Chương 17: Omnimancer BONUS Chapter: Jax's Descent (3 of 5)

School of Life (Magic) Jax waited for his migraine to subside before even thinking of doing anything else. When it finally did, he pulled up the messages he'd missed. Calculating… Summing total experience… [277 peaks] climbed… [490] days spent on mountains… [1, 101, 233] ft altitude gained… [2, 244, 953] steps taken climbing… [33] near-death experiences survived… ERROR: You have exceeded the maximum experience allotment. [30, 000, 000] Lux Credits awarded. Lux Credits In Account: 29, 945, 965.

Credits Available to Spend: 350, 000. Available credits restricted by [̴̼͚̯̬͎̍́̈́]̵̼̬̳͚̭͌̽̊͑[̶̨̗̐]̴̹̬̺̃͝[̶̯̜͝]̷͈̥̲̬̮͒̽[̷̢̡̛̦̪̫̑̓͘]̸̱̖̲̌̇͆[̴̭͖̑]̸̭̥̭͓͕̑͒̕ Entity'His Supreme Luminance The God of Everything Awesome' Tiramisu, and [̴̼͚̯̬͎̍́̈́]̵̼̬̳͚̭͌̽̊͑[̶̨̗̐]̴̹̬̺̃͝[̶̯̜͝]̷͈̥̲̬̮͒̽[̷̢̡̛̦̪̫̑̓͘]̸̱̖̲̌̇͆[̴̭͖̑]̸̭̥̭͓͕̑͒̕ Entity'Oh, Is This Where That Title Thingy Goes?' Cupcake. Oi! You can't use all that right now, okay? Aunty would definitely notice. If you want it, you better get down that mountain!

Quest: Get off the mountain (Part III of???) Become a Duomancer. Enter two Schools of Magic. Reward: Credit Tranche I Unlocked. Well, at least they'd seen fit to put safeguards around it. That they had to in the first place was more than a little concerning, but nothing Jax could do about that now. He also finally had the name of the world he was on. Or, mortal plane? Whatever that meant… Like a hastily added afterthought, another message popped up before he could mull it over.

PS: You better be careful with all those Lux Bux, okay? Spend too much, and your shiny's gonna show! Everybody's got a little glow, but the bitey things follow it. Aunty too. Now that's interesting, Jax thought, mulling it over. He'd wondered why the monsters all seemed to go after each other and not him, but it made sense. The invisibility certainly helped, yes, but Jax suspected that was more a territorial thing.

Had Jax not been violating their claimed ground, they might very well have left him alone, as weak as he was. A shark wouldn't bother chasing the tiniest fish, after all. Not when there were bigger catches to be had. So I just gotta avoid becoming too fat, huh? That would certainly color his decisions. Jax idly unzipped his layers, scratching at his chest harder. There was a sensation deep inside that wasn't there before, pressing outward. Not painful, but distinctly foreign. Had he broken something earlier?

A few stretches yielded nothing of concern, so he forced himself to ignore it, bringing up the System screen once again, but this time, he saw a couple of options he hadn't noticed before. Add Spell Shard? Add School Shard? Jax mentally selected the first, only to get an error. No Spell Shards available. He selected the other one instead. Available Lux Shards: Time Shard (Tier III) Space Shard (Tier III) Consume Shards? Jax confirmed, now that he had a somewhat better idea of what that entailed. Shards Consumed.

Displaying options… Tier I Tier I schools are the most common on Wakanya, encompassing the four universal elements. This is the tier the vast majority of Mancers will learn. School of Fire: 30, 000 pts (School Already Joined) School of Land: 20, 000 Credits School of Water: 20, 000 Credits School of Wind: 20, 000 Credits Tier II Tier II schools encompass more abstract concepts, and are both rarer and require more challenging feats to acquire than Tier I schools.

