The regional magical academy was a venerable and popular institution. While technically even melee combatants heavily utilized magic range and body/enhancement magic were considered separate outside of special cases. I didn't really like people and often was involved in typical youthful conflict because of my dispostion and it only got worse on the revelation of my Aleatory Talent as the school entry exam. No students had valid combat talents outside of physical attribute boosting traits before adulthood but bullying was still common. In the end plenty of neutral or hostile people wanted to group with a Chronomancer but people who support you when you are normal are more trustworthy.

She had a solid tier 1 Aleatory Trait. Could you really call yourself lucky if you were extraordinary but surrounded by the mundane? More importantly the style of her trait synced well with me. I actually used my first Choice Trait on Lutomancy because I knew what she was going for. There are several options for control Talents but they are quite different in their affinities. Water, Wind, and Earth all have control options later on but their pair with burst damage or healing typically. Tier 1 traits are usually high magic but their primary differentiation from Tier 0 is psychological. Time is both a rare and powerful affinity but the most important aspect is neutrality or even prestige. In contrast Miasma has a bit of negative reaction among most people. It manifests in negative ways practically as well. Earth can control but it also shields. Water cleanses. Wind refreshes. Miasma doesn't have any buffs at all. Just debuffs and gross and painful continuous damage.

In fact while I planned to take as much Elder magic as possible, as Elder magic is almost always metamagic, or self buffing, I had originally planned to take a focus in support and buffing rather than control and debuffing. *Hydromancy*, *Burnishing*, *Praestigia*, *Magesterium*. She changed things. *Tarnishing*, *Discidimancy*, *Spodimancy*, *Calumnia*, and *Septicimancy* were some of my more interesting options.

Her Traits were the same as mine, and even her Capstone was identical, but her Aleatory and Arbitrary traits were quite distinct.

Miasma Acid Splash 20 damage + 5 DoT/5s +1mark AOE 8m Range 20m Cast 2s 40 mana Infect + 2 DoT/10s +1mark Triple Target Range 20m Cast 2s 25 mana Fester 4 DoT/10s +1mark +1dmg/mark Double Target Range 20m Cast 2s 25 mana Mark+ Envenom 5 DoT/10s +3dmg/mark Single Target Range 20m Cast 2s 25 mana Tenebramancy Nightchill

1 DoT/10s +1mark +1dmg/mark

Single Target Range 20m Cast 1s 25 mana Gloom 1 DoT/10s +1mark +1s distract Single Target Range 20m Cast 1s 25 mana Obscurity Concealment 5s Self Range 20m Cast 2s 40 mana Dusk Shroud AOE 80m Self-Channel Cast 4s 40 mana +10mana/s

We were fortunate that as a Time Mage I could put out some decent impediment and buff power. We could handle low level *Dungeons* while looking for future party members. Normally lacking at least frontline member was very deleterious for casters.

There were actually over 250 Talents, including traits. Although many of those were taken up by crafting, social, or other non-combat skills. A typical adventurer topped out at around 14 Talents, 8 after excluding traits. But the cap was only limited by dungeon completion. Tiering up a Talent could be done by completing a *Mature* Dungeon with less than 8 party members, or a *Challenge* at the most Talented knew them, but a new Talent could only be provided by consuming a dungeon core of the appropriate Aspect.

Most mature *Challenges* were guarded by a town or even a great city if they had a rare aspect. Talents were primarily acquired by stumbling on a young dungeon. Young dungeons were small and unable to provide a Tier change and they produced fewer and worse resources. Some monsters and thus resources could only be found in the *Wild*, land outside a challenge with minimal human habitation. Dungeons formed relatively randomly and were often found by adventurers braving the wild.

Each dungeon core consumed provided "Essence" of which a certain amount was needed to tier up. This increased as you gained more talents. The *Wild* was slightly less valuable to farm than a dungeon but you could happen upon rare resources or a new dungeon. As you got stronger it became less valuable because your essence requirements got very high. Adventurers didn't live any long than others, and often died early from mistakes. Accessing Talents with higher requirements was hard without a good Aleatory Trait. Those with weak Aleatory traits often couldn't even survive the *Wild* but they especially had trouble reaching higher Talents. It was often safer to live a normal life in a settlement and at most farm the local mature dungeon in *Swarms* for resources.

After some time spend in the *Near Wild* and at lower levels in the Academy dungeon her sister graduated her own schooling and agreed to party with us. Her Aleatory Talent was not really synergistic but her *Party Role* was one we needed. Contegomancy was a Tier 2 defensive buff talent split between self and party buffs. More importantly the sister was a midline combatant who took Roboromancy as her Arbitrary Talent. Fortification Magic on top of Protection magic was a potent combination. Few casters would consider taking a second Low Magic Talent but with an Aleatory Talent like Contegomancy you were definitely best off taking Corporomancy, Body Magic, as a frontliner or perhaps Geomancy as a mid-liner. Alternatively you could move into a purer support and building towards Burnishing.

