>>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.”

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>>6303073

You 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)

>>6303075
WE'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.

>>6303093
In 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.)

>>6303114
I'll definitely go for buying, then.

>>6303075
Holy 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

>>6303114
WE MISSED YOU I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK YOU AUTISTIC FRENCH FAGGOT
HOW ARE YOU? ARE YOU WELL? DO YOU HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE?

>>6303125
I 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?

>>6303066
Welcome bacl, OP.
>>6303075
>Ask another student, but which one…
our demon friend.

>>6303279
I 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.

>>6303254
The 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.

>>6303279
The 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
>>6303093

You 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.]

***

>>6303674


The 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?

>>6303678
You 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.)

>>6303680
Fair 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.)

>>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
>>6303681

You 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?"

>>6304054

She 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?"

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>>6304055

She 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.

>>6304056
Huh. Is this the first time we actually see Atlas drawn? I swear we never did before.

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>>6304061
Only 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 .)

>>6304067
Fair 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.

>>6304068
He 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.

>>6304069
I suppose he's only recently begun jogging alongside Table. Makes sense for a shut-in nerd to not be the pinnacle of fitness.

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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.

>>6304068
With s name like Atlas, he ought to have a strong build, kek!

>>6304059
Poor Dill. Handy little lesson, though!

>>6304059
nice, we really needed that help. btw I dunno if you said it before, but what was your inspiration for the magic system ?
>>6304176
neat

>>6304284

Magically 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.

>>6304354
I see, thanks.

>>6304059

You 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…

>>6304587

You 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?

>>6304589
Wait, I don't get it. Are we in the bottom of the volcano, outside it, and need to get to the top?

File: volcanomockup.png (373 KB, 546x781)

373 KB PNG

>>6304592
You'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.

>>6304595
Unlike 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.

>>6304595
Hmm...I wonder if perhaps using moving portals as a "lava shovel" would work. Or would the heat kill us just from the proximity?

>>6304597
Currently 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.)

>>6304600
Those towers seem like they're there for a reason. Can we see any magic or anything close to them?

>>6304603
Approaching 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.

>>6304605
So...Bright Sight?

>>6304610
Bright 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.)

>>6304611
Well, 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.

>>6304626
Clarity 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
>>6304626
Is 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 volcano
Commandeering 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 towers
There'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 mana
What 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

>>6304589
At 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?

>>6304634
As 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.

>>6304683
We 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 joke
WAIT THE TOWERS
WHAT IF THEY'RE TALL ENOUGH TO REACH THE PEAK
WHAT 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
>>6304636

You 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/carzyq9g
Volcano state: Small amount of magma flowing, relatively safe apart from the heat.

>>6304831
Interesting. 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?

>>6304863
Any uh...any ideas, anons? No?

>>6304863
>>6304893
Can we put a pocket space portal here where it's cold and have the other half be with us to supply the cold through?

>>6304895
I dunno. Curse?

>>6304895
Transporting cold air via pocket spaces is doable, even if it might be tricky to move the portal while climbing.

>>6304902
I 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.

>>6304905
Yeah good call

>>6304905

Maybe you could transport the cold air by using two pocket spaces? You can't transport living things from one spot to another, but air should work. One issue is making sure the first pocket space near the tower stays stable, since you're going to be far away from it if you plan on traversing the volcano like this.

The absurd amount of mana floating in the air manages to stabilize the first pocket space, meaning it should last much longer than normal--not like you ever had a problem with a pocket space's duration.

Now starts the hard part, moving a second portal all the way up to the second tower, specifically the one on the east side of the volcano. The good news is that the cold air does go between the portals perfectly, the bad news is that your portals are not particularly fast, and it makes what's already expected to be a long climb an even slower one. Still, you make steady progress, and even if some beasts try to mess with you, your armor does a fantastic job at scaring them away; you don't know how it'll fare against the bigger monsters up there, but they're currently too far away for you to consider them a threat.

You wish you took up instead, but it's not to say the stamina you built up with jogging was useless, you managed to reach the east tower in one trip without needing rest, something you wouldn't have been able to without some exercise.

You stumble into the east tower, exhausted, but alive and healthy. It's not as cold here as in the last tower, but it's because it's only been getting hotter the closer you get to the top. The runes don't seem to be the exact same however... High Divination check passed.

Wait, these are the same runes, but they're used differently. What you first assumed to be 'dud' runes do seem to serve some purpose in this tower, yet they were seemingly inactive in the other tower, why's that? You manage to figure out what kind of spell those are thanks to your extensive Divination knowledge: communication runes.

Specifically, it seems like the towers can communicate, not via words, but commands. As to what they need the communication for you... don't know. It seems the first tower wasn't communicating with the other towers in any way, even if it had the runes for it.

Otherwise, the tower's the same in terms of structure. Cold, with a big powering sphere at the top. You could spend more time trying to figure out how the rune works, but time is of the essence. You're not too bad on mana for now, but you expect climbing the volcano to become harder as you go higher and higher.


(Total mana used: 31 mana. Source: had to recast Pocket Space a few times while climbing + portal geometry.)

Current mana: 74/115 (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. You can feel rumbling beneath the earth, the volcano might become even more active soon.

>>6305044
Communication? That's very interesting. Can we try to analyze it? If it communicates with the other towers, maybe it does something to help us like...I don't know, letting us teleport between towers?

>>6305050
There's a tower very coincidentally right near the volcano's peak. Teleporting to it would help drastically cut down our travel time

Wait we made it to the east tower? Aren't we already most of the way there according to the image?

>>6305064
At the very least, don't we literally have a spell that analyzes what magic or runes do? We just need to use it so we can figure it out.

Plus, I really don't think we should try to be out when the volcano has its next eruption. It'll probably throw a lot of stones that might squish us.

>>6305065
Roughly around half, but it'll probably get harder the more we go up.

At the very least, it's worth seeing if the tower has something useful.

My theory is that the way the towers "Communicate" is more about giving it a command in one tower, and that Command goes to the others. And seeing that the towers have some kind of cold spell, I think it's fair to say the towers could be used to freeze the volcano, or at least cool down the lava so it stops pouring out to the surface

>>6305270
Well, we won't know until we find out. So we gotta use the analyze spell. That'd cut the time short right?

>>6305050
>>6305064
>>6305067

Conveniently, you do have a spell made specifically to analyze runes, a cheap one too. Your Mana Analysis greatly speeds up your understanding of the tower, even if it doesn't solve the whole puzzle for you, you can figure out the rest thanks to context clues.

To simplify, the tower seems to serve two purpose, measuring heat and projecting cold. Specifically, when the heat becomes too great, the towers are supposed to project that cold like a lighthouse would project light on a specific spot, which currently would be the top of the volcano. You're not sure, but you think the concentrated power of the towers could freeze up the volcano hard enough to make the heat and magma a non issue. There'd still be other things to worry about, but it would take care of the biggest obstacle.

Now, the problem is that after running some tests, some of the towers are not receiving any input from this tower, implying the runes are either malfunctioning on their side, or that they're missing communication runes entirely.

The good news is that you can make a proper link with the south tower that you visited before, even siphoning part of its power to make the tower here colder. Projecting the cold, however...

[Hard Intangible check partially passed.]

You don't think you can pull off controlling each tower's cold projection at once without some issues arising. The temperature system is much more complex than it looks, so you're going to need to put something else together instead. As you mentioned previously, you can siphon the power to make a tower colder, and projecting the cold of one singular tower is well within your skill level. Of course, concentrating that much cold in one tower could do the opposite of the volcano and freeze you to death, so you should find a way to avoid that too if you can.

How should you go about this?

>You can try to concentrate the power of two towers you currently have into one.
>You can go to the tower to the south first to get the power of three towers, but it'll be hard to get there.
>You could go back down and try to get all towers activated, but it's going to take a lot of time.
>Maybe we can use the towers in a different way? (Write in.)

Hopefully no one noticed my multiple failed posts because I fucked up the markup.

>>6305275
Interesting. So we can use the power to PROJECT the cold? Hmm...perhaps we could use the two towers we have to just freeze up the eastern side of the volcano? The lava would still flow to the other side, but it would be enough to let us climb to the top relatively safely. What do you anons think?

>>6305270
>>6305275
>The towers WERE MADE to freeze volcano
Welp, my deductive skills and I we just did it again...
>Keeps lurking the quest

>>6305279
>>6305279
While we do this, we should also use Shortcut on our way to the top so it's easier, no?

>>6305279
>>6305284
>all lava on the east side freezes up
>volcano continues to spew lava
>new spewed lava freezes back down to rock after being spewed
either
>rock wall forms where hot and cold meet, forcing new lava to flow any direction but east
or
>lava flows over rock that was once lava over and over, new terrain forming repeatedly makes our trek harder
Kinda like how lava flows to the ocean and hardens to make land, and more lava flows over hardened lava to make more land, and so on until the volcano expands the landmass by simply moving melted rock away to where it can cool off over existing terrain. That's how Hawaii works, right? Similar island chains in the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean?

I honestly think I'm overthinking this, and simply having one half of the volcano's surface become a cold zone will not stop the volcano but make things easier to an extent? Maybe the lava won't stop completely but the temps will be lowered enough by the widespread cold that the lava loses the dangerous liquidity and becomes regular heated rock.

>>6305333
>lava flows over rock that was once lava over and over, new terrain forming repeatedly makes our trek harder
That seems unlikely. Lava, like any liquid, flows down on the easiest path. Why would they go UP when they can just go down the other side instead? There's no reason for it to flow over until the other side's lava cools.

