Chapter 603 - All the Skills (Patreon)

So thirsty. There was a lovely cup of water waiting for me, along with some cut-open mangos. Was Auri experimenting with ‘smelling salts’ again…? I rolled over to grab the water, and did the awkward ‘try to drink while lying down’ move. I blinked as the first refreshing gulp went down my throat.

Wait, I was an idiot. 

I [Teleported] - was that even still the skill name? - upright, bringing the blankets along to cocoon myself. I idly read the note next to the water.

Elaine,

Give us a warning the next time you decide to read the books inside your soul world! We’re a little worried, let us know when you wake up.

Love,

Iona

Ah, whoops. I’d impulsively, spur-of-the-moment decided to go a-reading. I’ll have to think about it and warn people next time.

“Hey, I’m awake!” I yelled, then settled in to see what I’d gotten. The mangos somehow found their way into my hands, and I got a-munching.

Notifications!

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance] has evolved into [Dawnbringer - Radiance]!]

[*ding!* [Sage of Tomes - Spatial] has evolved into [Sage of Eternity - Spatial]!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Dawnbringer] leveled up! 1024 -> 1251. +256 Strength, +256 Dexterity, +256 Speed, +256 Vitality, +4096 Magic Power, +4096 Magic Control, +4096 Mana, +4096 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Strength from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sage of Eternity] leveled up! 1024 -> 1232. +2048 Magic Power, +2048 Magic Control, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your Element per level!]

Seeing the two classes leveling up side by side really drove home what a massive jump there was going up in quality. Being one of the elite Sentinels of Remus, one of the last defenders of humanity had earned me a dark green class. Granted, it might’ve been a little stronger stat-wise if I hadn’t invested so much in becoming Immortal, but ‘Peak soldier of a nation’ was dark green. I was three quality steps above that in my lowest class, and from what I understood, stats roughly doubled with each step up in class quality.

A shame dragonslaying wasn’t part of [Sage of Tomes] and now [Sage of Eternity’s] desired activities. I was fairly sure that had single-handedly contributed to [Dawnbringer’s] improved stats. Not that I was complaining, I loved both of the classes!

Okay! Time for the big one! Let’s see what new skills I received. Given that I’d taken the ‘natural upgrade’ on both classes, I expected many skill names to stay the same, maybe change a bit of flavor. The real devil would be in the details, and I’d need to retest all my skills to figure out what I could do now.

[*ding!* [The Rays of the First Dawn] has upgraded to [Radiance Beams]!]

Radiance Beams: Golden flames leap from your fingers at your command, burning even the very air itself as it instantly incinerates your foes. -32,752 mana regeneration.

Short, sweet, to the point. The restriction mentioned was probably cosmetic - I’d test it in a moment - and the mana regeneration it was taking up doubled. Excellent! The skill was my staple offensive ability, and as much as I’d tried to branch out, nothing had managed quite so well as my trusty beams. Well, [Beams] now.

[*ding!* [Wings of the Seraphim] has upgraded to [Essence of Flight]!]

Essence of Flight: Staying on the ground is merely a suggestion for you, the vast and boundless sky your playground. -32,752 mana regeneration.

Oooh, the first thing to experiment with! Did I still have wings? Did my talaria return? Could I simply… move myself through the air? That one would be kinda boring, I liked having wings or something else. Iona had her own flying skill, but she just moved through the air like a statue, that was boring. 

[*ding!* [Radiant Angel’s Spear of Obliteration] has upgraded to [Sun Blades]!]

Sun Blades: Summon blades of light to strike against evil! Coat your weapons in Radiance to defeat your enemies! -32,752 mana regeneration.

I was honestly less than impressed with the skill, no matter how long I’d spent training it. I recognized the need for it - when I needed to hit something hard, I wanted the tools to hit it hard. It was just so rare that [Radiance Beams] couldn’t handle a problem, but the extra firepower let me get there. 

I was willing to trade the skill for something more effective, but the skill was good and it had saved my life. It just… didn’t quite fill me with the same excitement as everything else did.

[*ding!* [Six Wings, Six Million Feathers] has upgraded to [Featherstorm]!]

Featherstorm: A single feather can tickle, a billion will destroy all in your path. -32,752 mana regeneration.

