‘Right, it was like that, and that. Yes, combining the previous Tiers, it is almost like a combination of them all…’ After a few minutes, Eldrian felt like he had managed to recall the module and its first two derivations, though he wasn’t planning on using the derivations.
Naturally, with his research, he had also glanced a bit at higher Tier spells. But with everything that was going on Eldrian hadn’t focused much on this. It was why he felt he just needed some time to practice and he would make some massive strides.
‘Okay, so, I’ve got the module. Now the mana.’ Thanks to all the practice over the past few months, Eldrian had massively improved his mana control. He fed it slowly to the spell module, which at first rejected the offered mana.
Eldrian then quickly altered the combination of water and darkness, slowly finding that something else was missing too. So he added some wind mana and also a speck of ether in the end.
‘Oh, that did it?’
Feeling that the spell module had started solidifying, Eldrian looked back at the orcs who were enjoying their feast.
“Right, now the amplification rune.” Not satisfied with simply casting a Tier 5 spell, Eldrian wanted to push it even further. After a few seconds, he felt that it would be quite apt to add the rune over the entire module. Like a bubble surrounding and empowering it.
Envisioning it like this, he struggled a bit to keep everything perfect. Luckily, with his high stats and hours upon hours of mental training IRL- where he couldn’t do much more, he was able to keep it all perfect.
Finally, he was ready to release his spell. With a grin, Eldrian did just that. The mana cost a little disappointing compared to Nova, it was about half the amount. Eldrian expected some good results regardless.
Eldrian watched a cloud of ice form above the orcs, somewhat resembling the spell module in form. Each node seemed to turn into an icicle, and death rained down on the orcs. As this happened, Eldrian got four system notifications, two he had not expected at all.
[340k XP gained]
[New spell created: Please name the spell]
[Category, Runic-Determined, Ice-Wheather, Tier 5], up till now Eldrian had assumed that runic magic wasn’t categorized by his personal system, thus why he didn’t have any info on Nova’s actual power.
[You have reached Tier 5!], This however was the most shocking message.
‘Umm, what?’ Eldrian’s attention was immediately drawn to the latter, opening it to see what it said he also paused and checked his mana network. It seems to have suddenly grown a bit more solid, but it was still not completed.
This was confirmed when Eldrian read the system messages.
[Tier 5 spell has been cast successful, Magic class has reached Tier 5]
[Error, error, error… Recalculating, re-evaluating, reforming], ‘Umm…’
[Player, Eldrian, has reached Tier 5.]
[Growth from Tier 5 will be gained over the course of a few days – Current, 0,005…%]
[Growth – Constitution: 20 | Strength: 10 | Agility: 40 | Spirit: 80 | Intelligence: 80]
‘Really?’ Sighing, Eldrian turned to the spell instead.
[Unnamed spell (Chalázi págou – variant): Runic-Determined, Ice-Wheather, Tier 5]
[Cost: 312MP]
[Damage: 178 (54.6)]
[Frost Damage: 40 (12.5)]
[Cast time: 15-35 seconds]
[Duration: 12 seconds]
[Description: Countless extremely cold and sharp icicles are formed, which are then accelerated and directed at the target. Each icicle deals damage equal to 178 Ice Damage (54.6), chilling on contact giving another 40 Frost Damage (12.5) for three seconds, slowing the target’s movement.]
‘Umm…’ Eldrian turned to the destruction where he had used the spell, there were easily over a hundred icicles. While the area it covered had only been three meters, the damage potential was simply insane.
It seemed to be far more effective than Nova, though the concentration to cast it was also much much more demanding. On the flip, the mana requirement was far less.
Of course, due to all the things Eldrian had been concentrating on to cast the spell, he hadn’t even tried to control the spell. Imagining if he could actually take control of it, Eldrian almost started drooling. Yes, almost, most definitely almost.
‘That is kind of insane…’ Eldrian mumbled after a few seconds, secretly wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth.
He immediately started thinking of how he could effectively use the spell. The first would be to spread it more, even if he couldn’t increase the number of icicles. If he could increase the area and control some of the falling icicles, it would be a truly deadly spell.
‘However, if something has a high MR rating… Or an ability like my {Shield}, it can be almost completely negated…’ Eldrian understood well that a barrier could also stop the spell too, and the cast time even for him was way too long.
‘Might be able to shorten it with practice… Might even to skip, maybe not…’ Considering the complexity of imagining the effects of the spell, using the spell module might be easier.
Dropping it, Eldrian decided it was time to move on. So he continued his assault on the poor orcs who were alone searching through the ruins for survivors.
…
It was now dusk, the sky an ominous red as the sun slowly hid behind the horizon.
Eldrian stopped and looked at his map and the group of orcs ahead. Thus far he hadn’t really been able to test his limits.
Even a Tier 5 orcs wasn’t a good match, those Eldrian had fought thus was far were simply too slow. He could easily run circles around their 200-250 agility, and while they were stronger than him, it was not to a degree to matter since they almost never locked blades.
This however might be a bit too much.
Eldrian was keenly aware of this and he didn’t want to push himself past his limits. He simply wanted to find his new limits.
‘Ceph, can you come here for a second?’ Eldrian asked, sending a teleportation offer to Ceph. Since Ceph had enough mana, he immediately came over.
“What’s up?” Ceph asked, while coming over via running would have been more efficient mana-wise, this was faster. Though now Ceph only had a quarter of his mana left, and his regen was actually shockingly slower than Eldrian’s- whose was boosted by his items.
It would take Ceph nearly an hour to recover the mana he had just used.
“I want to see what my limits are, there is a group of orcs around the corner. I’m going to try and face them alone, but if I need help I want you nearby ready to act. Don’t want to end up pushing myself too far, or even end up dying.”
“That’s all?” Ceph asked as if the plan was something normal.
“Yup… Well, there is an orc warrior who managed to slip past the magic towers. It’s what I am really worried about, so be ready to rush over if it is stronger than suspected.” Unfortunately, the orc warrior was inside one of the buildings, and with all the orcs hiding around the area Eldrian can’t get a line of sight to observe its stats.
AN: Hello everyone, I would just like to thank everyone who has purchased the privilege and is supporting me through it. Thank you all so much!