Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter 141 (Patreon)

Unsurprisingly, things picked up pretty fast after the Gallup test went so well. I had assumed that the PRT had already committed quite a solid chunk of resources to my project, but it turns out I was grossly underestimating the truth. Within a week of returning from Gallup, the number of soldiers in our growing force hit two thousand, with plans to double that in the coming month. I buckled down and got to work putting together an increasingly precise and streamlined manufacturing process, making gear at a rate that astounded the people working with us on the project. 

It still seemed a bit slow to me, but to the people who still considered my creations to be some sort of exotic tinker tech, it shattered previously established rules. The fact that none of it needed regular maintenance only served to hammer the fact that I was not normal home.

As the project expanded, several modifications were made to the overall makeup. First, with so many people and soldiers joining, and plans for more, the makeup of the small army needed to be shifted. Several of the individuals from the first fifty, and some from the first five hundred, were chosen to be promoted. Specific groupings were formed, with ten people in a squad, fifty in a platoon, a hundred in a company, and a thousand in a battalion, with each of the battalion leaders reporting directly to Special Project Leader Kinsey. 

We also mixed up the loadouts for specific individuals. Emergency communication equipment, in the form of linked talking stones, meant that even if radios were down, the soldiers could communicate. It was a sort of leapfrog, telephone-like process: messages would have to pass up the line rather than being sent directly up, but it was emergency gear, so it was better to keep it reliable.

On top of the communication stone, we spread out two healers per squad. I designed a healing pistol, which could shoot healing magic up to thirty feet away, utilizing knowledge I had gained on designing the annihilation rifle.

The healing "weapon" had two settings, one that stabilized and one that could heal to full health. Its range was limited to around thirty feet, but it was much more effective to place the barrel of the gun against the wound, rather than heal from thirty feet away.

To keep itself charged, the pistol could absorb most types of energy, from solar to thermal, and could do a shocking amount of healing before it was drained, mostly thanks to infused and purified gems. Crystal thaumaturgy also helped, especially since a new cycle had ended, and I invested five points to bring it to the third level of understanding, while saving the sixth charge for the next cycle.

My bonus for that cycle was the third level of threshold magic, which significantly increased the complexity and power of the effects I could imbue, and also stretched what qualified as a threshold. At the highest level, even the transition between day and night was enough for me to imbue minor effects. 

My bedroom was now incredibly calming and soothing, and when it was nighttime, I could fall asleep in a moment and get an incredible night's sleep.

Again, I did not get a quest, and once again I blamed it on my barely interacting with the wider world, focusing only on my work and helping my allies. 

At this point, Brockton Bay was starting to get a reputation for being a dangerous place for villain capes, as my teams busted nearly a dozen short-term villains looking to take over the prime real estate. My golems and spirit guardians were even starting to spread out to surrounding towns, helping the Protectorate clear out even more criminals. Soon, after another two weeks and a new cycle had passed, the number of villains coming to the city slowly dropped off.

Honestly, I was surprised, as I had assumed it would go in the other direction. Parahumans loved conflict, their powers drove them to it after all. I would have assumed that knowing that a yet-to-be-conquered group of heroes and powerful people existed would have been like catnip for a certain type of villain. And yet, as if someone was preventing that from happening, Brockton Bay stayed mostly clean, and we continued to push outward. 

I was happy to take advantage of the peace, investing five charges into runecrafting and my remaining two into another level of sigil craft. I also unlocked the fourth and final level of threshold magic. At that point, I could tie minor effects to conceptual thresholds, like the shift between calm and conflict. Not only that, but applying the magic became much easier, leading to me laying an effect on the entire force of our anti-Endbringer army. Now, whenever they committed a fight, they would get a subtle but stable burst of energy, a slight level of regeneration, and a buff of luck. They were all minor, but it was enough to bump up their threat level just a bit.

