The Way Ahead

Okay, so there’s basically three categories here, he mused to himself, There’s the make-something-else-fly, the make-Flight-better, and the do-something-new-with-Flight.

The hard part was over. Well, maybe it was more that the hard part was just starting, but this was just him and his own thoughts. Much better than the endless discussions of the day before. Everything remaining was just up to him and what he wanted. They’d all agreed on that. There were no wrong choices for Skill evolutions so long as you were happy.

It was without question the complete opposite of what the Empire said, what Tara and Rizzali had told him, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. He was talking to adventurers, after all, and the one thing they all had in common was they weren’t prone to fitting in.

They disagreed about the why, though. Rillah had said it was because the only way to avoid regrets was to go with his heart. Inion had looked like she wanted to disagree on principle, but said that she liked watching him be himself, and any infringement on his Edwin-ness would interfere with her enjoyment. Lefi had the very practical argument that when adding a new tool to the toolbox, he was the only one with any idea which he’d find the most useful. Yathal had of course said he needed to do whatever sounded coolest.

So, it was all on him.

Without question, the Paths with the most potential were Mystic Alchemist and Physical Alchemist. That they were also both 90-point Paths wasn’t an accident either. If he wanted to risk it, he could take Potioneer or Material Scientist for similar results, but he could also take a bit of a loan from his Tier 2 Skills and raise Flight up to level 70 or 75 to keep the hit from being too bad. He was definitely going to take a long time to get Alchemy up to level 120, and once he did… he’d have enough time to raise other Skills enough to offset a single extra level from the rest of them.

At the same time, Edwin was still hesitant. He had friends, and that was great! Or… he had people who were willing to spend time with him. He’d been in this situation before, and he knew how it went. Sooner or later they’d get bored, they’d move on, and Edwin would be back on his own.

He was probably wrong. He hoped he was wrong.

But that part of his brain just wouldn’t die no matter how much he tried. It definitely didn’t help that he had just been reminded that Inion only followed him around because he was interesting, Rillah was likely to run off following some shiny thing that caught her attention, and Lefi would continue shepherding Yathal and Kyni off somewhere, now that Rillah had helped draw the boy out of his shell. It was only a matter of time until they all left him, surely?

Well… no matter. It did mean that he shouldn’t really focus too much on purely other-focused Skills. So, no Mystic Alchemist. Physical Alchemist, then? Ehhh… maybe.

He felt fairly safe in eliminating Athlete, Survivor, and Daredevil. They weren’t very magical Paths, and magic was always better. After all, he was dealing with a sort of self-only telekinesis with his current Flight skill, and that could definitely be nurtured some…

Ooh. Should he try and get the Physical Arcanist path again? Would that possibly give him some sort of superior tactile telekinesis, kind of like what he had with Packing, but way stronger?

Hmm… probably not. It would definitely be good, but… well, maybe? Skilled Arcanist might do something like that, if it managed to tie Flight back into its parent. Physical Arcanist gave a wealth of Attributes, but he could wait on that. He needed to keep growing, and he didn’t know what it would take to re-unlock the Path.

Primal Ritualist definitely had potential as well, but that potential was essentially tangential to Flight as it stood already. He’d need to relearn how to fly completely from scratch and figure out a whole new set of limitations.

Of course, that would mean more time spent with Rillah, a part of his brain whispered, and he didn’t entirely have the heart to crush it. Still, it was probably not that useful. It would predilect him towards a different type of magic, but he preferred his current track. Besides, Primal Ritualist was absurdly broad and could give him some very… suboptimal possibilities. Maybe it would allow him to cast a flight-type spell, or maybe it would let him transform into a bird. Powerful, sure, but… not worth the 90 points on such a risk.

That left Assassin, Engineer, Physical Alchemist, Aerialist and Skilled Arcanist.

Engineer he could eliminate, he felt. He could figure out flying machines easily enough if he tried, and it wasn’t very magical. Assassin went next, for similar reasons. Stealth may have been tremendously useful, but if he was planning on using high explosives as his weapon of choice, stealth was not the right tactic. Also, it wasn’t magical.

That brought him down to what he kind of anticipated all along. Physical Alchemist, Aerialist, and Skilled Arcanist.

Did he want to double-down on his alchemy, giving him even more potential in that regard and opening a literal new dimension for his creations? Did he want to become an even better flyer? Or did he want to try and branch out into a novel but related ability? Each Path typified one of his options.

