It was a porcupine. A whole little family of crystal porcupines, actually.
Porcupines were clearly smaller than an agave. Erick sent disapproval, and sent the Ophiel onward.
Three seconds later, another Ophiel reported in that he saw people. Erick checked in on that one. Adventurers were firing spells at him, but Ophiel dodged and flew faster. He got away perfectly okay.
A different Ophiel danced in the sky, evading a different set of adventurers’ [Force Beam]s from three increasingly ‘desperate to kill the monster’ people. Ophiel just trilled out violin vibrations, happy to play around with people, like he played around on the battlefield.
Erick told that Ophiel to move on, too.
The first Ophiel noticed yet more crystal porcupines—
The third noticed more people—
The fourth noticed a particularly interesting rock. He got closer, and from his new perspective, Erick saw that the rock was actually a toilet some adventurer had [Stoneshape]d out of the ground, and then failed to disassemble. Erick turned it back into sand and [Cleanse]d the area, and made that Ophiel move to the next target.
After five more quick interruptions, Erick sent out a gentle pulse of thanks, and dismissed the four searching Ophiel. This was obviously not working out like Erick had hoped.
He checked up on the Ophiel over Odaali, while he was at it. They were still flying high in the sky. The battlefield looked organized, now. But bodies still laid in lines, waiting for the pyre, which sent up plumes of black smoke into the sky. The three Ophiel did not like that black smoke, they flew well clear of the body fires. A few [Teleport]s revealed even more black-smoke body pyres across the land. They were burning undead corpses.
Erick gave a small, indistinct prayer for the souls of the dead, as he watched the gloomy work.
He came back to himself, standing in the kitchen, with a pot of cooling water in one hand and a setup to make coftea still waiting for him on the table. And Jane standing there.
Jane smiled, asking, “You gonna finish making that coftea? I want some.”
Erick set the jug of cooling water down, saying, “Have at it. I need to ask some mages about [Familiar] training. Ophiel has no filter. He can't alert me to the things I want; he alerts for every little thing.”
Jane took the parts of the coftea set up from Erick, and said, “Have you considered normal pet training? Or even child training? You did alright with me, you know.”
Erick felt a warmth spread in his heart. He said, “I always hoped I did.”
“You should probably keep the little guy with you all the time. That would probably help.” Jane cast a [Heat Ward] into water; watching it come back to a boil, saying, “It’s probably not good for him to spend all that time on his own, away from you. You want a coworker, right? Or what? What exactly are you going for with Ophiel, anyway?”
“A defender.” Erick summoned a tiny, four winged Ophiel, who instantly fluttered onto his shoulder and started looking around. “And you’re right. He should stay with me at all times. Or… at least one of him, anyway.” Erick walked away, saying, “I’ll be back later. Gotta ask some mages about some training.”
- - - -
As Erick followed Maia into their living room—
Eduard rushed down the stairs, his brown hair a mess, his face flushed, as he gushed, “I didn’t know he could turn small!” Eduard stepped to several feet from Erick, purposefully not getting closer as he composed himself. Eyes opened up across Ophiel, taking in the new person. Eduard asked, with a happy voice, “His entire body is malleable, isn’t it?”
“Yes, he is.” Erick smiled, gently petting Ophiel on his shoulder. The little guy was focused on Eduard and Maia, though; he kept his eyes on the new people and did not care at being touched. Erick said, “He’s very well behaved. I guess. But I’m wondering about how to raise him right. And how to get him to focus on the right targets, when I assign him to go hunt targets in the forest.”
Maia said, “I already offered him a set of [Familiar] rearing books, but we waited for you.” Maia said to Erick, “Like I said, Eduard practically raised all three of our [Familiar]s. They’re very well trained, and only because of him. Rozeta knows I’m shit at raising anything.”
Erick smiled, saying, “If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them.”
Eduard instantly said, “Keep him with you at all times. Don’t make extra ones unless you need them for specific tasks; he needs to be focused on you, and your needs.” He asked Maia, “Which books?”
“The Headmaster’s gui—”
“No no no. He hasn’t had to raise a [Familiar] in Rozeta knows how long.” Eduard said, “They might have a copy of ‘Greendale [Familiar]s: Rise of the Sentinels’ at the Mage Guild library. It’s one of the absolute best training guides to come out in recent years.” Eduard asked, “What is your goal for this [Familiar]?”
“To be able to do anything I ask of him.”
Eduard scrunched his mouth sideways. “Unreasonable. This is not a being. It is a creature that only resembles a being. Go smaller.”
