I am sooooo slow. Forgive me.
BGM Set
[X] Practice reinforcement.
[X] Research at the library.
- [X] Spells.
[X] Head to the city to commission a wand.
[X] Research records of dangerous missions.
[X] Research runes in the library, try to match one to the drawing.
You don't want your skills in reinforcement to atrophy, so you spend some time on it. You want to reinforce your legs to run faster. You can already enhance your arms reliably, but being able to run fast and kick hard sounds even better. Taking the same approach of multiple sessions of steady prana infusion, you recalibrate the amount you use for your arms while gauging how you need to manipulate your prana to reinforce your legs properly. It doesn't take long for results to show. In your first real test, you sprint around the castle grounds with the wind whipping against your face and smiling joyfully at the raw speed you're capable of. You leap over a wall taller than you are, and cleave a wooden training dummy in two with an axe kick. There are some disadvantages you notice, however.
You're ultimately limited by the length of your stride, so you can't go too ridiculously fast, but you push off the ground with such force that you can accelerate very quickly and your sprinting speed is extremely fast. The next limiting factor is your endurance. You were dead tired after that test, despite it only taking fifteen or twenty minutes, tops. You aren't the most athletic person. Reinforcing your cardiovascular system might be something to try in the very far future, but not now. Messing up there would be instantaneous death, and it would be very hard to improve. Simple exercise should suffice in the meantime.
The next thing you want to try is your hearing. Your eyesight would probably be more useful to have reinforced, but you want to step up the difficulty gradually, and your ears will be easier to improve than your eyes. You know you could render yourself blind if you make a wrong move.
On the inanimate object front, there's not much else you can improve. You can't reinforce your wire-creations- trying to infuse prana into a construct maintained by that same prana just ends up in the two annihilating each other and wiping out your creation. You tried reinforcing a wand to see if you could make it a more powerful wand, but that didn't yield any results. You can't theorize why that was- it seems like it would work in theory, but in practice it just makes for one sturdy piece of wood.
Reinforcing other people.. the process is simply too slow to be effective in combat. Even just doing a hack job to mess up their internal organs would take you a few seconds of hovering your hands over their body and channeling prana to invade their system. Your decay works much faster as a close range means of attack.
Skill improved: Reinforcement E+
The cornerstone of Brimiric spellcasting- combining two or more elements together. It's what Belden is trying to teach you.
It's monstrously difficult. Ice Spear is a combination of one water and one air. No matter how you try combining, materializing, mixing, or creating the desired effect as described, you just can't manage it. The elements seem to have a mind of their own, and they vehemently resist any attempts to use them in concert. It's hard to visualize how they're supposed to interact while channeling the right amount of willpower while also directing it to the right place. If you make a mistake in any of the steps, the whole spell falls apart.
Belden gives you a helping hand here. You have absolutely no idea how, but he can cast the spell in slow-motion. He explains that it's because it's a different spell entirely- one he created for the purpose of teaching you. Apparently he's such an amazing spellcaster he can create spells like that on the fly. It makes you look a little closer at him.. at his ears. Wait.. were his ears always like that? A half-remembered memory of a very similar looking elf flits across your vision, and you think you have it- but it falls away like water in the hand. No, this
can't be him. They're different. His ears are perfectly human.
In contrast to the actual spell, it has the air and water partitions highlighted midcast with differing bright colors. It's very effective as a teaching tool- combining what you've read with what you can see in front of you, the pieces start falling together. You raise your wand and channel willpower- the intense focus required causing sweat to form on your brow. "Ice Spear!"
It coalesces in midair and flies in a straight trajectory at the target, impaling it cleanly. You wipe your forehead and exhale in relief and pride. You cast it successfully. Your high doesn't last long after that lesson, however.
It's the only line class spell you can cast. You suppose you technically qualify as a line mage now, though you would be very low on the line totem pole. You tried learning additional line-class spells but you couldn't do any of them. You had to suffice for looking for a few dot class spells to add to your repertoire. Levitation is a well-known spell even the most incompetent mage can cast- you looked that up first. You also found a spell to contrast with your Chill spell- the Heat spell. It should be useful if the place you're going is cold. There were a few other dot spells you could've practiced, but you're limited by time. What you have will have to suffice.
