The Father of Magic had tried his best to explain how he needed mighty warriors from the church to help protect the world. He was still trying to get the core group of people that would make up the Heroes Guild.
He had even tried to preach Kelllwan's dogma in the hopes that the priest would change his mind.
"P?????? ???? ??????, ???? ????? ???s, ??? ????? ??? ???? ???! Us? ???? ????????s ??? ????, ??? ??????? ???s? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ???. B? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ???????? ?? ?????? ???? ?????, ???? ???? ??? ???s? ?x???? ??.
S????? ?? ????s ?? ???? ??? ??s? ??????????? ????s ?? K???s?. A?? ??? s??? ??????? ??s???? ? ?????? ?? ?? s????, ?????????, ??? ?????. A?? ??? ????? ??? ??? ??s???? ?? ?? ??????, ????????, ??? ????s???.
F???? ???? ???????, ??? ???? ?????!"
It had been no use. The old man had simply shook his head and told him a parable about how one man had spent his life building flood protection, while another had invested his money in his family and prayed to the gods.
It had been an infuriating conversation, especially since Kelllwan was probably one of the best gods to have represented in the heroes guild.
As Jasper left, something did pop up on his screen.
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Divine Domain Message: Luck
Failures 5/5
Your next skill check will be a success.
Jasper grinned. He finally had what he needed. A get-out-of-jail-free card. The only problem was that he had to spend it wisely, and it would be his next check.
He could just walk back into the church and convince the priest to lend him aid, but doing that would probably fail. While his Luck Domain was powerful, he also knew that the AI didn't like repetition. He had tried juggling until he messed up just to increase the counter. It had not worked. He had almost felt the frown on the AI's face when it inspected his actions the first time, and when he had done it a second time, the counter had decreased, bringing him back to 4.
Jasper cleared his mind. He needed to find someone that could help him establish a heroes guild. Focusing, he spent a single point of Energy to determine who might be a good option for a guild leader, all thanks to his Knowledge Domain.
Jasper froze slightly in his steps as the knowledge of who to ask flowed into his mind. He frowned a little as the knowledge of a man named Fabian Cremeheart came to his mind.
Fabian Cremeheart was one of his old students who had taken up residency in Salezstadt... well, a small town outside of it called Ytruplund. He was old, especially for a human, but somehow, he was still alive. If nothing else, Jasper had to see this man just to catch up.
He pulled out some parchment, and as Omniscient Scholar fed the information of where Ytruplund was located into his brain, Jasper made a map to ensure that if Martin ever got to the area, he wouldn't be lost. He might not get a minimap, but having something to navigate by was nice.
The map was relatively sparse. Of course, Jasper could have populated it with all manner of hidden knowledge and forbidden areas, but it was a map to show the major roads along with any major settlements.
He headed north, following the road. He took in a deep breath and enjoyed the sights around him. Working with this technology daily meant that much of the magic became incredibly dull to him. However, something about simply strolling through the countryside made things feel almost magical. Jasper sighed as he took in the world around him.
The Developer tried to ignore his thoughts, which informed him there were several bugs all around him, the large fields of wheat might be just a bit too large, and the cow pens might have too few cows.
Thoughts and ideas flowed into Jasper's mind as the Knowledge Domain helpfully informed him that there, indeed, were too few cows in the pens.
The fact that his Knowledge Domain informed him of this told Jasper that maybe it wasn't a bug but something the system intended. The God of Magic felt his eyes drawn to the deep furrows in the cow pens. Something was not right, though no explanation came to mind. Jasper sighed and looked around. He could continue towards his former student, but it would be worth looking into if the countryside was being plagued by something.
Jasper sighed. He slowly walked over to the pen, and as he got closer, he could see how the pen had been torn apart. Not only were there furrows, but a large barn had clearly been burned to the ground, leaving behind not even coal.
The god needed to know what was capable of this, and with a thought, he accessed one of the powers he had not picked from his Knowledge Domain.
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Irresistible Query
Type: Activated Ability
Energy usage: For the day.
Full effect: Attain knowledge about one topic or element. This power cannot be used more than once on a given topic until the situation changes significantly.
It was, without a doubt, a good power. However, not only did it take up Jasper's Energy for the entire day, which had been a problem when he started, but it was also a greater power from the knowledge domain, requiring two points to buy.
Even so, Jasper used it, which drained him of two Energy for the rest of the day.
Instantly, the knowledge poured into Jasper again, something he was becoming used to now. However, he didn't like what he was being told.
This was the work of dragons.
