The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Keeping with the same theme of Fusions as Binding Thorns, his next creation was a combination between his Area Chill Fusion and the Ice Spike spell. Instead of binding a monster with roots, the new Fusion caused an area to become extremely cold in a flash, with the moisture in the air and any in a monster crystalizing into ice – or at least that was the theory. Whether or not it would actually play out like that, especially any moisture in a monster’s body, was still up in the air until he tried it out; at the least, if it didn’t harm the monsters caught in its Effect outright, he thought that it would at least cripple their speed so that they couldn’t move as fast.

New Fusion Learned!

Frozen Zone +1

Activation Method: Reactive, Activatable

Effect(s): Creates a zone of super-chilled air that crystalizes the available moisture into ice

Magnitude: Covers a 1-foot by 1-foot by 1-foot cubic area

Input: Physical movement detection of over 1 mph, phrase recognition

Variable 1: If no movement is detected, deactivates after 5 minutes

Variable 2: Upon any physical movement Input detection, creates freezing zone that crystalizes all available moisture into ice

Variable 3: Upon initial mental Activatable activation, activates detection of physical movement Inputs after 5 seconds

Variable 4: If the spoken phrase, “Deactivate Frozen Zone”, is detected within range, deactivates after 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 95

Pattern Cohesion: 4

Fusion Time: 31 minutes

Pattern Formation has reached Level 39!

Even with a brief test, which had him briefly passing his hand through the small cubic area of effect to trigger the Frozen Zone Fusion, he wasn’t able to see if it froze the blood in his hand if he kept it in there for a while. While it became quite cold, as would be expected, he thought that it might eventually give him frostbite on his fingertips if he held his hand within it for a while. As it was only Magnitude 1, he didn’t expect anything much different than that, and he was reluctant to “test” anything stronger with his body as he wasn’t precisely sure what would happen. Would it freeze all the blood in his hand and cause it to explode once the ice crystals grew? Would it then move on to the rest of his body and kill him? Without being entirely sure of the outcome, he couldn’t countenance testing it with himself or even inside the Inn where it might actually freeze all the moisture in the wooden floors and cause it to crack and fall apart.

Along with his new Frozen Zone Fusion, increased his Pattern Formation Skill up to 39, inching it one step closer to his goal. Again putting aside the need to make his new Fusion with a higher Magnitude for use against monsters, Larek designed his final Fusion that was meant to target monsters moving along the ground toward him. This next one he was making was a bit more specialized and he wasn’t entirely sure it would actually work, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to try. The reason he wasn’t sure it would operate the way he thought it might was that he didn’t really know if magical healing worked on monsters.

That’s right – magical healing. More specifically, an area-effect Healing Surge-type of healing effect rapidly applied at an extremely high Magnitude.

It might sound counterintuitive, but Larek still remembered creating the Fusion back at Crystalview and how quickly the Magnitude 5 version both healed him and made him extremely hungry and weak after only about 20 seconds of use. When he factored in that he also had the Body Regeneration Skill that the Fusion tapped into, it should’ve been obvious back then that it was entirely too much healing for an average Mage or normal person. When he switched to a Magnitude 3 version that he ended up mass producing – and was still the norm for what he used today for Martial-bound Fusions – the results of its use still sent heavily injured individuals without Body Regeneration into a temporary coma.

But what if a monster was exposed to a more-powerful version of the same effect? That was what he wanted to find out.

Adapting the Healing Surge Effect was easy enough to do with his new Fusion format, as he knew it so well by that point that it required very little effort on his part to make the necessary changes so that it affected a whole area rather than by touch. Unfortunately, the change in delivery method also increased the cost significantly, both in terms of Mana and Pattern Cohesion.

New Fusion Learned!

Healing Shelter +1

Activation Method: Reactive, Activatable

Effect(s): Creates an area that sends a steady healing pulse through nearby organisms, repairing wounds and non-fatal injuries

Magnitude: 1,000% increase in natural health regeneration rate

Magnitude: Covers a 1-foot by 1-foot by 1-foot cubic area

Input: Physical movement detection of over 1 mph, phrase recognition

Variable 1: If no movement is detected, deactivates after 5 minutes

Variable 2: Upon any physical movement Input detection, creates a steady healing pulse through all nearby physical movement Input origins

Variable 3: Upon initial mental Activatable activation, activates detection of physical movement Inputs after 5 seconds

Variable 4: If the spoken phrase, “Deactivate Healing Shelter”, is detected within range, deactivates after 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 800

Pattern Cohesion: 10

Fusion Time: 1.75 hours

Pattern Formation has reached Level 40!

