Capítulo 46: Pumping
Once home, I paid attention to my favorite girl, after which, I decided to read the literature given at home.
The clock read one o'clock in the morning. Heh, perfect time for practicing magic. I cleared the workshop table of all unnecessary items, so as not to damage the valuable books, and started reading.
It was decided to start with the runes that had caught my attention. Judging by the introduction, for their use did not require a large amount of magic, but everything hinged on the relative limitations of this direction. Not only that for the drawing of working symbols required special paint and specific materials capable of conducting magic, and a certain elemental coloring, as well as complex algorithms required a lot of space. The larger the drawing, the more functions could be crammed into it, and, unfortunately, various tricks with miniaturization or the use of spatial folds would not work here, at least that's what the pages of the issued copy said. In some ways it was like a transition from ordinary physics to quantum effects: electrons or in this case magic particles simply passed through the drawn miniaturized paths, dispersing into the surrounding space. Some highly developed techno-magical civilizations like the Guardians of the Universe, who created the Green Lantern Corps, may well have a solution to this problem, but they are in no hurry to share their findings with the world. Although, if you think about it well, you can use parts of very strong magical creatures to reduce the space, but you have to find them and then defeat them, which is unrealistic for me.
Since this printed material was obviously created for more or less advanced mages, some things were only briefly mentioned, for example, for the magic alarm to work, you need to add auric imprints of users, but how to do it was not written a word. And similar nonsense was pretty much everywhere: charge the seal, redirect the flows of upper gradation magic, close the auric threads, negotiate with the spirit of the place, and so on. I understood the meaning, but how to do it I had no idea at all. I was not even happy about the presence of runes for creating a spatial pocket, because for its normal work it required the skin of some hound dogs of Tyndall*, and I had great doubts that the skin of an ordinary dog, bought in the neighborhood of Chinatown... Although there may well find parts of some unlucky chthonic monster.
Hell, there's not much in the way of offensive structures either, just defense.
Garbage, not interesting, too complicated, nothing clear, again too complicated, very cool but unrealistic to do. Lazily flipping through the pages, I became increasingly frustrated. It was as if the sorceress had slipped me this book on purpose so that I could drool over the instructions for a terribly complicated pentagram, which gives invulnerability to physical attacks for a minute, but at the same time is about fifty meters in size and requires a certain position of the stars in the sky. How much special paint would that take? Oh, there's a footnote that says fifty-seven liters... I'd have to get fifty milliliters to test the simpler stuff.
Oh, that's interesting. Toward the end, there were simple rune combinations, so to speak, for the dumbest of the dumb, and a useless alphabet. Useless, because no rune can work on its own. Even the simplest "Protection", which looks like a rhombus, requires a structure to collect and store mana, as well as an activator. And special paint... For the sake of interest, I drew a combination that causes a flash, but the result was zero. Eh, and I definitely need purification runes from here, which should deal damage to the dead...
Okay, what else do we have? A slim book on Ancient Magic lay on the table. The introduction was reassuring, that it was available to almost all gifted people, all they needed was a steely will and blood, a lot of blood, and their own blood, which had just left the body and still kept the aura of the caster. On the plus side, the spells could work even in a completely unmasked space, but the minuses, as far as I was concerned, were much greater.
This direction was rather crude and did not imply elegance. Various small and large curses with blessings, which are imposed through kamlany, but it is far from certain that they will work, because the aura of a person unconsciously can resist all this. In this case the problem can be solved through some spirit, but this is closer to shamanism. One of the footnotes said that it was possible to repeat almost any spell, but that it involved the risk of being knocked back by a lot of blood loss. Of the cool stuff was the presence of a blood magic analog with the ability to create bloody needles, spears, and shields. As an element of surprise will do, but judging by everything this thing is not particularly powerful. It's kind of a vampire look that doesn't really work for me. Besides, throwing precious liquid at bastards is idiotic.
I didn't even understand why the sorceress gave me this thing, did she really want to see how many people I would try to curse? The strangest thing is that only Scarecrow, who kidnapped me, came to mind, although after that I managed to get a bit better relations with the commissioner and get a levellap. Well, let him live, and I'll try something more simple, five milliliters of blood is enough for a dart. The book advised me to work magic directly from an open wound for a cooler effect, but I wasn't a barbarian, so I went for the first aid kit, from which I pulled out a disposable syringe.
