The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Closing the door behind him, Larek leaned up against it and slid to the floor before hanging his head in exhaustion. The pressure of constantly maintaining a façade of authority and competence toward the Mages and Martials of Tarvada was extremely wearing on him, and all he could think while he was doing it was that at some point, one of them would call him out for being a fraud.

Granted, he had a few abilities with Fusions and his Pattern Cohesion that made him much more powerful than them, but that didn’t give him the right to simply order them about and have them do his bidding. Or did it? He couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t much better than the “Supreme Provider”, Borex, gaining power by seizing it and pretending like he knew best, with everyone just following along because he was strong.

Regardless of whether being powerful automatically allowed someone to take charge, Larek didn’t feel comfortable with it in the least. He wasn’t lying when he said that he had no desire to be a leader for these people; not just because he was going to be leaving soon, but because he felt uncomfortable with the responsibility of caring for so many people. Sure, he was willing to help provide some of his Fusions so that they wouldn’t starve and were safer overall, but as soon as that was done, he was out. He didn’t even technically have to do that much, but his conscience wouldn’t let him leave without doing at least as much as he had time to accomplish.

Unfortunately, it appeared as though that time was going to be a little bit longer, because Nedira hadn’t quite awoken yet. It had only been a couple of hours since they arrived, so it wasn’t too surprising, but he was hoping that she would be up and around so that he could bounce some ideas off her and ask her opinion on some things. Since that didn’t appear to be likely to happen unless she woke up within the next hour or so, he knew he’d have to do it all himself – a common theme as of late, but that was fine with him.

Sitting on the bed next to the unconscious Nedira, Larek looked at his notifications and Status for the first time since he’d left the underground tunnels of the Drekkin, as he’d ignored them all while fighting the Sand Vultures and the subsequent run to the city.

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 31!

You have reached Level 33 and have 24 available AP to distribute!

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 32!

Magical Detection has reached Level 39!

Bladed Weapon Expertise has reached Level 3!

Throwing has reached Level 19!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 37!

Body Regeneration has reached Level 38!

Long-Distance Running has reached Level 21!

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 33!

Pattern Manipulation has reached Level 34!

Speaking has reached Level 20!

Speaking has reached Level 21!

Bargaining has reached Level 10!

Leadership has reached Level 14!

Leadership has reached Level 15!

Leadership has reached Level 16!

The increase in his Skill Levels was surprising, especially in Leadership, of all things. Apparently, taking charge of the Martials and Mages in Tarvana qualified as “leadership”, so it had ended up going up 3 Levels. The only one that had surpassed that in development was his Pattern Manipulation Skill, which had seen a lot of use over the last day, both when fighting the Sand Vultures and when using it against Borex.

All of the Skill increases also contributed to another personal Level, giving him another 24 Advancement Points to spend on his stats.  Without hesitation, he added another 8 points to his Martial stats, bringing Strength, Body, and Agility to a base of 115, with his boosts bringing them up to 230.  He knew that it would probably take him a little bit to adjust to the changes, but more and more during fights he was relying on his body more than his mind to keep him alive, so he considered it important to keep doing everything he could to keep improving it.

In addition, he had a total of 3,485 Aetheric Force, acquired from the Sand Vultures he’d killed at the Aperture. Since he was just about to make more Fusions, he used it to increase the maximum Skill Level by 1 for Multi-effect Fusion Focus, Focused Division, Mana Control, Fusion, and Pattern Formation, which brought all of their maximums up to 61. After that was done, he only had 485 AF left, but he chose to keep it until he accumulated more at some point in the future.

All in all, he’d made some improvements, even if that had been his original goal in trying to close the Aperture and then later visiting the city of Tarvada.

Larek Holsten

Combat Fusionist

Healer

Patternal

Level 33

Advancement Points (AP): 8/24

Available AP to Distribute: 0

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 485

Stama: 2300/2300

Mana: 3720/3720

Strength: 115 [230] (+)

Body: 115 [230] (+)

Agility: 115 [230] (+)

Intellect: 186 [372] (+)

Acuity: 140 [280] (+)

Pneuma: 1,863 [3,726]

Pattern Cohesion: 37,260/37,260

Mage Skills:

Pattern Manipulation Level 34/50 (500 AF)

Pattern Recognition Level 38[48]/50 (500 AF)

Magical Detection Level 39[49]/50 (500 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 37[47]/50 (500 AF)

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 48/61 (610 AF)

Focused Division Level 53/61 (610 AF)

Mana Control Level 57[61]/61 (610 AF)

Fusion Level 57[61]/61 (610 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 57[61]/61 (610 AF)

Martial Skills:

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 1/35 (350 AF)

Stama Subjugation Level 2/35 (350 AF)

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 3[13]/35 (350 AF)

