Chapter 30
Added 2019-07-18 22:33:51 +0000 UTCHere is chapter 30 for you. I'm leaving for a vacation in a few days, so I'll have little to no internet access for a week. Don't fret. I'll set up another chapter to release while I'm away.
Comments
0 up to 1023 ... I like showing that to kids, at a certain age range this may seem like magic judging from some of the reactions.
Robin
2019-09-05 19:21:49 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter!
Paul Jaeger
2019-07-23 14:50:10 +0000 UTCAbout the mana-attracted-to-metal thing: How does, say, [immolate] interact with someone in armour? Intuitively, I'd think they'd take something like three times the damage they normally would, because all the mana within a meter or so would be pulled into their armour, superheating it, instead of staying where it is. Of course, heat is hardly matter, so the heat itself is not a mana construct; the spell might just pour energy in, unaffected by metal. Then again, light isn't matter either, so... What happens when mana enters metal, anyway? Is the mana conducted through it like electricity? That implies magical circuits would be a thing. ...Hm, how useful is Val going to be in a *mine* where there's probably literal tons of metal in the walls, disrupting his aim?
Elaborate
2019-07-23 10:55:41 +0000 UTCfirey -> fiery
Elaborate
2019-07-22 22:12:58 +0000 UTCyup, since 2 of her perspective party memebers are mages, i think they're gonna make a case for getting essence well instead let's hope it does work in such a way that he can spend 1 to get 2 mana at rank 10 :D
MagicWafflez
2019-07-21 01:20:11 +0000 UTCHm. Even if Val gets an essence monster, he's probably going to level really slowly; I get the feeling he didn't focus on his regen much... He'd need to go through a lot of monsters and get XP from them, I suppose. If Rain gets [essence well], though, he can *power-level* Val, giving him several levels per day, risk-free.
Elaborate
2019-07-21 00:42:25 +0000 UTCMc did do less than 1% so...
Håvard
2019-07-20 20:40:38 +0000 UTCMy guess is that normally servants get the auras You would just have to get them sign a contract that makes them spend their stat and skill points in a certain way and which class they have to pick then help them kill a level 5 monster then spec into Purify,winter,summer,spring with one skill point for personal use. You could probably do it on quite the scale if just have 2 strong people to hold the monster down and then have a group of contracted Servants each stab the moster so they all get credited as part of the party. then after the contract is up offer them another one to help them kill a another stonger essense monster.(I wonder if there is a limit to how many people can be credited for the essense monster kill. if they only need to get 1% of the credit you could probably do 50 people per essense monster depening on how much credit the people hold the moster down get).
Call0013
2019-07-20 20:34:00 +0000 UTCi believe val mentioned that there were aura mages in the empire "but they aren't adventurers"... I'm guessing they're jurry rigging this kind of thing. probably career military people. don't forget they'll need Aura IFF to not give the essence well mana to everyone within 10 meters xD, so they'll need aura focus and extend as well... and also, with amplify and aura channeling winter actually regen's x8
MagicWafflez
2019-07-20 18:23:48 +0000 UTCYall have been doing some serious mathhammering. But I've been pondering things in a different direction. We've only seen small-scale, mercenary type applications. Lets take this up to a nation. I assume even farming dungeon/putting a bounty out for the capture of animals, Classed Combatants are what something like Heavy Cavalry might be- not so elite as modern-day tip-of-the-bleeding-edge spec ops, but still heavy resource investment and powerful strategic units. Now, you've caught a level 5 monster- anything lower is useless for this, and 5 is needed so they can obtain the Dynamo class- any extra levels will probably be utility or specialization depending on the nature of these support people. It could be full-on slaves, but I feel like having it be a privileged position- like the servants or retainers of a noble. Perhaps further distinguished would see them 'fed' another essence monster to reach some other higher level for expanded role/use, but there's not enough info and I want to stick to level 5. The four core skills of the Battery is going to be Intrinsic Clarity, Winter, Essence Well, and Mana Manipulation. I assume if they start at level 6, they might be directed to get Intrisic Focus so as to get Magical Synergy further boosting regen. Amlify Aura and/or Aura Focus may also be useful, although Focus depends on Mana Manipulation being usable while Focusing. I'm also going to assume Winter doesn't stack, because otherwise it gets really fiddly trying to min/max number of Winter vs Essence Well being active and overlapping. For the sake of sanity, I'm going to lump 10 batteries to Artillery Magus, but an actual unit I would imagine consists of one offense, two different types of defense, and perhaps there are some other types that could fit in a utility spot or two like mass-stealth/counter-scry/observation or some kind of focused buffer (would likely be just a different 'class' of the Battery-tier mage) With the Batteries, Artillery Magus von Fuck-That-Area-In-Particular will have 10 people doing some rotation of feeding him 140 mana/s (no idea the scaling to Mana_Manipulation.10, or the multiplier for fcs, but even Level 1 thats 14000 mana restored in 10s, and that number gets horribly stupid if its anything but "split among all inside the range" but proper positioning would make it as efficient as transferally possible; I imagine there wont be loss, but it would be some range between 33-66% slower depending on how many overlapping Batteries are with the Mage), while everyone has a constant 200% MRegen from atleast one person having Winter up at all times (likely rotates), and between active mana transfer, people are still charging up with 12 mana/second thanks to 120% Efficiency Essence Well (oh god if the 1mp/s increases per level as well as the efficiency making it 10mp/s and becomes 12mp/s *each* person for a total of 120mp/s 'passively'...) Also, this is only for active-battle; Mana Manipulation mentions transfer of mana to receptive items which *could* include a mana storage device. In which case, I imagine the unit composition could be vastly different, but there's too many factors to clash the viability of Battery-Makers versus actively providing the mana (like the cost/difficulty/reusability/keepability/size/amount/mana loss of said theoretical storage device) In summary: The sheer destructive capability of a pure offensive mage with dedicated support to fix their one-and-done crippling weakness is pretty brutal. I expect only the most affluent polity or perhaps some nation which controls a dungeon that makes farming level 5-7's economically viable. And any organization who can't threaten the field with similar ability better be agile, or have some pretty swanky assassins- or some kind of specialized mage hunter corps.
