Chapter 155—Freebies

AG. First of 2 and a half.

Eloise’s mum held out her palm upon which rested four stones evenly split between skill and spell options. From the elaborate whirls and details in them, they were all high tiered at least in reference to what he managed to acquire in his first life.

“Don’t cry kids. You can take your pick. I think the order you finished in the tournament is most appropriate. We have to reward excellence after all”

Tom bit off his smile. She was always going to give Eloise first pick and if she had gotten the worse place out of the three of them in the tournament, then the selection would have been in reverse order.

“Love. You take that one,” she continued, pointing at one of the two skill stones.

Eloise, to her credit did not immediately grab the recommended stone. “What do they do?”

Her mum smiled. “So clever. Our party got caught in a bad trial, though we all survived, so I guess it ended up being a very profitable and valuable delve but it was not one we should have gone near. It was dangerous and but for the type of luck that not even fate can engineer, it would have been deadly. We were very lucky, but we escaped alive and the whole way through it dropped lots of items related to teleportation.” She pointed at the one she was suggesting that Eloise would be best served in selecting. “I used the twin of that stone, and your dad got an even better version. It’s an emergency teleport with some precognition built in. It can send you up to a hundred kilometres away in a random direction. That means if something was about to kill you, you’ll be saved, no matter its capabilities. The downside is that the cooldown is based on how far it tosses you. A dozen metres, then it can be reused in about that number of minutes. A hundred kilometres and it’ll be out of action for weeks. Not that the cooldown is an issue. In both cases, the intervention would have kept you alive and that’s all that matters.”

“Is it good?” Eloise asked.

“It’s amazing. A proper lifesaving treasure. Very rare and sells for a full tier higher than skills of a similar rank.”

“And the others?” her finger was cautiously touching the prettiest of the offered rocks. It was the other skill stone and was made of two pinks, one bright like a rose and the other a deeper shade almost to the point of red.

“They’re good, but not as spectacular as the one I just recommended. This pretty one is a genuine tier four blink skill. It’ll let you instantly travel to anywhere in your line of sight within seven metres. It’s a true skill so doesn’t have a cool down but causes moderate skill exhaustion so you can’t abuse it too much with chain casting. That’s the next best of the four. The other two are spells and are better or worse depending on how you think about it. They’re different, less valuable from an auction perspective, but value is always in the eyes of the beholder. This one,” she pointed at a purple and white rock. “Contains a channelled teleport spell. Its range is line of sight and it’s a weird training aid. We checked in the experience shop and our rogue was able to understand its purpose based on his own experiences with shadow blink. Over the decades, he’s improved its levels and required numerous epiphanies to do so. This spell’s purpose is to take that process of getting a handful of levels to take weeks instead of years.”

“Do you know what he’s epiphanies were?” Tom asked curiously, remembering his own skill from his last life.

“For him it was firming up the destination and resonating his body better,” the not dad answered on his wife’s behalf. “This spell apparently helps with the first, but is also designed to aid the process of optimising the angle you enter sub dimensions.” He laughed at Tom’s shocked expression. “Double dutch right. I harassed him so much to get better analogies and the one that helped me understand the best is as follows. The angle improvement is analogous to throwing a stone. If you put an arc on it then it takes less energy to get the same distance as throwing flat but also takes longer. The same tradeoffs apply to most teleportation spells as well.”

“Interesting. Do you know if this is a pinnacle spell?”

The not father slapped his thigh. “I’ve always known you’re smart, but these questions. Wow. How do you know this stuff?”

Tom cursed his lack of finesse. He had needed to know the answers, but he had unleashed them like an uncouth bogan in a high tea filled with socialites. To protect himself from further revealing actions, he retreated to his system room to let the magic that protected his reincarnation status do its work. He watched and listened fascinated to observe how his avatar was going to cover up his foolishness. His body grinned almost vibrating with excitement. “It’s my absolutely favourite thing to study in the isolation room. The idea of shutting my eyes and being somewhere else is just so amazing.”

