Imri continued surveying the army, making mental notes on its numbers and composition. He quickly realized they outnumbered every person in Celestia and New Chicago combined. In addition to being outnumbered, they were also out-leveled. Imri was at a higher level than anything he identified through his External Senses, but it wasn’t uncommon to see entire squads made up of creatures in their twenties or thirties.
Imri couldn’t possibly make a dent in the combined Azala-Chixel army, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying. From his current range, he would be lucky to create and maintain a Dimensional Tear for over a second due to its severe range scaling. However, that problem was easily mitigated with a single portal, which he effortlessly created.
With the range restriction covered, Imri topped off his mana and began. He created several Dimensional Tears, no wider than a strand of silk, and sent them slicing through the enemies'' ranks. Some were sent indiscriminately through the largest concentration of Azala, while others were directed towards essential targets.
The low-level Azala were immediately killed from being decapitated or dismembered, the victims likely unaware of how they had died. Those that were higher leveled were less frail, though the tear still did significant damage. The Titans and Despoilers were cleaved in two but somehow survived the critical injury. Some of the highest-leveled even showed signs of regrowing the lost body parts. Imri also noticed slight spikes in mana expenditure as his tears encountered a particularly tough Titan. Imri suspected it was due to some resistance or the spell needing to sheer through more HP to cause the same effect. It was likely a combination of the two.
The only attack to be wholly foiled was the Dimensional Tear he sent towards a floating node. The colossal jellyfish-like monstrosity that housed the massive brain likely had enormous HP and resistance. However, the tear encountered some sort of invisible barrier before it could even impact the horror. The required mana spiked above what he expected, causing Imri to lose focus on that instance of the spell. Several of the Azala with the elongated skulls, presumably the mages, erected a barrier to protect themselves. Fortunately, it was much weaker than the node’s protection, and they were eventually sheered in two, but it made Imri’s assault less economical. Imri’s mana was rapidly depleted, as he was often at his limit for how much mana he could channel per second.
Notifications flooded Imri’s mind as he recharged his mana pool for a second time. That had only been the opening salvo, and now he was ready to ramp up the attack before the Azala could adjust their formations. Instead of simply throwing more Dimensional Tears at the problem, he opened micro portals several hundred meters apart. After opening six portals, he stopped, not wanting to overwhelm his mental faculties, which were strained from maintaining several spells.
His domain spread through a wide swath of land, enveloping tens of thousands of Azala. He could see the nerve-like fibers encompassing the area and the slowly dying life underneath it. Imri blasted his Cycles of Growth and Decay, using the decay aspect to its fullest potential. He had several upgrades since he last used a temporal spell in New Chicago: mana efficiency, improved max channeling, and a higher-tier spell. The effect also increased non-linearly; an effect twice as strong would overwhelm the body more than twice as fast. It was similar to how a Celestial Gravity could slowly kill a Drake at low amplitudes while immediately crushing it at higher amplitudes.
The result was near instantaneous, as the drones practically melted into a pile of cancerous growths. The elites didn’t fare much better, sprouting masses within seconds, which pressed against their vital organs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t kill all of them. The mages repeated their trick of shielding themselves, and Without a Dimensional Tear instantly overwhelming them, they could keep pace. Likewise, the floating tentacled monstrosities that housed the nodes were shielded. Imri kept the effect of his domain spell running for as long as he could, as he was effectively depleting dozens of mages of their mana. His assumption was correct, as slowly the casters were overwhelmed, their weaker bodies almost instantly succumbing to the effects when their shielding faltered. Only the lower-leveled mages succumbed, while the higher-leveled ones had the effective mana to keep going.
