[D'sP] Go Chop A Tree - Chapter 410

Kelly sighs, “Anyway, manna from the gods aside, I still need to test ribbon and ball. Quiet for a second, this will be quicker than trying

Kelly sighs, “Anyway, manna from the gods aside, I still need to test ribbon and ball. Quiet for a second, this will be quicker than trying to explain that nonsense.”

Kelly turns back to the water and casts out a fire ribbon. This time, the spell doesn’t fizzle as soon as it hits the water. Instead, the ribbon skitters across the water for a moment. Though as it does so, the fire ribbon shrinks until it simply blinks out, leaving just some ripples and a bit of steam.

Kelly frowns, “Hmm, not as effective as I expected. I guess there is such a thing as having the fire Mana too contained. The burst would have been more effective. Well, I guess the ribbon is better against an enemy that breaks the surface of the water. Now everybody should back up a little more.”

After backing up herself, Kelly channels the iconic spell, fireball. It doesn’t take any longer than a fire ribbon, but the visual difference is stark. The ribbon seems to have been almost muted compared to the red glow the fireball is putting off. A sign which too many would make the fireball look stronger, though really just a sign of the fire being less contained.

Kelly tossed the fireball quite a distance out over the water, but it was needed. As the ball hit the water, it expanded outward to where some of the fire actually made it onto the sand. Though as the fire cleared away, the water below seemed almost supernaturally still, if a bit steamy.

Jim raises an eyebrow, “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”

Kelly, “I did though, so it is almost disappointing. A fireball is basically an evolution of fire fan given range. Both in the sense that you can shift the point of activation and that it goes from a cone to a sphere. Though I guess each spell after the first two builds off of them.

“The biggest change is that a fireball doesn’t fight to get through obstacles if the spell can help it. You throw one into a tight corridor and it will extend in both directions for quite a distance. In this case, the water itself is an obstacle just as much as any floor and so it forms a half sphere.

“It does press a little bit though, as shown by how the water was artificially calm. Sigh, I guess the ribbon and the ball show the difference between controlled condensing vs explosive expansion. The ribbon is best used against armored enemies or rather, any sort of tough enemy. While the fireball is for handling masses of weaker enemies. This does make the fireball almost useless in these recent floors, barring 11 with all those sprout swarms.”

Kellinger nods, “For the most part, if you’re going for an area attack, crowd control is going to be a better choice.”

Jim raises his eyebrow, “And that opinion has nothing to do with your love of crowd control spells?”

Kellinger smiles as he shrugs.

Though Kelly interrupts, “His bias aside, he isn’t wrong per se. If a fireball’s damage is going to one hit a swarm, that’s one thing. But if it isn’t? Better to lay down some grease or a web as the effect lasts whereas a damage spell happens and is gone. Leave clean up to more sustainable attacks.”

Jim gestures to the side, “So what, do you need an ice spell or some such to handle the aquatic threats?”

Kelly flings an ice dart at the water, where it promptly vanishes like the fire dart had. “If only. The problem isn’t that I was using fire spells, but the conceptual barrier between air and a proper body of water. Throw a fire dart at a puddle and there won’t be a puddle any more.

“Some spells cheat at this, but only just. Electric spells being a good example. They don’t technically break the water, but the electricity itself does expand into it. Good news is this divide works both ways. Admittedly, the solution for most water borne threats is to stick an appendage out of the water and let fly.”

Jim frowns, “Well, I hadn’t realized how far that went. We need to spread the knowledge.”

Kelly shrugs, “Most magic users know this already. Besides, things don’t work the same between all powers. For instance, psionics don’t care about it. Though assuming everyone will have the same problems is dangerous in the first place.

“As I mentioned, you can change a spell to work through water. It simply takes more effort, time, and Mana. So there are traditions out there that include that work from the start. After all, it would be pretty bad for an amphibious race that has to live on the edge of water if their spells couldn’t hit things on either side.”

Jim points at the water again, “So what are we supposed to do? Do you know how to cast spells like that?”

Kelly shrugs, “I don’t have the tradition behind me or the practice to do it. In fact, except for a few talented sorts, I doubt anyone does right now.”

Jim, “So?”

Kelly, “Well, spells don’t work, so I guess it’s on you physical sorts. Sure, I could conjure an actual ice spike and throw that. The fizzling only happens to summoned material. If you actually make the material? Well, it’s here and the material isn’t going anywhere.”

Jim sighs, “But that would be a waste of resources. Better to use a cheap javelin or some such. Which we don’t have right now.”

Kelly shrugs, “There are some trees over there. You don’t need a good spear. Just something to aggro whatever is down there.”

Jeremy starts walking over, “She isn’t wrong. Let me take care of this. I have a bit of experience with making makeshift spears.”

Kellinger follows, “I’ll help. My magic might not pierce the water, but I can warp the wood. Not like it will spring back to its old form.”