>>6305339
Also, we don't need to *stop* the Volcano. We just need to slow it down so we can climb to the top and win the contest.

>>6305333
>>6305279
I like this plan.

>>6305275
If we can do it
>use the power to PROJECT the cold to the east side of the volcano, to direct the lava flow

File: volcano2.png (382 KB, 776x817)

382 KB PNG

>>6305497
>>6305333
>>6305279

Getting to another tower in a reasonable amount of time is not feasible. You need to get to the top as fast as possible, and that means using the two towers you have available right away.

Freezing the top of the volcano seems like a fruitless endeavor, but you have a smarter idea. You need to stop the magma from flowing on one side, which will then let you climb unimpeded by the magma.

You get to work and-

A rumble. A crashing sound. The ground shakes harder, and you barely hold on to the floor as you the surrounding landscape shifts and turn.

Another burst of magma is starting to flow down in your direction, worse still, the heat as a whole has increased already. You quickly shift the cold beam to mitigate the damage, which makes the magma flow to the side as expected. The sudden increase in heat also made the concentrated cold in the tower more bearable, so maybe it all worked out in the end.

Looking outside, the monsters have gotten more agitated by the eruption, and you're only now noticing that the path that the top of the volcano has a very vertical side that you'll need to climb. It doesn't look like a short climb either, you'll need more than stamina to get there. On the bright side, you shouldn't have to worry about the heat while climbing, but you'll have to worry about getting past the magma you've started diverting when you get there. If you're lucky there might be an entrance after that point, but that's being hopeful.

Mana used: 3 (Mana Analysis)

Current mana: 71/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g
Volcano state: High amount of magma flowing. Monsters agitated, heat increased. Yet, it feels like it can still get worse.
>What will you do?

Man, I just had a really cool idea but I don't think we can do it right here.

You know how embargo basically makes a portal into a hard object? And you know how we can move portals? Is there anything stopping us from using a portal to literally surf? I guess an issue with it vanishing but as long as we just use it to get over particularly hard spots it should be possible no?

>>6305514
Like, the vertical side we'd need to climb - we could make a portal with embargo as a glorified "stepping stool" to lift us out of any difficult part. By now we should have an idea of how long the portal spell lasts given we kept casting it.

(Mind you, the reason why the cold beam isn't getting pushed further into the center is because it's lacking power the extra power to hit it from that distance and cool it down enough.)

>>6305514
Also embargo transforming pocket space into essentially hard object is a valid use, and it's something you saw Ivy do during her duel with you. (you can essentially turn portals into shields that way)

The hard part of this is that it's going to be a little slow, and that it's overall a small platform which might make monsters a pain, but it is a viable option.

>>6305515
If you mean using it as a stepping stool for any annoying part that's a much smarter option (and not as slow) option, yeah. It's somewhat costly in mana but nothing unaffordable.

>>6305521
Yeah, like, the description says there's a hard vertical climb, right? So what we'd do is that we use Embargo + Portal to skip through the hard parts.

>>6305519
If the beasts were attacking us and the platform being small really became a problem, we could also just use geometry to make it bigger. But that's only if it's necessary.

>>6305511
I like the plan
>Begin the climb (while using the tower coldness to stop heatstroke)
>Use the Portal + Embargo combo to get over the hard parts of the climb

>>6305525
+1

>>6305525
Yeah, that's what we should do.

>>6305529
I'm >>6305515>>6305523 mind. ID changed again.

>>6305525
>+1

>>6305567
>>6305530
>>6305527
>>6305523

You devise a plan. Using Embargo, you can stop the portal from allowing you in, turning it into a solid platform. Using this, you can make it go up vertically, which should make the vertical climb a breeze.

Your plan is set, and you get ready to leave. You can already feel the heat when coming out of the tower, but the beam makes it possible to power through. A few beasts are using the cooler locations you created as a rest spot, but they're ignoring you for now. You don't look a gift's horse in the mouth and keep going, and keep going, and...

This is exhausting, even with the cold helping you. it feels like you've been walking for hours, is the distance increased magically or is the volcano bigger than it appears?

You're getting thirsty, not just thirsty, but sleepy too. Your body hurts all over from having to jump over rocks and ravines for the 100th time. You want this to be over as soon as possible, but you haven't even arrived at the vertical side of the volcano yet. You either need a way to speed up your climbing or find a spot to rest, or you're just going to collapse on the spot. Maybe there is a magical solution to your body failing you, however.

Mana used: None (Pocket space & embargo are being reserved for the vertical climb)

Current mana: 71/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g
Volcano state: High amount of magma flowing. Monsters agitated, heat increased. Yet, it feels like it can still get worse.
>What will you do?

>>6305667
Well, we've got "Sap Life"...and a bunch of people to use it on with...how "Intrusive" is this spell? Would someone notice it the moment you started using it, even if they were asleep?

>>6305682
Sap Life is pretty noticeable, it feels like your blood's being taken out by a syringe. If they're asleep, they might not notice a small burst of stealing, but they will if you do it for more than a few seconds.

>>6305684
That does seem good enough, but at the same time, I can't help but feel like Atlas could get carried away. At the same time, tiredness is mostly in the mind here where there's no long term consequences for overexherting your body.

So how's about
>>6305667
>Cast Clarity
>If you still think you absolutely need it, THEN cast life
I think we've got enough mana to afford it thanks to the runes.

>>6305693
+1

>>6305693
+1 for the plan

>>6305709
>>6305703
>>6305693

The human body can survive without water for about 3 days. The previous heat might have sped that up a little, and the exertion surely doesn't help with all the sweating, but even taking that into account, you should survive. You cast Clarity on yourself to regain your composure, and while the effect doesn't get rid of the exhaustion or the thirst, it helps you regain your focus. You keep going, it doesn't feel like the journey is endless anymore, as your mind is focused on each step instead of the destination. To your surprise, there is some water here and there, most of it in the form of geysers or monsters using their peculiar biology to squeeze every bit of liquids from spots in the volcano.

Unfortunately, the geysers are HOT, even with the cold beams, it almost always evaporate by the time it reaches the ground, and when it doesn't, all puddles are drank away by nearby beasts. You manage to find a few sleeping beasts near an inactive geyser, and with the help of Clarity, you take away just what you need from each of them with Sap Life. It's hard to stop yourself from taking too much, even with Clarity, since every bit of stamina that you steal feels rejuvenating, but you know not to push your luck.

It seems like Sap Life also made you less thirsty and hungry, you're not sure if it's purely a psychological effect or if this actually fed you, but at least you feel a bit better now.

After who knows how many hours, you reach the dreaded vertical side of the volcano. You cast your pocket space and... oh, you're out of mana. You used all you had left on Clarity and Sap Life. Turns out spells that consume mana every second can get expensive fast.

Of course, that wasn't ALL your mana, you have stored mana for cases like this. You wonder if you'd fail the exam right there if you didn't have mana storing runes.

Whatever the case, you cast pocket space, embargo, jump on the portal and start your vertical ascent. The portal is going slower when you're on it, not because it can't go faster, but because you're afraid you might fall over if it goes too fast, the portal is small enough that you could easily trip if you're not careful.

You feel a part of your armor detach and throw itself towards the eyes of a massive bird that was diving towards you. The bird looks like a massive, red falcon, and now that it lost an eye, it looks even more pissed off. It's not attacking you, however, just hovering above you, as if waiting for an opportunity to strike.

>>6305717

Eventually, more birds start to notice you, all shapes and sizes. Your armor is good at intercepting dangers, but you don't know if it can save you from THAT much. Even with Clarity, you manage to feel nauseous from what you think is the armor trying to handle less than favorable 'loops'. It keeps shifting you slightly to the side, sometimes making you raise your arm, or do a small jump on the portal for seemingly no reason.

You think these movements are barely managing to scare the birds away, but that won't last forever. You're only halfway there to reach the end of that wall, you're going to need to find a way to stall, or to reach the top even faster.

Mana used: 108 mana (Clarity + multiple Sap Life + Pocket Space + Embargo)

Current mana: 115/115 (85 additional mana stored in runes.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g
Volcano state: High amount of magma flowing. Monsters agitated, heat increased. Yet, it feels like it can still get worse.

>What will you do?

>>6305718
Hmmm..there's a lot of monsters, huh? Well, I've got an idea.
>Cast Portal Geometry to make your Portal Bigger (Reduce chance of falling)
>IF NECESSARY, use Fire Flare to defend yourself

>>6305720
Seems like a good plan to me.

This whole "travel on top of a portal" thing makes me want to find a way to get some sort of "Green Goblin Glider" type thing. Just something we can go flying around in. Without it being just a boring fly spell.

>>6305720
+1, worth a go.

>>6305718

>>6305720
+1 let's do this

>>6305720
would this make our ascent more mana expansive after changing the size of the portal ?

>>6305972
Only an extra 10 per portal, but we've got 200 mana left. I'd say we're pretty safe.

>>6305912
>>6305775
>>6305720

You decide to increase the size of your portal by using Geometry, which should reduce the chances of you falling over. Your armor acts up more frequently now that it's given more space, maybe because now it's less likely to throw you off the portal during random movements. That's not enough however, in fact the increased size of the portals now make some birds think they hang on the ledge of your portal.

