by John Gold
Large seals are made by combining different types of magic. For each kind, there’s an image, with everything connecting in the center of a large pentagram. It’s basically like the Olympic rings. If you want to intensify the effect of the spell, they can all be the same, sort of the way I did things with the astral bone sword.
There are very few mages in the world who can create scrolls with complex spells, and they’re really universal mages with an inscription skill. For example, if a mage has their Land Magic skill up to 90 and their inscription Life Magic skills up to 120, they can make spells that summon golems with a level based on their lowest skill—90. Scrolls for meteorites or acid fogs, to take a couple of instances, are therefore practically one of a kind and worth lots of money. In Project Chrysalis, groups of mages of single universal mages with huge reserves cast powerful spells during raids or war. Scrolls are the leftovers for non-mages.
To create a scroll, you need the activation word, the spell seal, the paper itself, and developed skills for the appropriate magic schools. The mage draws the scroll, fills it with mana, and then activates it when the time comes. Alternatively, other people can buy and activate them. The biggest problem with them is that you can die from the magic recoil.
I realized what Bernard did to teach me my spells. He was right, it was really difficult. You have to have incredibly well-developed skills in Life and Mind Magic. Currently, the spells are written in my mental body, which is usually only touched by the mage himself, and not other people. It’s like having a vein in your body that you can consciously release blood from. You can boost your running speed or how high you jump, and I have the same thing, only with magic. He figured that I wasn’t going to use my spells very often, but I’ve developed my magic potential and used my magic, activating the spells wired into my mental body rather than the ones I’ve learned myself. What Bernard did was a miracle: he touched me and changed my mental body, using Life Magic to work with my physical body and therefore change my brain. I’m not even close to understanding magic on that level.
The second part of my plan focuses on seals, and I’ll be able to get to work on that once I get to a big city. It’s going to be even crazier than my usual sacrifices, too. And I didn’t expect that from myself. Ritual magic? Blood magic? Never! I’m not going to outstrip my humanity, my own weakness.
Also, I need to build protection against fire and mental damage, and I know how to do that. That will have to happen after the first two parts of my plan, otherwise it will be the death of me.
It’s the fourth day since we set sail, and we’re getting close to inhabited lands with strongholds, castles, and cities.
There are three ships on the horizon, and the captain shouts a warning. The ship’s shields activate. The crew quickly dons their armor.
“Captain, do we have a problem?”
Captain Geriont is watching the fast-sailing frigates approaching from the west. With our current course, we should meet them in about ten minutes.
“Yes, a very big problem, son.” I’m shaken when he calls me that. “That’s three pirate frigates from the Bodoy Archipelago. They’ve never sailed in trios before, and we can’t take them on our own. The bastards know very well that it takes us ten minutes to fire and reload our main armament. We’ll sink one of theirs, though we won’t be able to take the other two. The survivors of the first will swim over, too.”
“What level are they at?”
“About a hundred, and their captains are up to 150.” Geriont suspects that I’m creating something devious in my cabin. His cabin is right above mine, and he complained about the smell yesterday, so I had to patch up the holes. “Why? Do you have a suggestion?”
“How many pirates are there in each crew?”
“Thirty, but they’re all higher-level than ours.”
“If I can neutralize one ship, can you take care of the other two?”
The captain’s eyes bore through me. A Level 0 boy wearing a village shirt is telling him he can kill thirty grown men.
“I don’t care what you do, but I’ll be only too happy if you can save our lives.”
“I’m doing this for my own reasons. I’m going to take their ship, cargo, and people.”
“This is no time for jokes! But whatever, do what you want.”
The captain is better off not knowing what I’m planning on doing. I need pirates! Lots of pirates! I don’t much care about their cargo or ship. Clarissa and I made a paralyzing poison when I was still in Heron, and I used all my metal putting the spikes together. They’re invaluable as mana storage.
I pull off my normal poison and replace it with a bandage laced with a paralyzing ointment. I’m not immune to it yet, and I need more resistance, but I can use it with leather gloves on. The bandage is great as a way to keep it on me and still stay mobile.
Grabbing the spikes, I leap into the sea. I need to capture one of the ships, and the farther away from our ship that happens, the better.
I swim as fast as I can, trying to stay under water the whole time. The salvo from our ship strikes a hundred meters to my right, and I pick up a hearing debuff. The second frigate is about fifty meters ahead of me, with the third a hundred meters behind it. That’s my target.
Attempting to grab hold of the ship at full speed practically kills me. I bang my head on the hull, only barely grabbing the stern and clambering up it. When I jump down off the bulwark right behind the wheel, I see that the whole crew, complete with the captain, is up by the bow ready to board. A quick dab of poison, and the helmsman drops quietly to the deck. I head over to the wheel. None of the pirates are expecting their ship to turn parallel to ours, but that’s what happens.
It takes a quick battle, though it’s only the captain who’s hard to take out. He’s the only one who uses a sword and a dagger at the same time, and he’s practically immune to stunning, too. I win when I smear the poison all over his face. As long as he doesn’t die.