Skill improved: Willpower Spellcasting E-
New Spell: Levitation
New Spell: Heat
New Spell: Ice Spear
Obtaining access to the records you seek isn't difficult. The archivist lets you in without even needing advance warning. In your research, you uncover some patterns that you believe are pertinent to your situation.
The most high-risk missions are ones that fall under two categories. One, they deal with a crisis. Two, the crisis doesn't extend far beyond the affected area. They become high-risk- that is, the most fatalities occur- because the manpower sent to deal with the problem is inevitably shorthanded and under-skilled.
This is probably the kind of mission you'll be sent on. If you're lucky, you'll have a knight or two to help out and watch your back. If you're not, you'll be expected to do it all by yourself. It sounds ridiculous in your head. How can you be expected to quell a peasant uprising, stop a rogue mage, or vanquish a wild monster at twelve years old? Oh, right- you're not. You're supposed to die or run away in disgrace here.
There are a lot more sane missions that could be your first. Providing water to a remote town afflicted by drought, helping to rebuild a razed village, watching over a senior knight's familiar.. anything other than this. A lot of royalty have stints in the military, but they're supposed to be offered much more training beforehand and given a natural progression of advancement to follow. You dispel this line of thought before it can spiral downward. Complaining about things you can't change is pointless.
No matter how many tomes you search, you can't find the rune you're looking for. You briefly entertain the notion that it was a practical joke meant to waste your time, but your intuition tells you that's not the case here. This rune means something, you just don't know what.
You have a vague suspicion that the books you need have been removed, or were never here in the first place. There isn't nearly enough on ancient history, compared to the wealth of information available on practically every other subject. You'll either need to find the missing books or gain access to a better library to solve this mystery.
You finally make some time to head out into the city to commission a set of wands. The one you already have works just fine, but you'd rather have one you obtained yourself. You hand it back to Belden with your thanks and apologies.
You find a highly recommended wand-crafter and pay him a visit in person. The shopkeeper is an honest man, and you're treated very nicely. After specifying what you want and ironing out the financial details, you wait around in the shop for your order to finish. You walk away at the end of the day with a brand new high-quality wand and a matching sword-wand to go with it.
You wanted a staff to complete the set, but those are harder to come by, being genuine magical artifacts- the secret of their creation has been lost to time, as opposed to wands which are made every day. You won't be able to requisition one from the royal vault until you prove yourself a bit more.
You haven't the faintest idea how to wield a sword, but that doesn't mean the sword-wand is useless. Your projectile spells, like Ice Spear, are more precise when cast by the sword-wand, and your fine control over variable spells like Chill improves as well- you can more easily adjust the temperature to the desired result without over or undershooting it. The downside is that the spells tend to be slightly less powerful. Your generic wand has no weaknesses or strengths.
Item lost: Gifted Wand
Item obtained: Generic Wand
Item obtained: Sword-wand
It's time to leave. Your uncle is off doing.. something, but a royal missive is there for you in its place to direct you. The cats are looked after- you have Sarah the maid's word that they'll be well-cared for in your absence.
There's a carriage arranged to take you to your destination. It's not the fanciest ride you've ever taken, but it's not shabby. It will lead you south, toward a village nestled in a valley created by the southern mountain ranges. Its farms have been ravaged by some kind of creature attacking and retreating, and the region has diminished in productivity because of it. The region as a whole is one of the smallest in Gallia, however- so the effects on Gallia the country are minimal. Presumably this is why additional knights aren't being dispatched to this area to take care of the problem.
You're staying at a local baron's estate for the duration of the mission, but the one you need to report in to is a knight living in the village proper. Your uncle has also ordered you to keep silent on your status as the Princess. Your identity is that of a noble orphan named Tabitha, a ward of the crown. You settle into a more serious persona- you can play innocent or naive, but only if the situation calls for it.
You need to prepare to leave. Is there anything you want to do before you board your carriage? (You have a few hours.)
[ ] No, you're prepared. Let's go.
[ ] ... (Write-in.)
At your destination:
[ ] Check in with the local nobility that you're arranged to stay with.
[ ] Check in with the local knight for details about your mission.
[ ] Head into the village proper to gather information about the mission.
[ ] Something else. (Write-in.)
1-25: Research into additional spells is only mildly successful.
26-50: Research into additional spells is successful.
51-75: Research into additional spells is very fruitful.
76-100: Research into additional spells leads you to a very peculiar tome with handwritten notes in the margins that prove extraordinarily helpful.