My new party member was possibly inspired by her big sister into moving towards a more magic focused support role. Whether you took a frontline position or a mid line one alternating between protecting the backline and casting support or DPS Contegomancy and even Roboromancy benefitted from a Physical training regimen more than a pure magical one. Just because of my own bias I might take Manasophy for that role anyway but there were other options. Shields was an interesting one. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me take a moment to describe a few 2 party members fights before we got our shieldmaiden? I consider that a proper name even if she was technically a mage.

A common enemy out in the *Near Wilds* is the Pack Wolf. And that was what my only friend and I first encountered in the deep woods beyond the Academy Gates. A level 1 Pack Wolf is a well known creature that works in groups of 3 or 4. I'm glad we bumped into one of the smaller groups. Here is their info if you don't know:

Pack Wolf Lvl 1 * 3 HP 80 Mana 40 Movespeed 10m/s Claw Slash 25 damage 2s Chomp And Shake 40 damage 2s 25 mana

They usually drop pelts, teeth, and claws, or for an intact specimen you could sell it to a reanimator.

We caught them in a clearing about 50 meters across. 3 of them, gathered 40 meters away beneath a tree. Affliction/DoT mages are similar to other DPS mages in some ways and different in others. Not a lot of burst. Going vs a single target they have a lot of advantages but even with some AOE you still have to stall for time. At least with a Tier 1 Talent like Miasma in the mix things were a bit easier.

She had Base(20)+Attunement(80)+Manasophy(50)+Staff(20)=170 mana. We had the same 40 health. Her mana went a lot farther with the cheapness involved in her spells. I had 174, though, slightly in the lead.

She started casting Dusk which triggered aggression from the mana sensitive wolves and they began their charge. I was simultaneously casting Quicken. The wolves were twice as fast as the rats covering 10m/s. I cast Slime Pool next putting the center where they'd be after the 1 second Hasted cast time. Thus the edge lined up with us exactly. The wolves were now 4 seconds out. Dusk still had 2 seconds of casting on it. I might have worked on something else but she didn't have a lot of options for when enemies were not in range.

I was already down 76 mana and I had 2 seconds of Hasted casting remaining from Quicken. I dropped another 38 mana on Stagnation one one wolf. My damage output was pitiful and expensive. Time to test the power of pure control. Then another Stagnation 1 second later. The first wolf was 2 seconds away when the Shroud unfolded over the area. The other wolves were 6 and 4 seconds distant after Slow applied on top of the Slime Pool. My ally was at 130 mana with a 10mana recurring cost. I had dropped a whopping 152 mana on control spells. That left me with 22.

I spent 9 prepping a mana strike with my staff. A strike was worth half the health of a wolf. I was going to have to take this one on my own. My staggered Hasted Stagnations had kept the other 2 wolves within ~5 meters of each other and Acid Splash, with an 8m AOE came down on them. For 25 each + a 5for5 dot and +1 mark that was a bargin at 25 mana. Meanwhile my manastrike, also taking 2 seconds, came down on the first wolf. I began my second strike for the kill as it started its claw attack. I'd take the hit but I'd live.

The stagnated wolves were now 4 and 2 seconds away from the source of their acid burns as she began her own mana strike. 2 seconds after that we both hit for 42 and 40 damage respectively. My wolf went down while hers sat at 80-25-10-42=3 health. It would die from acid burns half way through the claw attack it was starting. The other wolf was coming out of Stagnation after 4 seconds. Her second mana strike began as it moved into claw range. It had gone to 80-25-10=45 health. It hit 40. It's claw attack hit for 25 out of 40 of a low tier mages health when 5 more damage and 40 from a mana strike finished it. The other wolf had already died of the most recent acid tick.

After the brutal fight we thanked the system that there hadn't been a 4th wolf. That would have been fatal. We grabbed our loot and rushed out of the deep woods after picking up some rare frost aspected herbs. Low level mages with minimal gear were truly not meant to adventure on their own.

Even with a defensive ability specialist we would be weak without upgrades to gear. The difficulty was that to be a truly top tier crafter you needed to reach the higher talent tiers. Both stat values in relevant attributes and higher talents improved crafting. But even above average parties that wanted to adventure far and advance quickly would struggle to carry a person with half their Talents in crafting. Especially since effects you could craft were based on your own Talents. Thus the magical academy we attended could easily afford a dedicated crafter for the Manasophy staffs but it would be expensive to find top tier gear in niche elements.

We traveled to the mercantile district to pick up some low-medial gear. Our loot was not the best but we ground our way to a few tier 4-5 items while waiting for the little sister. Gear could not increase attributes which only came from Talents. But it could boost stats like health or mana or add small skill boosts at high levels like the Mage Staffs did. Two mana bracelets and a health amulet brough me up 28 health and 42 mana. Not incredible but at least I could survive an extra wolf hit and cast a couple more spells. Mana actually did recharge. Every 5 rigor and 10 attunement added 1 mana per second. However our previous fights had to end too fast for that to matter since we were soft targets. In the future this would be more relevant. I could restore 4 mana a second. A 10 second fight could earn me an extra spell.

My friend picked up the same gear set as me. And one set for her sister. Without Manasophy the girl would have some issues with mana use but taking Shields really did boost her magic quite a bit.