Accounting for the Journal

  The first group of survivors from Nothing arrived in Checkpoint before noon. All of them had strange abilities forged in their entirely unconventional way of advancement, and even after several days free of that dark place they still seemed more dour and shadowy than the rest of the Guild, an appearance reinforced by the magical items they'd gained there, all of it made of either metallic black fabric or the strange obsidian metal of Nothing. None of them had been granted building tokens, and with the damage to Checkpoint's buildings from the zombie invasion, housing became an issue for the first time since the establishment of the town. Clarence reassured me that compared to the Lounge, sleeping under the stars for a few more nights would be bliss.

  Mrs. Xiang and I made arrangements to leave at dawn the following day, and the Council met again to confirm the people leaving on missions to establish Guild branches. Mrs. Hoxley would go to Brandt, Anna to Fort Dawn, and Mrs. Xiang would establish the branch in Starter Village as had already been discussed. Then Octavia was decided to be the best representative to Sophia's group, the other leader we'd met in the hotel. This left two places in the Council open.

  The ranger leader had died, and after not much deliberation, Clarence took his place. Artemis was somewhat concerned about consolidating power among her friends, between Clarence and myself, but by the rules she'd set in place herself, when the rangers of the Guild elected Clarence to lead them with a strong majority, she didn't have any cause to complain. The vote was reinforced by the fact that many of the people returned from Nothing were personally loyal to him, and had also ended up developing the stealth and stalking skills that made them especially likely to join the Ranger division.

  This left the question of the Specialist leader to replace Octavia as she departed for her new duties. The Specialists had always been a strange group, made up of all the none-of-the-above classes and titles in the Guild. Octavia herself had abilities related to decryption and the maintenance of Guild secrets, as well as a limited spellcasting ability focused on stealth and deception. Ultimately Chimo was chosen to lead them. He had diverged more and more toward the bard style of ability selection, and I'd heard him play in the Swinging Donkey once. At this point his natural playing was at a professional level, and his magical music was apparently something that had to be heard to be believed, though I'd never had the chance.

  After the Council meeting I went to see off Anna and Will. They were both walking beside Sugarcube, who had several saddlebags stacked on her sides and appeared to have no great difficulty carrying them.

  "Shouldn't you ride your horse, horse-riding-man?" Anna said.

  "Not much point until we get on a proper road. And besides, we won't move much faster that way, especially not with you lagging behind. If anything you should tell me if you get tired. I can outrun Sugarcube at distance," Will said.

  "I guess we'll argue about that en route. So, Alex," Anna said, strapping her backpack to the horse and turning to me.

  "We'll see each other soon, I'm sure," I said.

  "Unless we die," Anna said.

  "I cannot die," Will said from the other side of the horse, strapping something down and feeding Sugarcube slices of apple.

  "I don't intend to either. We've made it this far, right?" I said.

  "Sure. But war is coming. First that elf bastard. Then whatever the seals are holding back. Then Xem. Doesn't seem like the best odds," Anna said.

  "By the time we're hitting Savirak we'll be back together," I said. "I'm sure we'll need a daring cavalry charge or two."

  "Shit, I don't know. Can't Anna just burn everything to ash instead? Sugarcube prefers not to get her coat bloody."

  "Look. I'm glad I found you two. I love you guys. We will meet again," I said.

  "Death flag. Love you too. Don't forget there are other people here for you if you need us," Anna said.

  Will walked around the horse and crushed me in a hug. He didn't hold back with his increased stats either, and I squealed in genuine pain before he let me go. Then I gave a big hug to Anna, and none of us said good-bye. With Sugarcube in the lead, the three of them walked off in a northerly direction down a narrow footpath into the woods.

  I returned to the mage tower, since I still had more Journal work to do. The battle of Checkpoint had got me about 80% to level 19, which might seem low, but there were nearly 2,000 people fighting and mass battles were always rewarded by participation. I'd taken some key actions in the fight, but I hadn't been the most involved by any means, more focused on the traitor and Jea than on the fighting itself. Still, I had two spells upgraded, two spell scrolls in the back of my pack that I hadn't had time to study, and a silver ring with a ruby that radiated magic I hadn't identified yet. I entered the office at the top of the tower, found it empty, sat down at the desk, and flipped the Journal open.

  Spells

  Conjure Pseudoportals: Conjuration Tier 3, Rank 1

  Below is the sigil for the Conjure Pseudoportals spell of the Conjuration school. When you cast this spell, focus on a location or a creature on the same plane of existence. A window will appear in the air in front of you and in front of the target, connecting the space between you and the target. Sounds, physical objects, particles, or energy cannot pass through the pseudoportal, with the exception of light, allowing line of sight through the portals. It is possible to cast spells through the portal, but any spell cast through the portal will immediately consume all of the caster's available mana in addition to the mana required to cast the spell, and as such the caster will immediately begin casting from their health points, causing damage to the body. Further castings of spells through the portal will damage the soul directly. The pseudoportal will last for Arcana x 10 seconds. The pseudoportal will be 3ft by 3ft in size.

