I went to the library and tried my best to tune out the chaos around me. My fellow students seemed to be handling the changes fairly well. Mrs. Geiger ,our Liberian, had a happy smile on her bespectacled and well freckled face. I took the fact that she was cataloging books at a pace that was well into the super human as a sign she had taken a profession similar to mine.
“Good afternoon Ma’am.” I called as I passed the checkout desk.
“John! How has this odd day been treating you?” Her reply startled me. I’d only ever seen the woman exhausted from too much work keeping the library functioning on a public school budget.
I watched as her hands deftly checked each book before cataloging and carting it. Noting out of the ordinary except she was moving at a book a second and the computer was struggling to keep up.
“ It’s going well enough for me. Is that a skill like Greater Liberian Science?”
She paused her hands so quickly I thought the large hardback she was holding would fly away.
“ It is that exactly, Did you take Scribe, Liberian dear?”
“ I actually took Wizard, Bibliomancer” I decided to mirror the way she described her profession and sub profession.
“ Oh that’s wonderful, and I guess this is the right place to be for you. Are you still planning on helping with the book fair next week?”
“ If it’s still happening.” I now had additional benefit to working that event other than getting credit in place of a sport. If I got more skill levels then I’d call it a good use of time.
I went off to one of the reading tables and popped open my laptop. First test, Was the Wikipedia spike a one time thing or because I went to its main page?
Answer is, ouch. Wikipedia seems to be considered an encyclopedia and the internet as a whole the library of alexandria. Using wikipedia and following sites to reference point I was able to massively spike my level, scholarship, liberian science,and reading. Book binding looked to be maxed, I'm guessing do to Wikipedia compiling on my phone. Looks like anything compiling, downloading, or formatting counted for the skill. I mentally pulled myself away from the rabbit whole that would be that skill alone and forced myself to focus on the power leveling. Spending an hour and a half on research via the internet netted me some wonderful gains and a wicked headache. I didn’t pass out this time though, so it looks like the big boost was a one time event. But I didn’t take the time to baseline after that well. Note to self, do that next time. I pulled up my stats page with a thought.
“
Profession: Wizard
Specialization: Bibliomancer
Affinity: Arcana; Apocrypha
Lvl: 37
Int:130(+5)
Will:130(+10)(+5)
Per:90(+5)
Chr: 20
End:90
Str:20
Agi:20
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Aura:20
free: 105
Class abilities:
Greater Mana sensitivity: 18
Greater Mana Shape: 6
Forge Spell: 2
Greater Scholarship: 52
Subclass abilities:
Greater Reading: 78
Greater librarian science: 86
Greater Book Binding:100
Greater Spell: book channeling: 5
Auric Skill: Mana Draw:1
Traits:
ADHD( Tier 3) + 10 will when engaged in an activity that has captured your interest. -5 will all other times.
Mind for Magic. Your mind considers spells a perfectly natural form of expression of will. +5 int, will, and per as well as cap when you have mana remaining.
Hyper mobil joints: +1 Agi and Agi cap
Titles:
journeyman Liberian
Oath Taker
“
Now just to add in the free points, I think i’ll prioritize the ‘dump’ stats so they don’t fall too far behind. So twenty five each and five to spare.
“
Int:130(+5)
Will:130(+10)(+5)
Per:90(+5)
Chr: 45
End:90
Str:45
Agi:45
Aura:45
free: 5
“
Well that’s a good start but my secondary stats are double by ‘dump’ stats. As the bell rung and I collected my stuff I looked around the library. I felt a pull and stopped tuning out the motes. I hadn’t even realized I had started to do that. Motes were collecting on my far faster and I felt a hazy bubble around me drawing them in.
Okay so my Aura interacts with libraries? Interplay between stats and skills perhaps? Mysteries to be solved as soon as I could. But I needed to meet up with Marc. I may have an easy path to power, like a dragon hoarding books (hehe, book wyrm) but he picked a profession whose focus had fallen out of style these last couple of decades. Warrior would be useful for soldiers and others that lived violent lives. For a borderline subernite like Marc living in the cozy southern USA the most violent events my friend had encountered were middle school push fights. That and his mamas beating his butt for starting said fights. Not sure asswhooped was a warrior specialization. If I can run him though wells the next few weeks while providing top cover i’d call it the best outcome. I flexed my fingers into a fist and out again. I suspect there’s a non linear pattern to how stats work. Either it’s compounded or it’s part of a multiplier along with level. My suspicion is that as level goes up, the effects of stats are more pronounced. I ran a sprint over fifty yards and killed five beings in under two seconds with a 20 in agility and strength and level 22. This is going to be like one of those crappy hunter novels where the top dogs were basically gods who could do what they want. Fuck it, just have be the first to the top and look out for plucky main character types. Now to go power level a plucky main character type.
———————————————————
Marc was unsurprisingly in the gym when I found him. He appeared to be in a pull up competition with three other members of his team. By that I mean he was doing pull ups and three of his teammates were hanging from his legs trying to weigh him down.
“31! 32! 33! 34! 35!” the onlookers in the gym cheered. He stopped at fifty and proved he was choosing to do so by pulling himself arms straight over the bar and then slowly back to the ground. There were applause, because of course people cheered after that showing.
Marc grabbed a towel and proceeded to flirt with half the eligible women in the room while I grabbed a seat and opened a common rule notebook. I thought on my magic missile spell and tried to draw out how the magic flowed along and shaped out the intent of the spell.
The result was interesting. It looked like a bit like an Escher water flow mixed with a wiring diagram. I’d have to refine that a bit. Then it dawned on me I had produced a diagram comparable in quality to one of Escher’s works. I suck at art, well I guess used to. A large smelly body sat down roughly in the seat next to me.
“ Woah that’s really good”
“Thanks, now hit the shower before your BO warps it into a Picasso.”
Marc gives me an offended look before sniffing his armpit. The look on his face was worth the increased exposure to his stink.
“ Okay, let me wash up, coach canceled practice in light of the weird shit going down.”
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you in the parking lot. I’ll see if I can’t find a well for us to hit. Do you think your mom is still okay with me being over for dinner?”
“ Your mom is the one I would ask, she might want you home.”
“Nah, with dad still deployed and her having a mediation that’s supposed to go late tonight no one will miss me.”
“ Okay, give me like ten?” He looked over and saw Margret wells batting her eyes at him. “ Make that thirty.”
I watched him swagger off towards the showers with a stacked blonde close behind. I wasn’t going blame him but his priorities were … also completely consistent with how he’s always been.
I started working on a spell that would find a Well. Something Augury based maybe? Put in a search area get out coordinates would be ideal, but even just a compass to the nearest would be workable. Hmm, I’ve got an idea and eleven minutes to execute it.