บท 7: New Magics
[AN]: Didn't upload last week so 2 chapters this week.
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Getting a ride in a caravan was much easier than Rictus had imagined. Apparently, word had gotten around about the Forsworn attack in the market. This led to many different caravans and traders wanting to get out of the area. A lot of these were headed to Whiterun since it was the economic center of Skyrim. Thankfully a carriage driver named Kibell was willing to allow Rictus to ride with him along with him. The carriage was going to travel with a few other merchants and their guards to Whiterun.
There was still an hour before leaving so Rictus went over to near the water to wait. Water always had a way of calming him down and giving off a sense of peace. It gave him a little bit of time to reflect on what all had happened and some of his choices.
'I still can't believe I went to the tavern instead of finishing grinding my skill level. Thinking of that, I am not sure that I even checked to see what level I got to after training it.'
Opening his grimoire provided a pleasant surprise.
There was a brilliant golden star with the number 100 where his skill level was recorded.
'When did I get to 100 and how could I have not noticed? I mean I know I can be stupid at time, but I didn't think I was that bad. I guess this whole situation has gotten me a little out of whack. The whole drinking with a Daedric Prince probably didn't help much either. I hope I have the master level spells without having to do the stupid mastery quest like in the game.'
Reviewing his new spell list showed that he indeed did have the master level spells. Looking at some of the new spells showed he had made a good choice in asking for more spells as a perk.
[A/N]: I will list all the expert and the master spells below since some people may not be familiar with them. These are not exactly what they do in game since I wanted them to be less constrained and the time limit is based on mana given.
---Expert Level spells
-Ebonyflesh: Makes the casters skin as hard as ebony armor.
-Paralyze: Paralyzes the target.
-Leaguestep: Sprint 50% faster and spend less Stamina while sprinting.
-Ekash's Locksplitter: Reduces the difficulty of nearby locks by a strong degree.
-Deep Storage: Grants access to an infinite underground storage space.
-Fabricate Object: Creates a crafting station, chair, bed, bridge, or any inanimate object of the caster's choosing for a limited time.
-Detect Dead: Nearby dead can be seen through walls.
-Ocato's Spell Trigger: Stores the (beneficial self-targeted) spell in the left hand and replicates it with a certain trigger or thought from caster
-Dire Corrosion: Targets' armor corrodes, and physical movement is slowed.
-Dire Vulnerability: All targets are weaker to elemental and poison damage
-Dazzling Flash: A bright flash blinds those looking at the caster.
-Ash Rune: Place a rune that immobilizes targets in hardened ash. Damage to the outside of the shell breaks it.
---Master level spells
-Dragonhide: Caster becomes are sturdy as a dragon, skin hardens and resistant to internal damage and elemental damage.
-Mass Paralysis: Paralyzes all targets in the area.
-Control Weather: Changes the weather to the caster's choice.
-Milestones: Place up to 5 teleportation anchors and teleport freely between them.
Reviewing the spells, Rictus was quite pleased with what he saw. Paralyze was a classic and would probably be seeing some use since it was amazing in combat situation. Rictus needed all the help he could get in this regard since he has never really been a fighter. Fights are as easy as taking candy from a baby if you are fighting someone who can't fight back. Ocato's spell trigger is also convenient since he can basically store a spell, such as one of the armor spells, and cast it without channeling the magic. The practicality of teleporting with Milestones does not need any more explanation.
Rictus noticed another small section which was not there before after he finished looking over his spells.
--Enhanced Spells. Rewarded for reaching level 100. Each of these spells have been strengthened and are more efficient. The caster has no equal when using these spells. As the caster was the first of the Skilled to reach level 100, you are granted one addition enhanced spell.
-Mass telekinesis: Caster able to magically control multiple objects around them with ease. The more mana used the more force generated. (upgraded from telekinesis.)
-Shape Earth: Caster able to manipulate the earth and materials gathered from the earth. If pulled from the ground, caster can use more mana to make the change permanent. (Upgraded from Barricade) [This is basically a more limited earth/metal bending.]
Rictus was stunned. When the hell did he even select these? He had blacked out after drinking with Sam/Sanguine and now he has all this.
'Well at least I didn't have to worry about grinding my skills more. I mean telekinesis is a good pick, and I got lucky on the shape earth even if I wouldn't have chosen it had I been sober. I mean, how cool would an enhanced master level spell been? It is almost like I was purposely not allowed to choose those spells by some higher power. Like I was nerfed from getting a super powerful enhanced master spell…. Oh well. No use crying over spilt milk.'
