It’s a dark, almost pitch black night on the campus. Lazari could effortlessly light things up or give herself night vision, but doing so would take away the night out experience. She disliked how so many tried to find ‘solutions’ to things in life that did not need to be fixed. This night was perfectly fine the way it was, although it could use a bit more wind.She takes off her shoes, letting her feet rest on the fresh grass. Thankfully, most of the lawn recovered from the dragon incident, the last thing she would’ve wanted was to revitalize every bit of grass to make it look uniform again—wouldn’t have been the first time. She stretchesBefore she can go on her usual jog, she hears low mumbling from above. She looks up at the school building, until her gaze stops at a bird-like figure resting near the edge of the rooftop. It’s not uncommon for students to hang up there past midnight, but it’s not encouraged for a variety of safety reasons.Climbing up there would be a piece of cake with magic, but it presents a fun challenge to climb as fast as possible, only relying on her body. One jump, put one foot on a window’s ledge, two jumps, make sure to avoid putting too much strength behind each step, three jumps, grab the edge with your left hand, lift yourself upward and-There. Not her best time, but having to climb up silently slowed her down. The student didn’t notice her despite lazari’s imposing figure. She made sure to mask her breathing and mana so that she could slip effortlessly past her in both sight and sound. Lazari taps her shoulder, and the student, who could now be identified as Fet, flinched with a short, high-pitched scream.There is an awkward silence, followed by unnecessary apologies from the student.Lazari shrugs, “You can stay here if you want, just don’t go practicing spells at this time of night. I’m glad it’s not some students doing something weird up there again.”“..Um, ‘again’? How often does that ev- even happen?” Fet’s voice was stuttery, but her voice is less shaky than the last time the two of them spoke.“You don’t want to know. Nor do you want to know what I mean by ‘weird’. I’ve considered not teaching some spells just because of what I’ve seen people do with ‘em before.” Lazari tries to contain her laughter. “What are you doing at this time, lassie?”Fet averts her gaze, opting to look at the stars instead. “Thinking about things. I can think more clearly when I’m out- outside, but not when people are around.” Her speech was slower, perhaps as an attempt to control her stuttering.
>>6303066“Thinking about what? Don’t need to tell me, but I’d like to think I’m quite good at giving advice to confused students, y’know? Like that one time, fuck, who was it again? Eh, point is, you can trust me with things, I’ve done too much in my life to start judgin’ now.” Lazari lets her legs hang to the edge of the roof, motioning Fet to sit down next to her.“It’s not a problem I think most people would believe. I’m- I’m not even sure if it’s a real problem, and that’s what makes it sound stupid.”Lazari grabs Fet’s chin, and forces their eyes to meet. After a few seconds, Lazari comes to her conclusion, “It’s about war, isn’t it? That doesn’t sound stupid at all.”“What…? Wait, how did you know? Did- Did you use a spell?”Lazari shakes her head. “Don’t need to, I can tell from your face, body language, and context clues. Weird thing is, the vibe you’re giving off, it’s not that of a civilian that’s afraid of going to war for the first time, know what I mean? It’s like...the kind that someone that had to kill once is afraid they might have to do it again.”“Huh? No- No! It’s not like that at all! I’m not… I didn’t… I don’t know. It’s not about killing, it’s- I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to go through with it. I feel weak. I feel like I won’t make a difference, and that I’ll have to let people die.” She slowly scratches the rocky floor of the roof back and forth with her talons, leaving a mark behind. “...I’m not going to ask where you’re getting that feeling from, sounds personal. What I’ll say is this: strength comes in all shapes and sizes, but no one can be every kind at once. You can’t protect everyone, but you can teach others to protect themselves, or work with someone else to lighten the load. Trying to do everything yourself, it’s not selfless, it’s actually pretty selfish, and really fuckin’ inefficient too.”“But what if I drag others down? What if I give them the wrong advice, and it sets the wrong expectations and things get worse and- and-”Lazari pushes Fet’s beak with her finger. “And what if not doing anything makes everything worse? If you give someone a sword, and they stab themselves with it, how’s that your fault? Should we never do anything ever because it has a small chance of going wrong?”Fet’s eyes water, but no tears come. “It’s- It’s easy to say, but in practice, it’s all complicated! And what if people hate me for it? If I do nothing, then at least nothing that happens would be my fault…!”“If a kid’s about to be crushed by a boulder, not pushing them to safety doesn’t make their death your fault, but you’d still feel that guilt. Really, what I’m trying to say, if you can live a life without any regrets, then you should. If not doing anything is something you’re fine with, then go for it.”