[Featherstorm] at least looked gorgeous, and playing around with the individual feathers was just fun! In some ways it was exactly the same as [Sun Blades], except it made me happy to see the swirling mass of feathers.

I didn’t see direct upgrades on my other skills, but a peek at my numbers revealed the truth. [Celestial Dew] had gone from 0.25% per level to 0.3% per level, a dramatic improvement to my mana regeneration. I was looking at 120,000 mana per second, which was pure insanity. Also known as 440 million mana per hour. Rounded down.

It made me seriously consider if I should just dump mana as a stat I seriously invested in, and just went all-in on regeneration. Most fights ended when a mage’s mana pool was empty, but I was handling such insanely high numbers already.

At the same time, what could a mage who made sure their power and mana pool were both up to the mark do?

[*ding!* [Spatial Authority] has upgraded to [Spatial Mastery]!]

Oh thank goodness. I was dreading the mana costs involved, but now I was going to enjoy a nice, much-needed discount.

Way, way back when, Librarian had warned me off [World Traveler], saying portals needed millions upon millions of mana to open. [Spatial Mastery] would help with that, and I’d finally gotten to enough magic power and control to just… cast it. 

What had been an impossible dream as a kid was now within reach.

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] and [The Library of Infinite Wonder] have merged into [Timeless Manor of the Eternally Curious Sage]!]

Timeless Manor of the Eternally Curious Sage: Home away from home. You have learned on roads that no longer exist, experienced cities that have been all but forgotten, and attended lessons in more than one academy. You are the eternally curious sage that wanders Pallos learning everything you can, but you also know that true knowledge must be protected at all costs. Where would be safer than with you? No longer will you have to choose between your home and your travels, your home and your knowledge will be wherever you wish. Additional rooms appear manifest with level.

“Oh no.” I complained to myself. “I’m going to need to rearrange all of it.”

I was taking no bets if everything had gotten jumbled again. It totally had, and I suspected [Teleportation] was going to get a strong workout. Bonus though, I’d be able to see how much it had quietly improved! Just because the skill hadn’t shown an upgrade didn’t mean it hadn’t changed. Just… less dramatically. 

Another thing I’d need to test was the library. It was now a physical space, and broadly, the skills merging was a good thing. I liked it! I retained the best elements of both skills, and got a brand new skill slot.

The only part that was possibly a downgrade were the books being ‘accessible’. In other words, if I let Iona into the [Manor], she could wander over to the library, pick up a book, and start reading it. Which was great! Nearly every time, I wanted people to grab my books and read them.

The two exceptions were around my spellbooks, and the prayer my parents had stitched into cloth, the one thing I had left of them. If -

My mind froze, then went into furious overdrive.

The prayer! The precious cloth! It was my only memento of my parents, my family, the only physical trace I had left of them. It was in my [Tower] - sorry, [Manor] - and it had just gotten wildly jumbled up with the gallons of dragon’s blood I kept in there!

In a blind panic, my heart thudding, I pulled the cloth out and brought it up to my nose, breathing in deeply.

I swear I could still smell mom on it.

Safe.

It was safe.

Wait! The rest of my books!

I pulled them out of storage. I pulled them all out of storage with a mental tug, my eardrums popping as the entire room suddenly filled with hundreds upon hundreds of books. There wasn’t quite enough space, so I just… stacked them on top of me as well. Why not, I was solid, I could take a bit of weight. Plus, I could check off ‘literally buried in books I loved’ off my list! Iona chose that moment to open the door, a faint glow of fire betraying Auri’s presence.

“Elaine?” She was clearly worried. “Are you alright in there? Normally I’d think you being buried in books was your idea of paradise, but I just want to make sure.”

“Hey love!” I called out, Auri fluttering over the books towards me. “Yeah, I’m fine, I just had a moment of concern for the contents of my skill. Give me a few minutes. Or twenty.”

“Lunch is on the table when you want it!” She answered back, leaving the door open for Auri to leave again.

“Brrrpt?” She asked me.

“I’m fine, and the classes are great! Give me some time to finish figuring it out.” I said.

“Brrpt.” Auri hopped over the ever-shifting stacks of books - they were still settling in, and my soul was being tortured by hot pokers over how some of the pages were being creased - flipped open a book with her beak, and started to slowly ‘surf’ it down while she read the page. 

