Augmented Aspects: Chapter 86 Train Tagging (Patreon)

Chapter 86

Train Tagging

At it turns out, inspiration is the mother of invention. Or maybe in my case I could amend it to being confined on a train for fifty plus hours is enough of an inspiration to get me to learn how to finally cast flight. Well, it isn’t actually flight, but for my purposes, this spell is nearly perfect.

New Spell Created: Spirit Drift [Tier VI](C): This spell was created by Cassiopeia Spiritlight, and allows the caster the ability to defy gravity by having their spiritual weight substitute for their actual weight. Reserve: 25% of Maximum Mana.

How did I get here? Well, that is a really good question and one that I myself am having a hard time remembering the exact processes for how I got here. Basically, I got here by randomly trying new things until I got something to work close enough to what I intended.

Drip.

Enchanting paint drips into my eye, and I for a slight moment realize how Michelangelo felt while painting the Sistine Chapel. Before this goes anywhere, no I am not comparing myself to him or his artistry in any way, shape, form, or likeness. Rather for this moment I think I can safely say I understand where and how he must have felt while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Of course, he had to do his painting on his back, while carefully moving on scaffolding that held him in place. Me, I chose to do a similar thing here on this train car that I have been given free reign to practice on, Mallory said, so once the walls became free and fully cluttered, I naturally found myself needing to reach higher and higher to find more areas that were free of enchanted spaces.

As it turns out, Master Enchanting, the skill is a cheat. See it starts off slowly, Enchanting is often seen as a very expensive hobby, as everything requires time, dedication, and above all resources. Advanced Enchanting, the mid-tier skill helps the would-be Enchanter cut down on the number of resources needed for each task. Then Master Enchanting, the skill I got in one go at the same exact time as Enchanting, and Advanced Enchanting allows you to change any medium and make it so, said medium is enchanting material. In my case, you just need to overcome the natural resistance of the material you are enchanting with a highly concentrated form of mana. In my case, I have multiple mana manipulation skills that likely play a huge role in why I am able to cheat with Master Enchanting, as I am sure that my Arcane Understanding, and Magic Script skills are directly impacting the speed that I am learning to Enchant. Also, my Writing skill also seems to be helpful in making it so I can get intricate wording correct.

Normally, one would need to read and learn different runic words forever, but I have been through fifteen books of Runes and Romance for dummies, or as it is more commonly known, Rahul and the Maiden. By now, my lexicon for Runes used for Enchanting is top notch. Now, my only concern is seeing if they are in fact real. So far, I have been impressed with my results, as every rune that was spoken about and described has worked. Or at the very least, each rune has been accepted on the train’s walls.

I did some experimentation trying to create my own runes, which might or might not have resulted in a small, but easily controllable fire. Fortunately, I had managed to put out the fire before any alerts were raised. It also didn’t hurt the fact that so far all of my bumbling attempts to learn Enchanting were done here, in the empty compartment car at the far end of the train. The train that Mallory is using is rather long, and this is the most robust train the Midnight Hunters Guild has. When I asked why they brought so many train cars for so few people in the spirit realm, I was surprised by the response.

“Mainly because we assume that parts of the train will break down. Spirit Mana has highly corrosive effects on gears and mechanical components. This is why we brought along multiple extra cars that could be torn down at a moment’s notice for spare parts as needed.” Mallory admitted.

Hearing that logic, I couldn’t really refute the claim.  That was at least partially why my secondary set of skills I gained from the Merit Shop would be exceptionally lucrative, particularly if I can provide parts or machines that were both highly functional from a magical perspective, and highly resistant to the natural corrosive nature of the spirit realm on technological equipment.

This brings me back to my current position, floating on my back, gliding gently under the ceiling of the train car, making sure to draw and link different sets of runes together in an overly complex tapestry of art and design. At this point, I sort of wish I pushed a little harder to master Painting and being an Artist. I can feel those two skills are also going up, finally, but had I already had them maxed out, this whole ordeal would have been a lot easier. As it stands, I am doing just fine, though this car will be far from a perfect example of Enchanting once I am done. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of using the skill Master Enchanting, in addition to being extremely cheap from a resource perspective, I also have the problem that anything I make cannot be undone, unless by someone with a higher level of Skills and Attributes than I currently have.

Woosh!

The door to the car opens up, letting a figure in. Thanks to my complete field of view around me, I already know that it is Mallory. I have seen others come to the door and apparently look in at me from the window in the door that separates these train cars from one another, but none dared enter.

“Hey Mallory.” I say.

Drip.

