Chapter 61: Spellwork |
As per usual, Derek retreated to one of their airlocks to stare out into the warped universe as he worked.
Blue-shift ahead, red-shift directly behind, multicolored scintilating chaos everywhere else. The most refined form of spatial manipulation Derek knew of, and most certainly the one with the widest use, the magic that held most of humanity together.
Though, funnily enough, it was also one that should have been one of the most dangerous. Because according to the old mathematical models that [Alcubierre Bubble] had been named after, the warp bubble would wind up picking up every stray atom, piece of dust, and random small rock in its path, all of which would be unleashed as a titanic blast of radiation upon the bubble’s dissolution, capable of shattering planets.
Thankfully, the [System’s] version was safe, but that did not preclude the possibility of a spell being capable of replicating the feat. On a smaller scale, hopefully, but still, if he could pull it off …
Space magic ruled supreme in outer space, that had been pretty well known and generally accepted since well before Derek had been born. Not to mention that it was (in)famously the fleet admiral’s magic of choice.
Without any physical objects to interfere to diminish the magic, not even air, it was capable of achieving far greater effects than on a planet’s surface, and, in many ways, it was the only kind that could, at least outside of near-point blank ranges, though whether that lack of distance was real or had been brought about by spatial magic hardly mattered.
Yet for all the effectiveness of various applications of spatial magic had, they were hardly complex or varied.
Teleportation, spatial compression or expansion to make your attacks land and the enemy’s miss, and logistics, of course, creating storage spaces that were bigger on the inside … certainly nothing directly offensive.
At present.
Of course, there were hard limits on spatial magic usage/experimentation within an active [Alcubierre Bubble], hurling a starship across the universe at hundreds to several thousand times the speed of light, depending on just how long one had been accelerating.
But thanks to the tireless efforts of people far more durable than him, Derek had a very good idea of where those limits lay, not to mention that the start of things was going to be pretty safe. Granted, it was the only part that deserved that distinction, but risk was a given in Derek’s chosen lifestyle. Why choose now to get squeamish?
He laid out his tablet before him and started pulling up some of the documents he’d been using as study guides. In truth, that probably did not help, but it felt right, and it really was time to both generate [Skills] from the knowledge he already had and then start fusing them.
For starters, [Non-Euclidean Geometry], which was a concept far less terrifying than a couple of centuries of pulp fiction and cosmic horror writers had made it seem. Simply put, it was geometry based around non-flat surfaces, capable of answering questions like “how can two straight lines both be parallel and intersect somewhere down the line,” the answer to which was “if they are on a curved surface,” something that seemed relatively obvious now but had been rather odd, if not to say, disturbing when mathematicians had thought of it.
Combine a few centuries’ worth of confused and irritated scholars with a writer’s imagination, and boom, “Non-Euclidean” had become something far more fucked up than a mere branch of mathematics ever should have been.
Then, half a dozen extra branches of mathematics, some basic ones that he didn’t need [Skill]-support for but would be required for the others to build upon, others of the more esotheric kind, the ones that had either been dreamed up centuries before they had any even remotely practical use, or created from effectively scratch when an entirely new, unforseen and unforseeable problem had demanded it.
Until he had something that looked right.
[Advanced Spatial Mathematics].
The [Skill] was “only” rare, but it was one that went in the right direction, meaning he could take the next step, which required the sacrifice of a bit more than merely wasting the time he’d spent studying.
His [Spellcasting]. Oh, sure, he’d almost certainly regain it in an instant if he cast a spell after “losing” it, but Derek was equally sure he would not recover the [Skill] Levels. But if he wanted to take this into a magical direction, he’d have to go throuhg with it, so with nary a thought, he fused the [Skills].
The result?
[Advanced Spatial Magics].
Now, this should have been the time to pause and read the [Skill] description. But Derek decided against immediately doing so, because that might not be its final form.
Instead, he glanced at his status sheet because there were two [Skills] that he had been using for this process, which had been stuck at Level seven and nine for a while, and if they had crossed a threshold thanks to what he’d just done, he might be upgrading his new [Skill] further.
And as it turned out, they had, so he would.
The first was [Lightspeed Learning].
Lightspeed Learning (legendary, Level 10)
This Skill increases learning speed and allows for General Skills to be made based on acquired information.
