Chương 42: 2.2 ITIIITIATIIHYLIHYL - Blackshape (6:12)

PRIVATE MESSAGES From: CrushDaddyXx To: Binary_Arcana Subject: quick question Hey Binary, I'm the new primary for Zeke's fanfic, and I'm planning for the next arc. Problem is it's a lot more than I expected. My plan started off somewhat contained and simple, but it's ballooned into something insane now. I'm working with Mushroom because he's the primary after me and I figured with the two of us, Zeke would be more open to dealing with my plan and we could split the workload.

Plus, it's shaping up to be a big arc and it might be too much for one Primary alone. We convinced Gravemind to let us work together and combine our two slots into one. Even with all that, I'm thinking this arc is still gonna be too big. You've got the primary slot after Mushroom, and I wanted to check to see if you'd be interested in combining with us. We're planning on sending Zeke into the Under-MIZ to take on the Reclaimer. How about it? Wanna join in?

With the three of us working together, we can make something truly legendary. I attached my powerpoints here. Let me know what you think. [Attachment: UNDER-MIZ_OPERATION_RECLAIMER. pptx] From: Binary_Arcana To: CrushDaddyXx Subject: RE: quick question You're sending him to the Under-MIZ? What, are you pissed about the Corva thing? Because that would be a good way to get back at him, send him after the Reclaimer and tell him that it'll be an easy fight. From: CrushDaddyXx To: Binary_Arcana Subject: good fight No.

Not angry at all. Check out my powerpoint slides. I came up with a legit plan to have him kill the thing. It's going to be make his fic into something amazing. Everyone wins. Zeke lets his OC get a massive powerup, people stop talking about Corva and dragging the fic down, and I get some great fights. From: Binary_Arcana To: CrushDaddyXx Subject: RE: good fight Yeaaaaa… just read your power points. Gotta say it's not a bad plan.

There's a few spots where things can go wrong, but Zeke will probably just ignore them or write around them. That being said, I also came up with an Under-MIZ idea for him when I take over the Primary slot. I'm not sending him after the Reclaimer. I mean… you know he's just going to veto that plan once he sees it right? He keeps saying that he doesn't want to get involved in combat, even though he's out there fighting all the time.

If I jump in with you and Mushroom, and help you all out, I'd have to scrap what I've been setting up. I really like my plan, and if I drop it then Zeke would miss out on something I've been quietly tailoring for his fic. From: CrushDaddyXx To: Binary_Arcana Subject: K Shit man, I was worried about an overlap with a few of the upcoming primaries. There isn't much that people can send him to accomplish if he's just hanging out in The MIZ. It's either the Under-MIZ or send him out after some of the Cathedrals of Ash.

If you've already got a plan in mind, then… you do you. From: Binary_Arcana To: CrushDaddyXx Subject: 7Spirals I just checked the list, and the primary after me is 7Spirals. Talk to him and Gravemind and see if 7 would be interested in moving up. If you get buy-in from him and he's okay with working with you and Mushroom, then I'll swap positions with him. From: CrushDaddyXx To: Binary_Arcana Subject: RE: 7Spirals Oh, that's a solid idea. Would you be okay with that? Letting us burn through the Under-MIZ first?

It would be a pretty long arc, and I don't wanna step on any toes. It'll probably take a bit until you could step into the primary spot. From: Binary_Arcana To: CrushDaddyXx Subject: RE: RE: 7Spirals Yea, that's fine. It also works out for me because, if you pitch the Under-MIZ to Zeke correctly, he would do your plan and then wouldn't really blanch at heading back there for what I'm getting ready.

USER: Z3ke THREAD: Just outside The MIZ Z3ke (Original Poster) Hey everyone. I'm back. It's been a couple days since I logged on here and I thought it best to update you all and get back to the grind. I'm still with the caravan, sitting in one of their old beat up cars, and we're currently just outside The MIZ. We're sitting in this long line of traders who are showing their papers and trying to head into the city. Wren, Cole and I are still here, just sitting around.

