Connor
Planet Vesper, Day 2
After a minute, Connor settled in and activated his skill Malleable Spells to look for spells that would allow him to travel to and from Earth with little effort.
SYSTEM Link active
Unfettered Status Noted
Searching Spell Database for Master Rank or lower level spell that will allow teleportation between Realms
Two Spell Found “Teleport, Master Rank” and the Ritual “Teleport Circle, Master Rank.”
Requirements to learn the spell “Teleport, Master Rank”
1,000,000 Mana
Five Free Spell Slots
Requirements to learn the ritual “Teleport Circle, Master Rank”
1,000,000 Mana
Five Free Spell Slots
You currently do not have enough mana to learn either the spell or the ritual without channeling your mana regeneration into the effort.
Would you like to begin the process of learning “Teleport, Master Rank” or “Teleportation Circle, Master Rank”?
Connor chose the spell “Teleport, Master Rank.” Instead of spending the mana from his Mana Pool or his Mana Reserve, he directed his Mana Regeneration to pay the cost to learn the spell. To generate one million mana took him almost six minutes. When he was done, he was rewarded with notifications.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell: “Teleport, Master Rank
Teleport, Master Rank.
Required Materials: None
Range: Effectively Unlimited.
Mana Cost: 100,000 Mana.
Time to cast: At least one full turn. It may take longer if the caster channels mana at a lower rate.
The Master Ranked Teleport spell allows the caster to teleport to any place they can see or have visited.
WARNING! Teleportation to a location that is not clearly visible may be dangerous.
Base Chance of Success 50%. The caster''s intelligence attributes will modify this chance. The spell does have built-in safeguards and will typically alter the target location to a point above the target destination. If something solid is in the area the spell tries to teleport you to, you may find yourself in the Astral Plane or an adjacent Elemental Plane.
Once cast, Travel is instantaneous.
Connor smiled. That would be extremely helpful for getting back to Earth and also back to Vesper from Earth. He quickly checked how many Spell Slots he had available and laughed. With only 29,755 of his 29,797 total Skill Slots still available, yeah, he was going to take the time to pick up that second Teleportation spell. Connor meditated for a bit and reached out to the SYSTEM to learn his next spell. After six minutes, he opened his Notifications.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell: “Teleportation Circle, Master Rank.
Teleport, Master Rank.
Required Materials: Crushed Master Core dust.
Range: Effectively Unlimited.
Mana Cost: 100,000 Mana per circle. 100 mana to activate and use the circle once cast.
Time to cast: Variable. It takes a length of time to create the magical circle the caster will step on. Once created, it takes a single action to activate the teleportation function of the circle.
The Master Ranked Teleport spell allows the caster to teleport to another Teleportation circle that is active and available.
WARNING! While teleportation between each created teleportation circle is 100% safe, teleportation circles are not invulnerable and may be damaged unless steps are taken to protect them. Damaged or destroyed Teleportation Circles cannot be teleported to with this spell.
Once the Teleportation Circle is activated, travel is instantaneous.
Connor smiled. That spell would be extremely useful, though he was going to have to pick up some crushed master ranked core dust. Before he could do that, he’d need to wait for the crystals for the information, though. He had some time, so maybe he could create a few more spells. The first question he had to answer was how he was supposed to target Liza and Sam. The only thing that he could target that all three of them had was the ability “Unfettered.”
He focused on creating a spell that could detect individuals with the Unfettered abilities throughout the Multiverse and received an error.
The requested spell falls within the realm of the Divine. No Spell is available.
Damn! Okay, well, he could go for something easier and improve his Control Technological Device spell to Rare and possibly Advanced Rank. Deciding to do that, he meditated, and a couple minutes later, he had improved versions of the spell
Control Technological Device
Rank: Rare
Required Materials: None
Range: 1,000 feet
Mana Cost: 1,000 Mana per device.
This spell may target any Technological non-magical device within 1,000 feet. Once cast, you gain mental control of any one Device and all of its components within 1,000 feet of your location for the next 100 Combat Turns (1,000 Seconds, 16.6 minutes).
Line of Sight is normally required to establish control, but perception-based skills and spells can negate this requirement. Once control is established Line of Sight is not necessary as the device is controlled mentally.