>>6303068“It’s not… it’s not that simple!” She raises her voice, but it still comes out quiet “Trying my best isn’t good enough, it’s something bigger than just me!”“If its something that’s about more than just you, then that’s absolutely not a burden you should be shouldering alone now, is it? But I’m not getting through to you, and if you don’t wanna listen to me, that’s that.” Lazari stands up, eyeing the distance between the roof and the ground floor. “Right, before I go, I shouldn’t tell you that, but you’ll be against that human kid in the duel. I’m giving you a heads up cause he’s known to punch above his weight a bit, so you should watch out, but...” She throws her head back with a smile. “...that goes both ways, doesn’t it, lassie?”With those last words, Lazari jumps down the roof, landing without a scratch on the floor, leaving Fet to her own thoughts. Fet needs to find her own way, and the best a teacher can do is give them the means to reach it.
>>6303070---You check the temperature of the rune, making sure it’s hot enough to heat up the pancakes but not so much that it burns them. The school’s kitchen has a lot of magic tools to facilitate cooking, but you’re still surprised how similar to regular human cooking it is. Rath is also next to you making some kind of biscuit from blood. You thought he needed fresh blood, but maybe he can eat it in any state as long as it’s blood.“Hey, Rath, is there a cake making spell?” You ask, flipping the pancake in one swift motion.“Huh? You mean a whole cake from just a single spell? Possible, but not really worth it apart from the novelty of it.”“I don’t know, couldn’t you just summon the flour, then it mixes it or… I don’t know, I’ve seen magic do crazier stuff, surely that shouldn’t be that hard?”He looks at you in disbelief, as if what you just said was beyond stupid. “The issue is getting reliable results. When you cast a spell, you often need to account for a large margin of error, for the caster’s state of mind, the mana, a bunch of things that baking does not allow. You could use runes, which are meant to be used by anyone, but that’d get even more complex, and you’d still need to supply the flour and other ingredients.”You drop the last pancake on the plate, and cover it in strawberry sauce. “Can’t you just summon those too? Actually, I’ve seen a farm out there, why is that a thing, can’t you summon more food with magic?”“By that logic, we shouldn’t ever run out of resource because we can just summon more. The issue is the mana and labor cost necessary to keep an alternate dimension running for resources. I make squirrels from my dimension, but I don’t really ‘make’ them, I capture live ones from here and put it in my dimension, and my dimension supplies them in such a way they can easily breed and multiply. Even then, I need to get food from this world so that they don’t get too unhealthy.”“What about self sustaining dimensions? No mana or labor cost, I’ve been in one with a lot of flowers, what stops me from just taking stuff from there?” You ask.“Nothing stops you from doing that, but material that doesn’t belong in one dimension often tends to ‘misbehave’ when in another. Material starts to crumble, food will taste wrong, it’s basically our universe rejecting it because it doesn’t belong there. There’s ways to go around it, there always is, but unless you’re as insane as our teacher, it’s not worth the hassle. That’s why I’m saying that casting a ‘cake making spell’ is possible, but it’d be a pain. Just make some spells for farming, cooking, some more for transports, and you can feed way more people consistently.”
>>6303073You thank Rath for teaching you things you should probably already know, and leave back to your dorm with breakfast. One of the pancakes gets stolen by Ivy on the way there, but you’ve dipped the top pancake into extra spicy sauce beforehand, so you know the victory will be yours.You put the plate near Table, and she gives you a weak smile. You go for a kiss, but you recoil the moment your lips meet, as an acrid, almost rotten smelling odor leaves her mouth.Table laughs it off, but she still looks hurt by your reaction. “Sorry, I’m shedding, I should’ve warned you, but I also really wanted to kiss you.”“...what do you mean, shedding?” You lift the blanket, and you see some of her tendrils crawls out of her skin like parasites. They look a sickly pale green, and unhealthy. She picks the ones she can find up and drops them in a glass jar.“Maybe shedding isn’t the right word, but there’s times when my tendrils need a bit of replacing. Gotta expel a bunch of them, then I’m bedridden for a while before I feel better. It’s pretty gross, it might be better if we’re not sleeping in the same bed for a while.” She laughs, then coughs, with some tendrils crawling out of her mouth.You help her put what remains of the tendrils into the jar. “It’s fine, it’s not like it’s contagious, right? What do I even do with the tendrils?”She smiles. “I don’t know, throw them wherever, put them in a stew, I don’t care. It’s no more alive than a dead worm at this point.”You decide to keep it for study later. You didn’t really get to do a lot tendril autopsy before, and comparing her tendrils to that other thing in the vault could yield some good insight. “You’ll be alright on your own, right?”“I’d feel super bad if I had to force you to stay with me when I can’t even get out of bed. I’ll read books and play- nevermind, just read books I guess, don’t feel like playing games anymore.” It looks like she’s still not over her last gaming experience. “What I’m saying is, go have fun, magic boy.”It’s a shame though, you were planning on making extra fire in a bottle, but without her help making crystallized fear will be harder. You’ve heard it’s possible to induce the fear artificially with magic but the results will be lesser, and you’d rather not spare any expenses when it comes to exams and duels.Who could you ask for help…>You could ask your spirit to find fear, what’s the worst that could happen?>Ask another student, but which one… (specify which one)>Going into the forest at night should be scary enough, but it’s certainly not safe either.>You could buy some with your money, it would save you time for other things too.>Something else? (Write in)
>>6303075WE'RE BACK! HELL YEAH! Good to see you back, QM. >You could buy some with your money, it would save you time for other things too.If we don't have enough money, we should look at getting it. Honestly though, I don't remember what the hell we were even doing last time.
