jmclarke
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Chapter 742: Learning New Limits
🕑 Added 2023-12-19 19:37:03 +0000 UTCBubbles burbled softly, watching its summoner work magic.
Alex cast Protective Force Weapon as easily as he had Wizard’s Hand, and just like that, crimson swords appeared, rotating around him, shielding his body. He stood wide eyed, grinning, shocked at what he’d just done.
“I can’t believe this, I can actually make force construct weapons!” his voice awestruck. “I remember sitting in Ram’s class, watching him cast this exact spell with a twitch of an eyebrow, thinking I was never gonna be able to do it. But here I am, doing the very same thing.”
Force construct swords shifted positions, seeming far more intimidating than his force rectangles ever had. “I'll start looking like a proper battle wizard, soon,” he laughed. “Now, let’s see what happens with higher-tier spells. I think I’ll start with Call Through Ice since it was the very first second-tier spell I ever learned. Makes it kind of fitting.”
Alex spoke to the little water elemental, “I’ve got something for you,” he said, taking a potion bottle from his satchel and casting Call through Ice: before the final syllable had left his mouth, the potion had already teleported to the water elemental.
Bubbles was happily gulping it down.
“Good, that was easy,” Alex said. “Maybe we should try a harder second-tier spell next, something like: Summon Elemental Beetle Swarm.”
Once again—before the incantation was finished—the Traveller’s power flared; scores of buzzing elemental beetles surrounded him. He dismissed them.
“At this speed, I could summon monsters as fast as an opponent could swing a weapon once,” Alex’s mind was on fire with possibilities. “I wonder if casting spells will be slower at higher-tiers?”
He focused on one of Isolde’s favourite spells: one he’d built into his staff.
“Time to fly,” he whispered, casting flight magic on himself.
With a few quick words, he felt his weight ease…in the blink of an eye, he was in the air.
“This is amazing!” he cried, looping through the room. “No staff, no potions! This is all me! I can't believe I was missing out on this! Maybe I should try…a third-tier summoning spell next. Why not? Yeah, let’s just do it: it was the first creature I summoned at third-tier…unfortunately.”
He uttered a few syllables.
A floating orb of light appeared before him.
“Greetings, mortal!” a voice like tinkling bells said. “How are things with you? Is it daytime? It seems quite dark. Are we in a dungeon, mortal? Is this mortal planning to enslave me? Do not do that, mortal—”
The lantern celestial paused.
“Wait, me remember you!” it cried in its celestial tongue. “You is the stupid mortal! You is the one with stupid mind and bad language! You will enslave me—”
With a thought, Alex banished the lantern celestial back to the upper planes.
“Well, that was unpleasant. Seems things haven’t changed.” He muttered, floating in the centre of the room. “But, calling it so quickly, shows me that even third-tier summoning spells take no time for me to cast now. Wonder if greater force armour should be next, or should I just go right to fourth-tier spells? You know what? I’d better try greater force armour to see if I can cast that one quickly. If I can, it’ll mean that if it breaks during a battle—I could just recast it and keep fighting.”
Alex instantly cast the third-tier spell, sheathing himself in red force magic; the armour turned invisible a moment later.
“Yeah, I could definitely recast it mid-fight with this speed. Alright, on to fourth-tier.”
With a few syllables and a flare of mana, he conjured a friendly, familiar, celestial fox.
“My, my.” She appeared before him. “It has been quite some time, my summoner.”
Alex had missed that cheeky purr. “I agree, it has been a long time, hasn't it?”
“It most certainly has! The last time you summoned me, I was stuffed with all kinds of goodies.” She stretched languidly, looking at him with a twinkle in her eye. “Please tell me I'm here so you can feed me again. You look like you're in high spirits: that means, you’re going to stuff me with sweets, right?”
Alex chuckled. “I wish I'd summon you for something fun; There has been a lot to celebrate lately…well, not lately exactly. Let's just say things have been really bad, but now they're really good. So, as soon as I get a chance, I'll be giving you all the sweets you can eat.”
“Hmmmm, I'll hold you to that, my summoner. So what am I to do, then?” she asked.
“You could just relax, I'm only testing spells right now. The fact you're here is good enough,” he said.
“Easiest duty I've had in a long time: fine by me.” She moved beside Bubbles, yawned, stretched, and laid down, curling into a ball.
Alex made a mental note to feed her lots of goodies when he got back to Generasi, whenever that might be. “The next summons likes treats that are a bit more exotic than baked goods.” He shuddered.
