James, Teddy and Kyra felt a guilty rush of pride as they strode back into the academy annex, with new armour and gear, covered in travellers dust fresh from their adventure they remembered looking in envy at others doing the same during their time in training. The annex was not a prison for the students in training, visitors were checked onto campus and searched by security that they were not there for espionage or sabotage. Being former students with Remore ribbons in their adventure society badges they were waved through. They made their way to the training grounds, at this time of the day the students would be working up their appetite practicing hand to hand before lunch.
The trainees at the academy all worked hard, they all had a vested interest in being the best they could, the majority of non wealthy students were in debt to the annex and the better they were the more jobs they could take, the quicker they could pay it off. Few had the same drive as Lucy. She had been thrown into this world with no defences and the skills the academy had taught her were everything. She had been exposed to the strangeness and the difference to this world and their own in a more raw way than the others. Her first ability awakened had been a perception power to see magic, the ripples and eddies in the invisible current around everything. As strange and different as this ability was, it was no use to her in a fight. So she had committed herself to every way she could protect herself, she trained relentlessly hand to hand, and she trained with her giant husband James. She was in the middle of taking apart two of her classmates when the others stopped to watch.
They attacked in unison, it was meant to be a all vs all fight but they had agreed to team up, knowing Lucy was worth the both of them hand to hand. One went high while the other went low. Lucy turned her leg and accepted the kick to her lower leg, using the turn she gripped the punch coming towards her and tucked her hips under her attackers belt, with a quick twist she threw the larger boy at the other trainee, both going down in a tangle of limbs. They got up grumbling.
“It’s not fair, she’s only so good at this because she hasn’t got enough powers to work on.”
The older boy whined. He was embarrassed that the smaller woman had thrown him so easily. Lucy looked annoyed, not for lack of trying she had not awakened any direct combat powers. She had tricky magic powers that were useful and dangerous, but no big damage powers. The young man looked ashamed for his outburst.
“Well why don’t we see about that?” James said.
Moving forward smiling he hugged his wife. She returned the hug and then she turned and shared a bow with her sparring partners. They all smiled at each other and agreed to a rematch soon.
“Did you get it then?” Lucy said, excitement in her voice. She had been waiting for this gap in her power set to be filled for a long time.
James reached down to the floor, no one had noticed the tortoise with an awakening stone on its back. As James took the cube it looked up, yawned and started to slowly shuffle off towards the bushes.
“What the hell? Where did he come from?” Teddy exclaimed.
Kyra looked similarly confused at the creature’s stealthy appearance. James and Lucy ignored them, James handing the cube to Lucy. It was a deep velvety blue, with veins of dark red and gold shooting through it.
“This is it, this is going to give me what I need!” Lucy’s face was alight with hope, a few people had started to gather but she paid them no mind. “Shall I do it now?”
“Waaaaaait!”
A lanky man in long baggy robes was running towards them as quickly as he could. A collection of scrolls, papers, books and various magical instruments were following behind him, held in a slow spinning tornado behind his run, the vortex gently spun with the tail seemingly attached to the lanky man. He stopped, hands on knees taking lungfuls of air.
“You said. The next time. You people. Used an awakening. Stone. I could watch and record. My findings.”
He gave up standing and sat on what he thought was a stone, the poor tortoise looked back at him in annoyance.
“Yes, yes. You can do your magical research thing. But you better hurry, I feel like I’ve waited long enough for this.”
He pulled himself together and stood, apologising to the tortoise that continued its slow shuffle to the bushes, Teddy giving it a suspicious eye. The magic society worker started pulling different tools from his vortex behind him, placing some on the ground pointing at Lucy, dropping one in her pocket and sketching out a quick magical diagram on the floor around her.
“I wouldn’t have known anything about this unless that acolyte of Knowledge hadn’t shown up at my office today. Damned frustrating, they worship a goddess with all the knowledge of this world but can only hint where to find it. There you go, I’m ready when you are.”
He stepped back, pulling out a handful of different recording crystals and scattering them around Lucy. She looked at her team and smiled.
“Thank you for getting this.”
Then the cube in her hand melted. Thick blue lines traced under her skin, snaking up her arm with red and gold smaller lines cross crossing around. Her whole body was covered in the vein-like lines. Her eyes glowed gold then blue then back to her normal brown colour.
“That was incredible!” The magic society researcher said, making notes in his pad. He handed another pad to Lucy. “Quick I know you have an interface ability, write down what details you have of your power into here.”
Ability: [Magic Missile] (Magic)
Spell: Magic Missile
Cost: Low mana
Cool-down: 5 Sec.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Fires a magic missile that magically tracks a target.
As a bonus for the researcher she wrote down the next notification in her interface as well.
You have awakened the magic essence ability [Magic Missile]. You have awakened 5 of 5 magic essence abilities.
