4 Chapter 4
[|||| =LEVEL 4= ||||]
3 years 10 months old
Two months on the road. Two months of training with Summer. God, it's been the worst months of my life. She's kept me always using mana, always using my body in some absurd shape or form. If I wasn't exercising my body I was aching and sore practicing magic. Especially space magic. So much space magic. I thought I was obsessed with it… Summer's intense focus on spatial magic makes mine look like a half assed hobby. But it was so worth it…
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Abyss Mavros
Title: Little wizard
Level – 34
HP – 222.3/222.3
AP – 4340 (+217/min)
MP - 3990 (+199.5/min)
STR - 27 (+85%)(30%)= 14.985
VIT - 38 (+95%)(30%)= 22.23
DEX - 42 (+100%)(30%)= 25.2
INT - 57 (+0%)= 57
WIS - 62 (+0%)= 62
LUK - 32 (+0%)= 32
POINTS - 143
Affinities:
Air: 60%
Light: 43%
Water: 30%
Space: 17%
(NEW) Heat: 4%
-SKILLS-
Cooking - (Lv. 27),
Sewing - (Lv. 1),
(NEW) Singing - (Lv. 16)
-AURA-
Aura - (Lv. 17)
Aura control (Lv. 25)
Aural reinforcement (Lv. 34)
(NEW)Aura sense enhancement (Lv. 17)
-PHYSICAL-
Dash (Lv. 19)
Controlled breathing (Lv. 92)
Sneak (Lv. 34)
-COMBAT-
Swordsmanship (Lv. 14)
(NEW) Polearms (Lv. 10)
-MAGIC-
Mana control (Lv. 41)
Meditate (Lv. 48)
Physical mana projection (Lv. 39)
Mage sight (Lv. 40)
Imbue element (Lv. 21)
Produce element (Lv. 4)
-SPELLS-
Mage armor (Lv. 43)
Exo suit (Lv. 41)
Sun screen (Lv. MAX)
Air blade (Lv. 9)
Negate light (Lv. 7)
Water whip (Lv. 2)
Warp (Lv. 43)
Illusions (Lv. 16)
Controlled light vision (Lv. 4)
Blink (Lv. 12)
(NEW) Expand (Lv. 5)
(NEW) Spatial negation (Lv. 5)
(NEW) Invisibility (Lv. 7)
(NEW) Still winds (Lv. 18)
-MISC-
Temperature resistance (Lv. 65)
Pain resistance (Lv. 23)
Observe (Lv. 85)
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OP? Tell that to Summer. According to her Raven is even stronger than her. She isn't going near her fastest or strongest in our spars and yet she hopelessly outclasses me. According to her I'm going through the typical signal workout routine that they do on a daily basis. In other words, my physique is about that of a signal student's. Kind of. I can use my aural enhancement skill all the time because my skill is high enough to not use all of my aura regeneration. I tried a few times to make a magical physical enhancement skill but mana isn't as physically based as aura. Aura can function as mana or aura but aura can't function as mana. This is due to my magical soul skill.
Anyways, I look strong on my stats sheet but in reality? Not at all! Summer can annihilate me and according to her, while I'm a sneaky bastard (my words) with quite powerful and versatile magic (her words) any huntsman just outclasses me both because they're fully grown, experienced, and they've trained like hell. Summer is a badass, she admits, but she's not even breaking a sweat kicking my ass to kingdom come.
Now anyways, on the new spells first. Invisibility is pretty simple. People are seen because light bounces off of them and people's eyes see the light that bounces off of you. It's a little more complex than that what with color and all but that's the gist of it. I just twist light to bend around me. It's going straight for me but then goes in a half circle around me. It's not hard or draining to do but there's a pretty small problem. Sound.
With sound I use the still winds spell. It's really easy to do so I just keep a thin layer of motionless wind around me all the time. The wind still moves a little bit because of the level not being high enough to completely make the winds motionless but it's close. The vibrations from my feet and the chafing of my too-small clothes make noise but it's muffled a fair bit since the winds around me aren't very willing to vibrate and move the sound. Yay science! So yeah, nearly motionless winds around me are cheap and muffle my sound. Good for me.