Unarmed Fighting Level 3[13]/35 (350 AF)

Throwing Level 19[29]/35 (350 AF)

Dodge Level 23[33]/35 (350 AF)

Pain Immunity Level 20/20 (N/A)

Body Regeneration Level 38[48]/50 (500 AF)

General Skills:

Cooking Level 8

Bargaining Level 10

Beast Control Level 9

Leadership Level 16

Writing Level 11

Saw Handling Level 15

Reading Level 17

Speaking Level 21

Long-Distance Running Level 20

Listening Level 43

Axe Handling Level 92

Soon after he’d finished going through everything and spending his different points on improving himself, a knock at the door signaled that his materials had arrived. Vanders led a group of other Martials that had their hands full of steel plates, all of them approximately the size he had wanted, and they stacked them up next to his bed. Larek thanked them and they left a few minutes later, leaving him to start working.

He paused for a few minutes, looking at Nedira to see if she was going to wake up, but even though the Martials delivering the steel plates weren’t quiet as they stacked the metal plates on top of each other, she hadn’t even twitched at the sound. Stretching out his back and shaking his hands in preparation, Larek turned away from the woman sleeping peacefully at his side and picked up the first steel plate on the stack next to the bed.

He'd already thought about what he needed to create over the last hour or so, and seeing the process at work out on the fields only switched the method of how it was all going to work. Originally, he’d been planning on simply using a Rapid Plant Growth effect that could be activated by the Fusion, but after learning about Nature’s Renewal, he realized he was thinking too small.  Sure, it would probably work using the Growth spell, but he wasn’t sure how large of an area he could get it to affect, and the Mana cost would increase dramatically the larger he made it. It was a bit of an all-in-one growing spell without the need for additional water, which could be good for smaller areas or specific plants, but it was also terribly inefficient in terms of Mana consumption.

And Mana consumption had been a focus as of later, considering the Mana density of the environment he had been dealing with. Unfortunately, even getting closer to the heart of the Kingdom hadn’t changed the density dramatically, though it was better than before.

If he was to evaluate it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the Mana density when he arrived in the Sealance Empire and 10 being what he was used to in the Kingdom before he was transported elsewhere, then he would probably put the current density at a 6. That was quite an improvement over the 4 or 4.5 Mana density that the underground tunnels of the Drekkin possessed, but it was still a far cry from what it used to be.

It was as if the Kingdom before was like a small pond of concentrated Mana, where only trickles of Mana filtered out to the rest of the world; after the changes that occurred that caused people to transform into Mages and Martials elsewhere, it was as if a large boulder had dropped into the middle of that pond, sending Mana flying everywhere and reducing the concentration of Mana in the middle. Larek had the feeling that the density would continue to increase the further he traveled to the center, but he doubted that it would be exactly the same as before. It was more… diluted, if that was the correct term, as it spread throughout the world. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, because if there ever came a time when the entire world reached the level that the Kingdom had been at before all the changes, then they were all likely in a lot of trouble. Or they might all be dead by that point, because that meant that a lot of Apertures had likely grown to the point where no one could live nearby them.

That kind of outcome was hopefully years and years into the future, though, or perhaps they might even find a way to prevent it from happening altogether. Regardless, Larek had to work with what he had right now, which was not an extremely dense Mana environment, so his Fusions had to be a little bit more restrictive in the amount of Mana pulled into them. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it was before, considering that he could probably have one of his offensive Fusions that originally only could be activated for 10 minutes or so before it drained the density to sparse levels for at least a half-day before any problems occurred, but he also had to take into account that multiple Fusions like the one he was about to create were going to be activated simultaneously in the same general area.

Therefore, the lesser effect from Nature’s Renewal was the better choice, as it used less Mana. Of course, once he translated it into a Fusion and put his special touch on it, his creation would use quite a bit more Mana; if he judged the draw correctly, which he’d been getting much better at estimating since he’d had to deal with much-less dense environments, then dozens of these could be used around the city without any issues whatsoever.

It also wouldn’t be like having a dozen pairs of Mages doing what they were currently doing. Instead, he was hoping that the output of his new Fusions would be multiple times stronger than what they were doing – and they wouldn’t have to rest to let their Mana regenerate after every row, either.

Settling his thoughts into the effects he wanted, because Dousing Spray was going to be included in the Fusion, Larek started designing what was ultimately going to be an Advanced Fusion, even if it wasn’t too complicated. Ultimately, it consisted of only two active Effects, one of which was what grew the plants in the area of effect and the other was for watering, but it had a third Effect that was for strengthening the steel itself so that it would be much harder to damage.  He debated on whether to make it adjustable and able to react to mental commands, but decided that simpler was better; just a simple touch to the steel plate to activate or deactivate was all that was needed, which would also cut Mana costs because he wouldn’t have to add in the fourth Effect of recognizing different mental phrases.

