Anti-Mage

Anton looked at the body of a young man as he realized that he was dealing with someone who was far above his level. Whatever the cube he’d pulled out had been, Anton did not doubt that if he’d been captured this man would have done things to him that could not be undone. He was looking at a true psychopath.

The man put the cube away and a staff appeared in his hand as he said, “So be it, we do this the hard way.”

Anton didn’t know what the hard way was, but knew that he wanted nothing to do with it and started to activate Specter…

You Have Died, The Skill Specter, has Activated

Anton pulled up his Combat Log to see what had happened. The man who wouldn’t even do him the courtesy of giving him his name had struck him with his staff for 517 points of damage. Since he only had 290 hit points the strike had killed him. Anton watched as the man stepped forward and tried to claim his body which evaporated.

Anton watched as the man looked around. Then he cast a spell which also seemed to fail. As the man was starting to cast another spell, Anton pulled out his dagger of venom and tried to strike the man in the back for a critical attack. As his hand appeared in the material plane with his dagger, the mage whirled and struck him, destroying the knife and shattering his hand.

While pain didn’t bother him anymore, that strike had hurt. Anton backed off as the mage or monk, or whatever he was, looked around the room cautiously. He probably thought Anton was physically in the room with him but invisible. While Anton let his hand heal over the next six seconds, the man cast a spell that sent a pulse of white light out of the room but seemed to have no effect.

Nothing for it, he would have to try his new attack. Anton activated Spectral Scream which only caused the man to look at where Anton’s spectral form appeared. The man looked thoughtful for a moment and then a look of realization appeared on his face. Anton watched as he flicked his wrist and a large pentagram appeared on the ground. A summoning circle, yeah….No.

Anton moved over to the summoning circle as it formed and deactivated Specter. He’d wasted 9 Psychic energy, but it couldn’t be helped. However, it was good to know that if he activated Specter and was killed before it activated the energy automatically extended the time he remained a Specter from 2 Combat Turns to 10 minutes. Still, he couldn’t let this mage summon whatever he was trying to summon.

As Anton moved into the circle he felt nothing but received a couple of notifications.

WARNING! You have entered an area of spatial entanglement.

WARNING! Remaining in this location is NOT Recommended.

Anton closed the warnings. He was stepping into an area of high magic that was trying to reach through dimensions to summon something. Yeah, he knew he shouldn’t be doing this, but it needed to happen. Anton appeared within the center of the golden fractal pattern which fizzled and winked out. The Mage’s face filled with shock.

“Not Possible!. We should be dead. You should be dead. How did you not just blow a hole through this reality?” the man muttered as Anton reactivated Specter. He’d spent 120 Psychic Energy so far. More than half of his reserves.

He could have sat there and let this insane man continue to monologue, but he had an idea. Back when he’d played the 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons his character could use psionics. His character had been fighting a monster that was definitely going to kill one of the party so he had his character become ethereal, a lot like what he could do now. He’d told the Game Master that his character was going to take a rope, hold it between his hands, and phase back into reality while the rope passed through the head of one of his enemies. His idea hadn’t worked because the Game Master hadn’t allowed it.

When Anton had asked why the Game Master had shown him a rule that stated that crossing planes into a place that was already occupied by solid matter wasn’t allowed. Out here in the real world? Magic didn’t work on him, and if magic was enforcing the rules…Maybe that idea would work. Of course, maybe there wasn’t a rule. It was time to find out.

***

Tabus, The Legendary Diviner watched the man vanish from the summoning circle he’d just tried to create filled with disbelief. His target had stepped from whatever dimension he was attacking him from into an ascendant-level summoning circle, How? The disruption of energy. Wait, check that. It shouldn’t be possible. One of the inherent qualities of all summoning circles was that as they tunneled through dimensions the spells also magically locked down and prevented anything from interrupting the conduit. If something were able to enter the path of the conduit very bad things could happen as the energy destabilized and then backlashed on the point of origin, the place he was currently standing. Instead, Anthony Thomsen had appeared, and the spell had just fizzled.

