Chapter 21
Milandera sat brooding in the guild hall while the guildmaster and his posse of higher ups debated and discussed the problem at hand. They were chatting rather angrily amongst each other, and she currently couldn’t care what they were saying.
Several of their best teams were missing and possibly dead at the hands of the Krell; and from the looks of it, nobody knew what was happening to the rest. Although, if Milandera’s experience held true they were either dead or captured.
When she’d come back, none of what she expected had transpired. She was not accused of cowardice or negligence. She wasn’t put to relentless questioning. No, they had acted as if everything was normal.
And now her own guild – The Gilded Spears, was hosting a meeting with the leadership of several other guilds and discussing ways to extricate their teams from this quagmire. Apparently all guilds had a team or two missing, and some had even sent back word by [Mage] spell. Some – it seemed – had been smart enough to not try and sneak into the mountain or get past the Krell.
The “Wind’s Messenger” spell was commonly used amongst [Mages] to communicate across vast distances. With the only requirement being that the people at both ends of the conversation had to physically meet beforehand and exchange their personal effects. Mileandera didn’t know the entire process, but she remembered Jormun telling her about it while they huddled around a campfire one rainy night.
Her mood soured at the memory of Jormun, and she struggled to keep her mind from brooding and focus on the topic of the missing teams.
What they sent back was quite worrisome. The Krell had the mountains on lockdown and would not yield. Some teams – the ones with their own [Rangers] or stealth-based classes – had managed to sneak past, but were now trapped behind the Krell patrol routes.
The savages roamed the mountains in parties of thirty. More than a match for most adventuring teams. Not to mention their shamanistic casting that could form magical circles to overwhelm all but the greatest of [Mages].
She could hear the guildmasters debating what to do. They shouted over each other like idiots when they could not come to an agreement, which was essentially all the time. Their voices echoed loudly in the guildhall, it was a rather spacious building after all. On the outside it looked inconspicuous, like any other building in the dreary city, but inside it was a different story. Elegantly shaped wood decorated the ceilings and magical lights lit the interior, the walls were ornately decorated and any exposed wood polished to a shine. The guildmasters truly lived a life of extravagant wealth.
All wealth her team would never get to see again if she didn’t do something.
She sighed and stood up. She needed to go for a walk to cool her nerves. No one paid heed as she slinked through the chairs arranged in a semicircle around a central speaking platform, a platform where two particularly angsty guild masters were currently inches from each others faces shouting.
Milandera pushed open the door out of the room and strode out, she was sure she heard the sound of a fist making contact with a face, but couldn’t care less.
Kothar woke up to a strange sight. He rubbed his eyes to get rid of the fuzziness that seemed to build up in his eyes overnight, and focused on what Ethan was doing.
Ethan was sitting very still, his back facing towards the open sky. He sat very close to the edge of the outcropping they had taken shelter in, his eyes were closed and he seemed to be practicing some sort of meditation. Kothar worried for a moment that a strong gust of wind would blow him over the edge, or that Ethan had lost his mind.
There was, however, something much more obvious that captured his attention: there was the dark yet translucent bubble that surrounded Ethan. Swirling motes of light materialised from thin air and flocked to the bubble like flies drawn to a flame, whereupon they were absorbed by it. It was the most bewildering sight Kothar had ever seen, and that’s saying something; since he’d seen a lot in his 38 years of age. He took some cautious steps towards Ethan, reaching out with his hand to touch the bubble. Ethan remained as still as a rock.
“Don't touch it!” Ethan suddenly warned. Kothar jumped back and nearly fell over.
Ethan opened his eyes, and they glowed with blue rays like two miniature suns. Kothar lifted his arms to shield his eyes and backed away cautiously.
“What’s going on?” Kothar asked with apparent unease.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I’m the coolest magic caster that ever lived.” Ethan said with a smirk.
At least Kothar thought he was smirking… he couldn’t exactly see much because of Ethan's glowing eyes, yet he could tell that Ethan looked evil with the glowing eyes. He didn’t like that look.
“What have you done this time?” Kothar asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
“I invented a new spell.” Ethan stated.
“What does it do?”
“It converts any energy that tries to pass this magical shield into mana, then it sends it to me to absorb.”
“Then why are your eyes glowing?” Kothar asked in puzzlement.
“Because, as I’ve just discovered: it absorbs all kinds of energy, including sunlight and ambient heat. I’m currently afflicted with the ‘Overcharged’ status yet again; although the energy is mana, and not chaos like last time.”
