Chapter 54 Magic (Patreon)

            Nearly a year after their first meeting, Claude was growing impatient with Albert and Victoria’s progress. Each week, he went to them and had them perform lightning immunity in front of him, gave them some pointers, and went about his day. With a warrior, things would have been simple; a mage would have carved mana channels into the warrior, which gave the warrior lightning immunity. Mages, on the other hand, with three exceptions, only had one set of mana channels per core. The spell for every core was known as draw mana channels. It allowed them to use their finger, a wand, or a staff to draw mana channels outside of their body. This allowed mages to create spells as needed, and so every mage was able to cast hundreds of spells by drawing external mana channels. Albeit, they still powered those mana channels with their cores. As long as the mana channels had mana pulsing through them, they existed, but as soon as mana stopped flowing through them, they disappeared. Because they drew mana channels, instead of having mana channels carved into their bodies, they had far more variation with their spells than warriors had.

            The three exceptions were three spells that significantly slowed aging. With their first core, the growth core, mages had mana channels carved into the spell slow division that biologically slowed aging. This also had the side effect of slowing down healing, muscle growth, and many other biological functions, but it gave them at least two hundred years of time. The first tier-two core that all mages received was the time core, and they carved channels into the spell, slow aging, which magically slowed down the effects of time on their body while not affecting their mind. Depending on when a mage received this spell, they could have a maximum lifespan of over a thousand years. The earlier they received this spell, the longer they lived. The final exception was the spell restoration, which came with the third-tier healing core. Restoration could add more than ten thousand years to a lifespan, as restoration replaced old or malfunctioning cells with new healthy ones. Very few mages that obtain this spell died of old age, but those who did seem to have their mind collapse eventually, as it appeared that the human brain can only hold so much information before it breaks, a problem the immortals do not have, as the fourth-tier immortality core allows them to completely remake their body and move their consciousness into it.

            Claude was annoyed when he once again went to the practice chamber and told Albert and Victoria, “Show me lightning immunity.”

            Albert went first. He took out his wand and began going through the intricate motions of weaving a lightning spell with his lightning mana. Claude watched carefully as Albert began drawing mana channels in the air. When Albert was finished drawing lightning immunity, Claude took out his wand and drew a weak spark spell, and zapped Albert. Spark did nothing to Albert so Claude said, “It works, but the first time you draw mana channels, it may be drawn correctly by accident, do it again.”

            Albert drew it again, and once more, it resisted the weak spark spell. Claude said, “The second time you draw a spell you may have drawn it correctly through dumb luck. Draw it again.”

            Albert obediently cut off mana to the spell, and as soon as the external mana channels disappeared, he drew lightning immunity once again. When he was finished, Claude drew the weak spark spell, and once again as sparks flew out they did nothing to Albert. Claude said, “Congratulations. Victoria, let us see if you finally learned lightning immunity as well.”

            Minutes later, after three successful castings in a row, Claude said, “You two have finally learned lightning immunity, so we will go to the Great Black Tree Labyrinth immediately.”

            Albert asked, “Why are we leaving so quickly?”

            “Because I cannot get my next assignment until I finish this one and take you two to the labyrinth.”

            Victoria asked, “You’re a third-tier mage, where is your familiar?”

            “That’s why I am impatient to get to my next assignment, I am having trouble making my familiar.”

            “How? You are a third-tier mage.”

            “You are not really a third-tier mage until you have the healing core and have a life span measured in millennia. To get the healing core I will need a proper familiar. Yes, my creation core allows me to create a creature to use as a familiar, but a base familiar is useless. To make a useful familiar you must both make it much bigger on the inside with folding space and make its muscles and organs grow with my growth magic. I am sure that you have seen some of the third-tier, or even immortal’s familiars. Even though they are only two or three feet in height, each one of them weighs several tons because they are much bigger on the inside. On the outside, their arms and legs are only a couple of inches wide, but on the inside their arms and legs are several feet wide with solid muscle. If it wasn’t for gravity cores their familiars wouldn’t be able to move, but thanks to those cores, they move like they only weigh ten or twenty pounds. Furthermore, because their insides are so large, a mage is able to etch hundreds of spells into their familiar. Every time I attempt to make a new familiar, I succeed at creation, and making them bigger on the inside, but I am failing to grow its insides and keep it alive. I need some instruction, and I cannot get that until I finish my assignment here. That’s why we are going to leave immediately.”