We could leave and head right into the city, but we're just taking it easy right now. The few days of travel from the Valley to The MIZ turned into a bit more of a slog through the Deadlands than I originally envisioned. We were able to outrun the storm that was on our heels. I think it was one of those Black Storms that Null warned me about. I talked to Cole about it and he made it sound pretty vicious.

They're these giant desert storms that roam through the Deadlands and if you get stuck in one you're kinda screwed. It would have wrecked our cars and caused unexplainable magical… things. Supposedly it could even short out skills and talents that people have. How that happens, I have no goddamn clue. Cole got to talking about a new type of material to coat objects that the academy is working on in order to counter the effect of the storms, and I kinda just stopped listening.

Anyway, the caravan veered north and we hit up this small town. The place didn't even have a name. When we got there I got out of the caravan to stretch my legs and talk to some of the locals. I met this old guy with only about three teeth in his head, and when I asked him where we were he looked at me like I'd gone dumb.

"You're in town. Where'd you think you are?" I tried explaining that I knew we were in a town, but I didn't know the name of it. He just shot me another look that I was too slow to understand what he was saying.

"It's the town," he said.

"Out there is the Deadlands. In here is the town." Before I could ask any more questions he just shook his head at me and wandered off. I guess he wasn't all that interested in dealing with someone too stupid to understand what a town is. I've gotta say that caravan life has agreed with me so far. We've got to share watches and keep an eye out for danger, but there thankfully wasn't much of that in our trip through the Deadlands.

Instead, I was treated to a nice predictable route surrounded by a bunch of nice people who I slowly got to know over the past few days. It was peaceful. When traveling with them I knew where we were going and what we were gonna do when we got there. There were a lot less moments where it felt like I was sprinting from one bad decision to another as we raced across the Deadlands. All told, it felt kinda like a vacation. Although, this has been one of the shittier vacations I've ever been on.

There's just way too much desert in the Deadlands, and way too many creatures that want to kill me. If I ever manage to get another break like this, I'm hoping y'all can plan it a bit better. Send me somewhere with trees and water and nice weather. Or maybe get me to a beach with tiny umbrella drinks and nothing snarling at me. Now that I've earned myself a class, the most pressing issue that was facing me the last time I was in The MIZ has been solved.

The danger of me going poof because I was unanchored has disappeared. Now I'm ready to get back to work and try to find my way home. So, what do I need to do next? You all remember that my main goal in all this is to somehow find a way back to New York, right? I don't want to try and set myself up as a king out here, or right any wrongs or anything like that. I just want to go home. I'm going to reiterate something I've been saying since day one: this all is really happening to me.

I'm surrounded by danger and I don't want to die in a ditch and have some demon feasting on my bones. Please stop treating this like a game where I can just reload a previous save. Hopefully, if I keep saying that, some of you will start understanding that and realizing that I'm serious. I know, I know, you're all going to harp on me that I've been saying this is real since the beginning and none of you believe me so I should just shut my mouth and get on with my story like a good little monkey. But…

fuck y'all with that thinking. I don't want to disappear tomorrow because you all thought it would be funny to have me fight against "end-game content" - as you put it - with nothing but a dull knife. With that in mind, does anyone have a direction for me to start heading in? Last I checked, Null was/is my primary. Is that still a thing? Or has that job title switched to someone else? CrushDaddyXx (PRIMARY) Hey Zeke. I'm assuming you noticed the shiny new flair next to my name.

I would normally put a gif here - I'm thinking about that scene from Captain Phillips with the Somali pirate talking to Tom Hanks - but every time I try and add gifs or images to my post I end up screwing it all up. It takes a whole bunch of brackets and slashes and the like and it's confusing as hell. So instead, just imagine the moment where the pirate leans in real close.

"Look at me. I'm the captain now." Buuuut, there's still a ton of work that needs to happen before I give you advice on what to do next. Don't worry, you're going to love it. It's going to be EPIC. If you follow my plan, you're going to become absurdly powerful in a very short amount of time. My time as your Primary is going to be a little different because I'm working with Mushroom and 7Spirals. We've combined our slots together and we're building a massive arc for your fanfic.

