Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

“Well deary,” Linnet sipped her steaming cup of tea, closing her eyes as she did so. I mimicked her.

The tea was relaxing. I’d be suspicious of some sort of skill or drug in play, if I wasn’t constantly running healing through myself, purging any and all poisons. The definition of a poison versus a medicine was entirely academic to my skill, it cleansed everything. Unless this was a potion, which my healing wasn’t geared towards handling. If Linnet was a master [Alchemist] on top of everything else, I’d be impressed!

No, it was just a most excellent cup of tea, combined with an environment conducive towards relaxing.

And Linnet herself!

“I don’t have all of life’s answers. I wish I did! I wish I could just snap my fingers, and make all your troubles go away.” The grandmotherly woman snapped her fingers in demonstration.

“But, sadly, I can’t.” She gave a melancholy sigh, sipping her tea again.

I was content to just sit and listen. She was usually the listener, a willing receptacle as I poured all of my fears and worries into. Now she wanted to speak, and it was only polite to listen to her sage advice.

“What I can do is make a few observations. You’re a remarkable woman. Driven. Passionate.”

I felt like I was getting slightly buttered up, but I didn’t mind. Almost everyone liked hearing good things about themselves.

“From everything you’ve told me, you’ve been striving towards a goal. Had purpose in life, either as a Ranger, or a Sentinel. Had injustices you couldn’t stomach, foes you couldn’t defeat. Now you’re here, and I haven’t heard of a single big goal or ambition from you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, to mention my biomancy project, and learning wizardry, then closed it. Linnet just looked at me over the lip of her cup as she took another sip.

Compared to ‘Fight the Formorians’ or ‘Pass Ranger Academy OR ELSE’, ‘Operation: The Improved Elaine’ was small peanuts. I did have ‘Try and find Auri’s relatives’ on my list now, but I saw Linnet’s point.

Finding Night was also on my list, but I barely knew where to begin. The Exterreri Empire was where most vampires lived, and it was my only lead, but that was roughly on par with ‘lots of humans live in Rolland. Let me find one particular one with no idea where they lived, did, or anything.’

I’d managed to secure the basics again. Food, water, shelter, safety. I’d pulled myself out of the pit, but I was on the lost side.

My hopes and dreams had been shattered. There wasn’t much sense in simply surviving. I needed to either pick up the pieces and try to glue together new hopes and dreams, or brush away the old ones, and think of new ones. An aimlessness, a lack of direction, wasn’t helping me.

“It seems I’ve given you quite a lot to think about!” Linnet gently broke through my musings. “Cookie?”

“Oh, yes please.” I happily accepted her offering, feeling more ragged than usual.

The one downside I hadn’t properly considered when running Operation: Better Biomancy Classes was how hungry I could get when using that much magic.

“If you’d like to think about it here, you’re welcome to sit and think. If you want to wander somewhere else that’s better, I won’t take offense.” Linnet put down her cup of tea, and starting knitting again, her needles going click-clack soothingly in the background.

It took me practically no time at all to make my decision. Warm, quiet, tea and cookies, vs leaving and having one of a dozen other demands start taking up my time?

I was staying here.

Ok!

Life goals!

Bluntly, right now I didn’t have any besides “be happy”, but the question was how did I get that sense of fulfillment needed to be happy?

Healing people was the easy answer. It was why I’d picked up the class in the first place. I got a deep sense of fulfillment and satisfaction from doing so.

‘Heal People’ was a solid goal, but a little too ephemeral in a sense. It was part of who I was. Wherever I ended up, whatever else I was doing, I was also healing people. Usually. The School had a poor ratio of medics to patients, and I wasn’t quite able to get all the healing I wanted.

Things like the Formorian war though…?

Hmmm. I wonder what life as a battlefield medic would be like. My brief reading of what the current world was like suggested that conflict was omnipresent, from skirmishes between Tang Sects, to Rolland nobles squabbling with each other or their neighbors, to Vollomond and Lithos raids, Omospondia succession, all the way to the Han civil war, and that was disregarding Immortal wars, which tended to leave great big blanks in history.

I was an Immortal, although a low-key one. I needed to find out more about what one of those wars looked like, because I was going to stay alive long enough to end up in one.

There was more to life than just serving others though. Bouncing around from one battlefield to the next, hoping that I kept my Deception Ring the entire time and otherwise managed to find the basics in life, might not be the best way to live. What else did I want?

…Friends. Family.

I let the loss wash over me, the sharp, ragged edges of pain dulling with time and acceptance. It would never go away, but it was no longer bleeding me raw every time I thought of the word.

I had Auri, who filled a massive hole in my heart, but the idea of fucking off to a mountain cabin and spending life as a hermit with just the two of us didn’t appeal. A romantic partner might be nice, and being able to regularly visit Artemis, Julius, Amber, Iona, and a few more friends sounded ideal.

