Sacrifice Mage-Chapter 135 (B2: C51): Thauma

Early that day, before I got going on other business, I tested out Sacrifice with Ignition Charge. Had mostly ignored it because Immolation and Orbit just felt like regular old Affixes, if a bit fancier and weirder, so I assumed Sacrificing them would be like Sacrificing my Aspect casts—I’d just get a reward that the next Ignition Charge would be boosted.
Which felt kind of like a waste when I had to wait at least a whole day to get another chance to use Ignition Charge again.
That said, Sprite was
very
different from any old Affix.
So, after calling it up and feeling a weird pang of guilt at just Sacrificing it like that, I channelled my Aspect.
“Sorry, little guy,” I said.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Cast of 1 Ignition Charge: Sprite. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward
: Soul Link between caster and Sprite strengthens by 5x for the next Soul Link manifestation.
]
Huh? Soul Link? The Weave was spelling it out like it was a term I was already familiar with, and a little bit of thinking reminded me to take it literally. There
was
a strange link between me and the artificial sprite. I’d just need to see what kind of change this resulted in when I had another Ignition Charge.
I headed out early to go to the academy, early enough to miss the morning traffic. Getting lost would probably squander some time, so accounting for that had also been a big motivation, although I did have some maps Sreketh had drawn up to Sacrifice. But it turned out just because I had gotten up before most people went to work, it didn’t mean Zairgon was free and deserted.
The guards were all up and active. Not just the guards, though. I found a whole squad of them accompanied by people in even crisper and more militarized uniforms. Then I realized they
were
the military.
“It’s defence preparations,” Revayne said when I found her near the gate connecting Rings Three and Four. The guard and the military were manning the top of the gate, taking up positions and practice-patrolling. Someone loud and boisterous was yelling out orders. “We’re getting ready for the Blight Swarm.”
Like always, Revayne was lost in her book, like the battle plans were written up there. Probably was, from all I knew about her esoteric Aspect.
“There hasn’t been an announcement or anything from the Council, has there?” I asked. I had been out for about a day, so I might have missed that.
But Revayne shook her head. “Not yet. We wanted to show that we were doing something about it first and
then
explain the reason why. Gives people greater reassurance.”
I nodded. That was smart.
“I’m actually part of the military, you know,” she said eventually. “I just spend most of my time in the city guards because that’s where a lot of soldiers spend their downtime.”
That made a lot more sense, honestly. She was the scion of nobles, a Great House of actual humans. Just because they had worked their way up to that position didn’t mean they would shirk from the idea that simple guard duty felt a little beneath their social class.
But being a temporary guard who was actually a military member fit a lot better in that greater scheme.
“What exactly is the difference between the military and the guards here?” I asked.
“Well, for one thing, the military aren’t necessarily trained to hold back.”
I had no trouble believing that. There was a reason why soldiers weren’t used for policing within a country’s own borders.
“For another,” Revayne said. “Most of the military are experienced, Silver-ranked combatants led by Golds, with the occasional Opal overseeing operations.”
That made me think about the population density of higher ranks. The only Opal I knew personally was Master Kostis, who was trying to advance beyond it. There had to be others, of course. I had met Councillors, and each and every one of them had felt significantly stronger than Kostis, even during downtime. Not that I had seen what Master Kostis was truly capable of.
It was nice to see that the city was in good hands, at least. This was what Revayne had been busy with the past month and a half. That, combined with what I saw with all the counter-siege engines being constructed on the walls and the drills being performed, made me feel safe.
Well, it made me feel like the
core
of Zairgon would be kept safe.
“You’re, uh, forgetting an entire Ring, don’t you think?” I pointed out.
Revayne winced just enough for me to make it out despite her face being mostly hidden behind her book. “I assure you, Ross, we are establishing patrols within Ring Four.”
“But no actual defences?”
“There will be posts—stations manned by the guards and the military. It
is
a part of Zairgon, but it is also unfortunately a neglected part that can’t support the infrastructure needed for mounting a legitimate defensive measure. We can’t construct thick walls or mount catapults on uneven ground in such a short time.”
That was debatable. In a world full of magic, surely they’d have been able to do all that, if only they had the will to do so. “And whose fault is that?”
Revayne sighed.
After a moment, I did so too. “Sorry, I don’t mean to get mad at you. It’s just a little frustrating to have Ring Four be treated like outer-city slums all the time.”
“I know. There’s an ongoing motion to bring in as many Ring Four residents as we can into Ring Three before the invasion, but it hasn’t advanced significantly yet.”
“Oh, that’s surprising. I mean the motion itself, not the fact that it hasn’t gotten far.” I nodded, feeling a little better. “It’s nice to hear, and I absolutely won’t stand in anyone’s way if it gets a green light.”
