>>544624
Can we upgrade our pet Tyrant to fight for us? Or is he too cute to risk him?

What are our combat magic spells? Imo our best bet against the Black Witch is to let Rathod's golem run wild and teleport our allies away if it gets too dangerous.

>>544624
>Cera
Maybe we can get her to disassemble the strange material. That would cripple the Witch, right?

>knowledge demon
Best skill!

A spell to communicate with the Prince's army soldiers would be helpful to coordinate - retreat when area of effect spells are thrown, attack to divert attention when preparing a long spell...

Can we develop such a spell or do we already have one?

>>544624
Im thinking work with Brun on evocations. Also try and make our evocation more mana efficient.

>>544639
>Brun
Good idea. Can we improve our allies' abilities with our knowledge demon, like their mana efficiency?

>>544634
>Or is he too cute to risk him?
Definitely too cute.

>>544624
I say we leave behind our research on dimensional travel. I’d normally be against this, but with this new threat, we cannot risk the knowledge being lost.

Of course, we should still a) hide it in sealed box, b) encrypt it in a way that should take weeks to decrypt, and c) leave it with strict demands not to be opened unless we don’t come back for a week or so with our resident sentient Golem.

>>544655
>research
We already hide it in our dimensional pocket, no?

>>544655
>knowledge being lost
But true: They're all after our secret knowledge! We have to kill the Black Witch and her master to keep knowledge about dimensions to ourselves!

>>544657
Yes, and no one else can access it. My suggestion was to hide it less securely during our absence.

>>544660
Yes.

As long as the witch exists, risking the spread of our secret knowledge is preferable to the dimension being destroyed.

Hey Exabyte, how did mana drain demon come out? Can we cast it on other people? I.e. black witch?

>>544624
I'm so sad I have to go to bed and be away until tuesday, but I'll be sure to read up then.

Good to have you be raised from the dead, Exa! Enjoy the quest everyone.

>>544678
>Enjoy
Yeah, will enjoy bathing in the blood of our enemies. :)

>>544670
>The mana drain demon didn't work out at all. The Knowledge Demon spell is hermetic, meaning that it's basically impossible to customize at all without lengthy weeks or months of experimentation. Hermetic magic is hell for an analytical wizard like yourself. You could only ever improve the spell at all due to using Knowledge Demon on itself.

First things first.

You collect your notes, making a quick copy. Then you wrap it up in a binder, seal it into a box, link it to a few dweomers, and then send it into Nothingness. If you don't come back to disable the summoning dweomer in a month, the box will come back, dragging along your research. But if you do, you won't have to worry about it.

You make a mental note to kill the dweomer if you're still around, and then you dig into the familiar magic tome you purchased in Shamash. You don't spend long before snapping the book shut again. Since you still can't link with Gareth properly, yet, you can't improve him at all. He's not your Familiar at all. Once he is, you should be able to supercharge his monster abilities with magic, and have a lot of extra control over him, but you haven't figured it out quite yet.

But you're in a spree right now- doing everything you can, rushing to give yourself as much of an edge as possible. Runes spill from your fingers as dozens of Analytical spells are invented through your sheer genius, made as efficient as possible through the Knowledge Demon, and tapped into your implement. A one-to-many thaumaturgic radio dweomer is already done- it'd make communication between Rikar and his soldiers easy. A few lightning spells, a powerful force spell, even a dweomer to absorb physical attack in place of your allies- and to teleport them away if the dweomer breaks. But soon enough, you run low on ideas, and your head begins to pound.

But your Knowledge Demon is still active, an eighth core hovering over your shoulder. And it will still be there for the next fifteen minutes, according to its own calculations, so you pull your earbud out of your Implement and call.

"You busy?" You ask.

"Not really. Practicing my forms, making sure to stay limber. Why, what's up?"

"Get your butt over here." You say. "I'm going to amp up your evocations."

"... Right." Brun says.

Brun arrives at your dorm room only a few minutes later- you immediately take her battleaxe and start tapping. You're a bit surprised you can carry it now, but you ARE a lot fitter than you were a few months ago.

"What, not even a hello?"

"Sorry. Focusing." You say, fingers a blur as you quickly cut out extraneous runes as best you and the raw intellectual might of the Knowledge demon can do. Soon enough, you'd streamlined everything in Brun's suite.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Knowledge Demon." You say. "Makes me smarter, but it... has a cost."

A cost of your sanity and patience, mostly.

She smirks. "Is that a hermetic spell? I can't wait until you can share that kind of stuff with my family."

>?

>>544696
>>?
>Suggest she get a lot better at arcane magic before that – it links directly to her soul.
>Ask her if she has any more suggestions on how to prepare for the attack on the black witch.
>Make sure to get plenty of rest before actually moving.

Did we ever get any adamantium from Kristoph? I think now might be a good time to have it. I would even be satisfied with just borrowing some for this attack. May wish to practice with it beforehand, though. And devise some way to prevent it from being stolen.

>>544696
>can share that kind of stuff with my family.
Urg, forgot about that... will share something, but our secrets!
>sanity and patience
Both overrated anyway!

>?
"Hi Brun, try your axe now!"

An army of mithril golems would be nice to have now...

>>544709
This, and we will need to practice with her, this won be like the fiend extermination.

>>544696
In case this dimensional intervention fails: Make more money for mithril golem army and maybe mercenaries by building up that travel company!

>>544713
>practice with her
Improve our combat, survive the day!

>>544696
>absorb physical attack in place of your allies
Nice, the Witch's minions can't hurt us!
>radio dweomer
They can upgrade our noble title for that! Princess Jasmine!

>>544715
>You only get Princess Jasmine as a title if you marry the prince.

"I suggest you get a lot better at Astral magic before that," You say. "It links directly to your soul, and I have to deliberately prevent my mana from all tunneling into it."
"What happens if I'm, uh, not very good at it?"

"Then you'll probably lose all ability to use magic while the Knowledge Demon is going on, and you'll be flooded with a bunch of junk information," You say.

"And that's not a good thing," She sighs, and you nod. "Pity. I could really use some extra brainpower now and then."

"I'll say," You say, and Brun shoots you a glare. You just grin.

Then you get to your feet, and hand the battleaxe back to her. "Go ahead and give that a test. Your spells- at least, those in your combat suite- should be more powerful and efficient now."

"Hm. Lemme..."

She tilts her head, and then the air wavers around her, the telltale sign of a Haste spell. She moves her arms and legs experimentally, and her eyes widen.

"Warrior, what the hell'd you do to this?" She asks.

"Why, something wrong?"

"No, it's just... This thing's a lot more agile than I'm used to. I might actually be able to change directions with this spell," She says.
"You couldn't before?"

"The problem with haste spells," She says, well aware that you rarely ever use them, "Is that once you get up to speed, the spell doesn't like changing momentum. But this one does. It'll take some practice to get used to it."

"Maybe we can duel a bit, get back into practice," You say.

"Sure thing!" She says, and dissolves the haste spell. "Let's get going."

The two of you make your way out of your dorm and walk down toward the Combat Evoc. building.

"So, what do you recommend we do to prepare for the attack on the Black Witch?" You ask.

"Hm," She mutters to herself. "I'm more used to hunting monsters rather than fighting people, but with what Thod and Nel said, I'd assume she doesn't get tired through magic. That means there's no point in trying to fight her in a war of attrition. We'll need to hit fast, hit hard, and hit her in a way she can't recover."

"Any idea how we'd do that?" You ask. Brun just shrugs.

"Haste, a big-ass weapon, and as many combat evocations as we can charge into one burst. No point in trying to save mana except maybe to teleport away."

"... We... might have more mana than you think," You say.

"What? Why?"

"Cera's coming with, apparently," You say.

"Thod said she hated you," Brun says, eyebrows raised.

"She does. No reason we can't work together, though."

"Anyway, that's talk for after the practice." She says, twirling her battleaxe. "You ready?"

"Yeah." You say, and draw out your Implement in one hand, and your sword- safely sheathed so it doesn't kill Brun- in the other.

>What are your plans? How are you going to fight?
>Also, roll me some 1d100s regardless.

>>544750
>>What are your plans? How are you going to fight?
Can we do short-lived gates fast enough to "reflect" incoming spells back at her? Or predict where she’ll run with haste, put a gate in front of her the moment she arrives and attack at the other side of the gate? We could also substitute the teleport for the gate, but that wouldn’t look as neat.

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>544750
>>544757

>>544757
>Portals take a longish time to establish. A few seconds at the very minimum.
>Gates are specifically portals anchored to a physical object. There's a very specific terminology here, heh.

>>544763
Sorry, I forgot all the terms during the pause. See astral vs arcane in my earlier post.

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>544750

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>544750
>>What are your plans? How are you going to fight?
Use our new damage prevention dweomers, some standard but highly efficient combat magic - time to practise some more spells!

>>544750
Hiring on some mercenaries might be nice. We still have money, right? Meat shields!

>>544750
Portal confusion tactics and splintering spells threw multiple portals.

Rolled 30 (1d100)

We should try and make sure the Black Witch won't be able to duplicate any of our magic (especially the golems) if we have to go to round two we dont want her to be able to do our shit AND her shit. So like, dewomers that stop any close examination or robus teleporters for golems and like stuff.

>Result: 71. Mild Failure!

The moment the fight begins, both of you key your implements at the same time. Brun wraps herself in the shell of distorted light that is a haste spell, while glimmering sparks- dozens of dweomers- spread out behind you.

A second later, both of you move. Brun charges toward you, axe swinging, but you deftly dodge out of the way. But true to her word, her haste spell is a lot more agile- she homes right in on you, axe swinging down-

But three dweomers erect shields in front of you, slowing her movement. You key your implement and lash out with some lightning. Brun's own protection dweomer shudders, and winks out. Brun holds up her axe as a shield, and barrels into you- this time charging herself up with a physical augmentation.

Your own dweomer shields shatter, and Brun collides with you pretty damn hard. You go tumbling back, skidding across the floor-

And the other six dweomers finish opening their miniature portals- and begin belting out powerful missiles, as full to the brim with mana as you could possibly charge them with. The projectiles split and spiral in mid air, filling the arena with frags that Brun couldn't hope to dodge.

Especially because they're homing.

You kick Brun, channeling mana into your own physical augmentation spell, and she goes skidding back, boosted by her haste spell- just as dozens of missiles- of many different types- physical, elemental, and even a few designed to absorb heat, freezing her through her shields- slam down on her from all directions.

