Anti-Mage

Anton woke the next morning after a very sound, and uneventful evening. He’d heard someone playing the piano in the common room on the first floor, but he’d been so tired that he couldn’t remember hearing it the rest of the night. Also, every inch of his body ached. What his mother would have described as growing pains flooded his body, his whole body. How the hell did the tip of his nose have growing pains?

Anton activated Meditation and concentrated on feeling out his body. He focused his attention on his fingers, toes, arms, legs, and torso. Nothing felt wrong. Was this a purely mental phenomenon? Anton ended his skill, sat up, and stood. He did a few stretches and moved his arms to make sure he could move normally. After a minute of double-checking his ability to move, pick up stuff, make striking motions, and walk around the room he was satisfied that whatever was making him sore was not affecting him physically.

One thing that sucked about the 1920’s, no indoor plumbing. It wouldn’t be invented for a few more years and wouldn’t be required until the end of the 1930s. Luckily for him, his body converted everything he ate into energy. He couldn’t even remember the last time he used a bathroom. There was a wash basin, which he walked over to. Anton dipped his hands in the room-temperature water and splashed it on his face. Lucky for him diseases and bacteria were something he didn’t need to worry about, though he wondered if he could be a carrier. Maybe for the first 14 seconds, if something was trying to kill him. If he had a disease and it wasn’t killing him though… The next time he was in a place with sufficient technology he’d have to test that out. Did activating Specter kill the diseases and bacteria? It might.

Anton was shaken from his thoughts when he heard three loud knocks from the door to his room. “One moment please,” Anton called out. He pulled himself from the bed and walked over to the door. He put his foot against the door before he asked, “Who is it?”

“Housekeeping, Sir. I have a message for you,” the man on the other side of the door called out.

Anton wasn’t sure how things were supposed to work in this day and age but since no one in this world should know him, Anton activated Specter and slid forward through the door to see who was on the other side. As he did so, a large foot kicked through him into the door and shattered it open as Anton watched five goons burst through the door.

While he couldn’t hear what they were saying, Anton easily understood the gist of the conversation as the leader pointed down the hallway and at the window. Three of the four goons took off. Anton kept pace with the leader as he made his way out of the building and back down to the street. He also noted that the leader nodded to the manager as the group walked out of the lobby. If he had time, Anton would make time to come “talk” to that manager later, or he’d just kill him. It all depended on who had sent the goons.

Anton was spending one Psychic Energy per minute while he remained in Specter Form which meant that his pool of 461 would last for 7, almost 8 hours. He could use Battle Meditation to replenish his psychic energy pool, but he wouldn’t be able to follow anyone for over two minutes while he did so. On the wide open plains, or even in a forest, that wouldn’t be a big deal. In a city, with millions of people, that might be a problem. With 7 hours though, he should be able to follow these idiots back to their master with time to spare.

Anton watched the group look for him for almost 20 minutes before they jumped on some horses and started heading toward the piers along the southeast shore. Anton need not have worried. It was only 7 blocks to the shoreline and they seemed to be in a hurry. Anton followed the five men to a warehouse, watched them tie down their horses, and walk inside. There were so many ways he could proceed, but first, he needed to replenish his Psychic Energy.

Anton centered himself, closed his eyes, and activated Battle Medication. At Skill level 41, what used to be Master rank level 1, Anton regenerated 41 points per turn, or 20 points per turn while in Specter Form. He’d spent 10 points to activate Specter and 35 points to maintain it for the last 35 minutes, 36 if he rounded up until he was done meditating. After 3 turns, or 30 seconds he’d regenerate 60 points of Psychic energy and was only down 1 point as he reappeared in the physical world. That would give the goons a 30-second head start, which was fine. He knew where they were and he was tired of placating people who disrespected him, especially in a dungeon, instance, or whatever the hell the Labyrinth was.

Anton slid through the door to the warehouse and deactivated Specter on the other side. He reached back, opened the door a bit, and then closed it loudly enough that anyone in the warehouse could hear. As he expected someone called out from inside the warehouse.

“We’re closed. Get Out,” a man with a gruff voice called from the shadows ahead. The man thought he was hiding from Anton but with a perception of 178, the man, who looked to be in his thirties, stood out. Anton also noticed that he looked to be armed with a shotgun of some kind.

