Chapter 157.2: Distortion
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Chapter 157.2: Distortion
PART 2/2
Erani sat with her eyes closed, having been keeping in her meditative state for what felt like forever, as she heard Arlan take a seat next to her.
“So, you mind telling me what your options are?” he asked.
“Oh, right, I forgot you didn’t know yet. I guess your Index thing already knows everything about the Sorcerer Class?”
“Supposedly. Knows everything about everything when it comes to the System.”
“Okay,” Erani said, pulling up the choices, “so here they are.”
Choose one Talent to obtain:
Mind Over Matter
Type: Passive
—
Harness the power of your mind to bolster your physical abilities. For every 10 Conjuration you have, your Strength and Dexterity are each increased by 1.
Elemental Embrace
Type: Activated
Cost: Health, Stamina, and Mana equal to 5% of your maximum Mana (94.5 Health, Stamina, and Mana)
—
Your body and spirit become in tune with the elements, enhancing your offensive Spells. Whenever you cast an Elemental-School Spell that deals damage (Cold, Fire, Aqueous, etc.), you may activate this Talent to trigger an Elemental Surge. The Surge increases the Spell's damage by 400% and infuses it with a secondary effect related to the Spell’s Elemental School and scaling in power with damage dealt, such as burning, freezing, or stunning the target.
Expanded Capacity II
Type: Passive
—
Your Mana reserves become more plentiful. Maximum Mana is increased by 100%. Taking this Talent replaces Expanded Capacity.
Choose one Spell to learn:
Force Spike
School: Alteration, Arcane
Type: Activated
Cost: 55 Mana
—
Shoots a wave of force that travels 10 paces, dealing up to 50 damage, depending on where it hits, on a direct collision with a being. When Force Spike damages a being, 20% of the damage dealt is returned as a force shield that protects you from that much damage from a future hit, wearing off after use or 15 seconds after application.
Torpor Orb
School: Summoning
Type: Activated
Cost: 400 Mana
“Index says so. Can’t say much about specific changes—I apparently can’t really be told anything considered to be ‘concealed information’ by the System when it comes to other peoples’ Classes and choices, since they have nothing to do with me, and the actual ways it changes your appearance falls under that, I guess. But it can tell me about the specific wording and stuff, so that was fair game. Bit of a loophole, I guess. Index seems to find a lot of those.”
“Well, that’s certainly useful,” Erani took a breath, trying to process the information she’d just gotten. That changed...everything. Distortion Strike may have encouraged a fighting style that was suboptimal, but if it allowed her to hide her identity, that kind of came before everything else, right?
Really, if she didn’t take the Spell, even if she was able to safely avoid going into populated areas, that would only be pushing the problem further down the line. Someone would come across her in the wilderness, or maybe the empire would send out hunting patrols for her if the Demons pressured them, or whatever. Running and hiding just would not be a viable strategy for the rest of her life. If something could actually let her integrate normally...there was no way she could just not take that, right?
“So anyway, now that that’s settled, Talents?” Arlan said, breaking her out of her thoughts.
“Yes, yes, Talents. I’ve just about narrowed them down to being between Elemental Embrace and Expanded Capacity II.”
“Hm. Index? You got anything for me? ...Mhm. ...Okay. ...Alright, so do you have any idea what your future Spell Choices will be, if you pick Distortion Strike?”
“Oh, are you talking to me?”
“Yeah, yeah, Index can’t tell me what you’ll be getting in the future. Do you know?”
“Uh...” Really, at this point, Erani’s research began to face its limits. Even with just considering the number of paths from four total Spells, she’d still be looking at a total of eighty-one different Spells to memorize. And when it was a path as uncommon as moving into Strike at choice three, her memory wasn’t perfect. However... “I think I remember the basics. At least, I remember that there is a Cold-School Spell that’ll come after Strike. Or was it Aqueous? Not sure, but I know it’s one of the Elemental Schools, so it should work with Embrace.”
“Alright. Index, do you...uh huh? ...Okay. Yeah, alright, so I guess Index thinks Elemental Embrace is the better choice here. Its reasoning is less about the unique information it has, and more about general combat strategy, though. And I do agree with what it’s saying.”
“What’s it have to say?”