“Hate to burst your bubble kid but that’s not how it works.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” Eloise’s dad said seriously. “Almost all of them force you to have a line of sight before the instant teleport. There’s no shutting your eyes to avoid the disorientation of the movement. You have to get used to it.”

“Oh, that’s so cool. I didn’t know that.”

“As for your original question, no it’s definitely not a pinnacle spell.. That one is tier six and allows you to optimise on entry angle, body resonance, anchor point and spin.”

Tom nodded. The request for clarification might have been too advanced for his age, but he had needed to find out. If he had the choice of being gifted a spell at the pinnacle of its type and a crappier spell in the same tier but weaker, he had a responsibility to take the one that his title could upgrade.

“I’d have taken it myself, but to get the most out of it you need both experience in skill creation and direct magic spell manipulation. Neither of which myself or any of the party was good at. So we decided to make them available to you kids because if there’s anything this orphanage excels in teaching are those particular components of foundation building.”

“How much mana does it take?”

The not mum pursed her lips. “To be honest, too much for a kid, but it’s a channelled spell and if you’ve got it, then I’m sure Dimitri can give access to mana crystals to allow you to play with it. But fair warning, it’s worthless unless you have a teleportation skill.”

“I can get one. They didn’t offer any in the ten-year-old tournament but they do in the twelves. I’ll practice hard and win it.”

She smiled indulgently. “It’s great to aim high, but our little girl’s going to keep getting better. Do you really think you have a chance of winning?”

“Yes,” he answered instantly, with the confidence that only a child could muster.

“Tom’s pretty good Mum.” Eloise said shooting him an uncomfortable glance that screamed… Please don’t humiliate me next tournament in revenge for my mum being an arse or something like that but couched in language more appropriate for a nine-year-old.

“It’s good for you to stick up for your friends, dear, but you were clearly the best today. That movement ability was amazing.”

Eloise had the grace to look embarrassed.

“She only won because she cheated,” Briana whispered, petulantly. Luckily, because of her shyness Tom was the only one who heard.

“Anyway, Tom, with Briana taking the blink, you can get the training spell or a proper teleportation ability. You’ll need at least a hundred and fifty mana to use it, but if you get really strong, you’ll have the pool to teleport to any place you’ve marked previously. It’s an efficient spell, but if you want to travel the ten thousand kilometres between the human towns, you’ll need two thousand mana.”

He pretended to think about it. Two thousand mana was a lot to accumulate but with his storage capability cheat he’d hit that number comfortably before he was twenty-five years old and she wasn’t exaggerating about the efficiency. Ten thousand kilometres was a long way. On earth, it was basically the longest commercial flight you could buy. The spell was the equivalent of twenty hours of nonstop flying triggering in an instant. As impressive as that was there would be civilians and rituals to do the same job. It was not something needed personally.

“I want the training aid.” he declared. With his mana storage and Fateful Earth Body providing a teleportation ability to enhance, it would be silly to take anything else. The actual teleport spell she was offering was only a convenience to save some walking and time. It had no benefit in battle or exploration, which were the two things he was interested in.

Eloise’s mum shrugged. “It’s the lesser spell but if you’re adamant…” She handed it to him and he put it in his pocket.

“You’re not going to use it now? You’re not planning on selling it are you.”

“No, I would never… Um… I was going to use it in an isolation room. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. If you want to exchange it for something better, go for it. Just make sure Dimitri’s aware of the transaction so you don’t get ripped off.” She switched her attention to her daughter. “I can’t believe you won. That’s so amazing.”

Tom wandered away to get food and moved the spell stone to his storage space just to see what he had gotten.

Spell: Teleportation Aid – Tier 5

Attune this spell to an existing ability and then you can vary spin, angle, and anchor stability to see how the performance of the skill can change.

Mana cost to attune is variable but can range from fifty to five hundred with each test of parameters requiring ten percent of initial investment to carry out. 

He didn’t know what it would cost to attune Fateful Earth Body his only teleportation ability to the spell, but he hoped that he could use this spell to improve its efficiency and or the distance he could use it as a teleportation option.

Smiling, he let himself flow into the party and it was a full hour before he got sick of it and retreated into the Divine Champion’s trial so he could get some proper training done. 