You weren't sure why your armor decided to let them get so close, until their talons went past the embargo. You thought you designed the embargo to stop all living things from passing, but it seems that you only made it stop you from getting through. This is not actually as bad of a thing as it may seem, as a few birds are cutting themselves trying to land on the edge of the portal, none of them succeeding. When they learn their lesson, they try a more direct approach, which forces you to land a Fire Flare combo on about two of them, with your armor scaring another bird off. After so many failed attempts, it looks like they've decided you aren't worth the trouble, and are leaving for easier prey. Quite frankly, if they all attacked at once, this might have been the end of you without using Overdrive, but they're still animals at the end of the day, there's hardly enough meat on your bones for them to risk all of their lives for.

When you reach the top, you quickly jump off your portal and breathe a sigh of relief. You hear more rumbling, getting there took a while, and you feel like you don't have that much time left. Even with Clarity and Sap Life, it feels like you're pushing your body to your limits, you're starting to understand what Lazari meant when she said that most Life magic had drawback of some kind.

You're almost there, though, you can see something resembling an entrance between two big lava flows. Problem, the cold beam doesn't reach here, so you'll need to transfer the cold to a portal again, and getting past the lava rivers is going to be hard without making another pocket space and embargo surf board; at least you can kill two birds with one stone using a pocket space both for transportation and cold air. Still, there might be an easier way, and you don't know if you'll need whatever mana you have left once you're there. Not just that, but the portals are slow, you don't want to eat another eruption as you're riding it.

You can't take too long, but you can't rush this either.

Mana used: 46 (2 Fire Flare + Spark, 1 Portal Geometry)

Current mana: 69/115 (85 additional mana stored in runes.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g
Volcano state: High amount of magma flowing. Monsters agitated, heat increased. The rumbling beneath the earth implies it'll get worse soon.
>What will you do?

>>6306130
Could we perhaps just seal ourself to the portal using Seal so there's no risk of falling, and then go superfast?

I know portals CAN go fast because we saw them being thrown fast.

>>6306171
Like, is this something that tracks? I don't know if you can actually seal yourself to portals. But it seems like we just need to get there FAST. Before another eruption.

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>>6306172

>>6306171
>>6306172
If this works it could be a good way, but you'd have to do it while crouching or something so you don't just lose balance and fall over while still hanging from your feet.

I assume you're just using the "seal your clothing" trick anyway.

>>6306171
Unfortunately, Seal is a material spell, and portals, even with embargo, aren't really considered proper solid for the seal spell to work on it.

There is, however, a more unorthodox option if you don't want to fall out of the portal, and all I'll say is that it also involves Portal Geometry.

>>6306188
Hm. Maybe there's a way to enter into our portal and then... Embargo ourselves out like a cannon?

Okay so, for some reason, rechecking my notes, I forgot to put one summoning spell that you *should* know in the rentry.

Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.

This costs 30 mana per portal. HOWEVER this is not a normal pocket space, and the portal made is usually too small to let someone in. It should be possible to use Geometry to allow that, not saying you should, this would probably break some bones without a plan.

Sorry about that, it's like one of the very first summoning spells you learned, not sure why it was not there.

Also, >>6306196 . Trying to embargo yourself while inside a pocket space is possible, but dangerous for a variety of reasons that you probably don't want to find out in during an exam. Let's just say it's a good way of having the portal potentially close itself and trap you forever.

However, while you can't enter the pocket space itself, that doesn't mean you can't be inside the portal.

>>6306201
Well, my thinking is this: we only need to reach the top of the volcano to pass, not do so in one piece. So...

>>6306130
>Get a rock large enough to stand on in Pocket Space
>Seal ourselves to it
>Place rock in Pocket Space
>Pocket Artillery, straight to the top!
>Try to create a low-grav Store Ecosystem Pocket Space to catch us before we hit the ground

>>6306205
That sounds a bit ridiculous anon, we need to get through to the entrance.

>>6306201
What does "be inside the portal" even mean?

>>6306205
What do you even mean by "shoot ourselves" anon? That sounds like it would fail horribly.

>>6306229
Fire ourselves up into the air, so that we can land near the entrance, cushioned (perhaps bounced out softly) by a portal-contained low-gravity ecosystem as our landing pad.

"But what if we miss?" one might reasonably ask. Well, we have a little mini tornado to help steer us, as I recall!

>>6306216
Come on, let's try. I believe in us.

>>6306230
No, that's stupid. I don't know what QM means by being inside the portal but that plan is stupid.

Here's another idea - just use another portal as a wall. No risk of falling there, right? Alternatively, have the portal we're on curve UPWARDS - basically dragging the edges into a BOWL shape - so we have no risk of falling. Then we can go real fast

>>6306233
I'll back it in a pinch, but it is considerably less epic.

>>6306239
Throwing ourselves into lava isn't epic either.

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>>6306242
I must respectfully disagree.

>>6306242
>>6306245
>>6306216
>>6306185
We still have no set plan guys, come on

>>6306278
What are you talking about? The plan is to use the portal geometry to make some sort of container thing so we don't fall.

Unless you have something else, that's all we got.

>>6306229
Alright, hint.
Portal Geometry can be used to make an empty sphere that surrounds you, or even a more cubic form. You are not inside the dimension, as much as the portal surrounds you.

As for the Store Ecosystem, it is, quite frankly, not the kind of spell you can reasonably use in this situation, it's the kind of spell you prepare well in advance in a safe spot like your dorms. It is possible to pull off with a lot of experience, but not something you can easily do, especially while juggling multiple portals.

>>6306281
Huh, well, that's literally the idea I had.

>>6306284
I must have misunderstood then, I assumed you meant 'entering the portal' as in entering the pocket space.

>>6306285
I misunderstood what you said, but my idea was the same. Anyway,

>>6306130
>Use Portal Geometry to make yourself safe and go

>>6306291
I guess this is our best bet.

>>6306291
+1

>>6306278
I voted for my own but agreed to back >>6306279 in a pinch (in other words to break a tie, if one exists).

>>6306282
But no can do, so I'll back >>6306291

>>6306130

>>6306291
>+1

>>6306492
>>6306319
>>6306302
>>6306291

You decide to make another portal, and using Geometry, you use it to surround yourself to avoid accidents, and of course finalize it with Embargo so that you don't fall inside it.

That particular form is, again, not the fastest, but you can't think of any other solution that isn't particularly hazardous to your health and remaining mana.

As you're leaving the colder zone, the heat becomes very noticeable, and even the cold air from your portal isn't quite enough to make it tolerable. Your Clarity is fading out, and in a moment of weakness, you cast Remove Hurt to make the pain go away. You know it'll make your armor less effective, but not even the monsters seem to be willing to go as far as you.

The volcano erupts, again. Your embargo should also be designed to not allow magma inside, but it doesn't make the projectiles coming your way any less frightening. Your portal goes slightly off course from the impact, something you didn't even know was possible

The entrance is starting to be blocked off by magma. Too late, you don't have a choice, in a desperate attempt to reach it, you start closing the portal and jump as far as you can towards the entrance. You close your eyes, and when you open them, you're... inside the volcano. You don't have time to count your luck, your body was bruised and is bleeding from hitting a few sharp rocks on the way down, something you didn't notice because of the Remove Hurt spell you cast before.

Deeper into the cave, you see it. Something big, made of flames, ice, and molten rocks. It looks at you without any eyes to see. You think it's over for a second, but...

"Acceptable." A booming, female voice says.

The entire room gets back to a survivable temperature, it does nothing for your wounds, but you're happy you won't die of a heatstroke right there.

"One tower activated, using the energy of another. 1.5 from 4. Speed. Average to above average speed, arrived during the 3rd phase out of 10. Grading... favorable."

Wait, did it just say this was the 3rd phase out of 10? What would a phase 10 volcano even LOOK like.

You know what, you don't care. The exit is right there under the creature, something you think is a spirit. The exit doesn't need a key or anything, you drag yourself slowly to it, and fall forward once you reach it.

You wake up in perfect health inside your bed, as if it was all a bad dream. Breathing normal air feels unnatural now. The temperature is nice. You made it. It even gave you a favorable grade, which means you passed at the very least. Maybe you could've gotten better results, but you really don't care, this was excruciating. Clarity helped shake off the mental load of over exerting yourself for this long without proper rest, not even counting the stress of the situation, but that didn't mean it was pleasant.

>>6306639

Table slams your door open without knocking, looking much better than the last time you saw her. "Dude, that exam was GREAT! Did you know there was an artifact in the jungle? But it's hidden by- you look like hell."

You try to not look too jealous at how well she's doing. Seeing you in this state only makes her more excited.

"I'll tell you later, but since you look tired, it's my turn to pamper you. Give me that cookbook you had, I'm gonna fix you right up." She grabs the book and leaves for the school's kitchen in a hurry. Maybe it was a lot more fun for her with how much mana she had to spare, but you had to rely on a lot of unconventional solutions to get that far.

On the bright side, being taken care of should be enjoyable.

(I'll prepare the duel that comes next, in the meantime. Another what ifs with Dill: https://rentry.org/vw2dozim This was one I wanted to do for a while, it was even supposed to show up in the last thread, but things got in the way.)

>>6306640
Hell yeah, we made it. That's good.

>>6306651
Also very nice. I really do like those what-ifs. Whom else are you thinking of making them with, if you do at some later point?

>>6306654
Right now, the ones planned are Ivy, Claire, Fet, Mirabelle, and possibly one crackship of a character that is yet unmet.