“So, basically, with my combat style, I effectively get stronger the longer a fight goes on. And, when we work together, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I obviously rely on you a lot to keep me safe during those first moments of a fight when I’m weakest. But once the fight’s gone on for a bit and you’re running out of Mana, suddenly I’m much stronger, and I can make up for your deficiencies. Effectively, if you take Expanded Capacity II, you’ll just be making yourself a bit less weak in those later moments of a fight. But we don’t have any issues with later on in a fight, because my abilities can cover that just fine. Instead, something like Elemental Embrace works to make you even better in the area you specialize in: fast damage early on. Which is something I’m personally pretty horrible at doing. So if we both push our builds to specialize in our respective areas, we can make it basically impossible for an enemy to really take advantage of any of our weaknesses.”
“Hm. Well...yeah, I guess I can’t really argue with that logic,” Erani said. It made sense, when put like that. She’d been so focused on trying to figure out how the differences in her own build changed what choices she’d have to make, and kind of disregarded the fact that there were other people around too, who also influenced what the optimal build would be. Really...the Talent choice wasn’t too difficult at all, was it? It was literally just ‘keep going in the direction you’re specializing in.’
So she took a breath, instinctively wincing from a pang of anxiety that always came from making decisions like these, and pushed through the changes before she could change her mind.
You have obtained the Talent Elemental Embrace.
You have learned the Spell Distortion Strike.
I sat and rested with Erani once she was done making her choices. It was relieving to know we wouldn’t have to completely hide her from sight, or anything—though we weren’t totally off the hook when it came to hiding our identities. While a few hours was a lot of time, it’d be an issue if she was forced to stay out in the open with no rest for an extended period of time.
One basic issue with the Spell was the fact that, like all others, it Ranked up automatically with use. Which meant that, especially with the fact that her Soft Cap was above 10, it’d pretty quickly get more expensive. By the time it got to Rank 9—where it’d stop since it needed a Spell Crystal to move further—it’d only go from needing 0.5 Mana per second to needing 0.625 per second, but still kind of an annoyance. Still, that issue could easily be solved by just not using a Spell Crystal once it got there, so she’d still eventually pass the Spell’s cost with her Mana/Minute.
We just sat and rested for a while after she finished meditating, waiting for Ainash to get some sleep. And then, once she was up, we’d head out to town. To civilization.
“Hey,” I said to Erani, “you want to test out Distortion Strike while we wait? May as well see how it looks.”
“Oh, sure. I’m pretty curious, too, really.”
She scooted over so we were facing each other.
“I can’t wait to see this,” I heard Index suddenly say.
What? Why? Don’t you already know?
“Well, I do have all of the information on how it works, but I still haven’t technically seen it used on a person. I was only born when you created me, you know. So I haven't seen much at all. But from what I know, it’s going to be a...dramatic change. Seems interesting.”
“Okay, you ready?” Erani asked.
“Sure. Index is excited, too.”
“Why?”
“Guess we’ll see.”
She shrugged. “Alright. Three, two, one, and...”
She toggled it on.
My eyes widened, looking at her. “...Woah.”
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Chapter 157.2: Distortion
PART 2/2
Erani sat with her eyes closed, having been keeping in her meditative state for what felt like forever, as she heard Arlan take a seat next to her.
“So, you mind telling me what your options are?” he asked.
“Oh, right, I forgot you didn’t know yet. I guess your Index thing already knows everything about the Sorcerer Class?”
“Supposedly. Knows everything about everything when it comes to the System.”
“Okay,” Erani said, pulling up the choices, “so here they are.”
Choose one Talent to obtain:
Mind Over Matter
Type: Passive
—
Harness the power of your mind to bolster your physical abilities. For every 10 Conjuration you have, your Strength and Dexterity are each increased by 1.
Elemental Embrace
Type: Activated
Cost: Health, Stamina, and Mana equal to 5% of your maximum Mana (94.5 Health, Stamina, and Mana)
—
Your body and spirit become in tune with the elements, enhancing your offensive Spells. Whenever you cast an Elemental-School Spell that deals damage (Cold, Fire, Aqueous, etc.), you may activate this Talent to trigger an Elemental Surge. The Surge increases the Spell's damage by 400% and infuses it with a secondary effect related to the Spell’s Elemental School and scaling in power with damage dealt, such as burning, freezing, or stunning the target.