During the duration of the Spell, you may issue new commands to the Device as long as you are within 1,000 feet of it. Should you exit the 1,000-foot range and return, you may continue to issue mental commands until the duration expires.
The duration may be extended if it is within 1,000 feet, and another 1,000 mana is dedicated to maintaining control of the device.
At Rare Rank, you can control up to three devices at one time. A separate casting of the spell is required for each device.
After reviewing the spell, he rested, focused, and worked on learning the Advanced version of the same spell.
Control Technological Device
Rank: Advanced
Required Materials: None
Range: 10,000 feet
Mana Cost: 10,000 Mana per device.
This spell may target any Technological non-magical device within 10,000 feet. Once cast, you gain mental control of any one Device and all of its components within 1,000 feet of your location for the next 1,000 Combat Turns (10,000 Seconds, 166.6 minutes).
Line of Sight is normally required to establish control, but perception-based skills and spells can negate this requirement. Once control is established Line of Sight is not necessary as the device is controlled mentally.
During the duration of the Spell, you may issue new commands to the Device as long as you are within 10,000 feet of it. Should you exit the 10,000-foot range and return, you may continue to issue mental commands until the duration expires.
The duration may be extended if within 10,000 feet and another 10,000 mana is dedicated to maintaining control of the device.
At Advanced Rank, you can control up to four devices at one time. A separate casting of the spell is required for each device.
He thought about picking up the master ranked version of the spell but decided that he didn’t need it. He now had four different spells to control technology. It wouldn’t cost a lot of mana to do so at close range, but if he wanted to reach out and control something a little farther away, he could now. A master version of the spell would be a bit of overkill. He could see himself needing it because it would open up options he didn’t have at the moment. Yeah, he was going to pick it up.
Seven minutes later, he had the Master Ranked version of Control Technological Devices. It was expensive to use at 100,000 mana to cast, but it had a range of 18.9 miles and a duration of 27.7 hours. His mana regeneration rate of 29,690 mana per turn ensured that he’d be able to cast and maintain the spell if he desired.
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As he finished researching spells, he begrudged the fact that he didn’t have the free Skill Slots to increase his skill Eyes of Eris to Master Rank. He definitely had the attributes to support the skill, and if he could sense everything within an 18.9-mile radius…First, it would be awesome. Second, it would be tough for others to sneak up on him.
Connor stood, walked to his room, and lay down. He wouldn’t be able to do anything until morning, anyway, so grabbing a good night''s sleep would be a good thing. Besides, if he was a betting man, and he was, the Malicore bitch lawyer was going to do something and he might even have someone waiting for him when he returned to the villa in the morning.
***
The Assassin had picked up the contract in the middle of the night from the Assassin’s Guild at his normal drop point. The target, a Connor Nash, was staying at Kraymore Villa number 5 on the moon. Normally, it would be impossible for someone to attack the villa because you would first have to infiltrate Kraymore and then get the portal open. Unfortunately for this Connor character, the assassin had actually stayed at one of the other residences on the moon. After making a few preparations and a quick teleport, he pulled out a magical carpet and rode toward the Kraymore region of the moon. Within an hour, he was within range of the villa.
He remained invisible and stealthed as he made his way into the villa and even watched as the portal opened and a staff member was handed a package from Anya at the Banking Guild. He’d watched the three staff members go about their duties when the sun rose. Ironically, the days on the moon were identical to the days on Vesper. He knew that was due to some magical spell or artifact that one of the older guilds hinted at.
The assassin searched the Villa but could find no trace of his target. He must have returned to the city, which was entirely possible. There were shops and various businesses open, despite it being the middle of the night. But he would be back. He would just have to settle down and wait for him. The assassin moved over to a corner in the entry room and settled into a battle meditation stance, allowing him to remain aware of his surroundings. At the same time, his body conserved resources and rested. Another skill he possessed, Spring, also helped with this, as it allowed him to remain in the same position without moving, thereby preventing muscle fatigue or cramping. Additionally, it added a bonus to the initial attack he made, which enabled him to kill his target with a single strike. Now, he just had to wait. However, he usually didn’t kill his target with the first strike. He had a much more interesting fate in store for Mr. Nash.
