“So, coming to understand not only your element but the magical system of nanites and Mana can allow you to increase its efficiency. You can also do it in environments that are sympathetic to your Affinity. Water magic in the ocean, Air magic in the middle of a windy day, Fire in the heart of a volcano. Though, we don’t usually see big changes in how magics work in these areas because we don’t understand the magical system, creating a cycle of magical suppression as we aren’t near to pushing our Affinities and magic to its limits.” Ela-Dorn just sat there, trying to fully comprehend what Malsour was saying. Her mind made connections as the gravity of his words hit her.
“Teach me more about the magic system,” she demanded, her attention wholly focused on him.
“Still having a discussion, I see?” Ela-Gal said, walking between the beaten bookshelves.
“With Malsour’s knowledge, we could double the power of our magical output!” Ela-Dorn said.
Ela-Gal looked impressed as he looked to Malsour in confirmation.
“I, too, was skeptical at first, but I had a very good teacher and she is something of a magical technology savant,” Malsour said proudly, keeping away from telling them that his mentor had been the Lady of Fire herself.
Dave lurched up from where he lay on the floor. “Oh, ow.” He promptly lowered himself back down to the floor.
“Dave, you okay?” Malsour moved to him.
“Uh, huh, just my head really hurts,” he complained.
“So, do you know how teleport pads work now?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“Yeah, kind of. Well, I know how the thing works. I just don’t know why. Malsour, you figure out theories and laws of wormholing?”
“I have been able to understand a great amount of it. I still have a lot of information to go through.”
“Well, I can get started on the portal factory. I don’t think I should have too many issues in getting the place cleaned up. Then we can go over to Cliff-Hill and get a portal in payment for the Aleph.” Dave made to get up, ending in a groan and him lowering himself back down. “Maybe after my brain has stopped ringing.”
“That might be an idea.” Malsour shook his head as Dave started to use his interface, adding to the prodigious notes he had been taking before he destroyed the teleport pad.
***
Ela-Dorn and Ela-Gal went off to see the rest of the library and show Malsour where the best books on wormhole theories and science were located.
Dave opened up a voice chat with Kol.
“What?” Kol asked, sounding half asleep.
“When will we be ready to put in that purchase order for the teleport pad?” Dave asked, his mind still moving forward with his plans.
“Should be by the end of the week.” Kol yawned.
“Okay, good. Should be done by then.” Dave muttered the last to himself. “I’ll talk to you later then.”
“Was that all you wanted to know? What time is it?”
“Uh, about three in the morning for you.” Dave held his breath.
Silence drifted between the two of them.
“Next time, I’ll check what time it is. Sorry—had a kind of big development here,” Dave said.
“Goodnight, Dave.”
“Good morning, Kol!” Dave said with cheer, imagining Kol’s face scrunched up in frustration.
Kol closed the voice chat.
“Good morning? What am I, six? Am I sure that this new Intelligence helped me?” Dave moved to his character sheet. Now that he had made the decision to start using his stat points, he needed to really start figuring out his total fighting style.
“Well, conjuring is my prime go-to; after that, Strength and Agility.” Dave looked at the character sheet.
He dismissed it with a wave, his headache calming down. He pushed himself up. He wobbled on his feet, feeling unsteady, as if his natural rhythm was messed up. He took some test steps; his foot came down slower than he was used to.
Dave looked at his legs, deep in thought. “It’s almost like those games where you go in slow-mo. Your limbs move so slowly as you do the same actions. There’s like a heaviness to your actions. Wait? Did me increasing my Intelligence increase how fast I think? I might not feel it when my attributes were lower. Sure, I would gain a lot of stats in one go, but at those lower levels, it’s not so much. At these higher levels, just getting an increase to a few attributes, you can feel a difference.”
Dave pondered it for a minute and went to the Emerilia wiki. He headed over to people doing max-min spell casters. The wealth of information that had been added onto the wiki was incredible.
Dave kept bookmarking different things for later as he reached a post by someone with an Intelligence over 350.
Hey fellow Emerilians!
So, I’ve been max-min my character in Intelligence and Wisdom. I found that once I crossed the three hundred range, I started to get a lag spike. I reached out to the admins and they said that it was part of the game.
After about three weeks of me complaining, they finally came back and told me that it was an in-game mechanic!
Once you hit around the two hundred and fifty mark, you’ll start to have rare moments where things seem to slow down for a second or two in high stress situations or when you haven’t slept long. I didn’t realize it until they told me (this game is freaking awesome!).
So, once you hit around three hundred, it’s like a few bits of a second off, but then it’s a real pain in the ass trying to walk around. Once you get to around 350, it starts getting fun. Your casts are faster and your reactions are faster. It’s weird cause it kind of feels like you think faster. I have no idea how they do this, but I tried it out with doing my work in the game and I got a month of work done in just a day!
Intelligence is the way to go!
EDIT: Increasing your Agility becomes almost necessary around the 400 mark. Otherwise, you feel like a fish in jelly. It sucks. With the increased Agility, you can actually move as fast as your slow-mo.
