Chapter 450 – New Passive Spells

After reviewing data provided by the auto-mappers, Damion located several probable locations of Magic Absorbing Crystals. With that information he drafted a new set of missions for groups to head into those Red Zones to find out if there was indeed a lode of the crystals. If there was, they were to mine as much as possible and return it to Atlantis. He set reward of the mission for one gold per person with a bonus of one gold per kilogram of Magic Absorbing Crystal turned in. Now all he has to do is wait for people to complete the mission.

With little to do but wait, Damion decided to try his luck with more passive spells. His magical endurance had continued to rise given the number of passive spells he kept on all the time and with his recent rise in magic power, he felt it was time to start pushing himself harder.

‘System, purchase a passive spell.’

{Affirmative.}

{Random Passive Spell purchased for 1,275 Credits.}

{Generating spell…}

{Passive spell generated. Congratulations host you have obtained the spell Sound Resistance.}

[Sound Resistance - (F Rank 5 Mana P/S) Increase your resistance to all forms of Sound attacks. Rank of skill determines the Rank of Sound attack that can be ignored.]

The spell fit right in with his other resistances and would likely increase in Rank faster than the others, since he tended to avoid most magic attacks, but Sound affinity attacks were difficult to avoid.

After activating the spell, Damion felt the additional drain on his mana recovery. Despite having all his passive spells active, with the exception of Mana Absorption, he was still more than capable of supporting more. The question was, how far should he push himself? It would take quite a few passive spells to even begin to slow his mana regeneration, but that had never really been his worry. How many active passive spells could he support before he would fall into mana exhaustion?

In reality, he did not even want to get to that point. Sure, he could train harder, but if he was at the brink of mana exhaustion all the time then what would happen when he needed to cast a large number of offensive or defensive spells?

‘System, purchase another passive spell.’

{Affirmative.}

{Random Passive Spell purchased for 1,912 Credits.}

{Generating spell…}

{Passive spell generated. Congratulations host you have obtained the spell Body of Light.}

[Body of Light - (F Rank 1 Mana P/S) Emit light from your body constantly into the surrounding area. Rank determines intensity.]

After reading the spell description he wanted to curse the Magic System. True Sight removed almost any use of this spell for him and trying to train it up to an acceptable Rank was going to be next to impossible. How was he supposed to explain himself glowing? Sure, the spell could help team members see in dark places, but so could any number of other spells and artifacts. The only conceivable use he could think of would be if the spell reached a high enough Rank that it would blind anyone trying to hit him but training it to that level would not be achievable in a small amount of time.

Just as a test Damion activated the spell. A faint glow emanated from his skin. In sunlight the effect would likely not be noticeable and in pitch darkness he would be little more than a small glowstick, hardly of use. He deactivated the spell and filed it away as just a spell to turn on when he was training or fighting alone. Perhaps one day it might be useful, but he doubted it.

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With two passives purchased, Damion decided not to take a chance on a third. He had the credits, but he had no idea how long it would take to get a spell worthwhile. Instead, he started working on his own spell. With the knowledge of creating spatial artifacts with different rules provided by Mage Fletcher, as well as his growing understanding of how Nyx was able to merge into his shadow, Damion began to try and create a spell that would allow him to carry his pets with him anywhere.

With the narrow passageways of some of the dungeon floors, if he wanted to take Phil with him, then he needed to find a way to transport the Blizzard King. Sure, the Demonic Beast could shuffle along with a party, but doing so slowed everyone down. If he could make a spell to allow him to carry his companions like he did his personal items and other gear, then he could take Phil and Nyx with him through any environment.

The magic seal Damion began constructing was unlike any of the spells he had created before. His Spatial affinity was the key; he had to create a stable pocket space that could support life. Mage Fletcher told him altering the rules of a spatial pocket was difficult, but until he started experimenting he had no real appreciation of how difficult it truly was. If he was attempting to make an artifact he could inscribe the laws of his world into the artifact to help him stabilize them before he began, but since he was creating a spell, he did not have that luxury. The more complex the spell, the easier it was for things to go wrong and while the Spatial Storage spell was only tier 1 adding rules that conflicted with the normal rules of the world instantly required the spell to be at least a tier 4.

As he was working a thought occurred to Damion. He was not truly trying to create a space that had separate laws. He was trying to duplicate the laws of the real world in his pocket space. When creating a spatial pocket the initial space is formed as a blank space with no laws and other than the requirement to not collapse in on itself and destroy whatever was placed into it, most really did not have any.

The intention of simply mirroring the real world inside his pocket space was simple in theory but proved to be complex in execution. At first he tried to lay out all the laws of the world, but he quickly realized that even if he could list them all, there was no way he could properly inscribe all of their interactions in a spell, for that he would need to fully understand each interaction of the natural laws and while he might have perfect Nashto mastery, he did not have a perfect understanding of the universe.

The second approach Damion took kept him busy for five days and ended in a remarkable failure. Since he could not create a duplicate of the world, he thought perhaps he could capture a small part of it. Traveling outside the city, he attempted to create a spatial pocket and then force a part of the world into it. The pocket space collapsed and the small crater he made sucking in a piece of the world as a foundation for his miniature one was filled in by the debris after his pocket space ruptured.

For his third attempt, Damion went back to the design board. A magic seal is what was needed and he felt it might be possible to mirror the world without fulling understanding it or taking a part of it within his spell. After all, a mirror simply reflected the world in front of it. The mirror had specific laws it followed, but it did not create the laws of the rest of the world, it simply presented an imitation of them.

With this in mind, Damion crafted his magic seal to allow his spatial pocket to mirror the world around him. It was not a perfect solution, after all if he went underwater then his pocket space would be flooded, or if he went into a river of lava the same thing could happen, but this was still a more realistic path to follow.

After another week of trial and error with his magic seal Damion felt he was getting close. A few days after that he felt like he had a working spell, but he continued to make modifications to it. Finally, after another week he was finished and the Magic System sent him a notification.

*Ding*

{New Spell Created}

[Familiar Space - (F Rank 45 Mana P/S) With your bond you can now store your companion(s) inside a pet space. The size of the space is determined by the mastery spell. Size - 100 cubic meters. Space is mirrored to the outside world of where the spell was cast.]

*Ding*

{Hidden Quest Completed.}

[Quest: Create a Passive Spell]

[Description: By delving into the knowledge of Nashto you have managed to devise a passive spell of your own making, furthering your and the world's knowledge of spell crafting.]

[Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit.]