Aurelio began to walk away toward a seemingly random wall, which opened at his approach. I quickly followed; the last thing I wanted was to get left behind in a maze of blank walls with invisible doors.
When I was near, Aurelio began speaking to me, “the Purple Ravens will be equipping you with additional enchants: a bound illusiacom for communication and a map that will be imprinted to your mind link. The map will be similar to the one you may have already seen around the city, but will be accessible to you at a thought. We don’t want a courier getting lost.”
There is something extremely punchable about the way he speaks. All he did was say they’re giving me a few things, yet I want to squeeze his neck until his head comes off. When he spoke, it felt like he was stating information for himself and you just happened to be nearby to hear it. He never bothered to so much as glance in my direction.
He continued leading me through a series of small hallways, all blank chiseled white stone. After a dozen identical hallways, we arrived at a new wall as unremarkable as the rest. It opened for us and inside was a new world.
The room was a rainbow of colors pouring in from every angle. Orange light from a forge in one corner, purple from a series of torches along the walls, icy blue from candles set in chandeliers overhead. All of the stone walls had thin grooves carved into them that were pulsing with the deep blue flow of magic energy. The grooves ran up and down the walls in random zig-zagging paths. Normally, the only time magic energy was visible was briefly when using something like a wand, but they had energy flowing in giant grooves. They had essentially turned this room into one giant staff.
“The Purple Ravens are in charge of all enchants and magic coordination within the Raven Court. They make what is requested of them, as well as items of their own imagining. You will find they are eager to assist when it interests them.”
Aurelio led me to a group of five people standing in a small crowd by a series of tables near the center of the room, all wearing purple-feathered capes. Four of them were facing toward the last, a woman who had strange looking armor on. It looked like overly-thick leather that was well-fitted to her.
One of the other four, a taller and fatter man, was looking over her carefully. “Ready to try it out?” he asked excitedly.
The woman smiled sharply, “always ready.”
The man grabbed what looked like a thick vine that was hanging off her armor and stabbed it into one of the grooves on the wall. The blue pulse of energy spiraled up the vine and through her armor. She glowed from her feet up to her shoulders. It looked like there was one area on each of her arms where the magic wasn’t flowing, though.
“Test one,” the woman said, “symmetrical growth.” She placed her right hand onto the non-glowing part of her left arm.
Her body began to shift, stretching upward and outward. She was becoming taller and significantly more muscular. After maybe 30 seconds, she removed her hand to stop the enchant. She went from a slightly pudgy short frame to a towering wall of muscle. That kind of somatic change would normally take an average somator an hour or more to do. And would be very expensive too.
“How is it?” the fat man asked her, checking her over again. He looked tall before, but now he appeared childlike compared to her. “The armor looks within limits. No tears or cracks. Move around a bit.”
She raised her arms and swung them around, tensing and stretching different muscles. “It feels fitted correctly. Musculature appears to be correct. I’d say this was a success!”
The whole group shouted in celebration.
“Now test two.” She placed her left hand onto the unenergized part of her right arm. “Return to baseline.” She shrunk back down to how she appeared before. The armor stayed tight to her as she changed. The group cheered excitedly again and began discussing it fervently.
Aurelio approached the group with me a step behind.
“I don't know, I think you might be even shorter now,” another woman of the group said, comparing their heights jokingly.
The first woman slapped her arm. “I'm the perfect height for a long lifespan. It's on you if you want to choose to be taller and drop dead in 70 years.”
“I assume your side project here means you have finished what was requested,” Aurelio cut in.
Their banter stopped. The group looked at him and each other. One of them, a lanky guy with a clump of tightly curled hair, stepped over and waved the group to continue.
“Aurelio, always a pleasure. Last I checked, you aren’t in a position to be requesting anything,” he said smugly.
“The order was given from the Lord Raven themself. We wouldn’t want your group to be disciplined again, would we? I’m given to understand it was an unpleasant time for you in particular, Samuel.”
Samuel’s smile disappeared. Motioning to me he asked, “new recruit package for this one?”
“Yes. And kindly show him the way out after. I have other business.” Aurelio turned sharply and left the room.
“Di cazzo,” he murmured under his breath. “Come over here,” he gestured to me. He walked to a far corner of the room to a table cluttered with random items. “I haven’t had to set one of you up with the basics in a while.” He shuffled through the crowded table, knocking things to the ground and digging through piles.
Multiple enchants bounced and rolled around on the ground. One got close to me, so I quickly grasped it with my magic and casually placed it into a pocket. I'll have to check what that is later.
He finally grabbed a few things and turned to me. “You have a mindlink, right?”
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“Yes, I had one put in when I arrived. I’m still figuring out how to use–”
“I don’t care, just need to know it’s there.” He placed his palm on my forehead and held an illusiacom in the other.
A searing pain ripped through my skull. It took a large portion of my will to not pull away or stab him in the throat.
“There, you're linked up and ready to work.” He tossed the illusiacom to me and started to walk back toward his group.