“Are you going to grow another tree?” Kothar wondered aloud.
“In theory, I probably could; but I don’t know if that’s what I want to do. I should probably think of the hundreds of ways I could channel all of this energy productively.”
“Like what?”
“Hmm, I need to think about this.” Ethan said with a frown.
“You could summon a guardian.” Kothar suggested.
“I don’t know how. Wait, you can summon a guardian?” Ethan asked. The glow in his eyes multiplied when his eyes widened in realisation of something.
“I know [Warlocks] do it, it’s their specialisation though.” Kothar nodded.
“What about things, can I summon things?” Ethan asked.
“What do you mean? Like objects? I don’t know.” Kothar looked lost.
“I think I can. Let me try!” Ethan exclaimed, put his hands to the ground, and started casting a spell. Kothar took a few more steps back as a precaution.
The ground started to vibrate, and after a while, a tiny nugget of gold started to coalesce under Ethan’s hands. The gold seemed to flow from the rock like a liquid, running out from previously unseen cracks and forming into a lump of solid gold. It quickly grew to the size of a small boulder. Kothar looked on slack jawed. He couldn’t quite believe it.
He continued to stare wide-eyed as Ethan then summoned forth a much smaller piece of black material. Was that coal? Yes it was, and it was the purest coal he’d ever seen, with not a small impurity. In a similar way to the gold, it seemed to flow from the ground. Although it behaved like grains of sand and not a liquid like the gold.
Once the coal had formed into a solid lump Ethan took it into his hands and turned them palm up. He seemed to contemplate for a moment before he steeled himself and squeezed.
Power ran through his hand and into the coal. Kothar could see through Ethan's skin to the bones as Ethan’s arms glowed blue from the inside.
At first, nothing happened. Then slowly, the coal started to morph in a strange way. It quickly crystallised into a perfectly formed gem. Was that diamond? Kothar was not too sure.
Ethan then turned his attention back to the golden boulder, and after pointing at it for mere seconds, it began to heat up and liquidate.
A small bubble of liquid gold levitated into the air, leaving all impurities behind; whereupon it started taking the shape of a sceptre of some kind.
Then it rapidly cooled down, and the diamond floated over and perfectly slotted itself into its tip.
Ethan pointed and the unfinished object floated into his hand. He closed his eyes in concentration, and intricate carvings – along with glowing runes – started inscribing themselves on the length of the golden sceptre. The diamond started glowing with a soft blue hue.
“Okay, that’s the focus done, now all we need is a power source.” Ethan murmured and pointed at the ground again. Another crystal soon emerged. This one shined with a golden light. Kothar had never seen anything like it.
Ethan concentrated once more, and the crystal started taking a complex geometric shape. Kothar had no words in his language to describe it. He simply couldn’t know what the word ‘fractal’ meant, much less what one looked like. In fact, just looking at the thing confused his mind greatly.
Thankfully, the strangely shaped crystal then floated over to the sceptre, and slowly slotted itself into a perfectly matching and quite complex slot below the diamond, one which Kothar had not noticed was even there.
The force field then flickered wildly, and Ethan suddenly slumped to the ground as the energy around him faded, and he was panting from the exertion. The dim magical field that had been surrounding him finally blinked out of existence, and Kothar, who was watching with mouth agape all the while, ran over to him and propped him up.
“Are you well? What happened? What did you just make?” Kothar couldn’t help but look at the strange sceptre lying next to Ethan on the ground.
“It’s a surprise.” Ethan wheezed. “Now we only need to capture a soul and it will be ready.”
“Capture a soul?” Kothar was confused.
“Yes. Enchanted items use bound souls to channel mana.” Ethan said weakly. Kothar was disgusted at what Ethan was proposing.
“Are you insane! All souls should be free! There is a reason the Krell have outlawed [Necromancy]!” Kothar exclaimed angrily.
“Easy! I’m not talking about the souls of people. I’m talking about the souls of monsters.” Ethan explained in a raspy voice. His eyes were glazed over and unfocused as he said this, and he seemed exhausted. Kothar took a moment to prop Ethan up against a nearby rock, before sitting himself back down to face him. Kothar contemplated for a moment as Ethan continued to catch his breath.
“Monster souls? Well, I guess I don’t see a problem with that, although what you are proposing is making me uneasy.” Kothar said hesitantly. Ethan seemed to be regaining his composure and was now leaning himself up, he seemed deep in thought.
