Omnimage

by Simon Archer

  Completing the outfit was a shield, as tall as his giant armor and nearly as wide, with a glorious emblazoned symbol of a bird that was so glittery, shiny, and golden that I couldn’t quite stare directly into it. I had to just assume that it looked nice, like glaring directly into the sun. It was stabbing me in the damn eyeballs with its overt majesty. Maybe that was the point, to keep enemies from seeing so the big guy could have moved in closer before anyone could have shot at him. If true, it was working, and I’d have bought the deliberate design function intention.

  “Hello, heroes!” Torlith spoke like a company-mandated introduction video from the fifties, “My name is Torlith Goldmane, paladin knight of the Order of the Golden Feather. I’ve been instructed to teach you all the basics of magical combat that you’ll need if you’re going to grow your skills and defeat the dreaded Sorcerer God-King Grune before his ultimate machinations are set in motion! The first thing you’ll need to know about is your Health. This measures your durability in combat and can be the difference between life and death. Literally! Haha! I jest, but do keep this in constant awareness…”

  It was interesting to note that he also had the ability to speak and understand all languages, as it turned out. Was this something inherent to people in Neo Ceissein, or a special ability I just happened to stumble upon? Was it a divine blessing since the mighty voice in the sky could speak to everyone with no difficulty or language barrier? How the hell did I get it just by wandering outside the boundaries? That was making even less sense than this whole world-warping magical fantasy RPG-esque fever dream I’d found myself in.

  I was going to have to ask Torlith about that after he was done here. Post-job-interview HR mandatory training was the exact kind of shit I was hoping to be done with by agreeing to go to another world in the first place. And I already knew about the main stats. Maybe, when he got to the good stuff, I’d tune back in. But, now I had a real chance to test out this appraising ability.

  I walked away from the bulk of the group to get a more solid look at our new introductory counselor for the new world. As soon as I’d gotten some solid distance and the gloriously glorious knight’s whole body into view, his stat display popped up over his head:

  Torlith Goldmane, Elf Paladin (Ascended) Lv XXX

  Health: XXX Magic: XXX

  Armor: XXX Shield: XXX

  Abilities: Ascended, XXX

  Alright, that was a little bit more information than last time, but again, it was all inference, rather than something that actually appeared on the screen. He wasn’t lying about his name, at the very least. Instead of the question marks, it was ‘X’s, so something else besides my unleveled display skill was affecting the display this time around. I ruled out roman numerals simply because they were all like that, and also, I really hoped I didn’t have to remember how roman numerals worked to read the numbers. More than likely, because this guy was probably some kind of bigshot of the highest order, and of the highest of the Order he represented, he had leveled way beyond anything I was capable of looking at.

  Possibly, there was some kind of ability that was preventing me from seeing his stats as well. All the more reason to get this scanning ability maxed out as soon as possible. The less I ran into this problem, the better. It also meant that certain forces could tamper with these displays to some degree, which increased the likelihood of display forgeries, depending on this world’s awareness of the system it lived under.

  Despite all of that, we had some more information to go on this time around. He was an elf, hence the ears and the impeccable smile, and this showed his job-title, which I could have assumed would have been true for everyone. As a Paladin, he was probably like a holy crusader warrior, most likely sporting the divine magics to improve his attacks and heal people on the side.

  Nice to know if I ever had to face him in a battle. Hey, it never hurt to be prepared. I was still on the fence on who the good guys were in this place. Yeah, I wasn’t going to fight him right now, but following him blindly was stupid and equally likely to get me killed if I wasn’t careful. Just because I agreed to be the hero of Neo Ceissein didn’t mean that I was just going to trust these fancy guys with their shiny outfits because they found me first.

  What really interested me, though, was this ‘Ascended’ part. It was in parentheses, like it was an add-on to the whole description, suggesting that something happened to grant him that part. It was the same name as the only revealed skill on the display. I wonder how I could figure out…

  Suddenly, as I focused on the word, the stat screen changed above him, showing the word “Ascended:” in bold in the corner and a text block for a description:

  This favored soul of a powerful god was felled in battle but the god found them worthy of continuing to serve in the divine realms instead of moving on to the next life. A god does not make this decision lightly with any mortal, but only the ones who exemplify the statutes of their faith the most fervently, and who would make brutal warriors to anyone foolish enough to garner their attention and earn their ire. Though, like the gods they serve, there are limits to how much divine power they can express on the mortal plane, but even a fraction of their potential would devastate a battlefield.

  +1,000% to all stats, skills, ability effects, defenses, and damage per any attack

  Okay, cool, don’t mess with that guy if you aren’t ready to tussle on the mythological level. Wasn’t planning on attacking him outright unless I was desperate, and definitely not now that he’d been called out as a demigod.

  But that part about the gods was a bit interesting. So they weren’t just neglectful of the world they were in charge of; they were barred from entering it by some power or just by being too powerful. That explained why this Aurum Phoenix was looking for recruits instead of dealing with his own problems. Why the outsourcing, though? Couldn’t they have picked soldiers and heroes from their own world? Why ours? We had been ‘judged worthy of magic’ by that voice, but what did that mean for us?

