Chapter 570: Affinity for Trouble
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
Before the discussion could get any further Vivian and Callisto walked over and took a seat next to each other on the couch with Vivian laid out over most of it and Callisto sitting with Vivian's legs between her and the couch back. "Hey girls. I see Kat has recovered from our little chat. What are you all up to other than the chess?" asked Vivian.
Kat suppressed a shiver at the question as the memories from that particular chat threatened to rise up from the dark corner they were shoved into. Still, Kat was expecting this and battered them back into the darkness before she could properly recall them. As this was going on Sylvie answered seeing that Lily was pondering over her next move. "We're discussing what affinity would be best for Lily. Space and Shadow are up there. Healing was considered but it doesn't seem too valuable because it's hard to heal yourself with it, and Kat doesn't need help with that."
"Not space-time?" asked Callisto in such a way it was clear she expected Sylvie to have thought of it.
"Apparently they are both split for magical affinity purposes" said Sylvie and Callisto nodded at having her hypothesis confirmed.
"Sylvie also neglected to mention I'll only start off with one. The others will come in time. Space is going to be the last one I pick up because you need a lot of power to start doing useful things with it. If I took it as my first then I wouldn't be able to do much more then shrink tiny inanimate objectives to make them just slightly smaller. Hardly useful." Said Lily
"I do not know about that" said Callisto thinking, "If you made bullets that were slightly too large then shrank them and shot them at people when they expand inside their bodies it would be quite painful and rather damaging. You could probably do the same thing with barbed arrows as well"
Lily blanched at the image, while Kat remained fine and Sylvie looked to be considering the applications of such an ability. "I do NOT want to use my magic for that sort of thing Callisto. That's just… icky. I mean… first off why would I want to get magic only to then use a bow or a gun. That just seems silly. Secondly… that feels kind of torturous. I don't want to use my cool new magic powers to torture people. Combat is one thing but… yeah that… that's another," said Lily.
Callisto just shrugged. "It was merely a suggestion. I wished to point out that all magic likely has its uses at all power levels and that just because you are unwilling to think of those uses, it does not mean they do not exist. Still, I can agree with Space being the final magic as I can see how the power requirements for useful things would be quite high"
"Right…" said Liy uncertain. "In that case. If you had to pick three kinds of magic what would you take?"
Callisto bit her lip and thought on that for a few moments. "You ask a difficult question. I have not studied all the types as you likely have. I do not even know all the rules for magic, just the few that Kat mentioned from Nixilei's basic magic rundown during her time participating ion that tournament. So I can really only guess at the affinities I can chose and what I can do with them.
"At a basic level, fire is just a good choice. It does not require anything more than summoning the power and aiming. Ice, Earth, Water, Air, and many others all require you to fashion your magic into a specific shape to deal damage or in the case of water, if a shape is not good enough you might also need to move it at high speed and use it like high powered industrial water cutter.
"So if I just wanted to do the most damage as effectively as possible in the shortest amount of time I do not know if you can beat fire. Of course, it is a dreadfully cliché and dull choice for magic but it certainly works. Still, if you will allow me some… creative interpretation I suppose for what I can chose and what I can do with my options.
"Earth, illusion, and sound would be the three I would build myself around. Taking earth or sound first, illusion second, and whichever I skipped third. I would then use earth magic to hide myself underground, while using illusion and sound magic to make it appear like I'm above ground and doing things. Once I got really good I'd even make it look like I was blocking and taking damage.
"Keep that up for a battle as I slowly move towards my enemies underground and then slice their achilleas tendons. It should be able to beat most people. Barring that, sound magic surely would allow me to do significant damage to the ears of opponents and if I can find the correct frequencies perhaps damage to the internal organs as well. Earth would be a good defensive element even if my hiding underground plan failed and tossing boulders at people is always a possibility" explained Callisto.
*That's a rather interesting build. I can see the possibilities with that.* Could continue the thought though, Callisto actually continued to speak. "That's just in combat though. With earth magic I could move the dirt beneath my feet to make myself faster and decrease travel time. With sound magic I can hopefully learn an echolocation spell that's too high pitch or low pitch for most things to hear and use it for scouting.