“Yeah, tell me about it. Although I wonder if there is a way to power an enchantment without a soul? Hmm… it is theoretically possible. I’ll just have to use a ‘Convert’ Thaum to turn energy to mana like I did with my shield, but the energy source is the problem.” Ethan was once again fired up as he rapidly talked, “maybe use a boiler and coal? No. Too wasteful. Oil? Where would I get that though, does that even exist in this world? Maybe nuclear fission or fusion? Fission is too dangerous and fusion would have to be regulated precisely. Besides, I don’t know the Thaums for those yet, or if they even exist. Wait… what about solar power like I did with my energy shield spell? Or a battery! Yes! A battery! If I can get some lead and…” Ethan continued to ramble, seemingly to himself.
Kothar didn’t understand anything Ethan was saying, but he hoped no more gigantic trees would grow as a result of his next experiment.
Now to the matter of the somewhat smaller – but still quite large – boulder of gold, which was still staring him in the face. Kothar stood and stepped over to the boulder, he gave it a tap with his foot and a dull thud was given off. The thing wasn’t hollow! Kothar turned to Ethan, who was now looking over the strange sceptre he’d made.
“What do you plan to do with all this gold?” Ethan looked over at Kothar and then at the boulder of gold behind him, he shrugged.
“Oh, that? Let’s just leave it here. It’ll probably make some future archaeologists very confused.” Ethan said with a smile.
Kothar didn’t understand the bit about archeologists, the translation just didn’t convey that much depth in meaning, but he understood the first part, and it befuddled him.
“What? You want to leave all this gold here?” Kothar’s shock was evident. While he wasn’t a very materialistic person, the thought of leaving all this gold here was stupefying.
“We could drop it over the mountainside if you want to pick it up later. It will make an awful ruckus going down though.” Ethan relented. Kothar wasn’t much of fan of the idea, he sat down on the rock of gold and propped his head up with his arms.
“How come you can summon this much gold anyway? All [Mages] would have been rich beyond measure if they could do the same!” Kothar exclaimed.
“I’m special.” Ethan said with a smile as he continued to study the strange sceptre while talking to Kothar, tracing some of the strange lines on it with his fingers. He didn’t elaborate – too focused on the golden artefact – so Kothar prompted him after a pause.
“How so?” Kothar asked.
“I can use Primordial Magic.” Ethan said plainly.
Kothar wished sometimes that Ethan would be more descriptive. It seemed that he would need to ask more questions to get a good answer.
“And what is Primordial Magic?” He prompted further.
“It’s the essence of magic. The stuff that makes it up. In the same way a wall is built from bricks, and bricks are made of clay. Spells are made of Runes, and Runes are made from what I call ‘Thaums’. I don’t cast magic using Runes. I cast with Thaums. The absolute essence of magic as far as I know.” Ethan explained carefully.
Kothar thought he understood the concept of what Ethan meant, he had somehow figured out magic in its most basic form. Although Kothar didn’t understand how that made such powerful spells.
“Does casting with what you call Thaums make your spells more powerful?” Kothar asked.
“Not only that. There are thousands of combinations for any one spell. I think most [Mages] will settle for the one they were taught and use it. Maybe improving it a little here and there. In my case, however, I reduce the spell to its most basic components and combine them into one whole. Can you picture the wall from my earlier analogy, only built from one singular solid brick?”
Kothar paused and contemplated the analogy.
“And this makes it more powerful?”
“And much more flexible.”
“That is so unfair!” Kothar exclaimed. “Can you teach others how to do this too?” He asked hopefully. Ethan frowned.
“Maybe? It’s just that it’s really dangerous. I was lucky I managed to diffuse all that energy just now. It could have harmed me, and I wasn’t even sure if I could dismiss the spell.”
“You cast such a spell without knowing how to dismiss it beforehand?”
“Yes.” Ethan answered almost as if that wasn’t important.
“Then you are a fool, Ethan West. A lucky fool.” Kothar shook his head.
Ethan just shrugged with a grin.
“Sometimes all it takes is a fool with a goal.”
“Very well,” Kothar said as he looked at the rising sun, “I think we need to get going.”
Ethan got up with a grunt and walked over to one of the hammocks and started to take it down. Kothar also got up and started to take down his hammock and pack his bag.
They quickly gathered their belongings and moved on, but not before deciding to drop the golden boulder down. It took both of them to push it over the edge and they watched in fascination as it bounced down the mountainside, large chunks of stone breaking off each time the boulder hit the cliff.
“I hope it doesn’t cause a landslide.” Ethan commented before they turned away and began on their climb once more.
“I don’t know a thing! Please!” Milandera pleaded.
