Chapter 513 - Setting Up the Dominos (Patreon)

I got poked in the side.

My consciousness briefly flickered to [The World Around Me], letting me know I was safe in my home. I groaned, rolled over, and stuck my head under the pillow.

I was tired. I’d spent most of the night awake, and I’d earned my rest. I didn’t want to get up, and I didn’t-

I got poked again, more insistently. I paid a little more attention this time, noticing the hand was disembodied.

Oh. It was Auri’s [Mage Hand].

Wait.

I fully woke up, helped along by a generous dose of [Zenith Everlasting] helping me wake up. I threw off the covers and dashed to the door of the bedroom, where Auri was politely peeking in.

“They’re here?” I asked.

“Brrrpt!” She confirmed.

“Okay, okay. What do you need me to do?” I asked.

Auri looked up at me with plaintive eyes.

“Brrrpt?” She’d hoped I had an answer.

Iona chose that moment to emerge from the breakfast room.

“Want me to handle this?” She offered.

“Absolutely!” I was more than happy to throw this problem to the gorgeous woman who had [Social Lubrication] as a skill and thrived on solving these sorts of problems. I didn’t quite think I’d end up getting the phoenixes to burn our place down, but worse things had happened when I needed to do highly social things.

Iona stretched and cracked her neck.

“Alright, show me where they are.” She told Auri. “Elaine, I need you sitting down by the fire, visibly reading a book. There’s a kettle of tea ready, and Julius left us with some fine porcelain cups with flames on them. We’re going to be emphasizing a calm and relaxed atmosphere, with a love of fire in our day to day lives. Show that we like what they like. As they get a little more used to us, we’ll relax a bit.”

Iona’s eyes flickered a moment, and she grimaced.

“Auri, can you quickly turn off the water for the pool and eliminate what we’ve got there? A ‘murder phoenixes here’ room isn’t going to go over well, even if they’re understanding. I’m going to find Titania, I’ve got some more ideas to run by her. Chop chop, they’re here now, let’s get into position.”

Chop chop! I was happy to follow Iona’s orders, they seemed to make perfect sense. I would’ve… I dunno, probably had Auri bake them some food and given them a tour. Iona’s way of trying to align everything was beautiful, and I took some mental notes.

I wouldn’t have thought of our bath at all until walking into the room, and I’d imagine it wouldn’t have gone over too well.

Breakfast sounded nice, and I had no issues with ‘go relax and be an ornament’. If that was my job here, so be it! If it was always my job, that would be a problem, but now and then, for Auri? Yeah, I could make it work.

Tea was acquired almost as quickly as a book, [Rapid Reshelving] getting me everything, dressed, wood in the fireplace, and a quick spell encouraged the embers into a cozy flame. I settled in to read, and realized I had way too much energy to ‘only’ slowly read. I split my mind into a half-dozen parts, each thinking about something else.

One was obviously reading the book, while another was focused on listening to what was going on. Where were Iona and the phoenixes, what were they doing? Two more parts were working on what Night suggested - looking at my classes and thinking what I wanted to do with them, and while I was on the topic of Night and his suggestions, I was working on a few new spells to add to my spellbooks.

Where did I want to take [Butterfly Mystic] when it evolved? On one hand, I was really happy with the skills provided. [Scintillating Ascent] for flight, [Nectar] was an amazing mana regeneration skill,  [Solar Corona] had a stupid amount of work put into it, an unreplicatable passive, and [A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers] was strong. It had started as a sorcery class, and was still going strong as one. Sticking to a path was rewarded in many ways.

On the other, [Lepidoptera] and wizardry itself offered me endless options and possibilities, limited only by my understanding, imagination, and ability to find and write new spells. I could use an entire class for it! It scratched the itch of ‘all the spells and all the elements’ nicely.

