Guardian 2.5
The cafeteria was a distracting place, with buzz of constant chatter. it made me anxious to be there after growing accustomed to eating by myself in the girls' restroom or the rooftop. But with Emma and Sophia not actively targeting me anymore, I chose to stop hiding myself too. Part of me was also curious if I'd see anything interesting like what Madison had told me about Jun.
I grabbed a seat by myself in a corner before the cafeteria filled up, not an empty one unfortunately because there were quite a few other loners and losers, but every one of us naturally sat at least a few spaces away from each other so it wouldn't be awkward.
A few minutes after I sat down, I saw Emma and Sophia coming through the center doors with their group. Conspicuously, Madison was missing.
As if feeling my stare, Emma turned straight in my direction and met my eyes. There was a flicker of white above her head, as she slipped in and out of being a [Friendly Unit], before her eyes shifted to my left with an expression I couldn't read clearly at this distance, then she turned away with a frown and it vanished.
"Hey Taylor?" a familiar voice said from beside me. Madison sat down cautiously with her food plate as I glanced at her. "…is it okay if I sit here?"
"Is it? I won't stop you," I said, "But Emma didn't look too happy just now."
"She won't do anything about it. She's the one who told me to be nicer to you last week, remember?"
"I thought that little ceasefire was over after I refused to join up with her."
Madison shook her head. "It's not. It's permanent. Because you aren't prey anymore."
"Right. But did her order to be nicer to me also include hanging out with me?"
"No. That's my own choice," she said. "Because I want to change. And I can only do that if I'm with you. If I choose to do what's right, and not what's easy. If I stay with Emma and Sophia, I'll fall back into that old role."
She clasped her hands together. So close, I felt the tiny sliver of mana come to me as she recited a silent prayer.
"How are you doing, after…what happened yesterday?" I asked, still feeling guilty about it.
"I'm fine now," she said curtly. But I saw her hand shake as she grabbed her sandwich.
"You don't have to act strong with me," I said gently.
"I really am fine. This is normal. There's nothing wrong with me. I lived like this for fifteen years, and I was fine before, right? It's all in my mind," she said.
I put my hand over hers, and she shuddered at my touch. Obviously she was not fine, but she'd done a good job of convincing herself otherwise.
"It's okay. I know how it feels. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it, I asked for your advice and you gave it to me. You were only trying to help. I will fix it soon, so just bear with it for a little longer, okay?"
She smiled weakly and nodded.
O O O
That evening, I decided it was time to have another conversation with dad about my plans as a cape.
While eating dinner, I told dad about everything I'd found out from the PRT and my own research.
"It sounds like you've already made up your mind not to go to the Wards," he said, with a hint of disappointment. Had I been so obvious? I thought I'd presented it neutrally.
I frowned and swallowed my food before responding carefully. Well, there was no hiding it, so might as well just double down. "The Wards just won't work for me, dad. It would be too limiting, and I don't want them to find out how my powers really work. Aside from the safety of being on a public hero team, it doesn't really benefit me in any way. The money is so little—the part I can actually use—it hardly makes a dent, and I don't want anyone to know how I actually Tinker."
"But you haven't even tried to talk to them yet, to consider it," he said, shaking his head. "I've read some very worrying statistics about independent capes. Something like 90% of them die or get forced to join a gang within a year. I don't want to sound like a worrywart, Taylor, but I hope you understand where I'm coming from. I just don't want anything to happen to you. I can't bear losing you too."
There was a moment of silence while I examined dad's fearful face.
"You know I already talked to the PRT. I may not have talked to their Wards recruiters, but Officer Berger told me about the advantages of a Ward. It's not that I don't understand why you're worried. I get it, and I don't want anything to happen to me either," I said with a joking tone, which elicited a small smile from him. Then I turned serious again. "But that's exactly why I have to keep the source of my powers secret. Without the altars, I'm powerless, dad. If the PRT decided to confiscate my stuff, if the information about my altars fell into the wrong hands, I'd be a lot more vulnerable. Do you trust the PRT? Do you trust the authorities to do the right thing, after what happened to me at school?"
Dad's expression immediately turned angry, then he took a deep breath and sighed. "I guess not. I just…" He trailed off and sighed again.
I'd feel guilty about using the locker incident like this to get my way, if I didn't actually believe in my words.
I would never be naïve enough to trust the system again, not when they failed so miserably, when the school blatantly turned a blind eye to the bullying and even flipped good and evil on its head, making me out to be the bad girl, the attention-seeking liar.
"Okay. You win, Taylor. So what now?"