>>6303093In short. This is the last exam of the year, you're preparing more fire in a bottle potions (as per the last vote) before the exams since you used all of them during the last duel.This is the last turn before said exam. So it'll go for the exam once you get the potions done in whatever method you pick. (unless you buy them which leaves time for other things.)
>>6303114I'll definitely go for buying, then.
>>6303075Holy shit, you're back! Welcome back, QM. I missed this quest.Also, your art got better! Good work.>You could buy some with your money, it would save you time for other things too.Try and find something nice for our GF, too. Poor Table has some truly heinous menses.
>>6303125>>6303093+1 these>>6303114WE MISSED YOU I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK YOU AUTISTIC FRENCH FAGGOTHOW ARE YOU? ARE YOU WELL? DO YOU HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE?
>>6303125I tried to learn more dynamic poses and generally fuller body shots. Can't promise the art will be consistent, but I'll try. Drawing for curse carrier was some of the most fun I had, but as my standards increased, it became harder and harder to draw fast and loose like I originally did. But I'll try to draw something and post it even if I don't think it's good enough. I think as long as it gets the idea of the quest's scene it's what matters most (and it's faster to learn by failure than by drawing nothing anyway)
>>6303075>You could buy some with your money, it would save you time for other things too.Great to see you again, Curse.Also, I gotta wonder, does Table just not use her "glamour" anymore? Like how when we first met she had normal skin instead of being...you know, a halfway point between an oak and a beet. Does she just show that to other people, or is it only when she's with Atlas?
>>6303066Welcome bacl, OP.>>6303075>Ask another student, but which one…our demon friend.
>>6303279I don't think she uses it with us anymore because Atlas is pretty into canoodling with a colony of worms shaped vaguely like a scarred up brown girl. In public she probably still has the glamor, but even if she didn't nobody would pay much attention to her or remember how weird she looked the second they looked away.>>6303254The practice is paying off! Even if you don't have art with very update, the writing's still good too, so don't feel pressured.
>>6303279The glamour is something she tends to keep when going outside, but because it's heavily dependent on the beholder, Atlas can see through it even when it's up, since he knows what's under it. The spell still hides some things from him though, usually stuff she's insecure about.Technically her body constantly has a pseudo-glamour spell on it that makes her look relatively normal from afar, but she enhances that effect so that it also applies from upclose too. It's kind of like how a camouflage might be very good from a quick glance but doesn't hold up under scrutiny.
>>6303298>>6303279>>6303125>>6303195>>6303093You don’t feel like pushing yourself today. Crystallized fear is rather stressful to get, as the emotion needs to be authentic to be worthwhile. According to what you wrote down, you were fearing for your life last time, and it was only something that you could pull due to Table’s ability, something you can’t rely on as of now.You’ll just buy some of it yourself. You should’ve kept the ones you sold last time, but you didn’t expect to use all that you had in your last duel. Dill did put up a good fight, all things considered.You tell Table you’re going out, and leave the school for the shopping area. There aren’t any classes today, so you’re free to do whatever you want. You check your money, 120 coins from selling the crystallized fear that one time. There’s technically more money, but the cash from the human city doesn’t actually convert to outsider money at great rates, so you’ve kept most of it in your city bank account for convenience. Besides, you’d rather keep the money you get from city shenanigans and money you get from the outside separate for now.Back to the subject of buying crystallized fear, it comes to about… 80 coins each. Ouch. They’re selling it for twice the price you sold it for, which makes sense, they do need to turn a profit, but still.Thankfully, you don’t need the highest quality crystallized fear, and can buy cheaper ones at a slight quality cost. It looks like fire in a bottle is a simple enough potion the quality drop in ingredients doesn’t affect the end result too much, but it’s good to keep in mind if you ever make more advanced potions.The cheapest ones are still about 45 gold each. That means you can’t really buy more than two, and it’s going to put a pretty big dent in your pocket change. It’s fine, you can spend the rest on small gifts for Table. You try to pick books you think she hasn’t read before, which is harder than you thought when she spent most of her childhood being a big bookworm. The book comes relatively cheap at 5 coins, and you spend another 5 coins on sweets. Then you spend another 20 coins on a cook book with some spells that should make baking easier and-That was all of your money. Damnit. It’s fine, the cook book is an investment, Table would like a more varied breakfast, and you're certain you can scrounge up some money from your pocket space and dorm if you search hard enough if you really need it.At least buying the ingredients leaves you more time for other things. You’d consider spending time with Table, but you think she wants to be alone for a while as she recovers. You try to review the spells you’ve learned in the past months to make sure you’re ready for the exam instead.
