The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Congratulations!

You have learned 5 Fusions of a similar type for a particular Stat Boost and now understand the fundamental elements of that Fusion!

As a result, all Agility Boost Fusions will now be combined into a singular Fusion. The only functional difference will be related to Magnitude.

Fusions Lost:

Fusion – Agility Boost +1

Fusion – Agility Boost +2

Fusion – Agility Boost +3

Fusion – Agility Boost +7

Fusion – Agility Boost +10

Fusion Gained:

Fusion – Agility Boost

In addition, all Agility Boost Fusions have slightly reduced Mana Cost and Pattern Cohesion requirements, as well as a reduction in Fusion Time.

-5% Mana Cost

-5% Pattern Cohesion

-5% Fusion Time

Congratulations!

You have learned 5 Fusions of a similar type for a particular Effect and now understand the fundamental elements of that Fusion!

As a result, all Camouflage Sphere Fusions….

The progress he made in consolidating his different Fusions into a more manageable list was actually a lot faster than he expected considering his low Mana regeneration rate. The reason for this was because he many of those he had created before were a higher Magnitude and so he was able to create the lower Magnitudes with less of a Mana Cost and was able to fulfill the requirements to consolidate them all together. Thankfully, everything that wasn’t related to materials only required 5 of that certain type of Fusion in order to consolidate; for things such as Multi-Resistance Cloth, Leather, and Wood, it required 10 – but that was easy enough to accomplish with a few low-Magnitude additions to the list.

At one point in his endeavors, as he was finishing up the last of the material Fusions which was made easier as he added silver, gold, and platinum (from his coinage) in addition to cloth, leather, glass, wood, stone, iron, and steel to the materials he was creating them on, he received another notification that made him even more pleased that his efforts were beneficial for more than just cleaning up his Fusion list.

Congratulations!

You have consolidated 10 different material as part of your Fusions and now understand the fundamental natures of those different materials! As a result, Fusions on these materials…

Cloth

Leather

Glass

Wood

Stone

Iron

Silver

Gold

Steel

Platinum

…will no longer require the material(s) as part of the Effect designation to be effective, as they will be automatically be included in the process.

Fusions Lost:

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong Glass

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong Iron

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong Silver

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong Stone

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong Wood

Fusion – Illuminate Iron

Fusion – Illuminate Steel

Fusion – Illuminate Stone

Fusion – Illuminate Wood

Fusion – Multi-Resistance Cloth

Fusion – Multi-Resistance Leather

Fusion – Multi-Resistance Wood

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate Cloth

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate Iron

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate Stone

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate Wood

Fusion – Sharpen Iron Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Steel Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Stone Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Wood Edge

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Iron Edge

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Steel Edge

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Wood Edge

Fusion – Strengthen Iron

Fusion – Strengthen Leather

Fusion – Strengthen Steel

Fusion – Strengthen Stone

Fusion – Strengthen Wood

Fusion – Strengthen Steel and Wood

Fusion Gained:

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong

Fusion – Illuminate

Fusion – Multi-Resistance

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate

Fusion – Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Strengthen

Not only did this reduce his Fusion list even further, but there was a portion of the notification that he paid special attention to regarding the material or materials used in the Fusion. When he experimented shortly afterwards using a Strengthen +1 Fusion on a spear he “borrowed” from the Protectors of Enderflow, he found that he now didn’t have to designate what materials it affected in the Effect portion of the formation as long as the Fusion was in proximity to the connected materials. In this instance, he placed the Fusion on the wooden shaft of the spear just below its steel blade, and while the formation wasn’t technically touching the steel in any way, it was close enough to be included in the Effect, nonetheless. Further experiments showed that the further the Fusion was away from the secondary material – such as when he placed the Fusion further down the shaft – it required a higher Magnitude in order to “reach” the other material.

What this advancement ultimately meant was that he wouldn’t have to worry about separating all the different materials on any objects he added Fusions to, including armor and other weapons. He found that he could also mentally exclude a material if needed, as Strengthening leather on armor that was half steel wouldn’t be beneficial; if he added a Multi-Resistance Effect into the same Strengthen Fusion designed for steel and included both steel and leather in the Multi-Resistance Fusion, then he could essentially cover an entire article of armor in a single Fusion – something that he wasn’t capable of doing before this.

It was and amazing change to his repertoire of Fusions and he could only imagine the possibilities in the future…

…if only his Mana regeneration could keep up with what he could imagine doing with this newly acquired material function.

Nevertheless, only a day before his service obligation to the town was up, Larek managed to finish his Fusion consolidation. He looked at the list and was happy with what he saw.

