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***
Looking at Pierce's increasingly disgruntled face as he tried to open the portal for the past hour, Kaecilius couldn't help but remember himself at the beginning of the mage's journey.
-If you're so eager to learn portals quickly, I can offer you a more... risky way. - Kaecilius said thoughtfully.
-And what is the risk? - Pierce stopped twisting his hand in the air.
-Follow me. - Said Kaecilius, opening the portal.
As they passed through the portal and saw the snow-covered mountain tops, Raine began to guess at the nature of the method.
-You're not going to...
-I am, good luck. - Waving his hand from the other side of the closing portal, Kaecilius said.
Cursing his master to himself for such methods of training Rain covered his body with a fiery film, changing its properties from suppressing external heat sources to keeping the internal temperature at a satisfactory level. Almost immediately afterwards he felt his supply of fire energy begin to dwindle rather quickly. The external temperature was not particularly conducive to utilising the energy and the expenditure to maintain the cover had increased by a factor of 6-7. Rain realised that at this rate of energy loss, he wouldn't last more than two hours. So with all his diligence and persistence, he began to twist his hand to represent the Kamarthage.
***
-There really is something to it. - Standing in front of the empty lot waiting for Pierce, Kaecilius said.
Time was running out fast, first it was 10 minutes then 30 and logically the guy should have been pulled out by now, but knowing the nature of Rain, Kaecilius gave him another 20 minutes on top of that. After 50 minutes since the portal closed he realised that the method didn't work and used the ring to get back to the mountain, but he didn't find anyone at the expected place.You know, if I had a separate portal opening skill, I'd have it up a couple of dozen levels right now. Opening a portal is a common practice for an apprentice, but to open a portal falling down a slope and getting a beautiful claw mark on your back from an incomprehensible thing remotely resembling a snowman, a couple of hundred metres below you, and not losing control until you get inside is not even the level of a master, but of an Ancient. I remember how the Zelotes, losing their footing, immediately dispelled their exit from the mirror dimension.
As I tumbled out of the portal, my body slammed into the energy shield. Kecilius and two other masters were in front of me.
-Since he found himself, I'll take my leave. - One of them said.
-"I have work to do too, Master Kaecilius. - The other gave Kaecilius a slight bow and left.
-What's wrong? - Kaecilius asked worriedly, running an analysing seal over the wound.
-Well, it was fine at first. - Sarcasm dripped from Pierce's every word. -Then I heard a roar and started twisting my arm a lot more, but as you can see the owner of the voice was faster. - With a hum Rahin said.
-What did he look like? - Finished with a bunch of runes over the wound that had already stopped bleeding, Kaecilius asked.
-Three metres tall, white fur, fangs, claws... I was attacked by Bigfoot.
-"It wasn't Bigfoot. Tell me, did he bite you? - Looking tensely at the wound, Kaecilius asked.
-No. -So who did?
-Vendigo. I didn't think they'd settle in that part of the mountain. I'm sorry. - Caecilius said with a sigh.
-Stop Wendigo are the ones who tasted another human during the big snowstorm, or am I confused? - Pierce asked, fighting the urge to scratch his wound and getting to his feet.
-You're wrong about the blizzard, but you're right. The Wendigos came into existence because of the curse of the northern gods of Inua. They couldn't tolerate human cannibalism and put a curse that turns cannibals into mindless monsters that want more and more human meat. Normally this curse only works in Canada, but if the cursed person interacts with a powerful magical object, it can activate on its own. It's a pretty scary curse that is transmitted by biting or consuming the flesh of a Wendigo.
-Stop, so to stop cannibalism in their lands, the gods created super-cannibals? Did I get that right? - With a very unequivocal look, Pierce asked.
-Gods rarely ever acted in a way that mortals could understand. If you're interested, there are a couple of books in the library about divine miracles and curses that have been inflicted on peoples throughout the history of mankind. - said Kaecilius. -And since you managed to open the portal, it should be much easier now. Open the portal again, and given your condition for today, we'll be done.
-Good. - Rain said tiredly. After a dozen minutes Pierce opened the portal and was released to his room.
***
As I fell onto the bed, I pulled out a small flask and drank the regenerator in one gulp. The wound on my back itched ten times worse, but it was a small price to pay for complete healing. While my body was suffering from the rapid regeneration I decided to check my status, after all I had learnt a few new skills today.
Name: Ryan Pierce.
Level: 77
Experience: 134150/135000
Parameters:
-Strength: 351
-Dexterity: 324
-Stamina: 436
-Intelligence: 140
-Intuition: 170
-Free Points: 182
Specialities: major, lab mouse, hitman, novice alpha, semi-high.
