technomagica

62. A new me

[Kliss Eliza Cessna]

I was dreaming that I was lounging on my pile of gold, treasure and bones. It was a hearty pile, deep in the glacier-capped mountains. Then came the little vile creatures that walked on two legs. I burned their flesh and added their bones and the treasure which they carried to my trove.

It had been a mistake, a vile trap. The round treasure coated in gemstones and gold exploded beneath me, set my lovely hoard alight and filled my lovely cavern with vile-tastin...

61. Forged in dragonfire

My eyes paused at the enormous form of the dead, red dragon. I mentally moved Delta's Infoscope using her tether and scanned the massive creature. There were brilliant currents of magic radiating away from the beast - its scales shimmered with magrad from within.

The creature was a furnace of power... power that I could use to save my friend!

[Help me bring Kliss to the Dragon!] I ordered, fighting the urge to pass out.

[Why?] Delta asked.

[It's full of magical power.....

60. The storm

I stood on a mossy branch above the ancient tower, staring out across Skyisle valley. The evening was coming to an end, our small town painted orange by the sun slowly setting behind the glacier-covered mountains.

Delta sat beside me on Leemy's branch, wearing a white dress. My sister had a whole wardrobe now, stored in one of the rooms of the half-renovated Alanian tower beneath us, made by the village seamstresses. She had a solid body now that she designed herself, made from a combi...

59. Psyops

[Dante Alan Skyisle]

When I woke up in the morning, I knew that I could delay things no longer. Something had to be done about the new Overseer. I walked to the Fox, had a quick breakfast and then went to the Church of Equality.

The church greeted me with its high walls and a huge, arched gate that stood in the middle of the island leading up to the building. According to Delta, the gateway and the church were built a few centuries after the fall of Tricameron Citadel, most likely...

58. A new friend

[Dante Alan Skyisle]

As I laid down on the soft moss beneath the sparkling stars, and listened to the whispers of the leaves of the Mystic tree above me, I contemplated how I could possibly save Skyisle from radiation and poison that had nearly killed Kliss and what I could do about the new Overseer of Skyisle that was her replacement.

“What do you think, tree?” I asked. “How can I stop the new Overseer from ruining my plans? How can I save Skyisle from the poison...

57. Inquisition

It was the midday of the 48th day of Temminus and and we were having lunch inside the Inian tower. I was really enjoying Blood-elk sandwiches purchased from the Fox pub. The overpriced meat of LV 20 elks practically melted in my mouth.

“An Imperial skyship has docked to the church tower!” Kliss suddenly declared, tapping her armacus to deactivate a flashing rune on it. “It must be the Inquisitor!”

“Here, I have a gift for you, for being such a great friend,” I said and...

Pathogen!

The "Choose Your Own Adventure" Technomagica game-book series that details the adventures of Dr. Kerenski in the Astral Ocean is now live and has variety of fun paths to explore.
Enjoy it at: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51335/pathogen-forge-your-own-path-reader-interac...

56. Seeking the truth

For several weeks Delta and I focused on our research of breaking Vows and rebuilding the Alanian tower with the aid of the Friendship-bound Kliss.

The Vow-bound Overseer stayed by my side and while it was nice to have a pair of helping hands, she also behaved akin to a constantly happy automaton. I hated myself for being too slow with the Vow-Breaker, feeling that I was contributing to the suffering of real Kliss who was most likely locked away somewhere deep inside of her own mind. 2022-02-28 00:59:00 +0000 UTC View Post

55. The prisoner

[Kliss Eliza Cessna]

I struggled to move, feeling the chill on my body, lying on a cold, wet stone floor bound in golden thread, my red hair covering half of my face.

My tormenter, the Friendship Vow bent down to me, her golden eyes woven from bee stingers curiously examining my struggle. She was wielding my body and memories with far more experience than the Vow of the Overseer. She wasn’t stronger than him, but she was a lot more clever. The Vows were definitely different, aki...

54. Friendship

Kliss hugged me tightly. The sparks at the corners of her eyes turned into streaks of tears.

