by Dakota Krout
“A Namer is a Mage that can control a spell through another means. Specifically, there is a chance that they can ‘read’ a spellform while it is gorging on their mana. Similar to what happened with your Grimoire and you, actually.” Master Don paused and pressed an elbow against the wall, which swung open to reveal daylight. A small smile appeared on his face as he took in the familiar surroundings. “You will be attempting to tame the spell in the usual ways, and all of a sudden, you will be able to see everything about it in a manner similar to reading your status. When you speak that name…”
“You gain total control of that spellform.” He locked eyes with her, all traces of happiness missing; only a mad hunger for power filtering through. “You still need to empower it as usual, but it becomes what is called an ‘inherent’ spell. It is a spell that you will never need to re-tame after casting. It will always meekly return to your spell book as soon as it can. Even if you lose a Grimoire or need to upgrade, it comes back when it can. If at all possible… train this ability and use it on every spell you ever tame. It must be yours, if you never want to fear losing it like your other spells, which are only bound to you via bribery and emotions.”
“That seems a little dark…?”
“Everything here is a step on the path to power, and if it doesn't join you, take its Potentia.” Master Don shook his head and grumbled, “If you can't make this moral leap, how would you ever cleanse an infected civilian town? You would never sleep again! Get used to making the tough choice now, Taylor. It only gets harder when you are the Archmage.”
“I-”
“Hush. You will be the Archmage, because I am ordering you to become qualified for the position.” Don waved her forward, and pointed at gorgeous fluttering insectoid spells. “These are one of the best possible passive defensive spells, and they are very rare.”
“Butterflies?”
“Evil butterflies.” Don’s eyes shifted back and forth as she stared him down. “Fine, not really evil, I’m just trying to get you in the right headspace for this. They are Nulli-flies, and with them, you can create the spell ‘Nullify’. This spell activates when a hostile spell is cast on you, and it nullifies all incoming magic for five seconds while… basically screaming. An alert and protection all in one. Also… single use.”
Taylor winced. ‘Single use’ spells were spells that you needed to fully re-enter The Library and find again in order to retame. They tended to be powerful, but were rarely used, as they would be gone after doing so. Don waved at her. “Go, tame one by Naming it. If it doesn't work, move on to the next one. Don’t worry about getting all of them; a Nulli-fly will never stay in a Grimoire with another of its kind.”
“I obviously want them, but I need to ask… why the secrecy? I’m sure other people know about ‘Namers’, right?” Taylor remembered something just then. “You even talked about Namers in front of people back when we were tested!”
“Yes, other people know about Namers, but not often what that really means. Nor to what spells we gain access. Look,” Her teacher waved around at the area that was enclosed by shelves on all sides, “when I said don’t tell anyone about this, I meant this area. This place is secret, and there is an abundance of Nulli-flies here for only one reason. This is the spawn point for this spell. This is the only place in the world where they come into being. They spread out from here, but they are so small and rare that it is nearly impossible to find exactly where they spawn.”
“You’re a spawn camper?” Taylor blinked in surprise. “You called spawn campers the scum of all the worlds…?”
“Other people doing the camping should be put down. Us doing it is simply being prudent.” Don announced proudly, like the hypocrite he was. Taylor rolled her eyes, but she wasn't about to complain. She was about to reap the benefits, after all. “Oh, as for why this is so important; there are a finite amount of spellforms in the world. I am pretty sure that there are only ten total Nulli-flies at any given point in time. Ever.”
“Really? There are three right here!” Taylor looked at the pretty spells.
“Three of ten that exist at any time in the Multiverse.” Don informed her sharply. “Ultra-Rare spells are that way for a reason. Either someone snapped up so many that the spell became rare, or there just aren’t many in the first place. This means that the rarer something is, the more it is worth. Yes, you can sell or trade spells, so long as they weren't Named. That is what scrolls are for.”
