We eventually made it back to the farm and I went to sleep after spam casting spells to drain my Aether.
The next three days I focused on harvesting mushrooms and plants and making my two potions. For both boons for botany and mycology I added the highlight ability with a range of 20 meters. It allowed me to see useful herbs glow in my vision. All I had to do was focus on what specific herb I was looking for and bamn. For alchemy I selected the improved efficacy which made potions 12% more potent.
With my improved Aether tolerance and some bottled potions from the Aether pool I managed to complete all the stone tasks the farmers had for me in the 3 days as well. My summon stone hit level 12 and that allowed me to improve stone density at level 11 to my summoned stone. My Air magic hit level 7 and I took the boon “Flight”, it allowed me to cast a special version of the flight spell. It cost less Aether and had an instant cast. Leo said the normal fly spell cost 300 aether and a casting time of 2 minutes. My version couldn’t be leveled but also didn’t count toward my spell total.
Flight
Special
Magic Sphere
Air (Tier 5)
Mana Cost
100
Range
Self
Effect
Caster can fly
Casting Time
Instant
Duration
10 minutes
Leveling Effect
improved length of time per mana
Level 7 Boon:
NA
mage can fly
Of course I cast it right away and had the disappointment that my flying speed was only around a fast walk. Also the duration was only 10 minutes which I found passes pretty quickly. It was cool that I could orient my body in any direction and move in any direction. I had thoughts of lounging in mid air and moving down the street floating backward and having a conversation with someone next to me.
I then spent two additional days with Leo focused on learning Teleport, Space, Time, and Force Magic.
Teleport Magic
1
Associated Stat:
Int
Leveling Effect:
Improve Teleport spell effectiveness
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Allows access to tier 1 teleport spells, can now learn Space Magic Skill and Time Magic Skill
Space Magic
1
Associated Stat:
Aeth
Leveling Effect:
Improve Space Magic spell effectiveness
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Allows access to tier 1 space spells
Time Magic
1
Associated Stat:
Chan
Leveling Effect:
Improve Time Magic spell effectiveness
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Allows access to tier 1 time spells
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Force Magic
1
Associated Stat:
Str
Leveling Effect:
Improve Force Magic spell effectiveness
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Allows access to tier 1 force spells
Leo then taught me the personal dimensional pocket spell. It was the most complex spell I had learned yet combining the space, teleport and time spheres.
Personal Dimensional Pocket
1
Magic Sphere
Teleport (Tier 1), Space (Tier 1), Time (Tier 1)
Mana Cost
100 mana per cubic meter on casting, sustained
Range
Self
Effect
Creates a dimensional space the mage can send and retrieve items from
Casting Time
2 minutes
Duration
Permanent
Leveling Effect
increases volume of space
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Within this space objects are in stasis and do not age. Sentient beings can resist transport.
Since the description was rather short Leo expounded on the spell details. My Aether pool would be permanently reduced by the spells cost. Objects going in to the space lose their inertia. So if I transported a bullet coming at me then when I removed it would not be going at speed. Objects retain their heat, so putting a few hot meals into it would be smart. The insertion or removal was instant but there was a 10 second cooldown before next transition. The mage also had to be in contact with the object as well. I could cancel the spell and get my Aether pool returned but any objects still in the space would be randomly returned to the universe. If I died then all objects in the space would be expelled near my corpse. The best part of this spell was as long as it was active it would slowly level all three associated magic spheres, teleport, time and space. It was a bit of a cheat. Leo then taught me a cantrip and spell for force magic, Mage Hand and Personal Force Shield, so I could level my force magic. He explained I needed to get all four of these magic spheres to level 7 to learn the basic space mage spell, Space Warp, which would allow me to shift a ship in space with the aide of an Aether Drive Core and an experienced navigator. I would eventually need the spell Replenish Aether Drive Core as well but no point in learning it just yet.
