The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Larek didn’t tell them everything, of course, but enough that they wouldn’t be too surprised by the Fusions he was going to create for them. His objective was to camouflage his other secrets – namely, that he had Martial stats – by dazzling them with his Mage abilities; the same thing would likely be done after the Skirmish was over when most of his Fusions were revealed to the greater Mage community of the Academy. With so much for everyone to pour over, Larek would simply be an anomaly with a special focus on Fusions to the detriment of everything else – such as casting spells – and they wouldn’t dig any deeper than that. There was no avoiding most questions about his Mage stats and Skills by that point, because there would be no way to hide it from those who saw his work; the key was to deflect anything away from his being one of these “half-breeds” – which would cause some major issues if it were discovered.

“The main thing that you need to know is that I’m a bit unique compared to most other students. Obviously, my age and height are quite odd compared to any other first-year, but those aren’t the extent of the differences; due to an anomaly in my Mage stats, which are extraordinarily high, along with an instinctual understanding of patterns and grid formations, my Fusions are unusually strong and long-lasting.”

The trio of Martial trainees looked a little lost at his explanation, but Kimble appeared curious. “What exactly does that mean?”

Without saying anything, Larek slipped off his Intellect Boost +9 armband and tossed it to Kimble, who fumbled with it for a second before steadying it in his hands. “What is this? I… can’t even make out what it is supposed to be.”

“Check your Intellect stat.”

Larek knew it as soon as he witnessed the Mage’s eyes widen that he’d seen it. “W-What? How is this possible?”

Larek shrugged. “It’s just something I can do.”

“B-but, this doesn’t make any sense—”

Penelope suddenly interrupted him. “Hold on; can you please explain what has you so flustered to those with no clue of what you’re talking about?”

Kimble’s wide eyes turned to the blue-haired trainee as his mouth opened and closed a few times, as if he had forgotten how to talk. “It’s, uh, I don’t even know how to—”

“It’s a Magnitude 9 Intellect Boost Fusion,” Larek took over the explanation from the floundering student. “Basically, it increases his Intellect stat by 90%.”

“I may be ignorant of most of these magical Fusions, but I’ve never heard of anything like that before,” Penelope replied. “Is it rare or something?”

“Rare? No. Try impossible,” Kimble replied, regaining some of the color back in his face that Larek hadn’t even realized had been lost. “I have no idea much Pattern Cohesion this would take to create, but the Fusion Time alone to create something of this Magnitude would have to be nearly a week.” He looked at Larek again, his gaze skeptical. “There’s no way you created this… is there?”

The former Logger nodded. “I did create it, and it didn’t take nearly as long as you say – though the base Fusion Time is 160 hours,” he answered. “Like I said, the way I create my Fusions is unique and is something that Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai is hoping that I’ll be able to teach others, but we’re still working all that out.

“Which brings me to the second thing that you need to know about me. Apart from the one healing spell I know,” he fibbed, “I cannot cast any other spells. During the Skirmish, I’ll essentially be useless other than as potentially a healer, but I’m hoping that I won’t even be needed for that.”

Now it was time for the Martial trainees to look skeptical, especially Penelope. “What do you mean by that? Are you not going to fight?”

Larek shook his head. “Not if I can help it. I really don’t like fighting and if I can go my entire life without having to be involved in a fight against Scission monsters, I will take it. My Fusions, on the other hand, can help others fight much better in my stead, which I’m hoping that you’ll be able to see for yourselves.” That was the plain truth as far as Larek was concerned, though he knew he could hold his own in a fight if it really came down to it. With his Martial stats the way they were, there was a good possibility that he was nearly as strong, durable, and fast as many of the trainees, though he didn’t have the training to be very effective. Sure, he could swing an axe, but that would only be so effective in a fight against other people.

“That seems… cowardly, but I guess I can understand,” the blue-haired young woman said, which immediately made Larek stiffen in indignation. Just because I don’t want to throw my life away to help save some people who hate me due to my height, that doesn’t mean I’m a coward! “Not that I’m calling you a coward, but that might be how it is seen by the rest of the SIC once you join it. Then again, if they can’t see that you’re better off behind the front lines and creating Fusions for everyone else, then they’re just plain stupid.”

Somewhat mollified, though still annoyed at her words toward him, Larek chose not to respond.

“What did you have in mind to prevent us from needing healing, or at least the equivalent within the Skirmish?” Kimble asked into the silence that was becoming uncomfortable.

Thankful for the change in subject over his perceived cowardice, Larek said, “I have some ideas, but I haven’t had a chance to test anything yet. I was planning on using my time after classes to do so, but then I was told to come here, so….” Larek shrugged.