“Wait,” I stopped him. “What did you do? All I know is you nearly cracked my skull open and then threw a slab of metal at me.”
He rolled his eyes. “The illusiacom can only be heard by you now. I also input a map of the city streets into the device that you can see, and gave you basic access to walk throughout the Cliffs. Doors will open when you think about it. And you should probably see our somators, you have blood dripping down your face.” He waved at me while walking away. “Come back if you ever have something more interesting for us to do.”
I touched my forehead and found a stream of blood was making its way down. That idiot really did crack my skull open.
Objective Complete: meet the Purple Ravens
New Objective: find the somators
I shook my head. I'll go find the somators and see if they'll be any more help than this group was.
Show me the map.
An image of the city from above appeared in front of me. It did look exactly like the physical map I was given by the city.
Go to The Cliffs
It felt like I was being pulled into the map as the buildings grew larger and moved to perfectly show me my current area. I didn't know exactly where I was, but I had the building layout.
I mentally moved the map around until I found the room I was in. It was one of the larger ones there. Once I knew where I was, a small token appeared that represented me.
The somators appear to be just a few halls away. As I marked it mentally, an actual marker appeared on the map too. A line drawing the two together formed, showing the way down the twisting halls. I wonder if it can do even more.
Guide me
At the thought, a glowing line appeared just above the ground, leading me toward a wall and, hopefully, to the somators.
I closed the map and followed the line through more winding halls to the somators. Even with the line guiding me, I felt like I was constantly lost in a maze of identical hallways, but I did arrive exactly where I wanted to.
The somators' space was simple: a few plush chairs, a shelf full of somatic slime, and the somators themselves, all lit by basic illusory light. They barely acknowledged my presence, chatting between themselves. They both wore orange-feathered shoulder capes, indicating their status in the organization.
They healed me up easily and without question. I'm not sure if they don't care how I was wounded or if they've just seen it before on every new recruit that encounters the Purple Ravens.
Objective Complete: find the somators
Level up!
Excellent, even doing these mundane tasks is binding me more closely to the mindlink.
Show me the prowesses
The tree of different magic skills and the hexagon of physical skills appeared in front of me. Last time I grabbed the first thing that caught my eye. I should probably put a bit more thought into it this time. Still, anything that makes me better with my bow will be useful.
Show me Ranged prowesses
The hexagon grew larger and aligned itself so I was looking at the Ranged section.
Critical Eye was glowing in gold, but the rest were a faded gray. As I glanced across a few of them, a description appeared for each.
Fast Draw I: With precise movements and coordination, you’ll fire faster than ever (shoot projectiles 50% faster). requires Ranged 30
Hawk Sight: Your eye will see a target from any distance (see distant targets as if they were directly in front of you). requires Ranged 40, requires Illusion 40
Impossible Shot: Your aim may have been perfect, but now you will never miss (allows manipulation of projectiles). requires Ranged 100, requires Kinesis 25
There are minimum requirements for these? And sometimes in other skills? Does that mean I should wait to get these or select a prowess from a different skill? I need to know where I am in these skills since I last looked.
Show skills
Ch9 Skills [https://imgur.com/Jit5tTu.png ]
I had advanced in quite a few places. Places that I couldn’t say I had done a lot in since I first checked a day ago. I had seen a lot of people using those skills, though. My best guess was I must have picked up a few things just from seeing others do it. I doubt that’ll keep going forever, though. I could watch someone swing a dagger for hours, but at some point I would have to actually hold it to get anything new.
Still, to have supposedly gotten that much better in one day when it took me years or decades to do so before. The mindlink was even more impressive than I could have imagined. That also means every minute I’m not in the Arena, my opponents are getting stronger than me. I needed to get back there soon if I wanted to stand a chance.
Looking back through the prowesses, all the requirements I was seeing were way higher numbers than the ones I had. I wonder if I can even get any prowesses right now.
Show prowesses I can actually get
A single one appeared, part of the Melee skill. Dual Wield I: You will be able to use two weapons as one (use two melee weapons simultaneously). Useless to me. I never really used my sword with my dagger. If anything, my sword only came out when I was desperate and my dagger was already gone. Maybe I should work on that.
Show me all prowesses
A wall of gray writing sat in front of me like a stone wall blocking my progression. For some, I was only a few levels off, like the thievery skill Shiftless, which would make me walk quieter. For others, I would have to become a true master at it with a 100 in that skill.
The prowesses did give me an idea of how to proceed, even if I couldn’t select one yet. I decided on one in particular. Sleight of Hand: create illusory brands to bring bound objects to you in an instant. (summon objects without drawn brands). With that, I would be able to have an arsenal of different weapons in my apartment that I could call to me while in the arena. All the versatility with none of the bulk.
Once upon a time, I carried about a dozen weapons on me that were each useful in specific circumstances, but the weight and noise I made was comical, so I slimmed down to just three. I tapped each one: dagger, sword, bow. I was ready to head out, a new goal in mind. I’m going to become stronger now than anyone else in this Aytanos-forsaken city.