The next morning, Erick went to the farms immediately. He chose to forgo leveling his billiard ball aura in order to get more [Grow] in the fields. And with that choice, after 6 rounds of apple growth, and a little more, [Grow] hit 10.

Grow X, instant, touch or close range, 5 MP

Cultivate a single plant, or induce plant growth in a sphere of diameter equal to spell level in meters.

Aurify had hit level 2 somewhere in the first [Grow] cycle yesterday. But he didn’t really care about that until [Grow] itself had hit 10; it’s not like Aurify gave experience.

Aurify 2

Transform an AOE spell into a semi-permanent effect surrounding yourself, based upon the parameters of the Aurified spell. Increase an instantaneous spell to a 1 second duration in order to create an aura.

Able to support 1 aura at a time.

You may choose who or what is affected by your aura.

Doubles the range on an Aurified spell.

Exp: 9700/1000000

And by these powers combined, Erick created a masterpiece, maybe 4 seconds after [Grow] hit 10.

Growth Aura, 5 MP per second.

Induce growth in the plants you choose in a 10m radius around you.

He could opt out of growing the weeds and grasses, now. He could focus on the trees entirely. He wouldn’t get dirty looks from telekinetic pickers forced to drag their carts through high grasses! His new aura was better than he expected.

Part one of his plan to become the world’s best farmer was complete!

And then came another message from the Script.

Congratulations!

You have combined parts of the Script to create your first tier 2 spell!

May your journey into magic be wide and fruitful!

+1 ability points!

But wait, there’s more!

He had only gone through about 4200 mana by that point in the day. Sure, he was tired, but compared to before, this was nothing. And since he was here in the morning, and since Valok, Apogough, and Krakina had decided that they could amp up production a lot more with more water, they had him [Call Lightning] 3 times in a row.

Rain fell across the farms, far and wide, and larger than the day before, because [Call Lightning] had leveled, too.

Call Lightning 9, 1 minute per level, super long range, 500 MP ~{Favored Spell}~

Prepare the sky to strike an area or object of your choice for . If used in an active lightning storm, Call Lightning’s duration is as long as the natural storm. Every lighting bolt called reduces the duration of Call Lightning by 1 minute, or a natural storm by .

Exp: 1200/5500

“It might be getting too big,” Apogough said.

Krakina shushed him, “Bah! You’re scared of a little storm like that! I have rounded up thunderheads bigger than Ar’Kendrithyst! This is a little shower at most.”

“Krakina is right,” Valok said. “This isn’t bad. And it’s covering the whole farm.”

“Keeping the water table high,” Krakina said. “Makes bringing up water easier.”

“Production is up.”

“Markets are full.”

“Needs more [Grow] mages, though.”

Erick said, “I’m too tired to keep [Grow]ing today, but [Grow] finally hit 10. Got [Growth Aura] immediately after, too.”

Apogough nodded. “What version did you get? If you can’t designate targets, consider abandoning the spell.”

“I got that one.”

Valok smiled. “Lucky. Took me five tries. Five wasted days. Not a pleasant experience.”

“Do I need to go to Irogh if I don’t like the combined spell I create?”

“Nah.” Apogough said, “Just grab the text box and try crushing it in your mind. But don’t crush your new aura; you might not be able to remake the same one without a lot of trial and error.”

Krakina nodded. “My daughter, bless her soul, did this weird thing with [Stoneshape] and [Telekinesis], trying to get a spell to pull rads out of living monsters. She got the idea from the Mage Guild’s Library, and the spell she made did what she wanted, but it grabbed only the smallest rads. Wasn’t useful on anything past a slime. So she abandoned that spell, then she had to abandon that spell fifty four more times! Nothing she could make was as good as that first attempt. She got powder and fragments every single time!” Krakina lowered her voice, saying to Erick, “Powder isn’t good because all of us have powder inside.” She laughed. “Usually it comes out naturally, though!”

As the rain fizzled out, Valok asked, “You coming back in the afternoon?”

“Sure. Twice a day?”

“For a little while. We’re all pretty enthusiastic about this. We want to see if it’s sustainable.” Valok added, “Thanks for this opportunity, Erick. All of us make much more money here than in many of our homes. A lot of us would prefer to live here permanently, but we can’t because it’s impossible to farm like we normally would.”