The frigate is a bit small for what I’m looking for, and drawing the ritual blood seal takes some doing. I make just two levels—three points of strength with ten victims each. Geroit was right about there being exactly thirty of them. The only problem is what I’m going to enchant, since I don’t have mithril and don’t plan on picking any up any time soon. The price is prohibitive. Instead, I have to use a silver ring without a gem that I made in Heron after I found a small deposit of the metal. Once the sacrifice on the deck is over and the fight in the astral taken care of, I get what I’m looking for.
Captain Archie’s ring
The pirate captain gained fame as a terrible human with a love of torture. Over the long years, the ring he wore soaked in all the pain and suffering, not to mention the mastery of its former owner.
Effect:
Agility: +20
Requirement:
personal item
Durability:
125/125
There it is: to create a nice, scalable item, you need at least eighty-five victims. The kind of victims you use, the way you kill them, and the material you use all plays a part. If I had mithril, I’d be able to create a ring with three attributes rather than the one I got. Still, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I take it and walk away happy.
Hey, at least Eliza didn’t pull me out of the game for something little like this.
By the time I get rid of the bodies and clear away all traces of the ritual, the battle on our ship is over, too. They weren’t able to capture the third frigate, though they were able to drive it away.
Geriont tells me that the pirates started to have second thoughts when they saw the ship I was on turn and sail away. They realized they no longer had a numerical advantage and turned to run.
“What are you going to do with your trophy?”
“Sell it and everything on board. I don’t need a ship.”
“How much are you looking to get for it?”
“I’ll figure that out in the city. Why, do you have an offer?”
Geriont thought for a little while.
“I might be able to help with the sale. That will also grab the attention of people who work with the pirates.”
“What would you like in return?”
“A quarter of the return.”
“That’s a lot, and you know it. However, I’m willing to pay it if you’ll give me some information.”
The captain smiles. And why not? He just won the jackpot. Yes, my friend, you don’t even know why I agreed. It was because he was right. I don’t want any kind of attention.
“I need to find out where a city called Zird is located. I need information about the continent’s strongest monsters, too. Then, I’ll need the best healer in Sural who can do body modifications, and a tattoo master. Most importantly, I’m going to need books on magic. You’ll have your money, and I don’t care how legal they are, I just need to know about them.” The captain’s expression turned all the more serious as I went along, mentioning the port we were on our way to.
“That sounds terrifying coming from a kid at Level 0, but I’ll do it.”
He doesn’t bother me the rest of the trip, something I’m very thankful for.
The weather becalms us for two days, and I dive into the water to look for the most poisonous fish I can find. But I find out something odd. At a depth of a hundred meters, I start taking physical damage, apparently from the water pressure. That’s something to think about! I’ve been looking for somewhere that does constant physical damage, and it looks like that does the trick. It’s just a shame that I don’t have any potions for underwater breathing, as only alchemists can brew those. It’s three hundred meters to the bottom, and I assume that depth would kill me. It’s a perfect spot to train, though.
Today, I decide to relax in the real world and read. I need to figure out what’s going on with my body. It’s my mental stress that’s overloading me, and I can control my stream of thoughts, but doing that gives me a nosebleed. I need to dig into the problem to see how my brain and neurophysiology work. I lose consciousness after spending almost twenty-four hours like that, waking up once again in a personal virtual space at the hospital.
∞ ∞ ∞
Less than a month after the previous instance, Eliza was back in the virtual space with Anji. He’d overloaded himself and started bleeding yet again.
“Hi, Anji. We’re having a hard time here—every time we see each other, I have to give you a punishment or tell you off for doing something stupid. How could you study for a whole day?”
The boy said nothing.
“You’re just going to be quiet? We had a perfectly normal conversation last time, though I didn’t have time to tell you that everything’s okay with Galboa. They regenerated his arm, not to mention the neuroshunt and the sensors in his palm. He said to say hi and that Finx misses you.”
Anji again said nothing. Everything about him told her that he knew she was lying, after which there was some static and the boy disappeared.
“Moro, what happened? Where is Anji? He can’t leave. I didn’t give him permission.”
“I’m not sure, Miss Donovan. All I know is that the boy was forced out and is currently in another virtual space with access completely closed off. He’s by himself.”
“That’s ridiculous! He couldn’t do that by himself. Were we hacked?”
“That’s impossible. He connected via a med capsule with a personal identifier, and we didn’t receive anything about external interference. Somebody may have intercepted the data coming from Anji’s capsule and switched him over to a different virtual space.”
“But who? And why? This is government level stuff. The devil himself wouldn’t be able to figure it out, and tracing the data flow? That fast? Could it have been a random hack?”
“Probably not, ma’am. The work is too good.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Well, this is new. I’m sent over to a different virtual space, a room with a view of Earth floating outside a large, panoramic window. This is an office! There’s a desk, an office, chairs, bookshelves on all the walls, the pleasant smell of baked goods, two couches, and a coffee table between them.
