Chapter 446 - Phenomenal Cosmic Powers!
Added 2023-06-01 20:06:58 +0000 UTCI didn’t have a lot on my plate.
I had a full buffet of things that I needed to do.
Check my new class. Check my level. Grab my new skills. Figure out the small hill’s worth of iron Night had sent me as backpay. Read the letter Tyrannus sent. Figure out what I was doing next, and a thousand other tasks.
Iona just slowly shook her head as she looked at the pile of iron.
“Do you need my help picking skills, or can I head into town?” She asked.
“I should be good.” I loved Iona to death, but I felt fine with my own insights and judgements for my skills. If I did have a major conflict, I could just hold off on grabbing skills until she came back.
“Gotta run a few errands and pick up dinner. Want anything?” She asked.
“Mangos.” I promptly replied as I split my mind with [Parallel Thoughts] to try and handle all of the different problems.
Iona gave me a quick peck, jumped on Fenrir, and the two were off a moment later.
Meanwhile, I was reviewing my new skills and class.
[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial] has upgraded to [Ancient Loremaster of Legend - Spatial]!]
[*ding!* [Ancient Loremaster of Legend] has leveled up! 128 -> 180. +100 Dexterity, +100 Vitality, +800 Mana, +800 Mana Regen, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your Element per level!]
I shuddered as I saw the notification. Not due to any changes in particular, just due to the sheer overwhelming power it represented.
I had been impressed when I’d gotten [The Dawn Sentinel], and the ‘measly’ 500ish stats per level. Now I was getting over 5000 stats per level, an entire order of magnitude difference.
I knew what my stats had been, and I looked up what they were now, just to see the change.
Stats
[Strength: 1,335 -> 730]
[Dexterity: 10,946 -> 16,191]
[Vitality: 33,142 -> 38,394]
[Speed: 33,174 -> 33,226]
[Mana: 94,870 -> 136,574]
[Mana Regeneration: 94,992 (+118,265) -> 136,644 (+170,122)]
[Magic Power: 58,527 (+1,521,702) -> 131,425 (+3,417,050)]
[Magic Control: 58,392 (+1,518,192) -> 131,231(+3,412,006)]
Speed was my easiest stat to process. It had gotten a small bump up thanks to my racial passive.
Strength was the biggest loser. I lost 1 point of strength for every 8 of dexterity I got, and vice-versa, and the strong dexterity with no offsetting strength was cratering the stat. It was useful for day to day life, but not critical, and with my biomancy operation, I was still only 8 times as strong as a Systemless human.
I wasn’t going to be throwing logs anytime soon, but with the right supports, I could still probably pick up a cart. If I found myself wrestling a physical Classer, something, somewhere, had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Vitality and dexterity had naturally gotten a nice little boost, and enough dancing around the issue.
My magic stats.
By the twin goddesses of the moon, my magic stats.
I had more than doubled my magic power and magic control. Doubled. They had been absurd to start with, and the base doubled, which was being multiplied by my [Oath] to some utterly absurd numbers.
Over three and a half million magic power and magic control when I was healing?! I’d been getting nervous as I was declared War Sentinel Dawn of the Sixth Legion, concerned about living up to the expectations and hype.
I was significantly less concerned now. I’d need to run some extremely detailed calculations on how much trauma I could fix at once to see exactly what my limits were - position in the army, combined with degree of trauma, combined with distance from me were all variables that swung things around - but the absolute largest trauma I could reasonably heal was decapitation, and I could heal about 35 heavy-weight people decapitated at the same time.
Also, [Imbue] changed the math quite a bit, but I didn’t think I’d be throwing out healing-infused Radiance beams all over the place in a fight. For one, I needed line of sight, and two, in a battle between two armies?
I could think a lot. I couldn’t track that many things. Still, I could squeeze out some minor efficiency gains here and there, which added up.
The math on how many people I could heal was for people close to me. [Wheel of Sun and Moon’s] penalty became significant, but how often were people getting actually decapitated, and not ‘simply’ having their head bashed in?
Never mind that most injuries were on a much smaller scale. Stab wounds, burns, crushing blows and the like. Much easier to fix, and [Cosmic Presence], the poor neglected child of my [The Dawn Sentinel] skills, thrived in that sort of situation. It dramatically accelerated ‘natural’ healing to an absurd degree. It wouldn’t repair limbs, but any injury that would ‘naturally’ heal up - regardless if it’d normally be fatal in the meantime, like a severed femoral artery - would be fixed, at no mana cost to myself.
No, my main problem and bottleneck at this point was my mana, and in large scale conflicts, my mana regeneration. As long as I was topped up, it was extremely difficult to die under my aegis.
I had no illusions of invincibility. Running me out of mana would see people start falling like flies. A sufficiently lethal blow to the head would kill someone, even with all my skills combined. A strong Canceler on the other side might be ‘better’ than me in a local area. I couldn’t save anyone who’d gotten buried underground, whose head was encased in stone, who…
Frankly, there was a terrifyingly long list of things I couldn’t manage, even with all the mana in the world.
Which I didn’t have.
[Ancient Loremaster of Legend] was strongly weighted towards magic power and magic control, thanks to the Spatial element. The mana and regeneration were amazing, stronger than all the stats in my of my other classes combined, but when it came to healing, it fell a little flat.
Because it wasn’t a healing class. It was a [Loremaster] class, and a Spatial one.
Time to see what skills I’d gotten!
[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has upgraded to [Spatial Authority]!]
Woooooooooo!
