Ends of Magic

Their ‘vacation’ continued, and the Heirs doubled down on their independent training. Nathan followed up on his promise and worked with the Heirs to refine their Insights with knowledge from Earth. Bridgeguard was well-suited for those discussions, since there weren’t any other Adventurers around who might be interested in those Insights. The villagers were also quite accustomed to giving the Adventurers a lot of privacy, and it was easy to get out of the village for practical tests.

Nathan talked over the basics of Newtonian physics with Aarl, describing the conservation of momentum and especially trying to give him an understanding of angular momentum. Aarl already had a good instinctive understanding of how acceleration and momentum worked, but Nathan worked on filling in the unintuitive edge cases that could potentially lead into new Insights.

For Sarah, Nathan didn’t know a ton about long-range shooting, but he knew enough to describe most of the variables and start talking about how to correct for them. He explained bullet drop and windage to Sarah, and they sketched out some math about how to deal with those. Stella was interested in some of that math as well, and they worked through it so Sarah would be able to start figuring out how to correct for long-distance shots.

Nathan knew there was more going on than that, though he had no clue as to the details. He’d heard that altitude, temperature and humidity were all important variables for truly long-range shooting, not to mention coriolis force.

Assuming Davrar spins like Earth does. Man it’s frustrating to not know, but it’s not particularly important in comparison to everything else.

The goal here wasn’t necessarily to teach Sarah to be able to do all of these things - it was to give her a stock of Insights to Develop her class and skills with, so she could make better use of the novel weapons Nathan had provided.

Stella continued to practice with her new mana types in addition to trying to figure out Nathan’s light insight, and Nathan tried to guide her towards doing it scientifically, changing one variable at a time and figuring out some objective way to measure the effect. He even got her to get used to doing controls. In this case that meant just flowing electricity mana through her impromptu vacuum without trying to generate light, so that she had a baseline for comparison and knew when things weren’t working.

Mid-tier Lecturing 4 achieved!

Unfortunately, Nathan didn’t have a lot of things to offer Khachi. He answered questions about religion on Earth, but Nathan had never been religious. He’d ended up learning a fair amount about Christianity during his western history minor, since it was impossible to understand the Early modern era and the European enlightenment without that context. But he’d only taken one theology class, and that had been focused on the implications of religion for human bioethics.

Regardless, Khachi didn’t seem particularly interested in the monotheistic religions that dominated Earth. He was much more interested in the stories of pantheistic religions that Nathan knew about, and the philosophical and ethical frameworks that Nathan described. Nathan described the grand overviews of Norse, Egyptian and Hindu mythology, as well as the general beliefs of Buddhism and Shinto. Khachi asked Nathan for his thoughts and was somewhat annoyed when Nathan described those religions as ways people came together as a community to make sense of strange phenomena. They did end up talking for quite some time about various theories of deontological ethics.

High-tier Enhanced Memory 4 achieved!

Khachi told Nathan of the gods of Davrar in return, or at least as much as Khachi knew of them. There were a lot of gaps - gods who were only ever tangentially mentioned in one story. But Nathan was surprised even this much had survived past the two endings - Deicide and Elements. It seemed that Davrar’s Pantheon had been large. Deiman was a god of righteous war and battle and he’d had six siblings who all represented different aspects of fighting and bloodshed.

Nathan asked where all the information had come from. Khachi reluctantly explained that Kia had discovered most of it, and taught Khachi as he was growing. She had a single salvaged book of some kind that contained most of it, but the cleric didn’t want to go into details. There were clearly more secrets, more details of religion that Khachi didn’t see a need to share.

As for himself, Nathan spent some time each day calling up details on the upgrade to [Regeneration] and storing them with [Enhanced Memory]. He wanted to be able to Develop that Talent the moment it ranked up to 10. He was a little disappointed it hadn’t ranked up during the fight with the Agmon Legionaries.

Days passed without much to concern the Heirs - they spent half of the day training and the other half relaxing or exploring the forest near Bridgeguard. It was fun and comfortable, like an ideal summer vacation. But every night before meditating, Nathan remembered Kia’s words. This was a time of happiness that they’d look back fondly on.

It was strange, having that thought bouncing around in his head. He imagined some future Nathan, bloody on a battlefield and recalling these weeks as ‘the good times’ before everything went to shit. Did these weeks deserve being put on that pedestal?

Nathan didn’t know, but he tried to live the moment to its fullest, and think about what that future jaded Nathan would want him to be doing now.

—

Eventually, they got a report of a Siegeboar snuffling around a bit to the south. They headed out to intercept it before it came close to the town or the vegetable patches. The goal wasn’t necessarily to kill it - Siegeboars were dangerous, and the bodies would attract scavengers if it wasn’t completely disposed of.

Nathan had seen drawings of the enormous animals before, and heard descriptions. But none of that really prepared him to see a hairy hog as long as a semi-truck and thicker around. The creature should have looked ponderous and slow, but it was poised atop thickly muscled legs that looked capable of moving the barrel-shaped body at incredible speeds. The Siegeboar was busy eating the roots of a tree it had knocked over.