The ground shudders under the force of the spells you'd set up, and you spare the time to pour more mana into the dweomers casting them. You finally have space to breathe, for a second, so you get your swor-

Brun bursts out from the storm, axe swinging. You barely bring your sword up to catch the edge enough to block it, and she responds by batting your sword away. You parry her next blow, and then your third, but she's faster and more skilled. At any second she can send the axe crashing down on your skull, so you point to the other end of the arena and tilt your wrist- Your Blink macroinvocation. A second later, you're on the other side of the arena, and Brun is covering her face as the storm continues to rain down on her. She's bruised, and her armor is pretty battered.

For a sliver of a second, you begin to hope you might actually not lose this.

Then she charges again- and keys a spell on her Implement. One Brun becomes six, moving toward you. Any one of them could be real, or a mirror image, and if you get close enough to tell...

When they screech close enough to engage, you swing your sword. Two images fade out as your mithril sword disrupts them, but the third...

Catches your wrist.

A grinning Brun twists at the hip, and sends you crashing down onto your back, sword thrown free. The edge of an axe hums at your neck.

You sigh.

"That's way better than when you started." Brun says. "You've been working hard."

>?

>>544834
"Yeah, well. Before I was just training for me."

>>544834
>"You've been working hard."
"True. You will have to too, if you want to keep winning." Close to winning against Berserker Brun, pretty good!

>>544834
Smile "well, help me up! Let's keep at it!"

As much fun as they are probably having its going to be life or death in the field.

>>544848
>training for me.
Boss Jasmine has to train to protect her minions.

>>544834
>miniature portals >homing missiles
:)
>Blink macroinvocation
:D

So, the MC is pretty op now, Black Witch won't be able to hold a candle against us! Muahaha!

>>544782
Hiring mercenaries?

Maybe one of the Magical Girl persuasion?

>>544834
>?
>Got something to work forwards to.

So… Since we will be attacking, how feasible would it be to store large amounts of energy for a single enormous assault?

I’m thinking of preparing large amounts of homing grenades as well as mines, and perhaps some mines (keyed to us) that help those who step on them instead of killing them.

Another idea would be mithril frag grenades (that was the magic insulator, right?) and extraordinarily accelerated mithril spears. (Perhaps with an iron core for added weight). Here’s hoping that foreign mithril structures *inside* the giant hovering spell, or inside the runes would collapse the entire spell, so doing that as part of the alpha strike might keep the BW from escaping.

Actually, did the research into interdimensional wards go anywhere so far? Because if I was the BW, my plan for a sizeable opposition would be prepare the gigantic spell formation to collapse into an apocalyptic explosion on command. As soon as a sufficient threat level is reached, I would abscond immediately and hit the self destruct.

>>544890
Expendable (magic) muscle to defeat our new Nemesis. Magical girl? More like monster hunters, no?

>>544908
>self destruct
Just hope, the Witch doesn't have a fallback plan... pew pew pew! Big initial assault makes sense.

"Yeah, You say, staring up at the ceiling. Your dweomers wink out one by one. "Before I was just training for me."

Then you grin. "You'll have to work hard too, if you want to keep winning."

"Sure, sure," Brun rolls her eyes, and pulls you to your feet again. The two of you stand there, resting- and then you nod.

"Alright." You say. "Let's keep at it."

"You sure?" She asks. "You look pretty tired."

"Had to give my dweomers a lot of power." You say. "I just need a few seconds to rest."

"Sure thing." She says, and the two of you sit on the bleachers to watch another duel. The Evoc students aren't amazing. You could probably take them.

Though after a few minutes, something occurs to you.

"One second." You say, and ring up Kristoph.

"Jasmine! Hello!" Kristoph says. "What can I do you for? What can I do for you?"

You grin. "Well, I already told you about my problems, right?"

"You did." He says. "Sounds like a nasty business, that. Your friend hasn't sent me the schematics for the mithril he needs, so I'm mostly just here twiddling my thumbs. Why do you ask?"

"Well... I might have need of a bit of a magical boost, see..."

"You're asking for Admantine," He says. "Is that right?"

"Er, yeah." You say.

"Unlike the mithril, I'm not going to loan it out for free." He says. "I know how important the situation might be, but... I can't make Adamantine out of dirt. I don't have the resources for much. I can give you a gem with a few centimeters- four or five- diameter for twenty thousand ecu."

You hiss.

You have the money- you have a lot more than you'd thought you'd ever see- but you only have enough for a single gem like that. If you're buying it, you'd get to keep it afterwards... But it's a steep price. You could get a car, or a house for that price.

Or you could buy enough mercenaries to make an army. Though you already have Rikar's army to come with you, the mercs would have magic to use...

>?

>>544921
I was referencing Magical Girl For Hire Quest. The MC is a interdimensionally travellig merc MG.

>>544927
Buy it, then check up on Rathod

>>544927
Tough choice. Mercenary army or one magic booster gem...

Can we give out some future travel/transport contracts for big money? That way we could get more money...

>>544927
As an archmage, can we convene a council? This whole "slaving souls" thing seems like a big deal.

>>544927
I’m afraid mercenaries would just become casualties or even liabilities. A couple of loyal elites would be tempting, but still…

>Buy the adamantine.
We could probably also get some more money from that prince guy. And hey, perhaps Kristoph would be willing to purify the dragon’s mithril scales. That would give quite a boost to one of our heavy hitters, right? (I’m sure the princling would pay for it.)

>>544927
Mercs would be better. And seeing as our enemy can't contact to out bid us it's a great idea.

>It would be different if the problem was in Romalia or Tark, but since the 'stealing souls' thing takes place on an entirely different world it's technically not part of the Coalition's... jurisdiction. You might be able to make an announcement as Archmage, but that'd out yourself as an archmage and also wouldn't be nearly as effective as convening a council.

"... I'll take the gem," You say. "Do you know how to insert it into my implement to get the, er, amplification effect working?"

"I do. Harry helped me with it. No worries, Jasmine," He says. "I'll start working. It'll take me a few days."

"A few days? For a small gem?"

"... Like I said. I can't make it out of dirt," Kristoph says. "My Adamantine is a completely different class than the other two. Don't worry, I'll have it ready for you."

"Thanks, Kristoph." You say- and a moment later, something occurs to you. "Hey, Kristoph."

"Yes?"

"... If there were a monster with impure mithril scales, could you... purify it?"

"Er... that sounds crazy, to be honest." He says. "I'm sure I could, but how could the monster be controlled? A shaman couldn't control it if the shaman can't reach its soul. Perhaps if I gave it an orichalium link from the heart to the edge... but that still sounds crazy. I could do it though."

"Thanks again." You say. "I'll talk to Rikar about that. But I've got to go- time's weasting."

"Take care, Jaz," The young archmage says and hangs up.

You put your earbud back, and then get to your feet.

"Alright," You say, turning to Brun. "Let's get back to it."

Brun whoops loudly, and springs down the bleachers... Despite the fact that a duel's currently happening.

A long, long hour passes, and you and Brun both stumble back out of the building. You're bruised and beaten, while Brun is just... bruised, mostly, though she's got a few interesting electrical burns on her bare arm. You didn't win a single fight, but it got pretty close a few times. Close enough to take off Brun's weapon arm, if the dueling chamber didn't keep medical issues like that from happening.

But now you're wiped out, and your soul is beginning to burn from the raw magical weight you were pouring out. For the most part, you were keeping up through a mixture of quite a few different magics- Astral, Analytic, teleportation- even a few splashes of hermetic. Brun won despite her lack of... 'arcane agility' by sheer physical power and experience. Something which you'll be able to match up against... eventually.

Rathod's dorm room is cluttered- full of electronic devices and golem limbs alike, and there's a huge pile of orichalium cabling in one corner. Arrayed in the corner of the kitchenette is a huge, bigger-than-human frame, electronic components covering it. Thod is hard at work with a screwdriver and his tongue poking out between his lips.

"Heya, Thoddy." Brun calls. Rathod turns around.

"Hey." He says, waving. Brun pulls him into a hug. "How've you two been?"

>?

>>545058
>Discuss his new golems. Anything we can (and are allowed to) help with.
I have to leave now. Thanks for the thread.

>>545058
"Been great, preparations continue, the final battle against our nemesis looms. How's the golem? A golem army would be handy, you know."

Did we ask Brun's mom to come help us with the Black Witch? If we didn't, I think we should

>>545093
>>545084

What, no. We're here to make sure he's not overexerting himself.

>>545058
"Not much, just your girlfriend using me as a punching bag. Anything we can help with?"

>>545058
Upgraded her combat suite so we practiced beating the shit out of each other in the dueling chamber. I'm catching up to Brun slowly. And painfully.

The Witch doesn't have Adamantine (hopefully) - another advantage.
How do we keep her from just jumping to her home dimension when things get tough for her? Can we imprison her?

>>545105
She had to work for it though

>>545102
Just wanted to let her get out the whip... No?

>>545098
Good idea, their family is essentially blood sworn to us, with us promising them their Hermetic magic to regain ancient magic...

>>545058

Hey Exabyte, does our knowledge demon spell let us connect it to other people's souls, or just ours? Like could we cast it to give someone else (who is good enough at astral magic to work it properly) a temporary knowledge demon soul core?

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>>545093
>>545107
>>545109
>>545112
>>545118
>quintposting

>>545120
>You can cast it on other people. Though you're not sure how well they can manage it, without a high skill in astral magic.

"Been great. Preparations continue, the final battle against our nemesis looms, your girlfriend using me as a punching bag... You know. The usual," you say. "How's the golem? A golem army would be handy, you know."

"You're not getting an army." He says. "It's hard enough getting this one guy working. I think I got it through. With the right dweomer I should still be able to use magic, even after the mithril's on."

"Still able to use magic?" Brun asks.

"Yeah. I'm going to be wearing this guy." He says, tapping it. "Like armor, I guess."

"You're not overworking yourself?" You ask, frowning at him. "Any way we can help?

"You're one to talk, Jasmine." Rathod's voice is dry. "Though I could use a bit of help."

"Really? With what?"

"I can't get this array working." He says, handing you his implement. "I'm trying to create a dweomer pair connected through thaumaturgy. Thaumaturgy bonds are the only thing that works through mithril, so if I can connect th-"

"Done." You say, handing it back.

Rathod rolls his eyes. You give him a grin so bright it might blind him.

"In that case, I don't think there's anything you guys can help with. This is just a bunch of fiddly precision stuff, some magic arrays, and all the precepts Haron gave me permission to use."

"Aw, alright." Brun says. Then a moment later, she gives him a smirk. "Tell you what. When you're done..."

She leans close and whispers something. Apparently something girlfriend-related, according to the way Thod's cheeks immediately go rather red.

"... Right." He says. "Uh, in that case, I should probably work a bit more quickly."