Well, I was buried in books, might as well check the last of my notifications.

[*ding!* Congratulations, you’ve unlocked the skill [Portcullis]!]

Portcullis: The gate to your castle is slow and difficult to open, but it will keep your inner sanctum safe from all who dare wish harm upon you, while also keeping your friends and family as protected and secured as possible. 16,777,216 mana per cast.

Holy mana cost! That was probably before [Spatial Mastery] kicked in, but I’d need to sit down and actually crunch the numbers.

Spatial magic brushed up against one of the Divine Decrees, the one dictating people not to ‘shred the fabric of reality’. Spells tended not to fail terribly - they either cast, cast poorly, or didn’t cast at all - but portal magic was one of the few spells I didn’t want to take any risk. “Whoops, I didn’t mean to leave a flapping hole in the fabric of reality and let in all sorts of monsters-slash-threaten to unravel everything slash light up Pallos to the vast powers in other dimensions” didn’t really fly when the gods came a-smiting. Even worse, Ciriel and Iona would both be very upset with me.

I spun off three parallel thoughts to handle the math and the problem while I continued on. Arctangent… divide by pi… the fundamental constant was 64… I had no idea what the System was doing with a 10 in the equation… throw in [Sentinel’s Superiority]... carry the eight…

A portal was going to cost me 3,446,577 mana to cast. I had 3,535,284 magic power.

HA! Thank the System! I could cast it!

Time to clean up… this time though, instead of enlisting an army of orphans, I could just teleport everything out, then teleport it all back into the right spot! First, I’d need to know the layout of the place…

Maybe I’d bring one of the Nixes with me, just for old time’s sake.

===================

I stretched in a small clearing in the forest, my friends and family all around me. The tree behind me slowly slid into a thousand logs, Iona slamming the butt of her glaive into the ground with a triumphant grin. Her axe was hovering over her shoulder, but my understanding of her other new skill was that she could have a nearly-unlimited number of blades near her, under her mental control. A dark and starry edge to them hinted at another new skill of hers. 

I turned around and whistled as the entire tree came down. Artemis blasted any logs that came near her with extreme prejudice.

“That’s one heck of a skill!” I complimented my wife. “What are we calling that, sword light?”

Her slashes had all come with a streak of energy off them, traveling as fast as her swing and twice as deadly. 

“Why not [Flying Crescent Moon]?” She asked. “Cause, you know. That’s the name of the skill?”

I blew a raspberry at that, and Iona swept me up in her arms. One deep kiss later - to Auri’s sputtering disapproval, Artemis’s crude suggestions, and Nina sighing and rolling her eyes - and Iona let me go.

“All my skills done! Get to it, mageosaurus!”

I rolled my shoulders.

“Nina, the most durable illusion you can make, please?” I asked her.

The kitsune held up her hand, a cube floating over it. I squeaked out the tiniest amount of [A Light Shining in the Darkness] and utterly obliterated it. Nina looked distinctly unimpressed.

“An anti-Mirage Radiance skill utterly obliterates Mirage. What a surprise.” The sarcasm was thick. Iona bonked her on the head.

“That was uncalled for. Elaine’s being thorough, just like we all try to be through on a class-up or new skill.”

Nina rubbed her head and sighed.

“I know! I didn’t want to be a bad sport. Just… she’s got a full class on me, more than triple the levels, and those levels are all at an absurd quality. The anti-illusion skill destroys illusions, can any of us honestly say there’s a shred of surprise?”

I did like the Nina who wasn’t a terrified child eager for approval.

“It’s fine Iona, Nina’s grumpiness is understandable, let’s just move on.”

With a grin, Artemis blasted me with a barrage of rocks. I blasted them all down with almost contemptuous ease with [Radiance Beams], firing from a dozen different spots all over my body at a dozen different angles, trying out various heats and sizes. Most of the rocks simply exploded into roiling Lava coming at my face, which Auri promptly grabbed and controlled to orbit her body. I actually evaporated a few small rocks.

“Yup, any spot, any direction, full control. Don’t need to point with my fingers.” I had a moment of inspiration, and tried something new. Mentally shaping the image, I lightly blasted a nearby tree, burning the image of the Remus Eagle in a single blast.

