Chương 163: AF Chapter 162 – A Channel Road

We were off before the sun rose, reaching the Ithaenc Jump before dawn. My reaching Seven in Sorcerer had opened up Dimension Door and Linejump as viable methods of bringing back at least some Portal functionality. I had celebrated by setting up a few 'bridges' across the waters between the Vesayan Islands at certain points. The first Jump was between Freehold and Fishtail, jumping to the Northern Tadpole across the fairly short gap there.

I even erected the tall pier/bridge leading out to the Jump Point, just inside the Shore Ward. The remorans and occasional sleech or niffi could be seen in the waters there outside, wondering if we might mess up and jump through the Shoreward somehow and become food. But, no. Pump in 40 mana, and a Dimension Door would pop you across the gap of a few hundred paces to the receiving arch on the other side, crossing the water without having to put up any interference from the Aquatics.

Quick, easy, get you and anything you were carrying across, and anybody could reach 40 mana fairly easily. It saved hours of travel time. The second Jump from Fishtail to Kryst Island followed, meaning the big loop around Fishtail didn't have to be traversed by individuals, although the Jumps couldn't take wagons or cargo that wasn't being carried. The third Jump was Ithaenc to the Big Tadpole in the south, and suddenly the beaches by the Lighthouse were prime ground…

ground thoughtfully claimed and owned by the Aun, who guided development as the place became a high traffic area soon enough between people doing end runs around and not having to traverse Avallele Island to the north of Ithaenc to get to the good stuff. The redirection had the effect of turning Avallele into basically a pure hunting/adventuring place as mercantile traffic there was quickly reduced. And finally, there was the Big Jump on Kryst Island itself, which used Linejump instead of Dimension Door.

It flashed travelers ten miles across the Vesayan Channel to an Archway right in the former Vesayan Overlook cottage settlement for 80 mana, and you could take along an extra person, unlike Dimension Door. The receiving Vesayan Overlook had naturally been built up into a fortified position, a duty I had undertaken in one night and turned the whole area into basically a new fortress on Dereth, shocking the H ell out of the Gotrok scouts when it popped up out of nowhere.

They had been even more unpleasantly surprised when it was fully staffed and the Mick and his students started operating out of there. Aggressively. There had only been one real attack on the place, the Scouts reported it coming, and paramounts from Ithaenc had poured in to the fight before the lugians even managed to arrive with an army of mostly Summons to fight for them. They hadn't expected the level of magic they found, and they certainly hadn't expected me to be able to pick out the living from the Summons.

Thirty Gotrok had lost their lives before the rest picked up and retreated, and the Summons automatically headed back for their Spawn points once their commanders fled. Spawn points that were slowly and mysteriously vanishing across the south of Dereth, one by one.

This run across the Vesayan Channel was out in the open. The Wagon was floating there, fully visible. It had doubled in length since our first trip across the Channel, and was towing what was basically a cargo container, too. Scouts were sprawled while waiting across the top of it, and razor-sharp triple prows adorned the front of it, with blade-like extensions on the sides right about at the preferred heights the Aquatics used when they levitated out of the water.

Which they had to do to Cast on us, not having Hydrous Spell like a certain someone who wasn't going to teach it to them, and thus unable to break the water/air divide smoothly. The paramounts coming along as guards were likewise waiting on top of the cargo container, mantlets inserted in the sides of it, the new high-strength Bows and Autobows joining the Wands and Staves the Casters had ready and waiting.

I had taught a bunch of them Hydrous Spell, and they had been very surprised they could Cast at the equivalent of a Pyreal spell, but still using Gold, only more mana. They were even more delighted when they found out that with enough mana, they could get its additional fixed cost of 10 mana down to zero with enough Weirding practice.

That took sixteen thousands reps of V's to make the Meta nothing, or a thousand reps of a particular ground-down Elemental Attack Spell V that took the place of all the Elemental War Magic spells to allow it a single free +I Meta. The remorans knew we were coming, as did their masters. We could see the colors flashing under the waters, and Kris just had this big grin on her face at what was going to be happening. After all, I was coming along. We had another guest for this trip, too.

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"You look quite eager for this run, Princess," Queen Mother Elysa Strathelar, standing at the forefront of the wagon and leaning on her new Windbow, spoke down to Kris quietly, knowing she would be heard.

"Aye, Your Majesty. This is your first time with the Magos along. You're in for a bit of a show!" Kris replied immediately to the former Queen and mother of the current King.

"I've heard it is quite a sight. The creatures seem to relish the challenge, instead of learning a lesson?" Queen Elysa was a classic Aluvian blue-eyed blonde archer woman, pretty much the model and hero for two generations of women archers who came after her. After the Fall, the loss of vitality meant her age started to catch up with her, even if she was a full paramount.

While she didn't adventure and grind like many of them did, her pass-up Karma from extremely loyal vassals and gifts of Luminance made sure that, like her son, she had reached full paramount status and could stand tall with any of them. She had remained in shape and graceful, but had started looking her seventy years of age, blonde hair going platinum, more lines, and not having the strength or endurance that she once had.