“I was really worried that you wouldn't wake up again,” she whispered through the tears. “That you’ve pushed yourself too far with the Soul-Sacrifice spell.”

“You were awake through that?” I asked, feeling awkward.

“Delta told me. She told me a lot of things, shamed me endlessly, called me a bad friend,” Kliss shuddered. “Am I a bad friend?”

“You’re a ...

53. The grossmeister

The frost-covered waves of the Barents sea broke against the beach made from black glass pebbles. Azure glaciers sparkled in the distance. I stood on the beach, facing the remains of Severny, an uninhabited village that stood only fifty five miles from the detonation of the Tsar Bomba, also known as device RDS-220.

The former fishermens' houses had been scorched, topped over and the beach itself was melted, sand beneath my feet glassified. Everything in the small abandoned village had b...

D & D art

well, these took me all morning to draw :{
zoom:

52. The named Vow

Our trio passed under the ruins of the arcane gateway and entered the Alanian tower.

[Wait… if the Rewind weakened her soul’s connection to the body,] Delta mulled. [Then we don't need to do much. I can just bite her a few times and then let her soul float away into the Astral! She will be Vow-less and skill-less. It’s perfect!]

[Are you so sure that’s what’s going to happen?] I asked.

[You survived for twelve years without a soul! You’re clearly fine.]

[I ...

51. Don Quixote

[What is wrong with you?! I swear, I will sting you in the…] Delta growled. Her ghostly avatar manifested next to me, her eyes glaring daggers.

[We really are diverging, aren’t we?] I interrupted her outrage.

[We are,] she lamented. [Although it hurts my soul to disagree with you, I was never going to remain your exact copy. This was… inevitable.]

I sighed.

[In my opinion, you’re being too accepting, too naïve, too careless with your words. I get it though. I ...

Alanian hex-beacon tower concept development finished!

Starting in chapter 39, the story features D & D team making an abandoned Alanian tower their new home. As references to make this tower as legit as possible, I went through my photography archives of abandoned places.

More specifically, my trip across Scotland and Isle of Skye and the urbex of an abandoned castle there.

The windows and doors had long decayed away, over many decades trees had taken over the inside of the old castle estate:

2022-02-12 17:53:26 +0000 UTC View Post

An informative diagram!

Since some readers asked, here's a fun diagram of Novazem magic:

50. Educational dining

I didn’t tell Kliss that I had made the gold coins myself with Modify, by modifying the closest thing available to gold - mercury. There was a lot of mercury in the Valley of Death - probably whole lakes of it, formed by some unknown magical apocalypse. Delta notified me about it a month ago, when she quickly scanned the air above the valley.

We didn’t have to travel very far down to obtain the mercury. There was an abandoned mine chasm east of the tower practically filled ...

49. A good time

Kliss noticed that I was staring at her while talking to Delta.

“Yes?” She inquired with a grim look.

“We should take a break and relax for the rest of the day,” I said. “I’ve had enough near-death experiences for one day.”

“Right… relax.” Kliss looked at her mud-splattered dress. “What does this ‘relax’ entail, Sir Almighty Wizard? Got any more Inian artefacts you plan to poke? Or maybe you’re going to ask me to wrestle with a dragon? Any more ge...

Reader interactive time!

Since "Goodtime/Educational" won on the poll, suggest the kind of relaxing activities our science gang can theoretically partake in Skyisle!

Already on my list: Get drunk in a pub.

48. The message

The power of the calming song worked. Kliss was no longer crying in pain and misery. She realized where she was and let go of me, wiping tears from her face.

“T-thanks,” she whispered softly.

I nodded and stood up.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the girls.

“Hear what?” Kliss asked.

“The tower, singing back to us.” I said.

"No. Too busy trying not to listen to my primary Vow." Kliss shook her head.

“The Infoscope isn’t the best for......

Pick a fate for our trio [CH 49+]!

47. Discord

Kliss emerged out of the hole in the ground, lugging an enormous, diamond-shaped, black rock in her hands.

