The Strongest Spellblade

”I am Tutor Merrywhistle Stouthand. The councilors asked me to explain counter-divination skills.”

”Greetings, Tutor Merrywhistle Stouthand. I am Justin Burnstock. Thank you for instructing me.”

The older gnome nodded, and we both took our seats.

”Divination skills are a curse and a blight. They pry out secrets using the lingering traces left behind in Mana. The thoughts you have leak into Mana. This Mana exits your body and interacts with the Mana of the dungeon and the world itself. This creates faint traces they can observe and track,” he said, and my interest increased quickly.

”Counter divination is the opposite side of the coin. It is about controlling the loss of Mana and what escapes your body. It will be hard for you to learn such skills,” Merrywhistle said while staring at me.

”Since I am not young?”

”Not exactly. You carry too much Mana about you. Having little Mana in your body helps you learn such skills best. You practically radiate Mana like ten gnomes combined. This will make training much harder. There are seven skills that are key to countering the best known divination skills.”

”Do you know these divination skills?”

”No. They vanished with time. We have some names, like Farsight, Fate’s Ripple, and Echoes of the Past. Most likely tier 4 skills. Most divination skills are unique creations, but their operational methods work from the same underpinnings as far as we are aware.”

I nodded. Testing these skills wasn’t easy.

”The three tier 1 skills that work as counter divination skills are Veil, Mask, and Obscure. Veil is where you alter the profile of Mana lost from your body. Mask is concealing the Mana lost from your body. And Obscure is where you blend in with the surrounding Mana.”

Stillness sounded like Mask, but with a lot less moving.

”The tier 2 skills are the focused versions of the skills. Then they are combined to form the tier 3 skill Mana Concealment,” Merrywhistle explained.

”What about the empowered versions of the skills and then combining them instead?”

My gnome tutor shook his head with a brittle smile. ”We struggle to gain levels. Counter divination skills are insanely difficult to level, even for the lower tiers. Even working on them constantly is a struggle. I suppose if you got them all to empowered and then merged them, Mana Concealment would be far stronger, or you would get a tier 4 version of Mana Concealment. That would work much better against active divination.”

”Is that like an active skill versus a passive skill?”

”Yes, someone skilled in divination might ask a broad question. Our skills block us from being the answer to such things. Or a general search skill. ”But if someone knows of gnomes and uses a divination skill to look for us specifically, we can only count on the wards to repel such curiosity, protecting the settlement.”

”I can’t tell how useful such skills are.”

”It is a common topic of debate since learning these skills takes time away from other skills, but that is what gnomes have done for millennia, and we are still alive. So, they are hopefully doing their job. Also, it makes it harder for monsters to detect you.”

”Don’t they use general senses?”

”They do, but they focus on Mana. It is something innate in their very nature. These skills help avoid such senses.”

The dungeon apparently used divination sensing skills as well. It made me wonder if I advanced them far enough, would the dungeon move a chamber that I was standing in.

That would be an enormous risk. The gnome in question had died. Liquid Mana — I had never heard of such a thing. So much Mana that it had taken on physical form was insane and near certain death. Getting siloed into another part of the dungeon was something I could figure out. But being taken away to wherever the dungeon moved its chambers was impossible to come back from.

If it were my mother, then maybe, but that much Mana would corrode the soul itself. Normally, the soul created a barrier to outside Mana and kept one’s Mana contained within itself. Even in the deeper layers of the dungeon, this wasn’t a tremendous concern with ambient Mana. Just from skills used by monsters that left Mana lingering behind.

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But if there was liquid Mana with a much stronger physical presence, that would corrode through a person’s defenses and kill them as their soul dissolved.

”To learn Veil, you simply need to sense the Mana leaking out of your body. We have specifically created null zones. Councilor Safan has let me know you can keep this stone plate.”

Merrywhistle gestured at a stone plate with runes carved onto it. I noted that the Mana was being pushed away from the runes.

”Once you sense that Mana, don’t control it. Alter it slightly. Precision is key. With your skills, I am guessing you will struggle. Mana Manipulation?”

”I maximized it.”

”Very difficult then. You could work on this for over a year. Once you learn Veil, then you will work on Mask. You control your natural Mana emission. You can’t stop generating Mana, but you can go over your reserves for a period of time. It isn’t healthy to do so for more than an hour.”

