Chapter 13

Where to Begin?

“Advanced magic,” Garmar said.

I’d asked to speak with him about crafting legendary items. At first he sort of brushed me off. My persistence must have done the trick because he agreed to share a meal at the guild post bar so we could talk.

“What do you mean advanced?” I said as we received our food and drink. “From what I know, legendary heroes make legendary items from a massive mana pool right? Isn’t that all I would need?”

“You’re thinking you can just put a bunch of runes together. It’s not quite as simple as that. We all use runes to create magic because that’s easy and freely accessible. A lot of other items don’t use runes. Take your braid, for instance. Ghospo’s braid, right?. It has no rune. Some things are inherently magic. These are usually born in the hands of divines, deities and demi-deities.”

“What about legendary heroes?”

“First off Tosin, not all heroes are legendary. Not all legends are heroes. But anyways, legendary heroes have the potential to craft legendary items which are inherently magic. The reason is that they have access to parts of the world that others do not. Experience, power, alignments and reputation gets them there.”

“What parts of the world?”

Garmar gave a heavy sigh and went through half his sandwich. He was preoccupied by something. I could only guess that he was considering what I’d asked, so I gave him time to put his thoughts together.

“The problem,” he continued after a slurp of hot coffee, “is that there are a ton of different parts of the world where legendary items, spells, and artifacts are made. As a healer, you might want to start learning more about planes, for instance.”

“Planes?”

“Realms of transitory existence. They are numerous and most are restricted by class. For example, anciennes have the opportunity to visit the Daeder Oak once every full moon. The Daeder Oak exists on the Daeder plane. The tree appears as a bridge between this world and the plane.”

“There’s one for healers, I take it?” I said.

“Specific kinds of healers. Gaining entry depends entirely on the whim of the realm master. Honestly Tosin, I don’t know a whole lot about it. However, you’re doing the right thing by asking questions. Do some more reading, keep asking questions, but hear me out. You must be as cautious exploring planes as you are exploring dungeons—if not more so. Planes offer danger on a completely different level.”

Garmar had then gone on to tell me he wasn’t worried about me entering planes. He’d said I was too inexperienced and it would be years before that would happen. Garmar himself was too inexperienced.

That only left me even more curious about planes. I began to wonder if Boera and Ghospo’s temples had been planes or not. I didn’t think so, but I remember the interior of both temples being out of this world. Both environments had changed when I met each divine. I thought maybe I could find some answers at the Owl’s Nest.

The path to the library was quite fun. Instead of channels of snow, a long tunnel had been carved. The arch above didn’t seem too thick because it glowed with sunlight.

I met Meeloe upon entering, and of course he only recognized me by the book I had nearly finished some time ago.

“Yes, yes,” he said. “Welcome back. Will you continue or will you fulfill other desires on this cold day?”

“Perhaps you can help me,” I said.

The old man leaned in. When he did, his senses seemed to open in curiosity. His wrinkles parted enough to really let an eye open. An ear dangled, sagging from old age.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“I want to learn how to craft legendary items. Garmar had mentioned planes, but really I don’t know where to start.”

“The arcane,” Meeloe said with a dilatory nod. “If you’re committed to the healer class, I suggest you begin with the holy planes. That’s a good place to start. Why don’t you follow me?”

He brought me to a section near where I’d studied last time. There were about three dozen books whose topics covered planes and legendary items specific to the healer path. After drawing some information from me on where my interests were specifically laid, he suggested four books to begin with. Then he simply walked away, leaving me gawking at the titles of each thick volume.

“Legendary Artifacts. Vol I. A Marriage of Arcane and Rune.”

“Legendary Runes. Vol I. To Break and Twist a Rune.”

“Realm & Plane. Vol X. Absolute Healer. An Introduction to Holy Planes.”

“Realm & Plane. Vol XVI. Master Healer. Holy Plane.”

After reading the first page of each book, I decided to go with “Realm & Plane. Vol X. Absolute Healer. An Introduction to Holy Planes.” I left the other books on a small side table at the end of the row. Then I turned to cross a few more rows and plopped myself on a couch.

The author must have been quite old and quite schooled at the time of writing. The text wasn’t as straightforward as other books I’d read. It was written more academically, which made reading a bit slower than normal. A bit more tedious. Laborious.

There were several holy planes in and around Felke. More would manifest. More would collapse. Above all, there was a singular holy plane that was mastered by none. That one was simply known as the holy plane. It was the only one without a realm master. Entry was restricted only to masters of other planes, and masters of other realms, so long as alignments were pure and allegiances had been sworn to that holy plane itself. Which meant that it was a realm that was basically unobtainable.

Other holy planes were named after their masters. The Holy Plane of Matilde was one of the original and longest lasting holy planes. Being such an ancient holy plane, Matilde was also one of the most stringent when it came to those asking to enter. Centuries often went by without new entrants.