"With illusions I can also hide my appearance even if I am standing where it is. Plus, if I get good, using illusion and sound magic I could pose as an entire crowd of people, or perhaps a band. Making money by being a literal one-woman-band. The possibilities are endless"
*Indeed they are. I can really see Callisto doing some scary stuff with three abilities like that.* "What about you Vivian?" asked Kat, "Callisto's build is pretty technical and quite cool. What sort of thing would you go for?"
Vivian lifted herself up onto an elbow so she could look at Kat properly as she spoke. "Well… I think I'd have to take wind and gravity magic. I don't even care how powerful they'd be. With them both I'm certain I'd be able to fly and that's easily worth it in my opinion. Even if you can fly with other magic, I'm certain you would get the best flight from those two together. Decreasing wind resistance, pushing you along with both air and gravity if you can manage both, and making yourself light enough that you won't fall. Or I guess… depending on how exactly it works maybe just cancelling gravities effect on you…
"After that I'm not too sure what I'd want for my third and final magic. I know I'd get wind first. Gravity is probably like space and too expensive to start with. Hmm… actually that might be my final one, taking space. If I can reduce the space between the places I'm going, make a mini wormhole or something I could really go places."
"Well… I know Thyme could teleport people so it's certainly possible to get that power. Though… now that I think about it… what the heck were Thyme's affinities…" said Kat who trailed off at the end.
Vivian gave the best shrug she could from her position, "Well with that knowledge maybe I'd take space? I wonder if I'd fly enough if I learned how to teleport. Makes me think I should completely retool my build… but I guess I stand by it"
"Do you want me to take you flying?" asked Kat, "If it's that big of a deal to you?"
Vivian narrowed her eyes. "Don't think I've forgotten that it hurts you to fly on Earth Kat. I'm not even going to think about asking until your strong enough for it to be easy, or you find a way to take me on a Contract. Not that I'm asking to go on a Contract with you, I understand it would be needlessly dangerous to do so. Would be interesting though. Maybe when you figure out dimensional travel we can go on vacation or something," said Vivian.
"I imagine it'll be possible once I'm at a higher Rank. That or I might have to pay something I'm not sure. Actually wait… Lily, how come you're already planning to come with me on Contracts? I didn't notice properly. How did you sneak that by me?"
Lily grinned, "Well I manage to sneak it past you by just making it a forgone thing. I just told you I was coming along, and you didn't really think about the how or the why. I'm glad you were happy I'd be coming along. As to why I'm already planning on coming along. That bond we'd need for the Memphis transformation would force me to come along. It would snap if we were separated by dimensional walls at the start. I think later on it can be strong enough to survive it, but at the beginning you'd be stuck with me"
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Before the discussion could get any further Vivian and Callisto walked over and took a seat next to each other on the couch with Vivian laid out over most of it and Callisto sitting with Vivian's legs between her and the couch back. "Hey girls. I see Kat has recovered from our little chat. What are you all up to other than the chess?" asked Vivian.
Kat suppressed a shiver at the question as the memories from that particular chat threatened to rise up from the dark corner they were shoved into. Still, Kat was expecting this and battered them back into the darkness before she could properly recall them. As this was going on Sylvie answered seeing that Lily was pondering over her next move. "We're discussing what affinity would be best for Lily. Space and Shadow are up there. Healing was considered but it doesn't seem too valuable because it's hard to heal yourself with it, and Kat doesn't need help with that."
"Not space-time?" asked Callisto in such a way it was clear she expected Sylvie to have thought of it.
"Apparently they are both split for magical affinity purposes" said Sylvie and Callisto nodded at having her hypothesis confirmed.
