B5 C21: Trial Quests

Much to my delight, Sett had confirmed that the months I’d spent in the spatial region were enough to let me learn a new spell. Much to my dismay, I was severely limited in what I was able to learn.

If I had it my way, I would have learned dozens of new spells and, in particular, Apprentice-ranked spells for each of my schools of magic that were languishing in the low-twenties. While all of my basic schools of mana had eventually reached the Apprentice rank, about half of them were lacking an associated Apprentice-rank spell, which meant I had little hope of raising them to the next tier. Worse yet, this was true of some of my more important school spells, such as my Fire Magic.

And according to Sett, I could actually remedy that, if I wanted to. I’d healed enough to learn two new Apprentice-ranked spells.

Unfortunately, that was only if I forewent taking a new spatial spell. If I wanted to keep leveling up my spatial magic, learning a Journeyman spell for an advanced mana type would be all I could handle.

While frustrating, it wasn’t a tough choice at all. Earlier, I’d been rushing through my Spatial Magic levels in the hopes of gaining a faster way to transport Cal and Verin if they ever got injured on my watch. Now, though, with the recent revelation of Cal’s condition, the skill took on a new light. My spatial prowess was probably our only ticket out of the dungeon -- and thereby our only way to heal Verin -- if Cal didn’t end up finding the frost region. Training it was my first priority by a long shot.

So, with much muffled grumbling and a wistful gaze at my doomed-to-stagnancy Fire Magic, I had Sett take me through my options for new spatial spells.

On the upside, I was happy to see that my choices had broadened significantly since the previous tier. The Journeyman spell options could broadly fit into four categories.

1: Upgraded blink spells. Pretty much, just fancier versions of Spatial Step. There’d been a few of these back at level 20, too, but the upgraded versions had quirks or fewer restrictions. If I went this route, I wouldn’t need to physically step to teleport myself, and I’d be able to teleport directly into the air.

Some variants also let me take companions along with me, which would have helped immensely back when I’d lugging Verin over to Arbor to get her limb regrown. Others were much longer-ranged than my existing teleport skill, while others yet were heavily resistant to impairment effects, letting me teleport out of snares or immobilization skills.

All useful, but I already had Spatial Step. If possible, I wanted something with a new utility rather than a minor upgrade to a skill I already had.

2: Defensive spells. Some worked similarly to the spatial spirit’s barriers, folding space until it practically became solid. Some functioned like the Orb of Isolation, completely cutting me off from an incoming attack. Others were specialized portals, effectively transporting an attack away from me.

At higher levels, many of these options were supposed to be some of the best defensive spells out there. In the short-term, however, all of them had numerous limitations, and more importantly, they were all ruinously mana-hungry.

And besides, my defense was already bordering on permanent overkill. Especially now that I’d passed the Overload Armor trial, I felt almost invincible, at least when dealing with normal, blockable attacks.

3: Offensive spells. It was nice to see that I could finally use spatial magic offensively, but without exception, they all sucked. Truly, there was no other way to say it. I could finally teleport any enemy directly into a trap, but souls and mana were both considered “dimensionally heavy.” I might be able to teleport a level ten into the air, but at that point, I had about a million more effective ways to deal with them.

There were a few edgier options, like summoning a spatial blade or using a closing portal as a guillotine, but similar to my Bend Space and Mold Space spells, these were fairly fragile. Trying to close a portal around the neck of a creature with a lot of mana or a powerful soul would simply disrupt the portal. Same with the blade.

4: Utility portal spells. Much like the blink spells, all of these had their own minor quirks, but the main features were all the same. Point A became connected to point B.

At this level, all of them could only cover short or moderate distances. Even outside the dungeon, I wouldn’t be able to use them like recall gems, letting me travel from Sylum to Emer’Thalis and back. Still, the range was better than my Spatial Step, and they would let me cut down my travel times, as desired.

With neither the offensive or defensive options enticing me, and with the blink spells feeling largely superfluous, it was this final category that I settled on. In the end, I went with a variant that could be cast quickly and mostly focused on range. Much like the spells Arbor had granted me, they all had long-winded, overly pompous names, but I had no qualms about renaming my spells.

There was a good chance I’d eventually have to rename the spell again once I got more spatial spells, but for now, the choice was simple.

You have learned a new spell: Portal (Renamed from Fizekio’s Extended Oscillating Uni-visual Spatial Tunnel)

Creates a static portal connecting two points within 50 meters. Range, portal size, and dimensional weight limits increase with each level. Sufficient dimensional weight or mana anomalies may cause the portal to collapse.

Further focusing on the spell gave a more detailed breakdown of exactly how much mana the portal could withstand. A bit too technical for me, but if I was reading it correctly, I’d have no trouble passing it through it, even while holding one of the others.

