It was natural for the dragon to attract the eye. However, that was just the start. Examining the rectangles, it beca clear that they were skillshundreds of skills combining elents of the common twelve skill groups and many species unique ones.
Great Dragon Aurum, Palag said. Companion of the emperor Tamin the first, and believed to have been the strongest creature of this age.
Strongest creature of the age Dallion could see that. Sothing with that many skills could do infinite combinations. Even if it didnt know spellcraft, which Dallion saw it did, the dragon would be able to conquer countries. That explained how the empire had turned into the power it was today.
Youre thinking that its all luck, isnt it? the fury asked.
Err?
The dragon. Any fool with a familiar that powerful could conquer the world without half trying. Well, you would be wrong. The Aurum didnt start out like that. Hes not even a dragon.
Hes not? Dallion looked at the creatures outline once more.
The overall shape and body structure were similar to what was described in the magic bestiary. Furthermore, there was a striking resemblance between Dark and the other dragonlets Dallion had co across.
Its a Quickgold Wyvern that the emperor had as a companion as a child. It was later that he figured out how to grant it skills, transforming it into the great dragon it later beca known for.
The emperor was a mage, Dallion stated. This all but confird it.
Yep. The founder of the Academy before it was called the Academy. His majesty was also an avid artifact collector, which is how he uncovered a lot of old knowledge bringing rise to several magic disciplines, including Echo Training.
A fascinating story, making Dallion want to have t the man. By the sound of it, it was all but certain that the emperor was an otherworlder. The things that he did were what Dallion himself would have done. The major difference was that the emperor had been born with the magic trait, while Dallion was fortunate to acquire the empathy one instead.
Seven hundred and eleven skills, Palag said. So of them extrely impressive. However, this is where the interesting part ends.
A new spell was cast, replacing the image by that of a standard human outline. There were nine clusters of rectangles surrounding him, not nearly as impressive as the what the dragon had displayed.
This is a standard echo. The number of skills vary, but as a rule of thumb, it doesnt have more than a few dozen.
Speak for yourself, Dallion thought. With the exception of Nil, all the echoes in Dallions personal domain had considerably more.
Why are so of the rectangles blank? Dallion asked.
Thats the echos potentialevery skill that it could have, but doesnt. And thats where magic cos in. Think of it as a shortcut capable of unlocking skills your echo hasnt learned.
A shortcut.
Not quite. The effort has to co from sowhere. Youre simply replacing it with an equal amount of magic. Rember your magic extraction classes? Its the sa here, and just as there, each skill requires more magic than the last.
The image of the echo vanished.
That was it? No wonder this class didnt have enough fans. The talk was definitely intriguing, but Dallion could have heard just as much while waiting in the dining room.
Normally, Id give you a few dozen books, have a few tests, check your answers, and that would be it. However, seeing youre a special case, I think its ti for so practical examples. His fingers danced in the air. A mont later, a tal pyramid appeared in his hand. Shall we?
Dallion made his way to the fury and placed his hand on the item.
ITEM AWAKENING
The classroom disappeared, replaced by a small town. Looking about, Dallion saw that the buildings had a Greco-Roman motifone that was rather familiar.
The PYRAMID is Level 20
You are in an enormous dark steel domain.
Defeat the guardian to change the PYRAMIDs destiny.
Did you make this, Nil? Dallion asked.
One of my better works, the old echo said with pride. Im surprised that theyre still using it. At the ti, I got a lot of grief that my designs were over the top.
The buildings, the statues, even the tiles on the ground were made entirely of tal, giving an alien feel to the whole thing. There was no denying the craftsmanship, though. What skill had Adzorg used while creating it? It wasnt standard crafting, nor any of the magic courses Dallion had seen.
All of a sudden, a suit of armor appeared a few steps away.
TRAINING GUARDIAN
Species: TALIN
Class: IRON
Health: 100%
Traits:
- BODY 30
- MIND 20
- PERCEPTION 20
- REACTION 20
Skills: NONE
Weakness: NONE
Lux! Dallion burst into instances.
Weapons and gear erged on him, ready for battle. The talin, however, didnt budge.
Sorry, Palag intervened. Thats a dummy. It wont fight you.
The instances faded away, but Dallion remained in full gear.
I should have warned you about this. I wanted to illustrate the actual process.
There was no deceit visible within him, so Dallion unsummoned his shield and harpsisword. Any other entity, short of a chainling, would have been preferable to this. Then again, it was said that the Academy had created the concept of talins, so it stood to reason they would be used for training.
I take it youve seen a talin before? the fury asked.
Yes. During a mission, Dallion replied. Technically, he was telling the truth. Havoc had talins in his personal domain.
Mages tend to use them a lot to protect against realm invasions. Nobles too, though mostly for their children. Nasty things to face. This one, though, the apprentice tapped the constructs helt several tis, is purely for skill training.
