Chapter 41 - Spatial Magic (Patreon)

Every time she entered her mindscape to acquire another aspect, she was presented with another logic puzzle.  The puzzles for Far Seeing and  Void Storage were on par with the one she solved for Telekinesis.  When she received Gravity, Shield, and Teleportation, the bar was raised significantly higher.

There were still the same amount of things she needed to keep track of but now the clues she received to solve the puzzle were abstract and required her to think things through.  For example, in the latest puzzle, one of the clues was ‘Exactly one bandit has the same initial in the place where he ended his days, and it is in his forename or surname.’

The first aspect she had picked up from Spatial magic was Telekinesis.  Even now, with the synchronization being at 100%, she could only lift something twice her weight.  The other drawback was the more voluminous the item, the more mana she used.  For small things, she did not have to concentrate very much to be able to move them.  Her hopes of lifting herself and flying with Telekinesis crashed and burned pretty quickly.  If she moved at all (other than breathing) while using Telekinesis, the spell would fail.

Avery was unable to fill in very many blanks for her when she had questions about her aspects.  The practice of killing Spatial mages had started long before she had been born.  She could fill in a few blanks for her, but Violet would have to learn about her aspects through trial and error.  Thankfully she had a whole generation of theories to draw from with her previous life’s world.

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When she acquired her second aspect, she was shocked when she was not given a choice on which aspect to pick up.  Her star man had informed her that she would be acquiring them in a preordained order.  She was always excited to pick up new aspects. All this did was save her from agonizing over which one to pick up next.

The second aspect she picked up was Far Seeing.  With that aspect, she could focus on a point far in the distance and zoom in.   She felt like she was using a stationary set of binoculars.  Whenever she tried to move her view, she was forced out of her spell and had to refocus on a new area.

Once she had gotten her synchronization up past 25%, she was able to pan her view back and forth very slowly.  As her skill level grew, she could use her starting point as an anchor and view everything as if she were standing in that spot for three hundred sixty degrees.  She almost felt like it was a vision-only form of astral projection.

Her latest breakthrough with this skill was using the anchor from her first spell to jump to a second point.  It was disorienting to jump the second time, and it chewed through her mana quickly.

While she could use her Illusion magic to see through the Decoy’s eyes, she was limited to her normal vision without a zoom feature.  Her Decoy also still had a limitation on how far away from Violet it could get.  Far Seeing’s furthest initial anchor point was twice the distance away from her Decoy’s limit.

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Violet was extremely shocked when she received Void Storage.  She had expected an aspect like that to be considered high-level spatial magic.  The catch to using Void Storage was it permanently tied up a portion of her mana pool.  Her total mana was 1080, which was rather large for someone her age.  When she placed a ten-pound brick in her storage, she was reduced to a maximum of 945.

Placing an item in her Void Storage created a new menu on her status screen.  Rather than words, the menu was composed of pictures.  She could focus on the image to gain a small amount of knowledge about that item.  The information was limited to what she already knew about the object.  For example, placing a ten-pound brick of sandstone in her storage would give her the following information.

Sandstone Brick 10 lbs 135 mana

Durable natural stone comprised of mineral grains like quartz and feldspar.

If she placed an item she did not know about in her storage, it would only have the top section filled out with ‘Unknown Item’ as a description.  The cost of storing an item was steadily decreasing as she leveled the aspect synchronization.  Based on her calculations, once she got to 100% synchronization, she would be able to store up to twice her body weight for her entire mana pool.  Needless to say, being without any available mana to cast with would not be ideal.

“Avery, have any of the spatial mages you have met been fat?”  She would not be surprised if ancient spatial magicians were a bit on the heavier side to help with Telekinesis and Void Storage.

“Of course, some have been fat, I have not met all that many, but people come in all shapes and sizes, dearie.”

“Did the extra weight help them with their Void Storage and Telekinesis limits?  Mine seems based on my weight.”

After a fit of laughter, Avery responded with, “Where do all these silly ideas come from, child?  The system bases those skills off of ideal weight.  Adult spatial mages can lift a maximum of four hundred pounds.”

“Two hundred pounds is far from the ideal weight for most women.  Where are you getting these numbers, silly bird?”

“Silly bird indeed.  I think it is time for you to practice your water shields once again.  I know a cheeky girl that needs things thrown at her.  To answer your question, scholars have been debating where the limit originated from for ages.  Be thankful you will be considered an adult when your system unlocks.”