…
Furthermore, acquired General Skills can be “flavored” with the user’s existing Skills, assuming they have been sufficiently mastered.
Its upgrade was something that could be either good or very good, depending on how things shook out overall. Though sadly, it would take a while to learn the particulars, as Derek didn’t currently have the “spare” knowledge to test it.
The second, on the other hand …
Skill Fusion (legendary, Level 10)
This Skill allows the user to fuse taught/learned Skills.
…
It also allows for a copy of Aspect Skills to be fused. This can only happen once per Skill; removing the Aspect will also remove the fused Skill.
Perfect. Almost.
Because losing a whole-ass [Skill] if he removed the related Aspect, rather than it simply reverting to its previous form, sounded like a great way to accidentally delete something he’d have rather kept.
Granted, that drawback could be negated by using his head and being careful, therefore not something Derek felt he was overly likely to trip over, but the thought still made his insides twist into knots.
But what Aspect [Skills] would be best to create something truly powerful … Derek was thoughtfully tapping at his chin as he looked over his status sheet.
All from the Lord of Time and Space, plus one from the Cosmic Leviathan, then see if it needed more, that seemed like a good starting place.
Skill Fusion:
Advanced Spatial Magics + Infinite Mind + True Spatial Warp + Cosmos Soul + True Spatial Affinity + And I Shall Not Be Moved —> Superior Arcane Spatial Manipulation
As it seemed, the answer was a solid, gold-plated, no. The end result was perfection itself.
Superior Arcane Spatial Manipulation (legendary)
Space and time, as fixed as they may have appeared to primitive man, are inherently malleable.
By gravity.
And by magic.
This Skill is the purest form of the latter’s application. Not merely the payment of mana for the bending of reality, but true magic, of rituals and spells and enchantments and everything else humans use to bend even the most fundamental aspects of reality to their will.
In other words, it is the power to create structured magic, wielding the space element quickly and easily, assuming they remain within the boundaries of the possible, as well as wielding it both in structured and unstructured forms.
Also, if there was a better foundation for weaponizing spatial magic, then Derek had absolutely no idea how to go about building it.
Actually …
A simple spell created a magic orb of light, and immediately [Spellcasting] popped right back up on his status sheet, even reclaiming its old location in the list, but it was at Level 1. As expected.
Okay, now he was ready.
All it took to turn the space directly ahead of him into a pretzel was a thought, the mana the action drew from him was little more than half of what [True Spatial Warp] claimed was the minimum cost, even for the smallest of alterations.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
His new [Skill] worked perfectly.
A thought compressed the meter between his back and the inner airlock door down into nothing, letting him lean against the cool metal, then the distance ahead bloomed wide, leaving him staring down a narrow corridor that had to measure hundreds of meters, the malestrom beyond the ship little more than a far-off pinprick.
That trick did cost him quite a bit of mana, though, so he ended up dropping both effects after a couple of seconds.
Derek’s next “trick” involved pulling one of the small ball bearings he’d made from scraps in the machine shop from his pocket and playing around with it, “relocating” it all over in a series of short bursts of magic. If it was moving at all, he could direct that movement onto any path, and spatial compression could let even an infinitesimal velocity carry it far. And the tiny impulse of motion that had been left when he’d set it down on the deck was enough.
He watched it zip around for thirty or so seconds before friction finally slowed it to a dead stop, and he ran out of mana.
It certainly did work. If he had the time to focus and the mana to spend, while his opponent lacked any defensive abilities that hampered direct spatial manipulation, Derek could thoroughly ruin their day.
But that was still just a basic version of spatial manipulation; in fact, that was how all variants of space elementals fought.
They did not attack directly, they twisted and warped space so that every move their opponent made was wont to see them colliding with a wall, and anything else with even the slightest scrap of momentum would strike their foe. Not to mention that those same effects made attacking the monster almost impossible, something that inevitably ground down the will and patience of anyone seeking to slay the beast.
But all of those were simple. And the full extent of spatial magic in personal combat … the known extent, at any rate. It was eminently possible some Level 200 Archmage had created something beyond that and simply decided to keep it to themselves.
Also, even if he had such a spell, Derek doubted he’d have the capability to cast it at his own Level of 31. Although … his newest [Skill] might actually help him cross that gap. Might.
What else could he do? Open a skin-pore so wide he could drive a truck through it and then fill it with hellfire?