“Green light?”
“Uh, basically if it gets approved. Anyway, my focus is on making sure Ring Four survives, especially since we’ve agreed with the Anymphea that we’ll be hosting them in Ring Four too.”
That was, apparently, news to Revayne. “I was wondering where the rest of them would go since Ring Two certainly can’t hold all of them. Not even Ring Three can.”
“We’re still working on it, but it should be coming along.”
It was time I got going, so I said my farewells and took my leave. The academy was waiting.
“I may be busy, Ross,” Revayne said. “But if you have any need of me, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
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I smiled at her. “Thanks. Same here. If you need any particular help, especially in Ring Four, then you know where I am.”
Getting to the academy itself took some more time but only because I ended up at the Bathhouse again. It was, thankfully, almost devoid of people that early on, though there were a few shy folks trying to take advantage of the relative privacy to get some quick relaxation in.
One of my instances of getting lost led me to the Artificer’s Guild, but unfortunately, it was closed. I was too early. No Linak to accompany me today, it seemed.
I got tired, Sacrificed the map, then went through the Preserve, past the gate, and finally into the academy itself. I wasn’t held up thanks to the letter I was able to present.
And then I was being led through magical hallways—I wasn’t too early for Xokrist academy, thank the Banished Gods—and up one of those strange floating-chunk-of-the-floor elevators.
“You didn’t have to come yourself, Professor Izithy,” I said. “Though I appreciate it, of course.”
“No problem at all, Mage Moreland. Helping a budding young mage who can make Zairgon itself tremble by destroying dungeons and discovering long-buried horrors is just something we do at the academy here.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or stare. “You already know about that? It hasn’t even been two days.”
Professor Izithy chuckled. “News travels fast.”
Neither I nor my party members were exactly trying to hide the discovery of the Nether Vein. We had gotten what we wanted. But it made me wonder how everyone else saw the situation. Clearly, Izithy wasn’t upset about it. If anything, she was rather excited.
“You didn’t happen to… go inside, did you?” she asked.
“I don’t think what I experienced was actually
inside
the Nether Vein, no,” I said. “I heard it’s very dangerous.”
“Oh, yes! The Ascendants’ Monumental Opus are beyond what most can handle. Even the strongest in Zairgon would be ill-equipped on the best of days to traverse the entire length of the Nether Vein, although such a thing is impossible simply because it doesn’t adhere to normal concepts of
length
.”
That had to be a bit of an exaggeration. Surely people like the Councillors could tackle it? Hadn’t Cerea mentioned that it was a Councillor who had sealed up the Nether Vein in the first place? Although, I supposed that wasn’t the same thing as traversing its whole length.
“I know that look.” Izithy was staring at me with her knowing slit-pupils. “The farther you go into a Nether Vein, the harsher it gets on your soul, mind, and body. I would be cautious of it, were I you, Mage Moreland.”
I decided against tackling her implication that I was thinking of going in again or something. The elevator was slowing down as it reached our destination, which was near the top of the academy. Xokrist’s floors were wider as they went higher. Everything was mostly quiet early on, though there were a few suits of armour moving about and sweeping the hallways.
Izithy led me through one passage until we arrived at an expansive balcony behind a locked door. The area was about half as big as a football field. At its centre was a strange, domed room with a circular entrance.
“Inside please,” Izithy said. “This is the Attribute Chamber. From here on out, you will be on your own, Mage Moreland. Remember, you must focus on why you truly need a new Attribute. The density of mana might be a tad much, so remember this also—there is no shame in retreat.”
I disagreed, since that was circumstance-dependent. Especially since in this case, I felt like I was definitely prepared, even more so considering my most recent experiences.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as I went through the doorway.
The chamber was unassuming and unadorned. Just a stretch of whiteness. The interior of the dome held nothing remarkable at all save for right above me, where a large crystal hung down like the strangest chandelier in existence.
I could
feel
the mana emanating from it. Feel it in the sense that my mana core responded to its presence, whirring faster like a switch had been flipped to engage the engine.
The sensation intensified as the door closed behind me.
“Good fortune, Mage Moreland,” Professor Izithy said.
The intensity amped up fast. I took a deep breath as my skin started buzzing and the mana within me responded to the magical energy rushing out from the crystal to flood the little Attribute Chamber. This was fine. I had gone through something ten times worse, a hundred times more destructive.
I sat down cross-legged and focused. Threaded Reinforcement came alive again, filling my whole body with cracks emanating from my mana core before they solidified into smooth threads.
That wasn’t avoidable. But also, it wasn’t a bad thing. I had grown familiar with the magical energy turning into livewires inside me.