Finding out that reaching Seven in a Matrix Class could restore her youth had sent her into a frenzied tear of activity, as Allegiance Karma wouldn't do the job. She had raged up and down Ithaenc and Avallele, even sniped around the edges of Tou-Tou, rapidly gaining the Karma to make Seven.

She looked like her son's slightly older sister, now, as Borelean had been her constant companion through those hunts, for exactly the same reason, raising sword and shield with his mother and hunting for those Matrix Levels in Melee… and getting them. The former Queen's hair was still white, but lustrous and silky full, not stringy with age.

She was also in much better shape than she had ever been in her life, wisely stopping getting to Ten and going for a broader foundation in these new Classes and investment paradigms. Her presence was one of the things pulling the paramounts out of Ithaenc. If the former queen, who by all accounts had become a recluse with age, could come out of retirement and start fighting, what, then, were they?

It was less courage than pure competitive instinct, and maybe a little (lot) of guilt and shame at the example she was providing. The famous Bow she had used for decades, probably the most powerful Bow in all of Dereth, was not at her side. She had plied it on her hunt, then heard more about our attempts to break the true mastery of the Runes for Weapons, and donated it to that cause in favor of one of the new Windbows and the power of Naming Karma. Thorsten never left her side now, and was advancing smartly.

It was as white as snow, and the Windstring, when it appeared, looked like a crackling line of electricity. Kris had carved the most upgraded Runes we knew into it herself. The incredible triple Imbue of Critical Strike, Crippling Blow, and Armor Render her Bow had possessed on top of an unrivaled +200% base damage had definitely been an Eternal-grade achievement that every weapon-maker wanted to duplicate, and simply couldn't understand how to possibly get three effects at a time to stick on a Weapon.

That included Kris and I. We judged that a double Imbue was Eternal-level, and a triple only possible with 30 full ranks in Spellcraft or Artificing. Right now, she was wielding a Biting Strike Crushing Blow Armor Cleaver Windbow, which she was also filling with Naming Karma along the Zen Eagle path of "I won't miss, now die" path. It had cost a LOT of pyreal to get those Runes powered up, basically most of her accumulated savings, and she didn't give a damn.

With a monstrous 40% crit rate adding in the Improved Critical Feat, x4 Crits, and armor protection chopped in half, there was no reason for her to regret her choice. Sure, it was 50% and x6 before, BUT… her old Bow didn't have infinite ammo, cycle between damage types at a thought, and wasn't building towards +12 to hit and +9 damage, and couldn't kill something at two hundred paces with ease!

The first Levels she'd taken had been Artificer, both to get Infusions and to be able to finally make her own basic Arms, Armor, and random Gear. She'd made up her own Quiver, both Archers and One More Arrow in design. A Quiver of Archers held a lot of arrows, could stash a bow and staff or spears, and always drew out what you wanted. OMA meant you always had one more arrow, so if you wanted to draw and shoot, you always had ammo.

You couldn't do Manyshot tricks with OMA arrows, as you always had only ONE more arrow, but true arrows had full range and added Windfire shot damage on top of them. Normal Windfire had much more restricted range, but it never ran out and it allowed blurringly fast arrow fire if needed, perfect for close-range, high-intensity salvo fire that punished swarms of foes, and you didn't need to carry around thousands of arrows for siege situations, you just shot.

Take the right Feats, and you could still shoot a LOT of shots at the same time, too, which she was now gleefully building towards once she knew it was possible.

"I have indeed heard of the… excitement that results when she rides along with you. Are you certain you are not tempting fate, however, Magos?" she asked me, inclining her head at the activity in the waters. I looked out at the Channel's gentle waters, and finger-flicked up the result of my Detect Aquatics at V, Cast while still on the Shore and getting the Buff of Earth Spell. A lot of curious heads leaned in to look at the scene in front of me, and all the glowing dots moving under the waves out there.

There were a lot of them, especially when I panned my head forth and back. The remorans were in yellow and green, the latter color indicating the stronger ones, and their shelled masters were normally blue and indigo, with potential violet if one of the big ones showed up.

"About standard," I replied, unruffled, and flicked my hand lightly. Eighteen Shards rose up in flying wedges of faceted jetsilver, the stars within and nimbus around them following the standard ROYGBIV-Black-White-Grey-Cow-Reverse Cow-Opalescent-Iridiscent-Cloudy-Crystalline-Plasma-Static-Snow-Bubbling format. A lot of different types of energies Elemental and not hung around them, and many a Caster in the area stared at them hungrily, dying to be able to Cast something like it.

The fact was it was REALLY showy, and me being able to hold out an active combat spell like this was hugely envied, even more blatant than a naked blade. There were some of them who had delved into the battle magic of the Matrix spells, but the base spells were almost universally worse than Isparian-style magic, and even the Metas tended to work better on Isparian magic than Matrix spells.

However, Matrix spells tended to have much better range, area of effect, and kept right on scaling by Level, and Isparian Magic... did not. It only really improved in Spell Penetration. Get your Caster Level up, and all things became possible! They could all do the math, and they knew my Caster Level was incredibly, lethally high. I wasn't going to have any pains landing on any of these creatures, even the most powerful of them, and that was before Spell Penetration.

That included the likes of The Mick, too, which he just shrugged and accepted with good grace. If he could break Eternal, he could start scaling it again.