I also handed that out to any of my allies who wanted it. I also produced an insane amount of physical stone thresholds to people around Brockton Bay and beyond. At this point, just walking into the local hospital and many doctors' offices was enough to cure more minor illnesses, like the flu. 

Brockton Bay very quickly became my testing ground for new things I was making, at least when I had free time from working on the army, which continued to grow. Over the course of a few months, I started and completed a few dozen grand workings in the down. Some of them were small and simple, like a cornerstone anchor to the four-way intersection in the center of the city. It used my threshold magic to spread out an effect to every roadway in a considerable area, much wider than the city. It worked by using the crossroads and the transition from not driving to driving to buff someone with alertness, heal any poison in their bodies. This helped anyone driving while tired, while also sobering up anyone driving while under the influence.

Other projects were significantly less subtle, such as the seven large buildings, made of white marble and set with precious metals and stones, built before the last buildings on the coast. 

I was honestly kind of surprised I was allowed to build things that obvious and in the open, but apparently, I had underestimated my fame. Director Piggot was surprisingly accepting of quite a few of my ideas, and the Mayor was seemingly a fan, as he happily shook my hand and accepted the projects.

As the anti-Endbringer army hit four thousand soldiers, and I worked my way through even more artificing, I hit another cycle start. This time, by some miracle, the random subject settled on the fifth and final level of Alchemy. I was cheering when it happened, and when I dove into the knowledge it gave me, I almost cried. It locked in two more magical metals, both of which sent ripples through a huge swath of my magical knowledge.

The first metal was adamantine, an incredibly strong metal, beyond anything else I had ever seen, all while weighing the same as steel. It was incredibly hard to work with and resisted almost all reforging attempts, as well as almost all magic. That meant that I needed to pour it into molds to form, and once it set, that was usually it. I couldn't even use magic to form it, as even in its liquid form, it resisted the spell. It also couldn't be enchanted, and couldn't even be used in geomancy, as it usually killed most magic processes dead. That didn't mean it was useless, of course. Its resistance to magic was its own advantage, as even a thin layer could insulate complicated and sensitive magical processes. Of course, it also served as an incredible frame for building things around. 

It wasn't indestructible, as with the help of some friends and enough leverage, it could be bent and deformed. Annihilation effects also worked on it, though at a reduced rate. I made an undersuit from a woven form of it and wore it under my usual gear. 

On top of adamantine, I received the process for making mithril. This was an incredibly useful metal as well, as it was stronger than steel and as light as aluminum. It was also more or less the opposite of orichalcum, as it was linked to silver and the moon, rather than gold and the sun. It was also not particularly magically sensitive, with a connectivity similar to that of iron. What it could do, however, was contain a frankly ridiculous amount of effects, all at once. Where orichalcum could only hold one incredibly strong effect, mithril could hold several dozen weaker ones. That made it perfect for things like golem cores or anything I wanted to layer over and over again.

I spent three days making mass production forges for both of the new metals, as well as a way to pour adamantine into a variety of shapes.

The last level of alchemy also offered improvements for the efficiency of all previously unlocked concepts, from transmutation to infusions. In total, it is a serious increase in potential, as both new metals are extremely interesting for different reasons. 

It set me back almost a week as I explored new capabilities.

Beyond finishing another string of randomly selected knowledge branches, I invest two points into another level of resonance tuning, and three in the third level of sigil crafting. After some internal debate, I end up saving the last charge rather than investing it in exploring a new subject. I also scrapped my plans to buy another level in resonance tuning after the next cycle switch. While the subject might be useful, it just wasn't clicking with grand workings or the other crafting method as much as I wanted, so ultimately, there is no point.

In between exploring the new metals and continuing to work on the anti-Endbringer project, I finally got around to updating my costume. While my gear was already pretty potent, I was well past what I had been capable of at the time I made almost all of it, so it was time to upgrade. I had every intent of joining my people for the next Endbringer battle, the time range of which was rapidly approaching, which meant I needed to have the best gear I could make.