Of course, there was no need to rely on the description anymore. I could simply test it out on my own.

Starting small at first, I stood right outside the cabin, opening up two portals a few meters apart. Visually, they certainly did the concept of “spatial portals” justice, with two floating circles popping into existence, both of them radiating wisps of inky spatial mana. Where one of them was impossibly black and opaque, the other offered a clear view out of its counterpart.

This was one of the other major reasons I’d chosen this variant. Some portal spells summoned two black portals, not letting you see into or out of them until you stepped in. Some were unidirectional, only letting you use the portal one way.

This one was a combination. It was bidirectional, so I could theoretically summon a portal and have Cal hop into to deliver an attack before jumping back out. At the same time, it acted kind of like one-way glass, letting me see where I was heading while the other portal offered no return line of sight. The dimensional weight limit meant that I wouldn’t be charging super arrows and firing them through, but the one-way vision made the portal ideal for scouting and ambushes without offering myself up to easy return fire.

I chucked a few pebbles through before being brave enough to try the portals out myself. They weren’t quite person-sized yet, forcing me to awkwardly dive through, but the actual sensation was surprisingly smooth, with none of the disorientation I would have expected. I’d have to run some more tests at greater distances and with some of my ranged attacks, but this was a promising start.

Sadly, those future tests would have to wait a while. The only thing I did not love about the spell I’d chosen was its prohibitive cost. A quick glance at my mana confirmed that I’d need to recharge for a bit before casting it again.

225/625 mana

Not great for now, but with a bit more Wisdom, it would eventually be more workable. It was a spell to grow into.

I spent a while longer outside, letting my mana recharge and summoning more portals until I felt confident casting the spell wherever I needed to. I’d have to work the spell into my daily routine, using it to move about whenever I had the mana, but I was sure that would take some getting used to.

Largely satisfied, I retreated back into the cabin, resuming my vigil over Verin’s restful form.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is this creepy?” Having grown tired of carving basic animals, I’d decided to shift gears, making carvings of people instead. As it so happened, I even had a model, right in front of me, dutifully laying perfectly still as I did my best to carve her likeness. “I didn’t think so when I began, but I’m starting to think this might be creepy.” Not that Verin would have minded, but there was something a little off about hovering over someone’s sleeping form while making a figurine of them.

“All right. I’ve convinced myself. I don’t really need the first thing Verin sees when she wakes up to be me working on a poorly carved facsimile of her.” As much as I’d gotten good at basic animal faces -- and I’d even managed to recreate Sylum’s Warforged Titan for Alara’s birthday -- the subtleties of human expressions were much harder. My wooden Verin was looking… questionable at best.

Do I have anything less weird that I should be doing right now? It wasn’t as if I could bring my forge into the room, although perhaps the flames would counteract Verin’s strained mana core and heat her up a bit. Anything I’ve been putting off? I feel like there’s always something I’m putting off if I think hard enough.

Right when I was about to pat myself on the back for being on top of everything for once, it hit me.

Class points. God, I have so many. I hadn’t bothered to use any of them after reaching the Journeyman tier in Spatial Magic, but that class quest alone had netted me a full six of them. Tack on the two from Archery and the two I’d been hoarding before that, and I was sitting on a full ten points.

Admittedly, I didn’t have a dire need to spend them right this moment. Currently, there weren’t any remaining options for my utility-based Arcane Augmenter path, and I wasn’t planning on getting into any big fights all that soon.

Then again, I have a few skills that are one or two points away from unlocking their class trial, right? Couldn’t hurt to spend some time sorting out my class skills, and I certainly needed the distraction. All right. I’m sold.

Letting the familiar gray fog consume me, I sent myself up to my class space. When the fog faded away, leaving me in the central room of my armory, I already had a good idea of how I wanted to use some of my points.

Not all of them. Ten was a lot for me. Four of them, however, had obvious targets.

I’d been enjoying my recent break from class trials. After the debacle that was my Arcane Vision trial, I’d been worn down, and running the Overload Armor and Overload Weapon trials had only exacerbated that.

By now, I was ready to run some trials again, although I wasn’t even sure that was what was in store for me. Now that I knew that some skills offered quests instead of active trials, I had a sneaking suspicion that my next few class skills would be quest trials. The next three skills that were close to unlocking their trials were Resist Magic, Enhanced Physical Hardiness, and Spellsword/Swordspell. All three were completely passive, so I couldn’t imagine what a standard trial would look like.

In that case, it was better to grab the quests now in case they had any time-intensive completion requirements. Plus, they were all useful skills in their own right, which meant the points wouldn’t be wasted either way.

