Advent of Dimensional Magic, and Cloudless Thunder

Van was sitting on the steps of the abandoned water mill north of Drosa. He was there because it was a secluded space he could experiment with dimensional magic. He was seeing if it was possible to create portals. He was making progress with his research.

Van created what looked like a portal and tossed a stone through it, he then heard a clunk as the stone landed on the floor behind him. He smiled as this was the first repeated success of his research. He pulled a fruit that reminded him of an apple out of his inventory and threw it into the portal.

He spun around just in time to see the fruit land on the floor. He went and grabbed the fruit and started to examine it. He collapsed his portals and started to write notes on some parchment.

~~ {Someone is coming} Alice warned him.

Van quickly stored his items and picked up a rock from a pile he had and started to toss them acting like he was bored. He had tossed a few stones in the direction the person was walking from when a hooded figure stepped out of the tall wheat and caught the stone out of the air.

"Excuse me boy, Which way to Drosa?"

"It is that way," Van replied as he watched the blip on his Mini-map turn read.

~~ {combat initiated}

Van then saw a number ten appear above the man's head and a status page appears.

Name: ???

Title: ???

Level:???

HP:???

Strength:???

Magic:???

Stamina:???

Intelligence:???

Dexterity:???

Skills: ???

"Excuse me, sir, May I ask your name, and if you would mind if I accompanied you to the city. I am headed that way here soon. A little earlier wouldn't hurt." Van probed.

"My name is Asterism, I prefer to travel alone but having a guide may make my trip shorter. You may join me if you are willing to answer some questions." The cloaked man replied.

"Well good evening Mr. Asterism, my name is John, Your name is weird, where are you from?" Van asked as he was acting like a curious child. "Where have you traveled and is that a Grimoire?"

Already regretting his decision to let this child accompany him, he decided to make friends. Children can be the best informants because nobody suspects them. Playing along Asterism answered, "I come from the Far North that is why my name is weird to you. I have traveled the world and seen many places. Yes, it is a Grimoire."

Van put on a childlike face and continued his interrogation, "What kind of magic do you know, is it cool, I hope to become a powerful fire mage like my dad next month when I turn 10."

" My magic is pretty cool, I doubt you know about it though, it is very special. Well happy early birthday. Fire magic is really awesome, sometimes I wish I was a fire mage. Now answer a few of my questions, do you know what a pencil is?"

"Yeah I got one right here, I found it on the street in the city. Everyone has one here. Do you have one? Here you can have mine."

"Well thank you, young man, now tell me do you know who makes them?"

Van was getting super suspicious, A dark mysterious man that obviously is just playing along is wondering about who makes the pencils. Even Alice was telling him to be extremely careful around this man.

"No, sorry I don't know her name, but I hear she is a plant mage. That is why she can make the wood so smooth" Van lied to misdirect. "Hey, can I see your grimoire, nobody here will let me look at it. they all say that I will get one when I am ten. But I just want to see what it looks like. it is not like I can read it. I was only taught to read numbers." He asked with a sad tone and hopefully face, showing the man his best version of puppy dog eyes.

The man thought about the information the kid just gave him and how that will help him narrow down his search. He decided to reward him by letting him take a peek. An illiterate kid was the least of his worries and he was just a kid, he could catch him if he tried to run off with it.

Vans face turned into a huge smile as the man took out his Grimoire and handed it to him. When Van opened the Grimoire he stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Dimensional Magic. Nobody was supposed to know this magic but here in his hands, he had a Grimoire full of new spells up to Tier 8. Vans research was no longer needed.

"Hey kid keep up." The man reminded Van as he turned around.

"Sorry I-I-I have just never seen a spell before. How do you cast this one?" Van asked pointing to a tier 5 spell that could create a dimension as large as the mage wanted, as long as they had the mana to create it.

"Sorry kid I am really worn out from my travels. Maybe another time." Asterism replied taking his Grimoire back, none the wiser that all of his spells have just been stolen, by the very person he was looking for.

Van looked at the man again and this time he saw a 6 floating above his head.

The rest of the walk went by smoothly, after Van brought the man to the Inn, he made a beeline to the Merchants Guild to the two strongest people he knew, Ms. Etta, and Mrs. Cartwright. He told them everything about the encounter except how he stole the spells and told them where he was staying.

Van hoped that they would be able to do something about the situation or at least possibly know someone that could. Ms. Etta Instructed Van to stay at the Merchants Guild until the issue was solved. She then sent her fairy to summon Sir. Helsing, and to go and remove the records pertaining to the pencils from the Magistrates office.

Later that evening Ms. Etta was sitting in her office with Mrs. Cartwright and Sir. Helsing. She explained everything to Sir. Helsing, when she was done, Sir. Helsing sat in his chair dumbfounded.

"Are you sure you trust Van enough to believe that he saw dimensional magic in this Mr. Asterism's Grimoire?"