Taylor nodded and moved. Her mana reached out to only one of the creatures, and soon, it fluttered over to land on her finger. It was the size of a small eagle up close, and was draining far more mana than any spell she had attempted to capture previously. She stared at it, waiting for the moment when information would be revealed to her… and waited. Her mana was reaching the limits… it was gone. Her nose started to bleed, and Master Don called out, a flame appearing on his palm.
She ignored it all. It was right there… she could feel it. There! “Destrueret totum industria. Comedent illud usque ut nihil supersit!”
“Celestial cowbells chiming in the wind, you actually did it.” Master Don gasped as the Nulli-fly unraveled into a swirl of ink and a single page, all of which melted into her Grimoire. “Now, what have I told you about your health?”
“Wait… you’re surprised that I succeeded?” Taylor wiped the blood from under her nose, and it vanished as her Cleanse passive spell ate it away.
“I mean… we hadn’t ever tried doing this before, had we?” Master Don showed her a half smile. “It was the last test before you could be my apprentice for real, and you got it on the first try!”
“Test? Wait… that…” Taylor opened her Grimoire, flipped to the spell, and almost collapsed again.
Spell Named: Nullify. (T4): 0/100 to level 1!
Effect 1: Release a klaxon call when a hostile mana source would hit you. Spells, abilities, and all other effects included.
Bonus, at range: Effect 1 activates when hostile mana source is about to impact the user.
Effect 2: Block the first incoming hostile mana source aimed at you.
Bonus, Multitarget: block all incoming magic for 5+.5n seconds, where n = spell level. This bonus maximizes at tier threshold (when tier five is reached.).
Single use (Overridden, Named.)
Spell prerequisites: Body: 25. Mind: 25. Presence: 30. (Overridden, Named.)
“Are you kidding me, Don?” Taylor rounded on her Master. “I have none of the prerequisites! That would have killed me if I didn’t Name it!”
“I would have stopped the process on the first two; they are very fragile as a spellform.” Master Don told her calmly.
“But there are three of… oh. You would have let the last one kill me.” The last of her words were stated weakly. “Ah… that’s the real reason I didn’t get to have offensive or defensive spells, huh? In case I decided to fight back at this stage? How many people have you taken as ‘apprentices’ and told them that they were ‘definitely’ Namers?”
“Too many, Taylor.” Master Don intoned heavily. “Too. Many. Hundreds of years as Archmage… I knew that I’d have to be correct eventually.”
“So that was why all those people gasped when you took me as a ‘Personal Apprentice’.” Taylor spat the words as if they disgusted her. “Not because they were shocked that you would do so… it was because no one ever survived before. Are you evil?”
He ignored the accusation, glancing at the other two Nulli-flies that were fluttering in the spawn point. Lightning flashed, and they withered and faded; crumbling to the ground as waste paper. “There’s a reason there were three of those here, in their spawn point. They have a respawn rate of ten our-world years. That means I’ve either attempted to train a new apprentice each time; or I couldn’t bear to do so, and simply made the journey to destroy them every ten years.”
“This will become your responsibility when you succeed me.” Master Don started toward the exit. “There are now seven Nulli-flies that
have been captured or escaped this spawn point long ago. If you ever see someone else with a Nulli-fly, destroy them or make sure that they lose the spell. Otherwise, the person you train… will only get two tries to become a Namer.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Fireball, heed my call, burn the world, burn it all!” Taylor sent a fireball spinning toward the fleeing Fear, the spider-shaped spellform screeching as it dropped to the ground and tried to put out the flames. Taylor grumbled as she stalked toward it. “Oh, sure, imagine that. You’re a spider almost tall enough to reach my shin, and you’re afraid of fire.”
Mana: 143/165
The Fear crumbled, leaving behind a puddle of ink and a few pages of high-quality vellum. She grabbed the vellum before her book could and promised it as a treat later. “That should be just enough…”
A month had passed since her close brush with death at the hands of the Nulli-fly, and she had been unleashed upon the unsuspecting denizens of this world to release some steam. “Current Potentia.”
Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 310/500 to level 4!
“Excellent; that was worth even more than I thought it would be.” With a gesture, her Grimoire released her Nullify spell, and it swirled up and out until it was a large butterfly shape once more. “Increase Nulli-fly to level three.”
Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 10/500 to level 4!
Spell: Nullify has reached level three! 0/500 Potentia needed for the spell to reach level four!
Level increase effect: Nullify now lasts for 6.5 seconds after activation! Cooldown period: 24 hours. Effective cooldown: 23.1 hours.
“Ugh… just… why couldn’t he explain why the cooldown is reduced? ‘The sub-characteristics each control one and a half aspects of your growth, figure out what they are’!” Taylor mocked Master Don and dismissed the spell information, and it sank back into her book. “I can see what they are in my paper, but they don’t mean anything to me! Know what? Forget him for now. It’s time to get stronger. Fireball is at level two, and Shatter is at level three, so it is time to focus on me!”
Rhyming and wordplay helped with the fact that there was no one else around for miles in any direction. That was fine; at this point, her Master had driven into her that all other people had serious and dangerous ulterior motives. She wasn't to trust anyone, including him. He had proven time and again that she needed to hide things from him. If she found something impressive and showed it off, he would kill it or use it to make himself stronger.
Fireball (T2): 13/300 to level 3! Mana cost: 12
Effect 1: Create a ball of fire that detonates for 10 fire damage within a ten-foot sphere; centered on impact. To cast, the full chant of ‘Fireball, heed my call, burn the world, burn it all’ must be used.
Bonus 1, at range: the ball of fire can now be used at range, up to thirty feet. Damage becomes 10+5n fire damage, where n = spell level. (Starts at T2, no level cap.)
Shatter (T2): 0/500 to level 4! Mana cost: 10
Effect 1: Create a spike of ice that chills the target, dealing 5 ice damage and 5 force damage. To cast, the full chant of ‘Destruction, neither frost nor force, the best of both. Shatter’ must be used.
Bonus 1, at range: the spike can now be used at range, up to twenty feet. Damage becomes 10+(2.5i+2.5f)n damage, where i = ice damage, f = force damage, and n = spell level. (Starts at T2)
A quick glance at her Grimoire helped her remember her limits. Fireball was a special type of tier two area-of-effect spell, which did five points of fire damage per level within ten feet of the impact point, when it was cast properly. Since it was level two, that meant ten damage total; apparently, multiplying by skill level zero still meant that there was ‘zero’ bonus damage. Shatter was a single-target spell that dealt two-and-a-half points of both frost and force damage per level. At level three, that meant the spell did twenty-five points of total damage.
She turned back to look at the hole in the ground that Fear had crawled out of; there were almost certainly more in there. It was time to hunt. She ran along, carefully measuring her pace so that she was always going at roughly eighty percent of her maximum speed. If Taylor wanted to increase her stats naturally, she needed to take every opportunity to do so. If she had to go somewhere, she ran. If Taylor needed to kill something, she killed it with maximum efficiency. No mana was wasted if at all possible.
“Destruction, neither frost nor force, the best of both. Shatter!” A small elemental left her Grimoire with the speed of a flying arrow, impacting the oversized Fear spellform that she was aiming at. The spider froze in place, literally, and then the elemental pulled. Single target, yet even more beautiful than a giant fireball. The Fear shattered - just as her attack spell implied it would - and fell to the ground. A near-invisible light of Potentia drifted into her, swirling around before being filtered into her Sigil.
Mana: 133/165
Taylor ran and flipped into the dark cavern, launching a fireball ahead of her. The Will O’ The Wisp that flew from her Grimoire detonated and flash-fried everything within ten feet of itself. A tortured screeching impacted Taylor almost like a physical blow, as dozens of Fear-spiders started pouring out of the cave mouth. She wanted to freeze, but knew that showing her fear would empower the spellforms. Instead, she landed on one, squishing it into an oozing ink-sac.
