EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 110- Dark Traps
🕑 Added 2023-11-04 23:59:00 +0000 UTCTalking to Alyssia was enlightening. It helped him refine the ideas he'd been working with and made them goals he could actually work towards. It turned out he wouldn't be making magic nukes anytime soon.
Not that he'd been considering the possibility. Replicating the devastating potential of destabilised Uranium with shadow magic was preposterous, the thoughts of an idiotic child. Nope, he definitely hadn't been considering it. At the end of the day, he'd fallen back on the things he'd learned at the Serako assembly, the place he'd also received a magic mask he'd all but forgotten about.
Combatants, or as they were colloquially called in the wider universe, Adventurers, fell into a number of categories. There were the common types, that any human who'd played an RPG game would know; the tank, healers, damage dealers, rouges, and even priests who made contracts with supreme beings or eldritch demons.
Then there were the more esoteric positions. Fortunately, Arthur's choice didn't quite fall into that category. He'd decided he wanted to be the 'CONTROL,' or as if it was more commonly known, the general, dictators of the battlefield, they made sure everything went smoothly. They filled all roles, whatever was most required at the time. A jack of all trades, master of none. Except I'm gonna master them all.
It was a grand goal, but to settle for less would be a disservice to himself and the potential he held. "So, according to the little information I've had access to," Arthur began. "Shadow ether is mainly used for espionage and assassination. And it's very well known for its minor teleportation abilities." He summarised.
Alyssia nodded her head. "With the number of your affinities, leaving a skill slot free for shadow magic will most likely net you some kind of movement ability. Either that or some potent stealth skill. It could go either way. You honestly shot yourself in the foot creating an explosive shadow bomb of all things. There are so many better ways to use shadow magic than make it a physical force." She sighed in resignation.
"Stop being such a downer. "Arthur replied. "If my plan works, it'll become my most versatile skill."
"Yes," Alyssia said, deadpan. "If it works. I think you believe in your ether manipulation skill a little too much. Taking a simple explosive spell and making it do everything you want it to isn't as easy as you seem to think it is."
"That's why I've got you. Master magician, my personal prodigy to help me along," Arthur teased. Alyssia had made it explicitly clear that she lacked in the esoteric department of ether manipulation. Still, she was leagues beyond anyone currently on the planet.
She looked at him suspiciously, unable to decide if he was making fun of her or not before finally deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Being a control mage is difficult, though I guess fighting on your lonesome will negate most of the drawbacks associated with the position. You won't have to worry about managing anyone but yourself."
"Yep, that's the only reason I decided to go the route," Arthur replied. "Though I guess I'm not really taking up the position. Just elements of it I found appealing."
"And the shadow shtick you have planned. How does that fit in with everything?" She questioned, eyebrows raised.
"Well," Arthur smiled. "I guess you'd call it the glue that holds everything together. I want to use a mixture of shadow and water magic to create my personal domain. Not actual liquid water, mind you, but something with the element in its vaporous form. Adding some shadow and magic into the mix is sure to create some pretty unique effects."
"I'm thinking something that tells me where everything is, and I can use my Molecular Water Shot to decimate anything that steps into it using the water in my domain. I'll be a mobile deathzone."
"That's all well and good," Alyssia replied. "But I don't see how your shadow magic fits in. What part will your bomb spell play here?
"Well," he said. "I did say that it'd be the glue that binds everything together, didn't I? If I manage to get a legendary class, my experience gain requirements will be what, two, maybe three times higher than normal people?
"Ten." Alyssia deadpanned. You'll need ten times the experience of someone with a Rare class, not a common one. Maybe even an Elite because your soul's so unusual. That's on top of all the penalties you'll face fighting average monsters. So you're looking at a minimum of thirty, well, closer to forty times the amount of experience required to level." She explained.
Well, shit. Arthur hadn't expected his future to hold so much monster hunting. Forty times as much! That's insane. Still, it made Arthur's plans all the more important. He needed to be a veritable killing machine if he wanted any hope of reaching level 200 in the next decade. "That's a lot more than I was expecting," Arthur finally said.
Alyssia nodded. "Honestly, save the imminent threat your planets facing, you're on a fast track to outgrowing your world. To be honest, I shouldn't be here, either. Killing too many weak monsters from a tier 1 planet will negatively affect my next class selection."
"You still haven't answered though. How does your shadow magic fit into this 'deathzoze' of yours?" She sounded more than a little sceptical and exasperated. Arthur ignored it and went straight into an explanation.
"Well, the water part of my domain will help deal with weaker monsters, I'll use shadow magic to limit my enemy's visibility and movement. The shadow trap I hope to evolve my bomb skill into will be intermittently placed around me, in all directions. Fighting me will be like walking into a minefield."
Alyssia nodded her head, the amusement on her face being quickly replaced by seriousness.
"These traps will deal with stronger enemies, the ones I can't defeat with my automated water domain. Perhaps I can set them to target monsters above a certain level of strength." Arthur took a deep breath, really enjoying the breakdown of the build he'd been planning. It reminded him a little of creating a perfect RPG character, except this time, he was talking about building himself.
"And finally, I'll use shadow magic to teleport around within my domain to personally fight truly powerful monsters. Things like the Hydra we'll be facing, the sort of beasts that are out of my weight class. Fighting me will be hell on Earth. I'll be a NIGHTMARE to face, not the big cat that so many people fear, an apocalypse made manifest."
As always, Alyssia had to hit him with a reality check. "That's all if you can get over your poor control of ether, though, isn't it," she reminded him. "Fixing your soul up will hopefully solve most of the problem but you need it sorted out before getting your class. It's the only way you'll be able to take your shadow bomb skill in the right direction in time for your class selection. You've got your work cut out for you."
