Travels in the Multiverse Part 15 (Patreon)

Myst would have felt worse about hitting the Thalmor camp at night while invisible but he'd spent the last couple of hours dealing with lessons both mundane and esoteric that had left him feeling less than charitable. There was also the fact that they were altmer supremacists that had no problem killing people so they could take over the world and lord it over everyone. 'Live by the sword, die by the sword or magic in this case.' He pushed another sleeping guard into his pocket dimension then slipped over to a sleeping battlemage and did the same.

"I'm telling you, they wouldn't have just wandered off," one of the Thalmor mages complained as he walked between the tents with one of the guards.

"They probably just went to take a shit," the guard replied as he glanced around the camp, noticing that several of the beds were empty that shouldn't have been.

'And there's the lightbulb,' Myst thought as he used telekinesis to gag the mage and yank him up and backwards while the soldier was distracted. He reached down and stuffed the mage into his pocket dimension then used his telepathy to whisper in the man's mind, 'If everyone vanishes, where are you running?'

"What?!" The guard blurted when he turned and realized the mage was nowhere to be seen. "This isn't funny!"

'Not in the least,' Myst agreed telepathically, setting the guard on edge. 'Is there a reason you want the Thalmor to rule the world?' he asked, curious if the altmer actually had a decent reason beyond because we can and for power. He wasn't terribly surprised that the man was just sadistic. 'Do you know where the Lunar Forge is?' he asked telepathically as the guard started running for the leader's tent.

"We're under attack!" the guard shouted.

Myst lifted the information out of the man's mind then hit him in the back with a stunner and teleported twenty feet to the side when his precog screamed at him. He watched a stream of fire rush through the general direction where he'd been floating.

"Die!" the Thalmor battlemage shouted.

Myst suppressed the man's magic and pinned him in place with telekinesis, not bothering to gag him as he'd already collected everyone else. 'I don't suppose you know where any of the standing stones are?' he asked telepathically, rather surprised when he actually knew the location of several of them. 'I don't suppose I can talk you out of trying to take over the world?' he asked, not surprised when the mage started cursing him and his ancestors in his head.

"We could use someone of your skills," the Thalmor offered with an oily smile that conflicted with his mental ranting.

'Are there any traps on your tent or the stolen books?' Myst asked, wanting to make sure he wasn't going to destroy anything important or get himself killed by walking into the man's tent.

"I cursed everything," the mage lied.

'That's unfortunate. What can you tell me of the Crystal Tower?' Myst asked, seeing no reason to inform him that he could read him like an open book.

"You'll never get in," the mage sneered.

Myst teleported behind the mage and hit him in the back with a stunner. "Maybe, maybe not but you'll still be dead." He walked over and stuffed the mage in his pocket dimension then did the same with the guard. 'At least they stack like cordwood, otherwise I'd be out of room.'

He dropped his invisibility then opened a portal back to the base's lounge in Brockton Bay and smiled at Sirius and Amy who were sitting at a table with some old books in front of them. "Do you want to loot a mage's camp and a bunch of magic books?"

Amy smiled as she bounced to her feet and skipped through the portal."You had me at loot."

Sirius walked through and looked around at the empty camp. "What happened?"

"I dealt with a bunch of sadistic mages and I'm just about out of inventory space so I figured I'd recruit some help to loot their camp," Myst replied as he headed into the leader's tent.

"Works for me," Sirius replied as he followed Myst into the tent. He frowned as he looked around the tent that wasn't larger on the inside, not particularly impressed by the primitive cot or the folding table. "I thought you said they were mages?"

"Different world, different traditions," Myst replied as Amy slipped past him and skipped over to the open trunk and started looking through the books. "I have something to deal with, is half an hour enough time to get everything packed up?"

"It should be," Sirius replied as he pulled his wand out of his pocket. "A couple of bags and some expansion charms should make it easy."

"I'm going to have to learn that spell," Amy said eagerly.

"Just in case something comes up, the magic college where everyone is staying is about three miles that way." Myst pointed towards Winterhold. "Try not to let the college know you have the books, most of them were stolen from the college library and I'd rather not return them before duplicating everything."

Sirius grinned. "I'll see what I can do about duplicating everything."

