PftA Book 5 - Chapter 27 - Reuniting with an Old Acquaintance

“Perhaps you should consider giving up Teleportation for a different type of spell,” Lisa suggested when I finally returned to my demesne after a long day of grinding. “Haste is by far the most flexible of the two spells. It might be worth keeping an offensive spell instead, especially if you get to keep your soulbound personal dimension.”

Lisa’s comment made me pause. I hadn’t considered the possibility of losing my demesne.

“Why wouldn’t I get to keep it?” I asked as I checked the garden. Since I’d swapped out Manatechnician for Gardener, I’d been trying to do a better job of managing my demesne’s garden instead of leaving it to Lisa. “It’s soulbound. That means it should transfer with me, even if the contents are lost.”

“It should, but that doesn’t mean that it will,” Lisa replied as her avatar walked next to me. “There is too much we don’t know about ascension. It’s better not to assume anything.”

I frowned as I telekinetically pulled a few weeds that had popped up over the last several hours. The formation prevented most of them, but with time dilation and the way I’d filled the space, a few weeds here and there were unavoidable.

It had been so much easier to just leave all of it to Lisa, but I didn’t earn experience based on what my Interface Assistant did. The system only rewarded my own personal efforts in that way.

“Having a soulbound dimensional space is too convenient to lose. I really hope I get to take it with me,” I commented, more to myself than to Lisa.

As long as I had the space, losing Teleportation wouldn’t be too bad, especially if I got to keep Haste and use it without a hefty energy cost. If my ascended Haste was more like what someone with a standard Time affinity had access to, I doubted it would be worth keeping. The mana cost for using it offensively was much too harsh.

“Perhaps it would be worthwhile to practice for a few different scenarios,” Lisa said. "Since it’s likely you won’t know for certain what limitations are going to be placed on you until you actually ascend, train for a few different outcomes.”

Lisa’s advise made sense since there really was no way to know for certain what things were going to be like until I got there.

In truth, training this early was probably unnecessary. I still had a couple of subjective centuries at least before I had to worry about ascending. Even so, now that I knew I’d only get to keep three spells – one for each affinity – I wanted to start preparing.

And part of that preparation would most likely involve trial rewards.

Having learned that I’d automatically become a Grandmaster Enchanter when I reached Tier Ten and my mana was capable of sustaining an enchantment indefinitely, I no longer needed to use my next reward to push my Enchanting skill to Grandmaster. And even if I tried, it wouldn’t go into effect until I tiered up anyway.

In fact, I suspected the dungeon wouldn’t even let me try to apply my reward to the skill since there was no actual change or increase in knowledge associated with the stage increase.

That freed up a reward that could hopefully be used to help me prepare for my eventual ascension. I just wasn’t sure how to best use the advantage.

If the trial followed the trend for the last few floors, I wouldn’t be able to challenge it until I reached Peak-Tier Nine, which meant I still had decades to go.

I rubbed my head at the thought. I really was getting a bit ahead of myself.

“Perhaps you should decide which spells are the most important?” Lisa suggested.

We both agreed that skills should transfer with me, even if not officially. As long as I truly understood how to use the skill, that knowledge shouldn’t be lost. At least, that’s what Anya had implied. Therefore, we were focused on which spells I’d want to keep instead of worrying about skills.

If it turned out that wasn’t the case, well… I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do. I definitely didn’t want to lose Enchanting. It was far too important.

“I agree,” I said as I finished weeding the garden.

Telekinesis was such a handy spell. It was definitely one that I’d place on my short list, especially after seeing how effectively Zavira wielded it in and out of combat.

The problem was, there were just too many useful spells. It was so hard to pick just two or three. If I had to take a slot to keep Enchanting, that would only leave me with two spells. I needed a healing spell – probably Restore, since it was by far the best. I also wanted Teleportation and Haste.

If I limited myself to just the one movement spell, I could feasibly keep Telekinesis, which would be useful in a myriad of ways.

Then there was Compressed Space Bolt and  Create Dimensional Space. Both were pretty important in their own ways. Not to mention Portal.

“Ahhh! This is going to be hard!”

I needed to figure out which ones I could live without. Create Dimensional Space was mostly a crafting skill. At least, it was the way I used it since I only ever really used it to create storage devices. If I got to keep Enchanting, I could pretty easily get rid of that one.

Portal could be made redundant by my demesne if I used it directly. It would lose a slight bit of functionality since I wouldn’t be able to create portals directly from one location to another, but that only really mattered when I was transporting other people.

“Just keep testing yourself. Figure out what you really need and what you can do without. You’ve got a couple of centuries to figure things out,” Lisa reminded me.

