Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension Book 1)

by Andrew Rowe

  But natural rain? I’d never experienced it. I hadn’t realized that it would make the air itself feel wet, that it would make things smell stronger. Everything in the rain felt a little bit more present, more real.

  It was glorious.

  Even with the world swimming around me from my motion sickness, I basked in the sensation of the droplets impacting against my clothes and hair.

  I barely noticed when Vera said tearful goodbyes to Aloras and Echion.

  I did notice something just before Echion stepped on the train, though.

  He gave me a shy smile, waved, and whispered, “Thank you.”

  I waved in return.

  Maybe, in all this mess, I’d done one small bit of good.

  ***

  After we watched the train depart, our group wandered a short distance away from the train station. It wasn’t difficult to find a location to talk discreetly. We were miles from the nearest town, and only a few hundred yards in each direction around the train station had any signs of civilization. Beyond that, we hit the boundary of one of the deep forests that characterized much of the Unclaimed Lands. The Aspen Forest, maybe? I was terrible with geography.

  We didn’t wander too far. It was well-known that dangerous monsters prowled freely in these forests, and only the powerful wards around the train station and tracks kept them from being assaulted. Before the tracks had been built there had been no easy path between Valia and Caelford. The two countries were on opposite sides of the continent, with hundreds of miles of the Unclaimed Land and a few smaller kingdoms like Sytennia and Erawen in between.

  I was shocked at how thick the plant life was. Nearly every inch between the trees was covered in some sort of bushes or vines. We only walked in about a dozen meters before pausing in a small ring of grass.

  Professor Orden spoke first. “I trust you all are aware of how dangerous this particular excursion into the tower will be. If any of you want to bow out now, this would be the time.”

  Vera smirked. “I have a feeling that I don’t get that option?”

  Orden shot her a dark look. “No, Miss Corrington. You do not.”

  I glanced to Jin and Sera, then back to the professor. “I can’t speak for the others, but I’m definitely going in.”

  “Clearly.” Professor Orden looked at my companions. “Well?”

  “Going.” Sera said.

  “I am also going.” Jin added.

  “Yep. Definitely going.” Derek added, unprompted. “We should probably talk about what we’re all capable of. At this point, I should let you all know that I’m an Emerald. I can handle most of the heavy combat for our group.”

  Vera’s eyebrows rose at Derek’s claim. I’d have been incredulous, too, if I hadn’t physically seen his Emerald aura. Wisely, she remained silent. Arguing with him wasn’t going to accomplish much.

  I scratched my chin. “I’ve seen you fight, but I still don’t know what your exact capabilities are. What attunement do you actually have?”

  “Oh! Of course. I’m a Soulblade. It’s sort of like a combination between a Summoner and an Enchanter. I make contracts to bind monsters to items, giving the items magical properties. I can also bind monsters to myself, which gives me some of the monster’s physical advantages. There are disadvantages, though.”

  He took a breath. “Every monster I bind to an item takes up some of my mana while it’s bound, much like it would for a Summoner. That means I can’t just manufacture tons of items like an Enchanter. And unlike a Summoner, I can’t just spend mana to summon one or more copies of a monster as much as I want. I’ve only got the one monster in each item.”

  He tapped the swords at his side. “I can release the monsters temporarily to fight, but if they get hurt, they actually get hurt. They’re not simulacra. The bond to the item affords them a degree of protection, since they can retreat back inside, but they can die.”

  Sera made a ‘hmm’ noise, stepping closer to Derek. “Would it be possible for me to bind copies of the monsters you’ve imbued your items with?”

  Derek nodded. “Technically possible, yeah, if I let them out for a bit. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. Delsys is a Citrine-level monster, and Tavare is Emerald-level. You could still make contracts, but your summoned versions would be much weaker, much like what happened when you summoned the karvensi. And, moreover, I think you have too many bound monsters already.”

  “What do you mean?” Sera folded her arms.

  “I saw you binding everything you could in that Survival Match. That was brilliant, by the way.”

  Sera stood up a little straighter at that statement.

  Derek kept talking, though. “But you shouldn’t hold onto that many bindings long-term. You know how many creatures I’ve got bound? Four. And I’m an Emerald. It’s not worth taking up the mana to bind that many things to your attunement, especially when you’re just getting started. It does make you more flexible, of course, but you won’t have enough mana to actually deploy anything if all of it is being eaten up by contracts.”

  Sera sighed. “I’d love to get rid of some of my weaker contracts, but some of them are mandatory for my classes. And the ones that aren’t mandatory — things like the ones I bound during that match — are ones I’d want to keep. I’m not exactly going to have a lot of opportunities to bind something as strong as a wyvern elsewhere.”

  Derek’s eyes widened. “You managed to bind the wyvern in there? I don’t think I even noticed that. That’s pretty impressive, kid. I agree that you should keep that one. But if you’ve got as many bindings as I think you do, I’ll bet you could hit Carnelian right now if you just release some of the ones you’re not using. And getting yourself a shroud would be far more useful than having a little more summoning variety.”

  Sera blinked. “Mana being used up by contracts doesn’t count toward my attunement advancing? That...makes a lot of sense, actually.” She glanced from side-to-side. “You know what? This is more important than classes.”

