Chapter 10: Chapter 10 Davrar revealed

The Giantraiders hadn’t had much to say to Nathan with so many shellshocked captives to take care of. That was honestly fine with Nathan - he was feeling a little shell-shocked himself. The violence had been so explosive. And he’d been a part of it, rampaging through the mages like a bull in a china shop. They’d been experienced fighters, but Nathan had resisted their best shots and that had been enough. As he was ruminating, Emerald approached him.

The ex-slaves seem to give the slim armored fighter a wide berth, and Nathan understood why. They’d been a vicious presence on the battlefield, and shown no qualms about dealing with dead bodies afterwards. But that had included saving Nathan’s life at least once, and from what he’d heard during the battle they had good reason to hate slavers.

“T-thanks. Y-you d-did a lot. B-better than I-I did. A-and s-sorry. I-I took your k-kills.” Emerald’s stutter seemed worse than usual, and Nathan could tell they weren’t comfortable with the number of stares coming their way.

Nathan relaxed. “No, it’s ok. You saved my ass from the last guy, and I…. Well, I’ve never killed anybody before. And thanks to you, I still haven’t. I don’t view that as a problem. Even if they were slavers, I can’t help but be grateful I didn’t have to look into anybody’s eyes before I killed them. Is stealing somebody’s kills a problem?”

Emerald tilted their head. “A k-kill l-levels you m-more. A-and that last m-mage was over l-level 81. I l-leveled a l-lot from that. Y-you could have l-leveled more if you had k-killed him.”

Nathan paused for a moment. That sounded a lot more like a game mechanic than something Nathan was comfortable with. Especially when it incentivized murder. But then he shrugged. It was another useful data point on Davrar, and something to keep in mind for the future. Nathan was worried about what it meant for society on Davrar if you got extra levels for killing people. He eventually responded to Emerald. “I levelled plenty, don’t worry about it. I’m glad nobody was seriously hurt except Wiam, that seems miraculous given what we went up against. Also, I wanted to ask earlier, but why did the slave soldiers all die? Can they not be freed?”

“N-no. T-they die if t-they think they’re about to be captured. I-it’s p-possible to dispel, b-but hard to do in a f-fight. You learn to d-deal. They’re already dead. A-and I’m glad you’re ok. T-that t-Talent is good.”

That made sense, and made Nathan curl his lip. Why did Giantsrest do that? Spite? Preventing any captured soldiers from turning on them, most likely. Looking at Emerald, Nathan realized they probably had a point. Then he realized something else that had been bugging him. “Why didn’t they have any golems? They seemed like they would make excellent soldiers.”

Emerald shook their head. “N-not good in c-chaotic s-situations. A-also e-expensive and get lost easily in r-rough terrain. T-too easy to t-trick. B-better as g-guards with simple i-instructions. O-or shock t-troops w-with a construct m-mage. Slave soldiers s-still think.”

Nathan swallowed, the reminder of the conscious thoughts of the slave-solders disturbing him. There'd been more death than he’d ever experienced, and he wasn’t done processing it yet. It still felt unreal.

Emerald seemed done talking, so Nathan thanked them and walked on, reflecting. How did he feel about the Giantraiders? He was a bit shocked at the level of violence they’d demonstrated, but he’d participated. Did he want to do that again? If he really wanted to take down Giantsrest he’d probably need to. But now that he’d had a near-death experience he was less willing to pursue more without good reason. Before he made final decisions on things there was a mountain of things he needed to learn about the world.

The rest of the day was spent walking back towards Gemore. Nathan didn’t talk much with the rest of the Giantraiders, instead walking a bit to the side of the large group of subdued ex-captives. He was trying to distract himself from dwelling on the violence by making a list of utility skills he wanted. He had three so far, and they all seemed useful. [Focused mind] had been immeasurably useful in helping Nathan deal with the unexpected, and he was pretty sure it was helping him be better at getting new skills and Talents. A multiplier on top of whatever blessing Davrar had given him for being disadvantaged sounded like a good thing.