>>6303673 ***Divination:[Extra: A spell that makes a spell seem much MUCH stronger than it actually is. A fireball may look bigger, faster, and more dangerous, and illusion spells will be much more effective. Has no noticeable effect on spells that directly affect the mind. 10 mana, can put more mana to improve the illusion.][Never There: A spell that makes someone forget about a concept for a short time. This spell will not stop someone from doing something they are very used to doing, as it will be committed to muscle/soul memory, but they will be unable to understand how they are doing it. The more important something is to someone, the harder the spell will be to cast. 40 mana, cost may increase depending on the target’s resistance.][Soul Expansion. Your soul will expand to incorporate any mana that doesn't belong to another soul it comes accross. This spell requires standing still and for unused mana to be in the air or on other surfaces. 10 mana cost, but the spell usually pays for itself if used right.]Life:[Anti-Heal: As expected, stops healing spells in their tracks. Might not work on very advanced healing spells. Often used to stop healing spells who have been miscast, but also, of course, to stop opponents from healing. Does not stop life spells that have already been cast, only serves to stop healing spells that are currently ongoing. 25 mana, cheaper to cast if used on weak healing spells.][Sap Life: Drains someone’s stamina on touch. 10 mana per second, more mana can be used to absorb faster. Rin said that soul expansion could be used to remotely touch someone, even if it’s hard to do.]Summoning:[Curtain Call: Forcefully close ALL portals in a chosen area. This spell is very obvious and takes a few seconds to cast, but is hard to counter and can even shut down experienced summoners if they don't move their portals out of the zone in time. 40 mana.][Store Ecosystem: Creates a small dimension with basic rules (such as gravity, or pressure). Often used to store or breed animals to summon later, although the dimension cannot create anything by itself. Mana cost varies on changes done, generally very expensive to cast even for simple changes.][Pocket space upgrade added : Can open more than one kind of pocket space, close and open portals faster.]***
>>6303674The mana costs are still low, but they’re absolutely increasing. You have a few tricks up your sleeve to keep up with it, mana storing runes, Overdrive, and now Soul Expansion. These can’t be used all the time, but they work for emergencies. You don’t have time to refine all those spells at once, but you might be able to make a few of those spells less expensive if you ask for help on them.>You need help with the Summoning spells, they’re too expensive and situational. (Will ask Rath and Ivy for help.)>You need help with the Divination spells. You’re not sure how creative you can really get with those spells. (Will ask Dill for help.)>The Life spells are dangerous if used improperly, you can’t ever be too prudent. (Will ask Rin and Aroth for help.)>You could always do something else with your time. (Write in)
Didn't we learn some manner of uhh...spell upgrade thing? That we could use to make spell upgrades?
>>6303678You did, it usually takes about as long as it took to learn the spell to upgrade it. Nearly all spells with some exceptions took a month to learn so you wouldn't be able to upgrade it before the exams. (pocket space is actually what you spent that month upgrading.)
>>6303680Fair enough. In that case, I reckon I'll go for>You need help with the Divination spells. You’re not sure how creative you can really get with those spells. (Will ask Dill for help.)This seems like something we should work on.
>>6303675>You need help with the Divination spells. You’re not sure how creative you can really get with those spells. (Will ask Dill for help.)It worked before for us
>>6303681>>6303728+1
>>6303675>You need help with the Divination spells. You’re not sure how creative you can really get with those spells. (Will ask Dill for help.)