Expanded Capacity II
Type: Passive
—
Your Mana reserves become more plentiful. Maximum Mana is increased by 100%. Taking this Talent replaces Expanded Capacity.
Choose one Spell to learn:
Force Spike
School: Alteration, Arcane
Type: Activated
Cost: 55 Mana
—
Shoots a wave of force that travels 10 paces, dealing up to 50 damage, depending on where it hits, on a direct collision with a being. When Force Spike damages a being, 20% of the damage dealt is returned as a force shield that protects you from that much damage from a future hit, wearing off after use or 15 seconds after application.
Torpor Orb
School: Summoning
Type: Activated
Cost: 400 Mana
“Index says so. Can’t say much about specific changes—I apparently can’t really be told anything considered to be ‘concealed information’ by the System when it comes to other peoples’ Classes and choices, since they have nothing to do with me, and the actual ways it changes your appearance falls under that, I guess. But it can tell me about the specific wording and stuff, so that was fair game. Bit of a loophole, I guess. Index seems to find a lot of those.”
“Well, that’s certainly useful,” Erani took a breath, trying to process the information she’d just gotten. That changed...everything. Distortion Strike may have encouraged a fighting style that was suboptimal, but if it allowed her to hide her identity, that kind of came before everything else, right?
Really, if she didn’t take the Spell, even if she was able to safely avoid going into populated areas, that would only be pushing the problem further down the line. Someone would come across her in the wilderness, or maybe the empire would send out hunting patrols for her if the Demons pressured them, or whatever. Running and hiding just would not be a viable strategy for the rest of her life. If something could actually let her integrate normally...there was no way she could just not take that, right?
“So anyway, now that that’s settled, Talents?” Arlan said, breaking her out of her thoughts.
“Yes, yes, Talents. I’ve just about narrowed them down to being between Elemental Embrace and Expanded Capacity II.”
“Hm. Index? You got anything for me? ...Mhm. ...Okay. ...Alright, so do you have any idea what your future Spell Choices will be, if you pick Distortion Strike?”
“Oh, are you talking to me?”
“Yeah, yeah, Index can’t tell me what you’ll be getting in the future. Do you know?”
“Uh...” Really, at this point, Erani’s research began to face its limits. Even with just considering the number of paths from four total Spells, she’d still be looking at a total of eighty-one different Spells to memorize. And when it was a path as uncommon as moving into Strike at choice three, her memory wasn’t perfect. However... “I think I remember the basics. At least, I remember that there is a Cold-School Spell that’ll come after Strike. Or was it Aqueous? Not sure, but I know it’s one of the Elemental Schools, so it should work with Embrace.”
“Alright. Index, do you...uh huh? ...Okay. Yeah, alright, so I guess Index thinks Elemental Embrace is the better choice here. Its reasoning is less about the unique information it has, and more about general combat strategy, though. And I do agree with what it’s saying.”
“What’s it have to say?”
“So, basically, with my combat style, I effectively get stronger the longer a fight goes on. And, when we work together, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I obviously rely on you a lot to keep me safe during those first moments of a fight when I’m weakest. But once the fight’s gone on for a bit and you’re running out of Mana, suddenly I’m much stronger, and I can make up for your deficiencies. Effectively, if you take Expanded Capacity II, you’ll just be making yourself a bit less weak in those later moments of a fight. But we don’t have any issues with later on in a fight, because my abilities can cover that just fine. Instead, something like Elemental Embrace works to make you even better in the area you specialize in: fast damage early on. Which is something I’m personally pretty horrible at doing. So if we both push our builds to specialize in our respective areas, we can make it basically impossible for an enemy to really take advantage of any of our weaknesses.”
“Hm. Well...yeah, I guess I can’t really argue with that logic,” Erani said. It made sense, when put like that. She’d been so focused on trying to figure out how the differences in her own build changed what choices she’d have to make, and kind of disregarded the fact that there were other people around too, who also influenced what the optimal build would be. Really...the Talent choice wasn’t too difficult at all, was it? It was literally just ‘keep going in the direction you’re specializing in.’
So she took a breath, instinctively wincing from a pang of anxiety that always came from making decisions like these, and pushed through the changes before she could change her mind.
You have obtained the Talent Elemental Embrace.
You have learned the Spell Distortion Strike.