  “… measures your magical protection, your metaphysical ability to resist the arcane elements common in spells and monstrous attacks.” The big elf demigod Torlith was still on the basic stats anyone could have seen on the display screen. “While all mages rely on aegis to keep them safe from enemy bombardment, the blaster-class mage is especially careful to ensure that he has plenty of aegis left, as the frontline mages can only protect them so much from the assault of the enemy, and there’s no accounting for a wily straggler looking to pick off the powerful but fragile firepower that blaster-class mages provide. This, along with quality armor, are often all that stands between your enemies and your precious health. Even the toughest warrior-class mages aren’t safe from dying if they’re struck too often. Always keep an eye on how much punishment you’ve taken and how much you’ve got left in reserve.”

  Cool, they all did exactly what I thought they did. I was noticing that he wasn’t really referencing these things in numbers, but more just concepts. Was he aware of the system that the displays were showing? Was I the only person that could see this system? Something was blocking my view of his display, even if he wasn’t the one specifically doing it. That would have taken someone who knew about it and targeted it with their efforts. Better not make the assumption that I had a unique gift quite just yet until I had some more evidence.

  “Like you’ve heard me reference, there are several mage types, as each mage channels their magic into powerful spells that can do vastly different and wonderful things.”

  Shit, he’d already mentioned mage types? Maybe I should have been paying more attention. Hopefully, he hadn’t already gone through the player abilities just yet.

  “Mages come in three different classes,” Torlith continued with his majestic voice and his ‘office debrief’ manner of speaking, “Blaster-class, warrior-class, and support-class. Now, every mage has at least a little piece of all three class types available to them in terms of functionality in combat, but they will always tend to favor o
ne of these classes over the other two in terms of available abilities and features.”

  Three classes, many different kinds of mages sprinkled throughout them with a special function in combat. Easy enough to understand.

  “Blasters are mages that bring out a lot of damage and can control the battlefield with strange effects. They’re the ones making fiery rain upon the enemy’s heads and freezing their feet so they can’t run from it. It’s their job to hit the enemy and hit them hard with all kinds of powerful elemental spells and effects. At their most powerful, these are the ones providing the flashy and destructive spells that can demolish an acre of land in one powerful explosion of energy, though this can sometimes be their downfall. Pyromancers are famous for starting wildfires in enemy territory to ravish their green fields, and electromancers can’t go anywhere without changing the weather into a thunderstorm at least once a week. Since many of their spells are so destructive, and they themselves are still nearly as fragile as any other commoner, they are vulnerable to close-range combat and often have to find ways to increase the distance between themselves and their foes to regain the range to safely discharge their arsenal.”

  Boom boom, shake the room. The classic spell-chucking wizard creating massive blasts and whole areas of effects. Back home, these wizards and sorcerers were fan-favorites in leveling fantasy systems for being really easy to get that instant gratification with lots of damage really quickly.

  “Warriors focus on enchantments, either placing spells on their armor, their weapons, or their own bodies to improve their physical skills and confront the enemy directly. They can increase their speed, strength, size, endurance, and attack power to either protect the other mages by giving the enemy something bigger and more durable to hit or harass the enemy, not giving them a moment to rest or strategize against the team. This can range from an umbramancer’s dip into the shadows to strike a critical blow against a mage’s blind spot to a geomancer’s instantly summoned fortresses in the most crucial moments of enemy fire. A blaster-class mage’s worst nightmare is a warrior-class mage that can get in close and stay there, and their most annoying adversaries are the warriors that won’t get out of the way from protecting their own blaster mage with their stronger armor and greater health.”

  So the tough guys were also mages? I wasn’t complaining. That made things more varied for anyone who had magic to branch out through. In any system like this, melee fighters were also popular for ease of badassness when they slice through baddies and for being the easier fighting style to understand at the basic level: Get to the bad guy, hit the bad guy until they die, then repeat with the next bad guy.

  “Support-class mages are the ones keeping the other mages alive, healthy, and stronger than ever. Any one mage can give themselves some kind of boost to their own powers, but the support mages are unrivaled in their ability to restore wounds, strengthen allies, and give the edge that any team of mages might need to win any skirmish. In general, their mission is to keep anything the enemy does to the team from remaining a problem for long. In some cases, a powerful enough supporter can give a warrior or blaster enough of a boost to handle even the most powerful monsters head-to-head, helping them fight far above their natural capabilities for a short period of time. While not always in the spotlight, it can often be assumed that wherever there’s a mage who’d accomplished the impossible, there’s a supporter behind them, giving them a push up from below. We often use divine magic in this function to heal people of curses and diseases, as well as recover them from severe wounds, though that’s not the only power available to them. They may find themselves dependent on the warriors and blasters they support since the greater ability to support often sacrifices any offensive, or defensive, abilities for them to protect themselves.”

  Probably the most important one of the three, if we had to choose. Yeah, getting damage out was important, and a few bodies helping to control the battlefield and keep the heat off the squishy boys was also very nice, but the healer was the silent hero of these kinds of magic fighting systems. A team without a medic was on borrowed time.

