What I said to Rabbit Girl was -surprisingly- not all that inaccurate. As someone with what effectively amounts to a crime spidey sense, I can get a pretty good overview of crime patterns in my area. And while crime never really goes away, during the day I can stand in a stadium full of thousands of people and only ever feel the occasional mild twinge tied to things like pickpocketing.
But the second the sun starts to set, that's when the rats start to get a little bold.
So after getting Skadi on board and finding myself with a couple of hours on my hands, I took on the most sacred duty of anyone looking for attention; being a rooftop vigilante.
Because if anyone ever tells you they don't long to perch ominously atop buildings looking for crime, they are lying to you.
Which is exactly why I was currently hopping between buildings above the burgeoning nightlife of Orario, silently making my way above all the people who just left work and couldn't bear another minute without a drink in their hands. It's still probably a hot minute before the more serious shit starts, but there was something about the annoyance of coming off a long shift that just seems perfect for starting meaningless fights.
Which is where I step in.
Literally.
Leaping off the rooftops I land between two brawlers, both about to throw another punch. Their faces -already each looking rather battered from exchanged blows- shift into horror as they slowly realise what's appeared between them, yet they're unable to stop their fists.
Fortunately for them I kindly catch their hands, and just give them a little warning in the form of my intent.
I've found that despite civilians not being able to read intent on a conscious level, if you focus enough you can still scare the piss out of them with it regardless. It seems to trigger their danger sense on an animalistic level, and they almost universally start fleeing at that point.
Which they predictably did in this case, leaving me free to return to the rooftops.
Drunken fighting generally wasn't worth more effort than that, not unless they started to bring in bystanders. So you scare 'em a little, maybe twist an arm if they're particularly belligerent, but overall it was rarely that serious. No, I was more in the area for the occasional mugging, genuine assault or attempted rape.
Well that and also to practice; Alteration had shot to the top of my priority list with Goliath potentially on the horizon and I didn't actually need to be in the dungeon to practice it.
In this case, because of the weight of me and my armour plus my movement speed, I can very easily shatter the terracotta tiling that seems so prevalent in Orario. So to get around that I need to spam the fuck out of the other side of Burden. Where Burden imposes the concept of more mass upon something, the spell Feather does the opposite, lightening the target.
That translates into a mixture of benefits and downsides; like it takes less force to accelerate, but also your ability to gain traction is hindered because you're lighter. To use it perfectly, you'd need to do some fuckery to give yourself perfect traction, feather yourself to accelerate and then burden after you take off to put more force behind you to negate air resistance.
Effectively mass effecting yourself into a bullet.
Also, that traction fuckery is surprisingly possible with Alteration because this branch of magic is completely insane. I genuinely can't remember any of these spells being in Skyrim, yet all the same there's a Levitate spell just out of my reach.
As in walk on air kind of levitation.
For some fucking reason.
And if you can walk on air, guess what else you have? Limitless traction. Most people would probably focus on the flying part of that, but fuck em, high speed movement is so much cooler.
Also just to harp on more about Alteration, that shit even has spells for telekinesis and soul sight for some reason. And as long as the mana cost isn't the same as in Skyrim -which it hasn't been thus far- I can do some crazy shit with both of those spells.
But before that… I skidded to a stop above an alleyway, and peered in on something that from a distance felt mildly dangerous but was seemingly escalating.
Ah yeah, that's not great.
Dropping down from above, I made a snap judgement as what looked like a domestic dispute reached violent heights.
Landing almost weightlessly on the man's extended arm, I barely gave him time to react before I grabbed him by the side of his head and flipped my Feather spell. Gravity reasserted quickly itself and the man was slammed into the ground by my enhanced weight.
"You alright?" I asked softly, turning my gaze to the only other occupant of the alleyway, the shivering form of the man's apparent wife as she nursed what would probably become a black eye.
"Do… Do I look like I'm alright?" She hissed defensively, before her eyes widened in fear, as if only just realising what she'd said and to whom.
Raising a hand placatingly, I went on, "no you don't. But if you're angry, can I recommend giving your story to the Ganesha Familia? I'm sure they'd be happy to give you justice."