Erick looked across the green land. As the rain was stopping, more people were kicking into high gear, casting [Grow] auras and picking plants with [Telekinesis].

Erick asked, “This isn’t normal farming?”

“Heck no!” Krakina said, “We got to gouge those transient adventurers as much as we can! Have you been to the Adventurer’s District lately? I went yesterday. That place is PACKED.”

“Word is getting around that Spur might be a tough life, but it’s getting easier with the rain, and the Headmaster’s call to action has spurred a lot more human visitation.” Apogough smiled. “Even humans from Frontier are coming over to buy our produce. That never happens.”

Erick smiled. That was all really good news. He said, “I’m tapped out. Back in the afternoon?”

“Yes. Same time. Same place.” Valok said.

“See you later.”

“Later!” Krakina said.

Apogough just nodded, and walked away with Valok.

- - - -

Erick got his quests validated, took lunch in a dragonkin cafe, then headed home for a nap. He had gone through 4575 mana by then. Just enough left on his 5250 daily limit to exhaustion to finish up three more rains in the afternoon. He was doing a lot more magic than before; without Clarity X cutting all costs by 50% and Favored Spell cutting [Call Lightning] by another 25%, he’d be in a heap of hurt.

He almost overslept, missing the afternoon rains, but he didn’t; Poi knocked on the door to his room. In minutes they were out of the apartment, on the way to the farms.

Valok and Apogough were waiting for him when he got to the farms.

Three more [Call Lightning]s and the day was done!

Call Lightning 9, 1 minute per level, super long range, 500 MP ~{Favored Spell}~

Prepare the sky to strike an area or object of your choice for . If used in an active lightning storm, Call Lightning’s duration is as long as the natural storm. Every lighting bolt called reduces the duration of Call Lightning by 1 minute, or a natural storm by .

Exp: 2700/5500

Erick was near his limit. This was a good thing, because by tomorrow afternoon, after casting [Call Lightning] 6 more times, the spell would hit 10. Then he could try making an aura with both [Call Lightning] and [Grow].

Wouldn’t that be a sight to see!

- - - -

The next morning, Erick arrived at the farms on time for a morning rain.

[Call Lightning]

wait 8 minutes...

[Call Lightning]

wait 8 minutes...

[Call Lightning]

Erick sat on a stone seat someone else had made, under someone else’s weather [Ward]; Valok, Apogough, and Krakina, sat beside him, each in their own seats. Poi stood to the side, ever ready. The seats and [Ward] were there when Erick got there. There were many similar bubbles all over the farm, where people took a break while the rain came down around them, the sky crackling with faint lightning, far above.

Erick said, “[Call Lightning] is going to hit 10 this afternoon, but I need to experiment with it as an Aura to see what I’m working with.” Erick said, “I want to try it out in the desert somewhere. Maybe even get it to 10 right now and see about making a [Grow Rain], or something.”

Poi nodded.

Valok, Apogough, and Krakina looked at each other.

Apogough said, “Ask him, Valok.”

Poi took extreme notice.

Erick, suddenly a bit more wary, said, “Ask me what?”

Valok said, “The Council has been talking among ourselves and our people about our future plans. We came to a preliminary decision last night. We want to try opening some farm land north west of this farm. There’s no water table over there, though. So we’re considering cattle and other livestock, and we need a pasture to feed them. But all of that relies on your participation.”

Oh? That’s all? That was great! That fell pretty much exactly in line with Erick’s plans.

“I accept.” Erick quickly added some caveats. “But I want a cut.”

“Of course you get a cut!” Krakina said, “I’m going to demand a cut, too, when I take back my job.”

“How much money are we talking?” Erick asked, “What’s the plan?”

Valok said, “Your 10 gold a day for the rain will turn into 15. You will be offered a job as an official employee of the City, like Krakina and Al, for example. But your only duty will be the rain. We’ll work out a proper schedule later, but if you keep coming out to the farm like this, then we can work with you instead of assigning a time to cast the rain.”