  Alright, cool. Blasters blow shit up and mess other shit up from a distance, warriors take hits and fight up close, and supporters heal and buff. I was already starting to see how I was going to have teams figured out. I’d have had to figure out how things worked with each other, like which enhancing magics stacked, how much could they stack, how much damage did certain spells do, what the most common weaknesses were and how to compensate and exploit them, how tough warrior-class mages could get, all that good stuff. That’d have had to come with time and experimentation inside the world.

  The guy was a little long-winded, though. Kinda wishing he’d just skip to the part about abilities and character stats now. Or maybe just let me go through all of the setup to decide my stuff and let me figure it out on my own. This display ability was probably more than enough to get me where I needed to go. Well, if I was stuck here, I might as well have learned everything I could have.

  “Along with the combat classes of mages,” Torlith kept going, “there are different schools of magic to consider, each of them a blend of the three combat classes.”

  Never mind, this was also good.

  “Schools of magic vary in many different ways,” the big knight began his breakdown of the different types of mages. “Each is unique in its combination of skills, available spells, abilities, and patterns of growth as a mage becomes stronger in their magic, and all have something to offer the field of battle as well as other dire situations. Some schools are very representative of a particular class of mage, such as blood berserkers and fortress knights for warriors, witch doctors, and diviners for supporters, and wizards and sorcerers for blasters, while others have mixed capabilities of all the classes, like the spellsword, the necromancer, and the druid.”

  That was a lot of different schools so far, and there were more to come than just that. The schools were more divided by titles of mages, with the wizards and sorcerers being distinct practitioners rather than by the typical elemental types, like ‘fire,’ ‘ice,’ ‘shadow,’ ‘earth,’ and the like.

  “Pay attention to each of these carefully. Almost all mages are bound to learning and growing in only one school of magic, and the choice they make in their school decides the nature of the paths they will grow in from then on. Though quite a few shared spells between the schools, every magic spell and every specialization of magical practice is a permanent choice for the mage and cannot be taken lightly.”

  The crowd murmured to themselves a bit. Though they couldn’t understand each other, the looks on their faces translated clearly. Of course, they were unsettled by having their choices being limited or by the fact that they’d have had to think critically about their decisions for once. That would have meant that they’d have had to exert mental energy for once.

  People.

  Although, it did kind of suck that as soon as you picked one kind of magic, another magic would be cut off forever. But that was what teams were for, not that I was a fan of having to coordinate with this many people at once. As long as everyone shut up and did their job right, we’d have been fine.

  “Even more critically,” It looked like our big paladin elf wasn’t done with bad news, “due to… recent events involving the very reason we summoned you to begin with, the Aurum Phoenix, and therefore the Order as a whole, are both not quite as plentiful in resources as we may have once been. This would not be as much of a problem if it weren’t for the nature of humans as magickless, as we have discovered. We have had to synthesize a solution to the problem ourselves in a short time. Not to fear, though. We have found such a solution.”

  As Torlith cupped his hands, a sprawling of small capsules, pinkish and glowing with green lights inside of them, floated around like they were each a miniature flyer of their own, dancing between each other. I tried to get a better look to see if my stat display would catch them, and sure enough:

  Seed of Voloth (
modified)

  Type: consumable, Cost: 45,000b

  Tier: unknown, Magic: multiple

  Effect: Mage Empowerment

  Quick analysis, so I didn’t miss any more of this speech; ‘consumable’ probably meant it was onetime use, and ‘b’ had to be shorthand for the currency of the new world, though I didn’t know if that was a lot of money or not. ‘Tier’ was most likely to do with rarity or power, and it was an invention, by Torlith’s admission, so that tracked. Without looking at it, I figured ‘Mage Empowerment’ did exactly what it implied: empowering someone to be a mage. Torlith was still giving his informative guide with more information:

  “The inherent magical reserves inside of the denizens of Neo Ceissein are all locked into certain schools of magic, and these seedlings of magic are no different. Each is representative of one of the schools of magic and will allow all of you imbued with them to perform the magical feats of the mage school it holds within. That being said, with so many schools of magic to replicate, we were not able to create duplicates, and we have exactly as many candidates as we have seedlings produced. To put it simply, each one of you will only get one school of magic, and once that choice is made, no other among you can pick that school of magic. Choose wisely, but do not delay your choice long, for time is short. I will give you all the ability to converse with one another in omni-tongue for as long as I can, so you can accurately compare your strengths and weaknesses to make the most informed decision at this time. There is no second chance at this. You must all be at your best.”

  With a flourish of his hand, Torlith bathed the group in a golden light, turning the Tower of Babel from the bible on its head, as everyone suddenly turned to each other, realizing they could all speak in the same language. They first spoke softly to each other, introducing themselves and trading greetings from their specific ethnic backgrounds across the Earth globe. It was like the end of a kid’s movie, where the world’s suddenly overcome with universal peace as all the people representing all the different warring groups of the world cavorted with each other like brothers and sisters.