Fate Points - Ch 81 (Patreon)

Tom knew it was ridiculous, but he had to read the title again.

Title: Stage Advancement (Earth): All Earth Spells will gain an additional threshold benefit.

It was almost too much to get his head around. The title was one that if it was in a spell school; he had no levels in then it would be underwhelming. But every one of his earth magic spells would have a tier zero equivalent level of one hundred and twenty-eight or above. If he understood what the simple text meant is that every earth spell he possessed at a minimum would receive the threshold benefits up to a two hundred and fifty-six equivalent.

He wanted to jump and down on the spot to express the emotion coursing through him. Spark after forty years of grinding had only reached the one hundred and twenty-eight stage!

It was too much.

“This is too much!”

He looked up at Susie, but she said nothing and let him process what was happening.

“It’s ridiculous.”

“Your performance was ridiculous.” Susie said finally. “And the bonuses from your titles. Without the speedster title, you don’t finish the golem challenge.”

Tom froze at that observation. He remembered the final stage ending when he ran out of time and the three-time benefit of the title.

“You’re a rank eight and you immediately displayed a mastery of earth manipulation that I would only expect from a practitioner with twenty years plus experience. That’s not normal, and it’s not something a native can ever do. If they gained that level of skill, they would have visible earth magic levels and receive a harder trial.”

“I know that. It’s just.” Tom appreciated the benefit, he enjoyed getting stronger, but it felt… off… is the best word to describe it… almost an undeserved gain.

Susie across from him chuckled quietly. “Just be thankful and leave it. Competitor races, because of their unique circumstances can get distorted outcomes in various trials. That’s all that’s happened here. There is no way a native would ever get anything like this, even if they had titles to sacrifice.”

Tom nodded and looked back at his rewards. There were decisions to be made. “Display Spell Harness Meteorite.”

Spell: Harnessed Meteorite (8) (Tier 4)

Create and control a meteorite to defend yourself or unleash as a devastating targetable attack. Starting duration is five minutes. Increased skill levels extend time limits, improves speed, enhances durability and imparts higher heat damage.

Threshold bonus 2 - Plus 1 Meteorite summoned

Threshold bonus 4 - Plus 1 Meteorite summoned

Threshold bonus 8 - Plus 1 Meteorite summoned

Threshold bonus 16 - Plus 1 Meteorite summoned (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))

Cost 300 mana

*This spell has been permanently degraded to allow the challenger to cast the ability. Mana cost reduced from a thousand to three hundred. Power halved.

The legendary title at a spell level of eight granted his Meteorite Spell an extra rock. That was a twenty-five percent boost to its power. Hell, the power of the spell was halved to allow him to cast it, but those skill levels more than closed that gap. His starting power with five meteorites summoned was two and a half times more than a beginner with the spell.

Tom let that analysis sink into his brain. His spells, despite costing a third would start two and half times more powerful!

He knew it wouldn’t last. Anyone learning this spell would practice it to get skill levels and close that gap. But how long would it take them to reach a skill of eight? Fifty? A hundred years? And until that point, Tom’s version would be equivalent, or at least almost equivalent to theirs.

He couldn’t stop the grin that broke out on his face.

That was the length of the competition. “Thank you.”

He wiped his eyes. It was power, terrible and incredible and all the other competition races would get the same opportunities…

That thought removed the rest of the joy off his face.

And the existing powerhouses have had thousands of years to grow already.

It closed the gap, and that was the still valuable, but it wasn’t victory that would only come from hard work and doing what was necessary despite the moral quandary it would put him in.

Tom pushed that from his mind and focused on the here and now. He had to finish his selections.

“Susie, can you show me the Spell Level thirty-two benefit for the tier four spells?”

“Yes.” She waved her hands

Harnessed Meteorite: Threshold bonus 32 - Make all Meteorites 50% stronger in all aspects.

Stone Golem: Threshold bonus 32 - Increase the tier of one input item of the golem once every four days or repair it.

Tom’s mind raced as he interpreted what those two skills were. Harnessed Meteorite was easy. If he used the one hundred and twenty-eight boost on it, then the spell would be fifty percent stronger. While the spell was running, he would be like a god. At least until he ran into rank thirties, they could probably beat him even with this spell, or a large group of people ranked his level. After all, if they spread out the meteorites could only kill one at the time not to mention if they closed on him quickly.

