Chapter 19

“Could you not?” I asked sarcastically as I peeled backwards a week after dropping in on the Athena group. Doing my best to stay out of range of the Minotaur’s aggressive charge, as I prepared my spell; a not-so-simple process as it turns out. Because magic, actual magic, was pretty damn complicated. There’s a lot of things you have to simultaneously pull off in order to get it to work and even more to get it to work well.

Grabbing your spark -that thing that eluded me for a full week- is actually the easiest step in that process and immediately after it you start to run into problems. The first problem is just visualising the spell’s actual shape, because these are not simple things, they’re horrendously complicated masses of symbols and shapes that you’re effectively forcing yourself to memorise by rote.

Then you have to hold the whole thing in your mind’s eye as it transforms your magic from what it is, to what you want it to be. Which is exactly where you run into the second problem.

Your spark depends on who you are, for example my spark is a sword edged flame, someone else’s might be literal dogshit; and if the starting products are so different, then how do you use the same spell to transform both into a single thing? The answer is inefficient and overly complicated spell formations that have to account for everyone, further complicating that first issue.

These ‘general’ spells are what you buy in Skyrim the game and they’re shit, or they are until you take those same spells and hone them to suit you over time. In game that’s represented by the efficiency system, in reality it’s a process of understanding each spell you use and removing redundant elements until they suit you, and that takes knowledge and time. Time I don’t have right now and knowledge I’m only just now scratching the surface of.

As stated, it’s a bit of an issue.

The next step in casting a spell is maintaining that framework in your mind and forcing a portion of your spark to move through it as you begin to calculate the external variables. Things like how far you want your spell to go, how much mana needs to be dedicated to each component and more, all the while you need to spin up another visualisation, this time of your understanding of the effect you’re trying to achieve.

How does fire work exactly? How does the magic recreate this effect? And how is the nature of the world affecting your spell? These are just a few of the questions and answers you need to bear in mind.

As for why, the more you understand about the world and what you’re trying to achieve, the better the results. It’s why all the best spell casters you encounter in the Elder Scrolls games are nutcases with their heads in the stars. They’re trying and partially succeeding at understanding the nature of all things in a universe where entities like Sheogorath actually exist and aren’t just dumb memes, but rather memetic hazards like Freya is here.

To shorten things, it’s complicated, really complicated. I’d make an analogy about riding a unicycle while solving quadratics, but honestly that doesn’t really do the process justice and if I wasn’t operating with an enhanced mind, I doubt I could do much more than push my spark into my sword.

Point and case, I can’t actually manage even half the variables that factor into spell use as I am right now, my mental frameworks are sloppy and I can literally feel my magic spilling out through the gaps as waste. And this is with a week of practice, my skill offloading quite a bit of the workload and two perks supporting my efforts. All that and I was still a shit mage.

…But I was a mage.

“Burden.” I didn’t really need to say the spell name, but it functioned kind of like a mnemonic device, helping solidify my visualisation in the last moment. As the beast’s back handed swipe grazed off my shield, the spell -carried between my fingers- bloomed as it brushed against the Minotaur’s fur.

The Minotaur’s high level two strength didn’t quite fail it, but the limb still dragged the monster down as my spell magnified its weight, allowing me to easily keep out of its range. With great focus I prepared my followup, the sparks spell slowly churning to life in my hand as the Minotaur struggled against its own limb.

Perhaps it was due to the falna and how it empowered the soul directly, or perhaps it was a product of my modern education helping along the understanding aspect of spellcasting. But I was capable of affecting creatures with my magic that I probably shouldn’t be able to.

The spell’s glow reached its apex in my hand as my spark completed the circuit and lightning exploded out of my hand in my best Palpatine impression. The temptation to cackle madly and scream ‘Unlimited Power!’ was strong, but I was stronger. Also I’d seen another group around here recently and knowing my luck they’d arrive on the scene just as I was doing that, so I’d just have to settle for cooking this cow.

Or I would have if my burden spell didn’t end quite so suddenly, letting the smoking bastard spring at me. A titanic amount of force crashed into the shield I was holding in my offhand, not quite on the level of the blow that sent me flying a week ago, but close. Fortunately I’d improved since then, more strength, more endurance, my block skill reaching level fifty and the third level of the perk shield wall all working to mitigate the blow into something manageable.