"No overworking yourself, or the offer is null and void." Brun responds. Thod rolls his eyes again.

"Aye aye." He responds. Brun grins.

"Say, Brun." You say. "Think your mom would help?"

"Of course." She says. "Especially if I ask her. Want me to get her on board?"

"That'd be awesome." You say. She nods, and pulls out a cellphone.

You sigh, taking a deep breath. Everyone is hard at work, you have another week, and all of your preparations are going well. Cera- according to when you talked to her this morning- is getting geared up for combat, Kristoph is building the gem and supplies, Gareth is being adorable and eating Rathod's food...

But you still haven't heard from Neloch, or contacted Archmage Yule...

Or visited your family in the past few weeks.

>?

>>545148
Write a letter home when we can, we should probably check in with Nel first, Yule second.

>>545152
Agreed

You're starting to get worried about Nel. You hadn't had any contact with him, and last you heard, he was going to be experimenting with Astral Magic. You wave your goodbyes to Brun and Thod, and teleport back to your dorm room for some privacy.

Then you ring him up. The phone rings for a long time. In fact, eventually it asks you if you'd like to leave a message. You grumble to yourself, immediately hang up, and call him again. This time, he picks up after the first ring.

"Neloch here." He says. He sounds normal. Almost excited, actually.

"Nel?" You ask. "You there?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm here." He says. "I've just been pretty busy."

"Did you end up having any success? Emulating the Black Witch, I mean."

"Any success?" He asks. "... Jaz, I'm doing amazingly. I've got telekinesis now. I didn't even have to take it from a monster."

"What?" You ask. "How'd you do that?"

"Very carefully." He says, and chuckles. "I'm doing fine. I'm just trying to figure out how else I can do things. I did have to lose my Shadow core, though.... It wasn't compatible."

"Is it something you can teach to others?"

Nel goes quiet.

"... Er, not really." He responds, voice subdued. "It kind of... relies on something."

You pause for a long moment.

"What do you mean?"

"It's, uh, about my core. The wonky one. Let's just... change subject, okay?"

Nel sounds pretty uncomfortable. You sigh.

"Sure, sure." You say. "Anything else you working on?"

"The flying machine is on hold right now." He says. "And my core project is getting close to done. Soon I'll be able to get back into combat practice, and see how the new powers work out. How are you doing?"

"I almost beat Brun in a duel. A few times, actually."

"But you never actually defeated her."

"... No."

"You'll get it eventually, I'm sure." He says. "But yeah, I should probably get back to work. Right now my tweaked up intangibility core's kind of unstable. I don't want to let it unspool."

"... Er, right." You say, pretending you know what that means. Neloch hangs up, and you frown down at the phone. Then you punch in Archmage Yule's number.

"Yule." Her voice comes in, soft and melodious- like a singer.

"Er, hello, Archmage Yule."

"Archmage Jasmine Angwaz." She responds. "Hello. Holder of the Art of Teleportation, and I suspect another Art of hermetic magic. I remember you."

"Uh, yeah." You say. "I wanted to talk to you about a situation that came up in another world..."

You begin to talk, to tell her the whole story, but halfway through she cuts you off.

"I shall not assist you." She says.

"What? Why not?"

"I gain nothing from it." Yule says. "Call me pragmatic, if you will, but I will not risk my own life to assist you. I also find myself bound by the Compact of the Romalian Archmage treaty to avoid using my powers to create war beasts."

"I... Er..."

"Unless you offered me something that is worth breaking my compact." She says. "Like your Arte. Either of them."

>?

>>545148
>You can cast it on other people. Though you're not sure how well they can manage it, without a high skill in astral magic.

What if we cast it on a monster? Would the monster be able to use the knowledge it provides? Are there any monsters that are naturally capable with astral magic to the point that they'd be able to resist the demon siphoning away most of their mana?

Since the demon drains mana, could we cast it on another person in order to cripple them in a fight, distracting them while not giving them anything worthwhile? How hard would it be to make the knowledge demon feed people garbage information rather than actual calculation?

Finally, what would happen if we cast the knowledge demon on something without a proper soul, like a tree or mundane animal?

>>545270
>The monster wouldn't be able to intelligently use the knowledge it's provided with, and monsters don't have any skill with astral magic as a rule.
>The problem with using the knowledge demon on enemies during a fight is that while it might surprise them, you'd be in real deep shit if they had the astral magic ability to make use of it- or even enough to block the demon from taking any magic at all. It's impossible to make it feed them garbage information.
>Finally, the knowledge demon requires a soul to latch onto. A 'protosoul' from an animal or tree doesn't work.

>>545255
Ooooooooor you could learn another day plane's magic to apply to you own. How to make familiars. Also the Black witch said she and her master will not stop, which means we are going to be hit by them eventually. Better to stop them from forcibly converting everyone in a plane to mana to make themselves even stronger, no?

>>545255
If we can without dropping the star rune on her lap I would give her knowledge demon. Otherwise, let's just forget about it.

Time to write or teleport home really quickly.

Inb4: black witch and her master are basically non-cthulu eldrazi

>>545255
Offer the monster thing from the other world.

"So the magic of another reality isn't enough?" You ask. "I believe they specialize in turning animals into magical familiars- like monsters that serve as an extension to one's own body."

"That sounds like a useful magic, but it is not one I am interested in." She responds.

"Also, the Black Witch said that she and her master won't stop. That means that we're going to be hit by them eventually. Wouldn't it be better to stop them from forcibly converting everyone into mana to make themselves stronger, right?"

"The day they reach this reality, I will act." She says. "But until then, I shall not. What they do until then is of no consequence to me."

You sigh. It's hard to talk to her- especially because you're not quite sure what her goals are.

Archmage Yule is old. Extremely old. She remembers the days before monsters, back to only a generation or two after magic was properly discovered. And yet she's not bored yet- there's still something driving her. If you knew what it was, you might have some luck talking her into helping... But as is...

"Thank you for listening, then." You say. "I'll have to find assistance elsewhere."

"If you or your allies are harmed, I am perfectly willing to heal them." She says. "Especially if it saves their lives. But I will not enter the battle, or leave my home."

Then, without so much of a goodbye, she hangs up.

You frown at your phone, then press your palms into your eyes.

You'll deal with this later, you decide, and send a signal to your Gate. One portal to home, coming right up. You need some time with your little sister to blow off steam.

>End of session!
>As always, I'll be hanging around to answer questions and the like
>I've got a twitter at @Futureexabyte and I'm basically constantly on IRC: The #Exabyte channel on Rizon.

>>545345
Thanks for running you faggot

>>545345
So, what are the treatise the archmages are bound by?

man it soudns liek this arch mages are worse then the jews holy shit tits
so they cant make things to do with war? but people not arch mages can?
hmmmm

>>545367
>>545824
The specific treaty that Archmage Yule is bound to was one that established the Archmage system. It basically says that she can't take over the world with an infinite swarm of undying, teeming, numberless monsters.

Other archmages can still basically do whatever they want, but it's Yule's duty to keep the archmages in check.

>>545839
god dam she just got a hella lot more freaky
how fucking old is she?
and shes that dangerous that she has to be put under that treaty?
also how hasnt she become the welder of all magices? she has had the time to learn them all.
the fuck has she been doign all this time?
should we start calling her mother yule?

>>545855
Going by the archmage test they probably do have access to most magics except those of other archmages

>>545345
Thank you for writing! Looking forward to fighting the Black Witch with our powered-up friends. She will make a superb nemesis- always in the background to instill a sense of urgency and danger (she's also basically an evil Jasmine).

I really like the world building of this quest.

>>545855
She's extremely fucking old.

And she's potentially that dangerous, but that's only because the king at the time really pissed her off.

As for magic, she's never really seemed to have much of an interest in the magics people have nowadays. She has purchased some spells from people, but not a lot, and not often.

>>546694
Hah, that's the thing about this quest: It's all about worldbuilding. And if I run out of places to put new cultures or societies... then I get to worldbuild some more when you jump to another dimension!

>Welcome back!

The night is quiet. Even the bugs outside don't make any noise.

It's too dark, too quiet- you'd gotten used to the hussle and bustle of the city over the past three years, and your bed smells stale and disused. You'd cleaned it up with a dweomer but that didn't help very much.

You roll over in bed, staring at the wall. Wooden planks. Your name is scratched into the wood. Done on another night like this, maybe a decade ago, with a knife. You still have the knife- it was a present from your father.

Earlier today, you teleported home to blow off some steam. You roughhoused with your sister some, told your mother about your progress, even about your plans for creating your own travel company, and for the most part, you relaxed- ignoring the small burning coal of worry in your gut as much as you could.

Something else in the house creaks. You hear padded feet making their way across the ground floor, and the hiss of the faucet. You'd need to teach Ishelda how to create a water dweomer. Then again, you're not sure it'd work on this high of an altitude- the dweomer you have is pretty specific about humidity and such, after all.

You lay there, staring at the wall, when the door behind you creaks open. Gareth rustles on the ground, but curls up again when he sees who it is.

Ishelda quietly wiggles under the blanket with you.

"... I couldn't sleep," She whispers, voice low.

Of course she knows you're awake- the two of you are insomnia sisters, after all.

"Why not?" You ask in the same low, quiet tone.

You roll over to face her and she immediately pulls you into a hug. Somehow it feels more like she's comforting you than the other way around.

"You looked really really stressed about something when you showed up," Ishelda says.

"I guess I am," You say. "That's why I needed some time with my favorite sister."

"It's not about your teleportation," She says, revealing once again how perceptive she is. Purple eyes meet yours for a long, quiet moment.

"No, not really," You say.

The Black Witch is busy preparing to eat an entire reality's population, and the most you can do is lay here and wait. Doing nothing.

Something touches your soul. Gentle and careful, only slightly hesitant, but deliberate. It feels like a poke to the nose. You jump, slightly, but Ishelda grins.

"If there's something in my power I can do, Jaz, I'll help with whatever it is," She says.

Ishelda is completely serious- there's no hesitation in her eyes. But you can't let that happen. You're not going to let her fight.

"No."

Ishelda frowns. "Why not?"

You're quiet for a long, long moment, but Ishelda lays there with you, demanding an answer.

"It's too dangerous," You say finally.

"... You're going to be fighting someone."

You quietly nod.

Ishelda's frown grows.

"And you're not sure if you can win."

You nod again.

Ishelda screws her eyes up tight, and hugs you as tightly as she can, for as long as she can.

This time it's for her.

>?

>>556457
Return hugs
Deploy headpats

>>556457
Hug that adorable ball of little sister back and promise to her that you WILL WIN or your name is not Jasmine Angwaz!

You hug her just as hard, and then carefully pat her on the head.