Of course there's a simpler solution to stopping my light, sound, and eventually I might try to muffle my heat signature and other giveaways as well. If you don't want to be seen just stop existing entirely!
What I mean is that I use space magic to stop affecting reality. I still take up space and stuff but I'm not affecting the space around me. Light passes through me, wind passes through me, and I phase through the ground. The only way for me to not fall through the ground is to blink upwards into the air. I feel like a character in a video game who lags down under the ground only to teleport up into the air and fall down again. It's extremely magically taxing. It's also kind of kard to see in motion. I do get invisibility and soundless. I still emit heat though, being alive and all. I'm working on a few solutions. I'll get to the new affinity in a minute.
The last one is expand. It just expands the amount of space an object takes. I use it on someone and they swell up. Not like a balloon but like if they suddenly grew proportionately to their size. It's not very powerful either. I look like a giant five year old when I use it, for example. It's apparently off putting. No matter how much muscle I have I'm still a very mature looking four year old.
The still wind spell and the spatial presence negation were my ideas. Summer has a lot of ideas herself but most of them are little tricks with raw manipulation.
Speaking of manipulation, how about that new affinity, yeah? Well I got it when I was freezing water. I was using my water affinity to freeze water by sapping it of kinetic energy, since solids are basically just low energy liquids, and it popped up. This gives me a few ideas for gaining new affinities but the system is still puzzling. Why haven't I gained a motion affinity yet, for example. I make things move all the time. Everything but space anyways. My best theory is that everyone has an affinity for every element but it's just so small that cultivating most of them would take a lifetime. Luckily for me, immortality is pretty within reach for me. I've got a practical list of ideas. Well, none of them are viable at the moment. I'll start on them after I get some free time and tell Ozpin to screw off.
Right now I'm just relaxing with Summer… well, as close to relaxing as I can get with her around.
"You have CCT?!" Summer exclaimed happily as she rushed up to a random stranger on a scroll. I stood off to the side in an exo suit and an illusion. I looked like her son to avoid questions. I didn't look too different than normal actually. Pale skin, abyss black hair, and a thin and lanky build, though there were hints of dense muscle under my fake white shirt and grey pants. I had silver eyes a little duller than Summer's and a travelling cloak like Summer's but grey. I was kind of liking the cloak. It made me feel all cool but it was also helpful for keeping sand away and out of my eyes with the hood up. I could make goggles out of hard light as well so travelling through sandstorms were possible now… and good exercise. Damnit Summer.
"Yeah, we've got CCT." The man Summer had nearly assaulted responded.
"Yes!" Summer yelled. She was oblivious to the disapproving looks from the bystanders. "Come on Abyss! You can finally meet my family!"
I drew back and started "No I think I'll-" Summer will not be denied her plaything. She gripped my wrist with her normal brilliant smile and dragged me - literally dragged me - away. Nobody spoke up. Ah, it looks like a mother dragging her belligerent child with her. Why did I agree when Summer suggested I play at being her child?
I gave in and jogged alongside her after the stares from strangers started to unnerve me. Summer didn't even mind. Eventually we found a motel and Summer got us a room in a minute.
I was brought into the room while Summer nearly vibrated with excitement. "So my kids are Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Yang is taking after her father's name because she has some issues with her mother. Technically they're not siblings since Yang is Rae's kid but I'm pretty much her mother for the moment since Rae left about five and a half years ago. That's a whole bunch of family drama for later though. I haven't seen my kids in three months! Do you know how far into the wilds you were? In Vacuo of all places, where there's barely any CCT coverage. It's like you don't want me to see my kids. Now drop the illusion. I'm dialing."
I dropped the illusion and stared at the screen warily. Summer quieted but was bouncing on the bed in anticipation. Suddenly the screen came on and a cacophony of noise came from the screen.
"Mommy!"
"Finally mom you're back!"
"Summer! What's with the wait? Didn't want to see your husband?" Summer smiled brilliantly through it all and I stood off to the side and out of the camera.
"Hi girls and Love! I've been tracking down this little guy-" Summer flashed the screen towards me and I smiled a little and waved as she took the spotlight back again. "-In eastern Vacuo. The little sucker went off into the wilderness and I had to track him down."