"Thanks," Myst replied as he focused on the lifted memory of the Lover Stone and teleported after checking his precog to make sure he wasn't going to teleport into something. He glanced at the carved image of a lady on the person sized standing stone with a hole in near the top that was about the size of his face. He reached out and touched the stone and smiled when he felt magic wash over him.

"Huh," he muttered as he focused on the magic, a touch surprised that the standing stones actually worked for him as they didn't work for most people or at least that was what the game implied. 'Maybe you just have to be from elsewhere? It would certainly explain why you don't have a background in any of the games,' he mused as he looked down into the ravine, taking a moment to enjoy the view and the wind on his face.

"At least I know it works," he muttered as he cupped his hand and focused on creating a crystal to duplicate the power so that he could learn it. 'That should give me a 15% boost to learning everything which isn't that impressive but wearing the crystal should boost that to 45% and if I can get the Mage Stone working, that's another 60% with magic related skills which is close to double if they stack,' he mused as a green crystal took shape in his hand.

"It's probably worth running some tests." He stuck the crystal in his pocket then focused on teleporting and realized there were people around the Lord Stone. "Huh, bandits or cultists?" he mused as he turned invisible and teleported to the Lord Stone. He glanced over the camp of strangers, surprised that all of them had 'glass' weapons and armor.

"I'm not saying the bounty isn't worth it but if I have to freeze my ass off another day, I'm going to be annoyed," one of the women complained.

"Relax, Thorin found the bandit trail last night, we'll catch them today then we can get paid," one of the guys assured her.

Myst blinked in surprise when he scanned their thoughts and realized they were adventurers rather than bandits or cultists. 'Yeah, I have to stop thinking of it like the game.' He turned his attention towards the Lord Stone, noting the carving of a man in robes on the stone. 'I'm going to have to come back once I get better at enchanting so I can make copies, then again you're probably just a relic.'

He reached out and touched the stone and smiled as the magic washed over him, erasing the old bonus and giving him a new blessing. 'This should be resistance to magic and damage reduction or natural armor, not really sure which.'

"Fine, one more day then we're going hunting trolls, at least we can sell the fat," the woman grumbled.

Myst ignored the group as he focused and created a green stone for his new ability, wanting the magic resistance since the version from Elder Scrolls didn't screw with your own magic or at it didn't in the game. He finished the stone and stuck it in his pocket then teleported to the next group of stones. He smiled at the three standing stones. "Thief, Warrior and Mage…" he trailed off as he saw a rather large dragon in the distance looking directly at him. "Shit!" he cursed and jumped worlds when his precog screamed at him.

Myst stumbled as he found himself in a medieval or at least fantasy street filled with strange shops with alien languages on all of the signs. He shivered as a wall of sound hit him, dozens of languages he'd never heard and couldn't place as well as sounds that couldn't have come from a human throat that might be language or might just be something caught in a gear. He sighed in relief as he spotted a woman in a crowd of aliens that looked human enough if you ignored the fact that her eyes were a burning crimson.

He glanced up and stared at the buildings he could see in the distance like he was looking down from a great height which was more than a little disconcerting and caused his stomach to lurch before he realized that he wasn't falling up and that he could fly. "Where the hell am I?"

"If you don't know, there's no helping you," a green skinned lizardman wearing expensive looking glowing crimson silk robes said as he walked past.

Myst frowned as he tried and failed to read the creature's mind. 'So much for telepathy working on everyone or maybe he's got magical defenses?' He mused as he focused on the lizardman's glowing robes, wishing not for the first time that he had a decent method of identifying magical items. He focused and checked his precog, trying to figure out what would happen if he tried to stun the lizardman only to realize that he didn't show up at all. 'Huh, that's disconcerting and useful.' He quickly followed the lizardman, dropping his invisibility as the man could obviously see through it and didn't see a point in being rude or having people run into him.

"Sorry to bother you but are you naturally immune to detection abilities? I'm not used to appearing next to people."

The lizardman stopped and turned to look at Myst, flashing him a smile with far too many teeth. "I wish. It would have saved me a lot of gold. Any other stupid questions?" he asked with a touch of amusement mixed with impatience.

