3 The Journey begins...kinda
Shielding his eyes from the intense light coming from the plethora of balls of light sticking to almost every object in sight, Rictus wondered if he may have gotten a little carried with his magic. While a ball pit is usually a fun time, a ball pit filled with balls which are incorporeal and give off enough light to bling a man is not nearly as fun. In the game, a character could only cast one mage light at a time, but apparently as long as you have magic you can keep casting more…'Now if only I can figure out how to get these stupid balls to disappear. I don't have any knowledge of how to dispel my magic. In the games I could just sheath my hands, but that obviously does not work here. My other magic just dissipated after a while, but this is too inconvenient to wait. Too bad it is not as simple as just wanting all these infernal creations to disappear.'
As soon as this last thought entered his mind, all the magical lights suddenly disappeared. 'Of course it was that easy…should have been smart enough to try that first instead of sitting here and casting that same cursed spell for hours now. Although it was kinda fun and this simple spell has way more potential than it did before. One of these bad boys to the face would make it impossible to see me. Who needs to sneak when you can just blind your opponent?'
With all the lights finally gone, Rictus began eating the cheese and bread which had been obscured by the all the lights. Looking around his humble abode, he tried to wrap his head around what his life had become.
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A normal person should have been freaking out still from the sudden introduction of a new environment. They should have denied their situation for a while, maybe run outside to see the new yet familiar world which they were unknowingly thrust into. Rictus's response was a little different.
As he was reading the glowing paper, Rictus started to get a slight headache. After staring blankly at the paper for a couple minutes, he began to survey his surroundings with an apathetic look in his eyes. Rictus didn't really pay attention to the relatively spartan room around him. He began to exit the room to see if there was anything more interesting in the rest of the house.
Exiting the bedroom, there was a small landing with some stairs leading down and a door on the other side of the stairs. Rictus walked past the stair and opened the other door to a small bedroom. As he turned around to go to the stairs, a menacing shadow creeped up along the wall before him. Rictus quickly slammed the door trapping himself in the small room. Closing the door caused the room to plunge into darkness. A panicked look dominated his facial features as he tried to see into the darkness.
Feeling a weight on his hip, Rictus looked down and noticed a soft glowing coming from a book which appeared to be holstered to his hip. Quickly grabbing the book, Rictus began reading to see if there was any information which could help him from the shadow monsters stalking him in his house. The first thing he noticed upon opening the book was the words CANDLELIGHT on the top of the right page. Upon reading the words, a brilliant light orb appeared from his hand and started moving above his head.
Rictus snatched the ball into his hand before it could reach any higher. Staring into the beautiful glowing orb, Rictus reached up with his other hand and hold on to his only salvation from the shadows. Small mutterings bordering on madness could barely be heard as Rictus protectively stroked the orb of light.
"my precious…...My Precious…...MY PRECIOUS!!!!!"
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Rictus shook his head trying to forget about his first moments after waking up. 'Thankfully whatever happened to me stopped after a couple days at least. I should be thankful this place was stocked with food or else I may have had to gone outside and that would NOT have been a good thing with how I was acting.'
Rictus took a good look the spell book laying beside his food. The book cover was a reddish orange color with the symbol for alteration magic (a tree with half of the branches bare and the other half full of leaves) right in the center. Below the symbol was Rictus's name is golden letters. Opening the book, the left-hand page showed the alteration symbol again with the number 53 above it and the word Adept below it. The right-hand page was a table of contents showing Rictus's known spells. In the original game there were only around 13 alteration spells total, but there are 28 already listed in the book.
'Picking more spells as a perk was a good call on such a short notice. I don't know for sure, but it almost makes it seems like some of these spells will be my original spells that no one here has seen before. At least that is what I like to think.'
A few of the spells had their page number underlined so that Rictus could see the page and get to them faster. These were the spells which would most likely see the most use in the near future. ([A/N]: There are other situational spells but I won't list them. Google odin skyim magic for full list.)
1. Alarm (N) – Alerts the caster whenever someone crosses the barrier
2. Candlelight (N) – Cast a floating light which follows the caster
3. Ease Burden (Ap) – increases carrying capacity
4. Magelight (Ap) – Cast a ball of light which sticks where it strikes
5. Alter Body (Ap) – Caster can change their physical appearances
6. Ironflesh (Ad) – makes casters skin as hard as iron
7. Web (Ad) – Casts magical webs which slow anyone in targeted area
8. Resist elements (Ad) – increases resistance to elements and poison
9. Barricade (Ad) – creates a wall of stone or whatever material the caster targets
10. Detect life (Ad) – detect living creatures, even through walls
11. Telekinesis (Ad) – able to move items remotely with magic
12. Transmute (Ad) – change the composition of metals. (only iron, silver, and gold)
These were the spells hold either a practical value or can be useful in self-defense. When initially reviewing his spells, Rictus noted that the basic descriptions did not have a time limit or an exact value increase.
Ironflesh in the game would increase the character's armor rating by 80 for 60 seconds. Now it just makes the casters skin as tough as iron. Depending on how much mana he injected, Rictus could alter the length the spell lasted and even slightly change the durability of his skin. The bent fork sitting beside his food alludes to him trying to stab himself after casting the spell.
Rictus found that most of the spells worked similarly. Intent also played a role in how long the spell lasted and how to get rid of a spell effect. A simple thought was enough to dispel all the mage lights he had used to cover the room. Rictus could also hold a spell indefinitely if his mana recharged faster than the spell drained it. While ironflesh was too costly to keep going in this manner, Rictus could constantly hold stoneflesh active after the initial cast since his mana regenerated faster than the spell consumed it.
Happy with how things had turned out so far, Rictus flipped pages in the book towards the end where he had started making notes. He had found out that the book did not require any form of writing utensil and he could make notes by either speaking aloud or running his hands along the book while thinking of the words he wants written. Flipping past his notes on magic, Rictus decided to try and put some thoughts in order about what all happened and what he should try and do in the future. He had always liked lists and they seemed to help order his thoughts and keep him on task. Standing up with the book in one hand, Rictus began to pace around the room in order to help his thoughts flow.
1. It seems that I really am in the breeze home from Skyrim. I have not actually left the house yet to investigate this further, but I will do so soon. I am definitely not afraid.
2. Magic is real. Magic is awesome. Mana does seem to regenerate fairly quickly, and it seems that increasing my skill level also increased my overall magic levels based on how much easier lower-level spells are compared to higher level ones.
3. I am not 100% sure if this is a game or I am actually in Skyrim. I have tried many ways to get a game menu to appear, and the closest thing I have to a "system" is my book which shows my skill levels and spells.
4. I have 2 sets of memories. This should weird me out, but it just feels natural. I do believe my original ego is still the driving force, but when I think back, I remember the caravan trip to Skyrim and what life was like before I came here. I feel that this should bother me more, but it just feels so natural that I don't seem to care. At the moment, it is only a good thing since I already know how to use and access my magic.
5. I need to get my skill level to 100 as soon as possible. This world is dangerous, and I will need every advantage. My lapse into madness got my skill level up, but I need to grind out the other levels quickly.
6. Nothing has said I was dragonborn so I think I will just wait to see what will happen in regards to that. I am no hero nor do I want to fight a dragon which could eat me in one bite.
7. Go to the tavern for training detect life in order to quickly level up and gather information.
"I should start with number 7 and maybe even grab a bear while I am at it."
Rictus felt a little better after getting these thoughts to paper. Putting his book back in the side holster, Rictus looked at the front door. After taking a couple breaths to get in the right frame of mind, he made his way over to the door to begin this new chapter of his life.