She was currently cornered in a dark alley, a group of cultists and a strange looking [Wizard] confronting her from the shadows. Light seeped from cracks in the neighbouring houses, but their owners did not dare come out and see what was going on. Murders happen nearly everyday in the city, and people generally do not want to end up being killed trying to help.
Early on, a curious resident had opened his window and quickly shut it tight again; after a small bolt of lightning from the [Wizard]’s hands had struck his wall. The wizard didn’t even seem to need to focus much on casting the spell, he simply pointed his hand. This fact terrified Milandera.
“You think us stupid, girl? You went out there with your brother! So where did that fool go?” Asked one hulking figure. They were all dressed in similar clothing to their strange [Wizard]: dark loose robes that covered them from from head to toe. They wore masks over their faces as well, the masks were shaped to look like a stony, emotionless face. Milandera couldn’t figure out how they were seeing past the masks. Maybe they were enchanted somehow? They made her feel uneasy nevertheless.
“He sacrificed himself so that I could have a chance, that’s all I know. I swear it!” Milandera didn’t even bother trying to lie, she had a feeling they would see straight through it.
“Are you saying he’s dead?” The cultist asked with his odd accent. Milandera couldn’t place the accent at all, it sounded like nothing she’d ever heard before.
“I’m not sure… I don’t know.” She let out with a sigh.
Milandera considered her options. She was a [Duelist]: a strong fighter class; but her skills specialised in single combat and were not very good at crowd control.
If forced to fight, her chances at coming out of this injured or even alive were close to nil, especially with that [Wizard] there. What did a stupid foreign [Wizard] and a group of cultists want with her brother anyway?
She couldn’t tell his race from the way he looked, thick wrappings covered his face and hands, and a heavy cloak covered the rest of his body, or her… even that was not obvious. His stature was that of a half-giant or a taller human, but then again, even those things are not always certain, especially in a port city that sees so much traffic.
“You know what? We’re going to get to him; and when we do, you’ll be there to see it yourself. Bring her!” Commanded the strange [Wizard] with a husky, hoarse voice. Even their gender wasn’t apparent from their tone. Milandera would just assume that they were a guy for now, until she was able to know for sure.
Two of the hulking men approached her and she tried to struggle as they grabbed a hold of her. It was no use. They disarmed her at knife point and tied her up securely, then put a veil over her head. She could still somewhat see from within the darkened veil, but she didn’t let them know about that.
“If you scream or make a sound, we’ll slit your throat.” She heard the gruff voice close to her ear and nodded vigorously. They started taking a few steps and she reluctantly walked along, she would prefer not to die bleeding out in the middle of an alley.
The [Wizard] suddenly turned around. “What was that?” He asked in a shocked manner. His entire body language had suddenly shifted, although she couldn’t see very well through the veil, she could still see that he started pacing around nervously.
“What? Did you sense something?” asked one of the men. The guy sounded nervous as well, it seemed that the [Wizard]’s change of demeanour was infectious, Milandera found herself feeling uneasy as well.
“Yes. Something powerful. Someone just cast a very powerful spell.” The [Wizard] responded and turned to look towards the mountains on the horizon. Beyond the mountain range he was looking at is the Krell volcano, out of sight from the city itself. The [Wizard] stood for a good couple seconds seemingly contemplating, before turning around.
“Bring her along and let’s go. I have to investigate this with all due haste.” The [Wizard] finally commanded. He seemed to be keeping the details very vague.
They let go of her. For a moment she was a little shocked and the thought of making a run for it crossed her mind. Before she could act on that there was a strange shift of gravity as the [Wizard] did something, and her body started to float away from the ground and follow him. She saw the rest of them also float off the ground in a similar manner.
Her stomach churned, she felt on the verge of throwing up as they continued to levitate, for a moment she was very glad that the veil was somewhat covering her view. She could hear that one of the cultists was laughing over at her.
“Don’t throw up inside that thing, girl, The journey won't be very pleasant and I certainly won't be cleaning up the mess!”
Milandera steeled herself and forced herself under control. All the cultists floated with practiced ease as they took to the skies, heading towards the mountains at breakneck speed. The dim lights of the city quickly vanished behind them and the scenery continued to flow past at amazing speeds.
Oh shit. He can levitate so many at once and at such speed? She thought. That’s one powerful motherfucker.
Memeta – Goddess of Memetics and Free Information – was quite pleased as she sat at the top of her tower, wearing a scandalous amount of non-clothing from a Celestial perspective.