"I promise I'll win, or my name isn't Jasmine Angwaz."

"Your name isn't anything if you're dead." Ishelda responds, and hugs you even tighter.

Ishelda goes quiet, and the two of you lay there for a time.

"... Can you tell me about dad?" She asks, a long moment later.

"Yeah," You say. "Well, He had white hair. Like you and I. He had eyes a lot like mine, and he was shorter than mom."

Ishelda doesn't say anything. But she's probably seen the pictures, so you move on.

"He was always really calm and quiet, kind of, You say. "He was always working on something, but he wasn't, like, a hard worker. He was kinda lazy so he never actually got anything done. You remember the time we were setting up the basement for you?"

"... Not really," She says. "I think I was too little."

"I did basically all of it," You say. "That was back when I really wanted a room to myself, and you were being an annoying toddler. Dad kept saying that we'd 'do it next summer', 'do it in a few weeks' but we had all the stuff, you know? Eventually I had Rathod's dad teach me how, and I did it myself. Insulated the basement so you wouldn't freeze and everything."

Ishelda giggles.

"He wasn't like that intentionally. He just kind of liked... spending life freely. Not worrying about anything, happy with whatever he had. But there were certain things he was really, really serious about."

"Like what?"

"Magic."

Ishelda raises her eyebrows.

"He taught me how to use magic the same exact way I taught you." You say. "And he told me that when I grow up and have my own kids, I'm supposed to teach them the same way. You're supposed to, too."

Ishelda wrinkles her nose. "I'm not sure I'm going to have kids."

"That's your business." You say. "But that's something you have to remember. It's important. Tradition. As relaxed as we tend to be about things, keep in mind that you're an Angwaz. We've been wizards for centuries. It's not just Krital who's important, you know."

"Yeah, I know," She says, frowning.

"Sorry, I went on a tangent there," You say. "But that was something that was important to him."

"It's important to you too." She says.

After all, the entire reason for your thesis- teleportation- was to remove your family's stigma. Keep Ishelda, keep your descendants from being a laughingstock the way you were.

Something occurs to you.

"Ishelda, have you tried, uh, looking inward? With magic?"

Quietly, she nods.

"Is there, uh, anything you're concerned about?" You ask. Her eyebrows meet.

"No. Some of the parts didn't, uh, 'look' like the books said they would, but I think that's because everybody's just different. Of course our souls wouldn't all look the same, you know?"

You can't help but smile.

"That's what dad said, you know." You say. "When I came to him because I was worried that my soul was a bit... wrong. He said I was just different."

Ishelda gives you a brilliant smile.

>?

>>556666
Ask her about her aspirations with magic

I honestly had no idea what to do here and it took me forever just to get this

"Hey, Ishelda?" You ask.

"Hm?"

"What are your aspirations with magic?"

Ishelda stares at the ceiling for a few minutes, blinking.

"I don't know yet." She says. "... I think I want to protect people. I know, it sounds silly, but... Did you ever meet Old Lewin?"

"Yeah?"

"He's teaching me how to use a sword," She says. "But he and the other militia are always afraid that monsters might attack. I want to get strong enough that they don't have to worry."

You muss up her hair. "That's a good aspiration. Protecting people is never wrong."

"That's what I thought." She says.

She stares up at the ceiling, and closes her eyes.

"Why do you keep your hair so short?" Ishelda asks.

"It's not short. It's trendy," You say, somewhat defensively. Your hair goes down to your shoulders. That's not short... Is it? "Why do you keep yours long?"

"Have you ever seen a princess without really long hair?" She asks. You giggle.

"You know, one of the strongest monster hunters I ever met had long hair." You say.

"What? Really?"

"Brun's mom has these braids that go all the way down to her feet. She's pretty strong."

The two of you lapse into silence.

Eventually, Ishelda's breathing changes. She's asleep.

You hug her tighter for a second, and close your eyes. You're feeling a lot more relaxed.

===

The morning sun greets you by basically blinding you, making you squeak and roll over to cover your face. Ishelda giggles, and springs out of your bed with only the energy a preteen girl has. She quickly rushes downstairs to get breakfast while you hide from the sun for a long few minutes.

Eventually, with the smell of deliciousness wafting from downstairs, you find your body disobeying you and sending you stumbling downstairs. Coffee's already brewing- using a familiar dweomer from Ishelda, clever brat- and she's got a pan already heated, cooking up some toasted egg bread. Mom blearily stumbles out of her room not long after you do, and the two of you find plates already in front of you.

"Thanks, Ishy." Mom says, eyes still closed as she chows down.

"No problem." She says. Then she turns to you, leaning close. "This is how I'm getting mom to not be so weird about magic."

The brat doesn't even whisper.

"It's working." Mom says. "The coffee's a lot better than the machine makes it."

"Thod sent me the array. Apparently he stole it from Jaz when she wasn't looking."

Breakfast is a quick affair. Your mom does her normal transformation before she heads out the door, leaving immediately for work, while you're able to relax a lot more while Ishelda cooks. Your phone chirps- a message from Kristoph, telling you that your adamantine gem is done- and you look through for other messages.

"Are you heading back today?" Ishelda asks.

You could always spend more time with your little sister, but it's been over a week since Rikar called for soldiers- you only have a few more days before the fight with the Black Witch.

>?

>>557138
We should grab the gem and actually work out how to use it before anything else.

>>557138
Head back, collect adamantine
check the progress of our friends

and you might want to postpone the thread until more people show up, because ive got to leave

>>557138
Get gem, become combat mage.

>>557182
I mean, I'm here.
Just waiting for something to happen.

"Yeah, I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few days."

"Alright." Ishelda says. You finish up your food and dump your empty dishes into the sink. A dweomer springs up of its own accord, and begins cleaning. Ishelda's getting pretty proactive about dweomers. More than you ever did, at least.

You sling your jacket over your arm and strap on your dweomer, not caring that you're in your sleeping clothes. Ishelda points her spatula at you threateningly. "Be careful, okay?"

"I will." You say. Ishelda beams, and you trigger your teleportation back to your dorm.

Now you can really get changed.

===

The gate to Tark springs open, and immediately you walk through. Kristoph isn't around, but he does have large chest in the corner of the otherwise-empty room, and a small, oaken box. On top is a note to you- how the chest is for Thod, the box for you.

You pull the chest open, and inside is a pile of mithril plates, each shaped to perfection. Some have numbers written on them in marker. You don't know what any of it means, so you close it and lock the latch just in case.

But inside the box is a small, red gem. It refuses to move, at first, until you charge it with mana. Inside the box- underneath the velvet cloth the gem rests in- is a thick booklet, explaining precisely how to install it into your implement. On one hand, it looks pretty involved. But on the other, you know more than enough about Implements to do it... Plus the installation means that nobody can use your Implement, because the way the adamantine is attuned to you.

You weren't even sure it could be attuned to someone like that. But Kristoph apparently went into the effort of doing it for you.

It takes a few minutes to install the gem, but Kristoph doesn't show up. He did say he'd be busy, so you shrug and heft up the chest on one shoulder. The mithril is really light. You take your cargo through, and teleport the chest into Thod's room. He'll figure out what it is.

The next few hours of the morning is experimentation. Your Implement, now modified, seems stronger. Any mana you focus into it is routed through the adamantine, amplifying it and increasing the spells' effectiveness. As far as you can tell, the more mana you put into a spell, the more effective the amplification is. Your already-powerful spells pack nearly twice as much of a punch, now, and your teleportation spells are cheaper. It's a hefty boost- more than worth the price for a career wizard like you.

While you experiment, your phone rings. With a sigh, you cancel your blazing sphere of light and destruction, and pick it up.

"Jaz here." You say.

"It's Nel." Neloch says. "I'm all done with everything I was working on, so I'm heading back into the city. It's just, uh..."

You frown. "What is it?"

"I, uh, can't actually get back. I don't have my Shadow Core anymore." He says. "I kind of rely on it to get around, and now that I can't... Mind giving me a hand?"

>?

>>557307
>sure

>>557307
"Sure, where are you and what happened to your core?"

>>557307
What happened to your core? Wait, nevermind, you can explain in person. Where are you?

>>557307
Yeah where're you at Nel?

>>557307
We can pick him up, but we'd like to know what happened.

>>557357
>>557425
He said earlier that he lost it while emulating the black witch.

>>557448
Ah, yep, totally slipped my mind. My bad.

"What happened to your core?" You ask. "Wait, nevermind. You can explain in person. Where are you?"

"I've actually got a little camp out in the north side of the forest." He says. "One second."

Your phone chirps as you get a text from him- coordinates. Those are easy enough to punch into your Implement, and then start up the Gate.

"Alright, portal's opening." You say. "How'd it work out?"

"... Well, it's a good thing I went out here to test things." He says. "Otherwise I'd have caused some real property damage."

The portal opens, and a rather haggard Nel comes through. His implement- as well as his clothes- are all rather charred, and clumsily repaired.

"Yo, Jaz." He says, hanging up the call.

"What do you mean, Property damage?" You ask. "What happened?"

"Uh... a lot of things." He says. He seems pretty cheerful, considering how he looks. "I, uh, messed up. My Shadow Core collapsed, and I had to get really damn good at Astral magic really damn fast."

"How did that go?"

"Better than I thought." He says. His phone, of its own accord, folds up and slides itself into his pocket. "After the shadow core died, I was able to piece together a pretty simple telekinesis core. After that, I did a lot of more experimentation, and ended up with this."

He holds out a hand- and a white, coiling thing bursts into existence. It writhes in his hand, like a ball of flame, and you can feel the heat from here.

"This was my big success." He says, grinning. It would be dashing, if he looked like he'd taken a shower in the past week. "This core lets me, well, pump its own mana back into it. Then it gets hotter and stronger. Then I pump itself back into it, and it amplifies itself. I can guarantee that the Black Witch didn't have anything like this."

>?

>>557480
So you made a core with a recursive mana loop that feeds into itself and amplifies itself? Can you generate excess mana with it? *proceed to Jasmine nerding out adorably over magic*

>>557480
No, wait. First your going to take a shower. Can't have you going outside smelling like a month old barbeque.

>>557480
Can you only feed its mana back into the loop or can you release it elsewhere? Is it a closed system or does it require you to give it a little push?
Either way, that's damn cool. Consider me impressed. Though I'd be more impressed if you didn't smell and look like a homeless person.

>>557480
Does that mean he's got an infinite mana suply? And can he apply it to other types of magic?

>>557480
Meta: sounds kind of like a lazer, light bouncing back and force with more being added until the combined power is enough to escape. Umm, except for the coherentness, unless it already is because only one person's mana.