Both Resist Magic and Enhanced Physical Hardiness were sitting at rank four of five, whereas Spellsword/Swordspell was at the comparatively lower rank three of five, altogether making me spend four points. Before I could second guess myself, I entered my armorist room and made my way to the armor stand for Resist Magic, placing a point into the skill.

Resist Magic has reached rank 5!

While armor is summoned or enhanced with mana, decreases all magical damage taken by 25% plus a flat <Intelligence> reduction.

Trials aside, after our most recent boss battle, I was glad to have the skill ranked up. I was mostly sure that my frost armor could take a hit like the hedgehog’s quills as long as I was flaring Overload Armor enough. Watching it bypass multiple layers of ice and flesh and bone without pause, however, made me want to invest in my magical defenses a bit more. 

The final rank had taken the flat reduction from Intelligence/2 to simply Intelligence, which meant I could completely ignore 40 points of magical damage from all magical attacks, too. The reduction worked a bit worse when it came to damage over time effects, but in general, I was now fully immune to low-level spells.

As expected, now that the skill was max ranked and all the skills beneath it were too, the suit of armor no longer resisted me when I tried to remove it from the stand. The moment it was securely fastened, a notification popped up.

You have received a trial quest!

Resist Magic Trial Quest

Resist 25,000 points of magical damage: 0/25,000

Fully resist 100 spells: 0/100

The requirements validated my choice to grab the quest now rather than later. Even with how much fighting we tended to do in the dungeon, I imagined it would take a long time to resist that many points of magic damage.

Focusing on the quest details, I discovered there were some extra caveats. The damage had to be resisted in actual combat, and it couldn’t all be from the same school of magic. Outside the general anti-cheating requirements, though, it seemed fairly straightforward, and I was glad to have it.

With that in mind, I had no qualms about sinking my second point into Enhanced Physical Hardiness to grab its quest as well. 

Enhanced Physical Hardiness has reached rank 5!

While wearing armor summoned or enhanced by Arcane Armory, all physical resistance skills are amplified by (25 + <Intelligence>)%. 

A truly massive boost that would become stronger and stronger as I raised my resistances. With all the forging I’d been doing, I knew I’d appreciate the extra bump to my Heat Resistance, too.

Once again, the stand relinquished its armor to me, resulting in another quest notification.

Enhanced Physical Hardiness Trial Quest

Resist 25,000 points of damage through your physical resistance skills: 0/25,000

Reach level 30 with at least one physical resistance skill: 0/1

Reach level 20 with at least three physical resistance skills: 1/3

Reach level 10 with at least five physical resistance skills: 4/5

In retrospect, I realized I should have grabbed the fifth rank before the jungle biome. With all the poison I’d been consuming back then, I probably would have put a serious dent into the quest requirements. Then again, perhaps it wouldn’t matter. I expected it to take me quite some time before I hit 30 with any of my resistances. By then, I might have completed the damage requirement without even trying to.

Grabbing another trial quest was still sounding like a pretty decent idea, and after spending two points in the armorist room, I felt obligated to throw some into the weaponmaster room as well. With that in mind, I navigated to a glowing blade, repeating the earlier process with two points this time.

Spellsword/Swordspell has reached rank 4!

Spellsword/Swordspell has reached rank 5!

All physical attacks deal an additional 50% of their base damage as magic damage. 

All magic attacks deal an additional 50% of their base damage as physical damage.

Brandishing the blade, I was offered my third and final quest for the day.

Spellsword/Swordspell Trial Quest

Deal 100,000 magical damage through physical attacks: 0/100,000

Deal 100,000 physical damage through spells: 0/100,000hp

This time, I was notably less happy with what I read, letting out a groan as I saw the second requirement. While I probably relied more on magic damage than physical damage in most fights, nearly all of that magic was the result of my own class skills. That magic damage still applied the bonuses from Spellsword/Swordspell, but it looked like that wasn’t good enough for the quest: It wanted me to use actual spells. 

Outside Mind Spike, I’d yet to learn a single offensive spell. Unless I wanted to tie a monster up and wait a few years to burn it to death with Flameploof, I doubted I’d be finishing the quest any time soon.

Something to keep in mind next time I get Sett to give me new spells. Although, given my recent portal spell, that was likely to be annoyingly far in the future.

Well, so be it. I was lacking in all sorts of things while trapped in the dungeon, but time certainly wasn’t one of them. Maybe I’d try to snag a new attack spell once Cal came back or whenever we finished off the next mana collection site.

With the easy points all spent, I was still sitting on a whopping six more.

Two, I decided to spend on one of my more recent acquisitions: Perpetual Armor. Very few class skills had ever offered me more peace of mind, and I loved the idea of my Arcane Armory running at full strength, 24/7. Considering how hard peace of mind was to come by these days, I thought two measly points was a worthwhile expenditure.

