurled, the ceaseless thrum from before quieted. It was as if the swarm was moments away from lashing out to slay any who threatened the hive. Nothing happened at first, but then small motes of energy began rising from the pages. After reaching an inch off the exquisite paper, each indistinct spark of mana transformed into a ghostly wasp. Even though the apparitions flitted about casually as if without a care in the world, the apparitions didn’t create the slightest bit of sound.
Stella lightly swiped a paw through one, but the tiny thing made no reaction whatsoever as her toe passed harmlessly through it. “Magnificent…” the single word from her mouth was more than enough to describe the wondrous magic before us.
With a flex of my will, a System message appeared before me.
Do you wish to learn, Piercing Swarm? Yes/No.
Selecting ‘yes,’ like every time before, the pages began flipping of their accord. Faster and faster, as the pages turned, the sensation of learning every minute detail of the spell was markedly different from anything before. It was as if a stream of worker bees flew into my head, coming from all directions, passing through my skull, and wiggling into my brain. Impossibly small on their own, the swarm moved to cluster in a particular area and, for lack of a better description, began erecting a colony. I have no other words to describe the sensation.
In my mind’s eye, an infinitesimally small beehive was being established. With each new honeycomb, detailed knowledge about the spell flickered into existence as the insubstantial bees secreted mental ‘wax’ into countless hexagonal cells. The experience brought not an inkling of pain as the magic of the tome did its work. An intense impression of being guarded by the swarm took shape, as the honeycomb was firmly rooted in my mind. Forevermore, the swarm would respond to my call, and protect me from anyone foolish enough to challenge the hive.
As the last remnants of energy were spent, the magnificent tome began to break apart into a million motes of viridescent light. In seconds, the once-majestic tome sparkled through the air before disappearing from view, leaving nothing behind, knowledge inescapably bound to me. We sat in stunned awe for several long moments with only the gentle song cries of birds and the rustling of leaves accompanying us. Stella’s mouth was hanging open, neither of us needing any more words to describe the breathtaking display of magic we just witnessed.
Glancing at each other in appreciation, Stella flicked a paw, and a new window opened before us.
[Stinging Swarm]. An aggressive horde of incorporeal wasps engulf a target within 100 feet, causing 800 (up from 400) plus 8n damage immediately and then every 6 seconds until the spell expires, where ‘n’ equals Intelligence.
Cost: 300 mana. Cast Time: 1.0 second(s). Cool down: 1.0 second(s). Duration: 84 seconds (up from 60). Plus 10 feet maximum range, plus 80 base damage per spell level.
Note – This spell inflicts an unusually high degree of pain to susceptible targets, potentially distracting those of weaker Constitution. However, the spell has no innate ability to impose such a debilitating effect, such as being stunned or momentarily paralyzed.
Taking a moment to read and then reread the information floating in front of us, the spell was fairly straightforward. Based on the unique experience of learning it, I almost expected the description to have an equally unique effect added along with it. Blood boil, for example, showered nearby enemies in a defeated foe’s blood, while ignite bones degraded a foe’s accuracy with physical attacks. Most Dots beyond the minor tier had an additional debuff added in conjunction with the damage.
“This is all damage and only damage,” I observed, my tone both impressed and disappointed at the same time. The disappointment soon passed as I truly considered the staggering amount of damage the spell would inflict to anything, unfortunately enough to feel its sting. “Even the initial impact of the spell will cause more damage than lightning bolt. That’s absurd.”
“True, but lightning bolt can hit multiple enemies, as long as they are standing neatly in a row. Plus, you can recast it after a short one second delay, endlessly. Well, until you run out of mana, anyway. It is strong, don’t get me wrong. The damage is so much higher partly because the spell’s duration is half of what an average spell usually has,” Stella commented, pointing a toe towards the top portion of the hovering window. “I’m confident the spell has increased damage because there’s no additional special effect. Though, it does look like the spell could cause a target to hesitate, flinch, or, if they were smart, to run in terror as ghostly bees continuously harass them.”
“We’ll have to wait and see, though being ‘distracted’ seems to be a bit of an understatement,” I stated. Overall, Piercing Swarm was a wonderful addition to my repertoire, especially against individual enemies. Something like Pyroclastic Funeral Pyre, with its extra AoE damage, could deal out more damage against a group of mobs, but when it comes down to a single monster, piercing swarm reigns supreme.
The rest of the afternoon came and went by mostly uneventfully. We found a few additional workshops but didn’t find anything noteworthy. We roamed through several more platforms, some home to apartment-like dwellings—every single one created with obvious care and precise planning. The apartments looked more like condos and, from what we overheard, were primarily occupied by both short and long-term visitors to the city. Apparently, we had received quite the honor when Commander Wallace allowed us to settle down in one of the elven homes nestled within one of their sacred trees. Hearing this, I asked Stella to remind me to thank him again for taking such good care of us.
“I’m surprised Tallos didn’t mention it earlier,” Stella commented as we made our way back to our esteemed dwelling. The afternoon light was beginning to wane and the crisp coolness of night would soon fall.
Around us, unnoticed until this point, hundreds of glow lights illuminated. Shining everything below in a pleasant soft yellow glow. Hovering a dozen feet above the tops of the single-story homes around us, we couldn’t get a closer view to see the magic at work in the glass spheres. Inside each was a suspended tiny bead of flame at its center. As daylight faded, the tiny sparks grew proportionally, allowing a friendly glow to wash across the city. When night finally settled, I suspected we would be treated to quite the enchanting sight as everything became bathed in its radiance.
An hour before sundown, we returned home. Opening the front door, we spied Tallos reclining back, the wooden chair's front support legs a foot off the ground. Our friend’s feet were propped casually across the dining room table, his hands held secure behind his neck. His ordinarily smooth hair was tousled and unkempt, a rare occurrence for the normally tidy elf. When he heard our approach, a rakishly wide grin stretched across his face, eliciting a knowing smile from me.
“It looks like you had a good time,” Stella snickered, not catching onto the obvious. She saw my side-eyed stare and flinched back, “What?”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” I replied teasingly.