"So you made a core with a recursive mana loop?" You ask, eyes brightening. "It feeds into itself and amplifies itself? Can you generate excess mana with it? Can you only feed its mana back into the loop or can you release it elsewhere? Is it a closed system or does it require you to give it a little push?"

Then you realize that you're way too far into his personal space and take a step back.

"I can't generate any more mana than I put into it." He says. "And once mana comes out of it, it's... uh, changed somehow. Heavier, I guess, and I'm a bit scared of putting it through any of my other cores. Or even my Implement. Seems like it might break them. But every time I focus it through, it gets heavier, and stronger, and... Well, I don't lose any mana and what I do have gets more effective. Very burny and lots of physical force. It does take some willpower to keep it going, but I can keep that going for a few days. What I have now is still pretty damn strong, even after I used it to take care of a few dire wolves."

"That's damn cool." You say. "Consider me impressed."

He grins.

"Though I'd be more impressed if you didn't smell and look like a homeless person mixed with a month old barbeque."

"I am a homeless person." He says. You respond by throwing a cleaning dweomer at him. It's meant for scrubbing windows and tile, but Nel's tough, he'll be fine.

Nel gets buried in the distorting effect of dweomers bubbling up around him, scrubbing him. Eventually, a white whip of *something* emanates from Nel's hand, coiling around him to pierce the hearts of the dweomers. They fail, shattered by raw magic, and the whip vanishes.

He wrestles his way free from the magic, frowning at you.

He's actually clean now- though his charred, ruined-and-repaired clothes look like they're falling off of him.

You teleport some spare sheets from your pocket dimension to him before you get too much of an eyeful. Somewhat reluctantly.

"You'll also need to get some new clothes." You say and turn around.

"I already have some." He says, quickly fashioning a toga. "I wasn't taking my fancy stuff with me out into the wilderness. That'd just be asking to get it wrecked."

A moment later. "So." He says. "How's everyone else doing? Do you have any plans or anything we need to take care of?"

>?

>>557717
Nah it's time to try and finally try and crack that anti magic we were working on.

>>557735
agreed

>>557717
We need to be ready soon, but no not at the moment. Still working on anti-magic. Care to give me a hand?

>>557735
>>557742
>>557753
>There's no way to make an antimagic magic with what you know and have right now. The closest you got was the Advanced Knowledge Demon, but that went up the entire wrong tree and you can't make modifications to hermetic spells without something to go on.

>>557775
Let's check out Rathod's progress.

>>557775
See if we can help Rathod and work on Familiar stuff, and then work on integration of that stuff into our amgic.

>>557717
>>557780
>>557790
This, and we should test what we can do with our adamantine gem

"We need to be ready soon, but I don't really have much at the moment." You say. "I'm still working on familiar magic... Though I might go see how well Rathod's doing."

"Alright." Neloch says, giving you a grin. "I'll go get my gear."

And with that, wearing a toga made out of a sheet like he doesn't care, he strides out of Testing Chamber B6. Proudly.

You're not sure you'll ever understand him. But with a sigh, you teleport back into the dorms. Teleporting is both swifter and cheaper now that you have the adamantine gem- much like portals seem to open a bit more quickly. You knock on Rathod's door a few times, and he opens it. The chest you'd sent there is open in the back corner, mithril plates covering his room.

"Hey, Jaz. What's up?"

"Just checking up on your progress." You say. "Seeing if there's anything I can help with."

"Not really." He says. "I just got everything sorted, and I'm about to assemble the golem. There's not much you could do unless you knew the design, and as far as I know you're not much for fabrication."

"Not really." You say. Fabrication is one of many things you know how to do, but it isn't one of your passions. "I'm just checking up, really. You hear from Brun at all?"

"Yeah. She got her mom on board, apparently." He says. "And, uh, I also got a call from Cera? Apparently she wants to know when to leave, and you weren't answering your phone?"

Right- that must've been the call you got at dinner last night at your mom's house.

"I'll tell her when." You say. "I think we'll be leaving the day before Rikar's deadline. Give us time to synch up and figure out what everyone's doing."

"Sounds like a good idea." He says. Then he sighs, and frowns.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't like fighting." Rathod says. "I don't like that we need to fight. But I don't think we have any alternatives."

>?

>>557996
I don't like it either, Thod. If we could talk her down, I'd jump on the chance but it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen.
Someone needs to stop her plans, and I can't just stand by and watch.

>>557996
If we don't do anything, then the entire plane might die. I don't like it, but it's something we have to do.

>>557996
We really don't. Oh well, at least we'll just be doing this once. I hope.

>>557996
Not sure where I want to go with this. Sympathize or try to motivate him by making him think if the witch eating Ishy. Or both.

>>557996
Maybe you should make repair or healing magic then Thod so you can help without fighting.

"I don't like it either, Thod. If we could talk her down, I'd jump on the chance. But it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen." You say. "If we don't do anything, then the entire plane might die."

"I know." He says.

"Maybe you could do something else." You say. "Manage some protective dweomers for everyone, or pull people out of harm's way. That way you can help without fighting."

"... But you'll still fight. And Brun will, and everyone." He responds. "I might not want to fight, but I will if everyone else is."

There's a long moment of silence.

"Ishelda wants to learn magic to protect people." You say. "She has Lewin teaching her how to use a sword."

"Didn't you learn for the same reason?" He asks.

"Not exactly." You say. "She's learning so that she can protect everybody."

Rathod is quiet for a moment, and then he nods. He gets your point.

If you don't take care of the Black Witch, then someone else will have to.

"Then we'll fight." He says, certain.

"We'll fight." You say, and punch his shoulder. He grins, turns, and starts putting mithril plating on the empty frame he'd assembled.

You turn back, quietly close the door behind him, and start to walk back toward your own dorm. Gareth scrabbles behind you, carefully keeping up.

If Nel can mutilate his own soul, if Cera can put her emnity with you aside, and if Thod can fight his own nature... You might as well figure out how to finally make a familiar.

You sit down in your dorm room, staring down at Gareth...

>Roll me some 1d100s!

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>558208
Here goes nothing

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>558208
C'mon, dice magic!

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>>558208

Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>558208
Don't remember how many dice you use

>>558269
>I use the first three rolls. I either average it, take the highest, or take the lowest, depending on the MC's skill.

>Result: 60! Mild Success!

It takes hours.

First you study the book. Even with the Gift of Tongues, reading books in a foriegn language isn't easy. The letters swim in your vision, seeming to twist in your brain while you try and pin them down with your eyes so that you can read, and eventually you find yourself scrawling it down in english so that you can read it over without getting dizzy. Not only does that take a while, but then you have to study what it actually means- the exact process through which a prospective familiar mage anchors their magic to a proto-soul, and how they shape the protosoul's cores as they develop. It takes a lot of practice, on test mice- most of which end up either dead or monstrous- but eventually, you get a success.

Your first familiar is a fat, lazy rat with three cores. It feels strange- like an extra set of eyes, and paws, and whippy tail. You smell something you couldn't smell with your human nose, and three buzzing cores exist where the rat's body. When you pour magic into the first core, the rat... grows.

But while you're experimenting, on focusing and weakening the bond with your first familiar- you pull away too much, breaking the bond too much.

You feel the cores in your second body collapse, and the rat thrashes once- then it dies.

Your soul aches, the mana output a bit hard to do at first, so you rest for a bit to translate the rest of the book.

The second half of the tome is about advanced familiars- creatures that already have souls, like monsters. The book makes sure to warn you not to practice on sentients, like demihumans or people, but it carefully describes how to thread your mana through the cores of your familiar, how to control it, and many warnings that an advanced creature, unlike lesser familiars, has its own will. It won't become your slave, but your partner.

Once you're done translating, the sky is dark- the sun's long set, and your soulache's faded. Which is when your eyes lock onto Gareth.

"Hey, little guy." You say, patting his head. His mandibles tickle your hand. He's careful not to scratch you with them. "Do you want to be my familiar?"

Gareth chitters happily at you, nuzzling its insectoid head against your leg.

You nod, grin, and close your eyes.

With all of your willpower and mana, you reach out with your soul... and carefully touch Gareth.

>Continued!

>>558349
His own mana, instead of wrestling with you like the book implied, seems to open up.

It's not easy. It hurts, at first, when you pull your mana- newly threaded through Gareth's soul- back into yourself, and it hurts even more when Gareth notices something happening and panics, but eventually... You feel a strange, alien warmth.

There's only one problem with your current bond. You're not careful enough to thread your magic through every part of Gareth's cores. You can't split your focus that much, at least not when being careful.

You can only split your focus twice. Thread your power through two cores- One for Gareth's mind, as undeveloped as it is, and another for one of his powers. He had three cores- five, if you count his mind and the Devotion core you created- but only three powers.

>Which core did you select?
>TYRANT: Power, ferocity, strength and size. TYRANT makes Gareth stronger, indomitable, undying. Not only will he permanently grow in size, but you can make him grow temporarily by spending mana.
>HUNGER: Cold, devouring, endless. HUNGER is a core mostly developed in frost-template monsters. Gives Gareth frost powers, able to consume heat and magic from outside of himself. Not only will Gareth be resistant to spells cast by anybody but you, but he'll also absorb attacks and gain a lot of sensory ability.
>PRIDE: Control, cleverness, complexity. PRIDE is only ever found in fiends. You're not sure why it's here, but it exists. You're not sure what would happen if you empowered this.

>>558349
LEWD

>>558382
>HUNGER

>>558382
>HUNGER

>>558382
>PRIDE: Control, cleverness, complexity. PRIDE is only ever found in fiends. You're not sure why it's here, but it exists. You're not sure what would happen if you empowered this.
m y st e r y b o x

Might make him sentient or something crazy like that.

>>558382
>PRIDE: Control, cleverness, complexity. PRIDE is only ever found in fiends. You're not sure why it's here, but it exists. You're not sure what would happen if you empowered this.

>>558382
>HUNGER

>>558382
>HUNGER
frost-template monsters are our thing.

>>558382
>>PRIDE: Control, cleverness, complexity. PRIDE is only ever found in fiends. You're not sure why it's here, but it exists. You're not sure what would happen if you empowered this.

>>558382
> PRIDE
We already have our sword to block spells anyway

>>558382
>PRIDE
I can't resist a good mystery box.

>I'm going to call the vote here, while things aren't tied anymore. and before they get tied again

>>558382
At first, your mana just begins to disintegrate while you thread mana through his soul. It's complex, twisting and splitting and merging again. It's hard, putting in this much effort while trying to be as careful as possible, and sweat beads on your forehead. Your soul burns with the effort, like you're trying to push against something impossibly heavy... And then finally, you're done threading your mana through, and you merge it back with yourself-

And then you're looking out at yourself through six beady, brilliant eyes. You open your own eyes, and you look down at Gareth.