"Ha ha ha!
I take a few milliliters, pull the piston and, spurting blood in the direction of the target, mentally order it to stretch into a spindle and become as strong as possible, while in my head I have to hold the symbol of a circle with a dot, which according to the author should help.
I watch in amazement as my blood actually follows the order and transforms in flight into a dart that jabs into the wooden shield and then spreads out in a red stain.
"However...
I really didn't expect it to work the first time. I listened to myself and felt only a slight fatigue, which meant that the mana consumption for such a spell was extremely low. A closer look at the spot where it hit me revealed a small indentation. I doubt this thing could do any damage, though if I had human immunodeficiency virus, there would be options...
Hmm, let's try again.
~Please~
This time a fan of red droplets flew out of the syringe, splattering the floor and part of the wall.
"Shit.
A new attempt.
~Please~
Fucking hell, it hit the ceiling too.
I'm doing something wrong. Right, that's when the emotional peak smoothing worked, not only does it take away the pain, but it also helps you focus by increasing brain activity.
After realizing what the problem was, another attempt was successfully completed, and then I leaned back in my chair, taking a breath, the mana consumption is still present, even though it is negligible.
I think without concentration, it's harder for me to simultaneously give an order and represent a symbol like an activation rune.
Wait... That's the rune, isn't it?
I quickly flipped through the book and found a paragraph that described blood as the first magical substance available to humans. What a sneaky asshole. Still not believing my hunches, I take a new drink of the red liquid and redraw the undemanding combination of symbols from the rune book. Then I wait a little while for the internal storage to recharge from the planet's magical background and put my finger on the drawn circle.
"Activation!
A bright flash hits my eyes, and I nearly pass out from the fatigue that has set in.
"Ugh," I leaned my palms on the table, trying not to fall.
I was still too low on my reserve, because the mana was only spent on the order, and the flash was done by the accumulated background. I could solve that problem, especially now that I had some spells, and it made sense to invest in magic.
Status. The familiar system window appeared before my eyes.
[The first beginning (the body): 82
The second beginning (prana): 16
The third beginning (astral): 9
The fourth beginning (core): 75
The fifth beginning (spirit): 32
The sixth beginning (reason): 47
Seventh Beginning (magic): 11
Eighth beginning (immortality): blocked
The ninth beginning (deity): blocked.
Free points: 86]
What?! The numbers were completely different! And if with the first start there is still some logic, because the system itself reported that if I increase the core by ten points, I get one to the body, but why the hell the other parameters so jumped?
Since the last status check, it had only been... After a quick glance at my watch, I recognized that it was five in the morning. So I'd gotten a nice upgrade in the past eight hours.
The power of the Soul does have a positive effect on progress, and the other shells tend to catch up. Hmm... My action may seem silly to some, but another fifty points are sent to the fourth beginning, increasing it to a hundred.
Fucking hell!
My body arched in sharp pain, and I fell from the chair to the floor. Ugh! I couldn't even yell, because all my muscles were cramped from the pain. The memories of the interworld come to the rescue, but even they can't completely remove the not-so-pleasant sensations. It was over in a minute, and I just lay there, staring at the ceiling.
I haven't been this freaked out in a long time.
System logs pleased me with the message that now it takes four times more points to improve the core, which is quite expected. Eh, it's still geometric, not arithmetic progression, but whatever, because I can't compare my numbers with anyone, and what's the point?
I had thirty-six points left. My gaze fell on the magic books; I wanted to use something more serious, not die after a couple of useless spells. I threw three points into intelligence, bringing it up to fifty, and the rest went to magic. Now my parameters look like this:
[The first beginning (the body): 84
The second beginning (prana): 16
The third beginning (astral): 9
The fourth beginning (core): 100
The fifth beginning (spirit): 32
The sixth beginning (reason): 50
Seventh Beginning (magic): 44
Eighth beginning (immortality): blocked
The ninth beginning (deity): blocked.
Free points: 0]
After admiring the beautiful and large values, I returned to the real world. A new blood draw and a repeat of the runic spell. Along with the bright flash, my insides twisted into a painful lump.
