Chapter XLVIII: Gaze of Magnus

The large fireplace affixed to the inner wall of my mansion's dining hall crackled comfortably as multiple subdued conversations were being had all across the room.

After the whole 'not Thalmor' attack fiasco I invited everyone involved to a small feast, the day had been stressful for most of them and I remember quite vividly how terrifying seeing actual high level magical combat was for me so ending the day on a high note would do them all well.

'And some of them might even develop a refined taste in food.' I chuckle internally as I observe some of the less affluent students reacting to the quality of the meals I had prepared 'Poor Fishy looks like he is about to cry.' I snort and shake my head.

"Are you quite certain you should just leave that as is?" I hear a voice to my left and notice Savos pointing at one of my hands with a hint of worry in his eyes.

'Ah, that...' I sigh and raise the hand closer to my eyes and observe the many tiny cracks spread across it. Each crack emitted the same glow as the Eye of Magnus and felt like it was tugging at my Magicka while combining it with the extremely purified version of the eye. Thankfully, they seemed to be getting smaller and smaller by the hour.

I shake my head in response to Savos' question "Do not worry, they should be gone by the morning." I wiggle my hand as uncomfortably as I can "Funnily enough the cracks feel deceptively comfortable and do not hurt a bit."

"Your feeble mortal mind deceives you, my glorious student!" Shalazar squeaks from nearby, a block of cheese the size of his head in front of him.

'That thing was larger than him when he started!' I realize with dawning horror.

 Ignoring my horrified expression the tiny lizard man goes on "Your senses are simply overwhelmed by the power coursing through you and cannot even understand that you should be in pain." He then nods sagely "Luckily my most glorious self is present and I can reassure you that you will recover by morning as you have said."

"Your assistance is as always greatly appreciated Master." I incline my head at him while forcing my mind to delete the whole cheese image. Still good to know I wasn't just too drugged up with magic juice to realize I was leaking to death or something equally bad.

Savos engages in conversation with Garne, one of the Wizards present at the excavation site and my thoughts trail off to what happened in the eye chamber. The sudden feeling of approval I felt as I decided to banish the eye somewhere where it could not be found almost felt like a Daedra's gaze but... inverted?

My first guess would be an Aedra or Et-Ada but simply overthinking it will not get me any closer to the answer. Thankfully I have a distinctly unfair advantage over literally everyone else, and so with a mental command, I open my system.

[Quest Completed]

[Racial ability unlocked: Summon Ancestral Guardian]

Something in the back of my mind clicks and I feel a connection much like the one within the ancestral shrines of my people. In times of great need, I could summon an ancestor or even multiple ancestors to protect me but if I were to do so unjustifiably I feel they would be more and more reluctant to answer my call.

Still, a good last resort in any case, throwing a long-dead Legate Battlemage at someone did sound cool as well.

And now for the big one.

[Magnus' gaze has fallen upon you and he has seen your deeds as righteous, The Architect of Magic grants you his blessing and the tiniest glimmer of his own power. Grants you the Magnus' gaze ability]

[Magnus' Gaze: Once per month you may use your newfound connection to the Eye of Magnus to channel its power directly, this power may be used for one second per ten points of vitality without causing permanent damage to the user.]

[Mag: 850 => 1000]

[Vit: 37 => 40]

Sheesh! If any of the previous Archmages, or any mage for that matter, saw this they would be frothing at the mouth in pure jealousy. Still though, having the eyes of the creator of Magic on me might be both good and bad, but I get the feeling that as long as I don't go full genocidal maniac I should be fine.

My attention is drawn back to reality as Tolfdir returns from another table with a tray of food and takes his seat to my right with a satisfied sigh.

"Enjoying your evening Master Tolfdir?" I ask politely while grabbing a mini pizza from the tray.

"I am indeed my boy." He taps his stomach with a happy smile "I haven't had this lavish a feast since I was the Court Mage some four centuries back." He sighs "Good times."

"Well, I am certain my cooks would be happy to be compared to those of a place as lofty as the Blue Palace." I hum conversationally "I did have a question in mind if it isn't a bother."

"Go ahead." He mutters while munching on some pastries.

"How goes your research on those dragon scales?" I ask "It has been some time since you got your hands on them and I have unfortunately been far too busy to really get involved until now."

The old Nord wipes his hands patiently and speaks "I was able to replicate the armor yet the magic resistance still evades me. I believe it to be an issue of precise channeling more than runecraft and that is something of a specialty of yours I hear?"

"True, I have been known to see a bit more than the average elf" I smirk "When do you want us to start?"

"Join me for class tomorrow and we can continue afterward." He offers.