Who was he? Was he a crafter? A specialist? A generalist?

Could he trust his companions? He wanted to say yes, he wanted to yell at the little voice in the back of his head saying they were only here temporarily. But there was just a little bit of unknown.

Besides, he rationalized, Physical Alchemist would probably be way better for tier 3. And there might be so many complications in actually making any stuff. If I can make it with alchemy, I’ll be able to make it with Alchemy one day.

Yeah. It didn’t have anything to do with his trust. Physical Alchemist just wasn’t as good of a choice as his other options. Sure, it gave him new possibilities, but he was already planning on bringing Alchemy to level 120, and he had other Skills that already supported it. Any more was just overkill, clearly.

So, Aerialist or Skilled Arcanist?

Aerialist was the safe option. It was his most predictable option out of probably all of them. No muss, no fuss, just a quick way to double-down on what he already had and get stronger faster. Skilled Arcanist, on the other hand, was a risk. He didn’t know what he would get, but it would probably be good. At worst, it would just improve his Flight similar to how Aerialist would.

It was that old joke about taking risks, but in reverse. “You can either get this boat, or you could take your chance at a mystery prize, which could be anything! Even a boat!”

Of course, it might not be that generally useful. There was always that possibility. Boring and safe, or fun and risky? A thought flickered across his mind. Did he want to stay with what was known, what was safe, or did he want to discover something new?

Well, it might have been his time with Rillah talking, but there was only ever one answer to that question.

Further testing required.

Mana 33 → 37

You have completed the Skilled Arcanist path!

You continue to grasp the endless possibilities of magic, and as you keep following this path, your strength and power grow in surprising and potent ways. With knowledge in one hand, and magic in the other, all will be in your grasp, and even the furthest target will be but a step away.

Alchemist-Errant

You may evolve your Flight skill into the Unbound Tether skill!

Accept Evolution? Y/N

Wait, what? If that was what he thought it was, it was better than he could have even imagined? Fully free flight? Yes, please.

Unbound Tether

A bit of a longshot, but I’m sure you’ll be hooked

Attach your tether to anything

Strength increases with level.

Well, that was promising. Anything? That sounded absolutely fantastic. It also meant that there was probably a lot unsaid in the Skill box, not that that was anything new.

“Hey guys!” he rushed out of his room, nearly running into the halfling… what was her name again?

Honored Senior Mundanity Assistant

Pierash (SheraithPierash)

The housekeeper for Sheraith’s wizard tower, under Rillah when I met her. Slightly snippy at times but mostly agreeable.

“Ah, sorry!” he acted more on instinct than conscious choice, activating Flight and somersaulting over the startled woman and her basket of food.

“Children,” she admonished, as Edwin drifted over her, “Always fluttering around. Honestly.”

Polyglot whispered there was something he was missing, and she clearly expected him to catch onto some kind of wordplay because when he didn't respond, she muttered something under her breath and continued down the hall.

Edwin mentally shrugged, then turned and flew in the opposite direction. Lefi would already be up, Edwin had yet to sleep in past the guy even when he woke up at dawn, and it was well into midmorning by now after his deliberations on what Path to complete. Rillah would likely be awake as well, doing her wind-magic stuff up at the top of the tower.

He found Inion and Lefi talking in their favorite side-room. It was one of the few rooms without glaringly ostentatious décor everywhere while still being large enough to accommodate all the furniture they’d gathered for their purposes. One wall was occupied by a massive fireplace, already lit and radiating heat though the room. Through some magic- literally, the entire tower radiated the stuff- it never made the room feel too hot, and Edwin didn’t know where the smoke went given its lack of chimney.

Apparently a centuries-old tower which had many powerful mages in residence had a bunch of magical conveniences. Who'd've thunk it.

Edwin dropped onto his couch, “Good morning,” he greeted the pair. They’d stopped talking when he’d arrived, but Edwin had caught some snatches about… a net? He wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter and they clearly didn’t want to talk about it in front of him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Um… saying good morning?” Edwin wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to such a blatant sign that Inion didn’t want him around.

“No, no. You never come here this early in the morning, you’re always off in your workshop or flying.”