So, maybe my source of magic had become more capacious, but it was empty, and now I was trying to scoop it to the bottom. Well, I was self-taught, so it was forgivable. Regardless, I'm in a much better state now than when I threw the card and charged it with magic. I don't even lose consciousness, so the experiment can be considered a conditional success.
Since I was still relatively awake, it was decided to tackle the last book. It was slightly different from the previous two, looking more sinister. Its cover was made of a dark material resembling parchment, and it was also handwritten, which added to the atmosphere.
It described the various creatures that continue to roam the earth after death, breaking the law of life. There were quite a lot of them, but all of them can be divided into two large groups: material (various classic zombies, skeletons, ghouls, ghouls, ghouls, mummies, lichs, vampires and cadavers) and immaterial (ghosts, shadows, spirits). Also, the whole affair could be conventionally divided into independent and dependent, the latter being created by necromancers as servants or guards, while the former either return to "unlife" themselves or rebel because of natural forces. By natural forces they mean the natural outlets of magic, which may well revitalize the undead. Yeah... Given the presence of a dragon vein in the cemetery grounds, it's a wonder Gotham hasn't turned into a necropolis yet.
Grundy, to all appearances, was a revenant, which could be considered a subspecies of the dead, except that instead of his master's orders, he had one goal in mind - to destroy those who had sent him to the other world, or their descendants or relatives. The recommendations kindly advised to finish off his offenders yourself, and then the reanimated dead will calm down.
"Mr. J, have you gone to bed yet?" I was distracted from my reading by the sleepy voice of my beloved, who came into the workshop. - The bed is so cold without you...
"I'll be right there. - I answered, closing the book. It was really worth it to get some sleep, given the day, and I'd deal with Grundy later.
***
Three hours of sleep was enough to make me feel ready to do something, so after a morning warm-up and a light breakfast, Harley and I headed to the nearest major car dealership to pick up a car. I wasn't going to get the fastest, prettiest, most expensive one. I needed an inconspicuous workhorse that could get us from point "A" to point "B", but entering the premises my eyes caught on an elegant beauty in bright red.
"Oh, I see the real connoisseurs. - Almost immediately we were approached by a consultant in a perfectly ironed snow-white shirt. - It's a new arrival: the Aston Martin DBS. Under the hood of this baby has a 5.2-liter biturbo V12 engine, with an output of 725 horsepower! It can easily go up to 300 km/h, and the top speed is 340 km/h.
"We'll take it!" My companion joyfully declared with delight looking at the car.
"Are you sure? It's worth $432,000...
"Mr. J?" Harley's eyes burned with anticipation.
"Sure, we'll take it. - I wanted to try out this crumb myself and whatever the cost.
"Hey, where's he going?" The girl asked, looking behind me.
Turning around, I saw a slightly pale man barrel away from us, but noticing our gazes, he froze, turning even more pale.
Reputation be damned.
"Please don't. - He whispered with his naughty lips.
"Hey, can we get another manager?" I shouted. This one seems to be broken.
A couple seconds later, a full-looking man with a sales manager's badge came running up to us:
"Hello, is there a problem?" He said politely, squinting at the frozen employee. - Peter, come to my office now.
"It's J-j-joker. - The counselor was still able to get a word in edgewise.
The man looked at me carefully, then suddenly smiled sweetly.
"Oh, Mr. Arkham. Congratulations on finding the treasure. I take it you're here to purchase your own personal transportation? Come on, there are some beautiful models here that will perfectly accentuate your status.
And what status was he hinting at, ex-con? The information about the treasure didn't really surprise me, since Alan had warned me about it.
"Not worth it, I'm completely happy with this car.
"Oh, great choice. Right this way, let's get this done. - The man walked forward, showing the way. - Is there anything you'd like to buy for your lovely companion?
Twenty minutes later, we were driving out of the dealership in a brand-new red car, heading toward Gotham Cemetery. We decided not to get a second car until we had a decent place to live with a garage.
* There will be no full-fledged cross from the "Archimage" universe, just some borrowings in the form of passholes.
//The system is finally moving to the background and will now appear only in the form of quests.
Status de energia semanal
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