I was fascinated to learn of the requirements. One must be aligned with all the divines of light based magics. One must have no alliances with demi-deities or mortal legends. Ten thousand people must have received healing by holy light at the hands of those who sought entrance. Entrants must enter disembodied.

The author then noted that the full list of requirements continued later on in the volume. The excerpt listed was only to serve as an example.

Other holy planes were listed in chronological order. It seemed that the younger the holy plane, the less that was required to enter. The holy plane of Vicen was used as an example of the youngest.

Vicen was a demi-deity of light healing, requiring that no allegiances be made with entities outside of the healer class. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to enter given my alignment to both Boera and Ghospo. Other requirements were also listed. Five years of devotion. Turning a legendary dungeon fallow. Lighting a Vicen’s torch.

“But what about crafting legendary items,” I muttered.

I read through the day, through the evening, and far into the night. There was mention that legendary items, artifacts, and spells had origins linked to holy planes, but not much else. I wondered if perhaps that’s why scholars weren’t able to deconstruct Axthose’s gourd of healing.

“The only thing I can plan to do is eventually enter one of these planes and go from there. At least until I know more.”

I did know two things so far. Legendary items were often crafted from a gigantic sum of mana points, and part of the item's origins must have come from these planes. As far as mana went, I already had a leg up because of my spellbook. Absorbing today’s crystals had brought me just over 1000 points of mana. Within a few years, I’d be well on my way to acquiring the numbers I thought would be sufficient to craft something legendary. The spellbook alone wouldn’t help, so I needed to do something else. Higher level dungeons would mean higher value mana crystals. I wondered how high I’d need to go in order to double the mana I was receiving from my spellbook daily.

Level 100? What would a legendary dungeon earn me? If I had enough income, how many man crystals could I afford to purchase? Were there other ways to acquire mana points I wasn’t yet familiar with?

I had to stop. My brain was whirling with thoughts, ideas, and questions. I was tired from staying up all night reading. My eyes burned, though the library was well lit. I was also hungry and quite thirsty, having already gone through the contents of my waterskin many hours ago.

“Alright,” I said. “I need to level up so that I can explore higher level dungeons so that I can earn more mana. Then I need to eventually check my alliances and alignments so that I meet the requirements to enter holy planes. Then I need to just figure it out from there I guess.”

Questions remained: How soon could I enter a holy plane? How soon could I have nearly a million mana points? How soon could I craft legendary healing fountains? Would ending my alignment to Ghospo and Boera affect me negatively? Were there other planes I could enter that weren’t particular to healers? Given the requirements holy planes had for healers, I seriously doubted there were other planes I could enter. Though I was stuck in the healer class, It was still worth a look.

I planned to do that after the next dungeon chain. We’d decided to leave for the dungeon the day after tomorrow, which still gave me time to think about some spells.

The way back through the tunnel of snow was annoying. I had no source of light—still—which I remedied right away the next morning. I bought myself 5 torches with ignition runes for 1 silver each and leveled up slots in my inventory pouch to fit them in.

Then I perused through a tome of healer’s spells at the guild post healer’s booth. There were a couple of things I was looking for. I wanted to pick out a shield spell, and I wanted to find an offensive spell. Most every spell was way out of my price range. They were all listed with an explanation and I ended up spending 1 gold on a Silver Light Kite Shield spell. Then I spent another gold on Burning Flare. I was given the runes on two scrolls and I tucked them safely away.

I decided to fold away Boera’s Flux into my inventory bag. That way I wouldn’t accidentally cast it when my Spectre Sentinel struck the flagstaff down. I could always pull it out and cast it directly–even in the middle of battle.

Priority number two was to repair my cloak and vest. Repairs cost me 20 silver, and I decided to spend some mana leveling them up a little bit so they’d be more durable. My mana pool dipped below 1000 again.

I spent some time with the party the rest of the day. Then Pelle and I returned to our dorm and I took the opportunity to transfer my new scrolls into my spellbook. She was curious no doubt, so I shared what they were.

“Silver Light Kite Shield casts an almond shaped shield made of silver light that temporarily blocks damage. It has a starting armor rating of 50. Not as cool as Star Armor though.”

“Yea, I feel like I got lucky with Star Armor,” she said. “What about the other one?”

“Burning Flare is an offensive spell that deals fifty damage to the first enemy, then goes through them, dealing half as much for every enemy in its line of fire after that. It also heals allies for twenty as it passes through them.”

“I can’t wait to see you use it! I did some shopping myself, by the way! New set of armor. Wanna see?”

Pelle had invested in a full suit of white leather armor. She even had a leather robe that covered the whole suit, with a trim of fur. It made her look like an experienced adventurer. It’s amazing what a coordinated outfit could do.

“I’ve had my eye on this outfit for a while,” she said. “I’ve been saving up for it and decided it was time.”

“Well you’re definitely going to appreciate it quite soon since we’re traveling to the next dungeon chain tomorrow.”