Augmented Aspects: Chapter 105 A Less Than Optimal Introduction (Patreon)

Chapter 105
A Less Than Optimal Introduction

Gasp!

My arrival as a double winged human with solid green eyes went a little differently than I had anticipated. Mainly because I assumed that I would be able to just arrive, and then enter without anyone noticing, before heading off to key points to complete the hurting dragon quest. At least that was the name I was mentally assigning to the quest to heal the Blighted dragons.

Spells being cast.

At my arrival many spells began getting cast by both elves and orcs alike. Out of reflex I began dispersing the spells. Only to find that many were variations on low level scanning spells.

Critical success.

Hidden Mage Quest Completed: Establishing Magical Dominance (Galindra Delanuca): You have proven your will over Galindra in a battle of wills. Your magical prowess has increased for the next 24 hours.

That was the first message, after that I had to disable that function as notification after notification kicked in, letting me know that I had won duel after duel. Honestly by now the process of winning a duel against another magic user, particularly one who was only in the eighties, or roughly twenty plus levels below me was ridiculously easy.

“Fireball!” An angry elf cried out.

He was of course the first to call out the name of their attack. Shaking my head, I realized this was going to be too easy, as Fireball was always Rock in its spell formation, which meant either Spock or Paper would be enough to disable the basic spell. The caster could of course change this, by altering the spell slightly, adding variants, in fact looking at it, that is all the new magical dueling skills I got did, they allowed me to change the base of my spell to meet any threat. No longer would I need to use water to counter fire, I could use fire to obliterate fire, so long as I hit it correctly.

That is what I did, for what felt like hours, I countered dozens of scanning, attack, and damaging spells. Some orcs began infusing their bodies with enhancement magic, I took that magic and made it so rather than infusing the muscles with power, it infused the muscles so much that they couldn’t move, lest they rupture something. Despite the pain, a few orcs tried to fight through the pain, the minute they did, their bodies spasmed, as the over infused leg muscle snapped and began spraying blood and viscera everywhere.

Seeing the stupid orcs, I shook my head and then using my acting and magic skills to give my best weirding way voice I spoke, “you dare to challenge me, the sister of life and mercy. Then prepare to feel the wrath of sister, death!”

Then with that, I gestured down below and to the left, at the exact spot where Mallory was just now coming up over the lip of the landing area.

“GHHHHAAA!!” Mallory screamed, as she had seen the onslaught, at least she heard my comment. No actual spells got close to me but hearing me speak out in such a way was more than enough to have her coming out guns blazing, and that is what she did.

Death Scythe!

The blow was so fast and devastating that I saw the buildup, but I missed the moment of release. From a defensive point of view, I might have been able to block the devastating spell, but only at the very beginning, during that long buildup phase, once it was released, I was unable to do anything to it, even getting out of the way would have been impossible. Fortunately, the spell was not aimed at me, nor at anyone really, instead the blow had been purposefully aimed over the heads of everyone gathered.

Whoosh!

The shockwave of the spell, while still missing every enemy was enough to grab everyone and throw them back. Orcs flew into elves, who flew into orcs, all collapsing into one pile on the ground.

Panting.

Mallory was panting, partly because she was angry, and the other part because she was still pushing herself even after using such an inefficient spell like her class provided flight spell.

Seeing her, I realized she would likely be able to make it so we both survived here, particularly if things escalated, but it would likely result in a lot of deaths. Not wishing for this to happen, I looked at her, then tried to cast a new spell on her. I let a trickle of Life and Spirit mana fuse into her body, this was tricky, as it had to be spirit energy right at her own resonance. Also, I didn’t like the idea of doing a direct one for one, which is an inefficient use of mana in my opinion, as magic should always be a multiplier. That was why I infused the Spirit with a touch of Life magic, to help her body recover and begin regenerating mana quickly. The effect was surprisingly more effective than I had thought it would be.

New Spell: Personalized Rejuvenation [Tier IX] (A): A spell designed by Sabrina Spiritlight that drastically increases the regeneration rate of health, mana, and stamina of the user for a duration of time equal to one minute per point of Caster’s Willpower.

I am in the process of checking out the effects of the new spell, and honestly, I am far more impressed by the spell than I likely should be.  So much so that I apparently missed Mal’s bad reaction to it.

“Seriously?”

Shake my head, “what?” I ask, feeling like I got slapped by her word.

“You had that spell this whole time and you just now thought to use it on me? Also, what spell is that?”

“It’s called Personalized Rejuvenation, and I just made it, for your information.”

“You just made a spell, like that, right during combat?” Mallory asks, a note of incredulity to her voice.

During this time, two mages began casting large scale magic spells. Well large area spells, the complexity was weak and it was clear that they didn’t understand the way their spell worked as it was just a loosely formed Tier V spell that had so many holes in its defenses that rather than dismissing the spells, I just changed the targeting point.