Honestly, it was a shame it hadn’t gone all the way to [Spatial Mastery], or even in my dream of dreams, [Spatial Spirit]. The class was black quality, but I hadn’t done tons with the Spatial part of it. The book about the class had suggested that the class did have the potential to get Spatial Spirit, some of the stories about the class involving it.
The skill description was nothing special. Better skills, more efficient, yada yada yada.
I added Figure out how to improve Spatial Authority to my to-do list. Way at the bottom.
[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] has upgraded to [Loremaster’s Library]!]
Loremaster’s Library: A [Loremaster] is nothing without her library, and a library is more than just books. Libraries contain every medium of knowledge known, carefully preserving and making them available to all. You are the keeper of knowledge, the preserver of truth. Dramatically increased storage space per level.
Ooooooh, a solid upgrade! I could store more things inside my personal storage, and I suspected it was now ludicrous-tier sized. I suspected it was one of THE skills in my class, the way [Reading] had been the keystone skill for [Bookwyrm] or [Dance with the Heavens] was the keystone skill for [The Dawn Sentinel].
I could be wrong.
[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has upgraded to [Lust for Lore]!]
Lust for Lore: Knowledge is power. 3% increased experience per level.
I was a little insulted by the skill name. I had perfectly normal lusts, mostly centering around Iona. I didn’t get off reading books, my enjoyment of reading wasn’t sexual or anything.
A powerful skill was a powerful skill, I did love knowledge and reading, and the experience boost was nothing to sneeze at, especially with the boost from [Sentinel’s Superiority]. It was also the remnant of [Learning], one of my earliest skills.
A weird name was nothing. Though Iona was sure to have a field day with it.
[*ding!* [Channeled Blink] has upgraded to [Blink]!]
Blink: Take a step through space instead of a little step through space! Short-range channeled teleportation skill. Can bring minor objects with you. 0.1% decrease in cost per level.
Even with everything [Ancient Loremaster of Legend] was giving me, even with [Spatial Authority], even with the buy-off, I still didn’t have enough magic power to instantly teleport myself. Frustrating.
Hopefully, with enough practice, grinding the skill, and levels, I might finally be able to do it in the next decade or so.
That was if Auri didn’t decide to burn down a forest. Then I’d be measuring the time in hours. I didn’t want Auri to start a forest fire, but the idea of being able to instantly [Blink] around tomorrow was appealing…
I could totally see how some Classers just snapped and went ‘fuck it, let’s go get those levels.’
[*ding!* [Vivid Dream Reading] has partially merged into [Astral Archives]!]
Astral Archives: Your perfect memories are like books, able to be rearranged and reordered at will. Archive memories for later, and hold open the knowledge you want directly at the forefront of your mind, vividly experiencing their contents! Improved granularity, control, open books at once, and vividness of recall per level.
The skill description here was almost exactly the same as it’d been before, with a mention of being able to more vividly replay things. I’d have to test it out, and see exactly how it had changed. This could also arguably be the capstone [Loremaster] skill, since so much of the class was about knowing the right thing at the right time and place.
I wonder if the class passively leveled? That’d be nice.
A bit of a shame that [Vivid Dream Reading] had almost entirely bit the dust. I was a [Loremaster] now, not a [Bookwyrm], and it looked like I wouldn’t be reading in my sleep anymore.
Shame.
At the same time, I’d been using the skill less and less. In order to use the skill, I needed to have books available to read at night. In order to use it to its full potential, I needed a lot of books in my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] - now [Loremaster’s Library] - at the same time. It just wasn’t happening. I had enough downtime with [Parallel Thoughts], and the library was just far enough away that I was usually done with any reading I wanted to do before it was nighttime. Granted, I did have Sentinel-level resources for trying to fill it up, but…
Ah well, no more leveling in my sleep. It was fun while it lasted.
[*ding!* [Comprehensive Speed Reading] and [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] have merged into [Manuscript Mastery]!]
Manuscript Mastery: Read everything!
That was both the worst skill description I’d ever seen, and the best.
Short, succinct, to the point.
I could read everything. Probably at high speeds, and understand it to boot. I’d already been ripping through books in a fraction of the time Earth-me had taken to read the same amount of words, now how much faster would I be?
Two skills merged into other skills! Two new skill slots were opened!
New skills! New options!
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Rapid Reshelving]!]
Rapid Reshelving: Librarians and Loremasters often need to rapidly rearrange shelves. Instantly teleport objects from one place to another. Slightly increased range per level.
Oh this was a nice one! Teleporting other things around was huge, and I didn’t notice any sort of restrictions on what I could take or move, implying that I was gated only by my magic power, control, and mana.
I’d need to do some serious testing, especially with the range portion - slightly increased range implied I couldn’t move things far - but this was huge!
Straight to the top of the list it went.
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Spatial Sense]!]
Spatial Sense: A [Loremaster] needs to be able to find the hidden rifts and pocket dimensions of the world, for all manner of horrors are sealed within. What good is making a warning if you don’t know exactly where you need to put a caution sign? Increased sight radius per level.
I’d never really considered that Spatial rifts could be hard to find. Then again, when I’d encountered Spatially compressed spaces in the past, there hadn’t been any indicators. It wasn’t obvious.
The skill felt extremely niche - I wasn’t encountering Spatial manipulations regularly - but possibly obnoxiously required, in a sense. Also, it’d probably do wonders for improving [Spatial Authority]. Being able to intimately and directly study how space twisted and warped under various effects was exactly the sort of thing I needed to do to improve the skill.
Hopefully I’d find something better.
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Rift Repair]!]
