The m, Emily wakes up early to finish her final preparations. She takes a shower and makes her way over to her prepared workbench. She carefully goes through the process of gearing up, fasteniher straps and seg ons as she looks through all of her equipment’s system windows.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[bat Boots]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +4 Str, +2 Agil
[Description:] A pair of knee-high bat boots with adjustable treads a.
[Effect:] Provides power and armour to the ls.
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[Revolver]
[Rank:] F
[Stats:] +2 dex, +1 Agil
[Description:] A simple six-shot revolver.
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[Body Armour]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +5 Vit
[Description:] A sleek, form-fitting upper torso armour.
[Effect:] Provides armour to the chest that defends against magical and physical attacks.
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[Cws {Gen.1}]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +2 Str, +2 Dex, +3 Agil
[Description:] A set of magical steam-powered wrist bdes.
[Effect:] Provides armour to the forearms aends or retracts bdes from the wrist when activated.
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[Low-Grade Mana Grenade]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +1 Str
[Description:] A mixture of magical and physical explosives packed together for handheld destru.
[Effect:] Explodes dealing massive magical and physical damage to everything within five metres.
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[Low-Grade Light Grenade]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +1 Str
[Description:] A mixture of magical and physical explosives packed together for handheld distra.
[Effect:] Explodes releasing a fsh of sound and light to disorient enemies.
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[Earrings of Isotion]
[Rank:] E
[Description:] A set of magical earrings desigo protect against harsh sounds.
[Effect:] Upon activation, creates small barriers of wind that block high-volume sound waves.
_____
She smiles as she hooks the delicate green teardrop gems into new holes in her ears. The Earrings of Isotiohe pinnacle of her array engraving practice. The small earrings hold an intricate bination of runes carved into the silver metal housing the small wind crystals themselves. By carefully stripping down wind barrier’s magic circle and utilising a few new runes discovered within The Spellweave, she has succeeded iing small barriers that dampen harsh sounds, proteg her ears from the violent backsh of her ons and spells.
Emily throws on a set of specialised robes to cover her battle gear. The robes were given to her by Oscar. The outside yer is roof and glistens with a glossy bck sheen. She settles down at her desk as she does a final review of her stats, spells, and progression requirements.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Status]
[Name:] Emily Coldstone
[Race:] Human
[Age:] 16
[Magic Circle:] Sed Circle
[Maa Cortex:] Sed Stage
[Attributes:] Strength 12 (18), Dexterity 32 > 34 (36), Agility 25 > 26 (30), Vitality 13 (18), Intelligence 54 > 59
[Health:] 190/190
[Stamina:] 320/320
[Mana:] 3540/3540
[Maa:] 3540/3540
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[se]
[Circle:] First
[Cost:] 40 Mana/cast
[Description:] Quickly removes external impurities from the caster's body and equipment.
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[Infra-sight]
[Circle:] First
[Cost:] 3 Mana/minute
[Description:] el fire and light into the caster’s eyes to allow sight of infrared light.
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[Bolt]
[Circle:] Sed
[Cost:] 220 Mana/cast
[Description:] Fire a short bolt of lightning from the caster's hand
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[Flying lightning]
[Circle:] Sed
[Cost:] 280 Mana/minute
[Description:] jure arified wire and bde.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Progression]
[Circle/Stage:] Sed
Requirements:
-Intelligence 59/75 (Not plete)
-Create 4/5 unique E rank maes (Not plete)
-Learn internal casting (plete)
-Create 2/3 sed circle spells (Not plete)
-Sy 0/1 third circle beast (Not plete)
_____
“Maybe I’ll sy a third circle beast on this trip,” Emily mutters to herself as she ghrough the open system windows. “It ’t be that hard.”
Her eyes e to rest on her current stats and a small frown forms on her face.
Stra seems to have ted my boots, armour, and the Cws, but not my revolver renades.
Curiously, she reaches for her revolver while keeping her eyes locked oats page. The moment her hand slides around the smooth bck handle of her gun, she feels a link form within her mind, and the stats before her eyes jump up.
I see, so I have to wield certaio get the stats increase.