Apogough said, “We’re thinking of bringing my father in to start the farm. He’s been a cattle rancher for decades, and he already has a connection here in Spur. His plan is 50 cattle to start, and he already has a stock able to arrive as soon as we’re ready. Spur is a very high-mana area, so the cattle’ll grow faster than normal. If they become monstrous, which we think they will, each cow will sell for 300 to 400 gold and reach maturity in three months. If they don’t, then it’s a 10 month timetable, and only 40G to 60G per head. We’re offering you 5% of the profit on meat sales. Meaning anywhere between 2 to 17 gold per cow, for you. Best case scenario, with 50 herd of cattle, you pull in an extra 10G per day.”

Valok said, “The cows will eat a lot of food if they become monstrous. If you can make a [Grow Rain Aura] then we’ll need to recalculate costs, and you will get a bigger cut. Either from meat profits, or from your role as an employee of Spur. Potentially up to 20 gold per day, for now.”

Krakina said, “This is all talk and speculation! We do this proper in the Courthouse under a truthstone if you want to go forward.”

“If the cattle become monstrous, then we can also start selling off the kill rights.” Apogough said, “Monstrous cattle can be anywhere from level 10 to 25.”

Suddenly dismayed, Erick said, “Level 25… cows?”

“Yeah. I once saw a level 30 cow. That thing was terrifying. They let it live for way too long.” Apogough said, “If we start selling the kill rights, then that’s even more money. You’d get 5% of that, too.”

Erick joked, “I could start my own farm and grind out experience all on my own!”

Krakina laughed, but Apogough and Valok frowned.

Valok asked, “Are you interested in that sort of thing? Would you like to be a cattle rancher? That is another option, but we didn’t know how you felt.”

“Heck no!” Erick laughed again. “I’ll get paid by the city and take some profit from being the only one in the world with this magic, and thus the only way you’re ever going to get this operation off of the ground.”

He let that sink in a bit.

Krakina smiled. Valok and Apogough’s frowns vanished, in a business sort of way.

“So let’s make this profitable for everyone because I sure as hell ain’t gonna start a monster ranch on my own.” Erick said, “But I want access to the books to make sure I’m not getting bent over by some big business.”

Valok and Apogough smiled. Krakina laughed.

Apogough said, “We’ll agree to that.”

Erick smiled, adding, “I might want to get in on that monstrous cattle slaying, too. I could use another level 30 kill. That’s what the shadowcats were, right?”

Valok and Apogough looked at him like he had said something strange.

Krakina said, “Participation percentage on your own raised monsters is not great. Very low. Better to sell the rights to the freshly matriculated. Oh! I know.” She pointed toward the desert with a long grey wing feather. “I take you out and you zappy zappy a crystal mimic or three! Can you fly yet?”

“Not yet. But I was—”

“Bah! Making storms before you can fly! Terrible, terrible! Such bad discipline! What is Al doing with you! Do you even have the spells to make a [Fly]?”

Erick smiled to himself, waiting for his turn to speak. When it came, he said, “I was joking about killing the cows. I’ll eat it and participate in their growth, but actually killing them? I can leave that to the kids.” Erick asked, “Where does the participation percentage come from, anyway?”

Valok nodded, saying, “The God of Death doesn’t like people killing monsters they raise, so he drops the participation to 1%. He drops the participation to 1% anytime anyone kills a monster too easily. Even when we sell the kill rights for a monster cow, the buyer has the option to enter a battle ring and kill the cow that way for a chance at a higher percentage.”

Apogough said, “I’ve seen people die in those rings before. Not pretty.”

“A god decides Participation?” Erick said, “I didn’t know that.”

Then he remembered Bacci saying that she got 2% Participation from killing the Sewerhouse intruders.

A sudden spike of dread shot through Erick. Another question came to him, and he almost didn’t want to ask what he needed to know. “Some god in charge is actively choosing that number? That’s horrifying. Do they decide the experience granted by killing people, too? Are people just walking bags of experience?”

Erick looked at Poi. Poi looked rather normal; he didn’t look suddenly wary. If someone asked a question like that around Erick, it would be setting off all sorts of red flags. Alarms would be blaring.

But. Apparently. Erick was the only one feeling a chill in the air.

Krakina chuckled.

Apogough shook his head.

Valok said, “If someone were to attack you first with the intent to kill, then there might be some Participation awarded, if you won. But…” Valok frowned. “No. People aren’t walking ‘bags of experience’.”

Apogough said, “There’s duels. Those grant 100% experience.” He added, “Dueling is illegal in Spur.”