>>6303775>>6303768>>6303732>>6303728>>6303681You could use help with Divination magic. Those are complicated spells, and making convincing illusions and tricks isn't something you're the best at. That fight with Dill proved you had a lot to learn, she immediately feinted fake attacks with illusions, and followed with flashing spells so you couldn't use Bright Sight to see through her tricks. She's the best person to ask, next to the teachers, of course, but said teachers have been increasingly busy these past few weeks.You knock on Dill's dorm. She shyly peeks from the edge of a slightly open, a bit of hesitation in her eyes."Hi Atlas. Is the armor working properly? That's what you're here for, right?" You can only see her head from there, she's acting a lot more secretive than usual."No, I just wanted to know if you could help me with some Divination spells, since you're quite good at it. Can I come in?" You take a step pre-emptively, but she immediately closes the door on you, then opens it again right after."Sorry, I just woke up, so I'm a little... under dressed, and my room is a mess. Let me get this done real quick." She closes the door again. You can't hear what goes on behind it, but she does come out fully dressed so you assume she was getting clothed as she said.You step inside, judging by the spread out underwear, shirts and pants on the floor, her story holds up, but... "Dill, do you really wake up at like, 4PM? Is it a thing your species do?"Dill looks annoyed by both the question and you eyeing the clothes she forgot to hide. She grabs what she can and puts it in a bin before answering your question. "It's a day with no classes, some people spend it outside with friends, and I spend it sleeping. As long as I'm using my REST day to rest, does it matter?""I didn't mean to imply anything, if you're happy living that way, then it's fine.""What do you even mean by 'living that way'? I hate when people just assume..." She stops herself before she can say another word. "No. Sorry, it's not your fault, I'm groggy when I wake up, I know you didn't mean anything by it." She casts a spell on herself, and her posture relaxes."What was that spell? Also, sorry, I probably worded what I said wrong, I'm not angry at you or anything."She gives you a small smile. "It's a clarity spell. It's a weak version that helps me reorder my thoughts when I'm stressed. I know you're not angry at me, I said this because I was being emotional."You give her a worried look. "Hey, Dill, is it like... okay for you to cast that spell on you so often? If it messes with the way you think, wouldn't casting it whenever you feel bad have drawbacks?"
>>6304054She opens her mouth as if to say something, but no words come out. Her eyes wander the room until they settle on you once more. "It lets me think more clearly. Besides, the spell has been weakened, so I still feel some things, I'm not entirely detached from who I am as a person in this state. I'm glad that you worry about me, but I'm fine, really."You're not certain about that, but it's true she knows more about the effects of her own divination spells than you do. Maybe you're thinking of this purely in the form of hard to control medicine, rather than the more flexible spells of magic. "Anyway, I wanted help on some Divination spells I just learned. Do you know those?" You quickly explain to her the spells you have issues with.She breathes a sigh of relief, and sits down on her bed. "Yes, I do. Extra is a very useful tool for a lot of reasons. I think a big issue you have is with acting. People can catch you in the act of sending fake spells very easily if they know you're capable of it. You need to remember most people will use an analysis spell to figure out your general strengths, and your Divination is quite good compared to a lot of other students; that means they'll focus on steeling their mind and looking out for illusions.""And how do I stop them from doing that?" You sit down next to her, but she scoots a little bit away from you. You forgot she's not big on people being in her personal space."You saw me use flashing spells like a modified version of spark to make sure you couldn't use Bright Sight. There are other spells to dispel illusions however, and those tend to be hard to work around unless you're very good at your craft. But, most dispel illusions have a very noticeable flaw in their design, they need line of sight to work. If you use spells to hide the illusions behind something real, or make them circle your targets, it'll make the spell less effective. You have Extra, right?"
>>6304055She casts a simple spark spell above her hand. A small flickering 'click' and nothing else. "Now, this is the most common way to use Extra." She casts it again, and the flash is brighter, bigger, and louder. "It's not bad, but most people can notice when big spells are... not quite right, but it's harder to tell when the spell is smaller. Like this." She casts spark again, except the spark splits into 10 different versions, making it look like a firework. To your surprise, the real spark wasn't where you expected it to be. "All these spark clones are from one, singular extra spell. Illusions are very cost-efficient once you know a few tricks like that.""But... isn't making a clone of a spell more of a Delayed Double thing? Why use it when you could use extra?""Because Extra only modifies spells that have already been cast, illusion or not. What I just did was modifying a Delayed Double. However, did you know you could use a DD on another DD?" She casts the same spark, but this time makes a line of sparks that flows around the room like a serpent. If you focus on the spark themselves, they become less and less convincing the further out they go, but if you were in the middle of a fight, you might be too focused on your opponent to even notice. Not just that, but Dill is casually looking at the sparks like she's not even casting the spell."How do you do that? That looks like it'd take a lot of concentration to pull off," you ask.She shakes her head. "You need to stop thinking of illusions as regular spells once they're cast. They're more like... a summon, an extension of your mind. A real spell has a tangible presence in the world, but an illusion can easily be controlled by just... thinking about it. It does take some practice, and you need to keep your cool, but anyone can do it.""What about... spells like Never There? How do I know how much my target will resist it?"She lays her back against the wall next to the bed. "That's tricky. There's a difference between Life mind spells and Divination mind spells. Life usually messes with your brain directly, either via chemicals, or feeding their brain wrong info. Divination is... strange, it's more like it affects what information the universe itself feeds them. It's more akin to an illusion that's blasted directly into the person than anything. For example, what's my name?""Huh? It's..." For some reason, you hesitate, the question seems obvious but... "Uh... Ivy? No, wait, that's something else."
