A streak of darkness tore across the valley and struck the distant wall without sound or flash. It compressed, burying itself into dirt, rock, and stone until the magic behind it dwindled. The bladed shadow faded as quickly as it came, leaving behind a thin, foot-deep gouge in the stone wall.

And a very delighted teenager nearby.

"Yes!" Alarion accompanied his hiss of delight with the pump of his fist. It was only one step shy of a little dance.

"Twelve attempts. Solid work for a rank amateur, though I expect better from the next spell I teach you," ZEKE couched his praise with critique as always, but there was no mistaking the hint of pride in his voice. "One success is a good start, but I'll need at least twenty before I continue the lesson."

Without MP as a limiting factor, what had been intended as an all-day exercise had been compressed into the space of an hour. With more time spent recovering from miscasts that quite literally blew up in Alarion's face, their real stopping point was his HP. Fortunately, the young man was more than willing to power through the pain and down a potion in pursuit of success.

"Enough," ZEKE commanded as Alarion completed one cast and started in immediately on the next. He'd only managed seventeen successful casts, as shown by an equal number of deep cuts on the distant wall. But with four back-to-back successes, he'd found his rhythm. "So, tell me your thoughts so far."

"I-"

"Besides that, you can cast magic."

Alarion scowled, but focused on the point of ZEKE's question, and why he was being asked. "It is slow to cast. The actual spell effect is quick, but if I knew what it was, I could dodge it by getting out of the way before it finishes. It would do a lot of damage, but so would my sword if I hit them with it."

"Don't take damage to an inanimate object as a measure of how much damage it will do to an Awakened," warned ZEKE. "It can cut through a foot of stone, but with your stat distribution, you'd come away wounded, but very much alive."

The youth frowned again. "Then why are we spending so much time on something so weak?"

"Because the same attack would have neatly bisected you when you first arrived. I'm not saying it is weak, I'm saying you are strong and to remember that 'a lot of damage' is relative."

That struck a chord with Alarion. He looked down at the dagger in his hand, then stared off into the air, reviewing his current status and digging into menus for snapshots of his old status for comparison.

"Regardless, your initial assessment was correct. Given your stats, the spell does respectable damage, but the wind-up is slow. Which is why I made you this."

This time, ZEKE had the grace to hand Alarion the new dagger, rather than throwing it. It was similar in make, with the same black iron design, but created with substantially more care. While the surface of the first weapon had been rough enough to see individual forge marks left over from its creation, this one was smooth as glass, polished to a black mirror with a razor-sharp edge.

"As we've gone over, any spell formula will come with a trio of attributes, each ranked from 1-100. These attributes, potency, speed, and cost, are connected. If potency is 100, the others are zero. If speed and cost are 40, then potency will necessarily equal 20, and so forth. Together, these set the limits of the spell. If you want a stronger spell, you need a formula of a higher rank or rarity."

"Or you need to add something to it," said Alarion, already familiar with the direction of the lecture.

"Quite right," ZEKE beamed at his pupil. "Mistress Sierra uses sound for many of her spells. Mistress Elena uses your hair for Void Arena, while I can use my Power attribute to enhance my spells, at the cost of weakening my body."

"So I could use my luck to make my spells stronger?"

"Theoretically," ZEKE answered after considering the question. "But I'm unfamiliar with any method you'd be able to do so, outside of skills. Regardless, there are limitless ways to empower spells further when incorporated into a spell formula. With the first dagger, we added a somatic component to help focus the energy. This one contains another, a verbal component."

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"Do I have to chant?" Alarion asked, thinking back to various instances of magic he'd seen prior.

"Nothing so long. It wouldn't work well for a combat spell. You only need to say the name of the spell while using it, similar to an active skill. In this case, Void Slash." ZEKE gestured to the dagger and the slight differences in the inscription around its blade edge. "I've taken the liberty to make the spell slightly faster to cast, but weaker as a result. Combined with the new restriction, it should fire off as quickly as you can make the motion. Try it."