“Two… one… Fireball, heed my call, burn the world, burn it all!” The Will O’ The Wisp appeared from Taylor’s fluttering book once more, happily launching itself into the spells that were still pouring out. The fireball roasted the Fear spells with exactly as much damage as they could take. “Lord Frankfurt’s crusty nostrils, there are so many of them! Did I find a spawn point for Fear?”
Mana: 122/165
Her two offensive spells were being cast as soon as they returned to her Grimoire, after what Master Don called the ‘cooldown’ period. Even so, she was having to get into closer range than she wanted. As the spiders started leaping at her, Taylor had a crazy idea. “I’ve been leveling the spell… now is as good as any time to test it!”
Having decided, Taylor sprinted into the cave mouth as fast as she could go. “Whoa! Fireball, heed my call, burn the world, burn it all!”
As she leveled the spell, Taylor assumed that she would be able to say less of the chant and have the same effect, or say the full chant and really power it up. Master Don refused to confirm or deny her hypothesis, telling her to figure it out. As it was, the fireball hit everything within ten feet and burned hot. The fire at the center of the blast had turned blue, and Taylor let a cocky grin emerge when she saw that her path forward had been cleared.
As the last of the fire burned down, her smile vanished. A new spellform had stepped into the open area, though she only caught a glimpse of its bulbous, grotesque shape as the fire puttered out.
*Screee*!
“What was that?” Taylor abandoned her previous plan and turned to run. That creature kind of looked like a Fear, but it was as tall as she was and had a monstrous body. It seemed like a combination of a spider and a wood tick, and she was not going after it alone.
Too bad for her that the thing didn’t share the same sentiment.
A weight took her to the ground, but the spellform didn't actually touch her. Just before the thing would have landed on her, a klaxon call sounded and Taylor was surrounded by a swarm of tiny Nulli-flies. It seemed her plan had worked after all. “Six and a half seconds to destroy this thing!” She popped to her feet and turned on the beast. It was heavily damaged, as any part that had touched her had been nullified. Fear spells started throwing themselves at her, falling to pieces as they got into range.
“Get over here; time to gain some Potentia! Destruction, neither frost nor force, the best of both. Shatter!” Taylor wasn't certain why some of these spell chants seemed nonsensical, but she suspected that her Grimoire translated them into her language so that she could use them correctly.
Mana: 101/165
Her elemental raced from just ab
ove her head, slamming into the large beast and seeming to do very little damage. Yikes… shatter was tier two, level three; it should have wrecked anything in this area. There was only one thing that she could think of to try. She dived into the creature and allowed her nullify spell to eat away at it. It was sliced in half just as her protection wore off. Breathing heavily, she waited for the rush of Potentia, but felt nothing.
“It’s not dead!” She scrambled away, looking at the creature fearfully. Its head was separate from the body, but the jaw was still opening and closing. “Wait… it isn’t dead!”
Taylor released a small stream of directed mana, allowing it to waft into the face of the creature. She was down to nearly half mana, but that was fine with her; it was regenerating quickly. The spellform shifted in her sight and the new information started to make sense to her. “You’re… Mass Hysteria? I name you as-”
*Splat*!
The connection cut off, and Taylor screamed as she saw her Grimoire lifting from the crushed head of the now fully dead spellform. “Grimmy, why would you do that?”
Taylor read the words on the page of the book, not losing her glare. “So? That seems really useful!”
“No… stay.” She was still fuming, but Taylor reluctantly allowed that the book had a point. “Fine. But what if I get a self-casting spell that does something like cast lightning? I want that sort of power!”
“Well, I’m glad to know where you draw the line.” Taylor snarled as she plopped down into a small puddle of ink. Her Cleanse spell was really getting a workout today.