You have awakened all magic essence abilities. Linked attribute [Spirit] will advance in conjunction with lowest-rank magic essence ability.
Looking over her shoulder as she wrote the description out he clapped his hands in delight.
“Congratulations! You have just received what is possibly the most powerful mana to damage ratio attack in the magic essence abilities! It is a very rare ability, as you know most magic abilities are utility based or give conditions based damage. This is a pure form of magic attack giving you a straight forward, high damage, low mana blast.”
Lucy looked at a row of training dummies at the side of the training square, the trainees that had been watching her that were standing between Lucy and the dummies scrambled out of the way. She raised a hand at one of the dummies and smiled. A balloon of blue light rocketed out of her hand and shot towards it. As large as a beach ball, the centre a royal blue with a light blue corona and a comets tail. It smashed into the dummy reducing it to a small stake in the ground.
Just as everyone was getting over the first display of power she shot another up into the sky, the missile curved and came down onto the second dummy in the row.
“That’s seriously cool.” James said
Lucy wasn’t listening, she had raised both hands and spun a circle of golden glyphs in the air forming a rune circle. Golden light filled the middle and spinning objects were seen deep inside. A notebook appeared and she left it hanging there, she flicked through the pages until she found what she needed and closed everything down with a sweep of her arms. She opened another rune circle. This time the centre stayed empty, the glyphs were all types of triangles and prisms. She used both hands to position the circle towards the dummies. When it was aligned she stepped back and fired another missile into it. The large missile hit the rune circle. The whole design flared in blue light, then with a flash three smaller missiles burst from the rune circle, each tracing out towards another dummy.
“I have waited so long! I have done so much research into this! And it works!!” Lucy said.
She jumped for joy and jumped into James’ arms hugging him tightly with excitement .
“C’mon, tell us about it then!” Teddy asked.
“I can probably fire it as far as I can see, the cooldown is about five seconds but I can’t fire the next one until the first one lands. I’ve recovered enough mana about every fifteen seconds for a shot, longer when I don’t have my familiar absorbed. The rune circle I used can split the missile but each one is slightly weaker than a third of a missile, the circle itself needs some power. I can probably work out how to feed mana into the circle so it doesn’t do that.”
She frowned, her storage rune circle appearing with a wave of her hand and she plucked out the notebook, already looking at the complicated pages of diagrams and math to see where she could make efficiencies.
“Oh definitely!” The magic society member said, clearing up his equipment. “I’d be happy to lend you some material from our records on combat rituals, there are a lot of different effects you can have. As a thank you for being so generous.” He held out his hand to Lucy and she pulled the instrument from her pocket to give back to him.
“That would be brilliant thank you!”
“I’ll take these findings back to my lab and will return tomorrow with all the records we have on combat rituals.”
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He nodded to each of the team an scurried away, almost as fast as he arrived, bouncing off several trainees as he was heads down scrawling notes in his notepad.
“I think you just made his day!” Teddy said.
“The paper he’ll write on that will make him the envy of the branch. They’ve been hounding me and Lucy since we all opened up about being outworlders, apparently we’re more approachable than you boys.”
Teddy and James looked at each other. Teddy had embraced the vibe of darkness, void and dimension, wearing a robe and strips of light armour that wouldn’t look out of place in as James put it ‘every Sith’s wardrobe ever’. James was huge, similar in height and build to most Leonids and made a habit of walking around with a bear familiar the height of a human, on purpose so people would be less likely to approach.
“I can maybe see why they went for you two.” Teddy said.
James just grunted.
“We had fun getting that awakening stone for you, cleared a few notice boards on the way out, then the challenge of a bronze ranker! Teddy levelled up his dimension blade in that fight! Then we cleared a bunch more notice boards on the way back. Plenty of monsters to go round it seems.”
Lucy looked slightly disgruntled.
“Well I’m glad you’re out there lining your pockets.” She said.
“Your my wife, if you tell me you want something I buy it.” He said flatly.
The bells chimed for lunch and they knew they had to leave Lucy to her day.
“Next assessment is week after next right? You think you’ll be ready?” James asked.
“She will be prepared in time.” A new voice chipped in. A tall elf approached, thin and long fingered holding a heavy tome of magic. Rashid was one of the magic instructors on campus and spent a lot of time with Lucy who enjoyed digging into the mechanics of magic theory.
“Rashid and I have been preparing for several different powers that could have come from my last magic essence ability. Now that we have it we just need to apply what we’ve thought of and test and adjust.”
“I will be working full time with Lucy between now and then, her martial abilities and aura control are easily up to standard for the assessment, now we just need to incorporate her powers.”
The others said their goodbyes and James went to hold Lucy, they touched foreheads.