“Uhh…” Erick said, “I want him to be able to search for targets I want in the Forest, to evade attacks, and to look out for danger. And to recognize and understand all of most things.”
“Much more reasonable. Though that last point will likely never materialize.” Eduard said, “You know… I think I have a copy of Rise… Actually— I’m sure I do— You’re going to want it. Hold on.”
“Okay—”
Eduard rushed upstairs. Erick heard him crashing around in a room up there. In a minute, he came rushing back down. He held a book in his hands. He almost handed the book to Erick, but he paused.
He said, “I want to test him.” Eduard looked to Ophiel. Then he glanced down. A brilliant blue fox materialized out of the manasphere. The fox slinked around Eduard’s legs, almost like a cat. It was sleek thing, with spines sticking out of the fur along its back, and eyes of brilliant cerulean light. Eduard said, “This is Icy. Sit, Icy.”
The blue fox went from serene, to sitting, just like that. It looked up at Erick, and at Ophiel. It yawned, with jaws opened wide, showing off its large icicle fangs.
“That is a pretty fox,” Erick said.
Eduard said, “It won’t take long, and the process will help me gauge where he falls on the trainability spectrum. This in turn will allow me to recommend some specific books for you.”
“Ah? Sure. Actually. Yes. That would be a great help. Thank you, Eduard.” Erick was all for a little ‘dog-show’ as it were. “When? Now?”
Eduard’s eyes lit up. He controlled his excitement, and said, “Yes.”
He handed Erick the book.
In a minute, Erick, Eduard, Maia, and Poi, had relocated to the backyard. The flat orange stone of the Human District was as inviting as any other training location. Eduard quickly set out, then stopped twenty meters from the house, and began to masterfully craft sculptures of ice, running his hands through the air, cyan ice forming where he paused. In three seconds, he had made a vertical ring of ice, a meter from the ground, and a meter wide.
Eduard was going to make a whole obstacle course, wasn’t he? Erick felt like he was using the man; he had only come over to ask a few questions, not to get a training lesson. Erick resolved to do something nice for them, in turn.
Eduard expertly duplicated his magic three more times, creating and carving three more ‘hoops’, each a few meters from the last, though only the first one was an actual hoop. The others were a triangle, a square, and a tall oval.
Ophiel watched, entranced, the tiny claws hidden in his lower wings pinching into Erick’s shoulder, like a cat kneading dough.
Eduard came back to the waiting group, asking, “How old is he? I forgot to ask. And his name?”
“Ophiel is only a few days old, but he’s been very good about dodging and attentiveness.” Erick said, “He was dodging on his own in…” Erick went silent. He said, “He was already dodging on his own against half an army, as of a few days ago.”
Eduard smiled, looking at Ophiel as he said, “You’ve already started raising him as a dodging type, then. This is good. He must be pretty smart, too. Has he ever taken instruction from someone else? Meaning a telepathic connection?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I would like to try, if I could.” Eduard said, “You’d need to control him if he gets overly agitated. This can rile a new [Familiar] up something fierce.”
“Uh?” Erick touched Ophiel, and the little guy looked all around, at everyone looking at him. Erick said, “Go ahead. I got him.”
Eduard said, “Hello, Ophiel.”
A telepathic connection filtered through the air, connecting Eduard to Ophiel, and then it flashed with white and cyan light, like a tiny bolt of lightning. Ophiel whined loud, digging into Erick’s shoulder as even more eyes slammed open across his body, glaring at Eduard, as Eduard clutched his head and a flash of blue cascaded across the man’s body. He groaned.
It happened so fast.
Erick almost panicked—
But Maia laughed.
Erick mentally held down Ophiel, as Ophiel struggled to reach for Eduard, to claw his eyes out, to rip him apart. Erick easily stopped Ophiel’s rampage, but the imagery coming out of the little guy gave Erick pause. Blood and viscera. Death and fire. Eduard just groaned slightly, unable to do much more than stand. Maia chuckled, but stood with Eduard, holding the man upright and stable.
"There there. You're okay," Maia said.
Eduard grumbled, holding his head.
When Ophiel was once again calmly sitting on Erick’s shoulder, Erick asked, “What happened?”
Eduard squeaked, “Too young. My mistake.” He held his head, saying, “Too early for that.” He pointed at the book in Erick’s hand, then at the obstacle course he had set up. “Ouch. Uh.” He squinted, saying, “This training course is all explained in there. I can’t continue. Sorry. Try it out on your own.”
“You're not okay, are you?” Erick mentally held onto Ophiel, asking, “Are you?”