With the completion of his new Fusion, Larek gained Level 40 in his Pattern Formation Skill and… nothing monumental happened. He felt like his understanding of Fusion patterns was strengthened a little, but other than that, there was none of the sudden revelation he had been expecting. Slightly disappointed, but figuring it was because his Fusion Skill needed to get to the same Level, he turned his attention back to his new creation and the differences he immediately noticed in its cost compared to Healing Surge.

First, at Magnitude 1, the Surge only cost 550 Mana compared to the Shelter’s 800; that wasn’t very significant at the current Magnitude, but at Magnitude 5 the difference between 55,000 Mana and 80,000 Mana was fairly wide – and the gulf only expanded at higher Magnitudes. Second, the Pattern Cohesion had increased from 7 to 10, which again wasn’t that big of a deal, considering that he had over 27,000 Pattern Cohesion, but at the Magnitudes he was planning for this Fusion, it made a huge difference. Lastly, the Fusion Time increased – but that didn’t matter one whit to him.

At Magnitude 10, which was what he had been planning on using for this particular Fusion, he estimated that it would cost a total of 2,000,000 Mana and 4,600 Pattern Cohesion – amount he’d never used in a Fusion before, but it was less than a fifth of his total Pattern Cohesion so it should be fine. At his current Mana Regeneration Rate, which was very slowly improving as more and more Apertures opened all over the Sealance Empire, he estimated that he regenerated approximately his entire Mana pool of 1,960 in 30 minutes; if that was the case, then a Magnitude 10 Healing Shelter Fusion would require over 8 hours of focus and feeding all his regenerating Mana into the formation to fill it up.

Even a Healing Shelter +7 Fusion – which was what he eventually decided to try first rather than +10 – would require 480,000 Mana and 2 hours of work to complete. The 2,400 Pattern Cohesion required was still significant, but not nearly as much as the Mana Cost. Resolving to make that later along with his other new creations at higher Magnitudes, Larek moved on.

Three down and one more to go.

For the final Fusion he wanted to create to aid him on his journey, he desired a counter against monsters that weren’t going to be greatly affected by the ones he had already designed. In short, he was tired of being ambushed by Tree Weasels who attacked by landing on his head or airborne monsters such as the Bladed Sparrows who could send air-based attacks at him from a distance which weren’t blocked by his Repelling Barrier. This was something that he had actually thought about the most since it was what had hurt him the most on his solo travels, and he was fairly certain he had designed something he thought might work – for most of it, at least. He still wasn’t sure how to negate certain types of damage such as the lightning bolts sent out by a Lightning Buzzard, for instance, but his idea would hopefully cover almost everything else.

Essentially, his idea was to repurpose the ideas behind his Repelling Barrier and the offensive spells used on his Mage’s staff and combine them to make it so much deadlier and versatile. If it worked the way he hoped, then it could revolutionize the way he approached combat with monsters and would be useful more than just the intended purpose of defending himself from above.

First, he envisioned the Repelling Gust Effect used in his Barrier as more of a large, stationary hollow half-sphere that was 8 feet wide, 4 feet high, and a full foot thick. In addition, instead of it covering his body, it was instead to be projected from the tip of a flat length of wood which was a foot long, 2 inches wide, and a half-inch thick. Rather than be sent out like a projectile like his offensive Fusions on his staff, it instead stopped moving upwards until it was 6 feet away from the tip, where it would remain stationary.

This half-sphere, dome-like construct of blowing wind wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop things like a Bladed Sparrow’s air blade attack, especially if it was designed only to turn on when it encountered a physical object. That was why Larek altered its behavior so that instead of blowing powerful gusts of air in a certain direction, he had it instead moving constantly inside a contained area similar to what he had done with his other new creations. Rather than a cube-shaped zone, the constantly blowing gusts were held in the three-dimensional shape of the thick dome he designed, forming a maelstrom of wind that could rip monsters apart if the Magnitude was high enough.

Even a constantly swirling dome of wind blasts wouldn’t necessarily be enough to stop most things, especially some types of attacks that could slip through the air-based defense without too much trouble, or even heavier monsters that might only be tossed away in one direction or another upon contact with the dome. Therefore, he needed something else that had some physicality to it – and the ability to do some serious damage.

That’s where an application of the Flying Stone Fusion Effect came into play. By creating a number of sharp “Flying Stones” inside of the dome that were flung around in the contained, chaotic tornado of powerful gusts, it added a way to essentially chew through anything that passed through the dome.