Skills/Skills: "martial arts 77ur", "shooting 75ur", "polyglot 5ur", "psychology 39ur", "strategist 47ur", "stealth 61ur", "player mind MAX", "intimidation 65ur", "animal style 60ur", "drug resistance 65ur", "hackerman 58ur", "engineer 68ur", "alpha will 36ur", "regeneration 54ur", "alchemist chef 49ur", "poker face 37ur", "howl 34ur", "falcon gaze 33ur", "pain threshold 51ur", "maximum strike 14ur", "masochism 33ur", "biology 54ur", "S class licence 40ur", "sixth sense 30ur", "teacher 7ur", "metamorphism 36ur", "pack bonding 3ur", "energy sensitivity 3ur", "internal energy control 2ur", "light energy absorption 5ur", "weak interaction with space 5ur".
Superpowers: "time acceleration", "lycanthropy", "hellfire".
Looks like I really upgraded the skill of portals. Only here is not clear why some of the new skills have appeared at the part of these attributes "light/weak" before this was not. Plus it is still unclear what else but easier opening of portals gives this interaction. With the rest of the new skills everything is clear. Sensitivity allows me to feel the energy around me, and most likely after its increase I will be able to see the energy plan of this world even without separate runes and artefacts. Control allows me to control it and by increasing it I will be able to create energy constructs more freely and greatly reduce losses when using it. Absorption is responsible for the speed of recovery of my energy reserve and its upgrade will only give faster replenishment of the reserve. But the interaction is not really clear yet. But now it's not so important.
Of the spatial spells I now except for portals little that will be useful. But knowing what I can do with the school of illusions, I decided to concentrate on it first. To be honest, I don't really understand the reason for the rule of cleaning up the memory and places from traces of magic after battles. I mean, why mages don't use illusions. After all, if they hide their illumination and the sea of special effects with a couple of illusionary barriers and any mage can be immediately mistaken for a mutant. And this is quite a lot of hands untied, although the mirror dimension also solves problems quite well. Your personal training world, which in a couple of hours after leaving will repair any damage. By the way, I wonder if this world can be used for spying? I mean, of course, mages have protected their dwellings from such guests, but ordinary special services and other interesting organisations hardly.
But something we have gone away from the topic, after all, the mirror dimension belongs to the spatial direction, and now I wanted to tell about illusions. The main plus of studying this direction, at least for me, is the ability to recognise visual fakes. My player's mind quietly allows me not to worry about mental illusions sent directly into the mind. Not even a supreme demon, who specialises in it for a minute, could get into my head. But I was fooled pretty quickly by the same flame illusion. Such illusions are still my weakness. And it's quite funny, by the way, because visual fakes are almost the beginner level of this field in contrast to mental ones. So my case is like being able to bathe in a volcano and getting burned by lighting a match.
Illusions are also indispensable for a spy. To pretend to be another person, to pretend to be a piece of wall, to put your appearance on someone's corpse and other pluses all this gives the skill of proper use of illusion. Of course, received metamorphism at later levels will most likely allow you to change your appearance as you wish. But it will be quite costly and unlike the light illusion is also inconvenient. For example, pretending to be someone larger or smaller, I will change my centre of gravity, which will not have a very positive effect on my gait and combat skills. So in that respect, illusion wins on all fronts.
I spent the rest of the day absorbing knowledge from the books I have so far and trying to improve my internal energy control.
***
Kecilius spent the next week improving my skills at opening portals and increasing my perception of energy. By the end of the week, I could open a portal in just ten seconds and I had pumped up my skills quite nicely.
"energy sensitivity 11ur."
"internal energy control 17."
"light energy absorption 25."
"weak interaction with space 23."
Since the only thing I had been doing during this time was opening and closing portals, it was not surprising that my interaction with space had increased so much. Recognising that I was already pretty good with the portal and my body should be used to using energy by now, Kaecilius decided to teach me another skill that was crucial for a mage. Opening a mirror dimension. The process itself was not too complicated, but without prior training and skills of feeling my reserve and the channels through which energy flows, I would not be able to use it. To open the mirror dimension it was necessary to pour out a certain amount of energy into the world, which rather roughly creates a symbol that opens the entrance to this dimension. Also at a higher level of energy control, it can be opened with just one movement of the palm. When building runes in contrast to any other magic does not occur any visual manifestations of energy. So it turns out because of the fact that building a rune magician immediately sends energy into the dimension itself and rune is formed on the other side.
Tortured with this I for five hours. Of course, the presence of the master was useful, but because of the constant attention from Kecilius to my person when studying magic, I could not use time acceleration. It gnawed at me from the inside out as such a useless waste of time infuriated me. Once I opened the dimension and was inside, I was finally able to exhale and calm down.
-Well done, now use the ring and open it at least two or three more times before sunset. - With a smile said Kaecilius.
***
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