At the same time, I was thinking about [Loremaster]. I liked the skills, I liked reading, but actually being a [Loremaster] was a little too much extra on my plate. I had enough things I was doing already - an entirely new job was just too much. I didn’t have the time or ability to properly work on the class, and be one. Like, learning everything was fine and dandy. I was happy with that, I liked that part. It was the ‘go out and actively warn and ward against the threats’ part that I was less than thrilled with. The knowledge wasn’t going away, the learning was fun. It was like… teaching. The time in class was fun, but the prep work and lesson planning wasn’t. I was lucky my companion bond with Auri meant I hadn’t stagnated at a low level forever, unlike poor Julius and his classes. Dodged a [Pebble Toss] there.

Usually, most of the time, my [Parallel Thoughts] were compartmentalized from each other, but this time, a spark hit. A connection was made between the two.

I leaned fairly heavily on some of [Ancient Loremaster of Legends] abilities for my wizardry. [Loremaster’s Library] was filled with my spellbooks, and [Manuscript Mastery] was most often used to instantly flick to the right page to cast a spell. It wouldn’t be insane to evolve the class to a wizardry one.

[Solar Corona] didn’t benefit wizardry spells, not even Radiance ones. The major loss I could see was writing spells. Spatial wizardry was awkward. By awkward, I meant slow and tedious.

Radiance was great for on the fly casting. I could carve runes out of glowing light in the air in front of me, or rapidly inscribe them at the speed my fingers could flick onto the page of a spellbook. Earth wizards could easily mold granite or other rocks like putty, easily putting down long-lasting enchantments. Water mages could conjure or manipulate water into the shape of runes. Fire mages could shape the flames of a fireplace, Dark wizards could manipulate shadows, etc.

Spatial wasn’t the only odd-duck element when it came to wizardry, but it was one of them. In theory, at the highest levels, with the right skills, I could bend the fabric of the world into the shape of a spell. More than a little expensive just to create the runes for a spell, which would then need additional mana to cast and create the effect.

No, Spatial had the plan B of almost all elements - quill, ink, paper, and the right skill. Spells would be harder to cast on the fly, but I’d still be able to do it.

Night had mentioned a few people he knew, and his ideas around getting a rune made explicitly to generate a set of the Medical Manuscripts was genius. I wondered if any of them happened to also be Spatial wizards? Meeting and discussing things with them before upgrading the class could only do good things. The combination was incredibly rare - Spatial Wizardry with Runesmithing? - but Night had been around forever, and Immortals tended to stay alive until everything went sideways. If he didn’t know a person directly, he’d know someone who did.

Wait - wasn’t Archmage also a Spatial Wizard? I should talk with her some more. She didn’t seem to like me too much for some unknown reason, but persistence and some [Social Lubricant] from Iona might make things work. Interacting with a few Spatial Wizards, learning from them, getting some spells, could be just the ticket I needed before upgrading [Ancient Loremaster of Legend].

Also, I wanted to sit and think on the upgrade for a bit. It sounded good today, but I’d been visited by the Bad Idea Fairy masquerading as the Good Idea Fairy before.

Speaking of Iona and her social skills, I was listening to her giving the phoenixes a tour. Not all of my ideas had been terrible!

“... over here we’ve got Auri’s hall of mirrors, and her arcanite nest.” Iona was saying.

“Brrrpt! BRPT! BrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrpt!” Auri was super excited to show it off. The owl hooted, and I mentally added in another reason Iona was perfect for this - she could understand them perfectly.

Her blessing was frankly stupid.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 646->648! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

Oh nice. Showing off one’s nest was clearly a very phoenix-like thing to do. Enough so that it was worth a pair of [Butterfly Mystic] levels.

Perhaps I’d get lucky and get an [Arbiter] level as well?

…

No such luck.

I stuck my nose even more firmly in my book, and did the only thing I felt might help in the moment:

Prayed like heck to Selene and Lunaris.

I had ‘pray to Ciriel’ on my todo list, but I felt Iona’s patron goddesses might be more useful in the current situation.

============================

By some divine miracle of silver tongues, only a single frying pan was the casualty of the phoenix’s first visit. I’d heard what was going on, but I’d only understood half the participants.

“Do I want to know?” I asked as I tried to pry the cooled lump of slag off the kitchen floor without bringing the rest of the kitchen with it.

Iona sighed.

“Apparently, baking is ‘below’ a phoenix, and there was a big argument over it. The owl had to smack down the tupandactylus and the frying pan got the worst of it.”