“My mistake.” Eduard squinted as he waved off Erick. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Maia giggled, saying, “It’s fine, Archmage. He’s had worse experiences, I’m sure.”
“I’m going to bring by some desserts later.” Erick said, “Sorry.”
Eduard nodded as he went back to his house.
Erick watched him go, saying again, "Sorry."
Maia lingered, watching her brother walk away. She asked Erick, “Can I see the box for Ophiel?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Erick instantly produced Ophiel’s blue box and handed it to her, asking, “Is something else wrong?”
Maia’s eyes briefly went wide as she read. She hummed again. She relaxed, and dismissed the box, saying, “We’re just going to need to use the rod of [Treat Wounds]. That’s a very good summon you got there. He’s either going to be a handful when he grows up, or an absolute fortress.” She bowed, saying, “Good to see you, as always, Archmage. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go tend to my brother.”
Erick’s heart sank. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Yes. He likely got hit for a few thousand points of mental shock. It will take some time to recover.” Maia said, “It can’t kill you, but it can make you much easier to kill. Good day.”
Eduard had already entered his house, leaving the door to the backyard open. Maia did not rush to follow, but she did walk quicker than a normal pace. Erick watched as Maia entered her house and shut the door behind her.
“Fuck.” Erick said, “I’m going to need to make that up to them. That was… not great.”
Poi hummed, then said, “He really should have known better. Connecting to another mage’s [Familiar] is a hazard, at best. But connecting to an archmage’s [Familiar] is asking to be laid out on the ground.”
Erick still frowned, holding the book Eduard gave him, saying, “I’ll need to make it up to him.”
Poi nodded.
- - - -
Back home, Erick immediately set to work making a lemon cake with buttercream frosting. Ophiel watched. When Jane turned up, she declared that she wanted one, too…
So Erick made two lemon bundt cakes.
Maia was glad to receive the cake, but Eduard was still sleeping off the mental shock.
Erick still needed to talk to Ramizi, too, to ask after Force magic and to see if he could make a trade, or if what he had in [Pure Force Beam Bolt] was worth a trade; he had already made and traded a pair of fire and ice spells to Maia and Eduard, after all. But Ramizi was still out and about, picking up various supplies from Portal and elsewhere. Oh well.
- - - -
Under the light of the afternoon sky, with the sun on the other side of the house, the experimental garden on the house's east side lay under shade. The air was cool, but it was still bright enough to see. It was perfect for working on a new project. Erick had gathered up some of the silver and white Erick Beans produced by [Exalted Storm Aura]; he kept a few vines of the beans growing in his front yard. It was time to try his hand at making corn.
Ophiel watched as Erick imbued magic into a bean, and then stuck it in the dirt. Erick stepped back. Stalks of not-corn rose from the ground like bamboo; straight up, but then branching into leaf-covered fruits. Erick and Ophiel watched the plant's growth, together. It paused part way through growing, but Erick just turned on his [Growth Aura], and supported the plant to maturity. Erick [Watershape]d some water from a pail onto the soil when needed. When the plant was tall and laden with maybe-corn, Erick cut his various magics, then manually pulled off an ear. He pulled back the leaves, revealing a jumble of beans that spilled out on stringy tendrils.
Erick said, “This might take a few iterations.”
It took twenty-three iterations, in fact, along with bouts of [Exalted Storm Aura], [Stoneshape] to churn the field back to vibrancy, yanking out bad iterations and adding them to the compost pile with his Handy Aura, and lots and lots of [Grow].
The sun was beginning to set on the other side of the house, by the time Erick stood before a true field of real corn. The sky was purple, the wind was cool, and Erick stood in front of a field that smelled of life and success.
Jane came up beside him. She said, “Corn?”
Erick laughed. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s not… But why?”
“Tortillas. Cornbread. A third grain to add to the rice and the wheat of Spur’s farms. And this one regrows from the stalk so you don’t have to cut down and regrow the whole plant. Grow Fatigue is a problem that I can't solve, but I can lessen. Besides, I’m thinking corn will be very popular, considering you don’t have to thresh it… Well. Not much anyway.”
Jane tilted her head back and forth, then said, “Okay. You’re right. I agree. I miss tortilla chips and salsa, anyway.”
“And cornstarch.” Erick picked off an ear of corn, revealing rows upon rows of bright yellow kernels. “Though I’m not sure how to get that from this.”
“Someone will figure it out when you tell them it’s possible. You probably gotta blend them. Separate the bits somehow.”
“Yeah.” Erick looked out into the coming night, then down to a pile of cooked and barely eaten corns, next to a cistern of water he had used to boil them. He had gotten the form of the plant correct after only ten iterations, but it took thirteen more to get the taste correct. He handed Jane the ear of corn in his hand, saying, “How about corn for dinner?”