As it was, the blow still sent me skidding back, but the Minotaur’s horns failed to take purchase in my fancy new nosteel and lode iron shield, scraping off as the bull tried to flip his horns and send me flying.

The shield was a handy thing, far heavier than any of my previous works, with the lode iron -a metal I didn’t actually have a perk for but found I could work regardless- providing a certain weight and upfront hardness that was lacking in my last shield.

“Not bad.” I complimented sincerely, shaking off the impact and the residual backlash from my sparks spell getting interrupted.

I’d been doing this for a while now, singling out Minotaurs to test out my magic and take blows from. The next big arena day was tomorrow and the day after was the formal inquiry with the Athena familia; leveling up was a requirement for the former and probably a good idea for the latter. Which meant this was my last day as a level one and I wanted to get my worst stats -magic and endurance- to a more acceptable level.

The block levels and magical practice certainly weren’t bad either; block I’d kinda been neglecting since I picked up dual wielding, and despite that it still saved my ass against hammer man. Magic… I just needed more practice if I wanted to make this work in proper combat. Right now it was consuming too much of my focus and it took too long to cast for any of my fancier combat ideas.

If I wanted to use it to enhance my fighting style as opposed to just being an inferior alternative, then it needed to be faster and easier to use. And -fortunately- I’d been working on something of a short term fix on that front, even if it did feel a bit too much like training wheels for my taste.

But beggars can’t be choosers, so I’d put in the work, or at least I would tonight. Right now I still have a date with a cow.

-

After spending a lot longer than I intended playing with the cows, I stepped through the door of my familia home and exchanged a surprisingly casual greeting with a distracted Hestia. Which was exactly the moment I realised a simple truth: I am a genius… or at least an unintentional genius.

Any other time in my career, any other day, a casual greeting like that would have been impossible, especially given that I’ve been in the dungeon since the previous morning. It would be all flying hugs and shouting, followed by demands for ‘punishment dates’.

But that’s where my unintentional genius came in.

See I may not have thought of it, but operation ‘throw a bunch of kids at Hestia until her maternal instincts kick in’ has been a rousing success regardless. The plan outright blew all my other child labour ideas straight out of the water, and it came with none of the risk factors that defined my earlier concepts.

Hell, it was working so well that at this rate I’d be able to slip away into the dungeon for days or even weeks without her totally freaking out. Which is damn good because I’m already at the end of the Middle Floors, and travel time is starting to become a real issue. I was already abusing my armour perk enhanced stamina to run up and down the dungeon, and it still takes me hours to reach the seventeenth floor.

Maybe if I find enough kids I’ll be able to live in the dungeon without her cutting off my falna updates? No, that’s a little too greedy… and also probably kidnapping.

“Elric-kun!” Hestia skipped over and actually just hugged me for once, instead of just attaching herself to my side like a limpet. Progress. Peeking up at me, her bright eyes searched my body and upon not finding anything, brightened even further. “No injuries or anything right?”

“Well none anymore at least.” I admit, sheepishly laughing. She was -unfortunately- about to be subject to excelia flashes of me trying to tank Minotaur swings without armour for endurance points, so I couldn’t really lie about that.

“Mou~!” She whined in protest, but still smiled up at me as she led me deeper inside our church which had gone through something of a renovation. It probably wouldn’t meet OSHA safety standards, but I’d done my best to clear up the insides and patch the roof, which let the current gaggle of kids running around enjoy themselves without the stray bits of roof falling on them.

Hestia sighed fondly at the sight, before zeroing in on a group of boys playing with something they really shouldn’t be. “Can you do something about that please?” She asked with a genuinely tired tone, like she’d been dealing with the kids messing with it since I left.

“Sorry.” I apologised with a chuckle, walking over to where Sticky was unintentionally organising a recreation of the story of Excalibur with my work-in-progress sword. I’d kinda discarded it after I came back from working on it; frustration was one hell of a drug and it’s not like anyone but an adventurer could take it anyway.

It was an unusual shape, size and just about everything for me. But the mithril had proven to be a fickle mistress of a material and hadn’t taken well to bending no matter what I did, bringing me back to the drawing board.