Poi joined the conversation, “There is another exception to this rule. While Phagar, the God of Death, decides the vast majority of Participation, the Abyssal Legion and the Celestial Choir determine the Participation of any fight between a human and an incani.”

Cold welled inside Erick’s chest.

Krakina added, “You’re a Planar though. No Angelic prod at your back, telling you that killing any incani would give you 100% Participation.” She looked toward Spur. “I hope those humans in town are gonna be okay.”

Apogough said, “Silverite had a lock down on Human/Incani fighting for hundreds of years before the Great Purge. Not sure how she managed to do that, but she knows what she’s doing.”

“It’s an evil thing those angels and demons do to the rest of us.” Valok spat on the ground.

Erick’s voice was a squeak, “No kidding.”

A warm breeze blew, the clouds overhead cleared enough for the sun to peek through.

Apogough said, “He didn’t know.”

Poi and Valok frowned.

Krakina said, “I’m sure Spur will be fine. Not your fault that Angels and Demons are assholes. And people make their own choices! Don’t forget that.”

The rest of them nodded, watching the skies clear. Erick watched too, the final seconds of his spell dissipating into a flowing cloud, drifting to pieces on the desert winds.

Erick tried to relax by changing the subject. “Where’s the expansion? I’d like to level [Call Lightning] to 10 and see about creating that [Grow] spell today.”

Valok said, “Yeah. Sure. Krakina?”

“I’ve got time and mana to step into the forest.” Krakina walked out of the weather [Ward], toward the Crystal Desert. “You might be able to zappy zap a mimic, too! Good fortune, if so!”

Valok said, “And, Erick? You can work on your magic and go home for the day. Don’t worry about the afternoon rain. With as much water as I think you’re going to dump over there, the water table under the farm will be full to bursting.”

“Yes yes!” Krakina said, “Let’s go, Erick.”

Erick put on a happy face, stepping to walk beside Krakina, trying not to think about demons and angels incentivizing murder. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. As they walked past fields of lush wheat, and farmers scything down the golden stalks, Erick asked, “Are angels different from gods?”

“Oh my yes.” Krakina said, “It’s all exceedingly complicated!”

Erick waited for a better answer.

“And?”

Krakina laughed, “And? And I know next to nothing about all of that! I hear it’s all exceedingly complicated, and that’s as much as I poke my nose into the racial wars of other species. I hear dragons are also complicated; they eat each other!” Krakina shivered, her grey feathers puffing up. “War is understandable; people are dumb and angry. But cannibalism! Creepy!”

Erick almost stopped in his tracks. Dragons eat other dragons? What the fuck?

Erick looked at Poi. Not really for confirmation, but because he had a sudden thought about Poi chowing down on some other unfortunate dragonkin.

Poi nodded, saying, “Dragons are cannibals when they can get away with it, yes. But you never see a dragon in their natural form unless they’re monsterized and eating everyone in sight. They’re always [Polymorph]ed as some other species. One of the very few dragons to live openly is the Headmaster of Oceanside Academy, and he only lives that way because he’s as old as the Script and no one messes with him, if they want to stay alive.”

Not why he was looking at Poi, but okay.

As that was sinking in, Erick thought back to the Quiet War and about angels and demons incentivizing war with Participation values.

It was all pretty fucking fucked up, is what it was!

There was a lot of fucked up shit on Veird!

Erick said, “That’s all pretty fucked up.”

Krakina said, enthusiastically, “Oh yes! I agree! But funny enough, dragonkin aren’t cannibals; I was worried about that when I first heard dragons ate each other when I was a hatchling. But dragonkin are probably the least fucked up people on Veird, so Spur is a pretty great place.” She glanced over at Poi, smirking, “Nice to look at, too.”

Poi smiled at that.

Erick looked at Poi. Really looked. He said, “I gotta say, the scales are really pretty.”

Poi smiled a bit wider, and walked with a bit more bounce in his step.

- - - -

Erick, Poi, and Krakina stood under separate weather [Ward]s well outside of the farms, exactly in the middle of where the expansion would be, if everything worked out as everyone hoped. It was a thirty minute hike to get out this far. Walking back might be easier or harder depending on what a lot of rain did to the land around them, and how an Aurified [Call Lightning] operated.