It would not make him a god. Not even close it was just a tool that in the right circumstances could be deadly.

The Stone Golem boost was harder to quantify the value of that extra threshold benefit. All that knowledge that had been pumped into Tom’s head told him that it was significant. Stone Golem’s were hampered by materials. If you could improve your inputs, you would get a more powerful golem. And boosting a tier was far more than a doubling of power. It depended on the component, but it could increase its value by a factor of ten.

Tom’s mind went back to the Golem he had made in the trial. There had been two critical components. The crystal to allow him to store a spell form and the mana engine. Upgrading the mana engine would have increased the amount of power the golem had available by a factor of five. That change alone would have totally altered the challenge outcome by itself. With that extra mana instead of the golem taking eight hours to complete the task, due to all the time it spent waiting to recharge would have only taken two hours. The crystal cluster was similar. If that was upgraded, he would have been able to fit the full Remote Earth Manipulationspell form within it. Tom was not sure how much of a difference that would have made, but it would have allowed the golem to manipulate earth at a distance rather than only around its body.

He snorted.

Paralysation of too much choice. A fifty percent boost to a spell that was already overpowered at least for the next thirty years should have been a straightforward decision but the stone golem bonus… that was… extraordinary and Tom when in doubt prided himself of always going the long game. That willingness was why he was here, after all.

He would boost the stone golem, but he wanted to see everything before deciding.

“Susie, what earth spell would you recommend?”

She smiled at the question. Waved a hand and a white board appeared. “One of these four.”

· Earth Toughness (Tier 2)

· Earth Missile (Tier 2)

· Prospect (Tier 3)

· Earth Sense (Tier 3)

“Are Tier two really worth considering?” Tom complained immediately.

“There are only so many spells.” Susie said neutrally. “I can give you a full list of tier three, but these are the best for you.”

Tom nodded and knew she was right. “What does Earth Sense do?”

She spun the blackboard around and on the reverse side was a detailed breakdown of the different spells.

Tom skim read them and then focused on the key ones.

Earth Toughness (32) (Tier 2)

Increased density of skin, muscle and bones. Approximate attribute changes are; plus 34 to vitality, adds 24 to strength at a cost of 11 agility.

Threshold Bonus 16 - Agility Penalty is reduced.

Threshold Bons 32 - Up front cost removed for self-cast.

Threshold Bonus 64 – Cast time reduced from 10 seconds to 2 seconds and becomes near instant for self-cast. (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))

Cost 50 mana for 90 seconds with the ability to channel future time at a cost of 30 mana per minute

At the ridiculous level that the spell would start for him, the spell was extraordinarily useful. Any spell that granted almost fifty attribute or two ranks was huge. Using it would let him match the peak fighters in the wider group with only his spear skills and given its cost he could almost keep the spell up permanently not that he needed to with the near instant self-cast overlay.

Tom nodded to himself. Not all attributes were equal, and the buff would be self-defeating if the opponent was too fast but against most an extra three ranks of strength would let him hurt creatures who would otherwise be resistant not to mention that the vitality buff would stop some monsters from even hurting him. For example, the smaller wasps wouldn’t be able to sting him.

Very useful to him personally, and finally there was the fact he could cast on allies. Being able to increase someone’s vitality by four ranks during a fight could keep Everlyn or more likely Harry alive in clutch situations. Despite being tier two, it was definitely worth extra consideration.

Earth missile Tom dismissed the moment he read the details. It was like Throw Rock, with the obvious advantage that he could use it without ammo and mentally. The ability to use it without his hands was a bonus, but Tom, with Harnessed Meteorite knew he lacked mana. The more important consideration was efficiency and on a mana for damage perspective it was worse than his tier one spell. If he did not have his soul storage, the choice of whether to take this skill would have been closer, but being able to store hours of ammunition meant it was a firm no.

Spell: Prospect (16) (Tier 3)

Cast a spell to identify all mineral resources within the target area of half a square kilometre. Types of minerals identified depend on knowledge.

Threshold bonus 4 - Doubles the volume that can be prospected.

Threshold Bonus 8 - Gives the visualisation ability of the prospected area

Threshold Bons 16 - Grants expert knowledge of all tier four and below minerals and limited knowledge of higher tier minerals.