Claire might have two versions for reasons that will make more sense later, Fet might also be in a while for spoilery reason. Mirabelle's one I need to expand upon later. The parasite is one of the oldest character I wrote for that setting, so it's funny she was sort of sidelined like this.

Realistically, Ivy will be next.

>>6306659
Cool. I look forward to seeing them.

>>6306639
>"One tower activated, using the energy of another. 1.5 from 4. Speed. Average to above average speed, arrived during the 3rd phase out of 10. Grading... favorable."
Maybe we would have got bonus points or met a different achievement criteria if we had gone and activated all 4 towers as if this was Code Lyoko? There's another solid piece of French media for you QM!
>Did you know there was an artifact in the jungle? But it's hidden by-
We missed the secret bonus loot, but we got points for speedrunning the challenge. Atlas doesn't have the mana pool to thoroughly explore and loot a huge exam dungeon like this whereas we could do that before with how constrained the puzzle rooms used to be

>>6306651
>Dill what if
This is more comedic than I expected and the end result is better for it. I am slightly disappointed there's no short moment of Dill being unable to contain herself and kissing Atlas anyway right before the climax but what is there is still nice. This is also further evidence towards my "theory" that this school is not only for the "Magically Challenged" but every student here is "secretly" mentally challenged too.
>Why not go further if there’s no limit? Why not have sex in the middle of the class while we’re invisible? Or, you could become invisible and touch me while I’m not even aware it’s you, and I’d have to stop myself from-
Somehow I get the feeling in our current quest timeline either Atlas or Table or both of them will get both of these ideas in their heads. Just a feeling, that's all...

>>6306659
You better have a ghost blowjob (woo woo!) somewhere in there or you are SHIT

>>6306640
Woo!

>>6306651
cute

>>6306705
>the lewd exhibitionist thoughts
Table has explicitly played around with that fetish a couple times since her curse would sort of maybe allow for it.

>this school is not only for the "Magically Challenged" but every student here is "secretly" mentally challenged too
I assumed so, since for people without a physical disability (like humans' lack of mana) it would have to be primarily a psychological hurdle like confidence, neurodivergence, or a learning disability, right?

You know, if this is a "Magically challenged" school I wonder how OP the students from the high end schools are.

I mean, obviously some students here aren't below average. Table alone probably has a gigantic potential that's only held back by her condition and table herself not being that obsessed with magic. But as a whole, they've all got issues of their own.

But like, Imagine what the "Prodigy School" students look like.

>>6306639
>Wait, did it just say this was the 3rd phase out of 10? What would a phase 10 volcano even LOOK like.
was gonna ask that. it felt like the next phase was gonna be the last one.
>>6306640
>"Dude, that exam was GREAT! Did you know there was an artifact in the jungle? But it's hidden by- you look like hell."
welp, not like we could really explore the area.
>>6306651
I didn't recall the other what if, nice. Also surprised that her saliva's an interesting effect.

>>6306640

Table comes back with food. It's burnt, chewy, and is only considered edible by technicalities.

"Tastes great, Table, " you lie.

She takes some of it herself, and coughs it out immediately. "You have low standards then, tastes like shit," she says bluntly. You don't know why you expected her to be offended for telling the truth, but it felt mean to insult her honest attempt at cooking.

"Anyway," she continues. "As I said, it had a bunch of secret stuff. This felt less like a way to test out how many spells you know and how much theoretical knowledge you had, right? The towers couldn't be used unless you had some really good understanding of how that kind of magic works. Getting to each tower was a pain, though."

"You could also activate a few of them remotely," you add. "I didn't have the time to do that for more than two towers, though."

"Wait, really? Would've saved me a trip or two. Anyway, behold! The artifact!" She shows you a fancy ruby necklace. "Gives me greater focus over stuff I make with Material magic, pretty cool, huh?"

"Pretty cool indeed. Say, you seem in a much better state than last time I saw you, did something happen?" You ask.

"Oh? Oh! That, sorry my perception of time is a little messed up, so to me that was a few days ago, but only a few hours passed over there. I started feeling better when I could spend a bunch of mana freely, it felt like it put my body back into gear. I'm in a great mood, honestly, verrrry good mood." She kisses you, and you wince. "Riiiight, I must still smell awful, I'll take care of that."

She gets into the shower, and you sink back into the bed with a sigh. "It's nice seeing her happy, but that exam really drained you, then, there's going to be the duel... ah, it can't be that bad. Even if you fail it, you're pretty confident you're going to pass this year, so you don't need to worry.

You drift off to sleep. Table soon joins you, nuzzling your neck, saying all kinds of things you can't be bothered to process. You have a good sleep, and even wake up to a slightly more edible breakfast than yesterday. She looks like she's in the mood to hang out again, but there's a duel today, so you have to get prepared.

You double-check everything once again. Mana storing runes recharged, fire bottles ready, Clarity cast.

Once Table gave you what mana she could, she goes back to her dorm to get ready for her own duel. A portal manifests under you unlike what happened for the exam, and you drop into a simple, square room of stone with your opponent.

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>>6307437

It's Fet. That's... not as scary as it could be, for a final exam. She doesn't have that much mana, and...

Analysis results:

Name: Fet
Race: Beastfolk (Bird)
Mana: 400/400 (50 more mana than the last analysis)
Divination: ???
Life: ???
Intangible: ???
Material: ???
Summoning: ???

Okay, your analysis is still useless on her. You're pretty sure she's not using a spell to obfuscate the results like Dill did. Dill's results were confusing and misleading, this gives you NOTHING.

"Are you ready, Atlas?" She asks, there's no sign of her usual stutter in her voice. "Take as much time as you need, but I won't hold back once it starts."

Is she giving herself a handicap? Or is she stalling? Casting a spell without knowing what she's capable of is a bad idea, so you'd rather buff yourself according to the way she fights.

"I'm ready," you answer.

You died.

Or at least, you thought you did. You saw it clearly, a flash of a vision of your head being pierced clean through by a wing, but your eyes show a different story, your armor forced your shoulders downward to make you dodge what might have been an instant loss. A streak of blood drips from your forehead, a wing extends above you, and you barely manage to avoid the subsequent slam coming your way.

She's fast; not just fast, but precise too. If you tried dodging in any other way, she could've easily ended you right here and there. She jumps backward to the other side of the room again. It's like she's a completely different person.

"...not good enough," she mutters. "I'm still not good enough. If you struck me after that last dodge, I could've lost."

You have no idea what she's talking about. She's way too fast for you to hit her with anything, even at point-blank. You're finally noticing it, the gap between someone that fights as a hobby and someone that fights to kill.

You try to think of spells you can cast without giving her a way to attack you, but you can't. By the time you cast the spell, she'd already be on you.

You can only cast a single spell at a time, anything more than that could be the end.

Current mana: 115/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

Pretty fast, huh? Hmm, a single spell. The first thing that comes to mind is "use portal to defend" but I can't help but feel like that probably wouldn't work.

Slippy, maybe? I doubt it would work on someone as agile as her, would it?

Never There seems like it could perhaps be used to give us an 'window' to attack but with what thought?

>>6307443
Actually, I suppose there's also "Sap Life", but would that really stop her? We're pretty much only hanging by a thread thanks to our armor. I don't know how long it would take for sap life to actually do enough damage she might get slowed down.

This one's gonna be a little different. You won't be able to easily chain spells together, in other words, you'll need to cast a spell, then do a regular physical action. Physical actions can range from using potions, recovering mana from mana storing runes, or simply dodging.

Some spells, once cast, can be controlled without taking time or too much focus (like some illusions that Dill showed), but that's only after they're cast, casting the original spell will take the 'spell casting time' turn.

Also, it's possible to order the armor to do a desperate attempt at blocking an attack, this will give you an opportunity to counter-attack, but the hit will basically fuck up your armor for the rest of the duel, so it's a last resort, and not one that's guaranteed to result in victory if not used properly.

>>6307445
Sap Life has two issues, it's relatively expensive and requires direct contact unless you use a spell to increase the range. Even with that, it won't show results unless you keep it up for a while, which might drain all your mana before hers.

Well, do remember you have Overdrive, but that counts as a spell use. Overdrive would more or less make mana a non issue.

>>6307450
Do we *have* a spell that can increase the range?

Alternatively, how long does Never There last? I was thinking, while we can't make her forget dodging, perhaps we could get her to forget the concept of a "Pocket Artillery" - and then, after that, store our Fire in a Bottle in it. Then, we could use the Armor to "Block" an attack so we could shoot the bottle at her in point blank, since obviously just throwing it wouldn't be fast enough.

>>6307452
Spell Displacement can. Since that spell is meant to be used with another, it doesn't count as casting two spells, more like directly altering a pre-existing spell.

Spell Displacement (3 mana + the cost of the spell you're casting)
A spell that allows you to cast a spell from further away. You need to see the location in which you wish to cast the spell, but you do not need direct line of sight, and can use spells that gives you a vision of that location instead. The spell becomes harder to cast the greater the distance you wish to cast the spell in. You can also draw runes from afar using spell displacement.

Do note that you don't double the cost of the spell, you just add 3 mana to it, more if the target's too far away.

>>6307455
I see...if it doesnt count as an action perhaps we could use that to cut the "distance" of the artillery even further. By comboing the surprise from not knowing what a portal artillery is, to it being a counter from a block, to shooting her at point blank range? I think our chances of hitting would be about as high as they reasonably could be.

But of course, that plan depends on how long "Never There" lasts.