My first step was to remove and reapply my geomantic enhancements. I had already done this previously to include the infused metals, but now I wanted to include mithril and orichalcum as well. Not only did they increase my base enhancements, like strength, speed, and durability, but with some work, I was able to include a few new effects. For one, using the magically potent metals increased the depth of my magic, as well as my sensitivity. I also got a mild but widespread buff from being under the sun or under the moon, the more directly the better.

When I was once again enhanced, even better than before, I turned to one of my newer subjects. The conceptual aspect of threshold magic had been surprisingly flexible during my previous exploration, and while the effects that could be applied grew significantly weaker without a physical anchor, anchoring effects to things like the change of state between healthy and injured, safe and in danger, calm and excited, at rest and active, as well as several other aspects, I was able to weave them into a variety off applications. I kept their expressions simple, to keep random conflicts from popping up in unexpected circumstances, but in the end, I was able to wrangle a not insignificant combat buff, some automatic healing, and even a minor danger sense, all without crafting a single thing. 

The more conceptual bits of threshold magic were tied to one state of something, whether esoteric or not, and would activate when that state was flipped. The lack of physical ties meant power was limited, and if I wasn't able to power them directly myself, they would have faded pretty quickly.

With the nonphysical aspects completed, I began work on the physical. Previously, as I built my equipment, I did my best to work in every little bit of functionality that I could. Every item of clothing did multiple things, trying to create an arsenal of minor abilities. This time, I was a lot less exact about that intent. Yes, most of my equipment did something, but now I knew focusing on a few points often led to more powerful results. Even further, I knew how easy it was to switch things around, allowing me considerably more flexibility without having to wear everything I had on me. 

My grand workings creation and design branch of knowledge allowed me to mix and match several bits of magic for each item, each working towards a single effect. 

When I was finished, after nearly three days of non-stop crafting and building, I was very proud of the final result. Most of my simple clothes were designed to double up on protection and strength. I had one cuff for dexterity, and another for reflexes, rather than mixing them together. My boots still made me sure-footed, but they could also conjure a flat, hovering disc under my feet. This was specifically designed to work with my flying harness, allowing me to stop and stand mid-air. 

The flight harness was another improvement, significantly more powerful thanks to the introduction of orichalcum, but a lot more precise and compact thanks to mithril. To take advantage of the various leather straps that made up the harness part of the creation, I added dozens of spell crystals.

Those spell storage crystals were also revamped, now using various gems the size of my thumb, infused and refined, then ritualized and further modified. The end result was a gem I could feed a single spell, locking it in permanently before feeding it pure mana to recharge. Since I had several branches of crafting working together, each spell storage crystal could hold nearly twenty charges, allowing me to store a whole arsenal of spells on one belt, all ready for instant casting. 

To add a final level of active power to my arsenal, I remade my annihilation rifle. With several new branches in my repertoire and a more advanced understanding of grand workings, the final product looked similar to my old rifle, but was a significant upgrade. Instead of a slowly moving ball of annihilation, it now fired a lance of fast-moving energy. That was something I had figured out for the army's version, but for my own, I was able to take it even further. It sat in the same holster as before, on my hip and under my newly designed trench coat.

The last thing I built for myself was my new staff. A lot of the design was similar to my previous one, with the ability to be summoned and several spell storage crystals attached for emergencies. However, this time the living wood was bound to infused oricalcum and mithril, making it considerably more powerful. At the end was a fist-sized diamond, treated to enhance all my magic, rather than just healing and lighting.

Just as the previous staff could, with a flex of druidcraft, I could roll it into a more portable form, clipping it to the hip opposite my annihilation rifle.

It had been a long time coming, and it had taken a good chunk of time to get done, but I was exceedingly proud of my new gear. I didn't actually look all that different, still the same trench coat-wearing mage, but I certainly felt a lot more powerful.