Threshold Bonus 32 - Doubles range of spell and allows the shape of the prospected area to be directed by caster instead of defaulting to a sphere. (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))

Cost: 350 mana

Prospect was exactly what it sounded like. If he was a miner or was interested in supporting mining, it would be an amazing skill. The range at the high skill level he was starting was a half a kilometre square cube he could orient in any direction he wanted. He could radiate out in a sphere around him like the default spell or only direct it at the ground below, or the cliff in front of him. It was still limited in that he couldn’t create a ten-metre-wide tunnel that went for a thousand kilometres, but he could thin the area to probe spaces up to three kilometres away.

The visualisation was also an amazing ability. It was a mini-map he could use and if he became trapped underground, it would be incredible resources to map all the surrounding tunnels and then determine which ones led him to his destination.

Not for him, but he could see why Susie would have suggested it. This was the sort of skill that would let him fine incredibly profitable mines and with his earth manipulation ability in a rocky wilderness and the auction house. He would print his own auction credits.

Spell: Earth Sense (16) (Tier 3)

An expensive mana spell that will allow you to sense any movement on the ground or in the ground for thirty metres in all directions. Range increases and mana cost decreases with skill level. Can be channelled.

Threshold bonus 8 - Range of spell can be reduced or increased with corresponding scaling of mana costs.

Threshold bonus 16 - Uses change in pressure of everything in range to predict directional movements

Threshold bonus 32 - Apply Hostile Earth condition to all enemies in spell range. (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))

Hostile Earth The earth is your ally and will trip and trap opponents within the domain. Weaker enemies may be killed.

Cost 30 mana per minute.

While it was costly, his mana regeneration was about thirty per minute, so in theory he could keep this up permanently as well. The spell was not suggested only because of that extraordinary level thirty-two bonus. Tom knew it would be at least as effective as Sven’s abilities and apply to all enemies in range, and not just to the person he was fighting. It would be a menace to everyone he fought. Despite that, he was sure Susie had recommended Earth Sense for its tactical benefits in a melee.

Denying animals the ability to ambush him via ground attacks was valuable in a world like Existentia and that sixteen threshold benefit would give him a type of domain. Providing they had contact with earth he could tell in which directions allies and enemies were moving. It would let him dance through a battlefield without getting surrounded at least not accidentally.

The threshold and level bonuses made these spells.

He tapped his leg as he considered the four options. Prospect did not suit his aims, magic missiles overlapped Thrown Rock and given his soul storage was probably worse. Which meant the choice was between Toughness and Earth Sense.

He re-examined the first spell and wished he could talk this over with everyone else. But he already knew that no one else in his team would possess this buffing spell. Currently, it sort of sat in place as a powerful one or two person buff, but eventually once he got more mana as everyone ranked up its purpose would shift to a moderate buff he could cast over the entire party. Long-term excluding a lucky evolution it would become useless when the fifty attribute points it granted were insignificant, but so would earth sense especially if he developed a different sensing domain which he would want to do because this one only worked if they were on the ground, and he needed the ability to track magical and flying creatures as well.

The question is whether he would use either of these spells in preference to Harnessed Meteorite or an Elemental Summon or Throw Rock.

The answer to both was situational.

Internally, he chuckled to himself. It always was. There was no ultimate power just a series of tools that were useful for different jobs. First, he considered Earth Toughness it was good. No, it was great and he would use it. If Meteorite wasn’t available, then this was a spell he would liberally use. To be honest, it was too strong to not pick it up, but… It was only a tier two, and it was a buffing spell. That was not his role and when he used it on himself, it would slow him. He was not the type to wield a Warhammer and take the monsters blows he was a mage who would dodge between attacks his spear landing critical blows before his footwork would take him away from the enemies.

That was his calling and Earth Sense would enhance that with Toughness would not facilitate it. Power versus fit. Tom weighed them in his mind and then remembered where he was.

He was in Existentia. Could a tier three earth spell truly be weaker than a tier to one? Situational of course, but overall no and it was not like Tom knew where this journey would take him. If that was the case, then he should choose fit?

Unless…

No! He would not spend life questioning in his decision. He would trust his gut instinct.

“I’ve decided. I’ll learn Earth Sense.”