emergencycomplaints

Chapter 111

Nym made steady progress on fixing his matrix. The techniques the Collective knew helped him reinforce the net that connected individual nodes together while he rotated holding small pieces of his matrix in an open state. He’d found that trying to hold the whole thing at once did nothing, and it was only when he focused on a few at a time that he was able to shift them enough that they started to grow. The trick then became to rotate through each cluster and keep them all growing at an equa...

Chapter 110

It didn’t take long to find the new hut with Ophelia’s help. Thankfully, she was as always an early riser. Nobody else was up yet, so the three of them sat at the stone table in the middle of their hut and talked quietly while the rest of the Earth Shapers slept in.

“Seems like there’s a new change every day,” she said, gesturing towards Jharn.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be working together,” Jharn said. “So far, it’s been an easy assignment and he’s been...

Chapter 109

Nym sat on the wall and watched the forest night life move around him. Wide range scrying combined with night vision gave him the most coverage, but unfortunately did very little to actually find anything hiding in the foliage. He switched back to his old targeted scry with a mobile anchor, though he’d made a few tweaks to get it up to about twenty feet in diameter now.

There were a lot of small animals hidden away, going about their lives uncaring of the upheaval in the forest. If an...

Chapter 108

Once everyone who wasn’t going to be living in the house had left, Nym retired to his new bedroom to rest. His sleep schedule was all sorts of wrong thanks to the abduction and time spent in the mage cell. Even though there were still plenty of hours of daylight left, he just couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.

When he got back up, he found Navarim sitting on a couch idly flipping through a book while Analia had claimed the entire kitchen table. She had seven different books spr...

Chapter 107

The walk to the Silver Gilder was about half an hour, which wasn’t bad by itself, but considering how many books Analia had, it was going to take all day to haul her stuff to the new house. Nym wondered if he could talk her into renting a cart or something. He could probably use air magic to lighten the load enough that it wouldn’t be too difficult to haul.

Navarim followed closely, a slight glow of arcana around him the whole way. He was taking his bodyguard job seriously, even tho...

Chapter 106

Lord Feldstal reviewed the calculations silently while Nym, Doliar, and Navarim waited in his office. He sighed and handed the paper back to Doliar. “I’m going to assign two guards instead of one,” he said. “Maintain the gag order on this for now until I figure out what this means. Navarim, please escort our little prodigy to his new home and keep him safe. I’ll send the second guard out to you as soon as I know who it will be.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Doliar, you sta...

Chapter 105

“So that was a bad idea,” Lord Feldstal said a few minutes later after Nym had recovered. “It’s a good thing he didn’t gather enough arcana to actually cast a spell.”

“It’s like the arcana was alive and knew exactly where to attack him at to push through the hole in his matrix,” Doliar said. “I don’t think we’re going to find many answers there.”

“No… well, it’s not why our new friend was added to the Collective anyway. I’ve got to go take care of...

Chapter 104

The mage cell deactivated and Nym followed Lord Feldstal out of it. The outer-outer room was just as plain and unadorned as the cell itself, with the exception of several large arcana batteries set up to power the cell and the hundreds of rune sequences drawn on the outside wall. Two men waited for them, one holding the door to the cell they were in open, and the other holding the door that led out of the room.

“Sir,” both men said in unison. Lord Feldstal ignored them and strode ou...

Chapter 103

Nym had once read a book that said less than five percent of all mages made it to the third circle. It postulated some theories as to why so few people were able to reach that threshold, everything from ‘humans just weren’t meant for it’ to ‘those in power have deliberately held back the true methods in order to remain solely in power.’ Nym didn’t necessarily think that was true, considering how many second circle mages were actively trying to grow their power, but he wasn’t foo...

Chapter 102

Nym was determined to free himself while he had a chance, but when he tried to forge a conduit, he found himself once again blocked. It didn’t take long to realize why. The mage cell he was in was itself inside another, larger mage cell.

His escape plans destroyed before he even got started, Nym brought his attention back to the man standing in front of him, his mind catching up to the conversation. Had the man apologized?

“Who are you?” Nym asked.

“One of my overeag...