"I'm not completely sure yet. I'm going to register as an independent hero and rogue later, but I'm trying to build up my Power base a bit more. I'm going to keep my Tinker abilities a secret as well, and just offer direct healing services. But from what Berger told me, getting fully set up with the PRT and getting my first paycheque will probably take over a month, and I don't really have the mana to spare for something that won't give me any benefit for that long. With my current Power, I can make a new altar in another four days, and it only gets faster from there. My Power can still grow quite a bit on its own, and I'd rather focus on that before I do anything else as a cape," I explained. "I guess for now, my next issue is, where do I put them? Where would they be safe and hard to find? You're the only person I can trust with them, dad."
He listened intently and looked happy at my last words. Probably grateful that I was willing to ask him for advice and share my plans with him.
O O O
After some discussion and research with dad, I concluded that renting storage garages would be the best choice for my next few altars.
There were a number of factors that reduced the efficiency of my altars, beyond their construction and aesthetics.
Being underground, or enclosed, incurred large penalties depending on how human-accessible they were. I had no precise numbers for it, but my power let me know that the altars wouldn't work well if people couldn't get to them as objects of worship, or if there was no air circulation. They also wouldn't work well submerged in a body of water or below ground surrounded by earth, apparently because those places weren't aligned with Life—which was strange considering that there was plenty of marine life and water was commonly associated with life in most cultures, but my power was what it was. No one said powers had to make sense.
It was okay for the altars to be in a closet at home, or an above-ground garage area used to storage household items though.
I didn't need the extra security of a private vault or safety deposit box, and those might even work against me depending on how the security was setup due to too tight an enclosure. Plus, people typically put important things there, so anybody investigating me and looking for important things belonging to me would check there first.
Obscurity and the appearance of mundanity was better than any physical protection, and if I put a bunch of random stuff we didn't need but never threw out together in the storage, it would just look like I was moving ordinary household junk in there.
Within Brockton Bay, there were many self-storage providers, but they were basically all located in the same five locations next to each other. There was a bit of overlap with the two altars I already had at the house and at Dad's office though.
One was south of Captain's Hill, one was in the suburbs just east of downtown, one downtown near the airport west of city hall, one a bit southeast of my house and one at the east end of the docks' market area. It was the latter two that had overlap with the altars at my house and dad's office.
They ranged from $40 to $75 per month for a 25 square ft shed, which was really all I needed. It would be well worth it though, considering the amount of mana each altar could generate in a month. I could even afford it, thanks to the cash I appropriated from the guys that mugged me.
O O O
After I made and equipped the Armlet of Endure, I basked momentarily in the return of that feeling of freedom.
This punishment had been excessive, hadn't it? No, even if I knew that it would hurt so much to lose the enchantment, I shouldn't have done it regardless.
I had already known that the [Endure] had serious mental effects on Madison, based on her reactions before. I had even thought to myself that the way it made her feel really good made it sound kind of like a drug. I had known this—and I had decided I wasn't above making use of it to keep her loyal.
And so, when I took it away, I knew very well what I was doing, I couldn't say that it was only a mistake made in ignorance, because I had intended to use it that way. It was only the severity of the…withdrawal symptoms, that I was surprised by.
That was not particularly heroic of me, I thought, but it was for a good cause, wasn't it?
But was there such big leap between this, and Madison's scheme to cure Emma of her delusions?
Even aside from the morality of manipulating Madison in this way, I shouldn't have punished her for something I asked for myself.
As much as I wanted to reform Madison, I didn't want her to be fearful of me or just a yes-girl. This wasn't a cult and I was no goddess, we were going to be a hero team under my leadership, and that meant I needed to be tolerant of ideas even if I didn't agree with them.
Remembering how Madison looked earlier in the day, I really should have given this armlet to her first, to make up for my mistake. It looked like she took the loss of [Endure] far worse than I did.
But I also needed to advance my plans, and I couldn't afford to be weakened or compromised, so all I could do was make the next armlet as quickly as possible.
O O O
After making the second Armlet of Endure for Madison, I swore her to secrecy about it. She'd already sworn to keep my cape identity and powers secret, but I had her swear again to keep the armlet hidden at all costs.
Late on Sunday I had built my third altar and rented a self-storage shed for it downtown near the airport.
I'd bought a couple of cheap prepaid phones, one to use to keep in contact with Madison at her insistence and the other a burner phone for my cape activities.
I also created a super minimalist costume, which consisted of just a full body hooded white cloak going down to my ankles embroidered with golden edges and an attached short purple mantle that only covered my shoulders. A ring of white ankhs was painted onto the mantle, but a single large ankh was outlined in golden yellow on the cloak's back. Underneath I had a simple loose white long-sleeved shirt and a high waist skirt that went down to my knees, all of which I hand-cut and threaded from fabric and cloth, plus a full face fake silver masquerade mask, and brown boots.