Which is when I got the idea for this big boi.

“I’m going to do it!” One of Sticky’s boys shouted as he tugged at the hilt, stick-like arms wobbling with effort as he turned red in the face. The blade barely even shifted from where I’d left it, and I winced a little as the other kids cheered him on.

That was how you put your back out.

“You kids done?” I asked as this one finally gave up, sweat dripping down his face as the group laughed or patted him on the back.

“Big Boss!” Sticky called out, something mirrored by even more of the kids this time. He’d been slowly spreading that nickname amongst his group and the rabbit girl’s friends, which was both annoying, and somewhat useful when I needed a touch of authority to deal with them. Like right now. “You’re back!”

“I am and I’m afraid I'm going to need that back.” I smiled, and despite the kids ‘awh’ing in disappointment, they still parted so I could pick up the exceptionally heavy sword.

Lode iron made up the base of this work, giving it its weight, while a small amount of mithril had been worked into the alloy on the edges, giving it a rather incredible sharpness even before my perk did its thing.

Fortunately it was both sheathed and way too heavy for kids to draw, otherwise there probably would have been a few missing fingers for my negligence. Drawing the blade I eyed the source of my earlier frustration and sighed as I realised I was in for a hell of a night; symbols and shapes I normally only saw in my mind’s eye coated the blade, but they were woefully incomplete.

Sheathing the wide blade much to the disappointment of the kids, I smiled apologetically. “Sorry kids, but I’m going to need to borrow Hestia, behave while we’re gone alright?”

This at least didn’t seem to disappoint the brats quite as much, with them running off and cheering much to Hestia’s chagrin and excessive pout.

As they left to go play outside, she sighed. “They’re opening up a lot more, but it still feels like they only respect you; I tried what must have been a dozen times to get them to stop playing with that, but they just ignored me.” She grumbled. “Che! What do you have that I don’t, Elric-kun? You barely even talk to them!”

“Dashingly handsome looks and a kill count in the double digits?” I chuckled, though it trailed off as Hestia winced. “Seriously, it’s probably just a holdover from last week, they’ll come to like you more than me soon enough.”

“Maybe…” She whispered, before taking a moment to spring back to full energy. “Now! What do you need?”

“Level up.” I say simply, watching the excitement bubble up on Hestia’s face like a kettle.

“YEEESSS! Let’s go!” Before I knew it, I was letting myself be dragged down the steps into our familia home, careful not to accidentally hit Hestia with the sword I was holding.

My inventory proved once more to be the ultimate cheat code in rapid undressing, leaving me bare chested and on the bed in record time.

“Ehhh…” Hestia murmured as she took her place, her hands trailing over my back. “You keep getting more muscular, Elric-kun…”

I didn’t really know what to say to that and well, no further words were needed as we went through a process we’d done dozens of times now, though for me it was still a trippy experience feeling a God’s blood ripple across my soul. Even more so actually, now that I was fully aware of my spark.

All the little noises that Hestia normally made as she analysed my excelia came out, all the little ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s that had become a routine between us. As well as the not-quite-so routine as she found something stupid I’d done and proceeded to try and glare a hole in the back of my head.

“One perk point, decide Elric-kun!” She announced dramatically.

“Alteration, magic resist!” I followed suit, it was a simple perk that gave you ten percent magic resist flat. And as I’d learned from blocking, percentage resistances are fantastic.

“Then next up is your Developmental Ability!” She enthused. “You’ve got… Abnormal Resistance, Blacksmith, Hunter, Mage, Metalworking, Mixing and Swordsman! Damn that’s a lot…” She finished in a whisper, making me chuckle.

And it was, according to Eina most people often don’t even get one at a level up; though most people probably don’t dabble in quite as many skills as I do. But that just made my choice harder, given that I could only pick one and quite a few of them were exceptionally tempting.

Hunter could only be picked at this level up, and it enhances my damage against any monster I’ve killed before. Swordsman enhances my damage and skill with a sword, and because developmental abilities level up, picking this right from the jump was incredibly tempting if I wanted to push my sword skills as high as I could. Blacksmithing opened up quite a few new abilities like magical weapon forging and enhanced smithing as a whole.