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  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 2: Cast 10/10 spells through the pseudoportal

  Spell rank increased. Choose one of the following upgrade options:

  Conjure Audio-Visual Pseudoportal

  You may choose to allow the Pseudoportal to transmit sound in addition to light and arcane forces. This version of the portal will deplete your mana reserves at 1 mana per second.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 3: Hold Audio-Visual Pseudoportals open for 0/300 minutes

  Scrying Eye

  You may choose to veil the Pseudoportal from natural vision and supernatural methods of detection of lower tier than the core spell. If you choose to cast it in this way, the pseudoportal will be invisible at the target location, and any spells cast through it that do not have obvious visible effects will be undetectable until they have taken effect.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 3: Cast 0/20 spells through the Scrying Eye Pseudoportal without being detected

  This was an easy choice based on past experience. The Scrying version might be useful, but I couldn't count the times I'd wanted a better method of communication than my Party ability through the Journal. I picked the first option immediately. Another spell that had ranked up was:

  Shield, Abjuration Tier 1, Rank 1

  Below is the sigil for the Abjuration spell Shield. Shield can be cast as a quick response in combat or situations of imminent physical danger. It uses the standard casting procedure, with the exception that the invocation is only two syllables long. Focus on the attack you wish to block and say the invocation phrase Pha-Ack. An invisible magical barrier will briefly intercept the attack. The block can be overcome by massive damage. The block doesn't reflect attacks, nor cause them to lose momentum after it expires, so long as the attacker keeps applying pressure during the blocking moment.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 2: Block 103/100 attacks that would otherwise have dealt damage to you

  Spell rank increased. Choose one of the upgrade options below:

  Reflective Shield

  Any ranged or magical attack fully blocked by the shield will ricochet back in the direction of the attacker. The attacks will not follow a direct line back to their caster, but rather ricochet in a direction based on the point of impact without losing any momentum.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 3: Kill 0/30 enemies with ricochet damage

  Mobile Shield

  The maximum number of Shield spells you may control at the same time is reduced to 3. The duration of the Shield is increased to 10 x Arcana seconds. The shields materialize in front of you, within 1ft, floating in the air. You may move the shields with thought to intercept any attacks coming your direction for the duration. The shields cannot move more than 5ft away from you.

  Requirement to upgrade the spell to Rank 3: Block 0/150 instances of damage before the duration of your Shield runs out

  These were both clearly useful, but would also put more mental strain on me in battle. I thought the Mobile Shield version was more defensive and needed less micromanagement than effectively calculating ricochet arcs, though it would still be challenging. It would have been impossible before my mind attribute increased, and sure, further increases in those same attributes might eventually make it easier to send attacks back at my enemies, but I had always been more concerned with staying alive than with killing my foes. I picked the second option.

  Then, the new spells we'd looted all the way back in Rock Toad Caverns. The first was surprising.

  Flicker, Conjuration Tier 1, Rank 1

  Below is the sigil for the Conjuration spell Flicker. It uses the standard casting procedure with the invocation phrase Shi-Ai-Ni. When you cast this spell you are teleported to a harmless demiplane for an instant (0.5 seconds) and then return in exactly the same space you were standing in.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 2: Avoid 0/10 attacks with the spell

  "Hey, Chum, this seems kinda..." I said, turning the page so that he could see. He studied it for a moment.

  "Ah, I'm pretty sure this is a rank hack spell," he said.

  "Explain," I said.

  "Okay, so, there are complex, difficult spells that require high amounts of arcane ability and messing with reality. But some of them are also useless if they have a long-ass cast time," Chum said.

  "So rank hacking is making a very weak version of a spell, to get the effects you're looking for at higher ranks?" I said, after a moment's thought.

  "Exactly, boss. I'd bet anything that at higher ranks this baby will let you use it as an emergency short-range teleport, maybe even a portable hole to hide in for a while, stuff like that. Besides, the upgrade requirements aren't as bad as they look," Chum said.

  "Seems pretty rough to me. The incantation is longer than the dodge window. I'd have a hard time dodging much with it," I said.

  "Yeah, but it's just 'attacks'. Any attacks, don't have to be deadly, don't have to be done by enemies. Hell, I bet I could throw rocks at you and if you dodge them you'll get your second rank in no time," Chum said.

  So I copied the spell down. I knew I'd be working to raise the ranks of several spells when I returned to my tower.

  Divine Brand, Abjuration Tier 3, Rank 1

  Below is the sigil for the Abjuration spell Divine Brand. It uses the standard casting procedure with a 12-syllable incantation phrase. When you cast this spell you choose a target. You may ban that target from any action it would otherwise be able to take. The ban has a duration of 1 x Arcana hours. If the target takes the banned action regardless, they are burned by Divine damage based on the severity of the breach. The target understands the consequences regardless of shared language or even level of intelligence.

  Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 2: Have the duration of the ban expire 0/10 times while preventing targets from taking actions they otherwise would have.

  That left the final item I hadn't checked in on.

  Items

  Ring of Poison

  This magical ring has been inspired by the poison rings from Earth. While the historical rings had a small compartment to store poison, this Ring of Poison actually produces deadly, ingestible poison when activated by the command word Mor. The poison is produced from the emerald gemstone set in the ring, and produces enough tasteless, odorless, and non-magical poison to kill a human-sized creature with Resilience of 4 or less within 10 minutes.

  It wasn't the first unsettling item I hoped I'd never have to use that the Tower had handed me. But I put it on my finger anyway, memorized the command word, and made sure it would be out in the open. Just in case anyone I needed to target with it wouldn't be made suspicious by my new jewelry.

  And then my last day in Checkpoint was over. I wanted to get an early start tomorrow, and I slept better in the office cabinet in the Mage's Tower than I had in the large, fluffy bed in the Swinging Donkey the night before.