Perpetual Armor has reached rank 4!

Perpetual Armor has reached rank 5!

When not wearing existing armor, Arcane Armor now considers your skin a valid armor target. All class skills that require you to be wearing or empowering your bound or conjured armor will work at 100% efficiency even if you do not otherwise have any armor equipped.

Current affected class skills:

Arcane Armory

Resist Magic

Mana Sink

Force Dispersal

Enhanced Physical Hardiness

Status Resistance

For the remaining four, the only thing I knew was that I really needed to spend some more points on my offense. Maybe that was a weird thing to say after shooting down a giant defensively focused level-22 scorpion with a single arrow, yet it was true nonetheless. Walking through my armory, I made a quick tally of how many points I’d spent in each of the three rooms, wincing when the numbers were finally in.

Augmenter: 24

Armorist: 44

Weaponmaster: 23

I’d spent more points on utility than I had on offense. And I was getting concerningly close to having more points in the armorist room than I did in the others combined.

Which, in fairness, was by design. Despite the game-like aspects, my life was not a game, and on top of that, being a Protagonist put a target on my back. I’d much rather be able to take a hit and then run away instead of being a glass cannon.

Still, there were limits. I was stuck in a dungeon designed for adventurers a good five levels above me, and almost nothing but the strongest of bosses had managed to get past my defenses. Besides, sometimes the best defense really was a good offense. If I’d been stronger, perhaps I could have put down the hydra before it nearly killed me, or the hedgehog before it took Verin’s arm.

Musings aside, my choices of weaponmaster skills were pretty limited. Armor Penetration was sitting at rank three out of five, and then there were three more skills I hadn’t touched.

Weapon to Wand which would let me channel spells through my weapons, granting them some extra power based on my physical stats. Largely useless until I got more offensive spells.

Enhanced Weapon Skills which would let me empower active weapon skills with mana. Entirely pointless until I actually got some active weapon skills.

Lastly, there was Magic Penetration, the arcane analog to Armor Penetration. Considering how much of my damage these days was magical in nature, this one actually made some sense. With the other two new skills being horribly lackluster, I threw my first point into Magic Penetration.

You have learned a new class skill: Magic Penetration

Grants passive magic penetration. The skill allows your attacks to completely bypass a small, flat amount of magic resistance, and also increases your attacks' ability to overwhelm all forms of magical armor, shields, and resistance skills.

As per usual, learning the new skill let me move deeper into the room. The base of the weapon’s pedestal lit up with a purple light which extended outwards until it reached the sixth step in the arsenal.

The newest skill took the form of a viciously serrated dagger, glowing with an ominous mixture of fire and death mana. Eager to discover something new to spend my points up, I ascended to the sixth step and read its description.

Melded Maladies - 0/1

Secondary offensive effects and damage over time effects now benefit from Spellsword/Swordspell. For primarily physical effects, additional magical damage will be dealt. For primarily magical effects, additional physical damage will be dealt. For hybrid effects, both forms of damage will be amplified.

Additionally, these effects will be harder to dispel, cleanse, or otherwise remove.

I liked it! The skill didn’t exactly play to my strengths, as I was far more focused on up-front damage than I was status effects, but I’d still get some use out of it. With my recent focus on fire attacks, some extra oomph to any burns I inflicted would be much appreciated. 

It also sounded like it would apply to attacks I charged with death mana. While I’d been unlucky enough to face rock monsters, elementals, spirits, and mental constructs recently, I was usually a fan of hitting my enemies with necrosis when I could manage it.

Of course, the moment I looked into buying the skill, I was met with one of my least favorite notifications.

Melded Maladies costs 5 points to purchase.

A pain. Maybe I’d save up for it next.

Then again, with how much I’d been complaining about never putting points into weaponmaster skills, I felt obligated to spend a few more. I threw another pity point into Magic Penetration and a second into its physical counterpart.

Magic Penetration has reached rank 2!

Armor Penetration has reached rank 4!

The last two points, I was comfortable sitting on for now.

Having completed my spending spree, I exited my class space, letting the fog consume me once again.

Sadly, while the trip to my class space had served as a good distraction, no time had actually passed.

What now? Maybe some mana control exercises? There were also those frost converters Sett made. I wasn’t sure if I was anywhere close to being able to recreate them, but it wouldn’t hurt to give them a closer look.

Before I could settle on any course of action, I was momentarily stunned as Verin’s breathing began to change, becoming shallower, faster.

She’s waking up.

Hastily, I threw my poorly made Verin figure back into storage as I steeled myself for what was sure to be a difficult conversation.