Acrion- Cascade

by Scott Seier

  Summon a crystal that, when crushed, will return 3 health to you

  I was curios about the small number and high mana cost until I decided to look at the math behind the healing amount.

  Summoning: Healing Crystal

  Cost: 10 mana

  Duration: 24 hours

  Summon a crystal that, when crushed, will return 3*((int-10)+1) health to you

  More mana can be added to the initial summoning to increase the potency of the crystal's healing

  Well damn... I currently had 29 points in spirit. If I had that many attributes invested in intellect, then my healing crystal would heal for SIXTY health... not for the first time I looked longingly at the stats that I had sitting unused. Even if I had that much int I only had twenty health anyway. I shook my head, brushing aside the calculations and the promise of a full heal whenever I wanted it and inspected the second marble, keenly aware that in less than a minute Kara was going to disappear.

  Summoning: Astral Blade

  Cost: 15 mana / 1 mana per minute

  Summon a blade from the astral planes

  The summoned weapon is counted as pure magic and ignores all armor as if it was a spell

  The blade can be repaired if damaged by a further infusion of mana

  The blade can be made more powerful by a further infusion of mana

  The blade can be made larger by a further infusion of mana

  Momentarily depressed I swiped the description away. The astral blade spell looked awesome, but the cost was more mana than I could even hold when I was topped off. The one mana per minute cost would be easily compensated for by my spirit, but the initial cost, along with the many infusion options, made it an impossibility for me. Moving to the next one I quickly glanced at the locket of desire time. 20 seconds.

  Summoning: Falling Gate

  Cost: 5 mana minimum

  Summon a barrier that will fall from the sky to protect you from harm

  The barrier will grow larger with a larger initial investment of mana

  I reached out and snatched the falling gate marble out of Kara's hand. She smiled coyly. "Always picking the one I least expect." She closed her hand over the remaining marbles and when she relaxed her fist, they were gone. "I think that about wraps up my time." She smiled and stood up, dusting off her robe. "The moment you cast that spell you will become a tier 2 summoner." She said pointing at my hand that was now clenching the newest addition to my arsenal.

  "And you'll be moved into tier 3, right?" I responded with a smile. She just nodded happily and waved. The locket's connection was already severed and her form was now just fading from sight. I waved back. You made some odd choices. Odd even for you. I thought it best to not bother you when you had a decision to make and very little time to make it. You tend to be very distractible. I sent to him as I rolled the marble between my fingers. I understand a strong defense, I approve of the falling gate spell, but I'm not sure I understood the request regarding the construct summoning. I crushed the marble in my fist, accepting and dismissing the spell alert notification. Then I extracted a certain jar full of black powder and looked at the metal cuff thoughtfully.

  It took another hour to finally reach the end of the tunnel. There were a few other random rooms, but none of them turned out to be as interesting as the first. Although the room that held only daggers and nothing else was intriguing in it's own right, even though it was a bit bland.

  The door that I was now looking at had clearly been forgotten a long time ago. The edges of it were mossy and the floor was damp. Even a few hundred feet from the exit I was able to smell hints of fresh air and humidity from the degrading structure. After a few embarrassing moments of exhaustion, I was finally able to make the damn thing budge. The instant that sunlight was peaking through the crack, a thunderous sound immediately flooded the tunnel, echoing, and magnifying itself to uncomfortable levels. The door led to a small platform that was set behind a waterfall, which was the source of the noise. The sun shone through the clear water and it wasn't until I slid my way out from behind the curtain of water, after slamming shut the door, that I realized where the heck I was.

  It would seem we are quite a distance from Four Flags. I sighed heavily. I said to Vigil, tossing my thumb over my shoulder towards the mountain we just emerged from.

  A few turbulent feelings drifted over my mental link with Vigil. Vigil did the mental equivalent of a flinch. Indeed, there is a low chance that we can make it back to the town before nightfall. Chances of you dying are increased greatly if that should occur. I chuckled. Indeed. I sent the mental message through, but Vigil didn't respond, keeping to his own thoughts and turning back to altering his own seal using what mana I would lend him.

  In the short time since I had been lending it out to him, Vigil had put my mana to good use. Already the wonky circle that had originally housed him was now a near perfect triangle, Vigil somehow altering the form of the metal itself to make a much more perfect shape.

  I took careful note as he toiled in semi-silence, some mumbled words coming across the link. He somehow knew a lot about this kind of stuff, and even by just watching, I was gleaning little tidbits of knowledge from him.