Her emotions cycled pretty transparently on her face as she glanced between me and the man, the fear in her posture gradually giving way to indignity, defiance and then anger, all directed at the body beneath me.
"Yeah... yeah, let's do that."
It didn't take long after that to find one of Ganesha's patrols, and bring them back while giving my own statement. I got some weird looks from them but they were quickly distracted by the woman, so all's well that ends well.
All it took then was a quick mana potion break and I was back to the rooftops and thus training. Grinding my way to the elusive break point of Alteration training.
See, the most basic way to train a field in Skyrim is base repetition; want to become a beast with a sword? Go hit things. Want to get better with spells? Cast them on valid targets, over and over again. And Alteration in this vein is already one of the easiest fields to level, given that most of its spells work on you, so there's no need for living targets.
But that's just the beginning, because after the first fifty Alteration levels you unlock those two crucial spells I mentioned before; Soul Sight and Telekinesis. The first gives you exp based on the number of people in your field of view, and in Skyrim -despite that not being very many due to the limits of the game- it was still broken in terms of leveling speed.
For me? With the thousands of people that walk down Orario's main streets during the morning rush? Soul Sight could probably level me from fifty to one hundred in an hour, and that's despite the exp nerf I seem to be operating under.
The second spell -Telekinesis- would normally be even better than that, but honestly I'm probably fresh out of luck there. Normally you can level to one hundred instantly with it, but it needs fast travel and as much as I operate like a Skyrim character, I don't have anything like that.
Hell, the closest thing I can think of to that would be trying to pull off teleportation via reverse Conjuration. But there's almost no shot that'll work for this purpose anyway, and Conjuration is its own problem. That entire magic branch is all about pulling shit out of specific dimensions adjacent the Skyrim world, and given that I'm in a totally different universe I'm probably ninety percent fucked.
Honestly I don't know why said branch is so focused on summoning thicc fire demons from alternate dimensions- well okay, I can hazard a guess. But they almost certainly won't work for me here, meaning I'll need to make my own spells, and that'll likely mean near mastery of the branch. So a huge time investment without much in the way of return until the very end.
Also a lot of sitting down that I'm really not looking forward to.
Still worth it given that Conjuration at its core is just space-time fuckery, and if you can pull something to you through space, then you can step across it yourself. Which means teleportation and maybe banishing people to other dimensions for shits and giggles when I have the time.
Oh and while it's not really related to leveling, there's another level fifty Alteration spell called Transmute, and for reasons beyond the scope of mortal comprehension, it turns iron into silver and silver into gold. Y'know, if you ever felt like the world economy was looking a little too stable.
Not really a good idea for leveling, but those grimoires I've been eying? The magic stones large enough for enchanting that've been out of my reach?
Yeah, not anymore.
Alteration is the solution to all of life's problems and nothing can convince me otherwise, so I'll make the most of this time and grind out a few more levels while bolstering my rep a little.
-
Arriving at the street Athena had told me about, I found myself looking up at a woman after my own heart, her long blonde hair and miniskirt swaying in the breeze as she stood majestically atop the aforementioned church. In a miniskirt I could see straight up.
Truly, never have I felt more like I was among my people than Orario.
There was just something about supernatural strength that made you want to climb the nearest tall thing and perch mysteriously atop it, or just generally take things at your own pace and in your own way. Social expectations kinda cease to matter when you can casually fold people like lawn chairs.
In this case, a touch of Feather made the jump especially easy, clearing the two story building to land beside the woman silently, her golden eyes watching me all the while.
"Hey, am I late?" I greeted casually, meeting Ais Wallenstein's gaze steadily. An executive of the Loki Familia who bears the title of 'Sword Princess' and also one of the most popular Adventurers in Orario, she was the one I most expected to come after Finn.
Finn because he's a nosey little bastard and her because she's obsessed with getting stronger, so her having an interest in me is frankly expected.
"…" Despite my greeting, the girl just kind of stared back blankly.
"Nice night?" I offered again. And it kind of was, the stars were out in full force and there was a pretty nice breeze. Despite that, the girl still didn't react much. Though I was pretty sure I saw something flash in her eyes and disappear just as quickly.
