Nox's Type and Magical Studies
"So Nox-kun . . . What kind of girl is your type?" This sudden question sparked the interest of the other two girls as well and with Nox being a bit tipsy they thought that they might get an actual answer out of him.
"My type? Listen Chloe-san . . ." Started Nox with a wise sounding tone surprising the girls.
"As a Man of Culture and an avid appreciator of beauty, I don't have particular characteristics I'm too fond of over others . . ." He paused for dramatic effect then continued.
"What truly matters, is the full package!" He exclaimed.
"The full package?" Syr asked full of interest.
"That's right! Even though I might like something in one particular girl, I might not appreciate it on another! It's the combination of characteristics that's unique to each individual that brings out their charm so something that works for one girl might not work for another!" He finished, quite satisfied with his own answer.
"So . . . among the three of us . . . Who do you find the most attractive?" Asked Chloe once again throwing the slightly drunk Nox into the fire pit.
"I don't like ranking people according to their beauty! Specially in their face since everyone has their own charm!" Said Nox with surprising conviction and the three girls left it at that.
They chatted some more and then Nox left, returning to the Twilight Manor. As per his agreement with Loki, he visited her first for a status update before going to his magic study session with Riveria and Lefiya although the first one would also have others demonstrating some of their magic.
This update left Loki stunned once again since it was another massive improvement.
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Name: Nox Lyros
Race: High Human
Gender: Male
Level: 1
Abilities:
STR: H-189 -> G-298
END: H-101 -> H-132
DEX: G-202 -> F-301
AGI: H-191 -> F-357
MAG: F-346 -> E-494
Magic (4 slots):
Item Box: Interdimensional storage. Different effects based on chant.
"Open": Creates a portal to the storage near the user. Size is based on mind usage.
"Close": Close the portals created by "Open".
"Set": Change storage setting such as size, timeflow and subdivisions.
"Create": Create new interdimensional storage space.
Mind Boon: Enhance equipment through the infusion of Mind.
Mind Pulse: Omnidirectional wave of Mind that propagates from the user allowing them to perceive anything it touches.
Mind Missile: Light blue orb of Mind shot at the target leaving a trail of blue light. Explodes on impact.
Skills:
Polymath: Greatly increases effectiveness and growth rate of Development Abilities. Lowers the requirements for obtaining Development Abilities. Any Development Abilities whose requirements are met, are unlocked on rank-up.
Arcana: Drastically improves any magic related activity. Records all spells and curses the user perceives and allows the user to modify them or create new spells based on the principles learned from them. Creates magic circles independent of the mage Development Ability that substitute most chant requirements. The user can meditate to choose which spells to put in his magic slots. Grants one extra spell slot per level.
Exceed: Removes the limit of any aspect of the user's abilities and skills. Greatly increases excelia gain from all actions. Immune to mental effects.
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Loki started thinking while looking at these numbers. As his goddess she could grasp how he fought and trained from his excelia.
'He chose to use the same gear he trains with in the early morning in the dungeon for that day. Focused a lot more on dodging rather than blocking so his END was raised a lot less than the others but still far more than a defence focused normal adventurer.'
'In return his AGI grew more than yesterday but the main star is his magic after all . . . Even if he doesn't use it for direct attack he uses it for enhancing his weapons and himself as well as scouting so it always ends up growing the most. Still, 553 points in a single day is monstrous!'
'Forget about being the ultimate porter for an expedition! If he keeps going like this, he'll be eligible for the fighting party of the expedition in a couple of months!'
"Alright ya freak! Congrats on annihilating common sense once more! Out ya go!" Exclaimed Loki not even sure on what to say anymore.
And just like that, Nox left after receiving his status sheet and after checking it, he stored it in his Item Box and went to see Riveria. Even though it was standard practice to dispose of them, Nox was keeping all his status sheets as sort of mementos from his progress across his, hopefully, long journey as an adventurer.
Magic study sessions would normally take place in Riveria's study but since Nox was going to get a magic demonstration by all members of the familia before starting, they went to the courtyard first. The Twilight Manor had a bid courtyard specially for these types of things since testing spells and such for the first time in the dungeon is not a very bright idea.
