PSTH: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Does the differential between a magian’s strength and the strength of the ambient essence matter? First of all, let’s acknowledge that once you’re above the strength of an area’s ambient essence, standard cultivation will drop off a cliff, and set that aside. There’s no denying that, but it’s not really the question being asked. Let’s look at two similar level one magians. One is cultivating in an area with an ambient essence level of five, the other in an area of fifty. Which will reach level two first? Well, the answer is, drumroll please! It depends. Assuming roughly equal levels of skill, they’ll likely only be off by a small margin, which leads us to more questions. Is it placebo, the mere belief it should be easier to cultivate in an area so much stronger making it easier? Is the effect real, but very small? Is it a combination of both? I’m of the opinion it’s a placebo, but please leave your thoughts in a post below, and make sure to respond to two of your classmates' posts!

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Digital school forum post, 444 Modern Era

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We went through two more rematches, with Gawain more liberally using the radiant spell that he’d been keeping hidden. It made it a lot harder to win, when he had two type advantages against me, and the one I theoretically had I was unable to use until level seventeen, but I managed to pull off a victory in the second round by focusing on taking down Gryphon fast, then having Scales and Hex harry Gabis. The third round went to Gawain again, as he managed to use Gabis to hold back Hex just long enough to float to the top of the bubble and pepper us with attacks. It definitely reinforced the need for me to pick up some sort of ranged attack, as otherwise it was unbearable to fight flying opponents. 

We spent the rest of the day collaborating on the editing process of the videos, at least for the visuals. While there were a few instances where we wanted to use different shots from one another, it was surprisingly closer than I had expected. Gawain wasn’t afraid of showing off instances where he had made a mistake, which caught me off guard. 

“There’s no point in projecting invincibility,” he commented when I expressed some surprise. “Everyone takes a loss at some point in their career as a Tamer. My mother instructed me that it was more important to demonstrate a capacity to grow, even when I lose.” 

I pursed my lips, but nodded, and made note of his mother again. This was the second time he’d talked about her in such a strange, authoritarian way. I wondered if his mother had fallen victim to the mental disease of greed. It would explain his distant, authorization view of her, while also having such great equipment. It didn’t explain his essence based weirdness, unless it was some new, top of the line, experimental implants that felt totally different. 

“You are zoning out,” Gawain said, and I nodded, pulling my attention back to editing. We each got out the short form highlight reel, before we peeled off to record audio. When I took out my augpad’s microphone again, Gawain let out a long, rattling sigh and put his own microphone down, then swept his long, dark hair back and tied it in a bun.

“What’s your budget?” he asked. “I have come to realize that it’s more likely to be limited.”

“What, why?” I said. “Oh. Audio quality. I really don’t think it’s as much of an issue as you make it out to be, but… Yeah, maybe it is a little more important than I expected. Why do you need my budget, though? And why do you even care?” 

I couldn’t help but add the last one. He seemed to be very caring, but he was also oddly distant, and I didn’t understand why he acted that way. As Gawain considered his answer, he pulled out his augpad and began to flick away on it, looking for something. 

“Have you not seen the optics for people who collaborate more frequently tending to help boost one another, especially in the beginning stages? I know that the Tamer Consortium’s algorithms are sharply limited by the legal limits on data gathering, but the simple fact of the matter is, people enjoy watching people compete against one another. It’s one reason tournaments draw in so many viewers. If you have suboptimal quality, it can be dismissed as a factor of your poverty, but it should still be better than a baseline augpad recording device, otherwise anyone who pays attention to the audio quality will find themselves turning away from your videos. That in turn decreases the effectiveness of collaboration.” 

I stared at him as he said all that, then blinked and leaned forward, squinting. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Making sure that you’re not secretly the ghost of an Obsidian King,” I said, unable to keep a note of reproach from my voice. “That was the most heartless, money and fame oriented response you could have possibly given.” 

Gawain blinked and looked up from his augpad, actually looking confused. 

“But I want to become a professional. It’s not that I have an innate desire to take over the league. My mother and I simply want me to reach the professional leagues, and possibly take over as a Regent within the next ten years. Optimizing and strategizing simply makes sense.” 

“Maybe,” I admitted. “And it’s clear you’re passionate about Primals, and that’s the secret sauce that makes a good tamer. But are you really pursuing it to be great? Or because you think it’s a good way to live up to what you’re told to do for the money and influence?” 

“Of course I want to be great,” Gawain sniped, but there was a tonal shift even as he said the words. He’d started off annoyed, but by the end, there was a mix of emotions hidden just under the annoyance. He shook his head and pointed at me. “What’s your budget?” 