"…Yes." She paused after saying that much, and seemed to fret a little before managing a small, "hello."
Ah, I get it.
I put a touch more effort into smiling in response than I normally would. "Thanks for coming, I 'preciate the help."
"I was free." She responded blankly, though I could see a flicker of relief in her eyes. Her face I was finding was quite rigid, but her eyes were surprisingly expressive on a small scale.
I nodded, and introduced myself simply. "Elric Carne, Captain of the Hestia Familia."
"…Ais Wallenstein." She responded with a little more effort. "Loki Familia Executive."
"Well met Miss Wallenstein." I smiled and watched as she relaxed somewhat. I had assumed the show had overstated her social issues somewhat, but apparently it was spot on. And well, when it comes to interacting with someone like that, simple is often best.
Most people with those kinds of issues tend to be the most aware of them and are almost universally self conscious about social interactions because of that. So showing them that they're doing just fine helps a fair bit in so long as you don't go overboard into patronising territory.
"Did Judith explain the situation?" Speaking of, where was she? If Ais was here then I would have expected her as well.
Ais let out a soft sound as she nodded seriously, it was actually kind of cute. "Athena Familia… and uh, a kidnapping?"
Did Judith not explain this properly? Wait did I even explain it to Judith properly before I asked her for help?
Shit.
Keen to make up for that apparent failure, I explained it to her as best I could, her expression only really changing at the mention of kidnapped children. Which is… one hell of a threshold, but at least something.
"Un…" She uttered seriously after I was done. "So I'll protect the Goddesses, and keep watch?" I nodded as she confirmed the rolls I'd assigned her, partially out of hope that she wouldn't kill steal from me and partially because tactically that was the best place for a trap card of this magnitude.
"Got it in one." I responded. "Any complaints about the plan, or questions?"
Her eyes surprisingly lit up at that offer again showing far more emotion than her actual expression.
"Um…" She tilted her head. "Your armour covers a lot, why?"
Well, I meant questions about the plan, though I kind of expected her to jump to asking me about leveling strats. Can't say I foresaw an armour question, but fuck it, don't want to discourage her.
"Protection." I answered simply. "Why does yours cover so little?" She was wearing half a boob plate of armour, a miniskirt and heels for some reason. As someone who designs and uses proper armour, I can't not comment as much as I approve of the miniskirt.
"…Isn't it supposed to?" She tilted her head, her eyes looking genuinely confused.
"That kinda defeats the purpose of wearing armour doesn't it?" At my words, her gaze gained this far away glint, like she was lost.
"But… wouldn't it get in the way?" She tried softly.
"Depends on how you make it." I put a lot of work getting my shit up to snuff, and to that end my armour was seamed and fitted perfectly to line up with how my body moves. On top of that I've gone through several different types of coatings and under layers to get it all to absorb shock, slide seamlessly and also do so near silently.
Very hard to do, and I probably only managed it because I was moving iteratively through materials anyway and naturally just wound up fixing all the points that annoyed me along the way. But that was with my journeyman level of skill; the masters of the craft that Ais could afford should be able to manage something similar by eye.
Her head tilted at that and her expression itself turned mildly confused, which -for someone with this level of inexpressiveness- probably meant that she was having a midlife crisis.
"I… don't know?" She frowned and I kinda felt bad. Not that I'd done anything really, but she was genuinely adorable and seeing her upset was just kind of sad. Like I'd kicked a puppy or something.
Also I was absolutely certain Loki had talked her into this outfit.
Which, on one hand, nice. On the other, I don't understand the armour culture in Orario, and I likely never will. But more than that though, I especially can't understand putting someone you care for in danger with shitty armour. At that point, you may as well just kill them yourself.
"I don't pretend to know your situation, but if you're interested you can always just go to a smith and ask them to try on a few designs." I tried. "Tsubaki does good work, even if she mainly focuses on weapons." Naturally I couldn't escape that kind of lay up to promote my friend.
Ais' frown deepened however at the mention of Tsubaki. "I… can't. She said she couldn't help me."
Huh.
"That… I can try asking her about that if you want, otherwise wait a few months and I might become a good enough smith to help." Telling her that was a calculated risk; Ais didn't really seem like the type to tell anyone anything unless they were directly asking her for that information. So offering to help her in future -even if it exposed me a little- would likely be kept between us and only really boost her goodwill towards me.