Gareth tilts his head. The view from the six eyes tilt. You can *feel* Gareth's mind filling with confusion. He wordlessly asks you why he can see from his master's eyes. You respond, somehow, explaining the familiar bond. He doesn't understand, but he feels comfortable enough that you do.

Your familiar isn't a properly thinking being- he's not a sophont, he doesn't have a self-identity... But he's smarter than he was. Instead of blind devotion, you feel his newborn curiosity and urge to discover.

It feels strange. You don't need words- He asks a question, and you wordlessly answer it.

Among one thing he asks is what magic is. Your response isn't in words- you just show him your soul.

A heartbeat later, you feel a second wellspring of mana- a second Purity core, generating magical power from whatever ether souls come from, whirling up and out of Gareth. 'Like this?', he seems to ask.

You wonder, for a moment, if this means Gareth could use his mana on actual magic- maybe even an implement.

Your familiar's response is to press his antenna against a light dweomer, and carefully charge it with magic at your guidance.

>PRIDE: Your familiar now generates mana.
>End of session!

>>558551
yes!!! yes mahah
we have a pokemon now!!
how long till he longs her to use moves?

>>558551
nice.

>>558551
that's pretty damn cool.
Let's try train him up.

Gareth husbando? :^)

>>558608
what movies(spells) should we train him?
hmo1?
and can we teach it more then 4 moves?

>>558608
Nah he's more like a friendly bug from TerraforMars.

>>558551
NICE! so spell casting bug, time to teach him mana.

>>558608
Synched casting.

So advanced fiends might be able to cast magic.

>>558551
Missed this session, enjoyed reading it!

If we develop the Tyrant core and get a giant familiar, can we even teleport with him? Or is it too big then?

>>561250
Isn't tyrant core the one we gimped? Don't specialise in a gimped stat m8.

>>561273
Ah, true. Better to have a a magic-consuming familiar, can he eat the Black Witch's power now? Om nom nom.

>>561250
His biggest 'permenant' size would still be small enough to fit through Regulation-Size portals. It'd be a tight fight, but it helps that he's longer than he is tall and his legs are scrawny insect twigs. Then to make him bigger, you'd pump magic into him.

>>561273
While Tyrant was gimped, it's also technically speaking his 'main' power. As gimped as it is, it's still just as equally powerful as the other two cores.

>>561288
How big are Regulation-Size portals? Is it actually regulated by anyone or is it just the biggest practical size possible?

>>561690
Regulation-size was a joke, because there's no regulatory body anywhere except for perhaps you, since you invented- or perhaps rediscovered- the things.

You have your standard portal spell set to create ones around eight feet diameter, and the full-size Gates you had Kristoph make are that size. It'd be easy to make ones bigger or smaller, but that'd involve tweaking the portal-summoning spell.

Also, sorry I'm not running today- I didn't get much sleep last night.

>>561703
Okay, thanks for the clarification. Also, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that we'd rather you rested and miss a day than do a session tired.

You don't need nearly as much sleep anymore.

The bond with Gareth brought a few changes to the two of you- Gareth is now a lot darker, though he now has silver speckles on his carapace like stars in the sky. When you use his mana, though, by focusing it into a spell or an Implement, his specks seem to gleam with their own inner power. While for you, according to a very surprised Thod, your eyes are brighter- silver, instead of the dark grey you'd inherited from your father. They don't glow, though, sadly.
You'd equipped Gareth with his very own Implement. It's not a good one, and doesn't have nearly as many addons as your own has, but it had enough storage for you to stuff as many of Brun's battle-spells as you could remember, and then some. You might have to personally make him cast the spells through the bond, but once cast, you'll have a real monster on your hands.

Rathod's Golem- though it looks more like an armor- is done. Apparently it's controlled through the same mechanism that controls his arm- which is, of course, part of Archmage Haron's secret Art, which means Thod can't talk about it.

Neloch's magic is pretty strange- you've been working with him on testing it, using your training room for lack of anything better to do with your time. It seems that the 'Anima', as he calls the fierce whip of light and heat his new Core lets him generate, is reusable. It just becomes less effective the more it's used. 'Lighter', as he calls it, and then he needs to funnel the Anima back into his core to use it again. His anima core rather peculiar- it reminds you of the way certain panes of glass can be used to repolarize light, only with mana instead of photons.

Brun and Uldora- nearly twins, you notice, the more you look at them- are standing in your testing chamber. An enormous, larger-than-life Golem is standing there, hunched slightly over due to the fact that it's nearly too tall for the room. That's because Rathod, of course, is inside- and he was already large enough without adding a suit of magic-insulating strength-boosting enchanted armor.

Neloch is leaning against one wall, seemingly asleep, spear in hand. Your soul twinges whenever you look towards him- you can taste the white-hot ring of anima he's got coiling around him.

Gareth is outside, tottering around. Through his eyes, despite the way he sees colors so differently than you, you see Cera striding down the hall, wearing a armor that looks more like a dress than proper combat wear. She's got a strange assembly of brass and spellcrystals strapped across her back- it's much too large to be a normal Implement.

"I'm here." Cera says. She looks around, and sniffs. "Am I late?"

"No, we're just insufferably early." Neloch responds, and Cera gives him a winsome smile.

Today's the day that Prince Rikar is sending his soldiers out to deal with the Black Witch- and you intend on helping him.

"Do we have anything we need to do before going to this, er, other world?" Cera asks.

>?

"I don't think so. We don't know exactly what this witch can do, just that she's got a lot of extra cores and can probably wield astral magic. I think we've got this though."

>>570611
What happens to Nel's anima whip if you cut it with pure mithril? Does the severed end disperse or can it be reconnected/reclaimed? Can someone from whom the mana didn't come reclaim the severed mana?

>>570611
You all have five minutes to use a restroom before were in a land of chamberpots and bushes. Otherwise let's go.

We should probably give Uldora and Cera the short version of what the world and its people are like and who Prince Rikar is, just so they have context.

>>570611
"Try not to stare at the locals, and just follow my lead."

>>570644
>Mithril doesn't seem to have much of an effect- he has control over both ends of the cut anima. That's one of the strangest things about it- it can be completely insulated from him, and he can still control it. You think it's a thaumaturgic connection- the anima is a 'lesser' Neloch.

"Well, you all have five minutes to use a restroom before we're in a land of chamberpots and bushes."

Brun quickly makes her way out of the Testing Chamber, and Uldora giggles.

"Chamberpots?" Cera wrinkles her nose.

"This is a primitive society we're going to," You say. "It's as old as our own, but they don't have nearly as much technology or magical knowledge as we do. I think that's because they don't have monsters."

"They don't have monsters?"

"Not nearly as many, and the monsters they do have don't have a voracious desire to murder. There are some... part-fiends, though, but they're just as civilized as normal people," You say. "They're called demi-humans, and there's not much of a stigma against them. They're not monsters at all. They're more like... Well, you, Uldora, except natural instead of surgical."

"Intriguing." The redhaired woman says, a wide grin growing on her face.

"Anyway. We're going to meet up with the largest political leader in all of Shamash, and we're going to help him. His pet dragon isn't just a tame monster- it's a familiar. He's linked up to it like the monster's a spiritual core of his."

"Wait." Cera says. "How the hell does that work?"

"I've got a book on it, and I did the procedure with Gareth." You say, and smirk. Gareth leaps onto your shoulder. "You need a lot of skill in astral magic. Like I do."

"Like you do." Cera drawls, slowly putting as much disbelief in her voice as possible.

"Don't you two start that now." Rathod says. Cera sighs. You stick your tongue out at Thod. Brun comes back into the Chamber, and you lock the door.

"Alright. We're all here and ready," You say, having Gareth trigger the portal for you. "Try not to stare at the locals, and just follow my lead. We don't know exactly what this witch can do, just that she's got a lot of extra cores and can probably wield astral magic. I think we've got this, though."

"Hell yeah we do." Brun says.

With a nod, the portal opens... And you walk through.

=== LEAVING HELIOS ===

>>570736
=== ENTERING SHAMASH ===

In the open field outside of the city of Thaln, an enormous white dragon sits, twin baleful eyes peering at you and the newcomers. Rikar is snoozing in the sun, back arched and head on his familiar's tail.

Behind him, spanning out into the edges of the field, winged familiars sit and wait, their masters taking care of them. None are as large as Rikar's familiar, but some are smaller dragons. Some are winged creatures, and one is what looks like an enormous serpent, flying of its own accord. Bows are everywhere, and what looks like palace staff members are packing bags for everybody.

You approach Rikar, who blinks one eye open at you.

Then his grin grows wide, and he shoots to his feet. The dragon pushing him up with its tail helps. He actually looks well-rested, for once, and he's wearing armor made out of his own dragon's scales. Some of the soldiers- mostly women, you notice- don't even try to hide their scowls toward you. You get the feeling that it's based on jealousy.

"Knight Jasmine," He says, looking out at the various wizards you've brought. "Friends. I'm glad you're here. We didn't have as many flight-capable soldiers as I'd thought."

"Not all of us are devoted warriors," You say. "I know I'm not. But we're willing to fight and bring forth our magic."

"Wonderful," He says, bowing to the rest of you. Uldora twitches her wing once, looking around at the flock of human-scale monsters. Cera seems to be oogling Rikar, for all it's worth. It's hard to tell what Thod is thinking behind his helmet. "We'll be setting off before the sun gets too low, and we should be able to camp overnight closer to the target. I'll be taking you personally, since my familiar is the only one that can take, well, more than one rider. Any questions?"

>>570778
>And I forgot the prompt. Silly me.

>?

>>570778
Tempted to make a jab at Cera, but we probably shouldn't.

>>570778
We could offer to transport any non-flying guys or bulky supplies they can't otherwise take.

>>570778
"Have you been able to spy on the witch? are there any changes?"

She must have spread out a bit more, 2 weeks is a lot of time to expand.

>>570817
Agreed, teleporting troops to a safe location nearby would be really useful

>>570778
Should we have everyone introduce themselves when they can?

"Have you been able to spy on the witch? Are there any changes?"

"Some," He says. "Her fortress is larger, and her minions- those black sparks- have grown in number," He says. "But the sparks are mortal, and destroying them slows her progress. We haven't been able to slow her much."

"Would you like me to send any non-flying soldiers or bulky supplies there?"

"That would be very helpful." He says. "There are too many men who are ground-bound. Bringing extra soldiers is always good."

"Then once we arrive, I can summon it all." You say. It'd be too hard to do the calculations to teleport that distance without being sure on the destination's coordinates, but summoning is a lot more convenient.