Rift Repair: You are Elaine, you are The Healer. Careless mages rip and shred the fabric of reality, defying the divine decree against harming the fabric of reality. Heal the tapestry of the world the same way you heal people with this skill! Neater repairs per level.
Ugh.
A significant part of [Loremaster’s] strength seemed to come from my Medical Manuscripts work, which was part of what had pushed it to a black quality class. Couldn’t complain there. This skill was clearly a minor reflection of that, moving from healing people to healing the world. But this skill was far beyond what I wanted to do as a [Loremaster]. It was far beyond a [Loremaster’s] duties, and I knew I wasn’t the only one trying to repair parts of the world. There was a literal organization dedicated to it, and I’d be pulling the class in a direction I didn’t want.
Plus, I’d almost be forced to take the [Spatial Sense] skill.
It was good work. It was necessary work.
But I wasn’t trying to fix the woes of the world on my own. I had no interest in being a [Rift Repairer], and who knew how long it’d take before Selene and Lunaris started to ‘nudge’ me via Iona to fix things up.
Once again, it was good for improving [Spatial Authority]. Directly manipulating rifts and tears in space? Seeing how it was broken to put it back together? [Authority] was a brutally difficult skill to upgrade, and I couldn’t imagine a faster way to improve [Spatial Authority] than staring at rifts and trying to piece them back together.
You know, only half a footstep away from disaster and falling out of the world. No biggie.
I’d almost leave the skill slot blank over taking that skill. It just wasn’t for me.
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Vault of Ages]!]
Vault of Ages: Everyone needs a little hidden personal vault to wait out the ravages of an Immortal War. One additional room per level.
This sounded suspiciously like [Lair] again, but with fewer restrictions.
Hey, I had a few hours to kill, I could totally grab the skill and see if anything had changed, if I still hated the skill or not. I knew the cold mathematics on a personal dimension - I couldn’t bring anyone I loved with me, not with the vitality defense. If I had a personal dimension to wait out a war, I’d be leaving the rest of the Eventide Eclipse to their own devices, which was a huge no-go for me. That was before the unnerving way the world just ended in [Lair] had creeped me out.
I was willing to give the skill a shot, but I didn’t have high hopes for it.
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Here There Be Dragons]!]
Here There Be Dragons: From the depths of the earth to the heights of the sky, you have seen the distant corners of the world. And, from accidentally stumbling into a dragon's lair to being lost in a spider's nest, you are acutely aware of all the dangers the world can hold. With this skill, you will never be surprised as to where you find yourself again, limited only by your knowledge of nearby hazards. Take the skill [Here there be Dragons], and get a fantastically detailed internal map based on your knowledge! -64 mana regeneration.
The skill seemed fine. Broadly useful in day to day life, while being minimally powerful. I’d have to test it out to see what I thought.
My list of skills that I liked, in rough order, was as followed:
[Rapid Reshelving] - Teleporting other stuff was an insane skill, and I couldn’t wait.
[Here There Be Dragons] - Mostly second because the other offerings weren’t that attractive.
[Spatial Sense] - Could be interesting, but wouldn’t apply a ton to my day to day life. I hoped.
[Vault of Ages] - I’d had [Lair] in the past and I hadn’t been impressed.
[Rift Repair] - I’d almost want a blank skill over this.
I briefly debated taking the one-two combo of [Rift Repair] and [Spatial Sense] just for upgrading [Spatial Authority].
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea. I’d need to be haring off to various rifts for decades, if not more, just to push the skill enough to get [Spatial Mastery]. Oooooor I could just level, do some big [Loremaster] things, then class up, hopefully pushing the skill that way.
It wasn’t ideal, I didn’t want to do it, but I’d be an idiot not to consider it. Unless there was a rift right here, I didn’t want to spend the hours, days, or weeks needed to find a rift and repair it just to get the achievement. Most of the offered skills would fade in the meantime.
Thing was, [Rapid Reshelving] promised to be so good, so potent, so damn useful, it was almost impossible to justify taking the one-two punch. A skill that sounded like a ton of fun, versus two skills that sounded like a chore?
No, I’d done fairly well for myself so far sticking to things I enjoyed, that I liked doing. [Ancient Loremaster of Legend] was the first time I’d taken my second most preferred class, and even then, it was so close to my preferred class that it had been alright. I wasn’t going to start screwing myself on the skills, that was a great way to never use them.
[Spatial Sense] wasn’t super promising as a skill on its own, but there was a strong argument to having it as a stand-alone. Seeing where rifts were, where the secrets I needed to protect were directly located if I needed to be there, was useful. That, and I could probably spot dimensional crates, spatial pouches, storage rings, personal spaces, and more. It… had a practical, if boring and niche, use.
I was torn.
Well, I had two other skills. [Here There Be Dragons] and [Vault of Ages]. Between the three of them, I’d need to pick one.
Problem was, once I tried and ditched a skill, it would be hard to get it offered again. I’d need to work at it.
[Vault of Ages] was the one I was the least likely to keep.
I knew I’d be taking [Rapid Reshelving], but I held off for a moment, accepting both [Vault of Ages] and [Here There Be Dragons].
If nothing else, playing with the skills briefly was cool! Magic was awesome.
[Here There Be Dragons] had an immediate effect, although it was subtle. I had a decent sense of where I was at any time, and how I was located in relation to my surroundings. Exactly the same way I knew what room of my house I was in, and where the other rooms were in relation to that.