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Gravity was an enjoyable aspect to study.  Violet’s current limitation, at 52%, was that she needed to touch or hold the object she cast a spell on.  The minimum reduction in Gravity she could produce was 1% of the object’s overall weight.  If the item was already light, it was easier to do.  She was still playing with her maximum increase, but she estimated the maximum to be around quadruple the weight of an object.  In both circumstances, making it lighter or heavier, the larger she manipulated, the more mana it took.

When Violet had first received the aspect for Gravity, Avery was quick to set ground rules she must follow.  “Girlie, I’ve grown too fond of you to see you turn yourself into a pancake.  DO NOT use Gravity on yourself or any other sentient being until I have given you my approval.”

Violet was quite happy for Avery’s warning after she had turned a brick to sand.  The pressure exerted on the brick caused it to crack and then crumble.  She had not applied the aspect evenly to the brick and disaster struck.

“When your synchronization has risen high enough, you will be able to apply the aspect to the air.  If done correctly, it will immobilize an enemy or slow a projectile.  We will need to work on your concentration.”

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The next aspect Violet acquired was Shield.  She was pretty upset when she initially heard this because she already had a shield with water magic.  With clarification from Avery, she realized the shields do different things.  The protection she received with water magic was for physical defense.  Her new spatial shield was useful for magical and mental defense.

Initially, Avery was unsure of how to help her gain synchronization with her new shield type.  Rasmus came to the rescue.  She was not quite sure it was a rescue after being Hypnotized and told to jump on one foot for the umpteenth time, but eventually, they started to make progress.

“Eventually, you will be able to see through any illusions with your shield up.  If you ever plan on going back to other ancient ruins, you need to have this ability.  Not all of the ruins were school and research facilities.  The ruin we are in now was an out-of-the-way religious building.  When we feel you can protect yourself, Avery can show you the way into the facility below us.”

“You don't know what is down there?”

“We are not tomb raiders. Besides, we would have to tear the place apart just to fit down there.”

“You think there are tombs down there?”

“Some of the smaller buildings that are rubble now had tombs in them at one time.  Our theory is this facility was a burial ground of some sort.”

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After reaching 40% synchronization with spatial magic, she received the aspect for Teleportation.  Avery was quick to caution her against using it without testing on inanimate objects first.  Her feathered teachers weren’t much help with this aspect.

“Spatial mages in captivity were always slain before they could reach their Teleportation aspect.  Very little is known about it other than a mage with that aspect is nearly impossible to keep caged for very long.”

Not wanting a repeat of what happened to the brick while she was practicing her Gravity spells, Violet decided to take this one slow.  Her first vict… err test object was another brick.  With Avery around, there was never a shortage of bricks.  The good news was, some of the brick made it to the place she was trying to teleport it.  The bad news was, only SOME of it made it.

She planned to start with small objects and work her way up to test mice.  Avery had a whole colony of large rodents she was keeping in a box.  The eggs were due to hatch sometime around Violet’s birthday.  She couldn’t think of any better way to celebrate her ninth year in this world.  The following month of waiting was going to be exciting.

Level 23

Age 9

Experience (17720/27600)

Health 400/400

Mana 1080/1080

Stat Points 110

Skill Points 4

Strength 32

Constitution 40

Dexterity 35

Intelligence 110

Wisdom 108

[Contracts] [Magic] [Skills] [Storage] [Traits]

[Basic Skills]

Acting 44

Climbing 50

Cooking 32

Drawing 22

Language - Astrish MAX

Language - Common MAX

Language - Imperial MAX

Language - Kasmien MAX

Mathematics 50

Meditation 41

Running 50

Sewing 20

Spell Vision 60

Swimming 30

Whittling 20

Writing 40

[Novice Skills]

Mana Manipulation 30

Mana Regeneration 40

Sneak 32

Translation 20

Visualization 40

[Advanced Skills]

Language - Runic MAX

Mental Notes 40

Pathfinding 10

[Magic]

Type % Aspect

Illusion 27% Tier 2 (9A) - Novice

Water 5% Tier 2 (9A) - Novice

Spatial 41%

Spatial 97% Far Seeing

Spatial 56% Gravity

Spatial 32% Shield

Spatial 100% Telekinesis

Spatial 11% Teleportation

Spatial 68% Void Storage

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AN:  You aren't going crazy, she dropped in level.  My fancy spreadsheet failed me and the new number is correct.  I was not properly adding from 0 when the next level started.  I may still fiddle with the numbers because the bonus for reaching 50% in Illusion and the 2nd type of magic should be more substantial than they currently are.