Nathan gulped as he saw the creature casually rip apart the thick and knotted wood with enormous blunt teeth. It used its six-foot long tusks to dredge the ground and pull up a few roots that had remained buried. A few minutes later the animal gave a satisfied grunt and sauntered away from the tree, leaving behind a fallen trunk attached to a denuded root-ball.

Aarl spoke for all of them, “At least it’s headed away from Bridgeguard.”

They followed the Siegeboar for a few more hours, ensuring that it was headed away from town. Stella kept a light breeze blowing in their faces to prevent their scent from drifting to the boar. It wasn’t hard to keep track of it from several hundred feet away, even as the forest grew thicker and more wild.

Nathan whispered the obvious question, “Probably worth some levels. Sarah can probably kill it with a shot to the head? With these trees as obstacles we can fight it normally even if it survives.”

Khachi looked back at Nathan from where he’d been studying the creature. “Should we risk deadly battle for no other reason than to gain Davrar’s favor?” His voice was low, but not judgmental.

“For what we want to do? Low-danger levels seem like something we can’t turn down,” Nathan replied, keeping his eyes on the Siegeboar.

It has to be worth a few levels. And the risk to Bridgeguard is minimal this far out. And the terrain is passable. This might be greedy, but we need all the levels we can get.

Khachi rumbled uncertainty in the back of his throat before looking to Sarah. “Can you kill it?”

Dark eyes studied the boar, which was eating a thicket of berry bushes a few hundred feet away. “I don’t want to use an enchanted round, but I have regular rounds to spare. I want to be closer for a good shot. But this is a good chance to rank up some skills.” She cracked her knuckles and looked around at the rest of the party. “Let’s kill this problem.”

They approached the boar slowly, with Sarah leading the way. Khachi was the farthest back, since he was the least stealthy in his armor. Aarl and Nathan were close behind Sarah, since they would be responsible for distracting the boar if it charged. Aarl handed Nathan the spear, and he clutched the rod of dark wood tightly.

I really don’t think this toothpick is going to do much against that wall of bacon.

They got to about a hundred feet away, and Nathan was having second thoughts on seeing the absolute unit of muscle and bone in front of them. But Sarah was already setting up, quietly lying down on a patch of moss and slowly withdrawing the huge rifle from her bag of holding.

She carefully loaded a single cartridge, and took aim. Nathan braced himself to have hundreds of tons of mammal charging in his direction.

The creature tossed its head, ripping free an entire bush before tilting back its head to swallow the jumble of brambles. As the Siegeboar waited for the meal to slide down its gullet, Sarah fired.

The bullet impacted in the animal’s eye and blew flesh and bone out the other side. There wasa mighty bellow, and it spun to face them. The brow of the Siegeboar’s face was a ruin, with one eye completely gone and the other half-destroyed by the firearm.

Sarah quickly got to her feet and ran backwards as the boar started moving in their direction. Its steps were unsteady, but it was still picking up speed and covering the distance quickly. It wasn’t coming precisely for them, but it was close enough that Nathan ran to the side, trying to get out of its direct path. He called out, yelling wordlessly to pull attention from Sarah.

I’m both more capable of dodging and surviving a blow from this thing. Regeneration has gotta be close to 10 too, so taking a blow and healing it in combat might push me over that edge.

The boar dug in its hooves to change course, but they slipped as the ground it was digging into became mud under a spell from Stella. The legs skittered but there was too much momentum and too little coordination for the enormous beast to regain balance. It toppled to the ground and slid a short way, legs flailing.

Aarl popped out from behind a tree and ran towards the shuddering animal. He raised up a saber in a two-handed grip. Lightning boomed as he rammed the magical blade into the gushing wound that Sarah had left in the creature’s skull.

The massive animal spasmed violently, its head jerking and throwing Aarl aside. The wiry man narrowly avoided being eviscerated by a whipping tusk as he flew through the air, but smoothly regained his footing and put some distance between him and the wounded creature. The sword remained planted in the Siegeboar’s skull, channeling lightning into the steaming wound.

The boar tried to get to its feet but was clearly uncoordinated and having trouble keeping balance. Each time the sword sparked its limbs flailed uncontrollably. But it was still moving, still an enormously muscled beast that could crush any of them.

A line of intensely bright lightning connected Stella’s outraised hand to the sword protruding from the Siegeboar’s forehead. The creature’s muscles locked up and it remained standing for a moment longer before the arc of electricity cut out. The monstrous animal slumped to the ground, and the only sound was a slight hissing as pressure escaped its charred and split skull.

You have leveled up to level 67! Congratulations, your teammates have killed a Siegeboar Sow!

Khachi’s heavy footsteps squished into the mud that was quickly turning back to forest loam as Stella’s spell expired. He looked down at their kill, and his canine lips curved up.

“Who wants pork?”