Turned out Alyssia hit the nail on the head with her statement. The biggest obstacle, really the only obstacle that barred Arthur's dreams of being a spell-slinging master mage was his terrible control of ether. Not for a lack of trying, though. The past hour had earned him three levels in his ether manipulation skill and it now sat at a grand level 4 skill.
He'd decided to start with what should've been the easiest step; completing his shadow bomb skill. For one, he already had a basis to work with there and he had a clear idea of where he wanted to take the skill. Sadly, he didn't make for the best of drivers.
"For fucks sake," Arthur shouted, as his latest attempt blew up in his face. Alyssia, the ever-helpful witch, cackled madly on the side, a plate of roasted vegetables in her hand that she snacked on as she watched him make a fool of himself. He threw a clump of loose soil at her which never had any hope of ever hitting the damn woman. It did at least get her to shut up.
She'd tried to help him at first, giving him a number of exercises he could run through that would help him control ether better. They were useful, or at least they would be if he had a month or two to work with. As things were, the benefits they provided came too slowly for him to rely on them right now. Still, her advice had helped tremendously, nonetheless, and so he didn't begrudge her for watching him make a spectacle of himself. Still, how does she find it funny after watching it happen again and again? Seriously, her humour's broken.
In essence, what Arthur was trying to do was simple. As an incomplete uncommon skill, a part of the skill's matrix was in flux. A better word would be malleable, Arthur mused. It was the part of the skill that he could easily edit to make it conform to the image he had in his head. At least it should've been easy. Unfortunately, the magic simply refused to conform to his desires.
"You've had your fun," he said, turning to face Alyssia. "Have any more advice that'll help me along? Your first few tips helped a lot."
"Useful advice," he added when he saw the alverin woman open her mouth to answer his question. She quickly closed it and he let out a sigh of relief. If she told him the same esoteric bullshit she'd started with now one more time, he'd lose his mind.
Thankfully, it seemed some of his frustration had gotten through to her, and she mulled over her thoughts before speaking them for once.
"Okay, your ether manipulation skill's at level 4 now, right?" She asked, biting her nails. Arthur nodded in ascent.
"Alright. That should be high enough for what I have in mind." Arthur perked up at that. Finally, there was something different he could try. Banging his head on the wall of failure for so long had thoroughly disabused him of any notion that he was talented at magic, at least as he was now. Even if Alyssia was a terrible teacher, he should've gotten some results by now. Humans across the planet had experienced far more success with ether at this point. It'd been all over the news in recent weeks, men and women who'd learned to do some pretty damn amazing things with their original skills. An ascetic monk had apparently managed to create an Epic skill last he'd heard.
The problem lay in the way Arthur approached the world, or more specifically problems. Whilst he could get overly emotional at times, he liked things to flow logically, that his actions would have reactions he could carefully deliberate upon and thus deduce results. It was why he enjoyed maths so much.
Sadly, magic didn't work that way, or at least Arthur's lack of expertise meant it didn't. If he'd spent years studying the intricacies of shadow magic, perhaps even months, he could approach the spell with the same mindset he would a particularly difficult algebraic equation. Sadly that wasn't the case and he had to rely on Alyssia's cryptic advice.
"Okay," Alyssia began. "So far you've been pouring ether into the skill matrix and manually trying to edit the final portion of the skill, right?" She didn't wait for him to answer instead carrying on with her explanation. "I think your manipulation skill's levelled sufficiently enough that you can try something different, though the results you get may not be that great. Unfortunately, your lack of aptitude makes doing things the hard way near impossible, at least in any reasonable frame of time."
Alyssia's words, while harsh, were certainly true. He'd need months to perfectly complete the shadow bomb skill and he had less than a week. "So, what do you want me to do?" He asked.
Alyssia smiled. "Well, it's easy really." Arthurs's eyebrow twitched at the word and she smirked. The damn witch knew what she was doing. "Enough that even you can do it your first time." She continued unabated. "You should have a general gist of what each part of the skill matrix has done by now. What you need to do is run your ether through it and forcefully stop it at the point where it'd normally explode. With your manipulation skill where it's currently at, you should be able to do so long enough to add an element of delay to your skill, and voila, you've created a delayed explosion. If you go a step further and manage to control the direction the explosion goes in, the shape even if you're feeling fortunate, and you could potentially get some sort of trap shenanigans added to it. Say, an explosion of shadow spears or something should do the trick."
Arthur listened with rapt attention and tried to figure out how he'd implement her advice.
"What are you waiting for? Get cracking magic-man. Your skill's not gonna complete itself. I'm curious as well to see how this turns out too."
Turns out it wasn't easy enough to finish in one attempt. Not two either. Much to Arthur's dismay, it took him till the 87th try before he started seeing some progress, and it was only after his 312th attempt that the job was done. He was lucky failed castings didn't consume much ether. Still, he couldn't help but grin as he read through the updated description of his skill.
Shadow trap (Rare) Incomplete- Use shadow affinity ether to create a range of traps. Traps may be remotely placed and can operate on a timer.
The skill was still incomplete, but this was something he could work with. It had gone up an entire rank, which was nothing to scoff at. The main takeaway, however, was the fact that the skill now had a direction it was going in instead of the vague description it'd previously had. Alyssia put his odds at a successful skill evolution when he unlocked a class at 70% which was honestly higher than he'd expected. If he truly managed to get a legendary class, then he'd see the rare skill rise to elite rarity at the least, maybe even epic. Building off the foundation he'd now built, it'd make a potent trap skill to round out his abilities.
Alyssia, as always, knew how to dampen his spirits. Quite literally this time, with a pitcher of water that she'd thrown at him.
"Chop chop, beast boy. Your water manipulation still needs work. You should've seen that coming a mile away."
I swear to God I'm going to kill this woman.