Tabus looked around the vault room with his enhanced vision and scanned the Astral and other known primary and adjacent dimensions that automatically had access to this phase of reality. He couldn’t find his target though his Danger Sense told him that…

Suddenly a dagger flashed into existence and attempted to backstab him again. It was quite obvious that his attributes were far above his targets as he easily turned and snapped his staff down on the hand which dropped the dagger. He was also sure he’d shattered the man’s wrist…again. What was most surprising to him was that his staff, which should have paralyzed the target, acted like no more than a stick when he struck the man with it. He was also sure that his mental link to the artifact had winked out while it briefly touched the target’s wrist.

While Tabus continued to scan the vault he considered what had been happening. His Cube of Holding hadn’t worked. His various spells weren’t working. The only reason he was winning this confrontation was because his attributes were so much higher than Anthony’s. It was like the man was inside an anti-magic zone where magic didn’t work on him. Something about that idea tickled his mind for a moment before something did a lot more than tickle his mind for the last time.

***

Anton cradled his broken hand for the 7 seconds it took to heal and then looked at the man in front of him. Even through the barrier between dimensions, he knew that this individual was a true monster in every sense of the word. When he attacked the man had intuitively known where the attack was coming from. His Idea to solidify the knife into part of the mage monk had failed when the SYSTEM hit him with an error message.

ERROR! Objects may not be deposited into other solid objects.

Anton thought about how to handle this person. He only had a finite amount of psychic energy and when that ran out, he’d be at this person's mercy. If he couldn’t use objects, maybe he should just try to use his hand? That was a bad idea on so many levels but he had to try. Anton focused his mind and pushed his fingertip into the middle of the mage's head, right at the center of his brain.

He felt a little resistance as if he was pushing his finger through Jello, and then two things happened. First, his skill was cut off as his hand, arm, and a chunk of his body were also obliterated when a cone of energy shone through the breach in the two dimensions at and through him. Luckily it had only vaporized a small portion of him. His arm and a portion of his chest were just gone. Luckily he’d missed his neck, head, and heart. Also, there was no pain, and his automatic healing kicked in and started growing the parts of him that were missing immediately. Unlike Deadpool, his body grew back fast. While he was healing, Anton considered that the explosion had been horrendous. While he might be immune to magic he knew that he wasn’t immune to pure energy which is what must have been released when matter touched matter.

The second thing that happened was that a vortex opened in the vault and started expanding. Everything in the vault, The vault and portions of the bank as well as everything in adjacent dimensions were all sucked into the vortex which included Anton. One moment Anton was floating while he healed, the next he was being flung into a landscape of swirling energy and matter as pieces of the various materials and matter went flying in all directions, including him.

Anton did not doubt that the only reason he hadn’t died and been disincorporated for a bit was because his Specter skill was still active. It seemed that while he had been affected by the vortex, he was still out of phase with the other physical objects from the material planes and various adjacent dimensions that had been affected. He easily righted himself with thought and allowed the damage he’d taken to heal over the next 20 seconds as he was propelled through a vortex of energy. Suddenly the vortex ended and he found himself falling into a cloudy sky.

Once he was fully healed, Anton looked around and realized that the other objects that had been pulled through the vortex were falling away from him toward the ground far below. He willed himself to slow to a stop and looked around. While the debris he’d come through with rapidly fell away from him it looked like the ground below was very far away. So far, if he didn’t know better he’d swear he should be in orbit. The objects on the ground were as indistinct as everything was when viewing the entire United States from space. He could see lakes that had to be as big as the Great Lakes but the land went off in all directions. There were no seas to be seen, although he could make out small mountain ranges and even what looked like cities. From this high, if he could see them, they had to be hundreds of miles across.