I sat and rested with Erani once she was done making her choices. It was relieving to know we wouldn’t have to completely hide her from sight, or anything—though we weren’t totally off the hook when it came to hiding our identities. While a few hours was a lot of time, it’d be an issue if she was forced to stay out in the open with no rest for an extended period of time.
One basic issue with the Spell was the fact that, like all others, it Ranked up automatically with use. Which meant that, especially with the fact that her Soft Cap was above 10, it’d pretty quickly get more expensive. By the time it got to Rank 9—where it’d stop since it needed a Spell Crystal to move further—it’d only go from needing 0.5 Mana per second to needing 0.625 per second, but still kind of an annoyance. Still, that issue could easily be solved by just not using a Spell Crystal once it got there, so she’d still eventually pass the Spell’s cost with her Mana/Minute.
We just sat and rested for a while after she finished meditating, waiting for Ainash to get some sleep. And then, once she was up, we’d head out to town. To civilization.
“Hey,” I said to Erani, “you want to test out Distortion Strike while we wait? May as well see how it looks.”
“Oh, sure. I’m pretty curious, too, really.”
She scooted over so we were facing each other.
“I can’t wait to see this,” I heard Index suddenly say.
What? Why? Don’t you already know?
“Well, I do have all of the information on how it works, but I still haven’t technically seen it used on a person. I was only born when you created me, you know. So I haven't seen much at all. But from what I know, it’s going to be a...dramatic change. Seems interesting.”
“Okay, you ready?” Erani asked.
“Sure. Index is excited, too.”
“Why?”
“Guess we’ll see.”
She shrugged. “Alright. Three, two, one, and...”
She toggled it on.
My eyes widened, looking at her. “...Woah.”
Chapter 157.2: DistortionPART 2/2Erani sat with her eyes closed, having been keeping in her meditative state for what felt like forever, as she heard Arlan take a seat next to her.So, you mind telling me what your options are? he asked.Oh, right, I forgot you didn't know yet. I guess your Index thing already knows everything about the Sorcerer Class?Supposedly. Knows everything about everything when it comes to the System.Okay, Erani said, pulling up the choices, so here they are.Choose one Talent to obtain:Mind Over MatterType: PassiveHarness the power of your mind to bolster your physical abilities. For every 10 Conjuration you have, your Strength and Dexterity are each increased by 1.Elemental EmbraceType: ActivatedCost: Health, Stamina, and Mana equal to 5% of your maximum Mana 94.5 Health, Stamina, and ManaYour body and spirit become in tune with the elements, enhancing your offensive Spells. Whenever you cast an Elemental-School Spell that deals damage Cold, Fire, Aqueous, etc., you may activate this Talent to trigger an Elemental Surge. The Surge increases the Spell's damage by 400% and infuses it with a secondary effect related to the Spell's Elemental School and scaling in power with damage dealt, such as burning, freezing, or stunning the target.Expanded Capacity IIType: PassiveYour Mana reserves become more plentiful. Maximum Mana is increased by 100%. Taking this Talent replaces Expanded Capacity.Choose one Spell to learn:Force SpikeSchool: Alteration, ArcaneType: ActivatedCost: 55 ManaShoots a wave of force that travels 10 paces, dealing up to 50 damage, depending on where it hits, on a direct collision with a being. When Force Spike damages a being, 20% of the damage dealt is returned as a force shield that protects you from that much damage from a future hit, wearing off after use or 15 seconds after application.Torpor OrbSchool: SummoningType: ActivatedCost: 400 ManaIndex says so. Can't say much about specific changesI apparently can't really be told anything considered to be concealed information' by the System when it comes to other peoples' Classes and choices, since they have nothing to do with me, and the actual ways it changes your appearance falls under that, I guess. But it can tell me about the specific wording and stuff, so that was fair game. Bit of a loophole, I guess. Index seems to find a lot of those.Well, that's certainly useful, Erani took a breath, trying to process the information she'd just gotten. That changed...everything. Distortion Strike may have encouraged a fighting style that was suboptimal, but if it allowed her to hide her identity, that kind of came before everything else, right?Really, if she didn't take the Spell, even if she was able to safely avoid going into populated areas, that would only be pushing the problem further down the line. Someone would come across her in the wilderness, or maybe the empire would send out hunting patrols for her if the Demons pressured them, or whatever. Running and hiding just would not be a viable strategy for the rest of her life. If something could actually let