“Oh, well…” he shrugged, “I settled on a Path, and now I’ve got a new Skill to test out. Figured I shouldn’t try it inside, but I’d also rather not explain it all to you later, so I wanted to try it with you guys around. I mean… I can leave and do it on my own if you’d prefer that?”

“Nonsense! A new Skill, particularly such an intriguing one, deserves full investigation! Come along, friend Inion, let us learn of Edwin’s new abilities!”

Edwin’s first impression of Unbound Tether was that it was… a touch disappointing, honestly.

Well, perhaps more ‘underwhelming.’ The Skill’s potential was definitely there, but at level 1 it left much to be desired. Activating it bore many resemblances to Flight, and by default, the tether would attach to the ground beneath his feet. However, he could very much aim it wherever he pleased, so long as he had a direct line-of-sight and could accurately conceptualize what he was aiming for.

With the exception of ‘the ground’ it was an object-by-object targeting system, so he couldn’t just target half of Lefi’s sword, it was all or nothing. However, unlike what the description led him to believe, he retained his Flight limitations. He could attach his tether to anything, sure, but the omnidirectional mobility of Flight didn’t kick in until he was within 6.36 meters of it.

What he could do, however, was either push or pull on the tether to try and bring himself closer or farther away from his target. It wasn’t very strong- from what he could tell, it only exerted about eight Newtons of force. It was enough for him to go slightly higher with his Flight, or jump slightly further, but that was about it.

Hmm. Well, he had speculated it might key off of his other Skills, so maybe there was something more impressive there, before it grew in level?

Longstrider worked predictably. Some testing showed that he could jump marginally higher when pushing against the ground, but just barely. It made sense, by pushing against the ground it functionally reduced gravity and correspondingly allowed him to jump higher.

It actually did pair decently with Flight, much to his surprise. While at level 2, it didn’t provide much flexibility, he could augment his own mana expenditure with the Skill’s force, letting him fly just a bit higher and faster in exchange for the third law of motion applying.

Overcharge felt synergistic, but Edwin couldn’t really tell what it actually did. Further testing was required.

Mana Infusion, though, was far and away the winner. He found that he could charge the Skill to build up… tension, really. It felt like compressing a massive spring, and releasing it had a similar sensation, giving him a massive boost in initial energy.

He could only use it on surfaces he was touching, but that felt less like an inherent limitation and more like something he could overcome with practice. Overall, he could get somewhere between a six and eight times boost when fully charged, but doing so took a full minute to prepare.

It didn’t even really allow him to Tether off of anything for Flight. Sure, he could target a solitary leaf stubbornly clinging onto a mostly-bare bush, but because his new Skill obeyed the laws of motion, he couldn’t use it for proper Flight. Trying just ripped off the leaf, and further tests showed that pebbles fled from him or flew to his hand….

Edwin’s eyes got very, very wide.

Eight Newtons may not be a lot for him, no. But for a pebble? Or a bullet?

“Did I just get a railgun?” he whispered to himself.

Eight newtons meant that every second a 1 kilo object was pushed, it would accelerate by eight meters per second. For Edwin, who probably weighed somewhere between sixty to seventy kilos, that meant he would accelerate by about .1 meters per second every second. But if he had a pebble, then that would be… much, much faster.

When it was at level 1, 8 newtons of force on something that weighed say 10 grams would accelerate it by 800 meters per second squared. After a single second, it would be going faster than mach two. If he Infused the skill for its full minute, that was Mach twenty.

Assuming that at some point the Skill grew strong enough to completely cancel out Edwin’s weight, which seemed reasonable given its ostensible purpose, that would be mach two thousand when fully Infused. Wasn’t that getting somewhere close to c?

Edwin’s breath caught in his throat. There was no way that was right, surely? He had to have made a mistake somewhere. There was no way he could be hitting relativistic speeds, surely? What was the speed of light again?

Right, yes. C was just shy of 300 million meters per second, Mach 2k was ‘just’ 600 thousand meters per second…. Of acceleration, every single second.

Yeah no, that wasn’t any less terrifying. He’d be getting firsthand experience with general relativity at higher levels. There had to be a catch. Right? He didn’t want to imagine the idea that anyone should be able to singlehandedly raise everyday pebbles to supercollider levels of speed.

“Edwin, are you alright? You look pale. Is something wrong with your Skill?”

“I’m… probably fine,” he replied in a small voice, “I just… need to test something.”