Heh.
Derek sniggered despite himself. That was crazy. And gross to boot.
No, he needed something that would work on someone or something directly, which could screw with matter properly, rather than fucking around with things in the vicinity.
It wasn’t like he could just manipulate the space between atoms, could he? Make it disappear or something?
Of course, on the atomic level, the world was mostly just empty space, but even if he were to go through the difficulty of creating a spell to affect it and managed it at his present level, all he’d do was shrink the overall object. Or person.
A party trick, nothing more.
Oh, sure, it’d likely trip the target up, and size reduction was certainly something with many applications, but in the grand scheme of things? Inefficient as hell, and far less effective than “regular” methods, even if he could get it to work.
And that was assuming the cost didn’t balloon to astronomical heights because atoms did not like getting forced together. Despite the fact that all matter was almost completely “empty” if you zoomed in far enough, none of that emptiness was ever used up, as at that point, the atoms would start forcing each other apart again. Violently so, if pushed.
Overcoming that … was that something he’d have to do, if he was “only” affecting the space between? If he was indirectly putting them unnaturally close to each other, so … so … so they forced each other apart again, resulting in …heat … kinetic energy … in other words, KABOOM!
At least in theory?
Also, he still had to create a spell towards that end, and spatial spells in general were rare.
Regular spatial warping might be fairly uncomplex, but it also had to be adapted on the fly, something that was much easier to do directly than by using a spell as a proxy. No need to configure the spell into something that made the exact change to reality you wanted; you just went ahead and did it.
Creating spells was something Derek had very little experience with. Basically, you simply took the pieces from spells you knew to create a new effect, writing it like a computer program of sorts, but all he’d really done was “create” spells he could have easily looked up. From [Fireball] to [Wall of Flame], that sort of thing.
But he had his latest [Skill] to help … [Superior Arcane Spatial Manipulation] seemed like it would do most of the heavy lifting, wouldn’t it?
So Derek began to try. And try again. And try some more, swear soundlessly into the airless space he was sitting in before transitioning to making rude gestures at the malestrom beyond.
Grab a coffee from his storage ring and try to drink as much as possible before it boiled away in the vacuum.
Work, swear, exhaust his full arsenal of cusswords, eat a bar of compressed victuals that only counted as “food” in the loosest of senses.
Fail.
Repeat ad nauseam.
***
Eighteen.
Freaking.
Hours.
Not long in the grand scheme of things, admittedly, but it was a long time to spend focused without break.
The bad news was that it wouldn’t work on anything magical or enchanted. The magical web was too fragile and finicky to survive contact with any other kind of magic.
In worse news, the chances of Derek being able to change that were low, to say the least.
But there was one big, bad, monstrous silver lining. The spell worked. Or at least that was what the newest [System] window seemed to indicate.
What would you like to name your spell? (Declining this opportunity will result in it being lost, and a randomly generated name being assigned. )
Huh … that was new. Though something he should have expected, considering the field he was playing in. As for what name to actually use, was that really in question?
Spatial Detonation (Spell)
Perhaps the most insidious application of spatial magic invented to date, Spatial Detonation temporarily deletes the space between atoms to reduce their distance between each other to an unnatural and unsustainable degree, at which point they will repel each other. Violently.
This Spell can turn any object comprised of physical matter into a bomb; however, it is a sufficiently delicate working of magic that it cannot be cast upon an enchanted or inherently magical target (such as the body of a System-empowered sapient). The size of the targeted area can be freely scaled up or down depending on need, as can the degree to which the atoms are forced together (experimentation recommended).
Cost: 100-5,000 mana
There. Done.
Just one small problem … Derek felt there was absolutely no way to test it safely aboard the ship. What if the thing he blew up really blew up?
He closed the airlock, waited until there was enough air to carry sound, then sent a quick message to the others.
“Sorry, guys, I have a new spell to try, and I can’t do that in here, so I’ll have to take us out of Alcubierre for a bit.”
With that, he deactivated [Alcubierre Bubble] and leaped out into the now-dark void to play around with his new spell.
And holy shit, it was dark out here, far from any star system whose central star overshadowed many of the specks of light now visible off in the distance.
“There,” they may be, but they were also still very far away. Painfully so.