Mage Abilities:

Spell – Bark Skin

Spell – Binding Roots

Spell – Fireball

Spell – Furrow

Spell – Ice Spike

Spell – Lesser Restoration

Spell – Light Bending

Spell – Light Orb

Spell – Localized Anesthesia

Spell – Minor Mending

Spell – Rapid Plant Growth

Spell – Repelling Gust

Spell – Static Illusion

Spell – Stone Fist

Spell – Wall of Thorns

Spell – Water Jet

Spell – Wind Barrier

Fusion – Acuity Boost

Fusion – Agility Boost

Fusion – Area Chill

Fusion – Body Boost

Fusion – Camouflage Sphere

Fusion – Extreme Heat

Fusion – Flaming Ball

Fusion – Flying Stone

Fusion – Graduated Illumination Strong

Fusion – Graduated Parahealing

Fusion – Healing Surge

Fusion – Icy Spike

Fusion – Illuminate

Fusion – Illusionary Image

Fusion – Intellect Boost

Fusion – Intellect and Acuity Boost

Fusion – Muffle Sound

Fusion – Muffling Air Deflection Barrier

Fusion – Multi-Resistance

Fusion – Paralytic Light

Fusion – Paralytic Touch

Fusion – Personal Air Deflection Barrier

Fusion – Pneuma Boost

Fusion – Red and White Illuminate

Fusion – Repelling Barrier

Fusion – Repelling Gust of Air

Fusion – Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Space Heater

Fusion – Spellcasting Focus Boost

Fusion – Strength Boost

Fusion – Strength and Body Boost

Fusion – Strengthen and Sharpen Edge

Fusion – Strengthen

Fusion – Temperature Regulator

Fusion – Tree Skin

Fusion – Water Stream

Not only was he able to clean up his list, but his frequent creation of Fusions – while none of them were particularly powerful because of his Mana limitations – also managed to increase his related Skills to their current maximums.

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 20!

Pattern Recognition has reached Level 21!

Spellcasting Focus has reached Level 21!

Mana Control has reached Level 37!

Pattern Formation has reached Level 37!

Fusion has reached Level 37!

The Skill increases also netted him another personal Level, which gave him an additional 18 AP to spend – which he immediately shoved into Intellect, giving him a total of 98 Intellect. When it was doubled by his existing boost Fusion, he had a total of 196 with a maximum Mana pool of 1,960. This wouldn’t have been a large increase to Larek when his regeneration was still incredibly fast, but now the additional 360 Mana in his pool made a huge difference in creating slightly stronger Fusions. That didn’t mean he’d be making anything over a Magnitude 3 or 4 anytime soon, unless he wanted to wait hours for his Mana to regenerate, but a higher starting Mana pool was always beneficial to get the job done much faster.

Overall, his efforts were well worth the time he put into it, and he was looking forward to working his way back to the Kingdom soon. Not only did he want to acquire more Aetheric Force, but being unable to create the Fusions he wanted to because of the low ambient Mana density was quite annoying. In addition, while he could’ve made himself another mage staff with offensive Fusions on it, though with a lower Magnitude than the one he left back in the Kingdom when he was captured by Chinli, actually carrying it with him or using it would be a mistake if anyone saw him. That would likely reveal that he had made it, which was something he wanted to avoid at the moment.

Strangely enough, during the last few days of cleaning up his Fusions list, Larek also noted that his Mana regeneration was gradually starting to increase in speed. It was barely noticeable at first, and he initially thought he was mistaken when his pool refilled a few seconds before he had estimated it would. By the time he finished with the list, what had normally taken just over 4 minutes to refill his new Mana pool of 1,960 at his regeneration rate, now took only half that time; at about 16 Mana per second now as opposed to 8 Mana, that was a significant increase.  His first assumption was that his Acuity was finally helping to speed things up with his regeneration, but that was only until he looked around with a focus on the air in his room and noticed that the Mana density had also increased.

That’s great! If this keeps up, I’ll be back to normal in no time—

He interrupted that happy thought as he realized what that meant. If the Mana density was increasing in the area, then that was likely to mean that it was increasing everywhere. And if it was increasing everywhere, then the ambient Mana pouring out of the Kingdom was increasing significantly as a result. Moreover, if it was increasing as fast as it seemed to be, then that could only mean one thing—

Larek was suddenly knocked flat on his back in his bed when an invisible shockwave of force spread through his room and beyond. As he sat back up and tried to make sense of what had just happened, he noticed that the ambient Mana density jumped yet again; it wasn’t to the point where it was close to the Kingdom’s density, but it appeared to be slowly getting there.

More than that, however, he heard screaming coming from all over the town, but it was impossible to determine what exactly what they were yelling about.  The main reason for being able to determine why was because his focus was on something else entirely.

Somewhere on the very edge of his perception to the east of the town of Enderflow, the impossibility of a Scission appearing in the Empire of Sealance had just occurred.