Chapter 14: Math

Chapter 14: Math

Rain woke before his alarm and experienced some momentary disorientation. He was curled up against a rock and quite damp from the morning dew. The sun was just coming up. He shivered. The fire had gone out in the night and being without a blanket had left him with a pretty severe chill.

He rose, rubbing his arms and looking around. Carten was still on watch but the others were all asleep in their bedrolls. Does the man even sleep? Rain wondered, his thoughts sluggish. He moved about quietly, searching for more firewood to restart the fire. There weren't many trees around, but there was plenty of scrub brush and it was fairly dry, even with the dew. As he searched, he realized that not all of the chill was coming from the cool air.

Yes! It worked! My aura is still active!

Rain had been practicing with his auras for the whole day yesterday, using winter to keep his regeneration boosted between bouts of purification. He was getting a bit annoyed at how low the boost was and how slowly the skill was gaining experience. Trying to shove more mana into it did nothing, the barrier in his mind resisting all attempts to force it wider, only allowing a set flow of mana and that was it.

Amplify and extend were sort of like side channels that he could open or close, adding to the mana consumed by the skill, but not directly. He'd also tried reducing the flow, trying to reduce the mana consumption of purify down to something he could maintain all day. He'd had no luck with that either; the skill consumed mana at a fixed rate. Trying to use less than that would cut off the flow completely, the barrier re-sealing itself and stopping his mana from flowing out into the world.

Rain had gotten pretty annoyed at this, asking the other mages if there was any way to control the mana output of a spell. Neither Jamus nor Mahria had an answer that satisfied him. Jamus had explained that spells worked with a sort of threshold. You pressed mana against the barrier until the threshold was reached, then it would burst out into the effect you wanted, after which the barrier would close. Channeled spells such as Rain's auras were rare, at least at their level. Neither Jamus nor Mahria had any. He hadn't bothered asking Lavarro or Carten for different reasons in each person’s case.

There has to be more to it, winter feels so natural compared to the others. Rain tried varying the output of winter as he shoved some twigs into the fire, trying to get them to catch on the coals. He almost felt as if it was working, but the drain of the aura was so slow he couldn't tell if it was having any effect.

Why is winter different? I was even able to keep it on overnight. It feels less like a spell, and more like, well, just part of me. Maybe I've just been using it long enough? Skills get experience when you use them, but that is just numbers. Can you get better at a skill with practicing it, independent of what the system says? It makes sense, hard to see with an aura, but Mahria's aim is an obvious sign that skills and spells don't take care of everything.

Rain got the fire to catch at last and slowly started feeding in larger branches as the flames rekindled. He activated his purification aura and sat near the fire to dry out from the damp, watching as the ash in the fire pit dissolved under the assault of his aura. Even the smoke from the fire was attenuated. He focused on the feeling of purify, trying to feel the flow of the mana and understand how it was working.

He ran out of mana before managing to glean anything further about the skill, switching back to winter automatically. He stared at the flames, thinking about magic and skills until his alarm went off, the others seeming to jerk awake at the same time. Carten stood and walked to the cart. He tossed his shields in, then clambered up after them. He pulled a blanket from his pack and wrapped himself up in it, not even removing his armor.

I guess he does sleep. Walking for me today, then. Damn, he is frickin’ ‘uge! He practically fills that wagon. Rain pulled up his training overview as the others started to rise and move about the camp.

Training Overview

General Experience Earned

Stamina Use: 55

Mana Use: 1039

Skill Experience Earned

Extend Aura: 99 [Rank Up]

Purify: 825 [Rank Up]

Winter: 16

Amplify Aura: 99 [Rank Up]

Intrinsic Clarity: 1039 [Rank Up] [Rank Up]

Holy fuck yes! That is what I am talking about! Dynamo's mana regeneration is going to make leveling up skills so much faster. Five ranks in just one day! And it is only going to get better. Intrinsic clarity increases regeneration, and with the boost from dynamo, my clarity attribute counts for triple. No level up for my class though.

Calling up his attributes screen, Rain saw that the experience requirement for level 6 Dynamo was 2021 experience, quite a jump from the 700 it had taken to get to level 5 Unclassed. At 1686, he was getting there, but still had a ways to go. While he had the window open, he checked his regeneration, seeing that he was now gaining about 200 mana per hour when winter was active.

