[ACCESS: STONE THAUMATURGY SKILL TREE]
[SYSTEM NOTE: All these skills are Common-level skills. Please refer to the known Skill tree to access Tier 2 (Rare-level) skills.]
[WARNING: Be sure to refer to double-check the requirents for unlocking every Skill. So Tier 2 skills cannot be unlocked until the prerequisite Tier 1 skills are available. Mastery Points are difficult to earn, so use them strategically to specialize into specific builds.]
[EXAMPLE: Defensive Stone Tank Build requires a vastly different skillset than Stone Golem Summoner.]
He checked his existing and unlockable Common-grade skills, and saw a new one under the unlockable sections (skills he hadn’t had yet).
Twisted Stone Swing (Rank I)
Active
Offensive / Reaction
Forms a stone and/or infuses aether into an existing stone, and reinforces the montum of a swinging motion. Adds weight and torque mid-strike, causing a whip-like snap of brittle stone that can crack bone or stagger unarmored targets. Especially effective when used with staves or picks.
This spell wasn’t here before. But I saw Liene use it just now and recognized it. Not that I need it; I can already fling stones.
Then another glyph popped up.
[SYSTEM NOTE: Many Tier 1 Foundation Spells cannot be learned until the calibrator is aware or reminded of their existence. Please observe other spellcasters in training, revise study materials or consult local databases (e.g. Grand Libraries) to unlock Tier 1 compatibility.][ADDITIONAL NOTE: Certain legacy spells may not appear in contemporary study scrolls. Seek out oral traditions, discarded grimoire fragnts, or unindexed spirit-encoded archives. Antiquated terms may include ‘Tongue of Sparks’, ‘Breath-Tether’, or ‘Third Arm of the Beaver.’]
Third Arm of the Beaver? That’s a mistake, right? It’s supposed to be ‘Weaver’.
[SYSTEM NOTE: Entry transcription reflects exact phrasing in recovered Archive. Lexical deviations may result from degradation of source dium, archaic dialect drift, or prior mistranslation. No authoritative correction available at current access level.]
Huh. I get what you an, but you don’t have to dunk on with bureaucratic language.
He scrolled the glyph down below and saw a number of higher-level Epic-graded spells, all of which he recognized from the textbook ‘Codex Thautica: Glyph Theory & Applications’.
Skill
Type
Sub-Affinity
Tag
Requirent
Description
Lithocrash Array (Tier III, Rank I)
Active
Earth (Stone)
[Combat]
[Offensive]
25 Earth Thaumaturgy Mastery Points
Seismic Teeth Stonepulse
Unleashes a chain of pressure-triggered tremors across a 10-ter cone of fractured ground. The spell plants volatile stone “nodes” underground that explode upwards when stepped on or triggered manually.
Tectonic Barrier (Tier III, Rank I)
Active
Earth (Stone)
[Defensive]
[Terrain]
25 Earth Thaumaturgy Mastery Points
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Stonepulse Gravel Grip
Summons a concave shell of fractured plate-stone anchored by deep geolocking. While active, caster becos immovable unless forcibly teleported or the spell breaks.
Coretongue (Tier III, Rank I)
Active
Earth (Stone)
[Utility]
[Sensing]
[Support]
25 Earth Thaumaturgy Mastery Points
Stonewhisper II Seismic Teeth
The caster can ‘speak’ with deep stone layers and receive tremor feedback, granting tremorsense, tunnel mapping, and weak-point detection.
Okay. These are the Tier 3 spells I know from my studies, but there might be more.
There was even a Tier 4 spell, the Legendary-graded, Synod-nad Faultvein Convergence. This spell had been attempted by the Rank VI Professor Margenholt.
Skill
Type
Sub-Affinity
Tag
Requirent
Description
Faultvein Convergence (Tier IV, Rank I)
Active
Earth (Stone)
[Combat]
[Terrain]
50 Earth Thaumaturgy Mastery Points
Lithocrash Array Coretongue
Temporarily awakens fault lines beneath a target area (up to 20m diater), creating unstable fissures, sudden uplifts, or plunges. Enemies may fall, stumble, or be cut off by stone walls rising from the earth.