Hang on, Iona?

It only took a second of thinking before I nodded to myself.

Definitely Iona. She was a friend, no question about it, and I’d be upset if she wasn’t around. I didn’t have enough friends, or an easy enough time making them, to casually lose one.

Friends, family, a job. How about some pleasures in life? A nice little mango grove, and a huge library, filled with books. Books for pleasure, books for magic and wizardry. Books about the world.

Ok. A strong start, but none of those were long, long term things.

My thoughts and feelings would probably evolve as time went on, but was there a cause I could dedicate my life towards? A measurable goal to strive towards. Something to make things better.

I didn’t believe my powers meant I had an obligation towards others. With great power came great power, nothing more, nothing less. It was up to the individual what they wanted to do with that power. Some did nothing with it. Some used it poorly. Some believed they had a great responsibility towards others.

I had a more nuanced view.

I did what I wanted with my power. I was strongly inclined to help people with it, but I wasn’t obligated to. Outside of my own [Oath], of course. I had the ability to change people’s lives with a flicker of thought, and there was no reason for me not to. If I walked through a city? Yeah, sure, why not blast a healing aura around me? It made life better for everyone.

Ok! Back to goals!

Healing-related goals were easy, but also endless. No matter how many people I saved, they’d die one day. No matter how much I pushed back Black Crow, he’d claim his victim eventually, and they just never stopped coming. ‘Heal people’ was a poor goal in that respect, especially as it was already one of my ‘how to be happy’ aspects.

Counting how many people I healed though?

Hmmm. Why not? I could celebrate at big milestones. I’d need to sit down and meditate over my life at some point to get an initial number, or maybe Librarian could tell me during a class-up - ‘people healed’ sounded like an achievement that the System knew - and I could just update the number from there.

It wasn’t like I was preventing wars, so that was out. Measuring who won a war, or if I swayed a war, sounded like a bad path to take.

Ok, injuries were somewhat out. What about disease?

Yeah. YEAH! Diseases were a good thing to tackle! I could try to eradicate a disease! Each one that got wiped out was one less way for people to die, and would have a lasting impact!

Linnet lightly coughed.

“Unfortunately, we’re reaching an end to our time here. I do hope you’ll swing by next week.”

I smiled at the elderly woman, getting up from my chair.

“See you then!”

I walked out with a spring in my step, a new goal to work towards.

How did I eradicate a disease?

“Mathosaurus! I brought gifts!” Iona tossed me a pair of mangos as she sat down next to me, dropping a pile of books.

“More like bribes.” I wasn’t complaining! Tasty, tasty mangos.

“Brrpt? Brrrpt??” Auri flew over with a sugar cookie, asking for me to ‘trade’ with her. I happily exchanged one of my mangos for her cookie.

Not exactly a fair trade, but eh. Auri was involved. The cookie wasn’t bad!

“Right, now that the mangosaurus is properly satiated, maybe you can help me with this?” Iona pointed to the set of problems she had. I raised an eyebrow at them.

“Why are there letters in my numbers??” The Valkyrie complained.

I looked at the mango. I looked at Iona. Welp. Time to pay the piper!

“Ok, pretend there’s a bunch of Valkyries.”

“Alright, I’m following.”

“But you don’t know how many.”

“Wait, how would I not know how many there are?”

I sighed.

Iona was trying. I believed she was giving it her best shot.

Iona and math just did not mix.

“To this point, we have been discussing wizardry as it applies to immediate casting. You want a spell? Cast it now. Today, we will begin discussing methods of storing a spell for later use.”

I took notes, idly thinking that Introduction to Talismans hadn’t been a requirement for this class, and that talismans were a textbook example of ‘storing a spell for later’. Enchantments also seemed to fall in that group, although there were a number of subdivisions.

“There are as many ways to store skills as there are stars in the sky.” Lothar explained, the glass chimes in his antlers gently swaying. Made me wonder if he stored spells in them. “The most famous methods are gems and wands, although there are reasonable arguments that a gem-stored skill is not a proper wizardry spell. Bah. The effect is the same. Some methods allow for the spell to be precharged, a most useful trick. Most do not. Any method that allows for arcanite to be embedded in or near the spellform can be precharged.”

He paused as my quill flew over my paper, taking notes.

“There is a great variety in spell storage methods, and this overview is by no means exhaustive. Classical enchantments in swords, spears, shields, helmets, rings, necklaces, and the like are the most common method most people will encounter. Please note that enchantments inscribed inside a piece of jewelry are distinct from the jewelry itself being twisted into the proper shape, which is further distinct from jewelry containing skills.”

I paused at that, practically feeling my mind expand at the implications. It wasn’t just making the runes into metal, I could make the metal shape into runes. A subtle distinction, but an interesting one.