Releasing her hand from the gun, she focuses one of her active threads on maintaining the link with it and notices the stats bonus remains. Pushing harder on the link, she lets a small stream of maa ect with it and watches in fasation as the gun lifts out of her holster. A smile of realisation spreads across her face as Emily guides the gun to hover o her body, fag forward and ready to fire.
The stats increase stays if I’m actively wielding the on with my maa too!
She lowers the on bato its holster, gng at the redu in her maa stores as she does.
My trol was shaky, I’ll have to train to do this at some point to reduce the excess wastage.
Emily stretches her arms above her head before dismissing the system windows and standing up.
“Right, I should get going.”
***
Emily meets Ivor in the cafeteria to grab a quick meal before joining the rest of the group.
“Where are we meeting everyone?” Ivor asks after finishing his pe.
“Oscar told me to catch a traio the southern edge of the city. The meeting point should apparently be obvious.”
“How helpful.”
Emily scoffs in agreement, shoving the st bite of her toast in her mouth as she stands up.
“You need any st minute gear before we leave?”
“No, I’m good,” he signs with a shake of his head, gng down unfortably towards a small bag at his hip holding a few grenades supplied by Emily.
“Rex, they’re not gonna go off by act. My work isn’t that bad.” Emily rolls her eyes at his nervousness and pats him on the shoulder as she walks past. “e ohey may be shit instrus, but we should still follow them.”
***
Their instrus turn out to be better than expected when they reach a station belled “Southern Edge” and step off the train to see their expedition group gathered and waiting by one of the elevators. Dante bounds out from the group to meet them as they approach.
“Hey! You finally made it.”
“Are we te?” Emily frowns slightly and swiftly pulls The Clock from a pouch at her waist. The Clock reads 8:46 am, erasing her s.
“No, you’re fine. We’re still waiting for a few others too,” Dante reassures her with his signature grin. “Anyway, you excited to finally fight some real beasts?”
Emily smirks at his enthusiasm as they join the rest of the group.
“Yeah, I do have a oy to test after all.”
“Speaking of hings to test, did you finish your trag spell?” Oscar calls out as he walks through the group towards Emily.
“I said I would, didn’t I?” Emily turns to face him, her eyes igniting in a vibrant e glow as she casts infra-sight.
“Iing, how does it work?”
“Skipping the specifics, it allows me to see heat signatures. I ’t see through objects, but it makes it very easy to spot warm-blooded creatures through small gaps in foliage.”
“That’s perfect! You’ll be our main scout then. We’ll still stop periodically to allow Ivor a wider range s, but you will be our main defence against ambushes. Of course, we’ll stop to give you breaks faining mana, is that alright? How long you use it at a time while still safely having enough mana to fight?”
Emily doesn’t respond immediately, taking a moment to sider her answer.
Once I’ve activated it, I only need ohread dedicated to maintaining it. I leave my sed core focused on using Teancer’s Breath at the same time, then my mana won’t decrease noticeably. It will drain normally when I rest one of my cores, but I have enough mana to keep it going for those twelve hours without issue, unlike a normal mage. I probably shouldn’t reveal that though, or they may notice my passive mana intake...
“Yeah, that’s fi’s a pretty low ption spell, if I stick to internal casting I keep it going fht hours before needing a break.”
Osods at her with a mixture of gratitude and surprise.
“That long? If you’re fident, I won’t argue, but please do let me know if you need ara break at any point.”
Emily lightly waves off his and he quietly walks deeper bato the group, muttering to himself about rest timings.
“Sheesh, that guy o take a break,” Dante chuckles from beside her, standing with his arms behind his head.
Emily rolls her eyes and finds a spot to lean against the station wall while they wait for the st stragglers to show up. After twenty minutes, everyone who should have arrived has. Linda is the st oo arrive, apologising profusely for missing the train and showing up te, which earns her several disapproving gres from several nobles. Oscar calmly waves off her worries, but the twitg of his eye as he does gives Emily the feeling he isn’t as calm as he lets on.