"Cool!" Ruby squeaked. She was maybe five years old. About my age. Her hair was highlighted like Summer's but cut a little shorter. Her eyes were as energetic if not more so than Summer's. She was wearing a loose T shirt and sweatpants.
"What was he doing in the wilderness?" Yang asked curiously. She was about seven I think. Her hair was already long and a little curly. Perhaps the curliness grew in later. She wore an orange long sleeved shirt with a picture of a red dragon on it.
"How was he alive?!" Tai exclaimed. The guy looked almost exactly as in the show but a little less scruffy and a bit more energetic. He was also more buff. He wore an orange sweater with a symbol reminiscent of a burning heart on it.
"Well in order of first to last: Yes, Abyss is awesome and really smart for his age just like Ruby, I never actually asked what he was doing, and he used a whole lot of tricks to survive. As I said, he's really smart." I never did tell Summer why I was there. And thank you for calling me smart, Summer. I take pride in that.
"Why can Abyss go into the dangerous wilds but I can't?!" Yang complained.
"He's not supposed to. I'm going to be bringing him back to Vale after we get to Vacuo and he does whatever he's going to do." Ah, come to think of it I need to make an inventory skill so I can steal every skill book and books on chemistry, biology, aura, and… well everything I can find should be a good start.
Yang was pouting that I got to survive in the harsh grimm infested wasteland but she wasn't. "Can we meet him?!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.
The answer is- "Of course! I'll drag him there myself if I have to! He's kind of like Raven in that he's always super grumpy but secretly likes attention and cuddles." … no I don't…
"What?! He gets hugs?!" I wish I didn't. "What's next?! Are you going to make him cookies too?!" Ruby gave a dramatic wide eyed look. Summer hummed and rolled her eyes away from the screen.
"I haven't baked cookies in a while. I should keep my skills up… and someone's got to eat them…" I gave Summer a wary look. I don't want to be stuffed… but I might try one. For science. I also might get a poison resistance skill from the undoubtedly pure sugar in the cookies.
Ruby was giving Summer a genuinely conflicted look. Like she wanted the cookies all to herself but she also didn't want subpar sugar from lack of practice. Summer looked to her and immediately broke into laughter. I couldn't help the twitch of my lips at the look on Ruby's face and the laughter of Summer, Yang, and Taiyang.
Ruby blinked at the laughter and pouted when she realized that everyone was messing with her. I rolled my eyes at her antics. She doesn't really change that much from when she's fifteen it seems.
I fell into the background when Summer and her family fell into an easy family banter. Mostly a lot of catching up and Summer admonishing and praising her kids. It was obvious that her words meant a lot to her kids.
"I'll call back soon. We'll be leaving the town tomorrow and it's another two weeks of travel to the next town. Hopefully they'll have CCT but if they don't then I'll call you all at Vacuo in a month."
"Bye mom! I expect cookies when you get back!"
"Goodbye honey. Stay safe. Spend some time home when you get back, would you?"
"Bye auntie! Kick ass for us!"
"Sweetie don't say ass in front of Summer." Summer laughed lightly and shut off the scroll. Maybe it was me but as I glanced at the scroll and looked into Ruby's eyes I thought I saw… jealousy? The scroll shut off before I could confirm.
I had learned a few things from this. Most importantly was that I had about ten years until canon starts. Secondly was that Raven had left a while ago. I personally don't mind that she's gone. She's not really a factor here. Finally was Summer's priorities. Tai's last words kind of indicated that Summer wasn't too often at home. Well, anyways, Summer's a sort of absentee parent in a way. Married to the job, as they say. Well… I can't say I approve but it's not my business.
Summer looked at the scroll longingly before pocketing it. "So what do you want to eat?" I ignored her for a moment and focused on the lamp I had picked up. Just make a pocket dimension and… tie it to my soul I suppose. My affinity could probably maintain the spell, right? That should do it.
*Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Inventory
"I keep, um, three tents, fifty swords, ten hot and ready servings of my mother's casserole, one hundred arrows, all of my gold and silver and copper coins, two medical kits, …"
-Narfi the hoarder, master of the inventory spell
Current capacity: 78,120 liters (AP x (affinity + 1) = # of liters)
You may sever your inventory from your soul and tie it to another's soul if you so please, where they can access it through inventory spell. In addition, use meditation to visit the space inside your soul, or the soul hearth spell to visit inside other's souls, and arrange the space inside to your whims.
