Sophia read and reread the descriptions of the various classes she had access to, something she could really only do with the status screens. As like most of the villagers, she was only taught enough reading to get by. Catherine had started teaching her more advanced stuff, but they hadn't gotten very far just yet. With that being said even with the system helping her along with this, it didn't change the fact she didn't quite understand what each class was. So, she did the only thing she could think of and asked Catherine.
“Um, Catherine? What do these classes actually do?” Sofia asked, looking over at the very stunned and disheveled Catherine, snapping her out of her spiraling thoughts.
“Ohh well uh mmgh. I don't recognize the first one, and I have no knowledge as to what a radio is. The second one I would not recommend, as most mages who develop powerful empathic abilities have a hard time controlling them. However, since it seems to be your main ability, you might be able to get around that. Though, I can't say anything for certain about that, and I do not have the materials to try and research it properly. The last one, however… Well, while I do not know what techno means, I do know that a magus is a more powerful version of a mage. In terms of hierarchy, they go mage, magus, archimage, archimagus, then master archimage, and master archimagus. So, the fact you're being offered a magus class this early on is kind of terrifying but also extremely good. I also know for a fact that a lot of very, very powerful people, mostly elves and dwarves, have spent a lot of their lives trying to get the artificer class. So, we can assume that since this is a variant, possibly an upgrade on that class, it will likely be, at the very least, equivalent to or even better than an artificer. With all that said, I want to make it clear that I don’t know much about the three options. But since radio mage specifically states that it requires equipment to be used, and we've established that empathic mage is more likely to be a hindrance then not…… I look in all honesty, without all the information I can only guess. But I personally think the third one would be your best option, but I simply don't know enough about the others to make more than an educated suggestion. Since you have empathic powers as your base ability, it will likely show up again. So even if the techno magus class isn't your ideal first class it will definitely help you get a jump start on whatever actual class or vocation you wish in the future.” Catherine explained desperately wishing she could get some of her books out of her house to try and help her figure out what the heck was going on. But she did not have the time for that. She could already tell Sophia’s mana was waning it wouldn't be too much longer before she had to take over managing the barrier again. Between this and the spirit or whatever it was Sophia had found, they had no choice but to put their fates in the hands of this small girl at this point, so they couldn't afford to wait and deliberate the choice properly.
Sophia nodded, giving the options a final read through before selecting techno magus.
And that's when things got weird. Most of the time, when someone selects their first class, they undergo a small change. Woodcutters may notice an increase in muscle tone, weavers may notice their fingers grow thinner and more dexterous. Mages usually receive some form of a wide array of changes, but usually, it was minor; their eyes might glow in the dark, or their hair might change colors.
Sophia's changes weren’t minor. She screamed as her arms began to burn and bleed, silver circuits fusing into her skin. Catherine had to quickly grab the staff out of her hand. The barrier nearly vanished when Sophia let go of it, forcing Catherine to focus on restoring it. As such, she was unable to help the poor girl as she collapsed to the ground, clenching her arms. After a few agonizing seconds, the pain finally started to subside as her arms healed at a rapid pace.
Sophia gingerly sat up, blinking away a few tears as she looked down at her arms. She gently used the hem of her shirt to wipe away the blood. As she inspected the silvery circuitry patterns that arched to cross her arms. She carefully bent and flexed her arms, finding that the circuits easily bent and moved with her. She then raised her right hand up to inspect it. In the center of her palm, she found a? A well, not quite a hole in her palm, but it was transparent enough that light passed through it. It almost looked like crystal or glass, but it felt warm like skin to the touch. However, when her mana passed through it, it felt like something was missing. It moved like it did when she used Catherine's staff, but something was missing she just wasn't sure what.
“Are you OK Sophia?” Frederick asked, trying to help her up.
“Yeah, I wasn't expecting that mmmh, that really, really hurt.” Sophia whimpered as she wiped away the few remaining tears.
“Sorry about that, Sofia I knew about the changes classes could cause, but I never expected them to be that dramatic, and usually the changes are done over several years, not all at once.” Catherine bit her lip, considering something for a second before turning to Frederick.
“Did the guards retrieve my mage chest already?”