EDIT: Made a video of me fighting a lvl 230 fiend!
Dave clicked on the video.
The fiend was made of some black material that seemed to be formed in hard angles and lines. It was pitch black except for its burning eyes and flames that seemed to flicker across its back and make its chest glow.
The camera view was from someone up in a tree watching as a human wearing magical robes stepped out into the barren area that the fiend was moving across. It seemed to move in a black streak toward the mage, only to be hit with three spells before it had reached halfway.
It clawed at the mage, finding nothing but air. Instead it recoiled as five magical hits pushed the fiend back. Its black skin flashed red in pain as it reeled around and started moving faster.
The mage fired from their destruction staff and their own hands. The video was slowed down to actually see the Player and fiend’s reactions.
The fiend’s claws came across and over, and then under and up, two hits that would have turned the mage into a shredded mess.
The mage dodged to the side of the first attack, unleashing a lightning attack that hit the fiend’s second arm, blowing it off as the fiend ran past the mage.
Dave watched in disbelief. The mage laughed as the video sped up again to real time. The fiend howled out in pain, trying to once again rush the mage. The mage seemed to be done with playing around. Magical attacks rang through the area. The trees that the recorder was in swayed as the fiend’s rush was stopped.
Fire seemed to escape its body from different cuts. The fiend let out a bellow of flames, meeting an Air attack that cut through the flame and dispersed them.
The fiend tried everything, but two minutes later, it collapsed to the ground. The area around the mage and fiend was a war zone.
There was nothing that the fiend had been able to do against an attack like that.
Dave looked down at the description under the video.
Player: Maglidor
Level for the video: 287
“I bet that if he got hit just once, it would have been all over.” Dave scratched at his scruff. “Though it shows me another use for Intelligence. Okay, so, increasing Intelligence is a must. Then Agility because when I’m fighting, I don’t want everything to be slowed down so much that moving becomes a pain in the ass. I’d like to increase my Strength, but it’s pretty good. With higher Intelligence working with my inference and perception skills, I should be able to hit vital areas a lot easier.” He looked to Vitality and Endurance.
“Okay, I need to put something into Vitality so I don’t get killed right away. Endurance, sure, every once in awhile. Needing to sleep less is great, but I have the healing ability of my armor, when I fix it.” He frowned and stared at his Willpower attribute.
“Okay, I could put stat points into you, but my regeneration is pretty high and again, with my armor, I have a pool of forty million Mana points to pull from. Not including the other armor I’m linked to. Plus, I can store my Willpower as well, so that I can use it when smithing. Maybe, every once in a while, but not really necessary. So, that leaves Intelligence, Agility, and Vitality being my best attributes for me to put stat points into.”
“Might be an idea to wait a bit before doing so.” Malsour carried books in his arms. The Elas followed him.
“Yeah, might be an idea—don’t need to pass out again! Should we go check on the portal factory? See if we can start working on it?” Dave rubbed his hands together.
“Excited to start putting up your portals?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“Be some time before I figure out how it all works, but got to have a plan for the future.” Dave rubbed his head. His excitement might have gotten the best of him when he let those plans slip. He didn’t even know if it was possible; hopefully Malsour could fill in the missing bits of knowledge.
“Well, let’s go and see what you know, shall we? I’m excited to see a Dwarven Master Smith in action,” Ela-Gal said.
Dave smiled, tilting his head in thanks for the compliment. “Shard, where we going?” Dave asked.
“Same teleport pad as before. I will have it linked to the portal factory. Also, Sato called; seems that his group has been rather busy developing the magical system. Malsour, you will be pleased to know that they have complete notes on their implementation so as to understand its functionality.” Shard sounded rather pleased with himself.
“That is incredible. I look forward to hearing about it!” Malsour said.
“Give you any scrap of information and you’re happy as can be.” Dave led the way to the teleport pad. “Malsour, when you increase your Intelligence, did you also increase the Agility in order to make up for the differences?”
“Ah, so, the time dilation effects started kicking in? I did, but then with training, you can still walk and talk normally, only using it in bursts when you need it. Having it active all the time wears on the mind and you need to then work on a high Endurance stat, so you don’t need to constantly eat food or take a nap.”
“You made it over level 300 for Intelligence?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“Yep.” Dave looked at her and her level 279. He studied Gal.
Ela-Gal
High Elf
Level 375
Dave’s eyes went wide after reading Gal’s level.
Ela-Dorn laughed at Dave’s wide eyes. “While Ela-Gal looks younger than me, he is almost twice my age. He’s also a much stronger mage than me. Though he hides it behind his weapon skills. Much like your Anna and Deia.”
Ela-Gal shot her a look. “Their way of fighting is very interesting. I like how they have mixed their fighting styles with their melee fighting abilities. Both of them together increase their power—a smart combination.”
“He wants to see if they would be willing to teach him,” Ela-Dorn said, getting a don’t-tell-them-that look from her husband.
“Ela-Dorn is not one for secrets and I was interested in the fighting style,” he finally admitted.