***
Connor smiled as he went through the memories of the unconscious assassin. The Assassin hadn’t even had a chance. With his skill, Uncanny Perception, which scaled with his Primary Core and Eyes of Eris, Connor detected the assassin as soon as he was within 10,000 feet of him. With his Stealth skill active, the assassin didn’t even notice him when he Shadow-Stepped into the Villa near a cracked window so he wouldn’t hear or feel the pressure change as the air shifted. With Flight, Connor floated through the building until he had a line of sight on the assassin and established a telepathic link with Telepathy II. Once the link was established, he activated Memory Download which caused the assassin to seize up and fall unconscious.
Connor took a moment to review the immediate memories of the Assassin to make sure there was no one else with him and then followed his memories back and found where he’d received his orders from. How he, in turn, contacted the Assassin’s Guild and how he could access their contracts. There were an impressive 435 assassins in the city of Commerce that this Assassin knew of.
Connor touched the assassin and activated Transfiguration to add the configuration of his body to those he could transform into. As he continued to go through the assassin’s memories, he realized that Jacob Irvine was a false identity of the Assassin known as Death’s Messenger, whose true name was Trevor Alorne. As Connor continued to review the Assassin’s memory, he realized that most of his treasures and very valuable items were in his Inventory, which he would lose access to if he killed him. Lucky for Connor this asshole was going to be out for quite a while which gave him time to learn a spell that would allow him to open up someone else’s inventory.
Connor picked up the information crystals off of the table and the assassin. He activated Astral Pocket and stepped inside. Once in his realm, he closed the portal. While the Assassin lay on the floor directly in front of where the portal would appear, Connor meditated and then focused on obtaining a spell that would remove everything from an inventory and deposit it within his own.
SYSTEM Link active
Unfettered Status Noted
Searching Spell Database for a Master Rank or lower level spell that will allow Inventory Withdrawal against the owners'' wishes and without their knowledge, if possible.
One Spell Found: “Plunder”
Requirements to learn the spell “Plunder”
1,000,000 Mana
Five Free Spell Slots
Connor accepted and allocated his mana to learn the new spell over the next six minutes.
Congratulations! You have learned the Spell: “Plunder”
Plunder
Required Materials: None
Range: Requires that the caster touch the target
Mana Cost: 100,000 Mana.
Cast Time: 5 Turns (50 seconds)
Duration once activated: up to 10,000 Turns (27.7 hours). The spell can be deactivated at any time.
Once cast, Plunder remains available to the caster until activated. Only one instance of this spell may be held at a time. To use the spell on a second target would require that the spell be recast after the first casting was activated.
When touching a target, the caster activates the spell.
Once activated, the spell will remain active until the caster stops touching their target or they voluntarily end the spell.
While active, the caster gains access to the inventory of the target as if it were their own and may transfer up to five (5) items every turn into their inventory or allow them to fall to the ground around the target. Multiple items that are considered bundled or the same are removed as if they were one item. For Example, if the target was carrying 115 gold, 30 silver, and 10 copper, all the coins could be removed as well as two more items during a single turn.
Additionally, this spell will automatically defeat any protective measures placed on a target''s inventory of a lower rank. Skill or Spell Protections of equal or higher Rank must be defeated before Plunder will be able to access the target''s Inventory.
Plunder was an extremely useful spell. It was expensive to cast but valuable. On that note, another useful spell would be something that let him scan other people''s inventories without being sensed, at least from those lower ranks than himself. First things first, it was time to Plunder Death’s Messenger’s inventory.
From the assassin''s memories, he knew that he was wearing a Ring that protected his inventory. The assassin knew it as a Tier IV Lockring, which simply locked any extra dimensional storage skills he had from outside scrutiny or pilfering and would not stop his new spell. Even so, Connor reached over, slid off the Lockring and put it on. Damn that was another spell he needed, something that could identify magic items. He had the skill Identify for monsters. A spell to analyze magical items would be extremely useful.