>>6304056 (You)"I already casted the spell without you noticing, but the aim was to make you forget I even existed. Problem, I'm right in front of you, and we were currently having a conversation. Despite the mana I used on it, the only thing it could do was make you forget my name, and I'm sure it's coming back to you already. Never use this spell to make someone forget something that they can easily be reminded of. You use this spell to make them forget about things people take for granted as knowledge, things you don't even think about. For example, if you have a protective rune, but I manage to break it, you are now fighting more defensively, I use Never There to make you forget the rune ever broke; the spell doesn't last long, but that lasts long enough to make you lower your guard, as you mistakingly think you're protected again, then I strike, and you're dead. It can also be used to make people think they have more mana than they already have, so on and so forth. Never aim for big concepts with that spell, but the small things that people rely on.""Wow, you're really good at this stuff.""...you don't need to patronize me, it's not exactly to figure out by yourself."You don't agree with that.Sure, the knowledge itself isn't that hard to figure out, but you think most people would only take the spell's description at face value and wouldn't try to experiment to this extent with them. Using Extra to multiply a spell is something that you wouldn't have figured out without her help. You don't want to get into another argument, and it seems she's better at building confidence through teaching you than vocal affirmation anyway.She teaches you more things, but there's only so much you can learn in an afternoon, so you take notes and go back to your dorm.[Extra cost went from 10 to 7 mana][Never There went from 40 to 30 mana][Delayed Double went from 25% of the spell mana cost it's copying to 10%, base mana cost remains unchanged.]
I really should double check my edits god damnit.Anyway, no choice right now, because the next update will be the dungeon exams, and I have to make sure everything's in order.
>>6304056Huh. Is this the first time we actually see Atlas drawn? I swear we never did before.
>>6304061Only his face before, technically twice. In the drawing here and slightly when he was studying in the vault. I don't draw guys very often so I haven't gotten him drawn a lot (also because I slowed down drawing immensely past thread 2, so there were just less drawings in general .)
>>6304067Fair enough. It's good to see him. Atlas is a pretty distinct character. Weirdly more muscular-looking than I expected, or maybe that's just the perspective.Anyway, waiting for the dungeon i suppose.
>>6304068He really should be a little chubbier, but the reference I used was probably too well-built and I only noticed it looked off later. he has some muscles but not the kind that should pop out that much. Don't get me wrong though, he's not fat at all, just has a bit of meat on his bones.
>>6304069I suppose he's only recently begun jogging alongside Table. Makes sense for a shut-in nerd to not be the pinnacle of fitness.
I'm also trying to get a clearer picture of the characters for reference since I've never been super consistent with faces. Mostly Dill and Ivy, so I might doodle them some more.
>>6304068With s name like Atlas, he ought to have a strong build, kek!>>6304059Poor Dill. Handy little lesson, though!
>>6304059nice, we really needed that help. btw I dunno if you said it before, but what was your inspiration for the magic system ?>>6304176neat
>>6304284Magically Challenged was inspired by Magical Diary. A magic school dating sim. The game had exams in the form of dungeons too and you were able to learn any of the five magic schools. Spell mixing as a concept comes from the game too as if you had enough knowledge in two (and sometimes three schools) you would get a spell that was a mix of your knowledge of the two schools.The main difference was that Magical Diary didn't have summoning, but meta (or blue) magic, which could be used to alter space and magic. It didn't really work for my purposes, and blue magic in the game was very broken due to allowing things like teleportation, disabling runes, seeing through illusions, ect. So I gave a bunch of its spells to Divination, a type of magic that in the game had very situational and limited uses.
>>6304354I see, thanks.