“Talismans and spell scrolls are another example, and there is the ever classic spellbook. A spellbook tends to have an advantage over a scroll in that arcanite can be part of the spine and the cover, although it is harder to transport, and losing the book loses all of the spells inside, compared to a scroll which bears loss or destruction more easily.”

A student raised their hand, and Lothar acknowledged them.

“Can’t a spell scroll have arcanite in the center?”

Lothar nodded.

“Correct. But each spell scroll requires their own source, versus a spellbook where one source can power the spell you want. Any other questions?”

There were none, and he moved on.

“Embroidery is another classic. Who here is studying to be a [Tailor-Enchanter]?” Lothar asked, and a dozen hands in the lecture hall of nearly 100 went up.

“A most useful craft, always in demand.” He rumbled.

“Juxe is a wizardry language around knots. It tends to lack both depth and flexibility, but is strong in its narrow confined and predefined spells.”

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Runic Knotting]. Would you like to replace a Class Skill with [Runic Knotting]?]

Heck no. I was perfectly content with [Runic Scribing], although I did want to upgrade the skill. Just needed to put in the repetitions with it, then talk with Lothar to find out how I could make the skill better.

“It is excellent for sailors and ropes, or for people with long hair. Braiding hair into the appropriate spell, then pulling to release is a classic, and difficult to interfere with. Yarns, weaves, and other similar methods can be used to cast Juxe. I even knew a [Spaghetti Wizard] once, who made it a habit of eating his spells once he was done with them.”

I laughed along with the class at Lothar’s anecdote.

I almost did an about-face with [Runic Knotting], but no. It didn’t fit me, and the language clearly had catches. And loops!

“Tattoos, and other methods to carve spells into the body. I strongly recommend against this. Statues. Nippon-Koku is famous for their origami constructs, although that is another language. Crystals. Spiderwebs. Marbles made of arcanite. Paintings. Dreamcatchers. Nail paintings. Leaves. Trees, grown into the proper pattern. Indeed, the entire city of Ithil is rumored to be one gigantic mandala, the streets themselves painting the pathways of power.”

The tip of my quill skipped wildly over my notes, ink drops spraying over my carefully written notes at that. An entire city was a mandala!?

The larger the runes, the more power could be channeled through them. In theory.

In practice, there were rapidly diminishing returns. Asura herself used mandalas that weren’t too much larger than she was, instead having opted to cast more mandalas and spells over casting bigger ones.

Just how much power could a city-wide runic array channel!? And what would it do!?

I added “See the world” to my list of goals.

“These are just a few of the methods I know. Any creative endeavor that lasts for more than a moment can be used to create and store spells, although you may need to become a [Runesmith] yourself to get the spells you want into the medium you’d like. That is a topic for another day. Now…”

I stared at my Biomancy homework, the words not changing no matter how long I looked at them.

The ornithosuchus has the strongest innate immune system, while gnomes have the most robust adaptive immune system. How can the two be merged in an elvenoid (Pick one)? Ignore physical barriers such as skin, eyelids, mucus membranes, and the like.

The question had layers and layers of complexity, and I was surrounded by crumbled-up failed attempts, having put my quill to parchment a dozen times, only to realize an issue with my logic halfway through, and throwing the entire thing out.

There were numerous issues.

First was producing both types of immune systems. My current solution was to evenly swap off different bones between gnome bones and ornithosuchus bones. Fortunately for this assignment, I could simply “handwave” the different modifications that each bone would need to properly fit inside a human, otherwise I’d be writing an extra three papers on how each bone needed to get changed. I also didn’t need to tackle structural issues from half the body being one type of bone, and the other half another, or tendons, ligaments, and a whole host of other issues.

No, I “only” had to deal with the immune system, and even there my ‘production’ method wasn’t ideal.

Fortunately, the innate immune system didn’t rely heavily on the spleen, while the adaptive did. A gnome spleen was the easiest part of the problem, but even then I suspected I’d have issues.

I started to run into problems with the lymphatic system. Each creature had a different way of “recognizing” what was needed, and I was getting a headache with that. Making it accept both gnome and ornithosuchus outputs was a challenge.

Then there was getting the adaptive system a proper challenge. The innate immune system of the ornithosuchus was just too good! Bloody nothing survived it! The adaptive immune system never got a chance to identify problems, then start producing antibodies to combat it! It would just sit there, twiddling its thumbs as the innate immune system did all the work, and if the innate system ever got overwhelmed, the adaptive system would have literally never seen it before in its life! It would never have worked, and the whole point of the adaptive system was it got stronger the more diseases it was exposed to!

I hadn’t even gotten to the thymus or complement system, nor the difficulties of integrating reptile biology into mammalian. There was also the issue of autoimmune disorders, and teaching the immune system that while it was in a strange new body, that this body was correct, and not to attack it. Or any of the other strange things floating in my body. It just had to attack the right strange things in my body.