Another chunk of my own liquified mana drops down from the edge of my fingertip and falls squarely on my face. I instinctively turn my head, but that only changes the landing spot of the drop from being my eyes, where it would burn, despite my being blind to the side of my face. This is fine for me, as it is not the first drop of errant Mana Paint that has fallen on my face. Fortunately, it is all my own mana, so I am not too worried about the corrosive effects of having the liquid fall on my face. Though, now that I think about it I do have to wonder if having someone with a much higher attribute created your Master Enchanting Paint, and that paint fell on you, would that be as toxic as say lead based paints?

Clip-clop.

Mallory strides leisurely to rest underneath me and is looking up apparently trying to examine my work.

“That is so odd.” Mallory finally states after a few seconds of looking around the room.

“What is?” I ask, getting to a point where I am done with this design. It is an anchor mark, and thus one both requires a lot of mana to paint, and a lot of mana to power up as well. I am at the point where I am getting close to my reserves of mana. With my Spirit Drift spell taking up twenty-five percent of my maximum mana pool, I realize that my stamina for doing these types of projects wears out quickly. So now that Mallory is here, I use the moment as an excuse to rest for a moment.

“The fact that you have not used a single component but have somehow managed to cover my walls with your wild and eccentric doodles.” Mallory says, looking at everything.

Seeing the way she views the world, it is clear that she has some type of mana sight as well. For a Valkyrie I assume this is part and parcel for the course, as she would likely need this sight to view Spirits and the like while in the mortal realm but having it so she can see magical energies also makes sense.

I sit up, letting the blood flow to my face, which instantly causes a sense of vertigo.

“Eccentric doodles? These are going to one day become priceless artifacts.” I said, gesturing to the works that cover most of the train car around me. So far only a few corners and odd angles have evaded my designs. Now that I have a better understanding of how to have a symbol cover a corner, I think I can fill up more spaces, but that will be later.

“Yes, when that happens, I will auction off this car as but a humble reminder for all would-be Enchanters to dream big and cover every corner with as much magical material as you can. Honestly, I’m surprised this isn’t a fire hazard.”

Cough.

Something caught in my throat, definitely not residual smoke, nor my own guilty conscience for having made a minor fire.

“About that…”

“Don’t worry, I already know.” Mallory says, waving a dismissive hand and smiling brightly. “Honestly, I was just curious as to what you would do. The whole thing looks fairly complex.”

I nod. “Well, I started off with just resistance warding, you know keeping away the signs of spiritual decay.” I say pointing to the base of everything and then to the center of the roof that I just finished. “From there, I went on trying to link runes for increased durability and then I just kept going.” I admit.

Mallory looks around the room giving an appreciative glance, then stops once she turns back to me. “Do you have metallic mana infused paint on your face?”

I pause, then remember the drops of my own enchanting paint that I have been trying to avoid for the better part of the afternoon and mostly failing. “Probably,” I admit while giving a good swipe to the offending drop. With that, I feel the surface tension on my face, as there are parts of paint that are apparently already dried, along with the one drop of paint that is clearly still moist to my touch.

Shiver.

There is a slight tingling sensation as the skin from the back of my hands touches the still wet drop and smears the solution. Oh yeah, for this I had to take off my Apothecary Gloves. Apparently trying to channel highly concentrated and condensed enchanting liquid through an already enchanted item, like say a Soul Bound glove is a fire hazard. I know, learning experiences for everyone involved. Fortunately, the Soul Bound gloves are indestructible and only took a bit of mana to repair, also there was an exceptionally talented healer on hand, who could fix the noted burn marks to my hands, so no harm no foul, right? Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be left unsupervised so often, but it is a lot of fun when I am.

“Also, I didn’t know you could fly?” Mallory asked, looking at me with a sidelong glance as she noticed that I was just sitting in the air, not being supported by anything.

“Technically I still can’t, though I do think I am a lot closer now. This is only floating.”

“Uh huh. But you still didn’t answer the question.”

I pause, trying to look around. “No, the question was whether I could fly, and I can’t.”

“Okay, fine, but you apparently can float.” Mallory leads.

“Well yeah, that is kind of obvious.” I say, gesturing to my own body that was now floating in the sky and my dangling legs that I kicked out over nothing as if to emphasize this point.

“Right, but when did you learn to float?” Mallory asks.

“Oh, right about the time when I was too short to reach the higher portions of the wall. I said to myself, ‘Cass, either you need to learn to grow taller, or you need to fly.’ It took a bit of experimentation, but I found for this, that flying would require constant movement, something that is not conducive to learning a highly focused skill like Enchanting, so I modified my original concept of being able to fly to this.” I say.

At that Mallory just paused and looked at me like I was crazy.

“So you just taught yourself how to fly?” Mallory asks. I am about to open my mouth to correct her again, but she then waves her hand to cut me off, as she apparently realized her own mistake. “I mean to learn to float?”

“Yes, though I don’t think there will be much difference between this and flying. I think I just need to take some of my stabilizing currents and shift them around to provide propulsion forward.” I admit, mentally going through the formula. The spell I am using is quite intense on mana reserves, but thinking on it, most of that is because I keep constant forces moving around my body and let out minor releases to ensure stability over time.