“Hi, Anji.”
The man looks to be about thirty years old, and he’s wearing gray tights and a t-shirt with a picture of Earth. There’s a cup of coffee he’s holding as he sits in the office chair. Just a second ago, he wasn’t there. The smell of vanilla fills the air.
“Who are you?”
“A friend.”
Yeah, right, like I’m going to talk to a weird guy in tights. A new psychologist? Screw you! I’m not going to talk.
“I’m a friend who knows that your brain is overheating, Anji. My job is to figure out what’s going on when there are problems with Project Chrysalis, and I have reason to believe that the malady that sent you to the hospital for the second time in a month is being caused by the game.”
That didn’t explain anything, and it was based more on conjecture than fact.
“My guess is that you got something in Project Chrysalis that your body and mind weren’t ready for. Your nervous system was overloaded, and all I can suggest is to go easy on things. Your life cycle and the abilities of your body are limited. We can only restore it if we act fast enough, so you need to stop using what you know how to do.”
Now, that’s starting to get interesting—life cycles, the abilities of my body, restoring me… Intriguing facts. Still, I don’t have enough information to get a grip on everything.
“I get that you don’t want to talk. Situations like yours shouldn’t be happening for at least another six years, though there are always exceptions. Basically, find a way to control your health problem. If you have a stroke, it will be really hard to save you.”
Oh, I get where you’re coming from, my friend. I already know how to keep myself from dying, too.
“Good luck, Anji Ganet. You’re going to need it.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Eliza stayed in her virtual space, waiting for the boy to be returned.
“Miss Donovan, he has left the other space.”
“Get him in here right now!”
The boy stood in the room with a smile on his face, apparently, having just learned something interesting about himself.
“Who pulled you out?”
Just the fact that she was hacked was a serious crime. If he knew who the hackers were, he needed to tell her.
The boy continued smiling and said nothing.
“I can give you another month in punishment for sabotaging a conversation with a psychologist. Are you prepared to deal with the consequences?”
The only thing the boy did was think to himself.
“Okay, we’ll do it your way. You’ll get the punishment starting with today: no games for a month.”
Anji just smiled again, his look showing the superiority he felt.
“Moro, set the punishment and let Vaalsie know about his infraction.”
The conversation over, Anji left the room. Eliza stepped out into reality. On the other side of the door, she already had people waiting for her to finish getting ready for her seminar. She hadn’t even started getting materials together.
“Miss Donovan, we were banned from talking with Anji Ganet for a year, and his punishment was revoked. The boy submitted a complaint to the station’s top ArtIn about abuse and false accusations.”
“What did he write? Based on what? What about his violations?”
“Everything the boy has done in the game has been within the rules and in keeping with the articles of behavior. He got a punishment from his supervisor for all the conversations with you he sabotaged. Psychologists can’t punish their wards except in special instances that stray outside the law, the articles of behavior, or set orders. The boy hasn’t done any of that. There have, however, been instances where he has been punished for not working with you or following your instructions.”
“He was doing sacrifices, Moro! What other reason do they need?!�
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“We can’t prove that. All the information psychologists obtain during their conversations and observation are covered by doctor’s privilege. I can’t submit it as proof that you’re right.”
“What else did he say?”
“Today’s incident with the boy getting bumped over to a different virtual space wasn’t an infraction. All the recordings show that he was sent there accidentally, and then he was sent back once the error was discovered. Formally speaking, he didn’t violate any rules personally. There isn’t any proof of a hack, so the punishment was wrongfully applied.”
“He knew! That little squirt knew the whole time! He just needed a reason, and he found one. Damn it!”
“Miss Donovan, we can still watch, we just can’t pull him out.”
“All right, we’ll think of something.”
∞ ∞ ∞
They approved my complaint, so the psychologist won’t be annoying me with her monologues any more. I found out that she was violating my rights back after the first punishment. If I hadn’t used my ace now, though, I’d have no idea where I’d be in a month. The ship sails on, after all.
The conversation with my “friend,” on the other hand, left me with a mixed impression. At least, he gave me a bunch of hints: he was from Lunar, and they were paying for my treatment where the insurance wouldn’t cover it. I kind of agree with his recommendation. I need to be able to manage my abilities, though I’m not going to curtail or limit them. There have been other instances where people got so deep into their thoughts that it led to their nervous system overheating. They were told to do anything that required complex calculations, so I chose to develop space ships that operate autonomously for long periods of time, the kind they use to explore the frontiers. The goal for that method is to create an area in the brain where all calculations are carried out. For instance, you can design a hydroponics or reactor compartment unit. Really, you just have to work within your brain to unload the streams of consciousness that interact with your sensory organs. It turns out that only one stream works with your external environment; the rest don’t have anything to do with it. Obviously, that’s much easier said than done. I’m going to have to pick up the information I need, too, which will take even me at least a year. And I still have to figure out the issue with my guardian before I really get to work. Fun! It’s time to distract myself with some real problems.