School of Force: 150, 000 Credits School of Life: 300, 000 Credits School of Lightning: 200, 000 Credits Tier III Tier III schools are the rarest and most powerful schools of magic, with precious few in history having ever obtained them. School of Space: 2, 500, 000 Credits School of Time: 5, 000, 000 Credits Tier IV+ Consume additional Lux Shards to display schools in these tiers. Jax found it rather amusing to find Tier IV listed right under the supposedly all-powerful Tier III.

Did the Goddess' System have a sense of humor, or was that supposed to mean only he could access those? The School of Fire had a handful of spells. Ditto for the others, though the higher tier schools had less. From that 'Add Spell Shard' option though, he guessed there were more that could be added to these schools, which had him actively fighting the urge to go find more right this instant. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Even if he did, his limited allocation of Lux Credits meant it would be of little use. He felt like he'd been handed the keys to a kingdom only to be told he couldn't use them until he'd survived a gauntlet of fire. Still, just knowing that there were other beings out there capable of learning magic—that there were other intelligent creatures at all—warmed his heart. Yeah, he'd seen the cities, but come on! This was magic! Actual fantasy shit! The very thought made him as giddy as a kid.

He had to wonder how strong he'd be, relative to everyone else. Assuming, of course, he eventually got ahold of all his points. Was 30, 000, 000 points a lot? It sure as hell sounded like a lot, and the Tier III description said they were among the most powerful schools, but for all he knew, Lux Bux were as inflated as the Venezuelan Bolivar, with everyone and their mother rocking time and space magic. An absolutely terrifying thought, now that he considered it.

"Wakanya, huh?" A whole new world. Jax sat on the snow and stared off into the distance, trying to take it all in. He'd just spent the last two months on a crazy adventure that already bordered on the surreal, well before all of this. Whatever this even was. Monsters? Magic? One thing was for sure. That Fireball had saved his life. Jax didn't care if it really was magic or highly advanced tech. He'd take anything that helped him survive this ordeal. Not just survive. Thrive.

Reaching the base of the peak would take several days, to say nothing of the journey that would be traveling to the city in the distance. While his Fireball spell offered some much-needed protection, what Jax really needed was a way to safely bypass those beasts, not fight them. As he'd seen, the sun bear was far from the only danger lurking on these slopes, and a mere Fireball wouldn't be nearly enough to take down those monstrosities lurking near the peak. Jax shivered just thinking about them.

Was there anything that could hurt beings that bent the laws of physics? Jax decided to shelve that disturbing thought by delving into the options, discovering that he could learn every spell in every school of elemental magic and still have plenty left over. Or, he could enter the more exotic schools like Time or Space, whose capabilities terrified Jax just as much as they excited him. Slowing time? Stopping it? Ripping open spatial rifts that sucked in all of creation?

That was the sort of powers gods wielded, not men. Then again, he had downed a bear with a freaking sun in its chest, and he'd managed to surprise it with just one hit. Did he really want that kind of firepower? Yeah. Yeah, he did. And while firepower wouldn't get him off the mountain, the [Flight] spell belonging to the School of Space absolutely would. It would turn a perilous journey of days into one of hours, though he'd still have to avoid the thousands of flying snakes that patrolled the skies.

Unfortunately, the School of Space was the second most expensive school of magic he currently had access to, costing a hefty 2, 500, 000, with the [Flight] and [Spatial Rift] spells selling for 300, 000 apiece for the Lesser variants. The Greater and Apex flavors were an additional 600, 000 and 1, 500, 000, respectively. Well beyond his current budget, and even if he could afford it, Jax wanted to do something about the aches and pains that plagued his every move first.

He already had an offensive school of magic, and in a world as dangerous as Wakanya, being able to heal wounds sounded incredibly important to his continued survival. Would you like to join the School of Life? Cost: 300, 000 Credits. A significant portion of his current budget, but if he wasn't mistaken, he'd be getting more the moment he bought it. And really, could anyone put a price on their health? He confirmed the decision, and knowledge flooded into Jax's head.