The difficulty came from ensuring that the stones didn’t escape the dome or just pulverize each other when they were pushed through the hollow half-sphere, which was only solved by organizing the gusts of wind in such a way that they were organized into a specific pattern. It appeared to be entirely random where these gusts blew, but instead it was a carefully choreographed series of interlaced routes that the stones would follow, narrowly missing each other as they passed by. It required widening the gust placement a little bit in order to get it to work, as there was still a possibility that the stones would still interact with each other, but he hoped it wasn’t noticeable. In addition, he also had to add an Input that would detect if a stone were attempting to escape the dome, which would institute another short gust of air to set it back on its path.

Once he had the design in the forefront of his mind, he began the process of creating the next evolution in his defensively offensive Fusions. The complexity of the dual Effects was so great that it took him an extra few minutes to ensure it was all correct, and as it snapped into place on the piece of wood he had carved out, Larek was hit with a number of notifications that physically shocked both his body and his mind.

New Fusion Learned!

Stone Shredder Dome +1

Activation Method(s): Activatable

Effect(s): Creates a contained dome of rapidly moving gusts of air in a proscribed pattern

Effect(s): Forms sharp shards of stone that are moved around by the rapidly moving gusts of air

Input(s): Directional orientation, stone perimeter detection

Magnitude: 100% of base gust strength, 10% stone shard size

Mana Cost: 950

Pattern Cohesion: 9

Fusion Time: 2 hours

Fusion has reached Level 40!

You have reached Level 23 and have 19 available AP to distribute!

Congratulations!

You have unlocked the Advanced FusionistSpecialization!

Requirements:

Mana Control Skill of 25

Pattern Formation Skill of 30

Fusion Skill of 40

Knowledge of at least 20 different types of Fusions

The Advanced Fusionist Specialization also provides these benefits:

10% reduction in Mana Cost for all Fusions

10% reduction in Pattern Cohesion requirements for all Fusions

10% reduction in Fusion Time for all Fusions

Warning! The Specializations Fusionist and Advanced Fusionist are mutually exclusive!

Do you wish to accept the Advanced FusionistSpecialization to replace Fusioni—

Congratulations!

You have unlocked the Master FusionistSpecialization!

Requirements:

Mana Control Skill of 30

Pattern Formation Skill of 40

Fusion Skill of 40

Knowledge of at least 30 different types of Fusions

The Master Fusionist Specialization also provides these benefits:

15% reduction in Mana Cost for all Fusions

15% reduction in Pattern Cohesion requirements for all Fusions

15% reduction in Fusion Time for all Fusions

Warning! The Specializations Fusionist, Advanced Fusionist, and Master Fusionist are mutually exclusive!

Do you wish to accept the Master FusionistSpecialization to replace Fusioni—

Congratulations, Guardian!

Due to your unique nature, you have unlocked the Combat Fusionist Specialization!

Requirements:

Mana Control Skill of 30

Pattern Formation Skill of 40

Fusion Skill of 40

Pain Immunity Skill evolution

Body Regeneration Skill of 30

Intellect of at least 75

Acuity of at least 75

Pneuma of at least 75

Strength of at least 75

Body of at least 75

Agility of at least 75

Knowledge of at least 35 different types of Fusions

Unlocked at least 2 different Weapon Expertise Skills

Access to at least a combined 15 Spells and Battle Arts

The Combat Fusionist Specialization also provides these benefits:

15% reduction in Mana Cost for all Fusions

15% reduction in Pattern Cohesion requirements for all Fusions

15% reduction in Fusion Time for all Fusions

10% reduction in Mana Cost for all cast Spells

10% increase in the magnitude of all cast Spells

10% increase in the range of all cast Spells

10% reduction in Stama cost for all Battle Arts

10% increase in effectiveness of all Battle Arts

10% increase in duration of all Battle Arts

Warning! The Specializations Fusionist, Advanced Fusionist, and Master Fusionist have been overridden by Combat Fusionist!

Combat Fusionist Specialization automatically accepted!

All of these notifications made Larek’s body shake as one unlocked Specialization after another slammed into his mind, until it felt as if he was going to pass out from the strain. Unfortunately for him, this was just the start of his agony as all of the memories of his learning back in Copperleaf swam to the surface to bombard his thoughts with knowledge of how to create Advanced Fusions. All of the lessons with Shinpai that were thrust upon him in an effort to push him past “The Precipice” came flooding back, filling him with information that was more than a bit overwhelming. It was as if he had learned it all, but it was kept from him because he didn’t have permission to use it; now that he had passed the threshold necessary for that permission, it was all just shoved back into his mind with no regard to what else was happening.

By the time it finished, he was thankfully still conscious – but only just barely. The influx of information and the addition of new possibilities for Fusions crowded his mind, but it was all overshadowed by his exhaustion rearing its ugly head, causing him to lay himself down in his bed and close his eyes.

He wouldn’t wake up until morning.