He also added an Interval to the watering Effect, as he didn’t want it to be too strong, which might flood the fields. With the Interval of 5 seconds, it would spread the water around for 5 seconds and then pause for another 5, before starting again. He might have to adjust it if it proved to be too much or too little, but based on what he saw a short time earlier out in the fields, he was fairly certain that 5 seconds would be fairly close – and that was because of the Magnitudes that were being used for the Effects.

As for those Magnitudes – as well as the Activation Methods – Larek judged that the Nature’s Renewal that the Mages used out in the fields earlier to be something like a Magnitude 3 Effect, which wasn’t bad by any means, but he thought he could do better. Both the growing and watering Effects were attached via an Activatable Activation Method to a Magnitude 7 portion of the formation, which both made the Effects stronger and extended their range. As for the Strengthen Effect, Larek made it Magnitude 6 with a Permanent Activation Method, which would always be activated.

Theoretically, he could make it much stronger, but as it was already made out of steel, the increase in durability would prevent all but the most determined of blows from even denting it. That, and there was still the matter of using more of the local Mana density than necessary, as anything stronger than Magnitude 6 would be a significant constant drain on the density even without the other Effects active.

All-in-all, for what the Fusion did, it was only complicated enough to need to fit into a 9 X 9 grid formation. Once he had it constructed and he triple checked it to make sure it was as perfect as possible, he began the process of filling it with Mana while concentrated on the Effects, imparting the idea of plants growing and water spreading out in a circular spray, as well as the strengthening of the steel plate.

Seeing his Mana fill at a much higher rate than he had been used to over the last few months, he breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t have to spend an hour or more filling up the Fusion while waiting for his Mana to regenerate. It still wasn’t nearly instant like it used to be, but it was so much faster than even what he experienced in the Drekkin tunnels that it was almost refreshing to feel it streaming into his body, only to be shoved back out into the Fusion he was creating.

After only 15 minutes, he sensed the last of the Mana filtering in through the grid formation, and he confidently moved the entire Fusion onto the steel plate in his lap. As it *clicked* into place, he was greeted with a successful notification.

New Fusion learned!

Strong Watered Growth +7

Activation Method(s): Activatable, Permanent

Effect(s): Causes all viable seeds and plants within range to mature rapidly

Effect(s): Distributes water in a circular misting spray that hydrates quickly

Effect(s): Strengthens steel

Magnitude(s): 70 X 70-foot area centered around Fusion location, 600% increase in steel durability

Interval: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 79,800

Pattern Cohesion: 1,800

Fusion Time: 74 hours

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 49!

Fusion has reached Level 58!

Pattern Formation has reached Level 58!

It wasn’t the most impressive Fusion he’d ever created, but it would positively impact many more lives than anything else he’d had his hand in. He couldn’t help but be proud of the Fusion in front of him and he was eager to test it out; however, he was confident enough in its performance that he wanted to get the others he would need done with while he had the chance.

Before he did that, though, Strong Watery Nature wasn’t the only Fusion he was going to create, because with the added range of his newest creation, it was going to require an equally impressive way to plow the fields to prepare for it. An Intermediate Fusion was all that was required, because there were only two Effects, with only one of those needing an Input based on the Fusion’s orientation.

New Fusion learned!

Furrow Field +6

Activation Method(s): Activatable, Permanent

Effect(s): Gently shifts a certain amount of dirt in the oriented direction

Effect(s): Strengthens steel

Magnitude(s): Moves 3 cubic feet of dirt per second, 600% increase in steel durability

Input: Directional orientation

Mana Cost: 7,500

Pattern Cohesion: 375

Fusion Time: 22 hours

The newest Fusion didn’t give him any additional Skill increases, which was probably due to its lowered complexity, but that didn’t matter all that much. Now he had a Fusion that would furrow a field, based on the Furrow spell he’d learned from Nedira while they were escaping from Copperleaf Academy, and a Fusion that would grow and water the crops that the people needed in order to eat. He considered something that might help to harvest everything, but there were so many different types of crops that he didn’t think he’d be able to make something that would be able to do everything; if he isolated each crop, he might be able to figure something out, but he eventually dismissed it as unnecessary.

They had plenty of hands that could do that type of work, as well as planting the necessary seeds after the fields were furrowed.  He didn’t need to design something that could do everything; he only needed to speed up the most time-consuming processes, which he’d done.

Now it was time to make enough copies to sustain the people of Tarvana for a long time, which he immediately began by pulling up stacks of the steel plates onto the bed. With the use of Focused Division, he would be done soon enough, and he’d be able to see the fruits of his labors in a practical demonstration.

Alright, let’s finish this up so we can get to feeding all those starving people.