Erick looked across the Crystal Desert, all around them. The nearest crystal agave was a hundred feet that way; the next nearest 200 feet in the other direction. Glow bugs floated in the air.

Aurify.

[Call Lightning].

Nothing seemed to be happening, but. Yes. There was… something. Something small. Four seconds passed. Erick felt the loss of a single mana flowing away, soaking into the wind. A faint, almost invisible fog hung in the air around him. More seconds passed. More mist joined the air.

Krakina said, “The air feels moist, but it’s barely fog.”

Erick felt more mana leave, as slow as before. He was afraid of billowing lightning, filling the land and spreading like a crazy uncontrolled storm, but this was…

Ah. This was still mentally taxing. Like holding a 1 pound dumbbell above his head, he was not about to do this for however long it took to see a response. If this was the aura, then he’d wait until he made an actual aura to see how it operated. He sealed off Aurify and [Call Lightning]. The fog around him remained like a gentle whisper, before the wind carried it away.

Erick looked up.

[Call Lightning]

125 mana left his body, 500 experience added to [Call Lightning], and the sky above darkened with roiling clouds.

[Call Lightning].

The sky roiled deeper, harder. Flashes of light appeared overhead. Thunder rolled across the Crystal Forest. The agave a hundred feet away began to tinkle and crinkle in the wind.

Krakina asked, “Is that two of them at once?”

“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but yeah. It’s two at once.”

Rain fell across the land, splattering sand at first, but then wetting it down, turning dry dirt into a solid wet mass. Streams appeared in the soil as the rain came down harder.

“Yup!” Erick said, over the noise of the rain. “Right to rain! No need to wait.”

The weather [Ward] stopped the rain from hitting from above, and as Erick watched streams form in the wet sand, it appeared the [Ward] also stopped water flowing in from the side.

Meditation.

There were no shadows or eyes out here except up in the sky, and those were all tricks of the light. [Call Lightning] was one cast away from 10, so it was time to experiment a bit more, now that there were clouds above him to control.

Aurify.

[Call Lightning]

The mist was instant this time, spreading across the land like a fog rolling in, filling in the gaps between the rain and blocking sight past 30 feet. Erick pulled with the second aspect of Aurify, trying to choose who or what was affected by his aura, or not.

Mana flowed out of Erick, 6 mana gone in a second, and the storm yawned open above him. Blue sky appeared in a 50 yard circle of clouds, like a sightless god looking down from above. The storm was pushed to the side. Rain fell everywhere but around the three people and their weather [Ward]s.

Krakina stared at the sky in awe. Poi stared with a perfectly poised face.

Erick pushed again with his aura. 6 more mana flowed, and the sky changed again.

The hole above closed. Dimples appeared in the rest of the storm.

Hmm. That’s not what I wanted.

He tossed mana at the sky through his aura, 60 all in one go. The sky moved. Holes appeared everywhere. That seemed to be the wrong move, because the original spell disrupted. The tiny flashes of lightning ceased as wind began to drag the clouds away. Erick had accidentally killed the [Call Lightning] in the sky; all he had left was his foggy aura.

“Were you trying to do that?” Krakina asked.

“Not really.” Erick brushed a hand at the heavy fog around him. “But the spell is still here.”

“Can you make that fog discharge?”

“I don’t know.”

Erick hummed. As the rain eventually stopped, the fog seemed to be more solid. Slowly, mana flowed out of him, into the fog.

A crackle of light appeared in the depths of the fog, near the ground.

Erick exclaimed, “Oh! I get it!”

The fog was the spell brushing against itself, generating charge, but the process was disrupted by the rain. Now that the rain was gone, the charge was coming back. He had kept a close eye on his mana the whole time, too, so that was another clue as to what was happening with the lightning part of his spell.

He said, “I’m going to try a strike, now.”

Poi said, “Okay!”

Krakina said, “FINALLY!”

Erick willed a bolt into the ground a hundred feet over there—

Craacchhthck-BOOM-OOM-OOM!

The land filled with reverberating lightning as a thousand tiny sparks joined into a crash of power that blanketed the air in a thousand foot sphere, a hundred feet away, surrounding Erick’s [Ward] in a wash of white death. The blast cleared, but lingers of lightning skittered across the ground, rushing up and over Erick’s [Ward] like a sudden infestation of lightning spiders.