"Good, good." He says.

"Now, I'll introduce my companions. You met Rathod, Adept Brun Dalheim, and Neloch before." You say. "But I'd also like to introduce you to Magus Uldora Dalheim."

"I am a shaman and monster hunter." She says. "The closest thing our civilization has to a warrior."

Uldora curtseys with her own wings, something that makes the soldiers mutter a bit.

"This is Cerulean Sirius, Apprentice of the Archmage Sirius." You say.

"Charmed." Cera says, smiling politely.

"Pleased to meet you both." Rikar says, bowing low. "Can you explain what an Archmage is, Lady Sirius?"

"An archmage is a wizard who develops a magic so incredible and powerful that it changes the face of our world. The position also gives the Archmage a great legal and political protections from the machinations of the state... Usually for the state's own protection." Cera says. "My father- and master- developed the Art of Creation and Destruction. The ability to turn physical matter into magical energy, and vice-versa."

Rikar frowns a bit, but nods. "And you know this same... Art?"

"I do." She says. "It does not work on magical creatures or entities, and that means people, but I can conjure food, or disintegrate stone for more magical power."

"Then I suppose paying you in gold for your assistance won't be very helpful, if you can make it from air." He says. Cera's lips quirk.

You cut in. You know she'd just immediately get to flirting, and you actually have important things to say. "Prince Rikar? I've got some spells that I'd like to talk to you about." You say. "There are some that are invaluable. Like, say, being able to communicate with your soldiers no matter how far away they are."

Rikar's eyes widen, and his grin grows. Even the dragon behind him bares its teeth at you.

"Please, Knight Jasmine," He says. "Tell me more."

>Continued!

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Boop

Time passes, and many familiars drop off their heavy supply packs and stack them into a pile to be brought through later. Rikar and you talk about spells you'd developed during the two weeks preparing, and with his blessing, cast a few communication spells- one linking Rikar up to several 'wing captains', and linking each captain up to their 'Wing'- the soldiers that make up each squad. It's somewhat surprising that all familiar-enabled soldiers have enough astral magic to charge the spells themselves, which makes it a lot easier on oyu.

Rikar is vastly different than when you met him before. Back then, he was a bit odd, if quiet, and the way he moved was jerky and irregular. But now, he's calmer, more confident, and much more cheerful.

The soldiers aren't sure what to make of your group. Apparently you're all being considered nobles from afar, meaning that they're a bit wary of you.

People keep their distance from Rathod, being a titanic mass of mithril and quiet strength, despite Brun spending hertime sitting on Thod's shoulder or making crude jokes.

Cera immediately gets a swarm of noble suitors, each introducing themselves to her in hopes to impress her, and some older, gruffer soldiers discuss Uldora's wings. Apparently flying demihumans simply don't happen.

Neloch is quiet. He'd been eerily quiet this entire time, and has been over the past few days since creating his Anima Core. You're not sure what's wrong with him, but it hasn't been a problem with his Purity Core. A few soldiers do speak to him about his weapon and how shaping mithril into a sharp edge like that must've been difficult, but they leave after a few minutes.

Eventually, horns blow from outside the field- and Rikar's cheerful demeanor suddenly becomes a reluctant frown. The field splits aside, opening up a bath- and a single young woman walks down, followed by a herald and some bodyguards. Her eyes lock with yours and you get an expression so disdainful and imperious that even Cera wouldn't be able to make. She walks right past you and approaches Rikar, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"My lord." She says, her expression just positively oozing with adoration. "I hear you are seeing the face of battle, soon."

Rikar schools his features into a neutral, fake smile. "I am, Lady Adara." He says.

"Then please, I bid you, take this token with you." She says, and produces something in her hand. Rikar reluctantly takes it. "Be careful, my lord," She says.

"I will." He says. "I have some powerful allies, this time."

The lady glances at you, then to your familiar. "... If you say so, my lord." She sniffs. Then she curtseys again. "Then I shall wish for your safe return."

As soon as she'd arrived, she whirls around and strides straight out. When she's gone, Rikar lets go of a long breath you didn't know he was holding, and his dragon relaxes.

"What was that?" You ask.

"The woman who is going to be my wife, If I don't figure out how to get out of it first." He says.

>?

>>571073
"...Yikes."

>>571073
Jokingly
"Fake your own death?"

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Fixed.

>>571073

"... Hey Cera, I've got a challenge for you."

>>571073
You'll figure it out.

>>571073
"Sorry to hear that."

I like how all the hoity toity tall women are so jealous of Jasmine

"Yikes." You say. "Fake your own death?"

Rikar snickers for a moment.

"Politics are politics, and since I'm the last of my bloodline, I'm obliged to marry and make sure there's an heir."

He shrugs.

"Her father has the rest of Venan's Greater Council in his pocket, and so technically the rest of Venan. They continually push her at me like an animal that won't eat its medicine."

"Sorry to hear that. But I'm sure you'll figure it out," You say.

"... Do you have some spare space in your world?" He asks. "I could take a vacation and forget to go home."

You snort, and he sighs.

"I don't think you'd really do that." You say.

"No, probably not. I care too much to let the empire collapse like that." He says, and sighs. "Wouldn't be such a terrible thing if she actually liked me. But she's more enamored of the power I wield."

Then he rolls his eyes, and slumps back against the dragon again.

"We have some time before the soldiers are ready to head out." He says. He looks up at you, and appraises you for a bit... "I see you made a familiar."

"How can you tell?"

"Your eyes are different... as is your familiar. He was brown, when he was your pet."

You look down at Gareth, and Gareth looks up at you.

"Yeah, he is." You say. "What is your familiar's name?"

"It's common practice to name them, but I never did mine," He says. "Our bond is a bit different than normal. It feels more like it's just me with two bodies."

A moment later, he turns to you. "Could you tell me a bit about your world? I'm curious, I have to admit, and we'll need something to kill the time before we're ready."

>?

>>571264
"The world outside populated areas is rife with monsters and fiends, they are vicious and will attack pretty much on sight, But inside villages and cities people, magic and technology thrive. We work hard to keep it safe."

>>571264
>?
Well, our world is populated by people who look somewhat the same unless altered by magic.. our creatures that are magical in nature and many and usually turn out murderous, earning them the name monsters. And because of the monsters we had to develop technology and magic to protect ourselves. Then we, just kept developing more magic and technology.

>>571264
"Oh, it's wonderful. Not to say that this world is not wonderful either but nothing beats home you know."

"Well... Our world is wild and untouched, for the most part. But that's because outside of populated areas, the world is rife with monsters and fiends."

"Monsters?"

"Vicious creatures who attack people on sight. All monsters, universally- animals that are magical in nature- Imagine if your familiar had a hunger for human flesh and never stopped, never hesitated, going from village to village to village and leaving nothing but empty wrecks in it's wake."

Rikar shudders, a bit.

"We developed magic and technology to protect ourselves. We invented magic that builds walls, magic to fight, magic to interface with our technology. We have machines that fly, and travel- mostly to make trading a risky improbability instead of an impossibility. Soon we're getting to the point where we're strong enough to crush out monsterdom entirely."

"That sounds like a good thing." He says.

"It'll take generations before we get that far, and we'll need to come up with a way to keep the ecosystem running without creatures." You say.

"What are fiends?"

".... Honestly?" You ask. "Demi-humans, except without the human. And the same thirst for destruction as everything else. Only they're smart enough to start developing their own technology. My familiar's parent was a monster that had been tamed and controlled by a colony of fiends who'd invented metalsmithing."

For a few minutes, Rikar just stares at the sky.

"... I don't mean to offend, but your world sounds like a horrible place."

"It's not." You say. "We've got amazing, huge cities- easily the size of Thaln- only across the world. We've got technology that keeps us safe almost all the time, and any person can communicate with any other person no matter where they are in the world. When you're safe, it's wonderful. Not to say that this world isn't, but nothing beats home."

"It sounds like your technology is very close to being magic."

The two of you chat for a bit longer, but you notice that Rikar stops asking you about your world.

Eventually, though, one of the staff make their way to Rikar, and give him a deep bow. "Lord Prince Rikar, we've completed preparations."

"Are the Wings ready?"

"They are, my lord."

"Wonderful." Rikar says, cheerful again. "I'll need you to call forth the Claw and Talon, too. Get them ready by sundown."

"... My lord, how will they get to you?"

Rikar turns to you. "Lady Jasmine has magic that can transport people instantly."

The man's eyes widen. "Of-of course! The Claw and Talon will be ready!"

>Continued!

>>571407

Brun spreads both arms and whoops excitedly behind you, as dozens- hundreds- of winged familiars take to the sky, stacking behind Rikar's dragon.

"What are the Claw and Talon?" You ask, calling over the wind. Rikar turns around to face you, perfectly at ease- he isn't even strapped in.

"Soldiers who use strong familiars." He says. "They're hard to use them outside of entrenched territory because they're so slow to move, so they're usually used as a defensive force. But with your help..."

The riding is long and hard (which Brun would joke about), but eventually the familiars begin to lower, descending down toward what looks like a long, flat area near the coastline. In the far distance, you can see the height of the Black Witch's fortress. It's a lot bigger than it used to be- nearly four or five times the size. With some visual enhancement dweomers, you can see a multitude of black sparks dancing around it, assembling new buildings and hallways with magic. The cacaphonous crack in the sky buzzes loudly enough to make your teeth hurt, even from here, and it still just *looks* wrong.

"We're settling down here." Rikar calls out. He turns to you. "Can you use your magic here, Lady Jasmine?"

"Of course." You say. You set up the portal dweomers, and start charging.

"You met with this 'Black Witch' before, right?" Rikar asks. "Do you know anything about her?"

"Neloch, you know the most about the Witch's capabilities, right?" Rathod asks.

"Why would you think that?" Neloch asks, eyebrows raising.

"Since you knew what was going on last time- about how she had so many cores."

"I don't know much. I could only, well, see the shape of them." Neloch says.

"Those sparks became conventional soldiers, made out of the same stuff the fortress is." Brun says. "But other than that, I don't know."

"I never met her." Cera adds. Helpfully.

Rikar frowns.

"Then we need to come up with some kind of plan, other than hunting those sparks and trying to kill the witch." He says. "We have a large force, but she was planning to take on an entire world, which means she has some kind of trump card."

>?

>>571451
"I think slamming that portal shut is important. As long as it's open, she can just keep pulling more power through it. If it's closed, she'll have to waste time reopening it, and will have a finite amount of energy to do it with."

She most likely has the ability to attack or subsume other people's magical cores. Tell your people to be ready to defend themselves astrally if they are capable.