She carefully deposited the rock on a mossy floor with a huff and wiped sweat from her mud-covered face.

“If you’re an aberration and you’re planning to exhaust me to the point where I can’t use my arms and legs at all, it's working,” she groaned and panted, pulling herself out of the muddy hole. “Equality, that was bloody heavy! First you've made me carry a huge ...

38. Legacy

I looked back from Delta's stats at the silver-haired girl sitting on the couch of the Computational Institute. She was hurt a lot worse than her avatar showed.

"Delta… how long have you been in the Astral?" I asked.

"Honestly? I don't know,” she sighed. “The tendril that was keeping track of time broke down a long time ago. Time gets extra screwy the deeper you go. Some cu...

37. Departure

The Overseer demonstrated some more types of high level spells to the kids, answered a bunch of questions the answers to which I already knew and then the class ended.

Kovac shot me a look of “sucks to be you” and “sorry you’re such a dunderhead” as he left.

“Am I allowed to get dressed?” Kliss hissed when the last pupil departed and the door closed shut behind them.

I ignored her and put on the Overseer’s red cape. It was a bit too long and looked silly on m...

36. Deviation

I felt something click inside me, like a gear that realigned into another, like two electrical wires that were suddenly connected, a current sparking between them.

[Welcome to Novazem, transient soul.]

[Solve Equation for Full System activation: 71x0+9x5-99+1212= ]

“I did it! I fixed the [Tether], got your soul fully connected! Shower me in praises and compliments!” Delta yelled. “Hurry and get your System up so you can give me a hug, damn it. I’m freaking dying over...

35. Confrontation

Overseer Kliss wasn’t the only one to notice that I wasn’t clapping.

“Clap, you idiot,” Kovac hissed and kicked my right shin.

Instructor Wiklogg caught onto my non-compliance. He stepped forward, his ironclad cane at the ready.

“Impertinent mutt!” He growled, swinging the cane.

Kliss moved faster than my eyes could track her. She caught his cane in her steel-covered wrist before it slammed into my body. “Don’t,” she uttered, glaring daggers at him. H...

34. Convergence

“You sure know how to make a mess of yourself, right before class.” Kovac sighed.

“God, your head’s a rightful mess,” the voice in my head resounded. “That’s what I get for leaving your body on its own for… eleven and a half years?! Argh! Well, that answers that question. Time runs a LOT slower the deeper you go into the Astral Ocean. Lets not do that again.”

I ignored her, focused on shaking dirt out of my shirt and pants. Hundreds of minute scratches all over m...

33. Atomic dreams

[Dante Alan Skyisle]

The yellow-brown, hill-covered, desert landscape stretched as far as the eye could see. Little brown shrubs peaked out of the relatively desolate soil.

Commissar Sasha Gradenski walked ahead of me, a thin smile painted on his pale face.

“Try to keep up, doc!” He urged me onward. “You don’t want to miss seeing this one. It’s going to be huge!”

I sighed and shook my head. The numbers were bad. Really, really bad. The dose rates in Ust-Kam...

32. Tether

[Delta Alana Skyisle]

One moment I was enjoying Dante’s dream, sitting inside a Moscow café and the next, the dream became engulfed in pure-all consuming darkness. In horror I realized that he was dead.

Overseer Kliss stood over the crib holding a blood-covered knife. It was definitely her. I didn't notice her earlier, didn't pay enough attention! She was barely visible, hidden under some kind of attention-bending, light-warping concealment cloak. It was hard to focus on her, b...

31. Upon a stormy night

Delta had sneakily managed to scan the [Lucid Dreamer] fractal a few levels down, passing the information into Bessie, while I worked on the Defragmenter for her. It allowed me to launch a far more complex version of the Lucid Dreamer spell. I had to pull Universal out of my menu to do it, resetting it to zero again, but it was definitely worth it. Dreaming with the [Lucid Dreaming LV 7] was a lot more fun, so I wasn’t too mad at her. I did very sternly tell her to stop scanning things whil...