The entire group piles into the elevator they were blog, the doors closing them all in as the worker at the trols starts it up. Nobody speaks in the enclosed space, tension filling the air as they finally set off orip towards their half-expected demise. When the elevator finally arrives at the ground floor, the doors slide open to reveal a stationary fleet e metal carriages on wheels.
Emily curiously is their transport, noting the way the vehicles are divided in two. The back halves are open and spacious, clearly desigo carry a group of nobles: whereas the front halves are bulky and enclosed, holding what Emily only assume to be steam engines for p their movement along with a single driver.
“Everybody please make yourselves fortable in a car,” Oscar calls loudly from the head of the group.
Emily, Ivor, Dante, and Enzo exge a few gnces, silently agreeing to travel together before pig ay car and slipping in. The car easily fits the four of them, with plenty of space to lounge across the plush seats within and watch the outside world through the clear gss windows.
Oscar remains outside, watg the cars fill until nobody is left, before walking to the car in the lead. The moment he disappears inside, a loud whistle sounds and the six cars roar to life. Emily sends an unnoticed stream of maa into the vehicle to watch its ignition iail.
She sees coal nding in the enclosed firebox and watches as it busts and evaporates the nearby water. She sehe tightly wound coils of metal in the engine slide into motion, their delicately maed tolerances allowing a near-perfect transfer of energy into the pistons. She memorises the intricate ws for future reference, ign the system popup of a new blueprint added and withdrawitention from the s.
Emily ignores Dante and Enzo’s versation as the cars start moving, choosing to quietly watch the streets roll by instead. The motorcade slowly makes its way to the base of the city’s southern wall, approag a rge, heavy steel gateway that opens to reveal a gaping maw of metal, over teres wide, that tuhrough the wall to a small gap of light visible oher side. The vehicles all charge through, unimpeded, not even slowing for a moment as the guards lining the entrance barely spare them a gnce.
The long tunnel is dimly lit by grated coal ovens lining the walls, the sound of grinding gears and flowing steam their only pany. They soon reach the tunnel’s end, barrelling out onto a packed-dirt road heading south. Emily watches the city slowly fade into the distance, as they roll through the open grassnd, before settling ba her seat aurnitention to her peers.
“-stupid though. There’s no way I even cast a spell of that magnitude, why are you so worried?”
“I’m just saying, pay attention to your surroundings more. You set so many trees on fire during practice!”
She raises a curious brow at Dante and Enzo’s surprisingly heated argument. Turning to make eye tact with Ivor, she signs a silent question.
“They been at this for long?”
“Sihe tunnel.”
Smirking, she turns bad adds fuel to the fire.
“You know, grenades are a great alternative to fire spells. Far lower ces of starting forest fires.”
Instantly, both boys turn on her, yelling in obje to her statement for pletely different reasons. Emily chuckles to herself quietly.
This trip will be fun.
***
Just over six hours ter, the cars roll to a stop on a ft expanse overlooking a vast forest before them. The Gde spreads across the horizon, filling Emily’s sight as she steps out of the car. Dense foliage lies before her, rain pours from the clouds above, disappearing into the leaves, absorbed by the dense fog that eerily fills the forest floor.
“That’s creepy,” Emily mutters under her breath, staring at the clear-cut divide between The Gde and the pins beside it.
The divide betweewo biomes is starkly defihe trees, rain, and even the fog of The Gde all abruptly stop, refusing to encroa their neighbour. As Emily stares ily at the uling sight, she notices wisps of movement flickering in the haze. Casting infra-sight, she watches several small heat signatures move to the edge of the treeline before quickly disappearing too far into the depths for her to see.
“Everyone, gather around!” Oscar calls loudly, pulling Emily’s attention away from their destination. “This is the st safe rest and real food we have until we finish our expedition. Maeve, , Ricardo, and Linda will distribute food, so settle down and gather your strength.”
Emily finds a spot to sit on the grass with Ivor, tactfully avoiding Dante and Enzo who she has riled to the point of ignition on their journey. She watches as the fgage carriers unload a cargo-filled car and carry sandwiches around the group. As they reach her, Linda hands her a sami sandwich with a smile. Thanking the girl, Emily looks out over the horizon, enjoying the exotic view as she lights her hands in a burst of fire to toast her food.