"Of course." I agree immediately, teaching was also fun from time to time. A servant passes by and I grab a couple of bottles of Black-Briar and offer them to him "Up for a drink old man?"

He chuckles "You shouldn't ever ask that of a Nord, you might find your stock of ale empty."

"Is that a challenge?" I ask with a cocky smirk.

The one I got in response was no less intimidating than that of a dragon.

----

The cursed day had finally come... I had expected this to happen ever since I started growing beyond the strength of a mere man, or Mer in my case, but dear Dagoth did it have to happen so soon?

I stared at the now half-empty dining hall in pure distress, a snoring Tolfdir was completely passed out leaning on the table next to me while I was forced to ponder this most distressing of revelations. Truly this was a pain deeper than death!

Normal alcohol had finally stopped working on me.

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I waved my hand as a large number of blades of wind lashed out toward me, my Magicka surged and a simple, yet controlled, wave of wind rose in response to the attack completely disrupting its flow and rendering the entire spell practically inert.

As the clash ended Tolfdir, who was overseeing my little bout with Minthara, spoke "As you can see while wind magic is very versatile for both attack and defense it suffers much more than most elements when it comes to direct clashes." He waves his hands causing two windstorms to batter against each other, thus creating an undirected release of energy "The clash of two wind spells can cause great destruction but as I have said the efficiency with this specific element falls drastically when mirrored." He looks at the gaggle of students and asks "Questions?"

An excitable Brelyna Maryon raises her hand and after Tolfdir nods at her asks "So what would you recommend we focus on with wind? Most Masters tell us that over specializing in one element is inefficient."

Tolfdir smiles at her kindly "Indeed, certain elements have their own advantages and focusing on only one is extremely limiting and lies in the domain of the obsessed or those overly blessed with certain affinities." He chuckles "While not impossible, it is as you have said, very inefficient."

The Dunmer smiles happily.

"As for the actual answer to your question I focus on using it defensively as I am more of a melee fighter myself." His statement causes many confused glances amongst those who do not know him as the massive beast he becomes in combat.

Before they can conclude that it is only usable in melee battle I cut in "I personally also prefer using it defensively while generally remaining at a middling distance against my opponents." A cloak of wind rises around me without any bodily movement "Being able to ignore most arrows and even some lighter melee attacks is a boon that quite frankly, all of you should learn as soon as possible." I scoff derisively "Dying to a stray arrow would be pathetic after we went through the trouble of teaching you after all."

Most of them, having gotten used to the dry snark I like to call my sense of humor, nod along and accept my advice at face value. Good, I wasn't kidding about getting pissy if one of them got shot like an idiot.

"Quite right" Tolfdir interjects "Now for those of you who are interested in self-enhancement spells we have another demonstration prepared." He sends me a challenging smirk "Reyvin, if you would?"

I summon an assortment of steel weapons as Tolfdir's body grows in size, though not nearly as large as when he is truly fighting.

"Now" He turns to the students with only a light growl in his voice "I will show you how to best utilize Alteration to deflect mundane weaponry and even enchanted blades."

The students watch with rapt attention as I grab a steel sword and dash at the Nord without even the hint of a warning.

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I leave Tolfdir's lab a bit worn out from the experience.

After I was done helping him out with today's lesson we got to work on replicating the true defenses of dragon scales. We deemed that the spell shall be called dragonskin as the flesh variant, being the one that gave a full physical boost, was still a bit far off.

I went over the old man's diagrams and everything he had discovered up to this point and found them to be... eerily meticulous. The depth of knowledge Tolfdir could impose upon even the tiniest hypothesis was quite frankly, astounding.

Then again the man was many centuries old, and he had to occupy himself with something besides teaching little brats how not to die.

Simping for my third grandpa aside, we were somewhat successful in progressing with the spell. It would still take a fair bit of time but now that Tolfdir didn't have to struggle with precision measuring we could adjust the hundred or so runes necessary to cast the damn thing in due time.

The addition of some dovahzul runes also helped us immensely, we were under no false impression that anyone below Master would ever be casting this spell so adding some extra Magicka cost for a fat power and control boost was an acceptable trade off.

My trailing thoughts cease as I approach the door of Hakan the Alchemist's office, a couple of knocks later the door opens and I am surprised to come face to face with Morrigan.

One of my oldest friends in these lands gives me a confused but welcoming smile as she sees me "Reyvin, what brings you here?"

I am just about to respond but the green smoke in the room parts as if by magic and I am greeted with the sight of Hakan, his hands folded in front of his mouth as he stares at me intently.

Slowly he lowers his hands atop his table and then asks a simple yet heavy question "So boy... finally come to cook?"

I hope I don't regret this.

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Could one use alchemy to get powerstones?

Asking for a friend.

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