Imri shifted his focus as he neared his limit. Instead of trying to kill a few more mages, he targeted the ground beneath them. Cycles of Growth and Decay continued running but were now focused on the growth aspect. Corpses became fuel for growth, providing the nutrients for the newly sprouting seagrass. Within seconds, all signs of the battle had been erased, as if years had passed and the land returned to its unmolested state. An oasis formed, a thriving patch of waist-high seagrass surrounded by the xenoformed terrain. Tactically, Imri would have been better off killing another combatant. However, the message was clear: the Azala were not inevitable, and the slow ruination of the land could be turned back. The morale boost easily outweighed inflicting more casualties.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Azala army remained despite Imri utterly annihilating the area he had covered in his domain. As usual, they were unfazed by the losses they had sustained. They didn’t even make massive changes in their formations, as if the effort of such an adjustment wasn’t worth the increased casualties from another attack.
Imri released all his spells and domain as his over-channel began affecting him. He could have kept going, but doing so would have significantly increased the time needed to return to peak efficiency. His head was throbbing, the headache surpassing his high mark set earlier in the day. Given that he hadn’t used as many portals, he likely hadn’t fully recovered before trying the trick again. That, plus the excessive strain of keeping so many spells active at one time, had compounded to almost completely overwhelm his mental faculties. He would need to spend several hours with a still mind, focusing on nothing rather than dozens of intricate spells.
Before he could focus on his recovery, there was one critical task that he should have done earlier. He went to the nexus, ignoring the crowd of people who hadn’t dispersed. When his hands touched the crystal, a message asked if he would like to use various array improvements. Imri mentally confirmed each one. He also decided to make an executive decision on the array since he had purchased it with his own money. He debated Security and Stealth, mainly due to what he had just done with divination magic. However, neither was dramatically better in the short term, and Commercial was clearly better in the long term.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9817%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">The settlement ‘Espeonite Grotto’ has become a part of the Celestine Empire</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Celestine Empire has reached level 3</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Celestia Town (2F) level 14</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Radius of Effect 1.60 Kilometers (+.44 Kilometers)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Radius of Influence 2.58 Kilometers (+1.23 Kilometers)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Resource Regeneration 12.06% (+3.33%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Experience 2.01% (+.56%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Fertility 4.02% (+1.11%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Birth Complications Reduction Factor 1.08 (+.02)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Max Attribute Potential of Newborn .4% (+.11%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Tax Reduction Factor 1.28</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
Imri nodded in satisfaction. With the improvements, he now had two settlements with a connected radius of effect. The empire was also close to connecting with Edea’s Spring and Padar Fields. Imri cringed as his name was used for the rural farming community until he realized it doubled as his and Emelia’s last names put together. Celestia was also only a few buildings from ranking up to tier two.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
With that done, Imri was too exhausted to deal with the swarm of people asking him questions. He made his way back home and slipped into a partial stillness meditation. His mind wasn’t totally blank, as he had a myriad of notifications that he didn’t have the restraint to put off.
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Title Improved</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Baron of Celestia 20 (+4): 4% increase in primary attributes (+.8%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Achievements Improved</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Horde Slayer 52 (+36): 5.2% increase in primary attributes (+3.6%)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Butcher 2(+1): .1% increase in primary attributes (+.05%)</td>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9817%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">ImrI Padar has reached level 50 (+4) in Celestial Mage (2E)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Imri Padar has reached level 50 (+4) in Manifestation of Gaia (2F)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Primary Attributes</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Strength 178 (+9)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Agility 147 (+8)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Constitution 176 (+9)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Intelligence 360 (+26)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Willpower 290 (+19)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Charisma 150 (+8)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Secondary Attributes</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">HP 473 (+59)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">FP 350 (+42)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">MP 2677 (+463)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Mana Efficiency 2016 (+332)</td>