Sprinting was also pretty useful. Being able to move fast was great for a lot of reasons. Sure, being able to fly would be better, but that didn’t seem like it was on the table. Unless his last Talent slot could make that happen? Nathan shook his head. Wiam had mentioned that he could get a flying Talent because he had wings, but it probably wasn’t that simple for Nathan. Unless he could make a shapeshifting Talent? Nathan shuddered a bit this time. He hated body horror.

Earnestness… was a little bit confusing. It seemed like a great skill for a lot of reasons. Useful for certain kinds of lying, useful for being serious. It didn’t directly help him fight people, but it would help avoid fights and be in social situations. Maybe Nathan could scope out other possible socially-oriented skills and try to pick up something worthwhile.

So, what other utility skills would be useful? A few things jumped out to Nathan - something for memory, something else to give him local knowledge. He had no idea if either were possible, but he had some ideas for the memory skill. A utility skill to help him remember things from Earth seemed like a great idea, but it maybe wasn't the most pressing issue. And a skill that helped him know things a native should know might prevent him from accidentally offering a deadly insult to somebody. What else would be useful? Utility skills couldn’t help him do things he couldn’t do otherwise, so what did he wish he was better at?

That question made Nathan remember something - his plans to develop Magic Resistance. He hadn’t been able to develop it before the fight, and it seemed to require serious effort. He remembered back to his first fumbling resistance of magic, when Taeol had tried to [Charm] him. Nathan had needed to pull apart each spell, feel what it was doing and work to counter the effect. When the Talent had hit max rank up and he’d gotten [Antimagic Blows] it had required a lot less attention, at least when he was hitting things. But he didn’t want to lose sight of how he’d needed to interact with the magic to counter it the first few times. It could be the key to developing the Talent in a useful direction.

You are reading story Ends of Magic: Antimage LitRPG at novel35.com

The sun was far from dimming when the group settled in a wide glade for the night. They were in the middle of the cold wilderness, and the villagers needed some time to eat and digest if everybody was going to stay healthy. The ex-slaves were ravenous since they'd been fed nothing but starvation rations after being captured. They were probably going to eat through most of the food, both the Giantraiders stockpile and that acquired from the Slavers. According to Vhala, the backup squad was going to push through the night and should get to them sometime mid-morning.

Nathan staked out a spot near Wiam, who had propped himself up against a tree. They would be sleeping rough tonight, since the tent and heavy blankets were going to some of the elderly who hadn’t been doing well with the overland march. But there was a fire nearby, so it wasn’t too bad.

Wiam seemed to be doing better, but not great. It did seem he’d need that session with a healer, and Nathan hoped he got it. But he had some questions for the hawk-man first. Questions about magic.

“Hey Wiam, hope you’re feeling better.” Wiam lifted one hand and made a fist, which he bounced side-to-side. Nathan continued. “I’ve got some questions about magic if you’ve got time. I want to know how you cast spells. If somebody had mana shaping, and was trying to cast their first spell, what would you tell them?”

Wiam coughed out a bit of a laugh, then shrugged. “A bit of a funny question a’comin’ from you. But I’ll tell ya what I got told when I was a chick. When ya can shape tha mana, you sorta tie it in knots of specific shapes. Basic spells like dis [Light Orb]“ a ball of light manifested in his palm “are real simple, just take some basic mana, throw it around like ‘dis, and there you go.” He looked at Nathan a moment, then seemed to realize something. “But you can’t sense the mana, so it’s not gonna work great. Mana shaping would letcha sense da mana I’m throwin’ around for this spell. And try it ya’self.” Wiam withdrew his hand, leaving the ball of light floating in midair.

Nathan studied the orb of light, both with his eyes and with the elusive sense he’d felt while resisting Taeol’s spells. Nothing. He reached out and touched the ball. Right before it flickered out, he felt it. Like an insubstantial uneven ball, or a knot of fuzzy string. Nathan’s brows furrowed. “I think I can sense the mana, but only when I touch it. I could feel the shape of that, a bit. Are there other kinds of mana than ‘basic’ mana?”