The mortal had just exposed the secret of Primordial Magic to another; and while it was one small action from a man, it was also one giant leap for her.
It showed her that he wasn’t going to greedily hog the information for himself – like a certain God of Secrets would have wanted; and If he was willing to teach others, then Crypto must be livid.
She revelled in shouting his name aloud: “Crypto… CRYPTO!”.
A feat only she – as his nemesis – could actually perform. Anyone else trying to say his name would be unable to. It was an aspect of him that infuriated her.
She looked on at the Celestial Plane spread before her from her tower and smirked. She could practically see the storm clouds over his temple across from her perch.
She stood up and went to the edge of her balcony and started shouting his name aloud to the whole plane again.
Taunting him was really fun.
“So… Eterna, hmm?” Elder Ro contemplated slowly. She continued pacing around in the cave as the torches flickered.
“Yes.” Adrian replied regretfully.
“And what does Eterna want with Ethan West?” She asked him pointedly.
He saw no point in resisting. As her display earlier had shown, they were completely at her mercy. Luckily it was just the elder now, and not her supporting shamans.
“She issued a decree. That man is to die, and that tree is to be felled.” Adrian said flatly.
“Interesting. Very interesting indeed, and you say all your ilk have heard this decree?” She leant on her cane once again waiting for an answer.
“Yes. All the forces of Order will come here seeking to fulfill that quest from all over the world. I just happened to be the closest.”
“What I do not understand is what your goddess wants with him. What has he done to earn her ire?”
“Truly, I do not know.” Adrian said, shrugging.
Giran shifted slightly in her cage. The elder picked up on it.
“What is it, girl?” The elder asked, pivoting to face Giran.
“It’s just that I’ve been here longer than those two,” she pointed at Adrian and Normand, “I have seen him fight the winged lady…” Her words became softer near the end and she trailed off.
“That was Eragoth, The former Matriarch, thanks to his efforts.”
“Well, I just couldn’t help but feel curious; so I marked him with a skill of mine.”
“So you are a [Ranger] or a [Rogue]? Well, what is it?” The elder’s eyes narrowed as Giran continued to shift around in her cage.
“I sense that he is in great danger right now. I can’t tell where he is exactly, but he is definitely in danger.”
“I see.” Said the elder, “there is nothing we can do to help him now. His trials are his own, I am curious as to why you are telling me this, though. Aren’t you and your friends here to try and kill him?” The elder seemed puzzled.
“Only Adrian wants to kill him. We don’t share his faith or alignment. We were only coming here for a fruit from the tree.” Giran said defensively.
The look Adrian gave her from his cage could sour milk, but she paid him no heed. His goddess could go chew bark as far as Giran was concerned. Their safety here was paramount, and she didn’t feel like sharing the fate of Jormun, the poor Polarii had had no chance of survival.
What’s worse was that she felt responsible for his death. If it weren’t for her brief altercation with the spider-apes, he might have lived to see this day.
So she steeled herself against Adrian’s rising ire as she tried to build bridges with their captors. Maybe they would let them go after this? She really hoped they would. She would think on revenge later.
She fidgeted again. Her skill was really annoying sometimes.
After another exhaustive day of climbing, Ethan and Kothar had found a relatively flat outcropping to rest on again. This time it offered no overhang to protect them from the elements; but they just had to hope it wouldn’t rain. Ethan figured it probably would, knowing his luck. He tried to ignore the loud snoring coming from Kothar’s hammock as he tried to drift off to sleep. Ethan couldn’t understand how someone was capable of snoring so loudly. He was half tempted to start looking into healing magic just so he could try and fix whatever caused it.
He almost dozed off a couple of times, and was contemplating inventing another spell out of boredom when an ear shattering boom was suddenly heard over the volcano. The ground shook violently before suddenly stopping.
Kothar was up on his feet immediately, swinging wildly while shouting some bizarre curse words Ethan had never heard before, and after a few seconds he seemed to come to his senses. The situation would have been funny if it weren’t for the fact that what they had just heard was a sonic boom.
“Thunder? Curses, I was hoping there wouldn't be a storm…” Kothar muttered. He started searching through his stuff for some waterproof coverings.
“That wasn’t thunder, that was a sonic boom!” Ethan sounded worried, he started pacing around their outcropping, eyes searching the sky.
“A what?” Kothar asked, and Ethan sighed.
“It's what happens when an object travels faster than–” Ethan didn’t get to finish his explanation as he saw a strange group approaching them from the far side of the outcropping.
