Wisdom, wisdom, and more wisdom!

  Your primary defense against mental assault is to build up your wisdom. However, by its very nature, mind magic is a subtle art. You must be aware of a mental attack t the bulk of your defeo bear – without awareness, you are as vulnerable as a newborn baby. It is much like an Assassin, striking from the shadows to gain the critical damage from Ambush and it is how I’ve learo apply my skills effectively to those substantially higher level than myself. I use ag, mundaion, distras, and es all to show my target what they expect to see. And then, I strike.

  The defense against being unaware is simple – training, and a healthy iment in perception.

  - Mieriel Dawnbloom, Mind Mage and Guild Administrator, Private lesson to the senior members of the Myrin’s Keep Adventurers Guild.

  Aliandra

  “Hi, Elton,” Ali greeted the apprentice, who stood behind the ter in the elegant receiving room of Lydia’s allure. He wore his signature dark suit, and his hair had been slicked ba what Ali was only peripherally aware was ‘in’ among the circles frequented by the wealthy and iial right now. “Is Lydia in? fit, by the way.”

  Tailor – Human – level 4 (Shadow)

  The tall, newly miailor looked up from the cloth he was cutting, curious dark wisps of his shadoausing interrupted in their flowing dance. His lips crooked the barest hint of a smile – which, Ali was certain, was for him a beaming grin. “Good m, Aliandra. Thank you. Yes, she’s in the back, I will tell her you’re here.”

  Already level four, she thought as he ducked out of sight through a doorway. He must be w hard. She had to admit, she was curious to see what a shadow-affinity tailor would be able to make when he earned a few more css levels.

  “Oh, there you are! Hi, Aliandra,” Lydia said brightly, stepping into the main room of her store with a distinergy to her steps. “It’s good to see you.” She, of course, stepped around the ter and gave a big hug which made him blush fiercely as usual.

  Tailor – Human – level 68

  Wow, sixty-eight! She’s doing so well. “Lydia, this is Brena Novaspark,” Ali said, introdug the novice guildmember. “She’s a Lightning Mage and we wao see if you could help her with an upgrade. She’s outleveled her gear already.”

  “Hi there,” Lydia greeted Brena with a smile, distrag the Gnome who had been staring with i curiosity at all the expeailored dresses on dispy. “You must be Donel’s daughter, right?”

  “Yes,” she answered with a nod and a guarded expression. Likely, she was used to being reized by her mother’s reputation.

  “Mmm, they outlevel things so fast early on,” Lydia said, running her fiips gently across the fabric of the cuffs of Brena’s cloth robe with professional ease. “I’m just gd yht her to me, Aliandra, instead of having her wear that nasty stuff you had on the first time you visited.”

  Brena coughed, hiding a ugh behind her hand.

  “Aah, yes,” Ali said, grimag at the unfortable memory – at the time she had been so happy to have something that had resistance against the fireballs, but the Kobold Tattered Robes had been quite nasty and reeked. She was ever so gd she had destroyed them, and that she had far better options even for low-level Kobolds now.

  “How about something simir to the first piece I made for you?” Lydia asked, her eyes still sizing up the novice.

  “That should be perfect,” Ali answered.

  “Lightning and intelligence?” Lydia asked.

  It took a moment before Brena realized Lydia was asking her. “Oh… yes!”

  “Perfect,” Lydia said, mana flickering as she activated several skills while she had Brena turn around a few times. She jotted down a few things down in her notebook, a mannerism so like ’s that Ali almost ughed out loud. “This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes,” she said, surprising Ali with how little time she needed.

  Leveling up has been good for her, she thought.

  “Elton, would you mind grabbing the box in the back with Aliandra’s name on it?” Lydia said, as she walked through the open doorway into the area and began ying out some silky, royal-blue fabric with a tight weave on the worktable.

  Box? Ali wasn’t sure what Lydia was doing, but Eltourned from the ste room in the back a few moments ter with a small box, and Lydia directed him to give it to her.

  “I made this for you – a thank-you gift for the fire silk,” Lydia expined, wearing a beaming, happy smile that lit up her face.