“How did you learn this spell exactly?” Mallory asked.

“Oh, I was inspired by watching birds.” I admit, remembering the giant spirit birds that flew on floor fifty-three. That reminded me, on that same floor was the Duelist who still owed me a skill for completing a quest. I am mentally going over how I can change into my Sabrina form, while not completely outing myself as a doppelganger.

“From watching birds?”

“Yes.” I admit, then go back and am running through the options. I know I have already been implicated as being Tobias, so a Sabrina wouldn’t be too much extra that I was giving away. It wasn’t like I was going to give up my Madame Umbra, or other forms I still had in reserve.

“Birds have wings.”

At that, I pause, shaking my head at the absurdity of the statement. “Of course, they do, otherwise they would be thaumivores, or at the very least humanoid.” I admit.

Mallory just shakes her head. “No, what I mean is, birds have wings, they don’t use magic to fly.”

“Oh.” I say, getting where the confusion is coming from. “No, you are not understanding what I am saying. “Spirit birds. I learned to fly, well in this case float by watching the currents of energy that spirit birds use to fly.”

“Wait, spirit birds use spells to fly?”

“Of course they do, how else would you assume that a creature with bones for wings, or wings that have clear giant holes in their structures would be able to fly?” I ask.

At that Mallory pauses, as if trying to consider this new information. Then with a slight pause, she eventually nods in understanding and then finally after a few moments, shakes her head, not wanting to think about this random topic anymore.

“Well, good point.” She says and is about to turn around, when suddenly she turns back and looks directly at me. “Actually, before I forget. I wanted to let you know that we are nearing the end of our trip here. I wanted to make sure you had a chance to rest and level up before we go further.”

At that, I was about to question, when I realized what she meant. My Simulacrum, or rather the experience that my Simulacrum was earning for me was accumulating, but I could only gain that experience once I took a moment to rest. This was good, as it also gave me time to sit back and recharge. I would need to still sleep, for a moment I think about whether I want to sleep while still floating, that way if there was a sudden crash, I should be safe. Well safer than if I was letting my body be affected by gravity. Then I have the idea of just sleeping while floating, and just letting Mallory carry me. Having that thought, I raise my finger and am about to ask, when she responds.

“No.”

“No?” I ask.

“No.”

“But you didn’t even hear my question.” I protest.

“I know, but the answer is still no. I’ve seen that look before. It is the same look that gets me a train car covered in runes, and my healer covered in oddly metallic looking rune paint, so no.” Mallory asks.

At that I pause, and am about to ask if I overstepped.

“Look, I think what you did here was great, I mean a bit amateurish, but we all need to practice getting better. Also, letting you tag this one car was a bargain as far as I am concerned for a reward for finding out that our bookkeeper was embezzling hundreds of thousands of gold coins from us. So, in that context, letting you run wild and bedazzle a spare train car was a bargain. That said, we are about to go out into the wild and encounter monsters whose sole purpose is for us to hunt them down. Well, my job will be to hunt them down, while you are just a pacifist. This means I will have to be twice as vigilant while protecting you. Again, not a problem, but just a reminder of what we are up against.”

Hearing that, I let out a sigh, as I realized she was right.

“Oh, don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Pout.”

“I’m not pouting.” I say, though as soon as I say it, I realize she is likely right, or that at the very least an argument could be made that I was possibly pouting. Stupid childlike face, always makes it look like you are pouting.

Seeing my reaction, fortunately Mallory doesn’t say anything else, just nods once I realize I might have come across as pouting. “Now, not to be a parent, but I do think people like you do need to be warned about reality every so often. This is why I am not telling you, but strongly encouraging you to take a moment to rest before we get to our final destination.”

At that I nod, “thank you.” I say, somewhat sheepishly. Looking around, I realize that I might have gone for a long time Enchanting, or as Mallory put it, tagging her train car. With that Mallory looks at me, then nods to herself before exiting.

I almost want to continue going, but realize she is right, that this is likely one of my last times to fully rest in a comfortable space before we begin our journey. Pushing myself down from the ceiling, I land on a cushy leather-bound seat, and then begin lying down to rest. I don’t need to look around me, as I can see that no one is within a few hundred feet of my train car and that I am likely as safe as I am going to be for a while. With that, I sit back, relax and at the very least let the troubles of my day wash away.

There is a flash of light, as my mind adjusts to system information, but fortunately I am able to dismiss that information quickly, as my mind was finally able to relax, even while I felt the all too familiar feeling of the system increasing my attributes from allowing my soul to synchronize with my Simulacrum.

Experience Gained…

The best part about sleeping, gaining experience for finally allowing my mind to relax. Good nigh…