—

The Heirs were walking back to Bridgeguard after packing an enormous amount of boar meat into various dimensional storage spaces. Aarl had done the butchering, and he’d mentioned being glad they’d found a sow, since the meat was cleaner that way, better to eat.

Stella was practicing her light spell, a faint arc of electricity linking her hands as she wandered along through the forest after them. Her attention was on the spell, and she’d almost walked into a few trees. Now she was following Nathan, relying on him to guide her around the obstacles.

Aarl was discussing dodging Insights with Nathan, clearly intending to try to pass on some of what he’d learned from Stanel. But Nathan held up a hand when he noticed radiant heat on the back of his neck. He stopped and had to quickly sidestep to avoid Stella walking into him. She was frowning intently at her hands, seemingly oblivious to the world around her as she muttered. “Why is it warm?”

A grin spread across Nathan’s face as he parsed what was going on. He let out a relieved laugh, and Stella looked up at him as the spell faded. Her brows were still furrowed from the concentration of a moment before. “What?”

His eyes were focused on her hands, still outstretched. “That heat means it worked. Light that’s too weak to see feels like heat from a fire. Do that again, but make the energy difference a little larger.”

Stella’s eyes widened, the stray sparks in her pupils starting to dance. Her head snapped down and the dim flicker of electricity resumed. After a moment, Nathan could once more feel the heat. It was like standing right near a small space heater. Stella twitched a finger, concentrating. The spell went out.

She shook her head, braid whipping behind her as she recast the spell. The other Heirs had noticed they’d all stopped and turned around. Aarl was about to say something, but Khachi held out a hand in a quieting gesture.

Sparks once more danced between Stella’s fingers, and she slowly drew her hands apart. The sense of heat returned, then faded as a bright red glow overwhelmed the faint blue-white of electricity. Stella’s face morphed into a maniacal grin as she slowly moved her hands apart. The light went through the rainbow color progression, changing from red to yellow before phasing through green to blue and finally purple. She kept moving her hands apart, and the light faded from visibility.

Nathan grabbed her hands, breaking the spell right as he felt a vague ache start at the back of his eyes. “Stop. Light past the visible is dangerous.”

The rest of the Heirs were blinking, and Nathan felt the tired feeling in the back of his eyes fade as his [Regeneration] took care of the injury. Stella tugged her hands out of Nathan’s, and he let them go as she started rubbing at her own eyes vigorously.

Well, she was staring into that light from just a foot away. No wonder. Shouldn’t be much more damage than you’d get from looking at the sun for a bit. It should heal on its own, but why wait?

Nathan stepped away. “Khachi. I think her eyes need healing.”

The big wolfman was already on the case, having given the other Heirs faint jolts of healing as he stepped up to Stella. He channeled divine mana into her face for a moment and then released her face. Her eyes tracked across invisible text, tears flowing from eyes that now shone with multicolored light.

“I have light mana. It worked!” She threw her arms around Khachi, embracing him as he gently returned the gesture. She looked shyly sideways at Nathan. “Thanks.”

Everybody congratulated the short mage as she positively bounced around, beginning to shoot out flares of white light from her palms like a budget iron man. She was excited, and was soon pestering Nathan to explain more about the different colors of light.

He was eager to keep talking about it, and it was easy to explain - Stella already had all the building blocks. She understood that light was electromagnetic waves, and how those waves were formed of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. So when Nathan explained that the color of light was dependent on the frequency at which those waves oscillated, Stella quickly grasped the explanation.

He further explained that the color was separate from the intensity, which was just a measure of how much light there was. There was just as much energy in a light source that shone with twice as much light at half the frequency.

Mid-tier Lecturing 5 achieved!

The rest of the Heirs listened to the explanation with bemused expressions as Stella’s experimental flares of light started cohering into individual colors.

By this point they were approaching Bridgeguard, and they were looking forward to a grand barbeque on their return. The town was as sleepy as ever, with most of the activity occurring around the fishing ships out on the river.

Aarl was looking at Nathan with a sense of resignation. “Hear me, your explanations sound like nonsense to me. But their results are solid as adamant. I’ve never heard of a mage under level 81 with seven mana types.” He ticked off on his fingers. “Force, Fire, Earth, Air, Lightning, Light and whatever this magnetism thing is.” He shook his head with baffled wonder.

Nathan grinned back at Aarl. “Regretting your relationship with math?”

Sarah punched her brother in the shoulder. “You mean lack of one. I doubt it. He wishes Math was a monster so he could kill it.”

The Heirs strolled back into town with a lot to be happy about. They quickly set about looking for somebody who could fulfill their barbeque desires.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 7

Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 9

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 4

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 67

Stamina: 733/770

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

High-tier Focused Mind 9

High-tier Earnestness 4

Mid-tier Sprinting 6

High-tier Spellsense 4

Mid-tier Notice 9

Mid-tier Identify 7

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 5

High-tier Enhanced Memory 5

Mid-tier Lecturing 5

Mid-tier Tumbling 2