>>6304059You practice the tricks Dill told you to. It’s a lot harder than she made it seem, but being able to manipulate illusions by thought alone is much better than the way your previous method. You try to explain to Table what you’re trying to do and the method, but after an hour of explanation, she tells you stay quiet before her headache gets worse. You apologize and say you’re going to practice outside, you hope she gets better.Unfortunately, her state got worse as time went on, and it even became really hard to sleep in the same bed as her due to the smell and constant weird sounds. You both accepted that it was probably better for her to stay in her dorm until this passes. You’re worried she might take it personally, but the books and new cooking you bring her now and then seem to cheer her up. Miraculously, she starts getting better as the exam approaches, so she should be in good enough shape to pass it successfully, but the teachers said they’ll take her condition into account when grading her.You double check your gear. The armor works… as well as you can expect it to. It might be unwieldy to move around with it in the dungeon, but it’ll do. The potions are ready, the mana storing runes are there, did you forget anything-You blink, and you’re in the dungeon. No portals appearing under you this time, just blinked in and out into…
>>6304587You rub your eyes to make sure you're seeing this, right, but this looks as real as it can be. Most dungeons are closed in, made of stones, with a clear design direction, this is the opposite of that. There is no roof, only a red, cloudy sky. Massive jungle trees loom above you, insects and birds can be heard all around, the smell of fruits and sulfur permeates the air. Wait, sulfur? You take a few steps back from the natural ramp behind you, cool magma is slowly flowing down from it. You look up, a volcano, an active one. You’ve only ever read about active volcanos, but from what you know of them that can’t POSSIBLY be the dungeon, right?”Hello students, I know what you’re thinking, this can’t POSSIBLY be the dungeon, right?”The voice comes from nowhere, but it's pretty easy to guess who it's from.”This one is more of an endurance test. The goal is simple! Get to the top of the volcano. If you can’t with the current spells you know, get creative! Use your environment! This isn’t timed, but the volcano is, so try to not take too long. This is your final exam for the year, even if you fail, it's okay as long as you try to the best of your abilities to succeed. Good luck!”He can’t be serious. This is on another level from anything you’ve done before. The sweltering heat is already starting to get to you, and you might die of a heatstroke before you reach the top. Not just that, but you think you see flying monsters gliding around the higher parts of the volcano. The volcano is massive too, it wouldn’t just take hours to get up there, it might take DAYS.You look around for any hints, anything to help, but the only things out of place you can make out are black towers spread out around the volcano. The closest one isn’t too far, near the edge, but that’s about it. Maybe you could go further into the jungle, but as far as you know, it never ends.Current mana: 100/100 (200 additional mana stored in runes.)Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g Volcano state: Small amount of magma flowing, relatively safe apart from the heat.>What will you do?
>>6304589Wait, I don't get it. Are we in the bottom of the volcano, outside it, and need to get to the top?
>>6304592You're near the very edge of the volcano, the volcano itself is surrounded by jungle trees among other fauna, with towers here and there.Here's a quick mockup, you're the little blue dot, the black circles are towers, and the middle thing is a volcano.
>>6304595Unlike what a dungeon should be, it seems like the sky actually goes on forever, but you don't know if it's a convincing illusion or not, but the flying monsters look like they can fly pretty high anyway.
>>6304595Hmm...I wonder if perhaps using moving portals as a "lava shovel" would work. Or would the heat kill us just from the proximity?
>>6304597Currently the magma isn't everywhere and it's possible to find a path without magma, but it might get worse. Your portals might not last forever, but they could be used to redirect magma away from you. Main issue is it's relatively inefficient for a trip that's expected to last a while.Right now your biggest issues are time and surviving the general distributed heat, the magma is just making it even more annoying to navigate (and also contributes to the heat, of course.)
>>6304600Those towers seem like they're there for a reason. Can we see any magic or anything close to them?
>>6304603Approaching them, they seem to be made of obsidian or something resembling it. You have a general feel for when mana is in the air due to training your soul expansion, and you can tell that tower is emanating a lot of magic from the inside, not so much the outside. There's an entrance with no doors, but you can't tell what's inside from this distance without getting super close and getting some way to dispel the darkness inside. Or some other way to check inside.
>>6304605So...Bright Sight?
>>6304610Bright Sight would work, I'll just say that for this 'dungeon' you should try to use as much bullshit method as you can if it saves up mana. Not saying bright sight is a bad choice, just that the most obvious one isn't always optimal. (Which is why I'll wait for other players to make their say. Also because I'm going to sleep, but as with usual dungeons, i'll generally update them more often per day to speed things up.)
>>6304611Well, I can't really think of anything else. I can't imagine fire would do anything to magical darkness. From what I gather, there's a big opening to the towers, but the inside is filled with an unnatural darkness. I'll see if any other anon has an idea I guess?
anons, we gotta think on how to resist the heat first.
>>6304626Clarity could probably help, Remove Pain might but I don't think it counts. Neither of those would really stop us from suffering heatstroke. Really, we don't much have have a way to deal with heat unless those towers have something.
>>6304629>>6304626Is there a way to resist or overcome heatstroke via something the jungle has? Feels like way too much of a longshot though, so I wouldn't count on it. Assessing the situation, I don't think there's any realistic way for us to stop the lava of the volcano and the volcano is our timer as the professor said.>you think you see flying monsters gliding around the higher parts of the volcanoCommandeering a flying monster to get air could be a nice way to both recover from the heatstroke and make more progress towards the volcano peak.>The volcano is massive too, it wouldn’t just take hours to get up there, it might take DAYS.You could probably climb up a regular volcano-sized mountain in a day, maybe two at most? I'm no mountain climber so I could be wrong. This volcano's size seems artificially (magically) inflated to make it take way longer for regular unaided travel to the top.>black towersThere's gotta be something in there that can help us. The outside is polished flat so climbing the exterior is no-go. We should still check what's inside just to be sure.>you should try to use as much bullshit method as you can if it saves up manaWhat bullshit do we have access to with our current means? Spells + pots + the armor? As a future investment idea, ways to account for various unexpected environments or temperatures should be something Atlas does later after this final exam
>>6304589At the risk of being obvious...>Shortcut...seems like it would be a good starting point? And depending how tall the towers are, maybe we could create a weakness in them, topple them once we're on top, and ride the fall to get closer, faster? I don't know how to endure the heat, but we could survive impact with Juggernaut and Harden?
