Chapter 38

Adrian glanced up at the sky. It was cold, but it did not look like rain. He found a quiet-looking backyard, pulled out his sleeping bag, camp stone and then fell to sleep.

He woke up while it was still dark and some nasty clouds had covered the stars. It looked like a potential storm, but luckily it had not broken.

Time?

No answer. With a sigh, he opened up his interface and clucked around till he revealed it was 5:58 a.m., which meant it would be dawn soon.

With a second sigh, he checked his upgrade options just to see if anything had been changed. Then he frowned. He was so used to being able to influence the options presented, but with Jaracol locked away he did not have the normal level of flexibility.

The following upgrades are available.

 Two instant upgrades to standard attributes of your choice

 Two instant path skill upgrades

 Three instant half upgrades

It wasn’t that it was a bad outcome for two levels. In fact, in some ways, it seemed more than what the interface had offered, but it was annoying in that the slow but better pathway option was not being made available.

Curiously, he browsed the options, and they were the same as previously. It was what he had expected, but a small bit of him hoped that something special would present itself. It was not to be. Before selecting, he would have a chat with Kiyoko and Mike to see what was the best pathway to go down. Then there was always the chance that taking a path might upgrade other options. Master alchemy might lead to grandmaster alchemy. The path skill upgrades he was considering remained the same.

 Battle Spectre

 Qui vident omnia (he who sees all)

 Master Alchemist

 Mind Crusher

 Blue Ice and Flame Domain

Providing they were fine with it, Adrian was leaning towards the Ice and Fire Domain and the pathway of master alchemists. From the half upgrades, he had already decided to choose the upgrade to expand his herb sense to a kilometre and then maybe take another scouting option that would let him feel powerful monsters class four and above from over a kilometre away. Those were locked in unless Kiyoko and Mike both argued for an alternative else and even then, he was not sure he would change his decision. Once he made those choices, there was the final half upgrade that he had no preconceived ideas about. If possible, he would like it to be something that would help him use his berries.

Adrian shook his head and decided to find a trader. He took one step and froze before he turned to look at a nearby house.

Kiyoko stepped around it with a smile on her face. From her positioning, he was sure that she had been waiting just out of the range of his domain. “You clearly want to talk to me.”

“Yes, are you still coming with us?”

“Yes.”

“What skills should I take?”

Kiyoko’s eyes did not go unfocused like he expected. “You’re planning for the future. Yes.”

Adrian nodded. “You’re showing a lot of wisdom to ask first.”

“Well.” He stopped talking before he said something that might get Jaracol in trouble. “Given you’re an oracle I figured you can point me in the right direction.”

“And I can. If I were you, I would take the alchemist option. I think that’s an opportunity you should not pass up. After all, this might be your last ever level.” She raised a finger as he went to object. “I know you have banked experience, but that is a two-for-one deal. You need to earn half the next level yourself. As for the other upgrade, I can’t necessary guide you but I think Qui vident omnia wasn’t as good as you think, and you can probably use your half skills to grab the most powerful components of that ability,” she told him mirroring his own thoughts. “That just means you have a choice of offensive abilities. I can’t see any difference between spectre combined with strength and agility upgrade versus the blue fire and ice domain with double mana control upgrades.”

“Is that where my attributes need to go?”

“Obviously.”

“Mind Crusher?”

Kiyoko shook her head. “That one will not help you overcome any of the obstacles between here and Melbourne.”

“Which should I choose?”

“Battle spectre might be slightly better in getting to Melbourne, but double mana control will help your alchemy in the future.” She shrugged.

“How much better?”

“Not enough for me to advise you to take it.”

Adrian nodded. “I think I’ll take the temperature domain,” he told the oracle carefully.

“Yep, that’s the right choice.” She patted his arm. “You have an excellent head on your shoulders.”

“And the half upgrades?”

“Well, monster and herb sensing? Feels like a no-brainer, no?”

“Yes, and the third?”

She shrugged. “It’s your life.” With that, Kiyoko walked away and Adrian shook his head slightly unsettled. How had she known that he was considering the monster and herb sensing? That was disturbing, but understanding the intricacies of the system were beyond his pay grade.

