Excerpt from the first draft of An Earthling’s Guide to the Larger Universe

Technology and Magic

Earth is highly technological; this is unusual. Most places use magic for what we use technology for. The problem with using magic for everything is that it generally doesn’t scale well. You have to have a person, generally a highly skilled person, do anything that needs to be done. Yes, they can make a dishwasher or a vacuum cleaner - but they can’t make it affordable enough for everyone to afford one.

So why don’t they use technology? Does magic interfere somehow?

With only a few exceptions, magic and technology don’t interfere with each other. In fact, it’s entirely possible to make magitech, and there is a Technology Affinity.

The real reason is unfortunate but simple. Once you know how to do something, why would you spend time developing something expensive that isn’t better - at least not quickly? It’s something that happens to technology as well; basic research is expensive, and no one really wants to fund it with no promise of results.

In the larger universe, basic research is performed on magic. Technology simply isn’t a separate thing, and almost everything that is made is made using magic. Most things use magic to function as well. This creates a very high demand for monster cores, which …

Serenity slowly chased the wyrm around the arena for several minutes until the wyrm seemed to become fed up with retreating and halfheartedly struck out at him. Serenity didn’t even bother to dodge; it was clear it couldn’t reach him, even with the size-changing magic. “That’s the best you can do?”

Serenity didn’t expect the wyrm to understand him, but it almost immediately stuck out at him again. Off-balance and slower, with only a single eye, the wyrm didn’t stand a chance. Serenity still had to stay longer than was safe, but he felt the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten its other eye as he dove out of the way.

Unfortunately, his dive wasn’t fast enough, and the wyrm caught his lower right leg in its maw. It penetrated his armor, but its teeth were stopped by his hardened scales. Serenity felt extremely grateful to have used the Skill; it was working out for the best.

The wyrm also couldn’t attack anything else while it was latched onto his leg, and it wasn’t letting go. That was far less positive. The pressure was slowly draining his mana, essence, and stamina, but he was nowhere near out; even though his mana was the lowest of the three, it was well above half still and the drain was slow. He’d probably run out of stamina first.

Serenity kicked the wyrm’s head several times, but it didn’t seem to help. He needed something that would get the wyrm to leave him alone.

On the other hand, if it wouldn’t let go, maybe he had time to actually cast a spell?

No, he was being stupid. There was an easier way than that. Serenity picked up his ax and tapped it against the wyrm’s head. He expected that to make the wyrm’s beastmaster call it off of him, since it was obvious he could have killed the wyrm.

Instead, the wyrm suddenly started to shrink. It was still clamped on to him, but as it shrunk it was pulled across his leg, tearing the armor but not even scuffing Serenity’s reinforced scales. When it finished shrinking, it was about a third of its full size and gripping only armor; its jaw was no longer wide enough to close around Serenity’s calf.

Serenity kicked it again and it moved. That was encouraging, so he kicked it two more times, pushing it off his armor.

Serenity backed up and checked. It was definitely still alive, even though it wasn’t moving. “Is that enough or do I need to hit it again?”

There was a short pause, then the verdict came from the stands in a voice Serenity hadn’t heard before. “That’s enough. Well done. Are you up for one more fight?”

Serenity’s side was finally healed and his leg wasn’t injured. A quick check told him his resources other than mana were all above half, but even his mana was sitting at about a quarter; the biggest cost by far was the momentary shield. His shield and armor wouldn’t be repaired, but he doubted they’d make a big difference at this point.

Having already used his tattoo was far more relevant, but it was possible it would work again in an emergency; he did still have mana left. Of course, given his recent reaction to running out of mana, that might be worse than just taking the hit.

He’d just have to not get hit again.

If he’d realized his ax would work that well on the fluxwyrm’s shifting he might have been able to handle it better - but then again, it hadn’t worked the same way when he smashed its second eye. “I can go one more round.”

A small silver car drove up behind Rissa and parked. She’d seen a few other vehicles come down the side street in the time she’d waited on Serenity, but none had stopped.

Rissa watched in her rear-view mirror as a brunette woman dressed in a nice gray pantsuit got out of the car and came forward to Rissa’s window. When she knocked on the window, Rissa rolled it down.

“Are you Rissa Latimer?”

“Yes?” Why did this woman know her name? What did she want? She didn’t feel angry; it felt more like worry.

The woman sighed in relief. “I’m in the right place, then. Good. I tried to call, but Mr. Rothmer didn’t answer his phone, and I don’t have your number. I’m Madelyn Alexander; I’m with the State Department. I’m supposed to be talking to some geckos about a trade agreement.” She wasn’t able to keep her voice steady, but Rissa had to give her credit for keeping a straight face with the level of disbelief she felt.

Rissa nodded. “The Traa. I don’t know how long it’ll be; they wanted to test Serenity before they’d talk to anyone about trade. You know what they want, right?”

Madelyn Alexander shook her head. “Assume I know nothing. I got the assignment this morning, just in time to pack and catch a flight. Is the Serenity you’re talking about…?”

Rissa chuckled. At least this would be a distraction. She’d made very little progress on the book she was attempting to read while she waited; she was too anxious for Serenity’s safety. “Hop on in, make yourself comfortable. This could take a while.”