"I am, are you willing to bet your life on not?"

"He is staying at the Inn, my people have already reported that a man fitting Vans description going by the same name, checked in." Mrs. Cartwright added.

After about an hour of planning Sir. Helsing got up and left, leaving only the two women in the room. After they were sure he was far enough away Ms. Etta spoke. "I am going to call in a favor from the council, I will have them send 50 lessers here tonight. That man will not live to see the morning. I want you to lead them."

The next morning there was a huge commotion at the inn. Approximately 50 bodies were found strewn about the inn and the alleyway next to it. They were so dismembered it was had to get an accurate count as there were no heads to be found.

That afternoon, Van walked into Ms. Etta's office without knocking and found her drinking a glass of what looked like blood. He was about to inquire about the contents and the whereabouts of Mrs. Cartwright when he was interrupted.

"Do you not know how to knock young man?" Ms. Etta said in a shaky voice.

Van could see that one of her sleeves was wet and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy like she had been crying a lot. When she went to take a sip of the red liquid her hand couldn't stop shaking so she set the glass back down lest she spills the contents.

"I am sorry, but what happened?"

Ms. Etta told him about her putting a team together to arrest the man and how Mrs. Cartwright had led that team. She then told him about how the entire team was wiped out, but they haven't located the man or Mrs. Cartwright. She left out the parts about the council and the lessers because Van didn't need to know about those details.

Van's heart sank, and his rage rose steadily. He left the room and immediately looked at the mini-map to see if the red dot was still present. He now considered Asterism an enemy. that man would forever show up as a red dot unless either one of them died or Van reconsidered. The latter option was never going to happen.

Van walked all around the city constantly checking his map. After a few hours of searching, he left the city and went to the abandoned water mill. As Van was walking through the wheat fields a smile appeared on his face. That smile disappeared as fast as it appeared. A red dot showed up on his mini-map. Van immediately stopped walking and tried to strategize his next moves.

~~ {Van you don't have to fight him solely with magic. Remember you know the ins and outs of everything you ever invented on earth.}

~~ You are right, I don't know why that slipped my mind.

Van then sat down and took out his notebook and pencil and started to draw. While he was sketching the dimensions of one of his inventions he was keeping a close eye on his mini-map. The dot hadn't moved in the last half hour.

High above the watermill, a portal opened up and Van stepped out of it. He had cast anti-gravity, and wind magic on himself so he just floated there in the sky in a bubble of ground-level air 10,000 feet up. He took a rock out of his pocket and dropped it.

Van watched its descent and watched the wind push it back and forth. The rock fell about 30 feet away from the building making a loud thud as it hit the ground. He then opened another portal and Alice cast anti-gravity magic on the object that was being summoned.

Van and slice worked together by cast fighting each other with the magic they cast. Van cast spells that doubled the gravity on the object while Alice cast spells to reduce the gravity.

~~ That's enough, any more and it will collapse.

~~ {Dispell magic}

The abject shot towards the ground, Van had doubled the Gravity on it twice. so instead of accelerating at approximately 9.8 meters per second squared it accelerated at 9223.68 meters per second squared.

BOOOOOM

The explosion removed the building and spewed White hot Phosphorous in a 400-foot radius. What was left was a crater 15 feet deep by 50 feet wide, and a large wildfire. His mini-map no longer showed the ret dot, and his souls harvested count updated to 5.

~~ {I understand feeling the need to kill this person but was there a reason to drop a 2,000lb High explosive White Phosphorous bomb on him?}

~~ Yes

With that reply Van watched the City go onto high alert and send out the Guards to see what happened. The shockwave of the bomb and the large cloud of smoke had alerted them. They could see the fire from the walls of the city so they mustered to go inspect.

*****

Asterism was sitting in the abandoned water mill because that is all the farther he could get with the magic that he had left. He was nursing deep lacerations caused by a woman's nails. He was attacked last night as he was staying at the inn. He had fought tooth and nail for his life. The people attacking him regrew limbs almost as fast as he could cut them off. He had to resort to cutting off their heads, which was a pain because these people were un-naturally fast.

He was having a hard time keeping up, but in the end, he had won. At least he thought he did until a beautiful woman in a beautiful red dress stepped through the window. He was almost out of magic when she attacked him. Her strength was something he had never met before just her grabbing his arm shattered his bones. Her fingernails grew to at least 4 inches long and they stopped his blade cold. He had managed to cut off one of her hands, just to watch it regrow.

He had to sacrifice his broken arm but he had sent her via portal to the far eastern coast of this continent. After that spell, he only had enough magic left to make it to the watermill. He had bandaged his wounds and was resting when he heard a loud thud outside.

He shot up and readied his dagger. He was aware that he had just reopened his wounds but those would have to wait. He poked his head outside the door to see if anybody was there and that was the last thing he saw, as the building he was in and his body became vapor.