  “Slime, I release our contract.”

  “Goblin, I release our contract.”

  “Imp, I release our contract.”

  I turned my attunement on, watching Sera briefly shimmer as she spoke each line, and then a crimson aura burst around her as she spoke the final words.

  “Huh.” I mumbled. “Congratulations, Sera.”

  She grinned brightly at me. “Wish I’d known I could do that, I probably would have done it weeks ago. Think I should get rid of the ogre?”

  I shrugged. “Depends on if you think you’ll need the muscle.”

  “I’ll hold onto it for now.” Sera turned to Derek. “Thanks for the advice. This feels... amazing.”

  I felt a brief pang of jealousy that Sera’s attunement level had exceeded my own, but it was mixed with relief. If Derek decided to betray us, I wanted Sera to be as powerful as possible. A Carnelian wasn’t going to be able to handle Derek on her own, but every bit of extra power helped our chances of surviving.

  “Just wait until you hit Sunstone. It gets better and better. Okay, enough from the two of us. Corin, what’ve you got?”

  I patted the sword at my side. “I’m just a Quartz-level Enchanter. I have a basic magic sword with transference runes, nothing to brag about. Aside from that, I have a demi-gauntlet that can fire bursts of gray and transference mana and a stronger-than-average shield signet. I also have a device for measuring mana levels, but I don’t think it’ll be particularly useful in the tower.”

  I didn’t mention the return bell, the book, or the Jaden Box deliberately. Derek was being friendly, but I still didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.

  “Oh,” I added, “I also am borrowing Professor Orden’s ring of regeneration.”

  I was a little worried that she’d want it back, but it was worth mentioning. I didn’t think we had any other healing, as far as I was aware.

  She nodded. “You can hold onto that for now. You’re more likely to need it than I am.
”

  “That’s about it for me. Most of what I can contribute is normal supplies. Oh, I did bring a flask that generates water and a cloak designed to keep the wearer warm, in case we end up camping.”

  “Both good ideas.” Derek nodded. “You should stay as far from combat as you can if you don’t have a shroud yet. The improved shield sigil is a good idea, but it’s far from perfect. Orden, you want to go next?”

  “Sunstone-level Enchanter. I have a variety of useful devices, but I’m not going to list every one of them.”

  I frowned. “Aren’t you also a Summoner?”

  Orden wrinkled her nose. “Where’d you get that impression?”

  “All the teleporting?”

  She shook her head. “Ah. I can see why you might presume that, but summoning and teleportation are similar, but not identical. Extremely powerful Summoners can teleport, but I can’t claim to be one. I do have a second attunement for that purpose. I’m a Wayfarer. It’s a Dalish attunement focused exclusively on mobility and teleportation.”

  That answered a lot of questions, but it raised a few others. Nothing I needed to worry about immediately, though.

  Orden folded her hands. “I suppose it’s safe to assume I will be able to teleport us short distances within the tower, but I require an anchor to teleport to. A person or object I’m familiar with is best. I may or may not be able to teleport us out of the tower if we are in a dangerous location. It depends on if the room we’re inside is currently sealed. You should not expect me to be able to provide us with a reliable escape.”

  I nodded along with that answer. I had my return bell in case of emergencies, but it had similar restrictions.

  Orden turned to Jin. “I believe you are next, Jin.”

  “You may know that I carry two pistols and I am capable of using them with a degree of skill. I have several other basic items of Corin’s design, mostly focused on illusions and detection.”

  Derek nodded. “Sounds good. What’s your attunement?”

  Jin clenched his jaw. “Apologies, but I would rather not say. Professor Orden is aware of my situation and my reasoning.”

  I frowned at that. I’d been assuming he was keeping his attunement concealed because he was in Spider Division, but this situation was potentially dangerous. That seemed far more important than a training exercise.

  Orden nodded to Jin and turned to Derek. “I can confirm that Jin has a good reason for keeping his attunement private for the time being. Jin, if the situation is desperate enough, you may need to use your attunement regardless.”

  Jin dipped his head just slightly. “I understand.”

  Still being painfully mysterious, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Given Jin’s encounter with Katashi, I was beginning to wonder if Jin might work for Katashi directly. Katashi was the patron visage of Dalenos, after all, and Jin had claimed to have the surname Dalen. Since he’d insisted he wasn’t royalty, that left several other options — and being a government agent or a servant of Katashi were both options that made concealing his abilities logical.

  Orden turned to Vera next. “Well, if Jin is going to be pointlessly evasive, I suppose Vera is next.”

  Vera shrugged. “Not much to say. Sunstone, for what little it’s worth. I’m just an Analyst. I can rapidly gather and process sensory information. Makes me good at reading through data and remembering it, but I’m not much of a fighter. Most practical skill in the tower is probably finding hidden passages, items, and that sort of thing.”

  That made some sense. It sounded similar to a Diviner, but more focused.

  We spent a moment in contemplation, each of us assessing the other members of the group, before Derek finally broke the silence. “We ready to do this?”

  “Ready enough,” I replied. “I hope.”