Jane smiled, saying, “I showed up at the farmer’s market in town for the first time in a month and every little old man and woman working their stalls practically shoved their vegetables at me. For free. It was nice. Really nice.” She looked out at the night, saying, “Dinner’s ready. It’s vegetables.”
Erick smirked, saying, “Good thing I like vegetables.” He said, “I grew up near enough to a farm... We got lots of free vegetables there, too.” He added, “I tried to give that to you, but…”
Jane wrapped her arms around Erick, saying, “You gave me lots, Dad.”
Erick hugged her back. Ophiel cooed, as he stepped from Erick’s shoulder, onto Jane, then spread his tiny wings over both of them. Jane giggled, then pulled away. Ophiel casually transferred on Jane’s shoulder, and decided to stay there. Erick smiled.
The three of them stood there for a moment, in front of the gentle corn, watching the dark take over the eastern sky, beyond the walls of Spur. Stars began to appear; tiny pinpricks of twinkling light.
Jane turned and walked into the house, saying, “Time for dinner,” with Ophiel clinging to her shoulder.
Erick followed Jane into the house. Yellow sunwards glowed in the windows, spilling light into the cool, twilight evening.
Monsters prowled outside the walls of Spur. Adventurers died to threats outside of their ability to handle. Assassins were likely coming for him. Businessmen wanted a piece of him, too, and likely for completely selfish reasons. Erick did not truly believe Caradogh’s story that ‘people were going hungry’ because of him; some might, and that thought gnawed at Erick's thoughts, for sure, but the times were just changing.
Particle Mage would be available for everyone in 300 days. So would [Exalted Storm Aura].
If Caradogh thought one Erick was bad for his business, what would he think when every town had the ability to produce all this bounty on their own?
Erick did not believe, not for a single second, that he was unique, at all. He just knew a little more about some small aspects of life that other people were already discovering. The only reason that he was good at magic, at all, was probably exactly for the reason Poi once told him; Erick simply knew who he was, and what he was about.
… After he got over his initial fears, anyway.
Erick glanced back at the dark night, and did not shiver at the sight of the giant shadow that loomed in the gloom. Erick just walked into the light streaming from the open door to his house, and used 4050 mana to cast a [Crystalline Air] across the whole exterior of the house. It would absorb 8000 damage before it broke, because Clarity halved the mana cost, and it would regenerate 17,000 per hour, for 24 hours. Erick considered getting all the shaping spells and trying for [Prismatic Ward], or whatever the all-shaping [Solid Ward] was, but this [Solid Ward] was good enough for now.
Erick watched as panes of not-glass layered across the entirety of the orange stone, bunching up around the exterior edges of the house like precipitated crystal, while the flat surfaces of the house, as well as the windows, remained perfectly clear. Erick quickly designated Poi, Jane, himself, Kiri, Ophiel, Rats, Teressa, and air, as permissible entities for the [Solid Ward] to let through. He stuck his hand in and out of the layer of not-crystal, the spell deforming into sparkling fragments as he did, just to make sure that yes, it was working as it claimed to work.
But when the shadow touched the not-crystal layer of air around the house, a tiny crack appeared. The shadow backed off, the top half of it opening wide and closing rapidly; it was laughing, silent and only visible to Erick.
The crack in the [Crystalline Air] healed soon enough.
Erick stood in the doorway, rimmed with light, as he watched the shadow outside move through the tiny cornfield, then up and over the walls of Spur, into the night.
Erick shut the door, and went to dinner.
- - - -
Kiri laid awake in her new room, in the dark, her green eyes locked on the ceiling. A distortion in the air layered across the walls; no one outside of this room could see her, or hear her. She had adopted the habit of sleeping inside [Distortion Ward]s ever since she entered Spur’s Army. It was hard enough to sleep in a room full of people, let alone with the lights on. The [Distortion Ward] did not block all the light and the sound, but it blocked about half, and turned the rest into a nice, even rustling sound; it reminded Kiri of trees in the breeze.
Kiri missed the trees. Spur did not have enough trees. Spur had more than enough existential crises, though.
So Kiri laid in bed, in the dark, and with her eyes still open. She couldn’t sleep.
She had heard a tale today. A tale that stuck in her mind. A tale of a universe without magic, but born from a primal fire. She had teased out enough of Jane’s previous world over the course of 25 days, fighting with the woman and fighting beside the woman, to be able to paint a grand picture of ‘Earth’, and of the ‘Science’ Erick had used to create Particle Magic.