(AN: 78,120 liters is 78 cubic meters, which is the length of a somewhat large apartment with a really high roof in a cube. Since he can shift it's space around it'll be more like a medium/large house. Also, the inventory spell is just a spell to access the space in your soul, which is dictated by your aura and space affinity, and… I have a whole explanation of it next chapter. Don't worry about it. It doesn't have a level. It's OP enough already.)
So it stores items in my soul and I can just chuck an inventory at somebody else and store it in their soul to free up room in my soul… can I store a house in somebody's soul and pull an Ozpin? Just chill in their soul with that soul hearth spell? "Hehe… hehehehe…. AHAHAHAHAHA!" Summer looked at me apprehensively.
"What did you just do?" I ignored her.
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3 years 11 months old
Sadly the next town did have CCT but it was being shut down for upgrades to link to adjacent towns and their CCT. I think it was supposed to increase the speed or something. I couldn't understand some of the mumbo jumbo about dust tech. If it was a basic circuit I could probably get it. Electrical dust crystals are basically super batteries that can't be recharged I believe. See, this is why I need those books, which is why I'm in Vacuo now. Inner city, even.
Summer flashed her huntress I.D. and got us a bullhead over the ghettos and poorer parts of the city to a dock in the inner city. I have to say that bullheads are really impressive. They're quite fast. The pilot told me a bit about them when I played the part of a curious teen, as I was under the illusion and using wind to deepen my voice a bit. They can apparently go up to 240 miles an hour and the military ones can go even faster with the newest and most high tech Atlas ones going at up to 420 mph.
All bullheads regardless of build or design were equipped with a minimum of chain anti-infantry guns, a hunter emergency resupply kit, a survival kit, and a few parachutes. All bullheads, in times of crisis, were expected to fight grimm under military orders or transport hunters. The same was apparently expected under legal persuasion of those with unlocked auras and an able body and mind. It was an interesting system and a rather efficient one as well. All of the kingdoms had apparently adopted this policy.
Summer chimed in occasionally with something about the policies as well. Like that public areas like hospitals, schools, high government buildings, and really important locations were equipped with bunkers to hide in case of a grimm invasion. There were taxes for this, of course, but not many since the bunkers were nearly abandoned until an incursion. Just a yearly checkup and quarterly cleanings.
As for standing armies only Atlas had one and they rented them out. The other nations had a reserve guard to keep security and other things of that nature but nothing really usable offensively. On the other hand, Atlas had a poor hunter program. They typically used their military, specialists, or hired out foreign hunters to deal with the grimm. I asked if they had any machines to kill grimm and apparently the robot army hasn't been constructed yet though Atlas has publicly announced that they have development into 'mass production of battle droids'. Beacon and the other academies had training droids but they weren't very good at anything. Mostly they're just mannequins with some ability to dodge or block. Useful but not incredible.
Did I mention that the pilot offered some gummy fruit snacks? I was about to take them since I hadn't had anything sweet for a while but Summer stole them and went on our discussion of policies and armies with a mouthful of gummy sweets. The pilot snuck some over to me while she was distracted. I liked the guy.
When we finally landed I knew I had to act quickly. "So where will we be staying?" Summer spoke without thinking. She was busy staring at the tall buildings and mosaic of the cities painted rooftops.
"The sleeping sands hotel at obelisk street."
And with that I was gone. My blink skill had leveled up quite a bit. I could go about forty five yards. I had measured with summer and found that I could go an extra three yards per level. I was at level fifteen of blink now. I had focused on it during training with my inventory spell. It didn't have a level but I still had to try to use it. I figured out after a little testing that inventory was a little different than I imagined it.
For starters, inventory didn't just drop the items I inserted into my soul. It separated them into a little satellite dimension tied to my main pocket dimension in my soul. The items took away from the total space in my soul but unless I brought the items into my soul they'd be in their own little dimension, taking up only exactly how much volume they were made of.