“And it doesn’t need to be a circular shape! Great!”

“Brrrpt!” Auri promptly burned the image of a phoenix next to the eagle.

Testing [Solar Blades] took some time. [Celestial Dew] was a simple matter of checking the number on the skill - a whole 0.3% per level! - and [Sunrise Halo] hadn’t mentioned any evolution, nor did it start eating more mana. Given that the regeneration it was eating was already over a million, it didn’t exactly need a boost. It was theoretically possible, but how was I going to encounter Radiance strong enough to give it a boost?

“Flying time!” I practically clapped my hands with glee, but instead focused on the skill. What was I going to get? Wings. Probably wings. I activated the skill, and a pair of pure-white wings spread out behind me, and I flew. Glorious flight! Up, down, backwards, near-instantaneous movement at a thought.

Interesting that it was wings, and not something else, like the talaria. I wondered why that was?

Like the skill was responding to my thoughts, the wings on my back vanished and a pair of golden sandals, each with their own tiny wings, shimmered into existence around my feet. My flight didn’t change at all.

“Eeeeeee!” I cried out in nearly incoherent delight. Did I have everything!? Iona whistled and Artemis whooped.

“Brrrpt!?” 

I spread my arms at Auri’s request and my arms turned into a burning pair of wings.

“This is amazing!!!” I screamed out as I soared high above the trees. With a pair of thoughts, I summoned my broomstick from storage - smelling suspiciously of jam - and let my wings go, seating myself on it.

I half-expected to fall, but no! It worked! I had the [Essence of Flight] - anyway I could think of flying, I could do it!

Well… maybe not. Maybe it was any way I’d seen flying I could do… but I’d been around a while, and was a curious little butterfly. I’d seen most everything, from mundane to rare. Maybe I could think of something unique, but I’d seen someone tie themselves to three dozen birds, launch themselves off a cliff with a bone glider, and one particularly unique individual who had gas-powered flight, generally available after taco day. 

“Oi! Healy-bug! Some of us have things to do!” Artemis shouted.

Shit! Right! I could enjoy all this flying later. Extensively.

[Featherstorm] was more of the same, and I was off to [Sage of Eternity]!

The first thing was reading over all the skill descriptions for my new skills, and a line caught my eye in [Reality, Writ As You Will].

… Ink will readily take to all mediums.

I summoned a quill and inkpot - that wasn’t just ink sloshing around in there, damnit - and grabbed a random rock off the ground. I focused, and started to draw an enchantment on it. 

The ink sank in! Just like that!

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked from my shoulder, as curious as can be. 

“Easier enchanting, and I can use basically anything to draw runes on.” I told her. 

Oooh! I wondered if that applied to skin! Could I draw runic tattoos on my body? Well, more of them. I dipped the quill in the ink and was about to start scribbling on the back of my arm when Iona gently plucked the quill out of my hands.

“Enchantosaurus, were you about to permanently scribble on your arm without thinking about it?” She sweetly asked.

I started to sweat.

“Weeeelll, when you put it like that…” I temporized. “Maybe?” There was a good chance I could fix it, nothing was truly permanent, but some things were harder to remove than others.

Nina facepalmed and Artemis started to laugh. I briskly moved onto the next skill.

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge] had bumped up a hair, giving me a whooping 61x experience boost. And I still leveled relatively slowly. How did anyone ever get to be a Classer without an experience boost!?

[Teleportation] was about to get a massive workout, but I tried to see what the range was first. I looked at a stick about as far away as I could see in the woods and tried to pull it to me. It snapped to my side in a moment, and my eyes went wide.

“Okay, my range has dramatically increased.” 

Some more testing suggested it was comfortably over 450 meters, which was absurd. 

Then again, I was sitting on millions of magic power and control… absurd was the name of the game. I could teleport systemless people, why was I so surprised?

“Time for the big one!” I clapped my hands and rubbed them together. Auri sat up straighter on my shoulder, and everyone else crowded around behind me.

I dramatically held out my hands in front of me.