"Where are we?" Myst asked, deciding he might as well ask as he didn't seem too annoyed.

"Sigil, City of Doors," the lizardman turned and walked off, leaving Myst staring at the man's back.

Myst scowled as his precog pulled him out of his daze, he reached down and caught a man's hand as it went for his coat pocket. "That's a good way to lose a hand," he warned the man in silk pants and shirt that looked respectable enough for a well to do merchant in a fantasy setting.

"What are you talking about?" the man in his twenties asked 'innocently' as he tried and failed to 'politely' extract his hand from Myst's grip. "You looked lost my friend, I was just trying to get your attention so you didn't get trampled, can I have my hand back?"

"Ah, my apologies," Myst lied as he spent a couple seconds sifting through the pickpocket's mind for details about his stashes and contacts. "Of course, of course," he replied and let go of the man's hand, pretending that the man hadn't just tried to rob him. "How familiar are you with the city?"

"That depends, what are you looking for?" the man asked with a grin as he realized he might still be able to make some coin off the strangely dressed man.

"Magical items to protect against detection and scrying," Myst replied with a smile, rather amused as he caught the man's thoughts about possible locations where he could find what he wanted and about one of his fellow members of the thieves' guild that already had such an item and his favorite bar. 'Hmm, stealing from thieves is a public service, right?' he mused as he waited for the thief to make up his mind.

Marv opened his mouth to tell him about his friend's shop that sold cursed items then paused when he noticed a flash of eldritch purple in the man's eyes. 'Screw it, he moved faster than a snake to grab me and there's something wrong with him.' He forced himself to smile. "Sure, Mortimer's Crafted Gear should have what you want, good day."

"Good day," Myst lied, keeping track of the man with his glowing eyes until he vanished into the crowd. 'Nothing like glowing eyes to unnerve people,' he thought happily as he readjusted his ring so his eyes looked their normal blue.

He stuck his hand in his coat pocket and worked on making large gems as he headed towards the magic shop, rather amused that he'd never have found the small shop if he hadn't lifted the location from the thief's mind. 'I'd rob you blind but it's not worth the bother for two hundred and seventy four gold though your comprehend language amulet would be nice. Especially since you'd probably get a lot less picky in who you rob.'

'So much for not having to deal with dragons,' Myst mused as he picked his way through the crowd of people and strange humanoid creatures, that he was starting to place now that he had some context. 'Eight foot tall green skinned humanoid probably has some troll in him and the guy with the horn is probably a tiefling or part demon. He smiled as he spotted a woman with barely any clothes leaning up against one of the shops playing with a deck of cards. He took a step to ask her where she got her mist covered clothes and quickly changed directions as his precog started screaming.

"I really need better defenses," he muttered under his breath as he absently swatted another pickpocket's hand away from his pocket as he continued walking. He twisted and teleported outside of the magic shop he'd seen in the thief's mind when his precog flashed a warning about a knife in the back. 'I'm starting to dislike this place.'

Myst glanced at the sign written in an alien language he'd never seen then opened the door and walked inside. He smiled as he looked around the shop filled with countless magical items in glass and metal cases.

"Voinko auttaa sinua?" the man behind the counter asked.

"Sorry, what?" Myst asked as he turned to look at the middle aged human behind the counter wearing an expensive looking purple robe with glowing stars scattered everywhere.

"I asked if I could help you," the man replied in English though his lips didn't match the words.

"I was hoping I could find some type of comprehend languages item and a nondetection item and do you take gems in trade?" Myst asked hopefully.

"Depending on the gems, of course," the man replied with a grin as he walked over to one of the cases and gestured towards the collection of hats sitting on stands. "We have a number of hats of comprehend languages and necklaces of nondetection, the hats are fairly cheap, the necklaces more expensive. I also have a more expensive circlet that protects your soul and protects against various forms of divination."

"Protects your soul?" Myst asked as he started pulling large gems out of his pocket. "Let's go with the circlet and the slightly worn top hat, wait, I can't wear both of those at once can I?"

"No, but I might have a solution." The man glanced at the high quality gems in Myst's hands then walked over to a case with a number of stones and reached through the 'glass', grabbing a cut gemstone the size of a thumbnail. "I have an Ioun Stone of Tongues that would cover that problem nicely."

