Chapter 513: Setting Up the Dominos

Chapter 513: Setting Up the Dominos

I got poked in the side.

My consciousness briefly flickered to [The World Around Me], letting me know I was safe in my home. I groaned, rolled over, and stuck my head under the pillow.

I was tired. Id spent most of the night awake, and Id earned my rest. I didnt want to get up, and I didnt-

I got poked again, more insistently. I paid a little more attention this time, noticing the hand was disembodied.

Oh. It was Auris [Mage Hand].

Wait.

I fully woke up, helped along by a generous dose of [Zenith Everlasting] helping me wake up. I threw off the covers and dashed to the door of the bedroom, where Auri was politely peeking in.

Theyre here? I asked.

Brrrpt! She confirmed.

Okay, okay. What do you need me to do? I asked.

Auri looked up at me with plaintive eyes.

Brrrpt? Shed hoped I had an answer.

Iona chose that moment to emerge from the breakfast room.

Want me to handle this? She offered.

Absolutely! I was more than happy to throw this problem to the gorgeous woman who had [Social Lubrication] as a skill and thrived on solving these sorts of problems. I didnt quite think Id end up getting the phoenixes to burn our place down, but worse things had happened when I needed to do highly social things.

Iona stretched and cracked her neck.

Alright, show me where they are. She told Auri. Elaine, I need you sitting down by the fire, visibly reading a book. Theres a kettle of tea ready, and Julius left us with some fine porcelain cups with flames on them. Were going to be emphasizing a calm and relaxed atmosphere, with a love of fire in our day to day lives. Show that we like what they like. As they get a little more used to us, well relax a bit.

Ionas eyes flickered a moment, and she grimaced.

Auri, can you quickly turn off the water for the pool and eliminate what weve got there? A murder phoenixes here room isnt going to go over well, even if theyre understanding. Im going to find Titania, Ive got some more ideas to run by her. Chop chop, theyre here now, lets get into position.

Chop chop! I was happy to follow Ionas orders, they seemed to make perfect sense. I wouldve I dunno, probably had Auri bake them some food and given them a tour. Ionas way of trying to align everything was beautiful, and I took some mental notes.

I wouldnt have thought of our bath at all until walking into the room, and Id imagine it wouldnt have gone over too well.

Breakfast sounded nice, and I had no issues with go relax and be an ornament. If that was my job here, so be it! If it was always my job, that would be a problem, but now and then, for Auri? Yeah, I could make it work.

Tea was acquired almost as quickly as a book, [Rapid Reshelving] getting me everything, dressed, wood in the fireplace, and a quick spell encouraged the embers into a cozy flame. I settled in to read, and realized I had way too much energy to only slowly read. I split my mind into a half-dozen parts, each thinking about something else.

One was obviously reading the book, while another was focused on listening to what was going on. Where were Iona and the phoenixes, what were they doing? Two more parts were working on what Night suggested - looking at my classes and thinking what I wanted to do with them, and while I was on the topic of Night and his suggestions, I was working on a few new spells to add to my spellbooks.

Where did I want to take [Butterfly Mystic] when it evolved? On one hand, I was really happy with the skills provided. [Scintillating Ascent] for flight, [Nectar] was an amazing mana regeneration skill, [Solar Corona] had a stupid amount of work put into it, an unreplicatable passive, and [A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers] was strong. It had started as a sorcery class, and was still going strong as one. Sticking to a path was rewarded in many ways.

On the other, [Lepidoptera] and wizardry itself offered me endless options and possibilities, limited only by my understanding, imagination, and ability to find and write new spells. I could use an entire class for it! It scratched the itch of all the spells and all the elements nicely.

At the same time, I was thinking about [Loremaster]. I liked the skills, I liked reading, but actually being a [Loremaster] was a little too much extra on my plate. I had enough things I was doing already - an entirely new job was just too much. I didnt have the time or ability to properly work on the class, and be one. Like, learning everything was fine and dandy. I was happy with that, I liked that part. It was the go out and actively warn and ward against the threats part that I was less than thrilled with. The knowledge wasnt going away, the learning was fun. It was like teaching. The time in class was fun, but the prep work and lesson planning wasnt. I was lucky my companion bond with Auri meant I hadnt stagnated at a low level forever, unlike poor Julius and his classes. Dodged a [Pebble Toss] there.

Usually, most of the time, my [Parallel Thoughts] were compartmentalized from each other, but this time, a spark hit. A connection was made between the two.

I leaned fairly heavily on some of [Ancient Loremaster of Legends] abilities for my wizardry. [Loremasters Library] was filled with my spellbooks, and [Manuscript Mastery] was most often used to instantly flick to the right page to cast a spell. It wouldnt be insane to evolve the class to a wizardry one.

[Solar Corona] didnt benefit wizardry spells, not even Radiance ones. The major loss I could see was writing spells. Spatial wizardry was awkward. By awkward, I meant slow and tedious.

