Azure: Gunner

Chapter 6-8

One of the greatest limitations on magic is the caster’s rate of mana absorption. Despite extensive research, the inherent dangers of mana potions have yet to be addressed. Thus, Mages are constrained by the combination of the size of their mana pool and the rate at which they can absorb more.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the rate of mana absorption is also capped by the local mana density. Under ideal conditions, each point in Absorption enables one to recover three points of mana per hour. However, if the ambient mana is Level 10 or below, one can never absorb more than one hundred points per hour.

While this is quite a good amount for a Level 10 Mage, it might be less than half of a Level 20 Mage’s theoretical maximum. Above Level 10, every Level increase in the ambient mana results in another ten points of maximum mana absorption per hour – before factoring in the effect of Skills.

Unfortunately, all known examples of Skills which increase mana absorption work on a percentage basis. Thus, while still undoubtedly useful, the difference is marginal if one is situated in an area far below one’s Level.

- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System

Saturday evening found us eating quickly so we could get to the bar and get a table. The orcs convinced me that, since the prior Sunday we’d exceeded our drink limit without causing problems, we could do so again. There was a spirited debate about whether it was better to drink four E0 beers or two E10s – it was roughly the same price. In the end, they decided to go for quantity over strength and we ordered a couple pitchers of E0.

I still didn’t like the taste of the beer, but I had to admit that a couple large mugs of it gave me a nice relaxed feeling that I wasn’t used to. For the last few years, I’d been responsible for keeping the younger kids out of trouble. It was ironic that now, when I had a dangerous situation on my hands with Yuri, I was able to relax more than ever before.

It was good to have friends! As long as we stuck together, I wasn’t too worried about Yuri pulling something. I just hoped he’d stay out of our dorm this time.

At least that night I remembered to turn off my alarm before going to bed, so I was able to sleep in a little on Sunday morning. That was the total of my relaxing time for the day though, because we had a lot to do. First, we had to go into town to visit the Enchanter and pick up my wand.

We left after breakfast, walking quickly down the hill in 2-rover formation with Raylan and Arlo together ranging out ahead of us. Nothing bothered us along the way, and we headed straight for Esther’s shop once we reached Backhorn. She had my wand all ready to go, with one of the leather sheathes for it that I quickly secured to my belt.

“Esther, do you sell privacy wards?” I asked, once I’d gotten the wand into a comfortable position.

“Of course,” she replied, “they’re popular, but expensive. I don’t put them out on display though, they’re too easy to steal.”

I frowned. “Don’t you have wards against using Inventory in here?”

The redhead laughed as she unlocked a drawer behind the counter and pulled out a tray holding a half-dozen small cubes of what looked like black stone, with runes carved into their faces. Each side was perhaps an inch and a half long.

“Azure, you hardly need Inventory to steal something this small! Just slip it into a pouch when I’m not looking. No ward I know of will stop that, though I’ve heard some really high-Level Merchants can tell the instant anyone tries to steal something from them. Here you are, my selection of privacy wards. What are you looking for?”

“Uh, something that will stop other students from hearing our discussions?” I said, confused.

“Ah, just other Tier 0s? Do you care about blocking Comms?”

I shook my head, and she picked out three of the cubes and set them in front of the tray.

“These are my cheapest wards, but even these are Tier 1. For a Tier 0, they need a lot of mana to operate, and well, there’s the cost too.”

“How much are they?” I’d checked with PAST on the way to town and learned that I was up to almost fifteen eagles. I’d gotten a couple full eagles from the big fight on Friday, then spent a few talons on beer at the bar.

“Twenty eagles,” she replied, and I winced. That was quite a bit more than I could afford, even though I was going to stop at A–Z afterwards and sell my old red dot and ammo capacity mods.

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Jayce pointed out.

“Does it matter how loud the noise is inside the ward? I mean, if I were to shoot a gun inside of it, what would happen?”

Esther looked intrigued by my questions.

“These aren’t powerful enough to totally mute something that loud,” she said. “Even a loud scream would leak out somewhat, though it would be much quieter. If you want something that can completely silence a gunshot, you’d need one of my more expensive wards – though I can’t say I’ve ever tested it.”

“I don’t need it to be totally silent, just mostly silent. I want to be able to practice shooting without bothering people in the morning or evenings, and it might be useful if I need to sneak up on monsters.”