“One second.” I state, holding up a finger to stall my conversation with Mallory, then mentally grabbing hold of the two targeting spell threads that were now on me, I took them and quickly added a high launch angle, then changed the landing spot to be at the feet of the other caster. That minor act of magical manipulation done, I am about to speak to Mallory, when I get a new message.

New Skill Gained: Magical Manipulation has increased to level 1.

Skill Magical Manipulation is a Dexterity, Perception X2, Intelligence X2, and Willpower X2 based skill.

That was odd, as I had just been thinking about the activity being magical manipulation, and then the system went and called it exactly what I was thinking the best term to describe it was. Thinking about this, this wasn’t the first time that such a thing happened to me, as I remember Mallory’s statement earlier about me being the source for the name Pegicorn, but I didn’t really have too much time to think about that at the time, as something else came up. Speaking of which, I am clearly missing something here, now, thanks to this stupid message that interrupted my train of thought.

DOUBLE BOOM!

At the detonation of the two spells at the feet of the opposing casters, I remember my original train of thought, I was speaking to Mallory.

“Yeah, I created the spell as it looked like you would be too tired to be effective otherwise.” I stated, then asked, “would you rather I had waited until after the battle was over to come up with such a spell?”

At that Mallory just stammered, looking from me to the two spells that I clearly had a part in redirecting the two spells away from me, then to the remaining orcs and elves that were obviously frightened, sadly I don’t think most of their fear was due to my amazing use of the weirding way voice.

“You know what, never mind, but can you stop talking like that, with your voice overlapping over itself, it is distracting.” Mallory states.

“Right, that’s distracting.”

Mallory looks like she is about to say something, but a female elf comes forward. Just looking at her, it is clear that she radiates healing energies, and must be some type of priest. Seeing her, I figure I might be able to talk to a fellow practitioner about some of the ins of the trade. At least that was what I was sort of expecting to happen, I mean yeah we were still in this odd magical standoff, but I think based on the seemingly quelled nature of everyone that the dangerous part was mostly over.

“Oh great spirit, you are the one the visions foretold. Please excuse us, for we were not ready to receive your message.” The elven priestess said as she strode forward until she was just a few feet away from the two of us.

I had apparently jumped into the air, and my Spiritual Drift had let me just dangle there in space, while Mallory clearly had both feet planted with no sign of using her cheap class generated flight perk. Then after looking at the two of us, the priestess trembled slightly, before dropping to her knees and bowing to me. Now that she was so close, I could see that she wore a blindfold on her face, and moved around as if unincumbered, then I noticed a slight purple glow coming from her mind, where her eyes would be and realized that she too must have a version of Angel’s Sight active. This was awesome, as it clearly meant that she might be able to help me discover a way to strengthen my own Angel’s Sight, but before I could go too far down that line of thought, she let out a desperate plea.

“Please forgive us from your wrath.” The priestess cried out.

“What?” I ask, feeling like I had missed something major in this, also it should be noted that I spoke in my regular Sabrina voice, having foregone the weirding voice, as Mallory requested.

“She speaks true.” This time a female orc came forward from those who were gathered. “Forgive us oh great spirit, we did not recognize your presence, until it was too late. Will you please still help us with the task that brought you here?”

The old orc spoke, as she did, I could tell that she too was blind, and just like me she clearly had a version of the Angel’s Sight herself. Dual Oracles from two different races, living on the great tree spirit Yggdraspirit, if this didn’t scream at me for a chance to improve my Angel’s Sight, I didn’t know what would. Also, it was so interesting to see the light purple glows within the eyes of these two people who were clearly favored by their people, given the way both groups began to hush at their appearance and sudden approach forward. A strong elf guard, and a brute of an orc came forward, but both were dismissed by their respective oracles with a wave behind them. Then I remember their question, and answer.

“You mean the fact that your clutch of dragons,” I state, pointing directly to where the nest of dragons is, roughly half a floor up on the right side of the disused staircase. “Yeah, I am here to heal them of the Blight.”

I pause, and then seeing the impact point where Mallory’s warning shot landed, inwardly wince, as I realize it would likely be best for me to heal the tree of that wound as well.

“Gah!” One of the injured orcs cries out, as the pain they were silently enduring became too much for them to bear. Hearing them, I instantly turn my attention to see that it is one of the three stupid orc warriors that tested their resolve to do battle with solid muscles. Most were able to heal, but it appears the first one was a bit more reckless and actually tore an artery.

“One second.” I say, as I flap my upper wings once for speed, then using my lower wings I gently glide my way over to the fallen orc. The crowd mercifully spreads away from me, I am not too frightened as it seems that everyone is mostly pacified, especially after the arrival of the oracles.

Holding out my hand, to let people know I was doing something, I quickly began healing the orc. This involves using Telekinesis to grab the broken leg and push it back into place, while I begin mentally rewiring the veins and arteries within the leg, then begin fusing the muscles back into place with my Omni-Heal energy, thus taking the load off my main reserve of mana. After that is done, I cast a Personalized Rejuvenation on the orc, before moving onto the next orc.