It's going to fast-track you to ultimate power. It's not ready yet though. So while we're cleaning everything up and making sure everything looks pretty for the presentation, I want you to treat this period as the calm before the storm. Go out and do some shopping. Do some prep work. Get some armor and gear. Poke around The MIZ and see what the place has to offer. Get some rest and be ready to venture out into a truly amazing adventure. MushroomCleric Oh oh oh oh. I just had a really great idea.

Zeke, remember that library you visited the first time you hit The MIZ? It's called the Library of Reclaimed Thought and it's run by the Pale Regiment. Yea. Go back there and do some research. What Crush and the rest of us are putting together is going to land much better if you've got some background context. Specifically, I want you finding stuff on three subjects: Helix Industries - what they stood for, what they believed in, and what their role was right before the Fracture hit.

The Industrial Revolution in The MIZ (pre-Fracture) - how fast it ramped up, which technologies were invented, and which corners were cut. The environmental collapse of the Old World - don't check out the mythologized, dramatic version either. You need to research the boring and technical version. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. To narrow things down a bit, here's three titles you should read if they're available.

Breathing the Ash: Metabolic Adaptation in Polluted Environments - Dr. Ilyana Vocht Helix Unwound: Industrial Ascendancy and Ethical Debt - Marrow Quinn * The Last Clean Horizon: A Technical History of Old World Collapse - Emeric Soll Read them and take some notes. Then, and this part is important, I want you to sit down with Patch or Cole, pull out your Tech Slate, turn on the talk-to-text function, and explain what you learned. Teach them all about it and, by extension, explain it to the forum.

Make a presentation. I want to hear how you connect the dots. Z3ke (Original Poster) Uh… okay? And why am I doing this? I get that if you're telling me to do this the information might be useful, but this feels like you're giving me homework to do. Aren't you and Crush just going to give me a big presentation and tell me what I need to know? And how do you just know the title of three random ass books in the library? That's weird man. MushroomCleric Think of this like an experiment.

If you read, synthesize, and then teach the information, it might boost a very important skill. It's not a guarantee, but I figured that you'd like this a lot more than us just tossing you at a monster and hoping you fill out your skill sheet. And the Library of Reclaimed Thought is a known location in both Frontiers and Syndicate's. Not only that, but it's an actual library. Severance Systems, in a bid to increase the lore to their games, added a ton of books in various libraries throughout the series.

Those three are just a few of the books that you can actually read in the games. 7Spirals Also, you should post your current skills, their ranks, and what you have stored in your dimensional storage space. We need to know what we're working with here and what could help you. 10161066 Why those books? Please tell me you're not trying to do what I think you're trying to do. He's not ready for that! He barely made it through the Valley of Echoes.

Binary_Arcana I really hate that I have to keep repeating this, but here it is again: the golden rule is to yes-and the Primary. Crush, Mushroom, and 7Spirals are running this arc. They have the Primary slot and they need our backing, even if you personally think the plan is risky. If this primary system is going to work, we can't undercut every idea before it gets off the ground. CrushDaddyXx (PRIMARY) Yea, Hasting. Stop shitting on my ideas. Also relax. Zeke is going to come out of this sooooo much stronger.

MushroomCleric Zeke, I wouldn't tell you to do this if I didn't think it was a good idea. I've been a fan of your fic since the beginning. So trust me. Grab the books, read them, take some notes, and then deliver the presentation to Patch, Cole and this forum. AnywayHeresWonderwall If you're going to be doing prep work, you're still carrying a dull knife. That's not great. You should get something better. You complained back in the Valley that you didn't have a real weapon.

Now that you're back in The MIZ, you should fix that. BabyBloos Armor. Get some armor. Your arm got slashed to pieces because you didn't have anything protecting it. That's like riding a motorcycle on the freeway without a helmet, crashing, and then blaming the road. If you want to not die - like you keep telling us - then you need to invest in things that stop you from dying. Fogbarrel Did you get that stone we told you to ask Cole about? The one from the basement in the Valley?