“I’m the guy from the Merryman the five men that just came in here were looking for,” Anton called back.

“Seriously? And you followed them back here. Are you daft?” the man asked with a laugh as he stepped forward with the shotgun trained on Anton.

“Not daft. I just wanted to see what the ruckus was all about. Besides, they broke down my door at the hotel. Someone has gotta pay for the damages.

The gruff-looking man laughed, “That’ll be you. Now, no sudden moves while my partner checks you.”

Partner? Anton was slightly surprised when a seamless door slid aside and an…elf stepped out. Anton was kind of confused by what he saw because he saw the outline of an Asian man superimposed over the frame of the elf underneath. This must be what looking at people using magic looked like since this was the first time he was looking at magic in use since his mana channels were unsealed.

There must be an illusion over the man but because Anton was immune to magic and he could now detect it, he could see what the magic was trying to do, but he could still see the truth. Also, the image of the Asian was much less prominent, almost like it was in a grayscale and barely visible. His Anti-Mage ability was the dominant part of that interaction. He didn’t need to think about what the truth of what he saw. He knew it was an elf pretending to be an Asian man he automatically knew that.

The door on the other hand hadn’t been hidden by magic which was why he hadn’t noticed it. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see the peephole and knew he hadn’t noticed it before because the door had been perfectly aligned with the wall and there hadn’t been any visible seem.

The elf stepped forward, patted Anton down, and turned to the gruff-looking human, “He’s clean.”

“Of course, I am. Why would I need a weapon,” Anton asked.

Both men laughed as the elf turned to the outer door, “I’m going to step outside and look around. Be back in a minute,” the elf said before he stepped outside.

The man with the shotgun waved Anton toward a stairway in the back, “Come on, the boss did want to see you.

Anton was guided up the stairway, along a catwalk to an office door. As Anton stepped up to the door, it opened and a fist aimed directly at his head flew toward his face. Unfortunately for the goon and the man behind Anton, the strike was pathetic. Pathetically slow and pathetically normal. With plenty of time to act, Anton activated Specter and then Manifest. To the man trying to punch him, Anton appeared to flicker and his fist passed through Anton’s body while the man with the shotgun stepped back as a fist went through the target in front of him.

Anton ignored the idiot and floated into the office where four men stood before the boss who sat behind the desk with one man beside him. Now that he was manifested, Anton noticed that two of the goons that had come to his hotel room were demi-humans. If he had to guess, they were some sort of half-orc variant. The boss also had an illusion on him that made him appear to be a very large human. What that illusion hid underneath reminded Anton of Bugbears. Half Man, Half Bear demi-humans. Anton activated Analyze and sighed as he saw the notification.

???

Anton checked the skill. Damn, it was only level 1. He needed to use that skill more or put some skill points into it, something he would look into after he dealt with his situation. The man beside the boss moved his hands and cast a spell at Anton. Anton just stood still and waited. When he was done Anton watched as a magical wave passed through him. Probably because his true body was in another dimension.

Without a word, Anton activated Mind Bolt and targeted the mage. Anton was a bit surprised when notifications appeared in his vision. Anton activated Hyper Focus which increased his mental acuity and checked the notifications.

Target ??? attacked with Mind Bolt.

Changes to SYSTEM implemented

Base Damage 8

Default damage bonus of 47 added.

NOTE, the change to the system has changed how attribute bonuses are added to damage. Willpower of 483 has a maximum attribute bonus of 473. This bonus damage can be divided and added to individual attacks and defense against individual attacks during a single combat turn as you like or the default damage bonus of one-tenth the total bonus may be added to ALL attacks and Defense against all attacks for the Combat Turn. This is true for all attribute bonuses when added to attacks.

WARNING. The default attribute bonus is added to all attacks and defenses that utilize that attribute. If you decide to manually control the allocation of your total bonus, you must declare how many points of the attribute bonus will be utilized for each attack and to defend against each attack. When you no longer have points to allocate, no bonus is added.

The SYSTEM has set all Attribute Bonuses to default.

Total Damage: 55

Target is Stunned.

So, combat had been tweaked as well. Anton didn’t remember reading anything about that. While he hadn’t killed the magic user his attack had damaged and knocked him unconscious. Anton thought about the need to test that out when boss declared, “Fuck it, Kill him!”

