Chương 92: Chapter 91- The Danger of Fraying Enchantments

Elias gagged as his stomach spasmed and his skin crawled, but he found he was still in full control of his faculties with little in the way of disorientation. The brief moment of transition however, was accompanied by the remnants of some deeply unsettling sensations that briefly crossed his skin. Even with the shroud in place he could feel the pressure of chaotic and violent force, as if he was briefly submerged in a hurricane.

Instead of a hurricane composed of wild gusts of wind, it was more like the gusts were made of shifting fields of force or energy that had spun his stomach into knots. As he jogged over to the bench where he had left Tia, he grabbed a canteen of water that he had left there, and rinsed out his mouth while trying to suppress the welling gorge as the urge to vomit slowly subsided.

He felt a tug on one pant leg as he looked down to see Tia looking up at him with a concerned expression, as she gripped his leg with one of her paws, as he could feel her probing his mind gently through their bond. You ok brother? You don't feel so good… Eli laughed, before letting out a small burp that faintly tasted of bile with a grimace. He shuddered, " Ugh, I've been worse Tia, but that was still pretty rough. What did you think?" Oh it was super cool!

One second you were there and the next you were gone, you moved like Auntie Mira did that one time! She gave him a dubious, It doesn't feel like it was fun though." Huh." Eli rinsed his mouth one more time before plopping back down on the bench and turning to look back at Tia, " Weird. It felt like it took forever to get started, or at least a few seconds, the movement was over in a flash though. Was it really that fast?" Yeah, you were just gone with a pop, and then you were over there.

Tia gave him a curious look, What did it feel like? Eli frowned, " Odd, strange, and kinda creepy honestly. The spell took a boat load of mana and covered me in a thin layer of shielding. Then it shunted me toward where I wanted to go, but the only way I can really describe it is that it felt kind of wrong?"

He thought for a moment, " It was as if I tried to walk right but went left instead, and then I shot through a storm, was poked with a bunch of sticks, I was shaken back and forth violently, but the only part of me that felt it was my stomach and not the rest of my body, and then finally like I was licked by a bunch of giant tongues." Ew. Eli shuddered at the memory of odd jumble of sensations, " Yeah, it was really fucking gross. At least the shielding protected me a little bit, and it actually worked!

Depending on the cost and range it would be a great skill, you just won't catch me casually teleporting around anytime soon." He flicked his eyes down to check his mana pool. Mana: 548/850 Eli sighed, Damn, not cheap assuming a few points of regen since I didn't check first like an idiot, probably in the 220-250 range. Yeah definitely not going to be using it left and right any time soon. I really hope it doesn't feel like getting stabbed in the gut and then getting a tongue bath everytime…

After a moment of scratching Tia and considering the possible uses of the skill, he settled on just keeping its use to alpha strikes and emergencies only, at least for now. The ability to strike from a distance unseen or reposition in unexpected ways was powerful but, just as he was warned, it would be of limited use until he was able to grow his mana pool further. He pulled up the next new skill from his evolution.

[Veilrend: Lv 1 - Few things are as strong as the threads of the world, so as the Veilcutter can slip through the weave, so too do their blows strike through their opponents defenses. Coating your blade in a thin layer of spatially aspected mana you generate a surface that can part most defenses, physical and energetic alike. When in active use this skill coats a surface in a layer of aspected mana at an initial moderate mana cost, that must be channeled to be maintained at a minor ongoing mana cost. WARNING: This skill produces a minor protective effect on the inner surface, but extended use may have deleterious effects to structure the effect has been applied to. Minor reduction in casting cost and moderate reduction in channeling cost per level.] Seeing the warning of damage to the object the skill was casted on Eli stood up from the bench and trotted over to grab one of the wooden practice weapons from one of the racks lining the arena.

After selecting a poleaxe that was similar enough to his own, Eli headed over to the nearby practice dummies that had been placed in a row along the back wall, checking his mana pool on the way so he wouldn't mess up the expenditure calculations this time. The intent the Skill required was easier this time, the stream of energy flowing down his weapon to coat the blade in a sheen of densely woven mana, with the same odd tint to the mana that emanated from his movement Skill.