  ***

  Another two hours later, six of us stood outside the tower.

  Sera and Derek were bristling with energy, looking eager to get inside.

  We each signed a paper with the Soaring Wings at the gate.

  Under Professor Orden’s instructions, Vera used a false name on the paperwork. If there really were government agents that didn’t want her going into the tower, we couldn’t afford to have them find out and send someone after us.

  After signing the paperwork, I excused myself briefly to find a public washroom before we entered the tower.

  While I was very close to losing my lunch over the teleporting, that wasn’t why I needed a washroom. In truth, I just needed a private location.

  Closing the door, I found a utility closet large enough to stand inside, and removed the rod that was connected to my return bell. It wasn’t an ideal location, but I’d completely forgotten to ask Professor Orden where to put it. I didn’t want Derek to know about the retreat method, so I couldn’t ask while the whole group was together.

  At least I’d have a way out of the tower, even if appearing here would be a little bit awkward.

  Realizing that I wouldn’t be alone again for a while, I checked my book. No reply yet. Unfortunate, since I was in dire need of any additional information I could get.

  With that, I made my way back to the group.

  “Everyone ready?” Professor Orden asked.

  We gave her a series of affirmative replies.

  “Good.” Professor Orden turned to Derek, handing him a jeweled ring.

  He accepted it with a frown. “What’s this?”

  “Just an emergency measure. Focus some gray mana into it if you need to get us out. If I’m incapacitated, we’ll need another way to teleport out of here.”

  Guess I’m not the only one thinking about emergency escapes.

  I wondered if it worked exactly like a bell. The ring was too small for me to see the runes on it.

  I turned my head to Orden. She gave me a nod and a grin.

  I nodded in return.

  And with that, the six of us stepped into the tower.

  Chapter XX — Serpents

  I found myself inside a circular white room, four tremendous support pillars forming a square within the circle. The pillars reminded me of where I’d first encountered Katashi. That was my destination now. He said he’d find me there, although I didn’t know if he’d be waiting there (doubtful) or simply check in at some point to see if I’d arrived.

  It would have been nice to have a way to just contact Katashi and tell him to come pick Vera up at the entrance, but based on his prior behavior, I expected that any deviation from the plan was likely to antagonize him.

  I considered using the book to contact the Voice of the Tower again and now that I was inside, but the Voice had been clear that I wasn’t supposed to let Professor Orden know that the book existed. This was a bad enough situation that I was tempted to do it anyway, but I decided against doing it immediately.

  I did have the Jaden Box, but I didn’t have anything strongly connected to him that I could use to try to summon him...and I already knew that summoning a visage was a terrible risk.

  Could I stick my branded hand in the box and use that as a summoning focus if I needed to? Maybe, but I didn’t know if I had to close the box’s lid, and I didn’t feel like losing my hand unless I really needed to. That sounded rather uncomfortable.

  The others appeared around me. Fortunately, whoever designed the teleportation function for the tower entrance was apparently smart enough to have figured out a way to make sure we didn’t appear right on top of each other.

  I glanced around the chamber as the others oriented themselves.

  The room was about thirty meters across. Next to us was a single large door that looked just like the one we’d entered through. An exit? Was walking back out of here really going to be that easy? There hadn’t been an immediate exit during the Judgment, but that was meant to be a single trip.

  If climbing the tower was more about learning how it worked and entering and exiting repeatedly over the course of years, it made sense for it to be somewhat easier to get back out.


  There were two doors on the oppose side of the room, near what I was picturing as the northeast and northwest pillars. The “exit” door was right between the southern pillars.

  I was already presuming too much. I turned toward Derek and jerked a thumb toward the door. “Is that an exit?”

  He nodded. “Yep. It’s not like a Judgment. We can walk out any time, as long as we can make it safely back here.”

  Professor Orden snapped her fingers, drawing all of our attention. “Listen up, children. I know that for many of you, this is your first experience climbing the tower. Now that we’re here, we need to discuss our strategy.”

  I nodded. “That makes sense, but is there a time limit in this room?”

  She shook her head. “This is what we generally call a ‘landing room’. There are several within the tower. Each tower entrance has one, and each time you reach a new level of the tower you will often find one. It’s a safe room; you can stay in landing rooms more or less indefinitely without consequences. If we were going up, we would most likely be using landing rooms to sleep every few levels.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief at the revelation that there were safe rooms to stop and rest.

  Orden continued. “The first thing to discuss is our objective. Corin, what exactly did Katashi ask you to do? Be specific.”

  “I need to bring Vera to the room where the two of us met him during my Judgment. He insisted that she be alive, for what it’s worth.”

  Vera didn’t seem to relax when she heard that. She just glanced at each of the members of our group, looking nervous. I didn’t blame her.

  I scratched an itch on my nose. “Beyond that, he said I had a seven day time limit. I don’t know how deep that room is into the tower, so I’m not sure how difficult that will be. I presume we’re already on the second day.”

  Vera chimed in. “The room we found him in was the first floor below ground, or B1 as we’d usually call it.”

  I blinked. “The tower goes down? I mean, I knew it felt like I was going down when I went through that grate, but I guess I assumed...”