>>6307460
+1

>>6307438
This bird bitch has clearly been a psycho all along. Could we try taunting or saying stuff to psych her out later in the fight if we survive?

>>6307482
>psycho
More like she's a war survivor who always fights with a sheer survival mentality.

>>6307483
I don't think she belongs here in a school for the "magically challenged" when she seems to be perfectly fine and OP as any other average non-gimped non-human magic user. Are they some spy deliberately sent to the academy? There's no way all the stuttering weak meek shyness she's been constantly displaying is genuine

>>6307485
Magically Challenged doesn't necessarily mean poor at magic. Table seems to be more powerful than just about anyone else in our class from sheer magic potential, given what we've seen her done, but she's hard to teach due to her curse.

>>6307438
Okay, how about if we start with...
>Juggernaut
then
>charge her! low tackle!

I figure if we can get part of her clothing to touch the ground, seal her next round, that can buy us time and latitude.

>>6307485
The spy idea is a good shout, but we've seen scenes from her perspective. We know she is, at the very least, genuinely nervous about how to ineract with people, and especially with Atlas.

>>6307547
Anon, we are not even CLOSE to fast enough to be able to do that.

>>6307460
>>6307438
By the way, I guess I should specify, my "action" for the first turn is pretty much just to cast the Never There spell (If my assumption that it would last long enough to be still in effect during the "next turn" is correct) and then dodge so we can actually put the bottle in the artillery space.

I only wish to fire on Fet when she no longer remembers "firing stuff out of portals" to be a thing and is caught by our block so we can shoot at her surprised from pointblank. I don't think we have any other way of hitting her.

>>6307547
Do note juggernaut makes you heavier and as such, even slower. While this can be mitigated with strength, that's two spells to cast which wouldn't be ideal in your situation.

>>6307562
Then I'll back you, for lack of any better idea... My fear is without a defensive measure, she'll have us dead to rights before we can do a second spell, though. Let's hope I'm wrong.

>>6307438
Changing from >>6307547 to backing the Never There and Artillery strat.

>>6307590
> My fear is without a defensive measure, she'll have us dead to rights before we can do a second spell
Well, that's why our physical action is to dodge. If we can't do that we're dead anyway, there's no way we could use a single-move counterattack to beat her without setup.

>>6307593
I was hopeful Juggernaut could allow us to tank one hit and that by immediately bridging the gap we could start educing her mobility and speed with Seal, then start planning a finisher. But you talked me out of it, so... Here goes!

>>6307590
>>6307593
>>6307562
>>6307547

You cast Never There to make her forget about Pocket Artillery as an existing spell. Making her forget about how versatile portals are in general is unlikely to work, but something specific like Artillery might go through. She stares at you, no doubt noticing you've cast some kind of mind spell, but judging by the way she looks at you, she hasn't figured out what she forgot just yet. It's a good thing you didn't pick something too obvious to make her forget.

You use her paranoia to take a step further back safely. She notices the anxiety in your eyes, and starts getting closer again. She's getting ready to attack again, what spells is she even using?

Maybe she's thinks you were bluffing, that's good. You've basically cast a spell for free without putting yourself in danger, but you doubt that trick will work twice.


Mana used: (30 + 20. Never There + Fet's resistance to the spell)
Current mana: 65/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>>6307709
Question, is the "Armor block" a magic action or a physical action? I assume we've moved into a new "round"

>>6307710
Armor block is basically a free action since it's something that you can order with your mind. However it's better used as a last resort since one of her strikes is very likely to break or at least stun the armor long enough that she can finish you off quite fast if you don't immediately find a way to win the fight.

However to answer your question, it would be possible to do both a physical, magic, and 'free' action like sending the armor to block, however the armor mostly acts independantly since it tends to have better instincts than you.

>>6307711
So in that case, we have a free round before my attempt? I guess we should try to make it more likely to happen, but how?

Spell Displacement can be auto comboed, so.. hm. I've got an idea, see if you anons have anything else.

>>6307709
>Cast Strength
>Act as though you were trying to "grab" her wing as an attack
>Once she tries to counterattack, use armor to BLOCK then Spell Displacement + Portal Artillery Her to shoot fire bottle at Fet for smallest possible dodge chance
I'm not sure if just the bottle will finish it but if we can hit her I know how to finish her off.

And of course, if by some miracle we actually manage to grab her we can do the same and shoot her.

>>6307713
+1 let's give it a go. Trust the plan.

>>6307709

>>6307713
+1

>>6307714
>>6307738
>>6307713

You don't have much time, you cast strength on yourself, and the moment she dashes to you, you feint as if you were going to grab her wing, the fear in your eyes manages to sell the idea of a desperate struggling attempt on your part. She spins to the side to avoid your attack and to deliver a side blow.

Deep breaths.

The entire armor comes off of you and congregate to absorb her strike, the impact is so strong, the armor shatters in hundreds of pieces. This itself isn't a problem, the armor itself is made of many parts, and they can rebuild themselves later, the issue is the armor's parts are shaking uselessly on the ground, and that you're not at the full mercy of your own, very limited skill to handle her.

The good news is that the armor has scratched her wing, and she now swaps to using her other wing for offense. She's fast, but not durable, there might still be hope.

Inhale.

Exhale.

You can do this.

Mana used: (20. Strength)
Current mana: 45/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>Go through with the portal artillery plan.
>Swap tactics.

>>6307849
Wait, so, we didn't fire when the armor attacked her? I assumed that since you said counterattack we would be shooting her the moment the armor threw her offguard instead of letting her attack again.

(Mind you, this isn't implying the artillery strat is so bad that you need to swap out, I'm only giving a chance to swap tactics due to the '1 spell per turn' design of this fight.)

>>6307851
I kind of assumed the idea was that strength and grab was used as a feint to make her dodge, which did work and count as a physical action. You do still have an opportunity to hit her next turn, what happened occurred within seconds, and you can consider the next turn as her readjusting her stance. In other words, that next turn is somewhat safe.

>>6307854
Well, the strength grab was a feint, but the idea was to shoot her the moment the armor "stunned" her.

But regardless...

>>6307849
>Go through with the portal artillery plan.
I don't really have anything else, so. I guess we shoot the bottle at her. Closest possible range. Since we can control the fire, we should be good just so long as the bottle shatters in her vicinity, even if a direct hit is better.

>>6307855
Problem is Strength was the spell cast for that turn, this next turn that follows is basically her 'stunned' turn, or as close as you can get to it. She's forced to swap to her non-dominant wing, and it's clear she can't pull her dashes every second.

But yes, at this close of a range it should be entirely possible to hit the bottle almost at point blank.

>>6307856
Also, I should add most of this occurred within seconds, this is a very fast fight for a reason.

>>6307855
+1
Probably our best chance. Just be sure to double tap her with "Spread Fire" or at least "Anti-Heal" once it happens.

>>6307861
>>6307855

You go through with your original plan.

You cast Portal Artillery, and hope that the potion inside reaches her as fast it can. With Spell Displacement, the portal appears right in front of her, but she was too busy examining her hurt wing to notice it right away; by the time she does, all she can do is stare at it with a confused look, until she suddenly remembers the kind of spell this is.

It's still too late for her, the bottle hits her full force and breaks against her torso. Fire soon starts to spread and the liquid seeps under her feathers, making it even harder to get rid of.

She panics, for but a moment, you think you see the same scared Fet you've known before, as she tries to get rid of the fire by pulling out a rune from a pocket space. This gives you plenty of time for another attack.

Mana used: (30. Pocket Artillery)
Current mana: 15/115 (200 additional mana stored in runes. Using a mana storing runes costs a physical action.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>What will you do?

>>6307871
15 Mana, huh? I think I've got an idea.
>Fire Flare
If it consumes all the fuel, then that should give us a pretty big explosion, right? If it doesn't, we can just beat her to death with our strength or something, I dunno.

File: 280px-Killer_Queen_Bomb.gif (3.12 MB, 280x158)

3.12 MB GIF

>>6307871
>Cast Fire Flare

>>6307874
+1

>>6307873
>>6307874
Wait
>>6307861
Do we not Spread Fire or Anti Heal?
>she tries to get rid of the fire by pulling out a rune from a pocket space
If it's a rune that erases all flame nearby then spreading it is useless if she'll wipe it all at once, same with Anti-Heal.
>Fire soon starts to spread and the liquid seeps under her feathers, making it even harder to get rid of.
Fire Flare to nuke her so deeply that maybe one of her wing limbs gets blasted off would be fucking sick

>>6307878
>Do we not Spread Fire or Anti Heal?
We can't afford either with only 15 mana.

>>6307881
Then okay, we Fire Flare now. Next we pull mana from our runes while Fet is reeling, or can we pop Overdrive to do something else? Or do more melee damage while we have Strength used?

>>6307890
Assuming she survives the fire flare, I'd suggest just jumping her and using Strength as quickly as possible.

>>6307892
Do we go for the skull crush or other brutal move like tearing a wing off?

>>6307898
I dunno, I don't even think she'll survive the fire flare. Let's wait and see.

