by John Gold
The book on magic sieges is boring. In a word, mages join forces to push back on their opponent’s shields, and then create particularly powerful spells. There haven’t been that many sieges like that in the past, as they cost tons of energy, and most shields are taken down with normal spells.
Three days later, I’m still sitting next to the lava river killing imps every once in a while, only my resistance to fire isn’t going up anymore. Every new stream of consciousness lets me boost my skills faster, though the higher they go, the more often you have to use spells to keep the progress coming. I can use the stones around me as projectiles or shields to protect me from attack. There’s also something in the books about how Space Magic has to do with levitation, teleportation, power hammers, shields against physical attacks, and even certain kinds of gravitational and impulse strikes. It’s a shame I can’t get to them. They’d make it easier to get to the first circle of Hell.
There’s some rule for how much mana I spend developing each area of magic and how fast my skills develop.
There’s nothing else for me to do here. I’m sick and tired of imp wings and horns, though my derivative attributes are pretty weak at the moment. If a strong enemy came at me, I might not be able to get away. Time to head back to the Fields of Ash.
I do have one terrifying idea, though it’s worth trying. Today, my demonification will hit 50%, unlocking Demon Possession and letting me strengthen two limbs. I can pick my legs and see if that boosts my running speed. By tonight, I’ll have increased my intellect and wisdom up to 100, so I’ll be able to pick up another stream of consciousness. But what magic should I work on?
“Spell book!”
Life Magic: Weak Healing
Morale Magic: Stun
Space Magic: Telekinesis
Earth Magic: Boulder
Water Magic: Ice Arrow
Fire Magic: Fire Arrow
Air Magic: Air Fist
Light Magic: Firefly
Dark Magic: Dark Arrow
Light Magic would be silly to use in my current situation. Running around Hell with a dozen fireflies? Sure, and then I’ll write I Love New York on myself in blood. The pickings aren’t that varied, I can kill anyone up to Level 150, and I’ll get something different to eat.
∞ ∞ ∞
Two men sat in a café with a view of the park, coffee in hand.
“Leon, are you sure about the investments we’re making? We’ve hired practically all the players in Imir and the city is our headquarters. They’re clearing the dungeons and doing quests, and the economy is skyrocketing. Our military wing is getting better every day. But that’s going to push us into war with the other alliances, and maybe even countries. We’re not ready for that yet.”
“Don’t forget that I’m a god. I’m already giving big bonuses to the players who select me as their patron, our expenses are still less than our income, and we have several campaigns going to attract the faithful. I need fighting power so I can get involved in the war. And what I’m investing in is attracting people. Incidentally, we’ve recouped everything we invested previous to this. We’re processing all the items brought to the altar, and we’re going to sell them at the auction. The more territory we have, the more raw materials we’ll have under our control.”
“Okay, so you’re gunning for a war, and you want to participate in it personally. But do you realize that there are already ten gods in the small pantheon? Our source leaked the information to everyone he could. Who was he even?”
Leon smiled with satisfaction.
“A pilot. He was flying between us and Lunar when he heard a conversation about creating a god over the speaker. Nobody will be finding him, even our own security people.”
“Got it.”
“Merlen, relax. You’re our financial director and the clan treasurer, but you’re too cautious sometimes. None of the gods is going to attack us. The old ones don’t care, and the young ones aren’t strong enough. Or is it your daughter you’re worried about?”
Merlen nodded.
“Ah, kids, always worried about growing up. Are you aware that she’s only trying to get close to you so she can use you?” Again, a nod, though more embarrassed this time. “The mistakes of youth? She knows very well that she’s just using you. Still, I’ll keep my word. The girl did a good job bringing NPCs into the fold, and then she went out to heal people, boost the crops, and all that. Really, quite the kid. We have a…project…in Project Chrysalis. She’ll be part of the strike force.”
“That serious?”
“Even my status as a god pales in comparison.”
Merlen threw up his arms. “Oh, come on, what do you have going on?”
The men laughed. For the next month, neither of them spent much time outside Project Chrysalis, and their relationship gradually becomes a friendship. There was lots to do, lots of money to make and spend, and lots of fun to have. The great games of great men are all about strength, power, and money.
∞ ∞ ∞
I don’t have enough agility to run easily with the extra power in my legs. My seven-meter strides cheer me up though; I’m moving twice as fast as usual. Surrounding me are five magic fireflies attracting flying demons, ensuring that my rations now include manticores and other creatures. The strongest enemy I’ve had to face turns out to be Level 173, one of those manticores. It took me a long time to kill it, and I was only able to by using magic and running away. It was unable to do the same. When it tried, I chased it down and had a bunch of fun with the body.
The stamps used by demonologists, necromancers, and blood mages are all written using symbols, and there are twenty-three in total. Presumably, that’s the alphabet of true mages. All three disciplines are types of ritual magic, and I wonder if I can raise a manticore. It works.