Keifru
2019-07-20 16:59:41 +0000 UTCThe alternative is that the focus version of dynamo is a lot stronger on the aura mana regen build than dynamo :)
Håvard
2019-07-20 16:41:10 +0000 UTC... author needs to make his total mana 1,230,,, tho he'll probably not see this since we've mathed all over this comment section :P
MagicWafflez
2019-07-20 16:00:38 +0000 UTComg! actually you guys were right about the 20 thing! that was for the pool itself, magical synergy adds focus not the pool, so it SHOULD be 10. by that logic his clarity should also be 20x when figuring his mana pool~
MagicWafflez
2019-07-20 12:35:26 +0000 UTCah, I've been calculating everything at magical synergy lvl 1 vs lvl 10, woops~ hm~ i stand by my statement tho, higher levels, the difference is going to be more serious,,, but at this level the difference seems negligible, and the extra dmg would have been nice... by this logic, it's somewhat unfair that he doesn't get the damage benefit from focus D:
MagicWafflez
2019-07-20 12:21:55 +0000 UTCWow did not notice that and yes you are right! The only only thing I can think of is that the author forgot to remove the ring bonus from the focus tables so he added the ring bonus but not the base clarity to the calcularions.
Håvard
2019-07-20 11:12:16 +0000 UTCMagical Synergy (1/10) Exp: 0/400 Enables limited synergistic cross-coupling of magical attributes 2.5% of Focus contributes to M.Regen 2.5% of Clarity contributes to Mana I agree aura synergy is an must have, but there is another thing he cant always have an armor on, yes it is not the most usefull skill point but it is one that is going to save his life! 1k hitpoint is not enough i expect level 25+ nonster and adventurers can do 500 damage in one hit easy. Hell you probably don't have to be level 25 to do that. So you are at that point juat hoping that you don't get one shot and when you are at that atage you are an glass cannon and thise are great in video games but in 'real life' those are the people that die young. Don't know if youhave read 'Azarinth Healer' but the MC in that story eat people that goes for the glass canon builds for breakfast bacuse there are no front line when people and mosters can teleport. I don't know if short range teleport is possible in this world, but I who'd not gamble on a no.
Håvard
2019-07-20 10:30:35 +0000 UTCWhat's up with those equations, by the way? Mana = ((20*Focus*3) + (10*Clarity*3*3*0.025)) mp M.Regen = ((10*Clarity*3*3)+(20*Focus*3*0.025)) mp/day Why does Focus give 20X in both places, while Clarity gives 10X? Doesn't that mean if Rain had gone for the Focus-monolithic class, with the same skills, he would have half the MP regen (still not bad at all), twice the MP and ALSO, what, four times the damage output or something? Doesn't seem balanced...