Fabrisse stared at the skill for five seconds straight even after he’d finished reading it. Plunging enemies to the nether was an insane ability. He didn’t know it could be as powerful as the description made it out to be, though. The textbooks ntioning Rank VI Stone Thaumaturge Margenholt only noted that she cracked the ground, but did not specify by how much.
Is this the full capability of Stone Thaumaturgy? This can be as powerful as any other elent. And there might be more skills that I haven’t learned the na of yet.
He double-checked the spells he could see and saw that so lower-level spells like Seismic Teeth were particularly important as they were the prerequisite for higher-tier spells, so those should definitely be prioritized. On the other hand, Stupenstone didn’t really have synergy with anything.
Stupenstone Fling has really limited potential.
As hurtful as it felt, he might have to stop dedicating so much ti on the Stupenstone until he could actually find spell combinations to unlock skills higher up. To do that, he’d need to refresh his knowledge and possibly pay a trip to the Synod Archive.
Speaking of the Archive . . . I have a job interview in two days.
He had a newfound motivation to nail that interview now. What could possibly be better than earning so Kohns on the side while educating himself on all the Stone skills recorded throughout the history of Thaumaturgy?
Fabrisse gaped at the glowing projection of his Stone Thaumaturgy Skill nu, utterly absorbed in the interplay of spells and their potential. So absorbed, in fact, that he didn’t notice the eerie quiet settling over the alcove. The usual bustle of distant voices, the clatter of trays and stray laughter all had faded into an unnatural hush.
[PRAXIS-NODE Auto-Defense Activated]
[Proximity Alert: Hostile Pattern Detected]
He squinted at his apparition, then at the flickering light outside the narrow window. Sothing was off; the colors in the refectory seed drained, as though a dim shadow had smothered the vibrancy of the room.
A chill prickled down his spine. Am I in a Void trap again? he wondered. He thought of a random shaful mont and imdiately activated his Veil of Sha. This is bad, bad, bad. I’m so stupid. How could I have agreed to being left alone, staring at the System at the sa ti?
He bit his lower lip.
This should never have happened. I will never let it happen again.
If I get out of here in one piece . . .
[Caution:————]
[SYSTEM ALERT: ————. . . EIDRALITH FAILSAFE INTERRUPTED. . .]
[UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT DETECTED— ]
Before Fabrisse could stand, the door burst open. Celine stumbled through, breath ragged, hair half-unraveled, eyes wild with sothing that didn’t look like fear. It looked like guilt.
The aura bleeding off her made it obvious. It shimred in sputtering shades of ashen violet—the telltale hue of regret turned volatile. Sparks crackled off her skin like little shards of lightning. Her entire body glowed in a fractured halo, pulsing in mismatched rhythms.
A crescent of crystalized aether traced the side of her face like a cracked mask, one shard splitting just beneath her eye. Defensive reaction—probably automatic. Crystal was a high-level hybrid elent, and it was notoriously draining to use. One would only use it for defense when in grave danger.
He jolted.
“Kestovar. Run!” she shouted, her voice echoing off the marble pillars.
What? How? Run where?
She grabbed her pen. Sparks of aether ignited at her fingertips, writhing like living filants up the shaft. The tal cracked as aether wrapped around it, and the pen elongated, crystalizing into a midnight-blue lance, runes burning white-hot along its length. Celine spun, brandished the weapon with both hands, and drove it straight into the dark. It exploded into the darkness outside the door, and promptly reduced itself into nothing.
She turned to him, her shout morphed into a desperate growl, “Smash the window and get out! It’s all my fault. I–I didn’t know. I’m so sorry!”
In the span of a heartbeat, as Fabrisse scrambled to his feet, sothing like an impossibly black whiplash slamd into the back of Celine’s head. Shattering sounds of crystalline crumbling resounded. Her eyes turned white imdiately. With a strangled cry, she collapsed onto the floor.
Fabrisse shuddered. His heartbeat spiked. He grabbed a Stupenstone from his satchel, but his shaking hand dropped it imdiately as he touched it. He stared at the entrance.
Darkness sucked it in like a black hole.
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