”You can stockpile Mana like that?”

”The more you build up, the harder it becomes. With your stats, it will be insanely difficult. Maybe if you get the skill to tier 3 it will do something useful beyond counter divination. Finally, Obscure is when you try to match your Mana to your surroundings. The stone plate is designed for a gnome with low Mana. You will struggle, since it won’t keep the surrounding Mana at a similar level to what you generate and release naturally.”

”So, I have no chance of learning these skills?”

”It will be more difficult and require a lot of effort. But they are key counter divination skills and Mana control skills. I am sure you are thinking about ways to weaponize them. Like stockpiling Mana to use a lot of spell skills at once. That will take time and effort. A lot of time and effort to get the skills to the level where they will affect your status like that. Even with my skill levels, I can only retain an extra seven points of Mana over my limit.”

”That’s it?”

”Yes. You didn’t think overriding a stat was that simple? Did you?”

”No, but it just seems low. But I guess it makes sense with the lower tier of the skill. If it were Tier 5, then doubling one’s Mana reserve might be possible.”

”I can’t say. But the more Mana you keep inside of you, the more stress on your body. You can experience organ failure and other complications. So be aware that trying to store an unreasonable amount of Mana within you comes with high risks. Since it is internal, your body won’t react to the danger.”

They were like soul skills in that regard.

”I understand. I will be extra careful if I push them beyond their limits,”

”That is general knowledge. The rest is up to you to learn and experience slowly. There isn’t much more I can help you with. If you were a gnome, I would use gnomish metaphors, but in your case, they would probably confuse you. The best advice I have is not to control, but to feel and nudge. You are dealing with minuscule amounts of Mana. Just sensing such amounts is difficult to begin with.”

”Even with sensory skills?”

”Yes. Those skills tune to larger amounts of Mana and block out background Mana. That is why learning counter divination skills is difficult.”

I got up and went to the stone plate and sat down in the middle. The surrounding Mana was absent. I could feel my presence, my soul, my Mana, but I couldn’t feel the small amount leaving my body.

”Can I use a Meditation or Breathing skill?”

”They don’t help, and they will distract you. You need to just feel the Mana. It isn’t easy, since it is such a small amount and you have sensory skills and so much else. I suggest you try turning off your sensory skills if you can. This isn’t the work of a single day. You will sit on that plate for hundreds of hours just to sense the Mana leaving your body and then hundreds more hours to get Veil as a skill.”

”What about a sensory skill for small amounts of Mana?”

”There is a Tier 3 skill called Micro Mana Sense. Some gnomes get it. It is rare and difficult to get. It might help you; it might not.”

I sat there, keeping all my skills suppressed and breathing. I could almost feel the Mana exiting me. It was just beyond my reach and understanding. It was frustrating. I felt like I was close, but incredibly far. Stretching a muscle I had never used before.

Tutor Merrywhistle was both right and wrong. He was right that this was difficult to learn. I would put it below the level of Stillness, however. It was above most other tier 1 skills, though.

He was wrong about not being able to master it. At least, that is what I felt. My soul and sense of self were incredibly sensitive. It would take a lot of time and effort, but I had the method down. It was just putting in time and effort. Also, having enough in my Mind stat so I didn’t cross Meldor’s Threshold that I was constantly hovering over.

This is another three skills to go onto the list of skills I needed to learn one day. But learning them wasn’t urgent.

As for the stone plate, I would copy down the runes and create a portable version with the help of the gnomes. I am sure that Councilor Safan wouldn’t begrudge such a request.

I needed something I could pack away into my spatial storage. That was something that the gnomes hadn’t considered. While it wasn’t large, it would be cumbersome to carry. Four metal plates would interlock with clamps to press them together. It was a simple design for something more portable.

Not useful for combat, but for setting up an array I needed to sit down on, it would be useful. Well, maybe not all metal, since that was in short supply for the gnomes. I would probably have to use wood instead. It would be less durable, but that was fine. They did not design it for combat.

I couldn’t help but smile wryly. I truly had too many skills. After this, I would get a crash course on the gnome stealth skills. I expected little, but it would be interesting to see what ones they had come up with that I didn’t know about.