Think of it this way if that's hard to grasp. My soul is a bubble. The size and space of it is dependant on my space affinity and aura size. Now, when I use inventory I take take the bubble and take a tiny bit of the fluid that comprises the bubble and make a far smaller bubble that sticks to it. The item I want to store goes into that smaller bubble. The smaller bubble is exactly the same amount of space as the item it is storing.
Now you have two bubbles. One big one and one small one holding an item. The big bubble is just a tiny bit smaller because it made the little bubble but it's still a really big bubble. Now I can go into the big bubble and change it to whatever shape I please too. I found this out through meditation. I don't really care about that in regards to my own soul though. Sure inventory is super useful but the soul hearth that was mentioned seems incredibly interesting to me.
If I could transport my physical body into another's soul I could use their own soul as a house. I could just chill in Summer's soul and do nothing. Not only would this give me shelter and a place to train but what is Summer going to do? Tear her soul open to get to me? Summer's not stupid. If I chill in her soul she can't do a damn thing about it to get to me. The same probably goes for Ozpin. I might be able to enter his host's soul and chill, actually. I'm manifesting their soul as a physical space so it could be reasoned that I could kill any unwanted passengers like a wizard parasite.
Come to think of it there's another benefit. Inside somebody's soul I can still use my soul and probably magic as well. I could chill in some random guy's soul and call him a wizard so I can just jump ship whenever he gets into danger. I could make magic happen in his soul. I'd be basically Ozpin but without the reincarnation but I could jump souls. Wow, there's one way to get immortality.
Anyways, I could jump in somebody and wizard it up from inside their soul. They'll fight physically and I'll fight magically. I could also give them a little boost to aura. Symbiosis. Actually, I'd prefer that Summer doesn't die. She's a good person. Perhaps I could chill in her soul and train while I give her some magical support. I could teleport out if things got too hot and Summer's about to die.
Come to think of it… hm, yes, that could work. A trade of sorts. Hmmm… yes that would solve everything. Oh absolutely that would work without a doubt. And a flatscreen too.
I snapped out of my brainstorming as I found a bookstore. I entered it without fuss. A tall and muscular man sat boredly behind the counter reading a book. He glanced at me before returning to his book.
I looked through the shelves and looked around for cameras. None? Perfect… I tapped a multitude of skill books, as many as I could find, and moved to the next shelf. I left with about thirteen skill books and a few books on science. I also sat on a really nice sofa. I practically sunk into it but it wasn't too soft. It would be critical for my master plan.
I wandered around for an hour and took as many books as I could find. There were plenty of other things I might need as well though. I took them all.
Weight didn't matter. Only volume. I had over ninety percent of my soul left after taking, let's see, sixty four skill books, two sofas, a table, two ready made beds and three sets of sheets, a wide assortment of clothes my size and a some that were Summer's size, and by some I mean about twenty of everything for her and even more for me. They weren't amazing clothes or anything. Just casual wear. I would have gotten some light armor but you needed to have an I.D. to even enter those types of stores.
I stole two hundred various metals that my observe skill said were good for stuff. One of them conducted mana super well apparently. People used it for some weapons that channeled semblances but it was better for mana. There were also some that were extremely light and strong or a few that were flexible and whatnot. Summer might appreciate them… or not considering they were stolen. Well I'm not going to tell her where they're from because I wasn't paying attention.
Besides those goods there were the things I took because I might need them. Two sets of blacksmithing tools, one of woodworking tools, a large amount of a few different kinds of wood, some more basic metals like iron and steel to grind up my metalworking skill, a modern forge to work all those metals, and dust. Just half of the selection from five stores. I was taking a lot it seemed but it wasn't really like that. Vacuo was a big place and I wasn't taking everything. Everyone I stole from could make their living from what I took. It would take some time to get back firmly on their feet but that was life.
Anyways, I made my way to obelisk street and asked for some directions. I got them and went my merry way to the inn. I asked for Summer and… "That was rude." Summer scolded. I grinned.
"That was worth it." Summer shook her head and left to the other room, where she was watching T.V.. I poked my head around into the other rooms. Another room with a futon, the entrance room with a table, and a bathroom with plumbing. Dear god I hadn't used plumbing in like four years now. I didn't actually use the bathroom with gamer's body though… some things have been sacrificed.
