Chapter 119: Intro To Travelling Planes

Without leaving myself any reasonable time to digest any of what I've heard from Lotar, I prepare to go on another adventure into unknown worlds.

Astral Projection.

A spell that will allow me to move through all the available planes, although I am not immune to the creatures and occupants of said planes.

Lotar is shit at explaining things. The Wolf never thought to mention how vulnerable I would be leaving myself in this world and the other.

I won't be getting alerts in the Astral warning that someone is tampering with my body, so I can be moved aside to anywhere like a log of wood and not wake up. Or given where exactly I am…I could be killed by a disgruntled Mayor who can't accept the fact that I've taken over his city.

And in the Astral, I'll be left with only my dagger to deal with whatever baddies I might face, and if the System mentions baddies, there's far likely to be more than just a scattered few.

As it is, I'm expecting tough opposition from the get go.

What are the upsides? Well, there are two.

I might get to find Anselm, and my physical body gets to have a night off. The System doesn't exactly consider muscle damage from excessive exercising repairable damage so none of my sour as heck muscles make it into the HP count.

Upside? I'll be stronger once they heal, maybe strong enough to finally tank some damage even. Doubtful, but the hope is there.

Putting my dreams for a sturdy buff body aside, I start to psyche myself up for a journey over the unknown.

First step, get my physical body into a good resting position. 

Second step, activate the spell.

…

I'm more than a bit nervous.

A few more moments stewing in hesitation then the words spill out of my mouth with a righteous anger, "Astral Projection."

As always with a new spell, the System takes the initiative, starting the ride entire based on my feeling and will to start the spell.

Though, something is different from my other Boon spell. Circle of Death doesn't run on my mana but this one, I can clearly feel the tell-tale signs of mana being drawn out of my centre.

Where it's going though, I have no idea.

In all but a few seconds my body begins to levitate in the prone position I'd set it, floating off about a foot or two above the bed before I feel something pushed out and aside.

I gasp loudly as I can barely catch my breath and then I realize what exactly was pushed aside; My physical body as my Astral form…my soul? Is ripped out and set free to roam in a misty world.

It's immediately apparent that I'm not in the room any longer…or perhaps I am, the fog that obstructs is full enough to shield a lot from my view, but I do peek out some familiar bits.

First problem encountered.

Now that I can fly, an ability I sometimes coveted Anselm for, I can barely make heads or tails of my surroundings. Where is up? Am I upside down? Which way is the right way?

With the fog soaking everything around me its difficult to answer any of these questions.

Though, in the dim light a single strand stands out with a brilliant blue glow and it's connected to my navel. 

Another thing Lotar failed to tell me about. This Blue String pulling out of my navel, what exactly is it?

I have an immediate hunch it's a tether to my physical body, but I can't tell what direction it's pulling to as it's tied round my sides.

Ugh, I'm getting confused, maybe I should just pull on it and head back? This is enough for a test run, isn't it?

With that decided, I grab onto the tether; a cool chill runs through me as I do, as well as an odd knowledgeable feeling about myself, but it passes within the moment, fading into nothingness like it never existed.

A single pull is enough to have my spiralling it seems, my body is unnaturally flung through the mist, twirling and unwinding myself over the tether until I catch a brief glimpse of my physical body right before slamming back down into it.

My eyes fly open and I breath again, decidedly, that wasn't a very successful test run.

How many tries to I have left until Lotar's favour runs out and I'm hungry for Cultists again? I'm not sure, the Wolf is criminal with how often he omits valuable information.

With a sigh I resign myself to try again, even if it means getting hungry all over again, there's a Cultist right outside the walls of Frozia anyway, I'll just kill it and keep trying until I find Anselm.

"Astral Projection."

***

Hour of practice later and I think I've learned more than a thing or two about my newest ability.

Unlike Circle of Death it pulls on my mana which means despite it being a boon from my Patron God, my mana is the controlling bit that fuels the spell. If that's true then it also means that my mana is the most important thing, I need to carry out the spell.

With practice, I've also begun to separate the part of my soul or perhaps consciousness that gets sent off. So far this night, I've managed to keep my entire head and my head alone in the Astral Planes.

It comes without saying that my practice also extends to knowing what direction I'm facing when I'm in the Astral, but there's a bit of a tricky part to that. For whatever reason, my mobility in the Planes is highly limited by the fog which turns to thick slug I'm forced to trudge through the longer I'm in the Planes.

As a result of this bit of struggles, I've yet to sniff a lead on where in the vast endless Planes Anselm might be. It troubles me. Could I have gotten this spell for nothing?

No, there's no way. Lotar was decisive when it pushed this spell into my hands, if it wasn't useful to me and by obvious extension, it, then it wouldn't have been so adamant about giving me the boon.

It wouldn't have waited, it wouldn't have waited and explained the spells, it wouldn't have bore with my slow input and spilled the beans on how it can help me find Anselm. 

No, the spell isn't the problem…I am.

Staring at my MP slowly regenerating all the way from the bottom, I resign that this won't be as quick a save as I initially thought. 

The MP the spell drains is ridiculous, so ridiculous that all my sources are empty again the second time today. Frozia is certainly a tough city.

With nothing to do but wait, I begin to reflect on my moves.

Specifically taking over the city…it was impromptu and rough, and I'm sure it won't last a second after I'm gone. It's likely I'll have to force my way in the next time I show my ugly mug here.

Matthias surely isn't one to roll over, even as we speak, I'm sure it's the combined reasoning of Leon and the jeering laughter of the Diviner keeping him from barging in here and dying on the spot as I inevitably strangely him with swift application of Death Grip.

Tomorrow, if tonight pulls me any luck in finding Anselm, I've got to head out and kill at least one more Cultist before heading out with the mass of weapons Matthias had better gathered by morning.

It'll serve as a chance to display the vastness in skill between Matthias and I as well as give me a chance to try out some of my new spells.

Spells and rituals of which I've unlocked many.

If I can find Anselm soon, there is a ritual I'd love to perform before dawn breaks and I leave. It'll certainly help me keep tabs on the happenings in Frozia, enough that I likely won't need to kill everyone who blocks me at the gate when I step in next time.

Another ritual I'm eager to use is one that'll beef up my undead significantly. As it stands in the last battle with the South Gamma of Frozia, my ghouls were just barely holding down the beast and my zombies detonating on the pile only served to kill the Gamma prematurely every time.

It's getting harder to contain them with just ghouls and exploding zombies. Fortunately, ghouls and zombies aren't the only undead I can employ. But I'll leave that jarring surprise for the Mayor of Aste.

The war drums thrumming in my ears will soon reach the ears of my enemies, but once they do it'll be too late.

I'll be in control of the two most important cities in the March aside from the Capitol of the March, a Capitol I'll be marching towards sooner rather than later.

It's almost hilarious how no one sees this coming. This March will be the birthplace of my nation.

It's not the best, it's turbulent, full of chaos and even has a Beta Warrior but nevertheless a new nation will be declared and a subtle, silent creeping war forwarded by undead and my allies will knock down the doors of Ire.

Tired I may be, but I'm far too excited to sleep tonight.