“I’m just so happy James, I don’t have to feel helpless anymore.”
………
Back when they had just had their meeting with the church of Hero. The four outworlders pulled up to the gates of a small villa complex just outside the city for the fist time. The jostling of the carriage stopping was what woke them. The driver came around and opened the door for them and they blearily stepped out. A man was walking down the driveway towards them and as he approached the gates opened of their own accord.
“How do ye all do?” The man asked.
The group were a little shocked, if they had to place the accent it would be a thick Scottish accent, his seemingly permanent scowl adding to the stereotype.
“Word was sent ahead. I’ve set up the two main suites for each of yous couples. If you’ll follow me.”
They each followed the man to their respective quarters.
“The wall immediately behind the head of your bed will glow when it is time in the morning to wake up. I’ll have some vittles ready not long after, just come tae the main building. I’m Gerald, I manage this estate and grounds. Anything you need come and knock on my cottage by the gate.”
The older man turned and left them to themselves. Each couple went into their own building either side of the main halls. They seemed to realise at the same time that no one was sleeping and left their front doors all at the same time, headed for the communal building in the centre.
“So what’re you guys thinking about all this?” James asked.
Teddy was busy rattling through the cupboards looking for something to eat. Kyra was shaking her head at him.
“We were weighing up the pros and cons, but we thought we should talk to you guys about it.”
James nodded his head.
“We were doing the same.”
“Pro.” Teddy shouted from inside a cupboard. “Insane magical powers given to us.”
“Con.” Lucy countered. “The have a plan they want us to use those powers for and aren’t being specific about what it is.”
“Insane magical powers that they can’t take back, he was very clear about that, these aren’t the divine essences he was talking about. And this god probably doesn’t have our best interests at heart, but his whole thing seems to be supporting warriors in adventure.” James added.
“Pro.” Lucy added “we have a church? A cult? Whatever they are that follow this Hero guy/god whatever, they seem fully on board to give us answers to anything we need help with. I guess if he is a god then they might have some influence to help us as well.”
“Con.” Teddy said thoughtfully. Leaning back against the cupboard, unsuccessful in his hunt. “They are offering us these specific essences. There must be other ones out there we don’t know about, they might be better than these.”
“I think we should do it.” Kyra said quietly.
The other three all turned to see her. She coughed.
“Like you said, insane magic powers. That they cant take back. We can choose what to do with them. Look at all the good we did on the way here! This guy, god whatever is one of the good guys, if we can help him then we do it, if we think it’s too dangerous then we don’t, it seems to be thats what they were getting at.”
They talked and debated for a long time through the night and into the morning, the trend seemed to be that they all wanted more powers but were trying to find the pitfalls. At some point Gerald turned up and with only a mildly raised eyebrow took off his backpack and started pulling out breakfast ingredients.
“Did nae expect you to rest much, they gave me a wee run down of who you all are and how you got here. The acolyte from the church of hero is coming to meet you just after breakfast and he’s bringing an independent from the magic society with him.”
They ran their ideas by Gerald about whether or not to take the offer, he was stoic and listened a lot without giving advice, mainly asked pointed questions to make them rethink some of their conclusions. It turned out the villa was independent from the church but it had been hired long term for their occupation and Gerald was part of the package. They couldn’t complain, the man had only a few essences with only half a dozen abilities awakened. Lucy especially appreciated the food he produced, being able to see the magic with her essence power that he had cooked into it using his abilities.
There was a knock on the door and James who was closest went to open it. There was a pointed cough from Gerald.
“Young master Mitchell, the roof may be yours for now but the door is mine tae open.”
James stood aside as Gerald stepped around him to leave the room for the front door.
“He’s very nice to us but he’s still slightly grumpy right?” James whispered to Lucy.
Gerald walked back into the room leading two men, the first was the wraith man from the church of Hero and the second was a very average looking man wearing long robes, he carried a satchel over one shoulder.
“Mitchells, I hope that my god has provided adequate accommodation for you. I have brought with me Mr Valentine. He is from the magic society and not a member of my church. He is here to assure you that what we are doing is above board.”
The magic society member looked at the wraith man with unease, standing so close to him was obviously uncomfortable.
“Yes, as unusual as this situation is it is not unprecedented.” He opened the satchel to show the boxes they had seen the day before. “I have inspected the essences to ensure they are legitimate and they are, there is no touch of divinity to them. I am a little surprised, this is quite a rare collection of essences to be given so freely. I am also here to answer any questions you may have about the process.”
Teddy glanced uneasily at the wraith man before addressing the magic society man.
“Mr Valentine, we have a few questions but the most pressing is to ask you, if we accept this, will it put us in debt to the church of hero and what comeback they can have on us.”
The wraith man looked down with a small smile, Valentine looked at him and then back to the group.