Radiance was great for on the fly casting. I could carve runes out of glowing light in the air in front of me, or rapidly inscribe them at the speed my fingers could flick onto the page of a spellbook. Earth wizards could easily mold granite or other rocks like putty, easily putting down long-lasting enchantments. Water mages could conjure or manipulate water into the shape of runes. Fire mages could shape the flames of a fireplace, Dark wizards could manipulate shadows, etc.

Spatial wasnt the only odd-duck element when it came to wizardry, but it was one of them. In theory, at the highest levels, with the right skills, I could bend the fabric of the world into the shape of a spell. More than a little expensive just to create the runes for a spell, which would then need additional mana to cast and create the effect.

No, Spatial had the plan B of almost all elements - quill, ink, paper, and the right skill. Spells would be harder to cast on the fly, but Id still be able to do it.

Night had mentioned a few people he knew, and his ideas around getting a rune made explicitly to generate a set of the Medical Manuscripts was genius. I wondered if any of them happened to also be Spatial wizards? Meeting and discussing things with them before upgrading the class could only do good things. The combination was incredibly rare - Spatial Wizardry with Runesmithing? - but Night had been around forever, and Immortals tended to stay alive until everything went sideways. If he didnt know a person directly, hed know someone who did.

Wait - wasnt Archmage also a Spatial Wizard? I should talk with her some more. She didnt seem to like me too much for some unknown reason, but persistence and some [Social Lubricant] from Iona might make things work. Interacting with a few Spatial Wizards, learning from them, getting some spells, could be just the ticket I needed before upgrading [Ancient Loremaster of Legend].

Also, I wanted to sit and think on the upgrade for a bit. It sounded good today, but Id been visited by the Bad Idea Fairy masquerading as the Good Idea Fairy before.

Speaking of Iona and her social skills, I was listening to her giving the phoenixes a tour. Not all of my ideas had been terrible!

... over here weve got Auris hall of mirrors, and her arcanite nest. Iona was saying.

Brrrpt! BRPT! BrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrpt! Auri was super excited to show it off. The owl hooted, and I mentally added in another reason Iona was perfect for this - she could understand them perfectly.

Her blessing was frankly stupid.

Stolen novel; please report.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 646->648! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

Oh nice. Showing off ones nest was clearly a very phoenix-like thing to do. Enough so that it was worth a pair of [Butterfly Mystic] levels.

Perhaps Id get lucky and get an [Arbiter] level as well?

No such luck.

I stuck my nose even more firmly in my book, and did the only thing I felt might help in the moment:

Prayed like heck to Selene and Lunaris.

I had pray to Ciriel on my todo list, but I felt Ionas patron goddesses might be more useful in the current situation.

By some divine miracle of silver tongues, only a single frying pan was the casualty of the phoenixs first visit. Id heard what was going on, but Id only understood half the participants.

Do I want to know? I asked as I tried to pry the cooled lump of slag off the kitchen floor without bringing the rest of the kitchen with it.

Iona sighed.

Apparently, baking is below a phoenix, and there was a big argument over it. The owl had to smack down the tupandactylus and the frying pan got the worst of it.

[Wings] had the minor downside that it no longer grew and evolved by studying flight, and the [Pretty] aspect was gone entirely. I traded it for raw speed, mobility, endurance, and theyd last even when hit. The theming went from butterfly wings to heron wings, but they still sprouted out of my back, giving off a faint glow as they did so.

I looked like an angel.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 31]

[Mana: 2,841,420/2,841,420]

[Mana Regeneration: 4,679,904 +(8,996,062)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 12,689 (Effectively: 101,512)]

[Dexterity: 37,348 (Effectively: 397,682)]

[Vitality: 89,830 (Effectively: 1,403,594)]

[Speed: 77,062 (Effectively: 1,516,811)]

[Mana: 284,142]

[Mana Regeneration: 540,304 (+ 899,606)]

[Magic Power: 303,864 (+ 12,154,560)]

[Magic Control: 303,585 (+ 12,143,400)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 800]]

[Celestial Mastery: 800]

[Aurora Curialis: 750]

[The Stars Never Fade: 25]

[Luminary Mind: 495]

[Universal Cure: 800]

[Etheric Aegis: 21]

[Shroud of the Stellar Sea: 615]

[Zenith Everlasting: 580]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 666]]

[Radiance Affinity: 666]

[Radiance Resistance: 666]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 666]

[Lepidoptera: 666]

[Nectar: 666]

[Solar Corona: 666]

[Wings of the Mythical Sunbird: 666]

[A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers: 666]

[Class 3: [Ancient Loremaster of Legend - Spatial: Lv 256]]

[Spatial Authority: 256]

[Manuscript Mastery: 256]

[Blink: 142]

[Loremaster's Library: 256]

[Vault of Ages: 65]

[Rapid Reshelving: 224]

[Astral Archives: 256]

[Lust for Lore: 256]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 530]

[Parallel Thoughts: 335]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 768]

[The World Around Me: 180]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 800]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 800]

[Persistent Casting: 600]

[Imbue: 263]