Well, now that sense was huge. I swear it went all over the world. I knew exactly where Osengard was in relation to where I was now. I knew where Lyon was, where the fairy ring that had dumped me out was, Castle Stormwatch, Arachne’s lair under Bloodmoon Bay, and huge, huge swaths of land that the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft had traveled over.
It was both overwhelming, and underwhelming. It was so much stuff… at the same time, like, cool. I knew where towns and cities were, I knew where the road was. It didn’t exactly do that much for me.
I picked a random road in Rolland that we’d traveled on, and compared it to my [Astral Archives] memory of the place.
Yup. It looked exactly the same, down to the location of the pebbles. No way the current road looked exactly the same, no way nobody hadn’t kicked any pebbles that very day, let alone five years later. The map was simply a handy representation of what I already knew.
It did do things like fully reconstruct the path I’d taken when Arachne had pulled me through the tunnels flawlessly. Nothing I couldn’t have done with a few hours of reviewing my memories, but it was handy that it was automatically done for me.
Fascinatingly, I didn’t have a sense where Remus had been, where my old stomping grounds were. What was going on with that? Everything I’d seen suggested that this was the same planet… so why didn’t I ‘sense’ where Remus had been? Why couldn’t I picture the towns and the cities? Why didn’t I know where Aquiliea had been in relationship to the present day?
There was a mystery there. It was unlikely to be parallel worlds or anything like that - Night was still here, and wasn’t talking about anything like that.
Interesting, useful in many ways, but utterly useless in others.
Dead useful if I was ever kidnapped, which was a blessed rarity in my life.
I swore as I had the thought, and dashed over to a nearby tree.
“Brrrpt?” Auri asked.
“I’m an idiot.” I answered her as I knocked on the sturdy tree. “Don’t mind me.”
“Brrpt!”
[Vault of Ages] was up next. I grabbed a handful of the iron coins Archmage had dropped. I focused on the skill, teleporting into my own personal dimension.
[*ding!* [Vault of Ages] leveled up! 1 -> 2]
It was pitch-black inside the [Vault], and I found myself floating in the middle of the room. No light, no gravity, and it was freezing, but there was air.
I wondered how that worked? Was there a baseline amount of oxygen that I’d use up, or would the air remain forever fresh and useful? Where did the heat go? Would the place just heat up endlessly with excess warmth, until I was cooking every time I came here?
Some air-generating runes probably wouldn’t be a bad - wait.
They might be a terrible idea, raising the pressure of the place until it made my ears popped, or the space itself popped. I’d need to figure out a careful balance to make sure I could still breath.
Skills usually didn’t require a ton of work or had obvious downsides though… Ah well, it wasn’t like I was likely to keep this skill.
I still had my clothes, and I was still holding onto the coins I’d grabbed. I could bring so much more into this one!
I was in a single room, smaller than [Lair’s]. Once again, beyond the stone wall was nothing. Not a void, not the emptiness of space, simply a terminus of the dimension. It was more than nothingness, it was more than a void, it was pure oblivion.
[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 85 -> 86]
I shuddered at the end of the world.
Even as I started to process everything around me, another room slowly faded into existence from oblivion, from nothingness, an entire room almost the exact same size, but a different shape, as the one I was in. After it finished, a door appeared, granting me access to the next part.
[Vault of Ages] started off with itty-bitty living space, but looked like it was expanding.
I flew over and snorted.
The skill still had all the problems of [Lair]. But smaller… although I could bring more into it. I bet, with the right skills, I could get a little garden or something going, or stockpile years of supplies in here, and just… wait out an Immortal War.
By myself.
I’d go insane, but I’d survive.
No, I didn’t think the skill was for me.
I was about to fully dismiss it when my mental thought process slammed on the brakes, as a dozen pieces of the puzzle clicked, as my perspective shifted just a hair and I really saw the skill for what it was..
I could bring almost anything in here.
I started off with a full damn room at level 1, and the skill made it clear that I was getting a new room each level.
[Lair] had been bad because, in large part, I was extremely limited on what I could bring in. It was a little reading nook. I could bring in some blankets, some cushions, and books. It was useful as a private reading room, and nothing else.
[Vault of Ages]?
It didn’t seem to have those limits, and looked like it was growing rapidly.
I had one of the most powerful Spatial skills available, and I’d almost ditched it due to my prejudices.
I had the ultimate logistics skill. It’d take me months and hundreds of thousands of arcs to fully, properly outfit the place and fill it up, but in the end?
If the progression of rooms stayed the same, and I could indeed stock the place with anything - the skill had implied it was a hideout for years - then I could turn myself into a mobile warehouse. I’d never want for anything.
Blankets? A dozen in room 7.
Food? Grains are in room 10, fruits in room 11, vegetables in room 12, potatoes in room 13, and jerky in room 14.
Water? A water barrel in every room.
Weapons? Armor? I could totally get a half-dozen armories going.
Tables? Chairs? Other furniture?
Everything. Everything reasonably sized that I could teleport in. I was gated on my magic power and mana - each jaunt back and forth took a large chunk, and that was before acquiring everything entered the picture - but the skill promised to be huge, and move with me.
I’d need to teleport in arcanite. Get enchantments for heat and light working. The air problem I’d need to solve for real. I could keep it completely freezing - it’d preserve food better - but ehhh, I could probably spring for some creature comforts.
Figuring out how to expand things every time I leveled promised to be a chore, and my list of things to do increased again.
I’d been framing it wrong. Looking at it wrong.
The skill was designed to be an impenetrable fortress during a war, yeah. A place I could hide out.
I didn’t want to cower inside, leaving my friends and family out in the cold. That, combined with my poor experience with [Lair], had almost led to me ditching the skill.