“Who are you, and what are you doing in our mountains?” Kothar asked as the group of men in dark robes wearing masks approached, he noticed they also had what appeared to be a tied up girl. One of the men in robes roughly pushed her to into the nearest wall on the outcropping, she huddled herself there and remained still, a cloaked man wrapped in cloth who looked somewhat different from the rest was standing out in front of the group. Staring directly at Ethan.
“It took me all night to find you. Now give it to me!” The cloaked man commanded as he stepped forward.
“Give you what?” asked Ethan in puzzlement, he took a step back from the approaching man and blinked away the last vestiges of tiredness from his eyes.
“That which has been made. It calls to me, and I must have it.” Said the cloaked [Wizard] with power radiating from his words. He took another step forward, and the other figures in robes fanned out around him.
“You mean this?” Ethan reached into his pack and pulled out the sceptre he had made previously. They had been forced within a few steps from the edge of the outcropping now, they were completely surrounded.
“Yes!” The creature laughed an inhuman laugh. “Bring it to me! Now!”
“Or what?” Asked Ethan with a smirk. The strange creature suddenly tensed up, it seemed that Ethan’s attitude had agitated him somehow.
“Or you shall die here.” He spoke as if his words were absolute certainty. His hand lifted up and a bolt of lightning struck the rocks next to Ethan to punctuate his words. Kothar jumped to the side in shock, while Ethan remained stubbornly in place.
Ethan looked to Kothar for a second, and Kothar nodded. Ethan took a step back and let himself fall from the outcropping, the strange [Wizard] let out an inhuman screech before quickly jumping after him and giving chase.
Kothar made use of the distraction and unslung his sword. The men turned to look at him and took a surprised step back as he made himself known with a bellowing roar. He then charged the nearest man with an arcing sweep of his giant blade, rending the guy in two.
Meanwhile Ethan let himself fall a few hundred metres before he started to slow down and level out in flight. His AI channeled and regulated the primordial magic, allowing him flight in a more practiced manner than last time. The strange [Wizard] managed to keep up while flinging lightning and missing from a distance.
The chase was on, and as the night continued on, it witnessed a bizarre magical battle, the likes of which had never been seen.
| Name | Ethan West | Species | Human |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class (1st) | Harbinger – Science (Level 8) | Strength (STR) | 18 |
| Class (2nd) | Magineer – Chaos (Level 8) | Vitality (VIT) | 17 |
| XP (Deferred) | 156 (0) | Dexterity (DEX) | 20 |
| AP/SP Available | 5 AP / 4 SP | Agility (AGI) | 24 |
| Health | 173/173 (+1.7/min) | Intelligence (INT) | 25 |
| Mana | 242/275 (+2.5/min) | Wisdom (WIS) | 26 |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Divine Lawbreaker | You have broken a Divine Law and incurred the wrath of the heavens. Beware the consequences. |
| Runebreaker | You have transcended all forms of magic and unlocked the more mystic base elements behind it. You now wield great power over the arcane. Beware lest you err! |
| Skill | Level | Cost | Description | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyse (Active) | 8 (47%) | 4 MP | You analyse any object or living being, obtaining information about it. More details will be revealed as the level of this skill rises. | [Scientist, Level 1] |
| Lecture (Passive) | 5 (22%) | — | You instruct another character on a subject. The level of knowledge conveyed and the success rate are limited by the level of this skill. | [Harbinger – Science, Level 5] |
| Assemble Schematic (Active) | 2 (27%) | 15 MP | You assemble a schematic quickly and efficiently. 10% Less material wasted per level. | [Engineer, Level 1] |
| Adjust Entropy (Sustained) | 6 (78%) | ~ | Adjust the level of entropy in a system or creation. 10% To effectiveness per level. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Stabilise (Active) | 2 (88%) | ~ | Allows you to stabilise any chaotic reaction, quickly bringing down the energy of an unstable system, chemical reaction, spell, or machine. | [Chaos Engineer, Level 5] |
| Mana Manipulation (Passive) | 3 (11%) | — | The ability to manipulate mana is at the core of spell-casting. This skill governs how much mana your body can channel. 2% bonus to maximum mana per level. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Rune Mastery (Passive) | 3 (14%) | — | The ability to construct and maintain spell models in one’s mind is what governs Rune Magic. Your mastery over runes will increase with the level of this skill. Can control +2 extra runes per spell model per level of this skill. | [Magineer – Chaos, Level 8] |
| Design Schematic (Active) | 2 (43%) | 100 MP | Allows you to design a schematic. | [Scientist, Level 2] |