Yet … Derek knew it was something that would freak out most people. Part of him felt he should be freaked out. But he wasn’t. Outer space, freaky as it was, didn’t bother him. The things out there in the dark, on the other hand … at least he’d see them coming from a long way away.
Anyway …
He threw the same ball bearing he’d been playing around with previously in a random direction that wasn’t towards the Dragonfly, then cast [Spatial Detonation].
And detonate, it did, vanishing in a flash of light, spraying glowing dust across space.
HA!
Derek took a mere moment to bask, then spun around and headed back towards the ship to get some more satisfying targets, only to be greeted by Atticus standing in the airlock with a crate that looked to be filled with … clay pigeons?
With a broad grin, the other man grabbed one and chucked it past Derek with what had to be a decent portion of his full power.
Oh … Derek spun himself around once more and tried to cast [Spatial Detonation] on it. He missed, the cast fizzling out in the void.
Shoot.
Another clay pigeon flew past him, yet despite the fact that it had come from behind him, he had expected that one, and it blew apart in a brilliant detonation. If someone had been next to it, especially with an atmosphere to carry the shockwave …
Glancing over his shoulder, he flashed a grateful smile to Atticus and received another moving target. This one, he missed, but the next one blew just as the second had.
Even without having talked, Atticus began curving the shots with a slight application of his own [Skills], and suddenly, it was almost impossible to hit them. At least until Derek got used to it.
***
By the time Atticus ran out of clay pigeons, Derek was able to hit them a good ninety-five percent of the time, no matter what attempts his friend made at making him miss, the lack of other matter in the vacuum letting him somewhat home in on the only remotely eligible target in the area.
So that was his new spell. Certainly something to run with. But going back to an earlier step in the process … [Skill Fusion’s] new ability deserves to be used to its fullest potential.
For example, [Stellar Mental Maths] felt like it synergized well with yet another of the Aspect [Skills] he’d never ever remove because they were too essential a part of his build. Such as the Cosmic Leviathan’s [Cosmic Gaze].
So he mashed the two together, getting the product a split-second later.
It had lost three Levels in the process, but that just meant those were three more Levels’ worth of growth he could earn, didn’t it?
Stellar Processing (legendary, Level 10)
The universe is a vast place, and requiring of fiendishly complex calculations to explore. Orbital mechanics, FTL journeys across light-years, firing solutions against enemies when both they and you are moving at velocities best described as fractions of the speed of light …
This is a Skill that cuts through the complexity and makes most of the regular tools to that end superfluous.
It lets its holder do all calculations normally required to control a starship up to the size of a United Earth Navy heavy cruiser in all aspects, including navigation, expenditure of all consumable goods, weapons targetting, etc., in the window of time normally allowed for such things, and directly input the results into the requisite computers (assuming the user has access).
Furthermore, this Skill grants the user the ability to see things within three light seconds (distances scales with Perception) when they happen, not when the light of their actions is finished crossing the intervening distance. This instant scanner function will work with sensor feeds as well, not only with things directly observed.
Perfect. Also, that meant that they could tear out the complex fiber-optic cable web that directly fed the light from outside to a secondary screen at his console, which had previously been required to take make [Cosmic Gaze] work properly. Or at all.
It was a place for him to practice his [Starship Maintenance], and provided an opportunity to add gear that was more productive, though Derek would still run it past Mimi before he did anything. Too easy to break something they still needed, otherwise.
Also … [Omnidimensional Maneuvering] was an Aspect [Skill] for moving through space easily, which was an environment very different from what humanity had evolved to handle. For starters, it lacked solid ground.
And he’d created [Acrobatic Adaptation] to let him easily handle the changes to his body created by [Aspect Integration], suddenly and sharply differing size/mass something the human brain likewise had never been designed to handle.
Those two felt like they belonged together, right?
Shapeshifter’s Acrobatics (legendary)
Unique problems require unique solutions.
Having a body that constantly changes in mass, mass distribution, and capability is, surprisingly enough, not unique. But your solution to it is.
This Skill represents your mastery of any forms you have previously taken and trained with, and will allow you to immediately draw upon only the muscle memory related to your current form and environment, while also acquiring said muscle memory at a vastly increased rate.
Once again, it was perfect.
Yet now that that was done, there was just one question in Derek’s mind: how long could he spend blowing up random targets for the hell of it before making everyone wait became rude?