With a thought, he accepted everything they had discussed.

Mana Control --- now 7.06 --- Plus 2.3 from double Mana Control Upgrade. --- Population - 1.21 (+.01)

The knowledge flooded into him.

First, the half upgrades were injected into his brain. The ability to sense mana over distance built heavily on Magic Focus and the domain abilities he had mastered. The extent of that dependence surprised him, and Adrian knew as the data crammed in that he could have developed the abilities by himself by expanding that part of his domain inch by inch. It would have taken years, but he could of. Then more information built up and he became confident that learning the skills early was worthwhile. He could have done it, but the time to mastery would have been too long and a single lucky find on his trip to Melbourne would more than pay for it.

The abilities, both herb sensing and monster had active and passive components to the skill. They both leveraged off mana produced by either the classed monster or the static herb. They tapped into the different mana currents that existed everywhere. It would look for distortions in the flow. Those currents Adrian discovered were always there and were mostly invisible to users. Internally, he kicked himself slightly. That flow of mana explained why magic did not get exhausted when intense spells were used. The new mana was continually rushing into the space to replenish what was being taken down. He should have guessed that something like that had to exist.

If you were down current of a major spell, then in that case there would be a lack of mana. Adrian made a mental note to keep that in mind. If he could position correctly and then cast the right spell, he could deny opponents access to magic for a period.

His new sensing domain took advantage of those flows to provide an almost three hundred and sixty-degree vision. The mathematics it ran was impressive, but it, of course, wasn’t perfect. The current flows of different mana types were independent of each other, but not evenly placed on the surrounding compass. That had implications for accuracy. If there were no currents flooding past him from a certain direction, then there would be no information available for his skill to use. Usually, at least one flavour would be positioned sufficiently close to give him some indication, but the currents were in a state of continual change and there would be times where he would be completely blind in a certain direction.

Adrian focused on the conditions currently surrounding him. The area north and northwest of him had seven currents all rushing in from there, so there was a heap of detail. However, the southeast had a ten-degree blind spot where he could sense nothing. A class one monster could be a hundred metres away in that pocket and Adrian could not tell.

On an academic level, it was fascinating. The two skills had peeled back so many layers around how the new reality was structured. The number and types of magic were clear to him. Even that unsensed flow of power explained a lot. Those currents were unnaturally fast currently and also chaotic. While each flavour of magic was independent, if you had two of the same flavour run into each other, then they would interact and the result would be a precursor to a mana storm of some description. Then, once the force started interacting with reality, the other flavours would get sucked in and then a full mana storm would spring into existence. Adrian shook his head to separate his thoughts away from pointless academic stuff, that was something he could explore later in life.

These currents contained information about what was occurring upstream of him and he could interpret that to find powerful plants or animals. That was the basis of both skills. How they sampled the currents were identical. The difference was, the mathematics used to take that incredible multitude of information and interpret it into something he could use. Those equations were beyond his ability to grasp and instead were distributed to the interface grains throughout his body. Complex calculations to translate those minuscule shifts in the mana currents into something more useful than ‘Something is there.’

The genius of the interfaces was revealed because from the code that he sensed it wasn’t something that in this lifetime or a hundred lifetimes that he would have been capable of replicating. Even the standard interfaces could acquire this skill. They were a knowledge multiplier that let people who had an interface exceed mortal bounds.

If there were powerful herbs, the interface would grant him a sense of potency, number, and type. For a monster, it would be strength, speed, class, magic power and then, if given long enough specific information on what spells the creature possessed. If the monster was in an area with five or more useful currents flowing past, Adrian would eventually get data commensurate with identification. The more currents, the faster the advanced identification would become available. The ability was that potent.

Then even more knowledge came through. There were natural items both planets and crystals in the world that possessed intense signatures but were worthless. Stuff like trees whose wood was magically hard but could not be shaped efficiently so would forever be a branch and not a spear. Minerals that trapped magic but could not be used by crafters due to their inherent instability. The skill let him avoid all those useless sources of mana. If he had attempted to develop the skill by himself, he would have had to discover each of the false positives individually.