Elaborate
2019-07-20 10:11:50 +0000 UTCharvard. not magical synergy. aura synergy. the other tier tier 1 aura metamagic listed in ch 23. he ignored it because he has less auras atm and they're underleveled, but it made his top 9 of the 8 skills he wanted in ch 25. i was saying, his plan leaves him with 11 auras, and he's getting ranks in them at a ridiculous pace. also. i still say it'd be a waste of a skill point. with how skills are working, life well is going to heal 10 hp a second. 20 with aura synergy. and he's not a front line fighter. 1k hp is enough. I'm still thinking tallheart can make armor that works a SHIT ton better than 4 dinky strength rings. if he can build something mana powered in that blocks damage, he'd be golden~ since most mages CAN'T wear anything this protect-y, him wearing armor would offset any weakness his lack of strength would cause. he'd be like any other mage. only with 20hp a second healing and a speed buff up to triple his speed at base (if he takes aura synergy xD)
MagicWafflez
2019-07-20 04:46:50 +0000 UTCeh, i wouldn't bother with [inherent strength], he doesn't have enough skill points as it is... if he finishes his list, he needs [aura synergy], at that point he'll have 11 auras and that skill raises all of their effectiveness by 1% per rank in an aura (at max level). so everything x2 yanno? at no extra cost and it keeps going the more auras he gets. I'm sure Tallheart can make him armor that will protect him st the cost of mana, he'll be fine~ personally, i think if this party works out he should replace [shear] with [aura synergy] in his plan. it's not like he can use 2 auras at once yet anyway. 2x strength of ice/fire vs. normal strength of shear... better to strengthen the moves he has~
MagicWafflez
2019-07-19 15:11:01 +0000 UTCFocus 20 [10] (+) <- he lost the ring, right? So focus should be back at 10. Speaking of, he probably ought to get an Endurance ring to replace the broken Focus one. Twice the stamina, plus harder skin? That'll come in handy. [Inherent Strength] might be a good investment, especially if it unlocks another synergy skill, but it will likely take forever to level if it grows from HP use or something... Soon it'll be time to get [spring] or [summer]. They'll be slow to level, judging by [winter], so he'll probably only be able to level up one of them to 5 before the Dungeon-run, if even that. Maybe leave it on all night instead of [winter]? BTW, can Rain use [aura focus] while he sleeps? (It would be great for sleeping in a noisy environment, though not-so-great in a dangerous one...)
Elaborate
2019-07-19 13:34:25 +0000 UTCKind of surprised the whole 'leveling' thing didn't get expanded upon. I doubt Val realizes he's getting a class level, and tons of skill levels per day. I hope it doesn't end up dragging on as 'hidden information' for too long. Really interesting you're having a 'pre-zero' society. That means his, even rudimentry recollection, of mathematics is pretty crazily cutting-edge. Bloody hell, with a programming background, he probably has the best grasp of non-base10, with Binary and Hexadecimal. Depending on how he thinks of things, that can have other counting advantages (IE: if you count using binary with your fingers, you have 10 bits, and thus can count up to 1024 :P)
Keifru
2019-07-19 08:01:07 +0000 UTCOh hey Wafflez.
Hoaxendras
2019-07-19 01:11:00 +0000 UTCI have lots of ideas about little things like this. Of course, there are things that I haven't thought of, but the question of units was one that I had a plan for. I try to weave them in where they make sense to avoid massive infodumps and breaking up the flow with minutia. I monitor the comments for the volume of complaints and prioritize accordingly.
SenescentSoul
2019-07-19 01:09:31 +0000 UTCI would say adventurers would like a nice mana resistent armor that can take a good beating, and that is not thick and heavy. As we know in that world you can make steal out of iron with magic (and maybe skill) so maybe a new material that is both extremely durable and light can be created using different material. Still as we know the number/stats are more like a cap that the body/soul can achieve, and not a direct indication of raw strength. I think that a trained guy with 30 str can beat a not trained guy with 30 str pretty easily with only raw strength. I would also think that Val would buy an armor that is used buy an Archer or a mobile front fighter, and not a full plate armor meant for a tank. So more like an armor that use both leather and some metal for the chest part of the body.
Auron32
2019-07-19 00:56:16 +0000 UTC(Patreon deleted my first comment again for some reason, but this time, I'd installed an extension to backup comments. This comment was brought to you by Autofill.) Thanks for the chapter! I've been jonesing for one... It's nice to get some more info on the unit situation. Did you add it because we talked about it, btw, or was it always the plan? Looks like the System works slightly different for Rain than for everyone else. Probably works a bit different for every person, period. Maybe he should transcribe a System page for some tier 0 skills and compare to everyone else... BTW, as it is now, it should be fairly easy to measure out a meter exactly, if the auras are exact: Wait until [aura focus] is level 5. Use it to double the range of [immolate] to 10 meters. Then clean it up with a 9-meter [purify]. The remaining ring of smoldering grass will be exactly 1 meter thick according to the System. Notch a stick with the measurement and say proudly: "This is how long a meter is!" His skills are increasing nicely, and it sounds like he's finally making an effort to get [aura focus] up. I'm really looking forward to seeing what hidden skills will be unlocked when Rain gets 10/10 in a couple more skills...
Elaborate
2019-07-19 00:17:42 +0000 UTCHm, will he even be able to wear the armour? Basically anyone except noobs will have, like, at least 30 in strength, won't they? So adventurers will favour thicker armour that can actually take a beating...
Elaborate
2019-07-19 00:00:21 +0000 UTCHaha, yes, getting eaten by a squirrel is a real possibility :)
Mike G.
2019-07-18 23:01:51 +0000 UTC... are they using a base 10 system even? he should have had val start some quests for them to do outside the city... that way they can fund this trip... he's gonna have to pay tank guy
MagicWafflez
2019-07-18 23:00:18 +0000 UTC