“Open sesame!” I dramatically roared out, and the world opened. Like the gates of a portcullis, the fabric of the world gently unstitched itself and yawned open, making a small doorway for us to enter. Nina and I could enter side-by-side, and Iona might need to duck to get in, but we had a door!

[*ding!* [Portcullis] leveled up! 1->2]

The door very slightly widened, and I spun off part of my brain that was going nuts over the information [The World Around Me] was feeding to me. 

Naturally, we could see into the [Manor] through the door, and I rushed forward, eager to see what the place was like! Everyone else piled in behind me, Artemis cracking a joke at my expense.

“Healy-bug!” She gasped. “I thought we taught you how to keep places clean! Remedial lessons will begin at sunrise.”

“I’m too… old… for… yes Artemis.” I hung my head in defeat as Nina and Auri laughed at my expense. Iona just shook her head knowingly, with a fond smile. I had cleared out a good amount of it to prevent a repeat of last time - by the gods, Nix was a kid then and now had a whole clan! - but some parts were too rare and valuable to risk.

[The World Around Me] combined with the new, more compact layout of the place, and I could see just about everything that was going on. I immediately started bulk [Teleporting] everything around, fixing the mess even as I gave everyone the tour, Auri lighting the way.

I knew the class up and changing the skill would ruin all my enchantments. Then again, I could remake them even easier now!

The [Manor] was like a luxurious ‘castle’ the richest people would have. A large central room where we exited from the portal, then neat hallways leading to rooms in orderly rows. Rooms came in a number of different sizes, easily letting me customize them to different needs. Hinges in the walls would let me easily install doors. Rooms went from the size of closets to the size of ballrooms, and I idly wondered if it was possible to get a skill to have secret passages running through the place. I’d just gotten a huge piece of free real estate, why not try to upgrade it?

Four towers were at each corner, a spiral staircase leading to a second floor, and an incomplete third floor. I was willing to bet more rooms would be added as I leveled.

And the library! Oh wonder of wonders, it nearly doubled the size of the manor by itself. Two stories tall, shelves from floor to ceiling, it was a wonder. I couldn’t wait to fill it all up.

“This place is beautiful.” Iona said.

I couldn’t agree more.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 127]

[Mana: 22,994,350/22,994,350]

[Mana Regeneration: 74,680,817 +(366,067,010)]

Stats

    [Free Stats: 0]

    [Strength: 169,701 (Effectively: 1,357,608)]

    [Dexterity: 193,957 (Effectively: 2,065,254)]

    [Vitality: 755,059 (Effectively: 11,797,797)]

    [Speed: 742,291 (Effectively: 14,610,514)]

    [Mana: 2,299,435]

    [Mana Regeneration: 7,803,187 (+ 36,606,701)]

    [Magic Power: 3,535,284 (+ 257,368,675)]

    [Magic Control: 3,534,141 (+ 257,285,465)]

[Class 1: [The Elaine- Celestial: Lv 1456]]

    [Celestial Spirit: 1456]

    [Domain of the Healer: 1456]

    [A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight: 608]

    [Luminary Mind: 1456]

    [Universal Cure: 1456]

    [Clad in Twilight: 565]

    [The Mantle of Dusk and Dawn: 910]

    [Elaine Eternal: 1456]

[Class 2: [Dawnbringer - Radiance: Lv 1251]]

    [Radiance Mastery: 1251]

    [A Light Shining in the Darkness: 941]

    [Radiance Beams: 1251]

    [Solar Blades: 500]

    [Celestial Dew: 1251]

    [Sunrise Halo: 1251]

    [Essence of Flight: 1251]

    [Featherstorm: 1251]

[Class 3: [Sage of Eternity - Spatial: Lv 1232]]

    [Spatial Authority: 1232]

    [Scripture Savant: 1232]

    [Teleportation: 1232]

    [Timeless Manor of the Eternally Curious Sage: 1232]

    [Portcullis: 2]

    [Reality, Writ As You Will: 1232]

    [Astral Archives: 1232]

    [Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 1232]

General Skills

    [Long-Range Identify: 666]

    [Everywoman: 614]

    [Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 1456]

    [The World Around Me: 650]

    [Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 1456]

    [Sentinel's Superiority: 1456]

    [Persistent Casting: 1456]

    [Tender Gardening; Industrial Farming: 900]