Wiam clattered his beak a bit. “Weeeiiird. I heard’a some other Talents that letcha sense mana, but they’re mostly bad versions of mana shapin’. Funny that magic resistance’d do it. But yeah, bunch of kindsa mana for differen’ spells. One o’ the big parts to bein’ a mage, learnin’ to change the type of mana ya put in a spell, they’re all different and a lotta mages get class skills for new types o’ mana, but you can learn ta use other mana type e’en if you ain’t got the skill. I do a lot wit’ shadow mana and I got a skill for that one, but I also do some earth stuff and that’s just practice, and easy ta get to from shadow. But I’d need fire n’ force for a fireball, and I can’t do neither.”

That was… fascinating. Themed mana. “Can you sense what kind of mana is which? And how do you learn to swap the types?”

“Ayup, all da types have a different feel ‘bout em. Basic is fuzzy n’ soft, while shadow is dark n’ brittle. Earth is heavy n’ moist, but none of those’re great explanations, ya’kinda gotta just feel the mana and figure out what’s what. And for the swappin… well thatsa Insight right there, and not mine to give. But it’s one of the keys to magery. That and bein’ shown what weaves make what spells. And practice to get skills n’ stuff to make the mana go into a spell fasta’. A new mage’ll take a hot minute to put together a simple light spell, nevermind a paralysis or whateva.”

Nathan had an idea. His magic resistance seemed to give him the ability to sense mana when it was in contact with him. When he’d been ranking up his magic resistance Talent the first time, he’d needed to feel out Taeol’s different spells and work to neutralize them differently. What if the same was true for all magic? Did he need to understand the spellwork, or at least be able to understand how to pick it apart, in order to properly neutralize it? It felt like a good way to go about the Talent evolution to Nathan. So he asked Wiam for a favor. “Hey Wiam, feel free to turn me down if you’re not up to it, but do you think you could cast some spells on me? Nothing harmful, I just want to focus on what it feels like to resist magic. I think it’ll be part of helping me develop my Talent.”

Wiam’s eyes bore into Nathan, and he cocked his head to the side. “Ya’know what, sure. Usually this sorta thing’d come for a cost, but with all that’s happened I owe ya a bit, even if you’re da vote that got me blown outta a tree. But hey, if’n ya make it big, remember da little folks?”

Nathan was confused by that last bit, but Wiam immediately moved on to casting a variety of spells on Nathan. They started with various stealth spells and worked their way up to some basic attack and ‘inconvenience’ spells. Using [Focused mind], Nathan learned to pick out some of the shapes of various spells, and how to pull them apart faster or slower. He also started getting a hint of what different kinds of mana felt like. Wiam’s explanations had been spot on, with basic, unaspected mana being soft and fluffy, shadow being dark and brittle-feeling while earth was sort of dense and wet. It was almost as if the density was more a sensation of weight than of actual mass. It was hard to put into words.

After a plain but filling meal, Nathan settled in to meditate for a little while. He wasn’t frantic or panicking, but it seemed like a good idea to keep up the habit. The absence of his smartphone and its app was annoying, but [Focused Mind] more than made up for it. It really was a useful skill for his own sanity, if nothing else.

Nathan drifted, focusing on his breathing. In and out. In and out. How did he feel? A bit scared. A lot guilty for killing people, even if he hadn't delivered any final blows. He heard the refugees moving in the camp around him, and relaxed. The fight had been for a purpose, and that purpose had been worthwhile. In hindsight he’d been quick to agree, but knowing the outcome he didn’t regret the decision. The violence had come easier than he’d expected. Nathan remembered the sensation of the mage’s face crunching under his fist, and then remembered what the mage had been doing. He called up a bit of the visceral hate that had sparked his fury, and Nathan found he didn’t even regret the violence, just the risk of his own death. With that thought, he let his feelings of the fight go and blanked his mind for proper meditation.

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