Readying himself, Eli stamped forward to strike a heavy blow against the target, before stumbling when the expected resistance that he had been leaning into never materialized. He stood dumbfounded for a moment as the leather wrapped straw figure slumped in two pieces, the wood pole holding the dummy clattering to the ground as loose straw spilled from the bottom. The staccato clacking of the sparring pair behind Eli halted as he heard Sasha shout in his direction, " Oi, dim wit!

Those aren't for spell practice, just bladework, you're supposed to use the stone pillars in the other corner, they're chanted for sturdiness." Elias gave them a sheepish grin and wave as he jogged over to the correct place, Taylor's voice rose behind him preceded by a brief laugh, " Hey Eli, don't let her give you crap for it, everybody does it at least once!"

The power fantasies running through Eli's mind receded as he realized, of course a society that has combat magic would have defenses to protect against it, and it would hardly be a solid test of some of the superhuman skills he had seen so far to shred a bit of straw and leather. As he approached the row of stone columns in the corner, separated into lanes by low walls reminiscent of a modern target range, he noticed faint glowing patterns on the targets. This novel's true home is a different platform.

Support the author by finding it there. Giving one a solid thump with the butt of the wooden staff, he put in plenty of the amplified force of his newly inflated strength score, and he was reassured to see the glow brighten into a sharp ice blue color, but leave no marks on the stone other than a faint crackle and a small spark that quickly settled back into the runes decorating the pillar.

He gave a testing flick of the skill enhanced blade, a simple thrusting slice just to see the response, and while the enchantment brightened quite a bit more with an angry crackling sound, there did not seem to be any lasting damage to the target. Setting up to strike again, Eli decided with the enchantments protecting the pillar he would wind up for another heavy overhand blow. This way he could get a better feel for the feedback on an enhanced strike so he could further dial in the weight needed behind each blow.

Dashing forward with an overhand chop, he leveraged his body weight, rapid movement, and the full length of the weapon. The blade crashed against the pillar and instead of the jarring resistance of an arrested blow, a brilliant white flash blinded Elias as a blast of force billowed outwards from the pillar, knocking him from his feet and throwing him down the lane. Ears ringing faintly, Elias found himself on his back on the dusty ground towards the beginning of the firing lane.

Sitting up, he spat a layer of grit out from his mouth as he winced at the slowly fading ache from where his head had bounced off the ground a couple times when the blow had sent him skipping backwards. As the ringing faded he could hear approaching footsteps and the sound of urgent voices behind him. A pair of hands gripped him from behind under each armpit to help haul him to his feet as he heard Taylor speak from behind him." How is it going there friend? Still with us?"

Sasha walked around his side and gripped his forearm to help Taylor get him on his feet, as she checked him over with an amused smile. She dusted him off as she joked snarkily, " Can't be too bad, still has all ten fingers, ten toes, and none of his eyebrows are missing." She spun to look at the target and gave out a low whistle, " Abyss take me, I've barely seen the enchantments flicker before, much less something like that!"

Eli looked up to find that most of the top half of the pillar had shattered, and cracks ran through the rest. While most of the enchantments were dim, there were a few parts still flickering with a few crackling sparks trailing along the riven edges. Taylor laughed and clapped Eli on the shoulder, " Aye, me neither! You should have warned us, my back was turned when the target blew, I must have missed a hell of a show! Looks like you may have overloaded the enchantment."

Sasha crouched to poke at the edges of where the coated blade had struck the stone. The surface of the stone where the edge had touched was smooth, cut as cleanly as a knife through butter. She glanced back at Eli as she stood, " You know these pillars are chanted to take fireballs and lightning bolts, does your spell have some kind of disruptive effect?" Eli nodded, " Yeah, it says so in the description, was I not supposed to use these targets then? I didn't mean to break them."

Sasha shook her head, " If I had known this was something that you could have done I would have warned you, and it looked to me like when you had tested the spell it was just fine. You might have nicked a weak spot, or the spell penetration is way higher than normal." She shrugged, " You couldn't have known, and it is better to find out here on the range anyways instead of during a friendly spar and you explode some poor sod." Elias grimaced, " Fair, I guess it's good to know the danger ahead of time.