            Victoria said, “Oh. I am sorry we have slowed down your growth as a mage.”

            “I forgive you. Come over here and stand by me.”

            Albert and Victoria gave each other confused looks but obeyed. As soon as they stood by Claude he began drawing mana channels. This only increased the couple's confusion. After a few moments of drawing a mana channel, the world warped, and all three of them were standing nearly half a mile from the Great Black Tree Labyrinth.

            Victoria yelled, “Where are we?”

            Claude told her, “Be quiet woman, we are at the labyrinth’s doorstep. It is not time to attract its attention yet. Our mission is to go into the labyrinth and retrieve at least one lightning core, and to investigate how a vacuum warrior was killed.”

            Albert asked, “How will we preserve the lightning core?”

            “I can make familiars.”

            “I thought you said you were having trouble keeping it alive as you grow it internally?”

            “You are confusing common familiars that anyone with a creation core can make with tailor-made familiars. Tailor-made familiars are very powerful allies and can be more powerful than the mage that made them, but they require a mastery of magic that I do not yet have. Making a simple familiar to hold a core for a day or two will be simplicity in itself.”

            “Oh.”

            “I need you two to get your mind on this labyrinth. I do not want either of you to die.”

            Albert said, “Yes.”

            Victoria said, “Sorry.”

            “First of all, you two are going to have haste times ten on, and I will have haste times twenty.”

            Victoria’s eyes went wide, and she said, “But if we use that spell for a day, it will cost us a hundred days of life since we will have to stop slow aging to use it, which slows down aging by about ten times. Why can't we use haste times five? That will reduce the number of days lost to just fifty.”

            “Because a vacuum warrior was killed in this dungeon, and we don’t know how. Perhaps he was killed by lightning, perhaps he was killed by a material effect. We don’t know, and we need to be able to respond. Being able to move, react, and cast spells ten times faster is necessary. If you don’t like it then be content staying a tier-two mage.”

            Victoria looked down and said, “Yes, sir.”

            “Beyond that, we are going to cast the new lightning spell you just learned, lightning immunity. The we will cast the earth spell, empower, to bolster our bodies' defenses, the wind spell oxygen to keep our minds sharp, the water spell bubble for an outer defense, and the vacuum spell vacuum for another layer of defense.”

            “Albert, you will use your light core to make us invisible with the spell bending light. Victoria, you will use the light spell illusion to create copies of us thirty feet ahead of us. Furthermore, your vacuum spell will cover the copies. If you need to kill something nearby, use your vacuum spell; if it's further away use your darkness core’s spell shadow spear. You should be able to use the shadow of your illusions to attack with shadow spear even if a target is two hundred feet away. I know it's not the most powerful spell, but if it gets an unknown creature attacking illusions instead of us, I consider it a success. I will also need you, Victoria, to use the fire spell detect heat to look for any temperature anomaly as we travel, let me know if something pops up. Albert and I will use our soul core to look for living creatures with soul sight. If we happen to walk into a trap, then I will use force core to protect us.”

            As one the couple said, “Yes, sir.” And the group began weaving mana channels in front of them. Each one of them were using both hands to weave two different mana channels at the same time, as anyone who had the ambition to become a tier-three mage had no choice but to learn to duel-cast. Anyone without that ambition settled into a job as a tier-two mage and churned out various magical products as a artisan, as they waited to die.

            After the first spell, haste, was cast the trio began moving at supernatural speeds. Albeit, because they were warping time, they moved comfortably, although it was clearly unnatural.

            Soon after, their bodies were made immune to lightning. Then their body defences were immensely improved with the earth spell, empower. Moments later, Claude summoned rain, and all three formed a bubble of water around themselves. This was quickly followed by a carefully made vacuum that did not dissipate the water that was protecting the three. After that, the three momentarily disappeared, only to reappear and walk thirty feet closer to the labyrinth. Once they were closer to the labyrinth, the three began casting shadow spear. At first their aim was very poor, but after a few minutes, they were hitting all their targets. Once they were satisfied that they could hit things, they began “walking” toward the labyrinth, albeit their walking speed was ten times normal. When they entered the dungeon's area of influence the dungeon's essence creatures began to attack.