her integrate normally...there was no way she could just not take that, right?So anyway, now that that's settled, Talents? Arlan said, breaking her out of her thoughts.Yes, yes, Talents. I've just about narrowed them down to being between Elemental Embrace and Expanded Capacity II.Hm. Index? You got anything for me? ...Mhm. ...Okay. ...Alright, so do you have any idea what your future Spell Choices will be, if you pick Distortion Strike?Oh, are you talking to me?Yeah, yeah, Index can't tell me what you'll be getting in the future. Do you know?Uh... Really, at this point, Erani's research began to face its limits. Even with just considering the number of paths from four total Spells, she'd still be looking at a total of eighty-one different Spells to memorize. And when it was a path as uncommon as moving into Strike at choice three, her memory wasn't perfect. However... I think I remember the basics. At least, I remember that there is a Cold-School Spell that'll come after Strike. Or was it Aqueous? Not sure, but I know it's one of the Elemental Schools, so it should work with Embrace.Alright. Index, do you...uh huh? ...Okay. Yeah, alright, so I guess Index thinks Elemental Embrace is the better choice here. Its reasoning is less about the unique information it has, and more about general combat strategy, though. And I do agree with what it's saying.What's it have to say?So, basically, with my combat style, I effectively get stronger the longer a fight goes on. And, when we work together, I'm sure you've noticed that I obviously rely on you a lot to keep me safe during those first moments of a fight when I'm weakest. But once the fight's gone on for a bit and you're running out of Mana, suddenly I'm much stronger, and I can make up for your deficiencies. Effectively, if you take Expanded Capacity II, you'll just be making yourself a bit less weak in those later moments of a fight. But we don't have any issues with later on in a fight, because my abilities can cover that just fine. Instead, something like Elemental Embrace works to make you even better in the area you specialize in: fast damage early on. Which is something I'm personally pretty horrible at doing. So if we both push our builds to specialize in our respective areas, we can make it basically impossible for an enemy to really take advantage of any of our weaknesses.Hm. Well...yeah, I guess I can't really argue with that logic, Erani said. It made sense, when put like that. She'd been so focused on trying to figure out how the differences in her own build changed what choices she'd have to make, and kind of disregarded the fact that there were other people around too, who also influenced what the optimal build would be. Really...the Talent choice wasn't too difficult at all, was it? It was literally just keep going in the direction you're specializing in.'So she took a breath, instinctively wincing from a pang of anxiety that always came from making decisions like these, and pushed through the changes before she could change her mind.You have obtained the Talent Elemental Embrace.You have learned the Spell Distortion Strike.I sat and rested with Erani once she was done making her choices. It was relieving to know we wouldn't have to completely hide her from sight, or anythingthough we weren't totally off the hook when it came to hiding our identities. While a few hours was a lot of time, it'd be an issue if she was forced to stay out in the open with no rest for an extended period of time.One basic issue with the Spell was the fact that, like all others, it Ranked up automatically with use. Which meant that, especially with the fact that her Soft Cap was above 10, it'd pretty quickly get more expensive. By the time it got to Rank 9where it'd stop since it needed a Spell Crystal to move furtherit'd only go from needing 0.5 Mana per second to needing 0.625 per second, but still kind of an annoyance. Still, that issue could easily be solved by just not using a Spell Crystal once it got there, so she'd still eventually pass the Spell's cost with her Mana/Minute.We just sat and rested for a while after she finished meditating, waiting for Ainash to get some sleep. And then, once she was up, we'd head out to town. To civilization.Hey, I said to Erani, you want to test out Distortion Strike while we wait? May as well see how it looks.Oh, sure. I'm pretty curious, too, really.She scooted over so we were facing each other.I can't wait to see this, I heard Index suddenly say.What? Why? Don't you already know?Well, I do have all of the information on how it works, but I still haven't technically seen it used on a person. I was only born when you created me, you know. So I haven't seen much at all. But from what I know, it's going to be a...dramatic change. Seems interesting.Okay, you ready? Erani asked.Sure. Index is excited, too.Why?Guess we'll see.She shrugged. Alright. Three, two, one, and...She toggled it on.My eyes widened, looking at her. ...Woah.