  Ali’s curiosity was almost burning her up as she accepted the box from the tall apprentice.

  She flipped up the lid. led within it were a pair of cloth slippers, cut from the , white fabric that shimmered with red dang fme embedded within the weave itself. She reached out to touch the familiar fabric that matched her robes feeling the innate warmth of the fire magic that was woven together with the thread. “Ooh…”

  Fire Silk Slippers – level 60Elegantly crafted footwear desigo be stylish enough fh society, a robust enough for dungeon delving. +15% to resistance against Fire damage.+40 Intelligence+23 Wisdom+67% to mana regeionRequirements: Intelligence 210Created by Lydia Avery.Feet – Fire Silk

  Ali’s breath caught ihroat as she stared at the mesmerizing silk slippers for a long moment, not quite believing what she was seeing. The fabric was stunningly beautiful, and the desig – but the entments Lydia had mao weave into the item were astounding.

  And four…

  “How…” she didn’t quite know what to say.

  “Do you like them?” Lydia asked, a grin creasing the sides of her eyes.

  “This is amazing! How did you mao make this? There are four entments – four!” The words spilled out of Ali’s mouth in a tumbling rush.

  “The book you got me taught me how to bihem, and with high-level fabric like this fire silk, it ended up being surprisingly straightforward. Teically, I only make three entments right now, but the fabric has such a strong fire affinity it take ora fire entment as long as it’s not too powerful,” Lydia said. “That’s where the fire resistane es from.”

  “She didn’t sleep a wink,” Elton added archly from the ter where he was back t with his fabric.

  “Elton!”

  just chuckled in the background.

  “You ’t just give me su expensive gift!” Ali excimed.

  “Ali,” Lydia said, finally using the familiar form of her name, “I don’t think you uand just how much money I made from selling fire silk dresses to the nobles. After Mieriel went to the party at the Asterford House, everyone needed one. And because the supply is so restricted, I charge whatever I want for the couple I’m able to make.” She smiled wryly, “I’m pretty sure not even you could afford the going rate for those slippers – but it’s not about the money. I’m truly grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”

  I probably could afford it, Ali thought, but she uood that wasn’t Lydia’s point and accepted the gift with a happy smile. She could easily pay it ba kind with more materials – including the demonic silk webbing she was carrying. Seeing Brena trying to remain polite despite her obvious curiosity, Ali showed her the slippers.

  “Your shoes have almost as mutelligence as me,” she said, earning a round of chuckles and ughs.

  “Well, now you know who to e to when you level up,” Ali said, carefully putting the slippers on her feet.

  “She won’t have any fire silk left by then,” Brena pointed out, her dramatic pout nearly making Ali snort.

  “The fme web es from a fire-affinity spider I make,” Ali expined. “I nning to make an area for them in my dungeon so that Lydia offer colle quests at the guild for it.”

  Lydia’s ears immediately perked up. “How… soon… do you think you might have those spiders ready?” she asked and then coughed awkwardly.

  “Any time,” Ali answered. “But nobody in the guild is strong enough to kill them yet.” Well, that wasn’t quite true – Vivian could take them out, but she didn’t do delves anymore, now that she was retired. She turned back to Brena, and said, “When you get to the early fifties you should be able to collect the raw materials for your robes yourself.”

  “That’s too bad,” Lydia said. “We’ll just have to help them get strohen, shall we?”

  Ali was not sure art of their ents had caused surprise, but Brena psed into a quiet thoughtfulness for the eime Lydia worked. But, soon enough, there was a new round of excitement as she got to try on her brand-new robe. Masterfully crafted from monstrous silk, it would probably be quite a bit tougher than the inal cotton items Ali had used, and now that Lydia had surpassed her css pteau, Brena’s robe had a elligent and something to boost lightning damage. It had clearly been much simpler and easier for Lydia to create than her brand-new slippers, but Brena would be repg it quickly as she leveled up.

  “I have one more thing for you to py with,” Ali said, getting Lydia’s immediate attention as she retrieved the demonic silk web from where she had stored it in her ring.