>>6307873
+1

>>6307871

>>6307874
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZJ2SF5y14
I really really love this old AMV by the way

>>6307899
I'll be shocked if she doesn't. Even though she's a bird beastfolk with all the physical frailty inherent to bird skeletons just scaled up, I think if she's actually some sort of ex-soldier all along then she must have some degree of prior training. We don't know if she buffed before the fight either or if this is her default true strength. Most of my assumption is that she didn't buff specifically to give Atlas a fair chance, knowing that he's her opponent from Lazari beforehand, but you never know with soldier types. Either way this fight should be over very very quickly with how Fet's insane fight efficiency. I love how this duel is laid out completely different with the QM making it action by action because of the fast-paced life-or-death struggle it is compared to all previous duels

>>6307947
Soldier or not, I don't think there's any spell at your level that protects you from being literally exploded. The liquid is in seeped in her. If the fire flare blows ALL of it up like the description says, it would be like if she got lathered with liquid explosive.

>>6307878
>>6307878
>>6307875
>>6307873

Fire Flare. A burst of flame erupts from her skin, you hear her scream, albeit not as loudly as the kind of pain this should inflict. The fire is already weakening, both due to Fire Flare consuming much of the flames and her rune, thankfully the liquid itself keeps it going long enough that you can go for a gut punch.

It seems like the flash of the explosion caused her to not notice your approach, She reels. You use your other hand to grab her so she can't flee, but you severely underestimated how good she is at wrestling, despite the fact you clearly out power her in terms of raw power, her technique still manages to keep up with you.

In fact, you're sure that if it wasn't for her hurt wing and the damage you did before with the Fire Flare, she'd be winning right now.

She scratches your eye, and you exchange a blow to her face in return. Her beak is broken, but even with that, she still manages to suplex you to the side. You think it's the end of you, but her movements become weak enough that you can still dodge them.

Fet wants to say something, but the state of her beak makes it hard.

The voice of the summoning teacher can be suddenly heard echoing from the walls of the arena.

"Fet, while we have no doubts of your combat mastery, duels are primarily meant to show how to use magic in a tense and life threatening situation. Yet I have noticed you have only used two spells during this encounter, a Pocket Space and an oxygen deprivation rune. I certainly respect your commitment to saving mana, I really do, but you must understand that currently, your grade will not be favored for holding back this much."

Fet uses this moment to heal her beak, but weirdly, no other parts of her body. "I- I didn't want to give him time to retaliate." She answers. "Giving the enemy time to-" She catches herself before saying more. "I-I understand, but isn't interrupting like- like this skewing the results of the duel?"

"Missie, the way things were going, Atlas would've undoubtedly won without more spell usage on your parts, but the victor is not all that matters in a duel. Atlas, I would say you have a passing grade, however if you want to see the duel to its conclusion, it's also your choice."

You try to consider the offer. Technically, you should only care about passing, but a part of you still wants to finish the duel. You nod, and Fet frowns.

"I'm sorry, Atlas, I didn't realize I had to use more magic than this."

"Can your body really do that without any magic boosts? That's... really impressive, to say the least."

"If I can fight without using mana, I try to. I'm sure a human like you can understand that."

>>6307950

You're not sure if you should take that last part as an insult or a compliment, but know is not the time for conversation.

Apart from her fixed beak, the situation is not that different from before the teacher intervened. She's still really hurt, and apart from your torn eye, your torn eye gives you an undeniable advantage.

However, if she's going to use more spells now, you might need to get prepared for the worst. Her speed seems to have taken a pretty substantial hit from the damage, but that doesn't mean you should underestimate her.

Mana used: (15. Fire Flare)
Current mana: 115/115 (85. Used the break time to recharge your mana.)
Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>What will you do?

>>6307953
Well, I guess she didn't NEED a spell.

Still, if her speed is gone, that's very good for us. Are we still on the 'lightning round' system or can we combo spells now?

>>6307955
You can combo spells now, although you still should avoid getting too greedy. She's still hurt enough that she can't reach you from across the room in an instant without being punished, but that doesn't make her defenseless, although you can tell her body's not gonna last much longer unless she heals herself.

>>6307953
If I was more mean, or Atlas was Intrusive Thought with the notion that her losing the fight might make Atlas like her more would probably work.

But I'm not, so...

>Charge in, use Slippy to slide into her at crazy speeds
Bluntly bodying is best for bird bone breakage.

>>6307951
>>6307948
KEK she fucking endured it
>In fact, you're sure that if it wasn't for her hurt wing and the damage you did before with the Fire Flare, she'd be winning right now.
>she still manages to suplex you to the side
Told you, soldier training at work

>>6307955
Atlas has one of his eyes unable to function because of how bad Fet scratched it, so Fet WILL exploit that blind area of his vision guaranteed.
I also assume Atlas still has Strength active from him using it earlier.

>>6307959
Hold up
>Juggernaut (30 mana)
>Severely increase the toughness of one's skin, this comes at the cost of making you much slower as the skin's weight increase tremendously. It is recommended to use a skin healing spell after the spell is over to avoid long term effects.
>>>making you much slower as the skin's weight increase tremendously
>Slippy (20 mana)
>A rune that makes something much more slippery. It will be harder to hold on to, and if applied on a surface like a floor, much more likely to make someone fall over. Despite sounding silly, it has many useful applications.
>>>if applied on a surface like a floor, much more likely to make someone fall over
What if we make use of physics and make Fet's other wing heavier then Slippy the ground beneath to make her crash very very hard? Turn her biology and bones against her? I doubt if she has taloned feet that she can get leverage on smooth stone floor as easily. Thoughts?

>>6307958
In that case...here's my new plan

>>6307953
>Cast Antiheal to stop her from healing
>Sap Life + Displacement to succ her to death
If necessary we can overdrive or get more mana, but 9 seconds should be enough to either weaken or straight up finish her off.

>>6307961
I did say SPELL. She didn't use a spell to do it. I just didn't predict she had fucking...crazy-ass guts level constitution..

Anyway, I do like that plan, but can we even do that? Cast Juggernaut on someone else, and only on a single part of her?

>>6307963
I don't know. Also she could have had weighted training to make up for her biology via some personal soldier regimen. If so, she might benefit from Juggernaut instead of being hindered by it and then we're fucked. It's a gamble if we go for that strategy in that case.

>>6307959
>>6307961
>>6307962
We got 3 plans so far
>Antiheal her into Sap Life + Spell Displacement
>Slippy into crashing into her with all our brute strength
>Juggernaut her into Slippy beneath her for severe fall damage and difficulty standing back up
Is it worth trying shit with Reinforce Belief or Intrusive Thoughts to exploit her soldier training/mentality conflicting with the duel situation? Or just fuck it and go for physical destruction? I bet she's going to go for more spells now that she's been "ordered" to do so by the teachers. Is that something we could turn on her with the mindfuck spells?

>>6307965
If we could cast Juggernaut solely on her broke wing that might help, but if we can't, I think it'd be better with just sucking her to death with Sap Life.

We definitely need to so Anti Heal though

>>6307967
The Sap Life plan can work, but could she counter that or block us from using it somehow with a spell we don't know yet? If we stay still while doing it we're screwed. There's so much that could go wrong, but we can't account for everything.
Wait a sec
>Does not stop life spells that have already been cast, only serves to stop healing spells that are currently ongoing.
Anti-Heal is useless if she isn't already healing or hasn't healed yet. This might just unheal her beak instead, which accomplishes nothing but making us waste 25 valuable mana.

>>6307967
>Fet uses this moment to heal her beak, but weirdly, no other parts of her body
I think she did that on purpose to account for Anti-Heal being a possible spell Atlas knows and could use against her. Anti-Heal feels more like a trap now than it did before. I'm against it now. She healed her beak to be able to respond to the teachers, but what if she needs to be able to speak to do something else to mindfuck us alongside a spell?

>>6307973
>>6307976
It says heal spells that have ALREADY been cast. The idea is to stop her from casting any more spells. Isn't that something it does?

If anything, her casting before wouldn't change the beak. Because it's already been cast

>>6307977
So what do we do now? If Anti-Heal doesn't work that way, then that idea is out

>>6307986
I was hoping CurseQM would answer the question about how Antiheak works and about Juggernaut.

>>6307950
her high speed wasn't due to magic buffs ? wtf
fet after using magic to boost her skills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ZIJfDY9qs

>You try to consider the offer. Technically, you should only care about passing, but a part of you still wants to finish the duel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcPgeAiK70Y

>>6307989
Alright so anti-heal is a little strange. It stops a healing spell that is ongoing, it can't stop the effect that's before or after it, nor can it stop a life spell that isn't healing. Healing we generally consider an attempt to fix a part of your body that has been changed in some way (which can cause healing spells to sometimes undo a positive effect but that's not relevant)

Anti-Heal would for example stop a regenerative effect or a healing spell that takes a while to take effect, it wouldn't undo the beak's healing, although it might have worked if you used it while she was fixing herself.

As for Juggernaut, it is possible to cast it on her (In fact, most of your Life spells can be). In fact you can probably cast it on her faster than you would on yourself, since you don't need to worry about accidentally overcasting it and messing up your balance.

>>6308094
I mean specifically casting it on her wing. Casting it on her as a whole sounds like a recipe for trouble.

Also, since Anti-Heal is a reaction spell, can we "keep it in the chamber" so to say? Cast it if she tries to cast heal?

>>6308101
Holding a spell is kind of a pain, but it's a relatively fast spell to cast, so you can look for opportunities to cast it instead of trying to keep your focus on the spell for too long.

>>6308101
Also, yes you can cast it on the wing specifically, probably easier than putting it on the entire body if anything.