“If you’re not going to participate in the actual Skirmish, then I guess there is no need for you to practice different strategies with us,” Penelope finally conceded with an exasperated sigh. “You can leave if you need to.”

Larek looked at Nedira, knowing that she would likely need to stay to practice with the others, so he shook his head. “No, I can do this in the corner as long as you don’t bother me too much. I’ll set up a Muffle Sound Fusion to block out most of the noise, so it should be possible to get my work done here without too many problems. Besides, I may need to look at your practice to get a good idea of what might be required.”

Now it was Penelope’s turn to shrug. “Do whatever you want, then. Come on, everybody, we’ve got some tactics to go over.”

As she turned away, Larek looked at Kimble, who was still looking at the wooden armlet in his hands with obvious awe. “Do you mind handing me that back? I promise I’ll be adding one just like it to your staff soon.”

Startled, the student pyromancer gripped the accessory for a moment as if he didn’t want to give it up, before he relented and handed it to Larek. “Sorry. The power in that Fusion is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

“I know,” Larek said, nodding. “But you—everyone—will have something similar soon. I just need some time.”

“Fair enough. I’m looking forward to what you can create.”

“Me too.”

As the others moved away to follow Penelope, Nedira stopped by Larek. “Are you sure you’ll be fine here?”

“I believe so. There’s some preparations I need to make, but it shouldn’t take too long. It’s about time I create some successful Fusions again; I’ve had so many failures lately that it’ll be good to feel capable again.”

He kept thinking about his actions with his abductors and his string of unsuccessful Advanced Fusions, as well as his inability to isolate a healing Fusion that didn’t include Body Regeneration. It was making him feel like he was reaching the limits of his abilities and he worried that he wouldn’t be able to advance any further than what he’d achieved so far. Which, when he looked at it objectively, was actually quite a lot when he thought about it; that didn’t change the fact that he knew, deep down, that he had barely scratched the surface of what he might be able to achieve in the future.

“You’re not a failure, Larek – you never were,” Nedira said softly, putting her hand on his arm and gently squeezing. “Once we get past all this Skirmish nonsense, you’ll finally be able to be yourself… for the most part. I’m sure this is just the start, and everything you do from here on out will make your problems seem simple in comparison.”

“I sure hope you’re right, Nedira; I really do. Thank you,” he said, laying his hand over hers on his arm and squeezed it back gently. “Now, I’ve got to get working – and Penelope is staring at you, so I suppose you should go see what she wants,” he said seriously, but with a hint of a smile on his face. Neither of them particularly cared for the blue-haired woman, but it was someone they needed to work with to get this part of the plan to reveal his abilities done successfully. If it meant following her orders as the leader of their Skirmish team, then so be it.

As she left to join the rest of the team, went over to the corner of the sparring room and sat down with his back against the shorter wall where the door was located. Once he was settled, he immediately thought to remind himself to bring a pillow next time, as the stone was hard and underneath him and against his back, but he could handle it for the time being.

After that, he got to work on the first thing he was going to need, especially after he heard Penelope talking loudly about different Skirmish strategies that have worked well in the past, though he blocked it out for the most part. Instead, he began erasing the Strengthen Stone Fusion nearby on the stone floor, as he needed the space in order to stick his own creation in its place.  It took very little time to eliminate the prior Fusion, which fell apart quickly due to its sub-par construction, and he began with the Simple Intermediate Fusion formation for Muffle Sound. As he was finishing the actual formation and before he started to infuse it with Mana, he flinched when a blunted arrow skidded across the ground and impacted the wall approximately 10 feet from his position.

“Whoops! Sorry!” Vivienne looked apologetic from atop the stone block at the end of the room, along with Bart who had deflected the shot with his shield, but that just made Larek realize that simply eliminating all sounds wouldn’t be enough. While he probably wouldn’t be hurt if he was hit by a stray arrow, or even a stray shadow-casted Fireball in the case of Kimble, interrupting the Fusion process while he was in the middle of it could be disastrous.

It took a few minutes of thought, but he eventually decided to combine two of his known Fusions into one. First, Muffle Sound with a Magnitude of 6 would block 100% of any noise from reaching within his small space, created with an activatable Activation Method. Secondly, in order to avoid being hit with something during the Fusion-making process, he adapted his Personal Air Deflection Barrier Fusion so that its area of effect wouldn’t be around his body, but would instead surround the perimeter of his muffled space, absent the walls and floor.

He didn’t need the hardened-air barrier to pop up along his legs and back while he was working, after all.

The opaque appearance of the barrier might be a little distracting, though most of his focus should be on the Fusion he was working on and not the area around him. Its purpose was to stop anything from hitting him, and while it wasn’t exactly designed to stop most full-strength spells, the air would be more than enough to stop even a dozen shadow-casted spells – especially once he made it Magnitude 6, as well.