  “Oh, hread!” Lydia excimed, fetg the ented spool, and transferring the web to it, her skills allowio hahe dangerous, sticky webbing without difficulty. “Elton, be a dear and ru door a Hilda again please?”

  “I don’t imagihis will be useful fh fashion, but I don’t think adventurers will care about wearing fabric with a demonic trait,” Ali said. The webbing seemed to have a darko it that shimmered and shifted, causing her eyes to want to look elsewhere, just like the Abyssal Stalker itself. “I’m guessing it might work well with stealth traits?”

  “I think you’d be surprised what the nobility ahy will do to one-up each other,” Lydia said casually while finishing st the web itself. “If you get your hands on more of this, I’m definitely ied in seeing what we make with it.”

  “I get you some mht now,” Ali said, snapping a broad barrier disk into pce, h vertically in the air beside the waiting chairs.

  “Huh?”

  “Shoot that,” Ali instructed.

  Brena happeo be fag the exact er where the Abyssal Stalker lurked, ging upside down to the ceiling. She let out a shrill scream, as the demon appeared and pstered the barrier with demonic webbing.

  Even Lydia had jumped ba surprise.

  “Aah, sorry,” Ali apologized, “I should have warned you.” She had fotten just how terrifying the stalkers were the first time she had seen them. Brena was only level nine, and Lydia had no bat skills. But it was just a few moments to collect more silk with a barrier that she could dismiss, avoiding all the stiess issues.

  The door chime suddenly sounded, announg the return of Elton and the dwarven Weaver.

  “Would ya look at that!” she excimed, eyes already glued to the web.

  ***

  Mage – Human – level 22 (Death)

  “gratutions on passing twenty, Seth,” Ali said. “Did you get anything good for your css skill unlock?” She sat on her barrier in the open-air area the guild was using as its makeshift hall while stru was underway. All around, there was the bustle and noise of stru, less than ideal for a versation, but Seth had asked for help, and it sounded important.

  “I think so,” he answered cautiously. “I didn’t choose yet; I was hoping to get your adviot many people uand the tradeoffs for summoners.”

  “Do you mind sharing your choices? I tell you what I think,” she answered. It had always been a challeo decide, particurly early on, but what had helped her out immensely was having a few people she trusted to discuss it with.

  “Ok,” he answered, and her notification chimed as he shared three skill choices with her, the text showing up as a strangely familiar glowing bck light on ashy part.

  Summon GhostMana: Summon a ghost to serve as a minion. Ghost level is random [up to css level]. Reserve: by level. Recharge: 15 minutes. Duration: 1 hour.Death, Minion, Intelligence

  Death BoltMana: Fire a bolt of death magic. Range: 50 meters.Death, Ranged, Intelligence

  Empowered ArmyMana: Your minions gain added Death damage on hit. Yhest attribute is increased by an amount depe on the number and css levels of your minions. Range: 15 meters. Reserve: 20%Death, Minion, Buff, Intelligence

  “They all look like det skills,” Ali said, studying them carefully, trying to put herself in the shoes of the neao figure out what would be the most useful for him, rather than what looked best to her.

  “Yes, that’s the problem,” he answered. “It’s hard to decide.”

  “If it helps, you don’t lose the options after you choose, and you repce them if it doesn’t work out,” she told him, tinuing to weigh the choices.

  “Oh, I didn’t know that,” he said. “How did you figure it out? I think some of the others will be ied in that tip.”

  “Or perhaps I mention it to the Guildmaster, it sounds like she should include that in the basistru,” Ali said. “Mato figured it out when he had to remove a berserker skill that almost made him kill me.” It wasn’t particurly obscure information, just she was almost certain most people wouldn’t risk experimenting with their skills uhey knew for certain, but it made choosing so much less stressful. There were a few rare cases where taking a new skill ed aing one, and those presumably couldn’t be reverted nearly as easily, but those seemed rare. “What are your first thoughts on the skills?”