That… was pretty tame, all things considered.

I’d had another thought rattling around in my head, one I’d gotten while staying out of the way.

“I’d love to see the heron cast more Radiance skills, but I don’t know a polite way of asking or going about it. I suspect if it comes out wrong, a melted frying pan could be the least of our worries.” I said.

Iona nodded, eyeing a sharp knife and the remnants of the mess on the floor. She knelt down and started scraping at it, her long hair falling around her as she talked.

“‘Let me steal your secrets’ can come off very differently than ‘I admire you and I’d like to know all about the glory and splendor phoenixes have to offer’.” She said. “Personally, I’d go the Auri route. Ask her to ask for Radiance lessons, or for a demonstration of skill, and simply watch with her. You should’ve seen the way they’re fawning over her, it’s a little worrying. If she asks nicely - wait, cancel that. If she asks in a way to have the heron prove he’s ‘superior’ to you, you’ll get the biggest, flashiest display in history.”

Iona clicked her tongue twice at the end there.

“Haaaang on, I gotta think that one through a little more. Where’s the closest village? The blast and danger radius might be a little larger than I thought…”

I snorted. It wasn’t funny, but for some reason it tickled the ‘inappropriate laughter’ bone.

Iona chuckled along weakly.

“On that note, congratulations! You’re officially no longer socially inept.” She said.

I spluttered at that.

“Wait, what do you mean?!” I asked.

“Well, you saw a delicate situation, identified it, then went to ask someone else how to handle it. All signs of someone with actual social skills and abilities. You’ve graduated. Cheers. I’ll buy you a drink at the tavern.” She said.

I preened under Iona’s praise. I was getting better! I knew it!

“On a radically different note, we need to do some wedding planning.” I said. “Since the phoenixes are here until then, and I think everyone wants the looming disaster gone.”

Iona briefly looked unhappy, and I held up a hand.

“I’m not suggesting we rush anything! Just that there’s a strong impetus to plan and execute, instead of waiting a few weeks to start planning. I’ve been looking at the calendar. Late summer next year perhaps? There’s an eclipse then, and if we send out invitations to Alruna and the rest of the Valkyries now, they should be able to make it by then.”

Iona, to her credit, shifted gears quickly and with grace.

“Can also get a message to Julius and Artemis at the School. Heck, if we’re quick about it, our letter will beat them there. That’d be quite something, wouldn’t it?” She said.

I met her grin with my own, and the two of us got Plotting.

========================

“Brrrpt brrrpt!” Auri asked.

“Yeah, I think it’ll be a good idea if we’re around when the phoenixes meet Fenrir.” Iona agreed. I stretched and got up.

“Right now I assume?” I asked.

“Brrpt!”

We all got ready, Auri joining the three phoenixes flying high above us. I stole the moment to once again study their flight, hoping to improve [Scintillating Ascent]. I’d studied the heck out of Auri, and I tried with the birds whenever I could, but I didn’t know how many improvements I could squeeze out of them. Why not?

Auri was clearly talking Fenrir up to her new friends, explaining how he was her ‘bestest friend ever’ and ‘totally cool’, and I noted that with all of her descriptions, she was leaving out a few critical details about what Fenrir was. Not terribly important most of the time, but these phoenixes felt a little more… wild? Feral? Unused to other species?

I traded a worried look with Iona, who’d noticed the same thing. We picked up our pace, breaking into a run.

“Brrpt!” Auri said, and Fenrir poked his massive head out of his cave.

Things almost predictably went to shit. The owl phoenix cried out a harsh hoooooot!, then thick beams of pitch-black Pyronox lanced from the bird straight to Fenrir’s heart.

Fenrir had triple spellblade classes, decent but not amazing at both magic and physically fighting. ‘Decent’ plus ‘the bulk, strength, and scales of a wyvern, plus a suit of armor on top of it’ translated to ‘fucking terrifying’.

Almost three thousand levels and pure mage gave a massive edge to the Pyronox owl, and my weak understanding of the northern continent implied these were the sorts of fights the phoenix regularly engaged in. The flames burned straight through Fenrir’s scales, through his muscle and bone straight to his heart.