“Yeah, though I can’t get it open though don't know why you sent us after that thing its freaking heavy despite its small size.” Frederick side before grabbing the chest for her.
Catherine rolled her eyes at Frederick’s annoyance. She quickly reached into her shirt to pull out the key, a small magic stone no bigger than the tip of a finger, but it fulfilled its role well enough. The reason the guards couldn't get inside the chest was because it was magically locked, and the weight was due to it being a magical storage item.
Magical storage items, unlike holding items or inventory items, did not cancel out the weight of the item stored within. They were basically the cheapest and most easily made of the three. So, despite the small, somewhat ornate box appearance, it held most of her most valuable magical items within, along with the few magical tomes she had. Though she didn't have time for that, she just hoped she could find what she was looking for.
Now while she primarily preferred her staff for spell craft, she still had her old wand from when she was at the Academy, and after a bit more digging around, she managed to retrieve the wand from the chest, handing it off to Sophia. With her new class, she’d likely be able to make use of it. The gods knew they could use another mage right now, even an untrained one.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
[Sufficiently sized magical fuci detected. Would you like to assimilate into onboard system? Y/N.]
The system window popped up the moment Sophia touched the wand. Sophia could only blink in surprise before asking Catherine what it could mean. Catherine quickly explained that a magical focus was a wand or staff that made it easier to cast magic but was not specifically needed to do so. Some mages even preferred creating simplified one time use focuses like cards or talismans. While others used their own bodies or tattoos as focuses, imbuing their bodies with powerful spells and elemental abilities, but wands and Staffs were the easiest to manufacture, use, and maintain and thus were the most common.
After explaining this, Sophia accepted the prompt, and the wand basically exploded.
Wands were created using three traditional catalysts a metal catalyst, an organic catalyst, and a magical catalyst. The metal catalysts were used to give it shape and protected it from breaking though they were typically made with softer more conductive metals. The organic catalyst that acted as the conductor was usually made with specialized wood or bones and sometimes claws and horns, though those were far more expensive and rare. Lastly was the magic catalyst, which acted as an amplifier. Usually, a mana crystal or core or, more often, some combination of both. The mana crystal acted like a combination transformer and battery up stepping the output and lessening the spell’s cost until it ran out of power. The mana crystal would recharge slowly over time as the user held the wand or staff. While cores made the spells easier to cast and depending on the core, it might imbue some kind of effect. Any creature that could use magic would develop a core or a crystal of condensed mana. These cores, while extremely fragile, were some of the best components to be used in magical spell craft as they made controlling spells possible. The easiest way to get them was by cutting them out of monsters; however, in some cases, families would harvest cores from the departed, though there were very, very strict laws on this practice. Not because of any taboo against the act of using a part of a person to create a magical tool or artifact, no, but to keep mages from hunting down other powerful mages to make said magical tools and artifacts.
Catherine's staff used the core of a moss tortoise, a large Omnivorous tortoise that lived in swamps and marshes. Some could grow to be larger than a wagon, and their cores were particularly valuable for long sustained, magic’s, but they weren't the easiest to get as most moss tortoises took a very long time to mature and we're not the most easily killed creature due to their incredibly thick hides and shells. It didn’t help how fragile the courses themselves were, any attack powerful enough to kill the moss turtle likely would shatter the core as well. So often, the easiest way to retrieve a core was just to let the tortoise die naturally.
The wand, however, used the core from a storm wolf. Catherine had never liked its core, finding it too unstable, and it discharged spells violently, making it hard to control, but it was the best she could afford at the time.
The core of that wand was now floating in front of Sofia before the strange crystal construct in her hand opened up, allowing the core to float inside before sealing up again. It didn't fit quite right, though. It was small, almost too small, as even with several tiny metal prongs holding it in place. Sophia could feel the core rattle around inside her hand. Despite that, the empty feeling in her hand was now gone.
[Core identified. Compatible focus detected synchronizing core. 12%32%58%83%99% Core synchronization complete. Core meets minimum requirements, O.S. boot up in progress. O.S. integration complete displaying status.]