"Works for me. Do you have a dull grey Ioun Stone?" Myst asked. "A floating stone with continual light is a great thing to have in certain dungeons."

"Of course," the man replied as he reached back into the case and grabbed a small black sack. "We keep it bagged because of the continual light spell, you're a good customer so I'll toss it in for free. What else can I get you?"

"Do you have any belts of gender flipping that don't get stuck on the people that use them?" Myst asked, thinking about Noelle and the potions of cloning from the Sims.

"Several, how many do you want?" the shopkeeper asked with amusement as he walked towards the aisle where he kept the magical belts.

"Two," Myst replied as he walked over to the counter. "Do you mind if I set the gems on the counter?"

"Not at all," the man said cheerfully as he looked over his collection of belts. "Do you want to spring for the belt that turns men into attractive females or just the normal belts?"

"How much of a price difference?" Myst asked with amusement.

"Twenty percent more, but still rather cheap since I get them from one of the mage guilds," the man replied with amusement.

"In that case, one of each," Myst agreed, not really seeing a problem as he was paying in gems and he could basically just conjure more.

"Good," Mortimer said cheerfully as he grabbed two belts from the case that didn't look anything alike. "The one with the naked girl on the belt buckle is the nice one," he explained as he walked over to the case with the circlets and grabbed an iron circlet from the case. "Anything else?"

"Not that I know of," Myst replied, fairly sure he could get more impressive magical items elsewhere to boost his physical stats and his growing collection of spells covered a lot of things that he'd normally buy for a character.

"Can I make some suggestions?" Mortimer asked, wanting to get more of his gems.

"Most of my needs are dealt with by spells but sure, go for it," Myst replied, not sure what else he needed.

"Poison? Petrification immunity? Disease? Paralysis? Elemental resistances?" Mortimer asked quickly.

'I'm probably immune to half of that but doubling up isn't a bad idea. I can probably get poison immunity from one of the Thalmor, same with disease and paralysis, pretty sure the elemental resistances are cheaper and better with Elder Scrolls magic.' He shrugged. "The only one I don't have a solution for is petrification."

Mortimer grinned. "An amulet of proof against petrification would cover that and just about wipe out the balance. I'd be willing to toss in a nice pair of boots that leave illusionary foot prints, they're good for a laugh."

"Sure, that sounds reasonable," Myst said, not sure how much he was getting cheated but unwilling to try to read the clerk's mind as he didn't want to cause problems somewhere he wanted to return.

Mortimer smiled as he walked over to the collection of items. "Do you have a preference?"

"I'm not picky, something plain and unassuming works fine," Myst replied, knowing he was just going to break it for the enchantment.

Mortimer grabbed the basilisk fang on a leather cord that didn't look that impressive and walked back over to the counter to check the gems to make sure they were as high quality as his glasses were telling him.

'Do I need anything else in the city?' Myst mused as the clerk looked over the gemstones. 'Not at present and I don't have armor or defenses against thievery right now other than precog and that's not particularly hard to deal with for a setting that deals with divination magic as a matter of course. 'Nothing I can't come back for,' he decided after a couple of minutes of thought while the clerk looked over the gems.

Mortimer finished looking over the gems then placed the items in a cloth bag. "They look good."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Myst said as he accepted the magical items. He put the circlet on then tossed the Ioun Stone of Tongues in the air where it spun around his head. "Nothing like an Ioun Stone flying around to say, come rob me."

Mortimer laughed. "That's why you just need enough magical defenses that they think twice about it."

"I'm working on it," Myst replied as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door. "Thanks for the help."

"Any time," Mortimer replied, rather happy with the sales.

Myst walked outside then focused on jumping dimensions. He frowned as he got a precog flash of a frozen over winter hell and a number of vaguely familiar and futuristic looking enclosed vehicles. He jumped then gasped as it felt like he'd just jumped into a frozen lake or jumped to Antarctica.

'Fuck!' He focused on somewhere warm, catching a brief glimpse of a topless young lady with long brown hair on a beach before he jumped, wanting to be out of the cold.