  “Summon Ghost is nice,” Seth said, ping his thoughtfully. “It doesn’t require a corpse, but it is limited in number of minions. They’re incorporeal though, which is strong. Death Bolt would help me get started when I have no minions to make my first corpse. Oher hand, Empowered Army would make all my minions stronger, so I like that too. Empowered Army is an influenced by your mentorship, by the way.”

  “I see,” Ali said, recalling some of the problems he had mentioned with his css – skeletons and zombies required appropriate fresh corpses to raise, but his strength came from the monsters he raised. A troublesome problem if he found himself with no minions to get going. “Your Votile Wraith is also incorporeal, and it doesn’t require a corpse, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m thinking of that more like a fireball spell than a summon,” Ali said. It was such a memorable spell. The Death Wight had employed it to great effect against them down in the ruins. “An undead, guided, incorporeal fireball. So, maybe getting the death bolt wouldn’t be solving any new problems for you?”

  “It’s a little awkward to use Votile Wraith in a group because it do life drain,” Seth answered, grimag. “I was sidering sing it for Death Bolt. Party members don’t like it when you drain them by act.”

  Ali was sure there was a story there somewhere, but she let it go. “But if you’re in a group, you rely on them killing a few easier moo get you started, right?”

  “True.” He hesitated. “I like taking solo quests at night, though.”

  “I have to admit, my preference would be for Empowered Army,” Ali finally cluded. “While the ghosts are nice because you make them without a corpse, they’re also limited in number, and they go away after an hour. If the recharge or the minimum level doesn’t scale, it will get statistically worse as you level up. I don’t like that you could need a monster urgently and it only summons a level one ghost by ce.” Ali was well acquainted with this problem, having had more than enough experience rolling the dice with her Grimoire prior to receiving her ization adva. “Empowered Army is multiplicative across all your minions and will get stronger as you get more of them. Improving your attributes is strong, too.”

  “I think I like it too, but it’s only oribute. Most of the others have skills that boost three attributes at the same time,” Seth said. “I worry that it’s underpowered because of that.”

  “It’s quite simir to my skill,” Ali said, sharing her Empowered Summoner. “Don’t uimate that damage it adds on every hit. It adds up to a lot, and scales as you get more and stronger minions. On my first adva, I got the option to upgrade it to two attributes.”

  “Huh, why does yours only have a ten pert reservation?”

  “I’m not sure. I think it’s because I have a domain aptitude that gives me effectively double the mana pool. Ten pert reservation works out to the same amount of mana as a twenty pert for some other css without that.”

  “You would go with Empowered Army then, over Summon Ghost?”

  “Yes, definitely,” Ali said. “Stronger minions instead of more. Your other s overp a lot with what you already do. If you keep intelligence as yhest attribute, it will increase that, making most of your skills scale up to be much more powerful. If you get a sed attribute on an adva, choose wisdom, and then your army will expand dramatically because you reserve more mana.”

  “Ok, that sounds smart.”

  “Also, hat Empowered Army is keying off yhest attribute, not the base attribute, so you trol it with gear choices if you like,” she said.

  “Oh, cool. That’s an expeion, but I think it could be useful ter,” Seth answered, sounding rather ied in the obscure detail, remindirongly of ’s fasation for skill iions and optimization.

  Perhaps I should have him talk to , too?

  “Why don’t you try the ghosts and the army out on your group quest? With your team supp you, you have a little more leeway to experiment.”

  “That’s a good idea. We were pnning to kill the wolves a couple more times to get some levels, and then go raid the abominations in the forest. I’ll try it there – thank you!” He seemed much happier than when she had first found him sitting there.

  “Why don’t you guys kill the shamans in the ke too?” Ali asked, uo hide her curiosity. Sure, the magicite she had left in the den was a great iive, but the mana-purified water from the ke was running low, acc to Weldin, so it had to be worth retrieving.

  “The team doesn’t like that boss,” Seth said, grimag. “Some of them don’t like swimming, and our strategy isn’t the greatest.”

  “But your skeletons don’t o breathe, right?” Ali asked. “And the Votile Wraith should work uer too.”