For a final touch, I imbued the cloak and mask with a small bit of mana, not enough to be an actual [Enchantment], but just to achieve a slight aesthetic transformation, turning what was common and cheap looking material into something noticeably higher quality and gave off a bit of an unnatural presence if you focused on it.
Ever since I realized that my enchanting process involved complex rituals I wasn't fully conscious of, I'd started to pay more attention to it and do some experiments on my own. And as it turns out, it was possible to do some things with mana beyond the specifically named spells in my spellbook. They were minor effects, but useful all the same.
Any object imbued with mana would become sturdier, imperfections like scratches and dents would disappear, decorations would meld together according to my intent as if they were finely crafted by an artisan and not by my unskilled hands, and they would all have that subtle supernatural glow, barely noticeable yet made them look somehow more real than everything else around it, if you looked at it for too long.
A full blown [Enchantment] would further engrave arcane script and I suspected it had additional properties I was unaware of, but I hadn't been able to test it much since I'd only been enchanting thin metal armlets.
On something as big as the cape and mantle though? The improvements were way more noticeable.
It wasn't much for a costume, but it was a start. It was nice to have something to appear in that wouldn't make me look like a homeless person when I needed to go out in my cape identity.
Actually going out as a hero would need a completely different costume, one geared towards combat, but that would have to wait until I had the means to make it.
With that done, I put the costume on.
Equipped Armor: Cloak. +0 defense.
Equipped Armor: Mask. + 0 resistance.
I raised my eye at the curious popup. If there was no effect, why did it inform me that I'd equipped it, but not when I wore anything else? Was it just because I imbued them with mana, so they were considered equipment even without a stat bonus? Or maybe the 0 was being rounded down, and it actually did have some value despite the lack of a proper [Enchantment]?
Thinking back to the baseball bat that gave me extra attack, it seemed like my power recognized when I had more attack power from holding a weapon, so it stood to reason that armor would be recognized too.
Now that I had a costume, I could go finish my PRT registration if I wanted to. But power testing, especially for my healing powers, would still need to wait until I had a [Heal] item ready, or more realistically, multiple [Heal] items ready if I wanted to get through a series of tests at once. And for my own protection, it was best if I finished a set a buff items as well before I showed off any real powers.
O O O
By the following Friday I was gaining 470 mana per day. I finished the last two altars for the two other non-overlapping rental storage locations, while spending the rest of my available cash for them. This gave a dramatic boost to my Power, but they were also the last of the low-hanging fruits. I had no good ideas on where else to place altars to safely cover the remaining gaps in the city, and using the overlapping storage locations would provide only a small fraction of the Power from an altar with exclusive territory.
I estimated that they would provide something like only a third as much Power on average, so that meant it would take more than 25 days to get the payback on the approximately 750 MP I had to spend for the gold to create each altar. It wasn't too bad, but I figured it was time for me to switch over to enchanting items instead.
So over the weekend I completed a set of stat boosting armlets and a [Bless] armlet for myself for a total of 395 MP.
On my right arm I kept the attack, defense, and Bless, and on the left I kept the speed, Endure, and resistance. This balanced out the bonuses somewhat, having the same resistance boost on each side, while splitting up the defense and max health bonus. For now, the Heroism armlet was on my left arm as well, but once I hit Elite on my own, I could take it off leaving three armlets on each side.
Interestingly, the attack stat also had a noticeable impact on my physical speed and reflexes, both in terms of agility and running speed, so that also balanced out. Defense had an impact as well, but not as much. This interaction proved that there was a much more complex system behind the stat values I was seeing, which made sense if they were a reflection, however simplified, of real physical consequences. A faster swing or kick was also a stronger attack because of basic kinetics. A more powerful kick at the ground generated larger reaction force, making me a faster runner.
That covered all of the important enchantments I wanted for myself. The Combat Enchantments, including [Holy Weapon/Armor] and [True Light] were pretty efficient if I cast them directly, as they only spent mana while active, so I didn't need to enchant them into items yet.
Next on my list was finally getting the Healing charges I needed to start my rogue business.
The Ring of Heal with three charges that I enchanted was the first item that used spell charges instead of being a passive effect. I originally intended to string together a bunch of rings onto a necklace chain in order to avoid adding more armlets that would get starting unwieldy. However, after I enchanted the first healing ring with its charges, I discovered that I could actually recharge them with MP directly for the same cost as a regular cast, instead of waiting for them to recover their charge on their own after a day.
So there wasn't any real need to make a lot of [Heal] items if I were using them myself, though it would still save MP in the long run to do it if I were using up all the charges every day.