Her time in Ar’Kendrithyst was pandemonium and death, but she was glad for it. She was level 54 now, and with dozens of extra points to her name. Her Class would be Particle Mage, for sure, so she’d have to wait a year for that, but that was not a problem, not really. With her apprenticeship to a man who was obviously going to be one of the greatest archmages Veird has ever seen, she was set for life. All she had to do was walk the path she had forged for herself.
She even made a few strides forward with her own magic using Erick’s methods.
Flare Nova, instant, long range, 8771 mana
A designated spot explodes into a large conflagration, igniting flammables and enemies, dealing 350 + WIL damage every second for ten seconds. Enemies slain by this fire explode into small conflagrations, igniting flammables and enemies, dealing a quarter as much damage every second for five seconds.
Fire Wrap, instant, touch, 19501 mana
Wrap a target in fire, dealing WIL damage a second until the target dies.
They were both horrible failures, but only because of the costs. It reminded Kiri of when she had wasted [Force Bolt] and [Mana Altering], combining them as high as she could go, to get 15 extra points for breaking all the way through to tier 6. But these two spell creations accomplished nothing; less than nothing, actually. These spells took up valuable opportunity costs.
The first one was just an extension of a spell she already used. It was more a test than anything. She didn’t need it, it was just an experiment, really…
She repeated that thought silently, to herself, hoping that the thought would stick one of these times.
The second one, though…
Horrible! But… also not horrible.
[Fire Wrap] was tier 4 —the lowest possible tier for this sort of magic— so she would have to wait a hundred days to remake the spell, because she had to remake it, once she understood Erick's methods better. [Fire Wrap] was horrible in every way, except the way that mattered. She had made it using a non-standard combination, anyway; it didn’t limit her planned future tiers.
Not much, anyway.
But [Fire Wrap] was a damage spell that worked until the target died. [Death Spiral Fire] was the pinnacle of fire magic, and Kiri had reached one of the milestones to that ultimate magic, using a non-standard combination. At age 19.
Did Erick have any idea what he was truly capable of?
Thank the gods he was a pacifist.
Kiri thought… was his method… perhaps… the correct way to make magic? Was Kiri limiting herself with her academic mindset?
Kiri mulled over that thought for a while.
She decided that her methods worked. But so did his. At least in the short term.
Perhaps she didn’t stress enough that complicated magics were end-tier magic. That to have more than a single line of text in a spell meant that making any other good spells out of it was practically impossible. But what need was there for tier 8 spells when Erick did all of what he did at tier 1? It was Particle Magic that he had invented himself, sure, but it was still vastly more powerful than other tier 1 spells.
Kiri had a thought for how Rozeta would handle this problem, of how she might alter all Particle Magic to make it fit with the rest, but Kiri’s thoughts were so unformed, that to call them premature would be a kindness.
Too much happened today. There were dozens of conversations that she had wanted to have, but there just wasn’t time. She would have time to bring up this concern, in detail, tomorrow. Or the next day.
There was a discrepancy here, and Kiri would get to the bottom of it.
… As soon as she stopped thinking about the birth of a universe from one impossibly hot seed that bloomed out into infinity, for 14 billion years.
Kiri stared at the ceiling, considering the Old Cosmology she had learned about at Tower Arcanaeum.
The professors and the history books claimed Veird was hundreds of thousands of years old, and born from the bodies of dead gods that accumulated in the Old Mana Ocean. There were even two independent expeditions that managed to survive the journey to find the fabled Core of Veird. They saw that core, bringing back samples and images and tales of horror alike. So Kiri knew, for sure, that Veird was a created planet. Veird had been created long before the Sundering tossed everyone into this universe. Veird’s core was some hundreds of thousands of years old, though it was scattered with the dream-remnants of other much older worlds, from the Old Cosmology, and those worlds were much older.
But billions of years old? No one ever considered that anything might be that old. 'Hundreds of millions' came up occassionally, as a possible age. But Billions? No one ever seriously postulated this possibility.
There was a vast discrepancy here.
Kiri didn’t know where that discrepancy lay, but it certainly existed.
Was Erick’s universe really billions of years old? Both Jane and he seemed very sure about that number. They must have had a test for such a thing. Was there a way to test to see if Veird had landed in Erick’s universe, using their method? If the ages lined up, that would answer some very interesting cosmological questions.
Very interesting indeed.
Kiri stared at the ceiling, thinking.
Eventually, her thoughts turned to whispers, and her eyes closed on their own. She fell asleep thinking very large thoughts. Her dreams were filled with worlds.