I’d already engaged my healing, and Iona was diving headlong into the battle, shouting for everyone to stop.

Auri was screaming to stop, but Fenrir wasn’t going to take the attack lying down. He opened his mouth and roared in angry pain, firing Ice and Lightning up at the owl. The tupandactylus somehow intercepted both with his flames, the Fire and Ice exploding into a thick, hazy steam that coated the area.

It took time for cooler heads to prevail, but I was [The Arbiter of Life and Death], and I’d said everyone lived.

Even with my steep discounts on healing, and only needing to heal a single person, the sheer size of Fenrir, combined with the innate inefficiency of healing him, with the pure output of the phoenix had put a massive dent in my mana pool.

As the steam cleared though, I realized something -

I’d stopped a direct attack from a nearly-divine being cold in its tracks.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 770 -> 800. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 648->666! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

==================

The heron - the phoenixes were real jerks, not even dignifying us by telling us their names - was impressive, and I’m pretty sure the top of the mountain we’d claimed was glassy smooth by the time his demonstration was done. I had a dozen new skills to pick through as well!

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Radiant Golden Sunfire Halo]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Blazeheart Phoenix Aura]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* Would you like to upgrade [Nova Lance] to [The Rays of the First Dawn]? Would you like to upgrade the skill? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Infinite Lightfeather Illumination]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Searing Dawn Solar Wave]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* Would you like to upgrade [Scintillating Ascent] to [Wings of the Mythical Sunbird]? Would you like to upgrade the skill? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Luminous Starfire Veil]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Divine Rising Dawn Burst]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Cosmic Flame Resurgence]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Ethereal Firebird Essence]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Mantle of the Sunborn Phoenix]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [The Glorious Rising Destiny of the Eternal Sun]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

I accepted the two upgrades on my skills.

[The First Rays of Dawn] upgrade was pretty simple. It got flat-out stronger, I no longer needed to point with my finger, but I lost a little bit of control on how narrow and surgical I could make the beam. It was ‘stuck’ at roughly thumb-sized cross-section, and it did throw off a huge amount of excess light.

[Wings] had the minor downside that it no longer grew and evolved by studying flight, and the [Pretty] aspect was gone entirely. I traded it for raw speed, mobility, endurance, and they’d ‘last’ even when hit. The theming went from ‘butterfly wings’ to ‘heron wings’, but they still sprouted out of my back, giving off a faint glow as they did so.

I looked like an angel.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 31]

[Mana: 2,841,420/2,841,420]

[Mana Regeneration: 4,679,904 +(8,996,062)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 12,689 (Effectively: 101,512)]

[Dexterity: 37,348 (Effectively: 397,682)]

[Vitality: 89,830 (Effectively: 1,403,594)]

[Speed: 77,062 (Effectively: 1,516,811)]

[Mana: 284,142]

[Mana Regeneration: 540,304 (+ 899,606)]

[Magic Power: 303,864 (+ 12,154,560)]

[Magic Control: 303,585 (+ 12,143,400)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 800]]

[Celestial Mastery: 800]

[Aurora Curialis: 750]

[The Stars Never Fade: 25]

[Luminary Mind: 495]

[Universal Cure: 800]

[Etheric Aegis: 21]

[Shroud of the Stellar Sea: 615]

[Zenith Everlasting: 570]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 666]]

[Radiance Affinity: 666]

[Radiance Resistance: 666]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 666]

[Lepidoptera: 666]

[Nectar: 666]

[Solar Corona: 666]

[Wings of the Mythical Sunbird: 666]

[A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers: 666]

[Class 3: [Ancient Loremaster of Legend - Spatial: Lv 256]]

[Spatial Authority: 256]

[Manuscript Mastery: 256]

[Blink: 142]

[Loremaster's Library: 256]

[Vault of Ages: 65]

[Rapid Reshelving: 224]

[Astral Archives: 256]

[Lust for Lore: 256]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 530]

[Parallel Thoughts: 335]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 800]

[The World Around Me: 180]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 800]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 800]

[Persistent Casting: 600]

[Imbue: 263]