Metal working I didn’t know much about, abnormal resistance was a little boring but resistance to a damage type was never bad. Mixing was an alchemy enhancer that I would need to pick up sooner or later. And lastly was mage; a significant damage boost to all spells, as well as improvement to their efficiency. According to Eina it also aided in spellcasting and was the equivalent of having a magic stat of someone a full level higher than you.

And given my problems earlier, that was incredibly tempting.

Actually, it was beyond tempting, my new style hinged on the viability of my magic, making it the best pick I could make right now in order to directly increase my combat potential. And even if it didn’t help with the problems I was having with my spell casting, that was an almost self fixing problem given the way I was piling on the magic levels.

Either it would help immediately, or in however many days it took me to get past this hurdle.

“Mage!” I announced with good cheer, again matching Hestia’s exuberance. She started in surprise at that, but a glance showed her how serious I was.

“Alright then! Ascend Elric-kun!” She shouted in that dramatic register, dragging paper over my soul as she finished up what she was doing. “Ascend to the next level!”

I laughed, not really feeling all that different as she got off my ass and let me sit up. Or well… maybe? There was definitely something, but it felt like it was slowly easing me into the change, the strength coming slowly as opposed to all at once.

“Not sure about ascension, but I’ll take a look at that page if you don’t mind.” A smile came to my face as I caught a glimpse. “Oh? Not bad…”

-

Elric Carne
Lvl 1 → 2

Str - B 726 → I 000
Vit - C 635 → I 000
Dex - S 923 → I 000
Agl - A 801 → I 000
Mag - E 459 → I 000

Developmental Abilities:
Mage I

Magic:
[Yol] The wielder's soul burns with Hearthflame, a connection is carried to the Flame of Heaven.

Skills:
[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written into their soul. (0)

 Alchemy – 65
 Alchemist 4, Physician, Benefactor

Alteration – 31
Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, Magic Resistance 1

Archery – 34
-

 Block – 56
Shield Wall 3, Quick Reflexes

Destruction – 34
Novice Destruction

Enchanting – 15
Enchanter 1

 Light Armour – 69
 Agile Defender 3, Custom Fit, Unhindered, Wind Walker

Lockpicking – 43
-

 One-Handed – 76
 Armsman 4, Dual Flurry 2

 Smithing – 64
 Steel Smithing, Elven Smithing, Advanced Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith

 Sneak – 57
 -

 Speech – 43
 -

[Noblesse Oblige] While the user is fighting in defense of others, agility increases significantly. Furthermore, the user can sense when others are in danger.

-

“...Are you satisfied Elric-kun?” Hestia asked me with knowing eyes.

“Very.” I smiled.

“Then I’m going to give you a task, alright?” At that I blinked, Hestia had never really told me what to do other than when it came to the kids. Even our dates were more her talking me into it than anything.

“Oh?” I asked curiously.

“Tomorrow is that big tournament thing you’ve been going on about right?” It wasn’t quite a tournament, but close enough.

“It is.”

“Then I want you to win Elric-kun.” I paused at that, really not having expected her to go in that direction; normally she’d be asking me to back out and stay safe. Then again, she hadn’t really said anything about the arena open had she?

“I want you to win so completely and utterly that those other hussies won’t even think to lay their hands on you!” Hestia demanded of me and I couldn’t help but grin, so that was her angle. “Can you do that for me?”

“I’ll give this city a show they won’t ever forget.” And if some idiots don’t get the message? I’ll happily curbstomp them into the ground, they won’t even have to get me into a rating game.

I just need one thing first.

-

“I heard you were cursing up quite a storm the other night.” I really wasn’t surprised as I looked up from my forge work to find the grinning face of Tsubaki leaning through the window of my new forge hut. I say new, but really it was an old, neglected piece of shit forge that I got relegated to after my last forging session went south.

“It’s a piece of shit.” I deadpan, gesturing at what I was working on; sadly it was also the one thing I needed.

“Sounds about right.” Tsubaki surprisingly agreed, hopping through the window instead of just using the door. “Didn’t think you were the type for shitty decorations.”