Well, if he was in space, he couldn’t drop Specter until he was lower so he went full speed and started heading toward the ground at 560 miles per hour. Almost immediately he passed the debris that had come out of the vortex with him and decided to veer off toward a city that was close, but not under the falling debris. After 77 minutes he was closer but he still had a long way to go. More importantly, He had spent 197 of his 207 Psychic Energy. He deactivated Specter and let his energy reserves replenish while he breathed slowly.

Anton assumed the flat position to give his body the most wind resistance and enjoyed the fall while he allowed his Psychic Energy to regenerate. He could have just slammed into the ground but he was trying not to die, even if he was immortal.

Since he had some time, Anton pulled up his notifications.

You have killed a Level 100 Legendary Diviner. You have earned 250,000 XP

Congratulations you have earned levels 17,18,19 and 20.

You have unlocked a Class Skill Slot.

You have 48 attributes to distribute.

You have earned 1,000 Platinum for destroying a level 100 Legendary creature on a Dungeon World

SYSTEM NOTE: All the treasure and items of Tabus Aumtara, within his Personal Storage, on his person, and within 50 feet were eradicated from existence.

Just then Anton’s notification flickered and a new notification fought its way to the front in bright red letters.

…

Speech to Text Converter Online

“Is this thing on?

DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!”

I can hear the thoughts going through your head. What am I going to do about it? You may be Unique but that doesn’t mean some of us old monsters don’t know what to do with something that is extremely hard to kill like you. There are places in reality where there is nothing but a vacuum. If you were to be thrown into such a location, exactly how long would it take for you to go mad with no sensory input?

So, only warning, There are safeguards in place, which 99.9% of everyone else is affected by which prevent what you just pulled off from happening. In your case, you’ll just have to control yourself.

If you don’t heed this warning, there will not be another.

…

A moment later the message in red disappeared and his normal notifications continued.

No treasure was awarded from the carried personal possessions of Tabus Aumtara. SYSTEM Bank account and Bank Storage have been distributed to the named parties. SYSTEM Credits with the SYSTEM Shop have been transferred to your account.

Current balance: 109,500,000 Credits.

9,500,000 after the conversion of 1,000 platinum to credits

100 million credits transferred from Tabus Aumtara’s SYSTEM Credit account to yours.

Congratulations! For destroying three artifact-level items simultaneously you gain the following Title “Trifecta”

Trifecta – Stamina, Mana, and Psychic Energy recovery rates are tripled

ZERO SUM ERROR DETECTED.

NO MANA DETECTED

Title altered

Trifecta – Stamina, Health, and Psychic Energy recovery rates are tripled.

Anton could have sworn he heard a sigh as the Title was altered which was weird since he probably had wind rushing by his face at close to 200 miles per hour. Also, that new title was no joke. He pulled up his Status Screen and looked at his regeneration rates. If his immortal ability was ever suppressed he could now heal 15 of his 335 hit points per day. Stamina was returning at 6 per second and Psychic Energy was returning at 12 per minute or 1 every 5 seconds. He’d easily have all of his Psychic Energy back in 30 minutes.

He hadn’t missed the fact that he’d also received a windfall of credits, which would come in handy if he could get back. Anton brought his attention back to the ground below and he started trying to find anything that looked like a familiar landmark. Nothing looked familiar except the fact that there were trees, water, plains, and what looked like cities below him. But nothing below him looked familiar. He was NOT over the United States.

That begged the question, what would he do about the people he left hanging back in St. Cloud and Minneapolis? If he couldn’t get back, maybe he could transfer some of his funds and turn the town over to Annabelle at a SYSTEM Shop. Then again, if anything could be purchased at a SYSTEM Shop he had to be able to buy passage back there. The question then became, did he want to go back? Until he knew what he was falling into, there was no way he could answer that question.

After 30 minutes, Anton reactivated Specter and shot toward the ground at almost 600 miles per hour. 60 minutes later he started to approach the ground rapidly and 30 minutes after that he came to a place outside one of the cities he’d seen along a road that seemed to go toward a smaller hamlet that he guessed would be almost an hour away by car.