But reframing it as an amazing storage facility? One that I could carry with me, and take anywhere?
Oh yes.
Oh yes, this skill would do nicely.
It reminded me of the Celestial Spire of the Astral Empyreans, one of the places Arachne had taught me about in my loremaster education. A fully armed, self-sufficient fortress in a personal world, much like my [Vault of Ages], except whoever had the skill could open a full portal to Pallos. It had stopped appearing 1400ish years ago, and it was one of numerous spots that was a question mark.
Were they still out there, building, plotting, a force of their own?
Or had the owner of the skill had a heart attack, or had a vase fall on their head, and the Spire was forever phased out of reality, the elves manning the fortress sustaining themselves in their own little world?
Would new elves born there have the System? Were they trying to find a way back? Or did they content themselves with a slice of paradise?
I teleported back to reality - both metaphorically, and literally.
I was completely surprised that [Vault of Ages] was busted. At the same time, it made the rest of my decision making easy. I’d be taking [Vault of Ages] and [Rapid Reshelving].
I still wanted to play with [Spatial Sense] for a minute.
I dropped [Here There Be Dragons], taking [Spatial Sense] instead.
And saw… nothing. Nothing at all. Well, good to know I wasn’t building my home on top of a dangerous rift or compressed space, but wow, the skill was not impressive at all.
I replaced [Spatial Sense] with [Rapid Reshelving], excited to test the skill out in all its different ways. With that, I had my new skills figured out.
[Name: Elaine]
[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]
[Age: 27]
[Mana: 1,365,740/1,365,740]
[Mana Regen: 1,001,094 (+1,701,218)]
Stats
[Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 730]
[Dexterity: 16,191]
[Vitality: 38,394]
[Speed: 33,226]
[Mana: 136,574]
[Mana Regeneration: 136,644 (+170,122)]
[Magic Power: 131,425 (+3,417,050)]
[Magic Control: 131,231 (+3,412,006)]
[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 520]]
[Celestial Affinity: 520]
[Cosmic Presence: 330]
[The Stars Never Fade: 14]
[Center of the Universe: 473]
[Dance with the Heavens: 520]
[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 520]
[Mantle of the Stars: 495]
[Sunrise: 475]
[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 498]]
[Radiance Affinity: 498]
[Radiance Resistance: 498]
[Nova Lance: 498]
[Lepidoptera: 498]
[Nectar: 498]
[Solar Corona: 498]
[Scintillating Ascent: 498]
[Kaleidoscope: 498]
[Class 3: [Ancient Loremaster of Legend - Spatial: Lv 180]]
[Spatial Authority: 180]
[Manuscript Mastery: 180]
[Blink: 42]
[Loremaster's Library: 180]
[Vault of Ages: 2]
[Rapid Reshelving: 1]
[Astral Archives: 180]
[Lust for Lore: 180]
General Skills
[Long-Range Identify: 418]
[Parallel Thoughts: 200]
[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 520]
[The World Around Me: 86]
[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 520]
[Sentinel's Superiority: 520]
[Persistent Casting: 432]
[Imbue: 195]
Comments
Until my ears pop - instead of popped
Sage Hallward
2023-12-28 17:27:24 +0000 UTCIn my of my - typo
Sage Hallward
2023-12-28 03:45:22 +0000 UTCSo is nobody gonna point out the (180*3=540*1.25=675) 7.75X exp boost that she be getting? She is going to be a power leveling monster! At 256 she’ll be getting like almost 11X exp. The class is nuts!
Phsteven
2023-10-01 09:10:36 +0000 UTCDo we even know that she exited the same fairy ring where she entered fairy?
2023-06-19 08:47:57 +0000 UTCI think shelving is specifically supposed to combine with the inventory skill so she doesn't have to sort through her vault to get what she wants. The hype she's got is otherwise unjustified unless there's a reason the author wants her to keep the skill.
adr
2023-06-16 20:13:49 +0000 UTCthinking on it yeah. her lore jump now was after being frontloaded the really important stuff. she will not be getting a jump like that again. that said though it will be a problem she needs to resolve unless she gets another class up before then.
phantom
2023-06-04 08:19:40 +0000 UTCit was the balance for the stats you use. pretty much no one is going to bring their physical stats up to par with their magical stats. Yes there is the issue of her stats reaching negative but the angel was certainly not referring to that.
phantom
2023-06-04 08:17:28 +0000 UTCI recall a portal mentioned in the story. from chapter 1 to 446 guess which one?
phantom
2023-06-04 08:14:33 +0000 UTCjust replace identify with the "know when to shut up" skill.
phantom
2023-06-04 08:11:54 +0000 UTCIf the world was recreated she would still know where the fairy ring was because she exited it.
phantom
2023-06-04 08:08:25 +0000 UTCMaybe a Legion trip to the Han empire iirc, to see the Civil War, and find that other Valkerie? Bit of Empire building along the way, poof levels.