The thoughts that had popped into his head were all things he could deal with after he took care of a bit of business and then took out the trash. Ironically, he had to cast Plunder three more times. The assassin had three different skills that Connor wouldn’t have known about if he hadn’t downloaded memories.
The first was his Personal Inventory, which could only hold 1,000 slots worth of items or 5,000 pounds worth of equipment. Trevor did store items in it, but they were primarily mundane. He had rations for at least a month and enough water skins to last him for at least 7 days. A tent, three sleeping bags, and a lot of various types of equipment that took up 100 slots of storage: Pitons, chalk, lanterns… Shoot, this guy had every single item listed as recommended in the Scouting handbook. He also had flashlights, both battery-powered and a magical variety. Connor just made a mental reminder to himself that in addition to everything else he had, he now had even more as he added the items to his inventory. There were 351 separate items that occupied 561 slots of his inventory. It required almost 12 minutes to transfer everything.
Next, he accessed a class-specific inventory that held specific weapons, poisons, and grenades. From Trevor’s memory, he was able to identify everything he had: 100 smoke grenades, 20 common grenades, 10 uncommon grenades, 20 Common Throwing Daggers, 10 Uncommon throwing daggers, and 6 Rare Throwing Daggers. Additionally, this guy had hundreds of poisoned darts with various types of poison: 100 Poisoned Darts that added inflicted one point of damage and one point of poison damage per turn for 10 turns, 100 Poisoned Darts that inflicted 1 point of damage and 10 points of poison damage immediately. He also had 20 poison darts with an uncommon variant of the poison that added 100 points of poison damage at a rate of ten points of damage per turn for ten turns. The last five darts he had in his inventory carried a poison that would do 10 points per turn for 100 turns and was almost always a guaranteed killer for anyone lower than Rare Rank. The last things in the inventory were two daggers and two short swords, both of which were considered spares to his primary weapons. Within 30 seconds, everything was in his inventory.
The third casting of Plunder opened Trevor''s Trophy Case Skill, which was disgusting. As Connor reviewed Trevor''s memories, he realized that there was something odd about the trophies the assassin had collected. Within the inventory, there were 78 heads. Most sentient races of both sexes that Connor had ever read or heard about and both sexes were represented by the head of the assassins victim. Additionally, the head held the souls in limbo within the inventory, preventing them from passing on. This assassin had the Class Skill Soul Prison, which allowed him to lock the soul into a body part permanently. Then he had the Trophy Case skill, which allowed him to pull up and taunt his targets indefinitely.
Connor considered for a moment. Through the assassin’s memories, each of the individuals in this trophy case was prominent in some way, which meant that they had information. If they had information, could he pull the memories from the mind of a soul that was artificially held to the material plane? If he could do that, in addition to the information crystals he had, he would also have 78 additional sources of information, which should give him a much better idea of the layout of the organizations within the Multiverse.
Connor transferred the 78 Soul Prisons into his inventory. He removed all of the assassin''s equipment, including the ring that would let the Assassin’s Guild know he was dead. Unfortunately, once removed, his guild would know something had happened to him, but as he slid it on, once they saw the ring on his finger, they’d assume something had happened to it. Once he had all of the assassin''s equipment, Connor snapped the man''s neck with no effort. He wasn’t going to kill every assassin, but this one had come for him directly and planned to turn his head into a Soul Prison. Nope this asshole was going into his Mana Composter where he would be broken down, turned into Mana and his soul released to the ether. With a thought, the assassin vanished.
Before he could continue, he spent the next thirty minutes using his skill Malleable Spells to create the ritual spells that would make the five ranks of memory crystals he might require. He’d been putting that off for a while. Each rank was needed to hold the memories of someone who held that rank of Core. It looked like the more powerful they were, the stronger the memory crystal needed to be. Because all of the assassins'' targets and pretty much everyone he might encounter on Vesper or Earth was Rare rank or lower, he was going to create the Ritual Circle to produce Rare Memory Crystals to begin with.
Ritual, Rare Memory Crystal
Materials Required: One pound of nonorganic matter.
Mana required 1,000
This ritual converts one pound of organic matter into a memory crystal that can store the memories of any creature with a Wisdom score of 1,000 or less, provided a skill or spell is used to transfer those memories into the crystal.