  “Uh… oh!” Seth’s face lit up with ic suddenness as the realization strue.

  ***

  “Here dear, you’ve been studying for hours.” The steaming cup ked softly as Lira pced it carefully oable beside her, far enough away from the open books strewn across the polished mahogany surface that there would be no risk of spilling.

  “Thank you,” Ali said, looking up from her mother’s book and stretg her ned shoulders as she smelled the refreshing aroma of the tea Lira had brewed. It’s probably a good idea to take a break.

  With Mato’s armor being refed, and the guild being rebuilt, they had decided to spend the couple of days rexing, and she had chosen to hunt down the elusive idea of mana affinities and how they overpped and could sometimes be transted from oo another. Much like how Nathaniel Sunstrider’s powerful are mass teleport and Professor Addlestone’s space magic version had been strikingly simir.

  She reasohat if anyone had knowricate rules for how it worked, it would have been her mother – and if she could just learn how to do the transcription from one affinity to another, she would have a fantastiew source of spells for her runic magic. She had visions of are fireballs and nature magic versions of ice, only jured from wood. But the subject was impossibly plex, and she barely uood half of what was written in the Eldrite. In fact, she was beginning to suspect that not all the information was actually there, which had her on a half-hour ta, trying to cajole the recalcitrant book into sharing a info with her.

  It hadn’t worked, and it just gained her some very straares from the guildmembers who had begun taking advantage of her eleportation circle to the library until she realized that ce was shy and wouldn’t reveal himself when others were watg, meaning she just looked like she was arguing with an inanimate book.

  As was often the case when she had no pressing deadline or emergency, she had found herself hurtling down an ued rabbit hole of knowledge, a side-passage to a side-passage that had whisked her away into aeric discussion of the magic of skills, and how sometimes skills had the same exact framework, but a different payload attached, and this allowed them to be much more easily uood and modified.

  It had triggered a strong sense of déjà vu, but for the life of her, she couldn’t recall where she had seen one of them.

  Definitely a good time for a break, she thought. At least before she got frustrated. She leaned ba her seat and sipped at the tea, making sure to not get it he books.

  “What are you w on?” Lira asked, taking a seat beside her, her soft voice soothing after spending so long immersed in the books.

  “I got sidetracked by something called homologous magic. It’s apparently possible to have two spells that have the same structure, but certain parts are shaped differently to produce different effects,” she expined. It fasated the schor within her, but it likely had very little practical use.

  “That sounds like something your mother must have named,” Lira said with a smile, sipping oea.

  “It’s o have people in the library again,” Ali said, sighing happily. It had a righto it – libraries were meant for people to read and learn. Obviously, she was used to having Lira around, and her friends, but there were five adventurers from the guild sitting at various tables studying magibat stances, skills, or whatever struck their fancy.

  “Yes, it is good,” Lira said. “Maybe I should go into town and buy more tea – perhaps they would like some?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Ali said, idly watg as one of the novices pulled out a small cube, pced it oable beside him, and activated a light magitment within it using a small puff of his own mana. The tiny magical formation blossomed up and out of the simple artifad a soft reading light maed floating in the air above the table.

  “That’s it!” she excimed suddenly, almost droppiea as she suddenly remembered the elusive magic that had slipped her mind earlier.

  She ignored Lira’s knowing smile as she rummaged through her ste ring with her mind, finding arieving her old notebook. She paged through it and quickly found the runiscriptions she had here, representing ’s Motes of Light spell.

  “I kly where I saw this,” she muttered, flipping through her Grimoire looking for a small variant she had barely used. Aah, here it is: Luminous Drago.

  She slowed down, studying the densely packed runic structure eng the tiny dragon she had learned in the jungle. Here it is, she thought firming her memories had been accurate as her fingers brushed across a runic structure that matched the spell in her notebook almost exactly. She did not uand the structure of the imprint magi her Grimoire, but if she had to guess, she was looking at a light magic skill that was almost identical to the Motes of Light spell had allowed her to study for so long.