Summon Hellchainer—a fifth-tier spell—was no more difficult than conjuring the other monsters. With a few syllables, the chained dark spirit appeared, causing the celestial fox to sniff with disgust from where she lay.
“Am I here to cause pain?” the Hellchainer asked. “What delicious pain will we inflict?”
“Your presence is giving me pain,” Alex heard the celestial fox mutter.
If the Hellchainer cared, he gave no indication.
“Well, we’ll be causing pain soon enough,” the young wizard promised. “But for now, I’ll see you next time.”
“I hope the next time you have pain waiting for me,” the creature cooed, distastefully.
Alex dismissed the monster, trying to keep his mind from dwelling on the unpleasant spirit. He considered the fifth-tier spell, mulling it over in his mind. Something was odd.
“The higher-tier spells are taking more mana than the lower-tier ones, but they’re not any harder to cast. Casting a fifth-tier summoning spell is just about as fast as a first-tier. I know higher tiers take longer for my friends to cast, so what's going on? What does this mean?”
Was the Mark of the General helping him?
He touched the new Mark on his right shoulder. “I don't feel anything unusual coming from it…but I don't know what its powers are. Maybe it makes spellcraft easier in a way I haven’t noticed?” He frowned, thinking about that. “I don't know…Uldar designed each Mark with a purpose in mind, and he made it clear exactly how each Mark fulfilled that purpose. A hidden ability doesn't really seem to be his thing.”
The young wizard frowned. “I think I'm missing something, but for now, I'll keep casting. I’ll try sixth-tier, and after that, I can test out a couple of theories. Let's see if sixth-tier is any harder.”
It was not.
Effortlessly, a celestial dire tiger appeared before Alex. The powerful spell drained more mana than the fifth-tier had, but that was the only difference, casting the spell had been just as quick and easy.
The celestial dire tiger was the same one he’d originally conjured, it watched him, blinking in surprise. “You have brought me here faster than in our first encounter. Much faster.”
“True, I did, didn't I?” Alex said, deep in thought, his brow furrowed. That nagging feeling was growing. “I'm definitely missing something here. Even with the Traveller’s power, I didn’t think summoning such powerful spells would be this easy! Time to move to another test since I proved how easy it is for me to cast the different spell tiers…”
He’d planned on seeing how long it would take to learn fireball next, but that nagging feeling wouldn’t go away, instead, he decided to focus on it.
“Alright, I’ll cast greater force armour to see if the Mark of the General will help me directly with spellcraft.” He said.
Alex focused the Mark on one task, casting the spell. He uttered the words.
Nothing changed.
It was still effortless, and the Mark didn’t flood his mind with images of successes and failures to help him with the magic.
Force armour swirled around him, as it had before.
“So it doesn't help with spellcraft…which probably means it doesn't help with combat or divinity either…” he said. “Something still feels wrong, though. The Mark of the Fool never helped me with spellcraft either, but casting higher-tier spells seems tons easier and faster for me than it is for Khalik, Thundar, or even Isolde. And they’re not exactly weak wizards…they're great!”
Biting his lip in concentration, the General of Thameland folded his hands behind his back, pacing back-and-forth. “If the General’s Mark wasn't supporting me somehow, then casting those spells shouldn't be so easy. If anything, I should be a little worse at it than most other wizards because I learned my spells while fighting the Mark…of…the…Fool…”
He stopped dead in his tracks.
For at least five heartbeats, Alex stood frozen in place.
His eyes finally moved, drifting to the ceiling, as a conversation with Baelin returned. “Oh, by the Traveller…” he murmured.
He’d gone to Baelin when he’d first summoned Bubbles; it was the first time the Traveller’s power had helped him with a summoning spell, and conjuring the little water elemental had stunned him with how easy it had been.
At the time, he’d wondered if the Traveller’s power was entirely responsible for how easy it had been for him to cast the spell.
An amused smile had crooked Baelin’s lips before he’d responded with: “No, I do not think so. Not completely.”
“Then…what is it?” Alex had asked.
“Instead of answering, I will ask you these questions: what is the source of ingenuity? From what does creative thinking arise? Why are new roads of knowledge paved at all? Let me put it another way.” Baelin had nodded at Claygon “Why did you decide to bet everything you had on building Claygon? What spurred you to do that?”