Chloe
2023-06-04 02:37:56 +0000 UTCAll those magic stats and still can't blink on command though. That skill must be EXPENSIVE! And yeah, she's in trouble with her strength but I don't think we'll be seeing too many level jumps with Loremaster like this one, not without some levels in Dawn Sentinel and Butterfly Mystic mixed in to help slow that decline. Even with Auri the class might be slow to level and this bump is because of her training/lectures with Arachne to get the class. She should be fine and like she said, if she's in melee, something's already gone horribly wrong anyway. Plus, who knows what kind of insane class is waiting for her when DS and BM upgrades, or what upgrades/merges/combinations there might be with the black quality classes she passed on when she first got her third class. Personally with Elaine rejoining the Sentinels and getting attached to a legion I think she might get the upgrade on DS at least before she hits 256 with Loremaster. An entire legion of soldiers convinced they have a demigoddess of healing on standby to heal them from their own 'brilliant' ideas, or injuries and the experience from teaching any other healers attached to the legion or her team? It's a possibility.
randomusername42
2023-06-03 22:31:40 +0000 UTC@Jeanean I agree (though no vitality penalty for healing seems to be an exception for healing since it does act directly on the body). My comment was aimed at @BerciTheBeast. If Elaine can create a portal into her Vault that should bypass the vitality penalty -- but i can't recall any portals in the story so far so don't actually know how they work (with the possible exception of Lun'Kat's lair).
AntiClimax she her
2023-06-03 15:25:32 +0000 UTCMoving the iron may be a good way for Elaine to train her Vault skill. It'll probably take quite a bit of mana, and therefore time, but good XP.
AntiClimax she her
2023-06-03 15:18:07 +0000 UTCBut I could see that the teleport skill might help somewhat against apples. Even if unable to teleport incoming apples directly (yet to be tested), if she can haul around a stack of armored plates that she can teleport she could interpose them in between attacks that are either apples or covered in apple juice, which would likely result in attacks that don't punch through her shield skill. Or could deflect the projectiles significantly enough to make them not hit. Would be also interesting if she could teleport apples away instead of eating them in her food (also unsure if that would work).
Matt
2023-06-03 14:45:47 +0000 UTCI missed this too. Elaine went from 128->180 in this class, which explains the stat gains
Matt
2023-06-03 14:37:55 +0000 UTCProbably, but hey, it's either for for the 768 class up or when she decides to drop identify. I think dropping identify is a hilariously stupid idea that she seems to want to do :D 'Yes, let's drop the skill that tells you whether you're dealing with someone who can squish you like an ant because someone else can do it better and it doesn't always work.' '-'.... Elaine, you have no social skills... you need to know when you will die if you don't stop talking.
Matt
2023-06-03 14:33:56 +0000 UTCCertain stats take away from others. I think the ratio was every 8 takes away 1 point in something. I don't remember the exact details but it was explained WAY back when Elaine was learning about stats before her system unlocked.
fox5s
2023-06-03 12:11:06 +0000 UTC@AntiClimax Portals shouldn't be affected by Vitality. Vitality only makes it incredibly difficult to apply magic directly to a target. The difference between the classic targeted teleport and a portal is like the difference between directly increasing the temperature of a person with fire magic and throwing a fireball at them. Or, the difference between biomancy, which attempts to directly manipuate a targets DNA and cells, and celestial healing, which heals by cutting away and replacing parts of ones body with dark and light.
Jeanean
2023-06-03 09:25:25 +0000 UTCWhat is in tyrannius' letter? How do they move the Iron?
Chloe
2023-06-03 03:01:42 +0000 UTCThere is no upgrade at 512 it was the third class one so it's 768
SwiftDarkPhoenix
2023-06-03 02:13:42 +0000 UTC1. Dont think stats go down over time with levels. They just aren't augmented with a new class that they were with an old one. 2. Also agree str needs to go back up. I think the Butterfly Mystic class will get upgraded in 14 levels at 512, that upgrade should have a significant str bump. Something like "Radiant Light crosses galaxies, like that you too have the strength to do great things +500 Str per level" ... BM needs flying, coffee skill, offense, and a shield. Several slots for skills to build to that.
Chloe
2023-06-03 01:53:37 +0000 UTCI can see them combining to that as well.
Chloe
2023-06-03 01:52:04 +0000 UTCBlink alows teleporting, shelving allows teleporting, they could be combined in a few levels... Can she put softball sized arcanite blobs in the vault, use reshelf to bring them out into her hand and have ... virtually infinite mana? Which leads to tactically useful blinks? ... or enter vault with last of mana, recharge, come back out full of mana and be offensive skilled / blink mana powered again... vault with Arcanite could fix a lot of limits on mana...
Chloe
2023-06-03 01:49:36 +0000 UTCDon't be silly. It's not like she gets to choose what stats her class offers her.
Melting Sky
2023-06-03 01:32:28 +0000 UTCNegative 119 to be exact
SwiftDarkPhoenix
2023-06-02 23:03:29 +0000 UTCOh God her strength is shit she should be more balanced remember what that paladin said at the end of book 5 about being more balanced I think her highest stat should be at most 8 times higher than her lowest so 136644 to 17081. Her strength should be 17081 just in case instead of having it at -119 by the time she hits 256, yes you saw correctly she will be in the NEGATIVE which is incredibly stupid on so many levels its not funny I thought she was supposed to be intelligent not dumb.
SwiftDarkPhoenix
2023-06-02 23:00:26 +0000 UTCI can see it merging with Loremaster’s Library, where she will be able to take anything out of it at will like she can do with Loremaster’s Library, instead of having to go inside, navigate the rooms and pull things out one at a time, while still retaining the ability to go inside if she wanted. They're both similar skills, after all.
SpiraSpira
2023-06-02 19:40:29 +0000 UTCWould she be fighting their vitality if she created a portal (as opposed to directly teleporting them)?
AntiClimax she her
2023-06-02 18:27:01 +0000 UTCYeah she said sh3 knew where the fairy ring was
chest25
2023-06-02 17:20:19 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure that if people have weapon/armor skills, teleporting their gear is almost as unviable as teleporting them.