  I sat in the afternoon sunlight for a while, the waterfall slowly coating me in a layer of mist. I checked my mana and grabbed the jar of black powder yet again. I focused for a moment and channeled all ten mana into the jars contents, momentarily cutting off Vigil's access. That made three whole infusions since I had picked the thing up. I wish you would tell me what you plan is. The waste of so much precious power is a true shame if unwarranted. I ignored the greedy little triangle. Two more hits should be enough. Then I could see if my idea would work. Acrion hadn't punished my ingenuity yet, fingers crossed.

  Standing up and stretching I stowed the jar and reoriented myself. I knew where I had to go, and thanks to my thievery of the supply room I had plenty of provisions to make it back to Four Flags. Walking the whole way would most certainly be annoying, but I really had no other choice. I only had the hope that I could make it in time, and that the time I had already wasted would pay off in the end.

  The Gray Lands

  I sent the imp to scout further up the hills I was navigating along. I'd spent two hours moving over and around the mountain proper, but quickly retreated lower into the foothills after I ran into a level 80 mountain giant. Even the bunnies up on the mountain were a burly level 12 - 15, the lower I got the more reasonable the mobs became. I didn't stop descending until I met a bear who was level 20 and who put up a good fight, but I was able to take down with a reasonable amount of effort.

  This had been around the time I summoned an imp to help me out. I was worried for a second that Vigil would somehow be replaced or forced into the mind of the imp, but nothing bad happened except my new companion being a fair bit dumber than Vigil ever was. Instead of snow white fur this imp had bright red coloring, and when I communicated with him mentally, only responded with single words or simple sentences. To be honest I was a little relieved. I really didn't need to worry about losing another Vigil.

  I was resting under a tree, giving my stamina a bit of time to regenerate. The constant fighting of the hostile local wildlife had raised me to level 18, but slowed me down more than was ideal. I once again refrained from putting my points into anything, but was happy to receive some nice training returns.

  DING

  Congratulations, you have reached level 18!

  Attribute points awarded: 2
r />   Training points awarded

  +2 Stamina

  +1 Strength

  +1 Agility

  +1 Spirit

  I guess hiking around a mountain all day had it's benefits after all.

  I got my jar out as I rested, dumping another ten mana into it. Fifty total, Five times my maximum limit. It had taken longer than I'd wanted, with all the squirrels and foxes attacking me, but five full infusions was making the previously pitch black dust glow ever so slightly purple. Glancing around, making sure the imp was still making his rounds, I found myself a rock that was protruding from the grassy and sparsely wooded landscape. I wiped some dirt off of the top and carefully upended the contents of the jar onto my new work surface. The mound of mana infused filings sat obediently, waiting for me to try my little experiment. Vigil wasn't paying any attention at all, fiddling once again with his own housing. Hopefully the little guy wouldn't need to do that for much longer.

  I selected my Summoning: Construct spell and focused hard on the pile of dust. I was pretty sure size wouldn't matter in this case, or at least I hoped it wouldn't. I set my hand down on top of the pile, pressing it down into the stone.

  I waited for several minutes like this until I had enough mana to cast the construct seal. Focusing my mind on the tiniest possible fragment of the mound of tiny fragments, I let the spell loose. A wave of heat rose up around my arm as if the stone I was bent over was a stove top. The air danced like a mirage and the sound of cloth blowing in a gale drowned out the pleasant sounds of the hillside around me.

  The strangest feeling was crawling up my arm. It was like I was trying to lift something, but I was just not strong enough. It was so close, but no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't budge. I pressed down harder. Come on. Budge. I kept thinking smaller. Go smaller, not harder. I just wanted one single grain, not the whole pile. The spell pressed back into me. Well damn, I know it's unreasonable to ask to make the whole load of it a construct! I just. Want. One.

  The resistance disappeared and the force of the spell slammed into the palm of my hand and then coalesced around one single fragment of purpley-black dust. I smiled hugely and accepted the new target of the seal. The mana disappeared from my reserves and crashed into the particle. The rock that I was working on made a dull thumping sound and flecks of stone cracked off at it's weak points.

  Skill Alert!

  New Skill Learned

  Micro Casting

  Allows to caster to restrict the effects of spells to a much more precise level than the average caster

  This skill also allows the caster to produce perfectly scaled down versions of known spells

  The scale in which a spell can be reduced is dependent on the casters will

  New Construct

  Iron Sand

  Mana: .0015

  Hmm? The soul focus is nearly used up, critically damaged as well, if I'm not misunderstanding the signs. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to salvage any part of it to be honest. I rolled my eyes at the distracted consciousness that was living on my wrist. this got Vigil's full attention. I could feel his focus surface from the depths of his seal. I can of course transfer into a construct, easily, but how did you build one way out here? I gently nudged his attention towards the glowing pile of iron filings. You want me to possess a pile of dirt... I laughed, loudly, sending the sounds of my amusement bouncing around the surrounding hills. I hope there were no hostile players out here...

