The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 36

So, my birthday is literally tomorrow. I have decided to give myself a vacation next week. Updates will resume the week after.

Chapter 36 – Third Class

Another day, another class. This time, I was dressed in my miko outfit again. Not because I was going to offer another spiritual lesson, like I had the first day, but because the loose-fitting traditional garb was easy to move in, while still being more socially acceptable to wear in front of an audience than yoga pants and a sports bra. That was important, considering the topic for today.

Looking out at the audience, I smiled. “Today, we will talk about practical magic, the kind of magic that you don’t need great stores of mana to pull off. This is the kind of magic that anyone can use, with a little bit of training, even if they don’t have a great deal of talent in spellcasting.

“Some of you may have seen a video of me that went viral a few months back, that took place out on the ‘magic soccer’ fields here at the University of Seattle. In this video, I showed off a fraction of what was possible with body enhancing magics. As you might have guessed, that is today’s topic.”

There was a bit of a stir from the crowd, as they were definitely liking this topic of discussion. Not that I blamed them. It was some straight-up fantasy stuff.

“Now, I’m not going to get into the actual spellwork, because that is going to change based on your beliefs and the way you structure your magic. But you’re all very intelligent people, so I’m sure you can figure it out. Instead, I’m going to teach you about both active and passive body enhancement.”

She touched the projector’s remote control, and a cartoon outline of a human body appeared on the screen set up behind her. “This is your average human.” Another press of the remote, and blue lines began moving in through the mouth, and then out of a hand, forming a ball of fire. “And this is how most Thaumaturges use magic, drawing in mana, or magicules, from their body, and they replace them as they use them from the outside world. To most Thaumaturges, they don’t even notice the way they channel mana. This is because your style of casting, using CADs, is designed to be as efficient as possible, limiting the amount of magic you draw.”

Another press, and the screen showed the blue line coming in, and then gathering in the center of the body. “This is the first step to both body enhancement, and increasing your own magic abilities. Instead of using mana as you need it, you draw it in, pool it, and store it within you. This allows you to use more powerful spells, more often, with less need for efficiency and precision. Think of it like having an extra fuel tank on a plane. That extra fuel means you have more options and more flexibility than you normally would.”

I paused, to allow people to come to terms with the image, and then pressed on. “Now, how do you draw in and pool the magic, when you’re not using spells? Well, different cultures have different means of doing this, of course. Monks and mages might engage in meditation and cultivation, like you see in xianxia novels. Warriors might use breathing exercises with their training drills, taking in mana while they work. The point is, it needs only a very little training to begin the process of pooling your mana, which is necessary for the next step.”

Another click, and the blue lines spread to the limbs, with a blue aura surrounding it. “This is a person using active body enhancement, without spells. Essentially, they take their mana pool, and push it out into their body. This can effect all parts of the body, enhancing their strength, fortifying their bones, speeding reaction time, heightening eyesight, and so on. It can even allow a person to think faster and clearer, by enhancing the brain.”

I smirked at the audience. “Note that this does not make a person more intelligent, or more knowledgeable. A computer will not suddenly have better programming just because the available RAM increases and you get a better graphics card. It will run faster, have better frame rates, and so on, but the programming is still the same.”

Leaning back against the podium, I said, “Now, the benefits of active enhancement are obvious to anyone who thinks about it for at least thirty seconds. It is basically adrenaline on steroids, but you can control how much you enhance yourself, and you can turn it on and off at will. This is obviously a big advantage for anyone engaged in physical activity.

“However, magic always has a price. You can’t just pump all that mana through your body without consequences. Even if you don’t tear your muscles and shatter your bones, you still risk burning up your body’s energy stores and wrecking your natural flow of mana. Some of that can be countered by spellwork, but that leads into the second problem with active body enhancement.

“That problem, obviously, is how much mana you have available to you. Active reinforcement is incredibly inefficient, and it needs to be constantly applied to be useful. Adding spells on top of that drains you even further, to the point where even the most prodigious mage cannot channel that much mana at once.”

I took a breath. “This is why creating a store of magic is the first step for body enhancement. The greater a store of magic you have, the longer you can push your enhancements for. But what if you had a stronger baseline to start from?”

I clicked the remote again, and this time, the blue aura of the person was gone. However, at the same time, the outline of the human turned blue. “That is what passive body enhancement does. You take in mana, and let it trickle out into your body constantly, every minute of every hour of every day. It starts off slow, but, over the course of a decade? The results are incredible.

“So, what does passive body enhancement do for you? Well, all the same things that active enhancement does, for the most part. You can easily get to peak human performance, and beyond, as a baseline. Moreover, people who engage in passive enhancement will also tend to age slower, and easier, so that they can live to the age of a hundred and twenty, on average. The oldest known human in the other world was Hedan the Wise, who lived to the age of two hundred and seventy-five.”