Because if you did, you need to take it to the Tock & Spanner. You already know Riley and have a relationship with her. Have her try fitting the stone into either a weapon or an instrument. Since you can push Instrument Mastery to 10, putting the stone into something like a guitar could get real interesting. WaystationCrow If you think I'm going to help theorycraft for your fic after you screwed up Corva, you're dumber than your premise.

WaystationCrow [comment deleted by moderator] InnerMarrow NGL, seeing someone else get the ban hammer always makes me laugh. GET 'EM GRAVE!!! MushroomCleric Everyone focus. We're here to help Zeke with his fic. If you want to complain about everything he's doing, there's an entire other thread where you can do it. Go hang out with Lorem-Ipsum and the both of you can keep shitting on this fic. Z3ke (Original Poster) There's a whole thread just shitting on me? You know what, whatever. I don't care.

What I do care about is this prep list. Armor and a weapon, fine. Instrument, fine. But what about magic? I'm in a world where people throw fireballs and every time I ask how magic works I get nothing. It's either hippie nonsense about feeling the vibes of the mana or Cole going off on a twenty-minute tangent about his academy days. So I'm asking you all: how do I do magic? How do I fireball someone? Or should I learn a different kind of spell? Won't magic help me survive better? AND…

won't magic help me get back home? StoryLeech Hey… what was the name of that one essay about Fracture magic? I think it was written by CalorieMama because she was tired of people writing fics without understanding how magic worked. That might actually be perfect for Zeke right now. Zeke, I'm not saying you need to follow her guide 100% for your fanfic, but it's a solid foundation if you're going to be dealing with magic in the Fracture-verse. MapHackJunkie Found it.

Just a heads-up Zeke, the thing is 93 pages long and incredibly dense. It's a beefy read. [Attachment: A. WORKING. MODEL. OF. MAGIC. IN. THE. FRACTURE-VERSE. pdf] Z3ke (Original Poster) Jesus. 93 pages? Plus all the books that Mushroom wants me to read? What the actual hell guys? Can someone just summarize it for me? Z3ke (Original Poster) Okay, I downloaded and opened it and it starts with:" This is a working model on how the different types of magic function in the Fracture-verse as we currently understand them.

There are numerous edge cases that don't fit with our current understanding, magical theories that predate the Fracture in nearly every game, and certain regions in Syndicate's Wake that lie to us about what they are and how magic affects them. I will explain how these edge-cases and regions don't follow the agreed-upon lore of magic in later chapters, as well as provide theories on possible explanations for them."

Then she just goes on for a ton of pages about different folklore in the game and how it relates to spells and spell formations and… my head already hurts. I'm gonna need a primer for the primer. NullSigil Zeke, it's your favorite Primary, back from the grave. And judging by the reading list that Crush and Mushroom just dumped on you, I'm not worried about losing my title anytime soon. Relax. Breathe. I'm going to explain magic in a way that won't make you want to claw your eyes out. Let's start simple.

There are a few broad types of magic, and they're pretty consistent across the Fracture-verse Innate Magic - this is skills and talents. Once your skills push past 7 and start doing weird, impossible stuff? That's innate magic. It doesn't really feel like spellcasting because it's always on. It's subtle, not flashy. It's how you can bend bullets or jump really high or do other crazy superhero stuff. Learned Magic - this is the fireworks. It's all about fireballs, lightning, levitation, and mind-reading.

Learned magic is when you take mana, shape it into something dangerous, and then throw it at a problem until the problem stops existing. It's powerful and flexible and extremely good at killing inexperienced casters. You kinda don't want to use this until you know what you're doing. Totemic Magic - this relies on external objects and symbols. And yes, before you ask, this is what everyone thinks that Corva was using when he tried to body-swap with you. It's also the magic that is most used in Frontiers.

You can call this magic Item Magic, but that's boring and lacks soul. Ritual Magic - circles, chants, glyphs, and preparation. It's slow as hell, but it's also capable of doing things that learned magic can't even touch. As much as everyone hated Shards of Time, and would rather forget that the game even existed, it actually handled this really well. If you ever get ritual magic working for you, congrats. You're a problem now. Magical Creatures - I know it sounds weird that this is its own category, but trust me.