Wanting to get a feel for some of his new magic, Rictus decided to do a little practice before the caravan left. Trying out the enhanced spells came first. Mass telekinesis felt natural. Rictus easily picked up 3 of the little rocks around him and had them orbiting around his hand. Trying to list another rock caused the three already lifted to falter as he turned his attention away. As long as he stayed focused on the objects, there was no problem manipulating them. It would take some practice before he could focus on more than 4 objects, but it felt doable. Testing out the throwing power was very successful. He was able to shoot all 4 rocks across the small lake faster than he could follow with hardly any effort. Rictus decided to always keep a few small rocks in his pocket for ammo. If David could take out a giant with a stone and a sling, what could Rictus take out with a magically thrown rock?
Shape earth was shaping up to be a very useful power. [I couldn't help it]. Causing small spikes to appear out of the ground was a simple task. Rictus could feel that the ground was simply being displaced and he was not creating 'new' ground. So if there was enough material, the options were endless. The downside was the amount of time it took to make larger changes or to move large amounts of earth. This meant Rictus was not about to become a super earth bender. He could make a spike about 2 feet high with a couple inch diameter extremely quickly, but much larger than that and it took a bit of time. Still extremely useful, but not as good in a quick battle. Basically, the larger or more detailed he tried to make the stone, the longer it took.
Out of curiosity, Rictus pulled out one of his septims to see if he could manipulate it. The short answer was yes. While not quite as easy to move as regular stone, the metal was still able to be easily shaped. A quick test with transmute also showed that he could freely switch it between gold, silver, and iron.
'Hmm I always thought it weird how the game limited you to only following the progression of iron to silver to gold and only on ores. Makes sense the spell allows me to freely change among those three. I wonder if I would be able to figure out other materials with some study. I can also get a bunch of iron swords and make them gold…real easy money. With that storage spell, I also don't have to worry about carrying them either. I wonder how that spell will operate in the world.'
Rictus immediately cast it wanting to see what it did. A small dark swirling mass appeared around chest height. Rictus was extremely lucky regarding the spell. Looking into the portal revealed small shapes so Rictus did not have to worry about forgetting what he had placed inside the space. He did have to worry because there appeared to already be stuff in the storage almost as if he had already cast the spell and placed stuff in it. The only bad thing was that he had no idea where all he had been recently or the shenanigans he may have participated in.
Some of the items inside the space were quite unusual. A tangled ball of what looked to be skeever tails, a leather sack of mammoth cheese, two peg legs, a bloody saw, a jar stuffed with torchbugs, a human skull with a sabre eye in it, a large pile of septims and gems, hundreds of bottles of honningbrew mead, feathers from a hagraven, a sword with a skeleton hand still attached, three broken chairs, 2 golden maces which looked like genitalia, a jester's hat, a couple of golden goblets, 4 briarhearts, 12 chickens full of arrows, a realistic looking ice bear sculture, a dirty pair of hopefully women's underwear, a fashionable circlet, a questionable pie with a giant's toe in it, a couple copies of the lusty Argonian maid with what was hopefully icing on them, a blank lexicon, a loot with a flame carved on it, and a few other random items Rictus gave up trying to identify.
Deciding that it was not worth the effort to stress over the strange collection promptly canceled the spell after grabbing out a few more coins.
'I am sure I got everything in there by legal means. There is probably a reasonable explanation for everything in there. Yup.'
Seeing that there seemed to be more people gathering around the carriages, Rictus decided that it was probably time to go join them. It was probably best to not linger on what had happened in the past too much. Rictus decided that moving on was the best possible plan at this point.
Kibell graciously allowed Rictus to sit up in the front with him on the carriage instead of with the other passengers. Apparently, the older man wanted someone else to talk to on the trip and show off how much he knew of the surrounding areas. He let Rictus know that it would be a couple days before they were able to reach Whiterun since there were so many people in the caravan.
After a couple hours of peaceful traveling, the caravan suddenly stopped because a tree had fallen over the road. Rictus had a bad feeling about the tree but thought that there was no way such a cliché thing like bandits attacking would happen.
"Umm Kibell, there aren't many bandits around here, right?"
"Oh no. I haven't seen bandits in these parts for a while."
"Well, its good things are safe for travelers here and that is probably just a tree that happened to fall there."
"I wouldn't say things were safe. We don't have bandits here because the forsworn killed them all and took over the territory."
"….Kibell, do the forsworn stop merchants?"
"Of course they do, its how they get most their supplies. They also have a nasty habit of dropping trees in the road..."
"Like that tree blocking our path?"
"Yeah that sounds like something they would do."
Suddenly a shout rang out from behind the tree.
"Looks like some people forgot to pay the toll for our road…how about everybody plays nice and we won't have to kill anyone."
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Pepey_LePew
Pepey_LePew Well looks like we may actually see some combat soon. How will our MC respond to this totally cliche moment? Only time will tell. If you have any thoughts or ideas for the story, let me know.
Once again thanks for reading and if you made it this far then you deserve some recognition. You can give yourself a high five.
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