Jasper groaned a little as he didn't get any further information. He sighed, knowing that he would need to spend two more Energy for the rest of the day if he wanted to know why the dragons had attacked this place.
Jasper grumbled a little but dedicated the Energy, leaving him with only 3 for the rest of the day.
Once more, knowledge flooded into his mind, and Jasper was suddenly an expert on dragons.
There are seven elder dragons. Nobody knows where these came from, but rumours say they were formed when the gods collided on this plane.
As such, most believe this happened at the dawn of time when gods could walk the world freely. The first thing these elder dragons did was create their spawn.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
People believe the dragons were tasked with protecting the city of Salezstadt and could not leave the city. For this reason, they created their children.
Each dragon pair created a new child, for a total of 21 dragons. These dragons were a combination of their parents' virtues. However, the Demon God, Raffael Moordet, has managed to corrupt most of these dragons through trickery.
Thanks to their virtuous hearts, the dragons cannot bring themselves to stop their own children.
The source of destruction before you was caused by the spawn of Charity and Kindness, who went by the name Graceful Benevolence. However, since the dragon's downfall, they go by Cruel Avarice.
Jasper felt a headache coming along. He would need to talk with the dragons, and he would need to hurry up if he wanted to do that before his time ran out. Instead of the leisurely walk he had been doing, Jasper spread out his cloak into mighty dragon wings, and he took off with a speed that almost instantly broke the sound barrier.
The Father of Dragons would have to cull his grandchildren if they threatened the world. Jasper also knew that he would have to do something about Raffael Moordet. Apparently, he was still making trouble for the world, which was his role, but there was too much chaos, and things would collapse.
Jasper was heading towards Ytruplund, but the flight would take some time, even at this speed. He would be there by nightfall as long as he wasn't attacked. Since Jasper couldn't grow tired, thanks to his Endurance Domain, he effectively sprinted the entire way. While doing so, he reviewed his options from the last Ur-Magic tier.
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Unbound Ur-mage
Type: Constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You have been initiated into the way of the Unbound Ur-mage, the deepest degree of Ur-magic.
You master two spells of this tier as part of this learning, which you do not need to spend Energy to remember. You may learn more as your find them. When casting Ur-magic you may spend a minute to cast the spell without taking any damage.
He would need to pick two of these powers, despite knowing that even invoking one of these would threaten to burn down this plane if invoked without some serious protections.
Jasper swallowed. That was a massive list, and while these spells were powerful, he had actually expected... more. That may be the wrong way of putting it. He had forced himself to access the Virtue of Heavenly Authority when fighting Kelllwan the first time, which was indeed a powerful spell. However, most of the others were surprisingly just utility.
They were world-bending powers, such as 'A heart's desire', which was essentially just the Wish spell. It was even stronger than Jasper's Luck Domain, although it did come with a downside. But the Luck Domain wasn't half as expensive as this spell was.
The "Directed Convulsion of Law" seemed incredible though, but it wasn't really something that would affect the entire plane. It was probably one of the spells he was going to end up picking.
"Gifts of Spring and Winter" promised immortality, but Jasper dismissed it. He did not even have to consider it since it wasn't worth his time. He was already functionally immortal already.
Much more interesting was "The Grinding Teeth of God". It was percentile damage to creatures, and it promised to destroy anything within 30 meters of whatever spot he could see. Jasper considered it since it would probably help with some of the toughest bosses around. However, he didn't like the sound of the engines breaking. That sounded like he would have to do actual backend coding to fix it.
"Legion of Marching Clay" was interesting, though. It wasn't really something that Jasper had been looking for. There was no need to create legions of automatons for him. If he had wanted an army, he would have set up a church.
However, "Palace of the Sorcerer-Prince" seemed right in his wheelhouse. It was definitely something that he could use. Jasper would have to go slow and set up appropriate protections, but having a palace whenever he wanted it was nice, and an incredible party trick to pull off.
Then there was "Summon the Black Iron Servitor". It was an exciting spell, though probably not one that he would take. Had Jasper had access to this when he met Erik, he probably wouldn't have forced the old man to live forever. This thing might even be stronger than The Scribe had been initially. However, with hundreds of years of experience, Jasper was pretty sure that his old friend could fight against gods and win.
Lastly, there was "Virtue of Heavenly Authority". It was a good power, especially when fighting everyone else, but it was honestly too powerful and not something that he would ever use on this plane.
Jasper sighed and picked "Directed Convulsion of Law" and "Palace of the Sorcerer-Prince" just as he landed in Ytruplund.
What should be the next interlude?