Thorium
2023-06-02 15:11:55 +0000 UTCDoing space magic on other living things is insanely expensive and made even more difficult by higher Vitality levels :(
BerciTheBeast
2023-06-02 12:42:03 +0000 UTCCould have easily trained it in the vault (probably).
BerciTheBeast
2023-06-02 12:40:44 +0000 UTCFor all levels of the class, even if they were earned (but not applied) before the class up.
Nematrec
2023-06-02 12:11:58 +0000 UTCReally had me on the edge there. I almost thought Elain would give up THE BEST skill out of the entire selection. Especially since Skill tend to change depending on the way they are used. If she uses it as an "Iventory" for long enough, I have little doubt that the Skill could develop features like a sense for everything inside her space, and the ability to store and call out specific items without having to enter the space herself. Or, off course, openeing up a portal to her space. If she could actually do that, they should definitely consider reducing the size of Elaines army just enough that she can transport them all with the Skill. I mean, its one thing to have an army protected by the greatest healer in the world. Its something entirely different to have an army protected by teh greatest healer in the world that can absically pop up out of nowhere. (Even more if Wheel of the sun and moon gets an upgrade. WIth her job as war Sentinel, I wouldn't be surprised if that skill developed a trait that allows her to "bind" with targets ahead of time, increasing the range and efficiency she can heal them at.)
Jeanean
2023-06-02 12:02:30 +0000 UTCI think it's if Elaine considers it healing or not.
enderman
2023-06-02 11:59:04 +0000 UTCElaine has the gamer inventory skill. Iona has the hax appraisal skill. Kinda sad that Elaine didn’t notice that spatial sense is probably the pathway to free form manipulation of space.
ShotoGun
2023-06-02 08:16:55 +0000 UTCHow so? The way I read it is that she can potentially teleport anything that is not alive, including weapons, potentially even other peoples weapons.
John Growcott
2023-06-02 08:01:02 +0000 UTCAm I the only one that feel like spatial sense might have been critical and simply got punted ?
joss sim
2023-06-02 08:00:34 +0000 UTCWait are stats applied retroactively? For all the levels before the class up?
Enkelados
2023-06-02 07:56:47 +0000 UTC[Vault of the Ages], I saw its potential immediately, would have been top of my list but [Rapid Reshelving] seems too niche to pick in precious few skill slots she has unless its for merger or something.
Pratish Sungum
2023-06-02 07:34:28 +0000 UTCHuh. I kind of hate how I was too immersed in reading that I didn't "reframe" Vault of the Ages in my head the same way as Elaine did until after I was reading that part.
belloch
2023-06-02 06:39:26 +0000 UTCPretty sure it was the Genie wish. This is the new world, it's identical but isn't the old world.
a passing Fnord
2023-06-02 05:51:17 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter 😁
tr13ze
2023-06-02 05:13:31 +0000 UTCElaine mentioned that [Here There Be Dragons] didn't show her Remus. Is that because she teleported to the fairy ring and doesn't know where in the world Remus was? or is it because the world ended once because of a wish to the Genie.
enderman
2023-06-02 04:41:02 +0000 UTCShe probably should worry about her Strength. In another 60 levels or so, it will be negative. (6000/8 = 750). So that's even before she hits 256. She gets a trickle from Chimera (Elvenoid) and from her other classes but that only gives her another couple of levels of grace.
Ronny Cook
2023-06-02 02:39:11 +0000 UTCI think wayyyy back when Elaine was like 8, Artemis said you can die from level up by not having mana Regen.
Fizbandu
2023-06-02 02:34:44 +0000 UTCCongrats you’re now the quartermaster!
Anonymous
2023-06-02 02:27:46 +0000 UTCgood chappie
Elaine
2023-06-02 02:02:07 +0000 UTCTftc
Nick
2023-06-02 01:32:49 +0000 UTCHmm, if she uses Rapid Reshelving to teleport an arrow out of someone, does that count as healing?
Jay Kominek
2023-06-02 01:11:32 +0000 UTCSo how many rooms will Elaine dedicate to libraries of books that do not fit in book-space? Dozens? Hundreds?
Olly
2023-06-02 00:26:21 +0000 UTCAhhhh so crunchy like delicious corn chips. And two more yummy class-ups to come in the not too distant future!
Michael Van Camp
2023-06-02 00:16:30 +0000 UTCPerhaos more importantly: can she also read people? Like cold reading reactions? TWAM doesnt seem to help much there since Elaine doesnt have the social knowledge to correctly attribute physical reactions to intent (at least, that is what i read into her first converstion with arachne and Elaines reaction to her being cold read).
Quantenmecha
2023-06-01 23:08:01 +0000 UTCshouldn't speed drop as well then by the same amount but it increased instead.
Michael Otton
2023-06-01 22:49:50 +0000 UTCYeah, I'm glad to see Elaine get out of her own way. She's a radiance wizard.... And can't be bothered to create some light runes? I mean. I understand that staring at the edge of the world is terrifying, but it's also probably excellent for spacial understanding. She might even be able to evolve this into an inviting-others skill.
Stephanie Washburn
2023-06-01 22:39:38 +0000 UTCNice reminder about the state trade-offs. I'm curious: If you have a class that gives LOTS of speed and no vitality per level, can you die by level up?
Todor
2023-06-01 22:38:23 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter. Glad she kept Vault, clear winner.