Clearing the arena after the fluxwyrm fight took significantly less time than after the Flametouched Winged Tiger. This time, the beastmaster didn’t heal the beast on the field; instead, it was led out of the arena using a long rope.

Unlike most of the previous fights, Serenity didn’t hear the next beast enter. Instead, he felt a tiny increase in the amount of nearby Death energy. He relaxed a little as he turned to look. When he saw the banshee, he released the half-formed Quickness spell. He wasn’t going to need it against a banshee.

How exactly did a group of beastmasters end up with a banshee? She was a natural creature, but a spirit of Death wasn’t exactly what Serenity thought of when he thought “beastmaster”, any more than a fire elemental would have been.

He also put his naginata back on his Quick Belt. It would let him attack a banshee, but it was simply not necessary. He could infuse his claws just as easily, and a banshee simply wasn’t going to be able to get away from him. Even at high Tier, they were slow. They didn’t need to be fast.

The threat level was reduced, but he should still check to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. It looked like a Fear-line banshee, with the “scary” blood-dripping mouth and claws. Serenity tended to consider it vaguely ridiculous, since banshees were incorporeal and didn’t actually do physical damage. Yes, they could drain life if they were the correct type of banshee, but Fear banshees rarely could do that worth anything.

Banshee

Tier: 4 (near cap)

Evolution line: Fear

Next Evolution: Banshee of Terror

Secondary Line: Death

Minimum line: Drain

Unselected Line: Foresight

Maximum Evolution: 7 (overcap possible with evolution modification)

Attributes: High Will, Low Agility

Abilities: (+) Expand

A banshee is a spirit of Death. This banshee has specialized in causing fear in her opponents, reducing their will to fight.

It was funny how much more detail there was when he already knew the monster. Vengeance had commanded many different creatures of Death and Undeath, and he knew the Banshee as one of the better low-end utility Death incorporeal spirits. He’d vastly preferred Drain with some Foresight, but he hadn’t always been able to choose, so he knew all four of the “standard” packages well. Fear was useful; it was almost entirely morale-based debuffs, but when you scattered a few of them among an army of the undead, it could be extremely effective.

He’d only done that a few times before he left the realm where banshees were useful, but there were similar creatures even later. Some of them were evolved forms of the banshee.

The funny thing about banshees was that they were semi-sapient; more sapient than your average draugr, though Serenity liked to think he’d retained more of himself than that even at first. It probably wasn’t true; from the stories his companions had told, he’d been little more than a guard dog who wouldn’t bite his former companions for a couple of years.

“START!”

The banshee drifted towards Serenity. Without much thought to how it would look to others, Serenity’s Incarnate settled around him and he spoke softly to the banshee. “What are you doing here, little sister?”

Serenity’s voice sounded normal to him, but to everyone else in the arena the whisper clearly echoed something greater.

Something they’d rather not meet in a dark alley, if that even applied to Traa.

“I fight. I win, I eat.” The banshee could speak, but it wasn’t with full fluency. She seemed to wilt, then perk herself back up. “Even you! I fight!”

Serenity smiled. She had spirit; she might well go somewhere. “Go ahead, little one. Let’s see what you’re made of.”

Serenity was happy to have the time to rest and recover. He might even use Eat Death a bit on her waste energy to get an extra reserve. He wouldn’t use it on her actual self unless he had to to win; there was no reason to damage her in such a difficult-to-heal manner.

Longsight was horribly disappointed in this latest fight. The fluxwyrm had confirmed that Serenity was stronger than expected but not insanely so, but this fight wasn’t even a fight. He just stood there. Longsight would have thought he was terrified if he didn’t occasionally tell the banshee a better way to attack. With an amused sound to his voice at that!

It was more like watching a training session between an adult and a child than like an arena fight!

“Tier Four physical, probably high Four to dodge the fluxwyrm's attacks, but I’m not sure what’s happening here. Are you certain he’s a physical fighter?” Lord Widetail spoke softly but clearly.

“Tier Three, with some sort of dangersense or enemy-analysis ability. He started moving right before the fluxwyrm’s motions were obvious when he dodged. When he didn’t make it in time, he tensed up then but delayed his motion to do damage. Possibly the very top end of Tier Two, but far more likely he was absolute top Tier Two with some extra Paths and relatively recently finished his first Tier Three. Midrange at best.” Longsight disagreed with his Lord. “He uses it well, but he looks more like someone with a wide range of abilities than a focused build. I’d normally expect most of his abilities to be directed at general weapons knowledge since he uses several, but I think that may be unPathed training.”

“You’re the strategist. Does it matter?” Lord Widetail sounded happy to be disagreed with. A Tier Four coming from a supposedly Tier One planet would have meant they should look out for more surprises, but a recent Tier Three simply meant they'd been unlucky.

Longsight sighed. “No. Either way, he’s passed. This last test was supposed to counter him, to make him see that we’re more powerful than he is. Put him on the back foot for negotiating. But it’s not doing that.”

A particularly notable scolding made Longsight sigh again. “How is he doing that?”

“At least it’s not just me.” Lord Widetail sounded rueful as he said that, then called out to the entire arena. “Can you stop playing with the banshee? I think we’ve seen enough.”