Their biology mimics spell structures that humans have to study for years. They don't really cast magical spells so much as they are magical spells. Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about how magic is created. I'll use mana for the lack of a better word. You should already know the concept from games. Want to cast a spell? You use mana. That's it. That's the first rule. Fireball? Mana. Levitate a rock? Mana. Scry a distant place? Mana. Read someone's thoughts? Mana.

You can call it whatever you want: essence, anima, charge, metaphysical potential, or "that blue bar I keep forgetting to watch." What you call it doesn't change anything. Mana is the fuel for your magic. No fuel, no magic. Now, here's where the Fracture-verse goes all Real World where it stops being polite and starts being honest. Magic in the Fracture-verse is ridiculously mana-intensive. You said that you want to throw a fireball, and that's a classic choice.

It's everyone's first spell and everyone's last mistake. Let's pretend that a basic fireball costs ten units of mana. You grab your ten units of mana, form the spell structure, gather the energy, move it to your hand, compress it, ignite it, and then chuck it at something you dislike. All those steps leak energy. It's costly. And most humans in the Fracture-verse can't pay that cost. You probably don't have ten mana to spare. Right now, you've got maybe four. And that's not "available" mana. It's total mana.

As in, the stuff your body is actively using to keep your organs functioning and your brain turning off. That's right, your body naturally uses mana to work. But let's say that you do have ten mana. Zeke, Rockstar and ten-mana haver. You scrape together the mana and successfully cast the fireball at an enemy. Congrats. You're dead now. The Fracture-verse doesn't believe in guardrails for any of its systems. If you focus on your magic skills, sure, you might get a visible mana bar.

But the game isn't going to stop you from emptying it. It will simply let you cast your spell and then immediately turn you into a desiccated corpse. Other games go: oops! Not enough mana. Try again later. Fracture-verse goes: skill issue. Roll credits. That's why a lot of players avoid magic entirely in the games, because one bad decision sees you dead. Also, paradoxically, it's why a lot of players love magic in the Fracture-verse. It's a dangerous specialty that doesn't hold your hand.

Humans make terrible mana batteries. A trained mage, like your buddy Cole who has been doing this most of his life and actually knows what he's doing, might have fifteen or sixteen mana total. That's huge for a human. That's decades of conditioning, adaptation, and learning how not to kill himself. And it's still barely enough to be dangerous. Meanwhile, magical creatures out in the world are playing the game on easy mode.

A pixie, tiny, six-inch tall, glitter-shedding menace, can hold around a hundred mana without breaking a sweat. She could throw out nine fireballs back-to-back and still be alive. But she would have to deal with a ton of mana drain. That pixie firing off nine fireballs is no longer cute anymore. She's shaking, bleeding from the nose, her muscles have turned to jelly. Her head is splitting and she's barely able to stay airborne. She's still alive, but she's definitely not doing great.

Being a big mana battery doesn't mean she gets to walk away unscathed. It just means she could survive the consequences. Now, while humans make horrible mana batteries, they are phenomenal conduits of mana. And that brings us to ambient mana. Ambient mana is everywhere. It's in the dirt, the air, the rain, the animals, and the land. Big destructive events flood the area with mana. Forest fires create a massive amount of ambient mana.

So do tornadoes and volcanic eruptions and anything else that violently rearranges the world. A human mage can tap into that ambient mana and shape it into a spell. Let's say that Cole is standing in the Valley of Echoes and there's a bunch of ambient mana floating around him. He grabs it, compresses it into a fireball, and throws it.

That fireball is going to cost slightly more mana because he's using ambient mana and not his own - it'll cost something like ten or eleven mana - BUT he doesn't risk burning himself out. Some mana leaks into his body during the process, and that leakage hurts. It would leave him sore, wrung out, and feeling like he just ran a marathon. And that mana leakage would cause tiny fractures in his "magical muscles." But those tiny fractures heal. When they heal, they heal stronger.

That's how human mages grow, by channeling ambient mana. Magical creatures, on the other hand, are absolutely terrible at mana channeling. That same pixie trying to cast a ten-mana fireball using ambient mana would need something like 23 or 24 ambient mana to make it work. And the leakage into her body would hurt way more than it would for a human. She's a big tank with awful plumbing. Ambient mana is also why magic availability changes so wildly between the different games. Frontiers has magic. You've seen it.