  Vigil's skepticism was hilarious to me. His mutterings were mostly incoherent, to the point that I wondered why he bothered sending them over our link at all, but after a minute he agreed and asked me to move the cuff closer to the filings.

  The transfer was quick and painless. Vigil's consciousness passed from the seal on my wrist (after I released the binding aspects of it) and immediately was sucked into the impossibly tiny seal that was marked somewhere on one of the tiny shards of iron. The instant that Vigil entered the construct the entire pile grew rigid. Spines of iron grew from the formally formless mound and it soon resembled a perturbed porcupine. I could barely contain my excitement. The mana infused into the iron was acting as an incredibly powerful magnetic force to the ferrous material, and with Vigil now at the helm of all that mana he would, hopefully, be able to manipulate the field as easily as he was able to swish his tail around as an imp.

  The iron sand shot upward and formed into a foot-long rod. The color more purple than ever now that the mana in the filings was being accessed. This is. More than I was expecting... A dark chuckle ran through the link between us. My friend. You are truly more cunning than I previously believed. This is a stroke of genius. The iron sand rod lifted itself fully into the air and melted into a more spherical shape. Yeah... I can fly. I grinned as the prickly purple ball swung further into the air and zoomed around the area. This is more than sufficient! I laughed at his attempted compliments.

  I said this as I noticed the imp bouncing back into my line of sight with its springy running movements. Vigil agreed excitedly after the imp reported the area ahead was "...safe..." and soon I was having the imp blast the bundle of iron with its Veil Burst attacks. Even when it was boosted a little bit by me, the imp's attacks weren't enough to blow away even a single particle of Vigil's new body. The mana enhanced magnetic force was just too strong, although for some reason I wasn't able to get the same power out of this imp that Vigil and I had been able to achieve in his last body. Something to figure out another time...

  Vigil body, Mk2, success. Well, to be fair, his actual body was only a tiny fragment of the whole, most likely tucked tightly in the very center of the defensive ball that he was wrapped in, but the rest of the iron sand acted as a exoskeleton for him, and was apparently, to my great excitement, very effective in keeping him safe.

  I shot at the gleeful Vigil as he glided around, his iron cloud forming a large flat plane to catch the air. Certainly not. Proper resistance to strange ideas is more likely to save us from a terrible plan than ruin a good one. I shook my head. He was never going to be a yes man, but I couldn't help but be a little grateful for that. A friend who only agrees with you isn't a friend worth having.

  We made excellent time after that. The imp would bounce off and come racing back to us if he accidentally pulled an enemy, at which point I would shower them with debuffs and dots and Vigil would zip around, momentarily turning parts of his body razor sharp, and stack consecutive bleed effects on the target. By the time the sun dropped to a worrying height I was nearly all the way around the base of the mountain. The encroaching night was making me nervous though. I had been warned by every NPC in Four Flags that the night was significantly more dangerous than daytime, but that had been when I was in the single digit levels. I was hoping beyond hope that at my current level and with two summons I would be able to meet the challenge of the night head on and come out ahead.

  I probably had another hour or two of light left when I took another break, sitting on top of a large boulder that had interesting black veins running through it. As was routine by that point, I sent the imp out to scout the next leg of the journey with his seemingly infinite stamina and settled in, ready to infuse Vigil's sand with some more mana and ch
at.

  Vigil sent a mental nod at me. He was experimenting with wrapping the iron sand around my hand and forearm, compressing it and making an on-demand iron gauntlet. The exercise made it easier for me to channel mana into the construct so the loss of mobility in that extremity didn't bother me too much. We could head towards the camp to the south.

  I turned my head in that direction, Vigil had spotted the tendrils of smoke rising through the canopy of the pine forest a while ago, despite having no eyes. We were currently high enough in the foothills to see that it would be nearly nightfall by the time we made it to the camp, which made me worried that we would go off course to meet some strangers, only to then get turned away anyway and left for dead. If they were players, they would either kill me for sport or demand payment, which I probably couldn't afford, and if they were NPCs then I would probably have to bribe them, which I certainly couldn't afford, or somehow show my worth. It was more likely that the NPCs would take me, but still there was a chance that I would be left stranded in the woods at night without support. I would much rather take my chances up in the hills where the trees were less densely packed and at least I could see if something was stalking me.

  It was actually the imp, whom I had yet to name, that cinched the decision. He came happily hopping back to the boulder I was occupying and gave his report, which also marked the longest string of words he had ever said at once. ...Forest giants...mountain giants...meeting ahead. Well that solved that. Anything of the giant race was well outside my range to deal with. The camp it is! Vigil dusted his way off of my arm and bristled momentarily. I believe that we will be able to add sufficient value to any group that we may meet. Enough to secure safe passage.