I sat down at the table and laid out the skill books on the table as I absorbed them. Forestry, architecture, archery, tame creature, mining, digging, speed reading, haggling, forge papers, metalworking, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, weapons designing, building, driving land vehicles, driving aircraft, driving watercraft, and a plethora of other skills weren't exactly useful to me. Sure they might come in handy but they weren't exactly what I was looking for. Speed reading and architecture might be useful. I have plenty of other books to read to grind my INT and WIS. The other books would be more useful though.
High speed movement (this replaced my dash skill. It's basically a sustained dash), tactics, persuasion, light armor, mechanics, aura transferring, aura suppressing, lip reading, grimm anatomy, and humanoid anatomy were more my style. Still, though, they weren't what I was looking for. Sure, high speed movement was immensely useful although it sucked up aura suppressing and transferring could be useful as well. I'm pretty sure I could have learned aura transferring myself though.
Now there were the skills I was looking for. Runes, enchant, dust usage, aura sensing, absorb dust, accelerate thought, and mimicry, and supplement were goldmines. Ironically enough, the enchant and create golem were from fiction books. The runes skill was a catalogue of ancient symbols that haven't been deciphered yet. The catalogue was created to encourage cryptographers to crack the code. They haven't.
Mimicry was based on emulating a different voice. I'm confident that I can speak through the wind with a bit of practice. I might also get a spell for it.
Supplement's meaning was pretty clear as I opened it in my skills sheet. It was just fueling a body by aura alone in a way. It could supplement air just fine and could quell the negative effects of dehydration and starvation for a time. It also In my case it was like a rebreather. I could fuel my body without oxygen with the skill on. I immediately activated it. I could do so much with this! Within two minutes
I smiled as I looked at my new skills. It wasn't really a power boost but more like a boost to my immediate potential. I would have never learned many of these skills but now I knew what a cornerstone was, the proper way to hold a bow, where the butt of an assault rifle should sit when aiming, how to change gears in a car and what gears are, and plenty more. I would get to grinding these eventually. For now I had things to do. For now…
"Hey Summer!" I called.
"Yeah?" She called back.
"I've got one more thing to test before I can go to Vale. I need somebody with aura for this so I was wondering if you'd be up for it. If you're not I'll just kidnap a gang member by the way." Summer was silent for a moment. I could hear her sigh from my room at the other side of the hotel room.
Summer walked in and saw me putting the last few books back into my inventory. They weren't skill books. They were just books I was looking more in depth at. I had about forty of them and maybe twenty textbooks on various subjects.
"Alright. If it's not dangerous I don't really mind but if it is then I'll be coming with you so you don't hurt somebody." I nodded.
"So you know how inventory works but you don't actually know what it is." Summer was silent and I took that as a gesture to go on.
"Inventory is a space constructed in somebody's soul. Not by me but by everybody's innate affinity with space. It's more of a representation of your soul turned literal. I won't go into the specifics but it's like a big space where you can store stuff and, in this experiment, go into. Hopefully physically." Summer looked rather apprehensive.
"So you want to… go into my soul?" I nodded.
"I'm not going to do anything. I promise. I'll just poke around and see if I can change how your soul looks internally. If I can do that I want to see if I can cast spells from inside your soul. If I can do that I'll try putting my body in our shared inventory. I'm using the metabolise technique for the moment so oxygen isn't a problem." I was also creating more wind in my lungs with the produce element skill. It was my backup in case I couldn't use metabolise forever. I was pretty sure I could though.
"... Alright." Summer looked uncertain but I could appreciate that she was willing to take a small leap for me. I smiled.
"Thanks. Starting now."
"Wait, wha-" I touched Summer's aura with my own and activated the inventory spell but didn't move anything in particular. I could feel her aura though. It was big and VERY pure. It was warm and, how can I put this, motherly. Like a sort of protectiveness and a willingness to lash out against threats.
I looked past her personality to her soul space. I could kind of see it. It wasn't a very large part of her soul at all. I'm pretty sure souls lie outside the laws of space and time, though. I activated inventory on her soul not just to interface with it but to enter her space. I could feel a sort of pulling sensation and I could feel Summer gasp and glow a bright red. The soul strand I had connected to her with was streaming into her quickly. I blacked out then and was somewhere else.
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