"Sylvie also neglected to mention I'll only start off with one. The others will come in time. Space is going to be the last one I pick up because you need a lot of power to start doing useful things with it. If I took it as my first then I wouldn't be able to do much more then shrink tiny inanimate objectives to make them just slightly smaller. Hardly useful." Said Lily
"I do not know about that" said Callisto thinking, "If you made bullets that were slightly too large then shrank them and shot them at people when they expand inside their bodies it would be quite painful and rather damaging. You could probably do the same thing with barbed arrows as well"
Lily blanched at the image, while Kat remained fine and Sylvie looked to be considering the applications of such an ability. "I do NOT want to use my magic for that sort of thing Callisto. That's just… icky. I mean… first off why would I want to get magic only to then use a bow or a gun. That just seems silly. Secondly… that feels kind of torturous. I don't want to use my cool new magic powers to torture people. Combat is one thing but… yeah that… that's another," said Lily.
Callisto just shrugged. "It was merely a suggestion. I wished to point out that all magic likely has its uses at all power levels and that just because you are unwilling to think of those uses, it does not mean they do not exist. Still, I can agree with Space being the final magic as I can see how the power requirements for useful things would be quite high"
"Right…" said Liy uncertain. "In that case. If you had to pick three kinds of magic what would you take?"
Callisto bit her lip and thought on that for a few moments. "You ask a difficult question. I have not studied all the types as you likely have. I do not even know all the rules for magic, just the few that Kat mentioned from Nixilei's basic magic rundown during her time participating ion that tournament. So I can really only guess at the affinities I can chose and what I can do with them.
"At a basic level, fire is just a good choice. It does not require anything more than summoning the power and aiming. Ice, Earth, Water, Air, and many others all require you to fashion your magic into a specific shape to deal damage or in the case of water, if a shape is not good enough you might also need to move it at high speed and use it like high powered industrial water cutter.
"So if I just wanted to do the most damage as effectively as possible in the shortest amount of time I do not know if you can beat fire. Of course, it is a dreadfully cliché and dull choice for magic but it certainly works. Still, if you will allow me some… creative interpretation I suppose for what I can chose and what I can do with my options.
"Earth, illusion, and sound would be the three I would build myself around. Taking earth or sound first, illusion second, and whichever I skipped third. I would then use earth magic to hide myself underground, while using illusion and sound magic to make it appear like I'm above ground and doing things. Once I got really good I'd even make it look like I was blocking and taking damage.
"Keep that up for a battle as I slowly move towards my enemies underground and then slice their achilleas tendons. It should be able to beat most people. Barring that, sound magic surely would allow me to do significant damage to the ears of opponents and if I can find the correct frequencies perhaps damage to the internal organs as well. Earth would be a good defensive element even if my hiding underground plan failed and tossing boulders at people is always a possibility" explained Callisto.
*That's a rather interesting build. I can see the possibilities with that.* Could continue the thought though, Callisto actually continued to speak. "That's just in combat though. With earth magic I could move the dirt beneath my feet to make myself faster and decrease travel time. With sound magic I can hopefully learn an echolocation spell that's too high pitch or low pitch for most things to hear and use it for scouting.
"With illusions I can also hide my appearance even if I am standing where it is. Plus, if I get good, using illusion and sound magic I could pose as an entire crowd of people, or perhaps a band. Making money by being a literal one-woman-band. The possibilities are endless"
*Indeed they are. I can really see Callisto doing some scary stuff with three abilities like that.* "What about you Vivian?" asked Kat, "Callisto's build is pretty technical and quite cool. What sort of thing would you go for?"
Vivian lifted herself up onto an elbow so she could look at Kat properly as she spoke. "Well… I think I'd have to take wind and gravity magic. I don't even care how powerful they'd be. With them both I'm certain I'd be able to fly and that's easily worth it in my opinion. Even if you can fly with other magic, I'm certain you would get the best flight from those two together. Decreasing wind resistance, pushing you along with both air and gravity if you can manage both, and making yourself light enough that you won't fall. Or I guess… depending on how exactly it works maybe just cancelling gravities effect on you…
"After that I'm not too sure what I'd want for my third and final magic. I know I'd get wind first. Gravity is probably like space and too expensive to start with. Hmm… actually that might be my final one, taking space. If I can reduce the space between the places I'm going, make a mini wormhole or something I could really go places."