[Name: Sophia Anith. Class: Techno magus. Race: Human. Current core: Storm Wolf. Skills: dodge LV3(makes it easier to dodge and notice incoming attacks.) Empathic communication LV5/locked. (Allows the user to sense the intent of others and send their intent back.)-(Currently level is locked due to the lack of progression on techno magus and can no longer level up.) Mana sense lv2. (The ability to sense, detect, or otherwise comprehend mana in your surroundings.) Spell craft lv1.(The ability to understand, comprehend, and create spells) Spell cast lv1. (Assists the user in the casting of crafted spells.) Absorb material lv1(the flesh is weak, but metal is too unfeeling. Humanity once held the capability of melding metal and flesh to create beings beyond both nature and science. You have taken the first step on this path. Your body will passively absorb materials from its surrounding environment and use them to reinforce itself.) System access lv1. (You have gained User level access to the system. Current access is level 1.) Spell list: Shape earth. (Barely comprehend) spark. (Barely comprehend.) Create flame. (Barely comprehend.) Manipulate water. (Barely comprehend.) Assemble. (Innately comprehend.) Disassemble. (Innately comprehend.) Transmit two way. (Innately comprehend.) Shield -> force field. (Innately comprehend.)]
Austin watched the Ongoing battle with a steady, somewhat annoyed indifference. it wasn't his first fight; heck, it wasn't even close to his hundredth. He’d fought in battles and huge wars on far greater scales than this. But he'd never been this week before, his mechanical ants; we're putting up a decent fight, and we're in fact making a right mess of themselves.
Sure, he had faced several losses, but that was to be expected; they were both acting as a distraction to take the heat off the village and clear a path for the cable. He was quickly burying it as they worked their way to the village. He had to, unfortunately, pull back his most powerful military asset, the prototype beetle. Its weapons were far more numerous and powerful than anything else he had on the field, but the turrets in the village would soon run out of power. Unfortunately, its power source was not enough to keep the defenses of the village active. Though it should at least buy them a bit more time, so he had the construction bot he had left in the village currently hooking it into the power network. Despite this, even after rerunning the calculations multiple times for the best and worst case scenarios. The defenses would run out of power at least a good 15 minutes before his bots would arrive to supplement it. The biological ants had gone underground as soon as this whole mess had started, so they wouldn't be much help even if he could somehow find a way to direct them. The humans could apparently handle the majority of the airborne threats well enough on their own. Though he knew very well that they wouldn't last long if the walls came down, and while they could likely last long enough for his drones to reach them, he would definitely lose most of the turrets in that time. Whatever was coordinating the monsters wasn't particularly bright but was smart enough to understand what was killing its forces. So, the moment the turrets stopped shooting, they'd be overwhelmed. The few bots in the settlement probably could continue the fight. The construction bot, in particular, was turning out to be rather skilled at dismantling The Beatles with its multi tool. But other than that and a few aerial drones, it was all that was left, as it would take the beetle at least a few minutes to free itself and continue the fight, but regardless, he was just simply out of options.
That was until a new friendly signature popped onto his tactical map smack dab in the middle of the village. Austin quickly ran a check on its I.F.F., finding no codes or anything to designate it. He then ran a diagnostic and scan on the various programs used in generating the tactical map and found no issue with them. So confused at the unidentified friendly signature, he tried the next most obvious step and pinged it with a communication request.
“Ahhhh, what?” Sophia said, hearing a ringing in her ear. Not like what you would get with an explosion but closer to what we and the modern day would recognize as a ringtone. Of course, not understanding that she was startled and smacked her own ear accidentally answering the call.
“Unknown signal, identify yourself!” Austin said on the other end of the line.
“Ohh um, I'm Sophia. Who are you?” Sophia said, getting odd looks from Catherine and a few surrounding guards.
“The girl from the village? Well, we spoke earlier, but I don't believe I properly introduced myself. My designation is A427i9. Though most referred to me as Austin.”
“Ohh, so that's your name? Um, why are you in my head now?” Sophia questioned, turning to look in the direction of where she knew the Cave and likely where Austin himself was.
“I do not know. I detected a new friendly signal and attempted to make contact.”
[two way direct link connected would you like to learn the skill hologram Y/N.]