“Honestly?” Alex had said. “I needed to have a way to defend myself in case the Ravener or another mana vampire attacked me. Early in first year I was pretty defenceless, so I kinda needed a bodyguard.”
“I see.” Baelin had stood a little taller, the twinkle of amusement growing in his eyes. “Would you say you would have built Claygon had you not needed to defend yourself?”
Alex thought about it. “No…I probably wouldn’t have, actually, even if I’d gotten the dungeon core substance under different circumstances. Uh, no offence, Claygon. I kinda pushed to analyse it because I was worried about Thameland…and myself. If I didn’t have stuff hanging over me and I’d found out about its properties, I probably would’ve used it to make something else…or maybe just waited until a higher year before using it.”
“I see.” Baelin had nodded. “So you analysed the dungeon core specifically out of a need, and built Claygon out of that same need. Due to those decisions, you sparked an expedition that might lead to a revolution of sorts. Now, analyse your successes today. You had a personal revolution. What might have occurred—aside from the help you received from that power—that would result in you having this breakthrough? What necessity and choices lead to this?”
“Necessity…” Alex muttered. “Necessity…innovation…stagnation…”
He was close, he could feel it
The young wizard remembered more of his conversation with the chancellor.
“I thought about what I do differently from most wizards I know—maybe I’m wrong here—but I seem to pay a lot more attention to a magic circuit’s construction than other wizards do,” Alex had said to the ancient wizard, pulling out diagrams he’d made as learning aids for himself: the drawings broke down magic circuits of different spells into their functional components. He’d cross-referenced those components with other magic circuits that served similar functions.
Among the diagrams were particular notes focusing on the sections of summoning spells responsible for reaching other planes.
“And I take it that the notes your young friends take do not focus on such details of magic circuitry?” Baelin had asked.
“Young friends…” the General of Thameland muttered. “Other wizards…”
“No, not so much,” Alex had answered. “Like, they do take notes on them, but they’re not this detailed. They don’t need to be for them to learn new spells. Now, Isolde’s notes do come close, and Thundar took some careful notes on the exact structure of Disguise Self when he wanted to modify it for me, but those are exceptions. Like I said, they don’t have to go into as much detail to learn a spell as I do.”
He’d paused. “You know…back when I was experimenting with the Mark, I discovered that it helped me train the efficiency of my breathing and running. Most folks know how to breathe and run, but by focusing on the details—which most people don’t even consider—the Mark showed me how to breathe and run more efficiently.”
“You’re nearly there,” Baelin had said, smiling proudly.
“And I'm nearly there again,” Alex muttered to himself. “It feels like that conversation’s guiding me now. As if what Baelin was trying to teach me then, also applies to the Mark of the General.”
Even now—after being gone for so long—the ancient wizard was helping him.
Helping him unlock the Mark’s secrets.
###
Author's Note
Hello thirty-six cool fools, almighty chosen, wise sages, and mighty champions! Thank you for your support!
We're joining Alex now as he explores the Mark of the General. Haha, there's a lot of stuff that's about to come together. :D :D :D
Also, we're a little closer to the end of book 8! Let's goooo
Comments
lenkite
We all remember Baelin's conversation. It wasn't all that long ago. I have noticed that there is a lot of copy-paste of teacher conversations in the newer chapters. Seems to have become a settled theme now unfortunately which necessitates skimming. Can't it just be summarized instead of verbatim repeating ?
George R
Thanks for chapter
Matt Cheek
I get the feeling the mark of the general isn’t meant to aid the bearer directly in combat. Rather, I think the mark is going to help Alex learn so that he can be the one teaching and directing the heroes. He’s not supposed to be directly involved in the fights. The champion is the tank, the saint the healer, the sage the ranged dps, and the chosen a support that can fill in whenever one of the other three needs a moment to recover, while also serving as a melee dps. I think the general is the one who stands back and calls the shots, while also being able to serve a similar role as the chosen. I’m eager to see what happens when Alex finally gets into a fight.
Laura López
I fail to see the mystery, he was handicapped so he needed a level of perfection and focus way above the regular required, now he is not but he maintains the good technique so of course it will feel that easy.
mag28
Idk if this part of the mark but maybe anything having to do with leading/ordering others is improved. I mean being a general is all about leading others and maybe summoning is just part of that
Evander
Will Alex use Kelda's machine to modify his mana pool? Or do we think the cuttings he has now are enough to permit him to reach 9th tier summoning spells. I'm looking forward to seeing the Unmaker fight the First Apostle.