Mage Hand
0 (Cantrip)
Magic Sphere
Force (Tier 0)
Mana Cost
20
Range
1 object
Effect
control the movement of 1 object up to 1 kilogram
Casting Time
11 seconds
Duration
5 minutes
Leveling Effect
increases the mass that can be moved
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Move and object through the air
Personal Force Shield
1
Magic Sphere
Force (Tier 1)
Mana Cost
50
Range
1 meter
Effect
control an invisible force shield up to 1 meter from body, shield is 1 meter in diameter
Casting Time
3 seconds
Duration
5 minutes
Leveling Effect
increases the damage the shield can take before dissipation
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Create a 1 meter force shield that can take a fixed amount of damage before dissipating
I needed to also answer the question if my Aether Shard creation ability would cancel my dimensional pocket spell. That night I cast my dimensional pocket planning to use 150 mana but found I could only do it increments of 100. I settled on 200, giving me a 2 cubic meter pocket, and reducing my Aether pool by 200. Then after much hesitation I used the Aether shard skill and endured the pain. Yep, definitely not any better than the last time, like getting kicked in the nuts by an ogre. The shard looked the same but I knew it was slightly smaller and testing my dimensional pocket it still worked. It was a bit of relief.
My duties on the farms were pretty much done. I was more than welcome to stay and help as long as I wanted. I decided I would hang out long enough to learn the space warp spell from Leo and then head to the small city with the dungeon and hopeful meet up with Andrew, Casey, Vlad, and Red…and hopefully Ophelia as well. Cael wasn’t available for a few days, he was off picking up some equipment from another farm, so I purchased some camping gear and decided I would explore a bit on my own and maybe try the mini bosses in the dungeon on my own. The community store had some supplies and a bunch of personal items people wanted to sell. I found I had 3,952 credits from the work I did in the last 5 weeks. I bought a heavy portable tent, called the Expedition 4. It packed to just over a cubic meter and self-erected to a 3 by 3 meter base with 2.5 meter ceiling. It could be locked on the inside and should stand up to the local wild life. The coolest feature was it had a camo setting so the exterior would blend in with the environment. There was anti infrared lining in the walls of the tent as well to prevent predators with heat vision. It had internal air filtration and a small environmental AC/Heat unit. I was surprised it had two bunks and a table with 4 chairs inside when erected wondering how everything fit in the small box. The battery supply would last for 5 erections, and 5 compacting actions so I bought two spare batteries as well. There were the size and shape of a thermos from my old world. In addition I bought some cooking supplies, fuel to cook, dinnerware for four, a variety of spices and some flour, eggs, variety of vegetables and meats. I didn’t need to worry about anything spoiling so I got about a weeks’ worth of fresh ingredients. My largest purchase was a holster and an Aether pistol, costing me 2000 credits. It was a Millworks Infantry Officer’s Aether Pistol that once belonged to one of the farmers in a past life. Inquiring I learned Millworks was a small arms manufacturer in a nearby system. I could have gotten a slug pistol for 300 credits but I didn’t want to worry about ammo. The pistol came charged with 50 shots. A neat feature was it could be adjusted in power output from 1 to 3. Two was the standard setting and 1 would give me 500 shots but they would do little more than leave a cigarette burn on hitting. At 3 it would be about 5 times as powerful while using 10 times the power. The biggest issue was accuracy was a bit off with the higher powered shot as well so it was only good for close range. I was also warned quick firing the pistol at the high setting might overheat it and damage the pistol. I practiced 50 shots on the low setting to get used to handling the weapon. I didn’t have any available skill slots for Aether Pistol but my marksmanship skill worked fairly well.
My plan was to head for the dungeon and set up camp by the pool. I would spend an hour or two in the dungeon in the morning and then I would make half day exploratory treks in a fan pattern toward the mountain range looking for rare plants and mushrooms. Cael said he also found some space debris in that direction in the past so it was something else I could be on the lookout for. I needed to start banking some credits for my future life.