I still put the ring on the necklace chain, and I would add future items to this chain as necessary.
Only one more thing left to do.
O O O
It was time for me to get some protection.
Once my MP recovered on Monday, I decided to cast my only real summoning spell, a combat-capable Unit, the [Guardian Spirit]
I rolled up the carpet to reveal the summoning circle I'd drawn underneath on the floor of my room. Then made a small cut on my forearm, infusing it with mana then letting it drop on the circle as an offering before chanting.
"O spirit of light, defender of the faithful, ancient warrior of the pure realm, come to me! I hereby swear, I shall abandon all sin, I shall steel my heart against temptation, and I shall fear no evil. So do not let me fight alone, for I shall bear the holy light! By its grace my spirit stands strong, but the flesh is wanting, so I bid you come, stand vigil over this mortal body and lend me your strength, come forth, [Guardian Spirit]!"
As I channeled more mana the circle glowed and the blood turned to mist. The air rippled, and I felt as my mana was pulled in like a magnet was on the other side. As more and more mana was drawn in, a connection began to solidify, reaching out across dimensions. My body began to glow white as it became the catalyst, the energies of the White Realm spilled forth from inside of me, painting the formerly pinkish misty air a hazy white.
Then, something seemed to go wrong. Instead of being pulled through, my mana felt like it had found resistance.
A pop up appeared to me, but it was a string of strange, incomprehensible characters.
At the same time, I was struck by a sharp pain in my head. I winced but kept the spell going.
Something seemed to crack, then the world fell away.
Numerous images flashed before my eyes before I could understand what I was seeing. Great battles, mythical creatures, magic flying everywhere, and grand towers that split the sky.
I heard the sounds of metal clashing, the feral roar of monsters, cries of despair, and a song of prayer washing over it all, followed by a dark malevolent laughter.
I saw an army of skeletons, ghastly things and terrible monsters, and at their head was a gigantic grotesque creature with purple skin with two bulbous wings and a face that looked like a cross between an insect and a pig. It was the source of the laughter, and it swept a hand launching a wave of miasma condensed into balls that sent hundreds of warriors to agonizing deaths as their skin melted off.
Then a colossal humanoid being of light descended from the sky, With white feathery wings and a halo crowning its head, it was a being of pure beauty and grace, yet whose features were impossible to fully discern. Light covered the battlefield, weary fighters cheered and gained strength anew, and what I recognized as countless [Star Fires] rained down into the army of demons and undead like meteors.
Suddenly the vision ended, and I found myself collapsed face down on the ground atop the magic circle.
I pushed myself off and looked up to see several pop ups, and this time I could actually read it.
You have reached into the White Realm for the first time.
You can now create a familiar of Life. A familiar is a vessel of your mana given Life from the magic of your chosen Realm. It serves as an extension of the Wizard's will, the physical manifestation of your connection to the Primal Realm from which it was created.
To complete the Summoning spell [Guardian Spirit], you must create a Life familiar to travel to the White Realm and guide your summon unit to this world..
The steps needed to create the familiar were already in my mind. I didn't have to do much, I could feel that Life energies from the White Realm already coalescing around me, mixing with my own mana and blood from the ritual. The beginnings of new life was already trying to form, all it needed was an anchor, my will to bind it all together.
Soon an ethereal white dove materialized, floating in mid-air. After draining some more mana from me it fully formed and became a solid bird like a real dove, I gained a new visual perspective from its eyes staring back at me. It took only a brief moment to adjust to being in two places at once and distinguish between the two sets of senses, before a new deluge of information hit me.
Your connection to the White Realm has been enhanced. You have recovered lost knowledge from the memories of the White Realm.
You have learned the spell [Recall: Servant].
You have new item enchantment categories: [Weapons], [Armor], and [Magical Foci]. You can now craft [Wands] and [Staves].
I blinked and set the notifications aside for the moment, to turn my attention back to the familiar and finish the summoning.
Concentrating on it would show me its status but unlike a [Unit], there was just a [Life Familiar] label and no actual stats.
A simple thought sent the dove off into the still glowing summoning circle and then to the White Realm as its body faded away. There was no physical structure to the White Realm as I felt it through the dove. None of the regular senses worked, only some form of strange mana sense.
Nevertheless, the summoning proceeded smoothly as I immediately felt something answer my prior call that was still echoing in that space, and when it tugged on me I was able to lead it back, tracing a path to my summoning circle.
My familiar re-appeared flying towards me and landed on my shoulder, while the summoning circle shined brighter until light seemed to spill out of it, and a humanoid being emerged.