Chapter 101

Nym stood in the shabby little clinic. A few hours earlier, Faro had sent a message to the Silver Gilder asking him to come by at his earliest convenience, and since Nym had made little progress on figuring out what he’d done wrong with fixing his matrix on his own, he was eager to see if the healer could provide him with some new clues. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that kind of visit.

“Wow, this other healer must be really busy,” Nym said. “Five weeks? Will the army even still be...

Chapter 100

Nym just stared at the illusion blankly for a good twenty seconds. It looked nothing like what he saw when he looked into his own soul well, but he wasn’t going to tell the healer that. Finally, he asked, “What does this mean? Am I not healing right?”

“I’m not really sure what exactly you’re supposed to be healing from,” Faro told him. “There are some small cracks on a few of these. Look here. This whole section has some. Then there are these large ones here that are com...

Chapter 99

Weeks went by and Nym’s money slowly dwindled. He worked most morning at the bakery, gradually gaining more responsibilities and with them a very slight increase to his pay. It still wasn’t enough to balance out the cost of the inn, and he was strongly considering switching to somewhere cheaper, or even seeing if he could find a place to just rent long-term. The only thing stopping him was that every time he brought the topic up, Analia told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t allo...

Chapter 98

Nym’s personal library grew faster than his ability to read it. Just about every single book was a hand-me-down from Analia, but he wasn’t going to complain about that. He focused heavily on books he could learn from without actually doing magic, and so the majority of his time was spent reading about medical anatomy and diagnostics interpretation, rune magic sequences, ritual magic, and conduit theory.

Healing and rune magic had a lot of prerequisite knowledge to be mastered before...

Chapter 97

The week went by slowly, with Nym spending most of his time hidden away in his room. Yura would stop by twice a day to check on his progress, and occasionally he’d need a break and just walk around the outpost. Otherwise he barely showed his face except to get food.

His efforts weren’t without fruit, but he did not progress as much as he wanted. Opening a hole in his soul well was unpleasant, a feeling he never got used to. He did manage to flip the state of his matrix so that the d...

Chapter 96

Captain Lygan didn’t look up from his paperwork. He had bags under his eyes and several days of stubble on his face. Somehow, he seemed even thinner than he had the first time Nym had seen him. The sweat spots were still dotting his brow, but they’d multiplied and started to run down his face. Absently, he rubbed a hand across his forehead and wiped it on his pants.

“Captain,” Yura said again, clearing her throat.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry.” The captain looked up finally and his...

Chapter 95

It was two days before the healer showed up, and other than giving Nym a once over and healing the fractured rib for him, Nym wasn’t seen by the man again for another day after that. The barracks grew gradually quieter every hour as the healer got more and more soldiers back on their feet. He moved with some unseen logic, working on one soldier for a bit, then moving to another without completely healing the first.

An hour later, the healer would move back to the first patient again a...

Chapter 94

Nym was panting heavily after just a few minutes. He’d drastically underestimated the number of ghouls coming over his section of the wall. Air blasts weren’t that draining, but doing it over and over again was taking a toll. The hard air cushions he lifted people up didn’t work any better, since the ghouls had a tendency to shred them as soon as they felt the air pushing up against their undead flesh.

It didn’t help that he’d been forced to create three new earth golems to he...

Chapter 93

In Nym’s experience, ghouls weren’t actually that dangerous to a prepared mage. They won primarily through numbers and ambush tactics, and they weren’t even that good at ambushes since they really only had one trick. Any mage with a decent repertoire of second circle spells wouldn’t have a problem defeating a single ghoul. A simple flight spell was enough to completely negate almost all danger from them, as they had no way to pursue and never used any sort of weapons, ranged or otherw...

Chapter 92

The guy in charge of the ninth outpost was a reed thin man who was sweating entirely too much for the still cool spring weather. His uniform seemed to hang off his shoulders instead of fitting him, and his hands shook as he listened to Adriarc speak.

“We’ll be overrun,” he said. “There are only fifty soldiers at this outpost. The ghouls alone would be a problem, but with three wights directing them, the only way I see any of us making it out alive is by retreating now.”

...

