Chapter 74: Magic & Monsters

Chapter 74: Magic & Monsters

Choose one Spell to learn:

Ethereal Armornôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

School: Arcane, Summoning

Type: Activated

Cost: 150 Mana

—

You summon one of two sets of magical armor – Dark Plate or Light Plate. You may dismiss it at any time. It will be automatically dismissed after 60 minutes.

While wearing Dark Plate, you cannot take more than 50% of your maximum Health in damage in a single second (155 damage). Preventing damage this way breaks the Plate, making it unusable for 60 seconds.

While wearing Light Plate, your other spells cost 10% less, though still gain Spell XP as though they weren’t discounted.

Intelligence information:

If you choose this option, your next Spell options will be:

Ember Gale - School: Fire

Expedite - School: Alteration

Heartstone - School: Alteration, Summoning

Abrupt Decay

School: Nature

Type: Activated

Cost: 75 Mana

—

Choose a being you are touching. If it has less than 300 Health, it dies.

Intelligence information:

If you choose this option, your next Spell options will be:

Damnation - School: Demonic

Mana Seism - School: Arcane

Contaminated Bond - School: Curse, Nature

Stasis

School: Curse, Arcane

Type: Activated

Cost: 280 Mana

—

Freeze time for a single being that you are touching for 10 seconds. The being cannot move, think, or otherwise perceive the outside world for the duration, and its body cannot be forcibly moved or damaged.

Reduce the duration of this spell by 1 second for each 10 Endurance the entity has. A being with 100 Endurance is completely unaffected.

“Besides, you also have the Light Plate aspect of it, right?”

“Yeah, but what’s that even supposed to do? I did the math, and it won’t really save me much Mana, when factoring in that it takes 150 to summon in the first place.”

“Well, first off, that discount’ll probably get better as the Spell Ranks up, so I imagine you’ll start saving a good bit once you get into the double digits of Spell Ranks. Second, I don’t think it’s supposed to be used in fights. If anything, you’d get the best use from Light Plate out of anyone around.”

I frowned. “How?”

“I think the key phrase you’re forgetting in Light Plate’s description is that you ‘still gain Spell XP as though the Spells weren’t discounted.’ So, if you profit a hundred Mana, that’s one extra Spell XP gained, totally for free.”

“...Huh. You’re right.”

“So I’d say Ethereal Armor has two main facets of usefulness. Light Plate for the more long-term practice angle, and Dark Plate for short-term protection.”

“And I guess the extra Spell XP will only get better as I Rank Ethereal Armor, too,” I said. Then I shook my head, trying to get back on track. “Well, still. We need to compare it to Stasis. What do you think about it?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t done much research on melee combat, so I couldn’t tell you how helpful an effect like that would be. You’re the fighter, right? Seems like it might be useful, might not be. Depends on your combat style.”

“Well, I guess I’d say I also don’t know how to feel about it. I’ve only got 800 Mana. So, spending 280 on a single ten-second Spell is... dubious. It could certainly be used to get a positional advantage on someone, or to run away from something chasing us, but...”

“...But if they're strong enough that we’re running away, they’re probably strong enough to shrug off the effect.”

“Yeah. That’s what I keep coming back to. Seems like it’d be absolutely phenomenal in a one-on-one match of even strength, but I feel like I already do just fine in those. With Crippling Chill, Ray of Frost, and Gravity Well, I can normally limit someone’s mobility just fine without freezing them in time. It seems great, but, well, redundant.”

“Right, that makes sense.”

“I kind of want to take it anyway, though. You said Spells are dependent on previous choices, right? So if I turn down Stasis here, wouldn’t that mean I won’t get more time-related Spells in the future? I’m kind of a time mage. Feels silly to turn down a time Spell when I see one.”

“Not particularly. The Spells you’re offered are based on your previous Spell Choices, but it doesn’t mean you’ll only ever get Spells that do the same thing as the ones you’ve already taken. They’ll just synergize with your previous choices in some way. So, by turning down Stasis, you aren’t telling the System that you don’t want any time-related Spells, you’re telling the System that you don’t want Spells that, for example, prevent you from damaging your opponents. Or Spells that only work based on touch. It’s not really a single choice that’ll influence the System like that on a broad scale, but more a series of choices. It wouldn’t stop offering time Spells to you just because you turned a single one down.”

“Huh, alright.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think that settles it.”

I went ahead and chose my Spell.

You have learned the Spell Ethereal Armor.

Your next Spell options will be:

Ember Gale - School: Fire

Expedite - School: Alteration

Heartstone - School: Alteration, Summoning

And while I was at it, I assigned my Stat Points. I was tempted to put some in other Stats like Endurance, but with Ethereal Armor, Conjuration was looking more attractive than ever. Dark Plate helped shore up my problem with occasionally getting killed in a single hit during a surprise attack, so Endurance wasn’t quite as integral, and with Light Plate, every point I put into Conjuration translated to even more Spell XP. So I put my Stat Points into Conjuration. All 9 of them.

You have used 9 Stat Points to increase Conjuration.

Your Conjuration value is now 83.

And with that, I opened my eyes, blinking at the morning light. Erani was half-sitting, half-lying against a nearby tree, obviously getting some rest. And the Dryad was still meditating with her eyes closed. I wondered what she was doing.

“Well, I guess I should go ahead and get to Ranking my Spells,” I said. “I got two more Soft Cap levels, plus the new Spell, of course.”

But just as I was about to try out Ethereal Armor, the Dryad’s eyes shot open.

And I heard a voice in my head.

“Can you hear me?” it said. “You two. Can you hear me?”

The Dryad looked back and forth between me and Erani, as if awaiting a response.