"Well… I know Thyme could teleport people so it's certainly possible to get that power. Though… now that I think about it… what the heck were Thyme's affinities…" said Kat who trailed off at the end.
Vivian gave the best shrug she could from her position, "Well with that knowledge maybe I'd take space? I wonder if I'd fly enough if I learned how to teleport. Makes me think I should completely retool my build… but I guess I stand by it"
"Do you want me to take you flying?" asked Kat, "If it's that big of a deal to you?"
Vivian narrowed her eyes. "Don't think I've forgotten that it hurts you to fly on Earth Kat. I'm not even going to think about asking until your strong enough for it to be easy, or you find a way to take me on a Contract. Not that I'm asking to go on a Contract with you, I understand it would be needlessly dangerous to do so. Would be interesting though. Maybe when you figure out dimensional travel we can go on vacation or something," said Vivian.
"I imagine it'll be possible once I'm at a higher Rank. That or I might have to pay something I'm not sure. Actually wait… Lily, how come you're already planning to come with me on Contracts? I didn't notice properly. How did you sneak that by me?"
Lily grinned, "Well I manage to sneak it past you by just making it a forgone thing. I just told you I was coming along, and you didn't really think about the how or the why. I'm glad you were happy I'd be coming along. As to why I'm already planning on coming along. That bond we'd need for the Memphis transformation would force me to come along. It would snap if we were separated by dimensional walls at the start. I think later on it can be strong enough to survive it, but at the beginning you'd be stuck with me"
Before the discussion could get any further Vivian and Callisto walked over and took a seat next to each other on the couch with Vivian laid out over most of it and Callisto sitting with Vivian's legs between her and the couch back. "Hey girls. I see Kat has recovered from our little chat. What are you all up to other than the chess?" asked Vivian.Kat suppressed a shiver at the question as the memories from that particular chat threatened to rise up from the dark corner they were shoved into. Still, Kat was expecting this and battered them back into the darkness before she could properly recall them. As this was going on Sylvie answered seeing that Lily was pondering over her next move. "We're discussing what affinity would be best for Lily. Space and Shadow are up there. Healing was considered but it doesn't seem too valuable because it's hard to heal yourself with it, and Kat doesn't need help with that.""Not space-time?" asked Callisto in such a way it was clear she expected Sylvie to have thought of it."Apparently they are both split for magical affinity purposes" said Sylvie and Callisto nodded at having her hypothesis confirmed."Sylvie also neglected to mention I'll only start off with one. The others will come in time. Space is going to be the last one I pick up because you need a lot of power to start doing useful things with it. If I took it as my first then I wouldn't be able to do much more then shrink tiny inanimate objectives to make them just slightly smaller. Hardly useful." Said Lily"I do not know about that" said Callisto thinking, "If you made bullets that were slightly too large then shrank them and shot them at people when they expand inside their bodies it would be quite painful and rather damaging. You could probably do the same thing with barbed arrows as well"Lily blanched at the image, while Kat remained fine and Sylvie looked to be considering the applications of such an ability. "I do NOT want to use my magic for that sort of thing Callisto. That's just icky. I mean first off why would I want to get magic only to then use a bow or a gun. That just seems silly. Secondly that feels kind of torturous. I don't want to use my cool new magic powers to torture people. Combat is one thing but yeah that that's another," said Lily.Callisto just shrugged. "It was merely a suggestion. I wished to point out that all magic likely has its uses at all power levels and that just because you are unwilling to think of those uses, it does not mean they do not exist. Still, I can agree with Space being the final magic as I can see how the power requirements for useful things would be quite high""Right" said Liy uncertain. "In that case. If you had to pick three kinds of magic what would you take?"Callisto bit her lip and thought on that for a few moments. "You ask a difficult question. I have not studied all the types as you likely have. I do not even know all the rules for magic, just the few that Kat mentioned from Nixilei's basic magic rundown during her time participating ion that tournament. So I can really only guess at the affinities I can chose and what I can do with them."At a basic level, fire is just a good choice. It does not require anything more than summoning the power and aiming. Ice, Earth, Water, Air, and many others all require