"...Thank you." She managed, before she paused and glanced almost nervously at me. "Can I ask another question?"
"Sure."
"How did you level up so quickly?" Ah, there it is, maybe she was testing the waters first? Despite her asking softly, there was a weight and intensity to both her voice and even her intent that wasn't there before. I could literally feel how important this was to her, so naturally I had to tweak her nose a little.
"Oh that, I just killed some monsters."
Surprisingly she actually managed to shoot me quite a dry look at that, though it looked more cute than withering.
"Okay, I killed a lot of monsters." I said, still poking fun a little, but also speaking the truth.
I don't know what a traditional rise to level one looks like, but my own experience was vivid to say the least.
I don't sleep, period. And as far as I understand sleep, it's akin to a reset, a chance for your brain to declutter and sort itself out. With things shifting from short term to long term memory and your brain healing from use. Irrelevant connections and memories kind of get swept aside in the process, and thus you wake up refreshed… but you also forget.
Stamina items meanwhile seem to reset me on some foundational level, my tiredness, my hunger and even my physical problems like muscle strain just seem to wash away when taken. No muss, no fuss. And after upgrading to passive stamina regeneration, the damage done by long periods of consciousness just doesn't seem to exist for me, nor do I seem to get any kind of memory issues or mental fatigue.
If anything, it's the opposite.
Maybe it's because the Falna enhances the mind on top of stamina bullshit, but I can remember damn near everything with almost perfect clarity.
To put it bluntly, I've fought nigh constantly for the last month and I remember every life and every hit I've taken; so when I say I've killed a lot, I mean I've killed a lot. All those experiences are still within me and when you get down to it, the Falna is all about experiences, desires and the story that connects them.
"That doesn't help." She almost pouted.
"Sorry?" I offered, cracking a smile. When that failed to do more than temper her not-pout a little, I decided to be a bit more honest. She was out here to help me after all.
"Look, what I did? It isn't something you can replicate, much less at your level." Her disappointment was immeasurable, and I'm pretty sure her day was also ruined, but I wasn't done. "But, if you want some advice from someone who probably isn't qualified to give it? Then I'd say you should focus less on getting stronger while you're surface side, and more on you as a person."
"…" Her brow furrowed slightly at that, and again, her expressionlessness probably meant that she was trying to convey total bewilderment. "What?"
"Just that." I responded seriously. "Spend some time with your friends, try and open up a little. It'll help."
"…You're teasing me." She complained after a few seconds of heavy contemplation.
"I'm not."
"Then… why?" She tried, but again she just sounded confused.
"The Falna's weird." I shrug. I wasn't one hundred percent on this, but I had enough meta information that this is genuinely the best advice I can think of for her situation.
Ais has a grand total of one Skill despite her fame and a whole cavalcade of Divines fawning over her. The only reason I can think of as to why that would be the case would be her lack of development as a person.
Skills and magic are most often reflections of the person, their quirks and strengths given form through achievements and experience. So what happens when there isn't something to reflect? Well apparently you get Ais, who again, I was reliably told has one skill and it's just a reflection of her seething hatred for monsters.
Which by the way, I didn't see much of in the show -nor can I really see it right now- but apparently this girl is cuckoo for cocopuffs when it comes to monster murder and I'm really not sure how to feel about that.
But conclusion? She just kinda needs to get out more.
"It's like… a story, where the more interesting the character is, the more interesting the audience makes them." That attempt just seemed to confuse her more, so I course corrected. "Skills. You get Skills for being a well fleshed out character." Now that got her attention.
"I see…" She muttered, looking away.
"…You don't believe me do you?" Her head snapped back to me, eyes a little wide like I'd just caught her with her hand in the cookie jar. "It's fine." I laughed. "But there's not really a way to lose here; even if I have no idea what I'm talking about, all that happens is that you wind up a little closer with your friends. "
At that she seemed to pause, and I could almost see the gears spin in her head despite her lack of expression, trying to find some way I could be tricking her.
"Time." She retorted eventually. "I'd lose training time."