= = =

I found that I could fight with little difficulty using only a movement spell like Haste or Teleportation, and an offensive spell like Compressed Space Bolt. Having two movement spells was a bit redundant, even if they did work in very different ways.

Stealth was another excellent spell that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to comfortably lose, but depending on how effective my Enchanting skill was in the next realm, I’d probably be able to manage the effects with an enchantment or two.

The first three and a half months on the ninth floor of the Realm Dungeon were spent testing different spell combinations in search of the best fit for my fighting style.

Though I’d swapped out Manatechnician as a profession, I still planned to use manatech since it was a critical aspect of my arsenal. And since I didn’t plan on losing Enchanting as a skill, I figured I’d be able to replace most of what I’d lose during my ascension.

I was pretty sure the methods used would be different from what I was used to. Or at least, they’d be different from what I’d been used to before reaching Master Enchanter.

I suspected the significant change in Enchanting methods might be an indication of what was to come, though I didn’t really have much to base that belief on other than the fact that the system had to physically alter me in order for me to be able to use the new techniques.

As I exited my demesne at the corner of the platform holding the monthly Challengers’ Market, I scanned the assembled would-be ascenders. This was my fourth time coming to the market, and most of the faces were already familiar.

Of those I hadn’t seen at the previous three gatherings, one individual stood out. It was someone I hadn’t seen in decades, and would have expected to have been present at every Challenger Market.

“Niall!” I exclaimed, drawing his attention.

“I thought you decided to remain outside the dungeon when you didn’t return after fifty years,” the kastet commented as he headed in my direction. “It’s quite a surprise to see you again after so long.”

A quick scan with Assess showed my old party member had finally out-leveled me. In fact, he had reached the peak of Tier Nine. I had quite a bit of catching up to do.

“I don’t suppose you want to continue our deal from before?” I asked with a smile.

I didn’t necessarily need Tier Nine Void mana since I’d acquired a sample prior to returning to the dungeon, but I’d definitely need it once I reached the next floor.

“I am certainly amenable to such an arrangement,” Niall replied. “Did Zavira decide to remain outside the dungeon?”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. “She did. She got married after the war and has started a family.”

“I heard mention of a great war on the outside,” the Void Mage said with a touch of longing. “I was tempted to leave the dungeon for a time to participate, but I was informed that most demis were being viewed with suspicion, given how many fought for the enemy.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “As a Void kastet, you would have been under particular scrutiny given the Baron and his actions.”

The kastet tilted his head. His vibrant white whiskers twitched visibly against his navy fur.

“A Void kastet Baron?” he asked. His voice had shifted to an unfamiliar pitch. “Do you happen to recall the Baron’s name?”

Lisa supplied the name, which I repeated. “Akyrono.”

Niall hissed. His feline ears shifted to lie flat against his skull while the rest of his fur seemed to stand on end. It was a rare display of agitation from the normally stoic demi.

“I guess you’re familiar with him, then?” I surmised.

“My father,” Niall growled. “What did he do?”

I shifted uncomfortably. Though Niall seemed to have forgotten about our surroundings, I was acutely aware of the attention that our conversation was drawing.

“Would you like to discuss it somewhere else?” I asked in a low voice. “I can teleport us to a pod I’ve got set up in a protected space. We can talk there. I have time dilation set up as well, so we can take our time without losing access to the market.”

It probably wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t want to rush the conversation with Niall. Given what I had to tell him about his father, the conversation might take a while, and the Challenger’s Market was only active for a few hours.

“Fine.”

As soon as he stepped closer, I shifted us into my demesne. As a Void Mage, I wasn’t overly concerned about Niall discovering that we were in a pocket dimension.

After taking a quick glance around the heavily expanded pod, Niall focused his attention on me.

“Please tell me what you know.”

I quickly explained everything I’d learned about Baron Akyrono and his betrayal of the Alliance. I also told him how the war ended and what little I knew about the disposition of his family’s house.

I wasn’t able to share as much as he hoped to learn, but it was enough to convince the kastet that he needed to leave the dungeon immediately to deal with the fallout.

“Here,” I said as I handed him a Tier Nine E3 Talisman. “Don’t worry about the Void mana. I mostly wanted to continue our deal for Tier Ten. I’m already good for this tier.”

Niall looked conflicted as he stared at the talisman in his hand. Shaking his head, Niall said, “At least let me give you something in return.” He removed a beautifully carved staff of white wood. “I found this in the orchards on the third level. It is Time attuned. I thought about you when I carved it. It seems fitting to give it to you now.”

I didn’t decline the exchange. Staves were still one of my favorite weapons, even if I had started using mana-swords more since my time in the Assassin’s Challenge Rift.