Necromancy: +1
Ritual magic: +1
Blood magic: +1
I draw out the pentagram used to raise the undead with the blood of the victim. It’s a good thing the gods can’t see me, otherwise I’d probably spoil my karma. Anyway, I’m able to raise the manticore, but killing it turns out to be much harder. Even if it is slower, its strength and stamina are much higher. I’m forced to throw rocks at it, though that boosts my Earth Magic. At least, the serious injuries the beast sustained before it died resulted in a bunch of debuffs. I use Earth Magic again, though I don’t get any experience. Looks like I can only do that once per opponent.
The whole day is spent running around the Fields of Ash with my legs buffed. As soon as I see an enemy, I start training my ordinary magic, then my ritual magic, then my necromancy, and finally my ordinary magic once again. It’s perfect! It even turns out that you can work on your Fire Magic by burning the remains of your enemies’ bodies. Cool! If you don’t, they disappear in an hour.
My speed grows quickly, the added boost for my legs letting me run much faster than the ordinary limit. My athleticism improves rapidly, too. I move in zigzags, as that makes things easier when I’m fighting pairs of flying demons. I shoot one down, then shoot down the other, both using magic. Next, it’s time for necromancy. Dark magic is so much fun! Especially when you’re in Hell. And even more when you’re in Hell with nothing better to do.
For two weeks, I run as fast as I can, killing everything attracted by the light of my magic torches. Then, I go to work on their unfortunate bodies and kill them again. It’s only then that they find peace. Ritual magic includes a ceremony, though you can do necromancy without drawing seals. Necromancers have spells and special daggers you can use to raise people. I decide to make one of the daggers.
When items are broken, they break down into the materials that were used to make them. I found that out when I was working on fire resistance. And even if I can’t forge anything yet, I can definitely smelt metal. Then, I can use telekinesis to form it into the shape I want. The hot metal takes on the shape of a long blade.
Linprin dagger
A dagger made by a human without touching tools.
It would be a surprise if anyone could use it to kill.
Physical damage: 20-25
Durability: 770/1000
I don’t need much, just a blade. After adding the runes, I activate them with mana.
Linprin ritual dagger
A dagger set with raising the dead runes.
Physical damage: 20-25
Durability: 770/1000
That abuse of the art of smithing earns me a point for my blacksmith profession and another for my blood magic. I now have a dagger I can use to raise the dead, so I’ll be able to do exactly that with one cut to their body once I get to a certain necromancy level.
I’m almost to the end of my run. In three days, I’ll be back where I started.
∞ ∞ ∞
Three days later…
I’m getting tired of the Fields of Ash.
It turns out that you can combine attack spells to intensify the effect when they’re the same type. You can feel the power even without magic vision, though I haven’t been able to see exactly how much damage I’m doing. It’s definitely less than eight separate spells, though I’m doing all of it at once. A great way to break through the defenses of someone with strong resistance. Today, I’ll pick up my ninth stream of consciousness and get to 80% demonification. My skin turns darker when I add power to my body.
∞ ∞ ∞
Demonification: 80%
Your soul is tied to this world, and your flesh is restructuring to match the new world order.
Passive ability unlocked: Nonuple consciousness
You can now think and do nine things at once.
Note: If you accept this ability, you will lose 100 intellect and wisdom. Those points will go toward creating your mental body and the energy channels your ninth stream of consciousness needs.
Accept: Yes/No
Passive ability unlocked: Demon possession, Level 5
You can strengthen five parts of your body by 80%. Using this ability will cost an equal amount of health and stamina.
∞ ∞ ∞
Obviously, I accept the new stream of consciousness. It makes fighting so easy, and my demon possession is crazy. I run about ten meters a second, I can jump fifteen meters, and I can push that to a whole forty if I take a running start. What a rush! Nobody can catch me.
I’ve been in Hell for three months. And I’ve learned so much! Although…I so want to see father, eat some of mama’s fish soup and fish pie, and sit next to the fire in the back yard. But I have to keep going toward the first circle of Hell. Somewhere, there’s a descent down to the lower levels, and the fortresses belonging to the rulers of the realm are there, too. Lots of the demons around them are much stronger than the annoyances I’ve been dealing with in the Fields of Ash.
There’s no point working on my professions, though I definitely need to max out my magic skills. I’ll need stealth, so I need it to be as high as it will go, otherwise I’ll be caught by the first patrol that happens by. There are twenty more days to go until I’ll be completely demonified. In that time, I need to get everything done, and then I’ll get a move on it.
Even in Hell, you can make your own little hell for the demons there. I need to boost my mind magic.
Spell: Stun
Description: Stuns victims with low mental resistance. Your intellect determines whether you will successfully stun them.
Effect: Stun for 3 seconds
Mana: 10
I stun four imps, not letting any of them get close to me. Then, I give one a merciless beatdown before healing him. I keep that up for twelve hours straight. Even I have a conscience though. They die quickly, and I find others.
There’s more time for the game. I finished my exams for the year. There haven’t been any fights, so I have sixteen hours a day now.
