“I’ve completed both.”
“Both?” his eyebrows raised. “Shocking grasp, I could have understood. Especially with the strength of your aether. Did you fight nonstop?”
“It was actually somewhat easier. Some friends and I did some tower clearing last night. Insect swarms were so attracted to Ball Lightning that I didn’t even have to move it around to clear the entire apartment. Some of them had big swarms. The highest I got was 70 kills before I completed the quest, and it stopped tracking. More fun than Fireball, though sadly less efficient.”
“Well, let’s get the formality over then. Before you sit down, send over a Ball Lightning to that dummy.” He waved his hand, and a man made up of lightning appeared at the other end of the room.
I nodded, focused and sent a
“Good, and Shocking grasp this one.” Another simulacrum appeared not far from us. I didn’t equip my staff. I reached out and poked it after casting the spell on my hand. The thing gave a convincing impression of being electrocuted by my discharging spell. “Also good. Take a seat and let’s discuss your progress.”
I sat down and politely accepted the cup of tea that was pushed over. I lifted it up and took a sip. It was very good tea.
“First: Both of those more than exceed the standards required. Even if you found a way to game the kills, you still learned the lesson the practice was intended for you to achieve.” He pushed two slips of paper over to me, giving me five new spells from the Spell store. “I received a message from Shiva asking what I was thinking, teaching someone so new to spell casting, how to spell mod. I’m regretting not telling her in person that you figured it out yourself. I won’t pretend I'm not enjoying the exasperation coming from both of them, even if I can’t take much credit for your advancement.”
“I appreciate the help you have given me.”
“What little it is. Let’s rectify that. I’m not going to start correcting your spell casting. You have your head around the fundamentals well enough that I am impressed with how quickly you understood that spell and managed to cast it the first time. We could spend several days casting and recasting spells with me giving you minute advice and upping your efficiency, but from how quickly you have learnt so far, I think you will gain more if you continue as you are. Your biggest issue right now is your mana. The exact requirements for Magus are only really known by the Archmage himself, but the minimum requirements would be for you to cast a sustainable rank five spell from all three schools and sustain them for at least ten seconds. So your mana pool needs to be strong enough that you are casting fives like you do threes…though preferably like you are ones. I’m assuming Shiva’s assignment for Hail Storm is for 10 seconds?”
“Yes, she said I should focus on other spells and grow my pool. She suggested Snowman.”
“I agree with that. Snowman is an interesting choice from her… I’d follow that advice if I were you. She has an insight into such things, and I have never been led astray listening to her opinions when she is willing to share them. Including the two from me, how many new spells can you unlock?”
“Five slips, but I am also confident I can mod in a bunch of other spells. Arctic’s version of shocking grasp. I think Ball Lightning can get an Inferno and Arctic version. Fire Weapon, Arctic and Storm. I am also really curious what a Storm version of Fireball will look like. Lastly, Ice Blade, I think, is sufficiently different from Fire Weapon that it will have an Inferno version as well as a Storm one.”
“Not an inferno version of Hail Storm?”
“That’s in the books…but long term. I’m not sure I would survive the backlash…I’m not going to even try the rank three’s without a healer nearby,” I said with a grin.
“That is a relief. I was worried you weren’t the sensible mage I thought you were. Talk to the Professor at the Spell Forge before you try even the rank one spell mods. He is a talented healer. It’s why he has that role and should be able to protect you from too much overload. Snowman is a rank three Arctic spell, which would round out your rank threes to one of each school, and yes, all three of those should be able to give you the other school’s equivalent spells. It would be a waste of your spell slips to take spells you can get from modding. For my first suggestion, you asked about teleport. Get Lightning Step. It’s not quite as effective as teleport, but it is a short-range line-of-sight movement spell. Downside, the other two schools don’t have an equivalent; that one is pure Storm."
“The others?” I asked.
“Save them. You have enough ones. Maybe if you see something which really changes how you might fight, but I think you have enough options for now. Especially once you unlock the other variations, you will have ten rank three spells. Your biggest problem now, though, is your weapon. I’m assuming you have an Explorator Battlestaff for each school?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I nodded, “Yes.”
“Which limits you to one school at a time, or you are off-hand casting.” He pulled out a notepad from his drawer, wrote out a note and then signed it. He ripped it from the pad and then paused, holding it between two fingers. His focus on the note, he channelled magic into it. It glowed, and then a magical seal appeared on it. “Take this to the Provisionary; it authorises you to access the Prospective Magus tools. You will need to meet the purchase requirements yourself. There are limits placed on us to stop nepotism and favouritism.” I took the final sip of my cup of tea, savouring the taste.