Kelly, “Yep. Thankfully, using magic to shape things isn’t that fragile. If the magic actually causes a change to something that can’t resist, the change is permanent. Though equally as thankfully, that ‘resist’ bit includes having a soul and not wanting the change. Otherwise, polymorph would be a horrific spell. Well, still is, but you can fix it.”

Jim closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose, “Please tell me there isn’t someone running around with a polymorph spell.”

Kelly shrugs, “Eh, there’s alter shape, but that is fully temporary and is more in line with minor shifts and make-up. It’s a bit of a stereotype, but the spell has become popular for its ability to redden lips, blush the cheeks, shape hair, and so on. The spell can’t go too far or I’m sure you’d see some fantasy hair colors out in the town.”

Jim squints, “But we are going to have to deal with that, aren’t we? This is going to make finding criminals quite difficult, isn’t it?”

Kelly shakes her head, “Thank goodness that won’t be the case. The whole resistance thing isn’t just based on mentally deciding yes or no. I’m sure there will be a famous shape shifting villain or two, but most people can’t manage permanent changes that don’t match who they want to be and the temp spells are easy to detect. Alter shape? Anyone that can detect magic will see it is being used.

“Unlike warping wood into a new shape, alter shape is basically like using masking tape to hold something in place temporarily. Anyone looking can see the tape and while they might not know what things would look like without said tape? Well, you can tell how large the change is by how much there is. For a criminal to alter their features enough to not match a rough description would stand out as much, if not more than, just walking around without any disguise.”

Jeremy over at the trees speaks up in between cutting down saplings. “She’s right. People will have much better luck getting a disguise skill than using magic to temporarily alter their features. You need a real specific mind set to go full magic shapeshifter in a way any properly trained guard won’t instantly pick out.”

Jim sighs, “Still makes me worry.”

Jay shrugs, “Eh, just need to have a diverse guard force. I’ll be honest, when we first got here it was hard to tell some of you humans apart. Our brains are literally not wired to recognize the differences.

“Or they weren’t? I think the system is messing with us or something because noticing the differences got easier. Anyway, that didn’t matter because we identify half by scent, anyway.”

Kelly raises an eyebrow, “While I don’t put it past the system to mess with our minds, I’m more willing to bet that has to do with our increasing stats. Like, as mortals, we can’t exactly quantify what a point of intelligence does, but I’m sure the mental stats together would make it easier to identify people and remember their names.”

Kellinger interrupts, “While an interesting conversation, we have the spears ready.” And he holds up an armful of rough spears.

Jim, “Well, that’s a good few. We haven’t been talking that long, have we?”

Jeremy shakes his head, “Nah, it’s just a lot easier when I can snap off those sapling looking trees and he can run his hand over the wood, stripping the bark and limbs. From there, it is a simple matter of sharpening the ends. Which I took over as I had already chopped down enough. Otherwise, I’m sure Kellinger could have done that faster as well.”

Kellinger shrugs, “The biggest difficulty was in straightening them, but Jeremy wasn’t exactly chopping down crooked trees, so there wasn’t much of that.”

Jeremy, “There weren’t many like that to begin with. This little island diorama doesn’t exactly have winds to bend them. Now, you want me to toss them?”

Jim looks over at the water and nods, “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

The group backs away from the water and Jeremy takes a moment to confirm the suspected enemy’s location. Not hard, as among the group, they had more than enough detection abilities to center in on one of them. Jeremy cocks his arm back, spear ready.

Jeremy lets fly. The spear pierced through the water and vines erupted from the water. This didn’t take the assassin vines out, though, and within moments it was rolling out of the water towards the group.

Such a shame that once out of the water, it was just another assassin vine, not even an elder. So yeah, it died as a double whammy of fire ribbons sliced through the main mass of the plant.

Jim shakes his head, “All that for an assassin vines? Well, at least we know.”

Kelly, “If we didn’t know that was an assassin vines, this could have gone quite bad. Those vines already have a number of near deaths on the record when it is easy for people to save the victim. Now just consider if instead of being out in the open, the victim is being held under the water. This is truly deadly.”

Jim, “Huh, yeah. You aren’t wrong. Now, are we going to kill the others or leave them be?”

Jeremy shrugs, “I say we save the spears for the mobile water threat. Not like killing them would mean they aren’t there for the next time. We just have to spread the word.”

Though they didn’t end up using the spears on a water monster next. Rather, Jeremy found them quite useful to knock goats off the giant tree trunk from a distance. It didn’t kill them; the goats being way too tough for that, but worked as well as letting them charge off. All without the risk of the goats actually managing to connect with their charge.

They did end up having to face the last two goats. While Jeremy had excellent aim, makeshift spears don’t pack as much punch as a proper one would.

Testing Fire Spells - Chapter 409

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