The two men behind Anton dived to the side of the doorway to get out of the line of fire as the four men in front of the boss turned and began shooting at him. Anton had no idea what draining his entire Willpower pool would do so he designated 200, of his 483 points. Then he targeted one of the half-orcs. With Hyper-Focus active he looked at his combat log just as his target’s eyes exploded out of his skull and blood also exited his nose, ears, and mouth.

Mind Bolt activated

Base Damage: 8

Bonus Attribute Damage: 200

Total Damage: 208

Critical Hit!

Total Damage: 416

Congratulations, you have killed a Level 10 Half-Orc.

Total XP awarded: 334

XP to Next Level: 163,055

Anton quickly checked his attributes and noted that his Attribute for Willpower was now greyed out and covered with 283. There was also an information tab that indicated that he would recover his willpower at 1% per turn or 4.83 per 10 seconds. 200 divided by 4.83 was just over 41 turns and there were 6 turns to a minute so just under 7 minutes before he’d be back to normal. That wasn’t too long but during combat, it was long enough that utilizing his attributes manually was probably a bad idea. Anton closed his Combat log and exited Hyper Focus. Everyone around him was reacting to the dead half-orc that still had the illusion over him. That must be something intrinsic to the Labyrinth and not something they were doing. Good to know.

The other half-orc stepped forward and pulled a two-handed battle axe out of a spatial storage device as he brought it down on Anton’s head. It passed through him and buried itself in the floor at his feet. Anton decided enough was enough and pulled his P90 out of his inventory, activated Spectral Reach, and pulled the trigger at point-blank range. 16 bullets exploded out of the gun in the second he had Spectral Reach active before he deactivated the psychic skill and put the gun back in his inventory.

To everyone behind the half-orc, the battleaxe cleaved through the middle of the man in front of them which was followed immediately by a burping sound as the half-orcs back exploded and covered them with gore. The half-orc leaned forward on the handle of the battle-axe for a moment and then fell face first at Anton’s feet.

What followed next was one of the most chaotic scenes of combat Anton had ever been a part of. The men behind him shot into the room while the boss dove for cover and the last three goons that had come to his hotel room returned fire. Anton watched as one of the goons in front of the boss was hit by a shotgun blast from behind which took him out of the fight. Now there were two in front, two behind, the boss and the unconscious man on the floor.

Anton decided that it was a good time to see what his Psychic Skill Psychic Scream did under the new SYSTEM rules and floated back out of the room until all five people were in front of him. What happened after he activated the skill wasn’t expected, especially since he was working with just over half his normal willpower.

All five fell over. A quick check showed him that they were unconscious. A state Anton removed them from permanently a moment later. Anton deactivated Specter, pulled out his silenced Browning Model from his inventory, and coup-de-graced all of the goons except for the boss with a bullet to the brain. As for the boss, he picked him up, put him back in his chair, and pulled some rope from his inventory. He quickly tied the boss to the chair before he moved the two corpses into the pile of four bodies already in the room, and closed the door to the office.

Anton pulled a fully loaded P90 and Healing Potion out of his inventory. He uncorked the potion and fed it to the boss as he stepped out of reach and pointed the P90 at him. A moment later the bear-man sputtered and looked around until his eyes focused on Anton, “You are so…”

Anton casually flipped the selector switch on the P90, aimed, and put a single bullet into the bear-man’s shoulder. Anton watched as the residual energy from the healing potion healed the wound as the boss took a few deep breaths and prepared to speak.

Anton interrupted his attempt by speaking first, “My name is Anton. I have a few questions. If you’re helpful, I may let you live. If you’re not, well, look around.”

With that opening, the Boss launched into a tirade, “Do you have any idea who I am? Do you know what you’ve done? When the Adventurer’s Guild gets their hands on you…Oh, I can’t wait to watch what they do to you….”

“Yeah, Yeah, whatever. Are you going to answer my questions or not?”

The Boss smirked, “Why should I…” just before his head exploded when Anton put half the bullet in his clip through his head and into the bookcase behind him. Anton went over, touched each body, and put them into his inventory before he looked through the desk and bookshelves. Then he activated Specter and checked to see if there were any hidden rooms or passages behind the walls.