Dallion nodded slowly.
As with many things in life, there are three parts to echo training: mapping, testing, and teaching. Mapping is close to combat splitting in a way. You see, a web of possible abilities the entity could take skill-wise.
The explanation made Dallion think of precise item improvent. There he was still relying on combat splitting to pick the desired result during the improvent process.
Difference is that here you use a spell. The fingers of both hands moved as he slowly drew the magic patternan irregular six-circle fra with over thirty symbols, most of which Dallion had never seen.
Ten colorless rectangles appeared around the talin each containing the na and symbol of the respective skill. Interestingly, only the basic skills were shown, not the subskills related to them.
Only ten skills? Dallion moved closer to one of the rectangles. His hand freely passed through, causing them to crumble away into nothingness. The mont he pulled it back, the rectangles re-erged, the sa as before.
That for this level of spell. You only see one layer beyond what the target has.
Fiddly, no doubt, but it provided a number of options. One thing was clearone would require a lot of additional information before granting skills to an echo or familiar. Back on Earth, it wasnt rare for gars to waste points on useless skills, crippling the entire build of their ga characters. Of course, anyone could simply reset the creation process, then go online and follow the best practices established there. In this world, there was no such thing. Or was there?
Whats testing? Dallion asked.
Sharp. Palag smiled. While the spell is in effect, you can use your own mana to see what I would be like if a character had a skill.
Like a test run?
At so point, it had been. According to past records, the nymph mages did just that. The copyettes, too, but they always tended to steal abilities. Now, sadly, we can only test what skills would appear following a certain track.
Purple filled up the attack rectangle. Dozens of new rectangles popped up in the vicinity, all connected to the old one with semi-transparent threads.
The magic transfer is temporary. The mont I end the spell, itll return to . In this state, though, Im temporarily weakened. If you were to attack , Id be one magic level less.
One level for each skill? Dallion asked.
Precisely. Another blank rectangle filled up with purple.
What if I kill the dummy? Will you lose all invested magic?
No, theyll just go back to .
The fury sounded rather calm, but he still ended the spell. All the rectangles vanished, making the talin feel bare.
So, did you get the basics?
It was difficult, but I sohow managed, sir. Dallion struggled not to roll his eyes.
Including the spell?
This ti Dallion had been caught off guard. He should have figured as much, given how slowly the fury was casting the spell. Explanations were only ant for toddlers, or in this case, rank one novices. From here on, no one was going to explain spells step by step, just slow down the casting ti so that the students could catch a good enough glimpse of the pattern and learn to recreate it in their own ti.
Almost, Dallion mumbled.
Good. Have a go and then well continue with more training specifics.
Dallion was ejected from the pyramids realm, returning to the classroom. This marked the long and tedious phase of getting the training spell done.
Days passed during the rest of the afternoon, with Dallion recreating the unknown symbols one by one within his own awakening realm. The complexity had jumped astronomically, making everything else hed learned so far seem pathetically easy. Even with Harps thod, it would often be hours before he could successfully learn a new symbol, and just as much for him to perfect drawing it with ease.
After a weak real ti, Dallion could no more. Moving back to the classroom yet again, he admitted defeat. His action was expected, even welcoit showed both instructor and student where Dallions limits were.
The rest of the lesson focused on discussing a few examples of creatures, the skills of which were entirely mapped. As it turned out, in addition to their skill-potential, creatures, as well as people, had sothing called affinity. That explained why low level awakened could be better at certain things than mid-level nobles. VendDallions guild ntorwas one such case. His combat splitting remained unparalleled despite his current level. When it ca to combat training, affinity played another, far more interesting, role: no magic had to be invested in the echo to learn that skill as long as another skill branching from it was learned as well.
Imdiately, Dallion started thinking how he could ga the system. Unfortunately, it soon beca clear that affinity was rather a weird quirk than anything major. A person had one, or at most two, of those and the only way to find out for certainoutside from observation the obviouswas for the person to create an echo and spend a while exploring.
By the end of the lesson, Dallion was exhausted. Skipping the library visit, he went straight to his room to sleep. Katka must have known this would happen, for he found a letter from her telling him to skip their next two sessions. After feeling annoyed for a few minutes, Dallion then checked the letter with the kaleidevristo on his bladebow. There didnt seem to be any hidden echoes. Just in case, Dallion went through the letters realm and even improved it a few tis as a ans of distracting himself. The result ended up as a letter made of glass. Naturally, that attracted the attention of Gem, who started casting spells on it. Despite all of Dallions attempts, the aetherfish was simply unable to understand the concept of awakening. As far as it was concerned, everything had to be a form of magic and Dallion either didnt know the right spell or was keeping the information secret.
Harp, Dallion said to his harpsisword. Are you permitted to help with magic training?
I can guide you, the nymph replied in her ambiguous fashion.
Thats all I need.
PERSONAL AWAKENING
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