Decide
Probably because it implies that Alex isn’t young like the other wizards. While Alex is Baelin’s favorite, it does feel like Alex is destined to be at his level. There was a point where Alex was reading body language a lot, and Baelin was doing the same with the king. While not exactly a peer, he’s the closest thing to an actual apprentice to Baelin that there is.
Frank Allen
Hmmm, I get the impression that there is another conversation occuring under the immediate one in the flash back. Similar to Dante's inferno, but no where near as complex. But I could be over analyzing things. Idk something about that young friends part is starting to bug me.
Silver Beard
wishy-washy on this one. Just get on with it. Does it really matter what the Mark does now that it's not inhibiting his martial prowess? Best way to learn to by doing. Time to end a threat to him and others and get back to killing off the Ravener (or taming it or something)
Code Reed
You mean a 'Proper Wizard'.
Code Reed
Agreed, this conversation was the first thing I thought about after the existence of the mark of the general was discovered.
Code Reed
Not really how it works. If the mark effected spell craft at all, it would still be showing him his successes. Even if there weren't any failures to show.
Code Reed
Yeah this is the conversation I was thinking of. Because of the way he's had to learn, now that the shackles are off he has a leg up on pretty much any wizard. I figure if he uses the same method to learn new magics, he'll be able to learn new spells at a frightening pace.
Albadia
Very much looking forward to our new and improved alex going full angry wizard on the hidden church next time
Allastin
It’s like there were different gates of mastery that he literally couldn’t pass until he mastered every required skill. Makes for the best foundation ever I suppose
Sam
My impression is that the mark really doesn't have anything to show him. By learning the spell with the hindrance the mark of fool , he has pretty much been forced to perfect spell craft. Obviously if he is learning a new spell it might help him form the circuit or whatever, but for spells he already knows he was almost forced to master them before using them.
Decide
This sounds somewhat intentional. Uldar could've forced the fool to have a hard time with mana manipulation, too, but he didn't.
mhaj58
Baelin helped Alex understand that great power requires great understanding in the fundamentals of life means to acquire power. In exercise and practicing magic Alex has had to hyper focus on the fundamentals of every spell he learned and now can cast difficult spells with effortless ease. This usually requires years of practice and effort but Alex was able to use the Fools power to speed up the process and can exponentially improve and refine his learning abilities with the power of the General
Voror
I sometimes feel like having whole chunks of a chapter composed of sections taken from another chapter feels like it artificially lengthens them. If it were just a line or two, maybe a single paragraph combined with a summarized version of the previous conversation it wouldn't bother me, but here it's a bit much. Still neat to think that the reason this is so easy is because he was working with limits other didn't before. Which may indicate the Mark would help him if it saw any problems.
Panzer
The flashback felt a bit too long
Decide
Does anyone know the epiphany Alex had with his conversation with Baelin the first time? Or the book? I want to say that he realized he's thorough, but that seems a bit too mundane to be what's going on here. Edit: since he can use magic really easily now, I wonder if he could develop chantless casting. He's already not saying a lot of the words here. Edit 2: OK, so Alex should be able to develop new and dangerous spells. With that arsenal he took, I wonder if he could combine and alter the spells to attack large groups and eventually heal Thameland
Thomas Keller
Looks like I was right, The Fool Mark forcing Alex to *perfect* his spellcasting fundamentals has made it so that the General Mark doesn't have anything to actually help him improve when it comes to Mana Circuit construction, which combined with Alex's frankly insane mana manipulation skills means that he's perfectly casting his spells at phenomenal rates without the Fool Mark distracting him.
Vorquel
Alex is such an idiot sometimes. It's easy now *because* it was hard before. How is this the part of the conversation he forgot? It's the part I would have obsessed over, especially when I learned about the mark of the general.
Decide
That's how I'm reading it. It seems that since Alex spent so much time studying the circuits, spellcraft is just a lot easier and quicker for him than most, now that he's free, anyway.
Xyminimal
Quick-casting high tier spells? Alex is gonna need a bigger mana pool. Valrock will be proud
Jayson Legott
Thanks for the chapter! So if I’m reading this right the new Mark will help Alex learn spell craft but not cast it?
JadeRabbit
Thanks for the chapter! Excited to see Alex unleashed!
Itsigu
Tftc
CipherFTW
WOOOOOOOOOOO MY MANS CAN WIZARD PROPERLY NOW!