Anton opened his Basic Map and asked for directions to the closest SYSTEM Shop. An arrow appeared pointing down the road toward the large Town. Of course, it would be in a large city.

With nothing better to do, Anton started walking down the road. As he drew closer to the town he watched as five people, three men and two women flew off in the direction of the falling debris. They all looked to be humanoids but he was sure at least two of them weren’t human. He’d have offered to help, but there was nothing he could do so he turned back toward the gate and was surprised to find what he could only describe as a halfling standing in front of him.

“Well met stranger. Sure is a sight to see when the Acolytes of Light rush off to save the innocent,”

“Well met,” Anton said hesitantly “Why did you sneak up on me?”

“I didn’t sneak up on you, so much as you just didn’t see me because I was off in the grass,” the halfling said.

“Okay, I’ll bite, why were you in the grass?” Anton asked.

“Well now human, while we might vary in size I’m sure you’ve noticed that the stuff ya eat and drink eventually comes out,” The halfling said with a laugh.

“You don’t have others around releasing their food in the same manner do you?”

“Nope, just me. I was heading out to the mill which is another hour west of our current location. Besides, no one would dare rob anyone anywhere near this town or along this road. It’s all under the watchful eye of the Acolytes of Light. If someone were to try to rob you they’d find themselves answering to another squad of five acolytes before they were hauled off the Magister for judgment. Well, unless they were stupid enough to fight. That would go bad for them.”

“Well, I’m off to the town and the SYSTEM Shop. By the way, I’m Anton, it is nice to me you…” Anton said leadingly

“Frizzle Longfoot. It is nice to meet you as well, Anton,” he said as he walked by Anton on his way to the west.

Anton checked his Basic Map and noticed that the compass markers were now labeled which seemed to mean as he found things out his map would be updated without him having to tell it to. That was a nice feature. Anton continued east along the road for another hour before approaching the town wall and a wide open gate. There were guards but they only looked him over and nodded as he passed through and into a town that looked a lot like what he expected a city in the middle United States during the 1800s to look like.

There were a few obvious changes. For one, there were multiple races, and if he had to guess this town was built around the concept of trade and commerce. Wagons were being pulled that contained skins, food, and barrels of water, or liquor up and down the main street which was littered with various stores and shops. His arrow was pointing at a shop off to this right that simply read SYSTEM Shop which had what looked like an Orc standing behind a counter with the SYSTEM Shop Node off to the side and behind him. A sign on the store read “Thumper’s Stuff”.

Anton made his way through the double swinging door and was greeted by the smiling Orc, “Welcome to me shop. The name’s Thumper. Out here in the main area, we have discounts and deals on anything that’s procured locally and of course, we have the SYSTEM Shop Node in the back.”

“Thumper, is it” Anton asked with a smile, “I have to ask, is that a given name or one you earned?”

Thumper laughed with Anton and then his face grew deadly serious as he reached behind the counter and pulled up a club of blackened wood with etchings up and down the shaft near the handle, “It’s a name I earned by giving a good THUMP,” he said as a made a motion to mimic bringing the club down on the head, “ to any that tried to cheat me.” A moment later the menacing demeanor disappeared and he was all smiles again. “As it is what can I do for you?”

“Magical items are useless to me right now. Do you have anything made of quality metal that I can purchase?”

Thumper looked at Anton quizzically before he said, “Son, you do know where you are? The Acolytes of Light are in the area because there is a mithril mine not 1 day’s journey from here for normal folk. Of course, I have quality items. The question I have to ask is do you have enough credits to cover the cost?”

After a little more haggling, Anton walked away with 4 mithril steel short swords, 10 mithril daggers, and two sets of armor that resembled flight suits with cut-off legs and arms. He also purchased five pairs of high-quality leather boots and leather armor to wear over the mithril. All told it only cost him 567,000 credits.