>>571463
>>571480
These.

>>571451
Pity we couldn't get that anti-magic thing working.

Building off of >>571463 we need to keep the construct soldiers occupied. Get their combat capabilities from Rikar.

Use the Claw and Talon and the Wings to distract the majority of her forces while a secondary team strikes at the Witch directly. While we don't know her true capabilities, Rathod's armor is extremely tough and may be able to defend against whatever magic she uses. We may need to be on the lookout for direct Astral Magic.

While all these people are occupied, Jasmine should get as close to the Rift as possible and put her brilliant mind to work figuring out how to shut it down.

>>571451

Oh, after this, we should see if we can come up with an agreement with Cera about trading parts of our Arts.

>>571531
Eh, I don't think we need to go that far.
Making and destroying stuff is neat, but we can already replicate a lot of the effects with preparation and voiding things into Nothing.

>>571531
We dont need her art for ours save for mana generation for the portal company.

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>>571541
>>571547

Three Words: Near-Infinite Mana.

Plus, there's so many uses for matter replication.

>>571550
Then let her star a copying business while we start the transport business. Her father already has his mana generation business.

>>571550
But then we have to give her something, which might trickle down to whatsherface, the traitor.

>>571558
It's also useful for when we explore other worlds. Food and water out of thin air and any equipment we could need on top of infinite mana.

>>571559
I'm pretty sure that if we asked her not to, Cera wouldn't give Kally anything. Despite the antagonistic relationship she and Jaz have (which has actually mellowed out significantly) she's a half-way decent person.

>>571573
>It's also useful for when we explore other worlds. Food and water out of thin air and any equipment we could need on top of infinite mana.

Than keeping her as a friend and traveling companion would be better.

And giving her anything opens up to Kelly either stealing i,. Sneaking a peak at it, or finally trying to replicate it. It's far better we just work independently of eachother save for what is public knowledge.

>>571583
Cera's got a life of her own too. It's worth broaching the topic at least.

>>571589
What, have them talk sports or what their first implements were like? Fine. But I don't want them talking about massively important stuff like the specifics of teleportation or mater destruction/creation.

>>571624
Broaching the subject would mean proposing a trade and figuring out the details thereof. Teaching her about Hermetic Magic would, at the very least, be worth a few pointers about Matter Manipulation.

>>571631
Seriously, why though?
We're extremely efficient already. Nothing she has is worth what we have.

"... I think slamming that portal shut is important." You say. "As long as it's open, she'll keep pulling more power through. If it's closed, she'll have to waste time reopening it, and she'll have a finite amount of energy to do it with."

You examine it as best you can, but you don't have enough information. You'll need to get closer to figure it out.

"And how would we do that, lady Jasmine?"

"I'll take care of it." You say. You have a few ideas, but you do know that the 'tension' and Dimensional Foam of a portal is stronger the larger they are, and the longer they're open. "I believe it might be best if you, the Wings, and the Claw and Talon distract the sparks in full warfare, while a secondary team fights the Witch herself. That should be enough of a distraction for me to focus on the portal."

"Are you sure you can figure it out?" Cera asks, looking up at it. "That looks like some kind of hermetic stuff. I'd have no clue where to start."

"And before, you mocked me for being eclectic in my research." You say. "I've done a lot of work on portals like this, and a lot on hermeticism. I can take care of it."

"Right." She says.

"... Then am I to assume that you wizards will fight the witch personally?"

"She can't touch me when I'm in this suit." Rathod says. "I'll be the vanguard."

Rikar appraises Thod, and then nods. "I understand. I'll inform the Wings of-"

At that moment, the portal opens, and you see familiars- titanic, clawed and scaled ones, adorned in shells and heavy armor- on the other side.

"And the Claw and Talon," Rikar continues. "Of their job in the battle."

"Make sure to inform them that the Witch might be able to interact with their spiritual cores." You say. "Your soldiers all have familiars, so they know how to manage their mana, right? Astral Magic?"

"They do."

"Then they should do their best to protect themselves with it." You say.

"I will tell them."

After the Claw and Talon make their way through the portal- which you'd thankfully made much larger than normal- and brought supplies through, people start setting up tents and preparing to rest for the night.

Rathod slumps down next to where you sit in the grass. Brun is asleep in his arms- he just kind of sets her down.

"When she's out, she's really out." He says by way of explanation.

"... You going to do fine?" You ask. "I mean, you did offer to be in the front line of things..."

"I'll be fine," He says. "I'm more worried about everyone else."

The idiot. Everyone else has been in a real fight- except perhaps Cera- and he's worried about them?

"You idiot," You say, patting his huge golem shoulder. "Everyone else here's been in a real fight before. Except for you."

"Just because I've never been in a- a war, I guess- doesn't mean I can't worry about you." He says. "You're going to be up there dealing with magic nobody knows how to use."

>?

>>571631
Except we don't really know jack about hermetic magic other than rituals and star runes. Which the latter of we promised Brun and her family.

>>571639
"Fair point. Just give me a heads up if you need someone to make some room for you. If you die I WILL invent necromancy just so I can punish you for it."

>>571638
Becoming very rich which allows us access to more of Kristoph's materials is there on top of, you know, Infinite Mana and Creation of nearly any material.

>>571640
Hmm, that's a good point.

>>571639
"Magic nobody else knows how to use is kinda my specialty, if you haven't noticed" Elbow him playfully. "Really though, I'll be fine. You worry about handling whatever the Witch can throw out. Mithril might be nigh-indestructible but who knows what she can do."

>>571668
Competing in her area won't make us rich. Letting her compete in our area also won't make us rich.

>>571672
I meant rich in the sense of creating gold or other valuables to trade to Kristoph.

>>571672
This. Just leave her "art" be and focus on our own company, we are already making a lot from our deals.

>>571676
And how is this going to work out when there are two other people who can out bid us working together. There is no gain from having her magic. besides, we do that and we are no better than Kelly.

>>571676
Crashing the economy and the value of precious metals also doesn't make you rich. It does make you a lot of enemies though.

>>571688
I'm pretty sure that Kristoph usually doesn't require people to bid when they're buying materials from him.

>>571693
Depends on a huge number of factors.

Even then, none this touches on the sheer utility of her Art.

>>571723
The utility is something we can emulate. If we need a thing, we can pull it out of storage. If we need to functionally destroy something, we can dump it into Nothing or lock it in a secret vault far underground and forget about it.

>>571734
That requires us to have had the thing in question readied in our storage space in the first place. As for the second, it only removes it from the area and costs us Mana instead of giving us mana.

>>571763
Most things we'd need can't be made with her technique anyway.
Technology can be emulated by dweomers, and magical materials can't be created with Cera's technique.
Removing something from the area and placing it somewhere that won't see the light of day anytime this century is functionally the same as destroying it. It's gone. Out of play.

The benefits are not worth the downsides of losing partial control of our secrets.

>>571531
Why would she even consider sharing her art with us though, is it just because we are the MC? As a rule archmages don't share their art, because if everyone knew how they did it they wouldn't be archmages.

>>571774
Near-Infinite Mana sounds like a great Benefit.

>>571780
Hence the proposal of a trade.

At any rate, that's something to discuss another day. Right now, we need to deal with the Witch.

>>571664
Seconding

>>571787
Near-Infinite Mana requires near-infinite matter. Cera has an entire city's garbage output to work with. We wouldn't.

"Magic nobody else knows how to use is kinda my specialty, if you haven't noticed," You say, and elbow him playfully. Your elbow clangs against the mithril. "Really though, I'll be fine. You worry about whatever the Witch can throw out. Mithril might be nigh-indestructible, but who knows what she can do."

"Yeah, I will," He says. "I've got a whole load of defensive dweomers set up. They're a bit finicky because of the Mithril, but that's where my mana's going."

"Alright," You say. "Just making sure you're fine. If you're not... then I'll have to invent necromancy just so that I can punish you for it."

Thod chuckles. "I'll be fine. I promise."

Neloch walks by, and sits down next to the three of you. He gives you a wave.

"How've you been doing, man?" Thod asks.

"So-so." Nel says. "Got the new magic I'd been working on all ready, and Jaz and I spent a while doing tests on it. I've been... building it up, but it takes a lot of willpower."

"Building it up?"

Nel begins to explain, but you sigh and get to your feet, brushing off your jacket. Might as well leave the guys for their guy-talk.

The camp is actually rather loud, with soldiers relaxing after the ride here- or the quick mobilization, for the landbound ones- but people are finding their own ways to amuse themselves. Uldora is demonstrating her flight to a handsome young Wing Captain, which he applauds to, while Rikar is talking with an older, grizzled soldier about something. It sounds rather serious, so you leave them be.

Cera, you find, sitting out on the top of a hill, rather alone.

"Sup?" you ask, sitting down next to her.

"You weren't joking about the Chamberpots thing." She says.

"Nope."

"Or the dimensional travel thing."

"Never was."

There's a moment of silence, and Cera just stares up at the sky.

"They're the same, aren't they?" You ask. "The stars, I mean."

"Yeah," She says. "Isn't that weird?"

"Not really," You say. "There's a good reason for that. It's related to my magic. Simply enough, if the stars weren't the same, the laws of physics would be too different for us to come here."

"That's interesting." She says. You give her a wink. It's actually that the hermetic teleportation spell would never have worked for your ancestor... But that's close enough.

"I haven't just been fucking around." You say. "I could probably write a paper on the nature of the universe after all this. It's shaped somewhat like a spiritual core, strangely enough."

Cera raises her eyebrows.

"What?"

"I, er, didn't expect you to be so academic." Cera says. You snort.

"What, because I like to cuss?" You ask. "Or because I'm a country girl?"

"... A little of both, to be honest." She says.

The two of you look up at the stars for a time.

"Again, I'm sorry for being a bitch to you." She says.

You just roll your eyes.

You have more things to worry about.

Like the Black Witch, off in her fortress.

>End of session! And possibly thread, I guess?

Thanks for running!

>>571817
Thanks for running Exa!

>>571451
Does anyone else think Neloch has been acting suspiciously side he met the witch? Send like he is keeping something close to his chest, maybe he wants her core stealing skills.

>>571817
Great Session Exabyte. Thanks for Running.

>>571817
Nice, see ya.

>>571817
Great suspense buildup ! Thanks for writing! Boss fight incoming!

>>571817
Thread is way too old, bumpable one gives more participants!

212 posts for a new thread seems kinda quick.

>>578913
One of the worst things about this board is that there is an auto-sage effect after 72 hours of the thread being alive.

>>579429
So true! New blood, new players - only possible with fresh threads!

>>578913
212 quality posts in a quality thread.