Krakina cackled with joy. “Do it again!”

“NO!” Poi and Erick yelled.

As Krakina grumbled and Erick thought he might need to [Cleanse] himself, he ended the spell. Erick tried to relax. He tried to breathe. His nose filled with the orange tang of ozone. It was actually a rather nice smell, but it was overpowering in some primal way.

Two blue boxes appeared, confirming Erick’s hypothesis.

Call Lightning X, 1 minute per level, super long range, 500 MP ~{Favored Spell}~

Prepare the sky to strike an area or object of your choice for . If used in an active lightning storm, Call Lightning’s duration is as long as the natural storm. Every lighting bolt called reduces the duration of Call Lightning by 1 minute, or a natural storm by .

Lightning Aura, 1 MP per second, super long range ~{Favored Spell}~

Prepare the air around you to strike for . One strike available every 50 MP.

Yup. Just like he thought: He was impatient the first time; he didn’t wait long enough for the spell to charge.

The numbers were roughly close to [Call Lightning], if a bit higher.

Favored Spell carried over to the Aura.

All good things! Terrifying things, but… ‘good’, too, he supposed.

As the fog completely cleared, Erick gazed across the land, and the land was scorched.

Okay. Maybe this wasn’t a good outcome.

Yard and foot long filaments of sandy glass had been blasted out of the ground like iron filings standing up on a magnet. The devastation was larger at the center of the blast, rivaling the size of the nearest crystal agave…

… of which there were none in sight. Erick had fried— Ah! There was one, outside of the blast. Huh. It actually looked just fine. It glowed a bit stronger than usual, though. Hmm.

Poi let out a long, drawn out sigh, audible from over 20 feet away.

“Damn! Look at that!” Krakina shouted, “I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“Never using that again...” Erick muttered.

The crystal agave sparked.

Erick stared at it. “What’s happening with that?”

Poi said, “It won’t hit us from here.”

Krakina cackled, “I’ve seen those spear people out of the sky! I hope we’re all lucky!”

Uh-oh.

Erick watched as the crystal agave pulsed brighter. Brighter. It was radiant now—

BOOM!

The agave’s crystal spike-leaves flew off in every direction like projectile weapons, as a controlled explosion rocked the plant’s core. A crystal spear shunked into the soil 10 feet from Erick. It still glowed, but that glow faded, and the plant laid still. Erick’s heart beat hard.

“That was close,” Poi said.

“They’re easier to pick up like that,” Krakina said. “Blast the rest of them!”

“NO,” Erick and Poi said at the same time.

“Bahh! No fun!”

“I’m plenty of fun, but all of this…” Erick waved a hand at the spiky, glassed ground all around him. “I’d like my magic to stop making me look like a bad guy, gunning for armageddon.”

Krakina said, “You have no perspective! I might not have seen something like that before, but I have seen impressive acts, and yours doesn’t even punch through a weather [Ward]!”

And I hope it never does.

Erick said, “I’m starting again.”

Krakina shrieked in joy. “Go go go! Do it!”

[Lightning Aura]

Fog returned in sparse drips of mana. Holding his aura open this time was like flipping a switch; the tiny weight on his mind nonexistent. This was much easier than using Aurify.

[Grow].

The land around him did nothing. Erick hummed. Maybe…

[Grow Aura]

The fog vanished as mana dropped out of Erick at a steady rate of 5 every two seconds. He cut that aura fast; he was already kinda low. Meditation brought his mana back up, but not fast enough compared to how he could spend it.

Erick looked to Krakina. “How do you usually combine spells?”

“You cast them both at the same time! Easy.”

“Two auras?”

“Same way.”

… Then what was he doing wrong?

… Maybe the problem was fundamental. There was an easy way to test his hypothesis.

Erick said, “I’m going to try to Mana Alter the [Lightning Aura] into bludgeoning. You two have damage wards up, right?”

Poi and Krakina both instantly popped with different glittering absorption [Ward] light. Krakina’s new [Ward] was pale green; Poi’s was bright blue. Both overlapped.

Poi said, “Careful, Mage Flatt.”

“I know, I know.”

Mana Altering: Bludgeoning

[Lighting Aura]

ERROR!