Thumper couldn’t stop smiling as he watched Anton put everything into his Personal Storage. Anton equipped the mithril and leather armor and boots and then set everything as his default. His jeans, Deadpool shirt, and tennis shoes had served him well but it was time for an upgrade. He also equipped his daggers. The Short Swords he left in his storage because he didn’t know how to use them decently yet. He’d need to get some training before he pulled them out for combat.

Thumper looked Anton over as his clothing shifted to his new purchases and smiled before he said, “I see you have the basics, do you need any potions or the like? We have a local alchemist. If you’re looking for incredibly hard-to-get potions you’ll have to visit The SYSTEM Shop but for the weaker variety I can promise for the price, you’ll get more bang for your buck.”

“That’s okay,” Anton said. “I don’t need anything for myself, “Then he thought about it before he said, “Hold that thought, I might. I need to go check something in the SYSTEM shop first.”

“Suit yourself, I’ll be here when you return.”

Anton headed to the back of Thumper’s shop and touched The SYSTEM Shop Node. The familiar feeling of translocation occurred and he found himself in a room very similar to the one he’d just left with a human female behind the counter. She looked up from something she was reading on the counter and said, “Welcome to The Hunting Grounds SYSTEM Shop in the Town of Illuminance. I am Vie. How may I help you today?”

“I need to make a few purchases and see how much a teleport, gate, or portal back to where I came from will cost.

Vie looked up thoughtfully, “Did you arrive through the Vortex that appeared above the Hunting Grounds a couple of hours ago?”

“I did, is that going to be a problem?” Anton asked.

“Not at all,” Vie said and then hesitantly offered, “I don’t know where you were but you are currently in one of the core sectors of The SYSTEM. Travel to the frontier or any other Sectors outside of the Core can get quite expensive.”

“That’s fine, let's see what the damage is,” Anton said half-heartedly.

Vie pushed a few buttons and placed an inquiry as she muttered to herself, “Originating Sector, The Foundation, Earth, St. Cloud Minnesota. Linked city, Minneapolis. Town Lord…” Vie pushed a few more buttons and then a breakdown of cost appeared.

Personal City Gate: 1,000,000 Credits

Remote Installation: 1,000,000 Credits.

Travel Permit from Core Sector to restricted Sector 10 Million Credits

Energy cost 50 Million Credits

Total Cost: 62,000,000 Credits

Note: Tips are appreciated.

Anton Coughed before he said, “That seems like a lot.”

Vie nodded, “It would be much less if you were purchasing the Personal Gate while next to your City Node. Since you aren’t there the SYSTEM will have to scan the area and allow you to place it remotely. That adds to the cost. As for the Energy Cost, there is nothing I can do about that. Think of it this way. It will take a specific amount of mana or energy to open the gate and stabilize it. Your unique situation requires that the gates be technological. By the way, magical gates would have been much cheaper.”

“If I purchase that gate, will I be able to return here someday?”

“Absolutely! However, it will cost whatever the energy cost is at the time, unless you supply the energy yourself of course. Large corporations and empires create and power their own portal devices,” Vie said.

“So if I purchase this I can go home but I might not be able to return until I can afford it?”

“Essentially yes”

“Let’s get these purchases then, I still have more shopping to do.

Vie’s eyes grew wide when Anton added a 10% tip. That only left him with 40.7 million credits, which didn’t include what he’d put in the SYSTEM bank. As he purchased the gate and put the credits aside for his trip back to Minneapolis, He realized that he’d have a much easier time learning how to thrive in this new reality if he started in an area he at least had a little understanding of. While the individuals he’d run into in “The Hunting Grounds” had been nice thus far, he didn’t understand the politics and had no idea who was in charge. After he was done purchasing the items he needed he was going to head back.

With his mind made up Anton looked at Vie with a smile. She smiled back and then asked, “What else can I help you with sir?”