>>6308101
>>6307989
Now that we have our answers, what's the verdict on our plan of choice?
>In fact you can probably cast it on her faster than you would on yourself, since you don't need to worry about accidentally overcasting it and messing up your balance.
Because this is telling me Juggernaut+Slippy is the key to further damage and interference of her actions. While she's struggling to get up, we can maybe pop Overdrive and unsheath Spell Displacement Sap Life to drainmax. Juggernaut cannot protect her from Sap Life either

>>6308104
We should probably do that. I meant we should just cast it when we can.

>>6308105
Ah, good, then I've got a plan that should combine both ideas.

>>6307953
>Cast Juggernaut on her Wounded Wing, then Slippy on the Duel Arena Floor.
>If she goes down, OVERDRIVE then Sap Life + Displacement to succ her to death
>Be prepared to cast Antiheal if she tries it
This should, I believe, give us a good chance, no? Disable her movement so she can't properly move or attack us with spells, then sap her life away while she's struggling.

>>6308109
>anon gets the same idea for course of action while I am typing
>postd it seconds after mine posts
WEW, cool hivemind moment!
Let's go +1!

>>6308109
Imagine if she does something super metal full insane, like cast Remove Hurt on herself then tear her own wounded and weighed-down wing right off of her body just to be able to regain mobility

>>6308111
Well, while she does that we can keep sapping her life, so good for us I guess.

>>6308114
Do you think going all in on Sap Life will be enough to finish her off after? We're getting a bit low on mana and the infinite mana and mana regen of Overdrive doesn't last long. Can it even heal Atlas' torn eye? Also HOLY SHIT how is our regular-ass autistic human boy even functioning after having his fucking eye ripped up in the middle of a life-or-death duel? How is he not yelling in pure agony? He didn't even Remove Hurt himself, he's just acting normally in the face of this damage. What the fuck QM? Since when is Atlas able to no-sell this?

>>6308136
Fet is already on the brink of death. Sap Life should be powerful enough to pretty much remove any strength she has until the point she just collapses.

>>6308138
>Fet is already on the brink of death
You're wrong
>Sap Life should be powerful enough to pretty much remove any strength she has
Are you sure about that?

>>6308179
She has been explicitly stated to be heavily wounded. Sap Life has been described as feeling like having your blood sucked out if you. She should not be able to just "tank" that on her state.

>>6308181
>She should not be able to just "tank" that on her state.
Uh...
>if it wasn't for her hurt wing and the damage you did before with the Fire Flare, she'd be winning right now.
>the situation is not that different from before the teacher intervened. She's still really hurt
>Her speed seems to have taken a pretty substantial hit from the damage, but that doesn't mean you should underestimate her.
I do NOT trust ANY of this. I will keep being paranoid and expecting her to power through on soldier training + adrenaline, or to asspull a spell to flip the table on us, until I finally see the update where we're out of the duel arena as the victor

>>6308186
Yeah well unless you have a better idea of how to finish her off this is the best we got.

>>6308187
>unless you have a better idea of how to finish her off
I don't. I agree this is the best plan we have for the time being. I think Atlas should still cast Remove Hurt on himself if he can and has the mana for it, unless he's going to magically (haha) power through the eye pain and the Sap Life helps him hang on through it to see Fet defeated. I hope Sap Life ends up enough provided the Juggernaut+Slippy does the job to set it up

>>6308188
I don't think Atlas is in a bad a state you say if Curse hasn't said anything about it.

>>6308186
>>6308179
>>6308110
>>6308109
>>6307965
>>6307962
>>6307961

While it's tricky at this distance, casting Juggernaut on her broken wing is only a matter of not losing focus. She notices what you're doing, and manages to barely stop it with a spell before it gets too bad.

So you do it again.

Realizing you're not about to stop, she enhances her legs to support herself, but the newly added, undistributed weight causes her wing to tear anyway. The way she's eyeing her own wing makes it seem as if she's considering cutting it off, but the added toughness of the wing makes that option less than ideal for her.

You use that distraction to prepare a Slippy spell. Suddenly, she rushes to you at incredible speed, you almost cast the Slippy spell but...

High Divination check passed

No, she ran so fast that she kicked off a dust cloud behind her? That doesn't make any sense, and the way she runs isn't logical with the added weight of her wing, and sure enough, once the dust clears, you can see her go for a hit on your blind spot; it's an obvious illusion in retrospect, but one that could've gotten you if you didn't learn more about illusions from Dill.

You release the Slippy rune under her, She's using the heaviest wing as a mace to hit you, hoping the momentum itself would be enough to harm you. Unfortunately for her, the rune makes her fall over quite hard, and she's forced to dig her talons with the one working wing she has to stop herself from rolling past you.

She unleashes some kind of ice beam, which barely grazes you. You assume this would've hit if she had a clear shot at you, maybe it's what she wanted to use if her original attack hit you.

She rolled not too far away from you, and even that simple fall seem to have made some damage. Seeing she's more or less cornered, she tries to heal herself, but you stop it with Anti-Heal the moment she tries. She lets out a tired laugh, as if she's not really surprised.

Finally, Overdrive. You can feel the mana push itself into you, and you use it with Spell Displacement to remotely take her energy. You already feel less exhausted, not just that, but your mind feels more alert too, as if the spell is draining mental stamina from her too. In a last ditch effort, she expands a portal to block your view of her, which interrupts your sap.

Something is coming out of it, a spider with giant legs-

>>6308294

Curtain Call. The portal closes itself before you get to see any more of THAT. Fet look surprised you still had enough mana left in you for that, but she used the precious second you spent staring at that spider to heal herself.

She's barely able to stand, there's only so much she could fix in such a short amount of time, but it's enough for her to try one last trick. A jump, one that shouldn't be possible with her weight, but something she pulls off anyway. She floats, static filling the air, then, a dash; one so sudden you thought it was another illusion.

You barely dodge it, she's not giving you time to cast another spell, and you don't think you can keep up. How is she managing to do all of that when she looks on the verge of passing out? A spin, a strike, a scratch, once again, you're back on the defensive.

Suddenly, dozens of metal shards embed into her body. Somehow, even with this, she keeps going, but even she has her limits, and she eventually falls.

The metal shards come off of her, and go back on you, your armor still had some life in it. You feel like you could've won even without your armor's help, she was not going to last much longer like this, but that didn't make your victory guaranteed.

The room glows bright, the duel is over.

>>6308295

--- A memory from a never ending dream ---

Fet arrived too late, once again. The bodies of her brethren littering the floor, with only one figure standing tall among the carnage.

The figure smiled, the kind of monstrous smile that one only heard about in fairy tales, that of a beast lurking in the forest that must be avoided.

But this was no beast.

"Fet, my dear Fet. You're getting slower, aren't you? And here I thought you were improving." The figure said, lowering the visor of her helmet. "You didn't have anything more important to do, did you? I'd be offended if that was the case." She crushed the head of a cat person with her boots, a sickening crunch. With a flick of a lighter, she lets the corpse pile burn.

Fet was shaking. No matter how many times she was presented with this sight, it never got any better. People were supposed to become jaded when being put into the same horrific situations again and again, but it was as if a part of her brain refused to adapt. She put herself into a fighting stance, making a quick calculation in her mind to account for the sudden changes in her soul.

The woman pulled out a sword, it vibrated ever so slightly, just enough that it could cut through anything. Despite the bloodshed around her, it remained perfectly clean. "Here's the highlight of my day, you're still the most fun part of this, you know? There's only so much killing, raping and maiming I can do until it gets old;" She listed off her atrocities as if it was a grocery list.

Fet had heard enough, a speed boost, and a reflex boost, that's all that she'd need. A zig-zag pattern followed by a direct strike. The woman casually counters with a slice, but Fet predicted this, and lowers herself to hit her legs instead. For a split second, the woman is off balance, now all she needs to do is-

The woman grabs Fet's neck in an instant, holding one of Fet's wing in another hand. "Not bad, you know, that actually took me by surprise? I wasn't even holding back or anything! But I have to ask, you'd be able to hold up with me a lot more if you had more of those fancy magic tricks, how come the longer this went, the less spells you ended up using?" The helmet disassemble itself, revealing the red haired, human woman behind it. "Could it be that this place has been draining your mana over time?" Fet's expression only confirmed the woman's suspicion, and her grin only grew wider. "HA! That's so funny! You ended up fighting more and more like a human the longer you stayed here. You overexerted yourself to save, what? A bunch of mirages? But, I'll have to give it to you, you got so much better, but sadly for you..."

>>6308297

The woman slams her to the ground, without releasing her grip. "Your body cannot improve here, and only some of your muscle memory carries over. Your spells? They don't work quite right here either, do they? What I'm trying to say is that you can try to fight me a million times here, and the odds would be so stacked against you that I might as well be using a cheat code." She caresses Fet's face, this strange display of tenderness felt more disgusting to Fet than her cruelty. "Right, you don't know what a cheat code is, do you? You girls don't even have video games, so sad. I think you're cute when you're scared, you should be scared more often, but not TOO scared."

She lets go of her, and Fet scrambled away from the swordswoman, all in vain. The bird's head was promptly decapitated, her brain only understanding one sentence before it all went black.

"This nightmare is going to be over soon, but remember, when the moment comes, the Law's Blade will find you."

---

(preparing the next choices. But I have to congratulate since this was, to some extent, almost a scripted loss. A single mistake in terms of spell choices, especially early on could've easily resulted in an instakill, and I more or less expected some bad mix of spells to fuck you over. The main tactic for this fight was to immediately exploit openings with all you have and to not play too defensively. She also had multiple ways to deal with Pocket Space shields, illusions and even Fire Flares. However wounding her early put her on the backfoot which nerfed her biggest advantage, and made the fight fairer. It's one of the few fights where I wouldn't have hesitated punishing even simple mistakes really hard, but I'm glad you pulled through.)