  There was a rge structural se to the spell that seemed identical, but tained within it was a core that had a different fun. On a hunch, she directed her Runic Script magic to the page in her Grimoire, beginning to inscribe the runic magi her notebook.

  Treat surprise, the Grimoire did not resist her efforts, instead, it simply created space for her new magic beside the existing spell runes. Her mana flowed into the receptive pages just like it did into magical ink or her electrum, only the Grimoire’s pages accepted her mana imprint decidedly more readily. Somehow, she was using her Imbued Runes advao inscribe runes directly onto the pages of her Grimoire – a struct of her own magic.

  Not uanding precisely what she was doing – or how – she enabled her Sage of Learning and tiranscribing the runes from her notebook into the growing space her Grimoire provided, carefully linking the runes ily the same way as the existing spell, copying all the duplicate runes for the homologous structure keeping the same retionship to the rest of the imprint, as if grafting something new into the same space.

  Fully immersed iudy trance, she didn’t notice the intense glow emanating from her Grimoire until she finished, and her notification chime sounded.

  Runic Script has reached level 31.Sage of Learning has reached level 23.Variant: Glitter Drago added to Imprint: Dragon.

  A new creature?

  Ali stared at the notification for a long while as the implications of what she had just done slowly seeped in. Suddenly, her curiosity caught up with her and she poured her mana into the new variant and created the creature.

  Glitter Drago – Dragon – level 1 (Light) x9

  Your reserved mana has increased by +1.

  Ali stared at the bevy of tiny golden dragons that perched oable, their gleaming scaled necks arg and ing this way and that as they studied her with their luminous eyes or explored the books at their feet. Each was about the size of a kitten but with a signifitly loail. The one’s small reptilian eyes gazed at her ily with an inner burning light. It bliwo sets of eyelids closing, and then opening. Its deep golden-colored scales were ated by bck along the spine ridges on its back, down its tail, and its four cwed feet. The tiny horns and spines protruding backward from its head were also tipped with bck. Shimmering trails of softly sparkling light and mana followed them wherever they went.

  So pretty!

  Just theiny dragon perched upon ce made a fused expression, as the book shifted, trying to dislodge it. It suddenly let out a belch, emitting a small mote of light that hovered in the air in front of its face. It cocked its head and stared at it quizzically as the mote slowly rose in the air. It had risen several meters when a small buzzing shape was drawn to its light, flying around and around in a circle.

  Every siiny dragourned, eyes trag the movement with the pure focus and alertness of a hunter spying its prey. Quick as a fsh, the tiny dragon uself into the air, and with tid strokes of its outstretched wings, and a snap of its jaw, the moth became the dragon’s first dinner. It raised its tiny head a out a tiny, absolutely adorable roar of triumph. Ali couldn’t help grinning. Baring its fangs, it gathered its mana into a delicate spell formation of light affinity and released a stream of motes from its mouth like a child blowing shimmering golden bubbles of light that drifted around floating upward.

  The entire flight oook to the air in a sudden dispy of golden wings, aerial acrobatics, and an explosion of tiny motes of light as the hunt for more is began.

  Without hesitation, Ali summoned more and more of them, filling the library with the soft illumination of floating Motes of Light, drifting glitter, and tiny s dragons, stopping only when she had created more than two huiny dragos. Everyone visiting the library stopped to watch their pyful antics as they darted about chasing is, each other, or alighting to roost on branches of the elder tree, or the tables and bookshelves of the library.

  Ali grinned happily, enjoying the antics of the dragos. Most of her monsters were terrifying, but the Glitter Dragos were truly beautiful, elegant, and graceful as they swooped about, but by far her favorite was the oh his tiny head raised to the sky r his tiny fierce roar, deg himself the king of the bookshelf. And the entire flight of more than two hundred had cost only twenty-three mana, so she didn’t bother even attag them to her domain, simply allowing them to roam wherever they liked without instrus.

  “Think with monsters,” she murmured. Just from her mana sight, she could tell she had finally succeeded in duplig ’s stealth-dispelling spell.

  Beside her, Lira smiled softly and took another sip of her tea. “That’s right, dear.”

  ----------

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