Under the System, the average lifespan in central Lost Angels has not changed significantly. As best as can be determined, each Level a person earns adds roughly a year to their physical prime. Thus, reaching Level 30, which is a common benchmark for moderately-successful non-combat Classes, can extend your years of health and productivity to your sixtieth or even seventieth birthday. Beyond this point, however, physical decline sets in and proceeds more rapidly than in pre-System times.
The result is an average lifespan of eighty years for a Level 30 individual. While combat Classes often Level more quickly and sometimes achieve Levels in the 40s or even 50s, their average lifespan is significantly lower than non-combat Classes due to the high number of fatalities. Detailed information on this topic is restricted by order of the Governor of Lost Angels.
- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian,
The next day the routine was very similar, though some of the classes changed. Magical Theory was our first new class, taught by Professor Osco. I was fully engaged, and so were most of the Mages, but others – including Tara, Arlo, and Raylan – seemed quite bored. I wished we could use the Squad Comms in the classroom so I could tell them to pay attention!
She explained the theory behind magical focuses – primarily staffs and scepters, though other forms were possible. A focus could accept a single modifier rune, which would be fused with the primary Spell rune to become a spellform. That was what allowed Tier 0 Mages like Zaire to cast a Spell like Earth Spike. It was technically a Tier 1 Spell because it was made up of a primary rune – Conjure Earth – and a modifier – Spike.
A question from one of the students led her on an aside to explain the definitions of runes vs spellforms vs Spells, which I found helpful. The Lightning Mage patiently explained that a spellform was made up of one or more runes, or components. For a spellform to become a Spell, you had to push mana into it with intent.
Intent could do many things depending on the Spell. The example given was Illusion magic, which I found fascinating. Apparently, the basic IIlusion Spell would create a small image, no larger than a pair of fists together. It could be an image of anything, though – based on the caster’s intent.
There wasn’t a modifier rune for red, blue, or whatever. If you wanted a larger illusion, you would need the Enlarge modifier, or Persist to make it last longer. I supposed it made sense, otherwise you’d need an infinite number of modifiers to make a realistic illusion of anything other than a colored blob.
Every modifier rune in a spellform raised the Tier of the final Spell. This determined the Tier required to cast it, how much mana it cost, and exactly what it did. I finally realized why so many others looked bored – they couldn’t do anything interesting with magic until they reached Tier 1. Then they could finally combine a primary rune and a modifier rune to do something more exciting than make a small floating ball of fire, water, earth, or whatever.
awesome
I also started to wonder how my infusion mod related to magical focuses. There were some obvious similarities – it seemed the process of changing the modifier your focus held was exactly the same as when I infused a Spell into my gun. The only difference was that I was infusing a primary rune instead of a modifier, and a mod instead of a Skill.
“The superiority of the Mage in the use of magic is fourfold,” Zenia announced with a broad smile. “First, every Mage has a focus as their Class Weapon, which means they can always cast Spells effectively one Tier higher in complexity than their counterparts. Secondly, every Mage has an affinity Skill, further improving their effectiveness in their core type of magic.
“Third, only Mages and a few hybrid magic-using Classes get the Skills needed to enable them to learn Spells via the System. Casting a System-supported Spell is faster and more reliable than doing it ‘naturally’. This is essential for combat effectiveness. Finally, the Stat distribution of a Mage concentrates in the magical Attributes – Power, Control, Barrier, and Acuity.”
I raised my hand.
“Yes, Recruit Azure?”
“Can’t other Classes also use a magical focus?”
She sniffed. “In theory, yes, but they are inferior copies. First, they degrade over time, eventually breaking under the strain of channeling magic. You may counter this with a self-repair mod. Second, and most importantly, the modifier rune in what we call an ‘unclassed’ focus is fixed and cannot be changed, so they are greatly lacking in flexibility.”
I frowned in confusion. “But what if I just wanted to cast different types of firebolts? If I had a focus with Bolt on it, then couldn’t I add other modifiers to that, just like a Mage?”
“I’m afraid it’s not that easy. You see, when you use a magical focus, whatever modifier is on the focus becomes the modifier in the final spellform. This touches on the subject of sequential vs non-sequential modifiers, which is a more advanced topic. To simplify, let’s use your example of a focus with a Bolt modifier.
“Say you have reached Tier 1, and you see your fellow Fire Mages such as Trainee Clarice,” I groaned inwardly at her name, “casting a fireball. The proper name isn’t ‘fireball’, of course. Technically, the most basic version is Fire-Bolt-Burst, in that specific order. If you attempted to construct the spellform using your Bolt focus, the order would become Fire-Burst-Bolt, which would be unpleasant, to say the least.
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“What you want is for the fire to shoot out at a target, then explode. Your altered version would explode first, quite literally in your face, then the dispersed remnants of the fire would shoot off wherever you had aimed. I trust you see the problem, yes? One of the challenges of wielding magic effectively is learning the precise order of modifiers needed to accomplish your goal, and of correctly managing your focus and the modifier infused in it.”
I noticed Clarice smirking at me as if I was an idiot, and apparently the Lightning Mage noticed too.