A week later, I’m stunning six imps at a time, standing behind them in stealth mode. A seventh appears every three minutes. They get an easy death, a resurrection, another death, and the fire. Next! It’s kind of a shame to throw out simple things without attribute bonuses, so I just break them down and collect the metal. Everything weighs less that way. I can fit up to a hundred kilograms in my bag, and I need to get all the way to the ninth circle of Hell. Breaking down cheap items is the only option I have.
Oh, and there’s the next imp!
My stealth jumps up quickly, leaving me invisible to six imps as I kill everyone else who shows up. The area around me is covered in blood, which I use as part of the ritual to raise the dead. It disappears after twenty-four hours. I have to keep going, constantly changing my experiments, and I’ve taken to going everywhere in stealth mode. I can still make a good five meters a second. Boosting it is a great idea.
Three weeks go by.
∞ ∞ ∞
Demonification: 100%
Your mental and physical bodies have completely restructured to match this world’s order.
Passive ability unlocked: Undecuple consciousness
You can no longer unlock any more streams of consciousness.
Note: If you accept this ability, you will lose 100 intellect and wisdom. Those points will go toward creating your mental body and the energy channels your eleventh stream of consciousness needs.
Accept: Yes/No
Passive ability unlocked: Demon possession, complete
You can select a demon appearance. Demons look the way they do based on how they behaved in life. Using this ability no longer costs health.
∞ ∞ ∞
Now that I’m completely demonified and empowered, my skin has become ashen white, and there’s a bone mask with a barely-visible nose in place of my face. I have no mouth, and tiny slits where my eyes should be. Somehow, I can breathe, though I feel creeped out. All of my underwear, my hair, my fingernails, my toenails, and my sexual markers are gone. My ears stick out and are covered with a whitish film, the same that covers the rest of me. Only my hands are covered in blood.
I squeeze a fist and memorize the feeling. It’s like my hand is wearing a glove. The imp eye and eleven streams of consciousness are perfect for my new look. I feel better, too, my muscles looser and a certain lightness flooding my body. When I boost my body, my skin still gets darker. I wish I had a mirror. I must look terrifying.
The next five days are spent running up my intellect and wisdom to a hundred. The imps defend themselves heroically, but they don’t stand a chance. I also work on my smithing by making throwing spikes. I can’t do much else without tools. The spikes are all used in rituals, seeing as how I have nothing better to do than kill the creatures around me.
Some of the rings I destroy give me gems, and I just stick them in the glowing spikes. As soon as they cool off, I add a destruction rune with my blood. The second set of ten becomes vampires. The third and fourth are for healing. One kills, the other sucks health and gives it to me, and the third heals. I read about that in one of the books, where a blood magic ritual partially combines magic and a sacrifice. The mage heals the victim, prolonging their suffering, and gives mana in exchange for health. The book recommended using daggers, though I can’t make them.
I’m finally ready to head down. On the way, I’m supposed to come across the fortress of the local lord. It creates the aura I no longer pay attention to, though its power should be magnified in its immediate vicinity. These are the moments I prepared the spikes for.
After an eighteen-hour run in stealth mode toward the center of the circle, I’ve picked up some interesting information. The closer I am, the stronger the aura is. That tells me when I’m going in the right direction. The monsters I come across are stronger, too, and I start to see worms. There are a lot of them around one particular crater in the sand. Setting myself up on a nearby cliff, I look over to see if that’s the way down.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 1500 (ignored: 934)
1367/2000
Resistance to physical damage: +0.01%
Physical damage ignored up to 968/second
I’ve b
een taking increased damage from the aura of pain and suffering for the past two hours, meaning that I’m going the right way and should be coming across that fortress soon.
I peek over a cleft in the cliff. There should be an easy way down. But as I get started, I realize that something’s wrong. The hit to the face I take tells me exactly what that is.
Demons, Sand Scout, Level 214
I dodge the next blow, and the scout is dead ten seconds later.
Yeah…I need to work on my perception. He was right there and I didn’t notice him. He even had natural camouflage. I noticed him changing color to blend in with the cliff. The fact that I was already halfway into the cleft in the cliff, not to mention the spike in the scout’s throat, ensured that the alarm wasn’t raised.
Last time, I used the worms to boost my perception. It’s time for that again. I can work on my resistance at the same time.
The worms crawl out of their holes and meander around in a circle. Another one pops out, though he’s killed by another scout. It looks like they’re hunting, too, or maybe there’s some kind of cold war on. A different worm eats that scout, preoccupied as he is with his kill, after sneaking up behind him. A second later, and there’s no scout. Just two very happy worms going back to their crawling.
Some time later, I notice a whole squad of scouts. The worms eat half of them; the rest make a run for the cliffs. That leaves me to keep running further in, having gotten used to the local aura and boosted my perception to 100. I think this is just a nest of worms, not the fortress.
∞ ∞ ∞
Damage taken: 2500 (ignored: 1534)
1077/2000
Resistance to physical damage: +0.01%
Physical damage ignored up to 1592/second