you to fashion your magic into a specific shape to deal damage or in the case of water, if a shape is not good enough you might also need to move it at high speed and use it like high powered industrial water cutter."So if I just wanted to do the most damage as effectively as possible in the shortest amount of time I do not know if you can beat fire. Of course, it is a dreadfully clich and dull choice for magic but it certainly works. Still, if you will allow me some creative interpretation I suppose for what I can chose and what I can do with my options."Earth, illusion, and sound would be the three I would build myself around. Taking earth or sound first, illusion second, and whichever I skipped third. I would then use earth magic to hide myself underground, while using illusion and sound magic to make it appear like I'm above ground and doing things. Once I got really good I'd even make it look like I was blocking and taking damage."Keep that up for a battle as I slowly move towards my enemies underground and then slice their achilleas tendons. It should be able to beat most people. Barring that, sound magic surely would allow me to do significant damage to the ears of opponents and if I can find the correct frequencies perhaps damage to the internal organs as well. Earth would be a good defensive element even if my hiding underground plan failed and tossing boulders at people is always a possibility" explained Callisto.*That's a rather interesting build. I can see the possibilities with that.* Could continue the thought though, Callisto actually continued to speak. "That's just in combat though. With earth magic I could move the dirt beneath my feet to make myself faster and decrease travel time. With sound magic I can hopefully learn an echolocation spell that's too high pitch or low pitch for most things to hear and use it for scouting."With illusions I can also hide my appearance even if I am standing where it is. Plus, if I get good, using illusion and sound magic I could pose as an entire crowd of people, or perhaps a band. Making money by being a literal one-woman-band. The possibilities are endless"*Indeed they are. I can really see Callisto doing some scary stuff with three abilities like that.* "What about you Vivian?" asked Kat, "Callisto's build is pretty technical and quite cool. What sort of thing would you go for?"Vivian lifted herself up onto an elbow so she could look at Kat properly as she spoke. "Well I think I'd have to take wind and gravity magic. I don't even care how powerful they'd be. With them both I'm certain I'd be able to fly and that's easily worth it in my opinion. Even if you can fly with other magic, I'm certain you would get the best flight from those two together. Decreasing wind resistance, pushing you along with both air and gravity if you can manage both, and making yourself light enough that you won't fall. Or I guess depending on how exactly it works maybe just cancelling gravities effect on you"After that I'm not too sure what I'd want for my third and final magic. I know I'd get wind first. Gravity is probably like space and too expensive to start with. Hmm actually that might be my final one, taking space. If I can reduce the space between the places I'm going, make a mini wormhole or something I could really go places.""Well I know Thyme could teleport people so it's certainly possible to get that power. Though now that I think about it what the heck were Thyme's affinities" said Kat who trailed off at the end.Vivian gave the best shrug she could from her position, "Well with that knowledge maybe I'd take space? I wonder if I'd fly enough if I learned how to teleport. Makes me think I should completely retool my build but I guess I stand by it""Do you want me to take you flying?" asked Kat, "If it's that big of a deal to you?"Vivian narrowed her eyes. "Don't think I've forgotten that it hurts you to fly on Earth Kat. I'm not even going to think about asking until your strong enough for it to be easy, or you find a way to take me on a Contract. Not that I'm asking to go on a Contract with you, I understand it would be needlessly dangerous to do so. Would be interesting though. Maybe when you figure out dimensional travel we can go on vacation or something," said Vivian."I imagine it'll be possible once I'm at a higher Rank. That or I might have to pay something I'm not sure. Actually wait Lily, how come you're already planning to come with me on Contracts? I didn't notice properly. How did you sneak that by me?"Lily grinned, "Well I manage to sneak it past you by just making it a forgone thing. I just told you I was coming along, and you didn't really think about the how or the why. I'm glad you were happy I'd be coming along. As to why I'm already planning on coming along. That bond we'd need for the Memphis transformation would force me to come along. It would snap if we were separated by dimensional walls at the start. I think later on it can be strong enough to survive it, but at the beginning you'd be stuck with me"