“I’m afraid I am going to have to end this meeting. It’s been a pleasure, but duty calls.”
“Thank you for your support,” I said. He’d given me much to think about, as I got up to leave, an exhausted young woman came hustling into the room, carrying several folders.
“More reports from the Headmaster?” He asked her.
“I’m afraid so, Sir, and requests from the Court for additional training…”
“It’s my turn again already?”
“I’m afraid so, sir.”
“No rest. Gretchen, meet Aenara. We discussed her earlier. Aenara, this is Gretchen, my right hand and the second of the Storm school, and someone who seems to think my order to rest is just a suggestion to ignore. Go down to the Spell Forge, fix the damage there and then you are to go home and go to bed. Can’t order you to sleep, but you are not to read or cast any spells once there until you have had at least eight hours of sleep. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, a little petulantly.
“She is one of the best in the Collegium,” she perked up at that, “but doesn’t seem to know when to stop. Go, the both of you. Leave me to this dreaded paperwork. Maybe I should follow my predecessors' example and run off to explore the islands.”
“Please don’t, Sir. They will have me doing it,” Gretchen replied. “And I will start doing it badly to spite you.”
I followed Gretchen out of the classroom, and we walked side-by-side down the corridor towards the stairs in relative silence.
“Word is starting to spread about you,” she said as we hit the top of the stairs. “The other schools are jealous. It's making us look good, and Lord Spark is enjoying every moment of it. If you need anything, let me know,” she gave me a genuine grin. “Keep up the good work!” She snapped her fingers.
Then she was gone in a flash, leaving the smell of ozone. I saw a flicker as she appeared at the bottom of the flight of stairs and then was gone again, in another flash. Was that Lightning Step?
I considered the next steps as I walked down the stairs. Provisionary was about the same distance as the Arcanum, but would be more out of the way if I were then leaving afterwards. Provisionary, then new spells.
Downstairs in the administration building, I looked around and headed for the counter where there were wands and staves behind glass and with an attendant in place.
“Hi, is this the right place for the Prospective Magus tools?”
“Those are restricted, though the fact that you know to ask for them implies you might have permission.” I offered her the note from The Spark.
“Let’s see. Yep, this definitely indicates you have shown enough promise. Please place your hand on the orb.” She indicated the one sunk in the middle of the counter. “Thank you, Aenara, let me update your profile. Oh…errr, oh, I guess no one thought someone would hit prospective status without first having unlocked full mage first. There. Ok, so you asked about the prospective Magus gear. Is there anything you are particularly interested in?”
“I’d like to upgrade my Battlestaff if possible. I’m using three Explorator Battlestaffs.”
“Three? Yes, we definitely should be able to find you something better and in your price range. You are presently sitting on 20500 rep points; you should be able to get an upgrade for around half that.”
For 8000 points, she showed me a staff which was basically my present three staves merged into one. The same +1 bonus to spell level when cast through it, but only one school at a time. It would also glow with the school I was casting’s colour and effects. In short, it would clearly advertise what sort of magic I was using… which arguably was what I was doing now by swapping around the staves…
At 10000, there were some more flexible options; one would let me cast from multiple schools, or I could get a smoother spell flow, which the attendant explained meant I could get my spells for 20% cheaper or increase their power by 20%. Getting the combination of both those features took the price up to 19000 rep points…
She also explained that these became standard features at the 25000 point, and we would start looking at additional features like spell storage and travel forms.
I contemplated heavily blowing all of my points on the more expensive staff, but decided to go with the cheaper one that still let me cast spells of different schools. It would synergise more with my enhancement spells, and the lady did confirm I would be able to add the different weapon enhancements, and they could be cast in ways where they didn’t cancel each other out.
My new staff was a work of art. Six feet in length, three spirals of wood, wrapped around each other so tightly they might as well be one piece of carved wood. Light of the three schools occasionally shimmered the length of the weapon. The ends were capped with a shiny, polished metal cap. Arcane symbols engraved in the caps then appear to crisscross down the shaft.
I stood in front of the counter and tested the weight and balance. I turned to ask if I could test it out, and she simply indicated a nearby dummy.
“Only level one spells, please. If you want to try higher-tier spells, we do have a shooting range, but there would be a usage fee of 50 points.”
I hit the dummy with a Fire Bolt and then an Ice Bolt, but it felt really clean. It actually made me realise the ones I had been using weren’t that great. I tried a Spark… it felt good.
“I’ll take it,” I said.