“Got a problem with art?” I threw out half heartedly, just grateful for the break from the pain in the ass work. Lode iron and mithril were both hard as shit materials with high heating points, and I was trying to work all kinds of bullshit patterns into said hardness. Even with the level up boosting me it was painstaking, tiring work that was finicky as hell and abused my poor concentration like nothing else.

This wasn’t something I could just turn my brain off and unga bunga while relying on my skill to do all the work, and damn if that wasn’t painful.

“The weapon itself should be art, decorations like this just detract from that, especially if they compromise the purpose like this.” She said solemnly, looking over my sword like I’d just kicked her puppy. “The brats in my familia never seem to get that.”

“Well good thing they’re not decorations then.”

She looked at me, sizing me up and -after seemingly finding what she was looking for- smiling. “Huh no shit, what are they then?”

“I can tell you but…” I trailed off with a laugh. “Secret.”

Her expression flattened at that as she slumped over. “Elric, what you told me last time was enough to get every God in this city gunning for you, please don’t tell me there’s more.”

“Sure.” I agreed easily, smiling as a long beat passed between us and then a groan escaped from her. She recovered quickly though, looking over the blade with fresh eyes.

“I don’t need to know what’s going on to help right?” An interested grin spread across her face at my nod. “Then you got a sketch or something?” I whistled, kind of blown away by the implied offer.

“You sure?”

She rolled her eyes. “I might hate useless things, but if this has an actual purpose then that makes it a decent challenge see?”

Ah, in other words she had principles, but she also had the same passion for overly elaborate pieces of metal that she scorned in her guildmates. Given an excuse, she actually wanted to do the finicky work I was dreading.

Well I wouldn’t say no to free, highly skilled labour!

Unfortunately I did not actually have a sketch to give her; I was going straight off the spell pattern in my mind that I’d memorised by rote.

“It’s a bit complicated, but I can sketch it out.”

And so I did, tracing the blade first and then getting to work aligning the different symbols and drawing the intersecting patterns as I’d learned them from my alteration skill. What I was doing wasn’t really how you were supposed to do this, the orientation and direction was massively off and that would probably cause even more of the wastage that I was running into earlier, but it should work.

…Probably.

The goal here was to just make something that could essentially act as a spell focus for one particular spell, aiding in its casting. As for my chances? Well three of my skills seemed to tentatively agree that this would at least partially work. And that was good enough for me! If I could offload even part of the spell casting onto my sword, then I could cast so much faster and actually focus on fighting.

And if it worked well? Then my entire fighting style would change completely, and I would dominate the entire arena open tomorrow regardless of who turned up to fight.

My drinking buddy hummed as she watched me work. “Yeah I don’t get it at all, but it looks cool though!”

“And that’s all that matters right?” I asked sarcastically, and watched as she started nodding with a closed-eye sage look.

“Well you’ve already done most of the work, so why don’t you let me show you how it’s done from here?” She grinned.

“By all means.” I happily surrendered my hammer to the smithing familia captain, again just grateful for the break. Then I promptly realised my mistake as I struggled to keep my eyes on the techniques she was trying to show me instead of everything else she was showing me.

“They’re a pain in the ass aren’t they?” My friend who I was ogling suddenly asked, apparently having finished one of the symbols while I was…

“I’m sorry?” I uttered, a bit out of it.

“The lumps of fat stuck on my chest.” I felt like I was missing something as Tsubaki suddenly started whining, tapping her breasts with her hammer mournfully. “All they do is just get in the way of my smithing and distract people.”

I really didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just said the first thing that came to mind. “Well they look great at least.” I said, commiseratingly…?

She just gave me the same look she’d been giving my sword earlier, that kicked puppy kind of bitterness.

“Ah, decorations without purpose huh?” I asked as I remembered what she said.

“Exactly…” She sighed, but seemed to come back around as her eyes caught on the blade between again. “But I know just how you can make me feel better!”

“I feel like you’re already fine, but hit me.”

She handed me the hammer and gave me a fanged grin. “It’s simple! Just show me what I just taught you.”

So I did, what I could remember that wasn’t just her breasts bouncing in her wrap at least, and then I pieced together the rest as she teased me over my every failing.

Things… actually went well from there, the frustrations of the last time I did this falling away to the miracle of good company and cheer. And, before I could blink, I had a completed sword and Tsubaki was breaking into her second bottle of sake in celebration.