It was an amorphous ghostly thing with arms and legs and a face with what passed for eyes and a mouth that had no detail to them. No features to distinguish whether it was a male or female, and it had no toes and only vague blobs for fingers.
[Guardian Spirit] summoned.
[+1 Resistance to Friendly] in effect.
Guardian Spirit: [6 attack, 5 defense, 10 max health, 7 resistance, 2 speed]
Abilities:[+1 Resistance to Friendly] [Incorporeal]
It was just as expected, based on the spell description. "Hello? Can you understand me?" No response.
I tried to mentally prod it the way I moved my familiar, and it shifted around the same way, but it seemed a little sluggish and there was no mental feedback that told me it was following my orders or not, other than seeing it move. The connection was not as strong, and I couldn't share in its senses. A bit awkward to control if I couldn't tell where it was or what it was doing without seeing it…if that worked at all.
Then I looked more closely at the other pop ups I'd gotten.
A new spell learned, just like that? When I opened up my mental spellbook to check on it, there had been some drastic changes.
Every spell was now color coded with a legend and new labels. Most of the top spells in the [Special] Section except [Just Cause] were grey in color, representing the Arcane realm, while all the others were white, representing the Life realm. There was also a tier assigned to every spell, and every spell was Tier 1 Common except [Champion Investiture] and [Recall Champion], which were Tier 2 Uncommon.
The new [Recall Servant] spell sat just underneath the [Recall Champion] spell.
/ / / /
[Recall Servant] – Common – Target [Special Friendly Unit] – 20 MP
Summons a valid recallable target within visual range to the currently active Summoning Circle. Valid targets include Friendly [Champion], [Hero], or [Priest] units, or any [Summon].
/ / /
The Champion version cost a whopping 500 MP, but that one could summon a Champion from anywhere directly to me. This one could only summon them to the [Summoning Circle] that I'd last activated with the spell of the same name. It wasn't a huge drawback considering that I could just draw a new Circle wherever I wanted and activate it for no MP cost. But upon a close reading, the part that explained the large MP difference was probably the "within visual range" condition.
One might wonder what the point of that would be, if I was already that close to the unit I wanted to recall, but then I'd just acquired a familiar that shared sight senses with me, which would satisfy that condition.
The additional unit types the description mentioned were new to me though, so I focused on them to get their descriptions.
[Hero] - A designation given to a [Normal Unit] after it achieves very high faith, has won at least one battle either together with or in the name of their liege Wizard against [Enemy Units], and the Wizard accepts their oath of allegiance. When a unit gains the [Hero] designation, they become capable of leveling beyond Ultra Elite if they keep gaining EXP, and may receive or gain on level up hero abilities depending on their personal potential and experiences in life.
[Priest] - A unit which has been trained in the proper rites and taught White magic in a qualifying [Temple] building, and after the completion of their training, ordained as a [Priest] by a Wizard.
I wouldn't have any Priest units anytime soon, but when I mentally asked for a list of my Hero units, there was surprisingly one already…myself. I didn't remember seeing any [Enemy Units] that I'd fought against, but I did have a couple of fights, and though I didn't swear any oaths to myself either, it went without saying that I was loyal to myself.
Well, however that worked, it would be convenient for me to be able to use that spell on myself to get around, especially to avoid getting tracked back home since I didn't have any stealth spells.
After that, I took a look at my updated item enchantment menu, which was similarly far more detailed.
Crafting Items - Enchant Item
You may craft enchanted Accessories, Weapons, Armor, and Magical Foci using the [Enchant Item] spell, imbuing them with a number of different Item Powers. Each item type has different rules and costs.
When a spell is imbued onto an item, the standard cost for any item type is 3x the regular cost of casting it, per charge or per MP capacity, further multiplied by the spell [Rarity Tier].
Depending on the item type, [Unit Enchantments] may be imbued as permanent passive effects or discrete spell charges. [Instant] spells are always discrete spell charges. Continuous [Combat] spells are charge capacity pools, and their standard unit of charge is always 20x the base time unit worth of MP. Spell charges recharge naturally every twenty-four hours (continuously for charge pools). [Summon] spells seal the summoned creature into the item and remove the upkeep cost so that it may be called at will without am incantation.
Items will only naturally recharge or maintain their effect naturally beyond 24 hours when held by a Unit aligned with a Wizard. Wizards and [Caster] Units are also able to recharge items directly with mana. High faith Units may pray to recharge items in the presence of a [Priest], [Altar], or within a [Temple]. [Hero] Units can pray to recharge items anywhere on the world where their Wizard is residing or which has an active [Fortress] or [Temple] aligned to their liege Wizard.
Sealed [Summon] Units will only respond to the original summoner, their [Friendly Units], or someone the summoner has bestowed the item to.