“Well, I can introduce you to them. I think they would be more than happy to show you their fighting styles,” Dave reassured him.
The Stone Raiders and Aleph had just started to extend their hands in friendship to one another. Things like this were the best way to make their relationship work and truly bring them together.
Dave entered the teleport pad control room. “Well, let’s see how much we really know about teleport pads!” Dave smiled and jumped through the teleport pad’s event horizon.
Chapter 22: Thinning the Horde
Krenua stepped out of the shadows, his footfalls silent as he followed behind one of his fellow mages. The mage grabbed a Demon taking a piss. There was a brief smell of ozone as the Demon dropped. More of the DCA wandered out of the darkness, knocking out the new Demons, others grabbing them and hauling them back.
Krenua moved into a caged area where meat had been stored.
A guard was eating a large haunch of meat, congealed blood on its chest and arms as it looked for other Demons trying to take its food.
Krenua made a quick run; he kicked out its legs and his arms wrapped around its neck before it could cry out. As the Demon fell into unconsciousness, more of the Demon Army seemed to creep out of the shadows.
Krenua let the unconscious guard down slowly. He pulled out a vial from a pouch on his belt and poured it over the meat in the cage. He hauled the unconscious guard over his shoulder, headed back out of the camp.
An owl let out a call.
The Demon Army melted back into the shadows. They had killed or knocked out around a hundred of the Dark Lord’s minions. The horde was thinner as the Demon Army stole into the night.
“Good work.” Lezar looked at their forces after a fifteen-minute sprint and thirty-minute flight.
“Now, let’s see what information we can get from these bastards.” Lezar stretched out his wings, letting out his full aura.
Krenua and the rest of the Demon Army stopped suppressing their auras.
The Demons sent by the Dark Lord, looked at them with wild eyes. When they focused on Lezar, their bodies stared to shake with instinctual fear.
“Now, I want to know a few things. I want to know who’s in charge, who are your strongest Demons, and what the hell the Dark shit stain did to you lot?” Lezar’s voice pulled every one of the fifty or so demons that were bound, looking at their ancient ancestors.
“We will eat you!” The declaration came out in halting Abyssal. The Demon was punched by a Beast Kin so hard there was a dent in its skull as it dropped to the ground.
“Come on, Olivia. Fuck, he was the best out of all them.” Lezar rubbed his face.
The Beast Kin shrugged. “Didn’t think they were that weak. Sorry, General,” Olivia, a mix of elk and Human, said.
“Apology accepted. Now someone put runes on them and we’ll see what the hell they know,” Lezar said.
Krenua nodded. Lezar would have given her a physical beating just a few short months ago. Krenua was pleased and proud with what his people had learned in their time away from Emerilia. They didn’t use beatings to mete out punishments. Grueling physical feats and the knowledge that you had messed up and screwed over your friends were much more powerful motivators as they had become a second family to one another. Krenua had never seen the Demons more motivated to strengthen themselves, not even when the ranks were based on physical prowess.
Krenua watched as simple rune necklaces were placed around the captured Demons’ necks.
“Take half of them back to Devil’s Crater, as well as the dead we recovered,” Lezar said to Krenua. “They’re going to want your firsthand reports of what we saw in there.”
“Yes, General.” Krenua opened his interface and sent messages to his parties as he pulled out some of the prisoners.
Medics knocked the prisoners out again as they all groupe
d together. Krenua looked over his people when they’d all arrived.
“Let’s go!” Wind mages conjured Air around them as the Demons used their feet to grab onto their comrades who couldn’t fly, or their unconscious burdens. They rose into the air. The air tunnel died and they started to glide and flap their wings, making their way to Devil’s Crater.
***
Alkao looked to Krenua. The man looked tired. He had flown all night and most of the morning, dropping off his charges, who were now across the different keeps.
Now, he stood in front of the combined councils and Demon Army generals, finishing off his report of what he had seen in the approaching Demon Horde’s sleeping areas.
“So, they’re starting to form groups? Have we been able to get any idea of what their leadership is like from the ones with Lezar?” Alkao looked to Kala, who had been talking to him last through a voice chat.
“We’ve got a rough leadership forming. Lezar suggests that we attack it and take it out before it has time to fully form. I agree with him,” Kala said.
“Before we get in there, we need some more information, like what the hell is wrong with these Demons.” Malkur had a troubled expression on his face. His medical people couldn’t figure out what was going on with them.
“Well, I think I might have an answer for that,” Efri said. The tension in the room ratcheted up a few degrees at Efri’s frown.
“If it wasn’t for the information on Xelur’s Demons one of my people has been researching, we wouldn’t know what’s wrong with them. It seems that somehow the Dark Lord has been able to make them hunger after souls. They can’t absorb or use the souls like the Xelur do to power their own magic, though they still hunger after devouring them.
“Their minds have been imprinted with that idea. Add in a metabolism that burns through food at twenty times our own—they’re mindless beasts in a constant state of unending hunger.”
“Can we fix it?” Malkur asked.
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