I let the topic pass, since any serious introspection wasn’t going to happen just from a single conversation. Besides, while I was ethically opposed to the viewpoint that everything needed to be optimized simply for the sake of optimization – especially given how often that led to optimization at the cost of people – I wasn’t opposed to doing the best because it’s something you wanted to do. I wanted to become a full time Tamer as well, and I had known I’d need to upgrade my audio at some point. I just hadn’t expected to do it so soon. 

I mentally reviewed my purchases recently, then checked my digital vault. I had several thousand credits in there, but that didn’t mean that I was going to drop all of it on this. By the same token, though, I had to keep my expectations reasonable. Technology, like clothing, was expensive. But it was even worse in the case of technology than it was clothes. While both needed to be built to last for years or decades, and both required a long line and variety of people to get made, technology also required specialized diviners, water or earth mages, metal shapers, and enchanters. It wasn’t that being a sheep farmer was an unskilled job, far from it, but the barrier to entry was lower. There was a reason that even with the full might of Oceanseed, the government only subsidized the purchase of a person’s first augpad. 

“Heart’s truth, just tell me, what’s your budget?!” Gawain snapped, and I looked back at my augpad, then up at him. I was about to speak when I got a text from Rane. My eyes trailed to it, quickly reading it over, before I forced myself back to the account numbers and my projections. 

“Five hundred credits. Maybe I could stretch to do another hundred, hundred and fifty, but not a lot more than that.”

“Fine, there are a couple of decent budget microphones you could pick up at that price,” Gawain said. “Come on, let’s go.” 

“What? Where?” 

“Bill’s Audio Shack,” Gawian said, as if I was being particularly slow on the uptake. “It’s got good ratings for quality, and excellent ratings on price, making it the best place within walking distance. I don’t trust you to pick out a decent one. You can barely hear music.” 

I pursed my lips, ready to argue with him, before I sighed and accepted that Gawain was probably correct on the fact that I’d struggle to tell the difference in quality. Instead, I pivoted, glancing at the text from Rane. 

“Do you mind if a friend of mine tags along if she’s interested? She just got out of her classes, and I’d love to spend a bit of time with her. She’s into photography and film, getting her degree in it, so I’m sure she could offer some information from one of the classes on other art forms.” 

Gawain had initially looked like a sulky child when I’d suggested she come along, but after I laid out her credentials, he stopped pouting and shrugged. 

“Fine. If she wants to come she can.” 

I texted Rane, and after a few moments of coordinating, Gawain, Rane, and I all met in front of Bill’s Audio Shack. As Rane approached us, her eyes skittered over Gawian’s tall, lanky, angular form, and her eyebrows rose. 

“Ay, well, you didn’t tell me he looked like that! No wonder he’s got you all hot and bothered. I–” 

“Shut up, Rane,” I said between gritted teeth. 

“What?” Gawain asked, sounding genuinely confused. “Oh. Was he complaining about losing? He seemed a reasonably good sport, but it can be difficult to tell.” 

I shot Rane a look, begging her to have some mercy on me. 

“No, just annoyed about how you ordered him around in the challenge,” she said, apparently feeling somewhat kind. 

“It was the most effective way to complete the challenge,” Gawain said. “I don’t apologize for competence.” 

I closed my eyes and let out a long, slow sigh. 

“It’s fine. Let’s move on and look at microphones. Please?” 

Gawain nodded, and Rane studied me for an uncomfortably long moment, dragging it out in an attempt to tease me without saying anything at all, before she nodded as well and we headed into the store. 

Picking out a new device was surprisingly fun. The microphones were mounted with some headphones, running a testing program that would allow you to test a few words, then replay that audio on an average headphone set. I had initially been fine with that, but Gawain unplugged every single headset we came across, plugged his in, and tested with that instead. I supposed that there was probably some logic to that, though I wasn’t entirely sure how much it mattered. Rane, at least, seemed impressed by the headphones, oohing and aahing over them the first couple of times. 

Most of what I was looking at was secondhand, since that did drop prices by a solid ten to twenty percent, and in the end, I wound up picking up a refurbished microphone that had once belonged to someone who had used it for podcasting until she’d upgraded. Not perfect to what I was going to use it for, but it passed both Rane and Gawain’s checks, should last me a good while, and only went fifty-two credits over my budget.

After I paid for the mic, Rane insisted that we go out to eat. I agreed happily, content to spend some more time with my childhood friend. To my surprise, Gawain actually agreed to join us as well, and we met up with Rane’s other boyfriend, who was short, stout, and had bleached hair. We got some nachos at a place near campus, and I noted that despite the fact his mother clearly had money, Gawain purchased ones without meat at all. Between that and the hostel, I wondered if he was on the outs with his mother… 

Whatever it was, our small group had a lovely night, and the moon was high in the sky by the time Gawain and I returned to the hostel room.