Anton deactivated Specter and searched the room. One of the side walls was a hidden door which he found easily. Anton passed through the secret door into a small room that held a table and a coat rack. On the coat rack, a leather satchel hung. His eyes were drawn to the satchel because it seemed to glow, a lot like the demi-humans that were wearing illusions. There was a ghostly image superimposed over the satchel. Anton reached out and lifted the satchel off the hook. He expected a prompt of some kind, but nothing happened.

Anton looked the satchel over but no prompts activated. He thought about what to do next and then activated his Psychic version of Identify

You have found a Level 21, Satchel of Holding.

This Satchel can hold up to 20 items totaling no more than 200 lbs.

Anton looked at the Satchel of Holding. So he could now notice magical items but he could utilize or activate them because of his ability Anti-Mage. That was both awesome and sucked at the same time. There could be something in the satchel that he could use but he couldn’t activate it. Were there any psychically based storage devices? He had his inventory, sure, but having more storage wouldn’t be bad. Then again, hadn’t opening his channels made it so he could interact with sufficiently powerful magical items? He was going to need to do some shopping and testing to see what level a magical item had to be before he could use it. If he could figure out what level the SYSTEM Nodes were considered, that should give him a starting point.

Except for the satchel, the room was empty which was all the evidence he needed for him to believe the bag held items he needed to get to. Could he purchase access to the contents of the bag through the Shop? He’d have to check. Anton was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a loud bang and movement on the other side of the wall in the room with the dead men. That settled it, it was time to go.

Anton activated Specter, moved straight up, and then headed back toward the library. He didn’t deactivate Specter until he was next to the Labyrinth Shop node. Once he was at the kiosk he looked up how much it would cost to inventory the satchel for him. It was 1,000 credits for the inventory and 1,000 credits per item removed from the satchel. Anton ordered the inventory and the removal of all items.

Stachel of Holding Inventory.

Gold Ring

545 Gold Coins

1,215 Silver Coins

5 Basic Health Potions

3 Basic Stamina Potions.

2 Basic Mana Potions.

1 Map

Anton spent the required 8,000 credits and added the items to his inventory. While he couldn’t use the satchel, it was something an ally of his could use so he held onto it for now. The potions too. He wasn’t sure if he could use them, probably not, but someone else should be able to . The ring appeared normal. When he was done transferring all of the coins, Anton picked up the map and looked at it.

It was a map of Earth. On the east coast of North America right where New York City should be there was an “X”. There was another “X” in the middle of Australia. Australia? If the Xs represented nodes, that 2nd one was going to be a pain in the ass to get to. Well, not for him, but still it would suck.

Anton pulled the bodies out of his inventory and tried to sell them and all equipment to the Labyrinth. He could have haggled or tried to keep some items but he figured that would be a bad idea. He didn’t want to pay for items to be identified so he just converted the gold to 51,775 credits. The shop took 5% off the top. The silver coins converted to 1,154 credits. He also received another 2,500 credits for the bodies and the rest of the equipment. They hadn’t had much on them but 500 credits per body seemed respectable. Anton wondered if the bodies would be sold to someone else and then decided he didn’t care.

Anton checked his XP gains. Unfortunately, he’d only earned a total of 1,633 XP. Also, a few new notifications waited for him.

SYSTEM Edit.

XP conversion was incorrect.

47,421 XP Added

NOTE: Changes to the Class System have forced adjustments that were not fully integrated. After a readjustment your new level would have been 36 This one-time bonus XP award will bring you to the bottom of the Level you were awarded.

Total XP: 2,061,580

Level 37 maintained.

XP needed for level 38, 2,223,000

XP to next level 114,000

Anton read over the notifications and shrugged. It was nice that there were SYSTEM messages detailing what had just happened but since he didn’t lose anything, he didn’t really care. No, the more important question he had was whether he should explore this area of the Labyrinth or continue on his way to the next area. 1928 wasn’t doing it for him so he might as well get going

Anton exited the Labyrinth Shop, activated Specter, and floated up through the top of the Library. Australia was over 10,000 miles away. He quickly checked the stats on his associated skill for Specter. His top speed was 1,435 miles per hour. It would take him just under two hours to make it to the west coast and another 4 to get to Australia if he could navigate across the Pacific Ocean. Then again, he could go up until he could see that whole side of the globe and come down on Australia, couldn’t he? With a plan made, Anton shot off to the west, it was time to see where the next node led.