Screwing up the immune system, like anything else, was a short path to an exceptionally painful death. At least if I screwed up my nerves, I’d die quickly, perhaps without even noticing.

I groaned again at the seeming impossibility of the question.

I was tempted to write a cheeky answer.

Just use the elven immune system.

They didn’t have the best adaptive, or the best innate immune system. They had exactly the right mix to properly train and use both.

I knew one question for homework had been a trap.

It was never too early to start thinking about my third class, and my previous wonderings on my life goals had me reflecting on the classes again.

[The Mother of Modern Medicine] I wasn’t going to take, instead waiting for [The Dawn Sentinel] to class up. I’d take a more healing-focused class then. [Paragon of Patience] was right out.

[Lady of the Dance] was an option, the pure stats appealing. I did enjoy dancing. I had fond memories of Night teaching me how to ‘properly’ dance, teaching fundamental rules of dance that transcended time and fashion.

Plus, the skills had to be something.

Wizardry classes were also on the menu. Wizardry was a blast, and I didn’t see myself putting it down anytime soon. I did have the option of evolving [Butterfly Mystic] into a wizardry class, or at least keeping the skills.

If I kept wizardry in my second class, my third class became awkward. With enough time and prep work, I could mimic most effects, giving me a full range of cool skills to try. It made taking a class like [Jack of All Trades] less attractive since I could already do all that with wizardry.

Somewhat.

Poorly.

But doable!

With that in mind, I put an eye towards my third class, wondering what classes would offer me something that wizardry couldn’t.

[World Traveler] sprang to mind, and I did recently make it a goal of mine to see the world. To travel and explore, to learn.[The Wanderer] was a similar class, but I was an Immortal. I had enough time to see not only the entirety of this world, but all the worlds.

Speaking of goals, [Bookwyrm] and [Snapdragon] completed the ‘trifecta’ so to speak of ‘things I liked and didn’t have a class for.’ [Bookwyrm] was the ultimate in reading classes, while [Snapdragon] was unbeatable when it came to growing mangos.

And other food!

It was a cold fact of war that civilization tended to break down, and famine was endemic. All the power in the world couldn’t save me if there was no food, and I starved to death. The Big Book of Classes had mentioned how a [Farmer] was the cornerstone of civilization, the breadbasket that made everything possible.

I liked eating food more than growing food, but the class was interesting. Nature had also shown just how powerful a similar class could be in a fight.

[Phoenix Immolator] was also nuts, and the idea of being able to take a purple combat class to start was appealing. I’d have to talk with Auri about it.

The last class that attracted me was [Hoard Thief]. I wasn’t terribly enticed by the ‘steal to level up’ aspect of it, but I’d been around illusions long enough to properly respect their power. Going invisible. Making it look like I was somewhere I wasn’t. Displaying and communicating ideas. And that was just the start! The ability to manipulate someone else’s reality couldn’t be underestimated. I’d only be limited by my imagination. [Arcane Trickster] was another possibility, trading power for faster leveling. It could be a tradeoff I liked. A level 400 [Arcane Trickster] was better than being a level 50 [Hoard Thief].

I needed to check what mirages could be mimicked with wizardry, and how easy they were. From what little I knew, living, breathing illusions that seemed like they were another human were terrifyingly complicated, but maybe I was missing something.

I wish I could genuinely put [The Wanderer] on my list, but it was the sad reality that [World Traveler] outclassed it. Sure, [The Wanderer] had a number of useful skills. It had distinct advantages against [World Traveler]. Putting them all on the scale, and weighing the two against each other, [World Traveler] won out. It cut me to the core to admit it, the one purple class I had properly earned under my own power, but I wasn’t one to bury my head in the sand and deny reality.

My mind jumped to wizardry and [Butterfly Mystic], and I realized I was being dumb.

If I took [Stormrider], I could happily ditch [Scintillating Ascent], and get an extra skill slot to help my wizardry. I loved flying, and being able to just spread my wings and soar was so second nature at this point it hadn’t made my list of wants and desires.

It was like saying I liked to breathe air. Innate to the point of being unsaid.

I quickly sketched out a tier list of classes, and how attractive I found them.

[Bookwyrm], [Snapdragon], and [World Traveler] all furthered the goals I’d set for myself.

[Lady of the Dance] was tied with [Asura’s Legacy] and [Nebula Starweaver]. Wizardry or power, each of them dramatically expanding my repertoire without going particularly deep into one thing.

[Stormrider] was in the last tier, along with [Hoard Thief], and [Arcane Trickster]. Classes that were interesting and powerful, that resonated with me but didn’t quite click. I wasn’t discarding them, but life would need to change before they climbed the list.

Progress!

Now, I should stop procrastinating, and finish the damn homework!

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