As before with the School of Fire, he felt the transformation in both body and mind. While not painful, the sensation was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. As though something fundamental about his being had shifted. Grown. New understanding about the body flooded his mind, and he felt both stronger and more full of, well, of life. He also understood why Tier II Schools had only a half-dozen spells vs the School of Fire, which had twice that. It was a question of quality over quantity.

Tier II spells channeled incomparably more Lux. That power required complex magical patterns which restricted their utility. The tradeoff was power of another magnitude entirely, compared to what a Tier I school could dish out. Welcome to the School of Life. For entering into this school, you have gained a permanent 25% boost to all future Vitality gains. Jax noticed that the School of Life boosted his level to 35, and [Lesser Heal] gained him another two, bringing it to 37.

While he didn't concern himself with what that all meant, he did notice how his Vitality had received a nice little bump, going from 130 to 163. Jax wasn't quite sure what dimension of physical fitness Vitality represented, but he certainly felt invigorated. Quest: Get off the mountain (Part III of???) Complete! You are now a Duomancer. Lux Credit Tranche I Unlocked. 5, 000, 000 Credits are now available. That certainly eased Jax's budget concerns for the time being.

Due to a perceived emergency, the System has automatically allocated 350 Lux on your behalf. Jax's eyes narrowed. Was it talking about the Sun Bear? And what exactly was Lux? Shrugging, he found the [Lesser Heal] spell, bought it for another 15, 000 Credits, and concentrated on activating the ability. A moment passed. Then another. Nothing happened. Jax read through the spell's description. Lesser Heal (School of Life) Consumes a small amount of Lux to heal superficial wounds and minor bodily damage.

Lux Consumption: Minimal Ah. So Lux was a magic battery, and he clearly didn't have enough, having used it all for his Fireball spell.

"Alright, then how do I put points into Lux?" The prompt in front of him helpfully updated. 1 Lux Credit = 10 Lux. How many credits would you like to spend? He doubted it cost more than the [Apex Fireball] spell—just that he'd burned through his reserve so the battery was currently low on charge. As such, he put in the minimum—just one point—for 10 Lux. The moment he did, something changed deep within his chest. The pressure in the center of his chest grew, expanding. Was that some new organ within him?

Or something intangible? Would it show up on an MRI? Jax couldn't say, but whatever it was felt good. If this was how having Lux felt, Jax certainly wouldn't mind adding more. Trying to activate the ability again, Jax felt something this time. Like the magic was getting closer to firing, but failing. Jax added more Lux in 10 point increments. Each time, that feeling of fullness grew ever so slightly stronger—the droplet in his chest becoming a tiny puddle.

Once he reached 50, the ability activated, and the chant came naturally to his mind, draining his entire pool in an instant. Ven ko'nav ma'ai! A blue-green haze manifested, expanding with each syllable of the nice, short chant. When he finished, the wispy cloud covered his entire body, and Jax was subjected to a roller coaster of feelings, one after another. First, the rush of using magic—that intoxicating feeling of surging Lux through the channels that crisscrossed his body.

It was soon replaced by the feeling of his Lux reserves running dry. Not a pleasant experience, to put it mildly. It wasn't just losing that warm, filling feeling. Draining his Lux made him nauseous and gave him a mild headache. Much less severe than before, but Jax figured discharging all of his Lux back then had triggered the same reaction. Then, finally, the healing spell's effects activated, wiping those feelings away.

It was a little like stepping into a long, hot shower after a solid workout, soothing and massaging him. A wave of decadent bliss that pulsed gently through his body before finally fading.

"Wow…" The difference was immediate. Jax's soreness was gone without a trace, and he felt like he had more energy too, though that might just have been because his body was no longer battered and bruised. Moreover, the healing spell almost ran itself, requiring only focused attention. No learning required. That was a happy discovery, sure, but what about the flight spell? He somehow doubted that would be as easy. Giddy with barely-contained excitement, Jax unlocked the Tier III School of Space Magic.