Should I clean it up or talk to someone about fixing it?" Taylor snorted, " Nay, leave it. Lady Emberholdt will get a good laugh out of it, and you would need to ask her or Captain Winterbrook for a higher Tier target anyways." He arched a brow at Eli, "Do you have any more surprises for us? I would rather not get distracted and take some shrapnel to the back of the head. Just in case you were planning on demolishing the rest of the arena."

Eli laughed and shook his head, " No, the last one should be more tame, I've already tested it a bit, and I need to ask Astra about the others before I dig into them and possibly build some bad habits. You're welcome to watch though." Deciding that a little caution was in order, Taylor and Sasha joined Tia on the spectator's bench. Tia quickly claimed Sasha's lap as her new seat, but the wyvern kept an eye on Eli instead of finishing her nap, not wanting to miss any more excitement.

The thrill of excitement that shot through their bond at the previous explosion told him that she would be requesting a repeat performance at some point, but was being patient since they were supposed to be preparing for an emergency. Still not too bad, 40 -ish mana to start it up, which is cheap compared to the movement skill, and actually a little less than one of those mana spears.

The 20 mana per second to keep it going is STEEP though, just running it for a couple minutes was a huge drain, I'll have to be quick with it. He glanced back at the demolished pillar, The power is undeniable though. Remembering he only had limited time, he focused his attention back on his third skill as he pulled up the description, a small smile on his face as a thrill of excitement ran through him, this is the one I really wanted.

[Displacement: Lv 1 - The Veilcutter is deadly at close range, but needs to survive long enough to get there. Harnessing the power of the Weave the Veilcutter generates a sphere of force to repel attacks. This skill can produce either an omnidirectional sphere or a small thin plane of repulsive force centered around the palm of the hand. When in active use this skill creates a locus of directed force that must be channeled to be maintained at a moderate ongoing mana cost. Minor reduction in channeling cost per level.] There's no warning on this one, but I was already warned not to shift the locus into my body, maybe the System assumes anyone dumb enough to do that deserves to lose their hand. When Eli focused on the final skill, it was no surprise that the mana was channeled towards his hands, but instead of flowing outwards along the form of a weapon in a dense weave, it created a similar spigot shaped knot of intricate spellwork in the center of his palms.

The difference, however, was in both the draw and the resulting effect. When compared to his vision enhancement which barely sipped at the mana supplied to it, this Skill required a thick band that flowed forth in a stream, the draw large and heavy, but not debilitatingly so. The effect was also comparatively more simple in that it produced a ball of condensed mana, nearly invisible to the naked eye, except for a spherical rippling effect that rested in his hand.

Contrary to his first impressions when he had previously summoned the Skill in Graff's shop, when he viewed the effect with his mana sense, Eli found that rather than sphere being wholly made of the strange aspected mana, the mana itself had actually been condensed down into a small spinning point, and that the sphere itself was a torus of force that emanated from the construct rather than a direct mana construct.

The draw was nearly as heavy, if not heavier, than the [Veilrend] effect, and Eli estimated it to most likely be around 25 mana per second instead of 20, but with no initial cost. Eli smiled as he flickered the effect on and off, the smile growing to a grin as the effect rapidly stuttered in and out of existence, as he found the responsiveness to his intent immensely satisfying. He was even able to switch between the small round plane and the sphere at a whim, the effect flickering back and forth seamlessly.

Eli quickly learned not to look at the mana generating the plane when it formed the effect, as the pin point of mana twisted in a strange way similar to the way [Veilstep] twisted to cause the odd movement effect. When observed for too long, the odd shape it formed gave Eli a headache and a slight sense of nausea, and he suspected that the spellform may have been using some form of a higher dimensional geometry to produce the planar effect instead of the torus.

Eli turned towards the waiting trio with a smile as he waggled his fingers in their direction as he bounced from foot to foot in a crouched ready stance, " So who's up for some target practice?"