“That’s what makes this unusual. You can do whatever you want with these gifts, the church has no power and is not allowed to pursue you if you do not do what they have asked, because that is all it is, an ask, there is no contract or binding of you to the church.”
The four Mitchells looked at each other. They asked Valentine a few more questions but they had come to a decision.
“Let’s do this then.” Teddy said.
The boxes were given out to each of them and they decided to do them all together. Once they had absorbed their two essences they waited. Light blossomed out of each of them, a cube appearing in front of each of them.
“Oh my”, Valentine said, “This is quite the experience. We should have had a specialist in outworlders here!”
Each of them reached out and took their confluence essence from in front of them, instinctively understanding what to do.
Valentine ushered them all outside onto the patio. They didn’t understand why but went along, swept up in the incredible feeling they each had.
You have absorbed 4/4 essences.
All your attributes have reached iron rank.
You have reached iron rank.
You have gained damage reduction against normal-rank damage sources.
You have gained increased damage to normal-rank effects.
You have gained the ability to sense auras.
You have gained the ability to sustain yourself using sources of concentrated magic.
“This is incredi-bleagh…”
Teddy started vomiting on the smooth tiles, the others soon following suit. Pus started to seep out of their pores and James’s hair started to shed. After a while it settled and they were lying in a pool of filth, exhausted. Valentine instructed them to stand up and move to the side, handing each a vial of clear liquid.
“That is crystal wash, tip it over your heads and you will never have been so clean in your lives.”
As they did he took out a stick of chalk and stared drawing a ritual around the pile of filth. As he finished the inside glowed and all the filth burned away. He turned to the four who were amazed at how thoroughly clean they felt after such a horrible experience. He handed each an iron rank coin.
“Congratulations, you are all now iron rank.”
“Thank you.” James said and went to pocket his coin frowning at the man.
“Nonono, you are iron rank now, you can eat like iron rankers, place the coin in your mouth.”
They all did, slightly wincing at the bitter taste and sensation like licking both terminals on a nine volt battery. Gerald, having seen this before, followed with a round of what tasted like bacon butties but were a green leafy vegetable instead of meat between the bread.
“Now, head into the yard and see what you got.”
They wandered out, Lucy lagging behind. Gaining a new power came with an instinctual understanding how to use it, they also had an interface each that gave a detailed description.
Teddy went the furthest away walking along the wall, he jumped into the air then, incredibly, jumped again in mid air. Whilst he was in mid air he disappeared into the shadow of the wall, the dawn light hitting its other side. He then reappeared just before the floor slicing down on an imaginary enemy with a blue dimension blade. He then muttered something and rolled his wrist and a small black hole appeared, it seemed not to effect Teddy but he had to catch a small bird that had been plucked out of the nearby tree and was being sucked straight into the void.
James looked out over the yard and saw the straw training dummy, he wandered over and started using it as a punch bag, dancing around it, frowning he felt no different. He stopped and threw one last punch, a lazy punch without moving his feet. The dummy exploded from its post, launched over the yard into the wall. He focused and a giant rat tail erupted from underneath the back of his tunic, it snatched the dummy up and pulled it back toward himself. His right hand became a clawed paw and he smashed the dummy into the ground.
Kyra stood in the centre. She concentrated muttering a spell and suddenly there was a ring of Kyras in a circle all facing inwards. Next every copy raised their hand and a single spike shot out of the ground in the centre, seven foot tall and the width of a basketball at the bottom. Every copy lunged forward, suddenly with a beautiful diamond sword in hand. The real Kyra’s sword snicked off the tip of the earth spike in front of her.
Lucy looked on all the others with a sad expression.
“What’s wrong Lu?” James asked.
“None of mine are ones you can see.” She looked very disappointed as she shared her interface screen with the other three.
Attributes
[Power] (Illusion): [Iron 0]
[Speed] (Vision): [Iron 0]
[Spirit] (Magic): [Iron 0]
[Recovery] (Mind): [Iron 0]
Lucy Mitchell
Essences 4/4
Magic [Spirit]
[Magical Master] (special ability): [Iron 1] 20%
Mind [Recovery]
[Clarity] (aura): [Iron 0] 00%
Vision [Speed]
[Focussed eyes] (special ability): [Iron 0) 00%
Illusion [Power]
[Playing Possum] (special ability): [Iron 0] 00%
The others all came and gave her a consoling pat on the shoulder, feeling slightly guilty for displaying such awesome powers when Lucy hadn’t received any she could outwardly use.
………
In the present day in the training yard.
Lucy smiled at the memory. None of the others had such a powerful attack, she had powerful abilities in their own way but she knew this new ability was in a different league. All her doubts were chased away and she knew she was ready to be part of the team.
“Bring on the assessment.” She grinned and the others laughed with her.