Accessories – The most basic item for enchanting. Commonly rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other types of jewelry, but any item may be enchanted as an accessory. Their effects apply while equipped (worn anywhere on the body). May be imbued with a single Item Power from one of the following types:
Spell – 50 MP base cost. May imbue 1 spell of any type. Each spell can have up to x3 discrete spell charges or 20x capacity pool charge. Unit Enchantments are permanent passive effects.
Stat attribute bonus to user – 30 MP base cost plus 20 MP per stat value. May only have 1 stat type at +3 per item. Stat bonuses for each attribute can stack but are capped to +3 per user regardless of the number of items equipped. Only attack, defense, resistance, and speed can be applied. These stat bonuses can only enhance a [Normal Unit]'s non-magical natural abilities and have no effect on [Fantastic] Units or any [Normal Units] who have broken their limits or otherwise acquired magical bodies.
I stopped for a bit. Some of this was new. I hadn't known about the recharge rules before, but they would certainly make it harder for other people to use them if they weren't on my side.
The thing that really stuck out to me that, was the last bit about stat bonuses on items.
I suddenly thought back the way [Endure] affected me and Madison, while none of the rest of my stats seemed to be particularly amazing, despite the large bonuses they had. How my speed tests showed that after going way above the standard Elite level of speed, I was still not that much faster than world record sprinters.
Was this the reason? Only Spells could enhance me to truly supernatural levels?
I had already known that the two [Holy Weapon] and [Holy Armor] spells had an incomparably larger effect for the same stat value, vs. wearing just the booster items.
A sharp knife still cut me easily at 6 defense with the armlet, but with the [Holy Armor] aura on, it was like trying to cut wood or something, not flesh.
It'd been one of the things I tested soon after I made my armlet set, but at the time, I only did it because the spell descriptions mentioned about converting to and reducing damage from magical attacks.
My assumption had been that the spells did more than just add the extra attack/defense boost, but maybe stats given by Spells were just plain better. They weren't constrained like the accessories to enhancing non-magical natural abilities, and had truly supernatural effects.
I turned my attention to the rest of the additions to the crafting menu.
Magical Foci – Tools to hold and focus magic, with varying properties depending on the type and materials used. Magical foci may be imbued with different effects depending on its type, which are only usable while equipped (wielded in hand). Unit Enchantments are stored as triggered spell charges instead of applying a passive effect. Attack and defense boosts from foci stack with bonuses from accessories, but only applied when actively wielded, and do not stack with each other if more than one is wielded at a time. These can contain any number of Item Powers at an additional cost +50 MP times the total number of Item Powers squared.
Wand – 100 MP base cost to craft. Enables [Quick Casting] for all stored spells and spells cast with the wand's MP pool at no extra casting cost, allowing casts without a full incantation, triggered only by the spell name. Eligible Item Powers:
1 spell with x6 discrete spell charges, 40x capacity pool charge, or 1 permanent [Summon].
+[1,2] ranged magic attack. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
[Spell Resist -X] at [1,2]. Costs 100 MP times the modifier squared.
Up to 20 MP pool usable by any [Caster] Unit with any known, bestowed, or imbued spell or the basic mana bolt. Recharges daily. Costs 20x the MP pool.
Up to 3 [Special Abilities]. Cost varies. Each [Special Ability] adds 1 to the Item Power total.
Magic Staff – 200 MP base cost to craft. Has base 2 magic melee attack. Enables imbuing the [Combat Summon] version of any [Summoning] type spell as a capacity pool charge, instead of permanent sealed summons. Eligible Item Powers:
Up to 3 spells with x3 discrete spell charges, 20x capacity pool, or 1 permanent [Summon], per spell. Each unique spell adds 1 to the Item Power total.
+[1,2,3,4] ranged magic attack. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
[Spell Resist -X] at [1,2]. Costs 100 MP times the modifier squared.
+[1,2,3] defense to user. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
Up to 40 MP pool usable by any [Caster] Unit with any known, bestowed, or imbued spell or the basic mana bolt. Recharges daily. Costs 20x the MP pool.
Up to 3 [Special Abilities]. Cost varies. Each [Special Ability] adds 1 to the Item Power total.
[Missile Immunity] Costs 200 MP. This unique Magic Staff ability does not count towards the Item Power total.
Weapons and Armor – Physical combat weapons and armor may be enchanted into magical weapons and armor, turning their attacks magical and defend against magical attacks. in addition to imbued spells and [Special Abilities]. Some bonuses and [Special Abilities] apply only to the weapon/armor itself and not to the user, and apply at all times. Other Item Powers can only be triggered or passively active while equipped. These can contain any number of eligible Item Powers at an additional cost +50 MP times the number of Item Powers squared.