“Let me be clear about this – every Mage will at some point ruin a Spell by placing modifiers in the wrong order. Often, in the heat of a battle, it is easy to forget that just because you already have Bolt infused into your focus, you can’t just treat that as part of a Spell and slap another modifier onto it. I can’t tell you how many Tier 1 Mages I’ve personally seen wondering why their Bolts aren’t Seeking a target, because they’ve cast Fire-Seek-Bolt instead of Fire-Bolt-Seek.
“Other Mages injure themselves or their teammates by falling for the mistake in the example I gave earlier, resulting in an explosion at the tip of their focus instead of on their enemy. That is why we train our Spells just as thoroughly as any Warrior trains with their sword. A careless spellform is even more dangerous than a recklessly swung sword.”
I definitely didn’t smirk back at Clarice. When the lecture was done, it was time for Magical Practice, which was exactly what it sounded like. More time for me to work on Spells, only with instructors around to ask questions. I spent the whole time patiently working on Fire. It was gradually getting easier to form the rune just right, and I was getting faster as well. It was still a long ways away from how easy it was to cast Force, and I knew no matter how much I practiced I’d never fully close the gap.
After lunch we had Tactics, and discovered that Wolf was teaching it. He spent much of class describing various common formations used by Squads when fighting in open ground. None of them were surprising to me, since they involved a lot of common sense. It was good to learn the names though – what he called ‘terminology’. Trying to spell that word was more confusing than any of the formations.
We learned that the formation Mason had used when we were traveling was known as ‘bait’. The person out front – where Mason had been – was the bait, and their job was to trigger any ambushes. The ‘rover’ – Hassan’s role – was off scouting. Ideally, the rover would find an ambush before the team walked into it, enabling a counter-ambush, but sometimes it was more efficient just to spring the trap with your most powerful fighter.
“Monsters are hard to counter-ambush, because they usually have very good senses,” Wolf explained. “Your scout’s may be better, but if you’re fighting monsters close to your Level, your Fighters and Mages aren’t going to be able to sneak up on them.
“If you let them run off, it’s a huge hassle to track them down later. Also, they might follow you from a distance and attack at night. Your rover tries to locate any ambushes and provide warning, but the ‘bait’ is your backup. Having your best defensive fighter out in front of the formation gives everyone else a chance to react to attack.
“Typically, you want about a hundred yards of separation between the bait and the trailers – that’s the rest of you – per Tier of monsters you’re dealing with. A hundred yards for Tier 1, two hundred for Tier 2, and so on. Much closer, and you’ll risk the monsters getting spooked off by the trailers. Much farther, and you won’t be able to react in time.”
“What about Tier 0?” someone asked, probably just being a smartass. It wasn’t me, though. Wolf smirked.
“By the time you graduate from this place, you won’t be needing any fancy formations to deal with anything less than a horde of Tier 0s. And if you’re facing a horde of with a Tier 1 Squad, you’d better hope you can find some good terrain with a chokepoint, otherwise you’re going to be overrun.”
He covered a few more marching formations before the end of class. We learned that the ideal distance for the rovers to be ahead of or to the sides of the main group was about two to three times further than the distance between the bait and the trailers. If your scout got much further away from the formation, they would be too far away for you to reach them in case of trouble.
When he finished with the lecture, Wolf led the entire class outside and towards the square. There we found the other teams’ instructors all waiting for us, and the students quickly divided up into their respective groups. I noticed that Blur was keeping quite a bit of space between her team – Yuri’s – and ours.
The instructors then led us out of the main gate of the Academy at a jog, much to my surprise. Every group headed off in a slightly different direction. Wolf took us about half a mile away from the next group before we finally stopped.
“All right, let’s practice some of the formations we just covered in class. We’ll start with single rover. First, pick the scout and then let’s get into place.”
We had to join his Squad first – he had the Leadership Skill which expanded the normal limit of eight per Squad. That way he could use the Comms to give us directions as we marched around. Raylan was our choice for rover, but he had trouble keeping the right spacing at first.
We probably heard variations of the same two instructions a dozen times in the next twenty minutes. Then, we switched to double rover, and we had a bit of difficulty deciding who the second rover should be.
“It should be me!” G’hala insisted. “I am the best hunter of our generation in the Clan!”
“There’s no way our only Healer should be scouting!” Arlo countered, and I had to agree with him.
“Kzach!” she hissed, and I wondered if it was some kind of orcish curse. “I am no soft city Healer, I am a !”
She summoned her spear and whirled it in a menacing display to prove her point. I had to overrule her, but at least she backed down when I stepped in. We finally sent Arlo out to join Raylan. His Class gave him high Perception, probably better than the Knife Fighter. Unfortunately as Squad leader I couldn’t be out scouting either, though it sounded exciting.
Then we worked on bait, with Tara, H’ruk, and me taking turns. H’ruk’s light armor should have ruled him out, but he was determined. I also knew that he was probably the most dangerous of us in melee, with the possible exception of his sister. We all agreed that G'hala needed to stay with the trailers where she could safely heal the bait in case of an attack.
I had hoped we’d be doing some actual fighting, or sparring, in Team Combat. When I complained Wolf just smiled and told us we’d get to that soon enough. First, he said, we needed to build up our coordination and get used to working together. At least I was able to pester him into taking us back a few minutes early so we could do a Sprint before Monster Basics.