The process felt like a smaller version of my core awakening’s mana implosion. My body was trying to pull away from me again. Flesh turning white, vision turning warped, other senses dimming until I felt enormously restless and full and moments away from bursting.
I got a grip on it. It was the same thing that I had undergone within the dungeon. I channelled Gravity, trying to see if I could use it to focus on the magical energy now storming all around me. I wanted more. I wanted it
all
. This was still paltry compared to what my mana core had belched out in Eversight dungeon to rediscover the Nether Vein. If this was what the Attribute Chamber could provide, then I’d be stupid not to take it all in.
But none of that was my main goal here. A new Attribute.
That
was my real objective. It didn’t matter what the mana did or how it acted, so long as I gained Thauma.
So, I continued channelling Gravity even as I felt my very being get replaced with a facsimile constructed from mana. I tried creating it tangibly around me, tried materializing it into tiny orbs or anything that was potentially tangible, not just a field of attractive force.
Picking Gravity over Flare or Illumination was best because it would be the hardest to manifest. It wasn’t simply energy like the other two. And that made it click. I felt the mana hollowing me out in a strange fashion. Unlike what had happened with Ignition Charge, my mana core’s frequency clashed discordantly with that of the exterior magical energy.
A spiritual space seemed to open up inside me, the same kind of different emptiness I experienced when gaining a new Augmentation or Affix slot. Like something was supposed to go in there.
Good thing I knew what fit. I had an excellent idea of exactly what I wanted.
Miracles. That was what Kostis had said about Thauma. Hadn’t I gone through a bunch of miracles through my new life on Ephemeroth?
The miracle of being summoned. The miracle of surviving a ritual sacrifice. The miracle of finding a new home in the cult, of finding friends I could gel with and who were kind and helpful and generally good people. The miracle of growing stronger and stronger, at a boosted rate thanks to Sacrifice…
Sacrifice. I had decided against using it in the dungeon to prevent pushing my mana implosion back too far, but I didn’t have to hesitate here. It wasn’t that I had nothing to Sacrifice just then. I did. All the Gravity casts I sent out, the ones that failed to latch onto the mana and draw them to me as I wanted got offered as a tribute.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Cast of 1 Gold-ranked Aspect. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward
: Effect of next cast is raised by 4x
]
It was interesting to note, in an abstract sense, how the boost had gone up to four times now. But I wasn’t satisfied yet. As the new mana from outside interacted with the magic energy pumped out by my core, almost like they were combating each other, I used Sacrifice and Gravity alternately again and again.
Effect of next cast
, the reward stated. It wasn’t just the specific intensity of Gravity that was changing with every Sacrifice I performed. I was also affecting what Gravity could do. Or at least, I was gaining better and better control over it.
The more I focused after boosting my Aspect’s effect, the more I felt like I could target things more precisely. It was strange that I felt like I was somehow working to attain a new Affix when I already had Granular Control for those fine applications. But I realized the difference before long. I wasn’t just targeting matter finely.
I was trying to attract
energy
towards me.
The realization almost broke my concentration. Normal gravity could work that way, right? Powerful gravity fields, like black holes, prevented even light from escaping them. But this Weave-driven
Gravity
wasn’t quite getting up there, and I wasn’t sure if it was because it was missing a functionality—as in, an Affix—or if it was just too weak to do so.
I focused harder, concentrated more. This world was one of magic, where I could push the boundary of what I could accomplish with some rudimentary understanding of physics. But that didn’t mean things in Ephemeroth were limited by said physics.
All this time, maybe I had been too constrained by the assumptions I had brought along with me from Earth. Despite living here for months on end, I had still grown up in a different world and brought the characteristics it had embedded within me into the equation. But now…
Now I had no reason to let anything hold me back.
[ Attribute Unlocked!
Need acknowledged. Mana concentration established. Requisite Path discovered: Path of Burning Starlight.
New Attribute
: Thauma
]
Something crystallized within me. That emptiness I had felt earlier was now being compressed, like my flesh and blood and organs were solidifying somehow. It was so odd. I was just glad the process wasn’t painful, even though I felt faint at times.
The intensity of the mana around me started receding. With the process now complete I felt like I could almost
see
the whirling mana retreat back inside the crystal that had spewed it out.
But I cared less about that than the fact that I had done it. I had a new Attribute! There were so many considerations I need to think about, but for now, the main priority was to rank—
Heavy knocks banged against the wall of the Attribute Chamber.
“Hey!” a gruff voice shouted. “Open up! Why in the Pits are you taking so long? Don’t you know there’s nobility waiting to use the Attribute Chamber, you Ring Four mongrel?”