Then once the two orcs are done, I head over to the two spell flingers, and realize I might have wanted to start with them. They are squishy casters after all, and likely the only reason they didn’t cry out first was that they were too damaged to make a cry.

The first caster I went to was an orc, whose strong constitution was the only reason they survived long enough for me to get to them so I could heal them in time. There was a lot of burning, because Fireball, I don’t think I need to say more, but seriously why resort to fire as the first form of attack. They live on a dying tree, don’t they know fire is literally the worst for this type of environment? You know the old saying, people who live in glass houses get lacerations from broken glass, while people who live in trees die from being burned alive, that old trope.

Once the first caster, and those around him were taken care of, I went over to the second caster, and found that I was already too late.

The second caster was dead. Seeing the state of the second caster, I let out a sigh.

“Don’t worry great savior, their death was merited from the time they raised their hands to strike at you.” The elven oracle spoke.

“What? I wasn’t sighing about that.” I state.

“You do not feel guilty about their death?”

“No, because I’m not going to let them die. It is just that bringing someone back to life is a lot more taxing than just simply healing them.” I state, before I turn back to face the spirit of the elven caster that is now beginning to fade.

“I didn’t say you could go.” I state, then holding out my hand, again mainly to let people know I was doing something, I began casting Resurrection, on the departing elven spirit. Given that they attacked me, and that I was already tired from so much mana use, I opted not to go with the Perfect Resurrection, figuring that one this was an elf meaning they were already sickeningly beautiful, but also they had a longer life and thus most of the benefits of Perfect Resurrection would either be wasted or redundant on the elf. Maybe I’m an elitist, but the difference in magic usage and focus didn’t seem worth it to me, thus I cast basic Resurrection, and within a few minutes the elf was back and moving about as expected.

Cough.

The second caster, began coughing the minute their soul was once again fully fused within their body.

“Why do they always cough?” Mallory muttered to herself, as she herself had witnessed this act quite a few times, particularly with me recently resurrecting the Mage Duelist.

“I think it is a synchronizing effect, the body and soul both take in one synchronized breath, thus proving that they are alive.” I state, giving my theory on the process.

Chime.

There was the sound of a ringing bell within my head, before a system message erupted before me, letting me know I had internalized a hidden truth of the world.

Hidden Quest Discovered: Hidden Secrets of the World: Path of the True Healer: You have stumbled upon one of the biggest questions in the world, and your insights have brought you to the precipice of knowledge. It is one thing to recite words, but it is another thing to understand the relationship between life and death. Continue your path of discovery and help define the boundaries separating life and death. Current Reward: Spell (already acquired), Class and Bloodline evolution points met. Rewards for continuing down the path of discovery: Experience, Title(s), Badge, Variable.

With that message, I felt an intense burning sensation burning right in the middle of my forehead.

“GAH!” I cried out, instantly clutching at my forehead with both hands. At this point Mallory quickly moved into a protective position right next to me. Her face was now right next to my feet that I tried to keep from kicking out wildly, not that I thought I could truly hurt Mallory from such an act, but still it never felt good to get kicked in the face.

“She has begun the first steps.” The orc oracle began.

“You will need to revert to your true form.” The elven oracle called out.

“True form?” Many of the elves and orcs both called out in confusion.

I thought about resisting them, but just as I had that thought the burning sensation in my forehead only intensified. Realizing that I likely had no real choice in this, I acquiesced, and for the first time ever, I went back on a mental command I had for myself, never burn a disguise. This time I was effectively making it so Sabrina could never be used again, at least not in front of these elves and orcs. Still, I felt I had no other choice, the pain was so intense that I could feel my vision narrowing. I tried to cast spells inwardly, but they all seemed to be negated. Mentally I knew this likely had to do with the quest notification about either my class or bloodline evolution point being met. Knowing the game, it was likely linking the two, in order to create a synergistic blend of the two, but such thoughts were beyond me. Worse, thinking like this, or any extra thoughts at all burned.

So in a matter of seconds, I triggered the transformation, using my Void Healer class Trait, Spiritual Doppelganger and nullified the effects, thus resulting in my transformation back into my regular thirteen year old Arcanist elf form.

Gasp!

Seeing my transformation, the orcs and elves both cried out in shock. Many of the elves took a step forward, while the orcs stood transfixed, just staring at me with their mouths wide open.

They began muttering something, but I didn’t have the bandwidth to address their statements, as the all-consuming pain that I had been feeling was suddenly alleviated. At that I felt suddenly weak, and seeing Mallory right below me, I called out to her.

“Catch me.” I said, as I let my body collapse to the side. Mallory held out her hands, but then just stared up at my still floating body. “Oh right, still floating.” I said, then nearly chuckled at the sight of her just standing there annoyed with her arms out while waiting for me, then darkness took me, as my mind that felt like it was being stretched beyond all recognition was finally able to relax.