Cole, Maribel, and a bunch of other people have magic. Emberveil has so much magic that it's practically dripping. But Null Protocol and Tech Reign have basically nothing. Why? It's because of ambient mana. In those settings, the mana has been either stripped out, poisoned, or shattered. There might be enough ambient mana for one weak spell, but more likely the mana will be unstable and betray you. The Deadlands are actually pretty bad for magic in Frontiers.

There's so much messed up out there that you think you're drawing ambient mana and suddenly, oops, you weren't. You just pulled from yourself and now you're a chalk outline. That's why, traditionally, you don't see a lot of learned magic used in Frontiers fics. There is a workaround though, and that comes in the form of items. These are mana batteries and external storage for mana. Cole's paper slips are most likely preloaded with mana and only activated when needed. You also have Maribel, that caravan healer.

She would have a bunch of bandages and salves that have collected a ton of mana and then released when she needs it. Same principle with Corva's knives and ankhs. All of it is totemic magic, and that's pretty useful out in the Deadlands. Short version. You're in Frontiers. Ambient mana is unstable, your personal reserves are laughable, and learned magic is a good way to kill yourself. Which means no, you probably shouldn't learn how to use magic anytime soon. Z3ke (Original Poster) Okay.

That was much better than 93 pages… but it does kinda suck that I don't get to learn about magic right now. I'm all for staying alive rather than accidentally blowing myself up or having all my mana sucked dry. Still, knowing that fireballs are right there and I'm not allowed to touch them makes me feel bad. I'm still going to trust you on this Null. If and when it's time for me to actually start learning magic, I assume that you're all going to help me out and tell me before I do something incredibly stupid.

On a more immediate note, the caravan is moving again. We're a few spots away from getting into the city. Once we roll in, that's it. We're done and Cole, Wren and I are free and clear. I'll probably spend a bit of time saying goodbye to everyone. We've all been traveling together for a while now, and I'm going to miss everyone. Then I'll pick up my pay from Cole and head over to the Roaring Drake. I figure checking in with Patch might be a good idea.

I could show him my class, see if he knows anything about the persona skill, and maybe get a drink or three. After that, I'll do my shopping spree. One quick question though, and this is more for Crush than anyone else. Should I try and rent an apartment in the city? Or are you going to be sending me out again once your presentation is all finished. A little heads up for my schedule would be appreciated. 7Spirals Rent by the week. You should plan for about a week's stay near the Roaring Drake.

Nothing more permanent than that. After the presentation that we're all putting together, you're going to need to handle some more prep work and then move out. It would behoove you to start assembling a team and track down a few specialists. You might also need some specialty equipment, but Mushroom, Crush and I can't all agree on what you'd need. Oh, and before you go, make sure you give us an itemized list of everything in your dimensional storage. What'd you take off Corva's rotting corpse?

What can we work with? MushroomCleric And the books. Don't forget to check out the library and read the books. Z3ke (Original Poster) | What'd you take off Corva's rotting corpse? | Not loving that sentence. But here's my equipment and the skills you asked for.

[Dimensional Storage Space] Blanket Piece of canvas Dented cooking pot Small journal Pencils Two forks One spoon Tiny bowl from mortar and pestle set Offering Doll Bone-handled knife with cracked leather sheath (dull) Med-kit Canteen Flare Gun with (1) round Coil of thin wire Match tin Assorted nails and screws Short length of cord Corva's hand axe (forgot I had this. Might not need another weapon) Needle and thread Solaris Vaultstone SKILLS Puzzle Intuition - Rank 1 You've begun to see the threads of life.

Increased awareness of non-linear patterns. Simple Melee Weapons - Rank 2 You've learned basic, unrefined skills related to handheld weapons like batons, knives, and improvised weapons. First Aid - Rank 1 Basic emergency medical care. Stop bleeding, stabilize injuries, and reduce the chance of immediate death. Performance Instrument Mastery Persona * Okay. I'm out.