Awesome, I can use purify for 200 mana every hour, on the hour; that is 3600 a day assuming eighteen hours awake. I'll be level 6 tomorrow, if I can keep up with the schedule, that is. Purify will probably level too, maybe more than once. Let's see. Skills.

Skills

Refrigerate (3/10) Exp: 104/400

22-25 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 3 meters

Cost: 15 mp/s

Extend Aura (2/10) Exp: 91/200

“Want to try?” the big man asked him, grinning through his bushy black beard.

Sure, why the heck not. Let's see if he can block an aura.

Rain nodded, readying refrigerate and moving to within his estimated range of the big man.

“Ready?” Rain asked. Carten crouched and banged his shields together by way of response.

Rain nodded and started to focus on refrigerate, extending the aura, but not amplifying it. He didn't want to really hurt the man, so he was ready to shut it down if it looked like it was doing any real damage. As the wave of cold rushed towards Carten, he slammed his shields together and ducked behind them. The flat inside edges of the two shields interlocked, one having a raised flange that covered the seam. The cold washed against them, but then flowed over and around, reaching for the man hiding behind the wall of metal.

Carten seemed momentarily shocked by this, not having expected this form of attack. Rain almost canceled the aura, but he kept it on as he heard laughter coming from behind the shields. Carten stood, frost forming on the metal of his armor as he took a step towards Rain. He started walking toward Rain with a wide grin on his face, his arms spread wide.

Shocked at the ineffectiveness of his aura, Rain activated amplify, pushing as hard as he could. Carten didn't even seem to notice the difference. Rain frantically waved his hands at him in defeat, canceling the aura completely. His mana was totally drained after the few seconds of combat, despite having been near full. The frosted ground cracked as Carten walked up to Rain and clapped him on the shoulder. Rain winced, then smiled up at the man, shrugging.

Damn. I guess it is only good against slimes at this level. Carten is a beast.

Mahria walked up to Rain, having returned at some point to watch the fight.

“What was that skill?” she asked, indicating the melting circle of frost on the ground.

“Aura,” Rain said, shrugging, failing to remember the common word for the skill. He’d asked the adventurers at the guild for the names of several tier 0 skills, but he’d neglected to write most of them down.

Mahria paused, then, staring off into space, started swiping at something Rain couldn't see. He did recognize the motion though, figuring that she was paging through the skill window.

Well, there is one question answered. Other people have the same interface, or at least a similar one. It isn't just me.

Eventually, Mahria seemed to find what she was looking for, turning to him and speaking a word with a questioning tone. It sounded familiar, but he didn’t recognize it. Unsure, he simply shrugged.

She crouched down and sketched out a circle about a meter in radius on the ground around herself, then looked at him questioningly. She pointed at the circle of frost around him, repeating the word, then pointed at the fire, saying a different word. Yeah, looks like she found it.

Rain nodded. “Refrigerate,” he pointed to the aura around him, using the same word she had used.

The other one must have been immolate. I’ll try to remember that this time.

Mahria sniffed, seeming to lose interest, muttering something about mana as she walked back towards the fire.

Yeah, tell me about it, Rain thought as he followed her, sitting down and fishing out a ration bar from his pack.

Jamus joined them and sat next to Rain who was watching Mahria across the fire. Her green eyes were captivating. The mage tapped Rain on the shoulder and leaned in to whisper to him.

“Careful.”

“What?” Rain whispered back.

“Mahria. Be careful.”

“What? Why?”

“She is Lavarro’s .”

Jamus motioned to Rain’s pack, then made a writing motion. Rain pulled out his notebook and handed it to the man. Jamus started sketching in the notebook. He drew a quick doodle of the two women, then another figure that Rain didn’t recognize. He connected Lavarro and the unfamiliar man with a line. He then extended it with an arrow to point to Mahria, who was drawn in above the other figures. He started labeling the diagram, but Rain had already caught on.

It’s like a family tree, just upside down! Shit, she’s Lavarro’s daughter. Warning taken.

Jamus taught him the words for the relationships between the people, Rain taking the notebook back to fill in the phonetic translations in English. When they had finished, he felt like it would be safe enough to ask a question. He kept his voice to a whisper though.

“Her father? Who?”

“You wouldn’t like him.”

Mahria had started watching the whispering pair curiously, so Rain decided that he should probably mind his own business. He sighed and picked his ration bar back up from where he had left it. He gnawed at it unenthusiastically, his poor jaw almost as sore as his legs.