>>6308298
Well, that's curious. Now the first thought might be "Oh, that's Claire", but...how does it add up? Unless I missed something, that is.

I mean, think about it. We know that Claire was generally just being a normal girl with Atlas until they finished school. Unless she managed to join the guard, become a master combatant, participate in a secret war and become some lifelong nemesis to Fet within the span of like...half a year, I really don't see WHEN she could have done this.

>>6308300
Also, great fight Curse. It was really fun. The best part about this quest is having to use spells creatively to get to our goals.

>>6308301
I wouldn't consider that a spoiler since it's not like I drew the scene to tell the difference, but Claire has more blonde-ish hair, while this one's a redhead. It's a different character you never met, although she has been technically mentioned in a very subtle way before.

>>6308306
Well, I did try to check for all your past drawings of Claire, but they were all in gray so I didn't get to see what her hair color was.

>>6308300
The tension and stakes were real but we pulled it off. Armor MVP

>>6308301
No wonder Fet is so drawn to Atlas as an ordinary human and has ulterior motives for him "hidden" beneath her stuttering shrinking violet facade. No wonder she's so blatantly shady and suspicious. Bitch has a human nemesis with an HF blade like Raiden's, and she's been training extensively in secret to be able to fight her and get revenge. I wonder how the what-if with Fet will play out with her merited fear and loathing towards humans

>>6308309
You have to give it to Atlas, he really *does* punch above his weight

It almost doesn't make me want to find a way to make a gun with magic so we can just magdump people in these duels.

>>6308311
I'm still advocating that we make Atlas some powerhouse wrestler that just pokes and dwindle down people with some of his bullshit and when they're weak enough he just Zangief the fuck out of them while using Sap Life. Extra point if we invent Sap Mana and we just keep buffing and healing ourself while we powerbomb and throw the enemy around.

>>6308323
It should be said that we've been warned repeatedly that the more forward we go, the more the cost of spells will grow, and our "mana reserves" are still fairly low, even when we're using runes to cheat.

>>6308376
>runes to cheat
Not cheating if they work
>warned repeatedly that the more forward we go, the more the cost of spells will grow, and our "mana reserves" are still fairly low
Mana Up Number still helps despite diminishing returns at this stage. Other than Overdrive and Soul Expansion, what other ways do we have to overcome this? What if we combine Overdrive and Soul Expansion together?

>>6308323
>Extra point if we invent Sap Mana
What if it already exists somewhere? Could it be some combo of Sap Life and Mana Rip and other spells?

>>6308300
We're done with the first year now, right? It should be summer vacation now in-story before year two. What are the plans now other than "take on the abandoned biolab dungeon for the ghost lizard" and "try very hard not to have kids with Table"?

>>6308408
Well, we gotta prepare for the abandoned biolab dungeon and then actually go through it. If the "What if" we saw before is any proof, It won't be easy at least.

The good thing is that because of the bunker we pretty much already have a "home" we can stay on during summer when we're not traveling.

This just reminded me, shoudn't the "Forgotten" in the lab have healed up by now? We should try to do more research on it, even if Table doesn't like it. It's our best shot at researching the curse.

>>6308408
Correct. You'll still have your internship, but you're going to have some free time before and after that.

Second year will handle spells learning a bit differently. Higher focus on both spell mixing and expanding on already learned spells. You could call the first year something that defines your 'class', in that it's what your character has focused on in their first year. There will still be opportunities to learn spells you didn't, but it's something you'll have to go out of your way for instead of having them be 'free' with classes.

That doesn't mean you won't learn higher level spells in the second year, but it's more like the equivalent of going from learning a pre-made formula to making your own.

>>6308418
>You'll still have your internship
Was that the detective thing, or the human city guard thing?

>You could call the first year something that defines your 'class'
Hmm...well, just from "spell count" it seems like Atlas's strong points are Divination and to a lesser degree Material/Life, but I guess you've probably got a better outlook on what his "class" is that we'll find out at the start of the next year.

>>6308306
>inb4 it's someone from the defense force mentioned in 1 line threads ago

>>6308421
But what I wanna know is when is the long-awaited SPECIAL time for Atlas bending Table over the table in the classroom where they met? Is his moral corruption/degeneracy meter not high enough for it?

>>6308298

You're back to your dorm. You're confused, tired, and all your body can do is collapse back on your bed. There's a lot to take in, and that's something you'll address, later, for now, the comfort of your mattress is all you need.

You hear your door open, soon followed by something heavy landing on top of you. You slowly open your eyes with a groan, finding Table's face hovering a few inches away from your face.

"Hi," She says with a big smile. "Did you lose your duel? You look bummed out. I'm sure you'll pass though. Who was it against? I won my duel, by the way! It was against Dill. It was veeeery close, but then I trapped her in stone dome, and tried to take away the oxygen inside, but turns out she has runes on her body that makes her able to breathe anyway, so she flooded the dome and broke it until-"

"Dill?" You try to stand up, bumping your head against Table. Her skull, or lack thereof, is soft enough that it doesn't hurt, but it displaces her facial features a bit. "If she lost she's going to be depressed again, I have to check up on her."

Table pouts. "What about me? I should be the one to be congratulated here, and you still didn't tell me how your duel went!" She does small jumps on your bed, she's way more excited than usual.

"I won the duel, but it was exhausting. Fet's a lot stronger than she acts like. I'll be back in a minute."

Table thinks of accompanying you, but after a loss, Dill will be unstable, and might take it out on Table since she lost to her. You give Table a kiss to keep her put, and check on Dill.

One knock, two knocks, three-

"Just get in already." Dill opens the door, her voice cracking for a bit. "Did your girlfriend send you here? Was I that pathetic?"

You enter, closing the door behind you. "No, if anything she looked very happy to have won, which means you must have pushed her to her limits. That's pretty impressive."

"Joy. She gets to celebrate with her boyfriend while I... sorry, I know it's not anyone's fault. It was a close fight, that's what makes it so frustrating, I almost won, but didn't."

You drop your broken armor on the floor. "If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't have lasted more than a few seconds in my duel without your armor. Seriously, you did an incredible job on it."

She squats next to the armor to get a better look at it. "It did take quite the hit. But it's not 'my' armor, you've helped form it as much as I did. You would've figured it out eventually. Do you want me to fix it?"

You nod. "That'd be great. Oh, and the stuff you showed me about illusions, it helped me figure out when I was being tricked, that was a lifesaver too!"

She makes a disgruntled sound, but you still catch a small smile that she tries to hide. "If you say so."

For once, she isn't trying to deny the compliment. Sure, it's a very dismissive, almost sarcastic reply on her part, but it's progress. You'll get her to admit she's pretty good eventually.

>>6308730 (You)

"You should go back to your girlfriend," she says. "If she's this happy, then you should be spending that time with her. She must be annoyed you're spending it with some other girl."

She's not wrong, Table didn't look too pleased at you rushing to check on Dill. "Will you be okay, though?"

"I'm a grown woman, Atlas. I've lost more time than I can count. It stings, but I'll live. Having you check on me was nice, I suppose. You're a nice friend, Atlas," She says the last words honestly, without a hint of shame, which is unusual for her.

"You're a nice friend too, Dill."

She motions for you to leave the room. "Go spend time with Table already."

You do as she asks, happy with the improvement in Dill's mood. Back to your dorm, Table is rolling and moving around like a cat.

"Table, is it just me, or are you being a bit more energetic than usual?" You ask.

"Yup! It's because I got to use a lot of mana recently, and because i'm done shedding, so it feels like I stretched really hard. If I don't use mana for a while I feel bloated and bad, but when I spend a lot of it at once it feels great! But not always, if I spend a bunch of mana the same way it doesn't feel as good, it's like a varied diet, you know?" She pounces on you, holding herself up by your shoulder. "So. Is Dill okay?"

"I think she's doing okay, yeah, anyway I need some rest so-"

"No! I wanna do something! I'm not staying in a bed again. Wait, I know, I'll cook something for you again, just you wait!" She bolts out of the room, not even bothering to close the door. You close it behind her with a resigned sigh, this is going to be a long day.

You didn't even notice you were writing your interaction with Table this entire time, it's become such second nature your hand instinctively reaches for your drawer whenever you speak with her. Conveniently, that's also where you note other things, like what your plans are.

There's a bit of time before your magic classification internship, enough that you could investigate that vault the spirit wants you to check. You could also do more research on that forgotten in your own vault, or simply try to mix some spells in the meantime. You could also go back to the human city, but you'd rather not go there until you're done with whatever needs to be done in the school.

>Research the forgotten in your vault.
>Mix spells
>Try to gather information about the spirit's vault area.
>Something else? (Write in)

(sorry had to edit the last post a bit, but nothing too important)

>>6308734
God damnit the (you) stayed in, 4chan give me the ability to edit already.

>>6308733
>Research the forgotten in your vault.
We should start with this before doing the other stuff. Which we should do.

>>6308737
+1
Finally a break

>>6308733
>Research the forgotten in your vault.
I wonder if we can improve the bracelet. The issue is that she ends up creating too much mana right? Maybe we can find a way to have the worms transport the mana somewhere ELSE.

>>6308760
>find a way to have the worms transport the mana somewhere ELSE.
Like directly into Atlas?