Weapon – 100 MP base to enchant eligible weapon types. If a weapon is enchanted with any attack bonus or attack modifying [Special Ability], its attacks become magical attacks and can damage things that have [Weapon Immunity] or are otherwise intangible. Stat bonuses from weapons do not stack with each other if more than one is wielded, and do not stack with other item categories but can stack with bonuses from spell effects. Eligible Item Powers:
+[1,2,3] attack to weapon only. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
1 Spell with x3 discrete charges, 20x capacity pool charge, 1 [Summon], or 1 passive [Unit Enchantment].
Up to 3 [Special Abilities]. Cost varies. Each adds 1 to the Item Power total.
To be eligible, an item must be one of the following types, each with their own unique properties. Any unique Item Powers of the weapon type do not count towards the Item Power total.
Sword – May be enchanted with +[1,2,3] defense, in the form of increased durability and defensive skill with the sword. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
Axe – May imbue [Thrown] for +200 MP, which allows the weapon to be used for thrown attacks at close ranges that magically curve back to the user.
Mace/Club/Polearm – May imbue with [Stun] effect at Resist -1 for +100 MP. When an attack hits the head on a failed resist the opponent may be disoriented or knocked unconscious.
Monk Staff – Can be imbued as both a Polearm weapon and a Magic Staff by paying the base cost for both, but is limited to 1 Spell unless the Spells are the same [Combat Summon], the maximums of ranged magic attack bonus, weapon melee attack bonus , and MP pool are +2, +1, and 20 MP respectively.
Spear/Lance – May imbue [Armor Piercing] for +200 MP. Stab attacks have greater chance to pierce through armor and the raw durability portion of unit defense values. Against magical armor/defenses, [Armor Piercing] may bypass a portion of the defense to inflict damage directly.
Bow – Requires arrows. The arrows may be enchanted separately for +[1,2,3] attack at cost of [10,20,40] per arrow. All attacks are considered magical attacks regardless of whether the arrows are enchanted.
Armor – Cost varies with size of armor piece. Any body covering or shield can be enchanted as armor for a defense bonus, but only sufficiently large pieces are eligible for resistance bonus, imbued spells, or [Special Abilities]. Defense bonuses apply only to the armor, do not stack with other item categories, but can stack with bonuses from spell effects. Resistance bonuses apply to the user while worn, but do not stack with other armor pieces. Eligible Item Powers:
+[1,2,3] defense to armor only. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
+[1,2,3] resistance to user. Costs 50 MP times the square of the stat bonus.
1 Spell with x3 discrete charges, 20x capacity pool charge, 1 [Summon], or 1 passive [Unit Enchantment]. [Unit Enchantments] can only be imbued as a permanent passive effect, cannot be triggered charges.
Up to 3 [Special Abilities]. Cost varies. Each adds 1 to the Item Power total. Not eligible for attack-type modifying [Special Abilities].
The following armor pieces have unique properties. Unique Item Powers of the armor type do not count towards the Item Power total:
Shield – Base 100 MP to enchant. Provides an additional +2 defense against all Ranged attacks.
Boots – Base 50 MP to enchant. May be imbued with enhanced +[1,2] run speed, which multiplies the user's movement speed when traveling on foot. Does not affect combat reflexes. Costs [400, 1000] MP.
Gauntlet – Base 50 MP to enchant (doubled for a set). Can be used for unarmed combat, and the defense bonus also applies to attack. Eligible for attack-type modifying offensive [Special Abilities].
Hooded Mantle/Cloak – Base 50 MP to enchant. Creates shadow effect that hides the face of the wearer, and the hood cannot be pulled or blown off without the wearer's permission.
Mask/Helm – Base 50 MP to enchant. Wards the eyes from natural environmental hazards such as rain, snow, dust, sand, etc.
/ / /
These rules were complicated as my power usually was, but even at a glance I could see that the new wands, staves, weapons and armor were just on a completely different level from accessories.
And it did not escape my notice that all of the stat bonuses that I could give to the foci, weapons, and armor cost way more than the ones on accessories. And apparently all enchanted weapons/armor did the magical attack conversion, and defend against magical attacks, just like my Holy Weapon/Armor spells.
I quickly drew up the descriptions for several new concepts that didn't have complete explanations in the enchantment menu.
[Caster] – A unit who has stepped onto the path of magic, and touched the Arcane Realm. They have developed the ability to produce mana from their own soul and cast spells by their own power.