"At your level, does that even help?"
Her lips thinned as she glared slightly at the sky. "A little, skill is important too."
I hummed, silently activating Feather at the reminder. Her eyes darted over, but I spoke before she could question it. "Do what you think is best, I'm working off of guesswork here anyway."
"I'll… think about it." She offered so I gave her a smile, which she somewhat managed to return. I had to resist the urge to pat her head.
"I'm sure you'll do fine no matter what you do." I told her, doing my best to reassure her. I normally wouldn't, but it's hard not to like this girl.
By my nature I'm suspicious of basically everyone I meet, namely because there's almost always some kind of hidden motive or scheme behind people's actions. But Ais was just… simple, in a good way. Her motivation -her desire to get stronger- was so transparent that I don't need to guess or weigh it in any way. I can just look at her and see it plain as day.
And honestly? That's surprisingly relieving.
Ais opened her mouth to respond before her head suddenly snapped to the side, eyes fixed on a spot on the street that… Ah, I could feel it too, that same inquisitiveness; apparently Athena had arrived and started peeping on us.
Speaking of people I really wasn't sure the motives of.
"Relax, it's the Goddess we have to keep an eye on." I told Ais, before shifting a little. "I'll go grab her."
Feather was still on, so I landed before the invisible midget before she could even peep out of her cloak.
"Wha-" Was all she managed to say before I'd thrown her over my shoulder and made my way back, the Goddess' demands to be let down ignored all the while. I had no idea what Athena's game was, or how much of what she was doing was an act, but I also had no problem taking pleasure in keeping her on her toes like this.
"E-Elric Carne, y-you… you brute!" She shouted as I unceremoniously dumped her on our rooftop, Ais looking over the sight with the tiniest raise of an eyebrow.
"May I present the great Goddess Athena." I proclaimed dryly, as the Goddess' face peeked out of her invisible comfort blanket, her expression equally dry as she tried to glare a hole into the side of my head.
"Athena-sama." Ais bowed, almost totally contrary to my expectations. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to keep a straight face if someone dumped an invisible Goddess on me like that, much less actually show them respect.
Was I the weird one?
Based on the smug smile Athena was shooting my way, certainly not.
"I refuse." I state.
"I didn't even ask you anything!" The Goddess retorted.
"You were going to."
"For my friend's only child, you are certainly rude."
"And for the patron Goddess of child murderers, you have a surprising amount of pride." At that her face flattened and she shot me a murderous glare.
"You think yourself clever child?"
"Yes." I responded before she could go on, drawing an offended squark from the blanket dweller.
"…Are they yours as well?" Ais asked, drawing our eyes to where Skadi and a gaggle of well armed animal girls were just coming into view, Lye, Maylene and Arianne among them. I returned their cheeky wave as they spotted us in turn, though my attention was ultimately drawn to the other side of the street where the last member of our team had shown up.
Judith looked almost done with life and lost besides as she walked down the street, relief flooding her expression as she finally spotted us. Faintly suspicious, I glanced at Ais who almost immediately confirmed my theory as she turned away with a hint of blush on her cheeks.
Ah, she ditched Judith to get here early. Wasn't Judith's idol Ais?
Excellent, now I feel bad.
"Yeah, that's everyone." I answered. "Shall we?"
-
I probably went overboard explaining Alteration, but fuck it, what's the point of writing if you can't daydream about using magic and bullshit physics to turn your character into a ballistics experiment.
Anyway, thanks for reading and maybe liking people, the next three chapters are up on https://www.patreon.com/c/OneFallLeaf.
I wish you a good one.
-
Levitate
Magic from the game Morrowind, it was banned by the Empire later on for reasons entirely related to Todd Howard and his desire to not put it in the next game in the series. It basically just lets you walk on air in the goofiest way possible.
Detect Life (What Elric calls Soul Sight)
A simple spell for detecting lifeforms within a certain radius even through walls.
Telekinesis
A spell for moving things at a distance with your mind. It generally underperforms in the games, but in lore it's a powerful and versatile spell.
Transmute
The alchemist spell, in game it's quite nerfed given that the economy of Skyrim makes little sense. It's quite a different matter in practice however.