As it used a Reactive Activation Method, as well as Amplifiers and different Variables, when he added it to the Muffle Sound Fusion he had to add a Splitter because of the different Mana Costs of the two Effects.  Once it was done, he thought it classified as a Supreme Intermediate Fusion for how complicated it was, but he was confident it would work; if it had been any more complicated or had a third Effect, it would’ve been an Advanced Fusion and he wasn’t sure if he could even create it given his failures in the past.

Once he’d double-checked the arrangement of sections in his head to ensure all the Mana loops were contained where they needed to be for two separate Activation Methods, multiple Variables, and Effects, he scooted forward so that the new Fusion was a few feet in front of where he would be doing the rest of his work, locating it on the floor. It took him a few minutes to actually construct the complicated Fusion, as this was his first time doing something like this and didn’t want to make a mistake, but once it was sure of his work he began funneling Mana into it.

Thousands of points of Mana flowed out of him and into the Fusion in large waves; thanks to his incredible Mana regeneration and maximum Mana pool of 1,330, he was able to push in a little over 1,000 Mana every few seconds. Fortunately, the tricks that Larek had learned from Shinpai regarding strengthening his containment barriers and the Mana Overflow Bypass, the massive influx of Mana didn’t harm the structure of the formation in the least.

Maintaining his focus on the multiple Effects was a challenge at first, especially as he had altered the placement of the air barrier so that it didn’t surround entire perimeter but was only specific areas, but after about 30 seconds it became easier as his mind adjusted to the changes.

Approximately 4 minutes later, he felt the last of the Mana ease into the formation, the last little bit trickling as he felt it being distributed through every section with the appropriate flow directions in place. As he eased up his concentration, he felt it *snap* into place on the floor and he sat back in satisfaction as he looked at his newly created Fusion.

New Fusion Learned!

Muffling Air Deflection Barrier +6

Activation Method(s): Activatable, Reactive

Effect(s): Muffles sound coming from outside variable space, creates a stationary barrier of hardened air around a variable space

Input(s): Sound waves impacting perimeter of variable space, external object at speed

Variable(s): 8 X 10 X 8 foot space, speed detection over 10 miles per hour, speed detection over 80 miles per hour

Magnitude: 100% reduction in sound, 300 damage resistance

Mana Cost: 130,000

Pattern Cohesion: 500

Fusion Time: 179 hours

Mana Control has reached Level 28!

Spellcasting Focus has reached Level 16!

Pattern Recognition has reached Level 14!

Multi-effect Fusion Focus has reached Level 7!

A sense of relief passed through his entire body at the sight of his newly learned Fusion, as well as the increase in some of his Skills. There still weren’t any increases to his Fusion or Pattern Formation Skills, which was a little disappointing because it just gave more evidence that he hadn’t been able to breakthrough to the next stage of his abilities, but he wasn’t going to let that get him down.

As he looked at the Fusion he’d just made once again, he was worried that he had messed up by making the sound muffling effect permanent instead of activatable, as he didn’t hear anything in the room. After confirming that it wasn’t a mistake on his part, he looked up to see everyone staring at him from across the room, frozen in whatever they had been doing. Well, everyone except for Nedira, who just smiled and said, “Nothing to see here!  That’s just Larek being Larek.”

“But the amount of Mana he just threw into that Fusion was enough to blow up this entire room!” Kimble nearly shouted, his hand on the staff he held white-knuckled from his shaking grip.

“You’ll get used to it. Now, where were we?” Nedira asked, smirking at the reactions of her teammates. Even though the Martial trainees couldn’t see the Mana he had been funneling into the Fusion, it was obvious from their shocked expressions that they could at least feel the intense power.

Larek held up his hand to get their attention. “Vivienne? Would you shoot an arrow at me? I need to test—”  Before he could even finish his sentence, the Ranger had lifted her bow, pulled back the string, and released the blunted arrow she already had nocked. The projectile streaked across the distance nearly faster than he could see, and approximately 4 feet in front of him it was stopped by a thick, opaque barrier of air. At least he figured it was stopped even though he couldn’t see it, because he couldn’t see through the barrier, but when it disappeared a few seconds later he saw it on the floor.

“Thank you,” he said, ignoring the astonished looks on everyone but Nedira’s faces. “I can get to work now.”

Scooting back to his previous position, though not before activating his new Fusion to completely block out any sound from penetrating his little corner of the room – which was an odd experience because he could only hear his breathing and the rush of blood through his own ears – Larek got to work designing what, if he was able to figure it out, would be the team’s salvation.

At least, that was the goal; only time would tell if he actually succeeded.

Book 2 Chapter 57: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84542216