This was really interesting, considering that I had access to Arcane spells already but didn't have this ability listed on my own description. I also didn't generate any mana by myself, but it sounded like it could be learned or maybe even taught…somehow. How would I go about opening a "gate" to the Arcane Realm? Summoning a magic spirit hadn't worked for that. Another thing I'd have to investigate later.
[Quick Casting] – A technique to cast spells with shortened incantations for a higher mana cost, capped to double the regular casting cost for invoking only the spell name. You have not learned this ability, but it is available as a unique ability of Wands.
That would come in useful in a pinch, and it made the Wand's MP pool a lot more important. Any spell that cost less than the pool size, I could cast with the Wand then recharge it myself.
[Spell Resist -X] – When any spell or ability that targets Resistance is used with this power and hits a Unit, the effective Resistance of the Unit is modified by the value of X, making them more likely to succumb.
Well, I didn't have any spells that targeted Resistance yet, so I wouldn't need this.
[Spell Bestowal] – A [Friendly Unit] with the [Caster] ability can be granted the authority to temporarily access the ability to cast any spell known by the Wizard that the Caster has not learned. All [Hero] Units can be bestowed with this authority on a permanent basis (can be retracted at any time), while other [Caster] Units can only be temporarily granted the authority when the Wizard is actively watching over them or commanding the battle.
I could just hand out powers and take them back at will? I was actually a Trump, then, I didn't even have to use items to give out powers indirectly. But I'd have to figure out how to get the [Caster] ability first.
[Combat Summoning] – A technique to cast a temporary [Summoning] spell without a [Summoning Circle] directly into combat. Takes 1/5th of the regular cost to cast, but costs 1/100th of the regular casting cost (or 1/20th of the Combat-modified cost) per minute In upkeep. You have not learned this ability, but it is available as a unique ability of Staves.
That would save a lot of MP. If I could get 3 combat summons onto one staff, even if they only lasted for a short while it'd mean having 3 times the units to fight with during that time. Cape fights probably didn't go for very long so that short burst of power might be all I needed to get through a fight.
[Special Ability] – Units can possess a variety of special magical abilities. When you learn a special ability or an associated spell, you can imbue them to items that permit [Special Ability] as an Item Power. Abilities that modify attack types will only affect attacks made with the item itself, while other abilities may be granted to the user equipping the item. Some abilities can only be imbued to specific item types.
This didn't seem much different from just enchanting a spell into an item, but maybe it would matter after I learned more.
[Missile Immunity] – A magical forcefield or skin protects against all incoming physical projectiles, completely nullifying damage from attacks below a certain threshold of energy depending on the unit's magic presence and size, typically providing +50 defense against small ranged attacks (such as arrows, bolts, pebbles, and javelins). This may also defend against magically or alchemically enhanced projectile ammo but has no effect on attacks composed primarily of mana, such as ranged magic attacks.
It just keeps getting better. Would this work against guns and bullets? Bullets were good at piercing because they were so fast, but how much energy did they actually have? If this could block javelins…
I looked over everything I could enchant again, ran some simple calculations, then sighed.
So many of these options were great, but they were all so expensive. Most of the weapons seemed quite lethal too so I'd best avoid those for regular patrolling.
Still, I smiled again, thinking of just how much this would change. I could speed up my plans, and give myself a lot more firepower. Maybe I wouldn't need a team at all, if I made good use of Summons. I certainly didn't have the MP to spare to gear up anybody else at the moment. Shouldn't I prioritize myself first? A single staff with everything I could add to it would cost thousands of MP.
I looked back at the Guardian Spirit still waiting there patiently doing nothing. There was too much to digest all at once here, I'd need to make new notes, configure designs, test things, and so much more.
O O O
Mirror
Taylor Hebert: [6(3) attack, 6(2) defense, 6(2) max health, 6(2) resistance, 5(1) speed]
Abilities: [****] [Administrative Intellectus] [Wizard]
Experience Level: Elite (LV4) 81/100 to Elite (LV4)
Champions: None
Gold Reserve: 0g
Mana Reserve: 303 MP
Power: ~476
Soul Capacity: 2
Upkeep: 10
Equipment: Armlets (Heroism, Speed +3, Attack +3, Defense +3, Resistance +3, Endure, Bless), Ring of Healing x3
Active Effects: [Heroism], [Endure], [Bless], +3 speed, +3 attack, +3 defense, +3 health
Summon Units: 1 [Guardian Spirit]
O O O
A/N: I hesitated to include all of the item crafting mechanics directly in-story, but felt like there were some important things that had to be explained, and we might as well get the full overview now as Taylor herself reads it over. And because it's been such a long time since the last update, I wanted to provide some more material in this chapter.
Next chapter we get the plot moving again now that Taylor has a decent economy to start actually doing things.