“They’re not good for sneaking,” she replied immediately with a shake of her head. “The ward is fixed in place once activated, and if you take the wardstone out of the original area of effect, it collapses. So you can’t move around much, these only have a radius of about ten feet.”

That wasn’t really what I was hoping for, but at least it explained why people didn’t use them when fighting.

“OK,” I said slowly, thinking. “Would louder noises like gunshots damage the ward?”

“No, it shouldn’t. If it does, bring it back to me and I’ll take a look and try to fix it for you for free. These should last a very long time, as long as you don’t physically damage them.”

In the end, Arlo agreed to split the purchase of one with me. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t cover two full lanes at the range, but we should be able to both shoot as long as we stood not too far apart. We’d also take turns supplying the mana, which at five points per minute would give us an extra incentive to practice shooting quickly.

At A–Z I quickly sold my mods, though the two together only fetched me two eagles and a talon. It seemed low, but then I realized that they were selling mods considerably cheaper than back in Sunland. It made sense they wouldn’t pay as much for them either.

Down to almost exactly seven eagles, I convinced the others to skip eating at the restaurant in town and head back to the dining hall. I also really wanted to try out my new wand, but somewhere out of sight of Yuri or any of his buddies. Wolf found us at the dining hall and I went off with him to find a secluded area for some practice.

I returned a few hours later, tired and sweaty, and indulged in a nice long shower before returning to my room. Then I sat down at my desk and started looking through the book of runes, trying to decide what to study next.

I have Force, Poison, and Fire right now. The more runes I learn, the more flexible I’ll be. But I’ll have to keep practicing all the ones I learn myself, or I’ll get rusty. At least I don’t have to worry about that with Poison and Force. It would be great to learn Heal, but it’s useless without a modifier, so I couldn’t do anything with it until Tier 1. That seems like a long way off.

Maybe I should try something different. Slow sounds interesting, that could be pretty cool if I could make a monster slower just by shooting it! Let’s give it a shot! Ahahah, I crack myself up sometimes…

The next week seemed to fly by. I added an early morning, pre-PT Sprint to my routine, convincing everyone to join me. Tara and Raylan couldn’t burn off their stamina before our workout, so we all limited ourselves to Skills that used mana. For our melee fighters, that mostly meant practicing with their wands while Raylan sat around and worked on Shadow.

In the evenings, I’d return to my room after dinner for Spell practice and duel preparation. I also snuck in some extra sparring with Raylan, along with grilling my teammates in the melee track for their observations on Yuri’s fighting abilities. When Saturday came around, the tension was palpable.

Clarice went out of her way to get in my face during Ranged Combat.

“I wanted to be the one to take you down, but Yuri called dibs. Don’t worry, it’s my turn to get you next time!”

I glared right back at her, feeling a powerful urge to call on my Intimidation Skill again. Stamina flowed into it and I felt it activate, my spine straightening as I did my best to loom over the shorter, lighter-haired girl in her elaborate armor. Her eyes widened as I bared my teeth in a wordless snarl. I had several choice insults ready for her this time, but I felt my Skill holding me back from speaking, my intent perfectly clear.

She met my gaze briefly, then flinched away as my expression changed to one of triumphant disdain. I turned away from her, and Jayce’s eyes widened as they saw my face.

“What was that, Az? Your eyes – they were glowing!”

I felt my mouth drop open in surprise. “Glowing?” I asked, dumbly.

“Yeah, the same color blue as your ring, but much brighter and it was both of them! But it’s gone now.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I assured the cyborg, my mind spinning.

Intimidation makes my eyes glow? That is pretty fucking awesome. I need to try it with a mirror and see what it looks like!

I caught Wolf looking at me with an odd expression and wondered if he’d noticed as well. Either way, I was happy to send Clarice scurrying back to her friends. In Melee Combat, I went after Marta relentlessly when we sparred. She was still slightly better than me, but I’d improved more than she had, relatively speaking, and still had the Stats advantage.

I’d picked up another Level in Short Blades during the week, and I relished the chance to beat her badly – at least, as badly as the instructors would allow. We were using training weapons, so the most I could do was give her some nasty welts. Those would get healed at the end of the class anyway, but at least Lydia would leave the pain.

It was at lunchtime that Wilson came to the dining hall and summoned me – and my entire Squad – to the administration building.

It’s finally time to get this started!