The solution to the currents not always being in the right direction was partially solved via an active pulse. This method used mana and sent out pulses of each flavour of magic one after the other and improved the identification by an order of magnitude. The pulses obfuscated where they originated from but only to a fifty-metre area. Any sensitive monster out there would immediately know his approximate location if he used the skill. If they were receptive, they might notice the pulses from up to ten kilometres away.

The active skill came packaged with a big red caution of ‘be careful where you use it.’

With the two half pathways completed, the full pathway information started. First was the blue fire and ice domain.

His head was already hurting from the rush of complicated ideas.

The new domain skill did not care. The data rushed in. Half concepts that leant extensively on his existing knowledge base needed to be interpreted, along with the mathematical grunt work, to take advantage of the newly formed ideas. Because he had his own core, Adrian siphoned bits and pieces of the more complicated calculation into it. He couldn’t use it yet, but if he had fire and ice domain he also wanted an air domain, eventually.

Unfamiliar concepts flashed through his Mind. First, it took what he did with Flame Spout and Ice Breath and showed how the magic could be woven to intensify the power. Three times hotter and forty degrees colder, they were both a big jump. He could now melt steel effortlessly, and the upgraded ice could freeze someone’s eyelids shut instantly.

More enhancements came through. In triple blades, he transferred heat from one spot to another. This could be improved by splitting the energy at a micro-level before separating, then these small grains of refined magic could move extremely fast, letting him freeze a monster’s heart while frying the brain of something on the other side of his domain.

The expression of energy got upgraded. His wind blades used whirling currents to create a cutting blade. There were more efficient designs.

Adrian scrambled, trying to partition that slice of knowledge into his air core. Yet, even while trying to save the information he felt it slipping away. It was a little frustrating, but he guessed it would be the height of arrogance to expect to leverage this new information immediately to upgrade a different type of magic.

The fallacy of creating the magic on his spear tip or in his hand was also shared. There was no reason he couldn’t do that anywhere, providing he established a domain by continually having invisible threads of fire and ice expand around him. They could act as his proxies. The basics were the same, but these threads could spread out forty metres in every direction and once established the spells could be created where ever he desired in the surrounding area.

A torrent of information continued to flood in. The ability to impart momentum into the strikes. It was analogues to a high-pressure water jet. The fire missile now would not just burn it would knock whatever it hit backwards.

It was stunning.

He had not imagined that this level of upgrading was even possible. So much extra power and flexibility.

And those forty metres, that distance was terrifying. Two bus lengths in every direction. If someone was standing thirty-nine metres away, which was probably further than they could throw a knife, then Adrian could create a fireball behind their back that they would never see coming.

Finally, all these little bits of guiding information came together. He owned the flow of all fire mana in his domain. If someone else summoned it, then he could just wrestle the flame from their control. It was the same with ice. Any spell, lower graded than expert, he could take control of without using energy, once he learnt the weaves the spell caster used. Expert-level spells like his fire and ice blades required an extra step. Those he needed to grab hold of and infuse his own energy into before seizing them. Even master-level spells, which were not something Adrian had seen before, could be pinched through sheer domination. It took effort, and he needed to double the other creature’s mana contribution, but if he did, then the spell was his to command. It wasn’t even that costly. He countered one point of other’s mana with two of his but ended up with control of a master-level spell with one point of mana invested in it. Net for net it was an even exchange and burned his opponents’ time.

Options! That’s what it granted. It gave him extra choices.

Elation ran through him. He’d thought when selecting that domain ability that it was expert rated, but that was not the case. The domain was clearly a master-level ability.

He owned fire and ice around him.

When he opened his eyes, it was daylight. A couple of hours had passed, and he had not even absorbed the alchemy knowledge. Thankfully, it hadn’t triggered yet, and he could delay the download.

The town was bustling, the residents moving back and forth, and his identification flicked over the dozens of people in the street before settling on a level 43 fire mage.

Perfect.

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