Alarion didn't appreciate how ZEKE took a cautious step out of the blast radius, but he did as instructed. A black spot grew at the blade's tip, but there was less resistance to his motions as Alarion pierced and cut the air. Unlike before, where he held every motion just long enough to be awkward, now the strokes were fluid and easy, no more difficult than cutting through empty air with a knife.

"Void Slash."

With that final syllable, the thin line of darkness Alarion had carved sprang to life. It raced across the valley and buried deep in the stone wall, adding to the previous destruction. The resulting gash was short and shallow, but still quite respectable.

Satisfied with the attack, Alarion looked to ZEKE. "Won't it just alert my enemy?"

"If they're familiar with the spell, perhaps. But they might recognize the basic effect," the machine countered. "Even then, I've designed the dagger so the incantation is voluntary."

Elena scoffed from her perch beneath the shade. "You did not design anything."

"I managed the design," ZEKE said dryly. "We'll eventually impart a version of this formula onto one of your primary weapons. The Shifting Imperial Greatsword, most likely."

"Is there a limit to-"

"No, and also yes." ZEKE cut the youth off before he could descend into the pit of one of the most familiar questions. "Much like your questing power, there is no explicit limit on the amount of additional restrictions one can infuse into a spell formula, but there are diminishing returns. In general, you can increase a spell's power by the equivalent of several rarities with the right conditions, but never beyond the limit of its rank."

Alarion's excitement deflated as quickly as it had risen.

"Don't be too discouraged, that is still a considerable increase, if used wisely," said ZEKE. Aiming to give the boy an easy win, ZEKE asked a simple question. "Can you tell me the two broad types of restrictions one can impose?"

"Sympathy and Sacrifice."

"Which one is the somatic component of your new spell?"

Alarion thought about it for a moment. "Sacrifice? I'm adding a requirement to move a certain way."

"Are you sure?" When Alarion frowned in response, ZEKE quickly explained. "It is both. You sacrifice your freedom of movement, but that sacrifice contains a sympathetic component."

"Cutting."

"Exactly. The best mages find ways of weaving both into their spell-casting, or so I have been told. And there are endless ways to do so. Your somatic component could have been 'jump on one leg for two seconds', but it would have been weaker without the sympathetic component. "

"Could I not add both?" Alarion pressed. "Jump on one leg while cutting the air?"

ZEKE tilted his head. "You could. However, stacking the same component quickly loses effectiveness. The system tries to weigh the value of the thing you are sacrificing, or the strength of the sympathetic component. Destroying a horde of priceless gems is worth much more than shattering your grandma's pottery. Unless that pottery has substantial sentimental value. Nor do the sacrifices need to be purely physical. You mentioned opponents might gain an advantage from hearing your spell name. Well, that is part of the sacrifice. You'll find the spell is marginally more effective against those who know what it is."

Alarion shot him a look as though he thought he was joking.

"It is magic, Alarion. Are you shocked that it behaves illogically?" The Steelborn scoffed and continued with another example. "The original Void Trap is stronger than it should be for its rank, partly because it has a fatal flaw. Literally. If you kill yourself inside, the spell immediately ends. Leaving a weakness in a spell can strengthen it in all other circumstances, such as a flame aura with a gap within melee distance of the caster."

"Ezekiel," Elena said with some annoyance. "I see the value in the lesson, but I think you've given away enough of my secrets."

It was a topic that ZEKE was passionate about. Even with her rebuke, he looked as though he were ready to say more, but then paused just long enough to think better of it. "Regardless, we should be ready to move on to the newly devised next phase of your training."

"Which is?" Alarion asked.

For once, ZEKE's everlasting rictus grin was entirely on point as he answered. "Why, you finally get to try to hit me."

Hit Him

Description: He is literally asking for it.

Success Conditions: Successfully strike the Steelborn: ZEKE before the timer expires. The rewards for this quest will vary depending on the number of spells cast before a successful hit. Strikes inflicted while target is not adequately defending himself will not count toward this condition.

Failure Conditions: Failure to meet success conditions within eight hours. Informing others of this quest.

Minimum Reward: One Common Instructor's Box

Penalty: None

Note: This quest was automatically assigned due to the flaw [Single-Minded] and does not count against the once-per-day limit of Self-Motivated.

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