Joshua Little
2023-06-01 22:34:10 +0000 UTCHuh, Manuscript Mastery simply says "read everything" ... could she read (and understand) books she doesn't even know the language to? Seems extra strong if so
Thomas Heaton
2023-06-01 22:21:02 +0000 UTCYes, that's intentional. Gaining 8 points in one stat loses you a point in another stat, with the effect that too much of one stat can have negative effects, unless you put some effort into gaining a different stat to counterbalance it. For strength, the opposite stat is dexterity. Her class gives her 100 dexterity but no strength, so she loses about 12 strength on each level. Then she gets 1 back from her Elvenoid race each level. Her other classes provide a little bit more strength, especially the Dawn Sentinel, which IIRC she designed the stat's per level to account for this effect (which was pre-timeskip though, so it's not accounting for her newer classes.)
Syrahl
2023-06-01 22:17:38 +0000 UTCIt was. Opposite stats downgrade each others a little. She upgrade Dex and lost Strength iirc.
TroubleFait
2023-06-01 22:05:44 +0000 UTCStrength downgraded for some reason. Was that intentional?
ProSailor22
2023-06-01 22:01:39 +0000 UTCMaybe he had them lying around since Remus.
TroubleFait
2023-06-01 21:57:24 +0000 UTCWhat would happen at level 1,001? Would she be given mana for using the skill? (She runs out of mana for healing, so she just does some teleporting and boom more mana to use. Lol.)
SpaceGoddess76
2023-06-01 21:55:36 +0000 UTCI love these bits the best in litRPGs! The leveling up and picking out new abilities bits, I mean.
Wizard Tim
2023-06-01 21:32:55 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter!
Gopard
2023-06-01 21:29:10 +0000 UTCI suspect that Arachne will appreciate Elaine being able to carry enough supplies for her personal Legion.
Julian
2023-06-01 21:22:29 +0000 UTC0.1% decrease in cost per level? Just need to get it to level 1,000 :D More seriously, a *compounding* 1% per level would be a lot more reasonable. Never goes 100% reduction, and has a more immediately noticable effect
Nematrec
2023-06-01 21:19:47 +0000 UTCwhen I read that rift healing skill, I imagined Elaine as a Overwatch character T posing at the end of a win.
Ibn Nuh
2023-06-01 21:12:22 +0000 UTCI can see the merge between [the world round me] and [identify]. For [parallel thoughts] i see more synergy with [astral archives] as both skills process information (where [twam] and [identify] are more about sensory input).
Quantenmecha
2023-06-01 21:12:00 +0000 UTCi wonder if she’ll wait for her third class to catch up with her other 2 or not. it’s really handy that the system banks extra xp for them.
Jumping Flounder
2023-06-01 21:11:00 +0000 UTCTo move people in/out of the vault would take a tremendous amount of mana not including the inherent vitality multiplier to mana costs. She could probably take systemless children in/out though.
Ashley
2023-06-01 21:03:13 +0000 UTCAnyone else feel like The World Around Me, Parallel Thoughts, and possibly Long Range Identify are gonna merge soon? They've got good overlap/synergy, aren't too different in levels, and on their own are all starting to feel... I guess underwhelming(though that doesn't feel like the right word) compared to everything else she has. Like the first two have great strengths, but are starting to feel too singular compared to her other skills. And the latter she has even said is becoming less and less useful.
PlasmaticPi
2023-06-01 21:01:54 +0000 UTCOffered skills don't stick around forever. If she leaves them they vanish after a few days/hours.
David Johnson
2023-06-01 21:00:37 +0000 UTCLight green, and 768.
David Johnson
2023-06-01 20:58:49 +0000 UTCAm I missing something or why can’t Elaine just take other people with her into her vault?
Fuyge
2023-06-01 20:56:35 +0000 UTCWhat do you mean? How do they overlap? One is a radiance sorcerer with one skill for wizardry while the other is space oriented librarian class.
Fuyge
2023-06-01 20:55:53 +0000 UTCtk you!
Menphy
2023-06-01 20:54:52 +0000 UTCI can't remember so is it possible for classes to merge? Cause Butterfly Mystic and Ancient Lorekeeper of Legends seem like they are starting to seriously overlap.
PlasmaticPi
2023-06-01 20:54:01 +0000 UTCI swear...She's still doing this? I say leave the skills offered w/o rejecting. Grab em easier when you've got space.
Froyo Baggins
2023-06-01 20:52:23 +0000 UTCWatch it happen the first time she brings a solid book into the Vault. And I'm the combining, the levels average out and she goes from a small house to a giant mansions worth of space.
zadcap
2023-06-01 20:51:55 +0000 UTCWhat color class is Butterfly Mystic again and what level does it get another class evolution?
PlasmaticPi
2023-06-01 20:51:25 +0000 UTCBe nice to see Loremaster's Library and Vault of the Ages merged. Just be able to read anything in the vault...who needs two storage skills?
Flying Goat
2023-06-01 20:49:44 +0000 UTCTFTC
Osloo Mortan
2023-06-01 20:47:29 +0000 UTC👆
Viria
2023-06-01 20:43:07 +0000 UTCAnother thing, isn't the lair basically the same skill as her personal library after the restriction for books was lifted?
Enkelados
2023-06-01 20:33:58 +0000 UTCSo are those coins real original Remus coins? If not they are no payment for Elaine. Night has no authority to mint coin, for a nation that doesn't exist.
Enkelados
2023-06-01 20:32:41 +0000 UTCThank you!
Andrew
2023-06-01 20:31:59 +0000 UTC5m
Captdeth
2023-06-01 20:12:38 +0000 UTCThanks
Artizela
2023-06-01 20:08:47 +0000 UTC