Chapter 91

A pair of earth golems worked tirelessly, chucking body parts into the bonfire while Adriarc worked to make new ones. He’d been pushed back out of the trees in a running battle with three ghouls barely five minutes after they’d started, and Nym had thrown out a quick scry out into the trees that showed him even more lurking in the boughs.

Adriarc cut through the three he was fighting quickly enough, but more kept coming, and as fast as he worked, it didn’t take long before there w...

Chapter 90

Nym approached the table the pair were sitting at. “Hi,” he said, a bit awkward under the woman’s glare. “Do you have a minute?”

“What do you need?” the man said, ignoring his companion.

“Well, I’m kind of in the same spot you guys are,” Nym said. “Nothing available for the kind of work I want to do, but the clerk told me we could help each other. You need a third for your sweeper job. I don’t want to spend the next sixteen hours waiting for some guy to nee...

Chapter 89

Analia did not take the news well. “I’m just starting to get comfortable,” she whined.

Nym looked around the room. There was no furniture other than the bed, and it wasn’t that big. Sure, it was a nice bed, but he knew what the rooms at the Silk Box looked like. Spending the better part of a month sleeping outdoors had done wonders for her perspective.

“It’s not a guarantee. They might not do the draft. If they do, they might not want you since you’re so young, or be...

Chapter 88

Nym flew back to the camp an hour later with a few spellbooks Analia loaned him in his pack and a small basket of pastries he’d picked up from a bakery she’d recommended. No one was at the hut they’d built for themselves when he arrived, but the camp followers were already getting things started for dinner. Great big cauldrons were bubbling and boiling when Nym landed, right next to what had to be a whole cow, maybe even two, roasting over a fire.

Nym stashed the surprise dessert ...

Chapter 87

Analia’s room was full to bursting with books. There were at least a hundred of them piled up on the floor, all over the bed, and stacked on her trunk in the corner. There were so many in fact that he wasn’t sure how she managed to squeeze any space out for herself. Nym stepped past the door and picked up the nearest one, titled Althor’s Guide to Living Rune Sequences.

“Where did you get the money for all these?” Nym asked.

“Oh, who cares about that! That’s ...

Chapter 86

Nym’s first army job was a lot less exciting than he expected. No one wanted him to go out and fight ghouls. He didn’t need to kill twenty of them, or bring back a certain number of plants that grew in the local area. They didn’t want him to escort anyone anywhere. The army didn’t even need him to scout anything, as they had their own division of mages who were well-trained in a specific spell list that included flight.

No, for his first job, they shoved a satchel into his hands...

Chapter 85

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Nym said. “You’re seriously going to do this again?”

Babkin blinked and looked down at him. “Nym? You have grown much in the last few months! What are you doing here?”

“I’m signing up to go out and fight undead for money. Please stay out of it.”

“By yourself? That is very dangerous.”

The hall had gone silent as Nym and Babkin argued. There were a lot of wide-eyed mercenaries shifting in their chair, perhaps on...

Chapter 84

The problem with the limited knowledge Nym had on the subject was that it was all designed to be used on an infant under very specific conditions. Nym did not have an enchanted tank to put the test subject in, nor was he able to imprint his will on the target’s to guide the process. The far more likely result was that he’d break the soldier’s brain instead of fixing his conduit.

He wasn’t sure how much to tell them about their conduits. His ability to see magic was the one thing...

Chapter 83

“Nym! You’re alive!”

He didn’t see Ophelia until she crashed into him, hugging him. “Hey! Stop, what are you doing?” he yelped.

“You idiot!” she scolded, pushing him out to arms-length. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Stop, I said. Stop!” He wiggled out of her grip and took a step back. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? Why didn’t you come back to the outpost with the rest of us when the g...

Chapter 82

Nym tried to force his brain past the initial surge of revulsion he felt from seeing his first ghoul, but it was a hard thing to take in at a glance. It was human-shaped, but with mottled grey and green skin. Patchy strands of lank hair hung from its scalp, and it had unnaturally long arms and fingers. A prehensile tongue hung out of its mouth, which was filled with sharp teeth many sizes too big.

It was disgusting to look at it, and up close it had a rancid stink that was unlike anythi...