Once created, the memories held within can be accessed by holding the Memory Crystal and viewing them as if on a video screen. Memories can be observed and controlled; they can be paused, skipped, rewound, and viewed again.
Note That Memories stored in this way, while not offering an immediate bonus to a skill or task, will improve the individual who reviewed the memories'' chances of succeeding in a task familiar to the individual whose memories are stored.
The rate at which the memories can be searched and viewed is a product of the viewer''s Intelligence and Wisdom divided by 10. For every 10 points in each attribute, you can increase the review rate by one. Normal speed at 10, double at 20, triple at 30, and so on.
Your current review speed for a memory crystal is 29,662.3 times faster. You could review one full day in 2.9 seconds, a month in 1.5 minutes, or a year in 17.5 minutes.
NOTE: Memory Crystals cannot convey the muscle memory required for physical tasks.
The nonorganic matter that was needed was easily sourced with his Create Item spell. As long as he could name the substance he wanted to create, the spell pulled the information from the SYSTEM and deposited it in front of him. Honestly, it was a bit overpowered, but he liked it. He had a feeling that spells like Create Item weren’t supposed to work that way, instead pulling the information from the caster, but because of his Unfettered class, the link to the SYSTEM he had was “hacked”; that’s the best way he could describe it. That hacked link allowed his spell to remain tethered to the SYSTEM and enabled him to do a little more with his spells.
Connor went to work. First, he created the ritual circle, which required 10,000 mana and the materials he created with Create Item. Luckily, he didn’t have to draw out the ritual circle; the spell did that for him. He placed the ritual circle on the lower floor of his Astral Pocket in one of the empty storage rooms. Once the ritual circle was ready, all he needed to do was provide the materials that would be converted into the Memory Crystal and 1,000 mana. The substance glowed and formed into a clear handheld crystal. He could set the color of the crystal if he wanted to, but for now, he just kept them clear.
Thirty-four minutes later, he had 102 Rare Ranked Memory Crystals. Twenty crystals filled one slot of his Inventory, so 102 crystals only reduced his total inventory slots by six. He quickly reviewed his Inventory and saw that even with 78 Soul Prisons; the heads with the souls trapped in them, all the equipment he’d taken from the assassin’s inventory, which included five platinum, 100 gold, 47 silver, and 35 copper, only filled 1,439 of the 100,000 inventory slots he had available. Moving most of the other equipment and supplies he’d picked up at Walmart and Sam’s Club back on Earth into the Astral Pocket had been a wise choice.
Now that he had the Memory crystals, it was time to try to transfer the memories from one of the heads into a memory crystal. Unexpectedly, the process was straightforward. Connor pulled one of the heads and a memory crystal out of his inventory and touched the crystal to the head as he activated Memory Download. The crystal and the head glowed, and then the head crumbled to dust in his hand.
From the Assassin’s memories, he knew that he could have spoken to the heads or communicated with them if he’d established a telepathic link. Connor didn’t do that. He hoped that downloading their memories and the destruction of their heads would release their souls. He didn’t want that kind of bad karma coming back on him. Connor checked the Memory Crystal to make sure there was nothing more than the memories of the imprisoned soul.
The first person he’d chosen had been the leader of a small guild with 87 members. He’d been a fighter who excelled with the sword and shield and had fundamental knowledge of blacksmithing. A cursory look at his life showed a lot of monster-hunting, tavern-hopping, and not much else. He’d been human and only 35 years old when he’d been killed. Connor didn’t get the feeling that his soul was still around, but just to be sure, he set the memory crystal down and tried to establish a telepathic link with it. Nothing happened.
So, the mind and soul were gone, with only the memories remaining. Hopefully, the soul had been released. Now he had 77 more Soul Prisons to break, memories to download and review. After which, he had some Information Crystals to absorb. If his clock wasn’t off, it was midday. By the time he was done, it would be late afternoon. Then, if the information he acquired didn’t contain any devastating information, the Assassin’s Guild was going to get a new Client that had a massive target for them to go after that could create as much money as he needed. All he needed was a way to access the Guild, which the memories of Trevor and his ability to look and sound like the assassin would allow him to access. This was going to be fun.