Everybody in the familia was willing to do t demonstration except for, very predictably, a single individual, Bete Loga. The level five was not willing to show his magic for reasons he didn't feel like sharing. Nox knew it had to do with a trauma caused my his tragic past but he obviously couldn't mention it even though he wanted to for the sole purpose of rubbing salt on his emotional wounds.
Still, Nox wanted to learn Hati so added a comment to the discussion as well.
"Bete-san, you don't have to "use" it. Just activate it and deactivate it right away. That's all I ask!"
Since that's all Nox wanted, after a bit of forceful convincing from the executives present on the scene, Bete finally did it. He chanted in a low voice and just after he finished and flames were starting to appear, he immediately stopped it but it was more than enough for Nox and he even honestly thanked Bete. Even though he still thought the werewolf was a douchebag, he admired how he was willing to do something he swore not to for the familia.
The rest of the demonstrations were fairly simple except for two, Finn's and Riveria's. Finn because both of his spells carried side effects but he still did it earning Nox's respect but in Riveria's case was how she needed to restrain the destructive power of her attack spells.
In the end, she only showed the first two levels of her attack magic but showed all three levels of both her defence and healing magics. Afterwards, most of the group disbanded with only Lefiya, Nox and Riveria remaining behind to continue with their training.
It mostly involved the skilled manipulation of mind so it was fairly easy for Nox but good practice nonetheless. Riveria tried teaching him elf magic that doesn't require a falna and although Nox was able to use the magic, he had to assign it to a slot first so for now no extra spell beyond his slots. Same with Riveria's spells each level took a single slot were as with the elf three only took up one.
This sort of bummed out Nox but he and Riveria got really passionate about studying his Arcana skill and figuring out its full capabilities so he at the very least got a really nice excuse to spend some extra time with the mind blowingly beautiful elf which was awin in his book.
After the training Nox obviously spent another night in meditation but this time he was adapting the various spells he was shown or making new ones and improving old ones by referencing his newly learned magic.
The first step was improving both his Mind Bolt and Mind Missile. Pure Mind is usually quite harmless and benign, it's part of the reason why Mind pulse works as well as it does. If not highly condensed it passes harmlessly through things and if the quantity is small enough, it's not even noticeable which is why it doesn't set off the monsters when Nox uses it.
This however makes pure Mind rather unsuitable for attack magic since it's not innately damaging. Now though, Nox had various attack spells to reference. They were mostly elemental spells but Lefiya's Arcs Ray, although of the light element is quite close to pure magical damage so using that as a reference, Nox quickly adapted his two spells.
Mind Bolt became Arcane Bolt and Mind Missile became Arcane Missile so they did a lot more damage and the missile had a larger area of effect even if less mind is used in casting it. This is one of the things that makes his Arcana skill so special.
A lot of adventurers can't precisely control how much power it goes into a spell if at all. They just chant it and use the necessary Mind to cast it without being able to fire a weaker version with less mind or even a stronger version with more though it also depended on the spell.
But Nox wasn't done with these two spells quite yet. First he gave the Arcane bolt a couple more variables. Until now the magic circle created by his Arcana skill allowed Nox to control the power of the bolt and not much else but as his skill rose he decided to add a few more options so as to make it more versatile
Now, he could control not only the power but also the speed of the projectile, its trajectory and the degree of compression thus allowing him to deliver an heavier concussive force or focus on penetration. Finally, Nox added a function to allow for faster consecutive shots like a machine gun.
As for the Arcane Missile, Nox gave it the same rapid fire function as he gave the Arcane Bolt, he also referenced Lefiya's Fusillade Fallarica to add a multiple shot per use possibility and the ability to control how many extra shots. He also added the homing function of Arcs Ray to it it so now he could fire barrages of homing Arcane Missiles, He called the final spell Arcane Missile Storm.
Unfortunately, this whole process took a quite a bit of time so Nox was not able to make any new spells like he was hoping for and soon, the time of his morning training came once more.
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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.
There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!
I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.