>>6304634As i said, that's why I wanna look in the towers. I believe we could stop the lava by using a combination of portal geometry + moving portals to remove the lava in front of us but we need a way to deal with the heat or there's zero chance.
>>6304683We can't remove the lava if the volcano is just spewing out MORE lava to replace the ones we displace with portals. Lava is extremely melted rock so we're easily doomed if we fuck up, not to mention all the emitted heat easily causing heatstroke and worse. Convection is no jokeWAIT THE TOWERSWHAT IF THEY'RE TALL ENOUGH TO REACH THE PEAKWHAT IF WE CAN COLLAPSE A TOWER TO MAKE IT FALL TOWARDS THE VOLCANO'S PEAK AND THEN SCALE THE OUTSIDE OF THE TOWER IN A STRAIGHT PATH TO THE TOP?
>>6304724>We can't remove the lava if the volcano is just spewing out MORE lava to replace the ones we displace with portals.We don't need to shovel it, anon. Just do it like a snowplow. Take out the front so we can keep moving.Anyway, the tower idea isn't the worst, BUT we need to check out what's in the towers first, no?
>>6304610>>6304634>>6304629>>6304728>>6304636You consider your options. You could try lighting something up to light the way inside the tower, but that's not going to last very long, and Bright Sight is not that expensive. The spell quickly dispels the darkness inside, letting you slowly and carefully step inside. If there's a trap, you have to hope your armor will try protecting you before it's too late.Your worries seem all for naught, however, as not only do you get inside safely, but it's also very cold inside, unlike the searing heat. In fact, it's... a little TOO cold, it's not so bad you'll get a frostbite, but it's enough to be uncomfortable. The tower has runes written all around its walls, a quick analysis revealing that they're all more or less contributing to the cold inside. There also seems to be 'dud' runes that don't actually serve any purpose to the grander design, you assume as a way to confuse you. [moderate Material magic & rune check passed.]It's hard to not notice the spiralling stairs going upward, and reaching the top that grows ever colder, you find the source of the magic of this tower. A big, pearl-like sphere placed on a pedestal. It looks like it's what serves as a 'battery' to the tower and... [High Material magic failed.]Well, there's more to it, but you think you'd need to see the other towers to make a conclusion. Let's focus on what matters here. The runes here produce cold, but copying them would take a while, so it's a risk. There's also the issue of the mana, you don't know if you can fuel the runes on your very limited mana alone even if you were to make your own.There's a window that lets you see the outside from the top of the tower, and if you somehow could take down the tower to make it fall into the next tower... kind of an insane thing to do, but the tower's structure is good enough that the structure shouldn't crumble even if it falls over. Doing that sounds near impossible with your mana however, Unsealing the entire base of a tower would be a pain. There might be another way, considering what the tower's made of, but you're not sure.As for the big sphere? It's your size, it's way too big to carry around, it wouldn't even fit inside your pocket space. There might be a way if you get creative, but you don't know what would happen if this tower were to suddenly lose its power source.Hmm, somehow you feel like you could use the current state of the tower for something else too, but...>What will you do?Current mana: 105/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes. You actually started with 115 max mana, the 100 from the previous post was a mistake.)Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9gVolcano state: Small amount of magma flowing, relatively safe apart from the heat.
>>6304831Interesting. So the towers are cold. That's good. Anyone has an idea of how we could find a way to "store" that cold so we could stop ourselves form getting heatstroke on our way up?
>>6304863Any uh...any ideas, anons? No?
>>6304863>>6304893Can we put a pocket space portal here where it's cold and have the other half be with us to supply the cold through?
>>6304895I dunno. Curse?
>>6304895Transporting cold air via pocket spaces is doable, even if it might be tricky to move the portal while climbing.
>>6304902I see... so, anyway, here's my idea for you anons. We start climbing the mountain immediately - WHILE heading towards that tower in the east. The east side of the volcano has very little lava, so we wouldn't need to waste the pocket space on clearing it (It also tires you less to climb a mountain "diagonally")We get to that tower so we can "refresh" ourselves, and then we continue climbing by using the portal trick I said - that is, using Pocket Space + Geometry to make basically a giant lava snowplow while stopping heatstroke by using the tower coldness. This shouldn't cost us too much mana. Also, I have a suspicion we could use Soul Expansion to get mana from these towers but we don't need it right now. We just gotta start climbing so we deal with less lava.
>>6304905Yeah good call