Looking over my partner in crime, I realised I’d have to do something to thank her, for this and for everything else. She’d helped me a lot recently, without much of an expectation for anything in return. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know what I could offer to someone like her, and there’s only really one solution to that isn’t there?

I hummed, setting down my new sword. “Is there anything you want?”

“Ehhh… in life?” That was not what I meant, but I didn’t really get a chance to correct the record as Tsubaki threw her head back and laughed. “There’s only one thing I want and that’s to make weapons better than the boss!” She cackled, as if picturing the day. “That’s my dream!”

That… was actually doable, or at least, I could help her along on that front with my sharpening, or my enchanting skill, or my alchemy.

Huh.

Then questions would be, was it worth it and did I trust her?

Yes and yes surprisingly.

She already knew about my inventory, my potions, sword skill… hell she probably had an idea that I was growing too fast at blacksmithing to be natural. My excuse of being a rusty old hand at it could only really go so far; especially when you needed falna-given strength to work certain materials and I was very clearly new on that front.

“That’s a pretty serious look on your face, whatcha thinking about? Your own dream?” She asked suddenly, a knowing smirk on her flushed face.

I smiled and shook my head at that. “Become a hero, kill the big black dragon, save the world.” I didn’t have a reason to hide that, it had just never really come up despite all the times I drank with Tsubaki.

She whistled appreciatively, taking a swig and offering me the rest of the bottle with a grin. “You’re a bit early for that, but I respect the balls.”

“I leveled up today actually, so not so early.” I admitted, before having to speed up a touch past mortal limits in order to catch the bottle as it suddenly slipped from my fellow Captain’s grasp.

The shock passed surprisingly quickly and an assessing grin lit up her face. “Y’know, when someone says they’re going to hold out to up their stats, they normally mean they’re going to wait a few months at least.”

“Well, I hit my S stat goal.” I announced casually, grinning as Tsubaki fumbled her fresh bottle just a little. She pouted at me and hugged it to her chest.

But that quickly passed and soon she was grinning again. “I guess it won’t be long before you fulfil that little promise huh?”

Promise? Ah, I said I was going to buy swords off her to her face didn't I? That particular plan hadn’t changed since I made it, so I just smiled back confidently.

My Skyrim blacksmithing didn’t really give a shit where the original sword came from, all that really mattered was the sharpen. Bit of a stupid system, but it was one to my benefit as it let me effectively borrow Tsubaki’s blacksmithing DA instead of wasting a development slot on it myself.

Which is kind of just another example of me using Tsubaki for the things she can offer me, instead of treating her like an actual friend.

How very typical of me.

Easy fix though, all I had to do was answer the question; do I want our friendship to just boil down to transactions? Or did I want to gamble on a bit of trust here?

And frankly, that was an easy question to answer as well. “Before, when I had that serious look on my face; I wasn’t thinking about my dream.”

“Oh?” Tsubaki’s brow quirked up in curiosity.

“I was thinking about yours, or more specifically, if I can help you out with it.” At that, she started, brow furrowing and a few different expressions cycling across her face as she seemed to try and ascertain if I was mocking her or not.

She settled on something approaching cautious optimism, with a good humoured smile to mask it. “That… would be pretty damn impressive, but I don’t know if even a miracle man like yourself can pull that off.”

Which just meant I had to prove I wasn’t full of hot air.

Easy enough.

Grabbing my new sword, I offered it to her. “Try the edge on that.” She did, not really seeming to get where I was going with this even as she passed it back to me. “Right, I’m going to something even I’d call outright bullshit, if it starts to hurt your eyes, just look away.”

“Sounds…” She trailed off as I took the blade back to the forge and sharpened it; at which point it didn’t take long for her jaw to drop. “What… what did you just do?”

“I have no idea, but here try the edge again.” She took the blade and her jaw dropped again, staring at the slab of metal that she’d worked on with her own two hands with absolutely befuddlement.

“What…?”

“I dunno if you’d consider it cheating or not, but I thought at the very least I’d offer.” I offered kindly, unfortunately she seemed to be in the process of rebooting so I don’t know if she actually heard me.

Ah well, I felt better at least.

Now I just needed to test my new sword and I'd be good to go.