That sent a shock through the room, as she knew it would. “Now, obviously the problems with passive body enhancement is that it is slow. You won’t get instant results with it. You won’t even get short-term results. Most people don’t have that kind of patience. If it weren’t so easy, then most wouldn’t bother.

“The benefits, of course, are that it is a passive increase to your abilities, and the basics can be safely done even for children, even before puberty. And it can be done alongside mana training and physical training. It is the one thing that unites mages and warriors. Even merchants and nobles do it, for the health benefits, if nothing else.”

I took a moment for that to sink in. “Now, that is just with body enhancement magic that you use yourself. But there is also a means of artificially enhancing one’s body, called augmentation. There are two main forms of augmentation.”

I touched the remote, and the original body appeared on the screen, with another one alongside. One was a normal person, and the other had its right arm replaced with one that ended in claws, and there were cartoon stitches holding it on. It looked a bit Frankenstein-ish, but that was the point.

“The first, and most basic, is called grafting. Grafting, simply put, is taking a body part of another living creature, and attaching it to yourself. Want to increase your strength? Replace your arm with that of a demon. Want to regenerate damage? Replace part of your body with that of a troll’s. Want to fly? Graft a celestial’s wings to your back. And so on.

“This is quicker than body enhancement magic, and can work alongside it. But there are plenty of problems with it, as you can guess. First, you have to actually get the part from a creature that is, at base, stronger than you, and who will almost certainly object to being chopped up. Second, you have to worry about corruption from the foreign part, much like how transplanted organs can cause rejection. But people often think it is worth the cost, especially if they are already missing body parts.”

I paused, looking out over the audience again, and was not surprised to see that some of them were looking vaguely uneasy, like they’d eaten something that disagreed with them. That was pretty common with this kind of discussion. With a smile, I touched the remote again. The ‘normal’ human on the screen now had a replaced arm, as well. However, instead of a clawed arm, this one was obviously metal.

“A subset of grafting practiced by artificers and golem-makers involves creating prosthetic limbs and other devices. This functions similarly to grafting organic material, but it involves less risk compared to harvesting limbs from an angry demon. However, the grafts produced by these artificers can be extremely expensive, and are impossible to mass produce.”

People were definitely interested, now. “Now, why would someone want a heavy piece of iron or steel where their arm was? Well, I’m sure some of you can figure out some benefits. Steel is noticeably tougher than normal flesh, which can provide some defensive benefits. The ability to put hidden weapons in there is another. I’m sure you can think of more.

“The point is that these grafted augments, whether biological or artificial, can be used to improve people’s abilities, and enhance people beyond the normal baseline. Effectively, they can give you all the benefits of other creatures’ senses and abilities, or turn you into a cyborg of old. And augments are not limited to humans, or humanoid forms. Even undead can be augmented.”

I smiled, as I touched the ankh around my neck, and allowed the black flames to burn away my illusory flesh. Now, standing before everyone in my natural form, I held up one arm, and pointed to the bones of my forearm, angling it so that the lights caught them just right for the iron in them to shine.

“One of the simplest augments you can do to any creature is to strengthen the bones. However, this has to be done carefully in living creatures, because just coating someone’s bones in metal is extremely invasive, and will probably be poisonous to anyone without extreme regenerative abilities.

“However, when you get it right? Well, you can infuse iron and steel into someone’s bones, or realign the carbon in their bones to a stronger form, with better compressive and tensile strength. Even without body enhancement, my bones are infused with iron and further strengthened by realigning the carbon. You could drop me from the top of a six-story building and I would not even fracture my bones, even without any of my magic. That is the strength of grafting.”

I pulled my sleeve back down, and reformed my physical glamour, letting my flesh fill out again. “The other kind of augmentation is a form of enchantment, called ‘branding’. As one might expect, this involves physically marking the subject, though whether it is a brand, a tattoo, or even an engraving upon the person’s very bones. These provide the same benefits as any enchantment, but they cannot be lost or stolen, like an enchanted ring could be.”

“As you can imagine, this can be incredibly powerful, when done properly, but there are a multitude of risks. The first problem, of course, is the fact that branding, no matter the type, is painful to the extreme. There is simply no way of getting around that point.

“Worse still, however, is the fact that enchantments are limited by the base material they are placed on. A tattoo or brand would not be able to convey the most potent enchantments. Which is not to say that they aren’t useful. There is a tattoo that allows you to know when people are attempting to use subtle illusion or enchantment spells upon you, which can be incredibly useful when you otherwise might not know you even need to defend yourself.

“But if you want the most powerful enchantments? Well, you’ll need to engrave them on your bones, preferably bones that have already been strengthened by both passive enhancement and augmentation. That is more painful than you can imagine, but the benefits can be, in a word, legendary. Like the King of an elven land who had himself enchanted with protections against demons, to the point where his very touch would slay any demon he came across. Unfortunately, he learned that those protections did not provide any protection from a traitorous assassin drawn from the ranks of his own household after the Demon King bought the traitor’s allegiance.

“Remember, no magic is without a counter, even if that counter is entirely nonmagical.”