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<td style="width: 99.9817%">Crafting Efficiency 2747 (+452)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Skill Rank-Up</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Manifest Domain F to D: 3% increase to domain radius, duration of domain, and bonus to domain spell.</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Spell Rank-Up</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Dimensional Tear D to C</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Dimensional Tear (2C) has improved to Planar Tear (3F)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Planar Tear (3F): Create a tear in the plane relative to a frame of reference. A stable connection between the two dimensions is created if the tear occurs along a dimensional boundary. A tear can rip through reality, creating planar rifts to an alternate realm. Nothing can exist where there is no space, and anything that comes into contact with a tear into nothingness will cease to exist. Anything that comes into contact with the edge of a stable tear will be forced apart. Mana cost determined by the tear size and the distance from the caster.</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Dimensional Portal D to C</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Dimensional Portal (2C) has improved to Planar Gate(3F)</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Planar Gate (3F): Create a stable gateway between two planes, connecting them as if they were no distance apart. Allows access to planes that exist parallel to the current plane. The mana cost for creating the gate varies based on the dimensions of the gate, the distance between the planes, and the distance from the caster to the two planes. The mana cost per second to maintain the gate depends on the dimensions of the gate.</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Cycles of Growth and Decay E to D: 3% increase in the spell''s mana efficiency</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Quest Updated</td>
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<td style="width: 98.9589%">Class Rank Up E to D: Learn new space or time spells 7/15, rank up space or time spells 13/20, visit new celestial bodies 0/3, have space or time spells of tier 3 or higher 3/5.</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
He shouldn’t have been surprised by the sheer quantity of improvements, but he had been the perpetrator of enough death to make his previous accomplishments seem tame. Like the battle for New Chicago, most of his kills had been on enemies at a level too low to count for achievements. Despite this, the sheer amount of stats he gained from upgrading his Horde Slayer achievement spoke for itself, overshadowing every other improvement.
Four levels was a significant boost and was the most he had gained in a single fight. His physical abilities now placed him well above even the most elite pre-integration athlete. His mental attributes allowed him to take in and process more information in fractions of a second. He was like an artificial intelligence in terms of processing and true multi-tasking, but with the general intelligence of a human being. His mana could go from near zero to full in the equivalent time of a night''s rest when combining his regeneration with meditation and the bonus Celestia gave.
Imri regretted passing on the tier-two ability rank-up shard. With his improvement to Manifest Domain, he could have pushed the skill to tier three. Still, even the three percent improvement from the rank-up was significant, as it improved all aspects of the skill by that amount. He could use the skill longer, have it effect a larger area, and the domain spell was more efficient.
Planar Tear was the first new spell, with a similar upgrade to its tier-one to two improvements. It had a slightly improved efficiency, allowing him to create the same tear for less mana. The essential improvement was that he could tear through to a parallel plane. Fortunately, his Spatial Control combined with Gaia’s Omniscience gave him some insight into how this worked.
Layered on top of base reality, there was almost an infinite number of different planes. Some were nearly indistinguishable, while others were unrecognizable. One might have entirely different laws of physics, such as matter being able to pass through other matter, creating non-corporeal beings. Another might have rules that made everything a fiery hellscape or the entire plane of water. Unfortunately, his insights didn’t give him a list of useful planes or how to access them, so for now, the improvement was strictly efficiency-based.
Similarly, his Dimensional Portal upgrading to Planar Gate allowed him to create a gateway between two planes. It also improved efficiency when used for intra-planar travel. Fortunately, he did have a couple of leads for learning more about the various planes. The first was that the system referred to dungeon entrances as planar rifts, essentially a stable planar tear. If Imri could find and study one, it might give him some ideas on replicating it. The second idea was to use the information broker in New Chicago. That would likely save him time but cost him significant credits.
Imri let his musings go and focused on a still mind. This was only the first battle, and the Azala were undoubtedly preparing for their attack. They certainly wouldn’t let him keep decomposing them into fertilizer for seagrass. He entered a still mind state, completely unaware of his surroundings and only faintly aware of the passage of time.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a sharp pain shunted him out of his meditation. A blade was biting through his neck, threatening to decapitate him in the next instant. His assailant was fuzzy, a shapeless person that his eyes shifted away from unconsciously.