Everyone in his cohort was late going to bed, but the moment he settled down the invitation from Kang came through.

He greeted his friend warmly and told him about the party.

“So I gave everything away. I’m hoping that more generally we create a gifting culture.” The words pushed up against the spirit of his title but didn’t break it.

“Tri… Tri…”

“Trident? I don’t have an update on it. There was no duel today.”

“Na, Na. ift.”

“Mate, I don’t understand.”

“If” Kang looked frustrated.

“If what?”

The other boy shook his head vigorously.

“Um… lets see. I was talking about gifting culture…”

Vigorous nods greeted him.

“And then you said trident.”

Kang looked at him hopefully like a puppy.

“You’re asking about both of them?”

“Ya.”

“What about them?”

“Im… Bet.”

Tom took a moment to try to interpret what his mate was trying to ask. It wasn’t clear, but there were only so many ways the two topics could be linked. “Are you wondering which one is more important?”

“Ya.”

“The trident. Definitely the trident. I’m running out of time to bring it to justice.”

Fate flooded out of Kang. Once more, he narrowed his eyes. “And you’re seriously telling me you can’t control the fate release.”

“Ya.” The tone was adamant.

“That’s great.”

Another three weeks passed and then it was the day he had been waiting for, for years. He was about to turn ten.

With less than twenty-four hours to go, the timer he had access to had switched to hours and minutes and he discovered that he had been born mid-morning. As was tradition, he skipped classes and retreated to an isolation room.

It was finally time to find out what his build was going to be. 

The timer reduced to zero and for the first time in this life he was able to see his full status.

Initially, he skim read it to get a feel for what was happening.

Most of it was known, his attributes were middling for his age, his list of titles and traits were ridiculously long. But he knew that already, so instead he concentrated on the components of the status sheet that were new or surprised him.

The first thing that stood out like an ugly thumb was the title level of underage skill development. It was only level three instead of the four or possibly five that he had been expecting. On his count, over forty points were missing.

“Show skills that are contributing to the underage skill title,” he ordered.

Almost a dozen skills were immediately printed out and he identified the problem instantly. Out of all of his soul skills, only bulwark, the one with the lowest tier of the three was counting toward the title.

It didn’t make any sense. “Why isn’t Soul Stun being counted?” he demanded.

A single line in the title description began to flash. 

·        Eligible skills must be wholly created. If any part of the merged skill was acquired from a skill stone or trainer, then no skill points are awarded.

It wasn’t from a skill stone, he started to complain in his head. Soul Scalpel didn’t contribute… then he stopped the rant midway through as a different thought occurred to him. Maybe it was the other disqualifying factor that had counted against him.

It was possible…

Tom frowned. Given what he was seeing it was not only more than possible, it was almost a certainty. 

For bulwark, Mr Cricket had tortured his soul repeatedly but had refused to give any guidance. Tom had eventually felt and then learned to guard his soul against such attacks, and that action had formed his new skill. He had earned it himself, and while Mr Cricket had acted as a convenient source of soul damage that hadn't been critical to the training. Any damage source, even an artefact would have been enough.

For the other two, because of the time pressures, Mr Cricket had been far more hands on. He had explained the feel and even shown him how to optimise the attacks and as a result both Stun and Rend had been acquired suspiciously fast. Yes, the years spent being tortured and Scalpel had helped but they had still come way too easily. Then there was what Wendaga had said about him being lucky to have had someone like Mr Cricket to help him gain the skills.

Inside, Tom groaned.

Mr Cricket had been a soul trainer. That was why the offensive abilities had come so quickly. It hadn’t been his brilliance, just that he had been working under a master.

It was disappointing that his title hadn’t reached its fifth stage where he would have been getting two attribute points per level, but after seeing those attacking skills in use against the centipede and knowing he had stopped that from ending the lives of his companions he was just thankful Mr Cricket had been a trainer and had allowed him to gain those skills as quickly as he had. Just possessing them was enough. He didn’t need them to contribute to his titles as well.

He smiled at his greed and then, rubbing his hands turned his attention to the next set of questions he wanted answers for.